Friday is the unions’ global protest day in solidarity with our colleagues in Iran. Free trades unionists there have been harshly repressed in recent years, with many in prison for organising unions outside the approved ‘puppet union’ structures, or for daring to hold May Day celebrations.
I’ll be outside the Iranian embassy on Friday with colleagues from the TUC, ITF and UK unions. There’s more information on the demo at the TUC site, if you’re able to come along (12:30-13:30 at SW7 1PT). (more…)
Just back from a lovely May Day march in the sun in central London, celebrating International Workers’ Day 2009 in the company of unionists, socialists and assorted lefties. (more…)
A nice and serendipitous link between my last two posts – Having written about ‘Guthrie2.0‘ Jonathan Mann, I stumbled across an older song of his, ‘Interesting Time’ on Blip.fm, and it could have been written for tomorrow’s Put People First G20 march and rally – a slice of pure Guthrism:
“Ours is an interesting time. We’re so close and yet so divided.
The framework has been provided, but we carry too much on our shoulders.
Yes and ours is an interesting time, when we’re running out of water,
and the world is getting hotter, but everyone I know seems colder.
Let’s move, brothers, move, and we’ll all move together,
through our interesting times, we’ll move towards a better future.
Let’s move, brothers, move.”
Okay – I’ve succumbed to the inexplicable Twitter frenzy that everyone seems to be afflicted by of late, and will be tweeting away at the Put People First G20 march and rally in London this weekend. It could actually be fun to see how well a crowd of activists are able to report live from a big event like this. (more…)
Should be big enough a coalition to send a real signal to the G20 as they prepare to meet. But there’s stuff to be done before then if we’re to turn out enough people. Please do add your own message at putpeoplefirst.org.uk or on this here widget, and then get spreading the word with all the lovely social network tools on the campaign site.
Writers’ Guild of Great Britain members (though outnumbered in this pic 2:1 by NUJ members) were out in force yesterday, to mark an international day of solidarity with the striking screenwriters of the Writers’ Guild of America. I managed to pop by for the end of it, after an exciting (no, really) team away day morning a few streets over. (more…)
A most unexpected burst of sunshine made Saturday’s demo for the NHS into a pretty enjoyable way to spend a few hours. It wasn’t your run-of-the-(trouble-at)-mill union demonstration either – the attendance of a whole bunch of carnival artists really jolted people out of the traditional slump you’re likely to get halfway round a march. It’s hard not to be jolly when you’re walking next to a couple of giant lobsters on stilts.
Yay! Top techno-country tunesters and trusty Tigmoo tubthumpers Alabama3 are going to be playing at the NHS Together demo tomorrow in Trafalgar Square. Apparently they’ve actually rewritten “Woke Up This Morning” to support the NHS Together Campaign, which is a tad more dedicated to the cause than just turning up and waving – tho personally, I reckon they should have done “Ain’t going to Goa” as “Ain’t going to BUPA”
I haven’t been able to see them live for years, so am *very* cheerful about this. Plus they’re one of the only groups that I reckon can actually make for a great atmosphere at a lunchtime gig, so it should make for a good fun rally too. See you there!
Greetings earthlings from the world’s first virtual reality picket line. It’s spread over a huge are of IBM corporate campus in virtual world Second Life. I’ve seen quite a lot of people, flown around some fun places, and had a chat to some nice IBM staff who were clearing up the 80 foot “Oi IBM, No!” sign I made for their sandbox. (more…)
A lunchtime spent in the company of union colleagues from TUC, ATL, NASUWT, PCS, Unite and the ZCTU, ACTSA supporters and Zimbabwean expats outside Zimbabwe House on the Strand, protesting in support of the ZCTU’s 2 day stay away from work. (more…)
