Newham Fabians Annual General Meeting 11 January & the National Fabians Society New Year Conference 14 Jan 2017

On Wednesday I am looking forward to the Newham Fabian AGM. See picture right from the last one I attended in 2011 (I think there was one in 2013 but none since).

Hat tip photos Dan McCurry. 

I think you can still join for £7 and attend.

"Newham Fabians Annual General Meeting

Wednesday 11 January 2017 at 7PM

Trinity Community Centre, East Avenue, London, E12 6SG.

Guest speaker: Andrew Harrop, General Secretary of the Fabian Society

Andrew will also officiate over the AGM and committee elections

All members of the Fabian Society living in the Newham area are warmly invited to the AGM of Newham Fabian Society. The meeting is open to members of both the national Fabian Society and of Newham Fabians. To take part in votes you need to join Newham Fabians.

The Secretary of Newham Fabians is Tahmina Rahman,

tahmina_rahman_1@hotmail.com"

(also on Saturday as a member of the National Fabians I am going to their New Year conference. Must remember to take my #LOVEUNIONS placards and leaflets :-)

"Fabian Society New Year conference 2017

This time next Saturday the Fabian Society will welcome Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn MP onto the stage to open our 2017 New Year Conference. We are delighted Jeremy is joining us at our biggest and best event of the year, and we hope that you will too.

Alongside Jeremy Corbyn will be speakers from across the left and beyond, including MPs, policy experts and commentators. They will come together to have the fundamental debates the left needs on its purpose, organisation and ideas. Speakers include:

Jon Ashworth MP (shadow health secretary), Dawn Butler MP (shadow minister for diverse communities), Nia Griffith MP (shadow defence secretary), Keir Starmer MP (shadow secretary of state for exiting the European Union), Emily Thornberry MP (shadow foreign secretary), Rushanara Ali MP, Stella Creasy MP, Wayne David MP, Maria Eagle MP, Kate Green MP (Fabian Society chair), Caroline Flint MP, Margaret Hodge MP, Stephen Kinnock MP, Alison McGovern MP, Bridget Phillipson MP, Emma Reynolds MP, Seb Dance MEP, Luke Akehurst (Labour First), Richard Angell (Progress), Jonathan Bartley (Green party), Stephen Bush (New Statesman), Claire Fox (Institute of Ideas), Katie Ghose (Electoral Reform Society), Stephany Griffith-Jones (economist), Dr Jan Halper Hayes (Trump Transition Team), Ayesha Hazarika (commentator), Ruth Hunt (Stonewall), Paul Hunter (Smith Institute), Owen Jones (the Guardian), Neal Lawson (Compass), Helen Lewis (New Statesman), Hywel Lloyd (Labour Coast and Country), Cllr Sue MacMillan (Hammersmith and Fulham), Paul Mason (writer & broadcaster), Deborah Mattinson (Britain Thinks), Cllr Reema Patel (Barnet), Trevor Phillips (former chair, Equality & Human Rights Commission), Vicky Pryce (economist), Elizabeth Quintana (RUSI), Ania Skrzypek (FEPS), Ernst Stetter (FEPS), Jo Swinson (former LibDem MP), Leslie Vinjamuri (Chatham House & SOAS) and many more.

New Year Conference is always a highlight of the Fabian calendar, and I hope you can join us to hear Jeremy and all of our other speakers. Tickets are selling fast, and if you haven't booked yours already, head over to our website now - they're just £32 for Fabian members".

Red Dawn for London?: Mayoral Hustings - Stratford Old Town Hall, June 21

"In a few weeks’ time, we will be casting our votes for who will be the Labour candidate for Mayor of London.

Before voting begins, you will have a chance be put the candidates to the test in hustings being held across London.

This is your chance to put your questions to the candidates and hear them make their case for why they want to lead our party in London. Everyone is welcome, so feel free to bring friends along -- they don’t need to be a Labour member to attend, but they do need to

Places are limited, so RSVP as soon as you can

If you can’t make it along or are not able to get a place, there will be other hustings in London and we’ll send round details of these nearer the time".

book ONLINE - click here!

1.30-4.30pm
Sunday 21 June 2015
Old Town Hall, Stratford
29 The Broadway
London E15 4BQ

(hat tip invite London Labour Party. Picture Red Dawn at City Hall by Dan McCurry)

Getting the postal vote out for John Biggs as Labour Mayor for Tower Hamlets.

On Wednesday evening I went to help the Labour Party candidate for Tower Hamlets Mayor, John Biggs and was given a bundle of letters addressed to postal voters to deliver in and around Leman Street, Whitechapel. I didn't really know this part of Tower Hamlets very well. There was a number of modern blocks and "gated communities", which are traditionally very hard to gain access. But the concierges (if the block had them) were actually pretty helpful. People are also generally (not always) happy to answer the intercom and let you into a block if you explain yourself properly.

This is also really interesting and historic part of East London.

I came across a restored 18th century German speaking Lutheran Chapel and school which I had never heard of before and it reminded me that Tower Hamlets has always been a multicultural part of London. Apparently at its height, some 16000 Germans use to live in Whitechapel and the area was known as "Little Germany".

A number of traditional East End warehouses and factories had been converted into flats. Some luxury modern blocks that I managed to get into had marvellous hidden lakes, gardens and water fountains.

Yet this is not quite a yuppie paradise. While wandering around rather lost, trying to find some obscure blocks on the map, I stumbled across a very unpleasant attempt to "shakedown" a young French couple for money by an aggressive druggie, who fortunately decided to make off on my arrival.

On Saturday West Ham Labour Party members turned up at the Bethnal Green Labour HQ at the same time as comrades from Waltham Forest (see in collage, UNISON London political officer, Steve Terry and Council Leader, Chris Robbins).

In our group we went off with Tower Hamlets Labour activist, Dan McCurry, to finish the postal vote letters in Whitechapel. Later that afternoon West and East Hammers joined John Biggs and Sadiq Khan MP for a #labourdoorkock in Stepney Green.

Tories letting gangsters and sex offenders off the hook?

I don't always agree with Tower Hamlets Labour Colleague, Dan McCurry, but his post here on the Tories refusing to allow criminals arrested in the UK to be electronically checked against European wanted lists is pretty damning.

Dan should know his stuff since he is a criminal law legal executive who is called out to Police stations to represent people detained.

"Because the Tories don’t want integration between our criminal justice system and the rest of Europe. This means that foreign paedophiles and murderers can come to this country and evade detection"

He points out most serious criminals "on the run" are often only found when they are caught carrying out minor crimes such as fare evasion or being involved in a "punch up".

At the moment in the UK if you are a foreign national wanted in Europe on serious offences and you are arrested and electronically finger printed, there is no automatic check with Europe and they will usually walk free. I assume that British nationals suspected of serious crimes in Europe will also go free as well?

There has to be safe guards but I can't see why this should be a unsolvable problem?  The UK is already an attractive hiding place for criminals since we have no identity cards.

Dan believes that the Tories are "are sacrificing our security for the sake of their own infighting over Europe".

Keir Hardie: First Labour MP 120th Anniversary Event

Last Wednesday 4th July was the 120th anniversary of the election of Keir Hardie as the first Labour MP.

He was elected as MP for West Ham South in the 1892 General Election.

The modern day West Ham Consistency Labour Party and Newham TULO organised a commemorative tour to mark the occasion. 25 people from Newham and East London turned up.

We started with a tour of the Old Town Hall in Stratford where the election count took place in 1892 and where Keir was announced the winner. We went onto the balcony overlooking the High Street where Keir made his acceptance speech in front of 15-20,000 people. Keir then led a march back through the borough to Canning Town.

We also went into the Bell Tower of the Town Hall and the basement Police cells. There use to be a Magistrate court next door. (Off message - but tradition states that these were the very cells that Mick Jagger and Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones rock group were held in the 1960's for minor public order offences).

We underestimated how long it would take to complete the tour of the Town Hall so we didn't manage to visit the other sites which included historic locations of the radical and suffragette clubs from Hardie's time. 

We stopped off at the Martyrs Memorial in the Church yard of St John.  Which is not about Hardie but is a symbol remembering religious persecution and bigotry down the ages. We finished up outside the famous Theatre Royal built in 1882. Then in the bar for a quick drink followed by a curry in West Ham Lane.

Following the success of this event we are aiming to carry out further Labour movement tours in the future. Details to follow.

Picture outside the Old Town Hall by Dan McCurry. I'll post more pictures of Facebook. Finally, many, many thanks to the Old Town Hall staff for the tour and their enthusiasm: Update see tour photo's here

UNISON NDC 2011: Motion 54 The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing

This was to have been my speech to NDC moving our branch motion 54 but we ran out of time. 

"President, Conference, John Gray, Housing Association Branch, Greater London Region moving motion 54. The Death and Rebirth of Public Housing.

Conference, I want to describe how this Tory led Government is intent on the destruction of public housing in this country and how we need instead to argue for its Rebirth.
 
Firstly conference our branch delegation accepts and supports the NEC amendments to the motion. The Havering branch amendments we also accept, with one very important qualification which I will address later.

Conference, our branch has over 3500 members who all work in public housing in London and Southeast England. So I don’t think many of you will be surprised at the content of this motion.

It condemns the cuts in Housing benefit which attacks not only the unemployed, the elderly and disabled - but also the working poor.

It points out that our members who provide front line services are horrified at being expected to deal with the resulting class cleansing of the poor from richer middle class areas.

It condemns this government for decimating new investment in public housing while millions have endure overcrowding and substandard living conditions while languishing on never ending council waiting lists.

That new tenants and the homeless could lose the right to secure and permanent accommodation. While those who wait for years for a tenancy may find themselves paying near market rent for two years - after which they could find themselves evicted if they find a good job.

In London currently the average rent for a 2 bed HA property is £102 per week. A so-called Tory affordable rent set at 80% of the market would be a staggering £2-4-8 per week. Every week!

Conference, this motion does not only condemn the actions of this Tory led Government. It also agrees with what many of you have been saying this week about how this attack on public services is ideologically motivated. This government has an ideological hatred of collective provision and is therefore trying to kill off public housing.

To counter this ideological attack we not only have to protest and campaign but we have counter the underlying neo-liberal and Orange book ideology. There is a Battle of Ideas in housing, that at this moment, progressives have not been winning. We need to win this Battle.

UNISON Labour link and our members in the Labour Party need to play their part as well in the very same Battle within the Party to reclaim it as the Party of Public housing.

So let us look at the alternatives. Let us research the impact of reintroducing rent controls, let us look into the replacement of council tax with a continental style Land tax and let us debate such ideas as community land trusts. We need convincing arguments to persuade the public and indeed many of our own members that we should reverse the unhealthy British obsession with home ownership and disdain for renting.

Such is the scale of the problem that there desperately needs to be a massive house building programme which will have the added benefits of getting the unemployed into work, giving them wages to support the local economy and paying tax rather than claiming the dole. We need to champion and explain these arguments.

Now Conference, regarding the amendments put forward by Havering. Our branch delegation accepts these amendments with one very important qualification. One of their new points suggests that the best provision of social housing is that provided by local authorities.

Now, I am a passionate believer in local government and a defender and supporter of local authority housing. However, many thousands of members in the new Community Service Group work in social housing but have never worked for a local authority. The organisations they work for – long established housing charities, housing co-ops or other mutuals have never been under the control of the local authority and they have no interest in being so.

Many of these members will be very concerned that it is implied that their hard work can only be 2nd best. Now I think that this was never intended and just the result of poor drafting and I appreciate that this point was based upon previous conference policy. But this is something I think that the new Community Service Group will have to take up via the union structures and bring back to NDC. We cannot have 2 tiers of membership in our union.

Finally conference, let us go back to what will unite all of us. Decent housing is a basic and fundamental human right. We don’t believe that public housing is the “tenure of the last resort” nor the Tory libel that they are “barracks of the poor”.

Let us work for and call for victory in this Battle of Ideas with the Right - and for the next government to give birth to a renaissance of public housing.

Good quality homes, affordable, accountable and secure. And most importantly of all conference – make sure that we build enough of them.

Conference – I move".

(Picture Dan McCurry - A lovely shot. Dawn/Rebirth etc)

Caroline Flint MP “a tough love sort of girl”

Caroline Flint, the Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government was the guest speaker at the Tower Hamlets Labour Party Housing Policy forum at The Centre in Merchant Street, E3 last month. I was invited as a member of Tower Hamlets TULO. She gave us a presentation followed by a Q&A.

Now, some of the things she said that I thought interesting. “Housing is not just about having a roof over your head. It is linked to your journey through life and what are your aspirations. People still want to buy their own home.  Home ownership may be “the english disease” but this is what people want if they win the lottery. They want a stake in life.  Not only for their children but for help with social care when they are older. How to increase the supply? Look at finance and supply. There are uncompetitive banks and building societies. It is easier to get a mortgage on a £200k new build than get £50k to do up and refurbish a home. There are over a million empty homes in UK. New build is VAT free, with a refurbishment you pay VAT. A very narrow range of builders.  A few big ones and lots of very,very small ones.  

Caroline was brought up in the private rental sector then the family had a council flat.  But with secure tenancies with fair rents. This is nonexistent nowadays.  While the private sector needs to be part of the solution.  This governments unfettered faith in the private sector is wrong. Labour is now engaged in a completely open policy debate. Willing to look at piloting housing policies in Labour Councils. Turn a talking shop into reality. 

In the Q&A I made a comment about despairing about housing in London due to the very high land prices.  Each Social housing unit in London had cost an average £100k in subsidy.  My question was related to her comments about pension funds and housing investment.  The Local Government Pension scheme has £160 billion investments and wants to invest long term secure low risk asset based investments.  What joined up thinking can her Shadow CLG team bring on this matter?  She said they will be looking into such ideas.

Question about Paris having a more successful housing policy since most people rent. Caroline said they may rent in Paris but many own homes elsewhere. Then one on the sub-letting of social

Housing it not only immoral - but should it be made illegal? (No real answer to that one)  

Social housing should not be a refuse of last resort. We need mixed neighbourhoods. So if someone gets a pay rise and they then risk losing their home, what is the incentive to work? Cameron and Shapps have a lack of understanding about what is and what isn’t possible. We need to help people make the journey they want to make.

Caroline says she is a tough love sort of girl. You should respect your environment, your neighbours and pay your rent. There are not only entitlements but responsibilities.

Caroline has three messages to Labour Councils. Show that Labour can get good value for money for services, they can get more people involved and have a say and have a sense of what you want to do.

Finally “aspiration”. Not everyone can own their own home at the end of the day. It is sad that so many people from all walks of life think their children will not do better than them. We should be on the right side of these people. Most people don’t want too much from government. The 1945 victory was broad based coalition who believed that Labour was about offering them a better future”.

Great action picture taken by Dan McCurry (with my camera!). Many thanks to TH Labour Party for the invite (and well done for arranging such good events.  Next one is on Health in July with John Healey MP). 

This post was from the last time I attended a "meeting" with Caroline, also in Tower Hamlets.

Newham Fabians AGM 2011

Picture is from Newham Fabians AGM which took place at the Town Hall in East Ham on Monday evening. The Fabians are an independent socialist society affiliated to the Labour Party. 

The Guest speaker was local MP Stephen Timms (main picture).  He spoke about the role of the Fabians in the current climate.

I missed most of the meeting due to a clash.  When I came in there was a robust but comradely debate going on about possible past mistakes and the future direction of the Party.  Very Fabian!  Stephen then had to leave in order to go to the House of Commons to vote against the Tories (to loud cheers from one and all).

It had been a very positive and constructive Labour Movement meeting.  A local MP, Councillors, trade unionists, (a former MEP) and Party activists meeting up together to exchange views and progress Labour politics.

Many thanks to Tower Hamlets Labour Party activist and photographer, Dan MCCurry, for the excellent photos.  They really bring the event to life. Check out his "Newham Fabians" FaceBook album here.

The Sixth Estate - "Unions are the unsung heroes of the credit crunch"

Guest post by Dan McCurry.  "During the tense two years following the Credit Crunch, widespread predictions of civil disorder were both highly credible and seemingly inevitable, but no winter of discontent nor summer of strife came to pass. Yet, the people whose efforts successfully averted this destructive course have gone unrecognised and unappreciated. That’s a great shame and it should be rectified.

When the Lindsey Oil Refinery workers burst into spontaneous anger and destruction, the fire was quenched by the Unions who went in and established a dialogue between Management and Workers. They kept the refinery working and left the media to look elsewhere for their story.

This was one of a number of flashpoints across the country. The predicted civil disorder was never given a chance to take root. In each flashpoint it was the unions who calmed the tension and kept production lines working. Those sections of industry with established unions saw workers agreeing to defer wages, take unpaid leaves, and operate on reduced working weeks to keep their industry afloat. The unions are the unsung heroes of the Credit Crunch, not the despotic opportunists of 40 years ago.

So when we see the Labour leader attacked for having the support of these trade unions, this attack is not based on the modern reality of the unions, but on a historic fantasy of the right-wing press. This is no longer the 1970s, the age of confrontation is over and we’ll never go back there.

Rather than allowing the right-wing press to accuse Labour of being too close to a 1970’s image, we should be setting the agenda by claiming credit for role played by our union friends. But instead we allowed the media to set the agenda and turned a positive into a negative in terms of our future electability.

Although BA has been embarrassing in the apparent inability of the two sides to settle, it seems to me that the Credit Crunch demonstrated that the Unions are a modern, economic-savvy institution. Rather than wanting to abolish Managers as an enemy, they want to support them as the providers of jobs for workers while arguing for the skilled get a fair price for their labours and for the low-paid to be pulled out of poverty and be given a chance to thrive in their working lives.

These are worthy goals, but they are blurry goals to a movement that has never fully recovered from 1983. Although the unions have done everything right by ending confrontation, they have never quite figured out what their new role should be, and so have never quite been able to see themselves, or the employees they represent, as the Sixth Estate.

It seems to me that the confusion is to do with the reduction in union powers during the Thatcher era. Whenever the unions call for their powers to be returned the discussion gets bogged down in the power to strike. However, it’s not the right to strike that hampers the unions, but the right to be recognised that truly damages them in the modern age.

If a single worker wishes to have a union rep advocate her pay round to her employer, why should this be illegal. Why should she have to get 50% of the workforce to also join the union and then ballet them? Yet this is the law of union recognition as it stands.

Everyone else in our society has a right to an advocate. The accused before a court of law, the resident before a planning committee, the prime minister himself has the greatest advocates in the world in the form of our Foreign Office. What is it about being an employee that makes it illegal to have someone more articulate and knowledgeable speak on her behalf?

Like many people I was deeply affected by The Spirit Level. Previously I believed that some inequality was necessary for ambition to thrive and the economy to advance and that this would benefit all, including those at the bottom. But this book provided a scientific argument that the well-being and contentment of society as a whole is severely affected by inequality. Even the well-off suffer greater mental health issues in an unequal society.

So to create a more equal society, where do we start? Bashing bankers has had no effect on achieving greater equality; it’s also become a bit boring. If anyone has a tangible policy proposal that would be likely to bring down the pay at the very top, then it would be most appreciated. But until such an idea comes forth, I suggest we concentrate on relieving poverty in order to create fairness, and although I don’t have all the answers, I do know where we could make a start.

Under the Blair government we addressed the issue of low pay by using the tax and benefit system to subsidise wages. Resource allocation is not served well by the distorting effect of taxing companies in order to subsidise wages. This was never the perfect solution to low-pay; it was only adopted for lack of a better answer. It would be much better to see a rise in real wages and use the money saved to lower the tax burden on the companies in order that the wage rise does not reduce productivity.  The question is how to increase the real wage?

If unions were allowed to advocate on behalf of workers regardless of whether this is a small percentage of the workforce, or even a single worker, then the union rep, with nothing more than a single friendly phone call would be able to achieve a better deal for those members. Either that or the company is not viable and the employees might be best advised to look elsewhere for a wage..

This is the distinction between trade unionism of the past and that of the future. The age of mass membership combined with confrontation as a negotiating tactic has little place in modern society. But the age of advocacy on behalf of individuals with a view of achieving a fair outcome for all is something we see across society and across industry. It’s a different way for unions to work, but a way of working that they would probably have adopted anyway, had it not been for these outdated laws of union representation.

If employees were allowed a union advocate then wages would rise to their right and correct level. This would increase union membership and help to raise wages on a wider base. Wages not represented by a union would likely rise in sympathy. The state would then have no need to tax firms in order to pay wage benefits and the employees would have greater confidence and commitment to the firm that pays their wages, rather than the state that pays their benefits.

This would be one small step towards creating a more equal society, but it would also be a large step toward creating a more productive workforce, not just in the form of the “invisible hand” but also in the spirit level of the employees who get to be rewarded rather than subsidised for their labour."

Helal Abbas - Labour Mayor for Tower Hamlets Campaign Launch

Picture is from the launch yesterday by Tower Hamlets Council Leader, Helal Abbas, of his campaign to become Labour Mayor. (picture by Dan McCurry)

I wasn't there but from Facebook reports I understand there was lots of Party members and 28 Tower Hamlets Councillors present.  There was also at least 2 Newham Councillors.

The Labour Party has expelled 11 members including 8 Councillors for supporting the "Independent" candidate and quite rightly anyone else who campaigns against the Party will also face expulsion.

There was 5 campaign sessions in Tower Hamlets this weekend. The campaign office is at 349 Cambridge Heath Road, London, E2 9RA and will be open for canvassing and leafleting from 10am-6.30pm every day until the election.

Or you can ring 0207 729 6682 or email abbas4mayor@gmail.com for further details.

I'll be seeing what Tower Hamlets trade union affiliates can do to help.

Vote Labour or else...

Islington Labour Cllrs stand no nonsense.

Is this the inspiration of the Gordon Brown "step outside posh boy" poster? 

Hat-tip Dan McCurry Facebook page.

"I've never voted Tory before, but Labour wouldn't give me a safe seat"

Of course, everyone who has had the great pleasure of knowing former Labour Tower Hamlets Cllr “£100k pa thanks to Labour” & GP Anwara Ali (3rd from left next to the posh bloke who is looking distastefully at the shifty looking former SWP/disrespect turned Tory Cllr bloke) thinks she is  someone of utterly high political principals.

So it was such, such a surprise that Anwara has just defected to the Tories.  We would all never, ever, ever think even for a moment that such an utterly outrageous and base suggestion about the ward selection process being the reason is at all true :)

Hat tip thingy Dan McCurry.

UPDATE:  After all this poor old Anwara was heavily defeated by Labour in the election.  Irony of ironies is that if she had stayed in the Labour Party and fought the seat she was offered then she would still be a Councillor.