Another evening "on the knocker" in Plaistow South

 

This evening I was the "board runner" again (not with a clip board anymore but a Labour Party mobile phone app) with a group of activists led by our by election candidate, Ash. 

We did both sides of a very long street in the ward. It was threatening to rain but there was only a few occasional drops.  I read out the briefing to all the teams at the beginning and Ash thanked everyone for giving up their time to support him. There was then the inevitable photo! 

Another positive canvass. Some negativity but that is democracy for you. It was good to be involved with lots of enthusiastic activists from all ages, experience and backgrounds, coming together to fight the good fight.

By election is Thursday 18 September. Check out here if you can join us. https://events.labour.org.uk/

If you have not canvassed before do not worry, since your will be paired with an experienced activist until you feel comfortable to knock on a door by yourself.  

Newham Labour Group Organiser Advert

 Reference: 78820

Date Added: 10 June 2021

Closing Date: 21 June 2021

Job Title: Newham Labour Group Campaign Organiser

Working For: Newham Labour Group

Location: London

Salary: £36,108.99 (gross and inclusive of London Weighting) per annum (full-time and based on national Labour Party pay scale:26)

Length of Contract: Fixed term to July 2022

Job Details

Newham Labour Group are seeking a highly motivated, well-organised and experienced campaign organiser fulfil the campaigning requirements for Newham Labour Group as the Mayor and Cllrs gear up for the London local elections in May 2022. The role of Group Campaign Organiser will be to support the campaigning, organising and mobilisation efforts of the Mayor and local councillors in Newham; and support delivery of campaigning and training content via the group’s campaign platform: the Newham Labour Campaign Academy.

Promoting the achievements of the Labour led council administration and the Labour Party amongst local voters and residents in the borough will be the priority focus of the Campaign Organiser working alongside local Labour Party members, CLP officers, the Local Government Committee, Labour Parliamentary Candidates and their agents; and the Labour Assembly Member. The role of the Campaign Organiser will be critical in promoting the achievements of the Labour-led Council and galvanising local support for Labour in the run up to the London local elections on 5th May 2022.

Newham is a young, vibrant and diverse borough shaped by a strong sense of local identity and long tradition of political activism in the local Labour parties. Labour controls the Council, where Labour’s Directly Elected Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz and all 60 councillors have been elected on a radical and transformative Labour manifesto which puts community wealth building and inclusive economy strategies right at the top of Labour’s agenda locally to address poverty and inequality, the housing crisis, youth safety and climate emergency.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced organiser, skilled in a variety of campaign, social change and social movement building techniques to work with a dynamic Labour Council leader and Group, in collaboration with local parties, local member so that Labour in Newham builds an authentic people powered and community based support base to initiate positive social change for local residents – in line with the participatory democracy agenda being pursued by the Labour Mayor.

You can find the full job description at 

https://newham.laboursites.org/job-vacancy/ 

Closing Date: 21 June 2021

Interview/Start Dates

Interviews will be held w/c: 21st June 2021 with a panel comprising of the Mayor of Newham in her role as leader of group, the deputy Mayor, the Group Chair, Group Secretary, Chief Whip, and up to two non-Group executive representatives from the wider Labour group.

Application Details

Please send a CV and covering letter addressed to the Group Leader, Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz via Shakerul Haque, political assistant to group via: groupassistant@newhamlabour.org.

Deadline: midday

Website: https://newham.laboursites.org/

Additional Notes

7 days to come out with new ideas about Newham Council budget 2017?

At the Newham Council meeting next Monday 27 February 2017 there will be a free vote of all Labour Councillors on the proposed Mayor;s budget. All Councillors in Newham are Labour so this an important development and I congratulate my Labour Group colleagues for agreeing to this.

As a Labour movement activist, I am a firm believer in collective responsibility (when democratically arrived at). When we have a Council with a powerful Executive Mayor and where there is no political opposition, this means that we have a responsibility to debate important issues, such as the budget, in public rather than it being decided behind closed doors in Labour Group and subject to a "whipped" vote.

That doesn't mean it should be a "free for all" nor an exercise in futile grandstanding.

The reality is that Council finances are dependent on Central Government funding which each year is being cut and cut and cut. It is also too late in the budget process for us to have a meaningful debate about the 2017/18 budget (but I live in hope) so the discussion at Council on Monday is in my view a more general debate about the future direction of Council finance.

If anyone has any ideas and practical proposals about the budget then please let me know. Details of the agenda is here

Newham Council Supports TUC "Britain Needs a Pay Rise" Demo 18 October 2014

I was pleased this evening that Newham Labour Group and then Full Council approved this motion unanimously. I'll post more on this meeting and the pretty disgraceful aftermath outside the town hall.

"Newham Council welcomes the call from the TUC to help organise a National March ‘Britain Needs a Pay Rise’ in Central London on Saturday 18 October 2014. We agree to work together to maximise participation of Newham residents, employees, members and affiliates to this event as we did for 26 March 2011 and 20 October 2012 TUC marches.

We note that in spite of this Government’s claims of economic recovery, real pay for many is still falling, leaving them struggling to feed their families and pay household bills.

We believe British Workers need and deserves a pay rise. The Labour Party has pledged that a future Labour Government will work to make sure that people can afford to live on the wage they earn. This march is just one step in a long campaign to win an economic recovery that works for all, not just those at the top”.

Proposed  Cllr John Gray, West Ham Ward
Seconded Cllr John Whitworth, West Ham Ward

James Keir Hardie: 120 Years

This evening Labour MP, Hilary Benn, shadow secretary of state for communities and local government, opened an exhibition at the Old Town
Hall in Stratford on the life of Keir Hardie.

This was to mark the 120th anniversary of Keir being elected for West Ham as the first ever independent Labour MP.

A 11 page pamphlet (see cover) was also distributed.

Hilary spoke to members of the Newham Labour Group before the Full Council meeting. He reminded us that this historic town hall was the scene of Hardie's famous victory in 1892.

He also pointed out that many of the things that Hardie had fought for in his time were delivered by Labour.

He quoted the interesting advice that Hardie gave to a younger colleague that he "should drink less, read more and think longer".

After opening the exhibition Hilary also gave a speech to Labour Group (below) about current political issues and problems followed by a Q&A.

He told a nice story about how in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis the Labour Government were forced to nationalise the Bank, Northern Rock.

He rang his father, Tony Benn and said "you know Dad that you were always in favour of nationalising the Banks? Well, guess what we'd done....". (Hat tip photo Ali G)

Big Bad Mikey sings Goodbye-ee

(Warning: this is an internal Newham thing) Big Bad Mikey who posted as "I love Newham Labour Group" (or something like that) sings "Goodbye-ee to blogging" alongside his old partner in crime Newham Tory miniture. 

They will be sadly missed. How can we now show how completely useless the Tory opposition is in Newham?

I am of course, as always, a completely innocent man in all this.

UPDATE: within a few hours of this post "Big Bad Mikey" decided to change his mind (no surprise there) and reopen his blog! Hooray - we can now continue to demonstrate how completely useless all the opposition (trots and tories) are in Newham.  He claims that he is a reformed character and will not swear or attack people personally.

Yeah...he's already pretending to be the very thick and stupid illiterate anon who makes obscene comments.  Great stuff. Carry on "Big Bad Mikey" Please don't ever change! 

(I'll be thinking of a suitable "welcome back" post for the near future:)

Newham Labour Group Statement on Pension Strike Tomorrow

At last night's meeting of Newham Labour Group the following statement was agreed unanimously. 

"We are proud of our Council staff who work extremely hard to deliver the high-quality services that our residents value, despite the savage and unprecedented cuts being imposed by this Tory-led Government.

At the same time, the pensions of Council staff in Newham and across the country are also under attack. Trade union members have a legitimate right to take action in defence of their hard earned pension rights, many of whom are low paid and cannot afford the proposed reform of public sector pensions.

We understand and share the anger felt by Council workers towards the Tory-led government's attack on their pensions and we sympathise with Newham residents who will lose out through the disruption to vital services as a result of strike action against this Tory-led government."

It is already existing Council Policy to oppose the attempt the wreck the local government pension scheme. See here and here.

Picture from the TUC March in March. This was the Newham assembly point outside Stratford Station. East Ham Labour MP Stephen Timms, Newham Labour Mayor Sir Robin Wales and members of the Labour Group, with trade unionists and Party members.

A message from "The Dark Side"

Email: A message from the "Dark Side":  Hello John,

I really shouldn't encourage you but thought it only fair to let you know that ***** Council's Labour Group are now planning on proposing a similar (if not identical) motion to the Newham one - after a little nudge from the UNISON branch's ultra-left Labour Link Officer (a dedicated Rogersite and closet John Gray blog reader). 

Comradely regards (just this once) 

******
Labour Link Officer
****UNISON

P.S. You are still wrong in almost every respect".