"I
WAS treated like a slave.""I
WAS treated like a slave."
These words from one of the sacked Gate Gourmet workers at Heathrow Airport sum up the brutal way these bosses treat their workers.
These employers have the nerve to run to courts to complain about 'harassment'. Yet they are prepared to treat their workers in the cruel way that they have by cynically provoking action, effectively holding the workers hostage then sacking workers within minutes for not being prepared to accept far worse wages and conditions.
Gate Gourmet management even sent dismissal letters to workers on sick leave, maternity leave and holiday. People are incensed by the actions of this union-busting company.
But the British Airways (BA) workers who came out on strike in support of these sacked workers showed the best way to respond to these attacks with their marvellous act of solidarity. Workers around Britain and internationally were inspired when they saw the solidarity action of the BA workers.
In part this action stems from Gate Gourmet being linked to British Airways with many of the workers formerly employed by BA. But it also comes from a realisation that BA are planning more attacks on workers' wages and conditions. This was underlined by the takeover as Chief Executive by arch union-buster Willie Walsh, who was responsible for decimating the Aer Lingus workforce.
Already, over the last few years BA have been taking on workers at lower rates of pay than existing workers.
Gate
Gourmet's management bleat that they may have to go into administration
because of the losses they are sustaining.
But Gate Gourmet is owned by Texas Pacific, a company that specialises in buying up companies and downsizing them by vicious union-busting.
This is a company which has assets of $15 billion and whose boss, David Bonderman, has a personal fortune of $6 billion. Three years ago he spent $10 million (about the same amount they'd make each year by sacking the Gate Gourmet workers) on a birthday party which included bringing over the Rolling Stones.
This battle is vital not just for Gate Gourmet workers but for workers around Heathrow and beyond. The dispute can be won, if real leadership is given and the enormous strength of the Transport and General Workers union (TGWU) is used to the full.
This union has 30,000 members in Heathrow and amongst the airports suppliers. It should give a clear warning to Gate Gourmet and BA that if the workers are not re-instated immediately then the union will call upon its members in the airport to take strike action and should prepare the workers by calling mass meetings.
What we think
THE
BATTLE for the re-instatement of the 800 sacked Gate Gourmet workers is
proving to be a defining moment in the class struggle in Britain.
The events around and leading up to the sackings on 10 August have revealed in the most brutal way how far the bosses went to get their way. Arrogantly assuming that the workers would be left in isolation after they sacked them, they prepared their ground for many months to provoke the workers into action.
Their cold-hearted calculation was that sackings for taking "illegal action" could save themselves millions in redundancy payments and pensions contributions.
Gate Gourmet's British operation is but one-fifth of the total worldwide workforce of 21,400 for this US-owned company. The same company was already engaged in anti-union strike-breaking activities in the USA and Germany. Its billionaire owner David Bonderman engaged a team of lawyers and managers to implement the "plan" to sack the workers as revealed by the Daily Mirror "exclusive" on 15 August.
But the "secondary solidarity" action by baggage handlers and other Heathrow workers took them and British Airways by surprise. This was almost completely new in the elements making up modern industrial relations in Britain, not seen since the 1980s at the time of the miners' strikes.
The Heathrow workers' action was not only "illegal" because they didn't ballot beforehand but also "illegal" because the present anti-union laws say workers in one company cannot go on strike for workers in another company.
British Airways (BA) 'privatised' Gate Gourmet in 1997 when it divested itself of the company to concentrate on its "core business". This ill-concealed attempt to divide worker from worker used both Tory and New Labour anti-union laws.
But BA still had control over Gate Gourmet as its main supplier for airline meals. The ultimate responsibility for all that happened lies with BA boss Rod Eddington. BA has consistently squeezed Gate Gourmet over the years to reduce its costs by reducing the cash given to Gate Gourmet for the contract to supply meals.
This is common practice whether in a hospital that puts out cleaning to the lowest bidder or anywhere else that the scourge of privatisation is happening.
This is not to let the freebooters of Gate Gourmet's owners, Texas Pacific, off the hook - they were willing participants and tried to pass on the 'squeeze' to their own workers by means of job and wage cuts.
The division between supplier and user companies in the world of capitalism is gossamer thin. The banks and big monopolies are inextricably linked to the world of Texas Pacific. The bosses carry out many tricks and deals to protect their own incomes and profits.
Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU), has come across on TV and radio as intent on winning the battle for his sacked members. He warned BA that if they try to victimise any TGWU member in Heathrow for their role in the 11 August solidarity action then the TGWU "could ballot all its 19,500 members at Heathrow." (Observer 21 August).
He also said on 22 August that "the repercussions on BA and indeed people using BA, particularly their Indian travellers and their flights to India will be severely affected if they (Gate Gourmet) don't do the right thing" and re-instate the sacked workers. But more than good intentions are needed to win this battle.
THE
HIGH Court's scandalous judgment that the pickets aren't even allowed to
speak to the scabs that try and cross the picket lines is not a
"victory for the union" as Brendan Gold, the TGWU's national
aviation officer declared, but another infringement of basic working
class democratic rights.
Even under the existing stringent laws it was supposed to be entirely legitimate for pickets to try to persuade others from crossing their picket line, now at one fell swoop this judge has changed all that.
Possibly even worse is that the judge also rules that the TGWU is "accountable" for any 'illegal action' taken by workers the company dismissed two weeks ago. The union is expected to challenge the ruling in a further High Court hearing.
The law and the courts are completely on the side of the bosses almost every time they are invoked in an industrial dispute. To rely on them for anything else is to throw sand in the eyes of the working class.
Brendan Gold welcomed the judgment saying that "most" of the workers involved were acting legally and this judgment backed them up. What does this mean other than that the union won't support any more 'illegal' solidarity action?
To talk of 'legality' when a bunch of cowboy managers sack workers by loudspeaker at three minutes' notice would be laughable if it wasn't so tragic.
The union leaders should learn the lesson that mass action, legal or otherwise, is what counts. The bosses will hesitate to use the law against the union if they mobilise their members in Heathrow in solidarity with the sacked Gate Gourmet workers.
If
the bosses do go for sequestration, the call must be made for wider
action by the trade union movement as a whole, if necessary of a general
strike character.
Too often in this and other unofficial strikes the union leaders have "repudiated" the actions of the baggage handlers and others when they should congratulate them and call for more action.
Heathrow is one of Britain's strongest trade union-organised workplaces. The TGWU has thousands more members across the hinterland of suppliers and services around the airport. Those are the workers whom the union should rely on to win this battle; anything less is an abdication of leadership.
By winning the reinstatement of the sacked 800, the TGWU and the workers will win a famous victory against the onslaught on workers' rights, jobs and conditions.
THE RECENT leaked report on the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes clearly shows what many local activists already suspected, that this was the murder of an innocent Brazilian man. The campaign for justice has called for Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair to resign, no more cover-ups and a public inquiry now.
It was clear from the outset that the police intended to muddy the water to cover their blunder. They have been helped by the jingoism of the tabloid press, with one paper using the headline "got one," after the shooting.
Stop the War Coalition Demonstration24 September 2005Assemble 1pm Central London |
But of course Jean Charles wasn't "one" and did nothing suspicious to be seen as "one". Contrary to earlier reports, he wasn't wearing a heavy jacket which may have hidden a bomb. He travelled on two buses, was being tracked all this time and could have been stopped if surveillance police thought he was dangerous.
The story that he jumped a barrier is untrue. He picked up a newspaper and calmly walked to his train, only running when rushing to catch his train, something all Londoners do. It then seems he sat down.
All he did to arouse suspicion was to leave a block of flats that police suspected a bomber might be in and to have similar eyes to a bomb suspect! This shows the reality of the repressive anti-terror laws that Charles Clarke was so pleased to defend just hours before the latest leak.
Lambeth Socialist Party has produced thousands of local bulletins in English and Portuguese and campaigned on the issues amongst Portuguese, South American and other local working-class communities. This led to a high turnout at our public meeting on the shooting and the political situation in Latin America.
Tony Saunois from the Committee for a Workers' International reported on the protest in Brazil against the shooting and explained that Jean Charles was one of many who left his homeland in search of a better living due to the neo-liberal attacks taking place in South America.
The meeting reaffirmed our branch's commitment to justice for Jean Charles de Menezes and for fighting for working-class unity across south London's many communities. As there is a clear link between the killing of Jean Charles and the war in Iraq, we are pushing for a strong feeder march to pass Stockwell station, go through Lambeth estates and then join the national Stop the War Coalition demonstration on 24 September.
For more information on the family campaign go to www.Lambethsocialistparty.org.uk or contact the campaign direct at [email protected]
A 600-strong protest was held on 22 August near 10 Downing Street demanding justice for the family of Brazilian worker Jean Charles de Menezes who was mercilessly gunned down by police in Stockwell tube station.
The cousin of Jean Charles, handed in a letter to the Prime Minister calling for a public enquiry into the shooting.
The protest was attended by other families of victims who were killed in police custody, such as the family of Paul Coker who dies in Plumstead police station only hours after being arrested on 6 August.
The protestv turned into a lively impromptu demo from Downing Street to Scotland Yard, despite police attempts to stop it. (The police said that to march without their prior permission was illegal.)
The marchers passed through the Westminister zone where a law passed on 1 August made spontaneous protests in the Westminster zone illegal.
The demonstration finished 50 metres short of Scotland Yard where further passionate speeches were made, calling for Ian Blair to resign and that there would not be peace without justice.
THE POLICE shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in Stockwell tube station tragically showed why the 'shoot-to-kill' policy must go.
Many Brazilians in Britain have been shocked that the killing of Jean Charles could be committed by the British police who they had seen in a good light compared to the Brazilian state forces.
And this is not the first suspicious death at the hands of the police in Lambeth; there have been at least 16 in recent years. The cases of Derek Bennett, Wayne Douglas, Ricky Bishop and Brain Douglas are still remembered.
Hours after Jean Charles was shot, police raided the flat of Girma Belay, an Ethiopian refugee, who was then beaten, stripped naked and held under arrest for six days. He may have been targeted for being a protester against Tony Blair's relationship with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Actions like these have increased the tense atmosphere on some estates in Lambeth, which endure police shootings, raids, harassment and regular bomb alerts.
It is almost 20 years to the day that rioting erupted on the streets of Brixton following the police shooting of Cherry Groce and killing of Cynthia Jarrett. These cases and that of Jean Charles raise questions not only about the role of the police but also on who controls them.
The IPCC, set up after worries about the police investigating themselves, should have started their investigation into the Stockwell tube shooting immediately, but were prevented from doing so by police chief Ian Blair's delaying tactics. Many important days were lost, leading to further speculation of a cover-up.
The police have clearly lied from the start and continue to hamper the investigation. Lambeth Socialist Party has been calling for a genuine public inquiry so all information can be scrutinised. We believe this should be led and controlled by the local community, involving trade unions and community groups.
There should be democratic accountability of the police. Leading police should be elected by the public and decisions such as 'shoot-to-kill' should not be a secret.
There is fear amongst Londoners following the bomb attacks but increased repressive powers will not prevent further terrorist attacks and can eventually be targeted at anyone opposing the British state.
It is essential that an alternative is posed to both the British state's increasingly repressive powers and to terrorism.
The mess that US imperialism has created in Iraq, the fear and anger Londoners have after the bombs and the social conditions of low pay and cuts, including attacks on emergency services, need to be linked up.
Lambeth Socialist party has vigorously campaigned for a local demonstration to unite the working class in our area on this basis, to build the pressure for justice for Jean Charles, but also to fight for social rights and a genuine future for all on the basis of socialism. The local and national trade union movement needs to act to build unity and a vigorous fight-back for the whole working class.
"WE ARE locked into a bogged down problem not dissimilar to where we were in Vietnam," lamented Republican Senator Chuck Hagel after US general Peter Schoomaker admitted that 100,000 troops would be needed in Iraq for another four years.
The growing Iraqi insurgency and rising US body count, the impasse in drafting a written constitution, the widespread corruption, etc, has resulted in a continued fall-off of support for George Bush's Iraq policy.
Stop the War Coalition Demonstration24 September 2005Assemble 1pm Central London |
Now, over 50% of Americans believe the Iraq war was a mistake. US domestic opposition to the occupation has been focused by the protest outside George Bush's Texas ranch by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a US serviceman killed in Iraq.
Consequently, the Bush administration is keen to get a new Iraq constitution agreed and voted on by the 15 October deadline. However, the ethnic and sectarian divisions between the leaders of the three main population groups of Shias, Sunnis and Kurds is proving impossible to bridge.
Having extended the deadline for agreeing a draft constitution, arguments over Islamic rule, federalism and sharing oil revenues, continue to dog Iraq's opportunist politicians. A no vote in only three of Iraq's 18 provinces in October's proposed referendum would effectively kill the constitution. The Sunnis, who overwhelmingly boycotted elections to the interim government, are opposed to a federal constitution which would see them lose out on political power and oil revenues.
Moreover, the Kurdish leaders in the north will not relinquish the autonomous region they rule over. The imposition of Islamic law wanted by Shia clerics is also anathema to the more secular Kurds.
Now, increasingly, Shias are talking of their own separate region in the south of the country. A political fudge will only delay inevitable splits, with the US-led coalition forces fearing a slide into a deeper civil war.
However, the new Iraqi army, the bedrock of a new Iraqi state, is already organised along sectarian lines with exclusively Shia or Kurdish units.
As the socialist predicted, the imperialist ambitions of the US and its UK junior coalition partner in 'reconquering' the Middle East have foundered in Iraq. The idea that 'regime change' would provide the US with a platform for exerting its power in the region and at the same time secure cheap, long-term oil supplies has been dashed. It is now mired in an unwinnable war and lacks a viable exit strategy.
For the time being, in the absence of a mass socialist movement to provide a working-class opposition to imperialism, the Iraqi resistance is largely a disparate mix of Sunni insurgents and Islamic jihadist groups.
But the potential to build a non-sectarian, united working-class opposition exists in the emerging trade unions and in the workplaces, where strikes and protests have already been organised against the occupying powers and the stooge Iraqi government.
The Israeli government has now demolished all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip, with four more in the West Bank to follow. This is the first time that Israel has removed settlements in Palestinian territory seized in the 1967 war.
The forced evacuations have not been without protests and violence, including the killing of eight Palestinians by two far-right Jewish settlers. But with Israeli public opinion overwhelmingly in favour of the disengagement and with the strength of the Israeli army, the Gaza withdrawal has been implemented.
There are predictions of greater resistance to come, in two of the West Bank settlements that are to be removed, but the army has the power to evacuate these too.
Street celebrations have begun in the poverty stricken Palestinian refugee camps of Gaza and a larger 'liberation' festival is planned. Internationally, illusions in the prospects now for 'peace' in the region have been fuelled by comments such as those of James Wolfensohn, an envoy from the international 'quartet' (the US, EU, UN and Russia). He called the pullout "a strategic moment that has all the elements of a future settlement" and added: "They are addressing all the issues they would need to address in a final settlement". These remarks are far from the truth.
In the Palestinian territories, the disengagement is viewed as a welcome product of the Palestinian intifada (uprising), but there is rightly scepticism on what benefits it will bring.
The entire Gaza strip with its 1.3 million inhabitants is still fenced off like a huge prison, with the Israeli army able to re-enter at any time. Despite several months of negotiation, the Israeli regime has not yet agreed to cede any control over Gaza's borders, throwing into question whether there will be any freedom of trade and movement of people, including travel between Gaza and the West Bank. Faced with this, Palestinians recognise that colonisation of Gaza may have ended, but a 'de facto' occupation still exists.
For Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, disengagement has always been a unilateral step designed partly to forestall any pressure towards a 'peace' settlement. His senior advisor, Dov Weiglass, made this clear last October when he said: "The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process. And when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state and you prevent discussion on the refugee issue.. there will not be a negotiation process with the Palestinians."
However, the root causes of Sharon's decision were the continuing inability of the Israeli army to quell the intifada, to end the economic and security consequences for Israel that go with it, and also the future demographic situation in the area. The Israeli ruling class can see that without separation from the Palestinian territories, there will eventually be a Palestinian majority in the area they control between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean sea.
Sharon wants to fence off the Palestinian territories into enclaves, a strategy that has meant resorting to the dismantling of Jewish settlements which were hard to defend. Although these abandoned settlements are a small minority of the total, they were set up in period when the Israeli capitalist class had aspirations for a greater Israel encompassing all the land in the Palestinian Authority (PA) areas, and therefore represent a significant reversal of that aim.
However, only 8,000 Jewish settlers have been moved, less than 2% of the 440,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. And Sharon intends to continue to expand the settlements nearest to Israel. While Palestinians face house demolitions, construction of Jewish homes in the West Bank rose 83% in the first quarter of 2005 compared with the same period a year before.
In particular, 3,500 houses are planned on the edge of the settlement of Maale Adumim, three miles east of Jerusalem, with the idea of filling the gap between the settlement and the Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem. Also, while attention has focused on Gaza, the building of the separation wall has continued deep inside the West Bank, causing destruction of Palestinians' livelihoods and cutting off 55,000 Jerusalem Palestinians from their own city.
International aid and investment have been promised to Gaza after the Israeli pull-out, but for this to fully materialise and be of use, Gazans need trade access to the outside world which the Israeli regime is presently resisting, and the overall situation would need to be stable.
Even if these conditions were met, the Palestinian masses have their own aspiring capitalist elite, with a history of corruption and nepotism, so would not see much benefit themselves from aid.
However, the internal situation in the Gaza strip is presently very unstable, with infighting between gangs and militias. A major flare-up of violence in July was triggered by events following an Islamic Jihad suicide bombing in Israel on 12 July. PA police fired on a car carrying Hamas militiamen, wounding five, which then led to armed clashes between Hamas and PA police. "Relations between Hamas and the PA have not been this fraught in years", said Ghazi Hamad, editor of the Islamist newspaper al-Risala.
The right-wing Islamic party, Hamas, made major gains in local elections earlier this year, and stands to win similar or maybe greater support in legislative elections planned for January 2006. President Mahmood Abbas postponed these elections from July 2005, fearing increased disillusionment towards the PA's ruling Fatah party, and Hamas gaining as a result.
Fatah leaders are therefore hoping that the aftermath of the Israeli disengagement will increase their popularity, but given all the above factors, the opposite is more likely.
The disengagement will also have major consequences for Israel's political parties, with the ruling Likud-led right-wing coalition already in turmoil. Benjamin Netanyahu resigned his post as Foreign Minister in order to prepare to oppose Sharon for the Likud leadership, and presently has a 20% lead over Sharon within the party.
However, Netanyahu is not so admired in the population as a whole, as he has recently spearheaded further cuts in welfare and social services and the biggest privatisation drive since the late 1990s, including Israel Telecom and parts of the national airline, a bank and a shipping company.
For now, Sharon is resting on the majority support for his disengagement plan; 59% in a recent poll backed the pullout and 89% said the security forces had handled it well. But he has alienated right-wing religious settlers and their supporters who, rather than taking his right-wing pragmatic position, believe that Jews have a divine right to the occupied territories.
Sharon may well fail to hold out until the November 2006 deadline for elections, and in any case could be forced to try to cobble together a new bloc without the most right-wing parties and possibly without a section of Likud.
For Israeli workers, none of the Israeli capitalist politicians can offer a decent future. The disengagement plan will not bring national and democratic rights and improved living standards to the Palestinians, so will not end the national conflict which brings constant insecurity to all Israelis. It will only be by organising themselves, creating a new Israeli workers' party based on socialist ideas, that a programme to solve the economic and national problems will be put forward.
And for Palestinian workers, the same holds true, as capitalism worldwide is completely unable to come to their aid with any solution. Only through building a democratic and independent workers' movement which can lead the way with mass actions to further their cause, can their aspirations be met and a socialist Palestine established alongside a socialist Israel.
Socialist Party councillors Ian Page and Chris Flood have written to protest at the suspension without pay of four Scottish Socialist Party MSPs. They were defending the right to demonstrate against the G8 summit at Gleneagles, by holding a small protest in the Scottish Parliament. Below is an extract from the letter.
"We are writing as councillors of the London Borough of Lewisham to protest at the decision taken by the Scottish parliament to suspend four Scottish Socialist Party MSPs for the month of September without, according to the reports we have received, giving the MSPs concerned the right to a hearing, appeal, or representation.
.... why did you pursue a completely disproportionate, not to mention, undemocratic, response? The only conclusion we can draw is that this was a political attack on the MSPs and the issue that they were raising in the Scottish parliament - namely, the defence of the right to protest at the G8 Gleneagles summit."
Protests to George Reid, Presiding Officer, Scottish Parliament, Queensbury House, Edinburgh EH99 1SP or email: [email protected]
Send copies/messages of support to [email protected]
Any donations/collections should be made payable to the Scottish Socialist Appeal Fund and posted to Ritchie Venton, SSP, 70 Stanley St, Glasgow G41 1JB or lodged directly into the Coop Bank, Sort Code 08 92 99 account No 65094637.
LAUREATE HOUSE Mental Health Unit in Manchester has been saved! Campaigning pressure by patient groups - helped by the Socialist Party's petitioning for months, speaking to staff, patients, and visitors - forced health bosses to back off.
Closing Laureate House would mean patients, visitors and staff making an impossible 30-mile round trip to its "relocation" in North Manchester. This is a landmark victory in the fight for decent health services. But we still need to keep an eye on the "consultation project" which bosses will try to use to make other attacks.
We found out about Laureate House (LH) through our general election campaign in April, when cleaning staff told us about the threat of closure. LH's post-natal depression unit has unique accommodation and facilities. What guarantees were there that a "transferred" facility would have the same?
Health bosses said it costs too much to rent LH from the profiteering landlord companies. We say: don't kick out the patients, kick out the profiteers! Private profit has no place in healthcare.
Construction giant McAlpine owns Laureate House under the Private Finance Initiative; the NHS rents it from McAlpine at extortionate rates. McAlpine has a contract for 35 years with South Manchester NHS for Laureate House and other services, at a cost of £86 million! At the end of 2004, McAlpine announced pre-tax profits of £38.2 million - £2 million up on a year before.
Taking up the campaign, we went to see ward managers and staff, who took our petitions, and outside the hospital we petitioned staff, patients and visitors. We then took the campaign onto the estate round the hospital to let people know what was going on. The many donations by working-class people enabled us to produce the hundreds of leaflets and petitions needed to make this victory happen.
Our NHS is being left to the greed of profiteering and private companies. We demand all privatisation be ended. All existing and new facilities should be run in-house, under democratic control of staff, patients, and the wider community.
Working-class people can win battles like this. Not long ago at Trafford General Hospital we forced health bosses to delay the proposed closure of the mother and baby (neo-natal) unit. Faced with mass campaigns, bosses can't just decide everything behind closed doors.
THE GOVERNMENT'S latest proposals for primary healthcare put working people's health needs below big business' profits. Under the proposals Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), responsible for healthcare provision to communities, will relinquish their role and instead become merely "commissioning" authorities.
Services provided by school nurses, district nurses, therapists and others will be privatised and off-loaded onto charitable and voluntary bodies with the inevitable threats to pay and conditions that go with it.
The plan aims to make cuts of £250 million and reduce management and administrative costs by at least 15%. It goes on...
"As PCTs focus on promoting health and commissioning services, arrangements should be made to secure services from a range of providers rather than just through direct provision by the PCT." A tight timetable is detailed including "March 2006: all statutory consultation completed."
Reference is made to local government and how it has developed its "role as commissioner (privatiser) of social care services." This amounts to the Americanisation of UK public services. Along with this, all Trusts are to become NHS Foundation Trusts by April 2008.
UNISON condemned the move, rightly arguing for proper consultation. But this is not enough. UNISON should make a clear break with New Labour and some of the estimated £3 million that would be saved should be put towards a campaign including national industrial action to save our NHS. This, if campaigned for throughout the membership, would receive overwhelming support.
A socialist explanation of the narrow selfish interests of Labour and its big business backers, as against the interests and needs of health workers, their families and the communities they serve, desperately needs to be asserted.
A GOVERNMENT study shows a widening of health inequalities between rich and poor. This is the first time ever that this has occurred under a Labour government.
The Department Of Health's Scientific Reference Group of Health Inequalities found the gap in life expectancy between the bottom fifth and the general population had widened by 2% for men and 5% for women between 1997-99 and 2001-03. This means that life expectancy in the wealthiest areas is 7-8 years longer than in the poorest areas.
The gap in the infant mortality rate between the poorest and the general population rose from 13% in 1997-99 to 19% in 2001-03. The infant mortality rate for the whole population was five deaths per 1000 live births, compared to six per 1000 among those with fathers in routine and manual work. This was significantly higher than the rate for those in the managerial and professional class, which was 3.5 per 1000.
BRITAIN'S TOP companies are still force-feeding their fat cat directors on cream. Directors' pay rose on average 16.1% last year - four times faster than average earnings. If you include bonuses and gains from long-term incentive plans, the average chief executive now gets paid over £2.5 million a year.
This rise comes after a 13% increase the previous year and 23% the year before that. Average earnings for workers are rising at 4.1% and the average annual salary is £22,060. So in Britain under New Labour an average chief executive is paid 113 times more than an average worker.
The picture New Labour is painting for today's FE college students is bleak. Many are forced into badly paid jobs and, for those going to university, no prospect of getting out of debt for many years.
In addition to the courses they have chosen, new students will find their timetables also include a Key Skills level to compensate for a lack of basic skills training in underfunded schools. This is a plaster to cover the cuts in education funding and in the wrong place at that. Many students simply don't go to these lessons, but for some, this means a withdrawal of cash.
The EMA (Educational Maintenance Allowance) scheme was meant to increase FE attendance, students with combined parental income of less than £16,000 a year receive £30 a week.
However, trials of the scheme showed more school leavers stayed in education when the weekly amount was over £30 and it was paid to all students. This would have cost the government £50 million - pocket change in budgeting terms.
Young people who want to relax without getting an ASBO have to spend money. To spend you have to earn, and in reality EMAs are simply a supplement to the low wages young people are paid in 'McJobs'.
Anyone in college this year who wants to go on to university can expect debts of £15-£20,000. Many students working to avoid debt don't have time to study!
All this is creating huge anger amongst young people and alienating many. The biggest cause for teenagers considering suicide or self-harm is school or college work.
There is no mass youth rights organisation, no one offering a solution to college students. Many are members of the NUS, but the NUS' work in the FE sector in recent years has been minimal, and has led an increasing number of colleges to disaffiliate.
International Socialist Resistance (ISR) and Socialist Students are campaigning together to try to change this situation. Along with the Socialist Party, we campaign for a new, mass workers' party. However, that doesn't mean that we cannot do work on our own.
We are aiming to have as many ISR/Socialist Students' stalls outside colleges and sixth-forms as we can when they reopen this year. Those that have Freshers' Fairs, should try and book stalls now. But even if there isn't one, nor even a students union in some cases, we can still set up stalls outside the college gates in the morning, lunchtime or at the end of the day.
We need to let students know that there is an alternative to the exploitation of low pay, to discrimination because you're young, to the no-hope future offered by capitalism and by New Labour. That alternative is solidarity, struggle, socialism.
A clear majority of workers have voted to defend their Amicus convenor Jerry Hicks who was sacked by Rolls-Royce, Bristol, for defending two of his members.
The vote - 55 to 33 - is in favour of industrial action due to start on 23 August. This is continuous action and will be followed by a ballot of the entire site and perhaps at all Rolls-Royce UK sites.
Since his sacking last month, when there were spontaneous walkouts from the engine test areas where Jerry Hicks works, an industrial tribunal has recommended that he get his job back. It found that he was dismissed "probably on trade union grounds". The management have, so far, offered him a £50,000 pay-off which has been flatly refused by Mr Hicks. "I'm not for sale, and this union is not for sale. I will accept reinstatement and I'm happy to return to work with no ill feeling," he said.
Hundreds of Rolls-Royce workers and trade unionists attended a rally in Bristol last week in support of Mr Hicks. The speakers, who included Tony Benn and Bob Crow (general secretary of the RMT union), repeatedly illustrated the point that this issue is about defending trade union rights.
Speaker: Peter Taaffe
Speaker: Bill Mullins
There will be a pooled fare. Anybody who needs more information should contact Ken Smith on 020 8988 8778 or Bill Mullins on 020 8988 8764
Speakers include Paul Kenny, GMB acting Gen Sec and Tony Benn. Live music, children's fun area
This time last year, Sheffield Socialist Party members were on picket lines supporting South Yorkshire First bus drivers striking for better pay. Now we are campaigning against First's fare rises and cuts in services.
In the last six months, the two bus routes serving my locality had been reduced and then withdrawn altogether, along with five others around the city. Many people in this area work at the hospital and now have about an hour added on to their daily journeys to and from work.
By withdrawing these services, the bus companies have given no thought to the needs of the community. Their only motivation is profit, so if your route does not make enough money - tough.
This comes after three rounds of fare rises in the last six months. So it is not surprising that the number of people using buses is going down and the city is "gridlocked" by cars!
There were 350 million bus journeys made in South Yorkshire before the buses were privatised (euphemistically called 'deregulation') by Thatcher in 1987 - last year there were only 112 million.
Before privatisation, the return on capital invested in the bus company was a modest 3% but this year First's target is 15%. Nationally, First made £107 million profit last year. This is totally unacceptable.
Private rail operators are receiving huge subsidies from public funds. Stagecoach paid a give-away price for Sheffield's Supertram (built with £250 million of taxpayers' money and sold to Stagecoach for £2 million).
We must on behalf of our communities, call for the re-nationalisation of the public transport system, putting passengers before profit.
To hear an audio version of this document click here.
What the Socialist Party stands for
The Socialist Party fights for socialism – a democratic society run for the needs of all and not the profits of a few. We also oppose every cut, fighting in our day-to-day campaigning for every possible improvement for working class people.
The organised working class has the potential power to stop the cuts and transform society.
As capitalism dominates the globe, the struggle for genuine socialism must be international.
The Socialist Party is part of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), a socialist international that organises in many countries.
To hear an audio version of this document click here.
http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/4614