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In pictures: supporters fill Liverpool’s streets for Gaza and #CeasefireNow
Large crowd gathers to show solidarity with oppressed Palestinians and to demand a real and permanent ceasefire
A large protest has filled streets in Liverpool’s city centre this weekend in a show of solidarity with Palestinians and a demand for a permanent and immediate ceasefire in Israel’s slaughter of civilians, mostly women and children, in Gaza.
Loud, but good natured – and growing as it went as more and more arrived and even bystanders joined it as it passed – the march set off from Liverpool’s Roman Catholic cathedral and filled Hope Street:
All image rights: S Walker
Swelling rapidly, the protest turned down Leece Street toward Bold Street:
Chanting shame on Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer alike for their support for genocide, it then filled Bold Street on its way to Derby Square to hear speakers call for justice and freedom in Palestine and a peace for all:
Solidarity from Liverpool to the people of Gaza and the West Bank against oppression and war crimes. Free Palestine.
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Liverpool Independents launch fundraiser to fight Eagle in next general election
Group that took both council seats in Garston is preparing to fight for parliamentary seat
The Liverpool Community Independents (LCI) group announced last week that it will stand a candidate to challenge Labour incumbent MP Maria Eagle in the Liverpool Garston constituency at the next general election, because – as a last straw – her decision to abstain on a Commons vote earlier this month calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s slaughter of civilians in Gaza.
Labour has cause to worry – in May, the working-class south Liverpool community threw out Labour, which heavily lost both its council seats heavily to LCI’s Lucy Williams and Sam Gorst, despite a disgusting Labour smear campaign in the election. But the group will need an even greater influx of resources and volunteers to win the parliamentary seat.
LCI leader Alan Gibbons – who trounced Labour in May in Orrell Park in the north of the city – has said that the decision to fight Eagle for the seat is a ‘historical necessity’ after the abstention.
As a first step, the group has launched a crowdfunder with a target of £15,000 to create a campaign fund for the seat. Readers who would like to contribute toward the effort can do so here.
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Photos/video: pro-Gaza ceasefire march floods London’s streets again
Husan Zomlot, Apsana Begum, among speakers at huge gathering
Hundreds of thousands have again peacefully flooded the streets of London and other cities in support of the besieged people of Gaza and to demand a proper ceasefire in Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing in the tiny Palestinian territory. Speakers included Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot, Poplar and Limehouse MP Apsana Begum – a victim of the Islamophobia of the Labour right – Bell Ribeiro-Addy and others.
Israel, meanwhile, is said to have breached the terms of its ‘pause’ in fighting, delaying the latest release of Israeli captives, according to a Hamas spokesperson. There is nothing humanitarian about a pause. Ceasefire now.
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St Andrews uni wavers on new rector’s free speech on Gaza under pressure from pro-Israel lobby
University bemoans Stella Maris’s email calling genocide genocide
New St Andrews Uni rector Stella Maris
St Andrews University in Scotland has caved at least partially in the face of pressure from the pro-Israel lobby after the university’s rector – a position elected by students – sent out an email recognising Israel’s apartheid and its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
According to reports in the Establishment media, a letter of protest was signed by ‘hundreds of students’ – but it appears that this was an open letter signed by 1,400 people, many of whom were probably not students since St Andrews only has 10,119 students registered, may not even have been in the UK and potentially might not even exist, as a university is unlikely to verify the names on the bottom of a letter. Pro-Israel pressure groups are known to coordinate pressure globally via social media – and even their own app – to try to suppress free speech that contradicts the Israeli regime’s narrative.
Maris’s email noted – entirely accurately – that Palestinians had been subjected to
apartheid, siege, illegal occupation and collective punishment
During Israel’s mass slaughter of civilians. She also linked to an article that discussed – again, entirely accurately – the fact that many, perhaps most, of those killed during the 7 October kibbutz raid had been killed by Israeli gunships and artillery, a fact inadvertently confirmed even by a senior Netanyahu adviser and former ambassador to the UK. Israel’s apartheid, ‘textbook genocide’ and other war crimes have been attested to by experts, including senior United Nations officials and human rights groups in Israel and internationally.
The university put out a statement saying it was ‘dismayed’ by Ms Maris’s accurate email and very disappointed that she had exercised her freedom of speech – and said it had offered her ‘support’ to retract her email:
As the senior management team which leads the University of St Andrews, we are utterly dismayed that the rector, on this occasion, put her right to freedom of expression ahead of her duty to represent all students, and to be concerned for their welfare.
We know that while some may have welcomed the message, others have been deeply offended and concerned by it.
While every one of us shares a desire for peace and an end to hostilities in Israel and Gaza, we regret that her message, the language that it used, and some of the sources it cited have caused alarm, division, and harm in our community, and more widely.
While she is accountable only to the student body whose interests she was elected to serve, we have, as individuals and as a group of senior leaders, asked her to reflect seriously on the evidence of the upset and fear she has caused, and to take such action as is necessary to restore confidence in her leadership amongst all students, and the wider community.
We have reached out to the rector to offer such support and help as she may require to address these issues.
The statement should, of course, have noted her right to free speech and then stopped there, but many craven universities are well known to have little spine in the face of pro-Israel groups’ manufactured outrage.
Interestingly, the supposedly outraged letter does not appear to have been circulated publicly online and is only quoted selectively by media outlets – which do not name the ‘group’ that sent it. However, the list of likely ‘usual suspects’ is fairly short.
Supporters of Israeli apartheid and war crimes have expressed their horror at Maris’s accuracy “inflammatory and unfounded accusations of ‘genocide,’ ‘apartheid,’ and ‘occupation’ concerning the Jewish State”, claiming it will foster division and “embolden attacks” on Jewish students.
The letter also condemned Maris for not mentioning recent attacks on two students who were leaving a talk by right-wing Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who has compared marches for Gaza with support for terrorism and has previously said that Israel has ‘no choice’ but to use violence against Gaza. The alleged attackers, who threw eggs, were described by a spokeswoman as around twelve years of age.
Ms Maris told the Telegraph:
While people may disagree with the evidence presented, disagreement should be based on contradictory evidence, not simply because the notion is unpleasant.
Standing with innocents suffering war crimes trumps avoiding offence to supporters of the perpetrators. Every time.
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Video: IDF caught faking ‘attempted Hamas ambush’
‘Prisoner’ seen dragged away in underwear caught putting pants back on after camera supposed to have stopped filming
The IDF’s attempts at propaganda have been as howlingly inept as its bombing of Gazan civilians has been deadly, from being caught planting evidence in Al Shifa hospital, to claiming a chart showed the names of ‘terrorists’ when in fact it showing the days of the week, to claiming a man covered in blood in a hospital CCTV video was an unhurt hostage being hidden in the hospital.
Meanwhile – although ignored by complicit western media – Israel has admitted that its own helicopters and artillery killed large numbers of Israeli citizens whose deaths it blamed on Hamas.
And now the IDF appears to have been caught faking a ‘Hamas ambush’ in which it dragged off a ‘terrorist’ in his underwear – only for the camera to catch the man putting his clothes back on, with no soldiers holding him captive, behind a screen.
The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal first outed the incident and was blocked by the right-wing US reporter who had claimed it was an attempted ambush:
After blocking me for exposing his (possibly unwitting) participation in Israel’s planting evidence at Shifa hospital, Fox’s @TreyYingst stands accused of a hoax standoff. He’s fervently denied it on his IG account. I think more investigation is in order. pic.twitter.com/TMLB17ZNAV
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) November 24, 2023
Yngst then claimed that a still featured in Blumenthal’s video showed the man getting undressed under IDF guard:
But in the actual footage it is clear that the still was taken after the man was shown being escorted away blindfolded (with media and military cameras conveniently ready to film that part) – and the footage showing him putting his trousers back on appears at the end of the clip apparently because a cloth screen blew upward in the wind, followed by agitated soldiers telling the camera to stop filming:
Israel’s merciless mass killing of children and civilian women and the elderly, combined with its propaganda incompetence and the arrogance of its spokespeople, have led millions to march for peace and justice for Palestinians and to deride the endless propaganda failures that would certainly be fatal to its narrative if the western media reported half of what is revealed by the Israeli press and broadcasters.
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The demise of social cohesion is what threatens us most, and the Coalition has thrived on it
Internal bickering between ingrained, imported, or cultivated groups can have the most ruinous consequences for a nation’s social cohesion, particularly those of a multicultural mix like Australia. With its extensive mix of ethnicities, Australia is a prosperous multicultural country that has maintained peace and social cohesion. We have prospered with this influx of folk from…
The post The demise of social cohesion is what threatens us most, and the Coalition has thrived on it appeared first on The AIM Network.
Newham independent Naqvi trounces Labour in by-election
Labour loses yet another council seat in London borough party fears is becoming ‘another Tower Hamlets’ – and party didn’t even bother to turn up at polling stations
Newham Independents candidate Sophia Naqvi has trounced Labour to win the Plaistow North by-election, giving the Independents their third councillor in the East End borough.
Naqvi won 1286 votes to Labour’s 750 after a clean and well-supported campaign by the independents that saw Labour barely able to muster canvassers for party-imposed candidate Aktharul Alam. Locals have told Skwawkbox that there were no party representatives in sight in at least two polling stations, suggesting Labour knew what was coming from the reactions it received on the doorstep.
Newham has seen a string of resignations of senior party officers over Keir Starmer’s assault on democracy – and this week saw Cllr Zuber Gulamussen and several party officers resign over Starmer’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. With Independent Group leader Mehmood Mirza already having hammered another imposed Labour candidate in May, Labour figures fear that Newham will become ‘another Tower Hamlets’ – the London borough that the party lost catastrophically to the Aspire group run by Lutfur Rahman, the former – and again current – mayor ousted after a racist smear campaign by the Labour right.
Based on tonight’s result, those fears appear to be coming true. Congratulations Sophia Naqvi and the Newham Independents.
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MEDIA RELEASE: Productivity Commission report highlights need for reform in Australia’s early childhood system
MEDIA RELEASE: Productivity Commission report highlights need for reform in Australia’s early childhood system
- Report finds families facing difficulty accessing early childhood services due to availability and cost
- CPD welcomes many of the recommendations and highlights them as an important first step toward building a truly universal early childhood system
- Final recommendations should be bold, ambitious to deliver on the government’s commitments
Friday 24 November 2023 – Today’s draft report from the Productivity Commission’s Inquiry into Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) adds to a growing evidence base that shows improving accessibility, affordability, quality and equity should be a top priority for government in reforming Australia’s early childhood system.
The report found that many families are facing difficulty accessing services due to lack of available spaces, high out-of-pocket costs and a lack of flexibility and inclusivity.
Included in its recommendations was for the Commonwealth Government to lead a coordinated effort to provide every child access to three days or 30 hours a week of high-quality ECEC, relaxing the activity test and increasing the Child Care Subsidy (CCS) rate to 100% for lower income families.
It also highlighted the need to address workforce issues by improving pay and conditions, as well as provide funding to address areas facing supply issues, particularly rural and remote communities.
The Centre for Policy Development (CPD) welcomed many of the recommendations, particularly those which were echoed in their submission to the Inquiry, and originally proposed as part of the Guarantee for children and families as outlined in 2021’s ‘Starting Better’ report.
Co-Chair of CPD’s Early Childhood Development Council Professor Leslie Loble AM said the draft report validates much of what experts in Australia and around the world have found.
“The evidence shows that children who get time with their parents early in life, support for their families through community services like health and childcare, and early education before they start school will go on to thrive throughout their lives.”
“But unfortunately this is not the experience many families have.”
“We encourage the Productivity Commission to be ambitious in its final recommendations to deliver on the government’s commitments to build a truly universal, high quality system Australian families
and children can rely on.”
Director of CPD’s Early Childhood Initiative Katherine Oborne said more will need to be done to build a better early childhood system in Australia.
“Creating this system will require more than increasing the child care subsidy, relaxing the activity test, and addressing market failure.”
“From a legislated entitlement, to new funding arrangements and rethinking where roles and responsibilities sit among the Commonwealth and States and Territories, the Productivity Commission should seize the opportunity to map out the kind of changes we need to build the system Australian children and families need and deserve.”
“Reforms need to be approached holistically – addressing all of these areas of the system in a coherent and coordinated way. All the reforms need to support each other and they can’t be done piecemeal if we want the system to work.”
“It’s not something that can happen overnight, but getting it right will mean we make Australia the best place to be a child and raise a family.”
-ENDS-
The post MEDIA RELEASE: <strong>Productivity Commission report highlights need for reform in Australia’s early childhood system</strong> appeared first on Centre for Policy Development.
New wave of Black Friday “Make Amazon Pay” strikes and protests in 30+ countries
Global Amazon workers take action on one of online retailer’s busiest days of the year
Tomorrow on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year – then on through the weekend and onto Monday, Amazon workers will stage strikes and protests in over thirty countries around the world, in a massive day of action coordinated by the Make Amazon Pay campaign.
Christy Hoffman, General Secretary of UNI Global Union, said of the wave of action:
This day of action grows every year because the movement to hold Amazon accountable keeps getting bigger and stronger. Workers know that it doesn’t matter what country you’re in or what your job title is, we are all united in the fight for higher wages, an end to unreasonable quotas, and a voice on the job. That’s what workers in Coventry are striking for, and that is why workers around the world are standing up to Make Amazon Pay.
The global day of action is taking place for the four Black Friday in a row. In previous years, thousands of workers went on strike at facilities throughout Germany, France, Spain, the UK and Italy; garment workers’ took to the streets in Bangladesh; US workers organised walkouts; civil society allies held demonstrations projecting the Make Amazon Pay logo at Amazon headquarters all over the world and projecting “pandemic profiteer” onto Jeff Bezos’s mansion; and climate activists blockaded Amazon warehouses in three European countries.
Co-convened by UNI Global Union and Progressive International, Make Amazon Pay brings together over 80 unions, civil society organisations, environmentalist groups and tax watchdogs including Greenpeace, 350.org, Tax Justice Network and Amazon Workers International. The groups have united behind a set of common demands that Amazon pays its workers fairly, respects their right to join unions, pays its fair share of taxes and commits to real environmental sustainability.
Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla, co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International, said
From the warehouses in Coventry to the factories of Dhaka, this Global Day of Action is more than a protest. It is a worldwide declaration that this age of abuse must end. Amazon’s globe-spanning empire, which exploits workers, our communities and our planet, now faces a growing globe-spanning movement to Make Amazon Pay.
The day of action will include:
- Warehouse worker and driver strikes in the UK, Italy, US, Spain and Germany
- Climate activists in at least seven countries – Japan, Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Italy, United Kingdom and Canada – protesting at Amazon Web Services (AWS) facilities to call out Amazon’s ‘greenwashing’, its data centres’ growing climate impact and electricity consumption, and AWS’s contracts with fossil fuels companies
- Thousands of workers rallying to protest in more than ten Indian cities
- Bangladeshi Garment workers take mass action in Dhaka to demand a minimum wage of $209 per month, an end to police harassment, which has seen trade unionists killed, and demand that Amazon signs up to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety
These actions reflect the widespread criticism of Amazon’s corporate practices. According to a comprehensive 2023 UNI Global Union survey, Amazon’s intense performance monitoring has inflicted stress, pressure, anxiety, and a sense of mistrust among its employees across eight key countries. The survey reveals alarming statistics: 51% of employees report adverse health effects; 57% cite deteriorating mental health due to Amazon’s intrusive monitoring. This has led to increasing scrutiny from lawmakers and the public, with US Senator Bernie Sanders investigating the company’s “abysmal safety record.”
A new report by the U.S.-based National Employment Law Project (NELP), Amazon’s warehouse workers receive significantly lower wages compared to other workers in the sector and considerably less than average earnings in their corresponding U.S. counties.
In a landmark move, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and 17 state attorneys general have launched a lawsuit against tech and retail giant Amazon.com, Inc., accusing it of maintaining a monopolistic grip on the market through a series of anti-competitive practices.
Stuart Appelbaum, President of RWDSU, said:
This global action underscores the urgent need for Amazon to address its egregious labour practices and engage in fair bargaining with its workers. Our collective actions are gaining momentum, challenging Amazon’s unfair practices and advocating for workers’ rights and a sustainable future for all. Together, we can Make Amazon Pay.
Nazma Akhter, President of the Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation and Progressive International council member, added:
In Bangladesh, garment workers make the clothes that Amazon sells and profits from. But Amazon doesn’t even recognize us as its workers nor sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety to keep our factories safe. That precarity leaves us open to even more abuse: dangerous working conditions, a minimum wage below the $209 per month we are demanding, and trade unionists attacked and killed by police. We make Amazon’s profits and together with our brothers and sisters around the world, we will Make Amazon Pay.
Irish Senator Lynn Boylan:
Amazon is failing our planet. At its current rate, Amazon won’t reach its stated 2040 net zero target until 2378. In my country, Ireland, Amazon’s hunger for relentless expansion will contribute to us exceeding our carbon budget with plans for three new data centres, whose insatiable demand for electricity drives up demand for gas. The unbridled expansion of data centres has raised alarms, with EirGrid warning of grid instability and the risk of rolling blackouts. Across the world, Amazon Web Services is deeply involved in different phases of oil production, focusing on pipelines, shipping, and storage for oil and gas companies. It’s time to Make Amazon Pay for its environmental damage.
Teamsters member Jessie Moreno at the Manchester summit
Jessie Moreno, Amazon Teamsters member from Local 396 in California:
Amazon workers are taking action around the globe to fight for the good jobs we deserve. In the U.S., my Teamster siblings and I are on strike against Amazon’s unfair labor practices. We have taken our picket line across the country and now we’re joining our colleagues from around the world to demand respect, fair wages, and a workplace where our health and safety are a priority. Amazon is no match for the power of its workers united.
Moreno’s union has been on strike against Amazon for more than 150 days. Watch his interview with Skwawkbox at last month’s Make Amazon Pay summit in Manchester here.
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Video: former US Israel adviser arrested after disgusting Islamophobic hate-speech tirades
Stuart Seldowitz’s foul and shameless verbal assaults on street food vendor finally have consequences. He now offers to apologise
Pro-Israel former US government adviser Stuart Seldowitz has been arrested after a shameless and disgusting series of tirades against a Muslim street food vendor.
Seldowitz was filmed – and knew he was being filmed – smiling as he asked the man whether he had raped his daughter, threatened to send details of his family to the Egyptian secret police so they could pull out his father’s fingernails and, appallingly, said that four thousand Palestinian children slaughtered in Gaza wasn’t ‘enough’.
And he went back repeatedly to do it, as videos of him in different outfits show:
Seldowitz was Deputy Director in the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs from 1999 to 2003. It’s not hard to imagine whose side he was on during his ‘service’ – and his lack of hesitation as he was filmed suggests he thought he was above consequences for his racism and actions.
However, while New York Police reportedly originally said they could take no action because he was exercising his freedom of speech, Seldowitz has now been arrested for aggravated racial harassment and four counts of stalking – and in an embarrassing climbdown that his actions suggest has everything to do with avoiding prosecution, has offered to apologise to the man he abused:
Seldowitz’s arrogance is all too typical of the attitude of supporters of Israeli violence and apartheid, who treat scrutiny as antisemitic and even as ‘holocaust denial’.
Israel has slaughtered more than 15,000 civilians, around half of them children, and has bombed schools, hospitals and the homes of doctors and journalists in its campaign to empty Gaza for its own purposes, committing widespread war crimes. Its pretext – that it is ‘defending itself’ after supposed atrocities by Hamas, is falling apart daily as its ‘evidence’ for Hamas’s presence in hospitals is rightly mocked and its admissions continue, unreported by the so-called ‘mainstream’ media in this country, that Israeli forces killed hundreds of their own people on 7 October.
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