15th May – screening of Ken Loach’s ‘Spirit of 45′

7:30pm, Wednesday 15th May

Southend Against The Cuts presents:

Screening of Ken Loach documentary ‘Spirit of 45′

at Southend Central Library, Victoria Avenue, Southend

Admission £2 – to book your ticket(s) email us on southendagainstcuts@gmail.com

Find more info about Ken’s new film about the creation of the NHS and the Welfare State here

Rally to build Peoples Assembly Against Austerity

Tuesday 7th May

Rally to build the Peoples Assembly Against Austerity

7pm at Leigh Community Centre

Speakers:

• Francesca Martinez, comedian and disability campaigner,
• Kate Hudson, CND and Coalition of Resistance
• plus local campaigners

Supporters include Southend Against The Cuts.

The Peoples Assembly is being held in London on 22nd June. See more details here

Lobby to Keep Priory and Delaware Open

Lobby Southend councillors on Thursday 18th April

Meet 5:45 pm, steps of Civic Centre,

then lobby councillors on their way in to the council meeting.

Southend Council proposes to close one or possibly both of the remaining council facilities for older people. These are the home at Delaware and the home and day centre at Priory. The Council claim that they cannot afford to maintain them, but their only alternative is to disrupt the lives of vulnerable elderly people and abandon these excellent services.

This lobby has been called by Unison and is supported by the GMB.

You can download a poster for the lobby here.

Sign up to Save Our Libraries

Stand Up for Southend Libraries have produced a petition against the proposed cuts to Southend library services.

You can download the petition here. Print one off and help us get thousands of signatures to keep ALL our local libraries open!

 

Stand Up For Southend Libraries!

Stand Up for Southend Libraries – New campaign group launched

A new Facebook group – Stand Up For Southend Libraries – has been set up start campaigning to defend our local library service.

Please join the group and the campaign! here’s their statement:

“Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has proposed to reduce the provision of libraries in the borough to only 3 being staffed by paid employees. Under these proposals Friars and Thorpedene libraries will close to make way for a ‘hub’ library and either Kent Elms or Leigh will remain as another ‘hub’. Southchurch, Westcliff and either Leigh or Kent Elms will be offered to the community to run… with no plans if there is no uptake. This group is for residents, library users and union members who wish to stand up for Southend Libraries. It will be updated with news, events and campaign developments as together we try to ensure that the future of Southend’s Libraries is to provide a high quality service delivered by paid and knowledgeable council staff.”

Keep NHS Blood Tests Local – Lobby 28th March

Lobby NHS Commissioners: Don’t send blood tests to Bedford!

12:30pm Thursday 28th March, outside Suffolk House,102-104 Baxter Avenue, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6HZ.

• It’s not a done deal!

• Say NO to NHS privatisation!

• Save our local NHS blood test services!

Southend Against The Cuts has been campaigning against the threat to send local GP blood tests to a privately-run centre in Bedford. This will cause delays to a vital service, will take work away from the excellent pathology labs at Southend and Basildon hospitals, and will deliver yet another NHS service up for privatisation.

Southend Against The Cuts and the Keep Our NHS Public campaign have called a lobby of the next public meeting of the Southend Clinical Commissioning Group,
which commissions local NHS services.

The members of the CCG meet from 1pm and we want to send a clear message to them that we expect them to stand up for local services and reject the Bedford
contract!

In a recent edition of the Echo it was suggested that this might be a ‘done deal’ – let’s show the people who are supposed to be running the NHS for us
that this issue is far from over!

We hope to see as many supporters as possible there on the day – we need to make our voices heard!

Thurs 7th March – Defend the NHS and Welfare! Public Meeting

Public Meeting organised by Southend Against The Cuts

7:30pm, Thursday 7th March

Southend Central Library, Victoria Avenue, Southend

“Defend our NHS – Defend our welfare state”

Speakers:

Mick Patrick, Campaign for Benefit Justice

Nick Bradley, UNISON regional officer for health

This meeting is our Annual General Meeting and all are welcome to join us to discuss the way forward. We will be talking about the fight against moving NHS blood tests to Bedford as well as hearing our speakers, who will be discussing the threats to the NHS and to basic benefits – and the campaign against these attacks.

We hope you’ll be able to join us.