Change This Rotten System! |
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| Change This Rotten System! |
Enron, Anderson, WorldCom, Xerox...GREED, FRAUD, sleaze - every day the real nature of capitalism is being revealed. WorldCom, the US's second biggest long-distance telephone company, has carried out the biggest corporate fraud in history - $3.8 billion. That's six times bigger than the fraud at Enron, which shook the US economy. |
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| Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workers |
Fighting For Real Equality: AS LESBIANS, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people hit London's streets on 6 July for Pride, the LGBT communities can see formal equality at least in sight. By Wayne Lovett, Socialist Party Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Group & AMICUS member |
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| Capitalism Is A Bankrupt System |
WorldCom fraud: THE US, the most powerful economy in the world, responsible for a third of world output, is reeling with shock. This time there are no foreign terrorists who can be held responsible for disaster striking. It is capitalism itself that is responsible. |
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| A Nice Little Racket |
New Labour's tax-avoiding friends: AT THE Wimbledon tennis championships last week KPMG - one of the top accountancy firms suspected of malpractice in the recent big business scandals - had a corporate hospitality marquee. |
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| Making Criminals Out Of Us All |
HOME SECRETARY David Blunkett hopes to introduce Identity (ID) Cards which we would have to carry to gain access to public services such as health, benefits and education. By John Reid |
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| Innocent Afghans Killed By US 'Friendly Fire' |
"THE ENEMY doesn't value human life", said George Bush when launching his "war against terrorism". Neither it seems do his troops after they bombed and blasted a collection of villages in Afghanistan killing up to 250 civilians. |
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THIRTY YEARS ago the 'Watergate' political scandal rocked US capitalism,
exposing the corrupt and reactionary intrigues of the Nixon presidency and
its spy agencies.
Today, US president George Bush is reactivating the state's surveillance powers - a threat to socialists and the organised working class. JIM HORTON examines the Watergate period and warns of Bush's recent encroachment on democratic rights. |
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| Argentina: New Crisis As Cops Kill Protesters |
THOUSANDS OF Argentinians marched on the National Congress building in Buenos Aires on 28 June demanding the resignation of caretaker president Eduardo Duhalde. |
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| Socialist Alliance Provides No Alternative |
Tower Hamlets by-election: A SOCIALIST ALLIANCE (SA) candidate polled just nine votes in the Blackwall & Cubitt Town council by-election in East London's Tower Hamlets borough on 27 June. By Clive Heemskerk |
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The Socialist 5 July 2002 | Top | Home | News | The Socialist Join the Socialist Party | Donate | Subscribe to The Socialist Enron, Anderson, WorldCom, Xerox,...Change This Rotten SystemGREED, FRAUD, sleaze - every day the real nature of capitalism is being revealed. WorldCom, the US's second biggest long-distance telephone company, has carried out the biggest corporate fraud in history - $3.8 billion. That's six times bigger than the fraud at Enron, which shook the US economy. Now WorldCom has sent shares plummeting, threatening the world economy and the jobs and lives of ordinary workers in the US and elsewhere. Everyone's asking "how many more companies have fiddled their figures?" For some, crime does pay. Ebbers, the former boss of WorldCom is getting a pension pay off of $1.5 million a year. But 17,000 WorldCom workers who are losing their jobs, 20% of the total workforce, get nothing. Enron, Andersen, Adelphia, Tyco, WorldCom, Xerox - the list of crooked corporations keeps getting longer. And it's not just about the US's particular "brand" of capitalism. According to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, similar frauds could also happen here. Neither is this about a few "rogue" companies. Capitalism is rotten to the core. This system is based on the relentless pursuit of profit by the minority who own and control the major corporations internationally. Greed, corruption and exploitation are rooted in the profit system itself. The capitalists and their political representatives, worried that this system as a whole could come under attack, talk about "regulating" the big corporations. But as long as profits are the main driving force of the system, corruption, exploitation and economic crisis will remain. We need to build a movement that can fundamentally challenge the way that the system itself is organised and fight for a society which is run to meet the needs of the majority not to maximise the profits of a privileged few. In Spain, Italy and Greece millions of workers have been on general strike against the effects of capitalism on their jobs, benefits and working conditions. Last month in Seville, Spain, workers came together with anti-capitalist protesters in a massive demonstration of over a quarter of a million. Here, the number of workers balloting and taking action over cuts, pay and privatisation is on the increase. The Socialist Party is campaigning in England and Wales and internationally, through the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), for new, mass parties which can unite together the struggles of workers and anti-capitalists to fight for a socialist alternative to this rotten system. Join us now.
The Socialist 5 July 2002 | Top | Home | News | The Socialist Join the Socialist Party | Donate | Subscribe to The Socialist
WorldCom fraudCapitalism Is A Bankrupt SystemTHE US, the most powerful economy in the world, responsible for a third of world output, is reeling with shock. This time there are no foreign terrorists who can be held responsible for disaster striking. It is capitalism itself that is responsible.
As the Daily Mirror declared on Saturday: "Karl Marx must be rubbing his hands with glee and saying 'I told you so'." Marx explained that, while all kinds of secondary factors can trigger economic crises, it is the fundamental contradictions of capitalism that are the underlying cause. The current crisis stems not from a few accountancy fiddles, but from the fact, as Marx explained, that the working class collectively cannot afford to buy back the product of their labour. Marx explained that capitalism partially overcomes this contradiction by ploughing the surplus back into industry. But this, in turn, leads to an even greater production of goods, which the working class at a certain stage is incapable of buying back. This leads to a crisis of overproduction. It was overproduction and overcapacity that led to the South-east Asian collapse in 1997. For a temporary period the US market was able to ameliorate the problems of overproduction by acting as the buyer of last resort for the world's goods; but that is now coming to an end. Unfortunately, whilst the current crisis graphically shows the bankruptcy of the capitalist system, the main victims will not be the Wall St traders; it will be ordinary people who will suffer the consequences. Nearly half of all US voters are shareholders. Many rely on the stock markets for their pension and health care schemes. As insurance analyst Ned Cazalet put it, the insurance companies are facing bankruptcy and "Stephen King is writing the next chapter for the life insurance industry." Money managers are now recommending that anyone who can take their money out of investment funds and fall back on old-fashioned cash. For those without that option their advice is far from comforting. In The Observer, independent money manager David Hanratty gives three alternatives for those relying on investment funds for their pensions; ride out the market turmoil and hope, prepare to be poor in old age, or tighten your belts now in the hope you'll have a bit more left for after retirement! This is scant comfort for the millions of working and middle class Americans who have spent their lives paying money into investment funds in the expectation of a reasonable living standard in old age. Stock market bubbleTHIS CRISIS is not caused by one or two "bad apples" cooking the books. In the late 1990s the boom in the US economy was held up as proof of the superiority of neo-liberal capitalism. All kinds of rubbish was talked about the boom-and-bust cycle no longer existing and new technology having transformed the nature of capitalism. The Socialist Party explained that the boom was artificially driven by consumer credit and a huge stock market bubble, and that like a bad hangover after an excessive party, the longer the boom went on the worse the comedown was likely to be. In reality the boom ended well before 11 September. In the year up until March 2002 big business profits suffered the biggest drop since the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, at the beginning of this year, despite there being no rise in profits, most commentators declared that the US economy was on the road to recovery. As we predicted, this has proven to be more than a little over-optimistic. Although the stock markets fell in the aftermath of 11 September they remain almost as overvalued as they were before the 1929 crash. This has been based on widespread reporting of fictitious profits. As Graham Taylor of GFC Economics explains: "The government's own profit figures detailed in the national accounts show that the companies were never making the money that they claimed. During the last five years of the bull market, the companies that make up the S&P 500 reported that profits had risen by 96.2%. "By contrast the government's own figures revealed that corporate sector profits had only risen by 36.1%. The figures implied that US companies could be overstating profits by more than 150%. "The national accounts figures were hardly a secret. But they were overlooked by analysts who wanted to believe that the US was enjoying a profit boom on the back of a productivity renaissance. "The facts were too troublesome for those who vehemently believed that the US economy had been transformed by corporate restructuring in the early 1990s." Workers will sufferHAVING IGNORED the facts for a decade US, and consequently world, capitalism is now facing the consequences. The danger is that, with their confidence in US profitability badly shaken, investors will take their money out of the US; resulting in a credit crunch and a continuing slide in the value of the dollar; both of which would massively exacerbate the crisis. The $400 billion a year that has been flooding into the US from abroad could dry to a trickle. As the International Herald Tribune declared in an editorial: "Capital flight is a danger we usually associate with countries like Argentina, but a few more WorldComs and the comparison may seem apt." Economic crises in the US affect the whole world. The US has, like Atlas, been the prop holding up the world economy. And there is no other country able to take the US's place. The Japanese economy remains a basket case. The Eurozone, already stagnant, is likely to suffer as a result in the fall of the dollar as its exports become more expensive. So as the "astute business practices" of the 1990s are revealed as the reckless gambling of a terminally short-sighted capitalist class it will be the working class and the poor worldwide who suffer the consequences.
The Socialist 5 July 2002 | Top | Home | News | The Socialist Join the Socialist Party | Donate | Subscribe to The Socialist
A Nice Little RacketNew Labour's tax-avoiding friendsAT THE Wimbledon tennis championships last week KPMG - one of the top accountancy firms suspected of malpractice in the recent big business scandals - had a corporate hospitality marquee. They offered their spoilt guests the softest of cushions to stop their backsides getting sore. KPMG may need those cushions back when details emerge of their involvement in the Xerox scandal. Xerox overstated its revenue by almost $2 billion in a plot which even US corporate policemen SEC said was designed to enrich top executives. KPMG were Xerox's auditors for 30 years until they were fired as the scandal came out. They're one of the big four accountancy companies worldwide and they also seem on the best of terms with the New Labour government in Britain. An investigation by the Guardian found that KPMG has been allowed to place its own 'secondees' in the Inland Revenue, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Serious Fraud office, even though most of KPMG's money comes from advising big companies and investors how to avoid paying tax. As much as £85 billion in tax may be lost to the government because of avoidance promoted by the big four! New Labour also loaned a KPMG accountant as its finance director in the year before the 2001 general election. It sponsored a KPMG partner on the supposedly independent commission to promote the hated private finance initiative (PFI) deals. KPMG advised Hertfordshire University and the Highways Agency on major projects which went to their clients. The government used them to 'investigate' offshore tax havens where KPMG had its own lucrative operations. In fact Blair's government has paid this firm £70 million since it took office in 1997. They've used other highly profitable accountancy firms too, include Andersen who audited Enron, the biggest bankrupt in US history. In 1997 New Labour ended the ban on Andersen's government work (in place since they were implicated in the 1982 DeLorean scandal). Labour used Andersen to advise London Underground on privatisation, run PFI schemes and the Education Action Zones which were designed to make big business a fortune out of our public services. A big business party pampers its big business friends. Perhaps KPMG can lend New Labour a few cushions.
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Making Criminals Out Of Us AllHOME SECRETARY David Blunkett hopes to introduce Identity (ID) Cards which we would have to carry to gain access to public services such as health, benefits and education. By John ReidThe card-carrying may be 'voluntary' but if you're on benefits or unemployed it will in effect be compulsory. Refusal to carry the card or even losing it may carry fines. ID cards were abandoned in 1951 due to huge opposition including civil disobedience. Now the card is being put forward as a cure-all solution to crime, terrorism and 'illegal' asylum. But even Peter Lilley - a former Tory minister - says that the police "almost never had problems identifying suspects, only in catching and convicting them. "The security services explained that terrorists rarely conceal their identity". Organised criminals and terrorist organisations could anyway quite easily obtain forged documents. All so-called 'illegal' immigrants, most of whom quite legitimately claim asylum, nonetheless have their fingerprints taken, which are stored on a central computer. They are given an identity document without which they cannot legally obtain a job or benefits. People may say carrying a credit card identifies you, is carrying just one more bit of plastic a problem? But if you forget your credit card it's not a criminal offence. If you were stopped and didn't have your identity card it would be. If you fail to report that you've lost it, you would commit a criminal offence; likewise if you don't notify a change of address. It would potentially criminalise thousands of law-abiding citizens, without helping catch one criminal or terrorist. Even right-wing President Bush does not consider IDs worth introducing in the USA. So the scheme, estimated to cost £1 billion, would have little effect on reducing crime or terrorism or even so-called 'illegal' immigration, it would just alienate and criminalise large sections of the population. ID cards would also increase the police's stop and search policies. Blacks, Asians, indeed anybody who looked 'foreign' could be stopped and searched. This would cause even more tension between the police and the population, particularly the Black and Asian communities. If a poll was carried out now most people might favour bringing in ID cards. When an attempt was made to introduce a similar ID scheme to Australia, initially the polls showed support for the scheme, but as opposition groups explained its implications, opposition grew to 90% in the polls and the plans were abandoned. A similar campaign needs to be waged in Britain to get the scheme ditched here. I was involved in the campaign against ID cards in 1989, when Thatcher attempted to introduce them for football fans. I am certain a successful mass campaign can be built and won.
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Innocent Afghans Killed By US 'Friendly Fire'"THE ENEMY doesn't value human life", said George Bush when launching his "war against terrorism". Neither it seems do his troops after they bombed and blasted a collection of villages in Afghanistan killing up to 250 civilians. According to press reports the Afghans were celebrating a wedding, now they're burying their dead. The US authorities have said 'sorry' but this isn't the first occasion since ousting the Taliban regime that innocent Afghans (and for that matter their own troops and other coalition forces) have been blown apart by US 'friendly fire'. Meanwhile, the 'interim' Afghan regime led by pro-Bush stooge Hamid Karzai is presiding over a motley collection of corrupt and violent warlords. Far from bringing peace and stability to this war-torn country, ethnic wars are raging in the north resulting in horrific acts against civilians, while in the southern Pashtun-dominated areas warlords regularly bombard each other and indulge in banditry and extortion. Millions remain 'internally displaced' and aid agencies report continuing food shortages and few resources to reconstruct destroyed towns and villages. Pledges of international aid from Western donor countries have largely failed to materialise. As The Socialist has repeatedly argued, Bush's "war against terrorism" is all about promoting imperialism's strategic aims, not liberating the poor and oppressed.
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Watergate: Rotten Apples In A Mouldy BarrelAMERICA'S NATIONAL Archives recently released 500 hours of secretly taped White House conversations covering the 'Watergate' period. 'Watergate' denotes the political scandals that engulfed America between 1972 and 1974, discrediting not only the presidency, but the whole political system. It culminated in the forced resignation of President Richard Nixon and the convictions of over 30 Nixon administration officials and campaign staff. Watergate became synonymous with political burglary, bribery, extortion, phone-tapping, conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tax fraud, illegal use of government agencies and illegal campaign contributions. In short the abuse of power. Watergate reflected the superpower's military abuses abroad, including CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) sponsored coups and assignations, the secret bombing of Cambodia, incursions into Laos and above all America's continuing war in Vietnam. Watergate gave the political establishment a nasty jolt, with long-term repercussions. The ruling class's fear that the presidency was out of control led to a shift in the balance of power from the executive to Congress. Dirty tricksNixon, having defeated the incumbent Lyndon Johnson for the presidency in 1969 due to the war's unpopularity, now resorted to grubby methods to silence his detractors at home. On 17 June 1972 five burglars botched a break-in into the Democratic Party's National Committee offices in the Watergate apartment complex of Washington. Caught red-handed carrying wiretapping and photo equipment, it soon transpired that the burglars were linked in some way to Nixon, who denied any knowledge of the misdemeanour. One of the five, James McCord, worked for the Nixon campaign as 'security' officer for the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), and had worked for John Mitchell, chief of CREEP and the then Attorney General. Two had worked for the CIA and three were veterans of the 1961 invasion of Cuba. $114,000 was found in the possession of Bernard Barker, one of the burglars. The White House attempted to use the CIA to block the FBI's investigation of the origins of this money. It was the media's dogged determination to reveal the source of the Baker money that contributed to unravelling the cover-up. $89,000 had been channelled through Mexico to disguise its origins and $25,000 came from Nixon fund-raiser Kenneth Dahlberg. These revelations set in motion the official investigations that finally ensnared Nixon. But it would take the creeping revelations of two years, the skilled investigative journalism of Washington Post reporters Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and the 'smoking gun' tapes to finally nail Nixon. Five days after the burglary, Nixon claimed "the White House has had no involvement whatever in this particular incident." In September 1973 a grand jury indicted the Watergate burglars. These sacrificial lambs were paid $450,000 to maintain silence. Before the trial Nixon had secretly promised them executive clemency if they were imprisoned. In November 1973, Nixon urged the nation to put Watergate behind it, and unconvincingly declared: "I am not a crook." Fearing prosecution, lesser officials of the Nixon administration began to squeal. Soon Nixon's top White House aides and even Nixon himself were implicated in not only the Watergate burglary and its subsequent cover-up but also a whole succession of illegal deeds against political opponents and anti-Vietnam war activists. Various testimonies exposed the corruption and stench at the top of the political establishment. Attorney General John Mitchell controlled a secret fund of $350,000 to $700,000 to be used for dirty tricks against the Democratic Party, such as forging letters and leaking false news items to the press. Giant American corporations, including American Airlines, had made illegal donations, running into millions of dollars, to the Nixon campaign. Save the systemIt was disclosed that between 1969 and 1971 Nixon and his aides misused campaign donations and un-lawfully used the FBI, CIA and the Inland Revenue Service against their political opponents. This included authorising without court approval the wiretapping of government officials and journalists to uncover the source of leaked news about the bombing of Cambodia. Nixon had set up the Special Investigations Unit (the "plumbers") in 1971 to carry out these operations. Nixon's presidency continued and deepened a post-world war II trend of increasing secrecy, deception, and evasion of congressional controls in the conduct of military and covert operations abroad by the executive, and the use of executive agencies to monitor political opponents and interfere in the electoral process. Responding to increasing concerns about a president out of control, the effect on civil liberties, and mounting mistrust of government, and in order to head off growing anger to America's war in Vietnam, the ruling class moved to curtail the powers of the presidency vis-à-vis a reassertion of the authority of Congress. Various reforms were introduced to redress the erosion of congressional powers, including the decentralisation of authority, campaign finance and budgetary controls and consultation with Congress on the use of troops abroad. These reforms, and Nixon's resignation in August 1974, encouraged the view that the American system of institutional checks and balances had been vindicated and that "no one is above the law". The reality is less convincing. Left to the political establishment Nixon would have got away with it. Initially Nixon, claiming "executive privilege", refused to hand over the tapes, and when he did 181/2 minutes of one tape had been erased. Despite masses of other evidence, it took these tapes to finally trap Nixon. For two years the "politics of cooperation" had resulted in Republicans and Democrats in the Senate manoeuvring, placing obstacles to and blocking all attempts to move against Nixon. This conspiracy included an electoral deal between Republicans and Democrats up for re-election in 1972. Congress only acted when public outrage demanded it. Bowing to the inevitable and to avoid impeachment and more damaging revelations, Nixon resigned - the first ever US president to do so. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger got off scot-free to continue pursuing US imperialism's interests abroad. The word was to get rid of Nixon to save the system, or as one adviser put it: "All the rotten apples should be thrown out. But save the barrel." Gerald Ford appointed by Nixon as Vice-President in 1973, upon assumption of the presidency promptly pardoned Nixon and, with the backing of Republicans and Democrats, exempted him from any criminal proceedings. ClampdownPost-Watergate reforms proved transitory and reversible. Bush is now vastly increasing his powers on the back of the amplified tensions and uncertainties resulting from 11 September. In the name of national security and the 'war against terrorism' Bush is riding roughshod over Congress and, moreover, trampling on the democratic rights of American workers. The clampdown on democratic rights has more to do with the economic crisis and the social and political upheavals awaiting US capitalism rather than the threats of terrorism. The ruling class fear being held to account by angry workers determined not just to throw out some rotten apples but also to smash the mouldy barrel.
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Argentina: New Crisis As Cops Kill ProtestersTHOUSANDS OF Argentinians marched on the National Congress building in Buenos Aires on 28 June demanding the resignation of caretaker president Eduardo Duhalde. This wasn't simply another demo decrying the collapse of the country's economy, it was to demand justice for the two dead and 90 other protesters wounded by trigger happy cops two days' earlier. These killings were the bloodiest clashes between state forces and protesters since last December. Then, two days of clashes resulted in 30 dead and the resignation of president Fernando de la Rua. After a series of photographs were published in the Clarin newspaper showing one protester gunned down in cold blood, the governor of Buenos Aires state was forced to arrest two police and suspend 100 others. The shootings occurred when more than 2,000 police were ordered to clear pickets of unemployed workers blockading roads on the outskirts of the capital. The government had promised to 'get tough' on the daily protests as it struggles to convince the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to resume aid to the beleaguered regime. The pickets had been demanding jobs, medical and food aid. There were also roadblocks established in the largest cities including Cordoba province, and in Resistencia, the capital of Chaco and in the north of Salta province. In Tucuman province 8,000 left-wingers and trade unionists protested in the provincial capital. Capitalist crisis Seven months of unremitting political crises and economic chaos has devastated the lives of millions of Argentinians. One in four adults are unemployed as the four year long recession bites deeper. The industrial recession resulted in the government of de la Rua defaulting on repayments of its $140 billion public debt and led to the uncoupling of the local Peso currency with the US dollar. Subsequently the Peso has lost 75% of its value since January. The government has attempted to prop up the ailing banking system by freezing bank accounts and severely limiting customers' cash withdrawals. This has rapidly impoverished workers and the middle classes. Soup kitchens have sprung up to deal with this surge in poverty. At the same time the rich oligarchy of capitalists and landowners have spirited billions of dollars out of the country fuelling widespread anger. Corrupt politicians have subsequently experienced the wrath of the masses. Many now have police protection. The latest political crisis could force early elections. What is required is the building of a new, mass workers' party based on the trade unions and neighbourhood assemblies. Armed with a socialist programme to take over big business, repudiate the foreign debt and an emergency programme of public works to restore full employment, such a party could form a workers' government. This would send a clear signal to workers and poor throughout the continent to fight for a socialist alternative to bankrupt capitalism.
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Tower Hamlets by-electionSocialist Alliance Provides No AlternativeA SOCIALIST ALLIANCE (SA) candidate polled just nine votes in the Blackwall & Cubitt Town council by-election in East London's Tower Hamlets borough on 27 June. Clive HeemskerkThe Socialist Party left the Socialist Alliance in December, after the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) used their majority to push through an undemocratic constitution, and we take no responsibility for this poor result. Unfortunately, however, the by-election vote will be used against all socialists, in the trade unions and elsewhere, who are arguing for an alternative to New Labour. There were some factors peculiar to this by-election that would have made securing a substantial socialist vote a difficult task. A large part of the ward is in the Isle of Dogs, the old Millwall ward where the BNP's Derek Beackon was elected as a councillor in 1993. The BNP leaflets referred to that victory but also to their more recent successes in Burnley to claim that they had a realistic chance this time. In fact they polled just 87 votes (3.96%) but their presence had some effect in shoring up the Labour vote. Another factor was the 'Islanders first' independent candidacy of Terry Johns, who polled 252 votes (11.48%), mainly from disgruntled Labour voters. Terry benefited from the decades-long record of community campaigning of his father, Ted Johns, a former Labour councillor. (In 1970 Ted was elected 'president' of the Island when community groups declared 'UDI'; during the anti-poll tax struggle he spoke alongside the Militant [now Socialist Party] MP Dave Nellist to publicly back the non-payment campaign). Although the Socialist Alliance candidate was a local community centre worker, she did not have the same profile. Nevertheless, how the SA campaign was conducted must have had some impact on the result achieved. Although the candidate is not a member of the SWP, the bulk of the SA campaigners were. Sixty promised votes were picked up from canvassing and extensive leafleting but the inescapable conclusion is that the SA were unable to convince those 'identified supporters' to come out and vote for them. The turnout overall was only 24.6% Socialist Party vindicatedTHE SA's recent electoral performance further affirms the decision of the Socialist Party not to participate in the Socialist Alliance as it is now constituted. The Tower Hamlets result follows another by-election in Luton on 13 June where, in the safe Labour ward of Challney, the Socialist Alliance polled just 18 votes (0.85%), compared to 814 for the winning Labour candidate. The Socialist Party, however, has shown that it is possible to win electoral support for socialist ideas. In May's local elections, our candidates averaged 296 votes per candidate (11.48%), with two councillors elected. Before December's SA conference, the Alliance had a 'federal' structure which allowed supporting organisations such as the Socialist Party, within a common framework, to run election contests with their own campaigning methods and political ideas. Yet at the conference SWP speakers made it clear that this arrangement would end. Using their numerical majority they would dictate to candidates from other organisations within the SA the politics and campaigning methods. This was unacceptable to the Socialist Party, a more successful electoral organisation, and the recent results once again show why. Of course, electoral success is never guaranteed, even with the right policies and approach. The early pioneers of the labour movement, such as Keir Hardie and James Connolly, in their own time suffered electoral debacles. But if nothing else, such experiences should at least puncture the conception of the SWP that the SA under their domination is the only alternative to New Labour, which all other groups and organisations should defer to.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender workersFighting For Real EqualityAS LESBIANS, gay men, bisexuals and transgender (LGBT) people hit London's streets on 6 July for Pride, the LGBT communities can see formal equality at least in sight. Wayne Lovett, Socialist Party Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Group & AMICUS memberArticle 13 of the European Union's (EU) Amsterdam Treaty requires member states to introduce laws against anti-gay employment discrimination by December 2003. European Court action by transgender workers forced the government to introduce limited regulations on transgender rights at work. This will be the first time the words "sexual orientation" appear in an act of parliament on employment. At the moment employers can refuse to employ lesbians, gay men and bisexuals, take no action against harassment of LGB staff, deny us and our partners equal treatment on employment benefits, and sack us because of our sexuality. Over the years a stream of LGB workers have taken their employer and the UK government to court at home and in Europe, only to be told laws like the Sex Discrimination Act do not cover sexuality. All the government would offer was a voluntary 'code of conduct'. This would have left workers depending on bosses' goodwill rather than having proper legal remedies. During the EU debate, Labour tried to exclude sexuality from Article 13, and when this failed again pushed a voluntary code in the place of legislation. Ultimately Article 13 came down on the side of binding protection. But British objections resulted in exemptions for religious organisations. These would allow an employer with a religious 'ethos' to continue to discriminate where it can demonstrate a "genuine occupational requirement". Potentially this could affect hundreds of thousands of workers in sectors such as education and care. In religious schools alone there are 100,000 teaching jobs. Labour is refusing to define which employers have a "religious ethos". An activist has predicted this will have the effect of passing "the difficult decisions to judges and tribunals, leaving justice to luck and the well-heeled" (Gay Times May 2002). LGBT trade unionists must help to mobilise the strength of the trade union movement to ensure the final legislation doesn't enable religious employers to drive a coach and horses through employment protection for lesbian, gay and bisexual workers. We demand full equality for every lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender worker!
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