Pro-Democracy Rally & Pop up Protest Library update – come along this Saturday!

Last Saturday it rained and it blew, but there was no way this UNISON gazebo was going to get blown down. This was the 3^rd week the pop-up library has taken place. Barnet UNISON has had a stall there on each occasion and the feedback and support we get is very positive. Speakers from the Save Friern Barnet Library Campaign, political parties, fellow trade unionists, including one from Camden addressed the people at the rally. A camera crew from the BBC’s One Show filmed the event.

One resident said at last weekend’s rally that it was important people understood the pop-up library was not there to replace the closed library staffed by qualified workers on decent wages as they cannot replace such a service. She said this library is about protest.

Residents have been working hard in an alliance with the unions to alert the population of Barnet to the dangers of this Council privatising en masse all of its services. The alliance has received an enormous boost from the showing of the film “A Tale of Two Barnets” and the occupation of the Friern Barnet Library as they have brought together activists from all the various campaigns. Some 1,000 residents have seen this film by now.

The strands of campaigns are coming together identifying common themes of phony democracy (or Mockracy) and the perils of privatisation as things they want to campaign against.

Our UNISON members in the Council should take heart and remember we have a community to win, but we have to be there.