Dear supporters
Tremendous news! Veolia has announced it is withdrawing from the North London Waste Authority procurement process!
WFPSC team would like to acknowledge the huge campaign involving a vast number of groups and individuals that we drew off continually in our own local campaigning, only some of whom include No2VeoliaActionGroup, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Pinkham Way Alliance, Barnet Green Party, Veolia London Action Group, UK Dump Veolia Information Group, the Global Dump Veolia Campaign, Boycott National Committee, Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Friends of the Earth, Human Rights Watch, Who Profits (Coalition of Women for Peace), the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem and dozens of other organisations and groups. Plus lots of local groups including Waltham Forest Council of Mosques with a large number of businesses in the borough, WF Unite, WF Unison, Waltham Forest Trades Council, members of We are Waltham Forest, Wanstead and Leyton Labour Party, WF Labour Group, WF Lib Dems, WF Green Party, plus many other groups and beautiful individuals - all of whom passed motions, signed and gathered in petitions and open letters, emailed, met and debated with Councillors, lobbied the NLWA relentlessly and kept going.
It is hugely inspiring that together everyone has achieved this enormously important success. This is a win for more than just the constituents of 7 north London boroughs holding their municipalities to account over the two 30-year, £4.7 billion totalling contracts, safeguarding their hard-earned taxes and stopping a likely series of ecological disasters. This is a win for all fighting peacefully to free Palestinians from oppression, and to make the world a more responsible, financially fair and ecologically sustainable place.
TONIGHT, FRIDAY, campaigners are heading into central London to celebrate at a pub in Holborn from 6pm - that big pub on the left as you come out of Holborn tube station, down Kingsway!
TOMORROW, SATURDAY, we will hold the WFPSC stall from 11am in Walthamstow Town Square - please pop by to CELEBRATE and spread the news of this fantastic success - and help out at our last stall of 2012!
NEXT WEEK, THURSDAY 27 Dec 1-3pm - a national protest for GAZA outside the Israeli Embassy on Kensington High Street, London W8 5EB to mark the anniversary of Operation Cast Lead - the horrific bombardment of the Palestinian people in Gaza in 2008/2009.
AND IN THE NEW YEAR WFPSC IS CANCELLING OUR 'DUMP VEOLIA' PUBLIC MEETING! We are reverting to our New Year 2013 WFPSC Branch Meeting open to everyone at 7.30pm, on Mon 14th Jan 2013, at Hornbeam Centre, Walthamstow, to organise Gaza support and other activities instead.
It is so encouraging that peaceful, non-violence campaigning is having a strong impact, pulling apart the international mechanisms propping up Israel's unjustifiable, unsustainable, illegal occupation of Palestine.
Free Palestine! And very best wishes for a Very Happy Christmas and Seasons Greetings to All!
WFPSC Team
Waltham Forest Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Patrons: Neil Gerrard, Jean Lambert MEP, Prof Nur Masalha
Facebook: www.facebook.com/walthamforestpsc
Twitter: @wfpsclondon
Web: http://wfpsc.blogspot.com
Post: WFPSC c/o Hornbeam Centre, 458 Hoe St, Walthamstow, E17 9AH
Email: wfpsc@yahoo.com
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Palestine Solidarity Campaign has issued this statement:
Veolia pulls out of bidding for multi-Billion pound contract in North London
Today (21 December) the North London Waste Authority announced that Veolia Environmental Services ‘ will not be submitting final tenders for either NLWA’s waste services or fuel use contracts’. http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/news/2012/2012/12/21/announcement-on-nlwa-procurement
Sarah Colborne, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said:
‘Veolia’s bid for this waste contract which covers a vast area of North London was deeply controversial, with local residents outraged that such a toxic company could potentially provide services to them. Veolia is complicit in Israeli violations of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Veolia operates bus services to illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian land, is involved with the Jerusalem Light Railway which was designed to serve the needs of Israeli settlers, and Tovlan landfill which operates in the Jordan Valley.
This decision comes after a recent report by Professor Richard Falk – the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories – in which Veolia was singled out for its activities in the Occupied Palestianin Territories and after Palestine Solidarity Campaign members in the area have been actively campaigning against Veolia’s bid.
‘Desperate measures were used in an attempt to silence those who were standing up for justice and human rights, and opposing violations of international law. A Hackney council resident, Caroline Day, who wanted to put the case that the North London Waste Authority should not work with Veolia, was prevented from speaking at a full meeting of Hackney Council in November 2012. Local media reported that an organisation called UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) were involved in drafting the motion to prevent Ms Day from speaking.’
‘But even these desperate measures don’t stop the truth from coming out about Veolia’s toxic activities.’
It seems that Veolia's complicity with occupation is causing it to be shunned across the world. In the USA, the St Louis City Board (Missouri) this week declined to approve a city contract with Veolia Water, putting off a vote on the matter until there can be a full investigation into the company's involvement in ethnic discrimination in Palestine. The decision comes after campaigning by St Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee and St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace. http://www.stl-psc.org/?p=385
Ends
Notes for the editor
Veolia loosing contracts:
http://www.dumpveolia.org.uk/2012/11/16/veolia-campaign-victories/
NLWA announcement: http://www.nlwa.gov.uk/news/2012/2012/12/21/announcement-on-nlwa-procurement
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk: http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/boycott-businesses-that-profit-from-israeli-settlements-un-special-rapporteur-9893
More on Veolia: http://www.bigcampaign.org/veolia/
