Come to socialism 2012 this weekend 3rd 4th November

This weekend sees the socialist party’s annual showcase event a weekend of debate and discussion from some great top speakers. This year will be very good with so much going on in this country and around the globe. Join the fightback. Fight the 1%. Fight for socialism. Socialism 2012 is a crucial event for all those fighting back. We are living in a time of mass movements. Millions have taken part in strikes and demonstrations against the Con Dem government and their cuts. Across Europe, mass resistance is meeting capitalist austerity. The Middle East remains in turmoil. The millions of workers and youth who overthrew dictators refuse to allow their achievement to be snatched back. Across the world the 99% are rising up against the 1%. To win, we need to arm ourselves with the best ideas, the clearest alternatives, and the correct strategy. Socialism 2012 Rallies ________________________________________ Saturday Rally Kick out the Con-Dems Build a 24-hour general strike 6.30pm Saturday 3 November Friends Meeting House, Euston Road Speakers include: Bob Crow, RMT transport union general secretary; Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary; Hoshoko Letshoba, a South African miners' leader; Keith Morrell, Southampton 'rebel' councillor; and more... Tickets from www.socialism2012.org.uk ________________________________________ Closing rally Rally for Socialism 3pm Sunday 4 November Friends Meeting House, Euston Road Speakers include: Hannah Sell, Socialist party deputy general secretary; Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary ________________________________________ ________________________________________ Register for the Socialism 2012 workshops and debates from Saturday at 2pm at University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY Aswell as our excellent rally’s on both nights we have a wide range of workshops and smaller debates focusing on more indepth issues. I will be speaking at the disability one if your interested in hearing about how we can fight the attacks on the disabled. 3pm Saturday Theme Saturday 3pm Speakers Introducing Socialism Is human nature too greedy for socialism? Sean Figg, Socialism 2012 organiser Introducing Marxism Marxist Philosophy: using dialectical materialism Robin Clapp, South West Socialist Party region secretary World Economic Crisis Can capitalism escape economic crisis? Is socialism viable? Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary Politics Murdochgate scandal & Leveson: a socialist programme for the media Judy Beishon, Socialist Party executive committee Society Are the police just a tool of the government? Nick Chaffey, Southern Socialist Party region secretary Programme 5 years since Northern Rock: a socialist programme for the banks Jane James Welfare vs Workfare How can we stop the ConDems attacks on the disabled? tbc Fight austerity Where next for the fight against austerity? Can we bring the government down? Rob Williams, National Shop Stewards Network & John Mcinally, PCS vice-president Internationalism Sri Lanka: a new epoch of struggle Senan, Tamil Solidarity & Frint Line Socialist Party of Sri Lanka Internationalism Spain in revolt Spanish socialists Science Can we have green growth & do we need it? Pete Dickinson, author Planing for the Planet & Clive Lord, founder member of the Green Party (personal capacity) Other The role of popular culture in normalising sexism Sarah Wrack, Rape is No Joke organiser 10am Sunday Theme Sunday AM Speakers Introducing Socialism How could a planned economy work? Alistair Tice, Yorkshire Socialist Party region secretary Introducing Marxism Historical materialism: how Marxists understand progress Ken Douglas, Socialist Party executive committee Politics Should Scotland be independent? Philip Stott, Socialist Party Scotland Society The Royal delusion Becci Heagney, Socialist Party national committee What we stand for Does the Occupy movement offer a new way to change the world? Sarah Sachs, editor The Socialist Welfare vs Workfare How can we defeat workfare? Paul Callanan, Youth Fight for Jobs & Boycott Workfare Fight austerity How to stop the sell off of the NHS Dr Jackie Grunsell & Roger Davey, Unison Wiltshire & Avon Health Service chair (personal capacity) Internationalism Syria, imperialism and the Arab revolutions Niall Mulholland, CWI & eyewitness to Tahrir Square Internationalism After the Venezuelan elections: what prospect for socialism in Latin America? Tony Saunois, CWI secretary Science The God particle, science and Marxism Pete Mason, author Science, Marxism and the Big Bang Other 1972: the general strike that never was. The lessons for today Other LGBT: 40 years of pride. 1pm Sunday Theme Sunday PM Speakers Introducing Socialism Is the Russian Revolution relevant today? Ben Robinson, Socialist Party national committee Introducing Marxism An introduction to Marxist economics Lenny Shail, Socialist Party national committee World economic crisis What future for the European Uniion? Lynn Walsh, editor Socialism Today Politics Is the Labour Party a vehicle for socialism? Owen Jones, journalist & author of 'Chavs' & Clive Heemskerk, Socialist Party executive committee Society The Hillsborough cover up: what does it say about the role of the police, media and government? Tony Mulhearn, Liverpool mayoral candidate What we stand for Immigration: a socialist programme Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary Welfare vs Workfare Scroungers? The role of unemployment in capitalist economy & the ideology of the 'benefit culture' Dave Griffiths, West Midlands Socialist Party region secretary Fight austerity How can councillors fight the cuts? Harry Smith, Liverpool 47 & Dave Nellist, TUSC chair Internationalism Campaign Kazakhstan Clare Doyle, CWI Internationalism South Africa erupts: what does the miners struggle represent? South African miner & eyewitness to Rustenburg Other How do we combat the growth of the far right? United or popular fronts? Paula Mitchell, London Socialist Party region secretary

Support the Austerity Games today, giving young people a voice to fightback !

Today takes place the austerity games in London on the doorstep of the Olympic village on Hackney Marsh's. At 2pm today the Austerity Games takes place organised by Youth Fight for jobs a organisation set up in 2009 with official union backing from multiple trade unions and with good solid links to the working class. The austerity games is a bit of fun but also with a serious point to highlight the plight of young people today in London and Britain as we see billions wasted on the corperate Olympic games.

Suzanne Beishon, London organiser, Youth Fight for Jobs and Education

A staggering £24 billion is expected to be spent on the Olympic Games, but young people face little enjoyment and no long term benefit from this costly outlay.

The inaccessible ticketing system means that most people living on the doorstep of the games will be watching the events through TV screens. Promises of jobs, homes and services from the Olympics already lie in the gutter.

An Olympic Development Authority report showed that, from 2008 until 2011, only 1,580 unemployed people got jobs on the Olympic site. Only 205 were from the Hackney Olympic borough.

Rents have soared during the run-up to the games. Landlords seeking to take advantage of the event are forcing people out of their homes if they can't afford more cash.

While council house waiting lists are through the roof, of the measly 2,818 homes that will be left from the Olympic village only 675 will be social housing with six boroughs sharing 107 of those and Newham having the leftovers.

Democratic rights during the games are under attack with exclusion zones that include putting 9pm curfews on under-16s until the start of November, giving the police the right to disperse groups of two or more, and the right to remove anti-Olympic posters and propaganda. As well as this, council tower block tenants face having missiles on their rooftops as part of the Olympic security operation.

While the rich get ready for their costly few weeks of fun, young people face a future of poverty and inequality with rising university fees, the slashing of Education Maintenance Allowance, soaring rents, slave-labour workfare schemes and sky-high unemployment. All of this is to pay for a crisis created by the banks and big business.

We are told that there is no money for jobs and education, while the bill for the Olympics continues to rise. Yet £750 billion is sitting in big business bank accounts as these fat cats see no 'profitable outlets' for investment.

We're getting organised to demand that the fantastic facilities built for the Olympics, instead of being demolished or sold to the private sector, be used to provide genuinely affordable housing and leisure facilities to benefit local communities.

Young people and trade unionists from across the country will be sending teams to Hackney Marshes to compete in the Austerity Games on 23 July, the week before the Olympics.

The games will launch the Youth Fight for Jobs and Education Manifesto, 'A Future for the 99%'. Our athletic events will highlight the plight of young people in the shadow of these expensive and corporate Olympic Games. These include the Race to the Bottom, Job Jump, Property High Jump, Deficit Discus, Hardship Hurdles and more.


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AUSTERITY GAMES 2012
Monday 23 July
2pm at Hackney Marshes, Homerton Road, East London

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A future for the 99%
Manifesto of Youth Fight for Jobs and Education
£1 including postage
www.youthfightforjobs.com
youthfightforjobs@gmail.com
020 8558 7947
PO Box 858, London E11 1YG

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In this issue


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Socialist Party news and analysis

March and strik

Defend trade union and employment rights! Stop Beecroft! Come to NSSN Conference!

If you need any confirmation to come to the NSSN conference on 9 June and bring your work colleagues and union activists, to hear and discuss a fighting strategy to defeat this government and its friends, then the Beecroft Report’s attacks on workers’ rights this week should provide that.

Adrian Beecroft is a ‘venture capitalist’, investing money where he thinks he can make huge profits. One of the companies he finances is Wonga, the ‘pay-day loan company’ that charges extortionate interest to those unfortunate enough to have to utilise their services.

But he wants to extend his extreme Thatcherite ideas to the whole of the workforce. Not content with having some of the most anti-working class employment legislation in Europe, Beecroft wants to see the idea of ‘no fault’ redundancy implemented. This is really ‘no rights’ redundancy. With very little notice, no consultation and minimal compensation, workers that any boss did not like could be sacked at a whim. This, of course, could include trade union workplace reps. What a cheap and nasty way of getting rid of ‘troublemakers’!

Beecroft thinks this would create more jobs! The only jobs it might create are low-wage jobs with bosses acting like dictators! And he was assisted in the drafting by David Cameron’s former adviser, Steve Hilton, now departed to Stanford University in California. So the Tories are up to their necks in it!

This report was too strong even for the Liberal Democrats. Business Secretary Vince Cable wants to kick it into the long grass, at least the most contentious bits. Beecroft said that Cable was a ‘socialist’ for opposing its recommendations! That just shows how vicious Beecroft is! The Lib Dems have collaborated with the changes to workers’ rights in the last two years, including the extension of the period of employment before a worker has full employment rights from a year to two years.

If the government tries to implement any of this report, the TUC and individual trade unions should call conferences as preparation for protests and even industrial action against it. This should be linked to the campaign to end all the anti-trade union and anti-worker laws. Coming to the NSSN conference will add to the pressure on the trade union leaders to fight against this vicious big business government.

The RMT slammed the Beecroft report.
Beecroft, who has funded the Tories to the tune of a half a million pounds, has been set up by Cameron to be his out-rider for attacking worker’s rights in the same way that McNulty was tasked with doing a similar number on the railways. He is reported to be likely to recommend:
• A systematic stripping away of equal rights in the workplace
• Ripping up the transfer of undertaking rights (TUPE) that give workers some protection when their employer changes hands
• Hammering redundancy rights and reducing consultation to as little as five days in “emergency” situations
• Bending to his buddies in big business and introducing a “hire and fire” culture in the name of profit.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:
“It is no surprise that a venture capitalist, Tory-funder and Cameron buddy like Beecroft would recommend taking an axe to every last shred of protection that workers have from bad bosses. He comes from an industry that treats people as nothing more than profit-making serfs who can be chewed up and spat out at will.
“All the signs are that this government of the rich for the rich is winding up for an all-out assault on redundancy, equalities and worker’s transfer rights.
“RMT works in industries where franchise transfers, takeovers and company collapses are a way of life. This government, and their big business allies, are determined to rip away even the tattered safety net which offers our members some limited protection. They will have an almighty fight on their hands. “


Trade unions have the power to defeat the endless attacks on working
class people.

The pension struggle is far from over with key unions looking to take
more action.

the NSSN conference is an important opportunity to review the strikes and
battles that have taken place since the last conference

Pressure will have to be put on some unions to join with other unions
who are committed to take action.

The NSSN will need to play a key role in mobilising and intervening in
the TUC demo taking place in the autumn.

Trade union reps and members will have the opportunity to catch up
with the latest situation re: pensions in the various unions as well
as how to defeat the constant attacks on working class people.




SO if you can make it 9th June London friends meeting house near Euston Station starts 11 am but do get there before as due to the high profile speakers there may be high demand to get in and hear what they have to say.

Public sector pensions battle not over by a long stretch

You’d be forgiven for thinking the battle over public sector pensions was a lost one. No way jose. This may on the 10th of May the PCS along with the UCU Unite in health and local government with the RMT and the NIPSA in sections will be striking to defend pensions.

A dispute which looked lost at Christmas time with Unison and the GMB two of the biggest unions pulling out. With unison this is not totally lost there is a ballot running where the membership should and I urge any Unison members reading this to vote no and continue to fight over pensions.

This April contributions over public sector pensions will be going up, you will be being asked to work for longer and in the end get less. Is this not a reason to continue fighting or not?
The situation has not changed certain unions have decided against their membership to agree to the governments heads of agreement I think this is a huge mistake. There is still a chance this battle can be won and won well if a united front with unions willing to fight keep their heads and don’t sell out.

The NUT is in a difficult position now with its dithering on whether to go for regional action or national action. For me it is simple keep with the coalition of the rejectionist unions and keeps a dialog with unions like the PCS who has a fighting left leadership who won’t see you far wrong in my view.

It is clear this fight must continue and it is fantastic tribute to the PCS left unity conference called on the 7th of January 2012 to bring together all of the lefts in the unions to provide a platform to speak and form a determined fight back.
After the attempted sell out by Unison and the GMB before Christmas it was imperative that the unions wishing to continue the fight sticked together and took on a more concerted fight back against the government who are pressing ahead with attacks. Dave Prentice of Unison is wrong to move on to regional pay as the next dispute he should be looking to link his union with other unions in the defence of pensions and then linking in regional pay as one big battle not trying to waken the movement by disuniting the movement by splitting off and trying to fight other battles on their own.

Unison is a big union but if unite keep fighting strong as they have been unison could see the situation where they start to loose members if they carry on looking to not fight. In this period of intensive class struggle workers will be looking for a strong fighting leadership and if Unison do not show this they will either be transformed or will loose many members to the likes of Unite etc.

The PCS and Unite are also calling on the TUC to organise a national demonstration against austerity in the summer. This strategy of action presents an opportunity to re-ignite this struggle which seemed to be in danger of dissipating after the capitulation of the right-wing union leaders and the TUC.
We also call on Unison and GMB members in the NHS to reject the pension deal in their ballots that are currently taking place and demand that their unions join this or any future strikes.

This action should demand the re-opening of pension negotiations, the cancellation of the next two years pension contribution increases as well as this year's - or at least immediate financial compensation for it, as well as not increasing the retirement age.
After the incredible show of force of 30 November (N30), which saw over two million public sector workers take strike action, it is natural that in the hospitals, schools, councils and job centres, workers have been asking "what now?"
This is particularly the case when, in the next few weeks, millions will have the first set of increased pension contributions deducted from their pay. If the Con-Dems aren't forced to retreat, further increases will follow over the next two years. Of course, all this is on top of a four-year pay freeze. There is also potential to coordinate with and give confidence to other groups of workers planning action against cuts.
The NUT conference, which took place over Easter, was in some cases a microcosm of the debate that must be taking place throughout the union movement and especially in public sector workplaces. Understandably, there was frustration that no national action has taken place since N30. Inevitably, workers enthused by N30 will react to the sense that this power, and the opportunity it presents to register a victory or at least wring major concessions out of the government, will slip away. We have to place the main responsibility for this on the right-wing union leaders in Unison, GMB and the TUC who consciously pulled out of the 'coalition of the willing' by signing the Con-Dems' heads of agreement in December, agreeing to pay more, work longer and get less.

Since then the PCS and other unions like the NUT have been leading a painstaking process of regroupment to put together another coalition, albeit smaller than N30 but comparable to the 30 June alliance which pulled over 750,000 workers out on strike.
Many NUT activists were furious at their NEC's decision to back down from national strike action on 28 March and instead only call out London, along with the UCU. UCU and NUT members responded magnificently with up to 10,000 teachers and lecturers marching to Westminster.
On the first evening of NUT conference, over 100 delegates attended a meeting called by a number of local associations (branches) to focus this anger into agreeing an amendment to the executive's motion in the pension debate next day. To put this into perspective, this was bigger than the meetings of either of the two established left organisations which provide the majority of the leaders of the union and it’s NEC - the Socialist Teachers' Alliance (STA) and the Campaign for a Fighting Democratic Union (CFDU).
These delegates were rightly concerned that the NEC's motion would lack clarity and an amendment setting out a clear schedule of action over the summer term and beyond was vital, starting on 10 May, anticipating the strike that has now been called.
Unfortunately, this and another amendment were passed over, in favour of one from the STA. While this gave more detail about the "aim" of action before the end of June, up to and including national strike action coordinated with other unions, to many delegates, coming on the back of the NEC vote about 28 March, this lack of clarity sounded like a conscious attempt by the leadership to demobilise the pensions struggle.
Socialist Party members were concerned that this feeling would be dissipated after conference and approached the local associations and offered to open up our pre-booked fringe meeting to them in order to give frustrated delegates the opportunity to debate the way forward.
This time, over 150 delegates attended to vent their concern but also to coordinate a rank and file campaign through the associations to see what regions are willing to strike on 10 May. Also, it was agreed to organise a rank and file conference on 16 June, a week after the National Shop Stewards Network conference, supported by as many associations as possible.
The PCS and the NUT were strengthened by the overwhelming mandate they received in their consultation ballots for further action. The PCS correctly postponed their intention to strike on 28 March in light of the NUT NEC vote against national action, in order to re-build a wider coalition, preferably including the NUT.
But in the aftermath of their conference decision, the NUT at their NEC in late April should be urged to join the strike on 10 May, preferably with national action or at least regional action and then another national strike before the end of June, all coordinated with the other unions.
In the absence of a serious coordinated resistance to the cuts, with the biggest public sector union Unison in particular refusing to lead in the councils and the NHS, the pensions struggle is in many ways the first major national battle against the Con-Dems' austerity offensive. For the struggle to dissipate now would be a setback which could embolden the government, who were quick to threaten regional pay after the NUT executive's retreat in March.
Alternatively, the strike on 10 May can re-ignite this struggle and send a clear message of defiance to what is a weak and divided Con-Dem coalition, while also marshalling the membership for the future battles, including on pensions that are coming thick and fast.

Ireland, Household charge can be defeated, tax the rich not the poor!

Today in Ireland took place a massive national demonstration in the national sporting arena with up to 3000 people cramming in to hear speech’s and bands all encouraging ordinary Irish folk to refuse to pay the household charge. What a reaction this got I have been following developments all day and speech’s from our own TD Joe Higgins in Ireland getting a fantastic reception too. This can be the spark that lights this campaign and allows it to really take off I feel.

What is the background to this then you may ask?
The Irish government, as part of its crippling deal with the troika will soon introduce a new “household charge”, another financial burden on working families after an onslaught of austerity attacks linked to the IMF/EU plan. The Socialist Party (CWI in Ireland) pledges to organise a mass campaign of non-payment, along the lines of the mass movement which defeated water charges in the 1990s and the victorious poll tax struggle in Britain.
The government’s proposed Household Charge of €100 is the forerunner for water charges and a property tax on every home. A pensioner or low paid worker pays the same as a millionaire. How rotten! This new tax has absolutely nothing to do with improving council services – the proceeds go towards the bailout of wealthy gamblers and bankers, for which ordinary people are being bled dry.
Everyone knows the tax will start at €100 and rise relentlessly, if we let it. The Economic Social and Research Institute called for household taxes for years. Its leading economist, John Fitzgerald, has said this is only “the beginning” and that a home tax of €800 plus a water tax of €500 is needed.
Already, life is becoming intolerable with the Universal Social Charge, pay cuts, rising mortgage payments and even management fees on many home-owners.
In a remarkable U-turn on pre-election promises, Fine Gael and Labour are now fully committed to the EU/IMF/ECB package of bailing out bankers but austerity and cuts for us. By taking all of the money away from ordinary people, personal consumption has collapsed by €13 billion in 3 years, adding to unemployment. Austerity is what is causing the economic havoc throughout Europe. It will make the crisis much worse and guarantee bankruptcy.
This tax is not deducted at source and we can and must defeat it. This can only be done by building a grassroots campaign of non-payment in every area. The Socialist Party in Dublin West plan has been to work with the community to do just this. In the 1990s, the Socialist Party led the Anti Water Charges Federation which successfully defeated water charges then.
Protest in Northern Ireland
Building non-payment, challenging in the courts and political opposition forced the then FG/Labour government to abolish water charges. In particular, the by-election challenge of Joe Higgins in 1996 in Dublin West became a referendum on water tax and rocked the political establishment.
Minister Bruton has dismissed this charge as “only €100”. While this amount is of course a burden for many families, the figure will skyrocket beyond €1,000 quickly as the ‘troika’ has ordered other home taxes within two years. The government is testing the ground for heftier Property and Water Taxes. If they get this one bedded down, they will be more confident to proceed. If we build non-payment of the Household Charge from the start, it makes it very difficult to impose two new taxes.

The government will go all-out to try force people to pay. A monthly draconian fine and court has been threatened. Contrast this to the light-touch handling of the white-collar criminal millionaires who destroyed the economy! Not one banker or businessman has been brought to book. By building a powerful campaign of civil disobedience with roots in every area, solidarity can give confidence to householders to be united and maintain non-payment. Tens of thousands of people can’t be dragged through the courts.

Labour now stands with Fine Gael and Fianna Fail in supporting household and water charges – despite expensive media ads opposing them before the elections. Labour should be reminded of this cynical betrayal. Labour politicians who say they oppose the tax, but remain in a party pushing it through, can only be seen as opportunist. While Sinn Fein has said it opposes the household tax, it has unfortunately ruled out putting its resources behind supporting non-payment, which is the only way this rip-off can be defeated. This will no doubt disappoint many Sinn Fein voters.
The Socialist Party / United Left Alliance is the only party clearly putting forward a boycott and actively committed to building and being part of an independent, broad-based national campaign to defeat Household and Water Taxes. Our track record is second to none on this issue.

Despite the daily media propaganda, there is considerable untapped wealth in Ireland. The country is not broke. Ireland remains 6th out of 27 EU countries in financial wealth, but of course, this wealth is concentrated in a few hands. The Central Bank reported in May that there is €120 billion in Irish bank deposits – why could a wealth tax not be imposed on this rather than taking from households, from our education and health services? Massive natural gas and oil resources could also be explored for the benefit of Irish society, rather than for one or two multinationals.

The NHS is not lost, we can still win!

With so many feeling the NHS is seemingly lost if it goes through the houses of parliament and many feeling dejected we must remind ourselves that the poll tax was made law before it was defeated along with Margaret Thatcher and her Tory government .
It is nonsense to tell people we only have so many days to save the NHS or if the lords don’t save us no one will. Some have even started calling for us to lobby the queen to save the NHS, yes you heard that right the sodding queen!!

Unbelievable you may think but sadly true and the desperate state of people is clear their petitions and emails to their MP’s have not worked as we pointed out unsurprisingly we need more militant action now moving on to the industrial plain.

But to start with a mass national demonstration to bring all the forces together on a similar scale to march 26th last year and then use the threat of strike action as a tool to force the government back on this.
I don’t for one moment have any illusions that the labour party or unison are interested in a real battle after all it was much of the same labour party policies that got the NHS to where it is today so they cannot be trusted. We must do it alone with trade unions willing to fight a proper battle and community activists and NHS users to all come together to fight to the very end on this. More of the same wont work we need to escalate the action and put a shot across the government’s bow that we mean business and not letting our NHS go lightly.

It is key now that we start thinking of standing nurses, doctors and medical workers in elections not under labour but as TUSC or independents to gain a political voice. I have already read some are thinking of doing this as an act of revenge on the government. The vehicle already exists for this to happen with TUSC workers can move on to the political plain and mould TUSC into a fighting campaigning electoral force that can raise the banner of the NHS.


The NHS can still be saved we must not get demoralised or dejected but keep on fighting and step up the campaign in every town and city across the country. Leading to mass national industrial action if need be.

Let’s make the NHS Cameron’s poll tax and have the Tories out as soon as we can!

We need a programme of action to fightback

This excellent article has just been posted on the socialist party's website. The article by Peter Taaffe the socialist party's general secretary highlights many of the struggles and dangerous we face today.

Never before has it been more necessary for the trade unions and the labour movement to combat the deadening pessimism and hopelessness which pervades the capitalist media.
In a situation marked by searing economic crisis and its attendant suffering, commentators wail that 'nothing can be done'.
This can only be challenged by outlining and fighting for a positive, realistic programme which can hold out the hope of rescuing working people from the abyss of mass unemployment and poverty which the capitalist system threatens.
Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary, writes.
Every working man and woman, young and old, in Britain could and should have a job, with a decent living wage.

They should enjoy life in accommodation within which a healthy lifestyle is possible, with the occasional holiday thrown in, and a health service catering not for the rich few but for the many.

They would also need well-built and funded schools for their children, free from the 'feral' Free School and academy privateers.

They would want to live in an environmentally sustainable world with cheap transport and a modern infrastructure.

To also want a decent pension after a lifetime of work and, in the case of many workers, of toil is not a lot.

'You are asking for the moon, in fact you live on another planet,' reply our critics. In the vanguard of these opponents will, no doubt, be David Cameron and George Osborne as well as Tory collaborator Nick Clegg in the present millionaires' and bosses' coalition government. 'All we can do is remorselessly cut living standards in virtually all spheres, if we are to get out of this crisis.'

Under extreme pressure, president Obama in the US has announced another 'stimulus package'. But this, amounting to $450 billion, half the value of the stimulus package of 2008-9, is too little, too late. The economy is expected to continue to stagnate and unemployment to increase.

No 'plan B'
Chancellor Osborne is not even prepared to follow Obama, declining pressure for a 'Plan B'. The Tories' endlessly repeated mantra is, like their mentor Margaret Thatcher, 'There Is No Alternative'.

For the Con-Dems TINA is alive and kicking. But there is an alternative and history demonstrates this.

Take housing. In an economic landscape similar to today, a crash house-building programme was launched in the 1930s which brought together unemployed labour and 'fallow' capital supplied by increased government expenditure.

In the 1930s the number of new dwellings built each year averaged over 300,000, half a million in 1935.

In 2010 only 95,000 properties were built. There is a crying need for a massively expanded house-building and renovation programme today.

Housing conditions
Heartbreaking stories of how thousands live in Victorian conditions, some in disgraceful ramshackle sheds, appear almost daily in the press.

Rising homelessness, affecting now, according to the Guardian, the middle class, and skyrocketing rents accompany the slashing of housing benefit for already economically besieged tenants.

In its wake comes the horrible spectre of the bullying landlord, typified in the 1960s by the figure of Rachman.

Down with the prevailing gloom and pessimism - deliberately fostered by those at the top - that nothing can be done! This mood can be reinforced by accounts of the tragic impact of cuts on workers.

For instance, the Daily Mirror reported in August: "A mum who lost her job in government cuts hanged herself, an inquest heard.

Linda Knott, 46, was 'devastated' after being told the community centre where she worked as a supervisor for 16 years in Little Hulton, Greater Manchester, was closing. Husband Frank yesterday told Bolton's coroner she was 'worried'. Verdict: suicide."

A more suitable verdict was that this poor working woman was driven to kill herself by the cold cruelty of this government and capitalist society.

This is just one manifestation of the corroding despair which this system, including those who profit from and defend it, generates.

But we must loudly re-assert that so long as working people are prepared to struggle for jobs, homes and a better life and to organise for this, then massive change is possible. And the mood is there.

Angry unemployed workers recently invaded a US congressional committee carrying placards that read: "America wants to work - good jobs now".

The mood of the unemployed in Britain is no less determined. This is being harnessed by the magnificent Youth Fight for Jobs and its march from Jarrow to London (see page 5). Similar action mobilising millions must be organised by the trade unions.

But it must be on a programme of action, with one of the centrepieces the demand for a massive extension of useful government expenditure.

According to the Centre for Economic and Business Research, "a house building boom" could generate "200,000 new jobs". This would help to soak up the massive unemployment among building workers.

The same effect would flow from the introduction of a 35-hour week without loss of pay. But the capitalist class and its representatives will no doubt respond to this: 'This is preposterous, it would cost too much, it failed when implemented in France.

Moreover, workers prefer to work longer hours and some even want less holidays in order to strengthen their firms, the source of their employment.'

Share out the work
Far from 'failing' in France the 35-hour week created, according to the French 'Socialist' Party, 400,000 extra jobs between 2000 and 2006.

Even the employers' federation put the number of increased jobs at 200,000. In the current situation of chronic and mass unemployment, such a measure is vital.

The shorter working week was emasculated in France because of the ceaseless campaign of the employers and the complete failure of the trade union leaders to resist it.

The bosses were successful in their campaign also because of the botched way it was introduced, which sometimes meant that workers faced longer shifts and a longer working day without overtime pay. We should learn from this and ensure that the same mistake is not repeated.

And why, according to the bosses, is it 'necessary', with much more technically and technologically proficient industry, for work to become more intensified and longer? In the 1970s, the future was projected by the likes of Jack Jones, then leader of the transport workers union (now part of Unite), as meaning that workers would only need to be employed for 19 hours a week.

Participation
Not least of the factors which make a shorter working week necessary is the time that this will allow for working people to participate in control and hopefully management of factories and workplaces, as well as society as a whole.

In this current crisis, the capitalists have demonstrated their complete incapacity and have forfeited any claim to be what Karl Marx called the "trustees" of society.

Instead, the workplace is now often a neoliberal hell with longer hours, bullying management, etc. Despite the annual average working time being 263 less hours than the UK average productivity is greater in Germany.

The reason for this is that German capitalists maintain the manufacturing sector and have ploughed more of the surplus extracted from the labour of the working class back into industry.

The parasitic British capitalists went down the road of 'financialisation', relying for growth on the backs of 'services'.

When this blew up in their face, they presented us with the bill. This has added to the downward economic spiral of Britain

The ruinous expense of massive overwork here has been underlined by the New Economics Foundation. "Since 1981 two-adult households have added six hours - nearly a whole working day - to their combined weekly workload." And yet at the same time, millions cannot find a job.

Capitalism is passing through its greatest crisis in 60 years - some say in 100 years. According to 'experts', this is not a passing phase, an economic 'typhoon' that will soon pass over.

On the contrary, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, said that Britain is passing through "seven lean years" of which we are in the middle.

He was challenged by Max Hastings in the Financial Times who reported a conversation with a banker which concluded that this 'leanness' could last ten times that!

In other words, they have absolutely no hope of even a ray of economic sunshine, let alone a dramatic improvement in the already parlous state of the economy and society, and particularly in the fate of working people.

Capitalist waste
We say to the capitalists: Your system, it is now clear, has enormously wasted the treasure and resources of society.

Huge resources criminally lie idle for one reason and one reason only - it does not allow you to maintain and boost your profits.

In fact, in one year, 2008, you destroyed $50 trillion in wealth in assets, according to even your own institution the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is probably enough to wipe out most of world unemployment.

We say: If you are saying that you and your system have drained to its last drop the cup of historical progress - and not being able to provide a job, home and adequate income to all signifies this - make way for those and a system which can!

According to Mervyn King, the British economy is working at 10% below the level it was before this crisis in 2007.

The loss in wealth since 2008 alone comes approximately to £200 billion, even if there had been no growth since then.

The cost of a hospital bed per day is £400. £200 billion would pay for 500 million hospital bed days.

If the full potential of the economy was used then the £81 billion in cuts which Osborne is implementing would not be considered.

Young people suffer
What stands in the way of a programme of massive expansion in building hospitals and schools is a system that is based upon production for profit and not social need.

Moreover, it is chronically failing the majority of the population. Capitalism is today wreaking terrible havoc.

Unemployment increases remorselessly, bearing down especially on the young. Savage cuts in wages and income are relentlessly pursued by the boss class, adding to the wage repression of the last two decades.

So desperate is the need to get a foot on the 'job ladder' that the aspiring young become literally wage slaves - working for nothing under the fancy label of 'interns'.

And then, when they have completed their 'training', which often amounts to stacking shelves in supermarkets, there is no sign of the promised 'full-time job' at the end.

With almost a million NEETS (not in employment, education or training), many young people work for £2.25 an hour - not even half of the legal national minimum wage.

And when those young people, discouraged or locked out of higher education and universities, seek an alternative in an apprenticeship they are rebuffed: "It is easier to get into Oxford University than to become a BT apprentice." [The Guardian]

Dangers
In this desperate social situation and with no consistent lead coming from the top of the trade unions, there is a real danger of a generalised mood of despair gripping working people.

Some could lapse into indifference and succumb to the capitalist mantra of 'there is no alternative' to cuts, both in social services and state jobs, and to the living standards of working people.

Others could be seduced by the false arguments of the far right which will divide the forces of working people in the face of the enemy.

Therefore it is vital that a fighting economic and social alternative, which is already there in outline, is clearly formulated and discussed at all levels of the trade union and labour movement, and working class communities, among the youth.

That alternative must have at its core the simple but correct ideas expressed in many working class demonstrations, not just in Britain but internationally: "We will not pay for this crisis which is not of our making."

The searing, rising inequality and a consequent increase in poverty means that millions of people are squeezed in a vice between diminished incomes on one side and rising prices and rents literally going through the roof on the other.

Twenty or more hospitals will close as the mass privatisation of the NHS, resulting from the Tory Health Secretary Lansley's bill, is railroaded through the House of Commons.

'Free schools' means 'freedom' for the establishment of religious and ethnic-based schools, formerly private schools as well and the end of any semblance of democratic control; even army-type schools are suggested with military discipline for our children.

This is set to roll back education by 100 years. In the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century the labour movement campaigned in the teeth of opposition from the possessing classes and their parties to establish state education.

This is set to be crushed by the privatisation juggernaut of education minister Gove unless he and his coalition gang are defeated.

Flatlining economies
Flatlining British and world economies are met with a mere shrug of the shoulders by Osborne, the man allegedly responsible for the economy.

This leads us to the conclusion that this system is in a blind alley and can offer no way forward. This is why the Socialist Party argues the case for a democratic socialist society.

But the mass of working people have not yet arrived at this conclusion. Their outlook has largely been shaped by the situation following the collapse of the planned economy in Eastern Europe and Russia.

Although dominated by a greedy, totalitarian bureaucratic elite, nevertheless a glimpse of what was possible economically and, to some extent, socially if workers' democracy had been implemented was seen.

The seeming collapse of 'socialism' - in reality a bureaucratic caricature of real democratic socialism - presented the capitalists with a field day to extol the virtues of their system.

They were echoed by the leaders of the workers' parties and, to some extent, the right-wing trade union leaders.

But boasts that capitalism was the only conceivable engine for the generation of adequate resources to take society forward, now lie in ruins in the economic wasteland which confronts us.

The severity of the crisis has also partly stunned the mass of working class people who are hoping against hope - despite the evidence around them - that the sunny economic uplands may once more return.

Programme
However, these hopes are being systematically undermined and growing opposition is manifest throughout the world.

But this needs to be harnessed to a clear alternative programme which links the ongoing daily struggle for jobs, homes and education, etc, with the idea of the transformation of society in a socialist direction.

We have tried to show here that this can be achieved through a series of what we call 'transitional' demands which all workers can embrace. They are 'transitional' in the sense that they can lead from the present situation and the present political outlook

of working class people to the idea of societal change, which we believe is socialism. But this does not mean that we are putting forward a programme which is 'unrealisable'. The realisation or otherwise of the demands in this programme depends upon struggle.

Even in the most desperate economic circumstances, through mass struggle, the capitalists can be compelled to give a lot more than they believe they can 'afford'.

For instance, they gave the eight-hour day and an increase in wages to the French workers in the occupied factories in 1936.

It is true that they then sought to take this back later, through inflation for instance, and were to some extent successful.

But this does not imply that it was wrong to struggle for the eight-hour day which was achieved. It just means that all gains will not be secured so long as capitalism itself continues.

A similar conclusion is drawn from all the demands we outlined in our programme; here are a few examples of some of the most important ones.

It is vital that a thoroughgoing discussion is initiated in the labour movement for a combative programme of action which will repulse and defeat the current bosses' and government offensive against all aspects of the lives and conditions of working class people.

The Socialist would welcome contributions to this debate. Email: editors@socialistparty.org.uk

What future does the NHS have ?

Tonight saw what could possibly have been the end of the NHS as we know it.

The health bill cleared its Commons stages on Wednesday, despite criticism from some Lib Dems as well as Labour.

It was approved by MPs by 65 votes, and will now go to the House of Lords where it is expected to face further opposition.

Earlier this year, the government was forced to "pause" the bill while ministers re-consulted on the proposals via a listening exercise called the NHS Future Forum.

A number of changes were subsequently made to the legislation.



But this has been widely met with anger and bitterness from many in the public who feel this was never given to them to vote on at the last general election last year. Many feel agrieved and angry at David Cameron who promised no more NHS shake ups under his government he has quite clearly broken this promie as has Nick Clegg and his Lib dems by towing the line with this. This was not in the coalition agreement and as so is deeply unfair to the public who had no say in this.

I attended a protest myself at a local hospital which is due to be knocked down and rebuilt with minor facilities but no A and E or anything like waht it is right now. I was joined by a fair few protesters but what strok me was the general lack of fight in people to save the NHS and put up a fight to keep it in public hands. Many people i speak too seem angry at this health bill being voted through but seemed like in a daze before hand and a sense of inevatability about it all like they were resigned to it going already.

This was not helped by the unions including Unison and the TUC supporting campaigns to save the NHS with a candle lit vigils. If there is anything so depressing and resigned as that i've yet to see one. What kind of protest is that ? its almost as bad as ex NUS leader Aaron Porter last year over the student tuitian fees. Quite pathetic really so far from our unions which i do still hold great faith in. But todays passing of the bill reminded me how sluggish and slow we've all been in defending the NHS and all that it stands for.

But what does the future hold for our beloved NHS you may ask.

well if you have ever been abroad to America and had to pay for treatment before you got seen by a doctor that is very similar to what they intend to do here in Britain.

The tories plans to open the NHS up to outside providers including private companies to provide a cheaper service will mean hospital closures, staff redundancies and a completely different organisation from waht we know today.

There will be no obligation on the government to provide health care free at the point of use any longer. Now this bill is passed they can roll full steam ahead in destroying which is argueably one of our greatest achievements as the working class. Winning a health care system that was free to all who needed it was won over years of working class struggles and determination to see we all were able to gain decent treatment in health care.

I just worry for this country with the young being hammered from pillar to post with trebling of tuitain fees, abolishing of the EMA grant and a dire lack of jobs for the young and now the certain destruction of our NHS. I just am wondering when the trade union movement and the labour movement is going to get up off its knees and start fighting back. It has got to be sooner rather than later for all our sakes.

The NSSN will be lobbying the TUC t his sunday at 1.30 at the TUC's annual congress in London to urge them to call a public sector general strike. This is needed more than ever and the role of the TUC in co-ordinating this should be key. We can only try and drag them into action much like we had to to call a national demonstration last year which eventually they called being dragged kicking and screaming by the most militant trade unionists out there. I fear the same will have to be done again to get anywhere with these soft moderates who are happy to isolate action and put off any action and wait for a labour government . Well i'm afraid that will just not do this time. We cannot wait for a labour government we need action now. Real working class united fightback. The unions still have the power if they choose to use it. We must force them to use it from below if they wont from the top.

The 5th annual NSSN conference 11th June, what to expect

So next weekend we return to London for the 5th annual NSSN conference. For anyone who doesnt know the NSSN is the National Shop Steward Netowrk. Organised in trade unions and workplaces to fight for workers rights.

Last year at a one off anti cuts special conference it was voted hugely in favour of setting the NSSN up to become a anti cuts body helping out in industry based and work place disputes. We in the socialist party had the foresight to see that the oncoming cuts will be affecting working people the greatest and to organise within the NSSN was going to be key. We still believe this to have been the right decision to take yet there is still a lot of dissent from others across the left like the SWP for example. Last year when the majority motion was passed many in the SWP were so angry that their motion to keep the NSSN as a simple body to just deal with work place disputes and not fight the cuts was voted down. Many of their activists after the conference decided to resign their membership of the NSSN claiming the socialist party had ruined the organisation and is now a front for the socialist party. This is not the case at all and we within the SP have not kicked the SWP out or refused to work with them. They are still welcome to attend next saturdays conference and i am sure many of them still will do despite their antics last year.

The thing is their walking out last year will not have been forgotten if they do change their minds and do decide to work with us within the NSSN workers will have noted their actions and wondered what benifit their resignation would have helped the movement.

On 22 January, 2011 the very successful National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) anti-cuts conference overwhelmingly agreed to launch an anti-cuts campaign (ACC).

An initial anti-cuts committee involving leading trade union and community anti-cuts activists was established (including Alex Gordon, president of the RMT and Ben Sprung, London regional organiser of the FBU).

Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary
Since the conference the NSSN ACC has supported and built for lobbies and demonstrations outside the Labour Local Government and Tory Spring conferences.

It also organised two very successful stages on the 26 March TUC demo, where thousands of workers heard the NSSN's call to oppose all cuts and for the next step to be a 24-hour general strike against the cuts.

The increasingly important role the NSSN is playing in the anti-cuts movement means that the debates which took place at the beginning of the year on whether the NSSN should launch an anti-cuts campaign at all now seem a distant memory.

Events have quickly confirmed that the NSSN was right to do so.

Split from SWP
Nonetheless it is worthwhile briefly commenting on recent developments in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) because they have so clearly confirmed many of the points made by the Socialist Party in the debate at the beginning of the year.

In the run up to the January NSSN conference the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) was among the most vociferous opponents of an NSSN anti-cuts campaign being launched on the spurious grounds that it would unnecessarily divide the movement to launch another national anti-cuts campaign when Coalition of Resistance (CoR) and Right to Work (RtW) were already in existence.

In the anti-cuts movement there is rightly and inevitably a mood for unity. Nonetheless, as was understood by a large majority of delegates at the NSSN anti-cuts conference, to attempt to use that mood as a reason to oppose the NSSN launching its own anti-cuts campaign was completely disingenuous.

The NSSN has consistently argued for the maximum possible cooperation between the national anti-cuts campaigns. To give just two examples from recent weeks the NSSN invited RtW and CoR to speak on its stages at the TUC demo and has taken part in joint delegations to discuss with the TUC.

However, to merge the three campaigns into one organisation would only be a step forward if the net result was an open, democratic anti-cuts campaign organised around a clear, fighting programme.



Right to Work's lack of democracy
The Socialist Party warned at the NSSN anti-cuts conference that the political approach and top-down methods of both CoR and RtW meant that this would not be the case.

Our warnings regarding the top-down approach of RtW have been confirmed by events that have taken place in the SWP over the last weeks.

Chris Bambery, secretary of RtW and longstanding SWP Central Committee member, has left the SWP along with a number of others. Both Chris Bambery's resignation letter and the SWP CC's reply demonstrate many aspects of the mistaken political approach and method of the SWP.

However, it is the points he makes on RtW which are of the most pressing importance for anti-cuts activists.

Bambery refers to RtW being "initiated in bizarre circumstances" and adds that he only found out about it when he read it in the SWP's 'Party Notes'. This confirms that RtW is not a broad democratic anti-cuts organisation as Chris Bambery and the SWP have claimed, but is run by the SWP.

It was founded without a democratic discussion in the anti-cuts movement, or even within the ranks of the SWP, or even it seems on their Central Committee!

RtW was set up virtually overnight, without discussion, in order to try to create a rival to the NSSN, as the SWP Central Committee stated explicitly in their 2010 pre-congress discussion documents that said that this was because the NSSN was now "dominated by the Socialist Party with the RMT's blessing".

As on previous occasions - such as in the Socialist Alliance - the SWP have taken a 'rule or ruin' approach to the anti-cuts movement. The NSSN, which was founded by the RMT in 2006, has from the beginning had an open and democratic approach, bringing together militant workplace representatives from across the trade union movement.

After RtW was launched in 2009 the NSSN steering committee passed a resolution which stated:

"We view therefore with some concern the setting up of the Right To Work (RTW) by the SWP and their allies which is attempting to occupy the same ground as the NSSN, to appeal to the same union branches and national unions.

"This will only confuse the situation in the eyes of workers and has the potential to fragment the fight-back.

"We note that previous attempts of this character have failed, because, unlike the NSSN they have not been firmly rooted in the unions and workplaces, and have not been seen as an open unifying force."

The NSSN steering committee has been proved correct regarding RtW. And when the NSSN came to discuss founding a national anti-cuts campaign, it took a fundamentally different approach, setting aside a whole day for a democratic discussion at its anti-cuts conference on whether to launch a new campaign - with equal speaking rights for and against doing so.

Chris Bambery also states that internal arguments in the SWP have brought RtW "near to derailment". The SWP CC's reply refers to Chris Bambery, as RtW national secretary, "not effectively helping to build a broad Right to Work".

While they disagree on who is to blame both parties accept that RtW has not developed in a healthy way.

Yet this is the organisation that was counterposed to the NSSN!

If NSSN activists had listened to the SWP and others there would have been no effective intervention by the national anti-cuts organisations into the magnificent demonstration on 26 March.

Instead the NSSN was able to intervene very effectively to popularise a programme to defeat the cuts.



Mistaken approach to Labour
We have dealt with the mistaken political approach of the leadership of RtW (and CoR) in detail elsewhere, in particular their determination to build up New Labour councillors as leaders of the movement.

Our view is that, where councillors vote against cuts we should fully support them. However, we warned at the time of the NSSN conference that there were very few examples indeed of Labour councillors pledging to vote against cuts and that RtW and CoR were misleading the movement by creating illusions that Labour councils would stand and fight by their side.

By contrast the NSSN has warned from the start that it would be necessary to organise a struggle against both the government and local councils in order to defeat the cuts.

For this the NSSN was attacked as sectarian. However, since then our warnings have been proved correct as every Labour council in the country has wielded the axe handed to them by central government leading to hundreds of thousands of job losses.

No wonder that, at a London anti-cuts meeting on 9 April, with fifteen local anti-cuts campaigns represented, including those led by RtW and CoR, for the first time no-one could oppose our consistent position that the anti-cuts movement cannot give uncritical platforms to Labour councillors who vote for cuts.

Unfortunately, in the same week, a RtW public meeting in Leicester had a Labour councillor who had voted for cuts as the main speaker, with the speaker from the SWP also emphasising the need to keep working with Labour councillors even though they had voted to lay off 1,000 workers.

The role that RtW has played is one of many instances where the fundamentally mistaken approach of the leadership of the SWP has acted to weaken the forces of socialism and the labour movement in Britain.

The working class in Britain is now entering a period of tumultuous struggle where the correct programme, strategy and tactics will have a decisive effect on the outcome of coming battles.

The Socialist Party will continue to argue for the maximum possible unity with other forces on the left, but around a clear programme that will increase, rather than decrease, the prospects for victories.

We appeal to members of the SWP, and to those that have left, to fundamentally reassess the programme and methods of their party in order that it can play a positive role in the coming battles.






The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) conference 2011, that takes place on Saturday 11 June, is a must for all workers willing to play a part in getting our national trade unions to stand up decisively against this government of the rich - and even richer!

We invite shop stewards and workplace reps, in the public or private sector, who daily confront bosses over the driving down of conditions and pay, to come along.

We welcome students, who showed such courage and dynamism in their fees demonstrations last winter, and who now want to link up with workers in similar struggles.



We are also keen to win the participation of local anti-cuts campaigners who see the trade unions as key to their success. So waste no time! Register now. All union reps and stewards are automatically delegates. Everyone else is a welcome visitor.

The conference takes place just a few weeks before a momentous joint strike on 30 June against the Con-Dem pensions robbery. Around 750,000 teachers and civil servants in NUT, UCU, ATL and PCS are likely to take the lead and pour onto the streets in every area of the country.

The NSSN conference hopes to encourage delegates to act as organisers of support in their areas, to help get solidarity activities from workers, especially those in other unions whose leaderships are facing the same pensions attack, but who are, as yet, dragging their feet. It is crucial that this attack is fought off now by all unions.

Leading speakers and militant activists on the ground will spell out to the conference what is needed and encourage discussion and debate on the way forward.

There will also be a range of workers engaged in various battles like those 400 workers locked out at Saltend, like blacklisted construction workers, and sacked tube drivers.

There is no doubt the bosses are prepared to squash militancy by individuals or groups of workers. They know what's coming and will use everything at their disposal, especially the anti-trade union laws, to dampen and render ineffective, a serious fightback.

Two years ago the NSSN conference included the leaders of the inspiring battles at Visteon, Lindsey and Linamar. Last year we affirmed international solidarity by inviting leading trade unionists involved in mass demos and general strikes in Spain, Ireland and Greece.

This year British workers are about to embark on our own very real battle on pensions. Those who come to NSSN conference 2011 could play a vital part in helping ensure success. Make sure you are there!


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NSSN CONFERENCE 2011
Speakers include: Alex Gordon, president RMT, rank and file fighters like Keith Gibson, locked out at Saltend along with 200 workers, and Frank Morris, construction worker blacklisted from the Olympic site. Also leaders from NUT, PCS and other unions.
Saturday 11 June, 11.30am-4pm
South Camden Community School, London NW1 1RG
www.stopcuts.net
To register for the National Shop Stewards Network conference go to www.shopstewards.net/conference.htm
PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE

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So i will be there hopefully with other like minded comrades i hope you can all make it there too whichever political background you have. If you are against teh cuts it will be a key conference for the plans for the next coming months and years i would say.

I am looking forward to the speakers and especially the greek bus union leaders about how the working class has been dealing with austerity measures in Greece where things are a lot worse than here.