PUBLIC MEETING
TUESDAY 23 JUNE AT 7.30pm
The Bird In Hand 1 Victoria Road, Stafford ST16 2AQ
Discussions on where next for the fightback with a talk by a local Trade Union activist and TUSC candidate
ALL WELCOME
Thursday, 18 June 2015
Posted with Blogsy
END AUSTERITY NOW!!
Remember that this Saturday is the MASSIVE demonstration against Austerity and many other issues that the ordinary person is passionate about!
Austerity has killed more than 10 thousand people (Figure taken in 2012) How many more people need to die in the next 5 years just so the government can carry out the lie that is austerity, we aren't running out of money, there is plenty of it in the top 10 richest people in the UK.
There are now 1.5 million people that live on Food Banks, this can literally degrade a person to the extent that they develop mental health issues.
Thursday, 4 June 2015
AROUND 100 PROTEST IN CANNOCK AGAINST CANCER CARE SELL-OFF
ANTI-NHS PRIVATISATION GROUP, CANCER NOT FOR PROFIT, (CNFP) HANDED OVER A 60,000 NAME PETITION TODAY AGAINST PLANS TO SELL-OFF STAFFORDSHIRE’S CANCER CARE AND END OF LIFE TREATMENT TO PRIVATE COMPANIES. IF IT WASN’T FOR CNFP’S CAMPAIGNING WORK OVER THE LAST YEAR THIS SELL-OFF WOULD HAVE ALREADY GONE THOUGH.
United in opposition at privatisation of cancer care today in Cannock
STEP UP FIGHT TO STOP £1.2 BILLION NHS SELL-OFF OF STAFFORDSHIRE CANCER CARE
The Tories are determined to push through the biggest single privatisation of NHS services by inviting private companies to bid for £1.2bn worth of contracts to provide cancer care across Staffordshire.
WE NEED DECISIVE ACTION TO DEFEND THE NHS FROM THESE PRIVATE VULTURES!
We can’t trust any establishment parties as they all support the dismantling and privatisation of the NHS
Ordinary working class people had to fight to win a publicly owned NHS, now we have to fight to save it!
BUILD A MASS MOVEMENT
Local TUSC supporters along with Unite the Union and other groups set up the Cancer Not for Profit alliance and it’s had a significant impact . More than 60,000 people have already said NO to the sell-off by signing petitions
50,000 marched through Stafford against Tory plans to dismantle Stafford Hospital and the fight goes on. Nationally hundreds of thousands have marched to save the NHS. This opposition gives a glimpse of the massive anger which exists nationwide against NHS privatisation.
But it’s now more urgent than ever that a plan of action is drawn up nationally by the health trade unions, other unions, local communities, campaign groups etc to carry out an organised campaign against the dismantling and privatisation of the NHS, including strike action if necessary.
Such a campaign would receive support from millions across Britain and have the potential to stop the Tory’s plans.
But we also need to continue to defend our NHS at the ballot box.
TUSC ACTION AGAINST NHS PRIVATISATION!
Local TUSC supporters were the first to campaign against the £1.2 billion NHS sell-off and have worked alongside campaign group Cancer Not For Profit
In May 2014 TUSC stood candidates in local elections in Newcastle with a fighting programme to STOP the dismantling and privatisation of the NHS and again in the 2015 elections in Stoke, Newcastle and Stafford. Despite a virtual media blackout, TUSC were the 6th biggest party nationally in May’s general & local elections. And TUSC will continue to challenge the cuts, closures and privatisation of our NHS at the ballot box at every opportunity.
- To find out more about TUSC www.tusc.org.uk – To contact TUSC locally call or text 07845893607
Tuesday, 2 June 2015
Inaugural meeting of Stafford Socialist Party
We are pleased to announce that Stafford branch is up and running again! The first official meeting of The Socialist Party in Stafford for 18 months, following standing four candidates for TUSC (Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition) in the May elections, will take place this
Tuesday 2.6.15 @ 7.30pm in The Vine
Following Labour's complete failure to defeat the Tories, Andy Bentley, full-time activist for The Socialist Party in Staffordshire will be introducing the discussion on
What is the best way forward to build a fightback against austerity?
Thursday, 15 August 2013
SUPPORT GROWS TO SHUT DOWN THE TOWN!
Socialist Party members were out again last Saturday and today campaigning to defend Stafford hospital. Many more signed our petition to scrap the Health & Social Care Act – a privatiser’s charter.
We have now given out over one thousand leaflets calling on Support Stafford Hospital to name the date for a shut down of Stafford to make the administrators listen to us.
We have also asked the opinions of the hundreds who have signed our petition what they thought of this idea as the next step. A big majority agreed with us, some weren’t sure but not one disagreed.
A Stafford hospital worker who didn’t want to be named said, “Yes, we need decisive action as soon as possible to save maternity, paediatrics, intensive care and A&E. Closing down the town might just work”.
Save Our Hospital! Shut Down the Town!
Self-appointed administrators have announced plans to reduce services at Stafford District General Hospital (DGH) and facilities in surrounding towns. It leaves people to travel 20 miles to hospitals in Wolverhampton or Stoke.
This is what they effectively decided months ago – it fits in nicely with government plans to run down DGHs and dismantle and privatise the NHS. No one in Staffordshire accepts their verdict!
The administrators’ so-called consultation is a sham - they know it and we know it!
Over 1,500 angry people turned up to Stafford’s first ‘consultation’ meeting. Only half could fit in the room, others went to another room, 250 listened in a car park. Despite calls for calm, people vented fury against health bosses who had cut their services. They cried “turn it off” as bosses played their promo video. Staff who challenged the bosses were cheered to the rafters. If that’s the start, then future consultation meetings don’t augur well for administrators!
We don’t need to be ‘consulted’ again – 50,000 of us marched on 20 April against any plans to dismantle Stafford/Cannock hospital! Originally the administrators raised the spectre of closure but the pressure we have all put on means they are not confident enough to go that far at this stage.
But they’re clearly still not listening enough! The powers that be still want to get rid of Maternity, Paediatrics, Intensive care and downgrade A&E. We need to step up the fight to defend Stafford and Cannock! Decisive action is necessary.
IF WE ARE TO MAKE THEM LISTEN TO US AND KEEP OUR SERVICES THEN WE MUST CLOSE DOWN THE TOWN FOR A HUGE PROTEST!
Every business should close, with every worker stopping work for a day or half a day to build a giant weekday rally that can make crystal clear we will not accept the loss of any of our services.
If the ‘Support Stafford Hospital’ campaign called for a shut down and named the date, this would receive massive support locally and nationally.
We should turn the ‘consultation’ meetings into mass rallies to build support for a shut down.
Trade unions should join in by organising workplace meetings.
Community groups and residents associations could organise local public meetings to mobilise support.
Neither is Stafford an isolated case. It’s part of the government’s plan to cut local hospitals and privatise as much as they can of our NHS.
Support Stafford Hospital should appeal to organisers of other campaigns like Lewisham and elsewhere to support such action in Stafford.
Save our NHS campaigners in other areas threatened with cuts might also consider taking similar action!
Zero tolerance for zero-hours!
Ian Pattison, Youth Fight for Jobs
You can be called up by your boss at a moment’s notice and expected to be in work. Boots, one of the many high street chains using zero-hour contracts, had the cheek to tell staff with no guaranteed hours that they may be asked to work abroad!
Zero-hour contracts make it impossible for us to plan our lives. You don’t know one week to the next how much work you will have, how much you will get paid, whether you’ll have any work at all. 14% of people on zero-hour contracts say they do not earn enough to live.
Race to the bottom
Zero-hour contracts aren’t just a nightmare for the workers suffering under them – they are part to the race to the bottom, driving down pay, terms and conditions of all workers. You can’t get any lower than zero-hours!We’re returning to the dark days when dockers and other workers would face the humiliation and uncertainty of lining up before a potential day’s shift, hoping to be picked for work by the boss.
Almost three million workers are out of work in Britain (one million of them aged 16 to 24). But this latest scandal proves that the real unemployment figure is a lot higher.
In the 1980s, the Tories changed the way unemployment was measured 20 times to disguise the true cost of Thatcher’s vicious policies. Today, companies’ use of zero-hour contracts allows the government to claim many more people are employed than have the security that used to come with having a job.
Under pressure, big business politicians like Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, and various Labour Party figures have joined the chorus criticising zero-hour contracts. But what sets Youth Fight for Jobs apart is that we have a real strategy for action to make zero-hour contracts a thing of the past. If the trade unions organised zero-hour contract staff, including through strike action, we could have a united fight to win decent contracts, with guaranteed hours, on a living wage for all.
24-hour general strike
Youth Fight for Jobs is joining the National Shop Stewards Network lobby of the TUC on Sunday 8 September in Bournemouth to call on the trade unions to name the day for a 24-hour general strike to stop austerity.A 24-hour general strike could unite all workers against the Con-Dem cuts. It could inspire even currently non-unionised, zero-hour contract staff at Sports Direct and other companies to fight back too.
The demands of such general action should include a decent job with a proper contract for all those able to work. This would win overwhelming support from ordinary working-class people, who don’t want to see another ‘lost generation’ thrown on the scrapheap.
For more details on the NSSN lobby of the TUC see www.shopstewards.net or email info@shopstewards.net
The Socialist Feature: End Zero-Hour Contracts Now!
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