Democracy is the lifeblood of trade unionism

#uNDC14 'As well as the formal policy debates over four days there will be the opportunity to attend fringe meetings for high quality debates and briefings on key campaigns as well as time for hardworking union activists to network and socialise with UNISON sisters and brothers from across the UK' writes Angela Rayner North West Regional Convenor in a preview of conference on the regional website:
http://www.unisonnw.org/national-delegate-conference-our-democracy-in-action/

Shirt by Robert Pinsky

The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams,
The nearly invisible stitches along the collar
Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians

A poke in the eye for lazy leadership

In an excellent blog John Tizard articulates why real change takes guts and hard work, which is a poke in the eye for public sector leaders who bolt towards cutting terms and conditions rather than tackling longer term problems within services.
   Cuts to council funding has in many cases translated into new service delivery models, which are often Trojan Horses to remove terms and conditions and take staff away from the local government pension scheme. It is a short term fix putting a sticking plaster over the gaping wounds of public finance. The long term cost is a demoralised public sector workforce, worse services and a devastating impact on families, local economies and future pensions.
http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/5467955?utm_hp_ref=tw

US healthcare: fraud, over-priced and over here?

The Economist’s revelation that America lost up to $272 billion in 2011 to medical fraud and abuse comes on top of research showing just how inefficient the US system is, while it looks for opportunities to export its greed for profits to the NHS.
    $272 billion is “10% of medical spending and a whopping 1.7% of GDP—as if robbers had made off with the entire output of Tennessee or nearly twice the budget of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS)”, says the Economist.

TTIP - a transfer of power to transnational capital

#stopTTIP UNISON, War on Want, WDM, and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation are holding an event in London on 10 July to raise awareness of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) which threatens to be the greatest transfer of power to transnational capital in a generation. A new UNISON briefing explains the proposed trade deal between the US and the European Union and recommends actions to block its planned introduction in 2015:

Like Each Morning by Luis García Montero

Now I know
these streets have made us lonesome
and our hearts
have the yellow pulse
of a trolley’s sluggish woods.

G4S under pressure to withdraw from Israeli prisons

Campaigners from War on Want, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other organisations attended Thursday’s G4S Annual General Meeting and called for an end to the company’s complicity in Israel’s illegal occupation and the imprisonment and torture of Palestinians, including children:
http://www.waronwant.org/news/latest-news/18153-war-on-want-at-g4s-shareholders-meeting-

Egemonia Culturale by Mark A. Murphy‏

Antonio Gramsci knows only too well
the limitations of ‘common sense’,
hunch-backed, fading away in his Turi cell,
constantly in pain –
while the ‘natural’ and ‘inevitable’ nature of man
plays itself out in the Senate,
the Sardinian countryside
and the Fiat and Lancia factories of Turin,
where ‘parliamentary immunity’
is a phrase that is to be found wanting.

On D-Day – Remember why they fought

Watching the BBC broadcasting from Normandy, with Chuck, his Ma and her bidie-in, any socialist could almost be forgiven for disassociating themselves from the whole enterprise. Ceremonies like this always bring God, Queen and country to the fore. But the anniversary of D-Day deserves more respect, because we need to remember why they fought.

The Queen’s Speech 2014 – Sleepwalking into oblivion

Google searches sometimes provide the most unusual results, in this case by providing a link to the Queens Speech under “Arts and Entertainment”. This proves one of two things - either Google has a sense of humour or is a sadist, because there was nothing entertaining about this legislative programme.
  This government revels in its declaration of the green shoots of recovery, proclaiming that the economy is improving  and that everything is getting better. Meanwhile in the real world the percentage of those working but living in poverty continues to increase, as demonstrated by the increases in those in work claiming housing benefit.