Workers need a pay rise. Even Alan Milburn apparently agrees. As 100,000 people took part in the TUC march on Saturday, this ex-New Labour minister come coalition-appointed 'social mobility tsar' released a damming report attacking all the main parties' policies on poverty. Britain is becoming 'permanently divided' into haves and have-nots, he warns.
The overwhelming mood on Saturday's demonstration was one of hot anger.
First and foremost, it was anger at the brutal Con-Dems. Years of austerity have left workers reeling. In particular, the government's 1% public sector pay cap is worse than insulting. There's no such belt tightening for the 'haves'. Britain's 104 billionaires saw their wealth rise 20% last year.
For young workers, the low-pay crisis is particularly acute. As Milburn's report highlighted, under 30s face being 'priced out of the UK' with youth wages currently no higher than they were 16 years ago.
House prices have risen 400% in 20 years. For this generation, insecurity is the name of the game. Zero-hours employment, precarious housing and poverty wages are the stuff of life.
Demonstrators had reserved plenty of anger for Labour too. During the strike action by health workers and civil servants, the sound of Miliband's silence was deafening.
It is a measure of Labour's utter cowardice - not to mention that of some right-wing trade union leaders - that one of the harshest attacks their party received came from one of their own.
Milburn is a former cabinet minister and arch-Blairite. Yet even he can see that an £8 an hour minimum wage by 2020 is "nowhere near good enough".
This is contrasted to the huge enthusiasm for £10 an hour now, as called for by the Socialist Party on the TUC march. As one worker said when signing a petition: "£10? Now that's more like it".
Determination to fight is clearly in no shortage among the hundreds of thousands who have been on strike and marched in October. But this determination has not always been matched by the leadership of the trade unions.
There was fury among many local government workers that they had been denied their chance to strike. Teachers and other groups were angry that their unions were also not part of this month's action.
Now the urgent task is to rebuild coordinated strike action as a step towards a 24-hour general strike. This could draw in unorganised layers and help bring the colossal weight of the working class to bear on an out-of-touch political elite and their crisis ridden system.
Many people enjoyed their first major trade union protest on the 18 October. It once again demonstrated the huge potential power of workers.
Now we need to get organised to make sure that strength is put to use. This is why the Socialist Party supports the National Shop Stewards Network (see www.shopstewards.net).
We need to keep up the pressure on the trade union leaders. Crucial to this is building democratic fighting left organisations in the unions and involving activists in the structures of the union. This task has never been more urgent. At stake, is the future of the 99%.
Around 100,000 trade unionists and supporters attended the TUC's 'Britain Needs A Pay Rise' demonstration in London on Saturday 18 October.
Trade union contingents from all the major unions - and smaller ones - lined up along Embankment to march to Hyde Park. The protest was against the on-going erosion of wages, on average £50 a week down in real terms since 2007. Marchers were enthused by the demo and the support it had received.
At the Hyde Park rally, speaker after speaker correctly condemned the attacks upon workers by the government in both the public and private sectors.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka called for national trade union coordinated action and expressed disappointment that the 14 October local authority strikes had been called off. He praised the Fast Food Rights protest that took place outside McDonalds during the course of the day.
But the overwhelming impression from the Labour-affiliated union leaders was 'wait for a Labour government'. Len McCluskey at least said: "I say to Labour - stop being scared of your own shadow. Don't shrink what you offer the British people."
He also said: "But we need to do more than just march." Unfortunately he didn't spell out how we were supposed to organise other than build the trade unions. There was nothing said about his previous statements about the possibility of a new party after the general election if Labour was to continue its 'austerity-lite policies'.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis came onto the platform with representatives from the Doncaster Care UK strike. These workers, he said, had been on strike for 90 days and the union was proud to represent them.
He congratulated health workers for their action, especially the midwives "for taking strike action for the first time in history". But Prentis also said that further action would be taken "if needed" in November.
Perhaps in response to some in the crowd shouting "strike now" and going off his prepared speech, he indicated that maybe the local government workers should not accept the new pay offer on the table.
As one person at the National Shop Stewards Network stage at Speakers' Corner said: "Even mathematicians can't work out if the new offer is better or worse than the original offer!"
The local government pay dispute is hanging by a thread, also putting at risk the prospect of large-scale coordinated industrial action this side of the general election.
This struggle against the Con-Dems' 1% pay ceiling has been the biggest joint action since the 2011 pension dispute that peaked with the two million-strong 30 November (N30) strike. Over one million walked out together on 10 July 2014 and over half a million NHS workers and civil servants went on strike on 13 and 15 October respectively.
Three consecutive days of strike action were originally planned with up to 700,000 local government workers due to strike on 14 October in a week ended by the TUC 'Britain Needs a Pay Rise' demonstration.
However, the council workers' strike was suspended by the three main unions - Unison, Unite and the GMB in the face of a pay 'offer' from the Local Government Association (LGA). The coalition of unions had already been weakened by the mistaken decision of the NUT teachers' union to rule themselves out of the October strikes.
The TUC demonstration was a snapshot of the contradictory moods that exist amongst union members. The size of the Unison and NUT contingents seemed less than previous marches. This was undoubtedly affected by the aborted strikes. But, that around 100,000 marched shows the level of anger that still exists on pay and against the cuts in general. It also shows the huge potential for a mass movement of resistance, with coordinated strikes at its centre. In particular, the NHS strikes boosted the attendance.
The suspension of the local government action has caused a furore in all three unions, especially Unison. The so-called offer was paltry, meaning that most workers would get no more than the 1% already offered in 2014-2015 and slightly less than 1.2% for 2015-16.
Unison general secretary Dave Prentis reportedly attended the local government National Joint Council (NJC) meeting with two of his assistant general secretaries to ask the committee to trust him that the proposal would stay on the table and there would be an improvement offered if action were called off.
Yet at the 18 October TUC rally, Prentis said: "The pay offer is not good... if our members vote against that pay offer we will take sustained industrial action." But his intervention has been to close down the strike. This has not been lost on many Unison members.
It is not clear what role was played by the Unite leadership. But members will correctly have expected general secretary Len McCluskey to have been prepared to overrule the national officer and argue that Unite should have rejected the then proposal.
Actually, it was Unite and GMB who were the first unions to want to suspend action and only a narrow vote in the Unison NJC delegation prolonged the dispute until the official offer was tabled on 9 October.
Scandalously, instead of using the precious weeks before the planned strike to build the mood, the unions' vacillation and blame games against each other meant that momentum seeped away. With the offer being voted on over the next few weeks, there must now be a campaign in all three unions to reject it and re-join the joint strikes.
The reaction has been one of anger and betrayal among many Unison activists in particular. They correctly fear a repeat of the setback of the ending of the pensions dispute after N30, when the TUC along with Unison and GMB leaders signed up to the government's deal. This effectively finished what should have been a developing struggle that could have forced Cameron and Osborne to retreat, even putting their rule in doubt.
Instead, the deal opened the door to the most brutal cuts offensive seen in this country since before World War Two. Included in this austerity attack is the continuing public sector pay squeeze after four years of pay freezes, attacks on terms and conditions and increases in pension contributions. Little wonder that the TUC now estimates that workers have on average lost £50 per week in real terms since 2008.
That the Labour-affiliated union leaders have been forced to call action in a pre-election period reflects the huge anger and frustration among workers. Bombarded with Con-Dem boasts about the 'economic recovery', incomes of the rich are booming but not workers'. But even this anaemic improvement in the economy means they are asking 'where is our share'?
However, counter-posed to this is the utter lack of confidence from many of the trade union leaders that the organised working-class, still the most powerful potential force in society, can force the government to retreat. They see the election of a Labour government next May as the only way of defending their members, even though they are well aware that Miliband and Balls have accepted Tory spending plans. This is reflected in the Labour leaders' total refusal to support the pay strikes.
Reportedly, the local government pay offer was put together at Labour's national conference in September. The idea that their pay claim has been sacrificed on the very uncertain altar of a Labour election victory will enrage members of these Labour-affiliated unions. The great anger at Labour among workers meant pro-Labour trade union leaders had to be critical of the party at the TUC demo rally.
The struggle within local government unions to reject the pay offer is absolutely crucial. Already, Unison branches have begun passing motions critical of the leadership's recommendation. Some of them have been erstwhile supporters of Prentis and the Unison bureaucracy. But the pressure of the members on what is a lay leadership has put them on a collision course with a full-time officialdom that is freed from harsh economic realities.
This clash opens the door to militant activists within Unison to coalesce in order to provide an alternative leadership of the union in the Unison NEC elections next year and in a possible general secretary election.
In contrast to the pessimism of these union leaders, the fantastic four-hour strike of the NHS workers shows what is possible. Denied even the miserly 1% wage increase, the 13 October action was the first pay strike in the NHS since 1982 and the first by the Royal College of Midwives in its 133-year history!
The picket lines were four-hour protests, over the dismantling of the NHS as much as pay, with huge public support. Even if the wider public sector pay dispute falters, a continuing struggle amongst NHS workers that leads to a wider movement cannot be ruled out.
Whether there will be a continuation and even escalation of the public sector pay struggle, depends on whether militant union activists can win the battle in their own unions.
As seen in the Scottish Independence referendum, when workers are blocked on the industrial and political fronts, they can move behind other more immediate struggles where they can vent their sense of injustice. The movement around the Yes vote reflected the anger at the pro-austerity parties. It shows the vital need for workers to create a political party of their own.
When we started publishing Militant, the Socialist's predecessor, in October 1964, few of our political opponents expected that we would not only continue publication for 50 years, but become an important factor in subsequent battles of the labour movement.
Over this period we have witnessed and participated in the colossal movements of the working class in some of the greatest events in history. The magnificent 1968 occupation of the factories by ten million workers in France - the greatest general strike in history; the 1970s revolutionary wave of the Portuguese, Spanish and Greek workers who unceremoniously dismantled the brutal dictatorships in their countries.
We joined in the mass demonstrations in London and elsewhere against the Russian Stalinists' occupation of Czechoslovakia, also in 1968. I and other Young Socialists led contingents of young people demanding workers' democracy in Czechoslovakia and the arming of the working class.
We assiduously recorded and analysed these events in the pages of our paper. The French workers reached out for power. And they could have achieved this. The seemingly 'mighty', semi-dictatorial regime of President de Gaulle was completely paralysed by the mass action of the working class. But, as with many moments in the history of the mass organisations of the working class, the Communist Party and so called 'socialist' leaders acted as a huge brake at the decisive moment, which derailed the movement and saved capitalism. This at a time when the capitalists themselves appeared to have abandoned hope for their system. At one stage, de Gaulle fled France in despair.
"Capitalism is dead in Portugal," wailed the Times newspaper in 1975. In truth, it was almost "dead". 75% of their wealth and economic power was taken from the capitalists through the nationalisation of the banks in the aftermath of the mass mobilisation and defeat of an attempted right-wing coup. This resulted in real political power being concentrated in the hands of the workers in the factories and the radicalised revolutionary soldiers in the barracks.
And it was not just Europe that was affected. The strongest power on the planet, capitalist America, was convulsed and virtually paralysed through the events of the Vietnam War and the resulting rebellion of the conscripted troops. Alongside them were the youth in the mass anti-war movement which, combined with the uprisings of the African-Americans, detonated opposition and demonstrations, resulting in elements of a pre-revolutionary crisis for US imperialism.
These events and many more were recorded and commented on in Militant, which found a ready response amongst a wider and wider audience of youth and workers. This led to the expansion and development of Militant from a monthly to a fortnightly in 1971, to a weekly the next year and eventually a 16-page paper. We were forced to retreat to 12 pages later because of the unfavourable situation following the collapse of Stalinism in 1989-91, but we continued to publish a weekly newspaper and build our forces, sometimes in the most difficult objective situations.
From an organisation largely based at the beginning in a few areas like Liverpool, London, Glasgow and South Wales, we established the framework of a national organisation with a growing base in all regions of Britain. This was followed by the growth of our influence on a world scale through the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), founded in 1974.
What we lacked in size was more than made up for in the enthusiasm of our youthful supporters, the sharpness of our analysis and the explanation of our programme, which reached the more politically developed young people and workers.
In the 1970s, but particularly in the 1980s, we were addressing mass audiences. Militant, in terms of numbers and influence in the labour movement, was the most successful Marxist/Trotskyist organisation in Western Europe since the time of Trotsky's Left Opposition in the 1930s.
No other Marxist organisation managed to connect with the working class in mass movements as we did in the epic struggle in Liverpool between 1983 and 1987 or in the anti-poll tax struggle. We have written two books (Liverpool, A City that Dared to Fight and The Rise of Militant) dealing with these struggles.
Some have tried to downplay the crucial role that Militant's leadership and its supporters played in the Liverpool battle, not all of them on the right of the labour movement. George Galloway, a prominent, if erratic left-wing MP, first under the banner of Labour and then as an independent, belatedly chose to attack the strategy of Liverpool City Council and to separate himself from the city's mass movement. He agreed with Neil Kinnock's attack on the needs budget which allowed the City Council to force concessions from Thatcher and build thousands of houses, sports centres, parks, etc.
None other than the 'Iron Lady' herself, Margaret Thatcher, indirectly demolished Galloway's criticisms of Militant and the immortal 47 councillors who stood up to and ultimately defeated her. The unpublished speech that she intended to make at the 1984 Tory party conference, which was overtaken by the IRA bombing of her hotel (see last week's issue of the Socialist), ranked Liverpool and the 'Militant tendency' alongside the miners as "the enemy within" - comparable to General Galtieri, who 'she' defeated in the Falklands war.
The representatives of the ruling class, through habit and tradition, are trained to be relentless in the class war. Although Thatcher came from a lower-middle class background - the daughter of a shopkeeper - she embodied these traits, particularly when she concentrated the reins of power in her hands.
She was defeated by the miners in 1981, when she temporarily shelved the pit closure programme. But, together with her coterie, like Norman Tebbit, "a semi-housetrained polecat", she used massive stockpiles of coal to inflict a defeat on the miners. But this was not without the connivance of the right-wing trade union leadership.
She pursued the same tactics in relation to Liverpool; first retreating when the relationship of forces was against her, then when Liverpool was isolated by the capitulation of other 'left-wing' councils - led by David Blunkett in Sheffield and Ken Livingstone's Greater London Council - she took revenge. Assisted by the unspeakable Neil Kinnock, the Labour leader, she removed the Liverpool councillors from office through the courts.
Kinnock then compounded the blow by expelling the leaders of the struggle, Derek Hatton, Tony Mulhearn and others from the party. Tom Sawyer, a full-time officer of the National Union of Public Employees, which part founded Unison, said at the National Executive of the Labour Party in February 1986: "I defy anyone to tell me how you can go to Liverpool and defeat Militant by argument."
However, Thatcher more than met her match in the anti-poll tax battle. Militant, through the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation, mobilised 18 million people not to pay the tax: "Can't pay, won't pay". However, victory was not achieved easily. 34 Militant supporters were jailed out of hundreds imprisoned nationally.
The late great Terry Fields, Labour MP and Militant supporter was lionised by the working class, both nationally and particularly in Liverpool, as were his fellow Militant MPs Dave Nellist and Pat Wall. Dave and Terry refused to pay the poll tax - Pat unfortunately passed away as the campaign picked up - and Terry was jailed. This, unbelievably, was then used by the revengeful right-wing leadership of the Labour Party to expel him.
Yet Terry Fields and hundreds like him who were jailed and victimised managed to achieve what the trade union leaders and the increasingly discredited tops of the Labour Party signally failed to do. The non-payment campaign defied the government's poll tax and in the process brought down Thatcher, reducing the 'Iron Lady' to filings.
This was a watershed in the development of Militant. We grew by leaps and bounds throughout the 1980s. This was reflected sometimes in the most unusual fashion. For instance, the now disgraced Jeffrey Archer, in his novel 'First Amongst Equals', dealt with an imaginary Labour MP under threat from the left: "His General Management Committee, which now included five supporters of Militant tendency, tabled a motion of no-confidence in its member."
The National Union of Journalists in its monthly publication at this time also fed the impression that Militant was everywhere: "Central TV was filming the pilot of a new comedy series - a large group of actors holding banners and placards were holding a mock demo in the middle of the streets when a bloke turned up and tried to sell them copies of 'Militant'"!
Every attack on us, whether from the right wing of the Labour Party or from the poisonous capitalist press and other media outlets, just served to widen our support and influence. The expulsion from the Labour Party of the five members of the Militant Editorial Board in 1983 - Peter Taaffe, Lynn Walsh, Clare Doyle, Keith Dickinson and Ted Grant - just created even more interest in our ideas, contacts and influence.
These five were amongst the leading supporters of Militant at this stage. Others, like Alan Woods, have recently claimed to have played a central role in the founding of Militant (see 'Militant's Real History' at Marxist.net). This is intended to boost his reputation as a key participant in the work of Militant, Liverpool, the poll tax, etc. He played no role in these major events when Militant grew spectacularly to almost 8,000 supporters, spending most of his time outside of Britain, in Spain, where he did play a part in building the Spanish section of the CWI.
Ted Grant did play an historical role as continuer of a Marxist tradition which helped to successfully orientate the new layer of workers and youth who came into our orbit in the late 1960s and 70s.
However, his dogmatic approach brought him into collision with the overwhelming majority of those who built Militant, and continued to do so after he broke from us in 1992 over the issue of the Labour Party.
His supporters managed to win just 7% support at a national conference for their ideas. We argued that it was necessary to temporarily work outside the Labour Party in order to win the best, fighting layers of the youth in particular. Workers were being expelled from the Labour Party for the 'crime' of fighting the poll tax!
In opposition to this, Ted Grant and Woods dogmatically asserted that this was breaking with a "forty-year tradition" - their own one-sided perception of Militant's approach - that the masses in Britain would turn "again and again" to the Labour Party to transform it. Over 20 years later we are still waiting for their prognosis to be borne out. One thing we do know is that the Labour Party lost nearly 5 million votes between 1997 and 2010, and politically and organisationally is now an empty shell. So much so that this small group don't even mention the "need to transform" Labour in their written material now!
We refuted this arid approach in theory, but life and events prove it even more so. Indeed, following the recent Scottish referendum they concluded that Labour in Scotland was 'finished' and now they work in an 'open' fashion. They are dishonestly hiding the fact that they have been compelled to change their position completely.
In the very first issue of our paper, commenting on the role of the Labour leadership in 1964, we wrote: "By showing themselves as 'safe and responsible' leaders, not fundamentally different from the Tories, the Labour leaders have played into the hands of the Tories." This is a thousand times more the case today, with Miliband and Balls slavishly imitating everything, including savage cuts, that Cameron and Osborne put forward in a 'me too' fashion.
The labour movement in Britain has been subject to the same pressures of capitalism in crisis as Europe and the world. We built a powerful position based on young people in Liverpool, through the apprentices' strikes of 1960 and 1964, and also in the Labour Party itself through its Young Socialist section.
At that stage, the Labour Party still provided great scope for workers, socialists and youth to swing the Labour Party to the left, particularly at local level. In this way, it became an instrument, in some areas at least, for working people in struggle. And, as a consequence of patient and consistent work, we built an important position within it.
However, the general shift towards the right within the labour movement compelled Militant to seek to organise workers and socialists outside the Labour Party. Even when it became obvious that this was the case, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, we still mistakenly encouraged the notion that we could possibly return to the Labour Party when it was filled out by workers moving into struggle. But under the baton of Blair and then Brown, followed by Miliband, the Labour Party has moved way to the right and is now no different to the Tories or Liberal Democrats. It is a British version of the Democrats in the US, firmly wedded to a two-party capitalist system.
There is very little expectation that Labour will be any different if it should manage to sneak back to power, and even that is not guaranteed. Hence the need for us to raise the idea of a new mass party of the working class, which was roundly condemned by those who stubbornly insist on clinging to the battered remnants of the Labour Party.
Militant owed its successes not to a rigid interpretation of Marxist ideas. Yes, we steadfastly defend the general ideas and methods of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, but we have always displayed extreme flexibility in tactics.
The 1990s, after the collapse of Stalinism, was an immensely difficult time for socialists and the labour movement generally. The collapse of Stalinism was used to discredit 'socialism' and the planned economy and shift the ideological axis to the right. However, since the collapse of the Berlin Wall we have seen the bankruptcy of capitalism, together with the seemingly endless wars - the Middle East, the Balkans, etc. - combined with the ongoing and devastating world economic crisis. These prepared the way for the convulsions that we saw in the Egyptian revolution and elsewhere.
The economic crisis is so severe in Britain that even "younger Labour wants to lose the election" [Evening Standard, 2 October 2014]. Right-wing Labour is now afraid of power, of inheriting the 'poisoned chalice' after next May's general election. This, they claim, could discredit "Labour for a generation". However it is already discredited in the eyes of millions of workers.
As in the past, the Socialist Party alone in Britain has successfully applied the methods of Marxism and successfully charted out the road to be taken. The direction of travel is clearly towards a new mass workers' party, which in turn can prepare the forces that can realise the goal of socialism in Britain.
Tory triumphalism over rising employment masks the misery of millions of working class people in low pay Britain.
The Daily Mail speaks of an "eight year low" in unemployment, but this only conceals the spiralling numbers of self-employed and casual workers, and those unemployed whose numbers are hidden in the sickness figures.
Recent studies from the Child Poverty Action Group are less sanguine. Child poverty is predicted to rise to 4.6 million by 2020. In areas like Bethnal Green, east London, 49% of all children already live in poverty. This leap in poverty is being driven by the biggest slump in real wages for British workers since the Victorian age.
The average fall was 8% in the period 2008-2013. Amongst certain groups, such as young workers aged 18-25, the fall was much steeper, falling by 14% in the same period.
Meanwhile, a new Credit Suisse report documents the consolidation of wealth amongst Britain's elite.
At the top of the pile are 4,700 individuals with wealth exceeding £31 million. The richest 10% control 54% of Britain's wealth.
In the rich G7 nations, Britain is the only one where inequality has increased in the period from 2000 to 2014.
Liberal commentators have paid this topic a lot of attention, with Observer front pages, Owen Jones articles, and the book by economist Thomas Piketty, 'Capitalism in the 21st Century', with each bemoaning increasing inequality.
But what have they said about how to stop it? Piketty, for example, recommends a global wealth tax but says nothing of how it would be implemented and by who.
Labour, firmly embedded in the establishment, belatedly promises an £8 minimum wage over five years, which doesn't even cover inflation. Its 'mansion tax' will barely impact on the super-rich, whose main fortunes are stashed away in offshore tax havens.
We need socialist policies and mass political organisations to bring about lasting root and branch change to end the exploitative system of capitalism and its grotesque extremes of wealth for the few and poverty for the many.
That is why trade unionists, community campaigners, socialists, and indeed anyone feeling the effects of capitalist austerity, should come to Socialism 2014 (see below).
Hosted by the Socialist Party it will showcase our alternative and provide a forum for people to discuss and debate the way forward. Buy your ticket today!
The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, convened a Climate Summit in New York on 23 September. In view of the failure of world leaders to secure a global agreement on reducing CO2 emissions, expressed by the debacle at Copenhagen, trade unions and climate campaigners across the US and internationally organised a series of events to coincide with the summit.
These included the historic People's Climate March in New York on 21 September, an international meeting of trade unions organised by Trade Unions for Energy Democracy and a series of meetings and discussions with US labour unions.
PCS was invited to attend these events because it has been at the forefront of not just challenging austerity but making the case that trade unions should play a central role in the struggles for climate action.
With over 300,000 marching in New York it represented the biggest climate protest in history and surprised the organisers. Even the New York Times and NYPD (police) had to admit to its vast size. What also impressed me was the strong contingent of US unions, with the healthcare workers and nurses at the forefront.
The impact of Hurricane Sandy and the failure of the authorities to provide the emergency and rescue services needed has reinforced the need for unions to take up the issue of climate change.
The march contained many organisations and banners raising a variety of demands, but it raised the issue: what next?
I found in discussions with US locals [union branches] and union activists, broad agreement that a call for climate action is not enough. We need to develop a programme of demands that bring the labour and environmental movements together around both common action and common demands.
Trade Unions for Energy Democracy is a US based and growing international community of unions who share the view that the market and political elites will not tackle the profound economic and environmental crises we are confronted with. Instead, we will need a decisive shift towards public control of key economic sectors; among the most important is energy.
I was asked to respond to a keynote speech from radical author Naomi Klein who addressed delegates representing unions from US, UK, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, India, Korea, Philippines, Caribbean and a range of international union federations and across the world.
It's increasingly clear that climate is a trade union issue.
Over 50% of CO2 emissions come from the workplace. The flooding caused by the wettest winter on record, the obscene profits of the energy companies at a time of rising fuel poverty, the need for a clean, publicly owned transport network, the debates about a third runway at Heathrow, the threat of forest privatisation and the rush to shale gas (fracking) all show how climate is a trade union issue.
PCS is one of a growing number of unions that recognise we need to take up the issue in the workplace, through collective bargaining with the employer and in putting an alternative to the neo-liberal consensus.
The economic and climate crises are both the result of market failure. Resisting austerity is part of the same fight against a capitalist economic system whose insatiable appetite for profit is pushing the earth's climate ever closer to disaster.
Only those in the pay of the polluting fuel industries deny the impact of burning fossil fuels upon the earth's climate.
As Naomi Klein's book makes clear, we need action in energy efficiency and a social housing programme, for clean mass public transport and public investment in renewable energy, a huge training programme for skilled, unionised jobs and a decisive break with a capitalist economic system that offers poverty, inequality and the growing threat of catastrophic climate change.
PCS is a signatory to the latest edition of One Million Climate Jobs which sets out a range of ideas on how we can create over a million climate jobs and take decisive action in cutting CO2 emissions at the same time.
We play a lead role in campaigning for tax justice; showing how in the seventh richest economy on the planet we can afford both decent public services and the public investment needed for urgent climate action.
But it's clear that the market and their political shadows in the mainstream parties have failed. This raises the need to bring energy and key sections of the economy under democratic public ownership and to build a movement in the UK and internationally that fights for socialist change, not climate change.
Former environment secretary, Owen Paterson MP, has called for the scrapping of the 2008 climate change act which seeks an 80% cut in 1990 greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Such cuts are deemed necessary by environmental scientists in order to avoid irreversible global warming and catastrophic climate change.
Paterson announced this policy last week when addressing a right wing climate change deniers' think tank forum run by former Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson.
Echoing the shale gas and nuclear energy lobbyists' arguments, Peterson said the 2050 targets will not reduce emissions and will 'fail to keep the lights on'. He went on to say that the cost of using renewables will also be prohibitively expensive and, anyway, global warming has been "wildly exaggerated".
Firstly, the atmosphere has warmed by 0.5% since 1990 and air temperatures are expected to rise quickly again when natural cycles that are currently pushing heat into the deep oceans reverse.
Secondly, any possible power outages will be due not to switching to (underinvested) renewable technologies but from a gross lack of investment in power generation infrastructure by the private profit energy companies.
Moreover, the financial cost of not tackling climate change will dwarf the cost of investment in new green technologies. Paterson also sidesteps the fact that shale gas extraction is environmentally damaging, as is the privately owned but heavily state subsidised nuclear power industry.
Paterson's charge that the 2008 act is an unworkable and damaging piece of bureaucracy is disingenuous. In reality, the 2008 act is a weak law that doesn't meaningfully address the threats to future energy production and to the environment, which are the result of the continuation of the capitalist profit system.
Pete Dickenson's book explains how and why capitalism has failed to tackle global warming and other threats to the environment. The alternative of a democratically managed socialist planned economy is proposed. How such an alternative social system would work is critically examined.
020 8988 8789
How much is a disabled person worth? According to Tory welfare minister Lord Freud it's around £2 an hour. The reaction by the vast majority of the general public to his comment has, correctly, been one of shock and dismay.
In particular, the use of the word "worth" has angered many. People instinctively know that an individual's worth is not measured in pounds and pence. And even if it were, it would certainly be a lot more than £2 an hour!
Labour shadow ministers have called on Prime Minister David Cameron to sack Freud over his derogatory comments. Yet it was Labour prime minister Tony Blair, in 2006, who appointed the City banker to produce a report on welfare reform, despite Freud admitting he knew nothing about the subject!
The mainstream political parties are doing their very best to build political headway by distancing themselves from his comment. On the radio and television we've heard a variety of responses.
But difficult questions have been raised and the establishment politicians are incapable of answering them. What if someone genuinely wants to work, but can't find an employer willing to pay them the minimum wage? Is a minimum wage preventing people from participating in work, even though it is supposed to help protect our standard of living? How can we let everyone contribute to society when many people are excluded by employers?
The politicians can't answer those questions because they are bound by the laws of capitalism. The problem is that, under capitalism, your "worth" is defined by your value to an employer. You're measured by your ability to turn somebody else a profit. Other personal qualities are irrelevant.
The bottom line on your bank statement is your life high-score. The politicians are tongue tied because they cannot properly address the issues of people's worth without also questioning the rules of capitalist society.
We can do better. As socialists, we advocate a society that's run to meet people's needs, in which everybody has the chance to work. A society where becoming disabled, getting old, or caring for relatives or children doesn't automatically mean having to endure poverty. A society where everybody can live up to their potential. We also understand that a person's disability is not defined by a specific medical characteristic. It's defined by their ability to access and participate in everyday life.
Unlike like Lord Freud, socialists fight for genuine equality. We campaign for trade union struggle for a £10 an hour minimum wage, without exemptions, as a step toward a real living wage.
DPAC activists denounced the government's scapegoating of disabled people as 'spongers' and 'not wanting to work', as an excuse for cutting financial support. There was also a call to support all workers facing attacks on wages and conditions of employment.
The protesters then marched to Parliament Square to join occupy protesters at the Democracy Camp.
A massive new report on undercover policing from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary was published last week.
It reveals that 1,229 officers are trained for undercover work. However the police National Undercover Index only lists 568 of them. This 'renders the database unsuitable to the task for which it was created,' says the report.
Seven types of deployment are listed, but there is no mention of the political spycops. For a report commissioned as a response to the revelation that the Stephen Lawrence campaign had been spied on, after several years' groundswell following the exposure of Mark Kennedy in 2010, this is no mere oversight. It's a dodge.
Campaigning for social justice or for the proper investigation of the death of a loved one due to incompetent or malevolent police is left entirely unmentioned in all 206 pages.
But the report tells us that if society wants the police to identify and apprehend some of its most dangerous criminals, it has to allow individual police officers to "get their hands dirty".
The report is only critical of administration, training and support for officers, rather than the impact on citizens and the sinister intent of certain undercover operations. Essentially, it is saying that a little bit more oversight and authorisation will make everything alright.
The authors find it 'reassuring' there is apparently 'a universal understanding by the undercover officers and those managing them' that intimate relationships aren't allowed and 'there are good safeguards in place' to prevent it.
But out of the 14 spycops so far exposed, 13 had sexual relations with citizens they spied on.
There are 49 recommendations at the end of the report. None are about the known outrages of these relationships, let alone others such as undermining family justice cases and political campaigns, and the police collusion with illegal corporate activity.
This report is yet another bucket of bitter whitewash written by police and their associates. It insults those who've been abused by the undercover officers from the counter-democratic political police units. Beyond that, it insults anyone who believes in the right to make a stand for environmental and social justice.
It is another decoy, papering over deep cracks in a rotten architecture. It must not distract from the need for a full, open, public inquiry that examines each aspect of undercover political policing in detail and takes testimony from all those impacted by it. COPS will continue to campaign for such an inquiry.
Ukip claims to represent 'all social classes'. So what is the commons voting record of Ukip's newest MP, Tory defector Douglas Carswell?
He voted for: £9,000 a year tuition fees; the bedroom tax; reducing the rate of corporation tax; ending financial support to 16-19 year olds in further education and training; the privatisation of Royal Mail; restricting the scope of legal aid; capping civil service redundancy payments; privatising forests...
He voted against: a bankers' bonus tax; restrictions on fees charged to tenants by letting agents; a mansion tax; equal gay rights; raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices; slowing the rise in rail fares...
Not much support for the working and middle classes here then!
In the last decade, gas and electricity customers have seen their bills rise a massive 52% above inflation, adding an average £410 per household according to Which, the consumer magazine. This is despite, and probably leading to, domestic energy consumption falling by 17% over the same period.
Care UK strikers in Doncaster recently lobbied local MP and Labour leader Ed Miliband for his support in their months-long pay cuts battle and to defend the NHS.
Perhaps Ed could have a word with former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn - now the Con-Dems government's social mobility tsar. The Blairite ex-minister also happens to be on the European advisory panel to Bridgepoint Capital the private equity company which owns Care UK.
Don't hold back when demanding a pay rise from your boss. Tyrel Oates, an employee of Wells Fargo in the US, co-emailed 200,000 fellow workers with a message sent to the company's head: "My proposal is take $3 billion, just a small fraction of what Wells Fargo pulls in annually, and raise every employee's annual salary by $10,000."
In response, the company says its workers' wages are "market competitive". Wells Fargo made $5.7 billion profit in the second quarter of 2014 and paid its CEO $19 million last year.
The National Housing Federation reckons workers need an £108,500 annual wage in order to buy a home across London as a whole. However, in Kensington and Chelsea a house buyer needs an annual salary of £378,380 to buy an averaged priced home.
"We should have done so many things. Healthcare systems should have been built. There should have been monitoring when the first cases were reported. There should have been an organised response." Dr Jim Yong Kim, head of the World Bank, unfortunately didn't say this before the Ebola outbreak gripped three of the poorest countries in the world.
Instead, the World Health Organisation axed 300 of its 2,400 jobs in 2011. Cuts in governments' contributions slashed its budget by 20%. Its director-general, Margaret Chan, described "a new and enduring era of economic austerity".
Austerity has many faces - the uncontrolled Ebola outbreak is one more of them.
Sierra Leone's iron ore mine in Marampa is one of the country's biggest employers with 1,400 workers. Owned by London Mining, it has been building a 130-bed Ebola treatment centre. "A strengthened healthcare system is essential for safeguarding the health of our employees and our host communities," said its managing director.
But it has just gone bust! A collapse in global iron prices has pushed the company into debt, its share price falling from £4 in 2011 to 75p. Private financing of health services is at the mercy of the stock market.
A nurse in Spain and two in the USA have been infected while caring for infected patients in their hospitals. The Presbyterian hospital in Dallas, "regarded as one of the finest hospitals in Texas" according to the New York Times, failed to prevent its nurses from contracting Ebola.
Thomas Duncan - the Liberian admitted to the hospital and subsequently found to be infected - did not have medical insurance, like many poor Americans. The average cost of a day's stay in the Presbyterian is $2,766, with extra to pay for physicians and treatments.
Without insurance or Medicare/ Medicaid cover, Thomas Duncan would have had to rely on being a charity patient. Did this influence the initial decision to send him home when he first went there, complaining of fever and abdominal pain?
The USA's health care system - the most expensive in the world - failed at its first test.
Almost $400 million has been given to UN agencies and aid organisations, following an appeal launched in September for $988 million. The UN is also seeking another $1 billion for a trust fund, "to provide a flexible source of back-up money to contain Ebola."
Despite the numbers infected doubling every four weeks, after one month the trust fund had received just $100,000 - from Colombia - with $20 million pledged.
There is an urgent need for many more treatment centres, trained staff and basic infrastructure like clean water and electricity. Imperialist governments cannot be relied on to provide them. After all, they have failed to do so ever since seizing their African colonies in the nineteenth century.
Armed forces have training in useful skills and have plenty of vital equipment to quickly build treatment centres, assisting hard-pressed and over-stretched local services. But they should be democratically controlled by local committees in cooperation with elected rank and file servicemen and women - not used as a modern-day colonial force.
Workers in every country need to take charge of the aid programme. Two regions of the Unite trade union have proposed it should establish a fund for health workers in the affected countries through their unions. That is the type of support needed, sending aid to workers who know what is required, cutting out government corruption.
But trade unions do not have funds on the scale required, unlike big business which has more than enough money to bring the Ebola outbreak to an end.
However, big business will not do it. Banks, mining companies, the pharmaceutical industry and other big corporations need to be brought into public ownership and their resources used to provide aid urgently and develop vaccines and treatments.
On 28 October protests will take place at Irish embassies and consulates around the world, called by Irish campaign ROSA (Reproductive rights, against Oppression, Sexism and Austerity). The day will mark the second anniversary of the death of Savita Halappanavar - victim of Ireland's backward abortion laws.
Two years later, despite huge desire for change from below, we've seen no progress. This was highlighted again recently by the case of a vulnerable young migrant woman's battle with the system.
Presenting at approximately eight weeks pregnant, suicidal as a result of her pregnancy, the protracted process included 'experts' from the medical field and court orders (including one for forced hydration after her resorting to hunger and thirst strike). There was also an attempt to legally force the woman to undergo a C-section, which she eventually capitulated to. Incredibly, the 'unborn' was allocated a lawyer, as well as the woman.
The protests will call for a referendum to repeal the eighth amendment of the Irish constitution (the constitutional ban on abortion). The majority of the population in Ireland support a vote on the issue. Other referenda, including on marriage equality, are planned for the spring of next year and repealing the eighth should be added to the ballot.
The Socialist Party's three TDs (MPs) are backing the campaign. Ruth Coppinger said: "We believe this is now a life-and-death issue for women in this country. This sectarian, anti-woman amendment can no longer be tolerated."
Joe Higgins added: "Medical guidelines just published ominously make explicit reference to C-section and early induction. Is the Labour Party in government going to continue the legacy of a Catholic Church-influenced State, of Magdalene laundries, mother and baby homes and symphysiotomy [surgically dividing the pubic bone for childbirth - a procedure performed without consent on 1,500 Irish women between 1944 and 1984]? Of controlling women's bodies and denying them healthcare and rights?"
"We wish to win two 'Yes' votes in one day in the Spring of next year - for marriage equality, and to lift Ireland's abortion ban - and strike a major blow against Church insistence on dictating crucial personal choices in people's lives. The latest poll shows that 56% support a referendum in the lifetime of this government, with only 19% against, so why does the government repeat the mantra of 'no appetite'?"
Civil servants across Lincolnshire are on strike today for 24 hours, as part of the PCS national action. Picket lines formed outside DWP offices including Lincoln Jobcentre and Lincoln Contact Centre.
"Hundreds of civil servants across Lincolnshire are striking today because we all need a pay rise. PCS members working in the DWP have had seven consecutive years of real-terms pay cuts and we're saying enough is enough.
"We understand for some members that taking industrial action before Christmas is going to be hard, but if we don't strike and win this dispute, every Christmas is going to be hard.
"Public servants do vital work to help some of the most vulnerable people in society. But we won't be made to pay for an economic crisis that we didn't cause. If the economy is supposedly in recovery, working-class people deserve our fair share".
"We should be doing this together!" This was the answer from one of the group of all female pickets in Southampton this morning when the question was raised on where the campaign should go after today. All of the group told stories of the tactics of fear and intimidation used by the management within their workplace against workers and those workers involved in trade union activities.
Despite this, these brave women stood on the picket line with flags, handing out leaflets and joining forms for the PCS to staff going in to work. There was a defiant mood and a real support for the strike and the leaders of their union who they see as leading this fight.
One spoke about the need for all trade unions to have leaderships that are committed to fighting for their members, citing Mark Serwotka of the PCS and former RMT leader Bob Crow as what she saw as shining examples.
When discussion was raised about the political alternative that is needed there was wide agreement that the main parties do not represent us. The pickets showed an interest in the creation of a party committed to fighting austerity and standing candidates against all cuts.
They also were pleased to hear of the work of Southampton Councillors Against the Cuts, Keith Morrell and Don Thomas, who have persistently voted against all cuts the Labour council has imposed on the city and its workers. They were united in support for Keith and Don and spoke of a need for more like them!
Forty people protested outside the opening of a Rembrandt exhibition today at London's national gallery.
It was a marker point in the privatisation that PCS members have been campaigning against - the first exhibition fully staffed by private security.
Local arts campaigns, the regional PCS culture organiser and Youth Fight for Jobs spoke about the need to fight low pay, privatisation and zero-hours contracts. The action was part of the National PCS strike.
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There's something very stirring about visiting PCS picket lines in central London: all the imposing government buildings, parliament and even Downing Street are decorated with billowing yellow and blue flags and the hi-viz jackets and armbands of strikers.
Well-heeled top civil servants, MPs and ministers are forced to walk past lines of low paid workers demanding decent pay.
Socialist Party members offered our support to workers at the Passport Office, Home Office, Department of Transport, Ministry of Justice, DWP, National Gallery, HMRC, Department of Health, Ministry of Defence, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the Cabinet Office and many more.
As usual, workers were determined, though there was disappointment that the local government strike planned for 14 October had been cancelled.
Interesting discussions took place about political representation. While many strikers thought that they would probably vote Labour in the general election to try to get rid of the Tories, a lot had drawn the conclusion that Labour is a "dead duck", in the words of one striker, and that a new workers' party is needed.
One picket said: "Ukip's vote is Labour's fault. If there was a proper working class party, that would be getting those votes."
Consequently there was a lot of interest in TUSC's plans for the elections next year, and also in Seattle socialist councillor Kshama Sawant speaking at Socialism 2014 (see http://socialism2014.com/about/ ).
"Today's strike is to try and get a decent pay rise for our members whose incomes have effectively been cut, through pay freezes and low pay awards.
"PCS estimates that members have had a 20% cut in real terms. We have the situation where members are using food banks and are unable to provide school uniforms for their kids.
"We are pleased with the response today in HMRC. This is the fourth strike in as many months, and PCS continues to call for united action across the private and public sector.
"The government are trying to grind down our members with their main aim being the privatisation of the civil service if they are re-elected next year.
"But the message from PCS is we will not go away. We will fight against unjust policies of this government."
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This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 15 October 2014 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
For the second Monday in two weeks, striking healthworkers received huge public support for their pickets outside the Southampton General Hospital. From radiographers to midwives, porters to nurses, the message is unanimous, "enough is enough!"
With no pay raise for four years, Society of Radiographers pickets explained why they were on strike: "There is a huge retention and recruitment crisis in this service. Those of us left are facing growing demands. 90% of people coming into a hospital will come through our service. Many are retiring and there is not enough recruitment". Others put it more bluntly: "I've done 75 hours a week for the last two weeks!"
So low paid, many healthworkers are taking extra hours as agency staff in an understaffed NHS, at massive cost to the NHS, but significant profit to the agencies. As they say, 'follow the money' if you want to know what's going on.
When asked what the solution was, the immediate response was: "Stop privatisation. The sister service in Southampton at the Royal South Hants has been handed to Care UK. This means chaos, as x-rays are coded differently, go missing and patients arriving for treatment at the SGH have to re-x-rayed, which is in breach of legal requirements that insist patients receive the minimum radiation.
Many pickets were young and angry: "Three years training and massive student debts, we are starting on £21,000, can't afford a home and do a job that if we get it wrong could kill someone! We are not paid enough!"
This was a familiar tale from many healthworkers, paid less and expected to do more. "Nurses are doing 12-hour shifts, two in a ward of 30 patients. If staff on the next shift are sick, it can take hours for cover to come in". Midwives explained how the job has changed: "I'm close to retiring, when I started we did home visits and allocated an hour and a half to meet the mums and get to know the family and their needs. Now local maternity units have gone, forcing mums to travel to centralised clinics where they get a 15 minute appointment".
There was no end to the car horns and ambulance solidarity sirens giving their support today. All the Westminster politicians say they back the NHS but when it comes to it the NHS is those that are out on strike today and those parliamentary politicians are nowhere to be seen. Significantly, local rebel councillors from the area, Keith Morrell and Don Thomas, came to give their solidarity!
In Southampton it is clear that healthworkers have had enough and know a fight is on to save the NHS!
Around 30 striking radiographers gathered at the main entrance of Morriston hospital in Swansea. The pickets were young, lively and predominantly female health workers who were determined not to go another year without a pay increase. "It's ok for the MPs and their 10% pay rise but what about us?", they complained.
With another ballot of other health workers in Wales closing today there was unanimous agreement that "we should all be out together!"
It's not only pay that concerns these radiographers. They have seen colleagues leave the profession because of increasing attacks on their conditions as well. If there is no improvement, then others will undoubtedly leave, resulting in longer waiting lists for diagnostic examinations and treatment for cancer.
The anger and willingness to fight for decent pay and conditions is there in bucketfuls, it's high time the trade union leaders pulled them all together!
Today radiographers from Leicester hospitals came together for a 30 strong picket outside Leicester Royal Infirmary, taking industrial action this month for the first time in over 30 years.
Following a ballot in which 53.7% of members voted for strike action, work was stopped between 9am and 1pm. In addition to this the Society of Radiography members will work to rule for the remainder of the week.
The picketers were overwhelmed with support from passers by, with cars beeping their horns in solidarity.
Workers were surprised however that the action had not been coordinated with other workers, as they felt there would have been more impact if all workers had been out on the same day.
As a way of continuing the discussion about ending low pay in Britain, Leicester Socialist Party is organising a public meeting on Wednesday 22nd October at 7pm titled "A strategy to defeat the cuts - one day general strike". This event will be held at the King Richard III pub on Highcross Street in Leicester.
"We're striking to stop the five-year pay freeze, and to have a pay increase comparable to the MPs' 11%".
"The radiographers are striking today to show the government that we won't accept pay cuts, and that we won't let them destroy the NHS. The public has seen that a pay freeze means stagnated wages, but in fact they are actually year on year cuts. Austerity is making Britain poorer; fight back against Conservatives!"
Hot on the heels of last Monday's strike over the pay freeze in the NHS by a number of unions, was a further four-hour strike by members of the Society of Radiographers (SoR).
The picket lines at St James' hospital in Leeds were impressive with around 40 pickets covering both the main entrance and the entrance to the Bexley wing. They were joined by some reps from the Unite and Unison branches at the hospital, who are due to take further action as part of the dispute over pay.
One SoR industrial rep explained to me how radiographers have suffered a 15% pay drop in real terms over the last five years.
Another picket commented how she feared for the NHS as a whole as a result of the ongoing cutbacks - although she was nearing retirement, she worried about the quality of service that could be provided on an ever shrinking budget.
As she put it: "I may retire soon, but just like everyone else, I may need them to look after me in the future".
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 20 October 2014 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
"The POA has taken the decision to strike on 24 October after balloting our members at Ashworth, Rampton and Broadmoor as a result of the coalition government failing to fulfil the NHS pay review body recommendations.
Our members do an extremely important job in protecting the public and we deserve to be treated fairly. I think it's ironic that at a time when members of parliament latch on to the idea that, because an independent pay review body says they should get a 10% pay rise, that's acceptable. And at the same time they're saying to NHS workers that unless you are at the top of your scale, you're not getting the 1% consolidated pay rise as recommended by the pay review body.
Some of the people that have been affected by this are very low paid workers. We feel it's completely unfair. This is on the back of pay freezes. Striking is the only way that our members can get that message across.
Nobody actually ever wants to take strike action, I think it's a last resort. Our members have shown the depth of feeling by the strength of the vote in favour of strike - 78%, and 91% in favour of action short of strike action.
We recognise that some of the most damaged people in society are being looked after by our very professional members in the secure hospitals - Ashworth, Broadmoor and Rampton. We take our responsibility very seriously. We will make sure that there are adequate minimum cover arrangements in place to protect not just the public, but the interests of the patients as well.
We will be a responsible trade union, but we see no alternative but to take the action and make our voices heard loud and clear."
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 16 October 2014 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
Over 200 striking homelessness workers gathered outside the head office of St Mungos Broadway on Friday 17 October, which was the first day of a seven-day strike. The strike follows imposed changes by a new management team at the charity. Spirits were high and there was a mood of determination as strikers chanted "the workers united will never be defeated". Earlier that morning workers had staged 19 workplace pickets.
Speaking at the rally, Unite convenor Adam Lambert reported that, in last minute talks at Acas, management had conceded it was wrong to impose changes but did not offer to do anything about it; Unite negotiators were given nothing to take back to members and no willingness by management to compromise was evident.
Peter Kavanagh, Unite regional secretary, pledged the union's absolute support for the strike including financial assistance. He underlined that there was no contradiction between workers getting decent conditions and a top class service for homeless people: quite the opposite. He told strikers that their role was to mitigate one of the worst crimes of capitalism; homelessness.
Speakers included NSSN chair Rob Williams, Unite national officer Sally Kosky, Unite regional officer Nicky Marcus and St Mungos reps.
A visiting sandwich seller, not wanting to cross a picket line, stuck a Unite flag in his trolley before making his rounds of the office; a reminder of the strike to anyone working in the block.
Pickets have been boosted by overwhelming support from passers by. St Mungos volunteers refused to cross picket lines, understanding that decent services to the homeless are threatened by the new chief executive Howard Sinclair.
Some St Mungos donors approached pickets to express their shock at the actions of the new management team.
Later in the day strikers decided to pay an impromptu visit to the nearby offices of Shepherds Bush Housing Association where St Mungos Broadway board chair, Paul Doe, is chief executive. Setting off behind the NSSN banner 150 strikers held a noisy protest.
On the first strike day, management made no attempt to follow up its admission that it had acted wrongly, with any specific proposals. Instead it emailed a series of legal threats to Unite representatives.
On the second day, chief executive Howard Sinclair visited a picket in Hackney and told strikers he would not give in to their demands if they struck for 20 days. In an earlier magazine interview he explained that he took a wolf mask to union negotiations - it seems this sums up his approach to relations with his staff!
Strikers marched at the head of the 18 October TUC 'Britain deserves a pay rise' demonstration behind the Unite Housing Workers banner. They gave out thousands of leaflets and collected money for the strike. Jeremy Corbyn MP and others pledged to help.
They also met Care UK strikers from Doncaster. Owned by Bridgepoint capital, Care UK has been driving down wages of care workers and competing for NHS contracts by cutting pay and conditions.
Howard Sinclair's £5,000 pay cuts for new starters and his talk of working with private contractors such as Serco point to a comparable commercialised future for St Mungos Broadway.
Along with a massive pay-off for the previous chief executive and a new dictatorial management culture, these moves anger staff. They point out that they are particularly ill-conceived for an organisation which hopes for donations based on the goodwill of members of the public.
Unite reps have found the task of reviewing hardship claims from strikers a harrowing experience as they bring home the desperate conditions faced by many workers, even before the strike. Striking is not easy for workers with housing costs and family commitments but they are determined to save an organisation they are deeply committed to, and they have no intention of being walked over.
Please mark all donations 'St Mungos Broadway Campaign Funds'.
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 20 October 2014 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
The striking Doncaster Care UK workers finished the last week of their most recent three-week strike action with a bang.
They started the week by joining NHS workers who were on national strike in Doncaster, Sheffield, Wakefield and Barnsley and ended it on stage at the TUC's demonstration rally in Hyde Park.
Solidarity visits were organised to Newcastle again, and to Hull where an "amazing £3,000" was raised in one night, including £300 raised at York Socialist Party's 99 Club benefit night.
Three Doncaster Care UK workers met with Labour leader and Doncaster MP Ed Miliband at his local surgery to once again ask for his public support for their fight against pay cuts and to defend the NHS.
This is an extract of the statement that the strikers presented to him:
"Mr Miliband, it's not easy to sit here and say this, we have had private but no public support from you or any of the local Labour MPs. The local Labour Party and councillors have been worse, we have not had one word of support or visit to our picket line from any of the local Labour Party. We cannot tell you how disappointing this has been for us. Most of us have been Labour voters all our lives, a good proportion of us are your constituents.
"You say you support a strong NHS. You say you recognise there is a cost of living crisis. You have declared your support for the Darlo Mums. You have backed demands for a living wage. We are at the sharp end of this government's creeping privatisation of the NHS. We are bearing the cost of the austerity programme introduced by the Tories and our colleagues are being paid less than a living wage, we are living the cost of living crisis. We need your help. In this dispute private support is meaningless. It's time to get off the fence - we want you to publicly state your support for our action".
In the meeting, Mr Miliband would still not commit to publicly expressing his support for the strikers, saying he was a "solutions man" and encouraged arbitration.
When he left his surgery, he was sort of photo-bombed by the strikers outside who now have a photograph of him 'supporting' them!
At the strikers' rally on Sunday, day 90 of strike action, the meeting voted to continue the dispute. Pressure is mounting on Care UK. The trustees of the Californian Teachers Union pension fund which is a major investor in Bridgepoint, the private equity company that owns Care UK, will meet strikers in the next ten days. Unison's organising and recruitment team are beginning to target the company in other regions.
Strikers rejected Care UK's offer of arbitration but feel confident that with the threat of more strike action, especially targeting Christmas, the management will be forced to come up with a much improved pay offer.
Keep up the messages of support and donations: Cheques are to be made payable to Doncaster Unison 20511, and posted to Unison, Jenkinson House, WhiteRose Way, Doncaster DN4 5GJ.
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 20 October 2014 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
The recycling workers in Sheffield who had already taken six days of strike action, upped the ante on their uncharitable 'charity' employers by staging an unofficial walk-out on Thursday 16th October, closing four of the five sites.
This, along with another two days of official strike over the weekend and two more days called for next weekend has increased the pressure on charity Salvaire, who own the Green Company, who subcontract the recycling sites from multinational Veolia, who have a 30 year contract to manage Sheffield council's waste services. What a way to run a public service!
The 30 GMB union members are in dispute over pay, welfare facilities and the way the contract is managed, with serious questions about the misuse of public funds.
Public support for the strikers is high. Leafleting and talking to car drivers taking waste to tips you hear repeated comments like 'I'm a health worker, I'm a teacher, I work for the council, we're all in the same boat, good luck to you.'
All this is a major embarrassment to Sheffield's Labour council who provoked 30 odd days strike action by recycling workers two years ago by cutting the budget that led to reduced opening days and hours.
The council leader has now invited the GMB to a top level meeting. The union and workers want Salvaire/Green Co. sacked and the recycling contract taken back in-house or run under a workers' cooperative. If the council doesn't deliver, there will be more strikes next weekend and then maybe all-out.
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 20 October 2014 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
Following eight hours of discussion through ACAS, Unite members at the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) have called off their planned seven days of strike action.
The WEA management had sought to impose a devastating restructuring without a hint of negotiation or consultation with Unite, the recognised union.
London Region staff (including all organisers, consolidated tutors, and admin-support staff) were placed at risk of redundancy, with current roles to be scrapped and replaced by new jobs - some on a lower grade and lower pay.
All staff at risk faced having to reapply for new jobs with no guarantee of success, and no management commitment to avoid compulsory redundancies. These proposals were formulated by management over a period of six months - January to June 2014 - and then presented to staff in June 2014 as a 'done deal'.
Requests to management to engage in meaningful talks were ignored. The depth of anger and determination of WEA Unite members was revealed in the 85% support for industrial action!
The prospect of well-supported strike action, which would have been the first in its 111 year history, forced WEA management to withdraw its proposals and the at risk letters, and to agree to engage in full and meaningful consultation with Unite on any new proposals.
This is a major achievement by Unite members at the WEA who have remained solid in their commitment to ensure WEA remains true to its values of equality, democracy and justice.
This version of this article was first posted on the Socialist Party website on 16 October 2014 and may vary slightly from the version subsequently printed in The Socialist.
Wordsworth House, a Leicester homeless hostel which I was a resident of for just over a year, has lost its council funding and the right to house council homeless clients.
This is because of new council funding rules supposedly designed to combat discrimination. To continue receiving funding Wordsworth House would have to stop interviewing prospective residents to decide if the hostel is capable of dealing with their needs. High risk offenders and people with serious drug and alcohol problems need very specific help and support which the hostel was unable to offer.
The council's insistence that Wordsworth House had to take in whoever the council wanted them to is highly irresponsible and shows its lack of understanding and duty of care to its own homeless clients.
The result is that residents at the hostel are now considered 'adequately housed' by a private landlord and are no longer a priority for the council to house in independent accommodation.
This has led to a lack of applicants referring themselves to the hostel, as they would lose their homeless status and find themselves in limbo with a serious reduction in the support available to them.
Now, for the first time in its history, the hostel has five empty beds - despite the fact that homeless numbers, including street sleepers, are increasing in Leicester. We need investment in services for homeless people so that there are resources to meet the many different needs that exist.
On 19 September I asked a question to the full city council meeting about this situation. After discussion on my question, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) councillor Wayne Naylor asked other questions regarding cuts to local services.
The Labour councillors mocked him - showing a complete lack of concern for the most vulnerable members of our local community.
I'm getting the help and specialist referrals that Wordsworth House was fundamental in obtaining. I'm taking the help and support that I received from some of the most life-changing local services, such as Quality of Life (now shut down!).
I'm standing side by side with TUSC to help give a real voice to the working-class and poor people of this great city. I thank Wayne Naylor for his personal dignity and strength, in helping to give a political voice and genuine representation to the people who can best run and control our city and its services- those people that work in and use those services.
That's why I'm supporting TUSC and helping to build our People's Budget conference on 25 October.
The conference will discuss, for example, how Leicester council could save the community centres it is threatening to close, keep the city's adventure playgrounds and Sure Start centres running, and reverse the privatisation of its elderly care homes.
These and other ideas brought to the meeting by residents, trade unionists and community campaigners will then be presented to next year's council budget-making meeting by Wayne and Barbara in opposition to yet another cuts budget planned by the city's ruling group of Labour councillors.
And if - or more likely when! - the People's Budget is rejected by Labour, it will be the basis for a city-wide challenge in next May's local elections, on the same day as the general election.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is an electoral alliance that stands candidates against all cuts and privatisation. It involves the RMT transport workers' union, leading members of other trade unions including the PCS, NUT and POA, as well as the Socialist Party and other left and anti-cuts groups and individuals.
The circus is in town! The decision of Rochester and Strood's Tory MP Mark Reckless to defect to Ukip and fight a by-election on 20 November has brought all the clowns of Westminster to our door followed by their media chums looking for any new angle. On top of the usual staged photo-opportunities with 'Mark and Nigel' at the local pub, we've had to put up with that well-known comedy duo Ian Duncan-Smith and Michael Gove knocking on our doors!
After only one week of full campaigning, people are well and truly fed up. The vast majority see this 'no choice' election as an unwelcome intrusion by a bunch of selfish careerists who have nothing in common with ordinary people struggling to make ends meet.
Faced with this unexpected turn of events, local supporters of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC - see page 5) had a difficult decision to make in how to respond. In September, the North Kent TUSC steering committee decided to fight as many council seats as possible and to consider standing at least one parliamentary candidate in May 2015.
Following the announcement of the by-election, we held two open meetings attended by local members of the Socialist Party, RMT transport union, PCS civil servants union, POA prison officer's union, Socialist Workers Party, Independent Socialist Network and individual members of Left Unity.
TUSC national election agent Clive Heemskerk addressed the second of these meetings.
At the end of these discussions it was felt by a majority that our resources will be better spent on gathering support for the May elections next year rather than trying to compete with the media circus that is already swamping the by-election. Both the Tories and Ukip are likely to hit the £100,000 by-election campaign spending limit.
While this is a disappointment for some, we have the longer term objective of building the framework of an organisation nationally that will be able to field over 100 parliamentary and 1,000 council candidates next year and we feel that the by-election could distract from rather than help this process.
North Kent TUSC supporters have pledged to work together during the campaign to tap in to the anti-Westminster mood.
This is a great opportunity not only to quiz the big-business candidates about where they stand on trade union rights, restoring public services and benefits, the living wage and public ownership, but more importantly to find working class fighters willing stand as candidates for real change next year, after the circus has left town.
At less than a day's notice, around 20 activists turned out in Leytonstone, east London, to stop an eviction on 17 October. The family, with three children, including a two-week old baby, had been left facing the streets after bad advice and delays by Waltham Forest council and its 'arms-length management company' Ascham Homes.
Their private landlord had decided to sell and they had been unable to find another private landlord who would accept them because they are unemployed. Despite having applied for council housing and given a month's warning to the council of what was happening, no action was taken.
They were eventually advised to get their stuff out and then go to the housing office and declare themselves homeless. On this basis there would be no guarantee of not being put into bed and breakfast accommodation or of more than one room for the five of them. We didn't accept this.
Socialist Party members joined Unite Community activists and others blockading the door of the flat when the bailiff arrived and then occupying Ascham Homes until keys were handed over for a new, suitable home.
The NHS has announced a six month 'temporary' closure of the Bitterne walk-in centre in Southampton. After trying to close it in 2010, we believe this is another attempt to close permanently a much used service.
Despite patients who visit the centre telling us it is usually very busy, the Trust is claiming that it is underused and suffering from staff shortages. They propose people should travel to the minor injuries unit at the Royal South Hants Hospital (RSH), phone NHS 111 or visit a pharmacist if they can't see their GP.
For many who have difficulty travelling this will remove vital access to healthcare. In 2010 over 3,000 people signed a petition to oppose the closure. We need to fight to ensure the voice of local people is heard again.
We believe the real causes of this threat to local services is the funding cuts and privatisation of the NHS over recent years. If there are staff shortages then extra staff must be recruited immediately. If funds are short, then private contracts to companies like Care UK who run the RSH for profit, should be cancelled immediately and full funding to the NHS restored.
On 11 October seven members of Salford Socialist Party took part in a campaign stall in Eccles on Church Street.
We used a petition calling for an independent inquiry into the Salford Mayor's decision to make a controversial loan of £164,000 to Salford Red Devils Rugby league club. We sold seven papers and raised over £70.
The petition, which got 500 signatures in four weeks, is supported by TUSC and Salford Against the Cuts (SAC). It calls for local trade unionists, service users groups and community leaders to investigate this decision.
Through our weekly stalls, Salford Socialist Party is a consistent, accessible and vocal part of the Salford political landscape. Our stall is a platform for TUSC and SAC activists to share ideas and information.
Over the years our stalls (which alternate between Eccles and Salford precinct) have acted as a bridge between the public and campaigning groups fighting against cuts to public services, fracking and privatisation of council housing.
We are able to link the anger of working class people against the attacks raining down on us, to a political and electoral strategy via TUSC, to campaigning tactics via SAC, and to an overarching socialist alternative via the Socialist Party.
In an article that would be attacked by our opponents as scaremongering if written by a Socialist Party Wales member, chief reporter for Wales Online, Martin Shipton, writes: "The local government settlement announced by the Welsh Government will mark the beginning of the end of council services as we have come to know them".
Welsh local authorities will get £145 million less in 2015-16. Councils across Wales will not be able to maintain even statutory essential services. As Shipton puts it: "It won't simply be a question of deciding whether a local leisure centre can survive, but whether there will be enough money available to provide credible social services."
Wholesale cuts to council services have been relatively delayed up until now in Wales compared to England - partly because the Welsh Government's decision not to ring-fence NHS funding in the early days of Con-Dem austerity meant that the NHS bore the brunt of cuts in Wales.
The Labour Welsh Government hasn't baulked at passing on Con-Dem cuts - it's just divvied them up slightly differently. The BMA has pointed out the 'black hole' left in Welsh NHS finances, so now the Welsh Government is changing approach - taking money from councils and education to try and plug gaps in the NHS.
This is the problem with Welsh Labour - all they can offer is a different way of making the same level of Tory cuts as the Con-Dems in Westminster because they are unwilling to fight for the funding that services in Wales need. Welsh Labour councils have put up no fight at all to these cuts handed down by their party colleagues in the Assembly.
There are no planned council elections in Wales until at least 2017. Socialist Party Wales members in Swansea therefore think that it is vital that we utilise the upcoming council by-election in Uplands Ward to stand a TUSC candidate on a platform of opposing and voting against all cuts to jobs and services.
We call on all trade unionists, socialists and everybody who values council services to join with us and show that there is an alternative to the Tory-Liberal-Labour cuts consensus.
The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is an electoral alliance that stands candidates against all cuts and privatisation. It involves the RMT transport workers' union, leading members of other trade unions including the PCS, NUT and POA, as well as the Socialist Party and other left and anti-cuts groups and individuals.
All over Britain the clamour for a living wage rise is growing. Queues form at our Socialist Party stalls when we demand £10 an hour now.
Across the Atlantic, heroic fast-food workers are combating multinationals in order to obtain a living wage. The inspiring example of Seattle, where our Socialist Alternative councillor Kshama Sawant has led a victorious battle to win $15 an hour for tens of thousands of workers, has become the template for new struggles US-wide.
But for some, the issue is less pressing. Last year a senior executive employed by Elliott Management Hedge Fund pocketed an annual salary of £38,119,707- that's 1,337 times the average UK salary. It breaks down to £733,071 a week, or £20,944 an hour assuming he or she puts in an average 35-hour week.
Hedge Funds are private investment funds operating with a pool of largely unregulated capital. They use a sophisticated range of strategies to maximise returns, often borrowing large sums to invest in 'derivatives' which are products that can be invested in without having to own. These allow the Hedge Fund leeches to take bets on anything from the future direction of currencies and markets to the weather.
Elliott Management was in the headlines recently for refusing to come to a deal with Argentina when its bond market toppled. Most other bondholders agreed to restructure the Argentine debts they held, but Elliott successfully took the country to court, resulting in an Argentine default a few months ago.
Never mind that this consigned millions of Argentinians to further poverty - the sanctity of business must be upheld and compliant US courts are there to do just that!
Hedge Funds have been called vultures. Even arch-capitalist Warren Buffet has called the derivative market a breeding ground for 'financial weapons of mass destruction.'
But Hedge Fund owners never blush. Not for them any idea that we're all in this together. They hold politicians in their hands, laugh at the rest of us and believe they are gods of the planet.
So when you hear Tory health minister Jeremy Hunt say the NHS can't afford a 1% pay rise for all staff, or when you are engaging with a low-paid worker on a stall, remember that Elliott Executive as a symbol of what kind of world we live in and why we need to change it.
In April, the government paid £5.5 million of taxpayers' money to multinational tech giant Microsoft, securing the public sector one year of "custom support" for Microsoft's Windows XP operating system, plus other software. These are widely used across the NHS.
An operating system runs a computer's basic functions, on top of which more complex software, such as word processors or web browsers, can run. The NHS in England alone currently has over a million desktop PCs and laptops using Microsoft's dated Windows XP operating system.
Support for it ended last April. Lacking such support could put users at risk, as major security problems would be left unresolved. NHS computers could have potentially been attacked by malicious individuals, and data lost or stolen.
So the Department of Health negotiated with Microsoft to buy a year of extra support but after that, new software will have to be bought at additional cost.
Why didn't the government take action sooner? The cut-off date for support was known well in advance. One problem facing the NHS is that it treats individual GPs, health trusts, and other health organisations independently, and expects them to maintain their own IT systems.
Many hundreds of applications are used within the NHS, such as the 'Choose and Book' appointment system, that were coded using proprietary Microsoft technology which is no longer supported.
The government and public sector is at the mercy of multinationals like Microsoft. Alternatives exist, free and open source software (FOSS). Such software is created and maintained by individuals and organisations globally and can be used, modified, and distributed for free.
The NHS could have moved to FOSS years ago as part of a structured and organised approach across the public sector, and avoided the current situation. Attempts were made to pass legislation to encourage its use in the UK, but what little legislation was passed was significantly watered down to let big business keep dominating the market.
Socialists should encourage the use of free and open software, to meet the needs of society, and not to fill the coffers of global tech giants.
Under the present iniquitous system, people diagnosed with long-term dementia (who can be in their 50s or earlier) are asked to fund their own long term care. Long term care for non-mental health conditions is provided free under NHS rules. Dementia patients are unfairly means-tested, so hundreds of thousands are forced to sell what they have to fund their care, which can last until their death.
Mental health breakdown in general has dramatically increased, mostly because the capitalist system targets the poor, youth and the helpless. It punishes people unable to cope on zero-hour contracts or to find work with sanctions or total withdrawal of benefits.
One woman, punished and broken by the bedroom tax, went on to hang herself. Another woman was talked down by ambulance workers and mental health staff from throwing herself off a bridge. These show the intolerable stress causing mental health problems brought about by capitalist injustice.
Anyone sectioned under the mental health act can be sent to the other end of the country, as hospitals are bursting at the seams. Relatives can't afford to visit so the patient is left totally alone just when they most need family support.
Undoubtedly mental ill health can affect anyone, but it affects most those with no voice to resist the cruel system. People with mental health issues are targeted as failures but the system breaks them with stresses, producing feelings of hopelessness. It happened to me once.
The underfunded, unfair mental health system needs changing. Under socialism, the whole NHS would be nationalised and equally funded. Social justice would mean that unfair pressure would ease and poor, sick, helpless and elderly people would cease to be castigated and demonised.
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/19545