Rally Against the Cuts

This Saturday 12th February there’s a ‘Northern Towns Rally Against the Cuts’ demo in Halifax called by Calderdale Joint Trades Unions. It starts at 10.30am at Halifax Town Hall car park with a march from there to the Piece Hall – for the usual speeches no doubt, telling us just how bad the cuts are.

While it’s good that something is happening and everyone who opposes the cuts should indeed try to get along to such events, it’s important to point out that marching from A to B just isn’t going to cut it. If there really is “a mood of anger and defiance sweeping the country” as Calderdale Save Our Services claim in their leaflet for the Rally, then we need to see some of it in Calderdale, going beyond rallies, lobbies and marches to direct action, disruption and economic blockades. We may be right and be able to make good arguments against the cuts but politics is a power struggle not a moral argument as SolFed put it in their excellent article ‘The paradox of reformism – a call for economic blockades‘.

The last council meeting ‘lobby’ at Halifax town hall against pension reforms saw a few hundred listen to drummers and watch a fire breather before dispersing 5 minutes before the meeting had even started! The council meeting went ahead with slashing the pension plans anyway of course.

Let’s hope the 5pm protests at the council meetings on Feb 16th and 28th following on from the rally can rouse some of that fabled anger and defiance to occupy and disrupt the meetings rather than watching circus performers showing us “little dragon fires” and “big dragon fires” while our future bread is being stolen…

Uninnovative Confusion

Back in 1864 the economist William Jevons in his book ‘The Coal Question’ wrote that, “it is wholly a confusion of ideas to suppose that the economical use of fuel is equivalent to a diminished consumption. The very contrary is true”. He went on to lay out an argument, known as “Jevons Paradox“, which is still considered one of the pioneering insights into ecological economics today.

Coal-burning factories in 19th-century Manchester

It states that increased efficiency in using a natural resource, rather than decreasing demand, only generates increased demand for that resource as improvements in efficiency lead to further economic expansion. Jevons was referring to coal and the steam engine but the paradox can be seen more recently, in refrigeration for example, where technological improvements merely resulted in more and larger refrigeration; or car-use where more efficient vehicles instead of decreasing demand for fuel, only led to more driving and more cars on the road.

Nearly 150 years later energy efficiency is still wheeled out on a regular basis as the way to reduce resource use and, these days, as the key to dealing with the challenge of climate change. The front page of this weeks Hebden Bridge Times and an article on Hebweb for instance heralded a supposedly “Innovative Eco Trial” in the town which would see a few thousand local homes get an energy survey and advice on energy efficiency. The focus is firmly on individual cash-saving consumption while the energy industry does little but compete to offer us a good price. Such a scheme in reality does nothing to lessen resource use or combat climate change as, according to Jevons Paradox, in an expansive economy any efficiency gained here will simply lead to increased energy use elsewhere and in general. Or more bluntly, in the context of the HB Times article, with its money-saving incentive angle – what do you think people will do with the cash saved? Stick it under their pillow?

Even if we all individually ”do our bit’ to consume less, given current patterns of production and accumulation in a society governed by profit, our environmental problems will only increase. Unless that is, instead of the coal-fired dreams of efficient technological fixes, we collectively set about transforming the social relations of production to meet peoples real needs and the requirements of socio-ecological sustainability.

Stopshopping

A handful of well-wrapped up Calderdale anti-cuts protesters took part in the national ukuncut day of action against tax-dodging corporations on Saturday. After a short trek through the snow to the Topshop in the Halifax Woolshops shopping centre, some of the magnificent seven (yes, there were 7 of us in total) entered the store handing out leaflets to topshoppers. After security guards arrived (or  ‘street ambassadors’ as Woolshops prefer) we continued holding signs and giving out leaflets outside the store.

Spot the Protester

Reworded xmas carols were sung and spirited conversations explaining Topshop boss Phillip Green’s tax affairs to shoppers and passersby were had as fingers and feet grew numb. At one point the assembled security guards and police officers easily outnumbered the protesters which probably did as much to put off people entering the store.

The Woolshops area manager attended and was at pains to explain that the area was not public space but a private shopping centre and permission was needed to hand out anything – even going to get the deeds and a map to show he wasn’t making it up! Still, the protest continued and unlike the last Halifax tax-dodgers protest at Boots, where one person was attacked, the security guards – some of the same ones – didn’t interfere (perhaps the looming assault charge from last time has calmed them down a bit).

While there was low turnout perhaps due to the snowy cold weather, (though it didn’t seem to have affected the ability of thousands to go shopping – and even Turnbridge Wells was disgusted enough to manage 30 people at its protest) those who did attend weren’t disheartened and will continue to organise and encourage Calderdale residents and workers to get active in making a movement strong enough to stop the cuts.

Dodgy Boots

Local anti-cuts protesters picketed the Halifax branch of drug-dealing tax-dodging Boots last Saturday. Much to the annoyance of the store manager, security guards, a street ambassador and a police community support officer (the actual cops didn’t show much interest) over 30 people including Hebden Hecklers set about disrupting their facade. Our handing out of Boots = Tax Dodgers leaflets, holding up signs and loudly pointing out their tax-dodging practises in a time of unprecedented cuts to public services, was a right-to-protest pill they just didn’t want to swallow.

Andy Hornby in Dodgy Boots

The workers in the store and the passing public were mostly sympathetic. The jobsworth security guards on the other hand seemed to think they were riot cops in a student protest and set about half-strangling one person, throwing him to the pavement outside and piling on top of him just for walking through the doors! Another of the security guards, exhibiting an unusual fear of the written word, followed leafletters with a bin encouraging people to throw the leaflet in before looking at it – surely that’s not in the job description.

One pertinent local connection that perhaps didn’t get the attention it deserved is that the current boss of Boots Andy Hornby, was the former chief of failed bank HBOS. He presided over the loss of 100′s of jobs in Halifax during the bail-outs, then walked into the Boots top job and has already pocketed £2m for his first nine months. He admitted having no qualifications in banking then and it’s unlikely he has any in chemistry either – apart from blowing up businesses that is…

A report from the action is here: http://northern-indymedia.org/articles/1153

The next tax dodgers day of action ‘PayDay’ is this Saturday 18th Dec: www.ukuncut.org.uk

There’s also a lob something at (or is that lobby) the council cabinet demo on Mon 20th at 5pm outside Halifax Town Hall – get along if you can: www.falseeconomy.org.uk

Talkin’ Topstopping Sticky Boots

Last Saturday Topshop in Londons Oxford St, the biggest fashion retail store in the world, was shutdown by 100′s of protesters as part of the uk uncut day of action against tax avoiders. Shutdowns and actions took place in over 23 towns and cities across the country targeting Topshop, BHS, Dorothy Perkins, Miss Selfridge (all part of Phillip Green’s Arcadia tax-dodging empire), as well as Boots and Vodaphone outlets. In Brighton 18 people were arrested after gluing themselves to a Topshop window!

Talking of gluing yourselves to shops. Last Wednesday, a Boots store in  Hebden Bridge, the 4th funkiest town on the planet,  saw a protest picket as part of the same ‘target the tax avoiders’ approach. A ‘local person for local shops’ glued herself to a display in the Boots store while others handed out leaflets highlighting the 86 million pounds in UK tax Boots have managed to avoid paying by moving their HQ to a PO box in Switzerland.

Seems the Boots picket in Hebden Bridge will be a regular event every Wednesday at 9am until Xmas. Get your boots on, dig out your super glue and get stuck in…

For more on the local Boots protest see: Boots Branch Occupied

For  a pdf of the leaflet handed out email: bootsthieves@yahoo.co.uk

Great? Bank on it

It’s often said that one of the great things about Hebden Bridge (it recently won a ‘Great Town Award‘, sponsored by Highland property developers, hmm) is that there aren’t any big chain stores operating here. That, after getting some money out from Barclays on Market St, Lloyds TSB on Albert St, or NatWest on Crown St, it’s all little independent shops to go spending it in. Notice anything big and chainlike in that sentence?

Indeed. Banks are the bottom line in chain store operations and the ‘things’ they are selling, as we’re all rudely rediscovering, is us and our futures. Their local shop-fronts a reminder that whatever great, funky and independent labels Hebden Bridge may acquire, it’s a clone town too, shaped in the image of and ruled by commodities, money and work, just like any other town.

Which is a bit of a preamble on the way to highlighting that this Thursday Dec 9th, the day of the tuition fees vote in parliament, is rapidly gathering momentum as the next big day of protest against the cuts: DayX3. There was a truly great turnout from Calder High students on the first walkout. But if any of our intrepid local students are again planning action, in defiance of the letters home marking them as truants and demanding no repeats, here’s a suggestion. As it’s getting a bit cold for a static protest in the street all day how about finding a few warm places in town to visit as well? Places where no doubt the days free-style education can be continued with lessons on the delights of financial futures, commodities trading, tax avoidance, and the like.

Oh, and lest we be accused of favouritism, a dishonourable mention should go out to one of our other great big chain stores in town – Boots, now headquartered at a PO box in Switzerland to avoid paying millions in UK tax, on Valley Rd and Crown St.

Hebden Student Protest update

Here’s a couple of pictures  from this afternoon’s continued student protest in Hebden Bridge. The police presence was a bit over the top (worried after hearing about the London protests perhaps), couple of van and carloads of them and a very Forward Intelligence Team – like unit standing across the road filming it (so they can pick out future ‘rioters’ maybe). So the students self-organised, got up extra early for a demo, walked out on time and were back at the marina at 3pm as they said they would be – fantastic planning and execution. And for this the rumour is that they’ll all getting detention and some are threatened with expulsion! Come on parents and come on teachers – defend the kids, like they’re defending the right to a decent education!

PS. Good to see the Calder High walkout made it onto the live updates at:  www.anticuts.com and there’s a short video of the protest in town here: http://northern-indymedia.org/videos/1106