No Bailout of the US Rich! Guarantee the People’s Savings!

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

No Bailout of the US Rich! Guarantee the People’s Savings!

Safer Firefighters Safer Communities

Thousands March in Support of Palestine

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has refused calls to give savers "a cast iron guarantee" that all their savings are safe, it was reported by news agencies overnight.

He repeated though his pledge to do "whatever is necessary" to get Britain through the global financial turmoil after Chancellor Alistair Darling held emergency talks with opposition parties.

Speaking on Tuesday he again insisted that Britain was in a "far stronger position financially than in previous decades" and well placed to get through the present difficulties.

The raising of the limit of savings protection from £35,000 to £50,000 but no higher is included in new banking legislation which the Conservatives have promised to help get through parliament by the time emergency laws passed during the Northern Rock nationalisation run out in February.

At the same time, following the announcement on September 29 of an increase in the size of the Bank of England's swap facility with the US Federal Reserve, the Bank is today to lend a further $30bn of funds. This is alongside the continuing operations under the swap facility to lend $10bn of funds overnight, and the outstanding one-week operation for $30bn conducted last Friday. These operations will therefore bring the total provision of US dollar liquidity by the Bank to US$70bn, the Bank of England reports.

In addition, on October 3, the Bank will hold a further operation to lend $30bn for one week.

These facts show where the priorities of the government lie. They are concerned over the "financial position" of the financial oligarchy, will do nothing to punish these reckless parasites but bolster them with public money. At the same time, they will not unequivocally guarantee investment for social programmes or guarantee the well-being of the people as of right.

It is time that the people themselves discussed what is required for economic renewal. The running of the economy cannot be left to those who gamble with the wealth created by working people. Work to elect an anti-war, pro-social government from the ranks of the people!

Fire Brigades Union e-bulletin

FBU officials from across the country met last week in Birmingham to step up preparations for a rally and lobby of parliament in Westminster on Wednesday, November 12, to call for action on the safety of firefighters and the public.

The Union is urging every fire station and fire service workplace to send a representative to lobby their MP.

The move comes amid concerns about rising firefighter fatalities and what the Union sees as a lack of leadership and guidance from government on safety critical areas of the fire and rescue service.

The Union is calling for a national Fire and Rescue Service body that will take responsibility for ensuring that the findings and recommendations from fatal or other serious incidents are considered and implemented across Britain.

This body would be tasked with keeping adequate records of incidents involving the deaths and serious injury of firefighters at national level, and it should also be responsible for developing and agreeing safety critical national guidance based on the lessons learned from deaths and from other serious incidents.

The Union will press for government guidance to fire and rescue authorities (FRAs) when developing integrated risk management plans (IRMPs) to be improved to make sure they adequately take into account firefighter safety, training and resource needs.

The Union will also be calling for a better balance to be restored between community safety initiatives and operational intervention and will demand greater emphasis on training for operational emergency response and the technical knowledge that is required to support such response.

A central theme of the political campaign will be to emphasise the importance of emergency intervention at the core of the service. It will argue that failing to take account of this fact threatens to further endanger the safety of firefighters, and that this must be recognised and taken into account in all policy development at a national and local level.

But the FBU will only get its message across if union members and activists get involved fully in the campaign.

General Secretary Matt Wrack said: "Firefighters face considerable risks as they protect the public 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. New threats such as terrorism and climate change have heightened those risks. Yet the crucial technical support fire services need to operate effectively and safely is not adequate and not readily available. This is no way to run a fire service of the 21st century. If the Government wants a fire service capable of providing genuine national resilience it needs to get a grip on this issue, and it needs to do it quickly. Planning and policy must be based on professional firefighting expertise not ideological fancy and penny pinching.

"We need a national Fire and Rescue Service body that will provide the joined up thinking and direction badly needed in today’s fire service. This body would be responsible for developing and agreeing safety critical national guidance that will ensure that local integrated risk management plans provide an effective emergency response while taking adequately into account firefighter safety, training and resource needs."

In the lobby of parliament, firefighters will raise with the following with their MPs:

Learning the lessons – We will call for a national Fire and Rescue Service body – responsible for ensuring that the findings and recommendations from fatal or other serious incidents are considered and implemented across the UK.

Invest in safety – This body should be tasked with keeping adequate records of incidents involving the deaths and serious injury of firefighters at national level. It should also be responsible for developing and agreeing safety critical national guidance based on the lessons learned from deaths and from other serious incidents.

Invest in training – We will press for a greater balance to be restored between community safety initiatives and operational intervention. There is a need for a greater emphasis on training for operational emergency response and the technical knowledge that is required to support such response.

Improve Emergency Planning – We are concerned that local fire service integrated risk management plans (IRMPs) do not adequately take into account firefighter safety, training and resource needs. We will call for improvement in the guidance given to fire and rescue authorities (FRAs) when developing IRMPs.

Invest in Emergency Response – The FBU fully supports the drive to prevent fires through education and community engagement. However, we are concerned that among some policy makers there has been a campaign to undermine and denigrate the importance of Emergency Intervention. Responding to fires and other emergencies remains at the heart of our Service. Failing to take account of this fact threatens to further endanger the safety of firefighters. We will insist that this is recognised and taken into account in all policy development at a national and local level.

Where’s all the guidance gone?

In June last year, following concerns raised by the FBU, Andrew Dismore MP asked the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she would place in the House of Commons library copies of all valid operational guidance issued to fire and rescue authorities.

He was told in a written parliamentary answer (27 June 2007) from the then fire minister Angela Smith that the Department was "currently in the process of reviewing all operational guidance issued to the fire and rescue service" and that would likely "result in the review, re-issue or withdrawal of some of the considerable body of existing guidance". Thus, placing all operational guidance in the Library at that time "would not be a good use of resources".

The minister did give the reassurance that recently issued operational guidance was available on the Communities and Local Government website.

Any fire service manager visiting the website today will, however, be disappointed. Under a section entitled, "Online Technical and Operational Guidance: project news", the website states that "Currently, a project is underway to review all existing guidance relating to operational, technical and professional matters that has been issued since 1947. This will mean that simplified, easily-accessible forms of guidance will be available on this website in due course." It contains not a single piece of operational guidance.

…and the Centre of Excellence?

For more than two years discussions and consultations have taken place around The Centre of Excellence, a national body that potentially could have plugged the current vacuum in research and policy development that the Union believes has led to weaknesses in the fire service in a number of key risk-critical areas such as the training of personnel, risk and task analysis, operational policy and procedure, and data collation and analysis.

This body could have provided a much needed central "brain" to help ensure local integrated risk management plans properly protected the public and frontline fire crews.

But thanks in large part to a reluctance to fund it centrally, The Centre of Excellence was stillborn.

Some 4,000 protestors marched from Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square in support of Palestine on September 28 in the annual al-Quds demonstration, the Justice for Palestine Committee reports. A rally was held in Trafalgar Square and was addressed by a variety of speakers.

Taji Mustafa of HizbutTahrir, UK, spoke about the necessity for Muslim unity in the face of neo-colonialist attempts to create enmity between Muslim nations.

Les Levidow of campaign group CAMPACC, and Jews Against Zionism, spoke of the attacks on Jewish culture by Zionism, and the need to campaign against Israeli apartheid. He quoted erstwhile members of the struggle in South Africa who have visited Israel-Palestine and commented that the situation of Palestinians is much worse than that experienced by the oppressed under apartheid in South Africa.

Rabbi Ahron Cohen from Neturei Karta, UK, emphasised the support of his group for the rights of the Palestinians based on Jewish teaching and lamented Zionist interpretations of Judaism as misleading and false.

Daud Abdullah of the Palestinian Return Centre drew attention to recent events in Gaza and the West Bank, detailing the humanitarian catastrophe and urging people to support campaigns like the Free Gaza boat sailing.

Journalist and broadcaster Yvonne Ridley, who took part in the first sailing, explained why she was optimistic for the future of the region, praising the victory of Hizbullah in the 2006 war and Hamas.

Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, concluded the rally. He explained that the genesis of Quds Day was based on the Quranic injunction to support the oppressed whoever they are and whoever oppresses them. He said:

"We support the Palestinians not because they are Muslim, Christian, Jewish or whatever, we support them because they are oppressed and it is our Islamic duty to struggle for the oppressed whoever they are."

A small counter demonstration comprising of some 50 Zionists, Iranian socialists and Stop Islamification of Europe convened at Piccadilly Circus. Two protestors from the counter demonstration tried to attack pro-Palestinian demonstrators as the march passed by, but were prevented by the police.