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/

Response to the Green Engage post about me

I was not wanting to give this story any more publicity, but as Greens Engage have decided to attack me and not post my response I will post the letter I sent to the student magazine Nouse who wrote the story:

In response to your story of 13 February, I would like to reiterate my regret that one of the 246 pictures of York Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s public activities posted to the Facebook group has caused offence.

When I found out from the University that this image was causing offence I immediately removed this picture and made it clear that I do not support any anti-Semitic displays and would not have posted the picture if it had occurred to me that it would cause offence. To be clear, this image was not on a University website or uploaded through the University network. The image was clearly found by an individual searching for a reason to label me an anti-Semite. I regard this as the latest move in a campaign to harass me at work because of my connection to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

When I saw the Nouse headline on Friday evening I was deeply offended and upset by the accusation that I was a racist. I am a member of the York Palestine Solidarity Campaign as a private individual. The York Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a non-racist organisation which in no way espouses anti-semitism.

I have spent many years campaigning against racism and anti-semitism in York, and helped launch the York Unity group in 2004 to campaign against racism and the BNP in York. Anyone who knows me will vouch for my commitment to tackling racism and vouch for my belief in tackling harassment, in whatever form it takes.

To be clear, Harassment advisors are individuals at the University who have volunteered to provide confidential assistance to anybody concerned about harassment. I am not carrying out the role for personal gain but to assist anyone who feels they are harassed, which is a cause I am passionate about. I am quite capable of offering this advice to anyone who comes to me, as I am there to provide advice and not make a judgement on the accusation.

Vote for Jerry Hicks

There were several reasons behind my decision to move from Amicus to UCU a couple of years ago. One of those reasons was my distaste for Amicus leadership who supported the arms industry, nuclear power and blocked the motion for a boycott of Coca Cola at the War on Want conference. Things have not changed in Unite, only recently Unite spoke out in favour of runway 3 at Heathrow.

It is therefore refreshing to see a candidate for General Secretary who speaks out against Heathrow expansion and nuclear power. Furthermore he is committed to only taking the salary of an average skilled worker, rather than the £100,000+ salary enjoyed by current General Secretary Derek Simpson.

The Green Party Trade Union Group have produced the following statement:

The Green Party Trade Union Group does not seek to instruct Amicus members how to vote in their internal ballot, but notes that Jerry Hicks HAS made statements on environmental policy that GPTU would support. GPTU therefore asks Amicus members to consider this when choosing how to vote.

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

UCU NEC elections

The University and College Union's NEC election's are upon us. Please consider voting for the UCU Left candidates. Below is an extract from their website:

UCU Left - NEC Candidates - 2009


We believe UCU members need representatives on the NEC who will fight alongside them, and that our NEC should be made up of the best local and regional activists who stand up for and mobilise UCU members.

The UCU Left candidates standing in these elections meet those criteria. They are representatives who will truly make themselves accountable to the members and they reflect the dynamism of our union, women and men, black and white, gay and straight, disabled and non-disabled. They include many leading members who have a proven record as fighters in the union. They also include new younger activists who’ve emerged out of the recent battles in Higher and Further Education. We believe all of them will bring with them commitment to creating a democratic, member led, progressive union to the new NEC.

For details of the candidates visit http://www.uculeft.devisland.net/nec-elections-2009.html

DEC petition

Unfortunately it took a while for Downing Street to approve this
petition. It is however still not too late for the PM to call on the
BBC to change its mind:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/decgaza/

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to call on the BBC to
broadcast the DEC Gaza appeal.

The BBC has broadcast appeals from the Disasters Emergency Committee
since 1963. In a rare breach of the agreement it has decided not to
broadcast DEC's Gaza Appeal.

We urge the Prime Minister to call on the BBC to reverse its decision.

Holocaust Memorial Day - Statement from York Green Party

Greens support Holocaust memorial

Cllr Andy D'Agorne joined other party leaders at York's annual Holocaust Memorial Day.

Cllr Andy D'Agorne spoke alongside the other party leaders at the Holocaust Memorial Day event on Wednesday. Standing at the foot of Cliffords Tower where 150 Jews perished in 1190 he said, "Whether (the victims are) Jews or people in Dafur, Zimbabwe or the Middle East, we must speak out in defence of human rights and provide humanitarian aid to the victims of war, whichever 'side' they are on" The event later that evening included songs, drumming and personal accounts from a Holocaust survivor and an Ethiopean refugee.

Ban Foie Gras

It is very disappointing to see that in the 21st century the sale of Foie Gras is still legal in this country. Foie Gras is produced by the cruel practise of force feeding ducks and geese so that their livers are 10 times the normal size.

There is currently a petition on the No.10 website calling for this intolerably cruel practise to be made illegal. Please take a moment to visit and add your name at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/FoieGrasban/

There is a Facebook group you can join at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/group.php?gid=2233233470&ref=ts

Please also visit the Ban Fois Gras website at http://www.banfoiegras.org.uk/

Tony Benn on the BBC

Please forward this video on. Tony Benn takes full advantage of his interview with the BBC to continuously plug the DEC Gaza appeal.



Donate to the DEC Gaza appeal at www.dec.org.uk

Elvington airfield

I was very pleased to see that the Planning Inspectorate turned down the appeal from the owners of Elvington Airfield to have their application for hangars reconsidered. It was clear that the end-game was to have yet another regional airport and am glad that the environmental impact of the development was taken seriously and given more weighting than the supposed economic requirement for such a development.

Read the Press report

It is a shame such common sense has not prevailed over the move for a third runway at Heathrow. It is an affront to democracy to have not had a parliamentary vote over the development and I fully support John McDonnell's protest in the chamber.

What an ingenious idea

I was very pleased to hear in the news today that Greenpeace have purchased a piece of land in the middle of the proposed third runway.

You can sign up for a piece of the plot at http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/

Why do we need the Royals?

Once again a member of the Royal family has proved an embarrassment. It used to Princess Margaret and Prince Philip. Now we are getting the same shameless behaviour from Prince Harry.

After the ridiculous escapade with the Nazi uniform, we now find him guilty of racism and homophobia. St James's Palace claim he used the work "Paki" as a nickname, if this is true it is a shocking indictment on the armed forces for allowing such behaviour to go unchallenged.

This will undoubtedly not be the last time a member of the Royal family prove an embarrassment and we have to ask "Why do we need them?".

Defenders of the Royal family will argue that they only cost us £37 million a year. This however is a gross underestimate, with Republic UK estimating the real cost to be nearer £150 million.

If you are interested in learning more about Republic's Campaign for an Elected Head of State please visit http://www.republic.org.uk

Blair, Howard and Uribe to be awarded US Medal of Freedom

In the latest sickening move in Dubya's last days he has decided to award Tony Blair, ex-Australian PM John Howard and Colombian President and US stooge Alvaro Uribe the US medal of freedom.

Thankfully Howard and Blair are now gone and reviled in their own countries. Uribe is still in place presiding over a country where forced displacement has increased, extra-judicial executions have gone up, the numbers of political prisoners in Colombian jails has soared and more trade unionists are being murdered each year.

Sicko

I've just finished watching Michael Moore's Sicko. I was not sure whether a 2 hour film about the US health system would be of much interest to me, but in the end I found it fascinating and very moving.

It is shocking that one of the richest countries in the world will let its people get into terrific debt or be denied life saving treatment, because their insurance companies will try and weasel out of paying for treatment and the government won't cover the tab. Perhaps if it didn't spend so much on its defense budget it could afford a national health service which the populations of many western countries benefit from.