On the High Seas

by New Worker correspondent

Once again workers who man the Woolwich Ferry which has been taking people across the lower Thames since the 14th century are taking strike action. Two years ago they went on strike seeking a pay rise and over safety concerns when the new operators cut staff numbers and set new shift patterns after acquiring new ships.
      Last year the workers won a good deal when they won 100 per cent furlough pay from then operator Briggs Marine Contractors. Now the enemy is Transport for London (TfL). The cause of the latest action is the victimisation of a union rep. The lower Thames ferry’s 57 Unite the union members voted by 97 per cent on favour of eight days of strike action on Fridays and Mondays, this month and next.
     The Union say that the latest episode has been dubbed a ‘Groundhog Day’ dispute as the same problems keep coming up. Apart from the victimisation matter, workers are angry at TfL’s failure to agree a new pay and reward scheme; the excessive use of agency staff; and the failure to provide adequate health and safety training to new employees.
     Unite regional officer Onay Kasab sorrowfully said: “It is a sad indictment of the TfL bosses that they seem to be following the same course as Briggs Marine Contractors which meted out some appalling employment practices to the workforce in the recent past.
    “Our members have returned an overwhelming mandate for strike action at the Woolwich Ferry in support of their victimised shop steward and over a myriad of other employment issues.
     “Hopefully, the ballot result will be a light bulb moment for TfL and the management can get employment relations back on an even keel before strike action begins. To that end, Unite’s door is open 24/7 for constructive talks to resolve all the outstanding issues”. He concluded by warning that “The strikes will cause disruption to car drivers and foot passengers as ferry traffic picks up with commuters returning to their workplaces in the capital following the easing of lockdown.”

...and on dry land

In nearby Greenwich teachers at the John Roan School have taken strike action in defence of Kirstie Paton, a psychology teacher and National Education Union (NEU) rep who faces the sack for mentioning alleged improper use of Covid tests. They walked out just before a disciplinary hearing last Friday and will be balloting for further strike action.
     Her crime was to publish, in December last year, on the NEU Inner London Facebook page complaints about the school being used for pilot testing of Lateral Flow Tests (LFTs) for Covid-19. These tests, which were being supported by the Department for Education (DfE) were to be carried out by school staff. These tests have now been discontinued as they gave too many false negatives. The school was initially keen on LFTs serial testing to replace self-isolation protocols in its schools, but now the DfE has instructed schools not to use LFTs.
     The John Roan School is now one of the United Learning academies, Paton’s opposition to it becoming an academy has obviously not gone unremembered.
     The NEU say that they have been “left with no choice” but to defend their rep. Tim Woodcock, the NEU rep for Greenwich, said they had no choice but to defend their rep for speaking out, or else leave every other rep vulnerable and scared to speak out.
    "UL want to victimise Kirstie so they can intimidate staff into silence and deprive our members of an effective and dedicated union rep”.

Fight for the NHS!

Corbyn says Centene out!

by New Worker correspondent

Jeremy Corbyn joined a protest against GP practices being taken over by a US health insurance company last week. The former Labour leader, along with East London MP Apsana Begum, joined demonstrators outside the London headquarters in Westminster of Operose Health – a subsidiary of the giant Centene corporation –to protest against NHS privatisation.
    Corbyn told the crowd to “fight for the NHS until hell freezes over” at the protest called by Doctors in Unite (DiU), a campaign led by the biggest union in the country.
    Unite, with 100,000 members in the health service, has hit out at “a culture of Tory cronyism that is rapidly enveloping the NHS”, and called for an urgent independent inquiry into the ever-expanding lobbying scandal engulfing the NHS and its impact on the accelerating pace of health service privatisation.
    The call for an inquiry – with its recommendations cemented into law – follows on from the revelation that Tory health secretary Matt Hancock met former prime minister David Cameron and financier Lex Greensill for a private drink in 2019 to discuss a new payment scheme for the NHS.
    Doctors in Unite chair Jackie Applebee said: “Ministers and senior NHS executives have repeatedly mouthed the mantra that the NHS is not being privatised.
    “But now we have the case of a huge swathe of English general practice, including the data of nearly half a million patients, being handed over to US health insurance giant Centene – with a breath-taking lack of transparency and openness.
    “Tory politicians and their outriders in the media roll out the tired old trope that all general practices are private, but this is disingenuous and they know it.
    “There is a world of difference between a multinational corporation that operates to make a profit, often by cutting staff and services, so that it can pay dividends to shareholders, and local GPs who are very much part of the NHS ‘family’ and provide services from a budget fixed by the Treasury.
    “The public needs to wake-up to the fact the NHS that they so value and which has been the lynchpin of the successful vaccination programme is being steadily sold off to profit-hungry healthcare companies – in this case one whose headquarters is in America.
    “This is another prime example of the accelerating privatisation of the NHS by stealth and Unite is spot-on to call for an independent inquiry into the wider lobbying scandal engulfing the NHS which emanates from a desire by profiteers to get their hands on lucrative health service contracts.
    “Now is a time to draw a line in the sand to preserve and cherish the NHS as an organisation free at the point of delivery to all those in need. If we are not vigilant, these founding principles of the NHS in 1948 will become pale shadows of themselves.”

Corbyn joins housing protest

 by New Worker correspondent

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was one of 30 campaigners who took part in a protest outside Pentonville Prison last week. The protest targeted a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) decision to sell off two blocks of 28 flats formerly used to house prison staff.
    In his capacity as the local MP, he said: “The Ministry of Justice is selling off a group of properties at the back of Pentonville Prison. The council, quite correctly, tried to buy them in order to house local people in housing need.”
    Their particular objection is that the developer, LGP Wellington Mews Ltd, has submitted several applications for a Certificates of Lawfulness for Existing Use or Development (CLEUD), which would excuse it meeting a target of 50 per cent of the homes on the site being rented at so-called affordable rates.
    Islington Council was close to a deal with the MoJ in 2019 to acquire the flats, used as temporary accommodation for those in desperate need of homes, but this fell through. Now Corbyn says: “The Ministry of Justice upped the price and prevented Islington from doing that. So what are we doing? We’re demonstrating outside those places to say to the MoJ and everybody else: let us solve the housing crisis by filling the empty homes with people that need them.”
    Unsurprisingly this claim was rejected by the MoJ, who insisted they were put out on the open market and that they were not trying to blackmail the council.
    Private ‘affordable housing’ is of course nothing of the sort. On Monday, a search of local estate agents for one-bedroom flats had nothing under £500,000.

A subbotnik for the Soviet memorial

by New Worker correspondent

Russian expats returned to the gardens of the Imperial War Museum in London on Saturday to give the Soviet War Memorial a spring clean as part of an international subbotnik in honour of the 80th anniversary of the Great Patriotic War when Hitler’s hordes attacked the Soviet Union in 1941.
     Members of the Victory Volunteers movement and volunteers from the Russian House cultural centre spruced up the monument in south-east London that commemorates all those from the countries of the Former Soviet Union who died during the Second World War, also known as the Great Patriotic War in much of the former Soviet Union. Funded by public subscription in Britain and the Russian Federation, the memorial has become a focal point for people from all over the former USSR and the UK. Unveiled in 1999 the bronze abstract figure, designed by Sergei Sheherbakov, holds aloft a bell which will forever remain silent in memory of those who died.

Pickets out in force in London!

By New Worker correspondent

Pickets were out in force at RATP’s London United bus depot in Harlesden last week after peace talks broke down over proposed attacks on conditions and real terms pay cuts.
    The London United dispute is a result of RATP seeking to use the coronavirus pandemic as cover to slash the pay and conditions of drivers. Following four days of negotiations Management made an offer for the outstanding pay increases for 2019 and 2020 and also sought to introduce new contract clauses. The pay offer fell well below the expectations of members and the proposed changes to conditions had not been previously discussed, and as such Unite was unable to propose the offer to members at this stage.
     London United is owned by RATP which is Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens, a French state owned company which has branched out from running most of the public transport in the Greater Paris area where it carried about 3.3 billion passengers per year before the pandemic.
     It presently operates in 13 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States, notably Texas, with 64,000 people, claiming to be the world’s fourth largest public transport company. Despite claiming that last year was one of successive crises the company’s turnover was £4,700 million. Christine Chardon, the chief executive of their London based operation, saw her pay dramatically increased from £196,000 to £363,000. Three cheers for equal pay!
     Originally both Stamford Brook and Hounslow Heath depots heavily voted for industrial action but turnout was too low to legally join the action already underway at London United’s five other depots at Fulwell, Hounslow, Park Royal, Shepherd’s Bush and Tolworth garages. These five depots were on strike on Wednesday and will be joined on the 16th by the two latest recruits. As a consequence they had to be re-balloted.
     Unite the union say negotiations broke down last week when the company’s proposed pay offers to resolve the 2019 and 2020 pay claims were well below expectations and at the same time Management also attempted to alter drivers’ contracts.
     Unite regional officer Michelle Braveboy welcomed the result saying: “This is a significant and welcome development, the strike action will now intensify.
     “The drivers who have been considered key workers throughout the dispute are rightly asking how on earth RATP believes it is acceptable to cut drivers' pay in real terms and undermine their conditions, when they have gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep London moving”.
     She concluding by lobbing the ball into RATP’s court by saying “If increasing disruption to bus services is to be avoided then RATP must make a significantly improved pay offer and end its attempts to undermine its workers’ conditions”.
     Other RATP subsidiaries such as London Sovereign have seen drivers reluctantly voting to accept a pay rise of 1.25 percent and a one-off payment of £500 which is only 0.5 per cent bigger than the first offer. Over at Quality Line drivers voted in favour of a pathetic one per cent pay rise. Why does Unite not coordinate its action across the whole of London or better still across the country?

 

The deadly cost of austerity in the Royal Borough of Grenfell

Jeremy Corbyn with Emma Dent Coad

By Theo Russell

Former Labour MP for Kensington from 2017 to 2019 Emma Dent Coad, known locally as "the people's MP", was the star speaker at the online AGM of the Hammersmith, Fulham, Kensington & Chelsea Trades Council last week. There she spoke of the massive inequality in the borough and the many unanswered questions about Kensington & Chelsea council's £50 million Grenfell Recovery Fund.
    The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea (RBKC) has now pledged to produce a report on its Grenfell-related spending for the first time since the fire in June 2017 in which 72 people died.
    Dent Coad, who is also a current RBKC councillor and a member of the Audit and Transparency Committee, said it was “hugely frustrating that it has taken so long” to have these details made public.
    The Grenfell survivors and bereaved have so far seen very little of the funds, with many still not rehoused nearly four years later, and very little to show of the support services promised to them.
    In 2019-20, almost 60 per cent of the £4.5 million Grenfell budget for the year was staff and council property costs. Last year a council spokesperson told the London Evening Standard that £601,000 was spent on two managers - now denied by the council.
Dent Coad said people involved in the disaster regularly stop her in the street to express their frustration     with the distribution of recovery money and the lack of transparency. “I get asked about it all the time, it's not just that people are angry about it - people are hurt by it”.
    She said that “there is no leadership in the council” and described the current Tory MP Felicity Buchan as “appalling” and “a nodding dog for Boris Johnson who never stands up for her residents”.
    Current and former members and officers of the council, including the council leader, will be appearing before the Grenfell Inquiry in April, and Dent Coad said huge sums had been spent on legal advice and preparation.
    The inquiry is due to finish in spring 2022 “after which the police investigation, which has been ongoing, will spring into action - we hope”.
    “We expect to see arrests, but not to see anyone go to prison. The police can't afford to make mistakes, so they're going to be super careful”.
    Dent Coad recalled that “on the day of the fire two senior Tory councillors were overheard on an ITV report saying 'We offered them sprinklers and they refused' - a completely false claim”.
    The former Labour MP also spoke about the report by Kensington Labour Party Research Unit published last autumn, The most unequal borough in Britain, which she said had “changed the perception of Kensington and Chelsea as a playboy princes' playground”.
    `"RBKC", the report says, "the borough of princes, Sultans, plutocrats and billionaires, was our beautiful borough 'the most unequal borough in Britain'?
    ` How, in what one Councillor called “the richest borough in the universe”, with three billion pounds in reserves, could 72 people burn to death in a fire which, even in the earliest days, was blamed on 'cheap cladding'?"
    The borough has the highest life expectancy in the country, but across the borough the gap in years lived is a massive 27 years. Even more shocking, since 2010 - when a decade of austerity began to pay for the 2008 banking crash - average life expectancy in Golborne Ward fell by six years, the worst decline in the country.
    So a Moroccan man on the Wornington Green estate in North Kensington can expect to live to 64, while a white British born man near Harrods can expect to live to 91.
    This is the real impact of a decade of austerity and low pay on peoples' lives, while in London, across Britain and indeed the whole capitalist world, the rich accumulate ever more wealth, year after year.
    The report shows that by 2020 inequality was far worse than in 2014. In England's richest borough, according to Trust for London, in 2020 38 per cent of children lived in poverty, higher than the London average of 37 per cent! So the borough sees Britain's greatest concentration of the rich, side by side with its worst levels of child poverty.
    While some households have an annual income of £1.8m, while a few miles away whole communities are getting by on £18,000.
    We are not talking about the unemployed: three quarters of poor children have working parents, either full time or with at least two part-time jobs. What we're talking about here is low pay, insecure employment, daily worry and stress.
    Emma Dent Coad lost the December 2019 Westminster election by just 130 votes, after winning by 20 votes in 2017 after three recounts. But she has no intention of giving up the fight for the Grenfell community and for social justice. And despite the current difficulties and divisions in the Labour Party under Starmer's leadership, she stressed the need for a united opposition to take those struggles forward.

Support London bus drivers!

Picket of Park Royal garage

 by New Worker correspondent

London bus drivers took industrial action following the break-down of talks between RATP and Unite the union last week. Drivers working for RATP’s three subsidiary companies, London United, London Sovereign and Quality Line, went on strike over pay and conditions. RATP, a French state-owned transport company, is trying to impose new contracts that would cut drivers’ wages by some £1,500 a year.
    The fresh strike action follows a number of strikes held in February in protest at RATP’s “modernising” proposals. In a divide and rule approach, RATP is attempting to treat workers in each subsidiary differently and play one set of workers off against the other.
    Directors and shareholders line their own pockets while expecting their workers to take pay cuts lying down. Picket placards point out that the company’s highest paid director got £363,000 last year (an increase of £167,000 from the previous year), and £1,800,000 in dividends were paid out to shareholders.
    Support for the strike is solid in London United’s depots. With only nine out of 200 buses in operation, they are causing significant disruption. They’re also receiving lots of support from the community and notably from Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary Jim McMahon.
    Unite regional officer Michelle Braveboy said: “Bus drivers at RATP are resolved that attacks on their pay and conditions will be abandoned and that they will secure a meaningful pay rise.
     “It is simply disgraceful that RATP is using the cover of Covid-19 to try to force through these cuts.
     “London’s bus drivers have kept the city moving through successive lockdowns but have also suffered a terrible penalty, through very high numbers of Covid deaths, as a result of their dedication and sacrifice.
     “This strike action is being taken as a last resort. This dispute is a direct result of RATP failing to treat its workers reasonably and fairly.
     “RATP is attempting to boost its profits by cutting workers’ pay, either directly or in real terms. Further strike action can still be avoided and Unite is prepared to enter into negotiations to resolve this dispute at any time”.

 

Putting the boot in

by New Worker correspondent

One of Britain’s oldest and most effective trade unions recently secured an important legal victory which could pave the way for workers they represent securing huge pay rises. The ruling overturns an attempt by the bosses to impose caps on workers’ earnings.
The issue in question was actually that which led to the creation of the union in 1907. For the union is the 4,000 strong TUC affiliated Professional Footballers' Association.
    Originally founded as the Association Football Players’ and Trainers’ Union (AFPTU) in Manchester’s Imperial Hotel it succeeded a short lived Association Footballers’ Union (AFU) formed in 1898 and dissolved in 1901. The AFU had tried and failed to relax restrictions on players moving from one club to another and to prevent bosses introducing a maximum wage of £4 per week for players in the Football League.
    Two years after its foundation, bosses, in the shape of the Football Association (FA) withdrew recognition of the Union, a threat of strike action in response was met by the FA banning altogether players belonging to the union. Membership fell as players put their jobs before their union card, but Manchester United players stood firm, forcing the cancellation of a 1909 match. A prominent player, Tim Coleman of Everton gave his support shaming the FA, which encouraged members to return to the union and forced the FA to allow bonus payments.However, a later botched court case on the transfer question nearly broke the union.
    During the slump in 1922 clubs arbitrarily cut the maximum wage from £9 to £8, a move successfully opposed by the union. But major successes had to wait until the 1950s.
    When Jimmy Hill, footballer and later commentator became secretary of the Players' Union in 1956, it became the PFA. In 1957, the League’s maximum wage of £20 was scrapped, and the first £100 a-week player came in 1961. The age of footballers making the front pages for their drunken antics in sunny climes and tumbling out of nightclubs at 4 am finally dawned.
    In 1963 the PFA won a High Court case which declared that the “retain and transfer” system was an unreasonable restraint of trade. The commercialisation of sport clearly has its downsides, but unions are primarily there to get good deals for their members.
    Never very militant the union registered under the Industrial Relations Act 1971, which caused its departure from the TUC, but it returned in 1995. In the late 1990s it found itself in court for banning a woman football agent from its annual dinner. The case eventually cost £200,000.To compensate it now actively promotes women footballers so that they can in future misbehave in posh hotels just like the men.
In the same spirit of promoting inclusion, last month the PFA pointed out that although Asian and Asian British people make up almost 7.5 per cent of the British population, in the 2019/2020 season just eight players made first-team appearances across the Premier. To remedy this it launched its Asian Inclusion Mentoring Scheme (AIMS).
    In November 2018 the PFA had a revolt from its members over its management practices,which is presently unresolved with the much complained about CEO still in post.
    On the matter of the present dispute PFA’s CEO, Gordon Taylor OBE no less, said: “We were disappointed that the EFL decided to introduce salary cap proposals, which were voted through without the proper consideration or consultation with the PFNCC. As a result, in August 2020, the PFA served a Notice of Arbitration on the EFL stating the introduction of the new rules were in breach of obligations under the constitution of the PFNCC. We are pleased the panel upheld the PFA’s claim".
Needless to say not all players are in the multi-millionaire category. Comparatively minor injury can end a playing career, which in the best cases comes to an end decades before the pension age. To help get non-playing players it funds several education programmes for ex and current players. One is a physiotherapy degree course at Salford University. Media-savvy footballers can even be taught to be sports journalists.
    In line with ancient trade union practice it provides medical care including paying for injured players to attend the Lilleshall Sports Injury Rehabilitation centre in Shropshire for physiotherapy and sports injury.
    PFA is also a campaigning union. Recently it took up the problem of racist abuse directed at black players. Unfortunately some football fans are like Trotskyites and SNP supporters in the level of abuse they hurl at their enemies. Writing to the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter it pointed out that “The language used is debasing, often threatening and illegal. It causes distress to the recipients and the vast majority of people who abhor racism, sexism and discrimination of any kind. We have had many meetings with your executives over the years but the reality is your platforms remain havens for abuse”.
    PFA demands that the social media giants block racist or discriminatory material with an approved verification process for users and they urge co-operating properly with the police in such matters.
    It is also demanded more research into neurodegenerative disorders as the affect footballers, an a issue recently highlighted by the fact that many prominent footballers from the 1960s and 70s have been diagnosed with dementia, perhaps caused by frequent heading of footballs which were much heavier than now. The PFA is now funding such research.

Stand by Ukraine anti-fascists!

By New Worker correspondent

Local supporters of the Ukrainian resistance held a lightning picket outside the Ukraine embassy in West London on Sunday. They paid tribute to those that fell resisting the fascist mobs who overthrew the legitimate Ukrainian government in February 2014.
    The puppet Kiev regime serves Anglo-American and Franco-German imperialism and elevates Stepan Bandera, a war-time Nazi collaborator who fled to West Germany following Hitler’s defeat, who was assassinated in 1959. But anti-fascist uprisings soon led to the establishment of the Donbas people’s republics and the underground resistance in the rest of Ukraine.
    London solidarity campaigners include members of the Labour Party, NCP and Socialist Fight as well as supporters of the Stop the War coalition.

• Report in the Donbas communist media
  

Year of the Ox in London!

By New Worker correspondent

Nelson’s Column was lit up red in the run-up to the Chinese Lunar New Year last week. The dazzling display in Trafalgar Square began on Wednesday 10th February to celebrate the Year of the Ox which started the following Friday.
    The London Chinatown Chinese Association (LCCA), with the support from the Mayor of London, organised the display to celebrate the start of the Chinese New Year, which is also known as the Spring Festival. This is the most important festival in China. Celebrations begin about a week in advance and end with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the New Year.
    The London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted: “Very special to see Trafalgar Square lit up for Chinese New Year this Friday. East and South East Asian Londoners have made immense contributions to our city for generations. As we mark the Year of the Ox, I'd like to wish you much success and happiness for the year ahead”.
    He added that many Londoners will be celebrating this Lunar New Year very differently this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
    “Some will be away from their family, friends and communities for the first time as we all continue to protect each other from COVID-19. Thank you for everything you're doing to keep our city safe,” he said.

London care workers keep up the fight

 by New Worker correspondent

Care workers and cleaners at the Sage Nursing Home in Golders Green North London walked out in a second wave of strike action from the 4th to 8th February last week.The key workers, who previously went on a three-day strike back in January, are demanding a living wage of £12 per hour, trade union recognition and full pay sick pay and annual leave in line with NHS rates.
    The workers taking action are members of United Voices of the World (UVW), a street union that represents low-paid, predominantly migrant workers in Britain. They’re now also one step closer to trade union recognition with the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) ruling in favour of the workers’ proposed bargaining unit.
     The latest round of strike action came just three weeks after the first, which saw workers host a virtual picket, which was supported by over 400 attendees consisting of union members, officials, care workers and Members of Parliament, all of whom expressed support for the workers’ demands and which was followed up by a lively physical picket outside the care home that same weekend.
    UVW officials have stated the dispute is not only about pay and terms and conditions, but also about the refusal of Sage’s trustees to willingly recognise the union and to adequately deal with grievances relating to discrimination, victimisation and health and safety concerns. The workers’ recent victory at the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), the government body which regulates and rules on applications for trade union recognition, saw the CAC rule in favour of the workers’ proposed bargaining unit. Meaning the workers are one step closer to achieving recognition.
    The CAC ruling, coupled with the promise of further strike action, has seen Sage’s trustees begin to buckle, agreeing for the first time to attend a meeting with the workers to hear the unaddressed grievances.
    Molly de Dios Fisher, a UVW organiser, said: “Despite the arrogant tone in their letter offering a meeting to hear the workers’ concerns, we are hopeful Sage’s trustees will see sense and start fixing the problems at the home. The majority of care workers in the private sector earn below the real living wage, and London, along with the North of England, is the worst place for underpayment. So all eyes are on this dispute. Care workers and their unions know that a win for the Sage Nursing Home workers could be the catalyst needed for a sea change across the sector”.

Russian-British film festival opens this week

By New Worker correspondent

Russian films are routinely ignored by the mainstream media with screenings usually confined to niche slots on streaming services or independent cinemas that have been closed along with the rest of the entertainment industry under the current lockdown. But the internet has provided an alternative outlet to explore some of the best that Russian cinema has to offer to the world.
    The Sochi International Film Festival (SIFFA) opened its online British programme with film screenings and creative meetings this week.
    "As you know, 10th February is Diplomacy Day in Russia and around the world. Our Russo-British Music and Film Festival can be called the most diplomatic film festival, as it was created to build bridges between Russia and the UK through the power of film and music. Despite all obstacles, we will open the doors of our virtual cinema hall SIFFA in the UK on 10th February with the support of our partner, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the UK," says festival president Lyubov Balagova.
The film festival is keeping up with the times by creating its own Siffa Online platform for film screenings and all of the creative zoom-ins will be posted on the festival's YouTube channel.
    "This might be a good time to explore Russian cinema, speak to exceptional individuals and get an insight into everything on their list for 2021, as well as talk to those who have achieved a lot and can motivate or just inspire us," say the film festival organisers.
SIFFA UK will feature films by Karen Shakhnazarov, Vladimir Khotinenko, Anatoly Balchev and Natalia Ivanova including Vysotsky.'Odessa Notebook, White Tiger, Muslim, No Strangers and others. Each film will be followed by a Q&A session and the programme can easily be accessed by going straight to the Sochi Film Awards website: https://siffarussuk.com/
     Natalya Bondarchuk will come to the virtual meeting to share the memories of her father, film director and Oscar winner Sergey Bondarchuk and talk about her life and work as an actress and film director.
    "I invite everyone to join us. You may not get a second chance to see our unique programme, so plan your days so as to have an unforgettable time with us," the president of the film festival said in an appeal to all film lovers and connoisseurs.

Chinese ambassador bids farewell

 Liu Xiaoming and Madame Hu Pinghua say goodbye

By New Worker correspondent

Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming has retired after a ground-breaking eleven years at his post in London. At an online farewell reception in January the Ambassador said it had been an honour for him to have worked and lived in the UK for eleven years and to become the longest-serving Chinese Ambassador both in the history of China-UK relations and of all Chinese ambassadors of all time, which he will cherish for the rest of his life.
    `    “These eleven years have seen tremendous changes in both China and the world, during which he has witnessed the historic leaps in China’s development, a new era for socialism with Chinese characteristics, historic changes in the relations between China and the rest of the world, and the ups and downs, and twists and turns in China-UK relations” Liu Xiaoming said at the event attended by over 500 guests including representatives of the British government, diplomats, businessmen and members of the Chinese community in Britain.
        Ambassador Liu expressed his sincere thanks to all the friends who have cared for and supported China’s development and China-UK friendship, and who have provided support and assistance to the Chinese Embassy and his work, and his appreciation to colleagues in the Chinese Embassy in the UK for their dedication and efficiency. He hoped that “China-UK friendship will last forever, China-UK cooperation will become deeper and wider, and China-UK relations will go steady and go far”.

Deaths at Work

By New Worker correspondent

Last week saw the release of figures from the Office of National Statistics relating to Covid-19 fatalities. These, said transport union RMT showed that male bus and coach drivers and taxi drivers are two of the occupational groups with the highest rates of Covid-19 deaths.
     Mick Cash, the union’s departing General Secretary said: “Bus workers and taxi drivers have kept vital connections running throughout the pandemic for other key workers and essential travellers, and we need an industry-wide approach which ensures their safety and takes action to address the threats from the new Covid variant.
     “RMT is reiterating its calls for the Government to ensure that transport workers, are classified as a priority group for Covid-19 vaccination. This will save lives and maintain the resilience of the UK’s transport networks.”
     With regard to the situation on the rails the union also warns that “a complacent and callous approach to the increased threat from Covid-19 is leading to a surge in deaths and illness of transport workers”.
     Members report that since November the number of deaths and illnesses due to coronavirus amongst rail workers have at least doubled. At the same time Department for Transport figures also show that rail use is three times higher when compared to the last national lockdown.
    The union blames a “creeping complacency and a callous refusal by transport bosses to mandate a nationwide overhaul of risk assessments to take into account the heightened risk of the new virus has caused the surge”.
     Mick Cash deplored the Government’s laxity in dealing with “a lethal cocktail threatening rail workers … But instead of responding to our call for a urgent national review of all risk assessments we are being told its business as usual – this is as callous as it is complacent.
    “We are advising our members of their right to stop working if their safety is threatened and I will be seeking an urgent meeting with Grant Shapps asking that he intervenes to take speedy action to address the new threat and also to prioritise transport workers for the vaccine”.
     At one bus depot, that of Bannockburn First Bus, operations are still ongoing and bosses are only reducing services despite having 28 positive cases of Covid-19 which represents over half the workforce at the depot.
     Graeme Turnbull, a Unite industrial officer, demanding the temporary closure of the depot saying: “This is a timely reminder of the considerable risk and sacrifice that our members and all transport workers undertake on a daily basis to ensure key workers and our communities function in these challenging times. It is also vitally important that the company conducts an immediate investigation to understand how the virus has been able to take hold and spread across the workforce.”

In the departure lounge

by New Worker correspondent

Another seasonal strike is taking place at Heathrow Airport, where Cargo workers employed by British Airways voted almost unanimously for nine days of strike action starting on Christmas Day and ending on the first Saturday of the New Year.
    The 840 workers belonging to Unite agreed to the action in protest at BA’s attempts to fire and rehire the workforce, a move which would result in pay cuts of between 20–25 per cent, in addition to substantial cuts to terms and conditions.
    Being very reasonable people, Unite delayed announcing strike dates to allow BA a final opportunity to come forward with a meaningful offer – but as might be expected, BA were less reasonable and failed to respond.
    Despite the pandemic, the airport is very busy as a result of the manufactured no-deal Brexit panic that has affected the ports. Given the huge reduction in passenger numbers, it is the one part of the airport business that has remained profitable throughout the pandemic.
    Unite assistant general secretary and wannabe-General Secretary Howard Beckett declared that: “Unite has bent over backwards to give British Airways the opportunity to make a fair offer to its cargo workers and it has failed to do so. As a consequence Unite has no option but to announce strike action. Our members are taking this action as a last resort. They are aware that it will cause severe disruption to air freight entering the UK but they simply can’t afford to lose a quarter of their pay.”
    Although Unite has reached agreement with BA in all the other sections of the company, the managers of the cargo workers have proved a tougher nut to crack.
    On Monday, 4,000 workers directly employed by Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) started a strike on similar issues. A car-based rally and socially distanced picket lines took place around the airport. Local Labour MP John McDonnell told a rally: “HAL management disgracefully saw COVID as an opportunity to cut pay, jobs and conditions. What they are trying to do is to use a temporary crisis to achieve permanent savings. It is exploitation. We need to draw a line in the sand.”
    Many workers have come round to the view that a more co-ordinated approach is needed. The strike continues on Thursday and is timed to coincide with the pre-Christmas getaway.
    Unite regional co-ordinating officer Wayne King said: “The airport's success was built on its workforce, who have continued to ensure it operates throughout the pandemic, on occasion risking their health. HAL has repaid them by conducting the most brutal fire and rehire operation ever seen in the UK.”
    The airport has suffered an 84 per cent fall in passenger numbers and lost its place as Europe’s busiest airport to Paris Charles de Gaulle. Last Friday HAL announced that because of low passenger traffic its Terminal 4 will remain closed until the end of 2021.

Cuts on the campus

by New Worker correspondent

A dispute is bubbling away at the University of East London (UEL) where the University and College Union has warned of industrial action against the university’s plan to impose compulsory job cuts.
     Balloting it presently underway. The issue is over ten compulsory job cuts, including seven academic posts, and the effects of the additional workload which remaining staff would face. Last July the university said it needed to make 134 people redundant due to an expected decline in student numbers due to Covid-19, but the now the university is forecasting higher student enrollments than last year. These cuts would mean 92 jobs would go in total, after 82 staff agreed on voluntary redundancy. The latest cuts target senior academics in the social sciences and the university’s architecture departments.
     The union said it sent a worrying message to students that the university was cutting almost 100 jobs despite the university forecasting an increase in student enrollments, and with staff workloads already at unbearable levels.
     In addition UCU argues UEL is acting unlawfully and is considering a legal challenge on grounds of lack of meaningful consultation, unfair selection, unfair dismissal, victimisation and discrimination. Six of the seven academics facing the sack are over 50 years old, five are of black and minority ethnic heritage, and five are female. This, said UCU makes the university’s pious claims of commitment to equality and diversity “ring hollow when it treats staff like this”.
     By a strange coincidence no less than four of the seven academics facing the sack are also UCU activists, including the branch chair and vice-chair.
     The university claimed it has been acting properly stating that “Following an extensive consultation, that commenced at the beginning of July, at the end of both the legal process and then a further nine weeks of consultation with at-risk individuals – demonstrating the university’s commitment to seek all reasonable alternatives to compulsory redundancy – eight roles remain at risk and efforts are continuing to identify suitable redeployment opportunities for those people.
    Evidently unconvinced UCU regional support official Amanda Sackur said: “UEL staff are reporting unmanageable workloads but the university is insisting on more cuts. The decision to sack another 10 staff on top of the 82 who have already accepted redundancy this year is completely unjustified”, adding that “Most of the academic staff the university is trying to sack have protected characteristics, and we believe UEL has deliberately tried to get rid of UCU activists. It is outrageous that the university trumpets its commitment to diversity and equality and then attacks staff in this way. UEL now needs to step back from the brink, limit any further damage to its reputation, drop these disastrous cuts and engage meaningfully with us in finding alternate solutions”.
     On the same campus teachers at the London Design & Engineering College (LDE) are taking strike action over the dismissal of a National Education Union rep. This is one of those free schools where the headmaster is a law unto himself.
     Squashed into a corner of the UEL, it is far too small for the number of pupils and even lacks a playground. After a NEU rep raised health and safety concerns during the pandemic, the Head promptly sacked the rep saying she had no rights because she had been employed for less than two years.
     Even after a judge found the sacking was unjustified and instructed LDE management to reinstate her the bosses reneged on their promise to do so and another person was appointed in her place. The rep said she was unaware of any investigation and simply had a dismissal pack sent to her house.

Unknown Soldier Day at the Soviet War Memorial

By New Worker correspondent

Members of London’s Russian community paid tribute to the Soviet sacrifice during the Second World War at a ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial in Lambeth last week. Standing by the monument in the shadow of the Imperial War Museum in south London they joined many others who were honouring the Soviet war dead across Russia and beyond.
    The Day of the Unknown Soldier has been commemorated on 3rd December in Russia for the past six years. In Moscow the tributes centre on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall that was unveiled in 1967. The tomb contains the remains of a soldier killed in action during the Battle of Moscow in December 1941. The inscription reads: ‘Your name is unknown, your deeds immortal’.
    The Soviet War Memorial in the park that surrounds the Imperial War Museum was funded by public subscription in Britain and the Russian Federation. Unveiled in 1999 the London memorial has become a focal point for people from all over the former USSR and the UK.

London Workers’ Notes

by New Worker correspondent

In the good old days of the 1970s when trade union membership was twice what it is today, Tories frequently complained that trade unions would go on strike at the drop of a hat to get a pay rise. With few exceptions at present, trade unions are equally active but their energies seem to be almost entirely devoted to attempting to save jobs or prevent wage reductions that bosses are attempting to impose under the cover of the COVID-19 crisis.

Waltham Abbey

Essential supplies of Brussels sprouts, port, cranberry sauce and Stilton in and around London could be at risk as a result of a planned Christmas strike. Twelve drivers, employed by Harper & Guy Consulting Ltd at Sainsbury’s Waltham Abbey distribution centre, have voted unanimously for strike action in protest at being paid £12,000 less per year than those directly employed by Sainsbury’s. As a result, deliveries to about 100 Sainsbury’s stores in London and the south east will be severely affected during the six days of strikes before and after Christmas.
    The driver’s union, Unite, said that Sharper & Guy had point blank refused to discuss the pay claim for 2020 and parity pay.
    Regional officer Paul Travers thundered: “What we have here is one of the most flagrant cases of pay parity injustice that I have been involved with, as our members are getting paid £12,000-a-year less than their counterparts employed directly by Sainsbury’s doing the same job at the Waltham Abbey depot.
    “You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to work out that 12 times £12,000 is nearly £150,000-a-year and that someone is benefiting from that figure – and it is definitely not our members.
    “Ironically, Harper & Guy Consulting Ltd has pay parity with Sainsbury’s drivers for all the agency drivers it employs at this depot which just adds insult to injury for our 12 members who are being treated appallingly.”
    The union’s national officer for road transport and logistics, Matt Draper, added: “This dispute further puts the spotlight on Sainsbury’s desire to pursue its misguided ‘race to the bottom’ strategy.” He also pointed out: “We have opposed the introduction of these lower paid ‘new generation’ contracts within Sainsbury’s. The way these drivers at Waltham Abbey are being contemptuously treated shows Sainsbury’s is implicated at arm’s length in the actions Zero Hours–Zero Benefits of Harper & Guy Consulting Ltd.
    “Sainsbury’s needs to remember a ‘key worker’ is not just for the present COVID-19 emergency, but for the long-term as a contented workforce improves productivity.”

London Airport

Tuesday saw workers at Britain’s main airport, London Heathrow, who are directly employed by Heathrow Airport Limited (HAL) mount a socially distanced picket as part of a long-running dispute over savage wage cuts imposed on the workforce through a brutal fire and rehire programme. In addition, an advertising van toured the area condemning “Heathrow’s super-rich shareholders are jetting off with workers’ wages”, in which Heathrow’s chief executive officer John Holland Kaye was portrayed as the “Heathrow Grinch CEO is stealing workers’ wages”.
    These actions come after workers voted by 84 per cent in opposition to fire and rehire policies that will result some workers suffering permanent pay cuts of up to £8,000 per annum or a quarter of their take-home pay.
    The targeted strike action involves workers who are vital to the operation of the airport and includes: firefighters, engineers, campus security, baggage operations, central terminal operations, landside and airside operations.
     Unite warns that despite the union representing thousands of workers who will still be at work, HAL has refused to discuss its contingency plans for keeping the airport open and as a result the union has raised serious safety concerns.
     Unite regional co-ordinating officer Wayne King said: “Workers face losing their homes and surrendering their cars due to the savage cuts being imposed on them.”
    The union notes that the pay cuts are all about greed and not needed: “HAL and John Holland Kaye are guilty of using the COVID pandemic as cover for forcing through long-held plans to cut pay. If this was genuinely about the pandemic any cuts would have been temporary.”
    He added that: “Unite have tried to negotiate temporary pay cuts but Heathrow were simply not interested” and cast serious doubts on bosses claims that “under its ‘contingency plans’ Heathrow can operate safely but despite seeking the evidence to prove this, that information has not been forthcoming, raising serious questions about how the airport will operate during the strikes”.
    Three further days of strikes are planned before Christmas.

Camden

Amongst the workers most affected by the COVID-19 crisis are casual workers on zero-hours contracts. Just one example of this comes from the north London borough of Camden, where staff who have given years of service at the Kentish Town Sports Centre, which is presently closed, have been told they will not be receiving any furlough pay.
    The centre is managed by notorious contractor Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) on behalf of the Labour-run council.
    An investigation by the local Camden New Journal newspaper discovered that staff working for five or more years were still on zero-hours contracts. One was Deena Mostafa, who has in the sales and reception team for five years, who had her weekly pay packet stopped in September. She said: “I am down £600 a month. We don’t qualify for things like free school meals, and life has come to a standstill.” This was because casual staff did receive furlough support based on their average weekly hours in March, but this is not the case now.
    Another member of staff added that: “We have been struggling. Due to this second lockdown I was hoping the furlough would continue, but they said only full-time will receive it. We are all casuals working full-time hours. It’s unfair. Most of my colleagues been working there for years but treated as if it didn’t matter.”
    Mostafa added: “What annoys us is that GLL haven’t even acknowledged we are staff. It is like we do not exist. It is unethical to leave people in a position like this. The only reason to keep us on these contracts is to save money and to be able to get rid of us when they want to.
    “They say they have no obligation to give us hours, and we have no obligation to take them – but that’s simply not true. We are obligated, as we need to earn a wage.”
    A local Unison branch organiser said the union was on the ball, and suggested the contract should be brought in-house to put staff on the same terms and protection as council staff , adding that the case “is another example of why zero hours should be scrapped. The council’s official stance is their contractors should not be using them – so this needs to become an iron-clad policy.”
    A Camden Council spokesman meekly said GLL would furlough employees who had a role to return to but that: “Very sadly this has meant some of the roles previously occupied by GLL staff on flexible hours have been reduced, meaning these staff will not have roles to return to.
    “The government must now provide councils and our partners in the charity sector with the necessary funding to support residents who lose their work back into employment or training.”
    GLL, which is a ‘not-for-profit’ spinoff from Greenwich Council, has form in this area. Founded in 1993, GLL runs leisure centres in more than a dozen London boroughs, as well as libraries in Bromley and Greenwich. It has over 50 local authority contracts and employs 14,000 staff nationally – with about 70 per cent of these workers on casual contracts. The ‘not-for-profit’ bit means it does not make pay-outs to shareholders, but to compensate it pays high salaries to senior managers.
    It was recently forced into a union recognition agreement by Unite at the south London borough of Lewisham. Unite regional officer, Onay Kasab, said: “Local authority leisure services, whoever the providers, face dire financial circumstances. It is a matter of public record that we want services in-sourced,” adding: “But where services are outsourced, the minimum requirement must be that trade unions are recognised.”
    GLL modestly describes itself as “an award winning charitable social enterprise which cares for its staff and local communities alike”. As can be seen from events in Camden, the reality is quite different.
    In the early stages of the pandemic it ‘generously’ offered its library and leisure centre workers across London an offer of six-months unpaid leave in return for the promise of a job when they returned. At the time Unite said it would subsequently lead to “drastic” cutbacks in work offered to those on casual contracts.
    The union accused the company of being in “real financial trouble” and said the “simple and straight forward” answer was for the service to go back into public ownership.
    “Local authorities must not wait until the company goes bust with all the unemployment and disruption this will cause to council services. Instead, they must act now to save jobs and much-appreciated public amenities.”

Safety Battle Won

 by New Worker correspondent

London’s bus drivers have won what has almost been a year-long battle to secure an improved air conditioning system on the buses. Unite, which represents over 20,000 London bus workers, say the changes will greatly reduce the risk of drivers being exposed to the COVID-19 coronavirus whilst driving because the new air conditioning systems ensure air entering the driver’s sealed cab comes directly from the outside and does not pass through the passenger area of the bus.
    The first concerns were aired (so to speak) in February to Transport for London (TfL) and the private operators, even before the first lockdown. They were backed up by a University College London (UCL) report on the exposure of bus drivers to COVID-19.
    Initially the installation of the new air conditioning system was due to be finished on all buses in January, but it has already been completed.
    John Murphy, the union’s lead officer for London buses, said: “This is a major victory in Unite’s continuing campaign to improve the safety of London buses during the pandemic.
    “Unite highlighted its concerns about the air conditioning system when the first cases of COVID-19 began to emerge and it was instrumental in ensuring the air conditioning was turned off and a replacement system introduced.”
    But he warned that: “While this was a positive development, Unite will not rest on its laurels and is continuously ensuring that drivers’ safety is maintained and improved throughout the second wave of the pandemic.”
    London bus drivers have been greatly affected by COVID-19, with 30 drivers having tragically died of the disease during the pandemic.

In the departure lounge

 By New Worker correspondent

At London City Airport in Docklands workers are up in arms about how they are being treated in the present crisis that has seen air travel drop to almost nil.
    The grievances include the lack of a fair and transparent system for implementing the airport’s current redundancy programme, concerns that long-term employees and union members were being unfairly selected for redundancy, incorrectly paying notice pay when workers are made redundant. In addition, bosses failed to halt the redundancy programme and furlough workers after the job redundancy scheme was extended until the end of March and using the Job Retention Scheme (JRS) to prevent potential employment tribunal claims.
    Their cause has been taken up by the Labour mayor of Newham Rokshana Fiaz, who has condemned Robert Sinclair, chief executive of the airport, for refusing to have a transparent redundancy process and for refusing to discuss matters with Unite the Union.
    Unite regional officer Mercedes Sanchez said: “It is to be hoped that senior management take heed of the growing disquiet about their actions and actively engage with Unite to ensure that workers are treated fairly during the redundancy process and their basic rights are not diminished,” warning: “If City Airport does not take account of this letter and does not alter its procedures then Unite will be forced to consider all legal and industrial options to defend its members.”
    The airport announced in September that it was making more than a third of its staff redundant and consultations began over up to 239 job losses in what it called a restructuring plan to safeguard its future.
    It now only has 17 routes and on Monday Logan Air announced it was transferring the vital Isle of Man to London route from the City Airport to Heathrow. It does not expect to get back to normal until 2024. In September Robert Sinclair claimed: “We have held off looking at job losses for as long as possible, but sadly we are not immune from the devastating impact of this virus.”

Battle of the Thames

By New Worker correspondent

 

 An ongoing battle is being fought by IWGB street union at the University of Greenwich on behalf of outsourced security officers employed by French management services company Sodexo. They are demanding hazard pay, which has already been granted to White British porters, but not the majority Black security officers have been denied it.

 Pointing out that the Thames-side university boasts of having an inclusive reputation that it purports to have IWGB complain that security officers, mostly BAME, have taken on additional responsibilities during the pandemic, but have not received any hazard pay or a bonus. At the same time porters, also employed by Sodexo and, mostly white British, have received a £300.00 per month bonus for working during the pandemic.

 Sodexo is taking disciplinary action against a security officer, Kingsley Osadolor, after a student complained about him being prevented from entering a university building without a mask. The officer argues was following the procedures that were set out unclearly to him in an extremely difficult environment, but he is now facing the threat of dismissal and made to bear the blame for unclear procedures handed down by Sodexo and University management.     

 After security officers spoke out on social media about the disciplinary action against Kingsley, Sodexo insisted all security officers sign a conduct and social media policy, which includes restrictions on their abilities to speak publicly about issues at work, in direct contravention of their statutory rights.

 In June the new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich said: “We have a duty to do better. Equality, diversity and inclusion are founding principles of our institution and core beliefs of our students and staff”. The university has also launched a campaign on campus describing outsourced staff as “our heroes” in thanks for their work during the pandemic. But actions speak louder than words, the University has so far declined to intervene.

            Maritza Castillo-Calle, who chairs the IWGB University of London branch, said: “The University of Greenwich has failed to put adequate health and safety policies in place and has relied on outsourced staff to pick up the slack during the pandemic. To refuse to give majority Black security officers bonuses for this extra work in line with those paid out to other White British staff is pure discrimination”.

 Umar Monday Usifoh, a security officer at University of Greenwich said: “We have happily taken on extra work for the University of Greenwich during the pandemic because we know we play a vital role in keeping the university safe and secure. However, the threatened action against Kingsley has made all of us feel intimidated and less able to do our jobs. We are all Kingsley”.

Still Towering over London

 

beefeaters' lonely vigil

By Carole Barclay

The Tower of London has dominated the London scene for almost a thousand years. It began in 1066 when William the Conqueror ordered its construction to make his mark on the capital of his new kingdom. Since then the Tower has served as a fortress, palace, prison and even a royal zoo for those who sat on the throne of England.
    This is where the two young “Princes in the Tower”, who stood in the way of their uncle Richard III, were held before they conveniently “disappeared” in 1483. Ann Boleyn, one of Henry VIII’s unfortunate wives, spent her last days awaiting execution in the Tower. Many others, including Walter Raleigh and Guy Fawkes, passed through ‘Traitors Gate’ down the ages.
    During the Second World War Germany’s Deputy Fuhrer, Rudolf Hess, became the last state prisoner of the Tower when he was held here after he parachuted into Scotland to try and negotiate an armistice in May 1941 while the last man to be executed behind its grim walls was a German spy shot by firing squad in August 1941.
    Though this massive fortress may seems impregnable to the modern visitor the only time it ever fell was when sympathetic guards opened the gates to Wat Tyler’s rebel army during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. A rebel detachment led by John Starling seized the architects of the hated poll tax who were cowering behind its walls. The Lord High Treasurer Robert Hales along with the Chancellor of England Archbishop Simon Sudbury and John Legge, the king’s tax collector for Kent, were dragged out and beheaded on nearby Tower Hill.
    Though there is modest display dedicated to the Peasants Revolt in one of the bastions along the eastern ramparts walkway little or nothing is said about the turbulent times of the English Civil War.
    London was the staunchly Puritan capital of the Parliamentary forces during the Civil War which began in 1642 and ended in 1649 with the trial and execution of Charles Stuart and the abolition of the monarchy. The Republic of England, or Commonwealth as it was commonly styled in English, was proclaimed soon after.
    In 1653 Oliver Cromwell, the great commander of the New Model Army, became head of state, the Lord Protector. He established the Tower’s first permanent garrison and ordered the original crown jewels to be melted down to meet the needs of the new republic – a fact coyly mentioned in the current Crown Jewels exhibition.
    Cromwell never lived in the Tower but the fortress did provide a roof for some of his less than welcome “guests”. Most were Royalist prisoners. Others had once fought by his side.
    One was John Lilburne, a parliamentary army officer who had become a leader of the radical “Leveller” movement that campaigned for justice and equality during the conflict. “Freeborn John” denounced MPs who lived in comfort while the common soldiers fought and died in poverty. He ended up in the Tower for denouncing his former commander, the Earl of Manchester, as a traitor and a Royalist sympathiser and campaigning against the “grandee” army leaders who led the new republican government that the Levellers claimed were no better than the Cavaliers they had just ousted,
    Lilburne was accused of working with the Royalists to bring down the Commonwealth. Though a London jury acquitted him of treason charges his continuing opposition activities led to his exile soon after. Lilburn was sent back to the Tower when he returned to London without permission. He was finally freed in 1656. By that time he had abandoned his radical beliefs to become a pacifist and a Quaker and he died the following year.
    Lilburne told the Puritan preacher Hugh Peters, one of Cromwell’s inner circle, that he would rather have had seven years under the late king's rule than one under the present regime.
     Whether Lilburne had actually became a turn-coat, however, is still debatable.
But there’s no doubt about Edward Sexby, a prominent Leveller “agitator” who was arrested for plotting to kill Cromwell and distributing a pamphlet that incited the murder of the Protector.
    Sexby was an ambitious man. When the Levellers turned against the grandees he joined Cromwell’s camp and was rapidly promoted. He was elevated to the rank of Colonel and worked in France for the fledgling republic’s intelligence service. But he made many enemies along the way and by 1654 his military career had come to a halt. An increasingly bitter man, he returned to his radical past and the now underground Leveller movement.
In 1655 he fled to the Netherlands after being implicated in a new Leveller conspiracy. There he joined Royalist exiles plotting to assassinate Cromwell.
    Sexby helped produce, and may have actually written, an appalling pamphlet called Killing No Murder that called for Cromwell’s death. But he was speedily arrested after secretly returning to England in 1657. He died in the Tower the following year. The Commonwealth’s semi-official bulletin, the Mercurius Politicus, said he was ‘stark mad’.
    There’s plenty to see and this is the best time to do it. Before the coronavirus crisis the Tower of London was one of London’s most visited tourist attractions and one of the leading visitor attractions in the United Kingdom.
    Over 15,000 visitors, many from overseas, passed through its gates every day. In these troubled days London’s tourist industry has all but collapsed while the Covid-19 restrictions strictly ration the numbers allowed into the fortress at any given time. It’s around 800 on a good day. But when it rains visitors are almost outnumbered by the Beefeaters and the soldiers of the garrison. The long queues to see the Crown Jewels have vanished and you can really explore the nooks and crannies of this fascinating relic of London’s past.

The Tower of London is currently open from Wednesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18.00. Tickets cost £25.00 (half-price for children) and visitors must book entry-slots with their tickets.

Meeting to tackle global poverty

by New Worker correspondent

 NCP leader Andy Brooks went online to take part in a seminar on how political parties could help poverty eradication, which kicked off on Monday in Eastern China's Fujian province.
    Ambassadors to China from more than 30 countries, including Pakistan, Egypt and Argentina, joined in the seminar in Fuzhou, the capital city of Fujian, whilst delegates from more than 100 political parties worldwide attended via video link.
    The seminar, organised by the International Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Fujian Party provincial committee, was attended online or offline by nearly 400 participants from more than 100 countries, including representatives of political parties, diplomatic envoys to China, representatives of international organisations in China, media representatives of developing countries, and think-tank scholars.
    `Heads of some foreign countries expressed via video or in writing their appreciation of China's historical achievements in poverty reduction and emphasised the necessity for political parties to play a leading role in building a consensus and promoting co-operation in global poverty eradication.
    Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a message of congratulations to the seminar calling on the international community, including political parties in all countries, to work together to accelerate the process of global poverty reduction because difficulties and challenges in this regard are still severe.
    Xi was a communist leader in Fujian in the past and he elaborated his thoughts on poverty eradication through his experiences in the province. Practices in Fujian such as officials being stationed in villages, sending technicians to poor areas, targeted measures and close monitoring to avoid returning to poverty were subsequently adopted nationwide.
International delegates learned about the poverty eradication experience of Fujian, and shared challenges and efforts of their own countries as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, which falls on Saturday this year, approaches. Attendees said this forum was timely in exchanging ideas and practices on poverty alleviation, especially at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic makes the task even more difficult.
    “To eliminate poverty, to improve people's livelihoods and achieve common prosperity are the essential requirements of socialism with Chinese characteristics and important missions of the CPC," Xi said.
    Xi, who is also the General Secretary of the CPC, said that since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, China has made poverty eradication a key task in achieving its first centenary goal, and it has made a series of major plans and arrangements to fully launch the poverty reduction battle. The issue of absolute poverty, which has plagued the Chinese nation for thousands of years, is about to be solved historically.
    “China has the confidence and ability to resolutely win the battle against poverty and realize the poverty reduction goals of the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of schedule,” said Xi.
    “Global poverty alleviation efforts have scored huge progress, but the difficulties and challenges are still severe,” he said, calling on the international community, including political parties of all countries, to build a consensus and work together to uphold multilateralism, and maintain peace and stability.
    “It is hoped that through sharing experience and summarising rules, seminar participants can discuss ways to advance the cause of global poverty reduction, enhance confidence in fighting poverty, and contribute to the realisation of the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” the Chinese leader said.

A Rare Victory for Public Sector Workers

By our Westminster correspondent

There is, at least, better news for one group of dedicated public sector workers who are getting a well-deserved pay rise which will hopefully compensate them for having to work long hours in cramped offices in an antiquated building situated beside a polluted river, which for most is distant from their homes. For that reason alone Members of Parliament surely deserve their £3,000 pay rise which brings their basic salary up to £81,932.
     Naturally this excludes expenses, but these have been tightened up with honourable members no longer able to claim for getting their moats cleaned without getting their names in the newspapers.
     Their pay is determined by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) which saves MPs from needing to go on picket lines. IPSA was set up after the 2009 expenses scandal which exposed the widespread misuse of allowances and expenses by MPs on both sides of the House. This included the exotic expenses claim mentioned and a Home Secretary claiming her main home was her sister’s front room so that she could claim her real house was a “second home” for the purpose of claiming expenses.
    The outrage on the street resulted in a large number of resignations, sackings, de-selections and retirement announcements in parliament. Some noble lords as well as former and sitting MPs were forced to repay substantial amounts. Others were even charged with false accounting or fraud and sent to prison.
    IPSA was designed be “independent” to end the spectacle of MPs voting on their own pay. Before the expenses scandal MPs voted to set their own pay scales. Some left-wingers noisily opposed the pay rises and some abstained, but the whips ensured that their numbers were not so great as to stop it being blocked.
     Nowadays MPs can put their hands on their hearts and (with crossed fingers) truthfully say “Nothing to do with us, it is independent”. Next year IPSA is set to authorise a 4.1 per cent increase – taking MPs’ salaries up by about £3,360 from the new figure of £81,932 to over £85,000.
     Even so, this is tough for people such as Boris Johnson. He made an immense sacrifice when he gave up his Daily Telegraph column which paid him £250,000 a year, a figure he described as chicken-feed. He now has to eke out a miserable living on his prime ministerial salary which is only about double that of a back-bench MP. It is extremely noble of Johnson to take huge pay cut so that he can devote himself to public service.

Danger Money

 By New Worker correspondent

Another dispute is brewing in Hackney, this time as part of a national campaign to secure a decent wage increase for local government workers.

After the rejection by Unite members of the 2.75 per cent wage offer for local government workers in England and Wales, local pay battles are now taking place. These individual battles are seen as pathfinders in the hope that local victories will persuade other local authorities to fall into line. This is the first skirmish, of what is called a “pathfinder” strategy.

Those involved are 32 drivers and passenger escorts on the borough’s school buses for disabled children in Hackney. The aim is to secure a one-off £500 payment and an extra day’s holiday for risking their health working through the pandemic. One of the reasons for choosing Hackney was that the Labour council had earlier reneged on an earlier local deal that would have given them a lump sum and made agency workers permanent employees.

Unite’s regional officer for London, Onay Kasab, said: “The national cost of living rise for 2020 has now been settled and this has been reluctantly conceded by our members.

“However, we feel that many of the issues in the national claim, such as the working time and annual leave elements, remain outstanding – and that there is scope for negotiations with local council employers.”

He also noted that there were serious concerns about Covid-19 measures on buses – specifically because buses with a capacity of 30 have over 20 children on them. No social distancing is possible and the ‘bubbles’ that are in force in schools are broken on buses where new ‘bubbles’ are formed.

This is part of a national campaign for a one-off £500 payment for frontline workers as compensation for the added pressures of working throughout the pandemic, a reduction in the working week to 35 hours from 36 with no loss of pay, and an extra day of holiday.

 

End sanctions on Democratic Korea!

 by New Worker correspondent

 

 Korean solidarity activists returned to Whitehall on Saturday to demand an end to British sanctions against Democratic Korea in July and an end to all the other sanctions imposed on the DPR Korea by US imperialism, the European Union and America’s lackeys in Japan and south Korea.
    NCP leader Andy Brooks and other comrades including London organiser Theo Russell, joined the picket called by the Korean Friendship Association on 26th September by the gates of the road leading to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, just a stone’s throw from Downing Street and the heart of government.
    In a lengthy interview with a London journalist Dermot Hudson, the KFA chair, explained why they were picketing the Foreign Office. He denounced the unjust sanctions imposed by the British government and defended the human rights record of Democratic Korea against false accusations.