Unity
Communists at the TUC
by Robert Griffiths George ‘Captain of the Titanic’ Osborne and his ToryLibDem crew of millionaires refuse to change course. They are steering Britain towards the iceberg, while promising more gambling chips and champagne for the passengers in luxury class (the ones with the lifeboats). As economic growth flounders around zero, they plan to give more public money to the bankers and cut the top rate of income tax. The banks have already received £200 billion in ‘quantitative easing’ from the Bank of England, as part of the £1,350 billion bail-out package of share purchases, loans and
September 2011
guarantees. (‘Quantitative easing’ is the term given to Bank of England operations to buy bonds – mostly government Treasury stock – held mainly by the banks and other financial institutions, usually funded from reserves or by printing money). Now the bankers are demanding another £50 billion and Osborne and the ship’s purser, Bank of England governor Mervyn King, want to give it to them. The theory is that the banks use this money both to rebuild their capital reserves and extend loans to housebuyers and businesses, thereby stimulating the economy. In reality, much of the original £200 billion was used to
speculate on the stock exchange and in the currency, commodity and financial markets. This helped push up world commodity prices and fuelled the market frenzy of recent weeks. And the Chancellor intends to give the gamblers – sorry, ‘investors’ – more to gamble with! At the same time, he wants to abolish the 50 per cent top rate of income tax on earnings above £150,00 a year. This would cost the Treasury almost £3 billion a year in lost revenue. His junior crew members, the LibDems, need a fig leaf should this go ahead and so are arguing for a ‘mansion tax’. But the policies that set Britain on course for the icebergs remain unchanged. In particular, public spending cuts of £21 billion this year and an extra £40 billion next will destroy jobs, services and purchasing power in the economy. The private sector boom that is supposed to replace this lost public sector demand is not materialising. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which brings together the world's developed capitalist countries, warns of another recession ahead – especially in Britain. Yet OECD chiefs also peddle the line that austerity and privatisation measures should continue, alongside more quantitative easing. It’s as though the whole Admiralty is lost at sea in a fog of dogma. That is why this year's TUC conference must help set clear bearings for the labour movement. continued overleaf
Two decades of Unity! at the TUC Unity! has been published by communist trade unionists for nearly two decades. The line it takes does not always win full agreement – at first. But often it is proved right by later events. Who now remembers the extravagant expectations that the TUC establishment encouraged after the speech of Jacques Delors. Now as even our remaining union rights are stripped away who thinks the EU will provide protection for job security, pay levels and pensions. It is the EU that has institutionalised the machinery of privatisation. Unity! said so. Unity! gave direction to the movement among delegates to reject the Maastricht Treaty when right wing leaders sought accomodation with the EU bigwigs. Who now among our trade union leadership is willing to do penance for their role in blunting opposition to PFI? Lord Monks? Unity! championed solidarity with Cuban socialism when the right parotted the Foreign Office line. Unity! backed the Palestinian cause when the Zionists lobbyists had the ear of the TUC and Labour Party. On the 11th September a decade ago Unity! brought out a special afternoon issue that spelled out how the people of New York were reaping a whirlwind sown by US imperialism. And Unity! warned of a decade of wars to follow.
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Unity! TUC 2011 Monday 12 September
continued from page 1 The composite motion on an alternative economic strategy puts forward a left-wing programme of policies. It is important that these should include the direction of capital and public ownership of the energy, public transport and financial sectors. Without such policies, it will be impossible to build a modern, productive and sustainable economy in Britain. However, it must also be recognised that the EU Commission and Court of Justice, and the European Central Bank, would seek to block them using the fundamental treaties of the European Union. A Wealth Tax would be the most effective way of reducing the enormous inequality in our society. For example, a modest 2 per cent tax on the richest 10 per cent of the population would yield £79 billion in a single year. Instead of being slashed,
public spending could be hugely increased to provide more jobs, better services, higher pensions and benefits and a million affordable new homes. But first we need to defend the public sector from this illegitimate coalition government. Nobody voted for it – least of all the six million LibDem voters who fell for Nick Clegg's line that his sorry band of stowaways represented the real alternative to the Tories. This means that last year's TUC resolution for coordinated action against the cuts has to be turned into generalised strike action, defending jobs and services as well as pensions. Unions, trades councils, pensioners, students and local community organisations must be brought together in solidarity. The TUC should take the lead in projecting the People's Charter for Change, which was adopted at the 2009 conference and already contains many of the policies being supported by unions this year.
The new edition of the Communist Party’s programme Britain’s Road to Socialism, proposes an alternative economic and political strategy to: H Defend jobs, public services and living standards through mass action. H Project a Left Wing Programme of policies in the interests of the working class and the people generally. H Build a popular, democratic, anti-monopoly alliance led by the labour movement. H Elect a left government backed by the mass movement to implement the LWP and open the path to socialist revolution. The order to turn the tiller ‘hard a-starboard’ – to turn the ship left – came too late to save the RMS Titanic. We need to turn left in Britain before enormous damage is done to the economy, our local communities and millions of lives. Robert Griffiths is the Communist Party general secretary
Women and Class by Mary Davis
The Politics of Britain’s Economic Crisis by John Foster
Workers’ parliament weakened by Anita Halpin This year’s Congress is the first of the downsized versions which are intended to take place every other year. A review of these arrangements is promised after Congress and delegates will be consulted this week. It was claimed that half the number of delegates would not necessarily affect the balance between full-time and lay members and that Congress could still be inclusive and diverse. Brendan Barber did accept that this put a heavy onus on affiliates to achieve a full diversity. Did your union manage to achieve an improved balance or are grey suits still in the majority? Look around, did
other unions manage to do this? Further, as most of the media is London based, it was argued that the media profile of Congress could potentially be enhanced. Again, look round the hall, is there a big media presence? There’s certainly no live coverage programmed on the BBC Parliament channel. Affiliates range from a few large general unions to many more small specialist unions but they are all equal members of the TUC. Smaller delegations has a greater knock-on effect for smaller unions; many of their industrial sectors and equality structures will, perforce, be disenfranchised. Judge for yourselves, but the Communist Party argues that a
full-blown Congress has served the working class movement well and we should reject the new arrangements and instead strive to make the parliament of labour more representative and more effective in representing the interests of the working people of Britain. One result of this smaller Congress is that there is limited access, so apologies to those of you who are missing your daily dose of Unity! If you are lucky enough to get a copy please pass it around your delegation. All this year’s editions of Unity! from Bombardier to Tolpuddle can be found on our website at www.communistparty.org.uk. Anita Halpin is the Communist Party’s trade union organiser
COmmUnisT Review Quarterly theoretical and discussion journal Pamphlets, Communist Review and books from www.communist-party.org.uk or CPB Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CRO2 1BD
Unity! TUC 2011 Monday 12 September
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Our day of action has come by Carolyn Jones This year’s TUC may be smaller and shorter but the issues to be discussed and the decisions to be taken couldn’t be bigger. Happily, it looks like unions are ready to step up to the plate. The agenda suggests a high degree of unity both in an understanding of the problems facing members and a determination to fight back. And we’ve seen what can happen when unions stand together in resistance. Following resolutions passed at the 2010 TUC, workers took to the streets in their thousands. First, calling for alternative economic policies (TUC march and rally on 26 March 2011). Then standing in opposition to cuts in public sector pensions (30 June 2011). Since then we’ve seen people take to the streets again – only this time without the coordinating hand of the organised working class. In August we saw riots on the streets. Clearly that action was not based on class conscious
decisions. But nor was it simply criminal activities of a so-called ‘feral’ minority. Riots reflect feelings of alienation, anger and a desire to share in society’s wealth – a wealth created by workers but increasingly appropriated by the rich. This year’s TUC motions reflect that anger and if passed and acted upon, could herald a union-led fight-back against capitalism’s excesses. The TUC agenda starts with a strong call for radical, alternative economic and industrial strategies. It rejects the government’s ideologically driven debt-reduction policies, calling instead for policies of growth including investment via state controlled banks in green manufacturing, in services and in infrastructure projects. Rejecting the notion that “there is no alternative”, PCS lead the call for coordinated industrial action against cuts and against the government’s destructive policies. But the strongest calls for coordinated action in support of alternative policies are
inevitably found in the numerous motions relating to workers’ pensions. This is a fight that is not going away. The hypocrisy of those politicians who call for the full force of the law to be used against looters pinching goods worth £5 while at the same time pinching pensions worth thousands from the pockets of public sector workers, will come to the fore. More calls for coordinated action, civil disobedience and industrial, legal and political strategies of resistance are to be found in the composite motion on rights at work and in the equal rights section. So will this TUC deliver policies that will result in the the labour movement leading a class conscious fightback based on a strategic, progressive, economic alternative to the capitalist system? In case it is argued that such coordinated action is unlawful under UK labour laws, Keith Ewing and John Hendy from the Institute of Employment Rights have prepared timely and persuasive arguments to show
how days of action against Government austerity cuts are protected under international law via the United Kingdom’s Human Rights Act 1998. Our Day of Action has come! Carolyn Jones is the director of the Institute of Employment Rights
j Days of Action: the legality of protest strikes against government cuts by Keith Ewing and John Hendy QC from www.ier.org.uk.
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Unity! TUC 2011 Monday 12 September
Fringe today 12.45pm Unite| Defending Access to Justice Shami Chakrabarti Liberty; Mark Lewis, Milly Dowler family solicitor; Andy Slaughter MP, shadow justice minister Radisson Kenilworth Hotel 12.45pm-2pm | National Pensioners Convention Fair Pensions For All Christine Blower NUT; Dot Gibson NPC and Mark Serwotka Frank Cooper 6th Floor, Congress House Refreshments 5.30pm IER, United Campaign & Unite| Fighting Unfair Cuts, Resisting Unjust Laws Christine Blower NUT; Bob Crow RMT and UC; Prof. Keith Ewing IER; John Hendy QC IER and UC; Len McCluskey Unite; Michelle Stanistreet NUJ; Sarah VealeTUC. Chair: Carolyn Jones IER Friendship Centre, Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church, 235 Shaftesbury Ave. Refreshments 5.30pm RMT | Slavery Shame of the Past and a Modern Curse Bob Crow RMT and others Chair: Alex Gordon RMT. Entertainment: Catcher Brunei Theatre, SOAS, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, Drinks and buffet 5.30pm PSC|Building Solidarity with Palestine Palestinian Ambassador Manuel Hassassian plus Palestinian trade unionists Thompsons Congress House Refreshments & Palestinian food 5.30pm-6.45pm Fighting for Justice in Latin America Esther Armenteros Cuban Ambassador; Samuel Moncada Venezuelan Ambassador; Guisell Morales-Echaverry Nicaraguan Charge d’Affaires; Billy Hayes CWU and JFC chair; Len McCluskey Unite; Christine Blower NUT Bloomsbury Hotel Havana Club rum cocktails & Colombian beers.
Save manufacturing in Britain
by Moz Greenshields Awarding the £1.4billion contract for Thameslink rolling stock to siemens in Germany, rather than Bombardier in Derby has galvanisied a whole community against the government. But the opposition of the whole of Derby, led by the trade unions, is not enough. It needs to become a national campaign to be reflected in every town and city wherever there is industrial contraction and closure, and escalating unemployment. Over 50,000 Derby people signed a petition to Parliament to “Save Bombardier” in less than three weeks. Ten thousand people marched in support of Bombardier workers. 1400 Bombardier workers would be thrown on the dole if the government decision stands – and up to another 20,000 jobs in the Midlands supply chain are threatened. What clearer demonstration that the government have no interest in the well being of the British people… and are only
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concerned to preserve the rules laid down by the European capitalist states and their European Union? There is a simple truth running through the complex issues surrounding the Bombardier struggle. The Bombardier bid was backed by Deutsche Bank. The Siemens bid was backed by its own financial organisation. The Bombardier backers have only a BB+ credit rating, while those of Siemens have A+ rating. So the Bombardier bid – though in every other way recognised as superior to the Siemens bid – would cost 1.5% a year more in interest… and was therefore ruled out by government. To put it plainly, the British rail engineering industry and 20,000 jobs are to be massively undermined – potentially destroyed – because of the rules of the banking and finance industry, the European Union procurement rules that serve it, and the willing support for these from the British government. At the same time, the government plans to deliver a lesson to British workers that unless they compete with
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workers in other countries, they can expect unemployment. Lower wages, worse conditions and understaffing just might allow them to keep their jobs – that’s the government message. It is the capitalist “race to the bottom” – endorsed by the EU Evidence of this lies in the government’s McNulty Report in May of this year, recommending slashing £1 billion a year from our railways, massively cutting staffing and workers’ wages in order to “compete”. It proposes 30% “efficiency savings” by 2018, and demands "due attention is given to conformance with EU and public law restrictions and EU directives”. In Derby, the Bombardier workers’ committee, the joint unions (GMB, RMT, TSSA and UNITE), the Trade Union Council, and a newly established community support group are carrying on the fight, and are determined to win. In a recent meeting with Hammond. the Secretary of State, he conceded for the first time that the deal with Siemens could be reversed… and we are determined it will be. But the Bombardier battle now needs to be taken up nationally, both in direct solidarity and also in workers all over the country taking up the issues facing their town. Moz Greenshields is secretary of Derby Trades Union Council and a member of the Communist Party executive committee Bombardier – how government is failing the ‘march of the makers’ | Wednesday 14 September lunch Hear Bombardier workers; Diana Holland Unite; Bob Crow, RMT & others. Chair Dan Milmo, Guardian Industrial Editor Radisson Kenilworth Hotel, Great Russell Street
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