On Wednesday thirty first March 2010 I reported on three unrelated protests in London.
Ford/Visteon Staff March For Pension Justice
In 2000 Ford when cut up of a few of its elements factories to Visteon, an organization described as ‘An Enterprise of Ford Motor Firm’ and initially with the identical shareholders, promising the employees their situations and pensions would stay precisely the identical as that they had been with Ford. Ford’s assurances had been repeated by Visteon.
However in 2009 Visteon closed down and staff of their factories in Belfast, Enfield, Swansea and Basildon got simply six minutes to depart the websites. In Belfast and Enfield staff refused and occupied the websites for a month, however had been let down by their union, Unite who failed to present them assist. The occupations ultimately compelled Visteon/Ford to pay the redundancy pay they had been entitled to beneath their agreements, however pensions weren’t coated they usually solely acquired the lesser quantities coated by Pension Safety Fund compensation.
Since then their struggle for the pensions they had been promised has continued. I met round 500 former Visteon staff exterior the Unite Places of work in Theobalds Highway, Holborn, the place many wore hats and t-shirts with the Ford brand, however with the identify changed by the phrase ‘Fraud’, which succinctly expressed their view of the corporate’s motion.
I marched with them to Downing Road the place that they had issues in delivering a letter and petition. As I commented then: “it does now appear unnecessarily difficult and tough to get entry to our elected authorities, hiding away behind their tall gates and excessive safety. Its each an expression of and likely fuels their paranoia over terrorism far in extra of the true menace.”
The marchers then went on to a rally in Parliament Sq..
Their struggle for a good deal over their pensions went on for an additional 4 years, when ultimately because the case was about to go to the Excessive Court docket, Ford agreed to prime up the Pension Safety Fund compensation in order that they might obtain the complete worth of advantages accrued when working for Ford. It didn’t cowl the 9 years that they had labored for Visteon, however Unite really useful acceptance as it might settle the declare with out the expense (and doable failure) of a courtroom listening to.
Ford/Visteon March For Pension Justice
Ethiopians Protest Bloodthirsty Tyrant – Downing St
Ethiopians got here from throughout the UK to for a day of demonstration reverse Downing St the place Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was co-chairing the UN local weather finance group. They demanded the UK cease appeasing the Ethiopian dictator, and calling for the discharge of opposition chief Birtukan Mideksa and different political prisoners in Ethiopia.
Zenawi who turned chair of one of many main army teams preventing within the Ethiopian Civil Warfare was the chief of a coalition that took energy in 1991, turning into President then and was Prime Minister from 1995 till is dying in 2012. His management of the army made Ethiopia an efficient one-party state.
Though the nation formally has democratic organisation and elections, elections have been rigged and oppostion politicians jailed, notably the chief of the primary opposition Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) celebration, Mideksa (or Midekssa), a former choose. Many different politicians and journalists have additionally been jailed and in 2007 the Committee to Shield Journalists (CPJ) named the nation as “the world’s worst backslider on press freedom over the earlier 5 years.”
Human rights violations and corruption are rife in Ethiopia, and meals assist, training and jobs all depend upon membership of the ruling celebration. His opponents regard Zenawi as a bloodthirsty tyrant and name for him to be dropped at trial on the ICC at The Hague on expenses of genocide. Human Rights Watch (HRW) have accused it of warfare crimes within the Somali areas of Ethiopia and in opposition to the Anauk communities in Gambella in 2003-4. Human rights abuses have continued in Ethiopia since Zenawi’s dying.
Ethiopia is without doubt one of the bigger international locations in Africa and has acquired massive quantities of improvement assist and humanitarian assist from the USA and the UK.
Ethiopians Protest Bloodthirsty Tyrant
Rioters United! 20 Years Because the Ballot Tax Riots – Trafalgar Sq.,
The biggest protest in opposition to Margaret Thatcher’s Ballot Tax was in central London on Saturday 31 March 1990, shortly earlier than the tax was resulting from come into pressure. Sadly I had missed that occasion, in all probability deciding it was finest to maintain out of bother. Again in 1990 I used to be photographing comparatively few protests, primarily concentrating on city landscapes and tradition.
Round 30 individuals turned up for a rally to commemorate the event when “the London mob who introduced Thatcher down … in addition to to vow that the mob had been nonetheless in enterprise and to pronounce sentence on politicians.”
The ‘Carnival of Demise‘ they had been promising was not after all a literal dying menace, however road theatre by which the effigies of George Brown, David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Nick Griffin had been to be executed at a Could Day Get together. As Chris Knight reminded the gathering, “the one good politician, the one sincere politician is a useless politician.”
Our police usually fail to grasp the distinction between rhetoric and actuality, and protests involving anarchist teams corresponding to Class Warfare are sometimes ridiculously over-policed, typically with disastrous penalties, however virtually all the time upsetting extra violence than they forestall. On April 1st 2009 for the G20 – Monetary Fools Day that they had turned up with squads of riot police psyched as much as batter largely harmless and joyful protesters – and one of many police killed a newspaper vendor merely strolling dwelling by the realm.
So in my account of this occasion in Trafalgar Sq. I used to be at pains to inform them that the ‘Carnival Of Demise’ was “referred to as a carnival; if you wish to participate, come prepared to bop.”
Shortly after individuals started the commemoration, a PCSO got here to inform these collaborating they weren’t allowed to carry protests or different occasions in Trafalgar Sq. with out permission. When he was laughed at, he introduced over a Heritage Warden who advised us the Sq. was the property of the GLA (Larger London Authority), and that permission was wanted for occasions.
“High-quality” stated these current. “The GLA is a public physique; we personal it, this can be a public place and we give ourselves permission and intend to proceed.” As I identified in my account, Trafalgar Sq. is not only a public place, however one which since its constructing within the 1830s has been a conventional place for demonstrating radical dissent. It was a convention that these current had been decided to proceed.
Thankfully the dozen or so police who arrived shortly after the PCSO had phoned to name for reinforcement merely stood and watched and had sufficient sense to not try to cease the commemoration, which ended after round half-hour when the organisers determined it was time to go down the pub.
On the finish of the occasion, copies of an anti-Election manifesto and a suitably defaced poster displaying the leaders of the Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and BNP leaders had been distributed by the Whitechapel Anarchist Group. They suggested us to “Use your cross correctly”, beneath an image of the 4 leaders within the cross-hairs of a gun sight, and hooked up to the underside was a ‘Free Present’ – a security match, with the message ” Burn Your Poll”.
As they wrote: “It’s time to finish the unjust, corrupt system of terror and construct a good, equal society that can profit the bulk. Everyone knows voting doesn’t change something and our collective apathy permits this folly to proceed. It’s time for REAL change. It’s time for revolution.”
Rioters United! have a good time Ballot Tax Riots
Tags: Basildon, Belfast, bloodythirsty tyrant, carnival of dying, Chris Knight, downing st, Enfield, Ethiopia, Ethiopian Tyrant, manufacturing unit occupation, Ford, Ford/Visteon, fraud, G20, gla, heritage wardens, human rights, Ian Bone, Jane Nicholl, London, Margaret Thatcher, Martin Write, one-party state, parliament sq., PCSO, pensions, peter Marshall, police, police violence, political prisoners, Ballot Tax, Ballot Tax Riots, PPF, protest, radical dissent, Rioters United, time for revolution, Unite, warfare crimes
You’ll be able to go away a response, or trackback from your individual web site.
