The end of a discredited government and a last minute 'fix' in Ireland

So the end is in sight for the Fianna Fail - Green government which has been on its sick bed for months. The Greens finally withdrew at the weekend, citing problems about "uncertainty" and "lack of consultation". The fact is that they should have left this government several years ago and in my view should never have entered it in 2007. The party has lost many of its best members as a result  of the increasing compromises which the Green ministers and TDs (MPs) made. I had written articles in US and Australian journals criticising the position which the party adopted from 2008 onwards and also organised a fringe at the GPEW conference in Hove where a former Green councillor, Bronwen Maher, spoke about what had happened within the party.

February 25th now seems to be the date for the general election. But the opposition parties, including the Greens, have agreed to a shabby deal, where the Finance Bill, which among other things will reduce the minimum wage, will be rushed through both houses of parliament within less than a week, so that no vote of confidence in the government needs to be called. This is a real attempt to shortcut democracy because the people should be allowed to vote first  on the type of economic decisions they want made in their name and the new government with a democratic mandate should make the decision. We can see from this that Fine Gael and Labour, the likely government partners, will continue to push through the neo-liberal policies designed to crucify the Irish people as a result  of the EU/IMF bailout of the toxic banks. Only Sinn Fein will vote against this in the Irish parliament this week. Joe Higgins the Irish Socialist Party MEP put the point very forcefully to Barroso, President of the European Commission, in a recent debate in the European Parliament.

As Paul Mason, the BBC Economics Correspondent, recently remarked: "The Irish face a generation of penury." With people leaving the country at the rate of 1000 per month, the outlook is grim. I can only hope that the parties of the Left do well in this election and that they reject the massive reparations laid down by the IMF and the discredited Irish political elite for the Irish people to pay.

The current view of the Irish politicians is best summed up in this comedy clip of a supposed interview involving the Fianna Fail Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan and the Labour TD, Joan Burton.

Blair appears again before Chlcott

On Friday morning, I stood in the bitter cold for several hours outside the QE II Centre in central London where Tony Blair had been called again to give evidence to the Chilcott Inquiry. Addressing the demonstrators, along with an Italian Senator from the Partito Radicale, Marco Perduca and several other speakers including a member of the Iraqui Democrats.

I introduced myself as a member of the International Committee of GPEW and that the Green Party and Caroline Lucas stood four square behind the demonstrators calling for Blair to appear before the court at the Hague to be accused of war crimes.I said that Lord Goldsmith’s comments on the legality of the war (his distancing of himself from Blair) together with the refusal of the Cabinet Office to releas the papers to the Inquiry, showed that there was a clear attempt on Blair’s part to doctor the accounts of the lead up to the war and was essentially a falsification of history. I also said that I thought that both the British people and the people of Iraq need to know the truth about Blair’s actions and what really happened between him and President Bush. Finally, I said that having let him off lightly last time, I hoped that the Inquiry this time would be a lot more forensic in their questioning of Blair.

In the event, as we now know, the Inquiry, although being a little more thorough with Blair, allowed him off the hook again. Despite heckling from those who had lost relatives in the war in Iraq, he tried to present some crocodile tears and say that he regretted all of the lives lost in Iraq, while never regretting the war itself. Here are some reports on the demonstration, one of the highlights for me was the figure wearing a Blair mask being led through the crowd in handcuffs. Later, while being interviewed by the Islam Channel, I was asked what some of the legacies of Blair's decisions were. I replied that there were , of course, the obvious ones of a deep distrust between the West and the Arab world, but there was also the long term political impact in this country of a distrust in politicians and the political process, after one of the largest demonstrations in British history, had not changed Blair's decision and that of the Labour Party one iota. We are now witnessing the consequences in the further betrayal of those who voted for them by the Lib Dems, creating another generation who will view all politicians as cynical and morally bankrupt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqXiaoFKX24

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGHNWO__6Gw

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/video/Blair-At-Iraq-Inquiry-Protesters-Accuse-Him-Of-Lying/Video/200901315902798

The Journey ends here - The return of Tony Blair, war criminal

This is the infamous poster of the war criminal Blair projected tonight on to Westminster Central Hall. He appears before the Chilcott Inquiry today at the QE2 Centre from 8am to 2pm and I will be there to give him the welcome he deserves.

Disabled People, Carers and Green Party Core Values v The Neo-Liberal Tide

The guest post below is by Alan Wheatley, Green Party Spokesperson on Social Security and Care Services, and will be an article in Green World magazine shortly. Disabled people are on the front line for the savage cuts which this government are introducing and already I have heard talk of possible suicides. Someone I know who is a disability activist in Lambeth, and is now one of the disability reps on the General Council of the TUC, is calling for disabled people to be at the front of the TUC march against jobs and cuts on March 26th. I think that this is an excellent idea, especially in view of the heroic role played by people like Jody Mc Intyre during the student protests before Xmas. Disabled people are also increasingly playing a role in the Coalition of Resistance.

Disabled People, Carers and Green Party Core Values vs the Neo-Liberal Tide

by Alan Wheatley

The ConDem coalition's protests that it was the legacy of the previous government that made them inflict savage cuts on the most vulnerable members of society. Actually New Labour and the main national disability charities made it so easy for the ConDems to continue in a neo-liberal agenda. The cuts in Disability Living Allowance and more broadly-claimed housing benefit emphasise the legacy-dependent class's folly of regarding 'welfare dependency' as the problem.


The ConDem government inherited more from New Labour than the fallout from an investment banker-induced mushrooming of national debt. For the new Minister for Welfare Reform, Lord David Freud's attachment to government started when Tony Blair took him on as an investment banker-turned-welfare reform guru. The Welfare Reform Act 2009 reflects a neo-liberal consensus..[1] [2] [3] That neo-liberal consensus has made the project of taking the UK back to pre-Welfare State models and even the workhouse far simpler though no less misguided.[4]


The neo-liberal model of reality epitomised in the DWP consultation paper '21st Century Welfare' only values people as units of consumption or production in a for-commercial-profit oriented system. 'Decent hard working families' welfare-reformist rhetoric denies the validity of the contribution volunteers, disabled people and parents make to society while claiming benefits. A state-funded 'welfare reform industry' administers a new form of slavery as it colonises and makes commodities of disabled people's lives. The private companies and now even national 'for disabled people' charities are incentivised by huge bonuses on government contracts. Low paid 'blue chip' company workers' Working Tax Credits fund a welfare state for the rich . Meanwhile, an ununionised reserve army of forced labour suffers ever greater 'conditionality' or bullying.[5]

As an unpaid Green Party Spokesperson I half-joke that I wish the government would stop giving me so much work. In reality, all claimants are under attack. My spokesperson status and Green Party core values as the antithesis of neo-liberal 'conditionality' gave my life heritage as a disabled job seeker great kudos. I research Community Care archives. I liaise with other Green Party members affected, CarerWatch, Caroline Lucas MP, Prof. Peter Beresford, and more recently Brighton Benefits Campaign, Disability Cartoonist Dave Lupton and Social Work Action Network. With them, my accumulated total of just 17 months' waged employment since 1977 makes me treasured as an empathetic and treasured 'expert witness' and ally. I turn my experience from victim to survivor and vanguard member of a revolution.

Get involved, and follow the links for further info! (Some of the finest people I know are benefit claimants.)

Alan Wheatley

Green Party Spokesperson on Social Security and Care Services

NOTES

[1] http://preview.tinyurl.com/ykglou8

[2] http://preview.tinyurl.com/apqz7m

[3] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioULVUQYF9E 'The effect of Welfare legislation in the UK 2010 part 1' and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsOd-O5hoVI '[ibid.] part 2'

[4] http://preview.tinyurl.com/3xdh4tg

[5] http://preview.tinyurl.com/2fbmzzr “Green Party evidence to '21st Century Welfare'”



Further info:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/383fvq9 'Writing off workfare: for a Green New Deal, not the flexible New Deal'

http://carerwatch.wordpress.com

http://www.communitycare.co.uk

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3ynadyc “Caroline Lucas” “welfare reform”

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3aapaw5 “Prof. Peter Beresford”

http://www.socialworkfuture.org/ Social Work Action Network

http://brightonbenefitscampaign.wordpress.com

http://www.disabilityartsonline.org/?filter_by_month_added=2011-01&unique_name=crippen-blog

National Day of Protest against Benefit Cuts and DLA Consultation

Details below of the National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts. Yesterday before attending the London Green Party meeting I had a meeting with London Disability Spokesperson Alan Wheatley and we began responding to the government's consultation on Disability Living Allowance. The consultation closes on February 14th so we have a considerable amount of work to get through before then. I will be chairing the working group which organises the Green Party's response to this. I had a busy weekend attending the Coalition of Resistance National Council all day Saturday where I was elected on to the national Steering Committee, whose first meeting was held today. More on the national council meeting anon. Also attended a committee meeting today of the London Ambulance Service's Clinical Quality, Safety and Effectiveness Committee, having only received the vast wadge of papers yesterday. I was standing in for the Vice Chair of the Patients Forum, Malcolm Alexander, who usually attends. Tomorrow night I attend the launch of the Centre for Respiratory Research at University College London.

National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts: 24/01/11

http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/



News is coming in of protests and actions around the UK as part of the National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts called for the 24th January.


With a call to focus on the poverty pimps set to make hundreds of millions out of benefit reforms, many groups have chosen to target Atos Origin, the company responsible for the punitive medical testing of disability and sickness benefits.


In London a Party and Picnic has been called in Triton Square near Euston from 2pm. Bring music, drums, whistles, banners, food to share and brighten up the faceless corporate wasteland that is home to poverty pimps Atos Origin Ltd: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126713940728397&index=1

In Livingston,not far from Edinburgh, protesters will be visiting Atos Origin’s Scotland Office. Visit the facebook page for more info, and be there from 10am: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171393309560338

Atos will also be the scene of a protest in Leeds called by local claimants and West Yorkshire Solidarity Federation. Be at 1 Whitehall, Leeds from 10 am then a group will be visiting notorious poverty pimps A4e at noon (Ground Floor Zicon House Wade Lane Leeds LS2 8DD): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184130128281306

Even the Shires are revolting with a Protest Against Disability Cuts to be held in Lydney, Gloucestershire. Meet outside the Co-op at 1pm: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145737215482219

A call has gone out for protest in Burnley, meet outside Burnley Town Hall at 12.30: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=188512334508043

In Hastings activists will be laying a trail of Red Drops from Hastings to London.

Crawley – Meet 10am, The Boulevard (opposite Marks & Spencers): http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181446395220447

Brighton – Using the 24th to publicise a bigger event against Atos Origin on the 5th Feb: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=181302175222578

A few days earlier on the 20th Jan, Cardiff’s Unemployed Daytime Disco returns promising DJs, Live Music, Spoken Word Artistes, bands, light shows & happenings. And of course it’s all free: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=130489737014798

Finally taking place everywhere the Second National Troll A Tory Day will take place on the 24th January for all those who can’t attend a protest in person. Tell the bastards what you think: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174707432567575

If you are organising an event in your area that has not been mentioned please get in touch. Either join the national event page and post details on the wall or email: notowelfarecuts (@) yahoo.co.uk

Supported by:

o Accept the challenge Iain Duncan-Smith!

(FB Group from Dundee Unemployed Workers)

o Benefit Claimants Fightback (fb group)

o Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign (fb page)

o Brighton Benefits Campaign

o Cardiff's Unemployed Daytime Discos!

o Carer Watch

o Carer Watch fb page

o Crippen – Disabled Cartoonist

o Disabled People Against Cuts

o Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty

o Free London Listings

o Goldsmiths in Occupation

o Haringey Solidarity Group

o Ipswich Unemployed Action

o Islington Disabled People Against Cuts

o Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

o Lancaster and Morecambe Against the Cuts!

o Norfolk Community Action Group

o Nottingham Claimants' Union

o Oxford Save Our Services

o Nuneaton Against Benefit Cuts (fb page)

o Squattastic

o Tyneside Claimants Union

o Welfare Rights 4 u (UK) fb page

o Welfare Action Hackney

o Work Programme & Flexible New Deal Scandal

o World Homeless Day

One Month Before Heartbreak - The fight to save DLA

There is only a month left before the government consultation on the ending of DLA (Disability Living Allowance) as we know it ends. I have agreed to chair a working group which will respond to this on behalf of the Green Party, as a disability activist and a recipient of DLA. The arguments around the issue are put very well in this article on Community Care website. It will be a tough battle but crucial for many disabled people. A report out today also showed the impact of any removal on many people's lives.

'The Pipe' - A documentary film about a struggle against Shell

http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1088141

Well worth watching the documentary ‘The Pipe’ which tells the story of Shell and the pipeline in the West of Ireland. Green Energy Minister, Eamonn Ryan, has presided over the criminalisation of the local campaign, after the Greens had backed it in opposition. Another one of their betrayals, which will not be forgotten in Ireland. Excerpts here from Irish TV (RTE).