DEMONSTRATION: Britain is Broken… we need a General Election Now! Saturday 12/01/2019 London: Coaches #Derby Bus Station 7.45am £10/£5/free depending on circumstances – text 07889 274723 or email mozgreenshields@gmail.com to book seats. Don’t forget your #YellowVest #YellowVestsAgainstAusterity

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DEMONSTRATION: Britain is Broken… we need a General Election Now!48215753_2121983161202896_4884748790587719680_o-768x432

Saturday 12/01/2019 7:30 am – 7:30 pm

Coaches from Derby Bus Station 7.45am £10/£5/free depending on circumstances – text 07889 274723 or email mozgreenshields@gmail.com to book seats.

“2019 could be a great year if people stand up and fight – or it could be quite the opposite if we just have a grumble but do no more! Which is to be? Get in touch and sign up to go to the demonstration – NO-ONE will be turned away because of lack of money.”

Assemble 12 noon: BBC Portland Place, London. Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus

Don’t forget your #YellowVest

#YellowVestsAgainstAusterity

There can be no doubt that the Tories can’t be trusted on the economy. The national debt is now twice what it was in 2010. The Conservative government has borrowed more in the past 8 years than all previous Labour administrations combined.

Austerity was supposed to deal with the debt. Instead it has caused suffering on an almost unimaginable scale. Earlier this year the British Medical Journal reported that 120,000 people died prematurely as a result of austerity between 2010 and 2016. That figure is now likely to be much higher. The Tory government is complicit in these deaths that have been widely described as conscious cruelty; including by the United Nations.

Whoever is charge of the Conservative party the ideology of austerity will continue; in or out of the EU.

Act NOW to get the #TORIESOUT.

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Followed by Peoples Assembly LOCAL demonstration

Saturday 19/01/2019 11:00 am – 1:00 pm

Austerity is over?! My Ars*

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Austerity is over?!

Well, that’s what Theresa May claimed during her speech at the Tory party conference this Wednesday. Just the day before Chancellor Philip Hammond made it clear that austerity is set to continue…. So, which one do we believe? This is another clear sign of the weakness and chaos sweeping through the Conservative party at the moment. We can shed some needed light on the case, Austerity isn’t over. In fact it is getting worse and it’s about to get much worse.

Theresa May speaking at Conference

Theresa May also stated that the years of hard work (austerity) has paid off. But paid off for who? We are witnessing the longest decline in real wages since the Victorian era, A&E waiting times were there worst ever this winter, unmet demand for homes now reaching almost 4 million, 116,000 households officially designated homeless across the country in 2016/17, biggest overall shortage of teachers ever recorded. Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the ice-burg. All this while the richest 10% in society get even more rich.

Please read and share The People’s assembly’s response to Theresa May’s Conference speech here.

Britain is Broken, We can’t afford the Tories: We are rolling out a National Campaign which will include a speaking tour throughout the country. We will launch on the 8 Nov in London. Look out for more details, tickets and tour dates. If you are interested in putting on a local event please contact us: office@thepeoplesassembly.org.uk

Hospitality workers strike over pay and union recognition

Workers from McDonald’s, TGI Fridays, Wetherspoons, Uber Eats and Deliveroo came out in force yesterday in protest over pay and union recognition. Strikes took place across London, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Newcastle, Plymouth and Southampton. They demand £10/hour minimum wage, End to zero hour contracts, Union recognition and full sick pay.

Speaking at the London Rally yesterday morning, TGI Friday striker and Unite member Lauren Townsend said:

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“Every year we have more work to do and get less and less for it. It has to stop now. We are making a stand for low paid workers, exploited workers, workers on precarious contracts who are being taken advantage off by unscrupulous employers.’

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Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell MP was also among the speakers. He said:

“Last night a briefing went out to all Labour MPs which basically said, if there is a picket line in your constituency, your responsibility is to join it. It made it absolutely clear that the Labour Party is 100% behind the strikes, the demonstrations, the actions that are being taken by workers themselves to achieve a decent pay rise and to achieve decent conditions at work.” he went on to say “We have 4 million children out there living in poverty. Two thirds of them from families were someone is out working. What does that say? It says that wages are so low that people cannot survive on poverty wages as we are experiencing in this Country. This Government has created an economy based on low pay and insecurity. Our Movement is saying enough is enough and we are now going to campaign to ensure that people are properly represented, properly paid and treated with respect once and for all”

We will keep you updated on the next steps of this campaign.

The People’s Assembly urgently needs to raise our monthly income in order to keep organising events and actions across the country. Please consider donating today.Thank you! 

Solidarity,

The People’s Assembly Against Austerity
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

PROTEST THE TORY PARTY CONFERENCE Joint East Midlands TUC and Peoples Assembly Demonstration in Birmingham Saturday 29th September. leaving Derby bus station at 10:15 am from bay 27 To book seats email mozgreenshields@gmail.com or text 07889 274723

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PROTEST THE TORY PARTY CONFERENCE

Joint East Midlands TUC and Peoples Assembly Demonstration in Birmingham on Saturday 29th September.

Coach leaving Derby bus station at 10:15 am from bay 27, leaving Birmingham at 3:30pm to return to Derby. Seats cost £7 waged £5 low waged free unwaged-all donations accepted and no-one ever turned away for lack of funds. To book seats email mozgreenshields@gmail.com or text 07889 274723

The march starts from Victoria Square Birmingham at midday.

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#Labour Leader Jeremy #Corbyn will be among those who will address the crowds at the #OurNHS70 national demonstration and celebration this Saturday #Derbyuk Coaches leaving Derby Bus Station at 8am PROMPT Saturday 30th June. Tickets £10 waged, £5 low waged, Free unwaged and claimants. Book with mozgreenshields@gmail.com or text 07889 274723 as quick as you can. #NHS #Labour #Derbyshire

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Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn will be among those who will address the

crowds at the #OurNHS70 national demonstration and celebration this

Saturday.

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Other speakers will include actors Julie Hesmondhalgh & Sally Lindsay, music from the ska legend Rhoda Dakar who sang on a number of Specials hits, plus unions, health workers, and campaign representatives from across the country. 

Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Leader said ahead of the demonstration:

This Saturday in London, I will be joining The People’s Assembly Against Austerity, Health Campaigns Together, doctors, nurses, unions and tens of thousands of others at Our NHS at 70 march.

It is almost 70 years since the NHS was founded by a Labour government and it’s still our proudest achievement. It was the first comprehensive health service in the world built on the principle that healthcare should be available to all on the basis of need, not ability to pay .

What the Conservatives have done to our NHS, first under David Cameron, and then Theresa May, is appalling. Deliberate underfunding of services, and squeezing the pay of our brilliant doctors, nurses and health staff, has pushed our NHS to the brink. Every day there are shocking stories of unacceptable waiting times, ambulance delays and patients left on trolleys in corridors. And they’ve spent years selling off and contracting out our NHS bit by bit, leaving the NHS to be sued by private companies, like Virgin. Labour will end privatisation because our NHS should be about healthcare for all, not profits for a few. 

Last week, the government finally announced some more money for our health service. But you know what? It’s simply not enough. Not enough to make up for the last eight years of slashed budgets and worsening standards, falling morale and loss of staff. In fact, it would barely keep the NHS at a standstill.

 A Labour government would give the NHS the money it needs. It would be able to do so because we’re not afraid to ask big business and the richest to pay their fair share of tax. 

I hope you’ll join us on Saturday to stand up for our health service and its incredible staff who have carried our NHS on their shoulders these last eight years, while the Government brought it to its knees.”

Make sure you have booked your seat on Derby’s Coaches leaving Derby Bus Station

at 8am PROMPT Saturday 30th June. Tickets £10 waged, £5 low waged, Free unwaged and

claimants.

Book with mozgreenshields@gmail.com or text 07889 274723 as quick as you can.

The People’s Assembly Against Austerity
http://www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/

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The march will assemble at 12pm, Saturday 30 June at Portland Place, London W1A 1AA followed by a procession route to Whitehall. More details here

Participants are invited to bring colourful placards or banners and to dress in bright colours or costumes associated with any of the decades the NHS has been in operation. Sound systems will play music from each decade since the NHS was founded throughout the march route.

Serious questions surround increased NHS funding – an inadequate response for cash-starved service We still need to fight for Our #NHS. #Derbyshire #Derby Cuts still looming. Joint press release by Keep Our NHS Public, Health Campaigns Together and The People’s Assembly Against Austerity 17 June 2018

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Keep Our NHS Public

Tory NHS Privatiser Theresa May lying to Tory Marr, BBC

Serious questions surround increased NHS funding

– an inadequate response for cash-starved service

Joint press release by Keep Our NHS Public, Health Campaigns Together

and The People’s Assembly Against Austerity 17 June 2018

Theresa May has announced today an increase in NHS funding by 3.4% a year for the next 5 years.  The headline 3.4% increase only applies to the NHS England budget and not to the whole NHS budget.  Importantly, it also excludes medical and nurse training and public health budgets – these are crucial to the delivery of NHS services.  The overall increase promised is in fact only 3% a year.

Even this is a reluctant response from the Government to the unrelenting pressure exerted by campaigners, health unions and the electorate – and even health think-tanks and NHS Providers – to provide desperately needed increased funding for the NHS, left in a critical condition after suffering 8 years of virtually flat funding per person.

While any funding increase is to be welcomed, 3% will not be enough to repair the damage already done to the NHS from years of austerity. At least a 5% real uplift next year would be needed to begin to begin to repair the damage done and at least 4% per year is essential after that to ensure the NHS is fit for the future.

As always with the Conservatives, the devil will be in the detail. We don’t know exactly how this money will be allocated and what strings will be attached.  In 2016 the government announced a £10bn a year increase. However, due to some accounting tricks involving moving money around within the Department of Health budget, according to the Nuffield Trust it resulted in only £800m in real terms.

This promised increase must be genuine new money and not a repeat of the ‘smoke and mirrors’ designed to appease the public without resulting in any significant benefits. Resurrection of the tarnished claim of a ‘Brexit dividend’ to fund the NHS is political gamesmanship, when most analysts predict a negative fiscal impact, at least in the short term.

Whilst Theresa May talks of extra funding not being wasted, there are no policy measures to ensure that increased funding actually improves health care delivery rather than paying for the private market and wasteful bureaucracy the Government has created. There must be an end to the fragmentation of the NHS and the enforced contracting out of NHS services to the market.  The NHS must be reinstated as a public service. Currently £billions are wasted on market transaction costs and outsourcing to the private sector. NHS efficiency, co-ordination of services and collaborative delivery of care is undermined by competition.

With no promised increase in social care funding any funding increase for the NHS will have limited benefit. Social care has suffered from extremely damaging cuts over the past eight years and this has adversely impacted the NHS. Social care cuts have cause caused real suffering and an increased mortality rate in those who are directly affected. Any new funding settlement for the NHS requires increased funding for social care. Think-tank estimates argue for a 3.9% annual uplift in real terms for social care. There should be no pretence that “integration” of health and social care, without extra funds for both, will solve the problems of either service. True integration will require social care to be brought into the NHS as a public service and to be properly funded.

Health Campaigns Together (1), Keep Our NHS Public (2) and People’s Assembly (3) join with NHS staff, other campaigners and concerned members of the public in continuing to apply pressure on this government to fund the NHS properly and reinstate it as a public service according to its founding principles as this is the most economical way to run the system and deliver high quality care for all. We will be calling for these demands  on 30 June at the celebration and protest in defence of the NHS at its 70th Birthday. (3)

Dr Louise Irvine is a GP in Lewisham, south London and co-chair of Health Campaigns Together says:

The Conservative government’s promised funding increase for the NHS is too little too late. It is in fact only 3% a year – they’ve done their usual smoke and mirrors to make it appear more by only counting the increase to the NHS England budget and not the overall Department of Health budget. 4% is the minimum increase needed. 3% won’t be enough to repair the untold damage the Tories have done to the NHS over the past eight years of austerity or secure its future as a high-quality service. I fear that patients will continue to suffer needlessly and staff will continue to leave the profession due to stress and burnout. We’ll see more rationing, cuts and closures and insufficient improvement, if any, in waiting times. Any increase in funding is welcome but its a missed opportunity to put the NHS back on its feet. There’s so much more the Government could and should do. It could stop wasting precious NHS resources on the failed experiment of the market and outsourcing and reinstate the NHS as a public service – the only way to ensure effective and efficient joined up services. And it needs to increase social care spending by at least 3.9% a year because without decent social care the NHS will continue to pick up the pieces for all the elderly and disabled who are not getting the care they need.

Dr Tony O’Sullivan, retired paediatrician and co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public says:

The NHS and social care have been severely damaged by the last 8 years of wilful neglect. NHS workforce planning was abandoned leaving 100,000 vacancies and doctors and nurses working in extremes of pressure and ending up in tears of distress. They do not need more mischievous statements, previously exposed as lies, about ‘Brexit dividends’ that smack more of electioneering than care for the NHS. We need a commitment to respect NHS staff once again, reinstate the NHS student bursary, pay staff properly and to put the NHS back together again alongside a publicly funded social care system.

References:

  1. Health Campaigns Together is an alliance of over 100 organisations including five national unions and Keep Our NHS Public, formed Autumn 2015 to campaign for a fully funded and fully public NHS: https://healthcampaignstogether.com/
  2. Keep Our NHS Public was formed in 2005 to campaign for a fully publicly funded, provided and managed universal and comprehensive NHS: https://keepournhspublic.com/
  3. The People’s Assembly Against Austerity
  4. Rally and demonstration supported by HCT, KONP, The People’s Assembly Against Austerity and the TUC and 13 health unions: Saturday 30 June 12midday, assembling Portland Place, London and proceeding to Whitehall

#DERBYUK The Silk Mill Turn Out: Sat JUNE 23rd A Solidarity Summer Festival with great politics, the March, great open air music , food and drink, stalls of every kind and kids entertainment. A “must go to”

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DERBY: The Silk Mill Turn Out

SATURDAY JUNE 23rd 2018

A Solidarity Summer Festival with great politics, the March, great open air music , food and drink, stalls of every kind and kids entertainment. A “must go to” 1834-2018

“Remember our Past and Fight for the Future” – the annual Silk Mill Turnout event.

The day’s events commemorate the historic 1833/34 Silk Mill strike for fairness at work, which led to the formation of the whole Trade Union movement in Britain – and the world!
Meeting in Derby Market Place at 10 am, the marchers will be led off by a very colourful, loud and energetic Bhangra dance troupe who will perform along the way to Cathedral Green.
At each end of the march there will be rousing speeches from Moz Greenshields, Secretary of Derby Trades Union Council, Chris Williamson MP, Doug Nicholls General Secretary of the General Federation of Trades Unions, Sally Asquith of People’ Assembly and Dr Sally Ruane of Health Campaigns Together.
A Chaplet will be laid to commemorate the Silk Mill Turn Out, and celebrate the centenary of Votes for Women

The Festival fun will start at Cathedral Green at 1pm, with two performance spaces

Attila the Stockbroker – stand-up comedy and performance poetry
Three live bands – Alex Blood & The Diggers, Eastfield and Addictive Philosophy
Granny Turismo – a hilarious troupe, riding motorised shopping trolleys
Bombay Baja – an Indian Brass Band
Richard Garaghty – a contortionist street dancer who must be seen to be believed
Kids’ Activities – face painting, a strolling magician, henna “tattoos”
30 Community group stalls and activities
Food – Burgers – Vegan – Indian Snacks – Ice Cream
Drink – specialist beers, lager, cider – and a Gin and Prosecco Bar! Also the Silk Mill pub is on site
Community singing by all the crowd to round the day off at 4.30pm

So to celebrate Derby’s historic role in developing the Trade Union movement, to “remember the past and fight for the future”, and for a fantastic day out for all the family ABSOLUTELY FREE, make sure you are there!

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Last chance to book seats! by Wed’s 9th May Midday for National Demonstration – A new deal for working people Saturday 12 May

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National Demonstration – A new deal for working people
Saturday 12 May, 11am Victoria Embankment
March to Hyde Park

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Coaches LEAVE Derby Bus Station Stand 27 8:00am PROMPT – we cannot wait  – … £10 waged/£5 low waged/Free unwaged & claimants

Book as soon as possible with mozgreenshields@gmail.com or text 07889 274723   Last chance to book seats! by Wed’s 9th May Midday

Why are we marching? Because real wages are still lower than before the crash in 2008. Because three million workers are stuck on zero hour contracts, in agency work and in low paid self-employment. Because hardworking public servants haven’t had a proper payrise for eight years. Because our NHS is at breaking point. And because years of cuts have led to poverty, homelessness and despair for too many.

We’re marching for the alternative. For a growing economy with great jobs in every nation and region of the UK. For a £10ph minimum wage and the right to a voice at work. For public services that are brilliant, funded and free at the point of use. And for a society that roots out racism, sexism and discrimination.

Transport has been arraigned from across the country – for more details click here.

Last chance to book seats? by Wed’s 9th May Midday for National Demonstration – A new deal for working people Saturday 12 May

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National Demonstration – A new deal for working people
Saturday 12 May, 11am Victoria Embankment
March to Hyde Park

thumbnail_demo-1_-_for_social_media.jpg

 

Coaches LEAVE Derby Bus Station Stand 27 8:00am PROMPT – we cannot wait  – … £10 waged/£5 low waged/Free unwaged & claimants

Book as soon as possible with mozgreenshields@gmail.com or text 07889 274723   Last chance to book seats? by Wed’s 9th May Midday

Why are we marching? Because real wages are still lower than before the crash in 2008. Because three million workers are stuck on zero hour contracts, in agency work and in low paid self-employment. Because hardworking public servants haven’t had a proper payrise for eight years. Because our NHS is at breaking point. And because years of cuts have led to poverty, homelessness and despair for too many.

We’re marching for the alternative. For a growing economy with great jobs in every nation and region of the UK. For a £10ph minimum wage and the right to a voice at work. For public services that are brilliant, funded and free at the point of use. And for a society that roots out racism, sexism and discrimination.

Transport has been arraigned from across the country – for more details click here.