PRIME Minister David Cameron and former Prime Minister Tony Blair have been arguing over whether British society is deeply sick or just a bit off-colour around the fringes.
For once Cameron is right, British society is deeply sick and the rot comes from the top. The disease is capitalism and it divides the human race into the ruling class who have endlessly increasing wealth, comfort and ease at the expense of the working classes face lives of increasing poverty, debt, drudgery, unemployment, poor housing, poor education and lack of opportunities.
Under Blair’s government working people did get some amelioration in the social wage, better public services, access to higher education — though it was Blair who introduced student tuition fees.
There was a complex network of support services for the disabled involving benefits and services from the NHS and local government. It was often a fight to get it but it was a legal entitlement.
There was access to legal aid to secure justice, not just in criminal cases but in housing, benefits, family law and immigration. There were advice centres for working people to direct them and support them in getting grievances resolved.
There were youth services and dozens of inner-city projects aiming to steer young people away from street crime while their debt-enchained parents were forced to work so many hours they were left with little time for their children.
It was still a very unequal society and the wealth gap was growing steadily.
But the thousand-and-one services smoothed off the worst of the rough edges and made it just about tolerable. And workers on the whole just want to get on with their lives and feel secure from one day to the next. It takes a lot of pain to drive them to contemplate either rebellion or revolution.
But Cameron’s cuts — way beyond what was necessary to deal with Government debt and driven by right-wing Tory ideology — are supplying that pain. For a long time workers in Europe or even the United States would wonder at how passive and resigned the British working class has been, how much they have put up with that would have sparked anger and uprisings elsewhere. In other countries such measures as car clamps and street CCTV cameras never worked because they were automatically vandalised by outraged citizens as soon as they appeared.
Blair’s education policy of sending hundreds of thousands of young people into universities — ultimately at their own expense — gave people the illusion that they could rise in society and become middle class. In reality it was a way of keeping unemployment figures down and at the same time ensnaring young people into a lifetime of debt and passivity.
Both Blair and Cameron are promoters of the obscene proposition, dominant now throughout the global ruling classes, that poverty is a choice — that the poor are too lazy to make the most of their lives and their misfortunes entirely of their own making because they have “the wrong attitude”.
Dozens of self-help books promote this idea, telling people they must keep a positive (meek and acquiescent) attitude, change everything about themselves to fit in with what their capitalist bosses want, give their whole lives over to work and wealth will inevitably come their way. When this fails to happen they are told it is they who failed — not that they have been failed by capitalist society.
Cameron’s approach sweeps these illusions aside. His cuts are pure, ruthless class war. And they hurt the most vulnerable in society.
Young workers can see that those at the top — the bankers, MPs, top police officers, the Murdoch set — are all in it to make as much money as they can for themselves and to keep it to themselves. They can see how sick this society really is at the top.
They are a couple of generations away from the levels of class consciousness of the workers who built the trade unions, created the labour movement and fought for state welfare but they are starting to learn.
Those who are being hastily imprisoned for their role in the recent riots — 90 per cent of them have neither a job nor a place in higher or further education — will come out a lot less naïve than when they went in. For a start they’ll find a way to deal with street CCTV cameras.
But it is up to us to help them achieve a proper class political perspective, the importance of education, agitation and organisation — not just to defend themselves from ruling class vindictiveness but to go on the offensive against our truly sick ruling class.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Rough Justice
CAMERON’S LAW
by Daphne Liddle
THE RECENT RIOTS IN London that spread throughout the country gave the ruling class a scare. And now the bourgeois state machine, through the courts, is responding vindictively and handing out draconian custodial sentences to hundreds of people — most of whom were first offenders.
More than 2,770 people have been arrested in connection with last week’s riots; 1,277 suspects had appeared in court by last Tuesday and 64 per cent had been remanded in custody, compared to the 2010 remand rate of 10 per cent for serious offences. And two young men have been sentenced to four years in prison for using Facebook to incite a riot that never happened in Cheshire.
Paul Mendelle QC, who used to chair the Criminal Bar Association, told BBC Five Live: “When people get caught up and act out of character, in a similar way, there is a danger that the courts themselves may get caught up in a different kind of collective hysteria — I’m not suggesting violence or anything like that — but in purporting to reflect the public mood actually go over the top and hand out sentences which are too long and too harsh.”
There have been calls for rioters who are council tenants to be evicted and the London Borough of Wandsworth has already served an eviction notice on the family of one rioter. Similarly they are calling for rioters who are on benefits to be cut off.
These proposals are in total opposition to the international convention on human rights, which bans collective punishments — punishing a whole family for the offence of one member.
unequal
And it also puts council tenants and benefit claimants in an unequal position before the law. They would be liable to a far harsher punishment than someone not a council tenant or claimant who is found guilty of an identical offence.
Rendering people homeless and destitute is a very harsh punishment — even mass murderers in prison get food and a roof over their head.
The civil rights group Liberty said: “We fail to see how leaning on magistrates to lock up youngsters and evicting entire families — innocent siblings and all — from their homes — is justified.
“Crude spite is flawed, both in theory and practice, and will lead to more prob lems than it solves. Shutting down entire phone and social media networks — punishing innocent users and those warning others of violence — is as useless as it is disproportionate.”
defended
Prime Minister Cameron has defended the harsh sentences and claims that the courts are acting independently. But the Con-Dem Coalition and the media are exerting heavy pressure on magistrates, many of whom have been sitting day and night trying dozens of cases with little rest. What they are dishing out is anything but carefully considered justice.
And we are seeing staggering levels of hypocrisy from the Con-Dems. A letter in last Tuesday’s Evening Standard accused London Mayor Boris Johnson of breaking shop windows during a Bullingdon Club binge. And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has a conviction for youthful arson.
But these are minor offences compared to the vandalism against the fabric of our society being committed by the cuts this government is making for ideological reasons and that are worsening the country’s economic position by closing down so much economic activity.
The Con Dems and the media claim that the soft approach to dealing with delinquent youngsters is the cause of the “break down in society”. But the opposite is true.
It is no coincidence that there were no riots under the Labour government but that when we get a Tory-led government that implements savage social cuts we do get riots.
In previous centuries London had a long history of rioting and the London Mob was famous for it. It largely disappeared in the last century as the state welfare system grew in response to demands from the organised working class and labour movement — the sort of benefits that are now disappearing.
The riots have never been a race issue, they are a class issue. Various bourgeois pundits have ascribed them to poverty and to culture but they avoid the use of the “c” word — class.
They are the inarticulate anger of the true proletariat — those who have nothing to lose but their chains and no means of making a living except by selling their labour power on a fragile and temporary basis in a market rigged against them.
The fact that some better off opportunists joined in the looting does not change this.
The tragedy is that these young people are so inarticulate, have so little political perspective and are not yet organised. But they’re learning fast.
by Daphne Liddle
THE RECENT RIOTS IN London that spread throughout the country gave the ruling class a scare. And now the bourgeois state machine, through the courts, is responding vindictively and handing out draconian custodial sentences to hundreds of people — most of whom were first offenders.
More than 2,770 people have been arrested in connection with last week’s riots; 1,277 suspects had appeared in court by last Tuesday and 64 per cent had been remanded in custody, compared to the 2010 remand rate of 10 per cent for serious offences. And two young men have been sentenced to four years in prison for using Facebook to incite a riot that never happened in Cheshire.
Paul Mendelle QC, who used to chair the Criminal Bar Association, told BBC Five Live: “When people get caught up and act out of character, in a similar way, there is a danger that the courts themselves may get caught up in a different kind of collective hysteria — I’m not suggesting violence or anything like that — but in purporting to reflect the public mood actually go over the top and hand out sentences which are too long and too harsh.”
There have been calls for rioters who are council tenants to be evicted and the London Borough of Wandsworth has already served an eviction notice on the family of one rioter. Similarly they are calling for rioters who are on benefits to be cut off.
These proposals are in total opposition to the international convention on human rights, which bans collective punishments — punishing a whole family for the offence of one member.
unequal
And it also puts council tenants and benefit claimants in an unequal position before the law. They would be liable to a far harsher punishment than someone not a council tenant or claimant who is found guilty of an identical offence.
Rendering people homeless and destitute is a very harsh punishment — even mass murderers in prison get food and a roof over their head.
The civil rights group Liberty said: “We fail to see how leaning on magistrates to lock up youngsters and evicting entire families — innocent siblings and all — from their homes — is justified.
“Crude spite is flawed, both in theory and practice, and will lead to more prob lems than it solves. Shutting down entire phone and social media networks — punishing innocent users and those warning others of violence — is as useless as it is disproportionate.”
defended
Prime Minister Cameron has defended the harsh sentences and claims that the courts are acting independently. But the Con-Dem Coalition and the media are exerting heavy pressure on magistrates, many of whom have been sitting day and night trying dozens of cases with little rest. What they are dishing out is anything but carefully considered justice.
And we are seeing staggering levels of hypocrisy from the Con-Dems. A letter in last Tuesday’s Evening Standard accused London Mayor Boris Johnson of breaking shop windows during a Bullingdon Club binge. And Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has a conviction for youthful arson.
But these are minor offences compared to the vandalism against the fabric of our society being committed by the cuts this government is making for ideological reasons and that are worsening the country’s economic position by closing down so much economic activity.
The Con Dems and the media claim that the soft approach to dealing with delinquent youngsters is the cause of the “break down in society”. But the opposite is true.
It is no coincidence that there were no riots under the Labour government but that when we get a Tory-led government that implements savage social cuts we do get riots.
In previous centuries London had a long history of rioting and the London Mob was famous for it. It largely disappeared in the last century as the state welfare system grew in response to demands from the organised working class and labour movement — the sort of benefits that are now disappearing.
The riots have never been a race issue, they are a class issue. Various bourgeois pundits have ascribed them to poverty and to culture but they avoid the use of the “c” word — class.
They are the inarticulate anger of the true proletariat — those who have nothing to lose but their chains and no means of making a living except by selling their labour power on a fragile and temporary basis in a market rigged against them.
The fact that some better off opportunists joined in the looting does not change this.
The tragedy is that these young people are so inarticulate, have so little political perspective and are not yet organised. But they’re learning fast.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Youth rebellion explodes
New Worker editorial
TORY governments and inner-city riots seem to go together. And everything that David Cameron has done since he came to power just over a year ago has laid the grounds for the spontaneous explosions of youth anger and rebellion that have rocked London and now other major cities in Britain.
The job cuts, the benefit cuts, the youth service cuts — and the police cuts have swept away all the carefully constructed but fragile bridges and pathways out of poverty and deprivation that community members, youth workers, advice and counselling services had been constructing since riots of the 1980s.
Now today’s inner city youths are right back where their parents were a generation ago with no present, no future and being bullied by the state.
The police in their turn have their morale at rock bottom. The Con-Dem Coalition praises them and gives words of support while stabbing them in the back with job cuts, funding cuts and swingeing cuts in civilian support services. Then the Met Chief Constable, Sir Paul Stephenson and his number two both resign under allegations of bribery and corruption — and another police chief in Cleveland is suspended under allegations of corruption.
Public respect for the police has plummeted and the lower ranks are feeling the brunt.
The Government also swept away some of the regulations regarding stop-and-search and disgruntled young police officers have been using thus tactic to make a life a misery for youth throughout London — especially black youth.
The killing of a young black man in Tottenham last Thursday — followed by rumours that he had been shot while on the ground, sparked anger. The Independent Police Complaints Commission immediately began an inquiry. After literally hundreds of deaths in custody, the community knows that the role of the IPCC is to keep all information suppressed until the victim is forgotten by all but the grieving family. And after the cases of John Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson they do not trust the police.
But police at Tottenham police station could have defused the whole situation last Saturday if they had consented to a serious discussion with the family and supporters at the peaceful protest there. Instead they remained in their fortress for hours until a rumour began that a police officer had struck a teenage girl at the protest. Then everything exploded.
This is a rebellion, not a revolution. It has no leaders, very little political consciousness, no focus, no structure and no direction. The young rioters have not yet struck the ruling class with anything except fear. They have hit a lot of petty-bourgeois shopkeepers and some people in their own communities have been made homeless.
Mostly the youngsters seem elated at the helplessness of the over-stretched police to stop them and making the most of it while they can to grab some of the consumer goodies they thought they would never be able to afford.
It is not a race riot — black, white and brown youths have been running together. Their parents are Afro-Caribbean, Nigerian, Somali, Indian, Pakistani, Irish, every community you can think of. And their parents are bewildered and afraid. Mainly they are low-paid, very hard up inner city workers who lead lives of debt-saddled drudgery and deprivation.
But there are extreme right-wingers who will try to portray it as a “race war” and there is a danger of right-wing vigilantism.
And there is a much bigger danger. In the enclaves of the ruling class now and officers’ messes up and down the country there will be heated debates about what a hopeless milksop that Cameron is and plans being formed to step in.
Cameron has few options. He does not have enough police to enforce a curfew — and that would upset business in our 24/7 cities. The army is too small and mostly abroad fighting unnecessary wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. He does not have enough water cannon or people trained to use them.
Even worse, probably at the moment many members of the public, politically naïve, would welcome a “strong” force to intervene and “restore law and order” and we could wake up with a new Government that is fully fascist and racist before the organised Left has got its socks on.
One thing is certain, the police absolutely now must ban the provocative EDL march planned for 3rd September through the Muslim communities of London’s East End.
TORY governments and inner-city riots seem to go together. And everything that David Cameron has done since he came to power just over a year ago has laid the grounds for the spontaneous explosions of youth anger and rebellion that have rocked London and now other major cities in Britain.
The job cuts, the benefit cuts, the youth service cuts — and the police cuts have swept away all the carefully constructed but fragile bridges and pathways out of poverty and deprivation that community members, youth workers, advice and counselling services had been constructing since riots of the 1980s.
Now today’s inner city youths are right back where their parents were a generation ago with no present, no future and being bullied by the state.
The police in their turn have their morale at rock bottom. The Con-Dem Coalition praises them and gives words of support while stabbing them in the back with job cuts, funding cuts and swingeing cuts in civilian support services. Then the Met Chief Constable, Sir Paul Stephenson and his number two both resign under allegations of bribery and corruption — and another police chief in Cleveland is suspended under allegations of corruption.
Public respect for the police has plummeted and the lower ranks are feeling the brunt.
The Government also swept away some of the regulations regarding stop-and-search and disgruntled young police officers have been using thus tactic to make a life a misery for youth throughout London — especially black youth.
The killing of a young black man in Tottenham last Thursday — followed by rumours that he had been shot while on the ground, sparked anger. The Independent Police Complaints Commission immediately began an inquiry. After literally hundreds of deaths in custody, the community knows that the role of the IPCC is to keep all information suppressed until the victim is forgotten by all but the grieving family. And after the cases of John Charles de Menezes and Ian Tomlinson they do not trust the police.
But police at Tottenham police station could have defused the whole situation last Saturday if they had consented to a serious discussion with the family and supporters at the peaceful protest there. Instead they remained in their fortress for hours until a rumour began that a police officer had struck a teenage girl at the protest. Then everything exploded.
This is a rebellion, not a revolution. It has no leaders, very little political consciousness, no focus, no structure and no direction. The young rioters have not yet struck the ruling class with anything except fear. They have hit a lot of petty-bourgeois shopkeepers and some people in their own communities have been made homeless.
Mostly the youngsters seem elated at the helplessness of the over-stretched police to stop them and making the most of it while they can to grab some of the consumer goodies they thought they would never be able to afford.
It is not a race riot — black, white and brown youths have been running together. Their parents are Afro-Caribbean, Nigerian, Somali, Indian, Pakistani, Irish, every community you can think of. And their parents are bewildered and afraid. Mainly they are low-paid, very hard up inner city workers who lead lives of debt-saddled drudgery and deprivation.
But there are extreme right-wingers who will try to portray it as a “race war” and there is a danger of right-wing vigilantism.
And there is a much bigger danger. In the enclaves of the ruling class now and officers’ messes up and down the country there will be heated debates about what a hopeless milksop that Cameron is and plans being formed to step in.
Cameron has few options. He does not have enough police to enforce a curfew — and that would upset business in our 24/7 cities. The army is too small and mostly abroad fighting unnecessary wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. He does not have enough water cannon or people trained to use them.
Even worse, probably at the moment many members of the public, politically naïve, would welcome a “strong” force to intervene and “restore law and order” and we could wake up with a new Government that is fully fascist and racist before the organised Left has got its socks on.
One thing is certain, the police absolutely now must ban the provocative EDL march planned for 3rd September through the Muslim communities of London’s East End.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Threat of Police State
By Daphne Liddle
PRIME MINISTER David Cameron has authorised the use of water cannon and rubber bullets to quell the youth rebellion that has spread throughout the country.
Following a meeting of the national security council Cobra, Cameron said that police throughout the country are being issued with baton rounds (rubber bullets) and will have access to water cannon at 24-hours notice.
Meanwhile the Con-Dem Coalition claimed on Wednesday morning that flooding London’s streets last night with 16,000 police officers succeeded in preventing a fifth consecutive night of disorder and looting throughout the capital – though looting and arson continued in Canning Town, Barking and Tottenham.
Cameron made no attempt to disguise his hatred and contempt of the young rebels, referring to a “part of our society” that has “no respect”.
This is rich coming from a man who has, unprovoked in any way, for the past five months rained terror and mayhem down on the innocent citizens of Libya.
And after the parliamentary expenses scandal, the Murdoch media corruption scandal, the resignations of Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson, and his deputy, from their positions at the head of the Metropolitan Police, it is hard to know who these young people are supposed to feel respect for.
And when they see before them the unrestrained greed of the top bankers who take billion pound bailouts from the taxpayers and pocket most of it themselves in bonuses – while they face huge cuts in their living standards and life prospects – it is not hard to understand that the hatred and contempt between those at the top of our society and those at the bottom is mutual and growing.
This is not a race issue – young people of every race and ethnicity are involved and united. It is a class issue.
Cameron can count himself lucky that most of these young people have little political awareness, venting most of their anger in looting big stores and those of petty bourgeois retailers.
Violence erupted on Saturday evening in Tottenham four days after the shooting of a young man suspected of drug related offences. Initially the police claimed the man had been killed in an exchange of gunfire.
Now we know that only one bullet was fired, the one that killed Mark Duggan and then ricocheted into the radio of one of the police officers present. Some say that Duggan had been dragged from the minicab by the police and thrown on the ground before being shot.
The family of Mark Duggan and supporters wanted answers from the police and held a peaceful demonstration outside Tottenham police station. Police ignored their demands to speak to a senior officer for over four hours.
Then, after rumours that an officer had struck a teenage girl protester, the violence exploded. As more joined in it turned to looting. And as police seemed unable to stop it young people throughout the capital saw that police were unable to stop them and went out to share in the rebellion.
The Labour Representation Committee issued a statement, giving the background to the young people’s anger: “In March Haringey Council approved cuts of £84 million from a total budget of £273 million. There was a savage 75 per cent cut to the Youth Service budget, including: closing the youth centres; connexions careers advice service for young people reduced by 75 per cent; and the children’s centre service reduced.
“Haringey has one of the highest numbers of children living in severe poverty, and unemployment in the borough is among the highest in the UK. In London as a whole, youth unemployment is at 23 per cent….
“In Haringey, you are three times as likely to be stopped and searched if you are black; and over two-thirds of those stopped are under 25.”
Some are already suggesting that slowness of the police in tackling rioters in London while allowing fires to get a firm hold before making it safe for fire engines to approach was part of a hidden agenda to stampede the general public into accepting more draconian powers to repress all forms of protest during the
chaotic times ahead as the economy of western capitalism crumbles.
This week’s events demonstrate how quickly Britain’s passive and demoralised young working class can change their mood once they get a little confidence. But the only protection against the vicious backlash to come is to turn their anger into organised resistance that can end the whole rotten system once and for all.
Friday, August 05, 2011
Defending the right to protest
By New Worker correspondent
Campaigners showed their support for arrested students and anti-cuts protesters outside Westminster City Court in London on Saturday. The protest was organised by the Defend the Right to Protest campaign in support of those arrested at Fortnum & Mason occupation in Piccadilly during the TUC anti-cuts demonstration on 26th March and students arrested on the previous anti fees protest.
Activists were told by a senior police officer during the Fortnum & Mason occupation that they would not be detained if they ended their occupation. But they were promptly arrested when they left the building. Police later confirmed that the arrests were for intelligence gathering purposes.
The police originally charged 138 people with aggravated trespass. All their mobile phones, which contained details of secure networks and email accounts used to mobilise and organise actions, were confiscated.
The Defend the Right to Protest campaign is demanding that all prosecutions brought against protesters be dropped and that an inquiry be held into the process that has led to punitive sentences being meted out by the judiciary to those already convicted.
News roundup
RMT on Bombardier ‘fit-up’
RAIL UNION RMT last Tuesday issued a fresh call for the Government to reverse the decision to award the Thameslink fleet contract to German company Siemens in preference to Bombardier in Derby as the union revealed that over £15 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on advisers engaged in the tendering process.
RMT is calling on the National Audit Office to include the advisers and consultants costs in their investigations into the contract – particularly as these well-paid advisers totally failed to include the wider costs to the British economy in the tendering evaluation despite the fact that it is standard practice in other European countries.
The latest scandal around the Bombardier fit-up comes hot on the heels of evidence last week that the Government could simply rule out Siemens as preferred bidders without any comeback whatsoever as a result of the company’s track record globally of being involved in corrupt business practices.
There is no reason why the Government could not now award the work the only remaining and approved bidder, Bombardier in Derby.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “The news that over £15 million of taxpayers’ money has been soaked up in advisers and consultants fees to oil the wheels of the Bombardier stitch up just adds insult to injury.
“This is money that could have been invested in defending train manufacturing jobs in the UK instead of filling the pockets of City consultancy spivs. It’s time to bring this whole shabby exercise to a close and for the Government to step in and award this contract to the Derby work force. We are sick of the catalogue of excuses from various ministers and we are demanding urgent action.”
Rickshaw congestion warning
THE TRANSPORT union RMT last week warned that central London will be “jammed solid” with unlicensed and dangerous rickshaws as we head towards Olympics, with the authorities refusing to lift a finger to clampdown on the unregulated trade.
RMT London Taxi Branch has a clear position of opposition to rickshaws in London and last month RMT parliamentary group convenor John McDonnell successfully objected to the TFL London Local Authorities Bill at Second Reading – specifically on the grounds that it would lead to the continued proliferation of unlicensed, unsafe rickshaws clogging up central London.
This was an important and significant victory in the battle by RMT Taxi Branch to end the London rickshaw trade all together.
Now the RMT is demanding urgent action to clear the rickshaws off the busy streets of the capital before there is a fatality.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “There is a very real danger that the whole of central London could be clogged up with unlicensed and unregulated rickshaws in the run up to the Olympics if the authorities don’t get an urgent grip on the situation.
“Alongside the threat to the livelihoods of our licensed taxi branch members there is also the threat of serious injury to unwary members of the public who have no idea that they are climbing into uninsured and unregistered vehicles on London’s busy streets. We have heard reports of rip-off fares of as much as £50 for a journey of a few hundred metres.
“Our taxi branch is demanding action now before this chaotic situation spirals out of control and we will be leading a campaign on the streets and in Parliament to raise public awareness of the rickshaw threat and to force the authorities to end this trade before we have a tragedy on our hands.”
London nurse wins landmark equal pay case
THE PUBLIC sector union Unison helped a nurse win a landmark equal pay claim against City & Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust.
The Trust failed to justify Gloria Emmanuel’s pay being lower than her male comparator’s, a maintenance supervisor.
The first test case in the equal pay claims against NHS Trusts – of whether employers can justify paying women less than men under the old Whitley Council pay system – will have implications for thousands of claims being pursued.
Bronwyn McKenna, assistant general secretary of Unison, said: “This is a landmark case that should send out a clear signal to employers that it is not right to pay women less than men….
“Women are bearing the brunt of the Government cuts, as well as facing a rising cost of living. It is unfair to force women to take home less than a man for doing the equivalent job.
“This victory will have implications for thousands more NHS women workers’ cases.”
RAIL UNION RMT last Tuesday issued a fresh call for the Government to reverse the decision to award the Thameslink fleet contract to German company Siemens in preference to Bombardier in Derby as the union revealed that over £15 million of taxpayers’ money was spent on advisers engaged in the tendering process.
RMT is calling on the National Audit Office to include the advisers and consultants costs in their investigations into the contract – particularly as these well-paid advisers totally failed to include the wider costs to the British economy in the tendering evaluation despite the fact that it is standard practice in other European countries.
The latest scandal around the Bombardier fit-up comes hot on the heels of evidence last week that the Government could simply rule out Siemens as preferred bidders without any comeback whatsoever as a result of the company’s track record globally of being involved in corrupt business practices.
There is no reason why the Government could not now award the work the only remaining and approved bidder, Bombardier in Derby.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “The news that over £15 million of taxpayers’ money has been soaked up in advisers and consultants fees to oil the wheels of the Bombardier stitch up just adds insult to injury.
“This is money that could have been invested in defending train manufacturing jobs in the UK instead of filling the pockets of City consultancy spivs. It’s time to bring this whole shabby exercise to a close and for the Government to step in and award this contract to the Derby work force. We are sick of the catalogue of excuses from various ministers and we are demanding urgent action.”
Rickshaw congestion warning
THE TRANSPORT union RMT last week warned that central London will be “jammed solid” with unlicensed and dangerous rickshaws as we head towards Olympics, with the authorities refusing to lift a finger to clampdown on the unregulated trade.
RMT London Taxi Branch has a clear position of opposition to rickshaws in London and last month RMT parliamentary group convenor John McDonnell successfully objected to the TFL London Local Authorities Bill at Second Reading – specifically on the grounds that it would lead to the continued proliferation of unlicensed, unsafe rickshaws clogging up central London.
This was an important and significant victory in the battle by RMT Taxi Branch to end the London rickshaw trade all together.
Now the RMT is demanding urgent action to clear the rickshaws off the busy streets of the capital before there is a fatality.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “There is a very real danger that the whole of central London could be clogged up with unlicensed and unregulated rickshaws in the run up to the Olympics if the authorities don’t get an urgent grip on the situation.
“Alongside the threat to the livelihoods of our licensed taxi branch members there is also the threat of serious injury to unwary members of the public who have no idea that they are climbing into uninsured and unregistered vehicles on London’s busy streets. We have heard reports of rip-off fares of as much as £50 for a journey of a few hundred metres.
“Our taxi branch is demanding action now before this chaotic situation spirals out of control and we will be leading a campaign on the streets and in Parliament to raise public awareness of the rickshaw threat and to force the authorities to end this trade before we have a tragedy on our hands.”
London nurse wins landmark equal pay case
THE PUBLIC sector union Unison helped a nurse win a landmark equal pay claim against City & Hackney Teaching Primary Care Trust.
The Trust failed to justify Gloria Emmanuel’s pay being lower than her male comparator’s, a maintenance supervisor.
The first test case in the equal pay claims against NHS Trusts – of whether employers can justify paying women less than men under the old Whitley Council pay system – will have implications for thousands of claims being pursued.
Bronwyn McKenna, assistant general secretary of Unison, said: “This is a landmark case that should send out a clear signal to employers that it is not right to pay women less than men….
“Women are bearing the brunt of the Government cuts, as well as facing a rising cost of living. It is unfair to force women to take home less than a man for doing the equivalent job.
“This victory will have implications for thousands more NHS women workers’ cases.”
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Marxism: the choice of the Chinese people
 |
| Ambassador Liu opens the seminar |
by New Worker correspondent
NEW COMMUNIST Party leader Andy Brooks took part in a seminar with other communists, academics and labour movement leaders at the Chinese embassy in London last week, held to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai in 1921.
Around the theme of Marxism in China, the participants discussed the historic links between the British and Chinese people and the role of the Communist Party of China in liberating the country and leading the people’s republic into the 21st century.
Ambassador Liu Xiaoming opened the seminar with a keynote speech in which he said “Marxism became the choice of the Chinese people following a painstaking journey of exploration and perseverance since the second half of the 19th century,” in an opening that swept across the struggle of the Chinese communist movement over the decades to achieve liberation and practice and develop Marxism following the establishment of the people’s government in 1949.
“In 1921 the CPC started with 50 members,” he said. “Today, 90 years after its birth the CPC has become the world's largest ruling party with over 80 million members. Over the same period, China has been utterly transformed. In 1921 China was a poor, weak and underdeveloped country. Today, 90 years on, China is the second largest global economy. The Chinese people, once on the verge of crisis, are well on the path toward a great rejuvenation.”
Ambassador Liu was followed by openings from a panel that included historian and Labour MP Tristram Hunt, John Callow from the Marx Memorial Library, Graham Stevenson, who is president of the European Transport Workers’ Federation, Communist Party of Britain general secretary Robert Griffiths and Keith Bennett from the 48 Group Club, established in the early 1950s by progressive British businessmen to promote trade with the People’s Republic.
The efforts of the communist leadership to represent the advanced productive forces, the advanced culture and the interests of the broad masses to build a harmonious society were an underlying theme of most of the contributions to the discussion.
When the people’s government was established in 1949 China had the lowest standard of living in the world. Today China can now not only feed, cloth and educate its people but also provide consumer goods and living standards for working people unimaginable before liberation. China has a modern expanding economy that has withstood much of the current global capitalist crisis.
Feudal China was once the workshop of the world – a position it lost when it was exploited and plundered by the modern imperialists.
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| NCP leader Andy Brooks |
But as Andy Brooks pointed out: “In the 13th century China was ahead of Europe in per capita income terms. China accounted for one third of the world’s GDP in 1820. It was a global economic power during 18 of the past 20 centuries and it is only regaining the ground it lost because of the interference of imperialism during the 100 years from the mid 19th century”.
Other participants included Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, Prof John Ross, a former advisor to the Livingstone administration in London, Dr Jenny Clegg, a China specialist at the University of Central Lancashire and former Respect MP George Galloway.
Spotlight on Nepal
By New Worker correspondent
COMRADES gathered in central London for a New Worker meeting last week to hear a report from writer and journalist Peter Tobin, who has recently returned after six months in Nepal.
Tobin covered the current political situation there and the prospects for the UN-backed peace process, three-and-a-half years after the end of the civil war that brought about the fall of the feudal monarchy. He described the complex balance of internal and external forces, and how the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – the largest party in the Constituent Assembly – has consolidated its organisation in Nepal’s cities and towns and is resisting attempts to disarm and neutralise its armed wing: the People’s Liberation Army.
Tobin summarised the position of the pro-Indian Nepal Congress Party and the “constitutional” Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the current state of the bourgeois and feudal forces in Nepal and the role played by the Indian government and US imperialism in backing them.
Both Tobin and Kumar Sarkar, of Second Wave Publications, who also visited Nepal recently, discussed the emerging divisions within the UCPN(M) over strategy in the coming period and the advancement of the Nepali peoples’ revolutionary gains, and plans to hold the UCPN(Maoist)’s second party congress in the near future to resolve these questions.
COMRADES gathered in central London for a New Worker meeting last week to hear a report from writer and journalist Peter Tobin, who has recently returned after six months in Nepal.
Tobin covered the current political situation there and the prospects for the UN-backed peace process, three-and-a-half years after the end of the civil war that brought about the fall of the feudal monarchy. He described the complex balance of internal and external forces, and how the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – the largest party in the Constituent Assembly – has consolidated its organisation in Nepal’s cities and towns and is resisting attempts to disarm and neutralise its armed wing: the People’s Liberation Army.
Tobin summarised the position of the pro-Indian Nepal Congress Party and the “constitutional” Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the current state of the bourgeois and feudal forces in Nepal and the role played by the Indian government and US imperialism in backing them.
Both Tobin and Kumar Sarkar, of Second Wave Publications, who also visited Nepal recently, discussed the emerging divisions within the UCPN(M) over strategy in the coming period and the advancement of the Nepali peoples’ revolutionary gains, and plans to hold the UCPN(Maoist)’s second party congress in the near future to resolve these questions.
Party Day at the Centre
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| greetings from Poland |
By New Worker
correspondent
COMRADES and friends joined New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks and Party Chair Alex Kempshall in celebrating the NCP's founding day reception last Saturday at the Party Centre in London.
The New Communist Party of Britain was established in July 1977 and since then the Party has worked to build the communist movement and working class unity while upholding the tenets of Marxism-Leninism. But this work cannot be done alone. This was a point made by Andy Brooks and this was a theme echoed by friends old and new during the formal part of the proceedings.
Michael Chant from the RCPB (ML) spoke of the consistent and principled co-operation between our two parties that began in 1994 and continues with greater depth today.
Kumar Sarkar from the South Asia Forum raised the problems of the communist movement in India and Nepal and Andrei from Polish Labour Party youth movement talked about the current struggle in Poland. Congratulatory messages were also received from Dermot Hudson of the UK Korean Friendship Association and Anton Johnson of the London Left Front Art group.
No NCP social ends without an appeal for the New Worker but this time it was to launch a special fund for the essential repair and restoration of part of the back of the Party building. National Treasurer Dolly Shaer said all donations earmarked for this fund would help to pay for the building work, which began last month with the clearing of the yard, and £143 was raised on the night.
Unite launches workers' "big society"!
by New Worker correspondent
THE GIANT union Unite last week chose the first anniversary of David Cameron’s “Big Society” to launch their own by inviting students, single parents, the unemployed and claimants to join the union under a new “community membership” scheme for just 50 pence-a-week.
Unite is considering offering legal support and education facilities under the community membership scheme in exchange for “collective community action”, which could include supporting industrial action or campaigns against job cuts.
And it is offering these services precisely to those made most vulnerable by the withdrawal of state services like legal aid, advice and general support services.
Last Tuesday evening a small rally in Whitehall saw the launch of the new scheme, attended by Unite officer Kingsley Abrams attended by Unite officer Kingsley Abrams – a former Lambeth councillor who campaigned for his council to refuse to implement Government cuts. Also in attendance were leading disability rights campaigners.
The next day Unite’s “Big Society” road show came to an end on Wednesday 20th July with the delivery to Downing Street of four massive anniversary cards, crammed full of hundreds of furious messages to the Prime Minister.
The trip to Downing Street of Unite voluntary sector workers ends a two-week road show which has taken in Dorset in the South West, Liverpool, Durham and London.
The event culminated with a mass rally in central London outside the Houses of Parliament.
Thousands of people have shared their stories which have exposed the true scale of the devastation being wrought by the Government’s cuts to communities across the country in the year since the Prime Minister launched his so-called “Big Society”.
Cameron launched his “Big Society” a year ago (19th July 2010) to great fanfare but during the past year, his government has snatched a staggering £4.4 billion from the voluntary sector – services are being slashed, jobs cut and charities have been left struggling to survive.
Sally Kosky, Unite national officer for the not-for-profit sector said: “The stories of the thousands of people who took the time to respond to us should serve as a wake up call to David Cameron and his ministers, but instead he continues to turn a blind eye to the devastation his cuts are causing to millions of people throughout the country.
“The Prime Minister’s idea of the ‘Big Society’ is an insult to the hundreds of thousands of voluntary sector workers who keep our elderly safe, our disabled supported, the young off the streets and give a voice to the most marginalised in society.
“Cameron and his millionaires’ cabinet need to stop hiding behind ever more elaborate cost-cutting gimmicks and face up to the fact that their can be no volunteers without a voluntary sector with professional staff to underpin its structure.”
Unite the union, which has 60,000 members in the not for profit sector, is calling on the Government to give back the £4.4 billion it has taken from the sector.
In an interview with the Guardian, the general secretary of Unite, Len McCluskey, warned that strikes by millions of state employees are “inevitable” this autumn because of Government inflexibility over pension reforms, while he criticised Labour party leader Ed Miliband for an “ill-advised” attack on last month’s public sector walkouts.
McCluskey said the trade union movement already reflects through its voluntary membership structure the Conservative party’s “big society” vision of non-state organisations taking a bigger role in running public services. “David Cameron is talking about the big society. Well we are here. In many ways we are the big society. It will include students, single parent families, unemployed people, and retired individuals. If they want to come join us in this large family where we can link our work places and families together, that’s the type of union that we are looking to develop.”
McCluskey added that the TUC march against public sector cuts this year, attended by 250,000 people, underlined the potential for a community membership project. “There are millions of people out there who are vulnerable and without a voice.
“As the 26th March demonstration showed, I will bet that there are tens of thousands of people who were not union members. The only organisations speaking up for people are trade unions. I want to extend our remit into areas where perhaps we have not represented people before. If advice bureaus close down where do people seek help?”
He criticised Labour’s record in power, saying that the party’s “absolute adherence to the financial markets and the slavish following of neo-liberalism” had created a poverty gap.
McCluskey added: “I think Ed was wrong to condemn the strikes on 30th June. He was ill-advised to condemn those workers. We are talking about teachers here.”
Friday, July 22, 2011
¡NO PASARAN!
by New Worker correspondent
Progressive musicians paid tribute to the fight for Spain at a concert dedicated to their memory last weekend. Piano virtuoso Michael Chant and contemporary musician Hugh Shrapnel, together with many other artists, assembled in London’s historic Bridewell Hall for an evening of music, song and poetry celebrating the stand against war and fascism of the heroes of the Spanish Republic and the International Brigade.
The hall, originally part of the St Bride’s printers’ library and polytechnic founded in 1894, was for decades used by Fleet Street print chapels and other nearby union branches for mass meetings and strike rallies. Now the renovated hall is home for broader cultural events. But last Saturday it returned to its roots with a concert organised by revolutionary musicians who had worked with the late Cornelius Cardew and the cutting edge Scratch Orchestra and People’s Liberation Music group back in the 1970s that later developed into the Progressive Cultural Association.
The main work, Song of Songs, written by Michael Chant, who also organised the event, was inspired by a poem by T E Nicholas, the Welsh communist also known as Niclas y Glais, who was a founder member of the old CPGB and a life-long revolutionary and struggler for peace.
Hugh Shrapnel and the De Madrugada (The Dawn) ensemble performed two pieces in memory of the International Brigaders and all those who fell in the battle to defeat Hitler and the Axis in the Second World War, while pianist Robert Coleridge played a composition dedicated to John Cornford, the communist poet who volunteered to fight in Spain and was killed in action in 1936.
A concert of music by Cornelius Cardew will take place at the Conway Hall, in central London, on Saturday 17th December to mark the 30th anniversary of his death. The communist musician and composer was killed on 13th December 1981 by a hit-and-run driver shortly after he had organised an anti-fascist concert to mark the 45th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War and the Battle of Cable Street.
News roundup
Tube bosses to rely on volunteers during Olympics
THE TRANSPORT union RMT last week warned of dangerous consequences as tube bosses plan to replace station staff with untrained volunteers during the Olympics
The union cast a public safety warning over London Underground’s Olympic strategy for staffing stations as it emerged they plan to use “Non-Licensed Volunteers” to work throughout stations doing “way finding” – a coded term for crowd control – a skill and task that should only be carried out by experienced competent members of staff.
The main reason behind LU’s plan to use volunteers is their admission to the unions that they need an extra 400-600 Olympic duties per day to able to cope with the demand.
This admission totally demolishes the company’s case for dumping station staff posts and solidly proves RMT’s point that the 650 operational jobs shed by the company this year was a short sighted and dangerous move that has now left them desperately short of personnel.
Care home fire safety 'horrifying'
THE CON-DEM Coalition is eager to make a “bonfire of red tape” by getting rid of as many regulations as possible and reducing health and safety inspections. But this may well lead to a real bonfire of residential care homes and the people living in them, according to the London Fire Brigade.
The FBU reports that dozens of care homes across London have been ordered to improve after failing to achieve even basic fire safety standards.
After hospitals, firefighters consider care homes to present the single greatest risk to life of any public buildings. Residents are often elderly, fragile or mentally ill.
But 29 care homes in the city have been discovered not reaching basic standards since 2010.
The London Fire Brigade issued each of the homes – many of which were breaching the law – with a legal Enforcement Order, compelling them to make changes.
The homes were guilty of breaches including:
No fire escape plans
No training for staff
No marked fire exits
Green Party London Assembly Member Jenny Jones said: "It is quite horrifying. In care homes you have some of the most vulnerable people in society – people who can't move around quickly. It's crucial those homes have good fire safety procedures.”
But residential care homes are under increasing pressure from rising costs at the same time as local authority cuts in the grants they can give per resident. So the problem is likely to get worse.
Ms Jones said: "At the moment fire checks only have to happen every four years. I'd say there's a strong argument for having them more often – particularly in places where there are vulnerable people."
Six of the 29 flawed homes were in Croydon. All are privately run.
THE TRANSPORT union RMT last week warned of dangerous consequences as tube bosses plan to replace station staff with untrained volunteers during the Olympics
The union cast a public safety warning over London Underground’s Olympic strategy for staffing stations as it emerged they plan to use “Non-Licensed Volunteers” to work throughout stations doing “way finding” – a coded term for crowd control – a skill and task that should only be carried out by experienced competent members of staff.
The main reason behind LU’s plan to use volunteers is their admission to the unions that they need an extra 400-600 Olympic duties per day to able to cope with the demand.
This admission totally demolishes the company’s case for dumping station staff posts and solidly proves RMT’s point that the 650 operational jobs shed by the company this year was a short sighted and dangerous move that has now left them desperately short of personnel.
Care home fire safety 'horrifying'
THE CON-DEM Coalition is eager to make a “bonfire of red tape” by getting rid of as many regulations as possible and reducing health and safety inspections. But this may well lead to a real bonfire of residential care homes and the people living in them, according to the London Fire Brigade.
The FBU reports that dozens of care homes across London have been ordered to improve after failing to achieve even basic fire safety standards.
After hospitals, firefighters consider care homes to present the single greatest risk to life of any public buildings. Residents are often elderly, fragile or mentally ill.
But 29 care homes in the city have been discovered not reaching basic standards since 2010.
The London Fire Brigade issued each of the homes – many of which were breaching the law – with a legal Enforcement Order, compelling them to make changes.
The homes were guilty of breaches including:
No fire escape plans
No training for staff
No marked fire exits
Green Party London Assembly Member Jenny Jones said: "It is quite horrifying. In care homes you have some of the most vulnerable people in society – people who can't move around quickly. It's crucial those homes have good fire safety procedures.”
But residential care homes are under increasing pressure from rising costs at the same time as local authority cuts in the grants they can give per resident. So the problem is likely to get worse.
Ms Jones said: "At the moment fire checks only have to happen every four years. I'd say there's a strong argument for having them more often – particularly in places where there are vulnerable people."
Six of the 29 flawed homes were in Croydon. All are privately run.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
by New Worker correspondent
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared at the High Court in London onTuesday to appeal against his extradition to Sweden over sex allegations. The former computer hacker was arrested in December over the sex assault claims, while WikiLeaks was in the process of releasing another huge cache of leaked US diplomatic cables. Assange says the claims are without basis and that he has no chance of a fair trial in Sweden because of the controversy around the case which followed an earlier massive leak of secret American documents. His lawyers also claim that if Assange was deported to Sweden he could then face extradition to the United States and incarceration in Guantánamo Bay on charges that carry the death penalty.
A toast to Kim Il Sung
By New Worker correspondent
Friends of Korea marked the passing of great leader Kim Il Sung, who died in July 1994, at the John Buckle bookshop in south London last week. During the formal part of the proceedings RCPB (ML) leader Michael Chant and NCP general secretary Andy Brooks both paid tribute to the contribution Kim Il Sung had made in the fight for Korean independence and in the world communist movement throughout his long and active life.
Friends of Korea marked the passing of great leader Kim Il Sung, who died in July 1994, at the John Buckle bookshop in south London last week. During the formal part of the proceedings RCPB (ML) leader Michael Chant and NCP general secretary Andy Brooks both paid tribute to the contribution Kim Il Sung had made in the fight for Korean independence and in the world communist movement throughout his long and active life.
Defending the Right to Protest
By New Worker correspondent
Demonstrators turned up outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday in solidarity with the UK Uncut activists who have been charged with “aggravated trespass” following their occupation of Fortnum & Mason’s store in Oxford Street during the big union march through London in March. The activists peacefully occupied the luxury West End store to highlight the owner’s tax avoidance schemes. They were told by the police that they would not be charged if they left quietly but 139 were arrested after they left the building.
At the hearing on 5th July their supporters were again threatened with arrest if they waved banners or started chanting by police who claimed that it was “unlawful” as they had not received 49 hours notice of the demonstration. Some taped their mouths in defiance but Labour MP John McDonnell, the leader of the Labour Representation Committee, reasoned with the police and the demo went ahead anyway without incident.
Demonstrators turned up outside Westminster Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday in solidarity with the UK Uncut activists who have been charged with “aggravated trespass” following their occupation of Fortnum & Mason’s store in Oxford Street during the big union march through London in March. The activists peacefully occupied the luxury West End store to highlight the owner’s tax avoidance schemes. They were told by the police that they would not be charged if they left quietly but 139 were arrested after they left the building.
At the hearing on 5th July their supporters were again threatened with arrest if they waved banners or started chanting by police who claimed that it was “unlawful” as they had not received 49 hours notice of the demonstration. Some taped their mouths in defiance but Labour MP John McDonnell, the leader of the Labour Representation Committee, reasoned with the police and the demo went ahead anyway without incident.
photo: John McDonnell at the picket
Save the NHS!
by New Worker correspondent
Thousands of health workers, trade unionists and campaigners marched through London on Tuesday 5th July in a “Save the NHS” protest called by Unite the union on the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the national health service. Led by Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey, the demonstrators marched through central London to a rally at Old Palace Yard, opposite Parliament, to hear speakers that included Labour Shadow Health Secretary John Healey.
Thousands of health workers, trade unionists and campaigners marched through London on Tuesday 5th July in a “Save the NHS” protest called by Unite the union on the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the national health service. Led by Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey, the demonstrators marched through central London to a rally at Old Palace Yard, opposite Parliament, to hear speakers that included Labour Shadow Health Secretary John Healey.
Remembering Spain
by New Worker
correspondent
This month Londoners stopped to remember the struggle and sacrifice of those who volunteered to defend the Spanish republic against General Franco’s rebels and his Nazi and Italian fascist allies during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union sent arms and materiel to the legitimate Popular Front government but Britain stood aside. Anglo-French imperialism tacitly supported the fascists with a policy of “non-intervention” that prevented the Spanish government from importing British or French arms while turning a blind eye to the intervention of Mussolini’s fascist legions and the Nazi Luftwaffe which ultimately proved decisive.
Some 4,000 volunteers from Britain and Ireland , many of them communists, went to Spain to aid the republican cause fighting in the ranks of the International Brigade or working in front-line medical services. Over 35,000 anti-fascists from all over the world rallied to the call to defend the doomed efforts of the Spanish republic to quell Franco’s rebellion.
This year the International Brigade Memorial Trust is holding a number of events around the country to mark the 75th anniversary of the Brigades' formation in October 1936 starting with the annual ceremony at the brigade memorial in Jubilee Gardens in London’s South Bank on Saturday 2nd July. Guests of honour included the Spanish ambassador and representatives from the Catalan regional government along with delegations from Swedish and German brigader associations. Wreaths were laid by representatives of the British Jewish Ex-Servicemen’s Association and Veterans for Peace from the United States along with those of two surviving veteran volunteers,Thomas Watters and David Lomon.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
End of an era in Greenwich fight against racism
By New Worker correspondent
THE GREENWICH Council for Racial Equality was formally wound up last Tuesday evening at its annual general meeting in Woolwich, after a long and successful fight against racism and discrimination in the area.
And it was still functioning fully until the end, providing services ranging from keep-fit classes for elderly Asian ladies to cultural groups, giving advice and support in discrimination cases at work and in schools, advice in immigration, benefits, health and many other issues – and providing a powerful counter to racist abuse and violence.
Its downfall was a tragedy. An internal audit last year threw up a suspicion of embezzlement. Instead of covering up the matter, as they might have been tempted, the organisation’s officers did the correct thing and informed the local council – GCRE’s major source of funding.
The council immediately suspended funding and undertook its own investigation. In the meantime it instructed GCRE to implement a major structural and management overhaul and advised them to use a consultant to draw up a new business plan.
GCRE did this but the consultant, though very expensive, failed to come up with a new viable business plan. The council agreed that GCRE officers – with the exception of two who have now been formally charged by police – had all acted responsibly and followed the council’s instructions.
But as Con-Dem government cuts policies began to sink in, the mood of the council changed. The suspended funding was not restored. The business plan was rejected out of hand.
And with the investigation in progress it was impossible to seek funding elsewhere.
The organisation soldiered on using reserves to pay staff and running costs until it reached a point where liabilities equalled assets and winding up was the only option.
Now the staff – with a wealth of experience and specialised skills – are all redundant.
It was a sad and shocked meeting on Tuesday night, the end of an era and the end of a powerful campaigning organisation that has fought fascism and racism in the area for decades.
It supported the families of race murder victims Rolan Adams, Rohit Duggal and Stephen Lawrence; it battled with serious racist attitudes in the local police; it led the fight for the closure of the BNP office in neighbouring Bexley and it set examples of how to fight racism in the community that have been followed around the country and internationally.
GCRE officers pioneered the tactic of countering racist attacks and abuse on estates by knocking on doors, talking to people from all backgrounds about their concerns, getting them all together in meetings, introducing them to each other so that black, white and brown could find out that they all had the same problems and that the minority of youths who were carrying out the racist attacks were also responsible for a lot of other anti-social behaviour.
GCRE lawyers won landmark cases against the police over the ill-treatment of young black people while in custody and GCRE officers ended up teaching police officers how to handle racism effectively and build community harmony – not once but over and over again as police officers were re-assigned, moved on and new ones showed up who had to be taught from scratch again.
Recently GCRE officers had been doing pioneering work to end the isolation of elderly Asian women, many of them with poor English, improving their access to health and social care.
The offices were always buzzing. If you visited on any week day there were singing groups, health classes going on all around. GCRE supported small cultural groups from many local ethnic communities and being under one roof enabled them to be aware of each other and build a truly multi-cultural community.
Now that must all go – and at a time when so many other services are being withdrawn and Islamophobia is growing into a serious danger.
But, as ever, the struggle goes on. A new organisation will be formed. It will have no funding at the start. It will only be able to provide a tiny fraction of the services that GCRE provided.
But it will be free to campaign in a much more political way and put pressure on the council, on the police and it will have a wealth of knowledge and experience to do this.
THE GREENWICH Council for Racial Equality was formally wound up last Tuesday evening at its annual general meeting in Woolwich, after a long and successful fight against racism and discrimination in the area.
And it was still functioning fully until the end, providing services ranging from keep-fit classes for elderly Asian ladies to cultural groups, giving advice and support in discrimination cases at work and in schools, advice in immigration, benefits, health and many other issues – and providing a powerful counter to racist abuse and violence.
Its downfall was a tragedy. An internal audit last year threw up a suspicion of embezzlement. Instead of covering up the matter, as they might have been tempted, the organisation’s officers did the correct thing and informed the local council – GCRE’s major source of funding.
The council immediately suspended funding and undertook its own investigation. In the meantime it instructed GCRE to implement a major structural and management overhaul and advised them to use a consultant to draw up a new business plan.
GCRE did this but the consultant, though very expensive, failed to come up with a new viable business plan. The council agreed that GCRE officers – with the exception of two who have now been formally charged by police – had all acted responsibly and followed the council’s instructions.
But as Con-Dem government cuts policies began to sink in, the mood of the council changed. The suspended funding was not restored. The business plan was rejected out of hand.
And with the investigation in progress it was impossible to seek funding elsewhere.
The organisation soldiered on using reserves to pay staff and running costs until it reached a point where liabilities equalled assets and winding up was the only option.
Now the staff – with a wealth of experience and specialised skills – are all redundant.
It was a sad and shocked meeting on Tuesday night, the end of an era and the end of a powerful campaigning organisation that has fought fascism and racism in the area for decades.
It supported the families of race murder victims Rolan Adams, Rohit Duggal and Stephen Lawrence; it battled with serious racist attitudes in the local police; it led the fight for the closure of the BNP office in neighbouring Bexley and it set examples of how to fight racism in the community that have been followed around the country and internationally.
GCRE officers pioneered the tactic of countering racist attacks and abuse on estates by knocking on doors, talking to people from all backgrounds about their concerns, getting them all together in meetings, introducing them to each other so that black, white and brown could find out that they all had the same problems and that the minority of youths who were carrying out the racist attacks were also responsible for a lot of other anti-social behaviour.
GCRE lawyers won landmark cases against the police over the ill-treatment of young black people while in custody and GCRE officers ended up teaching police officers how to handle racism effectively and build community harmony – not once but over and over again as police officers were re-assigned, moved on and new ones showed up who had to be taught from scratch again.
Recently GCRE officers had been doing pioneering work to end the isolation of elderly Asian women, many of them with poor English, improving their access to health and social care.
The offices were always buzzing. If you visited on any week day there were singing groups, health classes going on all around. GCRE supported small cultural groups from many local ethnic communities and being under one roof enabled them to be aware of each other and build a truly multi-cultural community.
Now that must all go – and at a time when so many other services are being withdrawn and Islamophobia is growing into a serious danger.
But, as ever, the struggle goes on. A new organisation will be formed. It will have no funding at the start. It will only be able to provide a tiny fraction of the services that GCRE provided.
But it will be free to campaign in a much more political way and put pressure on the council, on the police and it will have a wealth of knowledge and experience to do this.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
All Out on 30th June!
HUNDREDS of thousands of teachers and public servants are preparing to take action in the biggest protest so far against the Government’s cuts. And on the day they will be joined by many others who will refuse to cross picket lines. Over a million workers will be taking part in the day of action on 30th June, the biggest since the General Strike and the first massive blow of the union resistance to the Tory-led coalition’s austerity measures, which are driving down the living standards of millions upon millions of working people.
David Cameron’s government claims that it’s ready to negotiate but they’ve made it clear that there’s nothing to talk about accept the timetable for implementing the draconian measures designed to make workers pay for the capitalist crisis.
They claim that raising the retirement age, cutting pensions, reducing welfare benefits, cutting and privatising the health service and the rest of what remains of the public sector is inevitable. But it will only happen if we allow them to get away with it.
While we’re told to tighten our belts and work longer for less pay the rich are getting richer. The wealth of the millionaires has risen by 18 per cent collectively over the past year and the top 1,000 richest people in Britain now have between them over £60 billion more than they had a year ago.
These parasites live the lives of Roman emperors while working people, who produce all the wealth that they plunder, are expected to simply grin and bear it until the supposed “up-turn” comes round.
But the Tories and their Liberal Democrat collaborators have failed to undermine the action with their threat to bring in more anti-union legislation in the future. The bleats of the dregs of the Blairite faction, still in the Labour Party because they’ve nowhere else to go, have been ignored. However the response from the Labour leadership has been lukewarm at the best.
Miliband & Co want the unions’ support and they want they unions’ money but they don’t want to give much back in return. Labour’s “challenge” to the Cameron plan is little more than the feeble social-Keynesianism of the last days of the Brown government, designed to cushion the worst effects of slump with some minor reforms to lessen the worst effects of austerity amongst the poor.
Labour should be defending every existing right that workers possess, including their pensions and welfare benefits. They should be demanding the complete restoration of the “welfare state” and the public sector that Labour built up after the Second World War and which could still be easily paid for if the rich were taxed at the levels that existed in its hey-day in the 1970s.
Rank and file pressure from the millions of affiliated members can change Labour’s direction like the mass movement that has propelled the union leaders into next week’s confrontation with the Government.
But one swallow doesn’t make a summer and one day of action will not stop the Government in its tracks. Everyone must work to make 30th June a successful and massive demonstration of anger and solidarity. But it can only be a stepping stone for future mass co-ordinated strike action to force the Government to back down and if it won’t to force it to stand down and call another election.
David Cameron’s government claims that it’s ready to negotiate but they’ve made it clear that there’s nothing to talk about accept the timetable for implementing the draconian measures designed to make workers pay for the capitalist crisis.
They claim that raising the retirement age, cutting pensions, reducing welfare benefits, cutting and privatising the health service and the rest of what remains of the public sector is inevitable. But it will only happen if we allow them to get away with it.
While we’re told to tighten our belts and work longer for less pay the rich are getting richer. The wealth of the millionaires has risen by 18 per cent collectively over the past year and the top 1,000 richest people in Britain now have between them over £60 billion more than they had a year ago.
These parasites live the lives of Roman emperors while working people, who produce all the wealth that they plunder, are expected to simply grin and bear it until the supposed “up-turn” comes round.
But the Tories and their Liberal Democrat collaborators have failed to undermine the action with their threat to bring in more anti-union legislation in the future. The bleats of the dregs of the Blairite faction, still in the Labour Party because they’ve nowhere else to go, have been ignored. However the response from the Labour leadership has been lukewarm at the best.
Miliband & Co want the unions’ support and they want they unions’ money but they don’t want to give much back in return. Labour’s “challenge” to the Cameron plan is little more than the feeble social-Keynesianism of the last days of the Brown government, designed to cushion the worst effects of slump with some minor reforms to lessen the worst effects of austerity amongst the poor.
Labour should be defending every existing right that workers possess, including their pensions and welfare benefits. They should be demanding the complete restoration of the “welfare state” and the public sector that Labour built up after the Second World War and which could still be easily paid for if the rich were taxed at the levels that existed in its hey-day in the 1970s.
Rank and file pressure from the millions of affiliated members can change Labour’s direction like the mass movement that has propelled the union leaders into next week’s confrontation with the Government.
But one swallow doesn’t make a summer and one day of action will not stop the Government in its tracks. Everyone must work to make 30th June a successful and massive demonstration of anger and solidarity. But it can only be a stepping stone for future mass co-ordinated strike action to force the Government to back down and if it won’t to force it to stand down and call another election.
Brian Haw
Brian Haw
1949 – 2011
BRIAN HAW, whose lone vigil in Parliament Square made him an icon amongst the peace movement in Britain and across the world, died last weekend.
Brian Haw was an little-known evangelical Christian, motivated by the pacifist teachings of Jesus of Nazareth that are often ignored by many of those who profess to believe in him, who travelled to northern Ireland and Cambodia to preach “love, peace and justice for all” in the 70s and 80s. But he hit the headlines with his one-man protest against the imperialist aggression against Iraq.
He set up his tent opposite the so-called “Mother of Parliaments” in June 2001 to protest against the cruel imperialist blockade against Iraq that preceded the invasion and occupation by Anglo-American imperialism in 2003.
Brian was never short of company. Peace campaigners made a point of visiting his tent in the heart of London to help or spend some time in solidarity with the protest, which grew as Haw decorated the square with his home-made posters and peace banners condemning the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This rapidly became an alternative London tourist attraction. But it was also an embarrassment to the Establishment and it soon attracted the unwelcome attention of the police.
For over 10 years Haw maintained his round-the-clock vigil, braving all weathers and violent attacks from thugs and the police. He defied all threats to evict him, including an abortive new law to restrict demonstrations within half-a-mile of Parliament.
Leading left Labour MPs Tony Benn and John McDonnell acted as character witnesses for Brian during his many appearances in court, including some brought by the Metropolitan Police on charges of aggression and assault.
In 2006 the police succeeded in obtaining authority to remove and confiscated Brian’s entire display. Fortunately the 40 metre long display was entirely recreated by the artist Mark Wallinger who won the 2007 Turner Prize for his exact replica of the encampment, entitled State Britain, that was exhibited in the Tate Modern art gallery.
Supporters maintained the protest tent when ill-health forced Haw to seek treatment in Germany, paid out of a fund raised by British supporters. Now there are calls for his memory to be preserved with a permanent monument in Parliament Square.
Brian Haw was flown to Germany for cancer treatment in January and died in Berlin on 18th June.
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