tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10850750786878517022024-02-06T19:41:54.898-08:00No to G4SG4S are a private security army; we cannot let them act as social landlordsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-14763123685653172452013-03-23T04:47:00.001-07:002013-03-23T04:48:51.443-07:00Criminal Damage<!--[if !mso]>
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Criminal Damage?</div>
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Our local non-emergency ambulances proudly display their
allegiances as they drive by.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The G4S
logo trumps the NHS in the statement emblazoned on the sides ‘G4S working in
partnership with the NHS’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
partnership has resulted in the death of a double amputee when his unsecured
wheelchair tipped over backwards as he was being transported to hospital in an
ambulance operated by G4S.</div>
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The employees had not been properly trained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Private firms have a history of saving on
training and G4S certainly has form in this department.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their ‘just in time’ procedures left many
Olympic guards waiting to be trained two weeks before the Olympics.</div>
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So when I see the logo on the local ambulances I feel
aggrieved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I pay taxes for a National
Health Service, accountable and transparent, not for a service run by what I
believe is a serial violator of human rights and international law which stints
on training, the better to profit from a public service.</div>
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src="data:image/png;base64,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" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br clear="ALL" style="mso-ignore: vglayout;" />
Worth posting a few stickers on the ambulance when the chance occurs.
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First time I visited
the local hospital and spied the waiting ambulances it was fine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second time I was seen by the driver who
proudly sports the G4S logo on his chest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In true Ragged Trousered Philanthropist tradition, he shouted after me
and shook his fist. My husband responded with a friendly wave and smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While my husband was waiting in the
outpatients for me to complete my treatment, a furious driver and manager came
in to berate him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was not intimidated
and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>very loudly, so that all in the
outpatients could hear, he gave them a short expose of the company they were
defending, including the fact that it had been responsible for the death of a
patient through lack of staff training. The manager stated that they were not
interested and if we were caught again we would be reported to the police for
criminal damage.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So now we know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The company
is uninterested in its shortcomings and only worried that it will be publicly
challenged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question arises as to
who is guilty of criminality?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Rootlesshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08474889788444971303noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-10274408381482199432013-01-31T06:55:00.000-08:002013-01-31T06:55:22.645-08:00G4S: Voted 3rd Worst Company in the World<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg20xlfefKdENuhFfuOuMwCkgOL5rf0KgPRgln70ZmIimw5LIfT96RjMVfzK14zROxvZdbxS98vpYUuHMVj773m4o55v2kMblTDhiJiCaFMMReSKoSAGqry98aNrgJwOrAoN8FnKKdoDyo/s1600/G4S+demo+2012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg20xlfefKdENuhFfuOuMwCkgOL5rf0KgPRgln70ZmIimw5LIfT96RjMVfzK14zROxvZdbxS98vpYUuHMVj773m4o55v2kMblTDhiJiCaFMMReSKoSAGqry98aNrgJwOrAoN8FnKKdoDyo/s640/G4S+demo+2012.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">G4S Demonstration 2012 (source: demotix.com)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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We apologise if you've been bombarded with messages about the Public Eye Awards, but you'll be glad to know that G4S have been voted the third worst company in the world! Even though we would have loved to see G4S topping the list, were pretty happy with G4S being given the bronze award considering the stiff competition from Goldman Sachs and Shell. </div>
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If you voted for G4S, you'll be pretty well-versed in the reasons for naming and shaming this toxic company. From securing the apartheid wall in Palestine to exploiting the UK "asylum market", G4S are playing a pivotal role in the securitisation and criminalisation of communities across the globe. Unsurprisingly, G4S were not too keen to hear of their nomination, and the company sent a <a href="http://www.business-humanrights.org/media/documents/company_responses/g4s_-_bhrrc_-_response_to_public_eye_awards_nomination_-_january_2013.pdf">150 word letter</a> to the Business and Human Rights Resource centre contesting the grounds of their nomination. Here's an excerpt from their defence: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The basis on which G4S has been nominated is inaccurate and very<br />misleading. Much of the information published as criteria for the<br />nomination is completely false, for example: it is not true that G4S staff<br />are “often badly trained and paid” or that “many have a criminal<br />record”. G4S staff do not “man checkpoints” or “manage prison<br />security” in Israel. Where the company does operate in complex<br />environments such as Iraq or Afghanistan, it often does so in support of<br />humanitarian programmes or on behalf of western governments helping<br />to resolve conflict or to provide a long term stable regime for the people<br />of the country. </blockquote>
There's no need to repeat the brilliant responses articulated by <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson-and-adri-nieuwhof/security-giant-g4s-rejects-%E2%80%98world%E2%80%99s-worst-company%E2%80%99-nominat">John Grayson and Adri Nieuwhof in their recent Open Democracy piece</a>, but put simply, G4S' pithy 150 word complaint is hardly demonstrative of a company that values their public image. Whilst their bronze prize from the Public Eye Awards is a brilliant step towards exposing the activities of this multi-national company, it is not going to be enough to change current practice. Campaigners and activists across the globe will continue to highlight G4S' complicity in human rights abuses; we said no to G4S, and we still mean it.Eggstatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00259886558075158872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-19196301129610881912013-01-06T07:23:00.000-08:002013-01-06T07:25:24.528-08:00Reason Two: Company Anthem? Really? As it's Sunday, here's a relatively light-hearted reason for you to <a href="http://www.publiceye.ch/en/vote/g4s/">vote for G4S as the worst corporation of 2012 </a>. They've got a company anthem. They even had a video for this company anthem (although it was taken off YouTube promptly after the <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/07/g4s-has-theme-song-it-awful-you-would-expect">New Statesman</a> ran a story on the song). And they are even rumoured to have a company flag. If you don't believe me, have a listen yourself:
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<iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F52769357" width="100%"></iframe>
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If you found yourself wanting to sing along, here are the terrifying lyrics:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGHeiccJts0ynmGpLMvzhEVNlwtJilqFETuZ8m90QysEbiaP_K2bfMTNfx52JNdceSkMseQ8rPlyVNVCPBenH-B6vvnG80gfnIlhjG3KTBcHnixkOu743vHn69pkcCgw3A4DdqAA8DmH0/s1600/g4s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGHeiccJts0ynmGpLMvzhEVNlwtJilqFETuZ8m90QysEbiaP_K2bfMTNfx52JNdceSkMseQ8rPlyVNVCPBenH-B6vvnG80gfnIlhjG3KTBcHnixkOu743vHn69pkcCgw3A4DdqAA8DmH0/s1600/g4s.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Making a difference is what you do</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But consider all you have at stake<br />The time is now don't make a mistake<br />Because the enemy prowls, wanting to attack<br />But we're on the wall, we've got your back<br />So get out front and take the lead<br />And be the winner you were born to be<br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">G4S! protecting the world</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">G4S! so dreams can unfurl</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">24/7 every night and day<br />A warrior stands ready so don't be afraid<br /><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">G4S! secure in your world</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">G4S! let your dreams unfurl</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We're guarding you with all our might<br />Keeping watch throughout the night</span><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.publiceye.ch/en/vote/g4s/"><span style="font-size: x-large;">CAST YOUR VOTE HERE...</span></a></b></div>
<br />Eggstatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00259886558075158872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-57589088093129850692013-01-05T03:10:00.000-08:002013-01-05T03:10:15.331-08:00Reason One: Cockroaches & rotten floorboards: Housing G4S style As promised, throughout the month of January, we'll be recounting the reasons for you to <a href="http://www.publiceye.ch/en/vote/g4s/">vote for G4S as the worst company of 2012,</a> and we'll probably be finding more.<br />
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<a href="http://notog4s.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/our-response-to-g4s-new-asylum.html">Today, we're looking at their multi-million COMPASS contracts with the UK government. </a><br />
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The COMPASS contracts saw the provision of housing for asylum seekers in the UK completely privatised. The country was split into six multi-regional contract zones, and the provision of services was put up to tender. In March 2012, Serco, G4S and Clearel were revealed as new service providers, with G4S managing provision in Yorkshire, Humberside and the North-East and the Midlands.<br />
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Since taking over the management of asylum housing from local authorities, G4S and their chosen property providers have continued to provide sub-standard, unsafe housing for people seeking protection in the UK. For a small indicator of the level of service provided by this multi-million pound company, read <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/cockroach-in-baby%E2%80%99s-bottle-asylum-seeker-housing-by-security-giant-g4s">John Grayson's account of a young mother's experience of G4S housing. </a>Eggstatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00259886558075158872noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-33420899883050413792013-01-04T15:50:00.001-08:002013-01-04T15:50:32.935-08:00Vote G4S: Worst Company of 2012 It's 2013, and we're all looking ahead at the new year. But it's not quite time to forget about what happened in 2012. The <a href="http://www.publiceye.ch/en/vote/">Public Eye Awards</a>, run by Greenpeace Switzerland and the Berne Declaration, has opened the online voting for 2012's worst company. Hardly to our surprise, G4S is one of them.<br />
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The whole procedure is aimed to help campaigners hold the most culpable companies, those at the heart of human rights and environmental abuses across the globe, to account. If you still need a reminder of why G4S deserve this honourable title of the worst company of the year, this video clip will hopefully trigger some memories: <br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/KpD8kwmSi2U?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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Far from just providing a<a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/cockroach-in-baby%E2%80%99s-bottle-asylum-seeker-housing-by-security-giant-g4s">bominable asylum housing</a> in Yorkshire and Humberside, <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/g4s-equips-apartheid-wall-israel-confirms">securing Israeli apartheid</a> and even targeting<a href="http://www.waronwant.org/news/latest-news/17765-vote-for-g4s-in-the-worst-company-of-the-year-awards"> 'high-risk areas' </a>of conflict and war as emerging markets, the tentacles of G4S' subsidiary companies are steadily creeping around the globe. <a href="http://www.publiceye.ch/en/vote/g4s/">Your vote</a> can help bring this murky outsourcing giant into the critical spotlight it deserves.</div>
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Over the next few weeks, we'll be providing you with a new reason <b>every day</b> to name and shame G4S as the worst company as 2012. It's time to hold this corporate giant to account. </div>
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<b><span style="color: #660000; font-size: x-large;"><a href="http://www.publiceye.ch/en/vote/g4s/">CAST YOUR VOTE HERE.... </a></span></b></div>
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As they say every new year, out with the old ... </div>
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Eggstatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00259886558075158872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-77995916227399412302012-09-19T03:09:00.004-07:002012-09-19T03:09:40.335-07:00National No to G4S Convergence // OCTOBER 6th
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Activists
from various anti-G4S campaigns are coming together for a UK-wide
gathering in Sheffield on Saturday 6</b></span><span style="color: black;"><sup><b>th</b></sup></span><span style="color: black;"><b>
October. Individuals and campaign groups are invited to attend to
share, network, strategise and plan how to build an even more
effective Stop G4S campaign. The gathering is open to all who oppose
G4S and want to work with others to Stop G4S from taking over public
services for private profit while violating human rights. </b></span><span style="color: black;"><b>
</b></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Despite
its track record of complicity in human rights abuses in the UK and
abroad, G4S is being handed control of public services - everything
from policing to “asylum markets” to the welfare system. Even
after the Olympics débâcle, G4S </span><span style="color: black;">looks
set to take over even more control of our communities. </span>
</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Campaigns
have begun to highlight the appalling record of G4S and to work to
prevent it from putting profit before human rights and dignity. From
local campaigns to pressure G4S as it cuts corners, to demonstrations
targeting the company’s AGM and headquarters, we’re beginning to
damage the G4S brand. </span>
</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
gathering will launch the UK 'StopG4S' campaign coalition, bringing
together grassroots campaigns, networks and organisations with the
aim of providing support, resources, guidance and skill-sharing. This
coalition will be inclusive and non-hierarchical.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Please
respond to: </b></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="mailto:stop-g4s@riseup.net"><b>stop-g4s@riseup.net</b></a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;"><b>
to reserve a place, find out more or to request a speaker to attend a
meeting to discuss campaign plans. If you or your organisation (if
you have one) wish to endorse this call please let us know. </b></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="https://www.facebook.com/events/335352613222043/"><b>Facebook
event</b></a></u></span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reasonable
travel costs may be paid to those unable to fund themselves.
Overnight accommodation will be provided by local activists.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The
many reasons to Stop G4S:</b></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>G4S
and Public Contracts:</b></span></div>
<ul>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/g4s-turns-profit-in-%C3%ACasylum-markets%C3%AE-whos-speaking-out-and-whose-lips-are-se">G4S</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">
has recently been awarded £210million of public money to provide
housing services to asylum seekers in Yorkshire, Humberside,
Midlands and the North East . </span>
</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">With
profit its only motive in what it calls “asylum markets”, it’s
expected that over 1000 asylum seekers will be </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/g4s-asylum-housing-evictions-begin-mother-and-baby-dumped-in-substandard-fla">uprooted</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">
from their communities to live in slum housing. </span>
</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">G4S
profits from the privatisation of </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/mel-kelly/police-magistrates-and-prisons-by-g4s-is-this-what-british-people-want">policing,
courts & prisons</a></u></span></span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4032">Workfare</a></u></span></span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><span style="color: black;"><span style="text-decoration: none;">:
G4S profits from forcing the unemployed to do unpaid work or risk
having benefits cut.</span></span></span></span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">G4S
won the contract to provide security for the <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/g4s-olympic-fiasco-british-soldiers-are-%C3%ABpeople-pipeline%C3%AD-now">Olympics
</a></u></span></span>and
failed to deliver on time <span style="color: black;">but
still insists on receiving payment.</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Human
Rights Abuses:</b></span></div>
<ul>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/jimmy-mubenga">Jimmy
Mubenga</a></u></span></span>,
an Angolan asylum seeker died, following restraint by G4S employees.
The DPP recently ruled that no prosecution was necessary.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In
2011 G4S Australia admitted liability and was fined for the death of
Warburton Elder <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/duty-of-care-beyond-case-of-mr-ward-cooked-to-death-by-gigantic-outsourcer">Mr
Ward</a></u></span></span>.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">It
profits from imprisoning refugees while it </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.medicaljustice.org.uk/images/stories/reports/outsourcing%20abuse.pdf">abuses
families </a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">and
children in their 'care'.</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>G4S
and Israel’s occupation of Palestine:</b></span></div>
<ul>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">G4S
provides <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/security-firm-g4s-provides-services-israeli-prisons-police-and-army">equipment
and services</a></u></span></span>
to Israeli prisons in which Palestinian prisoners, including child
prisoners, are illegally held and tortured.</span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">G4S
supplies equipment and services to Israel’s <span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/corporations-found-guilty-russell-tribunal-second-session/9127">illegal
settlements and</a> Wall.</u></span></span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/prisoners-day-g4s-call-8887#.T6rxkuhPuhU">Palestinian
civil society</a></u></span></span>
has called for action to hold G4S to account for its role in
profiting from the detention of Palestinian political prisoners,
1,600 of whom recently held a mass hunger strike.
</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;"><b>Selection
of actions taken so far: </b></span>
</span></div>
<ul>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Local
campaigns in cities and </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/edinburgh-university-students-vote-to-ban-g4s-8279">campuses</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">
across the UK</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">G4S
headquarters rooftop </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/497595.html">occupation.</a></u></span></span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Demonstrations
in </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/04/495523.html">Birmingham</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">,
</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/g4s-turns-profit-in-%E2%80%9Casylum-markets">Sheffield</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">,
</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.demotix.com/news/1261195/protest-g4s-agm-accuses-company-violating-human-rights#slide-1">London</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">
and beyond</span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Successfully
pressuring companies to </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4459">drop
their ties with G4S</a></u></span></span></span></div>
</li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: black;">Publishing
detailed analysis online (see </span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://bit.ly/R9JbkB">http://bit.ly/R9JbkB</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">,
</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://bit.ly/PRhYMi">http://bit.ly/PRhYMi</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">,
</span><span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://bit.ly/Kz0Uhn">http://bit.ly/Kz0Uhn</a></u></span></span><span style="color: black;">)</span></span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Endorsed
by:</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.boycottisraelnetwork.net/"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Boycott
Israel Network</span></span></span></a></u></span></span></div>
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://noborders.org.uk/"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">No
Borders UK</span></span></span></a></u></span></span></div>
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/newcastlepsc/"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Newcastle
Palestine Solidarity Campaign</span></span></span></a></u></span></span></div>
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk/"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sheffield
Palestine Solidarity Campaign</span></span></span></a></u></span></span></div>
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://stopdeportations.wordpress.com/"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Stop
Deportations</span></span></span></a></u></span></span></div>
<div style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">
<span style="color: navy;"><span lang="zxx"><u><a class="western" href="http://www.symaag.org.uk/"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">SYMAAG
(South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group)</span></span></span></a></u></span></span></div>
Eggstatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00259886558075158872noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-10532002974960800912012-08-29T08:36:00.003-07:002012-08-29T08:36:52.388-07:00(Belated) G4S News Update // 22nd August - 29th August <br />
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<b>G4S run Wolds Prison has clear weaknesses, inspectors find, </b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-19332782">BBC News</a>, 22nd August 2012: An East Yorkshire jail, run by G4S, has improved inmate safety but still has been unable to tackle high levels of illegal drug trade and poor behaviour.</div>
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<b>UK Police forces to consider G4S despite Olympic failure, </b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/22/g4s-police-idUSL6E8JMJDW20120822">Reuters</a>, 23rd August 2012: Despite failing to provide sufficient security staff at the Olympic Games, G4S remain a key player in the outsourcing of police services. the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire forces' joint working group has decided to continue co-operation with the multinational security company. (Also covered by the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-press-on-with-plans-to-give-g4s-essential-role-despite-olympic-shambles-8076850.html">Independent</a> on the 24th August). </div>
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<b>G4S advertising for civilian investigators to work on cases for Warwickshire Police, </b><a href="http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2012/08/23/criticism-for-police-after-g4s-jobs-advert-in-warwickshire-92746-31678582/">Coventry Telegraph</a>, 24th August 2012: G4S has started to act as a recruitment agency for the Warwickshire Police force, advertising for civilian investigators to assist detectives by taking statements and retrieving CCTV footage. </div>
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<b>Homes for asylum-seekers present new crisis for G4S, </b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/homes-for-asylumseekers-present-new-crisis-for-g4s-8079557.html">The Independent</a>, 25th August 2012: G4S' subcontractors have until the 2nd November to find new homes for 1,200 asylum seekers now being housed in Yorkshire and Humberside. Transition moves were meant to take place from June onwards, but most people still haven't moved yet. </div>
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<b>G4S leaves refugees in limbo, </b><a href="http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/care/g4s-leaves-refugees-in-limbo/6523370.article">Inside Housing</a>, 28th August 2012: Inside Housing covers the fact that hundreds of asylum seekers face uncertain futures because a private company (G4S) is struggling to find suitable housing. </div>
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<b>G4S confirm £50m hit on Olympics security contract, </b><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/28/g4s-50m-hit-olympics-contract?newsfeed=true">The Guardian</a>, 29th August 2012: G4S reported pre-tax profits of £61m for the first half, down from £151m in the first six months of 2011, with the drop in profits accounted for by the Olympic security fiasco. Further coverage found in pretty much all newspapers, with Nick Buckles claiming that he needs to restore investor and shareholder faith in the company. </div>
Eggstatichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00259886558075158872noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-51104638925311901752012-08-11T12:26:00.001-07:002012-08-11T12:26:30.443-07:00Another shambles as G4S is entrusted with running asylum seeker housing(See the original article here, at<a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/another-shambles-as-g4s-is-entrusted-with-running-asylum-seeker-housing"> Open Democracy/Our Kingdom </a>)<br />
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While the world’s biggest security firm has suffered international humiliation over its mishandling of the London Olympics, another more modest piece of business has been unravelling in its hands. </div>
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Back in June, when G4S was looking forward to making a big impression as lead security contractor to the London Olympics, the company signed off a less glamorous but more profitable piece of business – managing housing for thousands of asylum seekers in the north of England. The seven-year £211m contract with the UK Border Agency’s commercial arm COMPASS was especially welcome to G4S, which had lost a deportation escort contract with the UK Border Agency, after the death of Jimmy Mubenga in October 2010.</div>
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But the contract has not been plain sailing for the security giant, who have been harried by campaigners across Yorkshire working with asylum rights groups, outraged that a prison guard and immigration detention centre company can privatise the housing of around 1000 asylum seekers presently housed and supported by local councils.</div>
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Two groups — South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group (SYMAAG) and Why Refugee Women? — in May and June <a href="http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2012-06-01-mother-and-baby-dumped-in-unsuitable-flat-by-border-agency-subcontractor" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;" title=":http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2012-06-01-mother-and-baby-dumped-in-unsuitable-flat-by-border-agency-subcontractor">criticised</a> the chosen partner of G4S, private housing company UPM (United Property Management), for forcibly moving a mother and sick baby a hundred miles from Bradford to Doncaster. The UPM flat in Doncaster was condemned by the UKBA itself, but the mother and baby had to endure six weeks there before being rescued by the local children’s services department in Doncaster. UPM was <a href="http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2012-06-19-asylum-seeker-housing-provider-dropped-after-criticism" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;" title=":http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2012-06-19-asylum-seeker-housing-provider-dropped-after-criticism">dropped</a> from the G4S contract.</div>
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On June 18 a rather rattled G4S announced through the UKBA that it was finally able to take on the asylum housing contract and would have four totally new housing companies as its partners: Cascade, Live Management, Mantel, and a charitable housing association, Target HA, based in Sheffield. Cascade did have some form in asylum housing, but apparently only briefly subcontracting for UPM and Kirklees council. Live Management, registered as a private company only since January 2012, had no form at all. Mantel, part of a commercial property company, was to play no part in the first stages of the contract. Only Target HA emerged as a housing provider with a history of local authority contracts for housing vulnerable people – <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/outsourcing-charity-%E2%80%93-g4s-way#http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/outsourcing-charity-%25E2%2580%2593-g4s-way" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;">in its case ex-offenders</a>.</div>
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<strong>Target Housing as a fig leaf for G4S</strong></div>
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For more than fifty years Yorkshire councils had provided housing for refugees. Now that was being handed over to the world’s biggest surveillance and detention company, with a well regarded local charity acting as front man and figleaf. Just as children’s charity Barnado’s <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/simon-parker/child-detention-goes-on-and-on-in-uk#http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/simon-parker/child-detention-goes-on-and-on-in-uk" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;">rents its reputation to G4S</a> and the Border Agency at the Cedars family detention centre, providing cover for the continued detention of children, Target Housing was to give a credible face to G4S, as it moved from its profitable asylum markets into the expanding markets for private capital in social housing.</div>
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It was a good choice; the CEO of Target was a Chilean refugee, Gino Toro, with personal experience of working for refugee housing associations. In early summer 2011 G4S had organised a competitive bidding process for voluntary sector housing providers. Target, like most voluntary organisations, and many specialist housing associations, had been badly hit by cuts in public expenditure, and a resulting drying up of contracts. In 2011 they had a bad year, they told the Charity Commission:</div>
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<em>‘Given the economic climate and funding cuts one of our objectives was to avoid any compulsary (sic) staff redundancies’ </em><em>(1)</em></div>
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Gino Toro says he won a sub contract from G4S in 2011 to house around 250 asylum seekers, in family groups in Sheffield, Hull and Derby. Target, according to Moro, underbid its rivals to win the contract estimated at £2.5 million. Their present total annual turnover is about £2 million, so the contract was important for Target’s survival.</div>
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So Target are now players in a game where privatisation means cutting staff costs and reducing service to ensure profits for lead organisation G4S. Target’s unqualified ‘Team Leader’ for their new asylum contract, will be <a href="http://www.targetsheffield.org.uk/" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;">paid the equivalent of £8 per hour gross,</a> roughly what G4S casual employees recruited as guards for the Olympics were paid. Slimmed down staffing will mean vulnerable asylum seeker families will not get the support the councils have offered them.</div>
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The G4S assumption that buying a ‘social housing’ provider would scale down opposition in Sheffield totally backfired. Gino Moro was well known in the Chilean refugee community in Sheffield – a community still based on memories of the politics of the Allende years in Chile, and still active in asylum rights campaigning. The Chilean community website invited comments on the Target contract and started a campaign, with SYMAAG, to get Target to withdraw from the G4S contract <a href="http://www.chilescda.org/2012/06/no-to-g4s-no-to-serco/" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;">here</a>.</div>
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<strong>G4S sanitises its reputation and wins over the charities</strong></div>
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The Target experience demonstrates the way in which G4S can be sanitised, losing its reputation in the ‘tainted trade’ of private security, and accepted as a credible ‘partner’ in providing housing for vulnerable tenants like asylum seekers, and perhaps become a major player in the social housing market (2). </div>
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Gino Toro defended working with G4S because he said other well known associations with refugee housing experience ‘like Metropolitan’ (Housing Partnership) were also involved in releasing refugee housing for the G4S contract. Metropolitan, with 80,000 tenants and clients, is the largest UK regeneration and ‘social business’ housing association. Its origins lie in the Metropolitan Coloured Peoples Housing Association of 1957 which housed Jamaican and West Indian immigrants. Metropolitan has in recent years taken over Safe Haven, previously involved in asylum housing in Yorkshire, and the Refugee Housing Association, and still runs the Sheffield Station Foyer for refugees that was founded in 2005. The chair of Metropolitan is Barbara Roche a former Labour immigration minister.</div>
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In their efforts to extend their ‘asylum markets’ and ‘detention estates’ into asylum housing, all the private security companies involved in the £620 million contracts — G4S, Serco and Reliance — set out to encourage voluntary organisations, and charitable housing associations with experience in refugee and asylum housing and services, into partnerships as subcontractors. None of the security companies favoured by the Home Office had any previous experience in the field of housing – they needed to absorb and build in this experience, and credibility, to the contract bids. Reliance, the smallest of the security companies, privately owned by Brian Kingham, a Tory party donor since 2001, simply formed a joint venture, Clearel Ltd, with private company Clearsprings who had held asylum housing contracts with the Home Office since 2000. Clearel have the contract for London, the South West and Wales (3).</div>
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G4S set about its lobbying and PR project by recruiting <a href="http://localhost/http/:uk.linkedn.com:pub:rebecca-woodhouse:44:814:519" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;">Rebecca Woodhouse</a>as Senior Bid Manager for G4S Security Services in February 2011. Between 2006 and 2010 Woodhouse had been Business Initiatives Officer for the Metropolitan Support Trust. Previously she had been a support manager for the Refugee Housing Association (Metropolitan Housing Trust) from 2004 to 2006.</div>
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In Yorkshire and the North East, G4S brought in housing consultant, Andrew Gray, a former president of the Chartered Institute of Housing, to set up its asylum housing sub contractors. Gray was well known in the field of social housing, and added housing expertise, and mainstream respectability, to the G4S contract bid. As the £120 million contract unfolded, G4S then recruited Duncan Wells as its Social Cohesion manager. Wells was the chief executive of RETAS, a Leeds based refugee organisation with an established reputation and strong links into the voluntary and charitable asylum support networks. Tiffy Allen, the national convenor of the extensive City of Sanctuary (CoS) movement, is a former colleague of Wells at RETAS, and, according to campaigners, is currently trying to get City of Sanctuary groups to support Wells to set up G4S consultation forums for asylum support groups.</div>
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It is perhaps worth noting that Sheffield City of Sanctuary, which started the national City of Sanctuary movement in 2007, was the organisation which actually instigated the campaign in January 2012 against G4S taking over asylum housing in South Yorkshire, by calling on SYMAAG (<a href="http://www.symaag.org.uk/" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;">South Yorkshire Migration and Asylum Action Group</a>) to lead a coalition of charities into a campaign and a protest demonstration.</div>
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This careful public relations and recruitment strategy by G4S, and its tireless efforts to network and appear as a mainstream private corporation simply pursuing contracts for outsourcing asylum housing and services, gradually neutralised any active opposition. A Report sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Trust and Metropolitan, in conjunction with the Chartered Institute of Housing entitled <a href="http://www.cih.org/publication-free/display/vpathDCR/templatedata/cih/publication-free/data/Housing_and_migration_A_UK_guide_to_issues_and_solutions" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;">‘Housing and Migration: UK Guide to issues and solutions’</a>, published in 2012, in the middle of the contract furore on G4S, is totally uncritical of SERCO, G4S and Reliance. The Report, written by John Perry, simply states:</div>
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“In 2012 a new challenge is to forge partnerships between the private companies that will provide asylum accommodation, local services, and migrant support organisations . . . it is going to be vital to encourage the companies to take a strategic view, recognise the ‘civic’ role they need to fulfil and contribute to successful integration.’ (p.14)</div>
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<strong>The Yorkshire G4S contract unravels</strong></div>
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The campaign success in removing UPM from the G4S contract brought chaos and indecision to G4S and the UKBA in Yorkshire – not unlike the ‘shambles’ of the G4S Olympics contract. UKBA announced that G4S had removed Gray from contract supervision; as they euphemistically put it he was given a ‘different role’.</div>
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Despite all their undertakings to keep asylum seekers and families in the same areas where councils have housed them, G4S and the UKBA are now simply tearing up agreements. On June 13 an official UKBA statement was issued saying</div>
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<em>“There is no intention during transition to re-house individuals currently residing in Yorkshire & Humberside to the North East.”</em><em></em></div>
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On 24 June a family was forcibly moved from Sheffield to Stockton, a hundred miles away, and other single asylum seekers have been moved, or threatened with moves, to Stockton or Middlesborough. Barnsley asylum seeker families have been threatened with moves 120 miles away to Newcastle.</div>
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<strong>G4S desperation and ‘reverse privatisation’</strong></div>
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G4S is becoming so desperate that it is, remarkably, trying a form of ‘reverse privatisation’ by paying local authorities, and housing associations, like InCommunities in Bradford, to allow them to take over and manage asylum accommodation with sitting asylum seeker tenants from previous local council contracts. This is because G4S and their private contractors cannot find any local private rented sector accommodation to put the families in, when they have to leave local authority housing. Campaigners in Kirklees (Huddersfield) say the council there has turned down at least two offers from G4S.</div>
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Target Housing, the only social housing provider willing, so far, to openly partner G4S in Yorkshire, is now reeling from <a href="http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2012-08-01-Charity-housing-provider-criticised-after-taking-2-5m-asylum-contract-with-G4S" style="color: #0061bf; text-decoration: none;">exposure in the national housing press</a>, and the local media in South Yorkshire. Demand for them to withdraw from the contract is gathering momentum. The trustees are now being lobbied, leaflets are being prepared and actions scheduled.</div>
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With the G4S shambles in the Olympics being reflected in chaos in the asylum housing contracts, the G4S hold on the Yorkshire and North East contract is uncertain. Campaigners are calling for a rapid return to contracts held directly with the local councils throughout Yorkshire, with no G4S involvement; contracts grounded in public service values, welcoming asylum seekers, instead of the profit-oriented values of an international security company exploiting its ‘asylum markets’ with the tacit support of the social and refugee housing establishment.</div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-75087622243732900822012-08-06T03:16:00.002-07:002012-08-06T03:16:58.420-07:00Radio 4 documentary on G4S' Olympic disasterThanks to the flurry of reportage on G4S' failures to provide security for the London Olympic Games, many are starting to seriously question how and why the government were so keen to get into bed with G4S. Mukul Devichand, a reporter and broadcaster at BBC Radio 4, presented a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01l8n7t/The_Report_Olympic_Security/">30-minute long programme investigating G4S' failures at the London Olympic Games</a> - it's worth a good listen.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-72023807065852245242012-08-06T03:01:00.000-07:002012-08-06T03:01:16.108-07:00G4S News Update // 31st July - 1st August<br />
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<b>G4S booted out of Old Trafford after failing to provide sufficient security, </b><a href="http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1584799_g4s-booted-out-of-old-trafford-after-olympic-security-fiasco">Manchester Evening News</a>, 31st July: After a further string of problems, G4S are no longer providing security for Olympic football matches at Old Trafford this summer. Exacerbated by rumours that G4S' subcontractors walked out on the contract due to non-payment from the company, a smaller security company have taken over the responsibilities at the legendary football ground. </div>
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<b>G4S ban high level executives from corporate events during the Olympics, </b><a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9845374.G4S_bans_top_brass_from_corporate_events/">The Argus</a>, 1st August: With the global shit-storm gathering around G4S Olympic fiasco, G4S management has barred top bosses and senior executives from attending corporate hospitality events in order to avoid <i>further </i>embarrassment. Nick Buckles, despite reaping the benefits of G4S' status as an official sponsor of the Olympic Games in order to bulk-buy tickets to Olympic events, will no longer be attending.</div>
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<b>G4S contracted to provide security at Tory Party conference in October, </b><a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/4459420/Bunglers-at-G4S-to-guard-David-Cameron-at-Tory-Party-conference.html">The Sun,</a> 1st August: The Tory Party's next conference, held in Birmingham in October, will be guarded by G4S providing the "same service as they do every year." Both Labour and the Tories will use G4S for their conference security in 2012. </div>
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<b>G4S: The Millwall of the Olympics, </b><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/31/secret-security-guard-g4s-millwall?newsfeed=true">The Guardian</a>, 1st August: Another dispatch from the Guardian's 'Secret Security Guard.'<br /><div>
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<b>Target Housing criticised after co-opting with G4S, </b><a href="http://www.24dash.com/news/housing/2012-08-01-Charity-housing-provider-criticised-after-taking-2-5m-asylum-contract-with-G4S">24-dash</a>, 2nd August: Target Housing Association, a charitable housing provider in Sheffield has been criticised after taking up a "£2.5 million' asylum housing contract with G4S. Featuring statements from SYMAAG!</div>
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<b>50% of Olympic Security made up by military personnel, </b><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/london-olympics-2012-troops-make-up-50-of-park-security-7998922.html">The Independent</a>, 2nd August: Despite the fact that the total number of G4S staff is quadruple that of the army, half of Olympic security is now being managed by military personnel. </div>
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<b>[Daily Mail ridiculous headline WARNING] 82 Year-old nun arrested after breaking in to high level US nuclear facility guarded by G4S, </b><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2183022/Y-12-complex-Nun-Megan-Rice-arrested-allegedly-breaking-Oak-Ridge-Tennessee-nuclear-facility.html">The Daily Mail</a>, 3rd August: The 82-year-old nun joined two other environmental activists and managed to dodge the 'high level security' provided by G4S to engage in some direct action against a huge nuclear facility in the US.</div>
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<b>G4S take over Wakefield's Angel Lodge, </b><a href="http://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/local/more-wakefield-news/security-company-g4s-to-run-wakefield-s-angel-lodge-aslyum-seeker-hostel-1-4802383">Wakefield Express</a>, 4th August: As we all eventually learnt to expect, G4S have finally managed to get their hands on the notorious Angel Lodge in Wakefield. </div>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-7035354685888480282012-07-31T12:11:00.001-07:002012-07-31T12:11:53.687-07:00G4S News Update // 23rd - 29th July 2012<br />
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<b><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit; line-height: normal;">Here's a summary of the big G4S stories from the last week:</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;"><br /></span></b><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;"><b>The Secret Security Guard, </b><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/the-secret-security-guard">The Guardian</a></span><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;">, 23rd July 2012: A G4S employee at the Olympic park has gone rogue and is now blogging for The Guardian. Seems like he/she doesn't have much else to do, anyway.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;"><b>Security staff lose keys to Wembley stadium, </b><a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10823235">New Zealand Herald</a></span><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;">, 30th July 2012: Proving their penchant for creating stories with fantastic headlines, G4S are now involved in a confusion over the keys to the national stadium.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;"><b>G4S plan boardroom shake-up</b>, <a href="http://news.sky.com/story/965988/exclusive-g4s-plots-board-shake-up">Sky News</a></span><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;">, 27th July 2012: Surely expectant of further headwinds and post-Olympic scrutiny, G4S are sounding out "heavyweight" directors.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: normal;"><br /></span><span style="color: #232323;"><b>Ed Miliband's G4S nightmare over party conference security, </b><a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2012/07/eds-g4s-security-party-conference">New Statesman</a></span><span style="color: #232323;">, 25th July 2012: Slightly embarrassing little nugget</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323;"><br /></span><b style="color: #232323;">G4S guard at St Anne's church during metal theft</b><span style="color: #232323;">, </span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-18966785">BBC</a><span style="color: #232323;">, 25th July 2012: Just a small story, but extremely significant. Shows how just the simple involvement of the company in any story has become headlineworthy. The disproportionate amount of interest almost makes one feel sorry for them...... Almost. </span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-65997104137655683932012-07-31T07:30:00.001-07:002012-07-31T07:30:29.514-07:00G4S: Olympic Chaos, Asylum Housing Chaos: A SYMAAG Statement<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: 300; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
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Private security army G4S have been in the news a lot recently. And not just because they are being paid £135 million of public money to house asylum seekers in Yorkshire, despite their record of abuse and racism towards them (for example, see <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13802163" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">here</a> or <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/08/g4s-deportees-lethal-risk-warning-mubenga" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">here</a> or <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/duty-of-care-beyond-case-of-mr-ward-cooked-to-death-by-gigantic-outsourcer" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">here</a> or <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmhaff/563/56303.htm#a1" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">here</a>).</div>
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Most spectacularly, the world’s biggest security army have, of course, <a href="http://notog4s.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/masterclass-in-privatised-security-g4s.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">failed to provide security at the Olympic games</a> (this time they were paid £284 million of public money). In response, G4S are now trying to <a href="http://notog4s.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/g4s-looking-for-new-pr-manager.html" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #1982d1; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">recruit a new public relations manager</a>.</div>
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<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">An emergency bulletin from SYMAAG notog4s</strong></div>
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As most of you will know we in the notog4s campaign have tended to assume that the UKBA /G4S undertakings and official statements have meant that evictions and movements of single people and families would, for the majority, mean movements, at worst, within the broad region of Yorkshire and the Humber.</div>
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The latest official UKBA Transition bulletin makes it abundantly clear that the claims we made early on in the campaign that in South and West Yorkshire in particular there simply was not a market in ‘decent’ PRS (Public Rented Sector) housing for G4S to exploit was absolutely correct.</div>
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One family of two adults and a one year old were moved on Tuesday 24<sup style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; bottom: 1ex; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 0px; line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">th</sup> July 100 miles from Sheffield to Stockton onTees. The UKBA Transition Bulletin openly threatens more families with such a move.</div>
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This case is even more significant because it was from an existing private landlord property, although the new G4S contractor in Sheffield, Target Housing claim to have accommodation available for families – so why have the family been sent 100 miles away from contacts and support?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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In Barnsley asylum seeker families have been warned by the outgoing asylum team of moves possibly to Hull and Newcastle. One family interviewed this week ,of grandparents, parents and school age children, were given this warning and told they would probably have to move their household possessions in two bags each.</div>
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Live Management, the G4S contractor in Barnsley is, we understand, considering acquiring unsuitable properties which they propose to use on a ‘temporary’ basis until they can find contract compliant ones.</div>
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Return of Angel Lodge</strong><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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The dreaded Angel Lodge inWakefield, purchased from Angel Housing, has emerged as the new Yorkshire IA centre from September. SYMAAG executive members have horrific memories of actually staying in this dreadful accommodation, oppositeWakefieldhigh security prison. We are campaigning against this decision.</div>
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This chaos in UKBA and G4S also indicates that our campaigning (removing UPM and now mobilising against Target) has deepened the crisis for the UKBA and G4S. The ‘soft’ approach of Andrew Gray has now been replaced by the asylum market business approach of Jules Bickers, already deeply unpopular with voluntary sector asylum organisations in the regions he has worked in.</div>
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This is yet another indication that we were right to claim that g4s had no experience of asylum housing and that their failures under the contract would constantly punish asylum seeker single people and families who are simply housed awaiting the outcome of asylum claims.</div>
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Moreover our fears about the contract fundamentally challenging the basic human rights of families, children and vulnerable asylum seekers seem also to be proving unfortunately to be correct</div>
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We have to challenge the UKBA now to cancel the contract with UKBA and extend the target contracts with local authorities and transfer housing associations inYorkshire.</div>
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #373737; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px;"><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chaos on the Olympics contract now chaos on the asylum housing contract</strong></div>
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G4s are demonstrating exactly the same failings exposed in the Olympics contracts, as one MP put it: ‘their aspirations run far ahead of their abilities’</div>
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Their chaotic and incompetent management structures are even more exposed in the asylum housing field – after all in the Olympics contract they were in their key business of events security.</div>
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Their incompetence in a field they know nothing about - housing – is much more serious – here they are embarking on a contract which they know will threaten the rights and well being of up to a thousand vulnerable asylum seekers in Yorkshire, whom we should be welcoming to our region, not punishing and threatening them, using tax payers money – our money.</div>
</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-18252671346565738872012-07-24T05:59:00.004-07:002012-07-24T06:00:46.429-07:00'We're guarding you with all our might': G4S' prog-rock company anthemG4S: more employees than the population of Luxembourg, a company flag, and a theme tune. For a while, we couldn't get hold of the music video - in the context of the Olympic debacle, we reckon G4S didn't want their promotional video adding fuel to the fire. But either it's back, or someone's done well in recreating what it was...<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/vTvtYV3NXGk?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here's a little selection of the lyrics: </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">You love your job and the people too / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Making a difference is what you do / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But consider all you have at stake / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The time is now don't make a mistake </span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Because the enemy prowls, wanting to attack / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But we're on the wall, we've got your back / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">So get out front and take the lead / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And be the winner you were born to be</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">G4S! protecting the world / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">G4S! so dreams can unfurl / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">24/7 every night and day / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A warrior stands ready so don't be afraid </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">G4S! secure in your world / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">G4S! let your dreams unfurl </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We're guarding you with all our might / </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Keeping watch throughout the night...</span></span></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-18277282641467966052012-07-24T05:36:00.001-07:002012-07-24T05:37:19.560-07:00G4S News Update // 16 - 22nd July<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;">I hope you've all been enjoying the amount of press G4S have been getting over the last few weeks! Here's a little summary of the key stories from the last week:</span></b><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;"><b>G4S shares plummet after Olympic contract failures,</b><a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/16/us-g4s-idINBRE86F08E20120716"><b> </b>Reuters</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;">, 16th July 2012: After G4S completely cock-up Olympic Security, damage is seen in the stock market. Shares in G4S fell to the lowest level in more than six months.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323;"><b>Nick Buckles' hero is Margaret Thatcher, </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/14/nick-buckles-g4s-chief-leadership">The Guardian</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323;">, 17th July 2012: The Guardian comments on the New Statesman's republication of an interview with G4S CEO Nick Buckles. His economic advice for the UK government goes as follows: "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: 300; line-height: 22px;">To continue to focus on traditional Tory values around encouraging a meritocracy and inspiring value creation." Lovely. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: 22px;"><b>G4S Olympic Fiasco: the people pipeline, </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: 22px;"><a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/g4s-olympic-fiasco-british-soldiers-are-%E2%80%98people-pipeline%E2%80%99-now">Open Democracy</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; line-height: 22px;">, 17th July 2012: Another excellent piece from Clare Sambrook on the affect of G4S' failures with Olympic security on the army and the police. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><b>G4S look for new PR manager with 'personal credibility', </b><a href="http://politicalscrapbook.net/2012/07/g4s-spin-doctor-personal-credibility-olympic-shambles/">Political Scrapbook,</a> 18th July 2012: After the complete PR disaster around Olympic security, G4S post an advert on Linkedin for a new PR manager. Ideal candidates will have "personal credibility" and the capacity to work with crisis management…</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><b>Nick Buckles admits that Olympic failure was a "humiliating shambles", </b><a href="http://olympics.time.com/2012/07/17/london-2012-g4s-chief-admits-olympic-security-a-humiliating-shambles/">TIME</a>, 18th July 2012: On the day of Nick Buckles and Ian Horseman Sewell's appearance in front of a Home Affairs Select Committee, news about G4S' security shortfall went global. Coverage was seen in TIME, the Wall Street Journal and even Fox News. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #232323; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><b>Ed Miliband states that G4S failure is a "warning sign" for police privatisation, </b><a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2012/07/19/ed-miliband-g4s-speech-in-fukll">Politics.co.uk</a>, 19th July 2012: Read Ed Miliband's speech in full here. </span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Police take over Glasgow security from G4S, </b><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/20/london-2012-security-glasgow?newsfeed=true">The Guardian</a>, 21st July 2012: Strathclyde police said on Friday that they were taking over responsibility for security at Olympic venues in Glasgow due to serious concerns over G4S' capacity to provide sufficient security staff. </span></div>
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<b>Labour MP Keith Vaz promises to closely monitor the G4S deal with Lincolnshire Police, </b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-18924561">BBC News,</a> 21st July 2012: This potentially lucrative deal for G4S is set to be closely monitored by the Home Affairs Select Committee. </div>
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<b>G4S planning to monopolise on new outsourcing deals with UK prisons, </b><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/21/g4s-prison-contracts-bid">The Guardian</a>, 22nd July 2012: Despite the Olympic catastrophe, G4S are still bidding for the contracts to manage 5 new prisons, in deals that could amount to more than £2bn. </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-14040554709697954302012-07-17T06:41:00.002-07:002012-07-17T07:01:17.008-07:00No Justice for Jimmy Mubenga: G4S guards will not face chargesIronically, on the same day that G4S' managing director Nick Buckles and Global Events manager Ian Horseman Sewell faced a Home Affairs Select Committee meeting about their failures to provide sufficient security staff for the Olympics, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/17/jimmy-mubenga-guards-no-charges?newsfeed=true">it has been revealed that neither G4S guards nor the company as a whole will face charges for the death of Jimmy Mubenga 21 months ago. </a><br />
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Gaon Hart, senior crown advocate in the CPS special crime division, cited "conflicting witness accounts" about the manner of Mubenga's restraint as reasoning for insufficient evidence, despite the fact that the counsel found there was a "breach of duty" in the way Mubenga was held. He continued:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">"In light of this, the experts unanimously concluded that given Mr Mubenga's physiological condition, having been in an agitated state before he died, they could not rule out that his death may have been caused by a combination of factors such as adrenalin, muscle exhaustion or isometric exercise.[...] </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">It is not enough to tell a jury what may have caused a person's death; I have to have sufficient evidence that there is a realistic prospect of proving it to them beyond reasonable doubt, and in these circumstances the evidence did not satisfy that test."</span></blockquote>
Deborah Coles, the co-director of Inquest, a charity that helps to support the families of people who die in custody, was understandably disappointed by the hearing:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px;">"This is a shameful decision that flies in the face of the evidence about the dangerous use of force used against people being forcibly removed and the knowledge base that existed within G4S and the Home Office about the dangers of restraint techniques. It once again raises concerns about the quality of the investigations into deaths following the use of force by state agents and the decision-making process of the CPS."</span> </span></blockquote>
The court did find that there were serious short-comings in G4S' training for their deportation guards, but decided that this did not provide concrete proof that the guards in question - or the company as a whole - could be held responsible for the death of Jimmy Mubenga.<br />
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So as the whole country publicly abuses G4S for their inability to provide 13,000 security guards for the Olympic Games, it is worth remembering that the outcry after the death of Jimmy Mubenga was substantially quieter. Whilst G4S no longer hold the contract for forcible deportation, detainees are still at risk from excessive restraint techniques used by guards from another private security company, Reliance Security. Donna Covey, of the Refugee Council, made the following statement: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“It is concerning that no individual or organisation is being held responsible for the tragic death of Jimmy Mubenga during a removal flight following the CPS’ decision today. Until this happens, the lives of people who continue to be enforcibly removed from the UK by security firms using dangerous restraint techniques remain at risk.</span></blockquote>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“The excessive use of restraint on detainees is unacceptable, and if enforced removals must be carried out, they must always be done in the safest way possible. The UK has a commitment to protecting people seeking safety in this country, so the UKBA and their sub-contractors must ensure those who have not been found to need protection here are at the very least returned to their home countries unharmed.”</span></blockquote>
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Jimmy Mubenga will be remembered as devoted father and husband who died <i>whilst in the hands of G4S. </i>Whilst the company and the guards may never face charges, history and our memories will always tell a different story.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-4999171074064997902012-07-16T03:29:00.005-07:002012-07-16T03:29:59.998-07:00G4S looking for new PR ManagerAs G4S' fall from grace continues to dominate media coverage, it comes as little surprise that they are looking for a new PR manager to help put a lovely glossy sheen on the situation. Advertised on LinkedIn, the new PR Manager will be expected to be confident in "managing incidents in line with company's crisis communications procedure"; a procedure that hasn't seemed too successful over the last few days.<br />
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Here, reproduced for your convenience, is the full job advert found at <a href="http://uk.linkedin.com/jobs/jobs-PR-Manager-3283305">LinkedIn</a>:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 10px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">
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<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.35cm;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;"><span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Job
Description</b></span></span></b></div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #660000;">
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
PR Manager will be responsible for the following:</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Developing
and delivering the PR plan and content strategy</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Creating
and maintaining relationships with key press contacts</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ongoing
media handling</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Identifying
and exploiting forward feature/survey opportunities</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Managing
incidents in line with company’s crisis communications procedures</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Developing
and maintaining positioning statements</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Establishing
and maintaining evidence/case study database</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Researching
and writing relevant press releases, articles and content</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Evaluating
the success of the PR programme</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Developing
relationships with senior management and advising on PR opportunities</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Providing
media handling advice to senior management and operational personnel</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.35cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.35cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Desired
Skills & Experience</b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Key
competencies</b></span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Experience
in identifying, delivering and maximising PR opportunities</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Knowledge
and understanding of the media and how it works is essential,
alongside strong communication skills</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ability
to establish contacts with relevant media</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Proven
track record of responding to high level reactive media enquiries</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Demonstrable
skills in briefing senior spokespeople and case studies for interview</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Experience
of media relations within a large commercial or public sector
organization or within an agency</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Drive
and enthusiasm to succeed as part of a team</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Highly
conscientious and self-motivated</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Flexible
approach to demands of the role</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Ability
to work quickly under pressure</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Personal
credibility with key internal and external contacts</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Confidence
to work with colleagues across all levels of an organization</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Confident
with dealing with the demands of 24-hour media</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Keen
awareness of current affairs</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.27cm; text-indent: -1.27cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.35cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Company
Description</b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Do
you have a good knowledge and understanding of the media? Want
to be part of a fast paced, dynamic Marketing team within a FTSE 100
organization? G4S, the UK’s leading security company, currently has
an exciting opportunity for a PR Manager to join the team based in
our Head Office.</b></span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Based
in Sutton, Surrey, you’ll be responsible for managing Secure
Solutions UK’s media programme, focused on protecting and promoting
the brand, raising G4S’s profile in the industry and wider market
place, and positioning G4S as a thought leader. </span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
role will involve developing and delivering all PR-related activities
for this diverse and growing business, as well as managing crisis
communications effectively, with the aim of supporting business
growth, enhancing the company’s reputation and protecting the
brand.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Reporting
to the Head of Marketing, the role holder will help build and manage
the organization’s image and reputation across all media and
stakeholder groups, and engage with relevant influencers to meet
business objectives. This is a demanding role, which will involve
daily contact with media.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-weight: normal; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: ArialMT, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">If
you have experience in identifying, delivering and maximising PR
opportunities, and the drive and enthusiasm to succeed as part of a
team, then this is an environment in which you will flourish.</span></span></span></div>
</span></b>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-54058328452740576652012-07-14T12:18:00.002-07:002012-07-14T12:18:44.579-07:00Update: Nick Buckles, G4S Security Boss, apologies for Olympic failureHumiliation does force people into doing some unforeseeable things. After G4S' initial refusal to give a statement about their security shortages at the Olympic Games, today's press was littered with a flimsy apology from G4S' Security Boss, Nick Buckles. <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18840464">Here's a short extract</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;">"I began to know it was going wrong eight or nine days ago... Basically we are recruiting a large number of people and they are all working through a process of interview, two or three different degrees of training, licensing and accreditation.</span></span>[...] It is only when you get closer to the Games, you realise that the number is not as high as you expect."</blockquote>
So, eight or nine days ago, Nick Buckles got wind of the fact that his own company could only provide a fraction of the security guards it was contracted to supply. Eight days ago was the 6th of July - the same day that Ian Horseman Sewell, managing director of G4S Global Events, told <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/06/uk-g4s-idUSLNE86502720120706">Reuters</a> that G4S were gearing up for securing even more mega-contracts with other international events in 2012:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"We are keen to pursue events all over the globe and we do have the scale to do more than one thing at once. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We are delivering a London Olympics now [and] I would certainly hope that we will be making at least one announcement in the rest of this year about other major overseas events that we have been successful with."</span></blockquote>
So either G4S' internal communications are so poor that information about this PR nightmare did not reach their press office in time (despite all their PR work done in house), or G4S' senior staff thought they may be able to crawl their way out of this mess. Unfortunately, no amount of spin or even the attempted coercion of ex-police officers to join their ranks (see this <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/12/london-2012-g4s-security-crisis?newsfeed=true">Guardian article)</a> was able to paint over the cracks of this ridiculous affair. In Nick Buckle's own words, "we are very, very disappointed", but we're not surprised.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span id="midArticle_3"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans;"><span id="midArticle_4"></span></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-i0_xKLTh-sYjOKNRr3N-bUp3QHKmIJOfLrJIGjj1GuXQTJtI0T7bEka2otNhJULmm1188Q8p6uO0xSgCshLbxi9vReSOSyoPvXeFT6Bf7pso0y7rXbkEYLV1RUvtLLxbosjnwa1l_8Y/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-07-14+at+20.14.41.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-i0_xKLTh-sYjOKNRr3N-bUp3QHKmIJOfLrJIGjj1GuXQTJtI0T7bEka2otNhJULmm1188Q8p6uO0xSgCshLbxi9vReSOSyoPvXeFT6Bf7pso0y7rXbkEYLV1RUvtLLxbosjnwa1l_8Y/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-07-14+at+20.14.41.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nick Buckles, as seen on BBC News (14 July 2012)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-64432615626620772402012-07-14T00:16:00.000-07:002012-07-16T07:21:38.579-07:00A Masterclass in Privatised Security: G4S and the Olympics<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">The Guardian put the allegations to G4S. A spokesman for the company responded: "We are unable to respond to the specific questions you raise because to do so would involve pulling staff, who are working hard to mobilise the 2012 workforce, off the work they are doing.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;">"We will enquire into the claims that are made and we take very seriously any allegation of poor standards on our part."</span></span><i> </i></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/12/london-2012-g4s-security-crisis">The Guardian</a>, 13th July 2012</span></blockquote>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Although they were originally contracted to provide 2,000 security staff, G4S' new multi-million pound contract with Games provider LOCOG now requires them to provide 13,700 guards over the course of the Olympics. Over the last few days, it has been revealed that - two weeks before the opening ceremony - only 4,000 G4S guards are fully vetted, trained and in place to provide the service. G4S' assurance that a further 9,000 are in the pipeline hasn't convinced the Home Office who have now drafted in Army reserves to fill the gaping whole. A total of 17,000 servicemen will now be involved in Olympic security.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
Teresa May assured the Commons that details about G4S' failure to honour the terms of the contract only came to her knowledge on Wednesday (11th July), although it seems as if ministers had been aware about the possibility of calling in extra troops for the past couple of weeks. G4S' own heads may have also been in the sands, with the managing director of G4S Global Events telling <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/06/uk-g4s-idUSLNE86502720120706">Reuters</a> early in the week that "we are keen to pursue events all over the globe and we do have the scale to do more than one thing at once." These "nine-figure aspirations" look set to dissipate under the pressure of criticism from government and media alike.<br />
<br />
It's difficult to sift through the pages of reportage that swiftly followed G4S' Olympian fall from grace without a wry smile creeping across my face. We've already found reasons to take issue with G4S' creeping control of public services, but now so has everyone else. </div>
<br />
The idea of a private security army being hired to 'secure' the Olympic Games - in the twisted Orwellian fantasy that is the 2012 London Olympic Games - makes perfect sense. In this hyper-commercialised space, where non-MacDonald chips are only allowed to be served as an accompaniment to fish and 80% of all Olympic visitors expected to be <a href="http://www.rapidparcel.com/blog/companies/westfield-makes-shopping-even-more-convenient-with-shop-send-home-delivery/">coaxed through the new Westfield shopping centre</a> in Stratford en route to the Olympic Village, we have been given an exclusive preview of what a world run by private companies with 'commercial interests' could become.<br />
<br />
Keith Vaz, the Home Affairs Select Committee Chairman, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/12/surrey-police-privatisation-g4s-olympic?newsfeed=true">declared that "G4S has let the country down and we have literally had to send in the troops"</a> and stated that all public contracts with G4S should be reviewed and all potential contracts shelved. Another Liberal Democrat MP and member of the public accounts committee, Ian Swales, stated that concerns about G4S' extortionate profit margins had been continually raised in meetings:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"We were really concerned because when the announcement of doubling of the number of security personnel was made we looked at the breakdown of the costs and we saw that the G4S contract was going up from £86 to £284 million, which felt like a colossal amount of money. [...] For these large amounts of money you would expect excellent service so to me this is just compounding a felony, vast sums of money buying a service that is very poor quality." </blockquote>
Similar concerns have already been voiced by Jeremy Corbyn (Labour) and Dan Rogerson (Liberal Democrat) in Parliament.<br />
<br />
G4S' capacity to execute the £284 million pound contract was also put in doubt when <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/12/london-2012-g4s-security-crisis?newsfeed=true">aspects of their interview and training processes were revealed by the press</a>. Experienced ex-police officers and prison officers were appalled by the level of incompetence found within G4S' administrative staff, claiming that the company clearly didn't have sufficient staff and methods in place to deal with the sheer quantity of applicants. Many have still not received accreditation, uniform or confirmation of their employment. It is little wonder that G4S' own <a href="https://www.facebook.com/securinglondon2012">Facebook page</a> is fast becoming a forum for angry employees.<br />
<br />
Future procurement prospects in the policing sector have also been put in doubt. Surrey Police have now shelved plans for police privatisation with G4S' Olympic Security fiasco cited as a reason for delaying the decision. The police authority chairman, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jul/12/surrey-police-privatisation-g4s-olympic?newsfeed=true">Peter Williams</a>, told press that "members agreed today that it is right that we should suspend our involvement at this time and that we should look to withdraw altogether following a more detailed assessment of our options in September."<br />
<br />
When the City and Government have become quasi-synonymous, it is hardly surprising that the government is threatening G4S with financial penalties. And even these financial penalties are under question. Whilst LOCOG stated that G4S would be charged for failing to provide the number of staff it promised, a government source - <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/they-left-olympics-high-and-dry--but-g4s-will-not-pay-penalty-7939668.html">speaking to the Independent</a> - stated that the contract was in fact drawn up on a pro-rata basis, with G4S paid per guard rather than for the whole security contract. However, by Friday (13th July) evening, <a href="http://www.insidethegames.biz/olympics/summer-olympics/2012/17703-security-blunder-set-to-cost-g4s-p50-million-as-they-apologise">G4S conceded that it expects to lose between £35 and £50 million</a> for its failure to honour the terms of the contract. Their net market value also dropped by £150 million in the past two days.<br />
<br />
Now, history tells us that the governments attraction to G4S's commercial viability has not been dented by charges, scandal or slander. The death of Jimmy Mubenga, potentially being charged with corporate manslaughter, tides of complaints brought against the company by detainees (a record 773 in 2010), rises in prisoner suicides in G4S run prisons, and countless other 'questionable' aspects of G4S' track record have not - so far - been sufficiently considered in government due diligence procedures as reason to reconsider their suitability for new contracts. Despite having their forcible deportation contract cut short in 2011 (after the death of Jimmy Mubenga), G4S have still been awarded multi-million pound asylum housing contracts in Yorkshire, the North East and the Midlands. In the words of one <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/g4s-juggernaut-keeps-rolling-along--despite-olympics-fiasco-7939643.html">Independent columnist</a>: "In the City, the odd migrant death and PR slip doesn't seem to make a dent on analyst expectations of a public-sector contract bonanza." If 'City' is swiftly accompanied by 'Government', we've hit the nail right on the head.<br />
<br />
With the Olympics putting London centre stage, a scandal on this scale cannot be seen to go unpunished. Yet it saddens me that serious issues regarding the safety and protection of asylum seekers in the UK - who have been subject to atrocious G4S service provision for the past few years - have failed to rouse such an indignant roar from the press. This Olympic security catastrophe has given the government a masterclass in the ethos of privatisation: profit before people, and even before product. Lets not make any more mistakes. <br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-12710947190675206132012-07-10T07:51:00.000-07:002012-07-10T07:51:29.041-07:00Additional News!<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The prolific John Grayson's latest article <a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/john-grayson/outsourcing-charity-%E2%80%93-g4s-way">"Outsourcing Charity - the G4S way"</a> </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Clare Sambrook's latest on G4S at<a href="http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/clare-sambrook/g4s-teaches-uk-border-agency-how-to-care-for-children"> Open Democracy</a> </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Good Corporate Watch summary of the G4S/UPM-dumping events at <a href="http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4384">Corporate Watch </a></span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">A curious and interesting piece on the website of the Sheffield Chilean Community website: the CEO of Target Housing (UPM's replacement) has written an open letter to the Chilean community (he himself is a Chilean refugee) trying to justify Target taking the contract. It's at this <a href="http://www.chilescda.org/2012/06/no-to-g4s-no-to-serco/#more-5878">website</a> and comments are invited...</span></li>
</ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-80896841245030678072012-07-09T06:33:00.001-07:002012-07-09T06:33:58.011-07:00G4S News Update // 2nd - 8th July<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">G4S News Update // 2nd - 8th July</span></b><br />
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Activists Occupy the Roof of G4S HQ in London, </b><a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/497595.html?c=on">Uk Indymedia</a>, 2nd July 2012: No Borders activists scaled G4S' HQ in Crawley, West Sussex, to conduct a rooftop protests against G4S' involvement in illegal settlements in occupied territories in Palestine. </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Bedfordshire Police Privatisation on Hold Until Police Commissioner Appointment in November, </b><a href="http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/News/Privatisation-on-hold-until-police-chief-poll-29062012.htm">Bedfordshire News</a>, 2nd July 2012: After a lengthy meeting, the Bedfordshire Police Authority postponed decisions about outsourcing 'back-room policing' to G4S until the appointment of a new Police Commissioner in November. The Authority also agreed to explore alternative options of cost-savings within the police service. The next day, G4S' Managing Director of Policing Services was quick to re-iterate G4S' spin on policing privatisation - see this <a href="http://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/outsourcing_police_services_could_mean_more_officers_on_hertfordshire_streets_1_1429219">website</a> for an interview with the MD. </span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Nottingham City of Sanctuary Report on Destitution Highlights Concerns over new COMPASS contracts, </b><a href="http://bftfblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/hope-and-homelessness-commission-report.html">BftF blog</a>, 4th July 2012: CoS' report, titled 'Homelessness and Hope', detailed concerns with the new COMPASS contracts in the region, recently procured by G4S. Amongst other issues, they noted that the new contract costings are substantially lower than previous years, suggesting severe cuts to services. </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>G4S Targets Bigger Events After Olympics, </b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/06/uk-g4s-idUSLNE86502720120706">Reuters</a>, 6th July 2012: Despite recent revelations about G4S' incompetent provision of security services at the London Olympics, expects to be awarded a bigger share of a four-year cycle of global events whose safety and security budget has been estimated at over $10 billion. </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>International Campaign against G4S Gathers Momentum, </b><a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/497745.html">UK Indymedia</a>, 8th July 2012: Indymedia gives a summary of the last two months of international campaigns against G4S! </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">OTHER NEWS AND UPDATES</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>- Birmingham Campaign Against Police Privatisation - </b>Activists in Birmingham are planning to protest against the corporate takeover of policing services in the region on the 12th July. For further information, see the following <a href="http://notog4s.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/stop-g4s-policing-west-midlands.html">website</a>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-25913066750684482292012-07-04T02:55:00.002-07:002012-07-04T02:55:55.205-07:00G4S News Update // 25th June - 1st July<br />
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 17px;"><b>After a big couple of weeks regarding G4S news, including renewed interest from some major papers, we're back to a few familiar themes...</b></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 17px;">EVER MORE concerns over G4S Olympic Security, </b><span style="color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 17px;"><a href="http://http//www.itv.com/news/2012-06-27/concerns-over-olympic-games-security-breaches-by-g4s-staff/">ITV</a></span><span style="color: #2a2a2a; line-height: 17px;">, 27th June 2012: ITV's Keir Simmons on security breaches among hastily-trained security staff at London's Olympic Park</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>UK police forces mull further privatisation, and G4S control of policing, </b><a href="http://http//www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/28/g4s-police-idUSL5E8HJ8PF20120628">Reuters</a>, 28th June 2012: The company's seemingly unstoppable infiltration of Britain's police forces continues, with Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire forces set to follow Lincolnshire's lead</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>G4S partly to blame for suicide in private prison, </b><a href="http://http//www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/shaun-beasleys-death-partly-due-to-neglect-inquest-jury-rules-7899882.html">The Independent</a>, 29th June 2012: More general incompetence- this time at Parc prison, where<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;"> inspectors found "chaos and crisis" within the healthcare unit shortly after Shaun Beasley's death, which they said was "foreseeable and preventable"</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-27791993376811909082012-07-02T04:03:00.000-07:002012-07-02T04:03:02.404-07:00Activists Occupy the Roof of G4S HQ!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Text c/o <a href="http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/07/497595.html">Indymedia</a> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Activists are staging a rooftop occupation at the headquarters of security multinational G4S near Crawley, West Sussex, in protest at what they claim are “illegal and immoral activities” in both the UK and Palestine/Israel.<br /><br />Early this morning, two activists climbed on top of the multistory building and<br />secured themselves in place using superglue and bike locks.<br /><br />Two banners were seen hanging from the edge of the building. One read “G4S – Profiting from: Israeli Apartheid, Prison Slavery, Deadly Deportations”.<br /><br />Another dozen protesters are surrounding the building on the ground, shouting slogan and holding anti-G4S placards.<br /><br />G4S provides equipment to prisons inside Israel to which Palestinian political prisoners from occupied territory are transferred in violation of the Geneva Conventions, tortured and subjected to arbitrary detention.<br /><br />Under Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel is forbidden to transfer Palestinian prisoners from occupied territories to prisons inside Israel. Despite this, thousands of Palestinian prisoners are unlawfully held in prisons inside Israel that are supplied by G4S. Palestinian civil society has condemned G4S' complicity with Israeli violations of international law and called for action against the company.<br /><br />The company provides equipment to the Kishon and Moskobiyyeh detention facilities at which human rights organisations have documented systematic torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners, including child prisoners. A recent UK government backed delegation found that Israel is breaching at least six violations of the UN convention of the child in its treatment of child detainees.<br /><br />More than 1,600 Palestinian political prisoners went on a mass hunger strike on 15th April this year. Mahmoud Sarsak ended his 92-day hunger strike on June 18 and is due to be released on 10 July, but three others remain on hunger strike in protest against their detention without trial.[4] G4S also provides equipment to Israeli in the West Bank that form part of the route of Israel’s illegal Wall and to illegal settlements.<br /><br />In the UK, G4S runs six private prisons at which 400 prisoners are forced to work 40 hours a week for as little as £2 a day.<br /><br />The company also runs three immigration detention centres, where detainees have made repeated claims of abuse and assault.<br /><br />Last year the company lost a multi-million contract with the UK Border Agency to deport refused migrants after 773 complaints of abuse were made against it and following the death of Jimmy Mubenga, an Angolan asylum seeker who died as a result of G4S security guards applying illegal restraint techniques.<br /><br />Despite all this, G4S is being awarded a wide range of public service contracts, from taking over police forces and providing controversial workfare schemes and asylum accommodation on behalf of the government to providing all security at the London Olympics.<br /><br />Today's protest is the latest in a new, international campaign against the controversial company. On 7th June, more than 70 people demonstrated outside the G4S Annual General Meeting and handed shareholders an “Alternative Annual Report” detailing the company's alleged violations of human rights and international law.<br /><br />One of the rooftop protesters, Tom Hayes from the Boycott Israel Network, said: “UK businesses should not be profiting from the detention and mistreatment of children.”<br /><br />“Brutal systems of discrimination such as Israeli Apartheid are maintained because companies like G4S are willing to do business with them, in total disregard of the human consequences and of international law. G4S is an example of a business that cynically views the practices of such regimes as good for business.”<br /><br />“Action much be taken to prevent corporate complicity with Israeli violations of international law.”<br /><br />The other protester, Sean Flint from No Borders UK, said:<br /><br />“I wonder how many Jimmy Mubengas it will take to realise that companies like G4S don't care about people placed in their care, but are only concerned with maximising their profits, no matter what the human cost.”<br /><br />“Awarding control of the police, justice and prison systems to a company with such a blatant disregard for basic human rights, as the government has shown its willingness to do, is truly frightening.”<br /><br /><a href="http://westmidlandsagainstpolicingforprofit.wordpress.com/">Activists will picket the 12 July meeting of the West Midlands Police Authority. G4S is bidding for a £1.5bn contract to run Police services in the West Midlands and Surrey.</a> </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-92212136352848639732012-07-02T03:46:00.000-07:002012-07-02T03:46:00.344-07:00Stop G4S policing the West Midlands<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3c3d47; line-height: 19px;"><strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Human Rights First! Stop the Corporate takeover of Policing services</span></strong></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #3c3d47; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5714285714em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Join the lobby of West Midlands Police Authority</strong></div>
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At 10am on Thursday 12th July outside West Midlands Police HQ, Lloyd House in Birmingham City Centre.</div>
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Learn more about the West Midlands Against Policing for Profit campaign <a href="http://westmidlandsagainstpolicingforprofit.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/join-the-lobby-of-west-midlands-police-authority/">here</a>. </div>
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On 12<sup style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; bottom: 1ex; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 0px; line-height: 0; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">th</sup> July West Midlands Police Authority will meet to discuss how to take forward the privatisation programme of critical police services worth £1.5bn. West Midlands against Policing for Profit is opposed to this privatisation in principle and calls for the tendering to be cancelled.</div>
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The shortlisted companies include corporate giants KBR and G4S who between them have questionable human and labour rights records from Guantanamo Bay to Iraq, from Occupied Palestine and to the treatment of asylum seekers in the UK.</div>
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If the procurement process continues after 12<sup style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; bottom: 1ex; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 0px; line-height: 0; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">th</sup> July we are calling on the Police Authority to give full consideration to the human rights records of the companies bidding for the BPP contract. It can exclude companies from tendering on grounds of ‘grave professional misconduct’. We are calling on the Police Authority to rigorously examine the human rights records of these companies.</div>
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KBR, is a former subsidiary of Halliburton, and has had extensive contracts from the US Government to provide services to support the military occupation of Iraq. KBR’s subcontractors have allegedly engaged in human trafficking and the use forced labour to provide services for KBR in Iraq.</div>
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KBR is one of the companies that built the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention camp. The facility at Guantanamo was not only used to detain people without trial and to carry out interrogations with torture, the site itself was built in a manner designed to dehumanise and terrorise those held there.</div>
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In the UK, G4S has been the subject of 700 complaints over the treatment of asylum detainees of which 130 were upheld. G4S has been implicated in the deaths of a number of asylum seekers in its custody; in 2010 G4S lost a Home Office forcible deportation contract after the death of an Angolan deportee, Jimmy Mubenga, while being restrained on a flight back home. See the rest of this blog for further information on G4S' shady human rights record. </div>
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G4S is also the subject of a global call for action by Palestinian civil society on the grounds it ‘<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: italic; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">helps to maintain and profit from Israel’s prison system, for its complicity with Israeli violations of international law.’</em></strong></div>
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West Midlands Against Policing for Profit is asking people to support the lobby to oppose the corporations bidding to run these critical policing services.</div>
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<strong style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Human Rights First! Stop KBR! Stop G4S! Keep up to date with campaign developments <a href="http://westmidlandsagainstpolicingforprofit.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/join-the-lobby-of-west-midlands-police-authority/">here</a>. </strong></div>
</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-28392644301054744422012-06-27T03:58:00.003-07:002012-06-27T03:58:42.984-07:00Campaigners make their voices heard at Leeds University's privatisation conference<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCY_qvujSB8G8C_p9gfZzjOV4J_VPh01O4VCP8VXbAQw64GHb2lRGxTg_ESzelmp72d6ranYVPJR0j_Nr3F_texDxhKu-5aFMTpij5FSN0RGsb0wLBzDycM3hbgiKxzcFeD81ARXAPx4/s1600/DEMO+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOCY_qvujSB8G8C_p9gfZzjOV4J_VPh01O4VCP8VXbAQw64GHb2lRGxTg_ESzelmp72d6ranYVPJR0j_Nr3F_texDxhKu-5aFMTpij5FSN0RGsb0wLBzDycM3hbgiKxzcFeD81ARXAPx4/s400/DEMO+.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Campaigners assembled outside Leeds University's Liberty Building (c) PressGang</td></tr>
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Early this morning, Yorkshire NotoG4S campaigners assembled outside Leeds University's Liberty building just to make sure that the attendees of the Centre for Criminal Justice Studies' conference on Private Sector Involvement in Criminal Justice were getting both sides of the story.<br />
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Representatives from SERCO's 'Secure Accommodation and Security Services' and G4S' 'Justice Services' were due to speak at the conference, alongside academics and researchers from across the country.<br />
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Campaigners from Leeds Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, UCU, Unison and the Socialist Workers Party joined asylum-rights activists outside the conference venue, distributing leaflets that detailed G4S and SERCO's unsavoury history. Many conference attendees even expressed explicit support for our campaign against the continual outsourcing of the state. A member of G4S staff even stopped for a brief chat.<br />
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In conversation with one of our campaigners, this member of G4S staff stated that the company had completely pulled out of all operations in the West Bank and, after being pressed by the campaigner on their wider involvement in assisting the Israeli army and police, stated that they were currently reviewing their contracts with Israeli prisons and detention centres. We are awaiting confirmation of these statements.<br />
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Campaigners also questioned a passing policeman about his views on the prospective privatisation of the police force. They believed that an attempt to contract out policing services to private companies within a massive force - such as the West Yorkshire Police - would end in complete disaster.<br />
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Whilst we did not plan to enter the conference - through choice or the ridiculously high (£70) ticket price - two NotoG4S supporters, who happened to be University of Leeds Law students, were supposedly able to attend. As Law students, they were technically allowed to attend the event for free. Yet, as they took their seats in the conference hall, two members of University security staff informed them that they were no longer welcome in the conference as they had been seen participating in the picket outside. They were then swiftly escorted out of the building.<br />
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We were unable to find out who authorised the removal of these two Law students from the conference, but they intend to contact the Law School in order to complain about their treatment and challenge the decision.<br />
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Silencing those who disagree with the modus operandi is hardly the sign of a fair and comprehensive debate about the encroaching powers of these multi-national security companies. We will continue to raise awareness about the growing powers of G4S and SERCO over our public services, and campaign to keep private contractors out.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYzADWrnmbh5kRy-NmiGisW1d8PhIGAqy01QGlu-0dMgu1b_q7KQjCk3pXp-ZVPgIRqe-_XwJjg4GS96TvyxcZYhbDVb18LgqHkP_UwjFHypD7thXse8yyF01o_jSbsfRKJ_vJpzUSNM/s1600/DEMO+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiYzADWrnmbh5kRy-NmiGisW1d8PhIGAqy01QGlu-0dMgu1b_q7KQjCk3pXp-ZVPgIRqe-_XwJjg4GS96TvyxcZYhbDVb18LgqHkP_UwjFHypD7thXse8yyF01o_jSbsfRKJ_vJpzUSNM/s320/DEMO+2.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
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<b>The state is not for sale. </b></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1085075078687851702.post-8639757514923407432012-06-26T02:56:00.001-07:002012-06-26T02:56:24.536-07:00REMINDER - HOLD G4S TO ACCOUNT AT LEEDS UNIVERSITY, 27th JUNE<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIVFgFeGcvv7JE7UcArLiCT2mkQvyK4tNqFN7kVIQSNAXNOE9YQBwBElisCLBzAFjRf86VJ_xYTQEZbyTQpAHr6tpADXbTc0LZvKLtAIl_xWq0FmIHUGbp9TRjJmHdl8b08PzHckRNXTo/s1600/NO+to+G4S+NO+to+SERCO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIVFgFeGcvv7JE7UcArLiCT2mkQvyK4tNqFN7kVIQSNAXNOE9YQBwBElisCLBzAFjRf86VJ_xYTQEZbyTQpAHr6tpADXbTc0LZvKLtAIl_xWq0FmIHUGbp9TRjJmHdl8b08PzHckRNXTo/s640/NO+to+G4S+NO+to+SERCO.jpg" width="492" /></a></div>
REMINDER: Tomorrow, Wednesday 27th June, is the day that representatives of G4S and Serco are billed to speak at a <a href="http://www.law.leeds.ac.uk/research/events/private-sector-involvement-in-criminal-justice.php">University of Leeds' Law School conference</a> about the role of private companies and contractors in criminal justice services.<br />
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We will assemble outside the Liberty Building - near the Business School (see <a href="http://www.leeds.ac.uk/site/custom_scripts/campus_map.php">map</a>) - at 8.30am tomorrow morning. We've printed off some copies of the above flyer, but other leaflets about G4S related campaigns would be much appreciated.<br />
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Get in touch at notog4s(at)gmail.com if you have any enquiries - we hope to see you there!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0