Marxist. Trade Unionist. Socialist-feminist. Author. Poet. Speaker. Tutor. RMT ex-Exec. Workers' Liberty. Autie. Bi. PUFC fan.
Battles against privatisation and cuts
Oh ticket office, ticket office, why
Is your fair window really gone for good?
However much I touch or hard I try
The robot can not serve me like you could
If you had closed 'cause I don't have to pay
If transport were a public service, free
I'd no more need to use you anyway
Or miss your glazed familiarity
But still the faceless charge a fortune fare
This article was published in Solidarity 360.
By Janine Booth, co-Chair, TUC Disabled Workers’ Committee (personal capacity)
Janine will be speaking about the experience of the London Underground Public-Private Partnership at a workshop at the World Social Forum, hosted by Observatoire Tunisien de l'Economie.
The workshop will bring together campaigners against PPP, and the London Underground experience is rich with lessons on what a disastrous policy it is and how to fight it.
Presentation by Janine Booth at AutismCon, January 2015
Despite our crusade to screw the low-paid
And the jobless and sick in our midst
They're parading their crimes in our nursery rhymes
And in fairy tales told to our kids
We just can not pander to this vile propaganda
So my job as benefits minister
Is to go through each rhyme, taking one at a time
And eliminate anything sinister
An ETF Women’s Committee meeting consists of the elected Committee members, representatives of each sector (railways, civil aviation, etc), guests from affiliated trade unions, local women trade unionists (this time, from Antwerp port), and ETF staff. At the next meeting, we will be joined by the newly-elected young women’s representative.
Women Working at Antwerp Port
Having begun working as a receptionist in 1975, Monique Verbeeck is the first female secretary of the Belgian port union, BTB. She is also the ITF and ETF women port workers’ representative. Monique introduced a deputation of women union activists from the Port of Antwerp, who addressed the meeting and took us on a visit to the port.
Country Reports
Spain
From 2007, the socialist government introduced equality legislation and a framework to demand action against sexism and harassment. But since then, the situation has been worsened by economic crisis, with equalities driven off the agenda, curbs on collective bargaining, crèches closed, and equality plans dropped.
Have a read of this: another scandal from City Hall. And here's a sonnet to (not) celebrate ...
I'm writing this verse on the toilet
A priv'lege that cost me the Earth
Forty p for to pee is an outrage
I'm determined to use all it's worth
I'll sit on the throne til my train comes
It's a platform, and I'm in no rush
They are piping departure announcements
Through a speaker that's next to the flush