Early Day Motion 977: Vic Turner [One of the Pentonville 5]
That this House wishes to commemorate the passing of former London dock leader, Vic Turner, who was imprisoned at Pentonville, along with four fellow workers at the order of Edward Heath's National Industrial Relations Court in 1972,who became known as the Pentonville Five; notes that Vic Turner and his fellow imprisoned shop stewards were released after one of the largest mass demonstrations ever seen in London and following the threat of a general strike; further notes that Vic Turner was a much-loved family man, who subsequently became both a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Newham and a mayor of the same borough; pays credit to a trades unionist, who in the words of fellow docker and now General Secretary of the Unite Trade Union, Len McCluskey, never lost sight of working class interests and was never swayed from supporting that cause; and recognises that at a time when trades unionists are once again under attack from a Tory-led Government and when many are still being blacklisted by employers for being members of a trades union, the inspirational qualities of working class leaders such as Vic Turner andhis colleagues in the Royal Docks Shop Stewards Committee are needed more than ever.

Sponsors: Morris, Grahame M / Campbell, Ronnie / Cryer, John / Lavery, Ian / Mearns, Ian / Skinner, Dennis                        House of Commons: 28/01/2013


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Early Day Motion 978: Inez Mccormack  [Veteran Trade Unionist]
That this House mourns the loss of Inez McCormack, an internationally-renowned human rights activist from Northern Ireland; praises her work in promoting employment equality in Northern Ireland as the Regional Secretary of UNISON and in working with others to ensure that the trades union movement was widely recognised as a non-partisan agent for change in the Northern Ireland peace process; notes that she was the first female President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and that Newsweek last year placed her in its 150 Women Who Shake the World for her work in enabling women to improve the quality of their lives; further notes that she was the founder of the respected Participation and the Practice of Rights organisation, which provides support to disadvantaged communities and groups in using a rights-based approach to change social and economic inequalities and deprivation; and joins her many admirers, including President Michael D Higgins, Hillary Clinton, Meryl Streep and President Mary Robinson in remembering an extraordinary and inspiring woman who dedicated her life to championing women's rights and combating gender-based violence in Northern Ireland and in countries of conflict.

Sponsors: Anderson, David/ Connarty, Michael / Durkan, Mark / Glass, Pat / Ritchie, Margaret / Ruane, Chris                     House of Commons: 28/01/2013


Trade unionist Inez McCormack dies
Ms McCormack began her trade union career in the late 1960s before rising to become president of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. She was born in Belfast in 1943 into a working class family and spent most of her adult life fighting for the rights of those around her.
Read more: BBC News N. Ireland, 22/01/13

NUJ Manchester Branch Leads Support for Iraqi Journalist

 

The Manchester and Salford NUJ branch has launched a campaign in support of a political journalist who fled Iraq in 2010 after being threatened as a result of newspaper articles he had written at the time of the elections.

Rzhwan Amin (Jaf), who had been living in Tameside, Greater Manchester, is now in Morton Hall immigration removal centre, Lincolnshire, after being detained when he went to report at Dallas Court Home Office Reporting Centre, Salford, on January 8th. Rzhwan, aged 32, wrote political reports for a newspaper in Kirkuk, a city which is disputed territory in Iraq and has one of the country's biggest oilfields on its doorstep.

He left Iraq after he was summoned to appear at a meeting of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party (PUK) to discuss his journalism – he was warned by a friend not to attend because it was a trap.  PUK, whose leader is Jalal Al Talabani, the president of Iraq, has a history of dissension with other Kurdish political organisations.

Read more: http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=2773

NUJ January Branch Meeting

Tuesday 15th January
Carrs Lane Church Centre
Carrs Lane
Birmingham
B4 7SX

6:00 pm for 6:30 start

Any apologies to branch chair:  alan.weaver1@ntlworld.com

Agenda

1) Introduction by chair/those attending

2) Minutes of November  meeting

3) Secretary/Treasurers reports

4) Branch reports

5) Up date on disputes

6) Any other business


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Branch Annual General Meeting Will Take Place in February
All branch posts become vacant at the AGM and all members can stand to serve the branch for 2013/2014. Current posts are Chair, Vice chair, Secretary/Treasurer (combined post) , Equalities, Communications, Minutes Secretary, Recruitment, Welfare.

Posts of Secretary/Treasurer and Communications, each carry a bursary of £600.

Nominees will need a seconder and nominations can be made at anytime before the February meeting, send nominations to Branch Secretary Stalingrad O'Neill  <stalingrad1@yahoo.com>.

If you have any news/stories for branch newsletter,
Email <birminghamcoventry@nuj.org.uk>

Justice: Social Media

House of Lords / 19 Dec 2012 : Column WS211

The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Wallace of Tankerness): My right honourable and learned friend the Attorney-General (Dominic Grieve) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has today launched a public consultation on his interim guidelines for prosecuting cases involving communications sent via social media.

The guidelines set out the additional considerations which are relevant when prosecutors assess whether a prosecution is required in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors. Each case will be considered on its own facts and on its own merits, and prosecutors have the task of balancing the fundamental right of free speech and the need to prosecute serious wrongdoing. The interim guidelines make a clear distinction between communications which amount to credible threats of violence, a targeted campaign of harassment or which breach court orders on the one hand; and other communications, eg grossly offensive communications, on the other. The first group will be prosecuted robustly, whereas the second group will be prosecuted only if they cross a high threshold. A prosecution is unlikely to be in the public interest if the communication is swiftly removed, blocked, not intended for a wide audience or not obviously beyond what could conceivably be tolerable or acceptable in a diverse society which upholds and respects freedom of expression.

The guidelines have been issued on an interim basis, as they are the subject of a public consultation exercise that will last for three months. The DPP will publish his final guidelines next year once he has considered the responses to the consultation. Copies of the interim guidelines have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Source: Hansard

After Labour's previous 2008 treachery, another stab in the back for disabled people, as they are sold down the river again, this time by the Coalition.

Remploy was a founding element of the 1945 welfare state, originally designed to give jobs to soldiers injured in World War Two. 83 factories were established across the UK

However Work and Pensions ­Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is closing 36 of the remaining 54 specialist factories, making 1,500 disabled people redundant

When the cretin was confronted by workers at the House of Commons, he sneered “Is it a kindness to stick people in some factory where they are not doing any work at all? Just ­making cups of coffee?

Union chiefs fear that continuity of employment, terms and conditions, including pension payments will not be maintained, whilst Remploy workers are aware that more than 80 per cent of those who took voluntary redundancy in previous cuts in 2008 and 2011 are still unable to find work

Worker Tony Collins, said: “I love coming to work. What will happen to me? It’s difficult enough getting a job for normal people. I don’t want to live on benefits.

Phil Davies, national secretary of the GMB union said: “All this is giving people interested in bidding for these factories a free hand to do what they want. There is nothing in place to make them abide by the TUPE.”He added: “This whole process is wide open for asset strippers, because they won’t have to pick up the cost of redundancy payments.”

TUPE: When a business changes from one owner to another, existing employment contracts should be protected under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations.

As usual the Taxpayers will unbeknowingly be robbed by subsidising the sale of Remploy factories to these thieving asset strippers

Pictures show a presentation of a cheque (14^th Dec) from Birmingham and Coventry NUJ, for Remploy strikers hardship fund. Photos were taken in poor visibility and pouring rain, outside the gate on the public highway, to allay Management fears of a comeback, for allowing them to be taken inside the premises

Copyright Stalingrad O’Neill

contact robograd@tiscali.co.uk if you wish to reproduce photo

• 'no foreign language services can be opened or closed without the written authority of the Foreign Secretary'

BBC: World Service

Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria have been used in deciding which BBC World Service language services to cut or reduce; and what weighting is given to (1) the audience numbers, (2) the circumstances of the listeners, and (3) their ability to access other trustworthy sources of news. [HL3811]

The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi): The BBC World Service is managerially and editorially independent and it is for the BBC to decide how services are managed. Under the terms of the broadcasting agreement between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the BBC World Service, no foreign language services can be opened or closed without the written authority of the Foreign Secretary. As part of the BBC World Service's strategy for budget reductions, in January 2011 the Foreign Secretary approved the BBC Trust's proposal to close five services: Albanian, Macedonian, Serbian, Portuguese for Africa and English for the Caribbean.

The decision to close these services and to make changes in other services (including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Russian) was based on a number of factors including the relative importance of each market, the availability of other national and regional independent or free media, audience levels and best predictions for future impact.
House of Lords / 10 Dec 2012 : Column WA189

• 'Can it really make sense to cut the BBC World service by 16%, leading to the loss of 32 language services and 650 jobs'

BBC: World Service
Lord Alton of Liverpool to ask Her Majesty's Government by how much the BBC World Service budget has been reduced in the current financial year; and what plans they have for funding the World Service in the future.

The Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Warsi): My Lords, the budget for the BBC World Service for the 2011-12 financial year was just over £255 million. It was reduced by £11 million to £244.2 million for the current financial year and will reduce by a further £4 million to £240 million in the financial year 2013-14. From April 2014, the BBC World Service will be funded from the licence fee instead of from FCO grant in aid.

Lord Alton of Liverpool: I am grateful to the Minister for that reply, but at a time of phenomenal uncertainty in the world can it really make sense to cut the BBC World service by 16%, leading to the loss of 32 language services and 650 jobs and an estimated fall in audiences of some 30 million people? In particular, should we not think again before savagely reducing medium-wave transmissions to Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Israel at a moment when the region is in total crisis and the voice of reason is in such short supply? In this 80th anniversary year of the BBC World Service, surely it is a moment to celebrate its extraordinary achievements in upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law rather than so short-sightedly diminishing this country's influence right across the globe.
Read more: House of Lords / 27 Nov 2012 : Column 83