IMC UK - Social Struggles - Nottinghamshire

Nottingham responds to budget

25-06-2010 09:34 | Social Struggles | Nottinghamshire

On Tuesday June 22nd, ConDem Chancellor George Osborne revealed the contents of the "emergency budget." As expected, this included a pay freeze for public sector workers (except the lowest paid) along with cuts in housing benefit and an increase in VAT.

The SWP-initiated Right to Work campaign called for protests across the country against the budget. These were supported by Unison and, locally, by the Nottinghamshire and Mansfield Trades Council. Trade unionists and others demonstrated outside the Council House from 5.30pm. There were also protests by the PCS (the civil service union) at lunchtime.

On the newswire: Budget protest: Nottingham | No Austerity Budget: Market Square Protest

Previous features: Action against cuts in Nottingham | Protests against county council cuts | Nottingham City Council workers protest job cuts | Credit Crunch Hits Nottingham

Links: Right to Work | Notts Indymedia workers movement topic page

Mayday celebrations across the East Midlands

04-05-2010 17:06 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Nottinghamshire

Mayday, International Workers' Day, fell on a Saturday this year, and was celebrated in Nottingham by a march from Victoria Park to Speakers' Corner in the centre of town and back. It was followed by a rally with speakers from local campaigns and music and dance. The theme of this year's event was fighting against the public sector cuts that all of the major parties are planning to bail the country out of the recession. It was attended by over 100 trade unionists, socialists, anarchists and environmentalists.

There was also a rally at Derby Silk Mill on the Saturday, attended by hundreds of trade unionists. The region's biggest Mayday celebrations were held in Chesterfield on bank holiday Monday.

In the run up to Mayday, Nottingham Free School held a discussion on the issues surrounding Mayday, such as the gendered nature of work, critiques of paid work and the workplace as a site of resistance to capitalism. These discussion events are set to continue.

Newswire: Mayday edition of the Nottingham Sparrow | Notts Indypendent: New Nottingham community newsletter | Chesterfield Mayday 2010 | Nottingham Mayday 2010 | Nottingham Free School's May Day Discussion | The Future Of Protest In Nottingham : Whose streets? Our streets!

Previous feature: Whose streets? Our streets?

Previous Mayday coverage: 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2004 | 2003

Links: Chesterfield Mayday | Wikipedia on International Workers' Day

Election madness begins

01-04-2010 07:44 | Social Struggles | Nottinghamshire

The coming months will see a general election and local elections across Notts. The normally dormant and unresponsive political classes are being brought out of their boxes and wound up for the occasion, giving rise to all manner of unlikely promises and public appearances.

On Saturday, Gordon Brown made an amazingly brief and security-shrouded stop at the University of Nottingham, as part of his pre-election tour. Before local political veteran, Lord Biro, could find him he was on his way to Glasgow.

The zeal of the Labour-led City Council's cut backs on community spending are allowing Tories to set themselves up as unlikely saviours. Their prospective Parliamentary candidate for Nottingham South, is promising to save Radford Unity Complex from closure. Not all of the electorate are convinced though - the Broxtowe Tory chairman was savaged by a dog whilst out leafleting in Beeston.

Meanwhile the nasties are on the rise. The fascist BNP have put up a record number of candidates across the East Midlands, although they still can't hold a meeting without attracting major protests.

Previous feature: Don't vote! It only encourages them

Radford community on the march

22-03-2010 15:19 | Culture | Education | Social Struggles | Nottinghamshire

Saturday 20th March saw over 100 members of the Radford community march from the threatened Radford Unity Complex to Market Square. They were protesting City Council plans to close the building which is currently home to a number of community groups.

The Council says it is saving £140,000 per year by closing the building and says it has a buyer. They have offered the affected groups premises at the closed Douglas Road Primary School. However, Joginder Singh of the Sikh Community and Youth Service said that the new premises are "many times worse" than those they have at the moment and that the groups have been "treated like parasites" by Jon Collins and the City Council.

The groups are angry that they were not consulted about the plans before being served with an eviction notice and that they are not being given an opportunity to buy the building themselves. They are considering taking legal action against the council over the way they have been treated.

Newswire: Interview with Leonie Meikle of Erondu about the Radford Unity Centre | Radford community on the march | March to stop the eviction of community groups from the Radford Unity Complex

Previous features: Protests against county council cuts | Campaign to save Victoria Baths takes fight to the council | Stonebridge City Farm under threat | Community centres under fire

Links: Petition | NCCLOLs on the closure | SCYS | Nottingham Teaching College | Shiefton Youth Group and Supplementary School

Action against cuts in Nottingham

12-03-2010 17:38 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Nottinghamshire

On March 8th, Nottingham City Council met to approve the 2010/11 budget. Like many council budgets this included a series of cuts to services, in this case amounting to £18.8 million. Nottingham City Unison called a lunchtime protest outside the Council House to show their opposition. Disabled campaigners blocked the tram to express their anger at the proposals.

Council plans to close Victoria Leisure Centre, which were brought forward to save money, have also faced opposition and their is growing dissent about plans to close libraries in Wilford and Beechdale.

Unison's protest coincided with the first day of a forty-eight hour national strike by members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) over attacks on their redundancy scheme. In Nottingham strikers marched from Castle Meadow to the International Community Centre (ICC) for a rally.

On the newswire: Protest against cuts at city council | PCS strike March 8/9

Previous features: Protests against county council cuts | Nottingham City Council workers protest job cuts | Campaign to save Victoria Baths takes fight to the council | Credit Crunch Hits Nottingham

Links: Unison Nottingham City Branch | Public and Commercial Services Union

Nottingham remembers anti-Poll Tax struggle

08-03-2010 18:29 | History | Social Struggles | Nottinghamshire

On March 5th 1990, Nottingham City Council, then as now Labour-led, met to set the Poll Tax rate for the city. Protesters burst into the council chamber dressed as Robin Hood. Several councillors were custard pied and the campaigners were arrested by the police. Despite expert evidence that custard pies were not dangerous, the Magistrate failed to see the funny side and two of the campaigners were sent down. This action was part of a wave of protests, disruptions and riots at council meetings across the country which set the scene for the famous riot in Trafalgar Square at the end of March, the day before the tax was to come into force in England and Wales.

To mark the 20th anniversary of this event, Nottingham Radical History Group organised an event to look back on the struggle. This is part of a wider project to make available documents from the time and to record interviews with some of participants in the struggle so that the lessons of the campaign are not lost.

Upcoming event: Wednesday March 31st 3pm Trafalgar Square to commemorate 20th anniversary of Poll Tax Riot. "Open loud hailer, top speakers, Class War, misty-eyed memories, pub afterwards!"

On the newswire: The Poll Tax: twenty years on

Links: The Sparrow's Nest | Nottingham anti- Poll Tax 1989-91: press cuttings, newsletters & leaflets | Notts Indymedia History newswire

Protests against county council cuts

27-02-2010 15:00 | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Nottinghamshire

In the early hours of February 26th, Nottinghamshire County Council voted to endorse a controversial budget which will see jobs cut, care homes sold off to the private sector and the cost of services for the elderly and disabled increased. Campaigners opposed to the plans rallied in Mansfield and outside County Hall to show their anger at the proposals and council workers are currently being balloted for industrial action (but not a strike) against a related attack on terms and conditions.

The county council's programme of cuts comes in a political climate in which all the main political parties have expressed their belief in the need for cuts to public sectors in light of the economic damage wrought by the banking collapse and subsequent bailout. The Labour-run city council are also planning to cut staff as well as closing Victoria Baths along with libraries in Wilford and Beechdale.

On the newswire: County Hall budget protest: Report | Demo against council cuts: Thursday 25th | Notts council workers rally for jobs

Previous features: Local Government Workers in Notts Join National Strike | Public service workers out to protect pensions

Links: Fair Pay Action Group | GMB Notts General Branch | Notts County Unison

Nottingham City Council to end legal graffiti

12-02-2010 19:03 | Repression | Social Struggles | Nottinghamshire

According to local rag the Evening Post, Nottingham City Council has "Nottingham City Council has banned large-scale graffiti art to take place at youth clubs. Those affected will reportedly be The Arches, Russell Youth Club and St Ann's Adventure Playground. It is not specified in the article what law or procedure has been used to do this.

The alleged ground for this ban is that legal graffiti encourages illegal graffiti or gives an appearance of neglect. This is based on the so-called "broken window theory."

While the ban appears to be restricted to council-run youth clubs, this is not clear and there is some concern that the ban might extend further, possibly to private graffiti displays (like that on the side of OhMyGosh records on Mansfield Road). Even if it's scope is tightly restricted, the removal of a legal space for young people to express themselves has been strongly criticised.

On the newswire: Graffiti art with consent banned in Nottingham | Is the writing on the wall for Cllr.Collins?

Nottingham grafitti showcase: OhMyGosh Graffiti / Spray Art Session Finished | OhMyGosh Charity Live Graffiti Art Session Street Party: Pix 1 | OhMyGosh Charity Live Graffiti Art Session Street Party: Pix 2 | Spray Art at the ASBO - Pictures | City Arts, Graffiti Art :: Gregory Boulevard, Nottingham | Forest Fields Youth Club: Artwork and Graffiti 1 | Forest Fields Youth Club: Artwork and Graffiti 2 | Graffiti Artists in the Arboretum, Nottingham

Links: Questionmarc | Tash: Graffiti and wall arts (Flickr page)

Campaign to save Victoria Baths takes fight to the council

07-02-2010 13:03 | Health | Social Struggles | Nottinghamshire

On Saturday February 6th, the Save Victoria Baths campaign held a demo in protest at the council's plans to shut Victoria Leisure Centre on April 1st. The event was well attended and attracted a fair amount of media attention. Although the council seems to have made its decision, campaigners believe the fight is far from over. They will hand over a petition against the closure on Monday February 8th.

The campaign has also announced on its website that users of the Victoria Leisure Centre have formally threatened legal action against the council over its sudden announcement that the centre will be closing on April 1st. The legal action asks the council to withdraw the decision and keep the centre open whilst the planning process is undertaken, echoing the appeals of the campaign. London public law firm, Pierce Glynn are acting on behalf of the users, seeking a judicial review, accusing the council of failing to take into account the fact that no planning application has been submitted, that this process will take at least several months, and failing to take into account the impact this will have on users, especially disabled ones.

On the newswire: Report from Save Victoria Baths demo 7/2/10 | Save Victoria Baths: Interview | Council does the dirty on the Save Victoria Bath Campaign

Previous features: Victoria Baths axed early in city budget | Credit crunch hits Notttingham | Nottingham City Council: Mired in Corruption | Council Under Fire From Campaign To Save Leisure Centre

Links: Save Victoria Baths | Petition | Nottingham City Council LOLs

Victoria Baths axed early in city budget

20-01-2010 18:05 | Health | Social Struggles | Nottinghamshire

After a long period of silence from the council the Save Victoria Baths campaign have learnt that the authority intend to close Victoria Leisure Centre on 31 March 2010, despite having no approved plans for development and no planning permission to demolish what is already there. The campaign allege that the council intends to relocate staff in February, making it more likely that it will close earlier than then.

Council plans to close Victoria Leisure Centre first emerged in 2008 and generated considerable public opposition. Although campaigners were unable to prevent the closure, they did manage to get the council to promise to keep it open until 2011 and agree to build a (very expensive) new leisure facility on the site. Campaigners are concerned that the council may now go back on both promises leaving the community without a leisure centre.

On the newswire: Council does the dirty on the Save Victoria Bath Campaign | 2008: Victoria Leisure Centre Public Meeting to Oppose Closure | Save Victoria Baths from closure, Demo at the Council House | Council propose to shut Victoria Baths, Sneinton | City Council intends to Close popular leisure facility

Previous features: Credit crunch hits Notttingham | Nottingham City Council: Mired in Corruption | Council Under Fire From Campaign To Save Leisure Centre

Links: Save Victoria Baths | Petition | City council: Budget consultation

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Nottinghamshire Social Struggles Newswire

Nottinghamshire Social Struggles

Nottingham responds to budget

Mayday celebrations across the East Midlands

Election madness begins

Radford community on the march

Action against cuts in Nottingham

Nottingham remembers anti-Poll Tax struggle

Protests against county council cuts

Nottingham City Council to end legal graffiti

Campaign to save Victoria Baths takes fight to the council

Victoria Baths axed early in city budget