Liverpool WASPI rally - 3 August

Hungry For Justice

PCS members and reps are encouraged to support the Liverpool WASPI group in their activity this weekend to maintain and highlight their important campaign over state pension changes. Details of their Hungry for Justice picnic in the park activity are as follows:

• Saturday 3 August 2019.
• 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm.
• Chavasse Park, Liverpool.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Day

Speeches, poems and music to mark the 74th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

• Tuesday 6th August 2019.
• 10.45am.
• St John’s Gardens, Liverpool.

All welcome. The commemoration will last around 30 minutes.

John Moloney, new AGS - ARMS Mersey guest speaker

The guest speaker at the next ARMS Mersey meeting is John Moloney, newly elected PCS Assistant General Secretary. John was the only rank-and-file candidate to stand in the AGS election.

Although this is a committee meeting, all members are entitled to attend and speak if they wish, although only committee members may take part in any votes.

• Thursday 8 August.
• 11.30 am - room booked from 11.00 am, so please arrive to ensure a prompt start.
• NW PCS office, Jack Jones House, Liverpool.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Advance notice: at our next all-members meeting on Thursday 10 October, the guest speaker will be barrister and former union activist in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Roland Zollner, to talk about how austerity is damaging the criminal justice system. Click here for more information.

The British Trump prepares for office

So the results are in. We've endured TV hustings for a vote in which the vast majority of us had no role to play. The contest for the Tory Party leadership has been treated like a general election, but it was no more democratic than an internal leadership battle in the old USSR.

Johnson beat Hunt by 92,153 votes to 46,656. As the total number of registered UK voters in December 2018 was 45,775,800 (source: ONS), this means Johnson will become PM with the support of 0.2% of the electorate. To put it another way, 99.8% of the electorate did not vote for him, and 99.65% had no vote at all.

The Daily Mirror has an article "37 lies, gaffes and scandals that make Boris Johnson unfit to be Prime Minister" which you can read here.

I have a comparison which will ring particular bells with former reps in the civil service.

A long time ago when I was a union rep in the DSS/DWP, I represented a member who was facing dismissal having been accused of deliberately misspending public money, a sum of around £200. I managed to save his job only at the second and final level of appeal when it was eventually accepted that it was a genuine error. The first two decision makers had rejected that argument and had recommended dismissal.

Johnson, on the other hand, misspent £53 million of public money for a bridge that was never even begun. He also misspent more than £300,000 on illegal water cannons which were eventually scrapped at a huge loss. Now he stands to be rewarded with the keys to Number 10. I cannot understand why he has not faced prosecution for massive misuse of public funds. If not prosecuted, than at least barred from holding public office.

His 'election' was little more than a coup d'état and his misspending of huge amounts of public money has been shrugged off. He has a privileged immunity that has exempted his incompetence and arrogant profligacy from any kind of scrutiny or disciplinary investigation, and has denied the people any say in who leads the country. This last point is especially galling because Johnson denounced Gordon Brown for succeeding Tony Blair as PM without immediately calling a general election.

He is our next prime minister - finger crossed, not for too long.

Neville Grundy
ARMS Mersey

HMRC cleaners strike 15 July

On Monday 15 July, striking HMRC cleaners employed by ISS were joined by PCS ARMS Mersey members, local councillors, local MPs, Liverpool Labour Party members, Liverpool BAME members and supportive members of the public at picket lines and rallies in Bootle and Liverpool.

And the sun also shone on the righteous!

ARMS Mersey members show solidarity with HMRC cleaners at their meeting on 11 July

The rally in Queens Square in Liverpool

Attentively listening to the speeches

The full line-up of strikers (centre front) and supporters

ARMS Mersey members (L-R): Keith Hebron, Neville Grundy, Steve Ion and Ray Beeton

Three resolute strikers

ARMS' Steve Ion chats with two of the strikers

ARMS Mersey's Jim Stanway (left) and Neville Grundy with the ARMS banner

Strikers, PCS HMRC branch officers, Steve Ion of ARMS (left) - and the ARMS banner!

HMRC cleaners strike - pickets and rallies

We've now received details of the HMRC cleaners dispute picket lines and rallies:

• Bootle Triad - 7am-11am both days, including rally to close Monday picket 10.30-11am before we head to town.
• Liverpool - 10am-12pm at Imperial Court (Exchange Street East) and Regian House (Derby Square and Strand Street) on Monday. Rally at Derby Square 12-12.30pm when joined by Bootle. Pickets 10am-12.30pm Tuesday.

Full background to the dispute here.

Fundraising page for strike fund here. Please consider a donation.

Please support some of the lowest-paid PCS members in this important dispute.

HMRC cleaners strike - support by ARMS

Steve Ion and I have discussed what support we can give to striking PCS members in HMRC on Mon 15 & Tue 16 July. We have decided the following:

• We will ask for a speaker to our own meeting next week (Thu 11.7.19).
• We aim to have the ARMS banner out on both days.

We are therefore asking ARMS members to tell us which days they can make and, if we get enough volunteers, set up a rota for the two days. To that end, please would you tell me which days you are able to attend. If you are available for both, please let me know and I'll select one of the two, although if you want to attend both days anyway, that would be great.

As the strike begins in 11 days' time, please would you reply by e-mail (or in 'comments' below if you prefer) by Wed 10.7.19, the day before our meeting? E-mail: Nevillegrundy@aol.com.

Read more about the dispute here. I'll publish details of times, etc, when I receive them.

Thanks,

Neville Grundy
Chair

Another economy is possible with a new Lucas Plan

An idea whose time has come?

• Wednesday 17 July.
• 1.00 pm.
• Jack Jones House, Liverpool L3 8EF.
• Guest speaker: John Routley.

John is a former Lucas Aerospace shop steward who helped form the Alternative Corporate Plan in 1976 after the company announced redundancies. The plan advocated the diversification of workers' skills and expertise to make 'socially useful products' that meet people's needs and benefit society.

Joint organisers, Merseyside CND and the Merseyside Pensioners' Association, say:
"All are welcome to join us as we call for a new Lucas Plan, where the knowledge of those manufacturing nuclear weapons and other military technology is used to tackle climate change and to improve the standard of living for everyone."

More information on the New Lucas Plan website here.

UC protests in Liverpool

We have just learned from the MPA that there is a protest against Universal Credit every week in Liverpool.
The details are:

• Every Wednesday.
• 11.00am.
• Jobcentreplus, 416 Eaton Road, Liverpool L12 3HT.

At present, that is all the info we have. If we find out more, we'll publicise it here.