Journalists have been in the thick of the action, reporting from demonstrations such as Tahrir Square in Cairo and Alexandria. But last week, when the pro-Democracy demonstrators were attacked by Mubarak supporters, media workers came under attack themselves with many being beaten or arrested.

Repression of media in Egypt

One journalist has already died. The International Federation of Journalists has reported the death of journalist Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud, who died in hospital  in Cairo after being shot by a sniper on Monday last week.

“The journalist, aged 39, worked for the A’wada newspaper, a part of the Al Ahram media group. His death comes after a week of continuing unrest that has seen journalists and media staff among those targeted by groups loyal to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.” (IFJ website).

The NUJ website reports:

“Targeted assaults on journalists working for CNN, CBS, the BBC, Danish TV2 News, Swiss television, Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper, Associated Press, Russia’s Zvezda television channel, Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT, Polish television TVP and al-Arabiya TV. In addition to this, the Egyptian authorities had also shut down the Cairo office of Al-Jazeera Satellite television network on Sunday and briefly detained its journalists.”

The NUJ and international bodies such as the International Federation of Journalists and African Journalists have been exposing the state repression of treatment of media workers and campaigning for their release. There is a danger that these widespread attacks are an attempt to drive the media out of Egypt in order to aid the repression of the rebellion against Mubarak.

For more information check the NUJ and IFJ websites

Solidarity with Egyptian protesters

The TUC is organising an urgent demonstration for 2pm this Tuesday, 8 February, outside the Egyptian Embassy – as part of the ITUC international day of action.

NUJ members along with the banner were at the Whitehall, London, demonstration on the 25 November with general secretary Jeremy Dear saying they were kettled in for 3 hours or more. Messages of support were read out on the march and at occupations such as University of Central London (Rare FM soundfile). Head of the civil service union Mark Serwotka also delivered a message of support to the students in occupation: http://bit.ly/el1jQU

NUJ president Pete Murray and other unions member visited the occupations in London including London South Bank University, where students have just won an important victory.

Vice President Donnacha DeLong and NEC member Barbara Goulden visited the South Bank occupation on Friday and they joined the students’ victory march around the building. The union’s National Executive Council passed a motion of support when they returned:
This NEC congratulates students in Southbank and SOAS on the successful outcome of their occupations. NEC expresses its solidarity with all students continuing occupations and those who do so in the future to oppose education cuts. NEC further expresses solidarity with students and schoolchildren who demonstrated this week and those who will demonstrate on Tuesday and in the future. NEC agrees to encourage NUJ members to join in solidarity with students and schoolchildren fighting cuts and calls on our sister unions to do the same.

Union members at the Financial Times invited a student from the UCL occupation to address a chapel meeting and collected more than £100.

The NUJ left supports the struggles of the students fighting back against tuition fees, the abolition of the EMA and education cuts. We are in favour of the greatest unity between students and workers in fighting back against the Con-Dem cuts.

We will be out demonstrating tomorrow, 30 November, along with the students.

A public meeting in south London on the eve of the BBC and FBU strikes will be addressed by leading members of the unions involved:

• Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ)
• Becky Branford, BBC NUJ member
• Ian Leahair, from the national executive of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU)

Salvation Army Hall, Princess Street, Elephant and Castle, SE1 6HH, at 7pm on Thursday 4 November.

The meeting has been organised by local campaign group Southwark Save Our Services.

More details on NUJ website, what you can do to help.

Background to the BBC dispute

The attacks on these workers will lead to loss of pay and jobs, worse working conditions, and undermine the safety of our public services.

Unions attacked

The FBU and RMT are also being attacked because they are militant left unions which have defended their members over the years. These attacks are no doubt co-ordinated at Boris Johnson’s London administration and have the full support of the Con-Dem government.

If the RMT and FBU are defeated then this would demoralise other sections of workers who are facing the massive Con-Dem cuts.

Media attacks

The media have vilified both firefighters and Tube workers in attempt to isolate them and soften them up for attack. Workers on strike are rightly angry about the coverage they have been receiving.

We in the NUJleft are also angered by the attacks on our fellow brothers and sisters. Most journalists have nothing to do with these attacks, which are usually orchestrated by management.

The very week that the Firefighters and RMT are on strike, NUJ staff at the BBC are also striking in defence of their pensions. They too have been vilified with claims that staff have gold-plated pensions when it’s the management with the slush funds and pension top up schemes.

Many journalists are suffering from attacks on jobs, wages, and terms and conditions the same as firefighters and tube workers.

Solidarity

We believe that all workers in struggle against the cuts should stand together.

• We encourage all NUJ members to visit FBU and RMT picket lines and hold collections at work for them and the BBC workers.
• Invite strikers to your chapel or branch meetings.
• Get involved in local anti-cuts committees and public meetings. Help spread the message why people are on strike and fighting back
• Challenge where possible poor or partial reporting in the media of the strikes.

Victory to the striking firefighters, tube workers and BBC journalists.

The three main unions at the BBC: NUJ, Bectu and Unite are organising the action in protest against plans to cut pensions. NUJ members voted by more than 90 per cent to strike.

The top brass at the BBC are proposing to cut the link between salary and pension by putting a one percent cap on any pension increase. Managers claim that the pension fund is in debt to nearly £2 billion – this is rejected by the three unions: NUJ, Bectu and Unite.

The pension attack is part of a series of attacks on the BBC and its staff such as pay, threats to the World Service and government intentions to sell-off parts of the public body.

The NUJ Left supports the strikes and will be visiting picket lines across the county. Please download this petition, get you’re fellow workers to sign it and take it along to a picket line near you.

The NUJ is actively supporting Charles and is campaigning for him to be given indefinite leave to remain in the UK (he lives and works in Scotland)

Tomorrow he has a bail hearing in London and the NUJ will be present supporting him.

Protest on Thursday 12th August at 14.00 in London, Taylor House,  88 Rosebery Avenue, case number EC1R 4QU.

Read here for more about the campaign and the concerns over safety of journalists and human rights activists in Cameroon

Hundreds of striking BA cabin crew and their supporters were in high spirits at dispute HQ – just across the road from London’s massive Heathrow airport.
Scores of pickets were on duty from 6am and persistent rain failed to dampen the resolve of the Unite union members who are fighting to save jobs and their hard won terms and conditions.
Rows of BA planes parked up inside the airport were a clear indicator that the stoppage was biting.

Solidarity

The strikers – who have been under attack from politicians and the bosses’ media – were pleasantly surprised by the level of support.
Other airport workers joined the picket and passing bus and lorry drivers tooted their horns in support of the pickets.
Local fire fighters offered shelter to strikers, and BA workers not involved in the dispute sneaked out hot drinks to their picketing colleagues.
Supporters from other Unite branches, sister unions and socialist and environmental campaigns swelled the numbers for a rally which was addressed by local Labour MP John McDonnell and Unite general secretary candidate Len McCluskey.
Jerry Hicks, who also plans to contest the union leadership election, was at the rally.
The anger of the crowd was focused on BA boss Willie Walsh who earns £750,000 a year, plus bonuses, but is out to cut the pay and conditions of low paid airline workers.
“Willie! Willie! Willie! Out! Out! Out!” was the chant of choice.
The cabin crew are on strike tomorrow (Sunday) and Monday. They are out again next weekend.

Support

The strikers were clearly buoyed up by the support of other trades unionists. You can text messages straight to the picket line on 07850 905787.
Visit the strike HQ at Bedfont F.C., The Orchard, Hatton Road, Bedfont, Middlesex, TW14 8QT. There’s free tea and cake, a bar, and a big screen to watch the news from elsewhere.
Send the strikers support, or ask for a speaker, at office@bassa.co.uk

More here

Accepting the prestigious award on the last day of congress, the annual gathering of trade unionists, she paid tribute to her husband, Kevin, who she described as “a thorn in the side of the bosses”.

Anita, re-elected today as the PR and information rep on the NUJ NEC, listed the advances made in the 20 years since she was a first-time congress delegate and highlighted the work that still needs to be done.

While overall there is now a greater diversity in delegations, she said it is “still far short of being truly representative”.

“More women delegates but still only just over one in three and, at least this year I thought, an increasing number of women speakers.

“The LGBT and disability conferences have become motions-based – as, hopefully, will the young members’ forum – providing lay activists with a greater democratic voice.

“And the voice of the lay members is heard more at our congress now the equality conferences bring a motion to this floor.

“This year, the trades councils finally came home with their conference’s first motion. Again hopefully, the young members will join our debates next year.”

She said there was now more of an international flavour to TUC debates. In a reference to an earlier address by Salvador Valdes Mesa, general secretary of the Cuba Workers’ Group of Affiliated Trade Unions, Anita added: “Comrades, who would have thought 20 years ago that congress would give a standing ovation to a Cuban trade union leader in the 50th anniversary of the glorious Cuban revolution.”

She thanked Kevin, her “husband and comrade of 35 years” for his support, saying: “Kevin was a child of the depression; his grandmother died in the workhouse. He left school at 13, and led his first strike at 15.

“Since then he has been a thorn in the side of the bosses. Sometimes he even took on the TUC. Indeed, the first time I was at Congress House was outside lobbying the general council to call for the repeal of all anti-trade union laws.”

She added that she was proud of the NUJ for its role in making this repeal TUC policy.

“My union now has a young leadership with Jeremy Dear and our new deputy general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, a sister of whom I am immensely proud,” Anita said.

She closed with a rallying call to continue the fight against the far right, saying: “I learned my politics from my parents – both anti-fascist refugees from Nazi Germany.

“I know they would have been extremely heartened by the way our trade union movement has taken up the struggle against the re-emergence of the far right.

“Sisters and brothers, I wish you well in this and all the fights we still face.”

Referring to the silent vigil delegates and visitors held earlier in the week to remember the victims of racism and fascism, she said: “At the beginning of the week we said, ‘not in my name’.”

Clenching her fist in the air, she added: “At the end of the week I say, ‘no pasaran’.”

As a former chief reporter who covered Bromley for a south east London weekly, one of my reliable contacts was Glenn Kelly, the local council’s Unison branch secretary.

I can attest to the fact that, as you would expect from a socialist, he worked tirelessly to protect and promote the rights and interests of council workers and service users. My former colleagues who covered Greenwich would say the same about Onay Kasab.

As well as fighting for their members’ terms and conditions, they always ensured Unison’s concerns and campaigns were kept in the public eye, bringing to wider notice important issues that might otherwise have gone unreported.

I have no doubt that they have significantly contributed to raising the public perception of workers at those two councils over the years. And as a result of their work, the public is also more informed about the consequences of outsourcing and cost-cutting in local government.

Crucially, again as you’d expect from socialists, they always acted with integrity in their dealings with us as journalists. This of course not only made them trustworthy sources – both on and off the record – but raised the profile of trade unionism, which can only have had a positive effect on our chapel.

The Unison leadership must be aware how well served workers, service users and the wider public have been by these long-standing activists, which makes this ruling even more troubling.

It is not just these activists’ contributions to building a fighting union at grassroots level that is at stake here. Glenn and other trade unionists like him recognise the power of the press and the benefits of keeping in close contact with journalists, particularly in local media.

While the Unison leadership have blatantly sought to rid themselves, at least for a few years, of four activists who provided a visible and vocal counterpoint to New Labour orthodoxy, Prentis and his allies also risk undermining the ability of the union to communicate effectively with the public its members serve.

This is not just an attack on militant trade unionism and socialism; on a wider level it has implications for accountability and democracy in local government.

Supporters of the four activists will be protesting outside Unison headquarters in Mabledon Place, London, at 12pm on Thursday 30 July.

To donate to the campaign make cheques payable to ‘Stop the witch-hunt’ and post to: Defend the Four campaign, PO Box 858, London, E11 1YG.

The campaign is also asking for messages of protest to be posted to Unison HQ or emailed to general secretary Dave Prentis d.prentis@unison.co.uk

Send copies of protest statements to the campaign postal address above or info@stopthewitchhunt.org.uk