activism – Page 7 – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

Anti-‘bedroom tax’ activities – North Edinburgh and beyond

draft flyer local bedroom tax meetings 2

Tuesday 16th April (today!)

DEMONSTRATE

Rally at 9 – 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday 16 April outside the City Chambers. This is when the motion about the Bedroom Tax is going before the Council’s Policy Committee, which starts at 10am.

Show your anger – bring drums and banners, whistles . . .

SPREAD THE WORD

Meet at North Edinburgh Arts Centre (by library at Pennywell) 6.30pm to collect and distribute flyers and posters to publicise the public meeting on 25 April to form the Muirhouse anti bedroom tax group.

Sunday 21st April

EDINBURGH-WIDE ORGANISING MEETING

– to support formation of anti bedroom tax groups city-wide

St Augustine’s Church, George IV Bridge at 2.00 p.m.

All welcome

Thursday 25th April

OPEN MEETING IN MUIRHOUSE

To form the Bin the Bedroom Tax group in Muirhouse

7pm The Millennium Centre, 7 Muirhouse Medway

All welcome

There will also be meetings coming up to form groups in Pilton/ Drylaw and Royston/Wardieburn/ Granton

Draft flyer for distribution to advertise the Muirhouse meeting is attached – it has been updated slightly to reflect opinions voiced at the organising meeting on 11th April – please post any comments or suggestions asap, thanks.

Saturday 4 May

MAY DAY

The May Day march and rally. Assemble 11.00am on Johnston Terrace.

A major theme of this year’s event will be the ConDem cuts to welfare, including the bedroom tax.

North Edinburgh Fights Back

North Edinburgh set to raise the standard high

NEVER GIVE UP! – Looking to the future

North Edinburgh Arts is the venue for a practical workshop on arts and activism this Wednesday (20 February). Community Learning and Development worker Lynne McCabe tells more:

“I am writing to tell you about a practical workshop on arts and activism which will be taking place in North Edinburgh Arts Centre on Wednesday 20 February from 10 – 3.00 pm. The session has been organised by North Edinburgh Social History Group, CLD and art students from Telford (Edinburgh) College.

The social history group will kick off the morning session with a presentation of archive material which illustrates how the arts have been used to support local campaigns in the past. The students will then do a short presentation about the art work they created following a meeting with the group last year. We will then have a discussion about local issues and hopefully come up with some ideas of how to use the arts to get your group’s message across to a wider audience. This approach has been used very effectively over many years by countless local groups including the western general action group, the feet first chiropody campaign, the anti-water privatisation campaign, Pilton Environment Group and different generations of anti-dampness groups.

A free lunch will be provided for all participants at 12.00 and then we will get down to creating banners, posters, petitions, campaign logos – anything that you think would help to publicise local issues and campaigns. Some ideas already put forward by local activists include a huge banner or piece of art work about the bed room tax or something which could be used to highlight the issue of fuel poverty. We will be assisted in this process by the students and staff from the Contemporary Art Course at the College. The College will also provide us with a range of materials and equipment to use.

This is a great opportunity for people from different parts of North Edinburgh to come together to create a range of campaign materials which will help to generate a bit of publicity about local issues and campaigns.

Places are limited so please book your place in advance. Telephone North Edinburgh Arts on 315 2151 or email them on admin@northedinburgharts.co.uk. I hope that you are able to join us.”

(More) power to the people!

‘Power to the People’, an introduction to the history of protest in Scotland, restarted at Royston Wardieburn Community Centre this morning but a few spaces for new faces are available for the new session.

Community Learning and Development worker Lynn McCabe, who devised and supports the course, said: “The Power to the People course started back this morning (Tuesday 29 January) at 9.45 in Royston Wardieburn Community Centre, the first session of the second term which will cover the period 1800 – 1900. From now until the end of March we will be looking at the Radical War, Chartism, the Great Disruption, the Campaign for Home Rule and the birth of the Labour and Trade Union Movement. We have regular visits and have a few outside speakers each term – next week our guest speaker will be Alex Wood. We have a few spaces on the course at the moment and new people can join at any time.”

The first term proved to be very popular (pictures below), so if you’d like to learn more about the history of Scottish activism drop in to Royston Wardieburn Community Centre on Pilton Drive North (telephone 552 5700) on Tuesday mornings for a 9.45 start, or email lynn.mccabe@ea.edin.sch.uk for further information. It’s free – all welcome.

South African activist speaks in city tonight

A prominent South African activist is to address a meeting in Edinburgh tonight. Lindela Figlan, vice president of the Shack Dwellers Movement in South Africa, will speak on “Land and Housing in the City”.

The speaker will describe the struggle of some of the poorest people in South Africa to win access to land and to basic rights such as provision of water, electricity, sanitation, healthcare and refuse removal.

The Shack Dwellers hit the international headlines through their resistance to forced evictions. When the government has wished to use land occupied by shanty towns for commercial developments the residents in the movement have refused to move, insisting on the right to a home and to land.

Lindela insists: “Land has to be distributed according to social need and not according to who has money. … Every land occupation is a small step towards making this a country for all who live in it and breaking the power of money over land.”

The meeting, at Out of the Blue Arts Centre in Dalmeny Street, starts at 7pm. Admission free.

Social History Group’s site on show at local libraries

North Edinburgh Social History Group will be giving demonstrations of their ‘Never Give Up’ on-line archive at Granton and Muirhouse libraries next month.

The social history group spent three years researching North Edinburgh’s proud history of community activism, amassing a huge volume of material in the process. The group’s ‘Never Give Up’ book received great reviews when it launched last year, and all the background information – and a lot of great material that didn’t make the book due to size constraints – was digitised and launched on-line by charity SCRAN in April for all to share and enjoy.

Members of North Edinburgh Social History Group will be visiting the local libraries to publicise and demonstrate this amazing resource at two local libraries next month – at Muirhouse on Thursday 6 September from 10am and then at Granton on Wednesday 12 September from 1pm.

It’s well worth a visit – a treasure trove of community memories which can be accessed for free by using your library card!

For further information on Scran visit www.scran.ac.uk

Social History Group's site on show at local libraries

North Edinburgh Social History Group will be giving demonstrations of their ‘Never Give Up’ on-line archive at Granton and Muirhouse libraries next month.

It’s well worth a visit – a treasure trove of community memories which can be accessed for free by using your library card!

For further information on Scran visit www.scran.ac.uk