Louise Nousratpour
Tuesday August 30, 2011
The Morning Star
Anti-fascism campaigners urged supporters from across Britain today to join their demonstration against the English Defence League (EDL) in east London.
Home Secretary Theresa May has banned the far-right group from marching through the multicultural Borough of Tower Hamlets on Saturday.
But EDL leader Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who is also known by the name Tommy Robinson, has promised to "still show up."
Following Ms May's announcement last Friday, he told BBC London: "We will have a static demonstration."
A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police Service told the Star today that while police had no legal powers to prevent a static demonstration, "we have powers to put conditions around assemblies and location."
Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and the United East London - a coalition of local trade unions and community groups - are now seeking police permission to hold their counter-demonstration outside the East London Mosque in Whitechapel.
UAF joint secretary Weyman Bennett said that the Met was planning "a massive police operation" to escort EDL supporters into the borough.
"The fascists' so-called static protest on Saturday is in effect a march through the heart of Tower Hamlets since the police will be escorting them from A to B," he said.
"We want the biggest possible turnout to show that the vast majority of people don't want the racists and fascists anywhere."
More than 25,000 people had signed a petition asking the Home Secretary to ban the EDL march.
And the Metropolitan Police said it feared "serious public disorder and violence" particularly so soon after the recent riots.
In response Ms May has outlawed marches by the EDL or any other groups in Tower Hamlets and four neighbouring boroughs - including Newham, Waltham Forest, Islington and Hackney - for 30 days from September 2.
Campaigners said that while the ban on EDL marches was a victory, the blanket 30-day ban on all demonstrations was a "complete overreaction."
They expressed particular concern that the decision could affect planned events on October 2 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, when more than 100,000 anti-fascists stopped Oswald Mosley and his supporters from marching through east London.
Profits from the coalition war on poor
Louise Nousratpour
Friday August 19, 2011
The Morning Star
Multimillionaire welfare-to-work privateer Emma Harrison is in charge of finding work for thousands of "troubled" families whom David Cameron blamed this week for rioting that swept across England.
She was appointed in December as the Prime Minister's "family champion"" to identify so-called workless households and get them off benefits and back into work.
At the time she said there were roughly 120,000 "troubled families" who had never worked in their lives.
She also claimed that much of Britan's problems "stem from" them.
In his "fightback" speech this week Cameron promised to put "rocket boosters" under his back-to-work programme targeting 120,000 families as part of his strategy to mend the "broken society."
Leading the initiative through her Working Families Everywhere campaign, Harrison will be paid by results under the government's controversial Work Programme.
Her company Action for Employment (A4E) has already been awarded 25 per cent of the government's £5bn budget for the flagship welfare-to-work programme, where contracted companies are paid "bounties" of between £4,000 and £13,700 for every unemployed person they put back into work.
Ten per cent is paid upfront and the rest 18 months later.
The targeted families are among the poorest in society who struggle in the face of multiple and complex problems such as mental health issues, physical disability, drug addiction and huge debts.
They are already being helped by a range of different government agencies, many of which are facing budget cuts and even closure because of the Con-Dem's so-called austerity measures.
Built on Labour's family intervention model, the "family champions" initiative is funded through councils' early intervention grant, which was cut by 11 per cent this year and which will also have to fund Sure Start children's centres, teenage pregnancy and youth support services.
Under her Working Families Everywhere campaign Harrison plans to recruit social workers employed by local authorities and train them to become "family champions."
Harrison explained in an interview with the European Social Fund this month: "To date, the family champions have been coming from the local authorities because that's where the initial money went into. My role is to help recruit those family champions, train and develop them.
"Family champions at the moment are people who are already employed by the local authority.
"In the future, there are volunteers. People who are volunteering to be family champions, so some will be paid professionally and others may be volunteers."
This planned army of "champions" will then target "troubled" families with the sole purpose of getting them off benefits and back into work.
"We have already worked with three local authorities in Hull, Blackpool and Westminster," Harrison said following Cameron's speech this week.
"This is just the beginning."
She has antagonised social support agencies by claiming that they only "poke" at troubled families in unfocused ways.
But she also admitted that without those very agencies her "champions" would not be able to cope with the complex issued faced by the targeted families.
Family Action group Rhian Beynon brands Harrison's remarks "galling."
"Defining families with complex multiple needs primarily through worklessness is highly problematic," says Beynon. "If someone has mental health problems you cannot make that person work."
Meanwhile Public-sector union Unison has warned that the massive shortage in the number of social workers is "a ticking bomb."
In March, the union published a dossier of cutbacks hitting social work departments. It warned that, on top of existing shortages, they will put the lives of children and vulnerable adults at risk.
Admin support, training and early intervention support work - all of which social workers depend on - are being slashed, exacerbating the "perennial problems" of crippling caseloads and high vacancy rates.
Unison national officer for social work Helga Pile said at the time: "Every day the safeguards and support that social work departments offer are being stretched thinner and thinner - at a time when more and more families are struggling to cope."
Action for Children highlights the impact of government cuts to local authority budgets, warning that some family intervention projects were being starved of funding and faced closure.
"They are seeing them not necessarily as the priority that they used to be," the charity's head Dame Clare Tickell told BBC Radio 4 this week.
And Child Poverty Action Group says the government must reverse its cuts policies if it wants to help troubled families get their lives back on track.
"Attacking child benefit, cutting tax credits and reducing support for childcare all flunk the family test, hurt families and weaken our society," says its head of policy Imran Hussain.
"The government came in promising to cut child poverty, saying the previous government hadn't done enough, but the IFS has shown that its policies will increase child poverty by 300,000 in the next three years."
Friday August 19, 2011
The Morning Star
Multimillionaire welfare-to-work privateer Emma Harrison is in charge of finding work for thousands of "troubled" families whom David Cameron blamed this week for rioting that swept across England.
She was appointed in December as the Prime Minister's "family champion"" to identify so-called workless households and get them off benefits and back into work.
At the time she said there were roughly 120,000 "troubled families" who had never worked in their lives.
She also claimed that much of Britan's problems "stem from" them.
In his "fightback" speech this week Cameron promised to put "rocket boosters" under his back-to-work programme targeting 120,000 families as part of his strategy to mend the "broken society."
Leading the initiative through her Working Families Everywhere campaign, Harrison will be paid by results under the government's controversial Work Programme.
Her company Action for Employment (A4E) has already been awarded 25 per cent of the government's £5bn budget for the flagship welfare-to-work programme, where contracted companies are paid "bounties" of between £4,000 and £13,700 for every unemployed person they put back into work.
Ten per cent is paid upfront and the rest 18 months later.
The targeted families are among the poorest in society who struggle in the face of multiple and complex problems such as mental health issues, physical disability, drug addiction and huge debts.
They are already being helped by a range of different government agencies, many of which are facing budget cuts and even closure because of the Con-Dem's so-called austerity measures.
Built on Labour's family intervention model, the "family champions" initiative is funded through councils' early intervention grant, which was cut by 11 per cent this year and which will also have to fund Sure Start children's centres, teenage pregnancy and youth support services.
Under her Working Families Everywhere campaign Harrison plans to recruit social workers employed by local authorities and train them to become "family champions."
Harrison explained in an interview with the European Social Fund this month: "To date, the family champions have been coming from the local authorities because that's where the initial money went into. My role is to help recruit those family champions, train and develop them.
"Family champions at the moment are people who are already employed by the local authority.
"In the future, there are volunteers. People who are volunteering to be family champions, so some will be paid professionally and others may be volunteers."
This planned army of "champions" will then target "troubled" families with the sole purpose of getting them off benefits and back into work.
"We have already worked with three local authorities in Hull, Blackpool and Westminster," Harrison said following Cameron's speech this week.
"This is just the beginning."
She has antagonised social support agencies by claiming that they only "poke" at troubled families in unfocused ways.
But she also admitted that without those very agencies her "champions" would not be able to cope with the complex issued faced by the targeted families.
Family Action group Rhian Beynon brands Harrison's remarks "galling."
"Defining families with complex multiple needs primarily through worklessness is highly problematic," says Beynon. "If someone has mental health problems you cannot make that person work."
Meanwhile Public-sector union Unison has warned that the massive shortage in the number of social workers is "a ticking bomb."
In March, the union published a dossier of cutbacks hitting social work departments. It warned that, on top of existing shortages, they will put the lives of children and vulnerable adults at risk.
Admin support, training and early intervention support work - all of which social workers depend on - are being slashed, exacerbating the "perennial problems" of crippling caseloads and high vacancy rates.
Unison national officer for social work Helga Pile said at the time: "Every day the safeguards and support that social work departments offer are being stretched thinner and thinner - at a time when more and more families are struggling to cope."
Action for Children highlights the impact of government cuts to local authority budgets, warning that some family intervention projects were being starved of funding and faced closure.
"They are seeing them not necessarily as the priority that they used to be," the charity's head Dame Clare Tickell told BBC Radio 4 this week.
And Child Poverty Action Group says the government must reverse its cuts policies if it wants to help troubled families get their lives back on track.
"Attacking child benefit, cutting tax credits and reducing support for childcare all flunk the family test, hurt families and weaken our society," says its head of policy Imran Hussain.
"The government came in promising to cut child poverty, saying the previous government hadn't done enough, but the IFS has shown that its policies will increase child poverty by 300,000 in the next three years."
Families fight for care centre
Louise Nousratpour, Equalities Reporter
Friday August 5, 2011
The Morning Star
Families fighting to save a Glasgow daycare centre for disabled people stepped up their campaign today to force the council to find alternatives to closure.
They say Glasgow City Council plans to demolish the Accord Centre in the East End, which supports more than 120 people with learning disabilities, to make way for a car park for the Commonwealth Games 2014.
Service users and carers were promised a like-for-like replacement when the Games were announced.
But campaigners say the Labour-controlled council has reneged on this promise as it cuts up to 40 per cent from care for people with learning disabilities.
A spokesman for the council insisted that alternative arrangements had been made.
He denied that the site would be turned into a car park but said that "it may be acquired for the Commonwealth Games facilities."
Accord was empty "most of the day" and keeping it open would be a "waste of public resources," the spokesman said.
He added that the majority of Accord service users were "happy" with being moved to the Bombury Centre as an alternative arrangement.
The families dismissed this as "a lie."
Save the Accord Centre campaign spokeswoman Grace Harrigan, whose son attends the centre, said "everyone is angry" about the closure.
"Far from being underused, the centre was overcrowded and had a waiting list," she stressed.
"But since it was targeted for closure, the council has tried to discourage people from coming by stopping all activities, including computer classes and cooking lessons."
Ms Harrigan also dismissed the council's claim that Bombury was a like-for-like facility.
She said it was "a community centre, not a daycare centre. It lacks the specialised resources and services people with learning disabilities need.
"Bombury is already struggling to cater for people in the local area, let alone taking on those from Accord."
She also accused the council of "refusing point-blank" to meet with the carers and the families to resolve the dispute.
"All we want is an adequate like-for-like facility - a demand backed by First Minister Alex Salmond," Ms Harrigan added.
Save the Accord Centre has organised a demonstration in the city centre for August 27.
louise@peoples-press.com
Friday August 5, 2011
The Morning Star
Families fighting to save a Glasgow daycare centre for disabled people stepped up their campaign today to force the council to find alternatives to closure.
They say Glasgow City Council plans to demolish the Accord Centre in the East End, which supports more than 120 people with learning disabilities, to make way for a car park for the Commonwealth Games 2014.
Service users and carers were promised a like-for-like replacement when the Games were announced.
But campaigners say the Labour-controlled council has reneged on this promise as it cuts up to 40 per cent from care for people with learning disabilities.
A spokesman for the council insisted that alternative arrangements had been made.
He denied that the site would be turned into a car park but said that "it may be acquired for the Commonwealth Games facilities."
Accord was empty "most of the day" and keeping it open would be a "waste of public resources," the spokesman said.
He added that the majority of Accord service users were "happy" with being moved to the Bombury Centre as an alternative arrangement.
The families dismissed this as "a lie."
Save the Accord Centre campaign spokeswoman Grace Harrigan, whose son attends the centre, said "everyone is angry" about the closure.
"Far from being underused, the centre was overcrowded and had a waiting list," she stressed.
"But since it was targeted for closure, the council has tried to discourage people from coming by stopping all activities, including computer classes and cooking lessons."
Ms Harrigan also dismissed the council's claim that Bombury was a like-for-like facility.
She said it was "a community centre, not a daycare centre. It lacks the specialised resources and services people with learning disabilities need.
"Bombury is already struggling to cater for people in the local area, let alone taking on those from Accord."
She also accused the council of "refusing point-blank" to meet with the carers and the families to resolve the dispute.
"All we want is an adequate like-for-like facility - a demand backed by First Minister Alex Salmond," Ms Harrigan added.
Save the Accord Centre has organised a demonstration in the city centre for August 27.
louise@peoples-press.com
Save our nursery
Louise Nousratpour
Monday July 18, 2011
The Morning Star
There is a little gem tucked away on a busy junction in central London.
Not many people know about it but this pioneering creche has helped hundreds of parents stay in work, safe in the knowledge that their children are being properly looked after just a few doors away.
Now their jobs are on the line.
Royal Mail has decided to shut the Childsplay nursery at its Mount Pleasant sorting office by November, without consulting staff or assessing how it will affect their jobs and families.
"Managers admitted bluntly that they have not carried out the equality impact assessment," says Roger Charles, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) branch secretary at Mount Pleasant. The CWU is leading the campaign to save the creche.
"It appears that all they have done is a simple cost-benefit analysis which didn't take into consideration the impact the closure would have on the people, many of whom are single parents from ethnic-minority communities, who currently benefit from the facility."
Silvia Benton, a single mother who works long and unsociable hours, is worried that she may have to quit her job to look after her five-year-old son if the nursery closes.
"I wrote to (Royal Mail chief executive) Moya Greene and explained to her that I was completely dependent on the nursery to keep my job," she said.
"I have tried to find alternative childcare arrangements and recently went through the entire list of registered childminders in my local area in Hackney. But as soon as they hear about my shifts, they're not interested."
Postal workers are among the lowest paid in London, making a subsidised childcare facility like this one a lifeline for working class families.
But it's not just about affordability.
Childsplay is also the only nursery in London that is open for shift workers from 6am to 10pm, catering to Royal Mail staff from all over the capital.
Benton, like many of her colleagues who use the creche, has even offered to pay more than the current £110 a week fees to keep it open.
"I would rather pay a little more in childcare costs than lose my job," she said. "I wouldn't want to rely on benefits, especially not now, when the government is cutting everything."
But the firm has ignored the offer and negotiations have stalled.
Royal Mail chiefs have also snubbed the CWU's idea to open the facility up to the general public to raise more money.
And they recently ruled out a £150,000 offer from Islington council to build an outdoor play area, claiming health and safety reasons.
"They don't seem to want to look into any alternatives," says Charles, a new father who would personally benefit from the creche.
"We actually asked whether they would keep it open if we found a way that would cost them nothing and they said 'probably not'."
Half tongue in cheek, he adds: "I think there are some people in Royal Mail management who really don't like children. They certainly don't want working-class families to have access to these sorts of facilities to keep themselves in work.
"They'd rather replace working parents with people who don't have children or family 'baggage' because parents are naturally more likely to ask for flexible hours or time off if their children fall ill."
Childsplay opened as a flagship facility in 1994 with a view to open similar nurseries in Royal Mail centres across Britain.
But that never happened.
Now management claims that keeping Childsplay open would be "unfair" to staff outside London - an argument Charles rejects as nonsense.
"Throughout the nursery's 16-year history there have been attempts at Royal Mail workplaces up and down the country to open similar facilities but they have come to nothing because of lack of support from management.
"People from all over the country could benefit from such facilities at a time when local authorities are cutting back on childcare, and Sure Start centres are very hard to come by.
"As a state-owned company, Royal Mail should be doing more for its employees."
In its heyday there was a three-year waiting list for the Mount Pleasant creche.
Today only a dozen children are enrolled as managers have banned staff and current contractor Kiddy Care from advertising nursery places.
Kiddy Care won its contract last year on the condition that it would not take on any more children.
"The facility has been left to wither on the vine," Charles says.
He is convinced that the closure is not about cost-cutting but rather an attempt to do away with what the company sees as a "burden" on a publicly owned business gearing up for privatisation under the coalition's Postal Services Bill.
"It's not the sort of facility that a private company would be interested in offering staff," he says.
"Royal Mail is currently spending in excess of £50 million on modernising Mount Pleasant. If they have such obscene amounts of money to spend on machinery to replace workers they can afford the £160,000 they say the nursery cost them each year."
The union is stepping up its campaign this summer with a fresh wave of demonstrations and ministerial lobbying, as well as urging the public to sign a petition calling for the nursery to stay open.
In May hundreds of parents and their children staged a protest outside the centre, waving home-made placards and chanting: "Save Our Nursery."
The campaign has won the support of local Lib Dem MP Emily Thornberry, who wrote to Greene last month, arguing that it would be "a great shame to lose this pioneering workplace provision.
"I was not convinced that this decision is either right or necessary."
Charles is confident that the union will not hesitate to take industrial action if management continues to ignore the growing clamour for a rethink.
"We won't rule out anything in this battle to save the creche.
"If it means that the wider union needs to take some sort of action to make Royal Mail chiefs change their decision, that is what the union will do."
To help the campaign, please write to your MP and sign the online petition at www.cwu.org/online-petition.html
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