The Socialist Issue 191

THE ANNOUNCEMENT by Corus to cut back at Ebbw Vale steelworks and the 'heavy' end of Llanwern steelworks with thousands of job losses, is expected as we go to press. This would be a devastating blow to the South Wales economy.

Corus have shed nearly 5,000 jobs in the region in the last 12 months. The Gwent area will especially suffer.

Welsh First Secretary, Rhodri Morgan claims that 1,300 jobs in the finishing and rolling mill have been saved. But these will be closed too if steel making is lost at Llanwern, when steel will have to be transported to Llanwern from Redcar and Port Talbot, which already cannot meet their targets.

Almost certainly Corus will import steel to be finished at Llanwern. One worker in finishing said: "If they shut the heavy end it will only be a matter of months for finishing. Workers in the other parts would be always looking over their shoulder, wondering when it was their turn."

"The whole area will be hit because Corus is closing down our plant. We built it, the Tories privatised it and now Corus are going to throw it on the scrap heap. They have no right", said one steelworker who has been at the plant for 35 years and has refused early retirement.

Corus have not listened to steel union ISTC leaders, Rhodri Morgan or the government. The only language they will understand is industrial action.

It is not too late to save Llanwern, Ebbw Vale and the rest of the Corus plants. Mass meetings in Scunthorpe and Teesside have already voted to fight compulsory job losses, from the last round of cuts, with industrial action.

Members of FN. Bondgenoten have pledged industrial action at Llanwern's Dutch sister plant at IJmuiden.

Workers in Newport will rally around to support the 12,000 jobs threatened by closure. This is where the real force to save Llanwern will come from.

An all-out strike by all Corus workers involving the IJmuiden workers, linked to a mass campaign in the Newport area, would halt Corus in its tracks.

The ISTC leaders should call a ballot immediately and use the public support for the steelworkers to demand that the government renationalise steel under democractic workers' control and management.

Back the Tube Workers

LONDON UNDERGROUND workers have voted overwhelmingly for strike action against privatisation of the tube (PPP). Strikes involving drivers, station staff, signal and maintenance workers will bring the system to a standstill on three consecutive Mondays 5, 12 and 19 February. Management have run to the courts to stop it.

We are not prepared to accept the same compromised safety arrangements on the tube that have already wrought disaster and chaos on the mainline railways. We are also demanding that not one job is transferred to the private sector.

RMT voted nine to one in favour of the action while ASLEF members supported the strike call by two to one. This will be the first unified action by rail unions RMT and ASLEF for nearly ten years, giving massive confidence to union members.

The engineering firms getting the private contracts will make millions at the expense of workers and passengers. So let them pay the £8.4 billion needed to clear the underground's maintenance backlog. No privatisation, no bonds, just reverse the colossal tax cuts that mean firms in the City of London pay the lowest taxes in the developed world! Better still, nationalise the parasitical financial institutions so cheap finance can be used to regenerate not just the underground but all our railways and public services.

Livingstone's support for the strike action and Transport Commissioner Bob Kiley's opposition to the government's PPP scheme, will be welcomed.

Kiley has even said: "My view is that the tube will become a tomb if the public-private partnership goes ahead." But concrete alternative proposals from Livingstone and Kiley have been too close to the government's for comfort.

There is massive opposition to tube privatisation and the effect passengers know it would have on their safety. This opposition will increase once plans for a 40% increase in fare revenues and 5% reduction in target service levels are more widely known.

Socialist Party branches and trade unions should organise meetings to support the strike action, whilst

Full government funding of London Underground.
Safety and reliability to be the top priority, not profit.
Not one job to be privatised and no contractors to be used for routine work.
One unitary transport authority under democratic control to co-ordinate investment, safety and the service.
Expansion of in-house maintenance. Take back previously privatised Northern and Jubilee depots under public control.
Cheaper fares. Run the underground as a public service not a business.
Re-nationalise all rail companies under democratic workers' control as part of a unified country-wide public transport system.

When flunkies fall out

All these parliamentary capitalist parties are seen as hypocrites. At the general election it's likely that more voters will refuse to vote, being turned off by the whole issue of Mandelson, sleaze etc and say a 'plague on all your houses'.

Nonetheless Mandelson's fall from grace was generally greeted with enthusiasm because he personified New Labour's arrogance and subservience to big business. He was seen as the arch-Blairite. Mandelson was the ultimate New Labour big business flunky, and in effect, the lightning conductor for all the anger building up against the government.

That's why even his erstwhile colleagues in the Parliamentary Labour Party greeted his resignation with cheering.

Some of the worst press coverage concentrated on Mandelson being gay and some commentaries compared him to a latter-day political Oscar Wilde. But, to adapt the immortal lines of one of Wilde's plays, "to lose a cabinet position once is unfortunate, to lose it twice is downright carelessness".

However, the way New Labour handled Mandelson's second resignation is more than carelessness. They're now obliged to hang together rather than separately, for fear of the damage it can cause in the run-up to the election.

Even if New Labour manages to limit the damage for now, the fall-out from Mandelson's resignation will resurface after the election. Clare Short's briefing that "Mandelson went... because he has got problems telling the truth", will no doubt come back to haunt many other Labour cabinet members in future.

Mandelson's departure leaves Blair more vulnerable, not just over his character judgement, but over wider political issues. He will face increasing tensions and splits at the top of New Labour over other aspects of the Blairite 'project' - proportional representation, Labour's relationships with the Liberals and the Euro amongst others.

Indeed, a major reason why the Murdoch papers went for Mandelson and Keith Vaz with such venom has been their advocacy of Europe and joining the Euro.

Since Mandelson's resignation, new revelations about other political figures shows what a rotten web of influence these billionaire businessmen were weaving.

The Hammond Inquiry will focus mainly on Mandelson misleading others. But this official inquiry will completely miss the point.

Government ministers have continually lied to the working class about their policies and the literal corruption they have been embroiled in. This whole affair stinks, like the Ecclestone affair and others since, because of New Labour's sleazy relationship with big business.

The main factor in the Dome debacle and the Ecclestone fiasco etc, is that when you ask big business for donations they expect bigger favours in return.

The Hinduja brothers wanted passports, not mainly to avoid deportation or more easily travel the world; they had few worries on either count. Getting a passport was to help remove barriers in taking over British-based businesses.

New Labour stepped in where even Tories feared to tread and gave the passports against government agency advice, so desperate were they to appease big business.

At the election there will be socialist candidates untainted by big business links, who will oppose the hypocritical establishment parties. Socialist Party members will be standing on the slogan of a workers' MP on a worker's wage.

But after the election, as a recession or slump strikes Britain in the wake of a US economic meltdown, all the cracks in the New Labour edifice will widen dramatically. Then, more and more workers will look for a Left alternative to New Labour, where the principled stand on finance and the socialist ideas of our party will gain widespread support.

Bribery, Bofors and the Hinduja brothers

CORRUPTION CASES are nothing new to India. In recent times some cases have been pursued vigorously and quite a few have been indicted, but the judicial system gives the rich and powerful umpteen loopholes.

Bribery cases include former governments buying off opposition MPs to vote for the government on financial bills but nobody has been put behind bars.

In the £9.14 million kickbacks scandal known as the Bofors scam, Swedish arms firm AB Bofors supplied 400 howitzer field guns to India's armed forces.

A routine audit accidentally found out that a huge kickback was paid to the McIntyre Corporation in Panama, which was opened by the Hinduja brothers' Zurich-based lawyer Dr Rippmann.

A long investigation suggested that the kickbacks were paid in to the brothers' secret coded accounts in Switzerland. The Hindujas' stalling of the investigation confirms to many their involvement - and their clout in Europe and elsewhere.

Only after Ottavio Quttrochi, an Italian fixer and confidant of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was arrested for his involvement in the Bofors scam did the Hinduja Brothers' worldwide business interests start acting as victims.

The Hindujas mainly amassed their wealth by being middlemen in arms deals with neo-colonial countries. They have controlling stakes in Ahok Leyland and Indus (Global) bank. They're very close to infamous arms dealer Adnan Kashogi and other shady characters.

India's present capitalist BJP-led regime made a lot of noise about the Bofors scam when in opposition, and many present-day cabinet ministers shot to fame by their zealous pursuit. It will probably be a wild goose chase in the end, as there are high stakes involved in this case.

The Hindujas threw a party four days after they got the passport to celebrate the British legal system. Some day soon, the brothers may be praising India's judicial system while the rich and corrupt look on, applauding.

It will be up to the socialists organised in the Committee for a Workers' International, (to which the Socialist Party is also affiliated) to expose these fixers and middlemen.

It's their profit system, capitalism, which breeds corruption and sustains it on the backs of the working people by super-exploitation.

Hackney

Solid strike against cuts threat

IN HACKNEY'S biggest strike movement in 20 years thousands of Hackney council workers staged a three-day strike this week in their battle to save jobs and services.

Council workers have been fighting a determined campaign since last October when council officers issued a Section 114 notice to avoid bankruptcy. A council meeting on 6 November agreed management's proposals involving service cuts, job losses and drastic changes to terms and conditions.

A successful day of action that day, followed by solid strike action on 20 December, showed management that council workers weren't prepared to pay for this crisis. The problems were created by years of cuts in government grants and compounded by senior officers' incompetence and mismanagement.

Before the strike action, from 29-31 January, management tried to divide the workforce by refusing to allow one mass meeting of all the unions. A successful all-union mass meeting before Christmas had galvanised support for the 20 December strike.

Managing Director Max Caller allowed separate mass meetings of individual unions on 24 January, but only because he believed some sections of workers would vote against further strike action.

Caller told his staff he was going to the meeting to "bash the unions" but he badly miscalculated. All four meetings voted unanimously to strike. Caller was booed at the mass meetings and incensed workers when he told them that while he'd be with the council for years to come, they might not!

The workers' mood has hardened since Christmas. The council plan to issue 90-day notices on 1 February. Unless they're stopped, from 4 May a low-paid council worker currently taking home just £969 a month, (including shift premium and low pay supplement) will have their pay cut by £204 a month, about £50 a week.

Workers will also receive no annual pay increases for several years until the so-called 'protection' element in their pay has been eliminated.

This campaign's at a crucial stage. 'Single Status' and 'Best Value' are being implemented in Hackney with devastating effects on services, jobs and pay and conditions. Hackney council workers are defending public services against New Labour's market madness.

A lot is at stake. Council workers will need to ensure that no agreements are made without reference to mass meetings of the council workforce. If management don't back down further strike action, backed by the community, will be necessary.

"It's our livelihoods at stake"

AS A nursery worker in Hackney I am disgusted at the managers in Hackney. Their attitude is deplorable. They are arrogant, self-opinionated fools.

Why should Hackney people and workers have to suffer at the hands of these people who don't live in the real world?

It's our livelihoods, our futures at stake, not theirs. Frankly they don't care about us, that's why it's important for us all to stick together and fight on.

On 29 January, along with several colleagues, I picketed the nursery where we work.

There was great support from the parents who decided not to cross the picket line and wouldn't bring their children back to school until Thursday.

The milkman showed his support by not delivering milk to the nursery and we had support from one of our overseas students who understands our concerns for the people of Hackney.

Even though it was a very cold morning, the support we received was brilliant. Thanks to all.

Socialist meeting success

AROUND 30 people, including Hackney council workers and shop stewards, attended a very lively Socialist Party meeting on the first day of the strike, 29 January. They heard Brian Debus, chair of Hackney UNISON, update them on developments.

Brian said that when he was negotiating with the police for the demo to Downing Street, the police told him that if they stayed in Hackney and avoided Downing Street, they'd make sure they'd get a good editorial in the Hackney Gazette! Many workers are now considering joining the Socialist Party.

ANDREW RAWNSLEY'S book Servants of the People is an account of the inner workings of Blair and his cabal from the first day of the Labour government in May 1997 until the summer of 2000.

JANE JAMES analyses what the book reveals in the light of Peter Mandelson's second resignation from the cabinet and the increasing reliance of New Labour on big business financial backers.

Servants of big business

A BETTER title for the book could have been "Servants of the Rich and Big Business". On entering government, the new Labour MPs were like children set loose in Toys R Us. They jostled and bickered over jobs, the size of their offices and staff and the best apartments.

From the beginning Blair and Brown set up two camps which Rawnsley compares to a "dual monarchy". Each have their own staff, constantly battling for power and prestige, which has led to leaks and conspired sackings of each others' advisers and staff.

Not surprisingly there is much on Peter Mandelson. Forecasting future events, Rawnsley describes how Mandelson, who Blair once described as 'my alter ego', "swanked around the salons of the wealthy, the powerful and the right-wing."

To his Tory friend Carla Powell, Mandelson was 'a groupie for greatness'. He even recognised some of what would eventually be his downfall himself, when he said: "I came over a bit grand. I was trophy-like. I was caught up in a bit of a whirl."

According to Rawnsley, Blair frequently moaned: "I wish Peter would listen to my advice the way I listen to his."

But one of Blair's first problems was the Ecclestone affair, which surfaced only six months into the government. It showed the beginnings of the problems Labour faced in accepting large donations from big business and the rich. Bernie Ecclestone, the motor racing boss, had secretly given Labour £1 million before the election.

Trouble brewed in November when Ecclestone demanded favours for his donation, that Labour should not ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship for motor racing. Ecclestone argued that with no income from tobacco money, Formula One would go abroad with the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and £900 million of exports.

Blair exempted Formula One from the ban, reneging on Labour's pledge. Rawnsley describes in detail the squirming and plotting of Blair and his team in deciding whether to announce the donation and then whether to return the money.

From the start New Labour courted big business, bringing unelected businessmen into government and reassuring the City. One cabinet minister compared a reception at Downing Street for business people to the past Tory government, saying: " The publican may have changed but the same people are jostling at the bar".

Big business also had its way when Robin Cook, the foreign secretary, allowed a shipment of arms to be sent to Indonesia, arguing that British defence jobs could be at risk and Britain would be seen by business as an unreliable supplier. It did not matter that when in opposition Cook had condemned Suharto, president of Indonesia for the brutal murder of thousands of East Timorese and Labour had pledged to stop arms sales.

While avoiding upsetting big business, Labour attacked the poor with casual indifference. Rawnsley describes one decision that Harriet Harman (then Secretary of State for Social Security) was told to make: "Brown told Harman that, to remain within her budget limits, she would have to choose between two Tory cuts, both of which Labour had bitterly attacked when in Opposition... One cut was to the housing allowance paid to under -25-year-olds living alone. The other removed the extra payment to single parents."

Harman chose to cut the money from single parents. Some MPs reflected the anger of people over this cut and Harman was given the push.

Perhaps the most damning aspect of the book is how New Labour runs the government. Rawnsley claims that there are just four people who make the decisions and effectively run the show - Blair himself, Brown the chancellor, Alistair Campbell (Blair's press secretary) and until last week Peter Mandelson.

Four days into the government, control of monetary policy and interest rates was passed from the government to the unelected Bank of England. Even Sir Robin Butler, the cabinet secretary working for the civil service, felt he had to advise the new prime minister of the usual procedure.

He pointed out that such an important decision should be taken at a cabinet meeting. Blair saw no need to involve the cabinet saying: "I'm sure they'll agree."

According to Rawnsley, cabinet meetings rarely extend beyond 45 minutes. Press officers, advisers and unelected business people are more powerful than elected MPs who Blair refers to as just "ambassadors".

BLAIR HAS always been in thrall to the press, describing the Sun's support for Labour at the election as a victory. The main criteria for a new policy or announcement is how it will appear in the press.

At one time each government department was told to produce two news stories a week. Three years into the government the number of press officers had increased to 1,100 and the number of special advisers had doubled.

Rawnsley freely admits that Blair has no thought-out ideology or strategy. Totally out of touch with the real world, he relies on focus groups to report on people's fears and moods. Then policies are wrapped in spin and presentation. But however muddled and hesitant Blair's policies often are, they reflect the views of big business.

Rawnsley believes that old Labour handed the party over to Blair in order to win the election, giving the impression of the Left relinquishing a power they never had.

In fact the shift to the right of the Labour Party was a process in which Labour was losing electoral support from 1974 as reformism was abandoned. The ruling class, having confidence that the tops of Labour governments would support capitalism, always feared that the unions and workers could put pressure on their leaders for reforms and socialist aims.

Hence the pressure from the ruling class for Labour to break with the unions and to diminish party democracy. Militant supporters (forerunners of the Socialist Party) were the first to be expelled from the Labour Party as we were seen as an obstacle to transforming it. Clause 4, which outlined socialist aims, was removed from the constitution. Democracy has been whittled away so that there is now no mechanism for workers to exert pressure on the leaders through the party structures.

After 1989 when Stalinism collapsed, many on the Left internationally were disorientated and weakened as capitalism appeared victorious. As with the Labour Party, workers' parties in many countries shifted more towards capitalism.

So the Labour Party has changed from a party whose leadership supported capitalism but with working-class membership and support, to the openly pro-big business party we see today.

Blair's aim from the start was to secure two full terms for a Labour government, something never achieved before. But by 2000 he had reason to worry as to whether this would be possible.

He despaired at the lack of progress in health and education and transport, obviously blind to the reality that if you throw public money at private companies you will not get an improvement in services. The book was written before the fuel crisis which showed how quickly a mood of anger can grow against Labour.

Rawnsley, while making some criticisms of Labour, undoubtedly has admiration for Blair. He praises his negotiating skills in bringing about the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland and in persuading Clinton to prepare for ground troops in the Serbia conflict. The fact that there is still no lasting solution to either of these areas goes un-noticed.

Brown is praised for his successful handling of the economy, yet this cannot be attributed to New Labour and their economic policy but the prolonged US boom is now coming to an end.

Anyone reading the book will rightly conclude that this Labour government are servants of big business where a small clique pushes through policies, with little reference to the cabinet let alone the party itself. No wonder many ordinary members have left the party and that Labour's so-called core voters are deserting in droves.

A genuine workers' party would not be offered large donations from big business and would be run democratically by its members.

While many of the incidents described in the book have been reported in the national press, the book brings them together and gives vivid examples of the state of the Labour government.

However for a rounded-out analysis of the life of this government and the campaigns against it, you need to read our material both in the Socialist and Socialism Today.

The last time Mandelson resigned:

"THE PRIME Minister effectively decided the day before that Mandelson had to go. Any remaining doubt about that was settled by the ferocity of the media that morning. Blair was now explicit. The longer Mandelson tried to cling on, the more Mandelson and the government would be damaged. Mandelson repeatedly asked Blair if that was really his opinion, in an effort to seek out a chink of weakness. That was his view, Blair flatly confirmed, offering the consolation that the quicker he left the Cabinet, the better chance there would be of reasonably rapid return. By the end of the conversation, tears were trickling down Mandelson's sepulchral white cheeks. A dark-eyed Campbell*, himself blubbing, gave Mandelson a hug."

"You were the weakest link -goodbye!"

THE DEPARTURE from Tony Blair's government of former Cabinet Minister, Peter Mandelson, finds no sympathy from former Labour MP, now Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist. Dave, who is also national Chair of The Socialist Alliance said: "If you've got a few hundred pounds in the bank and you want to reunite a family with members from India, or bring a visitor over for a wedding, Britain is virtually a closed door.

"But if you've got a few hundred million pounds in the bank - even if you're facing arms deal corruption charges in India - then there's a compliant New Labour Minister available to open the door for you.

"This whole episode ranks of the sort of sleaze that was common under the Tory Government - proof again that we need a new politics in this country, a new party of working people for working people imbued with genuine socialist ideas. Labour's too mesmerised by the problems of the millionaires, instead of dealing with the problems of the millions.

"Personally, I don't see why Peter Mandelson didn't go the whole way, and be hung for a sheep instead of a lamb. He could have phoned up Mohammed Al Fayed and probably got £5 million for a passport! Mr Mandelson, you were the weakest link - Goodbye!"

World Economic Forum

The heights of capitalism

POLITICAL AND business leaders of world capitalism assembled last week for their annual get together - the World Economic Forum - in the mountain-top resort of Davos, Switzerland.

And to ensure that delegates would have a trouble-free conference riot police and the Swiss army prevented anti-capitalist demonstrators getting within earshot of the event.

But capitalism's representatives have more to fear than angry demonstrators: their profit system is facing major problems, notably the dreaded 'R' word - 'recession'.

Delegates were, however, putting on a brave face, imploring each other not to 'talk themselves into a recession' - as if 'industrial overcapacity', 'credit crunch', 'stock market volatility', etc, are questions of psychology!

Many Davos participants were surprisingly upbeat about 'globalisation'. The free movement of capital around the world economy combined with governmental deregulation and privatisation is, supposedly, creating a wealthier planet. And as the richer economies of the West get richer so, they argue, poorer countries will benefit as they are pulled along in the wake of the globalisation juggernaut - a global 'trickle down' of wealth.

Of course there were some party poopers at Davos. Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa mocked the devotees of globalisation saying: "Globalisation can deliver - just as Tanzania can theoretically play in and win the World Cup."

Indeed, on the eve of Davos the United Nations International Labour Organisation (ILO) World Employment Report 2001 blew a big hole in the 'globalisation is good for all' argument.

The report's authors point out that one billion people - a third of the world's workforce - are unemployed or underemployed.

"The global economy will have to generate 500 million new jobs during the next ten years just to accommodate new seekers of the labour force and reduce the current level of unemployment", the report argues.

With multinational car manufacturers to pharmaceutical giants and financial conglomerates all busily downsizing their global workforces, job creation on this scale is unlikely.

Information Technology companies are faring little better as the speculative shares bubble deflated last year pushing many dot.coms into bankruptcy.

Interestingly, the report shows the current limitations of the 'IT revolution'. Only 5% of the world's population, according to the ILO, has ever logged on to the internet and nearly all the users live in the advanced capitalist countries. Far from being the world's 'great equaliser', the IT revolution is creating a massive digital divide between the 'haves' and 'have nots'.

The trickle-down school of thought also took a knock last year when the UN Human Development Report showed that the advent of world capitalism in the 19th century led to massive inequalities both within and between countries.

In 1820, Britain's wealth per person (in 1990 dollars) was $1,765, while that of poor China was $523. A ratio of roughly 3:1.

By 1992 in the US, the world's richest country, wealth per person (GDP per capita) was $21,558 while in Ethiopia, among the world's poorest countries, wealth per person was only $300. A ratio of 72:1.

And despite the previous claims of Chancellor Gordon Brown and Jubilee 2000 (the anti-world debt campaign), the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that administer the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative, have failed to reduce these countries' crushing debt burdens.

Of the 22 HIPCs who qualified for debt relief only one country - Uganda - has had its debt cancelled, even though most of the HIPCs debts are deemed 'unrecoverable'.

The amount the 22 continue to pay on debt servicing is over $2 billion a year. 16 of the 22 will still be spending more each year on debt than on health.

As jobs, infrastructure, health and social services are subject to the ruthless attacks of recession-hit capitalism, anti-globalisation actions by the world's working class and poor will increase. This internationalisation of the class struggle will also put the ideas and methods of socialism firmly on the agenda of the world's workers and poor.

The Philippines after Estrada

THE REMOVAL of the corrupt Philippines president Joseph Estrada, came in the wake of months' long mass street demonstrations and protests. It has been dubbed 'people's power II', named after the mass movement which ended the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies in 1986.

Replacing Estrada with Gloria Arroyo has allowed the capitalist class to breath a sigh of relief, as the prolonged political crisis meant economic instability. When the Manila stock exchange opened on Monday 22 January, share prices shot up.

The peso had sunk to a record low of 55 to the US dollar, the budget deficit spiralled to $2.5 billion as taxes were not collected and foreign investment slumped. Unemployment went back up to 14%, a level not experienced since the days of president Marcos's dictatorship. Growth in the economy slowed to around 2%.

The capitalist elite's choice for president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is not popular among the country's poor, many of whom still harbour illusions in the former film star Estrada.

Daughter of a previous president, and wife of a wealthy businessman and land-owner, Arroyo is an US-educated economist and firm advocate of the implementation of International Monetary Fund dictats. These include opening up the economy to foreign exploitation.

But the hopes of the capitalist class for a rosy future are marred by the prospect of a downturn in the world economy. The developing recession in the US will hit the Philippines hard.

THE PHILIPPINES working class - who have a proud tradition of fighting against political and economic exploitation - must resist giving support to Arroyo who is a political representative of the bosses.

During the 1998 election in which Estrada and Arroyo were elected along with the senators and congressmen, the working class had no chance to vote for workers' candidates arguing a socialist case.

Only people and parties with big money can stand and the left-wing Sanlakas organisation, for example, while it had candidates from the factory committees in Manila, gave strict instructions that no socialism should be talked about in the election campaign.

Since then, one or two new parties have emerged, which include the word socialist in their name. Such parties should be campaigning for new elections, to a new kind of assembly.

Such an assembly, in which workers' and poor people's elected representatives formed a majority, would begin to address the massive problems facing the Philippines' masses. They could mobilise for the taking into public ownership of the top 30 companies, the land and the banks and the operation of a plan of production and distribution under the democratic control of workers and poor people.

FOR NOW, the movement of the working class has been limited but this is only a temporary phenomenon.

To be victorious, workers and young people must put no trust in representatives of other classes. They must plan and execute independent class action that will bring results. They must forge a conscious leadership - a party - which can foresee what is going to happen and draw up a strategy, programme and tactics for winning the battle for socialism world-wide.

The example of 'People Power ll', in spite of all the limitations, will act as a spur and an inspiration in the rest of Asia to all those struggling to replace crony capitalism with genuine democratic socialist societies.

A full statement on events in the Philippines is available from the CWI Website www.socialistworld.net

The Socialist 2 February 2001	Strike to Stop Job Cuts
Strike to Stop Job Cuts	THE ANNOUNCEMENT by Corus to cut back at Ebbw Vale steelworks and the 'heavy' end of Llanwern steelworks with thousands of job losses, is expected as we go to press. This would be a devastating blow to the South Wales economy. Dave Reid, Socialist Party Wales
Back the Tube Workers	LONDON UNDERGROUND workers have voted overwhelmingly for strike action against privatisation of the tube (PPP). Strikes involving drivers, station staff, signal and maintenance workers will bring the system to a standstill on three consecutive Mondays 5, 12 and 19 February. Management have run to the courts to stop it.Bill Johnson, RMT member and London Underground worker
Mandelson: When flunkies fall out	All these parliamentary capitalist parties are seen as hypocrites. At the general election it's likely that more voters will refuse to vote, being turned off by the whole issue of Mandelson, sleaze etc and say a 'plague on all your houses'. Reports: Bribery, Bofors and the Hinduja brothers
Hackney: Solid strike against cuts threat	IN HACKNEY'S biggest strike movement in 20 years thousands of Hackney council workers staged a three-day strike this week in their battle to save jobs and services. Jim Horton "It's our livelihoods at stake" Socialist meeting success
Servants of big business	ANDREW RAWNSLEY'S book Servants of the People is an account of the inner workings of Blair and his cabal from the first day of the Labour government in May 1997 until the summer of 2000. JANE JAMES analyses what the book reveals in the light of Peter Mandelson's second resignation from the cabinet and the increasing reliance of New Labour on big business financial backers. The last time Mandelson resigned (Quote) "You were the weakest link -goodbye!" - Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist
Davos: The heights of capitalism	POLITICAL AND business leaders of world capitalism assembled last week for their annual get together - the World Economic Forum - in the mountain-top resort of Davos, Switzerland. Dave Carr
The Philippines after Estrada	THE REMOVAL of the corrupt Philippines president Joseph Estrada, came in the wake of months' long mass street demonstrations and protests. It has been dubbed 'people's power II', named after the mass movement which ended the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies in 1986.
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Strike to Stop Job Cuts

Corus Steel Closures