Effects of vicious bedroom tax worst than first thought, axe the tax!

As the bedroom tax’s effects grow and grow like an out of control beast the effects are appalling. Worse than many first thought. The National Housing Federation said today that the effects of the bedroom tax are far worse than even it expected. The group said rent arrears have soared and large properties are lying vacant as people refuse to move in. The cruel tax sees housing benefits cut if homes are deemed "under-occupied" despite a perilous shortage of smaller council properties for people to move into. "The impact is at least as bad as we had anticipated, in many respects even worse," federation chief executive David Orr told the BBC. "What we've seen are really bad effects on individuals, people whose lives have been turned upside down, who are very frightened about the future." But out-of-touch Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith insisted that cash-grabbing policy had been a success. The millionaire minister said it showed what a mess Labour had left the benefits system in. He arrogantly told his opposite number Liam Byrne that Labour should either commit to reversing the policy or "stop moaning about it." The shadow work and pensions secretary said Mr Duncan Smith must be "living on a different planet," pointing out that rent arrears had soared by 300 per cent and there were empty houses across Britain. Housing association chiefs agreed. Teeside's Coast and Country Housing boss Iain Sim said: "The numbers of empty homes we've got to let are increasing significantly. "People are now telling us that because of bedroom tax, they can no longer afford to move into the bigger family homes, and as a consequence of that we're getting fewer lettings and more empty houses." Clearly the labour party won’t defend you from this vicious cruel tax which is so anti poor it is dripping with class contempt from the tories. Labour cannot pledge to scrap this tax and thus should not receive our support. If labour councils refuse to pledge not to evict those who have fallen into arrears then I believe that people should stand against them as TUSC and make it clear we will take you on in your own back yard and threaten your seat if you don’t back down. Labour councillors who are more often than not career driven will have to respond when their career is under threat. A serious campaign to protect tenants is needed similar to the bailiff busting army during the poll tax. Phone trees are needed to make sure vicious councils be them Tory or labour tries to evict people for inability to pay this tax. We need to make this tax unworkable, slow the whole process down disrupt it anyway we can and try and force this tax to be scrapped. If labour won’t then TUSC will pledge to scrap the bedroom tax and not evict anyone from their homes. This should be basic working class solidarity if labour won’t oppose it then we will oppose labour.

A look at last weeks election results for TUSC

One hundred and twenty candidates, standing in 117 wards in 20 councils, contested the English local elections on May 2nd under the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) umbrella. In addition, TUSC stood a candidate in the Doncaster mayoral contest and two candidates in council by-elections that were held on the same day. Elections took place in 35 English local authorities, to fill 2,362 seats. TUSC stood at least one candidate in twenty councils with elections (60%), contesting 5% of the seats. This contrasts markedly with when these particular seats were previously contested in the four-yearly local elections cycle in 2009, before the formation of TUSC. Then, a year after the financial crisis had broken, there were literally less than a handful of candidates presenting a working class alternative to the pro-austerity consensus. The spread of candidates also compares with the situation in 2011 – the first local elections seriously contested by TUSC when we fielded a candidate in 2% of the seats – and 2012 when TUSC stood in 25% of the councils with elections, in 4% of the seats. This year it was mainly county councils up for election, overwhelmingly Conservative controlled after Labour’s 24% vote share in 2009 – although Cumbria had been run by a Labour-Conservative coalition! The Tories held 1,477 (62%) of the seats to Labour’s 273 going into the May 2nd poll. It would be totally wrong, however, to caricature this year’s elections as mostly rural contests. The councils that were up for election administer a range of services – from education, adult social care and youth provision, to libraries, highways and emergency services – that cover a population of 24 million, control combined budgets of £43 billion, and employ 750,000 workers (including school staff). Workers living and using public services in these local authority areas are being hit by austerity politics. But the councils up this year are not the same terrain as the metropolitan boroughs that will be facing elections next year. It will be harder then for Labour candidates, for example, to present themselves as ‘anti-cuts’ in Labour controlled councils. The election report includes a ‘league table’ presenting the TUSC results in percentage order and, separately, the results of all parties’ candidates for each seat contested by TUSC. There is also a comparison of the results achieved by TUSC candidates, aggregated into local authority-wide figures, with the votes won by Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat candidates in the seats TUSC contested. Significant features of the results include: ■ The TUSC candidate for the mayor of Doncaster, Mary Jackson, polled 1,916 votes in Ed Miliband’s ‘backyard’ (he is the MP for Doncaster North). ■ Mary’s 3.1% share of the vote put her in sixth place, ahead of the Liberal Democrats and not far short of the other ‘party of government’, the Tories, who polled 2,811 votes. ■ The total vote for all TUSC candidates on May 2nd was 10,182. ■ In the local council seats that TUSC contested, the ratio of Labour voters to TUSC voters this year was fourteen. In other words, for every person who voted for TUSC (8,188 in the local council elections), there were 14 people who voted Labour (119,204). ■ This ratio has widened compared to that in the 2011 and 2012 local elections – although, in a metropolitan council comparator, the ratio narrowed in Bristol compared to the 2011 local elections in that city (the last council elections there) and last November’s Bristol mayoral poll. ■ Across the local council wards and county council divisions that TUSC contested, the ratio of Green voters (19,652) to TUSC voters (8,188) was two-and-a-half. For the Liberal Democrats, defending 353 seats in these polls, the ratio of their voters (43,521) to TUSC voters was five to one. The Labour Party put up more candidates this year – 2,174, in 92% of the seats – than in recent previous local elections. In 2011, for example, still recovering from the 2010 general election defeat, Labour fielded candidates for just 72% of the seats available and eight TUSC candidates did not face a Labour opponent. This year every TUSC candidate faced a Labour candidate, in a context where Labour controlled just one council before May 2nd. Next year though nearly half of the councils up for election are Labour controlled – and they will have just set their budgets for a fourth year of implementing the Con-Dem cuts. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition’s fight to present an anti-austerity alternative to the establishment parties will move into a different gear. For more information anda full report please visit www.tusc.org.uk

Council budget setting season, time for councillors to stand up and fight

We are into February now and it is from now on councils up and down the country will be setting their budgets for the new financial year. Many will have already drawn up plans and many will include some huge huge cuts which will devastate our local services and jobs if we allow them to go through. These councils include labour run councils after they won control of many types of council last year. Labour now controls most of the bigger inner city councils including Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Liverpool and Sheffield. These cuts will be felt more here than elsewhere due to the poverty of these cities already. But instead of moaning about the cuts and appealing to the Tories to be kinder with their cuts how about mounting a serious fightback. So far we’ve seen 2 rebel councillors now expelled from the labour party in Southampton and now there may be some more after a statement was signed by councillors in Hull and Stoke to a group naming themselves councillors against the cuts. I support this and feel it is a progress from what we have seen in previous years. But at this point none have voted against cuts and as they say the proof will be in the pudding. We support as socialists all labour councillors standing up to vote against cuts. We may think their efforts to stay within the labour party to fight for socialism will be in vain but we will not oppose any who wish to vote against cuts. They must be aware this may probably end them up being disciplined and quite possibly expelling for their stance but a stance it is. It is quite possible we may see more Labour councillors voting against cuts as the cuts deepen year on year and some simply can’t stomach the eye watering cuts. But without a joined up strategy they will remain individuals and pockets of resistance across the country. TUSC will be there for any councillor wishing to stand under an anti cuts banner and if a councillor is expelled they will be quite welcome to re stand for TUSC if they so wish. This could be an expression of a split within labour where the formation of a new workers party could be found. But this month we must be to the front of all protests outside council chambers. If we are allowed in we must make our voices heard oppose all cuts and expose those councillors who refuse to stand up and fight all cuts. The money is there while using reserves to plug gap in funding a mass campaign must be built including trade unions, anti cuts groups and local community members to demand the funding back from central government. Councillors can no longer be sur charged and have no excuses now to not fight the cuts. I urge all councillors to find it within themselves however hard it may be, the cuts that the poorest in society will face will be far harder if we let these cuts go through. It’s time to make a stand, oppose all cuts; no cut is a fair cut. Join any protest in your area if you can against the cuts and add your name to the NSSN’s calls for a 24 hour general strike to bring this government down.

Unison branch in Stoke to suspend funding to labour, more should follow!

In very interesting developments in Stoke-on-Trent Unison one of the most right wing difficult to organise in unions in the country stead fast seemingly to the labour party has seen one of its biggest branch’s make a big leap into the unknown. Weather this will come to much or be the start of other branch’s following suit only time will tell. I’d urge all branches and unions affiliated to the labour party to do the same and disaffiliate do not fund a party which’s destroying your pay, conditions and jobs and services. Stand on your own fund yourselves its got to be better than funding labour. Take a look at TUSC where the RMT is officially backing now and support anti cuts candidates. www.tusc.org.uk So in Stoke the city's biggest trade union is to withdraw its funding for Labour in protest over cuts to workers' pay. Unison members in Stoke-on-Trent have ordered regional bosses to stop supporting the city's Labour party in an unprecedented bid to force a U-turn on £2 million cuts to staff terms and conditions. It comes after senior Labour councillor Andy Lilley yesterday quit the party over his refusal to support the cuts. The Sentinel has learned that a further six councillors in the city's ruling Labour group – about one-third of its backbenchers – are part of a growing rebellion against cuts which are set to hit hundreds of the authority's lowest paid workers. Unison pays £1,500 grants to constituency groups and also helps with leafleting during elections. Unison branch secretary Clive Rushton said: "The Labour party was born out of the trade union movement and is there to represent the working man. It is now attacking the working man." Cuts to contractual rights including allowances for working nights and weekends, will see low paid workers like social carers lose up to £6,500 a year. An interesting development indeed and something TUSC should really try and push for other unison branches with TUSC influence to popularise. There is much we can do to undermine blink support for labour by unions themselves coming into conflict with labour councils making cuts. Developments like this can be the start of a fight back an expression of the anger and frustration at labour for carrying out the cuts. TUSC will be standing in Stoke this year against all cuts it would be great for us to approach this branch and discuss working class political representation given this recent development. I’d love to see this be the start of something but we cant over state this its just one branch but it shines a beacon now for other branch’s tied to unison who fund the labour party to the tune of millions that they can force the issue if they wish.

Solidarity with Harlow welfare rights centre

The political climate in Harlow has warmed up in the past few weeks. Labour’s success in gaining a Majority at last May’s election has shown the divisions within the Labour group. The council cabinet Have been shown to be no more than lap dogs for the officers; carrying out a vendetta against the Welfare Rights Advice centre (who successfully took the old Tory council to High Court and won) by For closing them. Harlow Welfare rights are not only a vital service for the town and serve many who rely on benefits to get by in life. Due to the crisis in capitalism more and more and being thrown into poverty even those still in work seeing their pay frozen and hours cut so the need for a centre like this is very important. I was at the meeting myself and give 100% support to the campaign to keep the centre open and to those who rely on this service every week. Last Saturday a public meeting gave full support to the campaign to keep the HWRA open and Demanded the Labour council stand up to the officers. Three labour councillors spoke in favour of The campaign, which amounts to an open split in the Labour Group. They were backed by former Labour MP for Harlow Stan Newans. On Friday the workers were given their redundancy and the council were going to close the centre, However a high court injunction stopped the closure. The campaigners now have 10 days to save the Centre. The Unison Steward and some workers have backed the Socialist Party’s tactics to defend the centre, And in turn the Harlow and Stevenage SP branches have offered full support to them. Monday night will see a Labour group meeting and will set the tone for the battle to come. Messages of support should be sent to lapsy28@googlemail.com.” By Steve Glennon Socialist Party Eastern region full time officer.

The poor and the hungry turning to crime to eat

In a shocking thing I’ve just read it tells a story of old people turning to crime and stealing just to feed themselves. This in one of the poorest areas of Britain which is still the 7th richest nation on earth. It’s an absolute disgrace that people in this country have to feed themselves via food banks. Shockingly many labour councillors cry crocodiel tears at the opening up of new food banks and even campaign for them as Stellar creasy MP for Walthamstow does but this is liberal moralising she has the influence and ability to oppose all the cuts condemn her local labour councilmaking more cuts and fight for a better system, but she doesn’t and this shows one exampl of the bankrupcy of the labour party today. I heard the other day that even in my town of Ware, in Hertfordshire a food bank has opened in the Salvation Army building serving roughly 200 people a week. This in a so called affluent area of the country austerity really is starting to bite and bite hard as winter sets in. This was the piece I found. It’s set in Glasgow but this could be anywhere in our towns and cities now as the rich get richer the poor getting poorer under this rotten capitalist system. We must get organised and oppose all cuts now. Glasgow shoplifters are being referred to food banks after a police chief confirmed more people are stealing groceries because they are hungry. But police said some of the thieves – including a pensioner caught trying to take three tins of salmon – needed help from charities rather than trouble from the courts. The revelation came after the Evening Times revealed shoplifting figures had jumped 14% in the city in 2011-12 as the recession bites. Chief Inspector Ann Hughes, of Maryhill police, said the demographic of shoplifters had changed “significantly” in the past two years. She said: “The profile of shoplifters is not consistent with what you would expect. Part of the change is the austerity we are experiencing. “We had an old man who had taken three tins of salmon. He could not afford to feed himself. “People are finding it really, really difficult. “It’s about making sure they are linked to the right agencies, food banks, etc. It’s very, very sad.” Police refer such vulnerable and starving thieves to social services, which can put them in touch with food banks. Chief Inspector Hughes is responsible for one of the poorest places in Scotland; her patch has seen significant increases in shoplifting since the recession. Despite this, and the ‘tip-of-the-iceberg’ TICGate arrests last week, the PM insisted again during PMQs that crime is down, side-stepped a question about police morale and reminded everyone how special and important we are, except of course when it comes to pay & conditions.

In support of the Sheffield recycling workers on indefinite strike

In Sheffield another wonderful Labour council has been feebly passing on the tory cuts and has resulted in all sorts of chaos this is what you get with a lab our run council for anyone thinking labour are a party worth supporting.

After already taking 15 days of strike action over the last month, the GMB members started an indefinite all-out strike on 23 June. They are fighting for their jobs and conditions, and for re-opening of the sites every day to provide a decent service.
Big multinational Veolia, that has a 35-year contract to run the city's waste management services, wouldn't take a cut in profits so forced down the tendering bid by sub-contractor Sova to operate the recycling centres.
In turn, Sova have cut the opening days and hours of the five Dump-It sites, sacking six workers and cutting the hours and pay of the remaining 30.
The workers only get the minimum wage as it is, under the proposed annualised-hours they'll only get 22 hours a week in winter!
Everyone knows that the cuts in recycling will lead to more waste-dumping and fly-tipping.
Who'll pay for that mess to be cleaned up? Won't be Veolia, it'll be council tax-payers. So much for the council 'saving' £500,000!
"This is privatisation for you," says one queueing driver as he signs the union's petition, "why should they (Veolia) pocket the profit, that money should go back to the community."
Nearly everyone agrees with the strikers, the security guards direct drivers to the petition. But it'll take more than public opinion to win this strike.
Socialist Party members have been on the picket lines every day and helped raise money for the hardship fund.
We presented a petition to the last council meeting at which the Labour councillors were lambasted by the strikers.
The all-out strike needs to be as hard-hitting as possible. The Socialist Party has suggested that the GMB sets up a support group and appeals, not only for finance, but for supporters to help the strikers picket each site 24 hours a day in order to stop the full skips being emptied.
Because union drivers won't cross the picket line, Sova has hired another haulage firm to strike-break, protests should be organised against them as well. A few managers and a few scabs can't keep the sites going.
Please send messages of support (email: peter.davies@gmb.org.uk) and especially financial donations to: Peter Davies (Sova Strike Fund), GMB office, 188/190 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1SY. Please make cheques payable to GMB.
Sova strikers will be marching on the Rally for our Future - Defend Education and Public Services called by education unions NASUWT and NUT. Saturday 14 July, assemble 11.30am, Devonshire Green, Sheffield
Open the books!
Sheffield claims to be the greenest city in the country. It won't be able to for much longer if the Labour council's cuts in environmental, waste-management and recycling services go ahead.
Instead of cuts, the council should be investing more in expanding recycling services which would not only encourage more environmentally friendly behaviour, but also save money in the long run.
Socialists believe that the way to encourage changes in behaviour is not through coercion or punitive charges and fines, but through education and providing the services and facilities to make recycling as easy as possible.
But Sheffield's waste-management services were privatised eleven years ago. The then Lib Dem council signed a 30-year deal with Veolia which was then extended another five years when Labour got in. Veolia sub-contract the operation of the recycling centres every five years.
This year Veolia will cream off over £300,000 profit just by sub-contracting out at a lower tender price. On top of that they make more profit from selling on recyclable materials, £1 million, maybe more.
Exactly how much, nobody seems to know. The GMB put in a Freedom of Information request but there are still lots of unanswered questions. Under the cloak of 'commercial confidentiality', what many suspect is a dodgy deal is being covered up.
The GMB learned that Sova Recycling Ltd were advised to reduce their tendering bid. At least two managers for Sova were working for the previous sub-contractors, South Yorkshire and North Notts Recycling. And Sova were only registered at Companies House in November last year, well after the tendering process started. This all smacks of an 'insider deal'.
This is why socialists call for 'opening the books'. The accounts of these companies should be open to inspection by the trade unions and workers' representatives. Let's see where all the profits have gone, profits which could have kept the sites open and workers in jobs.
Socialists oppose this privatisation rip-off. We believe that all privatised services should be brought back under council ownership and control.
In fact the GMB proposed that the council submits an in-house bid at the start of the tendering process. They were told that the council did not have the necessary experience to run the sites. But it's the workers who run the sites, know the job inside out, not councillors or management bureaucrats.
Under the current privatised and out-sourced set up, there are three tiers of management and supervision - the council, Veolia and Sova! If the service was brought back in-house and run under democratic workers' control and management, not only would it be a better service, it would be cheaper as well.

Labour gain in local elections but will they stand up to Tories against the cuts?

Last nights elections results showed a swing to labour from Tories and the lib dems. Labour has taken control of lots of new councils. But to me this is more of a vote against the Tories and the government than a vote for labours slow cuts policy to be honest.

You only have to look at the appalling turnout figures across the country typically between 20 and 30 percent. That is dreadful and says much for the current state of our democracy or excuse for a democracy in this country when so few people can be bothered to vote I think the time is nearly up for the major political parties out there offering you the same old crap served up with a different shade of tie on.

So will labour mount a stronger fight back at a local level against cuts ? I personally can’t see it more councillors and more labor run councils means nothing. When up till now all labour councils have happily passed on all Tory cuts handed to them without as much as a whimper there’s nothing to suggest this trend won’t continue. Of course I’d over it if a labour ran council did refuse to make the cuts but from those councillors who have already one has found himself expelled for daring to vote against the labour group and the other is still under investigation. So if any do and I really hope some do they will be in for a severe ticking off. The only voice for anti cuts will be TUSC still who unfortunately did not poll hugely or win big, but we weren’t expecting to. With a disgraceful media blackout of our campaigns we received reasonable votes in places unfortunately loosing out to the fact people who did vote largely voted for labour to give the Tories a kicking, this was their choice as at the moment they are still seen as the only opposition to the Tories wrongly in my view but there we go those illusions still hold strong in a lot of areas. But as the cuts begin to bite harder and harder and no fight back from labour councils is forthcoming parties like TUSC can get a better hearing I’d have thought with people finally seeing that labour when it comes down to it would do very little different to the Tories in power.

TUSC is well placed to expose labour for its hypocrisy and outright lies that it defends ordinary people TUSC rejects all cuts whoever is making them but when labour makes the cuts people will see the true face of the labour party and will be looking for an alternative.

Our ideas did get a good reception on the doorstep but unfortunately much like last year that isn’t translating into votes. That doesn’t mean to say we don’t have the support it just mans people are not yet rushing to the polling stations to affect change. They don’t believe in the system and well neither do we but we do at least offer an alternative to the cuts agenda of the main 3 parties.

Labour will not face up to the Tories and reject all the cuts for the simple reason as they do not see an alternative. They could be looking to tax the rich and collect the 120 billion which goes evaded and avoided every eyar but do we hear labour shouting about the rich ? No we don’t we hear them joining in with bashing the poor rhetoric and anti worker sentiment. Even last night on BBC question time Hariot Harman the deputy leader of the labour party could not even support public sector workers going on strike she said she hopes there isn’t a strike, well so do we and the government backs down but they wont so strike action is necessary and will be important to building the fight back again against the government and this rotten capitalist system where the poor aware being made to pay for a crisis not of their making.

These local elections results tell you something though that 68% of people are not voting and that those can be won over to voting for an alternative, a socialist alternative in years to come. As Marxists we see everything as a process and constantly changing. TUSC will stand again and again and again building our roots in the working class so next time people will know us and know our record of opposing all cuts and defending working class people wherever we can. Labour will be exposed mark my words their idea of slow cuts will do nothing to ease the pain on ordinary people at the bottom of society and one day all capitalist parties and ideas will be rejected once and for all.

The real Olympic legacy in London borough of Newham

Today in the news Labour run Newham council has created all sorts of controversy with their plans to exile the poorest in their borough to stoke on Trent of all places. This has been met with a volley of criticism rightly so in my view.

New ham council has been accused of starting "social cleansing" in the capital by asking a Stoke-on-Trent housing association to take on up to 500 families on housing benefit.
New ham Council says it can no longer afford to house tenants on its waiting list in private accommodation.
The gap between market rents and the housing allowance is too big, it says.
But the association says such a move could mark the start of "thousands of needy people" being dumped elsewhere.
Labour MPs say the decision to seek accommodation outside London is proof that the government's policy of capping housing benefit is already "beginning to unravel".
Which is of course easy to say when their own government in power failed to build anywhere near enough affordable homes in their 13 years in go?
The simple fact that 5 million people are currently on the housing register for council property in the UK is testament to the lack of homes built in the previous period.
It is a disgrace for labour to claim the moral high ground on this when their record on housing is so so poor. I think the outrage at this story is justified with the new labour MP for stoke equally shaming his party by coming out to say
Unwanted by New ham, unwanted by Stoke. "We look forward to the Olympic flame – but not east London's exiles" - Tristram Hunt.
Talking of the Olympics this borough of London is due to host the Olympics this summer with 40 million pounds of the council’s budget going towards putting on the Olympics disgracefully.
Olympic effect

New ham Council, which is Labour-controlled, is in the east of the city and will host this summer's Olympics.
It has written to the Brighter Futures Housing Association in Stoke, offering it the "opportunity" to lease homes to it.
The letter says the local private rental sector is beginning to "overheat" because of the "onset of the Olympic Games and the buoyant young professionals market".
It says the council can no longer afford to house tenants on its waiting list in private accommodation as the gap between market rents and the local housing allowance has become too great.
The council has been "forced to look further afield for alternative supply", it adds.
'Right-wing extremism'
The Brighter Futures chief executive officer, Gill Brown, has not formally replied to new ham Council's offer.

To me this is passing the buck one council cant and won’t deal with people who can’t afford to live in an area so decide to move them elsewhere so the other council where they are proposed to be going say oh no we don’t want them either. A typically middle class attitude of not in my backyard. An absolute shambles and a disgrace from a party who claims to stand for social justice.

It is clear that we need a major affordable house building programme today but who’s going to put it forward the tories and lib dems certainly wont and on this recent form labour wont either. We need a new workers party who can put forward these demands and speak for the majority of people ordinary people who are suffering due to this crisis of capitalism that they are being made to pay for unfairly.

TUSC in eastern region in these Mays elections

This year again TUSC candidates will be standing across the region in Stevenage, Peterborough, Hatfield, Cambridge and maybe elsewhere that I am not yet aware of. TUSC stands against all cuts and privatisation unlike any other party we don’t feel that any cuts are necessary and ordinary people should be made to pay for a crisis not of their making.

In Stevenage last year 5 candidates stood this year we have 6 standing we are also standing in new towns like Hatfield and Peterborough. We will be putting up candidates in Harlow in the coming years but we thought this was a bit too soon for Harlow at this stage. But while the region has a mostly Tory look to it the labour council in Stevenage has disgracefully passed on every cut passed its way. Its get out clause this year has been to increase the rents on council housing evading bigger cuts in jobs and services in the council. This is a cynical and unfair tactic of claiming they are not making any cuts this year instead making ordinary residents of Stevenage pay for the cuts instead.

We will be highlighting this and the fact that next year and the year after that more cuts are on their way and they will not get away with this.

People who are looking for an alternative may see TUSC at this stage as a small party with not much hope of winning but I think we are on the cusp of a change in consciousness. Some people say we still have to vote labour to keep the Tories out but this argument is wearing thinner and thinner with Labour councils up and down the country passing on all the cuts given to them with little to no opposition.

So it is important we do stand and offer an alternative I feel. With the London list of top trade unionists and anti cuts candidates standing in London we could see a breakthrough there with just 5% of the vote across London needed to get a candidate elected to city hall. Giving workers a voice against the establishment parties who are tied to austerity and privatisation.

The basic TUSC manifesto is as follows
• Oppose all cuts to council jobs, services, pay and conditions - we reject the claim that 'some cuts' are necessary to our services.
• Reject increases in council tax, rent and service charges to compensate for government cuts.
• Vote against the privatisation of council jobs and services, or the transfer of council services to 'social enterprises' or 'arms-length' management organisations, which are first steps to privatisation.
• Use all the legal powers available to councils, including powers to refer local NHS decisions, initiate referenda and organise public commissions and consultations, to oppose both the cuts and government polices which centrally impose the transfer of public services to private bodies.
• When faced with government cuts to council funding, councils should refuse to implement the cuts. We will support councils which in the first instance use their reserves and prudential borrowing powers to avoid passing them on - while arguing that the best way to mobilise the mass campaign that is necessary to defeat the cuts is to set a budget that meets the needs of the local community and demands that the government makes up the shortfall.


PUBLIC OWNERSHIP, NOT PRIVATISED PROFIT
Stop all privatisation, including the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), and the immoral privatisation of prisons. Bring privatised public services and utilities back into public ownership under democratic control.
NO CUTS - QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICES
Take rail back into public ownership and build an integrated, low-pollution public transport system.
For a high-quality, free National Health Service under democratic public ownership and control.
Stop council estate sell-offs and build eco-friendly, affordable public housing.
Good, free education for all, under democratic local authority control; student grants not fees.
Keep Royal Mail as a publicly-owned service, not a privatised cash cow.
JOBS, NOT HANDOUTS TO BANKERS & BILLIONAIRES
Bring banks and finance institutions into genuine public ownership under democratic control, instead of giving huge handouts to the very capitalists who caused the crisis.
Tax the rich. For progressive tax on rich corporations and individuals, with a crackdown on tax avoidance.
For massive investment in environmental projects.
EMPLOYMENT & TRADE UNION RIGHTS
Repeal the anti-trade union laws.
A minimum wage set at half average adult male earnings, with no exemptions.
Invest to create and protect jobs, including for young people.
Solidarity with workers taking action to defend jobs, conditions, pensions, public services and trade unions. Reinstate full trade union rights to prison officers.
PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT - STOP GLOBAL WARMING
Deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions - otherwise climate change, caused by capitalism, will destroy us.
Invest in publicly-owned and controlled renewable energy.
Move to sustainable, low-pollution industry and farming - stop the pollution that is destroying our environment.
Recognise that many of our planet's resources are limited and that capitalism fritters them away for profit.
Produce for need, not profit, and design goods for reuse and recycling.
DECENT PENSIONS & BENEFITS
Restore the pre-Thatcher real value of pensions. Reinstate the link with average earnings.
Protect entitlement to benefits; for living benefits; end child poverty.
DEMOCRACY, DIVERSITY & JUSTICE
Welcome diversity and oppose racism, fascism and discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, disability, sexuality, age and all other forms of prejudice.
Defend the right to asylum. No scapegoat of migrant workers.
Ensure women have genuinely equal rights and pay.
Defend our liberties and make police and security democratically accountable.
SOLIDARITY NOT WAR
Bring home all British troops from Afghanistan immediately - no more wars for resources.
No more spending on a new generation of nuclear weapons, huge aircraft carriers or irrelevant euro fighters - convert arms spending into socially useful products and services.
An independent foreign policy based on international solidarity – no more being a US poodle, no moves towards a capitalist, militarist United States of Europe, no Lisbon Treaty.
SOCIALISM
For a democratic socialist society run in the interests of the people not the millionaires. For democratic public ownership of the major companies and banks that dominate the economy, so that production and services can be planned to meet the needs of all and to protect the environment.


While these policies are basic in their outline we as the socialist party who play a role within TUSC believe that TUSC could be a stepping stone towards a new mass workers party which is urgently needed in this country and across the world. By us standing this may we may or may not win but the main thing is that we do offer that alternative. At last people have someone to vote for and won’t be let down if you vote TUSC this may.

March 26th a year on, where is the anti cuts movement heading?

A year ago today we were heading to London from all over the country to descend on what we’d hoped to be one of the biggest predominantly working class demonstrations for many years. We were not disappointed an estimated 750,000 working class people and anti cut protesters out on the streets of London. Almost as many who are set to lose their jobs in the public sector due to the con-dem government cuts agenda.

A year on this feels a very long time ago this demonstration I thought I’d look at what has happened since then and the fight back that has or has not ensued.

To even get a national demonstration was incredibly hard work the good comrades at the NSSN were up in Manchester the September before demanding and lobbying the TUC to call a mass national demonstration. They were eventually dragged kicking and screaming to call one. It just goes to show what can be achieved when the TUC lift their little finger.

But the day itself was fantastic many great moments and speech’s and lots of calls to arms. One of the best and well received speech’s came from the PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka who proclaimed today we have marched together tomorrow we must strike together.

This was one of the main messages to come out of the day I felt where we go from here. The NSSN and the socialist party made a terrific intervention on that day giving out thousands of leaflets and selling almost as many papers. A special edition was printed for that day giving a very agitation message to workers picking up our paper for the first time that these cuts can be defeated if we take the right choices.

As we have seen over the last year possibly some of those choices haven’t been taken and a reluctance to fight on the behalf of some in our movement has held us back.

The socialist party has been impeccable in its stance against all cuts be them carried out by Tories, lib dems or labour councils. This has not been widely taken up with some on the left still till this day defending labour councils who pass on Tory cuts unfortunately.


One man who was on the march last year Ed Miliband has himself confirmed that any future labour government will not reverse any of the Tory cuts and instead add a further pay freeze to public sector pay as a bonus. Some anti cuts mood ay?

SO we cannot put our faith in the labour party they have shown themselves to be defenders of the capitalist system and a defender of cuts. This is not acceptable in the anti cuts movement and should not be in the labour movement either. The disgraceful selling out of trade union leaders over the pension dispute in the public sector is evidence of this treachery and a fear of upsetting a labour party who seem to want to curb the unions even further still by weakening their link even further.

March 26th 2011 will go down in history as one of the biggest working class demonstrations ever but unfortunately the response since then has been slow in coming and hard work. November the 30th last year was huge and very impressive but bigger and more concerted efforts by the trade unions is needed. I am not sure whether another national demonstration like March 26th would be beneficial. Certainly for the NHS it could be vital to raise people’s morale that the NHS can be saved. On the question of cuts I think workers are turning to other means including standing in local elections. TUSC again as I have blogged about on here countless times will be standing widely once again hoping to catch the mood of workers when they shift in consciousness.
There is an alternative out there and TUSC offers this in the London GLA elections and right across the country. If you don’t have a TUSC candidate standing in your area why not join in and stand yourself. If you are against all cuts and privatisation and agree with our basic programme you can stand for TUSC too in the coming may 3rd elections.

National demonstrations are good but not enough in their own we pointed this out at the time industrial action on a co-ordinated determined level is needed. We have started that and the working class has re emerged onto the battle scene but far more is needed and I am sure as this period develops we will see more strikes, occupations and demonstrations. Will it be enough to bring this government down.....? Only time will tell

The labour party on N30 and beyond

Alot of talk this week will be on the big one day public sector general strikes this wednesday of course but many including Len Mcklusky are still hoping the Labour party will back these strikes.

In this piece in the Morning Star :
http://t.co/aeezb0Sf


Len tries to make out Labour can be workers friends and that it can be reclaimed and will hopefully support the unions on strike this week. Sorry Len i do not share this optimism with you pal.

Len speaks a good game but i am yet to be convinced he is serious a bout taking back the labour party. The fact he thinks he can convince Ed Miliband who condemned the strikes on June 30th this year already means nothing to him clearly. It will be interesting to see if Len changes his mind if Ed fails to back these strikes which i suspect he will not.
The pension reforms being force fed to workers by this Con-Dem government and being threatened all the time with taking away any offers and increasing anti trade union laws is as thick and fast as ever from the tories.
But also dont forget these proposals were drawn up by a Labour lord Lord Hutton who suggested these cuts to workers pensions after the Labour government had negotiated a deal not so long ago that was fair.
Ed Balls yesterday on TV admitted that Labour would be having to do something similar making workers in the public sector work longer, pay morea nd get lessas a result of their agreement that workers must pay for a crisis that they did not cause.

With the labour leadership Balls and Miliband together workers do not have a ally at all in fact Miliband was photographed laughing and joking with David Cameron and Nick Clegg on 30th of June this year disgustingly.

I hear that many labour councils and labour members are supporting this week's strikes. I think this is great of course i'm not dogmatic against la bour if their membership supports striking workers that is a good thing but be under no illusion this is easy for the members to back as they hold little influence on the leadership and are many ordinary public sector workers too.
For them to be serious about opposing this government they must urge their councillors and MP's to move to a no to all cuts position and refuse to make cuts at a local council level next year.

As public sector workers prepare for the planned 30 November one-day strike, the question of a political voice of opposition to cuts, along with their strength in the union, is posed.

Pieces like this on Labour List only set to underline many socialist party members views that Labour cannot be reclaimed and a new workers party is needed.
http://t.co/3ZiFTFkE
In the piece the new labour member claims that strikes damage labours electorability and Labour should not be backing strikes instead siding on the side of the public. Not bothering to mention ordinary public sector workers are not only members of that same public but are also tax payers who can vote. This blairite writes them all off in one fail swoop.
I would think it is sufficient to say that as the Labour Party currently stands, it is not really possible to openly campaign for socialist policies, and even if we could, it wouldn't sound plausible to the electorate, bearing in mind the policies carried out over the 13 years of the previous Labour governments. So we see the clear need to independently put socialist policies before the electorate, and try to build a pole of attraction around which the unions can organise politically.

TUSC and the Socialist Party could and should be playing the part of exerting a gravitational pull on the labour movement (and party) towards socialism. But to be able to do that requires a medium (field) of comradely debate and approach.

On the other hand, we do believe that the few socialists who are labouring away to change the Labour Party are pursuing a futile task. Never in its history has the left been so weak both in the Parliamentary Labour Party and among the rank-and-file.

We have pointed out many times that they are like prisoners smuggling the occasional note between the bars to workers outside. Very few workers participate in what is increasingly an empty shell. In fact even the 'shell' may no longer exist if Miliband gets his way and further dissolves the party, particularly the influence of the trade unions within it.

Small cabals - who have no connection with the radical and heroic periods of Labour - run a machine totally alien to working class people. Any socialist - inside or outside the Labour Party, and it is mostly the latter - is bound to come into collision with them.


This would be the case if the LRC or Socialist appeal our comradely cousins still inside the Labour party from our militant days every organised properly into a serious force instead of working largely as individuals. If they took a stronger stance on cuts and fought the labour leadership and appealed to workers to rejoin the party on mass. But so far this is not happening.

It is unrealistic to think that workers who are losing their jobs - some of them never to work again - and many seeing vital services destroyed should engage in polite exchanges with 'Labour... Yes Labour councils and councillors'. It is legitimate to express anger and, yes, rage - not just against the Tories and Liberals - but against a Labour caste at local level which is inflicting terrible punishment on working people.

It is also necessary to forcefully take up and oppose those who seek to excuse Labour sell-outs. Some on the left refused to endorse the Socialist Party's implacable opposition to 'all cuts'. But we were at one with those like Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS civil servants union and Bob Crow, leader of the RMT transport workers union. Those who are prepared to accept 'some cuts' are acting as a left flank, apologists for Labour councillors and councils who are betraying everything which the Labour Party originally stood for.

For instance, Waltham Forest council - controlled by Labour - has inflicted £3 million of cuts to wages and conditions of its workers yet £18 million has been paid to 'consultants' whose main job is to make these cuts to jobs and services! And this is as typical of 'Labour' councils as Tory or Lib Dem.

Will local government emerge at the end of the 'cuts programme' in the absurd position of the NHS where "in 2006, Accountancy Age reported that the NHS was spending more on consultants than all Britain's manufacturers put together"? [London Review of Books.]

This scandal was pushed through by the likes of New Labour health ministers Alan Milburn and Patricia Hewitt, who then got cushy, well-paid jobs in the health private sector!


On reclaming the Labour party we can never say never where politics are concerned. Nor is it theoretically excluded that if a mass workers' party is not urgently built, the impulse for a new party could come from within even a bourgeois party.

Such is the depth of the present economic and social crisis that, in time, this can find an expression even in such a party leading to a left split, out of which could come the basis of a radical or even a new mass workers' party.

Something like this happened in Greece where the 'left-wing' of the liberal capitalist party the Centre Union - led by the late Andreas Papandreou - came out of that party following the overthrow of the Greek military junta in 1974.

Such was the sweep of the revolution in the post-1974 period and the colossal changes in consciousness which this evoked that the objective basis for the new mass socialist party Pasok was created. The present 'Pasok' is a million miles removed from its socialist origins.

But we do not think that it is likely that Labour could be transformed in Britain in the next period. We cannot just 'wait' for future events to hopefully change the Labour Party, while in the meantime the working class goes to hell in a handcart.

We have to seek to exert pressure now through a new workers' party, no matter how small initially. The Labour party has been transformed under the New Labour counter-revolution carried out first by Blair, then by Brown and today by Miliband into a capitalist formation.

In fact, Tony Blair recognised this when he declared that New Labour was an entirely 'new party'. Conversely if Labour is to be 'transformed', as some still hope, then this would effectively mean setting up a new party, which by standing on clear socialist policies would represent a clear break.

Labour's current policies are a continuation of Blair's pro-capitalist agenda. This is expressed in terms of policy; witness Miliband's completely pro-capitalist assault on the trade unions at the TUC. It is reflected also in the internal organisation and character of the Labour Party which is fundamentally different from what existed in the past.

The old Labour Party, of which we were a significant force (through Militant - now the Socialist Party), involved the participation of the working class and the trade unions. It was a 'bourgeois workers' party' - with a pro-capitalist leadership at the top but a base among workers below. But it was also very open and democratic, and the leadership was forced to take account of the rank-and-file and its views.

Those who seek to argue that 'nothing has fundamentally changed' in the character of the Labour Party are mistaken. Compare the present situation in the Labour Party to the 1960s. Harold Wilson, supported by Barbara Castle the Labour minister at the time, tried to push through anti-union legislation.

This was massively opposed by the rank-and-file of the party and the majority of the National Executive Committee. If Wilson had not retreated he would have been compelled to resign. Neither could he militarily support US imperialism on the Vietnam War- despite the urgings of the then US President Johnson - for the same reason.

Tony Blair, however, got the support of Labour's conference delegates - who in the past were solidly to the left of the leadership - for the obscene and criminal Iraq war.

Some object that to describe New Labour as 'capitalist' is an 'exaggeration', because workers are still voting Labour. This, it is argued, indicates that Labour - 'warts and all' - is 'different' from the other two capitalist parties.

Yes, Labour is 'different', in the same way as the Democratic Party in the US differs from the right-wing Republican Party. The Democrats are more 'liberal' but are still a pronounced capitalist party.

So also was the Liberal Party in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th century. Sections of the working class and the trade unions in Britain saw it as an alternative until mighty events - the decline of British imperialism and its inability to continue to grant concessions to the working class - undermined this. This prepared the way for the rise of the Labour Party itself as a mass political expression of the trade unions.

Those who furnished the mass basis for the Labour Party were the sons and daughters of workers who previously voted Liberal. This will happen with the building of a new party.

Even to those who hope that Labour can be changed, we pose the questions: 'What do we do now in the political and electoral arenas? How does the labour movement exert pressure on Labour in order to defeat and change its present craven capitulation to big business, which is disheartening its former and present supporters? By propaganda or vague hopes for the future alone? The bureaucratic caste which dominates Labour is totally impervious to this.

But Labour's reaction could be different if a new party was formed, with a solid base among trade unionists. Electoral success for such a party could force change in the current anti-working class, anti-union stance of New Labour. More importantly, it would provide a political voice to millions who are effectively disenfranchised.
We face much ridicule from others on the left and even from some within the Labour party which i accept is enivitable while people still feel the labour party can be changed.
But Keir Hardie in Britain and James Connolly in Ireland - who were pioneers, like we are today for workers' parties - were also ridiculed. They got very small votes initially (Hardie gained 8% of the vote in his first parliamentary election in the Lanarkshire coalfields). They were proven to be correct and their critics silenced by the development of the kind of parties they campaigned for.

What is TUSC ?

The trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) was set-up last year to enable trade unionists, community campaigners and socialists who wanted to resist the pro-cuts consensus of the establishment parties to stand candidates in the 2010 general election.

By registering TUSC with the electoral commission, candidates could appear on the ballot paper as Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition rather than as 'Independent' which they would otherwise have to do under electoral law.

TUSC came out of a series of discussions by participants in the No2EU-Yes to Democracy coalition, which contested the 2009 European elections with the official support of the RMT transport workers' union, the Socialist Party, and others - the first time a trade union had officially backed a national electoral challenge to Labour since the party's foundation.

TUSC is a coalition with a steering committee which includes, in a personal capacity, the RMT general secretary Bob Crow, and fellow executive member Owen Herbert; the assistant general secretary of the PCS civil servants union, Chris Baugh, and the union's vice-president, John McInally; the president of the National Union of Teachers, Nina Franklin; and the recently retired general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, Brian Caton. The Socialist Party and the Socialist Workers Party are also represented on the committee.

TUSC is a federal 'umbrella' coalition, with agreed core policies endorsed by all its candidates but with participating organisations accountable for their own campaigns. Its core policies include, among others, opposition to public spending cuts and privatisation, student grants not fees, and the repeal of the anti-trade union laws.

It makes a clear socialist commitment to "bringing into democratic public ownership the major companies and banks that dominate the economy, so that production and services can be planned to meet the needs of all and to protect the environment".