The Socialist 10 June 2009

Step up the fight for a new workers’ party

Step up the fight for a new workers' party

A socialist MEP Joe Higgins elected in Ireland

'The best fighter that money can't buy'

STOP PRESS: BNP feel the anger

Youth Fight against Racism

No2EU: a step towards a workers' political voice

Reinstate Rob Williams now! Support Linamar strikers

London Underground: Solidarity with strike over jobs and pay

Glasgow council street cleaners start workers' fightback

Bristol bins strike threat brings new conditions offer

Unison NEC elections bring gains for Socialist Party

Another DWP minister resigns

Engineering construction workers ballot: End 'race to the bottom'

Come to NSSN conference

News in brief

The Masses Arise: The French revolution and today's struggles

European parliament elections 2009: Europe on the edge

General strike in Basque country

Brazil: "Liberty, Socialism and Revolution" is born

CWU conference backs Youth Fight for Jobs campaign

No to cuts at Kings

Liverpool Community College strike

Previous issues, etc

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STOP PRESS: ROB HAS BEEN REINSTATED!

Reinstate Rob Williams now! Support Linamar strikers

WORKERS AT the Linamar car components plant in Swansea are taking indefinite strike action from Thursday 11 June to get their sacked Unite trade union convenor, Rob Williams, a long-standing Socialist Party member, reinstated.

Alec Thraves, Socialist Party secretary, Wales

There was overwhelming support for official industrial action by shop floor workers who recognise that if this anti-union Linamar corporation gets away with sacking their convenor, then their wages, terms and conditions will be quickly under threat.

This dispute is about defending an elected trade union representative who has been sacked because he is prepared to stand up to a bullying management who think they can just trample over workers' rights.

That is why there is solid support from trade unionists in Swansea, across the country and even internationally. If an anti-union, tin pot company like Linamar succeeds in sacking a leading shop steward in the biggest trade union in Britain, then which convenor or shop steward will be next for the chopping block? Who will want to take on the job of a union rep if the reward for doing an effective job is the sack?

That is why this fight is not just about getting Rob Williams reinstated but it's also about defending basic trade union rights. Who decides which convenor will represent their members? The company or the union?

After 12 years of a Labour government, Thatcher's anti-trade union laws have still not been repealed, making effective solidarity action illegal. If necessary, our trade union leaders should defy these laws to ensure a victory for the Linamar strikers and the reinstatement of their convenor.

We should add even more misery to a beleaguered Gordon Brown and say to him that if Rob is not reinstated then there should be no more donations to Labour to add to the £13 million that Unite has donated since Brown became leader.

Trade unions should disaffiliate from the Labour Party and use their political funds for something more productive than just buying 'bullets' for a Labour government to shoot our members with. We need a new mass workers' party to represent the millions of working-class people betrayed and disgusted by corrupt, out-of-touch politicians.

We need representatives with the integrity and working-class loyalty of individuals like Rob Williams, who can't be bought off by the bosses and is facing the sack because he defends his members.

If you support Rob in his struggle to get reinstated, if you want trade union representatives and political representatives who will never sell you out, then join the same party as Rob Williams - join the Socialist Party today.

Help us build a socialist alternative to this rotten capitalist system which allows companies like Linamar to walk over workers' rights!

See Rob Williams reinstatement a victory for all workers for update

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