Lewisham Anti Cuts Alliance

60-70 people gathered on Camberwell Green on Thursday for a rally in support of the campaign to stop the closure of Camberwell JobCentre Plus.  It was organised by the PCS union and supported by other trade unions and Southwark Save Our Services campaign. The demonstrators heard speeches from local trade unionists, a user of the Job Centre, and Mark Serwotka, the General Secretary of the PCS. Union reps from UNISON, NUT and UNITE pledged their branches’ commitment to the campaign to keep the Job Centre open. There was not only support for the Job Centre’s work and its role as an essential community service, but also for the forthcoming strike on the 30^th November and how important it is to build for the widest possible action on the day.

Finally the first LACA meeting of the Autumn is rescheduled!, (following last weeks unfortunate cancellation due to our participation on the very successful picket of Andrew Lansley’s appearance on the BBC’s Question Time.) The meeting will be held this Thursday 20th October @ 7.00pm at the Hobgoblin pub opposite New cross station  

An angry a vocal picket of 200 people descended on BBC’s Question time this Thursday to protest  against the Grim Reaper of the NHS, Health secretary Andrew Lansley. The picket was organised at very short notice by our  own ‘Lewisham Keep Our NHS Public’ and was quickly backed by LACA, Lambeth SOS, Southwark SOS, Right to Work, the Socialist party and UKUncut.

After much animated chanting, the protesters  held an  impromptu rally  adjacent to where the  Question time audience were cueing to get in. This was addressed passionately by two local GP’s and a spokesperson for Lewisham KONP. The impact of this was felt directly on the show, with one member of the audience saying to the panal  “when we arrived today we were met by a  lively demonstration against the health secretaries proposals, they even burst into a pre- question time tea and cakes. This shows just how passionate they are to protect theirs and our National Health service…”

In fact it was the audience itself that opposed Andrew Lansley most vehemently, exposing his lies and upstaging a rather lacklustre Ken Livingstone who came across disappointedly as an aging technocrat. The show can be seen on the BBC Iplayer.

A vibrant and exciting campaign is developing to stop the threatened closure of a secondary school in our neighbouring borough of Greenwich. The council are threatening to close the historic Blackheath Blue coat school  in the next 18 months despite fast improving academic results. The council claims that falling pupil numbers means that they cannot pay back a deficit of 1.1 million. This would appear to be a rather disingenuous argument for a council that has various proposals in the pipeline for Academy schools!

 Tuesday night saw an angry packed meeting of over 200 parents who were clearly up in arms. The mood was succinctly captured by one parent who told Gillian Palmer (Head of Children’s Services, the architect of this cut!) “If it’s a fight you want, you’ve got one!”. Unsurprisingly cowardly local councillors were nowhere to be seen. The growing anger is shared by teachers at the school who are organising a ballot with the full support of Greenwich NUT against threatened job losses, as well as students who last week audaciously staged their own opposition confronting Gillian Palmer with a silent protest of Placards and banners!

 The next flash point is likely to a public consultation meeting that will take place on Monday 17th October, 7pm at Blackheath Bluecoat school, Old Dover Road, Greenwich. LACA activists fully support this campaign and will offer our assistance as well as keeping you posted on developments.  Further information can be found on the schools website http://www.bbcs.greenwich.sch.uk/                 

Following a relatively quiet summer of activity, LACA resumes it’s fortnightly meetings this week on Thursday 13th October at the usual time of 7.00pm. Alas we do not have the resources of our class enemies and so the venue has now changed temporarily to the bar area of the Hobgoblin pub opposite New Cross gate station, until a new meeting room is found!

We welcome all new activists who are willing and prepared to join us in opposing these savage cuts and who wish to fight for a fairer society, where peoples needs are placed before the bankers profits.

LACA, the spirit of resistance!

Since Saturday 6^th August looting and destruction of shops and businesses has spread all over London and to other cities around the country. As our communities start to clear up, we have to step back and recognise that these disturbances did not happen in a vacuum.

We live in a grotesquely unequal society with an ethos of “grab as much as you can by any means”. We live in a society which respects and is led by  looters: MPs and their expenses, bankers and their bonuses, tax-evading corporations like Vodafone and Boots, hacking journalists, bribe-taking police-officers, a Tory government looting our public services.

Youth unemployment is at its highest level on record, and further and higher education costs are set to soar. Public services are being slashed in many communities with councils cutting youth services and eligibility to housing.

Welfare cuts and privatisation mean that jobcentres are being closed and benefit cuts are causing anguish and hardship to many. The withdrawal of EMA means that many young people have been cut off from further education, while politicians blame them for a lack of aspiration.

The responsibility for the events of the last few days, the rioting and looting, rest squarely on the shoulders of the government and the police. They are defending a corrupt capitalist system that is in chaos and is driving down our living standards, producing mass unemployment and creating poverty. It is this that has to be overthrown and ended. We will bring about real change only through organised struggle, mobilising the entire working class against the system, not by looting and arson.

Come along and be entertained, ask tough questions of Councillors and
campaigners and learn the truth about cuts and what can be done to fight
them.

1200-1800 Displays, activities, music, games, poetry, street theatre and
much more. We will be gathering questions about the cuts to public services
which will be used for a question time with local politicians at 1430 and with
local campaigners and activists at 1630.

MAP

We’ve produced a leaflet for handing out to members of the public, which  explains why it’s important to support the public sector strikes on 30 June, and which includes a list of picket lines and protests in the local area. Please download, print and distribute!

Click on the image or this link to download

PICKET LINES AND PROTESTS IN LEWISHAM

• Lewisham College (both Deptford and Lewisham Way campuses), starting at 7:30AM
• Catford and Forest Hill Jobcentres, starting at 7:30AM
• John Roan School, at both Maze Hill and Westcombe Park, between
  7.30am and 8.50am
• Further picket lines will be at Sydenham School, Dartmouth Rd; Forest Hill School, Dacres Rd; Christ the King School, Belmont Grove; Prendergast Ladywell Fields School; Manwood Road; and Prendergast Hilly Fields and St.Matthews Academy, starting at 8am.

ALSO:

• Street party outside Deptford Town Hall on New Cross Road 10am-1pm 
• Attend the rally at Cutty Sark in Greenwich at 10am, followed by a boat trip to Westminster
• Join the main demonstration in Lincoln Inn Fields, WC2A 3TL, at 11am
• Join the UK Uncut action near Westminster Central Hall (near the site of the end of the demonstration)

For pickets and protests elsewhere, see http://www.j30strike.org/

And check out this brilliant video by UK Uncut:

PUBLIC MEETING to support the PCS and NUT stike on June 30th
The meeting will be on the 20th JUNE, 6.30 to 8.30 pm
MONDAY
Goldsmiths College Students Union,  Dixon Road, New Cross.

Speakers include:
Chris Baugh, PCS Assistant General Secretary
Martin Powell-Davies, NUT National Executive member

Facebook event (please use this link)
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120721168012726

DOWNLOAD FLYER FOR THE EVENT