‘There is an alternative: Cut Trident not services’

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group were in Yorkshire Street again on Saturday (26 February 2010) calling for an end to the cuts which they say will seriously damage hospital and other public services in Rochdale. They invited people to sign the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s petition calling for the Government to immediately scrap the Trident nuclear weapons system and plans to upgrade it. They distributed leaflets condemning what they say is the Government’s £81billion assault on the welfare state.

Signing the petition, Ziyda Parveen said that the Government’s cuts have thrown her plans to become a nurse into serious doubt. She does not know how she will be able to go to university, if fees are doubled or even trebled, but she was very clear that the country needs nurses much more than it needs nuclear weapons.

On behalf of the Peace Group, Philip Gilligan said,

“During the past week, people throughout the borough have learned the terrifying timetable for cuts and closures at Rochdale Infirmary. Acute inpatient medical services will be lost at the end of March; acute inpatient gynaecology, general surgery and critical care will close at the end of May and, by the end of June, maternity inpatient services, the delivery unit, children’s inpatient services and cardiology will all be lost. In the same week, we have seen our Council forced by Government cuts to slash £64million from planned spending on essential services for the year ahead and learned that in the next few days they will begin planning another £80million worth of further cuts. Amongst the many other immediate reductions in services, the Council is expected to cut 750 jobs and will be making massive reductions in Adult Care and in services at Children’s Centres. Yet, at the same time, the Government with support from the Labour Party’s national leadership continues to squander £2.2 billion every year on the Trident nuclear weapons system and refuses to abandon plans to develop even deadlier nuclear weapons of mass destruction which it is estimated will cost another £97billion.

In thinking about these figures, we need to remember the very real impact that even the smallest cuts will have on individuals and the fact that a ‘billion’ is a thousand times more than a ‘million’. The amount the Government will waste on upgrading the Trident nuclear weapons system is likely to be 1,500 times greater than the amount it would cost to maintain Rochdale’s services without this year’s cuts.”

“There is an alternative to the cuts agenda. Today and everyday in Rochdale, we are saying that we want our taxes spent on decent public services, not on nuclear weapons. We shall be saying the same in London on Saturday 26 March and will continue to do so, until Cameron, Clegg and Miliband show us they have listened”, he added.

Rochdale Town Hall - 23 February 2011

Peace Group joins Rochdale lobby against the cuts

Peace Group joins 'Northern Towns Against the Cuts' Rally

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group ensured that Rochdale borough was well represented at the 'Northern Towns Against the Cuts' rally in the Piece Hall, Halifax on Saturday (12 February 2011). They joined trade unionists, students and other campaigners from towns across Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire in calling for the government to stop its cuts to public services. Speakers deplored the devastating cuts being made in adult social care and other services across the region and urged as many people as possible to join the TUC's 'March for the Alternative' in London on Saturday 26 March 2011.

Peace Group supporters, including Milly Carver and her mother Kirsty (pictured), distributed leaflets from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) calling for the government to 'Cut Trident, not jobs, education, health', while Philip Gilligan carried a model of a Trident missile bearing a price tag of £97billion (£97,000,000,000).

Philip Gilligan said,

"The coalition government seems intent on forcing local authorities to drastically reduce services for even the most vulnerable groups, but Cameron and Clegg never tell us the full story. They repeatedly claim that their devastating cuts are necessary to remove a deficit of £164billion. However, they fail to tell us that bringing an end to tax avoidance and evasion could bring-in an extra £123billion to the Exchequer every year. They, also, ignore the fact that an end to the disastrous war in Afghanistan, scrapping Trident and cancelling government plans to develop an ever more deadly nuclear missile system would save another £136billion.

Our country has no need to make cuts in essential services. There are very real alternatives to the government's unrelenting attack on our education, health and social services. The Peace Group was very pleased to support today's rally in Halifax as it was the Unison lobby at Rochdale Town Hall on Thursday night (10 February 2011). We will continue to remind all politicians that our country needs welfare, not war and that we want decent public services, not nuclear weapons. We look forward to doing so again when we join the many thousands of people marching for the alternative in London on Saturday 26 March."

Cut Trident - not jobs, health, education... Saturday 26 March 2011

Join CND's Cut Trident contingent on the TUC's March for the Alternative. As the government slashes vital public spending we want an end to waste on nuclear weapons and war. We want sustainable growth for Britain not money spent on Trident.

Scrapping nuclear weapons would save us over £100 billion! Instead, we could invest in the development of marine energy technology and other forms of sustainable energy, providing alternative employment for defence workers and creating tens of thousands of new jobs. It would help meet our carbon emission targets and help meet the TUC’s commitment to the creation of 1 million climate jobs.

Assemble 11am on Victoria Embankment, London to march to a rally in Hyde Park.

Spend on welfare, not war

From Manchester Evening News, 2 February 2011

I very much welcome the M.E.N.’s decision to back opposition of cuts to vital services in vulnerable communities and highlight the need to seek alternative solutions. (‘Stand up for a fair share: We back councils’ petition to fight unfair budget cuts’, M.E.N., January 31). Pamela Welsh rightly highlights the disparities between the impact on spending by our local councils in Greater Manchester and the relatively small impact on more prosperous authorities in the south of England.However, there are other solutions to this crisis that go beyond the more equal geographical distribution of pain and suffering. For example, the supposed need for cuts could be massively reduced by closing the many tax loopholes exploited by rich and by imposing a ‘Robin Hood’ tax on the banks. The government could, also, save billions each year by spending less on war and nothing on weapons of mass destruction. Instead of forcing local authorities to close day centres, the government could, alternatively, stop spending £5bn per year on sending our young people to kill and be killed in Afghanistan. Instead of cutting EMA, the government could stop spending £2bn each year on maintaining the unnecessary and dangerous Trident nuclear weapons system. We need welfare, not war. We need treatment, not Trident.

Philip Gilligan, Littleborough

Inhumane Treatment of WikiLeaks Soldier Bradley Manning - TAKE ACTION

Join Amnesty International in calling for an end to the punitive detention of Bradley Manning - SEE http://blog.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/inhumane-treatment-of-wikileaks-soldier-bradley-manning/

Rochdale and Littleborough Peace Group welcomes the fact that Amnesty International has written an open letter to the US Secretary of Defense, expressing concern about the conditions under which Private First Class Bradley Manning is detained at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia (see http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/006/2011/en/df463159-5ba2-416a-8b98-d52df0dc817a/amr510062011en.pdf ). This follows a resolution proposed by the Peace Group and unanimously passed at the AGM of Greater Manchester and District CND, last week which declared our support for the imprisoned US soldier and called for Amnesty to adopt him as a ‘prisoner of conscience’.

Bradley Manning was detained in May 2010 by US authorities in Iraq and charged in July 2010 "transferring classified data onto his personal computer and adding unauthorized software to a classified computer system in connection with the leaking of a video of a helicopter attack in Iraq in 2007". He was moved on 29 July 2010 to the military jail in Quantico, Virginia, where he is classified as a "Maximum Custody Detainee". He his held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day; not allowed to exercise in his cell; has been denied a pillow and sheets; is under constant surveillance; and allowed no contact, even indirectly, with the media. He faces a potential jail sentence of 52 years.

Meanwhile, if Wikileaks had not published the video of the helicopter attack in Iraq in 2007, we would never have seen the evidence of the indiscriminate slaying by the US military of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad. The dead included two Reuters news staff and Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. The very distressing video is available on youtube (search for 'Collateral Murder - Wikileaks - Iraq').

We need to declare our support for whistleblowers like Bradley Manning and demand his release. We also need to demand the whole truth about the war in Iraq. In our own country, the government pretends to support the Chilcot Inquiry, but will not allow it to tell us the contents of notes and conversations between Blair and Bush when they were planning their illegal and immoral invasion. The then attorney general expresses his 'discomfort' at Blair's behaviour, but it seems that we shall always be reliant on people like Bradley Manning to know the facts.