Saturday 20th March; Global UN Anti-Racism Day
Please join us if you can and help us magnify the voices against racism – and be part of an international movement on this important day
“. Sheffield City Council have agreed to light up the Town Hall and hang a banner over the door supporting Anti-Racism day.Flags and banners are being paid for by the Yorkshire and Humber Regional TUC. This will be combined with international linked online actions, including a major global rally at 5pm GMT. We need as many groups and individuals to get involved!”
(Maxine Bowler and Sahail Chohan -Sheffield Stand Up to Racism)
We have organised safely socially distanced activities in Barkers Pool linking up to other countries
- 1130 cycle ride around the city centre. Meet City Hall
- 1230 banners will be placed outside the Town Hall and left for an hour.
- 1pm Workers are being asked to “take the knee” and share photos on social media with #StandUptoRacism and #TUC.
- 1pm-2pm: Live link with actions around the world
- 2pm taxi cavalcade.
5PM: Online Rally hosted by Stand Up To Racism and the TUC
Register for Zoom link & further details here:https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/worldagainstracism-rally-day-of-action-for-un-anti-racism-day-tickets-144644055263?fbclid=IwAR1VGtnmb-272sZBYS7t96-IBzaS0D2uvIwNj91qB_exv3zpmX7AbgFhQQY
We are calling for people to Take The Knee wherever you can.
Workplaces This is already being planned in some workplaces – could you organise one with your colleagues? You can do this on Friday 19th if you don’t work on the 20th.
On your street Can you do a selfie – and encourage others in your community to do the same?
Attached are three posters which you can share with neighbours and work colleagues; get them to Take The Knee and do selfies and/or put them in their windows.
Young people Also we want to get young people involved!
REGISTER FOR UN ANTI RACISM DAY HERE
Saturday 22nd March “Magic Music for Palestine”
Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine are organising an online FREE but fund-raising** concert at 6pm GMT on 20th March,
Zoom meeting link: us02web.zoom.us Meeting ID: 9345399217.
The line-up is below. Its aim is to raise funds for a Youth Centre for young Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, to be built by the Seeds Association for Development and Culture, Nablus. More information about the project at: https://www.chuffed.org/project/concert-for-palestine
where donations will be welcomed and much appreciated whether you are able to attend or not, but we hope you can join us.
Featured performances from Sheffield and Nablus, including Hatem Hafi and Habib Al-Diq – oud and derbakeh; The Well Dressed Ceilidh Band; Samer Rashed – Palestinian Gypsy Jazz; the PW Family Band; and the Tadhamon Singers.
Monday 22nd March “Green Jobs for All Campaign”
6pm – 7pm Green New Deal UK – South Yorkshire Hub launch.
In South Yorkshire we want to create 25,000 new green jobs. These jobs are needed in response to the Covid economic downturn and the climate and ecological emergencies. We must invest in skills and studies suggest a need to create 6500 apprenticeships/training opportunities – for instance in home insulation, renewable energy, public transport and nature restoration.
The recent budget failed most people and provided tax cuts to corporations and homeowners. There is a Budget stimulus but it is only 25% of what was offered in other countries such as France, Germany, US and Japan. It does not go directly to support jobs or people.
The campaign calls on the government to:
- Invest directly in people and the planet
- Restore public services
3.Invest in job creation and the training needed for a sustainable economy
- Establish the real living wage as the new going rate
Introduction from Geoff Cox from Green New Deal South Yorkshire
Short video compilation on local green jobs, Break for questions
Martin Mayer – Secretary of Sheffield Trades Council – on TU perspective
Jude Daniel Smith – on the Teach the Future Campaign. Break for questions
Youth Strike for Climate – this is on our future
Campaign Against Climate Change – on the new edition of One Million Climate Jobs
Questions
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creating-25000-new-green-jobs-in-south-yorkshire-tickets-142706040609
Here’s the draft press release
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1g3M33HmeQAPp3ZMJx-PZLjVH5w6Ahwlq9EmDgEsRuU0/edit
Monday 22nd March “This is Apartheid: the realities for Palestinians living under occupation” 6.30pm -7.45pm Caabu and PSC online briefing.
Palestinians have been pointing out the apartheid reality they live in for years, but B’Tselem’s declaration remains hugely significant. ‘This is Apartheid’. Hear from B’Tselem, at at online briefing, hosted by Centre for Arab British Understanding (CAABU) and PSC, on the realities for Palestinians living under occupation. Israel’s largest human rights group, B’Tselem, recently published a report ‘A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean: This is apartheid’
Palestinians have been pointing out the apartheid reality they live in for years, but B’Tselem’s declaration remains hugely significant. The webinar will include discussion with B’Tselem’s executive director Hagai El-Ad, and renowned Palestinian lawyer and commentator Diana Buttu.
Further details of the meeting are outlined below from CAACBU. We hope you will be able to attend the briefing, as well as encouraging others to do so. And if you’re in the Labour Party please join Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine
(Membership Secretary: membership@slfp.org.uk).
We’ll be speaking with B’Tselem’s executive director Hagai El-Ad, and renowned Palestinian lawyer and commentator Diana Buttu. https://www.caabu.org/events/caabu/apartheid-caabu-and-psc-online-briefing-realities-palestinians-living-under-occupation Please register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIpdumupzMoGtEucRD21VXxmZWF198Mw47D
Tuesday 23rd March 7pm Sheffield Trades Council Delegate Meeting
Speaker on Trans solidarity rights, accompanied by a motion to be debated from UNITE Not4Profit Branch. Trade unionists who are not delegates are welcome as visitors. Is your branch affiliated? If not ask your Branch to join. Zoom link will be communicated in due course. Email tucsheffield@gmail.com to be sent the link
Wednesday 24th March “No to More Police Powers – Defend the Right to Protest” 6.30pm https://www.facebook.com/events/447254973159580?ref=110
Zoom details; ID: 816-6984-3023 PC: 698148
As the government pushes to open up the economy, it is clamping down on any attempts to challenge or resist them.
Two weeks ago, a nurse was fined £10,000 for holding a safe and socially distanced protest against the insulting 1% pay rise for NHS workers. The following day, thousands of children were sent back into unsafe schools.
Last week, the revelations of the murder of Sarah Everard, allegedly perpetrated by a police officer, led to women being told to stay home for their own safety! When women took to the streets to demand that more be done to make the streets safe for women, the police responded with violence.
At the same time, the Tories have been busy preparing to rush through a new, draconian, Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill. A cynical attempt to use the pandemic to further increase the powers of the police; strengthening their ability to prevent further protests.
Whether you are a student, worker, campaign activist, benefit claimant, disabled, LGBT+, a person of colour, a woman; your right to protest must be defended. We must do this collectively. Come to this meeting to find out more and get involved.
Speakers:
- Karen Reissmann, NHS worker and UNISON Rep (fined £10k for protesting 1% payrise)
- Olivia Blake MP, Labour Party (Sheffield Hallam)
- Chris Peace – Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign
- Nahella Ashraf, Stand Up To Racism
- Ci Davis, Extinction Rebellion Sheffield
Saturday 27th March Organising and Building for COP26
11am to 1pm. Leeds Trades Union Council’s Environment Sub-committee invites you, all members of your affiliated branches and anyone else in your networks, to an online meeting to help organise and build a local and regional response to the COP 26 Summit to be held in Glasgow in November. The meeting is open to all groups and individuals concerned about climate change, though as a TU group we obviously have a particular interest in worker-led Just Transition and secure well-paid unionised climate jobs. The Eventbite link is here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/building-for-cop-26-planning-organising-coalition-building-11am-27321-tickets-145904752041
We hope to work out the detail of how we can build a network or coalition across Yorkshire and the Humber, what roles or activities different groups or individuals might want to do, how we connect and work with our allies, how we can increase our reach and be more inclusive, what actions and events we might want to put on between now and then to make COP 26 and just transition ideas more meaningful to more people, and how we might frame our demands.