UNISON Greater London Housing Associations Branch e-newsletter: Feb 2023

 

Welcome to the Branch Newsletter! 

Last Monday, we all heard the horrible news about the powerful earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria early in the morning. A week later there are still many people trapped under debris, and the ones who managed to escape from the buildings were left homeless and without any shelter or support in severe weather conditions. If you wish to help, please donate money to the Emergency Earthquake Fund. You can do that by visiting the website: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/turkey-emergency-earthquake-fund 

Barbara Zagrodniczek Branch Communications Officer 

Opportunity to represent the Branch at UNISON 2023 National Delegate Conference Date: Friday, 13th June 2023 – Sunday, 16th June 2023 Location: Liverpool 

In the last issue of the Newsletter we announced that we are looking for members who wish to represent the Branch at the National Delegate Conference. Due to an error in the provided email address, we would like to extend the deadline to 3:00pm on Friday, 24th February 2023. If you would like to attend, please send your details along with a supporting statement (max. 100 words) to AGM.Admin@unisonhablondon.org 

For those who already submitted the statement, we kindly ask you to re-send it to the above email address. We apologise for any inconvenience this causes. Travel, accommodation, and meals will be paid for by the Branch in line with our expenses policy. We look forward to your responses. 

Upcoming Events UNISON LGBT+ London Region to celebrate LGBT+ History Month (In person) Thu, 16th February at 6:30pm-9:00pm at Queer Britain Museum, 2 Granary Square, London, N1C 4BH 

The Regional LGBT+ Committee would like to invite you to celebrate LGBT+ History Month at the UK’s first ever dedicated LGBT+ museum. The regional UNISON LGBT+ committee will be holding its first LGBT+ History Month in person since 2020. We are really excited for this event which is open to all members. Karl Lewis, the LGBT+ Officer will be in attendance. Please get in touch if you want to find out more. 

Sign up for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/unison-london-lgbt-history-month-receptionat-queer-britain-tickets-531844419977 

Branch’s AGM (Hybrid meeting) Wednesday, 8th March 2023 at 6:00pm-8:00pm (in person and virtual) 

Details will be circulated separately by email. 

Women’s Training and Networking Event (In person event) Friday, 10th March 2023 at 10:00am-4:30pm at UNISON Centre, 130 Euston Road, London, NW1 2AY 

It is an annual women’s training and networking event hosted by the Regional Women’s Committee. The event is aimed at all elected branch officers who are women, and branch women’s contacts. Attendance is free, but pre-registration is essential. The deadline to submit registration forms is 24th February 2023. If you are interested in attending, please get in touch with Barbara Zagrodniczek, Branch Communications Officer at AGM.Admin@unisonhablondon.org 

International Workers Memorial Day (In person event) Friday, 28th April 2023, Bow, East London 

Please save the date in your calendars. More details will follow soon. 

Branch Officers’ Reports (February 2023) 

Chris Milson – Branch Secretary 

Working people are continuing to stand-up all-over Britain, fighting for better pay and conditions, catalysed by the current cost of living crisis and a Westminster government that is proving deaf to their concerns. In UNISON, public service workers in local government, education, health, and other sectors either have been striking, or have strike dates booked in the coming weeks. 

The UNISON Housing Associations Branch stands in solidarity with all union members that take the difficult decision to go on strike for better pay and conditions. 

Your Branch Needs You The UNISON Housing Association Branch’s AGM is next month. We’ve had an eventful year and all officers of the Branch Executive will be talking about what they’ve done in their elected roles this year for the Branch and its members. If you can, please come along and hear about what we’ve been doing, and what our goals are for the coming year. 

You can also stand for election to join the committee – look out for the online nomination form we’ll be sending out shortly. If you care about your Branch, and believe that you, or another member you know, has something to offer in helping to run it – do please consider nominating them or yourself for an Executive Officer position. 

Barbara Zagrodniczek – Branch Communication Officer 

In October 2022 I edited and circulated the first issue of the Branch Newsletter. Five months later I am proud to see that more and more of our members are taking part in the surveys and are putting themselves forward to represent the Branch at different forums. 

I hope we will be continue sharing similar opportunities with you in the future. I continue to work on improving Branch communications. This is why I am pleased to announce that our Branch is now ready to start publishing the Newsletter on the Branch website. I hope that this will make it more accessible to those who do not always have access to their emails. 

Further to that, we are planning to update content on the Branch website. 

Conference and Meeting Reports Greater London Regional Council AGM – 

Report For those of you who may not be aware, the Regional Council is the senior membership body which oversees the work of the Greater London region representing and supporting members, and it is being elected by all Greater London branches. The Annual General Meeting took place on Wednesday, 8 th February 2023 at Holiday Inn in Bloomsbury. Our Branch was represented by John Gray, Joseph Ogundemuren and myself. 

The meeting opened with passionate speeches given by Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, MP and Shadow Minister (Mental Health) and Sara Gorton, UNISON Head of Health. Both speakers focused on the importance of changes in the UK health system and solidarity with the Ambulance Service. 

After that, similarly to the Branch AGM, the meeting followed a standard agenda – minutes from the last AGM, matters arising, reports and motions. 

Our Branch submitted two motions. The first one, ‘Cost of Living’, was submitted for consideration as a regional motion to the 2023 National Delegate Conference. At the AGM it was presented by John Gray and received a positive response. 

The second one, ‘Year of the Black Worker’, was written in collaboration with the Croydon Local Government Branch and put forward by Joseph Ogundemuren. 

Barbara Zagrodniczek

(This communication has been written by a dyslexic person. If you have any trouble with the meaning of any of the sentences or words, please do not be afraid to ask for clarification)

Emergency Fundraising Dinner for Turkiye & Syria - Sisters Forum

This evening I went to support a fundraising dinner being held for disaster relief of victims of the recent deadly earthquake in Turkey and Syria.  I think all of us have been pretty shocked by the media footage of the death and devastation caused and the plight of the survivors. 

The hall was fully booked and well supported by local residents including the Mayor, Chair of Council and other Councillors. Also many people from outside Newham. 

There was a number of powerful speakers but the most powerful and personal one was by Hulya Yilmza, who is from the region in Turkey that has been most affected. She described the loss of her family members and friends and some of the horrible injuries they had suffered. 

Many thanks to my Councillor colleague, Sabia Kamali, the Sisters Forum and sponsors for organising this important event so quickly and running it so well. 

You can donate online https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/emergency-earthquake

Kindertransport Kids - London Liverpool Street Station 1938 and Calais 2016

This morning I was on my way to a seminar on opposing the new Housing & Planning Act.

I stopped off in London Liverpool Street station to take this photo of the statute (by the ticket office) in honour of the thousands of unaccompanied (mostly) Jewish children that escaped persecution and murder from Nazi Germany before the second world war.

The children escaped on the so called "Kindertransport" trains via Harwich Ferry and London Liverpool Street station, where they were met by volunteers who arranged safe accommodation for them until the end of the war.

Many of these children never saw their parents again since they were slaughtered by the Nazi.

Last night I sent an email in support of Newham Councillor, Rokshana Fiaz, who had contacted our Council wanting to know what are we doing to support the children in the refugee camp in Calais, France which is being shut down by the French Government.

On twitter I suggested that that the same sort of racist twaddle about the Jewish Kids in 1938 will be repeated today by the media about Syrian children in Calais trying to flee repression and death.
 

Dulwich Hamlet take on FC Assyria in charity match for refugees, Wednesday 2nd March

Well done to Southwark UNISON for sponsoring this event "On Wednesday, 2nd March, Dulwich Hamlet FC are playing a fundraising match against Middlesex County Leaguers FC Assyria, with all money raised being split between the British Red Cross Syria Appeal and the Southwark Refugee Communities Forum.

 The idea for the game came after Southwark Councillor Jasmine Ali approached the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters’ Trust to see if the club would get involved in another fundraising initiative (many Dulwich Hamlet fans have also been helping bring vital supplies to refugees across the channel, via the enterprising Dulwich2Dunkirk campaign).

Dulwich Hamlet play Stonewall FC in England's biggest anti-homophobia exhibition match, Weds 11th February, 2015 The club explains that by playing FC Assyria (who compete one division above Stonewall FC, who Hamlet played in an ‘Anti-Homophobia’ event a year ago), they not only help raise much needed money & resources, but they also get the chance to work with one of the many unsung lower level teams further down the pyramid.

FC Assyria was set up in the late 1960’s to represent the Assyrian Society of United Kingdom in Ealing, West London. Over the past thirty years or so, the team have successfully competed in the local leagues, challenging for both league and cup honours. These traditions are still alive today with the team playing at Step Seven, four rungs below The Hamlet Who are the Assyrians? The Assyrians of today are the indigenous Aramaic-speaking descendants of the ancient Assyrian people, one of the earliest civilizations emerging in the Middle East, and have a history spanning over 6750 years.

The Assyrians are Christian, with their own unique language, culture and heritage living mainly in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey. Unfortunately due to War and ISIS attacks, many Assyrians have had to flee their homelands and become refugees. Reaching out The club explains that forthcoming game will give them the opportunity to reach out to both the local refugee community in Southwark, and across London, as well as using the Club as a medium to “counter much of the discriminatory nonsense that is scaremongeringly covered by the media, in general.

As well as making a practical difference to those who have not managed to find places of safety yet.” All of the money raised at the match will be split between two very important charities, one local & one national. The Southwark Refugee Communities Forum are one of our match partners, with the other half being donated to the much larger national British Red Cross Syria Appeal.

The local Southwark UNISON branch of the trade union will be official match sponsors, with the match ball sponsored by the Dulwich Hamlet Supporters’ Trust". hat tip Brixon Buzz and Captain Swing

Sunday Night Live: Syria and Airstrikes

A week on from the Commons vote, which extended Britain’s bombing campaign against ISIS into Syria, this Sunday Night Live special explores where now for the multinational coalition against Daesh.

With on-going controversy surrounding Cameron’s widely challenged claim of 70,000 moderate Syrian opposition fighters ready to defeat Daesh, military and security experts are cautioning Britain to be realistic about the extent to which UK action can shape the outcome of the conflict. They are also warning the international community to be ready for the long haul as events on the ground continue to outstrip the pace of diplomatic efforts.

This Sunday Night Live session, with leading experts and commentators, will explore:

• The kaleidoscope of interests at stake in the Syrian conflict, and how these are hampering international diplomatic peace efforts; 
• What needs to happen to bring regional and global actors round the table to break the current paralysis over the future of Assad’s regime; 
• The military challenges to the current ‘degrade’ objectives of the counter ISIS-strategy and how to protect Syrian civilians – are ‘no-fly zones’ completely out of the question;
• How coherent is the international strategy to defeat ISIS and end the civil war in Syria; 
• The domestic implications of the terrorist threat posed by ISIS and where now with the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy.  

Money will also be collected on the evening for the UNHCR Syria Crisis Appeal. 

When

Sunday, 13 December 2015 from 17:00 to 18:30 (GMT) - Add to Calendar

Where

Stratford Picturehouse bar - Salway Road. Stratford . London E15 1BX GB - View Map

Register here

Sunday Night Live "21st Century NHS - a state of perpetual upheaval and crisis. Where now for the health service?"

Pictures from last weekends "Sunday Night Live" at Stratford Picture House, E15.  The debate was about the crisis in the NHS.

West Hammer Neil Wilson chaired. There was two guest speakers, Nigel Keohane, from the Social Market Foundation and Jos Bell, Socialist Health Alliance. Each speaker had 12 minutes to speak then Q&A. 

Jos Bell spoke first about the present crisis in the NHS and how we used to have the best NHS in the world (pre 2010) and the 3rd most efficient. Now we have Accident and Emergency departments "stuffed to the gunnels", hospital closures, ambulance services forced to recruit from Australia and New Zealand, while at the same time, 20% of junior doctors are thinking leaving the NHS and working in New Zealand.

NHS staff can't afford to live in London while social care funding has almost disappeared

Nigel Keohane spoke next and firstly explained he was not a "Labour person".  He quoted Nye Bevan and then Tory Minister, Lord Lawson, on how NHS  is the "closest thing the English have to a religion". 

While he recognised that there was indeed a crisis in the NHS and it was especially failing to deliver for those who need social care such as those with dementia, he is "pro market" and saw nothing wrong with private companies providing NHS services. 

He believes that this could be proved if the best performing hospitals were handed over to the private sector to manage rather than what has happened in the past, when failing hospitals have been given to private companies who in turn have also failed. 

Nigel thinks there is only 3 possible solutions to the funding crisis in the NHS - either everyone should pay an extra 3p in income tax;  or a one off levy on richer older people or introduce means tested charging for NHS and social care. 

This sparked a passionate but civilised debate in the Q&A. Some of the audience were NHS staff who criticised Nigel for his support of privatisation and charging. However, there was support for his suggestions from some who criticised free NHS services as being a subsidy for the rich by the poor. 

I suggested to Nigel that while the market is very good at certain things such as making cars, it is not good at providing or charging for health services, since the profit motive subverts services and it is expensive, bureaucratic, demeaning and inefficient to means test. Nigel replied by saying there is no evidence that the private sector is less efficient than the public sector.

There was an interesting discussion on PFI (Private Finance Initiative) funding for hospitals. Jos pointed out that it was a myth that Labour started PFI when it began under the Tories while John Major was prime minister.  Also that some of the later deals were actually not that bad value. Lewisham Hospital PFI was okay but Barts PFI was obviously not. 

Local Labour stalwart, John Saunders, praised the NHS but pointed out the failure of social care especially for the elderly.

It was an excellent debate and we soon ran out of time but continued the arguments in the bar afterwards.

Next "Sunday Night Live" is due on 13th December which will be on Syria. Details to follow.

"Sunday Night Live" is a series of friendly monthly conversations and debates for Labour Party members and supporters. Many thanks to the organising panel and especially Susan Masters and Rokhsana Fiaz (hat tip to them for many of photos in collage as well)

We are all migrants

Yesterday the first official refugees from Syria arrived in the UK at Glasgow airport. Some random thoughts.

Firstly, I am reminded of this fascinating research about the generic make up of many Brits. The Romans, Vikings and Normans had apparently little influence on our DNA, it was the Anglo-Saxons invasion in 400-500 AD which substantially altered the generic make up. 30% of most English White DNA is German and 40% is French

Interesting that only the Welsh appear to have DNA similar to the original inhabitants of Britain after the last Ice Age. Of course, even they were "migrants" at some stage as well.

However, the "Celts" in  Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and Cornwall have surprisingly no central gene source and are genetically the most different in the UK.

I remember once encountering a blond blue eyed idiot who was spouting racist rubbish that "all these foreigners should go home" by saying that surely this means he will have to go back to the German Forests that his family came from?

In Italian the word "foreigner" means someone from the next city or village.

I used to work in Brick Lane in the East End of London which has a Muslim mosque that used to be a Jewish synagogue and before that was a Protestant French Huguenot Church. 

British born members of my family regularly work abroad and send home their income.

I was forced to leave my family in Wales to seek work since at the time local male unemployment was 33%.

Nearly the whole of the UK was once totally uninhabited during the last Ice Age. This was only around 11,000 years ago.

I am proud that Newham Council is welcoming and supporting 10 Syrian Refugees families. 

So in one way or the other, we are all foreigners, we are all migrants.

Hat tip picture Edinburgh, Scotland

West Ham Labour January update - General Election just 120 days away (& debate on Syria)

"Happy 2015... It's only seven days into the new year and already voters can't have failed to notice there's a General Election coming.

The Tories have already published a false dossier on Labour's plans and the NHS is in crisis.

General Election 2015
We've got 120 days to get a Labour government elected. It's a battle we need to win seat by seat. West Ham is working to turn Ilford North from Conservative to Labour by getting Labour's Wes Streeting elected as the new MP.

Please come and help Labour win in May (and we'll help you if you've not done it before) by joining us talking to voters in Ilford North..

We're meeting this Saturday 10 January outside Stratford station at 1.30pm (or at Fairlop station at 2pm). For more info contact Julianne.

We'll also be helping Ilford North:
24 January at Statford station at 1.30pm (or 2pm at Fairlop)
14 February at Stratford station at 1.30pm (or 2pm at Fairlop)
28 February at Statford station at 1.30pm (for 2pm at Fairlop)

All members meeting (GC) on 22 January - Syria 
We've got a great speaker - the former British Ambassador to Syria, Basil Eastwood who will be giving us the background to the current Syrian conflict. We will be asking ourselves, four years into the bloody civil war, what hope ahead for Syrians? And how can the UK help? All members are very welcome.

Meeting starts at 7.30pm at 306 High St, Stratford, E15 1AJ And thank you to everyone who came to our Christmas social and quiz. We had a great time and also raised some much needed money for the election campaign.

Best wishes Julianne Marriott (West Ham CLP Vice Chair)"

On justifying military intervention in Syria

Sense about a very sensitive issue from Norman Geras at normblog. "The signs are now clear that Washington and other Western powers, including Britain, are considering military action against Syria on account of the regime's apparent use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians. Would such action be justified? In the debate about this at least three types of issue are centrally involved: (1) whether there is a basis in international law for military intervention; (2) whether it is likely to do any good; and (3) whether it might be merited in any case on retributive grounds.

(1) My own view on whether there is a basis in international law for humanitarian intervention in situations of this kind is that there is. As I have already stated this view at some length, I will be brief on the present occasion. There is not only a right, there is a duty, of humanitarian intervention when a government is committing mass atrocities against a civilian population. This can be established by reference both to customary international law and to the doctrine of A Responsibility to Protect, underwritten by the UN. The question, in particular, of whether a UN resolution mandating intervention is required can be quickly answered - no - for a reason given here: 'The U.N. Security Council is not the sole or unique custodian about what is legal and what is legitimate'. To put the same thing another way: a system of law that would countenance mass atrocity without any remedy simply because the interests of a veto-wielding power at the UN blocks remedial action is morally unacceptable, indeed intolerable; and so where the UN itself becomes delinquent by not upholding some of its own most fundamental principles, the UN not only may, it should, be defied by member states willing to give those principles more respect.

(2) However, integral to the doctrines of humanitarian intervention and R2P alike is the requirement that a prospective military intervention should have a reasonable chance of success. Intervention is not to be contemplated without regard to the likely consequences. In the present case, this is, in my view, the most difficult of the three issues to resolve. Would military intervention against Syria now do any good? That depends, of course, on what its objectives are: whether to influence the overall outcome of the civil war in that country; or merely to weaken the regime's military capabilities; or to deter it from further gas attacks on the Syrian people; etc. I don't propose to offer answers on each different conception of possible objectives. Indeed I don't know that I can. My earlier uncertainties over Syria have not dissipated. But, in any case, one should note that intervention may be justified even if the overall balance of consequences is not beneficial.

(3) For intervention may be undertaken on retributive grounds, to punish a regime that so blatantly flouts the norms of international humanitarian law and the principles of all civilized morality. It may be regarded as morally unthinkable that such a regime should be able to commit gross crimes against humanity with impunity - without being made to suffer any significant penalty. In this situation military intervention is undertaken as a reprisal (scroll to the end) for the crimes committed.

How one weighs the force of (3) against that of (2) in a case where there may be negative consequences I am unsure. But it is these considerations rather than UN authorization or lack of it that should take precedence.

Bella Ciao Syria

On Thursday I went to my Labour Party ward meeting. Afterwards I was speaking to a longstanding member who I hadn't realised was originally from Syria. He spoke about his distress about the massacres and slaughter that is happening in his homeland. Every day he receives emails and graphic videos with shocking images and news. At my request he sent me information and a link to a Google News Group on Syria.

I clicked on its Youtube links and was pretty horrified at what I saw. Dozens of different amateur videos showing countless people being shot, dying and dead in large pools of blood. Crying relatives and friends risking their own lives to pick up up bodies and the wounded being shot at themselves. Shaky Pictures of unidentified gunmen with telescopic rifles on the roof tops of tower blocks. Tanks firing at crowds of fleeing and unarmed civilians. Warning: this link is very, very graphic. Mainstream media just cannot show these pictures. Simply and utterly dreadful. Words (for once) fail me.

Hat-tip for Youtube video above to TheTollundWoman (not graphic)

#Uint11 The Arab Spring - Update on the Middle East and North Africa

Sat pm: Last presentation was by Nick Crook, UNISON International Officer, followed by a film on Labour Rights in Egypt.

Nick reported that this is a new area of work for UNISON.  We use to work on Palestine and Iraq (and to a lesser extent Iran).  No real mandate  before Conference this year. 

It is called the  “Arab Spring” but also involves North Africa. Events are ongoing. Not only in Libya (Gaddifi was killed only 2 days before) but in Syria and Egypt things are still very much a process. The Army remains in control in Egypt.

A key factor has been social and economic conditions. The role of trade unions has been a core theme. There were marked differences in the region beforehand with regard to unions.  Some such as Tunisia had powerful free trade unions, others such as in Egypt, Syria and Libra they were  government controlled unions while in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, unions were banned. Less widely reported is the protests in Jordon, Algeria and Morocco.  In Morocco the protests forced the King to announce that there will be a  constitutional monarchy. While in Bahrain there was military intervention by Saudi. 3000 trade unionists lost their jobs while several hundred were imprisoned.  Contrast the British Government response to what has happened in Libya and Bahrain. Kuwait also has a crack down on trade union protest. On May day 2011 77 national trade unions across region did sign a "democracy declaration".

The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) have a new web site (which I can't find?) and Labourstart also has lots of good information and campaigns.  Unfortunately there has been splits in Egypt trade unions which have put UNISON in a difficult position with regard to who to support.