The inspiration of Tommy Sheridan

I know as a Marxist I am not supposed to focus on the individual in history and see things in a class analysis but Tommy is a big inspiration to me coming into the movement. Tommy Sheridan a prominent Scottish Socialist has dedicated his life to fighting oppression and exploitation wherever it has emerged. A huge character on the left in British politics Tommy has inspired many to search inside themselves for that collective strength and bond that all humans feel but yet is beaten out of them by this rotten capitalist system. Tommy holds up the traditions of democratic socialism and despite what certain people may say about him about his exploits with the Scottish Socialist Party and his court cases with the Murdoch press I’ve looked past that and seen a genuine working class fighter prepared to sacrifice his own standing in society for the benefit of others. Just take the other weekend a demonstration in Glasgow against the bedroom tax which Tommy and other socialists have played a big part in building made a fantastic speech where Tommy stated quite clearly in everyday language that everyone could understand why we must oppose this rotten tax and the government at large. Tommy although not directly affected by this vicious attack on the working class and the poor offered his full and utmost solidarity with all those fighting the tax and even though not directly affected pledged to stand by any of those who wished to fight this brutal tax to the very end including fighting evictions. But Tommy a life long class fighter has fought battle after battle on behalf of the working class. He has bravely taken on the News of the World and Rupert Murdoch and is gradually trying to clear his name in the face of huge media lies and former comrades lies about him The News of the World attacked Tommy on the smallest of basis’s and looked to destroy his and the Scottish left for many years and in many ways they did but Tommy Sheridan is made of stronger stuff than that and is fighting back the only way he can and that is through class struggle and supporting working class struggles. Throughout his court case of purgery back in the later part of the last decade against news international was seen as payback for Tommy Sheridan’s leading role during the mass anti-poll tax movement in the late 80’s and early ‘90’s. A mass movement of ordinary working class men and women that cost the then prime minster, Margaret Thatcher, her job. Tommy Sheridan rubbed salt into the gaping wounds of the political and legal elite by being elected from his prison cell in Saughton Prison to Glasgow City Council in 1992. It’s also payback for being a thorn in the side of the establishment as a socialist MSP in the Scottish parliament for 10 years - when he lived as a workers’ MSP on a workers wage. But above the ruling class wanted to inflict a defeat on Tommy Sheridan in order to send out a warning to every worker, every trade unionist and every socialist - don’t stand up and fight. Accept the onslaught of cuts and attacks while the millionaires and billionaires walk away without a scratch from an economic crisis they created. Thankfully this has not been the case and Tommy is now out of jail and fighting fit and fighting the good fight once again. Tommy Sheridan was a leader of the anti-poll tax movement that was central to organising the mass non-payment campaign that defeated the Tory government in the early 1990s and in the process ended the career of Margaret Thatcher. He served a four-month jail sentence during that campaign as a result of his leadership of it, and he was elected from his prison cell to Glasgow city council in 1992. Tommy was elected as a socialist living on the average wage of a worker to the Scottish parliament in 1999. It was this that made him the target of the Murdoch media empire whose stable of papers include the Sun and News of the World, papers with a long record of attacking workers, trade unionists, asylum seekers and socialists. The vendetta against Tommy Sheridan is part of a campaign to destroy any opposition to the billionaires and the capitalist system. Tommy Sheridan continues to inspire many people to socialist ideas like myself and will continue to do so. We need figures like Tommy to bring ordinary people towards the ideas of socialism and eventually Marxism as a step towards changing society. I am a big supporter of Tommy and his speech’s inspire me hugely he and others like him give me confidence that we can struggle and even if we are in small numbers at times our ideas will catch a echo with the mass’s of workers at a given time in history and we as socialists are on the right side of history.

Axe wielded at our jobs and services again how can we fightback?

con-dems, austerity, fightback, NSSN, socialist party, peoples assembly, Owen Jones, 24 hour general strike, trade unions

TUSC biggest challenge to labour from the left in years

This may the Trade Union Socialist Coalition will be fielding hopefully its biggest number of candidates in a local election across the country ever. This will mark a dramatic step forward in the TUSC name and profile. What this will also represent is the biggest challenge to labour from the left in probably a generation. Standing on a class basis of opposition to all cuts fielding anti cuts candidates with many from the Socialist party itself too shows that the labour boss’s never did finish off militant and we’re making a comeback on the electoral front. Whilst we do not expect to win or gain huge votes at all just by simply standing many candidates in such areas like Hertfordshire where I hope to be standing myself in my town of Ware will show that an alternative to the cuts is possible. We hope to begin to dent if not fully smash the lie that there is no alternative to the cuts and the cuts are inevitable. There is always an alternative an alternative of investment in public services we vitally need not cuts would be our priority. All TUSC candidates stand for an average wage of a skilled worker and would not benefit financially from being elected. We are true class fighters using elections as a platform to gain access to a wider layer of workers that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach. The pro capitalist parties of Labour, Tory and lib dem all stand for cuts of some speed or description even if they won’t be honest about it up front. We as TUSC are proud and clear to declare our opposition to all cuts and will be building links on the ground with workers in new areas spreading our influence and resistance to the cuts onslaught. All TUSC candidates pledge to vote against all cuts and any rises’ in council tax to offset cuts, we oppose all forms of privatisation even arms length out sourcing which is often the first step to privatisation. In and around the country there will be local issues we look to take up and fight on in our campaigns we can make these big areas of our material and propaganda. In Harlow for example we will make the closure of the Harlow Welfare rights centre which many struggling people relied on for benefit advice and support part of our campaign. These are just county council elections and in many ways the vote is not important if we do well then fair enough but we are laying down a marker building our forces on the ground for future struggles up ahead. If you wish to find out more about TUSC and what we stand for please visit www.tusc.org.uk

Could you live on £53 a week?

That is the challenge for many people who are unable to find work in this recession. £53 is nothing really when you have to pay the b ills for gas, water and electricity not mentioning feeding yourself and heating your home. There is simply no way you can live on this alone. Yet Iain Duncan Smith is telling those who can’t find jobs that £53 a week is a cushty lifestyle and they should be grateful for even this. Putting it into perspective at how generous this really is JSA in the UK is 18% of average wage, compared to Germany's 35%, France's 47% & Sweden's 68% This is simply not a lifestyle you would choose if you had the choice. An incredibly fast growing petition has been set up by someone who thought they’d challenge IDS to live on £53 a week the link to this is below http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/iain-duncan-smith-iain-duncan-smith-to-live-on-53-a-week Those who are on JSA take it as a way of getting by and getting by is all it gives you an existence not a life. You cannot live the life of luxury like the Tories seem to think. But then when you’re so disengaged from reality of life in poverty and have never had to struggle in your life then no wonder you’d think benefits are generous. It is a clear out and out contempt for the poor. This is blatant class warfare where we need the labour movement to answer this in a robust fashion drawing the links and common ground between that in work and out of work. Over 60% of those on benefits are actually in work according to the DWP taking tax credits to top up crap pay. We wouldn’t need working tax credits if we all had a proper decent lovable wage not just a living wage of a tiny bit more than minimum wage. But IDS people will not take this laying down the uptake in this petition now touching quarter of a million signatures shows the strength of feeling against the Tories and their attacks on the poor. Let’s not just call for IDS to try living on £53 a week let’s get rid of him and his government of millionaires once and for all!

Standing in solidarity with those affected by the bedroom tax

I have a confession. I am not directly affected by the bedroom tax which will from this month affect those in social housing and housing association housing who have a spare room. But I do stand in full solidarity and will defend anyone affected by this wicked and spiteful attack on the poorest in society. It’s not enough to oppose this in words this most likely will take the form of direct action to stop and eventually scrap all together. We need the spirit of the poll tax to make this tax simply unworkable. From April the 'bedroom tax' will mean that social housing tenants with spare rooms will have their benefits cut. This will hit 660,000 households including many disabled people and low-paid workers. Tenants are faced with an impossible choice of moving from their family homes or being left with a much smaller income. Many will simply be unable to find smaller homes in the social sector because they don't exist. For example, in Newcastle 6,637 families are hit but there are only 50 one-bed homes available. Some will be forced to move to privately rented flats which, because they are more expensive, will actually mean they need more in benefits. There has been a wave of opposition from working class communities. On Merseyside 'One Vision Housing' provoked protests by trying to force tenants to sign a disclaimer accepting that they would face legal action if they didn't pay rent as a result of the bedroom tax. The resistance has already had an effect with the government saying it will introduce exceptions for families with severely disabled children and adult children in the armed forces as well as counting foster children in room allowances. Unworkable Some councils and landlords have seen how unworkable the tax is and have made concessions and come out publicly against the tax. Faced with a growing protest movement, Dundee council has passed a motion agreeing not to evict as a result of arrears caused by the tax for a "transitional period of one year." The policy has been justified as a means to use the social housing stock more efficiently - given the shortage, why should people have a 'spare' room? But the shortage is a result of government policy. This government came into office claiming it was committed to "get Britain building". In fact, house-building figures released in February show an 11% decrease in the number of new homes started in the last year, down to just 98,280. In 2010, the government cut spending on social housing and promised that de-regulation and freeing up the market would increase house building: it didn't! Even the CBI, the 'bosses union', has called on the government to spend £1.25 billion on building 50,000 new homes. Writing in the Guardian, Zoe Williams recently highlighted the fact that as government support for building social housing has fallen the benefit bill has increased, and house building has collapsed. As she put it: "Let's build more homes - who wouldn't vote for that?" Build TUSC But it is hard to vote for it when none of the major parties stand for it. Some Labour politicians have spoken out against the hardship caused by the bedroom tax but they accept the idea of both a bedroom tax and a benefit cap - they just say they oppose this one. That is the importance of building the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition as an alternative, arguing for homes not profit. Nationalising the banks and using them to support a programme of house building would put building workers back in work and offer a real prospect of solving the housing crisis.

It’s no longer enough just to get angry

With the rising tide of austerity washing over us in Britain and across Europe it is starting to dawn on people how big this is. This is not the 1980’s and could surpass even the great depression. The crisis has already lasted longer even if not as deep quite yet. The crisis capitalism finds itself in is huge and fundamental. This is not simply a cyclical crisis which a few temporary fix’s can fix this is a crisis of the actual system itself. Not structural but fundamental and this crisis is not going away anytime soon. So I ask you are it enough just to get angry shout at your TV moan with your mates in the pub going on a few demonstrations. Sadly it no longer is bigger bolder action is going to be needed to stop austerity and go further to ending this crisis ridden system of capitalism for good. While the 1% increases their wealth as a result of the crisis the poorest in society are suffering hugely under the weight of cuts, privatisation and an onslaught on their living standards. We can’t simply vote this system out of existence either. I do support the campaign for a new workers party but that alone will not be enough we need to arm people with the ideas and the hope to change society. Show people victories are possible and things do not have to be this way. Sometimes it does feel like the trade union leaders and society is fixed and cannot be changed but society has changed in the past and will again in fact it is under the surface all the time. Marxism the political guidance of revolutionaries gives us a guide to changing society. While things feel and seem quiet on the surface big seismic changes are going on beneath the surface and bubbling under waiting for that “straw that broke the c camels s back” this is the breaking point which turns quantity into quality and produces a shift in consciousness and things at that point can change very quickly. The working class is stunned in many ways under the weight of cuts and austerity and while suffering huge defeats in the 80’s and the collapse of Stalinism has set it back decades in consciousness. It’s for us Marxists to reinspire workers to show that struggle is the only way not hopelessly relying on MP’s and our leaders to do it for us. Only by struggle from below can we affect change. Peoples thinking can catch up very quickly we must be aware of that. I think this April may be a turning point in the fight against austerity. We must be prepared to step up the fight for a 24 hour general strike within the unions and take the fight to our union leaders as well as the capitalists themselves. As more often than not the union leaders are acting as blocks on the movement and holding back struggle. If the leaders won’t budge we will have to go round them or remove them I’m afraid. You cannot halt the progress of society history and the idea of system change is reappearing on the scene and the working class will pick up the mantle of trying to change society. People won’t take this laying down but also we need to provide direction and examples of struggles. It’s no coincidence Trotsky once described Marxists as the memory of the working class looking to speed up the process of drawing workers ideas to the idea of changing society towards a socialist society b asked on the needs of the many over the few.

Black April

So we enter April with a bang or a thud for many people living in Britain many new laws and benefit changes come in today and for many this will signal a continuation of harsh austerity policies from the con-dem government. These new policies coming into force from today onwards include cuts to housing benefit for some social housing tenants with a spare room and changes to council tax. The biggest shake-up of the welfare system for decades will also see low income households in many parts of England begin paying council tax for the first time. From today, 660,000 social housing tenants deemed to have a spare room will begin to lose an average of £14 a week in housing benefit. What is happening when? • 1 April: Spare room subsidy removed for working-age social housing tenants • 1 April: Council tax benefit changed to council tax support and run locally • 8 April: Working-age benefits and tax credits uprated by 1% - a below-inflation cap • 8 April: Disability living allowance replaced by personal independence payment • 15 April: Introduction of cap on total amount of benefit for working-age people • 29 April: Universal credit rolled out in test areas It has been estimated that two million low income households will pay more, as a result of changes to council tax benefit. The benefit is being replaced by council tax support and responsibility for it is being moved from central government to councils, but with 10% less funding. Also from this month, most working age benefits will increase by just one per cent - less than the likely rise in the cost of living. And later this month, an overall limit of £500 a week on claims is beginning in four London boroughs, and will come into force across England, Scotland and Wales over the coming months. But government plans to test a new universal credit - which combines several benefits into one payment - have been delayed. Three out of four pilot areas in the north west of England will not now start using the system until July. Even the pro big business BBC has voiced concerns at how quickly these cuts are being made they say quite clearly these policies will define this government too right they will. They will go down as the government who looked to savage ordinary peoples living standards. All of these policies and cuts must be fought in the most militant, determined and firm way in whatever way we can. There are so many reasons now for the TUC to get up off its knees and name a day for a 24 hour general strike it is overwhelming now the attacks on the poor. Its time we all stood up and made a stand.