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Council Cuts Meetings Protests

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where to

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This is a general thread for discussion and announcement of all Council cuts budget and debate meeting protests following Monday's residents revolt in Lewisham.

Next up:
No To Con Dem Cuts In Camden! Lobby the Council Weds 1st December 6pm Camden Town Hall Judd St WC1.
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Tower Hamlets HOOPS (Hands Off our Public Services) Lobby Tower Hamlets full Council meeting on Monday 8th December at 6pm, against £70m+ cuts to jobs and services. Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, London E14 2BG.
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TUESDAY 7TH DECEMBER

* Birmingham City Council, 1pm Council House, called by Unison. http://anticuts.org.uk/?p=976


* Tower Hamlets Full Council Meeting Protest. 6pm at Mulberry Place. http://anticuts.org.uk/?p=1618




WEDNESDAY 8TH DECEMBER

* Manchester. National Shop Stewards Network intiated anti-cuts demo outside Manchester Town Hall, Albert Square, Manchester. 7.30-10am lobby before council meets and a demonstration from 4-6pm after council meets. http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/whatson



TUESDAY 14TH DECEMBER

* Barnet Alliance for Public Services – Lobby of council meeting where it plans to pass cuts budget. No to easyCouncil. From 6-7pm at Hendon Town Hall, The Burroughs, London NW4 4BG. http://barnetalliance.org/
 
I was there, closer to 250 than 400 I think. A LOT of primary school children out trying to save their playcentres. Fucking heroes. It was quite sedate compared to Lewisham. Pigs fairly light-handed.
 
I was at the Camden protest too. It was organised mostly by the union and their stewards mostly did the police's work for them - keeping everyone behind a fence on the other side of the road. It was difficult for anything interesting to happen partly cost the kids were there (to tug on the councillors' heartstrings I assume - cos that will do it) partly cos the town hall got shuttered and locked down (and TSG waiting round the corner) but mostly, I suspect, because there was no broader-based organising coalition on the ground like there has been in Lewisham. Just the union, doing their well-controlled thing.
 
Lobby full council meeting-Kirklees Town Hall. December 8th 4:30 pm. Put some pressure on the elected members. Kirklees Unison currently balloting its members for five days of B2B action in January to oppose compulsory redundancies, use of sickness as a selection process for redundancy, imposition of statutory min pay out on redundancy.
 
from red pepper

Town hall riot?

29 November 2010: Max Watson reports from a militant anti-cuts demo in Lewisham which was attacked by riot police

Monday 29 November was a turning point for the anti-cuts movement on two counts: Firstly, local students - who have recently been an inspiration to us all fighting the cuts - joined a local anti-cuts demo which was not about tuition fees, EMA or education cuts.

Secondly, the militant nature of the demo meant that it was the first time the riot police were called to defend a town hall meeting that was about to vote to implement Tory cuts. It was our own Millbank Tower moment, and it almost worked.

The student feeder march from Goldsmith’s quickly swelled to around 200 and by the time we got to Lewisham Town Hall, there were another 200 gathered from the community and local trade unionists.

Speakers at the rally included activists from NUT, UNISON, students and users of the community services that the Labour Council intended to cut (to the tune of £60million). Cuts already announced include five libraries, a children’s centre, the ‘Opening Doors’ employment centres whilst at the same time making 466 staff redundant.

Once it became clear to the crowd the council were refusing to let us into the public gallery – which they’re legally obliged to do – chants of ‘let us in’ soon drowned out the speeches, and a group rushed through doors and past security.

It almost became a local Millbank Tower moment, but the crowd didn’t quite have the momentum to all get in without a tussle. The police reaction then grew completely out of proportion. Riot police, some on horse back others with dogs, arrived on scene with shields and batons drawn. The cops were aggressive and violent – and several arrests were made.

Lewisham Town Hall sits on a main junction in Catford, and the entire block was closed off for a couple of hours whilst the police took control and appeared to prepare for a ‘kettle’ before the crowd quickly dispersed.

A few flares went off, a window got broken, and whilst the meeting was disrupted, and temporarily adjourned, it was almost but not quite ‘mission accomplished’. The vote on the cuts went ahead behind closed doors.

The town hall meeting behind closed doors meant that we had to force our way into the meeting: the response to the security refusing us entrance was magnificent. And with the large group of students who came down and swelled our numbers, we almost had the confidence to get in as a group.

The violent overreaction from the riot police meant that news (it was covered by BBC1) soon circulated: Labour controlled Lewisham Council tried to vote through a Tory cuts budget and they had to do so behind closed doors and with riot police protecting them... Every anti-cuts alliance in the country (and every Councillor) should take note!

For more info, and to get involved in Lewisham Anti-Cuts alliance, go to: lewishamanticutsalliance.wordpress.com

Max Watson is branch chair of London Metropolitan University UNISON (writing here in a personal capacity)
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Report by Whitechapel Anarchists following tonight's Tower Hamlets Council Meeting...

They Weren’t Expecting That

Hyped up by the bullshit scare mongering of The Evening Standard, tonight’s Tower Hamlet’s Council meeting in Poplar resembled fort knox with the Old Bill in overdrive. Metal fencing formed a ginormous kettle as you entered the surrounding area of Mulbery Place, countless police vans with riot police situated in surrounding buildings, the street and through out the Town Hall, hands clenching truncheons ready for action. The Council Meeting was like a war zone. But where was this dangerous minority driving an angry mob with pitchforks hell bent on levelling every building in their sight? We were sitting with our feet up in the warmth of the Town Hall.

Known as Operation Turn Up Early our motley crew waltzed straight through the giant kettles under the noses of the FIT and TSG, holding our nerve, into the Town Hall making full use of our rights as residents of the borough to obtain the few spare seats available to the general public. Panic set in amongst the Police, they are use to us turning up masked up and shouting slogans within a cordoned off section, but how were they to react now? Officers who recognised our faces and for years have intimidated us under the Forward Intelligence Teams were pissed off to say the least at the sight of us lot sat ready and waiting for the meeting to begin. They had gone to so much effort, organised a large contigent of armed to the teeth uber males, secured the place to high heaven to keep us out but we weren’t exactly playing by the rules.

Our aim of the evening had been to get into the Town Hall and attend the Tower Hamlets Council meeting as various petitions were being raised by Resident Associations and Unions to oppose the £70 million pound cuts proposed to hit the borough over the next two years, offering our support against the political corruption behind the government cuts to public services and to high light the devastating effects these will have on our lives. Security jobsworths were all over our group as the police lined the corridors ready to steam in, we had entered the lion’s den and the fun was just about to begin.

Once the pomposity of proceedings was out the way we had some brilliant speeches by the individuals presenting the petitions, laying into the governments obvious attack upon the very services we have fought so hard for and attacking the double standards of the tax dodging rich parasites. Cheers and applause raised the roof and the turbulent nature of the crowd was obvious to everyone as the Chair announced that this was the rowdiest meetings for many years. The folly of party politics played out before us with Labour and Tory Councillors blaming each other, when most know they are all to blame for this mess, and the order of the day was the classic tactic of the heckle. And once the fuse paper is lit… Heckling, shouting, joking, haranguing came from all corners of the attendees, yes as anarchists we were a rowdy part, but members of the public, residents, unions – everyone basically – started to get involved. The flood gates burst open. An emergency motion was ushered in to discuss the cuts in more detail but still the onslaught of abuse and undermining was barraged onto the squirming councillors whose rhetoric couldn’t save them now.

As the Police slowly started to filter in and place themselves at the back we took the initiative and upped and leaved, the friends we had made amongst the crowd cheered and clapped as we tore a Tory Councillor apart verbally on our exit. Once again the old bill were fuming and despite some friction with the FIT on exiting the Town Hall, we had got away with our objective unscathed. We disrupted the Tower Hamlets Council meeting with a few home truths expressed in an enraged manner. Far from alienating ourselves as disruptive trouble makers we built alliances of solidarity and new friendships, summed up by the drinks and chat afterwards in the pub with members of the Unions and residents of Tower Hamlets who we shared information, stories, drinks and jokes with.

Never believe the bullshit you read in the newspapers, it just goes to show the sloppy nature of mainstream journalism as they once again raise the spectre of WAG as the bogeyman of dissent, with the Old Bill following suit by over reacting and enforcing the law of intimidation on anyone who dares question the authority of our rulers. It was an unorthodox night to say the least. A great laugh and success for us. They weren’t expecting that.
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good stuff - a few of us turned up about 2.5 hours early on the lewisham one the other week but the whole town hall and all entrances were already locked down

(as a result of the lewisham thing, the politics show from the bbc has been in touch with our local group asking to take part in a programme their doing on the impacts of cuts on communities)
 
Solihull - Tues Dec 21st

Meet 3:30pm Solihull Civic Suite

Homer Road, Solihull, West Midlands, B91 3QS - though there may be more than one entrance, they haven't included this much detail on their poster. I don't know where the civic suite is but found this from google for weddings, this is the ceremonial entrance. Will try to confirm where exactly this will be, I guess they are expecting people to know, but perhaps some other people from Brum will be able to make this - it's outside of term time so I'll be on school holidays and definitely going down. Unlikely to be anything interesting happen on it though.

Poster Link (on facebook)
 
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