Find us now over at Facebook !

Haringey Socialists are still very much alive and kicking - but you can will find that we are more frequently updated  on our Facebook group.

Support striking Haringey / Enfield journalists

 Reproduced from an article by a local SP member in The Socialist: 

Around 100 people followed a funeral cortege, complete with incense, a coffin and the grim reaper to mark the ‘near death’ of north London and Hertfordshire newspapers in the Tindle group. Nine members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) began a series of two-day strikes on 19 April, protesting at the failure to replace staff when they leave. 

"Just three reporters are churning out nine newspapers every week" said the NUJ father of chapel, Jonathan Lovett. "The current Tindle business plan threatens to let once award-winning newspapers dwindle and die". Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ deputy general secretary, spoke to pickets on the first day of the strike: “I’ve come here today to show support for our union members bravely standing up to say ‘enough is enough’ and that the communities they serve deserve better....“If Sir Ray [Tindle] has the commitment he says he has to quality local journalism he should maintain staffing levels that allow journalists to do their job – we need more than lip service.” 

As solidarity messages highlighted, many other papers face a slide in to ‘churnalism’ with reporters stuck in the office reproducing press handouts rather that going out to investigate. On the eve of their action the Enfield Nine workers were issued letters warning that redundancies could be made in the near future but they say this has only galvanised them into fighting for the future of their papers. The strikers and supporters marched from the papers’ offices to the centre of Enfield on 20 April at lunchtime. Speakers included anti-cuts campaigners and members of the community who spoke of the need to know what is happening in their community. 

More information is available at: http://strikegazadpres.wordpress.com/

Messages of support to: email: strikegazadpres@hotmail.co.uk

Meetings for the next month

Over the next few weeks we will be discussing the following:

 • The State

What connects the Tactical Support Group and the royal wedding? An introduction to the Marxist view of the state.

• North Africa & the Middle East

Analysis  of the tide of revolutions sweeping the region.

• Our Paper

It's role in building our party and the workers' movement as a whole.

• The Trade Unions

Why the labour movement hold the key to  defeating the ConDems and how the fightback needs to be organised.

• Housing

Decent housing is a  fundamental human need that capitalism has always  failed to meet - and what  progress has been made is now under attack.

All meetings - Tuesdays at 7.30pm

North London Community Centre (Daymer), Morefield Rd, London N17

What's next after the TUC demo on 26th March ?

The demonstration on 26th March promises to be the biggest in this country since the anti-war protests of 2003. People all over the country who are angry at the attacks on our living conditions will be asking - what is the next step in the fight against the cuts? A number of different meetings are being organised locally and across London to discuss both the general political questions and the practical tasks to organise the fightback:

• London Socialist Party

Thursday 31st March 2011 7.30pm

Small Hall, Friends Meeting House, 173-177 Euston Road, NW1 2BJ (opposite Euston station) Speaker: Peter Taaffe (Socialist Party General Secretary)

• Haringey & Enfield Socialist Party

Tuesday 5th April 2011   7.30pm
North London Community House, (also known as the Day Mer centre), 

Moorefield Road, London N17 6PY

Speaker: John Dolan (Haringey UNISON - personal capacity)

• Haringey Alliance for Public Services

Thursday 14th April 2100 

details to be confirmed

New venue for meetings

From Tuesday 15th March 

our regular local meetings have moved to:

North London Community House 

(also known as the Day Mer centre)

Moorefield Road 

London N17 6PY

This is just behind Bruce Grove railway station and opposite the PO sorting office.

Local government workers fight the cuts

The following is taken from the recent Haringey Council workers' bulletin produced by local SP members:

Vote For Strike Action To Save Jobs And Services !

Haringey’s Labour-controlled council is axing approximately 1,000 jobs, over 20 per cent
of the council’s workforce. 

The impact on the individual workers, and on services to the community, will be devastating.

In December 2010 our branch passed a motion which adopted a policy agreeing:

• To fight local and national cuts, including those in jobs, services and welfare benefits.

At today’s AGM there is a motion calling for strike action against compulsory redundancies. Socialist Party members working for Haringey Council call for support for this motion. However, many members will question why we have not been balloted earlier. The council needs to be clear that we are prepared to take strike action to defend all jobs and services.

We need a massive turnout on the 26 March demonstration called by the TUC. If the Con-Dem government does not back off from its aim of destroying public services and jobs, then all the public sector unions need to co-ordinate a one day public sector strike. And if
necessary, this should be followed by a one day general strike. The Conservative-Liberal    Democrat (Con-Dem) coalition government is weak. With determined and decisive action they can be beaten.

We want councillors to stand up to stand up to the Con-Dem government The policy adopted by our branch in December also committed the branch:

• To call upon the Council to resist cuts in public services, and to join us in campaigning, publicity and lobbying the government to protect services, jobs, terms and conditions.

Our branch policy of calling on the council to resist cuts in public services must be pursued with vigour. But the only realistic and consistent way the council can resist cuts to public services is to refuse to implement the cuts and set a budget based on the needs of our borough, and unite with the Council workforce and the Haringey community in fighting for the resources to fund this from the Con-Dem government.

Every council worker understands that it is the Con-Dem government of millionaires that has slashed funding to local authorities, putting councils across Britain in a difficult position. But the difficulties facing council workers and service users if cuts are implemented far outweigh the difficult decisions councils have to make.

It is not good enough for Haringey’s Labour Council to just blame the Con-Dem government for the cuts, and then vote them through in the Council Chamber. The council had a choice - it could have chosen to fight to defend service public services and save jobs.

In voting for a cuts budget on February 24 Labour told us that they had no option but to comply with their legal responsibilities. It is true that if the council had refused to set a cuts budget it would at a certain stage have come into conflict with the law, but it would have been enormously popular with Haringey’s residents. The unions and Haringey Alliance for Public Services (HAPS) could have mobilised thousands in support of the councillors’ stand. It would then have been very difficult for the law to be used against the council.

Unlike in the past, councillors who refuse to implement a cuts budget cannot be surcharged unless they are found guilty of financial crimefor personal gain. However, they can be suspended from holding office. But other councillors could then be elected committed to taking the same principled stand.

It is not too late for Haringey Council to refuse to implement the cuts. There is still time to prepare before it would come into conflict with the law. The council can use its reserves and borrowing powers to avoid making cuts to gain time to build a mass movement in its support. Ed Miliband could give a lead by promising that an incoming Labour government would write off all local authority debts incurred from avoiding cuts.

 Time for a new workers party

Unfortunately, while our union has rightly attacked the Con-Dem government for its vicious assault on public services, its criticism of the Labour council has been muted. This reflects the continuing support Unison gives the Labour Party, both politically and financially. Yet as Haringey Labour council leader Claire Kober admitted at a council meeting in January, had Labour won last year’s general election there would still have been cuts to local authority grants. For Haringey, this would still have meant 500 job losses this year and cuts of over £45 million to local services over three years. As a union we need to be clear: Labour cuts are not better than Con-Dem cuts. We should be opposed to all cuts in jobs and services regardless of which party is carrying out the cuts.

The Labour Party receives most of its funding from the unions. Union members must make clear we will not tolerate Labour’s collaboration with the Con-Dems’ cuts to jobs, terms and conditions, and our local services.

Council workers and local service users are not responsible for the financial crisis and government debt. We all know that fault lies with the greedy bankers and a system based on putting profit before the needs of ordinary people. The Con-Dem government represents the bankers and the very wealthy in society. The previous Labour government also put the interests of big business before the needs of working people. The unions should stop financing the Labour Party and help establish a new party to represent the interests of the working class. A party that will fight against cuts and privatisation, and for a socialist society based on meeting the needs of the millions and not the millionaires.

February & March - meetings & events

• Saturday 19th Feb - Waltham Forest Anti Cuts Union 

March & protest - assemble 12 Noon Abbots Park, Leyton  - see details here

• Tuesday 22nd February - Defend The Four Meeting

7.30pm Exmouth Arms, 1 Starcross Steet, London NW1- see deatils here

NB - There is no local meeting at Tottenham Chances that night

• Thursday 28th February - Haringey Alliance For Public Services protest at council meeting

Assemble 6.30pm at Civic Centre, Wood Green - see details here

• Tuesday March 1st - Haringey Socialist Party Branch Meeting

7.30 pm Tottenham Chances, High Rd, Tottenham N17

Trade union history - 'The Great Unrest'

• Saturday March 5th - March to Labour Local Government Conference

Assemble 11am - Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, Southwark, SE11- see details here

• Sunday March 6th - Haringey Alliance For Public Services Conference

Details to follow...

• Tuesday March 8th  - Haringey Socialist Party Branch Meeting

7.30 pm Tottenham Chances, High Rd, Tottenham N17

Report back from national congress of the Socialist Party

• Tuesday March 15th - Haringey Socialist Party Branch Meeting

7.30 pm Tottenham Chances, High Rd, Tottenham N17

Lessons of the October Revolution

• Tuesday March 22nd - Haringey Socialist Party Branch Meeting

7.30 pm Tottenham Chances, High Rd, Tottenham N17

The role of 'The Socialist' newspaper

• Tuesday - March 29th - Haringey Socialist Party Branch Meeting

7.30 pm Tottenham Chances, High Rd, Tottenham N17

The revolution in the ex-colonial world







 

Councillors - fight the cuts don't implement them

The question of councilors - especially Labour councillors - implementing the ConDems cuts in public spending is being dicussed throughout the anti-cuts movement.

Our next meeting at Tottenham Chances on Tuesday 15th Feb at 7.30pm will be discussing the Socialist Party's strategy for fighting the cuts.

HAPS Rally 24th February - Fight The Cuts

JOIN THE PROTEST RALLY AT THE CIVIC CENTRE – Thursday 24th February

5.30pm – Gather at Duckett’s Common and march to the civic centre – Bring friends, workmates and neighbours and your own placards and banners.

6.30pm – Rally outside the full Council meeting, Civic Centre, N22

HAPS on Facebook

Open meeting: The Uprising In Egypt

 

 

TUESDAY 8th FEBRUARY

7.30 PM Tottenham Chances, 
399 Tottenham High Road N17 6QN

The eyes of socialists throught the world at the moment are on the unfolding events in Egypt - we will be discussing the situation there and the way forward for the Egyptian masses. 

(For background reading and in-depth analysis see here)

The CWI (Committe For A Workers International) - of which the Socialist Party is a member says:

• End police repression and brutality - For international solidarity with the Egyptian masses
• For mass workers' action, including a general strike, to overthrow Mubarak and the whole rotten, brutal regime
• For full democratic rights immediately, including the right to assemble, to strike and to organize democratic independent trade unions
• For the creation of democratically elected committees of mass struggle, and defence against state repression, in the workplaces, communities, schools and colleges, linked on local, regional and national scale, to spearhead the resistance
• For rank and file committees of police and soldiers - Side with the masses & purge the officers and hierarchy
• No to sectarianism - For the unity of all workers across religious lines
• No trust in any new 'national unity' regime based on the interests of the ruling class and imperialism
• For immediate and free elections to a revolutionary democratic constituent assembly - For a majority workers' and rural workers' government
• For a living minimum wage, guaranteed jobs, a massive programme of house building, education and health
• End the Egyptian blockade of Gaza - For self-determination for Palestine and for workers' unity and mass action to overthrow dictators across the region
• For the nationalisation of Egypt's big corporations, the banks and large estates and their democratic planning to meet the needs of the masses not an elite
• For a socialist Egypt and a socialist confederation of the region, on an equal and voluntary basis