Remember Gaza - National Demonstraton on Saturday

I will be marching on this demonstraton on Saturday for the rights of the Palestinian people and also helping out on the Green Party's stall there. Jean Lambert, the Green Party MEP for London, will be speaking on the platform.

National Demonstration Saturday 16 MayAssemble 12noon Malet St London WC1E 7HY

March to Trafalgar Square
Free Palestine • End the Occupation • End the Arms Trade • Commemorate the 1948 Palestinian Nakba
Called by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, Palestinian Forum in Britain and CND

And supported by:

Action Palestine, Amos Trust, Arab Media Watch, Arab Women’s Association, Association of Palestinian Communities UK, Britain-Palestine Twinning Network, The Council for Arab-British Understanding, Campaign Against the Arms Trade, Christian Peacemaker Teams UK, Fire Brigades Union, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Friends of Lebanon, Friends of Birzeit University, Friends of Sabeel UK, The Green Party, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions UK, Jewish Socialists’ Group, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Labour Friends of Palestine, Liberation, Midlands Palestinian Community Association, Muslim Association of Britain, Muslim Council for Britain, NUS Black Students Campaign, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Respect, Pax Christi, Public and Commercial Services Union, Rail Maritime and Transport Union, UNISON, UNITE, Viva Palestina, War on Want, Zaytoun Ltd

Peter goes forth!

The following is from my Green Party colleague Peter Tatchell who is setting off for Moscow tomorrow to protest for LGBT rights in Russia and Belarus. He is someone never afraid to put himself on the line and politician and human rights activist of great conviction and valour. Two years ago Peter suffered a serious head injury when he went to protest in Moscow. Those of us who march in the Pride Parade in London etc should bear in mind the real struggle in countries such as Russia to even hold a demonstration. Nikolai Alekseev is also a brave man and I met him when he came to speak to the Lesbian and Gay Humanist Association several years ago in London.

Tatchell at Moscow Gay Pride

Undeterred by threat of arrests and bashings

London - 11 May 2009

Despite threats to bash and arrest the marchers, British gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell will attend this Saturday’s Moscow Gay Pride parade – this year renamed Slavic Gay Pride to support the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality struggles in all Slavic countries, Russian and non-Russian.

The parade is scheduled to take place at lunchtime on Saturday 16 May, and coincides with the final of the Eurovision song contest which is being held later that night, also in Moscow.

The Moscow authorities have said the parade is banned and have threatened “tough measures” against anyone who tries to march. In addition, there is the likelihood of mob violence against the marchers by neo-Nazis, skinheads, ultra-nationalists and Christian fundamentalists – as happened in 2006 and 2007.

“I am joining the parade to show my support for the courageous Russian gay campaigners. All year round they risk arrest, imprisonment and queer-bashing attacks. These men and women are absolute heroes. I salute them,” said Mr. Tatchell, who is the human rights spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales and the Green Party parliamentary candidate for the university constituency of Oxford East in south-east England.

“International solidarity is hugely important. My presence is one way to show that gay people around the world support the right of gay people in Russia to live their lives without homophobic prejudice, ostracism, discrimination and violence.

“This parade is in defence of human rights. We are defending the often violated human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Russians. They want legal protection against discrimination and hate crimes. I support their cause.

“Not all Russians are homophobic, but many are. Gay Russians suffer queer-bashing attacks, blackmail, verbal abuse and discrimination in education, housing and employment,. This shames the great Russian nation.

“Saturday’s Slavic Gay Pride is about more than gay human rights. It is about the right of all Russian people to freely express their opinions and to protest peacefully. The ban on gay parades is just one example of the systematic suppression of civil liberties in Russia.

“I appeal to President Medvedev, Prime Minister Putin and Mayor
Luzhkov: gay people are no threat to Russian society. Be magnanimous.
Uphold democratic rights and freedoms. Allow the Slavic Gay Pride parade.

“Although I am determined to support our Russian and Belarusian comrades, like them I am anxious about what may happen to us. But we have to take some risks; otherwise the homophobes and authoritarians will win.

“I don’t have much confidence that the Moscow police will accept our right to protest or that they will protect us against neo-Nazi violence.

“At Moscow Pride in 2007 I was beaten almost unconscious by right-wing extremists, while the police stood by and watched. They then arrested me. I spent several hours in police detention before being released without charge. My attackers have never been arrested, even though they were clearly identified in photos and film footage,” said Mr Tatchell.

Further information:

Peter Tatchell – 020 7403 1790 (until 10am Wednesday 13 May, and after 11pm 18 May)

Nikolai Alekseev (organiser Slavic Gay Pride) - + 7 916 255 8240

Stop the BNP

Important message from Hope Not Hate about stopping the BNP below. They will be making a determined stand to win a European Parliamentary seat in London. We need a good turnout to prevent that happening.

The BNP are officially launching their manifesto today - it's got very serious, very quickly. As a response, I need you to watch this video and then pass it on to all of your friends - getting them to sign up to our campaign as well.

Watch the videoWe need to focus on the fact that the BNP can only win if turnout is low. That's why we've made this video - it uses quotes from Nick Griffin to highlight the real danger that the BNP pose. And then it gives people the chance to stop the BNP - by joining our campaign.Please watch the video and then share it with all of your friends:http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/sharethis

The BNP pretend to have changed. But they're the same old Nazi-loving racists that we've fought - and beaten - before. To win this time we need to mobilise the thousands and thousands of people who support us and are willing to contribute to our campaign - so watch the video, share it with your friends and then get them to sign up for HOPE not hate.http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/sharethis

We need to use this moment to push our campaign forward. But we need your help now as well - please pass this video on to at least 20 of your friends. In the next few weeks we'll all need to redouble our efforts. But this is a campaign we can and will win.

Green Party Election Broadcast Tonight

Green Party Election Broadcast - Tonight!
Be sure to watch the Green Party's election broadcast tonight - showing on ITV at 18.25, BBC1 at 18.55, and BBC2 at 17.55.

And, once you've been inspired to further efforts to help the campaign, you can easily contribute by:-

Emailing reelectjean@hotmail.co.uk with offers of help-

- Printing out and putting up a poster

Expenses

The Daily Torygraph continues to roll out the sordid details about the great and the good and their expenses. New Labour ministers and MPs have been getting it for the last few days but now I believe that the spotlight is falling on the Tories and others. The strangest must be the case of Sinn Fein, who have an abstentionist policy to taking seats in the UK parliament, yet still managed to claim £500,000 in second home expenses. This has the makings of a good farce. But who would believe it?

Mind you in Lambeth we have had an absentee councillor in Princes Ward for most of the last two years who headed off to Bristol to gain a parliamentary nomination for a Labour seat there and only attended two council meetings in Lambeth in the last year. I believe that the Lib Dems are calling for the return of his councillor's allowance to the people of Lambeth, and if they are not, I certainly am. The Council Leader also stood full square behind him during this time and he should have something to say on the issue. Or are the Labour Party in Lambeth only following the example of their larger scale counterparts across the river in Westminster? Answers on a postcard please Mr Reed. Is it any wonder that people are disillusioned with politics? I will not be doing a moonlight flit to any far flung spot looking for a nomination as I will be standing for the constituency which includes Princes Ward.

Collateral Damage

Robert Fisk is one of the best journalists dealing with the Middle East and the 'War on Terror' which the UK government is involved in at present. After another incident this week where many innocent Afghan civilians were bombed by US aircraft, he wrote the following article in The Independent. Of course, he is right that enquiries from either US/NATO or Israel lead nowhere and nobody is ever brought to book. It was just another few Muslims and all a terrible mistake. Meanwhile the carnage continues. It is about time that UK taxpayers and voters called for an end to this "war without end".

Sign the petition here for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

http://www.petitiononline.com/stwc01/petition.html

Robert Fisk: Civilians pay price of war from above
Thursday, 7 May 2009

Of course there will be an inquiry. And in the meantime, we shall be told that all the dead Afghan civilians were being used as "human shields" by the Taliban and we shall say that we "deeply regret" innocent lives that were lost. But we shall say that it's all the fault of the terrorists, not our heroic pilots and the US Marine special forces who were target spotting around Bala Baluk and Ganjabad.
Related articles
Afghan massacre overshadows US talks
'120 die' as US bombs village
Leading article: Air strikes will not bring stability to Afghanistan
Letters: Aid for Afghanistan
When the Americans destroy Iraqi homes, there is an inquiry. And oh how the Israelis love inquiries (though they rarely reveal anything). It's the history of the modern Middle East. We are always right and when we are not, we (sometimes) apologise and then we blame it all on the "terrorists". Yes, we know the throat-cutters and beheaders and suicide bombers are quite prepared to slaughter the innocent.

But it was a sign of just how terrible the Afghan slaughter was that the powerless President Hamid Karzai sounded like a beacon of goodness yesterday appealing for "a higher platform of morality" in waging war, that we should conduct war as "better human beings".
And of course, the reason is quite simple. We live, they die. We don't risk our brave lads on the ground – not for civilians. Not for anything. Fire phosphorus shells into Fallujah. Fire tank shells into Najaf. We know we kill the innocent. Israel does exactly the same. It said the same after its allies massacred 1,700 at the refugee camps of Sabra and Chatila in 1982 and in the deaths of more than a thousand civilians in Lebanon in 2006 and after the death of more than a thousand Palestinians in Gaza this year.

And if we kill some gunmen at the same time – "terrorists", of course – then it is the same old "human shield" tactic and ultimately the "terrorists" are to blame. Our military tactics are now fully aligned with Israel.

The reality is that international law forbids armies from shooting wildly in crowded tenements and bombing wildly into villages – even when enemy forces are present – but that went by the board in our 1991 bombing of Iraq and in Bosnia and in Nato's Serbia war and in our 2001 Afghan adventure and in 2003 in Iraq. Let's have that inquiry. And "human shields". And terror, terror, terror. Something else I notice. Innocent or "terrorists", civilians or Taliban, always it is the Muslims who are to blame.

Patients Forum Ambulance Services (London) and LONDON LINks Inaugural Meeting

At this meeting of the Patients’ Forum Ambulance Services (London) Ltd http://www.londonambulance.nhs.uk/about_us/involving_our_community/patients_forum.aspx

, of which I am the Vice Chair, we will be discussing plans for the London Olympics and Paralympics by the London Ambulance Service. There will also be reports on the latest situation regarding the flu pandemic and the consultation for the London Ambulance Service to become a Foundation Trust. As London's only pan London patient and public involvement body, the meetings are usually very well attended by health activists from across the city. We also have leading speakers from the NHS and the London Ambulance Service.

News here also of the first meeting of the London Local Involvment Networks (LINks) the main public involvement bodies in the NHS next Thursday. This is a really excellent initiative and one that needs supporting.

Inaugural Meeting of LINk LONDON



Following the success of our first Annual General Meeting, National Association of LINks Members (NALM) are pleased to announce the inaugural meeting of LINk LONDON.



Thursday May 14th 6pm – 8pm

Conference Room

London Ambulance Service

220 Waterloo Road, SE1





Why do we need a London LINk (Local Involvement Network) ?



Some services - such as the London Ambulance Service - are provided across the capital, whilst many others, e.g. TB, stroke, trauma, haemophilia and HIV are or will be purchased jointly by PCTs across London. PCT’s and local authorities are now banding together to look for “improvements” and “savings” in how they design, deliver and pay for our services in London. PCTs have a duty to involve the public in the purchase of these and many other services.



London-wide commissioning requires London-wide public involvement. Ensuring there is public involvement in commissioning is an obligation for PCTs – and now is the time to develop LINks, so that service users can be involved in negotiating with PCTs to develop the best possible services for Londoners.



A key objective in forming LINk London is to act together to influence access and quality of health and social care services across London. LINks focus on local issues, but individual LINks acting alone cannot meet the growing need for pan-London public participation and involvement.



The sharing of skills and knowledge across a London LINks network, will mean stronger individual LINks for London and reduce duplication. Here are some examples of possible benefits:



• Training: with the Care Quality Commission on LINks response to the Annual Health Check



• Consultations: building the capacity to respond to pan-London consultations on services changes proposed by PCT’s, NHS London and local authorities.



• Specialist briefings for LINks members who want to want to be involved with the planning and development of services



• Promoting new and innovative ideas for health and social care services in London



• Joint monitoring of services provided by several PCTs or pan London





• Meeting with London’s Overview and Scrutiny Committees when they are working jointly on services changes.



• Publicity about major service changes and the hosting of joint LINk public consultation events.



• Research: promoting user led research to support LINks involved in negotiating with PCTs on the development of pan London services



No one LINk could achieve all this by acting alone.



If you support our vision of pan London, as well as local representation, please come to the inaugural meeting of LINk LONDON. This invitation is open to all LINk members



TELL ANYONE WHO MIGHT BE INTERESTED



LINk LONDON for Stronger LINks

<mailto:NALM2008@aol.com> NALM2008@aol.com – Tel: 07817505193 or 0207 275 7574