Lessons from the Lucas Plan – Don’t waste working class creativity on Labour and the state

Angry Workers of the World

Some of us take part in the ’40 years of Lucas Plan’ conference in Birmingham
(http://lucasplan.org.uk/)

See leaflet below

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One of our grandfathers was a manual worker at Lucas in the Bedford battery plant during the 1970s. He arrived from Punjab in the 1960s and worked in industrial jobs until his retirement. Like many other manual workers, he was left pretty untouched by the Lucas Plan at the time. While this might seem like an individual story, behind it lies more general problems. In light of the current resurgence of leftist politics trying to rekindle trust into the Labour party (or other parties) amongst workers, we want to use the opportunity to write down some basic thoughts on the subject…

1) The Lucas Plan was proof of workers’ potential to run production themselves, with the wider social and environmental good in mind.

2) The Lucas Plan was also proof…

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Resilient neighbourhoods

Red And Black Telly: SOCIAL CLEANSING, RIGHT-WING POPULISM, REVOLUTION

Save Devon’s NHS Rally Exeter 3rd December 2016

Assembly points and map

12:00  Princesshay, EX1 1 Exeter, Devon. farcebook

Defend Democracy in Turkey! March in London, 12pm, 11 Dec

Kurdistan Solidarity Network

Defend Democracy in Turkey as Dictator Erdogan & AKP Attempt to Destroy all Opposition including HDP, Trade Unions, Women’s organisations, Media and NGOs! Unite on this Day of Action to ‘Defend Democracy in Turkey’.

In Turkey on 7 June 2015, the Peoples’ Democratic Party, HDP received more than 6 million votes across the political and cultural spectrum and prevented the governing AK Party from gaining a majority. This prevented Erdogan from creating an executive presidential system. Since then Erdogan has unilaterally ended negotiations for a political resolution to the Kurdish question, and the Turkish state have declared war on all progressive opposition forces united under the umbrella of the HDP.Kurds, Armenians, Arabs, Assyrians, Turks, Alawites, Sunnis, secularists, feminists, workers, students and LGBTI groups all unite under the banner of the HDP. By uniting these diverse constituencies under the banner of democratising Turkey, the HDP became the 3rd largest party in…

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Bolton, Egham and Glasgow

Anti-Fascist Network

Today saw anti-fascists confront a “no more mosques” demo in Bolton in Greater Manchester. Former BNP activist Bryn Morgan, the organiser of the demo, stated it was “not a racist protest” despite it being absolutely stuffed with overt Nazis such as the repugnant National Action and North West Infidels pulling sieg heil salutes.

Luckily the assembled anti-fascists significantly outnumbered the racists.

According to Manchester Anti-Fascists who mobilised for the demo: “A small group of Nazis from minuscule various groups and some assorted local racists were kettled by the police while being pelted by abuse and missiles from locals and antifascists.”

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Swindon Unites with homeless people! 10th December 2016.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

POVERTY IS NOT A CRIME! SUPPORTING SWINDON HOMELESS PEOPLE, OPPOSING CRIMINALISATION.

Swindon TUC invite community groups and all people in the Swindon area to come together to protest the treatment of our town’s most vulnerable people and raise money / awareness of the criminalisation of the homeless in our town.

Join with us to march, add your name to our 3000+ strong petition, have a mass sit down protest (BRING A BLANKET OR SLEEPING BAG!) and raise money to support Swindon Homeless people. farcebook event

The government austerity cuts, the housing crisis and the brutal slashes in funding for all of our public services have led to vast increases in the number of homeless people all across the UK. More and more of the most vulnerable in Swindon are not only homeless but risk facing arrest for vagrancy, being fined £100 under the Council’s social cleansing initative (the Public Spaces Protection Order) and also risk getting an Anti-Social Behaviour Order instructing them to stay away from the town centre area (and the relative safety of other homeless people), and forcing them into greater isolation and even less physically safe sleeping places. Homeless people who attempt to make some kind of home in unused public space will regularly have their belongings trashed by the authorities with no care for their liberty or dignity.

Swindon Borough Council’s PSPO already means that vulnerable people can be fined £100 for ‘begging’ in the centre of town, but the Council are now looking to extend the boundaries of the Public Spaces Protection Order still further, making even more spaces ‘no-go’ areas for our most vulnerable residents.

1. We challenge Swindon Borough Council’s PSPO.
2. We challenge those who say poverty is a crime.
3. We challenge those who would rather arrest the homeless than support them.

The U.S. Army Cannot Evict Us From Treaty Lands: Coalition Statement

The earth belongs to those who live on it, to suggest otherwise is ridiculous. At this distance we offer our solidarity.

Warrior Publications

Powerful Imagery on a #NODAPL banner by Raul Gonzalez.

by Sacred Stone Camp, November 27, 2016

On Friday, November 25, after the turkey was pardoned, the Obama Administration issued an eviction notice to the Oceti Sakowin encampments at Standing Rock.  We are a coalition of grassroots groups living and working at the encampments, and we will not be moved.  We stand united in defiance of the black snake and are committed to defense of water, our Mother Earth, and our rights as Indigenous people.  We call on all people of conscience, from all Nations, to join the encampments and stand with us as we put our bodies on the line.

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Kahnawake Mohawks block train line in solidarity with #NoDAPL

Warrior Publications

Anti-pipeline protesters camp near a railway crossing in Kahnawake. They’re refusing to let trains pass, causing the Agence métropolitaine de transport’s Candiac line to be suspended for the morning rush hour Nov. 16, 2016. Phil Carpenter / Montreal Gazette

by Jason Magder, Montreal Gazette, November 16, 2016

Train service is expected to be interrupted into Wednesday evening as protesters blocked the CP rail line in Kahnawake, used by freight trains and the Candiac commuter train.

The protesters launched a 24-hour demonstration, starting Tuesday at 6 p.m., in support of opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline, an oil pipeline that is scheduled to be built under a reservoir on the Missouri River in North Dakota. Anti-DAPL protesters in the U.S. are based in Standing Rock, N.D.

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Sugar Hill – Fabian Maddison (Video)

Some mates of ours larking about, sporadically.

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