Sunday 21st November March with Midwives
Assemble Devonshire Green 1.45pm for march at 2pm
Tuesday 22nd November Nora Everitt on NHS Health and Social Care Bill
7pm Sheffield TUC Delegate Meeting held via zoom
Our speaker is Nora Everitt co-founder of South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw NHS Action group (SYBNAG) https://sybnhsactiongroup.wordpress.com/ a very knowledgeable and ardent campaigner on NHS issues. She will give her insight into the Tories’ Health and Social Care Bill which will open up our NHS to yet more fragmentation and privatisation…
Sheffield TUC delegates meetings are also open to trade union members who are not delegates, who may contribute to the discussions but may not vote. If you would like to attend, please email tucsheffield@gmail.com for the zoom link
Thursday 25th November “Class, Power, and Philosophy” one-day workshop
10:30-17:00 Humanities Research Institute, Upper Hanover Street
How does class affect our lives? What is class power, and what is its significance for freedom and democracy? And can philosophy help us understand it? Class, Power, and Philosophy brings activists engaged in class struggles around low pay, peasants’ land rights, and the university sector together with political philosophers to create dialogue about issues which both activists and philosophers deal with daily, but from very different angles. Where activists try to fight the arbitrary power of bosses over workers, philosophers are interested in how this power affects workers’ freedom. In this one-day workshop there will be three sessions, each of which involves a philosopher responding to a talk by a class activist, to see what philosophy can offer the class struggle, but also to see how much it can learn from it. This event will be a stimulating occasion to hear speakers from many different backgrounds discuss these issues in an engaging and accessible way, and to further our understanding of some of the most important political questions of our time. Please book your ticket here, and keep up to date with the event here.
Saturday 27th November Sheffield Global Climate Justice Summit
10am – 4pm Quaker’s meeting House, 10 St James Street Sheffield S1 2EW
Our ‘Global Climate Justice Summit’ on 27th November comes at a crucial time when, after COP26, ‘Justice’ is the key word when discussing what the future looks like for the movement? We need to take stock on the two weeks of COP, and reflect on where we go from here – “Centring the Most Affected People and Areas’ and delivering a clear justice-based call for action to Global leaders following COP26.” Where world leaders have failed us, we must continue to build on the great success of the 6th November, calling loudly for climate justice.
All are welcome – this is a face-to-face event.
Join us at the Quakers Meeting house, from 10am to 4pm. You can register via the Eventbrite link at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/…/sheffield-global-climate… or go to our Facebook page @SCCUGCOP26Coalition.
PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL ON TO THOSE IN YOUR CLIMATE, COMMUNITY, ANTI RACIST AND MIGRATION GROUPS, AS WELL AS TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY.
Saturday 27th November UN Day of Solidarity with Palestinians
10 am Cyclecade assemble Heely Retail Park. 11am rally outside Sheffield Town Hall
Organised by Sheffield Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Sheffield PSC has called for a rally on Saturday November 27th 11 a.m. This is to commemorate the UN day of solidarity with the Palestinians.
A Human Rights Watch report stated
“Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”
Join us on sat 27th November 11 am Sheffield Town Hall, or join the cyclecade (cavalcade, but with bikes,) 10 am Heeley Retail Park
Saturday 27th November “End the US blockade on Cuba!”
12 noon protest rally outside Sheffield Town Hall organised by Sheffield Cuba Solidarity Campaign. See flyer attached End the US blockade on Cuba Demonstrate 27 November
Monday, 15th November was meant to be the day US imperialists had their day in Cuba. It didn’t happen! Instead all round the world, from Sheffield to Washington DC people took to the streets, to voice their support for the island and to denounce US attempts at destabilisation. Cubans are politically savvy. They understand the likely outcome, if the Americans make their move on the island. They only have to look at Latin America and their own, not so distant history. Instead of taking to the streets, Cubans sent children back to school for the first time since the pandemic and welcomed tourists again, thanks to the development of their own vaccine. They know the mechanisms in place, where they can express discontent. Allowing the US to get the upper hand is not something they will countenance.
Sunday 28th November IWGB Couriers Strike solidarity rally
12 noon outside Sheffield Town Hall
Support JustEat workers: IWGB food couriers say “We deserve a pay rise, not a pay cut!”
Couriers who deliver takeaways for JustEat, and who are employed by the logistics company Stuart, are being hit with a big pay cut.
POVERTY PAY? NO WAY
The company has rolled out a new pay scale across the UK which cuts pay per delivery by £1.10, from £4.50 per job to £3.40 per job. The company claims a new mileage bonus will make up for the pay cut but it won’t: it just means couriers have to go further to earn the same amount.
Not everyone knows that couriers have to cover their own vehicle costs, vehicle and business insurance: and they get no holiday pay or paid sick leave. That means that when you subtract costs, the people delivering your food are often on less than minimum wage, working a 70-hour week.
Couriers have served JustEat through the pandemic and faced risks to their health to keep the service running.
Sheffield drivers say: we deserve a pay rise, not a pay cut. Everything in the UK has gone up in price; diesel/petrol, national insurance, gas, electricity: to give couriers poverty pay is not acceptable!
Sheffield TUC says “Please show your support for Sheffield couriers who deliver takeaway food to your door in all weathers and did so right throughout lockdown! These are some of the most exploited workers in our city, trapped on bogus self-employment, paid a pittance for each delivery, no union recognition, no bargaining rights, no sick pay, no holiday pay, and at the mercy of an anonymous app that allocates you work or takes it way – and even deletes you for no reason and with no comeback. Well, they are getting organised and fighting back! Please support the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) Sheffield Couriers’ strike against a pay cut on 6th December and come to their strike rally outside the Town Hall on Sunday 28th November at 12 noon. They need to know the city is behind them!”
Wednesday 1st December UCU Strike Rally University of Sheffield
On Wednesday 1st December staff and students of the University of Sheffield will rally in defence of academic communities facing the brutal commercialisation of knowledge and the closure of departments and courses across the country. The demonstration will focus on the attack on learning, education, and culture that is taking place at the University of Sheffield and elsewhere. In many universities, management is uncritically endorsing the worst elements of the neoliberal economy, including the marketisation of education, devaluation of frontline work, and adoption of a widespread corporate attitude that has made many work environments highly toxic. Students and staff, united against cultural vandalism, intend to reclaim the university as a genuine place of learning and mutual support. The rally is organised by the #SaveSheffield Archaeology campaign and the Sheffield University College Union (UCU), and supported by the Sheffield Students’ Union (SU) and the Sheffield Trades Union Council (TUC). The live stream of the event (12noon-1pm) will be available on the Save Sheffield Archaeology Facebook page.
Monday 6th December Better Buses South Yorkshire campaign meeting
The next Better Buses for SY meeting will be on Monday 6th December at 5pm.
Log in details are: ID 836 7849 5867 Passcode 500401
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83678495867?pwd=U01XZ0pFMWVITG5jbUgvZ3VvRWZHQT09
I will send out a suggested agenda with ideas on the next stage of our campaign in advance of the meeting.
Events before the meeting:
- Lobby Barnsley Council meeting -Thursday Nov 25th, 9.30 to 10.30 outside Barnsley Town Hall
The council meeting will be discussing a motion in support of franchising of our bus services in South Yorkshire. Environmental campaigners from around the borough are also lobbying over the destruction of green spaces by huge industrial and housing developments.
Please join us if you can!
- Consultation re priority bus lanes in Sheffield
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