Library and Asda

20 May
Just for the record, on Saturday we held a good leaflet and petitioning session outside the old Central Library, informing people about Birmingham Labour’s plans to privatise the running of this £188 million public asset. To say that there was surprise and concern about this would be an understatement. Not one person we met supported what Labour intends to do. Hundreds of people have already signed up to our petition opposing their plans, but the campaign must go on. The public halting of the tendering process, the day after we publicised what was happening, is temporary; the overall plans have not yet been shelved. If you have not signed yet, go to the online petition below (see the post on 26th April), or print off a hard copy. Get it filled in and return it to us.

Central Library 005

And on Sunday, there was a protest at ASDA’s in Kings Heath. This was about the Labour Council’s decision to abolish the emergency crisis social security fund to people in temporary need, to be replaced by vouchers to be used in ASDA stores. What happens if you do not live anywhere near an ASDA store? What happens if it is cash that is required for a domestic emergency breakdown, for example? Once again, we have the spin-off of the decision earlier this year to accept ConDem austerity for Birmingham without any serious fight for a budget to meet the needs of Birmingham citizens.

ASDA protest

A dozen Communities against the Cuts activists turned up today to protest ASDA’s, the city council’s & the DWP’S decision to abolish crisis social security funds and replace it with a dehumanising food voucher system.  A protester stood up inside the store and gave a speech while others leafleted and talked to shoppers. We were eventually removed by security but staff seemed friendly and supportive.
We hope this will be first of several ASDA protests. We have a chance to nip this scheme in the bud. ASDA is the only supermarket so far who has agreed to cooperate with the scheme, and if we can shame them into backing out, there is a chance the City Council will reverse their decision.
It is important we take time fight this as this will have disastrous consequences for the 50,000 people in Birmingham who require emergency help each year! Previously, those who found themselves urgently requiring money were able to apply for crisis loans from the government to cover the cost of those most basic needs: food, warmth, and shelter.
Birmingham has opted to allot its £6.1 million share of this safety-net-below-the safety-net in the form of pre-paid cash cards usable only on a select range of products at branches of ASDA.
Why this is bad:
1. It forces them to spend their much-needed emergency money on a select range of basic food products, and prevents them from buying a whole range of items that may be necessary for survival, such as emergency hostel accommodation, missed rent repayments, mobile phone credit, and fuel.
2. There are only seven ASDAs within the boundaries of the city – at Perry Barr, Bordesley Green, Small Heath, Sheldon, Quinton, and Kings Heath. A resident of Longbridge will now have to travel five miles to the nearest ASDA simply to buy provisions – presumably by foot, as fuel is one of the items which cannot be bought on the new cards. And woe betide any recipient in Sutton Coldfield, who must now mount a six-mile expedition to the Perry Barr store.
3. In a city which never really came out of recession, local government has ripped business from the hands of struggling local shops and chosen instead to give £6.1 million worth of custom to Britain’s second largest supermarket: a supermarket which sells bottled tap water at a 2,800% mark-up (3) ; which last year posted profits of £857 million (4) , and which has now teamed up with our craven council in order to cash in on the misfortune of tens of thousands of people.
By failing to stand up for some of its most vulnerable inhabitants, the men and women who run our city have once again shown their cowardice, their complacency, and their complicity. They have wholeheartedly bought into Whitehall’s message that the poorest must be demonised, castigated, and stripped of their dignity and autonomy. Never mind that the United States’ experience of food stamps shows that such policies do nothing to reduce dependency. Never mind that pre-paid welfare cards are a boon for the organised criminals and gangs who launder them into hard cash. So long as Birmingham City Council can be seen to be tough on ‘scroungers’ whilst lining the pockets of big business, what does it matter?
(3) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9484130/Tesco-and-Asda-own-brand-bottled-water-comes-from-mains.html
(4) http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/oct/04/asda-profits-rise

Here is the flyer that was handed out. Feel free to use it.

ASDAleaflet1

Asda1leaftet2

ASDA2

ASDA3

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Congratulations to Students and Workers at the University of Birmingham

17 May
Birmingham+Defend+Education
A unionisation drive by University of Birmingham Unison & the threat of mass mobilisation for a national demonstration by students from the University of Birmingham Defend Education has recently forced the University of Birmingham bosses to back down from its plans to restructure support staff. http://www.defendeducationbrum.org/second-letter-to-david-eastwood/  The plans would have put 361 staff members at risk of redundancy (or at the very least face large cuts to their pay and conditions). Worse, the plans were disproportionately targeting female workers and those with children or other caring responsibilities.   http://www.defendeducationbrum.org/how-the-universitys-proposed-changes-will-affect-women-and-minority-groups-disproportionately/
Communities against the Cuts congratulates both Birmingham University Unison, UCU (who supported Unison) and the students from the Defend Education Campaign. Your efforts are an example to people across the country suffering cuts in pay and conditions from greedy executives.
Communities against the Cuts was along in solidarity at the rallies that the campaign ran and we will come along in future whenever asked.
In South Birmingham we now have an excellent opportunity to win real gains. We have strong well-organised unions in the form of the University Unison, UCU, well organised students in the Defend Education Campaign, along with a very strong community anti-cuts campaign in the surrounding areas which is willing to support students & university workers in their battles.
Communities against the Cuts members reading this can follow Defend Education Birmingham on their website http://www.defendeducationbrum.org/  and their facebook https://www.facebook.com/defendeducationbrum and twitter https://twitter.com/DefendEdBrum . Birmingham University Unison website can be found at http://www.birminghamuniunison.org.uk/ and their twitter https://twitter.com/UnisonBhamUni

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Broad Paper of the Left? Slaney Street meeting report

17 May
Slaney Street
Several members of CATC attended this Wednesday a meeting called “Slaney Street winning the battle of ideas”. The call for the meeting called for the community in Birmingham to create its own independent democratically run press. This is a report back for CATC members and some thoughts on the meeting.
There are many reasons why we would want a democratic newspaper. We need to know what is going on the world around us. We need this information for many reasons; to be active citizens and gain a understanding of politics, find out what is going on with the economy so we can plan effectively for the future, be warned of dangers that might affect us and find out what events are going and how we could have fun.
The corporate press is not fit for this purpose and demonstrates a constant bias. One of the most important findings of the Leveson inquiry was that some newspapers publish intentionally inaccurate and misleading articles when promoting a political agenda. Nowhere is this betrayal of the public interest more glaringly obvious than in the coverage of climate change policy. In his final report, Leveson stated: “I have come to the conclusion that there does exist a cultural strand or tendency within a section of the press to practice journalism which on occasion is deliberately, recklessly or negligently inaccurate”.
Politically the vast majority of the press back the Conservatives and their agenda of attacking workers, those claiming social security and disabled people – the Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Sun, Telegraph, The Times & The Financial Times have become notorious for their lies. The papers aren’t reflective of the opinions of ordinary people they have default political settings in line with that of their owners. A democratically run press could be a reflective democratic voice of active citizens.
The effect of the power of the press to mislead is clear and worrying. The TUC did a poll which asked what percentage of the entire welfare budget they thought was spent on benefits. The responses, when averaged out, said 41 % of the entire welfare budget goes on benefits to unemployed people. In reality this figure stands at 3 %. Even more worrying, the poll also found that on average, people think that 27 % of the welfare budget is claimed fraudulently, while the government’s own figure is 0.7%. Another interesting fact is those who knew the true statistics around benefit claimants were far more likely to oppose the government’s plans. This clearly has enormous ramifications for society; the misinformation that people are fed and believe allows the government to carry out attacks on the poor.
 If we funded and ran our press democratically we could have press that gave voice, told the stories and stood up for ordinary people rather than attacked and slandered them.

Ed Bauer

Find Slaney Street on http://www.slaneystreet.org.uk/

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A Public Appeal to stop the privatisation of the Library of Birmingham

15 May
This appeal was issued alongside the press release we made  on Sunday, the 28th April. However, the day after we issued the press release, the Council Press Office issued its own press release stating that the tendering had been cancelled. On the Tuesday, the Council refused to debate with us on the Adrian Goldberg show (Radio WM), but Adrian also confirmed that the process had been halted, at least for the time being. We see this as a temporary action only (see the article “Rebutting the Rebuttal” below), so the campaign to keep this public investment public must continue. We would be very pleased to receive a comment to this article from the Council saying that this whole rotten process was being abandoned. If not, then silence will speak volumes.
“The Library of Birmingham, heralded as the People’s Palace, is to open to the people of Birmingham in September of this year. The new Library has been the subject of a massive public investment and will provide a world-class cultural and learning resource to citizens of Birmingham and beyond. This will be a significant landmark in the history of this city. The Library of Birmingham will house six collections of archives with designated status of national and international significance, including the papers of Boulton and Watt which are of world historic importance.
In December 2012 the Cabinet of Birmingham City Council met and decided to procure a provider to operate the running of the Library of Birmingham.  According to the procurement notice ‘The successful applicant will be expected to operate the Library of Birmingham (LoB) including but not limited to the City’s archive collection, support services for Community Libraries, the Mobile Library, Library Service at Home and management of the Council’s book fund.’ With no public debate the Leadership of Birmingham City Council has commenced the privatisation of the operational running of our new Library of Birmingham. The Council is currently assessing tenders and will announce the award of the contract in May.
We write as individuals and organisations coming from the Labour movement of this city, past and present, who have deposited collections in the City’s archives. We note that where ever privatisation takes place it leads to poorer public services and worsening conditions of employment for workers. As the Cabinet papers make plain this ‘commissioning to the market’ ‘will provide a good opportunity to reduce costs of staffing’.  Libraries are a quintessential public service open to the benefit of all. Archives are a gift of history to future generations. When we deposited our archives we did not anticipate that they would potentially become a source of profit to a private company. This is a betrayal and corruption of our gift to the future.
We call on the Labour Cabinet to immediately stop this procurement process and to retain this Library service in its entirety as a publicly provided service.
 Yours sincerely,
 Mary Pearson,  President of Birmingham Trades Union Council
Paul Mackney,   former Secretary of Birmingham Trades Union Council
Andy Chaffer,    as the depositor of the Birmingham Anti-Apartheid archive
Jolyon Jones,    as the depositor of the NUPE Social Services/ Birmingham UNISON Branch No4 archive
Dave Rogers,     Banner Theatre”

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Birmingham’s New Federation Project

12 May
About 40 people turned up to today’s first meeting of the Birmingham New Democratic Federation. Delegates and observers attended from many local groups, including CATC. The successful meeting took its first step in setting up a Birmingham-wide federation which would draw in all groups opposed to austerity; all those that stand by a clear no-cuts position.

Federation meeting 001

There was agreement to set up a structure working group which would consider a name for the federation, a logo and a structure. Another working group was set up to consider a cross-Birmingham electoral challenge for the city Council elections in 2014. Both groups will meet on June 9th and will report back to the next federation meeting on June 16th.
A questionnaire will be sent out to supporting groups asking; will they fight cuts from whichever party? What kind of structure should be adopted? How should communication be organised? How to integrate liberation politics? How to relate to Trades Unions and also to political parties?
Other issues that cropped up included; how to ensure fair representation for oppressed groups at the federation? How to collate and develop knowledge on specialist issues? How to work with groups that were not yet delegated? How to avoid duplication? What kind of constitution was needed? What officers were required? How to improve services as well as save them? How to combine defensive actions with positive policies? And how to work with trade union branches from Labour Party supporting unions?
The meeting was ably chaired by Roz from “Defend Education” and ended with many announcements of forthcoming actions. The point was made that the federation should produce an accessible calendar of events to be made available to all.
After the meeting there was an initial meeting of the electoral working group.
The meeting was preceded by a successful CATC leaflet and petitioning session in Chamberlain Square against the privatisation of the new Library of Birmingham. All in all, another good day out.

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Teachers unite to challenge Gove

11 May
Three halls in the ICC were required to accommodate the joint NUT/NASUWT regional rally today. The best part of one thousand teachers came to hear defiant speeches from Kevin Courtney (NUT), Chris Keates (NASUWT) and other teachers, parents, governors and students, denouncing the damage that is being done to education and teachers by Gove’s “reforms”.  The rally was preceded by a lively march of 130 teachers, from the bottom of Corporation Street up to the Convention Centre.
Birmingham NUT leads the way up New Street

Birmingham NUT leads the way up New Street

Kevin Courtney set the scene by describing how public influence over education was being replaced by private. He reminded us that academies have been shown not to raise standards, unlike other initiatives such as City Challenge. The ending of the latter programme and the bringing in of unqualified teachers will not only reduce standards, but also drive down pay. This has been shown graphically by the failure of the Swedish “Free (privatised – run for a profit) Schools” over a twenty year period. He reminded us of the North West strike action on 27th June and that nine out of ten class teachers were in the NUT and NASUWT.
Stella Uchobe, a 2nd year teacher, explained how Functional Skills were more useful to 16-19 year olds than retaking GCSEs. She also said that prolonged work experience – working for free with no prospect of a job at the end – was disillusioning young people. Paid employment was needed.
Sue Lowe, a parent governor, said that she had been transformed into a “Company Director” once her school had become an academy!
Dwayne Foster, a student from Dudley, deplored the cutting of the EMA and the hike in FE fees to £9k, with no jobs on offer at the end of it all. Education was a right, not a commodity, he said.
 Wendy Horden, the Head teacher of a primary school said that no one was against change, but that the new curriculum was rooted in the past. Head teachers should be educators, not business managers. She denounced OFSTED as a black cloud following teachers around, to loud applause.
 Phoebe Kent, a parent governor, feared for schools becoming businesses and described how public accountability was going. How could local concerns be raised? There was no rationale for current changes. They are not based on any evidence.
 The rally was completed with a rousing speech from Chris Keates. She said that pupils and staff had been betrayed by the Government, and how refreshing it was to hear the truth about what is happening in schools. The government had no mandate for its attacks on education and the welfare state. We should say no to its denigration of teachers and no to more attacks on wages and conditions. They were stifling the aspirations of working class children. Who would go to see an unqualified doctor? Parents’ ability to pay was becoming a new factor in education. She also launched into a strong attack on OFSTED. The government wanted an education system for the few, not for all. She promised national action in the autumn if Gove would not listen. There had only ever been one meeting between him and teachers’ leaders; he was not listening.
 It was good to take part in a united teachers rally, and witness strong applause for the denunciations of the Gove regime. It shows what can be done. Let us hope that the teachers are led further up the hill and not marched back down again if Gove offers a few crumbs.
 It was also interesting to see the question of government avoided. There was no Labour speaker, and no mention of what a Labour government could or should do. Of course, a good starting point is for teachers to start standing up for themselves, but at some stage the question of political trade unionism will raise its head. The anti-party political stance of both unions stops the deadweight of Labour holding them back at one level, but at another level, it poses the need for a new party of the left; one that supports union actions and aspirations and seeks to implement them in office.

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Rebutting the Rebuttal: update on the Library of Birmingham privatisation

8 May
 The Newsroom of Birmingham City Council issued a public rebuttal on 29th April, in response to media reports about the ‘outsourcing’ of the new Library of Birmingham. The rebuttal does nothing of the sort and instead raises further questions about the procurement process to privatise running of the new Library of Birmingham (LoB).
 The Council rebuttal says that when the LoB opens on the 3rd September 2013 it will be run by Birmingham City Council.
Outsourcing the running of LoB is remains Cabinet policy.  The Cabinet decided to ‘outsource’ or privatise the running of the Library in December 2012. The Cabinet decision of December 2012 has not been over turned and this remains the policy of the Council.  In December the Cabinet decided that the Council would no longer directly provide the operational management for the Library of Birmingham and would commence an open procurement process which would allow any company or entity to submit a tender. Following the Cabinet decision the Council announced the contract and invited tenders in March and was to announce the award of the contract in May.
 An outsourcing postponed not cancelled
The Council statement confirms that it has now suspended but not terminated the procurement process. Technical reasons only are at the heart of the delay; according to the rebuttal:
“Once this enormous task has been completed successfully, and we start to get a greater understanding of the requirements of the service, then we will be in a better position to put together detailed specifications for the running of the new library”.
The original timescale agreed by the Council in December was for the Contract award to have been made in May, for the new Company and/or Trust to have this iconic project up and operational for 3rd September 2013. The rebuttal confirms that the procurement will resume once it has been able to work out the technical detail of the contract specification.
 The competence of the decision makers is clearly in question; how did the Cabinet meeting in December think it would be able to privatise this major project within an impossibly short timeline? The rebuttal statement also makes it clear that the procurement process was under prepared and did not have sufficient technical information to proceed.  It is understood that the Procurement process will commence again in March 2014, 6 months after the LoB has opened.
 An open competitive procurement process
 The rebuttal statement introduces confusion in referring to the Development Trust which would have become the Management body if an ‘in-house’ bid were successful.  Under the EU Procurement regulations any tendering process has to be competitive and open. It is understood that a number of private companies had submitted tenders in March when the bidding opened. The award of the contract would primarily be based on commercial considerations and there would be no guarantee that the Development Trust would win the contract.
 So if not 2013, the Council will be privatising and paying a private company or trust to provide a service to run the LoB in 2014!
 When did the Council decide to suspend the procurement?
 Finally there is an interesting question of the timing of the rebuttal statement and of the decision to suspend the present procurement process. The Rebuttal statement appeared on the Council website within a day of Communities against the Cuts issuing a press release condemning the privatisation.  So when did the Council make the decision to suspend the Library procurement and why did it delay publically announcing the suspension? We also need to know how much public money has been spent on the privatisation process so far, including the funding of the ‘in-house’ bid? The timing of the Council’s response also demonstrates real political sensitivity by the Labour Group to public criticism on this matter.
 Public libraries are Public services
 We should oppose the transfer of highly valued public services, like the LoB, to private companies so they can profit from receiving public funds. For profit to be made, private companies drive down the quality of services and seek to reduce the conditions of employment for workers.  Public Libraries are some of our most valuable and unique public spaces, that are open to all and provide universal opportunities for learning and access to culture.  There needs to be a major public campaign to end this privatisation of our ‘People’s Palace’. The delay gives us the opportunity to strike back against this robbery and defend the library. We call on all to join us in our campaign. Make sure you stay in touch. Sign up to the mailing list to make sure you hear about petitions, lobbies and demonstrations to save the library as a public asset,   http://communitiesagainstthecuts.com/get-involved/  & join our Facebook group  https://www.facebook.com/groups/389392804422354/  A ‘Friends of Central Library’ group is being prepared, so watch this space.

 

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