Birkbeck justice 4 Cleaners campaign demonstration

There was a very good meeting at Birkbeck College on Thursday evening (20 November) with John McDonnell MP and Jose Stalin Bermudez, a cleaner originally from Ecuador and UNISON member, currently victimised at his workplace, on the platform. The event was organised the London Living Wage campaign, which has sprung up at the college with the support of the Students' Union's leadership, and the local branches of UNISON and the lecturers' union, the UCU.

The campaign is seeking to emulate the success of a similar effort at the neighbouring School of Oriental and African Studies (as well as the LSE) and force the college authorities to implement the London Living Wage (currently £7.45 an hour) on all outsourced contracts. Currently, a high proportion of cleaners, for example, are paid on the national minimum of £5.73 an hour - poverty pay by any estimation in the context of contemporary London.

Comrades, especially those in central London, should try and make it along to a protest lobby called to coincide with the meeting of Birkbeck College's governing body

Wednesday 03 December from 5.00 PM onwards.

The rally, which should last 90 minutes to two hours, will take place outside the college's main building in Torrington Sq, WC1 (around the corner from the historic entrance in Malet Street) with speakers from UNISON, the RMT and London Citizens among others. The nearest tube stations are Euston Square, Goodge Street, Russell Square and Warren Street.

There are obvious logistical difficulties, but perhaps there is a possibility of developing links with the ongoing campaign against the AMEY victimisations.