“No Dash for Gas” campaigners who occupied EDF’s newly constructed West Burton power plant for eight days last October, five of whom are from Manchester,  were sentenced yesterday at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court.

The 21 campaigners were warned beforehand that some of them should expect prison terms. But instead they received lesser though  still punitive sentences, with five given 18-month conditional discharges and the remaining 16 receiving 150 – 200 hours of community service.

The protesters argue that the expansion of gas power plants in the UK, led by the government and major energy companies, will worsen global warming and force millions more people into fuel poverty through greater reliance on gas fossil fuels.

On sentencing, the judge said, “All of you are highly educated men and women, industrious committed individuals who work and volunteer in your communities. Your motives were genuine.” He added: “What you planned, you executed to perfection.”

Activist Ewa Jasiewicz said campaigners had felt “a great wave of relief” on not being jailed for the action. Earlier the group had been subject to an aborted civil suit by EDF, which had attempted to sue for an unprecedented £5 million before backing down in the face of massive outcry including a 64,000 – strong petition.

An attempt by prosecutors to apply for anti social behaviour orders (ASBO) was also slapped down by the judge, who asked, “Is this an attempt at silencing legitimate protest?”

Jasiewicz said she hoped the action had “encouraged and inspired people to think about climate change and direct action” in political struggles. ”We need to win power, it’s not just about stopping gas”, she said, arguing that “what we’re really facing is a power crisis” in the “destruction of legal aid, the welfare state [and] civil liberties”.

She added that “fuel poverty, food scarcity, economic apartheid and disaster capitalism” were “only going to get worse” unless people organise to stop them. She also claimed that the climate movement “is different now” since the 2008 financial crash, arguing that “the difference is a lot of people joined the dots between climate change, war, capitalism and class war”.

Longsight activist Rachel Thompson said, “Although – thank goodness – none of us are going to jail, we are still facing penalties for simply standing up for clean, safe and affordable energy.

“Meanwhile, everyone in the country will be facing a disastrously destabilised climate and rocketing fuel bills if we don’t stop the Government’s reckless dash for gas. The Government is putting the profits of the Big Six energy companies before the fundamental need for a safe and liveable climate for generations to come.”

An EDF statement said, “Protestors who broke into the West Burton gas power station last October were arrested by Nottinghamshire Police and prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service. Today’s sentencing was solely a matter for the Magistrates’ Court.

“EDF Energy’s civil case against the protestors was settled in March after they agreed to accept a permanent injunction preventing them from entering multiple EDF Energy sites. Following this agreement, the company dropped its claim for civil damages against the protestors.”

The company added, “EDF Energy has invited a range of groups and individuals – including No Dash For Gas – to discuss the company’s response to such demonstrations in future. This is being led by Will Hutton, Chairman of EDF Energy’s independent Stakeholder Advisory Panel, alongside panel member, Tamara Ingram. They will also be supported by an independent legal adviser. An advisory report will be presented to the Panel and the findings will be published in due course.

“We share the protestors’ commitment to tackling climate change.”

Jasiewicz however said the campaign intends to return to West Burton power station for a four day “reclaim the power” action camp from 17 – 20 August. “Reclaim the Power is about just that – reclaiming the power to decide where our energy comes from, what we use it for and how we organise our society in the public interest”, she said. “A decentralised, renewable, publicly-owned energy system is both possible and necessary if we are to avoid catastrophic climate change and ever-worsening fuel poverty”.

This time Jasiewicz said she hoped a wider group would feel encouraged to join in. “It is possible to do big, bold action without being busted by the state”, she said, adding that a “mass action” was needed to “inspire people” and “stick a flag in the sand”.

Richard Goulding

Education Secretary Michael Gove

Behind the Knott Mill railway arches on Hewitt Street lies a relic of Manchester’s radical past and a building steeped in the history of the city. The site is now a modern office building but it once housed the Manchester Model Secular School, one of the country’s first experiments in secular education.

The school was the brainchild of liberal radicals Richard Cobden and John Bright. They came together in the summer of 1847 to propose that local areas should be given power to tax themselves in order to create schools outside the control of religious institutions and government.

The work of the Association led to the beginning of an era that entrusted local authorities to identify the educational needs of their constituents, a period that has effectively come to an end over the past few years. Due to the policies of one of the most controversial Secretaries of State for Education in recent memory, the problems identified by the Manchester radicals more than a century and a half ago are once again prominent.

Sweeping reforms

Schools that are under the control of the local authority (LA) are being converted into academies – a school that is no longer run and managed by the LA but by an organisation chosen by central government. Before the coalition government came to power there were just 203 academies in England. According to the Department for Education there are now 2924 academies as of 1 May 2013, with more on the way. There has been an equally dramatic change in the makeup of schools in Manchester. Of the 27 state secondary schools in the council area, 15 are now academies. Out of the remaining 12 schools, 8 have a degree of autonomy (five voluntary-aided schools and three foundation schools) leaving just four LA maintained schools.

One of the most controversial aspects of the programme is the number of academies sponsored by faith organisations. It is a requirement that underperforming schools are administered by a sponsor, who establishes the academy trust, the schools governing body, appoints the head teacher and is responsible for the success of the school. Sponsors can range be businesses or universities, philanthropists or charities, but some of the largest and best organised are religious organisations. Two of the largest academy chains in the country are United Learning, an Anglican education charity with four schools in Greater Manchester, and Oasis Community Learning, a chain headed by evangelical Christian Reverend Steve Chalke which also has four academies in Manchester.

Such schools do not select pupils based on faith but they do claim to provide an education with a Christian ethos. For Robin Grinter, member of the British Humanist Association and Vice-Chair of the Greater Manchester Humanists, there has been an unacceptable and covert increase in the influence given to faith organisations on the state education sector. He said, “There is a democratic structure in place at the moment but the government are encouraging religious organisations, who are obviously not elected, to run our schools.”

Faith schools old and new

Liberal reformer Richard Cobden

The biggest changes occurring are not the few hundred schools being taken over by these newly formed religious charities but the thousands of existing faith schools that must decide whether they convert. Faith schools cannot be forced into converting and permission must be given by the foundation (the diocese) that runs the school. In Manchester three voluntary aided secondary schools have so far chosen to convert – St Paul’s Catholic High School, Trinity Church of England High School and King David High School.

Michael Gove has tried to convince faith schools that the academy model gives them more freedom but not everyone is convinced. Canon T Anthony McBride, who is in charge of the 216 Catholic schools in the Diocese of Salford, has refused to allow any of his schools to convert. He said, “Converting to an academy takes the school away from the 1944 Act and turns it into a company with just one person in charge – the Education Secretary. Michael Gove is not well regarded by educators, I don’t just mean he’s not well liked I mean he has a very poor reputation, but the next Education Secretary might be a lot worse. An Education Secretary ideologically against faith schools could pull our funding away without even needing to go to Parliament.”

Faith schools and faith organisations are increasing in numbers and the Church of England will soon reclaim the position it held in the 19th century as the single largest provider of schools in England. Religious schools from every faith and denomination dominate the top end of school league tables and are regularly rated higher than LA schools by Ofsted. Canon McBride said of his Catholic schools, “Secular schools are geared more toward employment and giving people the skills to get jobs. Parents send their children to our schools because they want them to be brought up in the ethos of faith.”

Admissions

The reason that some do better than LA maintained schools remains a contentious issue. Robin Grinter from the Greater Manchester Humanists believes that because voluntary aided schools are allowed to set their own admissions criteria they are free to covertly pick pupils with motivated and well-educated parents. He said: “In a diverse society children need to be taught different viewpoints and worldviews and not be raised in an ethos that is monotheological. It makes no sense that an institution that is funded entirely by the state can still discriminate on religious grounds.”

Canon McBride responded to this by insisting that Catholic schools are socially inclusive. He argued, “We are not providers of a general education. We offer a Catholic education and so invite Catholic parents to send their children here first. But Ofsted will tell you that our schools are more socially inclusive than other schools – that’s not us saying it but an independent body.”

William Hulme Grammar School. Photograph: David Dixon

When a school converts to an academy the LA are no longer the admissions authority. The school’s governing body become the admissions authority and, like voluntary aided schools, set their own admission criteria for when the school is oversubscribed. The sponsor has an inbuilt majority on the governing body making all the other members – parents, councillors, etc – irrelevant. While academies can select 100 per cent of their place based on faith, free schools are required to admit 50 per cent of their pupils without reference to faith as they are set up to meet an immediate local need. Academies with a specialism are allowed to select 10 per cent of their pupils based on their ability for that subject. For example William Hulme’s Grammar School’s specialism is modern foreign languages and so selects 10 per cent of pupils based on their aptitude in this subject.

There is a suggestion that the freedom academies have over admissions has led them to adopt the same tactics voluntary aided schools are accused of in attracting the best students. Andy Jones, Dean of the Faculty of Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, criticised the government’s “free market ideology” and argued that some academies are being more selective with pupils and are redrawing their boundaries and catchment area in an effort to admit the best pupils. He said, “The original city academies do not have the latitude to redraw their boundaries. The Manchester Academy in Moss Side has to take students from the surrounding areas and obviously would be able to get away with only accepting pupils from, say, Didsbury. But schools are under an enormous amount of pressure to get results and have started using a number of different tactics to manipulate the intake, such as building relationships with the best feeder primary schools in their area.”

Only time will tell how schools will cope without the protection of a LA. Mr Jones thinks that schools run by a diocese will be fine but fears that many others will fail. He said, “The local authority was a parent body that supported schools when they were struggling. Take Parrs Wood High School for example. For years it was regarded as Manchester City Council’s flagship school but then a few years ago it got one bad Ofsted report and was put in special measures. Without the local authority to support it the situation could have spiralled out of control. I know that some schools converting to academies will do very well but others will struggle financially and be forced to shut. My belief is that applying free market theory to our schools will not work. I may be sat here in ten years time eating my words because schools have improved immeasurably, but I doubt it.”

Najeeb Rehman

An extended version of this article can be found on Najeeb Rehman’s website

The group, who claim to be “peaceful” protestors against “extreme Islam” and whose members cheered wildly last week when a speaker at a demo in Newscastle ranted “send the black cunts home”, rallied next to the cenotaph at St Peters Square.

The family of Lee Rigby, a drummer in the Royal Fusilers, have called for calm since his assassination in Woolwich on 22 May in a suspected act of political terrorism.

A statement by the family said, “Lee would not want people to use his name as an excuse to carry out attacks against others.

“We would not wish any other families to go through this harrowing experience and appeal to everyone to keep calm and show their respect in a peaceful manner.”

Since Rigby’s death there has been a resurgence among the far right and at least 193 recorded Islamophobic incidents, including ten mosque attacks and the firebombing of a mosque in Grimsby according to the monitoring group Faith Matters.

The EDL rally next to the Cenotaph. Photograph: Deyika Nzeribe

Upon arrival at the square the EDL were met by an equivalent number of anti fascists, who had earlier gathered in a pen set up around the war memorial before being moved out and shoved away from the nearby tram stop by police.

Four anti-fascist representatives remained at the memorial as the EDL filled the pen to “pay tribute”: Steve North of Salford Unison, Manchester councillor and former Lord Mayor Afzal Khan and two Unite Against Fascism members including anti-war activist Nahella Ashraf.

After the EDL had been escorted out of the square by police Ashraf denounced the attempt to exploit the situation, accusing the racist group of having “muddied the waters between a crime committed by two individuals and an entire religion.”

Ashraf was dismissive of the numbers who took part, saying “that wasn’t massive”, and said she had experienced a “feeling of strength” after standing in the pen with the EDL.

“We were looking out to the anti fascist group”, she explained, before adding that “the government and the media” also needed to “take responsibility” for encouraging the demonization of Muslims.

Steve North agreed that standing in the pen against the far right was “empowering”, adding “we won’t be moved, and they have to know that.”

He argued that “all three main parties” bore responsibility for the rise of the far right in dividing “working class people” and promoting an economic system that forces people into poverty.

No arrests were made, though a revealing Greater Manchester Police statement released later that afternoon claimed that “all the protestors have now been dispersed and it is very much business as usual in all our towns.”

After the rally protestors moved to Piccadilly Gardens, where a much larger demonstration of around 200 people against the Coalition government’s “bedroom tax” gathered.

In several heartfelt speeches, people affected by the tax which slashes housing benefit for social housing tenants with spare rooms – among them, poignantly, an ex-soldier from Middleton – spoke out against what they saw as a war against the most vulnerable.

Maria Brabina, a Salford campaigner hit by the bedroom tax, said the government had “declared war on its own people” in targeting “the sick, the disabled, the vulnerable.” She denounced the policy as worse than Margaret Thatcher’s poll tax, and said for others affected it was not a matter of won’t pay, but rather can’t pay.

Another speaker, Linda, said the tax would force her to leave the home she had lived in for years. “I’ve got my mother’s ashes there. I’m not leaving”, she vowed.

Many speakers paid tribute to Stephanie Bottrill, a bedroom tax suicide victim who killed herself after the government left her with the choice of paying £80 extra a month or leaving her home of 18 years in Solihull, the West Midlands.

One woman under threat of losing her family home thanks to the hated tax said, “They want to get rid of me out of my house where my sons have grown up. I love it there. I’m safe there.”

She pointed out that many people in work were hit by the tax, saying “I‘m working also, and I’m paying taxes. I can’t get full time work. I’ve been at my job for five and a half years and not got permanent full time work yet. So I am trying but why should I leave my home?

“And these people, how many houses have they got? How many bedrooms have they got? That poor lady just killed herself, she went over the edge when she was already struggling. She couldn’t work. She wasn’t well. And now this bedroom tax came in, it knocked her over the edge and she killed herself. It’s just out of order.”

Richard Goulding

Photograph: Salford Star/http://www.salfordstar.com/article.asp?id=1830

The online magazine, which has been in publication for seven years and nominated in the past for the prestigious Paul Foot award for investigative journalism, says the council is illegally withholding information and propogating smears against the title.

The Star has not published anything for almost one week, and says it has gone on strike to draw attention to the need for independent journalism in holding local government to account.

“There are people in Salford who desperately need a voice and can’t get one because of the council’s intransigence”, explained editor Stephen Kingston.

Kingston accused Salford Council of failing to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests, handing out public funding for uncritical “community” media and its own publications, and said Salford Mayor Ian Stewart had failed to stick by promises of greater transparency since his election 12 months ago.

He also said that the magazine had been smeared by senior local politicians, with assistant mayor Gena Merrett accusing the Star of being a “key supporter of an extreme left wing party that intends to ‘smash the Labour Council and the Labour Party’”.

Merrett’s accusation was furiously denounced by Kingston, who accused Salford Council of “Tory tactics” in its attempt to block and discredit opponents. ”For a Labour council to act like this is disgraceful. They’re not Labour anymore”, he added.

The drastic action taken by the magazine had been well received by readers, Kingston claimed. “We’ve even had people offer to climb up on the town hall roof” in protest, he said.

Kingston also said local government in Greater Manchester was  secretative and undemocratic. “Salford Council, with 52 Labour Party councillors out of a total of sixty, certainly has no `viable opposition,’” he explained..

“This is why a free and independent press, holding Salford Council and its Mayor up to account, is absolutely vital to maintain democracy in the city.

“This is becoming almost impossible under the autocratic regime that is currently in power in Salford, we have no alternative but to take a stand. For this reason, and to draw attention to the vindictive treatment of the city’s independent community press, the Salford Star is going on strike. Welcome to China by the Irwell…”

Salford Council declined to comment.

Richard Goulding

High housing costs place pressure on millions

Nearly two thirds of the council’s “discretionary housing payment” (DHP) fund went unspent in 2011/12, with council officers estimating another huge underspend in 2012/13.

Households in financial hardship who are entitled to housing benefit can apply for the temporary payments to meet shortfalls in rent or other housing bills.

A total of £269,491 in unclaimed cash out of a £420,750 pot in March 2012 was allowed to roll over into 2012/13, leaving the council with nearly £1 million available to spend in 2012/13.

But by last January officials were predicting yet another “substantial underclaim”. Now, the council has to hand back unspent cash built up over the last two years to the government.

Nationally, Manchester was the local authority with the third biggest underspend of discretionary housing payments in 2011/12. But similiar errors were reported up and down the country, with councils leaving nearly £8.4m of the £30m scheme unspent at a time of severe housing crisis.

Manchester is rated the third worst eviction hotspot outside of London according to the housing charity Shelter, with a possession rate of one in 66 households.

More pain for struggling households is expected with the implementation of unprecedented welfare cuts by the Coalition government, including the hated “bedroom tax” which is expected to hit nearly 14,000 families in Manchester alone.

National problem

Local councils say the government is to blame, arguing that Whitehall first beefed up DHP funding in 2011 to temporarily cover a cap in housing benefit, only to then delay the cap’s implementation for nine months, leaving the extra money unused.

Councillor Jeff Smith, Manchester City Council’s Executive Member for Finance, said, “Government has set aside increasingly large Discretionary Housing Payment funding since 2011 to mitigate the worst effects of their changes to housing benefit and welfare reform.

“Funding for 2011/12 was allocated before transitional protection was offered to existing claimants, which meant Manchester, like most authorities, was allocated more funding than required, resulting in an underspend – which the government allowed councils to carry over to the next financial year.

“This meant in 2012/13 our allocation was £700,000, with an additional £200,000 carried forward from 2011/12. Even so, the funding available was nowhere near the amount cut from benefits, but enabled us to mitigate the worst effects.”

Staff losses

People who need hardship funds still don’t appear to be getting them however. A council report released in January noted that despite “a sharp increase in demand and in the number of awards made”, officers anticipated “a substantial underclaim against the funding available without any possibility of carrying this forward to assist in 2013/14.” Despite this, officials claim the scheme is “working well”.

Others have offered a different explanation for the much-needed payments not reaching people, arguing that councils are likely to be losing the staff required to process the claims competently.

Speaking to the website Landlord Referencing in 2012 in reaction to the revelation of huge underspends by councils across the country, the Director of the Landlord Information Network Clare Turner said, “Housing benefit services are being scaled down in preparation for Universal Credit (UC).

“The increased number of DHP awards that all councils will have to make to spend all the money available to them would mean they would need more staff.

“But able staff are leaving housing benefit departments in preparation for UC. Many are getting new jobs, believing that their present jobs will come to an end when UC arrives.”

Turner added that knowledge of the payments is often poor among landlords. “Landlords often just don’t realise that their tenants are entitled to it”, she said. “Particularly amongst social sector landlords, the knowledge just isn’t there”

The council says that this year it expects to fully spend its available £1.9m in discretionary housing payment funding. Eligibility criteria have been reviewed to account for some groups hit by bedroom tax such as disabled people and foster carers, although lone parents whose benefits are cut will be largely excluded from the hardship fund.

Councillor Smith added that the payment scheme would only have a small impact given the immense scale of welfare cuts. “We expect a significant spike in DHP applications throughout the next year as a result of the impact of the Government’s welfare reforms – such as the bedroom tax – but funding is starkly limited and can never be a cover-all solution to everyone’s financial shortfall.”

Richard Goulding

A man at a 2009 San Francisco protest against the killing of police shooting victim Oscar Grant. Photograph: Thomas Hawk

Beyond the heady days of popular uprising and the promises of utopia, how is the difficult process of making these dreams realised (or not), what (or who is) sacrificed and when is the revolution over?

As the Arab Spring slips deeper into tragedy and the memories of Occupy dissolves into fresh rounds of austerity, the need to think through the complex dimensions of revolutions is an important task for society. The exhibition features 11 artists, four of them new commissions, all hoping to help us do that. The exhibition consists of sculpture, film and photography with one noteworthy highlight being Michelangelo Antonioni’s documentary on the Cultural Revolution Chung Kuo, Cina.

Another is a mural on the wall of Cinema 1 by Trust Your Struggle, an Oakland based art collective, commemorating Oscar Grant, who was a fatal victim of racist police brutality in 2009. Although there are some strong pieces in the exhibition, visitors may find some of the work slightly esoteric. In a recent Q&A session co-curator Declan Clarke told the story of being advised at the entrance to the exhibition to not bother with it as “there’s nothing worth seeing up there”!

While the exhibition touches on most continents there is a strong focus on Eastern European and Chinese experiments. These cover the entire cycle of the Marxist-Leninist experience, first grappling with the optimism and social struggles unleashed by the Russian revolution (Tsar to Lenin) before attempting to explain life under these regimes in Antonioni’s film as mentioned above and the visually stunning The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu. Finally, the season attempts to grasp the resurgence of popular power at the collapse of the Soviet experiment. In East of Bucharest Corneliu Porumboiu attempts to tease out the complexities of the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.

At a recent Q&A about the exhibition (where Peter Lalor’s wonderful Incident Urbain recieved a North-West premiere) Co-curator Sarah Perks suggested that we were perhaps still too close to the Arab Spring to see good artworks being produced from it. While the exhibition contains no direct references to the Arab Spring, Anguish and Enthusiasm will be continuing with a selection of Arab films on the topic starting on Sunday 2 June with Winter of Discontent dealing with state repression in Mubarak’s Egypt.

Almost 100 years after the Russian revolution the concept of revolution is still as complicated and enigmatic. The curators of Anguish and Enthusiasm should be commended for tackling such an immense and socially relevant theme. While the exhibition might not be for everybody it offers several approaches onto a topic which, five years into a crisis which began in 2008, is as important as it ever has been.

 Pascal Stephen

Anguish and Enthusiasm is curated by Sarah Perks and Declan Clarke and runs until 18 August. For more information head to the Cornerhouse website at www.cornerhouse.org

Hannah Mitchell

The walk will take place on Sunday 26 May at 2pm outside the steps of Ashton-under-Lyne’s town hall and includes:

• The Lancashire cotton strike of August 1842 when Ashton millworkers marched into Manchester

• The Chartist uprising of August 1848

• The Bread Riot of March 1863 when mill workers, thrown out of work by the cotton blockade during the American  Civil war, rioted

• The anti-Irish riot of May 1868 when the Irish quarter and St Anne’s church came under attack

• The life and  times of Hannah Mitchell, suffragette and socialist,  whose life story was recounted in her autobiography The Hard Way Up

Herbert, a trustee of Salford’s Working Class Movement Library and author of  Up Then, Brave Women: Manchester’s Radical Women  1819-1918 said, “Ashton was one of the wellsprings of the Industrial Revolution and had a radical working class movement. In this walk I will be  introducing people to a number of important episodes in that history.”

Photograph: Keith Dewsnup

The Ministry of Justice issued on 9 April a consultation paper entitled ‘Transforming Legal Aid’. The proposals would make prisoners and immigrants who have been in the country for less than one year no longer eligible for legal aid.

Barrister and speaker at the event Robert Lizar said, “Chis Grayling proposes that they are ‘transforming legal aid’. This transforms legal aid the same way abattoirs transforms a cow.” He went on to state “You cannot have a system of justice unless it is open to all.”

Photograph: Keith Dewsnup

The ‘Transforming Legal Aid’ plans also include proposals to remove of the ability for a defendant to choose their own lawyers and remove the principal of competition on quality rather than cost.

Opponents say it aims to reduce the amount of legal aid firms, decimating the sector, while also pushing for massive companies like Serco, G4S, Atos and Eddie Stobart to win legal aid contracts.

Eddie Jones a Clark at Robert Law and protester at the march stated, “The right to chose who represents you is fundamental to democracy.”

Pete Weatherby another speaker at the event and a criminal barrister of 21 years experience said, “There has been 20 years of cuts but this is a game changer”. He added, “These cuts abandons all notion of equality, we have such a high quality justiciable system we should guard it jealously.”

The protest was soon followed by an even larger protest in London the following day as over 500 lawyers rallied outside Parliament.

Kerry Slater

A meeting of the Salford Forum for Refugees and People Seeking Asylum

Tinashe [Name has been changed] lives on £8 a week. That’s the money he receives from the Boaz Trust, a Christian charity supporting destitute asylum seekers in Greater Manchester. He’s not allowed to work and has no other options to earn any money. How does he manage? He laughs. “What can you do, you have to survive.”

He was made homeless when his claim for asylum was rejected and he was no longer entitled to accommodation. He’s from Zimbabwe and came to the UK in 2004. Does he stay with friends and family now? “There are no friends and family,” he says.

The Boaz Trust provides with him a room in one of their houses for asylum seekers in Moston, North Manchester. Before that, he used to stay in Leigh and Salford. Every day from Monday to Friday he volunteers at the homeless charity Mustard Tree on Oldham Road in Ancoats. “I get free lunch there, and sometimes food to take home.” They give him clothing and a bus pass.

He’s very involved with different asylum groups and attends meetings for the Red Cross, the Revive Action group and the Salford Forum for Refugees and People seeking Asylum (Forum). He has put in a fresh claim for asylum and hopes it will be accepted so he can look for work. But he doesn’t sound very optimistic: “It’s been more than a year since I heard from them.”

Destitution

Tinashe is not alone: destitution has become one of the biggest problems for asylum seekers in Greater Manchester. “There’s a high level of destitution because people’s appeal rights are exhausted, and they lose access to support, but they still feel they need protection and it is not safe for them to return home” explains Estelle Worthington, North West co-ordinator for the Regional Asylum Activism project . There are no reliable figures for destitute and homeless asylum seekers in Salford.

Worthington adds that when the last appeals have been turned down, asylum seekers get evicted from their accommodation. “Some people receive food parcels from charitable organisations, but they’ve got no access to public services. And with limited access to health services, and no access to housing or other support, people find themselves on the street.” She says that poor decision making at the UK Border Agency (UKBA) is the main reason for this situation. “Most claims are overturned by the UKBA because there is a strong culture of disbelief.”

A lot of cases are refused and the claimants then appeal. The process of appeal and waiting for decisions can take years. Worthington speaks of the toll these periods of waiting take on people: “Their lives have been put on hold, and these are barriers to mental health and well-being.” She adds that cuts to various services delivered by local councils, such as advice services, has affected many people seeking asylum across Greater Manchester. Now they almost solely rely on church groups and community organisations.

Refugee forum

Irfan Syed is angry about this lack of support. “There are asylum seekers who are destitute and homeless and Salford City Council does nothing.” He is the vice-chair and one of the founders of the Salford Forum for Refugees and People Seeking Asylum. It’s a community group founded in 2009 by a group of fifteen men and women with asylum and refugee backgrounds to help fellow refugees and people seeking asylum integrate and settle into the area.

Most of the members live or work in Salford: “It’s a mix of people: some of us are refugees, some asylum seekers and some are destitute. We’re from Russia, India, different African countries, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan.”

The Forum is funded by Salford City Council but the amount of money depends on the year: as community organisations have to bear the brunt of the cuts, last year they received less than the year before. “We’re looking for other ways to get funding,” says Syed.

Support from the Council is more necessary than ever due to the changing population, says Syed. “Salford’s demographic has been changing in the last few years and the number of people from different countries has risen a lot.” He adds, “There has to be more support from Salford City Council to meet the needs of the growing immigrant population”.

Political football

A protest outside Dallas Court immigration reporting centre, Salford. Photograph: Stephen Broadhurst (stephenbroadhurst) on flickr

The rising number of asylum seekers in the area was caused by changes in asylum policy. The government implemented the strategy of dispersal in 2000 to move asylum seekers away from London and the south east. Until then, most people claimed asylum in those areas upon arrival there.

Worthington says, “There was a significant spike in numbers of asylum seekers dispersed to Salford from 2000 to 2004, but after that it has levelled out.” Salford is the second important district for asylum seeker dispersal after Manchester in the North West.

She adds: “Over the past ten to twenty years, asylum has essentially become a political football in the UK.” The level of support available to people has been reduced. ”The premise is largely: if you reduce support, people won’t apply.” But, she says, “most people who come here don’t even know they’ll receive support.”

Last summer the Horizon Centre in Salford, a health centre for asylum seekers, was closed for financial reasons. Worthington says that groups and support agencies were concerned this would affect asylum seekers’ access to healthcare and feared replacement services would not have an understanding of the needs of these patients. ”Some of these fears appear to have come true”.

Local authorities

Syed criticised that there is nobody responsible for asylum seekers and refugees at Salford Council. ”I’ve raised it with the Council but was unsuccessful”, he says. People face problems in access to housing, health services, employment and higher education because English is not their first language, says Syed.

”It’s not that they shut their eyes and wash their hands of any responsibility at the Council. There are Councillors who are willing to listen to us to make a change.” But, he goes on, “a proper way has to be found to in which Councillors can help the refugee and asylum community to have rights in the city council.”

A Salford Council spokesperson told Mule they had worked with local colleges to encourage access to free English classes, and had “worked with established communities to develop a BME network bringing together 13 BME community organisations and the council. We helped them find funding, develop job clubs and employment projects targeted at their communities.”

Peace vigil

Safety in the streets is another concern, especially for homeless asylum seekers. Syed speaks of the fear of going out after dark: ”Especially after the killing of Anuj Bidve, people don’t like to go out at night.” The motives of Bidve’s murderer Kiaran Stapleton have never been confirmed but some local migrants and asylum seekers feel worried by it. Worthington says, ”Salford has higher incidents of hate crime and asylum seekers in some accommodation don’t feel as safe as in some areas in Manchester.”

Superintendent Wayne Miller of Greater Manchester Police told Mule that “since April 2012 there has been an 8 per cent increase in the number of hate crimes reported in Salford, and our best ever detection rate at 51 per cent.” But the police community relations officer in charge has been made redundant, says Syed, and no one is responsible for hate crime at the moment.

Syed organised a peace event at St. Clement’s church in Ordsall, close to where Bidve was shot. ”We invited people from local communities and refugees to raise awareness.” It was also to encourage people to feel safe and to show them that the local community is with them.

Kathrin Ohlmann

George Tapp

Anti-blacklisting “hero” and veteran trade unionist George Tapp was left hospitalised on Wednesday evening by a savage hit and run attack at a peaceful protest outside a construction site at the Manchester City FC stadium complex.

Unite member Tapp was run down by a blue Ford Ka on Ashton New Road, suffering two broken legs and a serious head injury. Tapp is now stable in hospital but will require reconstructive surgery on one of his knees.

Up to 50 people took part in the picket to call attention to call attention to BAM Construction’s involvement in the infamous blacklisting scandal, which saw construction workers barred from employment due to their trade union activities.

Unite says that the firm, contracted to build MCFC’s £100m expansion of its training grounds, paid £38,371 to notorious blacklisting organisation the Consulting Association to run checks on workers between 1996 and 2009.

Eyewitness and Unite member Alex Halligan said Tapp had been on the road when “a car moved forward and began bumping his legs” while revving its engine. Suddenly, Halligan said, the car “sped off at some speed” for around 50 yards, carrying Tapp on the bonnet. The car then stopped, throwing Tapp to the ground before speeding away.

Two others also received minor injuries.

A statement from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said,”At around 6pm on Wednesday 13 May 2013, police were called to reports of a group of protesters stood across Ashton New Road, opposite BAM Construction site, blocking traffic travelling in both directions. On arrival, police discovered there had been a collision between a blue Ford Ka and 64-year-old man. He was taken to hospital and treated.”

Chief Superintendent Russ Jackson from North Manchester division said, “From what we can see from CCTV, protesters were blocking Ashton New Road, preventing motorists from going any further. A number of people stood in front of the Ford Ka and climbed upon the bonnet before it moved forward. The car then travelled a short distance at a slow speed before it stopped and one of the men fell off. The car reversed and drove off.

“We are working to ascertain whether any criminal offence has occurred and I would ask the driver of the car or anyone who witnessed the incident to contact police. Officers are now in the process of talking to representatives of Unite Union and BAM Construction to establish what happened last night.

“While we respect the democratic right of anyone holding a peaceful protest, if we believe individuals have behaved in an unlawful manner, we will take action.”

Halligan labelled the police account “disgraceful” with “no bearing to reality whatsoever”, rubbishing claims that Tapp had climbed onto the bonnet or that the car had moved away slowly. He added that the trade unionists were considering a complaint to the IPCC. “They’re playing games”, he said, noting that the police are not releasing the CCTV images.

Tapp is said to be “good” and “full of fight” after the incident, though he had “lost pints of blood” from a gash on his head and “can’t get out of bed for four to eight weeks” according to Halligan. “He’s a strong feller”, he added.

Salford Unison secretary Steve North echoed the criticism of GMP, saying it was “ridiculous to say he was on the bonnet” and that union solicitors were looking into the matter. “It’s very unusual to send out a message that condemnatory” after someone had been badly injured in a road incident, he pointed out.

North, who spoke to Mule after returning from a hospital visit, reported that Tapp was “doing as well as can be expected” and that he “appreciates all the support people are offering”.

North added that “we’ll all stand by him and his family”, and said Tapp was looking forward to rejoining the battle against the “flagrant human rights abuse” of blacklisting.

Manchester Trades Union Council Secretary Richard Lighten said, “Everyone’s shocked about what happened. We don’t know who did it or what the intention was.

“I hope that George gets back to fitness quickly and that whatever happens as a result of this incident people get fired up to stop the blacklisting.”

Richard Goulding

Anyone with information can phone the police on 0161 856 3981/3832 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111

Messages of support can be sent to 07949 335 390 or mailed to George Tapp at the MRI Hospital