When Labour was swept to power in the first landslide victory in 1997 “Cool Britannia” was the buzz-word of Blair and his cronies. Blair’s spin merchants crowed about the wonders of “New Labour” that would herald a new age for the British people. Now we see what they really mean and what they really want.
Not content with aligned themselves with the most venal, aggressive and reactionary elements within the British ruling class and in the United States the Blair government is now trying to steam-roller the most reactionary domestic legislation seen for a hundred years.
Identity cards were introduced during the Second World War. Then they were just cards that gave you a unique number and later your NHS number and recorded your date of birth. Public distaste led to their withdrawal in 1952.
The proposed new microchip card bears little resemblance to the old or indeed to any currently used in the rest of the European Union. The biometric information contained – fingerprints, iris or facial scans – is an expensive addition that the people are expected to largely fund themselves with talk of a card, renewable every 10 years, costing the citizen between £70 to £90.
The cost has raised public awareness in recent days following the publication of two adverse independent studies but the real threat is the cost to civil liberties. Though the Government claims that people will not be obliged to carry their ID cards on the street, which is the case in some European countries, it is difficult to see how this can be avoided if the ID card is compulsory. The proposed bill included penalties for those who fail to register and if an ID card is compulsory then the police would have every right to demand to see it, when and if they chose.
The rigmarole of registering with the police every time you change your address which is the only way ID card systems can work has not been spelt out. The link with the Government’s other new obsession – black-box car monitors to enable road congestion charging – is obvious but not discussed. But it is clear that if all these schemes come to pass the police and the security forces would be able track everyone in the country.
The Government trots out the old “only the guilty need fear” line when challenged. But in fact it’s the “innocent” who will be in jeopardy not the criminals, “terrorists”, illegal immigrants and international fraudsters, who will easily find ways of circumventing these cards as they clearly do in countries that already have similar schemes.
It is the innocent who may face the unwelcome attentions of a racist or simply bored cop demanding to see “your papers”. It is the militant trade unionist who will find it impossible to avoid the employers’ blacklist when his ID is demanded. It could be anyone in the future who opposes the government of the day.
“If, 10 years ago, I had gone on the radio and said that within a decade a Labour government would try to do away with jury trial, remove Habeas Corpus, eliminate the presumption of innocence, introduce punishment without trial and put house arrest on the statute book, they would have locked me up,” Tory Shadow Home Secretary David Davis declared in the House of Commons Tuesday night. It’s a pity more Labour MPs didn’t join the Tories and Liberal Democrats in kicking this atrocious Identity Card bill out at its first reading.
Some did take the principled stand cutting Labour’s majority from 67 to 31. This proposal can still be stopped. The labour and trade union movement must mobilise now to fight to ensure that this loathsome proposal never becomes law.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
BNP lose Dagenham seat
THE NEO-Nazi British National Party last Thursday lost its only London council seat in the Goresbrook ward of the London Borough of Dagenham & Barking after their councillor, Daniel Kelley, resigned, leading to a by-election.
He resigned because he had found himself totally out of his depth at council meetings; unable to understand what was going on and unable to participate, he had stopped attending.
“There’s meetings that go right over my head,” he said, “and there’s little point in me being there. I’m wasting my time.”
Labour Party candidate Warren Northover won the seat after a campaign in which the Liberal Democrats and Greens stood down in order not to split the anti-fascist vote.
Northover won 1,227 votes while the BNP got 791. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) took 216 votes while the Tories came fourth with 167. There was a 33 per cent turn out.
In the run-up to the election the local community organisation Barking and Dagenham Together distributed thousands of leaflets against the BNP candidate, Laurence Rustem.
exposed
The leaflet exposed the BNP alarmist lies about an alleged “Africans for Essex” programme and quoted local war hero George Heighinton DFC, who wrote: “I was in Germany in 1935, the year of the famous Nuremburg laws. I saw Nazi rallies in Munich and Nuremburg; I soon realised Germany was in the grip of an unspeakable evil.
“What I had seen in Hitler’s Germany spurred me to volunteer as soon as I was old enough to fight. I served in 111 Squadron RAF flying Spitfires.
won’t forget
“I feel a chill when I see the BNP stand here. The phraseology might be different, but the message is the same one I heard in Hitler’s Germany. Thousands of my generation won’t forget their sacrifice.”
The musician Billy Bragg staged an impromptu concert for the anti-fascist leaflet distributors on Saturday 17th June at the Dagenham Labour Club, playing numbers from Woody Guthrie and other left-wing and union songs.
He reminded his audience that Woody Guthrie had spent his life giving similar performances throughout the United States, not to formal concerts but to groups of workers and political activists in “draughty halls” and meeting places, while they were engaged in campaigning. And he remembered that Guthrie had written: “This machine kills fascists” on his guitar.
The anti-fascist distributors were from many different political parties: Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green, Respect and New Communist Party as well as from trade unions GMB, TGWU, Unison and many others.
“Political parties come and go but unions remain the same. They look after their members and they look after their communities,” said Bragg. And he pointed out that this struggle was personal for him. He was a Dagenham boy – born and bred – and he took the BNP incursion into his home territory as a personal affront.
The latest issue of the London Worker is now out. Send a sae to: London Worker, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ for your free copy.
He resigned because he had found himself totally out of his depth at council meetings; unable to understand what was going on and unable to participate, he had stopped attending.
“There’s meetings that go right over my head,” he said, “and there’s little point in me being there. I’m wasting my time.”
Labour Party candidate Warren Northover won the seat after a campaign in which the Liberal Democrats and Greens stood down in order not to split the anti-fascist vote.
Northover won 1,227 votes while the BNP got 791. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) took 216 votes while the Tories came fourth with 167. There was a 33 per cent turn out.
In the run-up to the election the local community organisation Barking and Dagenham Together distributed thousands of leaflets against the BNP candidate, Laurence Rustem.
exposed
The leaflet exposed the BNP alarmist lies about an alleged “Africans for Essex” programme and quoted local war hero George Heighinton DFC, who wrote: “I was in Germany in 1935, the year of the famous Nuremburg laws. I saw Nazi rallies in Munich and Nuremburg; I soon realised Germany was in the grip of an unspeakable evil.
“What I had seen in Hitler’s Germany spurred me to volunteer as soon as I was old enough to fight. I served in 111 Squadron RAF flying Spitfires.
won’t forget
“I feel a chill when I see the BNP stand here. The phraseology might be different, but the message is the same one I heard in Hitler’s Germany. Thousands of my generation won’t forget their sacrifice.”
The musician Billy Bragg staged an impromptu concert for the anti-fascist leaflet distributors on Saturday 17th June at the Dagenham Labour Club, playing numbers from Woody Guthrie and other left-wing and union songs.
He reminded his audience that Woody Guthrie had spent his life giving similar performances throughout the United States, not to formal concerts but to groups of workers and political activists in “draughty halls” and meeting places, while they were engaged in campaigning. And he remembered that Guthrie had written: “This machine kills fascists” on his guitar.
The anti-fascist distributors were from many different political parties: Labour, Liberal Democrat, Green, Respect and New Communist Party as well as from trade unions GMB, TGWU, Unison and many others.
“Political parties come and go but unions remain the same. They look after their members and they look after their communities,” said Bragg. And he pointed out that this struggle was personal for him. He was a Dagenham boy – born and bred – and he took the BNP incursion into his home territory as a personal affront.
The latest issue of the London Worker is now out. Send a sae to: London Worker, PO Box 73, London SW11 2PQ for your free copy.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
The New Worker on sale in London
The New Worker is available in London at:
* Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street WC1
* Centerprise Bookshop, 136 Kingsland High Street E8
* Housemans Peace Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road N1
* Index Bookcentre, 16 Electric Avenue SW9
* West London Trade Union Club, 33-35 High Street Acton W3
* The Westminster Bookshop, 8 Artillery Row SW1.
* Bookmarks, 1 Bloomsbury Street WC1
* Centerprise Bookshop, 136 Kingsland High Street E8
* Housemans Peace Bookshop, 5 Caledonian Road N1
* Index Bookcentre, 16 Electric Avenue SW9
* West London Trade Union Club, 33-35 High Street Acton W3
* The Westminster Bookshop, 8 Artillery Row SW1.
Fares Fair – not road pricing
If Blair’s new ID card wasn’t bad enough the Government is now considering a road pricing scheme that would enable the police to monitor everyone who uses a car.
A hidden agenda lies behind this proposal that is clearly linked to the identity card and that is to give the police and security forces ultimate surveillance powers.
Alistair Darling, the Transport Minister, has detailed proposals to replace the current road tax and fuel duties with a high-tech system that is allegedly intended to deal with the growing problem of road congestion. But it can only work if every car is fitted with an electronic satellite tracking device to record every trip made and that is precisely what is intended.
Anyone who lives in any of our major cities knows that congestion is a growing problem though not so much in London, where it has always existed apart from a comparatively brief period following the decline of horse power in the early part of the 20th century. Anyone who uses our motorways knows that the volume of traffic has soared over the past two decades despite the construction of new roads and by-passes over the same period. And increased public awareness of the threat to health and the environment has led to more research into eco-friendly forms of transport that London’s congestion charge scheme favours.
The Darling plan addresses none of these points nor does it seek to solve them except through a scheme that would reduce the volume of traffic by simply making it much more expensive to use the car. Though there’s talk of abolishing the existing road fund license and the colossal tax on fuel there is no firm commitment in the plan floated last week. Even if they were abolished the overall anticipated income from road pricing would have to be far greater to deter motorists. That, after-all, is the declared objective of a plan that would make our road system the exclusive preserve of the rich and add more costs to goods transported by road -- virtually everything these days – which would send prices soaring when the extra charges are passed on to the consumer.
The obvious answer is to get more people and goods onto public transport. Unfortunately that service is no longer “public” but in the hands of grasping private owners concerned only to squeeze the last penny out of people who have no alternative but to use their dubious networks. According to the Department of Transport statistics for 2003 bus and coach fares were 34 per cent higher and rail fares 36 per cent higher in real terms than in 1980 when most of these services were still in public or municipal ownership. In practice people are forced to use their cars because the alternatives are much more expensive and increasingly unreliable.
In 1981 the newly elected Greater London Council under the leadership of Ken Livingstone implemented the “Fares Fair” scheme that made the capital the environmental model for Europe. Bus and Underground fares were cut by a third and it was paid for by a modest increase in the rates. Following the example of Paris London was divided into two zones and season tickets replaced by travel cards that covered all public transport in greater London. Within a year car use in London had dropped by ten per cent. London Transport’s revenue went up by £48 million. Tube usage went up by 44 per cent and bus usage by 14 per cent.
Tory councils moved to kill the experiment in the courts and they succeeded in December 1981. The Thatcher government brought in more controls in 1984 to make sure it never happened again.
“Fares Fair” proved that cutting fares reduces traffic. The re-nationalisation of our rail and road transport companies and the introduction of a new fares fair scheme across the country could easily reduce the problems on our roads and be considerably cheaper than the billions earmarked for the Darling scheme.
A hidden agenda lies behind this proposal that is clearly linked to the identity card and that is to give the police and security forces ultimate surveillance powers.
Alistair Darling, the Transport Minister, has detailed proposals to replace the current road tax and fuel duties with a high-tech system that is allegedly intended to deal with the growing problem of road congestion. But it can only work if every car is fitted with an electronic satellite tracking device to record every trip made and that is precisely what is intended.
Anyone who lives in any of our major cities knows that congestion is a growing problem though not so much in London, where it has always existed apart from a comparatively brief period following the decline of horse power in the early part of the 20th century. Anyone who uses our motorways knows that the volume of traffic has soared over the past two decades despite the construction of new roads and by-passes over the same period. And increased public awareness of the threat to health and the environment has led to more research into eco-friendly forms of transport that London’s congestion charge scheme favours.
The Darling plan addresses none of these points nor does it seek to solve them except through a scheme that would reduce the volume of traffic by simply making it much more expensive to use the car. Though there’s talk of abolishing the existing road fund license and the colossal tax on fuel there is no firm commitment in the plan floated last week. Even if they were abolished the overall anticipated income from road pricing would have to be far greater to deter motorists. That, after-all, is the declared objective of a plan that would make our road system the exclusive preserve of the rich and add more costs to goods transported by road -- virtually everything these days – which would send prices soaring when the extra charges are passed on to the consumer.
The obvious answer is to get more people and goods onto public transport. Unfortunately that service is no longer “public” but in the hands of grasping private owners concerned only to squeeze the last penny out of people who have no alternative but to use their dubious networks. According to the Department of Transport statistics for 2003 bus and coach fares were 34 per cent higher and rail fares 36 per cent higher in real terms than in 1980 when most of these services were still in public or municipal ownership. In practice people are forced to use their cars because the alternatives are much more expensive and increasingly unreliable.
In 1981 the newly elected Greater London Council under the leadership of Ken Livingstone implemented the “Fares Fair” scheme that made the capital the environmental model for Europe. Bus and Underground fares were cut by a third and it was paid for by a modest increase in the rates. Following the example of Paris London was divided into two zones and season tickets replaced by travel cards that covered all public transport in greater London. Within a year car use in London had dropped by ten per cent. London Transport’s revenue went up by £48 million. Tube usage went up by 44 per cent and bus usage by 14 per cent.
Tory councils moved to kill the experiment in the courts and they succeeded in December 1981. The Thatcher government brought in more controls in 1984 to make sure it never happened again.
“Fares Fair” proved that cutting fares reduces traffic. The re-nationalisation of our rail and road transport companies and the introduction of a new fares fair scheme across the country could easily reduce the problems on our roads and be considerably cheaper than the billions earmarked for the Darling scheme.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Police who shot Harry Stanley arrested
TWO SCOTLAND Yard firearms officers were arrested last week on suspicion of the murder or manslaughter of Harry Stanley in 1999 and attempting to prevent the course of justice.
Harry Stanley, a father of three from Scotland, died after leaving a pub in Hackney carrying a table leg that had just been repaired in a plastic bag. An unknown person had made a call to the police from the pub, claiming he had seen an Irishman carrying a sawn-off shotgun wrapped in a plastic bag.
At the time Harry Stanley was recovering from major abdominal surgery and was unable to move or turn quickly.
The arrests of Chief Inspector Neil Sharman and PC Kevin Fagan follow new forensic evidence which contradicts the evidence given by the two officers about the circumstances of the shooting.
The officers claim they opened fire after shouting: “Stop, armed police”. They had approached Mr Stanley from behind, carrying their weapons drawn.
They said he had turned round and faced them and raised the object they believed to be a gun in a classic gunshot pose.
PC Fagan told the second inquest into the death that he has shouted “drop it” to Mr Stanley but that Stanley then confronted them in a “boxer’s stance”.
Fagan then shot Stanley in the hand while Sharman shot him in the head. A first inquest in June 2002 returned an open verdict.
The second inquest in October last year returned a verdict of unlawful killing, which sparked a fresh investigation into the case by Surrey Police.
The new forensic evidence concerns the positions of the entry and exit wounds, which contradict the account given by the two officers but could strengthen claims by Harry Staley’s family that they believe he was shot in the back.
The family have campaigned since his death for a full investigation and for justice.
Harry Stanley, a father of three from Scotland, died after leaving a pub in Hackney carrying a table leg that had just been repaired in a plastic bag. An unknown person had made a call to the police from the pub, claiming he had seen an Irishman carrying a sawn-off shotgun wrapped in a plastic bag.
At the time Harry Stanley was recovering from major abdominal surgery and was unable to move or turn quickly.
The arrests of Chief Inspector Neil Sharman and PC Kevin Fagan follow new forensic evidence which contradicts the evidence given by the two officers about the circumstances of the shooting.
The officers claim they opened fire after shouting: “Stop, armed police”. They had approached Mr Stanley from behind, carrying their weapons drawn.
They said he had turned round and faced them and raised the object they believed to be a gun in a classic gunshot pose.
PC Fagan told the second inquest into the death that he has shouted “drop it” to Mr Stanley but that Stanley then confronted them in a “boxer’s stance”.
Fagan then shot Stanley in the hand while Sharman shot him in the head. A first inquest in June 2002 returned an open verdict.
The second inquest in October last year returned a verdict of unlawful killing, which sparked a fresh investigation into the case by Surrey Police.
The new forensic evidence concerns the positions of the entry and exit wounds, which contradict the account given by the two officers but could strengthen claims by Harry Staley’s family that they believe he was shot in the back.
The family have campaigned since his death for a full investigation and for justice.
Thursday, June 02, 2005
Bank workers strike over peanuts
AROUND 3,000 members of the union Amicus employed by the HSBC bank took strike action last Friday in protest over a pay deal that left 10 per cent of staff with no pay rise and another 45 per cent with below-inflation rises.
The union picketed the annual shareholders’ meeting in London on the day of the strike, handing out peanuts to those attending to express their feelings about the pay – and warned there would be further industrial action.
Shareholders turning up at the meeting were offered peanuts by protesting staff, highlighting the derogatory pay deal that has been imposed on them despite record profits of £9.6 billion.
Shouts of “HSBC pays peanuts!” filled the air as Amicus members did all they could to raise awareness of their employer’s actions.
The response from shareholders was varied but many understood the need to reward staff for their hard work.
The shareholders’ meeting challenged HSBC chairperson Sir John Bond about his £3.6 million pay packet. One shareholder said this was like “winning the lottery at the weekend as well as during the week”.
One of the striking members of staff was also a shareholder. He told the meeting: “I hope you [Sir John Bond] can sleep at night because I know people who can’t sleep at night because they can’t pay their bills.”
Among the comments made by various shareholders to the picketing strikers were: “The staff should be paid more and they [HSBC] should also employ more staff in the branches; they’ve made enough money.”
“Staff should definitely receive at least the rate of inflation; they are the ones who make the money.”
“Of course I support the staff, totally.”
Rob O’Neill, Amicus national secretary for HSBC was there to show his support. He spoke out about the impending strike action. “It has become very clear that further strikes could go ahead, we are very reluctant to take this action but we have been left with no other option. The staff work hard for their employers and this deserves to be recognised. The only way to resolve this dispute is through negotiation and so far HSBC have refused to do this.”
The bank tried to play down the impact of the strike, claiming that only 1,471 had taken part in the strike and then in a slip admitted that “thousands” had walked out.
The bank also claimed that none of its branches or processing centres had been closed while Amicus said that a processing centre in Birmingham had been closed, along with branches in Liverpool, Preston, Grantham and parts of Scotland had been closed.
And clearly HSBC was concerned about the strength of the strike because immediately after the shareholders’ meeting Michael Geoghegan, the head of retail operations in Britain, raced to Manchester to talk up morale in local branches.
Other senior staff left to carry out the same mission in South Wales and other areas of union militancy
The union picketed the annual shareholders’ meeting in London on the day of the strike, handing out peanuts to those attending to express their feelings about the pay – and warned there would be further industrial action.
Shareholders turning up at the meeting were offered peanuts by protesting staff, highlighting the derogatory pay deal that has been imposed on them despite record profits of £9.6 billion.
Shouts of “HSBC pays peanuts!” filled the air as Amicus members did all they could to raise awareness of their employer’s actions.
The response from shareholders was varied but many understood the need to reward staff for their hard work.
The shareholders’ meeting challenged HSBC chairperson Sir John Bond about his £3.6 million pay packet. One shareholder said this was like “winning the lottery at the weekend as well as during the week”.
One of the striking members of staff was also a shareholder. He told the meeting: “I hope you [Sir John Bond] can sleep at night because I know people who can’t sleep at night because they can’t pay their bills.”
Among the comments made by various shareholders to the picketing strikers were: “The staff should be paid more and they [HSBC] should also employ more staff in the branches; they’ve made enough money.”
“Staff should definitely receive at least the rate of inflation; they are the ones who make the money.”
“Of course I support the staff, totally.”
Rob O’Neill, Amicus national secretary for HSBC was there to show his support. He spoke out about the impending strike action. “It has become very clear that further strikes could go ahead, we are very reluctant to take this action but we have been left with no other option. The staff work hard for their employers and this deserves to be recognised. The only way to resolve this dispute is through negotiation and so far HSBC have refused to do this.”
The bank tried to play down the impact of the strike, claiming that only 1,471 had taken part in the strike and then in a slip admitted that “thousands” had walked out.
The bank also claimed that none of its branches or processing centres had been closed while Amicus said that a processing centre in Birmingham had been closed, along with branches in Liverpool, Preston, Grantham and parts of Scotland had been closed.
And clearly HSBC was concerned about the strength of the strike because immediately after the shareholders’ meeting Michael Geoghegan, the head of retail operations in Britain, raced to Manchester to talk up morale in local branches.
Other senior staff left to carry out the same mission in South Wales and other areas of union militancy
Liberty challenges Richmond child curfew
THE CIVIL rights pressure group Liberty is supporting the case of an unnamed 15-year-old boy who is challenging a Metropolitan Police curfew imposed on all children under 16 in two areas of Richmond-upon-Thames.
The boy, who lives in one of the areas, claims the curfews make it impossible for him to attend band practice, take the dog for a walk or run errands for his mother.
The Met has designated the areas as “child dispersal areas”, where any unaccompanied child under 16 who ventures into the areas after 9pm is liable to be arrested and escorted home, whether or not they have misbehaved.
The areas cover parks, bus stops, cinemas, railway stations and other public places.
The court was told that more than 400 dispersal areas have been set up in England and Wales under the 2003 Anti-Social Behaviour Act, giving police sweeping powers to disperse troublemakers and force them to go home.
The boy told the court, in a written statement: “I resent being taken home because I feel I am old enough to be independent. I’m worried about being picked up and taken home by police when I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m also worried that if I am taken home by police other people will see me and think I have done something wrong.”
Javan Herberg, the lawyer representing the boy, said the effect was to create curfew zones which violated the human rights of innocent young people and were an abuse of common law.
Liberty’s legal officer, Alex Gask, said: “There is a real danger of sweeping ‘anti-yob powers’ demonising an entire generation of mostly decent kids.”
Meanwhile probation officers warn that anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) are increasingly being used against prostitutes as a “quick fix” way of clearing them off the streets.
They say that the Asbos have effectively reintroduced jail sentences for offences such as loitering and soliciting – which have not been imprisonable offences for more than a decade. Breaching an Asbo can lead to a five-year sentence.
The boy, who lives in one of the areas, claims the curfews make it impossible for him to attend band practice, take the dog for a walk or run errands for his mother.
The Met has designated the areas as “child dispersal areas”, where any unaccompanied child under 16 who ventures into the areas after 9pm is liable to be arrested and escorted home, whether or not they have misbehaved.
The areas cover parks, bus stops, cinemas, railway stations and other public places.
The court was told that more than 400 dispersal areas have been set up in England and Wales under the 2003 Anti-Social Behaviour Act, giving police sweeping powers to disperse troublemakers and force them to go home.
The boy told the court, in a written statement: “I resent being taken home because I feel I am old enough to be independent. I’m worried about being picked up and taken home by police when I’ve done nothing wrong. I’m also worried that if I am taken home by police other people will see me and think I have done something wrong.”
Javan Herberg, the lawyer representing the boy, said the effect was to create curfew zones which violated the human rights of innocent young people and were an abuse of common law.
Liberty’s legal officer, Alex Gask, said: “There is a real danger of sweeping ‘anti-yob powers’ demonising an entire generation of mostly decent kids.”
Meanwhile probation officers warn that anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) are increasingly being used against prostitutes as a “quick fix” way of clearing them off the streets.
They say that the Asbos have effectively reintroduced jail sentences for offences such as loitering and soliciting – which have not been imprisonable offences for more than a decade. Breaching an Asbo can lead to a five-year sentence.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Defeat the BNP in Dagenham
Goresbrook, Dagenham by-election 23 June 2005
Anti-BNP campaign activities
The BNP is fighting to retain its only council seat in London in a by-election caused by the resignation of Dan Kelley, 11 days after the BNP’s failure at the general election. Barking and Dagenham Together is mounting an active campaign to ensure that the residents of Goresbrook will not be failed again by the BNP.
Kelley won the seat with 51 per cent of the vote last September but, confronted by a well organised and ongoing community campaign against his party, he threw in the towel citing ill health. In his short term of office he distinguished himself only for telling a journalist that he hadn’t got a clue about what he was doing. “There’s meetings that go right over my head and there’s little point in me being there,” he said. “I’m wasting my time.”
The BNP’s new candidate will be Lawrence Rustem, a man notoriously disliked and distrusted by his fellow party members, because he is a half Turkish Muslim. Nevertheless he polled high percentages in by-elections in Village and Valence wards, Dagenham, last year. His campaign in Village ward used leaflets full of lies in a bid to stoke up fear and resentment in the community.
A failure by the BNP to retain Goresbrook would represent a major blow to the party’s plans to fight most of the seats on Barking and Dagenham council next May and any other by-elections that come up across London.
This by-election is very important and we need the help of as many people as possible. Please pass this notice on to all your contacts.
Saturday 4 June and Saturday 18 June
Mass leaflet distribution, from 10.30am
Tuesday 21 June
Targeted distribution of election material, from 6.00pm
Meet at The Labour Hall, Junction of Tenterden Road and Green Lane, Dagenham.
(nearest stations Dagenham Heathway and Chadwell Heath,
buses 5, 87, 103, 150, 173, 175 pass nearby)
Please bring cars wherever possible (especially on 21 June) for transport to designated streets in the ward.
Anti-BNP campaign activities
The BNP is fighting to retain its only council seat in London in a by-election caused by the resignation of Dan Kelley, 11 days after the BNP’s failure at the general election. Barking and Dagenham Together is mounting an active campaign to ensure that the residents of Goresbrook will not be failed again by the BNP.
Kelley won the seat with 51 per cent of the vote last September but, confronted by a well organised and ongoing community campaign against his party, he threw in the towel citing ill health. In his short term of office he distinguished himself only for telling a journalist that he hadn’t got a clue about what he was doing. “There’s meetings that go right over my head and there’s little point in me being there,” he said. “I’m wasting my time.”
The BNP’s new candidate will be Lawrence Rustem, a man notoriously disliked and distrusted by his fellow party members, because he is a half Turkish Muslim. Nevertheless he polled high percentages in by-elections in Village and Valence wards, Dagenham, last year. His campaign in Village ward used leaflets full of lies in a bid to stoke up fear and resentment in the community.
A failure by the BNP to retain Goresbrook would represent a major blow to the party’s plans to fight most of the seats on Barking and Dagenham council next May and any other by-elections that come up across London.
This by-election is very important and we need the help of as many people as possible. Please pass this notice on to all your contacts.
Saturday 4 June and Saturday 18 June
Mass leaflet distribution, from 10.30am
Tuesday 21 June
Targeted distribution of election material, from 6.00pm
Meet at The Labour Hall, Junction of Tenterden Road and Green Lane, Dagenham.
(nearest stations Dagenham Heathway and Chadwell Heath,
buses 5, 87, 103, 150, 173, 175 pass nearby)
Please bring cars wherever possible (especially on 21 June) for transport to designated streets in the ward.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
Barking council workers furious
STAFF employed by the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham are outraged at a decision by the council’s assembly on 18th May to agree on the nod the removal of the right of appeal for the whole workforce.
More than 100 council employees had attended the meeting to lobby their employers only to see the draconian measure passed swiftly without debate or even acknowledgement of the presence of the workers.
One worker, a member of the GMB general union, wrote to the councillors: “I was one of the Barking and Dagenham council employees (and a ratepayer) who attended the full council assembly meeting on Wednesday 18th May.
“I attended in the hope of being able to address councillors before they voted to take away employees’ right to appeal to them concerning work-related matters.
“I have to say I am disgusted at the way we were completely ignored and the vote went through without any discussion with the employees that this matter concerns.
“In fact before the vote it wasn’t even mentioned by title what they were voting on and the vote went ahead and passed on what seemed like a nod, not even a show of hands.
“The assembly’s failure to even address the staff has led to a petition that has collected over 1,000 signatures in the first four days.”
Tony Morris, Transport and General Workers’ Union convenor at Barking and Dagenham, said: “Rob Whiteman, chief executive, has managed to earn himself a bad reputation among council staff.”
Sandra Vincent, APEX/GMB convenor at Barking and Dagenham council said: “At the moment, if any council employee is put under disciplinary action or has a grievance against the council, including accusations of bullying, harassment and discrimination and the grading of jobs, they have the right of appeal to councillors.
“As a result of the assembly’s failure to tackle the new chief executive Rob Whitman over his disgraceful proposal, the staff will lose that right as from the 1st of June this year.”
Unison branch secretary Tony Browne said: “If the council thinks that by pretending its workforce don’t exist, this issue will just go away, they’d better think again, and quickly. We’ll be back at the next assembly with a petition signed by thousands of the workforce, and we’ll keep coming back until we are acknowledged and listened to.”
More than 100 council employees had attended the meeting to lobby their employers only to see the draconian measure passed swiftly without debate or even acknowledgement of the presence of the workers.
One worker, a member of the GMB general union, wrote to the councillors: “I was one of the Barking and Dagenham council employees (and a ratepayer) who attended the full council assembly meeting on Wednesday 18th May.
“I attended in the hope of being able to address councillors before they voted to take away employees’ right to appeal to them concerning work-related matters.
“I have to say I am disgusted at the way we were completely ignored and the vote went through without any discussion with the employees that this matter concerns.
“In fact before the vote it wasn’t even mentioned by title what they were voting on and the vote went ahead and passed on what seemed like a nod, not even a show of hands.
“The assembly’s failure to even address the staff has led to a petition that has collected over 1,000 signatures in the first four days.”
Tony Morris, Transport and General Workers’ Union convenor at Barking and Dagenham, said: “Rob Whiteman, chief executive, has managed to earn himself a bad reputation among council staff.”
Sandra Vincent, APEX/GMB convenor at Barking and Dagenham council said: “At the moment, if any council employee is put under disciplinary action or has a grievance against the council, including accusations of bullying, harassment and discrimination and the grading of jobs, they have the right of appeal to councillors.
“As a result of the assembly’s failure to tackle the new chief executive Rob Whitman over his disgraceful proposal, the staff will lose that right as from the 1st of June this year.”
Unison branch secretary Tony Browne said: “If the council thinks that by pretending its workforce don’t exist, this issue will just go away, they’d better think again, and quickly. We’ll be back at the next assembly with a petition signed by thousands of the workforce, and we’ll keep coming back until we are acknowledged and listened to.”
Racist cop trapped by mobile phone record
A KURDISH youth who faced outrageous racist abuse from a Metropolitan Police constable secretly recorded the tirade on his mobile phone and now the constable faces the sack within weeks.
PC David Yates is currently suspended from duty and facing a criminal investigation after a court heard a recording in which he allegedly told the youth, during an arrest, that he would “smash his fucking Arab head in”.
Yates had gone to court last Friday to testify against the youth, who had been charged with a public order offence and who was arrested by Yates.
The case against the youth was thrown out of court as the judge ruled that Yates’s evidence was unreliable.
Yates had arrested the 16-year-old previously on suspicion of rape but the boy had been cleared in court.
The conversation recorded on the youth’s mobile phone featured obscenities, racist abuse and a threat to frame the boy.
Now the Police Complaints Authority is looking into the incident.
Arzu Pesman of the Kurdish Federation in Britain said her community faced routine prejudice. “Police are looking at people’s faces and considering they are criminals,” she said.
And she added that the focus on immigration during the recent election campaign had added to the abuse faced by Kurds.
PC David Yates is currently suspended from duty and facing a criminal investigation after a court heard a recording in which he allegedly told the youth, during an arrest, that he would “smash his fucking Arab head in”.
Yates had gone to court last Friday to testify against the youth, who had been charged with a public order offence and who was arrested by Yates.
The case against the youth was thrown out of court as the judge ruled that Yates’s evidence was unreliable.
Yates had arrested the 16-year-old previously on suspicion of rape but the boy had been cleared in court.
The conversation recorded on the youth’s mobile phone featured obscenities, racist abuse and a threat to frame the boy.
Now the Police Complaints Authority is looking into the incident.
Arzu Pesman of the Kurdish Federation in Britain said her community faced routine prejudice. “Police are looking at people’s faces and considering they are criminals,” she said.
And she added that the focus on immigration during the recent election campaign had added to the abuse faced by Kurds.
Thousands march for Palestine in London
SEVERAL thousand workers last Saturday assembled on London’s Victoria Embankment for a short but noisy and colourful march to Trafalgar Square in support of the demands of the Palestinian people for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and the right to return for all displaced Palestinian refugees and their families.
There were many Palestinian organisations on the march, along with trade unions, political parties and many other progressive groups who marched on regardless of several sudden and heavy showers.
There were also several Jewish groups, including the Jewish Socialist Group and Torah Jewry who were there to express solidarity with the Palestinians and to remind the world that the imperialist Zionist Sharon government in no way represents all Jews.
The demonstration is held annually on the weekend nearest to 15th May, the anniversary of the end of the British colonial mandate in Palestine in 1948 and the violent birth of the modern state of Israel, which led to the expulsion of over a million Palestinians from their homes and the Deir Yassin Massacre.
Speakers at the Trafalgar Square rally included many representatives of Palestinian organisations and regulars like Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, peace campaign veteran Bruce Kent and Tony Benn.
Also present, recently returned from his headline grabbing trip to Washington was George Galloway, the newly-elected Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.
He had lost none of his articulacy as he lambasted the deed, carried out “in that House of criminals just down the road” (Parliament) where Balfour betrayed the Palestinian Arabs and gave their land – over which he had no rightful authority – away to a third party, resulting in the state of Israel.
He also had some very harsh words for the corrupt Arab princes who time and again betray the Palestinians in order to pander to the American and British imperialists.
“The Arab peoples will never be free until they deal with them,” he told the crowd.
There were many Palestinian organisations on the march, along with trade unions, political parties and many other progressive groups who marched on regardless of several sudden and heavy showers.
There were also several Jewish groups, including the Jewish Socialist Group and Torah Jewry who were there to express solidarity with the Palestinians and to remind the world that the imperialist Zionist Sharon government in no way represents all Jews.
The demonstration is held annually on the weekend nearest to 15th May, the anniversary of the end of the British colonial mandate in Palestine in 1948 and the violent birth of the modern state of Israel, which led to the expulsion of over a million Palestinians from their homes and the Deir Yassin Massacre.
Speakers at the Trafalgar Square rally included many representatives of Palestinian organisations and regulars like Islington North Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn, peace campaign veteran Bruce Kent and Tony Benn.
Also present, recently returned from his headline grabbing trip to Washington was George Galloway, the newly-elected Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow.
He had lost none of his articulacy as he lambasted the deed, carried out “in that House of criminals just down the road” (Parliament) where Balfour betrayed the Palestinian Arabs and gave their land – over which he had no rightful authority – away to a third party, resulting in the state of Israel.
He also had some very harsh words for the corrupt Arab princes who time and again betray the Palestinians in order to pander to the American and British imperialists.
“The Arab peoples will never be free until they deal with them,” he told the crowd.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Barking workers defend union rights
TRADE UNIONISTS gathered outside a councillors’ assembly meeting on Wednesday, 18th May in Barking Town Hall to protest at a proposal to remove the right of appeal from the borough’s 6,000 council workers if they have a problem at work.
The joint trade unions, including the GMB, the Transport and General Workers’ Union and Unison, applied to address the assembly.
Currently, if any council employee is put under disciplinary action or has a grievance against the council, including accusations of bullying, harassment and discrimination and the grading of jobs, they have the right of appeal.
But if the council’s new chief executive, Rob Whiteman, has his way, that right will be removed.
GMB convenor Sandra Vincent said: “Councillors are being told that this change is necessary because, apparently, in some other councils where there is no final appeal to councillors, staff morale is allegedly higher than in Barking and Dagenham!
“This is of course nonsense. Staff morale will be made worse if directors and managers are no longer accountable to councillors at appeals for their decisions on matters like sex discrimination, bullying and harassment.”
Unison branch secretary Tony Browne said: “Our experiences show that the other councils who have done similar have had huge increases in legal costs as workers go to court seeking justice denied them locally. As usual the local ratepayer foots the bill.”
TGWU convenor Tony Morris said: “If the right of appeal is taken away from Baking and Dagenham’s employees then a vital safety net will be removed from all council employees and a serious wedge put between the workforce and the employer. This is all about taking power from elected councillors and giving it to unelected managers.”
The joint trade unions, including the GMB, the Transport and General Workers’ Union and Unison, applied to address the assembly.
Currently, if any council employee is put under disciplinary action or has a grievance against the council, including accusations of bullying, harassment and discrimination and the grading of jobs, they have the right of appeal.
But if the council’s new chief executive, Rob Whiteman, has his way, that right will be removed.
GMB convenor Sandra Vincent said: “Councillors are being told that this change is necessary because, apparently, in some other councils where there is no final appeal to councillors, staff morale is allegedly higher than in Barking and Dagenham!
“This is of course nonsense. Staff morale will be made worse if directors and managers are no longer accountable to councillors at appeals for their decisions on matters like sex discrimination, bullying and harassment.”
Unison branch secretary Tony Browne said: “Our experiences show that the other councils who have done similar have had huge increases in legal costs as workers go to court seeking justice denied them locally. As usual the local ratepayer foots the bill.”
TGWU convenor Tony Morris said: “If the right of appeal is taken away from Baking and Dagenham’s employees then a vital safety net will be removed from all council employees and a serious wedge put between the workforce and the employer. This is all about taking power from elected councillors and giving it to unelected managers.”
Galloway socks it to the Senate
GEORGE Galloway, London's newly elected Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow who won on a platform of opposition to the invasion of Iraq, last Tuesday stunned the United States Senate sub committee on investigations, which has accused him of taking bribes from Saddam Hussein.
He attended a session of the committee to refute the slanders against him and to attack the United States government for its imperialist policies towards Iraq over decades.
The accusations were a rehash of old allegations made against Galloway, on the basis of which he won substantial libel damages from the Daily Telegraph last year.
The evidence produced included his name on a list of alleged beneficiaries of Saddam’s oil vouchers arising from the oil for food programme.
But on the list George Galloway’s name has clearly been added in a crude cut-and-paste job. The name is squeezed in, in a different typeface, a smaller size and at a slight angle to other names.
The first of these lists or alleged beneficiaries appeared in January last year in the Al-Mada newspaper, published in the US-run Green Zone of Baghdad.
forged
A month later the newspaper Al Watan published an account of Sajad Ahmad Ali, who claimed to have forged the original Arabic document obtained by Al-Mada.
He said: “I’d like to indicate here that it was us who made – that is to say we forged – this list of names and titles of people who got money from the ministry of information, the palace and the oil for food programme.”
He went on to explain how it was done by steaming bits of paper and then drying them out to make them look old.
At the Senate sub committee hearing in Washington, Galloway listened patiently to a long list of charges read out by Senator Norm Coleman and then answered, in a clear, calm voice: “Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one – and neither has anyone on my behalf.
“Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice.
“I am here today but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever having written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice?”
He went on to deal point by point with the allegations against him. The Senate accused him of many meetings with Saddam.
“I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein,” Galloway said, “once in 1994 and once on August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as ‘many meetings’ with Saddam Hussein.
“As a matter of fact I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns.
“I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try to persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country – a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defence made of his.”
Galloway then outlined his long and consistent record of activity to oppose the Saddam regime when Britain and the US were backing it in the war against Iran.
He then dealt with the forged documents used in evidence against him and the bogus lists of people supposed to have been bribed by Saddam. These included 270 names, among them the late Pope and the former head of the African National Congress and “many others who had one defining characteristic in common: they all stood against the policy of sanctions and war which you vociferously prosecuted and which has led us to this disaster,” Galloway said.
busters
He concluded by pointing out that the real sanction busters were not the people accused by the Senate but the US government itself.
“Have a look at the real oil-for-food scandal,” he said. “Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq’s wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Haliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq’s money but the money of the American taxpayer.
“Have a look at the oil you didn’t even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went to who knows where?
“Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it.
“Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee – that the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians.
“The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own government.”
The US government is now trying to portray Galloway as a minor, unimportant figure compared to the Russians, French and others they are also accusing. But George Galloway’s remarks are likely to it much harder for them to sustain any accusation against anybody.
He attended a session of the committee to refute the slanders against him and to attack the United States government for its imperialist policies towards Iraq over decades.
The accusations were a rehash of old allegations made against Galloway, on the basis of which he won substantial libel damages from the Daily Telegraph last year.
The evidence produced included his name on a list of alleged beneficiaries of Saddam’s oil vouchers arising from the oil for food programme.
But on the list George Galloway’s name has clearly been added in a crude cut-and-paste job. The name is squeezed in, in a different typeface, a smaller size and at a slight angle to other names.
The first of these lists or alleged beneficiaries appeared in January last year in the Al-Mada newspaper, published in the US-run Green Zone of Baghdad.
forged
A month later the newspaper Al Watan published an account of Sajad Ahmad Ali, who claimed to have forged the original Arabic document obtained by Al-Mada.
He said: “I’d like to indicate here that it was us who made – that is to say we forged – this list of names and titles of people who got money from the ministry of information, the palace and the oil for food programme.”
He went on to explain how it was done by steaming bits of paper and then drying them out to make them look old.
At the Senate sub committee hearing in Washington, Galloway listened patiently to a long list of charges read out by Senator Norm Coleman and then answered, in a clear, calm voice: “Senator, I am not now, nor have I ever been, an oil trader and neither has anyone on my behalf. I have never seen a barrel of oil, owned one, bought one, sold one – and neither has anyone on my behalf.
“Now I know that standards have slipped in the last few years in Washington but for a lawyer you are remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice.
“I am here today but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question, without ever having contacted me, without ever having written to me or telephoned me, without any attempt to contact me whatsoever. And you call that justice?”
He went on to deal point by point with the allegations against him. The Senate accused him of many meetings with Saddam.
“I have had two meetings with Saddam Hussein,” Galloway said, “once in 1994 and once on August of 2002. By no stretch of the English language can that be described as ‘many meetings’ with Saddam Hussein.
“As a matter of fact I have met Saddam Hussein exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is that Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns.
“I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war, and on the second of the two occasions, I met him to try to persuade him to let Dr Hans Blix and the United Nations weapons inspectors back into the country – a rather better use of two meetings with Saddam Hussein than your own Secretary of State for Defence made of his.”
Galloway then outlined his long and consistent record of activity to oppose the Saddam regime when Britain and the US were backing it in the war against Iran.
He then dealt with the forged documents used in evidence against him and the bogus lists of people supposed to have been bribed by Saddam. These included 270 names, among them the late Pope and the former head of the African National Congress and “many others who had one defining characteristic in common: they all stood against the policy of sanctions and war which you vociferously prosecuted and which has led us to this disaster,” Galloway said.
busters
He concluded by pointing out that the real sanction busters were not the people accused by the Senate but the US government itself.
“Have a look at the real oil-for-food scandal,” he said. “Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq’s wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Haliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq’s money but the money of the American taxpayer.
“Have a look at the oil you didn’t even meter, that you were shipping out of the country and selling, the proceeds of which went to who knows where?
“Have a look at the $800 million you gave to American military commanders to hand out around the country without even counting it or weighing it.
“Have a look at the real scandal breaking in the newspapers today, revealed in the earlier testimony in this committee – that the biggest sanctions busters were not me or Russian politicians or French politicians.
“The real sanctions busters were your own companies with the connivance of your own government.”
The US government is now trying to portray Galloway as a minor, unimportant figure compared to the Russians, French and others they are also accusing. But George Galloway’s remarks are likely to it much harder for them to sustain any accusation against anybody.
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Blair on the rocks!
MILLIONS of working people voted last week to give Tony Blair and his “New Labour” platform of class collaboration and war a slap in the face that hopefully he will never recover from.
The Blairites may crow that this is the first time Labour has won an election three times in a row. But it is also true that Labour was returned with just 36 per cent of the vote – the lowest share of the popular vote won by any prime minister in history. It’s even lower than the 37 per cent won by Ramsay MacDonald in 1929, whose minority Labour Government was propped up by the Liberals. Not since 1929 has a party with fewer than ten million votes formed a government.
Labour MPs who had taken the principled stand on Iraq fared better in the poll that cost Labour 47 seats and reduced their overall majority to 66. The Tories made the biggest gains by drumming up their faithful on a racist platform that focused on gypsies and immigrants. Though the turn-out was slightly higher than last time many Labour supporters stayed at home. Others opted for the Liberal Democrats or protest candidates like maverick former Labour MP George Galloway who spectacularly defeated the pro-war Blairite in Bethnal Green on his new Respect ticket in a campaign that revolved almost entirely around the Iraq war.
Tony Blair told us immediately after the results were known that “we have got to listen to the people and respond wisely and sensibly” to the will of the British people. Well the best response he can give is to pack his bags and leave Downing Street at once before he does even more damage to the labour movement that he has done his best to wreck over the past nine years.
The first signs are not promising. After his momentary act of contrition Blair is trying to carry on as if nothing has happened. His new Government contains all the old, useless faces. Discredited David Blunkett has been brought back into the Cabinet and Andrew Adonis, one of his back-room cronies who only joined the Labour Party in 1995, has been made a peer to take up a job in the education department.
The most venal, reactionary, and aggressive elements of the ruling class – those dark forces who believe their best interests are served in alliance with American imperialism – have no alternative but to continue backing Blair. Blair’s departure would leave George W Bush totally isolated in the world and jeopardise American imperialism’s insane bid for world domination.
But the pro-European wing of Britain’s ruling circles will be heartened at the swing to the Liberal Democrats and the strengthening of that section of the Parliamentary Labour Party in favour of greater European integration.
Many more in the Labour Party now realise that Blair is an albatross around their necks that must be dumped if Labour is to remain the party of government in five years time. Some of them want Blair out at any price and believe that Gordon Brown could serve their interests. But the Chancellor is no alternative nor is his succession a foregone conclusion.
Brown has been Blair’s partner in all his treachery to the labour movement. A cosmetic change at the top will not lead to the return to traditional Labour values that millions of working people want nor will it fool the electorate next time round.
The question of who leads the Labour Party can only be answered by the labour movement itself. Demands for Blair’s resignation are spreading far beyond the ranks of the left of the Labour Party.
One Labour MP has already volunteered to act as a “stalking horse” against Blair if he gets enough support from Labour’s parliamentary bloc to trigger a leadership election. Not a moment must be lost in the drive to kick Blair out now.
new worker editorial
The Blairites may crow that this is the first time Labour has won an election three times in a row. But it is also true that Labour was returned with just 36 per cent of the vote – the lowest share of the popular vote won by any prime minister in history. It’s even lower than the 37 per cent won by Ramsay MacDonald in 1929, whose minority Labour Government was propped up by the Liberals. Not since 1929 has a party with fewer than ten million votes formed a government.
Labour MPs who had taken the principled stand on Iraq fared better in the poll that cost Labour 47 seats and reduced their overall majority to 66. The Tories made the biggest gains by drumming up their faithful on a racist platform that focused on gypsies and immigrants. Though the turn-out was slightly higher than last time many Labour supporters stayed at home. Others opted for the Liberal Democrats or protest candidates like maverick former Labour MP George Galloway who spectacularly defeated the pro-war Blairite in Bethnal Green on his new Respect ticket in a campaign that revolved almost entirely around the Iraq war.
Tony Blair told us immediately after the results were known that “we have got to listen to the people and respond wisely and sensibly” to the will of the British people. Well the best response he can give is to pack his bags and leave Downing Street at once before he does even more damage to the labour movement that he has done his best to wreck over the past nine years.
The first signs are not promising. After his momentary act of contrition Blair is trying to carry on as if nothing has happened. His new Government contains all the old, useless faces. Discredited David Blunkett has been brought back into the Cabinet and Andrew Adonis, one of his back-room cronies who only joined the Labour Party in 1995, has been made a peer to take up a job in the education department.
The most venal, reactionary, and aggressive elements of the ruling class – those dark forces who believe their best interests are served in alliance with American imperialism – have no alternative but to continue backing Blair. Blair’s departure would leave George W Bush totally isolated in the world and jeopardise American imperialism’s insane bid for world domination.
But the pro-European wing of Britain’s ruling circles will be heartened at the swing to the Liberal Democrats and the strengthening of that section of the Parliamentary Labour Party in favour of greater European integration.
Many more in the Labour Party now realise that Blair is an albatross around their necks that must be dumped if Labour is to remain the party of government in five years time. Some of them want Blair out at any price and believe that Gordon Brown could serve their interests. But the Chancellor is no alternative nor is his succession a foregone conclusion.
Brown has been Blair’s partner in all his treachery to the labour movement. A cosmetic change at the top will not lead to the return to traditional Labour values that millions of working people want nor will it fool the electorate next time round.
The question of who leads the Labour Party can only be answered by the labour movement itself. Demands for Blair’s resignation are spreading far beyond the ranks of the left of the Labour Party.
One Labour MP has already volunteered to act as a “stalking horse” against Blair if he gets enough support from Labour’s parliamentary bloc to trigger a leadership election. Not a moment must be lost in the drive to kick Blair out now.
new worker editorial
Labour concern over Barking BNP vote
SENIOR Labour Party officials have launched a scathing attack on the poor performance of the Barking constituency party, and its MP Margaret Hodge, for failing to run a campaign against the British National Party candidate, Richard Barnbrook, even though the BNP had declared its intention to focus its campaigning on Barking.
The BNP won 16.9 per cent of the vote and came third. The Tories secured second place by just 27 votes.
Anti-fascists staged a big campaign, delivering newsletters, in both Barking and neighbouring Dagenham but concentrated more on Dagenham because the BNP had won a council seat there last year.
Labour strategists noted that the BNP switched its focus from Dagenham to Barking precisely because of the strength of the anti-fascist campaign there. In Dagenham the BNP won only nine per cent.
The BNP won 16.9 per cent of the vote and came third. The Tories secured second place by just 27 votes.
Anti-fascists staged a big campaign, delivering newsletters, in both Barking and neighbouring Dagenham but concentrated more on Dagenham because the BNP had won a council seat there last year.
Labour strategists noted that the BNP switched its focus from Dagenham to Barking precisely because of the strength of the anti-fascist campaign there. In Dagenham the BNP won only nine per cent.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Londoners pay tribute to Red Army heroism
REPRESENTATIVES of veterans’ organisations, trade unions, international embassies, the Government and the monarchy assembled at the Soviet war memorial in the grounds of the Imperial War Museum in south London last Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism in Europe.
The event was organised by the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund. There were brief speeches from Philip Matthews, who chairs the trust fund; Councillor Anne Yates, the Mayor of Southwark; Secretary of State for Defence John Reid; Andrei Chupin, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Russian Embassy and Cyril Herbert of Southwark Royal British Legion.
One wreath was laid by Kira Ivanova, a military veteran and survivor of the siege of Leningrad. Representatives of the embassies of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan laid wreaths.
Other wreaths were laid by the president of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Duke of Kent; Mayor Anne Yates, John Reid, and Bob Wareing on behalf of the House of Commons; the TUC general council and London regions Ucatt – plus many more.
Auschwitz survivor and life-long campaigner against fascism Leon Greenman was among the crowd, as was Henry Metelmann, a former panzer driver at Stalingrad who has devoted his life since the war to campaigning for peace and against fascism.
It was a dignified ceremony with the most powerful messages coming from the veterans who remembered the war against Nazism first hand.
But it lacked the red flags, the hammer and sickle symbols and the music of the Soviet Union. Nor was there any acknowledgement that the Red Army fought and died to defend Soviet socialism – a workers’ state of justice and equality led by Stalin.
Meanwhile veterans’ organisations were critical of the events of the day before in Whitehall to mark the end of the war in Europe. The only event organised by the Government was a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall with a single band, only one member of the royal family and John Reid the sole representative of the Government.
Much bigger and more spectacular events were organised in capital cities across Europe.
The event was organised by the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund. There were brief speeches from Philip Matthews, who chairs the trust fund; Councillor Anne Yates, the Mayor of Southwark; Secretary of State for Defence John Reid; Andrei Chupin, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Russian Embassy and Cyril Herbert of Southwark Royal British Legion.
One wreath was laid by Kira Ivanova, a military veteran and survivor of the siege of Leningrad. Representatives of the embassies of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan laid wreaths.
Other wreaths were laid by the president of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the Duke of Kent; Mayor Anne Yates, John Reid, and Bob Wareing on behalf of the House of Commons; the TUC general council and London regions Ucatt – plus many more.
Auschwitz survivor and life-long campaigner against fascism Leon Greenman was among the crowd, as was Henry Metelmann, a former panzer driver at Stalingrad who has devoted his life since the war to campaigning for peace and against fascism.
It was a dignified ceremony with the most powerful messages coming from the veterans who remembered the war against Nazism first hand.
But it lacked the red flags, the hammer and sickle symbols and the music of the Soviet Union. Nor was there any acknowledgement that the Red Army fought and died to defend Soviet socialism – a workers’ state of justice and equality led by Stalin.
Meanwhile veterans’ organisations were critical of the events of the day before in Whitehall to mark the end of the war in Europe. The only event organised by the Government was a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph in Whitehall with a single band, only one member of the royal family and John Reid the sole representative of the Government.
Much bigger and more spectacular events were organised in capital cities across Europe.
Monday, May 09, 2005
This week in London 6.5.2005
Massive turnout for May Day
MAY DAY, Workers’ Day, was celebrated by thousands all around Britain last Sunday with a huge variety of events.
In London around 40,000 people filled Trafalgar Square for a Rock Concert under the banner of Unite Against Fascism.
They were joined by a large and colourful march of trade unionists and international community groups – several thousand strong – who had set off from Clerkenwell Green.
The march, organised by the South East Regional TUC, was ablaze with colourful banners and several different bands and three choirs provided music for the marchers.
Speaking for Sertuc, Laurie Helsden said: “We organise our march extremely well. We work very well with the police so violence has nothing to do with the traditions of May Day and it has never occurred on the May Day march itself.”
When they arrived in Trafalgar Square it was to hear music from rock singer Pete Doherty, soul singer Terri Walker and rhythm and blues singer Estelle.
There were also speeches from veteran campaigner Tony Benn and London mayor Ken Livingstone.
RMT marchers reach London
THE GROUP of 25 rail workers marching from Glasgow to London over the past two weeks to demand the renationalisation of our railways reached their destination last Saturday.
The Rail Against Privatisation (RAP) march was accompanied by hundreds of rail workers and supporters as they went from Whitehall to a public rally in Camden Town Hall.
Speakers at the rally included Tony Bann, RMT general secretary Bob Crow, Jeremy Corbyn MP, John McDonnell MP, Communication Workers’ Union general secretary Billy Hayes and PCS civil service union general secretary Mark Serwotka.
“The RAP marchers have had a great reception in the 14 towns and cities they have already visited,” said Bob Crow. “The message they have received, loud and clear, all along the way, is that Britain wants a publicly owned railway.
“That is what rail users want, it is what the unions want and it is what the Labour Party overwhelmingly voted for – and it is about time that choice was put before the British people.
“There is a huge rail rebate to be had from bringing rail back into the public sector.
“RMT has shown that public ownership can release huge funds to help get projects like Crossrail started, put staff back on our deserted stations, keep rural railways on track and promote a fairer fares policy.”
The march passed through Edinburgh, Newcastle, Durham, York, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Derby, Nottingham, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Northampton on its way from Glasgow to London, with public meetings off the route in Dover, Cardiff, Bristol and Exeter.
RMT points out that in 1993-94, the year before privatisation, more than 90 per cent of trains ran on time. But in the year to December 2004, after a decade of privatisation, only 82.8 per cent ran on time.
The £4.5 billion public subsidy paid to the railway industry is now more than three times the subsidy paid to British Rail.
A recent report by the independent think-tank Catalyst calculated that £800 million a year is taken out of the industry as returns to private lenders and investors – a total leakage of more than £6 billion since 1996.
The RMT has also pointed out that passengers on British railways pay the highest fares per mile of any in Europe.
The walk-on standard far from London to Manchester (303 km) is £93.50, compares to £22.70 for a similar distance in France, £30 in Spain, £18.50 in Italy’ £42 in Germany and £23.54 in Belgium.
Bob Crow said: “When GNER agreed to pay a franchise of more than £1 billion for the east coast mainline service, RMT warned that the only way this money could be raised was by raising fares and cutting services.
“Our analysis shows that fares on this line are already three times higher than on journeys of similar length in the nationalised railways in Belgium and France.
“But fares per mile on the Virgin West Coast line are even higher. Rail privatisation has turned UK rail fares into a lottery and it is set to get worse.”
Workers’ Memorial Day
By Mike Fletcher and Caroline Colebrook
THOUSANDS of workers all around Britain and the world last Thursday marched in tribute to fellow workers who have died through injury or sickness as a result of their work – and in protest at the negligence of employers that allows so many unnecessary accidents to happen.
In London around 300 trades unionists gathered at Bankside on the south bank of the Thames to march to the new London County Hall for a rally with Mayor Ken Livingstone.
There were many colourful union banners, from the construction union Ucatt, from the Transport and General Workers’ Union, from public sector union Unison and from the general union GMB.
The march passed many construction sites along the way where workers on the sites were invited to join the marchers for a few moments to pay respects to workers killed on building sites and to call for better safety measures. Some of them did.
The rally at County Hall was addressed by a number of union leaders and activists, including Sertuc regional secretary Mick Connolly, Ucatt regional secretary Jerry Swaine and Keith Norman, the acting general secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef.
They spoke of the 72 building workers who have died in Britain in the last year in preventable accidents, 28 of them in London. Most of the accidents were from falls but there had also been many workers crushed, buried, or died when vehicles overturned.
One building inspector told the crowd that it was his duty to step in after fatalities had happened. He said: “I am not supposed to get emotionally involved but when you meet the families it is very hard not to.”
He cited one typical case where a young Ghanaian worker was killed when the vehicle with a telescopic platform (a cherry-picker) he was driving had overturned. The man had been given no training on how to operate the machine. He had not even been told there was a safety belt under the rubbish beside his seat that would have saved his life.
Chief among the demands made was for stronger corporate killing laws. “If you just fine rich bosses for corporate killing it means nothing to them,” said Jerry Swaine. “They figure that in with the running costs and if it’s still cheaper to ignore safety regulations they’ll carry on doing the same. It’s the nature of capitalism.”
They also demanded more resources for the Health and safety Executive so that it can do a proper job and more powers for union safety reps on sites, including protection from victimisation.
They cited many instances of safety reps being put on the redundancy list as soon as they were appointed.
They demanded powers for union safety reps to inspect all sites, including non-union sites and for proper safety training – two or three days every year – for all building workers, not just the bosses.
Too many workers die because they are asked to do potentially dangerous jobs with little or no training.
Ken Livingstone said: “I wholeheartedly back the call for zero tolerance of preventable workplace injuries and deaths.
“As London’s construction and transport projects increase, world-class health and safety standards are vital to maintain a world-class workforce.”
He promised to impose stringent health and safety conditions of all contracts for work for the Greater London Authority.
In Colchester members of the Amicus general union laid a memorial stone in Castle Park to workers who have died as a result of their work.
Among the trade unionists present were the local trades council, the Labour candidate for Colchester and local Labour councillors and members of the New Communist Party.
They discussed the need to fight for a Labour election victory and the local Labour Party welcomed the NCP’s affiliation to the Labour Representation Committee.
They discussed working together on many broad issues, such as the proposed closure of Colchester bus station.
Other events to mark Workers’ Memorial Day took place in Birmingham, Solihull, Bristol, Bradford, Cleethorpes, Coventry, Grimsby, Liverpool, Rochdale and Immingham.
They included vigils, observing silences, marches, wreath laying and speeches by union officers.
Abu Rideh jailed again
Mahmoud Abu Rideh, one of the alleged terror suspects detained for over three years without charge or trial first in Belmarsh prison and then Broadmoor high security hospital, has been returned to jail after being released last month for failure to comply with his control order.
Abu Rideh, a Palestinian and former victim of torture while a prisoner in Israel, has a history of mental illness and depression. He is now under 24-hour watch in the hospital wing of Brixton prison in south London.
He appeared before Bow Street magistrates court a week ago on charges of failing to comply with “any of the obligations” imposed on him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 “without reasonable excuse”.
But his arrest followed a decision that he could have his electronic tag removed while he underwent hospital psychiatric treatment. He was told it would not be re-attached as long as he was still receiving the treatment.
He was charged with breaching his control order when he visited a police station and told officers he did not want to have the tag refitted and would prefer to be returned to custody.
Shami Chakrabati, the director of the civil rights organisation Liberty, accused the Government of “chopping and changing” the terms of Abu Rideh’s regime, adding to the “cruelty and confusion suffered by this man”.
She said: “The Home Office confirmed that for a period of time that it had agreed to take the tag off. The faulty and cruel nature of control orders has been once again exposed.
“We are deeply alarmed at the suggestion that a man driven to the point of repeated self-harm may now be prosecuted for going to the police in a cry for help.”
The magistrates have referred his case to the High Court.
MAY DAY, Workers’ Day, was celebrated by thousands all around Britain last Sunday with a huge variety of events.
In London around 40,000 people filled Trafalgar Square for a Rock Concert under the banner of Unite Against Fascism.
They were joined by a large and colourful march of trade unionists and international community groups – several thousand strong – who had set off from Clerkenwell Green.
The march, organised by the South East Regional TUC, was ablaze with colourful banners and several different bands and three choirs provided music for the marchers.
Speaking for Sertuc, Laurie Helsden said: “We organise our march extremely well. We work very well with the police so violence has nothing to do with the traditions of May Day and it has never occurred on the May Day march itself.”
When they arrived in Trafalgar Square it was to hear music from rock singer Pete Doherty, soul singer Terri Walker and rhythm and blues singer Estelle.
There were also speeches from veteran campaigner Tony Benn and London mayor Ken Livingstone.
RMT marchers reach London
THE GROUP of 25 rail workers marching from Glasgow to London over the past two weeks to demand the renationalisation of our railways reached their destination last Saturday.
The Rail Against Privatisation (RAP) march was accompanied by hundreds of rail workers and supporters as they went from Whitehall to a public rally in Camden Town Hall.
Speakers at the rally included Tony Bann, RMT general secretary Bob Crow, Jeremy Corbyn MP, John McDonnell MP, Communication Workers’ Union general secretary Billy Hayes and PCS civil service union general secretary Mark Serwotka.
“The RAP marchers have had a great reception in the 14 towns and cities they have already visited,” said Bob Crow. “The message they have received, loud and clear, all along the way, is that Britain wants a publicly owned railway.
“That is what rail users want, it is what the unions want and it is what the Labour Party overwhelmingly voted for – and it is about time that choice was put before the British people.
“There is a huge rail rebate to be had from bringing rail back into the public sector.
“RMT has shown that public ownership can release huge funds to help get projects like Crossrail started, put staff back on our deserted stations, keep rural railways on track and promote a fairer fares policy.”
The march passed through Edinburgh, Newcastle, Durham, York, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Derby, Nottingham, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Northampton on its way from Glasgow to London, with public meetings off the route in Dover, Cardiff, Bristol and Exeter.
RMT points out that in 1993-94, the year before privatisation, more than 90 per cent of trains ran on time. But in the year to December 2004, after a decade of privatisation, only 82.8 per cent ran on time.
The £4.5 billion public subsidy paid to the railway industry is now more than three times the subsidy paid to British Rail.
A recent report by the independent think-tank Catalyst calculated that £800 million a year is taken out of the industry as returns to private lenders and investors – a total leakage of more than £6 billion since 1996.
The RMT has also pointed out that passengers on British railways pay the highest fares per mile of any in Europe.
The walk-on standard far from London to Manchester (303 km) is £93.50, compares to £22.70 for a similar distance in France, £30 in Spain, £18.50 in Italy’ £42 in Germany and £23.54 in Belgium.
Bob Crow said: “When GNER agreed to pay a franchise of more than £1 billion for the east coast mainline service, RMT warned that the only way this money could be raised was by raising fares and cutting services.
“Our analysis shows that fares on this line are already three times higher than on journeys of similar length in the nationalised railways in Belgium and France.
“But fares per mile on the Virgin West Coast line are even higher. Rail privatisation has turned UK rail fares into a lottery and it is set to get worse.”
Workers’ Memorial Day
By Mike Fletcher and Caroline Colebrook
THOUSANDS of workers all around Britain and the world last Thursday marched in tribute to fellow workers who have died through injury or sickness as a result of their work – and in protest at the negligence of employers that allows so many unnecessary accidents to happen.
In London around 300 trades unionists gathered at Bankside on the south bank of the Thames to march to the new London County Hall for a rally with Mayor Ken Livingstone.
There were many colourful union banners, from the construction union Ucatt, from the Transport and General Workers’ Union, from public sector union Unison and from the general union GMB.
The march passed many construction sites along the way where workers on the sites were invited to join the marchers for a few moments to pay respects to workers killed on building sites and to call for better safety measures. Some of them did.
The rally at County Hall was addressed by a number of union leaders and activists, including Sertuc regional secretary Mick Connolly, Ucatt regional secretary Jerry Swaine and Keith Norman, the acting general secretary of the train drivers’ union Aslef.
They spoke of the 72 building workers who have died in Britain in the last year in preventable accidents, 28 of them in London. Most of the accidents were from falls but there had also been many workers crushed, buried, or died when vehicles overturned.
One building inspector told the crowd that it was his duty to step in after fatalities had happened. He said: “I am not supposed to get emotionally involved but when you meet the families it is very hard not to.”
He cited one typical case where a young Ghanaian worker was killed when the vehicle with a telescopic platform (a cherry-picker) he was driving had overturned. The man had been given no training on how to operate the machine. He had not even been told there was a safety belt under the rubbish beside his seat that would have saved his life.
Chief among the demands made was for stronger corporate killing laws. “If you just fine rich bosses for corporate killing it means nothing to them,” said Jerry Swaine. “They figure that in with the running costs and if it’s still cheaper to ignore safety regulations they’ll carry on doing the same. It’s the nature of capitalism.”
They also demanded more resources for the Health and safety Executive so that it can do a proper job and more powers for union safety reps on sites, including protection from victimisation.
They cited many instances of safety reps being put on the redundancy list as soon as they were appointed.
They demanded powers for union safety reps to inspect all sites, including non-union sites and for proper safety training – two or three days every year – for all building workers, not just the bosses.
Too many workers die because they are asked to do potentially dangerous jobs with little or no training.
Ken Livingstone said: “I wholeheartedly back the call for zero tolerance of preventable workplace injuries and deaths.
“As London’s construction and transport projects increase, world-class health and safety standards are vital to maintain a world-class workforce.”
He promised to impose stringent health and safety conditions of all contracts for work for the Greater London Authority.
In Colchester members of the Amicus general union laid a memorial stone in Castle Park to workers who have died as a result of their work.
Among the trade unionists present were the local trades council, the Labour candidate for Colchester and local Labour councillors and members of the New Communist Party.
They discussed the need to fight for a Labour election victory and the local Labour Party welcomed the NCP’s affiliation to the Labour Representation Committee.
They discussed working together on many broad issues, such as the proposed closure of Colchester bus station.
Other events to mark Workers’ Memorial Day took place in Birmingham, Solihull, Bristol, Bradford, Cleethorpes, Coventry, Grimsby, Liverpool, Rochdale and Immingham.
They included vigils, observing silences, marches, wreath laying and speeches by union officers.
Abu Rideh jailed again
Mahmoud Abu Rideh, one of the alleged terror suspects detained for over three years without charge or trial first in Belmarsh prison and then Broadmoor high security hospital, has been returned to jail after being released last month for failure to comply with his control order.
Abu Rideh, a Palestinian and former victim of torture while a prisoner in Israel, has a history of mental illness and depression. He is now under 24-hour watch in the hospital wing of Brixton prison in south London.
He appeared before Bow Street magistrates court a week ago on charges of failing to comply with “any of the obligations” imposed on him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 “without reasonable excuse”.
But his arrest followed a decision that he could have his electronic tag removed while he underwent hospital psychiatric treatment. He was told it would not be re-attached as long as he was still receiving the treatment.
He was charged with breaching his control order when he visited a police station and told officers he did not want to have the tag refitted and would prefer to be returned to custody.
Shami Chakrabati, the director of the civil rights organisation Liberty, accused the Government of “chopping and changing” the terms of Abu Rideh’s regime, adding to the “cruelty and confusion suffered by this man”.
She said: “The Home Office confirmed that for a period of time that it had agreed to take the tag off. The faulty and cruel nature of control orders has been once again exposed.
“We are deeply alarmed at the suggestion that a man driven to the point of repeated self-harm may now be prosecuted for going to the police in a cry for help.”
The magistrates have referred his case to the High Court.
Friday, May 06, 2005
The Next Step
Workers get little out of bourgeois elections. Whoever wins the ruling class will still be there living off the backs of working people in Britain and throughout the world.
But we do get the chance to keep the most reactionary of the mainstream parties out of office and to elect the only party that is historically and organisationally linked to the trade union movement – the Labour Party. We also get the chance to raise popular demands that go far beyond the bourgeois agenda or the class-collaborationist policies of Blair and his side-kicks.
The Labour Party has been dominated by its right-wing throughout its history and when in office that right-wing has always sought to serve the dominant wing of the ruling class. Blair has aligned himself with the most venal, reactionary and aggressive section of the bourgeoisie – those that see their interests best served in alliance with US imperialism.
The anti-war movement vowed to make the Iraq war the key issue in this election and they have undeniably succeeded. The Tories, who supported the war, confined themselves to the question of Blair’s credibility. But the Liberal Democrats spent last week parading their anti-war credentials while ignoring that fact that it’s only this war they oppose – and that only on the grounds that they support the position of that part of the ruling class that wants to close ranks with Franco-German imperialism.
George Galloway’s robust campaign has certainly raised the issue in the East End of London but the same cannot be said for the other 25 Respect candidates across the country.
Blair’s masters of spin tell us that the only alternative to Labour is the Tories and in one sense that’s true as British bourgeois democracy revolves around a two-party system. They’re also starting to tell us that the only alternative to Blair is Gordon Brown implying that his succession is a foregone conclusion.
But there is a very real alternative to Blair and Brown and what they call “New Labour” and that’s the Labour Party itself.
Protest votes and maverick MPs cannot change the leadership of the Labour Party. Only the organised working class through its affiliated unions that provide the massive amounts of cash that keep Labour going can do that job. And that will only happen if there’s mass rank-and-file pressure on the leadership for change.
Capitalism can never solve the problems of working people nor is it intended to. It’s a system designed to ensure that the big bourgeoisie and those that serve them live the lives of Roman emperors through exploitation. All the wealth of the world is produced by workers in factories and peasants in the fields. All they get in return, apart from in the remaining socialist countries in Asia and the Caribbean is a tiny fraction of the wealth they produce.
All that “democracy” means to the bourgeoisie is manipulating the largest number of votes by the smallest number of people. Marking a cross in a ballot box every four of five years is a meaningless ritual unless it’s matched by a rising level of militancy and struggle. The anti-war campaign reached out to millions through mass actions on the streets in London and up and down the country. The demands for higher wages, better pensions, decent and affordable housing and a free health service that Britain can so easily afford will only be met through struggle against the employers and the bourgeois state that exists to serve the interests of the exploiters.
What we want is real democracy – people’s democracy; democracy for the masses that will pave the way for socialism and the end of poverty, classes and exploitation. The struggle began in the 19th century.
The election is over but the battle goes on!
But we do get the chance to keep the most reactionary of the mainstream parties out of office and to elect the only party that is historically and organisationally linked to the trade union movement – the Labour Party. We also get the chance to raise popular demands that go far beyond the bourgeois agenda or the class-collaborationist policies of Blair and his side-kicks.
The Labour Party has been dominated by its right-wing throughout its history and when in office that right-wing has always sought to serve the dominant wing of the ruling class. Blair has aligned himself with the most venal, reactionary and aggressive section of the bourgeoisie – those that see their interests best served in alliance with US imperialism.
The anti-war movement vowed to make the Iraq war the key issue in this election and they have undeniably succeeded. The Tories, who supported the war, confined themselves to the question of Blair’s credibility. But the Liberal Democrats spent last week parading their anti-war credentials while ignoring that fact that it’s only this war they oppose – and that only on the grounds that they support the position of that part of the ruling class that wants to close ranks with Franco-German imperialism.
George Galloway’s robust campaign has certainly raised the issue in the East End of London but the same cannot be said for the other 25 Respect candidates across the country.
Blair’s masters of spin tell us that the only alternative to Labour is the Tories and in one sense that’s true as British bourgeois democracy revolves around a two-party system. They’re also starting to tell us that the only alternative to Blair is Gordon Brown implying that his succession is a foregone conclusion.
But there is a very real alternative to Blair and Brown and what they call “New Labour” and that’s the Labour Party itself.
Protest votes and maverick MPs cannot change the leadership of the Labour Party. Only the organised working class through its affiliated unions that provide the massive amounts of cash that keep Labour going can do that job. And that will only happen if there’s mass rank-and-file pressure on the leadership for change.
Capitalism can never solve the problems of working people nor is it intended to. It’s a system designed to ensure that the big bourgeoisie and those that serve them live the lives of Roman emperors through exploitation. All the wealth of the world is produced by workers in factories and peasants in the fields. All they get in return, apart from in the remaining socialist countries in Asia and the Caribbean is a tiny fraction of the wealth they produce.
All that “democracy” means to the bourgeoisie is manipulating the largest number of votes by the smallest number of people. Marking a cross in a ballot box every four of five years is a meaningless ritual unless it’s matched by a rising level of militancy and struggle. The anti-war campaign reached out to millions through mass actions on the streets in London and up and down the country. The demands for higher wages, better pensions, decent and affordable housing and a free health service that Britain can so easily afford will only be met through struggle against the employers and the bourgeois state that exists to serve the interests of the exploiters.
What we want is real democracy – people’s democracy; democracy for the masses that will pave the way for socialism and the end of poverty, classes and exploitation. The struggle began in the 19th century.
The election is over but the battle goes on!
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
The NCP’s electoral policy
The NCP’s electoral policy calls on supporters to vote Labour in all elections, while boycotting European elections. This is not because we support the venal right-wing policies of New Labour, Blair and Brown.
This is not because we think a Labour government can solve the problems of working people - that is not possible in a capitalist 'democracy'. It is simply the best possible outcome in the current circumstances.
In our view a Labour government, with the as yet unbroken links the Labour Party, trade unions and the Labour movement, offers the best option for the working class in the era of bourgeois parliamentary democracy.
Alternative electoral policies to achieve a leftist or socialist government are nothing more than a mirage. The only realistic alternative governments -involving Tories or Liberal Democrats - would be worse than a Labour government.
We believe there have been gains since 1997 which would not have happened under the Tories: the peace process in Ireland, improved terms and conditions for workers, reduced child poverty, the restoration of the Greater London Authority, and the GLA’s successes under Ken Livingstone.
But solving the problems of working people, and ending Britain’s imperialist role in the world, can only come about through a socialist revolution and putting the working class in power.
This is not because we think a Labour government can solve the problems of working people - that is not possible in a capitalist 'democracy'. It is simply the best possible outcome in the current circumstances.
In our view a Labour government, with the as yet unbroken links the Labour Party, trade unions and the Labour movement, offers the best option for the working class in the era of bourgeois parliamentary democracy.
Alternative electoral policies to achieve a leftist or socialist government are nothing more than a mirage. The only realistic alternative governments -involving Tories or Liberal Democrats - would be worse than a Labour government.
We believe there have been gains since 1997 which would not have happened under the Tories: the peace process in Ireland, improved terms and conditions for workers, reduced child poverty, the restoration of the Greater London Authority, and the GLA’s successes under Ken Livingstone.
But solving the problems of working people, and ending Britain’s imperialist role in the world, can only come about through a socialist revolution and putting the working class in power.
New Labour's Transport Disaster
In 1997, improving the dire state of transport in Britain was a major item in Labour’s manifesto. Since then we have seen one broken promise after another, the only plus points being a 30 per cent reduction in congestion and a huge improvement in bus services in central London – both successes for ‘Old Labour’ mayor Ken Livingstone.
‘New Labour’s’ transport policies, on the other hand, are a very sad tale:
the government backtracked on its 1997 pledge to re-nationalise the railways; until recently Britain was the only country in the world to split control of railway companies from management of the tracks
rail privatisation was a disaster in terms of cost, safety and services, yet New Labour has continued to pour hundreds of millions in public money into the private rail companies’ coffers - with no improvement in services and increasing ticket prices.
even though privatisation was such a costly failure, Blair and Brown forced through privatisation of the London underground – one of many policies not included in election manifestoes – although the overwhelming majority of Londoners opposed it.
Londoners (and millions of visitors and tourists) are now paying the highest underground fares in Europe or America - and getting a very bad deal in return
Private contractors upgrading the tube’s infrastructure are earning guaranteed profits of £2m every week, while London Underground’s losses have rocketed from £50m in 1998 to £756m last year.
The real reason why after eight years New Labour has failed to deliver an integrated transport plan is that the public interest has taken second place to the oil, road-building, haulage and car companies.
So while car use has steadily increased, over the past 25 years of freight transport has shifted from environment-friendly rail and water transport onto the roads. The people of London are left with an inefficient and dirty system which creates huge health problems, and destroys the city’s quality of life.
‘New Labour’s’ transport policies, on the other hand, are a very sad tale:
the government backtracked on its 1997 pledge to re-nationalise the railways; until recently Britain was the only country in the world to split control of railway companies from management of the tracks
rail privatisation was a disaster in terms of cost, safety and services, yet New Labour has continued to pour hundreds of millions in public money into the private rail companies’ coffers - with no improvement in services and increasing ticket prices.
even though privatisation was such a costly failure, Blair and Brown forced through privatisation of the London underground – one of many policies not included in election manifestoes – although the overwhelming majority of Londoners opposed it.
Londoners (and millions of visitors and tourists) are now paying the highest underground fares in Europe or America - and getting a very bad deal in return
Private contractors upgrading the tube’s infrastructure are earning guaranteed profits of £2m every week, while London Underground’s losses have rocketed from £50m in 1998 to £756m last year.
The real reason why after eight years New Labour has failed to deliver an integrated transport plan is that the public interest has taken second place to the oil, road-building, haulage and car companies.
So while car use has steadily increased, over the past 25 years of freight transport has shifted from environment-friendly rail and water transport onto the roads. The people of London are left with an inefficient and dirty system which creates huge health problems, and destroys the city’s quality of life.
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