Campaign for a New Workers' Party

Giving workers a voice

BLAIR RECEIVED a standing ovation from all the establishment parties after his leaving speech in parliament. As Jonathan Freedland pointed out in the guardian: "If the Tories had clapped Margaret Thatcher in 1990, which they did not, Labour MPs would have sawn off their own hands rather than join in."

But much has changed since Thatcher left office; New Labour is now an unrepentant party of big business. Blair saw himself as continuing in Thatcher's footsteps and now Gordon Brown and Tory leader David Cameron will argue over who can best continue in Blair's.

On public services, on the NHS, on driving down workers' pay and conditions, you would be pushed to get a cigarette paper between New Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat policies! More and more workers ask, if the establishment have three different parties representing their interests isn't it time that we have one of our own?

Almost 3,000 people have drawn the conscious political conclusion that a new mass party that represents working peoples' interests is necessary and have signed up to the Campaign for a New Workers' Party (CNWP). This is just the tip of the iceberg of those who will support it if approached.

On 7 July, shop stewards from across the trade union movement will take part in the National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) founding conference. Supporters of the CNWP have been building for this important day and will be attending the conference.

The campaign for independent working-class political representation and the struggle to build a national network of militant shop stewards are two key elements of the same basic struggle, to give workers a voice and the confidence to fight.

CNWP supporters are organising a meeting, immediately after the NSSN conference, to discuss how the two struggles can come together and how we can fight for a mass political voice for working-class people to stand up against cuts, closures and privatisation.

If you're at the Shop Stewards Network conference, this is a discussion that you shouldn't miss out on.

Greg Maughan