Oxford Respect mobilises for national anti-war protest

Another large turnout from Oxford at the national 'No Trident- Troops Out' demonstration this Saturday. Two full STWC/CND coaches and many more making their way down by Oxford tube. Once again tens of thousands took to the streets in a noticably young and diverse protest, which will serve to increase the presure on Blair and Brown to end the tragic British involvement in Iraq.

The presure will be maintained on local pro war Labour MP Andrew Smith with a lobby of his surgery planned for next Friday and a local 'No Trident-Troops Out' protest organised for March 17th (details to follow).

March 3rd - National day of action for the NHS! No cuts, No privatisation !

As part of the national campaign against health cuts and creeping privatisation of the NHS there will be a local march and rally on Saturday MARCH 3rd.

Assemble 11.30am for 12 noon departure from Bonn Square, Oxford. Rally 1pm Manzil Way, off Cowley Rd.

The protest is in support of the national initiative by joint NHS unions 'NHS Together' organised by the Oxford & District Trades Union Council, Keep Our NHS Public and UNISON Oxfordshire Health.

For more information See:

http://www.keepournhspublic.org.uk/

Oxford Lib Dems and New Labour- talking tough on climate change……then cutting the budget for council house energy efficiency grants

In 2005 Oxford City Council produced an adventurous Climate Change Action Plan for the city aimed at establishing CO2 reduction targets and improving energy efficiency in the Council’s building stock.

Oxford Climate Change Action plan in PDF format: http://www.oxford.gov.uk/files/meetingdocs/32031/item%207%20part%202.pdf

As part of this process a budget was established to help council house owners undertake energy efficiency improvements. These funds were originally allocated to insure that any energy saving improvements would be cost neutral to the occupier, with the understanding that the initiative would eventually be self financing for the Council.

However at this Monday’s full council meeting (12th Feb) both the Lib Dems and Labour will propose budgets cutting by £150,000 the money available for energy efficiency improvements.

Only last week a report confirming the impact of human actions on global warming was published by the IPCC – the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The study stated that human induced carbon emissions will almost certainly increase global temperature rise far beyond the danger threshold – this will cause massive loss of life, species loss, humanitarian and economic catastrophe.

These Lib Dem and Labour proposals demonstrate that both groups are backtracking on their widely trumpeted commitment to tackle Climate Change at a local level. It also means that Oxford Council House dwellers are loosing out on a chance to improve the long term energy efficiency of their homes.

If you wish to join Respect and other campaigning groups in protesting at the proposed cuts then please e-mail the following councillors who will be proposing the Labour and Lib Dem budgets on Monday.

cllrbprice@oxford.gov.uk Labour
cllreturner@oxford.gov.uk Labour
cllrjgoddard@oxford.gov.uk Lib Dems
cllrstall@oxford.gov.uk Lib Dems

Respect's national policy on Climate Change can be read here:
http://www.respectcoalition.org/index.php?ite=920

Come clean Mr Smith, will you vote to waste £76bn on Trident?

Oxford Respect members were out campaigning on Barns Road this weekend, demanding that East Oxford New Labour MP Andrew Smith make his position on Trident clear.

The question is why waste £76bn on a system we don’t need, can never use, don’t control and even military analysts agree we don’t have to take a decision on for another 15 years?

The fear is that when Trident replacement is voted on in March New Labour MP’s will dutifully file into the yes lobby without any pretence to a public debate.

Oxford Respect is calling on Andrew Smith to take a stand and sign the EDM (Early Day Motion) calling on a full public consultation on Trident replacement.

For details of the Early Day Motion See:

http://edmi.parliament.uk/EDMi/EDMDetails.aspx?EDMID=32245&SESSION=885

For details of the ‘No Trident- Troops Out’ protest on Feb 24th see below.