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Showing posts with label anti cuts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anti cuts. Show all posts
Monday, 8 July 2013
Why unite should disaffiliate from the labour party
Unite who pays millions into labour every year and are by far labours biggest donor who have been caught up in the latest debacle in Falkirk west.
Its time for unite to disaffiliate I believe.
For many years the unions have paid into labour hoping for better this day has never come. Now unite has finally started to punch its weight in the labour party it’s found itself caught out and demonised. This should tell Len and all those in the leadership of our union that this strategy of “reclaiming labour” is flawed and will end up wasting millions of member’s money and ultimately loose us jobs and valuable time in building an alternative...
I am a unite member and am proud to be so I am less proud of our unions political campaigning its weak at best pathetic at worst.
Millions of our hard earned pounds go to the labour party without us having a say. The political fund should be opened up and democratised as a first step.
Why should a select few who are labour party members decide what the unions political fun is spent on this is hugely undemocratic and must be brought to an end as soon as possible.
As a member of the socialist party who campaign within TUSC I cannot understand why unite who apparently is moving to the left I’m far from convinced given they are still giving discounts and vouchers to use in marks and Spencer who still use workfare well played comrades looking out for those young low paid workers I see there !.
There is no logical reason why unite and all unions for that matter would fund the labour party those who oppose breaking the link cannot even use well there is no alternative anymore as there clearly is.
TUSC may not be a party but it is ready and waiting for bigger unions to take it up and get involved and mould it to represent ordinary workers at all levels in a union.
I wont stop paying my political fund levee with unite as ridiculously if you stop paying this all of your political fund is stopped which is not what we are arguing for.
We as Marxists argue the political fund should be democratised at the very least and at most broke totally with labour and we should be backing each candidate on merit if a labour party member is against the cuts which a few have been then that’s fine as long as they agree to unites position of opposition to all cuts to jobs and services I have no problem with that.
The thing is this would quickly come to a head as those who do oppose the cuts in labour are in a minority bringing the need for a question on political representation for workers firmly back on to the agenda.
Labour claim they want more working class candidates this is code for more working class candidates who agree with our line of slower cuts. This is not good enough and unite should not be bounced into supporting union backed pro austerity candidates even if they are so called working class.
Its time for those in unite who are serious about fighting the cuts to make up their minds do we go on funding labour for ever and a day or do we make a clean break and start a fresh.
I say we opt for the later.
Monday, 29 April 2013
Support TUSC this Thursday there is an alternative
This Thursday people do have a choice and someone to vote for now. The Trade Union and Socialist Coalition of which I’m standing for in Hertfordshire county council elections for Ware north providing a anti austerity message.
We are standing in over 120 seats covering 5%. This may seem a small number but it’s a big step forward when you look at how many anti cuts candidates stood when these elections were last contested back when labour were still in power.
It’s important to pose an alternative and provide an alternative for people to vote for. As Marxists we do not consider elections the be all and end all they are a platform we can use to reach workers we otherwise wouldn’t be able to. We do not take an absolute view on elections and do see them as the lowest form of class struggle but this doesn’t stop us using any platform we can get.
We are clearly limited with media coverage and ability to get to people with our production of leaflets being limited by our resources. Despite all this I feel we’ve run good campaigns reaching new contacts and providing an alternative where previously there was none.
We’ve come across many thinking UKIP are the answer we have won a few around from this position who were going to vote UKIP but will now not after knowing what they are all about. People may vote for UKIP or labour even as a protest votes to punish the Tories and lib dems. This doesn’t mean to say people have any great enthusiasm for labour or UKIP they are just the nearest lot to bash the Tories with.
TUSC will not get a big vote or win much if at all but it’s important we do not leave the door open to the right in the form of UKIP who could become a danger in the future as capitalism fails to find a way out of its own contridictions parties like UKIP are far more dangerous than the BNP as they are seen as more credible and will whip up racial tensions and create divisions in society increasing social tensions.
But do back TUSC this Thursday but more importantly join the fight for a new workers party. If you’re in a union put pressure on it to back TUSC and stop funding a Tory light labour party.
There is an alternative. The money and the funds are out there if brought under democratic workers control.
We may be small and our votes may be modest at this stage but give us a listen and see what we can achieve together as the most powerful force out there the labour movement fighting back.
For more information on TUSC visit
www.tusc.org.uk
Saturday, 4 June 2011
The 5th annual NSSN conference 11th June, what to expect
So next weekend we return to London for the 5th annual NSSN conference. For anyone who doesnt know the NSSN is the National Shop Steward Netowrk. Organised in trade unions and workplaces to fight for workers rights.
Last year at a one off anti cuts special conference it was voted hugely in favour of setting the NSSN up to become a anti cuts body helping out in industry based and work place disputes. We in the socialist party had the foresight to see that the oncoming cuts will be affecting working people the greatest and to organise within the NSSN was going to be key. We still believe this to have been the right decision to take yet there is still a lot of dissent from others across the left like the SWP for example. Last year when the majority motion was passed many in the SWP were so angry that their motion to keep the NSSN as a simple body to just deal with work place disputes and not fight the cuts was voted down. Many of their activists after the conference decided to resign their membership of the NSSN claiming the socialist party had ruined the organisation and is now a front for the socialist party. This is not the case at all and we within the SP have not kicked the SWP out or refused to work with them. They are still welcome to attend next saturdays conference and i am sure many of them still will do despite their antics last year.
The thing is their walking out last year will not have been forgotten if they do change their minds and do decide to work with us within the NSSN workers will have noted their actions and wondered what benifit their resignation would have helped the movement.
On 22 January, 2011 the very successful National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) anti-cuts conference overwhelmingly agreed to launch an anti-cuts campaign (ACC).
An initial anti-cuts committee involving leading trade union and community anti-cuts activists was established (including Alex Gordon, president of the RMT and Ben Sprung, London regional organiser of the FBU).
Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary
Since the conference the NSSN ACC has supported and built for lobbies and demonstrations outside the Labour Local Government and Tory Spring conferences.
It also organised two very successful stages on the 26 March TUC demo, where thousands of workers heard the NSSN's call to oppose all cuts and for the next step to be a 24-hour general strike against the cuts.
The increasingly important role the NSSN is playing in the anti-cuts movement means that the debates which took place at the beginning of the year on whether the NSSN should launch an anti-cuts campaign at all now seem a distant memory.
Events have quickly confirmed that the NSSN was right to do so.
Split from SWP
Nonetheless it is worthwhile briefly commenting on recent developments in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) because they have so clearly confirmed many of the points made by the Socialist Party in the debate at the beginning of the year.
In the run up to the January NSSN conference the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) was among the most vociferous opponents of an NSSN anti-cuts campaign being launched on the spurious grounds that it would unnecessarily divide the movement to launch another national anti-cuts campaign when Coalition of Resistance (CoR) and Right to Work (RtW) were already in existence.
In the anti-cuts movement there is rightly and inevitably a mood for unity. Nonetheless, as was understood by a large majority of delegates at the NSSN anti-cuts conference, to attempt to use that mood as a reason to oppose the NSSN launching its own anti-cuts campaign was completely disingenuous.
The NSSN has consistently argued for the maximum possible cooperation between the national anti-cuts campaigns. To give just two examples from recent weeks the NSSN invited RtW and CoR to speak on its stages at the TUC demo and has taken part in joint delegations to discuss with the TUC.
However, to merge the three campaigns into one organisation would only be a step forward if the net result was an open, democratic anti-cuts campaign organised around a clear, fighting programme.
Right to Work's lack of democracy
The Socialist Party warned at the NSSN anti-cuts conference that the political approach and top-down methods of both CoR and RtW meant that this would not be the case.
Our warnings regarding the top-down approach of RtW have been confirmed by events that have taken place in the SWP over the last weeks.
Chris Bambery, secretary of RtW and longstanding SWP Central Committee member, has left the SWP along with a number of others. Both Chris Bambery's resignation letter and the SWP CC's reply demonstrate many aspects of the mistaken political approach and method of the SWP.
However, it is the points he makes on RtW which are of the most pressing importance for anti-cuts activists.
Bambery refers to RtW being "initiated in bizarre circumstances" and adds that he only found out about it when he read it in the SWP's 'Party Notes'. This confirms that RtW is not a broad democratic anti-cuts organisation as Chris Bambery and the SWP have claimed, but is run by the SWP.
It was founded without a democratic discussion in the anti-cuts movement, or even within the ranks of the SWP, or even it seems on their Central Committee!
RtW was set up virtually overnight, without discussion, in order to try to create a rival to the NSSN, as the SWP Central Committee stated explicitly in their 2010 pre-congress discussion documents that said that this was because the NSSN was now "dominated by the Socialist Party with the RMT's blessing".
As on previous occasions - such as in the Socialist Alliance - the SWP have taken a 'rule or ruin' approach to the anti-cuts movement. The NSSN, which was founded by the RMT in 2006, has from the beginning had an open and democratic approach, bringing together militant workplace representatives from across the trade union movement.
After RtW was launched in 2009 the NSSN steering committee passed a resolution which stated:
"We view therefore with some concern the setting up of the Right To Work (RTW) by the SWP and their allies which is attempting to occupy the same ground as the NSSN, to appeal to the same union branches and national unions.
"This will only confuse the situation in the eyes of workers and has the potential to fragment the fight-back.
"We note that previous attempts of this character have failed, because, unlike the NSSN they have not been firmly rooted in the unions and workplaces, and have not been seen as an open unifying force."
The NSSN steering committee has been proved correct regarding RtW. And when the NSSN came to discuss founding a national anti-cuts campaign, it took a fundamentally different approach, setting aside a whole day for a democratic discussion at its anti-cuts conference on whether to launch a new campaign - with equal speaking rights for and against doing so.
Chris Bambery also states that internal arguments in the SWP have brought RtW "near to derailment". The SWP CC's reply refers to Chris Bambery, as RtW national secretary, "not effectively helping to build a broad Right to Work".
While they disagree on who is to blame both parties accept that RtW has not developed in a healthy way.
Yet this is the organisation that was counterposed to the NSSN!
If NSSN activists had listened to the SWP and others there would have been no effective intervention by the national anti-cuts organisations into the magnificent demonstration on 26 March.
Instead the NSSN was able to intervene very effectively to popularise a programme to defeat the cuts.
Mistaken approach to Labour
We have dealt with the mistaken political approach of the leadership of RtW (and CoR) in detail elsewhere, in particular their determination to build up New Labour councillors as leaders of the movement.
Our view is that, where councillors vote against cuts we should fully support them. However, we warned at the time of the NSSN conference that there were very few examples indeed of Labour councillors pledging to vote against cuts and that RtW and CoR were misleading the movement by creating illusions that Labour councils would stand and fight by their side.
By contrast the NSSN has warned from the start that it would be necessary to organise a struggle against both the government and local councils in order to defeat the cuts.
For this the NSSN was attacked as sectarian. However, since then our warnings have been proved correct as every Labour council in the country has wielded the axe handed to them by central government leading to hundreds of thousands of job losses.
No wonder that, at a London anti-cuts meeting on 9 April, with fifteen local anti-cuts campaigns represented, including those led by RtW and CoR, for the first time no-one could oppose our consistent position that the anti-cuts movement cannot give uncritical platforms to Labour councillors who vote for cuts.
Unfortunately, in the same week, a RtW public meeting in Leicester had a Labour councillor who had voted for cuts as the main speaker, with the speaker from the SWP also emphasising the need to keep working with Labour councillors even though they had voted to lay off 1,000 workers.
The role that RtW has played is one of many instances where the fundamentally mistaken approach of the leadership of the SWP has acted to weaken the forces of socialism and the labour movement in Britain.
The working class in Britain is now entering a period of tumultuous struggle where the correct programme, strategy and tactics will have a decisive effect on the outcome of coming battles.
The Socialist Party will continue to argue for the maximum possible unity with other forces on the left, but around a clear programme that will increase, rather than decrease, the prospects for victories.
We appeal to members of the SWP, and to those that have left, to fundamentally reassess the programme and methods of their party in order that it can play a positive role in the coming battles.
The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) conference 2011, that takes place on Saturday 11 June, is a must for all workers willing to play a part in getting our national trade unions to stand up decisively against this government of the rich - and even richer!
We invite shop stewards and workplace reps, in the public or private sector, who daily confront bosses over the driving down of conditions and pay, to come along.
We welcome students, who showed such courage and dynamism in their fees demonstrations last winter, and who now want to link up with workers in similar struggles.
We are also keen to win the participation of local anti-cuts campaigners who see the trade unions as key to their success. So waste no time! Register now. All union reps and stewards are automatically delegates. Everyone else is a welcome visitor.
The conference takes place just a few weeks before a momentous joint strike on 30 June against the Con-Dem pensions robbery. Around 750,000 teachers and civil servants in NUT, UCU, ATL and PCS are likely to take the lead and pour onto the streets in every area of the country.
The NSSN conference hopes to encourage delegates to act as organisers of support in their areas, to help get solidarity activities from workers, especially those in other unions whose leaderships are facing the same pensions attack, but who are, as yet, dragging their feet. It is crucial that this attack is fought off now by all unions.
Leading speakers and militant activists on the ground will spell out to the conference what is needed and encourage discussion and debate on the way forward.
There will also be a range of workers engaged in various battles like those 400 workers locked out at Saltend, like blacklisted construction workers, and sacked tube drivers.
There is no doubt the bosses are prepared to squash militancy by individuals or groups of workers. They know what's coming and will use everything at their disposal, especially the anti-trade union laws, to dampen and render ineffective, a serious fightback.
Two years ago the NSSN conference included the leaders of the inspiring battles at Visteon, Lindsey and Linamar. Last year we affirmed international solidarity by inviting leading trade unionists involved in mass demos and general strikes in Spain, Ireland and Greece.
This year British workers are about to embark on our own very real battle on pensions. Those who come to NSSN conference 2011 could play a vital part in helping ensure success. Make sure you are there!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NSSN CONFERENCE 2011
Speakers include: Alex Gordon, president RMT, rank and file fighters like Keith Gibson, locked out at Saltend along with 200 workers, and Frank Morris, construction worker blacklisted from the Olympic site. Also leaders from NUT, PCS and other unions.
Saturday 11 June, 11.30am-4pm
South Camden Community School, London NW1 1RG
www.stopcuts.net
To register for the National Shop Stewards Network conference go to www.shopstewards.net/conference.htm
PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So i will be there hopefully with other like minded comrades i hope you can all make it there too whichever political background you have. If you are against teh cuts it will be a key conference for the plans for the next coming months and years i would say.
I am looking forward to the speakers and especially the greek bus union leaders about how the working class has been dealing with austerity measures in Greece where things are a lot worse than here.
Last year at a one off anti cuts special conference it was voted hugely in favour of setting the NSSN up to become a anti cuts body helping out in industry based and work place disputes. We in the socialist party had the foresight to see that the oncoming cuts will be affecting working people the greatest and to organise within the NSSN was going to be key. We still believe this to have been the right decision to take yet there is still a lot of dissent from others across the left like the SWP for example. Last year when the majority motion was passed many in the SWP were so angry that their motion to keep the NSSN as a simple body to just deal with work place disputes and not fight the cuts was voted down. Many of their activists after the conference decided to resign their membership of the NSSN claiming the socialist party had ruined the organisation and is now a front for the socialist party. This is not the case at all and we within the SP have not kicked the SWP out or refused to work with them. They are still welcome to attend next saturdays conference and i am sure many of them still will do despite their antics last year.
The thing is their walking out last year will not have been forgotten if they do change their minds and do decide to work with us within the NSSN workers will have noted their actions and wondered what benifit their resignation would have helped the movement.
On 22 January, 2011 the very successful National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) anti-cuts conference overwhelmingly agreed to launch an anti-cuts campaign (ACC).
An initial anti-cuts committee involving leading trade union and community anti-cuts activists was established (including Alex Gordon, president of the RMT and Ben Sprung, London regional organiser of the FBU).
Hannah Sell, Socialist Party deputy general secretary
Since the conference the NSSN ACC has supported and built for lobbies and demonstrations outside the Labour Local Government and Tory Spring conferences.
It also organised two very successful stages on the 26 March TUC demo, where thousands of workers heard the NSSN's call to oppose all cuts and for the next step to be a 24-hour general strike against the cuts.
The increasingly important role the NSSN is playing in the anti-cuts movement means that the debates which took place at the beginning of the year on whether the NSSN should launch an anti-cuts campaign at all now seem a distant memory.
Events have quickly confirmed that the NSSN was right to do so.
Split from SWP
Nonetheless it is worthwhile briefly commenting on recent developments in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) because they have so clearly confirmed many of the points made by the Socialist Party in the debate at the beginning of the year.
In the run up to the January NSSN conference the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) was among the most vociferous opponents of an NSSN anti-cuts campaign being launched on the spurious grounds that it would unnecessarily divide the movement to launch another national anti-cuts campaign when Coalition of Resistance (CoR) and Right to Work (RtW) were already in existence.
In the anti-cuts movement there is rightly and inevitably a mood for unity. Nonetheless, as was understood by a large majority of delegates at the NSSN anti-cuts conference, to attempt to use that mood as a reason to oppose the NSSN launching its own anti-cuts campaign was completely disingenuous.
The NSSN has consistently argued for the maximum possible cooperation between the national anti-cuts campaigns. To give just two examples from recent weeks the NSSN invited RtW and CoR to speak on its stages at the TUC demo and has taken part in joint delegations to discuss with the TUC.
However, to merge the three campaigns into one organisation would only be a step forward if the net result was an open, democratic anti-cuts campaign organised around a clear, fighting programme.
Right to Work's lack of democracy
The Socialist Party warned at the NSSN anti-cuts conference that the political approach and top-down methods of both CoR and RtW meant that this would not be the case.
Our warnings regarding the top-down approach of RtW have been confirmed by events that have taken place in the SWP over the last weeks.
Chris Bambery, secretary of RtW and longstanding SWP Central Committee member, has left the SWP along with a number of others. Both Chris Bambery's resignation letter and the SWP CC's reply demonstrate many aspects of the mistaken political approach and method of the SWP.
However, it is the points he makes on RtW which are of the most pressing importance for anti-cuts activists.
Bambery refers to RtW being "initiated in bizarre circumstances" and adds that he only found out about it when he read it in the SWP's 'Party Notes'. This confirms that RtW is not a broad democratic anti-cuts organisation as Chris Bambery and the SWP have claimed, but is run by the SWP.
It was founded without a democratic discussion in the anti-cuts movement, or even within the ranks of the SWP, or even it seems on their Central Committee!
RtW was set up virtually overnight, without discussion, in order to try to create a rival to the NSSN, as the SWP Central Committee stated explicitly in their 2010 pre-congress discussion documents that said that this was because the NSSN was now "dominated by the Socialist Party with the RMT's blessing".
As on previous occasions - such as in the Socialist Alliance - the SWP have taken a 'rule or ruin' approach to the anti-cuts movement. The NSSN, which was founded by the RMT in 2006, has from the beginning had an open and democratic approach, bringing together militant workplace representatives from across the trade union movement.
After RtW was launched in 2009 the NSSN steering committee passed a resolution which stated:
"We view therefore with some concern the setting up of the Right To Work (RTW) by the SWP and their allies which is attempting to occupy the same ground as the NSSN, to appeal to the same union branches and national unions.
"This will only confuse the situation in the eyes of workers and has the potential to fragment the fight-back.
"We note that previous attempts of this character have failed, because, unlike the NSSN they have not been firmly rooted in the unions and workplaces, and have not been seen as an open unifying force."
The NSSN steering committee has been proved correct regarding RtW. And when the NSSN came to discuss founding a national anti-cuts campaign, it took a fundamentally different approach, setting aside a whole day for a democratic discussion at its anti-cuts conference on whether to launch a new campaign - with equal speaking rights for and against doing so.
Chris Bambery also states that internal arguments in the SWP have brought RtW "near to derailment". The SWP CC's reply refers to Chris Bambery, as RtW national secretary, "not effectively helping to build a broad Right to Work".
While they disagree on who is to blame both parties accept that RtW has not developed in a healthy way.
Yet this is the organisation that was counterposed to the NSSN!
If NSSN activists had listened to the SWP and others there would have been no effective intervention by the national anti-cuts organisations into the magnificent demonstration on 26 March.
Instead the NSSN was able to intervene very effectively to popularise a programme to defeat the cuts.
Mistaken approach to Labour
We have dealt with the mistaken political approach of the leadership of RtW (and CoR) in detail elsewhere, in particular their determination to build up New Labour councillors as leaders of the movement.
Our view is that, where councillors vote against cuts we should fully support them. However, we warned at the time of the NSSN conference that there were very few examples indeed of Labour councillors pledging to vote against cuts and that RtW and CoR were misleading the movement by creating illusions that Labour councils would stand and fight by their side.
By contrast the NSSN has warned from the start that it would be necessary to organise a struggle against both the government and local councils in order to defeat the cuts.
For this the NSSN was attacked as sectarian. However, since then our warnings have been proved correct as every Labour council in the country has wielded the axe handed to them by central government leading to hundreds of thousands of job losses.
No wonder that, at a London anti-cuts meeting on 9 April, with fifteen local anti-cuts campaigns represented, including those led by RtW and CoR, for the first time no-one could oppose our consistent position that the anti-cuts movement cannot give uncritical platforms to Labour councillors who vote for cuts.
Unfortunately, in the same week, a RtW public meeting in Leicester had a Labour councillor who had voted for cuts as the main speaker, with the speaker from the SWP also emphasising the need to keep working with Labour councillors even though they had voted to lay off 1,000 workers.
The role that RtW has played is one of many instances where the fundamentally mistaken approach of the leadership of the SWP has acted to weaken the forces of socialism and the labour movement in Britain.
The working class in Britain is now entering a period of tumultuous struggle where the correct programme, strategy and tactics will have a decisive effect on the outcome of coming battles.
The Socialist Party will continue to argue for the maximum possible unity with other forces on the left, but around a clear programme that will increase, rather than decrease, the prospects for victories.
We appeal to members of the SWP, and to those that have left, to fundamentally reassess the programme and methods of their party in order that it can play a positive role in the coming battles.
The National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) conference 2011, that takes place on Saturday 11 June, is a must for all workers willing to play a part in getting our national trade unions to stand up decisively against this government of the rich - and even richer!
We invite shop stewards and workplace reps, in the public or private sector, who daily confront bosses over the driving down of conditions and pay, to come along.
We welcome students, who showed such courage and dynamism in their fees demonstrations last winter, and who now want to link up with workers in similar struggles.
We are also keen to win the participation of local anti-cuts campaigners who see the trade unions as key to their success. So waste no time! Register now. All union reps and stewards are automatically delegates. Everyone else is a welcome visitor.
The conference takes place just a few weeks before a momentous joint strike on 30 June against the Con-Dem pensions robbery. Around 750,000 teachers and civil servants in NUT, UCU, ATL and PCS are likely to take the lead and pour onto the streets in every area of the country.
The NSSN conference hopes to encourage delegates to act as organisers of support in their areas, to help get solidarity activities from workers, especially those in other unions whose leaderships are facing the same pensions attack, but who are, as yet, dragging their feet. It is crucial that this attack is fought off now by all unions.
Leading speakers and militant activists on the ground will spell out to the conference what is needed and encourage discussion and debate on the way forward.
There will also be a range of workers engaged in various battles like those 400 workers locked out at Saltend, like blacklisted construction workers, and sacked tube drivers.
There is no doubt the bosses are prepared to squash militancy by individuals or groups of workers. They know what's coming and will use everything at their disposal, especially the anti-trade union laws, to dampen and render ineffective, a serious fightback.
Two years ago the NSSN conference included the leaders of the inspiring battles at Visteon, Lindsey and Linamar. Last year we affirmed international solidarity by inviting leading trade unionists involved in mass demos and general strikes in Spain, Ireland and Greece.
This year British workers are about to embark on our own very real battle on pensions. Those who come to NSSN conference 2011 could play a vital part in helping ensure success. Make sure you are there!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NSSN CONFERENCE 2011
Speakers include: Alex Gordon, president RMT, rank and file fighters like Keith Gibson, locked out at Saltend along with 200 workers, and Frank Morris, construction worker blacklisted from the Olympic site. Also leaders from NUT, PCS and other unions.
Saturday 11 June, 11.30am-4pm
South Camden Community School, London NW1 1RG
www.stopcuts.net
To register for the National Shop Stewards Network conference go to www.shopstewards.net/conference.htm
PO Box 54498, London E10 9DE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So i will be there hopefully with other like minded comrades i hope you can all make it there too whichever political background you have. If you are against teh cuts it will be a key conference for the plans for the next coming months and years i would say.
I am looking forward to the speakers and especially the greek bus union leaders about how the working class has been dealing with austerity measures in Greece where things are a lot worse than here.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
latest update from stevenage anti cuts union
Stevenage Anti-Cuts Union:
info@stacu.org.uk
Thursday 31st March
Shephall Centre Shephall Green Stevenage
Starts at 7:30pm
With echoes of the Poll Tax, the media has totally distorted the reporting of the march on the 26th of march. Colonel Gadhafi would have been proud of the TV coverage.The only people arrested were peaceful protesters occupying thesupermarketof the rich, protesting about the rich not paying tax. However about 100 Anarchists were allowed to run free to smash up shops and banks. The police said they could not control them, was it not a strange coincidence they were not only followed by the TV but, given the longshots from roof tops they must have known where and when it was goingto kick off! It was a show for the government to ‘ConDem’ violence,ignoring the 500,000 or more who were peacefully challenging the Cuts.The Poll Tax was beaten by millions refusing to pay, not by the demonstration, now the unions need to use strike action to make theGovernment pay attention. Strikes, occupations, and other forms of civildisobedience will beat this gang of millionaires running the country.
The TUC demonstration was the biggest for decades; half a million trade unionists and youth marched to tell theGovernment we will not stand by while we are charged for the deficit and the bankers get off scot free.The TUC was successful in mobilising hundreds of thousands on the streets, but the next stage is crucial: For a 24 hour public service general strike.
After the Demo, what now?
We must prepare for a fight.Stevenage Anti-Cuts Union Members of the Stevenage Anti-Cuts Union will be standing in the local elections to fight all cuts, unlike the Labour council that sacked 45 workers and cut services.
We will be standing under the banner of TUSC - trades union and socialsit coalition against the cuts. Please if you'd like to stand please let us know ASAP if you wish to stand up for your local community and your public services you treasure dearly that labour, tories and lib dems feel we can all do without. NO big society can bridge this gap, once these services are gone and our jobs are gone they will not be coming back. SO act now before it is too late.
info@stacu.org.uk
Thursday 31st March
Shephall Centre Shephall Green Stevenage
Starts at 7:30pm
With echoes of the Poll Tax, the media has totally distorted the reporting of the march on the 26th of march. Colonel Gadhafi would have been proud of the TV coverage.The only people arrested were peaceful protesters occupying thesupermarketof the rich, protesting about the rich not paying tax. However about 100 Anarchists were allowed to run free to smash up shops and banks. The police said they could not control them, was it not a strange coincidence they were not only followed by the TV but, given the longshots from roof tops they must have known where and when it was goingto kick off! It was a show for the government to ‘ConDem’ violence,ignoring the 500,000 or more who were peacefully challenging the Cuts.The Poll Tax was beaten by millions refusing to pay, not by the demonstration, now the unions need to use strike action to make theGovernment pay attention. Strikes, occupations, and other forms of civildisobedience will beat this gang of millionaires running the country.
The TUC demonstration was the biggest for decades; half a million trade unionists and youth marched to tell theGovernment we will not stand by while we are charged for the deficit and the bankers get off scot free.The TUC was successful in mobilising hundreds of thousands on the streets, but the next stage is crucial: For a 24 hour public service general strike.
After the Demo, what now?
We must prepare for a fight.Stevenage Anti-Cuts Union Members of the Stevenage Anti-Cuts Union will be standing in the local elections to fight all cuts, unlike the Labour council that sacked 45 workers and cut services.
We will be standing under the banner of TUSC - trades union and socialsit coalition against the cuts. Please if you'd like to stand please let us know ASAP if you wish to stand up for your local community and your public services you treasure dearly that labour, tories and lib dems feel we can all do without. NO big society can bridge this gap, once these services are gone and our jobs are gone they will not be coming back. SO act now before it is too late.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
my 1st NSSN anti cuts demo
So today I have just returned from London and Lambeth where the NSSN, the national shop steward’s network made up of socialists and trade unionists.
Today the 5th of March a whole load of anti cuts protesters from various different unions, anti cuts campaigns and organisations came together to march on the labour party local council conference meeting at transport house the old TUC building ironically.
As you may or may not know I’m registered blind and my first big demo was a real experience so I thought I’d do a write up of my experiences from a blind activists perspective and how I saw the day.
So Myself and other comrades from Stevenage arrived just after 11 am at Lambeth north tube station and assembled together not far from the Imperial War museum as we set about signing the petition that was to be handed to Labour Party delegates attending the conference I believe everyone who attended signed the petition to urge labour councillors to vote against the cuts.
As we were waiting for clearance to start our march from the police we had the pleasure to listen to several excellent speakers before we took off.
Many good speakers, some with real stories and tails of struggles over the years. We heard from Martin Powell Davies of the NUT who is very active in his area of Lambeth not far from where this march was taking place. He reminded us of some great battles the left had won back in the 1920's in Poplar and in the 1980's with inspirational moves by militant lead Liverpool and Lambeth councils who were both labour at that time. Martin reminded us of the bravery of those councillors standing up to the Tories back then when it was the iron lady we were up against in Maggie Thatcher.
Today it is the condem government made up of the Tories and the liberal democrats who are enjoying taking on the working class it would seem with George Osborne and David Cameron making the ordinary working people of this country including the old, young, disabled, women, men, unemployed and many other areas of society to pay for the mess the bankers in this country caused.
Other speakers of note were Linda Taaf of the Socialist party who I had never heard speak before and thought she came across very well
Linda really got the crowd going several times and received big applause when she raised the statement that the Tories are coming for us, our jobs, our pensions, our benefits, our working conditions and then the phrase that will stick with me from the day was that what they don’t realise is that we are coming for them.
This line was repeated several times later in the rally and was an excellent point to make.
A special mention must go to full time socialist party employee and now NSSN organiser Rob Williams who I always enjoy listening to him and his views really deserves a lot of thanks and praise for help to organise today and keep everyone’s spirits high whilst on the march.
We had other speakers from the likes of RMT who are one of the more left wing unions going and have a strong record of ballot action when job losses are on the cards or working conditions are under threat. Some great points made here with a lot of emphasis on the big demo on the 26th of March we must all now look to build towards.
As for the march we got the go ahead to march at a little after 12 and we took off with a excellent set of drums leading the way who as I understand have been hired in also for the march 26th TUC demo in London with 3 times as many drummers, that should sound excellent I think.
The noise they gave off and the whistles and continuous chanting from up and down the strong march of what I’d estimate to be about 4 or 5 hundred maybe.
I'm a big football fan so love a good sing song and chant so some of the chants today lead by Rob Williams doing a top job on the megaphone really got the crowd going. Chants of no it’s no butt’s, don’t pass on Tory cuts and when they say cutback we say fight back really sent shivers down your spine to know that real working class ordinary people are finally finding their voice to these vicious cuts package.
I was guided along the whole route from a good friend who has his own work related troubles where he is set to be made redundant from Glaxo Smith Klein in Ware in Hertfordshire due to his so called "union activity" as they put it.
Every person on the march today had a reason to be there and to be fighting back against this horrible right wing government
But of course the real reason for us marching on the Labour local councillors conference was handing in a petition urging them to vote against the cuts and to not do the Tories dirty work for them
The march route took us up out of Lambeth up towards Southwark where the meeting was taking place at Transport house an old TUC building I do believe.
When we reached our destination we paused for breath as it was quite a long route I thought and I felt tired after I got home for sure.
We congregated in a small square just near where this labour conference of councillors was taking place where we heard more excellent speeches from Dave Nellist a socialist party councillor in his home town of Coventry. Dave who I follow on twitter @davenellist I’d been looking forward to hear speak for a long time really raised the assembled crowd’s spirits once again after a good march and put the blame for the financial crisis firmly in the hands of the greedy rich capitalist bankers who have drained this country bare. Dave also made a excellent point that forget any trade union strikes over the last few years the bankers have been on strike for a good while now refusing to lend money and spend and help the country out of this mess that they caused. I felt this was very relevant as there is money about and the bankers are sloshing around huge profits and bonus's to each other but we as ordinary working class people are seeing none of it. Only cuts to our public services to pay off the bankers mess.
Dave Nellist also highlighted some of the excellent work Uk Uncut have been carrying out over recent months in highlighting tax avoidance and evasion from big big corporations and banks. Dave said that Barclays bank and HSBC who are two of the worlds biggest banks who reported huge profits in the last year returning almost to pre banking crisis figures avoid paying tax like the plague they will employ hundreds of tax experts to find loop holes and financial experts to work out where they can get away with paying little or no tax to the British treasury. This is frankly disgusting in my opinion and is an absolute insult to the rest of us hard working citizens.
We heard further speeches from Rob Williams again giving us news that in Cardiff today 2000 people had marched on the Tories and liberal democrat spring conferences in the city to highlight how wrong these cuts are and how they should think again.
This was met by big applause too as Rob began to highlight major struggles happening around the world today from Egypt to Libya and even in the belly of the capitalist world America where trades unionists in the state of Wisconsin where they are putting up a excellent fight back against anti trade union laws their US government is trying to enforce. We will not be silenced came the crowd.
There was a call from one of the speakers to request a trades union worker involved in the protests and strikes in Wisconsin to be there on the March 26th demo in London and to speak to the crowd. This was a popular move and I do hope this can happen.
We were also pleased to have as a speaker a representative from the Right to Work campaign organised by the Socialist workers Party* SWP* who were given a platform to speak despite a lot of their members resigning from the National shops stewards network a few weeks back when the motion was passed to form a anti cuts organisation within the network. But I and many others were glad to see them back on board and having their views heard. They got a good reception and made some excellent points.
The right to work representative also gave us a run down of big protests his campaign are holding in the next few weeks including a big one against cuts to the NHS and the attacks on the excellent work our doctors and nurse's do in this country. That protest will be big I may see if I can go to that possibly.
He also flagged up a big protest in Trafalgar square on the day of the budget to remind George Osborne of his wrong doings and all the people his cuts are hurting. Hopefully this will attract a fair few too.
We also had a speaker from the socialist parties very own campaign- Youth Fight for Jobs. The speaker who is party of the youth and student movement raised some excellent points that the youth today do not know what the future holds for them. Highlighting again the importance of the student movement and the big 50 thousand plus demo's towards the end of 2010 in London as a result of the trebling of tuition fees.
In October of this year several Youth Fight for Jobs activists will be reanacting the famous Jarrow march from Jaro to London many years ago where 200 unemployed youth marched on London in protest to lack of job opportunities and poor working conditions.
The rally was ended with Linda Taaf and Rob Williams handing over the petition that we all signed at the start to urge labour councillors across the country that they do have a choice whether to stand with us and join the resistance to the coalition government or join with the government in voting for cuts.
As there is a choice and I and many others will be hoping that although many of the cuts have been shamefully voted through by many labour councillors across the nation the battle now begins to prevent them from implementing the cuts. That means we must fight for every library closure, every swimming pool closure, every youth connexions scheme, every job and everything that is being cut in the name of cutbacks.
The labour delegate did come out to greet the crowd to a few heckles I must say but I’m not sure what they can expect as currently many if not all Labour run councils are doing the Tories dirty work for them and voting through the cuts. But the delegate took the petition and snuck away quietly back to his members.
All in all a very good day and very enjoyable for me on a personal level. My first real big demo really touched my political senses and enlightened me to the fact there are many people out there, a growing number that share the same views and anger at this government and what it is doing and want to fight back.
It’s now all on to march 26th in London now. See you all there I do hope.
Today the 5th of March a whole load of anti cuts protesters from various different unions, anti cuts campaigns and organisations came together to march on the labour party local council conference meeting at transport house the old TUC building ironically.
As you may or may not know I’m registered blind and my first big demo was a real experience so I thought I’d do a write up of my experiences from a blind activists perspective and how I saw the day.
So Myself and other comrades from Stevenage arrived just after 11 am at Lambeth north tube station and assembled together not far from the Imperial War museum as we set about signing the petition that was to be handed to Labour Party delegates attending the conference I believe everyone who attended signed the petition to urge labour councillors to vote against the cuts.
As we were waiting for clearance to start our march from the police we had the pleasure to listen to several excellent speakers before we took off.
Many good speakers, some with real stories and tails of struggles over the years. We heard from Martin Powell Davies of the NUT who is very active in his area of Lambeth not far from where this march was taking place. He reminded us of some great battles the left had won back in the 1920's in Poplar and in the 1980's with inspirational moves by militant lead Liverpool and Lambeth councils who were both labour at that time. Martin reminded us of the bravery of those councillors standing up to the Tories back then when it was the iron lady we were up against in Maggie Thatcher.
Today it is the condem government made up of the Tories and the liberal democrats who are enjoying taking on the working class it would seem with George Osborne and David Cameron making the ordinary working people of this country including the old, young, disabled, women, men, unemployed and many other areas of society to pay for the mess the bankers in this country caused.
Other speakers of note were Linda Taaf of the Socialist party who I had never heard speak before and thought she came across very well
Linda really got the crowd going several times and received big applause when she raised the statement that the Tories are coming for us, our jobs, our pensions, our benefits, our working conditions and then the phrase that will stick with me from the day was that what they don’t realise is that we are coming for them.
This line was repeated several times later in the rally and was an excellent point to make.
A special mention must go to full time socialist party employee and now NSSN organiser Rob Williams who I always enjoy listening to him and his views really deserves a lot of thanks and praise for help to organise today and keep everyone’s spirits high whilst on the march.
We had other speakers from the likes of RMT who are one of the more left wing unions going and have a strong record of ballot action when job losses are on the cards or working conditions are under threat. Some great points made here with a lot of emphasis on the big demo on the 26th of March we must all now look to build towards.
As for the march we got the go ahead to march at a little after 12 and we took off with a excellent set of drums leading the way who as I understand have been hired in also for the march 26th TUC demo in London with 3 times as many drummers, that should sound excellent I think.
The noise they gave off and the whistles and continuous chanting from up and down the strong march of what I’d estimate to be about 4 or 5 hundred maybe.
I'm a big football fan so love a good sing song and chant so some of the chants today lead by Rob Williams doing a top job on the megaphone really got the crowd going. Chants of no it’s no butt’s, don’t pass on Tory cuts and when they say cutback we say fight back really sent shivers down your spine to know that real working class ordinary people are finally finding their voice to these vicious cuts package.
I was guided along the whole route from a good friend who has his own work related troubles where he is set to be made redundant from Glaxo Smith Klein in Ware in Hertfordshire due to his so called "union activity" as they put it.
Every person on the march today had a reason to be there and to be fighting back against this horrible right wing government
But of course the real reason for us marching on the Labour local councillors conference was handing in a petition urging them to vote against the cuts and to not do the Tories dirty work for them
The march route took us up out of Lambeth up towards Southwark where the meeting was taking place at Transport house an old TUC building I do believe.
When we reached our destination we paused for breath as it was quite a long route I thought and I felt tired after I got home for sure.
We congregated in a small square just near where this labour conference of councillors was taking place where we heard more excellent speeches from Dave Nellist a socialist party councillor in his home town of Coventry. Dave who I follow on twitter @davenellist I’d been looking forward to hear speak for a long time really raised the assembled crowd’s spirits once again after a good march and put the blame for the financial crisis firmly in the hands of the greedy rich capitalist bankers who have drained this country bare. Dave also made a excellent point that forget any trade union strikes over the last few years the bankers have been on strike for a good while now refusing to lend money and spend and help the country out of this mess that they caused. I felt this was very relevant as there is money about and the bankers are sloshing around huge profits and bonus's to each other but we as ordinary working class people are seeing none of it. Only cuts to our public services to pay off the bankers mess.
Dave Nellist also highlighted some of the excellent work Uk Uncut have been carrying out over recent months in highlighting tax avoidance and evasion from big big corporations and banks. Dave said that Barclays bank and HSBC who are two of the worlds biggest banks who reported huge profits in the last year returning almost to pre banking crisis figures avoid paying tax like the plague they will employ hundreds of tax experts to find loop holes and financial experts to work out where they can get away with paying little or no tax to the British treasury. This is frankly disgusting in my opinion and is an absolute insult to the rest of us hard working citizens.
We heard further speeches from Rob Williams again giving us news that in Cardiff today 2000 people had marched on the Tories and liberal democrat spring conferences in the city to highlight how wrong these cuts are and how they should think again.
This was met by big applause too as Rob began to highlight major struggles happening around the world today from Egypt to Libya and even in the belly of the capitalist world America where trades unionists in the state of Wisconsin where they are putting up a excellent fight back against anti trade union laws their US government is trying to enforce. We will not be silenced came the crowd.
There was a call from one of the speakers to request a trades union worker involved in the protests and strikes in Wisconsin to be there on the March 26th demo in London and to speak to the crowd. This was a popular move and I do hope this can happen.
We were also pleased to have as a speaker a representative from the Right to Work campaign organised by the Socialist workers Party* SWP* who were given a platform to speak despite a lot of their members resigning from the National shops stewards network a few weeks back when the motion was passed to form a anti cuts organisation within the network. But I and many others were glad to see them back on board and having their views heard. They got a good reception and made some excellent points.
The right to work representative also gave us a run down of big protests his campaign are holding in the next few weeks including a big one against cuts to the NHS and the attacks on the excellent work our doctors and nurse's do in this country. That protest will be big I may see if I can go to that possibly.
He also flagged up a big protest in Trafalgar square on the day of the budget to remind George Osborne of his wrong doings and all the people his cuts are hurting. Hopefully this will attract a fair few too.
We also had a speaker from the socialist parties very own campaign- Youth Fight for Jobs. The speaker who is party of the youth and student movement raised some excellent points that the youth today do not know what the future holds for them. Highlighting again the importance of the student movement and the big 50 thousand plus demo's towards the end of 2010 in London as a result of the trebling of tuition fees.
In October of this year several Youth Fight for Jobs activists will be reanacting the famous Jarrow march from Jaro to London many years ago where 200 unemployed youth marched on London in protest to lack of job opportunities and poor working conditions.
The rally was ended with Linda Taaf and Rob Williams handing over the petition that we all signed at the start to urge labour councillors across the country that they do have a choice whether to stand with us and join the resistance to the coalition government or join with the government in voting for cuts.
As there is a choice and I and many others will be hoping that although many of the cuts have been shamefully voted through by many labour councillors across the nation the battle now begins to prevent them from implementing the cuts. That means we must fight for every library closure, every swimming pool closure, every youth connexions scheme, every job and everything that is being cut in the name of cutbacks.
The labour delegate did come out to greet the crowd to a few heckles I must say but I’m not sure what they can expect as currently many if not all Labour run councils are doing the Tories dirty work for them and voting through the cuts. But the delegate took the petition and snuck away quietly back to his members.
All in all a very good day and very enjoyable for me on a personal level. My first real big demo really touched my political senses and enlightened me to the fact there are many people out there, a growing number that share the same views and anger at this government and what it is doing and want to fight back.
It’s now all on to march 26th in London now. See you all there I do hope.
Sunday, 19 December 2010
In support of the unions
As you all may or may not know i'm a big supporter of the union movement in this country and today reading this piece in the Guardian :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/19/unions-students-strike-fight-cuts?CMP=twt_gu
I like the language and words new Unite general secretary Len McCluskey used in his article with the paper.
The words are tough and sounds like he and his union which is the biggest in the UK are up for the battle of their lives. Len warns of a wave of strike action across the country in reply to the governments attack on working class people and the public sector. I am not a unite member but would like to be but this guy already has my support. We do need a good response and a carefully constructed response. Of course strikes would be a last resort as always but i cant see them taking long to get going next year. With hundreds if not thousands of ordinary people who didnt cause the financial crisis will be loosing their jobs no way should they sit by and just let this terribly right wing governemnt go about shrinking teh state and finnishing off Maggie Tatcher's work from the 80's.
Len heaped praise and support on the students who have started this fightback with the student protests we have seen over recent weeks in protest of the treblling of tuitian fees. I think it is time now the unions threw their weight behind the student movement and the anti cuts movement as a whole.
I feel 2011 could be a big year for unions and the reemergance of mass general strikes if this government are not careful. People will not just take these cuts lieing down. The unions have been critisised in the past for reacting slowly to these proposed cuts but i have been assured by many union people once they do stand up on their feet the unions can move very quickly and effectively.
As a worker having a huge union with the financial clout on its side would fill me with pride and confidence. If i worked ina sector where unions happened i'd defanatly join one. I think the work they do is brillianta nd standing up for workers rights of pay and conditions is amazing.
I think the movement does need the unions to join it now and add weight to the campaigns as the students lets be honest cannot overthrow this governemnt alone they need support and financial backing.
So to hear Len come out with this message should not be ignored and i hope people become confident in the movement and waht we can achieve.
The only stumbling block could be the involvement with labour with these big unions gaining labours support in these times could be key. I think if labour could back some of these moves from the unions that back them would be very appreciated with solidarity and unity.
Of course labours support is not nessesary it would just be very useful politically to provide a good PR outlook on the unions movement. I think it is one of labours jobs now to reintroduce unions and their role in society to the public at large. For so long now unions have been out of the public eye with no massive attack on workers like what we are seeing now anyway on the agenda. Now the unionsa nd their members do need labours support i feel it is time for the labour party, Ed milibanda nd all his parties members to get behind the union movement and support them in any way we can just like the unions do for labour with financial backing.
For labour to continue as a mass workers and working class party this has to happen. Whetehr it will or not considering Ed milibands stance on matters of things so far might be interesting. Then again he did recieve a big backing from the unions so he may feel he should.
Either way 2011 will be a big year for unions i feel and hope.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/19/unions-students-strike-fight-cuts?CMP=twt_gu
I like the language and words new Unite general secretary Len McCluskey used in his article with the paper.
The words are tough and sounds like he and his union which is the biggest in the UK are up for the battle of their lives. Len warns of a wave of strike action across the country in reply to the governments attack on working class people and the public sector. I am not a unite member but would like to be but this guy already has my support. We do need a good response and a carefully constructed response. Of course strikes would be a last resort as always but i cant see them taking long to get going next year. With hundreds if not thousands of ordinary people who didnt cause the financial crisis will be loosing their jobs no way should they sit by and just let this terribly right wing governemnt go about shrinking teh state and finnishing off Maggie Tatcher's work from the 80's.
Len heaped praise and support on the students who have started this fightback with the student protests we have seen over recent weeks in protest of the treblling of tuitian fees. I think it is time now the unions threw their weight behind the student movement and the anti cuts movement as a whole.
I feel 2011 could be a big year for unions and the reemergance of mass general strikes if this government are not careful. People will not just take these cuts lieing down. The unions have been critisised in the past for reacting slowly to these proposed cuts but i have been assured by many union people once they do stand up on their feet the unions can move very quickly and effectively.
As a worker having a huge union with the financial clout on its side would fill me with pride and confidence. If i worked ina sector where unions happened i'd defanatly join one. I think the work they do is brillianta nd standing up for workers rights of pay and conditions is amazing.
I think the movement does need the unions to join it now and add weight to the campaigns as the students lets be honest cannot overthrow this governemnt alone they need support and financial backing.
So to hear Len come out with this message should not be ignored and i hope people become confident in the movement and waht we can achieve.
The only stumbling block could be the involvement with labour with these big unions gaining labours support in these times could be key. I think if labour could back some of these moves from the unions that back them would be very appreciated with solidarity and unity.
Of course labours support is not nessesary it would just be very useful politically to provide a good PR outlook on the unions movement. I think it is one of labours jobs now to reintroduce unions and their role in society to the public at large. For so long now unions have been out of the public eye with no massive attack on workers like what we are seeing now anyway on the agenda. Now the unionsa nd their members do need labours support i feel it is time for the labour party, Ed milibanda nd all his parties members to get behind the union movement and support them in any way we can just like the unions do for labour with financial backing.
For labour to continue as a mass workers and working class party this has to happen. Whetehr it will or not considering Ed milibands stance on matters of things so far might be interesting. Then again he did recieve a big backing from the unions so he may feel he should.
Either way 2011 will be a big year for unions i feel and hope.
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