Elected as Greater London General Rep for UNISON Community (Charities, Housing Associations & Third Sector) & I will support the Kirklees 15

 

I was really pleased to be notified on Friday that I had been elected unopposed for the Greater London General seat on the UNISON Community National Service Group Executive. 

This means I will represent all UNISON members in London who work in Charites, Housing Associations or the Third Sector. There are a number of national employers whose headquarters are in London and are therefore part of London region as well. 

I am looking forward to representing the interests of London Community members at this national body and will do whatever I can to hold the present Community NEC members to account for their actions in particular the complicity and failure to stop the victimisation of the Kirklees 15.

This is about 14 female UNISON members and 1 male, whose complaints of bullying and harassment against our so called current "President" Paul Holmes, have been dismissed by our NEC without any due process for them. This is despite the fact that he has been sacked by his employer for bullying and harassing them. 

I will also challenge them for supporting the bullying of UNISON staff, including threating to sack them, breaking the union rules, fiddling procedures and using "union busting" tactics against our recognised trade unions. Incredibly they have also failed to completely condemn Putin's fascist war of aggression against Ukraine.

Watch this space.

(Picture of some of the many Community delegates who walked out of our recent conference in Glasgow last month when Paul Holmes was chairing it). 

United against Terror #Christchurch #Pittsburg #Manchester

Yesterday, following the fascist massacre of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand, the Newham Labour Movement family and friends, came together at a vigil outside Stratford Station. All of us were "United Against Terror". 

Newham Mayor, Rokhsana Fiaz, Stephen Timms MP, Councillors and religious leaders spoke passionately against the foul vile haters, who have murdered innocents in Christchurch, Pittsburg, Manchester and so many other places.   

Afterwards, many of us went with the Mayor to join the "Stand up to Racism" march in Central London which ended up at a rally in Whitehall. 

My own personal views were echoed by many of the speakers at the vigil and the rally.
We were doing at least 3 important things that day. 

• We were there firstly, to grieve and show solidarity with those murdered or injured at Christchurch. 
• Secondly, to publicly demonstrate against and campaign against the scourge of fascism, bigotry and hate in all its forms. 
• Thirdly, out of misery and tragedy sometimes there can be a positive. Despite this latest mass murder by haters, why can there not be be a rainbow alliance of everyone opposed to hate? 

Let us build a movement based on our common humanity. 

WE are the many - the Haters are the real "other". 

"No pasarán'" London will never give in to Fascists.

I am not from London originally but have lived and worked here for the past 29 years.

My employer's head office happens to be in London Bridge and I have been going to Borough Market off and on for many years.  The fascist morons who last night murdered 7 innocent people are too thick to realise that Londoners (and Mancunians) will not put up with their rubbish.

We survived 6 years of total war with fascists in 1939-45, which killed and injured hundreds of thousands of Brits and we never gave in. We won't give in now. No pasarán

Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party

“We are all shocked and horrified by the brutal attacks in London. My thoughts are with the families and friends of those who have died and the many who have been injured. Today, we will all grieve for their loss.

“I would like to thank the police and emergency services for their bravery and professionalism in acting to save lives and deal with these appalling acts of terrorism, as well as NHS staff and members of the public who sought to protect others.

“The Labour party will be suspending national campaigning until this evening, after consultations with other parties, as a mark of respect for those who have died and suffered injury.

“Those who wish to harm our people, divide our communities and attack our democracy will not succeed. We will stand together to defend our common values of solidarity, humanity and justice, and will not allow terrorists to derail our democratic process.”

Statement from the Mayor Sadiq Khan on London terror attack

"There are no words to describe the grief and anger that our city is feeling this morning.

Tragically, seven people have been killed in this sickening attack, and more than 40 injured, some of them critically.

I am appalled and furious that these twisted and cowardly terrorists deliberately targeted innocent Londoners and visitors to our city who were just enjoying their Saturday night.

I condemn these terrorists in the strongest possible terms. They are barbaric cowards and there is absolutely no justification for their evil and unforgivable actions.

My thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims and everyone caught up in this horrific attack.

I'd like to thank our emergency services who bravely tackled the terrorists and helped the injured. I've been in close contact with the Met Police Commissioner and senior officers throughout the night and will be attending the government's COBRA security meeting.

I'd urge all Londoners to remain calm and vigilant today and over the days ahead. We are all shocked and angry today but this is our city - we will never let these cowards win and we will never be cowed by terrorism."

For updates on the attack in London Bridge visit the Metropolitan Police website.

hat tip caption to Franzi Bee

"If you think terrorism is the biggest threat to the West, you need to watch this video

While not pretending that there is not a significant risk let us examine facts not emotion.

- Such as far more people were murdered by terrorism in my youth than now?

- Such as 24 Americans were murdered by terrorists between 2005 and 2015 but there was over 300,000 Americans killed by guns during the same period.

- You were therefore 12000 times more likely to be killed by guns than terrorists

- Last year more Americans were killed by toddlers with guns than by terrorists

- ISIS and the Far Right have the same aim to panic and divide us.  They are all fascists.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10154311114318434&id=732243433

The Museum that was a real life torture chamber and pathway to the firing squad

This is a very late post. Last October I had been on a week's holiday in Rome, Italy visiting the marvellous ancient ruins and historical sites.

On the last day I went to the "Museum of the Liberation of Rome". It was a little difficult to find and when I found it, it seemed to be just part of a typical Italian apartment block.

Which it was. In 1943 the German SS turned this ordinary residential block into a prison and torture chamber. Anti-fascists, resistance fighters and Italian Jews were interrogated, imprisoned and even tortured in these same rooms. Many were then sent for immediate execution or to die in concentration camps.

This SS base has now been turned into a museum and some of the cells have been restored.  The displays were informative but upsetting and disturbing. This must have been a place of pain, terror and despair for so many people.

I had spent the days immediately beforehand visiting the Rome Colosseum and the Forum and knew that great acts of brutality and cruelty had happened at all these locations. Yet this was all thousands of years ago and you can feel distance from it. The savagery that took place at Via Tasso 145, Rome happened in the lifetime of my parents and in an ordinary block of flats that you will find in every city and town in Europe and beyond.

I would recommend that if you visit Rome, you should definitely reserve an hour or two to visit this site and learn, remember and mourn.  Then vow to never forget and do whatever is necessary to fight present day fascism and Nazis - never, again ever.

Today is ‘Let’s remember the Daily Mail supported Hitler’ day!

"It has been announced that December 28th is from now on to be the day when we should all remember that just prior to the Second World War, English newspaper the Daily Mail was actively supporting the Nazi dictator Hitler.....

The decision to have a special day to remind people that behind the Mail’s paper-thin facade of middle class respectability lurks a creepingly foul fascist cesspit has been in the pipeline for a while, but finally came to fruition following the paper’s story today about the Queen’s correspondence with former nutter and cannibal Idi Amin.

The Daily Mail sees fit to be critical of Queen Elizabeth’s official communications with Amin in the seventies, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a mere 40 years before they were themselves sucking at the bitter Aryan teat of the man who sent millions to the gas chambers.

In case anyone has forgotten, the Mail’s owner Lord Rothermere published a famous editorial titled “Hurrah for the Blackshirts” in the early thirties, and in 1934 flew to Germany to offer Hitler his support. Incredibly, this sort of thing is hardly ever mentioned in the Daily Mail these days.

Based on the breathtaking hypocrisy of the Daily Mail in just about everything it does, it seems appropriate to choose a special day when the paper’s previous support for fascism can be remembered, commented upon and widely used to annoy current readers.

It is expected that this day will henceforth be a festival of national celebration of tolerance, understanding and ridicule of shit journalism. Schoolchildren are to be encouraged to produce their own spoof newspapers attacking immigrants, gays and cancer, and there will be bunting.

In conclusion, please join with us, readers, in celebrating December 28th as “International the Daily Mail supported Hitler” day!"

Is the Daily Mail "Sorry" it backed the Nazi?

Superb cartoon in Guardian by Steve Bell. A response to the deliberate Tory smear attacks on Harriet Harman.Hat tip Ravi.

Check out this : -
(Daily Mail owner) Lord Rothermere was a friend of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, and directed the Mail's editorial stance towards them in the early 1930s.^[34][35] Rothermere's 1933 leader "Youth Triumphant" praised the new Nazi regime's accomplishments, and was subsequently used as propaganda by them.^[36] In it, Rothermere predicted that "The minor misdeeds of individual Nazis would be submerged by the immense benefits the new regime is already bestowing upon Germany". Journalist John Simpson, in a book on journalism, suggested that Rothermere was referring to the violence against Jews and Communists rather than the detention of political prisoners.^[37]
Rothermere and the Mail were also editorially sympathetic to Oswald Mosley and the British Union of Fascists.^[38] Rothermere wrote an article entitled "Hurrah for the Blackshirts" in January 1934, praising Mosley for his "sound, commonsense, Conservative doctrine",^[39] and pointing out that: "Young men may join the British Union of Fascists by writing to the Headquarters, King's Road, Chelsea, London, S.W."^[40]

Former soldier warns against supporting Far Right Fascist "Britain First"

Labour Ipswich Councillor, Alasdair Ross, who spent over 24 years in the Royal Green Jackets, serving his country in Northern Ireland, Bosnia,  Kosovo and finally in with The Rifles in Sangin, Afghanistan warns us here about the nasty fascist so called "Britain First" front. Who are tricking the public to support them and using photographs of dead British servicemen funerals to raise funds.

I agree with Alasdair that these people are just fascists who shame our country and our war dead. Both my grandfathers fought in the Second World War. We lost hundreds of thousands of British military and civilians in combat and in the Blitz while fighting against the Nazi and their ilk.

"Britain First" is one of the many splits that have resulted from the welcome demise of the racist BNP. They are an extremist "hate group"- nothing more and nothing less.

(picture of German Bomber flying over the Isle of Dogs)