Culture: The Dictators‏

The Dictators by Pablo Neruda
An odor has remained among the sugarcane:
a mixture of blood and body, a penetrating
petal that brings nausea.

Get ready for the Tory attack‏

As Professor Keith Ewing said at UNISON's national pay seminar on Wednesday "Labour filled its parliamentary programme with constitutional issues and criminal justice. The Tories are not interested in the constitution so an easy win would be employment rights.

Prentis to celebrate decisive Sodexo victory‏

220 UNISON members voted overwhelmingly to end their strike action today after Sodexo and the North Devon Hospital Trust agreed to UNISON terms on the implementation of Agenda For Change. The strike has been a spectacular success - after 2 days action last week the workers were preparing for further escalating action to win the terms that they have been denied for over 3 years. http://unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1696

Scottish Government bans the Right to Buy

UNISONActive welcomes the new Housing Bill to be introduced by the Scottish Government that will end the Right to buy for new council and housing association tenants.

Gaza One Year On - 19 January Conway Hall London‏

End the Siege of Gaza - Bring Israeli War Criminals to Justice
Tuesday 19 January 2010 - 7pm
Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, WC1R 4RL, London: Organised by PSC, STWC, CND and BMI. Reporting back from the Viva Palestina / PSC Aid convoy just back from Gaza!

Electoral reform - time to make every vote count‏

Back in September an under reported but highly significant policy decision was made in one of the final debates of 2009 Trades Union Congress. The PCS amendment to motion 83 on ‘democratic renewal’ (from the FDA civil service union) was carried on a show of hands. The amendment stated that: ‘democratic renewal also requires elected politicians to be properly representative of, and accountable to, their constituents and therefore calls on the General Council to instigate a debate within the trade union movement on change in the current parliamentary electoral system towards a system of proportional representation.' http://www.congressvoices.org/2009/83-democratic-renewal/

Haiti's tragedy - solidarity is vital‏

The truly horrendous scenes of devastation, destruction and death in Haiti cannot fail to touch our hearts‬‪. The first large earthquake in 240 years, this enormous richter scale 7.0 quake's effects are only barely understood at this time.‬‪ Thousands have though been killed and tens of thousands left homeless. Nothing could be more worse for a country with problems of‬‪ poverty on a grand scale.

Gaza: End The Blockade - Let The Aid In

"Doctors are doing a fantastic job, but they are having to improvise in circumstances that are almost impossible. The only way for the situation to get better is to lift the siege, otherwise there's no hope." Dr John Beavis, Primary Trauma Care training in Gaza: Read more and donate on line at medical Aid for Palestinians http://www.map-uk.org/regions/opt/news/view/-/id/541/

Harman's hard work and godliness‏

Helping my daughter at newly joined senior school with a homework project for geography I was tasked with looking for internet history links to the local area. Despite its now ‘village’ status (which probably stretches the imagination of the most ardent estate agent!) this suburban nirvana was in fact originally a coal mining area set at the foot of the Pennines and deliberately populated to provide labour for the cotton mills and the local coal mining industry. Dig a bit deeper and it was commonplace for children as young as eight to work in the mills and by 12 many boys were fully fledged miners.

Public service cuts court disaster - Corbyn‏

UNISON member Jeremy Corbyn MP uses his Morning Star column to condemn ‘the unseemly auction between the leaders of the three parties on who will cut the most, where and how fast’
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/85485