A Life for Freedom in South Africa: Denis Goldberg 80th Celebration

The picture is from the celebration of the 80th Birthday of South African freedom fighter Denis Goldberg. This took place in the South African High Commission in Trafalgar Square, London.

The celebration was in aid of the development Charity Community HEART  that Denis helped set up.  My fellow UNISON NEC member for Community, Izzy McVicar, organised the event.

Denis (centre - seen with London UNISON Convener Gloria  Hanson, Deputy Convener Conroy Lawrence and me lurking at the back) spent 22 years in prison during the struggle against apartheid. He was sentenced in the same trial as Nelson Mandala. However, since he was white, he was of course put into a different prison.

In his speech Dennis joked that he and his fellow ex-prisoners are the only people who celebrate the 50th anniversary of their arrests and for only getting life sentences (the prosecutors wanted the death penalty).

Although he is very proud of all that has been achieved in a free South Africa he recognises that there is much still to be done. He does think it is a little arrogant that some people in the UK criticise the lack of equality in South Africa when they have had since 1870 to do something about inequality in the UK. 

On a positive note Denis thinks that "the hormones in our teenagers" will eventually solve our racial differences.

How to allocate a £1 billion of pension assets?

Picture is from an unusual meeting held recently with other members of Newham Pension Committee on fund "asset allocation".

What types of investments you should allocate pension fund money into is arguably the most important decision that a board or trustees can make. Far more important than deciding who you employ to manage the funds day to day or even how much they charge.

Depending on your fund requirements, if you say decide to invest too much money in high risk equities rather than lower risk bonds it could have a devastating impact. Conversely if your fund really needs to take more risk and you think the economic outlook is right, then it can have a very negative effect if you opt for the safe options.

Newham decided that instead of having the usual type of review meeting meeting, where our fund advisers will  present  issues and options to the Committee who will then be expected to make a decision - to try something different. So the fund officers organised a special "round table" meeting and invited different City professionals and the Committee members (including the trade union reps) to debate and argue what should be our asset allocation fundamentals.

There was  a robust but productive wide exchange of views and I think all committee members went away with a much better understanding of the problems and possible solutions than a dry presentation. Good stuff. I recommend other pension schemes should consider doing the same. (picture of me with Cllr Ayesha Chowdhury and UNISON pension rep Gloria Hanson)

May Day March & Rally London 2013

This lunchtime I went on the traditional London May Day march from Clerkenwell to Trafalgar Square.

It was a cheerful, noisy and very colourful event. The lovely blue (not Tory of course) skies and sunshine helped. Lots of red flags trade union banners, music and political chanting.

A little strange perhaps to see so many banners with smiling pictures of Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao in the West End of London but no one seemed to mind.

You bump into a number of Labour movement people during the march you know but haven't seen for ages.  You meet new people who you happen to be marching alongside and can have some good political conversations but usually it's a discussion about the weather.

I helped carry our UNISON Housing Association branch banner and the UNISON Greater London Regional banner. Normally due to political elections it is difficult to attend the March but this year there are no elections in London tomorrow.

Centre of picture college is UNISON London Regional Convener Gloria Hanson speaking to the rally at Trafalgar Square. Below is the excellent and well received speech she made.

"My name is Gloria Hanson and I’m very proud to be here today sending you solidarity and unity from UNISON Greater London Region.

May day has been celebrated in London since the 1880’s and if the Tories have their way that’s what we’ll be returning to:-

•     before the NHS when healthcare was based on wealth not need,

•     when only the rich received an education & a decent standard of living

•     when there was no minimum wage, no holiday or sick pay, no health & safety and no rights at all for workers

•     when the poor and needy had nothing to look forward to except the workhouse

This Tory led Government came into power determined to pick up where Margaret Thatcher left off but after 3 years in office its clear it is going to be much worse, with an austerity agenda slashing our public services and the welfare state in a way she could only dream off.

Millions of jobs in the public sector lost, unemployment reaching record levels, our NHS and many of our schools and essential public services effectively privatised or sold off to the highest bidder. 

Our pay has been frozen as the cost of living soars, our employment & equality rights under threat and cuts to housing & other benefits will be devastating for all – especially in London. Our most vulnerable citizens are being made to bear the brunt of a financial problem that was not of their making.

Our parents and grandparents fought long and hard to establish our public services and many of the rights we take for granted today.  We cannot allow them to ride roughshod over them, whilst giving tax breaks to their rich friends. We must stand together as workers and trade unionists to defend them.

As we celebrate May Day here today we must remember that unity is strength, and when we stand together with one voice we WILL be heard".

My UNISON NEC 2013 Ballot Paper for Greater London & Community

Vote for the forces of light and reason!

UNISON NEC London & Health Candidates: Use your vote and have your say!

More candidates in UNISON NEC elections 2013 who support the interests of ordinary union members.

UNISON London Labour Link Forum 2013: Decent Pensions for All

Picture from last week's UNISON London Labour Link annual forum in the UNISON HQ.  I chaired the Forum meeting with Gloria Hanson (see to my left).

It was a good business meeting where we discussed with Link delegates from London branches the financial report, this years work plan and motions to the National Forum.

Gloria took Chair when I moved this motion on "Decent Pensions for All".
 
"This Forum notes:-

That many private employers providing public services across all Service Groups have in recent years announced plans to stop offering a decent defined benefit scheme to new members or stop existing members building up further pensionable service.

Some employers and pension providers are planning to massively increase employee pension contributions. This will make them unaffordable.

The reasons given are that they must protect the fund against rising “pension liabilities”. This is nonsense.  It is well known that due to needlessly overcautious assumptions by many schemes and inflexible accounting practices, the “costs” of defined benefit pensions have risen in a totally artificial manner.  This has meant that pension schemes appear to have high deficits when in fact this has nothing to do with their underlying strengths or weaknesses.

Properly run and regulated defined benefit pension schemes are as affordable today as they have ever been. Most defined contributions schemes will not result in members getting adequate benefits when they retire. Our members will die in poverty and the taxpayers will have to subsidise bad employers for their poverty pensions.

If in the future decent defined benefit schemes are only to found in the traditional public sector then this will under mind their long term future.

This Forum calls upon Labour Link :-

To support and campaign to save all defined benefit pension schemes that we have members in from closure.

To lobby the Government to change accounting practices .

To examine the case for employers to be encouraged to seek alternative defined benefit provision in our sector and what role the Labour movement can play in this provision. In many other countries trade unions provide pensions.

To ask Labour Link to campaign within the Labour Party for a decent defined benefit pension for all".

It was accepted unanimously and selected to be one of our two regional motions submitted to the National Forum.

Afterwards there was a special joint meeting of London and Eastern England UNISON link members with guest speakers Richard Howitt, Labour Member of European Parliament and Chuka Umunna MP Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. Which was followed by Q&A's which I will post upon later.

Do You Hear the People Sing? London UNISON Regional Council AGM results 2013

REGIONAL COUNCIL AGM 2013

ELECTION RESULTS

The results of the elections held at the Council AGM on 6 February 2013 are given below.  The elections were conducted, in accordance with the Regional Rules, under the single transferable voting system (STV) and were carried out by the Electoral Reform Services.

REGIONAL CONVENOR (1 to elect)

HANSON Gloria	121	Elected
THOMPSON Marsha Jane	65

DEPUTY REGIONAL CONVENOR (1 to elect)

LAWRENCE Conroy	117	Elected
WATKINS Phoebe	70

REGIONAL FINANCE CONVENOR (1 to elect)

GRAY John	124	Elected
SANGARAPILLAI Vinothan	62

                       

REGIONAL PUBLICITY OFFICER (1 to elect)

BENTLEY Lynn	116	Elected
CASHMAN Ruth	69

REGIONAL EQUALITIES CONVENOR (1 to elect)

GREEN Yvonne	125	Elected
LAWLER Gabrielle	58

REGIONAL YOUNG PERSONS CONVENOR – 1 Vacancy

SMIKLE Michaela

Automatically elected  Clean sweep. Hat tip Youtube link to CS

VICTORY: For London UNISON Centre Left

The Greater London UNISON Regional Council AGM took place today and I am pleased to report that the forces of light and reason yet again soundly defeated the Evil Ones (aka "the miserablists") and re-elected the Convenor Dream team headed by Gloria Hanson and Conroy Lawrence.  Lynn Bentley as Publicity Officer; Yvonne Green as Equalities Convenor and myself as Finance Convenor.

Many thanks for all your support London comrades!

In the meanwhile enjoy this great video and music.

TUC #Oct20 March for A Future that Works

Another fantastic Labour Movement march and rally for an alternative economic policy,” A Future that Works”. 150,000 in central London and many more in Glasgow and Belfast. The weather held out for us. It was mild and balmy with lots of sunshine. A colourful, lively, noisy but peaceful protest against the wrecking of our economy by this one trick Tory Coalition of economic illiterates. 

I was in the main UNISON component near the front of the march, going to and fro from my Housing Association branch banner to the London regional one. In picture collage below you see UNISON comrades, my local Labour MP Lyn Brown with West Ham CLP; Newham folk gathering at Stratford Station, UNISON Regional Convener Gloria Hanson, Deputy Convener Conroy Lawrence, Regional Publicity Officer Lynn Bentley and NEC member Kim Silver. See also Labour Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves.

We all booed Starbucks and Vodafone shops we passed by as being tax cheats and thieves.  

I heard that the selfish idiots who shamed our movement at the end of the march last year with their pointless yobbery tried to infiltrate our march this year wearing masks and were told in no uncertain terms by rank and file activists “Oi, take your masks off your cowardly b*****ds” and the 0.001%ers were “persuaded” to go forth and multiply elsewhere.

The Rally at Hyde Park was better organised than last year. Great speeches from Ed Miliband and Dave Prentice. Afterwards London region UNISON retired to the ‘spoons at Marble Arch to celebrate the March. The pub was packed out with marchers and you could not move around without finding people to argue and debate about putting the world to rights. Some made more sense than others but this is really why we were all there.

We did not march for marching sake but to make the case for an alternative economic policy. Austerity does not work. Our National debt is growing and our economy is still tanking. We need a different way to run our country.

(I'll post more pictures of the march on Facebook tomorrow).