THE FOLLOWING declaration for a new workers' party was launched by the Socialist Party at Socialism 2005, a weekend of discussion and debate attended by hundreds of young people, trade union and community activists.

Initial signatories include 21 trade union national executive committee (NEC) members and four councillors.

The campaign for a new workers' party will be collecting thousands more signatures over the coming months in support of the declaration.

If you would like to add your name or take copies of the declaration, contact [email protected].

A CENTURY ago trade unionists and socialists came together to fight for independent political representation for the working class: the result was the Labour Party.

In the past the Labour Party, however imperfectly, provided a voice for the working class. Today, however, New Labour is a party of the giant corporations, its policies a continuation of Margaret Thatcher's attacks on the lives and living conditions of working class people.

Public services are being sold off; the occupation of Iraq has led to the deaths of thousands of Iraqis and over two thousand 'coalition' soldiers; democratic rights are being undermined in the name of fighting terrorism; and the Tory anti-trade union laws, the most repressive in the European Union, have been left almost completely intact.

At this year's Labour Party conference 99% of the trade union votes supported the reinstatement of trade unionists' right to take solidarity action. However, the Labour Party conference no longer has any power. This, and the other anti-New Labour resolutions passed, were immediately brushed aside by the party leadership. At the same time Gordon Brown made it absolutely clear that his future leadership of the party would not represent 'a shift to the left'.

We believe that the chance to reclaim the Labour Party has long passed and there is no point in continuing to fuel false hopes. The recent success of the new Left party in Germany, winning 8.8% of the vote and 54 MPs, gives a glimpse of the potential for a new left force. We pledge to do all in our power to bring a new workers' party into being in England and Wales.

We believe it would be wrong, at this early stage, to attempt to predetermine the structure or every aspect of a new party. That can only be decided on the basis of democratic debate leading to agreement amongst the forces involved.

However, if it is to be successful, it is crucial that a new party, and any pre-party formations, be open, democratic and welcoming to all those who want to work together against the neo-liberal onslaught on the working class. This means that all groups and individuals, provided they are in agreement with the basic aims of the party, should have the right to democratically organise and argue for their point of view.

This approach will help ensure the new formation is attractive to trade unionists, community and environmental campaigners, and anti-war activists. Most importantly it will assist in reaching out to workers and to young people who are not yet active in struggle. In this way we can unite the strongest possible forces to build a powerful working class party that is capable of effectively opposing the anti-union laws, cuts, privatisation, environmental degradation and war.

We believe that such a party would represent a fundamental break with the big business parties which currently dominate politics, giving workers the opportunity to resist the neo-liberal capitalist agenda and fight for a socialist programme - including a living minimum wage, full trade union rights and for fully funded, democratically controlled public services.

[email protected]

We, the undersigned, agree to campaign for the establishment of a new mass workers' party in England and Wales.

We will campaign for the calling of a representative conference as a step towards the founding of a new party.

We will also support all other genuine initiatives towards independent working-class representation, including the conference called by the RMT. (all signatories in a personal capacity)

Janice Godrich PCS President

Chris Baugh PCS Assistant General Secretary

Marian Lloyd PCS NEC

Rob Williams PCS NEC

Mark Baker PCS NEC

Jane Aitchison PCS DWP President

Sevi Yesidalli PCS NEC

John McInally PCS NEC

Danny Williamson PCS NEC

Kevin Greenaway PCS NEC

Roger Bannister UNISON NEC

Jean Thorpe UNISON NEC

Raph Parkinson UNISON NEC

Glenn Kelly UNISON NEC

Diane Shepherd UNISON NEC

Andrew Price NATFHE NEC

Bernard Roome CWU NEC

Gary Jones CWU NEC

Linda Taaffe NUT NEC

Robbie Segal USDAW NEC

Molly Cooper NUJ NEC

Jim Barbour FBU NEC

Dave Nellist Coventry Socialist Party councillor

Karen Mackay Coventry Socialist Party councillor

Ian Page Lewisham Socialist Party councillor

Chris Flood Lewisham Socialist Party councillor

To support this declaration contact: [email protected]

Northumbria socialist students rock against racism

Socialist students at Northumbria University have been campaigning against racism and prejudice through our Unite Against Racism campaign this term.

Leah Jones, Northumbria Socialist Students

We began the year by petitioning against racism and for our local NUS to support campaigns against racist organisations such as the British National Party (BNP) and the National Front, as a part of the national campaign, No to terror, no to war, no to racism.

We began the campaign with the intention of building for the 2 November demonstration against the BNP in Leeds, at their leader Nick Griffin's court hearing for inciting racial hatred.

The demo had been called by the civil service union PCS. It was backed by the Yorkshire and Humber TUC and local community groups who had been subject to increased racism and violent attack since the BNP stepped up their campaign to profit from the mood of uncertainty and fear which has developed after the 7 July terrorist attacks on London.

The Students' Union wasn't interested in taking up the campaign, so Socialist Students decided to promote and raise money for the campaign by organising a Rock Against Racism gig at Northumbria University, supported by Tyne and Wear Anti-Fascist Action (TWAFA) and the PCS.

The gig was booked and six bands confirmed to play but two weeks before the date we still hadn't received our promotional material back from the societies' office and the Students' Union had double-booked our room! This cost us an extra £250 but despite the local NUS barring our progress at every turn the gig went well, with over 70 people attending and raising £135 for Northumbria Socialist Students.

The money raised from the gig allowed the society to pay for Zena Awad, national co-ordinator of Socialist Students, to speak at a What is socialism? meeting the day after the anti-fascist demo, which 14 people attended.

We are now building the campaign further and pushing the students' union to back the demonstration in Leeds on 16 January, when the trial will re-convene.

We are also supporting TWAFA in their campaign against the BNP in the coming Gateshead by-election and the Socialist Party branch in the council elections next year when we will be able to oppose the far right by offering a real political alternative to the vicious cuts and attacks of the political establishment.

FE students need a living income

The government are living in a different world to the one college students face every day. Education is becoming less and less of an affordable option, and many jobs available to us offer minimum wages, appalling conditions and no future.

Ben Robinson, Socialist Students FE organiser

Around 50% of FE students are forced to take on part-time jobs. The costs involved: books and notepads, transport and food, often add up to more than the government allows for. This doesn't cover FE students who live away from home or care for children. In addition, the occasional CD or night out is increasingly expensive.

Most students have to travel to get to college but there is no national provision for travel or even hardship funds, with individual colleges deciding their own policy. The provision for childcare is not much better.

The government's Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) provides £30 per week for those from families on less than £17,000, then on a sliding scale of amounts for those from families with incomes up to around £25,000 (after tax).

But even for those who are eligible, it is not a guaranteed income. Last year, around a third of those eligible did not receive it because of a combination of lack of awareness and the sheer level of bureaucracy involved. It is also used as a form of punishment, where missing one lesson, or even lateness, can result in its withdrawal for a week. A bonus of £100 is also available five times during a two-year course, but this is also limited by similar criteria.

EMA isn't enough as a sole income. Many students are forced to supplement it with low-paid jobs.

If college students attend all their lessons and spend the recommended time doing homework, reading around etc, it's a full week. For those who work a ten-hour week on top of that, it's 50 hours. When your income is the maximum EMA and the 16-17 minimum wage, that's £60 every week. So that's £60 a week, for 50 hours!

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown apparently see no problem forcing students into these conditions. They consider £60 a week to be an acceptable income for college students but they won't pay for it out of public funding. However, they are willing to pay over £3.1 billion on the war in Iraq. The estimated cost of increasing EMA to £60 a week for every college student is £150 million, pocket change in budgeting terms.

International Socialist Resistance (ISR) and Socialist Students are campaigning, anti-capitalist youth organisations. We call for our schools and colleges to be properly funded, for education, not for business! All college students and young people have the right to a decent life, and we fight for an EMA of £60 a week, towards an income that meets the needs of all students.

We call on the NUS to take up the issues facing college students, and campaign alongside trade unions for an end to the attacks on free education, and for colleges to be able to provide the services and courses that students need from them.

A government-commissioned report is proposing that private companies should come in and take over 'failing' FE colleges - making a profit out of education. More on this and how to fight it in future issues.

Lincoln University Hull campus

Fighting the bosses' lies

DOZENS OF students at the Hull Campus in the University of Lincoln protested on Monday 14 November against the proposed sell-off of the site to a local sixth-form college. The sale is expected to happen while the 1,000 students based there will be studying!

Luke Aylward, Lincoln Socialist Students

The students were also upset with a lack of investment in Hull, while the main Brayford campus in Lincoln is the focus of a £35m regeneration. One student spoke to the socialist explaining what's happening.

"As well as selling the site to Hull College, they're planning on sacking 28 technical teaching staff. They haven't invested in new facilities for four years. The bosses are just letting our facilities degrade, and now they're not suitable for our degrees."

Students are also angry about the painfully small budget allocated to Hull campus. One student even quoted a sum as little as £10,000 a year, despite the university's annual turnover of £78 million. Another student told us about how they were lied to by the university's bosses.

"The vice-chancellor (David Chiddick) said that they weren't investing £16m on the main campus, and that they were moving us to the main campus during the summer. They lied to us. They used underhand tactics".

Education White Paper

Selection and 'free market' threaten our schools

TONY BLAIR'S first defeat in parliament over the Terrorism Bill has made many parents, school students, teachers and education workers more confident that they can defeat Labour's latest education White Paper.

MARTIN POWELL-DAVIES of Lewisham National Union of Teachers looks at what New Labour's education policy means and how best to fight it.

THE EDUCATION White Paper threatens a fundamental attack on one of the labour movement's main gains since World War Two - comprehensive education.

New Labour push their plans by appealing to every parent's wishes for their children - to ensure they have a decent education meeting their individual needs and interests, whatever their home circumstances. Of course, a divided system where high status schools can pick and choose pupils at their neighbours' expense can never achieve that. But Blair is proposing precisely to increase those divisions!

New Labour's policy is based on an ideology that sees free-market competition as the key to improving public services. As new Work and Pensions Minister John Hutton told the neo-liberal Brookings Institute in Washington: "We needed to drive greater challenge into the system... opening up these monolithic structures from across the private, voluntary and social enterprise sector".

Whether it's transport or health, housing or education, working-class families know what such a deregulated market means in reality. Privatisation and fragmentation will lead to even greater polarisation between the most popular schools and those caught at the bottom of the league tables.

The White Paper recognises the strong link between educational achievement and class, but, whatever they may claim, Labour aren't interested in educational equality for all. At best, they want to provide some limited access to the lucky few to climb up the educational ladder. But their main drive is to make the best state schools attractive to middle-class pupils. It will be working-class families that will be the main losers.

'Free-for-all'

IT PROPOSES to set up "a system of independent non-fee paying schools". Alongside the privately-sponsored Academies that are already being developed, schools will be encouraged to become "self-governing" "Trust" or "Foundation" schools. Crucially, whatever route is used, each school will "employ their own staff, control their own assets and set their own admissions arrangements".

If this vision of the future is allowed to take hold of education, the result will be an admissions free-for-all. Schools will seek to select pupils whose needs can be met more easily and who are most likely to boost their status and position in school league tables. Once a few schools opt for this route, others will quickly follow for fear of being left behind in the competition.

The plan to allow oversubscribed schools to expand to meet demand has been heavily criticised. Few schools would have the space for more classes but, where they did, neighbouring schools would be plunged further into difficulties as they lost pupils and the funding that comes with them.

Covert selection

Labour will encourage private sponsors and faith groups to set up their own educational "brands", grouping together schools in "Trusts". It's unlikely that companies will find there are large profits to be made, although there is clear evidence of academies paying out substantial amounts for services from companies that just happen to have business links with the school's sponsors.

Despite all Blair's spin about "parent power", Trust and Foundation schools will actually have fewer places for parent governors than existing community schools. Trusts will be allowed to appoint a majority of governors, allowing them to control our children's education.

It will be this opportunity to imprint their ideas and ethos on youth that will attract many sponsors. Already, 21 of the 57 open or planned Academies where a sponsor has been identified are linked to various Christian organisations.

To speed the process, all "new" schools will have to take up one of the "self-governing" options with "competitions" to decide who will take them over. This will include schools forced to close and reopen under the harsh OFSTED inspection regime and, apparently, schools being rebuilt under the government's 'Building Schools for the Future' programme.

There is already plenty of evidence of schools using covert and overt selection to ensure they have a more privileged pupil intake. Recent figures show, for example, that Church of England primary schools admit a far lower than average proportion of pupils from poor backgrounds, perhaps owing to their separate admissions arrangements.

One method of trying to combat selection, still practised across schools in the south London borough of Lewisham, is to "band" pupils according to ability. By dividing pupils amongst local schools according to their banding, in theory a genuine comprehensive intake should be achieved.

The White Paper encourages "fair banding" but with two crucial differences. First of all, Labour drew back from making it compulsory, fearing, in the words of The Economist, "the wrath of vocal middle-class parents". Secondly, schools will be able to set their own bands and recruit over a wide area.

Rejected

For years, the selective Haberdashers Aske's College in Lewisham operated such a separate banding policy. It meant that many local children were rejected and only a small proportion of pupils were ever taken from the lowest-achieving "band" applying elsewhere in the borough.

Throwing in the sop of free transport for "poorer families" to travel to a school of their choice is no answer. Will this include travel to parents' evenings, after-school events and so on? It will be a further blow to the idea of developing well-resourced neighbourhood schools standing at the centre of the local community.

Such selection can best be combated by ensuring a common admissions policy applying to all schools and by making sure that all schools are part of a democratically elected Local Education Authority (LEA). But the White Paper further marginalises LEAs turning them "from provider to commissioner". Now their role will be to champion "choice and diversity".

But some of the anger against these proposals stems from the fact that, for some council officers, this will be like "turkeys voting for Christmas". Once schools are independent of local control, funding for the vestiges of the LEA - together with all the essential central services to support the pupils with greatest needs - will be under threat.

The fragmentation is also a threat to staff and their union organisation, hastening the move towards the break-up of clear national pay and conditions. Schools are encouraged to make further savings through "workforce reform", replacing qualified teachers with cheaper staff.

Campaign needed

A ROSY picture is presented of well-funded schools where teacher recruitment difficulties have become a thing of the past. In fact, a majority of teacher trainees are still being driven out by the pressures of teaching after three years in the job. Class sizes in the UK remain some of the highest of any of the economically developed countries.

While such underfunding continues, the White Paper's talk of "personalised learning" is just an empty slogan. Instead, some pupils will be protected through the expectation of more "setting and streaming" in schools. Recent DfES-sponsored research shows there is little evidence that setting produces better results than mixed-ability teaching overall.

However, setting can help the highest-achieving pupils while lower-achieving pupils do better in mixed-ability classes. Whatever methods are used, the vital ingredient is to have sufficient resources to meet every child's needs, rather than a system where adequate support is rationed to the chosen few.

The White Paper has upset even Cabinet members such as John Prescott. They can still dimly recall how most working-class youth were thrown into second-class secondary moderns by selection and the 11-plus. But neither Prescott nor former public school pupils like Blair or Education Minister Ruth Kelly have any alternative for working-class people.

Blair's defeat in Parliament has raised confidence that ministers could also face defeat over education. But the establishment political parties support the capitalist ideology that underlies these proposals.

Only a vociferous and united campaign of parents, school students, staff and unions can put the politicians under enough pressure to make them think again. It's a battle that we have to win - the future of our children's education is at stake.

Sheffield:

We want our buses back!

SHEFFIELD PEOPLE will march this Saturday to show their anger at South Yorkshire First's latest 15-20% bus fare rise which comes into effect on that day. We Want Our Buses Back (WWOBB), the broad-based campaign group initiated by the Socialist Party, has called the demonstration to demand "Put Passengers Before Profit."

Alistair Tice

Thatcher's deregulation and privatisation in 1987 has led to private operators like First gaining a near-monopoly. They raise fares and cut services without any regulation.

Last year First nationally made £96 million profit. But the bus drivers don't see any of it. Last summer, drivers in Sheffield were forced to go on strike for three weeks to get starter drivers onto £6 an hour. First bus-drivers in Stoke are currently taking strike action for a decent wage (see page 11). No wonder the company can't get and keep drivers and have to advertise for bus drivers in Poland!

Passengers are being ripped off as well. This will be the fourth fare rise in Sheffield this year, tickets costing 36% more than last year! The main adult single fare is going up to £1.50 and the day "saver" (joke!) to £3.50.

People are being priced off the buses back into their cars. This increases the gridlock into the city centre making the buses even more unreliable, so less people use them, so services are cut, and fares put up again... Traffic pollution is increasing - air quality has got worse over the last five years.

But many people have no choice. 38% of Sheffield people don't own or have access to a car. These fare rises hit working-class people the hardest.

Four more years! That's how long Sheffield Council's transport chief says we must wait for the city's bus services to improve. 2009 is when the council hope to introduce Quality Bus Contracts (a form of partial regulation). We can't wait that long. Nobody will be able to afford to catch a bus by then.

That's why WWOBB has organised this demonstration against the fare rises and First's profiteering. And we also want to pressure the council into action. If they really want a return to quality public transport then they will have to make a stand against the private profiteers and their own pro-privatisation New Labour government.

Only public ownership of all public transport can provide the necessary investment, planning and integration to put passengers first.

We Want Our Buses Back!

Demonstrate against fare rises

Saturday 19 November.

Assemble 11am at City Hall for protest march and rally

Reinstate Andy Beadle

KEEP UP the pressure in the campaign to reinstate Andy Beadle, the democratically elected Transport and General Workers rep at Peckham bus garage.

Andy was sacked last month for standing up and representing his members' interests in pay negotiations and is conducting a campaign through the union.

Please send messages of support to Andy Beadle on [email protected] or on 07813 621383.

Contact management at London Central buses, part of the Go Ahead bus group and demand that Andy is reinstated unconditionally.

Ring Peckham garage on 020 7639 1326 and London Central on 020 8640 1747, fax 020 8640 2317.

email: [email protected]

Stoke bus drivers:

Eighth strike for £8 an hour

ON 19 and 20 November First Bus drivers will strike for the eight and ninth time in North Staffordshire. As reported in previous issues of the socialist, First Bus can easily pay the wage increase to £8 an hour that the drivers are demanding from the £50,000 profit the drivers earn for the company every day.

In the last week, First Bus have announced half yearly profits of £40.7 million. Does this mean drivers will now get £8 an hour? Of course not! First Bus has decided instead to increase dividends to shareholders by 10%.

No wonder the drivers are angry at the attitude of First Bus bosses. One driver said: "This stinks, those who drive buses and make the profits get an offer which is an insult and those who don't drive buses get an increase".

The longer this strike has gone on the more determined drivers have become. No buses have moved. Polish, Czech and Hungarian workers have stood shoulder to shoulder on the picket line. At the main Adderley Green depot, a caravan organised by the workers themselves provides food and drinks for those on picket duty.

And Stoke Socialist Party has demonstrated the massive support which exists for the drivers among ordinary working-class people by collecting more than 2,500 names on a petition. This support was summed up by one bloke who limped up to our stall in Hanley and told us, "Because of the strike I have had to walk from Tunstall to Hanley. I couldn't afford a taxi and I suffer from acute thrombosis in both legs but I want to sign your petition because I support the bus drivers' fight for decent pay".

• Please send messages of support to: [email protected], with copies to: [email protected] Send donations payable to "TGWU 5/24" to Peter Fahy, Transport House, 140 Broad St, Stoke-on-Trent ST1 4HP.

SACKED for speaking out

EILEEN HUNTER, National Union of Teachers' representative at the International School and Community College in Birmingham, has been sacked for speaking out in her school.

Socialist Party member Eileen has argued with her headmaster Sir Dexter Hutt over many issues. Last year he tried to sack 29 support staff but a union campaign stopped him. This year he threatened teachers' jobs but again the union started organising action on this.

Eileen criticised the head's 'zero-tolerance' attitude to discipline at a National Union of Teachers (NUT) conference. His policies have led to 440 pupils being given exclusions (and never coming back) and another 17 being expelled. Sir Dexter even described Eileen, accurately, as "the champion of staff and students".

She was marched out of the school after the teachers' vote and her disputing his decision to stop the school's A-level programme. Eileen says: "My sacking had nothing to do with my teaching, but everything to do with my trade union activities.

"I loved my job. I don't think we should have kids having to hang around the streets because they have been excluded. I also think A-levels can be an inspiration to young people."

The school obviously saw Eileen as a thorn in their side. They never even formally disciplined her but went straight for suspension and dismissal. A campaign is being organised to get Eileen her job back. Meanwhile please send support for Eileen via the socialist.

Coventry:

PCS launches jobs campaign

OVER 100 PCS members marched through the centre of Coventry on 12 November, against government plans to cut hundreds of jobs from regional Jobcentres and 550 jobs from the offices of the Learning and Skills Council in the city.

A Coventry Socialist Party member

They were joined by dozens more local trades unionists, many of whom had worked at famous employers Jaguar, Marconi, and Peugeot - all of whom had declared redundancies in the recent past.

And to rub salt into the wound, the night before the march the local NHS hospital announced 250 redundancies!

Speakers at the rally condemned the haemorrhage of jobs from Coventry and had sharp words for the government's role - inaction over manufacturing job losses, and direct responsibility for public sector job cuts.

Main speaker, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, lamented the lack of choice his members had faced at the general election, when: "Tories wanted 235,000 public service job cuts, Labour wanted 104,000, and the Liberal Democrats wanted targeted, compassionate job cuts" (!)

To those who, like a local TGWU speaker, wanted greater union engagement with the Labour Party, Mark responded: "My union hasn't given a penny to the Labour Party, and while I'm general secretary, we never will". His members clapped and cheered him.

The other main speaker, Councillor Dave Nellist of the Socialist Party, argued for an independent political voice for working people and further joint trade union action against job cuts. He called for a meeting for reps and shop stewards in the New Year. This should consider the changing economy of Coventry, including the sharp fall in recent years in manufacturing jobs and the Gershon-inspired cuts in the public sector, and to discuss a joint union response. The initiative was backed by a regional PCS speaker, and by Mark Serwotka.

The union co-ordinating committee which had planned the march and rally will meet again shortly to discuss further action.

For further details of PCS campaigns in Coventry contact Ian Devoy, PCS, [email protected]

DWP strike ballot

OVER 90,000 civil service union PCS members in the Department for Work and Pensions are being balloted as part of the union's campaign against attacks on jobs, services and rights resulting from the so-called "modernisation" programme.

The ballot is due to begin at the start of December. If no settlement is reached the action will begin with a two-day group-wide strike, discontinuous action and an overtime ban.

Angry Commons cleaners fight back

THEY WORK at the House of Commons, but they earn only £5.20 an hour, receive no sick pay, no pension and poor holiday entitlement. TASFAANEN GEBRU, a Commons cleaner who was on strike on 9 November, told the socialist why the cleaners are fighting back.

"WE'RE ANGRY about our pay. We get paid a very small amount which is not adequate for the living expenses we have in London. We cannot live on the wages from one job on 40 hours a week. Some of us work 80 hours a week or more to survive.

"This is supposed to be one of Britain's most respected buildings but some of us working here are not getting any respect. We feel we deserve what we're demanding and striking for - which is £6.70 an hour and sick pay, more holidays and the right to join a pension scheme.

"Lots of MPs have supported us but some of the top civil servants in the Commons who are in charge of finances refuse to meet our demands. The MPs represent millions of people - they should use their power to overcome the obstruction of the civil servants who are refusing to negotiate with us.

"We would ask other trade unionists to ask for us to have proper treatment and be given a living wage - not the £5 an hour we are on at present, which is worth not much more than £3 in reality with London prices.

"We've won new members to the union. I had got involved with the trade union before this action. Now, most of the people I work with are involved - certainly all the cleaners are now members of the union.

"We're also striking for more holidays. At the moment we only get 20 days' holiday a year plus bank holidays. £6.70 wouldn't mean we are living comfortably but we could work less hours and not have to do different jobs. We could get time to have with our family and friends.

"If management don't make concessions we're prepared to take strike action again. Whatever they do to us, we're ready to go to the last to win."

Low pay conference

THE NATIONAL Union of Journalists is holding a national activists conference on low pay. It looks like the turnout will be even higher than last year. This is because there have been a number of disputes, strikes and protests all over the country, especially against the low pay culture in local journalism.

At the local Trinity Mirror-owned newspaper in Coventry, trainees have to pay £4,000 for the "privilege" of a training course. Once they have become "professionals", they earn as little as £14,000 a year. This is why these workers took indefinite strike action over the summer.

The pay conference will bring together activists from all over the country. It will help to carry on pursuing the course towards national pay structures decided at last year's NUJ conference. NUJ activists increasingly demand that the union campaigns for a minimum wage of £26,000, something the NEC have refused to support so far.

Socialist Party members within the NUJ will carry on building support for this demand.

Meeting at: NUJ offices, Headland House 308-312 Gray's Inn Road London WC1

A struggle for survival

Interview with Polish worker in Britain

IN MAY 2004 ten countries joined the European Union - including Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic. The British and Irish governments were the only European governments to impose no restrictions on the right of workers from the new states to seek work in their countries.

The New Labour government's public estimate was that around 13,000 workers a year would arrive in Britain as a result. In fact 16,000 a month have arrived to search for work in Britain.

It wasn't international solidarity, or desire to help the 'accession states' that made New Labour open the doors to these countries' workers - this move was designed to lower labour costs and so increase the major corporations' profits.

As The Economist argued in its 2002 survey of migration: "The gap between labour's rewards in the poor and the rich countries, even for something as menial as clearing tables, dwarfs the gap between the prices of traded goods from different parts of the world. The potential gains [to capitalist's profits] from liberalising migration therefore dwarf those from removing barriers to world trade."

On arrival in Britain, workers' from Eastern Europe often struggle for survival in low-paid, insecure work. The British trade union movement urgently needs to help East European workers get organised and take up a fight for their rights. That is the only way to prevent big business succeeding in lowering wages and undermining all workers' rights in a 'race to the bottom'!

J is one of many workers who arrived in Britain since 2004. This interview gives a glimpse of her experiences of living and working in Britain (names have been changed as J is taking legal action against her previous employer).

Why did you come to Britain?

I'D SPENT two months in Poland trying to find a job. Poland officially has 18% unemployment but the real figure is probably over 20% because a lot of unemployment is hidden. For young people, it is impossible to find a job. When I was found by a company recruiting people to work as a live-in carer in Britain, I accepted.

I was paid about £400 a week as a live-in carer. £200 is a good month's salary in Poland. I had a nine-month contract with a guaranteed salary and was given training.

I enjoyed my first week's work caring for a woman in W. It was the week of New Year. I thought England was very beautiful, especially the countryside. The only inconvenience was that I couldn't take part in any celebrations on New Year's Eve. I had to go to bed early because my client woke at 6 am each day. Only then did I start to think about my new profession's restrictions.

Live-in carers work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If your client wakes up at night you have to wake up. If your client watches TV you watch it with your client. If your client watches cricket and you have no idea why the people in white are throwing the ball, you still have to watch!

What went wrong?

I really enjoyed the first week but later, I was asked to replace a carer who'd returned to South Africa because of family problems, just for a few days. But I was asked to stay longer because my client liked me. I stayed two months.

Then one day I had a call from the agency that employed me, saying I had ten minutes to get my things and get out of the house. I was shocked; I thought at first I'd unwittingly committed some crime. I asked why. I was told the reasons would be explained if I leave the house immediately.

I asked where I should go. They said that was my business and I'd receive a call after I left the house. However, there was the slight detail that I hadn't been paid for the week I'd just worked so I'd no money to go anywhere.

What did you do?

I LEFT the house while the situation was clarified; after all they promised to explain why this had happened. I was in the middle of my fixed-term contract so they didn't have the right to break it without giving me notices and warnings. I'd never received any notices, warning or complaints but in mid-contract I was kicked out on the streets.

I'd no friends but I called another carer and stayed at her house. I still hadn't been given an explanation. My English then wasn't as good as it is now. I didn't understand everything said to me on the phone. So I went to the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) who tried to call my agency to see what was happening.

The agency employs 400 administrative staff but nobody could answer my query. They were all on holiday, at lunch, ill, sick or absent! After four days the agency told me to go to the company HQ where I'd receive an explanation.

I hadn't been paid so couldn't afford to go there; I asked again for an explanation. After a week of waiting I went to the CAB again who advised me to write a statement and a warning letter before going to court. I did so.

After that I decided to go to London; without money or accommodation, I didn't know anybody. I found some distant relatives who let me stay in London.

Eighteen days after the incident I finally received a letter from the company making very serious allegations about how I was supposed to have mistreated my client. There was also an invitation to go to the company HQ. So I went.

I was told that everything was alright, there was no need to worry, I can start work again. They proposed that I just continued my contract and forgot about being accused of mistreating my client and being kicked out on the street.

I wasn't prepared to do that. I found out later that the previous carer returned suddenly from South Africa. So I had to be replaced quickly but I still had a contract. I think my agency thought it was easier just to order me to get out. They thought I couldn't really argue for my rights so they didn't prepare the dismissal properly.

I'm determined to fight this. I had difficulties bringing the case before the court in summer because I didn't have enough money. Now it's going before the court and we shall see.

You kept on living and working in London. What was it like?

IT'S A horror. Many of us are well-educated, but without language you can't get a better job so you can't pay for language courses. It's a vicious circle. If you work for £4 or £5 an hour to pay rent and other basic expenses you need to work 20 hours a day.

I have the impression people are trying to cheat you. Previously I worked full-time. I became very ill because I worked too much. Then one day I was taken to hospital because I fell unconscious on my way to work.

The employer managed to find a rule that I shouldn't be paid for this day! Every time, if the employer thinks you won't claim something you're entitled to, he won't pay it to you.

Our wages are getting lower. I know many builders from Eastern Europe who say that four years ago they earned over £100 a day. Now they earn £80, one-third less than before, because a lot of people arrived and people are fighting for the work.

For women it's even worse. Men from Eastern Europe can earn £7, £8 or £10 an hour. We have to work as cleaners and waitresses and earn less. Sometimes I struggle with the temptation to write a book "Eastern Eastenders" because everyday you see with your own eyes the Darwinian struggle for survival. Without struggling you can't survive in London.

What should socialists be fighting for to assist you?

EDUCATION, EDUCATION, education. Eastern Europeans here live in enclaves. We need language courses and courses on how to live in England. Your first week in London, you don't know the language and have difficulties even buying a tube ticket.

I know people who have lived here for five years but don't know how to get a national insurance number or their basic rights. They don't know how to join a trade union. People must be taught about their rights. We need leaflets in Russian and Polish on our rights, including how to join a union.

Eastern Europeans are mainly the working class here. Everyone has problems with employers but I'm the only person who did something about it because I wasn't afraid to lose my job and accommodation. I was too angry to be afraid.

Normally people don't know where to go or what to do. If I'd known the Socialist Party on 1 March this year, you would have contacted a trade union that organised carers and this conflict could have been solved on 2 March. Now it's November and I'm still owed money from my employer.

East Europeans need back-up and organisation to help us to get organised. We are cheap meat and we need someone radical to fight for us.

Ireland

How Gama workers beat exploiting bosses

AT LAST weekend's Socialism 2005, the excellent speakers at the main rally were supplemented by some great film footage.

One film showed how victories can be achieved by a determined campaign against the super-exploitation of migrant workers.

Gama, a huge multinational, had been invited to fill extremely lucrative government contracts in southern Ireland and had brought 1,000 Turkish workers into that country to do the work.

For four years, these bosses only paid these workers the equivalent of £1.50 an hour.

Following a Socialist Party campaign, which pressured the Irish government into launching an investigation, it was discovered that the bulk of the workers' wages was being siphoned off into bank accounts in the Netherlands.

The workers, who went on strike for their rights, have now claimed their wages and Gama workers are now paid at trade union rates and conditions.

The film footage showed Socialist Party TD (Irish MP) Joe Higgins speaking in Ireland's parliament, the Dail where, in very amusing fashion, he demolished the capitalist government's arguments.

Joe was one of the speakers at the rally, where he explained that the neo-liberal offensive that relentlessly squeezed working people's living standards and working conditions was seen at its sharpest in the exploitation of migrant labour. It showed clearly what EU expansion was all about.

But the example of the Gama workers showed that the solution to the bosses' attacks was to win the same terms and conditions for migrant workers.

Bush regime in crisis

THE BUSH administration is experiencing an acute political crisis only one year after the US president was comfortably re-elected.

As the socialist has previously commented, the deadly combination of an unwinnable war, a web of intrigue and corruption and Hurricane Katrina - which lifted the lid on the poverty and racism scarring the US - means this is a generalised crisis not just for Bush and his presidency but for the system itself.

63% of the US people now say that some or all US troops in Iraq should now be withdrawn, while a record high 59% said the invasion was a mistake. Bush's personal standing in opinion polls is lower even than Ronald Reagan's during the Iran-Contra scandal, who had 45% support compared to 39% for Bush.

The dissatisfaction of the American people and particularly the working class is now of volcanic proportions. The students' walkout on 2 November (see reports below) is one indicator of this growing anger. But, as with Britain, there is not as yet a mass force capable of galvanising this mood. The Democrats, as a party of big business, are no alternative.

Only by preparing for a US mass workers' party will a new road be opened up which can end the nightmare of unwinnable and bloody wars, a failing economic system and increasing class divide.

USA: anti-war protests: Successful student walkouts across country

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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.

Our demands include:

Public services

• No to ALL cuts in jobs, public services and benefits. Defend our pensions.
• No to privatisation and the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Renationalise all privatised utilities and services, with compensation paid only on the basis of proven need.
• Fully fund all services and run them under accountable, democratic committees that include representatives of service workers and users.
• Free, publicly run, good quality education, available to all at any age. Abolish university tuition fees now and introduce a living grant. No to academies and 'free schools'!
• A socialist NHS to provide for everyone's health needs - free at the point of use and under democratic control. Kick out private contractors!
• Keep council housing publicly owned. For a massive building programme of publicly owned housing, on an environmentally sustainable basis, to provide good quality homes with low rents.

Work and income

• Trade union struggle for an immediate increase in the minimum wage to £12 an hour without exemptions as a step towards a real living wage of at least £15 an hour. For an annual increase in the minimum wage linked to average earnings. Scrap zero hour contracts.
• All workers, including part-timers, temps, casual and migrant workers to have trade union rates of pay, employment protection, and sickness and holiday rights from day one of employment.
• An immediate 50% increase in the state retirement pension, as a step towards a living pension.
• Reject 'workfare'. For the right to decent benefits, education, training, or a job, without compulsion.
• Scrap the anti-trade union laws! For fighting trade unions, democratically controlled by their members. Full-time union officials to be regularly elected and receive no more than a worker's wage. Support the National Shop Stewards Network.
• A 35-hour week with no loss of pay.

Environment

• Major research and investment into replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy and into ending the problems of early obsolescence and unrecycled waste.
• Public ownership of the energy generating industries. No to nuclear power. No to Trident.
• A democratically planned, low-fare, publicly-owned transport system, as part of an overall plan against environmental pollution.

Rights

• Oppose discrimination on the grounds of race, gender, disability, sexuality, age, and all other forms of prejudice.
• Repeal all laws that trample over civil liberties. For the right to protest! End police harassment.
• Defend abortion rights. For a woman's right to choose when and whether to have children.
• For the right to asylum. No to racist immigration laws.
• For the right to vote at 16.

Mass workers' party

• For a mass workers’ party drawing together workers, young people and activists from workplace, community, environmental, anti-racist and anti-cuts campaigns, to provide a fighting, political alternative to the pro-big business parties.

Socialism and internationalism

• No to imperialist wars and occupations.
• Tax the super-rich! For a socialist government to take into public ownership the top 150 companies and the banking system that dominate the British economy, and run them under democratic working-class control and management. Compensation to be paid only on the basis of proven need.
• A democratic socialist plan of production based on the interests of the overwhelming majority of people, and in a way that safeguards the environment.
• No to the bosses' neoliberal European Union and single market. For a socialist Europe and a socialist world!

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http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/4739