Socialist Worker 2359 2013-06-25 18:18:33.0
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Filth: Cop spies ruined people's lives
Some 7,000 cops attacked the anti-racist demonstration in Welling in 1993 where Duwayne Brooks was photographed (Pic: Duncan Robertson) Police spied on murdered  teenager Stephen Lawrence’s family as they tried to dig “dirt” to “smear” them, an ex-undercover cop has claimed. Peter Francis said he took part in the operation to attack the reputations of Stephen’s parents, Doreen and Neville. It was just one operation in a filthy, decades-long, plot to cover up the crimes and failings of the cops. Met bosses wanted Francis to find information that could be used against the Lawrences shortly after Stephen’s killing in April 1993 in South East London. Corruption and racism infected the investigation into the murder. Francis trawled through photo and video evidence of a demo against the Nazi British National Party (BNP) headquarters for days in order to find Stephen’s  friend Duwayne Brooks. This led to him being arrested and charged in October 1993. A judge threw out the case. Family liaison officers recorded details of every person visiting the Lawrence home. The information went to the spy cops. The role of the spying operation wasn’t revealed to the 1998 Macpherson inquiry into the cops’ investigation into the death. Francis was part of a covert unit known as the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), which used the identities of dead children and formed sexual relationships with activists to get information. He also monitored a number of campaigns involving relatives of those who died in police custody.  For instance, Stoke Newington Police Station in Hackney, east London, was infamous in the 1980s and 1990s for police corruption and racism.  The Hackney Community Defence Campaign uncovered 130 cases of police brutality there. It was then infiltrated by the cops. The Newham Monitoring Project was spied on—as was the rest of the left. With the blessing of senior commanders, undercover officers routinely adopted a tactic of “promiscuity” to boost their cover stories and gain information. Undercover One cop, Bob Lambert, went on to become a detective inspector in the SDS. He supervised other undercover police spies there.  Jacqui, an activist who had a child with Lambert while he was spying on her, said, “I feel like I’ve got no foundations in my life. “I was not consenting to sleeping with Bob Lambert, I didn’t know who Bob Lambert was. “I had a spy living with me, sleeping with me, making a family with me, and I didn’t do anything to deserve that.” It was the women who had been targetted who first exposed Lambert as an undercover cop.  Francis said that Lambert advised him to wear a condom when sleeping with activists. According to one cop, “The best way of stopping any liaison getting too heavy was to shag somebody else. It’s amazing how women don’t like you going to bed with someone else.”  Paul Condon, who was head of the Met during most of the 1990s, coined the phrase “noble cause corruption”.According to this, police justifiably “bend the rules” to get a conviction when they “knew” the accused was guilty but had no proof. Top cops from then and now deny significant knowledge and say they are shocked.  But current Met boss Bernard Hogan-Howe claims spy cops are “a vital part of our armoury”. The spy cops worked for the Association of Chief Police Officers—conveniently a private company—even though it was funded by the Home Office. Scrutiny This meant they were hidden from public scrutiny.  Corporations use the information from the state spies and there is a revolving door between ex-cop spies and private security industry blacklists. The SDS was wound up and replaced with the National Domestic Extremism Unit, which still oversees spy cops. The whole spying operation is now controlled by the Metropolitan Police. Cop scandals usually lead to closing ranks. The odd scapegoat is charged, a larger number of officers are retired or transferred and an inquiry is set up that produces a whitewash. There have been countless corruption investigation into the cops.  But enough—it is time to get rid of the filth. The evidence of eight women taking a case against the Metropolitan Police because of the actions of undercover cops can be read at policespiesoutoflives.org.uk/our-stories   

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Yorks ambulance strike called off for Acas talks
The Unite union called off a planned strike of Yorkshire Ambulance workers on Saturday of last week for talks with bosses at the Acas conciliation service. The workers struck twice after refusing to accept cuts to wages and conditions, and derecognition of the union.
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Teachers strike to beat Tory attacks
Harrow NUT reps show solidarity with teachers in the north west of England (Pic: Nick Grant) Teachers were set to strike across the north west of England on Thursday of this week against an assault on their pay, pensions and conditions. The walkouts will affect more than 2,700 schools and colleges—a third of all schools in England and Wales. They come just days after Tory education secretary Michael Gove unleashed yet another attack on teachers’ conditions (see below). Emma Ballard-East is divisional secretary for the NUT union in Merseyside and is based in Halton. She says the strike will close most of the schools in her area. “The timing of Gove’s attack on our pay last week couldn’t be better,” Emma told Socialist Worker. “Some people who were wavering about the strike have said it was the final straw. I think it will backfire because it has made people angrier and determined to fight back.” Thursday’s strike is the first of a series of walkouts planned by the NUT and NASUWT unions. The unions plan further regional strikes in the autumn and a national strike in November. Many teachers are pleased that the unions have a strategy of action to take on the Tories.  But many also want to see national action sooner, especially as Gove has gone on the offensive against them. National “My personal belief is that we need national action to win,” said Emma. “I’ll be interested to see if the unions will look at taking national action earlier now because of the new attacks.” She added that some teachers are worried about losing money by striking— but they want to fight. “There’s a lot of frustration among teachers,” she said.  “We work so hard and it feels like we are under attack every day. Many have reached the point where they are saying, ‘Enough is enough’.” Teachers across Britain have organised solidarity with those in the north west to show their support for the action.  Stefan Simms is a teacher and NUT member in Ealing, west London.  He told Socialist Worker, “We have twinned with six schools in Lancaster. Three of us are going up to the picket lines to show our support. “Teachers in my school passed a motion calling on our union to call us out on strike if our school doesn’t adhere to union pay guidelines. “There is a mood to fight.” Rallies will take place in Manchester, Liverpool, Chester and Preston on the strike day—and across Britain too.  Other workers, such as those in the PCS union, are preparing to join solidarity events. A victory for teachers would make the government less confident of pushing other attacks—and give everyone more confidence to resist.
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Runcorn construction workers walkout against bullying
Around 670 construction workers downed tools unofficially at Runcorn Thermal Power Station on Friday of last week. They forced the £65 million project to a complete stop. Workers say they face bullying and intimidation over working practices. They are members of the Unite and GMB unions. They last walked out in January over “disgusting” conditions in the kitchens and toilets. They were paid £250 to return to work. But one worker last week said “this time we are sticking to our guns”.
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Marc Chagall's colourful visions of revolution and folklore
Marc Chagall’s I and the Village, 1911 (Pic: © SCALA, Florence) The Jewish State Chamber Theatre opened in Moscow five years into the Russian revolution. Its walls and ceiling were covered in huge paintings by Marc Chagall, who also designed many of its sets. Exuberant figures from Jewish tradition and village life—the fiddler, a dancer, a wedding comedian—cavort across the geometric lines and curves associated with the art of the revolution. Now they have been brought back together as the centrepiece of a new exhibition at the Tate Liverpool. It focuses on the young Chagall’s artistic development from 1911 to 1922. Chagall had lived in Paris, but returned to the Russian empire in 1914 and was trapped by the outbreak of the First World War.  Paris was a crucible for artistic experimentation—such as the bright colours of Fauvism, an interest in African art, and of course Picasso’s Cubism.  Chagall mixed these new techniques with Jewish folklore, for instance in his Fiddler on the Roof He also repeatedly painted his home village in Vitebsk, in what is now Belarus (see picture). Revolution Returning there Chagall painted the Jewish refugees he saw fleeing the war. Tragically he said this was to “keep them safe by putting them all in my canvasses”. The revolution in 1917 unleashed a new wave of artistic innovation.  Chagall was made Art Commissar of Vitebsk and set up a new People’s Art College.   He also launched an agitational theatre company, and designed surreal sets and costumes for its productions. But Chagall was never comfortable with the dizzying race to abstraction in art from the new Constructivist and Supremacist movements and eventually left for the West.  But he continued to paint the revolution and Lenin in sympathetic light even decades later. The Tate exhibition aims to introduce Chagall to a new audience, and fight for his place as a “modern master”.  Chagall has divided critics. Some praise him as a “Jewish Picasso”.  Picasso Picasso said that “when Matisse dies Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is”. But Chagall is sometimes seen as not being a pioneer. For instance, The Daily Telegraph asked “Did he really contribute anything of significance to the history of 20th-century art?” This sells short the frenetic cubist portrait of Chagall’s musical brother David, or the nightmarish pre-surrealism of Mirror. Total abstraction was as alien to Chagall as total realism.  Everything he created was driven by characters with real personalities. Out of this he created a unique combination of strangeness and storytelling. And that alone is worth the trip. Marc Chagall: Modern Master Until 6 October, adult tickets from £10, Tate Liverpool, Albert Dock, Liverpool Waterfront, L3 4BB tate.org.uk
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Anti-fascists march in Paris
Over 10,000 people marched against fascism in Paris last Sunday. Unions, left parties and anti-racist groups backed the demonstration. It was called after fascist thugs killed anti-fascist Clement Meric.  Another demonstration took place in Argenteuil after a series of attacks on Muslim women.
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Ten years of austerity—unless we fight back
Ten more years of austerity, cuts and mass poverty is all the Tories and Labour can promise.  Chancellor George Osborne is set to announce his latest assault this week.  His spending review will grab £11.5 billion from those already hardest hit by Tory policies. And he admits that the last three years of austerity are only the beginning.  Prime minister David Cameron agrees, saying last week, “I don’t see a time when difficult spending choices are going to go away.” That means cuts for the rest of us and bumper bonuses and pension pots for Osborne and Cameron’s pals. Unsurprisingly they don’t actually find those choices very difficult. But it’s not just the Tories who are promising unrelenting austerity. Labour leader Ed Miliband declared last week that if Labour gets elected it will stick with the Tories’ austerity spending plans. He added, “So when George Osborne stands up next week and announces his cuts in day-to-day spending, we won’t be able to promise now to reverse them.”  His admission that he accepts austerity is a blow for millions of people who look to Labour to oppose the attacks they face. The only way we are going to stop government after government imposing cuts is to get organised.  The huge People’s Assembly last week shows the mood of anger that exists (see pages 10&11).  It was a chance for people to express their opposition to everything Cameron and Osborne stand for. And many made it clear they were not willing to be told to wait for Labour either. Now there are plans to roll out local People’s Assemblies around the country.  Socialists should be a part of these.  They can gather together activists to show the strength of our side.  They can also be a place where we can discuss what sort of fight we need. But it was clear from the London Assembly that people wanted fewer words and more action.  Action like the teachers’ strikes set to take place on Thursday which is set to be followed by a national strike in the autumn.  Cheers greeted anyone at the Assembly who talked about taking action or striking against the Tories’ attacks. There is also real enthusiasm for building the national demonstration outside Tory party conference in Manchester on 29 September to defend the NHS. This is now backed by the Unison, Unite and GMB unions.  Activists in every town and city should organise transport from their workplace and local community. It’s a chance to mobilise and say to people, “If you hate the Tories, march with us.” A massive demonstration could put pressure on union leaders to call more action—and give confidence to everyone else that we can fight back.
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The Man of Steel who couldn't help his own creators
Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel Superman was created in 1932 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. These 18 year old Jewish boys from Ohio,  based him on archetypes and scenarioes from science-fiction “pulps”.  In 1938 they sold the rights for their character to DC comics for £85. They continued to write and develop the strip until 1946. The character has always been spectacularly lucrative. His first appearance in Action Comics in June 1938 sold half a million copies. When Superman  appeared in his own comic in 1939 it sold over a million copies and comics became a national craze.  Originally he couldn’t fly or press coal into diamonds.  Superman was a vigilante. He took on slum landlords’, corrupt businessmen, politicians and warmongers.  Soon superhero comics became an industry with hundreds of “long underwear characters”.  Superman appeared on radio, films and television.  In each new show he became more powerful   until in the 1950s he became a McCarthyite patriot fighting for “Truth, Justice and the American Way”. Siegel and Shuster struggled to survive as comic creators. By the early 70s Siegel was a courier and Shuster, who was nearly blind was desperately poor.  It took the threat of strikes by a new generation of comic creators in 1978 to win them credit, a modest pension and medical insurance.  But they, and other comic character creators, never got the smallest fraction of what their characters were worth.  The latest Superman film, Man of Steel, made £80 million in its first week-end in the US.  Superheroes may fight for justice but many people think that justice has been denied their actual creators. Man of Steel Directed by Zack Snyder On general release now  
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Tory lord threatens councils over bedroom tax changes
Benefit Freud Tory benefit cuts minister Lord Freud threw down a gauntlet to council leaders last week.  He wrote to all council executives warning them not to help tenants avoid the bedroom tax by reclassifying rooms. Leeds council has reclassified homes to spare around 300 tenants out of 9,000 from paying the bedroom tax. Freud threatened to audit councils behaving suspiciously and withdraw housing benefit subsidies from  those councils. The Tories are relying on councils, especially Labour councils, to do their dirty work. Leeds council housing chief Peter Gruen said, “We simply don’t agree with mums and kids being dragged before the courts for eviction because they can’t afford to pay.” But councils need to pick a side.  They can plough on with hundreds of costly court cases against their own tenants.  Or they can stand together and defy Freud’s bullying.
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Racist EDL march flops in London
The planned march of the racist English Defence League (EDL) in London yesterday, Saturday, failed spectacularly when they were vastly outnumbered by anti-fascists. EDL founders Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll were also arrested as they attempted to enter Tower Hamlets. Unite Against Fascism (UAF) called a counter demonstration to the EDL’s plans to march from Hyde Park to Westminster. Some 250 anti-fascists assembled at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park at noon. Only 25 EDL supporters showed up and they scuttled away before their march was due to begin. Nazeem from east London recently joined UAF in Newham. He told Socialist Worker, “I’ve come here to stand up to the EDL and show them as a Bangladeshi Muslim I dislike what is being said about us. “People say to me, you shouldn’t get involved with anti-fascism, you’ll be labelled as a terrorist and I say to them, ‘I don’t care’.” Pride When it became clear that the EDL were off the streets of central London, UAF joint secretary Weyman Bennett announced that UAF would be joining the Pride march. “In France Nazis have mass mobilisations against gay rights. That’s why we should go and join Pride. The Nazis did not pass. This is our London and we won’t allow fascists to divide us.” Around a hundred anti-fascists staged a victory march down Oxford Street with chants of “The EDL are off our streets, we are joining Pride!” Some shoppers cheered and joined the march. When the anti-fascists reached Pride cheers went up from those on the procession. The EDL had planned to march from Hyde Park to Woolwich via Tower Hamlets and Newham to whip up race hatred. Unity UAF organised a unity in the community rally with United East End outside the London Muslim Centre in Tower Hamlets. Members of faith groups and trade unionists joined the rally. A fight broke out amongst the EDL and Robinson and Carroll were then arrested for breaking the agreed march route from Hyde Park to Westminster. After the rally in Hyde Park some trade unionists, anti war activists and others gathered signatures for UAF's unity statement on Green Street in Newham. Local shoppers queued to sign the petition. Local resident Zamzan spoke to Socialist Worker, she said: “People need to stand up to the EDL, to show them that we're coming together as a community and we won't stand for them. “We're all together and we all belong here, no matter what race we are”.  uaf.org.uk
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Bosses look for way out as post strikes hit harder
Crown Post Office workers are feeling confident after striking for a sixth time last week. A senior CWU union rep in north west London told Socialist Worker that action over pay and office closures is hitting management hard. The union has organised a series of half-day strikes since Easter.  It hopes that limiting action to a few hours at a time will help hundreds of part time workers take part. “We shut a record 171 out of 323 offices last week and members are feeling very confident,” said the rep. Management are finding it hard to keep striking offices open. Rumours are circulating that they are looking for a deal. “The trouble is that the government is standing behind them insisting they don’t settle,” said the union rep.  “And management fear that if they disobey, ministers will sack them.” The CWU is urging supporters to help organise meetings and lobbies of MPs—and bring solidarity to picket lines. Workers plan a further walkout on Saturday of this week. “We beat Post Office bosses with a similar strategy in 2007,” said the rep. “I think we’re going to do it again.”  
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Don’t just predict gloomy weather—change it
On the road to stormy weather (Pic: simononly on flickr) We waited a long time for summer this year, but we may have to wait a lot longer. Weather scientists came together for an unprecedented gathering at the Met Office last week. They predicted that a cycle of bad weather that began in 2007 has at least another five to ten years to run. Already we’ve seen widespread floods and ruined, waterlogged harvests.  Tory environment secretary Owen Paterson has played up the scary weather in the run-up to the government’s spending review. But he puts it down to natural changes. In the face of overwhelming evidence—and to the exasperation of his junior minister Ed Vaizey—Paterson remains a “sceptic” about climate change. There has always been massive variability from one year to the next. And these annual variations can occur within longer cycles of ten or 20 years. That happened in the 1880s and 1950s, and since 2007 it is happening again. This is to do with the way heat moves around the Earth. Both water and air flow from hot regions to cold ones, but air does it much faster. The weather systems that hit Britain are carried here by a very fast river of air very high in the atmosphere, called the jet stream.  Its route changes each year depending on the temperature differences between different regions. It takes years for heat to seep from warm seas to cooler ones, driving the longer cycles. So we can’t blame any given storm, flood or drought directly on climate change any more than the Daily Express can say they “prove” that the whole thing is made up. Hotter But looking at long term average temperatures makes it clear that the world is getting hotter.  This is because carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted by human activity mean that less heat escapes into space. We can’t predict exactly what this means for any given year. Average temperatures have gone up since the unprecendented heat wave of 2003, but we’ve yet to see another summer like it.  More than 20,000 people died in France alone due to a lack of preparations. But if emissions continue to rise then by 2023 a year like 2003 would be considered average. By 2043 it would seem positively chilly. Global average temperatures have only risen slightly so far. But the rise is not evenly distributed. Some regions are warming up faster than others, the Arctic fastest of all. So the temperature difference between polar and tropical regions is shrinking—and that’s slowly sending the jet stream haywire.  A bit like a rope that’s allowed to go slack, it can wriggle about more when it isn’t being pulled by large temperature differences. That can “block” the movement of weather systems. The jet stream can bypass some regions for weeks or months without bringing clouds their way.  At the same time other regions get no respite from rain. Paterson has used this to lobby for slashing more money from welfare to spend on flood defences and weather-proof genetically modified crops.  But flood defences are a sticking plaster at best. Tory attacks on poor people and public services will put millions at much greater risk from extreme weather. And their insistence that society should be run according to the needs of profit stands in the way of cutting emissions and stopping runaway global warming before it’s too late.
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Housing workers strike back at pay attack
One Housing workers in Ponders' End, north London, picketing a site the bosses had told them not to (Pic: Emma Davis) Around 150 support workers struck for three days at One Housing Group sites across London last week against severe cuts to their wages. Some workers could face losing their own homes as a result of losing up to £8,000 a year after a three year pay freeze. “It’s unfair that we’re getting our pay cut while the boss is getting a huge rise and bonus of more than £30,000,” one picket in north London told Socialist Worker. Workers in the Unison union had accepted the cut. However, more workers have joined Unite during the dispute. Talks were underway as Socialist Worker went to press.
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Lessons from Germany to stop the fascist poison spreading
Cable Street barricade in 1936 telling Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists “They shall not pass” The rise of fascism in Italy and Germany could have been averted—but only if the left understood the nature of its enemy.  In Germany, the Nazis were always smaller than the combined left. Their biggest vote was the 37.3 percent they received in July 1932. When Hitler became chancellor in January 1933, the Nazis only had a third of the seats in the parliament. The tragedy was that the left was always divided.  The SPD, equivalent of the Labour Party, was over a million strong. The KPD, German Communist Party, had over 360,000 members.  Each party’s activists bravely stood up to the Nazis on the streets. But their leaders were sectarian and their tactics for how to win were disastrous. Nine days before Hitler became chancellor one of the SPD’s key figures announced, “We no longer perceive anything but the odour of a rotting corpse. Fascism is definitely dead—it will not rise again.” The KPD was no better. Under orders from Russian leader Joseph Stalin, it described its SPD rivals as “social fascists”, while declaring that only they would be the real beneficiaries of Germany’s crisis. Trotsky desperately urged the KPD to join with the SPD to create a “workers’ united front against fascism”. “The fascists are attempting to encircle the revolutionary strongholds,” he wrote. “The encirclers must be encircled. "On this basis, an agreement with the Social Democratic and trade union organisations is not only permissible, but a duty.” His words weren’t heeded, but Trotsky’s understanding of fascism and the strategy required to defeat it have been passed down the generations. First build support among those who are prepared to fight fascism, not just revolutionaries who agree with you on everything. Second, always challenge fascists when they try to gain control of the streets. This has been the strategy of those who fought at Cable Street in 1936, through the organisation of the Anti Nazi League and Unite Against Fascism. Fascism is not something that can be toyed or debated with. In order to challenge it the widest forces must be brought together so that it can be crushed. Fascists in Britain are a long way from their aim of controlling the streets. It’s our job to keep it that way.
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Movement remembers dead protesters in Turkey
Thousands of protesters gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square last Saturday, carrying carnations to commemorate people who died during recent protests.  After a couple of hours police pushed the demonstration out of the square, using water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas. A smaller protest in the capital Ankara was also broken up. These were the first attempts at large demonstrations since police suppressed the movement against police violence in Istanbul’s Gezi Park.  Hundreds of people took part in symbolic silent standing protests for several days before.
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G8 rehashes failure
Heads of state from eight of the world’s biggest economies met at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland last week. The G8 plan committed them to saying that dodging tax is a bad thing—even Britain’s pseudo-independent tax haven colonies. But it did little else. There was agreement to negotiate a trade deal. David Cameron said it “could add £100 billion to the EU economy, £80 billion to the US economy and £85 billion to the rest of the world”. But it’s a rehash of the globalisation agreements of a decade ago—but without as much lip service to “poverty”. They want to give the private sector more of a role in everything.
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I am nobody's Nigger
Poet Dean Atta These poems are personal and beautiful. Some are painful to read—including Atta’s experience of racism and homophobia.  The title is from his most famous poem, which he wrote when Gary Dobson and David Norris were finally found guilty of the murder of Stephen Lawrence.  “Rappers, when you use the word ‘nigger’, remember “That’s one of the last words Stephen Lawrence heard, So don’t tell me it’s a reclaimed word “I am nobody’s nigger”. I am Nobody's Nigger Dean Atta Westbourne Press
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Heathrow cargo workers want pay strike
Workers at Menzies World Cargo in Heathrow airport have voted overwhelmingly to strike against a two year pay freeze. They are members of the Unite union working in cargo and airside trucking. Menzies made £35.6 million profit from its aviation division last year—up 16 percent from 2011.
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New fears of racist terror after bomb set off in Walsall mosque
Hundreds of people rallied in solidarity after the Muswell Hill attack last month (Pic: Guy Smallman) A homemade bomb went off outside the Aisha Mosque and Islamic Centre in Walsall in the West Midlands on Friday of last week. Local residents heard a loud bang during the night. Luckily no one was injured and the building only suffered minimal damage. Army bomb disposal experts arrived on Saturday and immediately evacuated about 150 people from homes in the surrounding area. It was unclear whether the bomb was intended to trigger a larger device or only partially detonated as Socialist Worker went to press. “People are worried,” a youth worker at the Islamic centre told Socialist Worker. “It’s really troubling to hear that there was a bomb outside a place they go to regularly.” West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit is taking part in the investigation.  But police said, “There is no evidence or intelligence to suggest that this is an act of terrorism.” “It’s shocking they are calling this a ‘hate crime’,” the youth worker said. “It shows a complete lack of support from the police. They choose when to use the word ‘terror’ and ‘hate crime’ as they please.  “It was a terror attack. It was designed to frighten and victimise. It is Islamophobia.” The police response contrasts starkly with the treatment of six Muslim men who planned to bomb a racist English Defence League (EDL) rally last year. They were denounced as “Muslim terrorists” and were jailed for up to 19 and a half years each. Local EDL members gloated after an apparent arson attack burned the Bravanese community centre and mosque in Muswell Hill, north London, earlier this month. EDL Walsall/Bloxwich Division posted on Facebook, “London mosques are burning down…let’s go out and burn some more.” More than 500 people turned out in Muswell Hill in support of the mosque users.  The youth worker said there had been “lots of messages of solidarity expressed to us online” in the wake of the Walsall bomb.  Black Country Unite Against Fascism has produced a unity statement.  Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT union, read out a solidarity message outside the mosque on Monday of this week. Stop EDL in London UAF counter demonstration this Saturday 29 June against an EDL march. Assemble Speakers’ Corner, 11am uaf.org.uk Unite Against Fascism reports Forty people attended the launch of Thanet UAF last week. We discussed the EDL threat and the rise of Ukip—which won seven out of eight local council seats. Ten fascists gathered outside failed to intimidate those inside the hall.  John Flaig We launched the Griffin Must Go campaign in Lancaster at a well-received meeting with Green and Labour party councillors. Audrey Glover UAF’s rally in Oxford last week attracted 50 people. Speakers included Shahzad Sarwar of the Central Mosque and Kate Douglas of the PCS. Nick Evans
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Syrian conflict sucks in Lebanon
Syria’s bloody conflict is destabilising the region as Bashar al-Assad’s regime fights to hold onto power against what began as a popular revolution. Sectarian battles have broken out in neighbouring Lebanon after the mainly Shia Hezbollah threw its weight behind Assad.
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Civil service workers across Britain protest against cuts
Protesting in Manchester (Pic: Martin Empson) Tens of thousands of civil service workers in the PCS union have been protesting against austerity around the country today, Thursday. Angry at George Osborne’s announcement yesterday of deep cuts to the public sector they demonstrated outside workplaces and attended rallies during their lunch breaks. More than 100 joined a noisy rally outside HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) headquarters in London. PCS assistant general secretary Chris Baugh addressed the crowd saying, “There is no respite from these cuts. We are consulting members and reframing our national demands for the next stage of action.” He added “The PCS hold the door open to every trade union” to get co-ordinated action against the cuts. Lively protests took place in cities and towns across Britain. Among them were a protest in the rain outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh and vibrant rallies in Manchester and Plymouth. A rep told Socialist Worker, “There’s no alternative to strikes. It’s clear from the spending review the Tories are coming for us. We have to fight back.” Booing 'George Osborne' on the London rally (Pic: Socialist Worker) Many PCS members have struck during the last three months as part of their national campaign against cuts to jobs, pay and working conditions. However the lunchtime protests were called in place of the national strike that the union’s conference in May voted for. “The strike should have gone ahead. I came here to show solidarity, because we have to come together to show we are strong.” Gnabressou Gbode, a PCS member in the Passport Office, told Socialist Worker. Teachers in the NUT and NASUWT unions are striking today in the north west of England. Angry in Edinburgh (Pic: Chris Newlove) PCS members protested in solidarity with the striking teachers, with hundreds of people attending a rally in Liverpool. Members of the NUT executive attended the rally. Dave Owens, a PCS member in the Department of Work and Pensions in Liverpool told Socialist Worker of the frustration of not being out on strike with the teachers. “At our workplace, 150 PCS members attended a meeting on pay. Questions were asked about why we weren’t on strike. “The mood is there. At the meeting we had a vote on whether we should strike and there was a unanimous yes result. It’s a missed opportunity. We should be out with the teachers.”
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George Osborne set to grab billions in fresh spending review cuts
George Osborne - always happy to make cuts (Pic: The Prime Minister's Office) Bungling baron George Osborne was set to announce billions more in cuts on Wednesday of this week. He wants to cut an extra £11.5billion in the year to 2015. The government’s spending review is the method by which the government sets the limits for all public spending. It creates the targets that workers will be told they have no choice but to meet. For instance as much as £2 billion will be cut from higher education and preschool budgets. Yet more will come from further education.  And council budgets are again to be slashed. A treasury spokesman gloated, “We’ve completed the spending round savings early and without all the arguments you normally get. “This shows our determination to take the tough decisions needed to deliver our economic plan and to turn Britain around.” For people on benefits and those already in poverty, life will get still harder. Osborne’s arrogant response is to claim this is fair.  He says we have no option but to make cuts and that everyone is paying their share.  He previously claimed that his cuts were a temporary measure to get out of recession. Lied But Osborne lied. Government borrowing increased last year, despite the cuts.  Osborne has admitted he will not meet his own debt target until 2017-18. According to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, Osborne has to keep making cuts until after 2020 to hit his targets. And average household income will be lower by almost £100 a week in real terms by 2015, according to the TUC. This is after taking into account the public sector pay freeze and the combined impact of tax, tax credit and benefit changes, including Universal Credit. Over half a million children  living in households where both parents work will be plunged into poverty by 2015 as a result of the cuts.  Tragically, even this round of brutal cuts is largely a holding exercise designed to paper over cracks in the coalition until after the general election. Osborne admitted that free bus passes and TV licences plus winter fuel payments may go if the Tories win the next election. The Tories are smashing up our welfare state because they want ordinary people to pay for the crisis instead of the rich.  Their cuts are a choice, not a necessity. There is no need to cut any job or service. There are plenty of other ways to raise cash. The government could raise money by increasing corporation tax and taxing the super-rich.  Yet Osborne insists on cutting corporation tax on the bosses profits every year. The Tories want to rob the poor to make the rich richer—and we can’t let them get away with it. 
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Things they say
‘Thanks for that, Jeffrey’ US president Barack Obama got George Osborne’s name wrong three times at the G8 ‘It was a mistake. It was my fault’ Ukip leader Nigel Farage on the trust fund he set up in the Isle of Man to avoid tax ‘People who are judgemental about it have obviously never been in love’ Tracey Emin, whose career was effectively paid for by wife-throttler Charles Saatchi, defends Charles Saatchi ‘They are treated in many ways as if they are criminals’ Drusilla Sharpling of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary—one of four watchdogs to speak out against the widespread detention of mentally ill people ‘Immigrants are pretty much like the rest of the population’ The OECD says migrants aren’t a ‘drain for the public purse’ ‘Of course it is. What a pleasure it is to degrade a woman’ Singer Robin Thicke responds to accusations that his number one single Blurred Lines is degrading to women
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Edward Snowden: Whistleblower on the run
Whistleblower Edward Snowden was on the run as Socialist Worker went to press. Snowden is a former spy contractor who worked for the US National Security Agency.  He exposed the secret surveillance of phone and internet communications across the world earlier this month. Britain’s GCHQ spy agency was involved. It can read emails and online posts and listen in to private phone calls. The US authorities want to extradite Snowden and have charged him with espionage and theft of government property. Outrageously, the US state is charging the man who exposed its widespread spying with being a spy. Snowden is defined as a criminal—while the bigger official spy agencies are just doing their job. Now the US is pursuing Snowdon around the world because his revelations have damaged its credibility.  
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Campaigners fight Barnsley council's attack on poorest
Campaigners outside Barnsley magistrates court last week (Pic: George Arthur) Some 200 people turned up at Barnsley Magistrates Court last week after being summonsed for not paying council tax.  The Tories’ council tax is being imposed on the poorest by Barnsley council.  Campaigners protested outside with supporters from across Yorkshire.  When some argued their case in court the magistrate awarded the liability order but refused to impose any additional costs.  One woman asked for a McKenzie friend to support her and her case was adjourned till July.  Others tried to tell the magistrates why they couldn’t pay.  Jimmy Wilson said in court, “I am not a criminal—I have here a British Transport Police certificate of commendation for bravery.  “Barnsley council can do what they want, they are treating us like criminals. I can’t pay, it’s immoral and I won’t pay.” The council hoped that these cases would intimidate those not paying bedroom tax.  But they have only increased anger at a Labour council which has already sent out notices “of intention to seek possession” of people’s homes.  Meetings against the bedroom tax have taken place on nine estates in Barnsley. The campaign is creating the networks to support people and prevent evictions. Campaigners also protested outside Sheffield magistrates court on Friday of last week where hundreds of people in arrears were herded into hearings.
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Brick battle ends after three months
Thirteen kiln workers in the Unite and GMB unions returned to work at Hanson Brick in Whittlesea, near Peterborough, this week. They had been striking for 12 weeks against plans to strip them of four days’ holiday.
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Education unions need to ramp up the resistance to stop Michael Gove
Michael Gove went for teachers over conditions of work last week.  It seems he is not content with having raised our pension contributions and retirement age.  Not to mention having already frozen our pay, and cranked up the intensity of performance related pay for beginners. Now, at the start of consultations which will bring statutory changes in 2014, Gove wants to remove all limits on the annual days and hours of work for teachers.  He is also scrapping lunchtimes and the 10 percent protected time for preparation, planning and assessment.  These are part of his department’s submission to the annual School Teachers (Pay) Review Body.  Gove hypocritically claims that teachers would still be left with the “protection” of the European Working Time Directive. This measure was brought in to supposedly ensure people aren’t overworked, with a limit of a 48-hour week. But it doesn’t provide protection for teachers. The way hours are averaged outside term-time means they come out with less than the maximum 48 hours per week allowed. In fact, teachers can work up to 60 hours in term time. This nonsense talk of being “protected” by Europe comes from a politician who supports withdrawing from it. Such changes will be the last straw for many teachers of all ages. They will now want their unions to ramp up action to challenge Gove’s attacks. Labour’s Stephen Twigg made his first pronouncements last week about what his education policies might look like in 2015.  They lacked any real challenge to Gove’s plans.  There was also a complete lack of solidarity with teachers’ unions who are fighting the Tory attacks on education. Leaders of the NASUWT and NUT have to consider how the current programme of action up to November can be spread deeper and wider in the coming months.  Every recent teachers’ strike has enjoyed excellent support. Parents largely respect us—as opposed to politicians.
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London anti-fascists prepare to march against the English Defence League on Saturday
Anti-fascists preparing to march in London against the racist English Defence League (EDL) have announced a new route. Unite Against Fascism iscalling on anti-fascists to assemble at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park at 11am. There will then be a march to Millbank, Westminister. The EDL planned a march to Woolwich but after the Metropolitan police told them they couldn’t go there, they now plan to march from Hyde Park to Westminster. UAF have organised the counter demonstration oppose them. The racists claimed the march was to fundraise for seriously ill two year old Amelia-Mae Davies who suffers from Neuroblastoma, a type of cancer. But a leading children’s cancer charity has refused to accept donations from the English Defence League (EDL). Amelia-Mae will not lose out from the EDL’s sick attempt to use the ill child. The charity, Neuroblastoma Cancer Children’s Alliance have said they will match the donations from the EDL they have refunded. Assemble at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park at 11am. There will then be a march to Millbank, Westminister.
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Unison delegates debate how to take on austerity
Health workers in Unison on strike earlier this year. Strikes have shown workers’ willingness to fight (Pic: Guy Smallman) Deep anger at austerity and the need for an alternative dominated the annual conference of the Unison union last week. Every example of real resistance brought the conference to life – and there were many of them. They included Scottish local government workers balloting over pay, care workers in Rochdale striking against pay cuts or the Kirklees ballot over jobs. The 17 ballots currently underway is a sign of an increasing mood to fight. There was a real tension between the anger from below and the inconsistent leadership from above. This was most clear on the failure to provide a clear lead on a united struggle to break the Tory pay policy. This policy has cut real living standards by up to 18 percent. General secretary Dave Prentis felt compelled to express that anger. He promised a coordinated campaign on pay next year. Prentis called on the TUC, Unite and GMB to organise a demonstration, rally and lobby at the Tory party conference in Manchester on 29 September. This would be in defence of the NHS. He said, “Start organising. Tell them – hands off our NHS, it’s not theirs to sell.” To loud applause he announced that Unison would not support a Labour Party that would continue the vicious assault on welfare and workers. “We will not support a Labour government that does not end the privatisation, market madness and does not restore our NHS,” he said. “We will not support a Labour government which does not restore our facility time and which does not restore workers rights” He also gave Unison’s support to resistance to the hated bedroom tax. “We expect no Labour council to implement the bedroom tax,” he said. “If we were able to stop the poll tax then we can stop the bedroom tax. We will fight for council housing.” TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady backed Prentis’ call for a demonstration at Tory party conference in defence of the NHS. Now the three biggest unions in the country, Unite, Unison and GMB have confirmed they will be organising the demonstration. Unison executive member Karen Reissmann told Socialist Worker, “Now Unison members have to be organising trains and buses to take members and non-members to the Tory party conference.” Tower Hamlets branch submitted an emergency motion expressing solidarity with workers in Bangladesh after the collapse of Rana Plaza. This was unanimously carried. Moving the motion John McLoughlin said, “When we were on strike over our pensions, workers in Bangladesh expressed their solidarity to us. Now we express our solidarity to them and condemn the way capitalism risks workers’ lives in the relentless pursuit of profit.” On Thursday an important motion was put by the National Women’s Committee entitled “Unison women – active, campaigning, leading”. Some 70 percent of Unison members are women and austerity disproportionately hits women. The motion set out plans to empower womens’ fightback through trade union activity, by being involved in campaigns and rooted in branches. Havering Unison branch submitted an amendment for the motion to include making our movement safe for women. A few delegates argued that it ignored violence against men. Pat Jones from Kirklees tackled this argument. She pointed out that women suffered more from violence because of oppression and that fighting austerity gave women the confidence to fight oppression. Delegates supported the principle of the amendment. But many felt that the complexities of dealing with violence required a less clumsily written and more comprehensive policy, and unfortunately the amendment was lost. Over a hundred people packed into a fringe meeting on fighting the bedroom tax at Unison conference on Wednesday of last week. Marion Nisbet from the Scottish Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation urged Unison members to back the resistance to the tax. She received a standing ovation when she called on working class women to join the fightback. And on Thursday over 70 attended a Socialist Workers Party fringe meeting on How do we stop the Tories? Socialist Review editor Mark L Thomas argued that the struggles happening around the world in Turkey, Brazil and Greece show that mass resistance to austerity is far from over. He said, “This government is weak. If we push we can tip them over” Speaking of the 30 general strikes that have happened in Greece, a member of the audience said, “At least one here would be nice!” Fringe meetings showed the desire among Unison members to campaign against the Tories. Unison members will go back to their branches and build for a massive demonstration at the Tory party conference and other campaigns. Marion Nisbet from the Scottish Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation urged Unison members to back the resistance to the tax. She received a standing ovation when she called on working class women to join the fightback. And on Thursday over 70 attended a Socialist Workers Party fringe meeting on How do we stop the Tories? Socialist Review editor Mark L Thomas argued that the struggles happening around the world in Turkey, Brazil and Greece show that mass resistance to austerity is far from over. He said, “This government is weak. If we push we can tip them over” Speaking of the 30 general strikes that have happened in Greece, a member of the audience said, “At least one here would be nice!” Fringe meetings showed the desire among Unison members to campaign against the Tories. Unison members will go back to their branches and build for a massive demonstration at the Tory party conference and other campaigns.
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Letters
Bedroom tax stress wrecks health, but we are resisting  I have never known such a nasty, hated thing as the Tories’ bedroom tax. The Tories say it is needed because of the housing shortage. I think the Tories are speaking out of their backside. We all know this is another number to take more money away from people who need it and create severe poverty. I suffer from anxiety and depression. I have had it many years and it has got worse.  It makes it hard for me to do everyday things. I recently got a letter from Manchester City Council saying I will have to pay £10 a week for the bedroom tax. I started to break down and panic. I’ve lost a lot of sleep worrying about it. It seems to me that this is theft—taking money from people who need it to live on. My doctor has raised the level of my depression tablets and prescribed me another tablet for anxiety. The Tories have no idea what this can do to peoples’ health. I get the Socialist Worker paper now and find it very interesting.  It gives an insight into what can be done to defeat this Tory government. I am so glad that Socialist Worker exists and wants to help people out of distress. Steve West, Manchester I’m one of the coordinators of the anti-eviction army in Scotland.  We have measures in place to prevent any potential evictions due to bedroom tax arrears Scotland-wide.  We need more people to agree to be in place if the need to defend people from eviction in Scotland ever arises.  We are on Facebook and Twitter under the same name where you can find more details. And we welcome anyone on board. We hope to have contact details of people who aren’t on social networks too. Karen Hendry, East Ayrshire Shame on the Greens in Brighton I read your story on the bin workers’ strike (Socialist Worker online, 14 June).  So glad that people are starting to stick up for themselves. Everybody who is or is not being made to suffer all these unfair cuts need to stand together as one.  Show this government that its people will not be treated in this way.  I wish all Brighton bin  workers success—and say shame on the Green Party council leader for imposing these pay cuts.  People should be getting pay increases, not cuts. Annemarie Collins, on Facebook Not nature, nor nurture  I liked the article by John Parrington (Socialist Worker, 15 June) explaining why the arguments in The Anatomy of Violence by Adrian Raine are spurious. These ideas that our biology is in some way to blame for crime are repackaged relentlessly as if they are new. The champions of capitalism cannot bear the idea that maybe their system is at fault. So they say social problems are rooted in the human condition—our genes, our nature or our biology. I don’t think the argument can be reduced to either nature or nurture but the dialectical interaction between the two. Heather Fahone, Swansea Sexist single shows up culture of degradation  The video to Robin Thicke’s number one single Blurred Lines is, like the song, appallingly sexist. YouTube banned the version that shows three women walking around essentially naked while fully dressed men watch them. However the “censored” version is hardly any better. It partially clothes the women. But it does nothing to remove the idea that they’re there purely to pleasure men. They’re also likened to animals—as in the lyrics—with men brushing their hair like pets. This is not a shocking exception.  Treating women as sexual objects is common and feeds into the culture of overt sexism rampant in mainstream entertainment. This culture desperately needs to be challenged. Kate Hurford, South London Protest and defy kettling  It was heartening to read that a legal observer kettled by police on the trade union demonstration on 30 November 2011 has won her case.  She was not released from the kettle until she gave cops her name, and was photographed and filmed. My children were kettled while protesting against tuition fee rises the previous year.  I believe they were harshly treated to give a message to all those planning protests against austerity and cuts.  In the autumn teachers will strike regionally and nationally and we hope other unions will join us.  This needs to be followed by a general strike. We must not let the threat of kettling stop our protests. Sara Tomlinson, South London Singing for the struggle Our band, The Vulnerables, has a single on YouTube called Coalition, about the coalition government. I hope Socialist Worker readers will check it out. I’m sure comrades will love the lyrics—“You coalesce into fiscal mess!” You can see it at youtube.com/watch?v=qfh3E9X31hA Darren Tolliday, Manchester Fascism is on rise in Poland Poland’s fascists are thriving. More than 1,000 delegates attended the founding conference of the Nationalistic Movement, including guests from Jobbik. They are primarily targeting Roma people but also Muslims and non-white foreigners. Activists in the 11 November Agreement are defying them. Maciek Bancarzewski, Stevenage GM food is a Great Mistake The government wants to grow more genetically modified (GM) crops. This means that regulations on growing GM crops could be watered down. But GM crops harm people and the planet. You can find more information for anti-GM campaigners at genewatch.org Debbie Price, Bristol Loadsa money for workers On the Brighton bin strike, I see the bloody council underspent by over four million quid last year! They have tons of money to pay their workers a reasonable rate. Joe Kelly, on Facebook Chuck out the Eton mess! We should take the streets! Rebel long overdue!  Cahit Cetinkaya, on Facebook They need to go before the election! Karen Robins, on Facebook
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Brighton bins: a whiff of workers' power?
Cityclean Refuse workers in the GMB union have suspended strikes for 28 days to ballot on a new offer. They had struck against huge pay cuts for a week until Thursday of last week, when council bosses made the offer. Details have not been released.  The strike was an incredible show of workers’ collective power. Rubbish was piling up within a day. The stench wafted through the streets on the hottest day of the year, with contents from overflowing bins blowing across the streets of the town centre as seagulls swooped to rip open abandoned bin bags. Hundreds picketed the gates of the Cityclean depot for over 12 hours each day. It was clear they had the upper hand. But union officials put forward a plan to bring drivers out alone this week, while other strikers return to work. A number of strikers questioned whether it would not be better to keep up the momentum by calling everyone out together again. The Green-led council’s offer shows the pressure the strike has put them under. Any offer must be judged by how it delivers for the collective—and if it cuts anyone’s pay it should be rejected for further strikes.
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The People's Assembly: people vs austerity
The main hall of the People's Assembly (Pic: Guy Smallman) Some 4,000 people attended the People’s Assembly in London last Saturday. The event proved, without doubt, that there is a mood to take on the Tories in Britain. Socialists, trade unionists, disability rights campaigners, anti-racist activists and others came together to debate how to stop austerity. Crammed workshops discussed building unions, protecting the NHS, defending education, fighting climate change, countering racism and more. A session on economics saw a debate on Keynesianism while anti bedroom tax activists discussed their campaigns in a workshop on tackling the housing crisis. “Getting a council house in the mid 60s made life idyllic,” said Jerry from Cambridge. People debated the best way to win better housing. Paula Peters from Disabled People Against Cuts said, “We need more direct action. Meetings are great but we need people out there.” Throughout the day, people spoke about the need to reject the idea that benefit claimants are “scroungers” or that some people deserve help more than others. It was a breath of fresh air in a situation where every mainstream political party supports cuts and refuses to stand up for ordinary people. There was lots of agreement on the devastating impact of the Tories’ cuts and the need to stop them. But there was debate about the best way to do that.  And there was some frustration that union leaders, some of whom spoke at the event, have failed to lead the kind of fight that can win. TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that the Tories were “waging class war on ordinary people”. She added, “We’ll fight as hard for our people as they fight for theirs.” Anyone who mentioned a general strike, or called on unions to coordinate action, won loud applause. Jenny Sutton from the lecturers’ UCU union spoke in a workshop on re-unionising the UK. “There is no lack of spirit and no lack of willingness to fight,” she said.  “But people are saying we don’t have the leadership from the front to give us the confidence to come out all together and resist this government.” Pat Carmody from the Unite union described how he had built a union branch in a call centre from zero to 120 members. “There are no no-go areas for trade unions,” he said. “When people fight you get people behind you. “Strikes are popular,” he said, to cheers. “Strikes don’t damage unions —they build them. Name the day—we’ll be out.” Len McCluskey, Unite’s general secretary, was cheered when he talked about strikes to defend workers. But he hasn’t called those walkouts. Many people in the audience heckled McCluskey with shouts of “strike”. And while his speech sounded radical, he was careful not to promise very much. McCluskey told the audience that we have to “create the right climate” to call mass industrial action—implying that such a climate doesn’t exist. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka was cheered when he said there was “an awful political consensus across the Tories, the Lib Dems and Labour that austerity is the only way forward”. He said we should be fighting for more than the “austerity lite” on offer from Labour. Serwotka recently called off a plan for a national one-day strike by PCS members on 26 June. But the PCS has been engaged in a series of sectional strikes for the past three months. “We’re now consulting as we know we need to escalate,” he said. “But how much easier if would be if every union joined us.” “If we don’t turn the tide we’ll regret it for decades to come,” he added. “It’s time we fought with our hands untied and socked it to these vicious ruling class bastards.” Organisers of the assembly drew up a declaration. Its goal is to force the government to abandon austerity.  It has called a “national day of civil disobedience and direct action against austerity” on 5 November and plans another National Assembly in spring next year. The assembly showed the potential for building large scale resistance to the Tories. The task now is to make that a reality.  Geraldine (Pic: Socialist Worker) Geraldine Registe, Disabled claimant from west London “I’m on benefits and I’m likely to be evicted. I have a chronic, debilitating health condition and doing too much causes a relapse. But I’ve been put onto Employment Support Allowance and have to look for a job. “It’s not easy trying to live on £60 a week. Everything’s a struggle. I’ve cut my food allowance to around £7 or £8 a week because of the bedroom tax. I eat bread and biscuits.  “Everything in the house is second hand. My clothes are second hand. “I’m getting less and less money to live on. My gas and electricity bills have doubled. I dread the winter because I’ll probably end up owing them money. And even if I did find a job, I wouldn’t keep it because of my health. “I want a socialist government. I don’t vote Labour, I vote for the socialist candidate. Unless Labour reclaims its socialist identity, I can’t vote for them.” Tariq Ali, Author “The only people threatening Britain are its ruling elites. The enemy is always at home. We live in a country where there is no opposition apart from us.” Stand up to racism  Diane Abbott MP spoke at a workshop on immigration, countering racism, Islamophobia and the far right.  Guy Taylor from Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Mohammed Kozbar from the British Muslim Initiative and Sabby Dhalu from Unite Against Fascism (UAF) also spoke. Abbott made a powerful speech. “When you have economic hard times you always see a rise in racism,” she said.  “Anti-immigrant racism has been the classic way of dividing the working class.  “Don’t let people tell you in some kind of phoney workerism that we have to listen to these poor working class people who are unhappy about immigration. “We certainly have to listen to working people about real issues, like the failiure to build enough council housing “Nothing is gained by conceding to myths about immigration.” She added that the Tories aren’t the only party to attack migrants. “People say that the Labour Party in government had an open door policy,” she said. “Well that’s news to me. Actually it brought in some quite draconian policies.” Speakers from the floor discussed the fight against the English Defence League (EDL). Weyman Bennett from UAF said that anti-fascists had hindered the EDL’s attempt to benefit from the recent killing of a solider in Woolwich. “I am sick of seeing [EDL leader] Tommy Robinson on TV,” he said.  “But they were not able to link with the mainstream like the Front National in France has over equal marriage.” Marie Brown, UCU rep at Croydon College “We’ve been put on notice of redundancy and people don’t know what their futures will be.  “People have to reapply for jobs but we don’t even know what the job entails because they are still deciding what to cut. “The cuts in education mean there is a lack of suitable courses for young people. And people are affected by other benefit cuts like the bedroom tax.  “If you’re over 24 you now have to apply for a loan to take a course. People just won’t be in a position to do that.” Salma Yaqoob, Campaigner “Today is fantastic. It is all about inspiring each other. I hope it will give people confidence. “Sometimes people feel cowed and divided. But today shows there are many of us who feel the same way. This is about solidarity and that makes us stronger." Gwen Vardigans, nurse from York “I enjoyed the People’s Assembly tremendously. “I met people here from York who are interested in setting up a north Yorkshire People’s Assembly. I’m going to go to our housing and the health committee and see who else wants to get involved. I don’t really know where it’ll take us yet.” Andy Greene, Disabled People Against the Cuts  “I would like to see coordinated, sustained action against the Tories. We need occupations, street blocking and refusal by workers to administer government policy. “We can beat them. But we need to move people to the point where they think they can change things. It will be interesting to see where the People’s Assembly leads.  “I want it to lead to a movement that is about absolute change and looks for different structures of society.” Tom, NHS worker “I came to the People’s Assembly because I wanted to find out what alternatives there are to the idea that austerity is necessary. “I can’t believe there isn’t a better way to organise things than this.  “I think there needs to be a greater effort to counter the idea that benefit claimants are scroungers.  “And we have to make people feel they have more control because lots of people feel helpless.”  
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Media workers' occupation splits Greek government
The coalition government in Greece split last week in the face of workers’ resistance. Hundreds of media workers have been occupying and working in at the state broadcaster ERT, in defiance of orders to close down two weeks ago.  There have been strikes across the media and a general strike in their support. The Democratic Left party left the government on Friday of last week rather than push ahead with the closure of ERT.  It was the smallest of three parties in the coalition. The Tory-type New Democracy and Labour-type Pasok have formed a new government. These two parties received just 42 percent of the vote between them at the last election—and have since fallen in the polls. Prime minister Antonis Samaras says this government will push on with the closure of ERT and serve out its four year term. But it will first have to try and take back the ERT building from the workers. Then it must win a vote on the closure in parliament despite having a majority of just three MPs.
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Nelson Mandela now critically ill
Nelson Mandela was critically ill in hospital as Socialist Worker went to press.  A government official said that South Africans should not hold out “false hopes” for his recovery. Mandela was elected South Africa’s first black president in 1994 after nearly 30 years of imprisonment by the apartheid regime.
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Cuts push councils to the brink
Councils face going bust across Britain following government funding cuts, MPs have warned. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee said that funding reductions of £7.6 billion by 2015 and increased service demand would pose “serious questions” about the “viability of some councils”. Councils face a new 10 percent cut in the finances they receive from central government.  That is equivalent to £30 million per council. Even council bosses have admitted the cuts could close “children’s centres, museums and sports centres”. Road maintenance budgets could also be reduced, bus fares could rise and street lights could be switched off.
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Is Gove beaten on history?
Tory education secretary Michael Gove seems to have made a major retreat in his attempts to rewrite the school history curriculum.  If leaks to the press are true, a redrafted version will contain less jingoistic bias. The airbrushing of Islamic and African topics has been reversed and the overloaded list of compulsory content reduced to suggestions.Unreasonable expectations for infants to define “nation” or “civilisation” would be replaced by personal and family history. The detail will decide whether the victory amounts to winning the war. But the Defend School History campaign wants to build on these successes. To get involved email andystone2002@yahoo.com
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Strike ballot at Kirklees council to save jobs
Ballot papers for strikes went out to 7,000 Unison union members in Kirklees Council last week. The ballot was sparked by the Labour-run council making two Unison members redundant at Ashbrow school in Huddersfield. These are the first compulsory redundancies imposed by the council. The Unison branch is invoking its longstanding policy of opposing compulsory redundancies. Union members are holding meetings across the council to campaign for a yes vote. Action is due to start the week starting 23 July
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Rail workers step up jobs campaign
Rail union RMT was holding its annual general meeting in Brighton as Socialist Worker went to press Delegates agreed to step up their ongoing campaign against agencies and the casualisation of jobs on the railways. They discussed engineering workers hired on day rates, and demanded that every worker have decent pay and conditions.
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Capita agree to deal after ballot
The CWU union has withdrawn a strike ballot after reaching a deal over plans to outsource Telefonica O2 to Capita. In the agreement Capita denies that it has no “foreseeable plans” to close or downsize any sites.  It also agreed to maintain pay, and terms and conditions.  And formal trade union recognition for collective bargaining has been agreed on the four O2 sites represented by the CWU. The jobs are still being outsourced. But the strike ballot forced the intense negotiations that led to the improved deal for workers.
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Schools round up
The GMB union could call strikes in several Sheffield schools over threats to sack support workers. The council issued 58 redundancy notices at 19 schools, and wants to downgrade staff at seven more. The NUT union called off a planned strike at Dormers Wells Junior School in Southall, west London, last week after forcing management to back down over excessive observations.
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Egypt's Revolutionary Socialists call for general strike until the fall of the regime
The Rebel protests Today, Sunday 30 June, comes as the third thunderous wave of the great January Revolution. Then millions of Egyptians came out demanding bread, freedom, social justice and human dignity in order to overthrow the regime of tyranny and exploitation. Thousands of martyrs and wounded paid a price in blood for the victory of the revolution which threw down the head of the regime and his cronies. After a year of rule by the Muslim Brotherhood, we find they have chosen to walk the same path: they are against the people and with the bosses. They have substituted Muslim Brotherhood billionaire Khairat al-Shater for the old regime's business leader Ahmed Ezz and are seeking reconciliation with those who have pillaged Egypt for 30 years. We have seen them go begging to the International Monetary Fund and the countries of the world. We have heard the lies of the Brotherhood's “Renaissance Project” electoral programme and seen them fall into the arms of the US and “our friend” Israeli president Shimon Peres. Dozens of martyrs and injured have fallen at the hands of the Brotherhood. This is a failed regime, headed by a lying president who even breaks promises to his Salafist allies. The people have decreed the downfall of this failed regime. They have withdrawn their confidence because it has betrayed the goals of the revolution, working instead for the benefit of the Brotherhood itself. But we must learn the lessons of January. The biggest mistake we made was to leave the streets with nothing more than promises from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces which made a deal under American auspices to deliver the country to the Brotherhood in return for a safe exit for its leaders who would not be held to account. Today we will not leave the streets until we have achieved our demands: The overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood’s failed regime and the withdrawal of confidence from its president Mohamed Mursi The formation of a revolutionary government to manage the transitional period, the first of whose priorities will be the issue of social justice and security The head of the revolutionary government shall be barred from candidacy in early presidential elections After our great revolution, Egypt deserves revolutionary democracy, in order to achieve freedom, social justice and national dignity. Egyptians cannot remain forever trapped between two failed alternatives, the Brotherhood or the military whether of Mubarak or Field Marshall Tantawi. The Revolutionary Socialists will come out with the masses and the revolutionaries in the third wave of the revolution, after the first two waves overthrew Mubarak and the Military Council, in order to get rid of this third version of the regime of tyranny and exploitation. We call on all revolutionaries in Egypt to unite behind the goals of the January Revolution. We call on all Egyptians who work for a wage to join a general strike in order to win the battle against the regime of tyranny and exploitation, just as strikes won our battle against Mubarak on 9 and 10 February 2011. Glory to the martyrs – Victory to the Revolution – Shame on the murderers All power and wealth to the people! This is a translation of a Revolutionary Socialists statement
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News in brief
Nuclear waste costs explode The cost of dealing with nuclear waste in Britain has soared according to the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. It says cleaning radioactive waste will cost £100 billion—almost double the 2005 estimate of £56 billion. £3,000 deposit to enter Britain Visitors to Britain from African and Asian countries such as India and Nigeria could be forced to pay a £3,000 deposit for a visa.  Tory home secretary Theresa May announced the policy. It would target people who the Tories claim might stay in Britain after their visa expires. No review for Duggan family Judges have denied the family of Mark Duggan a review into police procedures. Mark was shot by police in August 2011, leading to riots in England. Cops changed their stories several times. Mark’s family wanted a review to stop police from comparing notes. Protester faces deportation Trenton Oldfield, who disrupted the Oxford-Cambridge boat race last year in protest at inequality, faces deportation. Trenton, originally from Australia, has lived in Britain for 10 years. Sign the petition to stop the deportation at chn.ge/14kpubH  
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Strikes at Chesterfield and Kirklees colleges
Lively pickets at Kirklees college, Huddersfield, last week (Pic: Martin Jones) Kirklees college Lecturers in the UCU union struck at Kirklees College in Huddersfield and in Dewsbury on Thursday of this week. They face compulsory redundancies and changes to their conditions. The college wants to change the contracts of 60 lecturers including moving from 52 weeks a year contracts to 39 weeks. The staff will lose between £2,000 and £12,000.  There was a very lively, vibrant and militant atmosphere on the picket line with 70 pickets present—many more than in previous strikes. Chesterfield college Lecturers at Chesterfield College struck on Tuesday and Thursday of last week against compulsory redundancies. The walkout, by UCU and NASUWT union members, won lots of support from other trade unionists and students. “We’ve had the best picket lines we’ve ever had,” said UCU branch chair Allister Mactaggart. “People are really up for fighting. Lots of people who could be made redundant have worked here for years.” UCU members were set to meet as Socialist Worker went to press and decide their next steps. Bosses want to impose compulsory redundancies on 70 workers by 31 August. Workers were set to find out this week who would be affected. Allister said, “The technicians in the Unison union only found out what’s happening to them this week. They face pay cuts and other nasty attacks. This means there might be a chance to broaden the campaign.” There are fewer students now because of exams, so unions haven’t yet called further strikes. But they are planning stunts and a meeting with the local Labour MP.  
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Mass protests hit Egypt's Mursi
Some 15 million Egyptians have signed a petition calling on Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Mursi to stand down and call elections. The campaign plans mass demonstrations this Sunday. The police and army have officially refused to protect the Muslim Brotherhood on the day.  It is now organising militias to defend its offices.
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South east London bin workers set to strike for three days
Refuse workers in two south east London councils are set to walk out from Tuesday to Thursday of next week for better pay. Workers employed by Veolia Environmental Services for Croydon council voted last week to strike against a below inflation 2 percent pay offer.  It follows an overwhelming strike vote by Veolia refuse workers at nearby Bromley council. They are members of the Unite union.
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Solidarity of the oppressed makes resistance stronger
Pride—fighting for liberation (Pic: Geoff Dexter) On Channel Four’s 4thought last Monday, LGBT activist Bisi Alimi described the violent homophobia he suffered in Nigeria.  He was surprised at the tolerance of LGBT people he found when he came to Britain.  Sporting a Love Music Hate Homophobia T-shirt he insisted that Pride should be about international solidarity and protest more than lifestyle celebration and “coming out to play”. He is right.  We celebrate the gains of decades of struggle, like same sex marriage, particularly through the trade unions.  But the first gay pride marches in the early 1970s were out and proud celebrations of the Stonewall rebellion against homophobia and police brutality. Opinion polls show more acceptance of LGBT people in Britain, especially among young people. But we cannot be complacent.  In the context of cuts and growing class anger, the right need scapegoats, whether LGBT people, Muslims, or the “underserving poor”. Attacks The warnings are there. Polari editor Christopher Bryant and his partner were physically attacked recently.  Most Tory MPs voted against same-sex marriage, Ukip opposes gay marriage and local Ukip members have issued homophobic leaflets.  Earlier this year we saw vicious transphobic attacks in the Mail on transgender teacher Lucy Meadows, who later killed herself.  LGBT people are hit disproportionately by the cuts. They are obvious ideological scapegoats but we all face George Osborne’s £11.5 billion further cuts. Scapegoating has gone much further elsewhere.  In Greece’s economic and social crisis, the right, particularly the fascists of Golden Dawn, whip up bigotry and homophobic violence. LGBT hate crimes and attacks on migrants have escalated.  France has seen huge marches against same-sex marriage, despite the passing of the legislation. A young  anti-homophobia activist was recently murdered by fascists.  Here, attacks on Muslims, and arson attacks on mosques and community centres, have mushroomed since the killing of soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich.   Anti-fascist mobilisations are crucial to block the growth of fascist organisations like the English Defence League and British National Party. The conclusions for LGBT people are clear.  The ruling class wants to use homophobia, transphobia and Islamophobia to split working class unity and resistance to austerity. Liberation  Any strategy for LGBT liberation based on lobbying politicians and big business, by Stonewall and others, is fatally flawed.  It disarms LGBT struggle itself and shatters links with the forces in the working class who could break the Tories if we act together. LGBT people fighting bigotry must stand with Muslims.  We should recognise that if they come for the Muslims in the morning they will come for us in the afternoon. Our strategy should be to bring Turkey’s Taksim Square and Brazil—where gay rights organisations have played a very public role—to Britain.  Together LGBT and straight, black and white, Muslim and non-Muslim we are stronger and weaker when we fight separately.  Pride should be about political protest and about building unity in action with all those fighting austerity. London Pride takes place on Saturday 29 June. londoncommunitypride.org
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Portugual's workers set for general strike
A general strike against austerity looked set to shut down Portugal on Thursday of this week. It is only the second general strike backed by both main union federations since Portugal’s bailout in 2011. More sectors of workers came onboard last week, and the national railway company said it couldn’t take bookings for the day. The CGTP union federation has called for the government to resign. It has been in turmoil since April when the Constitutional Court ruled some of its planned cuts illegal. It came up with alternative measures, including a later retirement age.
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EDL graffiti and swastikas daubed on Redditch mosque
Racists broke in and vandalised a mosque in Redditch, Worcestershire, in the early hours of this morning, Wednesday. Swastikas and the letters EDL—initials of racist English Defence League—were sprayed on the walls of the Redditch Central Mosque. Fascist graffiti was also sprayed on the windows. This latest attack comes after a bomb went off outside a mosque in Walsall last Friday. Earlier this month an Islamic centre in Muswell Hill, North London, was destroyed in an apparent arson attack and the initials EDL were also found on the burned out building. This Saturday, 29 June, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) has called a demonstration to oppose EDL plans to march from Hyde Park to Woolwich. UAF are calling on anti-fascists to assemble 11am at Speakers Corner. The EDL are calling their march a “Walk of Honour” to lay flowers for Lee Rigby on Armed Forces Day. Also, in a desperate attempt to win support and scupper a counter demonstration, the EDL claim they are fundraising for a sick child. Islamophobes from the US, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, were lined up to spout their hate at the EDL rally in Hyde Park. But they have been banned from coming to Britain by the Home Office following a campaign. Anders Behring Breivik, the Norwegian fascist mass murderer, quoted Spencer and Geller many times in his “manifesto”. On Saturday the EDL want to whip up the same race hatred that has seen mosques attacked around the country. Join the UAF counter demonstration to oppose them. Assemble 11am, Speakers Corner, Hyde Park, London (Marble Arch tube). UAF advise those attending to bring a travelcard. uaf.org.uk  
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Teachers walk out across the north west of England
Picket line at Cowley international college, St Helens (Pic: Debs Gwynn) Teachers across the north west of England are on strike to defend their pay, pensions and conditions. The walkout hit more than 2,700 schools today, Thursday. It's the first in a series of planned strikes by the NUT and NASUWT unions. Sue Bannister is an NUT member in Liverpool. She told Socialist Worker, "We are under sustained attack. What have we done to deserve it? "My son's going into teaching. His course will cost £27,000 not to mention loans he'll need to live on. "And all for something Gove says we don't care about." Strikers report widespread support from parents and other workers on their picket lines. Mark Bell also teaches in Liverpool. "When children talk about what their parents think there's a lot of anti-Gove feeling," he told Socialist Worker. "Parents value teachers. People are really behind the strike in my school. There's a real determination to stand up." Teachers gather at the assembly point in Liverpool (Pic: Julie Sherry) Messages of support have flooded in. In London and elsewhere groups of teachers are wearing green T-shirts to show their support. And the PCS union has organised lunchtime protests today in solidarity with the strike. Workers have won international backing too. Teachers in New Zealand tweeted a solidarity message reading “kia kaha”—stay strong in Maori. NASUWT member Andrew McBurney said he wants to see "sustained action so the government starts listening". "It’s not enough to keep your head down and get on with it," he said. "I've not had a pay rise for three years and the cost of living keeps going up. Something’s got to change." Teachers are rallying in Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Chester. The scale of the support for the action smashes the myth that strikes are unpopular. In reality millions of ordinary people are suffering under the Tories and want to see them stopped. We need more action like today's teachers' strike so that we can beat them. As Sue put it, "We should be going in the direction of a general strike. Look at Greece and Turkey. We need to fight like they are." Send reports and pictures from picket lines, rallies and solidarity events to reports@socialistworker.co.uk  
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Tories’ fire cuts will cost lives—and they know it
Firefighters marching against cuts in Brixton, south London (Pic: Guy Smallman) Thousands of firefighters’ jobs have gone since the Tories took office. But the latest round of cuts is the most dangerous yet, says Simon Basketter Every minute counts when it comes to rescuing people from fire. But as far as the Tories are concerned, there’s plenty of time to spare. Former fat cat fire chief Sir Ken Knight produced a review for the government last month laying out his plans for the service. He suggested privatisation and cuts. Thousands of fire service jobs have already gone and stations have closed, but Knight believes many more should follow. Sir Ken seems to think that waiting longer for a fire engine is no more inconvenient than waiting for a bus. Matt Wrack, leader of the firefighters’ FBU union, knows better. He says the cuts will kill—and that the review was “just a fig leaf for slashing our fire and rescue service to bits”. “Last year alone a further 1,200 firefighters’ jobs were cut,” he said. In total, the UK now has over 3,500 fewer firefighters than when the coalition government came to office. This is a 6.6 percent cut in ­frontline firefighter jobs in just three years. Frontline  There have also been cuts in non?uniform support roles, with around 1,300 jobs cut in three years. Last year, some 300 support jobs were cut across the UK.  This means that people desperately waiting to be cut out of a car in an accident, or directed out of a smoke-filled building, will have to wait longer. The government claims that a drop in callouts and deaths justify the cuts. Total fire deaths rose from 937 in 1981-82 to a peak of 967 in 1985?86.  But there were just 380 fire deaths in 2011-12. That represents a 61 percent decrease. The drop in deaths is pretty similar regardless of type of fire. These figures on fires and fire deaths show longstanding improvements. Many of these them predate a move to focus on fire prevention. But a falling number of fire deaths shouldn’t be seen as a reason to cut the people who are bringing the numbers down. It takes the same number of fire appliances to put out a fire, regardless of how often they occur. One nasty way the government justifies cuts is by saying they will cause only small changes to response times—the time it takes a crew to get to a fire. But the differences aren’t that small. Depending which government figure you use, response times have risen by over two minutes in the last decade.  In a report published in 2009, the government said the slowing of response times was because of increased traffic.  But in 2012 its own figures showed that traffic levels peaked in 2007, but response times continued to rise.  Five years ago firefighters were able to reach one in three incidents in five minutes or less. In 2011-12, when there were fewer fires, this had dropped to just one in six. But don’t expect these stubborn facts to get in the way of the Tories and their plans. Twice as long to get help  The Tories’ plan for fire services in London would double response times in many places.  For example, in Clapham, south London, response times will rise from three minutes 56 seconds to seven minutes 53 seconds.  Clapham town station sent the first engines to the recent fire after a helicopter crash in Vauxhall. It is earmarked for closure.    In Bow East, the response time will be seven minutes 20 seconds if the Tory cuts go through, up from four minutes nine seconds. Alarms can’t replace crews  The Tories say that it doesn’t matter if response times rise because most people now have fire alarms. Some 8 percent of households had smoke alarms in 1988. By 2008 this had risen to 86 percent. But 39 percent of battery alarms failed to operate in a fire. More than a quarter, 27 percent, of all fire alarms failed last year. Some 95 percent of all automatic fire alarm signals were false or unwanted.  And fire alarms alone don’t guarantee that people will escape fire. Knight in slimy armour The government expects firefighters to work longer for a worse pension. In contrast, fire boss Sir Ken Knight pocketed a huge 17.5 percent pay increase of £26,000 from the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority in 2006.  It took his salary up to £175,000. He was 59 at the time and got a lump sum of almost £400,000.
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Rotten cops are policing their reputation
Revelations that the police spied on the family of murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence to try and smear them will appal most people. The cops refused to take investigating Stephen’s racist murder seriously. Some officers had links with relatives of the suspects. Their handling of the killing exposed the corruption and racism at the heart of the police. They lost legitimacy in the eyes of millions. But this wasn’t only a concern for the cops—it was a concern for the whole establishment. The police don’t exist to protect us from crime. They are a key part of the state and their role is to protect our rulers’ property and interests. But to do this effectively, they also have to protect themselves and their reputation. That’s why it made sense to them to spend time trying to discredit the Lawrence family.  It’s why the police spread lies about Liverpool football fans in the wake of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Our rulers are sometimes forced to criticise the cops. But they only do so to try and shut down any deeper investigation of police behaviour. The revelations about police spying aren’t just an indictment of the cops.  They are an indictment of the whole rotten system we live in —and one more reason why we need to get rid of it.
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NHS officials accused of covering up investigation into Furness maternity deaths
At least 15 newborn babies and three mothers died at Furness General Hospital between 2002 and 2009 (Pic: Anthony Sinton) A new report accuses Care Quality Commission (CQC) bosses of covering up a critical report into patient care at Furness General Hospital in Cumbria.  The CQC is an NHS watchdog, which is supposed to oversee care in Britain’s hospitals. The three managers accused of the cover up are Cynthia Bower, Anna Jefferson and Jill Finney. Jefferson is still CQC’s media manager.  She reportedly said of the results of the original investigation in 2011, “Are you kidding me? This can never be in a public domain”. That investigation was triggered by a family member’s complaint and a whistleblower at the CQC.  At least 15 newborn babies and three mothers died and 38 babies were stillborn at the hospital between 2002 and 2009.  These figures are much higher than would normally be expected.  The hospital became part of Morecombe Bay NHS Foundation Trust in 2010. David Prior took over as chair of the CQC earlier this year. He admitted that it was “not set up then—and we’re not fully set up now—to investigate hospitals”. The CQC, set up in 2009, was designed to help hospitals become foundation trusts. It relied mainly on data supplied by hospitals themselves—allowing NHS managers to police themselves. The CQC’s budget was two thirds less than its predecessor, the Healthcare Commission. The number of inspections was cut by 70 percent.  Yet the CQC was responsible for inspecting 400 NHS Trusts, 9,000 dentist surgeries, 8,000 doctors’ surgeries and 18,000 care homes. Cynthia Bower, chief executive of CQC, finally left in September 2012 with a pension of £1.35 million. Her salary had been £204,000 a year.  Bower had been chief executive of the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority from 2006.  This should have investigated the high death rates at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust—but it didn’t.  Up to 1,200 people may have died unnecessarily there due to neglect and poor treatment between 2005 and 2009. Tory health minister Jeremy Hunt is using disasters such as at Furness and Stafford hospitals to discredit the NHS and its staff.  The Health and Social Care Act means every NHS service must now be offered to private companies. The doctors’ BMA conference this week condemned Hunt in a no confidence vote.  Kambiz Boomla, a GP in east London, said, “CQC was prepared to ride roughshod over all clinical concerns to help the Department of Health reach its targets”. Defend the NHS national protest, Sunday 29 September, outside the Tory Party conference in Manchester 
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Smart contractors line up for £12 billion gas meter bonanza
Notorious security firm G4S could soon be brought into every home in Britain, thanks to a new government mega-contract. Bidding is underway for the mass rollout of “smart” gas meters, due to begin in 2015. Ministers expect this to take five years and cost £12 billion, but it’s exactly the kind of project that always ends up making a mockery of budgets and deadlines. And, of course, it’s started a feeding frenzy for the juicy government fees. G4S is up against Capita to take over managing the project. After they did such a good job of security at the Olympics, we just know that’ll end well. There are other contracts for IT and telecoms firms to work themselves into a bidding frenzy over. It’s been described as “the largest technology project in Europe, bar none”. Why is it such a mammoth task to do something as simple as measure how much energy we use? Well, it isn’t—in any other country. Britain’s energy network has been so intensively privatised and deregulated that it’s hideously complicated. Too bad the Tories’ only solution is to give more public money to private firms. Drug companies have been caught plotting to rip off the NHS. Sales reps from firms including Temag, Quantum and Pharmarama International were recorded by journalists posing as investors in a fake new high street chemist. They planned to double the charges on 20,000 “special” drugs that are not covered by NHS price rules, and split the extra profit with chemists.  Tory health minister Jeremy Hunt said the apparent racket was “deeply concerning”. But the Tories’ Health and Social Care Act has put big chunks of the NHS in the hands of private companies like United Health and Hospital Corporation of America. They know a thing or two about fraud—having fraudulently claimed billions from the US government. Football fans united Fans of rival football teams are not generally known for getting over their differences. But a new TV deal has seen them turning their chants against a common enemy—the owners. Fans of 40 teams, including well known friends, Liverpool and Man Utd, marched on the Premier League last week. Bosses got £5.5 billion from a deal with Sky Sports but are still hiking up ticket prices. Rough sleeping in London rises under Boris More than twice as many people are sleeping rough on the streets of London than when Tory Boris Johnson first became mayor and pledged to end the crisis. The official count reached 6,437 last year.  That’s up 13 percent from the year before. Charities blame benefit cuts, soaring rents and hostel closures.  The racist rumour that fooled the net Whoever let the truth get in the way of “going viral”? An “attack” on 12 year old Phoebe Gibbons in Bolton last week led to a report in the local paper, a police investigation—and posts on the English Defence League’s pages online. It was fuelled by reports blaming a gang of immigrants. But no attack ever happened. Phoebe had simply fallen off her bike. Her mum said the take up of the attack story was “scary”. “I am utterly shocked at how wrong these people were,” she said. “They’ve taken rumours and spun it into fact and others have swallowed it hook, line and sinker”. The Labour Party has convinced itself that voters hate immigration. But a poll by YouGov showed how easy it is to change minds. One person in six opposed to immigration was swayed when shown a set of figures on how migrants help the economy. Just imagine the effect if Labour stopped pandering to racism. Bored at work? You’re not alone Seven workers in ten are “not engaged” in their work according to US pollsters Gallup. Millions are “actively disengaged”—in other words, they positively despise their job. And three out of four workers in Britain wish they’d chosen different careers. As more people work longer, on worse conditions and for less money, this seems easy enough to explain. But who are the other three who don’t hate their jobs? Try a little happiness Remember David Cameron’s plan to measure “the nation’s happiness”? Well the results are in—and the years of our working lives are the most miserable. The Office for National Statistics says most of us are on a “downward trend” from our teens to late middle age, only to bounce back when it’s time to retire. Maybe Tory plans to keep pushing back the retirement age will turn off that light at the end of the tunnel. Bored at work? You’re not alone Seven workers in ten are “not engaged” in their work according to US pollsters Gallup. Millions are “actively disengaged”—in other words, they positively despise their job. And three out of four workers in Britain wish they’d chosen different careers. As more people work longer, on worse conditions and for less money, this seems easy enough to explain. But who are the other three who don’t hate their jobs? Cut in half! Pay cuts for the poorest The lowest paid public sector workers will have lost more than half their income between the last election and the next Frozen pay, higher VAT, benefit cuts and higher prices all add up according to research by Unison Thousands of families with children will have lost 20 or 30 percent by 2015 But average pay for big bosses went up more than 10 percent last year alone Hypocrisy is just the job We agree with Labour MP Hazel Blears that unpaid internships are a “modern day scandal” to campaign against. Maybe she could start by campaigning against herself. Blears runs Kids With Connections—a “speed dating” scheme to match unemployed youngsters with unpaid placements. She said one event was so “fantastic” that firms such as Fujitsu went away with more unpaid workers than they’d come for. Yep, Hazel. Fantastic!
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The markets panic as central banks try and remove support
The markets - one of the few things our rulers care about (Pic: Travel Aficionado) Global stock markets plummeted on Thursday of last week, as the US Federal Reserve revealed plans to scale back its programme of printing money. It was Wall Street’s worst day for 18 months, and there were sharp falls on markets in Europe and Asia too.  By Friday there was some recovery but it was a stark reminder of the fragility of the world economy. Five years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, governments are gambling that they are—as George Osborne put it—out of “intensive care”.  They are trying to get away from the measures they took to halt the financial meltdown. In Britain this means selling off the government’s shares in bailed out banks—at a loss. Osborne says he’s ready to sell the stake in Lloyds now. He also pushed Stephen Hester out at RBS to split it into a “bad bank” for the government and a “good bank” to sell off. But the new banking regulator is warning that all Britain’s biggest banks are still vulnerable to failures.  And the Cooperative bank only narrowly avoided bankruptcy this month. The other aspect is stopping printing money, or quantitative easing.  Bank of England governor Mervyn King lost his last vote before retiring last week.  He wanted to pump out another £25 billion, but was outvoted by bankers who said recovery was on the way. Risk This is risky in Britain, but it’s a vastly bigger risk in the US where the Federal Reserve has spent £54 billion every month. Top banker Ben Bernanke thinks the programme has served its purpose. He revealed plans last week to cut it back this year and abolish it in the middle of next. That caused the markets’ panic—without the Fed’s cheap credit many firms could fall back into crisis. China could already be teetering on the brink of its own new credit crunch.  Interest rates that Chinese banks charge to each other reached new highs last week. China mostly avoided the crisis because its government spent billions and its banks rushed out loans to help firms cope with lower demand from the recession-hit West. But many of those loans are taking heavy losses.  And the Chinese government and central bank are cutting spending and cheap credit in response to its economic slow down. Much of China’s banking system is illegal and made up of unregulated “shadow banks”. This obscures the real state of China’s banks. The threat of a Chinese crunch at the same time as the end of free money from the US has given the markets a scare.  It could easily give them much more than that.
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Rubber workers are bouncing back
Around 50 workers at VIP Polymers in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire were set to strike on Wednesday of this week. They are members of the GMB union who make rubber seals. It is their second 24 hour strike against a 10 percent pay cut and attacks on their terms and conditions announced in April.
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Protests force climbdown in Brazil - but anger continues
Protests against police repression in Sao Paolo last week (Pic: Alex Almedia Creative Commons) Mass protests forced major concessions from Brazil’s government last week. More than a million people took part in victory demonstrations on Thursday after city governments reduced bus fares—the issue that sparked the protests. President Dilma Rousseff announced more concessions the following day. They included diverting all the state’s income from oil towards education spending. Mass protests exploded two weeks ago following police violence against a smaller demonstration in Sao Paolo. They struck a chord with ordinary Brazilians who resent the billions being spent on international football tournaments and the Olympics while they are in poverty. Sean Purdey is an activist in the PSOL socialist party in Sao Paolo. He told Socialist Worker, “These tensions have been building for a long time over a number of issues. “There are lots of parallels with Turkey. Turkey has seen relative prosperity for 20 years and living standards have improved. “But that raises people’s expectations too.  “People have started asking why babies are dying in underfunded hospitals while billions are spent on new stadiums.” Footballers Sean added that footballers are backing the movement on TV—in a country where football enjoys mass support. “It means things are really serious,” he said. The corrupt New Labour-type Workers’ Party (PT) has run Brazil’s government for decades.  It has used revenues from exports to try and develop Brazil as a regional superpower. Building new roads and dams, and expanding agriculture in rainforest regions has led to brutal conflict between the state and its indigenous population. But much of the left is seen as close to the government.  Some protesters even attacked delegations of left parties and trade unions on victory demonstrations in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro. Sean said, “Right wing parties and fascists had an organised presence, but they didn’t lead this.  “There were huge numbers of young people who attacked simply because they identify ‘politics’, the left and the unions with the PT  government. The PT betrayals have created a political vacuum”. Organisers of the Free Fares movement against bus fare increases said they would stop  calling protests to avoid being hijacked by the right. This has given government supporters an opening to attack the left for backing protests. But the anger isn’t going away. Last week saw a small wave of strikes, including 1,000 metal workers in Sao Paolo. And militant demonstrations around local demands continued into this week.
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Universities and colleges round up
UCU union members at the University of Liverpool have voted unanimously to ballot for strikes. Bosses say they’ll dismiss lecturers who won’t work weekends, evenings and bank holidays for no extra pay. Coleg Gwent lecturers passed a vote of no confidence in the principal after two UCU union reps were suspended on the day bosses announced possible redundancies. They also voted for a strike ballot.
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The distinct danger of fascism
Extreme right and even openly fascist parties with a mass following are on the rise across Europe. The fascist BNP aims to emulate Nazi parties abroad (Pic: Guy Smallman) In Greece Golden Dawn thugs target migrants for beatings, while in Hungary the black-uniformed activists of Jobbik organise pogroms against Roma people.  Such parties are also gaining electoral support. Golden Dawn polls 10 percent, making it the third most popular party, while the French Front National (FN) polled 46.2 percent in a recent by-election. In Britain the threat is less immediate. But relatively small organisations, such as the English Defence League and the British National Party, aim to emulate their European cousins. Mainstream commentators hesitate to label such organisations as “fascist”. They say it is lazy to compare today’s extreme right to the parties of Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany. The horrors of Hitler’s regime in the 1930s and 40s leave a long shadow. All independent organisations  from the Communist Party to the Boy Scouts were banned.  The Nazis killed millions of people they saw as inferior in the Holocaust—because they were Jewish, LGBT, Roma or disabled. Partly to avoid association with Hitler, many contemporary movements have to put on a respectable outward appearance. But they maintain a commitment to fascist ideas. The uncertainty about who to call a fascist reflects a widespread confusion about what fascism is and why it differs from other forms of dictatorship. Leon Trotsky, the great Russian revolutionary, was the first to describe the key differences between fascism and other forms of authoritarian rule.  When they emerged in the crises of the 1920s fascists were marked out by their use of a dual strategy. They both participated in democratic politics using populist right wing language, and organised terror gangs to attack the left and other opponents. In earlier eras, Trotsky noted, the ruling class typically relied on the army to put down revolts. But capitalism gave rise to new forms of politics in which huge numbers of people played an active role.  Now old forms of control were less effective. The police were too easily outnumbered and the army was prone to mutiny. That created the need for another way of maintaining order—a mass movement that could counter the mass movements of the workers—fascism. Trotsky argued that fascist organisation was dominated by the middle classes—managers, shop keepers and the self employed. Crisis In normal times most of this layer supports mainstream parties. But in an economic crisis they can become rabid and search for more extreme solutions. The ruling class—the bourgeoisie—has vast reserves of wealth which sees it through economic depression. Workers have unions that offer some protection. But the middle classes feel isolated and defenceless. The fascist movement offers them a taste of power.  “Fascism unites and arms the scattered masses. Out of human dust it organises combat detachments,” Trotsky wrote. “It thus gives the petty bourgeoisie the illusion of being an independent force. It turns worms into dragons.” Fascism promises the middle classes a “third way” of organising society—neither capitalist nor socialist. However, on taking power, fascism always leaves the fundamentals of capitalist society untouched. There are other ways in which fascism seeks to appeal to middle class prejudices. Racism is key to all contemporary fascist movements, attracting new supporters and binding them together with the old.  Antisemitism was the main form of racism in the 1930s. Today Islamophobia and anti-Roma racism predominate—though the parties remain antisemitic. There is an important relationship between the racism of fascist parties and that of the state and the main political parties. The ruling class cultivates prejudice to distract from its own responsibility for crisis. The fascists seek to sharpen prejudice into a political weapon that can drag the whole political establishment to the right. This process has been at work in France for decades. Mainstream politicians sought to “steal” anti-immigrant policies from the fascist FN in a bid to undercut its electoral support. The FN was flattered, asking voters whether they prefer “the original or the copy?” Rather than denting the FN’s support, politicians gave the party credibility. And, in the process, they gave confidence to every racist—fascist or not. By constantly increasing the intensity of their racist rhetoric and action, fascists aim to create an active mass movement behind them. Only that gives them the means to counter other forces, especially the organised working class which is capable of blocking their plans. They need more than votes. They need supporters prepared to face up to the risks involved in smashing resistance. Hitler’s storm troopers built in strength through street violence.  Crush The Nazis needed to crush opposition in every street, every housing estate, every factory, every office and every school. Even Jobbik and Golden Dawn are far from developing any such capability today. But in a political crisis the situation can change rapidly. To fail in identifying them as fascist and smashing their nucleus before they achieve this is to leave the battle until it is too late.  By showing they can control the streets, the fascists hope to convince the ruling class and the state to swing behind their bid for power. Both Hitler and Mussolini relied on the bourgeois parties to give them power. The creation of a fascist regime is a last desperate gamble of our rulers trying to cling to power. For the ruling class to consider such a move, it must believe that it faces a crisis it can’t escape by ordinary means and that the fascists can offer stability. But the fascists only give the impression of invincibility when the left fails to unite to push them back.
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We need action to defend our fire service and firefighters' pensions
Firefighters protesting against cuts in Bow, east London, earlier this month (Pic: Stuart Curlett) Some 200 firefighters halted London mayor Boris Johnson’s question time event last week. As we shouted, Johnson looked down at his feet complained that this was happening on his birthday.  The mayor’s plans to cut 12 more fire stations and 18 pumps will cost 518 firefighters’ jobs. The bumbling buffoon tried to use humour to duck the truth that his cuts will lead to longer response times, and therefore increase fire deaths.  But firefighters jeered at him and called him a clown. James Cleverly, the Tory chair of the London Fire Authority, tried to shift the focus onto Labour by asking them if they would reverse the cuts in office.  True to form, Labour wouldn’t give any such commitment. That’s a reminder that the only force we can rely on is ourselves. We have the ability to take collective action—regardless of which political party is in office.  This is now the central question facing FBU members. Johnson’s public consultation has ended but the campaign to stop the cuts has not. Every FBU member should argue for the union to step up the fight and ballot for industrial action. At FBU national conference in May we voted unanimously to back a call for strikes. But the union is once again in talks that seem to have no deadline attached at all. It is time to get tough with the government. We need to let them know we are serious about fighting to defend our pensions and our service. A new rank and file grouping called Red Watch has been launched inside the FBU. It aims to build a left network that can resist the attacks we face. Go to red-watch.co.uk
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PCS calls workplace protests across the civil service
The protests follow strikes across the civil service this month (Pic: Dave Franklin) Civil service workers in the PCS union are set to protest in workplaces around Britain on Thursday of this week. This will take the form of lunchtime rallies and tours of different workplaces. Workers will be visiting numerous PCS workplaces in Birmingham, starting at Ravenhurst DWP at 12 noon. PCS members from across London will rally from 12.30 outside the government building at 100 Parliament Street in Westminster. Speakers include PCS assistant general secretary Chris Baugh. This is part of the out of work hours protest activity that the union executive announced would happen in the place of strikes. Some 800 PCS branches are to be consulted about what the next stage of the campaign against cuts to jobs, pay and working conditions will look like. It is important for all PCS members to make the most of this week’s protest activity—in order to keep up the pressure for the union to call co-ordinated strikes. Contact your local PCS branch for more details.
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Royal Mail could face a national walkout
Pay, pensions and privatisation could form the basis for a national strike in Royal Mail, according to CWU union activists.  A recent ballot of 112,000 delivery and mail centre staff by the CWU union showed that 96 percent oppose the Tories’ planned sell-off of Royal Mail. More than nine out of ten voted to boycott handling mail from rival companies to Royal Mail. Workers fear that jobs will be hit by unfair competition. Royal Mail bosses say that any union refusal to handle mail would be unlawful. They say they are prepared to take the CWU to court to stop it. But now another front has opened up.  The government took over responsibility for funding a £9.5 billion shortfall in Royal Mail pensions last year. This was in a bid to smooth the way to privatisation.  Now Royal Mail has announced yet another funding problem for the Pension Plan.  It claims that the company needs to pay an extra £300 million a year for future pensions because of poor returns on investments. Capped Royal Mail has proposed that future increases in pensionable pay are capped at the RPI rate of inflation, and to a maximum of 5 percent.  If this attack is successful, postal workers could lose thousands of pounds from their pensions. The company has begun its own consultation, which is due to end in August. The CWU postal executive committee (PEC) has rejected the proposal. It has said that any attempt to impose the change will be met with a national industrial action ballot. It is also calling a special conference on all the linked issues of pensions, pay, and the campaign against privatisation. Existing CWU policy states that if pensions are worsened in any way, then the PEC must immediately launch a campaign and a ballot for strikes. If Royal Mail goes ahead and implements this attack, then the CWU must immediately put this policy into action.
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Teachers march through London against Michael Gove
Teachers on the march in central London (Pic: Raymie Kiernan) Chants of “Get Gove out!” rang through central London as more than 1,000 teachers marched yesterday, Wednesday. The march, called by London NUT union, was a protest at Tory education secretary Michael Gove’s attacks on teachers and education. It came two days before teachers in the NUT and NASUWT unions were set to strike against the attacks. Shaheen Akhtar, a teacher from Tower Hamlets in east London, explained why she was marching. “We want a pay rise, we want more time for preparation and we don’t want to work until we’re 68,” she told Socialist Worker. “The cuts will affect children because if you’re too tired you can’t teach properly. I think we definitely need to strike. And we need more strikes until we get what we want.” Vanya from Hackney NUT added, “We’re passionate about improving people’s life chances. It’s really important that we come together like this and show we care about young people.” Another teacher from east London said the Tories were “undermining the future” by attacking education. “There’s an endless list of attacks from Gove,” he said. “That’s why there’s support for strikes, although in London we could probably do with striking earlier.” Workers from other unions joined the march too. Danielle, a Unison member, works at a school in Wandsworth. “Being in a union is about solidarity so that’s why I’m here,” she told Socialist Worker. “I work in a school library and we’ve had job cuts and there’s less job security. It feels like we’re not serving students as well as we could be.” NUT general secretary Christine Blower, writer Melissa Benn and journalist Owen Jones addressed a rally at the end of the march. Kenny Frederick from the NAHT head teachers’ union and Vicky Easton from Unison spoke too. Christine Blower said Gove was “vilifying” teachers and wanted to privatise schools. Kenny Frederick warned that, “This government is out to destroy the unions”. She added, It’s really important that we unite.” The loudest applause went to Owen Jones when he said, “We have to demand the Labour leadership has some guts”. He denounced the scapegoating of comprehensive education and argued, “We’ve got to stop being defensive. Let’s go on the offensive.” For reports of tomorrow’s teachers’ strike in the north west of England see the Socialist Worker website. Let us know how your picket line, rally or solidarity event is going – send reports and pictures to reports@socialistworker.co.uk
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Tenants demand a hearing
Tenants in Manchester are demanding the right to speak at the Chartered Institute of Housing in the city this week. Bosses of housing associations will debate their response to the bedroom tax.  Many report that between 40 and 70 percent of their affected tenants have not paid.  Landlords have spoken out against the bedroom tax, but the Tories still expect them to evict tenants who can’t afford to pay. Delegates will hear from bankers and Tory ministers—but as it stands, not from a single tenant. Greater Manchester No Bedroom Tax campaign has called a protest on Thursday when Freud is due to speak.  The protest is supported by the national Anti Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Federation. antibedroomtax.org.uk
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Bitter defeat of the West's bloody war in Afghanistan
A Nato airstrike killed 147 civilians in the village of Granai (Pic: Guy Smallman) The West has finally admitted it lost the war in Afghanistan. A coalition led by the world’s greatest superpower is scuttling out of the country. To do so it agreed to talks with the Taliban—the enemy the warmongers said they went in to defeat. All the talk is of stability and peace. Nothing could be further from the truth. The West’s 12 year occupation leaves devastation, thousands killed and countless more maimed, homeless and impoverished.  The war was spun as going after the Taliban regime for harbouring Osama bin Laden, deemed the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks in the US. In fact the US says a condition of the latest peace talks is that the Taliban break links with Al Qaida.  But the Taliban government was never tied to Al Qaida. After 9/11 it actually offered to hand bin Laden over to another Muslim country so he could be brought to justice. This wasn’t good enough for the US.  They needed to look like they were avenging 9/11. But their real aim was justifying a war in Iraq to topple another former ally, Saddam Hussein. Osama bin Laden and the Taliban were both products of Western intervention in Afghanistan. The West funded and armed them to help them drive out the Soviet military occupation.  What is often forgotten now is that the Nato-backed invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 met with very little resistance for almost three years.  The invaders were complacent. US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in 2002 that Afghanistan “is a breathtaking accomplishment”. There hadn’t been mass popular allegiance to the Taliban government. But resistance grew out of the experience of the Western occupation. Destruction The US’s B52 bombers rained indiscriminate destruction across swathes of the country, just as they had done in Vietnam decades earlier.  The US liked to call everyone who opposed it “Taliban”. But resistance to occupation was not always a centrally coordinated whole. Often local people would join militias to fight back after Western atrocities.  Such was the bitterness against the West that members of Nato’s supposed allies, the Afghan forces, inflicted many casualties on the West in recent years. The Afghans didn’t have the expensive high tech weaponry available to the West. So far the war has cost over £38 billion.  But they still beat the West to a standstill. British forces suffered over 100 casualties in four years just in Sangin—a town of only 20,000 in Helmand province. This was a third of all their casualties. The US had to take over in 2010.  The military recognised the futility of its strategy, which it coldly referred to as “mowing the lawn”. They would clear an area of “Taliban” and move on. Then new forces would rise up in response to the actions of West’s troops and the area would be lost to the West once again. The West has now given up.  Afghanistan was already one of the poorest countries on the globe. And the mass of Afghans have become poorer in the 12 years of war. There is no reconstruction, there is no women’s liberation. These were never part of the plan, merely the window dressing for imperialist slaughter.  Political stability is an illusion. Afghanistan’s president Karzi is angry with his Western puppeteers. He initially refused even to be a part of the proposed peace talks in Qatar as he perceived the Taliban office there as an alternative embassy.  US secretary of state John Kerry had to appease him.  He promised that the plaque on the door of the building declaring it to be the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” would be unscrewed and the Taliban flag taken down.  The US wants to wash its hands of the bloody conflict in the name of having Afghans talk to Afghans about their future. This is a sick joke when the West has imposed its will on the Afghan people for generations. We are currently being told the West must intervene in Syria to “help” the Syrian people. The aftermath of the war in Afghanistan shows that there is no such thing as a “good” imperialist war. 
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Labour plans to continue Tory austerity attacks
Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has shamefully declared that he won’t reverse any of the cuts George Osborne was due to announce this week. He ruled out any more borrowing, meaning that spending plans would require cuts from elsewhere. Even the austerity policemen at the International Monetary Fund have criticised Osborne’s austerity. Yet Miliband told Labour’s National Policy Forum in Birmingham, “Our starting point for 2015-16 will be that we cannot reverse any cut in day-to-day, current spending”. He continued, “unless it is fully funded from cuts elsewhere or extra revenue—not from more borrowing. “So when George Osborne stands up next week and announces his cuts in day-to-day spending, we won’t be able to promise now to reverse them.” Miliband claimed reversing the cuts would be impossible “because we can only do so when we can be absolutely crystal clear about where the money is coming from.” Labour could of course promise to make the rich pay more—not just to reverse cuts, but to properly fund public services. Instead it looks like Labour would simply continue the brutal cuts the Tories started. 
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Cleaners picket at prince's RAF visit
Around 240 workers struck for better wages at eight RAF bases on Thursday of last week. They are members of the Unite and GMB unions employed by ISS to provide food and cleaning services. ISS offered a pay rise of 8p an hour to workers at normal rates, and just 2p an hour to the lowest paid. There were pickets at College Cranwell in Lincolnshire, where Prince Michael visited the officers’ graduation. Bosses bussed soldiers in to scab.
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