Wednesday 23rd August Better Buses South Yorkshire campaign meeting
2.30pm on the usual Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84236698968?pwd=R3NsbzFpVDAwY29hd2NKYnl2QlF1QT09
Meeting ID: 842 3669 8968 Passcode: 698590
“I’m sure you’ll have seen information from Oliver Coppard about the appalling underfunding of bus services in South Yorkshire. It’s clear from press releases and meetings already held that Coppard wants to build a powerful public campaign to pressurise the government for a better deal. BBSY should play an important part in building this campaign. Our next meeting was planned for 13th September but I’m suggesting we meet this week to discuss our response.
Do you live in an area particularly badly affected by poor services? Oliver has said he wants to hold more local meetings – If you would like him to arrange a community meeting in your area, please either contact him direct or let me know and I will urge him to fix one up. I think it’s particularly important to do this where there have been community petitions and other protests which I know several of our supporters have been involved with”
Fran Postlethwaite
Thursday 24th August Refugee Beach trip organised by SUtR
Working with SB&C theatre group we have started to organise an antidote to the hostile environment for refugees and asylum seekers and their families. A trip to Ingoldmells on 24th August- we have booked a couple of coaches. We need your support to help us raise £3000 to pay for the coaches and food and fun fare bands.
Please give generously and share with your friends and organisation https://chuffed.org/project/om34dgcb4rqp3po
If you know off refugees or asylum seekers who want to come, please share the attached link https://forms.gle/MRRgBd3qqxjtRBJf8
Monday 4th September Responding to Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate conference
9.30am to 4.30pm St Mary’s Conference Centre, Bramall Lane Sheffield. Organised by Break the Hate and SAYit. £25 including lunch.
“In the face of this increasingly hostile environment, SAYiT’s Break The Hate: Anti-LGBTQ+ Hate Conference seeks to bring together professionals, academics, and community members to explore the extent of anti-LGBTQ+ hate in the UK and the responses by criminal justice and voluntary agencies. It will look at hate crime and other forms of anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination and related social problems, which go beyond that which is covered by the criminal justice system. The event is open to anyone interested in challenging anti-LGBTQ+ hate, with particular relevance for those working in criminal and civil justice, frontline youth and community and support services, education, mental health, and LGBTQ+ organisations.”
Please share amongst your networks: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/break-the-hate-responding-to-anti-lgbtq-hate-conference-tickets-630146303557
Friday 8th September Palestine: Confronting Escalating Settler Violence
7pm Friday 8th Sept. Showroom 5, S1 2BX. Organised by Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Mahmoud Soliman, a West Bank farmer and academic researcher, is an activist on the front line of the struggle of Palestinian communities against mounting settler violence. Since 2022, at least 488 Palestinians, including 263 children, from seven communities of the West Bank have been forcibly displaced due to settler violence. In the first 6 months of this year, settlers killed six Palestinians and injured 204, including 24 children, On 7th August, following a settler attack on the village of Burqa in which yet another Palestinian was killed, a correspondent of the Israeli daily, Ha’aretz, noted: “it is hard to ignore the growing self-confidence that the most extreme and violent outpost settlers enjoy because politicians who support them now sit in the cabinet and hold key government positions.” But resistance is building and support from solidarity activists has a vital role to play.
Saturday 9th September Rally in memory of Pinochet’s coup in Chile
Meet 12 noon outside City Hall. March to rally at Quakers meeting House, St James Street 1pm. Organised by Chile Solidarity Network
Come to our 50th anniversary vigil for the 11th of September anniversary, which this year includes a march to a commemorative event at the Quakers Meeting House. (Note: this will be taking place on the Saturday as the 11th falls on a Monday)
The brutal coup by Gen Pinochet in 1979 ousted the democratically elected left wing President Salvador Allende. Backed by USA, Pinochet’s Chile then became a testing ground for neo-liberal economics, with mass privatisation and deregulation of public services and vicious attacks on workers rights, trade unions, and political freedoms. Tens of thousands of opponents were rounded up, imprisoned, tortured and murdered. Reagan and Thatcher supported Pinochet and his brutal regime throughout, and ushered in a similar neoliberal agenda in USA and here in the UK, admittedly without the horror and state violence. This is a clear sign of the connections between what happened in Chile and the politics of our country. We in the Sheffield labour and trade union movement welcomed during those years a wave of political refuges from Pinochet’s Chile, which demonstrates too the political connections on the left with our Chilean brothers and sisters. It is important therefore that Sheffield supports and participates in this important event commemorating the terrible day when a USA-backed fascist general overthrew a socialist government in Chile in 1979.
Sunday 10th September Lobby the TUC -Scrap the Tory anti-union laws!
1pm at Premier Meetings, Liverpool Albert Dock L3 4AD. National Shop Steward Network (NSSN) rally and lobby of TUC Congress in Liverpool
Speakers include: Sharon Graham Unite, Sarah Woolley BFAWU & Steve Gillan POA
“The Tories have sneaked their new attack on the right to strike, the Minimum Service Level Act (MSL) into law before the Parliamentary summer recess. This means that striking unions can face massive fines and their members can be under threat of dismissal at any time.
The NSSN agrees with fighting unions that are calling for action to ensure that no union is left isolated. Workers are showing every day in the persistent and developing strike wave that they are prepared to fight against the Tory cost of living squeeze and the bosses’ offensive.
The NSSN believes that if workers take action together, the crisis-ridden Tories and their anti-union offensive can be defeated.
The FBU has called for “mass opposition” and for unions to “act together to build a movement to defy and defeat this law.” At its recent AGM, the RMT passed a motion calling for a national demonstration against the MSL and co-ordinated strike action. And Unite at its Policy Conference two weeks ago, passed a motion to “call on the TUC to co-ordinate action, in the form of a 24-hour general strike.
Tuesday 12th September Better Buses S. Yorks Franchising Party!
12 noon at the SYMCA Join the party! – a celebration to mark progress on franchising (there is a special meeting at 1pm which is expected to agree to move forward in the process). Cake, party hats, balloons, street theatre and hopefully songs…..
BBSY has been very active in pushing for franchising of our ailing bus services (as a first step to bringing the buses back hopefully under public ownership in the long run). We have won Oliver Coppard’s support for this and finally won over – we think! – Barnsley and Doncaster Council leaders who appeared sceptical to say the least. The meeting in the YMCA offices on this day is expected to endorse the first tangible steps towards franchising. So we are going to celebrate!
Thursday 21st September Asa Winstanley, “Weaponising Antisemitism”
7pm Venue to be confirmed. Organised by Sheffield Left. Asa will speak about his book which exposes how Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis was manufactured by pro-Israel groups. Venue yet to be confirmed, see nearer to the time in next SL Newsletter or at:
https://www.facebook.com/SheffieldLabourLeft/?locale=en_GB
Saturday 23rd September Workers Summit, London
2-10pm London Irish Centre. “Link the Fights. Reject Bad deals. Fight to Win”
Sunday 1st October Protest at Tory Party Conference, Manchester
12pm Oxford Road, Manchester. Organised by Peoples Assembly.
People’s Assembly, Sheffield TUC and Stand Up to racism will put on coaches for this event. Please await further details.
“As the Tory government prepares to sink lower than ever before, ramming through even more draconian laws to impede our civil liberties and our right to protest, we are all facing the fight of our lives.
This government has no popular mandate for its policies that punish us all. But unless we mobilise real determined opposition to government policies, vicious attacks on the working class will continue. The People’s Assembly is calling on all our affiliates and supporters to help us to mobilise the biggest, most united voice from every corner of Britain in coming weeks.”
Saturday 7th October Rally for our Bus Services
Organised by Better Buses South Yorkshire
Campaign stalls to build for October 7th rally:
- Sheffield Weds 4th October, 11.30 – 1pm (top of the Moor)
- Doncaster possible date Weds 27th September – please let me know if you can be there
- Barnsley – to be arranged, possibly Friday 22nd Sept (let me know availability)
Saturday 7th October Latin America Day School
0945hrs to 1615hrs Quaker Meeting House, St James Street S1. Hosted by Sheffield Trades Council, Sheffield Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Chile Solidarity Network, Jubilee Movement Sheffield, Alborada, Sheffield Left. See flyer here: Latin America Dayschool 2023 flyer 7th October.pdf
“Economic and ecological crises are bearing down with greatest intensity on workers and poor people in Latin America and other regions of the global South, made much worse by reckless exploitation of their natural resources and living labour by capitalist corporations based in Britain and other rich countries. The struggles in Britain against austerity, union-busting, climate destruction, profiteering corporations, racism & fascism and much else are indissolubly connected to struggles against these same evils in Latin America. We have much to learn from the often much more advanced experiences of workers and youth in Latin America. Solidarity, and seeing ourselves as part of the world, makes us stronger.”
Saturday 21st October “Socialist republic of South Yorkshire -Resisting Thatcherism in the 1980’s
1pm-5pm Broomhall Centre, Broomspring Lane S10 2FD.
Sheffield Transformed is hosting a free workshop that will explore how left-wing activists and politicians in 1980s Sheffield attempted to resist the dominance of Thatcherism and implement their own political ideas. During the 1980s, the term ‘Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire’ was coined to describe the region’s left-wing political culture. With contributions from historians and local campaigners, this workshop will examine the left-wing, trade union, feminist, and anti-racist activism that made up the Socialist Republic. We’ll discuss what we can learn from this pivotal period in political history and how we can apply it to our present situation.