Unity!@unite 2016 wednesday

unity!@unite

Wednesday 13July 2016 communist-party.org.uk

Britain's decision to leave the EU will be welcomed by many trade unionists, socialists and communists across Europe who are resisting EU-driven or EUbacked austerity, privatisation and 'labour flexibility' measures.

We salute the courageous people of Greece who have been bearing the brunt of the EU-IMF austerity offensive. Their experience alerted millions of British voters to the class and antidemocratic character of the EU and the dangers of continued membership.

The referendum result has already been welcomed by communist and workers' parties in Portugal, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Belgium and the former Yugoslavia and by militant trade unionists in France.

It should inspire all left and progressive forces in Europe to consider how best to strengthen cooperation and solidarity between the peoples and nations of Europe.

Picture left shows Greek trade unionists protecting their anti austerity demonstration against police and provocateurs

Britain can exit left with a Labour government by

RobeRt GRiffiths

T

hE EU ExIT vote was primarily an expression of working class anger and frustration that government, political parties and politicians do not represent them in matters of employment, education, housing, public services and their overall quality of life.

Other concerns included the erosion of sovereignty and self-government and the real or perceived consequences of mass immigration – the common theme of all the right-wing, pro-Leave media.

The result represents a huge blow potentially to the ruling capitalist class in Britain, its hired politicians and its imperialist allies in the EU, the USA, the IMF and NATO. The immediate strategy of all shades of the pro-EU right has been to attempt a

double coup against democracy – against the democratic will of the people of Britain to leave the EU and against the democratic election of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader.

We call on left and progressive forces to defend the principle of democracy and turn this referendum result into a widescale defeat for the whole EU-IMFNATO axis.

There are new freedoms available when we have a government willing to exercise them. Westminster and also the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland legislatures can now decide whether and how to finance public expenditure and support strategic industries and services. They can intervene in the economy to ensure planned, balanced and sustainable development – something outlawed in the capitalist ‘law of the jungle’ that is the European Union.

Neither Cameron nor his successor can

by Joanne stevenson

We can E win the battle for equality

qUaLITY anD jUsTICE for all will never come to pass without peace. It is no coincidence that more women and children than men are killed, injured and violated by war and comprise the majority of refugees in the world. in britain, it’s now accepted that austerity has a disproportionate and devastating impact on the lives of women. this should not be allowed to continue, especially as it is often a direct result of their caring role in the family.

Women should not have to shoulder the brunt of the attacks. the deliberate destruction of the services supplied by the nhs, the public sector generally, and

be trusted to negotiate Britain's exit from the EU in the best interests of the country as a whole. Whoever gets the key to No 10 would cave in to the pressures from the City of London and big business either to frustrate Britain's exit or leave on terms which maintain 'free market' freedoms for monopoly capital while punishing the people with more austerity.

The only consistently democratic solution is to hold a General Election so that electors can decide who should represent them in the EU exit negotiations.

Jeremy Corbyn is the only party leader who can be trusted to negotiate an EU exit in the interests of the working class and peoples of Britain.

The shameful attacks on him are intended to prevent the election of a Labour government headed by a socialist who has opposed every EU treaty along the road to an anti-democratic, militarist and imperialist United States of Europe.

local councils has already resulted in millions of women workers losing semidecent jobs, being forced to accept low paid, part-time or zero-hours contracts. at the same time, many will be stepping in personally to fill the gaping holes left by disappearing services. their connection could be as employee, mother, aunt, daughter, grandmother, distant relative, friend, neighbour. of course some men will do this but, if you’re a woman, it’s twice as hard. if you’re a young or a black woman you need to start believing in luck. if a young, disabled black woman, you’re hoping for a miracle. not only are women having increasingly to take on caring of the disabled and the elderly, they work in less and less rewarding ‘precarious’ jobs. the

Those pro-EU Labour MPs involved in the coup attempt have lost touch with millions of working class people on this and other issues and are in danger of allowing the drift of working class electors to UKIP to continue.

How heartening to see the spontaneous demonstrations in Corbyn’s support and to learn that 60,000 people joined the Labour Party in the last week of June!

Between now and the next General Election, a resurgence of industrial and popular action against Tory policies of austerity, privatisation, nuclear rearmament and imperialist war would greatly increase the prospect of victory for a left-led Labour Party. This, in turn, would make possible the transformation of ‘Brexit’ into a ‘Lexit’, an exit from the EU to the left.

RobeRt GRiffiths is GeneRal secRetaRy of communist PaRty

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difficulty of getting affordable, decent childcare is now so great it makes work impossible for some. other women, if there are any available in the family, are then forced - even expected - to help, if they can. thus, more and more women are no longer able to work. changes to the benefit system have increased family poverty and driven rising numbers into rent arrears, fuel poverty and dependence upon food banks. this should not be so, not in the 21st century in a developed nation.

We should have decent childcare available for all who need it. it should be possible to have affordable adequate housing. a safe place for all to live should be a human right. children need to grow in

ANOTHER EUROPE IS POSSIBLE ANOTHER EU IS NOT During the referendum campaign we were alarmed at the way senior Labour politicians rubbished the past achievements of trade unions and Labour governments. In arguing the case for Britain remaining in the European Union, they seemed to attribute almost all progressive workplace reforms to the EU and the now nearly defunct social Chapter.

It was as though the decades of industrial action and mass campaigning for trade union recognition, collective bargaining rights, the right to strike, equal pay for women, a national minimum wage and higher standards of health and safety had never happened.

Yet it was Labour governments which passed the Employment Protection act, the health and safety at Work act, the national Minimum Wage act, the Trade Union act and much else besides.

European treaties expressly exclude any EU-wide legislation to enforce trade union recognition, the right to strike or a statutory minimum wage. now the decision to leave the EU has been taken, workers will no longer be bound by these treaties nor by any of the EU court rulings outlawing industrial action and national legislation to enforce equal treatment for imported or ‘posted’ workers.

These new won freedoms could provide the opportunity to strengthen our ability to fight the Trade Union act and create more favourable negotiating conditions.

Trade unionists need to regain the confidence sapped by decades of anti-union attacks, the lack of manufacturing investment and privatisation and fight for our place at the negotiating table with the ultimate aim to restore full sectoral collective bargaining for all industries and services. We call on the Labour Party to make this a manifesto commitment.

safety and security. Women should not have the ability to live without fear of violence.

We can do better as a society, but only if a real commitment to economic equality is seen by everyone as vital to the success of all. Women’s experiences, skills and abilities are crucial to building a society that benefits the majority of people and delivers a progressive, social and political alternative. it’s time for real investment in society.

We should not have to choose but our nation should be able to fully fund everything that matters - health, education, public housing, and transport. not only to improve well-being but also to create jobs. continued overleaf

Groucho unions must organise, is back! agitate and educate Y youth

by

oWain holland

T

RaDE UnIonIsTs know that the zenith of organised labour coincided with the most equal society ever seen in Britain. Wages were higher and working class people were better off in the past because of our unions. since then we were victim to a rulingclass offensive that defeated the militant union movement. this allowed the law to be re-written leaving unions in a weaker position to act as vehicles for working class struggle. this caused the decline of union membership. a stagnation associated with the type of employment now available, casualisation of labour; zero hours contracts, low pay, little opportunities for advancement and increasing isolation from the products of labour. these affect young workers most and the trade union movement in general and the left in particular needs to reach out to organise young people.

We are still under attack and must begin by combating the lack of classconsciousness among today's youth. one of the taskswe face is making unions relevant to young people. We need to inform young workers about what unions can do. many people see unions as purely defensive 'insurance' organisations. many may think it worth paying sometimes costly dues to keep themselves secure-if they are getting paid well enough. many young people are not paid well, and may see dues as an expense by

Ryan boyle

T

hE LasT FEW years have been quite significant for the political development of young people, particularly in scotland. We have seen 16- and 17year olds given the vote in the scottish parliamentary and local council elections and with it, an expectation that policies from the various parties will now attempt to engage young voters. It is to be hoped that this will eventually be extended to elections in Westminster, with only the Tories against.

What has been lacking in scotland, and across these islands more generally, is class politics. the dominant analysis has been that of identity, imagined or otherwise, rather than concrete social and material conditions. the scottish independence referendum evoked feelings of national identity and included a broad appeal across social divisions which is incompatible with a genuine class analysis. all too often, the trade union development of young members has focused mostly on the day-to-day duties of trade union activity, which is unsurprising, but has come at the expense

that can be foregone.

We need to inform young workers that unions don't have to be simply defensive and that they can be proactive taking the fight to the bosses to secure gains in terms of pay and conditions. young workers are the future and if we fail to recruit them then unions will cease to exist in mere decades. to engage with the wider group of unorganised young workers unions must listen to their young members who are far more likely to understand the problems in reaching out to their colleagues.

Recruiting workers into unions may secure better futures but it is only the start of permanently changing society for the better, one which must harness the potential power of organised labour, the trade union movement, to secure a socialist society. in the past year the prospects for working class advance have been transformed by the changes in the labour Party, driven by anger at the tory government, the mass movement against austerity led by the Peoples assembly, by a resurgent anti war movement headed by stop the War and cnd. the communist Party and young communists have played a full part in these movements and work in unity with all on the left. beyond our shared immediate aims communists work for a socialist britain, an end to exploitation and oppression. a state in which the working class is the ruling class. oWain holland is GeneRal secRetaRy of younG communist leaGue (ycl)

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of a political education or any long term vision for the development of society. it is reactive rather than proactive. this mode of operating is widespread, and not just among young members. all unions should unashamedly pursue a programme which develops the political understanding of its membership rather than the sanitised and defensive posturing it takes on issues of the day. as trade unionists and socialists, we should be advocating a radical reorganisation of social conditions, not merely reacting to events in a narrowly defined and apolitical way. We must give our members the tools to analyse events from a class perspective. this education is critical for young members who will eventually go on to play leading roles in their respective unions. We have seen positive steps with the increased organisation and consolidation of the labour left but it is important that this is amplified within the trade union movement as a whole. When our class recognises itself as a class of itself and for itself, it is then we can shape society in our interest.

Es, oUR FEaRLEss commentator, Watt Thomson, slips us some pithy comment about the current crisis in the Labour Party and I pass on. sad, of course, but if you didn’t laugh what would you do? The water off West Pier just isn’t deep enough. my old mucker, `uncle’ tom Watson, clearly has a future career in the movies, what with his stormin’ comic interpretation of the role of darth vader in the Westminster amateur dramatic society’s rendition of the Empire Strikes Back. tom, of course, was first propelled into the stars from labour students by sir Kenneth Joseph Jackson, once described as “tony blair's favourite trade unionist”. a brief history lesson – it was Jackson who signed off on uncle tom’s first proper job, as political officer for the amalgamated engineering and electrical union (now part of unite), which he inherited from John spellar, now a black country mP. sir Ken Jackson, later joint general secretary of amicus, had long been one of those Genghis Khan supporters in charge of the electrical, electronic, telecommunications and Plumbing union (eetPu). yes, that one. expelled in 1987 from the tuc for signing no-strike deals with companies where it had no members, so as to stop proper unions organising.

Jackson was also vice-president of the trade union committee for european and transatlantic understanding (tucetu), an organisation “with close links to nato and the cia”. spellar’s politics allow him to be a key member of the london-based henry Jackson society advisory council, which harbours those who believe in ‘muscular liberalism’ of the kind so slated in the chilcot Report. an independent report on the society and its funding found that “like the british signatories, many of the mostly american patrons were associated with the

coup – because it was said to have been campaign for war in iraq, particularly through lobbying organisations such as the organized by Watson at the bilash Project for a new american century and restaurant in Wolverhampton.

Rather than blair resigning, Watson was the committee for the liberation of made to go. though, when Gordon iraq”. seemingly, Watson’s grandparents were brown eventually became prime minister, he became “minister for digital firm and loyal communists in sheffield, whilst it’s said that their son – tom’s dad - engagement”. Watson was then implicated in an attempted coup against rebelled and became one of those who tried to destroy the cP in the 1980s. We brown. until today, many thought tom’s shouldn’t expect miracles, the apple can’t latest plot ought to be named chicken curry 3 but maybe Empire Strikes Back 3 fall too far from the tree, even if the works best? original seed was first planted far away. the lurch to the right that labour took it is said that Watson used hull after the miner’s strike was a direct result university rugby club to “seize control of of forces that have reappeared in the student union”. he did find time, however, to write for Bottoms Up, a guide desperation. they used to be called to the best pubs in hull, so there must be labour solidarity, forward labour, and the st ermin’s Group of union leaders: some redeeming features… “frank chapple and his lieutenant, John campaigning for abolition of clause 4 spellar, terry duffy, Roy Grantham, and must have helped Watson get the safe ‘Jackboot charlie’ tunnock”. the latter seat of West bromwich east in 2001, named for his role as chairman of labour succeeding the now baron snape of Wednesbury. investigated for “willingness Party witch-hunts. each of these groups would subsequently claim credit for to breach the code of conduct”, the ‘saving the party they loved’, a phrase that house Privileges committee had seems pretty current, methinks. now concluded that snape did not “express who is Princess leia in this scenario? clear willingness to [act] in return for financial inducement” but did invite him to aren't all the female characters supposed to be goodies not baddies? make a personal statement of apology. tom made an early name for himself in the media as darth-a-Quote by thundering about the release of Gary Glitter’s new Parliamentary album after prison Christmas cracker riddle . release, calling for a how does thus sum work? legal ban as if glam 172 = 500,000... a snippet submitted by the rock might labour mP who thinks there are basically three influence children. kinds of people in the world - those who can other important count and those who can't ... statements followed. and the answer is 499,828! -:) Prince charles should happy? buy british cars. an id entitlement card could tackle immigration. he only supported iraq because mPs should always vote loyally for the leadership, otherwise “it harms the party”.

Running a by-election campaign in birmingham hodge hill, in the wake of the iraq War, one of tom’s leaflets proclaimed “labour is on your side, the lib dems are on the side of failed asylum seekers”. in september 2006, he promoted a round-robin letter calling on blair to resign. it was dubbed the curry house

skills that boosts employment and gender equality. it’s time to create social security and it’s time for free universal education pensions systems that ensure that women and childcare, that not just to keep our and men are supported throughout their kids out of trouble until they can sit behind a cash register or stack shelves but whole lifetime. the removal of women from the truly train the future generation in useful Continued from page 1

workplace - and from participation in decision-making in public life and the wider social sphere - impoverishes the whole labour movement and must be challenged as a direct, deliberate and fundamentally divisive attack on the working class and its struggle for a just and socialist future.

Recognising the diversity of the working class, the communist Party supports the struggle for equality of women, black and minority ethnic communities, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and people with disabilities. We welcome the work done by disability campaigners in challenging the impact of the austerity agenda. attitudes towards equality issues continue to be problematic in the labour movement, attacks on the principles of self-organisation will always impact on us all negatively. fighting just on a selfconstructed identity alone can lead to being on the wrong side of history. the fight for equality for all cannot be separated from the interests of the working class as a whole, or even posed against specific sections. the fight for women’s equality can never be separate from the fight for lGbt equality, or for the needs of black and ethnic minority women. Working class men could be the most significant allies of such a movement if we move forward united. united we can fight the narrow interests of what is actually a minority of the population - white posh, straight middle aged men.

Joanne stevenson is a membeR of the cP executive committee and convenes the

Ryan boyle is a membeR of the younG communist leaGue scottish committee

PaRty’s Peace advisoRy