In 1972 Ricky Tomlinson the well known UK comedian and actor was a qualified plasterer and builder working on the new Wrexham bypass in North Wales, he became involved in union activities to improve the poor working conditions and pay of workers in the construction industry. Following a series of rare construction industry strikes (held peacefully amid amicable encounters with police) he and other Union members were arrested in a climate of judicial secrecy and ad hoc process. Lacking any real evidence, Ricky and fellow union members were imprisoned following a conviction under the archaic 1875 Conspiracy Act and he spent the next two years in a variety of prisons, including a substantial period in Shrewsbury prison. He later found he had been secretly classed as a political prisoner. During his imprisonment Ricky went on hunger strike and endured other privations to impress his innocent status and this status was often openly recognised as such by prison guards and even a prison governor. One of Ricky’s fellows was made extremely ill by their ordeal and died tragically some time later, it is on behalf of his fellow union members that Ricky has campaigned on this issue for many years. Documents relating to the trial and judicial process concerning Ricky and other union members were classified as top secret and this status has been extended to 2021. Ricky is campaigning for wider awareness of this travesty of justice for the “Shrewsbury 24″, for release of improperly classified documentation concerning the case and to clear his name of this criminal conviction for the sake of his family who have also been adversely affected by this episode. Please see the following government e-petition demanding the release of government documents relating to the trial: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/35394  this petition has been subject to a declaration of some 50,000 invalid entries by the UK government. Ricky’s campaign is appealing for fully completed signatures on the petition to ensure this reaches 100,000 – the number needed to trigger a debate on this topic in the UK Government House of Commons, the deadline for the petition is 27 June 2013.

Please also see the following resources -

• The official Shrewsbury 24 campaign site
• Billy Bragg backs Ricky Tomlinson’s call over the Shrewsbury 24
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/newsmakers/1569062.stm
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/22/truth-about-shrewsbury-24-strike

Rick Tomlinson describes his Shrewsbury 24 experiences (Youtube):

Personal Appeal from Ricky Tomlinson Ricky Tomlinson writes to Labour movement supporters to ask they sign the Downing Street petition on an historic injustice in the construction industry

“You know me as an actor and performer today but as a young man I was a plasterer working in the building industry and a member of the T&GWU. We were low paid and had some of the worst working conditions of any workers in Britain in the 1970’s. Like any good trade unionists we decided we would take action to change this. We had a national strike in summer 1972. We picketed sites that were not well organised and where union members needed our support. Five months after the strike ended 24 of us were arrested out of the blue and six of us were sent to prison after lengthy trails at Shrewsbury Crown Court.

I was sent to jail for 2 years for carrying out trade union activities. Today you do not hear of trade unionists in Britain being sent to prison but that’s what happened to me and 5 of my colleagues. Others got suspended prison sentences.

Please sign my e-petition to demand the release of Government documents. We believe that they show that there was government interference and manipulation in bringing the prosecutions. The Coalition Government today continues to refuse to release these documents on grounds of “national security”. “

Due for the need to allow sharing, with full attribution and credit for works across the many channels whereby ISC is disseminated, ISC has decided to define all site content under the BY-NC-ND license to ensure a clearly defined sharing license is in place. If any ISC contributor whose works feature in ISC do not wish their works to be defined under this license, please contact the ISC Editorial board.

Also please see 3.2. Distribution and Open Access Policy in the revised ISC Policy page.

LWPM produced a periodical called AIR (Alternative Information Record), which was published between March 1990 & September 1992. LWPM was also a founding group of the Liwo Support Group. LWPM eventual merged in to what became Information for Social Change (ISC).

The archives of LWPM are held within the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam.

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Freedom to Read Week is organized by the Freedom of Expression Committee of the Book and Periodical Council.

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(A motion to this effect will be presented to the next CILIP AGM).

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/takeaction/

Also see the WSF 2007 Proposals on Women:

http://www.wsflibrary.org/index.php/Proposals_on_Women_from_WSF2007

The resolution is non-binding and previous resolutions have had no effect on US policy.

The 192-member General Assembly passed the measure by 184 votes to four, with one abstention.

The vote comes shortly after US President George W Bush reaffirmed that the US embargo would remain in place.

The US, Israel, Palau, and the Marshall Islands voted against repealing the embargo, while Micronesia abstained.

Last year’s resolution was passed by 183 votes to four, also with one abstention.

The resolution calls on the US to end its economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba “as soon as possible”, in line with the UN charter and international law.

Cuba’s foreign minister Felipe Perez Roque told the General Assembly ahead of the vote that the US blockade had been enforced more fiercely than ever over the last year.

But in a speech last week President Bush said the US would maintain its embargo as long as the government in Cuba keeps a “monopoly” on power.
The blockade has a negative impact on all aspects of life in Cuba, including libraries. There are acute shortages of all basic library materials, restrictions on book imports and local publishing, and limited access to the internet.
The blockade also restricts the freedom of Cuban librarians, authors, artists and intellectuals to attend professional events in other countries.
The Cuban Libraries Solidarity Group has called on CILIP and IFLA to oppose the blockade.

Join the on-line community at www.newtactics.org between 19 and 25 September to ensure your immediate participation in the “Information is Power: Librarianship and Human Rights” discussion taking place September 26 – October 2, 2007.

Featured on-line discussion resource practitioners for September are Sa

‘Public Libraries in the 21st Century’ presents a comprehensive analysis of the impact of recent policy initiatives targeted at public libraries along with broader developments in the public sector environment within which they operate. Key features include:

• an exploration of the context within which public libraries are operating and analysis of their role in local and national life.
• examples of best practice in service delivery.
• evaluation of the challenges and opportunities confronting public library managers.
• wide ranging coverage, including information from published and unpublished sources, supplemented by interviews with key stakeholders in the public library sector.

This book provides a unique and thorough guide to the contemporary discourses surrounding issues of identity, social purpose, value and strategy facing the public library service. ‘Public Libraries in the 21st Century: defining services and debating the future’ is by Ann Goulding, Ashgate, 2006.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/07/375464.html

While Reed had indicated that it will pull out of the arms trade, it did not state that this septembers DSEi arms fair is cancelled. The statement which the company put out about pulling out of the arms fair stated that it is still is going to go ahead with its existing commitements. For more info see the Campaign Against the Arms trade & the Disarm DSEi websites.

www.CAAT.org.uk

www.dsei.org

If you can’t get to any Reed Elsevier protests, then please contact you local Reed/ Elseivier office & register your protest against their continued involvement with this years DSEi arms fair.

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Press release here: http://www.cla.ca/top/whatsnew/wnmay08awards13-07.html

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This Was England: a Skinhead exhibition from the 1980s I was 13 years old in 1969 and I remember the first wave of Skinheads who associated themselves more with Trojan label reggae music rather than right wing politics…. Read More

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Read More on Managing Information…

Also see the Volumiser

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Paul’s chapter is entitled Accessibility issues for web-based information systems.

See the Flow of Ideas site for further details

I took part in a very important and optimistic event at Cambridge University, on 24-25th October 2006 – which in essence seemed to me to be about students fighting back against the rule of capital… Read More

This chapter explores the shift from an emphasis on equal opportunities in the 1990′s, to the focus on social exclusion after New Labour came to power in 1997.

The response to these national policy agendas is considered, given that the role and potential of public libraries in tackling social exclusion was identified at this time.

John Vincent and John Pateman were both part of the research team which produced the seminal report Open to All? Public Libraries and Social Exclusion? (2000).

Fore more details and full timetable see here.

The website of the convention is up at:
http://www.agcs-gats.org/spip

A DAY SEMINAR Wednesday 25th October 2006 9.00 – 5.00, ROOM TBA School of Education Foundations & Policy Studies University of London, Institute of Education 20 Bedford Way, London WC1

See the Flow of Ideas site for further details

The dwindling number of school librarians in Alberta is a breach of basic human rights and a direct threat to democracy, say education researchers at the University of Alberta. Twenty-five years ago, more than 500 teacher-librarians worked half-time or full-time in Alberta’s schools. Today, there are fewer than 75… Read Full Article.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The summer 2007 issue of the online journal Information for Social Change (ISC) will focus on the urgent theme of library and information workers as political actors in times of war, civil war, military occupation, and social conflicts worldwide.

Paul Catherall

This event was organised by UNESCO Wales and included a series of presentations on journalistic freedom and its link to poverty in the developing world. The event was introduced by Professor Michael Scott, Principal of the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education and chair of UNESCO Wales. The first speaker was Nadira Tudor, a broadcaster and producer who identified journalistic freedom as an important aspect of social justice in developing counties. Nadira described her own experiences in visiting Bangladesh with family as a child, contrasting the social freedoms enjoyed by British people with the authoritarian society of Bangladesh at that time. Professor Michael Scott continued this theme, describing the link between poverty and press freedom around the world and the importance of journalistic standards in developing countries and the UK.

The third speaker, Roshan Doug – a Professor of Poetry, discussed how press freedom was interrelated to the quality of journalism, to the voice of government and television broadcasting; Roshan asked the audience to question the values portrayed in received news coverage and the social and cultural stereotypes still present in the media, cinema and press. Roshan also discussed issues of identity for minority groups in the UK, stressing the positive impact of these cultures on British society.

The final speaker, Carole Green reiterated the link between press freedom and poverty, providing examples of UNESCO Wales activities in Nepal, where in one community, a new school has provided education for all ages, enormously improving the lives of parents and children whose daily existence is focused on making up to a thousand bricks a day by hand.

Guitar music was provided by Michel Dikoff.

ITEC is a specialist arms fair dedicated to military training and simulation.

ITEC is organised by Reed Exhibitions, which is a subsiduary company of the multinational publishers Reed Elsevier.

The Next ITEC takes place in London on May 16th – 18th.

We as librarians & information workers condemn the continued involvement of Reed Elsevier in the Arms Trade, & demand the immediate cancelletion of all Arms fair which Reed are involved within.

Should ITEC or any other Reed Exibition arms fair take place in the future, then we urge all Librarians & Information workers to take place in protests against the company.

For further information See:

http://www.caat.org.uk/armsfairs/itec.php

Also see The spirit of the (West) African libraries – a response to Shiraz Durrani and Kay Raseroka by Mikael Böök.