VFM from No2VAG

Eh?  That's Value for Money from the No to Veolia Action Group.  Rob Langlands explains in the Islington Tribune:

AFTER more than a three-year procurement process to contract out the management of waste from north London, the North London Waste Authority chief Councillor Clyde Loakes dramatically U-turned last week.

When I analysed the sparse information made public by the secretive NLWA over a year ago, I was astonished to discover that costs for north Londoners, including people in Islington, would almost triple under his leadership to more than £4billion.

I made my findings public in the Tribune, along with the potential for at least £1billion savings.
In his response, the NLWA chief derisively claimed I didn’t know what I was talking about.

Last year, I and No2VAG informed Islington Council and all the other boroughs of the reckless plan to waste such a colossal sum of money in these times of immense financial pressure.

Belatedly and after spending at least a further £5million of public money on “expert” investigation, Cllr Loakes now admits the NLWA could save £900m by simply cancelling his grandiose plan.

Yet the top people in the NLWA continue with their £100k-plus salaries in spite of overseeing the throwing away of more than £10m on highly-paid expert consultants.

Meanwhile, Cllr Loakes is re-elected as NLWA chair to preside over this mess. While he has introduced
fines for spitting in public, he is now virtually spitting in the face of the many north London residents who were convinced of the lunacy of his grandiose rubbish plan.

The fantastic result of these £1billion savings gives me great satisfaction, though initially my main reason for examining this waste plan was the No2VAG campaign against Veolia’s bid for the £4.7billion contracts, which shows that fighting for justice for Palestinians can benefit Islington.

ROB LANGLANDS
Secretary, No2Veolia Action Group

So boycotting Israel's collaborators can make political, moral and financial sense.  Good news!

Veolia pays the price

This is a straight lift from Electronic Intifada partly because friends of mine were very closely involved in the No to Veolia campaign which cost Veolia so dearly (£4.7 billion) in North London and partly because there's a picture of one of those friends above the piece:

Veolia suffering "expensive" damage due to Palestine campaigners’ publicity, says financial expert

Submitted by Adri Nieuwhof on Tue, 02/19/2013 - 13:36

Protest in London against Veolia’s role in the Israeli occupation. (inminds.com)

For years, the French transnational Veolia has tried to downplay the effect of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns which aim to hold the company to account for its role in the Israeli occupation.

But now a top Norwegian financial advisor has boldly acknowledged the impact of the BDS movement.

Activists in many countries have pressured local authorities, public institutions, socially responsible investors and pension funds to do no business with Veolia as long as it is complicit in Israel’s violations of international law.

In a recent presentation [PDF], Hege Sjo said that “disasters are expensive” for businesses, mentioning Veolia as an example of a company that has experienced “reputational damage as a result of publicity and pending litigation” due to “operations in troubled regions. Involvement in infrastructure project in the occupied territories.”

Sjo spoke at a 8 February seminar organized by Norsif, a Norwegian association which promotes responsible and sustainable investment practices in the Norwegian financial industry.

Sjo underpinned her argument by mentioning Veolia’s alleged loss of a €3.5 billion ($4.6 billion) Swedish metro contracts in January 2009.

Senior financial adviser

It is remarkable that the observation was made by a financial expert who operates in the higher circles of the investment world.

Sjo is a senior adviser to the principle manager of the largest pension fund in the the UK, Hermes Investment Management. She is also director of several publicly listed Norwegian companies. Sjo’s warning is a clear sign to companies that profiting from Israel’s occupation carries serious reputational and financial risks.

So, stay out of occupied Palestine or risk reputational and therefore financial damage.

No 2 Veolia and the £4.7 billion victory

Bringing the Palestinian struggle to North London:

How the No to Veolia Action Group
won a £4.7 billion victory

Monday 4 February, 7:30pm

Crossroads Women’s Centre
25 Wolsey Mews, NW5 2AD
(nearest tube & train, Kentish Town, wheelchair accessible)

Following a two-year campaign by the No to Veolia Action Group(No2VAG), the multinational Veolia which profits from and supports the Israeli occupation of Palestine lost a £4.7 billion contract with the North London Waste Authority (NWLA) which represents seven north London boroughs.

The No2VAG campaign won in spite of opposition, sabotage and interference, first of all from Zionist organisations: ironically, local anger at their gross manipulation generated much publicity which contributed to pressure on Veolia and the NWLA.  After spending millions to secure the contract Veolia was forced to withdraw.

We need to know how this campaign, inspired by the Palestinian struggle, won this massive victory.  Already it has encouraged similar campaigns in South Wales and Davis, California (which won a $325 million victory). Come and hear how we can kick out Veolia from every corner of the UK and the world.

Telling us how it was done:
Yael Kahn, Chair, No2VAG 
Irfan Akhtar, Spokesperson, Waltham Forest Council of Mosques
Caroline Day, Spokesperson, No2VAG
Ann Dyas, Vice Chair, No2VAG
Izzat Ismail, Internet Comms, No2VAG

Rob Langlands, Engineer & Secretary, No2VAG

No to Veolia Action Group http://no2vag.wordpress.com

Lawyer for Israel: Jewish Chronicle "fair and accurate", shock!

The secretary of the Israel advocacy group, UK Lawyers for Israel had the following letter published in Friday's print edition of The Jewish Chronicle:

Your report (Veolia pulls out of waste bid), though fair and accurate, may leave readers with the impression that Veolia withdrew from North London Waste Authority tenders owing to pressure by anti-Veolia campaigners.

However, Veolia's withdrawal is highly unlikely to have been the result of such pressure.  In the campaigners' fantasy world they claim victory whenever Veolia misses out on a contract - which naturally can happen when Veolia competes with other companies.

Council taxpayers will pay more because of Veolia's withdrawal.  But the anti-Veolia campaigners can take no credit for this unfortunate outcome, since the pull-out was almost certainly based on commercial and financial 

considerations.

David Lewis

Secretary,

UK Lawyers for Israel

david.lewis@lawbuild.co.uk

Now that's a lawyer's letter if ever there was one.

That might be the first time the JC has ever had a complaint for fairness and accuracy.

NO 2 Veolia torpedoed bid

Ok, same news, different paper.  The local press coverage of the campaign against zionism's preferred supplier, Veolia, has been, from my point of view anyway, as unexpected as Veolia's sudden withdrawal from the contract contest.  This time it's the Camden New Journal on the case:

ONE of the biggest-ever contracts in local authority history has been thrown into further chaos after one of only two bidders pulled out at the last minute.

North London Waste Authority (NLWA) – run by seven London boroughs, including Camden – is on the verge of handing out a £4.7bn contract to collect, recycle and burn waste from the boroughs for the next 25 to 35 years.

But after more than a year of negotiations whittled down the firms able to handle such a contract to just two, one has now quit the race at the last minute.

International waste firm Veolia is not giving a reason for its decision. But campaigners believe it is due to the negative publicity that has been gathering pace over its work for Israel on illegally occupied Palestinian land.

The United Nations and charity War on Want both wrote to the councillors – two from each borough – who run the NLWA, urging them not to choose Veolia.

Camden representatives on the NLWA are councillors Phil Jones and Theo Blackwell.

There has also been a vociferous campaign by a group called No To Veolia.

Campaigner Yael Kahn said: “It is absolutely down to the campaign. Without it Veolia would have already pocketed the contract.”

The contract, which will cost Camden taxpayers £600m, has been mired in controversy because all the deliberations are held in secret, even though a vast amount of taxpayers’ cash – enough to buy four nuclear submarines – is at stake

Of course this isn't simply about media coverage. Israel will be watching this case nervously as companies will have to consider all of the implications of being associated with the occupation or even with Israel itself.

No2VAG and No2Veolia update

On Twitter, the account @No2VAG - ie, the no to veolia action group, is still suspended. @No2Veolia seems to be running at the moment though.  So the following tweet seems to be out of date.

@no2vag @no2veolia are suspended - is this to protect #Veolia #NLWA? Please follow us #No2VAG #No2Veolia till reinstate hackneygazette.co.uk/news/best_chri…
— Yael Kahn (@YaelKahn) December 28, 2012

Try clicking the @no2vag and you get this:

Account suspended

The profile you are trying to view has been suspended. To return to your home timeline, click here.

Clicking on@no2veolia gets you this: 

No2VeoliaActionGroup

@No2Veolia

No2VAG aka No2VeoliaActionGroup the north London Campaigners who trashed Veolia selection for £4.7Bn NLWA waste & fuel processing contracts http://www.No2VAG.org.uk 

North London · No2VAG.org.uk

So, until @no2vag is reinstated, follow @no2veolia.

Ta

No2VAG Twitter account suspended

Oh dear. I was just tweeting my previous post so:

News on #Veolia gets better and better #bds #boycottisrael @no2vag jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/news-o…
— Jews Sans Frontieres (@jewssf) December 28, 2012

When I checked that @no2vag was an existing address I got the following message:

Sorry, that user is suspended.

Has the lobby had more success with Twitter than it had with Hackney Council or the North London Waste Authority?

Watch this space....

News on Veolia gets better and better

Well the news is pretty much the same, that is that the zionist occupation's preferred multinational corporate suppier, Veolia, withdrew their bid to handle refuse in North London.  It was campaigners in the London Borough of Hackney who brought the pressure which led to Veolia throwing the towel in.  The better bit is the way that the whole thing has been covered in the local press.  The Hackney Citizen and the Hackney Gazette have both been very informative and supportive of local democracy and accountability throughout the whole process, raising awkward questions as it unfolded in the Town Hall.

Now the Hackney Gazette has a congratulatory piece by Senior Reporter, Emma Bartholomew under the headline, “Best Christmas present ever” for Veolia campaigners:

Campaigners who spent two years vociferously campaigning to block Veolia’s for a multi-million pound deal are celebrating their best Christmas present ever, after the waste company dropped out of the tender.

Veolia was down to the last two bidders for the North London Waste Authority’s £4.7bn waste services and fuel use contract – but the No 2 Veolia Action Group (No2VAG) said the company should be blacklisted because it provides transport, waste, sewage and water services to Jewish settlements in Palestine, which are considered illegal under international law.

The shock news Veolia had withdrawn from the tender process came last Friday, and it is unclear why the decision was made.

The deal, involving seven London boroughs which will cost Hackney £600 million, hit the headlines this month after No2VAG spokeswoman and Hackney resident Caroline Day was blocked from making a five-minute speech at a Hackney Council meeting.

David Lewis, secretary and treasurer of pro-Israeli group Lawyers for Israel, went on to claim silencing her as a ‘victory’, after the Labour party supported Tory Cllr Linda Kelly’s motion to block the speech in a whipped vote.

Veolia declined to comment to the Gazette about why it had dropped out from the tender, and refused to categorically deny it had anything to do with the Israeli settlements controversy.

Ms Day said her group is “absolutely delighted” and lauded the move as a “huge victory for local democracy”.

“Powerful lobbies representing unethical interests in the illegal settlements may have won a short-term victory in silencing me, but in standing up for their right to see their money invested ethically, local people have achieved a victory for justice for the Palestinian people,” she said.

“This really has been the result of very determined collective campaigning across the seven boroughs and huge credit goes to our chair Yael Kahn who has dedicated her life to this for two years,” she added.

As you can see, the full story had some remarkable ingredients including the boasting of Israel lobbyists, at least one whom is a Hackney councillor.

Mondoweiss has an analytical piece on the campaign itself and Charlie Pottins at Random Pottins gets very technical about the whole thing.

All in all, a great victory for BDS and a lesson for others to follow.

Veolia, the Lobby's preferred supplier, pulls out of London waste bid

The good news keeps on coming, even from the Jewish Chronicle:

A company with links to Israel has pulled out of a bid for a major waste contract in Britain.

North London Waste Authority (NLWA) confirmed Veolia Environmental Services had withdrawn its attempt to secure contracts to manage water and fuel services in the capital.

Anti-Israel campaigners have repeatedly attacked the multinational over its involvement in the Jerusalem light railway project and in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and have called on British local authorities to boycott the company.

Hackney Council controversially barred anti-Veolia protesters from speaking at an authority meeting on the bid last month.

NLWA covers seven boroughs and had named Veolia as one of the shortlisted companies for the contract, which is reportedly worth up to £4 billion over 25 years.

Veolia has given no reason for the withdrawal, which was announced on Friday, and a spokesman said the company would not comment.

Clyde Loakes, NLWA chair, said the decision to pull out was “disappointing”.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign welcomed Veolia’s departure from the process, claiming the company’s links to Israel were “toxic”.

There's a lot more to this story than we see in the JC so check out the Hackney Citizen and scroll down for the comments. But congrats to the @No2Veolia Action Group.

Hackney: Normalising Israel - Abnormalising local democracy

Hackney Citizen editorial:

Leader – Anti-Veolia deputation fails the ‘spirit test’

Hackney Council’s reasons for preventing a resident speak at a council meeting are puzzling and perhaps disingenuous

The Hackney Citizen
Thursday 13 December 2012

Spirited away: Council refuses to hear deputation.Photograph: Hackney Citizen

There have been disquieting goings-on at the Town Hall, where councillors have virtually unanimously voted to prevent a resident from bringing a deputation to a council meeting – despite the fact that the wording of her speech had been approved by Hackney Council’s legal team.

The deputation concerned the French multinational Veolia, which is bidding for a multimillion pound waste management contract to serve our borough.

Campaigner Caroline Day had hoped to give a five minute speech about Veolia’s involvement in projects in Israel  and occupied territory in the West Bank. She was barred from doing so after the council voted in favour of a motion proposed by Conservative councillor Linda Kelly and seconded by Mayor Jules Pipe.

The council has trotted out various justifications for putting the kibosh on the speech, one apparently being that the references to events in the Middle East were not relevant to local people.

This is a questionable argument, given that an Israeli flag was recently unfurled at a council meeting to celebrate Hackney having twinned itself with the Israeli city of Haifa.

The Mayor has argued that because “Hackney has no foreign policy” the deputation was irrelevant.  Isn’t the twinning with Haifa then inappropriate?

It seems unfair, and a blow for freedom of speech, when campaigners clear all the various hurdles involved in bringing a deputation to the Town Hall only to be censored by their  own councillors.

Whilst Ms Day’s speech conformed to the letter of the constitution, it was argued that the speech did not observe its spirit.

Residents should not be prevented from speaking to council simply because the council does not want to hear what they have to say.

Related:

Hackney Mayor backs Conservative bid to block anti-Veolia deputation

 Speaks for itself.

Israel lobby influencing award of contracts in London Borough of Hackney

There's a long back story to this issue which involves a French multinational corporation, Veolia, bidding for work in 7 north London boroughs, including the London Borough of Hackney, for the biggest UK waste contracts totalling £4.7 Billion. The procurement process is handled by a body representing all the 7 boroughs: North London Waste Authority (NLWA). The other 6 boroughs are: Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest .  Veolia's efforts are being resisted by the No2Veolia campaign because of the work it does on transport and infrastructure for the illegal settlements created and maintained by the State of Israel in the occupied West Bank together with technical and environmental concerns.  Things have just recently come to a head with a spokesperson for No2Veolia, Caroline Day, being prevented from addressing councillors in Hackney to ensure they are aware of the fundamental shortcomings in the contract awarding process.

Here's the Hackney Citizen:

A resident was prevented from speaking at a full meeting of Hackney Council last week by a cross party motion seconded by Mayor Jules Pipe, amid a dispute over plans to award waste contracts to a controversial multinational company.

Caroline Day had hoped to speak to Hackney Council to put the case that the North London Waste Authority should refrain from working with Veolia, a French company which campaigners say is complicit in Israeli violations of international law in the West Bank and Gaza.

The North London Waste Authority handles waste services for Hackney Council and six other London boroughs, and will consider Veolia for a 25-year contract due to start in 2014.

A deputation brought by Labour councillor Ian Rathbone to allow Caroline Day to put her concerns about Veolia at a meeting of full council was approved by the council’s lawyer.

However, a blocking motion was proposed at the full council meeting by a  former Labour councillor who defected to the Conservatives last year.

Conservative councillor Linda Kelly’s motion, which proposed that the deputation should be not be heard, received cross-party support from Labour, Liberal Democrat and Conservative councillors and was passed with only two (Labour) abstentions.

Mayor Jules Pipe seconded the motion and gave a speech in favour of its adoption. Hackney Labour Group’s Chief Whip, Louisa Thomson, confirmed to the Hackney Citizen that it was a whipped vote.

A whipped vote means that councillors had to vote in line with their leaderships' wishes or face sanctions which can involve expulsion from their party.  The fact that so many councillors failed to question the whip is already disturbing but it gets worse.

Commenting on the outcome, Caroline Day, who is also a spokesperson for the No2Veolia campaign, said: “We wanted to bring a deputation to make sure the councillors who were on the North London Waste Authority board were aware of the issues.”

“The Mayor and councillors talked about my speech without having seen it,” she added, which meant the Mayor’s speech was “pure conjecture.”

Ms Day accused the mayor of making a “political decision” and said she was a victim of censorship.

In a statement Hackney Council explained why the deputation was rejected: “Elected members felt that to receive the deputation could give the incorrect appearance that they were open to lobbying on procurement issues and would in turn be prepared to lobby an external organisation about its procurement.

It continued: “Elected members also said that it was inappropriate for Full Council to debate what is intrinsically an international political issue which the local authority is in no position to resolve”, in an echo of Mayor Pipe’s remark in the chamber that “Hackney Council does not have a foreign policy.”

So councillors can't hear the views of a resident of the borough regarding the award of a contract because that might look like succumbing to lobbying.  Further, they can't involve themselves in a foreign policy issue.
But how did they know what Caroline Day's speech would consist of:

When quizzed by the Hackney Citizen as to how it knew in advance of the content of Ms Day’s speech, a spokesperson for Hackney Council said the Town Hall had received “a short synopsis of the deputation” from Ms Day “[indicating] it was likely to cover the procurement practices of a third party,” and that members received emails from protestors on the issues it contained.

So why did they agree to hear from her and then change their collective mind?

In a further twist, the motion to block Ms Day’s deputation was drafted with the assistance of an organisation called UK Lawyers for Israel, which Councillor Kelly contacted for assistance. David Lewis, Secretary and Treasurer for UKLI, said: “I helped Linda Kelly in the drafting of the motion.”

“We didn’t want the deputation to be heard by the council if we could find a way of preventing it,” he said. “We are there to defend Israel against demonisation and consider the No2Veolia campaign as part of the demonisation exercise.”

In the Jewish Chronicle, UK Lawyers for Israel boast of their involvement in the prevention of Caroline Day addressing Hackney Council:

How we helped justice to prevail in Hackney

By David Lewis, November 29, 2012
Follow The JC on Twitter

Israel’s supporters won a symbolic victory on November 21 against a BDS (boycott divestment sanctions) campaign to prevent Veolia from winning a massive waste services contract for the North London Waste Authority.

Because a Veolia subsidiary provided transport and environmental services in Jerusalem and the West Bank, BDS campaigners falsely accuse the French group of complicity in Israel’s alleged violations of international humanitarian law.

The battleground was the London Borough of Hackney council chamber, one of seven constituent boroughs of the NLWA, which was due to receive a deputation from the campaigners.

Hackney activist Martin Sugarman and Conservative councillor Linda Kelly sought the help of UK Lawyers for Israel, and we prepared a motion “that the deputation be not received”.

We contacted Labour councillor Luke Akehurst, who heads the advocacy organisation, We Believe in Israel. Councillor Akehurst liaised with the ruling Labour group, who decided to support Councillor Kelly’s motion along with the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties on the Council.

Supporting the motion, Hackney’s mayor, Jules Pipe, made the telling point that Hackney did not have, and never would have, a foreign policy.

A joint statement by all three parties said that receiving the deputation could have given the incorrect impression that they were open to lobbying on procurement.

Receiving the deputation would not have observed the spirit of the council’s constitution and went beyond what was reasonable for local councillors to consider.

David Lewis is secretary of UK Lawyers for Israel

Jonathan Hoffman, late of the Zionist Federation UK (ZFUK) is also well pleased with the handiwork of the UK Lawyers for Israel.  Here he is on his JC blog:

Last night I first went to Hackney Town Hall. The Council was due to consider a request from a Labour Member to invite in a Deputation to speak against Veolia, in order to lobby the Council and two of its members on the North London Waste Authority, with regards to the contracts they are considering. Before the meeting we demonstrated outside the Town Hall, neutralising an anti-Veolia (and of course anti-Israel) demonstration.

Thanks partly to great work by UK Lawyers for Israel, the request was thrown out almost unanimously (there were two abstentions). The turning point was a powerful speech by the elected Mayor of Hackney, Jules Pipe, who said that Hackney had no need of a foreign policy

Well it does look very much like Hackney Council is open to lobbying and it does indeed have a foreign policy.  The Occupy News Network has a lot of detail on the zionist activism of those who are so pleased to have had a Hackney resident prevented from addressing her council.