Leeds Central Clp

LEEDS CENTRAL CLP

Newsletter

July 2017

1 £10 PER HOUR IS NOT PIE IN THE SKY

Sarah Woolley from The Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU) provides us with an introduction to the union campaigning activities for a living wage and greater workers’ rights. While this campaign has been running nationally for some time, more recently there have been discussions between various groups in Leeds to set up a campaign which builds on BFAWU’s campaign and is influenced by similar campaign successes, including ‘Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise!’

(Please note the CLP was planning to publish a newsletter in April / May however due to the General Election this was put on hold. This piece was written in April and makes reference to the Leeds TUC May Day event which was held on Saturday 29 April. However the fight for rights of lower paid and insecure workers is now more important than ever, particularly given the missed opportunity to tackle the growing problem of insecure employment, including in the gig economy, through the proposals of the Taylor Report (July 2017) which is clearly anti-worker in its outlook and conclusions.)

£7.50 is not a living wage, when workers are relying on in-work benefits to top up their wages in order to survive that’s certainly not living. Even workers who are working 40 hours plus a week are finding it increasingly difficult to feed and clothe their families, find affordable quality housing and heat their homes. Never mind finding the time and money to enjoy the right to a holiday or quality time with friends and family.

Within the food industry and allied trades low pay, inconsistent shifts and bad management are too widespread. Zero hours contracts, the latest edition of workfare, part-time roles, temporary contracts and apprenticeships which offer full time responsibilities and duties for as little as £3.50 are no longer exceptions, they have become normality within our industry and unfortunately further afield. This has created a widespread race to the bottom throughout the labour market and we need a change.

The BFAWU believes that workers shouldn’t have to rely on benefits. They should be able to plan their lives without constant form filling in order to prove that they are living in poverty. That’s why we started the ‘hungry for justice’ campaign which calls for a £10 per hour living wage for all workers regardless of age and not in 2022 but right now in 2017. This would remove the need for people to claim in-work benefits and give a much needed boost to the economy.

By making work pay and providing a proper living wage, over five million people would be lifted out of poverty and the ballooning benefit bill would be reduced. This money could then be used to help fund the NHS and improve communities.

John McDonnell has openly supported the campaign making a £10 per hour living wage official part of Labour party policy – something which other larger unions than ours have reacted warmly to.

But how do we get there?

Currently in our recognised workplaces when we start our regular wage negotiations we are asking branches to state they would like “£10 per hour for the lowest earners regardless of age with differentials kept intact”.

We have held leafletting sessions in Leeds city centre talking to the public about what a

2 living wage of £10 per hour can do not only for the economy but for them as individuals as well and this has been replicated nationally. This has been supported by days of action in support of the international campaigns such as the food workers in America calling for $15 now in which we have held protests in most major cities talking to the public and employees of companies such as McDonalds and others who could pay their staff and give them better terms and conditions but won’t due to greed.

This has helped to consistently put pressure on large employers such as McDonalds and we’ve had a few wins. Up until recently they used zero hours contracts as a permanent way to control their employees sending text messages to up to 50 employees to come into work then sending all but the first to arrive back home. Though after mounting pressure from ourselves and other groups including the Labour Party who brilliantly didn’t allow them to have a stand at conference last year, they are now offering part time contracts for those who want them. Our new challenge with McDonalds however is their social media policy which doesn’t allow employees to express political preference which brings us into a whole new territory of human rights violations.

We are now working with other trade unions via local trades councils to launch city wide living wage campaigns as the problem of low pay is a far wider issue than just the food industry. ‘Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise!’ was successfully launched just before Christmas, Calderdale’s ‘Sick of Being Skint’ campaign back in February and ‘Barnsley Needs a Pay Rise’ officially launches over the May Day weekend.

We have started to put together ideas to launch a similar campaign in Leeds too under the heading ‘Leeds Needs a Pay Rise!’ and I will be speaking about it at the May Day event in Leeds on Saturday 29th April alongside the need for a £10 per hour living wage. We are currently mapping out workplaces in Leeds city centre and intend to have leafletting sessions building up to officially launching the campaign hopefully over the May Day weekend. We want to inform the public the effect low wages are having on the economy as well as them individually and also shame employers into paying their staff a proper living wage of £10 per hour not the fake living wage of £7.50 if you’re lucky enough to be over 25!

Contacts

If anyone would like to be involved in the campaign in Leeds please get in touch with [email protected] or like our Facebook page ‘Leeds Needs a Pay Rise!’ where we will be posting updates on the campaign and sharing ideas. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1857936487755499/.

For further information regarding the BAFWU’s campaigning activities see http://www.bfawu.org/fight_for_better_demand_a_living_wage_of_10_an_hour http://www.bfawu.org/_10_isnt_pie_in_the_sky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n33FEnxupac.

A link to the Taylor Report and selected media articles are included below https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/626772/goo d-work-taylor-review-modern-working-practices.pdf http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-1fcc-Taylor-missed-opportunity-to-tackle-bad- employers#.WWXr3GLyuUk https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-d38e-Taylor-review-is-anti- worker#.WWXsEmLyuUk

3 The Great Tory Party Trick: Making the Public Sector Disappear

As a precursor to Leeds Central CLP’s public meeting on local government economic policy and council finances on Friday 27 October, Simon Jose from Leeds North East CLP sets out an introduction to some of the financial issues facing Leeds City Council.

If you stand inside an old house you may see the crumbling plaster and black mould but if you stand on a hill you can see the whole town is derelict and boarded up. At the moment the Labour movement, are looking at the A&E closures, loss of public sector jobs in isolation as they are with all the various crises (housing, prisons, youth services and so on). Austerity is seen as the big picture but it is simply another weapon in Darth May’s Death Star and its existence hides a much more fundamental shift in society.

That shift is where the public realm, in short the stuff you and me own, is being systematically dismantled and sold off to the private sector. The big difference now is its speed and reach. The Right to Buy and the sale of the Gas Board began under Thatcher in the late 70’s and into the 80’s and was sold as empowering the working class so we could all become home owners and shareholders.

Perhaps the most egregious consequence of Right to Buy and an abuse of the system has been the recycling of former council homes into the private rented sector. [ ]This can result in the absurd situation of councils having to rent back their old stock from new private landlords at much higher rents in order to fulfil their statutory duties. The increased rental costs are then usually met by the benefits system. (London Assembly Housing Committee, 2013).

The RTB in itself is not the whole problem. It’s not even public housing being handed over to the rentiers. It is the flow of money being permanently rechannelled into private hands whilst at the same time depriving councils of the ability to build new homes. By taking this model and applying various versions of it to pretty much everything the Tories are fulfilling a neoliberal utopian dream. There is no crisis as far as they are concerned as it’s all part of the masterplan.

So let’s look close to home at Leeds. Because of the cuts Leeds City Council have to find around £100 million in savings. Most of this comes from the removal of the top up grants that enables us to deliver the big chunk that is children’s services and adult social care. Around 47% of the total budget. That central government grant used to be £353 million in 2006 by 2020 it will be under £30 million. The Tory “sell” is that new business rates will close that budget gap but that simply is not going to happen. So the response is to outsource and privatise; 18% of our revenue budget goes on agency payments. And the second response is to sell off land and property, which is about as short-term as you can get. Once it’s sold it’s gone. The parallel policy is a city centre led growth plan where we pump money into the city centre via subsidies to the private sector. Victoria Gate was subsidised whilst at the same time the working class Kirkgate Market was dismantled. No I hear you cry the council spent over £12 million on the market but follow the money; almost all of it went to the contractor, Interserve, who were awarded the £12.3 million contract who also recently announced a £41.4 million contract for a Leeds school building programme. Interserve are a £3.7 billion organisation that benefitted from multiple Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts that are now strangling the NHS and councils. Income from Kirkgate Market has dropped by 40% since the refurbishment. Only one year into Victoria Gate opening and shops are already leaving. This retail dominated city centre growth policy does not work and serves the interests of only a handful of developers.

It is a myth that these developments create jobs and regenerate areas and the idea that they do is called trickle down geography as a nod to the trickle down economic theory of the Reagan era.

So we now have multiple transfers to the private sector. City centre developer subsidy, transfer of council services via outsourcing or outright privatisation and sales of buildings and land. Major projects, schools, hospitals and housing, are handed over to developers who pocket millions of taxpayers’ money. And increasingly as councils become cash starved they are being guided to borrow from the private sector.

This is all about equity investors. The money and banking system you and I engage with isn’t the one in play here. This is the shadow banking system. Instead of quoting Marx it’s worth quoting Andy Haldane Chief Economist at the Bank of England.

The profits that business are earning are being used not so much to finance investment but instead to finance dividend payouts to shareholders or indeed the buying back of shares from shareholders. They’re almost eating themselves. (Andy Haldane, Newsnight 2015).

If we go back to the 70’s around £10 out of every £100 went to shareholders in the form of dividends, fast forward to today and it’s more like £60-70 out of every £100. After the war the average shareholder held shares for around 6 years now it’s closer to 6 months. The global financial crash was caused by banks seeking higher and higher returns for shareholders. In essence a more brutal and short-term capitalism has taken hold.

Again we are seeing public sector money flowing not simply to the private sector but increasingly as dividends to investors. As if that was bad enough the really big problem has yet to rear its head. This new breed of locust capitalists look for big returns at speed. Once these investors have gorged themselves on, say the care home sector, they will simply move on and demand more money as is already happening. The money will be pulled and invested in higher returns in Chile or China or Brazil or in another sector.

This is not about the NHS, or adult social care, or deciding to scrap Trident to pay for some more doctors it is much more fundamental than this. The really, really big stuff is a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. The public to the private. Or the stupid to the smart if you think like a Tory. The economic model that rules us is broken and corrupt and needs replacing. It is not even industrial capitalism anymore but a form of banking-led short-term casino purple plastic chicken on the head capitalism.

So let me leave you with this. LaingBuisson are a private research company specialising in healthcare and they produced a report in 2016 with the misleading title – ‘The potential for developing the capacity and diversity of children’s social care in England’. In essence, it is a report on how to promote the marketisation and potential commercialisation of statutory children’s social services.

In the report is a target list for the private sector. What they take is the value of the provision of health and social care services and list them and provide a percentage figure if the independent sectors share. For example care homes for the elderly is valued at £15.1 billion and the private sector have 84% of that. Kerching. It shows how much of children’s social services, such as children’s homes (66%), foster care (47%) and social workers (14%), are already provided through independent, largely profit-making, companies and they now want

5 a bigger share. However, its international comparisons reveal that nowhere else apart from England does the state look to contract out crucial assessments and decision-making about the safety and protection of children.

In 2008 LaingBuisson created a Care Cost formula, fronted by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, for adult social care that built in a 12% profit margin for equity investors in care homes. And if you think they have no influence this formula is a benchmark within the care industry. Their CEO, Henry Elphick is ex-investment banker who worked for Rothschild and UBS Investment Bank and their Chair is Stephen Burrell. Between 1995 and 1997, he was the Secretary of State for Health, and became the first elected chair of the House of Commons Health Committee in 2010. He currently serves as chair of the NHS Confederation and is a senior advisor to KPMG on global health and public sector practice.

LaingBuisson are part of a much bigger iceberg. The tip is Capita, Serco, Virgin Care but underneath are the big players the accountants KPMG and PwC, Innisfree who are the biggest single owners of UK schools and hospitals and Graphite Capital who own the National Fostering Agency.

Since the 2015 general election 18.6 per cent of all donations to the Tory party – totalling £8.4 million – have come from hedge funds or people associated, while 6.5 per cent or £2.9 million have come from investment bankers and the finance sector in general. We know this but as a start we need to get some locust repellant for our town halls before they destroy our public sector for good. One thing politicians could do is stop talking to them. One thing we could do is start talking about the hidden iceberg.

TRADE UNONS IN LEEDS – FIGHTING BACK AGAINST THE TORY ATTACKS

Iain Dalton Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) member and Leeds Trades Union Council (TUC) executive member provides us with an update on trade union activity across Leeds.

What’s a trade union? Is sometimes the question I get asked when I start trying to talk about them. Trade unions are vital organisations for working people, but not one you would generally get an accurate impression of from mainstream institutions. Like many things when it comes to the Labour movement, the media can never seem to get their message straight about the trade union movement – at one moment we are holding all of civilisation to ransom – at another we are apparently dinosaurs of a bygone age!

In reality, the trade union movement is based on representing working class people in their working lives. This should not be interpreted in a narrow sense, as many retired people, the unemployed and those unable to work due to disabilities are active trade unionists. Union branches try to bring those together in a particular workplace or sector of employment, with the goal of trying to collectively organise to improve pay and working conditions.

In its history, the trade union movement has won many things – holidays, sick pay amongst others. These have not been handed down from above, but through organised pressure, whether by protests, petitions, electing our own political representatives or through withdrawal of our labour (also called striking).

Trade unions are generally thought of as being weaker or in decline from their heydays. And if you compared today to the 1980s, looking at things such as total membership (down from around 13m to 6m) or the number of strikes per year (declining from 27m in 1984 during the miners’ strike to just 170,000 in 2015), then that seems to confirm this.

This would not be a problem if living standards and working conditions were improving. Yet wages are lower in real terms today than a decade ago, and we have had an explosion of zero-hour contracts and other casualised working conditions.

One reason for the decline is due to the impact of several rounds of anti-trade union laws over the last 30 years. The Tories’ latest anti-union laws, which impose minimum ballot turnouts which means more than a simple democratic majority is needed to take action. This causes an issue in national disputes as the more dispersed workers are, the more difficult it can be to organise a good ballot turnout due to the government enforcing postal balloting, rather than methods such as workplace or online balloting.

Another factor is the product of defeats for the trade unions in the 1980s and beyond that have led to a thinning out of the ranks of members and an ageing profile of the average trade unionist. One effect of this can be that the leadership of trade unions can set their sights too low as to what members are prepared to campaign for and want to see. A key part of holding employers to account and improving working conditions is a confident layer of trade union reps who can make sure workplace agreements and legal minimum standards are enforced. Without this the drive of employers to maximise profits can have free reign.

Despite this apparent lull, there have been a series of local disputes and local/national campaigns which Leeds TUC, the delegate body bringing together trade union branches in different sectors together, has been actively supporting. These are not all strikes, as strikes

7 generally are the last resort after other forms of campaigning have been exhausted. Losing a day’s pay is not something anyone does lightly – however, a strike does demonstrate how employers rely upon ordinary people to run society – without workers then the trains don’t run, goods aren’t produced etc. Whilst individually we may be weak, collectively working class people hold a lot of power.

Among the most visible have been some disputes amongst groups that are not perhaps thought of as trade unionists. The Junior Doctors in the BMA (British Medical Association) organised a huge rally in Leeds last year as well as multiple days of strike action with sizeable picket lines outside the LGI and St James’ hospitals. Currently nurses in the RCN (Royal College of Nursing) are beginning a campaign against the public sector pay cap, and held demonstrations outside Leeds Art Gallery and the Department of Health headquarters at Quarry House.

This is not limited to the public sector, however. Deliveroo workers held rallies as part of their campaign for guaranteed working hours and against pay cuts as well as victimisation by their employer for trying to organise this. As part of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), they were able to win reinstatement of their members and force a change of management.

There have also been disputes for decent pay rises at private sector companies where there has been pay restraint over the last period – such as amongst Unite the Union crane drivers at Ainscough and First buses as well as amongst GMB members at Spectrum for Arcadia (supply network for Arcadia group shops such as Topshop).

Some of these disputes also have dimensions where Labour elected representatives can help directly. My union branch of USDAW, for example, lobbied Leeds City Council when the government proposed to hand control over Sunday opening hours of large retail stores to individual councils. The government was fortunately defeated in Parliament on this issue, but a rejection of these proposals from Leeds City Council (second largest local authority in the country by population) would have seriously undermined them.

One ongoing dispute where the Council could intervene is the strikes by railworkers in the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) against the removal of guards from the Northern and TransPennine Express franchises. Currently guards have significant safety responsibilities on trains, these would either transfer to drivers or some to a much lesser trained (and less well paid) second crew member, which poses various safety and accessibility issues.

It’s been welcome to see Labour Party activists, and even elected representatives such as Leeds East MP Richard Burgon visit picket lines in support of the guards, more should follow their examples. However, the latest franchise specification was co-sponsored by the government and by a body called Rail North. Rail North was set-up by councils across the North of England, almost all of which are run by Labour. Labour councillors can play a role in withdrawing support by the council, and ultimately by Rail North, for the removal of the guards.

After the general election, then what was already a weak Tory government forced to do u-turns has become weaker still. That they cannot maintain a consistent position on the public sector pay cap over the last few weeks means that this is somewhere that organised pressure from the trade unions can force them back. But more than that, it could see the potential for the collapse of the government and the coming to power of a Jeremy Corbyn led Labour government whose key radical manifesto pledges came as a breath of fresh air

8 to many trade union activists and working class people in general.

What can Labour Party members do to help?

1. If you’re not a member of a trade union then join one today, Leeds TUC members will be happy to advise on which is the most appropriate one for you.

2. If you’re a trade union member then enquire as to whether your branch is affiliated to Leeds TUC or (if a Labour-affiliated union) your local CLP.

3. Come along and support leafleting sessions, protests, picket lines and other activities of trade unions in the centre – Leeds TUC tries to post information about any event we know about on our Facebook page.

4. Raise with your local Labour elected representatives about how they can support trade unionists in dispute.

Contacts

Leeds TUC can be contacted at [email protected] or via our social media accounts, for example the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LeedsTUC/. We hold delegate meetings (at which we welcome observers) on the last Wednesday of each month, and we organise an annual May Day demonstration in Leeds.

For further information on the individual actions discussed above, please see the links below.

Junior Doctors (BMA) http://www.leedshacks.co.uk/junior-doctors-hold-leeds-protest/ http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/23195

Nurses (RCN) https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/news/pay-campaign-launched-in-leeds

Deliveroo (IWW) https://iww.org.uk/campaign/support-the-leeds-deliveroo-six/ https://www.facebook.com/BradfordIwwUnion/posts/703790743115129

Ainscough (Unite) http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/rock-solid-strike-action-by-crane-operators-causes- near-total-shutdown/

First Buses (Unite) http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/all-out-leeds-bus-strike-next-tuesday-as-bus-bosses- dismiss-workers/

Arcadia (GMB) http://www.gmbyorkshire.org.uk/topshop_gmb_members_walk_out_in_protest_at_sir_phili p_green_s_workhouse_conditions

Northern Rail and TransPennine Express (RMT) http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/956/25836/12-07-2017/strike-action-against-driver- only-operated-trains-continues

9 ‘MIXING POP AND POLITICS THEY ASK ME WHAT THE USE IS’1

One important aspect of the enthusiasm surrounding Jeremy Corbyn and affiliates at the 2017 General Election was the ‘Grime4Corbyn’ movement. This clearly had an impact on large sections of younger voters including many who were becoming involved with Party politics for the first time. The following piece addresses the often overlooked role of music in politics, particularly the part it played in the recent election. We also look to the potential role music and the arts may play in upcoming regional devolution as well as next year’s ‘Great Get Together’.

The Grime4Corbyn movement

During the recent election the Grime4Corbyn movement was particularly effective at mobilising many younger voters. Grime4Corbyn was a grassroots campaign group which set up a youth targeted website. The website, amongst other things, encouraged electoral registration2. The campaign was set up after a number of grime artists had encouraged fans to vote Labour, for example JME, Stormzy and Novelist3. The movement also spread on to Twitter where the hashtag #Grime4Corbyn was frequently trending around election time4.

Grassroots movements such as these show the importance of both the use of technology and the arts in political mobilising amongst younger people (including people from working class and ethnic minority backgrounds). While many younger people have been and continue to be drawn to Labour by Corbyn’s leadership and the policies of the Manifesto the use of technology and the arts have clearly been effective in mobilisation. As a CLP we need to try to learn from such movements in further engaging younger people at future elections.

The role of music and the arts in local politics

There were also other well known musicians who came out in favour of Labour at the election, for example Richard Hawley (previously of Longpigs and having played with Pulp without ever having been a formal band member)5 and Paul Heaton (previously of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South and now part of a duo with Jacqui Abbott)6.

In addition, the arts also played an important role at grassroots level. The poet Matt Abbott,

1 The phrase is taken from the Billy Bragg song ‘Waiting for the Great Leap Forward’ on the album Workers Playtime (1988).

2 https://www.grime4corbyn.com/

‘#Grime4Corbyn: grime artists explain why they backed Labour’ (Awate, Maxsta, Krucial and Slix), Tuesday 13 June 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/13/corbyn-grime-stars-labour-grime4corbyn-awate- maxsta-krucial-slix

3 ‘When JME Met Jeremy Corbyn’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-rxp_QwjmQ

4 https://twitter.com/grime4corbyn?lang=en

5 https://twitter.com/RichardHawley/status/872719191601799169

6 https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/869238810080673793?lang=en

10 from Wakefield, penned a poem entitled ‘Tories Out (#GE2017 poem)’ which included the following lines:

“Scores of children left to starve, reduced to weary wisps Surviving through the foodbank or a multi-pack of crisps Left sleeping in a hospital on two chairs placed together And desperate parents payday loan, pushed far beyond their tether.”

“This is not about one leader, it’s the vote of a generation Millions reaching breaking point, through ruthless degradation It’s a vote against austerity whether with rule or without So let’s come together on the 8th of June and kick the Tories out.”7

At a fundraiser for the Labour candidate, Terence Smith, in Goole & Brigg, a local band called Sandra’s Wedding played songs from their album ‘Northern Powerhouse’8. There is an amusing anecdote associated with the album in that the local Tory MP, Andrew Percy (who for a time was Minister for the Northern Powerhouse), shared the album on Twitter not knowing that the band were Labour supporters and the title was an ironic remark on the Tory Northern Powerhouse policy and concept. The Tweet was subsequently taken down.

An electronic act from Kingston upon Hull, Steve Cobby and Russ Litten, played at the Corbyn rally held in the city on 22 May. The duo had composed a piece called ‘For the Many, Not the Few’9.

For many on the radical Left of politics the lyrics of many of Cobby and Litten’s songs will be incredibly poignant in articulating the effects of austerity policies on many people’s lives. For example, the following lyrics are taken from the song ‘Iceland’ which is about a poverty stricken single mother shop lifting (grafting) in a supermarket:

“There’s a single Mam chatting to herself in Iceland, She’s got a snow storm in her head, And a gas fire in her gut.”

“The loan sharks are hammering down the door, Don’t let them in, Paint lasts longer than skin.”

“The ever turning screw of austerity All the things you do without

7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awYWNRsaB0A

8 A performance of the song ‘Death By Hanging’ from the album is available below; the song challenges many Right Wing social attitudes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j584qXB8ONE

9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz-4daMOqFc

Cobby and Litten also performed another piece at the rally, a poem written by Shane Rhodes originally from the Orchard Park Estate (on the north-western side of Kingston upon Hull) entitled ‘A City Speaks’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2fQYngSxhM

11 Like a living wage, Like proper tampons, Like any form of sweet release, Like that hairdressing course at college, The knowledge That your dreams are a puddle of mint choc chip.”10

For this CLP there is an opportunity to become much more involved in the music and arts scene of Leeds, particularly in the context of local acts and artists. One way to start this may be to organise a gig. In addition, we may wish to organise music for any future rallies as other cities did such as Kingston upon Hull.

The role of music and the arts in regional devolution

While often not reported in the mainstream media, music and the arts played an important part in the devolution debates of the mid-2000s11. In the North West a political coalition was formed in October 2002 named ‘The Necessary Group’, which included politicians and people involved in music and the arts. Supporters included Shaun Ryder, Peter Saville and Tony Wilson. The Group supported the region seizing democratic opportunities to move towards regional elected government.

As part of the devolution campaign a website was set up (www.itsnecessary.co.uk) as a focus for the coalition’s fundraising and profile building plans. The site was launched as an ‘interactive HQ’ for the campaign, offering visitors the opportunity to sign up to the Group, obtain information about devolution, build a blog and buy t-shirts and posters.

According to Wilson, the campaign was inspired by the online success of US Democratic Presidential aspirant Howard Dean:

“It’s not so incredibly fashionable now but when you look at DeanforAmerica.com they do a number of exciting things and we’ve added a few more.”12

The use of internet campaigning has clearly extended over time and more recently has been used very effectively, via social media, in the Bernie Sanders campaign for the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries and caucuses, as well as in the recent UK general election by groups such as Momentum.

For North West devolution a flag was designed by Peter Saville (image reproduced below13) at the request of Wilson. The design, highlighting the upper left quadrant, was said to recall

10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmOTA-LtHyY

11 Devolution referendums in the regions of Northern England were initially proposed under provisions of the Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Act 2003. The referendums were concerned with the question of devolving limited political powers from the UK Parliament to elected regional assemblies in North East England, North West England and Yorkshire and the Humber. While three referendums were planned, only one took place in North East England. On 4 November 2004, voters in the North East rejected the proposal, in an all postal ballot, by 77.9% to 22.1%, on a turnout of 48%.

12 Tony Wilson quote http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/north-west-group-campaigns-web/204276

13 https://www.designweek.co.uk/necessary-group-unfurls-its-flag/

12 Manchester’s Peterloo massacre14, 16 August 1819, in which the army charged a large political gathering and seized its flags.

With the devolution agenda now being pushed by the political class across England there is an ideal opportunity to mix music and the arts with a radical political regional agenda.

‘The Great Get Together’ and opposition to the Far Right

The CLP was involved in organising a ‘Great Get Together’ event in Cross Flatts Park, Beeston, which was a great success. Thank you to all those involved. Musical accompaniment for the event was provided by the folk duo Alistair Russell and Chris Parkinson15.

However one thing the CLP may wish to consider for next year is organising activities and demonstrations against fascism and the Far Right, who were responsible for the murder of Jo Cox. Far Right activity has more recently been on the increase and as a CLP we need to be aware of the past effects electorally of such politics in the constituency and surrounding areas of Leeds. Music may have a role to play in this, particularly in the area of race relations.

In this context, there is a track ‘Spitfires’ on the album Handmade Life by the folk musician Chris Wood16. The song began as a recollection of the sound of the Spitfire, V-12, 27-litre Rolls-Royce Merlin piston aircraft engine, heard from the sky above Chris Wood’s hometown in Kent. It later developed into a comparison of what the Spitfire represented in society as against the use of the image by the British National Party (BNP) on their European Union election campaign literature in 2009.

Wood wrote the song because he wanted to recapture from the Far Right the Spitfire as a symbol of national identity.

One particular issue Wood wishes to get across in the song is that the Spitfire was built by working people, both men and women, and that it has been the simple acts of tolerance and kindness from people that have prevented the BNP from realising their vision.

14 The Rochdale band, Tractor, wrote a suite of five songs about the massacre which are included on the 1992 release Worst Enemies and Steeleye Span’s ‘Ned Ludd Part 5’ on their 2006 album Bloody Men. Furthermore, in 1968, in celebration of its centenary, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) commissioned British composer, Malcolm Arnold, to write the ‘Peterloo Overture’.

15 Alistair Russell and Chris Parkinson ‘Irish Heartbeat’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exQpnBSvc0Y

16 Performance of the song in 2009 in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvkK-8LBjLk

13 More recently, Wood has stated that at a gig in Buxton a member of the audience requested the song in the memory of Jo Cox given her disgusting and tragic murder at the hands of Far Right terrorism. He has since said that the song has taken on a completely different meaning and is now about her memory.

As the lyrics of the song state:

“From the drawing board to the hand of the factory girl upon the lathe It’s the sound. It’s ordinary men and women, With an ordinary part to play.

Theirs was a gritty England, ‘Workers’ Playtime’ got them through, And an oily rag or two.

But sometimes I hear the story told in a voice that’s not my own, It’s the sound. It’s a ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ voice, An Anglo-Klaxon overblown, It’s the sound.

Theirs is another England, And it hides behind the red, the white and the blue, ‘Rule Britannia’, No thank you.”

UPCOMING EVENTS

 Jumble Sale, Saturday 12 August, 1pm, Mill Hill Chapel, City Square, Leeds, LS1 5EB – donations and volunteers needed, please contact Barbara Cotton, telephone 07949969561 or 01132707640, email – [email protected].

 Fire Safety and Grenfell Tower Solidarity event, joint event with Leeds Trades Council, Friday 25 August, 7.00pm for 7.30pm start, Spinning Wheel, Admiral Street, Leeds, LS11 5NG – speakers to include David Williams (Fire Brigades Union).

 Local Government Economic Policy and Council Finances public meeting, Friday 27 October, 7.00pm, Spinning Wheel, Admiral Street, Leeds, LS11 5NG – speakers to include Simon Jose (Leeds North East CLP) and Matthew Jackson (Centre for Local Economic Strategies).