A very Tory Christmas

This Christmas many will struggle to enjoy a Christmas at all with the rising cost of living and the austerity which is really biting now for many ordinary people. This is Tory Britain where half a million people are reported to be using a food bank now to get by. This is a national disgrace now that the Red Cross has an appeal for support for the people in the UK we know something is very wrong in the world. Not that it wasn’t before but this hasn’t happened since the war. So while we all struggle to enjoy a Christmas dinner the Tories will be living it up in the nicely warmed tax payer funded homes or one of their many homes I should say as most do have more than one if not more these days. For the Tories any thought of the poor over Christmas will be a distant thought if at all. Those who they are making pay for the crisis of capitalism are just collateral damage to them it would seem. The bosses of the 'big six' energy companies should be in the dock. 31,000 extra people, mostly pensioners, died last winter. With 3.2 million households in fuel poverty and one in four families forced to choose between eating and heating, how many more will die this winter? With almost calculating cruelty, all the big energy suppliers have announced more and bigger price hikes just as we go into winter. Even Ofgem, the toothless regulator, has admitted: "There is a deep mistrust of anything the energy companies do or say... It is not surprising the customers jump to the conclusion that prices are driven by profiteering." It is not surprising because it's true! Fuel bills have gone up 152% in the last ten years. Their profits have gone up 74% since 2009, to £3.74 billion last year. Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) pay over 60% of their profits to shareholders in dividends, and npower haven't paid any UK tax for the last three years! British Gas paid just five bosses £16.4 million in bonuses in March this year. Parent company Centrica's chief executive Sam Laidlaw got £4.9 million in salary and bonuses last year, enough to pay the annual fuel bills of 3,500 households. Huge public anger has forced politicians to be seen to be doing something. They all say "switch suppliers" but the big six, with 95% of all domestic customers, operate a price cartel and run a virtual monopoly. The Con-Dems advised people suffering fuel poverty to wear an extra jumper, the Centrica boss said wear two! Ed Miliband says a Labour government would freeze energy prices for 20 months but we all know they'll just stick them up before and after. This Christmas will not be a happy one for those at the bottom end of the scale. Lets fight for a world where Christmas’s are not something to dread how we can afford it how we can enjoy things with our families and friends but one rid of capitalism where we live happily with a society which meets peoples needs before anything else is considered.

The state within a state

The surveillance state is well under way. It is said that if we were to turn into a police state that not much would have to change. Us all New laws that will mean ID checks for all, state supervision of the media, gagging of campaigns in the run-up to an election and a threat against publishers of devastating accounts of secret surveillance. Russia? China? Nope, dear old Britain. The ConDems’ new anti-immigrants Bill will mean checks on status before people can access housing or health. This will hit everyone, as the Immigration Law Practitioners' Association (Ilpa) has pointed out. "What this means in practice is a system of identity checks for all, since it is necessary for British citizens or people with permanent residence to prove that they are lawfully present in the UK if and when checked," says their response to the Home Office consultation. Moving swiftly past the decision by the mainstream parties to introduce a legal oversight of the media through the unelected, secretive, feudal institution known as the Privy Council, let’s deal with state surveillance which we’re not supposed to know about. US whistleblower Edward Snowden has just been given the Sam Adams Award by former CIA officers, who gave it to him in Russia, for “exhibiting integrity in intelligence”. The Guardian’s decision to publish Snowden’s revelations has run into a wall of hostility and intimidation. Britain’s secret services – backed by Labour, Tory and LibDem politicians – have all but accused the Guardian of treason for printing chapter and verse of how the state can access every digital transmission you make – at will and without you knowing. MI5 chief Andrew Parker’s accusation that Snowden was “handing the advantage to terrorists” ratcheted up the offensive on behalf of the secret state. He was predictably backed by No 10 and the ultra-reactionary Daily Mail, which accused the Guardian of “lethal irresponsibility”. As we stand the state has so much information on us and increasingly so. They are making their way into our lives all the more every day. With advancements in technology come with dangers of keeping tabs on us and our thinking. The government claims not much of the information collected on us is useful to them but they collect it all the same. This is a very disturbing fact in my opinion. The ruling class and various government bodies go to such lengths to track our moves and information on us they run some very highly sophisticated programmes to do this and keep track of us all. Tempora is the clandestine security electronic surveillance program established by GCHQ in 2011. It was exposed by Snowden, along with Prism, which is the US’s own mass data mining programme. The two programmes have a cable and network tapping capability called Upstream which allows spooks to extract information in “real time”. We are entering an entirely new kind of human society, one involving an unprecedented penetration by the state into areas which have always been regarded as private. Do we agree to that? If we don't, this is the last chance to stop it happening. Our rulers will say what all rulers everywhere have always said: that their intentions are good, and we can trust them. They want that to be a sufficient guarantee. The chilling fact is that the law governing surveillance is “so broadly drafted and interpreted, it’s almost impossible to break”, We don’t live in a democracy, or at least one that is anything more than a sham. The totalitarian nature of state surveillance makes a mockery of the rule of law, which is often the only thing that stands between us and outright dictatorship. The major parties are cosying up to the secret state, not to mention on education and other policies. Although the law cannot protect us from everything and we must not rely on it we must look to organise ourselves independently of the state a and any organisation linked to the state.

Cuts kill, con-dems must be stopped in their tracks

Steven Bottrill, whose disabled mum Stephanie killed herself because of the bedroom tax, said: "Hopefully now someone will listen. Someone will realise what has gone on and change things." Studies by charities, as well as the NHS and the DWP, have shown that suicides and suicidal thoughts have increased among disabled people due to benefit cuts With the governments so called work programme it is failing people badly especially the disabled. According to charities for the blind, not a single blind or visually-impaired person has found sustained employment through the Work Programme. Capitalism always blames its victims. Now, more than ever, claiming benefits is portrayed as scrounging rather than being a right. This adds psychological despair to the harsh reality of scraping by on a pittance. Threatened and attempted suicides, as well as actual deaths, have doubled among 24-35 year old men in the UK since 2008. Last year there were deaths among sick and disabled people who had been subjected to the profit-driven bullying of Atos. Figures published in the Lancet showed UK suicides jumping 8% in the immediate aftermath of the financial crisis. Suicide rates have risen nearly everywhere except Sweden and Finland. In Algeria, Portugal, Greece, Tunisia and Italy suicide is a growing problem, with deaths three times higher among men than women. Few of these deaths make headline news but the government has the evidence. Richard Colwill, from mental health charity Sane, said: "No one should be surprised that factors such as unemployment and job insecurity can push people who may be already vulnerable to take their own lives. Life events like redundancy, bankruptcy and the relationship breakdowns that often follow can cause bouts of mental illness." Claimants slashing their wrists in jobcentres or setting themselves on fire is not deemed as newsworthy by the right-wing media as sensational headlines about benefits fraud. But government figures state only 0.5% of Disability Living Allowance claims are fraudulent. Before the crisis, Greece had the lowest suicide rate in Europe: 2.8 per 100,000 inhabitants. Suicides have since doubled and attempted suicides have also increased. Debts, joblessness, job insecurity are the key reasons given, but it is also the sense that the future holds nothing better. In the US, suicide rates rose dramatically in high unemployment areas. Macomb County, Michigan, with 13.7% unemployment, reported almost 40% more suicides compared to before the recession. Researchers at University of Chicago found that mass layoffs in America caused an immediate rise in suicides, followed by a bigger spike six months later when unemployment insurance ran out. In Ireland, suicide rates increased by 25%, while in Japan, a 2008 study found one in five members of the population admitted contemplating suicide as the recession began to bite. Many people are finding themselves in a place where nothing seems certain anymore, as if the world around them has gone mad. Economic crisis is turning into a mental health crisis. The absence of a generalised struggle is a contributing factor that reinforces the idea that 'there is no alternative'. This despair is a product of capitalism - a system that is sick and rotten to the core. It must be replaced, by socialism, through mass struggle, to give people a purpose and sense of worth that this society cannot. The number of US deaths from suicide surpassed the number of deaths from car crashes in 2009 Over five million Americans lost access to health care due to losing their jobs in the recession. 750,000 have turned to binge drinking, while the number of anti-depressant prescriptions have soared Suicides and bad health have increased far more in countries that have slashed health and welfare budgets A University of Cambridge study found that for every 1% increase in unemployment, there is a 0.8% increase in suicides by under-65s With extracts from http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/766/16715/22-05-2013/cuts-kill-con-dem-benefit-reforms-mental-health-and-suicide

Unison NEC elections, vote for socialist candidates and reclaim your union!

Big elections are coming up for Unison. One of the most frustrating unions to organise within but as Marxist’s we do not shy away from working within reactionary unions and Unison is one of the worst. But we don’t just sit there and moan about how bad it is we are actively fighting within the union within its limited democratic structures to change the union. Unison holds the key to many workers and to ultimately saving the NHS. Unisons role in this so far has been pathetic we know this. But by shouting from the sidelines gets us nowhere. The unison 4 who were 4 socialist party members witch hunted for organising within Unison and due to their politics and opposing Unison’s links to the labour party and wishing to change this found themselves victimised and hounded. But things do not have to be this way we can change this union to win it back for its members to become a fighting union along with other left unions like the PCS, RMT, FBU and so on. Elections for Unison's national executive (NEC) start on 22 April and run until 24 May. Members of the Socialist Party are standing, alongside candidates organised in United Left, as part of the Reclaim the Union election slate, in the seats listed. The Con-Dem government is determined to destroy the NHS and the welfare state. This must be resisted by the full strength of Unison, other unions and local communities. We need an NEC leadership that is determined to win. The NEC has a responsibility to organise and plan a coordinated fightback instead of leaving branches to fight alone. The employers are saying take cuts in pay and conditions or face more job losses or we will pull out of the national pay agreements. However, the union is wrong to believe that the way to protect our national agreements is to give away some of our rights, as they have recently done in the health service. ________________________________________ The Socialist Party believes that:- • Unison should organise a national demonstration to save our NHS with the support of other unions. • Unison should stop funding Labour if it refuses to fight the cuts and to stop the destruction of our NHS. ________________________________________ The Reclaim the Union candidates are: (Socialist Party members are asterisked). • National black members seats: Female: Monique Hirst*, April Ashley*; male: Hugo Pierre* • National young members seat: Greta Holmes • Eastern region: Female: Claire Wormald • East Midlands region: Female: Jean Thorpe*; male: Adrian Picton* • Greater London region: Female: Helen Davies, Marshajane Thompson; male: Jon Rogers; reserved seat: Gundula Seidel • North West region: General seat: Tony Wilson; female: Bernadette Gallagher, Karen Reissmann; male: Roger Bannister* • Scotland region: General seat: Jim McFarlane*; male: Duncan Smith, • South East region: Female: Jacqui Berry*, Diana Leach; male: Paul Couchman* • South West region: Male: Bernie Parkes • Cymru/Wales region: Male: Jamie Davis* • West Midlands region: Male: Dave Auger* • Yorkshire and Humberside region: Female: Helen Jenner; male: Mike Forster*; reserved: Vicky Perrin* • Health Care service group: Female: Helen Ridett*, Suzy Franklin; male: Mark Boothroyd; general: Gary Freeman* • Higher Education service group: Female: Tomasa Bullen; general: Max Watson • Local Government service group: Female: Phoebe Watkins, Sonya Howard; male: Glenn Kelly*; general: Paul Holmes • Transport service group, water and environment: John Jones • Community: Female: Janet Bryan

Answering workers fears on immigration

The Con-Dem government grows more unpopular by the day. Endless austerity is combined with falling living standards, rising unemployment, and no prospect of a return to economic growth. If anger at austerity was harnessed into a mass, united movement the Con-Dems could be forced to call a general election within months. Tory Prime Minister David Cameron knows this. Desperate to creep up a few points in the opinion polls, under pressure from the Eastleigh byelection result of right-wing nationalist Ukip, Cameron is attempting to tap into many workers' concerns about the potential consequences of increased immigration. This is an attempt to divide the movement against austerity. The trade union movement needs to respond by launching a serious united struggle - starting with a 24-hour general strike - against those who are really responsible for the misery we face; this government of millionaires and the capitalist system it defends. Trade unions must warn that the Con-Dems will attempt to use limiting access to public services for immigrants as the thin end of the wedge to attack universal access to essential services and benefits. However, the trade union movement also has a duty to answer the fears of some workers about increased immigration. Over the last decade there has been a rapid increase in the number of people, mainly from other parts of the EU, who have come to Britain to live and work. This is a major factor in the increase of around two million in Britain's population in the last five years. A small minority of new arrivals in Britain move to wealthy areas like Kensington and Chelsea - but they are almost all foreign fat cats and Cameron is more than happy to hobnob with them. The vast majority of new arrivals, however, join the ranks of the poorest sections of the working class. Increased population density has overwhelmingly taken place in working class communities with already over-stretched public services and over-crowded housing. Against this background it is inevitable that tensions exist about who does, and does not, get the limited public services that are available. It is on the question of housing that these tensions are particularly acute. By declaring that EU immigrants are to be kept off housing waiting lists for at least two years, Cameron is encouraging the idea that people from other countries are taking a disproportionately large share of social housing, and that this is causing the current acute housing crisis, where over five million people are on the waiting lists. Is this true? Increased population has increased demand for social housing, but it is the complete absence of any other option for millions of people born in Britain that is the central reason for the increase in numbers wanting a council house or flat. Cameron is attempting to shift the blame for the housing crisis away from its primary cause; the profit-driven housing policies of current and previous governments. House prices have gone up 40 times since 1971 whereas prices in general have gone up tenfold while wages have mostly stagnated. This means home ownership is now out of reach for the majority. At the same time rents in the extortionate private rented sector have increased by 86%. But social housing is in incredibly short supply. Twenty years ago there were more than five million council homes, now there is barely half that number. If the Con-Dems get their way even these will have their rents raised to extortionate 'market' levels. New Labour in government also continued the previous Tory governments' policies, selling off even more council houses than Thatcher. A puny 2,019 council houses were built during New Labour's entire period in government, an average of 400 houses a year! Contrast this to 5,000 council houses - all with front and back gardens - that just one Labour council - in Liverpool from 1983-87 - was able to build when it stood on a socialist programme. Labour leader Ed Miliband has stated that Labour 'got it wrong' on immigration, but why doesn't he admit that Labour 'got it wrong' on housing? Labour would be elected on a landslide if Miliband was to pledge that the next Labour government would carry out a mass council house-building programme, to create high-quality, genuinely affordable, secure housing for the majority and to provide work for unemployed construction workers on union rates of pay. This is not unprecedented - from 1948 to 1954 the Labour and Tory governments built an average of 240,000 council houses a year. However, Labour today, wedded to big business, will never implement such a demand. The Socialist Party calls for the organised workers' movement, in the form of the trade unions, to launch a mass campaign to defend and expand council housing. This could unite existing tenants and the five million people on waiting lists by demanding decent housing for all, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. At the same time we recognise that, particularly given the current lack of supply, the lack of an open, democratic and accountable system of allocations, which would be accepted by most workers, increases anger and suspicion that housing is being allocated unfairly. Cameron is whipping up this feeling in relation to migrants from other EU countries, who are in fact already only allowed to apply for social housing if they are currently in work, or have been in continuous work for at least the previous 12 months. And that is only for the right to apply - the current acute shortage means that the vast majority of applicants for social housing languish indefinitely on a waiting list. Statistics indicate that only 0.9% of social housing allocations have gone to workers from Eastern Europe. This is largely because, to actually get social housing, particularly in London and other areas with a severe housing shortage, it is usually necessary to not only be homeless, but also in priority need - that is pregnant, with dependent children, or vulnerable because of old age or illness. The mainly young economic migrants from EU countries rarely qualify. Nonetheless, there are of course cases where homeless families who are new to an area, sometimes refugees fleeing war, famine and persecution, are housed above families living in severely over-crowded conditions that have been on the waiting list for many years. While it is the extreme lack of council housing which is the root cause, leading to a choice between housing the homeless and the 'merely' desperate, this inevitably creates resentment among those who do not get council housing against those who do. The Socialist Party believes that the right of families to be housed in the same community is an important one. The policies of this government and Labour councils are annihilating this right; forcing desperate families to move hundreds of miles from family and friends for social housing. The struggle to achieve it has to be linked to both the fight for a mass council house-building programme and for the democratic control of the allocation system. Decisions should be taken on the basis of need, including the right to be housed near relatives and friends, not by council officials, however, but by elected representatives of local community organisations, including tenants associations, trade unions, elected councillors and other community campaigns. The workers' movement needs to take the same kind of class approach to other aspects of the government's attempts to increase divisions between immigrant and non-immigrant workers which are, unfortunately, being echoed by Labour. The Tories hypocritically claim that immigration is undermining 'the British way of life' but it is the government's driving down of workers' living standards that will ruin our way of life unless we fight back. Miliband has been forced to recognise belatedly that over the last decade big business in Britain used super-exploited migrant workers to lower wages for all workers. His proposals to prosecute more employers who pay less than the minimum wage are welcome. There have only been seven prosecutions since it was introduced 14 years ago, and for the first ten years of New Labour government not a single successful prosecution took place! Miliband should also pledge immediately to increase the minimum wage - to at least £8 an hour - a living wage rather than starvation rations. This would lift millions out of the benefit trap. But if Miliband was serious about stopping the race to the bottom he would be calling for all workers - both non-migrants and migrants - to join a trade union and organise together to win decent pay and conditions. This is the only way to effectively combat the employers' relentless attempts to drive down the wages of all workers. Instead Miliband, like Blair and Brown before him, has opposed workers striking to defend their living conditions and has made no pledge to repeal Britain's vicious anti-trade union laws. Unfortunately there is no possibility of Labour adopting even these minimal policies. Under Miliband, as under Blair and Brown, Labour remains a party wedded to capitalism. Miliband is not willing to even vote against slave labour Workfare schemes. Promising to reverse the Tory-Lib Dem cuts is too much for him to stomach. That is why the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is beginning to lay the foundations for the creation of a powerful electoral voice for working class people. TUSC brings together trade unionists, including the transport workers' union, the RMT, and socialists, including the Socialist Party. TUSC stands in elections in opposition to all cuts in public services, and to fight for the kind of policies outlined in this article. Socialists stand for workers' unity, explaining that the only way to effectively prevent big business's attempts to drive down wages is by uniting workers - non-migrant and migrant - to fight for everyone to get decent pay and conditions. With most taken from http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/758/16390/27-03-2013/cameron-whips-up-immigration-fears-to-divide-movement-against-austerity

Labour party on Workfare, a dirty little secret?

The labour party are nothing but an all out capitalist party nowadays we can be under no illusions if we accept that fact we can begin to move forward. Sadly many deluded left wingers still seem to harbour illusions in a labour party which has long since given up on them. Their reasons? I cannot fathom myself but blind loyalty and insanity must be well up there with reasons why people still support this awful excuse for a political party. It was Tony Blair who introduced the first mass workfare scheme with the flagshipNewDeal back in the late 90s. Much like the Government’s current schemes it was widely derided as a failure that placed billions in the pockets of private sector providers like A4e, but had less than impressive results actually finding young people work. Despite the disastrous results, workfare continued throughout the Labour Government’s period in office, becoming rebranded as the ‘Flexible’ New Deal in later years. When the Tories came to power it was expanded and renamed (at vast cost) as the ‘Work Programme’. Six months unpaid labour, under threat of benefit sanctions, has been at the heart of all these schemes. Labour’s workfare obsession is set to continue although gormless gimp Miliband is claiming that placements will be paid the minimum wage. He promises a million new jobs, all funded by the tax payer. But then he would say that wouldn’t he. In fact he can say pretty much anything he likes, no-one’s really listening after all. He also warns that those who don’t take up his pretend jobs will face the toughest sanctions ever. These jobs would be paid for with a ‘bankers tax’, a fine idea except spending it on subsidising low paid workers for multi-national companies is missing the point somewhat. Almost all of the problems that exist with workfare still exist with Millibands scheme, which in many ways could prove far worse for worker’s pay and conditions. This daft plan would enshrine six months Government subsidised work for private companies as the norm for young people. Whilst a million people currently in minimum wage work would lose their jobs, young people, whether they had other plans or not, would be sent to replace them or forced into poverty. Just like under the current policies, it would be the most vulnerable who faced sanctions. As Miliband’s workfare workers would be paid by the state and face benefit sanctions for non-compliance, they would have few, if any workplace rights. Just like today’s workfare staff, they could potentially be used to undermine industrial action. The Unions should reject outright any plans for a million strong army of scab labour. If private companies want workers they should pay for them. And young people deserve a choice about where they work. Don’t expect any change from Labour though. So desperate are they to show they hate the poor and unemployed just as much as the Eton toffs, they are determined to look tough on benefit claimants. It’s a little bit pathetic really. New Labour was bad enough, now we have Forced Labour. As it was Labour who introduced the brutal Atos testing regime for sick and disabled people it’s unlikely they would plan more enlightened policies for claimants on health related benefits either. The truth is most of them supported much of the recent Welfare Reform Bill. They voted against it purely for political point scoring, not ideological concern for the country’s poorest people. The Labour Party are not the opposition, they are a slightly inept carbon copy of the Tory Party. They will do nothing should they ever claw their way back to power, but continue the attacks on the five million voters on some form of benefit. Just like they have done nothing to support public sector workers or supported the biggest strikes in living memory. They haven’t been the party of the working class for a long time, if they truly ever were. But more than ever they are toadying sycophants to the rich, sucking up to big business in the hope of making lots of money like Tony Blair did when they do the decent thing and retire. The entire fucking lot of them, Labour and Tory alike, need stringing up. The system is broken. It can only be fixed from the bottom up and that means us.

Happy fracking Christmas

This Christmas fracking is back on the menu. The profiteering exercise of extracting shail gas from rocks is back and ready to rake in profit for the capitalists. Fracking in Britain was suspended after earthquakes were caused around Blackpool by fracking operations, but the moratorium soon ends. In the US, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake occurred in Oklahoma, while a Geological Survey report concludes that: most, "if not all of the earthquakes [in the USA] since August 2001 have been triggered by the deep injection of wastewater" in fracking. 60% of Britain's countryside could potentially be exploited for shale gas as Osborne looks to Texas - which produces more CO2 emissions than all but the top six countries in the world. Texas has 48,000 jobs relying on fracking. Osborne intends to water down Britain's commitments to cutting emissions and threatens renewable energy programmes, which, if properly pursued, would create as many jobs as fracking does in the USA, while saving the environment rather than wrecking it. Eight million gallons of water and carcinogenic chemicals are used to frack a well, then disposed of deep in the earth, where they contaminate groundwater and poison the surroundings. Methane released into groundwater by fracking rises through fissures and water wells where it can be ignited at the tap. US reports claim over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of "sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water." David Kennedy, who heads the statutory body advising the government on meeting its carbon reduction goals, severely criticised Osborne's announcement, saying the dash for gas through fracking, "would not be sensible, or compatible with meeting carbon budgets and the 2050 target" and would damage investment in renewable. The UK target is to cut emissions by 80% by 2050, compared with 1990 levels. David Cameron consequently vetoed Kennedy's appointment to a post heading the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Osborne's government puts energy company profits before the welfare of the planet. This is the cheapest way for gas companies to find energy. It’s time to end the lie that the con-dems are the greenest government yet it’s time to end this all for profit motive and end the rule of this illegitimate government who have no mandate to govern even less to tear up our environment for their friends pockets. with extracts tkane from the excellent article in this weeks socialist on fracking by pete mason.

24 reasons for a 24 hour general strike

Below I will describe 24 reasons as to why we need a 24 hour general strike to bring down this gov or at least start the fightback to doing so. So without any further waiting1 1.. the carving up of the welfare state by this con-dem government. The biggest cuts we’ve sen to welfare for a generation. 2. The privatisation and the passing of the health and social care bill meaning an end to the NHS as we knew it. 3. The trebling o tuition fees, enough to rile any young person today university tuition fees now are on average 9K a year. 4. Slashing of EMA for young people to stay on and get an education. 5. Over 1 million young people are now unemployed no thanks to this government of Tory millionaires. 6. The criminal slave labour workfare scheme making young people work for nothing to get their benefits. 7. 5 million officially on the housing waiting list and very few truly affordable council homes. 8. While the poor get poorer the rich get richer every week. Gap of weather between the very rich and very poor widening under this gov unlike any other gov . 9. The continued use of ATOS by this government assessing disabled people driving many to suicide due to the stress of it all. 10. Public sector pensions cut we’ll now be working longer, paying more and getting less for it. 11. cutting of housing benefit to those under the age of 25 making it near on impossible for young people to find home of their own let alone afford one. 12. new food banks are opening up every week in Britain, this is not widely reported but is a absolute disgrace, Not that they are opening to help those in need but the fact that we are one of the richest nations in the world and still yet have food banks. 13. Rising unemployment and those who are under employed in total that figure looks more around the 6 million mark a shocking statistic whatever way you look at it. 14. A slash and burn culture on our employment rights. Tories wish to be able to sack us on the spot to improve competitiveness in the private sector. This is all about driving down wages, terms and conditions. 15. Pay day loan sharks. Wonga, the pay-day loan company, saw its profits almost treble last year to £45.8 million. The number of people seeking a loan from Wonga to bridge the gap between stagnant wages and rocketing bills and food prices, has quadrupled. With an interest rate of 4,214% APR, Wonga and companies like it trap people in a poverty cycle for years. 16. A massive plan to privatise almost everything that moves. Including our NHS, police, Ambulance services, local council services, Bus’s, trains you name it al to their rich mates in the private sector to make a nice quick buck out of. 17. The news international and Murdoch scandals phone hacking and the closeness of politicians to the media and the police is beyond comprehension. Corruption goes deep at the heart of the establishment in Britain. 18. Only an estimated 15% of the cuts have been made making another 85% still to come a fight back is needed now to stop the cuts in their tracks before the rest rain down on us. 19. The Libor fixing rate affecting millions of workers 20. Government-instigated hate campaigns against the disabled and unemployed 21. Banks laundering drug money 22. Still billions being wasted on pointless wars in Afghanistan where our troops are being needlessly killed and for what? British imperialism. Troops out now. 23. PCS estimate 120 billion pounds goes evaded every ear by big business and corporations this could pay for most if not all of the deficit in one fail swoop, Tax the rich or take their wealth off them for good. 24. Together we can win. If we stand together fight together fight every cut up and down the land we can win. But we must have an alternative and that alternative must be a fight to end capitalism for good replacing it with democratic socialism. Of course there are far more reasons for a general strike like the disgusting closing and treatment of the Remply workers and the attacks on education by Michael Gove such as Free schools, academies and the changing of the GCSE marking which are all fair enough reasons to strike against this gov. The need for a serious and determined resistance is clear - which is why the historic vote by the TUC to pass the POA prison officer union's motion is so important. It called for "coordinated action where possible with far reaching campaigns including the consideration and practicalities of a general strike". This offers us a way to take on the Con-Dem cuts. The Socialist, a weekly paper of the Socialist Party, is 100% committed to backing and building the campaign to make this happen. We back the likes of Bob Crow, Mark Serwotka and others who have called on the TUC to now name the date for as soon as possible after the 20 October demo.

Keep profiteers out of our NHS! Mass movement needed now!

High-profile NHS hospitals in England are to be encouraged by the government to set up profit-making branches abroad to help fund services in the UK. An agency will aim to link hospitals such as Great Ormond Street with foreign governments that want access to British-run health services. Investment would have to be drawn from hospitals' private UK work, but with profits ploughed back into the NHS. A patients' group said the move was a "distraction" at a time of "upheaval". The drive, building on an initiative first started under the Labour government, is set to be be launched by the Department of Health and UK Trade and Investment this autumn. The BBC understands the initiative is unlikely to involve regular district or general hospitals but would target world-renowned hospitals like children's hospital Great Ormond Street, the Royal Marsden and Guy's and St Thomas'. 'Benefit patients' It would mirror schemes such as that of Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, which in 2007 built a unit of the same name in Dubai. In 2010, Labour's Health Secretary Andy Burnham set up NHS Global to help the health service make the most of the global market for healthcare and the coalition now wants to build on t This is a continuation and a first sign of what the health and social care bill passed this year by the con-dem government is going to do to our health service. Quite clearly many capitalists here in Britain and around the globe see the NHS as a world institution and a huge opening for a big profiteering exercise here. Take no notice of labour either though they were the ones who brought in such ideas of a global NHS and Andy Burnham their shadow health secretary was the one who over saw this so we will take no support or lectures off labor they are up to their eyes in PFI and marketisation of the NHS. We must be aware of what is going on arm ourselves with the facts and join up local campaigns with a national campaign to save our NHS which truly is under threat now. If it wasn’t before it is now. Trade unions have been pathetic on this so far a national campaign linking up all unions’ workers, anti cuts groups, save NHS groups and anyone else who wishes to throw their weight behind saving this. But be under no illusion this is going to take a huge effort. As I tweeted on twitter last night it was mass working class pressure and action which won the NHS for the working class it’s going to take a similar mass pressure and militant action to win this back. This must be part of the NSSN’s calls for a 24 hour public + private general strike. It’s time to step up the fight now redouble our efforts to save the NHS and stop all the cuts and remove this government intent on taking back all the gains we’ve ever made.

Solidarity with workers across Europe

As the crisis in capitalism grows deeper and deeper and the ruling classes look increasingly desperate for ordinary working people they haven’t seen this drop in living standards for a very very long time possibly ever.



In Britain, as in every country of Europe, millions of working people are following events in Greece with baited breath. In part this is because of fear of what the deepening economic crisis in the euro zone could mean for workers in Britain. But it is not the only reason. It is also because workers are inspired by the defiance of the Greek population.
Seventeen general strikes have shaken Greece in the course of the last two years as Greek workers have refused to accept the mass impoverishment demanded of them. And now the Greek working and middle classes have shouted their defiance in the elections - shattering the electoral base of the previous establishment parties - Pasok and New Democracy - and voting for those who opposed austerity.
Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) was the biggest beneficiary of the anti-austerity mood in the recent Greek general election, increasing its vote from 4.6% to 16.78%.
Since then Syriza's principled stand, refusing to join a coalition that accepted more austerity and instead demanding a left government, has led to increasing support in opinion polls - as high as 26% - mostly topping the polls. This also shows the potential for left, anti-cuts candidates to make breakthroughs outside of Greece, including the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in Britain.
The right-wing and fascist Golden Dawn won 21 MPs in the 6 May elections but has since seen its support plummet in the polls. This gives an indication of how support for the far right can be undermined when a credible left alternative emerges. But it is also a warning of what could emerge if Syriza does not lead a battle against austerity.


All across Europe workers are being forced to accept austerity in Ireland next week people will go to the polls to vote on the European austerity treaty as socialists we call for a strong NO vote rejecting permanent austerity and being locked into a straight jacket in terms of Ireland’s options from this point on.

The capitalist classes of Europe are now cranking up the pressure on the Greek working class, trying to blackmail it into voting 'the right way' at the recall general election in June.
Typically Cameron has led the charge, crudely sending "a very clear message to the people of Greece: there is a choice - you can vote to stay in the euro, with all the commitments you made, or if you vote another way you're effectively voting to leave."
Cameron is attempting to turn the general election into a referendum on the euro. He is gambling on the fact that a majority of the Greek population still want to remain in the euro, fearing the prospect of being a small, isolated and impoverished country.
It was not the Greek people that made a "commitment" to endure endless misery. This was done by the previous government parties and, as a result, the Greek population punished them at the polls.
The policies demanded by the troika of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank, and implemented by Greek governments, have left sections of the Greek population destitute and the vast majority in terrible poverty.
The Greek economy has shrunk by 20% in four years, a catastrophe not seen in Europe since the 1930s. Public sector wages have fallen by 40%. The church is now feeding an average of 250,000 people each day as sections of the population literally face starvation.

As the pressure of the axe-men and women mounts on the Greek people to submit, the working class of Britain, along with workers across Europe, needs to send a resounding message to the Greek people: 'We stand 100% with your rejection of austerity. We support your struggle and will step up the battle to stop cuts and defend living conditions in our own countries, as the best means of assisting your struggle. If, as is overwhelmingly likely, the capitalist classes of Europe force you out of the euro zone, you will not be isolated - the workers of Europe stand in solidarity with you.'
What better support could workers in Britain give to workers in Greece than by bringing down the hated Con-Dem government?
It is not only in Greece but across Europe that the working class has rejected austerity on the streets and at the ballot box. The defeat of Sarkozy in France and of Merkel's party in Germany's most populous state, the huge vote against the Con-Dem's in Britain's local elections, plus the local election results in Italy; are all electoral indications of a growing tidal wave of opposition to austerity.
The battle against austerity must be linked to struggle against capitalism - a system in a profound crisis. It is not the supposed past profligacy of the peoples of Greece, Spain, Ireland or Britain that has led to the current catastrophe but the economic crisis of capitalism, and the past and current profligacy of the financiers and speculators who dominate the economy.
The euro zone has become an austerity zone, where all the problems of the capitalist crisis are intensified. We as Socialists always warned that the euro, a single currency for very different economies, would not work on a capitalist basis.
When the world economy was growing it could appear a success, but in a crisis it would become a terrible trap for the working classes of Europe.
The leaders of the euro zone, headed by German capitalism, are trying to overcome the crisis by driving the working class into the dirt.
Cameron is applying the same policy in Britain. But this is exacerbating the economic crisis and is creating a gigantic revolt. It is fear of a deepening of the economic crisis and, above all, of the revolt that is coming, that is forcing the leading representatives of capitalism, including Obama, to put pressure on German capitalism to move towards some measures to stimulate the euro zone’s economies.
The economic crisis is not caused by a lack of profits for big business. The capitalists have huge piles of cash. The Wall Street Journal estimates that in the US, the euro zone, the UK and Japan, some $7.75 trillion in cash, is sitting in the vaults of big business.
Because the capitalists refuse to invest this money, we call for an immediate 50% levy on it, in order for it to be used for a massive programme of investment in public work and job creation. However, there is no prospect of capitalist governments carrying out this kind of serious stimulus, which would create howls of outrage, and opposition, from their big business backers.

So let’s join together across Europe and look across borders and see we are all fighting the same enemy and that if we unite across borders workers can finally feel their huge strength they do hold. Once workers in Europe break out of their chains the tide will turn very quickly. In Britain we can do our bit by helping to bring down this weak rotten con-dem government which is intent on making the poor pay for a crisis they did not create. This October on the TUC demonstration we also need to have placards and banners with messages of solidarity with Greek, Spanish, Irish and Portuguese workers on this will scare the ruling class’s with the ideas and solidarity that is spreading like wild fire across Europe as we speak.

Its time to fight back, its time to unite but most of all stand together.

Far more cuts to come with 16 billion more announced today, time to fight back!

When you thought the cuts were bad enough we are told today there is more on their way as this government of millionaires looks to continue to make ordinary people pay for a crisis they did not create at a much faster and harder rate than before.

Danny Alexander is shaking up Whitehall spending rules
"In an environment of economic uncertainty, with ongoing instability in the eurozone, the UK's large deficit remains a crucial economic vulnerability. It remains a clear and present danger to stability," he will say.
New rules, which will be enforced from this year on, have been drawn up by finance directors in Whitehall and are aimed at improving financial management.
Mr. Alexander will say they are "rules that demonstrate the collective determination of government to ensure that never again will our nation's finances be allowed to get into such a mess".
He will insist that departments' delegated responsibility for spending cannot be "an excuse to hide information, close the books, or weaken financial management".
"For too long financial management in Government has been stifled by poor information sharing and poor incentives. That has to change," the Cabinet minister will say.
"From now on, all departments must monitor and share spending information with the Treasury on a monthly basis. And that data must be consistent."
In an environment of economic uncertainty, with ongoing instability in the eurozone, the UK's large deficit remains a crucial economic vulnerability. It remains a clear and present danger to stability.
Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander
The Treasury kept central reserves small in the spending review so departments could have the most money possible, which means departments themselves have to have a buffer in case of any problems.
Under the new rules, they will have to identify around 5% of their resource budget which could be used if new "pressures" emerge or new policies need funding.
Mr Alexander will stress that the changes are not a "small tweak to the Whitehall machine".
"They are another signal of our unwavering determination to deliver the fiscal consolidation we promised," he is to say.
"It is this focus on delivery that is the cornerstone of our country's credibility. Credibility, let us not forget, which is delivering the record low interest rates that are benefiting millions of families across the UK."


This all sounds very like a hard line austerity or nothing kind of speech. If this doesn’t wake the trade unions up to get up off their knees and fight back I can’t see what will. This is a huge threat to our standard of living. With the original cuts still only about 9% into their 5 year programme things are going to get a hell of a lot worse. Some people still think amazingly that this is just a short term measure to see our finances back on track but I personally believe we are being locked into permanent austerity with this.

This should be a warning shot to the anti cuts movement and the trade unions to prepare for battle. A bigger more concerted battle this time with the willingness to build for a general strike with public and private sectors. We can’t just simply lie down and let this happen we will have no choice but to fight back I feel. More cuts are not the answer with 120 billion going evaded in tax each year the vast majority of austerity cuts could be avoided.

With an investment in public services and a mass house building programme we would not have to endure huge spending cuts. They are not savings at all they cost us more in the long run so do beware of the language these capitalist politicians use.

It is also clear still we need a party that will fight for our interests a new workers party that will reject austerity once and for all. This can only come about by people having the heart to feel ready to build a new party out of the ash’s of a capitalist apocalypse .

Unemployment slightly down but still the fight for jobs continues

as I blogged about yesterday the National minimum wage is now worth 9% less than what it was when introduced in 1999. But today’s unemployment figures make even more gloomy reading. The con-dem government are trying to put a spin on it saying that the figures are coming down and unemployment is falling but I am not convinced.

Like myself in part time work its not a happy existence earning poor money and not working enough hours to get much in benefits but now Part-time Britain reaches new record, As more people than ever before are in part time work many taking more than one part time job just to get by. This in affect is the working poor if you like those who are made to feel lucky to be in work but do not earn nearly enough to live. These who are in work are also living in poverty still. The number of unemployed women hits 25-year high too this due to the fact that many more women work in the public sector than men and the government are attacking public sector workers hard with their savage public spending cuts. Aswell as this long-term joblessness reaches worst total since 1996 so now try telling me we are getting better and the shoots of the recovery are there for all to see

They are not and it’s clear to me that it’s only going to get worse for the 99%. As 90% of the cuts are still yet to happen I still see us being trapped in eternal austerity of pay freezes, pay cuts, job cuts and service closures. While the 99% take austerity the 1% however is increasing their wealth year on year sitting on bigger and bigger funds playing the stock market and creaming off huge profits. We hear today Tesco and their profits are down but this is only down to the fact people are not spending so much due to as I say less pay and job loss’s people are naturally being more careful what they spend.

So I still say we need a mass socially useful job creation project launched to get people back to work including young people with a proper living wage for all with trade union rights to fight for decent pay and conditions.

It is key that groups like youth fight for jobs continue the fight for decent jobs and education to give people hope that there is an alternative out there to be realised. But I’m afraid there is no solution under capitalism. Just endless austerity. Its time to fight for a change of society a change of direction a society based on the millions not for the millionaires.

Labour reveal their real face of cuts and more cuts, time for a new workers party

This weekend just gone confirmed to me and to many that labour are no alternative and will not offer a way out of the current crisis we find ourselves in. Some would say this weekends move to accept spending cuts is a cupitulation but i'd disagree labour has been pro cuts all along it has just disagreed with the speed of them that is all. Not the fact that cuts are needed at all.

Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, says Labour faces "a big task" to regain economic credibility and win back public trust.

In a speech to the Fabian Society on Saturday, Balls said he accepted every spending cut being imposed by the coalition and endorsed George Osborne's public sector pay freeze, adding that it might need to continue beyond the end of the current parliament.

His announcement, first revealed in an interview with the Guardian, is an attempt to challenge accusations that Labour is not credible on the economy.

In his speech, Balls said Labour could not and would not make "any commitments" before the next election to reverse the coalition government's tax rises or spending cuts because "we don't know how bad things will be on jobs, growth and the deficit".

Balls said he would not have taken the same approach to tackling the deficit as the coalition, adding that the next Labour government would also have to "deliver social justice in tougher times".

"And as we make the argument that cutting spending and raising taxes too far and too fast risks making the economy and the deficit worse not better, it is right that we set out where we do support cuts and where we would be making the tough but necessary decisions," he told the Fabians.

The shadow chancellor said it was "inevitable" now that public sector pay restraint would have to "continue for longer in this parliament".

"Labour cannot duck that reality. And we won't. Jobs must be our priority before higher pay," he said.

Balls said Labour had to offer an economic alternative that would boost growth now and deliver "responsible capitalism" over the longer term.

But he added: "To make that alternative work and be credible, it must be underpinned by a clear commitment to balanced but tough spending and budget discipline now and into the medium term."



This to me comes as no surprise at all only that people are surprised by this and that the labour party are tory light hand have been for some time now.

The idea that capitalism can be responsible is ridiculous quite frankly what is responsible about making the poorest in society pay for the mistakes of the richest?

Labour who are a fully fledged capitalist party now offer no alternative and as such i'd urge anyone who still considers themselves a socialist in teh labour party to leave that rotten dead party and help us form a new workers party.


We in TUSC and the socialist party do not accept the need for any cuts at all. We feel there is the money in society and the county is not broke or hard up as the neo-liberals would have you believe . For god sake we are one of the richest nations in the world. Where is that money then you ask ?

Well at the top of society the evaded 120 billion in evaded tax by rich corporations for one. Scrapping trident and ending all wars and defence spending will free up huge amounts of money to be invested in public services and a huge affordable council housing building project providing much needed homes to 5 million people on the housing list and also much needed jobs too.

Labour is not the alternative as much as they like to tell you fluffy words like social justice labour values and nonsense like that. They dont mean a word of it when they agree with the tories on pretty much every point.

Its time to break with labour and take a brave step towards a new fairer future starting with a new workers party. Leading eventually to socialism

Do we want choice ?

So we hear it nearly everyday, David Cameron trying to sell NHS reforms or privatising large parts of our public sector. This is the tories real plan for our public services. But the word Cameron and Clegg and his con-dem buddies seem to want to use is this word "choice". Apparently we all need choice now on what hospital providers we use. This in otehr words is saying we need to be able to choose a private company offering you something for a cheap price. But this is all well and good but why should we pay for public services which we pay for anyway out of our tax's well most of us not including much of the ruling class who evade tax.

But the use of words has been very clever by the tories over the last years or so. To get labour out of power and bring about a shift in peoples minds they convinced many people we needed change. That labour were out on their knees and we needed something fresh. The use of the media which has so famously gone up in flames this week in the tabloid press especially with the News of the world helped trumpet.

But i wanted to know with our public services do we really want choice, i mean really ? surely most people in this country i'd have thought would settle for a brilliant top class service, free at the point of use and paid for by their tax's. Its tried and tested and works well. Even if it is not perfect it works largely well. SO where does David Cameron get this idea we now want choice in our services ?

I believe like many that this is a smokescreen for privatisation and inviting his private sector mates in to make a quick buck on our NHS and public services.

Quite simply we do not need choice. We just want a good well funded NHS which is free at the point of use and provides good health care.

Afterall that is what it was set up to do in the first place. Not to become a market for private companies to make money out of us.

The failiure of privatisation is very clear you do not have to look much further than the likes of Railtrack and Southern Cross care homes to realise that when profit comes before care and need then it is a recipe for disaster and sloppy service ultimatly ending in failiure.

So Mr Cameron we are happy with our public services, they may need better funding and a few tweaks here and there but on the whole they are fine they do not need a choice based system or a profit making excersise involved either.

The role our public services play is a key part. Our fire brigade and police and council workers do a excellent job. Lets not destroy the great jobs they do.

Standing up to a weak government

The magnificent strike by PCS and education unions the NUT, ATL and UCU was a game-changer in the battle to defend public sector pensions.

The question on other public sector workers' lips was not 'why are they on strike?' but rather, 'why are we not on strike?' At demonstrations in every major town and city in the country Unison, Unite, FBU, GMB, CWU and many other union banners were there alongside those of the striking unions.

Community organisations, anti-cuts alliances and disability groups marched too, knowing the battle to defend pensions is inextricably linked to the defence of services and communities.

The government's attempt to divide private and public sector workers and state pensioners fell flat as speaker after speaker at rallies demanded fair pensions for all.

The worst elements of the millionaire press went into hysterical, almost comical overdrive with headlines calling on people to stand up to "union bullies", a claim rendered absurd by the almost festival good nature of the day.


Newcastle: 30 June, photo Elaine Brinskill (Click to enlarge)
The government suffered a major media disaster when multi-millionaire minister Francis Maude, was exposed on Radio 4's Today programme by PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka.

Maude was lying, claiming the cost of public sector pensions was rising when the absolute opposite is the case. His public humiliation was so bad he was pulled from doing any further interviews.

The humiliation continued as the government moved from an admission that the strike was hitting hard to their infantile claim that it was a flop. In reality 85-95% of members were on strike.

In Scotland, where only PCS was on strike, support from other workers was tremendous. Over a thousand at the Glasgow rally heard a blistering speech from PCS president Janice Godrich exposing the grubby nature of those behind this attack - Francis Maude, who owns no less than four homes, was embroiled in the MPs' expenses scandal and, like the vast majority of MPs, seems in no hurry to "reform" his own pension.


Newcastle: 30 June, photo Elaine Brinskill (Click to enlarge)
Workers are instinctively making the link between the pensions attack and the rest of the cuts programme. The real reason for the attack on pensions has nothing to do with affordability but, in the words of CBI spiv John Cridland the "reform" must take place in order to make outsourcing "affordable" - this fact must be repeated to every worker our movement can reach.

Ed Miliband's shameful attack on the strike was certainly treacherous but also mind-bogglingly stupid. Rather than making himself "respectable" in the eyes of the press and big business he has alienated millions of workers by attacking an extremely popular strike.

In retrospect this major error may mark the beginning of a process which could result in Miliband actually losing the leadership of the party; not because Labour leaders will be worried about his treachery but rather because they will draw the conclusion they cannot be led into the next election by an incompetent who is clearly way out of his depth.

It appears that the government has recognised its error in attacking the entire public sector at once and will now try to divide the unions. Andrew Grice wrote in the Independent that: "Ministers have already shown flexibility amid fears that workers could pull out of the councils' pension scheme, causing its collapse. A settlement here might deter big unions such as Unite, Unison and the GMB from joining the coordinated strikes some unions seek in the autumn."

Mood for action
However, given the growing mood for action among public sector workers following 30 June, it will be very difficult for the leaders of Unison and the other local government unions to avoid taking action on the basis of the government throwing them a few crumbs. The message for trade unions and their leaders is clear: if we do not fight together we will be picked off separately.

Unless the government is prepared to move away from its hard-line stance on core issues like increased contributions, increased age and devaluation of pensions then we must build for widespread, coordinated action in the autumn.

Nothing will be the same after this strike; all elements of the political establishment, including even the so-called liberal "opinion-formers" are worried.

Having written off the unions as an irrelevancy the truth is staring them in the face; with effective determined leadership, linked to the preparedness to campaign, including taking industrial action, as a last resort, working people are more than capable of standing up to a weak government with no mandate.

Unison conference, members must call on leadership to call date for strike ballot

Council workers are facing unprecedented attacks - in the form of massive job cuts and a tearing up of terms and conditions in many areas.

In just two weeks time it is expected that the government will announce their intention to impose a 3% increase in public sector pension contributions. This is a pay cut in real terms and comes on top of a two-year pay freeze. Unless defeated through mass strike action, many workers will be faced with the choice of pay up or be forced out of the pension scheme.

The government is also proposing a career average instead of final salary scheme. They plan to cut the local government pension from 1/60th of our annual salary to as low as only 1/100th and they want to make us work till we are 68.

These changes, if effected, could cost some workers up to £1,000 more a year for a pension worth nearly half of what they would get now.

Even some of the employers are panicking. They are predicting that 20-40% could leave the schemes, sending the funds into downward spirals.

If the government gets away with it, this would be the biggest attack on public sector workers' pay and conditions in a generation. That is why it requires the unions to use the full strength of the five million public sector trade unionists.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison has now declared that Unison will ballot over the summer or early autumn for strike action over pension attacks if the meeting with government on 28 June does not lead to a deal. Prentis also said: "It will not be one day of action - it will be long-term industrial action throughout all our public services to prevent destruction of our pension schemes."

This is to be welcomed by Unison members and other public sector trade unionists. This shows that trade union leaders can be forced to ballot for action, when faced with an onslaught of attacks from this government and growing anger from public sector workers.



But members attending this weeks national Unison conference which is still very labour centric sadly need to put as much militant pressure on Dave Prentice and his leadership to call the date for the strike ballot.

We heard at the NSSn conference many Unison activists saying the union would ratehr they fight isloated local issues ratehr than join mass action with other unions.

But pressure is growing and members are asking themselves why are we not joining other trade unions on strike on 30th june and later in teh Autumn.

Dave Prentice must be made aware that now is not the time for pussyfooting around. His members are under attack and are under attack right now. They need the full backing of the union and its resources to defeat these pension reforms and the further attacks on our class.

The start of the fightback will come from the three quarters of a million workers in education and the civil service who are preparing to strike on 30 June.

Unfortunately Unison will not be taking action with other unions on 30 June but the union leaders are calling on all members to support the lobbies and demonstrations and for members not to cover the work of the strikers.

Only recently Socialist Party members on the Unison national executive tried to commit the union to action on pensions no later than 31 October 2011 but this was not agreed. At a local level there are Unison branches whose members are demanding to ballot for strike action against cuts. They are being prevented from doing so by the union leadership. These ballots should now immediately be sanctioned.

We must now give full backing to the 30 June strike and use it to build for an all public-sector strike that would rock this government to its foundations.

Unison must be ready to start the pensions ballot immediately if the government refuses to back down on pension attacks
For an all public-sector strike in defence of pensions
Defend the final salary scheme
No increases in contribution rates
No to lower pension benefits

Now is the time for action and co-ordinated strike action to push the government back on this issue and further the advance on the anti cuts movement.

Con-dems public sector pensions attack, brutal class warfare must be fought

The government is attempting to steal £2.8 billion from public sector pensions in Britain. This is a brutal act of class warfare directed against millions of mainly low-paid workers.

Attempting to prosecute it is a tiny ruling elite, who despise the public sector and those who deliver the vital services that bind our communities together.

Propaganda about public sector "gold-plated" pensions and conditions at the expense of everyone else, especially private sector workers, is the ideological 'justification' for a state-instigated hate campaign against public sector workers.

PCS members have voted for action alongside three education unions on 30 June. These four unions have three quarters of a million members.

This will be the first major coordinated industrial action against the Tory-led coalition's cuts and privatisation programme.

PCS members have voted not just for a day of action nor to only defend pensions but for a programme of discontinuous action which will allow the national union to coordinate action to defend jobs, pay and conditions, which are all under attack now.

Strategy
This strategy will be a significant element in building for mass coordinated industrial action in the autumn.

The National Association of Head Teachers is the latest union to announce it will also ballot its members about striking over pension cuts. Potentially there could be between three and five million workers striking against the coalition cuts in the autumn.

Pensions are the great unifying factor in the public sector. Every single worker will suffer appalling detriment if the government's plans are realised.

The plans are based on the report by anti-union ex-Labour minister John Hutton, a truly despicable creature, awash with lucrative sponsorships for services rendered to corporate interests.

The civil service has operated on an unwritten contract that job security and reasonable pensions, which are deferred wages, were the trade-off for low wages.

The average civil service pension for full service, excluding the tiny percentage of high earners, is £4,200 a year.

Hard-working public sector workers are the victims, not the cause of the economic crisis. We are now being asked to pay again, with what is effectively a tax on public sector pensions to pay off the deficit caused by the bankers and their system.

Victims, not the cause
The proposals will mean members will be expected to double or treble their contributions (the value of an extra day's work a month), work until age 68, and accept cuts of 20-50% in the value of pensions.

Our pensions' value has already been reduced by 15-25% because of the un-agreed re-indexing of pensions and benefits. PCS and other unions have mounted a legal challenge on this.

But the attack is not about dry statistics, it represents a shocking assault on living standards of some of the lowest paid workers in society who are also facing pay freezes, savage assaults on conditions, privatisation and the threat of job losses.

Even the Tories have voiced concern that the changes to contributions will lead to workers simply opting out of the scheme with horrendous implications for the future of pension provision.

This has been cited as part of the reason for Lib Dem treasury minister Danny Alexander's proposal to taper the increase in pension contributions.

Public sector workers now face a life of low pay followed by an impoverished old age, and they will be expected, as taxpayers, to fund the means-tested benefits necessary to support increasing numbers living below the poverty line.

Poverty
The official poverty line is £170 a week, the state pension is £102 a week; reduced occupational pensions will increase the number of pensioners in poverty - currently 2.5 million. 3.5 million pensioners are in fuel poverty.

In Germany pensions are 70% of average earnings, though set to fall. Even in the USA, for 40 years of work, social security provides 40% of previous earnings.

In France, 12% of GDP is spent on pensions, 10% in Germany, but in Britain, a measly 6%.

The net cost of paying public sector pensions in 2009/10 was a little under £4 billion. The cost of providing tax relief to the 1% who earn more than £150,000 is more than twice as much.

The total cost of providing tax relief to all higher rate taxpayers, on their private pensions, is more than five times as much.

There is an all-out campaign to divide public and private sector workers by claiming that pensions for the former are at the expense of the latter. In reality many households are comprised of people working in both sectors; the idea that low paid private sector workers are supportive of the cuts in other family members' pensions is garbage.

Workers won't buy the argument there should be an equality of misery.

Companies took pension 'holidays'
The removal of decent pension provision throughout the private sector was due to the fact that in the 1980s and 1990s companies took pension 'holidays' that left schemes under-funded.

When legislation was introduced to guarantee levels of funding, it increased the rate of pension fund closures as companies were unprepared to fund schemes at shareholders' expense.

The loss of these schemes did not, during a period of comparative economic boom, save jobs, guarantee pay rises or help to avoid financial meltdown in the private sector.

The only beneficiaries were the bosses and shareholders.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka rightly describes current negotiations with Cabinet Minister Francis Maude as a "farce". Maude wants the unions to go into sector bargaining without any compromise on the core national issues of increased contributions, cuts in the value of schemes and the rise in the working age.

Maude and Alexander clearly aim to sow division by putting the unions at each other's throats by fighting over the distribution of the cuts rather than opposing them outright.

Key principles
But PCS is adamant that these key principles must be collectively opposed and negotiated on, before sector talks take place.

Already, under the threat of strike action Alexander has announced that workers earning less than £15,000 won't have any increase in contributions. But this must be confirmed in negotiations.

Those earning less than £18,000 will have their contributions capped at 1.5%. But only 4% of PCS members earn less than £15,000 and across the public sector it is 1%.

And these low-paid workers will still suffer the increased retirement age and all the other aspects of the attack.

Workers earning more than £18,000 could have their contributions raised by up to 5%. The increases will be phased in over three years from next April.

This is clearly an attempt to divide the opposition and must be resisted.

The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said the government was "hopelessly mismanaging" the pension issue. But Labour also attempted to increase the pension age in 2005 but was thwarted by the threat of coordinated public sector strike action.

Echoing the shameful Labour line that while the coalition is "cutting too deep and too quickly" cuts are nevertheless 'necessary' and 'inevitable', some union leaders signalled concessions upfront.

The coalition government is now trying to tempt them into an unholy alliance against PCS and other unions by isolating the 'militants' who, according to Alexander "seem hell bent on premature strike action".

The position must be unequivocal - no cuts or privatisation. Accepting the need for cuts is the road to division and defeat.

On pensions, we are facing organised theft on a huge scale by a government of millionaires with no mandate - economic terrorism against the vast majority waged to increase the obscene wealth of a tiny minority who place profit before people.

We face a defining battle for our movement. Real leadership is required, based on a strategy of no cuts, and no concessions to pension robbery.

We must build the kind of widespread industrial action capable of defeating and bringing down this government.

For a newly-qualified teacher who goes into the profession at 23, doesn't take any promotions and retires at 65 on UPS3, the figures suggest that the government's best offer cuts his/her pension by 40%. Their worst offer cuts it by 52%!
One PCS member in Swansea was staggered to find he would lose £160,000 under the new arrangements. This is a typical, not extreme, example.

Union shop stewards reject Cables anti trade union threat

National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) 5th Annual Conference - 11.30am-4.15pm, Saturday June 22nd - South Camden Community School, London E10 9DE



On Saturday, over 400 shop stewards and union reps will be sending a message of defiance to ConDem minister Vince Cable after he warned unions about more anti-union laws to restrict their activity. Cable suffered heckles from outraged delegates at this week's GMB conference as he lectured them about not joining the June 30th strikes against the government's attacks on public sector pensions. The NSSN will be using its 5th annual conference in London to prepare rank and file workers to build support for the 750,000 workers from the public sector unions PCS, NUT, UCU and ATL who are now balloting to take strike action.



The NSSN will be voting on a motion encouraging its supporters in unions not yet balloting to push for strike ballots so they too can take action later in the year. The conference will also be supporting trace unionist who have been victimised by their employers for trade union activities. These include Arwyn Thomas the London Tube driver. His union the RMT has just called strike action to demand his reinstatement.



Other speakers include RMT President Alex Gordon, PCS President Janice Godrich and Apostolis Kasimeris a member of the Executive Committee of the Union of Public Transport Workers in Attica (Athens and Pireaus region).



ENDS



For more information, contact contact Rob Williams NSSN chair:

Telephone: 07816134690

Email: info@shopstewards.net

Why i feel the NHS direct should stay

Why I feel the NHS direct should stay

Firstly please can you sign this petition if you can
http://www.savenhsdirect.co.uk/


To save the NHS direct service. It is a non emergency telephone number there to provide a way of taking the volume of 999 calls down. So if you have a query or a general medical question you can be diagnosed over the phone and helped without clogging up Accident and Emergency.

Now the Tories clearly feel this is a bad thing and blocking up accident and emergency is the way to go. But have they thought of the consequences that cutting this service will cause? A lot of people rely on an out of hour’s service like the NHS direct and I feel this should be saved. This will also mean loss of jobs and this wont come cheaply having to lay staff off. Just cutting wildly away at public sector organisations is a costly process. Lying off staff will cost them as the wont just go for nothing.

We hear that the con dems want to replace with a cheaper more efficient service. This is all well and good but it is no doubt going to be run by a tight budget and they will be running on a shoe string. No doubt there will be less people taking calls and as a result people not getting the help they need. So in the end this will end up costing the NHS as a whole more to deal wit extra patients that could otherwise de dealt with over the phone.

Just another example of the tories attempt to destroy the NHS in my view and we must oppose this.