The socialist Party and the police

I am long since a member of the Socialist party which has if I like it or not formed a lot of my politics to date. Yes they did many good things and I can say I gained my class politics from them to understand things in Marxist terms if good for me or not. I do think the bits I learnt much of it off my own back too to be honest as the education the SP gave out was hugely patronising and really basic stuff meant for primary school kids I’d say rich bad poor good we need to change this, join our party etc etc. Well I don’t need anyone to tell me I found myself frequently at odes of what the party put out and said as time went on. If not visibly then certainly in my head. One of my first bones of contention was the party’s relationship and views towards the police and the state as a broader identity. I joined in 2011 after the student mass demonstrations of the year before maybe this formed a point of which I wished to join a revolutionary organisation after being a labour party member for a few months before and after the general election which on class lines was a really big one when it came to class. For me even as a very timid and partly non educated political thinker I could still tell that the general election of 2010 was a very political one and a deep sense of unjust that the ruling class were back in power via the Tories and their lackies the Lib Dems and this was not right. I somehow thought labour was for the people and they would be my natural ally in the coming months to years. How wrong I was…. So I joined the SP in hope of better answers. For a while they gave me that but in time I began to question things as I’d always been brought up to do. One of the things that did stand out for me was the Socialist party’s line on the police and whether we should stand in solidarity with them or not. For me the SP was firmly behind the police and many instances can back this up sadly. This for me while students were getting beaten back by the police and riots were happening sparked off by a policeman attacking and killing an innocent black man in Tottenham in 2011 sent me into wonder how the SP could square having solidarity with these people who clearly had it in for our class. In recent years when the police have gone on strike or protested about their pay and conditions we in the SP were urged to support them. This stuck in my throat and I could never bring myself to supporting these agents of the state and lend them solidarity from our class when only weeks before they had attacked students fighting for a better future. It never sat well with me. It is a scene workers are all too familiar with. In a bid for savings, the "gravy train" of rank-and-file pay and benefits is being slashed by the highest earners who remain unaffected. However, sympathy may be muted by the fact that the workers in question are the police. While at first it is understandable to many to have solidarity with the police after all don’t they work for a wage and need to work for their living?? Their role when it comes to the working class and when we fight back is very very telling for me. , "the idea that police neutrally uphold democratically-decided laws has been exposed as a fiction." In the words of Fitwatch; It’s time to wake up –these institutions do not exist to protect us but to subjugate us. They give us enough to believe we live in a free and democratic society whilst protecting capital and those who defend it. What is the use of having rights if the state determines when and where we can exercise them? We are given the right to protest when we’re no threat, but refused the right to even assemble when it’s most critical. If public anger over the government's attacks on the working class ever emerges as anything even remotely radical, the police are the ruling class's first line of defence. Their job is to act against their class interests and either keep us in line or lock us out of the way. Until they decide to spurn that role, they should expect no sympathy. Working class solidarity should not be reserved for those who exist to smash it The SP clearly think that supporting the police and helping them split the state will in some way help the workers movement. The fact workers decide to join the police is lost on them and that workers do not always fight for their own class instincts. The fact that some feel drawn towards the police and the wider state should make us ask questions of why and how this is so. As @piercepenniless from twitter once wrote at http://piercepenniless.tumblr.com/post/19795478930/on-police-strikes “ I’m happy for the police to strike, but the right to strike is taken and retained, not granted, and we should ask why police don’t strike, that is, what police think they do, what they actually do, and so on. ) Extending an abstract defence of the power to withdraw labour into an argument that activists should defend police against funding cuts is logically questionable. It relies on a notion of police as a subsection of a greater set of ‘public servants’ that elides some fundamental differences. If they are so, we should ask, which public, and served how? We defend against cuts because they involve dismantling things like the NHS and welfare services, not because the organs of the state are inviolable goods. Hence this tautologous argument that anti-cuts activists ought to oppose cuts because they are anti-cuts activists elides the reasons that people oppose cuts. This elision is significant. The arguments put by serving police officers as to why they shouldn’t be cut largely involve their subsequent inability to afford water cannon, tasers, routine arming, &c. They also often extend to their need to exist to keep scum (etc) ‘off the street’. This is not benign civil work: it is racist, it victimises the poor, the inconvenient and the vulnerable. Any argument that we attain a moral victory by defending their working conditions and thus enable them to further fulfill their structural role seems to me rather weak. ) Should we not consider the work the police do as obviously and qualitatively different from the work of other portions of the public sector, and should they really fall under this rubric at all — in other words, what kind of work is this work?” Every time there is talk of police marching, striking or in any way protesting, liberals and leftists have put out calls for solidarity and support. This makes me feel very uneasy and now more than ever with events in Ferguson in America and lots and lots of attacks on black people by the police who we are told are there to serve us this is clearly not the case but a illusion to keep the mass’s where they are and in order. There some in the anti cuts movement who have written that "those of us in the anti-cuts movement should be protesting alongside them." Their reasoning is that although there are "the few nasty police," who "we want out," at the moment "our fight is elsewhere." The police who will take place in any march "are ordinary people with families and rents and mortgages," and we should "do for them what they wouldn’t do for us." My train of thought goes off in a somewhat different direction. Unlike these leftists , I don't see the behaviour of the police as an abberation. The fact that they are more aggressive in handling protests now, and are actively seeking to clamp down on dissenters by releasing footage and seeking "suspects," is not just something that happened. You can see it every time there is a serious threat to the established order, from events like Bloody Sunday back in 1911, through the Miners' Strike, Hillsborough and the Poll Tax Riots, to the G20 and, of course, the more recent student protests. In between, there are a myriad of other incidents, such as the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes. Not to mention the Forward Intelligence Teams, DNA databases, arresting people simply to be able to take their details, and other "illiberal" tactics Sumpter cites. As an article in The Commune points out; “Fair-minded people are against “disproportionate”, “provocative”, or “brutal” policing; and presumably in favour of a polite push and shove. This is an appealing message (and it may make sense to accentuate it to the cameras), but is more or less a fiction. Of course, there are incidents here and there where we can say that particular police could have been less brutal. But if the direct action we defend has any content at all, it must mean we supported, and support, concrete attempts to stop the law being passed, up to, including, and beyond the invasion of parliament – and we are in support of people trying as hard as possible to do that. And it is a fiction that the police could have tolerated that, or that preventing it could ever have been done gently. If it could have been, we wouldn’t have really been trying. If the police hadn’t been at parliament square during the student demonstrations of 2010, and if they hadn’t been prepared to act brutally, parliament would have been stormed, and legislation to triple top-up fees and abolish EMA would not have been passed. The brutality of the police is not incidental to the nature of the state, it is essential to it. So you have to pick: the state, and horse charges against children who object to having their pockets robbed; or against the state (which means: against capitalism, for social revolution); and against the police too; brutal or otherwise. Polite fudges are polite – but more or less part of the continuous stream of liquid nonsense which constitutes the news media. This is not a matter of a "few nasty police." If we support the police against cuts to their numbers and their services, then we actively support the institution of the police. That cannot mean anything except the state's monopoly of violence and the cracked skulls of working class activists and their repression. The Police Federation's own propaganda underlines this. The image before us is a line of riot police blocking a road, presumably less able to do their job because their numbers are cut. If you choose to support or join their march, that is what you are standing in solidarity with. Remember that. Every baton swung at the head of a protester just for being in the way. Every horse charge to keep the crowds in line. Every kettle because people wanted to cover their faces. Every taser that kills or paralyses somebody. Every stop and search of youth simply for being youth. Every Ian Tomlinson, Jean Charles de Menezes, Smiley Culture or Mark Duggan. It's on your head as well as theirs. Because you marched to defend it. Yes, the police are working class. They have to sell their labour for a living in order to feed their families this is not the end of the matter though . Nobody made them choose, or stay, in a job which exists to subjugate the same class that they come from - to smash picket lines, choke off dissent, and maintain the dominance of the ruling class. I was once told of a police officer who refused to attack picket lines - and was shuffled around the country until he ended up the constable of a quiet and inoffensive area. He is no doubt not the only one. So, if police can be persuaded to side with the workers and against capitalism, then it is clearly a choice that sees their career either go down the toilet or end altogether. Those still on active service, in the big cities, and marching to preserve their jobs, will be those with no qualms being on the other side of the class war. Thus, I still have no sympathy for the devil. I maintain that "working class solidarity should not be reserved for those who exist to smash it. so lets be clear, the police and their hangers on are not our comrades or on the same side as us and should be treated as such

solidarity with striking J10 workers, their fight is our fight

Adapted from a Workers Liberty leaflet: Up to two million workers will strike on 10 July. Members of unions in local government will strike to oppose a 1% pay offer, and are demanding an increase of at least £1 per hour or to the "Living Wage", £7.65, or £8.80 in London. Other unions involved in the action have their own pay demands. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the cost of maintaining a decent standard of living in the UK has risen by 46% since 2008, while wages have increased by just 9%. It's the harshest squeeze on real wages in the UK since records began. According to TUC figures, around five million workers in Britain (20% of the total workforce) are paid less than the living wage. The 10 July strike can be the start of a working class counter-offensive challenging the capitalist logic that demands workers pay for the financial crisis. We need a plan, not a day at a time One-off strike days, each followed by a long wait until union leaders report back or call further action, aren't nough. The remedy is not just to convert one-day protest strikes into two-day protest strikes, but to plan continuing action, discussed and decided in advance by union members. This could include limited, selective action as well as all-out strikes and be directed by local strike committees. Local strike committees should continue meeting after 10 July, and the executives of all the striking unions should meet together. After 10th July? Unison's leaders have already talked about further strikes on 9 and 10 September. Unions should liaise with each other in order to pin down the most effective date, and other actions should be planned between now and then - even small, local events like lunchtime rallies, demos and street stalls. NHS workers should be brought into the dispute. Unison should act on its 2014 Health sector conference decision to ballot for strikes over pay. Strike funds should be levied at both local and national level to ensure the lowest-paid workers are supported in taking sustained and escalating action. On strike days every workplace should be picketed, with pickets approaching non-striking workers and attempting to persuade them not to cross. In 2011 some activists held members' meetings with discussion and voting - not just set-piece rallies.' We should organise such meetings this time, as well.

Say no to Mp’s having a pay rise for workers representatives on a workers wage!

It has emerged that MP’s are to vote themselves an increase in their pay of an average of 11% on what they already earn. This is a recommendation from IPSA the body who now oversee’s MP’s pay and expenses since the expenses scandal. Of course Mp’s will have to approve this but there is no doubt many MP’s feel themselves hard done by and wish to be paid more. Some MP’s claim they could earn more elsewhere as chief executives of companies or even as head teachers in schools. This is all nonsense of course MP’s are already in the top bracket of pay in this country and any increase will shatter the myth that we are all in this together with public sector workers for example being in the middle of a long term pay freeze which in affect is a big pay cut if you take into consideration inflation.. MPs' pay should be increased to £74,000 a year from 2015, the Commons expenses watchdog has said. MPs currently earn £66,396. But the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) also recommends cuts to perks such as meal allowances and taxis and a less generous pension scheme. The BBC has learnt that an independent review into MPs' salaries is to recommend a pay rise of more than 11%, compared with what they are paid now, to be implemented after the next general election. But the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) will unveil proposals which will also include cuts to MPs' pensions and expenses. The package they will propose will include: • An increase in MPs' salary to around £74,000 - a rise of over £7,500 a year from the current salary of £66,396 a year. • A less generous pension scheme • Cuts to MPs' evening meal allowance - an extra payment if they work late - and restrictions to claims for taxi fares • Lower "resettlement grants" paid to MPs who lose their seats I really don’t think ordinary working people will swallow this and will further anger them with the cuts they are facing too it will not go down well with many people. What we need are Workers representatives on a workers wage. Militant MP’s who were elected in the 1980’s Terry Fields, Dave Nellist and Pat Wall all only took the average wage of a skilled worker of the area they represented. They took no expenses and only used the money they got to do their job nothing more. Any excess was handed back and independently checked to the labour movement and the party they represented. Having MP’s who don’t go into politics to further their own financial interests is key. This is TUSC’s pledge that if any of our candidates are elected none of them would benefit by entering into parliament. They are there to give a voice to working people and the voiceless it should not be a ticket to a free lunch.

Britain needs a pay rise!

British workers have faced incredible suffering for some time now. One of the main issues behind the current struggles of working people in Britain is the fact we have a low wage economy with British workers pay often not covering their weekly out goings and more often than not leaving them down on the week. Quite often workers are having to take tax credits to top up their pay and therefore costing the welfare state pounds in benefits. If a living wage was properly paid to all workers there could be put money in workers pockets to go and spend in the wider economy. Just a thought ay? The real value of wages in the UK has fallen by 7% since 2008, more than £50billion a year. This means people have less money to spend, holding back growth and a potential economic recovery. PCS members are striking on budget day after five years of a pay freeze and the current 1% pay rise. There has been a real terms cut in the total value of Britain’s wages by £50 billion since 2007 and there needs to be immediate stimulus and improvement In terms and conditions for workers to put this money back in and restart the economy. Without drastic action there is now a very real prospect of a triple-dip-recession with many forecasters predicting a prolonged negative Outlook for our economy. Since the start of the economic downturn in 2007 the real value of wages has fallen by about 7%. This in part is because of the Depression of wages in the public sector. It has been proven time and again that putting money into people’s pockets is the most effective way to stimulate Local economies around the country and putting the lost £50bn back into the economy are the best way to foster growth. I support the PCS members throughout the country, who are engaging in a programme of industrial action starting on Budget Day to demand that the Tories take action On low pay and our faltering economy. I support them in their struggle as do the MPs who have signed EDM 1081. This post may sound quite reformist and you may ask why am I not demanding the end of the wage system and a end to capitalism well we are not at that point yet and even revolutionary socialists will fight for every possible reform capitalism can give working people and will fight tooth and nail for this. We must also point out the limited nature of reforms and concessions in that they are only temporary under this system of capitalism and ultimately we do need to change society on to democratic socialist lines. An immediate pay increase will help many workers in the short term though and it shouldn’t be something we oppose if it’s fought for and struggled for. Besides every gain breeds confidence into workers that they can struggle and gain victories. There is no reason why other unions other than the PCS could co ordinate strike action around the question of pay and the ongoing pay freeze into wider industrial action. The money is out there while we sit here over 750 billion sits idle in the vaults of big business and banks. A 50% levee on that would instantly free up cash for a wage increase and other public services we so desperately need in this country.

Smashing the myth of strivers and skivers

Divide and rule is an age old tactic of the ruling class has been used for decades if not centuries it’s simple yet effective. Well recently or longer depending on your point of view the British government has been embarking on the demonising of the poor in a attempt to force through benefit cuts, pay freezes job cuts and so on. Their latest divide and rule tactic has to pit so called strivers and skivers the deserving poor against the undeserving poor, the unemployed against the employed, public sector vs. private sector the disabled against the non disabled. I could go on and on all ways of dividing the working class. Lets be clear society as it stands consists of two great social class’s directly opposed to each other the bourgeois i.e. the so called 1% at the top the ruling class who use their state the police and the army a body of armed people as Engel’s once described it and the working and middle class below these called99%. New Labour and the Tories have been great at muddying the lines of class phrases like we’re all middle class now and if you work hard you can get on and throwing money at the poor and the use of the credit system to inflate a boom period all served to drag everyone up. This was not sustainable of course under capitalism and we are now seeing the results of this. Since the financial crash of 2008 all governments around the world Bara few have embarked on a austerity drive in their words to cut the deficit never mind most deficits have continued to rise ever since. In the UK the con-dem government who came to power in 2010 have set about making some huge huge cuts which will change the face of the country for good. We have coined the phrase a scorched earth policy as I think personally the tories do not think they will get back in in 2015 and as so are going for broke in order to turn as much of the public sector over to the private profiteers. Also their main drive in cutting the deficit has been to cut welfare and the idea that you should not earn more on benefits than you can in work. Which is a complete lie have any of these Tory rich boys ever been on benefits or out of work? Currently JSA is at a pitiful rate of 75 quid a week roughly and even less if your younger with other cuts to housing benefits to the under 25’s cuts elsewhere and the rising living costs this is not the life of luxury the government and previous governments have made out. On 8 January Parliament voted to limit increases in benefits to 1% rather than by the rate of inflation as they had previously been. Cutting the link between prices and benefit rises is effectively a huge cut to future benefits because people will be able to afford less with the money. Iain Duncan Smith, minister for work and pensions who is driving the attacks, said it would be 'absurd' to raise benefits by inflation (currently officially 2.2%). He said it was unfair because benefits are paid by the taxes of those who are working who are not seeing their wages increase by inflation. But contrary to the government's talk of 'shirkers' the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has shown that this change will affect the benefits of far more working people than unemployed (7 million compared to 2.5 million). This was just a day after the changes to child benefits came into force. Households where one person earns over £50,000 will see their benefit cut and over £60,000 will see it stopped altogether. The IFS has worked out that these families will lose an average of £1,300 a year. The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has published research which shows government and media attacks on 'scroungers' are based on lies. On average members of the public think 41% of the welfare budget goes to the unemployed. This 'fact' is used to justify attacking the unemployed as scroungers. In fact the figure is 3%. And, with huge job cuts, any of the "hard-working taxpayers" of today could be denounced as the "work-shy scroungers" of tomorrow. Alongside the massive tax dodging of firms like Vodafone and Starbucks, the amount of benefit fraud is even more miniscule. The public has been led to believe it is 27% of the welfare budget. The figure is actually less than 1%. Compared to the legal and illegal expenses claims of MPs most benefit fraud is tiny. All this has not stopped the Tories of Westminster City Council from floating the idea of cutting benefit for people they deem too fat. And next week people they deem too thin or too tall no doubt. People in work are being asked to approve attacks on the unemployed because they 'get too much money'. However, one of the questions in the TUC survey was about the benefits entitlement of an unemployed couple with two children aged six and ten. The imagined figure was £147 a week, when £111 is the real figure they would be entitled to. But the amount that those surveyed thought the couple would actually need to live on be £202 a week (excluding housing costs). The old adage would seem to be true. Figures can't lie but liars can figure. The Daily Express contained headlines "a new ice age", "a cure for cancer" and "the economy is booming" in the same month. Why on earth believe it when they tell you 80% of benefit claimants are frauds? To give a example of real laziness Youth Fight For Jobs a organisation set up in 2009 to fight their system a system which was not providing young people with enough jobs and opportunities were set to debate with Tory minister Matthew Hancock on Thursday morning on the ITV breakfast programme Daybreak about the governments new traineeship programme. Guess what Matthew could not even get himself out of his bed to defend his own flawed policy. What a shirker you may think. Youth Fight for Jobs supporter, Ian Pattison, said, “Can you imagine my surprise when I discovered a minister whose government berates so-called ‘shirkers’, couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed to defend his own policy. Unfortunately, the Tory Business Minister, Matthew Hancock, overslept and missed our debate. If the Minister was a jobseeker, he could lose his benefits for up to 3 months for such an offence. Luckily, the Tory MP doesn’t have to worry about things like that, as I’m sure he’s more than happy with his meagre £97,000 salary, on top the £43,230 he claimed last year in expenses – a new personal record.” “Hancock’s Traineeship scheme is the latest gimmick coming out of the Tories’ to disguise the fact they have failed to tackle the staggering problems of unemployment effecting young people. Hancock and his government are trying to shift the blame for youth unemployment away from them and their failed system and onto the unemployed.” “Young people are not lazy. In fact, it is the Tories’ cuts agenda that is worsening the economic crisis, slashing jobs in the public and private sector. Jessops is the latest high-street chain to go bust; 2000 workers could lose their jobs. Research has revealed that it is harder to get an apprenticeship than get into Oxbridge. Hancock claims his Traineeships are a stepping stone to apprenticeships, but the whole point of an apprenticeship is secure people with the training they need for a job. Hancock’s scheme doesn’t create any new jobs, or even promise any apprenticeships. Hancock isn’t genuine about developing young people’s skills, he voted to increase university tuition fees to £9,000 a year, which alongside the scrapping of EMA, has priced a huge number of young people out gaining the skills they could use to secure a job.” So lets smash this myth of striversand shirkers, we are the working class the 99% and we are all under attack from this system of capitalism . Its time we threw off our chains and united. Lets not fall for anymore divide and rule lets united and bring down this system of the rich once and for all.

Say no to public sector regional pay agreement, fight for fair rate for the job

This coming week in the budget the chancellor is expected to scrap the national pay rate agreement for public sector pay allowing certain parts of the country to start paying less or more depending on their area.

Chancellor George Osborne is expected to say civil servants, such as Jobcentre and DVLA staff, should have pay brought into line with private sector salaries in their regions.
The Public and Commercial Services union says it would cut regional wages.
The Treasury says public sector pay in some parts of England and Wales is up to 18% higher than the private sector.
Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union - which represents civil servants - told the BBC the plans would be "cruel, economically incompetent and counterproductive" at a time when public sector salaries and pensions were being cut.

The chancellor wants to rebalance the economy and that means getting private sector companies growing. Scrapping national pay deals for public sector workers might level the playing field... or so the theory goes.
In places where public sector workers are paid more than those in the private sector, Treasury sources say private firms are "crowded out" because they cannot compete with the wage levels.
But that would mean setting pay levels locally which the trades unions warn would lead to huge disparities across the country and could drive down pay in the regions.
The move would mean local factors, such as the cost of living and private sector pay rates, would now be taken into account for public sector workers.
Treasury research suggests the pay gap ranges from 18% in Wales to 0.5% in the south-east of England.
The plans would initially affect 160,000 civil servants working in Jobcentres, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), and border guards at ports and airports.
But local pay rates affecting up to six million public sector workers could be rolled out from next year.


Which to me tells me where this is eventually heading, full privatisation of public services claiming that private sector jobs can’t compete is nonsense to me and is further playing public sector off against private sector workers. More and more classic divide and rule tactics from this rotten Tory government.

Why are people not asking well if private sector pay is not as good as public sector why don’t we bring that up to a similar level rather than levelling down public sector all the time?

It seems to me another vicious attack on public sector workers on top of the already hard attacks on pensions, pay freeze’s cuts to services working hours and others. It’s a cynical attempt by a government who has lost its way and is desperately trying anything to kick starting a failing economy. The fact that workers wages are being attacked full stop tells me much, while bankers get their bonus’s and the rich get tax cuts the poorest workers in society see pay cuts, pay freezes and cynical divide and rule tactics enforced on them.

Its time all unions in the public sector said enough is enough and starts preparing plans for a serious wave of industrial strike action that can lead to the downfall of this government.

Its clear capitalism is not working and needs to be brought to an end replaced with a democratic planned economy based on everybody's needs not the greed o fa few.

Fair pensions for all, no to any sell outs, reject and carry on the fight

This week is going to be crucial for defending pensions. Tommorrow the unison service group for local government meet to decide if to accept the governments shoddy deal or to reject and fight . Also on thursday the TUC meet again to decide what to do next. The NSSN and others will be lobbying both to urge no sell outs and to name the date for further industrial action.

I attended the PCS union left unity conference this saturday called in emergency to the threat of possible right wing trade union leaders selling their members out in turn for a easy life with the government. I have blogged about this countless times but this week is massive really. If unison and the TUC both decide to reject and carry on the fight we will have overcome a big blip which the government are looking to pounce upon. I think there will be fractions and splits which is just what the government want. At the conference last weekend the general secretary of the PCS Mark Serwotka brilliantly spoke and put the case for carrying on the fight and told us we have reached a pivotal point in the struggle.

This is a fight on pensions we simply must win and there were many speech's to that affect last weekend. Many activists were urging to PCS to go it alone already and name the next date for action regardless of what the TUC does this week. This would be a big mistake as running too far ahead of the movement and stepping out of line is just what this government is looking for. The tories are looking for the PCS to be isolated so they can pick them off just like what happened in 1921 with the police union who ran out in front and got smashed as a result. The key here is unity and that has got to be unity of the biggest broadest coalition of unions in this. Our collective power is greater when we stand together. for ultra left types to suggest PCS name the date now would be a mistake as we still dont know how the TUC and Unison leadership will vote this week. once we know that we can then assess where we are and where to go next.

We may find there are less unions willin to take further action but even getting a million out on strike again will be big. This time last year no one imagined a million out on strike and although coming down from 2 million on N30 is still a sizeable turnout. This will as shown on June 30th had a affect on those unions not taking action who were asking why are we not out on strike too ? this will serve as a further lever on the movement and hopefully force the issue further.

The leaders of the TUC and Unison do not want this battle and have little confidence in their members taking strike action and have looked to defuse the movement and action at any chance they have got. Playing down the significance of N30 is to their eternal shame. It was a fantastic day which we should never forget. But the fundemental idea that anything the government is offering has changed since november 29th is obsurd . Nothing the government has offered has changed. A few minor concessions of delaying the bringing in of the pensions reforms and a slight help to elder workers within 10 years of retiring but nothing that wasnt on the table already. We dont just want the crumbs we want the whole lot. When the deal on pensions was sorted in 2007 this shouldnt even be being looked at if it wasnt for the government wanting to use this as a way of paying down the deficit. The mask is off and they are not even pretending otherwise now. All extra payments into pension contributions will go straight to the treasury to pay off the deficit.

This is not on and public sector workers did not cause this crisis it was the wreckless gambling bankers who got us into this mess. Their over sight that their capitalist casino could run and run was wrong when they failed and lost big time our stepped in and bailed them out at our expense.governments Now they are making us pay for this crisis and shortfall in government money in the harshest possible way. Attacking those at the bottom who will be hurt the most. Lowest paid workers and the young, disabled, women and those who have least chance of resisting. Its a crual tactic but one which if the TUC and Unison leadership get their way will be a realisation for millions.

The same fact that workers will be made to pay more, work longer and get less those 3 main sticking points have not changed if this deal goes through. Public sector workers should reject and fight this rotten government and its shoddy deal.

PCS left unity have proposed to set up a temporay which may become more permenant as the struggle goes on to combine the best forces of left groups within the various different unions to meet regularly and lend support to different unions and their rank-and-file members as and when they need it. Be that printing leaflets, assisting in a ballot or generally lobbying for more action. As with the private sector pension disputes which are increasing too now with Shell UK and Unilever announcing big cuts and ending their pension schemes their fight is our fight, Our fight is their fight and so on. Let this week be a turning point where as a movement we get back on the front foot and if we have to go over the top of Prentice and Barbour at the TUC then so be it. But tactics and what we do next will be affected hugely by this week's decisions.

Lets not give up without a fight. If it was right to strike on N30 it is right to keep fighting now Lets not let the trade union bureaucracy off the hook lets fight within the unions for the leadership we deserve. If they wont fight for us then they should move out of the way for people who do want to fight and will see disputes through to the end.

This is as Rob Williams the chair of the NSSN said is the fight of our lives. If we loose on pensions this will give a huge boost to this government who is looking to see if they can get away with robbing our pensions and if it can just watch them attack other areas and increased privatisation with breathtaking speed. Lets keep fighting now as if we dont fight at all we have no chance of winning if we at least try we have a chance.

Solidarity

The role the NSSN has played in the struggles so far

The left was seen by many to have taken its time to organise a proper fightback to the cuts and austerity but we can be in no doubt now that the trade unions and the left is here and fighting back. We in the National shops stewards network can feel very proud of the role we have played so far in the struggles against the cuts and privatisation.

The increasingly important role the NSSN is playing in the anti-cuts movement means that the democratic 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.

So as we move towards the autumn with the high possibility of big mass strikes to come in the public sector we feel that the NSSN has and still is playing a key role in the fight against the cuts. I do feel at present though we do have to keep trying to reach out to other parts of the working class such as the reserve army of workers AKA the unemployed, the disabled, the elderly and women too of course.

On 30 November, two to three million public sector workers will be on strike to defend their pensions. More workers will be out than on the first day of the 1926 general strike.

The NSSN is proud of the role that it's played in paving the way. On 11 September we lobbied the TUC Congress and held a rally under the slogan of a 24-hour public sector general strike. Over 700 shop stewards and trade unionists listened to leading union speakers such as Mark Serwotka of the PCS and Bob Crow of the RMT.

This government of millionaires can be defeated by coordinated strike action. Millions of workers striking together can stop the Con-Dems in their tracks. And if one day is not enough to force a u-turn, we must prepare for a two-day strike as the next stage of the escalating action.

In all the workplace meetings, shop stewards' committees and union branch committees, the message has to be hammered home that workers shouldn't pay the price for the bankers' crisis.

Workers have shown their determination to fight at every opportunity they've been given this year. Over 500,000 marched against the cuts in London on 26 March and over 750,000 civil servants, teachers and lecturers went on strike against the pension attacks on 30 June.

But the first job for 30 November is to win the strike ballots with an overwhelming vote. Meetings have to be organised in every workplace. Where there is more than one union, these could be joint meetings. Members of the PCS, NUT, UCU and ATL unions who were out on 30 June and have live strike mandates should be invited to speak. This can give confidence to the many workers who haven't been on strike before.

These can be supplemented by public meetings and rallies in towns and cities and on estates to draw in other working class people - young people and all those who suffer from and oppose the cuts, including private sector workers who also face job losses and pay and pension cuts.

The NSSN encourages all private sector workers involved in current disputes to consider coordinating their industrial action with the strike on 30 November. As Mark Serwotka said at the NSSN rally on 11 September: "Low-paid workers in the private sector are exploited by shareholders and executives, not by fellow low-paid workers in the public sector."

A victory for public sector workers on pensions, by forcing a retreat or even the downfall of this government, would raise the confidence to fight back.

What you can do:
If your union is balloting, you could organise a workplace meeting, if applicable jointly with other unions. This should form the basis for democratic control of the strike
You could organise a public meeting in your town or city with the unions in dispute or trades council, anti-cuts campaign or NSSN. Explain the need to prepare for further action if necessary
Plan a demonstration in your town or city on the day of the strike
All united - invite private sector workers, young people, unemployed, pensioners, etc to any public meetings, rallies and demonstrations

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In this issue


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Building for 30 November strike

Mass strikes can


Many call for unity at these times but certainly on the industrial front against cuts this is key and teh NSSN i feel is leading the way showing a lead in the struggles against the boss's. With big unions and trade union leaders now backing the network such as Bob Crow and Mark Serwotka two of the more militant trade unin leaders out there are highlighting the role the NSSN has played in putting pressure on the TUC to call for a 24 hour public sector general strike. We feel that we added to the feeling and the pressure by lobbying the TUC on the 11th of september and will happily do so again next year if need be. We will not rest and sit by while our fellow workers in the public and private sector are under attack. We need a organisation like the NSSN to bring together all of the struggles unite under one banner and give support quickly and effectively when needed to workers.

The NSSN is key in the struggle as it gives rank-and-file trade unionists a voice and a network to organise in. To learn off each other and unite our struggles.

I think we can feel proud of our role and i hope the NSSN continues to grow and remain strong, democratic and a fighting organisation for militant trade unionists.

Youth must join pensions struggle

Strike together as in France 2010
Article first published in issue no.685 of the socialist by
Jack Poole, Brighton University Socialist Students


The government and their friends in the media will always try, as they did in June, to spread division between workers and service users during strike action. It is important to cut across these lies with solidarity action and unity between young people and workers on strike.

Three quarters of a million teachers and civil servants took coordinated strike action in June against the government's decimation of public sector pension schemes.

This unity between students, young people and workers was shown last year in France, in the struggle against the pension reforms. With the Con-Dem coalition likely to face more strike action over pensions this autumn, it is important to analyse and draw lessons from struggles such as this.

Last October, President Sarkozy's plans to raise the retirement age saw a furious and enormous reaction from the French working class, with massive strikes and demonstrations - at the height of the movement, 3.5 million people demonstrated across the country.

A crucial turning point for the dispute was when young people and students began to take part in the struggle in a large and organised way. Ignoring the lies of Sarkozy's supporters and the right wing media who tried to re-assure young people that pension reform did not concern them, student strikes in solidarity with the workers helped shut hundreds of schools.

The idea that raising the retirement age does not affect young people is a downright lie used to divide the movement. For example, with one million young people unemployed in Britain, it is madness for the government to be forcing older workers to work for longer while these young people waste their talents on the dole queue.

Sarkozy revealed a lot when he was quoted as saying about the strikes, "school and college students...must be watched closely like milk on a stove."

Politicians like Sarkozy and Cameron are right to be frightened of a mass movement of youth and workers opposing their austerity measures! Such a movement would stand a real chance of stopping them and their cuts in their tracks.

Young people and students on their own do not carry the social weight to defeat governments, even weak ones such as the coalition in Britain. However, as last year's student movement in Britain showed, the energy and anger of a movement of young people can give confidence and inspire others in society to fight back. Three months after the last major student demonstration, half a million trade unionists marched through the streets of London.

Combined with the organised working class, which holds the power to make society grind to a halt, this kind of action would stand firmly in the way of the brutal austerity cuts of governments across Europe and beyond.

If more workers take coordinated strike action to defend their pensions, young people and students need to unite with them. We should take our solidarity to the picket lines but also organise walkouts at our schools, colleges and universities and join the protests and demonstrations taking place. Any blow against this government is a step towards a decent future for young people.


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November 30th is the date, lets build on June 30th

Today as the end of the TUC congress draws to a close we see the news that a potential 14 unions are set to take industrial action this winter in one of the biggest walk outs since the 20's some have said. This is very welcome news after the NSSN called on the TUC to push for a 24 hour public sector general strike. I think the NSSN and its supporters of militant trade unionists can feel especially proud that this seems to have found a impact and bigger unions with more members potentially millions will be balloting members on industrial action over public sector pensions reforms.

Four unions - Unison, Unite, the GMB and the Fire Brigades' Union - are already balloting over co-ordinated industrial action.

Mr Barber said 10 other unions were also looking to hold a vote on strikes.

He promised 30 November would bring "the biggest trade union mobilisation for a generation".

'Fight of our lives'

Unions and the government have been in talks over pension contribution rises since the beginning of the year, with ministers saying the change - scheduled for next April - is needed to make schemes sustainable in the face of an ageing population.

On Wednesday, the TUC voted unanimously in favour of action against the move as its annual conference

Mr Barber told the BBC it could be the first of several such days, saying: "If there's no progress, then potentially we will see very widespread industrial action across the public services."

He added: "We are absolutely committed to justice for the millions of workers we represent."

Events will "range from strike action, where ballot mandates have been secured from members and unions judge that appropriate, through to lunchtime meetings, rallies and joint events with community groups and service users", Mr Barber said.

Union leaders will hold another meeting at the end of September to co-ordinate their actions.

Proposing a motion backing mass strikes to the TUC conference, Unison leader Dave Prentis revealed he was giving 9,000 employers formal notice that his union's 1.1 million members would be balloted.

He added: "It's the fight of our lives. I know it's an over-used cliché, but make no mistake, this is it."

The GMB's Brian Strutton said: "We're not talking about a day out and a bit of a protest. We're talking about something that's long and hard and dirty as well, because this is going to require days of action running through the winter, through into next year, following the government's legislative programme rig


As a socialist and a trade unionist this is very welcome news from some of the more moderate trade union leaders like Dave Prentice and co. But we welcome this move and hope this leads to further action with many yes votes being won in ballots across teh country.
The biggest signal workers can send to this government is that many support the action and this is not just about public vs private as private sector workers are under attack too. Union leaders must be willing to branch out to private sector workers to co-ordinate any disputes they have around this date too i would say. To build bridges between public and private sector workers will create a mass wall of solidarity in working Britain.

June 30th where we saw 750 thousand public sector workers ouout of work on strike was great and much welcome but this next period of action looks to be much much bigger. We could see all firefighters not working that day, No schools in the state sector open, passport offices closed ports and imigration posts closed. Mass walk outs will have a huge impact and this government has not got a clue what it is up against. the trade union movement.

When the trade unions which are sleeping gaints wake up and move they have such power the government can be brought to its knees.

And that comrades is waht is needed to push this government back on its austerity programme. Although these strikes will be about public sector pensions and reforms to them it is in no doubt these strikes will be based around a broader message opposing all cuts to workers and the working class. We will not pay for this crisis that is not of any of our making. The capitalists want to make the working class pay for the mistakes of their wreckless risk taking system which has failed them. The system which cannot provide us all with secure jobs, decent pay and affordable decent homes is not a system we wish to see continue.

I will be supporting all striking workers on 30th November and i hope you all will too. As Dave prentice said and we're glad he has joined this fight that this is the fight of our lives. We must win we cannot afford to loose this one.

United we stand divided we fall. Stand up for working people stand side by side we can defeat this weak government and push back these cuts that are being thrown down on us from a great height.

What future does the NHS have ?

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

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

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

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

A number of changes were subsequently made to the legislation.



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are we really living longer ?

One of the governments arguements for the upcoming pension reforms and their reasoning behind making us work longer, for less is apparently due to us all now living longer.

So at our branch meeting one of our comrades raised the point has anyone actually proved this. It is very subjective as i will outline below and you cant just throw around such a statement.

Whilst it may be true some of us may be living longer, It is hard to prove this.

The three big reasons that people in the UK are living increasingly longer lives are:

1.Food supply and nutrition
2.Health
3.Hygiene
These three things have all seen marked improvements in standards since the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, another important factor is our knowledge of their importance to our health and life expectancy, and of the steps we can take to ensure that we lead a healthy lifestyle. Our access to relevant information has also improved dramatically as a result of scientific research and methods of information dissemination (e.g. the Internet).

For example:
The packaging of food products at increasing numbers of shops and supermarkets displays the nutritional content of food and uses colour coding so that we know whether it is good for us. The importance of eating a balanced diet is widely known.

Government and charity websites provide information about the lifestyle choices we can make in order to reduce our risk of developing diseases. The effect that smoking cigarettes can have on our health is widely advertised, and warnings included on packaging. In the UK, a smoking ban in public places has been introduced and the age at which young people can buy cigarettes has been raised to 18 years.
Adverts on buses and tubes inform us of the importance of washing our hands and covering our mouths when we cough or sneeze in order to reduce the spread of illnesses and diseases. Health and safety legislation provides strict regulations for hygiene in restaurants, hospitals and factories.

But following a healthy lifestyle is still a choice that we make, and not everyone chooses or is able to do so.

Key concepts:
Place
Human Processes
Cultural Understanding and Diversity




This is key to my point really that as we live in a class based system under capitalism not everyone has the luxury of eating the healthy food all the time or can afford the best in housing and living conditions.

As i previously blogged about before about the documentary poor kids on the BBC a few weeks ago it can dramatically affect how long you are likely to live depending on where you live in the country and the make up of the area you live in.

So for example there will be a stark contrast between someone living in Knightsbridge in London from someone living in Glasgow in a working class area.

It is important to stress these points when the government is trying hard to push through these pension reforms which will leave many working longer, getting less and a worse off pension as a result.

So i'm opening this up now can the government or anyone else find quantitive evidence that proves we are all living longer than ever before so we need to work longer.

Another point is if we are having to work longer to claim our pension it is our pension they are not wanting us to have because realistically although there may be exceptions like the 73 year old man who still works as a builder or the old example of someone who smokes 30 fags a day and drinks lots and lives till they are 99. You will always find exceptions to any rule but generalising and saying we all live longer now where some do not and some families never live that old due to various reasons is it not safe to say this arguement the government are trotting out is a bit misleading.

So therefore i will be supporting thursdays June 30th strikes as i believe a public sector workers pension is just as important to us and the long term future of this country. It has been proven these pensions are very affordable and backed up by the daily telegraph not known for lending support to the public sector.

But if we can afford more money to be spent on illegal wars and occupations and new nuclear deterents we can surely afford for our hard working public sector workers including teachers and civil servents who keep this country going in many ways.