Edinburgh Anarchists

Privatisation for council services, climate-change promoting oil-intensive industries. Opposite concerns? No, linked by the need for the rich to keep making money off of our backs. Fight one, you should fight the other too.

Handily, you can do one then the other, with time for coffee in between

Join the Lobby of Edinburgh City Council

Thursday 19 August 8.30am, Quadrangle Edinburgh City Chambers.

We will  call on the council not to privatise our services and not to cut our jobs and attack our working conditions
STOP THE CUTS – FIGHT FOR EVERY JOB – DON’T PRIVATISE OUR SERVICES

Edinburgh Council leader Jenny Dawe said: “The council faces increasingly difficult financial times in the years ahead due to the unprecedented nature and scale of the global recession and the UK budget deficit. This will be starkly reflected in the government settlements we can expect”. Edinburgh City Council aims to cut it’s budget by more than £90 million by 2012 and states it will be forced to “slash” core services. Council chiefs have short-listed 15 firms to take part in talks about running everything from bin collections to school meals and payroll.

” We need to lobby the council and urge them” : NOT TO CARRY OUT THE TORIES “DIRTY WORK”

Bring banners, placards, loud hailers but more importantly get others to come along. Already in Edinburgh we have had great victories against school closures, community centre closures, outsourcing of care services and the bin workers have shown great strength in resisting the cut of thousands of pounds in wages by voting recently to reject the councils deal. All our public services and thousands of jobs are at stake, which means we need to raise our level of struggle into a mass coalition of all those prepared to fightback against every attack on services, jobs and against privatisation. JOIN THE LOBBY on Thursday 19th August

And then there’s the Climate Camp “swoop”

SWOOP TO TAKE THE LAND

Thursday 19th August 2010, 12 noon, Edinburgh

This year, once again, there will be an exciting public swoop to take the land for the Camp for Climate Action 2010.

Everyone is invited to join, whether on foot or bike. The more people that join us the more successful it will be.

HOW DO I JOIN THE SWOOP?

1) CHOOSE A MEET-UP POINT Firstly, select your meet-up point in Edinburgh for the day of the Swoop. Each spot will be greeted by a different flag on the day:

• The Castle Gates will be greeted by the Black and Green flag
• St Andrews Square will have the Pink flag
• Bristo Square there will be a Rainbow flag
• The Bike B-loch will be meeting in the car park at Duddingston Loch accompanied by the Skull and Cross Bone flag.

2) SIGN UP FOR SWOOP TEXTS Sign your phone number up to our text messaging alert system. Please do this! It will keep everyone in the loop as we collectively swoop to take the land. Sign up at: http://climatecamp.org.uk/actions/edinburgh-2010/swoop and remember your phone on the day!

4) GO TO YOUR MEET-UP POINT Arrive at your chosen swoop point by 12 noon on Thursday 19th August, look out for your flag, and prepare for action!

BUDGET DAY PROTEST

Tuesday 22nd June

Rally 6pm at the Mound, Edinburgh
March to Charlotte Square

STOP THE TORY CUTS
SAVE OUR PUBLIC SERVICES
DEFEND JOBS – MAKE THE BANKERS PAY

Demo backed by;
Edinburgh Trade Union Council, Fire Brigades Union Scotland, PCS Scotland. Unite Voluntary Sector Branch, Unite Scottish Housing Branch, Communication Workers No.2 Branch, Industrial Workers of the World Edinburgh Branch, Right to Work Campaign, Edinburgh Support Workers’ Action Network (SWAN), Positive Action in Housing, Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty, Save Our Homecare Services, Anarchist Federation Edinburgh Branch, Edinburgh Stop the War Group.

The new Tory-Lib Dem Coalition government is preparing to unleash a savage attack on public services. The emergency budget on the 22nd of June will contain unprecedented cuts to the services that people need and deserve.

In Edinburgh a group of trade union representatives, community activists, campaign groups and student activists have come together to build for a Day of Action ”against the cuts”. A rally and march will take place in Edinburgh on Tuesday 22^nd June (the day the “emergency” budget is announced).

The event in Edinburgh against the cuts will coincide with similar rallies in Glasgow, Dundee & Aberdeen as well as across most major cities throughout the rest of the UK.

The rally will gather at 6pm at the Mound, and march to Charlotte square.

"I look like a bit of a Gene Hunt. At least I think they said that."

There is now so little difference between political parties that even groups without a critique of electoral politics have difficulty in motivating people to vote. Once it gets to June, you will have an emergency budget forcing through massive cuts in public spending to pay for the attempt to save the bankrupt economic model of the last 20 years. The only argument has been as meaningful as whether this should happen on a Tuesday or a Thursday.

Reflecting this, maybe without realising it, Labour and the Tories are now making use of the same campaign graphics with slightly different slogans. We don’t have a choice of futures in this election, we have a choice of brands with the differences less clear than those between Pepsi & Coke.

Put that and the lame attempts at meme-formation together and the logic is clear: the next election will see old-fashioned things like manifestos go the same way as policies, and they will be replaced by LOLcats.

Always ahead of the curve, here’s our first draft.

LOLcat Manifesto first draft