Muted first anniversary celebrations at Barnsley Unite/NUM community centre

The economic squeeze that is being imposed on most working class people will ensure that any first anniversary celebrations for the Unite/National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) community centre in Barnsley will rightly be muted. Far too many people are struggling against a barrage of government attacks on welfare benefits, rights at work and public services for champagne corks to be popping in honour of the many successes achieved by the Unite community members who have provided welfare advice services to local people on Wednesdays and Thursdays between 10am to 3pm since it opened in June last year.

By the end of April 2014, Unite community members at the centre had dealt with 61 closed cases with 26 ongoing. Support for employment support allowance (ESA) claimants comprised almost half the cases. ESA, which is paid because of an illness or disability, has been heavily criticised by many organisations, including the Citizens Advice Bureau, due to the fact many claimants have been found fit for work after being selected for the work capability assessment. (WCAs)  Following campaigning – in which Unite community members have participated - by disabled organisations, the Department for Work and Pensions has recently stopped outsourcing company ATOS from carrying out repeat assessments until another company can be found to do WCAs.

Unite community members picketing the ATOS headquarters in Sheffield 

Linda Laurie, Disabled People's Direct Action Network, demonstrating
outside ATOS in Sheffield.
Photograph courtesy of Mark Harve. Copyright Mark Harvey. 

The centre at Barnsley has helped 6 claimants appeal against an ESA decision to restrict their benefit. Four were won including Ms P whose successful tribunal hearing helped increase her benefits by £28.45 a week. By helping Mr R with his Working Tax Credit the centre helped him recover a total of £4,795.68. Five bedroom tax appeals helped ensure two people had more money in their pockets and with Ms C’s success also being combined with a successful claim for personal independence payment and carers allowance then her benefit levels rose by £184,80 per week, She has joined Unite.

“We have helped many people raise their income, By doing so we have raised people’s hopes that there are people on their side,” said Richard Vivian, a life-long trade unionist and retired professional benefits advisor who volunteers at the centre.

Richard and Mohammad Tariq, who got involved in the centre in October 2013, designed the two-day welfare advice-training course, which was held for 16 Unite members from across Yorkshire earlier this year. All aspects of welfare rights and benefits were covered including protecting client’s rights and Data Protection. Unite community members have also undertaken two days training on welfare rights provided by the Child Poverty Action Group. “People need representation but we can only provide it if we are properly trained and familiar with the complexities of the benefits system,” said Mohammad, who since joining Unite has become much more conscious of the widening gap between rich and poor. He now wants to particularly encourage young people and ethnic minorities to join the union.

In addition to providing welfare right advice the Barnsley centre, which is based in the NUM Headquarters that is the world’s first purpose built trade union headquarters, (see below) also runs computer classes. People have attended Learn My Way computer basics

classes and others have come in for assistance in setting up an e-mail address and help with writing a CV. “We are giving people opportunities to improve their skills. All benefit applications now have to be done online and the government wrongly assumes everyone has got a computer and internet connection,” said Brian Clarke, a former engineer who has been a trade union member since 1955 and whose last job before he retired was general manager at Wortley Hall. Brian became an active volunteer at the Barnsley centre after seeing an advert in the Morning Star and is enjoying helping people.

The professional advice provided by Unite community members to the folk of Barnsley is becoming increasingly important in an era when many advice organisations are struggling to survive and cope with the increasing demands placed on them. Maximising people’s benefits is vital work but it cannot be a long-term solution, especially when benefit levels are so low and are not even being increased each year to keep pace with the rate of inflation.

Unite community members thus try to help people understand what lies behind the government’s austerity drive that has driven down people’s living standards and raised inequality levels back to those seen in the 19^th century. There has been a conscious effort to challenge media misrepresentation that the jobs crisis can be blamed on immigrants.

Rather than sitting at home worrying, people are encouraged to get involved in campaigns around the effects of government cuts to working people. Centre activists have supported the local campaign against the bedroom tax, joined protests against the workfare programme and supported workers taking industrial action.

“Working people have power if they are organised. Unite community members can help raise awareness and help encourage a culture of resistance. I remain optimistic we can change society for the better,” said Richard, who as a young man was forced to retrain when he was blacklisted by engineering employers across Scotland.

NUM Headquarters, 2 Huddersfield Road, Barnsley S70 2LS

Opening times: 10am to 3pm

Wednesdays and Thursdays

• The NUM Building in Barnsley was the world’s first purpose-built trade union headquarters when it opened in 1874. It was designed by Wade and Turner of Barnsley in a Scottish Baronial style and featured a tall, French-Gothic entrance. The moving force behind the centre was the secretary of the South Yorkshire Miners’ Association, John Normansell, who said at the time of the opening: “you are most welcome into a house that is built by your fellow miners at their own cost and expense in every way.” Normansell died soon afterwards and is commemorated by a monument outside the building. A meeting hall, the windows of which record major elements of miners’ working lives, supplemented Wade and Turner’s design in 1912. In more recent times a statue has been erected that commemorates those miners who lost their lives in supporting their union in times of struggle. These include David Jones and Joe Green, who lost their lives during the year-long strike in 1984-85 and who every year in March are remembered in a special ceremony.

Information taken from Buildings of the labour movement by Nick Mansfield and published by English Heritage.

Meeting Hall - photograph courtesy of Mark Harvey. 

Blue plaque to commemorate Sidney and Beatrice Webb

Sidney Webb, 1859-1947, and Beatrice Webb, 1858-1943

 

Erected in 1981 by the Greater London Council, there is a blue plaque to Beatrice and Sidney Webb at 10 Netherall Gardens, Swiss Cottage, Camden, London.

 

Beatrice Potter was the granddaughter of Richard Potter, the Radical MP for Wigan. In 1886 she went to work for Charles Booth, who was studying the lives of working people in London. She studied the lives of the dock workers in the East End and supported the London Dock Strike in 1889.

 

Sidney Webb’s father also held radical political views and in 1885 he joined the Fabian Society, which described itself as a ‘fact-finding and fact-dispensing body’ and it produced pamphlets, many written by Webb, on a wide range of different social issues.

 

Sidney and Beatrice Potter married in 1892 and later worked on several books together including the History of Trade Unionism (1894) and Industrial Democracy (1897). The research they carried out for these books convinced them of the need to establish a political party that was committed to obtaining socialism through parliamentary elections.

 

On 27 February 1900, the Fabian Society joined with the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation and trade unionists to form the Labour Representation Committee, which stood 15 candidates in that years General Election and won two seats with Keir Hardie and Richard Bell both elected. The LRC was to change its name to the Labour Party on 12 February 1906.

 

The Webbs were though willing to work with any party in order to obtain policies they believed in and in 1902 the pair helped draft the Conservative’s Education Act.

 

Beatrice Webb served on the 1905-09 Poor Law Commission and when she found herself in disagreement with most of the Commission members she and Sidney wrote and published a minority report.

 

In 1913, the Webbs helped start a new political weekly, the New Statesman. In 1923, Sidney Webb was elected as Labour MP for Seaham, County Durham. He subsequently served as President of the Board of Trade under Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister. Sidney later served as Secretary of State for the Colonies in MacDonald’s second Labour Government.

 

The ashes of Sidney and Beatrice Webb lie in the north aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey. The small lozenge stone bears their names and the years they were born and died. 

Century old report confirms air pollution drives infant mortality levels

Michael Ryan is continuing his brave fight to expose the current impact of air pollution around incinerators on infant death rates by going back a century to show how even then air pollution was regarded as a driving factor in high infant death rates. 

Ryan has already demonstrated how infant mortality rates leap even when incinerators are planted in affluent locations. (see http://writemark.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/incinerator-study-sees-big-picture-only.html

He was also the first to note the tie-up between a recent study in Turkey and a UK one in 2008 which both reported how following the introduction of natural gas - which produces lower particulate emissions than its predecessor, coal gas, and therefore causes less air pollution - there had been a dramatic fall in infant mortality levels in both countries. http://writemark.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/something-in-air.html

Ryan has now highlighted that in 1914, Dr William A Brend, Lecturer on Forensic Medicine at Charing Cross Hospital, scrutinised infant mortality rates for all parts of the British Isles. (Which included at this time all of Ireland)

Dr Brend concluded in his book, Health and the State, (available online at http://archive.org/stream/heathstate00bren/healthstate00bren_djvu.txt

that air pollution and not poverty was the driving factor. 

On page 72 the report states:- 

Poverty is often looked upon as one of the greatest causes of infant deaths. Yet per se it does not appear to be so. The wages paid in agricultural districts are notoriously the lowest paid in the community, yet the infant mortality rate in rural Wiltshire averages only about 60, while in Kensington the average is over 100. The earnings of the Connaught peasant or the Highland crofter do not approach those of the miners of Durham or Glamorganshire, yet the loss of infant life among them is only one third of that in mining areas. 

The influence of poverty is felt most directly in housing and food-supply, yet it is impossible to say that in these respects rural districts are better off than towns. It is well known that housing in many rural districts is deplorable. A cottage may look picturesque, but its thatched roof and creepers may hide defective walls and floors, unsound drainage, low ceilings, and ill-ventilated rooms, fully as bad as those in the worst quarters of cities. The rooms may be overcrowded, and there may be no adequate conveniences for cooking or maintaining cleanliness. And not only may the cottages be defective, but in many villages there are patches of overcrowding which present the worst features of town slums. It is indeed well recognised that the difficulty of obtaining sufficient housing accommodation for labourers has been one of the great obstacles to agricultural development in recent years. When we examine food-supply we find no reason to suppose that the agricultural worker is better off in this respect than the town dweller. We know as a matter of fact that the poor in rural districts are often insufficiently fed, and meat for 

the family may be an exceptional luxury. 

On page 87 this report states:- 

The Effect of a Smoke and Dust-polluted Atmosphere 

We have now examined, with one exception, the main factors which might be held to account for a high rate of  infant mortality, and we find that differences neither in poverty, bad housing, insufficient feeding, defective sanitation, disease, industrial occupation of women, nor malnutrition of mothers can be regarded as adequate to explain the excessive and widespread difference between urban and rural rates of infant mortality. 

The factor which remains to be examined is that of smoke and dust in the atmosphere. Dirtiness of the air appears to be the one constant accompaniment of a high infant mortality: purity of the atmosphere is the one great advantage which the agricultural labourer of Wiltshire, the Connaught peasant, and the poverty-stricken crofter of the Highlands enjoy over the resident in the town. In the opinion of the writer, a smoky and dusty atmosphere as a cause of infant mortality far transcends all other influences.

Basil Fawlty and the badger cull crisis

The announcement on 3 April that badger cull pilots across England were being abandoned really should have come two days earlier as environment secretary Owen Paterson is fast becoming a joke. Certainly he appears to have no idea how to tackle the tuberculosis crisis in cattle. 

The North Shropshire MP, who during the fox hunting debates likened those who supported a ban to Nazis, was appointed environment secretary in September 2012. He quickly mishandled the horsemeat scandal, during which his performance in Parliament saw him likened by Independent columnist Donald Macintyre to Basil Fawlty from the 1970s iconic British comedy classic, Fawlty Towers. Paterson also wants Britain to go it alone on GM Foods even though it will mean isolation from Europe, which has chosen to remain GM free. 

Paterson is also a climate sceptic. He has refused an offer for a briefing on climate change science by David MacKay, the chief scientific adviser to the department for energy and climate change.

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is, of course, a highly infectious fatal disease that can be passed from animal to animal, but which mainly affects cows. Diary herds require testing regularly and infected animals are killed. The numbers of cattle infected by bTB has risen dramatically in the last two decades. In 2013 over 26,000 cattle were slaughtered across England as a result of the disease. The cost to farming is estimated annually at £100 million. 

Some farmers believe badgers – through contaminating feeding and watering sites - are mainly to blame for cattle contracting bTB. 

The previous Labour government sought to discover the truth when it spent £50 million on a 10-year study organised by the Independent Scientific Group (ISG) on Cattle. This concluded in 2007 that ‘badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain.’ Even worse the scientists believed culling had the potential to spread the disease by forcing infected badgers to flee. 

Owen Paterson isn’t though a man to be bothered by facts even when supplied by those who know a lot more than him. Consequently, last year he introduced a trial cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset. The plan was to shoot 5,000 badgers at night over a six week period. According to the coalition government, 70% of badgers in the two counties would have to be killed over four years in order to reduce bTB by 16 per cent. 

If the pilot culls were deemed successful they were to be rolled out across the rest of England with 130,000 badgers, a third of the badger population, shot.

The Independent Expert Panel (IEP) was appointed by Defra to evaluate the pilots. Paterson initially attempted to keep their report hidden. There were even newspaper reports that he was going to ignore huge public opposition and a Parliamentary vote, in which MPs voted 219 to one, against rolling out the cull nationwide. 

However, when much of the details, like Britain’s much reduced flood defences under this government, leaked, Paterson was forced to reveal just how wrong he was in ordering the cull. 

In the event ‘just’ 1,861 badgers were shot at a cost calculated by the wildlife charity Care for the Wild at £7.3 million including £2.6 million for policing.  The cost per dead badger was £4,121. The government had claimed that shooting free-running badgers was a lot less than the £700 it costs such as the Welsh government for a trapping and vaccination programme.

Defra’s standard for declaring the culls humane had been that 95 per cent of shot badgers would die within five minutes. The figure was that between 7.4 and 18 per cent took longer to die. 

According to the IEP report the three week extension that Paterson granted to the original cull made little difference to the numbers killed. Paterson has therefore agreed to continue the killing in Gloucestershire and Somerset by employing better-trained marksmen! Professor Rosie Woodroffe, who was a member of the ISG, criticised the move saying: “I would stop and invest in something more promising.” 

Paterson may therefore want to consider crossing over the border to Wales. The Welsh Assembly Government abandoned plans to cull badgers in March 2012. It adopted a £4.7 million five year plan to vaccinate badgers. In the first year 472 landowners allowed access onto their land and to 313 badger setts, approximately a third of the numbers currently active. 1,424 badgers were trapped and vaccinated. 

Statistics show that in the 12 months till December 2013, there were 880 new bTB herd incidents in Wales, down by 23 per cent from 1,145 in the previous year.  The figures had fallen in 2011-12 by 15 per cent and between 2011-2013 the cattle slaughtered dropped a third to 6,275. 

With the programme of vaccination appearing to be working, Alun Davies, natural resources minister and Labour member for Blaenau Gwent, told the Welsh Assembly: “I think there are many aspects where the UK government should look across the border. On every measure available to us, the Government is delivering reductions in bovine TB at twice the rate of the Government in England. I would invite Owen Paterson to come here to learn how it is done.”

The approach of the Welsh Government is mirrored by the Sharpham Trust, an educational charity running a 550-acre south Devon estate. They are implementing a 3-year badger vaccination project and a trust spokesperson called on “the government to implement a science based, cost effective response to the badger/cattle/TB issue.”  

Llanelli volunteers in Spanish Civil War commemorated

There is a grey plaque outside the Llanelli Plaid Cymru offices, 11 John Street that commemorates the local volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War with the International Brigade in the struggle against fascism.

Jack Harris, William Morris and Brazell Thomas were killed at Jarama, Brunete and Ebro respectively. Evan Jones was wounded at Ebro. The plaque was unveiled on 14 October 2000 by Lance Rogers – an International Brigadier from Cefn-Coed near Merthyr.

Enoch Collins, an industrial comrade of 26-year-old Brazell Thomas, 57 Coronation Road, Llanelli later produced a short piece of work on the dead man.

Many thanks to to thank Rhydwyn Ifan, secretary of Plaid Cymru, Llanelli for his work in tracking down the information on Brazell Thomas.

This article appears on the Rebel Road pages at Unite education.

http://www.unitetheunion.org/growing-our-union/education/rebelroad/

Remembering all those from Kirkcaldy who fought in Spain

There is a plaque and a memorial on Forth Avenue, Kirkcaldy which commemorates local fighters in the Spanish Civil War. This was erected by Kirkcaldy District Council and Friends of the International Brigades, May 1980 and September 1986. It was rededicated 4 April 2009.

The inscription on the plaque reads, somewhat poetically, as follows:

"To honour the memory of those who went from The Lothians and Fife to serve in the war in Spain, 1936 - 1939."

"Not to a fanfare of trumpets

Nor even the skirl o' the pipes

Not for the off'r of a shilling

Nor to see their names up in lights

Their call was a cry of anguish

From the hearts of the people of Spain

Some paid with their lives it is true

Their sacrifice was not in vain"

(The International Brigade Association)

The names on the memorial are as follows:- 

G Adamson, H Archibald, L Ballinghall, T Bloomfield, F Cairns, W Campbell, G Carr, J Collier, M Conway, G Cornwallis, F Crombie, C Cunningham, J Donald (Methihill), J Donald (Methil), J Farmer, J Fisher, J Gillespie, S Glencraig, J Haig,  R Henderon, A Henderson. A Hillock, T Howie, G Jackson, J Jarvis, A Knight, W Leggie, E Louden, W Mackie, W.F. McCartney, H McCaskill Hill, J McCormack, C McCormack, W McDougall, A McKay, J McPherson-Murray, J Penman, G Robbison, H Sloan, R Smith, G Smith, H Smith, M Sneddon, G Stewart, J.L. Walker, Sister Wilson.

Tommy Bloomfield’s Spanish Civil War recollections appear in VOICES from the Spanish Civil War book edited by Ian MacDougall.  

John 'Jock' Gilmour - a brave man who died fighting fascism in Spain

Prestonpans Spanish Civil War Memorial, East Lothian

There is a little bronze plaque on the east side of the Prestonpans War Memorial in Civic Square that is ‘Dedicated to the memory of those who laid down their lives in the defence of democracy. Spain 1936-39.’ It also includes a quote from the poet Byron: “They never fail who die in a great cause.”

Local man John ‘Jock’ Gilmour was killed at the Battle of Jarama on 12 February 1937. After a meeting at Ayres Wynd, the common meeting place in the centre of Prestonpans, he volunteered along with Jimmy Kempton and George Watters. The latter told his story in the book edited by Ian MacDougall called VOICES from the Spanish Civil War and in which he recalls how Jock Gilmour was killed. (See below) 

Many thanks to Mike Arnott for this photograph.