Public meeting: Support NUJ and FBU strikers

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

Statement from NUJ asking for support for BBC journalists on strike

Dear colleague,

Can you afford to simply give away £100,000, £25,000 or even ‘just’ £10,000? Of course not.

But those are the kinds of sums every journalist faces losing under the BBC’s latest pension proposal.

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Latest news is that NUJ members at the BBC have rejected the latest management offer on pensions by 70%.

Reps will now meet to decide the next moves.

Update on strike days here, see leaflets below for the NO case

A new leaflet, Open Channel, has been issued by BBC staff against the pensions robbery.

Latest leaflet from BBC reps against the pensions offer

Under the name, Open Channel, a coalition of NUJ and Bectu reps are campaigning for a no vote in the ballot on the BBC’s latest pension offer.

Download a copy here to read and distribute to your work colleagues. Here are highlights of the leaflet below.


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Staff at the BBC are striking on the 5 and 6 October over threats to their pensions. The national strike will take BBC’s coverage of the Tory Party conference off the airwaves. There will also be two-days of strikes later this month.

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Last year, the BBC’s Newsbeat programme interviewed two “ordinary” members of the BNP and gave them anonymity. It transpired that rather than being just any old members, the two were leading lights. The BBC has now admitted that it broke its own code in not reporting who the two were and that their views should have been challenged more. Press Gazette has the story

The strategy of denying a platform to fascists will be one of the key issues discussed at the NUJ Left conference later this month.

Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite Against Fascism, will lead the debate on the subject brought again into focus following the BBC’s decision to invite BNP leader Nick Griffin onto Question Time.

The NUJ Left conference will debate our response to the far right and our industrial tactics

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The BBC’s outrageous decision to announce its intention to invite the BNP onto Question Time has understandably caused outrage on the left.

Unite Against Fascism was quick to condemn the move and has launched a campaign, which it is hoping will gain traction among the unions, calling on BBC management to reverse their decision.

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What exactly is Stephen Glover admitting to in his attack on the BBC in the Independent today?

The Indie’s media columnist complains the BBC suffocates newspaper publishers’ ability to charge for online content.

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Blogger Jon Slattery is excited about a film being shown on BBC4 tomorrow about Rose Hacker, who was billed as the ‘oldest columnist in the world’ in her weekly slot in Jon’s local paper.

Rose, who Jon describes as “a remarkable woman”, was a committed socialist and anti-war campaigner who wrote for the Camden New Journal and Islington Tribune until she died last year aged 101.

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