the RESPECT party

Manchester City Council has reversed its decision to close Levenshulme Baths. It has admitted that it misjudged the level of anger and opposition the closure provoked.

Its Finance Committee has produced a solution whereby the Baths will be kept open for the next two years and then replaced with a new facility. This was agreed on Monday, 28 February.

Marie-Angelique Bueler, Friends of Levenshulme Convenor and Chair of the Save Our Baths campaign that has mobilized the community, said, ’the people of Levenshulme, Longsight and Gorton have won a hugely significant victory in stopping this public service cut. It shows the power of protest to shift the agenda away from simply asking which service should close to an alternative option of ways to keep our communities alive when the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition government tries to ruin Manchester.

Dear friend,

 I am writing to ask for your help in my effort to re-enter parliamentary politics.

Having spent almost twenty-five years standing up for the community and all good causes in the House of Commons, I am now trying for a seat in the Scottish Parliament representing the City of Glasgow.

It is a mountain to climb but it can be done. However, I need all the help I can get from my friends to raise the funds for the election campaign. I am relying heavily on the generosity of friends and well-wishers like you.

Parents fight back for Sure Start

Over three hundred parents and their children rallied outside Manchester’s town hall last Saturday as part of the campaign to defend Sure Start from cuts, fee hikes and privatisation.

Demonstrators waved banners and chanted “save our Sure Start, the heart of our community” and “no ifs, no buts, no need for cuts.” They were joined by councillors, trade unions and local MPs, although Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese was booed when he attempted to address the rally.

Read Full story at Manchester Mule

I arrived back from Tunisia last night and have been mulling over the experience today. The people I met there have left a deep impact on me. I was struck by their courage and dignity as they relayed tales of suffering under the disposed dictator Ben Ali.

I heard stories of torture, of systemic rape against men and women, of people being imprisoned for handing out leaflets, for gathering in groups of more than two or just for calling a relative whose name was on a secret police list.

Because the Tunisian people have been through such horrendous repression, the new democracy movement is holding onto its new freedoms like the parents of a new-born child.

ANALYSIS: Kevin Ovenden, a leader of the Viva Palestina movement to break the siege of Gaza, looks at the implications of the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia for the wider region.

"VICTORY HAS a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan."

Those words of Italian diplomat Count Galeazzo Ciano sprang to mind at the nauseating spectacle of Barack Obama, David Cameron, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and the rest claiming if not parenthood, then a least favorite-uncle status to the newborn revolution in Egypt and its older Tunisian twin.

But from the Atlantic coast of North Africa to the Persian Gulf, everyone knows that these leaders would have strangled both babes at birth if they could. Having failed in infanticide, they will now seek every means to stunt the child's growth. The dizzying momentum of the Egyptian and Tunisian revolutions, however, is now ricocheting around the Arab and Middle East region, while at the same time profoundly radicalizing struggles and politics within those two countries.

"You are the generation that will overcome defeat" Arab poet Nizar Qabbani

For eighteen days so many of us were glued to the TV screens as a revolt unfolded that shook the Arab world , and beyond. When Murbarak finally resigned Philosophy Football were inspired to produce a fundraising solidarity T-shirt by an article Tariq Ali wrote in the Guardian .

The article quotes one of the great Arab poets of the modern era, Nizar Qabbani. Writing in the aftermath of the 1967 six-day war and the coming to power in Egypt of the US-backed dictators, first Saddat, then Murbarak, the poem's prophecy was finaly fulfilled in 2011 " You are the Generation that will overcome defeat."

A message from George Galloway

"The great Egyptian people have spoken. Egypt is back and the winds of change are blowing through the Middle East and beyond, threatening to knock down the imperial architecture that has robbed the people of the region for so long.

"And chief among the outstanding injustices from the colonial epoch is Palestine. Now the struggle for a free and dignified Palestine takes place in the epic battle for a new Middle East and wider Muslim world that meets the hopes of its people.

"Viva Palestina Arabia gathered together academics, politicians and activists last year in the Bekaa Valley in our first Summer University of Palestine to discuss and coordinate the struggle for Palestinian rights.

The whole world is watching and Mubarak isn't listening. Support the Egyptian people.

Solidarity Protest
Friday 11 February 2011, 5pm
BBC building, Oxford Road Manchester, M60

Called by the Egyptian People's Solidarity Group (UK). Bring friends, bring banners, bring flags. Please forward and circulate by email and text message. Please also find the group on Facebook.

Stand in solidarity with the people of Egypt and the wider Middle East and North Africa in their demands for an end to repression, for their freedom, their basic human rights, and immediate democratic reform. And stand in defiance against all those who try to suppress the growing movement of people standing up for their rights, and for decent work, facing down injustice and offering hope for a better world. Please show your solidarity and defiance by wearing black, white or red (the colours of the Egyptian flag).

Trafalgar Square, London: Saturday 12 February 12 noon to 2pm

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!

The departure of Hosni Mubarak is a world historic victory for the poor, the oppressed and the exploited of Egypt, the Arab world - and for the wider world.

For decades we have been told that the Arab masses were apathetic and impotent, that the best that could be hoped for were venal and autocratic rulers whose job was to support US policy in the region while lining their own pockets. Yet in just a few short weeks the masses of Tunisia and now Egypt have torn this view to pieces

Operation Annoy George Osborne !!

At the same time as making massive cuts to public services, which will result in hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs, this government is letting rich individuals and corporations avoid billions of pounds of tax.

Join UK Uncut’s Big Society Revenue & Customs (BSRC) and become part of an army of citizen volunteers determined to make wealthy tax avoiders pay.

Come along and take part in an anti-cuts event on George Osborne's home turf. Help re-create that queue that featured in the notorious 1979 Tory Party campaign poster.

Yesterday Manchester Labour council leader Sir Richard Leese announced wholesale savage cuts whilst he talked of disaster, despair and misery.

On the same day as the latest council wielded its axe, BA rolled over Unite, again using the anti union laws brought in by the Tories, left unchanged by 3 terms and 13 years of Labour and unchallenged by the TUC. This time without even going to court!

Jerry Hicks, who shocked everyone when recently coming a highly placed second in the General Secretary election for Unite on a strong and uncompromising platform said:

Less than a year after the election, the Coalition government is rapidly losing its shine. The reason isn't hard to work out. The reality of their so-called 'deficit reduction plan is hitting home.

The austerity drive has already seen unemployment rise above 2.5 million. With tens of thousands of public sector workers yet to lose their jobs, we are likely to see 3 million unemployed before too long.

With unemployment comes poverty. It is estimated that 900,000 people will plunge below the poverty line by 2013-14. Rising unemployment, VAT increases and cuts in welfare benefits will combine to hit those in most need the hardest. Even for those still in work, and especially in the public sector, real earnings will drop under the pressure of wage freezes, inflation and VAT increases.

He stayed in the area for two days and spent a night with a local Muslim family and was so clearly impressed by the experience he wrote in glowing terms in the Observer about what he had learned. He didn't just churn out lazy cliches a la "I stayed with a Muslim family and they were nice to me shock", but describes his experiences in terms of the inspiration he drew from Sparkbrook for what a multicultural Britain could be like.

He praised the ward, a deprived, multicultural inner-city area, for its community cohesion and vibrant grassroots community infrastructure. He called for "a concerted attack on racism and soft bigotry". He described how "we cannot bully people into feeling British".

The one thing that Tories hate is the idea that people without wealth or privilege can enjoy and have access to something for free. Their collective loathing of the general population deepens when it concerns the notion of common land. After all, this was the point of the Acts of Enclosure, to remove the common land and rights of the general population to access this land in order for the richest to buy it all up, erect fences and exert power over it.

The proposal from the Conservative led Coalition government to sell off the British forests that are currently in public hands is the extension of this hatred. The Public Bodies (Reform) Bill gives the government the power to sell the forests and dismantle their guardian, the Forestry Commission. Among those threatened are the Forest of Dean, Cannock Chase, the Lake District forests and Thetford forest. These are among the ancient woodlands of the UK, which was once covered with such scenery.

by Salma Yaqoob, Respect Party Leader

Over the last few days I have received a lot of reaction to my anti-war protest in the Council Chamber. Some if it, including from ex-servicemen, has been very supportive. Some of it has been pure racist abuse. But a lot of it has been from genuine people upset and hurt by my actions.

As a politician I have to take responsibility for my actions and the messages I convey. My intention was to register my opposition to what I see as the hypocritical actions of our politicians. They refuse to hold our government to account for a decade of failure in Afghanistan, while shedding crocodile tears about those who return from this war injured, maimed or worse. The fact is that for all the talk from politicians about 'our heroes' many soldiers are literally dumped on the scrap heap when they are deemed of no further use.

Why is Egypt rising and what does it mean?
What can we do to help the Egyptian people?

7pm, Tuesday 8 February 2011
Friends Meeting House
Mount Street
Manchester

Hosted and organized by the Egyptian People's Solidarity Group (UK) - visit the facebook group

For 30 years Hosni Mubarak has ruled Egypt with an iron grip. His dictatorship, backed by the United States, Britain and the West in general, has concluded a “peace” agreement with Israel which has meant that the Palestinian people of Gaza have suffered the most terrible siege for years. Mubarak had 1.2 million police ruthlessly suppressing dissent with members of the political opposition arrested, tortured and sometimes murdered.

Now it is over. Mubarak is, in the words of Mohammed ElBaradei, a dead man walking. The Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Mubarak to go. The foreign minister of Sweden has declared the era of Mubarak is over. Support for his regime in the West is melting away.

George Galloway addresses a Stop the War Coalition meeting on Wednesday 2nd February.

Emergency Demonstration
Saturday 5 February 2.30pm
Solidarity with the Egyptian people
Assemble US Embassy, Grosvenor Square
London W1A 1AE
March To Egyptian Embassy

Events in Egypt are at a turning point. The movement has forced Mubarak to announce his departure, but demonstrators are demanding he goes now. Pro-Mubarak thugs are trying to create a strategy of tension. The next few days are crucial to what happens.

This emergency demonstration, organised by Stop the War Coalition, will call for an end to US/British/EU involvement in the region, solidarity with the Egyptian people and freedom for the Middle East.

Remember Tony Blair, the man whose lies took us to war in Iraq and cost the lives of countless innocent Iraqis? As Hosni Mubarak, the beleaguered President of Egypt, unleashes the forces of reaction in an attempt to crush the democratic wishes of the Egyptian people, Tony Blair has joined the fray supporting . . . .you guessed it, Hosni Mubarak. Speaking to Piers Morgan on CNN, Tony Blair defended his backing for Mubarak.

"Where you stand on him depends on whether you've worked with him from the outside or on the inside. I've worked with him on the Middle East peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians so this is somebody I'm constantly in contact with and working with and on that issue, I have to say, he's been immensely courageous and a force for good."

Filmed on 1st February 2011 at the solidarity vigil organized by the Egyptian People's Solidarity Group (UK).

Solidarity with Egyptian Uprising

Wednesday 2nd February • 7pm • Conway Hall • Red Lion Square • London WC1R 4RL
Speakers: George Galloway, Dina Makram Ebeid Egyptian activist, John Rees eye witness from Cairo, Bernard Regan

Egypt has been a cornerstone of the US "war on terror" and America's strategy for dominating the Middle East. Not for nothing is Egypt second only to Israel in the amount of US aid it receives, including $1.3 billion a year for the security forces alone--the same forces who have killed dozens of protesters in the last few days and injured thousands more. President Mubarak has made Egypt a US client state for decades. If his tyranny is overthrown the implications are momentous. As well as expressing solidarity with the Egyptian people's uprising for democracy, Stop the War's public meeting on Wednesday 2 February will discuss the implications for the anti-war movement.