Tag: Barnsley

Barnsley Budget Day Protest

George Osborne kindly popped into Barnsley yesterday and helped to release 300 black balloons, to remember Public Sector job losses in Barnsley Council over the last year.

Emergency Budget demo – 8th July

A demonstration is scheduled to take place at Barnsley Town Hall during lunchtime on Wednesday 8th July 2015, in protest against the Chancellor’s austerity budget.

300 black (environmentally friendly) balloons will be released at 12.30pm (prompt) to symbolise the 300 jobs lost in Barnsley Council last year.

Please come along and support the event but please will you also promote the event by distributing the attached flyer amongst your networks and by encouraging your friends, family and colleagues to do the same.

Download the flyer: July 8th demo

Unite Radical Library

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80 plus books for the Unite Radical Library, donated by generous comrades from Sheffield. Just need entering into the computer and then putting on the shelves in the correct order.

Peoples’ Assembly 20th June

It’s looking like the Peoples Assembly demo in London on Saturday 20 June is going to be huge and important as part of the fight back. We will add travel details to this post as we get them, so check back often.

Barnsley: The bus will leave from Eldon St (opposite Gateway Cinema) at 7.30am.  Tickets are £14 waged, £5 unwaged & students. You can book your ticket by emailing or call 07837996888.

Doncaster: Our coaches will leave Doncaster Market Place, outside the Premiere Inn, at 7.30am, and return from London at 6pm.

Huddersfield: For more information and to book a seat, contact 07704202807 or 07814709853. £10 Unwaged, £20 Waged.

Sheffield: Coaches are leaving Paternoster Row, Sheffield outside The Hubs at 8am.

Durham: The coach will leave Durham at 6.00 am, picking up from the Students’ Union (Dunelm House) New Elvet and will then pick up at Darlington at 6.30am. £20 waged, £10 unwaged. It would be greatly appreciated if you could make the payment by 13th June, at the People’s Bookshop, Durham (open Thurs-Saturday 12 – 6pm). Facebook page here.

Save Our Children’s Centres

childrencentres_front-440x250Barnsley Council are being called upon to reverse the decision to cease the provision of day care services in nine of the town’s children’s centres.

Why is this important?

The proposed changes to services across our town’s children’s centres will have a devastating impact on our communities and will leave thousands of children and families without adequate early years services.

Please sign the 38 Degrees petition here.

Barnsley Book launch of “In Loving Memory of Work”

Barnsley Trades Council, in conjunction with the Civic Gallery, is proud to announce the Barnsley launch of the award-winning book, “In Loving Memory of Work” written and curated by Barnsley born designer Craig Oldham. The book is a visual record of the 1984-85 miners’ strike, gathering together a vast range of visual artefacts from the strike including pictures of badges, cartoons, postcards and photographs. The book has a foreword written by film-maker Ken Loach.

The book has already had launches in Manchester (where Craig now lives) and London earlier this year. The Barnsley launch will be in the Civic Gallery, Hanson Street from 5pm (to 7.30pm) on Thursday June 4th. There will be display boards showcasing much of the work contained in the book. “In Loving Memory of Work” will be on sale during the evening. All profits from the book go to the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign.

The backdrop for this pop-up exhibition drawn from “In Loving Memory of Work” will be the V. And A. Museum touring exhibition “A World To Win” currently on show in the Civic Gallery. This is an exhibition of protest and revolutionary posters.

Two Barnsley artists, Paul Morton and Alan Hardman, are highlighted in the book, and in the Barnsley launch. Paul Morton produced a series of ‘Support the Miners’ postcards for Leeds Postcards during the strike. Paul has a long history of producing politically committed graphic design. The profits went to the miners’ Hardship Fund and raised over £20,000. Alan Hardman created a series of scathing political cartoons for “The Militant” newspaper during the strike. Both artists will be showing their work in the exhibition.

All three artists will speak about the significance of the miners’ strike to them and about the artwork produced during the strike. The discussion will be chaired by Dave Gibson, chair of Barnsley Trades Council.

Since its publication earlier this year the book has achieved significant critical acclaim. It has won two awards in the D and AD [Design and Art Direction] annual awards (www.dandad.org ) which have international credibility. One award is given for the unique cover of the book – produced out of coal-dust gathered from the Barnsley Main muckstack!

Craig Oldham was born days after the miners’ strike ended. Both his father and grandfather were striking miners. His father Mick was arrested at Orgreave and the picture of his arrest appears in “In Loving Memory of Work”. Part of the book’s power comes from the fact that Craig has such a personal family connection to the strike and his support for the miners is strongly evident.

Craig studied at Holgate School and Barnsley College before going to Falmouth University. He studied Graphic Design A Level as one of his A Level choices at Barnsley College and continued with that subject at Falmouth. He now has his own Design company based in Manchester and is a frequent guest lecturer to university Graphics students.

Craig explained what inspired him to produce the book: “I was brought up with stories about the strike. The hardship endured and the humour generated were formative influences in my life. Before the 30th anniversary of the strike I had a conversation with David Sinclair from the Civic gallery which inspired me to start collecting material for the book. The more I collected the more I realised how the visual material of the strike – apart from photographs – has been largely ignored.

“I hope my book can help get across the significance of the strike to a younger generation. And I hope people will appreciate the enormous creativity the strike unleashed.

“For me, producing the book was an intensely personal experience. But it’s not just my family story – thousands of families have the same story around the country. I hope the book gives my mum, my dad and my grandad, a platform to explain the importance of the strike to them.”

Trades Council secretary, Brian Steele, said, “We are very pleased to be working with the Civic gallery to give “In Loving Memory of Work” a Barnsley launch. This event follows on from our screening of “Still The Enemy Within” which was a great success. We urge everyone who is interested in the strike to come to this book launch.”

Trades Council chair, Dave Gibson, said, “The Civic’s ‘A World to Win’ poster exhibition is a perfect setting for Craig’s inspirational visual material from the miners’ strike. The two exhibitions together – and the discussion with the three Barnsley artists – will be a celebration of Barnsley’s creative talents. ‘In Loving Memory of Work’ is an amazing book which deserves to be widely known in Barnsley.”

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A history of Barnsley punk, then and now…

This week’s mixtape explores the musical history of Barnsley’s punk scene. Much of what is here has been sourced from the people in the bands. It’s not a definitive history by any means, but it is a start! Many band’s didn’t record, their recordings are lost or have not been digitised, so many bands you may remember, aren’t always easy to come across online.

Read more here.

Barnsley says no to Cameron’s cuts

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David Cameron graced Barnsley with his presence on Saturday. OK, it wasn’t the real David Cameron, who probably wouldn’t be seen within miles of a town like Barnsley. However, the boos that just a protester in a mask attracted gave a clue to the kind of reception that the real Cameron would attract, if he ever dared to set foot in the town that his beloved predecessor Margaret Thatcher tore the heart from.

It is fair to say that Barnsley has suffered disproportionately from Tory cuts over the last thirty years. Pit closures hang like a pall over the town and now that Barnsley’s current biggest employer, the public services sector is facing further cuts, the future doesn’t look like it is going to get brighter any time soon.

The protest, organised by TUSC, drew together people from a range of groups. The South Yorkshire Freedom Riders (a group formed to campaign for the reinstatement of free public transport for pensioners) were there, as were the Barnsley Green Party, campaigners to save their local Sure Start – Worsbrough Common Rising Stars (sign the petition here), the Socialist Workers Party, NHS employees and a range of trade unions.

Although Saturday’s protest was modest in numbers, it points to the way ahead. We need solidarity across a range of groups if we are to resist cuts to our vital services and build more cohesive, compassionate communities. Movements grow from the ground up. We can’t rely on Westminster to make the changes that we want to see for us.

Barnsley Anti-Austerity Demo

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Saturday, May 23 at 12:00pm

May Day Green Barnsley

Come and raise your voice against more Tory cuts in Barnsley, that are crippling our local services to the poorest and most vulnerable.

Freedom Riders: Interesting response from Stagecoach

First off, we had another very successful Freedom Ride meeting in Barnsley library. It was decided that a group of us will go through to Sheffield this Saturday to join a demonstration against austerity and threatened Tory cuts. The demonstration starts at 12 in Devonshire Green (at far end of West Street). Some of us are catching the 11.14 train to Sheffield from Barnsley so you can meet at Barnsley station if you want (do allow time for queues at ticket office). Some people are going by bus. Do take note: anyone thinking of using the tram – it is not running into Sheffield from Meadowhall or from Sheffield train station.

We will have our banners on the demo in Sheffield. It is not a very long march, it is going to the Town Hall. We will also have leaflets to give out about our June 23rd demonstration at Sheffield station.

The meeting agreed to carry on with the lobby of Barnsley Council on Thursday June 4th from 9.30am to 10.30am. A number of people have agreed to contact their councillors to ask them for a new start from a new council. If you want details of how to contact your councillors then send back a reply to this email. The lobby will also be joined by the campaign against the Bedroom Tax and other groups fighting cuts.

The meeting also agreed to support the demonstration in London on Saturday June 20th, the People’s Assembly March against Austerity. 11 people put down to go on the coach which will be leaving Barnsley at 7.30am. It is a chance to put the Freedom Ride campaign on the map in London. If you would like to go email or phone/text me on 07985 028003.

Finally, 3 of us met the Managing Director of Stagecoach, Paul Lynch, to ask about the idea of them introducing a £1 flat fare outside of the 9.30am to 11pm time. He gave a number of reasons for not wanting to do that based on how he gets money from the PTE. We suggested a way that he could approach them and Tony is going to send a letter from the Freedom Riders arguing that Stagecoach’s ideas should be considered by the PTE.

Then Paul said that Stagecoach have decided to bring in a scheme that will allow the elderly with early medical appointments to travel free before 9.30am if they show their letter or appointment card. A trial scheme will be run for 6 months in Barnsley starting on June 15th. He wants to see how this trial works in Barnsley but anticipates extending it to the rest of South Yorkshire.

A further meeting has been arranged for Thursday 27th August to discuss how the trial has gone.

This is a good benefit for a number of the elderly who have early medical appointments. It is a long way short of what we want to return to but it shows that all the time we keep campaigning we keep winning a bit more.