Cabin Crew, Schooling, Residing Wage & Gentle Up the Night time: Saturday twentieth March 2010 was an uncommon day for me, together with protests in two components of London I seldom go to, Hatton and Hampstead. It was additionally the beginning of a marketing campaign on Oxford Avenue to get the London Residing Wage for store staff and there was a march to Downing Avenue towards training cuts.
BA Cabin Crew at Heathrow – Hatton
BA cabin crew on the primary day of their 2-day strike at Heathrow held a rally outdoors Bedfont Soccer Membership a brief distance from Hatton Cross, the place a number of hundred strikers got here to hearken to audio system, together with Len McCluskey, Unite assistant common secretary, and present their willpower to struggle administration plans to downgrade their circumstances and make BA right into a cut-price airline. Others stored up their pickets at gates across the airport.
BA administration below CEO Willie Walsh had refused to return to an settlement with the union, BASSA, and had threatened any staff who spoke on the assembly or appeared in media interviews with dismissal. So not one of the strikers spoke on the assembly, however there was thunderous applause when audio system together with native MP John McDonnell criticised BA administration.
I photographed the picket at Hatton Cross on my solution to catch the Piccadilly line into central London.
Extra at BA Cabin Crew at Heathrow.
March In opposition to Schooling Cuts
A few thousand lecturers and college students met outdoors Kings Faculty in Strand to name for the reversal of deliberate training cuts which they are saying abandon a technology of scholars and can injury our financial restoration.
Police had insisted that they march on the pavement, however the numbers and the banners made this inconceivable and after 100 yards or in order that they moved onto the road. At Downing Avenue they stuffed each carriageways for a number of minutes with a brief token sit-down earlier than police and stewards persuaded everybody to maneuver to at least one aspect of the street, however the crowd was nonetheless a little bit massive for the area out there and there appeared to be just a few harmful incidents – together with a slightly uncontrolled police horse – however luckily no accidents as police appeared eager to get a lane of visitors shifting previous with out due regard for public security.
As audio system on the rally stated, Labour had come into energy on the mantra ‘Schooling, Schooling, Schooling‘ however 12 years later had been proposing the most important cuts in training funding for a technology or extra, estimated to result in the lack of greater than 20,000 jobs in Additional Schooling, Increased Schooling and Grownup Schooling. They are going to disproportionately have an effect on the poorer and extra deprived in our society, particularly immigrants and younger people who find themselves unemployed or missing in {qualifications}.
As Jenny Sutton, department secretary of the UCU on the Faculty of North East London identified the proposed cuts of £1.1 billion on training contrasted with the £21 billion spent on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the £500 billion given to the banks, one among which, the 84% publicly owned RBS is now paying out £1.3 billion in bonuses.
In protest Sutton was standing towards the then Schooling Minister David Lammy within the Could 2010 election. Lammy stored his seat and he or she misplaced her deposit, however the election put a Tory-led coalition into energy. Schooling suffered even worse within the following years.
March In opposition to Schooling Cuts
London Residing Wage Launch in Oxford St
The London Residing Wage marketing campaign started in 2001 and has had the help of all London mayors since. Calculated yearly by the Larger London Authority it takes under consideration the upper residing prices in London, and Residing Wage employers even have to supply honest employment circumstances together with vacation and sick pay and permitting staff to belong to a commerce union.
Though a few of London’s bigger employers have adopted the London Residing Wage, the retail sector, some of the worthwhile areas of enterprise in London, nonetheless had a lot of a lot of its staff struggling on wages beneath this degree.
London Residents, a grassroots charity working for social, financial and environmental justice , has led the marketing campaign for a London Residing Wage, and held a coaching session for its members earlier than coming to Oxford Circus. Right here they took benefit of the lately launched diagonal crossing system to cross and recross a number of occasions with their banners earlier than going off in smaller teams to proceed the marketing campaign contained in the bigger shops on Oxford Avenue.
They meant to present letters to all the final managers of retailers on the road inviting them to satisfy with London Residents to debate the Residing Wage.
London Residing Wage – Oxford St
Gentle Up the Night time in Hampstead
‘The Commons‘ candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency Tamsin Omond had organised a ‘Gentle Up The Night time‘ candlelit march to point out neighborhood solidarity towards violent crime and make the streets protected for ladies at night time.
Round 30 individuals, primarily ladies, turned up outdoors the Hollybush pub in Hampstead for the march, the place there was a brief speech by Sam Roddick, famous for her campaigning on points associated to human rights, feminism, pornography and for taking Honest Commerce into hitherto unexplored areas via Coco De Mer, her Covent Backyard ‘erotic emporium.
It was a moist and windy night time and it was exhausting to to maintain the candles alight because the marchers made their approach down the hill from Hampstead and the streets had been emptier than ordinary.
‘The Commons’ marketing campaign hoped to succeed in people who find themselves fed up with politicians and attraction to unusual individuals, a lot of whom, like Roddick have by no means bothered with voting as a result of they felt it made no distinction. But it surely made little progress. The election was intently fought with Labour’s Glenda Jackson gaining a slim victory by 42 votes over the Tory candidate, however Omond was over 17,000 votes behind each of them with solely 123 votes and the turnout was low.
Extra at Gentle Up the Night time in Hampstead.
Flickr – Fb – My London Diary – Hull Images – Lea Valley – Paris
London’s Industrial Heritage – London Images
All pictures on this web page are copyright © Peter Marshall.
Contact me to purchase prints or licence to breed.
Tags: BA, British Airways, cabin crew, candlelit march, David Lammy, defend training, defend jobs, training cuts, Hampstead, Hatton, Hatton Cross, Jenny Sutton, Kings Faculty, Gentle Up the Night time, London, London Residents, London Residing Wage, march, NCAFC, Oxford Circus, Oxford St, peter Marshall, protest, rally, retail sector, Sam Roddick, social justice, Strand, streets protected for ladies, strike, Tamsin Omond, The Commons, UCU
You possibly can depart a response, or trackback from your personal web site.
#Scifi Jenni Evaluations The Lightning within the Collied Evening by David Backman, for Rosie’s #BookReview Staff #RBRT #BookTwitter #booktwt