21 Knowl View Suspects say Police

POLICE in Greater Manchester probing the child abuse allegations dating from the 1979 at Knowl View School up Bamford in Rochdale now claim to have 21 'suspects'.  Seven of the schools former pupils at the Bamford institution additionally say that they were abused by the former Rochdale MP, Sir Cyril Smith. 

Two of the complainants are now in secure psychiatric institutions.  Another three have yet to be interviewed by the police.  The reports include the allegations that Smith forced them to perform sexual acts.  The police investigation is looking into the claims of ten alleged victims.

In all there are 21 suspects according to the news reports; of which 14 have been identified by the police.  The seven others are known only by their first names or nicknames by their alleged victims. 

Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson has said that the investion was 'profoundly complex'.  The local Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, who with the help of others was able to bring this matter into the public domain has said:  'When I first outed Cyril Smith I was condemned by some.  Now the police are on the verge of arresting alleged abusers I know I was right to expose what was going on at places like Knowl View.  Pweople have kept quiet for too long too and it's good to see the police are acting to take alleged abusers off the streets.'

There is still no mention as to when the arrests are likely to take place.  Meanwhile, Rochdale MBC two weeks ago launched its own enquiry with a wider remit to include a period dating from the Cambridge House scandal in the 1960s:  this case was well documented by the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in 1979, at a time when no one else in the main stream media, accept Private Eye, was willing to cover the story.  Smith, of course, was still alive then and was in a position to sue newspapers that took up the story.  Today, it seems, there is open season on Cyril Smith by both politicians and journalists.

Jim Dobbin gives backing to Council Enquiry

LABOUR MP Jim Dobbin has given his support to the joint enquiry of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) and Rochdale Council into the claims of a cover up over Cyril Smith's links at the former Knowl View Children's Home in the 1980s an 1990s.  This comes amid recent suggestions by another local Labour MP that the Rochdale Council will be investigating itself.

A letter in tomorrow's Rochdale Observer from Les May entitled 'CYRIL BOOK BEEFED UP', and suggesting that the authors of the Simon Danczuk book 'effectively draw on only three sources' and 'conflate two issues which really need to be kept separate':  these are 'the contents of the reports sent to council officials regarding sexual activity between boys and youths at Knowl View School, who received the reports and what action they took...' and so on; and the 'second quite separate issue [as to] whether there is any evidence that Cyril Smith engaged in sexual activity with a pupil at Knowl View or any other school'.

This suggestion that Simon Danczuk and his colleague Matthew Baker, have carelessly extrapolated on of the solid evidence produced  in the publication Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in their research of the inappropriate behaviour of Cyril Smith at Cambridge House Hostel for lads and published in May 1979, to go onto build a bigger story that has yet to substantiated by the facts is quite serious.  There is expected to be a parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee enquiry next month, and already some reviewers in the media have suggested that the book 'Smile for the Camera:  The Double Life of Cyril Smith' by Simon Danczuk and Matthew Baker is a rush job, poorly researched using few identifiable sources, badly written and uneven.

None of this is helped by the fact that there appears to be a struggle within the Rochdale Labour Party for dominance between different factions.  This seems to have been the case for some time.  What is important here is to establish the facts and to separate what is known from gossip and speculation, and to avoid the serious issues of child abuse becoming a political football in a smelly little faction fight within the Labour Party.

'An Important Story, Poorly Written' on Amazon

By

J. Goddard "Jim Goddard" (Shipley) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Smile For The Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith (Hardcover)

It is important to say, first-off, that the authors have performed a major service in investigating and publishing the activities of Cyril Smith. It is a story that needed to be told. As someone who lived in children's homes in the 1960s and 1970s, I always welcome exposure of the exploitation and abuse that often went on in such environments. 

That said, like another reviewer (see 'Amazon:  A Lightweight Potboiler' post below by Rufus on 2nd May), I was disappointed by the poor quality of the book itself. The account of Smith's doings rings true, partly because of the weight and credibility of the various sources used, and I think the independent evidence is convincing, However, the writing is often slipshod, the narrative repetitive and the methodology careless. A major piece of investigative journalism requires more rigour than this. Even the frequent use of artistic licence (to take just one example, no one remembers verbatim conversations decades later) is never justified or explained. One gets the impression of this being written in a rush.

These qualifications are important. However, I don't want to detract from warmly welcoming the book. I'm grateful for it and will be encouraging others to read it. I still want to commend the authors for that they have done.

'The Last Strike' at Working Class Library

DAVID Douglass is now one of the veterans of the Miner's Strike of 1984-5, and last night he gave a workman-like introduction and summation to a film of that watershed dispute at the Salford Working-Class Movement Library.  David has written extensively on that conflict not least in his 3-volume autobiography.   Last night's film 'The Last Strike' was a French production based on events and personalities at Bold Colliery in Lancashire during the strike.   

The participants and some of their wives were interviewed in their homes, at the pit and at the social club; Denis Pennington one of the leaders in Lancashire was sent to prison for 3 months during the dispute and lost his job with the Coal Board.  The film's narrative followed the events of the dispute from the Ridley Report, that some think formed the Thatcher government's plan to provoke the conflict, to the unconditional return to the work by the miners in 1985.  A total defeat that had lasting consequences for the British labour movement.  After six months 75% of the British miners were out on strike.  Yet in the end in 1985, one of the wives in the social club was joking that:  'America has Regan, Bob Hope, Johnny Cash, and Stevie Wonder, but here we've got Thatcher, No Hope, No Cash and no bloody Wonder!'   And all the Lancashire lassies cracked-off laughing with that dark self-depreciating humour people in Lancashire have.

The questions came:  ought there to have been a national strike ballot?  Why did the Ridley Report identify the miners as one of the best targets to provoke to go on strike?  Did the TUC and the rest of the trade union movement let the miners down by failing to support them with solidarity action?   

David Douglass said that the National Union of Miners (NUM) is not a national union; it's a confederation and the regions have more power than in other unions.  The strike itself began as a rolling strike in certain areas, and the National Executive never called the miners out, and couldn't instruct a return to work.  In the end it was a de-facto national strike with the decision coming from the areas.   

The event was well attended, well received and is part one a bigger ongoing event at the Working-Class Movement Library over the next couple of days. 

Blacklisting in Manchester, Tameside & Rochdale

ROCHDALE MBC has said in the past that it does not believe in awarding public contracts to companies that operate blacklists.  Manchester's City Council, also a Labour Council, has said much the same, and facing the threat of a national protest by trade unionists last November Manchester City Council passed the following resolution:
Re: Resolution on Blacklisting -Passed by Manchester City Council 9 October 2013:
'Manchester City Council is deeply concerned by revelations that major companies have been involved in “blacklisting” in order to deny employment to workers who
have engaged in trade union activity, such as reporting breaches of health and safety regulations.

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) found that a blacklist of construction workers was maintained by an organisation called The Consulting Association who
traded for profit the personal information of over 3200 workers. This blacklist was used by over 40 companies and included information about workers’ personal
relationships, trade union activity and employment history.

The use of such blacklists is unacceptable and cannot be condoned, as it has a potentially negative impact on the employment rights of Manchester construction
workers.

This Council has constructive relationships with trade unions and upholds the right to freedom of association, and we expect all suppliers and partner organisations to do the same. Council calls on the Chief Executive to examine existing contracts with any of the companies listed by the ICO and ask for reassurances that the company uses no form of blacklisting to inform their employment decisions.'

The companies approached were Kier, Laing O'Rourke, Morgan Sindall, Wates, Lend Lease, Bramhall (Keepmoat), Cruden, Eric Wright, FMP, GB, Herbert T Forrest, ISG, Mansell, Seddon, Willmott Dixon, Askam, Conlon, Garside Laycock, Harry Fairclough, Lambert Gill, Manchester and Cheshire Construction, Morrison, Stobbarts, Strategic Team, Walter Carefoot & Sons.


Northern Voices' editorial comment: 
All of these companies have naturally denied their involement in operating a blacklist, and Manchester City Council seems to be accepting their assurance, despite the fact that several were found to be paid-up affiliates of the Consulting Association, and were found to be party to the illegal data base run by Ian Kerr when the office of Mr. Kerr was raided in 2009 by the Information Commissioner:  Kier, Laing O'Rourke and Carillion are all companies that were clearly part of Ian Kerr's Consulting Association.


But it is not just Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester City Council, who is close to Carillion and other companies that blacklist workers, Kieran Quinn the Labour leader of Tameside MBC has been busy awarding contracts to one of Britain's leading firms that has been blacklisting building workers.  Some time ago Adrian Mole, Carillion’s regional director, commented: 
 'We have a long-standing relationship with Tameside, where we have ongoing business interests.  For that reason we fully recognise the importance of a thriving local economy.  We are committed to working with all our partners and suppliers to do our best for the Tameside area.  One of the ways we can do this is through the Pride of Tameside Business Awards.' 
And on April 18th, 2014, the Tameside Independent News & Events site reported:

'Carillion, one of the UK’s largest construction and services companies, leads the list of major firms who are lending their support and sponsorship to the 2014 Pride of Tameside Business Awards.'

It was also noticed by Northern Voices that Rochdale's £11.5m transport interchange has now been completed and opened its doors to the public.  The  new interchange has replaced the outdated bus station in the town centre.  Yet, for more information we are urged to contact Mark Welsby the site manager for Keir Construction.  Kier Construction was another paid-up affiliate to Mr. Kerr's blacklisting Consulting Association, an off-shoot of the old Economic League.  All this regardless of Colin Lambert, Leader of Rochdale Council, last year telling us that Rochdale MBC wanted no truck with companies who blacklist workers and trade unionists.

_____________________________________________________

Letter to the unsuspecting, 

from the good bosses 

who just want Council contracts

The correspondence below is between Manchester City Council, and the response is from the construction companies seeking contracts to the allegation that they are operating a blacklist of trade union activists in the city:

Dear Annette

Further to my email below of 6th November [2013], I can now inform you that the 25 construction companies listed below were sent the following email, and have all now responded to say that they do not engage in such practices :-

Colin,
Re: Resolution on Blacklisting -Passed by Manchester City Council 9 October 2013:

'Manchester City Council is deeply concerned by revelations that major companies have been involved in “blacklisting” in order to deny employment to workers who
have engaged in trade union activity, such as reporting breaches of health and safety regulations.

The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) found that a blacklist of construction workers was maintained by an organisation called The Consulting Association who
traded for profit the personal information of over 3200 workers. This blacklist was used by over 40 companies and included information about workers’ personal

relationships, trade union activity and employment history.

The use of such blacklists is unacceptable and cannot be condoned, as it has a potentially negative impact on the employment rights of Manchester construction
workers.

This Council has constructive relationships with trade unions and upholds the right to freedom of association, and we expect all suppliers and partner organisations to do the same. Council calls on the Chief Executive to examine existing contracts with any of the companies listed by the ICO and ask for reassurances that the company uses no form of blacklisting to inform their employment decisions.'

Could you please confirm that your company uses no form of blacklisting to inform your employment decisions.



The companies approached were Kier, Laing O'Rourke, Morgan Sindall, Wates, Lend Lease, Bramhall (Keepmoat), Cruden, Eric Wright, FMP, GB, Herbert T Forrest, ISG, Mansell, Seddon, Willmott Dixon, Askam, Conlon, Garside Laycock, Harry Fairclough, Lambert Gill, Manchester and Cheshire Construction, Morrison, Stobbarts, Strategic Team, Walter Carefoot & Sons.

You are very welcome to contact me again if you feel that I can be of any further help.

Regards
Nigel

Cllr Nigel Murphy
Labour Member for Hulme Ward
Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration
Tel: 0161 234 3350 (Internal only 800 3350) 

Danczuk's Doppelgänger* Danger in Rochdale!

N.V. editorial comment:  The letter (below)in last Saturday's

Rochdale Observer from Les May warns readers of the danger of

repeating past errors.  Simon Danczuk and Matthew Baker

at their recent book launch have said that the public today

are not so deferential and will not be so easily taken in as

they were when Cyril Smith dominated politics in Rochdale

and beyond.  But as Mr May's letter implies we clearly need

eternal vigilance:

DON'T REPEAT PAST ERRORS

I was pleased to see the original RAP article reprinted in your columns.  Its professional and restrained tones form an interesting contrast to some more recent writings on the same subject.

But the mistakes of the past are about to be repeated as the contribution to the final 'outing' of Cyril Smith made by the Burnley based cultural and political magazine 'Northern Voices' seem to be in danger of being quietly dropped from the record.  RAP co-editor John Walker readily acknowledged its efforts to keep the story alive in the nine-page article 'Cyril Smith's Spanking Memoirs' which was published in the magazine.  This would have been inestimable value to anyone writing about the subject and should be properly credited.

We can do nothing to undo the things that happened to these men in their youth.  But we can ensure that the record of what happened to them and the final unmasking of Cyril Smith is as accurate as we can make it.

To do otherwise is to fall into the trap of once again believing the carefully constructed myth just as happened with 'Big Cyril'**.

Les May,
Cresent Road,
Rochdale.

*  In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger or doppelganger (/ˈdɒpəlˌɡæŋər/; German: [ˈdɔpəlˌɡɛŋɐ] ( listen), look-alike, literally a "double goer") is a double of a living person and sometimes portrayed as a harbinger of bad luck. In some traditions, a doppelgänger seen by a person's relative or friend portends illness or danger while seeing one's own doppelgänger is said to be an omen of death.
In contemporary vernacular, the word doppelgänger is often used in a more general sense to identify any person that physically or perhaps even behaviorally resembles another person. 

**  'Big Cyril' was the title of Cyril Smith's autobiography.

Benefit Justice & Bedroom Tax

ANTI Bedroom tax and benefit cuts campaigners across England and Wales are meeting 7 June in Manchesterto decide our next steps to beat the Bedroom Tax and benefit cuts:

Speakers/sessions:

Scottish Bed Tax Federation, Owen Jones and MP Linda Riordan (who voted against the Welfare cap) invited; DPAC and trade union speakers; plus legal session on how to stop evictions, and on benefit sanctions and workfare.

Make sure you're there, and your group sends people to hear what's happening across Britain and decide what we do next. We need plans to keep politicians under pressure on Bedroom Tax and benefit cuts in the election year.

What you can do now:
* Send suggestions and proposals for the event * let us know who's coming *ask unions and others to help pay for travel *bring photos and reports

Anti Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice national meeting:
7 June 12-5pm Central Hall Oldham St Manchester M1 1JQ. 

Eileen Short

Anti Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Federation (England and Wales)

Green Party & Rochdale's Labour politics

IN one-party states such as we have the equivalent of in a number of our northern towns, it doesn't matter how the vote goes in several of the coming local elections up North, including Rochdale in Greater Manchester.  Philip Gilligan in a letter in the Rochdale Observer (7th, May) writes:  'Given the number of seats that they hold, it seems clear the Labour will retain control of Rochdale MBC [and that] who emerges as leader of the (Rochdale) Labour group on the council will have more immediate impact than the group's number of council seats.'

This is particularly important because former Rochdale MBC leader, Richard Farnell, has been tipped to stand against the current Labour leader of the Rochdale Council Colin Lambert, after the local elections are over later this month.   Mr. Gilligan writes:
'It may also be a particularly pertinent question in wards where the Green Party candidate is one of those expelled by the Labour Party in 2009 after calling for an investigation into the then Prospective Labour Parliamentary Candidate, Simon Danczuk or is one of those who resigned in protest at those expulsions.'

Gilligan then asks:  'I presume that Mr Danczuk also has views about who he would prefer to see as leader of the Labour group.'

This represents something of a challenge to the Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk, at a time when he is about to be probed by the Parliamentary Home Affairs Select Committee to answer questions about his recent book 'Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith', that builds on the original case presented in May 1979 by the editors of the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP).  There is not much love lost between the current leadership of the Rochdale Labour Party and what may be called the Danczuk tendency, which has at times criticised the Rochdale Council over its management of sexual grooming in the town and its investigation into the Knowl View school scandal in the 1980s and 1990s.

The presence of the Green Party in the local elections may cause a bit of an embarassment to the ruling Labour group and Mr Danczuk; more so with a couple of disgruntled and expelled former Labour Party members standing as Green candidates in two wards.   The Greens in Rochdale have been particularly active in the anti-asbestos campaign to Save Spodden Valley to which Danczuk was a Johnny-come-lately, and the departure of the malcontents from the Labour Party in 2009, two of whom are now standing in the forthcoming local elections could add to the pain.  The expulsions of these malcontents in 2009, had something to do with Simon Danczuk, a holiday tiff in August 2008 with his nearest and dearest while on holiday in Alicante, and a letter they wrote at the time to the Rochdale Observer calling for an investigation into the domestic 'tiff', which it was later decided, after an official Labour Party hearing into the malcontent's behaviour, brought the 'Labour Party into disrepute'.

Hate Crime: Mother welcomes film

THE MOTHER of Sophie Lancaster, Sylvia who lives in Haslingden, Lancashire, has welcomed a new film on hate crime stimulated by her daughter Sophie's ghastly murdered in Bacup's Stubbylee Park.  Sophie was killed by a vicious gang alienated because of her Goth clothing, as she heroically defended her boy friend Robert Maltby on the 11^th, August 2007.  The film 'And She Cried' is a fictional adaptation by Leaky Shed Films that is inspired by the events surrounding Sophie's death.   

In the Spring of 2012, Northern Voices' interviewed Sylvia Lancaster some months before a play Black Roses by Simon Armitage about Sophie's murder was staged at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester staring  Julie Hesmondhalgh (CORONATION STREET).  This play was a great success, and this year another radio play 'Porcelain - The Trial For The Killing Of Sophie Lancaster' was performed about the trial of Sophie's teenage killers, two had been jailed for murder, the other three were sent on lesser offences.  

In 2012, Sylvia told us at that time that being a 'Goth' for Sophie 'was not just a fashion to her, I think she was challenging convention.'   She told NV No.13 in the Spring issue of 2012: 

'She  was definitely different!  From an early age she always had empathy with harmless people.  So much so, at times, she would sometimes sleep in a bedding box rather than a bed...  After about the age of three she'd just wear whatever she wanted such as a grey tee-shirt and black sweat pants.'   

Last week, the new film was premiered at the Odeon in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.  The film was put together without a budget and with £100,000's worth of gear provided by major cinematic companies.  A whip-round at the film's showing raised £200 for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. 

Last Saturday's Rochdale Observer reported that at the opening of the film:
'All eyes were on a glamorous group of people at Rochdale’s Odeon cinema when they arrived to be given the red carpet treatment.   They hadn’t gone to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Transcendence or Pompeii, but 150 of them dressed to impress went to watch the world premiere of Rochdale-made And She Cried.  The audience of cast, crew and friends, including the Mayor Councillor Peter Rush, packed into Screen 9 for the special All Across the Arts premiere of the Rochdale-based Leaky Shed Filmsproduction of the movie inspired by the hate-crime killing of Sophie Lancaster.'

Anyone who has followed the story of Sophie Lancaster as we have, and having read the book 'Weirdo, Mosher, Freak: the murder of sophie lancaster' of the background to Sophie's death by the Bacup journalist Catherine Smyth, might welcome all this 'glamorous group' attention, while at the same time wondering about how, given Sophie was a ' "Punk Goth" like... Adam Ant's "New Romantics",' she herself would have taken to this kind of 'glamorous' backdrop. 


_____________________________________________________
NORTHERN VOICES 13 - the printed / physical version of N.V. - deals with some of the issues that the others on the so-called British left won't touch. Starting with an interview with Sylvia Lancaster, mum of the murdered 'Goth Girl' / 'New Romantic' Sophie Lancaster, who was kicked to death up Bacup, in Lancashire, in August 2007.  How do you feel about a new 'Hate Crime' on the statute book? Previously, Northern Voices has given you 'The Gangs of Manchester' dating back to an early 20th Century, but that was about lad's gangs: does the merciless killing of our sublime Sophie represent a step into a darker age?  To be up-to-date and understand the way Northern Voices thinks and is different from other publications you should read the real and physical N.V.



The printed version of NORTHERN VOICES 13, with all sorts of stuff others won't touch and may be obtained as follows:
Postal subscription: £5 for the next two issues (post included)
Cheques payable to 'Northern Voices' at
c/o 52, Todmorden Road,
Burnley, Lancashire BB10 4AH.
Tel.: 0161 793 5122.
email: northernvoices@hotmail.com
_______________________________________________________

National Construction Rank & File Meeting

Dear All,

Please note correction to time. Meeting commences at 12.00 noon, not 11.00am as previously stated. Could you please forward to all your contacts. 

National Construction Rank and File Meeting

Dear Comrades, 

You are invited to attend the next meeting of the National Construction Shop Stewards Committee meeting being held at the

The CASA BAR and VENUE,

29 Hope Street, Liverpool, L1 9BQ

(Opposite the Philharmonic Pub, Hope Street)

12.00 noon to 3.00pm on Saturday 10th May 2014.  

You are also invited to attend the peaceful demonstration outside Laing O’Rourke/Alder Hey Hospital site, East Prescot Road, Knotty Ash, Liverpool, Merseyside, L14 5NG at 8.00am on your way to the meeting. All three Construction trade unions have been invited to send two of their Regional Officials to attend the demonstration. We will remain outside the site until 9.30am and then leave for our main meeting. Please encourage others to come along to both events. 

Yours in unity,

Steve Kelly:  Chairperson,  National Committee.

Voluntary organisations called on to boycott compulsory work placements!

We are publishing below the latest briefing from 'Boycott Workfare'.

"On Monday, David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith launched a new workfare scheme called Compulsory Work Placements – part of a bundle of punitive measures called Help to Work. It ran into a lot of trouble on launch day and hasn’t been doing well since then. You can help by asking even more voluntary organisations to boycott the scheme. 

Over 150 voluntary organisations have signed up to the Keep Volunteering Voluntary campaign to say they won’t take part in any workfare scheme, including Oxfam, Anti-Slavery International, Unison, Unite, and NCIA.  And the government won’t be able to fall back on the public sector: Liverpool City Council say they won’t be taking part.

The pledge was launched on the same day as Help to Work. Already more than twice as many organisations have said they’ll never take part in CWP as the 70 that the government claims are signed up to deliver it.  It’s not clear how those 70 organisations are going to be able to arrange for more than 120,000 people to do 780 hours of unpaid work.  They’d have to accept more than 1,800 placements each.

And it turns out that even the unpaid work the DWP especially suggested unemployed people should do – like cleaning war memorials – won’t work.   No-one in government bothered to check this with the War Memorials Trust. They say that they can’t actually take part in CWP, because each memorial is the responsibility of one of a hundred thousand custodians, who’d have to be asked individually.  And anyway, the work is usually done by ‘specialist contractors or conservators’.

Compulsory Work Placements are one form of further punishment for people who’ve already been through the Work Programme.  The 200,000 people who are expected to have to go through Help to Work will either have to sign on every day at the job centre, or undergo intensive harassment by their advisor intended to frustrate them off benefits (the Mandatory Intervention Regime), or work for 30 hours per week unpaid for six months (Compulsory Work Placements).

The placements have to be at public sector and voluntary organisations: according to DWP regulationspeople can only be directly forced to work for free if what they’re doing is supposed to be for ‘community benefit’.

But by Monday, tens of voluntary organisations had already signed up to the Keep Volunteering Voluntary pledge. Four days later, there are over 150  who’ve signed up.

The government won’t reveal the names of the 70 organisations that are going to delivery the schemes. Probably for the same reason it wouldn’t reveal the names of organisations involved in Mandatory Work Activity: ‘disclosure [of names] would have been likely to have led to the collapse of the MWA scheme’.

All we know is that the primary contractors who will be organising the scheme across the UK are very familiar:  Interserve, Seetec, LearnDirect, Rehab Jobfit, Working Links, Pertemps, and the brutal, fraudulent, and incompetent G4S.  These are the same companies who already run the Work Programme, where you’re five times as likely to be sanctioned as find a job. These are the companies who will arrange the placements with parts of the public sector, and ‘voluntary’ organisations like Groundwork.

We don’t think that any worthwhile voluntary organisation should take part in workfare.  It’s inhuman to force people to work for no money: it doesn’t help people find jobs, and wouldn’t be justified if it did.  It warps what volunteering is. It replaces jobs and erodes pay and working conditions for people who are in work. It’s oppressive, demeaning, and an excuse for sanctions, which force people into poverty, hunger, and homelessness.

Take Action!

The list of organisations who’ve signed up is here.  If you’re part of a voluntary organisation, or you know one that hasn’t signed the agreement yet, then please ask them to sign the pledge.  Any kind of voluntary group can sign up: from a union branch to a major charity to a local housing action group.

You can also find out if your council replied to research we did at the end of 2013 about councils using workfare by downloading the spreadsheet here. If there’s nothing for your council, you could try your own Freedom of Information request: they know this is information they should share.

If enough organisations refuse to take part, the government will have to scrap Compulsory Work Placements.  Workfare is a ‘failed policy’: it should be an impossible one.

Select Committee to probe Simon Danczuk MP

IN June, Simon Danczuk the MP for Rochdale is expected to be called to face parliamentary colleagues on a Home Affairs Select Committee to respond to questions about his recent book 'Smile for the Camera:  The Double Life of Cyril Smith', that builds on the original case presented in May 1979 by the editors of the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP).  The RAP editors published a story of several lads at Cambridge House Hostel for boys on Castlemere Street in Rochdale, in which it was revealed publicly for the first time, that the lads had been abused by the then Labour councillor Cyril Smith in the 1960s.  Smith later became a Liberal Democrat MP in 1972.

In the last couple of years since about June 2011, when he got a copy of Northern Voices No.12 at a fund raising event for his wife Karen, who is now a Labour councillor, Mr Danczuk claims he has had an interest in this matter of Cyril Smith. In 2011, Northern Voices No.12 contained six page-centre coverage of the historic Cyril Smith case, dealing with the original RAP story including some aspects of the original RAP report at Cambridge House, Smith's involvement with the giant asbestos company Turner & Newall, and some research into the revelance of the tragic case of Stefan Kiszco to Smith. 

Now Danczuk before his parliamentary colleagues, will have to answer questions about the allegations in his book about the sexual and physical abuse by the former Labour councillor and later Liberal Rochdale MP for twenty-years, Cyril Smith.  Using the fashionable language of modern times, Mr Danczuk insists that he wants to 'empower victims, give them a voice and make sure we have a zero tolerance approach to abuse in Rochdale.'  He added:  'Rochdale has faced up to its past and I'm confident we've now turned a corner... I'm determined to make our town stronger because of this.'

It seems that police have met with Danczuk about his sexual abuse allegations against another politician, and he told Radio 4's PM program that detectives visited him last Friday about allegations regarding a senior Labour figure, which the police are taking ' extremely seriously'.

Blacklist Report latest update

1. High Court dates confirmed:

The new date for the High Court blacklisting claim is Thursday 10th July 2014. (Acheson & others v Sir Robert McAlpine & others)

This is likely to be a relatively short procedural hearing which grants a Group Litigation Order (GLO) that allows multiple cases to be heard in one hearing (similar to a 'class action' in the US). This is between the following companies - Sir Robert McAlpine, Carillion, Balfour Beatty, Costain, Kier, Skanska, Vinci and Laing O'Rourke and multiple claimants including UNITE, UCATT and GMB. The lead claimant legal team is Guney, Clark & Ryan (GCR) with in excess of 100 blacklisted workers and is supported by the Blacklist Support Group.

Blacklist Support Group (BSG) will be holding a protest outside the High Court prior to the hearing and a meeting to discuss the ongoing campaign after the hearing. More details to follow.

2. Compensation scheme:

The blacklisting firms named above have for the past 9 months been part of a publicity stunt orchestrated by a very expensive public relations firm called Grayling. They claim to be interested in a compensation scheme for blacklisted workers but to date not a single worker has been offered a single penny in compensation and the firms still refuse to give even a mealy mouthed public apology. BSG, the 3 unions and GCR have participated in talks with the firms but there is simply no desire by the firms to accept that they have done anything wrong. The offer from the firms is an absolute insult to the families they have affected.

BSG are demanding jobs for blacklisted workers and compensation that properly reflects the years of hurt for every single person whose name appears on the Consulting Association blacklist regardless of the dates covered. All of the trade unions, the various legal teams and the BSG representing blacklisted workers are completely united in our rejection of the firms pitiful PR stunt. Only when genuine offers are made that fully take account of the gravity of the scandal and offer jobs for blacklisted workers will there be anything to report.

There are rumours that the blacklisting firms may decide to launch a scheme on their own without the support of any of the victims. This would be like a burglar deciding what level of compensation they should pay to their victims (while at the same time avoiding court) - a travesty of justice and a complete piss take.

 

3. Government response to Select Committee:

The Scottish Affairs Select Committee (SASC) published a 2nd report into blacklisting in March 2014 in which the all party committee set out proposals to address the crimes of the past and move forward to best practice in the future. The main proposals are that all blacklisting firms should be barred from publicly funded contracts unless they can demonstrate that they have undergone a "self-cleansing" process in which they fully compensate those they blacklisted (a unilateral scheme without the support of the unions and the BSG is expressly condemned by the committee) and also put in place procedures to reduce the possibility of blacklisting in the future. The SASC highlight the proposals of the Welsh Assembly, Scottish government and the agreement for the Hinkley Point Power Station as best practice in this respect. The committee also calls for all publicly funded contracts to be awarded on the basis of direct employment rather than bogus zero-hour self-employment or agency workforce. The government has now responded with a letter sent to Ian Davidson, chair of the SASC by Jenny Willmott MP, minister for employment relations (attached).

BSG statement:

'Blacklisted workers owe all the MPs on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee a debt of gratitude for their investigation that has exposed the corrupt practices of the blacklisting firms. The two cross-party reports they have published are the benchmark by which all future inquiries and actions will be judged. The government's lack of empathy for blacklisted workers is evident in their response which ignores virtually all of the issues raised by the SASC and refuses to implement most of the recommendations. When it comes to the blacklisting scandal, the government appears to be more concerned about protecting their big business political-funders than bringing the human rights culprits to justice'

4. Carillion Court of Appeal date confirmed: 

The Smith v Carillion blacklisting case has now reached the Court of Appeal stage and is to be heard on 15th-16th October 2014. The written judgements from the ET & EAT stages of the case record how senior managers from various companies within the Carillion group added information to Smith's blacklist file because he was a union safety rep. Smith however lost the case because he was an agency worker and not protected by UK legislation. The case now turns entirely on the question of human rights. It should definitively determine whether blacklisting is a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights (article 8 and article 11) and whether UK law is compatible with the convention.

Smith is being represented by the Free Representation Unit but will be liable for Carilion's costs after the hearing. 

5. Blacklisted workers at Workers Memorial Day and May Day events

Blacklisted workers were out in force speaking at WMD and May Day events - thank you to everyone who represented, especially Lee Folwer in Salford, Stewart Hume in Scotland, Allan Jolley in Harlow

http://www.hazards.org/wmd/ 

6. Police

More and more information about the police role in blacklisting is being discovered. One of the undercover police officers who spied on workers on the blacklist has now given an interview with investigative journalist Phil Chamberlain to be published in his book 'Blacklisted' to be published in the autumn.  Christian Khan solicitors are representing the BSG in their IPCC complaint. Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance #COPS is organising fringe meetings at major union and political conferences this summer pushing for the remit of the proposed public inquiry into undercover police spying on the Lawrence family to be widened to cover all campaigners and trade unions.  Will any of the political parties put the demand for a fully independent public inquiry into blacklisting into their election manifesto? 

7. Scottish government Procurement Bill:

Blacklist protest

13th May (1pm)

Scottish parliament

Edinburgh

This is to ensure that a clause about blacklisting is added to the procurement bill which will allow public bodies to take blacklisting into account when awarding publicly funded contracts.

8. National Rank & File Construction Meeting:

Saturday 10th May 12pm-3pm

Casa Club

29 Hope Street

Liverpool
L1 9BQ

Blacklisting is on the agenda, along with the fight for direct employment among agency workers and Crossrail

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/26/crossrail-workers-culture-spying-fear

http://union-news.co.uk/2014/04/one-year-wheres-improvements-crossrail-safety/ 

9. latest Reel News DVD out now - includes Blacklisting and the exceptional 'Massacre in Vitoria' film - BSG encourage all union branches to take out an annual affiliation to Reel News and support the indy-media collective that has told the story of blacklisting like no-one else.

www.reelnews.co.uk 

10. There are thousands of 'End the Blacklist' stickers suddenly appearing on building site hoardings around the country - especially next to the logos of the blacklisting firms. A prize for the best pic posted to the BSG face book page (below). Great work Martin. 

Blacklist Support Group

video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlCa8yQmZ70

blog: www.hazards.org/blacklistblog

facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/blacklistSG/

Marx & Copyright Claim

HUNDREDS of works of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels has been taken down by the Marxist Internet Archive, a website dedicated to radical writers and thinkers, or the site was told it would face legal consequences.  The threat comes from the small left-wing publisher, Lawrence & Wishart, which has claimed copyright ownership over the 50-volume, English-language edition of Marx and Engel's writing.  The original German version is not covered by this ruling.

Some are suggesting that this is somewhat 'uncomradely', to use the law of intellectual property to deprive the left and other radicals of the writings of Marx and Engels on the Internet.  Ironically the deadline for complying with the order was on the eve of May Day (1/05/14) or International Workers' Day. 

The achive removed the disputed writings on time with a note blaming the publisher and a bold headline:  'FILE NO LONGER AVAILABLE'!

The International New York Times notes:
'The fight over online control of Marx's works comes at a historical moment when his ideas have found a new relevance, whether because the financial crisis of 2008 shook people's confidence in global capitalism or, with the passage of time, the Marx name has become less shackled to the legacy of the Soviet Union.'

It seems that Lawrence & Wishart, which has two full-time employees and two part-time employees and only just makes ends meet, publish journals like 'Anarchy Studies', and only about a dozen leftish books a year.   Curiously, some years ago the now defunct paper Freedom, the then anarchist monthly, was subject to a similar claim of copyright for the use of a photo in a book and paid-up to the demand of the left-wing photographer David Hoffman.  In the Lawrence & Wishhart case Peter Linebaugh, a professor at the University of Toledo in Ohio who has researched the history of communism, said:
'This is the triumph of capitalism, having the small fish biting at each other.'

Cyril Smith admitted to intimate contact with lads

CYRIL Smith confessed 30 years ago to spanking boys and conducting intimate 'medical examinations' on them but was allowed to remain as a Liberal MP.

This admission in today's Daily Telegraph comes from Lord Steel, the former Liberal leader who has defended the party’s refusal to hold an inquiry into sex abuse allegations, said on Tuesday that he had confronted Smith about his 'unusual' behaviour with teenage boys at a hostel in Rochdale.  He said that he was running a political party not a detective agency.

An article in the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) and Private Eye in 1979 alleged that Smith, who was secretary of the Cambridge House boys hostel in Rochdale, put teenagers across his knee, pulled down their trousers and spanked them as a 'punishment' in the 1960s.

Lord Steel said:  'I asked Cyril Smith about it. I was half expecting him to say it was all wrong, and I would have been urging him to sue to save his reputation. To my surprise he said the report was correct.  He had some kind of supervisory role, I don’t know what it was, in these institutions in Rochdale which he reckoned entitled him to be involved in corporal punishment.'


Using a strange kind of historical relativism Lord Steel told the Telegraph that the 1960s were a 'different era' when corporal punishment was permitted and added that he had been 'perfectly happy' to recommend Smith for a knighthood.  

Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival

Hi Northern Voices,

The story of Rubin 'The Hurricane' Carter inspired the 1975 Bob Dylan song "Hurricane" and in memory of, Rubin Carter, who died on April 20th, the Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival will be screening the Oscar nominated, The Hurricane, the 1999 biog picture directed by Norman Jewison and starring  Denzel Washington.

"A mesmerizing drama about the potent force of small incremental doses of hope."

The festival is organised by volunteers and funded by numerous small donations from across the spectrum of our broadly left wing supporters. 

We are still fund raising even as the event approaches, which is a bit scarey, so any help you can give will be much appreciated and anything from £5 upwards will make a real difference.

 You can donate on our Sponsume page here.

 Or donate directly via Paypal here.

 The inaugural Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival will run alongside the main Tolpuddle Festival and launches with an exclusive pre-release screening of Still The Enemy Within and will be theming the festival on mining and Trade Unionism in honour of the 30th anniversary of the 1984 Miners strike.

“I strongly support the idea of a Radical Film Festival at Tolpuddle. Films can bring in new ideas, new perspectives, new voices. As trade unionists we urgently need to re-examine our attitude to the existing parties. We need real political representation and to re-discover our militancy. Films that reflect struggles of working people can be a spur to action”  Ken Loach

Yours Hopefully

 Chris Jury & Reuben Irving

 Festival Directors, Tolpuddle Radical Film Festival

 www.tolpuddleradicalfilm.org.uk  

Review on Amazon: A lightweight potboiler!

2.0 out of 5 stars A lightweight potboiler, 28 April 2014

By 

Rufus - See all my reviews

This review is from: Smile For The Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith (Hardcover)

I was born in Rochdale and still live there. Two of my siblings went to school with one of the youths Cyril abused at Cambridge House in the 1960s. I knew to a greater or lesser degree some of the people who are mentioned in this book or provided information about Cyril, and I crossed swords with him on a number of occasions in the letters pages of the local paper. I have known about his penchant for spanking since it was revealed in Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in 1979. My knowledge that at least two of the now old men who had been on the receiving end of Cyril's unwanted attentions were prepared to come forward dates back to July 2012.

Writing about recent history is difficult.  If the subject is already dead there is a temptation to adopt the view that `the dead cannot sue' so you can write anything you like.  Witnesses to what happened perhaps 50 years ago are fallible.  Some things stick in their memories others don't. fields It isn't safe to take everything they say at face value.  Good authors know these things and recognise the need to test and evaluate what they are told, and where possible to seek corroboration.

If you are going to make exceptional claims you need exceptional evidence. This book makes some big claims. The biggest of which is that Cyril was protected from prosecution by the security services for at least forty years. So how does the evidence stack up?

In a book like this a good place to start looking is the bibliography. what we find is a `Select Bibliography'. Of the fourteen books listed eight are memoirs of or about politicians and one of these is Cyril's autobiography. Two others are a book about Gracie Fields and a book about the 1930s. There are two periodicals listed. One is a report from the Home Affairs Select Committee and the other is Rochdale Alternative Press. I assume they mean Rochdale Alternative Paper. Given that the authors say they spoke to David Bartlett and his co-editor John Walker, this is a strange mistake to make. Sloppy some might say.

Later on they call the now deceased leader of the Conservative group on Rochdale council Pam Horton not Pam Hawton. You would expect they would get this right because she also chaired Rochdale health authority and in April 1991 Ian Davey, acting director of social services, wrote to her about what had been happening at Knowl View School, a school to which they devote nine pages of the book.

Conspicuous by its absence is any reference to the cultural and political magazine Northern Voices of which John Walker wrote in spring 2013, `The re-emergence of the 1979 RAP story owes its appearance to Northern Voices. This magazine kept the Smith story running and led to Westminster blogger, and former Rochdale lad, Paul Waugh picking it up, last November. Working with the ex-RAP editors Northern Voices was able to track down two of the 1960`s Cambridge House victims and introduce them to Paul, who ran the story on his national blog.'  Another example of sloppiness or a deliberate attempt to take ownership of the story of the `outing' of Cyril?

Apart from four TV programs that is the full list of source material we are told about. So what about the numerous interviews the authors say they conducted, what about the many unpublished documents they had access to?

Anyone writing a credible study of Cyril's activities and especially of the claims of a security service cover up would recognise the need to be meticulous in detailing for potential readers when an interview was conducted, whether it was face to face, by telephone or by e-mail, and the titles of all documents consulted would be listed. Of these things there are none. In their place we are offered `trust me I'm a politician'.

In a couple of places in the text we get an insight into the nature of some of these interviews. One took place in the canteen of Rochdale town hall, another was over coffee in east Manchester. That's fine if you are looking for a bit of gossip but not if you are going to accuse the security services of a cover up.

There are problems too in figuring out just how many of the people abused by Cyril were interviewed by the authors.  The nearest we get is a reference to meeting `a good number of victims'. Stories of abuse by Cyril pop up throughout the book but we are left in the dark about whether they are a rehash of a previous story or yet another example.  But the authors still feel they can write `Cyril had left a trail of shame and misery in Rochdale and elsewhere as he'd abused any boy he fancied.'  Any evidence for this OTT bit of prose is conspicuous by its absence.  At the very least any serious study would include a chronology of Cyril's abusive activities so far as they are known.

This is important because one school of thought is that before he became an MP and a figure on the national scene, his interest in very young men was confined to spanking, fake medical examinations and voyeurism.

Three brief chapters of the book are devoted to what we are asked to believe are the authentic voices of some of the young men abused by Cyril. The first two are strangely similar in that they contain a number of references to pop music current in the 1960s. Now call me a cynic but I think that if fifty years ago I had just had my backside wacked by a man twice may age and twice my size, pop music isn't the first thing that would be on my mind.The third has a ring of truth but even this manages to make reference to a piece of music which just happens to fit the story.

In the second is to be found 'We drove out to Hollingworth Lake and smoked fat joints as we watched Canada geese flying over the boats while the sun went down.'  Not true!  There were no Canada geese at Hollingworth lake in the 1960s though there are plenty now.  And would a self confessed `Mod', who in the previous sentence had been `racing up St Mary's Gate on the back of a scooter', really write `drove' rather than `rode'?  Like the references to pop music this piece of gratuitous drivel seems to have been added by someone to make the account seem more authentic.  Journalistic licence perhaps?  But not necessary.  Once it has been established that they are true, first hand accounts of abuse don't need any embellishment.  They stand by themselves.

The writing style adopted is to let the narrative drive the evidence not the evidence drive the narrative.  And what is the narrative?  In essence it is that Simon came to Rochdale, found that we had all been turning a blind eye to Cyril's abuse of young people and said `No more!'

Informants pop up, say something derogatory about Cyril and then vanish for two hundred pages. Nothing is too absurd for inclusion.  At one point we have Cyril running an, `I'll spank your child in the comfort of your own home', service for the parents of naughty children.  I think even the most apathetic Rochdale resident might have noticed this.

But this fitting of the evidence into the narrative has its dangers for Simon. One chapter relating events before he became our MP ends with `So you want to be MP for Rochdale?' one person said with a knowing smile.  `Come in for a cup of tea and let me tell you as story.'  The next chapter is headed `Silent Voices #1.  The victims from Cambridge House'.  Now is this just another example of journalistic licence or is Simon trying to suggest that he was being told about Cyril's abuse of very young men even before the 2010 election?  If it's the latter then some people will wonder why he attended the unveiling of a Blue Plaque bearing Cyril's name in October 2011.

Not all the book is about Cyril's sexual proclivities.  It covers his activities as the mouthpiece for the asbestos processors Turner and Newall, and makes a good attempt to understand the reasons for him becoming an instantly recognisable national figure and his ability to maintain a power base in Rochdale.

But even here there's a tendency to `over egg the pudding' and exaggerate his influence in Rochdale outside of his own Liberal party.  Certainly it never seems to occur to the authors to ask, why, if Cyril was really such a powerful figure in the town able to call in favours at will, he never used this influence to take any action against the editors of RAP who had revealed his activities at Cambridge House.  As employees of the local authority they took enormous risks in publishing their story.  In the end Cyril proved to be a paper tiger.

I'm not sure this book would have attracted half so much attention or been serialised in a newspaper if it had not linked Cyril's antics with the grooming of young girls in Rochdale by nine men who were subsequently jailed, and to the somewhat tenuous thread which sought to link some key figures in the Labour party with giving succor to the Paedophile Information Exchange via the National Council for Civil Liberties.

As they say `Sex sells', but was it really necessary to write, `... Cyril, he said, liked them young with tight sphincter muscles. When their sphincter became looser as they got older, he would ditch them.' If you're not faintly troubled by this bit of prose try imagining how this would have read if it has been young women who been the subject of Cyril's attention.

I'm told that one reader described this book as a `Ripping Yarn', a term usually reserved for books like Erskine Childers' `Riddle of the Sands' or John Buchan's `The 39 Steps'.  I'm tempted to call it a `Cock and Bully' story but that would wrongly imply that I thought none of it to be true. So a `Ripping Yarn' it is.  That fits perfectly because, apart from some unbelievably clumsy sections which are supposed to be the unheard voices of those on the receiving end of Cyril's unwanted attentions, it reads like a novel.  It's certainly not a serious well documented study of just how Cyril managed to keep his dirty secret so long.  It's just a lightweight `potboiler'.

I've no doubt that in 20 years time someone will dust it off and turn it into a drama documentary. Which will be good news for Simon's pension pot!

______________________________________________________



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