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Blair's Fuel Tax Lies

TONY BLAIR says that he can't cut high fuel taxes because the pensioners will suffer and he'll have less to spend on the NHS and education. What rubbish!

Last year - and this year - his chancellor, Gordon Brown, was sitting on a fat war chest of up to £20 billion. And what did he give to the pensioners? A paltry 75p!

So, now, to parry criticism in the run up to the next election, Brown has announced a larger uprating of pensions. But even this concession will still leave many elderly living in poverty.

The Socialist Party demands a national minimum income of £280 a week including for pensioners.

Despite the recycled headlines showing huge increases, this New Labour government will increase expenditure on health and education over its lifetime less than the last Tory government did.

Gordon "prudence" Brown says he doesn't want to spend his surpluses now because he's worried about restarting an economic "boom and bust" cycle. With the wealth gap widening to a record level, millions of people have never experienced anything more than the "bust" cycle!

But Gordon needn't fret. He could simply recoup the public subsidies paid to the privatised railways by renationalising the rail network, with compensation only in cases of proven need.

He could get his hands on billions more by nationalising the giant oil companies. (BP made a cool £6 billion profit in the first nine months of this year while Shell managed to rack up £2.26 billion profit over the last three months.)

Of course this government has no intention of depriving big business of its ill gotten gains. Its agenda is written to serve the needs of finance capital. If you want fully funded public services and decent pensions, then join with the Socialist Party to rid our lives of capitalism and to fight for a democratic, socialist alternative.

 

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 Can't Pay Won't Pay

OVER 20,000 students are expected on the National Union of Students (NUS) "Grants not Fees" demonstration in Central London. This march will protest at tuition fees of up to £1,050 per year and no student maintenance grant, leaving student loans as the only option.

Paul Hunt, Coventry (SFE) Save Free Education.

Most students will leave university owing between £12,000 and £25,000. Due to these funding arrangements, many students from working - class backgrounds are denied the opportunity of going to University.

Those that get to University often have to work up to 40 hours per week in low - paid jobs meaning their grades suffer dramatically.

Now the elite universities, notably the Russell Group of universities, are talking of bringing in their own 'top-up' fees, which could amount to a staggering £20,000 per year for some courses. This will result in a two-tier education system because only the very richest students will be able to go to the top universities.

The Socialist Party and Save Free Education (SFE) believe that the only strategy to beat tuition fees and restore the grant is a campaign of mass non - payment. This campaign would make fees uncollectable and force the government to change its policy. Thatcher's poll tax was defeated because 18 million people refused to pay and backed this up with mass action to defend those who couldn't or wouldn't pay. We should unite under the banner of 'Can't Pay- Won't Pay', with all students who can't afford to pay uniting with those who disagree with fees on principle.

The need for a successful non-payment campaign is urgent. Already this term thousands of students will drop out due to lack of money caused by fees and loss of the grant. The NUS needs to actively build non-payment, this demonstration will show the power NUS has to mobilise students, the same can be done with non-payment.

Every student on this demonstration needs to go back to their college or university and refuse to pay their fees and join or set up an SFE group.This then can build non-payment and organise action to defend non-payers with the aim of winning back the right to free education.

 

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Hackney: Time to strike back

TGWU UNION members and building workers in Hackney are to ballot for industrial action after the Labour-Tory council agreed cuts of £4 million on 6 November.

Chris Newby

Over 1,000 angry people protested outside the Town Hall, as councillors ignored their own lawyers' advice that their attack on workers' jobs was illegal. Hackney council has a huge deficit and all but the most essential spending had already been barred. Now jobs are threatened and services are due to be privatised by 1 December.

All workers should follow the TGWU members' example and push for strike action. The council's cuts would destroy jobs, devastate services, pay the remaining workers less and carry out more privatisation in one of Britain's poorest boroughs.

Despite their financial problems, Hackney council are paying £8 million to arch-privatisers Serviceteam. Now whole areas of council services will be closed and privatised.

The Housing Directorate 'restructuring' would shut five neighbourhood housing offices - 220 workers will lose their jobs. In Social Services, £700,000 will go from the Home Care budget through privatising and restricting services. The council also wants to cut redundancy pay to the bare minimum they can get away with.

Hackney public-sector union UNISON placed an advert in the local newspaper asking any councillors prepared to oppose cuts and fight for more government finances to sign a statement. Not one councillor put their name to this statement.

Parents and children in Atherden Road and Fernbank nurseries, directly hit by these attacks, are already fighting alongside council workers. Hackney tenants convention are also refusing to sign their annual agreement with the council because of these cuts.

The council is widely seen as incompetent, inefficient and corrupt. The Socialist Party calls for all councillors to resign and for anti-cuts candidates accountable to the community to be elected in their place.

At last week's 400-strong rally, Hackney UNISON's proposal to organise a conference of council unions, tenants associations and groups dependant on council funding met with enthusiastic applause.

The conference is on Saturday 2 December. As many local people as possible should attend to help develop a broad democratic campaign. Fight these cuts and demand the return of the £50 million stolen by this government through reductions in grants over the last three years.

• If you want to participate in this conference, write to Hackney UNISON, 3 Floor, Netil House, 1-7 Westgate Street, London E8.

 

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Victory for Glenn Kelly: Bromley's embarrassing climbdown

GLENN KELLY, secretary of Bromley UNISON, has won a resounding victory against Bromley council bosses. In a humiliating climbdown they have imposed only the lightest of sentences for his alleged 'crimes'.

Bill Mullins

Despite suspending him for five weeks, carrying out a 12-week investigation and 24 hours of a disciplinary hearing, a first written warning was all they felt confident to issue.

Having caused such a public outcry, the warning to Glenn was the least they could do without completely losing face.

Senior management's action made the council look complete fools. Clearly the council were trying to victimise Glenn merely for effectively representing his members and defending the services they provide.

Suppose the case had gone to an employment tribunal. How could the council defend disciplining Glenn for meeting tenants of the sheltered homes they were trying to close? This was at the tenants' request to hear the union's views about management's plans for the service.

Management claimed their pilot scheme to remove night-care staff was a 'success' at Norton Court, one of their five sheltered homes. Management expected the council to vote to remove night-care staff from all five homes; instead UNISON's campaign forced management to put night staff back into Norton Court.

One Norton Court worker said that on her first day back she found an elderly woman lying bleeding and incontinent with fear, who couldn't reach her alarm cord which was out of reach. Luckily the worker was now on site but what was happening over the months without night staff? What would this woman have done had the union not waged its campaign?

Glenn exposed the council's actions so senior managers and councillors wanted to sack him as a warning to the whole workforce. They haven't been able to do this because UNISON branch activists and Socialist Party members got behind Glenn.

Socialist Party members pride themselves on coming to the aid of any worker being victimised by the bosses but we make even greater efforts to defend one of our own!

Together with tenants and their relatives, union activists and socialists publicly demonstrated their opposition to the council on lobbies and other activities organised by the UNISON branch.

Dozens of workplaces were visited. Stalls were organised in every high street in the borough. Campaigners went into offices, spoke directly to workers at their desks and won a victory for all Bromley's workers.

 

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Socialist victory teachers' union

WHEN SOCIALIST Party member Linda Taaffe was defeated in elections for the national executive (NEC) of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) earlier this year, the NUT right wing declared that never again should a Trotskyist be elected to the NEC.

They must be bitterly disappointed now. Linda Taaffe has been re-elected to the NEC in a by-election in outer London! In a high turn-out for a by-election, Linda led the poll through both stages of the count:

	First round	Second round
Linda Taaffe	2115	2411
Roberts	1785	2193
Gow	1066

The Left and the Socialist Party see this as a big victory. The right-wing claim that teachers are not prepared to fight. But Linda's election material and campaign, which concentrated on the struggle against performance management and performance-related pay as well as the need to fight for increased London Weighting allowance, completely disproves this.

See page eleven of The Socialist Newspaper edition for Linda Taaffe's reaction to Chris Woodhead's resignation.

 

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End Student Poverty

THIS YEAR is the first in which all students will face paying tuition fees. More than ever students will be straining under the weight of debts and poverty.

Kieran Roberts, Save Free Education (SFE)

As a result many will decide they can not cope with the pressure of debt and drop out. Others will decide to stay on their courses, but put off paying their fees for as long as possible, vainly trying to find money to pay them, with the constant fear of sanctions hanging over their heads.

This situation is a stinging condemnation of the higher education system in Britain.   New Labour and before them the Tories bear the responsibility for this appalling situation.

However, the thousands of students who will march through London on 15 November against tuition fees and for the restoration of the grant will send a clear message to the politicians that students won't accept it anymore.

The demo will show that the anger against tuition fees and the abolition of the grant has increased, as more students and young people feel the effects.

University applications have fallen dramatically since tuition fees were introduced. By 30 June, the numbers applying for a university or college place were down 0.4% on the previous year.

The fall for mature students is larger at 1.3% for over 21-year-olds and 2.1% for over-25s. This fall comes after falls of 12.5%, 30% and 33%, for 18-21 year olds, 21-24s and the over-25s respectively in the first year of fees; proving that they are a deterrent from going to university for thousands.

At the same time, tens of thousands of students have been unable to afford to pay their fees. The Times Higher Education Supplement has revealed that the latest figure for non-payment of fees stands at £21 million.

At the University of Hertfordshire students owe £1.6 million, an increase of £400,000 on last year's figures. At Staffordshire University, 818 students, owe money to the university, a 50% increase since last year. At Manchester Metropolitan, £1.1 million has not been paid.

A report by South Bank University's finance director says that new universities (the ex-polys) are having big problems collecting unpaid tuition fees.

It particularly blames delays in assessment of fees and loans caused by local education authorities (LEAs) and by the Student Loans Company as creating problems for the universities.

But, like many other universities, South Bank still threatens students who can not afford to pay their fees with fines and exclusion.

These universities are doing the government's dirty work by penalising those students least able to afford their education.

 

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Build mass non-payment of fees

SAVE FREE Education (SFE) are building a mass movement of resistance against tuition fees, the abolition of the grant and oppose universities that try and enforce sanctions against students who do not pay their fees.

Above all we are building a campaign of mass non-payment of the fees. The possibility of success for a mass movement against tuition fees and for a grant are looking stronger than ever. The Scottish Parliament was forced to abolish up-front fees last year.

Now the possibility of the Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies following suit has been raised. If upfront fees are abolished in Wales and Northern Ireland, tuition fees will be dealt a mortal blow.

However, we can not rely on the politicians in either parliament to do this. We must build a mass movement based around non-payment of the fees to ensure that.

A mass movement of students and workers is the only way of ensuring we win genuine free education, and go beyond the concessions granted in Scotland.

The strategy of mass non-payment of the fees is the most likely to force the government to retreat. But to be successful we have to organise.

After the NUS demonstration, students need to go back to their colleges and organise their own non-payment campaigns. We need to inspire and give confidence to as many students as possible to withhold their fees. Only through sheer numbers of non-payers will we make fees unworkable.

SFE have called a day of action against tuition fees in December, so that simultaneous protests around the country will send a message to students, the government and management alike that students are fighting back for our right for free education.

 

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Top-up fees:

New Labour's next step

NEW LABOUR undoubtedly want to go even further in charging for education. There is plenty of evidence to suggest they will allow universities to introduce top-up fees after the next general election.

Advocates of top-up fees received encouragement earlier this year when David Blunkett implied that his current ban on top-up fees would probably not survive the next parliament.

First among such advocates of top-up fees are The Russell Group (the group comprising the vice-chancellors of the country's 19 most prestigious universities). They recently published a report which called for the government to allow them to charge top-up fees. Were they to do so students could end up paying £20,000 for a three-year degree.

What the Russell Group of vice-chancellors would like to see is the creation of a US-style, Ivy-League system. In the US, students who can afford to, pay as much as £30,000 for a degree at the most prestigious universities.

Less well-off students get a worse quality education at a more 'down-market' institution. Of course many millions of working-class, black and Latino young people in the US can not even afford to think of entering higher education.

Under New Labour, Britain is undoubtedly moving towards such a system.

However, the other main political parties offer no alternative. Despite attacking New Labour for planning to introduce top-up fees, the Tories have published plans to stop all state funding for universities. This would mean the complete privatisation of universities - and top-up fees.

The short-sighted, profit hungry nature of capitalism means that British business is unwilling to carry the cost of educating young people in this country through taxation. Through fees and the privatisation of higher education big business and their representatives in government intend to drastically reduce state support in financing higher education by shifting the cost onto students.

Young Socialist Action National Meeting

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By-election in Lewisham 

Socialist Party councillors: not like the rest

SAM DIAS, Socialist party candidate in the Pepys ward by-election in Lewisham, south London, spoke to The Socialist.

"I got involved in politics after the Scarman report into the Brixton disturbances in 1981 when I went to work for the Commission for Racial Equality where we worked with police trainees at Hendon college.

That got me interested in politics and I joined the Labour Party which at that time still saw itself as representative of ordinary people.

But towards the end of the 1980s me and my partner were beaten up by the police, we were all arrested and even my kids were locked in a cell. We got our case dismissed but as you can imagine I became very disillusioned in schemes working with the police.

I moved away from Labour and got involved in Women's Aid and the National Council for Single Parents. It was all community based.

I came to Honor Oak Estate about nine years ago after being run out of Bermondsey by the British National Party. Wandle Housing Association didn't do a lot to help us.

I got involved with the Joseph Rowntree Trust, who set up a steering group to look at tenants' problems in the area. That worked but the group was limited, largely because it had no finance.

I then joined the main tenants association and got involved in the local committees. That's how I first met Ian Page, now a Socialist Party councillor in Lewisham. I'd seen Labour councillors and thought is he going to be like all the rest?

The day I learned who really represented our views was when we asked all our councillors to present our petitions about the loss of our single regeneration bid and the closure of the neighbourhood office to the town hall. The Labour councillors refused. Ian was the only one who took the petition into the council chambers.

That made me open my eyes. What I liked about it was that we led the fight together - councillor and tenants.

We managed to keep the neighbourhood office as a sub office and most importantly got £12 million for refurbishment and £6 million for the rebuild from demonstrating and petitioning.

Labour are all talk. They said they wanted more ordinary people and more ethnic minorities to join them but they don't make any efforts to support people. Labour are worried that my standing could encourage a lot of other people to stand.

The Socialist Party welcomes people from all races, all nationalities. It deals with more than single issues. It deals with everything that affects ordinary working-class people, the low paid, the unemployed.

Labour's now like the Tories. I think there'll be a strong growth in the Socialist Party because people are so disillusioned in Labour.

I like the equality in the structures of the Socialist Party. There's no patronising in the party, which you can find in many parties, particularly for people from the ethnic minorities.

 

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 Labour's deflating balloons

THE LANCASHIRE Socialist Alliance (LSA) campaign for the Preston by-election is beginning to take off. On Saturday 4 November, candidate Terry Cartwright and a team of LSA activists put up our now regular stall on the Flag Market.

Max Neill

This week we shared the Flag Market with the Labour Party, who had a tiny stall manned by two glum-looking individuals handing out balloons, in every colour except red. They became glummer as the day went on. They saw queues forming at our stall to sign petitions calling for the renationalisation of the rail industry and to prevent half of Preston's bus station being shut down for the sake of a shopping centre.

They seemed even less happy when I started lambasting the Labour government. I asked how they had the cheek to turn up and ask for peoples' votes after giving the pensioners 75 pence.

Their misery was compounded as I reminded them of county councillor Colin Abbot's resignation from the Labour Party. He has resigned because of the selection of Mark Hendrick as the Labour candidate.

He explained why to the local press: "After almost 40 years supporting the Labour Party I feel I cannot continue to support a system in which I don't believe, nor can I possibly work alongside someone who I believe to be not only lacking in integrity, but seems also to be a person who is high on hypocrisy".

Several Labour Party members came to the LSA stall declaring that they had torn up their party cards. Some joined the LSA, one woman from South Ribble Labour Party explained over the loudspeaker that Labour was now the "New Right". The chaps on the Labour balloon stall looked at their feet.

The LSA had to make its final decision about whether to stand or not in this by election on 1 November. We had to discuss our response to rumours and press reports that Valerie Wise, former Left MPAudrey Wise's daughter, was thinking about leaving Labour to stand as an independent.

Some members of the LSA would have called for Terry Cartwright to stand down in favour of Valerie, if she had made a clear announcement that she was standing. Others, including myself, had argued that we should see exactly what her program and policies would be before we could make any such decision. Half an hour before the meeting, officers of the LSA heard it was quite unlikely that Valerie Wise would stand against Labour.

With less than a week before close of nominations we had to decide whether we should withdraw our candidate and risk there being no Left candidate, or whether we should stand and risk there being two Left candidates.

To their credit, everyone at the meeting understood that we had to bite the bullet and stand. Should Valerie Wise, or any other Labour left suddenly make the decision to stand as well, we would run a 'fraternal parallel campaign', similar to the friendly relationship between the LSA campaign and the Green candidate, where both groups work to maximise the socialist vote and avoid mud slinging.

At the time of writing there is no sign that Valerie Wise has decided either to leave the Labour Party, or to stand in the by-election. Naturally all the socialists in Preston would be happy to welcome Valerie or any other Labour activists sickened by the hypocrisy of the Blairites into the LSA, so that we can build a stronger socialist alternative to New Labour.

The stronger and more effective the LSA election campaign, the more likely it is that Labour Lefts will gain the confidence to leave Labour, and the louder the message to Tony Blair that the working class heartlands are sick of his pro-big business policies.

The LSA is conducting mass canvasses every Tuesday and Thursday, meeting outside McDonald's in the town centre at 12.00 noon. Anyone who wants to help build this campaign is welcome to come along. There is also a stall on the Flag Market every Saturday.

 

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