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‘This government needs to start to offer hope’

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/this-government-needs-to-start-to-offer-hope

The Stroud Red Band take part in a march at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset, July 21, 2024

Union leaders demand Labour deliver ‘deep and ambitious change’ as thousands attend the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset

UNION leaders issued a stark warning today, urging the new Labour government to deliver real change as thousands lined the streets at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset.

Trade unionists taking part in the annual procession marched to brass bands and chanted “Oh Jeremy Corbyn” and “Keir Starmer you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.”

They then cheered Bibby Stockholm refugees as they took centre-stage alongside general secretaries Matt Wrack (FBU), Paul Nowak (TUC) and Sharon Graham (Unite).

TUC president Matt Wrack said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer must raise expectation that Labour will use its overwhelming party majority to deliver the “significant change” the public wants to see.

“We want to see our rights restored, we want to see public services restored, we want to see homes rebuilt we want to see our wages rebuilt and restored after 14 years of attacks,” he said.

“I say this to the new Labour government as a Labour-affiliated union: this government needs to start to offer hope, because there are some stark warnings within that election.”

Noting the historically low vote share for Labour and high support for Reform in this month’s general election, he said: “What we cannot afford is further disillusionment within traditional Labour voters.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/this-government-needs-to-start-to-offer-hope

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Peace activists arrested while delivering letter to Lakenheath airbase

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/peace-activists-arrested-while-delivering-letter-lakenheath-airbase

Photo: Zoe Broughton

TWO peace activists were arrested at the weekend while attempting to deliver a letter to a Suffolk air base stating the opposition to an anticipated return of US nuclear weapons there.

Some 110 nuclear bombs were stored at the Lakenheath base until they were removed in 2008 after strong and constant protests.

But earlier this year, documents surfaced from the United States Defence Department detailing a contract to build defensive shelters for Lakenheath’s “upcoming nuclear mission.”

On Saturday, five women walked through the gates of Lakenheath, intending to deliver a letter to the base commanders, asking them to stop the nukes from returning.

Police stopped the women and two sat down peacefully, vowing to stay until a base commander could meet with them. Both were arrested and taken to Bury St Edmunds police station.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/peace-activists-arrested-while-delivering-letter-lakenheath-airbase

Continue ReadingPeace activists arrested while delivering letter to Lakenheath airbase

LGBT activists protest Glasgow Pride ‘pinkwashing’

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/lgbt-activists-protest-glasgow-pride-pinkwashing

Northern Pride in Newcastle Photo: Neil Terry Photography

LGBT+ activists protested on Saturday against the sponsorship of Glasgow’s annual Pride celebrations by firms linked to Israel.

Hundreds of protesters including members of Glasgow Greens, the Scottish TUC and Glasgow Stop the War formed a Radical Bloc calling out Pride organisers for so-called pink washing through collaborating with companies who simultaneously sponsor the event while “directly profiting from Israel’s illegal occupation and ongoing genocide in Palestine.”

The protest took place as Pride activists staged annual celebrations in towns and cities across Britain, including at Northern Pride in Newcastle, where the banners of trade unions Unite, Unison, Royal College of Midwives and teaching unions NEU and NASUWT were raised.

The Glasgow protesters said sponsors included energy company SSE, chemical firm Merck and multinational finance company, JP Morgan.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/lgbt-activists-protest-glasgow-pride-pinkwashing

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Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace & Justice Project responds to the King’s Speech

Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace & Justice Project responds to the King’s Speech

The new Labour government laid out its legislative plans in the King’s Speech and, whilst there are a few commitments to celebrate, there are far more glaring omissions that would go a long way to building a fairer society for all.

With that said, we wholeheartedly welcome plans to bring our railways back into public ownership and end no fault evictions for renters – policies that are key elements in our 5 Demands to build an alternative to the misery faced by millions. We also welcome the intention to introduce the Hillsborough Law and Martyn’s Law to ensure accountability and justice for the victims of gross systemic failings. As well as this, we are pleased to see the long-awaiting conversion therapy ban remain on the parliamentary agenda and hope that the introduction of this law will end the cruelty faced by far too many experiencing gender dysphoria and play a key role in a kinder and dignified level of healthcare needed by transgender and non-binary people.

However, the complete and utter moral failure to abolish the disgusting and punitive two-child benefit cap, which was implemented by the Tories and has pushed countless families into poverty. The pleas from numerous campaigners have fallen on deaf ears in the new government. We totally condemn the lack of political will from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party who, make no mistake, have made the conscious choice to keep millions of children in destitution and food insecurity.

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Scrap two-child benefit cap to end child poverty, Labour told: ‘Good intentions are not enough’

https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/two-child-benefit-cap-poverty-taskforce/

The new Labour government has promised an ‘ambitious plan’ to end child poverty, but it is yet to commit to ending the two-child limit

The new Labour government has launched a taskforce to work towards ending child poverty, but charities have warned that “good intentions are not enough” as they ramp up calls for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.

Keir Starmer’s party has promised an “ambitious” plan for ending child poverty, but it has so far refused to commit to removing the two-child limit, which is also referred to as the two-child benefit cap and has been described as “one of the cruellest welfare policies of the past decade”.

It means that families who have a third child or subsequent children born after April 2017 are denied up to £3,500 a year compared with those whose children were born sooner.

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Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: “The taskforce is a welcome first step towards fulfilling the government’s pledge to bring in an ambitious child poverty strategy.  

“But with a record number of kids in poverty now, scrapping the two-child limit on benefits has to happen in the government’s first budget.  The two-child limit is driving up child poverty more than any other policy, children need it to be removed as a priority.”

https://www.bigissue.com/news/social-justice/two-child-benefit-cap-poverty-taskforce/

Continue ReadingScrap two-child benefit cap to end child poverty, Labour told: ‘Good intentions are not enough’