National Gardening Week, 16-22 April 2012

I am doing my bit for National Gardening Week !!


Yesterday I planted Spinach and Sweetcorn.


Today - the rain has stopped and the sun has come out just in time for me to plant the fuchsias before lunch!


Really delighted to say that the Apple Blossom is coming out on the trees......

And the blackberry blossom too!

Soil Association : Save the honeybee : Household pesticides

Read this article by the Soil Association about household pesticides that are dangerous to bees.

Soil Association : Save the honeybee : Household pesticides

The garden today

Nearly all my daffs have flowered now, and most of the hyacinths.

What makes me happiest is that my mini-fruit trees - apple, apricot - have started to put out the tiniest little blossoms...just wonderful when I go out in the morning and see them!

(Apple blossom)

(Apricot Blossom)

Now I am busy planting veg and herbs....planted some garlic chives and rocket yesterday, onions, radishes and nasturtiums today. (Nasturtiums sort of count as veg, since you can eat them in salads....very delicious, peppery taste!

I love my garden so much!!

Feed the World without destroying the Planet

Feed the world without destroying the planet

A seminar on food sovereignty

  

November 12, 11- 5.30

University of London Union,

Malet Street, London WC1

Organised by Socialist Resistance

and  Green Left

Speakers include Maria Neri Pampilo of CONZARRD, Graciela Romero of War on Want Rehad Desai, South African climate change activist, Derek Wall of Green Left, Pierre Rousset of Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste and Terry Conway of the Socialist Resistance editorial Board




Agenda

11- 1.30 Introductory plenary

1.30-2.30 Lunch

2.30-4.00 Workshops

1. Women and Food Sovereignty
2. Agribusiness and the supermarkets
3. Land rights not Land grabs
4. Food Sovereignty and Climate change

4.15-5.30 Closing Plenary

with Maria Neri Pampilo

Maria has worked for CONZARRD since the mid 1990’s.

CONZARRD is a grouping of popular and non-governmental organisations working on agrarian reform and rural development in Mindanao, in the Philippines. For CONZARRD organic farming is not a luxury – but essential to the survival of the famers.Organic rice for example is more resilient against both disease and flooding as well as cheaper. Organic fertiliser, produced locally enriches the soil rather than depleting it in the way chemical fertiliser does.

Other principal speakers include: Graciela Romero War on Want International Programme Director and author of their Report on Food Sovereignty
 
Rehad Desai: South African climate change activist and documentary film maker, visiting Britain to build support for the climate justice protests in Durban to coincide with the COP 17 summit in December

Derek Wall, Green Left – former principal speaker of the Green Party, author of the No Nonsense Guide to Green politics

Pierre Rousset : Noveau Parti Anticapalist (NPA), France, and Europe-Asia social forums – Editor of www.europesolidaire.com, has written extensively on Asia particularly the Philippines, Vietnam and Japan

Terry Conway: Socialist Resistance Editorial Board

Food sovereignty not `food security’ is answer to world hunger

One and a half billion people are at risk from rising food prices. This is the dramatic conclusion of the report by UN food agencies; The state of food insecurity in the World today. The report talks of a triple crisis of food, climate change and depleted natural resources, which could affect 1.5 billion people across 10 countries. It says: “having 600 million people suffering from hunger on a daily basis is never acceptable”

But the way the UN agencies focus on the concept of “food security” is fundamentally flawed. They promote private investment and increased agricultural productivity – both of which are part of the problem. They have contributed to the development of widespread hunger, rising food prices and small producers being forced off the land by increasing power of agribusiness and the supermarkets.

Socialist Resistance and Green Left say that the answer is food sovereignty; that is the right of the people who produce food to determine their own agricultural policies, free from interference from either multinationals or from international institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF. The promotion of neo-liberal deregulation by these institutions has been one of the key factors leading to today’s food crisis.

We say no to the power of the supermarkets. Food producers are at the mercy of the supermarkets who dictate what is grown and what price they will pay. Tesco makes two thirds of its sales and profits in Britain. In the second quarter of this financial year like for like sales in British stores fell by 0.7% while profits increased by 12% in the first half of the year!

These are not issues that the left in Britain often addresses – we hope you will join us to hear Maria and other speakers discuss why they are vital to us all

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I want to register for the Feed the world without destroying the planet seminar

Name----------------------------------------------------

Address--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Send £7 or £4 unwaged to PO Box 62732, London SW2 9CQ or by paypal.com to pay resistance@sent.com

Battle of Cable Street, 75th Anniversary

There is a whole series of events taking place to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street in the East End of London, when Jewish and local people got together to prevent Oswald Moseley's Fascists from marching through a predominantly Jewish area. Many organisations are joined together to commemorate the heroic actions of the opponents of the Fascists.
I have added a list of some of the events that are taking place during this period.

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2 October, 11.30am-1pm



Cable Street 75 March and Rally www.cablestreet75.org.uk


Assemble: 11.30am Aldgate East (junction of Braham Street and Leman Street)


Rally: 1.00pm St George-in-the-East Gardens (off Cable Street)

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2 October, 12 noon – 10 pm



Cable Street Group. Produced by Alternative Arts http://www.battleofcablestreet.org.uk/

A programme of events and exhibitions to celebrate and commemorate the Battle of Cable Street.


Wilton’s Music Hall 1 Graces Alley E1 8JB, Aldgate and Aldgate East tube, Shadwell station


Admission Free


12 noon – 6pm Stalls along Graces Alley by campaigning groups, local organisations and supporters with street theatre and music by La Columna, The Lost Marbles, The Fairly Fresh Fish Co, Klezmania and The Cockney Awkestra.


12 noon – 10pm Protest & Survive Exhibition with photography documenting the Battle, posters from the Spanish Civil War, images recording the past 25 years of protest against racial discrimination by Phil Maxwell and portraits of the diverse communities of the East End today by documentary photographers Kalin Coromina, Ned Dyke-Coomes, Zane Mellupe, Lydia Polzer, Ben Speck and Neil White.


1pm Grand Union Youth Orchestra of East London


Specially commissioned concert by 30 diverse talented young under the leadership of Tony Haynes, director of the Grand Union Orchestra.


3pm Book launch and Reception
Five Leaves is publishing five books to celebrate the anniversary. There will be readings and signings followed by a panel discussion. All the books will be on sale directly from the publisher:
The Battle of Cable Street by Cable Street Group;
October Day by Frank Griffin;
Street of Tall People by Alan Gibbons;
Battle for the East End by David Rosenberg;
 Everything Happens in Cable Street by Roger Mills.


4pm rebels in the 1930s – working class writers Panel discussion with:
Andy Croft author of Red Letter Days,
Ken Worpole author of Dockers and Detectives,
Mary Joannou author of Ladies, Please Don’t Smash These Windows: Women’s Writing, Feminism and Social Change 1918-1938.
Chaired by Ross Bradshaw of Five Leaves Publishing.


5pm Song & Dance With Sandra Kerr, Leon Rosselson and Udichi Shilpi Gosthi.


7pm Sunday Night at Wilton’s Music Hall ‘They Shall Not Pass’. Star spangled evening with poets, singers, choirs, comics and bands including Billy Bragg, Shappi Khorsandi, Mike Rosen, Ninia Benjamin, Raised Voices and The Men They Couldn’t Hang (acoustic).



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The garden today

I have some wonderful lilies this year - the scent is amazing!! Unfortunately I can't reproduce it here! I brought some in from the garden and they are scenting the entire flat! And the yellow lilies are absolutely HUGE!!

There are also pink lilies, with an even stronger scent.

I have also been fortunate with the salad veg, especially the radishes. They are so crisp and delicious!!

I can hardly bear to tear myself away to go to Italy tomorrow, were it not for the fact that I have a garden there to look after as well. We have a beautiful rosemary hedge, that my mother-in-law planted 30 years ago.

I have started growing lavender there, and when we arrive we are greeted by the beautiful scent and sight of these wonderful herbs.

Public Sector Workers' Strike 30 June

Public Sector Workers are striking against pension cuts on 30 June. There are many and varied ways to show solidarity!

Benefit claimants, disabled people and supporters will be joining the PCS picket line at HMRC, Euston Tower from 8.30am.

We will be standing in solidarity with all striking workers on the day, and in particular public sector workers who know only too well what the result of this government's savage welfare policies will be.


Join us at Euston Tower, where speeches will begin at 9am. At 10am we will be paying a short visit to noto...rious poverty pimps Atos Origin, the IT company responsible for carrying out the disastrous Work Capability Assessments which have driven sick and disabled claimants to suicide.






Many of us then will make our way to the Trade Union march and Striker's Assembly, both being held in central London. For full details of all events, pickets and actions taking place in London on the day please visit:

http://www.j30strike.org/location/london/