"Public backing us, say Rotherham Unison strikers: VIDEO"

In a video on the Rotherham Advertiser website, striking workers talk about the N30 strikes!

"PUBLIC support for today's strike by public sector workers has been strong, according to a local union official.

Unison's Steve Pearson, from the Rotherham Health branch, was talking to Advertiser reporter Gareth Dennison on the picket line at Rotherham General Hospital.

Watch our video to see what he had to say."

NOV30! 300+ in Roth!!!

According to estimates, the number of people at the Rotherham March and Rally in support of the pension strike was over 300! Many then joined the thousands in Sheffield! This article taken from the Rotherham Advertiser.

Photo by Jason Emerson

"MORE than 300 striking public sector workers marched through Rotherham today after the biggest mass walkout for decades.

Refuse workers, probation staff, teachers, nurses, lecturers and civil servants were among thousands across the borough who joined nearly three million workers in a one-day strike against government plans to change their pensions.

Scores of pickets were out at Rotherham General Hospital, council buildings and the town’s main college.

 

Speakers from the UNISON, GMB, PCS, NUT and UCU unions addressed a rally in All Saints’ Square.

Photo by Ralph Dyson.

Eric Battey of the GMB said: “The facts are clear—we’ll work longer, pay more and get less.”

Ministers say public sector pensions are unsustainable and condemned the strike as irresponsible because negotiations were ongoing and would cost the economy £500 million."

Many on the march and rally were calling on the TUC to call the next date.

Ashes and Diamonds

A tribute to the mining industry and the people who fought to defend it.

An exhibition, that has already been displayed at Hurst House adult education centre, Abercrombie Street, Chesterfield, will move to Wortley Hall, between Sheffield and Barnsley, on the week commencing November 6. Organiser John Dunn said: “Our day release course with Sheffield University used to be held in Hurst House, and Wortley Hall was the venue for our weekend schools and longer courses. (Quotes taken from Sheffield Star article).

RAC Jarrow March Welcoming Rally

1145am - Thorpe Hesley Recreation Ground... Greet the Marchers!

The Jarrow March is inching closer to Rotherham... today the march was featured on Jeremy Vine's Radio 2 programme - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014x4zd#clips

We invite everyone, and hope for as many as possible, to meet at the recreation ground in Thorpe (for directions follow link below) at 11:45 to welcome the Jarrow Marchers!

Directions to the ground:

http://www.rotherham.gov.uk/directory_record/63307/barnsley_road_recreation_ground

We'll be gathering on the corner of Barnsley Road and Chapelfield Road... For those not driving, the number 66 bus from Rotherham Interchange stops at the terminus at the Recreation Ground:

Link to 66 timetable:

http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/south_yorkshire/journey_planning/timetables/timetable.php?day=1&source_id=2&service=6%2F66%2F77&routeid=2878461&operator=26&source=sp

Please bring banners, placards and noise making devices... Once the marchers arrive they will be stopping for their lunch at the Masons Arms pub - who have very kindly arranged to provide the marchers with pie, peas and chips (and cheese sandwiches for the veggies!) with money raise by RAC and Rotherham NUT!

Link to Masons Arms:

http://www.masonsarmsthorpehesley.co.uk/

Here is the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=220108728053290

Please tell as many people as possible and give the Marchers the best lunchtime reception of the march!!!

RAC interview in 'Rotherham Life'

RAC interviewed  by Chris Ledger on Rotherham Life blog

The group, called Rotherham Against the Cuts (RAC), was launched in May, which provides a basis for local people to organise their resistance to the proposed government budget cuts and the potential hardship that they could cause. It has also been founded to provide a local branch of the national Anti-Cuts movements and has also been recongised and supported by the Trades Council.

Current campaign activities

It has been described as a broad-based campaign, which will fight cuts in a variety of areas from benefit and disability allowance to pensions, the NHS, education and job cuts. They have conducted several activities – which are aimed at building the movement and involving people who can take the lead, informing the public about the cuts and building strategies that will defend services.

They currently hold a campaign stall in Rotherham Town Centre – which is outside Rotherham Market, and the Boots and Halifax branches – every Saturday morning between 11am to 1pm, where they hand out leaflets and collect signatures in support of the group. They also hold regular meetings at the Bridge Inn pub, attended picket lines and organised a peaceful rally on Thursday 30 June in All Saints Square, which attracted a crowd of around 50 people.

Chris Bingham, an activist for RAC, said: “For many years now Rotherham people have had their traditional networks of representation dismantled and dismissed, which has led to a general climate of non-involvement.

“Our first step with RAC is to build the movement and encourage the people doing the hard work of defending community and public services to join together, unite their voices, and lead the resistance against the savage cuts and the hardship that the poor and working people of Rotherham will feel the most in the coming year.”

A resistance network

Mr Bingham also said that although traditional methods like trade unions and political parties still exist, they are viewed with suspicion.

He added: “People have to develop their own networks of resistance, they have to share their information about the cuts they are facing and help each other out in a spirit of solidarity, realising that all cuts will affect them in some way.

“We, as people, have to seek each other out and develop united campaigning groups that are serious and committed, that can send clear messages to the centres of power who are deciding what services we can and cannot enjoy.

“Unfortunately, there are no magic buttons or easy short-cuts. We have to do the steady work to build up strong grass-roots organisations that have a shared set of objectives based on the principles of solidarity, mutual respect and support.”

More help needed

Despite support from the public at the rally and campaign stall, as well as a letter that was published in a recent edition of the Rotherham Advertiser, the group is still slowly expanding and it has been difficult to get people to come to their public meetings.

Mr Bingham added: “It is obvious that people in Rotherham are generally aware that bad times are coming, that something must be done and are very supportive of our analysis, but getting people to come to meetings is difficult.

“This is understandable because the people who should be involved and leading RAC are the very people who work the hardest and the longest, and are under the most strain. We can only assure those people that though we are a small group at the moment, we aren’t going anywhere and we await their involvement and participation.

“However, I think it is fair to say that everyone involved in RAC, at the minute, hopes we can build a strong fighting force that will make it impossible for the people of Rotherham to be ignored, as they have been for so long. And that it will help give Rotherham back its confidence to defy the powers that be and reclaim itself.”

Those who are interested in joining RAC can join its mailing list at rothagainstcuts@hotmail.co.uk or Facebook page . A consitution meeting will be held on Wednesday 2 August and a general meeting will also be held on Wednesday 9 August. Both meetings will be at the Bridge Inn pub, based at Greasbrough Road in Rotherham Town Centre, at 7.45pm and anyone is welcome to attend.

Praise for RAC!!!

Here are a couple of letters recently sent in to the Advertiser supporting the work of RAC! We'd like to thank the authors for their kind words, and we'd like to urge the rest of you to come and join us!

Praise for Rotherham Against Cuts group.

"Sir, Just done my Saturday morning shopping in Rotherham and had the pleasure of chatting to the Rotherham Against the Cuts (RAC) group.

They listen politely and give out advice on what we should be doing to fight the cuts.

They sooth frayed nerves through people being sick and tired of being sick and tired at having their lives ruined by ideologies and fat cats in London.

We’re all in it together they say. How have the cuts affected them? Not by much I should imagine. I know I’ve been affected through my health, social services, housing, education and employment.

These are to name a few areas where the cuts have touched. Most of Rotherham have or will be going through the same carry on.

This is only going to get worse. So I say good luck to the lads and lasses of RAC. They have our future in their hands and are, as we speak, trying to put it on a good footing.

All they need is a little help from us and I for one am going to give it. They seem to be the only team that cares, nobody else gives a monkey’s. The cuts are coming to a place near you so be prepared."

We must fight the cuts!

"Sir, May I say, I completely agree with Mr Jeff Sheard's letter showing support for "rotherham against the cuts".

These diehard lefties know what is coming, Rotherham will suffer from these cuts, we have already seen meals on wheels gone, laundry service gone, attacks on the youth and vulnerable by a Labour Party which has completely lost touch, not only with the working class but with the population in general.

Labour leader Harold Macmillan once said "the Labour Party is a moral crusade or nothing at all".

It is fast becoming nothing at all. 

Four million voters have deserted Labour, the working class the working poor and the absolute poor are screaming out for a new party with morals and principles.

I would say the Socialist Workers' party are the only party left with an alternative and it's a shame the rotherham workers (private sector and public sector) don't support this party when it comes to elections.

We need thousands more Jeff Sheards who take time to stop and listen and make that change from mainstream greed, back to morals and principles and fairness - something that's been lacking in the UK for last 30 years."