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A POWERFUL STORY WAITING TO BE HOLD
Streetlife Museum, Hull
UniteLANDWORKER Winter 2023/24
More museums (*) are reaching out to the Gypsy Roma
and Traveller community to record their distinctive lives to help their
visitors and the general public at large to understand how these ethnic groups have contributed to British society –
and rural communities particularly - for centuries.
The
historical, economic and cultural contribution of Britain's 300,000 Gypsies and
Travellers is slowly becoming recognised.
When Robin
Diaper, whose work as the Curator of Maritime & Social History at Hull
Museums and Gallery involves overseeing, amongst other sites, the Streetlife
Museum of Transport became aware there were stories about the history of the
gypsy and traveller community in the city and its surrounding areas he sought
help.
“During
COVID we tried doing things remotely. There was man called John Cunningham
in the Hull Pals Battalion who had earned a Victoria Cross for his bravery
during WWI. He was a Romany gypsy. I had seen that Violet Cannon at York
Travellers Trust (YTT) had written a blog on him but as she was having a baby
at the time, she was unable to write a panel on him for the Wilberforce Museum,
which is next door”, explains Diaper, who then was able to get in touch with
Cunningham’s great nephew Charles Newland who was good enough to provide all
the necessary information for a permanent display of a powerful story that was
just waiting to be told.
“That was
great and as we had pockets of unused space at Streetlife and understood that
perhaps we were not covering the heritage of the gypsy and traveller (G&T)
community we asked Violet if she would be willing to help us develop this and
to facilitate contact with communities too,” said Diaper. “What we wanted to do
was make a permanent addition and a meaningful change”.
YTT chief
executive Cannon, who is a Romany Gypsy who spent her childhood roadside at a
time when land was not as scarce as today and legislation, which eventually
forced her family to move into a house, was less restrictive, was inspired by
what she heard to get involved.
“I felt it
would recognise the permanency of Gypsy and Travellers families in Hull where
many families have strong links to York. I have worked in the voluntary sector
from an early age and I am keen to remove the obstacles that I faced for future
generations of my community,” many of whom are no longer travelling round the
country.
Asked to
describe the situation facing today’s G&T community, Cannon said recent
research by Birmingham University exploring Islamophobia and prejudice against
Muslims found that it was exceeded by negative perceptions towards G&T.
Cannon
facilitated workshops with members of the G&T community who decided what
items would go on display to represent them. This includes a life-sized model
of a piebald horse, information boards on diverse subjects and lots of
photographs, many taken by George Norris who is strongly linked with G&T.
 |
In a similar
fashion to the total absence of agricultural workers in paintings from the past
this is a silent testament to a race of people that have lived here for
centuries but who have been largely drowned by deafening silence.
Cannon hopes
the exhibition will be attended by “gypsy and travellers who will feel valued
to see their culture represented. I hope that other communities attend and
learn something new, or at least open their minds a little”.
Diaper has
been heartened that Gypsies and Travellers have visited Streetlife to view the
displays on their culture and social history and “when we did a small opening
there was a couple of families who were passing through locally who came along
and expressed their pleasure afterwards.”
He is
hopeful of developing more exhibition projects with G&T. “Now that we have
gained a bit of trust, we have already had some initial interest and we have
some spaces that could accommodate temporary works.”
Diaper has
also had visitors to Streetlife, which is ostensibly a transport museum, express
their pleasure at seeing the G&T community represented.
Visitor Ian
Atherton felt it was “only right that G&T are represented in a Hull
Museum. If you want to know the true history of a place then every part has to
be represented and my dad worked as a scrap man with many gypsies.”
Atherton,
who has regularly visited Appleby Horse Fair, believes much of the negative
perceptions towards G&T are “generated by the media because once people mix
with one another they soon get along well enough.”
The
Streetlife Museum of Transport is home to over 200 years of transport history
spread across six galleries.
Situated
within Hull’s Museums Quarter, the Streetlife Museum of Transport neighbours
both Wilberforce House and the Hull & East Riding Museum which are also
free to enter.
In recent
times the Wilberforce Museum has been working with the local Black Community to
develop new galleries looking at the legacies of transatlantic slavery. A
temporary exhibition Uncovering Modern Slavery has just opened.
· * In 2022, Landworker revealed how Worcestershire
County Museum (WCM) at Hartlebury Castle was transforming the experiences of
visitors to its beautiful Gypsy Roma and Traveller (GRT) Vardo (the Romany word
for a horse drawn gypsy caravan) collection. This followed the appointment of Vardo Project Officer of Georgie
Stevens, part Romany herself.
Members of
the Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller community are featured in many of the
photographs in the Gordon Shennan collection at Inverness Museum and Art
Gallery. Many museums held special events during June which is Gypsy, Roma, and
Traveller History Month. The historical, economic and cultural contribution of
Britain's 300,000 Gypsies and Travellers is slowly becoming recognised.
Milking
It
Just as
environmental subsidies are allowing money to grow on trees for big companies
who are buying up large amounts of land for carbon trading projects then so too
are our public funds being misused in a case of missing cows helping to boost
supermarket profits.
From the
towns where you buy your packaged milk from the supermarket, you will not have
noticed the radical changes in the fields that are taking place to provide that
carton.
Yet if you
are lucky enough to have the time to roam round the countryside, you will not
see many cows grazing anymore. There are being replaced by black plastic bags
stuffed with grass cuttings ready for storage nearer the farm for use as feed
for cattle, whose pats are washed out and collected in slurry tanks, all ready
to be transported by road to the fields.
Locked
away
The cattle
still exist and many farms now house several thousand cows - or beef cattle.
They are out of sight in big barns. They stay indoors throughout the year as
the drag of taking them out to fields and bringing them back, twice a day in
all sorts of weathers, is several steps too far for most producers these
days. Quite simply that is ‘inefficient’ in terms of energy and time consumed. The
cattle are there 24 hours a day in sparse conditions. While we rightly hear
about chickens indoors, we hear much less about these cattle, yet they are
sentient creatures.
So, the
animals stay indoors, in the dry, and eat mainly grass from the fields. But
they also eat a lot of ‘concentrate’. This is usually soy beans, £800million annually
imported from Brazil, and maize (about the same amount in money) mainly
imported from USA. The tax/tariff on this maize has been removed by this
government in June this year, only the second tariff change since Brexit, in
order to keep feed prices low.
The change
from field to factory production has gone on in the last 5-10 years out of
sight and with few controls on conditions.
Banks and
supermarket pressures
Banks have shoved
dairy farmers, caught by supermarkets pushing them to produce milk ever
cheaper, into major investment. They need massive tractors and mowers to cut
the grass as quickly as possible, often 4 times a year, and then shift the cuttings
into silage bags. Farmers also need slurry tanks to hold the waste washed from
the barns plus slurry tankers to cart the stuff to deposit on the fields, often
along busy roads at high speed. They also need to improve their own
infrastructure to carry this frequently used heavyweight. No wonder 1 in
20 dairy farmers went to the (albeit dry stone) wall last year.
Diary
workers quit over working conditions
Many dairy
workers have been replaced by ever more accurate machines to feed, precisely
measured amounts, and to milk and measure the production of the beasts. There
are not now enough dairy workers. A survey for ‘The Cattle Site’ found
that four fifths of all respondents were worried by staff recruitment with almost
a third considering leaving the industry due to a lack of dairy labour. 28%
reported staff were leaving due to unsociable working hours. It may also have
something to do with working inside all day. Clearly, they need a union.
River
damage to be paid for by the public purse
The environmental
impacts of these changes are poorly understood, as they are poorly studied. One
big issue are excessive phosphates going into rivers, causing ‘nutrient growth’
of algae taking oxygen and thus killing other river life. Half comes from yards
and half from fields. The slurry is rich in phosphates which are not held in
the ground well, and so washes off. It may also be that the slurry soil
works more anaerobically, so not as efficient as old-fashioned aerobic cow manure
in holding the phosphate. But I cannot find any UK Land based research looking
into this issue.
The
government announced in August this year - as part of unlocking the old EU’s
‘nutrient neutrality’ law- that £280m is going to be invested directly to
rivers to improve slurry damage with 4000 farm inspections being carried out by
50 new inspectors. There is also a £25m innovative research programme to
improve nutrient (phosphate) holding in soil. Are the supermarkets going
to fund these government costs, rather than coming out of taxpayer’s money, to
make up for their cheap milk policy?
The really big environmental issue concerns global warming.
Cows are often blamed for their methane burps, yet the cow contribution to this
major problem is much more complex. Cows in fields burp across the grass, where
chemicals called ‘hydroxyl radicals’ (charged OH molecules), produced in
sunlight by water on grass, break the methane up into less harmful water and
carbon dioxide.
In the barns there are no radicals keeping things the
methane down. Also, there are all those imported feed concentrates - £1.5
billion in imports from land that would be better left for trees or ranching.
The two dairy footprints - one from grazing and the other from barns are wildly
different. Our food carbon footprint makes its impression all over the world,
when we could be using our grass better.
New approach needed
Imagine if we used the £1.5b worth of cattle feed going to
people abroad to regenerate our soils, move the cows more easily, pay dairy
workers living wages, and utilise our land to grow grass without polluting the
rivers. And we’d have cows back in the fields to show off our countryside.
Ex-PM Johnson promised in June 2016 at Gisburn market that
the existing farming subsidies would stay. He lied. They are going. Dairy farms
will be hit by the losses. Yet new
‘environmentally friendly’ farm subsidies are doing little to address the
environmental issues of barn-bred cattle. Much money is going to consultants on
unworkable schemes to attract inward investors, rather than the farmers
themselves. 2,000 farmers signed up to the sustainable
farming incentive (SFI) scheme. By
August this year, it had paid out £10,692,415– less than 0.5% of the overall
£2.4bn farming budget.
Following the unveiling of a statue by Belfast City Council
to former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Unite in Ireland wants his
legacy and those of other enslaved persons such as Oloudah Equiano, born in
Nigeria, to inspire today’s trade union movement.
Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland around 1818. He
worked on a plantation. When he was sent to live in Baltimore as a house slave
his mistress, not knowing it was illegal to educate slaves began teaching him
to read. When though the slave master ended this the experience, Douglass continued
his education by swapping food scraps to poor white children in exchange of
knowledge.
At 18, Douglas was reading about the abolitionist movement.
In 1838 he escaped, using faked papers, to New Bedford, Mass. In 1841 he gave
his first anti-slavery oration speaking boldly and honestly about life as a
slave and the traumas it leaves behind. He thereafter became a national leader
of the abolitionist movement.
Chattel slavery was to be outlawed on 6 December 1865.
Douglass, who wrote three autobiographies, died in 1895. Six years earlier he
became the United States ambassador to Haiti where slaves, on what was then
known as Saint-Domingue, waged between 1791-1804 the first successful
revolution under the leadership of former slave and first black general
Toussaint Louverture and by defeating Napoleon Bonaparte’s forces achieved
freedom.
August 23rd is the International Day for
Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition which Unite marked by its
regional equalities officer Taryn Trainor stating “Today commemorates the
insurrection in Saint-Domingue by self-liberated slaves – an event which played
a crucial role in the eventual abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and
reminds us that abolition was driven and eventually won by enslaved and formerly
enslaved persons.
“Earlier this year, we welcomed the unveiling of a statue to
former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, funded by Belfast City
Council. Douglass, like Oloudah Equiano in the previous century, travelled
throughout Ireland, and was supported by a network of determined anti-slavery
activists, women and men, from Cork to Belfast. They knew that, as
Frederick Douglass pointed out, there can be no progress without
struggle.
“As trade unionists, the fight for abolition reminds us
that struggle must always be informed and directed by those most directly
affected.”
When Douglass travelled to Britain and Ireland in the 1840s
his lectures excited great interest and now that Belfast has become the first
in Europe to honour Frederick Douglass there are plans in places such as
Halifax to erect plaques at some of the locations he spoke at.
The life-sized bronze statue in Belfast is located at
Rosemary Street, close to where Douglass addressed crowds in 1845.
Ms Trainor concluded:
“The impact of chattel slavery continues to resonate today –
not just in monuments and the names of public buildings and spaces, but also in
the ongoing discrimination faced by people of African descent.
“As attempts are made by far-right actors to stir up
hatred, fear and anger against migrants and refugees, many fleeing war and
oppression, trade unions must draw inspiration from the movement to end slavery
and work side-by-side with those being targeted by these messages of hate to
build an inclusive society.”
Belfast historian and tour guide Dr Tom Thorpe said the
statue was appropriate as the statue "takes us into a history which united
us rather than divides us.
"The anti-slavery cause was followed by people from
across the political divide, unionists and nationalists, but also from the
Catholic and Presbyterian communities.”
Whilst
migrant workers are protected by the same laws that protect other workers in
the UK and should receive equal pay to British workers doing the same work the
problem is that many don’t know their rights. As they are also often invisible from
other workers then this makes it easier for them to be exploited.
Seeking to
organise workers of all nationalities, UNITEtheUnion across Ireland, North and South has thus produced a series
of Know Your Rights leaflets in 12 community languages: Bulgarian, Czech,
Hungarian, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Romanian, Russian, Slovak,
Ukrainian and Tetum.
The leaflets
point out that workers ‘are entitled to the following statutory rights and protections
from the day you start work. It does not matter how many hours you work.’ They
arose following the exposure of chronic mistreatment in the meat industry with
some workers involved in packing up to 20,000 chicken breasts a day.
They explain
rights on:-
Ø Equal pay
/ equal value
Ø Sex
discrimination / harassment
Ø
Discrimination on the grounds of religion / belief
Ø Age
discrimination
Ø Racial
discrimination / harassment
Ø Disability
discrimination / harassment
Ø
Victimisation for trade union membership / activity
Ø
Victimisation for Health & Safety activity
Ø Itemised
pay statement
Ø Unlawful
deduction from wages
Ø Dismissal
because of pregnancy
Ø Written
reasons for dismissal during pregnancy / maternity leave
Ø Time off
for ante-natal visits
Ø 52 weeks’
maternity leave for all women
Ø Sunday
working rights
Ø Dismissal
/ victimisation for enforcing a statutory right
Ø National
Minimum Wage
Ø Time off
for holiday and breaks
Ø Dismissal
/ victimisation for whistleblowing
Ø Time off
for family emergencies
The
information is not intended to be exhaustive and, of course, in situations
where there is union organisation then workers should check with their Unite
rep, official or organiser, if something isn’t covered in the leaflet.
A recent
report shows how distributing such information everywhere is vital.
Some
Nepalese workers have been pressurised into paying extortionate, illegal broker
fees of around £4,300 to third-party recruitment agencies in their home
countries to secure a visa.
The report provides
a breakdown of the work process for a fruit picker, and shows how workers
endured debt bondage, long hours, abuse by supervisors, and systematic wage
theft. Meanwhile, the government has yet, despite its promises to do so,
undertaken a full review of the SWS in the agricultural sector in this decade.
Little wonder then that a number of NGOs have written to the Immigration
Minister Robert Jenrick MP asking him to act.
Now with the
passing of the Illegal Migration Bill it is going to be even easier for
employers to exploit migrant workers with the research and policy organisation
FLEX (Focus on Labour Exploitation) stating: ‘The Bill is devastating and will
have far reaching consequences for people both directly and indirectly
affected. It will drive large numbers of people underground, creating fear of
authorities and public services. People in exploitation will fear seeking help.
The Bill has been described as a ‘Traffickers Charter’ as it provides
traffickers with the ultimate coercion tool.’
To download
the Unite leaflets go to:- https://unitetheunionireland.org/know-your-rights/
Read “Debt.
Migration and Exploitation”
Northern Ireland rural workers land less in their pay
Not only are Northern Ireland workers being paid less and
also continuing to fall further behind their UK counterparts but those in rural
parts of the country are even worse off.
Median
gross monthly pay in the wider UK was £2,274 in July but for Northern Ireland
workers it was only £2,103. This represented a 7.5% increase on the year and
which was behind both the increase in UK median pay (7.8%) and the Retail Price
Index (RPI) of 10.7%.
Commenting,
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “The battle to push up pay has been
hard fought and it’s certainly far from over. Our economy is broken. Everyday
people are still suffering. These statistics are clear – workers in Northern
Ireland continue to be paid even less than workers elsewhere in the UK. This is
simply unacceptable. Trade unions remain especially vital during a
cost-of-living crisis that government is doing little to solve.”
Rurally,
things are even worse. The lowest pay is to be found in the southwest, in
Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, where median pay is only £1,958 a month
(7% below the Northern Ireland average). The next lowest is the unemployment
hotspot of Derry City and Strabane where median pay is only £1,981.
The labour market in these areas have fewer public sector
workers and a largely rural, non-unionised economy. Employers’ attitudes towards
trade unions are often hostile and union-busting normal.
Unite has led efforts to unionise new workforces in both
council areas – with the aim of reversing the pay disadvantage –
including at Seagate, one of the largest, advanced manufacturers in the
northwest, where a high profile and energetic membership drive has despite
union-busting tactics, resulted in an application for union recognition being
submitted to the labour courts.
Unite has also led the successful opposition to the
scrapping of the Agricultural Wages Board that covers 11,000 agricultural
workers including many migrant workers. The AWB is the final NI collective bargaining mechanism with
a responsibility for private sector workers.
Commenting,
Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said: “The battle to push up pay has been
hard fought and it’s certainly far from over. Our economy is broken. Everyday
people are still suffering. These statistics are clear – workers in Northern
Ireland continue to be paid even less than workers elsewhere in the UK. This is
simply unacceptable. Trade unions remain especially vital during a
cost-of-living crisis that government is doing little to solve.”
NOTHING BEATS THE THE VALUE OF VEG - GROWN IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD
Landworker magazine of Unite the union
A Bolton community food growing permaculture project that aims to address food and resource poverty in social deprived areas by helping people to grow food in their yards and gardens has created hundreds of online YouTube short documentaries to help provide advice on growing your own fruit and veg.
This is good
news as a recent University of Sheffield study has found that household fruit
and vegetable production, in allotments and gardens, could be key to a healthy
and food-secure population.
It discovered
those who grow their own can produce more than half of the vegetables (51%) and
20% of the fruit they consume annually.
The Community
Roots Permaculture Project is run by former Ruskin College student and food
sovereignty advocate, Steve Jones with Ben Blackburn. The pair share a food
growing site in Southfields Pub, Great Lever with local food activists Bolton
Diggers.
Their
YouTube channel "combines Community food growing, permaculture, outdoor skills
and activities as a means of moving away from the destructive way of doing
things towards a world more in tune with nature and each other."
Currently
many people are really struggling amidst the cost-of-living crisis that is
resulting in fresh fruit and vegetable prices rocketing.
The 5-minute
documentary Grow Your Own Food shows how a stretch of garden 18’ long
has been turned into a veritable feast that has cost virtually nothing in cash
terms with most things scavenged or borrowed or, in the case of some pots,
donated via former cannabis growers from the police!
Happily growing Staples,
despite the Greater Manchester weather, are carrots, beetroot,
salad crops, sweetcorn, courgettes, radish, sage, beans of different varieties,
chives, rosemary, mint, strawberries, garlics, seed potatoes, pink
gooseberries, celery, red cabbage, cherries, squash and even grapevine. Many of
the products can be harvested two or three times a year.
“All of the
food is nutritious. People are rightly using foodbanks but most of products
there are highly processed foods. It will keep you alive,” explains Steve, “but
it is not healthy. Someone in a flat who can grow something on a windowsill
could then eat something nourishing that is better for their health.”
Other videos
can be viewed at: -https://www.youtube.com/@URBANPERMACULTURE/videos
Meanwhile,
Community Roots has started a Community Fruit Trees Project as it will give
access to fruit that would likely be out of the price range of people on low
and no incomes. The proliferation of trees into an urban area will additionally
attract pollinators and other beneficial insects, and thirdly trees could help
by absorbing carbon and releasing Oxygen. To find out more then watch a short
film at:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_Rf0f8u-3c
@BoltonUrban
Steve Jones is on 07821 847092 sj1j1@hotmail.com
Campaigners
welcome the sinking of reservoir plans
An
organisation established by trade union militant and right to roam hero Benny
Rothman has welcomed the decision by Severn Trent (ST) Water to abandon their
controversial plans to expand a reservoir in the Upper Derwent Valley (UDV) of
the Peak District, the site of Rothman’s historic 1932 trespass over Kinder
Scout. The protest played a significant part in the successful campaign for
public access to moors and mountains. The Kinder and High Peak Advisory
Committee (KHPAC) was set up in 1986 by Rothman after the National Trust
acquired much of Kinder Scout.
Three years
later Rothman set up a campaign to oppose the Water Bill’s threat to close
access to open country owned by the newly privatised England and Wales water
companies.
So, if he
had been alive today, Rothman, who died in 2002, would have been delighted to
see so many organisations coming together to resist ST’s £300m plans to double
the capacity of Ladyblower, Derwent and Howden reservoirs by either
constructing a fourth reservoir above Howden or higher dams downstream. When
the existing dams were built between 1901 and 1945 the villages of Ashopton and
Derwent were submerged.
ST were
hoping to start building from 2030 and finish by 2033 when footpaths,
recreational facilities and habitats, including ancient woodlands, were to be
washed away.
The KHPAC
principally represents walkers, climbers, horse riders and mountain bikers but
also includes some outdoor activity centres, mountain rescue and some socially
under-represented groups.
They wrote
to ST pointing out that the ‘UDV is in the Natural Zone, the essential core of
the Peak District National Park, and is a Mecca for outdoor enthusiasts. It
offers open and easy access to dramatic landscapes and tranquil areas of wild
character that are valued by so many – to the benefit of their, and the
Nation’s health and well-being.’
The area is
a much-valued cultural heritage and is accorded the highest protection
designations possible.
ST’s plans
revealed it was unconcerned about the impact on the local rural economy despite
it being underpinned by the recreation community.
Faced with
such overwhelming local opposition ST was forced to abandon its proposals to
increase its storage capacity at the three reservoirs, which supplies
Sheffield, Derby, Leicester and Nottingham, beyond its current 464 billion
litres. Citing the expected 12m rise in the UK population by 2050, ST would be
examining other options.
Rothman’s
great friend Roly Smith, a long-standing KHPAC member of and author of over 90
books on walking and the countryside, believes ST should be looking to “fix the
leaks. If this was done there wouldn’t be any need to consider enlarging any of
the reservoirs in ST’s vast area.” In 2022 Severn Trent lost 151.3 billion
litres of water and Yorkshire Water 103.3 billion, around 55% of the capacity
of the three reservoirs.
A Unite
Education booklet Benny Rothman - a fighter for the right to roam, workers’
rights and socialism by Mark Metcalf, can be downloaded at: - https://markwritecouk.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/6328-benny-rothman.pdf
I am available
to speak about Benny Rothman at union branch meetings. Expenses need covering.
07392 852561
HARVESTING FREEDOM
The Life of a Migrant Worker in Canada
GABRIEL ALLAHDUA with Edward Dunsworth
This is a powerful memoir that exposes the many injustices
confronting migrant workers at the sharp end of capitalism.
Born in St Lucia and descending from both enslaved Africans
and indentured Indians, Gabriel Allahdua’s family was engaged in agricultural
pursuits including growing bananas. After doing well educationally he become a
teacher before pursuing an entrepreneurial agricultural path that included
beekeeping and a grocery business.
In 2010, thirteen years after the USA had used its clout to disastrously
get the World Trade Organisation to end Caribbean countries’ preferential
access to European markets for banana exports, St Lucia was battered by
Hurricane Tomas that devasted the island and wiped out the banana crop. Amidst
a destroyed economy the father of two children, whose mother had died, was
forced to seek overseas work.
As a child he had heard good things from his elders about the
Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme, (SAWP) first started in 1966, jointly
operated by Canadian and St Lucian governments that allowed St Lucians to work
for eight months each year on Canadian farms.
With Canada having also built one of his schools then
Allahdua was sure that he would be treated fairly once he got the go ahead to
join the 2011-12 SAWP. It did not take more than a few minutes on his arrival
in North America to reveal the harsh realities he had signed up to as on
leaving Toronto airport he realised that no one had even bothered to inform his
group of fellow nationals that it would be extremely cold and they should be
dressed appropriately. Everyone endured a horrible first night.
He admits not taking the time to read his contract that meant
he could be expected to work unregulated hours and weeks without a day off.
There was no right in Ontario to join a trade union or to transfer employers,
who are also the landlords of the migrant workers. There was also no chance of placing down
permanent roots. In truth it mattered little whether he, unlike others who’d
made the trip north, was literate because of the author’s powerlessness.
What then follows is a description of some of the horrors of
working in a greenhouse and the fear of never being quite quick enough to keep
up with expected pace of production bringing with it a fear of being summarily
deported back home. Amidst these difficulties there is the unexpected pleasure
of bonding with his fellow employees from different countries and he also
manages to strike up relationships with some local Canadians who are not part
of a general distrust towards migrant workers.
The author is inspired enough that when he attends a Justice
For Migrant Workers (J4MW) vigil, that was organised following the death of 10
migrant workers and one Canadian trucker and which was supported by some trade
unions, he speaks out about the situation facing migrant workers. Despite the
obvious dangers of deportation, he continued to voice his concerns. Then, with
the backing of his Canadian friends, he obtained legal advice to begin the
lengthy permanent residency process that he eventually won to enable him to
settle in Canada in March 2016 and finally bring his children, now adults, to
live with him in 2019. He is one of the very lucky ones.
The author has not rested on his laurels and has thrown
himself into supporting migrant workers, who, unless, as he points out are
supported and unionised, will be used to bring down the terms and conditions of
all workers.
‘Not having the representation of a union is another
human-made layer that makes us invisible, adding to the recipe of exploitation.’
He lists the 20
injustices facing migrant workers in Canada. They are replicated
internationally. Allahdua believes most of these injustices can be fixed by
‘all migrant workers receiving permanent immigration status upon arrival in
Canada’ and he and J4HW, backed trade union allies, are campaigning to win such
a policy. He has appeared before a parliamentary inquiry into the situation
facing migrant workers which was of little value to those exploited so badly. He
was given just 3 minutes to speak.
Defend Council
seeking testimonies for All-Party Parliamentary enquiry
Defend
Council Housing (DCH) wish to speak to rural households stuck on the
ever-growing rural social housing waiting lists that reached 197,894. The
testimonies gathered would be fed into an All-Party Parliamentary Group enquiry
into the need for council housing.
Lord Best,
who led the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for many years, has written extensively
and chaired many commissions on housing. “As the National Housing Federation
(NHF) has revealed the national position for rural housing has worsened quite
dramatically in recent years………….trends (include) pricing out locals… (and) a
fall in availability of private rented accommodation. In Devon the County notes
a 50% decline and in North Devon alone a 67% fall in just 2-3 years.”
The NHF
figures show that 46,318 additional households were added to the national
social housing waiting list in rural areas between 2019-2022. And with just
5,953 new social rent houses constructed rurally over the same period then the
crisis is growing at a rate 10 times that of towns and cities.
Best sees
the answers lying in national and local government action. “We need to enable
councils to stop the loss of longer-term lettings to Airbnb-style lets through
a planning consent requirement and we need to embark on a major programme of
social housing, not least for rural communities where so much council housing
has been sold under Right to Buy.”
Best chairs
the Devon Housing Commission that has already had 170 submissions, mainly from
rural and coastal communities, from those facing severe housing difficulties.
A similar national
enquiry is now being organised by Best’s parliamentary colleagues that comprise
the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Housing and Social Mobility whose
purpose is ‘to champion social housing providers that support communities to secure
sustainable livelihoods’ by ‘examining evidence led insights.’
DCH is providing
secretariat (administrative) support to the APPG that is co-chaired by MPs
Peter Aldous (Tory) and Liz Twist. (Labour)
DCH is keen
to collate the experiences of rural households stuck on long waiting lists for social
housing and would welcome the assistance of Unite members in rural communities to
make this possible. The group has already set up meetings in urban areas
including Rochdale but wants to reach out into countryside communities.
According to
Eileen Short “we are seeing the return to the slum, overcrowded, insecure
living conditions of the 19th century that drove the mass council housing
movement in the first place.
“Whether you
are in housing need yourself or deeply concerned for future generations, help
build a movement to address the housing crisis.
“This
initiative could help reveal the facts about the present state of housing and
detail how to mend the housing crisis. Please make contact if you can assist.”
In
conjunction with Homes for All, DCH has put forward a 5 Point Plan which
aims to provide concrete proposals to help solve the housing crisis.
1. Government
investment in a mass council housing building programme, including
requisitioning of empty homes and abolition of ‘right to buy’
2. Rent controls and secure tenancies in the private rental sector. Robust
regulation of housing associations
3. New funding to repair and refurbish existing council housing – do not
demolish
4. Adequate funding for fire safety, and for retrofitting and thermal
insulation
5. Planning for the people and the planet, and not for developers’ profits
To contact
Defend Council Housing ring 07342 098440 and at info@defendcouncilhousing.org
See also
Homes for All website at www.axethehousingact.org.uk
British cocoa companies continue exploiting trafficked
children
Having represented until recently Unite on the Young
Workers’ Committee of the International Union Federation (IUF) then Istvan Imre, who arrived in the
UK from Romania in 2015 at aged 24, wants action to eliminate child labour
everywhere but especially in the agriculture sector where it increased between
2016-2020.
There are
now 160 million children working worldwide of which 112 million are working on
small farms on plantations, often in hazardous conditions.
Istvan was
behind the successful resolution from the IUF-Agricultural Workers Trade Group,
which unites agricultural and plantation workers worldwide, to the IUF
conference in June 2023 that noted: ‘that progress on eliminating child labour
has slowed and at the heart of which is the poverty wages being earned by
parent’s such that they cannot afford to cover the basic needs of their
children, including food and education.
‘That
avoiding poverty requires strong and effective trade unions in order to
organise agricultural workers. This will pull them out of poverty through
bargaining for better conditions and wages and access for education for their
children.’
Affiliates
to the IUF, which has ten million members globally in food, farming and hotels,
were called upon to commit to promoting the use of the IUF leaflet that places
a number of demands on agriculture companies, businesses sourcing agricultural
products and governments.
In moving
the resolution Monique Mosley noted that nearly one in ten children are child
labourers: “The numbers of child workers in agriculture is staggering……….in
every continent, and in businesses of every size… trafficked children working
in cocoa plantations have gone to court to hold big companies to account –
Cargill, Mondelez, Barry Callebaut, Mars, and Nestle – Nestle’s cocoa supply
chain leads from West Africa to their headquarters at the other end of Lake
Geneva.”
Istvan is
personally very aware of how key trade union organisation is to improve working
conditions for children and young workers. Seeking a better life in the UK he
began working on arrival at the Two Sisters poultry factory in Sandycroft,
North Wales. “I had no idea what a trade union was.” That changed dramatically
when Unite organisers from Liverpool arrived at the factory and began talking
direct to the many migrant workers there in the months leading up to the
pandemic.
The daily
site visits paid off and when Istvan and his friends, now aware of their
rights, agreed to take multi-lingual leaflets to other workers the 20 completed
application forms one day rose regularly to peak at 200 over five hours on one
occasion. “Management was forced to adopt a more conciliatory approach. We feel
more human and less like a slave. No one is pretending wages and conditions are
perfect but overall things have improved a lot.” Istvan became a Unite rep in
2020 and is today the deputy convenor at the factory.
“Workers
need help getting organised. June 12th is International Child Labour
Day. It might seem a long time away but I’d urge Unite members to seek to mark
it in some way and if they work in companies that rely on agricultural products
from abroad, please try to ensure it is not produced by child labour.”
BOLTON TRADES COUNCIL
FUND
RAISING APPEAL TO HELP PRODUCE A DOCUMENTARY FILM ON THE REMARKABLE BETTY TEBBS
An appeal to the labour movement to raise £6,000 to make
a documentary film on Betty Tebbs
Following the publication in 2019 by Unite of a booklet
on Betty Tebbs remarkable life, Bolton Trades Council are aiming to raise £6,000
to make a 30-minute documentary film on BETTY TEBBS – A radical working class
hero.
For those unaware of Betty then read what Maxine Peake has
to say:-
Betty Tebbs (1918 -2017) was a great friend and comrade.
I first met Betty when I had the honour of reading extracts
from her memoir at an event at The Working Class Movement Library, Salford. We
became firm friends. Her passion for social justice and her courage were
immediately apparent and had not dimmed in the slightest. Betty’s story was
inspirational.
At 14 she left school and started work – working 53 hours a
week for 10.6d. Some fifty years later, after a lifetime of trade union and
labour movement activism and peace campaigning, she spoke at the Lenin Stadium
in Moscow before a 10,000 strong crowd about halting the proliferation of
nuclear weapons.
In between she represented workers, especially women, at
East Lancashire Paper Mill as they became the highest paid women in the
papermaking industry, co-founded a women’s refuge in Warrington and fought
tirelessly for equal pay for women, often in the face of opposition from fellow
trade unionists.
In retirement, she became Chair of the National Assembly of
Women and continued her work for peace across the world, meeting along the way
such women as astronaut Valentina Tereshkova and Angela Davis. At 88, she did
her first lock-on to block the road at Faslane nuclear submarine base in
Scotland. She was arrested. When comrades became disheartened Betty always gave
the same answer: “We have to carry on the struggle. It is up to us.” For Betty
it was the only answer. Her story is a guiding light for all of us in that
struggle.
“I was delighted when Unite published a biography by Mark
Metcalf of Betty’s remarkable life.”
The production of the film would be undertaken by
Francesca Platt, production manager of the Bolton based arts project The
Videobox at https://www.thevideobox.tv/contact-us/
alongside writer Mark Metcalf, who has produced a number of works under the
Rough Jersey logo.
The pair recently collaborated on a well-received 30-minute documentary
film BREAD NOT BAYONETS – Halifax 1842 on the uprising, part of the 1842
General Strike, in the West Yorkshire town in 1842. This can be viewed at: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0UxMadnIEAt
Funds for this work were donated by a number of trade union
branches.
The work by Francesca and Mark will consist of additional
research, on screen interviews, site visits, sourcing music, photography,
editing and production. There will be a number of costs associated with the
work.
There will be a public screening of the completed works and
it will be available free to labour movement organisations and community
groups. The work will go online and will be available to show at labour
movement events.
Copies of the Unite publication on Betty Tebbs can be
downloaded at: -
https://markwritecouk.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/6328-betty-tebbs-web.pdf
See also Maxine Peake and Mark speaking at the WCML about
Betty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJzlvL4G1Gw
Hard copies still exist – contact Mark Metcalf on 07392
852561 or email him metcalfmc@outlook.com
Former Unite general secretary Len McCluskey also
speaks very highly of Betty.
Born at the end of WWI, Betty became an activist in one of
Unite’s legacy unions, the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper
Workers, which eventually became the GPMU.
During the WWII she worked as a crane driver at Mather &
Platt. Her first husband was killed in action. Afterwards she became
politically active in the Communist Party and a committed peace campaigner
having seen the devastation caused by the atom bombs dropped on Japan. Betty
later became a hard working Labour Councillor. She also worked in different
jobs becoming an activist in the shop workers union, USDAW. She was a delegate
to SOGAT conferences where she campaigned for equal pay and she attended many
international conferences campaigning for world peace.
She was honoured for her work with SOGAT’s Gold Badge. At
age 89 she was presented by Manchester City Council with the Elizabeth Gaskell
Women’s Award. I was privileged to share a platform with Betty at the 2016
Labour Party Conference Even in her 90’s she was a marvellous speaker and she
received a long and rousing standing ovation following her speech.
Draft resolution
This branch agrees to support the appeal by Bolton Trades
Council towards the costs of a documentary film on Betty Tebbs. We agree to
donate……………..
All donations can be sent to:- Bolton and District United Trades Council,
Account number 59020222 Sort code 089018
A series
of short labour movement documentaries co-ordinated by Mark Metcalf, a member of
the NUJ and Calderdale Trades Union Council
As of 23rd October 2023
Mark Metcalf - Fighting Talk short documentaries
@markmetcalf07 metcalfmc@outlook.com
07392 852561
‘Bread
not Bayonets’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0UxMadnIEA
The
story of Halifax in August 1842 when local workers downed tools to join
a nationwide general strike for better pay and extended voting rights and
found
themselves ruthlessly suppressed with many killed and injured.
32 minutes long
Directed and edited by Francesca Platt and produced by Mark
Metcalf.
Remember
the Dead, Fight for the Living
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLyeMYnpVjo
Highlighting how work can kill and why joining a trade union
and getting organised is the best form of self-defence.
2 minutes long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdcrdIlxs60
What happened to
orphan children from Liverpool who were moved from 1879 onwards to Halifax to work
for nothing?
5 minutes
Andrew
Watson Halifax's Black Footballing Pioneer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvYf6kZn_7A
A call for a plaque to be mounted at the Halifax school that
the first black football international attended in the late 19th
century
July
2023
Remembering
Ellen Strange - Memorial Walk for Domestic Violence Victims
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0_uhqtIuoI
9 minutes
July 2023
Keep Our
NHS Public Leeds - 75 Years of The NHS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2GVgLQVGDA
11 mins 19 seconds
June 2023
Pay Up to Save The NHS - The Junior Doctors Strike
Why Junior Doctors are taking strike action and how without
a victory in their pay battle the NHS faces even more problems in the future in
recruiting staff.
Halifax
Chartist Hero Remembered: Benjamin Rushton
On Friday 23rd June, 50 people attended a Calderdale Trades
Council Benjamin Rushton commemorative event in Lister Lane Cemetery,
Halifax.
Fourteen minutes of highlights of the event at:-
Download for free Mick Jenkins' book on the 1842 General Strike at:-
https://markwritecouk.files.wordpress.com/2023/09/1jenkins_mick_the_general_strike_of_1842.pdf
These red leaflets bear the logo of the Israeli army and the
words “Urgent Attention” in Arabic. We had the
text translated by an Arabic-speaking reader,
and it concerns pure and simple death threats against civilians.
This is what is written: “Your presence north of WadiGaza places your life in serious andimminent danger.” Wadi is a river locatedin the center of the Gaza Strip.This is the limit set by the Israeliarmy: the entire north of the Wadi must becompletely emptied of its inhabitants, which is impossible.The city of Gaza City represents 700,000 inhabitants.For comparison, it would be like demanding that the city of Lyonbe completely emptied down to its last inhabitant in a few days,babies and old people, hospitals and schools. A black box contains this text: “Anyonewho does not evacuate Gaza to the southwill be considered complicit in terrorism.”This leaflet prepares the ground invasion of Gaza,during which Israeli ground troops intend toshoot everything that moves.
RIVERSIDE
CAFÉ 6.30pm on Friday 27th October
Two of
England’s great coaches to speak in Hillsborough on a unique Sheffield evening
Opponents on the pitch in the 1960s, South Yorkshire lads
Howard Wilkinson and Roy Massey were to play key roles off it in a football
revolution that meant professional clubs began recruiting youngsters as young
as eight to join Academies in 1998. The impact has been to raise standards to
levels previously regarded as unimaginable.
Now, on 27th October at 6.30pm at the Riverside Café – Bar and
Terrace – just 100 yards from Hillsborough – both men will be coming along to
speak about their work and answer questions about the coaching of young
footballers and football generally. Also on sale will be Roy Massey’s
autobiography: A Life in Football and a coach to the stars.
In the late 60s Howard Wilkinson, who had obtained his full
FA coaching badge at 21, and Roy Massey faced each other when Brighton clashed
with Leyton Orient.
Cynics proved wrong
Howard introduced the FA’s ‘Charter for Quality’, which
revolutionised youth football in England. Clubs – as had been the case in
Europe for decades could recruit and develop young players from the age of
eight. Cynics at the time said the plan was doomed to failure. However, he
persisted and devised the plan to create and develop some of the best
players in the world.
The benefit of having that plan and sticking to it has led
to some of the best youth developers and some of the best players in the world.
Massey enjoys 16 years of success at the Arsenal Academy
Regulations for the academies were duly drawn up. Massey was
asked in March 1998 by Liam Brady, head of youth development at Arsenal, to
oversee the recruitment, coaching and managing of 8 to 12-year-olds at the new
Arsenal Academy.
Massey, who had qualified as a PE teacher before becoming a
professional player, was to enjoy great success over the next 16 years and
helping to bring through a large number of players such as Jack Wilshere that
made it to the very top. Massey had earlier helped in a series of part time
roles bring through a number of stars at Colchester United and Norwich City.
The event, which is free, is open to accompanied young
people. The doors open at 6.30pm and is at:-
Riverside Cafe, 88 Catch Bar Lane S6 ITA.
Roy Massey’s autobiography is £20 and will be available on
the night.
For further details ring Mark Metcalf 07392 852561 metcalfmc@outlook.com
