End bedroom tax madness

Protest in London

             by New Worker correspondent 

THOUSANDS of protesters turned out in freezing cold in all major cities throughout Britain last Saturday to show opposition to the iniquitous bedroom tax, which came into force on Monday.

Many are predicting it will become as disastrous to the Cameron government as the poll tax was for Margaret Thatcher.

Many of the protesters were directly affected and spoke movingly of their desperation at being unable to move to smaller accommodation in order to avoid having their housing benefit cut for the sin of being deemed to have a spare room – and yet totally unable to meet the steep rise in the rent they must pay.

The spectre of eviction now haunts many families but they are not going to go quietly.

Two thirds of those affected have a disabled family member who needs a specially adapted room or cannot share with siblings.

In London protesters matched from Trafalgar Square to Downing Street, where they staged a two-hour sit down, blocking traffic in Whitehall.

 They were supported by Unite the union and the Occupy movement.

All speakers agreed the tax made no economic sense at all but was simply evidence of spite and cruelty against the poor and the disabled.

The Government came under new fire over benefit cuts last night as the independent body representing 1,200 English housing associations described the bedroom tax as bad policy and bad economics that risks pushing up the £23 billion annual housing benefit bill.

There are a growing number of instances of tenants who have sought to move to smaller accommodation. For most no such alternative homes are available.

But for the few who have managed to get a smaller place, it has generally involved moving from council or housing association accommodation to the private sector, where rents are many times higher and so their need for housing benefit has risen markedly.

David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said the tax would harm the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. It came into force this week alongside a range of other tax and benefit changes.

"The bedroom tax is one of these once-in-a-generation decisions that is wrong in every respect," he said. "It's bad policy, it's bad economics, it's bad for hundreds of thousands of ordinary people whose lives will be made difficult for no benefit – and I think it's about to become profoundly bad politics."

The tax will hit 660,000 households with each losing an estimated average of £14 a week.

Unite pledged that its members and community activists would continue the protests in the coming weeks against the “tax” whose architect is the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “The inconvenient truth that Iain Duncan Smith is avoiding is that 650,000 families across the UK are suffering sleepless nights because of this government’s ill-conceived plans to drive them from their homes and push them deeper into financial misery.

“This is Tory-led social engineering on a massive scale.”

Sussex students fight outsourcing

by New Worker correspondent

HUNDREDS of students from the University of Sussex descended on London’s Strand last Wednesday to support comrades inside the Law Courts fighting the eviction of a student sit-in.

The university authorities were seeking an injunction against all on-campus protests until September during a mighty battle against plans to outsource many university services.

The High Court has ruled that protesters should be evicted from part of the University of Sussex. On Thursday the university was granted a possession order to regain the area of Bramber House occupied by the protesters since 7th February.

A spokesperson for the protesters said: "It's a sad, sad day for higher education and there will be nowhere we can legally protest at the university."

The injunction is a response to student and staff protests as well as an ongoing occupation demanding that the university not outsource 235 facility-maintenance and catering jobs (10 per cent of its total workforce).

Baluchistan separatists speak out

 by New Worker correspondent

A GROUP of Baluchistan separatists demonstrated in Whitehall last Saturday calling for British government support for their demand for independence from Pakistan.

Issues range from human rights abuses, greater autonomy, increased royalties from natural resources and provincial revenue.

Shortly after Pakistan's creation in 1947, the Pakistan Army had to subdue insurgents based in Kalat who rejected the King of Kalat's decision to accede to Pakistan. This has led to a continuing conflict with Baluchi nationalist and tribal movements fighting for autonomy or outright independence while Pakistan claims that the militants are being funded by Indian intelligence.

Baluchistan is one of Pakistan’s poorest regions although it has vast natural resources. Baluchi separatists allege that the central government of Pakistan is systematically suppressing development in Baluchistan to keep the Baluchis weak.

In the period from 2003-2012, it is estimated that 14,000 Baluchis were kidnapped by Pakistani security forces in the province.

Bahraini protesters ‘shouting in the dark’

by New Worker correspondent

A LARGE group of Bahraini fighters for democracy and human rights staged a protest rally in Whitehall opposite Downing Street last Saturday to draw attention to the plight of democrats in Bahrain and to protest at David Cameron’s continued friendly relations with the ruling King  Hamad Bin Isa al Kalifa.

Their rebellion began two years ago with the “Arab Spring” but failed to gain much attention in the western media.

            In February 2011 a mass rally in the capital called for the removal of King  Hamad Bin Isa al Kalifa. The king promised democratic and humanitarian reforms but these have not materialised.

One of the demonstrators in London on Saturday told the New Worker that the story of their struggle is told in a film on YouTube entitled Bahrain, shouting in the dark, made by Al Jazeera.

They say they are shouting in the dark because no one in the world is reporting their situation.

“This is the Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West and forgotten by the world,” they say.

The demonstration coincided with the sit-down by the bedroom tax protest outside Downing Street. The Bahraini spokesperson with a megaphone began calling out: “Cameron does not care about the poor people in Britain or the poor people in Bahrain.”

Soon both crowds of protesters were shouting their anger with Cameron and the Con-Dem government in unison.

New Worker delays

Our electronic press failed twice over the Easter holiday period which has led to delays in distribution. The machine has now been repaired and this week's edition was posted on Friday. If you did not receive a copy of last week's paper please contact the New Worker office and another will be be in the mail by return of post.

Save the Whittington Hospital

by New Worker correspondent

THOUSANDS of people braved the cold and wet weather last Saturday in north London to take part in a protest march against plans to close the accident and emergency (A&E) unit and the maternity unit at the Whittington Hospital in Archway.

 The marchers, who included doctors, nurses and other health workers as well as thousands of local residents, was accompanied by the double-decker Ham&High (Hampstead and Highgate local newspaper) bus with a big white banner draped across it.

It was a great help to many of the elderly and less mobile local residents who wanted to join the protest to defend their local hospital but would have had great difficulty with the two-mile march from Highbury Corner ending in a steep hill to the hospital in Magdala Avenue – skirting Highgate Cemetery where Karl Marx lies sleeping.

Campaigners from the Defend the Whittington Coalition shouted “no cuts, no closures” from loudspeakers on the bus as people joined in the chant from the road.

Ham&High editor-in-chief Geoff Martin, who launched the newspaper’s campaign Hands off our Whittington, also took to the loudspeaker on the top deck, chanting “hospitals are for people, not for profit” to cheers from children, parents and the elderly who had boarded the bus for the march.

Linda Peanberg King, whose seven-week-old baby son, Axel, died at the Whittington after being repeatedly turned away by the hospital’s out of hours care provider Harmoni PLC, joined the protest on the bus with her husband, Alistair, and their three-year-old son, Carl.

She said: “We have nothing but good things to say about the Whittington. Both my sons were born there, but it just so happened that one died there. They tried to do everything they could to save him; it was with Harmoni that there is a problem.

“The Whittington serves a big community and it’s a good hospital. I am against privatisation of the NHS and that is why I am campaigning.”

Angela Sinclair, 92, joined the Ham&High bus with her daughter. The former hospital social care worker, who has been going to the Whittington for more than 30 years, has been campaigning against threats to the NHS for decades.

She said: “The hospital has done this without public consultation. It’s ridiculous. You can’t do something of public interest without consultation.

“I have always had good treatment at the Whittington though nursing isn’t what it used to be – this is one example of many. The NHS is one of the most important institutions and we have to defend it.”

 The health unions were out in force, including members of the GMB who are very worried about the plans to close the Accident and Emergency Service, maternity beds and elderly care beds, as they have depended on them for their lives.

George Sharkey, Islington Haringey GMB Branch Secretary said: “The hospital will cease to exist in its current form if the plans to cut 500 staff and 60 beds go ahead.

“Many of my GMB branch members are very worried about the plans to close the Accident and Emergency Service, maternity beds and elderly care beds, as they have depended on them for their lives.

“When ordinary GMB members said we need to do something to support the campaign to save the Whittington I agreed that we needed to be there to support our members and the community.  I’m proud to be marching along with other GMB members and residents in the community.”