18 April 2011
Delegate Chris Youett from Birmingham and Coventry NUJ gives a very full report of the NUJ delegate meeting recently held in Southport
6 April 2011
The National Union of Journalists has appointed its first women general secretary, Michelle Stanistreet. Michelle is currently the deputy general secretary and was one of only two nominations for the post of union leader. The other candidate, Chris Youett, withdraw his candidancy following the closure of the nomination period leaving Michelle the only runner for the post.
She will take up the position on 1 July after the retirement of Jeremy Dear, who has been General Secretary for two five-year terms.
Michelle will be speaking at an NUJ Left meeting at the union’s delegate meeting this week in Southport.
The meeting is on Friday in the main conference hall after the close of business in the evening. So if you want to hear her views about the union and question her on her policies then please come along.
There will also be an NUJ Left meeting on Thursday 7pm at the Lakeside suite.
24 March 2011
The NUJ will be joining other unions this Saturday in what promises to be the biggest march since the anti-war demonstration in February 2003. The TUC March for jobs and growth follows this week’s Budget from Chancellor George Osborne, which had to revise downward projected growth figures.
Osborne however is continuing with the ConDems fiscal tightening, which will lead to more job losses and cuts. Hundred of thousands of people will join the TUC demonstration and march for an alternative to cuts and job losses.
The NUJ will be assembling at the Embankment with other trade unionists from 11.00am onwards. Come along on Saturday and march with your union.
20 March 2011
South London’s Lorraine is building for the TUC demonstration against the cuts on 26 March. Watch it, get inspired, convince your friends and march with her on the 26.
7 March 2011
Part of our occasional series to show that we are not all po-faced killjoys, here are some well made posters for freelancers, especially failing ones.
From the Freelance Switch website in the US. The problems are the same everywhere it seems…
4 March 2011
Daily Star journalist Richard Peppiatt has quit over the tabloid’s made up stories and racism directed towards Muslim people. He said the last straw was when the paper wrote a positive story about the racist English Defence League (which also contained made-up facts).
Peppiatt wrote a letter to the Star’s proprietor Richard Desmond pointing a finger at the newspaper’s lying coverage as a factor in racist violence. “You may have heard the phrase, ‘The flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas.’ Well, try this: ‘The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke’s head caved in down an alley in Bradford.’
3 March 2011
Cultural secretary Jeremy Hunt has given the go-ahead for Rupert Murdoch to buy up the rest of BSkyB. Hunt refused to forward the deal to the Competition Commission after Murdoch gave assurances that Sky News would have an “independent” oversight trust.
16 December 2010
Just to show that we are all not po-faced lefties and we like a laugh, the admins on this site recommend this wonderful exposé of journalism today. Well done to BrooklynLee for doing the dialogue.
2 December 2010
The Communication Workers Union has launched a campaign, Keep the Post Public, against the Con-Dems plan to privatise Royal Mail. The Con Dems want to sell off Royal Mail with a sop of 10 per cent of the shares going to the workforce.
The Con-Dems claim that the service is losing money on letter delivery, despite increased use of technology, and the pension deficit is £10 billion – although as we have seen with the BBC, the size of these deficits are open to argument and often occur because the employer stops contributing or takes a “contributions holiday”.
29 November 2010
There have been a flurry of industrial action by journalists across the country as employers continue to sack people, enforce pay freezes and attack local news in order to boost profits.