Solidarity Solidarity& Workers’ Liberty For a workers’ government For social ownership of the banks and industry Pic: CC BY-NC 2.0 bit.ly/nhs-se REBUILD NHS FOR WINTER! ccording to a report for up the virus from the holidays now doing. Bring the privatised ASAGE, the government’s of- and openings of pubs and cafés NHS logistics into public owner- ficial scientific advice committee which seem to have fuelled in- ship and control, and requisition for the pandemic, bit.ly/s200831 fection rises across Europe, and industry to ensure supplies. the proportion of people in Eng- there being a delay until infec- • Bring care homes and domi- land with Covid-like symptoms tions spread to the more vulner- ciliary care into the public sector, who then get a test “could be as able elderly. with staff on public-sector pay low as 10%”. And, if they test pos- It is unlikely, though, that the and conditions. REBUILD NHS itive for Covid, the proportion trends will remain in conflict. Vi- • Run testing, tracing, and iso- who follow self-isolation rules rus-control efforts and the NHS lation as a local public-health fully is “currently estimated to be will come under new stress in the operation, adequately funded, less than 20%”. winter and in the run-up. instead of the current contract- The figures may be over-pes- The social measures needed ed-out Serco-Sitel mess. □ simistic (the footnote references to underpin and facilitate seri- FOR WINTER! in the report don’t seem to tally). ous virus-control policy are still What we demand But there is no solid basis for lacking. Scraps of them have ≫Bring all work in-house, reverse clear optimism about the big been conceded by the Tories in the crisis majority, of those who should do only under pressure. The unions 1. Requisition key sectors privatisation so, seeking a test, getting a test, and the labour movement must 2. Fight for workers’ control getting prompt results, reporting apply more pressure. 3. Make the labour movement contacts, and then the infected • Full isolation pay for all! Not an essential service, fighting Bring social care into public ownership and the contacts self-isolating. just Matt Hancock’s feeble £13 a on the issues listed here ≫ Infection figures in Britain have day for some lower-paid workers 4. Defend workers’ rights. risen since early July, and more in some areas. As of now, only Work or full pay! Cancel rent, Drive the Tories out! Pic: CC BY-NC 2.0 bit.ly/fp-nhs steeply since late August, while about 40% even of care-home mortgage, and utility pay- ≫ hospitalisations and deaths con- workers have access to full isola- ments. Abolish GCSEs! “Institutional Bosnia’s war, 25 “Socialism from the tinue to decrease. tion pay. 5. Take care of the worst-off End the treadmill! sexism” in unions years on Leader’s Office” There may be many factors • Rebuild the NHS! A good pay 6. Defend civil liberties The grades fiasco Report on GMB points Sarah Correia A new book gives a in these apparently conflict- rise for all, and a big increase in 7. International solidarity □ should force a to need to build a new discusses the roots of skewed and unreliable, ing trends: increased testing; budgets. Take all private hospi- thorough rethink of democracy from the the 1992-5 war, and • See full text at bit.ly/what-d but revealing, account more “false positives”; more tals into the NHS, rather than just school exams ground up lessons from it • Animated video of full de- of those testing positive being paying them to provide overflow mands: bit.ly/demand-video Page 3 Page 11 Pages 8-9 Page 11 young people who’ve picked facilities, as the government is No. 562, 9 September 2020 50p/£1 workersliberty.org No. 562, 9 September 2020 50p/£1 workersliberty.org Victory in Korea: teachers’ union New format, new term! wins 7-year fight for recognition Agenda his is our first issue since no.539 are still periodically jailed for violating rean constitution allows all workers T(18 March) to be printed in our it. to enjoy basic trade union rights. The usual tabloid format. Negotiating Eric Lee Park Geun-hye was eventually im- regulation which cancelled the KTU’s as best we could the difficulties of peached and removed from office, and union registration was subordinate to lockdown (no in-person meetings, her fall from power was described by the constitution. The judge added that no demonstrations, few people on By Eric Lee Public Services International as “not the government could not dissolve a the streets), we produced nos.540- lmost seven years ago — in Octo- only the culmination of a political scan- trade union by administrative order. 561 in a smaller A4 format. Aber 2013 — the Korean Teachers dal involving corruption” but “also a Therefore, he ruled, the delegalisation The smaller format had many and Education Workers Union (KTU) victory built by the trade union move- of KTU was invalid. downsides. For a start, it provided ment which, relentlessly, denounced so little space that many articles had came to LabourStart with a problem. Implementation The national government had given for years the abuses against workers to be published online-only. Surpris- committed by her regime.” The attacks Immediately following the court rul- ingly, however, we have found since the union an ultimatum: either it would ing, the Ministry of Employment and change its rules to prohibit dismissed on the teachers union were part of June, as street protests and street those abuses. Labour said it would start a process stalls have restarted, that the smaller or retired teachers from being mem- to cancel the deregistration “as soon bers of the union, or the union would Though the online campaign in 2013 format has sold as well as the usual was eventually suspended, the Korean as possible,” in line with the court de- one. Some readers seem to prefer a be deregistered. cision. Though the Supreme Court At issue were just nine teachers who, teachers never gave up their fight. And compact-looking publication. last week, they finally won a historic vic- has passed the buck to lower courts, So, as an experiment, we’re pub- according to the government, were ille- according to one Korean news report, gally members of the 60,000 member tory. lishing the first couple of back-to- “the labour minister has the authority tabloid issues in “endorse-folded” union. Anulled to restore the union’s legal status, even Facing the prospect of being out- format. They can be carried round, The Supreme Court of Korea annulled before a ruling in a retrial comes out.” offered to readers, and stored, in lawed, the union stood its ground. the decision to delegalise the teach- When that takes place, the report Working together with its national compact form, but open out to give ers’ union. According to the Education continued, “the KTU can exercise its the full content. We’ll see how it trade union centre, the militant Korean International, which announced the rights to collective bargaining, to call- Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) goes. victory, “This Supreme Court decision ing for the government’s mediation in In these weeks of still-fairly-low and the global union for teachers, the on 3 September follows an appeal labor disputes and to reporting unfair Education International, as well as infection rates (for how long we filed by the KTU to rulings against it by labor practices.” don’t know) and still-long light eve- other global and national unions, they lower courts in June 2014 and January The KTU thanked all those who sup- launched a LabourStart campaign de- nings, it’s a priority for us to get out 2016. In his conclusions on the ruling ported the union in this long fight. In to street stalls and protests to make manding that the government back in favour of the KTU, Chief Justice Kim an email I received last week from the down. socialist ideas accessible to as many Myeongsu invoked several times the KTU’s international officer, Hyunsu people as possible. International support Korean constitution and international Hwang, he reminded me that “Labour- We’re also preparing for the start Over 10,000 trade unionists from labour standards.” Start was in the middle of this seven of university term. Even now, we around the world signed up to support By “international labour standards” year-long fight.” don’t know how many students will the Korean teachers — but the govern- the judge was referring to those eight Martin Luther King famously said that be on campuses and when. We’ve ment was adamant. It was intent on ILO “core conventions” which consti- “the arc of the moral universe is long, set up Workers’ Liberty student breaking a union seen as “left-wing”. tute international labour law and which but it bends toward justice.” It certainly Zoom meetings for every Monday The Korean President, Park Geun-hye apply in all countries, even those which did so in this case. □ evening (6pm) from 21 September have not ratified the specific conven- (daughter of the dictator Park Chung- • Eric Lee is the founding editor of through to December, and will be tions. hee) was no friend of the trade un- LabourStart. He writes this column in a putting posters round campuses The judge emphasised that the Ko- ions and had said that “unionised KTU personal capacity. to publicise them: facebook.com/ teachers are making this nation RED”. AWLstudents And it was not only the KTU that Most local Labour Parties will be faced de-registration; the government having their first decision-making also refused to register the KCTU-affil- Upcoming meetings meetings since March this month iated Korean Government Employees (though online), and union activity is Union as well.