On Sunday July 24th the sun shone on around 20 Green Party members & friends who shared organic strawberries & cream (Vegan & otherwise) as well as a glass of Pimms. The event helped raise around £40 and everyone enjoyed themselves.
Pot Painting Fundraiser
On June 22nd a few dedicated artists met together in Colourful Imaginations in Southchurch Road, Southend to paint a selected pot or statue. Much hilarity ensued whilst the "artists" put all their effort into creating a work of art. The pots were displayed at the Strawberry Fayre.
June Greenspeak
GREENS EXPRESS HORROR AT 10-HOUR SCHOOL DAY
Members of South East Essex Green Party debated with representatives of Education Otherwise, who teach their children at home, radical ideas for reclaiming the education system to cater for the needs of children, not using schools as dumping grounds, so that parents can work, and all present condemned the narrow based education that merely trained children for the workplace.
Led by the ex teachers in the group they expressed their horror that children will be expected to be in school for 10 hours having to cope with the stresses and strains and not being able to relax at home. Other points about schools were:
- children were not spoken to during the school day.
- An inflexible day that often interrupted children when they were concentrating and completely absorbed in their tasks
- To many tests-all in the group followed Green Party Policy to abolish SATS
- Schools allow peer group pressure so that the tendency is to misbehave and not study.
Irene Willis, who helped formulate the Greens Education policy, said," This meeting was just why the Green Party has organized these meetings to explore radical ways of looking at our society. Society is breaking down and we need to explore how we can bring back a sense of community. Maybe if we take the pressure off children and allow more time for discussion and perhaps teach parenting skills, then perhaps our young people will feel they are part of a community again."
"Maybe by working at home with parents, families will be able to support each other more than they do at the moment, when problems arise. Many parents end up forcing children into school where, and I acknowledge that many schools try to stop bullying, but they are bullied and unhappy. We to often read in the papers that children commit suicide. Also many children now take anti-depressants so something must be wrong. Although I know that teachers work hard and embark on this career because they want to work with children, as I did when I became a teacher, but the National Curriculem ruined my job.
Post-election meal at St Marks church
On May 7th, two days after the election, local Greens celebrated the results of the election. The delicious vegan and vegetarian food cooked by Ian and Noel was the talk of the evening and we are all very grateful for the time energy and knowledge of cookery that made such a meal possible. The election analysis was ever more ambitious as the evening progressed and this event seems set to become a regular part of the election campaign.
May Greenspeak
GREENS AND UNIONS DEMAND END OF RAIL PRIVATISATION
Members of the public and the South East Essex Green Party learned of the devastating impact of privatisation on the rail industry from members of the rail unions ASLEF and RMT at their monthly 'Greenspeak' discussion on Wednesday evening at the Railway Hotel in Clifftown Road, Southend.
The main thrust of the discussion at the meeting was the way the service had changed since privatisation.
- There has been a reduction of staffing
- The railways are now run for profit and for the shareholders, not the passengers or the workers
- Safety is no longer a priority, with safety norms under British rail having been removed
- The period of train driver training has been drastically reduced, from three years to just 18 weeks.
- In addition to a worse, less safe service, the subsidy from the taxpayer was now three times as high, and fares had increased.
Irene Willis of South East Essex Green Party, who organised the meeting, said, "The Green Party has always called for the return of the rail system to public ownership and is fully behind the RMT "Rail against privatisation" campaign.
"Greens believe that we must run a public transport system that is cheap and reliable, to persuade people to switch from roads as journeys by car must be reduced if we are to defeat climate change, a problem which Sir David King, the government's chief scientific advisor, assesses as more serious than terrorism. I'm very glad that we have unions like the RMT and ASLEF to fight this battle for us. They deserve our support."
April Greenspeak
CONSUMERISM DOES NOT MAKE YOU HAPPY
A distinctive view from the greens
Chris Keene, the Globalisation Campaigner for the Green Party, led the discussion called "Does a new kitchen every two years make you happy" which was based on a book called "GROWTH FETISH" by Clive Hamilton.
The Greens have always held the unique position that economic growth, in that they do not believe that acquiring consumables, above a certain level of prosperity, does not change how happy you are. In fact there is the theory that in our consumerist society, where what you own is what you are, your possessions own you rather than the other way round.
The greens believe that simply to measure countries wealth by economic factors as happens at the moment, leaves out the measure that of "The Quality of life" which involves how happy you are, how scared of crime. And what are your expectations. Interesting Statistics emerge like for the first time elderly people do not feel the next generation will have a better life.
Chris Keene said, "Here is one fact. It is about America, but it can be applied to us. Since 1946 the real incomes in the USA have increased by 400% yet the proportion of Americans reporting themselves as happy declined from 37% in 1957 to 30% in 1988. If you are poor in this country or in the third world yes money matters but once you reach certain level then wealth does not make you happy, instead your insecurity as you strive to acquire the latest gadget or bigger car increases tension as you work harder to earn the extra money. What people need, after their basic needs of food, water and shelter, is secure jobs, a feeling of community and friends and family, the latter now severely stretched by pursuing the false goals inspired by society and the media."
17/03/05
Ghost town Meeting
Firstly, I must explain "Ghost Town". The term was used by the New Economics Foundation for a one-day conference in London to launch the sustainable communities bill. This bill aims to regenerate and recreate our towns to be thriving shopping centers once more, by changing planning laws and the balance of power to stop the multinationals moving into our high Streets. They have written several reports, one of which is called Clone Town using surveys to show that all our town centers are the same. I intend to do this survey after the elections. I suggest that you look on the their website www.localworks.org where you can download these reports. The local speaker, Andy Chaney spoke of the difficulties facing his business, a third generation DIY wholesalers, when the competition is so fierce and prices can be undercut so readily.
Charles Secrett explained the purpose of the bill, and was very gracious about the small audience, urging us all to go out and spread the word and join the campaign. Whilst trying to advertise this meeting I actually talked to nearly all the small shopkeepers in Southend and I highlighted many problems, such as parking (a difficult ones for us) band the new trick is to look on the Internet at the products you want to buy. But if you are not sure then you pop to your local shop, look at the produce and then buy it off the Internet. One shopkeeper said that local retailers will die and there is nothing that could be done now that Internet shopping has arrived Forever the optimist I feel that all the systems we have in place, governing our behaviour were set up by us, whether we realised the consequences, that is another matter, but if we set them up then we can change them.
- Wholesalers, which form the retail infrastructure vital for the underpinning of local stores, have closed at the rate of six per week over the last two years, largely as a consequence of being side-tracked by supermarkets
- Similarly, over a five-year period VAT registrations for small-scale food manufacturers fell by almost 12 per cent
- The average person now travels 893 miles a year to shop for food
- Between 1997-2002 the number of UK farm workers fell by 100,000, leading to many rural homes being taken over by city commuters with much weaker links to the local community, and who are less likely to spend their money locally
- A voluntary code of conduct agreed to by the big four supermarkets governing their relationships with suppliers has not led to a single case being heard; suppliers are afraid to report breaches for fear of 'de-listing'
- According to the Campaign for Real Ale, 20 traditional pubs are closing every month across Britain
- In spite of government intervention and a commitment to keep post offices open in areas of high deprivation, branch closures increased in the year to March 2003 to a total of 345. In both rural and urban areas the branch network continues to shrink.l By the end of 2002 Britain had lost one-third of its bank branch network in a decade.
- A report by the Office of Fair Trading proposing deregulation of the community pharmacy sector threatened a potential closure rate for community pharmacies of around one per day.
RECYCLING WORKS-IT'S GREEN AND WILL STOP INCINERATORS
Paula Whitney, Essex Friends of the Earth, and the recycling officer from Southend Council, Karen Grant talked about the importance of recycling and the dangers of incineration in the areas of Southend and Essex at the Green speak public meeting.
Both Paula and Karen agreed that waste must not be seen as rubbish but as a rusable resource. People want to recycle as they see it as a way to be green, but it must be made as easy as possible, so that people have the least amount of inconvenience. Doorstep collection, separated at this point, is the answer as this produces the most valuable commodity as it is not polluted by food waste etc as it is if all the rubbish is put into a wheelie bin.
99% of garden waste was recycled on Mersea Island and 60%-70% of domestic waste, which shows that with the correct investment and education high recycling rates can be achieved. A good compusting scheme will educe the waste by 34%. The problem is that at the moment it is still to cheap to landfill, although of course this is becoming mporexexpensive. The danger of not recyclig ios that when the councils need to solve the waste problem , they will choose huge incinerators or MBT units as the easy answer.
Paula said, "I manage to recycle and compost everything and only throw away a minimal amount of rubbish. What you can recycle depends on what your local authority decides to collect. I take back to the source all the plastic I cannot recycle. It is a shame that there is so little plastic recycling as it could be used to replace hardwood."
Karen said," Southend is improving its recycling rates every year. We have opened 6/7 new sites".
Greenspeak February
Growing Green
Graham Burnet and Ron Bates who run Vegan Organics were joined by the allotments officer from Southend council. Allotments have to be provided by law and they are growing in popularity. Graham and Ron gave a brief outline of permaculture and spoke of the satisfaction of growing fresh food, free from pesticides and other chemicals, cutting down the food miles and fostering wildlife.
Greenspeak January
Was Jesus Green?
A look at green Spirituality) This debate was led by Eileen peck, who wrote an interesting paper about her views of spirituality which were inspired by a book called "Talking with God". The group consisted of very wide views from a catholic nun to an atheist. However, the group agreed on a wide view of spirituality and that it was difficult to deny a spiritual dimension in our lives, although many condemned organized religion and felt that this could stifle belief.
