London Health

05-03-2015 23:42 | 3 comments

Maximus: Same Circus, Different Clowns

On Monday 2nd of March 2015, there were demonstrations in over 30 towns and cities around the UK (plus Toronto) against Maximus, the US based health insurance corporation that has taken over the contract from the French IT Company Atos to administer the Work Capability Assessment on behalf of the Department Of Work And Pensions. Atos announced its exit from the contract in early 2014 following an intense period of direct action against the company by groups such as Disabled People Against the Cuts.

The day of action was timed to coincide with the first working day of the new contract, with the spotlight turned on Maximus as well as the continued use of Work Capability Assessments and the life-threatening consequences of the ongoing government attacks on the sick and disabled.

In central London, to the chorus of "David Cameron is a W*****" (YouTube) activists from DPAC hit the streets, taking direct action to block traffic and at one stage bringing traffic to a standstill on Victoria Street in the shadow of Big Ben.

The demonstrations across the UK on the streets were complemented with an online Twitter campaign using the hashtags #Maximarse and #ScrapWCA, the latter trending for a number of hours. This gave the opportunity for those unable (including through sickness and disability) to make it to demonstrations to vent their anger and frustation around the Work Capability Assessment and at a government hell-bent on targeting the sick and disabled.

On the Newswire: Maximarse is more than a farce | Mental Health Resistance Network Statement | Wrexham joins National Day of Protest Against WCA & Maximus

Other links: Johnny Void | Video: Maximarse the Movie (YouTube)

12-08-2010 22:24 | 3 comments

PFI Turns Into Ongoing PR Disaster for Barclays

Having spent £25m on the branding rights to London's new cycle hire scheme, the bright sparks in the Barclays marketing department have started a dialogue with the public which could last for several years. The scheme is part of a private finance initiative providing thousands of rental bikes in return for painting London's roadways in the bank's corporate colours.

Only minutes after the bank unveiled the bikes-for-rent in partnership with the city's Conservative administration, situationist guerrilla teams struck in the night to add their own mobile advertising messages under the Barclays logo. One of the messages, "Funding depleted uranium birth defects in Iraq", was particularly timely. New studies suggest that the ongoing genetic damage caused by the U.S. attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004 may be worse than that caused by the atom bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 65 years ago.

Barclays was also targeted in Cambridge on Friday 30th July 2010.

20-07-2008 13:32 | 1 comment

Largest HLS Investor Dumps All Shares

Anti-HLS campaigners this week have gained another major victory in closing down Europe's largest and most exposed vivisection laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, known also as Life Sciences Research, ticker symbol LSR.

The labs largest investor, Eagle Asset Finance, has sold all HLS shares worth £7,074,059, more than 4% of the company. Raymond James Financial, their parent company, made the announcement within a month of a full-scale campaign in the UK and USA including email alerts, office and home demonstrations against both companies.

Since December 2007 HLS has suffered from a serious lack of investment, with companies last year eventually selling all their shares. Shareholders included; TransAmerica Investment, Frontier Capital, SAC Capital, Axa, Wachovia, Alternative Investment Partners, Rathbone Brothers, Dresdner Bank, Deutsche Bank, La Grange Capital, Robeco Investment Management, Fairfield Greenwich Associates & BNP Paribas [1 | 2 | 3].

Links: SHAC | Win Animal Rights | Close HLS | Indymedia UK SHAC topic page

20-03-2007 10:39 | 6 comments

Murdering Medical Careers - and the future of the NHS?

For the second time in two weeks, a day of action was organised to protest against attacks on the NHS. But this time, it was doctors and their families, demonstrating against a government-imposed program called "MMC: modernising medical careers" that is meant to shorten the length of training and increase the quality of service provision. Instead, it is being described as a "disaster" that will decrease experience, decrease education, decrease career opportunities, worsen patient care, destroy research opportunities and disempower doctors and patients alike. Medics of all types, not generally noted for their militancy, are up in arms, with a number of independent websites such as Remedy UK, Mums4medics, MMC-360 and Mangling Medical Careers all coming online in recent weeks and around 12,000 people taking to the streets of London on Saturday [report, pics: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 and video].

To find out more about the background, read MMC: an explanation for patients [parts 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]. Other sites of interest include the MTAS debacle, as witnessed by the junior doctors of the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital, and various artistes of the blogosphere such as Dr. Rant, Professor Scrub and Junior Doc. Maybe there will be an NHS in 10 years time, after all.

12-06-2005 15:40 | 1 comment

Untested and in here - Sainsburys GM feed week

On Sunday (12th June), eight protesters stripped naked to expose the continued sale of products derived from animals fed on genetically modified crops. The naked demo preceded a separate week long series of events outside Sainsbury head office in London. The Milk Monitor website describes the campaign as "a week long extravaganza of street theatre & protests against GM animal feed".

Read full article for daily updates and details of each days events. Read more >>

25-05-2005 13:21 | 1 comment

Transport minister pied for support of Heathrow expansion lobby

Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Transport, was pied on Tuesday at the launch event of a powerful new industry coalition, 'Future Heathrow', formed to ensure expansion of Heathrow goes ahead.

A climate change activist gained access to the high security event and as the first speaker welcomed all the suits to their exclusive little back slapping event, she sprang up and planted the carrot and cream cake firmly in the face of the Minister. As she did so, she said "Future Heathrow stinks, your bogus economics stink, Alistair Darling being here stinks, and your vision for this planet stinks". She ejected by security guards but not arrested.

Meanwhile over 100 local residents took time off work to demonstrate outside the CBI HQ launch event, with a huge banner reading 'Future Heathrow Stinks', and a new report that concludes that Heathrow contributes little to the national or local economy, but simply lines the pockets of the aviation industry.

For full details see - newswire report

History: [ 'lobbying' of Darling by anti-roads veterans | Heathrow protesters do rush hour leafleting | Crane occupied ]

Links to campaign websites : [ HACAN Clearskies | NOTRAG (No Third Runway Action Group) ]

26-09-2003 15:32 | 2 comments

Mad Pride

Mad pride

More than 6000 people commit suicide in this country every year. Now the goverment is proposing to introduce community treatment orders with enforced medication. As a result, those in need of help will be too afraid to seek it.

Mad Pride is comprised of ex-psychiatric patients and others who campaign on mental health issues, pleading with the government to stop ignoring thousands of deaths and to start treating mentally ill people h umanely.

At the Hutton enquiry, which has been investigating the suicide of David Kelly, Mad Pride was present as part of their ongoing 'stop the suicides' campaign.

Mad Pride: 07958 907357
www.madpride.org.uk
e-mail: madpridelondon [at] hotmail.com or attend the next meeting – look on the website for details.

There will be showing of the Pete Shaughnessy film "With endless love", introduced by Simon Holder, at the Rio Cinema in Hackney, on Saturday night.
Read more >>

London Health Feature Archive >>