I’ve just read some great success stories from a grassroots organization called “38 Degrees”. Here is my summation of what they have achieved. I’m a suspicious type, so many of the links here are to independent sources which sing the praises of the efforts of this organization. If its too long, but you get the drift and like it, theres a link at the bottom to give a couple of quid a week to 38 Degrees. 1. The Story: Attempts by Jeremy C̶Hunt, the “health” secretary in the U.K., to close down the casualty and maternity units of Lewisham Hospital (S.E. London). A judge ruled such closure illegal. Louise Irvine, a local GP and chair of the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign, said: Were delighted by the judgment and the support weve got from across the country, especially from 38 Degrees members who donated to make todays victory possible and helped give us the confidence to stand up to Jeremy C̶Hunt in court. Here’s the link to a Guardian article: theguardian/society/2013/jul/31/lewisham-hospital-services-decision-reversed-judge And check this article by the Daily Mail, letting us know that Jeremy Chunt is now trying to change the law, in order to by-pass what people want: dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2478923/Law-changed-force-NHS-changes-Court-Appeal-rejects-cuts-Lewisham-Hospital.html No time to rest on our laurels. The bastards will do anything. And here is the original article written by 38 Degrees: blog.38degrees.org.uk/2013/10/29/jeremy-hunt-has-been-beaten-in-court-again/ 2. 20,000 employees of Sports Direct, are on zero-hour contracts. One of them, Gabriel Abraham left the Croydon branch of Sports Direct, in south London, last July, and is suing the retailer with the financial support of 38 Degrees. The court case will take place next year, and if successful, will enable the other 19,999 employees to claim back pay for holiday benefits and over-time. It will also open the flood-gates against the myriad of other MNC’s screwing the people who work for them – MickeyDees, Cineworld and Buckingham Palace, to name but three. (Bet you didn’t know Buck Pal was an MNC!). Here is a Guardian article about it, where it states that 38 Degrees is helping to fund the legal battle. It has also set up an email campaign in which over 125,000 emails (before August of this year), have been sent to Sports Direct: theguardian/uk-news/2013/aug/07/sports-direct-zero-hour-contracts And here’s the article from 38 Degrees: blog.38degrees.org.uk/2013/08/07/the-people-vs-sports-direct/ 3. A geography teacher and member of 38 Degrees, Margaret Hunter, set up her own petition on the 38 Degrees site, and petitioned Michael Gove against removing the teaching of g̶l̶o̶b̶a̶l̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ climate change from the curriculum to children under the age of 14. 37,000 letters were sent to Gove, and although I can find no record of how those letters influenced him, something happened to make him change his mind. It may be Ed Davey, who is the energy and climate change secretary, who lobbied hard against the removal from the curriculum. Or maybe it was change.org. running a similar campaign to the 38 degrees one. Or maybe it was all of these people together. Keeping the pressure on! Here’s a Huffington Post article: huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/07/16/esha-marwaha-climate-change-petition-michael-gove_n_3602619.html And the 38 Degrees one: you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/michael-gove-don-t-scrap-climate-change-education-2 4. Finally, the nutters wanted to dump nuclear waste in the Lake District. Now, I have issues with the local vendors of tourism in the L.D., (and no doubt they have issues with the tourists!), but it’s undeniable that the place is sublime in its beauty. To contaminate it in this way is an abomination (actually, because of the indestructibility of the waste it causes, nuclear energy is an abomination – solar/wind/water energy anyone?). Anyway, this local bloke called Peter Maher decided to create a petition in 38 Degrees, which garnered 50,000 signatures. This, along with demonstrations, letter writing and etc., eventually led to the abandonment of the plans. The story from 38 degrees is here: blog.38degrees.org.uk/2013/02/07/stopping-the-nuclear-dump-in-the-lake-district-peters-story/ And here’s an article from the guardian: theguardian/environment/2013/jan/30/cumbria-rejects-underground-nuclear-storage And here’s another one, where the government is trying create a law which leaves local councils out of the decision making loop. These filth have an agenda, and it sure ain’t running parallel with the agenda of the good people of this planet: theguardian/environment/2013/sep/12/county-councils-nuclear-waste-dump-sites As I said earlier, no time to rest on your laurels. And finally, here’s a link where you can help 38 Degrees. They’re asking for two quid a week – less than the price of a pint. I think I can manage one less a week! https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/content/direct-debit/
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 14:47:26 +0000