Socialist Worker 2403 2014-05-13 17:48:23.0
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Super rich double their wealth under the Tories - Make them pay for the crisis
The number of billionaires living in Britain has risen to more than 100 for the first time. That?s more than triple the number a decade ago, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. In 2004 there were just 30 billionaires in Britain. They had a combined wealth of ?65 billion. Now there are 104 billionaires with a total wealth of over ?301 billion?an average of ?3 billion each.The poorest fifth have less than a tenth as much between them?just ?28 billion, an average of ?2,230 each. Britain has more billionaires per head of population than any other country. London?s total of 72 billionaires is more than any other city in the world. The super rich parasites have seen their total wealth rise by ?56 billion over the past year alone, partly thanks to the Tories slashing the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p. Although it is impossible to know how much tax they pay, of course.? And many billionaires reside in London precisely because the government guarantees they will essentially pay no tax. It?s great news for those who sell underground cinemas and swimming pools beneath multi-million pound piles in Belgravia and Kensington.? Parties As it is for the politicians who like to rub shoulders with the rich at parties. For the rest of us it is a disgrace. Four in five new jobs in the?sluggish economic ?recovery? are averaging under ?16,640 for a 40-hour week.?Working full time on the ?6.31 hourly minimum wage earns you just ?13,124 a year. Brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja top the list of Britain?s wealthiest billionaires with a fortune of ?11.9 billion. Their wealth rose by ?1.3 billion in the last year. Tax avoiding shop owner Sir Philip Green is also on the list of shame. So is Sports Direct?s Mike Ashley. The zero hours boss ?made? an extra ?1.45 billion last year. Anti-union Ineos boss Jim Ratcliffe has ?3.2 billion to count on his luxury yacht. Tory donors?such as JCB owner Lord Bamford and Lord Ashcroft?wallow on the list. Old money is doing OK too. The Duke of Westminster saw his fortune rise by ?700 million last year to ?8.5 billion. Ten years ago you needed a personal fortune of ?700 million to rank among Britain?s 50 richest people. Now you need a minimum of??1.7 billion. The combined wealth of Britain?s super rich is far more than before the recession. ?In 2008 the total wealth of its?75 billionaires was ?201 billion. The rich have come out of the recession even richer at our expense. Their mountain of money shows that we don?t need any cuts?we just need to take the money off them.

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First Great Western forced to end zero hours contracts
Workers in the RMT union have forced concessions from First Great Western train bosses. They are to end zero hours contracts and pay a living wage to agency and contract staff working in catering and cleaning. This comes after workers voted by almost 60 percent to strike and over 70 percent for action short of a strike.? For the first time the RMT balloted all grades on First Great Western. The dispute ended after a resolution was also reached over disciplinary procedures.? The new wage rates are to be set as outsourced contracts are renewed or expire over the next year. On board catering workers are to be brought back in-house. RMT said it is still fighting for all agency and contract workers to be brought in-house.
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South African government tries to turn Marikana massacre inquiry into a whitewash
South African president Jacob Zuma (Pic: World Economic Forum) Two outrageous decisions threaten to make the official inquiry into the 2012 Marikana massacre into a whitewash. The Commission was set up under Judge Ian Farlam, ?to investigate matters of public, national and international concern arising out of the tragic incidents at the Lonmin Mine.? But now it has been announced that it will stop taking evidence on 31 July no matter what has?or more particularly has not?been heard. And president Jacob Zuma decreed a few days before the election that the original terms of reference for the inquiry would be altered and that it would no longer consider the involvement of government ministers in the events. Police minister Nathi Mthethwa, mineral resources minister Susan Shabangu, or any other government minister due to come before the commission, will not now be questioned. Any investigation into the role of Jacob Zuma and his cabinet has been wrenched away from the investigation?by a proclamation from Jacob Zuma.? It was a hallmark of apartheid injustice that murders and massacres were systematically covered up, and the part played by politicians in directing lethal operations was hidden from view. This is now being repeated over Marikana. ? Rehad Desai, who has campaigned for justice over Marikana, told Socialist Worker, ?After the massacre, president Zuma pretended that ministers would be called to account to placate public outrage. Now he is ensuring that no judicial finger will ever be pointed at culpable government ministers, and this amounts to a cover-up. ?But we are not going away. People in Britain have been fighting for decades to win justice for the victims of Bloody Sunday and Hillsborough. If necessary, we will do the same here.? Miners Shot Down (minersshotdown.co.za) will be shown at Marxism 2014 in London, where Charlie Kimber and filmmaker Rehad Desai will both be speaking Mine bosses out to break strike Mining bosses hope to crank up the pressure on striking platinum miners now the election has passed. ?Some 80,000 miners have been out for four months demanding a living wage.? Lonmin, whose mines witnessed the Marikana massacre, said last week it was ?gearing up for a serious back to work offensive in anticipation of a mass return to work on 14 May?. Such statements have been made before, and may be baseless.? But if they attempt such a provocation it will be in concert with the ANC, the government and the police. They will also work with the NUM union that has been displaced by the more radical Amcu in the platinum mines.?
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St Helier Hospital protest demands an end to NHS cuts
Parents protesting against health cuts (Pic: Keep Our St Helier Hospital campaign) A ?buggy Army? protested outside St Helier Hospital in south west London last Saturday. Parents with buggies were joined by campaigners of all ages for a noisy procession through the local area to highlight NHS cuts. Young people from the nearby skate park also joined in.? Vital services at St Helier hospital are under threat including maternity, A&E, and children?s services. The protest was organised by Keep Our St Helier Hospital campaign.
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Comics Unmasked: Drawing the battle lines in a fun fight with authority
Comics - more than just for children (Pic: Enokson on Flickr) Storytelling through a sequence of images has a history dating back to cave paintings, through illustrated newspapers right to modern comics. Detractors of comics say that they are outdated or just for children. But a big and broad exhibition at the British Library seeks to challenge this idea.?It showcases some rare and interesting examples that take on the notion that comics begin and end with the likes of the Beano and the Dandy. The exhibition approaches comics from the angle that they are largely subversive and a challenge to authority, whether in a good way or a bad way. It presents examples of how comics have inspired real world resistance.?In every nook and cranny are mannequins wearing the iconic Guy Fawkes mask from Alan Moore?s dystopian V for Vendetta graphic novel, now ubiquitous on many protests. It is the politics section of the exhibition which presents the real power of the comic as a cultural product. Riots One of the first publications on display is Riot, a comic from 1981 which deals with the conflicted narrative of a police officer during the Brixton riots.?It runs through his experiences of the police?s brutality and racism. Finally, disgusted with what he sees, he refuses to give evidence against a looter. A rarity on show is Action Pact, a 1979 publication by unknown authors which arose out of the?anti-fascist movement around the Anti Nazi League. It tells the story of two school friends with super powers who fight the lies of a baddie dressed like the Ku Klux Klan.?It was circulated in schools to help popularise anti-fascist views and equip children with arguments in the playground. Not all comics present righteous challenges to dominant ideas however. Also on display is wife-beating alcoholic Andy Capp, a comic strip which still exists albeit in a heavily toned down form.?It stands in a tradition of?anti-working class and reactionary characters that also go right back to the 19th century.? There is also the first ever comic strip to have been written and illustrated by women. Enid Blyton wrote and Dorothy M Wheeler drew Mandy, Mops and Cubby, which was printed in the Evening Standard newspaper in 1951. In it a black boy voices his desire to have a white face, and asks a painter if he would whitewash him so he can ?look beautiful?. This and many other exhibits bring home that neither comics nor any other medium is inherently progressive or subversive.?But there?s still a rich tradition of comics that are?one that continues to this day. Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy?British Library, central London?Until 19 August, Various ticket prices, booking essential at bit.ly/1hkRHpK ?
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How we're driving Nazi Nick Griffin out of the north west of England
Anti-fascists campaigning in Manchester Burnley is home to some of the poorest wards in England and Wales. The former industrial town in Lancashire has been in steady decline for many years. Areas such as Bank Hall and Daneshouse with Stoneyholme regularly top lists of the most deprived areas.?Its town centre is carved up by busy arterial roads and the majority of the terraced housing is run down, with much of it damp. Unemployment hovers around the national average, but this is only because huge numbers of people have left to look for work elsewhere. The town?s population dropped by 4.5 percent between 2001 and 2010 and is continuing to fall.?What work there is tends to be low paid jobs in supermarkets, the local hospital or one of the remaining factories. Nazis have sought to gain by exploiting people?s misery. Burnley saw the first electoral breakthroughs for the British National Party (BNP) under the leadership of Nick Griffin. In 2002 three Nazis were voted onto the council. Their electoral victory came after riots in Burnley and neighbouring towns in 2001. The riots started after racists rampaged through Burnley after clashing with Asian youth and viciously beating an Asian taxi driver.? Although the number of Nazis in Burnley was small, the BNP exploited a myth that Asians started the riots. It was helped by the right wing press and statements from the police.? A backlash against the Nazis by local anti-fascists ensured that soon their gains were being pushed back. Some 1,500 people marched against them in Burnley just weeks after they were voted in. Sharon Wilkinson, the last remaining BNP councillor, was beaten in an election in 2012 and no fascist has been elected in Burnley since. But lifelong Nazi Griffin hopes to be re-elected on 22 May as a member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the North West, which contains Burnley. Most people are barely aware that he was elected in 2009. His ineffectual presence as an MEP has had little impact on people?s day-to-day lives. Industry in Burnley has been in decline for many years (Pic: Socialist Worker) Rebecca was sitting in one of the cafes on St James?s Street in Burnley which had its windows smashed by racists in 2001.?She is angry with a leaflet the BNP has sent out ahead of the elections attacking Muslims. ?It?s just fear mongering, posting trash like that out,? she told Socialist Worker. Rebecca comes from Blackburn, a town to the east of Burnley which shares much of the same levels of poverty and deprivation. Scapegoating Blackburn topped a list of areas that have seen the largest drop in the average full time wage, according to a TUC report last year.?Pay has fallen by 11.6 percent for those working a 40-hour week, meaning their pay packets are a massive ?47.98 a week less than they were in 2007. Workers throughout the North West have been hardest hit by wage cuts. It is this high poverty that Nick Griffin hopes to capitalise on by scapegoating migrants for driving down wages. But Rebecca said, ?I don?t know who I?m voting for in the European elections. I look at politicians and think ?you?re a liar, you?re a cheat and you?re a hypocrite?. ?But I?m not voting for Nick Griffin because he?s a racist.? Bina Hussain helped organise a protest against Nick Griffin when he turned up in Burnley after he was elected MEP.?She told Socialist Worker, ?I come from a mixed background, my family come from all over, so I find what they say disgusting.? ?When he showed up in Burnley I texted all the people I knew and we surrounded him. In the end he just had to shuffle off.? Unite Against Fascism (UAF) launched the Nick Griffin Must Go campaign in 2011 to ensure he is not re-elected on 22 May.?In the North West the campaign has taken the form of leafleting working class areas to expose the fascist nature of the BNP. Callum, aged 15, has been leafleting with UAF in Gannow ward, a poor area of Burnley and a former BNP stronghold.?He hopes to campaign to raise awareness that the BNP do not offer an alternative to the poverty that most people face. He told Socialist Worker, ?There are three schools and one college in Burnley.?A lot of my friends will drop out once school finishes. Most aren?t going to classes anyway, they don?t feel school will benefit them. ?I went to one school which was incredibly racist. Lads would just say racist things in a banter-like way.?It?s because they were brought up with it at home, with their parents saying racist slang to them and they were never taught any different. ?People are packed into houses in run down areas like this and some feel resentment that the council aren?t doing anything for them.?When people at school used to say racist things I just used to think it was quite sad, I didn?t understand it,? he said. ?I don?t think about the colour of people?s skin, I just think we should be all seen as equal.?That?s why I am leafleting against Nick Griffin, because I want to help.? Fiona, a resident in Burnley, is also part of a team who have been persistently campaigning to get Griffin out in the North West.?She said, ?When the BNP were voted in, there was a different feel to the town,?? ?I know a lot of people who moved south to work and were ashamed to say they were from Burnley.? Over the years the BNP have attempted to paint themselves as the voice of the poor and working class against mainstream parties who don?t care. Fiona said, ?I was part of a canvassing team that asked people why they voted a certain way, and you got the feeling that many felt mainstream parties didn?t represent them.? Restricted The Tories and the right wing press have created a climate of racism. They jump on to sensationalist stories about Muslims and migrants to their own end. But shamefully rather than countering the racist myths, the local Labour Party in Burnley have mounted a hue and cry over ?illegal? immigrants in recent years. Callum leafleting to get Nick Griffin out (Pic: Socialist Worker) An election leaflet sent out two years ago on behalf of Julie Cooper, who is now council leader, said, ?If you don?t vote, or vote for any other party than Labour?you?ll risk getting more illegal immigrants in Burnley.? But this attitude of the Labour Party has fed a disaffection which sees many people not bothering to vote.?The feeling is not just restricted to areas like Burnley.? The low voter turnout is what enabled Griffin to get in as an MEP. Getting people to use their vote to stop him has been a key feature of UAF?s Nick Griffin Must Go campaign. ?I used to think, ?why are immigrants coming over here and taking out jobs??? Samantha, a mature student in Lancaster, told Socialist Worker. ?But people have to realise that Ukip and the BNP are looking for scapegoats and people that they think that they can blame.? Lancaster cuts a very different picture to that of other North West towns with its busy high street and picturesque stone-clad buildings. It has been described as the ?citadel? by the BNP in previous years?for its success in keeping the fascists out.?But there are also high levels of poverty. ?I don?t really have a lot of time for politics,? said Samantha. ?But people around here are struggling. The decline of the BNP?s fortunes is down to the way they have been exposed by the campaigning of UAF in showing them for what they are?a Nazi party. One woman from Padiham, a small town outside of Burnley told Socialist Worker, ?When the BNP got elected, people came out against them and things they did started to become unacceptable. ?Before people would say racist things in an almost casual way. After the BNP got in and the backlash they faced, people were forced to think twice.? Robert McCafferty is 89 and a former shipyard and railway worker who lives in Lancaster. He grew up in the Gorbals area of Glasgow and rubbished the idea of a large British white working class who voted BNP out of their own interest. ?We have neighbours from Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, and Irish people? he told Socialist Worker. Robert explained the necessity of getting the vote out against Nick Griffin on the 22 May. ?There was a chalk board in a pub around here a few years ago where people could write their own slogans and someone put, ?Don?t vote, you?ll only get government?. ?Well, if you don?t vote, you?ll also get Nick Griffin too.? ?Our campaigning can?kick Nick Griffin out?? Nazi Nick Griffin only needs around 7 percent of the vote in the Euro elections to stay on as an MEP for the North West.?In the 2009 elections Griffin was elected on 132,000 votes, 8 percent of the total on a 32 percent turnout. Unite Against Fascism (UAF) launched the Nick Griffin Must Go campaign in 2011 to campaign throughout the North West to expose the BNP leader as a?Nazi. As the final few weeks approach before the elections, UAF has stepped up the campaign. ?Manchester UAF has long kept up regular leafleting of stations, but last week it leafleted Manchester railway stations every day. Last Saturday activists leafleted in towns including Wigan, Rochdale, Crewe, Blackburn, Barrow, Lancaster, Burnley and Preston. A joint day of action with the National Union of Teachers took place in Manchester on the same day.?Union member and Labour MEP candidate Steve Carter participated. TUC president Mohammad Taj took part in the joint Unite and UAF day of action in Liverpool.?He said, ?I?m very proud to work with Unite Against Fascism. It?s great work that they do.? ?Everyone needs to use their vote on 22 May to stop Nick Griffin from being re-elected.?? Defeats have weakened the BNP, but Paul Jenkins, UAF North West Regional Organiser, urged people to not be complacent. He said, ?In 2009, two weeks before the European elections, some pollsters predicted that the BNP was not going to win any seats. "We need to keep campaigning. We cannot let complacency allow Nick Griffin to win the small percentage he needs.?Get involved in UAF?s campaign. What you do will make a crucial difference.? Bring delegates from your workplace, union or college to UAF?National?Conference Saturday 14 June, 9.30am to 5pm TUC Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS ?12 / ?6 (students and concs) uaf.org.uk
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Piketty's theory of capital - strengths and weaknesses
Thomas Piketty?s Capital in the 21st Century was number two in the US Amazon bestseller list last week.? It nestled between a tear-jerker about living with cancer and a Disney movie spin-off colouring book for kids.? In Britain the impact has been less dramatic, but it has still featured heavily in print, radio and television. This is quite an achievement for a nearly 700-page book by a hitherto unknown French economist packed full of statistical tables and retailing at ?29.95. Yet in the past few weeks it has enjoyed an astonishing success.? Piketty himself has been transformed into, in the words of the US editor of the Financial Times, a ?rock-star economist?. His book is about economic inequality, which makes him also an unusual economist. Inequality, as a result of the crisis and the backlash against the 1 percent, has become one of the main political issues of the age. Piketty harks back to the classical tradition of Adam Smith and David Ricardo in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This sees political economy as a historical and moral discipline.? And he is interested in studying economic trends empirically rather than constructing the mathematical models beloved of mainstream economists.? At the core of Capital in the 21st Century is a rich and interesting economic? sociology. Unfortunately, the theoretical foundations on which Piketty builds and the political conclusions he draws are not so strong.? Strength In many ways, both the great strength and the great weakness of the book is its focus on wealth.? Much work on inequality looks primarily at?differences in income. But Piketty is rightly interested in the distribution of wealth and how it has changed.? After all, with one important qualification that I?ll return to, the rich are rich because of the economic resources that they control and that allow them to claim a much higher income than anyone else.? Piketty makes excellent use of the statistical data on income and wealth that he has helped to compile as part of an international group of researchers.? His native France is a particularly rich source because of the introduction of a property tax during the French Revolution in the 1790s.? This means there are continuous records covering more than two centuries. But the US, Britain and Germany also play major roles in his study. Piketty?s conclusions refute the ?law? formulated by Simon Kuznets in the mid-1950s. This claimed that income inequality rises during the early phases of industrialisation, but then falls as economies become richer.? Piketty?s own data paint a very different picture.? Take Britain on the eve of the First World War, in 1900?10. The top 10 percent took 90 percent of the wealth, the top 1 percent nearly 70 percent.?The rest of the population had virtually nothing. The picture was similar, though a little less stark, in France and Germany.?These were societies where, despite the Industrial Revolution, the main form of wealth was for a long time land. Productivity remained comparatively low.? The upper class portrayed in the novels of Jane Austen and Honor? de Balzac which fascinate Piketty. These people depended on a huge material gulf separating them and their servants to enjoy a lifestyle two or three times the average standard of living today. But then, after two world wars, the Great Depression, and political upheavals destroyed wealth and dramatically increased the role of the state and the level of taxation.? In France the top?10 percent?s share fell to?60-70 percent between 1950 and 1970, the top 1 percent?s to 20-30 percent.? However, the balance began to tilt back towards the rich. In Britain, for example, in 2010 the top 10 percent owned?70 percent of the wealth, the top 1 percent 25-30 percent.? In the US, a settler society, wealth was less concentrated at the beginning of the 20th century, but its distribution was less squeezed in 1914-45. In 2010 the top 10 percent owned more than 70 percent of the wealth, the top 1 percent nearly 35 percent, Similar Incomes have followed a?similar path, though their distribution was never as unequal as that of wealth. They narrowed after 1914, but now have diverged sharply.? For example, the 1 percent?s share of national income in the US has risen from 6-8 percent in the 1970s to nearly 20 percent in 2010. But the constituents of inequality have changed. Land is a much less important source of wealth for the rich. And high salaries now play a much bigger role in income inequality.? Piketty dismisses the usual explanation that technological change has pushed up the salaries of highly educated employees.? He blames what he calls ?the rise of the super-manager??top executives who, especially in the US and Britain, have relied on corporate cronyism to drive an ?explosion of top incomes?. Wealth has shot up for the rich Piketty denounces what he calls ?meritocratic extremism?, ?the apparent need of modern societies?and especially US society?to designate certain individuals as ?winners?? and reward them extravagantly. Piketty argues that capital was worth six or seven times national income in late 19th century Europe. It fell to two or three times in the first half of the 20th century, but is now back around five times in Britain and France.? He claims this can be explained on the basis of what he calls ?the second fundamental law of capitalism?.? When the rate of return on capital is higher than the rate of economic growth, the rich can save enough of their income to accumulate ever more wealth. According to Piketty, these conditions held before 1914 and are met again today. Here things start going wrong. For Piketty, any form of wealth can be capital?a piece of land, a machine, a flat, or a bond. As critics have pointed out, this is essentially the same definition of capital as we find in mainstream economics. Contrast For Karl Marx, by contrast, capital is a social relation. More specifically, it is the set of social relationships that allows capitalists to use their money, and the control this gives them over the means of production. This allows them to compel workers to create value and, above all, surplus value, the source of their profits. Marx thought it was the height of fetishism to identify the possession of any goods with capital.? As Piketty points out, one of the big social and economic changes in the 20th century was that far more people own their own homes. But this hasn?t given them the power to extract surplus value. His mistaken conception of capital undermines the long-term tendencies Piketty wants to project. It is connected with his ambivalent attitude towards Marx.? Calling his book Capital in the 21st Century implies an ambition to continue Marx?s great work?though he says he hasn?t read it. He praises Marx for a ?key insight? into growing inequality. But most of Piketty?s comments on Marx are negative or inaccurate. For example, he says that ?Marx?s theory?implicitly relies on a strict assumption of zero productivity growth over the long run?.? Marx actually thought the opposite. It was capitalism?s dynamic development of the productive forces that drove it into crisis.? The book ends in a strange resentful footnote attacking the three philosophers most associated with Marxism in France?Jean-Paul Sartre, Louis Althusser and Alain Badiou.? Piketty?s own political solution to the inexorable trend to greater inequality that he discerns is a wealth tax. He points out that to wage war the US and British states taxed wealth and income at ?nearly confiscatory? levels in the 1940s.? But he ignores an obvious point.? As the pendulum swung back to capital, especially with the onset of neoliberalism in the 1980s, the tax system was remodelled to favour the rich. As long as capitalism exists, so will inequality. Piketty has given us a deeper understanding of what a remorseless engine of inequality capitalism is. Contrary to his intentions, he has strengthened the case not for reform, but for revolution. Alex Callinicos?s new book Deciphering Capital will be launched at Marxism 2014 in July in central London
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Vote TUSC for the alternative in local elections
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidates and their supporters have been out campaigning in over 500 council wards across Britain.? Socialist Worker supporters are standing as TUSC candidates in Manchester, Barnsley, Sheffield, Birmingham, Portsmouth and London.? Adi Graham is a delivery driver and RMT union member.?He is standing for TUSC in the Cosham ward in Portsmouth.? He said, ?We have put out about 2,500 leaflets.?Every household will have had a leaflet by the weekend.? In Tottenham, north London, TUSC candidate Simon Hester said almost 20,000 homes across four target wards have had a TUSC leaflet. North London candidates have translated their materials into Turkish and Polish.?Maxine Bowler, a candidate in Sheffield, has had hers translated into Slovakian and Arabic.? ?It?s important that we have socialists standing and speaking out against the scapegoating of migrants,? she said. For full details of candidates go to tusc.org.uk
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Protesters demand an end to fuel poverty
Protesting at Centrica (Pic: Guy Smallman) Shareholders at Centrica?the firm that owns British Gas?were met by a barrage of protests on Monday of this week. Protesters from Fuel Poverty Action and other groups targeted its AGM in central London. They said Centrica?s profits rest on fuel poverty and climate change. Picture: Guy Smallman
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Which Side Are You On? Concert celebrates Pete Seeger's life and activism
Jimmy Ross and Finlay Allison are joined by fiddler Gillian Frame and singer songwriter Penny Stone in a new expanded version of their tribute to the left wing folk legend Pete Seeger. Pete died this year aged 94. The concert will feature his songs and others he popularised, and archive photos including of Pete playing in Glasgow. They will tell the story of Pete?s music and his life of activism and persecution in the McCarthy era, and the movements for civil rights and against the Vietnam War. Which Side Are You On? The Life and Times of Pete Seeger,?Saturday 24 May, 7.30pm,?Glasgow University Concert Hall, ?9/?7 at bit.ly/SDhbIO ?
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Chris Marker, A Grin Without a Cat: First retrospective of influential French filmmaker
This is the first retrospective of the influential French filmmaker in Britain. It features five installations of his films, including the philosophical travelogue Sans Soleil (Sunless). Don?t miss his masterpiece La Jetee (The Pier), a time travel ?photo novel? that inspired the plot of 1995 film Twelve Monkeys. Chris Marker: A Grin Without a Cat,?Whitechapel Gallery, London,?Until 22 June ?
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EDF workers strike after bosses refuse to pay up
Pickets in Bexleyheath (Pic: Alan Kenny) Around 500 Unite union members at energy firm EDF struck over pay on Tuesday and Thursday of last week. Bosses have failed to implement a 2012 pay agreement and offered a measly 2 percent for 2013. Picket lines were big and lively. Some 80 strikers picketed in Bexleyheath, south east London, and more in other parts of England. A planned protest at EDF?s headquarters was called off after bosses threatened to seek an injunction.
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Mass strike could bring out a million in a hot July
Workers in the NUT and Unite unions marching together on a TUC protest (Pic: Geoff Dexter) More than one million workers could strike together on Thursday 10 July against the Tories? assault on their living standards. That?s the date that the Unison and Unite unions are considering calling action for if workers in local government vote for strikes over pay. If it goes ahead workers in the NUT, PCS, FBU, GMB and others could strike on that day too.?Such a strike would would help boost all those who hate the Tories. And it would open up the possibility of a sustained struggle that can stop their attacks on workers. It would come just as Unison, Unite and GMB prepare to ballot over pay in the NHS. It could bring more than another half a million workers into battle in the autumn. Every time unions have called strikes in recent years they have been successful. Workers have repeatedly shown their willingness to fight.?But there?s a risk that if workers are left in the dark, they will be demoralised and any momentum built up will start to ebb away. Many workers aren?t aware of the potential for a coordinated walkout on 10 July?a date that has yet to be officially announced.?It has been drawn up and discussed by a handful of people inside the union machines. The People?s Assembly will hold a national demonstration against austerity in London on 21 June. Many unions are building for this and plan to organise blocs within the march. Teachers in the NUT are also preparing for a lobby of parliament on 10 June. These events can galvanise more people to become active and help build for future strikes.?Whether they do so depends on what ordinary workers do. Galvanise So in Sheffield, NUT members have organised a series of Saturday stalls, some jointly with the People?s Assembly, and organised a delegation to go to the lobby. In other areas, the lobby hasn?t enthused people. Some teachers are confused about what is happening with their dispute.?Others say that uncertainty about when it will take place is making it hard to mobilise people. John McLoughlin is a Unison member and local government worker in Tower Hamlets, east London. He told Socialist Worker in a personal capacity, ?We?re holding a series of reps and workplace meetings to publicise the ballot. ?We?re also planning joint meetings in schools with teachers.?? To make the action a success will mean activists fighting to involve all union members.?That means calling workplace meetings where people can come together, ask questions and debate what action they should take. It means putting pressure on the union leaders, and building support for every strike that does happen?such as the walkouts at Care UK in Doncaster (see page 20) or at Lambeth College (see page 6). ?Our focus is on getting the biggest possible yes vote for action but it?s important to start preparing for the strike?we want to start galvanising people now,? said John. ??Starting early is crucial as the first week of the ballot is half term so we need to get as much done before the ballot starts as we can.? It?s clear that a fightback is needed?and what ordinary union members do in the next few months will make all the difference. Marxism festival opens on the 10 July. Book now at marxismfestival.org.uk Who could be taking action? NUT: has a live strike ballot, and is committed to striking during the summer term. It will consider striking on 10 July at a meeting this month Unison: set to ballot local government members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It plans to strike on 10 July Unite: set to ballot local government members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It plans to strike on 10 July FBU: has live ballot and could consider striking on 10 July PCS: is preparing to reballot for strikes. It will consider joining walkouts on 10 July at its conference later this month GMB: consultation ends on Thursday of this week in local government ?
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Poverty in Nigeria fuels Boko Haram?and force will not stop it
In Maiduguri, the capital of the Nigerian state of Borno (Pic: Jordi Bernabeu Farrus on Flickr) The kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram has finally roused the Nigerian government into tough speeches. But the kind of action it proposes has already proved to be counter-productive.? In response to a wave of Boko Haram attacks, the government declared a state of emergency in April last year across the three most northeastern of Nigeria?s 36 states?Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe. Yet this only increased the levels of violence.? According to Amnesty International at least 1,500 people have been killed since then?almost half by the military. The extent of army killing of civilians is really scaring people now.? If we just say Boko Haram bad, government good, we will not understand what is responsible for its growth.?Ministers present the Islamist group Boko Haram as a military security issue. But that?s absurd. Social and economic insecurity built it, and it feeds on rising levels of poverty and inequality.? The group gets support from tens of thousands of people who feel abandoned by Nigeria?s Western-backed elite. That is bigger than most trade unions in the country. The group fuses sections of the middle class together with some of the poor masses. But a number among the elite also support it.? Ali Modu Sheriff courted Boko Haram in his successful bid for the governorship of Borno state in 2003.? Mohammed Ali Ndume has been accused of being its main financier. Both men are senators, a position that carries more status that a British MP. Poor The middle class provide the group?s ideological leaders, but ?without the poor people who give them cover it would be impossible to keep going. This is true not only in its core areas, such as Borno, but also in the working class district of Nyanya, in the suburbs of the capital. Boko Haram has a cell operating there which has recently carried out at least two bombings. The government?s emergency laws must be renewed every six months. But now even some of the local elite are against them because of the upwards spiral of violence.? Alhaji Murtala Nyako, governor of Adamawa and a former vice-admiral, alleges that the military?s JTS taskforce is engaging in genocide in the areas at the heart of the fighting. In response, some young men in the Maiduguri, the capital of Borno, are organising a ?Civilian JTS??which has seriously reduced Boko Haram?s activities in the areas where it is active. This is much preferable to military control, but it?s contradictory. The group see themselves as a civilian extension of the state and don?t yet understand that the state and Boko Haram are two sides of the same coin. Without the self-activity of the working masses the situation cannot be changed.?For us socialism or barbarism is not a question that might arise in the future. It is the choice in Nigeria today. Baba Aye will be speaking at Marxism 2014 in central London this July.?marxismfestival.org.uk Nigeria?s corrupt rulers are well taught by the West The Nigerian state has often struggled to maintain a grip on the country?s provinces. Ken Saro Wiwa was arrested 19 years ago this month. His Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People was a thorn in the side of multinational oil companies, including Shell.?The state executed him and eight others.? At the time Nigeria was under military rule and the links between the dictatorship and the West shocked the world.?Although the labour movement was proscribed in those years, in many ways it was much stronger then?ideologically, politically and organisationally.? In the 1990s we were fighting in a united front against the military.?People generally assumed that once we achieved a civilian government we would get rid of corruption. It did nothing of the kind. Then we were taking on a corrupt government, but today there are even more layers of corruption. We have the parliament, the executive and the judiciary?and they are all riddled with it.? This is not intrinsically Nigerian. Western multinationals operating here that are accused of corruption include Siemens, Halliburton, Shell and Chevron.? The head of the Nigerian central bank was suspended in February after lifting the lid on oil corruption. He said that ?29 billion is unaccounted for. The government claims this is untrue?it insists the real figure is just ?12 billion. That explains a lot about our ruling class.?Nigeria has the highest rate of return on investment in the world.? The elite boast that we will soon have the biggest economy in Africa.?This has made some Nigerians very rich. But for the vast majority?the poor?living standards are getting worse.? Over 63 percent of the population live on less than 60p a day.? President?s moves don?t meet the mood? Despite protests in Nigeria about government inaction, president Goodluck Jonathan made no comment about the abductions for three weeks?until they became an international news story. Indeed the day after the news emerged he appeared dancing at a campaign rally. The serious issue is that the elite has no idea how the poor see the world. The ?help? that will hinder When the US talks about helping the Nigerian government, people should know it has a Predator drone base in Niger which borders Nigeria. But the Nigerian government is wary about giving it the right to overfly its territory. The British government hints that it has sent SAS troops to hunt Boko Haram. Group built by targeting West Boko Haram was formed in 2002. It built support by saying the corruption and social divisions in Nigeria are down to the Western values practiced by the country?s elite.? In the local Hausa language Boko means ?fraud?, while Haram is ?forbidden by God?. Western ideas are seen as fraudulent.? Its support appears to be ethnic and regional.
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Lecturers at Lambeth College plan all-out strike after principal clamps down
Workers march through Brixton on the strike day (Pic: Socialist Worker) Workers at Lambeth College in south London are preparing for an all-out strike against hated contracts imposed by bosses. It?s a fight for every trade unionist in Britain. Bosses got a court injunction to stop UCU union members beginning an?all-out strike at the start of the month. They held an angry and upbeat one-day strike instead.?Workers see their fight as about more than just contracts?it?s about the right to take action too. Janet Koike is a lecturer at the Vauxhall site of the college. She told Socialist Worker, ?I?m furious with our principal. He?s tried to take away our right to strike. ?There was some concern that the injunction might dampen things down. But it didn?t?there was an awful lot of energy in our strike.? The new contracts impose longer hours and shorter holidays, along with attacks on sick pay and other conditions. Lecturers say life in the college is hard enough as it is. ?You feel like you?re working on a factory floor,? explained lecturer Simon Clarke. ?You find yourself doing more and more work. There?s pressure put on people to take on extra responsibilities?and the stress kicks in.? Workers are also angry at the impact the attacks have on students. Simon described further education as the ?Cinderella service of the education system?. ?I?ve always been proud to work for an organisation that gives people second chances,? he said. ?But because of cuts we?re losing courses. The range of courses is narrowing.? UCU members are?reballoting for an indefinite strike. The ballot ends on 23 May. Workers in the Unison union backed strikes by 83 percent in a ballot last week. The UCU has called a national demonstration in support of the workers for Saturday of this week. Workers have received?solidarity messages and donations from across Britain and the world. Angus is a lecturer at the Clapham site and has worked for the college for 25 years. ?We?ve had lots of messages of support,? he said. ?People around Britain are watching. I think the union can win.? Mandy Brown is branch secretary of Lambeth UCU and works at the Brixton site.?She told Socialist Worker, ?We are calling on all colleges and the wider trade union movement to support us. Please send your union banners and a delegation to the demonstration on Saturday. ?A big demonstration will be a great boost to us. This isn?t just an issue for Lambeth College?the injunction used against us is a threat to all workers.? Demonstration to support strike, Saturday 17 May,?assemble 11am Clapham Common (near Tube), march at 12 noon to Brixton for rally in Windrush Square at 1pm.?Send messages of support to mandybrowncow@yahoo.com We?re backing Lambeth Workers are rallying behind the Lambeth College strike. NUT union member Fran Byrne gave out leaflets to support them in Brixton last Saturday. ?Bosses are attacking terms and conditions to pave the way for privatisation,? she said. ?When we see them attacking Lambeth College workers, we know we?ll be next. That?s why a lot of people want everybody to go on strike together.? Many trade unionists pledged long-term financial backing for the strikers at a rally in Brixton earlier this month. Sean Vernell from City and Islington College said his union branch had recommended members pledge ?10 a week for the duration of a strike. ?
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Disabled people protest at ILF cut
Disabled people and supporters protested outside the Department for Work and Pensions in London on Monday of this week. Disabled People Against Cuts called the protest, to save the Independent Living Fund. ?
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University staff day of action against casualisation and zero hours contracts
UCU union members took part in a day of action against casualisation and zero hours contracts on Wednesday of last week.? Lecturers held stalls and protests at universities and colleges across Britain. The UCU has called a conference on combating casualisation for Thursday?5 June. And a group of UCU members at the School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas) is continuing an unofficial marking boycott. Meanwhile GMB union members at the University of Arts London have won the London Living Wage after threatening strikes. Cleaners planned to strike for three days later this month. The UCU union has called a national lobby of pay talks between unions and the bosses? Association of Colleges.?The lobby was set to begin at 9am on Friday of this week at the Institute of Arbitrators in London.
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Hundreds march in Exeter to celebrate Pride
On the Pride march (Pic: Exeter Pride on Facebook) Hundreds of people marched through the centre of Exeter in Devon?last Saturday to celebrate the city?s biggest ever pride event. Up to?2,000 people attended festivities through the day.
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Votes make secession more likely in eastern Ukraine
In an occupied government building last month, a man has written "Russia" over a map of Donetsk (Pic: Andrew Butko) Two Ukrainian provinces voted for independence in a referendum last weekend.? Donetsk and Luhansk are home to 6.5 million people and represent around a third of Ukraine?s industrial output. Just over 100 percent of people voted in the poll.? The EU and West imposed further sanctions on Russia.? Meanwhile Russian gas company Gazprom informed Ukraine that from 2 June it will only provide supplies paid in advance.? Ukraine depends on Russia for half of its gas. Gazprom suggested Ukraine use the money from its first ?1.9 billion of international aid. However, Russia has proceeded a little slower in incorporating Donetsk and Luhansk than it did with its recent annexation of Crimea. And there were moves to hold talks being pushed by the German government as Socialist Worker went to press. Ukraine-wide presidential elections are set for 25 May. Some hope that if the country can hold together until then a new government might provide a compromise. This is unlikely.? The rising nationalist tensions fuelled by the West and Russia are reducing the space for an alternative in which the interests of ordinary people can come to the fore.
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Letters
South Africa needs change the corrupt ANC can?t deliver Socialist Worker?s feature on the long term decline of South Africa?s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party was excellent.?Having recently returned from a visit there I read it with great interest. It is clear that there is widespread disappointment at the ANC?s inability to bring about the changes hoped for in 1994. Like most left-wing governments, the ANC started with a very ambitious programme offering hope for a more equal and fairer society.? But as with any government hoping to manage capitalism for the benefit of the majority, the ANC soon found itself unable to deliver on its promises.? South Africa?s last apartheid president, FW de Klerk, played his part in obstructing change. He emptied the state?s coffers between 1992 and 1994, almost doubling the budget deficit. The ANC, impotent to effect change, has become a very corrupt organisation. Many individual members have become rich while the majority live in poverty. As for the alternatives mentioned in your feature, Julius Malema?s Economic Freedom Fighters are also tainted by the suspicions surrounding their charismatic leader?s great wealth.? This wealth was accumulated when Malema was president of the ANC?s Youth League for many years. Out of desperation at the lack of genuine socialist alternatives, former ANC minister Ronnie Kasrils and others called for people who normally abstain from voting to vote tactically for smaller parties in order to punish the ANC. The election last week was too soon for the left to put forward a strong alternative.? But the hope for the people still living in the squalor of the townships must be that the trade unions and the wider left can assemble a party to challenge the capitalist system for the struggles and elections to come. Richard Hallatt,?Sheffield Challenging?Ukip myths With Ukip getting more airtime than other political parties in the election campaign it?s important we protest everywhere they meet and challenge their disgusting politics.? Inside Ukip?s London election rally last week an audience of Tories, toffs, Nazis and xenophobes turned out to see millionaire Nigel Farage spread his racist and homophobic filth.? I went along to disrupt and heckle and was proudly ejected with others from the Stand Up To Ukip campaign.? Ukip are not a fascist party and we did not go to smash it up or stop them having a platform. We want its supporters to see there is real opposition to its policies.? We can drive a wedge between their more extreme edge and their ?softer? support.?We need to debunk their myths with facts and take them on.? It?s heartening that people are taking to the streets to campaign against them. We need this to continue. Most of all we have to make sure that when we wake up after the elections we don?t just collapse in despair but continue the fight for a better and more equal society. Dean Harris,?North London Build social housing, don?t demonise the poor My local newspaper ran a nasty anti-immigrant, anti-homeless story last week saying rough sleepers in the shopping centre ?intimidate shoppers?. It implied that they were mostly eastern European. The centre is a public right of way and one side of it forms a relatively warm safe place for around?20 homeless people to sleep.? They are there because Newham has a chronic shortage of affordable housing. I have walked through the centre hundreds of times day and night and have never felt intimidated.? In fact it feels safer with people, including the skaters who turn it into effectively a community centre at night.? Newham?s Labour mayor Sir Robin Wales wants us to vote for what we value on 22 May. I vote to build affordable housing and not demonise the poor. Sarah Ensor,?East London Halal scare is racist crap? The reason so much of the meat sold in Britain is halal is not because Muslims demand we all eat it?that?s racist crap. It?s due to the business of global meat production. As abattoirs get bigger and export meat around the world it is more profitable to slaughter all their animals the same way?and halal is big business. The real problem is not how much halal meat is sold but how little control we have over how society produces the food we eat. Stef Sheldon,?Exeter FA quotas are racist A commission into the state of English football gave its long-awaited report last week. It was to investigate the lack of top young players, and why England hasn?t won a tournament in years.? Two of its conclusions are deeply worrying. They are to increase the minimum quota of English players that clubs must employ and to further restrict non-EU players by changing the work permit system. Both plans smack of the racism towards migrants we see in wider society?and both ignore the facts.? Germany, often hailed for developing young talent, has no restrictions on foreign players. Football fans must argue against these backward ideas and celebrate the multicultural nature of football in Britain. Tom Kay,?Sheffield Job stats show recovery sham The Tory coalition boasts that figures for the creation of new jobs have increased. But since mid-2010 two out of five new jobs created have been in self-employment.? It?s very difficult to attain a stable income and get any pension if you?re self-employed.? Self-employment has a role to play in the economy but employment figures shouldn?t be so dependent on it.? This revelation really undermines the government?s claim that they?re improving the economy.? Name and address supplied Free transport for everyone! Well done to the South Yorkshire ?freedom ride? (Socialist Worker,?3 May). It got me thinking: why shouldn?t public transport be free? And I mean everywhere. It would boost people?s freedom of movement, particularly the elderly or less well-off. It would even be good for the economy. Graeme Kemp,?Shropshire Evict Tories not tenants the Tories are attacking welfare spending and causing misery for millions of families across. One consequence of this is that the number of tenants facing eviction from rented accommodation is at a ten-year high. In just the first three months of this year landlords made nearly 50,000 possession claims in county courts. Meanwhile toff Tory minister William Hague is having ?2,000 a day of taxpayers? money lavished on his exclusive London residence. It?s despicable. Chris Deans,?Sunderland Video has a go at Coalition Our band, The Vulnerables, has produced a music video called Coalition. We?re sure readers will appreciate the sentiment, if not the music! bit.ly/RwVCs2 Darren Tolliday,?Manchester
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Kent meeting on the miners? strike
Hundreds of people packed into a meeting in Aylesham, Kent, last Saturday to commemorate the 1984-85 miners? strike. Speakers included veteran NUM union leader Terry Harrison and Kay Sutcliffe, who helped set up one of the first women?s support groups. People celebrated the tremendous solidarity that the struggle generated.?It also addressed the need to keep fighting today. ?
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Global warming is tipping us into catastrophe
The crucial Thwaites Glacier at the edge of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet (Pic: NASA JPL) Climate change has reached a new ?tipping point?, according to two studies released this week. Glaciers at the edge of the West Antarctica ice sheet are melting fast. This has been one of the main contributors to the small rise in sea levels that has happened so far. More importantly, it weakens the ice sheet by bringing warmer water right underneath it. The new studies suggest this will cause the whole ice sheet to collapse?and sea levels to rise by more than four metres.That?s enough to submerge large parts of Humberside, the Thames estuary, East Anglia and the south coast. Parts of north western Europe, Bangladesh, the Nile Delta, Florida and sections of China could all be flooded, potentially creating many millions of refugees. The process of melting is now probably irreversible. It will not happen immediately, though. It could take less than 200 years, or more than 500, depending on whether serious steps are taken to address global warming. A society built on inequality turns weather events into human disasters. It will take a real fight to provide safety and shelter for those affected. But more urgent still is the fight to stop our rulers making the problem worse. In the House of Lords and the right wing media, the concern isn?t how to stop global warming but how to speed up fracking and pump out more greenhouse emissions.
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Immigration detention centre inmates demand ?a life with dignity?
Protests took place at at least four immigration detention centres last week.? Around 50 detainees at Campsfield, Oxfordshire, went on hunger strike from Wednesday of last week. In a statement on Youtube one said, ?We want our freedom. We want our life with dignity. ?We do not want to be treated in an inhumane way. So that?s why we?re demanding the closure of all detention centres for immigrants in the UK.? The protest was called off last Saturday when several hunger strikers fell ill, a spokesperson for the Campaign to Close Campsfield said. Some 20 men held at Brook House near Gatwick airport refused to return to their cells from the exercise yard and stayed out overnight in protest. At Colnbrook near Heathrow guards broke up a protest meeting by about 40 detainees. ?Ring leaders? were placed in isolation. The previous week up to?150 people organised a sit-down protest at nearby Harmondsworth against ?fast track? deportations. Detainees claim that several people involved have been transferred to different detention centres, one activist told Socialist Worker. ? ?
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Court coup removes Thai prime minister
Ousted---Yingluck Shinawatra (Pic: Landtagsprojekt Bayern) Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra was overthrown last week on a legal technicality. Yingluck is the sister of former populist Thai prime minister Taksin Shinawatra. She was ousted by the unelected Constitutional Court, which claimed she ?did not have the right? to transfer a government official. But Democrat Party opposition politicans who killed scores of pro-democracy protesters have never been charged. Nor have those who took part in the military coup that overthrew Taksin in 2006. The political crisis over the last eight years has proved that being in government does not mean controlling the state. There has been one coup by the army and three judicial coups. But Yingluck, Taksin and their Pua Thai Party have no intention of leading a real fight for democracy.?Their aim is to rejoin the elite who now run the state. Any real struggle must come from the Red Shirt Movement. But they need leadership separate from Pua Thai and Taksin. Power must come from being allied with the working class and linking it with the rural farmers. ?
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Nigel Farage gets flustered after anti-racist protests target Ukip
Anti-Ukip protest in Edinburgh last week (Pic: Joshua Brown) Ukip leader Nigel Farage faced angry anti-racist protests on his campaign trail last week.? In London a key rally for the racist populist party turned into chaos on Wednesday of last week.?Anti-racist protesters heckled and disrupted speeches attacking migrants as more than 150 others rallied outside. Fran Manning, a student at Kingston University, told Socialist Worker, ?We stood up and chanted, ?Unemployment and inflation are not caused by immigration,? after one Ukip speaker called for tougher border controls. ?They must learn that what they say about migrants is not going unchallenged.? The evening was supposed to be a triumph for Farage. Instead he was forced to stay out of his rally until a brief appearance in the closing minutes. Ukip has clearly been stung by being branded racist, and sat all its black and Asian members in the front two rows.?Farage had them join him on stage for a desperate photo opportunity. But the attendees were mostly white, middle to upper class?and visibly shaken by the noisy protest. Rattled, Farage lashed out at Unite Against Fascism (UAF) and other campaigns, claiming they were using violence against him.?Farage says he now has to have bodyguards. UAF is one of many groups and individuals supporting the Stand Up to Ukip campaign.? Bigotry It rejected his allegations, saying ?Nigel Farage has had to hire?bodyguards due to Ukip members making explicitly racist, sexist and homophobic statements.?These have made Ukip deeply unpopular with all those that oppose such bigotry.? When Farage arrived in Edinburgh for a rally two days later he was met by 500 anti-racist demonstrators. The protest was organised by the Radical Independence Campaign and Stand Up to Ukip. Members of Nazi group Britain First tried to come and ?protect Farage?.? The protest surged towards them and they ran away, later returning to hide behind police lines. Farage was forced to exit through a side door. In town centres across Britain anti-racists have taken to the streets to campaign against Ukip. In Wood Green in North London, shoppers cheered on Stand Up to Ukip campaigners from Labour, Lib Dem, Green and Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) as they leafleted last Saturday. Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate Catherine West said, ?Racism has no place in London, and together with colleagues from the labour movement, we can defeat Ukip.? TUSC local election candidate Simon Hester told Socialist Worker, ?Ukip is led by tax-dodging?millionaires so it?s no wonder they scapegoat poor migrants.?? Thanks to Emma Davis,?Chris Newlove and Terry McGrath Protest at Ukip's London rally last week (Pic: Guy Smallman) Mainstream politicians' migrant-bashing feeds Ukip A new poll put Ukip on a record 31 percent of the vote for this month?s European elections, while Labour has slipped to only 25 percent. Nigel Farage and his racist party are also expecting good results in the local elections. While the mainstream parties increasingly criticise Ukip, they don?t want to challenge them on the issue of racism and immigration.? Labour?s anti-Ukip leaflet rightly attacks its anti-NHS and?pro-privatisation policies.?But instead of challenging Ukip?s racism it promises that ?Labour will take tough action on immigration?.? Some LGBT Tories wanted to expose the homophobia of Roger Helmer, Ukip?s parliamentary candidate in the coming?by-election in Newark. ?They tweeted a collection of his vile quotes. What they neglected to mention was that most were made when Helmer was still a Tory party member. Time is short before the local and European elections.?Ukip can flourish as mainstream parties champion anti-immigration agendas.? Anti-racists need to be organised and campaigning in every town and city where Ukip is standing to oppose racist scapegoating and declare all immigrants are welcome here.? Order or download?campaign materials at standuptoukip.org
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First ever walkout hits TfL as workers strike over pay and pensions
TfL pickets in London (Pic: Socialist Worker) More than 1,000 workers struck at Transport for London (TfL) on Friday of last week against attacks on their pay and pensions. The joint action between TSSA, RMT and Unite union members was their first ever strike.? TfL bosses want to freeze wages and scrap workers? final salary pension scheme.?One TSSA rep at a head office in Southwark, south London, told Socialist Worker, ?We?re the unseen workers and we?re being screwed.? ?They?re freezing wages and destroying our pensions at a time when bills keep rising. ?They say we are overpaid compared to outside TfL but really it?s those outside that are underpaid.? TSSA rep Catherine Poole works at TfL?s North Greenwich office.?She told Socialist Worker, ?If they get away with this our pensions could possibly be determined decades before we retire. People are angry and have had enough.? And RMT assistant general secretary Steve Hedley told Socialist Worker, ?It?s fantastic to see three TFL unions all fighting together.? ?
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South Yorkshire Labour councils buckling over Freedom Ride protests
Protesting in Sheffield outside the SYPTE building (Pic: Matthew Reeve) Up to 150 people joined an angry protest at Barnsley rail station on Monday of this week to demand free train travel for older people. The protest, the seventh Freedom Ride, followed a significant climb-down from local Labour politicians who are used to getting their own way. Four South Yorkshire Labour-run ?councils withdrew free travel from disabled and older people from 1 April this year.?But after six Freedom Rides?where hundreds of people travelled on trains and refused to pay?they are buckling.? The councils have put a proposal to the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive (SYPTE).?It will give free travel for disabled people and carers on trains and buses at any time, and half price travel on trains for older people from 9.30am to 11pm. This is particularly important for disabled people as it restores everything they had cut six weeks ago.?It is clearly not good enough for older people. The SYPTE will consider the proposal at a meeting on Monday of next week. A squad of transport police blocked protesters from travelling on a train in Barnsley on Monday of this week.?But campaigners were buoyed by the fact that their action is starting to get results. Ian Paisley, a retired engineer, said, ?Today was exhilarating. I didn?t expect so many people to turn up after news of the concessions.? ?The enthusiasm to fight to get free train travel back is as strong as ever. And there were new people today, which shows a growing mood.? Over the last week there has been an intensification of protests. Transport police blocked the sixth Freedom Ride at Barnsley station on Wednesday of last week. In Doncaster a small number of protesters boarded a train, only to find it was not going to move. Blocked But protesters successfully?travelled to Barnsley from Sheffield without paying.?The Barnsley and Sheffield protesters then held a march round Barnsley centre, rallying outside the Town Hall. The following day up to 70 campaigners lobbied the SYPTE building in Sheffield and kept up a non-stop barrage of noise for two hours.? News of the compromise deal came out later that day.?Rebecca Green is a member of Barnsley Blind and Partially Sighted Association.? She said, ?I am pleased that campaigning has won a good decision for disabled people. It shows that protest works. But I think we should fight on to win back free train travel for older people.? Retired youth worker Keith Watkins said, ?Protest has achieved success?and it?s a success for caring for one another.? Retired miner Eddie Ryan said the shift by councils was a ?positive result?.? But he added, ?We want to keep going until we get back to the status quo, which is free train travel for older people as well.? ?If London pensioners get free train travel then so should we.? The RMT transport union last week pledged ?full support? for the campaign.?RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash said the cuts to free travel were a ?national scandal? that left people isolated ?as prisoners in their own homes?. The Barnsley Retirees Action Group plans a demonstration through Barnsley on Saturday of this week. Demonstrate to reinstate free train travel?Saturday 17 May, assemble 11am, Barnsley Eastgate.?Lobby the SYPTE?Monday 19 May, assemble 1pm, Regent Street, Barnsley ?
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Global protests as US fast food workers supersize their strike
Workers and supporters marched in New York last week (Pic: Julie Sherry) ? The biggest fast food workers? strike so far is set to hit the US on Thursday of this week. Solidarity protests will take place in over 30 countries in a global day of action to demand union recognition, better pay and respect at work. This will see up to 20 protests outside McDonald?s sites across Britain, organised by the Fast Food Rights campaign.?This is a campaign that was initiated earlier this year by the BFAWU bakers' union, Labour MP John McDonnell and Unite the Resistance.? The global day of action is centred around unprecedented walkouts by fast food workers in around 160 US cities.?This comes in the wake of strikes spreading across the US since November 2012, with 130 cities hit by the last strike in Autumn 2013.? The global day of action was launched in New York last week at an international fast food union conference with around 90 delegates.?The conference hosted by the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers? Associations (IUF) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The IUF comprises of 396 affiliated organisations in 126 countries, representing a combined membership of 12 million workers.?The SEIU is the union, with over 2 million members, that has been at the heart of organising strikes by US fast food workers over the past year.? The New York conference heard from union organisers, campaign activists and McDonald's workers from across the world.?They discussed the terrain in each country to gain an overview in the battle against multinational fast food corporations, particularly McDonald's. Delegates also organised how to develop international solidarity with the growing strike movement in the US.? Activists drew lessons from the different experiences, illustrating that the US strikers' demand for $15 (?8.80 an hour) and a union was possible.? In New Zealand, McDonald's workers talked about their strikes that forced union recognition.?A Danish McDonald's worker explained how they won the equivalent of ?12 an hour.? US strikers from McDonald's and KFC spoke about why they got involved and how they organised and spread strikes in the space of 12 months across the whole of the US.?They also spoke about how the strike movement has transformed the dynamic of the workplaces in the industry. The international delegates marched to a McDonald's in Manhattan for a press conference on Wednesday of last week to launch the day of action. For details of?protests in Britain go to?fastfoodrights.wordpress.com Tweet your photos to #fastfoodglobal and email them to reports@socialistworker.co.uk
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Police protect EDL thugs on march in Rotherham
On the UAF protest in Rotherham (Pic: Fran Postlethwaite) around 250 anti-fascists stood up to a national mobilisation of the racist English Defence League (EDL) in Rotherham on Saturday of last week. The counter protest was organised by Unite Against Fascism (UAF). The EDL claimed thousands would attend but fewer than 400 assorted thugs and Nazis turned up. Shamefully the EDL were allowed to march through the streets protected by 1,000 cops who had locked down the town centre. This was despite the local council voting unanimously against allowing the EDL into the town, according to local councillor Brian Steele. Another councillor and local trade unionists addressed the UAF counter demo. The rally sent out a clear message??The EDL and all other fascists are not welcome here.? BNP washout in Hemel Hempstead More than 60?anti-fascists opposed just 18 British National Party (BNP) Nazis in Hemel Hempstead last Saturday.?UAF and local trade unionists organised the counter protest after the Nazis announced their intention to protest against plans for a new mosque. Thanks to Fran Postlethwaite, Trevor Goodfield, Dave Holes and Peter Segal
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Value, price and profit in the works of Marx
(Pic: marixists.org) The volunteers working on the Marxists Internet Archive (MIA) were surprised to receive a message from publishers Lawrence & Wishart on 22 April.? They were asking us to remove all material from the Marx-Engels Collected Works (MECW) from our website by 30 April.? We were particularly surprised because nine years ago we?d agreed we wouldn?t put any new MECW material online but they would allow us to keep the stuff from the first ten volumes online. The background seems to be that Lawrence & Wishart received a proposal about how to capitalise on their copyright. They want to make the MECW available to academic libraries in return for payment. ?We understand that small radical publishers face challenges in today?s globalised economy, but we feel that they have been badly advised. The proposal shows little understanding of the way the internet works.? In particular, we object to these particular writings being reserved for academia. They show Marx?s and Engels?s development towards a Marxist understanding of the world. Lawrence & Wishart has the copyright on this material jointly with International Publishers (New York) and the now defunct Progress Publishers (Moscow). That has never been in dispute.? Though I would point out that most of the translation work for the volumes in question was carried out while the project was still sponsored by the Soviet government. It?s been clear from the start that we?d do as they asked. We reject the concept of intellectual property rights in principle. But we also recognise the need for living writers to benefit from the fruits of their labour.? So in practice we try to avoid conflicts with publishers and writers? estates about copyright. In this particular case, it wouldn?t be in our interests to carry arguments about intellectual property rights into the bourgeois courts. But we couldn?t just pull the 1,600+ documents without comment, so we placed a factual notice on our main page and a statement on Facebook explaining what was going to happen on the eve of May Day. As we half expected all hell broke loose. While some users appealed to us to challenge bourgeois notions of intellectual property, most accepted that we?d have to accede to the demands.? But they were angry and directed this anger against Lawrence & Wishart. Supporters of MIA organised a number of online petitions. Lawrence & Wishart were somewhat taken aback by the angry reaction.? They are now considering ways of allowing access to at least some of these writings on a wider basis. We await their proposals. Our experience and that of a number of radical publishers is that the presence of a text in HTML format on the internet doesn?t necessarily result in fewer sales.? It can lead to more sales as people who?d never have seen the book in a library or bookshop become aware of it and some want to buy a hard copy.? One of the ways we finance the MIA is by selling books of texts we?ve collected. We?re now looking into ways of replacing the texts removed?either by using non-copyright translations or by adding new translations provided by our volunteers and supporters. We remain committed to making the widest range of Marxist material possible available to the working class and socialist movements worldwide.? Come and visit us at?www.marxists.org
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Everybody Down: Kate Tempest's intimate and lyrical portrait of working class life
Poet and rapper Kate Tempest Kate Tempest?s new album Everybody Down is about real life. People we can recognise, places that seem familiar.?The characters grapple with life?relationships, situations, thoughts and feelings that will ring true to us all. And perhaps it?s the familiarity that creates such a sense of intimacy with her work. The album introduces us to a group of characters whose tales interweave. Each track is a chapter in their story although also strong enough to stand alone. A novel that follows the same characters will be out next year.?Unlike much mainstream rap music there is no attempt to glamorise the hardships faced by her characters. They are not sure of themselves. They struggle to get by with no hope of getting ahead.?Their concerns are fairly trivial yet her lyrics pull you in to their innermost worries and let you understand something essential about them. Expressing the realities of working class lives, the album is subtly political and feels modern and fresh even if you have heard her earlier work.? The music echoes the pitch and pace of the story but it is the lyrics that remain centre stage and thankfully the music doesn?t intrude or distract too much.?The story is complex, the delivery is intricate and I?m sure the album could be listened to on repeat and new layers will still be found. Fans will be pleased there is new material to lap up and hopefully a live tour will follow the release. Everybody Down, a new album by Kate Tempest is out 19 May, Big Dada records ?
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Walkout in Wigan over council cuts
More than 300 workers at Wigan?s Labour-run council are set to walk out on Thursday of this week over a cut to their essential car users? allowance.? The workers are members of the Unison union. Negotiations between council management and the union have broken down.?For the last two weeks workers have refused to use their own cars for council business. The action includes social workers, street lighting engineers and environmental health officers. The cut to workers? car allowance amounts to nearly ?1,000 a year pay cut.?Wigan Unison member Catherine Croston told Socialist Worker, ?After years of pay freezes, pay cuts and below-inflation pay rises this was the last straw. ?We are absolutely furious that a Labour council is passing Tory cuts on to us.? ?We provide vital services for the people of Wigan and this is how we are treated.? ?We cannot do our jobs without our cars.? Senior Unison social care steward Dave Lowe said, ?The car boycott is solid, but members understand that a boycott on its own is not sufficient to force the council to reverse its decision.? ?What we need are more strikes. I believe this is possible?there is definitely a mood to fight.? Send messages of solidarity to the council workers?tracy@wiganunison.org.uk
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News in brief round-up
Gove grabs millions?for free schools Tory education secretary Michael Gove has taken ?400 million from the Basic Need budget to prop up his free schools programme.? The Basic Need budget guarantees councils can provide enough school places.? The Lib Dems confirmed the raid. Cleaners join a?protest for jobs Cleaners protested at London?s Senate House over job cuts on Friday of last week. The cuts, by the University of London, threatens workers in the ?3 Cosas? campaign. Another protest is planned at Senate House for 1.15pm on Friday of this week. Ukip tweet led?to police ?visit? Police visited a Green Party member last week after he criticised Ukip on Twitter. Michael Abberton said cops told him he had committed no crime?but asked him to delete some of the tweets. A Ukip councillor had made a complaint. More services?face deep cuts Councils will make deeper cuts to services in the next few years according to new report, Under Pressure. Labour figures show the ten poorest areas of England had cuts of 25.3 percent on average from 2010-11 to 2015-16, compared to 2.54 percent in the ten richest.
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BP ?Oil Vikings? invade British museum
The crowds at the British Museum were in for a surprise last month, as pillaging Vikings took over?adorned with BP logos. BP sponsors the museum?s popular Vikings exhibition. It?s one of a number of BP sponsorship deals targeted for theatrical protests by the Reclaim Shakespeare Company.? They accuse the oil giant of using arts sponsorship to counteract anger at its main activities?profiting from environmental destruction. Watch the performance and sign petition at bit.ly/1h3V7Md ?
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Syria's revolution had too many enemies
Free Syrian Army soldier in Aleppo (Pic: Voices of America News) The surrender of Homs, the ?capital of the revolution?, marks a moment of bitter defeat in Syria. The fighters bravely held out through years of siege, but after little prospect of rescue were finally forced to withdraw.? The defeat of Homs follows the fall of a number of rebel towns and neighbourhoods, and the annihilation of many more. Homs has become a symbol of the retreat of the revolutionary forces. Many of the popular committees that grew out of the armed uprising in the summer of 2012 have been crushed. Their leaders were murdered by dictator Bashar al-Assad?s regime, killed in battle or by Islamist factions allied to Al Qaida.? Although in many areas the war has become a stalemate, Assad is ?winning by inches?. The defected soldiers, workers, peasants and students who filled the ranks of the revolutionary forces have no defence against the barrel bombs dropped by helicopter gunships, or the regime?s poison gases and devastating conventional weapons. Those who put their faith in the West, or in the militias funded by the Gulf kingdoms that eclipsed the lightly armed revolutionaries, discovered that their interests were not those of the revolution. Every threat of Western intervention weakened the revolution further. Imperialism had little to gain from the revolution, and despite the talk of ?intervention and aid? was always hostile to the uprising. Across the region there is a retrenchment of the old regimes and defeat for the popular movements that made the Arab Spring. The Syrian revolution, as the Palestinian resistance discovered over the years, has too many enemies. The war in Syria has becomes a many-headed conflict. In the north the battle with Iraqi dominated Al Qaida organisations has drained the resistance. In the south Saudi funded forces have made some battlefield gains, but not enough to lift the sieges on the capital?s working class districts, and with little hope of receiving genuine popular backing. In Damascus the vast Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk, whose residents gave shelter to those fleeing the regime bombardments, is on the verge of starvation after two years of blockade. This is a testament to the moral and political bankruptcy of those who paint the regime as a champion of the Palestinian struggle. Bitter The scale of the ?cleansing? of Sunni Muslims at the hands of the regime, its militias and Lebanese Hizbollah forces has left a deep and bitter sectarian legacy.? The rise of the Islamists terrified the Christian and Druze minorities and reinforced sectarian fears among Allawis and Shia Muslims. They had little interest in defending the regime but much to fear from the Salafis who began to dominate the rebel forces. The revolutionaries weakened their hand by dismissing the desire of Syria?s Kurdish minority for self rule. Despite decades of resistance to the regime, these regions became suspicious of rebels who sidelined their national rights.? Instead of being won to a greater revolutionary project, the Kurds adopted neutrality, in some cases fighting alongside the rebels, or against the Islamists, or making an accommodation with the regime. Similarly the exiles who quickly filled the ranks of ?leaders? sought from the outset to limit the scope of the revolution to changes at the top, rather than the deep desire for fundamental social change. Assad?s forces have made good on his promise that rather ?Syria burn? than change. The many neighbourhoods and towns that emerged as the centres of the uprising have been pulverised.? Some nine million Syrians are now refugees, greater than the number of Palestinians. Many have little prospect of returning to their homes. Despite its bitter defeats, the spirit of the revolution lives on. For now the revolutionaries have been sidelined. Many are consumed by the daily struggle to survive, or are languishing in prisons, refugee camps and exile. But Assad?s victories are hollow. He rules over a rump sectarian statelet at war with the majority of his population, and with little real prospect of reconquering the rest of Syria.
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Roving pickets ramp up the pressure as Doncaster Care UK strike enters second week
Roving pickets took the fight to Care UK's Essex headquarters last week (Pic: Alan Kenny) Doncaster Care UK workers are in their second week of a 14-day strike against savage attacks on their pay and conditions by bosses.? Over the last week strikers in the Unison union upped the pressure on Care UK with a series of protests at their offices.?They began a Care UK strike tour with a visit to the company?s Colchester headquarters. Around 50 strikers blocked entrances and delivery vans.?Protests also took place at Care UK?s offices in Sheffield and Leeds. More are planned this week in Nottingham, Newcastle and London. An 18-person strike committee was elected, and more workers have started to take ownership of the strike. Striker Mags Dalton told Socialist Worker, ?The strike committee has made a massive difference?it?s been fantastic. We all can be more involved now and have more of a say in our own dispute. And that?s helped us escalate things over the last week.? Mags said the committee organises delegating jobs, organising transport to protests and strikers to speak at meetings to raise support.?The workers have travelled all over Britain. Resolve Bosses hope to grind down their resolve.?But every message of solidarity or donation gives workers a boost. The workers had struck 29 days in just under 11 weeks as Socialist Worker went to press. Their current strike ends on Sunday of this week. Thousands of pounds have been collected for the strikers over the last week alone. Teachers, bakers, council workers, bus drivers,?firefighters, health and?construction workers have all donated. Unison general secretary Dave Prentis visited the picket line this week (Pic: Alan Kenny) When it comes to privatising the NHS, Care UK is one of the Tories? favourite vultures. It is owned by private equity firm Bridgepoint Capital. Labour-run Doncaster council privatised the ex-NHS service in autumn last year. More than 90 workers have refused to sign new contracts imposed by Care UK last month. The contracts cut pay by up to ?7,000 a year, with an attempted bribe of a buyout worth 14 months pay.?The severity of the pay cut means some workers would face losing their homes. Unison general secretary Dave Prentis made his first visit to the picket line on Tuesday of this week. He railed against privatisation and workers being ?sold off on the altar of profit?. He also attacked Care UK for avoiding tax. Privateers He told strikers, ?By taking on these privateers you can make a difference?actually we need more people like you to be strong and take on what is happening.? Prentis hinted at larger action Unison, one of the biggest unions in Britain, could take. He said ?we?ve got to find ways of taking them on in the rest of the country. ?We?ll make sure you?re protected. If they piss you around you?re out again.??He said, ?I say, as general secretary of this union, that we will win this fight.? Prentis mentioned going to the courts if necessary, but this dispute has never been about the legal case.?Its strength lies in workers? collective strength and the level of action they are prepared to take. Unison rep Andy Squires explained, ?If something isn?t working you have to change tack. Care UK didn?t budge after our seven-day strikes?that?s why we escalated.?If we have to go longer than 14 days then that?s what we need to do.? Mags said, ?This is as much about those using the service ?we?re their voice, and we?re not going to back down. "We want victory, nothing less. And not just for us but everyone facing pay cuts and attacks on our services.? Solidarity demonstration, Saturday 17 May, ?2pm,?Civic Square, Doncaster Send donations, solidarity messages and requests for strikers to speak at meetings to: admin@unison-dab.org.uk Make cheques payable to: Doncaster, District & Bassetlaw Health Branch and send to: Jenkinson House, White Rose Way, Doncaster DN4 5GJ Facebook:?Doncaster Supported Living Unison Strike Gwalia?care home workers walk out in South Wales Care workers in Neath Port Talbot, South Wales, were set to strike on Tuesday of this week.? They face attacks on jobs and conditions?and a pay cut of up to 16 percent. Private firm Gwalia Group took over residential care homes from Neath Port Talbot Council two years ago. After initially claiming the strike would have little impact, bosses started flapping last week and claimed the action would put elderly residents at risk. But the real threat to care comes from bosses? attacks? which strikers are trying to stop.? Send messages of support to gwaliaunison@ymlaen.org ?
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Northern Rail management 'cover up' strike impact
Northern Rail workers were coerced into cutting corners to try and cover up the impact of maintenance drivers? industrial action, the RMT union has said. A leaked email passed to the union shows a senior manager praising his team for ?covering up the technical failures? during a strike by maintenance drivers. Workers at Traincare depots in Newcastle and Leeds walked out for 48 hours in February over regrading.
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Garston call centre workers set to walk out over job losses
Workers at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) call centre in Garston, south Liverpool, were set to strike on Friday of this week. The PCS union members voted for discontinuous strikes by over five to one in an effort to keep the site open. Workers are rightly angry.?A series of DWP office closures have seen nearly 1,000 jobs lost in the city over the last nine years. Bosses want to portray the closure as bloodless.But catering, cleaning and security jobs will go and some workers will find it impossible to transfer. Their only options are Bootle call centre or Child Maintenance in Birkenhead. For many workers it would be the third compulsory transfer in as many years. Send messages of support to nwrc@pcs.org.uk and visit the picket line from 7am. ?
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Land Registry selloff plan leaked as staff prepare for strike
Over 3,000 PCS union members at the 14 offices of the Land Registry (LR) were set to strike on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.? The strike is over threats to jobs and office closures, as well as plans to outsource work. The immediate threat is LR management plans to introduce a Virtual Post Room. TNT has been given a contract to open all incoming post, scan documents, funnel the output through software and pass the data into LR computer systems. This threatens over 300 jobs. Anger increased last week after leaked LR board minutes showed that management was actively planning to move to a joint venture with KPMG. It denied that any decision had been taken.?The Tories have also run a consultation seeking to change LR from a Civil Service trading fund. It could become a Government Company, a joint venture with a private partner as controlling interest, or be fully privatised.? In all cases oversight would pass to a tiny Office of the Chief Land Registrar, no doubt a typically toothless regulator. All options are a massive threat to jobs. All of this has fanned the flames. More workers have been joining PCS, and members expect a solid strike across all offices. Send messages of support to solidarity@pcs.org.uk ?
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Rank and file electricians call day of action over attacks
Electricians pledge solidarity to Care UK strikers (Pic: Alan Kenny) A national rank and file electricians? meeting took place in Liverpool last Saturday.?Some 80 people attended the meeting. They agreed to call a day of action for Friday of next week against bosses? attempts to pay workers less and give them fewer rights.?Bosses are trying to do this by using a loophole in self employment regulations. ?
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Protesters take on the fracking firms
Campaigners protested outside the Fracking industry?s Shale Gas World Forum in Birmingham on Tuesday of this week. The event brings together fracking bosses, MPs and council leaders. Frack Free Greater Manchester also held an event on fracking and climate change last Saturday.
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Occupational therapists plan a strike over bullying
Occupational therapists at Greenwich council in south east London have voted unanimously for strikes over an alleged ?bullying culture?. The Unite union members were set to strike on Wednesday of next week. ?
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Socialists elected to PCS national executive
Elections to the PCS union?s national executive ended on Thursday of last week. Socialist Worker supporters Marianne Owens from HM Revenue and Customs group and Paul Williams from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency were re-elected. Paul received 7,747 votes and Marianne received?8,881, the second highest. They stood as part of Left Unity, which is within the Democracy Alliance.
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A merger between PCS and Unite is no substitute for a fightback
The PCS union?s national conference meets in Brighton next week at a vital time for the union. Thousands of civil service jobs have been lost since May 2010. The PCS has been in the forefront of trying to coordinate resistance to the Tories. But there?s been no national action for over a year. It is vital that conference makes serious moves towards taking joint action with other unions in dispute. As the national executive recently rejected a motion to approach other unions, branches must force a debate from the conference floor. Meanwhile reports from the Unite union suggest that merger proposals with the PCS are far more advanced than the PCS leadership admits. Unite leader Len McCluskey apparently said any merger would not affect the Unite rule book or its relationship with the Labour Party. Last year?s PCS conference only allowed talks to go ahead on the basis that there would be safeguards to protect democratic structures in the PCS and our ability to act independently of Labour. In any case merger can?t be substituted for a serious fight against government attacks. ?
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Time to tell media racists to pluck off after foul campaign
The Daily Mail is just one of the papers who have run with the Halal non-story The latest Muslim plot to threaten the BRITISH way of life is hiding in restaurants and supermarkets. Genuine BRITISH things like pizza and Kentucky Fried Chicken might contain Halal meat. In case the coding of the press hasn?t worked, Halal is Arabic for permissible. Halal food is that which adheres to Islamic law. The Islamic form of slaughtering animals or poultry, dhabiha, involves killing through a cut to the jugular vein, carotid artery and windpipe. Animals must be alive and healthy at the time of slaughter. During the process, a Muslim will recite a dedication.? The Daily Mail added that Subway didn?t have bacon on offer in ALL its stores. It barked, ?Subway removes ham and bacon from nearly 200 stores and offers halal meat only after ?strong demand? from Muslims?. Troublemaker has eaten the odd bacon sandwich, but we wouldn?t make it compulsory. The Sun helpfully explained ?Halal chickens must be alive when they are slaughtered.? Which shows the dark heart of halal, because a good Christian or secular chicken presumably isn?t slaughtered til after it is dead. In a good CHRISTIAN or SECULAR slaughterhouse chickens are hung upside down by their legs on metal shackles.? They move along a conveyor belt. When the bird?s head makes contact with water, an electrical circuit shocks it. The conveyor belt then moves on to a mechanical neck cutter. When that doesn?t work, it is done by hand.? That this foul campaign has gone from Nazi Facebook pages to the front of the papers is a warning about where racist politics is? heading. Restaurants and supermarkets do a rotten job when it comes to informing us ?about what?s in food.? But this campaign is racism that doesn?t even pretend to hide its bigotry. Annoy a racist?eat Halal food. David Cameron is giving MPs a 19-day break. MPs were set to pack their bags on Thursday?less than a month after having a two-week holiday. They are shutting up shop a week early and come back on 4 June. MPs begin a six-week summer break on 22 July. They come back in September?but after eight days get another month off. Last year MPs sat for 143 days. Private firms run a quarter of services Outsourcing firms account for roughly 24 percent, or ?84 billion, of public sector spending ?about ?3,000 a year for every person in Britain. These companies, which control a range of outsourced work for the NHS, prisons, schools and other public bodies, employ 1.2 million people, or 4 percent ?of the workforce. The four largest?Capita, Serco, Atos and G4S?receive around ?4 billion in public money between them. About two thirds of their turnover are government contracts.? Serco boss Chris Hyman, who quit last October, got? ?2.5 million in 2012.?Nick Buckles, the former boss of G4S, got ?2.3 million in 2012. Drinks firm Diageo set the bar tabs?high for last week?s leaving parties for its?long-serving corporate affairs chief Ian Wright. Wright?s government contacts?including Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury, and fellow Lib Dem Michael Moore, the ex-secretary of state for Scotland?all gathered to bid the lucky lobbyist good luck. Fight for every job. Well, most of them.? Troublemaker is saddened at any job losses. But to lose two jobs is heartbreaking.? Pippa Middleton?s role as a national newspaper columnist has come to an end. The sister of the Duchess of Cambridge wrote a Sport and Social column for the Daily Telegraph.? She opined on cycling underwater, pancakes, cooking pasta and investigating whether oysters really are an aphrodisiac.? A sad loss to journalism. Her US book publisher Viking Press decided to let her go after her debut offering, party-planning book Celebrate, flopped. Royal therapist Deborah Mitchell has repeatedly applied her moisturiser to Kate Middleton.? She is fighting court cases to protect her key royal product?the Bee Venom Mask. ?The Bee Venom Mask was my invention. I have the patent.? She argues, ?If it?s not fresh, then it won?t work.? Discriminate diplomatically women at the Foreign Office are paid 10 percent less than men. The Foreign Office Diversity and Equality Report reveals that average female pay among senior ranking civil servants was ?118,470.?That compares with male pay at the same level of ?131,360. At the lowest grade there is pay equality, with both men and women paid ?18,156. There is a difference in black and minority ethnic (BME) representation.?At the lowest grade there are 20 percent BME staff. But at senior management level there are only 4 percent. Troublemaker favourite Cuadrilla?s community largesse continues in Lancashire. ?It is preparing to file two planning applications to frack the Fylde coast.? ?After donating ?10,000 to the local theatre, the company has hired a room at Fylde Rugby Club for six events at ?3,500 a time. Help a Banker out week? Should the Tory Help to Buy scheme be rebranded ?Help Bankers to Buy?? It?s aimed at struggling first-time buyers, but that hasn?t stopped one investment banker, formerly at Credit Suisse.? He used the latest phase of Help to Buy to secure a 95 percent loan on a ?500,000 property in leafy Kingston, west London. With his ?200,000 annual salary, the deal-maker could have afforded something more spacious.? But apparently he preferred to invest ?25,000 of his disposable cash in wine instead. FAT CAT OF THE WEEK Sir Roger Carr,?Chairman of arms dealer BAE Systems? Deputy chairman and senior independent director of the court of the Bank of England Member of David Cameron?s business advisory group and a senior advisor to KKR?the world?s largest private equity company Former president of the Confederation of British Industry. Former chair of Centrica, Cadbury, Chubb, Thames Water...? The Things They Say... ?It does help having an internationally renowned pop star with you, I must remember to take one with me everywhere I go? David Cameron on his tax avoiding friend and royal botherer Gary Barlow ?I haven?t voted for so long because I feel there?s a disconnect between the political elite and the people?? Sun columnist, former punk and voice of the ordinary bloke Tony Parsons on why he will be voting for Ukip ?I gradually realised that we are not in fact better together? Gary Wilson, a disillusioned Better Together co-ordinator in Edinburgh East Labour Party, explains why he defected to Labour for Independence ?Lack of interest and declining membership? Conservative Future Scotland on why they cancelled their conference in Scotland last weekend?just 12 tickets were sold
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Labour's problem is bigger than Ed Miliband
Labour leader Ed Miliband (Pic: Anthony Mckeown) With a matter of days to go before the European and local council elections Labour was overtaken by the Tories in two new polls. One in the Guardian on Monday of this week showed the Tories with 33 percent support and Labour down to 31 percent.? Ukip came next at 15 percent and the Liberal Democrats trailed with 13 percent.? On the same day another poll, this time by Lord Ashcroft, put the Tories on 34 percent, Labour on 32 percent, Ukip third on 15 percent and the Liberal Democrats way behind on 9 percent.? This is the first time the Tories have been in the lead for two years and it?s the lowest Labour has been since June 2010 after it lost the last general election.? How can Labour not be thrashing the Tories in the polls?? People have been suffering four years of cuts and attacks on their living standards.? The Tories are seen by millions of working class people as millionaire public school boys who look after the interests of the bosses and the rich. ? Some say Labour?s problem is Ed Miliband?that he comes across as a dry ineffectual leader cut off from ordinary people?s lives.? All of which is true. But Labour?s problem is not about their leader?s charisma or lack of it. Limits The real problem for a social democratic party like Labour is that it is unable to offer a real alternative to working within the limits of the system.? Under pressure it will come out against some of the most extreme attacks on welfare.? But that doesn?t mean it will challenge the status quo where the rich are allowed to hang on to most of their wealth while the poorest are deemed scroungers. And when it comes to one of the defining issues of these coming elections?racism and immigration?Labour will not take a principled stand.? Instead of targeting Ukip, which is cashing in on people?s disillusionment with official politics, Labour is using its fire to attack Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems.? Yet the Lib Dems don?t offer any electoral threat to Labour, having held up the hated Tories and pushed through their policies. When Labour does criticise Ukip it goes for its economic policies but daren?t go for its racism.? The reason Miliband doesn?t take a principled stand against Ukip?s immigrant bashing is simple.? His party has decided that promoting its own immigrant bashing is what will win votes.? People are faced with an opposition that doesn?t oppose, and a selection of privileged politicians who preach various versions of the same austerity.? We need a different sort of politics, one rooted in resistance and struggle and committed to taking a principled stand over attacks on the most vulnerable in society.
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Which way now for South Africa after the ANC?s election win?
Queuing to vote in the suburb of Yeoville in Johannesburg (Pic: Charlie Kimber) The African National Congress (ANC) won a clear victory in the South African election. But its enormous majority?62 percent of the vote?masks major shifts taking place. It retains huge loyalty as the party of Nelson Mandela and the main force that conquered apartheid.?But the ANC?s vote is ebbing. It was won on the votes of 35 percent of those eligible to vote.? By this measure the ANC?s support has been falling ever since the end of apartheid. The fall has been sharpest in the cities.?Much press attention in South Africa has focused on the Democratic Alliance?a pro-business party based on the old white-led parties and sections of the black middle class.? Its vote rose but there is little sign it will grow any further.?And exciting new forces are emerging. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a party that has existed for only eight months, won well over a million votes and will have 25 of the 400 MPs in the new parliament.? Its promises of partial-nationalisation of mines and banks echoed with those who are fed up with the timidity of the ANC and the slow pace of change since 1994. The EFF has come from nowhere to be the official opposition in the North West province and Limpopo. Lindiwe, an 18 year old EFF voter living in Potchefstroom, said, ?I voted EFF, I worked for EFF, I joined EFF because the ANC is not our party. It has done so little to make our lives better.? ?Many people here still live in shacks, 20 years after apartheid ended. All my life I have lived in a ?free? South Africa but we are not free until we control the economy.? Policies The question for the EFF?whose policies often do not match its fiery and radical rhetoric?is whether it will simply look towards the 2016 local election and the 2019 general election, or will become a party of struggle. Its supporters address one another as ?fighter?. Will the EFF be fighters for the thousands of platinum miners on strike for better wages?? Will its leaders be at the mines if the bosses organise scabbing? Will it back the campaigners in the townships and the unemployed?? Its leader, Julius Malema, will no doubt shake up parliament. He has pledged that EFF MPs will not dress in the usual garb but will wear red overalls to stress they are ?going to work? for the poor. Such moves make the EFF popular with many people. But it will take a lot more to become effective. Meanwhile discussions about a new workers? party are taking place. They centre on South Africa?s biggest union, the metalworkers? Numsa.?Numsa refused to call for an ANC vote and says it is in a process to create a movement for socialism and a united front between workers and poor. This would be a hugely significant development offering a powerful alternative to the ANC.?It could attract many who voted for the EFF?so long as it does not become fixated on parliament.
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Workers defend suspended rep Bryan Kennedy
Unite union members leafletted the staff conference of One Housing Group in Hammersmith, west London, on Friday of last week.? A strike ballot at One Housing closed on Monday of this week. Workers are angry at the suspension of union rep Bryan Kennedy and say he was targeted for his union activities. ?
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Defend RMT rep Mark Harding as he faces court
The campaign to defend London Underground RMT rep Mark Harding is calling for support for Mark as he faces court.? Mark has been charged under Section 241 of the Trade and Labour Relations Act and could face a prison sentence. He was dragged off a picket line by police during a 48-hour strike in February after a strikebreaker got upset at being asked to respect the picket line. Mark?s supporters are set to meet on Friday 23 May at 9am at The Fine Line, Monument St, EC3R 8BG to make their way to City of London Magistrates Court.
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