HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

The Last Gig of the ‘red’ Punk Rocker

by Andrija Filipović

Thomas “Mensi” Mensforth, the singer and frontman of the famous British punk rock band Angelic Upstarts, died after a losing battle with Covid on Friday 10th December at the age of 65.
    Back in 1977, Mensi, a former miner from South Shields, with his friends Ray Cowie (Mond) on guitar, Steve Forsten on bass guitar and Derek "Decca" Wade on drums, founded the Angelic Upstarts. They released 12 studio albums from 1979–2015 and their frontman was the only original member of the band left standing.
    Inspired by the music of punk legends, The Clash, Mensi, a committed communist, has been positioning Angelic Upstarts as a leftist and anti-fascist band from the very beginning.
    Angelic Upstarts, in the musical sense, became one of the first bands of the Oi! sub-genre of punk rock, which is characterised by social themes, criticism of class oppression and the struggle for the existential interests of the working class.
    After the influence of neo-Nazi and racist elements in the skinhead movement in Britain, which sees Oi! music as its own, most bands of the first wave of that sub-genre stopped working or started playing other types of music. On the other hand, Angelic Upstarts, led by Mensi, refused to leave the scene to neo-Nazi skinheads, initially from the White Noize Club of the National Front and later Blood & Honour. In that period, they stood out with their uncompromising leftist and anti-fascist orientation.
    Mensi was one of the founding members of Anti-Fascist Action in 1985. an organisation that opposed the propaganda of the British far-right both on the street and through its music wing Cable Street Beat on the Oi! scene.
    Prior to the founding of AFA, Mensi, in co-operation with the left-wing Red Action group, organised a series of concerts called Oi! Against Racism. Under the influence of Mensi, a large number of leftist and anti-fascist Oi! bands were formed in Britain and around the world, and Angelic Upstarts became their inspiration and role-model.
    Due to their uncompromising anti-fascist orientation, Angelic Upstarts concerts were a frequent target of attacks by neo-Nazi skinheads from the ranks of Blood & Honour, but Mensi and his comrades never wavered.
    They were never afraid of the fascists. On the contrary, they defended their gigs and their audience from these attacks and continued their leftist and anti-fascist engagement with even greater devotion.
    The band's songs, composed by Mensi, such as 2,000,000 Voices (against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's anti-union policies), Last Night Another Soldier (against British imperialist military interventions), Kids On the Streets (about unity of the working-class youth), I Don't Wanna Fight The Soviet (against anti-Soviet propaganda during the Cold War and Anti-Nazi (against neo-Nazi propaganda on the Oi scene) are just some of the songs that clearly point to the progressive engagement of the Angelic Upstarts.
    The song Solidarity became the punk workers' anthem, although Mensi later said that he was wrong to dedicate it in 1983 to the Polish Solidarność trade union, which proved to be on the side of the anti-communist reactionaries and against the interests of the proletariat. After he saw that, he sang that song as a tribute to the struggle of the world proletariat and not the Polish "Solidarity" movement.
    After it was released in 2002, the promotion of the Angelic Upstarts album Sons of Spartacus was promoted by the New Worker. Mensi considered the New Communist Party (NCP) "a genuine Marxist-Leninist party in Britain”.

Rest in Peace Comrade Mensi!

Remembering a great Korean leader

 by New Worker correspondent

Andy Brooks paid tribute to Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who died at his post in December 2011. Speaking at a meeting in central London last weekend called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), the NCP leader spoke about Kim Jong Il’s life-long service to the communist movement and the Korean people – from his early days in guiding art and culture, especially the cinema, to steering The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea through a difficult period that followed the passing of great leader Kim Il Sung in 1994.
    Kim Jong Il led the Workers’ Party of Korea that mobilised the masses in the socialist north of the Korean peninsula to overcome natural disasters and imperialist blockade, and counter American threats by developing an independent nuclear deterrent.
    KFA Chair Dermot Hudson stressed the importance of commemorating the life of Kim Jong Il who led the Korean people to defend and advance socialism, together with other speakers including Michael Chant, the leader of the RCPB (ML), and Shaun Pickford from the Staffordshire KFA.
    A DPRK documentary was shown at the Marchmont Centre in Bloomsbury, a regular venue for Korean solidarity activists before the lockdown, called Turning Sorrow into Strength. Of that there can be no doubt, with the Korean people following the footsteps of the revolutionary leaders of the past to build the future with Kim Jong Un at the helm.

A tragedy for Labour

Not a day goes by, it seems, without someone’s expulsion from the Labour Party. Most people have lost track of the Corbynistas who’ve been suspended these days. It began with trumped-up charges of “anti-Semitism”. Now it been extended to “auto-exclude” anyone associated with Socialist Appeal, the Labour in Exile Network, Labour Against the Witchhunt and Resist. And it’s being applied retrospectively to condemn Labour members for taking part in events with members of banned groups in the past, even though they weren’t banned at the time.
    Taken to its logical conclusion, the Blairites should now move to expel any dead members they don’t like on the same grounds. Tony Benn would top the list. Sir Keir Starmer QC, the great “forensic” silk, could easily find some sort of legal precedent for posthumous expulsion. He could point to the precedent set by Charles II, who had the remains of Oliver Cromwell and the other dead “regicides” dug up and ceremonially hanged in public when the monarchy was restored in 1660.
    But Starmer beware. The Pharaohs and Caesars did this sort of thing big time to those they deemed traitors or blasphemers and look what happened to them…

British forces out of Ukraine and the Black Sea!

by New Worker correspondent

Anti-fascist campaigners were back in Whitehall last weekend, defying sub-zero temperatures to stand by the Donbas people’s republics and protest against the British government’s support for the puppet regime in Ukraine. British military advisers are training Ukrainian army units and Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has recently given the go-ahead to an arms deal to boost Ukraine's naval capabilities in the Black Sea.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other anti-fascist activists on Saturday demanding Britain pull its military and naval forces out of Ukraine and the Black Sea after evidence emerged that Canadian, and possibly also British, forces are training members of Ukrainian Nazi battalions.
    London comrades joined the picketers, which included members of Socialist Fight and the Consistent Democrats and British Posadists, opposite the Prime Minister’s home in Downing Street. Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine (SARU), International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity and other labour movement organisations also took part in the protest.
    Members of the Centuria battalion, who use Nazi salutes and praise Nazi German SS units, brag about “co-operation with foreign colleagues”. Ukraine’s fascist militias played an important part in the coup that overthrew the legitimate government in 2014 and were incorporated into Ukraine's National Guard the following year, and the fact that Centuria gunmen are now serving as Ukrainian army officers suggests they are being increasingly integrated into the regular armed forces.
    Amidst Western mass media hysteria about a planned "Russian invasion", with senior US and British officials claiming Vladimir Putin is preparing to invade Ukraine, the Kiev regime has deployed weapons banned under the Minsk-2 agreement including attack drones, tanks, heavy artillery and rocket systems, against the anti-fascist Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics that drove the fascists out of the Donbas in 2014.
    The Russians have dismissed talk of a Russian invasion as “baseless” and "absurd". But sending NATO military advisers to Ukraine could potentially lead to an escalation of tension across the “line of contact” or ceasefire line between the Donbas republics and Ukraine.
    Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said: "We are deeply concerned about the provocative actions of the Ukrainian armed forces on the line of contact and preparations for a possible military solution, an attempt to resolve the Donbas problem by force," adding that nothing provocative has been done by the Donbas republics in the region.
    Meanwhile Alexei Reznikov, who says the Donbas rebels are "a cancerous tumour on Ukraine's body which needs to be surgically removed”, has been appointed as Ukraine's Defence Minister. His top adviser is the notorious Dmitry Yarosh, the former leader of the neo-Nazi ‘Right Sector’ militia that led the armed coup in Ukraine in February 2014 and is modelled on the Ukrainian collaborators who served the Nazis during the German occupation during the Second World War.
    The truth is that Ukraine has become the world epicentre of fascism and white supremacy, with networks across Europe and North America. The western mass media – and sadly many on the international left – turn their blind eye to this glaring reality. Shame on them!

• Report in the Donbas communist media

Socialism, the Choice of the Chinese People

Ambassador Zheng Zeguang opens the seminar

On 23rd November, the Chinese Embassy in London held an online symposium on the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Communist Party of China Central Committee, where Ambassador Zheng Zeguang delivered a keynote speech. Andy Brooks, General Secretary of the New Communist Party of Britain, Robert Griffiths, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, Ella Rule, Chair of the CPGB (ML), Martin Jacques, a renowned expert on China, and Stephen Perry, Chair of the 48 Group Club, spoke at the event.

    Also present were Professor Martin Albrow, a fellow at the Academy of Social Sciences in London; Sir Martin Davidson, Chair of the Great Britain-China Centre; and representatives of various other political parties, experts, scholars and representatives from the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party. This is Andy Brooks’ contribution to the discussion.

First of all, I would like to thank the organisers for allowing me to say a few words at this seminar focusing on the major achievements and historical experience of the Communist Party of China (CPC) over the last 100 years of its existence.
    For a communist party to have survived for 100 years is, in itself, something to celebrate. To have led the Chinese people to victory is another. To raise the millions upon millions of the Chinese people out of poverty to build the modern socialist society that we see today is a third. And this is only the beginning of the march of progress in the 21st century.
    Feudal China was once the workshop of the world. When the people’s government was established in 1949 China had the lowest standard of living in the world. Today China can now not only feed, clothe and educate its people, but also provide consumer goods and living standards for working people unimaginable before liberation. China has a modern expanding economy that has withstood the current global capitalist crisis to once again become the workshop of the world and is sharing its prosperity through the Belt and Road Initiative that spans the globe.
    One-hundred years have passed since the foundation of the CPC on 23rd July 1921. China has risen from being a weak semi-feudal, semi-colonial country to become a force for peace in the global arena with the second largest economy in the world.
    In the past China’s wealth was the preserve of a ruthless, feudal ruling class. These days China’s wealth is being used to finally eradicate the last vestiges of poverty, raise the standard of living of everyone in the people’s republic, and help the development of the Third World through genuine fair trade and economic assistance.
    This is the glorious achievement of the CPC which led the resistance that defeated the Japanese imperialists and the reactionary Chinese warlords and politicians in the pay of American imperialism, to establish the people’s government on 1st October 1949.
    Discussion is a luxury communists can afford and as we join our Chinese comrades in celebrating their hundred years of victory, we can ask ourselves many questions.
    The collapse of the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies in eastern Europe led to calls in some communist quarters for a new communist international – calls that are still made from time to time in some parts of the movement. But we cannot restore what has gone before us without first understanding why it failed in the first place. And that understanding cannot come from reading books or simply trying to transpose one experience to another.
    Chinese communists always stress that socialism with Chinese characteristics cannot be exported and that their revolution is not a model for others to copy slavishly. But we very rarely, at least in Western Europe, ask ourselves why?
    The answer in part is based on the struggle of the Chinese communists to overcome dogmatism and sectarianism to eventually build a people’s democracy in their own way, to serve the needs of the working people of China.
    Commenting on the rise of the bourgeoisie in France, Marx famously said that history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. Communists too can make mistakes, but unlike the bourgeoisie we consciously try to learn from past mistakes in order to avoid future ones.
    In Europe, the mistake was clearly to elevate slavishly what was believed to be the ‘Soviet model’, even though few Western communists even really understood what the Soviet Union actually was. The Soviet Union wasn’t a ‘people’s democracy’ in the sense we understand it now. It was a unique state based on Soviet power, and whilst its economic structures could be imitated – as they were after a fashion in eastern Europe – the Soviet political system could not.
    Following the Soviet victory in the Second World War, the revolutionary upsurge that followed led to the establishment of people’s democracies throughout Eastern Europe on the same basis as the people’s democratic dictatorship was established in China in 1949. The question was how long would this transition take?
    In the beginning, people’s democracy was seen as a lengthy process. Initially it was believed that the length of the road to socialism would depend upon the development of social and economic factors in each individual country. But Cold War tensions led to the rapid incorporation of most of the European people’s democracies into a Soviet economic and military bloc, which later proved incapable of withstanding the counter-revolutionary pressures of the 1980s. The Chinese communists clearly believe that the transitional period, at least as far as their immense country is concerned, will be a lengthy process. But it is a socialist process.
    Any hopes that imperialists held that China was ‘going down the capitalist road’ were dealt a severe blow at the 2019 Congress of the CPC, where Xi Jinping reminded delegates that: “Socialism with Chinese characteristics is socialism, not any other ‘ism’. Both history and our present reality tell us that only socialism can save China – and only socialism with Chinese characteristics can develop China. This is the conclusion of history, the choice of our people.”

Support the Weetabix strikers!

by New Worker correspondent

London trade unionists were out leafleting and collecting for the Weetabix strikers outside Sainsbury’s on Kilburn High Road last week.
    Some 80 engineers at the Weetabix plants in Kettering and Corby are taking industrial action against new ‘fire-and-rehire’ contracts, which would leave them up to £5,000 per year worse off.
    It began with two-day mid-week walk-outs in September following the break-down of talks in the summer between their union, Unite, and management. Now the strikers have stepped up their campaign, moving to a four-day stoppage each week.
    Weetabix is the largest cereal manufacturer in the UK, exporting to over 80 countries, and has production facilities in Europe, North America, and East Africa with a combined global workforce of 1,800 employees. It was taken over by an American company, Post Holdings Inc, in 2017.
    Weetabix Management claim the dispute has nothing to do with fire-and-rehire – but this was dismissed by Unite leader Sharon Graham this week. “These attacks are totally unjustified,” she said. “They are a serving of corporate greed. And what’s more, although Weetabix deny it, we have irrefutable evidence that they are using ‘fire-and-rehire’ strategies.”
    Last year Weetabix turnover grew by five per cent to £325 million and profits leapt by almost 20 per cent to £82 million.

Remember their sacrifice

Theo Russell laying flowers at the monument

by New Worker correspondent

Comrades and friends joined diplomats and local dignitaries in honouring the fallen at Sunday’s Remembrance Day at the Soviet War Memorial in the park that surrounds the Imperial War Museum – the first public ceremony at the monument since the beginning of the Covid   lockdowns last year.
    They were there to remember the 27 million Soviet citizens during the Second World War who, along with the millions of others who perished in the world wars of the last century, were honoured at the annual remembrance ceremony in the London borough of Southwark last weekend.
    NCP London organiser Theo Russell took part in the ceremony, along with Russian Minister-Counsellor Ivan Volodin and other diplomats from the former Soviet republics, representatives of other political parties including Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML), police and services associations, representatives from the Russian community in London and other community groups.
    The Act of Remembrance ended, as usual, with the Last Post, followed by the traditional exhortation, the two-minute silence and the Reveille.

Defending Cuba!

Outside the embassy

by New Worker correspondent

Cuba solidarity activists were on the streets of London last weekend to protest against the American blockade and confront provocations by Cuban émigrés and other agents of imperialism calling for increased sanctions and US action, including direct intervention.
    Rabid anti-communist US politicians and far-right Cuban-American émigré groups based in Florida had called for a global weekend of action against the socialist island. But in London they had little to show for it apart from a handful who turned up outside the Cuban embassy on Sunday only to find it surrounded by over a hundred supporters of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign.
    Meanwhile, the new US embassy in Nine Elms was picketed by the Consistent Democrats, a left split from Socialist Fight, The demonstration was in defence of the Cuban revolution and a show of solidarity with the Cuban people against the “Gusano” or “worms”, as they’re known in Cuba, mobilisation.

For peace on the Korean peninsula

the seminar in the Sid French Library

by New Worker correspondent

Korean solidarity campaigners met at the NCP’s Party Centre in London last weekend for a seminar to discuss the prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and the way forward for the solidarity campaign in Britain.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks, who chaired the Friends of Korea event, welcomed everyone to the meeting which was the first public event at the Centre since the lockdowns began in 2020. Most of them had visited Democratic Korea and all were supporters of the Friends of Korea committee that has been campaigning for the peaceful re-unification of the Korean peninsula for over 20 years.
    This was stressed by Michael Chant, the secretary of the Committee, who emphasised the importance of taking a stand in support of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s right to exist and choose its own path of development, striving for peace and for the reunification of the Korean peninsula, and, as he said, “supporting the just stands of the DPRK internationally at this crucial time in the face of hostility from the United States and other big powers, including Britain”.
    Though the imperialists have toned down their hate campaign their hostility still remains. “At the moment the imperialist mainstream media have tended to take the DPRK out of the news “ Dermot Hudson from the Korean Friendship Association said “although the hostile propaganda against the DPRK continues. Recently , the DPRK tested missiles which would have once led to hysterical headlines in the imperialist media for days on end. But this time it did not do so . This is because the imperialists have experienced a policy failure on the Korean peninsula ; military pressure and threats have not worked, sanctions have not worked and engagement such as Trump’s ‘big deal ‘ have not worked. The imperialist media does not like to talk about failure only success”.
    Others shared their own views on the Korean issue including Keith Bennett, a veteran Korean solidarity campaigner, who helped draw up the Friends of Korea founding statement many years ago and everyone agreed on the need to redouble our efforts in the coming year.
    The Co-ordinating Committee of the Friends of Korea is an umbrella organisation which brings together all the major movements active in Korean friendship and solidarity work in Britain today. It includes the NCP and the RCPB (ML), the Socialist Labour Party and the Korean Friendship Association. The Committee is chaired by Andy Brooks and the secretary is Michael Chant. The committee organises meetings throughout the year, which are publicised by the supporting movements and on the Friends of Korea blog.

Which way for Labour?

by New Worker correspondent

Looking at Labour following Brighton conference that didn’t go entirely one-way for Starmer was the topic for a New Worker meeting in London last week. This was the first physical public meeting since the lockdown began in the capital – the last one was at the Cock Tavern in Euston in January 2020. Sadly that venue is no longer available, but London comrades felt themselves at home at the nearby Chadswell Centre that’s frequently used for Korean solidarity meetings.

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined the panel chaired by Theo Russell that looked at Labour back under the thumb of Blairites and Zionists determined to drive what’s left of the Corbynistas out of the party before the next election.

Other speakers, including Gerry Downing from Socialist Fight, Ian Donovan from the Consistent Democrats, Marie Lynam and Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML), shared their experience of the struggle between the left and right in the Labour Party, the recent Labour Party conference and the future outlook for Labour with comrades who have already given up on Labour or been expelled on trumped up charges of “anti-Semitism”, as well communists in the NCP and RCPB (ML) who were never in it in the first place.

“Debate is a luxury we can afford” is one of Andy Brooks’ catch-phrases and it’s certainly been the theme of New Worker London meetings for many a year. This meeting was no exception. Although the debate began with the usual arguments of the “stay and fight” and “build a new Labour party” brigades, it then went far beyond the day-to-day struggles within Labour to look at the grass-roots fightback in the unions and the role of communists in the 21st century.

A collection raised £110 to pay for the room and towards future planned events, which include a Ukraine solidarity picket in Whitehall and another London New Worker panel meeting in early January.

Action on homelessness in London

by New Worker correspondent

Kensington campaigners were out on the streets of West London last weekend protesting outside a monstrous luxury development where the vast majority of flats remain empty six years after its completion.
    Labour councillor and former MP for Kensington, Emma Dent Coad, joined the demo and spoke passionately against the obscenity of having empty homes when we have people living in appalling temporary accommodation.
    The picketers were taking part in a National Day of Action on 9th October organised by the Campaign Against Empty Homes, calling for community and government action on the growing number of empty homes in the country. The Day was also to raise public awareness of the rising number of long-term empty homes and homes without a permanent resident in England. Government and market data show there are around 270,000 long-term empty homes, 260,000 second-homes with no permanent resident, and 120,000 Airbnb-type short-lets.
    The Campaign is a coalition of organisations dedicated to ensuring wasted empty homes are brought into use and that new homes are built to meet local needs first. It is backed by the Big Issue magazine, Homes for All, Action on Empty Homes, and Unite’s London and South East regions.
    Over 100,000 families are living in temporary accommodation whilst over half a million homes have no permanent resident. Communities are being broken-up as council estates that could be refurbished are being left to decline, to be replaced by yet more unaffordable new blocks.
    The climate change crisis demands refurbishment, not demolition. Retrofitting 270,000 long-term empty homes and council estates can help solve the climate crisis.
    Instead, the wrong kind of housing continues to be built across the country – they are unaffordable to anyone on an average income to either rent or buy. These new builds are also being sold off-plan and ending up as Airbnb short-lets, second homes or buy to leave empty wealth investments, with no permanent residents.

Solidarity with Korea in London

 by New Worker correspondent

London comrades returned to the Chadswell Centre in Euston to celebrate the 76th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers Party of Korea (WPK) at a meeting called by the Korean Friendship Association last weekend. Chaired by Dermot Hudson, the meeting heard a variety of speakers, including NCP London Organiser Theo Russell, talk about the achievements of the Korean revolution over the years.
    Dermot Hudson pointed out that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is the only country in the world without a single death or indeed a single case of COVID‑19, and Theo Russell drew attention to the role played by the WPK in rallying the socialist and communist forces after the counter-revolutionary wave that swept away the Soviet Union and the people’s democracies of eastern Europe.
    The DPRK Embassy in London sent a paper to the meeting that stressed the leadership of the WPK general secretary Kim Jong Un and the role of the WPK in raising living standards, which was followed by a general discussion about the current situation and future solidarity work.

They did not pass!

 by New Worker correspondent

Comrades were out on Sunday to mark the day the fascists were stopped in their tracks in London. On 4th October 1936 hundreds of thousands of workers took to the streets to stop Sir Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts marching through the Jewish quarter in the East End of London. And last Sunday former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to those who put up barricades and battled with the police to stop Mosley’s thugs in what soon became known as the “Battle of Cable Street”.
    The Communist Party played a major part in the mobilisation along with the Independent Labour Party and the Jewish Ex-Servicemen's Association. On the eve of the Mosley march the Daily Worker warned that "the fascists are pouring out unimaginable filth against the Jews. The attack on the Jews has been the well-known device of every bloodthirsty, reactionary, unpopular regime for centuries". The issue was "not merely a question of elementary human rights…the attack on the Jews is the beginning of the attack to wipe out the socialist movement, trade unionism and democracy in Britain".
    On the day, the Blackshirts and thousands of police were met by a hostile crowd who had erected barricades to stop the fascists marching. After hours of clashes with the police and many arrests, the police told Mosley the march would have to be abandoned.
    On Sunday, at the rally just off Cable Street, Corbyn told the crowds that, despite Mosley’s attempt to use anti-Semitism to divide the working class, something “totally remarkable” happened on that day in 1936. “The Jewish community and the Irish community came together to say: ‘they shall not pass’.”
    This was echoed by the local Labour MP, Apsana Begum, who called it an “incredible triumph of humanity, a victory of people’s power”, whilst warning that hate speech was on the rise again in Britain and around the world.

Against the cuts in Euston

By New Worker correspondent

Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) campaigners took to the streets of London this week to protest against the government’s removal of the £20 per week uplift to Universal Credit and to demand a fundamental overhaul of the social security system.
    They blocked The Euston Road in central London for over half an hour on Tuesday in an “AudioRiot” of drums, bells, whistles and loudhailers as part of their national campaign to mark the end of COVID‑19-related support mechanisms in Universal Credit.
    The government increased Universal Credit by £20 per week at the start of the pandemic. They never gave it to people on legacy benefits – meaning that more than two million disabled people and carers missed out. The uplift was also temporary and ends on 30th September.
    Senior Tories, including six former Secretaries of State for Work and Pensions, have pleaded with the government not to end the uplift yet. Iain Duncan Smith and Damian Green even made a last-ditch attempt to get a motion to stop the cut voted on through the Pensions uprating debate, but their amendment was not chosen by the Speaker.
    Many claimants never got the £20 in the first place. It was only applied to Universal Credit, so those still on legacy benefits and not yet moved over to Universal Credit were missed out. Over three-quarters are disabled, and their living costs have been significantly higher as a result of the pandemic and needing to shield.
    Out-of-work benefits are well below the amount needed for a decent standard of living. Even after the uplift, Universal Credit is just 43.4 per cent of the minimum income standard needed for a decent standard of living. For those on legacy benefits, their social security payments all the way through the pandemic have represented just 33.9 per cent of the minimum income standard.

Celebrating Vietnam’s freedom

 Nguyen Hoang Long (second from right) and British guests

by New Worker correspondent

Vietnamese ambassador Nguyen Hoang Long welcomed politicians, diplomats, journalists and members of the Vietnamese community in London at a celebration of Vietnam’s National Day at Claridge’s Hotel on Monday.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks and Rob Griffiths from the CPB joined the packed assembly in the ballroom of the Mayfair hotel for the first major diplomatic reception in the capital since the end of the lockdown. Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Minister of State for Asia Amanda Milling and the Secretary of State for Defence Ben Wallace were also amongst the 500 or so guests at the commemoration of the Vietnamese declaration of independence from France on 2nd September 1945.
    On that day Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi, and the beginning of the struggle for freedom that finally ended with the defeat of US imperialism in 1975 and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
    In his welcoming address, Nguyen Hoang Long underlined that the event also aimed to celebrate the friendship between Vietnam and its partners and all countries in the world.
    Highlighting the achievements that Vietnam has made after 35 years of Doi Moi (Renewal), the Vietnamese envoy noted that from a war-torn country, Vietnam has become the fourth leading economy in ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the 37th in the world, as well as one of the most open economies with the signing of 14 new free trade agreements and new generation deals.
    As a responsible member of the United Nations, Vietnam has been elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council twice, and performed excellently the role of ASEAN Chair twice, including in 2020 amidst the challenging situation due to COVID‑19, he said.
    The Vietnamese ambassador also spotlighted the growth of the Vietnam–UK strategic partnership over the years, including many high-level visits to each other. He underlined that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s participation in the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow this November and Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son’s attendance at the G7-ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will contribute to strongly boosting the bilateral partnership in the future.
    At the ceremony, the Vietnamese Embassy honoured several individuals and organisations in the UK for supporting Vietnam in COVID‑19 prevention and control activities. They have raised about $575,400 in cash and medical supplies for Vietnam.
    The embassy also auctioned three paintings by Vietnamese young painters for £6,700 for the COVID‑19 fight at home.
    Participants also had a chance to hear Vietnamese singer Nguyen Hong Nhung, see a photo collection featuring the tangible and intangible heritage of Vietnam, and enjoy Vietnamese cuisine.

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell

1599 -- 1658

That 'tis the most which we deteremine can

If these the Times, then this must be the Man

Andrew Marvell
1621-1678

by Andy Brooks

OLIVER CROMWELL, the leader of the bourgeois English Revolution, died on 3rd September 1658. Stricken by a malarial fever that proved to be fatal the Lord Protector willed himself to live until his auspicious day – the day his first parliament met in 1654. The day he smashed the Scottish Royalists at the battle of Dunbar in 1650 and forced the young Charles Stuart to run for his life the following year when the Royalists were routed at the battle of Worcester.
    Cromwell led the parliamentary forces to victory in the civil war which began in 1642 and ended with the trial and execution of the king, Charles Stuart, in 1649. He presided over the establishment of the Republic of England, or Commonwealth as it was styled in English, and in 1653 he became head of state, or Lord Protector. Cromwell’s death was marked by genuine mourning throughout the country. His state funeral was the biggest London had ever seen. Two years later the Stuart royalty were back.
    Today Cromwell’s death passes largely unnoticed but Oliver is not quite forgotten.
Marie Lloyd, the Victorian musical hall queen, sang about “the ruins that Cromwell knocked about a bit”. Elvis Costello wrote Oliver’s Army, a sardonic song about the modern British Army in 1979, and a radical punk rock band took the name of Cromwell’s New Model Army for their own. The name of Cromwell is preserved in the streets of London. Countless books, and articles have been written about his life as well as two feature films and a number of television documentaries and every year enthusiasts re-enact the major battles of the civil war.
    The Quakers we meet on the peace demonstrations were founded by George Fox, whose pacifist beliefs were borne out of the violence of the revolution. Robert Owen, the founder of the Co-operative Movement, and William Morris, the Victorian socialist and artist, were both influenced by the writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the leader of the Diggers, the “True Levellers” whose attempt to establish co-operative farms in Surrey and other parts of the country were suppressed during the Commonwealth.
    Irish nationalists call Cromwell a brutal English invader while many Protestants still see him as a religious reformer who fought for freedom of conscience for all faiths apart from Catholicism. And the Jewish community still remembers Cromwell as the leader who allowed Jews to live, worship and work in England for the first time since the pogroms of 1290.
    But for the bourgeoisie Oliver is best forgotten, even though their ascendancy began when their ancestors took up the gun in the 1640s.
    The ruling class abhor revolutionary change today because it threatens their own domination, so they naturally deny that their class ever came to power through it in the first place. For them the English republic is an aberration, a temporary blip in the steady advance of bourgeois progress, which is the myth they teach us in school. If they elevate anything at all it is the ‘glorious revolution’ of 1688, when the last of the Stuarts was deposed and replaced by a king of their own choosing. Though not as bloodless as they claimed – plenty was shed in Ireland – the establishment of a monarchy that was the gift of Parliament was achieved without the involvement of the masses, which was precisely what was intended.
    For romantic socialists Cromwell represents the well-to-do Puritan merchants and landowners who dominated the Army Council – the Grandees who crushed the Levellers and the rest of the democratic movement in the army. But Marxists always recognised the historic role of Cromwell. In 1948 British communist leader Harry Pollitt said: “When the growing capitalist class, the poor farmers and craftsmen, led by Oliver Cromwell, shattered the system of feudalism, and executed King Charles I in the process, reigning monarchs and ruling nobilities everywhere saw the pattern of future history unfolding. The name of Cromwell was reviled, then, as much as Stalin’s is today, by the ruling powers of the old and doomed order of society.
    “The English Revolution is ‘great’, because it broke the barriers to man’s advance. It allowed the capitalist class to open the road leading to modern large-scale industry. It permitted science to serve the needs of the new, capitalist society. And, because of these developments, it provided the basis on which, for the first time, a new class, the working class, began to grow, to organise and itself to challenge the prevailing system of society.
    “Capitalism, at first progressive, in so far as it led the way for technical advance, developed to the point limited by its own structure. It became, as feudalism was before it, a barrier to the further advance of man. It ceased to serve a useful purpose. It had built up enormous productive forces, but was incapable of providing the majority of the people with a decent standard of life.
    “Throughout the world, the working class, with the Communist Party at its head, now goes forward to put an end to capitalism and to build socialism. The English Revolution set this train of historic events in motion. That is why our Party is proud to honour its memory.”

Defending Democratic Korea!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined Korean solidarity activists who were picketing the Foreign Office in central London last weekend. London comrades joined the demonstration in Whitehall on Saturday that was supported by other labour movement activists and friends of the DPR Korea campaigning for peace in Korea and an end to sanctions against the DPRK.
    The protest, called by the Korean Friendship Association (KFA), highlighted Britain’s involvement in new American provocations on the Korean peninsula that include the current military exercises in south Korea and the despatch a Royal Navy carrier strike force to Korean waters.
    Millions of pounds are being squandered to do the bidding of US imperialism in taking part in war games that are a direct violation of the inter-Korean agreements of 2018 and the DPRK-US joint statement which were hailed by the world as giving the hope of peace.
    The last KFA picket in Whitehall was back in September 2020. But pickets had been a regular feature of KFA work in the capital before the lockdown. Now after an 11 month break due to Covid restrictions the solidarity movement plans to return to public campaigning on the street. KFA Chair Dermot Hudson said future plans include resuming public meetings in London and returning to Whitehall on a regular basis throughout the year.

Afghans protest in London

by New Worker correspondent

Thousands of protesters, mainly from the Afghan community in Britain, marched through central London last weekend to call for an end to Pakistani interference in their country and "immediate action" from the international community to stop the Taliban.
    The “Free Afghanistan – Sanction Pakistan” demonstration was supported by the Afghan Association Paiwand, a charity dedicated to helping refugees and asylum seekers in the UK and a number of other groups of Afghan exiles including supporters of the old king and the recently toppled puppet regime. But some remembered the good old days of the Afghan people’s republic which overthrew the old order in 1978 and outlived the Soviet Union until it finally fell to the imperialist-armed Mujahadeen militias in 1992. At least four of them bought copies of the New Worker on the day.

British forces out of Ukraine!

by New Worker correspondent

NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other anti-fascist campaigners in London protesting against the British government’s policies towards Ukraine.
    Last Saturday’s picket, opposite Downing Street in Whitehall, called on the Johnson government to withdraw British forces from the Ukraine and the Black Sea. They called on the British government to end all military, financial and political support for the regime in Kiev which was installed in the 2014 coup, a coup violently supported by armed, Nazi ‘Right Sector’ gangs and the rabidly anti-semitic Svoboda party. They also drew attention to the role of the fascist militias in Ukraine’s National Guard, which now legally patrol the streets of Ukraine’s cities alongside the civil police.
    Campaigners want the Johnson government and the Foreign Office to clarify their position on the lack of democracy, attacks on journalists, the closure of newspapers, TV and radio stations (most recently in February this year), and the blatant human rights violations and involvement in crime by the ‘Azov Battalion’, the ‘National Corps’ and many other violent groups with white supremacist, anti-semitic and openly Nazi beliefs.
    The National Corps’ estimated 10,000-15,000 members are legally allowed to patrol the streets of Ukraine's cities, working side by side with the Ukrainian police. Its slogan is “Strength, Welfare, Order”.
The National Corps was created by the Azov Battalion as its own political party in 2016, and its core membership came from the Azov Battalion and the Azov Civil Corps, a civilian organisation affiliated to the fascist battalion. It has gained a reputation for violence, corruption and involvement in crime
    This is of major significance for UK government policy as a British military contingent has been in Ukraine since February 2016 training members of the Ukrainian armed forces (UAF). The Azov Battalion and many other ultra-right armed militias are now part of the Ukrainian armed forces after they were admitted into the country's National Guard.
    Since 2014 the UK has had an Army contingent in Ukraine to train Ukrainian soldiers - quite possibly including members of the fascist militias integrated into the UAF.
    Last year the Johnson government signed a major military deal to set up new British bases in Ukraine. In September 2020 over 200 members of the British Paratroop Regiment joined military exercises in southern Ukraine. Last month the UK and Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Implementation for the “joint UK-Ukraine design and build of warships (and) construction of two naval bases” on board the very same ship, HMS Defender, which sailed through waters Russia considers its own on 23rd June, causing a major diplomatic incident.
    Members of the New Communist Party of Britain, Socialist Fight, Third World Solidarity, Communist Fight, Solidarity with the Anti-Fascist Resistance in Ukraine, International Ukraine Anti-Fascist Solidarity and other labour movement organisations took part in the protest. Not the first and certainly not the last. NCP London organiser Theo Russell says more solidarity actions are on their way, following the easing of the lockdown, to raise public awareness about what is really going on in the Ukraine and the Donbas. 

 

• Report in the Donetsk communist journal
  

Football crazy…

 by New Worker correspondent

Readers turning to the New Worker hoping to seek relief from football are going to be disappointed. This week we have a look at the 2,158 strong Professional Footballer’s Association (PFA) which as its name implies is the trade union for football players in England and Wales. There is another similar, but separate PFA for Scotland.
     Professional football was grudgingly officially approved of by the Football Association League in 1886, who thought it was for public school boys only. However many churches and chapels had already set up amateur clubs to improve attendance at sermons. Employers found that forming a works team and buying them a football earned them a reputation as a good employer.
     The PFA was founded in 1907 making it the oldest union for sportsmen (and now with 84 women members). Starting life as the Association Football Players’ and Trainers’ Union, it was the successor to the short lived Association Footballers’ Union which lasted for only three years between 1898 and 1901.
     Both unions were established hoping to overturn the maximum wage, at that time £4 a week, a sum which many working class people would envy in those days.
     In the 1909-10 season the union threatened strike action, which resulted in the Football Association withdrawing recognition and banned members from the game. This resulted in membership falling as clubs recruited amateurs. Only at Manchester United did union members stand firm, but an Everton player was vocal in his support resulting in the union regaining recognition in exchange for allowing bonus payments to be made to players to supplement the maximum wage which then remained in place for decades.
     Just before the First World War a badly handled court case over the restrictive transfer scheme almost destroyed the union. For decades the proceeds of transfer payments went exclusively to clubs, which were in fact businesses.
     Membership fell to 300 in 1915 but doubled by 1920. Post-war unemployment saw attendance fall resulting in clubs in 1922 imposing a £1 cut to the maximum wage, (then £9 a week), a move defeated by the union in the courts.
     1955 saw the union affiliate to the Trades Union Congress, however, its registering under the Tory’s 1971 Industrial Relations resulting in it departing in 1973, but it re-joined in 1995 where it remains.
     While a player, the future TV commentator Jimmy Hill became secretary in 1956 and proved to be a new broom. In 1957 he launched a campaign to abolish the maximum wage (then £20), succeeding in 1961. The first £100 a week player resulted, paving the way for £100,000 a week players of today. We might deplore the commercialisation of sport, but unions exist for the benefit of their members.
     In 1963 the PFA secured a legal victory when the “retain and transfer system” was deemed an “unreasonable restraint of trade”.
     Football has always been a boys’ game. As recently as 1998 it hit the headlines when a players’ agent was turned away from the PFA’s annual dinner for the sin of being a woman, a blunder which cost the PFA dearly in terms of legal fees and reputation.
     In the course of its 114 year history it has only had seven leaders. It appointed a new Chief Executive, as its General Secretary is now called, former Swiss footballer and sports lawyer, Maheta Molango, earlier this year.
     He replace the former incumbent, Gordon Taylor OBE, whose reign began in 1981 and ended under a cloud earlier this year. Eyebrows had been raised about the fact that an arm of the PFA, its “charity” wing, had an income of £27 million, but spent only £2 million on “charitable activities”, a sum equal to the boss’s pay cheque. This has resulted in an ongoing enquiry by the Charity Commission. He was also criticised for being slow on the uptake on a number of issues such as supporting investigations into the large number of football players affected with dementia allegedly caused by heading the older heavier footballs.
     Taylor’s leadership was challenged in 2018 when 200 players told him to go. This he agreed to do the next year after overseeing an independent review of the organisation. This he finally did at the age of 75. He was one of the few trade union leaders who can be truly said to live on the same salary as the workers he represented. But that is only because some of his members earn over £100,000 a week. His salary was not modest: £2,290,000 a year at one stage, which almost certainly made him the highest paid trade union official in the world. Molango will have to scrape by on a measly £500,000 to begin with.
     Footballer players often have a bad image when they are photographed tumbling out of nightclubs at 4 am and driving off in £250,000 car, but that is a fairly recent development and needless to say not all are on £100,000 a week. Most are on a mere fraction of that. Only last week the union had to battle on behalf of its members at Swindon Town FC to simply secure 60 per cent of the wages due to them. This is a common enough experience in the lower leagues.
     Comparatively minor injuries can mean the end of a career, which even at the best of times is a short one. Therefore the union has a responsibility for its members beyond their playing life. Apart from supporting a “Football Scholarship Programme” and the “Football in the Community Programme” for would-be players, it also funds several education programmes for present and former players. Since 1991 it has supported players on a Salford University physiotherapy course. It also helps them get degrees in “Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting” from Staffordshire University. Additionally it has also helped the cause of women’s football so that we can look forward to more women being photographed tumbling out of nightclubs at 4 am and driving off in new £250,000 cars etc.,
     For clapped out players it also funds a residential rehabilitation programme at Lilleshall Sports Injury Rehabilitation in Shropshire.
     The new boss, Maheta Molango has delivered a manifesto, saying: “One principle will guide my leadership of our union, and it is this: the PFA belongs to the players. It should always be run on behalf of its members, for its members”. Some would argue this promises a revolutionary change from Taylor’s day, but all trade union bureaucrats say that.

A call to the world from Beijing

by New Worker correspondent

British communists attended a special screening of the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Summit online event at the Chinese Embassy in London on 6th July, with Theo Russell representing the NCP as a Central Committee member.
     This major global event was joined by leaders of over 500 political parties and movements, over 10,000 representatives from more than 160 countries, and with parallel sessions in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Yan'an, Shenzhen, Ningde and Anji.
     The highlight of the summit was the keynote address, delivered live from Beijing, by Xi Jinping. General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) entitled Strengthening Cooperation Among Political Parties to Jointly Pursue the People's Wellbeing. President Xi stayed with the meeting throughout, which by the time it finished was midnight in Beijing.
     President Xi's address was a tour de force laying out a vision for the whole world, “seizing and shaping a shared future for mankind” in which the interests of all countries would be aligned with those of all others.
     Xi addressed the need to build consensus by upholding and promoting the common values of humanity for peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, to promote development by bringing greater benefits to all peoples in a fairer manner, to enhance cooperation by working together to address global risks and challenges, and to improve governance by enhancing the capacity to ensure the people's wellbeing.
     He declared: "it is the unswerving goal of the CPC to run our own house well, ensure a happy life for the 1.4 billion plus Chinese people, and advance the lofty cause of promoting peace and development of all mankind".
     Comrade Xi also said that the CPC "will unite and lead the Chinese people in taking comprehensive steps to deepen reform and opening up, to make new contributions to the shared development and prosperity of all countries of the world", and work towards "steering economic globalisation towards greater openness, inclusiveness, balance and win-win results".
     Other key contributors to the summit were Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong, Deputy Chair of Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev, Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Kazakhstan leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, former Bolivian President Juan Evo Morales Ayma, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, Pakistani premier Imran Khan, Mozambiquan President Filipe Nyusi, President of Congo Brazzaville Denis Sassou-N'guesso, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez, and Sri Lankan premier Mahinda Rajapaksa.
     In his intervention, the Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel congratulated the Chinese people, "and in particular to you and the more than 95 million militants," on the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, and said that "today the revolutionary, progressive and left forces have a great nation that has made important theoretical and practical contributions to Marxism-Leninism, raising the flag of socialism, tempered to its historical-concrete conditions".
     Díaz-Canel pointed out that "the People's Republic of China does not impose a model; does not adopt unilateral coercive measures; and does not apply extraterritorial laws".
     He also noted that "No other process of building socialism has successfully exceeded seven decades, and no other Communist Party has led a country for so long", and predicted that "in the year 2049 the world will contemplate, even more admired, the first modern socialist country that reaches, under the leadership of its political vanguard, the centenary of its foundation".
     A Joint Statement of Proposals of the CPC and World Political Parties Summit was published following the event, expressing the shared aspiration of all the political parties taking part for maintaining world peace and development, and improving people's lives.

 

• Joint Statement of Proposals of the CPC and World Political Parties
  

Farewell to Alan

Remembering a great comrades

by New Worker correspondent

Alan Rogers’ funeral took place at Ipswich Crematorium on Wednesday 23rd June. A beautiful floral display of bright red roses adorned his coffin, symbolising his life-long dedication to the cause of socialism. The Humanist ceremony included tributes from his family and friends. His long-standing comrade and friend Pat Abraham sent her own moving tribute that was read during the ceremony. Alan's granddaughter read one of his favourite poems: Invocation by PB Shelley.
    Following the ceremony Alan's friends, family and comrades gathered at his daughter Helen's home to celebrate the life of a much-respected comrade. Those present shared their reminisces of a man they all respected.
    John Maryon represented the New Communist Party. He spoke about the immense contribution that Alan had made to the class struggle and highlighted his ability to make a quick, razor-sharp analysis of events whilst always being positive and optimistic. John referred to Alan's wife Ann, who passed away in 2019, who had been a lovely comrade and a former editor of the {New Worker}. The two had formed a powerful team that worked together to campaign for peace, oppose racism and fight for workers’ rights.
    Alan never wavered in his commitment to socialism, and he lived a full life with purpose. He fought for the underdog, the under paid, the disadvantaged and all those exploited under capitalism. Alan was a good man, a loyal comrade and a true friend. We will all miss him.
    

Celebrating China’s victories in London!

Andy Brooks speaking from the NCP Centre

 By New Worker correspondent

  NCP leader Andy Brooks joined other comrades and friends at an online seminar organised by the Chinese embassy in London last week. Four other members of the New Communist Party Central Committee, along with other British communists, academics, politicians and pillars of the British business community in China, took part in the Symposium on the Centenary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on 22nd June.
    The Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, delivered a keynote speech entitled Celebrate A Glorious Century and Create A More Splendid Future.
    “After the founding of New China, the CPC led the Chinese people to complete the socialist revolution and establish a basic socialist system. This was the most extensive and profound social transformation in China's history. The Chinese people worked hard and independently and put in place a relatively well-rounded industrial and economic system. In this process, we gathered significant experience on how to build socialism. We laid the political, institutional and material foundation needed to build a better life for the people and realise national rejuvenation,” the Chinese ambassador said.
    “We are filled with pride as we look at how far the CPC has come, and we are fully confident as we look to the future. Today, the CPC is standing at a new historical starting point. China is embarking on a new journey of building a modern socialist country in a comprehensive way. The achievement of China's two centenary goals and the realisation of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation will surely create broader space for the co-operation between China and the world, including the UK.”
    This was followed by contributions from Andy Brooks, Rob Griffiths of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) and Joti Brar of the CPGB (ML). John Ross, Senior Fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China, and Professor Kerry Brown, Director of the Lau China Institute of King's College London, also spoke highly about the achievements of the Chinese communist party over the last 100 years.
    “A hundred years have passed since the foundation of the Communist Party of China on 23rd July 1921. China has risen from being a weak semi-feudal, semi-colonial country to become a force for peace in the global arena with the second largest economy in the world,” the NCP leader said. “In the past China’s wealth was the preserve of a ruthless feudal ruling class. These days China’s wealth is being used to finally eradicate the last vestiges of poverty, raise the standard of living of everyone in the people’s republic and help the development of the Third World through genuine fair trade and economic assistance.
    “This is the glorious achievement of the Chinese Communist Party which led the resistance that defeated the Japanese imperialists and the reactionary Chinese warlords and politicians in the pay of American imperialism to establish the people’s government on 1st October 1949.”
    Over 30 participants, including Lord Sassoon, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Conservative), Liam Byrne MP (Labour) and Lisa Cameron MP (SNP), along with other political party representatives, experts and scholars, took part in the seminar.
    They congratulated the Chinese communists on the centenary of the founding of the CPC and applauded the historic achievements made by the Chinese people under the leadership of the Chinese communist party. They all shared the view that political parties, regardless of their national background, should engage in dialogue and exchanges on the basis of mutual respect, to enhance mutual learning, improve party governance in line with their national realities, and promote the development of their respective countries and international co-operation. 

•  Xi's speech at APEC hailed (China Daily)   
  

The Working Day

by New Worker correspondent

Last week the TUC released a report on The Future of Flexible Work, something which it thinks is a good thing. Flexible working hours (FWH) means that people do not need to clock in at 9:00 and of at 17:00 with an hour for lunch. It can allow people to come in at 8:00 or 10:00 and leave at 16:00 or 18:00. Thy can have a half hour for lunch or two hours and work late. Doing many long working days can be rewarded with extra holiday time.
     The TUC say “Genuine flexible working can be a win-win arrangement for both workers and employers. It can allow people to balance their work and home lives, is important in promoting equality at work and can lead to improved recruitment and retention of workers for employers”.
     That is true to some extent. For those with a long commute an early start, it can make sense to avoid overcrowded trains, or people can leave for work after their little darlings are sent off to school. During much of his working life this correspondent was on “flexitime”. This is suitable for large organisations which have work to do outside the nine to five day. But the major drawback to FWH is that in many cases it has seen the end of overtime and unsocial shift payments.
     This is generally popular with workers, with the TUC’s report showing that 82 per of those it surveyed want FWH and variations such as remote working, flexi-time, part-time work, job sharing, annualised hours, term time only working , compressed hours and mutually-agreed predictable hours. A study by the Government Equalities Office found that jobs that advertised flexibly attracted 30 per cent more applicants than those that did not.
     However there are other downsides to flexible working. It can also be a polite name for zero-hours contracts and other types of insecurity which is a feature of modern capitalism. This “flexibility” means that people have to sit by their phones to know if they are going to work and earn anything that day.
     The pandemic has enforced flexible working in the form of imposed working from home. This has become surprisingly popular as people can get an extra hour in bed and calls have been made for these arrangements to be made permanent. However this obviously does not apply to everyone. Nobody can make a cup of coffee or take out an appendix over the computer.
     People who claim that their jobs can be done from their spare room in the suburbs ought to be aware that some bosses might take them at their word and replace workers in the office with those in a call centre in downtown Bangalore. This point seems to have been somewhat neglected by well-meaning advocates of home working.
     The TUC says that after the pandemic workers should get more flexible working patterns, but warns that “steps need to be taken to ensure that the experience of those working from home does not mirror the damaging one sided ‘flexibility’ experienced by so many on zero-hours contracts, with arrangements imposed that only benefit employers”.
     It demands that increased access to remote working must not come at the price of reductions to workers pay, increased intrusive remote surveillance, unsafe working environments, lack of access to union representatives, an increase in unpaid hours worked and draining, always-on cultures”.
     During the pandemic homeworkers put in many extra hours. The Office of National Statistics which points out that people who completed any work from home did six hours of unpaid overtime on average per week in 2020, compared with 3.6 hours for those that never worked from home.
     The TUC takes up a pledge in the 2019 Tory manifesto to make flexible working the default. It demands that a legal duty to be imposed “on employers to consider which flexible working arrangements are available in a role and publish these in job advertisements”, which naturally provides plenty of wriggle room for bosses.
     More precisely it wants to abolish zero-hours contracts by giving workers the right to a contract that reflects their regular hours with at least four weeks’ notice of shifts and compensation for cancelled shifts and to ratify the International Labour Organisation’s Home Work Convention.
     Mobile phones and email now mean that many workers are on call even when having a bath at home, therefore the urgency of introducing a statutory right for employees and workers to disconnect from their work so as to create “communication free” time in their lives is important.
    Another urgent question is that fact that every keystroke can be recorded for ever by your boss. So there is an urgent need to “amend employment and data protection legislation and provide for statutory guidance to ensure that no unlawful discriminatory decisions can be made using artificial intelligence”.
     At the same time the TUC demand that employers should provide and maintain the equipment necessary for home workers to work safely and effectively (not just electronic equipment) and provide the training needed for a person to do their job remotely.
     After making these modest legislative demands the TUC doffs its cap to respectfully point out that “employers do not need to wait for legislative change in making genuine flexible work the default in their workplaces and ensuring that all workers have the opportunity to benefit from positive flexibility that helps them to balance work and home life”.
     Needless to say the TUC says that unions should be involved in discussions on such matters, and equally unexpectedly does not suggest taking any militant action to secure these gains.
     The TUC argues that “making flexible working available in all but the most exceptional of circumstances would be an important catalyst for promoting greater gender equality” as part-time work appeals to women with child-care responsibilities, and recognises that they are often forced into it.
     The report reminds us that about 3.6 million workers were in insecure work in 2019 out of a workforce of over 27 million. This unlucky 13 per cent is twice as likely to be from the ethnic minorities than white workers.
     For them “flexibility” is something of a joke. Those with no or few guaranteed hours are often offered work at the whim of their employer, facing irregular hours and therefore irregular income, as well as last minute shift cancellations. Picking and choosing hours is non-existent as many feel compelled to work whenever asked, fearing that if shifts are rejected they will not be asked again. Sick pay, protections from unfair dismissal and statutory redundancy pay are non-existent.
     The pandemic made things worse when 67 per cent of insecure workers saying they received nothing when off sick compared with 7 per cent of secure workers. Needing to self-isolate or take time off sick needs money many do not have.