Loomnie

Sunday 21st March, Sidney Street LGBT Centre, off Oxford Rd

David Kato, LGBTI activist from Uganda and member of SMUG

http://www.sexualminoritiesuganda.org will talk about his experiences as an
activist in the context of recent legislation threatening the death penalty for
“aggravated homosexuality”, the campaign in Uganda to stop the new law as
well as international efforts for decriminalisation. To be followed by
questions/discussion. David is on a short tour of the UK and this is his only
Manchester date.

David will be joined by Sokari Ekine, activist, writer and founder of
http://www.blacklooks.org/ a site documenting social justice issues in Africa
and the diaspora with a focus on LGBTI rights, gender-based violence,
militarism as well as literature and popular culture.

Delicious cheap food and cafe available from 12.30pm. Talk/discussion 2-4pm
Sunday 21st March, LGBT Centre, 49-51 Sidney Street, Manchester (Behind
8th Day Co-op off Oxford Rd)

The event is free but voluntary contributions towards travel expenses of
participants gratefully received. The venue is wheelchair accessible and all on
the ground floor. If you have any queries please contact
mikewupton@hotmail.com

This event is brought to you by Manchester Queer Reading Group. For more info
or to hear about other events, subscribe to our list
https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/queerreadinggroup

From the BBC: A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes.

The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery.

Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say.

The petition has 44 signatories so far, and will be presented to newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The group say the financial crisis is leading to an increase in unemployment, poverty and social inequality.

Simply donating money to deal with the problems is not enough, they want a change in the whole approach.

“The path out of the crisis must be paved with massive investment in ecology, education and social justice,” they say in the petition.

Those who had “made a fortune through inheritance, hard work, hard-working, successful entrepreneurship, or investment” should contribute by paying more to alleviate the crisis.

The man behind the petition, Dieter Lehmkuhl, told Berlin’s Tagesspiegel that there were 2.2 million people in Germany with a fortune of more than 500,000 euros.

If they all paid the tax for two years, Germany could raise 100bn euros to fund ecological programmes, education and social projects, said the retired doctor and heir to a brewery.

Signatory Peter Vollmer told AFP news agency he was supporting the proposal because he had inherited “a lot of money I do not need”.

He said the tax would be “a viable and socially acceptable way out of the flagrant budget crisis”.

The group held a demonstration in Berlin on Wednesday to draw attention to their plans, throwing fake banknotes into the air.

Mr Vollmer said it was “really strange that so few people came”.

We woke up this morning to learn that the new center-right coalition of Ms Merkel’s CDU and Mr Westerwelle’s FDP have decided to cut taxes.