Busy week

I have had a busy week this week, taking a new course on independent brokerage with the National Brokerage Network, which has been funded by my work and this has racked up my work related activities this week. Then on Wednesday night I was at the Green Party Trade Union Group committee meeting as Treasurer, where our Secretary, Pete Murry from Brent GP, was missing due to the fact that he is currently spending a week in hospital. We decided to get Pete a get well present and I am hoping that he will be out of hospital soon as he does a lot of work for the Trade Union Group. We also expressed our full support for the FBU strike in London and members will be attending the FBU picket lines on Monday in solidarity.

Last night I had the Green Left committee meeting where I took the minutes as Secretary and now have the job of getting them prepared as soon as possible. We discussed a number of issues, including the forthcoming Coalition of Resistance conference on November 27th where we are hoping that there will be a strong Green Left and Green Party attendance and we are also hoping to have a new newsletter ready in time for this. We also discussed the Stop the War Coalition conference tomorrow and various internal party matters, including the GPRC statement. We will also be holding a general meeting of Green Left on November 6th and agenda items for that needed discussing as well as possible motions for spring conference in Cardiff.

As I missed the steering committee meeting of Coalition of Resistance this week due to the above mentioned course, I am going to hook up today with Andrew Burgin, the acting Chair for an update on where preparations for the conference are going. I am also popping down to the High Court to see how my friend, Raymond Stevenson's case against Southwark Council is going. Apparently the case was adjourned for two days this week as the judge had to go somewhere but the Head of Planning for the Council is on the stand today, which shoud prove interesting as he is one of the main players in this whole saga. Then tomorrow it is off to the Stop the War Coalition conference. Sunday will just about give me time to recover.

In the interim, I have been following the debates about "social cleansing" in London and think that this article by Andreas Whittam Smith just about sums it up.