[OccupySheffield] [Occupy London] voice of the voiceless 21st jan sheffield uk - unemployed / other diverse workers union ?

Thu Dec 29 20:38:06 GMT 2011

Hi Del,

Great!  And thanks!

Would you be up for speaking about both homelessness and mental health?  I’m sure one perpetuates the other as a lot of us have obviously experienced more than one marginalising/alienating factor...

I certainly have and, we could make sure you have more time to speak if you want to shed light on these two taboos.

Thanks again and, if I don’t run into you at the camp in the next few days, say at the planning mtng taking place tomorrow, try e-mailing direct or I’ll try to get my details to you.

Solidarity,

Dawn 

From: Del Pickup [mailto:deldread at gmail.com] 
Sent: 29 December 2011 18:14
To: barriers2bridges at virginmedia.com
Cc: Mark Barrett; occupysheffield at email-lists.org; jamie kelsey-fry
Subject: Re: [OccupySheffield] [Occupy London] voice of the voiceless 21st jan sheffield uk - unemployed / other diverse workers union ?

Hi Dawn and everyone,

If you are still looking for someone to speak on behalf of those with mental health problems I'm willing to put myself forward. I too have tired of the petty point-scoring amongst the traditional; left groups, the prevarications on behalf of unions and tyhose affiliated to them, and I'm a veteran of the anti poll-tax campaigns against the last Tory government.

I have suffered with mental health issues, homelessness & unemployment at various stages of my life, and I'm willing to share my experiences past & present.

I have attended a couple of assemblies at the camp but have been unable to commit more up until now due to other commitments and health issues, but I'm very keen to get involved, especially in the newly liberated building.

Cheers,

Del

On 29 December 2011 14:13, <barriers2bridges at virginmedia.com> wrote:

Yes!

From: Mark Barrett [mailto:marknbarrett at googlemail.com] 
Sent: 29 December 2011 10:26
To: barriers2bridges at virginmedia.com; occupysheffield at email-lists.org
Cc: jamie kelsey-fry
Subject: Re: [Occupy London] voice of the voiceless 21st jan sheffield uk - unemployed / other diverse workers union ?

Dear Dawn and Everyone

Please see Jamie's email below. Jamie are you on the Sheffield email list (cc/d) ? If not you should be on it you diamond :)

Cheers!

Mark

On 29 December 2011 10:18, jamie kelsey-fry <lsxcamp at gmail.com> wrote:

Hey all 

Is this rally part of the national occupy conference that's starting on the same day in Sheffield? 

J

On Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 8:27 AM, Mark Barrett <marknbarrett at googlemail.com> wrote:

Rally of the 99%

21st January Sheffield

.. please see message below from Dawn

Mark 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <barriers2bridges at virginmedia.com>
Date: 28 December 2011 19:45
Subject: RE: [OccupySheffield] I think this warrants serious consideration

Hi Mark,
Could you pls send to the list - this keeps happening, where I think I'm
replying to your/other's thread on the list, but a visually impaired
computer user, and don't always know which address is where etc.

Hope to meet you if you make it up here for the occupy gathering and the
rally.

Dawn

-----Original Message-----
From: marknbarrett at googlemail.com [mailto:marknbarrett at googlemail.com]

Sent: 28 December 2011 18:12
To: barriers2bridges at virginmedia.com; Anna Harris
Subject: Re: [OccupySheffield] I think this warrants serious consideration

Hi Dawn -- thanks for this, sounds great but, like your earlier message you
only sent it to me, maybe you should be writing to the wider community on
this? I've cc'd Anna Harris as she's expressed a strong interest in the idea
also, to maybe chat some more here  but I do think you should also mail the
whole Sheffield list which I understand is a national one  ( I am based in
London btw). Very keen to help with this further, just not sure how best to
yet! Grr about losing your post, that's such an annoying experience. Mark
Sent from phone

-----Original Message-----
From: <barriers2bridges at virginmedia.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:04:21
To: 'Mark Barrett'<marknbarrett at googlemail.com>
Subject: RE: [OccupySheffield] I think this warrants serious consideration

Hi,
I hit something the other night in the middle of my thread re an
unemployed/diverse workers group and the rest went out the window.

Basically, it has been suggested 'several times' during the course of me
attending SACA meetings (Sheffield Anti-Cuts Alliance) which on the whole I
don't tend to do anymore; the upshot was, from the "hardest hit" demo last
may, was the DPU, instead of a more sensibly driven combined effort between
both those of us who are unemployed and/or have additional needs.
Unfortunately too, SACA is an agenda-driven umbrella grouping, with a lot of
left-wing sectarian tug-of-warring, with an executive, who's members are too
tied to union affiliation (in my humble opinion).

Whatta shame, because Sheffield, with its long industrial history, has
become disempowered if your long term unemployed.

And, that is just what 'the Rally of the 99%: the Voice of the Voiceless
will be promoting on 21 January.
It will now be in conjunction with the occupy conference here in Sheffield,
but I have been organising it for a month now and almost have all the
speakers we need to represent the unrepresented i.e. those without union...!
I have, a speaker from Occupy Sheffield, a well-known representative of
Chesterfield Unemployed workers, myself (to speak on behalf of 'people' with
additional needs) A visually impaired entrepreneur (to further promote a
more 'can do' aspect of having additional needs/challenges) a speaker from
SACA and a speaker to promote a socialist alternative to the current Cystem!
I still need some one to speak on behalf of people with mental health
conditions, homelessness, an ethnic minority group and maybe a tenancy
association, that will all be in the bag along with the comference hoasted
here in Sheffield.

Occupy is the perfect nonhierarchical organised community to set up an
unemployed/diverse workers union (or whatever we decide to call it), but as
I say, I'm personally not involved in the DPU, because having additional
needs equates to more than just being on benefits; some people still have
jobs whatever their additional needs and, despite the bringing in of the DDA
('dis-ability Discrimination Act) there is still precious little advocating
for an equal playing field among paid employment (and in my experience) even
volunteer work is discriminatory - a SLAP-IN-THE-FACE when you are offering
skills free of charge, rather than assuming a "needy" position in the
pecking order.

End of rant, but I hope people will think on these points and come to the
rally on the 21st - I'm hoping to have it at town hall in Sheffield (as not
to just preach to the converted, within the space of the occupy camp) and
haven't done the flyers yet.

In solidarity to you all and lets step up the resistance against a nasty
ailing capitalist Cystem!

Dawn

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Barrett [mailto:marknbarrett at googlemail.com]
Sent: 27 December 2011 08:39
To: barriers2bridges at virginmedia.com
Subject: Re: [OccupySheffield] I think this warrants serious consideration

Thanks for the thanks  and yes, you're right, exactly! Do promote this
idea further on the list, would  be great if it could be featured at
the next national occupy gathering. i will post about it again now..

On 25 December 2011 01:58,  <barriers2bridges at virginmedia.com> wrote:
> Thanks for this uplifting contribution!  Yes, a lot of us who are long
term
> unemployed, the fact that some of us have additional needs/challenges
should
> be beside the point...
> The thing that puts me personally right off, is groups such as the DPU
focus
> almost solly on the fact that: 'dis-abled people are having their benefits
> cuts, rather than, portraying us as able
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: marknbarrett at googlemail.com [mailto:marknbarrett at googlemail.com]
> Sent: 24 December 2011 19:26
> To: Mike Evison; Occupy Sheffield Mailing; occupylondon
> Subject: Re: [OccupySheffield] I think this warrants serious consideration
>
> Hey Rick B and Mike - I agree 100% with this. It's exactly what Occupy UK
> should be focusing on imo. The right to decent, liberating and well paid
> work for everyone goes to the very heart of what will one day make a
great,
> productive and enlightened society. I know there was an unemployed workers
> union of some kind (possibly of SWP origin) coming out of Salford and
> Manchester a while back but what's needed now is something high profile,
> ambitious and r'evolutionary -  just the kind of thing Occupy should be
> generating on a national level. Personally I would happily flier at my
local
> job centre and do other local activities on this front. Also the universal
> benefit initiative of IDS will need a collective response. Mark B  PS I
> wrote a short piece on the future of work ( in a real democracy ) earlier
> this year, here:
> http://righttowork.org.uk/2011/07/real-democracy-and-the-future-of-work/
> which people may or may not agree with!   ;-)
> Sent from phone
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Evison <sunset74 at btinternet.com>
> Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2011 18:35:49
> To: Occupy Sheffield Mailing<occupysheffield at email-lists.org>
> Subject: [OccupySheffield] I think this warrants serious consideration
>Mike Evison sunset74 at btinternet.com 
24 Dec (5 days ago)
to Occupy 

The following email from Rick B needs serious consideration because at present the unemployed and the disabled have no official representation and have become the whipping boys for the Con-Dem government who are the 1% representatives. 

They are all in vulnerable situations and have no way of defending their rights, what ever they may be at this present time. If they are left to wither and die through ignorance from those who are still fortunate, then another group will be chosen to be picked off and so the process will go on until we have no rights in this country.

Mike 

Rick B email:
Hi camp,
I'm fed up with being unemployed and disabled and being pushed and pulled by rich politicians. I'm trying to make contact with someone from the Unemployed Workers Union, do you have any contacts? If there are no Sheffield branches, it is something I am considering setting up. Would there be support for such a union within your camp?
It strikes me that the unemployed and disabled are getting trampled on more than any other group in society due to not having adequate representation. The mainstream unions are pretty much looking after their members and not representing the interests of the less well off. The mainstream political parties are all 'in it together' with the bankers and multi-nationals. Maybe 3 million angry unemployed and disabled people in union and on a mission will send them a message hard to forget.
Thanks, happy Xmas
Rick

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