Capita in Local Authorities
Britain is Broken – We can’t afford the Tories
The People’s Assembly are launching a new campaign: Britain is Broken, We can’t afford the Tories on November 28, 7pm London Irish Centre, Camden. For more details about the launch and tour dates please sign up for our newsletter
Safe and Secure Homes Summit – December 8th 2018, London
Our Secure and Safe Homes Summit will take place on 8th December from 11am at:
The National Education Union, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London, WC1H 9BD
This year’s summit will be a day of workshops and talks, with guest speakers and housing campaign groups from across the UK. It will be a space to discuss the continuing housing crisis which a specific focus on the safety of our homes and the secure, safety needs of the homes of the future.
Prospective workshops include:
- Housing Associations and safety
- Effective action
- Universal Credit, arrears and evictions
- Rents and repairs
- Private renters
- Fire safety and tower blocks
- Trade Unions and Tenants and Residents Associations
More details to follow soon. If you would like to contribute or volunteer on the day or help spread the word, please get in touch.
Protest: Together for Climate Justice
Join us on 1st December in London
12 noon, Portland Place.
Click here to join on Facebook and invite your friends
The recent IPCC report is a landmark for our planet, setting out just what is at stake if we breach 1.5C warming.
For many years 2C was talked of as a ‘safe’ limit. It was only by the tireless work of those countries most at risk from climate change that 1.5C made it into the Paris agreement at all. But now it is clear that 2C is ‘safe’ for no one. It’s also clear that we’re on track to overshoot it. Nations’ inadequate plans to tackle climate change would see us reaching 3C or 4C within the lifetime of today’s children.
Heatwaves and hurricanes make it clear: it’s time to act on climate change. The Paris agreement was a starting point but we have a long way to go, and it’s not just Trump who won’t quit fossil fuels. From fracking to a Heathrow third runway, the UK is stalling on climate action.
This December in Poland, countries will negotiate the crucial next steps to keep the Paris climate deal on the rails. It’s urgent.
But we know we can’t depend on governments to represent us at UN talks infiltrated by fossil fuel interests. We need to hear the voices of those in the front line of climate change, those whose land and water is threatened by fossil fuel industry pollution, and those fighting for climate jobs. We need solidarity from all parts of society, as we saw in the unprecedented mobilisation against Trump’s UK visit this summer. The government of Poland wants to suppress the voice of civil society, but we will speak out and send a clear message to our own government to act on climate now.
Speakers (more to be announced soon)
Clive Lewis MP, Labour Party
Sian Berry, co-leader, Green Party
Richard Roberts, fracking direct action campaigner whose recent prison sentence was overturned
Paul Allen, Zero Carbon Britain
Brazilian Women Against Fascism
Nita Sanghera, Vice President, UCU
Can you help?
Flyers now available – email info@campaigncc.org
We need volunteer stewards on the day! Sign up here
Timetable
Plan for the day (note changes sometimes need to be made for practical reasons nearer the time)
Assemble from 12pm near the Polish Embassy on Portland Place.
Rally with speeches 12.30-1.30.
March to Downing Street, where the Frack Free United open letter / declaration against fracking will be handed in.
At around 2.30 there will be two or three brief closing speeches, wrap up by 3pm
Date: Saturday, December 1, 2018 – 12:00 to 16:00
Trades Union Councils Programme of Works 2019
The Trades Councils Programme of Work is a guide to trades councils on the current priorities as established at both TUC Congress and the Trades Councils Annual Conference. The Programme of Work outlines those priorities and identifies specific actions for both trades councils and the TUCJCC.
The TUC’s campaign plan sets out what our movement will do together, over the coming year. It’s our manifesto for working people. It complements the campaigns and industrial priorities of individual unions, and offers a platform for members of different unions to work together on campaigns locally, through trades councils, regionally and nationally.
As you plan for the coming year, think about the practical actions your branch, trades council or region can take to promote our common priorities, show practical solidarity to workers in dispute and lend our support to wider campaigns that share our values. Whether it be at Workers’ Memorial Day, May Day, heartunions week, Durham Miners’ Gala, International Women’s Day, Black History Month or Tolpuddle, trade unionists stand up for equality, justice and working people all year round. And throughout the year to come, there will be tools and resources to support you at tuc.org.uk.
Statement from Labour Group following update on strategic contract review with Capita
Following an update from Barnet Council on the strategic contracts review with Capita, Leader of the Barnet Labour Group, Cllr Barry Rawlings said: “It is very disappointing to learn that full business cases for bringing Capita-run services back in-house will not be presented to the 11 December Policy & Resources Committee as democratically voted for by cross-party councillors in July.
“Overruling a democratic decision from behind closed doors with no consultation with the Committee and no real explanation why is not acceptable.
“Given the scale of the failures highlighted in the Grant Thornton review of the Council’s financial control environment, and the litany of poor performance in other Capita-run services like pensions administration, the Council should be progressing quickly to terminate its relationship with Capita.
“The fact that they are proceeding so slowly raises concerns about this Conservative administration’s commitment and competence to negotiate a way out of this mess.”