Stop Banking on Genocide!

by New Worker correspondent

Activists from Palestine Solidarity Campaign branches in Camden and Islington marched from Camden Town to the Sadler's Wells Theatre in Islington, North London, to call on the theatre to stop taking sponsorship from Barclays Bank while a very small counter-demonstration of around ten Zionists was largely ignored by the public. Last weekend’s protest was part of the ongoing Boycott Barclays campaign which has targeted the bank for its major lending, investment and business interests which help to support the Israeli economy and its powerful military machine. The campaign slogans are "Stop Banking on Genocide – Stop Banking on Apartheid". Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign stated "We do not have anything against the theatre, other than their sponsorship from Barclays". The date of the protest was changed at the request of the theatre as many disabled visitors were expected on the original date.

Camden Action for Palestine!

By New Worker correspondent

Activists from the Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign marched from Camden Town to a Barclays Bank in Central London to demand it ceases its massive loans and investments to the criminal Israeli state. The protest came ten days or so after the then US president, Joe Biden, approved the resumption of deliveries of 500 pound bombs to Israel, followed shortly afterwards by Israeli attacks on two schools and a hospital in which dozens died. While Biden and Sir Keir Starmer reacted with outrage to Ukrainian lies about a Russian strike on a children's hospital in Kiev, promising more air defences for Ukraine, they had nothing to say about Israel's atrocities in Gaza in which hundreds of civilians are dying every week. On a more positive note, for the past three weeks the assortment of Zionist fanatics, EDL “football lads” types and Iranian monarchists have given up on their counter protests. 

Palestine – we will not be silenced!

By New Worker correspondent

Palestine Solidarity Campaign activists marched once again last Saturday from Camden Town to Barclays Bank in Tottenham Court Road, where the Barclays branch has been forced to close on Saturdays after weeks of protests.
Luca Salice from the Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign urged the activists to join the national Gaza protest two days after the General Election, saying "It's very important that we tell the new government that we are here, that we are in solidarity with the Palestinians, that we are against genocide, that we are against the slaughter if children, of women, the destruction of schools, hospitals, universities and places of worship."
Sabi Sagal, a British Jew with family in Israel, said "I'm old enough to remember the Nakba in 1948, I was ten years old, and we were lied to. The Zionists put out the false narrative that the Arab armies had invaded Palestine to drive the Jews into the sea. The reality was the opposite – it was the Zionists who drove out three quarters of the Palestinian people into the desert. It was an Israeli professor, Benny Morant, who finally told the truth when he said ‘Yes, we drove the Palestinians out, we had to do so, otherwise we wouldn't have the state of Israel’. He was honest, he was an honest Zionist. What the Israelis are doing now is to complete the ethnic cleansing begun in 1948.
"We often hear the term Apartheid used in relation to Israel, but in fact Israel is much worse than Apartheid South Africa. But it's very important that we're protesting outside Barclays, it was when Barclays Bank was forced to withdraw their investments from South Africa that the Apartheid regime fell in the early 90s. Let's do the same again now, let's force Barclays to withdraw its financial support for Israel, and let's end all the arms that enable Israel to kill and murder Palestinians in their thousands".
Jonathan Fluxman, a health worker from South Africa, pointed out that "even if there are not many of us here today, it's still important that we're here outside Barclays, because all of these people around us can see and hear us."
The Camden protest was one of seven across London and 28 across Britain last Saturday, as far apart as Plymouth and the Orkney Islands. These weekly protests have now been taking place for 38 weeks. Palestine campaigners did not expect, or want, this campaign to be needed after so long. 
Until recently frenzied efforts were being made by government ministers and the media to label these actions as "pro-terrorist", and the police came under intense pressure to close them down.  But in the last few months the political establishment and mass media have tried a new tactic, erecting a 'wall of silence'  on the protest movement in an attempt to suffocate it. But there is no sign of the numbers taking to the streets for an end to the genocide in Gaza going down.
As one of the slogans coined during this incredible protest movement which millions have joined in Britain says: "We are the people – We won't be silenced!"

Defend the UCL Palestine solidarity camp!

 

Palestinian solidarity activists turned out in force in Camden on Saturday following reports that Zionists were threatening to attack the Gaza solidarity camp at University College London (UCL). But on the day the Zionists were heavily outnumbered and the two sides were kept well apart by the police.

Don’t bank on Barclays!

By Theo Russell
Last Saturday 70 people protested in support of the people of Gaza in Camden Town, north London, marching to Barclays Bank in Tottenham Court Road to call for the bank to end its financing of the Israeli war machine. For the second time the Zionists and their far right (EDL), and fascist (English Patriots, I was told) friends staged a counter-protest and this time outnumbered us about three to one.  Some pro-American Iranian monarchists were with the Zionists waving the old Iranian flag of the hated Shah who fled the country after he was overthrown in 1979. But the Palestine solidarity activists stood their ground and received lots of support from passers by - unlike the other side.
The Zionists almost certainly brought people from far and wide to target the Camden march, while there were eight other pro-Palestine marches in London alone, and 29 more across Britain, from the Isle of Wight to Orkney. It’s hard to believe the Zionists attempting to stage counter-protests in Orkney!
Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip has killed over 33,000 Palestinians, and displaced over 1.9 million – more than 85 per cent of Gaza’s population. Yet our political leaders still refuse to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.
Over the past six months the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been leading massive demonstrations of solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs in London and supporting local initiatives throughout the country. As Israel’s genocidal assault continues, we can’t stop now. We must keep taking action until the Palestinians achieve freedom.

From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free!

by Theo Russell

Protestors marched in solidarity with the people of Gaza last weekend in Camden, North London, and held a rally near Sir Keir Starmer’s constituency office, in one of dozens of local actions across Britain.
For the first time there was a pro-Israel counter protest near the rally on Saturday with some 30 or so Zionists with a loud PA system trying to make as much noise as possible. While the Palestine protest was smaller than previously in Camden, it was still more than twice as many as the Zionists. Over a dozen cars passed by beeping in support, some with Palestinian flags, but of course there were none supporting the ultra-Zionists.
According to activists who were there the ultra-Zionists looked like “English Defence League” (EDL) types. The EDL is known to have been working with the pro-Israel fanatical extremists.
Liz Wheatley from Camden Unison told the rally that “we in the trade union movement support those who are fighting for their liberation, we support our Palestinian brothers and sisters against the absolutely outrageous genocide that's being committed in Gaza.
“We have a lot of discussions about the future of Palestine in our trade union branch, and we decided after a vote that there should be one democratic state where both peoples have equal civil and democratic rights.
“We realise that not every trade unionist and every trade union branch thinks that, but it's important that people know that trade union branches have such debates.”
Paul Rennie from Camden Palestine Solidarity said “there comes a time in history when you're put to the test as a moral person, a person with humanity. It happened during Iraq. This is another time. Camden Friends of Palestine are standing with the oppressed.
“People in Gaza are starving, and young children are dying in hospital corridors because there are no medical supplies. We cannot let this brutality go on!
“It's time for a ceasefire, bring all the hostages home, and all the Palestinian prisoners too!”
There will be a workplace day of action on May Day for people to plan activities on Palestine.

Boycott Israel!

 

by New Worker correspondent

Around 120 people turned out despite the cold, wind and rain last Saturday in Camden, north London, in solidarity with the people of Gaza and all Palestinians. This was just one of dozens of local protests across Britain with the focus on Barclays Bank as a major financial supporter of the Zionist state. These protests took place against the background of a reactionary campaign, to which prime minister Rishi Sunak has now given his backing, to claim that the pro-Palestinian protestors were seeking “mob rule” and threatening the “democratic” system in Britain. The Government, deeply embarrassed at the growing opposition to Israeli aggression that has swept the country, is now putting pressure on the police to crack down on protesters. On this occasion there was a brief standoff when police asked everyone to move to the other side of the road but eventually the stewards agreed and the situation remained calm.

Stop Israeli aggression!

by New Worker correspondent

Around 600 people protested in Camden Town, north London, last Saturday calling for an immediate ceasefire and an end to Israel's deliberate targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip, in just one of many local protests all over Britain last weekend.
Sabby Sagall, the president of the Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told the protesters that Israel's policy has been the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians since 1947. Sagall praised South Africa for initiating the International Criminal Court application against Israel, and accused the British government of “diplomatically covering up genocide”.
Stop the War’s Andrew Murray said "The British and the American governments are ignoring (Israel’s) genocide, our government is arming the genocide” while tetired doctor Jonathan Flaxman said that there was no functioning health service in northern Gaza. with Twenty-three out of 36 hospitals have been destroyed. As a result “people who are injured, who couldn't be saved, will die a slow, painful death. We know that it's part of the ethnic cleansing". He added that health care workers were being intentionally targeted by Israeli forces and over 300 have been killed.
Andrew Feinstein, a Jewish former ANC member of the South African parliament, spoke about the South African Jewish Board of Deputies’ claim that South Africa was “humiliating itself in the international arena” by starting the ICJ case against Israel. He said “the organised Jewish community in South Africa found it extraordinarily difficult to criticise apartheid until the mid-1980s, so we’re not talking about people speaking from a position of moral integrity here”.
Feinstein spoke of the ANC’s long standing support for the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and the growing view that Israel was practising its own brand of apartheid in the occupied territories, adding: “There are certain things that run incredibly deep in the ANC and its support for the Palestinian people is one of them. There’s an affinity for the Palestinian struggle which is seen as very close to the South African struggle”.

Stop the Slaughter in Gaza!

Marching through Camden

by New Worker correspondent

The first Saturday of December saw the latest round of pro-Palestine solidarity events calling for a ceasefire, with unions joining the protests for the first time. Local protests were held all around the country and all over London. London comrades joined demonstrators at two of them.  

In North London, protesters marched down to a rally outside Camden Town Hall in Bloomsbury sending a vocal message to the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, the local MP who still refuses to back calls for a ceasefire.

RMT President Alex Gordon addressed the rally, speaking of the need for union representation at these events, and pledged his union’s ongoing support and solidarity while Liz Wheatley, from Camden Unison, spoke of the overwhelming support for a ceasefire among the Camden Council workers that her branch represents, and how no Camden Labour councillors have called for a ceasefire.

Sabby Sagall, of Camden PSC, and Sam Weinstein of IJAN (International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network) both spoke of how their Jewishness informed their support for the Palestinian cause and people, and that to them, being Jewish meant always being on the side of the oppressed and not the oppressor, echoing the words of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising leader Marek Edelman.

There were also speakers representing predominantly Bangladeshi Muslim local Community Groups. Among the points they made were opinion polls in Camden suggest 90% local support for a ceasefire, even higher than the 74 per cent national average, and that our local representatives, at local and national level, do not represent the communities they are supposed to serve.

South of the river supporters of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign along with the South East London People’s Assembly gathered outside Lewisham Library to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as well as to mobilise support for the big rally on the 9th of December and to support the boycott of Puma.

Speakers said that the oppression of Palestinians did not start on the 7th of October but existed long before that. The local Labour MP Ms Janet Daby was notable by her absence  and was denounced by one speaker for not supporting the motion in parliament for an immediate ceasefire.

On The Streets

 

by New Worker correspondent

Industrial action over pay by traffic wardens in the London borough of Camden began at the end of July. Over a month  later the dispute continues with little sign of movement from bosses.
The wardens are employed by outsourcing company NSL, part of Marston Holdings, which made a £23.1 million profit in the year to May 2022 from its activities which include “ethical” debt collecting, whatever that is.
    The council makes about £40,000 a day from collecting parking fines so the industrial action is blowing a large hole in council finances. These parking fines have sometimes came from ambulances.
At present the wages are £12.70 an hour, with Unison seeking an increase to £15.90, a claim submitted last December. For this they have to work a 42.5 hour week in all weathers.
    While they were classified as key workers during the Covid pandemic, on the grounds they kept spaces clear for NHS workers to come into work, their services are not always met with happy smiles from grateful motorists.
    NSL say that the Unison claim is unrealistic, but the 25 per cent increase they are seeking is from a very low base.
    Branch secretary Liz Wheatley said, despite NSL’s claims, the present offer is effectively on a below inflation 7.5 per cent. NSL’s profits increased from £5.8 million in 2021 to £9.2 million last year. The boss’s salary went up from £258,000 to £412,000 which is a 60 per cent increase or to £221 an hour.
Camden Council have not responded to Unison demands to put pressure on NSL to make a settlement they can clearly afford. Unison also demands that they are brought back in house, a promise the Labour council made five years ago. The Council pays £30 hourly to NSL for the workers but the wardens get less than half that so the savings are obvious.
    In contrast to in-house employee who work 36 hours with 25 days holidays and sick pay NSL workers only 20 days holiday and paid for the first three days off sick. Pension provision is naturally much worse. Working on rest days, which for many is a necessity brings in only an extra £15.

Reclaim the NHS!

"

Outside the Royal Free

by New Worker correspondent

Londoners were out on the streets last weekend campaigning against NHS privatisation and the Health and Care Bill that is now going through Parliament. In north London demonstrators picketed outside the Royal Free hospital in Camden while others joined the national day of action for a rally organised by SOS NHS, Unite and many other organisations also included veterans who took part in the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign a few years ago. The campaign is calling on the government to invest in a fully publicly owned NHS & guarantee free healthcare for future generations and provide emergency funding of £20 billion to save lives this winter.

    SOS NHS said: "This will be the hardest winter ever in health and social care. We must act to

On the streets of Lewisham

safeguard services for patients and service users, boost staff morale and tackle the mental health crisis among health and care staff. Emergency funds must be secured now to avert disaster. That’s why we called a huge national Day of Action on Saturday 26 February with over 85 events throughout the UK.

"We must repair crumbling hospitals; restore NHS beds, recruit, retain, train and properly pay health and care staff; rebuild un­derfunded public health and GP services struggling to respond effectively to Covid; publicly fund a service for care and inde­pendent living support; and much more. The Health and Care Bill does none of these things. We need new legislation to secure a fully public NHS and end privatisation".

London Workers’ Notes

by New Worker correspondent

In the good old days of the 1970s when trade union membership was twice what it is today, Tories frequently complained that trade unions would go on strike at the drop of a hat to get a pay rise. With few exceptions at present, trade unions are equally active but their energies seem to be almost entirely devoted to attempting to save jobs or prevent wage reductions that bosses are attempting to impose under the cover of the COVID-19 crisis.

Waltham Abbey

Essential supplies of Brussels sprouts, port, cranberry sauce and Stilton in and around London could be at risk as a result of a planned Christmas strike. Twelve drivers, employed by Harper & Guy Consulting Ltd at Sainsbury’s Waltham Abbey distribution centre, have voted unanimously for strike action in protest at being paid £12,000 less per year than those directly employed by Sainsbury’s. As a result, deliveries to about 100 Sainsbury’s stores in London and the south east will be severely affected during the six days of strikes before and after Christmas.
    The driver’s union, Unite, said that Sharper & Guy had point blank refused to discuss the pay claim for 2020 and parity pay.
    Regional officer Paul Travers thundered: “What we have here is one of the most flagrant cases of pay parity injustice that I have been involved with, as our members are getting paid £12,000-a-year less than their counterparts employed directly by Sainsbury’s doing the same job at the Waltham Abbey depot.
    “You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to work out that 12 times £12,000 is nearly £150,000-a-year and that someone is benefiting from that figure – and it is definitely not our members.
    “Ironically, Harper & Guy Consulting Ltd has pay parity with Sainsbury’s drivers for all the agency drivers it employs at this depot which just adds insult to injury for our 12 members who are being treated appallingly.”
    The union’s national officer for road transport and logistics, Matt Draper, added: “This dispute further puts the spotlight on Sainsbury’s desire to pursue its misguided ‘race to the bottom’ strategy.” He also pointed out: “We have opposed the introduction of these lower paid ‘new generation’ contracts within Sainsbury’s. The way these drivers at Waltham Abbey are being contemptuously treated shows Sainsbury’s is implicated at arm’s length in the actions Zero Hours–Zero Benefits of Harper & Guy Consulting Ltd.
    “Sainsbury’s needs to remember a ‘key worker’ is not just for the present COVID-19 emergency, but for the long-term as a contented workforce improves productivity.”

London Airport

Tuesday saw workers at Britain’s main airport, London Heathrow, who are directly employed by Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) mount a socially distanced picket as part of a long-running dispute over savage wage cuts imposed on the workforce through a brutal fire and rehire programme. In addition, an advertising van toured the area condemning “Heathrow’s super-rich shareholders are jetting off with workers’ wages”, in which Heathrow’s chief executive officer John Holland Kaye was portrayed as the “Heathrow Grinch CEO is stealing workers’ wages”.
    These actions come after workers voted by 84 per cent in opposition to fire and rehire policies that will result some workers suffering permanent pay cuts of up to £8,000 per annum or a quarter of their take-home pay.
    The targeted strike action involves workers who are vital to the operation of the airport and includes: firefighters, engineers, campus security, baggage operations, central terminal operations, landside and airside operations.
     Unite warns that despite the union representing thousands of workers who will still be at work, HAL has refused to discuss its contingency plans for keeping the airport open and as a result the union has raised serious safety concerns.
     Unite regional co-ordinating officer Wayne King said: “Workers face losing their homes and surrendering their cars due to the savage cuts being imposed on them.”
    The union notes that the pay cuts are all about greed and not needed: “HAL and John Holland Kaye are guilty of using the COVID pandemic as cover for forcing through long-held plans to cut pay. If this was genuinely about the pandemic any cuts would have been temporary.”
    He added that: “Unite have tried to negotiate temporary pay cuts but Heathrow were simply not interested” and cast serious doubts on bosses claims that “under its ‘contingency plans’ Heathrow can operate safely but despite seeking the evidence to prove this, that information has not been forthcoming, raising serious questions about how the airport will operate during the strikes”.
    Three further days of strikes are planned before Christmas.

Camden

Amongst the workers most affected by the COVID-19 crisis are casual workers on zero-hours contracts. Just one example of this comes from the north London borough of Camden, where staff who have given years of service at the Kentish Town Sports Centre, which is presently closed, have been told they will not be receiving any furlough pay.
    The centre is managed by notorious contractor Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) on behalf of the Labour-run council.
    An investigation by the local Camden New Journal newspaper discovered that staff working for five or more years were still on zero-hours contracts. One was Deena Mostafa, who has in the sales and reception team for five years, who had her weekly pay packet stopped in September. She said: “I am down £600 a month. We don’t qualify for things like free school meals, and life has come to a standstill.” This was because casual staff did receive furlough support based on their average weekly hours in March, but this is not the case now.
    Another member of staff added that: “We have been struggling. Due to this second lockdown I was hoping the furlough would continue, but they said only full-time will receive it. We are all casuals working full-time hours. It’s unfair. Most of my colleagues been working there for years but treated as if it didn’t matter.”
    Mostafa added: “What annoys us is that GLL haven’t even acknowledged we are staff. It is like we do not exist. It is unethical to leave people in a position like this. The only reason to keep us on these contracts is to save money and to be able to get rid of us when they want to.
    “They say they have no obligation to give us hours, and we have no obligation to take them – but that’s simply not true. We are obligated, as we need to earn a wage.”
    A local Unison branch organiser said the union was on the ball, and suggested the contract should be brought in-house to put staff on the same terms and protection as council staff , adding that the case “is another example of why zero hours should be scrapped. The council’s official stance is their contractors should not be using them – so this needs to become an iron-clad policy.”
    A Camden Council spokesman meekly said GLL would furlough employees who had a role to return to but that: “Very sadly this has meant some of the roles previously occupied by GLL staff on flexible hours have been reduced, meaning these staff will not have roles to return to.
    “The government must now provide councils and our partners in the charity sector with the necessary funding to support residents who lose their work back into employment or training.”
    GLL, which is a ‘not-for-profit’ spinoff from Greenwich Council, has form in this area. Founded in 1993, GLL runs leisure centres in more than a dozen London boroughs, as well as libraries in Bromley and Greenwich. It has over 50 local authority contracts and employs 14,000 staff nationally – with about 70 per cent of these workers on casual contracts. The ‘not-for-profit’ bit means it does not make pay-outs to shareholders, but to compensate it pays high salaries to senior managers.
    It was recently forced into a union recognition agreement by Unite at the south London borough of Lewisham. Unite regional officer, Onay Kasab, said: “Local authority leisure services, whoever the providers, face dire financial circumstances. It is a matter of public record that we want services in-sourced,” adding: “But where services are outsourced, the minimum requirement must be that trade unions are recognised.”
    GLL modestly describes itself as “an award winning charitable social enterprise which cares for its staff and local communities alike”. As can be seen from events in Camden, the reality is quite different.
    In the early stages of the pandemic it ‘generously’ offered its library and leisure centre workers across London an offer of six-months unpaid leave in return for the promise of a job when they returned. At the time Unite said it would subsequently lead to “drastic” cutbacks in work offered to those on casual contracts.
    The union accused the company of being in “real financial trouble” and said the “simple and straight forward” answer was for the service to go back into public ownership.
    “Local authorities must not wait until the company goes bust with all the unemployment and disruption this will cause to council services. Instead, they must act now to save jobs and much-appreciated public amenities.”

All right for some

 By New Worker correspondent

A group of public servants have won inflation-busting pay rises. These are councillors in the London Borough of Camden where they voted themselves a considerable, if unevenly distributed, increase.

The council leader will get an increase in her allowance from £29,000 to £40,000, whilst cabinet members will get a 54 per cent rise from £16,275 to £25,000. Committee chairs will get a 66 per cent to £9,000 from a piddling £5,500.

Humble backbench councillors will only get an extra £451 per year more, taking them above £10,000 per year for the first time.

The vote for the rise was 27–5. The five who voted against were all Tories who might have been upset at missing out because they are not in power. Twenty-two other councillors did not take part; they were mostly Labour councillors keen to maintain their lefty street cred. Instead of a formal walkout some headed to the toilet or attended to urgent business in their offices. If one was a cynic one might think that those opposing the rise made sure that their numbers were not large enough to ensure that the measure was actually defeated, or that they were motivated by the distribution of the rise that went almost entirely to ruling senior figures.

One of the ruling Labour councillors, the Cabinet Officer, let the cat out of the bag when he publicly boasted of his excitement about booking a holiday in Brazil as soon as the rise was suggested in a council committee.

The Tories said the budget for allowances should not increase but that underspends in the finances should be “shared equally” across all councillors.

End Holiday Hunger!

By Theo Russell

Members of Camden Unite Community joined protests across Britain last Friday by blocking the street outside Caxton House in Westminster, London, home of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), against the hated Universal Credit benefit system.

Large protests also took place in Liverpool, Manchester and elsewhere, focusing on the issue of ‘holiday hunger’ affecting thousands of children and their families who rely on free school meals.

According to Unite, the loss of free school meals adds £30–£40 for parents, and a Unite survey found that 19 per cent struggle make ends meet during the school holidays.

Nearly 70 per cent of parents said they were skipping meals and 41 per cent said they were relying on foodbanks.

In the central London boroughs covered by Camden Unite Community, Camden, Westminster, and Kensington and Chelsea, 12,750 children are eligible for free school meals.

Camden Unite Community also protested earlier outside Euston Food Bank, yards from Euston Station, and after the DWP action moved around the corner to the plush offices currently housing the Tory party’s head office.

Unite Community North West regional co-ordinator Sheila Coleman said: “It is shameful that on a sunny summer’s day, children, instead of having days at the seaside, are spending their holidays being fed by charity.

“Foodbanks, community centres and schools are helping to keep poor children alive. This is in 21st-century Britain, one of the richest countries.”

She said that the problem was not the north–south divide, but class division and the “few haves and the many have-nots”.

Paula Peters, Unite Community chairwoman for Bromley and Croydon, said that Universal Credit was “ideologically designed to cause mass stress and harm, and to ramp up poverty and hunger. There are 8.4 million people who are struggling to feed themselves and four million in poverty, including many disabled people”.

The fight against Universal Credit, which according to a United Nations (UN) report appears to be designed to punish people for no reason, must go on until it is scrapped, and Unite Community is mobilising thousands of people who are not working or retired in communities across Britain to join this fight.