Ward closure at West Cornwall Hospital

On Monday West Cornwall Hospital held an emergency meeting to tell community groups that the ward which has been shut for refurbishment will not be re-opening. This means half of all the medical beds at the hospital have been cut. We were told at a meeting with Dr. Pollard and senior management only last week that the ward would re-open on 5 November. We are holding a PROTEST against this ward closure on Saturday to create some publicity for the local media and to let the public know what is happening, meeting at 11am at the bottom of Causeway Head, Penzance. We will also be collecting signatures on a SAVE WEST CORNWALL HOSPITAL petition. We have also booked the Ritz community centre (Queens’ Street, Penzance) on Monday 31st October 7pm for all groups and individuals to get together to plan further action to save West Cornwall Hospital. We are proposing that an independent, cross party campaign group is set up to campaign specifically against cuts to West Cornwall Hospital. For more information please ring Alana Bates on 07530428246 or e-mail pzanticuts@hotmail.co.uk.

March and Rally on 30 November

The Tory-led government want ordinary people to pay for a crisis caused by the banks. On 30 November, up to three million workers will be on strike to tell the government we won’t work until we drop. The government want nurses, teachers, fire-fighters and millions of other public sector workers to pay more into their pension schemes, get less at the end and they want to raise their retirement age. If the government are allowed to get away with this it will give the green light to employers in the private sector to make pensions worse there too. And the government want to increase the age at which you can draw a state pension. They are fighting for all of us and against all the cuts. We need to turn 30 November into a day when we all stand up and say enough is enough. Whether you are a student, a parent, a pensioner, an unemployed worker, a private sector worker, a user of the health service or local services or anyone that is against cuts, privatisation and job losses, this is the day for you.

At the last meeting of Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance we agreed that we would organise a joint march and rally with NUT (who were present and already have a ‘live’ ballot) and Unison (also present and assuming their ballot goes the right way). We would also like the other striking unions to get involved as soon as they feel able. We also agreed to produce a joint leaflet which is currently being produced. We hope to have this ready in time for leafletting this Saturday. We have booked Hendra Field in Truro as a starting point for the march. We are currently looking for an appropriate venue for the rally. More details to follow soon.

Occupy

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which rapidly spread to 150 cities across the US has now gone global. Last Saturday saw the biggest day of world-wide demonstrations since the 2003 demonstrations against the war in Iraq. From New York to Hong Kong, a million people were on the streets, in more than 950 cities in over eighty countries, occupying central banks and other symbols of the banking industry. Across Britain there were around twelve demonstrations, including the 3,000 strong demo at the London Stock Exchange. In London protesters have maintained a permanent occupation outside St Paul’s Cathedral. The protests are against corporate greed and the richest 1 percent in society. The movement’s size, breadth and vibrancy make them an important development for the fightback against cuts. These protests express a growing sense that there is something fundamentally wrong with the world and that we can do something about it. Protesters call themselves the “99 percent” in contrast to the “1 percent” elite that accumulates power and wealth by robbing the rest of us. The mass co-ordinated strikes planned for 30 November could really ignite the movement here in Britain. We need to push for the biggest turnout in the ballots and for people to strike and join the rallies being held across Britain.

Meanwhile in Greece a 48-hour general strike, the latest of so many in Greece, got underway today with the rallies being reported as some of the biggest yet.

Athens 19/10/11

Now is the time to get involved.

The next meeting is on Wednesday 2 November at 7:30pm at the Railway Club (next to the station) in Truro.

Protest at the Tory Party Conference in Manchester on Sunday 2 October

Plymouth TUC and Plymouth Fightback Against the Cuts are running a coach from Plymouth to the Manchester demonstration. Because of the distance and journey time, they have decided to travel up on Saturday 1st October. They tell me they currently have lots of spare places. As it seems there will be no coaches going up from Cornwall I am giving you the opportunity to take up some of these places.

Free Overnight Accommodation

They have arranged free overnight accommodation at the South Manchester Quaker House. There are a few rules that anyone staying will need to respect – mainly no alcohol, drugs or smoking on the premises. The accommodation will be basic – you’ll need to bring a sleeping bag, maybe a sleeping mat (and probably some ear plugs). We are limited to twenty people – these will be on a first come, first served basis. Please indicate when booking if you want the free accommodation.

Alternatively, some people have booked to stay at the Oldham Manchester Street Travelodge (including the coach driver). As of 2nd September, a double room can be booked for £32.50 – details on the website (link below)

The coach will leave Bretonside Bus Station at 13:00 on Saturday 1st October, and it is intend to be back by 23:00 on Sunday 2nd.

Tickets are £35 waged or £25 unwaged – book your tickets via PayPal using the buttons on the website (see link below).

If you are interested in going up to Manchester from Plymouth, please let us know at Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance at canticall@hotmail.co.uk. If you intend to drive to Plymouth and wouldn’t mind giving someone a lift, or you do not have access to a car and would like a lift, let us know and we can put you in touch. Getting to Plymouth at 1pm on Saturday shouldn’t be too much of a problem (by train for example) but as it may be difficult to get back from Plymouth at 11pm on Sunday night, again let us know and if enough people are interested we may be able to fund a minibus back from Plymouth.

As the new school term gets under way, and as government cutbacks across education and local government begin to bite, a host of projects for school-aged children are facing cuts, uncertain futures or even, in some cases, outright closure (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/12/education-projects-cuts-closures).

Strike News
The biggest story of the week is that the plans for co-ordinated strike action in November have just taken a huge leap forward. The PCS, NUT, UCU and ATL unions that so spectacularly struck on 30 June still have live ballots and were looking to go on strike around 7 November. This has now been put back to the end of the month, but so that other unions can join them. As the TUC Conference opens today, the NASUWT teaching union has announced that it also intends to ballot for a national strike this term, meaning another 250,000 teachers could join the battle in November. The Scottish teachers’ union, the EIS, is now set to ballot for an autumn strike, as are the head teachers in the NAHT and Welsh teachers in the UCAC. The FBU firefighters’ union looks set to ballot. Prospect, the specialist civil service workers’ union, and the FDA senior civil servants union, both announced this week that they will ballot members unless the government backs off from its attack on pensions. It is thought the GMB will announce a ballot for three days of strikes in November, with one as a national strike to coordinate with other unions.

Unison the public sector union has put senior union activists on alert. The union is putting together the necessary meetings to approve going to ballot in local government and health sectors to join the autumn strikes. The government has pushed the trade union leaders who were willing to negotiate to the edge. When Dave Prentis, Unison general secretary, spoke to the Financial Times on Friday he talked of “when” the talks fail, not “if”. “We are now planning for industrial action for when these talks break down,” he said. When this happens, he added, “you’ll see strikes throughout all of the public sector, it will include strikes in our schools, our civil service, our fire brigade, our local government service, our health service”.

The anger and bitterness that brought 750,000 workers out on the magnificent strike on 30 June this year has not gone away. Every trade unionist and activist faces a challenge. If the government’s attacks are going to be beaten, then workers need to be organised, to win the ballots and spread the fightback. With millions of workers joining the struggle there is the potential for the sort of mass workers’ resistance that can stop the Tories’ attacks.

Protest at the Tory Party Conference
The TUC has released official flyers for the mass march on the Tory Party Conference in October. The march, now called “Manchester for the Alternative”, is being presented as a successor to the 26 March demonstration in London which saw 500,000 people march. Speakers will include the general secretaries of the Unite, GMB, NUT, PCS, NASUWT, RMT and ATL unions. Unfortunately, it now looks unlikely that local trade union branches in Cornwall will be willing to fund a coach to the demonstration but if anyone would like to go, or intends to go by car and will have spare places, they should let us know so we can organise car-sharing. The demonstration is on Sunday 2 October, assemble 12 noon, Liverpool Road, off Deansgate, Manchester. Download a flyer at www.bit.ly/torydemo. Union branches can order printed leaflets by emailing nwmarch@tuc.org.uk with the number wanted and a postal address.

NHS

The Health and Social Care Bill is coming back to Parliament next week with a vote expected on Wednesday 7 September. Even after the “listening exercise” the amended version on the bill is a major attack on the NHS and will lead to increasing amounts of private practice within and outside the NHS. It will lead to increasing fragmentation of the service and to competition, rather than collaboration between health service providers. The reorganisation will cost a huge amount of tax-payers money at a point when we are repeatedly told there is no money available for basic services. Tax-payers money would be better spent on services to patients. The improvements to the NHS mentioned in the Bill, such as increasing clinical involvement and providing a greater say for patients, can be done without any need for this expensive and destructive legislation. In order to raise awareness of these issues and to attempt to sway the debate there is a number of events taking place over the next week.

On Wednesday 31 August (this week) there is a ‘debate’ on the bill at 7:30pm in St. John’s Hall in Penzance hosted by Andrew George MP who is on the Health Select Committee. George’s leaflet says “if the Bill is not changed for the better, he will vote against the government when the Commons debates it on 6th and 7th September”. This is good news but we need to hold him to account and ensure he keeps his word.

On Friday 2 September Unison are arranging a stall in Redruth to let people know about the bill with a petition asking all MPs to vote against the Bill which is about to go for its third reading. They are meeting in the car park at the back of Wilkinson’s at 10:30am then going through onto Fore Street to catch the shoppers. They will probably stay until about 2:30pm or as long as folks are around and happy to sign.

On Monday 5 September there is a film showing of Michael Moore’s film ‘Sicko’ hosted by Penwith Anti-Cuts Alliance. It is at 6:30pm at the Ritz on Queens Street in Penzance. Although focusing on the American healthcare system, and holding up the NHS as a positive example of a better system, the film demonstrates well what we might have here in a few years if the Tories get their way, and just what we stand to lose. There is a suggested donation of £2 and there is a bar available.

Please support any or all of these events if you can.

Next Meeting

The next meeting is on Wednesday 7 September at 7pm at the Railway Club, next to Truro Station.

If you would like receive this as an email newsletter, receive google group emails or for any other enquiry, please email us at canticall@hotmail.co.uk with your name, email address and your enquiry. You can also find us on Twitter @kernowanticuts and Facebook: Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance Facebook group

Condemn the looting – by banks and politicians
The riots in London, Birmingham, Manchester and elsewhere were caused, at least in part, by bitterness, anger and frustration at the deep inequality in our consumerist society, exacerbated by the recent cuts and austerity measures of the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government. The media has focused on young people looting from shops. But the real looters are the banks who have stolen £850 billion of our money and the politicians who are robbing us of our public services and taking away from many young people their Education Maintenance Allowance as well as their hope, dignity and life chances.

Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance believes that we, along with the rest of the anti-cuts movement in this country including the labour movement, need to re-double our efforts to stop this government’s cuts, privatisation and job losses, to stop making the ordinary people of this country pay for a crisis that was caused by the banks. We call on the trade unions to organise the biggest possible turnout at the protest at the Tory Party Conference in October and to organise the biggest co-ordinated mass strike possible in November to force the government to think again.

Protest Bankers’ Bonuses
The Office for National Statistics recently reported that bankers have awarded themselves £14billion in bonuses this year. We, who did not cause the economic crisis, should not have to suffer cuts to our public services while the bankers, who did cause the crisis, get a nice fat bonus. To highlight this issue, members of Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance will gather outside Lloyds, Barclays and NatWest banks on Saturday 20 August between 10am and 12 midday. There they will give out £14billion notes (leaflets) the reverse of which contain ‘the alternative’, a suggestion as to what the money could be better spent on. We will also have a letter for people to sign, to the new CEO of Lloyds bank, a bank which received public money, demanding we ‘cut bankers’ pay not public services’. Please join us if you can.

Health and Social Care Bill
The Health and Social Care Bill will be voted on in Parliament on 6 and 7 September. As Wendy Savage, co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public says in a letter to the Guardian (read it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/aug/02/last-chance-stop-nhs-bill), it could easily have been brought back after the party conferences in October and to force MPs to vote on it without having time to read it properly is unecessary and contemptuous of MPs. Meanwhile GPs have not been convinced by reforms to the Health and Social Care Bill. Indeed, in a recent survey, fifty-seven per cent of GPs said discussions on GP commissioning during the listening exercise had a ‘negative impact’ on their confidence in the bill (see here: http://www.practicebusiness.co.uk/news/1356/health-bill-reforms-fail-to-win-over-gps/). Save Our NHS (Cornwall) are planning to travel to the constituencies of Stephen Gilbert, Lib Dem MP for St Austell & Newquay and Dan Rogerson, Lib Dem MP for North Cornwall, to try to convince people there to email those MPs to vote against the bill. Would you be able to help? Contact Alana on 07969 832865.

Protest at Tory Party Conference
There are just fifty days to go until tens of thousands of people are expected to march on the Tory Party Conference on Sunday 2 October in Manchester, now fully backed by the TUC. ‘This will be a March and Rally for an Alternative to the Tories economic and social agenda,’ explained Alan Manning, Secretary of the North West TUC (for more see here:
http://righttowork.org.uk/2011/08/tories-given-50-day-notice-of-march-and-rally-in-manchester/). With the Hackgate scandal, the prospect of over a million public sector workers going on strike in November and the recent riots, the Tories are on the back foot. Now is the time to put the pressure on the main party in the coalition with a huge turnout at the protest at their conference. Would you like to come to the protest? Would you be prepared to pay £5 to get to Manchester? Let us know at canticall@hotmail.co.uk

Keith Shilson
IT Officer
Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance

canticall@hotmail.co.uk
http://cornwallanticutsalliance.wordpress.com
Twitter: @kernowanticuts
Facebook: Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance Facebook group

If you would like to receive this newsletter in email form, join us or for any other enquiry, please email canticall@hotmail.co.uk with your name, email address and your query.

Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance believes that we, along with the rest of the anti-cuts movement in this country including the labour movement, need to re-double our efforts to stop this government’s cuts, privatisation and job losses, to stop making the ordinary people of this country pay for a crisis that was caused by the banks. We call on the trade unions to organise the biggest possible turnout at the protest at the Tory Party Conference in October and to organise the biggest co-ordinated mass strike possible in November to force the government to think again.

Issue 2                    Monday 8 August 2011

As the global economy stands on the egde of a precipice and social unrest erupts across Britain there has never been a better reason or time to get involved with the anti-cuts movement…

Pensions News

The High Pay Commission has revealed that the average pension of the directors of FTSE 100 companies is £175,000. This is 29 times more than the average of the rest of the workforce. For more on this story see: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/business/Controversy-over-great-divide-on.6814595.jp. The PCS, UCU, NUT and ATL unions are planning to strike at the beginning of November. They could be joined by the FBU, two head teachers’ unions, a welsh teachers’ union and most recently NIPS the public sector workers’ union in Northern Ireland. Unite, Unison and GMB have opted for further talks with the government but there is increasing pressure on them to join the action at some point. This will be discussed at TUC Congess which begins on 12 September.

Protest at the Tory Party Conference

The protests at the Lib Dem Conference in Birmingham on 18 September and at the Tory Party Conference in Manchester on 2 October that were originally called by the Right to Work anti-cuts group will now be organised by the TUC. This is a significant development. The ‘official’ backing this lends the protests will make it easier for trade unionists to mobilise for them and should ensure a big turnout. For more information see here: http://righttowork.org.uk/2011/08/tuc-to-march-on-tory-and-lib-dem-conferences/. Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance has agreed ‘in principle’ to try to fill a coach to Manchester but is looking into how this might be funded. We will ask our affiliated trade unions if they would like to help with this.

Support the Remploy Workers

Remploy workers in the factory in Penzance are, along with around 2,500 others at 53 other factories in Britain, facing the threat of closure if the government decides to implement the Sayce Report after the consultation period ends on 17 October. Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance supports the Remploy workers and will help them in their campaign in any way we can. For more information and to read our statement of support, see our website: http://cornwallanticutsalliance.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/support-the-remploy-workers/. To sign the online petition, please see here: http://www.saveremployfactories.co.uk/

Stop the Health and Social Care Bill

Parliament will re-convene on 5 September specifically to discuss the re-formed Health and Social Care Bill when they believe no-one will notice. Despite a few cosmetic changes this still brings more private companies into the health service to make a profit out of our NHS, drives the market deeper into health care and opens up the NHS for its eventual privatisation. Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance will be discussing our continuing NHS campaign on Wednesday. Penwith Anti-Cuts Alliance, our sister organisation, is planning to work with other organisations to organise a public meeting and demonstration to save West Cornwall Hospital. Details will be put onto their website as they are decided: http://penwithanticutsalliance.wordpress.com

Next Meeting

Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance are meeting at 6:30pm this Wednesday 10 August at the Railway Club, next to Truro Station.

If you would like to join Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance, join our google group (for internal discussion emails), wish to receive this newsletter as an email or for any other query or request, please email canticall@hotmail.co.uk stating your name, email address and your query.

Remploy began after the Second World War as a way of finding employment for disabled people. This is not the first time Remploy factories have come under attack. 29 factories were closed in March 2008. The GMB announced in February that Remploy workers had been granted a strike ballot and predict that implementation of the Sayce Report would lead to 2,500 job losses.

Liz Sayce, author of the report, works for a disabled people’s charity, Radar, who are known to be against Remploy as a model for disabled people. The report argues that ‘disabled people should be treated as part of the mainstream labour force and should no longer be employed in sheltered workshops’ and that ‘more people with disabilities could find jobs if existing funding for employment support was spent more efficiently’. Now it may or may not be the case that there are better models for getting disabled people into work, but the fact is this is a red herring. At a time when there are no jobs for able-bodied people and the government is making more public sector employees redundant, the idea that all, or even most, disabled people will find jobs is ludicrous.

The report also makes a big deal of saying that each employee is subsidised by £25,000. This is very misleading. This figure includes a proportion of all the company’s ‘central costs’. These workers do not get anything like this figure. It is clearly a propoganda point designed to turn public sympathy away from them at a time of ‘austerity’ when we are all told we have to make ‘sacrifices’. The fact is, even from a cold, cynical, financial point of view it is very unlikely that the taxpayer would save any money by throwing these people on the scrapheap. Instead of being productive members of society, these people would be stuck at home on benefits. Without the support of their colleagues thay may also require further social care and health care with all the costs that implies.

This is part of a government agenda to use the economic crisis as an excuse to make a redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich via job losses, privatisation and cuts to the services working class people depend on. As in many other areas the government is picking on some of the most vulnerable people in society. The cuts are disproportionately affecting disabled people and this is just another example of that. Workers need to stick together and support each other; a victory for one really is a victory for all. If the Remploy workers defeat the government it will make it easier for us to defeat all the other attacks coming from the government.

Colin Grey is the GMB rep at Remploy in Penzance. He spoke about the difference Remploy makes to people’s lives. He explained how Remploy works with the local Truro & Penwith College. A lecturer at the college came to them explaining how he has young disabled people at the college that he wanted to experience the world of work. He had tried every employer in the area to take these young people for just one day a week and not one single employer had agreed. In the end he turned to Remploy and they took them.

Colin explained that when the young people first arrived they had to be brought in a minibus. They shuffled in looking anxious and concerned were given work to do. At the end of the day they were taken home again in the minibus. Now, however, they make their own way to work on the bus, they come in laughing and joking, they help each other with their problems and their lives have been transformed. When it came to the end of term, the young people asked if they could still come in to work because they enjoyed it so much. The Remploy manager agreed. The parents have also told them what a difference it has made to their lives. All this is now under threat. If Remploy closes the next group of young people will have nowhere to go.

So what next? Colin Grey said the workers had been planning a campaign. They have a petition that they want people to sign and they want to raise awareness of the issue. They are also planning to set up a facebook group. However, they do not want to peak too soon. They want it to be a slow-burning campaign that builds up to a climax around 17 October when the government will be looking to make a decision.

Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance supports the Remploy workers. We have released this statement:
“Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance deplores the recommendations of the Sayce report that could lead to the closure of the Remploy factory in Penzance and others throughout the country. We unequivocally support the workers in the factory in their determination to retain their jobs and this valuable service. We pledge to offer whatever support we can provide to help them in their struggle.”

Pensions news
Last week the government announced its plans for the teachers’, NHS workers’ and civil service workers’ pensions. The plans include hugely increased contributions, uprating at a lower rate for future pensions and an increased pension age. This is a huge attack on millions of workers and a snub to those trade union leaders that have agreed to three months of talks with the government on their pension schemes. The PCS, NUT, UCU and ATL unions are planning a further round of co-ordinated strike action in early November. The FBU may join them, as may the National Association of Head Teachers, the Welsh teachers’ UCAC union and the Association of School and College Leaders. The national leaderships of Unison, Unite and the GMB have opted for talks rather than joining with the other unions in November. However, the way the government is treating them is putting them under pressure to join the action at some point. There will be a huge discussion at the TUC congress in September about the best way to fight. Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance believes we need to argue for the biggest wave of co-ordinated strikes possible. For more see here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/28/pension-reform-union-leaders-strikes

FBU steps up preparations for ballot over pensions The Fire Brigades Union has put the Government on notice of a nationwide fire strike over its plans for fire crews to pay more, work longer and get less. Industrial action looks increasingly likely in the autumn as consultation shows huge support for industrial action. More here: http://mwne.ws/oRfkzB

Prison officers reject pension reform by a landslide More than 95 per cent of prison officers have voted to reject government pension proposals in a ballot organised by their union: http://bit.ly/oMX9IW

The PCS is building locally for co-ordinated action in the autumn The PCS is encouraging branches to participate in their local trades councils and to build links with other local union branches and anti-cuts campaigns. They have produced a model resolution for local trades council, as part of the preparations for potential strike action in the autumn. You can find the resolution here: http://bit.ly/o1Q5We

NUJ strikes across the UK on Monday 1 August Today NUJ members at the BBC will take strike action to protect jobs – the second 24 hour strike action to take place in response to compulsory redundancies at the BBC. More here: http://bit.ly/nYbD3h

NHS
The reformed Health And Social Care Bill will come back to Parliament in September. We have been campaining against the bill with Save Our NHS (Cornwall) and will be discussing how to further this campaign over the next month. Any ideas would be welcome.

Next meeting
The next meeting of Cornwall Anti-Cuts Alliance is on Wednesday 3 August from 6:30pm at the Railway Club next to Truro Railway Station.