Hardworking demonstrators

Report from Manchester by Natasha Steel

Approaching the conference centre

The award for irony of the day must go to the Conservative Party. As a trade union march of 50,000 people whistled and booed their way past the heavily policed and fortified Manchester Central Conference Centre on Sunday, the Tory banners proclaimed their allegiance with “hardworking people”.

Strangely, a care worker from Chester I met who works fourteen hour shifts “wiping arses” and was on the demonstration was unswayed by the signage and showed no inclination for joining the party. 

“Half of the month I sleep over,” she said. “I don’t like it, having to get into a bed that someone else sleeps in, but you have to do it if you want to pay the mortgage. If there’s overtime I always say yes.

“It’s the only way we can make ends meet. 

“But you don’t actually get much sleep, there’s always someone up and you have to be up with them. I’ve done this for 25 years, what I really want to do is be an NHS nurse, but there’s no way I can afford to retrain and pay the mortgage. I just can’t take the risk.”

She recounted how her boss in the privately run company had told her that pay was low because ‘anyone can do care work.’

“Can you?” she’d asked. “Can you wipe shitty arses when it’s all up their back and on the walls? Can you do that?”

Unsurprisingly, he retracted.

She also described how work was made harder because the hoists that got boxes ticked on the inspectors’ rounds weren’t actually used because there wasn’t the time. “We just have to lift them in the old way,” she said.

 
Similar stories of overwork, low pay and worsening conditions could probably be told by many of the hardworking demonstrators on the march – over three times as many as were attending the party conference. However, according to the BBC’s chief political correspondent, Norman Smith, the Tories weren’t actually very interested in hearing from them after all.

“I was stopped from filming 'Live' for @BBCNews Channel from conf centre overlooking #nhs299 demo” he tweeted. 

Doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, care workers, bakery workers, teachers, firefighters, journalists – the range of professions was vast, but the experiences were common. Not only do most people already work exceptionally hard, but pay is poor and housing expensive. Where regulation is weak, they are hit again. 

I think it’s safe to say – without irony - that on Sunday the hardworking people of Britain were on the streets of Manchester, not in the Conservative Party Conference.

Natasha Steel

Are we all journalists now? Report by Natasha Steel

The issue of standards and content has never been more important for journalists and the unions that represent them, members were told by guest speaker Aidan White at the Branch meeting on 24 September. White, who is director of the Ethical Journalism Network and a former general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, argued that there is a difference between the ‘free expression’ of members of the public sharing their opinions online and journalism.

“Journalism is ‘constrained expression’,” he said, explaining that it was constrained by “a framework of values” – accuracy, telling the truth, humanity, fairness and accountability – none of which applied online. However, he believes this is an opportunity for journalists and the union to share their values with teachers and parents as they and their children engage in the changing media landscape.

 
He told the members and guests gathered upstairs at The Mesmerist pub in Brighton that the traditional framework of print journalism was broken now that the audience had been brought into the process of newsgathering and dissemination of the news through social networks. 

“The industry has lost the capacity to make money,” he said, questioning whether it would ever return.
He pointed out that the journalism schools are bulging, but the only growth area for jobs for entrants is in the corporate sector and “precarious” freelance work. He said that in order to defend, enhance and promote “the craft of journalism”, the NUJ should work hard to recruit from these areas too.

He said that the Branch had a responsibility to deliver training and teaching of the craft – something that the national body has recently cut back on. 

Natasha Steel

The next NUJ meeting will take place on 21 October – venue and speaker to be announced.

Next meeting: Are we all journalists now?

Brighton & Mid-Sussex NUJ Branch Meeting
Tuesday, September 24, 7pm
The Mesmerist (upstairs meeting room), Prince Albert Street, Brighton (next to Town Hall)*
Non-NUJ welcome

Aidan White

Are we all journalists now?
Speaker: Aidan White, director of the Ethical Journalism Network

The growth of digital technology and proliferation of ‘citizen journalism’ has raised important questions for journalists and the trade unions that represent them.

Guest speaker Aidan White will argue that we need to rethink who qualifies as a journalist and kick off a debate about how the NUJ can recruit more widely, defend the interests of people working in the media and play a role in setting and maintaining ethical standards.

Aidan White is a former general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists and is currently director of the Ethical Journalism Network. ((http://www.ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/)) Previously, he was an activist in the NUJ.

PROVISIONAL AGENDA

• Welcome to new members
• Speaker: Aidan White
• Branch officers’ reports inc correspondence
• Chapel reports
• Trades Council report
• September 29 TUC demonstration against austerity
• Other activities
• Future meetings, Chriismas party and preparations for 2014 Delegates Meeting
• AOB

*Apologies, but there is no wheelchair access to this room. If anyone has any ideas for licensed venues in central Brighton with full disabled access, please let us know about them!

Motions for DM and Save our NHS

Motions for DM
The 2014 Delegate Meeting will take place in Eastbourne 11-14 April 2014. The deadline for submitting motions is 11 November. If you have a motion please get it to Phil Mellows on philmellows@btinternet.com before then please.

More info on http://www.nuj.org.uk/about/union-democracy/nuj-delegate-meeting/

Save our NHS
There will be a public meeting on Wednesday 18 September at 7.30 in the Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton. Speakers include Caroline Lucas MP and health economist Dr Lucy Reynolds. More info https://www.facebook.com/events/1417085491837254/

Brighton People's Assembly Undercover University

This Saturday, 7 September, join in Brighton People's Assembly Undercover University, in Steine Gardens 12 - 6pm. It's an afternoon of talks, practical workshops and discussion to help us make sense of the economic crisis, the impact it’s having on us and to explore the alternatives.

Workshops & Talks
12pm – Welfare Reform: Hurting but not working
1pm – Film-making workshop: How to create and promote your own low-budget film
2.30pm – A million climate jobs: The shift to a low-carbon economy
3pm – Let’s talk about Tax: Tackling poverty through a fairer tax system
4.30pm – The plot against the NHS: The privatisation of our health care services
5.30pm – A life of debt: The marketisation of education

Plus live music from The Bandana Collective and POG.

More info at http://freeuniversitybrighton.org/events/the-peoples-assembly-undercover/

Also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/157940194401182/

Demonstration against the cuts
A reminder too that the NUJ is backing a march and rally taking place in Manchester on Sunday 29 September to coincide with the Conservative Party conference. We shall be taking our banner and volunteers are needed to carry it.

Supported by the TUC and the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, tens of thousands of people are expected to travel from around the country to show their feelings about cuts to jobs, services and benefits and in support of the NHS.

A special train is being laid on from London, while Brighton Trades Council has organised a coach from Brighton - £10 waged £2 unwaged. For a place on the coach, book here http://brightonnhscoach-es2.eventbrite.co.uk/?rank=1#.

The march will assemble at Liverpool Road, near the Museum of Science and Industry, at 11.00 and at 12.30 the march will set off via Deansgate and John Dalton Street for the rally in Whitworth Park, opposite the Manchester Royal Infirmary, at around 14.00.
http://thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/march-and-rally-sunday-29-september-2013/