The StopG4S campaign held a successful protest in Alberts Square  last Tuesday (3rd Feb) ,  gathering signatures for their petition.  The protest took place at a rally called by Councillor Pat Karney to “Stand up for Manchester” against the cuts. Laughable, as Manchester City Council has been more interested in prostration before private contractors such as G4S than standing up for anything .

The Stop-G4S campaign will be petition on the following date and places

• Saturday 28th  February  11-13:00 Withington Library
• Saturday 14th March  11-13:00 Chorlton Library

Contact norma turner <noturn3@hotmail.com> for  more information about the petition.

Details of the Petition

“G4S is a security company alleged to be involved in human rights abuses.  We call upon the Council to introduce an ethical commissioning and procurement policy which  provides guidance on the exercise of discretion to exclude tenderers on the grounds of grave misconduct including human rights abuses, anti trade union practices, tax avoidance and fraud.

Any supplier which has committed a breach of the ethical policy should be considered to have committed an act of grave misconduct in the course of its business and should be excluded from tendering unless and until it can demonstrate that it has taken appropriate remedial steps.    Any exclusion must be appropriate to the scale and nature of the offence or misconduct.”

The online details can be found at

http://petitions.manchester.gov.uk/petitions.ti/stopg4spetition

To sign the petition you must say you live / work / or study in Manchester. Think this means you either put your home address and postcode (as indicated on the website petition) and then tick the relevant box in the next bit. Alternatively you could put your work/study address and postcode. It isn’t clear but please do sign it anyway. No doubt the council will spend inordinate amounts of time and money scrutinising every last signature to try to remove signatures – rather than just stopping paying G4S……. so please do your best! You will also have to confirm that it is you by replying to the email the petition sends you straight after. Check your junk mail or spam box in case the confirmation reply goes there instead…  And if you are not in Manchester, but know people who are, please send it round extensively.