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N30 strike report from Liverpool

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Both the Mersey tunnels were closed due to the strikes, the ferries were not running and the majority of schools, council offices etc were closed.

The rally took place on St. Georges plateau, right next to the Occupy Liverpool camp which was set up on Saturday. There’s approximately 35 people camping there now.

The University of Liverpool went into occupation today. They’re asking people for show support while they are negotiating their demands which have been distributed across Facebook and a blog which has started now on Merseyside Network Against Fees and Cuts. Watch this space!

Nicky Mitchell (Liverpool SWAN)

N30 London SWAN Strike Report

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We won over lots of members of the public and got several people not to cross the picket and join the union.

I got to spend time meeting stewards from all over the council too – environmental services and housing benefit to name a couple. Pest control arrived with a sign with two rats named Dave and Nick hanging from it!

I then rocketed up to Islington for the SWAN London N30 meet up, joining other SWAN London members including a good crop of new student activists from my old university! We met with service users and social care staff from the Elfrida Society (a organisation which provides services for people with learning difficulties) and anti-cuts activists from Islington Hands of our Public Services, before the march.

It was chance for some great conversation marching all the way from Islington Town Hall to Lincolns Inn Fields and then onto Trafalgar Square, formulating ideas and catching up with SWAN activists old and new.

It was a great show of strength and opportunity to build for ongoing industrial action to defeat the government and the austerity being foisted onto ordinary people by the rich.

Dan

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The devastating pronouncements in the Autumn Statement delivered by George Osborne the day before the strike, left us in no doubt as to the importance of sending a powerful statement from the public sector. Much has been said and written about pensions, cuts, bonuses, bankers, economic statistics, predictions and consequences but for those of us who still believe in the value of our labour and the right to withdraw it, this strike was aimed at sending an unambiguous message – Enough!!

Blue skies and crisp November sun shone supportively as I made my way for picket duty at the university where I work. How many UCU and Unison members would step up I wondered. Camaraderie and good spirits interspersed with some lively discussion has always marked for me the atmosphere on the picket line. As I arrived a number of students, who it would seem had been actively encouraged to come to lectures, were being informed about the
strike and asked for support. Some gave it and some did not. It was revealing and indeed perplexing, to have social science students (even if it was just a few) crossing our picket line with the stakes for social consciousness and collective action so high, as Marx said “It is not the consciousness of men that determine their being, but, on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness”. Encouragement however came a little later from IHOOPS (Islington Hands Off Our Public Services), in the form of hot tea, coffee and flap-jacks. Later again a lone journalist from the NUJ arrived with a box of homemade fudge to share and a request for an interview. A little faith was restored.

At 10.30 I went to Islington Town Hall to join the rally there with my SWAN colleagues to support the Elfrida Society who provide essential services to people with learning difficulties. Like many other charities and community
organizations they are experiencing massive cuts, lending a predictable hollowness to the earlier trumpeting of the CON DEM’s Big Society. Following speeches from Jeremy Corbyn and others we set off for the rally. Positioned
as we were at the end of the march, it was a few hours before we arrived at Embankment. We missed the speeches but our journey was enlivened by good conversation, street theatre and the good spirits of fellow marchers. It was also an opportunity to discuss and plan further SWAN activities.

Later that evening as we made our way home from central London my colleague and I were acutely aware of the number of homeless people around, and the very obvious extent of their need. How, I wondered would they survive what is to come.

Evelyn

N30 strike report from Leeds

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Forty to fifty people – mainly women workers with a roving band of UNISON retired members and a couple of Heads of Commissioning – picketed the various entrances to Merrion House and the Civic Hall, which house the head offices of Adults and Children’s Social Care and other central services. Scabs, largely from demoralised, re-organised and de-organised sections like HR and OD, scurried in with their heads down, apologising. We turned back the post ….. and a vital Xerox paper delivery!

Linguists on strike in Leeds
The Leeds TUC rally at Woodhouse Moor drew several thousand strikers from all the striking unions. As the march wound into town, thousands more students, lecturers, council workers, teachers, pupils and civil servants joined, with estimates of well over 7000 at the city centre rally in Victoria Gardens, making this the biggest Leeds demo in decades.

The feeling on the picket lines was clear: we were on strike today for every working class person’s future. We know class war when we see it and we’re not interested in negotiating reductions in jobs, pensions and services. This was a fantastic start and a springboard for re-building shop-floor union organisation. Leeds UCU has called a cross-union meeting for activists on Monday at 6.00pm in Broadcasting House to discuss how to escalate the action.

N30 Rally in Leeds
John from West Yorkshire SWAN added: “As a second year Social Work student who also works part-time in the NHS I see first hand the affect of cuts now on services and staff and what I will be working within when I qualify. To suggest it is fair to top slice public sector pensions to swell the Treasury coffers  and make workers make up the looting by paying more, working longer and getting less is ludicrous. Given the pressure on social care and health care staff, working until 67/68 or whatever age it ends up being is a non-starter, service users and staff will both suffer. There was good student support at both Leeds Universities, hundreds of leaflets were handed out and many students came to the rally.”

Sue Talbot & John McDermott (West Yorkshire SWAN)

N30 strike report from Birmingham

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Nick, a social worker, reports on the picket line at one social services office: “55 pickets, militant and very bouyant mood at the picket, singing ‘I’d rather be a picket than a scab’. Lots of passing motorists honked in support including a Royal Mail van and most of the buses. One scab made a complaint that the pickets were being intimidating but when this was shared, those on the picket line continued to sing and chat. The only aggressive thing was the scab driving fast towards the picket line and the scale of the council cuts!”

 

Social workers and other staff then joined a march through the city which Birmingham City Council had tried to prevent. The Council yesterday told the TUC they would charge £10,000 for the march through Birmingham City Centre even though the march against the Lib Dem conference just 6 weeks ago cost a few hundred pounds.

However the strikers defied this deeply undemocratic attempt to stop the march. 15 thousand people joined the protest through the streets of the city, marching to the TUC rally at the NIA.

Nick has also recorded a number of short audio clips of interviews with strikers explaining why they took action today and what we need to do to win. We will make these available soon on the SWAN website.

Against ATOS: Festive Month of Action – December 3rd and December 16th, London

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Atos are the French IT firm responsible for carrying out the government’s Work Capability Assessment which has led to tens of thousands of sick and disabled people being forced into poverty after being stripped of essential benefits.  Despite the process being dubbed unfit for purpose and an increasing number of suicides due to the stressful and vicious health testing regime, this form of assessment is to be extended to everyone on some form of disability or health related benefit.
 
When not bullying disabled people Atos are also the official IT partners of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  Join us to ensure that Atos do not receive one ounce of positive publicity from this role, as they champion their support for disabled athletes with one hand whilst destroying the lives of of disabled and sick benefit claimants with the other.
 
On December 3rd, International Disabled People’s Day, protesters will be gathering outside the entrance of the Olympic Park in Stratford at the Paralympic Goalball test event.  Join us from 2pm and let’s show the world what Atos really think about disabled people.
 
Bring banners, placards, noise!
 
Travel to Stratford station (DLR, Central/Jubilee Lines, London Overground) and then follow the indications to the Olympic Park entrance via Westfield Stratford City shopping centre. The route from the station to the entrance of the Olympic Park is approximately 600 metres.
 
Facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/events/313266012034394/
 
A Real Victorian Christmas Party and Picnic at Triton Square
Friday 16th December – 2pm
Triton Square , London NW1
 
Join us at the home of poverty pimps Atos for a Christmas Party to celebrate the continuing struggle against disability deniers Atos.
 
As part of the month of festive action against Atos and the benefit cuts, disabled people, benefit claimants and supporters will be visiting French IT company Atos’ gleaming corporate headquarters to celebrate the real Victorian Christmas being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people this Christmas.
 
As Atos CEO Keith Wilman tucks into his organic tax-payer funded Christmas turkey, hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled will be spending Christmas terrified a letter from his company may land on their doorstep demanding that they attend one of Atos’ notorious ‘Work Capability Assessments’.  These flawed tests have led to tens of thousands of sick and disabled people being forced into poverty after being stripped of essential benefits.
 
Despite the process being dubbed unfit for purpose and an increasing number of suicides, due to the stressful and vicious health testing regime, this form of assessment is to be extended to everyone on some form of disability or health related benefit.
 
Join us on Friday 16th December at 2pm as we continue the struggle against the unending war on benefit claimants and disabled people.  We will not pay for their crisis.
 
Bring scabies, TB, rickets, begging bowls and child labour*.  Peelers not invited.
 
*Also banners, placards, food to share, leaflets, noise.
 
Atos are based at Triton Square , less than five minutes walk from Warren Street and Great Portland Street tube stations and less than ten minutes from Euston.

Main Month of Action event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/122853381158514/
More details: http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/

Resistance to the laws criminalising homeless people in Hungary – an update

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Social worker Norbert Ferencz, was placed on probation for three years last Friday for protesting a recently enacted by-law in District VIII in Budapest, aimed at the homeless, that forbids scavenging in bins. Norbert with his group Új Szemlélet Csoport had staged a protest in March, where the directive was defied. Under the by-laws, pushed through by the local council’s Fidesz mayor Máté Kocsis, since January rummaging through bins entails a fine of up to HUF 50,000 (EUR 160.60). Ferencz urged attendees of the protest to defy the ban, and he subsequently appeared in court on a charge of incitement.

SWAN condemn this outrageous action and offer solidarity to Hungarian colleagues and comrades.

The petition in Norbert’s support is here. (NB: apologies for spelling mistakes and date inaccuracies in the original petition statement, these are not amendable).

On a hopeful note, please see the fantastic resistance from our colleagues in Hungary in the two videos below. These actions were lead by The City is for All, a grassroots homeless rights advocacy group itself led by homeless people. The first action was a demonstration, the second a sit-in. These were both against the criminalization of the homeless in Budapest.

Sit in against criminalization of homelessness in Budapest inside the offices of mayor, Máté Kocsis – October 17, 2011.

 

Demonstration against criminalization of homelessness in Budapest in the offices of mayor, Máté Kocsis – 11th November, 2011. You can read a full report of the  action here.

The amendment of the Petty Offence Law was unfortunately passed by the Hungarian Parliament on 14th November, 2011, and takes effect from 1st December, 2011. This makes it possible to fine people “residing in public spaces” up to 530 euros or 60 days of imprisonment, if “the crime” is committed twice in 6 months.

The resistance goes on…

Manchester SWAN meeting

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First Manchester SWAN meeting

 

The first Manchester SWAN meeting will be held on Monday 28th November at 7.30 at the RAPAR office in the Friends Meeting House in Manchester city centre. The meeting will be the first time that a lot of us have met and so we will use it as an opportunity to introduce ourselves and to talk about the direction in which we want to take Manchester SWAN. If you live, work or study in Manchester and have an interest in joining us then we would welcome your contributions.

If you are planning to attend then please send an email to manchesterswan@yahoo.co.uk so we know how many to expect.

We hope to see you there

N30 march and rally – Liverpool

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November 30th will see up to 3 million workers out on strike against the government’s pension reforms – the biggest day of industrial action since the general strike in 1926.

In Liverpool on N30 there will be a march from the Pier Head, assembling from 11.30am and leaving at 12pm. The pensions fight is part of a wider fight against austerity measures that affect working class people everywhere – whether you’re a public sector worker, a service user, a student, unemployed or facing cuts in your local community – join the Liverpool Against the Cuts bloc and make N30 a massive day of resistance to ALL cuts.

 

Norbert Ferencz is NOT the sinner! Statement from our Hungarian colleagues

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The Új Szemlélet group has already brought remarkable professional reformation. Besides the mostly individual-based social work (which is common in Hungary), it points out the group- and community character and the interest advocacional function of social work.  This approach is equal to the inernational Code of Ethics developed by the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) which has been internationally accepted for decades.
The group has stood out in street protests for those in need since March 2011, when dr. Máté Kocsis, mayor of Budapest’s 8th district and Fidesz-KDNP’s Member of Parlament classified dumpster diving and living on street as a misdimeanor, punishable with fining or (in case of unability to pay the fines) imprisonment. So did Norbert Ferencz at the musical, dumpster diving demonstration that became the object of his trial. In accordance to the values set in the Code of Ethics and his Professional Oath, he stood out against the municipal orders that criminalize homelessness, and called upon the solidarity of all present.
His actions have been considered by the 8th District Prosecutor’s Office as an act of incitement against the law. On the 4th of November 2011, the Pest Central District Court found him guilty on the first stage and sentenced him to 3 years probation.
This young socail worker’s vocational behavior and it’s legal judgement – as a social message – started a new chapter in the history of social work in Hungary. Therefore the question is rightful: will conscientious social work in Hungary from now on necessarily be against the law?!
The Social Vocational Federation – as the largest professional association of social workers – considers:

1. Instead of criminalizing homelessness, social workers find that integrated homeless-strategy and complex problem handling are the acceptable social reactions. The solutions must involve securing the minimum of subsistance: (besides the currently deficient monetary aid) more feeding possibilities (free meals, food banks,  etc.), real housing in accordance with human dignity, social housing and rental assistance programs, the utilization of presently empty apartments in the matter of these.
2. The values and norms of social work are made clear in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the convention about Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, promulgated with the 1993 XXXI. law, dated in Rome on the 4th of November 1950.

3.  The Ombudsman explored constitutional concerns about the incriminated law. According to the report made in June 2011 by the Ombudsman’s Office, the regulation is contrary to the principle of equal treatment.

4. The arrangements made in Budapest are contrary to the European Homelessness Strategy accepted by the European Parlament.

5. Norbert Ferencz and all participants of the demonstration acted in accordance with the Code of Ethics, their vocational values and norms.

Therefore we protest cancelling the regulation banning dumpster diving and all similar laws, and developing humane solutions in collaboration with the affected and the social professionals. The Social Vocational Federation will stand out against the socially unfair laws with all – possibly legal – tools.
In this case, when the proceedings are pending, we have to make it known to the publicity and the government that the representatives of social work are willing to make a living chain demonstration on the day of the second stage of Norbert Ferencz’s trial against the abominable and dissembler regulations, hoping that many will join the action.

Budapest, 9th of November 2011. 

Inspiring performance and sit in against Hungary’s criminalisation of the homeless

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In opposition to the proposal by local mayor Mate Kocsis to impose a 530 euros fine on homeless people or 60 days of imprisonment for “residing in public places”, The City is for All held a large demonstration on 11th November followed by a sit-in in the municipality building which ended in arrests.

SWAN once again extends its support and solidarity to the campaign. Read more on the protest here.

 

Choose Youth Rally – October 25th

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There was a fantastic turnout for Choose Youth; not the 10,000 which Unite over-optimistically called for but perhaps a thousand young people and youth workers filling the lovely Westminster Methodist hall. As with the earlier February rally in Solihull the speeches from young people were fantastic, and I don’t mean that in a tokenistic / condescending manner – I heard none of the simplistic ‘youth clubs keep us off the streets’ but instead speeches that were inspiring, thoughtful, original and rabble rousing. The crowd responded with great enthusiasm, giving a good energy to the event. The two young women from one of our Hackney groups were unable to come at the last minute (that’s youth work!!) and my colleague and I felt a bit sad about that, but it made us all the more impressed at how many young people had made it from all around the country. There was a fantastic rap from four young men from Bradford (who promised they’d send us their lyrics), a great speech from a young man from Wolverhampton, a young woman from Devon intelligently critiquing the National Citizen Service, and Dami Benbow, who spoke at the SWAN conference in Birmingham was brilliant – he just gets better and better at public speaking.

These Choose Youth events have challenged my view of youth democracy projects, which I thought rather elitist. Many of the young people speaking at the two national Choose Youth events are associated with youth councils, youth parliaments or young mayor projects; these young people mostly talk about how they became involved after a youth worker saw strength and determination where others had seen troublemaking and disruption, and they are mostly working class, and very often from Black and Ethnic Minority backgrounds.

The adults wisely kept their speeches a lot shorter than they had in Solihull, although the union reps did go on a bit. I don’t think I’m just being biased by saying that Kalbir Shukra (speaking for IDYW) was the best adult speaker, making the links between our struggle and struggles around the country and around the world, calling for solidarity rather than divisiveness She argued,

We cannot accept the wholesale destruction of our public services as a solution to the problems facing the rich – problems created by the corporate greed and bankers gambles that politicians supported. As we’ve already heard from speakers, our public services are being destroyed and its part of a massive assault on all working and middle class people – young and old, employed and unemployed, male and female.

But today is part of the spirit of resistance that we see spreading across the world. We are part of a rising world wide activist movement constantly inspiring and supporting each other – fighting for our rights, for our jobs, for services, for homes for freedoms. To strengthen our movements we have to keep connecting them. We have to refuse to be divided on the basis of one cut being kinder than another or some protestors being seen as criminals whilst others are respectable.

My colleague and I couldn’t stay for the whole day (with no young people having turned up we had to get back to Hackney to do some detached work instead!] but despite our occasional cynicism over these big ‘lobbying’ events we came away inspired. Whether anyone managed to change the mind of their MP is a reasonable question given the emphasis of the publicity (our own MP, Diane Abbott, didn’t even respond to our email), but whatever. Meeting up in numbers, talking and gaining strength, was life enhancing. Good on the unions for coordinating this (along with BYC and others). I can’t think of a better way for my subs to be spent.

Send us your ‘Frontline articles’: help tell the story of social work today

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In daily working life social workers see, first hand, what poverty, inequality and oppression are doing to people’s lives. We should not keep silent.

We think the SWAN site can be a great public space for service users and workers to tell the world about the reality of modern social work. We want your stories – good, bad and tragic – and we will upload them for others to share. In this way we can start to think about the problems and human suffering we meet every day and, from here, start to think, collectively, about what we can and should do to bring about real change for the better to people’s lives.

Send your stories and articles to the SWAN site – and remember to let us know if you want to be named or not. We are willing to post articles anonymously to protect workers from managers who are only too willing to bully and harass those that speak out.