menu

TUC march for new deal for working people on May 12

Calls for members of GMB Union to mobilise for the TUC march and rally for A new deal for working people in London on May 12.

GMB are supporting the TUC’s national march and rally for ‘a new deal for working people’ as part of its TUC Great Jobs Agenda campaign.

TUC created the Great Jobs Agenda to give the trade union movement a common set of bargaining asks in workplaces.

These include; to be paid fairly, work in a safe and healthy environment, to be treated decently, have regular hours, get a voice on what matters at work, and have the chance to get on in life.

GMB Southern says: “It’s time the government stopped supporting fat cat employers and the gig economy against the best interests of hard-working GMB members in health, education and other sectors.”

GMB Southern are encouraging all their members to attend the march and rally.

Assemble at Embankment between Hungerford Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge on Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 11 am, moving onto Hyde Park at 12noon – 4pm. Speakers will include TUC General Secretary, Frances O’Grady.

Paul Maloney
Paul Maloney

Paul Maloney, GMB Regional Secretary, said: “GMB Southern region will play a major role in this TUC event. Since 2007 our members in the public sector saw their standards of living fall by over 10%.

“There has been a massive increase in zero hour contracts and precarious employment.

“With the cost of living surpassing earnings, our members in the whole economy are getting deeper in debt while working longer unpaid hours.

“Pension provision is virtually non-existent as is sick pay. It’s time the government stopped supporting fat cat employers and the gig economy against the best interests of hard-working GMB members in health, education and other sectors.”

Outright Action International calls for people NOT to boycott Bermuda

Last week, Bermuda became first in the world to legalize and then revoke same-sex marriage legislation.

Same-sex couples no longer have equal rights to marry and are only able to access a civil union – a step backwards for equality.

However in response to the decision many people think the campaign that is unfolding, a call to #BoycottBermuda is misguided.

The online campaign appears to be spearheaded mainly by people in the USA and Europe, who believe that a tourism boycott will show the Bermudian government that repealing same-sex marriage was a mistake.

The demand for the boycott is not coming from grass-roots organisations in Bermuda. In fact, LGBT+ Bermudians are coming out against the boycott.

Jessica Stern
Jessica Stern

Jessica Stern, Executive Director OutRight Action International, said: “This campaign stands to hurt rather than help the LGBT+ community in Bermuda. This boycott, in line with almost all boycotts that do not start locally, is uninformed and ill-advised. It could increase discrimination against local LGBT+ people, who may very well be used as scapegoats for any negative impact on tourism and the economy. Not to mention the consequences for LGBT+ people who themselves work in the tourism industry.

“People, and the media, in the US and Europe ought not to push their own agendas and instead listen to the priority of LGBT+ groups on the ground.

“This simple but important rule is central to the way that OutRight functions and engages in enabling social justice. We consult, listen to, and are guided by local leaders who are best placed to inform strategy and programs to bring about change.

“Without listening to voices from the ground we all stand to do more harm than good. I ask that you #DontBoycottBermuda and instead learn how to empower local organisations and the movement there.”

REVIEW: TWINKLE @ Phil Starr Pavilion

Harold Thropp is a very tired very angry panto dame. Arriving at a down at heel Northern town – probably Sunderland – he discovers that Widow Twankey has been reduced to a tiny cupboard of a dressing room in what he describes as the “cellar “.

In this staggering feat of memory Jason Sutton aka Miss Jason, rants, raves, reminisces, laughs and cries at his past life and current predicament. Appropriately the one-man show forms part of the B RIGHT ON season of LGBT events.

In a rapid fire monologue Harold recounts the early days of his gay youth – encounters in public toilets, police entrapment and brutality and the cruelty of becoming homeless and destitute when his partner dies intestate.

It’s a timely reminder of how far gay rights have come but also how far there is still to go. Deftly directed by Allan Cardew, Philip Meeks dense dialogue doers falter once or twice but Jason’s immaculate timing and delivery of many, many hilarious one-liners more than makes up.

He doesn’t make life easy for himself because he is constantly on the go in the tiny acting space, undressing, dressing and applying his dame’s makeup. I wished he could have faced us or at least half faced us to do the make up scene as his back sometimes obscured his witticisms.

That said, its is a highly nuanced performance – not just a tirade of bitter bitchiness but genuinely heart-rending when he talks of his mother, and of his lifelong partner Eric whose death he has clearly not come to terms with.

It’s a very rich canvas we cover in 90 minutes – the history of gay rights, the technicalities of panto and theatre in general and the domestic pain often hidden by the pro performer in his search for love and happiness onstage and off.

Jason should continue to revisit this stunning piece of acting and it would be a good vehicle for film or tv if anyone was brave enough to produce it.

Five star entertainment!

 

PREVIEW: Star of ITV’s Transformation Street takes to the stage in ‘Dead and Breathing’

Actress Kim Tatum aka Mzz Kimberley stars in Dead and Breathing by Chisa Hutchinson, at The Albany in London, from February 19 – March 3, 2018.

Transformation Street is a three part ITV documentary following the staff and patients in a London gender clinic. The show follows gender reassignment specialist Dr Christopher Inglefield, and follows the fascinating and heart-warming stories of people transitioning their gender.

Written by Chisa Hutchinson and directed Rebecca Atkinson-Lord Dead and Breathing is a dark comedy of ethics and mortality that positions the right to die against the right to live your own life. Through constantly surprising humour and persistent questioning, Dead and Breathing investigates morality, mortality, and the intense tug-of-war between the right to die with dignity and the idea of life as a gift.

Spiteful old Carolyn Whitlock wants to die already. She’s been sick with cancer for almost as long as she can remember and the pain has made her so mean that there’s no one left who loves her.

Carolyn just wants to give up, but in order to do so, she’s going to have to work harder than she ever has in her privileged life to convince her very Christian nurse Veronika to help her. But Veronika isn’t all she seems, and so before Carolyn can die in peace, they’ll both need to let go of everything they believe about what is right.

Can this well-to-do widow, slowly succumbing to cancer manage to convince, her home nurse, to help her end her life?

It wouldn’t be easy at the best of times, but it becomes almost impossible when Carolyn finds a final hurdle she must overcome. Spoiled, privileged, sheltered and judgemental she is repulsed by transsexuals and Veronika happens to be one. If Carolyn wants her own way, she will not only have to convince Veronika to do something that goes against her every belief; she will also need to choose what she denounces with revulsion as “death by tranny.”


Event: Dead and Breathing

Where: The Albany, Douglas Way, London SE8 4AG

When: February 20 – March 3

Time: 7.30pm

Cost: £14 (£10 concessions)

To book tickets online, click here:

Or call the box office: 020 8692 4446

Open your garden this summer for Macmillan Cancer Support

Organisers of the Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail are seeking more gardens to be added to their 2018 garden trail.

All money raised will be donated to Macmillan Cancer Support and the Horizon Centre, a partnership between the Sussex Cancer Fund, Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust and Macmillan Cancer Support.

The generous people of Sussex raised £3.7m to help fund the building of the Macmillan Horizon Centre, but more is still needed. Running costs of the centre are covered by Macmillan Cancer Support, with services provided by a team of skilled local volunteers.

Macmillan is funded solely by donations and the running costs of the centre are over £650,000 per annum. All monies raised from this garden trail will support Macmillan in its operation of the centre.

Once again this year, broadcaster and gardener Christine Walkden is Patron of the trail which takes place over the weekend of July 28-29.

Entry to each garden is £2 or £6 for a daily ticket.

For more information call Geoff on 01323 899 296.

For more information about the Macmillan Coastal Garden Trail, click here:

X