While Government wants to focus on PLP divisions, Green Party Leader highlights UN condemnation of Conservative Government austerity crimes

Guest blog post by Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett

This is an excellent time to hide bad news. As an unelected Prime Minister takes up residence in 10 Downing Street without any democratic direction on the nature of post-referendum negotiations and the country watches the dramatic Labour leadership battle, the government is relying on us being so distracted that we don’t notice anything else. The UN has found the Conservative government’s austerity measures and social security reform to be in breach of international human rights obligations. Key areas of concern include persistent discrimination against migrant workers; unemployment, which continues to disproportionately affect people with disabilities, young people and minorities; lack of corporate regulation; the use of zero hour contracts; and the new Trade Union Act, which limits the right of workers to undertake industrial action. The national minimum wage has been found to be insufficient to ensure a decent standard of living. There has been a significant rise in homelessness. The Human Rights Act is still being scrapped. The number of children living in poverty has jumped by 200,000 in the last year. This means 3.9 million children are now living below the breadline in this country. Yesterday’s report by the Committee on Climate Change found that the government is unprepared to deal with the effects of climate change. It is predicted that global warming will hit UK with deadly heatwaves, more flooding and water shortages. Meanwhile we're still filling the oceans with plastic, and employing disasterous farming methods that are destroying our soils and wildlife. The country is burning, Alan. We are in a state of crisis.  This is all being buried under Brexit headlines. As the increasingly farcical spectacle that is modern day British politics continues to unfold, we cannot forget that there are still injustices to be fought. Right now. Today. In these times of uncertainty, the Green Party remains united. Whoever is in charge, we know what we stand for. We will continue to fight for social justice, migrants’ rights and weaning our country off its addiction to fossil fuels. Help us do this. Renew your membership today. Best Wishes, Natalie Bennett Leader Green Party of England & Wales

Uniting against the real causes of oppression is better than poor people lashing out at the nearest scapegoat

I attended  an information day in Liverpool regarding a reconciliation-based Summer Play Scheme  — Protestants and Catholics together to build trust and friendships — in 1979. At that information day, a participant said that an affluent Roman Catholic resident away from the strife-ridden areas had told him:

"These Catholic-Protestant troubles have nothing to do with us; it's just those working class families fighting among themselves."

In 2016, after the Brexit vote, there seems to be an upsurge in racist hate crime that needs to be addressed. Perhaps the following is the backdrop to that rise of the race hatred gutter into communities after political Punch & Judy pantomime?:

1. David Cameron's, "We're all in this boat together" statement came as a façade for a 2010 post-General Election coalition with the 'market liberals' of the Liberal Democrats known as the 'Orange Book' Lib Dems, through cuts in public spending that seem to have been especially targeted at various strands of the most vulnerable people in British society via the 'bedroom tax' and even nastier 'welfare reforms' than Blairite Labour had brought in. (As previously stated on this blog though, the harsher 'Work Capability Assessment' by which Employment & Support Allowance entitlement was assessed was authorised by Yvette Cooper as one of her final acts as Work & Pensions Secretary in office in April 2010. It was not piloted until early 2011, and so the 'Con-Dem' coalition got the blame for that.) The even nastier strands of 'welfare reform' included not only benefit sanctions, but also
   • 'bedroom tax' reduction in Housing Benefit,
   • reduced support from central government to local authorities leading to imposition of Council Tax payments on the poorest citizens, and
   • 'overall benefit cap' as part of Universal Credit

2. Capitulation of opposition party councils with 'Con-Dem' government attacks on Housing Benefit and the imposition of Council Tax payments on the poorest, while rents rose considerably and council lands was sold off to builders for ridiculously low prices, council waiting lists were closed down, very poor people were evicted, global money launderers bought up large swathes of London and other UK cities, and the racist UK Independence Party's 'blame it all on migrant workers' explanation became mainstream
3. More of the same after the 2015 General Election that introduced an outright Conservative Party majority that claimed a 'mandate' for more of the same nastinesses
4. A greater emphasis on xenophobia in British politics as the nation moved toward an EU Referendum while social housing entitlements were attacked in the Housing & Planning Bill 2016, and the 'EU Referendum Debate' became effectively a smoke screen for attacks on poor people's entitlements in favour of the global money launderers and profiteers buying up the UK and the workfare companies that operate as legalised, taxpayer-funded human traffickers
5. A week before the actual UK EU Referendum took place, a pro-EU Labour MP was murdered by a mentally disturbed person who had swallowed the race hatred of 'Britain First' wholesale, and a truce was called between the opposing factions in the EU Referendum, before hostilities resumed.
6. Those who scapegoated 'foreigners' now seem to take the superficial polarisation of public opinion in their favour as licence to attack and abuse 'foreigners'

Now, 

• Hackney Unites in association with Hope Not Hate is calling a community meeting on the theme #moreincommon
• Islington Tribune reports that a 'Post-Brexit race hate attack sparks fear of rise in 'community tensions', and a similar report in the Camden New Journal.

There is hope. With its focus on helping benefit claimants with their claims, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group meeting every Thursday from 3pm to 5:20pm at Kingsgate Community Centre has built a very ethnically diverse membership and now finds its diversity of 'mother tongues' an advantage in translating people's stories for the benefit of the caseworkers. In our campaigning alongside the casework, we help direct attention also to what is really going on and who is really to blame.

By Dude Swheatie

Related link addresses

• http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/eu-can-i-stay-or-must-i-go.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Book:_Reclaiming_Liberalism
• http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=b82d5d5a7ac69045df976d76f&id=fe63305f0a&e=9bb347a936
• http://www.islingtontribune.com/postbrexitracehateattack
• http://www.katebelgrave.com/2016/06/youre-the-kind-of-immigrant-that-we-want/
• http://www.katebelgrave.com/2016/06/while-politicians-amuse-themselves-austerity-continues-rampant-etc/
• http://londongreenleft.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/brexit-uk-in-crisis.html
• http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/minister-for-bins-letwin-to-head-brexit-unit.html
• http://www.camdennewjournal.com/brexit-hate-crime
• https://www.carolinelucas.com/latest/farage-was-frontman-for-biggest-establishment-stitch-up-in-a-generation