GAZA -Sheffield events this week

Find out how you can help: click here

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Click here to watch a short video of Musheir and friends at work preparing essential food supplies.
Tuesday November 7th at 7.00p.m. Central United Reformed Church, 66 Norfolk Street, S1 2JB

Dates for your Diary – full details of these events to follow:

November 11th Sheffield:
Rally in Sheffield and, once more, travel to the National Rally in London will be organised for those who can attend.

November 19th:
A sponsored walk, raising funds for Gaza, in Graves Park, Sheffield. S8 8LL. This inclusive event is one that everyone in Sheffield is invited to join. We will walk together for Gaza.

November 26th:
“Coming Together for Palestine”, a cross-community event to mark the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinians (which falls on November 29th). This fundraiser for Gaza will offer food, a compilation of Musheir’s films and speakers. Details of how to get tickets will follow.

Use the QR code above to sign up for the newsletter/join the Coalition as an organisation, OR click here. Please pass to your friends.

Contact us on this email: spcagainstisraeliapartheid@gmail.com

SEE ALSO Sheffield PSC facebook

AND Sheffield PSC Instagram

Day school: Latin America in the front line

Saturday 7 October, 9.45am – 4.15pm

At: Quaker Meeting House, St James St, Sheffield S1 2EW

Recently Sheffield Hallam UNISON affiliated to the Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC). Our reasons for doing so are explained in the motion that can be found here.

CSC Sheffield will be co-hosting this public event coming up soon in Sheffield so we are inviting you to support it if you can.

Featuring:

*  Aymee Diaz Negrin, political counsellor at the Cuban Embassy will be speaking at the opening plenary.

* Workshops including: Cuba Resists Tightening the US Blockade with speakers Aymee Diaz Negrin, Cuban Embassy and Dr Emily Morris, Institute of the Americas

*  Range of workshops and speakers on Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru and themes of climate change, debt, trade unions and social struggles in the region.

Tickets £5 unwaged, £10 waged. Register in advance online via eventbrite here  – or pay on the door.

Hosted by Sheffield Trades Council, CSC Sheffield, Chile Solidarity Network, Jubilee Movement Sheffield, Alborada, Sheffield Left.

For more information about this meeting or future local meetings, please contact CSC Sheffield  sheffieldcsc1959@gmail.com

Subscribe to CUBA UPDATE, our free email newsletter at

https://cuba-solidarity.org.uk/email-updates/

Shop for Cuban products and solidarity merchandise online at

https://shop.cuba-solidarity.org.uk

Facebook @CubaSolidarityCampaign

Twitter @cubasolidarity

Instagram @cubasolidarity

Celebrate Cuban culture: https://cuba50.org/

Diary of Events: October 2023

Sheffield Trades Council

Saturday 7th October Latin America Day School

0945hrs to 1615hrs Quaker Meeting House, St James Street S1.  Hosted by Sheffield Trades Council, Sheffield Cuba Solidarity Campaign, Chile Solidarity Network, Jubilee Movement Sheffield, Alborada, Sheffield Left.

“Economic and ecological crises are bearing down with greatest intensity on workers and poor people in Latin America and other regions of the global South, made much worse by reckless exploitation of their natural resources and living labour by capitalist corporations based in Britain and other rich countries. The struggles in Britain against austerity, union-busting, climate destruction, profiteering corporations, racism & fascism and much else are indissolubly connected to struggles against these same evils in Latin America. We have much to learn from the often much more advanced experiences of workers and youth in Latin America. Solidarity, and seeing ourselves as part of the world, makes us stronger.”

Saturday 7th October Rally for our Bus Services

Organised by Better Buses South

Better Buses for South Yorkshire

Campaign stall in Sheffield: Wednesday 4th October, 11.30 – 1pm (top of the Moor)

Saturday 7th October  Protest re Government’s anti-Boycott Bill

12 noon outside Sheffield Town Hall. National Day of Action by Right to Boycott Coalition.

The government has tabled an anti-boycott bill with the aim of preventing public authorities, like local councils, local government pension funds, unions or universities, from making ethical choices about spending or investment.

The government’s main target is campaigns in support of Palestinian rights but those pushing for action against deforestation, environmental pollution, and the exploitation of children and workers could also be affected.

This toxic bill will erode local democracy, restrict freedom of expression, and undermine campaigns for social and climate justice.

Saturday 21st October “Socialist republic of South Yorkshire -Resisting Thatcherism in the 1980’s

1pm-5pm Broomhall Centre, Broomspring Lane S10 2FD.

Sheffield Transformed is hosting a free workshop to explore how left-wing activists and politicians in 1980s Sheffield attempted to resist the dominance of Thatcherism and implement their own political ideas.

During the 1980s, the term ‘Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire’ was coined to describe the region’s left-wing political culture. With contributions from historians and local campaigners, this workshop will examine the left-wing, trade union, feminist, and anti-racist activism that made up the Socialist Republic. We’ll discuss what we can learn from this pivotal period in political history and how we can apply it to our present situation.

Saturday 21st October Stand Up to Racism National Organising Conference. 

11am to 4pm Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1H 9BB

Neville Lawrence father of Stephen is confirmed to speak – book your place now tinyurl.com/SUTR23c

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM WCML

What we’ve been up to while our front door has had to be shut

We’ve hugely missed the usual buzz of library activity since we closed our doors on 18 March.  But the staff have worked throughout, and here’s a flavour of what we’ve been up to…

We were thrilled to get money from the Arts Council emergency fund pot for a podcast project, Begin the World Over Again.  Working with Salford outdoor arts organisation Walk the Plank we have commissioned six artists, each with a member of the Bones of Paine writing group, to make a podcast episode about significant aspects of the Library’s collection and the thinking behind them, exploring parallels with our contemporary situation and what the future might look like. We’ve learned a lot about podcasting, and about social media, along the way, and the results have been terrific, hope you agree – you can listen to the podcasts here, and browse more about the themes and the project in general here.

We have also been delighted to present 26 free live-streamed talks so far since lockdown, on a really wide range of topics.   Attendance has been higher than our ‘traditional’ annexe audiences, and of course with a wider geographical spread (plus good figures for later views on YouTube).  It’s also easier to invite long-distance speakers, such as Maria Bloshteyn  who tuned in from Toronto to talk about Russian poetry from the Great Patriotic War.  We have also received kind donations from people who have enjoyed the talks.   The talks will start up again in February 2021 and you can find out more by keeping an eye on www.wcml.org.uk/events  – or by signing up to our free weekly ebulletin here, if you don’t get it already.

Over 200 people watched the third annual Engels Memorial Lecture, which we co-hosted with Marx Memorial Library last month, and this is also available now to watch on YouTube here.  You can also relive on YouTube our online fundraiser Radical Sounds – many folk joined us from the comfort of their living rooms on August Bank Holiday Monday for a fantastic mixture of music and readings, curated by our very own Maxine Peake.

 

We have selected and digitised some interesting material from:

* The Pan-African Congress in Manchester in 1945. This was used not only on our own social media but also was blown up large (see picture, left) to feature in the windows of the old Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall, now an MMU building and where the Congress took place.

* The Communist Party, which was presented online as part of the CP centenary celebration on 1 August.

* The Manchester and Salford Film Society (the oldest film society in the UK, whose archive we hold) to mark its 90th anniversary in November (www.wcml.org.uk/90NotOut), and

* The pages of our quirky Engels in Manchester scrapbook to mark Engels’s 200th birthday (www.wcml.org.uk/EngelsScrapbook).

We have lent our Lancashire Women Against Pit Closures banner to the Museum of Wigan Life, along with two suffragette badges, for their protest exhibition which is due to run for a year. The banner looks terrific as it is hung so that both sides can be viewed.

So far, so virtual…  We were excited to be able to reopen the library to a maximum of two real life readers per day on 16 September, and until we had to close again on 4 November we were ‘full’ nearly every day.  A lot of effort was required to get just two people into the building, but all were very appreciative to be back. We are planning to re-reopen on Tuesday 5 January, again to two readers per day by prior appointment, so do get in touch if you’d like to book a place…

In the meantime take care, in solidarity, all the very best for the festive season and for 2021 from all at WCML

Petition launches to get COVID tests for all education staff

Petition launches to get COVID tests for all education staff

UNISON has launched an emergency petition calling on Matt Hancock for all education workers to be included as one of the groups named for priority COVID-19 testing.

It takes a whole team to keep schools, nurseries, colleges and universities running, but when the health secretary announced the list of workers that will be eligible for priority testing in England, in education, only ‘teaching staff’ were mentioned.

This completely ignores the fact that over half of the staff in education aren’t teachers.

Please sign – and share – the petition

Open University Pilot Courses Offered to Members

Open University Pilot Courses Offered to Members

National Office have set dates to pilot some of The OU courses online as listed below:

  • Managing Challenging behaviour: 17th September 9:30am – 13:00pm with a break half way
  • Autism Awareness: 24th September 9:30am – 13:00pm with a break half way
  • Dementia Awareness: 24th September 9:30am – 13:00pm with a break half way

Please feel free to promote these courses with members.  To book onto these courses please use the link below:-

https://learning.unison.org.uk/2020/08/25/online-workshops-from-the-open-university/

Please note these courses are likely to fill up fast as they have been offered to all regions.