Statement: We condemn crackdown on student’s right to protest

Leeds Met University (LMU) People and Planet Society were shocked to hear about the arrest of Michael Chessum (SU President of University of London) last Thursday 14^th November. This is one of many recent threats to student protest across the UK.

Student’s must have the right to protest

It appears that Chessum was arrested for organizing a protest against the University of London management’s forced take over of the SU. Thousands of students are demanding the Union remain student-led and the response from both the University and the police has been incredibly heavy-handed.

Though Chessum has now been released, we write to oppose the police’s behaviour and indeed treatment of peaceful protesters in the UK today.

We condemn the charges brought against Chessum and ask for his highly restrictive bail conditions – preventing him from engaging with any protest – to be removed.

We agree with University of York Students who state: “This is particularly chilling given news from the Guardian that revealed police in Cambridge have been attempting to recruit students as informants to spy on student union activities, and the activities of student environmental and anti-cuts groups.

This follows a number of recent crackdowns on student demonstrations and a worrying increase in collusion between the police and our institutions. This includes the recent arrest of ULU Vice President Daniel Cooper for challenging the police stop-and-search policy, the arrest of two Edinburgh students for being on campus and nearby Princess Anne without permission, and the heavy-handed and violent police response to student chalking. Moreover, new legislation is currently being passed to further curtail protests that ‘disturb local residents’ – effectively crushing freedom of assembly at any point it is deemed a ‘nuisance’ by the police.

At this time of police repression and the withering of our democratic rights it is vital that students stand firm to defend these rights. We demand the right to protest when, where and how we see fit. We demand the right move freely through our campuses. We demand the right to organise autonomously, free from management interference”.

Please feel free to adapt this statement for your uni and join us in condemning this threat to student activism.To add your name to this statement email lmupandp@gmail.com.

Signed:
Glen Jankowski, Campaigns Officer of LMU People and Planet Society
Josiah Mortimer, National Young Greens Committee
Joceleyn Murtell, LMU PhD Candidate
Georgia Gwynne, Chair of LMU People and Planet Society
Emma Jaynes, Events Officer of LMU People and Planet Society
Emma Carter, Publicity Officer of LMU People and Planet Society

Nestle ban, union strikes and a new committee

First we’ve had a name change. We’re now LMU People and Planet. Like before, we have the same focus on social and environmental justice but feel this name is a little broader.

Committee member Glen got our student union to agree to lobby the university to 1) stop working and ban Nestle products and 2) pay the living wage to agency staff as a matter of urgency. Reasons behind the Nestle ban can be found here. Glen was also elected to the SU Council and Academic Board and hopes to make both bodies more accountable to students.

The society also supported the recent staff strikes. Staff are facing a 13% real term cut in their pay, as well as increasing workloads and less support. The strike was a nationally co-ordinated effort but one that also brought together three Leeds branches of UCU, Unison and Unite. Since the strike, union staff are now working to contract only, from 9 – 17.00. Meaning the many hours of extra work staff regularly do, unpaid and unappreciated, won’t be happening. Emails won’t be answered at 2am and doubtlessly teaching prep will also fall behind. The University needs to support it’s staff. As the Student Union noted in it’s statement about the strikes: happy, well paid staff benefit students.

We now have a full committee. Georgia, Emma C and Emma J have all been co-opted. We plan to meet fortnightly on Wednesday from 17.00 in the SU bar (term time only). The first meeting will be 20th Nov and then 4th Dec. The Friday before on the 15th we’ll be hosting the joint ethical pub crawl from 20.00 in the LMU SU bar.

See you there!

Leeds Met Greens are back – with a vengeance! A cake-based vengeance….

Leeds Met Greens are back. With a vengeance! Against planet killing, people mistreatment, non-green colours etc. This autumn, we’re going to be at TWO (not one) but both (one, two) of Leeds Met Uni’s fresher’s fairs:

1. Wednesday 11th September 10 – 16.00 @ Headingley campus
2. Thursday 19th September 12 – 14.00 @ City Campus

Afterwards (19/9/13 18.00 – 20.00) we will be having our Green Green Bake Off. Eating ethical cake, talking about Green shiz and judging other people’s efforts. What’s not to love?

Prepare for Green domination, you lucky things. Also if you want to be on committee (it’s super fun and easy etc etc) please send a message to leedsmetgreens@gmail.com. We WANT you (or anyone, we’re not picky tbh).

Position on Brighton Green council cuts

Leeds Met Greens joined other Green party members in condemning the Green led Brighton and Hove Council’s cuts to refuse workers’ pay by up to £4000 per year.

Although it is true the council was in a difficult situation (e.g., faced with huge cuts and gender unequal allowances) cutting the pay of the (already) low-paid is against Green  values.

We recognize the value of Jason Kitcat’s allowance review – increasing most wages and equalizing pay between male and female employees – but could not agree with further cuts to low paid workers. Whatever the cost to the council (maybe no more canape lunches or wine receptions) cutting low paid worker’s pay was never the answer.

I happened to be in Brighton at the time of the strikes and saw firsthand what a difference refuse workers make to the city. Apart from the stigma attached to such work, the work itself is very difficult. Early mornings and the stench of rubbish being part and parcel of the job. Doubtless, a lot of people were disappointed in the Green party. Suddenly, we had joined the other three parties in driving austerity.

Littered streets

Personally, I’m not in the Green Party because I like the colour. I’m in it because of its real commitment to social and environmental justice. It’s therefore a relief that the council appear to have renegotiated a deal that has seen further strikes called off. This will be confirmed next Monday on August 12th.

The Green Party should never be immune to criticism and should enact its values and its promises. Cutting low paid worker’s salaries was hypocritical and very unfair. The Green Party have enough of a tough job getting elected to start with – here’s hoping the council and party have learnt a valuable lesson.

Launch of the Leeds Met Fair Pay petition

Our agency staff at Leeds Met Uni don’t get enough pay for a decent standard of living. This is our university, funded by our tuition fees and taxes. The Leeds Met Green Society are now asking students and staff to tell the university that this is not acceptable. If you agree add your signature – it’s free and takes just a few seconds of your time:
http://goo.gl/GG7Hd

See here for campaign background:

10:1: the ratio between highest and lowest paid in all public sector organizations except Universities which have an average pay ratio of 15:1. In the case of Leeds Metropolitan University the ratio is 18:1.

Adidas protest victory and ethical fashion campaign at University

Adidas have finally given in to People and Planet’s protest to pay their 2,700 Indonesian workers their legally owed redundancy pay. On Monday 22nd April, the Leeds Met Greens and Green Action members protested at local Adidas distributor Footlocker.

See here for more details:
http://www.greenactionleeds.org.uk/badidas-protest-against-footlocker

On other exploited worker news, the Dhaka factory that collapsed last Tuesday 23rd April in Bangladesh has since caught fire. The trapped workers, some heard screaming from the wreckage, have little hope of being rescued. Friends and family members of the workers have been protesting on the streets against the inadequate and slow rescue attempt.

People and Planet are now hoping to arrange for campaigns at UK universities against supporting fashion and clothing made by companies who exploit their workers. The Leeds Met Greens are working with Helen Harvey, SU Ethics and Environment Officer, to bring this campaign to Leeds Met. As a public body, publicly funded, we feel students and staff of Leeds Met should know what their money is supporting.

Stay tuned for more campaign info.

Footlocker protest

The Leeds Met Greens protested on Monday (22nd April 2013) against Adidas (see here). Students from the Leeds University Group Green Action also joined the People and Planet-organized protest. The protest was very simple; no chanting, picketts or demos just some flyers and us. We were polite, friendly and tried to be approachable. And it worked – people were interested, took the flyers and some got pretty pissed off with Adidas. As one guy told us:

“I didn’t know they were ripping their workers off, but I’ll definitely avoid them now”.

The local police loitered around the store, and Footlocker had hired security especially for us. I’d be interested to find out how much this secrutiy had cost Footlocker  and hope that it affects their relationship with Adidas. Stocking Adidas gear certainly isn’t ethical and somewhere down the line, for Footlocker, it won’t be profitable either.

Protest sign reads: “Adidas have: 
– paid $100 million to sponsor Summer 2012 Olympics
– Have paid $38 million to sponsor Arsenal FC
– Have not paid $1.8 million redundancy owed to their Indonesian factory workers”.

For other actions against Adidas organized by People and Planet see here

Richard Wilkinson Talk: A success

Over 40 people turned up to hear Richard Wilkinson discuss the problems of income inequality. Members from Leeds Met Greens, Green Action, Unison, Socialist Worker Student Society as well as and University staff turned up to hear the talk last Wednesday.

Richard demonstrated very compellingly the problems of income inequality for societies and organizations. Not only do less equal socieities have more health and social problems, he explained, but they also consume more, and this has important implications environmentally.

After Richard’s talk, we launched our Make Leeds Met a Fair Pay Campus campaign – see here for more details. Petitions were signed and a new Campaign Working group has been set up in order to get the campaign off the ground. If you’d like to join this work group email leedsmetgreens@gmail.com.

Committee vacancy

There’s room on the committee for anyone who would like to help. Positions we need to fill are:

• Secretary: takes minutes of meetings and emails members.
• Campaigns manager: leads campaigns.
• Events: Co-ordinates and creates events.
• Membership secretary: takes charge of membership.

All positions are flexible and we’re open to ideas if you have your own position you’d like to add. We also appreciate people have degrees etc to do. Contact leedsmetgreens@gmail.com if interested. We’re nice.

Leeds Met Greens Society – New Website

Welcome to the new Leeds Met Green Society website! Please bear with us while we set everything up. We’re working on the website and hoping to put up more content soon. Anyone with website know-how/trickery please contact us if you can help out: leedsmetgreens@gmail.com.