Barnet Trades Council

This Saturday 21 April | 1-3pm
NUT, Hamilton House
Mabledon Place
London WC1H 9BD

Help get involved in the movement in London. This is a chance to analyse the situation and plan where we go from here. The mobilisation over the attack on Syria has opened up major new possibilities for the growth of the movement. Find out how you can be a part of organising in London.

Speakers will include:

• Tariq Ali, writer and broadcaster
• Lindsey German, Stop the War convenor
• Kiri Tunks, President of the National Education Union (NUT Section)
• Andrew Murray, chief-of-staff at Unite the Union

Other speakers tbc.

London memorial to the Irish Famine (An Gorta Mor)

Sunday 13 May 2018, 1-2pm (outside TUC Congress House)

Sunday 13 May 2017 marked 170 years since the systematic number of deaths became more advanced during “An Gorta Mor” (Great Hunger) in Ireland.

There will be a commemoration outside TUC Congress at 1 pm with guest speakers. This area in the Parish of St. Giles was the first recorded “Little Ireland” in London from the end of the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century. It was populated with Irish workers living in poverty and squalor. Many Irish people fled the Famine to this part of London and soon died of starvation as well as typhus. The failure of the potato crop began in 1845 and impacted heavily on the Irish population, as other crops had to be purchased for survival at a very high price or forfeited to their landlords. Hence, the starvation took effect in 1846. During the following year, it was the beginning of more than a million deaths as Britain refused to supply grain to the starving Irish population. By 1848 was the year of revolutions throughout Europe, 170 years ago, the deaths of Irish people were in a very advanced stage and there was an even an attempt at rebellion in Ireland. It is important that we commemorate “An Gorta Mor” (The Great Hunger) in London.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

LESE RRC Irish History Event

Thursday 17 May 2018, 6.30pm, TUC Congress House

Guest Speaker: Mary Doolin, PCS, Senior Full-Time Officer, will be speaking on the history of Irish women in the British Trade Union movement. This year it will be 100 years since our first woman MP following the success of the Suffragettes, who achieved the Votes for Women.

It is also 130 years since the “Match Girls Strike” as teenage girls of Irish heritage achieved all their demands since they withdrew their labour for three weeks in 1888.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

A walking tour in London: History of the Fenians in London

26th May 2018

We meet, roughly at 12 midday outside Russell Square tube station on Saturday 26th May, the date of which Michael Barrett was hanged 150 years ago. The tour will be conducted by Peter Middleton from the Wolfe Tone Society. The tour will include Clerkenwell Close where the prison explosions occurred in December 1867. We will finish at Newgate Prison where the last public hanging took place. Hopefully, the tour will be followed by a social.

Please register: lese@tuc.org.uk / 020 7467 1220

Walking Tour of Irish and Jewish Communities in East London

Sunday 11 March 2018, 11.45am

This walk will look at the different and vibrant immigrant communities in East London from the Irish community of the 17th century to the Jewish community in 1870’s. Visiting Brick Lane, which was the home of the French Huguenot community (Refugees) in London from the 1680’s, then the Jewish Community fleeing pogroms in Poland and Russia, and more recently the Bangladeshi and Somalian communities. Then on to Commercial Road, and the history of women and men who worked and lived in the streets in that area. We will walk through to Cable Street and the site of the famous anti-fascist resistance in East London between Jewish, Irish and progressive forces against Police and the Mosley’s British Union of Fascists. We will be exploring how this developed and how different communities joined in the fight against Fascism in the 1930’s up to the present day. 

This event is FREE (voluntary donations at event close)

Please register: lese@tuc.org.uk / 020 7467 1220

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Trade Union presence on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade in London

Sunday 18 March 2018, 11.30am

TUC London, East and South East representatives will be marching in London on the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Trade Union participation is in dedication to all the Irish Workers of the last few centuries which made Britain the most industrialised nation in the world. Through their mass concentration of cheap labour, British industry boomed through the high level of production in the factories, construction and transport. Irish women were als, formidable through their work in the street markets, the cotton industry and nursing. As a result, the Trade Unions membership rapidly increased and this year, it will be 130 years since the Match Girls Strike! Teenage girls of Irish heritage had the most successful strike in British history. After withdrawing their labour for three days, all their demands were met for better pay and conditions. The contribution of Irish workers in Britain must never be forgotten!

www.london.gov.uk/events/2017-03-17/london-st-patricks-festival

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

London memorial to the Irish Famine (An Gorta Mor)

Sunday 13 May 2018, 1-2pm (outside TUC Congress House)

Sunday 13 May 2017 marked 170 years since the systematic number of deaths became more advanced during “An Gorta Mor” (Great Hunger) in Ireland.

There will be a commemoration outside TUC Congress at 1 pm with guest speakers. This area in the Parish of St. Giles was the first recorded “Little Ireland” in London from the end of the eighteenth century and throughout the nineteenth century. It was populated with Irish workers living in poverty and squalor. Many Irish people fled the Famine to this part of London and soon died of starvation as well as typhus. The failure of the potato crop began in 1845 and impacted heavily on the Irish population, as other crops had to be purchased for survival at a very high price or forfeited to their landlords. Hence, the starvation took effect in 1846. During the following year, it was the beginning of more than a million deaths as Britain refused to supply grain to the starving Irish population. By 1848 was the year of revolutions throughout Europe, 170 years ago, the deaths of Irish people were in a very advanced stage and there was an even an attempt at rebellion in Ireland. It is important that we commemorate “An Gorta Mor” (The Great Hunger) in London.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

LESE RRC Irish History Event

Thursday 17 May 2018, 6.30pm, TUC Congress House

Guest Speaker: Mary Doolin, PCS, Senior Full-Time Officer, will be speaking on the history of Irish women in the British Trade Union movement. This year it will be 100 years since our first woman MP following the success of the Suffragettes, who achieved the Votes for Women.

It is also 130 years since the “Match Girls Strike” as teenage girls of Irish heritage achieved all their demands since they withdrew their labour for three weeks in 1888.

Please register: lese@tuc.org.uk / 020 7467 1220

Facebook Event »

Organised by: Stop the War Coalition

Speakers:

Brian Eno, Musician & StWC President
Lowkey, Rapper & Activist
Andrew Murray, Unite the Union
Lindsey German, Stop the War Convenor
Maya Evans, Voices for Creative Non-Violence
Michael Muir, Young Labour
Elif Sarican, Kurdish Activist

Emergency rally – Keep Trump’s Hands Off Latin America!

With Chris Williamson MP; Christine Blower, National Education Union, NUT Section; Dr. Francisco Dominguez (co-author, Right–Wing Politics in the New Latin America: Reaction and Revolt.) plus guests from Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Hosted by VSC. Supported by the Nicaragua Solidarity Action Group. With thanks to Thompsons Solicitors.

Date and Time

Location

I only made it to the second half of the conference by Solidarity for the People of Turkey today, due to having attended SERTUC in the morning, but it was superb and very well attended. Highlights included:

• Leading trade unionists from the DISK union federation and the GIDA-IS food workers’ union, talking about the extreme repression against workers’ in Turkey today, were strikes have been de facto banned and fewer than half of supposedly recognised trade union agreements as honoured as collective bargains.
• Politicians from both the major Turkish opposition parties, talking about the government’s effective destruction of democracy since the failed coup of 2016, its passing of anti-democratic legislation by decree without recourse to parliament and its shocking attempt to resolve the Kurdish question in it’s favour by attacking the Kurdish town of Afrin over the border in Syria.
• Solidarity from British trades unionists like Christine Blower of the NEU/NUT and Bakers’ union leader (and friend of Barnet TUC) Ian Hodson, as well as a message of solidarity from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has raised the issue of human and workers’ rights in Turkey throughout Europe and directly with the government itself.

Trades unionists’ in Britain were urged to raise the issues within their own structures and communities, and there will be a solidarity visit to Turkey on May Day.

Leaders of 5-garment workers federations call to the international community, including Europe, USA & Canada, to cancel trade concession to Myanmanr for unleashing genocide against Rohingya. They have praised the government for taking courageous decision to provide shelter to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

The trade union leaders made the call today, October 4, 2017 from in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka city at launching ceremony of the ‘Garment workers’ emergency solidarity fund for Rohingya’. Five garment workers federations jointly organizing the fund to help Rohingya refugees, who fled to Bangladesh for safety from genocide unleashed by Myanmar army in Rakhain province of that country.

Renowned labour leader & Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan MP inaugurated the fund as Chief Guest of the program. Held with NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin in the Chair, the program was attended by JSD General Secretary Ms Shirin Akter MP & Executive Director of BILS Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed as guests.

Leaders of 5-garment workers federations—General Secretary of Garment Workers Employees Federation Quamrul Ahsan, President of National Garment Workers Employees Federation M Delwar Hossain, General Secretary of Ekota Garment Workers Federation Quamrul Hasan, President of Bangla Garment Workers Federation Mohammad Ali & General Secretary of National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) Ms Arifa Akter.

The Labour leaders urged the members of Garment Family that is 4.2 million garment workers & factory owners to voice for solving Rohingya problem & come forward TO help the Rohingya refugees.

They called upon the buyer & brands of different countries, including Europe, USA & Canada, who sources garment products from Myanmar to refrain from importing from Myanmar if the genocide is not stopped & Rohingya problem is not solved immediately. They also called upon the consumers of Europe, USA & Canada to boycott Myanmar’s products to protest genocide against Rohingya.

The labour leaders demanded immediate repatriation of Rohingya refugees to their country & creation of ‘safe zone’ inside Rakhain state of Myanmar for their safe living as per recommendations of the ‘Kofi Anan Commission’.