Thursday 14 July to Saturday 16 July 2016 diary dates

These are in order of start time where possible, rather than setting off from Kilburn time!

For help with working out travel arrangements by public transport, go to 
https://tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

Thu 14 Jul, 5-8pm Sit Down 2 Defend Our NHS by NHS Solidarity. We’ll march from St Bartholomew’s Hospital,  EC1A 9 to City of London where we’ll sit down in protest against cuts & privatisation in the NHS 5 Year Forward View.https://www.facebook.com/events/245797525796605/

Kwug Blog editor adds: "The above cited St Bartholomew's Hospital location of 'EC1A 9' stems from the cited Facebook page. Other sources, including Transport for London Journey Planner, cite the address as St Bartholomew's Hospital, W Smithfield, London EC1A 7BE"

Thu 14 Jul, 7.30-9.30pm Post Referendum, What’s Next? Jean Lambert MEP & others will discuss. By Haringey Green Party at Penang Satay House, 9 Turnpike Lane, N8 0EP

Facebook event open to the public — especially Facebook users re saying that you're going!

View: https://www.facebook.com/events/1753663288252654/

Fri 15 Jul, 12.30-2pm Unite Community, Camden & Islington meeting at 33 – 37 Moreland Street, EC1V 8BB Open to Unite members & those wanting to know more about Unite Community.

Fri 15 Jul, 7pm Power – fundraising for Crossroads Women’s Centre musical night by female performers. At The Good Ship, 289 Kilburn High Road, NW6 7JR tickets: £8/£6https://www.facebook.com/events/1710653685824078/

Fri 15 Jul, 8pm March On Boris march over to Boris Johnson’s house with Class War. Start from Angel tube station http://www.classwarparty.org.uk/march-boris-house-islington-8pm/

Sat 16 Jul, 10am–4pm Rethink Mental Illness – London Campaign Event Find out about Rethink’s campaign priorities for next year & meet other Rethink supporters across the nation. Apply by email & state preferred London location: involvement@rethink.org 

Sat 16 Jul, 12-5pm No Austerity! No Racism! Tories Out! Emergency Demo by People’s Assembly & Stand Up To Racism. Outside BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, W1A 1AA (tube: Oxford Circus) https://www.facebook.com/events/997373007038180/

Fundraiser for Crossroads Women's Centre, Friday 15 July at 7pm in Kilburn

Received by email from Crossroads Women

Dear Friends,

Fundraiser in Kilburn, north west London, for the Crossroads Women’s Centre – ad below – organised by young women performers.

Hope you might join us there, and please send round to your facebook and other contacts.

Thank you,

Anne

Peer Support & Volunteer Co-ordinator

Crossroads Women’s Centre

25 Wolsey Mews, London NW5 2DX

Tel: 0207 482 2496

www.crossroadswomen.net  

https://www.facebook.com/events/1710653685824078/

Female headliners at The Good Ship, 289 Kilburn High Rd, NW6 7JR
Doors: 7pm. Tickets: £8 for Adults, £6 for students

Fri 12-05-15 play about Sylvia Pankhurst

Just received by email. Late notice compensated by 'no-one turned away for lack of funds'

SYLVIA THE play about Sylvia Pankhurst, artist and  suffragette 7pm - Friday 12 June 2015 Crossroads Women’s Centre, 25 Wolsey Mews, London NW5 2DX

7pm Friday 12 June 2015  Crossroads Women’s Centre, 25 Wolsey Mews, Kentish Town, London NW5 2DX £3.50 unwaged & low-waged £7 higher waged no one turned away for lack of funds Booking: contact@crossroadswomen.net or 020 7482 2496 Sign language interpreter to be confirmed  No admission after 7.15pm, thank you.

2015 UK General Election, austerity and women asylum seekers

Guest blog piece by All Africa Women's Group

Originally published as a letter in Camden New Journal (1)

Election 2015: Women asylum seekers and immigrants are targets of austerity

Published: 30 April, 2015
• WE are a self-help group of women asylum seekers and immigrants based at the Crossroads Women’s Centre.

We’ve discussed the effect the election is having on us. Most political parties blame us for the lack of jobs and housing, the low wages, the strain on schools and the NHS. We didn’t cause austerity. We were its first targets.

We are here because we were imprisoned, raped, starved, our children killed or taken from us under dictatorships and corrupt governments propped up by the West. Companies go into Africa and mine our resources. They are like kings. But when we come here, fleeing proxy wars fuelled by British weapons, we are treated like beggars and criminals.

We escaped to the UK for protection, but our torture has continued. We are put in detention, racially and sexually abused. We took part in hunger strikes against the inhuman conditions in Yarl’s Wood detention centre. When released, we are made destitute – nowhere to sleep, no money, no food. Asylum seekers are not allowed to work so we are forced into exploitative relationships, prostitution or worse.

A mother was imprisoned and her children were taken into care when she applied for a NI number so she could get a job and support her family.

We suffer racist attacks, from name-calling and spitting to physical assaults. We can’t go to the police for fear of being deported or imprisoned.

An estimated £7.5trillion is owed to Africa for the slave trade. Yet as soon as we are allowed to, we work. Many nurses, doctors, transport and care workers are immigrant. Britain didn’t pay for our education but benefits from it. We are among the first victims of the infamous zero-hour contracts.

British, immigrant, asylum seeker… if we want a better world we should support each other. That’s what we do at the Crossroads Women’s Centre.

ALL AFRICAN WOMEN’S GROUP
Crossroads Women’s Centre
Kentish Town Road, NW5

Note
(1) http://www.camdennewjournal.com/letters/2015/apr/election-2015-women-asylum-seekers-and-immigrants-are-targets-austerity

From our friends at Crossroads Women's Centre

Women Together Crossroads Women’s Centre, Saturday 9 November 2013
Women have a lot to say and sometimes are not shy about saying it!  They crowded into the Crossroads Women’s Centre in Kentish Town on Saturday 9 November, for ‘Women Together Speak Up – Making Community, Tackling Problems’.  Crossroads Women, the local charity hosting it, aimed to “give a voice to those women whose needs are most likely to be neglected, especially in these hard times”.
	Children were made welcome by the ever popular Colin the Clown who provided entertainment throughout the meeting. Women of many diverse backgrounds, from teenagers to grandmothers, movingly described events and experiences.  Most felt mothers and carers were being devalued and impoverished. They raised economic problems.  A pregnant woman was fearful of the future as her husband had lost his job and she had no independent income.  A single mother had been threatened with benefit sanctions despite applying for 150 jobs.  Another was doing sex-phone work to feed her children. Many had found care services uncaring.  A mother grieving the death of a son had had her breastfeeding baby taken away by social services.  A woman recounted her difficulties getting support in place on leaving a mental health hospital.  Relatives were struggling to ensure loved ones who were sick or had disabilities received the attention they were officially entitled to.  Support for breastfeeding was being cut and new mothers and their infants were not being helped. Violence and discrimination were also recurrent themes.  A woman had witnessed sexual harassment by guards while in a detention centre; a mother complained of police targeting her Black son and other Black men for stop and search; a lesbian woman said many LBGTQ young people were homeless and faced attack. Many of those present were from Camden, but some had travelled from other boroughs.  And some from Scotland and Wales – they had come for an earlier meeting and had decided to stay to listen and contribute. The indignity of food banks, loss of play centres and other cuts, juggling jobs, job search and study with childcare and housework, homelessness, bailiffs, unaffordable fuel bills and rents, rape, racism and other discrimination made for a grim framework. The meeting aimed at sharing not only problems but solutions, and women proved creative and determined.  The woman whose child was taken from her, had fought alongside breastfeeding advocates and got her daughter back – she was at the meeting and thriving.  Others were campaigning to get re-housed or stop police injustices.  A rape survivor had written a play to highlight her experiences and wanted volunteer actors to help stage it.  A woman recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis had started a parents’ support group.  More than one woman said that a successful outcome depended on not giving up, and getting together with others.  All agreed.  Supportive men described how much they owed their mothers and partners.  Norway was mentioned as an example of breastfeeding success – a mothers-led campaign had reversed a downward trend and 99% of infants are now breastfed.  A petition for a living wage for mothers and other carers received a warm welcome.  The Women’s Centre was praised for providing a space where women and their families could meet, volunteer and support each other.  Solveig Francis of Crossroads Women, commented: “Women shared truths rarely heard in public, and came out informed and fortified.”  A sign language interpreter, who volunteered her services, ensured that deaf people present could participate.  Women filled in a ‘Mothers/Carers Have Your Say’ questionnaire, which was launched at the event alongside two ‘Did You Know?’ fact sheets: ‘Poverty & Wealth in the UK’, and ‘Caring for Children & Adults in the UK’.  (All are available at www.crossroadswomen.net.) On Saturday 7 December, the Women’s Centre will be hosting a Living History Meeting where two East End survivors of the London blitz will recount their experiences of working class endurance and rebuilding during World War Two.  And there will be a Christmas Fair on Saturday 14 December (11-2pm).