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News
News and updates from Respect. If you want to view only one type of news, please click on the link beneath the title.

First Solution: Deal is no deal
Local news and reports

The collapse of First Solution at the end of June, owing £2million to 2,000 creditors, has had a devastating impact on the Bangladeshi community in Britain and caused huge hardship to many in Bangladesh. George Galloway and Respect have been in the forefront of the campaign to get justice for the creditors and all their money back. But so far, what's on offer is entirely unacceptable to the people who have lost money.

Click to read the full article...
 
Don't ban the badge!
General news

Prison workers have been banned from wearing their new union badge by their bosses, despite the fact that the badges are being sold to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Prison Officers' Association (POA) members have been threatened with suspension if they wear the badges.

In a message of support to the prison officers, George Galloway said, "This is a shocking attack on trade union and workers' rights by the prison service management. The fact that money raised from the new union badge is going to help sick children simply underscores how out to lunch the senior management are.

Click to read the full article...
 
Hundreds protest against BNP & Holocaust denier in Oxford
Local news and reports
Hundreds of students and others blockaded the Oxford Union debating club on Monday 26 November and succeeded in disrupting a meeting involving Holocaust-denier David Irving and Nick Griffin of the fascist British National Party.

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Respect our views on congestion charge, meeting told
General news
RESPECT candidate Roy Wilkes went head to head with Charlestown ward councillor Mark Hackett in a congestion charging debate at Moston Social and Labour Club on Tuesday night.

Addressing a largely sympathetic audience first, green campaigner Mr Wilkes told Councillor Hackett that taxing motorists was the wrong way to go about cutting traffic emissions.

Rejecting conventional environmental and 'anti-car' thinking, the Respect party is part of a broad coalition opposed to the Toll Tax, including businesses, residents, and anti-road toll groups such as Manchester Against Road Tolls (MART).

Mr Wilkes told The Advertiser: "Somebody came along from MART, but they have got a very different perspective. We are in favour of public transport but we don't see this as the best way to improve it. Climate change is such a serious threat that the measures that need to be taken to reduce carbon emissions need to be far more radical than are being proposed. We need to really provide people with a genuine alternative that will get them out of cars."

Respect wants to see free public transport and a returning of buses, trains and trams to public hands.

Mr Wilkes also asked why the Government could afford to spend £3 billion on bailing out Northern Rock or on Iraq, but an expansion of Manchester's public transport system required the introduction of the C-charge.

"We don't think we should back down to that sort of blackmail," he said.

He also claimed the Toll Tax was a regressive tax that would hit the poorest hardest, likening it to an increase in tobacco taxes.

"The poorest ones are the ones that have the hardest time giving up smoking, so increasing the tax on cigarettes actually just makes them poorer," he claimed.

Other anti-Toll Tax campaigners have dismissed the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities' (AGMA) congestion projections as scaremongering. The council's own State of the City report published two weeks ago revealed "no detectable increase in traffic congestion on local roads over the past year."

But Mr Wilkes said: "Everyone's experience is that commuting by car in Manchester is a nightmare experience. Whatever surveys come out of it there's an environmental cost of congestion but also a diminishing of quality of life."

Councilor Hackett told The Advertiser: "We need improved public transport. I don't think the financial aspects are crucial. The key thing is to get the investment in public transport. In the long run it is essential for people's health."

He said a culture change was needed where people lived differently.

Cllr Hackett added: "It doesn't mean cars are not appropriate for certain journeys, but others would be a lot better served by public transport. Congestion charge is part of the choice we are likely to be faced with in Manchester.

"It is ridiculous to throw away billions of pounds of investment in public transport. "If we don't have a congestion charge we face a real danger of congestion being a huge economic disincentive. "We need a change in people's behaviour and congestion charging could be a way of doing that.

"I love my car, I am very much a car person. I am not anti-car. I don't think congestion charging is the crucial issue."

North Manchester Respect is hoping to organise similar public debates on the issue across the city in future months.
 
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News and articles of interest

Here are some articles and news reports we think are worth looking at

Poll of polls shows Labour at its most unpopular since 1935 by Nigel Morris
Gordon Brown is leading Labour to its worst electoral defeat since the 1930s, according to a new "poll of polls" for The Independent. On current levels of support, Labour would lose almost half its MPs at the next election and David Cameron would become Prime Minister with an overwhelming majority. The backlash against Labour has left the party with the support of just 27 per cent of voters, the weighted average of last month's polls for The Independent shows.

Unmanned spy planes to police Britain by Kim Sengupta
The Government is drawing up plans to use unmanned "drone" aircraft currently deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan to counter terrorism and aid police operations in Britain. The MoD is carrying out research and development to enable the spy planes, which are equipped with highly sophisticated monitoring equipment that allows them to secretly track and photograph suspects without their knowledge, to be deployed within three years.

The Camp for Climate Action, at Kingsnorth, Kent, 3rd to 11th August - full details
Wednesday 10 am update. Local MP Bob Marshall-Andrews condems police action at climate camp (see BBC article), saying "I find the use of police in riot gear incomprehensible and I think it was a mistake." He also described the actions of the police as "provocation."

Diego Garcia: the UK's shame by Andy Worthington
The ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus wrote: "In war, truth is the first casualty." These words are particularly apt in relation to the British Overseas Territory of Diego Garcia, leased to the United States in 1971, where the truth – that a secret "War on Terror" prison existed from 2002 until as recently as 2006 – has been persistently denied by both the British and American governments.

The Horror Of Israeli Occupation - documentary developed by Chaim Yavin West Bank Checkpoints
A video clip that dramatically portrays the meeting of Israeli solders and Palestinians at controversial West Bank security checkpoints. This clip is the second of a series taken from "Land of the Settlers", the acclaimed documentary developed by Chaim Yavin, Israel's premier news anchor.

Anger at police raid on green camp ahead of coal protest by Matthew Taylor
Environmental campaigners and politicians criticised the police last night after around 200 officers raided a climate camp, seizing hundreds of items that they claimed could be used to break the law. Activists at the camp, which starts today with a series of workshops on sustainable energy and social justice, said the raid aimed to disrupt legitimate protest.

Morning Star Back on Track After Office Fire by Tomasz Pierscionek
In the early hours of Monday morning (last week), an electrical fire broke out at William Rust House, the East London office of the socialist newspaper the Morning Star. The fire, believed to have been caused by a malfunctioning air-conditioner, broke out at approximately 3am and caused considerable structural damage to both the interior of the Morning Star's newsroom and the equipment within, knocking out both electrical power and phone lines.

Venezuela Bridges Diplomatic Fissures and Polishes Alliances in European Tour by James Suggett
Rounding off a diplomatic tour of Europe that began with Tuesday's controversial visit in Russia, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez mended relations with the Spanish government, set up a bi-national commerce commission with Portugal, and eliminated visa requirements to facilitate bilateral accords with Belarus this week.

Why David Cameron Blames the Poor by Peter Taylor-Gooby
David Cameron's 'blaming the poor' speech in Glasgow may be more than just an attempt to placate the unreconstructed right of the Conservative party. It is not often recognised how far British public opinion has shifted towards a liberal individualist stance on social issues in recent years. In some ways we are more Thatcherite under New Labour than we ever were under the Conservatives.

Star names set to top the bill at Carnegie Festival - Dunfermline Press
TWO of the best-known faces on television will be making personal appearances in Dunfermline next month as part of the inaugural Carnegie Festival, from 21st August to 7th September. Evan Davis will be in dialogue with fiesty MP George Galloway in a conversation on Saturday, 23rd August, at 7.30pm in the Carnegie Hall. Tickets, priced £5, are available from the Carnegie Hall box office.

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