"Standing up for trade union rights: past, present and future"

I will be going along to this event on Thursday night organised by the Institute for Employment Rights and the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers. As a UNISON member and Treasurer of the Green Party Trade Union Group, I am very interested to hear what Len Mc Cluskey in particular has to say on the future of the trade union movement during this period of real attack on workers rights and the trade union movement. With massive layoffs in the public sector being announced every day and the decimation of public services the role of the trade union movement is going to be vital The next test will be on June 30th and the national strike in the public sector over pension rights.

The Institute of Employment Rights & The Haldane Society

Invite you to hear:

Len McCluskey, General Secretary, UNITE in conversation with Sally Hunt, General Secretary, UCU

“Standing up for trade union rights: past, present and future”

chair: John Hendy QC

Thursday 26th May 2011, 6.30—8.30 pm

At Congress House, Great Russell St, London WC1B 3LS

Nearest Tube Tottenham Court Road

http://www.ier.org.uk/ www.haldane.org

2011 is an important anniversary year for the trade union movement. It marks

• 100 years since the 1911 Transport Workers strike

• 50 years since the Council of Europe’s Social Charter

• 25 years since the Wapping dispute and

• 10 years since the Friction Dynamics Strike.

2011 also promises to be a year of struggle as unions fight to defend jobs, pay, pensions and services.

So what lessons can we learn from our past to inform our future?

Two trade union general secretaries at the centre of current struggles offer their thoughts in this 2011 In Conversation event, Chaired by John Hendy QC.

Free Admission but pre-booking essential. To reserve your places email office@ier.org.uk

This event is kindly sponsored by OH Parsons, Old Square Chambers and Thompsons Solicitors.

London Ambulance Service Trust Board meeting tomorrow

Well in the aftermath of last week's press release criticising the presence of Richard Barnbrook, now apparently plotting the resurrection of the Far Right in the UK as an electoral force, at the Foundation Trust event for future LAS governors, and the total ignoring of equal ops issues by the LAS in terms of employment etc, I am attending the LAS NHS Trust Board meeting tomorrow, where I am certain to get a frosty reception. The issue of the Foundation Trust status is again on the agenda as are a number of other items including their response to the 7/7 Inquest and the recommendations to the LAS.

The Chief Executive of the LAS sent a rather waffly response last week about the press release which I issued on behalf of the Patients Forum - it is below. In the interim, I have heard some quite disturbing stories about ambulance crews and BME patients - more of that anon.  Not looking forward to tomorrow's meeting where I am, as usual, likely to be the only member of the public present.

Executive Office

Headquarters

220 Waterloo Road

London

SE1 8SD

17 May 2011

Dear Joseph

I write in response to your email of 13 May regarding the event for prospective foundation trust governors last week.

As you will be aware, the meeting was open to all members who had indicated an interest in standing as a governor.

I made reference to a number of those who were attending – including ex-members of staff and Patients Forum members – and did so to Mr Barnbrook in his role as an elected member of the London Assembly and member of their Health and Social Services Committee, which is currently carrying out a review of the Service. Indeed, it was clear from correspondence with him before the event that he was attending in this capacity. Furthermore, I was unaware he was a member of the LAS until that evening. We have around 5,000 public members as you know, and I am not aware of each individual member’s details.

Given the circumstances and public nature of the meeting, it was clearly not going to be possible to resolve your concerns at the time, and it was in this context that I and a number of other senior managers listened to and acknowledged the points you made.

However, it is regrettable that you should have felt the need to suggest going to the media before giving us an opportunity to address the issues and correct factual inaccuracies, as this is not at all helpful to our relationship with the Forum.

The process for electing members to the council of governors will be fully in line with the terms set out by Monitor. Anyone who stands for election will have to state whether they are a member of a political party in their nomination paper, and it will then be for the members of the constituency group that he or she is standing for to decide whether they wish to vote for them.

While acknowledging and agreeing with your point that there needs to be equal opportunities around this process, it should be recognised that this in itself will enable anyone to put themselves forward for election, regardless of their political beliefs or affiliations.

Moving to your statement regarding the diversity in our workforce, I can advise that currently nine per cent of our staff are recorded as being from a BME background. You will know that we would like this to be higher, but also that the Patients Forum has been involved throughout the development of the both the equality inclusion strategy and soon-to-be-published positive action strategy, and that you have representation on the equality and inclusion steering group itself.

We are also continuing to develop staff diversity forums, to help further assist our work to support key equalities initiatives and increase under-representation of these groups within the Service.

In terms of the Trust Board, in line with other NHS trusts we have had to recruit non-executive board members through the NHS Appointments Commission, which follows a clear and open process of recruitment.

Executive positions are appointed using a similarly transparent process, which is in line with best practice and includes external input to the selection procedure. We have improved our representation on the Board in a number of areas through our recruitment, albeit not visibly within BME groups.

I hope that this helps to clarify our position.

Yours sincerely

Peter Bradley CBE

Chief Executive Officer

Barack O'Bama - the first African American Irish President

Well Ireland has certainly been in the news over the last week or so. Firstly the first visit by a British head of state since 1911 and now the first visit by the US's first African American president, who is also claiming Irish ancestry via the tiny village of Moneygall in County Offaly. His nearest relative shares the same surname as mine (Healy) and apparently his ancestor was a shoemaker who emigrated to the US shortly after the Great Famine in 1850. For many Irish emigration was the only hope for improvement in a land ravaged by famine and injustice. Today this continues to be the case with many young Irish emigrating to Canada and Australia in particular. Indeed there will be a petition presented to Obama in Dublin to recognise the case of the undocumented Irish in the US, who may be covered by any amnesty on migration, which the President is already considering.

He will certainly imbibe some of the black stuff in the village pub, unlike her Maj who turned her nose up at the stuff in the Guinness brewery last week. But he is also due to give a large public address to the people in College Green in Dublin later today and it will be interesting to see if he addresses the problems of cuts and toxic banks and the deficit, which are ravaging Ireland at present. Indeed until now his administration has set its face against the policies being pursued across Europe and which are leading to the demonstrations in Spain and Greece and the mounting sense of anger and resistance across the continent. But the election of the Tea Party candidates in the US and the resulting blockage in the US legislature is producing economic policies which are the opposite of what his government has been supporting up to now.

His speech at the weekend about the 1967 borders was encouraging but he must now continue the pressure on Israel to give territory and concessions to the Palestinians. The real danger is that Bush's wars could become Obama's wars and disengagement from Afghanistan must be on the agenda, together with a complete realignment of US foreing policy vis a vis the dictatorships in the Arab world.

In the interim, the Irish group, the Corrigans, have composed this charming ditty to welcome him to Moneygall. A real bit of blarney!

The Damnation of Faust

Well when not involved in politics or the day to day business of earning a living one of my real passions is opera and I particularly like Berlioz's 'Damnation of Faust' with its really rich and dark music. Terry Gilliam's current production at the English National Opera, which I am going to see tonight, has received really good reviews. Gilliam, of course, is a film director and the idea of merging cinematic images and opera is not a new one but he has really brought this to a new level with Faust.

Gilliam has also brought the metaphor of Germany and its people having entered a faustian pact to this production and uses the images of German romanticism to start Faust's journey from jaded contemplation to self destruction. This includes images of the First World War, the Weimar Republic, the rise of Nazism and finally the Gotterdammerung of 1945 which mirrors Faust's own damnation. It really is a very political and imaginative reinterpretation of Goethe's tale and Berlioz's wonderful music. I look forward to hearing it and Berlioz is one of my favourite composers.

Anglo-Irish relations and the Queen's visit to the Irish Republic

The Queen's visit to the Irish Republic - the first British monarch since George V - will inevitably stir up strong passions as witnessed in this report. If she uses the visit to genuinely apologise for past British actions in Ireland and to build a spirit of reconciliation between the two islands and the two peoples, then it will be an opportunity for the best. But there are still many outstanding issues, not lease the future position of Northern Ireland.

Millions of euros are being spent on the visit by the supposedly cash strapped country, facing a possible default of its European Central Bank debt, and to a large extent the trip is seen as huge tourism and business PR exercise to increase levels of UK tourism and investment in the Republic. The security operation is also unprecedented and questions need to be asked about the crackdown on the right to protest etc, which is protected by the Irish constitution. Even the Guardian's Irish editor was threatened with arrest earlier today.

There are also questions to be asked about the role of the British security services in the bombings in Dublin and Monaghan in the 70s, which saw the biggest loss of life in the 'Troubles' and where the UK has refused to co-operate in opening the files despite a request from the Irish parliament to do so.

Here is a satirical video the classic UK Sky News view of Ireland and of the Irish economy. Worth pointing out though that Osborne was praising this economy only a few years ago and the joke doing the rounds is that the UK is just 2 years behind Ireland in its economic trajectory. The adage "he who laughs first, laughs last" may be true in this case.


Sky News HD Spoof - Ireland Financial Bailout - BANNED FROM YOUTUBE from Nathan Butler on Vimeo.

Fascists, racists and the London Ambulance Service

Last Wednesday evening I turned up for a meeting of potential governors of the London Ambulance Service in the Board Room of St Thomas' Hospital and was faced with a situation which I never expected to have to face - a Fascist and racist member of the London Assembly, Richard Barnbrook, was present at the event. What followed and my feelings about it I placed in the following email to the Press Office of the LAS last Friday:

Dear Angie,


I am about to issue a press release as the Chair of the Patients Forum regarding an incident which occurred this Wednesday night at the Foundation Trust event for future patient governors organised at St Thomas’ Hospital. Richard Barnbrook, a former BNP member of the London Assembly, was present, and I raised my objections to his presence with both Peter Bradley (Chief Executive) and Sandra Adams (Head of Corporate Services). Sandra Adams replied that he was a member of the Foundation Trust and that there was nothing she could do. The seriousness of the incident was compounded by Peter Bradley specifically welcoming him during the opening address, which I found very objectionable.

During the break I also raised my concerns with Margaret Vander, Head of PPI, and I was asked not to raise the issue during the workshops, although by that stage he had left the meeting. I told Margaret that there needed to be firm equal ops policies embedded in the conditions for the election of any future governor and now there is a distinct possibility that he may be standing as a governor of the LAS.

At a time when 96% of LAS employees are white, and this was painfully obvious in the staff photo presented at the event, and when there are no BME people whatsoever on the board of the LAS, representing the emergency service of Europe’s most diverse city, this is hugely insulting to BME patients and users of the ambulance service.

The Patients Forum has for some years now been expressing its concerns to the LAS about a lack of diversity in both workforce and board and about racist incidents which have occurred in the LAS and has written several times to both the CRE and its successor, the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

For me having a Fascist and racist attending an event for future governors of the LAS, being welcomed by the Chief Executive and with the prospect of standing for election as a governor is a grave cause for concern and protest and is a clarion call for the LAS to set its house in order.

Regards
Dr Joseph Healy
Chair of the LAS Patients Forum

Unfortunately as I had to spend most of Friday at work without the opportunity of compiling a press release, I sent out the following press release today to all of the major papers, BBC London, the Voice newspaper and the Health Service Journal. I sincerely hope that the LAS does something about this but the Patients Forum has been fighting this battle for too long on its own and now needs external support. There is no way that we can allow an avowed racist and Fascist to run London's Ambulance Service and the LAS has got to get its house in order.
Monday 16th May 2011.

Press Release

“The Patients Forum of the London Ambulance Service is seriously concerned about the involvement of the former BNP, and now Independent, Assembly Member, Richard Barnbrook, in the forthcoming election for governors of the London Ambulance Service, when it becomes a Foundation Trust later this year.

At an event last Wednesday at St Thomas’ Hospital, organised for potential governors, Barnbrook attended and was personally welcomed by the Chief Executive of the Trust, Peter Bradley. The Chair of the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum, Dr Joseph Healy, objected to his presence and passed these objections on to both the Chief Executive and the Director of Corporate Services, Sandra Adams, but was told that Barnbrook was a member of the Foundation Trust.

At a time when the London Ambulance Service, which serves the most diverse city in Europe, has a 96% white workforce and a Board of Directors, which does not include one black or ethnic minority member, facts which the Patients Forum has continued to point out to the LAS and to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, we consider this a serious development.

The LAS needs as a matter of priority to put in place safeguards around equal opportunities which will prevent Fascists and racists standing for election as governors of one of London’s main emergency services. Furthermore, we call for the LAS to urgently address the lack of black and minority ethnic representation within both its workforce and its governance system. Only when this issue has been properly addressed can the LAS truly claim to represent all of the patients and users of the LAS in Europe’s most diverse city.”

Dr Joseph Healy
Chair
Patients Forum London Ambulance Service

Caroline Lucas speaks about Palestine while the commemoration of the Nakbah sparks unrest across Palestine

Caroline Lucas speaks at an event in London on Saturday to commemorate the Nakbah. Unfortunately I could not atttend as I was at the National Council meeting of the Coalition of Resistance, of which more later. Meanwhile across Palestine the event sparked clashes as Palestinians mark 63 years since 'The Catastrophe'.

And for Greens Engage and other apologists for the Zionist state within the Green Party, who recently libelled me and other Green Party members who reject their view on their website, dressed as a somehow April Fool's prank while accusing us of being anti-Semitic - I have replied in the pages of the forthcoming issue of Jewish Socialist Magazine - where I was asked to write a short piece on the attacks of these people on both the Green Party of England and Wales and out Australian Greens who have stood up for the policy of boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Here are some images of how the same Zionist state has been reacting towards Palestinian protests on Friday in the West Bank.