Local Shops for Local People

Green Party's online drive to promote local businesses.

York Green Party has launched a directory of local shops on the internet,allowing Google users to find local and independent shops and services easily.

The online directory lists independent and locally-based shops and services in the Heslington, Fulford and Fishergate wards of the city. It builds on a booklet, called "Local Shops for Local People" that the Green Party produced in 2006. This directory was distributed to every household in the areas covered.

Dave Taylor, Green Councillor for Fishergate said, "We wholly support The Press's campaign to promote local shops. Our aim back in October 2006 was to make sure people knew what they could get from independent and local shops. The chain shops have far higher advertising budgets, and we wanted to do our bit to help the profile of independents."

"One of the things that is absolutely vital in this day and age is to have your business listed in Google. More people now use Google searches to find local businesses than the Yellow Pages. So we decided to transfer our old paper-based directory into an online version."

The map is by no means exhaustive, and York Green Party welcomes additions and refinements. Visitors with a Google account can comment on the map directly. "We hope that this initiative will eventually cover the whole of York," says Dave Taylor, "but we had to start somewhere."

"Supporting local businesses has long been a Green priority. Local businesses create more jobs, and will put more money back into the local economy than a national plc would. They help foster a sense of identity in a town or city, and will often have smaller carbon footprints, as they don't have national freight distribution networks."

The online "Local Shops for Local People" map is available at http://tinyurl.com/lsflp

Conference passes motion on Gaza

The following emergency motion was passed on the last day of conference:

5. Support for students

Item 4 of the Green Party Core Values states: "Electoral politics is not the only way to achieve change in society, and we will use a variety of methods to help effect change, providing these methods do not conflict with our other core principles."

In this spirit, and in recognition of the value of Non-Violent Direct Action, conference pledges its support to the students occupying University buildings across the country, and fully endorses their campaign to demand that universities divest both from the arms trade and other organisations which directly or indirectly have financially contributed to the military and economic oppression of the people of Gaza. Furthermore, conference condemns any universities taking disciplinary action against the occupying students who are exercising their right to protest; these students, as stakeholders in their University, have a valid right to demand that their university is investing funds ethically.

Conference thus calls for the following action to be taken: International committee and the International Coordinator to pledge support for the student campaign, and also to back our MEPs' call for an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza, in particular in light of recent revelations in the press about Israeli actions in Gaza.

Back from conference

Finally back in York after a couple of days in Blackpool at conference. It was good to see the party taking a strong stand against the BNP and racism.

Peter Cranie's opening speech was inspiring and took a strong stand against the BNP. It is important that the Green Party strongly condemn the policies of the BNP, which is something we can do as we have the policies which are radically different than other parties who try and out do each other on who is willing to take the toughest line on immigration. By using slogans like 'British jobs for British workers' and agreeing that there is a problem with immigration is only adding fuel to xenophobia and racism.

I was also pleased to see Joseph Healy's migration motion passed bringing us in line with the European Green party policy.

I attended 3 fringes, the LGBT group's 'Homophobia in Easter Europe and the Green Response, Green Left's 'Expansion of NATO and the danger of a new Cold War in Europe' and the Trade Union group's 'Welfare rights and advice'. All three fringes had excellent speakers and promoted interesting debate.

Finally, thank you to everyone who voted for me in the SOC elections.

Pope claims condoms 'could make African AIDS crisis worse'

It could be argued that hundreds of thousands, if not millions have died of AIDS as a result of the Catholic church's stand on contraception.

So, what is the Pope's response to the problem I hear you ask. On a recent trip to Cameroon the Pope was quoted as saying that the condition was "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems". (Source Pink News)

I find such flawed logic completely incomprehensible. It is estimated that AIDS has caused 25 million deaths since its appearance in the early 1980s. (Source UN 2008 Report on the global AIDS epidemic). Such an irresponsible approach from any religion is unacceptable. I doubt however that Gordon Brown will take the opportunity to raise the issue with him if he visits the UK and will take the same sycophantic approach as our previous PM.

Green Left fringe at conference

Andrew Murray, Chair of the Stop the War Coalition, will be speaking at a fringe meeting organised by Green Left at conference this Saturday.

The fringe which is at 1pm will be on ‘NATO Expansion to the East. A new Cold War in Europe?’ and is particularly timely as the NATO 60TH anniversary summit is taking place in Strasbourg on April 4th , at which President Obama is expected to announce new US policy in relation to NATO, missile defence, relations with Russia and the war in Afghanistan.

The BNP support the Optimum Population Trust

I've long felt that the Optimum Population Trust is an embarrassment to the UK Green movement. The OPT population policy is:

OPT POPULATION POLICY
OPT campaigns for policies to achieve environmentally sustainable population levels both globally and in the UK. The ecological issue is one of population numbers, resource demands and the environmental impacts created by different sizes of population at given levels of affluence and technology. For more details see the Fertility, Migration, Population policy projections, Briefings and submissions and other sections of this website. OPT recommends the following population policies:
# Globally, that full access to family planning should be provided to all those who do not have it, that couples should be encouraged voluntarily to "Stop at Two" children to lessen the impact of family size on the environment, and that this should be part of a holistic approach involving better education and equal rights for women.
# In the UK, that population should be allowed to stabilise and decrease by not less than 0.25% a year to an environmentally sustainable level, by bringing immigration into numerical balance with emigration, by making greater efforts to reduce teenage pregnancies, and by encouraging couples voluntarily to "Stop at Two" children.

Such a policy is completely immoral, as we should not be dictating how many children a couple can have, or even what the immigration levels for the country should be. Such policies belong on the far-right of politics and should be disowned by the Green movement.

You need look no further than the British National Party website to see what kind of support groups like the OPT attract.

Globalisation, over-consumption of resources and capitalism fuel our environmental problems, not the population levels and certainly not immigration.

Join the Anti-Optimum Population Trust group on Facebook.

The BBC uses the argument of 'Impartiality' again

As reported in the Guardian today, the BBC has once again use the argument of 'impartiality' to justify its decision not to broadcast a radio version of Carol Churchill's play 'Seven Jewish Children'. This comes just a few months after the BBC's appalling decision not to screen the DEC Gaza appeal.

Why does this argument of impartiality only get used when relating to criticism of Israel. I doubt the BBC would have a problem with impartiality if they received a similar piece of work relating to Burma, Tibet or Zimbabwe.

Support journalists at The Press

Newsquest, owners of York paper 'The Press' and 'Gazette & Herald' continued their attack on the papers by announcing that seven out of 59 editorial jobs were to go at the Newsquest titles.

Please support the journalists call for fair pay by signing their petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/nujyork/petition.html

You can read their blog at http://nujyork.blogspot.com/

Rise of 'corrective rapes' on lesbians in South Africa

The following horrifying story is from Pink News:

A new report has suggested a rise in 'corrective rapes' on lesbians in South Africa.

According to charity ActionAid, women in Johannesburg and Cape Town are suffering an increase in homophobic attacks and sexual assaults which are seen as a form of punishment or "cure".

One lesbian and gay support group says it is dealing with 10 new cases of lesbian women being targeted for ‘corrective’ rape every week in Cape Town alone.

Figures suggest there are an estimated 500,000 rapes in South Africa every year and for every 25 men accused of rape in the country, 24 walk free.

The report, titled Hate Crimes, claims that victims often report that their attackers say they are "teaching them a lesson" or showing them how to be a "real woman".

Zanele Twala, Director of ActionAid South Africa, said: “So-called ‘corrective’ rape is yet another grotesque manifestation of violence against women, the most widespread human rights violation in the world today. These crimes continue unabated and with impunity, while governments simply turn a blind eye.”

One victim told ActionAid: “We get insults every day, beatings if we walk alone, you are constantly reminded that you deserve to be raped.

"They yell 'if I rape you then you will go straight, that you will buy skirts and start to cook because you will have learnt how to be a real woman'."

Thirty-one lesbian women have been reported murdered in homophobic attacks since 1998, yet there has only been one conviction.

However, support groups have claimed that the actual number of women killed is likely to be much higher because hate crimes on the basis of sexual orientation are not recognised in the country's criminal justice system.

Ms Twala has called on foreign governments to help stop the tide of violence.

She said: “It is clear that the South African government must put a stop to these crimes against women and fulfil the promises of the constitution.

"Worldwide, it is utterly unacceptable that millions of women and girls live daily in fear of their lives. The international community have a duty to address violence against women as the most serious threat to security in the world today."

The Catholic church in Brazil

If up early enough on a Sunday morning I sometimes listen to Sunday on Radio 4. It is a religious magazine programme which covers religious stories from all religions, although not religious myself I find it an interesting programme.

This morning I was shocked to hear the story of a 9 year Brazilian girl who became pregnant as a result of her father's sexual abuse, who subsequently had an abortion, which is only legal under Brazilian law in cases of rape or when the mother's life is at risk which was clearly the case for both these reasons.

As a result of this the child's mother and the doctors who treated her have been ex-communicated by the Catholic church, were as the abusive father is allowed to remain in the church.

This once again shows how out of touch the Catholic church has become in the 21st century. Surely such immoral behaviour will push yet more of its congregation away. If the church wants to be seen as the voice of morality it needs a reality check as to what is morally acceptable behaviour in the 21st century.

More evidence of the Big Brother state

Today's article in the Guardian finally proves what the end game is when you are caught on camera by the police attending legal demonstrations.

The Guardian claims that police are targeting thousands of political campaigners and storing their details on a database for a least seven years.

If you visit the Guardian site you can watch a surveillance video of last year's climate camp showing the police filming protestors and also taking particular interest in any journalists entering the area.

This story comes just a few weeks after section 76 of the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 was introduced which could in theory make it a criminal offence to take a photograph of a police officer.

So while campaigners are facing increasing surveillance the police can theoretically charge you for doing the same.

Each year, around 1 in 10 women in Britain experience rape or other violence

EACH YEAR, AROUND 1 IN 10 WOMEN IN BRITAIN EXPERIENCE RAPE OR OTHER VIOLENCE

One in four local authorities leave female victims of violence without the specialised support they need. At 1:10pm today Amnesty rallied online communities to do something about this disgraceful lack of services for International Women's Day. Thank you to the thousands of you who changed your avatar and status update on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

http://blog.protectthehuman.com/category/violence-against-women/

Israel Science Day

The following is from the BRICUP (British Committee for Universities for Palestine) website.

With amazing and insensitive bad taste the Science Museum in London (and the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry) are allowing their premises to be used for an ‘Israel Day of Science’ sponsored by the Zionist Federation. The research of seven Israeli universities is to be showcased. The planned dates are March 3 (Manchester) and March 5 (London).

Join the protests

Manchester Tuesday March 3

From 10am at Manchester Museum of Science and Industry
Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester

Rally with speakers -1-2pm

London Thursday March 5

Meet at 9.30am, Science Museum
Exhibition Road, South Kensington

Caroline Lucas in Palestine

The following is an extract from Caroline's blog, which she is regularly posting to while in Palestine from 25th Feb - 1st March:

We were met by staff of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), who were to be our guides for the rest of the day. As we drove into Gaza City, the scale of the destruction quickly became apparent. Whole neighbourhoods have been flattened, the concrete walls and floors of collapsed houses jutting out at impossible angles. The human cost of such devastation is almost unimaginable.

Yet one of the things that shocked me too was evidence of the deliberate targeting of Gaza’s industrial areas. Dynamite had been used to blow up enterprises like flour mills, a cement packing operation, even an ice-cream factory. And where tanks and bulldozers had failed to fully destroy the contents of buildings, fires were set alight to do the job instead.

Please take time to visit Caroline's blog to read about her experiences in Gaza.

For shame Derek

Certainly no fan of the bigoted fish wrapper the Daily Mail, I did decide to look on its website today after hearing on the radio about its attack on Derek Simpson, joint General Secretary of Unite.

It claims that he has repeatedly stayed in £399 a night rooms at the Waldorf hotel rather than take the 35-minute journey to his £800,000 grace-and-favour home.

Thankfully I am no longer a member of Unite. This man is an embarrassment to the trade union movement and it is time the members turned their backs on him.

There is candidate who is worthy of the position of general secretary. Jerry Hicks has been running an excellent campaign and has rightly criticised the current leadership of Unite and has pledged to only take the wage of an average skilled worker if elected.

Find out more about Jerry's campaign at http://jerryhicks.wordpress.com/

Today's Independent - Boycott Israeli Goods

Today's Independent has two interesting articles. The first is an excellent piece from Donald Macintyre on Israel's death squads. It includes testimony from a former member of an Israeli assassination squad responsible for the murder of four Palestinians in Gaza at the start of the second intifada. The testimony was given to a group called Breaking The Silence which is an organization of veteran Israeli soldiers that collects testimonies of soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories during the Second Intifada.

The second story of interest is about Britain's complicity in rendition and torture. After Binyam Mohamed's claims of British complicity in torture and rendition the final British resident to be held at Guantanamo, Shaker Aamer has come out with similar claims.

On a non political issue I was interested in reading about Alan Moore and his refusal to be associated with the Watchmen film.



On a visit to Asda today I was very disappointed to see lots of Israeli tomatoes and peppers. Asda are of course not alone in stocking Israeli products with many of the main supermarkets doing so. It is important the we continue to complain to supermarkets stocking Israeli goods. Unlike other states responsible for human rights abuses such as Burma and Zimbabwe, most supermarkets turn a blind eye to Israel's crimes.

Find out more about the boycott campaign at http://www.bigcampaign.org/