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Fighting For Decent Pay And Union Rights

HERE IN Cambridge an aggressively expanding global company notorious for regressive anti-union labour practices opened a new store in June.

Sarah Glynn

Since Borders' new Cambridge bookshop opened, SCALPP - Cambridge's Socialist Campaign Against Low Pay and Privatisation - has been there regularly. Borders wages, £5 an hour, aren't enough to live on in a place where bedsit flats start at £400 per month; and large stores set standards for others.

An official Borders training document, leaked on the internet, advises managers how to prevent unionisation of its staff. In Cambridge they've responded to our pickets according to the book by introducing a "staff forum" - a management controlled talking shop.

A more sinister weapon is the company-generated climate of fear that surfaces whenever union issues are mentioned. And yet, Borders workers need a union to represent them against a bullying management who even check the bags of every staff member whenever they leave the store - a practice which may well breach European human rights law.

Borders relies on employing young people who believe that they're only working there as a step on their real career. It encourages a 'family ethos' - in other words it treats its employees as not really grown-up.

Some buy into this but many others do not, and our leaflets are causing discreet discussion. Important issues are being aired both in the shop and among other low-paid workers on the street.

Local shop managers may not like us, as they increasingly make clear, but the work we're doing is important, and we won't go away.

If you want to know more about SCALPP or if you plan similar action at a Borders bookshop near you please e-mail us on: SCALPP@hotmail.com

 

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Unite And Fight Racism

'REVELATIONS' THAT over 1,000 asylum seekers are detained in prison provoked criticism from the UN, which labelled the practice as "shameful". The latest figures set imprisonment at 1,142 with another 688 in reception and detention centres.

Amrita Huggins

Until now it seems that the UN have turned a blind eye to New Labour's brutal policies towards those legally seeking refuge from torture, death threats and assassination attempts from repressive regimes .

Asylum seekers that aren't imprisoned are routinely displaced from family and friends as part of the 'redistribution programme' and housed elsewhere in the country in B&B accommodation or in run-down tower blocks on estates already hit with poverty, crime and unemployment.

Labour and the Tories alike try to blame refugees and asylum seekers for the chronic lack of affordable housing, real jobs and public services.

Yet areas like Sighthill, Glasgow where 22-year-old Firsat Yildiz was recently killed in a racist murder, had these problems long before asylum seekers arrived. Glasgow city council dumped most of its quota of asylum seekers into Sighthill flats which had lain unused for years because of their run-down state. The council is making money by housing asylum seekers in intolerable conditions with little or no support or protection.

In Liverpool around 600 are housed in tower blocks abandoned ten years ago as unfit for human habitation. The residents have since demonstrated against their living conditions and ten are on hunger strike against Landmark, the company responsible.

It's New Labour's cuts to the funding of the public sector and privatisation of council services and homes, transport, education facilities, hospitals etc that are causing the problems, not asylum seekers.

Labour and the mass media's hysteria about asylum seekers has given confidence to the far right. With Labour's anti-working class policies and cutbacks on one side and the fascists marching through our towns and cities spreading racism and homophobia on the other, it's time to organise and fight back.

The fascists have no answers to the miserable conditions of working-class people under capitalism; they use violence and racism to divide us.

We have to unite and oppose them wherever they are spreading their poison; we say: "no platform for Nazis!"

There's enough wealth in Britain to provide decent services and a living wage that means people don't have to struggle for survival. But that wealth is in the hands of a small elite.

A united struggle of all workers, black and white, could take over that wealth and redistribute it in a socialist plan of production to eliminate want, poverty and end racism once and for all.

Messages of support for the Landmark hunger strike to: landmark_hungerstrike@hotmail.com

Fax:0151 726 9515.

Phone 07801 554 918.

 

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Northern Ireland:

 Workers Must Challenge The Bigots

THIS SUMMER has seen further blows to what little remains of the Northern Ireland peace process. The latest is the arrest of three IRA members in Colombia where they were training members of the FARC guerrilla movement.

Peter Hadden, Northern Ireland

The IRA's return from their links with FARC is probably purely financial. But this hasn't stopped unionists - and others - from alleging an arms-running operation and possible IRA involvement in Colombia's drugs trade.

This will further reinforce unionist demands that actual decommissioning takes place before the Assembly and the Good Friday Agreement are put back in operation.

The earlier impasse in negotiations was no surprise. The unprecedented polarisation shown in the Westminster and local government elections left David Trimble with no room to manoeuvre over the weapons question.

The IRA and Sinn Fein leadership are firmly hitched to the political process and hope to win extra seats in the next election in southern Ireland and even enter a coalition government. They're prepared to move on the weapons issue and have conditioned their rank and file to the idea that so long as there is no actual handover of weapons some other form of decommissioning would be acceptable.

The agreement reached with the international decommissioning body on how weapons would be "put beyond use" was a major step for them. But for Trimble, given his precarious position nothing less than a start to actual decommissioning plus a timescale for completion is enough.

So negotiations ended in deadlock. And unless there's some dramatic move by the IRA, the next six-week deadline set for negotiations could also pass without agreement.

As always ordinary working class people pay for sectarian and right-wing politicians' failure. Many working-class people, especially those living near the sectarian interfaces, have faced a long summer of sectarian intimidation, petrol bombings, pipe bombings and shootings.

Sectarian tensions

Much of this activity in areas like north Belfast and across County Antrim has been orchestrated by the local battalions of the UDA who no longer have even the pretence of a ceasefire.

Most attacks are against Catholics but sectarian intimidation has not been all one way. Protestant homes have also been attacked and Protestant property burnt in some areas.

While sectarian tensions are high and people see no way out, there is still no mood to return to full-scale conflict. The UDA's return to sectarian killings - which most people hoped were a thing of the past - has provoked outrage.

At the start of July in Antrim, they shot a young Catholic waiting for a lift to work. His mainly Protestant workmates in the FG Wilson factory in Newtownabbey walked out when they heard the news. In Antrim Protestants and Catholics alike showed their revulsion.

A month later the UDA killers opened fire on young people who they took to be Catholics on the outskirts of North Belfast. A young Protestant, Gavin Brett, was killed.

The Socialist Party and Socialist Youth responded with a vigil at the scene of the murder. Our call for a day of action organised through trade union and community organisations was broadcast on local radio and got a huge response. One of Gavin Brett's relatives echoed this call. A local Sunday paper even included the idea in its editorial.

A peace process based on sectarian politics will go nowhere. But we're seeing what the alternative of escalating sectarian violence will mean.

We need an initiative to bring working-class people, Catholic and Protestant, onto the streets to challenge the bigots. A day of mass action by the working class could be the first step.

 

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TEN MONTHS after the eruption of the second Palestinian Intifada and half a year since Sharon's landslide election victory, the Israeli state is in the grip of a grave crisis, arguably the deepest in its 53 years of existence. ARIEL GOTTLIEB of Maavak Sozialisti (the Socialist Party's counterpart in Israel) explains why only a socialist solution is possible.

Israel's Grim Realities

THE COMBINED impact of Hamas' deadly suicide bombings (most recently in Jerusalem) and a severe economic recession, undermines the basic argument of Zionist ideology put forward by the Israeli ruling class: that for Jews, Israel is the safest place on the planet. This claim, pounded into the heads of Israeli Jews from kindergarten to army service and beyond, is now at odds with the grim realities of life.

A low-intensity war is already being waged in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but the general trend is escalation to a wider, all-out and regional war. Recently IDF (Israeli Defence Force) tanks and auxiliary forces have entered Jenin (after the suicide attack on Wall Street cafe in the northern town of Kiryat Motzkin, wounding 20).There has also been military actions around Bethlehem, as well as the now commonplace missile attacks on Palestinian headquarters and assassinations of suspected terrorists.

But, unlike previous wars, when economic issues and social tensions were pushed to the back of the national agenda, the current period is characterised by the ongoing presence of labour disputes and social protests.

Collapsing economy

THE ISRAELI economy has been in recession since 1997, with the exception of a short-lived hi-tech boom in 2000. The US downturn has hit the export-orientated IT sector, and coincided with the collapse in tourism and foreign investment following the Palestinian uprising.

Economic statistics for the second quarter are staggering: a 0.9% decline in GDP (national output), and a fall of 37.8% in exports, 27.4% in investments and 1.2% in living standards. The growth forecast for 2001 has been reduced to 0.5%, which means 2% negative growth in per capita terms.

Official treasury forecasts for 2002 still stand at 4% (based on no further escalation of the conflict and a rallying of the US and global economy), but Klein, chancellor of the Bank of Israel, has already declared these to be wide of the mark, setting his estimate at 2%, still negative measured per capita.

Between suicide bombings and IDF invasions of Palestinian Authority, unemployment figures open news broadcasts and make front-page headlines.

Official unemployment nears 10%, and is predicted to go over that rate before the year ends. 20,000 workers were laid off in July, with start-up companies and factories closing on a daily basis.

Many of the redundancies are in Arab, Druze and Bedouin towns and villages or in mixed cities, fuelling the already high levels of anger and frustration there. A Histadrut official in Acre, a mixed town where several plants have recently closed, warned of "a social Intifada which will make the Palestinian one pale by comparison".

In a recent survey, 34% said they were afraid of losing their jobs. A wide consensus exists on the perception that this government is doing absolutely nothing to tackle rising unemployment. In the words of David Tara, an unemployed worker kicked out of his flat after failing to pay the rent: "This government is only interested in itself and the rich. They don't get it, the Israeli state and society are simply crumbling".

But this government is doing something. Like its predecessors, it has declared war against the unemployed but not unemployment, cutting the duration of benefits and hardening the criteria for receiving them.

Labour and Welfare Minister Benizri topped it all when he shamelessly accused the unemployed of "dodging work".

A 4% budget cut across all government ministries (except for defence) is already being implemented. Even MK Amir Peretz, [Member of Knesset, the Israeli Parliament] Histadrut chairman and leader of the small One People workers' party, used to making deals with top politicians and capitalists, was forced by mounting pressure from below to issue an ultimatum saying that unless "significant changes" are made in next year's budget, his party will leave the coalition.

Falling support

OPINION POLLS from the last weekend show that Sharon's seemingly impervious popularity has weakened. Only 49% are now satisfied with the prime minister's overall performance (down from 59% on the previous poll), while 42% were dissatisfied (up from 31%).

When asked about his performance on security issues, 38% were satisfied (down from 50%), and 53% dissatisfied (up from 41%). When asked whether they believed Sharon would bring terror and violence to an end, only 21% answered "yes" (down from 43%), while 70% answered "no" (up from 41%).

In certain sections of the Israeli population, people are voting with their feet. Several isolated Jewish settlements in the northern part of the West Bank, previously housing tens of families each, have now become virtually deserted.

Middle-class families that can afford it are buying flats in Europe, not for investment purposes but as a possible refuge if the situation does not improve.

Another poll conducted for Channel 2 TV station found 25% of Israelis would emigrate if they could. A similar process is taking place in Palestinian society, where unemployment stands around 50%, poverty is devastating and freedom of movement for ordinary people non-existent.

Wealthy traders and members of Arafat's corrupt ruling clique are preparing their houses abroad to receive their families and accumulated property, while youths from the refugee camps with nothing to lose are increasingly willing to exchange a life in hell for the 'glory of martyrdom' (with the honour and financial aid this will bring their families).

Fat'hi Natur, manager of Jenin's local TV station, considers emigrating to Australia: "This is not life. Those who commit suicide don't do it for nothing. With all due respect to paradise and shahids (martyrs), anyone going to blow himself up has already blown up inside. If there were jobs, freedom, food, people would not even think of suicide. Everything has collapsed, everything is crashing."

Among the confusion and despair of military or diplomatic solutions, the idea of unilateral separation raised by sections of the ruling class has been gaining support amongst some Israelis. This means dismantling some of the most isolated Jewish settlements and at the same time annexing the bigger settlement blocks and the area around them, possibly deporting Palestinian residents in the process.

The aim of these steps will be to establish defensible borders on ethnic lines for Israel, and then putting up high walls and fences to ensure separation. If implemented, this plan would provoke massive resistance and a wider conflagration would quickly follow.

Socialist solution

BUT AN opening also exists for socialist ideas and Maavak Sozialisti - the CWI section in Israel - is trying to take advantage of the opportunities that still exist, campaigning on the social and economic issues but also linking them to a class analysis of the national question, showing how the ruling classes on both sides are incapable of providing personal security, decent living standards and democratic rights.

For Israeli, as well as Palestinian workers and youth, the only hope lies in overthrowing their respective capitalist class and in the process of building socialist states working out the problems of refugees, boundaries and water rights in their common interests.

We are determined to build the socialist forces that will provide the only real alternative to the vicious circle of poverty, oppression and wars.

Website: www.maavak.org.il

Future issues of The Socialist will examine the strategy of the Intifada and explain why socialists oppose the tactics of suicide bombings.

 

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NEARLY TWO months ago, Mick O'Reilly, the regional secretary of the Amalgamated and General Workers Union (ATGWU) and its Belfast organiser, Eugene McGlone were suspended by Bill Morris, the general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU) in Britain. DERMOT CONNOLLY reports from Ireland on these developments in ATGWU, which has 50,000 members in Ireland, and is a region of the British union.

 

Irish Union's Democracy Under Attack

MICK O'REILLY and Eugene McGlone were called into a side room and handed letters at a union meeting in Belfast, which told them they were being put on "precautionary" suspension, while an investigation into unspecified allegations against them took place. There is no precedent in the union's history, or rules which allows such action by Morris.

They were told to leave the building immediately and not to talk to other officials, staff or the media. They are effectively banned from any union activity or defending themselves against media speculation.

They have still not been informed of the charges against them. A 240-page document has absolutely nothing to back up the charge of poor management and gross misbehaviour. Some charges are ludicrous.

There is the story of the "sexy mug", seized on by the Evening Herald. This concerned a tea cup bought for Eugene McClone, which apparently had a woman on it who stripped when hot water was poured in.

This was never taken out of its box. When a female member of staff objected to it McGlone removed it and apologised to any staff member who found it offensive.

The two are in reality facing trumped-up charges raised by a right-wing clique in the union linked to Morris who oppose Mick O'Reilly's appointment as regional secretary after winning the vote on the TGWU's national executive against Morris's wishes.

Union barons

ANOTHER ISSUE is that of ILDA, the locomotive rail drivers union, who broke with SIPTU and NBRU unions in Ireland. The ATGWU took 118 of these into the union earlier this year.

The SIPTU position and that of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU), was that these workers had to be forced back into SIPTU and the NBRU, to serve as a warning to other dissatisfied union members considering breaking with the union establishment.

Right-wing trade union leaders in Southern Ireland know there is massive anger at their policy of partnership and the lack of democracy and control over the unions by the membership. If they allow one group of workers to strike out in a new and militant direction, partnership and their control would be greatly undermined.

SIPTU made the unbelievable claim that 62 of the ILDA workers were SIPTU members in arrears, even though these workers left SIPTU two years ago. This claim was unsurprisingly agreed by ICTU.

This reduces union members to the position of serfs, who belong to one union baron or another and makes a mockery of workers' right to have representation of their own choice in the workplace.

Socialists support the idea of the closed shop, where if a majority of workers are unionised then all workers have to be in a union - preferably the same one. If there are different unions, the way to achieve unity is through joint shop stewards committees and joint mass meetings of the workforce to take decisions.

These basic ideas, developed over years of struggle, aimed to stop scab labour being employed and have the strongest possible position for struggling with the company.

These principles are now being turned on their head by right-wing leaders who bureaucratically police the unions on behalf of and in collusion with bosses and the state.

A struggle has now opened up between left activists and the right in the ATGWU. A meeting of the Dublin District Committee and shop stewards called for reinstatement of the suspended officials and an emergency regional committee meeting.

The chairman of the regional committee called this meeting but was overruled by the official who Morris had sent in to run the union. The boardroom in the union office was locked on the day of the meeting.

A campaign amongst the trade union movement, North and South, explaining the real issues involved - an attempt to crush all opposition to bureaucratic rule - would receive massive support.

The ATGWU left, including Mick O'Reilly and Eugene McGlone, must come out fighting now and immediately organise a series of public meetings, open to all workers, with Mick O'Reilly speaking. A move which is now being discussed by ATGWU activists.

 

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Police Mobilise To Protect Fascist 'Festival'

THE REAL role of the capitalist state apparatus was exposed in Mid Wales on Saturday 11 August, when hundreds of riot police from Merseyside and West Mercia joined local police from Dyfed-Powys to protect the BNP. Their weekend 'Red, White and Blue festival' was held at a campsite by Welshpool, near to the Llanerfyl farm of BNP leader Nick Griffin.

Alec Thraves

The massive police presence prevented around 150 anti-fascist demonstrators from getting anywhere near the BNP campsite. Our coach from Swansea was stopped ten miles from Welshpool and taken into a car park surrounded by dozens of police.

Each demonstrator was taken off the coach individually then searched and questioned. At one stage there were a dozen police officers with sniffer dogs searching every inch of the coach.

After an hour we were escorted to Welshpool with police on the coach and police vans at the front and rear. We joined a small demonstration of around 150 anti-fascists who were penned into a small green by mounted police with van loads of riot police on stand by.

It is apparent that the state are perfecting their police control tactics to use against protesters in the future. This is a lesson for all demonstrators, including trade unionists who will be subjected to similar tactics.

One demonstrator was restricted under section 14 from attending or organising any events other than the police-controlled protest in Welshpool; Section 14 was introduced as part of the 1986 Public Order act in the wake of the miners' strike. Mass mobilisation and intimidation by the police can only be counteracted by the mass mobilisation and organisation of the working class.

The police can easily stop a couple of coaches and harass a few hundred protesters but they can be made impotent by thousands of demonstrators determined to stop the fascists spreading their poison.

This was supposed to have been a national mobilisation of anti-fascists to stop the BNP camp going ahead. Julie Waterson, from the ANL, who had herself been locked up for 14 hours, claimed the demo was a victory for the anti-fascists at the rally.

Although there was a layer of people present who were not part of an organisation and were interested in becoming involved in the YRE, many demonstrators were disappointed with the turnout and frustrated that we were forced to remain 15 miles from the BNP camp and not even able to march through Welshpool.

The next time the BNP hold a national event the organisation of any protest should be co-ordinated through all the anti-fascist/anti-racist groups along with socialist organisations, political parties, trade unions and other groups to ensure a mass turnout that cannot be stopped by the police.

Nick Griffin claimed 500 attended the BNP camp and mocked the poor turnout from the anti-fascists. In reality there were at most 150 wet and despondent BNP campers. Despite the protest's isolation we pressurised the police into turning around 100 fascists away from the festival because they did not have the required passes.

The anti-fascists received a tremendous welcome and response from local people; we can build on this to ensure that in the future Griffin and his fascists have no welcome in the hillsides of Mid Wales.

 

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Reinstate Noah Tucker

Hackney UNISON vote for strike ballot

"AN ATTACK on one of us is an attack on all of us." With these words branch secretary John Page expressed the anger of the vast majority of the 250 members attending the Hackney UNISON branch meeting on 16 August following the sacking of Noah Tucker.

By a Hackney UNISON member

Brian Debus and Richard Brunner were reinstated after being suspended a week earlier but the dismissal of Noah is clearly another attempt to break the strength of the union, and to create a climate of fear among UNISON activists and members. Noah is an active shop steward and was chief negotiator during the dispute between UNISON and Hackney council management.

The branch committee proposed a ballot for industrial strike action and to demand Noah Tucker's reinstatement.

No one questioned the proposal, the vote was unanimous and greeted with cheers. This is even more significant as the struggle in Hackney has occurred under more difficult conditions recently.

This is because the leadership of the GMB and the TGWU unions have decided to accept a deal with major setbacks in terms and conditions thus dividing the workforce. Another factor is the UNISON regional office's attitude, which has attempted to pressurise Hackney UNISON to discontinue action against the new terms and conditions. This has led to growing anger among members about the role of the regional office and of the national UNISON leadership.

Regional officer Eddy Coulson's attempt to convince the mass meeting to return "to negotiating with management" was received with shaking heads and disbelief. A Social Services shop steward expressed most workers' view: "You are asking us to go back to negotiating. But how can we negotiate with a management which sacks our chief negotiator?"

Hackney UNISON members are even more critical of the regional office now that in the midst of the dispute the regional office has made unspecified allegations against the present Hackney union leadership.

Despite the union's auditors having recently expressed confidence in the accounts, the office is now launching an investigation into the branch finances. In contrast, last year the regional office refused to look into the accounts of the previous branch leadership, even though £ 20,000 had gone missing.

A unanimous motion was passed expressing confidence in the elected branch secretary and calling for the issue to be raised at the next regional conference.

Clearly the national UNISON leadership is not happy and does not agree with the decisive stand and industrial strike action. of Hackney UNISON against the cuts.

At the last two Hackney branch meetings, members have expressed strong dissatisfaction with national UNISON. Several speakers explained that once the management in Hackney is successful with carrying through cuts, the same will happen in other councils.

There is a strong feeling among Hackney UNISON members that the national union should organise a joint campaign against cuts and privatisation throughout Britain, rather than leaving each branch to fight on its own.

Hackney Socialist Party is fully backing UNISON's struggle to reinstate Noah Tucker.

• Fax protests to Max Caller on 020 8356 3009
• Letters of support to: Hackney UNISON, Netil House, 1-7 Westgate Street, London E8 3RL. Tel 020 8985 7134 x 4071. Fax: 020 8985 6749. Petitions and leaflets are also available from the UNISON branch.

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