May Day Galore

Women Workers on the Karaqchi May Day march today in Pakistan organised by the Labour Party of Pakistan

Well Happy May Day to everyone - kicked off last night in Edinburgh with Beltane, the festival of the end of winter and the beggining of the summer. On my way to work there were red and blue men walking about bleary eyed smelling of smoke, looking a bit worse for wear. I can see the Beltane fire from my kitchen window. So if you are that way inclined Happy Beltane and May Day.

But for socialists and trade unionists it's International Workers Day. All over the world May Day greetings are being passed about with may day marches, activity, even strikes to celebrate International Workers Day.

So from Stroppyblog - HAPPY MAY DAY

Check out Edinburgh's Beltane here and about Edinburgh's May Day march here

Dates for your diary

A bit of a round up of events coming up.

For An End to Immigration Detention

Saturday 21st March 2009 Gather 11.30am at Bedford Town Centre to march from Bedford to Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre, to demonstrate between 12.30 and 2pm.

End indefinite immigration detention of women, men and children:
About 25,000 people - including 2,000 children - accused of no crime, are detained indefinitely each year at great human cost and great expense to tax-payers. All detention centres are operated for profit. Many of the people detained are victims of rape and other torture whose trauma is exacerbated by being detained.

An end to medical abuses and the detention of torture survivors including victims of rape: People with severe mental and physical health problems and disabilities are routinely detained, some for months or even years. Around 70% of women in detention are rape survivors. Detainees are frequently denied access to adequate medical care.

An end the detention of children and families:
Children, pregnant women and families are detained indefinitely in Yarl’s Wood removal centre and elsewhere. Some young mothers are separated from newborn babies to be placed in detention, causing permanent damage to both parents and children.

Details at No Borders website.

HOPI (Manchester ) We Stand with the Iranian Students
Against war, militarism, sanctions and repression

25 March 2009
13:00 - 15:00
University of Manchester Students' Union Oxford Road

Manchester HOPI along with our friends in Manchester's Iranian community are calling a day of action on the 25 March at the University of Manchester Students' Union (UMSU) starting at 1pm. We are calling this demonstration in solidarity with members of the Students for Freedom and Equality group, who have been arrested and tortured by the Iranian regime for standing up against imperialism, militarism, homophobia, patriarchy and state repression.

The students who have been arrested are Amirhosein Mohammadifar, Mohammad Poorabdollah, Sanaz Allahyari, Alireza Davoudi, Bahman Khodadad, Hosein Sarshoomi and Arsalan Sadeghi. They were arrested under the guise of presenting a threat to national security. The regime uses the threat of war and further sanctions as an excuse to put down student and worker insurgency. Students in Iran have been at the forefront of the fight for democracy and liberation in Iran, linking up with the workers', women's and national movements in the process.

We will be holding a demonstration outside of the students union and collecting letters to be sent to the Iranian Embassy calling for our comrades immediate release. We will also be collecting signatures for a petition against sanctions to be sent to the Foreign Office.

Details on Facebook.

Zionism - origins and consequences
a socialist historical view

01 April 2009
19:00 - 22:00
Indian YMCA
Fitzroy Square,
London


Zionism, as manifested in the State of Israel, is in the news, yet often misunderstood as both opponents and supporters often blur distinctions between 'Zionists', 'Israelis' and 'Jews'.
We shall look at how the political Zionist movement arose, and how it has changed, as well as its consequences for both Palestinians and Jews. We shall also consider our attitude as socialists.
CHARLIE POTTINS is a national committee member of the Jewish Socialists' Group who writes for Jewish Socialist magazine.
In his youth Charlie was a member of the Labour-Zionist youth movement Habonim.
This meeting is organised by the Socialist History Society together with the Jewish Socialists' Group.

Details on Facebook.

Another snowed under Stroppyblogger

Apologies for lack of posts these last few days. My excuse is I'm helping Dave with looking after his girls . Mamma Mia , sing along version, played continuously is doing more damage to my brain cells than my usual consumption of JD. This is not my natural territory, I mean childcare not Dancing Queen, but that is in gay bars when I'm usually drunk and I'm stone cold sober at the moment. So far I have managed to feed them and they in return torture me with Abba till Dave gets back from college. They are though lovely girls and I say that as someone who doesn't have any maternal broody feelings whatsoever.So clear thought and blogging is in short supply for a few days.

I will though just do a quick round up of upcoming meetings.

First off a reminder that tomorrow night there is Jewish Socialist Group meeting : After the War on Gaza . Check out an earlier post for details.


Then on Saturday there is Gender, Race and Class - An Anti-Capitalist Feminist event. Details again in an earlier post. The venue has changed , its now SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London. Details here.

Finally on Sunday, "SYN/HOPI - Revolution Betrayed - 30 years since the Iranian revolution, Joint Socialist Youth Network and Hands off People of Iran meeting."
This is from 18:00 - 21:00 in the Bertrand Russell Room, Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square .
More details here.

Dates for your diaries

Round up of events coming up.

The HFE Bill

A reminder that next Tuesday is "For a woman’s right to choose:
Campaigning to defend and extend women’s abortion rights in the final stages of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill," a meeting at 7pm at the House of Commons. More info here plus links.

There is also an opportunity with the HFE Bill to push for improved rights for women.
Please lobby your MP to support:

· New Clause 1 - to remove the two doctor requirement
· New Clause 2 - to allow nurses and midwives to administer early abortions
· New Clause 30 - to extend abortion rights to women in Northern Ireland

Its about time we pushed for more rights instead of letting those anti abortionists set the agenda.

Jean Charles de Menezes Inquest

Do check out the blog set up to cover the inquest for updates and reports.

Support at the inquest is welcomed. There are details about what is being covered each day and details of how to get to the Oval and the procedure for getting tickets.

SYN Rally: Public Services Not Private Profit

17th October

7pm at ULU, Malet Street, London

Speakers include: Ross Marshall (RMT Young Member), Hazel Rees (NUT Young Member), Wes Streeting (NUS President)

See Public Services Not Private Profit for details and other events

Stand Up for Your Rights Festival

18th October

2pm-8:30pm, Waterloo Action Centre, 14 Baylis Road, London, SE1 7AA

A one-day event organised by A World to Win. The historic struggle for rights in Britain will be presented through music, drama, poetry, films and political debate.

Confirmed speakers include Bill Bowring (Professor of Law at Birkbeck University), John McDonnell MP (LRC Chair), Global Women's Strike, Coalition for Independent Action, Paul Feldman, Kevin Smith (Carbon Trade Watch), John Stewart (HACAN), Rahila Gupta (Southall Black Sisters), the Gypsy Council, Ted Knight.


LRC Conference 2008: The Future of the Left

15th November

10am-5pm at Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4RL (nearest tube: Holborn)

Speakers include: Tony Benn, Brian Caton (POA), Katy Clark MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Jeremy Dear (NUJ), John McDonnell MP, Elaine Smith MSP, Matt Wrack (FBU), plus international guest speakers.

More details at the LRC website.


LRC LGBT Caucus: Conference for LGBT Liberation

29th November

debates / speakers / politics / workshops / film / art

10am-4pm at ULU, Malet Street, London, WC1. Sponsored by CWU. More details soon.

Happy International Women's Day

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2008!

SATURDAY 8TH MARCH

Remember, if you're a woman and...

* you can vote, thank a feminist.

* you get paid as much as men doing the same job, thank a feminist.

* you went to college / university instead of being expected to quit after school so your brothers could go because "You'll just get married anyway", thank a feminist.

* you can apply for any job, not just "women's work", thank a feminist.

* you can get or give birth control information without going to prison, thank a feminist.

* your doctor, lawyer, judge or MP is a woman, thank a feminist.
* you play an organised sport, thank a feminist.

* you can wear trousers without being excommunicated from your church or run out of town, thank a feminist.

* your boss isn't allowed to pressure you to sleep with him, thank a feminist.
* you get raped and the trial isn't about your hemline or your previous boyfriends, thank a feminist.

* you start a small business and can get a loan using only your name and credit history, thank a feminist.

* you are on trial and are allowed to testify in your own defence, thank a feminist.

* you have the right to your own salary even if you are married or have a male relative, thank a feminist.

* you get residency of your children following divorce or separation, thank a feminist.

* you get a voice in the raising and care of your children instead of them being completely controlled by the husband/father, thank a feminist.

* your partner assaults you and it is illegal and the police stop him instead of lecturing you on better wifely behaviour, thank a feminist.

* you are granted a degree after attending university instead of a certificate of completion, thank a feminist.

* you can breastfeed your baby discreetly in a public place and not be arrested, thank a feminist.

* you marry and your civil human rights do not disappear into your husband's rights, thank a feminist.

* you have the right to refuse sex with your husband, thank a feminist.

* you have the right to keep your medical records confidential from the men in your family, thank a feminist.

* you have the right to read the books you want, thank a feminist.

* you can testify in court about crimes or wrongs your husband has committed, thank a feminist.

* you can choose to be a mother or not a mother in your own time not at the dictates of a husband or rapist, thank a feminist.

* you can look forward to a lifespan of 80 years instead of dying in your 20s from unlimited childbirth, thank a feminist.

* you can see yourself as a full, adult human being instead of a minor who needs to be controlled by a man, thank a feminist.

Sadly not all women around the globe can enjoy these rights and priviledges, however when people minimise the role of feminism and the demand for women's liberation - it is easy to forget who few rights women actually had in the past few decades.

Happy New Year !!

Happy new year to Stroppyblog readers and to those disturbed, and probably disappointed, individuals who wander by after searching for Portuguese or Geordie porn, mud wrestling in thongs, Harriet Harman in stockings, Hazel Blears sexy, fishnets and decadent women, nuns with guns and fucking,fisting and fishnets . Yep, classy blog this is :-)

The picture is a reminder of that failed leadership campaign. Nope , not John McDonnell but the Jim4leader campaign . Still , the Dolls4Jim group rose from the ashes. Its a pic of Jim D holding a bottle of my favourite JD:-)

Talking of drink, here's to many more lefties bloggers piss ups in 2008.

Socialist Wimmin's weekend to Lochranza, Isle of Arran, Scotland 22/23 February 2008

Hi sisters,

I am organising a weekend for the Scottish Socialist Wimmin's Network at Lochranza Youth Hostel for 22nd and 23rd February and would like to invite wimmin comrades from down south. For the two nights including food I recon it will be £50 for waged, £40 low waged and £30 for unwaged. Kids and activists still at school will be free. That'll include all food, you'll have to buy your own drink though there are a couple of nice pubs near by but there are NO shops!!!

It'll be a social occasion but there will be political discussions too. Lochranza is so beautiful you will love it - so you can go for walks too and not participate in the discussions. Comrades in Scotland could accommodate youse for staying overnight in Glasgow or Edinburgh as travelling to an island takes time.

If you would like to come email me on grantcat69@yahoo.co.uk, come to participate or to chill out, don't come if you want an argument we want to have a nice time - some of us have been through the wars.

It is a wimmin's weekend so on this occasion sorry blokes you canny cannae come