Join us at Hodgsons on Thursday 15th, a stone’s throw from Beverley Minster, for an evening of fun, with fab food, a quiz, live music from two of our favourite bands!

- Fantastic Food by Ian of Chilli Devil Sauces (not hot, you add sauce to taste)
- Quiz by Pete Dack, Beverley’s pre-eminent quizmaster.
- Live Music from The Happy Endings, great sounds, excellent guitar work and really smooth harmonies from the girlz!
- And Dyslexic Kid, fresh from recording, a solid rock genre with wild solos, and a voice that would distract zombies from brains!

All only £8 (£10 on the door). Organised by the Green Party, a fundraiser. Phone Shan on 862085 or Martin on 01482 471467. So get yourself on the list now!

Dear Sir,

You rightly identify the failure of successive governments to tackle the national shame of ever more households struggling to heat their homes (Quarter of home now in fuel poverty – 02 December). This looks set to continue as fuel prices go up and government support for energy efficiency measures for the most vulnerable goes down.

Next year will be the first time in three decades that there has been no Treasury funded scheme for those in fuel poverty. Instead, the government is introducing a new energy company obligation (ECO) as part of its flagship Green Deal programme.

Earlier this year, Ministers assured me that this new Obligation would provide a “far greater level of resource” to tackle fuel poverty when it replaces the existing schemes, the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) and Warm Front. But just this week, those same Ministers were unable to answer my direct question on how the ECO’s pitiful £325m a year for fuel poor homes is “far greater” the 2010-11 Warm Front spending of £370m, or CERT’s spending of around £600m a year on vulnerable households.

This is not just a question of pounds and pence. Last winter, according the Office of National Statistics, there were over 25,000 premature deaths in this country because people could not keep warm in their homes. Government inaction to control the oligopoly of the big, profit hungry energy companies, or to help households to cut their bills, means that yet more lives could be lost unnecessarily this winter.

The Government is currently consulting on the Green Deal and its ECO proposals. I would urge anyone concerned about the fuel poor to respond to this consultation, to ensure that all homes are properly insulated and the scourge of fuel poverty is eradicated once and for all.

Yours sincerely,

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion and Co-Chair of the Fuel Poverty and Energy Efficiency All Party Parliamentary Group

*We expect political democracy. Why not economic democracy too?*

Peter Tatchell, Green Party

Huffington Post – London – 29 November 2011

Up to two million trade union members went on strike on Wednesday, in
protest against the government’s attack on pensions and cuts in public
services. Their grievances are real. But their solutions don’t go far
enough. Pressing the government for fairness isn’t the answer. Staging a
protest is second best. These are reactive, defensive responses to
fundamental flaws and failings in the way our economy is organised and run.

The perennial failing of most trade unions is that their horizons are so
limited. They seek a better deal for their members within the economic
status quo, when the real solution is to reform the system of economy that,
by its very nature, leaves the vast majority of working people powerless,
disenfranchised and marginalised. When it comes to the economy, the average
person has no meaningful say in the decisions that affect their jobs,
wages, pensions and working conditions.

We expect political democracy. Why not economic democracy too?

Behind the cosy democratic facade, Britain is a cut-throat economic
dictatorship. A rich and powerful economic elite makes all the key economic
decisions, excluding millions of employees and consumers.

Our country’s democratic political transformation – pushed forward by the
Levellers, Chartists and Suffragettes – has never been matched by a
corresponding economic democratisation.

‘One person, one vote’ has been won in the political sphere (albeit
imperfectly) but not in the realm of economics. Britain’s democratic
revolution, begun four centuries ago, remains unfinished.

It is time to put economic democracy on the political agenda; to bring the
economy into democratic alignment with the political system.

Extending the economic franchise is about democracy and justice. It can
help create a greater plurality and diversity of economic power, and also
lay the foundations for a more equitable and productive economic
partnership between all those who contribute to wealth creation and to the
provision of public services, from local councils to the NHS.

Whatever people think of the current economic system, one thing is
indisputable: it is characterised by an absence of democracy,
participation, transparency and accountability. Employees and their
representative bodies – the trade unions – are frozen out of economic
influence and decision-making.

Big business rules. The captains of industry, commerce and finance have
almost total power. They run their enterprises on totalitarian lines. All
decision-making is concentrated in the hands of a tiny, privileged cabal of
major shareholders, directors and managers. They alone determine how the
company operates. Employees – without whom no wealth would be created and
no institution could function – are powerless and disenfranchised. They are
little more than glorified serfs of the moneyed classes and their
government.

Not much has changed in two centuries of capitalism. There have been no
major democratic reforms of the economy. Although millions of people bought
shares in privatised public enterprises like BT, their individual holdings
are minuscule and marginal. They have no real influence. Big corporate
interests retain the decisive economic power. This power is as centralised
and autocratic as ever. A few determine the fate of the many.

The advent of nationalised public industries, utilities and services
changed nothing. They have been run in much the same centralised,
dictatorial manner as their privately-owned counterparts. There was never
any economic democracy in the state-run railways or coal mines. The system
of ownership changed but not the system of management. The bosses of public
utilities and nationalised industries were almost as powerful as the
captains of private enterprise. Their employees remained locked out of the
decision-making process. It was state capitalism, not socialism. The Labour
Party and the trade unions have made a huge mistake in over-emphasising
public ownership, to the neglect of public control.

The same applies today in the NHS and other public services. They are
administered according to the classic capitalist model of top-down command
and control. NHS big-wigs have almost as much power as private medical
bosses. Doctors, nurses and ancillary staff are excluded from policy-making
in both public and private medicine.

Their years of accumulated hands-on, frontline service knowledge is
disregarded when it comes to policy-making. This is a huge waste of human
resources.

Wherever we look, in all sectors of the economy, the democratic deficit is
universal. Power is concentrated and wielded in ways that is contrary to
the democratic, egalitarian spirit of modern, twenty-first century Britain.
The time for economic democracy is now.

In my N30 Strike speech today, I talked about this graph:

It shows union membership over the last 100 years. AND it shows the wealth of the top 1%.  The lines of those graphs are diametrically opposed!

100 years the unions were young as the labour movement began to catch on and fight the gross injustices around work. The rich were powerful; their wealth, stratospheric. But as the unions grew, so did the gains of the people as a whole, and the wealth of the 1% diminished.

Union membership reached its height in 1978. And the wealth of the 1% reached its lowest point in the last 100 years.

When the people are strong, the unions are strong and the rich can’t take as much from us.

In 1979 that all changed with the election of Thatcher. As she attacked the unions, the NUM especially, she brought in anti-union legislation and union membership fell.  Since 1979, almost every year,  it has continued falling, including through the Labour years.

Interestingly, now in 2011, union membership is about where it was in 1940! There’s a long way to go! So join a union!

If you’re in one become active in it. If you know workers who aren’t in a union show them this. Explain THIS is how we take on the bankers and win! For our future and for generations to come.

AND – if you don’t like the way the unions support the Labour Party – which did *NOT* support this strike -  then join the Greens and bring that voice into the labour movement too.

There’s a future to fight for.

Together we can win.

In a momentous week, where Wednesday may see the biggest strike since 1926, Hull Green Party will hear Deputy Leader Adrian Ramsay on how cuts to jobs and attacks on pensions are the wrong way to go.

“Government has responded to the recession by making sweeping cuts to public services. The Green Party has said from the outset that this is the wrong approach,” says Adrian Ramsay.

“The cuts are punishing the most vulnerable in our society while failing to address the reckless behaviour of parts of the banking industry that caused the recession in the first place.”

Adrian Ramsay will speak about the Green vision for the economy as the way out of inequality and debt.

“Cutting jobs and public services is a false economy as it leads to more people claiming benefits and greater burdens on the NHS, police and social services, “Adrian Ramsay comments.

Recently, the difference between Tory and Labour spending policies was shown as $5bn (0.3% of GDP) (Newsnight, 25 Nov). Osborne is just more zealously pursuing many cuts which Labour also planned.

Adrian counters, “The best way to build a stable economy is to create jobs in areas where they are most needed. Producing more of the foods and manufactured goods we need in the UK would boost jobs and cut carbon emissions. Investing in home insulation schemes, rail and bus services and renewable energy could create a million new jobs while cutting people’s bills.”

——————————————————————————————–
Adrian Ramsay will be available for interviews.
Adrian will speak at:

Beverley, Norwood Methodist Church on Thursday 1st Dec at 7.30
Hull University Larkin Building on Friday 2nd at 2-4pm,
and at Relax Café, Newland Ave, 5pm.

Adrian Ramsay was Norwich City councillor for many years. He received the second biggest Green vote in the country in the General Election. Adrian built up Norwich Green Party over 10 years to second on the Council (14 councillors to Labour’s 16).

When we respond to whatever news like so many puppets on the ends of strings? News that the Libyan air force was attacking its own people. False news that helped lead us to destroy Libya’s peace.

News of Iraq’s terrible weapons of mass destruction. False news which even Blair could not convince the people of. But yet enough to convince his army, not ours, surely, to go and kill and maim, and die.

And if, God forbid, we should visit the same terror upon Iran, killing millions more upon the millions we already share responsibility for, who shall we wear a poppy for then?

… Thanks for this link, much appreciated. It is true, but it leaves out the involvement of Unocal, Haliburton, CENT and many others. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan became their own nations.

In 1993 US oil companies wanted to get at the estimated 200 billion barrels of oil in the Caspian sea.

In 1995 Unocal signed an agreement with Turkmenistan for the trans-Afghan pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan.

In 1996 the Taliban gained control of Kabul but the civil war still raged between the Taliban, the Northern Alliance and various other militias.

In 1997 the CentGas consortium was formed including Unocal (US), Delta (Saudi), Crescent (Pakistan) and Turkmenrusgas (Turkmenistan). Also in 1997 the US passed a resolution declaring the Caspian and Caucasus region to be a “zone of vital American interests”. Also in 1997 the Taliban were invited to the headquarters of Unocal to discuss the pipeline.

In 1998 Unocal signed a deal between Pakistan, Turkmenistan and the Taliban. In 1998 Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton and constantly talked about the Caspian region. Edit: forgot to mention Also in 1998 Two US embassies were attacked, these attacks were said to be orchestrated by bin Laden. Also in 1998 the Vice President of Unocal John Maresca said while addressing the House of Representatives that the Taliban government should be removed, because of the continuing civil war, and replaced by a government which would “cooperate with his company”, he told them that creation of a oil pipeline across Afghanistan increase western oil production by 500% in 15 years, this was removed from the HoR website in 2003 but can still be found on the internet archive here (remove the < sign to get it).

Also in 1998 Unocal withdrew from the pipeline project. In 1998 the US linked the bombings of two US embassies to bin Laden. In 1998 Clinton bombed Afghanistan with up to 80 Cruise Missiles. Also in 1998 Enron was commissioned to perform a feasibility study on alternative pipeline routes avoiding Afghanistan.

In 1999 Clinton froze all US owned Taliban assets. Also in 1999 the UNSC imposed resolution 1267 imposing sanctions on the Taliban demanding they handed over Osama bin Laden.

In 2000 the UNSC imposed further sanctions in resolution 1333 on the Taliban demanding they comply with resolution 1267. Also in 2000 the Bush administration took office, it included Dick Cheney as Vice President, he was the CEO of Haliburton; Condoleeza Rice as National Security Advisor, she was the manager of Chevron; Donald Evans as Secretary of commerce he was CEO of Tom Brown Inc. now the Non-Executive Chairman of TXU; and Thomas White as Secretary of the Army, he was the Vice Chairman of Enron.

In 2001 the US negotiated with the Taliban in DC, Berlin and Islamabad, before delivering an ultimatum of accepting the pipeline or facing war. Also in 2001 just before the WTC bombings Niaz Naik was told by US diplomats that they were planning an invasion of Afghanistan Edit: this is not to say that the US government orchestrated the attack, merely used it as an excuse to gain popular support for the war. The attacks are in keeping with Islamist thought at the time and I believe the reason Bush asked Dashcle to limit the investigation into the attacks was because it would reveal that the perpetrators were not linked to Afghanistan. I would like to add that this is not particularly horrible either, as the attackers were dead and acted independently of any kind of organisation, thus there was no one to go after. On September the 11th, the WTC is attacked, all but 4 bombers were Saudi Edit: Trained in Afghanistan, but they also learned to fly in the US and Bosnia. I'd also like to add that the training camps were intended for training a vanguard in order to re-establish the Caliphate and had little to do with attacking the west. October 7th, the US goes to war with Afghanistan. December 31st former Unocal consultant Zalmay Khalilzad is appointed special envoy to Afghanistan.

2002 trans-Afghan pipeline negotiations are reopened.

I can provide links but the WBM on the internet archive is taking a long time, but I will come back in the morning and do it.

From PatSmith at –

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ajht5/why_were_they_911_hijackers_so_skilled_whereas/c0hxfd4

Rich Wiles, from Hull,  has lived and worked in Palestine for some years.  He has published several books of his photographs and writing.

BAE Systems is largely owned by American stockholders and the majority of its contracts are for the Pentagon. So why shouldn’t an American company be providing American jobs?!

But nothing in these developments is part of the Green Party vision for society.

In the 1970s, British Aerospace used to provide employment for over 10,000 people at Brough, East Yorkshire. The corporation has reduced those numbers year by year to the meagre 1350 left – and now reduced by a further 900 to the skeleton crew that’s left.

It is a stark reminder of how we are at the mercy of big corporations and the banks, somehtting the Green Party has been warning about for years. The Lib-Lab-Con are not going to rescue our communities from these giants.

Corporations, like BAE Systems, will happily wreck entire communities based around the work and industry those communities have performed for them for years. There should be no doubt that this skeleton crew is left with the intention of closing the plant down and selling it off.

We have been warning for decades about the predatory actions of corporations across the world, to societies, to the planet – and now even on our doorstep. Many people accept this as inevitable. But in fact they are all down to political choices. Arms manufacturers have thrived for decades under whatever government Conservative or Labour.

It would be different if we had representatives to tackle them and rein them in, rather than politicians who cosy up to them, who give them the key to Downing Street – literally – who arrange a biillion pounds in hidden subsidies for them. What we have is corporations abusing their power.

The Green plan would see places like Brough, instead of being destroyed by an international giant, retooled for industries which really serve society, like transportation, trains and renewable energy development.

Martin Deane

UPDATE – And yes, he was an excellent prankster, an attention seeker not a trader.

The Rastani Moment – Well done. More believable than the traders you lampooned.

But let’s look at some of that content.

The power of Goldman Sachs is utterly undeniable – its representation in Obama’s cabinet – from the earliest days – is stunning. Were I a financier Id be in awe of what they’ve gotten away with it!! His (overdone!) shark-ish attitude was precisely the thing which drove the SPM and CDF fiascos that led to the 2008 crash. The film Inside Job describes *how* the bankers did it. Precisely that attitude to selling (whatever cost (deferred)). And they’re doing it again – because our governments have REWARDED that bad behaviour. And for those in the game, it doesn’t matter whether the markets go up or down, they live off gambling well.

This is why it’s right to regard most financial trading as merely a big game. And right that it be highly regulated so real people don’t suffer!

And with the severest penalties for companies who get too big and for politicians who enable them.

Free-market capitalism has just about enslaved all humanity. We must break the chains of this most cruel and deceptive ruler.