From the Geelong Trades Hall Council blogsite:
Get online to help defend sacked workers
Send an email to City of Greater Geelong CEO and Councillors against their decision to sack ASU members Mick Van Beek and Peter Anderson!
The ASU is appalled at the decision handed down by the City of Greater Geelong to sack union members Mick Van Beek and Peter Anderson.To support Mick and Peter, click on this link:
http://www.asu.asn.au/campaign/cogg2009-07/protest/protest_form.htmlhttp://www.asu.asn.au/campaign/cogg2009-07/protest/protest_form.html
to send an email protest form to the CEO and Councillors at the City of Greater Geelong. It will take less than a minute!The pair were unjustly given their marching orders after they filled in two pot holes that were hazardous to elderly patrons of the Leopold Sportsman Club last November during their lunch break, receiving two free steak sandwiches at management's insistence a week later.Assistant Secretary Igor Grattan has announced the ASU will doing everything within its power to help Van Beek and Anderson get their jobs back.
To support Mick and Peter, click here http://www.asu.asn.au/campaign/cogg2009-07/protest/protest_form.html send an email protest form to the CEO and Councillors at the City of Greater Geelong.
It will take less than a minute!More information can be found at:
http://www.asuvic.asn.au/geelong_workers_sacked.pdf
http://www.asu.asn.au/media/localgovt/20090729_steaksandwich.html
by Adam Price MP
Er gwaetha’r cynnydd yng nghefnogaeth y Blaid a’n llwyddiant yn ein cadarnleoedd, mae’r anfadwaith bod pleidiau cenedlaetholaidd Prydeining wedi gwneud bron cystal a’r Blaid Genedlaethol Gymreig yn yr Etholiadau Ewropeaidd yng Nghymru dal yn fy mhoeni. Gobiethio bod hyn yn pigo cydwybod pob gwladgarwr wnaeth aros gatre, ond mae’n gyfrifoldeb arna i ofyn beth a ellir gwneud yn well neu’n wahanol. Yn hen draddodiad y trioedd, dyma dair, taer awgrym.
Rhaid i ni beidio ymddiheuro am ein cenedlaetholdeb. Yn oes globaleiddio mae gwleidyddiaeth hunaniaeth a’r amgen am ail-wreiddio grym gwleidyddol mewn cymunedau lleol a chenedlaethol yn ganolog i’n cyfnod. Dyna yn rhannol sydd wrth wraidd twf y Dde Brydeinig; consyrn gwirioneddol am bwer anatebol, boed yn sefydliadau Ewropeaidd annemocrataidd neu gorfforaethau’n ecsploetio llafur rhad.
Ein cyfrifoldeb a’n cyfle fel cenedlatholwyr Cymreig yw dangos bod yna ddewis amgen i hunaniaeth Brydeinig, hiliol y BNP (fyddai yn hala Colin Jackson ‘adre’, ond nid y mewnfudwr i Faldwyn, Gauleiter Griffin) a gwrth-Gymreig UKIP (sydd am ddileu’r Cynulliad ynghyd ag unrhyw fesur o ddwyieithrwydd). Mae hyn yn golygu gwella’n gallu i gynhyrchu negeseuon syml, gafaelgar: mi oedd neges UKIP, a’r BNP, dim ots pa mor wyrdroedig, yn hawdd i’w cofio ac yn uniongyrchol. Rhaid i ni greu neges o genedligrwydd cynhwysol Gymreig sydd yr un mor rymus emosiynol.
Yn ail, mae rhaid i ni dargedu’r dosbarth gweithiol sydd wedi eu bradychu gan Lafur newydd ac sydd nawr yn chwilio am gartref gwleidyddol newydd. Ar wahan i’r Cymoedd, mae’r Blaid wedi bod yn blaid y dosbarth canol Cymraeg am gyfran helaeth o’i bodolaaeth. Pan ymunodd fy nheulu i a’r Blaid yn ystod Streic y Glowyr, roedd e’n dipyn o sioc ddiwylliant i’r Blaid yn lleol. O fewn rhai misoedd, mi holltodd y gangen yn ddau: un yn cwrdd yn Neuadd Les y Glowyr a’r llall yn hen dy rheolwr yr Ammanford Colliery Company a oedd bellach yn ‘country club’ y Wernoleu. Mae’r Blaid a Rhydaman wedi mynd ar siwrnai gwleidyddol ers y ddyddiau hynny – ond os ydym am wireddu ein potensial fel yr ydym yn Sir Gar ac yn hen ardaloedd y chwareli, rhaid i ni droi nid yn unig yn Blaid Cymru, ond plaid pobl cyffredin trwy Gymru gyfan.
Yn olaf, mae rhaid i ni ffurfio cynghreiriau. Hen alwad gen i erbyn hyn, ond mae’r canlyniadau diwedderaraf a llwyddiant y Dde yn arbennig yn profi’r angen am gydweithio ar y Chwith. Pe bae’r Gwyrddion yng Nghymru wedi cytuno i’n galwad ni am restr ar y cyd i’r Etholiadau yma mae’n siwr gen i y byddwn wedi dod yn gyntaf a, gyda phum mil ychwanegol o bleidleisiau, wedi llwyddo i guro UKIP gan roi i’r Gwyrddion Cymreig eu Haelod cyntaf yn Ewrop. Mae’r un peth yn wir am Mebyon Kernow a’r Gwyrddion yn Ne-Orllewin Lloegr fyddai wedi ennill sedd oddi wrth y Toriaid wrth sefyll ar y cyd. A’r Dde ar garlam, nawr yw’r amser i greu clymblaid enfys go iawn i ennill nid yn unig yn Ewrop ym 2014, ond yn bwysicach fyth, yng Nghymru 2011.
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IN ENGLISH
Despite the rise in Plaid’s support and our success in our strongholds, the villainy that British nationalist parties have done nearly as well as the Welsh National Party in the European elections still worries me. Hopefully this will prick the conscience every lover of our nation who stayed at home, but I have the responsibility of asking what can be done better or differently. In the old traditions of threes, here are three suggestions.
We must stop apologising for our nationalism. In a world of globalisation, identity politics and the alternative of re-rooting political power in local and national communities is central to our era. This, in part, is the root of the British Right’s growth: genuine concern about unaccountable power, in undemocratic European institutions or bodies exploiting cheap labour.
Our responsibility and our opportunity as Welsh nationalists is to show that there is alternative option to the British identifying, racist BNP (who would send Colin Jackson ‘home’, but not the Mongomeryshire immigrant, Gauleiter Griffin) and the anti-Welsh UKIP (who would abolish the Assembly as well as any level of bilingualism). This means improving our ability to produce simple, gripping messages: UKIP’s message, and the BNP’s, no matter how perverted, is easy to remember and direct. We have to create an inclusive Welsh nationalist message that has the same emotional force.
Secondly, we have to target the working classes who have been betrayed by New Labour and who are now looking for a new political home. Except for the Valleys, Plaid has been the party of middle-class Welsh speakers for a large part of its existence. When my family joined Plaid during the Miners’ Strike, it was a bit of a shock to the party’s local culture. Within a few months, the branch split in two: one meeting in the Miners’ Welfare Hall and the other in the old Ammanford Colliery Company manager’s house that was now the Wernoleu’s country club. Plaid and Ammanford have been on a political journey since those days – but if we are to achieve our potential as we are in Carmarthenshire and in the old quarry areas, we have to become not only a Party of Wales, but a party for all ordinary people across Wales.
Finally, we must form alliances. It’s an old call of mine by now, but recent results and the success of the Right especially prove the need for co-operation on the Left. If the Greens in Wales had agreed to our call for a joint list for these elections I’m sure we’d have come first and, with five thousand extra votes, succeeded in beating UKIP and given the Welsh Greens their first member in Europe. The same is true of Mebyon Kernow and the Greens in South-West England who would have won a seat from the Tories by standing together. With the Right on the rise, now is the time to create a real rainbow coalition to win not only in Europe in 2014, but more importantly, in Wales 2011.
