Jack Shapiro still going strong!

by Robert Laurie

Last Saturday saw veteran communist Jack Shapiro honoured by the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) at a meeting in Southall's Saklatlava Hall chaired by Harpal Brar.

Jack Shapiro was born in 1916 in the middle of the First World War into a Jewish family in the East End of London. His political career began in the Young Communist League. The nineteen-thirties saw the rise of fascism at home and abroad. London's East End was a major battleground. Jack was one of those communists who mobilised the people against Mosley's blackshirts at the 1936 Battle of Cable Street and on many other occasions.

He was also active in the rent struggles of that period sometimes erecting barricades to prevent landlords evicting hard pressed tenants. The housing struggles were an important part of the anti-fascist struggle because by taking a firm class line of opposing all slum landlords equally, including Jewish ones the anti-Semitism peddled by the fascists had a much reduced audience.

His contribution to anti-fascist struggles included assisting with rescuing Jewish children from Europe and taking over the bomb shelters in London's Savoy Hotel to highlight the poor provision for the less well off. Long before it became fashionable Jack supported the rights of the Palestinian people and opposed Zionism. In addition to opposing the British Road to Socialism Jack supported the Chinese side in the Sino-Soviet split of the 1960s. Apart from his directly political work Jack was heavily involved with the Royal National Institute for the Deaf and in promoting the interests of the disabled in China. When the British establishment offered him an Order of the British Empire he rejected it on the grounds that he spent his life fighting to overthrow the British Empire. To this day his letters enliven the correspondence column in the Morning Star.

Jack's life was closely paralleled by his brother Michael who became a Communist councillor in Stepney. During the Korean War he lectured British prisoners of war helping them write letters home. For his pains he was denounced as a traitor in the House of Commons and forced to spend the rest of his life in China where worked for the Xinhua news agency. He also helped translate the works of Mao Zedong.

Appropriately tributes to Jack's work came from the London embassies of both China and People's Korea both of whom presented with small gifts to mark is services to proletarian internationalism.Keith Bennett, a friend of the Shapiro family, praised Jack as an outstanding Marxist-Leninist throughout his seven decades of political activism.

In replying to these well deserved tributes Jack responded by welcoming the growing resistance to United States imperialism even in the most unexpected places. He remained confident that while Britain had the oldest and most cunning bourgeoisie in the world they will be eventually defeated.

photo: Jack Shapiro, Harpal Brar and Keith Bennett

HEATHROW PROTESTS -- Heavy Handed Policing Backfires

by Daphne Liddle

THE GOVERNMENT is planning to use its most draconian anti-terror legislation against a broad coalition of groups – under the umbrella organisation Camp for Climate Action – who are assembling at a campsite close to Heathrow Airport for a massive but peaceful demonstration this weekend.
Estimates of the number of protesters expected from all over Britain and Europe vary from 1,500 to 3,000 – a modest number for a national demonstration. But around 1,800 police will be deployed who have been told by the Government to use powers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 against the demonstrators.
These powers include stop and search even if police have no reason to suspect a person.
“That’s unbelievably heavy handed,” said camp spokesperson Anna Jackson, “They’re using the most draconian legislation on the statute book, and I hope they can be embarrassed out of it.”
Protesters include members of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, a variety of environmental groups and local villagers whose homes are threatened by plans to expand Heathrow and build a fifth runway.
The camp is supposed to be a model of eco-friendly communal living, with electricity supplied by solar and wind power.
Some papers claim to have infiltrated the campers and have published scaremongering leaks. In particular the London Evening Standard front page carried a banner headline claiming: “Militants will hit Heathrow”.
A Camp for Climate Change spokesperson responded saying: “This story did not contain a single source or even attempt at a source. smear campaign
“We don’t know who is feeding them this stuff and the suspicion is that we are the subject of a smear campaign. We are challenging BAA [the airport operator] to come clean.”
BAA denied planting the scare story but expressed anger that the protesters’ plans might disrupt the airport at the height of the holiday season.
No one yet knows exactly what form the protest will take. The campers assume they are infiltrated and are therefore delaying finalising plans.
Anna Jackson said: “We really can’t say what the direct action will be – there are no leaders in this camp. It’s 100 per cent democratic, run through consensus.
“It will be down to individuals’ judgement as to what they think is the best way to take action.
“It’s inevitable that the authorities are going to be in these meetings, coming into the camp and infiltrating – we can’t stop them coming in. But the camp is a lot more than just mass action.”
Clearly the intent of BAA, the police and the Government is to be as intimidating as possible to discourage people from taking part in the protest.
But this is proving counterproductive as the media – at the height of the silly season and little else to fill news bulletins – has been giving the protest a lot of coverage before it has even begun, ensuring that awareness of the issues involved is being raised all around.
The protesters point out that 20 million litres of fuel are consumed at Heathrow every day and 31.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide are generated there every year. joining
One of those attending will be the chair of Bournemouth and Poole Greenpeace, Richard Hillyard. He says he will be joining the Heathrow campaigners on Friday.
“Heathrow and BAA are being targeted because it’s a major UK airport and campaigning there will get a lot of attention, but it is really a statement against the expansion of many local UK airports, Bournemouth included,” he said.
“If aviation expands at the rate the Government wants, then every other industry would have to be zero carbon, which in reality has no chance of happening.
“Greenpeace is trying to mobilise the focus on binge flying, trying to get the message across that there’s no need to fly internally in this country just because it’s cheap.”
He says public transport needs to be drastically improved to give people a real alternative.
And they hope that this is the message that makes the news, rather than a battle with the police.
But at the same time the state is delivering another message – ordinary peaceful protesters are the real targets of anti-terror legislation.

The Horror of Agent Orange

Len Aldis of the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society talks about Agent Orange.The American War on Vietnam was the most devastating war yet known. Although it ended in 1975 it left a terrible legacy which has travelled down the years to the present day for the people, its forests and its land. Despite this the country has made remarkable progress in many fields since and despite the international embargo that ended in 1994. However, it will take many more years of support, and international aid to overcome the legacy of Agent Orange one of the chemicals used in that war.Our campaigns seeking justice for the victims of Agent Orange has led to Len Aldis being invited to speak at a number of universities in the UK and in Vietnam. He has also spoken on the issue at public meetings in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and Vietnam.In addition, we have shown international award winning documentary films on Agent Orange such as Battle’s Poison Cloud, produced by Tambuti Films of London. Path to Justice, Vietnam Film Centre and in which Len appeared. Another film, Agent Orange, a personal requiem” by Masako Sakata has recently been released as has The Last Ghost of War by an American company, Janet Gardner Group. Mention should be made of the support given by Labour MP Harry Cohen, who has tabled a number of Early Day Motions in support of the Vietnamese victims

London news round-up

High Court bans Heathrow protest

A HIGH COURT judge last Monday granted an injunction to the British Airports Authority (BAA) banning a climate change protest that could have disrupted the working of the airports for a while.
But the Mrs Justice Swift refused BAA’s application for a blanket ban on all protests there and left both sides claiming a victory.
BAA, owned by Spanish construction and services group Ferrovial, went to the High Court in London to prevent up to 5,000 people setting up camp between 14th and 21st August in a demonstration against climate change and a proposed third runway at Heathrow.
BAA was ordered to pay the costs of the three groups who challenged the attempt to impose the most wide-ranging restriction on the right to protest ever used in Britain.
The injunction bans three people – John Stewart of the Heathrow Campaign Against Aircraft Noise (Hacan), Josh Garman and Leo Murray of the anti-aviation group Plane Stupid – from interfering with the running of the airport.
The injunction was also applied to the Plane Stupid organisation and to “anyone acting in concert” with it in any illegal activity.
The umbrella group Airport Watch – which includes the Woodlands Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Campaign to Protect Rural England – was not included in the injunction.
Organisers of the Camp for Climate Action said they would go ahead with the protest camp: “The Camp for Climate Change is not covered by the injunction that was that was granted at the High Court today, and will be going ahead as planned,” they said.
“The final injunction provides no additional powers of arrest, and covers a much smaller geographical area, which will not include the camp. Everyone, including the named injunctees, is therefore free to come to the camp.”
BAA had claimed that a blanket injunction was necessary because of the threat of terrorism. They sought to include not just Heathrow but Paddington Station, Piccadilly and parts of the M25 and M4.
But as she restricted the range of the injunction Mrs Justice Swift said: “Police will be deflected from their ordinary duties, including protecting the public from terrorist attack. There is a risk that a terrorist group might use the disruption by protesters to carry out an attack.”
London Mayor Ken Livingstone opposed the blanket injunction and hired a team of lawyers to be in court for the hearing. London Underground and Transport for London were awarded costs as Mrs Justice Swift said it was “extraordinary” that BAA had not consulted them.
On the same day in a separate court Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips dismissed an appeal by the Director of Public Prosecutions that could have ended the Parliament Square anti-war protest picket of Brian Haw. The Lords also ruled that the current restriction of his picket were “unclear and unworkable” but they urged Haw to reach an agreement with the police on the limits of his protest.

Justice4JeanFamily Campaign

THE INDEPENDENT Police Complaints Commission report published on 2nd August is a damning indictment against the Metropolitan Police Service, say the family of Jean Charles de Menezes. The young Brazilian was shot and killed by anti-terrorism officers at Stockwell station on 22nd July 2005.
After a distressing two year wait, the family welcomed the fact that the report exonerated Jean of any allegations of suspicious behaviour which had been fuelled by the misinformation circulating in the media from police sources. A spokesperson for the Justice4Jean campaign said: “This report exposes the Metropolitan Police Service to a crisis of public confidence in their honesty and integrity. The report identifies Andy Hayman as having misled the public and the IPCC have said that this is clearly an example of misconduct.
“The IPCC recommendation to merely issue him with a letter containing ‘strong words of advice’ is not the appropriate response – this report has made his position untenable.
“Regarding Sir Ian Blair, the report’s findings make it seem unfeasible that he was not aware that they had killed an innocent man until the next day when so many people, including senior officers, government officials and even the Met Cricket team were aware of that fact. If it is true that he did not know, then it raises serious questions about his ability to be in full command of the Metropolitan police.
“How can he effectively manage the Metropolitan Police if he is not privy to this vital information? His account about not being aware of this information is even challenged by one of his own senior officers. It raises the suspicion that there has been a cover up. This report has also raised very grave concerns about the Metropolitan Police Authority's role in the aftermath of Jean's shooting.
“This brings into question their ability to hold act independently and impartially and to hold accountable those officers named in this report.”
A spokesperson for the Menezes family today said: “After two years, every institution of justice has failed us and we are left with the impression that the police are above the law. We call on Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to meet with us to explain how she will redress this complete lack of a credible investigation.
“This only makes us even more determined to keep fighting for justice.”

Give us toilets or prepare for strike!

LONDON BUS workers staged a series of protests at key London Transport and local government offices on Thursday 23rd August to protest at the lack of toilet facilities on bus routes and in general.
The campaign has taken a new turn with the capital's bus workers, all members of the Transport and General Workers’ Union section of Unite – the union, threatening a full strike ballot if Transport for London (TfL) and London's local authorities don’t act.
In a hard-hitting newsletter to members the bus workers leaders say some drivers have been so desperate for a toilet break they have had to relieve themselves in public places and been arrested.
Three vital issues will be put before London's transport and local leaders:
· Lack of toilets equals lack of respect for drivers and their health
· Serious health problems arise from not being able to go to the toilet when you need to, especially bladder, kidney and prostate conditions.
TfL says it wants to attract more women into the industry. How can it be serious about this when it cannot even provide adequate toilet facilities for staff? Perhaps it expects these women to bring their own bottles to work!

RMT warns another 130 stations face cuts to ticket-office hours

ANOTHER 130 London Underground stations face cuts to ticket-office hours, says the RMT transport union.
London Underground’s cull of ticket offices is far worse than originally feared, as Tube bosses deliberately create longer queues to drive people away from ticket offices, the network’s biggest union reveals today.
RMT has learned that LUL has a hit-list of 130 stations where further "changes" to ticket office hours are proposed, on top of 39 ticket offices already earmarked for complete closure, 32 scheduled to lose some or all weekend opening, 16 to lose afternoon peak services and 13 facing other major hours reductions.
The union has also learned that Transport for London (TfL) has a deliberate strategy to lengthen queues and frustrate people into going elsewhere, and that its ticket office closure plan is based on predictions of the lower future use that it will help to bring about.
RMT has already warned that it will fight the planned cuts, with industrial action if necessary, and is seeking public support for its campaign to maintain station staffing levels and to keep booking offices open.

North Korean art in London

Londoners can see the finest examples of modern artwork from Democratic Korea at an exhibition in the heart of the capital. Works by north Korean People's Artists can be viewed for the first time in Britain at La Galleria in Pall Mall. The exhibition entitled Artists, Art and Culture of North Korea includes paintings, ceramics and wood-cuts plus a display of original posters from the Korean War.

La Galleria is in Pall Mall, at the entrance of the Royal Opera Arcade, one of the earliest arcades in London and just minutes away from Trafalgar Square and the West End. The exhibition runs until 3rd September 2007 at:

La Galleria

5b Pall Mall

Royal Opera Arcade

London SW1Y 4UY

Full peace, justice and equality only possible through Irish unity

by Theo Russell


Michelle Gildernew, Sinn Féin minister for agriculture and rural development in the Northern Ireland, told friends and supporters in London last week that the meeting of the North-South ministerial council on 16 July in Dublin had been highly successful and constructive.

It was the first real meeting of the council with the Northern Ireland executive fully in place and not beset by crises, attended by 12 northern and 14 southern ministers.

Just after the meeting Dublin announced it was spending €650m on cross-border road links and restoring the Ulster Canal between Monaghan in the republic and Fermanagh in the north. Sinn Féin welcomed the news as a boost to the economies and tourism both in the north and in the Republic’s neglected and deprived north-west.

Speaking at Sinn Féin’s summer reception, Michelle said that almost 10 years since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement many issues still need to be delivered with much work still needed in the crucial area of policing and justice, due to be transferred to Belfast next spring.

Other issues requiring a major effort are the equalities and human rights agendas, aimed at tackling decades of social and economic discrimination against catholics and nationalists in the north, a key aspect of the Good Friday and Saint Andrews agreements.

Michelle pointed out that the two states were still duplicating work on health, education and many other areas, and said “the only way we are going to bring full peace, justice and equality to the island of Ireland is through Irish unity.”

She added “the best people to govern Ireland are the Irish themselves. Whether they are of unionist persuasion or nationalist persuasion they are the best people to decide Ireland’s destiny.”

Michelle told the New Worker correspondent that despite Gordon Brown’s promised £51 billion “peace dividend” for the north, “they aren’t giving us buttons”.

The package not only includes contributions from Dublin and money already allocated by London, but the proceeds of selling British bases to private developers. She said Sinn Féin wanted these bases to be handed over for use by local communities in the north.

New Communist Party celebrates 30 fighting years!

MEMBERS, friends and supporters of the New Communist Party gathered in south-west London last Saturday evening to celebrate the founding of the party in 1977.
Among the speakers was Jong In Song from the Embassy of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who delivered a message from the Korean Workers’ Party, retired MEP Richard Balfe, Ella Rule of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), Keith Bennett and a Young Communist from Poland. There was a message of support from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist).
Jong In Song spoke of the current struggle of his party for direct talks with the United States. The armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953 was just that – an armistice, a temporary halt to the fighting – signed between the government of the DPRK and the US and leaving them still technically at war. The DPRK is seeking a permanent peace and normalisation of relations.
On the issue of nuclear weapons, Jong said: “We seek the denuclearisation of the whole of Korea – the whole of Asia and the whole world.” And he spoke of the system of socialism that delivers peace, social justice and an end to humiliation for all workers.
Richard Balfe spoke of the early days of the NCP and his friendship with NCP founder Sid French through their joint work in the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society.
NCP President Eric Trevett spoke of the party’s history of struggle against revisionism and he paid tribute to members, including past members now deceased who gave their lives in the struggle for peace and communism.
A collection raised £778.10 – along with promises of another £1,800 to launch a special appeal for £30,000 for the New Worker.

photo: Andy Brooks at the celebrations

London news round-up

Boris to run for London Mayor

TORY MP Boris Johnson has decided to run as a candidate in the London mayoral contest next year. He has not yet been formally nominated by his party and will have to go through a selection procedure.
But it seems likely he will be chosen for his high celebrity status and well-known face to mount a challenge to Ken Livingstone’s hopes of winning a third term.
Johnson is known as an upper class jovial buffoon – not someone who is likely to be competent at running a vast and complex city like London.
But with disaffection with the Labour government running high and some of Livingstone’s policies – like support for London running the Olympics – very unpopular in some quarters, complacency would be a mistake.
Pensioners in particular would be in danger of losing their precious and hard-won freedom pass if Johnson became London Mayor – or for that matter of the mayorship fell into Liberal Democrat hands.
There is no evidence that Johnson has any clue what the freedom pass is or why it should be maintained.
His party is very much in favour of privatisation and would be likely to use London tax payers’ money to bail out the Metronet Tube company, which got its sums wrong when tendering for a Government contract to take on the repair and renewal of three major London Underground railway lines.

Don’t bail out Metronet!

THE RMT transport union is urging London mayor Ken Livingstone not to waste more public money on failed London Underground privateers Metronet and has called for the controversial public-private-partnership (PPP) contracts to be brought back in house. As the PPP arbiter announced that Metronet was likely to get an interim extra £121 million of the £551 million it has asked for to cover “cost overruns” on the Bakerloo, Central and Victoria lines over the next year, RMT renewed its call for the PPP contracts to be brought back in house.
Metronet is seeking £992 million for overruns for the first seven-and-a-half years of the BCV contract alone, and is expected to file a similar claim for its sub-surface lines contract.
“One-hundred-and-twenty-one-million is still £121 million too much, even if it is nowhere near the £2 billion more of taxpayers’ and fare-payers’ money that Metronet is looking for,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said last Tuesday.
“Even if the PPP was delivering everything expected of it, it would still be less than LUL delivered when it controlled infrastructure work in the public sector, and it would still be costing billions more.
“Metronet, and the PPP scam that has already allowed them to siphon millions out of the Tube network, have clearly failed and it is clearer than ever that these contracts should be brought back in-house before any more damage is done,” Bob Crow said.

Friends of Korea rebut media lies

LONDON’S Marchmont Centre filled up last Sunday as friends of Korea along with others simply curious about life in Democratic Korea took part in a forum last Sunday evening that followed a debate on north Korea at the main Marxism 2007 festival of resistance earlier in the day.
NCP leader Andy Brooks, Ella Rule and Michael Chant all focused on the nuclear issue in their opening remarks but the meeting rapidly broadened into a discussion on Korean-style socialism as members of the audience who had been to Democratic Korea gave eye-witness accounts of what they saw to rebut some of the popular misconceptions about life under socialism raised by some of the audience.
Friends of Korea Chairman, Harpal Brar, welcomed the frank and open discussion, which included at least eight people who had personally visited north Korea, that hopefully opened the eyes of those who simply believe the lies and nonsense of the bourgeois media while encouraging others to take an active part in future Korean solidarity events. This was the first fringe meeting organised by Friends of Korea but it clearly won’t be the last!

photo: Andy Brooks, Michael Chant and Harpal Brar

London news round-up

RMT warned of Tube danger

by Caroline Colebrook

THE RMT transport union last week had repeatedly warned of dangers before last Thursday’s derailment on the Central Line.
Investigators say a roll of loose tarpaulin could have caused the Tube train to come off the rails in the middle of the morning rush hour, injuring 40 people and trapping hundreds for hours.
Six of the eight carriages of the westbound Central Line train between Mile End and Bethnal Green stations were derailed when a sheet of tarpaulin stored by the side of the track came loose as trains passed at 35 miles an hour.
The driver reported he had seen the obstruction and put on his emergency brakes but the sheet got caught under the wheels on the right-hand running rail, taking six carriages off the track.
Around 350 passengers were trapped to two hours in temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Another 450 passengers were stranded on the train behind. Eleven had to be taken to hospital but fortunately no one was seriously injured. Nevertheless many were distressed as, initially, some thought the crash was the result of terrorist activity.
One passenger described the scene: “It started to rock unbelievably, really violently, the carriage filled with smoke and we could see sparks and there was a smell of electrical burning as the driver was braking.
“People were shouting and the driver’s voice sounded really shaky – he said he did not know what we had gone over but that we had derailed.”
The driver then walked through the train trying to calm passengers’ fears. Another passenger said: “The worst thing was the heat. Some people were having difficulty breathing but when the emergency services arrived, those were the first to be led away.” Two hours after the derailment the passengers were led to safety along the track.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it was the fourth incident in 18 months in the same area where private contractors were operating.
“This union has raised concerns over the bad storage of equipment by contractors in this area and wrote to London Underground back in April demanding an investigation yet nothing has been done.
“It has also been the third serious Tube derailment in less than four years, including the Chancery Lane derailment and the one at White City,” he said. RMT reiterated its call for London Mayor Ken Livingstone to take these private contracts introduced under PPP (public-private partnership) back in-house.
“Before Ken got elected as London Mayor he said he did not want ‘blood on his hands’ over PPP so now he has an opportunity to act in the interests of public safety.
“RMT is calling on Ken Livingstone to take these contracts back in-house before we have a disaster on our hands,” Bob said.

Jailhouse Rock

CAMPAIGNING folk singer Billy Bragg and Mick Jones, former lead guitarist with the Clash, have launched an initiative to get prisoners out of our overcrowded jails through rock and roll.
Last Friday the two went to Wormwood Scrubs in West London to hand over five guitars as part of Bragg’s Jail Guitar Doors campaign to provide instruments for inmates.
Bragg said: “We all believe people have to be punished for their crimes. I support punishment. But I also believe in rehabilitation. The question is, do we want to help people not to reoffend and to contribute to society? Getting them involved in music is one way we can do that now.”
The initiative has the support of Tim Snowdon, director of the charity Changing Tunes, which uses music to rehabilitate inmates in nine prisons.
He says the facts speak for themselves. “Sixty-one per cent of ex-prisoners reoffend within two years of release. But ex-prisoners who take part in a Changing Tunes programme have a re-conviction rate of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent.
“Most importantly that means there are fewer victims if crime, but it can also save people whose lives were in a spiral of destruction.”

Scotland Yard in new race row

THE METROPOLITAN Police force is facing serious complaints from a black, British-born youth worker of Somali parents after confidential surveillance tapes obtained by his lawyers revealed astonishing racist remarks from the officers in charge of his custody.
The supervisory officer described Fahmi Hassan as “an arrogant shit” and an “obnoxious Somalian”. The officer said Hassan “has lots of wants, lots of needs, lots of arrogance; nothing a good beating wouldn’t put right. Knows his rights, knows the law.”
One custody suite officer told his colleagues that Hassan was “an absolute knob head”. Then the sergeant adds: “There is a great film. Have you seen the film Black Hawk Down about an American helicopter that gets shot down in Somalia, Mogadishu.
“It is based on the truth. It is when the Americans very foolishly went into Somalia to suppress the warlords. There is no one in charge in Somalia. It’s just tribal factions. There’s no bugger in charge in Somalia.
“He’s a Somalian. They are very violent people I think. If you think about it, the ones who got out of Somalia are either the middle classes or the kids with guns. It’s that type of environment.”
Hassan had been arrested accused of assaulting a police officer and was cleared later at a magistrate’s court. Now he is suing the Met for wrongful arrest, assault and malicious prosecution.

Massive equal pay lobby

HUNDREDS of women employed by local authorities descended on the Houses of Parliament last Tuesday to lobby their MPs for proper funding for single status pay frameworks and equal pay for council workers.
The mass lobby – and accompanying rally – was organised by public sector unions Unison, GMB and Unite to protest at the lack of progress – 35 years after the Equal Pay Act and after 10 years of Labour government.
Unison head of local government Heather Wakefield said: “The fight for equal pay in local government is a century long.
We’re calling on the Government to put money where its mouth is and give women the money that they deserve.” She told a pre-lobby briefing rally that it was “an historic day”. We’re 10 years on from the signing of Single Status”, but there is still “a gender gap as wide as the Grand Canyon – it’s a scandal by any measure.”
And as lobbyers prepared to meet their MPs, Wakefield told them, to loud
applause: “It’s what women are owed – it’s not a favour; it should have been going in their bank accounts for years.”
Offering a potted history of the struggle for equal pay in local government – at around a century, much, much longer than most present probably realised – Wakefield paid tribute to the late Barbara Castle, who had brought in the 1972 Equal Pay Act under some duress, and told lobbyers to “keep banging the drum” for pay justice.
Dr Katherine Rake of the Fawcett Society told the rally: “Ten years into a Labour government, it is nothing short of a scandal that we have the biggest pay gap in Europe. At the current rate of change, it will take 80 years to close the gap for full-time workers and 140 years for part-time workers.”
Addressing the event, Diana Holland of TGWU Unite said that it was important to ensure that equal pay was not used as an excuse to bring down men’s wages – to “make equal pay a dirty word”.
And she said that a recent Equal Opportunities Commission poster summed up the situation with its slogan: “Get your daughter ready for working life – give her less pocket money than your son.”

Korea is One!

On 27th July 1953 US imperialism was forced to sign the armistice with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea that ended the Korean war.

The Irish peace process: the next step

By Theo Russell

The question of the British Labour Party organising and standing in elections in the north of Ireland came under the spotlight last week at a highly successful meeting organised by Islington North Labour Party on the future of the Irish peace process.
The meeting brought together Martina Anderson, a Sinn Féin delegate on the Northern Ireland Policing Committee and director of the party’s unionist outreach programme; Sammy Wilson of the Democratic Unionist Party; Rodney McEwan of the Ulster Unionist P and Paul Callaghan of the Social & Democratic Labour Party.
Martina Anderson, who spent several years in Armagh women’s gaol during the conflict, focused on the need to tackle poverty and deprivation affecting both communities in the north of Ireland.
She said there were 100,000 pensioners and 50,000 children living in poverty, and 3,000 people a year dying from poverty-related causes, and quoted accountants Price Cooper Waterhouse who described Northern Ireland as a “basket-case economy”.
Speaking of the class divisions in the north, she said “there are comfortable people in both our communities who want to keep our communities apart, who do not want a society predicated on equality and human rights for all the marginalised groups.”
Another key issue at the meeting was that of Irish unity. Paul Callaghan said the consequences of a divided country for past 80 years, and the conflict which arose from that, could not be ignored.
“The question now is to build a country which is reconciled with itself and bringing the unionist community into the mainstream of Irish political life, without which unity is impossible.”
He added that people in the north of Ireland should look to the Irish Republic’s National Development Plan when planning their own economic strategy.
The DUP’s Sammy Wilson disappointed everyone by speaking as if nothing had changed in the past decade. He said the unionist community was unhappy with “the release of terrorists, the actions of Sinn Féin ministers and attacks on the police. Sinn Féin wants to be in government while running guns, committing murders and running spy rings.”
He did however add that the DUP “wants devolution on a basis which would actually last.”
Rodney McEwan of the UUP claimed that “the British government made direct rule as uncomfortable as possible,” using cross-community issues such as the 11 plus exams and water rates to encourage the parties to make a deal on power-sharing.
But he sparked a lively debate when he called on the British Labour Party to “look seriously at organising in Northern Ireland” and “give people the chance to vote for a party of national power”.

photo: Sammy Wilson next to Martina Anderson

London Transport deal with Caracas

LONDON Transport commissioner Peter Hendy last week led a team to theVenezuelan capital Caracas to negotiate a deal – initiated by President Hugo Chavez – to exchange expertise in dealing with traffic congestion for oilfor London buses.
The evening rush hour in Caracas is nightmarish, with vehicles jammed in giant motionless queues, while hawkers sell beer to frustrated motorists;motorcyclists mount pavements, endangering the lives of pedestrians and police look on indifferently.London is to receive a discount valued at £15 million a year for oil for its buses – which will be passed on as half-price tickets for people on income support.
In return, London Transport leaders will pass on their experience and expertise at improving public transport and introducing congestion charging in Caracas.Hendy said it was unclear whether Caracas would gain an equal value benefit: “It’s clearly not the case that the expertise we have is so unique that you could never get it anywhere else. But if you did get it somewhere else you’d have to pay for it, and it might be of uncertain provenance.”
Meanwhile Metronet, one of the private companies contracted to carry out a huge overhaul of London Underground’s network in a public-private partnership, is seeking a review of its performance as the costs are soaring far more than it expected.Metronet is estimated to be heading for a £750 million deficit on the deal that could climb to over £1 billion.Metronet argues that Transport for London should share the extra costs because it has had to carry out work not specified in the original contract.
But TfL, backed by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, has blamed the overspend on management incompetence at Metronet.A TfL spokesperson said: “Evidently the extraordinary review process must not divert Metronet and their shareholders from the need to radically improve the company’s performance. The promised improvements to Tube track,trains and signals must be delivered on time and on budget.”

Fire cleaners awarded £7.20 per hour

THURSDAY’S meeting of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority saw contractor fire station cleaners awarded the London Living Wage of £7.20 an hour after a week of political disagreement.The previous week the fire authority’s Finance, Procurement and Property committee, voted against paying the London Living Wage and the matter wasreferred to the full committee.
Since then Mayor of London blocked the appointment of a number of Conservative and Liberal Democrat appointees to the body leading to both sides accusing the other of unlawful behaviour.Earlier this week the Mayor advised the London Assembly he had appointed an additional woman Assembly Member, Angie Bray, taking the number of femaleAssembly Members to two. Bray replaced one of those nominated by the Conservative Assembly group.
Speaking after yesterday’s decision the Mayor said: “This was a hard fought victory against those who prefer poverty pay to a living wage. The members of the fire authority who voted to apply decent wages to their cleaning staff are to be congratulated, but it shows there is a very sharp dividing line on this issue in London.”
Conservative Assembly Member (AM) and LFEPA Vice Chair Brian Coleman warned that the increase in pay could see four stations close.“Paying London Fire Station cleaners the London Living wage of £7.20, as Labour’s Val Shawcross suggested, is just ridiculous. A wage hike to those levels is equivalent to the cost of running four stations.“If we went ahead with this pay deal, the money would have to come from somewhere and she needs to say where. Do we close four fire stations to pay for it?”This claim was later denied by Labour AM and Chair of the London FireAuthority Val Shawcross.

Politics after Blair

from New Worker Correspondent

AROUND 200 people gathered in Euston, London last Saturday to hear speakers from the trade union and labour movement and to debate and discuss the future of politics in Britain after Blair in a conference organised by the Morning Star.
The opening plenary session was chaired by the Morning Star’s editor, John Haylett and the first speaker was Jon Cruddas MP – one of the candidates for the Labour deputy leadership. Cruddas spoke about rebuilding the Labour Party and regaining the 4.5 million votes the party lost between the general elections of 1997 and 2005.
He called for support for black and ethnic minorities, public sector workers, students coping with serious debt and manual workers.
He also spoke on the way that the neo-Nazi British National Party is winning votes from people who do not know where the BNP is coming from and who are turning to them from despair.
Cruddas blamed lost votes on the Iraq War debacle, a failure to defend multiculturalism, the privatisation of public services and the deterioration of working class housing.
In a debate on trade union freedom Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT transport union, declared: “Social Democracy cannot save the working class from the effects of global capitalism.” Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers’ Association, reported to the conference that the prison service chief Phil Wheatley has taken his union to court five times, aiming to criminalise the union for defending its rule book.
Union lawyer Peter Hendy spoke of the struggle to regain trade union rights taken away by the Thatcher government – a fight he intends to take to the European Court of Human Rights.
In a debate about privatisation and public ownership, Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack spoke of the effects of free market capitalism that has been unleashed in Britain since the time of Thatcher and Reagan. “Public service has been sliced up and contracted out,” he said. And he predicted that Gordon Brown would be unlikely to change this.
Other speakers included Father Geoffrey Bottoms, CND’s Kate Hudson and Andrew Murray of Stop the War on a debate on peace.
Then Tony Benn, Dot Gibson of the National Pensioners’ Convention and Salma Yaqoob spoke in a debate on social equality. thanked
In the final plenary session John McDonnell MP thanked those who had backed his bid to challenge Brown’s accession to replace Blair – though the breakthrough failed to happen. And London Mayor Ken Livingstone spoke of next year’s mayoral election.
The prevailing politics in the conference were social democratic Labour and Communist Party of Britain revisionism and there was a complete lack of input from any Marxist-Leninist perspective.
Nevertheless it was a very intensive and worthwhile conference, covering lots of political issues with powerful contributions from union leaders and from the floor.

RMT condemns Tube booking office cuts

"UNNECESSARY AND dangerous” plans by London Underground to close 40 ticket offices and to reduce drastically the opening hours of dozens more will be resisted, the RMT transport union said last week.
RMT warned that the proposals were the thin end of the wedge, and that no Tube booking office would be safe if London Underground was allowed to proceed with its first round of closures and cuts.
“These plans will be met with anger from Tube workers and passengers alike because they are unnecessary and dangerous,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.
“We need to see more visible staff on duty at stations, but not at the expense of booking offices, which provide an essential service to the public way beyond selling tickets.
“The 40 ticket offices earmarked for closure are the tip of the iceberg, because London Underground Limited (LUL) wants to close many dozens more at weekends, during off-peak hours and afternoon peaks hours.
“These are straightforward cuts and they affect every Tube worker because they will lead to more ticket disputes, more assaults on staff, more stress, and more of our members working alone.
“We have already made it clear to London Underground that we regard these proposals as fully negotiable,” Bob Crow said.

Enough! Demo in London

Enough is enough! End the occupation!

AROUND 20,000 protesters last Saturday marched through central London, including a contingent from the London District of the NCP with the national banner, demanding an Israeli withdrawal from all Palestine lands occupied since the Six-Day War.
The demonstration, organised by the Enough Coalition to mark the 40th anniversary of that war, was supported by trade unions, community and Islamic groups and by progressive Jewish groups.
The march made its way from Lincolns Inn Fields to Trafalgar Square for a mass rally. Among the speakers was Palestinian Information Minister Dr Mustafa Barghouti. He said: "There is something wrong with the world when, before the leaders of nations, occupation turns to apartheid and nothing is done, when Israel is allowed to build a wall three times as long as the Berlin wall and twice as high, which divides Palestinian from Palestinian, not Palestinian from Israeli." He called for a boycott of Israeli goods.
Professor Immanual Hassassian of the Palestinian delegation to Britain said that Israel could not "be a democracy and an occupier at the same time".
Other speakers included Betty Hunter of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Unison deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet and former Israeli soldier Netan’l Silverman.

London fire service divided on cleaners' pay

LONDON Mayor Ken Livingstone last Monday called upon members of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) to ensure that the London living wage of £7.20 per hour is paid as a minimum to the fire authority’s cleaners, after members of authority’s finance committee were split over the issue.
The fire authority’s finance, procurement and property committee met on Monday to discuss awarding contracts for cleaning fire stations and other premises. But members were evenly divided on the issue.
Now it will now be discussed at the full LFEPA meeting on 21st June.
Three members voted against paying the London living wage to contract cleaners, whilst three voted to ensure that the living wage rate was paid.
The three opposed to the living wage were Brian Coleman Assembly Member (Conservative, Barnet and Camden), Bob Blackman AM (Conservative, Brent and
Harrow) and Cllr Maurice Heaster (Conservative, Wandsworth).
Ken Livingstone said: "This is the nasty wing of politics. It is scandalous that there was an attempt to block the payment of the London living wage to these cleaners.
"We are now seeing relentless attacks on policies to ease cost of living for Londoners on the lowest incomes, from votes on the London Assembly to abolish free bus and tram travel for children, to this attempt to block a decent wage for fire station cleaners.
"The meeting of the fire authority on 21st June should reject the arguments of those who want to pay cleaners a lower wage and I strongly urge fire authority members to vote to pay these cleaners the London living wage.
"The current figure of £7.20 per hour as a basic London living wage is significantly higher than the national minimum wage because of the high cost of housing in London."

Yellow River Piano Concerto 黃河鋼琴協奏曲(1969-70): IV 保衛黃河

Memorial to the Iraq War

by Stella Moutafis

THERE SEEM to have been a lot of art reviews in the New Worker lately – well (and you can trust me on this) it is not just to fill the pages!
The point is, there has been much to see in London recently in the field of art with some political content. And as “Art” can serve to explore and reflect on social and political ideas, it has been worth covering. The continuing imperialist wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have inspired a new round of politically conscious modern artistic expression and this is reflected in a new exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London.
The ICA was established in 1947 by a collective of artists, poets and writers to showcase and champion contemporary culture across a wide range of art forms and it consists of two galleries, two cinemas, and a theatre all on one site, plus a bookshop, cafe,and bar. Its mission is “to be a home of new arts, culture, and ideas”.
For this exhibition, 26 artists were invited to submit proposals for a memorial to the Iraq War, addressing the invasion and occupation of the country, its slide into civil war and the conflict’s relation to global jihadism and the “war on terror”.
The mostly young contributors come from various countries in Europe, the Arab world, Afghanistan, and the United States. With the stated aim to “encourage debate about how this episode in history might be remembered,” this exhibition is the result. Obviously, though, the conflict is very much still ongoing.
There is work in various mediums, on both Iraq and related subjects, such as the “war on terror” and the US concentration camp at Guantánamo Bay.
Just a few of the very varied works on offer include: The American artist Nate Lowman, whose presentation of burnt-out American petrol-pumps from the 1950s and 60s represents both the “American Dream” and what US involvement in the Middle East is all about and what makes that “dream” possible!
Afghan artist Lida Abdu has created a series of 10 postcards entitled A history of the world through ruins. Not at all “wish you were here” type images – but photos of destruction either directly or indirectly the result of the “war on terror” in Afghanistan.
Memorial 2007 by Swiss artist Christoph Buchel is an initially puzzling series of three rooms, representing a drug administration room waiting area, and an empty white room.The storyline is the supposed giving to users of powdered drugs and body ashes of victims of war, to induce a ‘trip’ to be experienced inside the white void. The faithfully-reproduced hospital details are instantly recognisable by those of us who have spent some time in such places!
Performance art, also on offer, includes “Fallujah”, which is we are told based on verbatim testimony from the heart of the war zone.
The venue for an exhibition on this subject is ironic - The Mall, London, being within an area that could be described as “British Imperialism Central”. Our supposed ruler is one of the ICA’s neighbours here; her home — Buckingham Palace is just round the corner.
There may well be visitors to Her Majesty who might benefit from some instruction in the subject of the inhumanity that imperialist states mete out in pursuit of their ruling class’ agenda. If so ,they should stroll across to the ICA for this exhibition....and, maybe, have some enlightenment!

The Memorial to the Iraq war exhibition continues until 27th June. The ICA is located on The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH. Galleries open daily 12pm – 7.30pm (9pm on Thursdays) during exhibitions and the admission price is £2.00.