Solidarity & Workers’ Liberty Volume 3 No 168 5 March 2010 30p/80p an injury to one is an injury to all

STUDENTS LONDON ’S NHS IN Ireland and OCCUPY ! CRISIS “Permanent

PAGE 5 PAGE 7 Revolution” PAGES 16-19 The super-rich run British politics THE MAN BEHIND Worth £1.1 billion. Donated £280,000 THE to Tory candidates in 2005 general TORIES election.

BY SEAN MATGAMNA ence in British political and social life, is a “non- Minister Blair’s “office” played a major part in the dom” who does not pay British taxes on most of New Labour-Blair-Brown subversion, and to a he Lord Ashcroft affair cuts like the his wealth adds a savagely pointed irony to this sit - large extent, destruction of the old Labour Party. sharp beam of a spotlight through the uation, and has triggered intense interest in the The issue here is brutally plain. Democracy. putrid pretences and hypocrisies of affair. What the Ashcroft affair brings out clearly is how British politics. But what if Ashcroft did pay full British taxes on rotten, and how hollow is what passes for democ - Here is a man of vast wealth who bought himself all his income? The tremendous political weight racy in Britain now. And in this Britain which is a peerage. He is paymaster to the Tory Party — to bought by this single rich man would then be rea - still, all in all, a great deal better than the USA, the tune of many tens of millions of pounds. sonable? Good? Acceptable? Democratic? where candidates and elections are openly bought THe has bought a shaping influence in the affairs No, it would not be good, reasonable, or accept - and sold, without shame or inhibition. of the Tory Party, and thus on the policies of the able. Least of all would it be democratic. Britain is no longer a democracy, even in the old Tory Government that may emerge from the 2010 Ashcroft is only an extreme case. Notoriously, limited and inadequate bourgeois sense. It is a General Election. the US citizen Rupert Murdoch, owner of British pluto-democracy. He is pouring money into key marginal con - media such as the Sun has the power to compel It is not “government of the people, by the peo - stituencies and thus he is a major force in deter - British politicians, Labour no less than Tory, to ple, for the people”. It is government of the people, mining the outcome of the General Election — of compete for his favour, to trim and shape their by the rich and their bought and paid-for politi - which party will govern Britain during the worst policies to his taste and needs. cians and for the benefit of the rich. This is how economic crisis since the 1930s. Of course, New Labour also has its influential you get such absurdities as the vast plundering of In the election, how many votes will Ashcroft rich donors, some of them also “non-doms”. There the “public purse” to bail out the bankers while have? is a great deal of hypocrisy in New Labour denun - leaving them in control and free to award them - Look at it like this: measured in terms of political ciation of the Tories in the Ashcroft affair. Yet none selves enormous bonuses. power to shape the outcome, how many votes will of New Labour’s rich benefactors come even close That is the real point of the Ashcroft affair. it take to counter-balance the political weight in to Ashcroft in terms of the sums involved and the Not the least of the crimes of the Blair-Brown- British politics which Ashcroft’s wealth gives him? direct influence on policy and on the affairs of a New Labour gang is that they have made the Hundreds of thousands? A million? major party which they buy. Labour Party part of that political corruption — an The fact that this man, of such weight and influ - The money of rich donors to finance Prime outrage against every real democratic principle. NEWS

AVIATION British Airways dispute set to take off?

BY DARREN BEDFORD he BA strike is important for a potential. The Transition Heathrow number of reasons. From an envi - group recently undertook a bit of a land- n an act which again defies right- r“onT mental point of view, the aviation grab in Sipson; the space they’ve taken is wing mythology about workers industry is particularly destructive and very near the the airport. The timing of being passive and unprepared to unsustainable, so engaging workers the take was deliberately intended to take action, cabin crew working around a workplace like Heathrow is coincide with the strike, and there are for British Airways have voted by an really important in terms of opening a plan to use the space in part, as an organ - overwhelming majority — on a huge debate about that. It’s about building ising centre for solidarity. We want to turnout — to take strike action against links and developing consciousness. run a kitchen out of the space so we can Iproposed changes to their contract. 81% The strike is an opportunity to do that. bring food and drink to picket lines. We of workers voted to strike, on a turnout But equally, Heathrow isn’t isolated; also want to get BA workers to come of nearly 80%. we’ve got to put it in the context of other down to the space; we’ve already had a workers’ struggles in frontline indus - This is the second time their union, lot of local people come and help out and tries, whether that’s energy generation, Unite, has had to run the strike ballot. we want to use it as a means to build transport, or others. We have to help to The first time round the figures were links between workers at the airport and build some political interconnectedness even higher, with over 90% of workers workers in the wider community around between these struggles. Aviation is a voting to strike. After BA bosses success - Heathrow.” difficult industry to try and engage with fully used the High Court to have the www.workersclimateaction.com on many levels because the potentials for strike ruled illegal (on the basis of a spu - Not everyone’s favourite airline www.transitionheathrow.com transition are much less obvious than rious technicality relating to the ballot - they are with, say, a car factory or an ing process), it was inevitable that the armaments factory. There hasn’t been an dispute would lose some momentum. duty pilots training to work as stand-in awful lot done by the left and the envi - Given the circumstances it is impressive cabin crew, a move that has been ronmental movement in terms of grap - — and an indication of BA workers’ denounced by pilots’ union leaders. Jorg Gatwick pling with that difficulty, so we have to resolve — that support for the strike Handwerg, a pilot for Lufthansa and a use the strike to start doing some of that only dropped by 9%. rep for Vereinigung Cockpits (the union bout 70 porters at the second work. Unite has yet to name dates for action, which organised Lufthansa pilots), said biggest airport in the UK staged There is definitely a tension and poten - and working out a concrete strategy to “Our struggle with Lufthansa will be a solid two-day strike over tial contradiction between a worker- A win the dispute must surely be a first reciprocated at BA. I call on all union Christmas. Action is now on hold focused approach and direct action that priority for the union and its members. members to support each other, rather while there is uncertainty over which targets a particular workplace or indus - To ensure that the direction of the dis - than undermining the legitimate fight of company will hold onto the contract try as a whole. There’s obviously a risk pute is meaningfully controlled by cabin another group of employees... I cannot under which the workers are involved in that some forms of direct crew and not by (often unelected) full- imagine that pilots would be willing to employed . action could undermine the kind of time union officials, democratic strike work in the cabin to break a strike. As a The workers currently work for a work that Workers’ Climate Action does committees with real power should be union it does not look very fortunate if the facilities giant Interserve. trying to engage with workers in front - elected. members of one union help breaking a Interserve’s last posted profits were line industries and their struggles. The dispute centres around issues strike against another one.” £88 million. Yet apparently they There’s no easy blueprint for how to such as a two-year wage freeze, 1,700 job When the strike dates are announced, couldn’t afford to offer a penny over resolve that tension but getting actively cuts and changes to working hours that working-class activists should begin the minimum wage to their porters. involved in supporting a strike is a good would effectively see cabin crew work - urgently organising solidarity. Get down After months of delay, the mainly place to start; we have to learn by doing. ing longer for less. But it is also a very to the picket lines, invite a striking work - Asian workforce, who only won union If we’re going to build targeted direct fundamental class battle that represents er to your union branch or Trades recognition in early 2009, voted 100% actions, we need to be conscious when a challenge to the divine right of bosses Council, organise a meeting. We cannot in favour of strike action. They we’re doing them. We need to have to rule in the workplace no matter how let the right-wing media and the BA matched this resolve with a solid leaflets for workers that explain that incompetently or profligately they bosses be the only national voice on the walkout. they’re not the target, and we have to be behave. It also has ecological implica - dispute; the workers’ voices must be But a potential transfer of the porter - aware of the dynamics within the work - tions, as the assertion of workers’ power heard too. ing contract fell through in January, place. Ultimately the only way to really in frontline, high-emissions industries leaving it unclear who to direct cam - ORGANISING SOLIDARITY resolve the potential contradiction is to such as aviation is ultimately the only paigning against and stalling the have direct action led and built by the way to reorganise and transition those action. What is clear is that Interserve workers themselves. industries in order to make them envi - and the new airport owners, Gatwick Can environmental activists campaign - If you look at something like the ronmentally sustainable. Airport Limited, who bought the air - ing against the ecological destruction Swoop [a Climate Camp-organised Even though not a single day of strike port for £1.5 billion, can easily afford caused by the aviation industry make protest targeting a coal-fired power sta - action has yet been taken, the signifi - to settle the claim for living wage for common cause with aviation workers tion], how much better would it have cance of the dispute is highlighted by BA this group of workers. taking action to defend jobs and pay, been if we were looking at shutting bosses’ use of every dirty trick in the A two month extension to and if so, how? Solidarity spoke to Josh down that power station through the book. As well as using draconian anti- Interserve’s contract runs out later this Moos, an activist involved in Plane action of the workers who worked in it union laws to have the first strike month. The patience of the workers, Stupid, a direct-action network that tar - rather than through the action of largely declared illegal, BA’s union-busting who have been waiting for far too gets aviation, about the issues and the middle-class protestors? In terms of con - head-honcho Willie Walsh has also long to have their claim settled, runs plans for strike solidarity already being crete plans for strike solidarity in and proudly boasted of his project to train out on the same day. Watch this space. drawn up by climate movement around Heathrow, everything’s at a fair - scab workers in order to break the strike. activists living near Heathrow airport. ly embryonic stage but there is a lot of Part of that project involved giving off- Mick Duncan General strike rocks Greece

BY IRA BERKOVIC that the country's bosses and rich ilar measures, and as Britain's workers – to a series of government cuts, 2010 can should pay for the crisis they created particularly in sectors like education and should become a year of Europe- general strike which rather than forcing workers to pay and health – begin to move in response wide resistance to capitalist austerity. mobilised two million through tax-hikes and wage-cuts. workers brought Greece to A statement produced by civil service a standstill at the on 24 worker-activists said that “the measures February, as the Greek working class included in the stability and develop - moved into battle against the public ment plan are unfair and antisocial and spending cuts, wage freeze and other will have negative effects on our salary, Aausterity measures by the “social- and our working and security rights democratic” PASOK government. instead of leading us out of the crisis.” It The strike led to the cancellation of all went on to assert, “we will not pay for flights in and out of the country and the their crisis. The ones who should pay closure of countless public and private are the wealthy, the banks, the multina - sector workplaces. tional companies, and the tax-default - Strikers who joined the mass demon - ers.” strations chanted slogans with clear Strikes have also taken place in Greek workers on the march anti-capitalist implications, demanding Portugal and Spain recently against sim -

2 SOLIDARITY EDITORIAL

HUNG PARLIAMENT AFTER THE GENERAL ELECTION ? Whoever wins power, organise to fight the cuts!

few weeks ago it seemed almost cer - tain that David Cameron’s Tory Party would win the election and win a big enough majority in Parliament to push through a savage programme of cuts and privatisations. Now the polls show the gap between the Tories and Labour is closing. A tiny Amajority for the Tories or a hung Parliament is widely predicted. We should be careful of extrapolating sweeping conclusions from what the polls indicate about the political mood of millions of people. However some important “facts” about what’s happening in the economy, society and with the political par - ties are clear. • UK economic growth in both the service and manufacturing sectors has improved in the last period. Whether this “recovery” will last is not at all certain. The consequent change in mood among working-class people, of increased securi - ty, may also prove transitory. Nonetheless “recov - ery” or at least talk of “recovery” must work in Labour’s favour, as the incumbent government. • Against this, the current Tory recipes on the economy, their script about “sorting out” the “national debt”, about “cutting fast, cutting deep”, must alarm many workers and work to push them towards Labour, despite Brown pitiful recent performance. • Moreover in the cuts and privatisation “debate” with New Labour, the Tories are casting possibility of reshaping the party. But the labour Tory. Make no mistake about it — we need to themselves more and more in the role of born- movement needs to demand of these union lead - fight with all our strength even if the Tories lose again Thatcherites. Millions of class conscious ers, all union leaders, that they fight for working- the election. workers remember what Thatcher did in the class policies, oppose cuts and privatisations, that Socialists must insist against both the Tory and slump of 1980. She waged “red in tooth and claw” they work to recreate a political labour move - the Labour Parties that money for public services class war against the workers. Slashing of the ment, a political voice for workers. can easily be found by raising across-the-board welfare state. Starving the NHS of resources. That is why AWL’s policy for the broad labour taxes on the wealthy and big business. The boss - Brutal police thugs on picket lines. Demonising of movement in this election is to back a Socialist es — not the workers — should pay for the crisis the poor. Riots in the streets. Campaign to Stop the Tories and Fascists. It pro - in their capitalist system. That would be the poli - Labour has done nothing to deserve a turn in poses that the left in the unions — and in the cy of a government which serves the interests of their fortunes. Labour Party, such as it is — and in independent the workers. While Peter Mandelson criticises the Tory’s eco - socialist organisations, should unite to conduct as We cannot wait for the result of the general elec - nomic and political stance, he gets on with slash - big a campaign as they can for a Labour vote — tion. We must organise the fight against the cuts ing higher education budgets! and in the policies we advocate against the that are happening now. We must organise in the Should Brown win the general election, the Browns, the Millibands and the Johnsons. We unions for an effective industrial campaign New Labour government would be under mas - combine advocating a Labour vote with educa - against the cuts, and against the passivity and too sive pressure from the City to force through their tional and preparatory work against New Labour, often treachery of the union leaders. Work to cre - own very rapid cuts. and an attempt to organise working-class forces ate a network of anti-cuts campaigns, linked to to fight whoever wins the election, Labour or the unions! hat follows for the AWL and other social - ists? We take stock again of the political Support the Socialist Campaign to Wtasks facing the labour movement. The basic danger for the working class at this election is of a big political shift to the far right, in Stop the Tories and Fascists! part as a result of mass working-class abstention - ism. It will be a shame if socialists allow the turn to What you can do: Labour to lead to positive support for Brown and 1. Add your or your organisation’s name to our founding statement by emailing us at stoptheto - his policies, but nonetheless, in so far as revulsion [email protected]. from the Tories will perhaps boost positive sup - 2. Propose a motion supporting the campaign in your union branch, student union or campaigning port for Labour, that is a good thing for the labour group.. movement. Whatever the actual differences between 3. Invite a speaker or order literature for the election by emailing stopthetoriesandfascists@ Labour’s record and the Tories proposals — and gmail.com. there are some differences — the decisive differ - 4. Organise an event such as a hustings with different working-class candidates and campaigns, or ence, is that New Labour is still backed and a lobby of your local Labour MP/candidate based on the policies of the Campaign. financed by the biggest unions. It is the reason why we advocate a Labour vote where there is no The statement, supporter list, a model motion and more can be found at credible socialist candidate. It gives those unions stopthetoriesandfascists.wordpress.com a potential strength in the Labour Party, and a

EDITOR : CATHY NUGENT SOLIDARITY @WORKERSLIBERTY .ORG WWW .WORKERSLIBERTY .ORG /SOLIDARITY

SOLIDARITY 3 INDUSTRIAL NEWS

SCHOOLS Time to take action on SATS!

BY PAT MURPHY , NUT E XECUTIVE Members of what in schools is known out in their schools there will be no unions that the testing and league table (PERSONAL CAPACITY ) as the leadership group (Heads, Deputy chance that any meaningful league regime massively distorts education and Heads and Assistant Heads) will be tables can be constructed for this year’s enforces a narrow and restrictive cur - asked if they are prepared to take action results. riculum on very young children. t’s been a long time coming but the short of strike action “to frustrate the The aim of both unions is to end If we can end this regime it will pro - National Union of Teachers and administration of national curriculum national compulsory testing and league voke huge cheers from parents, teachers the union that represents most pri - tests in English and Maths at Key Stage 2 tables for ever. and children alike. It will also help mary Heads, the NAHT, have in 2010”. The action will involve a The campaign took off this year undermine the internal market in finally agreed to hold a joint ballot to refusals to follow the test opening and because SATs have already been abol - schools introduced by the Thatcher gov - boycott this year’s SATs tests in pri - administrative procedures (open the ished already in high schools and don’t ernment in 1988 and continued by New mary schools in England. envelopes with papers), to carry out the exist in any other part of the UK. The Labour since 1997 as this relies on league IThe ballot will open on 15 March and tests and to ensure that all eligible and unions argue that their members’ jobs, tables to force schools into competition close on 16 April with the national exec - able pupils take the tests. pay and conditions of work are increas - with each other. utives of both unions meeting soon after Together the NUT and NAHT repre - ingly determined by the outcome of The boycott is a long way from creat - to decide whether they have a mandate sent the overwhelming majority of SATs and the position of their schools in ing a collaborative and child-centred cul - to proceed. The ballot timetable, the Heads and other leaders in primary league tables and this is what creates the ture of education, but it would be a great question and the constituency being bal - schools. If any significant number of dispute. start. loted will be identical for both unions. them can ensure that tests are not carried There is also agreement across both SCOTRAIL SCOTTISH EDUCATION Striking over safety “Why must our children pay”? BY ANNE FIELD on the use of driver-only trains. RMT General Secretary Bob Crow has BY DALE STREET EIS, examples provided by members now written to First Minister Alex second 24-hour strike by included: a lack of funds to buy class - around 550 First ScotRail Salmond demanding an urgent meeting he Educational Institute of room resources; misuse of probationary guards, drivers and sleeper- to discuss the issues. Scotland (EIS), the Scottish teachers; lack of supply cover for sick train managers took play on 1 Even if the impetus for scrapping teachers’ union, has called a staff; insufficient professional develop - March. The workers oppose company’s guards on the Airdrie-Bathgate route has march and rally in Glasgow on ment for teachers; increasing class sizes; plans to run driver-only trains on the new come, to one degree or another, from Saturday 6 March under the slogans and insufficient funds to heat schools. Airdrie-Bathgate route, due to open in Transport Scotland, First ScotRail is only “Why Must Our Children Pay? Invest To these issues must be added the ADecember. too keen to press ahead with running in Their Education!” wave of school closures which have been The striking RMT members had voted train services on the route on the cheap. TLike other services in the public sector, carried out by councils across Scotland, First ScotRail employees have been to back strike action by nearly five to one especially Glasgow City Council. pressurised into working as guards on education in Scotland is threatened with (“yes”: 379; “no”: 80) on an very high Such cutbacks are already taking place strike days. Again, this shows up First major cuts in spending as the (82%) turnout. even before the next government — irre - Scotrail’s contempt for health and safety: Westminster government attempts to The level of support for the strike was spective of whether it is Labour or Tory they have been given just a fortnight’s make public sector workers and public the result of an RMT campaign. Members — launches a major assault on public training, compared with the six months services consumers pick up the tab for recognised that running trains without spending. needed to fully train up a guard. bailing out the banks. guards on this line was going to be the The SNP will denounce such cutbacks Staff from another First Group compa - There are already 2,500 fewer teachers thin end of the wedge. by the Westminster government and use ny — First Great Western — have also in classrooms than there were just two If First ScotRail could get away with it them to try to boost support for their been flown into Glasgow by First years ago. The number of teaching sup - this time, which route(s) would be next? demand for independence. But an SNP ScotRail in order to try to keep trains run - port staff has also been cut, along with In planning to run Airdrie-Bathgate government would not behave any dif - ning on strike days. the number of students who are to be trains without guards, First Scotrail is ferently. Its record in Holyrood has First ScotRail does not need to worry trained to become teachers. tearing up a two previous commitments already proven that. about the cost of lost services or of bring - These cutbacks are already impacting (in 2001 and 2004) to the union that there The EIS needs to follow up the rally ing in and accommodating staff from on working conditions in schools and would be no extension of driver-only and march by linking up with other pub - other First Group companies. Under its the ability of teachers to deliver a quality trains. lic sector trade unions to organise a unit - franchise agreement — reached with the education. First ScotRail has claimed that the cost ed fightback in defence of public servic - then Labour-Lib-Dem administration — In a recent survey carried out by the of employing a guard on the trains es. would be prohibitively high as the con - First ScotRail can be indemnified at the trols for opening and closing the train’s discretion of the Scottish government for BRITAIN 2010 : BULLYING door have already been installed in the any losses arising out of industrial action. Civil service strike driver’s cabs. This is not a dispute about a pay claim, In fact, the cost of relocating the con - where some kind of “compromise” In the wake of the scandal about From back page trols and employing guards would might be reached between a union’s pay Gordon Brown's volcanic temper and Management claim that the five amount to no more than £320,000. This is claim and an employer’s pay offer. There his bullying treatment of his staff, it is accepting unions “represent a complete small beer compared to the risk to pas - can be no “half-way-house” in this dis - worth remembering the 2006 govern - cross-section of our staff, across all senger safety posed by running trains pute: either there will be guards on the ment enquiry which found that 10% of grades”. This is a complete fabrication. without guards. Airdrie-Bathgate route, or there won’t be. workers in the Office of the Deputy There is not one Administrative Officer And it is even smaller beer when com - This makes it all the more important Prime-Minister had experienced bully - (AO) or Executive Officer (EO) in these pared to the £429,000 which First ScotRail that the RMT strike action is fully sup - ing, 6% had reported harassment and unions — grades which make up the paid its highest-paid director last year, or ported by other trade unionists — both 22% has witnessed unfair treatment. majority, well over 70% of staff. the £18 million which the First Group those working on the railways, and those Endemic levels of bullying in the PCS alone (without NIPSA) represents paid out in dividends to its shareholders employed elsewhere. offices of ruling-class politicians com - nearly three times as many civil servants last year. Nine Marxist economists analyse mitted to a ruthless culture of compe - as the other unions combined. The other In the run-up to last Monday’s strike the crisis tition and target-chasing are hardly unions didn’t even bother to consult First ScotRail tried to pass the buck to surprising. The problem, though, goes Interviews from March to June 2008 their members on the proposals. Transport Scotland, a Scottish govern - much deeper than the individual bad and December 2008-January 2009 It is claimed that the public will not ment quango which is accountable to the • Michel Husson understand our taking action. To the tempers of men like Brown or Scottish government. • Fred Moseley extent that this is true, it is because the Prescott. As the capitalist crisis con - According to the company running • Leo Panitch public has been fed a steady diet of infor - tinues to bite, cuts culture will lead driver-only trains on the Airdrie- • Andrew Kliman mation about the financial arrange - more and more bosses to adopt Bathgate route had been agreed with • David Laibman ments, bonus payments, gold-plated authoritarian management styles. In Transport Scotland in the summer of • Costas Lapavitsas pensions and golden parachutes of sen - order to provide workers with ideas 2009. • Simon Mohun ior civil servants. The reality for the vast and resources to fight back against This would mean that the SNP’s • Trevor Evans majority of us is very different. bullying bosses, Workers’ Liberty has Scottish Transport Minister Stewart • Dick Bryan We must all now take action to defend launched the “We Are Not Slaves” Stevenson was not being entirely frank Appendix: AWL 2008 conference our terms and conditions. website — see when he met with the RMT in early document on the world economy All out on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 http://www.wearenotslaves.blogspot. January and claimed that the Scottish March! com for more. government had not taken a final view www.workersliberty.org/marxists-crisis

4 SOLIDARITY STUDENTS HIGHER EDUCATION CUTS Chris Student fightback begins in earnest Marks for

BY ED MALTBY , N ATIONAL NUS Campaign Against Fees & Cuts, whose are under threat, activists have demand - CAMPAIGN AGAINST FEES & C UTS call for a national wave of direct action in ed that the university bosses open the universities is now starting to create sig - books and develop a democratic and sus - he press, including the left press, has nificant noise. tainable plan for the university's develop - President! rightly been full of reports of work - Anti-cuts occupations have already ment through open and genuine consul - Ters and service—users across the public taken place at the Universities of Sussex tation with unions organising on campus. sector beginning to feel the bite of cuts, and Westminster, with action underway Articulating those kind of demands, and but in the higher education sector at at University College London as we went utilising the kind of high-impact direct least we're happy to be able to bring to press. Management at the University of action tactics that activists at Westminster some news of activists forcing bosses to East Anglia was so terrified of potential and elsewhere have used, will become feel the bite of our resistance to their direct action that it sent a grovelling increasingly essential in the coming peri - cuts. email to leading figures on the Eastern od as bosses and government attempt to The sector is faced with billions of coordination of the National Campaign force their cuts through. We should make pounds of cuts, which the University and Against Fees and Cuts requesting a pri - this a spring of discontent across the pub - College Union (UCU) estimates could vate meeting. lic sector. lead to the massacre of tens of thousands Like an industrial occupation, universi - of jobs. Grassroots campaigns against ty occupations directly pose the question For more information, visit: cuts have been springing up all over the of whose interests predominate on a cam - http://conventionagainstfeesandcuts.wo country, many looking to coordinate with pus; those of unelected, unaccountable rdpress.com (National Campaign Against potential industrial action by lecturers profiteering managers or those of the Fees and Cuts) and other education workers. In people who work and study at the insti - www.free—education.org.uk (Education February, student members of Workers’ tution? Not for Sale — a network of anti—capi - Liberty helped launch the National At Westminster, where nearly 300 jobs talist activists in the student movement) OCCUPATIONS At Sussex the riot police sent in. At Westminister “we planned a military strategy”

SUSSEX http://defendsussex.wordpress.com the potential for building a successful • Videos of police at protest/day of action on the wave of that AWL member Chris Marks is Vice BY PAT ROLFE youtube.com/user/sussexnot4sale momentum. President (Education) at Hull We set a date for the protest coinciding University Union and northern co-con - venor of the National Campaign WESTMINSTER with the board of governors meeting, at he latest occupation staged by stu - which job cuts were top of the agenda. Against Fees and Cuts. At this year’s dents at Sussex University against At a Fight Cuts campaign caucus, stu - NUS conference (Newcastle, 13-15 Teducation cuts was broken by riot BY JADE BAKER dents were almost unanimously in April) he will be standing for police (3 March) armed with pepper favour of the idea of an occupation. President. He told us why: spray and dogs. Police attacked a 200- From that moment on we planned a strong demonstration outside the Vice (This article was written from inside the military strategy involving leafleting, here are now anti-cuts campaigns Chancellor’s office, while dozens of occupation by an AWL member at banner-dropping, postering and speech - appearing around the country – a students inside were staging an occupa - Westminster. Since it was written, the occu - real grass-roots student movement. tion. es in lectures, across all five of T pation has ended. Students left to join a Westminster’s campuses. That’s what made the National This attack represents an escalation of Campaign Against Fees and Cuts possi - demonstration at University College London Yesterday, on the day of action, a management’s attempts to repress the ble. NUS, predictably, is doing nothing against cuts to language courses. As we healthy crowd of 200 turned up. After anti-cuts movement. Ominously, stu - to support this development. Forget went to press, activists at UCL — bolstered spilling into the lobby and up the stair - dents on Wednesday’s demonstration at about free education - it doesn’t even by their comrades at Westminster — were well to the first floor — conveniently the University of East Anglia also report - oppose cuts, really. The leadership’s beseiging their Vice Chancellor’s office and where the VC’s office and the boardroom ed a large police presence on their cam - motions to NUS conference argue that demanding that he speak with them.) are — we humiliated the VC and the pus. The entire student movement, must any cuts should be reasonable! board by storming their meeting and Meanwhile it has once again refused to join with the labour movement to protest irst and foremost, the aim of our forcing them to answer questions about side with education workers in struggle against the use of police! occupation is to challenge and, the cuts. Then we decided to occupy the against management and the govern - Staff organised in the Sussex branch of hopefully, stop the 250-plus tutoring F VC’s office. ment. the lecturers’ union UCU have also and admin job cuts that management Numbers have fluctuated from 100 voted to strike — 76% voted “yes” to have announced for April this year. Under NUS’s new constitution it’s down to about 40, but bear in mind the action on an 80% turn-out. The student We prepared a statement of intent for even harder to shift it than before, and office is pretty small! A definite goal for campaign will build support for the our Vice-Chancellor, Geoffrey Petts, to there are new plans to entrench the future occupations will be to consider strike. sign. The statement’s demands included bureaucracy further by turning it into a the logistics of space a bit better; this Over the past weeks, the campaign has a declaration of no compulsory redun - sort of commercial charity. time we got a bit stuck! been engaging in open and inclusive dancies and a real effort to minimise vol - Against that, I’m standing as a class- However, we’re all exceptionally debate, so as to draw in a wider section untary ones; making freely available to struggle socialist, to provide a voice to happy with the results! of the student population. Discussions the unions (UCU, Unison, student students who want a fight back, promote Management are yet to return our centred around strikes and occupations union) all documents pertaining to the solidarity with workers’ struggles and statement of intent with any credible — when they are tactically useful, when university’s finances; and a guarantee help build the anti-cuts movement. proposals or amendments. The ones they they are possible and how they can win. that no staff or students involved in the My opponents are two identikit right- have made previously contradicted our The campaign’s focus has been on build - actions against cuts will face repercus - wingers, Aaron Porter and Richard demands in a cynical and bureaucratic ing an independent student campaign sions or reprisals. Budden, and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a sort of fashion. on campus which can act on its own to The campaign began around two soft-left NUS politician who’s Black One of our goals is encouraging tutors put pressure on authorities, and on sup - months back with four of us. This tiny Students’ Officer. If ‘left’ means support - who haven’t already joined a union to do porting lecturers and other university number was pretty symbolic of ing a collection of good causes, then so. We want to show solidarity with staff in their ballot and (hopefully) in Westminster’s up till now under-politi - she’s left, but not if it means grass-roots them and give them the confidence to industrial action. “I support the UCU” cised student population. However, that activism, class struggle and anti-capital - ballot for a strike. stickers have been appearing every - four speedily became ten, twenty and so ist and socialist politics. When we leave, it will be inn the where. on. What’s more a couple of die-hard, Socialist students, and anyone who knowledge that management are on Students at Sussex are trying to build a legendary Marxist tutors got on board wants an NUS that gives activists on the their guard and that students, tutors and student movement that draws in large and really helped out with the admin ground a real lead against fees and cuts, staff are ready to hold them to account. numbers of students by engaging them side of things. That was immensely help - should back my campaign. Get in touch We are ready for every twist and turn of in debate and discussion, and ultimately, ful as it allowed us to wage a mass prop - to give your support, invite me to speak an anti-cuts movement that is rapidly a movement which poses a radically aganda war (leaflets, posters, the lot) for at your union and come to the confer - expanding. democratic alternative for the university, minimal cost. ence to help out. This is not the end. Far from it! and for society. After a successful mass meeting with [email protected] • More: staff and students, two weeks ago, where 07931 108 618 • More: http://conventionagainstfeesandcuts. a vote of no confidence in the VC and his Facebook: Chris Marks #1 for NUS http://fightcutsatuow.wordpress.com wordpress.com management was passed, we realised President

SOLIDARITY 5 CAMPAIGNS

COLLEGE CUTS “We should focus on what unites us.”

BY JENNY SUTTON , C OLLEGE OF standing against him in the General money to bail out the banks. RBS, now conditions, and public services. Some, NORTH EAST LONDON UCU & Election on a platform of save educa - 84% owned by the taxpayer, has set like the UCU, RMT and PCS are doing TRADE UNION AND SOCIALIST tion, jobs and public services. aside £1.3 billion for bonus payments so. Other unions are being held back by Anti-cuts campaigns in the post-16 this year despite a £5 billion loss! There their ties to the Labour Party — when OALITION FOR C (TUSC) PPC education sector are fairly well connect - are more millionaires in the UK than Labour is attacking the working class, TOTTENHAM ed. London Region UCU meetings are ever before, and the PCS union estimate you can’t defend both the working class well-attended by activists from across that £120 billion would be raised if all and Labour! the capital, and so can respond collec - corporations and individuals paid the However, I don’t think a working- y college is facing £2.5 tively to the cuts. London Region UCU correct tax — but MPs, who should be class voice is expressed solely through million worth of cuts, are organising a march on Downing ensuring a fair distribution of wealth, the unions. Many of the most exploited which would critically Street on Saturday March 20 (meet 12 are more concerned with fiddling their workers have to fight for the right to damage our capacity to noon, Kings College, the Strand), and own expenses than reigning in the fat belong to a union at all. There are a mul - provide decent education for our are organising an aggregated ballot for cats. titude of groups and individuals fight - community. Now the UCU strike action across the 16 (so far) FE This is why we need an alternative. ing against racism, fighting for rights (University and College Union) colleges that have announced signifi - We have to reclaim education, jobs and for refugees and asylum seekers, fight - Mbranch has voted unanimously to cant cuts and cannot guarantee no com - public services for ordinary people! ing in solidarity with workers and liber - ballot for strike action in the event pulsory redundancies. We expect to be I’m standing as a Trade Union and ation movements in the global south, of compulsory redundancies. taking coordinated strike action from Socialist Coalition candidate in the elec - fighting for rights for people with dis - I’m Branch Secretary of the UCU at the week beginning 19 April, and will tions. TUSC is not a party, but is a plat - abilities, fighting against the closures of our college where the local MP is David be working hard to support each other. form for a clear electoral alternative to local hospitals, nurseries and facto - Lammy, Minister for Higher Education. Public expenditure is political choice. public sector cuts, privatisation, mili - ries… and so on. He embodies the complete failure of the This government chooses to sustain ille - tarism and environmental degradation. All these people have a part to play in Labour Party to represent ordinary peo - gal war and occupation while cutting Clearly the unions should represent the movement, and as socialists we ple, in education and across public serv - education, health and public services. the interests of their members, fighting should be focusing on what unites us ices, and so as part of our campaign I’m They found £500 billion of public unequivocally for jobs, decent pay and rather than what divides. Always understaffed

What do people talk about in your workplace? How easy is it to “talk poli - tics on the job”? It’s quite difficult to talk about any - thing, let alone politics, as we’re always in service user areas or too busy. We either don’t get breaks or they’re stag - MY LIFE AT WORK gered so workers never spend time together. I imagine there’s more chance to talk on night shifts as the ward is qui - Eleanor Daltrey is a healthcare assistant eter but I haven’t worked nights yet. in south London Do you enjoy your work? Tell us a little bit about the work you It can be very busy and hectic, but do. when a shift is run well and you can I work as a healthcare assistant on an engage with, and support people it’s inpatient psychosis unit. We work shifts, enjoyable. It’s great to see people pro - gressing (on the ward and moving on) and most of the time is spent on the Female detainees at Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre are on still hunger strike in ward interacting with service users and and to be able to be part of someone’s steps towards recovery. opposition to the abysmal conditions of their detention. doing thinks like changing beds, taking 84 women are currently on hunger strike against their treatment, which includes physical observations and helping with What are your bosses like? out-and out racism from prison guards and other detainees, with African inmates medication or running service user being described as “monkeys”. groups for relaxation, music or art. I also Our ward manager is okay, but fairly hands-off — she rarely comes out of her Over 50 activists demonstrated outside London's Holloway Prison where three of accompany service users in the commu - the women involved are currently being held. nity, for shopping or appointments. office, leaving nurses to make decisions. The NHS bureaucracy is a problem, with The campaign continues. Do you and your workmates get the pay constant changes in how we should be More: http://visionon.tv/ and conditions you deserve? working and how the ward should func - Pay and conditions are okay. There are tion. People seem tired of this and com - small things that add up like shifts fin - plain a lot about “management” but ishing late; a lack of training in manag - don’t see any solutions. They also don’t see our manager as “management” as Haiti solidarity ing aggression, which increases worker and service user vulnerability; or an she used to be a nurse on the ward. absence of supervision and opportunity Is there a union in your workplace, and to discuss problems. does it do a good job? BY GARETH MUNRO The biggest issue is that we’re always could complete the day's quota. understaffed and even when a shift is There are several unions in the health Vicki Morris from No Sweat discussed “fully” staffed there are often a lot of service — Unison, Unite and the GMB o Sweat activists met in London for the meaning of solidarity, and talked non-permanent “bank” workers. This are the main ones. Unison is the main a forum on Haiti to follow up the about why No Sweat chooses to make can be difficult as they don’t know the one in my workplace. The branch is Nmassively successful music and come - direct links with organisations like Batay service users or how the ward functions. apparently organising campaigns dy benefit which raised over £1,000 for Ouvriye rather than supporting main - stream charity appeals. The meeting dis - One time I was the only person who had around cuts and proposed closures. Haitian workers' organisation Batay However, I’ve tried several times to con - Ouvriye. cussed the difference between solidarity worked on the ward before, and I'd only and charity, as well as debates current been there a month! tact the branch (going to the office, call - The meeting heard from Andy Taylor ing and emailing) with no luck, which is of the Haiti Support Group, who gave an within the social justice movement (is Has the economic crisis affected your fairly poor. I joined online and am still inspiring account of how grassroots the key dividing line in the world work? Has it affected the way workers trying to get in touch. organisations in Haiti have tried to pick between "rich countries" and "poor think about their jobs? countries" or bosses and workers?). If you could change one thing about themselves up and continue organising after the devastating earthquake. He It was agreed to investigate which Obviously there have been cuts across your workplace, what would it be? companies are active in Haiti's Free explained how the hyper-exploitative the NHS. The unit used to function on Trade Zones and organise direct action, sweatshop capitalism operating in Haiti ten nurses or healthcare assistants per Having more permanent staff on the targeting their UK stores to highlight the directly worsened the impact of the shift, now we have five (if we’re lucky). ward would make a big difference. It struggles of Haitian workers. earthquake; 500 workers in a single fac - Recruitment is happening but it’s slow. I would increase safety on the ward; No Sweat holds monthly organising tory were killed because bosses locked think, like a lot of workplaces, people improve support; and free workers to meetings on the first Thursday of every them into the workplace hours after their feel relieved just to have a job and don’t engage with service users instead of month at Housmans Bookshop, 5 shift was supposed to end so that they complain too much. being tied up with paperwork. Caledonian Road, King's Cross.

6 SOLIDARITY NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE

LONDON CUTS 12 London hospitals face the axe

BY STUART JORDAN thing but without the bricks and mortar. The idea of polyclinics was first promot - n a report commissioned by the ed in the Darzi Report in 2007. Under British Medical Association,* John this scheme, the district general hospital Lister of London Health is replaced by a three-tier system of Emergency has done vital work in “polyclinic”, “elective treatment centres” exposing the shady plans to dismantle and “urgent treatment centres”. It is pro - London’s NHS. Lister paints a picture posed that London should have 150 of the future of London’s health service polyclinics which will have about 100 Ithat can only be described as cata - members of staff: about 20-30 GPs, 50-60 strophic. The BMA is now mobilising nurses and just 10 clerical staff ! They its membership to build and get will deal with all the minor injuries and involved in campaigns with other include other facilities like maternity healthworkers, patients and members wards. of the community — to save the NHS. At the moment, there are only a couple It is a massive indictment of the trade of polyclinics in London and they have union movement, and specifically the not reduced demand on local A&E healthworkers’ union Unison, that the departments and the general district six-figure salaried medics have raised hospital. It is not at all clear why this sys - the alarm while other unions have done tem would necessarily save any money. nothing. But what does the report say? A review by Pulse magazine claims that Over the next five years demand for where the polyclinic system has been 2,000 people attended the Saturday 27 February demonstration to save the healthcare is estimated to rise 4%. With established it has been three-to-seven Whittington Hospital’s Accident and Emergency department in North London. On current government promises that the times more expensive than the current the demonstration were different left groups, local unions, Islington Labour party, NHS budget will increase only at the rate system. Moreover, there are massive the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats. of inflation, this will leave a £15-20 bil - clinical risks associated with fragment - The culminating rally was held outside the front entrance of the hospital and had lion funding deficit. The Tories are being ing the service. speakers from the campaign group Keep Our NHS Public, union reps, local cam - vague but we can expect them to be The whole plan rests on the notion that paigners and politicians. One of those politicians was David Lammy — Labour MP more ruthless. this system will somehow reduce for Tottenham and Minister for Higher Education. As the NUT rep who spoke after 15% of the UK population live in demand. However, an Audit him pointed out it was complete hypocrisy that Lammy was pledging his support London and the city is expected to take Commission report, More for Less pub - to stop the closure of Whittington A & E as he is currently making enormous cuts 20-25% of the cuts: lished in November 2009, concluded that to higher education. Many speakers at the rally called for a cross-London campaign • At least 12 district hospitals are due “Demand management is unlikely to against cuts to the NHS. to be closed. make a significant contribution to any The next planning meeting to save the Whittington A&E is at 7pm on Monday 8 • A third of hospital beds will close (a savings requirement in the short term.” March at Whittington Community Centre, Yerbury Rd, N19. conservative estimate puts this at 5,600 The proposal (which is lunacy from beds). any kind of financial or clinical perspec - country where NHS services are being At a recent BMA public meeting, doc - • 21-37% reduction in nursing costs. tive) makes even less sense when we cut while the tax payers’ money is spent tors and other healthworkers repeatedly • 9-43% reduction in doctors costs. consider what is happening with PFI. on obsolete building work. emphasised that there was no political • 25% reduction in drugs costs. In Tower Hamlets for example, they Traditionally, the welfare state was a party that will save the NHS. Instead, we • 42% reduction in overheads. have just built a new hospital through a means of redistributing wealth from the would need to build our own move - • 32% increase in productivity. PFI deal which will cost the taxpayer richest to the poorest. Increasingly, with ment, using the kind of direct action tac - • GP appointment times to be r.educed £5.3 billion for a £1 billion building. The the bank-bailout and privatisation of tics that saved the Elizabeth Garret by one third hospital comprises 1000 beds, the build - public services, the valve is turned the Anderson Hospital in 1976-8. In the The NHS bosses think that all this can ing is yet to open but already Barts and other way. The state is increasingly play - months to come, we must do all we can be achieved by shifting 55% of outpa - the London Trust have announced that ing the role of a massive slush fund, redi - to build mass campaigns to save the tient appointments (around five million) they will not be using 200 beds because recting a portion of our wages, in the NHS. and 66% of Accident and Emergency they cannot afford the staff. Despite this, form of taxes, back into the pockets of admissions (around two million) to the taxpayer will still have to pay for the the bosses. Alongside these structural * NHS on the Brink “polysystems”. new beds at a cost of £1 billion over the privatisations, cuts will massively http://www.bma.org.uk/images/onthe A “polysystem” is the new name for a next three decades. undermine the whole notion of free brinkreport2010_tcm41-193388.pdf “polyclinic”. Presumably it is the same Similar stories can be seen across the healthcare. KINGSTON CAMPAIGN Privatisation by another name

BY JOHNNIE BYRNE (PC ) services themselves. The PCT remains as process of setting up a branch of “Keep ment plans”. We fear this is a euphe - the commissioning body and “buys Our NHS Public”, in the first instance to mism for cuts. The Company’s business robably the most insidious threat back” the provision from the clinicians. prevent this break-up, then to tackle the plan mentions that recruitment, to facing the National Health Let’s be clear: a social enterprise is a many other problems facing health pro - replace the expected 10% turnover, will Service is the “right to request”. private — though not-for-profit — com - vision locally. be from outside the NHS or from the Enshrined in the High Quality pany. Any surplus is ploughed back into The initiative for a social enterprise is lower grades of the NHS. This will sure - Care For All: NHS Next Stage Review Final services. The company has some protec - supposed to come from the workers. In ly have an immediate effect on the level Report of June 2008 , it allows groups of tion, at least in its initial contract. After the case of Kingston, the request seems of professional expertise available to the frontline health professionals “the free - that, who knows? to have been pushed by managers, local community. Pdom to use their talents to find innova - Contracts generally run for three years brought in specially for the purpose. The Kingston project is a pilot for the tive ways to improve quality of care for but can be for five. However, in the latter Workers are too scared to speak openly rest of London, and perhaps nationally. patients” — by taking their services out model, a percentage of the work has to against it, but many don’t want to leave One could argue that social enterprise of the NHS. We are now seeing the be “market-tested” or “retendered”. The the NHS. might have a place in helping people effects of that reform in Kingston, south community is “represented” on the Although their employment condi - with innovative ideas for combatting London. board of the company — by non-elected tions will have the theoretical protection unemployment — not in running the The “right to request” is a develop - individuals. It is no substitute for demo - of TUPE regulations, their pensions basic public service infrastructure of the ment of the Thatcher government 's inter - cratic public control. won’t. They have been given assurances country. nal market. Primary care trusts (PCTs) NHS Kingston, Kingston’s PCT, is on that they can take their NHS pensions Why should any small group of indi - are now supposed to separate commis - the point of setting up just such a compa - with them — but they won’t be able to viduals, be they ever so professional, sioning and provision of services. And ny, Your Healthcare, due to start trading bring them back should they seek to well-intentioned and enthusiastic, have groups of PCT community specialists — on 1 April 2010 with a five-year contract. return to the NHS. NHS Kingston has the right to destroy our National Health health visitors, therapists, district and The local Labour Party and Trades refused to hold a staff ballot and have Service? school nurses and the like — are being Council first heard of the plan last refused any public consultation. encouraged to set up social enterprise September from anxious members of the In order to create a surplus and be • Johnnie Byrne is Secretary of Kingston companies, outside the NHS, to run their union Unite, and agreed to run a joint financially viable, Your Healthcare Labour Party campaign against it. We are now in the intents implementing “cost improve -

SOLIDARITY 7 INTERNATIONAL

AUSTRALIA Oil worker militant victimised

In February, Bob Carnegie, a Workers’ offshore field that I am on a “no-fly” list. why I have been removed from the rig — invidious position, because otherwise Liberty member and union delegate on The most important thing about the because I raised safety issues. the rig would have been brought here the Ensco 7500 rig, was due to return to whole dispute is that it has flushed out Safety on the rigs, in my opinion, is and operated with all non-union labour. the rig for a three-week stint. The that Chevron has the “no-fly” list. It was worse than on construction sites on the The unions should lobby governments labour-hire company employing Bob, openly admitted by managers from mainland. And construction sites are intensively for a regulatory framework Offshore Marine Services, told him that Ensco and from OMS, the labour hire inherently difficult to keep safe, because on the north-west shelf and in the Bass the rig owners, Ensco, did not want him company, in talks in Perth on 22 they change every day. The rigs are a Straits which lays down accommodation back. After industrial action on the rig, February. more stable environment, and should be conditions comparable to the Norwegian OMS and Ensco bosses finally Chevron is the second largest oil com - easier to keep safe. sector — or at least to the British sector explained that Chevron had put pany in the USA, and the fifth largest in But the management pay scant atten - — of the North Sea. There should at least Carnegie on a “no fly” list. Martin the world. Its record in the Amazon is tion to Australian standards. They think be some quiet space where you can read Thomas spoke to Carnegie about his one of the great ecological disasters of they can override Australian standards a book or have a bit of time to yourself. victimisation case. the 20th century. by using their own “risk-management The “no-fly” policy is a secret blacklist. analysis”. Using the “DuPont Safety MT: The offshore oil and gas industry MT: The case of you being removed Any worker who has an argument with System”, they try to shift the responsibil - is a relatively new industry. It is from work on the Ensco 7500 gas explo - a Chevron employee about anything can ity for safety to the workers, and make expanding fast. Unions whose old bas - ration rig, hired by Chevron and oper - find themselves on the “no-fly” list — workers spy on other workers. tions of organisation are shrinking due ating offshore from Western Australia, without charges, without a hearing, Why is safety poor? Because safety to industrial change need to organise in raises a lot of questions beyond the without an appeal, without even any for - costs a fortune. There is tremendous such sectors, and the MUA and AWU obvious one of your livelihood. What mal notification. If the unions don’t fight pressure not to stop or delay any job, have put resources into organising off - do you think is the most important this “no-fly” list, it will make union because the financial costs of doing that shore. It is an area where strong union issue in this case? organisation on the job almost impossi - are huge compared to other industries. organisation could have huge economic BC : The most fundamental issue is the ble. The Ensco 7500 rig costs Chevron clout, but with difficulties not found civil-liberties issue posed by the “no-fly” The unions should be mounting a $75,000 an hour, so Chevron loses elsewhere. Do you think some fresh policy operated by Chevron, which large public and industrial campaign $75,000 if rig operations are held up for thinking is needed in the union move - removes me from the rig without sack - against the “no-fly” list now, right at the even one hour. Unlike on a construction ment about organising in this sector? ing me, just by Chevron telling the com - start of the Gorgon project. They should site or in a factory, where usually one BC: The rank and file on the rig have panies which provide air transport to the also mount a legal challenge to it. Prima section can be halted without losses else - been absolutely steadfast. When the dis - facie it is a secondary boycott. where, the rig is a much more integrated pute over my removal occurred on the They should use the issue as a tool to operation, so it is more likely that stop - rig, for the two days 20 and 21 February, Background pressure the Labour government on ping one job will stop everything. there was confusion on the vessel over expanding workers’ and union dele - Safety reps have less security than in the role of other workers who wanted to n 1 February, the Maritime gates’ rights in workplaces, to something other industries. Almost every worker support the dispute. Union of Australia (MUA) nearer the rights that French workers, for on the rig is a casual of some sort. If a From the information I’ve had, both had boasted victory over example, have. If Labour wants to do it, safety rep puts a prohibition on any - the AWU and the MUA officials were pay for seafarers employed it can easily legislate improvements, thing, or speaks contrary to company deeply concerned about facing legal in offshore oil and gas fields. because they will have the Greens’ sup - safety policy, they are likely to face action for a “secondary boycott” should After limited industrial action and port in the Senate. “NRB”. I’ve explained this to officials anyone else other than the MUA mem - negotiations, labour hire company In the British sector of the North Sea, from NOPSA [National Offshore bers participate in the dispute. OTMS agreed to pay rises of 30% over according to Blowout , the journal of the Petroleum Safety Authority, the govern - My concern about that is that solidari - five years, and a Project Allowance Oil Industry Liaison Committee (the off - ment’s official safety-monitoring ty is the soul of trade-unionism. The Bonus. Other labour hire companies shore workers’ union), employers have agency], and they agreed it is a problem. sanctity of the picket line, and the princi - are expected to agree similar rises. frequently used similar policies, known NOPSA does inspect the rigs. It came ple that no trade-unionist does the work Pay rises are important. But, as in as “NRB” (“not required back”). But to the Ensco 7500 on 17 –18 January. The of another trade-unionist on strike, are every industry, building and defend - Blowout also reports that the OILC has NOPSA officials gave us a good hearing. far more important than any perceived ing union organisation, and establish - had some success in challenging “NRB” But NOPSA very rarely utilises its pow - threats of the employer taking action on ing civilised conditions, are more policies in the courts. ers to stop jobs. “secondary boycott” grounds. important in the long term. The high I don’t mind losing my job if it means The unions should agitate to make What does a union amount to, if work - pay can quickly melt away when infla - the start of a real fight against the “no- NOPSA far more accountable. Although ers forget the sanctity of the picket line? tion or adverse labour-market condi - fly” policy. it is a government body, it is funded by I think workers will respond to aggres - tions set in. Union organisation and the offshore oil and gas industry. It tends sive, militant attempts to organise their civilised conditions are more stable MT: Aside from the “no-fly” policy, to be less aggressive with employers industry by unions which are prepared and far-reaching gains, and lay the basis for the bigger political and social what other issues do you see as impor - than other government departments. to represent them and to fight beside changes we need. How much real tant here? The unions should be campaigning for them on all the issues — not just pay, but value has high pay if a worker who BC: Defence of union delegates. I’ve Australia’s offshore oil and gas industry also safety, living conditions on the rigs, stands up for his workmates can easily had qualified support from my union, to be raised to the safety standards of the and job security. Meek trade-union be victimised? the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) Norwegian sector of the North Sea oil - organising which relies on collaboration These general truths apply doubly to — they were a little reluctant at first, but field, or at the very least of the British between the unions and the employer, the offshore oil and gas industry. The once the issue was argued I’ve had sup - sector. But the high levels of non-unioni - may deliver some union membership in capital costs there are huge and the port. sation on the rigs will be a problem in the first instance, but is ultimately workforces quite small. Chevron pays However, in the main, when workers winning that campaign, unless they can doomed. It is up to the MUA-AWU Ensco $550,000 a day to hire the Ensco in the offshore oil and gas industry are be remedied. alliance to decide which path it will take. 7500 rig, but only about 135 people told that they are “not required back”, The first step has to be to organise the work on the rig at any one time. The the union’s way of helping is to seek to MT: Leaving aside the question of safe - rig workers directly employed by the rig whole multi-billion dollar Australian find them employment elsewhere in the ty, what are conditions on the rigs like companies such as Ensco, Maersk, BHP, offshore oil and gas industry employs industry. That means that the argument as regards being livable for the work - etc. The unions have to be prepared to only thousands of workers. about union organisation being weak - ers? push the envelope with regard to getting Bosses can much more readily afford ened by delegates being “NRB” is con - BC: The living conditions on the Ensco full access for union organisers to be able relatively high wage rates than in more stantly being put off. 7500 are worse than in any maximum to frequent the rigs. At present an effec - labour-intensive industries and, any - Some would say that winning rein - security prison in Australia. You live tive way to stop union organisation is for way, must offer relatively high rates to statement in such circumstances is just four to a cabin, eight to a toilet and a the companies to make it difficult for get people working continuously too difficult. My view on that is that you shower, with incessant noise, and with union organisers to get access. away from home for long periods. Bob Carnegie had been working on never win every battle. But you have the no recreation area. If winning access means that these the Ensco rig only since December battle. Through it, workers realise who When you’re not actually working, companies have to be placed under pres - when he was victimised for his union the class enemy is — and in a relatively you can sit in the mess room, which sure in other areas, then that is what has activities. In that time he dealt with high-paid industry like oil and gas, often holds about 70 people, and watch TV, or to be done. Nearly all these companies four industrial issues as a union dele - workers will have a blurred picture of lie in your cabin, unless someone else in are very image-conscious. Protests out - gate. On each one, management felt that. And if workers see that the union is the cabin is trying to sleep. The vessel side their offices in city centres would be they had no choice but to concede. prepared to put up a fight, they’ll join could not work in the Norwegian or enormously effective. Evidently they were worried that if the organisation, and we will develop British sectors of the North Sea because The unions should organise regular they allow strong union organisation unions which are strong enough to win it doesn’t meet the minimum accommo - monthly members’ meetings ashore, and to take hold on the rig, they would face reinstatement. dation standards there. It’s a question regular meetings on each rig, at least more issues on which they have no whether the vessel should even have once in every tour of duty. When negoti - chGoice but to concede. MT: And safety on the rigs is an issue, been allowed to come to Australia with ating collective agreements, the unions More information: workersliber - too? such atrocious conditions, though objec - should insist on including strict wording ty.org/node/13752 BC: Yes. That is the primary reason tions would have put the unions in an to deal with “NRB” policies.

8 SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL

ITALY More lies, scandals.... and prosecutions?

BY HUGH EDWARDS too fraying democratic institutions, has been significantly achieved in a major arena of executive control of the econo - t the end of February Italy’s my. Corte di Cassazione — a cross between a Court of Appeal owever, the interceptions of the and a Supreme Court — fraud squad indicate that the upheld the conviction of British lawyer “Truman Show” quality of David Mills for having accepted bribes Berlusconi’s manufactured reality is run - from Silvio Berlusconi. However, as a ning out of credibility. Thus, for exam - Aresult of one of the umpteen ad personam H ple, the original summit of the G8 laws passed by Berlusconi to keep him nations in 2009 had been scheduled for out of jail, the Mills case was “prescript - Sardegna. The tragic earthquake in ed” — its range of executive action to Abruzzo typically afforded Berlusconi carry out any sentence ran out of time. the opportunity to polish further his and Mills avoided going to prison for the Bertolaso’s image as “men of action”, four and a half years imposed on him at motivated by public spirit of the noblest his original trial. But the Berlusconi kind to help the victims. The G8 summit camp my not yet be out of the hot water. was shifted on the hoof to Aquila. Predictably, Berlusconi and his media The original location in Sardegna, a lyingly asserted that Mills had been 300-million euro contract, pocketed by a absolved — thereby logically absolving Berlusconi, “back in the day”, as sidekick to Bettino Craxi corrupt contractor who had bribed sen - his corruptor Berlusconi. ior figures to get the contract, was sim - Berlusconi had escaped being tried ply left to the mercy of the elements. alongside Mills because another ad per - regional level, high-ranking judges and public, social, cultural and recreational Now the majority of the inhabitants of sonam law had protected him from pros - lawyers, and a posse of businessmen event of a national/international charac - Abruzzo still live in hotels on the ecution. But that law, in turn, has since throughout the building industry in ter. Adriatic coast, having been assured they been struck down by the Constitutional Italy. It became responsible for the celebra - would be out of there before Christmas, Court and, following the reaffirmation of On the basis of telephone interceptions tion of the 150 years of Italian unity, the and thousands of others occupy the Mills’s guilt, so, too, Berlusconi faces a carried out by the fraud squad, the care - world swimming championships, the gerry-built “towns” erected on the spur trial. No wonder he screamed in outrage fully scripted and sedulously peddled future winter Olympics, and so on. And of the moment by Berlusconi, with the that the magistrates were worse than the image of Berlusconi and Bertolaso has by this mechanism, the unlimited and connivance of the corrupt network. Taliban! been, piece by piece, torn to tatters. unchallengeable power and authority Meanwhile, in the beautiful city of But, bad enough as the news was as The Civil Protection Agency was invested in Bertolaso by a decree of Aquila, which bore the brunt of the regards his personal fate as a corruptor established 18 years ago with all the Berlusconi, neither subject to debate or earthquake, four and a half million tons — a status already well established emergency powers and resources neces - scrutiny anywhere, has reached a level of masonry lie in streets and squares, as legally, and documented historically as a sary to deal with the natural disasters all unequalled in any modern bourgeois Bertolaso and his Civil Protection outfit sidekick to another of Italy’s great cor - too prone to happen across the fragile democracy. went elsewhere. But the victims of the ruptors, Bettino Craxi — it is only the tip infrastructure of the Italian peninsula. In Bertolaso has responsibility for deci - earthquake have begun to come back to of a very, very large iceberg that could principle it was a public agency whose sions involving billions of euros of pub - take possession of the centre of the well sink the ship of the Berlusconi actions and resources were in the last lic money: no wonder the eavesdroppers ruined city, defying the police and the regime. analysis accountable to public scrutiny on a couple of corrupt building contrac - public officials who have been entrusted both in Parliament and the other offices tors on the night of the earthquake by Berlusconi to keep them away. n the last few weeks also there have of public administration, they in turn where 300 people died were horrified to Four of the major figures involved are emerged more and more revelations open to examination by press and pub - hear one celebrating the event with a in jail. Bertolaso, while under charge for regarding the existence and the extent lic. Berlusconi has changed all that. cynical laugh that his business was guar - corruption, still remains in office, having of the systematic and widespread cor - First, he enormously enlarged the anteed for life. offered his resignation, melodramatical - ruption presided over by Berlusconi and I scope of the agency, no longer defined What the expiring Bonapartist ly refused by Berlusconi, who up until Guido Bertolaso, head of the Civil and limited to the field of natural disas - Berlusconi has, so far, failed to accom - this moment remains out of the frame. Protection Agency. This has been in com - ter, but now extended to embrace the plish in terms of his political ambitions For how long? plicity with senior executives in public administration of all and every major to further subvert bourgeois Italy’s all administration at both the national and

WORKERS OF THE WORLD

GERMANY : “ EMMELY ” German labour courts. The legislation that threatens Amalia’s Saturday 6 February. The fact is bosses worldwide are using life was only recently introduced by Soutien au Sans-Papiers (SoS) activist arbara E, known as “Emmely”, the crisis in order to lay off more workers President Daniel Ortega’s administra - Marie Chautemps said: “The Kronstadt worked for Kaisers supermarket and to enhance the intensity of labour. tion. Nicaraguan women were granted Hangar was opened as a direct interven - the right to therapeutic abortion in the tion into a winter of repression that the Bchain in Germany for 31 years. The com - NICARAGUA : ABORTION pany say she had set aside €1.30 worth 19th century, a right that Ortega over - migrants in Calais have faced.” of bottle deposits for herself, and that turned in 2006 in accordance with his The port town in northern France has these deposit slips were the property of a 27-year-old’s life is at risk as a result Catholic faith. seen an ongoing wave of battles between customer. The suspicion was never of pro-life legislation in Nicaragua. Amalia already has a 10-year-old sans-papiers migrants and the authori - proved, but still Emmely was sacked in AThe mother-to-be, known as Amalia, daughter, who is likely to be orphaned ties, since the “Jungle” asylum camp was February 2008. has been denied chemotherapy despite by stringent observation of a law that brutally closed last September . A few weeks before, Emmely was being diagnosed with an aggressive can - prices the life of an unborn foetus over The Kronstadt Hangar was forcibly involved in an 18-month-long national cer that has spread to her breasts and the health and happiness of a mother closed by French CRS riot police when it strike. She organised the strike in her lungs and may have reached her brain. and her existing child. was first opened on Monday 7 February. shop for the service union Verdi and she The Leon hospital where Amalia’s con - More details: http://www. The CRS formed a ring around the centre had been warned by workmates that she dition was discovered are refusing to amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates. and successfully stopped migrants from was on the black list. gaining access to much-needed treat her because she is pregnant and the FRANCE : CALAIS Her case will be heard at the highest stressful and invasive therapies required resources. labour court in Germany on 10 June. may harm the foetus, an offence under Many migrants in Calais remain The case of Barbara E has caused an Nicaraguan law. ctivists in Calais have succeeded in homeless, a direct result of the govern - outcry across and beyond Germany, stir - Human rights organisation Amnesty establishing a safe space for belea - ment assault on the Jungle community. ring up a debate on the treatment of International has issued a legal challenge guered migrants. Embedded SoS and No Borders workers. It has drawn attention to the A to the hospital’s decision on the basis The contested Kronstadt Hangar, a activists continue to help migrants in fact that workers in Germany are being that denying Amalia treatment “crimi - centre where migrants are able to meet their battle for asylum recognition. For sacked on petty charges, such as “steal - nalises the medical profession”, accord - with activists and legal advisers to more information about the Kronstadt ing” fragments of a euro cent by recharg - ing to Amnesty spokesperson Esther organise and share information, was re- Hangar and No Borders UK, visit ing mobile phones, and that these dis - Major. opened with a press conference on http://london.noborders.org.uk/node/ missals are regularly authorised by 290. SOLIDARITY 9 WORKERS ’ GOVERNMENT For a public, The left and democratically- movement i controlled How should the working-class left democracy that led to the travesty around respond to the general election and the the BA strike. We’ve got a situation where cuts that will inevitably follow, parish councilors are often elected unop - whichever party wins? Solidarity spoke posed. Cutting and privatising councilors to a range of activists (all in a personal are elected on turnouts of 30%, but when banking capacity) from across the left. We will 90% of BA workers on an 80% turnout continue the discussion in future issues. vote for strike action their will can be overturned by a single, unelected judge. The TUC and the trade union leaders Inspire have a responsibility not to allow that. system ! That BA were still in a position to run the court and then allowed to get away with members with it is a scandal. I and millions of workers know who the enemy is, but the TUC and many union leaders have become part of the confidence the problem and no longer the solution. BY CLARKE BENITEZ I’m hoping to be a candidate in the gen - eral secretary election in my union, Unite, to fight back because I believe we need a movement n the minds of perhaps most work - prepared to lead a fightback. The Liberal ers in Britain, there is nothing that Democrats promise “savage cuts”, the better exemplifies the grotesque Jerry Hicks is an activist in the Unite Tories have said they’re prepared to make inequality at the very core of the union and aims to become a candidate in themselves the most unpopular govern - way our society is organised than the its 2010 General Secretary election. ment in a generation and Brown and obscene and ongoing scandal of Darling have also promised £75 billions of bankers’ bonuses. he pundits tell us that the gap in pounds worth of cuts (I can answer that IDespite leading the world to near the polls between the parties is one scrap Trident!). Whoever gets in, it’ll economic collapse and bringing about narrow. What was going to be an impact on my sector and my union. It’ll a situation in which millions of peo - easy Tory victory now seems not impact on all working people and those ple’s livelihoods were threatened to be the case. If the polls are narrowing, who aren’t working, too; benefits will be through their profligacy and blind faith it’s because people still have a genuine cut and pensions will be attacked. The axe in the anarchic, chaotic whims of the memory and distrust of the Tories. is definitely being wielded, which is what market, bankers and city financiers TThere’s a basic class issue here; I consid - makes actions like the upcoming PCS across the world are still pocketing er that Labour has let the working class strike so important. I’ll be doing whatev - massive bonuses on top of their down, but I think there’s still a basic er I can to support that. already massive “wages.” understanding that the Tories are the The chips are well and truly down now. Despite small New Labour increases party of the wealthy and it’s positive that Many people won’t have faced a situation on taxation of the super-rich, despite that memory still exists. like this before and it’s a time that calls for the ostensible “nationalisation” of banks and mortgage-lenders like RBS and My feeling is that the turnout in the some real steel and backbone. If we acqui - Northern Rock, it seems that the sheer greed and acquisitiveness of the capitalists election will be poor, but it’s not because esce it’s at our peril. I know people’s con - who run these organisations is impossible to curtail. people don’t care about politics. People fidence to fight can change from day to In 2006, a study undertaken by the Independent calculated that the bonuses (just are passionate about all sorts of issues — day, but I think trade union members can the bonuses, not even the salaries) paid to city financiers could have funded a whether that’s the environment, nuclear be inspired. It depends on the leaders’ 100% salary increase for every frontline nurse, fire-fighter and paramedic in the arms or the closure of a local school or ability to provide that inspiration. We UK. Statistics like that speak for themselves. hospital — but many people rightly con - need to learn from the Vestas model; if my Now, when those same financiers have seen their precarious house of cards clude that most politicians are careerists union and others had ring-fenced that fac - come crashing down around them, we are being forced to pay, and they are still who promise little and do less. I have no tory and put some real pressure on the raking it in. illusions in Labour — I remember the Labour government, including threaten - In 2009, Barclays paid out nearly £3 billion in bonuses. HSBC recently 1997 the slogan “vote Labour, don’t trust ing to withdraw funding from the Labour announced it was handing out £8 million in bonuses to just five bankers. Even Blair”, and I thought how good that was Party unless it was brought into public bankers who have waived their bonuses — like RBS’s Stephen Hester — have then, and how right it turned out to be. ownership, we could’ve won and that vic - publicly expressed their disappointment at having to do so. I yearn for a credible alternative to the tory would’ve made us stronger. Labour Party. Where there is an electoral Opportunities like that do arise; it’s the he “Robin Hood Tax” on financial transactions proposed by the liberal left alternative, people should look to it. responsibility of the leadership to instil and much of the labour movement bureaucracy simply does not go far However, there are some good Labour confidence in the members and inspire enough. It is a sticking-plaster on a gaping wound and, furthermore, prob - MPs, such as John McDonnell, David them to fight. We need bottom-up cam - ably entirely utopian. Drew, Jeremy Corbyn and a (small) num - paigns supported by the unions and a To imagine that any immediately-available government — New Labour, Tory or ber of others who deserve support. I also leadership that will lead by example. coalition — would impose even this timid measure, when all three main parties think the Green Party is moving left, and have proved time and time again that they are committed to defending the right some of their candidates also deserve Tof capitalists to grow obscenely wealthy at the expense of other people’s liveli - support as do the Trade Union and Making union hoods, is a fantasy. Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and Respect. The organised working-class movement needs to fight to impose its own pro - But where there is no alternative, which gramme , not just in terms of making demands on existing governments but in unfortunately there won’t be in the major - voices heard terms of seeking to become a government — that is, seeking to achieve working- ity of constituencies, people should per - class power. haps however reluctantly vote Labour Val Graham is a Unison activist in A workers’ government would do away with the capitalist marketplace and without any illusions. Saying that I could Derbyshire County Council and a mem - banking system. It would replace the existing banks with a single, publicly-owned think of a few who are too awful for me to ber of the Unison Labour Link commit - and democratically-controlled banking system. consider voting for and thankfully I won’t tee for the East Midlands. She spoke to Today’s bankers would undoubtedly baulk at what they would paint as an have to! Solidarity about what East Midlands over-centralised, totalitarian scheme; let them! Our starting point is not the John McDonnell’s failure to get enough Unison Labour Link is doing in the run- “right” of competing capitalist banks to exist, or the “right” of bankers to make nominations from MPs to trigger an elec - up to the general election . money. It is the right of the working-class majority of society to decent jobs, decent tion for Labour’s leadership was a terrible homes, decent pensions and a decent standard of living. indictment of the state of democracy ur regional Labour Link A democratically-controlled banking system, whose resources could be used to inside the party. The project to reclaim the Forum on 27 February, where guarantee that collective social provision, would be vastly preferable to the cur - Labour Party is a noble objective but one we took the major decisions rent model of competing financial institutions and products within which even with little chance of success in my view. relating to the general elec - something as basic as how we store our money is turned into a commodity. The trade-union left is weak too. A few tion, was reasonably well attended by But for such a banking system to be established, we require a government pre - years ago the press was full of talk of the Unison members, though we got only pared to take on the rich, up to and including the expropriation of their wealth. “awkward squad”, but that generation of two sitting Labour MPs and one other We need workers’ rule. We need a workers’ government! trade union leaders hasn’t managed to OLabour candidate there. push back any of this country’s anti- We decided that about half the money union legislation, or tackle the crisis of

10 SOLIDARITY d the labour in the general election

How should the working-class left are passionate about all sorts of issues — respond to the general election and the whether that’s the environment, nuclear cuts that will inevitably follow, arms or the closure of a local school or whichever party wins? Solidarity spoke hospital — but many people rightly con - to a range of activists (all in a personal clude that most politicians are careerists capacity) from across the left. We will who promise little and do less. I have no continue the discussion in future issues. illusions in Labour — I remember the 1997 the slogan “vote Labour, don’t trust Blair”, and I thought how good that was Inspire then, and how right it turned out to be. I yearn for a credible alternative to the Labour Party. Where there is an electoral members with alternative, people should look to it. However, there are some good Labour MPs, such as John McDonnell, David the confidence Drew, Jeremy Corbyn and a (small) num - ber of others who deserve support. I also think the Green Party is moving left, and to fight back some of their candidates also deserve support as do the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) and Respect. Jerry Hicks is an activist in the Unite But where there is no alternative, which union and aims to become a candidate in unfortunately there won’t be in the major - its 2010 General Secretary election. ity of constituencies, people should per - haps however reluctantly vote Labour he pundits tell us that the gap in without any illusions. Saying that I could the polls between the parties is think of a few who are too awful for me to narrow. What was going to be an consider voting for and thankfully I won’t 1981 Toxteth riots: people remember what the Thatcher government was like. It puts easy Tory victory now seems not have to! them off David Cameron to be the case. If the polls are narrowing, John McDonnell’s failure to get enough it’s because people still have a genuine nominations from MPs to trigger an elec - democracy that led to the travesty around responsibility of the leadership to instil memory and distrust of the Tories. tion for Labour’s leadership was a terrible the BA strike. We’ve got a situation where confidence in the members and inspire TThere’s a basic class issue here; I consid - indictment of the state of democracy parish councilors are often elected unop - them to fight. We need bottom-up cam - er that Labour has let the working class inside the party. The project to reclaim the posed. Cutting and privatising councilors paigns supported by the unions and a down, but I think there’s still a basic Labour Party is a noble objective but one are elected on turnouts of 30%, but when leadership that will lead by example. understanding that the Tories are the with little chance of success in my view. 90% of BA workers on an 80% turnout party of the wealthy and it’s positive that The trade-union left is weak too. A few vote for strike action their will can be that memory still exists. years ago the press was full of talk of the overturned by a single, unelected judge. Making union My feeling is that the turnout in the “awkward squad”, but that generation of The TUC and the trade union leaders election will be poor, but it’s not because trade union leaders hasn’t managed to have a responsibility not to allow that. people don’t care about politics. People push back any of this country’s anti- That BA were still in a position to run the voices heard union legislation, or tackle the crisis of court and then allowed to get away with it is a scandal. I and millions of workers Val Graham is a Unison activist in know who the enemy is, but the TUC and Derbyshire County Council and a mem - many union leaders have become part of ber of the Unison Labour Link commit - Will you help the the problem and no longer the solution. tee for the East Midlands. She spoke to I’m hoping to be a candidate in the gen - Solidarity about what East Midlands eral secretary election in my union, Unite, Unison Labour Link is doing in the run- because I believe we need a movement socialist alternative? up to the general election . prepared to lead a fightback. The Liberal Democrats promise “savage cuts”, the ur regional Labour Link Tories have said they’re prepared to make n the 2010 General Election the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty will raise the ban - Forum on 27 February, where ner of a socialist alternative — to give clear political answers to both the Tories themselves the most unpopular govern - we took the major decisions and New Labour. ment in a generation and Brown and I relating to the general elec - We will work for a Labour vote tied to a positive campaign against the cuts and Darling have also promised £75 billions of tion, was reasonably well attended by privatisation agenda of Gordon Brown and David Cameron. pounds worth of cuts (I can answer that Unison members, though we got only We will be standing a candidate against Harriet Harman in Peckham and one scrap Trident!). Whoever gets in, it’ll two sitting Labour MPs and one other Camberwell, south London; Jill Mountford will stand for a workers’ voice in impact on my sector and my union. It’ll OLabour candidate there. Parliament. impact on all working people and those We decided that about half the money Getting across our messages will take money, yet we have no rich donors or “cap - who aren’t working, too; benefits will be we have in the region will go to four tains of industry” to finance our work. We want to raise £25,000 in the course of this cut and pensions will be attacked. The axe selected Labour candidates on the basis of election year is definitely being wielded, which is what replies they gave to a questionnaire we makes actions like the upcoming PCS CAN YOU HELP US sent out about union policies. Their con - ? strike so important. I’ll be doing whatev - stituencies have been given a certain er I can to support that. amount of money, but tied to campaign - The chips are well and truly down now. • Could you take a few copies of our paper to circulate at work or college (contact ing on the Unison “Million Voices for Many people won’t have faced a situation our office for details); Public Services” initiative. like this before and it’s a time that calls for • Give us money each month by standing order: contact our office or set it up The other half is open to be bid for by some real steel and backbone. If we acqui - directly with your bank (to “AWL”, account number 20047674 at Unity Trust Bank, Labour Link activists in other constituen - esce it’s at our peril. I know people’s con - 08-60-01). cies for financing leaflets, advertisements, fidence to fight can change from day to • Donate directly, online — go to www.workersliberty.org and press the donate public meetings, and so on, in line with day, but I think trade union members can button union policy, whether it be about privati - be inspired. It depends on the leaders’ • Send cheques made payable to “AWL” to our office: AWL, PO Box 823, London sation or trade union rights or council ability to provide that inspiration. We SE15 4NA, or make a donation directly through internet banking with your bank (to housing or whatever. need to learn from the Vestas model; if my “AWL”, account number as above); We had a discussion at the Labour Link union and others had ring-fenced that fac - • Contact us to discuss joining the AWL. Forum on the sort of things we want to tory and put some real pressure on the do. We've talked about targeting union FIGHTING FUND Labour government, including threaten - members for leaflets. ing to withdraw funding from the Labour Our approach appears to be working in Party unless it was brought into public that Labour candidates are submitting In the last month we have received £95.50 in new standing orders. That gives a con - ownership, we could’ve won and that vic - their leaflets and their proposals to solidated amount of £955 towards our grand total. Fund so far stands at £4,843. tory would’ve made us stronger. Unison Labour Link for ratification. I've Opportunities like that do arise; it’s the certainly observed an impact in how the

SOLIDARITY 11 ELECTION

PECKHAM AND CAMBERWELL THE LEFT IN THE ELECTION Campaigning The AWL and the Trade on the Unionist and Socialist Aylesbury Coalition

BY CATHY NUGENT estate The Socialist Party was aligned with the Communist Party of Britain (Morning Star) in last year’s European ver the last few months we have comment - election in the No2EU coalition. We opposed that coali - WL member Jill Mountford is the AWL’s ed in Solidarity on the talks between vari - tion on the grounds that opposition to the EU as such candidate in the general election, standing ous leftists and left groups on working was wrong. To that reactionary nationalistic “spin” we in Peckham and Camberwell against together in the General Election. And com - counterposed a united working-class fight against the Labour’s Harriet Harman. ment is all we have been able to do, because those European bosses throughout Europe. The SP’s adapta - Peckham is a deprived area in South East London, talks were held behind closed doors. We, and others tion to nationalism was particularly shameful, some - with high levels of unemployment and poverty. have been excluded from the “process”. The informa - thing of a departure for them, which they did not deign At the centre of the constituency is the Aylesbury Otion we had about the talks was limited to the bits to account for. The CPB as an organisation has now Aestate, home to 8,500 people. The estate gets a lot of fallen away from this coalition and without their par - and pieces that “leaked” out. Now, what has bad press, being described by the Daily Mail as “Hell’s emerged, is the Trade Unionist and Socialist ticularly malign influence the anti-EU propaganda is waiting room”. Coalition (TUSC). A loose assembly of socialist limited to opposition to the Lisbon treaty. Two weeks ago the AWL held an election meeting on groups and individuals who expect — so they say — That is one positive. So is the fact that the coalition the estate. And we found that the people that live there to stand candidates in around 50 constituencies. does not involve, as it looked for while as if it might, generally feel very differently to the Mail . How does TUSC look now? George Galloway. The homes on the Aylesbury are generally of a good It is still mainly a Socialist Party project, despite the But we have other more longstanding political con - size and are purpose built to a good standard. The recent arrival of the SWP and two small Scottish social - cerns. If you are minded to give the Socialist Party or problem is that there has — quite deliberately — been ist groups. Individual leftists are also involved. If so the SWP the benefit of the doubt right now — for the no real investment in the estate’s buildings for a long many people have “come together” is it not, therefore, sake of left unity — think again about their recent for - time. a reasonable stab at “left unity”? No! It is the hasty ays into electoral activity — the Socialist Party’s The Aylesbury is earmarked for demolition, despite clubbing together of groups and individuals under a No2EU adventure, the SWP’s alliance with George the wishes of the residents. convenient and limited electoral banner — time-limit - Galloway and the British offshoots of the clerical-fas - Jill Mountford comments, “In 2001 there was a ballot ed local campaigns, mostly tied to either the local SP cist Muslim Brotherhood. on the estate to decide whether Southwark Council — and SWP, which will for a certainty, do their own Nonetheless many TUSC candidates, and other inde - then Labour controlled — should give away these group-building thing on the ground, irrespective of pendent socialist candidates will be putting forward homes to private housing associations, trashing the “TUSC”. anti-capitalist and general socialist ideas in this elec - assured tenancy contracts that give residents security Let’s be clear — we are not being critical here of tion. In general terms, it is right in principle that social - by replacing them with the so called “secured tenancy” attempts to run local socialist election campaigns as ists should stand in elections to make this kind of prop - contracts — these contracts are designed and weighted such or of group building. We are critics of the pretence aganda. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty is standing in favour of the landlord. 73% of residents voting, said that this is a united, properly democratic, socialist such a candidate against Harriet Harman in south a big, loud “no” to this offer. Less than 10% of residents coalition. London. said “yes”. In our view open, on-going democratic discussion is For this reason we will back those TUSC individuals Harriet Harman said she would respect the decision. the only way to forge solid and genuine left unity and who have good records in the labour movement or on But we all know that she, and her New Labour mates, for creating a united left that can present a clear social - the left. We will work for the best candidates, people haven’t. ist political presence on the doorsteps in this election, like Darren Ireland in Merseyside for example. The estate is due to be pulled down in stages, being and indeed outside of elections! That is not how TUSC On the other hand, a few TUSC candidates may be replaced by a massive PFI housing development. The came into being. That is not what TUSC is. “beyond the pale”. Tommy Sheridan, for instance, who overall number of homes will be reduced and the num - And the politics of TUSC? In all likelihood there will for egotistical and foolishly personal reasons nearly ber of council homes will be radically cut. What will be be nothing very objectionable in any platform — if the destroyed the Scottish Socialist Party. delivered is a “mix” of housing, including many so- local campaigns follow, more or less, the line of the So socialists should not give blanket, unconditional called “affordable homes”. The problem is that these TUSC platform. Even the SWP, which has spent the last or uncritical support for TUSC. homes will not be affordable to those currently living ten years advocating and practicing political accom - We continue to advocate left unity, but if this is to be on the estate. modation to Islamist clerical-fascism, will most likely, achieved it will only be by way of open and critical dis - The council currently has a waiting list of 15 000 and following past patterns, argue unobjectionable social- cussion of the tasks which face the labour movement. this project looks likely to increase that number and to democratic — that is tamely reformist — demands in In the general election the AWL’s main activities will push out many of the poorer residents. this election. (That’s what they do anyway!) be: In addition, as the Liberal-Tory council fails to To have been really useful in this election an alliance 1. to advocate what we think are the necessary tasks improve the estate which it intends to demolish it is of socialists would have had to thrash out a pro - for the broad labour movement within the Campaign collecting around £1 million each month from the gramme in open democratic discussion. It would not to Stop the Tories and the Fascists; Aylesbury tenants in rent. The residents are being be presented as a fait acompli. Such a process would and 2. to develop the necessary socialist ideas in our milked for cash. have been more likely to have got to grips with the campaign for Jill Mountford in Peckham and strategic needs of the working-class movement as it Camberwell. • To help our campaign faces its most serious attacks for decades. We urge all socialists who want to discuss with us Email: [email protected] That said, TUSC’s programme is better than it might and be involved in these activities to get in touch. Phone 07904 944 771 have been.

WHERE WE STAND

oday one class, the working class, lives by selling Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade • Global solidarity its labour power to another, the capitalist class, unions, supporting workers’ struggles, producing work - against global capital which owns the means of production. Society is place bulletins, helping organise rank-and-file groups. — workers every - shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to We are also active among students and in many cam - where have more in increase their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, unem - paigns and alliances. common with each ployment, the blighting of lives by overwork, imperial - other than with their ism, the destruction of the environment and much else. We stand for: capitalist or Stalinist TAgainst the accumulated wealth and power of the capi - • Independent working-class representation in politics. rulers. talists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. • A workers’ government, based on and accountable to • Democracy at The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidari - the labour movement. every level of society, ty through struggle so that the working class can over - • A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, from the smallest throw capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective to strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. workplace or commu - ownership of industry and services, workers’ control and a • Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, nity to global social democracy much fuller than the present system, with elect - homes, education and jobs for all. organisation. ed representatives recallable at any time and an end to • A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppres - • Working-class sol - bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. sion. Full equality for women and social provision to free idarity in international We fight for the labour movement to break with “social women from the burden of housework. Free abortion on politics: equal rights partnership” and assert working-class interests militantly request. Full equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. for all nations, against imperialists and predators big and against the bosses. Black and white workers’ unity against racism. small. • Open borders. • Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate.

12 SOLIDARITY OBITUARY

MICHAEL FOOT The man who accepted defeat to avoid defeat!

BY SEAN MATGAMNA public in what looked like a donkey jacket. It was bru - tally unjust, as was so much of the press commentary t was a tragedy for the British working class and on the labour movement and on the left then. Yet it was its labour movement that Michael Foot, who has appropriate too. Foot had turned himself and the lead - died at the age of 96, was its political leader ership of the labour movement into a bad joke. when it faced its life-and-death confrontation Foot had been a central leader of the early campaign with Thatcherism at the beginning of the 1980s. for nuclear disarmament. Here too, he led the retreat in By this stage in his long journalistic career — 70 deference to an established order. That time, the years ago he was already editor of the London Evening Labour Party establishment. IStandard — and long political life, Foot was a burnt- When in 1960 the left won the bulk of the unions at out, time-serving ex-radical, deeply mired in political the Labour Party Conference to support British nuclear dirty dealing with Liberals and Ulster Unionists to disarmament, the Parliamentary Labour Party, led by keep the Callaghan Government (1974-79) in power. party leader Hugh Gaitskell, refused to accept the In political terms, Foot was a “dead man walking”. Conference decision and threatened to split the Party. But Michael Foot was a journalist — a very good one. Foot retreated with the cry: “never underestimate the And so he is praised in his obituaries by sympathetic desire of the Labour Party for unity”, and the result journalists in the bourgeois press. Compared to the was that the right wing reversed the 1960 decision at focus-group-obsessed, spineless, colourless, and prin - the 1961 Conference. ciple-free mainstream politicians of today, Foot was, Foot had seen better times. He was one of Nye indeed, a “man of principle”, as the obituarists insist. Bevan’s chief lieutenants in the heyday of the leftwing In contrast to today’s narrow-minded, small-souled Labour upsurge in the 1950s. He was editor of the gangs of political technicians scrambling for office, then-Bevanite journal Tribune . He worked with the Michael Foot was a man of broad mind and generous Trotskyists and led a vigorous campaign inside the sympathies. Labour Party against the banning of their paper And as a working-class leader? There Michael Foot Socialist Outlook in 1954. was a disaster. He stood up to the Stalinist avalanche of lies against When he became Labour leader Foot told a mass Trotsky and the other Bolsheviks, long before it became rally in Liverpool that the Labour Party would raise a fashionable to do that, in the mid-1950s, after Stalin’s storm of indignation that would drive the Tories from successor Khrushchev had denounced him as a crazed office. In fact he did the very opposite. mass murderer. Two incidents from that time epitomised what Foot, Foot, like most of the Labour left then, had been a the political leader of the labour movement from 1980, ing-class bourgeois government which was using state sympathiser with Stalinism in the late 1930s and early was by then. power in almost a Jacobin fashion to remodel society 1940s. And he was a victim of Stalinism. Peter Tatchell, the official Labour candidate in a by- and break the back of the labour movement! Made disillusioned by the writings of ex-Stalinists election in the London district of Bermondsey, was tar - The serious class warrior, Margaret Thatcher, would such as Arthur Koestler, he came to identify Stalinism geted in the press as a man who believed in political in the course of the struggle with the working class with the Russian Revolution, and “revolution” per se direct action (and in some of the press and on the deploy as much violence as she found necessary to with Stalinism. The Russian Revolution, and the vio - ground in Bermondsey he was subjected to a campaign beat down working-class resistance lence of the revolutionary workers against the old rul - of savage gay-baiting). In the House of Commons, During the miners’ strike she would send semi-mil - ing classes was the “original sin” that led to Stalinism. Tatchell’s party leader, Foot, denounced and repudiat - itarised police to occupy rebellious mining villages, Parliamentarianism and legality was the only safe ed him. Tatchell went on to lose the by-election in what and police cavalry to defend picketing miners in course for socialists to pursue. had been a safe Labour seat. pitched battles such as the Battle of Orgreave, in mid- It was a paralysing philosophy for a working-class In the second typical incident, at the beginning of 1984. Labour leader Foot has told the labour move - leader faced with the onslaught of Thatcher. Foot and 1982, Labour Party leader Foot contributed a two-part ment that to defeat Thatcher by direct action, as we had other Labour people then, like union leader Jack Jones, article to the Observer , in which he told the British defeated Thatcher’s predecessor Edward Heath, feared a military coup in Britain, like that of Chile in workers that direct action to resist a properly-elected would be a crime against democracy, and during the September 1973, if they went all-out to resist Thatcher. government, Thatcher’s government, was democrati - miners’ strike, Foot’s hand-picked successor as Labour Later Jack Jones would admit and publicly discuss this. cally impermissible. This was a government that had leader, no-guts Neil Kinnock, played a Tory game by In fear of that, they accepted crushing defeat without a already legislated to outlaw effective trade unionism adding his voice to the reactionary denunciations of fight — accepting defeat to avoid defeat! — sympathetic strike action — and was avowedly the miners, who were themselves victims of state vio - The British labour movement deserved better in its intent on smashing up the labour movement. lence, for their “violence”. time of decision, than Labour leader Michael Foot. Foot told the working class not to use the only Foot was finally driven off the central political stage weapon it had between general elections, industrial after the 1983 General Election amidst a barrage of • Socialism and Democracy — a pamphlet wich direct action, and not to resist a militantly anti-work - press jeering and mockery because he had appeared in includes a 1982 debate with Michael Foot. wwww.workersliberty.org/node/8147 Ernest Erber (1913-2010)

BY BARRY FINGER Erber served on the National Committee of the WP was soon to adopt, with far more devastating results for and served for a time as managing editor of the New third camp socialism. rnest Erber, who died in February at age 96 might International , and on its editorial board until 1948, when Shachtman — like Erber — never did his thinking out be known to readers of Solidarity and members he resigned. In the late 1940s, when the WP was debat - loud, never squared his repudiation of a lifetime of rev - of the AWL only from Max Shachtman’s mem - ing its future role in the socialist movement, Erber was olutionary activity with his ostensible commitment to orable response to his 1948 resignation from virtually alone in arguing to maintain the revolutionary socialism. His indictment of Erber would read as a bill the Workers Party. The Fate of the Russian Revolution perspective of the WP as a “small mass party,” in oppo - of particulars against his later self had he not dragged carries large excerpts from Shachtman’s spirited and sition to the propaganda group the ISL was to become. most of his milieu into the same mire. Few indeed were anguished reply. It was therefore all the more shocking when he those who maintained the political integrity to point EErber, who wrote under the party name Ernest Lund, resigned, as he had provided no advance warning of out that irony. was an original founder of the Socialist Workers Party his anti-Leninist political disagreements with the party Erber was to go on, outside the WP, to proclaim that as it emerged in the 1930s from the American Socialist and had never raised his views on Bolshevism in the he was a democrat first and a socialist second. His res - Party. He was to become an early comrade of Draper’s PC. He had, in fact, just wrapped up an educational ignation from the WP was not, however, simply a dress and Shachtman’s and a leader of the later split from the seminar on Bolshevism that he had presented to the to rehearsal for the tragedy to come. For, unlike innumer - Cannonites in 1940, when the Soviet Union invaded the Socialist Youth League. There were however able other defectors and renegades, he also distin - Finland. As a member of the Young People’s Socialist inklings of his unease. guished himself by endorsing Luxemburg’s observa - League in the SP, Erber traveled to Spain and wrote a Erber in 1948 became increasingly unwilling to tion that only those who are prepared to go forward to pamphlet for the YPSL on the civil war. The SP had defend Bolshevism beyond the vulgarised attacks that socialism will be prepared to defend the democracy organised and funded the Debs column and Erber was equated Leninism with Stalinism. In retrospect, Erber that already exists. He should also be remembered in briefly to join the editorial staff of La Batalla , the POUM represented a pro-Socialist — and shortly a pro- our movement for that. newspaper. Democratic Party orientation that Shachtman himself • www.workersliberty.org/fate

SOLIDARITY 13 ANTI -FASCISM

SCOTTISH DEFENCE LEAGUE MEDIA WORKERS ’ CAMPAIGN Lockerbie Tackling the BNP in print “vigil” BY WILL LODGE

planned new campaign has been launched to highlight and improve the impact that the media can have in BY DALE STREET Afighting the British National Party (BNP). EXPOSE has been set-up by a range of media workers across the left, and the launch event was backed jointly he Scottish Defence League (SDL) decision by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and to stage what it calls a “respectful vigil” in Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Lockerbie on Saturday, 27 March, represents Theatre Union (BECTU), which represents media work - a sign of weakness — if not outright desper - ers. ation. Speakers at the launch event (23 February) included In November of last year, the SDL tried to stage a Peter Hain MP, Weyman Bennett, joint secretary of Unite demonstration in Glasgow. It failed. Two weeks ago (20 which journalists can access background information on Against Fascism (UAF), and Michelle Stanistreet, TFebruary) it tried to stage a demonstration in the BNP, to create more balanced articles to be more bal - deputy general secretary of the NUJ. Edinburgh. Again, it failed. anced. The NUJ already have a site, Most spoke about rallying against the fascists, and Lacking the confidence to attempt another demon - www.reportingthebnp.org, which they hope to expand outlined the poor record of journalists in pandering to stration in a major urban centre, the SDL is retreating and make more readily available, as a part of the the BNP’s media machine. to rural Lockerbie. EXPOSE campaign. Medhi Hasan from New Statesman talked about the According to their statement announcing the Despite a considerable Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) live coverage of the emergency general meeting when “respectful vigil”, the SDL has selected Lockerbie for presence at the event, and SWPer Weyman Bennett the BNP voted to allow ethnic minorities to join the two reasons. speaking for UAF, the event didn’t turn into a mass SWP party, he told of how the BBC’s banner called the BNP a Firstly, because Scottish Justice Minister Kenny rally, partly because a large proportion of the audience “right-wing party”. “If I was a Tory, God forbid, I would MacAskill denied them “freedom of speech” in and speakers were journalists and NUJ members. be outraged. This is what we call the normalisation of Edinburgh a fortnight ago. And secondly, because it Bennett himself didn’t even mention the UAF, and the abnormal. was MacAskill who released Abdelbaset al-Magrahi focussed on the media aspect. Addressing the room he “This has to stop. We have to get our coverage of the (convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, although this said: “We are a beacon of hope, and the media can be a far-right, right! Cover the BNP, do it, cover them; but do remains strongly contested) on compassionate shining example of how to expose these people.” it properly! Why do we have such excessive coverage? grounds. Unfortunately there was little debate on the issue of They crave the oxygen of publicity; it’s our duty not to In fact, it was Edinburgh City Council, not “no platform” politics. Encouragingly, most of the give it to them. Don’t treat them like a normal political MacAskill, who was responsible for serving a ban on speakers spoke about taking on the BNP by giving them party. The BNP, even to the most stupid and ignorant the SDL under the Public Order Act. And the normal critical coverage, rather than no coverage, although people, is not a normal political party.” venue for a protest against an MSP is their home con - many expressed the view that “pantomime” events The strong theme that came out of this event was that stituency. In the case of MacAskill, that would mean such as the BBC’s Question Time shouldn’t be held. journalists need more readily available resources with another attempt to stage a demonstration in Sunny Hundal, editor of the Liberal Conspiracy blog, which they can take apart the BNP. When journalists are Edinburgh. came closest to advocating a “no coverage” approach. working to a tight deadline, it might be tempting to just Eleven inhabitants of Lockerbie were killed when “Should the BNP’s threat be played up or down? I think re-word the BNP press release without being critical of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed into the town. Whatever down, to prevent media frenzy.” He did, however, their policy. The new campagin plans a website from local opinion might be about the release of al-Magrahi, advocate taking action, and the “need to tackle the the local population is unlikely to find anything Building a working-class anti-fascist myths of the right.” It is important politically that a “respectful” about a mixture of football casuals and debate on no platform is held within the movement, if fascists staging a “vigil” about the event in their town. and anti-racist network EXPOSE is to maintain democratic principles. Dumfries and District Trades Council, which covers There was much talk about action, and taking the Lockerbie, has already announced plans for a march Saturday March 27, 12-5pm, Queens Walk campaign forward. Pat Styles of BECTU said: “All it and rally in Lockerbie in opposition to the SDL “vigil” Community Centre, Queens Walk, The Meadows, takes for evil to flourish is for good people to stand aside It would appear that the Trades Council is planning a Nottingham and do nothing… We should be vigilant.” local version of the “Scotland United” rallies in A planning and organising meeting hosted by the Glasgow and Edinburgh, which, in terms of timing Tired of seeing Lib Dem and Tory councillors on the NUJ was advertised. Hopefully organising meetings and location, were organised to ensure that the SDL platform at anti-fascist rallies? Believe that we need will allow for a broader media campaign to critically were not confronted directly. Indeed Scotland United a working-class movement to cut the social roots of analyse and report the BNP, by setting up media activist has now urged anti-facist supporters to stay away from the growth of the BNP and EDL? Still think that networks. It may also try and create fractions within the SDL march to prevent the thugs gaining publicity only unity between working-class people across existing unions and campaigns. from likely clashes. racial, ethnic and communal divides can undermine At the event AWL member Vicki Morris called for the Organising to confront the SDL in Lockerbie would the far-right's attempts to sow hatred? Then this NUJ to move away from being apolitical, and there were be more difficult than was the case in Glasgow or conference is for you. Come along to discuss the a few calls from both speakers and the floor to try and Edinburgh — partly because of the logistical problems issues and plan action. get the NUJ to adopt a stronger, more rigorous, con - of getting to the town, and partly because, if organised science clause. At the moment it is only expressed as a insensitively, anti-SDL activity could alienate the local Sponsored by Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP and pledge to support journalists who refuse to work on population as much as the SDL’s stunt. South Yorkshire Stop the BNP. assignments that break “the spirit or the letter” of the On the other hand, any march and rally in a town the NUJ’s code of conduct. The EXPOSE campaign looks size of Lockerbie will probably end up pretty close to More: http://nottmstopbnp.wordpress.com promising, but it will take time to see if it lives up to wherever the SDLers will be meeting up. early expectations. East London anti-fascists unite

BY DAVE MALBON , S ECRETARY , B ARKING , the BNP will be going for; they’ll find local issues and People are right to be angry about those things but DAGENHAM & H AVERING TOGETHER exploit them. The recession’s been very good for the we’ve got to counter the BNP’s lies about them. The BNP — people have genuine concerns and they’re cast - anti-fascist movement should conduct positive cam - ing around for someone to blame. paigning around those issues to undermine the BNP’s rade unionists have come together under the Trade unions can be central to anti-fascist campaign - racist lies. umbrella of Havering and Barking and ing because we have access to potentially enormous We’ll be having leafleting days, and beyond that Dagenham Trades Councils to form Barking, amounts of people. We can speak to our members and we’re looking to get unions involved in the campaign Dagenham and Havering Together, a new give out information about what the BNP represents. and distribute publicity and information. But beyond campaign to combat the rise of the BNP in boroughs. Trade unions stand for unity, whereas the BNP stand that, we want them to organise workplace meetings There’ll be more of a focus on Havering, because for division. A lot of the unions involved in our cam - and mobilise their members. there’s already a lot of established anti-fascist cam - paign are public sector unions, and there’s a recogni - There’s a debate in the campaign around what we Tpaigning in Barking. We don’t have that campaigning tion that a BNP council would mean worse conditions should say about how people should vote; it’s a con - infrastructure in Havering; the BNP feel confident for public sector workers. There’d be problems with tentious issue. Some unions can’t come out in favor of enough to hold press conferences and general meet - recruitments and retention of public sector workers one particular party as there are legal and constitution - ings in the borough. They’ve got a good chance in the with a BNP council; anti-fascism is about protecting al restrictions. As TUs we have to concentrate on the three wards in which they’re standing in Havering. workers’ rights. issues and making sure people don’t vote for the BNP. The BNP has grown in east London because there’s a The message we’re trying to send is that issues like We can’t say much more beyond that. perception that the main parties aren’t doing much housing and education aren’t the property of the BNP. BDHT will be organising regular leafleting activities. about issues such as housing or education. That’s what They’re traditional trade-union, working-class issues. Please contact 07973421463 with any queries.

14 SOLIDARITY IN DEPTH

TORY PARTY Cameron’s weather-vane politics

In the second of two articles Jack Yates looks at David media friendly, more ethnically and gender diverse set Cameron’s Tory Party of prospective MPs Cameron favours. Why do the big - oted, little—Englanders of the party rank—and—file windon councillor Lynden Stowe isn’t the object? only Tory politician who risks being con - As far as the Tory Party is concerned, Cameron and fused with right-wing extremists. Stowe, a his policies are an ephemeral artifact of this particular near perfect doppelganger of British National election. He represents neither the party as a whole nor Party leader Nick Griffin, was accosted by police a viable future — save some calamity that befalls the officers at the Conservative’s pre—election confer - majority of Tories — for Conservatism. Cameronism ence in Birmingham recently when fellow delegates represents an attempt to reconcile all wings of the Tory Smistook him for the fascist leader. No such vigorous Party, perceived public opinion, and the wishes of action was taken to bring David Cameron to account British capitalism. It’s a public relations exercise to win for his spurious commitment to cut immigration by an election. As such, Cameronism is subject not only to 75%. personality consultants and PR gurus but the shifting Indeed Cameron’s patently racist, opportunistic and whims of public opinion. Unconvincing thankfully impossible promise to close the borders was WEATHER VANE POLITICS welcomed by the Tory rank-and-file. The Tory base has - taken up Cameron’s immigration baiting comments a thousand threads. As well as being opposed to and made them their own. European integration to the point of outright national - A recent leaflet entitled Illegal Immigration: Enough ism, TFA is viciously anti—union and anti—working “Triangulation”, the political methodology was circulated by Conservatives in Romford. Among class. Members oppose any form of the welfare state — employed in Bill Clinton’s successful bid for the White the Daily Mail —with—teeth dross one can expect from up to and including free public health care — and hold House and refined by New Labour, aims to elevate the average such leaflet, the Romford Tories detail reactionary positions on almost every social issue. The candidates above the traditional party divisions. The Cameron’s comments, pointing out his blaming of Freedom Association’s “Better Off Out” anti—EU cam - process involves adopting some, if not all, of your immigrants for problems in public services: “Cameron paign enjoys the support of 17 Tory peers, 15 MPs, opponents’ policies and taking credit for them. said that he was focused on the pressure on our public seven MEPs and 20 local councillors. Cameron has sought to adopt significant areas of services, including health, education, housing and The Cornerstone Group is another despicable Tory New Labour policy — just as Blair and company prisons, created by the new immigrant arrivals.” Other faction. A “broad” grouping that includes “‘One wrapped themselves in Tory garb from the mid—90s headlines on the leaflet call for a new border police to Nation”‘ Tories and Thatcherites alike, Cornerstone onward — and present them as his own. In so doing, keep out immigrants, resurrect the “British jobs” slo - emphasises the importance of religious values in he has the obvious advantage of not being Gordon gan, and promise to reverse human rights legislation. “British culture”. The group, which has 30 supporters Brown or, indeed, Tony Blair. But Cameron’s triangula - The content is indistinguishable from leaflets circulat - in Parliament, was described by Tory front—bencher tions are slightly more complex. Whereas Blair built on ed by UKIP and the BNP. Alan Duncan as the “Taliban Tendency”. the legacy of previous Labour leaders, marginalising Added to this, a recent poll on the Contrast these two unpleasant outfits with the mar - the left and trade union influence (shifting significant - ConservativeHome website records that 84% of 2,352 ginally less unpleasant Tory Reform Group, chaired by ly to the right before “triangulating”) Cameron has a Tory members surveyed wanted immigration to be the Ken Clarke. The TRG, which campaigned against sup - more difficult geometrical problem to fathom. primary election issue. How do such extreme and reac - port for apartheid South Africa against mainstream Not only must he work hard to convince voters that tionary views fit with the new, cuddly, “made-over” Tory sentiment, believes “‘that elections are won and he cares about public services and “society” — tradi - Tory Party? The fit is quite comfortable. lost in the centre ground and that the Tory Party is at tional Labour tropes, whatever the realities of Labour Within all bourgeois political parties, there’s a its best when it is firmly in the centre.”‘ TRG has been government — but also reconcile his own party’s three—fold tension between the leadership, rank— a source of inspiration for Cameron, who is quoted at extreme right—wing. The matter is made all the more and—file and the sections of society they aim to repre - length on their website. complex by the palpable disintegration of right—wing sent. At times, these tensions are exposed for all to see. Compare the differing attitudes of past Labour lead - sentiment into a number of political formations outside At others, they’re subterranean. The early years and ers to Cameron’s tolerance and acceptance of his fac - of the Tory ranks. final stages of Thatcher’s reign demonstrate this clear - tions and some, if not all, of their ideas. Where right— The growth in support for UKIP and the BNP is a ly. wing Labour leaders waged open war against their threat to Tory and Labour alike. We can see the extent Initially unpopular with the Tory back—benches and critics and competitors to the left — and still do — to which Labour has responded in policies and indi - the country—at—large but fulfilling the impulses of Cameron seeks reconciliation and synthesis. Where vidual comments like Brown’s “British jobs for British the financial warriors at the head of the economy, publications such as Socialist Organiser , the predecessor workers”. But the Tories will feel the disaggregation all Thatcher swung the country behind her and quelled of Solidarity , were banned and our supporters expelled the more strongly. Unlike Labour, they have significant unrest within her own party by harnessing popular, from the Labour Party, extreme right—wingers enjoy organised factions who share most — if not all — of reactionary sentiment. She exploited the Falklands war Cameron’s grace and favour. What’s going on? publicly stated UKIP and BNP policy. These factions (1982) to whip up and exploit jingoism and nationalist A survey conducted for Total Politics magazine found put direct pressure on Cameron from within his own sentiment. This move kept her in power when she an interesting division in support for the various Tory ranks. looked most vulnerable. During the final weeks and Party factions and “Cameronism” itself within the par - These competing pressures and above all, the pres - months in office — unpopular within her own party liamentary party and prospective candidates. They sure of attempting to win an election, mean that and without, politically exhausted and incapable of found that 38% of Tories identified as “One Nation” Cameron and his cuddly conservatism remain without fighting back — those who served loyally from the moderates, 26% as Thatcherite, 6% gave support to the political substance. Whatever Cameron the man thinks early 1980s moved forcefully against her. Cornerstone Group and 12% labeled themselves and feels, he and his party are naturally susceptible to Cameron faces similar (but for the time being low- “Cameronites”. significant right—wing tendencies, all the more so profile) problems. In seats where the Tories have a chance of winning, given the realities of modern Britain. As such these figures shifted somewhat. 43% of MPs and candi - Cameronism, can be little more than a sort of weather- A PARTY DIVIDED ? dates in these areas identified as Cameronites. What is vane politics. The question, then, is how long will it be the significance of these figures? The across—the— before the right—wing storm hits us all? board figures show that David Cameron and his poli - Groupings and factions within the Labour Party tics enjoy very marginal general support. That these have, at one point or another, played a prominent role. figures were collected in the run—up to an election is BRITAIN 2010: CHILDREN Sometimes dramatised by leading personalities, at oth - of some significance: wouldn’t a loyal group of MPs ers sensationalised by the right—wing press, the fight seeking to win governmental power throw themselves Lack of adequate funding and support for the for working—class representation and socialist politics behind the “leader”? Cameron and Cameronism Children and Family Court Advisory Service (CAF - is well known. The fight to diminish trade union influ - enjoys only limited support from leading Tories — a CAS) have reached “crisis levels” in some areas, ence and crush socialist organisation within the party fact Cameron must be aware of. The “respectable” according to workers in the service. is just as familiar. That the fights and factions within reactionaries who pollute the Tory benches are not CAFCAS, which provides legal support and the Tory Party are less high—profile does not mean happy. guardians for children involved in court proceed - they are unimportant. Further down the Tory food chain, things are not as ings, is facing enormous case-load backlogs which No fewer than 10 groups – some “organisationally harmonious as Cameron would wish them to be. workers are unable to clear, meaning that children independent” – lobby and seek influence within the In 2009 Conservative Party membership stood at are often not allocated support workers or Conservative Party. From the extreme-right Freedom 290,000 organised into local, constituency based guardians until four or five months into court pro - Association to the “One Nation” Tory Reform Group, Associations. In theory, these Associations select par - ceedings. each enjoys different levels of support and significance. liamentary candidates. They represent the back—bone Harry Fletcher, of justice and probation workers’ Each represents a significant strand of “Conservative” of British conservatism (with a small and large “c”) union NAPO, said that managers without the train - opinion and ideology. The divisions are most promi - and they are not uniformly content with their leader, in ing or skills to do frontline work were being given nent over Europe. much the same way as Tory MPs are not. In a number casework in a desperate attempt to clear the back - For instance, the Freedom Association (TFA) is of instances, including the case noted in the first part of log. chaired by Roger Helmer, the arch—Eurosceptic Tory this article, local Tory Associations have either prevent - MEP. Although TFA has no formal organisational links Another depressing example of vulnerable chil - ed or severely hampered the attempts of Central Office dren being sold short. with the Conservative Party proper, they are bound by to impose preferred candidates. They object to the

SOLIDARITY 15 DISCUSSION

“PERMANENT REVOLUTION ” Is there a socialist quintessence in Irish nationalism?

BY SEAN MATGAMNA be a continuous process, up to the working-class con - entrenched rights of the old rulers, and act “dictatori - quest of power. ally”. dozen years on from the “Good Friday In fact, central Europe evolved differently. In It was, Lenin argued, in the interests of the working Agreement” (GFA) things in Northern Germany, Bismarck, the servant of the junker landlords class that as much as possible of the old feudalistic Ireland are far from settled. The recently and the monarchy, carried out most of the bourgeois debris be cleared away, and replaced by a democratic threatened breakdown of the power-shar - social goals of the 1848 revolution, in his own way, and republic in which all political and social relations were ing executive was avoided. But the Good Friday sys - from above, without dislodging the junker class or the transparent and stripped of mystifications: these tem is far from stable. monarchy. When the radical bourgeois political tasks would be the best conditions for the working class Communal antagonism is still so strong that it takes posed in 1848 were realised in 1918/19 — the monar - struggle for socialism in the decades after the bour - A60 or so permanent walls to keep active communalism chy overthrown, the democratic Weimar Republic set geois revolution had reached equilibrium. from erupting into violence across Belfast. up — it wasn’t as part of an ongoing working class-led Trotsky made pretty much the same assessment as The political system set up by the GFA is an intricate permanent revolution, but counterposed by its leaders, did Lenin, but he disagreed with Lenin’s political con - network of bureaucratised Catholic-Protestant sectari - including the right-wing social democrats, to the clusions and perspectives. Trotsky advocated “perma - anism. Militarist republican activity is still a major fac - German proletarian revolution. You could say it was nent revolution”. Yes, said Trotsky, to Lenin’s demo - tor in Northern Ireland. It is a growing force. inverted “permanent revolution”. cratic dictatorship of the workers and peasantry, to The age-old pattern of physical-force-on-principle The pioneer Marxists in Russia and other socially lead the bourgeois revolution the workers and peas - republicans going political, and being denounced as and politically backward countries had advocated a ants will make the bourgeois revolution, but not as in traitors for it by other physical-force-on-principle revolution like that of the French revolution. The pio - Lenin’s conception as more or less equal partners. The republicans who try to fill the vacated role, is still in neering Russian Marxists, Plekhanov above all, took revolution would culminate not in the establishment of operation in Irish republican politics. So too is the half- their stand against the populists who hoped that histo - a bourgeois democratic republic but of a workers’ century phenomenon of “Trotskyist” mystics weaving ry would spare Russia the experience of capitalism. republic: the permanent revolution would go in one socialist political fantasies around physical force Russian capitalism already existed and was develop - uninterrupted movement, led by the workers, at the republicanism, muddying the political waters — ing. Inevitably, it would continue to develop. What head of, not in equal partnership with, the peasantry. Rayner Lysaght and his comrades of the Irish “Fourth exactly did this mean in Russia — in concrete Russian The peasantry, argued Trotsky, can play no inde - Internationalists” (Mandelites). conditions? pendent role in making the socialist revolution: they Thus Rayner Lysaght with his “shaping” and caper - Trotsky in 1905 analysed Russian social conditions will, as in history so far the peasantry always have, fol - ing, and despite odd conceits, such as using the third and postulated that the Russian anti-tsarist revolution low, be led by, one of the town classes — either the person pronoun for himself, nonetheless raises serious would be led by the working class which would go on bourgeoisie or the proletariat. questions. (We print Lysaght’s comments, first pub - interruptedly to take power and make a working class The workers, backed by, at the head of, the peasantry lished on our website — as part of an ongoing debate revolution. It would be one continuous process. will make the revolution. The workers will take power — on page 18). These issues are still very important on That would be a working class revolution in social — not democratic dictatorship of the workers and the Irish left. True, Lysaght doesn’t handle any of them conditions that were greatly unripe for the creation of peasantry but dictatorship of the proletariat (again, seriously. I’ll try to make up for that, taking the issues socialism — where Marxists believed socialism was dictatorship meaning not the meaning Stalinism has in the order of their political importance. not yet socially possible. What would happen after the given it in modern history, but as above: it would be a Russian workers had taken power and set up a work - mass popular dictatorship against the old ruling class PERMANENT REVOLUTION ers’ republic? That would be determined by the fate of and their institutions and their servants, smashing the working class revolution in Western Europe, where their power and institutions — taking those institu - social conditions were ripe for the creation of a social - tions by storm). And what will the working class do in ’ve already, more than once, said what I have to say ist society. The defeats in the west — in Germany, the power? on permanent revolution and Ireland in the introduc - inverted counter-revolutionary permanent revolution Pass a self-denying ordinance and not look out for tion to a little cluster of letters on the subject from 1966- I — left Russia isolated. The Russian Stalinist counter- their own working-class interests — for example, not 7 [www.workersliberty.org/pr-ireland]; in an imagi - revolution was the result. pass eight-hour day legislation? No, Trotsky argued, to nary dialogue on it, where I used all the arguments On this there were two basic Marxist schools of consolidate, the workers in power will act in their own Lysaght and others had made in a long discussion in thought in the 1905 revolution and after, both based on class interests. Make Russian socialism? No. That was Socialist Organiser (1982) [www.workersliberty.org/ the premiss that increasingly capitalist but immensely impossible. It was too backward, economically and node/13647]. I’ve discussed “Marxism and Ireland” in backward Russia was socially ripening toward a revo - socially. Here Trotsky did not differ from either the a number of articles, including in a review of Lysaght’s lution like that which England and France had had. Mensheviks or Lenin that socialism could not be built strange compilation “The Communists and the Irish These were the Bolshevik and Menshevik schools. in Russia. revolution”. But he chose to ignore them: why? I’ll put it very schematically. For the Marxists, After the workers’ revolution, Trotsky concluded, Theorists of permanent revolution concern them - including the great pioneers Plekhanov and Axelrod, either the workers’ dictatorship would be overthrown selves with the relationship of the working class social - this bourgeois revolution would be led by the bour - in Russia, as the Jacobins had been in France in 1794, or ist revolutions to bourgeois revolutions in underdevel - geoisie. One task of the Marxists was to make sure the the revolution would spread to Western Europe and oped countries. Where feudalistic institutions need to bourgeoisie weren’t frightened off doing that by an the countries where, once in power, the workers could, be overthrown, freedom for market economic develop - over-assertive working class movement. in ripe social conditions, begin to make a socialist soci - ment, civil liberties and a democratic republic need to Lenin in 1905 and after agreed that Russia was ripe ety: on the international plane, the Russian revolution be seen. That included colonies and semi-colonial enough only for a bourgeois-democratic revolution will if that happens be able to compensate for its back - countries struggling for bourgeois democratic freedom like that of France 100 years earlier, but, analysing the wardness, and Russia will take its place as a backward against colonialism and imperialism and in the first social relations in Russia, including the role of the working class ruled segment of a European working place for self-determination. bourgeoisie and their relationship to the landlords on class state, which is driving towards socialism in the History knows a number of bourgeois revolutions one side and to the powerful working class movement advanced countries. against feudalism — that of the Dutch republic in the on the other, he concluded that the Russian bourgeoisie For Trotsky, there would be an uninterrupted 16th century, the English Cromwellian revolution of could not lead an anti-tsarist revolution: they were tied sequence of bourgeois-democratic revolutionary- the 1640s, and the great French revolution against the in too closely to the landlords and too afraid of the mil - socialist tasks, led by the working class, and in that king and the entitled aristocrats in 1789 and after. itant socialist working class to do that. sense, a fusion of the two revolutions, bourgeois and These revolutions won freedom for developing bour - Lenin’s paradoxical conclusion was that the bour - proletarian. geois societies from old feudal constraints, restrictions geois revolution in Russia would be led by the workers and interference. They won civil liberties — in England 1917 and peasants, in something like equal partnership, such things as habeas corpus, no pre-publication cen - who would in that revolution play the role of the ple - sorship and, above all, the rule of parliament — with beian sans culottes in the French revolution who had, very limited suffrage — instead of that of the king. hat happened in 1917? The February revolution before the Jacobins were overthrown, driven the revo - In France the lower orders made the revolution and made a clean sweep of tsarism, discredited by lution far deeper than the bourgeoisie wanted. The put their own radical stamp on it before ceding power the war and its catastrophes. In Lenin’s absence the “bourgeois revolution” would in that sense also be a W to the bourgeoisie. Bolshevik party in Russia, led by Kamenev and revolution against the big bourgeoisie. It would be There are a number of theories of permanent revolu - Stalin, settled into supporting the new regime which, bourgeois in what it achieved — a republic, democrat - in fact, procrastinated over such “bourgeois” tasks of tion. They can be divided conveniently into pre- and ic rights — and in the social limitations that made a the revolution as the distribution of land to the peas - post-October 1917 theories. socialist revolution impossible — but the bourgeoisie ants. After the defeat of the bourgeois-democratic revolu - could not lead that revolution. Now, basing himself on the great militancy of the tion in 1848, Karl Marx talked of the revolution “in per - Lenin postulated a “democratic dictatorship of the working class and, as always, guided by concrete real - manence”, and he roughed out working class tactics proletariat and peasantry”. Dictatorship here meant ities, not by dogmatic abstractions, Lenin grasped con - for such situations: the workers would join with bour - not what Stalinism would make the word mean in the cretely what Trotsky had grasped already in 1905 — geois revolutionaries against reaction, would strike the 20th century. “Democratic dictatorship” was not oxy - that the Russian revolution would be a working class common enemy together with them, but would moronic, but plebeian democracy: it would be dictator - revolution, or it wouldn’t happen: counter-revolution “march separately” — maintain working class political ship in the sense that it would overrule the laws and would roll things back. The bourgeois and proletarian independence and serve working class goals. It would 16 SOLIDARITY DISCUSSION

BY SEAN MATGAMNA bourgeois in what it achieved — a republic, democrat - ic rights — and in the social limitations that made a dozen years on from the “Good Friday socialist revolution impossible — but the bourgeoisie Agreement” (GFA) things in Northern could not lead that revolution. Ireland are far from settled. The recently Lenin postulated a “democratic dictatorship of the threatened breakdown of the power-shar - proletariat and peasantry”. Dictatorship here meant ing executive was avoided. But the Good Friday sys - not what Stalinism would make the word mean in the tem is far from stable. 20th century. “Democratic dictatorship” was not oxy - Communal antagonism is still so strong that it takes moronic, but plebeian democracy: it would be dictator - A60 or so permanent walls to keep active communalism ship in the sense that it would overrule the laws and from erupting into violence across Belfast. entrenched rights of the old rulers, and act “dictatori - The political system set up by the GFA is an intricate ally”. network of bureaucratised Catholic-Protestant sectari - It was, Lenin argued, in the interests of the working anism. Militarist republican activity is still a major fac - class that as much as possible of the old feudalistic tor in Northern Ireland. It is a growing force. debris be cleared away, and replaced by a democratic The age-old pattern of physical-force-on-principle republic in which all political and social relations were republicans going political, and being denounced as transparent and stripped of mystifications: these traitors for it by other physical-force-on-principle would be the best conditions for the working class republicans who try to fill the vacated role, is still in struggle for socialism in the decades after the bour - operation in Irish republican politics. So too is the half- geois revolution had reached equilibrium. century phenomenon of “Trotskyist” mystics weaving Trotsky made pretty much the same assessment as socialist political fantasies around physical force did Lenin, but he disagreed with Lenin’s political con - republicanism, muddying the political waters — clusions and perspectives. Trotsky advocated “perma - Rayner Lysaght and his comrades of the Irish “Fourth nent revolution”. Yes, said Trotsky, to Lenin’s demo - Internationalists” (Mandelites). cratic dictatorship of the workers and peasantry, to Thus Rayner Lysaght with his “shaping” and caper - lead the bourgeois revolution the workers and peas - ing, and despite odd conceits, such as using the third ants will make the bourgeois revolution, but not as in person pronoun for himself, nonetheless raises serious Lenin’s conception as more or less equal partners. The questions. (We print Lysaght’s comments, first pub - revolution would culminate not in the establishment of lished on our website — as part of an ongoing debate a bourgeois democratic republic but of a workers’ republic: the permanent revolution would go in one — on page 18). These issues are still very important on George Wyndham, originator of a 1903 Land Act. The the Irish left. True, Lysaght doesn’t handle any of them uninterrupted movement, led by the workers, at the British bourgeoisie carried out a revolution in the head of, not in equal partnership with, the peasantry. seriously. I’ll try to make up for that, taking the issues land system in Ireland. in the order of their political importance. The peasantry, argued Trotsky, can play no inde - pendent role in making the socialist revolution: they PERMANENT REVOLUTION including the right-wing social democrats, to the will, as in history so far the peasantry always have, fol - German proletarian revolution. You could say it was low, be led by, one of the town classes — either the inverted “permanent revolution”. bourgeoisie or the proletariat. ’ve already, more than once, said what I have to say The pioneer Marxists in Russia and other socially The workers, backed by, at the head of, the peasantry on permanent revolution and Ireland in the introduc - and politically backward countries had advocated a will make the revolution. The workers will take power tion to a little cluster of letters on the subject from 1966- I revolution like that of the French revolution. The pio - — not democratic dictatorship of the workers and 7 [www.workersliberty.org/pr-ireland]; in an imagi - neering Russian Marxists, Plekhanov above all, took peasantry but dictatorship of the proletariat (again, nary dialogue on it, where I used all the arguments their stand against the populists who hoped that histo - dictatorship meaning not the meaning Stalinism has Lysaght and others had made in a long discussion in ry would spare Russia the experience of capitalism. given it in modern history, but as above: it would be a Socialist Organiser (1982) [www.workersliberty.org/ Russian capitalism already existed and was develop - mass popular dictatorship against the old ruling class node/13647]. I’ve discussed “Marxism and Ireland” in ing. Inevitably, it would continue to develop. What and their institutions and their servants, smashing a number of articles, including in a review of Lysaght’s exactly did this mean in Russia — in concrete Russian their power and institutions — taking those institu - strange compilation “The Communists and the Irish conditions? tions by storm). And what will the working class do in revolution”. But he chose to ignore them: why? Trotsky in 1905 analysed Russian social conditions power? Theorists of permanent revolution concern them - and postulated that the Russian anti-tsarist revolution Pass a self-denying ordinance and not look out for selves with the relationship of the working class social - would be led by the working class which would go on their own working-class interests — for example, not ist revolutions to bourgeois revolutions in underdevel - interruptedly to take power and make a working class pass eight-hour day legislation? No, Trotsky argued, to oped countries. Where feudalistic institutions need to revolution. It would be one continuous process. consolidate, the workers in power will act in their own be overthrown, freedom for market economic develop - That would be a working class revolution in social class interests. Make Russian socialism? No. That was ment, civil liberties and a democratic republic need to conditions that were greatly unripe for the creation of impossible. It was too backward, economically and be seen. That included colonies and semi-colonial socialism — where Marxists believed socialism was socially. Here Trotsky did not differ from either the countries struggling for bourgeois democratic freedom not yet socially possible. What would happen after the Mensheviks or Lenin that socialism could not be built against colonialism and imperialism and in the first Russian workers had taken power and set up a work - in Russia. place for self-determination. ers’ republic? That would be determined by the fate of After the workers’ revolution, Trotsky concluded, History knows a number of bourgeois revolutions the working class revolution in Western Europe, where either the workers’ dictatorship would be overthrown against feudalism — that of the Dutch republic in the social conditions were ripe for the creation of a social - in Russia, as the Jacobins had been in France in 1794, or 16th century, the English Cromwellian revolution of ist society. The defeats in the west — in Germany, the the revolution would spread to Western Europe and the 1640s, and the great French revolution against the inverted counter-revolutionary permanent revolution the countries where, once in power, the workers could, king and the entitled aristocrats in 1789 and after. — left Russia isolated. The Russian Stalinist counter- in ripe social conditions, begin to make a socialist soci - These revolutions won freedom for developing bour - revolution was the result. ety: on the international plane, the Russian revolution geois societies from old feudal constraints, restrictions On this there were two basic Marxist schools of will if that happens be able to compensate for its back - and interference. They won civil liberties — in England thought in the 1905 revolution and after, both based on wardness, and Russia will take its place as a backward such things as habeas corpus, no pre-publication cen - the premiss that increasingly capitalist but immensely working class ruled segment of a European working sorship and, above all, the rule of parliament — with backward Russia was socially ripening toward a revo - class state, which is driving towards socialism in the very limited suffrage — instead of that of the king. lution like that which England and France had had. advanced countries. In France the lower orders made the revolution and These were the Bolshevik and Menshevik schools. For Trotsky, there would be an uninterrupted put their own radical stamp on it before ceding power I’ll put it very schematically. For the Marxists, sequence of bourgeois-democratic revolutionary- to the bourgeoisie. including the great pioneers Plekhanov and Axelrod, socialist tasks, led by the working class, and in that There are a number of theories of permanent revolu - this bourgeois revolution would be led by the bour - sense, a fusion of the two revolutions, bourgeois and tion. They can be divided conveniently into pre- and geoisie. One task of the Marxists was to make sure the proletarian. post-October 1917 theories. bourgeoisie weren’t frightened off doing that by an After the defeat of the bourgeois-democratic revolu - over-assertive working class movement. 1917 tion in 1848, Karl Marx talked of the revolution “in per - Lenin in 1905 and after agreed that Russia was ripe manence”, and he roughed out working class tactics enough only for a bourgeois-democratic revolution for such situations: the workers would join with bour - like that of France 100 years earlier, but, analysing the hat happened in 1917? The February revolution geois revolutionaries against reaction, would strike the social relations in Russia, including the role of the made a clean sweep of tsarism, discredited by common enemy together with them, but would bourgeoisie and their relationship to the landlords on Wthe war and its catastrophes. In Lenin’s absence the Bolshevik party in Russia, led by Kamenev and “march separately” — maintain working class political one side and to the powerful working class movement independence and serve working class goals. It would Stalin, settled into supporting the new regime which, on the other, he concluded that the Russian bourgeoisie in fact, procrastinated over such “bourgeois” tasks of be a continuous process, up to the working-class con - could not lead an anti-tsarist revolution: they were tied the revolution as the distribution of land to the peas - quest of power. in too closely to the landlords and too afraid of the mil - ants. In fact, central Europe evolved differently. In itant socialist working class to do that. Now, basing himself on the great militancy of the Germany, Bismarck, the servant of the junker landlords Lenin’s paradoxical conclusion was that the bour - working class and, as always, guided by concrete real - and the monarchy, carried out most of the bourgeois geois revolution in Russia would be led by the workers ities, not by dogmatic abstractions, Lenin grasped con - social goals of the 1848 revolution, in his own way, and and peasants, in something like equal partnership, cretely what Trotsky had grasped already in 1905 — from above, without dislodging the junker class or the who would in that revolution play the role of the ple - that the Russian revolution would be a working class monarchy. When the radical bourgeois political tasks beian sans culottes in the French revolution who had, revolution, or it wouldn’t happen: counter-revolution posed in 1848 were realised in 1918/19 — the monar - before the Jacobins were overthrown, driven the revo - would roll things back. The bourgeois and proletarian chy overthrown, the democratic Weimar Republic set lution far deeper than the bourgeoisie wanted. The revolutions would have to form a continuous up — it wasn’t as part of an ongoing working class-led “bourgeois revolution” would in that sense also be a permanent revolution, but counterposed by its leaders, revolution against the big bourgeoisie. It would be Continued on page 19

SOLIDARITY 16 DISCUSSION A reply to the charges

BY D R O’C ONNOR LYSAGHT This is not to say that there were no charges made had nothing to fear. against the majority faction that could be construed as The so-called “peace process” has not changed mat - urfing the net the other day, this writer was ones of anti-semitism. In a somewhat turgid document, ters. Fundamentally, of course, its aim is to pacify surprised to see his name taken in vain as Matgamna’s ally, Liam Daltun denounced Lawless for Ireland for imperialism; Britain does not see the main - being a “second-hand-tale-spinning adoptive including in a broad front a prominent right-wing (and tenance of partition as, in itself, a priority, but it does Irish nationalist” (www.workersliberty.org/ allegedly anti-semitic) member of the London Irish want to ensure that, if it come, it will be without distur - node/12419). Further on, he was intrigued further by diaspora and quoted a Lawless supporter as calling for bance to the status quo: instead of a colony and a semi- a reference to a faction with which he was involved “a real Irish national socialist party.” colony, a single semi-colony. In pursuit of this aim, it is as “conducting an anti-semitic witch-hunt thinly dis - Whatever about the first, nobody thought that the pouring money into its territory to try to level up the Sguised as “anti-Zionism” in the quasi-Trotskyist second was more than a gaffe or that its perpetrator communities. It is failing to do this. The wounds on organisation the Irish Workers Group. really kept a swastika armband in his closet or yearned both sides are too great, the Unionists too intransigent It is clear that his old adversary, Sean Matgamna, is to murder Jews (or, even, that he was trying to do a and the present slump places Northern Ireland in the still at it, scattering his fire not only against his official Tommy Tiernan). Anti-semitism was not an issue in the position of being an obvious target for cuts. The ques - target, Gerry Lawless, but against all who crossed his struggle; if it had been it would have been the duty of tion must be posed: how will the Process collapse? Will path from the old SLL to Schachtmanism and, perhaps, Matgamna and his allies to make it central. In fact, the it be to the benefit of the anti-imperialists, or of the loy - beyond. This writer would not bother about answering author sees no reason to change the opinion that he alists? At the moment, it seems likely that it will be the were it not obvious that these statements have a reso - gave in his document that the issues were, in order of latter. nance among the impressionable, as witnessed by the importance, the national question, the best way to Accordingly, the need is to emphasise the doomed reaction to Matgamna’s screed on the part of build a party and Gerry Lawless, and that they were nature of the process in the Republic itself, to link it Mccullough (WL website 18 May 2009) and, even given prominence in inverse order. with the struggle against the cuts, Nama, etc. and to more, on the part of Anwen (WL website 22 May 2009). convince the northern minority, particularly the prole - Accordingly, as his reputation is under at stake he con - 3. Adoptive Irish Nationalist. The writer is puzzled tarians, that this is the way forward: a tall order, siders it necessary to reply. by this charge. What does it mean ? If it means that he indeed, but a necessary one. 1. “Second-Hand-Tale-Spinning.” Presumably, this is an “adoptive Irish national” because he was born in Sean Matgamna’s perspective is different. For him, refers to the author’s document, An Introduction to the Glamorganshire only to spend most of his life in permanent revolution does not apply to Ireland. It Early History of Irish Trotskyism . (If Matgamna has any Dublin, then he can reply that his Irish grandfather left would appear that, to him a successful immediately other examples, he should present them) This work him a claim to Irish citizenship far more natural than programmatically proletarian revolution is the most was based on a presentation given to an education the County Clare-born Matgamna’s claim to likely scenario. It can be objected that no such revolu - class of Dublin People’s Democracy some 28 years ago. Englishness. tion has occurred in a country more obviously ripe for It has all the defects of a pioneering work. (Historically, However, it is probable that more is at stake here. it than either or both parts of this island: that it is pos - pioneers tend to get frozen to death in snow storms, The two parties agree on the progressive nature of the sible that imperialist decay has made Permanent eaten by savage animals, drowned in unpassable struggle to unite Ireland and have both tried to Revolution a probable rule for the most developed rivers, etc.). advance it. The difference between them comes on countries. More specifically, the Matgamna perspective It has been superseded by other works to which the strategy. While, again, neither agreed with the para - makes it both necessary and possible to concentrate the author was happy to give aid: notably Ciaran Crossey mount importance of the armed struggle over politics attention, at least of Northern Irish revolutionaries on and Jim Monaghan’s article on the same subject. nor with the negotiations for a settlement to which that the unionist working class, rather than on the workers Further work needs to be done on the subject. struggle led inevitably, they disagreed on where work across the border. Nonetheless, reading it today, the faults seem mainly to build the alternative of a mass struggle should begin These Unionist workers with their industrial tradi - to be those of omission. It is difficult to find any major by being concentrated. tions are assumed to be as inherently progressive as inaccuracy therein. The writer considers that any successful revolution industrial workers elsewhere, their obvious political Admittedly, it is not dependent on printed sources. in Ireland has to be developed in the manner pre - regression due to perfectly reasonable doubts about This is because those sources were not available to the scribed by Trotsky under the heading of Permanent the progressive nature of nationalist Ireland which can author at the time. What he did was get statements on Revolution: “that the complete and genuine solution of be overcome, in part by such nostra as repartition or the earlier period from surviving participants in the [its task] of achieving democracy and national emanci - Protestant Irish Home Rule. The fact that this regres - struggle, notably, Johnny Byrne, Matt Merrigan and pation is conceivable only through the dictatorship of sion is related to the use of sectarianism as a produc - Eamon Corcoran. Though unreliable compared to the the proletariat as the leader of the subjugated nation” tive force in building Ulster industry is not considered. printed accounts of the time, such statements are (Permanent Revolution , 1978, p. 276.). This would be less Nor is the corollary possibility that these workers acknowledged as being a form of primary information. definite if the perspective were a two-sovereignty one, desire not self-determination but ascendancy over For the later period, the author did rely to a certain at least for the twenty-six county part, but that would their neighbours. That this programmatic failing places extent on Gerry Lawless, though he used his judge - leave the six counties more of a conundrum than ever, them in the proletarian rearguard, rather than the van - ment on what to include. For the period after 1967, organised as it is with a majority of its population get - guard is ignored similarly. when he joined the Irish Workers’ Group (IWG), he ting some real, and more obviously perceived benefits Instead, it is easy for defenders of the Matgamna-ite relied on a third primary source: his memory of events at the expense of the minority. faith to paint their opponents’ approach in ethnic in which he was involved. The recent Northern Irish troubles were essentially a terms. Not to give the working-class protestants a lead - revolt of this cross-class minority which failed because ing role in the proletarian revolution from its begin - 2. Anti-Semitism. Matgamna suggests that Lawless its leaders’ strategy could not get adequate support ning is obviously a breach of working class solidarity, was not converted to Trotskyism until after his court from the twenty-six counties, led by the working class not a sober recognition of the weakness of that section case in the early sixties and that that he continued, majority of the whole island. The potential of that sup - of the said class. Those who deny that section a leading somehow, to combine his anti-semitism with his public port was shown on many occasions, most notably in role, must be contaminated with bourgeois national - support for the teachings of those well-known semites 1972, after Bloody Sunday, and during the 1981 hunger ism, and, of course, such a person may well be, like Marx and Trotsky at least until after the IWG split in strikes. It was recognised and feared by the rulers of other nationalists, an anti-semite. Throw enough shite 1968. both these islands until the consolidation of Sinn Fein at the person, and you can forget that person’s pro - It is not the business of this writer to excuse the hegemony over the struggle convinced them that they gramme. vagaries of Gerry Lawless. It should be said, however, There is nothing much more to be said. While he con - that he could not have been a member of Maria Duce siders himself smeared, the writer is not going to try after the mid-fifties, since that body collapsed shortly his luck in the bourgeois courts. after the death of its clerical führer in 1954. Lawless 14 November 2009 may not have been converted to Trotskyism until his association with Gerry Healy in the early sixties. However it is possible, too, that any plea of Fahy-ite • The influence to the EHCR might equally well have been, politics of the Alliance as Mick O’Riordan is said to have claimed he said (this for Workers’ is really tale-spinning!) — an undoubtedly opportunist Liberty ploy to soften the judges. • Why the working Certainly, the present author did not find any anti- class is key semitism during his own brief period as member of the IWG in its last years. He remembers no “anti-semitic • Can the labour witch-hunt thinly disguised as “anti-Zionism” in that movement be organisation in 1967-8. If there had been such a move, transformed? he would have been targeted, as, at that time, he was • Imperialism, nation - inclined to the Zionist side himself. al and war What he does remember in that period was the fac - • Marxism and oppression tion fight that gave the group its mortal wound. In it, • The AWL’s history and he was with Lawless, and also with such incipient rev - olutionary socialist leaders as Michael Farrell and tradition... and much more Eamon McCann. He suggests that it is unfair to them, The peace process: “pacifying Ireland for £2.50/£1 including postage from PO Box 823, whatever about himself, to suggest that they were part imperialism”? London, SE15 4NA. Cheques to “AWL”. of an anti semitic witch-hunt however disguised.

18 SOLIDARITY DISCUSSION

BY SEAN MATGAMNA including the right-wing social democrats, to the will, as in history so far the peasantry always have, fol - German proletarian revolution. You could say it was low, be led by, one of the town classes — either the dozen years on from the “Good Friday inverted “permanent revolution”. bourgeoisie or the proletariat. Agreement” (GFA) things in Northern The pioneer Marxists in Russia and other socially The workers, backed by, at the head of, the peasantry Ireland are far from settled. The recently and politically backward countries had advocated a will make the revolution. The workers will take power threatened breakdown of the power-shar - revolution like that of the French revolution. The pio - — not democratic dictatorship of the workers and ing executive was avoided. But the Good Friday sys - neering Russian Marxists, Plekhanov above all, took peasantry but dictatorship of the proletariat (again, tem is far from stable. their stand against the populists who hoped that histo - dictatorship meaning not the meaning Stalinism has Communal antagonism is still so strong that it takes ry would spare Russia the experience of capitalism. given it in modern history, but as above: it would be a A60 or so permanent walls to keep active communalism Russian capitalism already existed and was develop - mass popular dictatorship against the old ruling class from erupting into violence across Belfast. ing. Inevitably, it would continue to develop. What and their institutions and their servants, smashing The political system set up by the GFA is an intricate exactly did this mean in Russia — in concrete Russian their power and institutions — taking those institu - network of bureaucratised Catholic-Protestant sectari - conditions? tions by storm). And what will the working class do in anism. Militarist republican activity is still a major fac - Trotsky in 1905 analysed Russian social conditions power? tor in Northern Ireland. It is a growing force. and postulated that the Russian anti-tsarist revolution Pass a self-denying ordinance and not look out for The age-old pattern of physical-force-on-principle would be led by the working class which would go on their own working-class interests — for example, not republicans going political, and being denounced as interruptedly to take power and make a working class pass eight-hour day legislation? No, Trotsky argued, to traitors for it by other physical-force-on-principle revolution. It would be one continuous process. consolidate, the workers in power will act in their own republicans who try to fill the vacated role, is still in That would be a working class revolution in social class interests. Make Russian socialism? No. That was operation in Irish republican politics. So too is the half- conditions that were greatly unripe for the creation of impossible. It was too backward, economically and century phenomenon of “Trotskyist” mystics weaving socialism — where Marxists believed socialism was socially. Here Trotsky did not differ from either the socialist political fantasies around physical force not yet socially possible. What would happen after the Mensheviks or Lenin that socialism could not be built republicanism, muddying the political waters — Russian workers had taken power and set up a work - in Russia. Rayner Lysaght and his comrades of the Irish “Fourth ers’ republic? That would be determined by the fate of After the workers’ revolution, Trotsky concluded, Internationalists” (Mandelites). the working class revolution in Western Europe, where either the workers’ dictatorship would be overthrown Thus Rayner Lysaght with his “shaping” and caper - social conditions were ripe for the creation of a social - in Russia, as the Jacobins had been in France in 1794, or ing, and despite odd conceits, such as using the third ist society. The defeats in the west — in Germany, the the revolution would spread to Western Europe and person pronoun for himself, nonetheless raises serious inverted counter-revolutionary permanent revolution the countries where, once in power, the workers could, questions. (We print Lysaght’s comments, first pub - — left Russia isolated. The Russian Stalinist counter- in ripe social conditions, begin to make a socialist soci - lished on our website — as part of an ongoing debate revolution was the result. ety: on the international plane, the Russian revolution — on page 18). These issues are still very important on On this there were two basic Marxist schools of will if that happens be able to compensate for its back - the Irish left. True, Lysaght doesn’t handle any of them thought in the 1905 revolution and after, both based on wardness, and Russia will take its place as a backward seriously. I’ll try to make up for that, taking the issues the premiss that increasingly capitalist but immensely working class ruled segment of a European working in the order of their political importance. backward Russia was socially ripening toward a revo - class state, which is driving towards socialism in the lution like that which England and France had had. advanced countries. PERMANENT REVOLUTION These were the Bolshevik and Menshevik schools. For Trotsky, there would be an uninterrupted I’ll put it very schematically. For the Marxists, sequence of bourgeois-democratic revolutionary- including the great pioneers Plekhanov and Axelrod, socialist tasks, led by the working class, and in that ’ve already, more than once, said what I have to say this bourgeois revolution would be led by the bour - sense, a fusion of the two revolutions, bourgeois and on permanent revolution and Ireland in the introduc - geoisie. One task of the Marxists was to make sure the proletarian. tion to a little cluster of letters on the subject from 1966- I bourgeoisie weren’t frightened off doing that by an 7 [www.workersliberty.org/pr-ireland]; in an imagi - 1917 over-assertive working class movement. nary dialogue on it, where I used all the arguments Lenin in 1905 and after agreed that Russia was ripe Lysaght and others had made in a long discussion in enough only for a bourgeois-democratic revolution Socialist Organiser (1982) [www.workersliberty.org/ hat happened in 1917? The February revolution like that of France 100 years earlier, but, analysing the node/13647]. I’ve discussed “Marxism and Ireland” in made a clean sweep of tsarism, discredited by social relations in Russia, including the role of the a number of articles, including in a review of Lysaght’s the war and its catastrophes. In Lenin’s absence the bourgeoisie and their relationship to the landlords on W strange compilation “The Communists and the Irish Bolshevik party in Russia, led by Kamenev and one side and to the powerful working class movement revolution”. But he chose to ignore them: why? Stalin, settled into supporting the new regime which, on the other, he concluded that the Russian bourgeoisie in fact, procrastinated over such “bourgeois” tasks of Theorists of permanent revolution concern them - could not lead an anti-tsarist revolution: they were tied the revolution as the distribution of land to the peas - selves with the relationship of the working class social - in too closely to the landlords and too afraid of the mil - ants. ist revolutions to bourgeois revolutions in underdevel - itant socialist working class to do that. Now, basing himself on the great militancy of the oped countries. Where feudalistic institutions need to Lenin’s paradoxical conclusion was that the bour - working class and, as always, guided by concrete real - be overthrown, freedom for market economic develop - geois revolution in Russia would be led by the workers ities, not by dogmatic abstractions, Lenin grasped con - ment, civil liberties and a democratic republic need to and peasants, in something like equal partnership, cretely what Trotsky had grasped already in 1905 — be seen. That included colonies and semi-colonial who would in that revolution play the role of the ple - that the Russian revolution would be a working class countries struggling for bourgeois democratic freedom beian sans culottes in the French revolution who had, revolution, or it wouldn’t happen: counter-revolution against colonialism and imperialism and in the first before the Jacobins were overthrown, driven the revo - would roll things back. The bourgeois and proletarian place for self-determination. lution far deeper than the bourgeoisie wanted. The revolutions would have to form a continuous History knows a number of bourgeois revolutions “bourgeois revolution” would in that sense also be a sequence. against feudalism — that of the Dutch republic in the revolution against the big bourgeoisie. It would be In 1918, in The proletarian revolution and the renegade 16th century, the English Cromwellian revolution of bourgeois in what it achieved — a republic, democrat - Kautsky , Lenin described the bourgeois-democratic the 1640s, and the great French revolution against the ic rights — and in the social limitations that made a revolution in the first period after the working class king and the entitled aristocrats in 1789 and after. socialist revolution impossible — but the bourgeoisie had taken power in the October revolution. These revolutions won freedom for developing bour - could not lead that revolution. So the difference between democratic dictatorship of geois societies from old feudal constraints, restrictions Lenin postulated a “democratic dictatorship of the the workers and peasantry and Trotsky’s permanent and interference. They won civil liberties — in England proletariat and peasantry”. Dictatorship here meant revolution were of no importance? Lenin got there too, such things as habeas corpus, no pre-publication cen - not what Stalinism would make the word mean in the in his own step-by-step way? Lenin got there, but he sorship and, above all, the rule of parliament — with 20th century. “Democratic dictatorship” was not oxy - had a struggle to reorient the Bolshevik party, to turn it very limited suffrage — instead of that of the king. moronic, but plebeian democracy: it would be dictator - away from support for the post-February revolution In France the lower orders made the revolution and ship in the sense that it would overrule the laws and regime and direct it toward taking power. No one else put their own radical stamp on it before ceding power entrenched rights of the old rulers, and act “dictatori - but Lenin could have changed the role of the Bolshevik to the bourgeoisie. ally”. party from the role it played for a few weeks under There are a number of theories of permanent revolu - It was, Lenin argued, in the interests of the working Kamenev and Stalin to that of the party that led the tion. They can be divided conveniently into pre- and class that as much as possible of the old feudalistic proletarian — and thus also the bourgeois democratic post-October 1917 theories. debris be cleared away, and replaced by a democratic — revolution half a year later. After the defeat of the bourgeois-democratic revolu - republic in which all political and social relations were Suppose that Lenin had died in exile in January 1917. tion in 1848, Karl Marx talked of the revolution “in per - transparent and stripped of mystifications: these Then the “democratic dictatorship of the workers and manence”, and he roughed out working class tactics would be the best conditions for the working class peasantry” would not have been, as it was, a corridor for such situations: the workers would join with bour - struggle for socialism in the decades after the bour - to permanent revolution and Lenin’s policy that culmi - geois revolutionaries against reaction, would strike the geois revolution had reached equilibrium. nated in working-class power after October 1917. It common enemy together with them, but would Trotsky made pretty much the same assessment as would have been interpreted as Stalin and Kamenev “march separately” — maintain working class political did Lenin, but he disagreed with Lenin’s political con - interpreted the old party line before Lenin returned to independence and serve working class goals. It would clusions and perspectives. Trotsky advocated “perma - Russia and was the day for permanent revolution at be a continuous process, up to the working-class con - nent revolution”. Yes, said Trotsky, to Lenin’s demo - the April conference of the Bolshevik party. If Lenin quest of power. cratic dictatorship of the workers and peasantry, to hadn’t been there, or failed to win over the Bolshevik In fact, central Europe evolved differently. In lead the bourgeois revolution the workers and peas - party, then Trotsky’s “permanent revolution” would be Germany, Bismarck, the servant of the junker landlords ants will make the bourgeois revolution, but not as in known to us as the utopian fantasy of a Russian and the monarchy, carried out most of the bourgeois Lenin’s conception as more or less equal partners. The Marxist who blurred the distinction between the ideas social goals of the 1848 revolution, in his own way, and revolution would culminate not in the establishment of of the revolution and of the socialist populists. from above, without dislodging the junker class or the a bourgeois democratic republic but of a workers’ Without Lenin — without his ability to focus on monarchy. When the radical bourgeois political tasks republic: the permanent revolution would go in one evolving reality and not be confused by a previous, posed in 1848 were realised in 1918/19 — the monar - uninterrupted movement, led by the workers, at the now outmoded, inadequate or incomplete scenario — chy overthrown, the democratic Weimar Republic set head of, not in equal partnership with, the peasantry. democratic dictatorship of the workers and peasantry up — it wasn’t as part of an ongoing working class-led The peasantry, argued Trotsky, can play no inde - would have led the Bolshevik party to play the role of permanent revolution, but counterposed by its leaders, pendent role in making the socialist revolution: they saboteur of the working-class revolution that some

SOLIDARITY 19 WORKERS ’ L IBERTY & S OLIDARITY

COUNCIL CUTS SURVEY CIVIL SERVICE STRIKE All out to Resist these defend terms and vicious cuts! conditions!

BY SACHA ISMAIL The BBC survey shows likely spending cuts in 93 councils over the next 3 –5 years. BYACIVIL SERVANT BBC survey of Available at: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8537382.stm councils has Amade the extent of embers of the civil service union PCS cuts threatening local have voted decisively to take industri - services clear. Mal action over redundancy and early retire - The first batch of ment terms. National strikes will take place councils which on Monday 8 and Tuesday 9 March. answered the survey The union has focused mainly on the reported job cuts of at adverse changes proposed to the Civil least 25,000 in the Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS). But next three to five we mustn’t forget that tens of thousands of years. The BBC calcu - staff, members of the inferior Nuvos pen - lates that, translated sion scheme, are only entitled to statutory across the board, this minimum redundancy payments. This dis - could mean 180,000 pute is also about eliminating the two tiers job being slashed. of redundancy terms, and levelling up. Such cuts would, To undermine the strike, senior managers obviously, be a disas - have written to all civil servants, with four ter for both council examples “showing” that staff will not be workers and “service that much worse off under the new propos - users”, i.e., workers al. But the letter has nothing to say concern - and working-class ing those in the Nuvos scheme; this implies communities more that those staff members are still entitled generally. One third only to statutory minimum redundancy of councils said their payments. The two tiers continue! children’s services The examples given are only for compul - faced cuts; the figure sory redundancies, whereas the vast bulk of for adult services was all redundancies in the recent past have half. been where staff have chosen to leave the Cuts of 10 –15% service. Clearly the Government wants were the most com - “volunteers” in the future to leave on much mon estimate. Eight worse terms than they enjoy currently. councils said they planned to cut 1,000 To take the 46-year-old on £25,000 with 25 or more jobs. years’ service, the first of the given exam - (Birmingham, which ples: it leads to a redundancy payment did not reply to the survey, is planning to sack expressing this view, a majority opposes all cuts. under compulsory terms of £60,000. At the 2,000 workers!) The deepest cuts will be made in Socialists and trade unionists must provide a moment, the compulsory payment would the deeply-deprived BNP strongholds of Stoke- coherent voice for that majority, and build a be £75,000, possibly more if that person has on-Trent (20 –25%) and Barking and Dagenham moGvement around it. 1987 reserved rights. Under voluntary (25 –30%!), providing more fuel for the fascists’ No cuts in services. The unions must fight terms the maximum would be £50,000 but populist fire. every job loss, and build real campaigning unity could be as low as £8,550 (the statutory Both local government leaders and the govern - with service users and anti-cuts campaigns. The minimum). We have a great deal to lose! ment have made a lot of noise about protecting only sackings and pay cuts should be for highly The letter also claims that as five unions “front line services”. But you can be sure that they paGid managers and consultants. (FDA, Prospect, POA, GMB and Unite) will be cutting back workers and services deemed Councils, particularly Labour councils, have accepted the changes PCS is the “odd most expendable, not fat-cat managers, bureau - should refuse to make cuts. They should work one out”. This is disingenuous. It is PCS crats and consultants. with unions and activists to demand more money members who will be most directly affected The response to these cuts from local govern - from the government. Opposition to council tax by these changes, as well as members of the ment union Unison and from the TUC can be rises is not a principle, but any significant rises Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance roughly summarised as “Blah, blah, blah”. simply pass on cuts to working-class living stan - (NIPSA) who don’t get a mention (they too There is massive public hostility to these cuts; daGrds by the back door and should be resisted. are in dispute over the changes). some opinion polls suggest that, despite the Government should tax the rich and big busi - absence of a “mainstream” political option ness to fund our services! Continued on page 4

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