Tyne and Wear May Day brochure 2018

RISE LIKE LIONS!

CONTENTS

MAIN SPEAKERS

Contents & Speakers ........................ 2

Beth Farhat Regional Secretary, Northern Region TUC

Editorial

by Martin Levy .............................. 4-5 From The Masque of Anarchy

by Percy Bysshe Shelley ........... 6-8 #TUC150

by Beth Farhat ................................ 11 Reversing the twin attack on trade union rights and social security

by Laura Pidcock MP ................... 13 Post-school education should be a public good

by Joanna de Groot .................... 15 “Our demands most moderate are” by

by Tomas TomaszPierscionek Pierscionek ............... 17 Music: on the march, at the rally and at the Irish Centre ...................... 20-21 Karl Marx bicentenary

by Martin Levy ......................... 24-26 Gallery: Tyne & Wear May Day 2017 ...... 28-31 Tyne & Wear May Day 2018 Committee David Archibald • Mollie Brown Ron Brown • Peter Burnett Bethany Elen Coyle • Martin Levy Jim Simpkin The Committee would like to thank all those individuals and organisations who have made this year’s event possible.

If you would like to get involved with planning and organising next year’s May Day celebrations, then please: Contact the May Day Committee c/o Martin Levy, 13 Shoreham Court, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 2XG email: maydaycommittee@newcastle-tuc.org.uk

Laura Pidcock MP for North West Durham, Shadow Minister for Labour Joanna de Groot UCU President Tomasz Pierscionek Doctor, journalist, activist in Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine Plus local speakers

SATURDAY 5 May ASSEMBLE: 11 am, Bandstand, Exhibition Park, Newcastle MARCH LEAVES: 11.30 am prompt RALLY: 12 noon, Grey’s Monument SOCIAL: 1.30-3.30 pm, Tyneside Irish Centre, 43 Gallowgate, Newcastle NE1 4SG Print: Whittle Print, 36 Hutton Close, Crowther Industrial Estate, Washington, Tyne & Wear NE38 0AH http://www.whittle-print.co.uk Design: CatwitchCreative http://CatwitchCreative.co.uk email: Catwitch@blueyonder.co.uk

NASUWT The Teachers’ Union

The only teachers’ union.

Celebrating 100 years of women’s suffrage.

May Day Greetings for 2018 www.nasuwt.org.uk @NORTHEASTNASUWT

@NASUWTNORTHEAST

Editorial:

SINCE OUR 2017 MAY DAY, the political landscape has changed dramatically. Last time, we were in the middle of a general election, called because Theresa May wanted to inflict a severe defeat on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, and to isolate the most hardline anti-EU Tories. She failed on both counts.

Labour’s manifesto, For the Many, Not the Few, meant that for the first time in decades there was a clear class dividing line. Millions of people were motivated to vote Labour, and Theresa May was humiliated by the loss of her Commons majority. She must now limp along, dependent on the bigots in the Democratic Unionist Party, and by no means certain that she can win every Parliamentary vote.

That has created new opportunities for Labour to challenge the government in Parliament and for the trades unions and other progressive forces to exert their strength outside it.

However, this situation brings dangers too. Firstly, on Brexit: May recognises that the referendum outcome, and the arithmetic among her own MPs, mean that Britain can’t stay in the EU’s Single Market, so she aims to do a deal ‘aligning’ Britain pretty closely to the Market’s rules. But since those rules – the “four freedoms” for capital – are essentially neoliberal, that means that under the Tories we are likely to get a neoliberal settlement, | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

and one without the limited protections to workers which the EU currently provides.

The TUC, campaigning for a “jobs and rights first” Brexit, wants Britain to stay in the Single Market and the EU’s Customs Union. But that would prevent an incoming Labour government from implementing many of its manifesto policies, including renationalising public transport, reversing privatisation in public services and providing state aid for industry. The current strikes by French rail workers, who deserve our wholehearted support, are precisely against EU-promoted pro-privatisation policies. Furthermore, if Britain stays within the Single Market and Customs Union – or indeed is closely ‘aligned’ – then trades unions fighting to protect collectively bargained wages, terms and conditions against overseas employers bringing in ‘cheap’ labour would continue to be hamstrung by judgements of the EU Court of Justice.

Recognising these issues, Jeremy Corbyn has argued for a bespoke customs union with the EU – not the Customs Union, but one which would allow tariff-free trade with the EU to continue, while permitting the implementation of Labour’s policies.

His proposal may not go far enough for some, but is a position around which the whole labour movement can unite, and thereby exert pressure on the government.

The second major danger is one of complacency that that the Tories are on the way out. This is far from the case: given breathing space, a change of leader, diversionary tactics and an ongoing media barrage against Corbyn, they could manage to hang on till 2022 – and possibly even win then with the new electoral boundaries and the requirement that voters bring photographic ID. The media attack about alleged anti-semitism in the Labour Party, intended to smear Labour for the local elections, is an example of the sort of tactics which could be used in the run-up to a general election. Meanwhile the austerity policies which have blighted the lives of so many would continue.

The third major danger is war: governments in trouble often resort to it, and we have seen so much Russophobia over the last few weeks to be alarmed that a new Cold War is in place, with grave dangers of a hot war. The USBritish-French missile attack on Syria was a crime against international law, not even waiting for the report from the OPCW team and reminiscent of the dodgy pretext used to justify the war against Iraq. Meanwhile, in Europe a new US-backed war is looming, as the Ukraine government has closed the door on the Minsk peace process with the Donetsk republics, has called Russia an aggressor and has been receiving big arms shipments from EU countries and the US. This in a state where fascist

Rise Like Lions! militias are given free rein and the Communist Party has been banned.

The speakers at our rally this year will bring and allow us to express solidarity. Tomasz Pierscionek will pick up, among other things, that danger of war and fascism in Ukraine. Joanna de Groot, President of UCU, will bring news from the frontline of recent and current university and college disputes.

Laura Pidcock MP, Shadow Minister for Labour, will address the Tories’ twin attack on trade union rights and social security. And Beth Farhat, TUC Regional Secretary, will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of the TUC (#TUC150) by explaining how the organisation intends to reach out to a new generation of young workers.

There is much to celebrate this May Day –not only the #TUC150, but also the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, which falls exactly on the day of our march and rally. But there is an urgent need to struggle as well.

Mobilisation for the TUC’s London demonstration on May 12, ‘A new deal for working people’, will be essential, but that is just a start. Our slogan for this May Day, taken from the same Shelley poem as “For the many, not the few”, sums up the urgency: RISE LIKE LIONS! And let us drive out this reactionary Tory government.

Martin Levy May Day Committee Chair TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY |

From The

Masque of Anarchy

The Peterloo Massacre occurred at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry with sabres drawn charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. 15 people were killed and 400-700 injured.

In exile in Italy, Shelley wrote The Masque of Anarchy when he learned of the Manchester events. There was a Tory government in Britain at the time, and Shelley identifies three government ministers as having the most blood on their hands: Henry Addington, Viscount Sidmouth, former I met Murder on the way— He had a mask like Castlereagh— Very smooth he looked, yet grim; Seven blood-hounds followed him: All were fat; and well they might Be in admirable plight, For one by one, and two by two, He tossed them human hearts to chew Which from his wide cloak he drew.

Next came Fraud, and he had on, Like Lord Eldon, an ermined gown; His big tears, for he wept well, Turned to mill-stones as they fell.

And the little children, who Round his feet played to and fro, Thinking every tear a gem, Had their brains knocked out by them. | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

Prime Minister and at the time Home Secretary; Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, scourge of the Irish and in 1819 Leader of the Commons and Foreign Secretary; and John Scott, son of a Newcastle coal barge owner who later became the Earl of Eldon (after whom Eldon Square is named) and who was Lord Chancellor 1801-1806 and 1807-1827.

Shelley’s revolutionary calls to action in the poem frightened his publisher, so the Masque of Anarchy did not appear in print until 1832, 10 years after Shelley’s untimely death.

There are 91 stanzas altogether, so here we only print a selection.

Clothed with the Bible, as with light, And the shadows of the night, Like Sidmouth, next, Hypocrisy

On a crocodile rode by.

And many more Destruction played In this ghastly masquerade, All disguised, even to the eyes, Like Bishops, lawyers, peers, and spies.

Last came Anarchy: he rode On a white horse, splashed with blood; He was pale even to the lips, Like Death in the Apocalypse.

And he wore a kingly crown; And in his grasp a sceptre shone;

Written on the occasion of the massacre at Manchester

by Percy Bysshe Shelley On his brow this mark I saw— ‘I AM GOD, AND KING, AND LAW!‘ With a pace stately and fast, Over English land he passed, Trampling to a mire of blood The adoring multitude.

And with a mighty troop around With their trampling shook the ground, Waving each a bloody sword, For the service of their Lord.

And with glorious triumph they Rode through England proud and gay, Drunk as with intoxication Of the wine of desolation.

O‘er fields and towns, from sea to sea, Passed the Pageant swift and free, Tearing up, and trampling down; Till they came to London town.

And each dweller, panic-stricken, Felt his heart with terror sicken Hearing the tempestuous cry Of the triumph of Anarchy. …

So he sent his slaves before To seize upon the Bank and Tower, And was proceeding with intent To meet his pensioned Parliament When one fIed past, a maniac maid, And her name was Hope, she said: But she looked more like Despair, And she cried out in the air:

‘My father Time is weak and grey With waiting for a better day; See how idiot-like he stands, Fumbling with his palsied hands!

‘He has had child after child, And the dust of death is piled Over every one but me— Misery, oh, Misery!‘ Then she lay down in the street, Right before the horses feet, Expecting, with a patient eye, Murder, Fraud, and Anarchy.

When between her and her foes A mist, a light, an image rose.

Small at first, and weak, and frail Like the vapour of a vale: Till as clouds grow on the blast, Like tower-crowned giants striding fast, And glare with lightnings as they l l fIy, And speak in thunder to the sky.

It grew—a Shape arrayed in mail Brighter than the viper‘s scale, And upborne on wings whose grain Was as the light of sunny rain.

On its helm, seen far away, A planet, like the Morning‘s, lay; And those plumes its light rained through Like a shower of crimson dew. …

And the prostrate multitude Looked—and ankle-deep in blood, TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY |

Hope, that maiden most serene, Was walking with a quiet mien: And Anarchy, the ghastly birth, Lay dead earth upon the earth; The Horse of Death tameless as wind Fled, and with his hoofs did grind To dust the murderers thronged behind.

A rushing light of clouds and splendour, A sense awakening and yet tender Was heard and felt—and at its close These words of joy and fear arose As if their own indignant Earth Which gave the sons of England birth

Had felt their blood upon her brow, And shuddering with a mother‘s throe Had turned every drop of blood By which her face had been bedewed To an accent unwithstood,— As if her heart cried out aloud: ‘Men of England, heirs of Glory, Heroes of unwritten story, Nurslings of one mighty Mother, Hopes of her, and one another; ‘Rise like Lions after slumber In unvanquishable number.

Shake your chains to earth like dew Which in sleep had fallen on you— Ye are many—they are few.‘

Image: The Massacre of Peterloo, or Britons Strike Home, by George Cruikshank, 1819, “representing the charge of the Manchester Yeomanry on the unarmed populace in St. Peter’s Fields, Manchester.” The text in the image reads: “Down with ‘em! Chop em down my brave boys: give them no quarter they want to take our Beef & Pudding from us! – & remember the more you kill the less poor rates you’ll have to pay so go at it Lads show your courage & your Loyalty.” | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

May Day

GREETINGS

from the National Education Union Better without baseline

Time to teach

www.neu.org.uk

Invest – don’t cut

Celebrating TUC150

YEARS Changing the world of work for good

Throughout our history, trade unionists have won changes to the law of the land.

This year the TUC celebrates its 150th anniversary and with it, a century and a half of working together to change the world of work for good.

It’s an opportunity to celebrate our proud history, but even more importantly, it’s a chance for us to reach out to a new generation and get ready for the next 150 years.

What will you do to make trade unions stronger for the next 150 years?

Unions brought you: The Weekend Holiday Pay Health and Safety Minimum Wage Respect and a voice at work Education AND much more!

Make your pledge today...and whatever you do, use #tuc150 to share it with the movement.

Northern TUC Regional Secretary: Beth Farhat Northern TUC I Unite Building I 1st floor I John Dobson Street I Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8TW Tel: 0191 227 5550 I Email : mlowden@tuc.org.uk I www.tuc.org.uk/northern

#TUC150 ACROSS THE COUNTRY, work isn’t good enough for too many people. We’ve all heard the stories of how workers are exploited – at Uber, McDonald’s, Sports Direct, Hermes and more. And these stories remind us that trade unions are more important than ever in winning a fair deal at work for everyone.

In 2018, the TUC will celebrate its 150th anniversary – #TUC150. That’s 150 years of standing up for working people and winning them fair wages, rights at work, decent pensions and safe workplaces. The anniversary is a chance to celebrate the trade union movement’s proud history and reach out to a new generation of young workers.

Recently, a McDonald’s worker at the Crayford branch was left homeless due to poor pay and conditions.

Meanwhile, public sector workers have suffered nearly a decade of pay freezes and cuts, leaving firefighters down several thousand pounds in their pay packets. Both stories represent stark evidence of the challenges facing working people today and remind us that the role of unions in campaign-

ing for decent working conditions and fair pay has never been more important.

The actual anniversary falls in June, so that will be the focal point of our celebrations. And the anniversary activities will continue when we bring Congress back to Manchester in September, where the TUC first met in 1868. But all year we’ll be sharing content and talking about building stronger unions.

We will be publishing 150 inspiring trade union stories for 150 years and share them widely on social media and at events through the year. The stories will represent our regions and nations, and reflect the diversity of our movement and our wide-ranging work. #TUC150 will provide a way to involve members in organising campaigns and growing our membership, winning key campaigns and securing new recognitions. As part of that, the TUC will train a cohort of 150 new reps by Congress 2018 And we’ll launch a pilot trialling new ways to organise young workers. #TUC150 is about looking forwards, not backwards. Our prime focus is the future of our movement.

Through celebrating the role of trade unions, we can position ourselves as a modern, confident movement with a central role in today’s workplace, protecting the working rights of fast food workers and fire fighters from Kent to Kendal.

Beth Farhat TUC Northern Regional Secretary TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY | 11

Standing up for trade union members on May Day and every day As the UK’s leading tradI YRMSR PE[ ½VQ 8LSQTWSRW 7SPMGMXSVW LEW WXSSH WLSYPHIV XS WLSYPHIV FIWMHI XLI XVEHI YRMSR QSZIQIRX WMRGI SYV GVIEXMSR MR ;I SJJIV WTIGMEPMWX ERH FIWTSOI PIKEP WIVZMGIW XS XVEHI YRMSR QIQFIVW ERH XLIMV JEQMPMIW ;I EVI TVSYH XS RIZIV EGX JSV IQTPS]IVW SV MRWYVERGI GSQTERMIW

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Reversing the twin attack on trade union rights and social security LAURA PIDCOCK has been MP for North West Durham since June 2017, and in January of this year was made Shadow Minister for Labour. Before becoming an MP, she worked as a mental health support worker and for anti-racism charity Show Racism the Red Card. She writes: “Being the new Shadow Minister for Labour is both a huge honour and a massive challenge. The role covers, amongst other things, employment law and rights at work, wages and conditions, collective bargaining, the trade unions and the labour market. The UK has had nearly a decade of austerity, on top of some of the most draconian employment law in Europe. The result is a toxic mix of attacks on our movement, casualisation of many jobs via outsourcing, and the entrenchment of a low pay economy, especially up here in the North East.

“Back in the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher’s governments very deliberately dismantled much of what the labour movement had fought for during decades and centuries of struggle. She personally never forgave the miners for their militancy in the 1970s, which overturned Heath’s government, and

was determined to punish a group of workers she called ‘the enemy within’.

Unfortunately, too, our New Labour government, led by Tony Blair, did very little to reverse the Tories’ anti-trade union legislation, making it almost impossible for the labour movement to recover its purpose and strength.

“Since then, alongside the undermining of the labour movement’s hard-won rights, we’ve also seen a big squeeze on social security. This government has pushed communities to the edge, and no section of our society has been treated worse than those who have needed the safety net – whether that is because they are out of work, because the companies and organisations they work for pay poverty wages, or because their disability doesn’t allow them to work. In the UK today, the safety net hardly exists for people who need it – and that is something that can happen to any one of us, at any time.

“In this region, we are still living with this twin attack. But now, finally, we have a chance to reverse not only that legislation (because we have one of the unions’ foremost advocates leading the party), but the culture too. A Labour government can deliver the former, the wider labour movement, the latter. And in that context, I’m excited at the prospect of working together with the trade union movement at all levels, to construct a better environment for workers in this country, where they are rewarded fairly for their hard work, and supported properly when times are tough.

That isn’t asking for the earth, it’s the bare minimum we should expect.”

TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY | 13

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Billy Coates, Regional Secretary

every success”

“GMB Northern Region sends greetings to the May Day Rally

Post-school education should be a public good I AM DELIGHTED and honoured to be participating in your May Day event. My union, whose general secretary is this year’s TUC president, values its links to the wider labour movement very highly.

UCU always stands up both for its members and for the sectors we work in – colleges, prisons, universities, adult and community education. We want post-school education to be a public good, with proper public funding and decently paid and treated staff.

That is why we fight for students’ interests, for academic freedom and for good governance in our institutions, as well as against gender pay inequality, precarious employment and discriminatory treatment of staff.

Our dispute over the USS pension scheme has raised all these issues, from defending secure and decent pensions for staff to winning student solidarity, and debating democracy and fairness inside universities. It also joined us with other union struggles as when UCU members and cleaning staff also in dispute joined together for rallies at King’s College London It has also brought us international solidarity from union colleagues in from, among others, Canada, Turkey, New Zealand, France, Ireland, Australia and Germany, reminding us how important it is to create and maintain such solidarity. I am proud to play a part in UCU’s international work, working with Turkish, Colombian and Palestinian colleagues in defence

of trade union, educational, and human rights.

All these issues and activities bring us together around shared aims which we celebrate at these May Day events. UCU sends all colleagues its greetings and warm wishes for today and for a better future.

Joanna de Groot President, University and College Union

TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY | 15

UNITE THE UNION

North East, Yorkshire and Humberside Do you want to be

SAFER, STRONGER, & BETTER PAID?

Join Unite, the union that’s on your side Karen Reay

Regional Secretary

Dick Banks Regional Chair

facebook.com/uniteintheneyh @UniteintheNEYH www.unitetheunion.org/northeastyorkshirehumberside

“Our demands most moderate are” BRITISH WORKERS are suffering a decline in wages and living standards.

Some parts of the country have seen a fall in life expectancy too. Meanwhile, our increasingly overstretched and underfunded NHS continues to endure a slow death as it is gradually outsourced to private providers. Last November the British Medical Journal published a study showing that cuts to public spending were responsible for an additional 120,000 deaths, mostly amongst the elderly, between 2010 and 2017.

Rather than tackling a plethora of domestic problems, Teresa May’s government chooses to channel its energies into stoking up tensions with a foreign capitalist power. The recent explosion of Russophobia in the media, blaming Russia for a failed assassination attempt, serves as a useful distraction from domestic problems and the government’s mismanagement of Brexit. As members of the working class we need to challenge increasing jingoism and militarism to prevent the advent of a new cold war.

The British government continues to arm and train Ukraine’s armed forces who are engaged, alongside openly extreme-right paramilitary groups, in a war of aggression against their own people in the east of the country following an American-backed coup that brought a mixture of oligarchic and nationalist forces to power.

Far-right extremists played a significant role in the coup, acting as shock troops, whilst the coup was praised by a number of Western politicians who believed it would free Ukraine from the shadow of Russia, a country with which it has long been fused culturally and historically.

Antifascist forces in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine have succeeded in resisting the ongoing aggression and military incursions of the Kiev regime, even inflicting significant defeats upon these forces. However, people in the rest of Ukraine live in fear of arbitrary arrest and torture by the regime’s security apparatus. Since the murder of at least 48 civilians, who died after the trade union building in Odessa was set alight by a nationalist mob on the 2 May 2014, many trade unionists, communists and other opponents of the regime have also been threatened, killed or forced to flee.

Instead of improving the lives of British workers, our government also chooses to help its US allies bring ‘democracy’ (ie destruction) to Libya and Syria through the use of ‘moderate rebels’ and maintains cordial relations with Saudi Arabia whilst it continues its genocide in Yemen using UK-made cluster bombs.

We who create the world’s wealth need to take it back from the hands of the parasitic class. A century after an event that made the world’s kings and oligarchs rightfully tremble with fear, as our cowardly media flinch and traitors within the Labour Party sneer, let’s remember that without our brain and muscle not a single cog of the capitalist machine would turn.

To quote Irish revolutionary James Connolly “Our demands most moderate are – we only want the earth!”

Tomasz Pierscionek Doctor, journalist, activist in Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY | 17

Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union Welcomes friends, activites and comrades to the May Day Ralley and offers fraternal greetings to all.      

Keep the Guard on the Train / Keep the Railways Safe Defending our members within the Road Transport, Road Haulage Business, Buses and Taxi Cabs Defending Railway Core Jobs Defending the Maritime and Offshore Workers Fighting for public ownership, socialism and workers rights Repealing of the anti-trade Union laws

North East Regional Council

Regional Organisers

President Vice President Secretary Vice Secretary

Micky Thompson North East Regional Organiser Craig Johnson Relief Regional Organiser North Sean McGowan Relief Regional Organiser North

Mark Russell Martin McCleary Tim Butler David King

Offices RMT North East of England and North Yorkshire

South Shields Office: Unit 17, Cookson House, River Drive, South Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE33 1TL. Telephone: 0191 456 1308

18 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

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MUSIC – on the march, at the rally ...

BACKWORTH COLLIERY BAND

Six years in a row! The Backworth Colliery Band (www.backworthcollieryband.org.uk) are getting to be a tradition. But seriously, they always give good value, so we are very pleased to have them at the head of the march. The band recently competed at the North of England Regional Brass Band Contest in Durham, playing their test piece Napoleon on the Alps, which can be heard at https://soundcloud.com/adrian-mcmillan/backworth-bandnapoleon-on-the-alps.

As well as leading the march, the Backworth Band will get our rally off to a resounding start with their rendition of the miners’ hymn Gresford.

photo © Martin Levy

BETHANY ELEN COYLE and RON BROWN

photo © Martin Levy

As well as being members of the May Day Committee, Bethany and Ron will be familiar to many readers from previous May Day rallies and other demonstrations and events. They will do one song at the Monument and perhaps fill in a bit at the social at the Tyneside Irish Centre. photo © Martin Levy

20 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

... and at the Tyneside Irish Centre BEESWING

Beeswing will be the main performers at the social. The group came about nearly twenty years ago at the Beehive folk club near Whitley Bay and are based in South Northumberland. They consist of Dave, Christine, Fraser and Keith, who are all accomplished performers in their own right. They are a close-harmony, tradition-based folk group specialising in mainly acapella songs, occasionally with guitar accompaniment.

Beeswing have performed at the Sage Gateshead, Alnwick Garden, Seaton Delaval Hall, Northern Old Boats festival, local festivals, heritage sites, folk clubs, museums and celebrations of historical events.

The members of the group enjoy performing together and interaction with their audiences. They offer a selection of songs, some of which are well-known, and others which have been collected in our region over the years. Keith has written some songs which have become favourites, and Fire at Midnight is performed by other artists and has travelled across the world.

Their repertoire is mostly Photo © Beeswing songs from the mining, seafaring, Northumbrian and Tyneside communities, but the members have a vast collection from all round the world – and even as far as Scotland and Lancashire.

For 16 years Beeswing has organised and hosted the Annual New Hartley Memorial Concert every January which is the only extant celebration of local peoples’ history outside of the Northumberland and Durham Miners Galas and of course Tyne and Wear May Day. The folk tradition in the UK is probably the only place where there is regular appreciation of songs of working peoples’ struggles against injustice down the years, thus keeping alive the messages for those who wish to hear. So: Raise Your Banners High!

March On! Beeswing are available to perform at events – call Dave for any enquiries 07967198430

CatwitchCreative Graphic Design/Video

sends May Day greetings

www.CatwitchCreative.co.uk

The May Day Committee gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Musicians’ Union towards the provision of live music at our event.

TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY | 21

NORTH EAST

FRATERNAL GREETINGS TO THE TYNE AND WEAR MAY DAY MARCH AND RALLY Tony Curry

Regional Secretary

Andy Noble EC Member

North East ad - MAYDAY.indd 1

22 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

Dave Howe

Regional Treasurer

Russ King

Regional Chair 4/10/17 4:27 PM

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Tyne & Wear County Association of Trades Union Councils Welcomes all participants in

Tyne & Wear MayTyne Day 2018 & Wear May Day 2017

Tyne & Wear May Day 2017 Tyne && Wear May Day 2017 Tyne Wear May Day 2017 & Wear Day Tyne && Wear May Day 2016 20162016 TyneTyne Wear May May Day

Tyne & Wear May Day 2016

and sends solidarity greetings to Chair: Dave Allan Dave Allan Chair: Dave Allan Allan Chair: Chair: workers in struggle throughout the world Secretary: Tom Foster Secretary: Gordon Chalk Secretary: Secretary: Tom Foster Foster

Treasurer: Garry Rowley 7UHDVXUHU 0HPEHUVKLS 2I¿FHU *DUU\ 5RZOH\ 7UHDVXUHU 0HPEHUVKLS 2I¿FHU *DUU\ 5RZOH\ E-mails: gordonchalk@outlook.com

7UHDVXUHU 0HPEHUVKLS 2I¿FHU *DUU\ 5RZOH\ E-mails: garry.rowley@unitetheunion.org

E-mails:garry.rowley@unitetheunion.org garry.rowley@unitetheunion.org E-mails: Chair: Dave Allan Secretary: Martin Levy e. twcatuc@aol.co.uk

Gateshead Local Government Branch

Fraternal Greetings on May Day Defend Public Services!

Fight Austerity!

TYNESIDE ENGINEERING BRANCH

For international Strike forSolidarity!

,

Strike for Don’t let the racists divide us, higher wages One World One Struggle! fight for higher pay higher wages

t. 0191 477 6638 e. info@gatesheadunison.co.uk Suite 5, New Century House, West Street, Gateshead NE8 1HR 22 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2017

NE/405/28 S&GI BRANCH

Strike for

,

ishigher proud to support wages Tyne & Wear May Day 2018

Chair: Dave Allan Secretary: Tom Foster Treasurer/Membership Officer: Garry Rowley E-mails: garry.rowley@unitetheunion.org TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY | 23

On 5 May 1818, exactly 200 years ago from the date of our May Day rally, Karl Marx was born in Trier, Prussia, Germany. Why is Marx important to us today?

Firstly, because so much of his analysis of the way that capitalism works remains relevant. In his monumental Das Kapital he showed that capitalism is a system characterised by commodity production, where the value of everything is determined by the socially necessary labour time required to produce it; and where one commodity, human labour power, has the property of creating more value than is required for its production.

This is the source of capitalist profit, which is the driving force behind the continued reinvestment of capital, which continues until the market is saturated and economic crisis follows, before the cycle is repeated.

Secondly, Marx and his lifelong associate Friedrich Engels challenged the then prevailing ways of looking at the world and human history – either mechanical, with the world as a machine, or idealist, in that ideas or spiritual movers are primary. They considered the material world as primary but – taking on board the dialectics of German idealist philosopher Hegel – they recognised that nature and society were in constant movement, driven by the struggle of opposites. Hence what has been called “historical and dialectical materialism”, and the statement in the 1848 Manifesto of the Communist Party that “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles – freeman and slave, patrician and 24 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

KARL MARX

plebeian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman, in a word oppressor and oppressed …”

In 1848 and today: capitalists and workers.

Third, Marx was first to identify the state as not neutral but an instrument of class rule – explained most clearly in his The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852) – and the first to explain how to construct socialism, initially in the Communist Manifesto, but more clearly in the Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875), where he characterised socialism as a transition stage towards a society underpinned by the principle, “From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.”

Fourth, Marx was an internationalist: the Communist Manifesto’s “Working people of all countries unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains” was a statement that local, national and international solidarity is essential against the common ruling class enemies. And Marx and Engels were instrumental in establishing the first international organisations committed to such principles – the Communist League, and later the International Working Men’s Association.

Finally, Marx was also an environmentalist. As he wrote in Das Kapital, Volume 1, capitalism proceeds by “undermining the original sources of all wealth – the soil and the worker”.

Furthermore, as a recent study has shown, he was much concerned in his later years about the impact that capitalist agriculture was having on the environment – not just dispossessing the

BICENTENARY

peasantry but degrading the quality of the soil.

In contrast to many other countries, the labour movement in Britain existed before Marx. So its early ideas and organisational methods were largely coloured by the protestant nonconformism of its pioneers. But insofar as it has developed a theory about how capitalism works, and a programme for socialism, these have been based on a sort of simplified Marxism.

We are so used to images of the fullbearded, sagacious Marx that there is a tendency to overlook the dynamic young revolutionary who became that sage.

When Marx and Engels wrote the Communist Manifesto, they were not yet 30 years old. Raoul Peck’s recent film, The Young Karl Marx, which had its British premiere at the AV Festival in Newcastle on 4 March this year, is a graphic imagining of the intertwining lives of Marx, Engels, and their respective partners Jenny von Westphalen and Mary Burns, from late 1842 until the publication of the Manifesto. I say “imagining”, because it is clearly impossible to encapsulate, in a movie of just under two hours, the full extent of Marx’s and Engels’ political activity and theoretical development during that period. But Peck’s portrayal certainly displays the spirit.

In the first place Marx and Engels themselves are presented as warm, rounded, courageous individuals – Marx often with the fire of determination in his eyes – who enjoy drinking, good food, argument, smoking cigars (Marx particularly), chess, and romance with their respective partners. August Diehl

(Marx) and Stefan Konarske (Engels) certainly look the part; and the frequent shifts in dialogue between German and French (both with subtitles) and English also adds to the credibility of the portrayals. We see Karl and Jenny’s growing family life, but also the poverty they faced in exile in Paris, and when they are deported from there at 24 hours notice (in real life it was a bit longer). But Jenny and Mary are not just there for domestic interest, rather being shown as participants in the debates and discussions about the revolutionary struggle and project.

At the outset the film points to the expanding capitalist development in Britain, and the crisis in the absolute monarchies of continental Europe. We see the cruel situation facing the woodgatherers in the Rhine province (leading to Marx’s articles in the Rheinische Zeitung), the harsh working conditions in the Engels family factory in Manchester, and the terrible living conditions around the factory. The opening captions say that “Workers’ organisations are founded, based on a ‘communist’ utopia in which all men are brothers. Two young Germans will disrupt this notion, thereby transforming the struggle … and the world’s future.”

And so they did, by demonstrating that the key issues were class struggle, and the sweeping away of the capitalist order. Of course they were not alone, for they were part of the ferment of ideas at the time, learning from them, refining their own conceptions and winning supporters for their own position. This TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY | 25

ferment is represented in the film by real personages such as the ‘Young Hegelian’ Ruge, the anarchists Proudhon and Bakunin, the ‘true socialist’ Grün, the ‘utopian socialist’ Weitling, and Joseph Moll, one of the London leaders of the German League of the Just.

It is to Peck’s credit that he has been able to render into simple terms the arguments and attitudes of these protagonists, and the responses of Marx and Engels. The Holy Family, against the Young Hegelians, and Marx’s The Poverty of Philosophy, against Proudhon, are presented as key stages in these debates. We also see Marx explaining to Paris workers the basis of exploitation – although at that stage he had not drawn a clear distinction between labour and labour power.

There are a number of instances where the film does not stick to historical facts.

But this is a drama, not a documentary, so such aspects and omissions must be allowed, given the overall thrust. In fact there are little glimpses here and there – eg Engels complimenting Marx for inverting Hegel’s dialectics, and Marx later saying, “The philosophers have 26 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

interpreted the world, the point is to change it” – which indicate that Peck knows his stuff, and is hinting that viewers should read Marx, a message reinforced when he has Weitling, challenged

by Marx, shouting “We have had enough of theory.”

The final scenes of the film, with key passages from the Communist Manifesto read against the background of industrial machinery in motion, emphasise the continued significance of this seminal work of Marx and Engels in today’s society of globalised monopoly capitalism. This film is thoroughly recommended: it is unfortunately not yet on general release in Britain, but is available (perhaps pirated?) on YouTube.

Meanwhile, Britain’s labour movement please take note: Marx is still relevant today and his most significant writings should be studied. The labour movement needs theory.

Martin Levy Marx200, a major international conference celebrating Marx’s life and work, and organised by the Marx Memorial Library, takes place in London on Saturday 5 May. Speakers’ contributions are likely to be published in a legacy booklet.

Image: Still from The Young Marx.

Engels (August Diehl) and Marx (Stefan Konarske) in Paris in 1844

07946 457 884 01670 717738

NORTH TYNESIDE TUC

unite unite against against racism racism

County Association of Trades Union Councils

Says SENDS unions to support NO Joanna de Groot MAY DAY Fraternal SallyGreetings Hunt to to Tyne & Wear May Day GREETINGS Elected Defending jobs, Mayors conditions and pay.

Sends May Day ales) greetings welcomes our president

best to all all best wishes wishes to volunteers and volunteers and familiesFor involved inin families involved the 2018 tyne tyne && wear the 2018 wear Internationalism march and and rally march and rally

Exit’ to a find‘People’s out more about usdaw visit: www.usdaw.org.uk to find out more about usdaw visit:

www.usdaw.org.uk from the 2EU hedley court

orion 2business hedleypark court shields orionnorth business park ne29 7st north shields 0191 296 5333 ne29 7st

Opposing privatisation

Contact Secretary:Ian Ian Ayres Ayres 07946 457 884 01670 717738

0191 296 5333

TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2017 | 33 TUC Tyne & Wear May Day 0318.indd 1

TUC Tyne & Wear May Day 0318.indd 1

County Association of Trades Union Councils

05/03/2018 10:47

05/03/2018 10

SENDS not war UniteDialogue to driveto out the vicious unions support Torynot government Con-Dem government Jobs missiles MAY DAY Fraternal Freedom not Greetings repression Sally Hunt Unite to drive out the vicious Unite to drive out the viscious Tory GREETINGS Con-Dem government Tory government government President: Martin Levy Secretary: Jim Simpkin Treasurer: Alan Lubbock

4 Cloth Market, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1EE President: Martin Levy

www.newcastle-tuc.org.uk www.newcastle-tuc.org.uk

Secretary: Jim Simpkin Defending jobs, Treasurer: Alan Lubbock

conditions and pay.

Opposing privatisation 4 Cloth Market, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1EE

www.newcastle-tuc.org.uk www.newcastle-tuc.org.uk www.newcastle-tuc.org.uk

TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2017 | 33

TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2017 ...

Chi Onwurah MP

Newcastle People’s Street Orchestra

Dave Archibald, Chief Steward

Photos © Martin Levy and Jim Simpkin

Daniel Kebede

Anne Stokle

Backworth Colliery Band

Jorge García

...WORKERS’ RIGHTS ...

Alex Snowdon

Roger Nettleship

Soznak

Julia Armstrong

... AND INTERNATIONALISM Photos © Martin Levy and Jim Simpkin

Criag Craig Johnston

Megan Charlton

Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign

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Tyne & Wear County Association of Trades Union Councils

Calls on allin Welcomes unions2017 unions to support the People’s Tyne and Wear Assembly Centre Against Against Unemployment Austerity

Secretary: Kevin Flynn

Tel: 0191 232 4606 & WEAR DAY 2017| | 23 TYNETYNE & WEAR MAYMAY DAY 2016 25

NO MORE TUC AUSTERITY Sends

Day greetings Ian Ayres

May Day greetings from

THEMEM NEWCASTLE PALESTINE SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN Wallsend Memorial Hall and People’s Centre

Solidarity from the Sends Tyne to Palestine May Day greetings

https://www.facebook.com/ WallsendMEM www.newcastlepsc.org e. newcastlepsc.gmail.com https://wallsendmem.co.uk Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign

32 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2018

32 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2017

30

NO MORE MORE NO AUSTERITY AUSTERITY The NUT-section of the National Education Union is proud to support the Tyne & Wear May Day March and Rally.

MayDay Daygreetings greetings from May from

NEWCASTLEPALESTINE PALESTINE NEWCASTLE SOLIDARITYCAMPAIGN CAMPAIGN SOLIDARITY

Solidarityfrom fromthe the Solidarity TynetotoPalestine Palestine Tyne

The National Education Union will fight for a fairlyfunded education system, with highly trained and qualified teachers and educational professionals who have manageable workloads, fair pay and good working conditions .

The National Education Union: “Shaping the future of education”

Neu.org.uk

NORTH TYNESIDE TUC

Newcastle Stop the War Coalition Greetings to all for May Day 2016 Greetings to all for May Day 2017

Greetingsto to all all for 2016 Greetings to May Day 2017 Greetings forMay MayDay Day 2018

Says NO to Elected Mayors

Sends May Day ales) greetings

www.newcastlepsc.org www.newcastlepsc.org e. newcastlepsc.gmail.com e. newcastlepsc.gmail.com Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign Newcastle Palestine Solidarity Campaign

n a n t a sits i k a k PPa ForFor peace internationalism Internationalism and anda non-neoliberal exit a ‘People’s Exit’ from the the EU from EU

Contact Secretary:Ian Ian Ayres Ayres www.stopwar.org.uk 07946 457 884 717738 email: 01670 stopthewarcoalition@gmail.com & WEAR MAY DAY 2017 23 TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2016 | || 33 25 TYNE & TYNE WEAR DAY 2017 &MAY WEAR MAY DAY TYNE & TYNE WEAR MAY DAY 2016 | | 23 25

“GMB Northern Region sends greetings to the May Day Rally and wishes the day Greetings Fraternal Greetings Fraternal Greetings every success” Fraternal Fraternal Greetings May Day Day 2014 2017 2016 for May Day Day 2017 2016 for May forCoates, May 2014 Billy Regional Secretary for On behalf of HMRC Benton Park View

On behalf of HMRC Benton Park View

GMBSecretary: Northern Jean Region, 1 Mosley Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1Manuel 1YE Branch Secretary: Jean Branch Manuel Join or follow us today: Tel: 0191 233 3930Mo Lumb Fax: 0191 233 3931 Tel: 0845 Email: Branch Chair: Mo Lumb 300northern@gmb.org.uk 1669 Branch Chair: Email: secretary@newcastle.nut.org.uk www.gmbnorthern.org.uk t: 0191 225 3229 t: 0191www.gmb.org.uk 225 3229 Website: www.newcastlenut.com Tweet: @NewcastleNUT e: PCSLongbenton@gmail.com e: PCSLongbenton@gmail.com 18 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2017

Socialist Appeal Northern Region Mayday Greetings 1917-2017

Socialist Appeal Northern Region Mayday 1917-2017 MayGreetings Day Greetings

May Day Greetings from the North East Labour History Society For events to mark our Fifty-

Published fortnightly

www.socialist.net

Jubilee go www.socialist.net to Published Year fortnightly www.nelh.net

May Day greetings from Fraternal greetings from allgreetings at theOF WOMEN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY Fraternal

No to Racism!

No to Trumpism!

Struggle!

Solidarity!

Socialism!

Yes to Socialism!

Formore More details Details Contact: For contact: 07841144890 07841144890 34| |TYNE TYNE&&WEAR WEARMAY MAYDAY DAY2017 2018 34

(North from all atEast) the GMB No toNorthumberland Racism! No to Trumpism!

Northumberland Yes to Socialism! Branch Local LocalAuthority Authority Branch

For More Details Contact:

Secretary: Andrew Gibson Tel: 01670 622 952

07841144890 For more details contact 07478 314 289 34 | TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2017

TYNE & WEAR MAY DAY 2017 | 35

May Day greetings from the PCS Northern regional committee, branches, members and staff

ALL PUBLIC SECTOR WORKERS DESERVE A PAY RISE! 3&6 1RUWKHUQ UHJLRQ RIÆ‚FH Unite House, John Dobson Street, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, NE1 8TW Telephone 0191 222 0330. Email northern@pcs.org.uk

Public CommercialServices Services Union Public and and Commercial Union| pcs.org.uk | pcs.org.uk