THE NEW WORKER
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Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Not in my name
PELTING Nick Griffin in Parliament Square was good street theatre. The fascist leader and his chief henchman, Andrew Brons, were indeed forced to abandon a press conference designed to gloat over their elevation to the European Parliament. But the British National Party isn’t going to go away under a shower of eggs. Nor can we simply wish them away by pointing at how poorly they did overall in the European elections that, in any case, were largely boycotted by the people of Britain.
The BNP vote was a racist vote. The BNP exploits concern over mass immigration and cheap labour from the European Union and beyond to garner votes from working people who feel abandoned by Labour. The BNP tries to tap widespread opposition to the European Union in its favour. The BNP argues for white supremacy, cloaked in the language of a patriotism that existed when the British Empire spanned the globe. The BNP even claims it is a workers’ party though its half-baked corporatist theories would put Sir Oswald Mosley to shame.
This is not an exclusively BNP patch and they are not the most successful at it. Parts of their agenda are shared by all sorts of fringe, and not so far-right parties. The maverick Tory UKIP party has been remarkably successful in garnering the anti-EU vote and the English Democrats won the mayoral election for Doncaster last week.
The question of Britain’s membership of the European Union, mass immigration and even home rule for England are all part the political debate on the street and it’s a debate that must not be left exclusively to the likes of UKIP to control or the BNP to exploit.
In the 1930s fascism represented the programme of the most aggressive and reactionary elements in Europe. Though their leaders like Mussolini and Hitler claimed to represent all classes including the workers, their real aim was to crush communists and socialists; divert workers’ anger against their oppressors to chosen minorities like the German Jews and dragoon the masses for war.
The British ruling class has never needed fascism, as Mosley found to his cost when he made his bid for power in the 1930s. But racism was the ideological justification for colonial oppression in the British Empire and the ruling class still uses it from time to time to retain the invisible caste system that operates in Britain and divides the working class.
But the BNP are not just racists. The BNP are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. Their leaders pose as racists but they are Nazis. The BNP is run by hardline Nazis who believe that the Holocaust did not happen. Its rule book remains firmly entrenched in the principles of racial superiority and the banning of racial integration.
Everyone knows where this all ends up and that’s why the BNP’s leaders are so coy now about their past record.
Well we’ve got to make sure that everyone understands exactly what the BNP stands for. We’ve got to isolate, confront and expose the BNP for what it is. There are a number of anti-racist movements in Britain, some more effective than others. Hope not Hate, sponsored by the anti-fascist magazine, Searchlight, has consistently worked to build a mass movement against the British National Party and other racists and fascists.
Hope not Hate recognises that people, communities and society as a whole face problems, but the BNP is not the answer and would only make everything worse. It has now launched a new “Not in My Name” campaign that will take this message into every neighbourhood, estate and street in the country.
Hope not Hate, along with the other anti-racist movements, must be supported by the labour movement as the struggle intensifies in the run-up to the next general election.
The BNP vote was a racist vote. The BNP exploits concern over mass immigration and cheap labour from the European Union and beyond to garner votes from working people who feel abandoned by Labour. The BNP tries to tap widespread opposition to the European Union in its favour. The BNP argues for white supremacy, cloaked in the language of a patriotism that existed when the British Empire spanned the globe. The BNP even claims it is a workers’ party though its half-baked corporatist theories would put Sir Oswald Mosley to shame.
This is not an exclusively BNP patch and they are not the most successful at it. Parts of their agenda are shared by all sorts of fringe, and not so far-right parties. The maverick Tory UKIP party has been remarkably successful in garnering the anti-EU vote and the English Democrats won the mayoral election for Doncaster last week.
The question of Britain’s membership of the European Union, mass immigration and even home rule for England are all part the political debate on the street and it’s a debate that must not be left exclusively to the likes of UKIP to control or the BNP to exploit.
In the 1930s fascism represented the programme of the most aggressive and reactionary elements in Europe. Though their leaders like Mussolini and Hitler claimed to represent all classes including the workers, their real aim was to crush communists and socialists; divert workers’ anger against their oppressors to chosen minorities like the German Jews and dragoon the masses for war.
The British ruling class has never needed fascism, as Mosley found to his cost when he made his bid for power in the 1930s. But racism was the ideological justification for colonial oppression in the British Empire and the ruling class still uses it from time to time to retain the invisible caste system that operates in Britain and divides the working class.
But the BNP are not just racists. The BNP are wolves in sheeps’ clothing. Their leaders pose as racists but they are Nazis. The BNP is run by hardline Nazis who believe that the Holocaust did not happen. Its rule book remains firmly entrenched in the principles of racial superiority and the banning of racial integration.
Everyone knows where this all ends up and that’s why the BNP’s leaders are so coy now about their past record.
Well we’ve got to make sure that everyone understands exactly what the BNP stands for. We’ve got to isolate, confront and expose the BNP for what it is. There are a number of anti-racist movements in Britain, some more effective than others. Hope not Hate, sponsored by the anti-fascist magazine, Searchlight, has consistently worked to build a mass movement against the British National Party and other racists and fascists.
Hope not Hate recognises that people, communities and society as a whole face problems, but the BNP is not the answer and would only make everything worse. It has now launched a new “Not in My Name” campaign that will take this message into every neighbourhood, estate and street in the country.
Hope not Hate, along with the other anti-racist movements, must be supported by the labour movement as the struggle intensifies in the run-up to the next general election.
Spanish honours for IB veteran
By Daphne Liddle
SEVEN veteran International Brigaders last week were honoured by the Spanish government and awarded Spanish citizenship in a ceremony at the Spanish Embassy in Belgravia.
They were 96-year-old Paddy Cochrane, Sam Lesser, Thomas Watters, Penny Feiwel, Jack Edwards, Lou Kenton and Joseph Kahn.
The ambassador, Carles Casajuana, shook hands with each of the volunteers and handed them Spanish passports.
The International Brigade veteran and trade unionist Jack Jones, who died in April, received a posthumous passport, which was given to his son, Mick.
Sam Lesser, who recalled how the communist politician Dolores Ibárruri – La Pasionaria – had promised the foreign fighters in 1938 that they would one day return to find a peaceful, republican Spain.
"We've taken a while but now we've come home," Lesser, 94, said in – Spanish.
"We've come home. But there are those of us who did not come home, who sleep under the sun, the soil and the olive trees of Spain."
He quoted the poet Laurence Binyon, saying their sacrifice would never be forgotten: "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. /Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. /At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them."
This prompted Paddy Cochrane to raise a defiant clenched fist in the air, and to describe how proud he now was of what he had done.
Casajuana said that although Spain had changed – "now we settle our differences at the ballot box and not on the battlefield" – the country would never forget those who had given up comfortable lives at home to fight for democracy and freedom.
"Your fight was not in vain," he told them. "Your ideals are part of the foundations of our democracy."
After the ceremony, Paddy Cochrane sat in his wheelchair; grinning as he inspected the little red booklet he had just been given. "It makes me very proud," he said. "Very proud."
Joseph Kahn, reflected: "It's very pleasant to get the passport," he said. "They did offer it to us a few years ago but that was on condition that we gave up our British nationality, which, of course, we refused. I'm very appreciative of the gesture. "
He also had an odd sensation as he glanced around the room: "It's the first time in my life that I've felt like the youngest."
Mick Jones said his father would, in spite of his principles, have appreciated the granting of Spanish citizenship.
"It's a shame that Jack isn't here today but he knew he was going to get it – he'd filled in all the forms," he said.
"My father was never very impressed with ceremonies and honours but he would have thought it was about time that Spain recognised the sacrifices made by the International Brigade."
SEVEN veteran International Brigaders last week were honoured by the Spanish government and awarded Spanish citizenship in a ceremony at the Spanish Embassy in Belgravia.
They were 96-year-old Paddy Cochrane, Sam Lesser, Thomas Watters, Penny Feiwel, Jack Edwards, Lou Kenton and Joseph Kahn.
The ambassador, Carles Casajuana, shook hands with each of the volunteers and handed them Spanish passports.
The International Brigade veteran and trade unionist Jack Jones, who died in April, received a posthumous passport, which was given to his son, Mick.
Sam Lesser, who recalled how the communist politician Dolores Ibárruri – La Pasionaria – had promised the foreign fighters in 1938 that they would one day return to find a peaceful, republican Spain.
"We've taken a while but now we've come home," Lesser, 94, said in – Spanish.
"We've come home. But there are those of us who did not come home, who sleep under the sun, the soil and the olive trees of Spain."
He quoted the poet Laurence Binyon, saying their sacrifice would never be forgotten: "They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. /Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. /At the going down of the sun and in the morning/We will remember them."
This prompted Paddy Cochrane to raise a defiant clenched fist in the air, and to describe how proud he now was of what he had done.
Casajuana said that although Spain had changed – "now we settle our differences at the ballot box and not on the battlefield" – the country would never forget those who had given up comfortable lives at home to fight for democracy and freedom.
"Your fight was not in vain," he told them. "Your ideals are part of the foundations of our democracy."
After the ceremony, Paddy Cochrane sat in his wheelchair; grinning as he inspected the little red booklet he had just been given. "It makes me very proud," he said. "Very proud."
Joseph Kahn, reflected: "It's very pleasant to get the passport," he said. "They did offer it to us a few years ago but that was on condition that we gave up our British nationality, which, of course, we refused. I'm very appreciative of the gesture. "
He also had an odd sensation as he glanced around the room: "It's the first time in my life that I've felt like the youngest."
Mick Jones said his father would, in spite of his principles, have appreciated the granting of Spanish citizenship.
"It's a shame that Jack isn't here today but he knew he was going to get it – he'd filled in all the forms," he said.
"My father was never very impressed with ceremonies and honours but he would have thought it was about time that Spain recognised the sacrifices made by the International Brigade."
London round-up
Students fight for cleaners
STUDENTS at the University of London’s School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) last week began an occupation of university buildings in protest at an immigration service raid and the arrest, pending deportation of a number of the cleaning staff.
The students claim the raid is a repressive reaction for recent trade union activity.
Early last Friday morning all the cleaning staff were summoned to a meeting in a hall by the employers, ISS. When they had gathered doors were locked and immigration officers and police wearing riot gear entered and detained all the workers, including one young pregnant woman.
They were held in the hall and one-by-one taken to a side room where their immigration status was checked. They were allowed no legal or union representation; many spoke only Spanish but there were no interpreters. A union officer who tried to get in to advise and represent the workers was barred.
A number were arrested and nine have already been deported.
The students are demanding that SOAS director Paul Webley, write to the Home Secretary calling for amnesty for the remaining detainees.
One student said: “Universities should be sanctuaries: places free of violence and aggression. SOAS’s reputation as a university has been tainted today”.
Over 20 academics from the university also signed a statement denouncing the School’s management for facilitating the Border Control Agency’s work.
“It is a total disgrace that the raid took place at an institution actively recruiting students from around the world on the basis of its reputation as a leading centre for the study of global justice, human rights and racial tolerance,” it said.
The recent Living Wage campaign and protests over the controversial sacking of cleaner and union activist Jose Stalin Bermudez, are cited by protestors as motivation for the deportations.
Labour MP John McDonnell said “As living wage campaigns are building in strength, we are increasingly seeing the use of immigration statuses to attack workers fighting against poverty wages and break trade union organising.
“The message is that they are happy to employ migrant labour on poverty wages, but if you complain they will send you back home. It is absolutely shameful.”
The university said that it was “legally obliged to co-operate fully with the authorities”.
The company ISS Cleaning and Hygiene Services, SOAS’s cleaning contractor has been accused of using immigration law to keep wages low after strikes by its employees working on tube trains were also followed by deportation of key activists. But ISS strongly denied a link between unionisation and the raids.
Police accused of torture
THE METROPOLITAN Police has suspended or placed on restricted duties six officers after allegations that they tortured suspected drug dealers after a police raid.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the Enfield-based officers' conduct, according to Scotland Yard.
The alleged offences are said to have taken place in the borough during two drugs raids on 4th November last year.
The Met said the allegations were serious and raised "real concern". But they said they could not comment on the exact nature of the complaints.
But some national newspapers are reporting that the officers used water torture techniques such as ducking a suspect's head under water.
STUDENTS at the University of London’s School for Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) last week began an occupation of university buildings in protest at an immigration service raid and the arrest, pending deportation of a number of the cleaning staff.
The students claim the raid is a repressive reaction for recent trade union activity.
Early last Friday morning all the cleaning staff were summoned to a meeting in a hall by the employers, ISS. When they had gathered doors were locked and immigration officers and police wearing riot gear entered and detained all the workers, including one young pregnant woman.
They were held in the hall and one-by-one taken to a side room where their immigration status was checked. They were allowed no legal or union representation; many spoke only Spanish but there were no interpreters. A union officer who tried to get in to advise and represent the workers was barred.
A number were arrested and nine have already been deported.
The students are demanding that SOAS director Paul Webley, write to the Home Secretary calling for amnesty for the remaining detainees.
One student said: “Universities should be sanctuaries: places free of violence and aggression. SOAS’s reputation as a university has been tainted today”.
Over 20 academics from the university also signed a statement denouncing the School’s management for facilitating the Border Control Agency’s work.
“It is a total disgrace that the raid took place at an institution actively recruiting students from around the world on the basis of its reputation as a leading centre for the study of global justice, human rights and racial tolerance,” it said.
The recent Living Wage campaign and protests over the controversial sacking of cleaner and union activist Jose Stalin Bermudez, are cited by protestors as motivation for the deportations.
Labour MP John McDonnell said “As living wage campaigns are building in strength, we are increasingly seeing the use of immigration statuses to attack workers fighting against poverty wages and break trade union organising.
“The message is that they are happy to employ migrant labour on poverty wages, but if you complain they will send you back home. It is absolutely shameful.”
The university said that it was “legally obliged to co-operate fully with the authorities”.
The company ISS Cleaning and Hygiene Services, SOAS’s cleaning contractor has been accused of using immigration law to keep wages low after strikes by its employees working on tube trains were also followed by deportation of key activists. But ISS strongly denied a link between unionisation and the raids.
Police accused of torture
THE METROPOLITAN Police has suspended or placed on restricted duties six officers after allegations that they tortured suspected drug dealers after a police raid.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the Enfield-based officers' conduct, according to Scotland Yard.
The alleged offences are said to have taken place in the borough during two drugs raids on 4th November last year.
The Met said the allegations were serious and raised "real concern". But they said they could not comment on the exact nature of the complaints.
But some national newspapers are reporting that the officers used water torture techniques such as ducking a suspect's head under water.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
No to the European Union
Many of us will have received a letter from Gordon Brown last week laying out Labour’s case at the local and European elections this week. Brown recalls the Tories’ record during the last recession and restates his government’s efforts in the current slump. But he says very little about the European Union, which is after-all what this week’s poll is largely about.
In just two sentences the Prime Minister reduces the EU question to that of trade with “Europe”, which he says means “more jobs at home” while claiming that the Tories “prefer isolation in Europe – even at the costs of jobs in Britain”. That’s one way of looking at it.
In fact neither statement is true. Overseas trade with “Europe” or anyone else in the world means more jobs at home but Brown ignores the strictures of the European Union that have led to the collapse of British manufacturing and the virtual end of the mining industry over the years. Nor is it true to say that the Tories “prefer isolation” in Europe. The Cameron leadership are certainly opposed to the euro currency but they are not, in principle, against the EU or the Treaty of Rome.
None of this has been raised in a campaign overshadowed by the scandal over MPs expenses which is plainly being exploited by the Eurosceptic wing of the ruling class to undermine all the major parliamentary parties to ensure that none of them will be in a position to take Britain into the single European currency after the next general election.
In this EU election the only parties campaigning outright against the EU are UKIP and the fascist BNP while the new left social-democratic No2EU slate argues against the Lisbon Treaty but makes no outright call to tear up the Treaty of Rome. But where are big guns of the pro-EU camp?
Those in the Labour Party clearly have more immediate problems on their plate. But the Liberal Democrats, the torch-bearers of European integration, are simply concentrating on domestic issues. Kenneth Clarke, only recently brought back into the Tory Shadow Cabinet as a sop to the Europhiles, is saying nothing.
The section of the ruling class that wants to align British imperialism with Franco-German imperialism within the European bloc are keeping their heads down because they know that this week’s poll will be another rejection of the European Union. Millions will simply not bother to vote at all. Many of the minority that do will cast their votes for openly anti-EU platforms.
But behind the scenes moves are being taken to discredit the vote even before it’s counted. Mass abstention and the UKIP vote will simply be dismissed as a backlash against the parliamentary expenses scandal while demands for “constitutional reform” – essentially a call for proportional representation – will become even shriller.
All bourgeois elections are the manipulation of the largest number of votes by the smallest number of people. And proportional representation has been the method favoured by all the post-war bourgeois governments in Europe because it enables the bourgeois parties to more equitably share the spoils of office amongst themselves. It will be the chosen method of the pro-European camp to create a coalition government to take Britain into the euro and the European super-state.
We have always been opposed to the European Union and the Treaty of Rome. But the interests of the working class can never be protected by elements of bourgeoisie. Whether for or against the EU they are all defending their own class interests, not those of the workers.
The ruling class as a whole wants to reduce political argument to the divisions within their own ranks as they did in the Victorian era and as they continue to do in the United States of America. Communists must campaign to build a working-class agenda to fight to defend the interests of working people and raise the demand for the socialist alternative.
In just two sentences the Prime Minister reduces the EU question to that of trade with “Europe”, which he says means “more jobs at home” while claiming that the Tories “prefer isolation in Europe – even at the costs of jobs in Britain”. That’s one way of looking at it.
In fact neither statement is true. Overseas trade with “Europe” or anyone else in the world means more jobs at home but Brown ignores the strictures of the European Union that have led to the collapse of British manufacturing and the virtual end of the mining industry over the years. Nor is it true to say that the Tories “prefer isolation” in Europe. The Cameron leadership are certainly opposed to the euro currency but they are not, in principle, against the EU or the Treaty of Rome.
None of this has been raised in a campaign overshadowed by the scandal over MPs expenses which is plainly being exploited by the Eurosceptic wing of the ruling class to undermine all the major parliamentary parties to ensure that none of them will be in a position to take Britain into the single European currency after the next general election.
In this EU election the only parties campaigning outright against the EU are UKIP and the fascist BNP while the new left social-democratic No2EU slate argues against the Lisbon Treaty but makes no outright call to tear up the Treaty of Rome. But where are big guns of the pro-EU camp?
Those in the Labour Party clearly have more immediate problems on their plate. But the Liberal Democrats, the torch-bearers of European integration, are simply concentrating on domestic issues. Kenneth Clarke, only recently brought back into the Tory Shadow Cabinet as a sop to the Europhiles, is saying nothing.
The section of the ruling class that wants to align British imperialism with Franco-German imperialism within the European bloc are keeping their heads down because they know that this week’s poll will be another rejection of the European Union. Millions will simply not bother to vote at all. Many of the minority that do will cast their votes for openly anti-EU platforms.
But behind the scenes moves are being taken to discredit the vote even before it’s counted. Mass abstention and the UKIP vote will simply be dismissed as a backlash against the parliamentary expenses scandal while demands for “constitutional reform” – essentially a call for proportional representation – will become even shriller.
All bourgeois elections are the manipulation of the largest number of votes by the smallest number of people. And proportional representation has been the method favoured by all the post-war bourgeois governments in Europe because it enables the bourgeois parties to more equitably share the spoils of office amongst themselves. It will be the chosen method of the pro-European camp to create a coalition government to take Britain into the euro and the European super-state.
We have always been opposed to the European Union and the Treaty of Rome. But the interests of the working class can never be protected by elements of bourgeoisie. Whether for or against the EU they are all defending their own class interests, not those of the workers.
The ruling class as a whole wants to reduce political argument to the divisions within their own ranks as they did in the Victorian era and as they continue to do in the United States of America. Communists must campaign to build a working-class agenda to fight to defend the interests of working people and raise the demand for the socialist alternative.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Boycott the European elections
The farcical European elections take place next week but in Britain hardly anyone knows who their MEPs are or what they do. In fact they do next to nothing apart from draw their colossal wages and expenses for taking part in a charade that is paid for by the workers of Europe.
In this election Labour and the two major opposition parties are united, in differing degrees, in support of European integration – the building of a European capitalist super-state revolving around British and Franco-German imperialism. The anti-EU opposition ranges from fringe left parties to the neo-nazi BNP, all scrabbling after the juicy perks that a seat in the EU parliament provides. The most successful is the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), a rabid independent Tory front that is defending its nine British seats and has high hopes of gaining more from the backlash over the Commons expenses scandal. UKIP claims to fight to get Britain out of the EU. But what have UKIP’s nine MEPs achieved over the years? Absolutely nothing apart from drawing their Euros.
In Britain there is indifference and often outright hostility to the undemocratic institutions of the European Union. This was shown by the conscious decision of the vast majority of the electorate to boycott the 2004 European Parliament elections. Little more than a third of the electorate bothered to vote despite the blandishments of the media, the appeal of proportional representation to minority parties and the cajoling of the bourgeois parties. In many working class areas the turnout was even lower.
The European Parliament, like the Commission, has become a byword for undemocratic practices, corruption, nepotism and waste and fraud on a massive scale. The elections themselves are nothing more than a bogus public relations exercise for a body that possesses no meaningful executive powers at all. They don’t deserve the credibility of a vote at all. Boycott the EU elections in June!
In this election Labour and the two major opposition parties are united, in differing degrees, in support of European integration – the building of a European capitalist super-state revolving around British and Franco-German imperialism. The anti-EU opposition ranges from fringe left parties to the neo-nazi BNP, all scrabbling after the juicy perks that a seat in the EU parliament provides. The most successful is the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), a rabid independent Tory front that is defending its nine British seats and has high hopes of gaining more from the backlash over the Commons expenses scandal. UKIP claims to fight to get Britain out of the EU. But what have UKIP’s nine MEPs achieved over the years? Absolutely nothing apart from drawing their Euros.
In Britain there is indifference and often outright hostility to the undemocratic institutions of the European Union. This was shown by the conscious decision of the vast majority of the electorate to boycott the 2004 European Parliament elections. Little more than a third of the electorate bothered to vote despite the blandishments of the media, the appeal of proportional representation to minority parties and the cajoling of the bourgeois parties. In many working class areas the turnout was even lower.
The European Parliament, like the Commission, has become a byword for undemocratic practices, corruption, nepotism and waste and fraud on a massive scale. The elections themselves are nothing more than a bogus public relations exercise for a body that possesses no meaningful executive powers at all. They don’t deserve the credibility of a vote at all. Boycott the EU elections in June!
Unions unite against cuts
By Robert Laurie
Several hundred demonstrators took part in a march in bright sunshine last Saturday across north London in defence of jobs in higher education and the Civil Service. Organised by PCS and the University and Colleges Union with the support of it marched along Holloway Road where it passed London Metropolitan University, the first main focus of the march. The University is facing drastic cuts amounting to about a quarter of the workforce forced upon it when it was discovered the University had grossly underestimated the number of students on its book. It not only has to pay back Government grants given on the base of these inflated student numbers but faces greatly reduced grants in future years. For once it is not entirely fair to blame the senior managers for these problems. Because LMU has a good record in providing access to university courses for working class students it has a very high and unpredictable drop out rate. This is due to these unfunded students facing financial troubles often having to temporarily or permanently abandon their courses.
The march ended with a rally in the park near Archway Tower thus linking up with the struggle of workers at the Tower who are fighting against relocation and job cuts. The Tower houses the Office of the Public Guardian (the government body responsible for administering the financial affairs of mentally handicapped people). Present government plans include either relocating the 500 staff out of London. Additionally the plans include establishing a call centre system which will cut all personal visits to vulnerable people and their carers.
Speakers included local MP Jeremy Corbyn who denounced Higher Education Minister David Lammy for speedily backtracked on a pledge given in the Commons to launch a public inquiry into events at LMU and stated that the struggle for jobs a LMU was only part of a wider struggle for access to higher education. Other speakers contrasted the billions being handed out to bankers with the comparatively small sums required to solve all the problems of funding higher education.
Several hundred demonstrators took part in a march in bright sunshine last Saturday across north London in defence of jobs in higher education and the Civil Service. Organised by PCS and the University and Colleges Union with the support of it marched along Holloway Road where it passed London Metropolitan University, the first main focus of the march. The University is facing drastic cuts amounting to about a quarter of the workforce forced upon it when it was discovered the University had grossly underestimated the number of students on its book. It not only has to pay back Government grants given on the base of these inflated student numbers but faces greatly reduced grants in future years. For once it is not entirely fair to blame the senior managers for these problems. Because LMU has a good record in providing access to university courses for working class students it has a very high and unpredictable drop out rate. This is due to these unfunded students facing financial troubles often having to temporarily or permanently abandon their courses.
The march ended with a rally in the park near Archway Tower thus linking up with the struggle of workers at the Tower who are fighting against relocation and job cuts. The Tower houses the Office of the Public Guardian (the government body responsible for administering the financial affairs of mentally handicapped people). Present government plans include either relocating the 500 staff out of London. Additionally the plans include establishing a call centre system which will cut all personal visits to vulnerable people and their carers.
Speakers included local MP Jeremy Corbyn who denounced Higher Education Minister David Lammy for speedily backtracked on a pledge given in the Commons to launch a public inquiry into events at LMU and stated that the struggle for jobs a LMU was only part of a wider struggle for access to higher education. Other speakers contrasted the billions being handed out to bankers with the comparatively small sums required to solve all the problems of funding higher education.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Buy Palestinian not Israeli!
South East London Friendship Link with Beit Fourik (SELFBF) has established links with a Palestinian agricultural village in the West Bank and facilitated exchange visits. The group has also been involved in researching the fresh produce supply chain between Israel and the UK, examining particularly trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. They have campaigned with supermarkets and have seen an improved response, and the Cooperative supermarket showing willingness to buy Palestinian produce in future. The Group is hoping to make a visit to Beit Fourik in the autumn to discuss a new trade initiative, and advise on labelling, packaging, and food preservation in order to increase the Village’s product portfolio. Last week Daphne Liddle spoke to Sue Phasey, a researcher and consultant in postharvest science and Technical Advisor for SELFBF about the campaign.
Daphne Liddle: Why are supermarkets now meeting with campaigners?
Sue Phasey: It has been a long term campaign to bring about public and government attention to Israeli trade with the UK in general – it’s not something new. However, it has been more difficult to unravel and even explain the trade with illegal Israeli settlements. It’s only because of dedicated campaigns that this has more recently been taken seriously by supermarkets, the main buyers and retailers of Israeli produce in the UK. The government, and particularly the Foreign Office appear to have warmed towards some of the campaigns’ objectives; it’s not clear whether the government’s stance has altered because it merely wants to recoup lost revenue (though that would be relatively small) or as I would prefer to hope, it wants to take a more moral stand on human rights issues for Palestinians. If the latter is true then it would be good to hear it directly and more openly as such from Miliband’s office. Lawyers have been looking into the legality of trading with illegal settlements and there is a suggestion that legal action could be taken.
DL: Why is Israeli produce in such demand?
SP: The fresh produce supply chain is enormously complex and inter-related. You can divide it broadly into northern and southern hemisphere for the purposes of harvest windows throughout the year. There are also many emerging pressing issues to consider; food transport miles, food security, food quality, packaging issues and waste. One of the problems for supermarket buyers (from their perspective) is fulfilling consumer demands for all year round (AYR) quality produce, and it has done so by procuring produce from all corners of the earth. Israeli produce is in high demand because of its consistency in terms of supply, quality and price; as the UK is probably Israel’s most lucrative market, it will seek to meet the challenges of such a demanding and critical market by expanding its growing areas – for example new crop areas for pomegranate and other ‘fashionable’ produce, also new pepper varieties grown on settlements in the West Bank. The use of the Dead Sea area or the Jordan Valley with a growing season from November to May means that it can cover 12 months a year for supply of key crops.
DL:Why has Israel achieved such status with UK supermarkets?
SP:There’s no denying that Israel boasts good facilities and skills in agriculture. Israel continually innovates scientifically, has excellent plant breeding skills and is well tuned in to what consumers in the UK are demanding. It’s also well established in our markets. It is therefore difficult for other regions to compete with Israel, though there are very good producers in Spain, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries. Investment in up and coming growing areas is the only way to ensure that an alternative is offered for big buyers of fresh produce, otherwise they will stick to Israeli produce where possible. The harvest window for AYR supply using the Jordan Valley & Dead Sea (West Bank) region is probably Israel’s best advantage as well as its own government’s investment in agriculture from the beginning of the establishment of the State of Israel.
DL: What are the problems with Israeli agriculture and why should we be concerned?
SP: Supermarkets must consider the human and environmental cost that such intensive growing systems present – Israel has used up vast amounts of water from natural resources to attain such growth (“blooming of the desert”), remember, these kind of crops are not necessarily native to the region, and has caused the growth of the unforgiving Western Flower Thrips pest in the Jordan Valley – both issues have caused severe problems to Jordanian farmers on the other side of the Jordan River, and particularly for Palestinian farmers, now sadly diminishing rapidly. Growing non-native crops in intensive systems also means that there is a high dependency on pesticides; something that has also caused soil and environmental problems in the region. Most importantly, we have to remember that whilst there is reference to ‘illegal settlements’ supposedly used to describe Israeli settlements on the West Bank/Jordan Valley, all settlements and kibbutz are illegal occupations. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Israel seized a lot of farming land from the very beginning and the passing of time does not legitimise or justify it. The conditions of Palestinian workers, Thai workers ought to be thought about seriously. Imagine yourself as a Palestinian who used to have, or should have, farm land, but it was forcibly taken from you or your family and now you are forced to now work on it for the occupiers as poorly paid workers. This is something we must think deeply about, after all growing such crops for our supply chain on what is essentially stolen Palestinian land is an outrage, a piracy, and something that UK supermarkets’ own Code of Practice should force them to declare in the very least as unethical.
DL: What is the issue concerning labelling of produce in this respect?
SP: I strongly believe that if the public really knew of the true history of the land, how Palestinian farmers are losing hectares of land, and how these foods are grown with little regard to the environment or human rights of Palestinians, then I think there would be a blanket boycott of all Israeli goods. Environmental activists should take up the issues as a ‘cause celebre’. However, we must concentrate on exposing the trade from illegal settlements as a primary concern. It is unlikely that all trade will be forbidden overnight of course, so in the meantime there must be some standardisation on labelling. I would have thought that this directive would come from the FSA (Food Standards Agency), and that supermarkets must consider reaching an agreement and some consistency on what should be on the label for produce that is coming from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. We must also be aware that there are clauses in labelling directives from various Codes of Practice that allow produce which has had postharvest minimal processing operations (e.g., trimming, cutting) to be labelled as originating from that secondary source. This means that Israel could in theory harvest produce on settlements and sends to Tel Aviv for trimming operations and label produce as being sourced from “Israel”. This would be misleading, but it would be difficult for an outsider to prove, though supermarkets should be able to track all produce from farm to fork. Difficulties in this respect also occur on mixed pallets – that is to say, it may be difficult to track all boxes of produce on a pallet. This issue again is a requirement of their own Code of Practice, not to mention as a legal requirement. It’s not sufficient to label such produce as being from “the Jordan Valley” or “the West Bank”; consumers need to have an informed choice, and to make their own decision as to whether they will buy illegal settlement produce.
DL: Where does your campaign focus next?
SP: We are continuing to look at collecting all available information on the sourcing of produce from ‘Israel’, and keeping activists, journalists, lawyers, and supermarkets informed of our findings in future. By unravelling some aspects of the supply chain, we are now working out dates of harvest/supply of key crops coming into the UK from ‘Israel’ prior to their own marketing campaigns so that local activist groups can be alerted and leaflet the public and importers or shopkeepers accordingly. We believe that this might be a more effective and focused method of campaigning than the traditional blanket boycott campaign which, nonetheless, is essential. If any campaign groups are interested in this, they can contact the Secretary of SELFBF, Pauline Collins, by email at collpm@hotmail.co.uk. If we really want to hurt the state of Israel then damaging agricultural trade with the UK will go a long way. Remember the South African boycott worked and so will this.
Daphne Liddle: Why are supermarkets now meeting with campaigners?
Sue Phasey: It has been a long term campaign to bring about public and government attention to Israeli trade with the UK in general – it’s not something new. However, it has been more difficult to unravel and even explain the trade with illegal Israeli settlements. It’s only because of dedicated campaigns that this has more recently been taken seriously by supermarkets, the main buyers and retailers of Israeli produce in the UK. The government, and particularly the Foreign Office appear to have warmed towards some of the campaigns’ objectives; it’s not clear whether the government’s stance has altered because it merely wants to recoup lost revenue (though that would be relatively small) or as I would prefer to hope, it wants to take a more moral stand on human rights issues for Palestinians. If the latter is true then it would be good to hear it directly and more openly as such from Miliband’s office. Lawyers have been looking into the legality of trading with illegal settlements and there is a suggestion that legal action could be taken.
DL: Why is Israeli produce in such demand?
SP: The fresh produce supply chain is enormously complex and inter-related. You can divide it broadly into northern and southern hemisphere for the purposes of harvest windows throughout the year. There are also many emerging pressing issues to consider; food transport miles, food security, food quality, packaging issues and waste. One of the problems for supermarket buyers (from their perspective) is fulfilling consumer demands for all year round (AYR) quality produce, and it has done so by procuring produce from all corners of the earth. Israeli produce is in high demand because of its consistency in terms of supply, quality and price; as the UK is probably Israel’s most lucrative market, it will seek to meet the challenges of such a demanding and critical market by expanding its growing areas – for example new crop areas for pomegranate and other ‘fashionable’ produce, also new pepper varieties grown on settlements in the West Bank. The use of the Dead Sea area or the Jordan Valley with a growing season from November to May means that it can cover 12 months a year for supply of key crops.
DL:Why has Israel achieved such status with UK supermarkets?
SP:There’s no denying that Israel boasts good facilities and skills in agriculture. Israel continually innovates scientifically, has excellent plant breeding skills and is well tuned in to what consumers in the UK are demanding. It’s also well established in our markets. It is therefore difficult for other regions to compete with Israel, though there are very good producers in Spain, Turkey and other Mediterranean countries. Investment in up and coming growing areas is the only way to ensure that an alternative is offered for big buyers of fresh produce, otherwise they will stick to Israeli produce where possible. The harvest window for AYR supply using the Jordan Valley & Dead Sea (West Bank) region is probably Israel’s best advantage as well as its own government’s investment in agriculture from the beginning of the establishment of the State of Israel.
DL: What are the problems with Israeli agriculture and why should we be concerned?
SP: Supermarkets must consider the human and environmental cost that such intensive growing systems present – Israel has used up vast amounts of water from natural resources to attain such growth (“blooming of the desert”), remember, these kind of crops are not necessarily native to the region, and has caused the growth of the unforgiving Western Flower Thrips pest in the Jordan Valley – both issues have caused severe problems to Jordanian farmers on the other side of the Jordan River, and particularly for Palestinian farmers, now sadly diminishing rapidly. Growing non-native crops in intensive systems also means that there is a high dependency on pesticides; something that has also caused soil and environmental problems in the region. Most importantly, we have to remember that whilst there is reference to ‘illegal settlements’ supposedly used to describe Israeli settlements on the West Bank/Jordan Valley, all settlements and kibbutz are illegal occupations. It shouldn’t be forgotten that Israel seized a lot of farming land from the very beginning and the passing of time does not legitimise or justify it. The conditions of Palestinian workers, Thai workers ought to be thought about seriously. Imagine yourself as a Palestinian who used to have, or should have, farm land, but it was forcibly taken from you or your family and now you are forced to now work on it for the occupiers as poorly paid workers. This is something we must think deeply about, after all growing such crops for our supply chain on what is essentially stolen Palestinian land is an outrage, a piracy, and something that UK supermarkets’ own Code of Practice should force them to declare in the very least as unethical.
DL: What is the issue concerning labelling of produce in this respect?
SP: I strongly believe that if the public really knew of the true history of the land, how Palestinian farmers are losing hectares of land, and how these foods are grown with little regard to the environment or human rights of Palestinians, then I think there would be a blanket boycott of all Israeli goods. Environmental activists should take up the issues as a ‘cause celebre’. However, we must concentrate on exposing the trade from illegal settlements as a primary concern. It is unlikely that all trade will be forbidden overnight of course, so in the meantime there must be some standardisation on labelling. I would have thought that this directive would come from the FSA (Food Standards Agency), and that supermarkets must consider reaching an agreement and some consistency on what should be on the label for produce that is coming from Israeli settlements in the West Bank. We must also be aware that there are clauses in labelling directives from various Codes of Practice that allow produce which has had postharvest minimal processing operations (e.g., trimming, cutting) to be labelled as originating from that secondary source. This means that Israel could in theory harvest produce on settlements and sends to Tel Aviv for trimming operations and label produce as being sourced from “Israel”. This would be misleading, but it would be difficult for an outsider to prove, though supermarkets should be able to track all produce from farm to fork. Difficulties in this respect also occur on mixed pallets – that is to say, it may be difficult to track all boxes of produce on a pallet. This issue again is a requirement of their own Code of Practice, not to mention as a legal requirement. It’s not sufficient to label such produce as being from “the Jordan Valley” or “the West Bank”; consumers need to have an informed choice, and to make their own decision as to whether they will buy illegal settlement produce.
DL: Where does your campaign focus next?
SP: We are continuing to look at collecting all available information on the sourcing of produce from ‘Israel’, and keeping activists, journalists, lawyers, and supermarkets informed of our findings in future. By unravelling some aspects of the supply chain, we are now working out dates of harvest/supply of key crops coming into the UK from ‘Israel’ prior to their own marketing campaigns so that local activist groups can be alerted and leaflet the public and importers or shopkeepers accordingly. We believe that this might be a more effective and focused method of campaigning than the traditional blanket boycott campaign which, nonetheless, is essential. If any campaign groups are interested in this, they can contact the Secretary of SELFBF, Pauline Collins, by email at collpm@hotmail.co.uk. If we really want to hurt the state of Israel then damaging agricultural trade with the UK will go a long way. Remember the South African boycott worked and so will this.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Protesters may sue the Met
A GROUP of climate camp protesters who claim they suffered from violent police tactics during the G20 protests near the Bank of England are considering taking legal action against Scotland Yard.
Lawyers acting for the group have put the Metropolitan police on notice that they may launch a Judicial Review of the tactics used to contain demonstrations.
Activists who staged the Bishopsgate climate camp want an explanation of how the Metropolitan Police handled the controversial City of London events last month.
New pictures have added to the wealth of photos taken by demonstrators already published. They show one officer using his shield to hit out at demonstrators, who are sitting in the middle of the road. Another officer is seen apparently hitting out with his fist.
The climate campaigners' legal representatives are also demanding that senior officers provide a legal basis for the practice known as "kettling", where protesters are corralled into tight groups for extended periods of time.
Lawyers acting for the group have put the Metropolitan police on notice that they may launch a Judicial Review of the tactics used to contain demonstrations.
Activists who staged the Bishopsgate climate camp want an explanation of how the Metropolitan Police handled the controversial City of London events last month.
New pictures have added to the wealth of photos taken by demonstrators already published. They show one officer using his shield to hit out at demonstrators, who are sitting in the middle of the road. Another officer is seen apparently hitting out with his fist.
The climate campaigners' legal representatives are also demanding that senior officers provide a legal basis for the practice known as "kettling", where protesters are corralled into tight groups for extended periods of time.
End the seige of Gaza!
By Robert Laurie
THOUSANDS of protesters took to the streets of London last Saturday in a march and rally organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to call for Israel to end its siege of Gaza and to remember the Nakba (massacre) of 1948, when Palestinians were thrown off their land to make way for the new state of Israel.
The march was backed by CND, Stop the War, the British Muslim Initiative and dozens more progressive organisations.
It was a colourful march with plenty of music and dancing along the way as it progressed from Malet Street, by the University of London, through Holborn and Archway to Trafalgar Square.
Speakers at the Trafalgar Square rally included MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Martin Linton and George Galloway; Daud Abdullah, the deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Jean Lambert MEP, Jenny Tonge MEP, Manuel Hassassian – Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, Alexei Sayle and speakers from PSC, Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, CND, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Viva Palestina, Jews for Justice for Palestine, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and others.
THOUSANDS of protesters took to the streets of London last Saturday in a march and rally organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to call for Israel to end its siege of Gaza and to remember the Nakba (massacre) of 1948, when Palestinians were thrown off their land to make way for the new state of Israel.
The march was backed by CND, Stop the War, the British Muslim Initiative and dozens more progressive organisations.
It was a colourful march with plenty of music and dancing along the way as it progressed from Malet Street, by the University of London, through Holborn and Archway to Trafalgar Square.
Speakers at the Trafalgar Square rally included MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Martin Linton and George Galloway; Daud Abdullah, the deputy general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, Jean Lambert MEP, Jenny Tonge MEP, Manuel Hassassian – Palestinian General Delegate to the UK, Alexei Sayle and speakers from PSC, Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, CND, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Viva Palestina, Jews for Justice for Palestine, Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights and others.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Victory Day in London
by Daphne Liddle
SEVERAL hundred people gathered at the Soviet war memorial in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park in south London to mark the anniversary of the Red Army’s Victory Day on 9th May 1945.
Last Saturday was also the 10th anniversary of the memorial in the grounds of the Imperial War Museum.
The mayor of Southwark, Councillor Eliza Mann welcomed the biggest attendance ever at this annual event, organised by the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund (SMTF) included for the first time three Soviet Navy veterans from Archangel, who had worked alongside the veterans from the Arctic Convoy Club – regular participants at this event.
There was also a very large contingent from the Russian Embassy School in London, showing that the younger generation is very much aware of the sacrifice made by the Soviet armed forces in delivering the world from the threat of Nazi domination.
The usual representatives from the embassies of former Soviet republics were there in force, along with veterans’ organisations like the Arctic Convoy Club, the British Legion, the International Brigade Association, local MP Simon Hughes, Robert Wareing MP from the All-Party British-Russian Parliamentary Group, trade union representatives, and political and cultural groups like the New Communist Party, the British Vietnam Association and the Marx Memorial Library.
Russian Ambassador Yuri Fedotov paid tribute to the work of the SMTF in raising and maintaining the memorial. “We should be building memorials to keep the memory alive for coming generations. Not tearing them down as they are doing in some places,” he said.
After the formal wreath laying, which left the large inscribed stone in front of the memorial completely carpeted with flowers, Polina Baranova, a pupil at the Russian Embassy School sang a haunting Russian folk song, Zhuvrali or the Cranes.
The song dates from the Great Patriotic War and relates the legend that dead soldiers are returning as white cranes. Polina sang unaccompanied with a beautiful voice and a delivery that would be expected of a much older, professional singer. She is only 12-years-old.
Then followed the Last Post and the exhortation “We will remember them”, delivered by a British Legion Veteran and the two minutes’ silence.
These veterans, carrying their banners, marched off to the “stand down” just outside the refreshment tent, where the Russian Ambassador invited everyone to join him in a toast to victory.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Strange Tulip
By our Industrial Affairs correspondent
Some New Labour supporters are backing a new international pressure group called Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (Tulip), that claims to support peace in the Middle East by opposing the boycott of Israeli goods and aiming “to challenge the apologists for Hamas and Hizbollah in the labour movement”.
Tulip was launched last week and it is supported by the leaders of three unions – Paul Howes, National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union; Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (US/Canada); and Michael Leahy, General Secretary of Community, a small British trade union whose major claim to fame is that Gordon Brown is one of its members.
Tulip makes remarkably dovish claims about past Israeli governments and equates the growing boycott Israel campaign with anti-semitism. It was welcomed by Jeremy Newmark of the Stop the Boycott campaign, who said: “Tulip is a practical initiative which shows that trade unions use their power in good ways, bringing Israelis and Palestinians together and improving lives — a contrast with those unions that have adopted divisive boycotts.” But though it has attracted a number of long-standing campaigners for Israel it has yet to gain any meaningful support from any Palestinian organisations.
Comrades from the South East London Link with Beit Furik are convinced this organisation is doing exactly what the Israeli government would want to counter the very effective campaigning that has been going on in Britain by supporters of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, especially in regard to the boycott. It cannot possibly deliver a just peace for the Palestinians and can only prolong the illegal occupation.
Claiming to support peace and to be left wing, this organisation could spread confusion among naïve trade unionists.
One campaigner told the New Worker: “I’m sure this is because we are being so successful. This time last year none of the big supermarket chains would even reply to our letters. Now they are agreeing to meetings.
“We have been pointing out that selling goods produced in illegally occupied land is contrary to international law.
“Now the supermarkets are saying they are willing to stock goods from Palestine, properly labelled with the money going back to the Palestinian farmers.
“And since the attack on Gaza at the beginning of this year they are getting a lot of customer pressure to boycott Israeli goods.”
“I’m not worried about this new organisation. I don’t think many will be taken in by it. It is just a measure of how successful we are being.”
Some New Labour supporters are backing a new international pressure group called Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (Tulip), that claims to support peace in the Middle East by opposing the boycott of Israeli goods and aiming “to challenge the apologists for Hamas and Hizbollah in the labour movement”.
Tulip was launched last week and it is supported by the leaders of three unions – Paul Howes, National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union; Stuart Appelbaum, President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (US/Canada); and Michael Leahy, General Secretary of Community, a small British trade union whose major claim to fame is that Gordon Brown is one of its members.
Tulip makes remarkably dovish claims about past Israeli governments and equates the growing boycott Israel campaign with anti-semitism. It was welcomed by Jeremy Newmark of the Stop the Boycott campaign, who said: “Tulip is a practical initiative which shows that trade unions use their power in good ways, bringing Israelis and Palestinians together and improving lives — a contrast with those unions that have adopted divisive boycotts.” But though it has attracted a number of long-standing campaigners for Israel it has yet to gain any meaningful support from any Palestinian organisations.
Comrades from the South East London Link with Beit Furik are convinced this organisation is doing exactly what the Israeli government would want to counter the very effective campaigning that has been going on in Britain by supporters of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, especially in regard to the boycott. It cannot possibly deliver a just peace for the Palestinians and can only prolong the illegal occupation.
Claiming to support peace and to be left wing, this organisation could spread confusion among naïve trade unionists.
One campaigner told the New Worker: “I’m sure this is because we are being so successful. This time last year none of the big supermarket chains would even reply to our letters. Now they are agreeing to meetings.
“We have been pointing out that selling goods produced in illegally occupied land is contrary to international law.
“Now the supermarkets are saying they are willing to stock goods from Palestine, properly labelled with the money going back to the Palestinian farmers.
“And since the attack on Gaza at the beginning of this year they are getting a lot of customer pressure to boycott Israeli goods.”
“I’m not worried about this new organisation. I don’t think many will be taken in by it. It is just a measure of how successful we are being.”
May Day in London and Manchester
By Mervyn Drage
Thousands of working people took the day off on Friday to take part in London’s traditional May Day march and rally. As usual the crowd was swelled by communists from the Turkish and Kurdish community in the capital who marched with the rest from the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square to hear trade unionists, pensioners’ campaigners and John McDonnell, the leader of the Labour Representation Committee celebrate international workers’ day and call for socialism.
McDonnell welcomed the victory of the Visteon Ford workers who have now won enhanced redundancy terms after a wave of strikes, pickets and occupations. "The Visteon workers have, through their struggle, achieved a just settlement. They are an example to us all," he said adding: "If we need a general strike to move forward, why don't we call for one? What are we afraid of?"
Manchester’s annual May Day parade, organised by the local trades council and local anti-racist and community groups, took place three days later on the bank holiday and thousands responded to the call turn out with their colourful banners on a beautiful sunny day. Attempts by supporters of the fascist British National Party to disrupt the parade slightly delayed the start but they were escorted away by the police and there were no arrests. The rest of the day was peaceful and the protest took place without any further incidents.
The organisers used the protest to demonstrate against the capitalist slump, to fight for full employment, equality at work and in favour of the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers. The organisers also used the opportunity to bring attention to forthcoming local and European elections, urging people to vote wisely and say no to the BNP.
At the rally in Castlefield, the main speaker was Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers Union; there were also speakers from: Unite Against Fascism, Asylum Seekers and Migrant Workers Support Groups, several trade unions and unemployed workers. At the Rally there were many trade union and campaign stalls.An excellent variety of free music followed from bands as diverse as: Claire Mooney, Alun Parry, The Score, Toxteth Rebel, Alliance and Sargasso Township.
Geoffrey Brown, Secretary of Manchester Trades Union Council, commented: “This is the deepest recession in 70 years, workers across Britain are angry and concerned. We want the right to work for all, including refugees, migrant workers and people coming to this country seeking asylum”. New Workers were sold throughout and NCP leaflets distributed.
Thousands of working people took the day off on Friday to take part in London’s traditional May Day march and rally. As usual the crowd was swelled by communists from the Turkish and Kurdish community in the capital who marched with the rest from the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square to hear trade unionists, pensioners’ campaigners and John McDonnell, the leader of the Labour Representation Committee celebrate international workers’ day and call for socialism.
McDonnell welcomed the victory of the Visteon Ford workers who have now won enhanced redundancy terms after a wave of strikes, pickets and occupations. "The Visteon workers have, through their struggle, achieved a just settlement. They are an example to us all," he said adding: "If we need a general strike to move forward, why don't we call for one? What are we afraid of?"
Manchester’s annual May Day parade, organised by the local trades council and local anti-racist and community groups, took place three days later on the bank holiday and thousands responded to the call turn out with their colourful banners on a beautiful sunny day. Attempts by supporters of the fascist British National Party to disrupt the parade slightly delayed the start but they were escorted away by the police and there were no arrests. The rest of the day was peaceful and the protest took place without any further incidents.
The organisers used the protest to demonstrate against the capitalist slump, to fight for full employment, equality at work and in favour of the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and migrant workers. The organisers also used the opportunity to bring attention to forthcoming local and European elections, urging people to vote wisely and say no to the BNP.
At the rally in Castlefield, the main speaker was Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communications Workers Union; there were also speakers from: Unite Against Fascism, Asylum Seekers and Migrant Workers Support Groups, several trade unions and unemployed workers. At the Rally there were many trade union and campaign stalls.An excellent variety of free music followed from bands as diverse as: Claire Mooney, Alun Parry, The Score, Toxteth Rebel, Alliance and Sargasso Township.
Geoffrey Brown, Secretary of Manchester Trades Union Council, commented: “This is the deepest recession in 70 years, workers across Britain are angry and concerned. We want the right to work for all, including refugees, migrant workers and people coming to this country seeking asylum”. New Workers were sold throughout and NCP leaflets distributed.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Tolpuddle remembered in London
By Robert Laurie
One hundred and seventy five years ago, in 1834, six farm labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset were transported to Australia for daring to form a trade union. Mass protests calling for their release took place. One of these was the 100,000 strong "Grand Demonstration" which took place that year from Copenhagen Fields in north London to present a 200,000 signature petition to Parliament before a rally at Kennington Common in south London. The Government bowed to mass pressure and five of the martyrs were released in 1836 and the sixth freed the following year.
An annual TUC sponsored march and festival is held in Tolpuddle in July. But this year commemorations kicked off early with a new festival in London.
It began, last Saturday, near the original starting point of that historic march that launched the campaign which eventually led to the men's release. Following a march to a small community park, Islington mayor Stefan Kasprzyk opened the proceedings before an number of folk singers, including Billy Bragg entertained the crowd.
Local Labour MP Emily Thornberry and TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady addressed the crowds which enjoyed the warm sunshine. Chris Kaufman, National Secretary of Unite the Union's Agricultural section (pictured) spoke about present day conditions for agricultural workers. While much has been improved, including the abolition of tied cottages, the life of present day agricultural workers is still a hard one.
One hundred and seventy five years ago, in 1834, six farm labourers from the village of Tolpuddle in Dorset were transported to Australia for daring to form a trade union. Mass protests calling for their release took place. One of these was the 100,000 strong "Grand Demonstration" which took place that year from Copenhagen Fields in north London to present a 200,000 signature petition to Parliament before a rally at Kennington Common in south London. The Government bowed to mass pressure and five of the martyrs were released in 1836 and the sixth freed the following year.
An annual TUC sponsored march and festival is held in Tolpuddle in July. But this year commemorations kicked off early with a new festival in London.
It began, last Saturday, near the original starting point of that historic march that launched the campaign which eventually led to the men's release. Following a march to a small community park, Islington mayor Stefan Kasprzyk opened the proceedings before an number of folk singers, including Billy Bragg entertained the crowd.
Local Labour MP Emily Thornberry and TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O'Grady addressed the crowds which enjoyed the warm sunshine. Chris Kaufman, National Secretary of Unite the Union's Agricultural section (pictured) spoke about present day conditions for agricultural workers. While much has been improved, including the abolition of tied cottages, the life of present day agricultural workers is still a hard one.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Policing changes
NEW REVELATIONS of police brutality at the G20 demonstrations in the City of London continue to emerge: one woman hit across the face and then struck with a baton; a man knocked to the ground with a police shield and a young woman knocked unconscious by a baton.
A third post mortem has been ordered for Ian Tomlinson who died after being assaulted and hurled to the ground while he was trying to make his way home from work and found his way barred by police cordons. The first post mortem said he died from a heart attack; the second said he died from internal bleeding.
The press is in an uproar, full of pictures of riot police with batons raised and identity numbers covered.
Many veteran political activists, along with some of the police themselves, will be wondering what all the fuss is about. All these police tactics have been used for decades – if not centuries. Certainly in the 1960s police used the “kettling” technique against demonstrators outside Rhodesia House, protesting against the racist colonialist regime of Ian Smith in what is now Zimbabwe.
Back then demonstrators expected to be hit by police and come away with quite serious injuries. But only other political activists and Black and Irish Londoners would believe it. The media insisted that “our bobbies” were all “wonderful” and middle class people believed it.
In the 1970s two anti-fascist demonstrators – Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square and Blair Peach in Southall – were murdered by violent police. There was some outrage then at police brutality but after lengthy inquiries, officialdom announced that Kevin Gately had “an unusually thin skull” and had unknowingly been walking about in danger of dying from the slightest tap on the head all his life and Blair Peach’s death was similarly something the police could not reasonably have expected. No police were ever prosecuted.
In the 1980s the Wapping printers and the miners learned at first hand just how brutal British bobbies can be. In the early 90s police engineered frightening clashes with anti-poll tax demonstrators to discourage newly politicised first-time protesters.
Seasoned marchers learned to distinguish the regular police who walked alongside the marchers and the elite special riot squads like the Territorial Support Group (TSG). They were notorious for being hot-headed young thugs in uniform, who hid their identity numbers and enjoyed trying to strike terror into any political activists. They were also notorious for racism and driving around north London in vans looking for black youths to assault for “suspicious behaviour”.
But in the lat 1990s there was a change – at least in London. The Stephen Lawrence inquiry put policing under the spotlight and Ken Livingstone was elected Mayor of London.
The change was noticed first by leftwing photographers like the late Mike Cohen, who suddenly found police at demonstrations being polite and civil. For about a decade there were no serious violent clashes between any demonstrations and police. The policing of protests was limited to making sure marchers did not inadvertently wander into the path of oncoming traffic; it became possible to chat to the police officers alongside the marches. It all became very civilised and remote from the real class struggle.
But a year ago Ken Livingstone lost his seat to Tory Boris Johnson. Once of Johnson’s first acts was to get rid of Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair – a blatantly political act that pleased the rightwing dinosaurs at the top of the Met. The first Stop the War demonstration after that showed the big change in policing policy – everything went back to the bad old days.
But there is now a major difference. Modern technology has allowed the police to watch our every movement – but it also allows us to scrutinise them. Now reports of police brutality have to be believed and many middle class Telegraph and Daily Mail readers are quite surprised and think police violence and tactics are something new.
It’s a fair bet that, after all the lengthy inquiries, no police will ever be prosecuted. They may get a mild talking to for hiding their ID numbers. But the state – now it is feeling under pressure from rising working class anger at the economic collapse – is not going to go back to the gentler policing of Ken Livingstone’s time. The state is going to be more overtly brutal, it has no choice.
But the hundreds of cameras carried now by demonstrators and open access to post images on the web where they can be viewed around the globe mean there will no longer be any illusions about it. The ruling class hopes this will deter protesters but history suggests it will politicise and activate young workers.
A third post mortem has been ordered for Ian Tomlinson who died after being assaulted and hurled to the ground while he was trying to make his way home from work and found his way barred by police cordons. The first post mortem said he died from a heart attack; the second said he died from internal bleeding.
The press is in an uproar, full of pictures of riot police with batons raised and identity numbers covered.
Many veteran political activists, along with some of the police themselves, will be wondering what all the fuss is about. All these police tactics have been used for decades – if not centuries. Certainly in the 1960s police used the “kettling” technique against demonstrators outside Rhodesia House, protesting against the racist colonialist regime of Ian Smith in what is now Zimbabwe.
Back then demonstrators expected to be hit by police and come away with quite serious injuries. But only other political activists and Black and Irish Londoners would believe it. The media insisted that “our bobbies” were all “wonderful” and middle class people believed it.
In the 1970s two anti-fascist demonstrators – Kevin Gately in Red Lion Square and Blair Peach in Southall – were murdered by violent police. There was some outrage then at police brutality but after lengthy inquiries, officialdom announced that Kevin Gately had “an unusually thin skull” and had unknowingly been walking about in danger of dying from the slightest tap on the head all his life and Blair Peach’s death was similarly something the police could not reasonably have expected. No police were ever prosecuted.
In the 1980s the Wapping printers and the miners learned at first hand just how brutal British bobbies can be. In the early 90s police engineered frightening clashes with anti-poll tax demonstrators to discourage newly politicised first-time protesters.
Seasoned marchers learned to distinguish the regular police who walked alongside the marchers and the elite special riot squads like the Territorial Support Group (TSG). They were notorious for being hot-headed young thugs in uniform, who hid their identity numbers and enjoyed trying to strike terror into any political activists. They were also notorious for racism and driving around north London in vans looking for black youths to assault for “suspicious behaviour”.
But in the lat 1990s there was a change – at least in London. The Stephen Lawrence inquiry put policing under the spotlight and Ken Livingstone was elected Mayor of London.
The change was noticed first by leftwing photographers like the late Mike Cohen, who suddenly found police at demonstrations being polite and civil. For about a decade there were no serious violent clashes between any demonstrations and police. The policing of protests was limited to making sure marchers did not inadvertently wander into the path of oncoming traffic; it became possible to chat to the police officers alongside the marches. It all became very civilised and remote from the real class struggle.
But a year ago Ken Livingstone lost his seat to Tory Boris Johnson. Once of Johnson’s first acts was to get rid of Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair – a blatantly political act that pleased the rightwing dinosaurs at the top of the Met. The first Stop the War demonstration after that showed the big change in policing policy – everything went back to the bad old days.
But there is now a major difference. Modern technology has allowed the police to watch our every movement – but it also allows us to scrutinise them. Now reports of police brutality have to be believed and many middle class Telegraph and Daily Mail readers are quite surprised and think police violence and tactics are something new.
It’s a fair bet that, after all the lengthy inquiries, no police will ever be prosecuted. They may get a mild talking to for hiding their ID numbers. But the state – now it is feeling under pressure from rising working class anger at the economic collapse – is not going to go back to the gentler policing of Ken Livingstone’s time. The state is going to be more overtly brutal, it has no choice.
But the hundreds of cameras carried now by demonstrators and open access to post images on the web where they can be viewed around the globe mean there will no longer be any illusions about it. The ruling class hopes this will deter protesters but history suggests it will politicise and activate young workers.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Justice for Tomlinson
HUNDREDS of protesters marched through central London last Saturday to demand a full inquiry and justice after the death of Ian Tomlinson during the G20 demonstrations on 1st April.
Tomlinson was on his way home from work as a newspaper seller when he found police cordons near the Bank of England – aimed to G20 protesters penned in – were blocking his way to the hostel where he lived.
He was found collapsed on the street and died of a heart attack. Initially police reported that he was one of the demonstrators and that he had had no contact with the police.
His family appealed for witnesses and many came forward, including one who had taken video footage of a police officers striking Tomlinson from behind and pushing him forcefully to the ground.
Tomlinson had been walking away from the police cordon with his hands in his pockets – clearly annoyed but in no way threatening the police.
Other witnesses claim they saw a previous confrontation where police had assaulted Tomlinson when he asked to be allowed through a cordon.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has taken over the inquiry into Tomlinson’s death and his family are concerned that this means there will probably be no inquest or action against guilty police officers for three years.
Last Saturday black-clad marchers, some carrying placards reading "Who killed Ian Tomlinson?" marched through the capital before laying flowers and lighting candles at the spot where Tomlinson died.
"We are hopeful that the IPCC will fulfil their duty to carry out a full investigation into his death and that action will be taken against any police officer who contributed to Ian's death through misconduct," Tomlinson's stepson Paul King told the marchers.
"We may have a long and difficult process ahead of us in getting justice," he said.
Tomlinson was on his way home from work as a newspaper seller when he found police cordons near the Bank of England – aimed to G20 protesters penned in – were blocking his way to the hostel where he lived.
He was found collapsed on the street and died of a heart attack. Initially police reported that he was one of the demonstrators and that he had had no contact with the police.
His family appealed for witnesses and many came forward, including one who had taken video footage of a police officers striking Tomlinson from behind and pushing him forcefully to the ground.
Tomlinson had been walking away from the police cordon with his hands in his pockets – clearly annoyed but in no way threatening the police.
Other witnesses claim they saw a previous confrontation where police had assaulted Tomlinson when he asked to be allowed through a cordon.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has taken over the inquiry into Tomlinson’s death and his family are concerned that this means there will probably be no inquest or action against guilty police officers for three years.
Last Saturday black-clad marchers, some carrying placards reading "Who killed Ian Tomlinson?" marched through the capital before laying flowers and lighting candles at the spot where Tomlinson died.
"We are hopeful that the IPCC will fulfil their duty to carry out a full investigation into his death and that action will be taken against any police officer who contributed to Ian's death through misconduct," Tomlinson's stepson Paul King told the marchers.
"We may have a long and difficult process ahead of us in getting justice," he said.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Police accused over demo death
by Daphne Liddle
LIBERAL Democrat MPs are demanding a full criminal inquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson who died of a heart attack after being assaulted by the police during last week’s G20 protests in the City of London.
Tomlinson, a 47 year old newsagent, wasn’t a demonstrator. He was simply going home from work through police cordons and crowds of protesters when he was floored by riot police. The Guardian newspaper has obtained video footage of the attack showing Tomlinson being hit from behind by a partially-masked cop as he walked away from a police line with his hands in his pockets. It had been filmed by a New York hedge-fund manager who gave it to the paper after seeing an appeal for information from Tomlinson’s family.
The film shows Tomlinson being brought down by a baton-wielding riot cop; being helped up by a protester and then arguing angrily with police officers.
A few moments after the film was taken Tomlinson got up and walked on then suddenly collapsed and died a few yards away outside the Bank of England.
Others eye-witnesses say that the assault caught on video was the second time that Tomlinson had been knocked to the ground by police. They say that Tomlinson had approached a police cordon, hoping to be allowed through because he had nothing to do with the protests, but that he was knocked to the ground and beaten by police.
The initial police reaction to his death was to claim that they had had no contact with Tomlinson and that protesters had prevented them from giving first aid as he lay collapsed on the pavement.
This brings back memories of Jean Charles de Menezes and suggests that the first reaction of police is to lie when a member of the public dies at their hands.
It had been a day full of demonstrations and protests throughout London around the G20 summit. Four marches, each led by a “horseman of the apocalypse” representing war, land seizure, financial crimes and climate chaos, had converged on London’s financial centre.
Back in Westminster around 7,000 had supported the Stop the War protest at the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square and then marched to Trafalgar Square for a rally.
The anti-capitalist protests kicked off with the massive union-backed ‘Put People First” march on the eve of the G20 summit the previous Saturday. The bourgeois media and the police had hyped-up the fear of ‘anarchist’ violence. Tens of thousands of police were drafted into the capital and shopkeepers boarded up in preparation. But the day passed over with little violence and few arrests.
But on that fateful Wednesday the police decided to use a familiar tactic to discourage the demonstrators from future action. As the protesters started to make their way home the police forced them back into small enclaves where they were penned and forced to stand for hours with no access to food, water or toilets. Demonstrators started to verbally abuse the police. It was at this time that Ian Tomlinson began his fatal walk home.
After viewing the video of the police assault, Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Minister David Howarth said the footage showed a “sickening and unprovoked attack”. He has called for the police officers involved to come forward.
The Guardian has collected a dossier of statements and photos, including the video footage that it intends to hand to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
It also includes a sequence of photographs, taken by three people, showing the aftermath of the attack, as well as eye-witness statements including time and date-stamped photographs which substantiate their accounts.
Anna Branthwaite, a photographer, described how in the minutes before the video was shot, she saw Tomlinson walking towards Cornhill Street.
“A riot police officer had already grabbed him and was pushing him,” she said. “It wasn’t just pushing him – he’d rushed him. He went to the floor and he did actually roll. That was quite noticeable.
“It was the force of the impact. He bounced on the floor. It was a very forceful knocking down from behind. The officer hit him twice with a baton when he was lying on the floor.
“So it wasn’t just that the officer had pushed him – it became an assault. And then the officer picked him up from the back, continued to walk or charge with him, and threw him.
“He was running and stumbling. He didn’t turn and confront the officer or anything like that.”
The IPCC is now investigating the death but previous experience shows that this is often a way of burying the issue for months if not years while putting a gag on all information around the case.
LIBERAL Democrat MPs are demanding a full criminal inquiry into the death of Ian Tomlinson who died of a heart attack after being assaulted by the police during last week’s G20 protests in the City of London.
Tomlinson, a 47 year old newsagent, wasn’t a demonstrator. He was simply going home from work through police cordons and crowds of protesters when he was floored by riot police. The Guardian newspaper has obtained video footage of the attack showing Tomlinson being hit from behind by a partially-masked cop as he walked away from a police line with his hands in his pockets. It had been filmed by a New York hedge-fund manager who gave it to the paper after seeing an appeal for information from Tomlinson’s family.
The film shows Tomlinson being brought down by a baton-wielding riot cop; being helped up by a protester and then arguing angrily with police officers.
A few moments after the film was taken Tomlinson got up and walked on then suddenly collapsed and died a few yards away outside the Bank of England.
Others eye-witnesses say that the assault caught on video was the second time that Tomlinson had been knocked to the ground by police. They say that Tomlinson had approached a police cordon, hoping to be allowed through because he had nothing to do with the protests, but that he was knocked to the ground and beaten by police.
The initial police reaction to his death was to claim that they had had no contact with Tomlinson and that protesters had prevented them from giving first aid as he lay collapsed on the pavement.
This brings back memories of Jean Charles de Menezes and suggests that the first reaction of police is to lie when a member of the public dies at their hands.
It had been a day full of demonstrations and protests throughout London around the G20 summit. Four marches, each led by a “horseman of the apocalypse” representing war, land seizure, financial crimes and climate chaos, had converged on London’s financial centre.
Back in Westminster around 7,000 had supported the Stop the War protest at the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square and then marched to Trafalgar Square for a rally.
The anti-capitalist protests kicked off with the massive union-backed ‘Put People First” march on the eve of the G20 summit the previous Saturday. The bourgeois media and the police had hyped-up the fear of ‘anarchist’ violence. Tens of thousands of police were drafted into the capital and shopkeepers boarded up in preparation. But the day passed over with little violence and few arrests.
But on that fateful Wednesday the police decided to use a familiar tactic to discourage the demonstrators from future action. As the protesters started to make their way home the police forced them back into small enclaves where they were penned and forced to stand for hours with no access to food, water or toilets. Demonstrators started to verbally abuse the police. It was at this time that Ian Tomlinson began his fatal walk home.
After viewing the video of the police assault, Liberal Democrat Shadow Justice Minister David Howarth said the footage showed a “sickening and unprovoked attack”. He has called for the police officers involved to come forward.
The Guardian has collected a dossier of statements and photos, including the video footage that it intends to hand to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
It also includes a sequence of photographs, taken by three people, showing the aftermath of the attack, as well as eye-witness statements including time and date-stamped photographs which substantiate their accounts.
Anna Branthwaite, a photographer, described how in the minutes before the video was shot, she saw Tomlinson walking towards Cornhill Street.
“A riot police officer had already grabbed him and was pushing him,” she said. “It wasn’t just pushing him – he’d rushed him. He went to the floor and he did actually roll. That was quite noticeable.
“It was the force of the impact. He bounced on the floor. It was a very forceful knocking down from behind. The officer hit him twice with a baton when he was lying on the floor.
“So it wasn’t just that the officer had pushed him – it became an assault. And then the officer picked him up from the back, continued to walk or charge with him, and threw him.
“He was running and stumbling. He didn’t turn and confront the officer or anything like that.”
The IPCC is now investigating the death but previous experience shows that this is often a way of burying the issue for months if not years while putting a gag on all information around the case.
No sweat at primark?
THE CAMPAIGN group, No Sweat, last week staged a demonstration outside the London flagship shop of Primark, the high-street clothing chain, as part of a protest at sweatshop labour used in making the discount garments.
Models dressed in chains paraded on a catwalk outside the shop in Oxford Street, demanding “decent working conditions and a living wage” for garment workers. A Primark spokesperson insisted: “We obviously share and recognise many of the concerns raised.”
The company claims that it fired suppliers whom the BBC’s Panorama found used child labour. But the secretary of No Sweat, Mick Duncan, said this was not good enough. He said: “We don’t want them to walk away – we want them to take responsibility for their workers and make sure their conditions are improved.
“No Sweat isn’t calling on consumers to boycott chains like Primark, but instead to put pressure on them to clean up their act. These companies make huge profits and have a duty to ensure a fair wage.”
The protest was backed by comedian Mark Thomas, who said it was in the interest of British workers to campaign for better wages for their colleagues overseas. He said: “If workers abroad are being badly exploited, that means that the conditions of workers in the UK are also being undercut.
“It’s about raising the standard for everyone.”
Friday, April 03, 2009
Tinkering with the system won't work
By our European Affairs correspondent
American President Barack Obama stressed the "sense of urgency" needed to confront the global economic crisis in talks with Gordon Brown ahead of the G20 summit of world leaders in London. But outside the sealed-off conference centre in London’s Docklands anti-capitalist protesters clashed with the police in the financial centre of the capital while angry French workers in Grenoble seized control of their plant offices taking four managers hostage.
Brown hoped to use the summit he called to build a common imperialist platform of measures to deal with the global slump. But it was unravelling before it even started with Franco-German imperialism demanding stricter international financial regulation and decidedly cool towards the Anglo-American ‘monetarist’ economic model, which they blame for the sub-prime crisis that triggered the great stock market crash last year.
The British Government wants China to pump vast sums of money into the international financial institutions of capitalism in return for more votes on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank while Third World leaders want reform of the World Trade Organisation which has been dominated for far too long by American imperialism.
President Obama said that the world was facing the most severe economic crisis since the Second World War. The new chief of American imperialism called on the G20 to reject protectionism and support emerging markets, and called for countries to work together. This was dutifully repeated by Brown who said global solutions were needed for global problems while talking up Britain’s imaginary “special relationship” with the United States, which he said, would be a "partnership of purpose".
In public the Western leaders are trying to talk up the markets with their usual platitudes. In private there’s no doubt that they have little up their sleeves apart from letting the slump take its course peppered with a touch of social Keynesianism to sweeten the bitter pill of austerity for the working class that they expect, as always, to pay for the crisis of the exploiters’ own making.
But there’s also increasing fear of political crisis and uncontrollable Athens-type social unrest as protests against job and welfare cuts sweep Europe. The reactionary Czech government collapsed last week after four maverick MPs joined the opposition Social Democrats and Communists in a vote of no confidence in parliament. And French bosses got a warning of the shape of things to come when four of them were seized by workers at the Caterpillar factory in Grenoble.
"We are holding them in the director's office," union official Benoit Nicolas told the media. The hostages included the factory director and the head of human resources. "They are a little shocked," Nicolas said. The workers at the American plant walked out and took direct action on Tuesday following the news of over 700 lay-offs on pitiful redundancy terms. The Caterpillar workers are demanding a minimum of 30,000 euros [£27,800] each in redundancy payments, three times what’s on the table at the moment.
“There is no violence or sequestration, but simply pressure so they restart negotiations,” CGT union representative Pierre Piccarreta said. "At a time when the company is making a profit and distributing dividends to shareholders, we want to find a favourable outcome for all the workers and know as quickly as possible where we are going."
Bossnapping” is a French workers’ tradition which was popular during the wave of protests back in 1968. Last March the boss of Sony France was trapped in a conference room by workers demanding better severance terms and the head of a factory run by 3M, the giant American multinational, was held for two days by striking workers.
The Grenoble region has been hit by a wave of factory closures, re-structuring, and temporary lay-offs and the spirit of resistance is running high. French workers rightly say that if there’s money to bail out the banks then some of it must be used to keep manufacturing going and that money could come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. While top executives continue to fill their boots with bonuses, like in Britain, more and more French workers are being given their cards. Some 2.4 million are unemployed now and it can only get worse.
No amount of tinkering with the capitalist system can halt the slump which will crucify working people unless they fight back. Communists and the unions must move into an organised counter-attack across Europe and the world to defend the working class and build the fight for socialism.
American President Barack Obama stressed the "sense of urgency" needed to confront the global economic crisis in talks with Gordon Brown ahead of the G20 summit of world leaders in London. But outside the sealed-off conference centre in London’s Docklands anti-capitalist protesters clashed with the police in the financial centre of the capital while angry French workers in Grenoble seized control of their plant offices taking four managers hostage.
Brown hoped to use the summit he called to build a common imperialist platform of measures to deal with the global slump. But it was unravelling before it even started with Franco-German imperialism demanding stricter international financial regulation and decidedly cool towards the Anglo-American ‘monetarist’ economic model, which they blame for the sub-prime crisis that triggered the great stock market crash last year.
The British Government wants China to pump vast sums of money into the international financial institutions of capitalism in return for more votes on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank while Third World leaders want reform of the World Trade Organisation which has been dominated for far too long by American imperialism.
President Obama said that the world was facing the most severe economic crisis since the Second World War. The new chief of American imperialism called on the G20 to reject protectionism and support emerging markets, and called for countries to work together. This was dutifully repeated by Brown who said global solutions were needed for global problems while talking up Britain’s imaginary “special relationship” with the United States, which he said, would be a "partnership of purpose".
In public the Western leaders are trying to talk up the markets with their usual platitudes. In private there’s no doubt that they have little up their sleeves apart from letting the slump take its course peppered with a touch of social Keynesianism to sweeten the bitter pill of austerity for the working class that they expect, as always, to pay for the crisis of the exploiters’ own making.
But there’s also increasing fear of political crisis and uncontrollable Athens-type social unrest as protests against job and welfare cuts sweep Europe. The reactionary Czech government collapsed last week after four maverick MPs joined the opposition Social Democrats and Communists in a vote of no confidence in parliament. And French bosses got a warning of the shape of things to come when four of them were seized by workers at the Caterpillar factory in Grenoble.
"We are holding them in the director's office," union official Benoit Nicolas told the media. The hostages included the factory director and the head of human resources. "They are a little shocked," Nicolas said. The workers at the American plant walked out and took direct action on Tuesday following the news of over 700 lay-offs on pitiful redundancy terms. The Caterpillar workers are demanding a minimum of 30,000 euros [£27,800] each in redundancy payments, three times what’s on the table at the moment.
“There is no violence or sequestration, but simply pressure so they restart negotiations,” CGT union representative Pierre Piccarreta said. "At a time when the company is making a profit and distributing dividends to shareholders, we want to find a favourable outcome for all the workers and know as quickly as possible where we are going."
Bossnapping” is a French workers’ tradition which was popular during the wave of protests back in 1968. Last March the boss of Sony France was trapped in a conference room by workers demanding better severance terms and the head of a factory run by 3M, the giant American multinational, was held for two days by striking workers.
The Grenoble region has been hit by a wave of factory closures, re-structuring, and temporary lay-offs and the spirit of resistance is running high. French workers rightly say that if there’s money to bail out the banks then some of it must be used to keep manufacturing going and that money could come from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. While top executives continue to fill their boots with bonuses, like in Britain, more and more French workers are being given their cards. Some 2.4 million are unemployed now and it can only get worse.
No amount of tinkering with the capitalist system can halt the slump which will crucify working people unless they fight back. Communists and the unions must move into an organised counter-attack across Europe and the world to defend the working class and build the fight for socialism.
Putting People First
WORKERS, students and pensioners marched through the streets of London last Saturday to send a message on jobs, justice and climate to Gordon Brown and the G20 leaders meeting in the capital this week. Tens of thousands of people, including a many union contingents, took part in the protest which passed over peacefully, despite lurid predictions of anarchist violence emanating from the police and the reactionary press over the past few days.
Threatening to “eat the rich” may be inspired by the spirit of Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin but it’s hardly in the same league as the anarchist terror of the 19th century which claimed the lives of a Russian Czar, the kings of Greece and Italy, an American and a French president, a Spanish prime minister and many others with their daggers, guns and bombs.
Smashing the windows of a hated former Scottish bank boss may give the perpetrators some sort of feeling of power and importance but it accomplishes nothing apart from unleashing a wave of hypocritical condemnation from a bourgeois media that routinely ignores the daily racist abuse and violence on our streets.
The Group of 20 summit will include the leaders of People’s China, Indonesia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia but it will be dominated by American, British and Franco-German imperialism. Whatever the great and the good of the G20 decide at their secret conclave in London’s Docklands to deal with the world-wide slump, there’s no doubt that the imperialists will want to make working people pay the price for the “recovery” they say is on the horizon. And we will be expected to bear the brunt of the capitalist crisis in mass unemployment, welfare cuts and short time to ensure that the rich continue to live their lives of pleasure and ease unscathed.
Resistance is growing throughout Europe and the rest of the world and the unions have a crucial role in setting the agenda for the fight-back against this new offensive against the working class. Communists must fight to ensure that the socialist alternative is once again raised in the factories, offices and streets of Britain. It is the only answer to the crisis.
Threatening to “eat the rich” may be inspired by the spirit of Michael Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin but it’s hardly in the same league as the anarchist terror of the 19th century which claimed the lives of a Russian Czar, the kings of Greece and Italy, an American and a French president, a Spanish prime minister and many others with their daggers, guns and bombs.
Smashing the windows of a hated former Scottish bank boss may give the perpetrators some sort of feeling of power and importance but it accomplishes nothing apart from unleashing a wave of hypocritical condemnation from a bourgeois media that routinely ignores the daily racist abuse and violence on our streets.
The Group of 20 summit will include the leaders of People’s China, Indonesia, Brazil and Saudi Arabia but it will be dominated by American, British and Franco-German imperialism. Whatever the great and the good of the G20 decide at their secret conclave in London’s Docklands to deal with the world-wide slump, there’s no doubt that the imperialists will want to make working people pay the price for the “recovery” they say is on the horizon. And we will be expected to bear the brunt of the capitalist crisis in mass unemployment, welfare cuts and short time to ensure that the rich continue to live their lives of pleasure and ease unscathed.
Resistance is growing throughout Europe and the rest of the world and the unions have a crucial role in setting the agenda for the fight-back against this new offensive against the working class. Communists must fight to ensure that the socialist alternative is once again raised in the factories, offices and streets of Britain. It is the only answer to the crisis.
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