UK Indymedia - UK Public sector cuts Newswire Archive

Protect OUR NHS: demo in London on 20th October.11am to 1.30 march to Hyde Park.

16-09-2012 19:37

Tories getting ready to receive bids on NHS services to the total of £20bn, new briefing report

Report exposes the hundreds of homes the council are leaving empty

10-09-2012 10:13

A report released today by the Birmingham Tenants & Homeless Action Group, who recently made the headlines by occupying an abandoned council owned property[1], exposes the hundreds of empty properties the council are leaving empty, while thousands sit on waiting lists for homes. The report publishes a list and interactive map[2] of all 607 empty houses that are owned by Birmingham City Council. The list was obtained through a Freedom of Information request.

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the Met say they want to protest with DPAC against ATOS

10-09-2012 07:40

DPAC are very excited by an email we received on Saturday. We wanted to share it. The email was from someone called PS @ metpolice.uk . We suspect this is some kind of a code name because they have low esteem so they feel they are a mere post script in the letter of life. We checked the IP address and it’s in London so are in no doubt of its authenticity. The email said:

Subject Future Atos protests
Message Sir/Madame – I would like to discuss the arrangement for future peaceful protests at ATOS offices.

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child protection conference skegness

06-09-2012 17:58

skegness hosts the child stealing by the state conference 12th 13th september

2012 suncastle skegness england

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The Westcountry Mutineer #1 Out Now!

05-09-2012 10:52

The Westcountry Mutineer is a new monthly black n white radical newssheet for the Southwest, 8 pages of bile and hearsay, all wrapped up in a veneer of class struggle anarchism - for your free copy, e-mail us at mutineerpress[at]riseup.net

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Police break wheelchair user’s shoulder in peaceful protest

31-08-2012 22:47

Disabled people peacefully protesting against government cuts that are killing disabled people were physically attacked by police in a demonstration outside the Department for Work and Pensions today.

Without any provocation from the peaceful protesters who had gathered to show their support to disabled activists from DPAC, police used heavy handed tactics and pushed the crowd without any concern for the disabled wheelchair users lined up in front of the door despite repeated warning that disabled people were being placed at risk. Their actions resulted in one of the protesters having his shoulder broken. Another wheelchair user’s chair was broken in this unprovoked and disproportionate use of force by the police. The police made several attempts to unbalance protestors at the front of the crowd and broke one man’s glasses.

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£1billion of title deeds for schools transferred to private companies

30-08-2012 21:54

£1billion of title deeds for schools has been transferred from taxpayers to private companies of Tory sponsors.

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Report and Photos From Today’s DPAC Demonstration in Birmingham

28-08-2012 22:39

Around 20 people demonstrated today outside the ATOS assessment centre in Birmingham as part of a week of action

http://www.dpac.uk.net/2012/08/latest-information-on-atos-games-week/ protesting the Working Capability Assessment (WCA) which is run by ATOS for the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and is supposed to assess whether someone on disability benefits is fit for work, but has come under large amounts of criticism for failing to do that – and in the process punishing many disabled people by pushing them off disability benefits onto unemployment benefits and workfare.The week of action is taking place during the Paralympics because ATOS are one of the main sponsors.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-cameron-wins-gold-medal-1283031 Their core business is as an IT outsourcing company, but like Capita and Serco they have moved into taking all government outsourcing contracts. The contract to run the WCA is £100m/year – and we pay an additional £50m each year

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/aug/28/atos-3bn-government-contracts-paralympics?newsfeed=true for the appeals process to correct the huge number of people that ATOS declare fit for work who go through the appeal process and have the decision reversed – a process that can take over a year.

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Glenda Jackson MP condemned by her constituents for social cleansing remarks

27-08-2012 18:47

Residents of the South Kilburn Estate in London have voted to picket their MP Glenda Jackson in protest at her remarks to a local family who have been made homeless by Brent Council – that they should move to Wales. The protest in support of the Counihan family will take place at a public meeting at Kingsgate Community Centre, 107 Kingsgate Rd, London NW6 2JH at 6pm on Wednesday 29th August.

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Birmingham Tenants & Homeless Action Group - What we are doing

27-08-2012 16:15

Birmingham faces a protracted housing crisis. A failing construction industry, recession, the depletion of the council housing stock, austerity and cuts to housing benefits are blighting lives across the city. City planners estimate Birmingham is currently short of 11,000[1] affordable homes but this is set to rise to 70,000 short by 2026[2]. We have taken over this abandoned council owned house which we wish to become the first of a new stock of homes in Birmingham. We plan on making this property liveable and handing it on to a homeless victim of the governments and councils uncaring incompetence. We will then defend this property and its resident; we will take the council to court if they apply for an eviction. In court we will demand that the council take over operation of the house, add it to their council housing stock and allow its resident to stay. If this fails we will peacefully resist any bailiffs should they be sent to evict the resident. The scale of the crisis The housing crisis hitting Birmingham is twofold.

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Tenants & Homeless seize abandoned council house

27-08-2012 10:49

In the early hours of Monday morning, activists appalled at the crackdown on homeless beggars

https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/birmingham/2012/08/499134.html and the council’s lack of action to create badly needed new homes seized one of Birmingham’s 11,000[4] empty properties. The group calling themselves Birmingham Tenants and Homeless Action Group issued a statement on their website[1] condemning the City Council for failing to take action to help the growing homeless population of Birmingham, which has risen by 25%[2] since 2009.

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Equivalent of 75,000 homes worth of empty office space in Bristol

26-08-2012 14:45

After calling Savilles I was astounded to find there was around one-and-a-quarter million square feet of empty office space in Bristol. I set out to discover how many homes that floor space was equivalent to.

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Free Soup for the Revolution - FnB gig

24-08-2012 19:53

Food not Bombs benefit gig @ Ort Cafe, Basall Heath Saturday, 1 September, 19:00 until 23:00 Entry: Suggested donation £2.00

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NATIONAL DEMO - London, Weds 21 Nov - #Demo2012

23-08-2012 00:01

National Union of Everyone, Solidarity Action
London, Weds 21 Nov 2012 - #Demo2012

http://educationactivistnetwork.wordpress.com/

educationactivist@gmail.com

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Atos Games

19-08-2012 13:24

Disabled People Against Cuts and UK Uncut have called for a week of action against Atos. Calling for people to organise an event outside Atos Office at St Aldates

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4,000 Oct 20 leaflets handed-out at Durham Miners Gala

15-08-2012 21:15

4,000 Oct 20 leaflets handed-out at the Durham Miners Gala

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Look on the TUC march as an opportunity

14-08-2012 19:42

Look on the TUC march as an opportunity

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Beware of Home Care

10-08-2012 16:57

Increasingly we're being told that sick & vulnerable people would be better off in the community that in institutions. What has happened to the mentally ill shows that this is probably untrue.

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Oct 20 Anti-Cuts Demo - Spread the Word!

08-08-2012 12:40

Oct 20 Anti-Cuts Demo - Spread the Word!

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The trial of G4S rooftop occupiers begins

07-08-2012 23:55

The two activists who occupied the roof of G4S' HQ near Crawley for eight hours on 2nd July 2012 (see

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/497595.html) appeared in court yesterday to plead guilty/not guilty to an 'aggravated trespass' charge under Section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.