Westside Action
a motley crew of anarchists and activists from Bristol, Bath and South WalesArchive for March, 2009
CYMRU CLIMATE CAMP – CALL FOR HELP
We are hosting (and would like to invite you to) a gathering in Machynlleth, Mid-Wales on the (provisional dates of) 21st-22nd March.
The purpose of the weekend will be to form working groups in order to organise a Camp in Wales this Summer- *Climate Camp Cymru* It would be our pleasure to invite those who might be able to ‘represent’ working groups past and present, to the Gathering in March. This would help support people with limited experience of setting up a camp. In exchange for your wisdom, company and assistance we can offer food, party, accommodation and plenty of hills to walk. Many thanks in advance… please get in touch You can contact us at info@climatecampcymru.org or l3wis85@gmail.com
Protest against Nick Griffin in Gloucestershire
No to Nazi BNP category bristol | protests | event notice author Saturday March 07, 2009 10:43author by Simonk Report this post to the editors Protest against Nick Griffin in Glocestershire Protest at 6pm Huntsman carpark BNP leader Nick Griffin is to address a Champagne dinner in South Gloucestershire on Sunday 8th March to raise funds for the party’s Euro elections. Party members have been told to meet in the car park of the Huntsman Pub in Falfield (just off junction 14 of the M5) at 6.45pm, before driving the mile or so to the Park Hotel, which is south of the pub, along the A38, down a single track road on the left. The BNP has booked a function room at the Park Hotel under a false name. Protest is at 6pm in the Huntsman car park: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=GL12+8DF&ie=U…=addr Travel up together – meet outside Hippodrome (Bristol city centre) at 5pm. If you have spare seats driving or if you need a lift contact Simon on 07810 000 083 Spread this as widely as possible
Builders Blacklist – Same Old Story
Billion- Pound Building Firms Blacklist Workers
The information watchdog has shut down a company which it says sold workers’ confidential data, including union activities, to building firms.
The ICO said a secret system was run for over 15 years enabling employers to unlawfully vet job applicants.
Comments entered against individuals’ names included such entries as “lazy and a trouble stirrer”, “ex-shop steward… definite problems… No Go” and “Communist Party”.
They have always been at it
Those with any knowledge of how bitterly capitalists fight any kind of organised workforce will not be surprised that firms like Taylor Woodrow, Laing O’Rourke and Balfour Beatty used the blacklist created by “The Consulting Association” (full list at the bottom of article).
The Consulting Association ( Ran by Ian Kerr) is to be prosecuted under the Data Protection Act, but blacklisting, as such, is not a crime.
The Information Commissioner’s office has already said that the firms listed above will not face prosecution, just a warning that they will, maybe,next time they do it.
I bet that’s got them worried.
In fact, knowledge of the construction industry blacklist has been known since Alan Wainwright, a former director of Balfour Beatty subsidiary Haden Young, produced the lists as part of a constructive dismissal claim against his former employers in 2000.
Many of the workers, involved with major construction site disputes in the 1990’s (like the Jubilee line extension) found it impossible to get work.
During the 1980s Balfour Beatty’s then parent company, BICC, gave £90,000 to anti-union bosses’ organisations such as Aims of Industry and the Economic League.
The Economic League, was founded in 1919 by a group of industrialists and then MP William Reginald Hall under the name of National Propaganda. Its chief function was to promote the point of view of industrialists and businessmen.
They later worked with MI5 to blacklist workers who they suspected of association with certain left wing groups, ranging from the Communist Party of Great Britain to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Mandelson said of the current scandal : “The information commissioner will need to look into this further to see whether these practices are more widespread and take the appropriate action” i.e. fuck all as far as he’s concerned.
Mandelson - Slimey as Ever (Nice one, Leila !)
I’m sure his obsession to sell off part of the Royal Mail has nothing to do with they are the UK’s most ready-to-strike workforce. Equally, I’m sure he’ll be getting very, very cross at the next dinner party he has with his business exec mates.
Full List of Blacklisting Firms :
* Amec Building
* Amec Construction
* Amec Facilities
* Amec Ind Div
* Amec Process & Energy
* Amey Construction – Ex Member
* B Sunley & Sons – Ex Member
* Balfour Beatty
* Balfour Kilpatrick
* Ballast (Wiltshire) – Ex Member
* Bam Construction (HBC Construction)
* Bam Nuttall (Edmund Nuttall)
* C B & I
* Cleveland Bridge UK
* Costain UK
* Crown House Technologies (Carillion/Tarmac Const)
* Diamond M & E Services
* Dudley Bower & Co – Ex Member
* Emcor (Drake & Scull) – ‘Ex Ref’
* Emcor Rail
* G Wimpey – Ex Member
* Haden Young
* Kier
* John Mowlem -Ex Member
* Laing O’Rourke (Laing)
* Lovell Construction (UK) – Ex Member
* Miller Construction – Ex Member
* Morgan Ashurst
* Morgan Est
* Morrison Construction Group –Ex Member
* N G Bailey
* Shepherd Engineering Services
* Sias Building Services
* Sir Robert McAlpine
* Skanska (Kvaerner/Trafalgar House)
* SPIE (Matthew Hall) – Ex Member
* Taylor Woodrow Construction – Ex Member
* Turriff Construction –Ex Member
* Tysons Contractors – Ex Member
* Walter Llewellyn & Sons – Ex Member
* Whessoe Oil & Gas
* Willmott Dixon – Ex Member
* Vinci PLC (Norwest Holst Group)
the arrogance of capitalism
Crisis? What Crisis?
Mandelson, Labour’s most neo-liberal minister says to keep the Royal Mail public, it must be (partially) privatised (!). He today also accused the unions of “fighting an ideological battle” – now, remember everyone, we all decided ages ago capitalism is great.
In order to shore up the rather Orwellian argument that we have to privatise The Mail in order to keep it public, he adds this to the mix: the Royal Mail’s pension fund has a £6 -8 billion deficit. So, in order to take pension funds into public hands must sell a bit of the Royal Mail to compensate. That’s the argument. Not much of one is it? Not given the billions pumped in to private banks (and bankers pensions!) but the bandying-about of large figures seeks to confuse, and maybe shock people into accepting things they wouldn’t otherwise do – surely advocating privatisation of a favourite public body when the public purse is being used to support failed private companies would be a bad idea, tactically, even if you are a rabid-free marketeer ? (Why not sell off the NHS to finance the RBS’ Bail out!)
So, to anyone who thinks that the current crisis would soften free-market capitalists arrogance: think again !
Competition is still the answer to everything, as far as most of the Ministers currently attending a EU crisis summit is concenrned “The EU needs open world markets now more than ever…”
The return of ‘big government ‘ only seems to apply to bailing out private companies (and an ever increasing surveillance state).
I’m sure, also the fact that Royal Mail workers are the most ready to strike (in 2007 60% of days lost to strikes in the entire UK economy were down to postal workers) is just a coincidence.
Another example of their arrogance :
Green is the Colour of Money
“Some climate scientists say the future of the globe looks dark, or even black. The investment manager and adviser Climate Change Capital says it looks green.”
Yes, I kid you not, that is the title and strapline of the forthcoming ” World Business Summit on Climate Change” in Copenhagen 24-26h May. If you can’t make it there in May, I suggest you organise to get to Copenhagen in December – for what looks like to be the biggest and well organised anti-capitalist mobilisation of the year.
Give the super rich tax breaks and let them control our aid budgets!
From Marina Warner in The Guardian:
On Tuesday (4th March) night, 100 billionaires will gather at London’s sumptuous Dorchester hotel, to watch Mr Ted Turner in conversation with Ms Carol Vorderman. Ms Joss Stone will sing, and some model or other will be in attendance. Can you guess the aim of this evening, which I trust you would cross continents to avoid in the infinitely unlikely event that you had been invited? No? Then allow me to assist. The aim is to make the government give tax breaks to the super-rich, in order to tempt them to give the same percentage of income to charity as the poorest 20% of people in this country already do.
As she says : “Feel free to be taken unwell.”
Given the current situation, what is their basis for their arrogance? Perhaps, here in the Northern Hemisphere, Capital feels unopposed,as Naomi Klein suggests in “The Shock Doctrine”.
Lets give them some food for thought.
Next G20 Mobilisation meeting in Bristol : Saturday 7th March, 2.oopm at Kebele.
Westside Action 