Blacklist Support Group - House of Commons meeting, 6th October 2009

Our friends over at the Blacklist Blog are advertising a meeting to be held at the House of Commons at 6 p.m. on Tuesday 6th October. Speakers at the meeting include:

• John McDonnell MP
• Professor Keith Ewing (Author of Ruined Lives: Institute of Employment Rights report on blacklisting)
• David Clancy (invited - Information Commissioners Office – Head of Investigation Team)
• Sean Curran (Solicitor taking Data Protection cases)
• & Blacklisted workers from London & Manchester

The background to the meeting is a debate to take place in Parliament about the proposed outlawing of Blacklisting. We'll keep readers up to date with any developments.

Northern Voices #10 still available.

The 10th issue of Northern Voices (Summer/Autumn 2009) is still available.

Inside you'll find articles on Bolton art-forger Shaun Greenhalgh, Blacklisting in the building trade, the hunt for the grave of Ashton lad James Keogh murdered by Fascists in the Spanish Civil War, as well as local gossip in Burnley, Bury, Tameside and Salford. We also look at Liverpool in the 'Capital of Culture' year and you may have already read the article on 'welfare to work' that we've posted here.

The reviews section has features on the 'six of the best' top Northern towns, a review of 'Gangs of Manchester', a new book by Andrew Davies, plus restaurant reviews of Mitton Hall in Clitheroe and Ramsons of Ramsbottoms, and the letters page is livelier than ever.

Sending us a cheque for £4.00 (made payable to 'Northern Voices') will get you a two-issue subscription. Send cheques c/o 52 Todmorden Road, Burnley, Lancashire, BB10 4AH.

Northern Voices @ Manchester Anarchist Bookfair

This time of year is the time for Bookfairs, and a week on Saturday, Northern Voices will have a stall at the annual Manchester Anarchist Bookfair.

On the day, you can chat to us about the magazine, buy current and back issues and perhaps, if you feel you have something to say, talk to us about contributing to the next and subsequent issues.

The Bookfair is being held at the Jabez Clegg, which is located at 2 Portsmouth Street, M13 9GB (opposite Manchester University Students Union on Oxford Road - click here for a map) between 11.00 am and 5.00 pm on Saturday 26th September. There's food and talks too (as well as lots of other stalls), so plenty to keep you occupied if you're in town.

Hope to see you there.

Motivating the Workshy: New Deal or Bum Deal? by Alfred Doolittle

We thought we'd reprise an article from Northern Voices 10 which seems to be doing the rounds on the internet (currently featuring on Indymedia, New Deal Scandal and the site of the The United Socialist Party). So here it is in all its glory:

I’ve just finished a 10-month sentence. Although I wasn’t an inmate in a prison or a mental institution, at times it certainly felt like it.

Protest against blacklisting on Laing O'Rourke 'The Rock' Project in Bury

Over 20 members of Unite the Union and their supporters came to demonstrate and unfurl banners in their protest against the blacklist in the construction trade at the The Rock in Bury on Thursday 27th August 2009. The Rock project is one of the biggest building jobs in the UK, if not in Europe and Laing O'Rourke is the main contractor on the site. Laing O'Rourke has also been unmasked as an affiliate of The Consulting Association run by Ian Kerr. Last month, Mr Kerr admitted in Knutsford Crown Court to managing an illegal database or blacklist with the names of over 2,000 building workers on it. For this he was fined £5,000 + costs.

The demo was widely covered by the regional media and last night, BBC's North West Tonight ran a feature on the issue (see the video embedded i this post). Radio Manchester and the Bury Times is also giving coverage, not to mention the Morning Star. Workers on the site took leaflets and applauded impromptu speeches from the protesters. One worker reading a protest leaflet was warned by a gaffer that if he didn't get back to work he'd end up on the blacklist. Black humour, no doubt, but it sheds light on the degree of nervousness now prevailing on the nation's building sites owing to the recent exposure of the blacklist.

Yesterday, both Laing O'Rourke's spokesmen and the subcontractor NG Bailey (another affiliate of the Kerr: Consulting Association) denied discriminating against workers on grounds of their trade union and political membership.

After 4 hours of picketing the site some of the protesters moved to Bury Town Hall where they requested to speak with Mark Sanders, Chief Executive of Bury MBC. Mr Sanders it was claimed was 'in a meeting' and not available for comment. Later the Council issued a statement saying that 'to their knowledge none of the contractors on the Bury developments were blacklisting people'.