There was a good turnout on picket lines in Stoke-on-Trent City Centre – at the DWP office in Albion Square at the Tax Office across the road and at Jobcentre plus. A TNT delivery driver refused to cross the picket line with some shoppers and people on the way to work stopping to offer their support. Reps from the CWU postal workers union, Stoke Socialist Party and North Staffs TUC were also there in solidarity with striking PCS members.
Picket line at Blackburn House Tax Office , Hanley
Pete Rofe, DWP Branch Secretary told the Socialist,
“We’re striking against the government’s plans to cut thousands of pounds from our redundancy pay and to cuts tens of thousands of civil service jobs. Their plans will not only hit civil servants but make it more difficult for those in most need to get their benefits.
If the government really want to save money why don’t they employ more staff to collect the £130 billion a year which is lost through the tax evasion and tax advoidance mainly by big business.”
On the picket lines there is much worry about the governments attempts to try to make them, along with other workers, pay for the economic crisis created by big business and bankers. Many also said they thought that Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates standing in the General Election to give workers a political voice was a good idea.
Sussex University bring riot police onto campus, suspend students protesters and take out an injunction banning future protests!
AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL!
Please sign the petition in support of Sussex students at http://wp.me/pPFyW-L
For more info about the protest which has been taking place at Sussex University visit the following link
http://www.socialiststudents.org.uk/page.php?article=1533
Socialist Party members and TUSC supporters (Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition) helped out on a stall in Hanley today against government public sector cuts. The stall recieved a great reception from people who stopped and signed our petition. There was a general mood of anger against the government and the bankers amongst those who stopped to sign.
Later on just three Socialist Party members distributed around 600 leaflets in the Abbey Hulton and Bucknall area. The leaflets explain why voting for the BNP only helps big business bosses and the governments attacks on our jobs, pay, conditions and public services – the content of the leaflet can be found here. Feel free to download it and use wherever you want to.
Delivering leaflets in Newhouse Road.
On the 3rd March to a full capacity, the Forum Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent played host to a Question Time debate on the legacy of the Miner’s Strike entitled The ‘Big A’ Debate. Several members of Stoke Socialist Party and Keele Socialist Students were in attendance and we had a successful stall outside the theatre prior to the start of the debate on the repealing of the anti-trade union laws.
The panelists on the debate consisted of Edwina Currie, George Galloway, Ken Loach, UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass and Guardian journalist David Hencke (whom Galloway later described as a ‘pseudo-left revisionist’.)
Throughout the discussions a large part of the audience were vociferous in their opinions and consisted of a number of ex-miners, some of whom had travelled from as far afield as Manchester and Nottingham to make their feelings known. Film director Loach was very articulate in his points and spoke at length about the attacks made by the Tories on Trade Unions, and how the laws of which have not been repealed by Conservatives or New Labour in the intervening years.
Of course both Loach and Galloway were far more convincing in their arguments than Edwina Currie, whose main argument seemed to simply consist of blaming Labour for the decimation of industry in North Staffordshire, despite the Thatcherite government destroying both the mining and Pottery industies. She even suggested that had the mining industry survived intact, the youth of today would not want to work in them, even with millions unemployed!
The overall feeling of the evening that seemed to resonate was the sense of a lack of representation of the working-class 25 years on, and the vitriol expressed by several members of the audience only served to strengthen the need for a new workers’ party, and the Trade Union & Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is certainly a step in that direction.
Many at the meeting were angry about the use of anti-trade union laws during the miners strike. Unfortunately, Labour MP for the area Mark Fisher was not on the panel to explain why the New Labour government had failed to repeal these draconian laws.
Fortunately, TUSC which stands clearly for the repeal of the anti-trade union laws, will be fielding a General Election candidate in Stoke-on-Trent to give a voice to ordinary working class people who want to challenge the slash & burn ploicies of the three main parties and the divisive poison of the BNP.
Send protests against the use of
riot police on campus against
students to university
management
click on the following link for details
Socialist Party and Socialist Student members, Matt and Liat, were out at Staffs University today building support for the Youth Fight for Jobs campaign.
Many leaflets advertising the YFJ demo in Barking on 13 March were given out, more names were collected on the YFJ petition and five students bought copies of the Socialist. There will be more stalls at Staffs Uni & Keele Uni next week.
BNP leader Nick Griffin is standing as a candidate in the General Election in Barking. The demonstration is being organised to demand; jobs, free education and homes not racism!
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Transport will be going to the demo from North Staffs so get in touch if you are interested in going
Socialist Party & the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Support Civil Servants Strike!
What marks the Socialist Party and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) out from the main political parties is that we are firmly on the side of workers and young people.
On the 8 and 9 of March, Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union will be out on strike against attempts to make it easier to cut jobs, attack services and privatise and downgrade jobs.
Pete Rofe, PCS Branch Secretary based in Hanley told the Socialist,
“We’re striking against the governments plans to cut thousands of pounds from our redundancy pay and to cuts tens of thousands of civil service jobs. Their plans will not only hit civil servants but make it more difficult for those in most need to get their benefits.
If the government really want to save money why don’t they employ more staff to collect the £130 billion a year which is lost through the tax evasion and tax advoidance mainly by big business.”
The PCS action is a stand for us all. They’re fighting attacks on our public services, attacks that the bosses will be stepping up if the big business backed politicians in Westminster (New Labour, Tory or Lib dems) hold on to power.
Stoke Socialist Party members and TUSC candidates & supporters will be visiting picket lines in Hanley at Jobcentreplus in Huntbach Street, in Albion Square and at the Tax Office in Old Hall Street and organising support. So if you’re working in the public sector, private sector, out of work, in education, come down and support the strikes, and bring others with you – from 7.30am onwards.
Regional Rallies;
There are 21 Regional Rallies taking place across the UK on the first strike day Monday 8 March. The West Midlands one will be in Birmingham
Venue: Assemble 11am Victoria Square, march to BM Institute for rally at 12 noon, Birmingham
NEC speaker – Assistant General Secretary Chris Baugh
Contact: Andrew Lloyd 07990 832 454
The regional office of the PCS is encouraging people from the West Midlands to attend the Birmingham event
More info can be found on the PCS website, http://www.facebook.com/l/02a17;www.pcs.org.uk
TUSC is very proud to have Janice Godrich, PCS President, Chris Baugh, PCS Assistant General Secretary, and many more leading figures in the union as sponsors (in a personal capacity). If you’d like to add your name to list, or for updates from the coalition, see http://www.facebook.com/l/02a17;www.tusc.org.uk
Campaign for a Public Inquiry at Stafford Hospital
Stoke Socialist Party members started off the day with stall in Hanley campaigning for a Public Inquiry into the scandal of Stafford Hospital. Over 100 people signed our petition calling for a Public Inquiry led by NHS workers and service users and to stop private sector leeching off the NHS.
Some people who stopped to sign our petition told us of friends who had died as a result of the cost cutting measures used by NHS bosses at Stafford.
Many of those we spoke to supported us standing a candidate as part of the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition in the forthcoming General Election and thirty five people also bought copies of the Socialist.
RMT trade union Signallers Conference
RMT union leader Bob Crowe is supporting the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC). We visited their Signaller’s conference at the North Staffs Hotel to speak to delegates and hand out TUSC leaflets which were well received. Five of the delegates also bought copies of this week’s Socialist.
Leafleting against the BNP
FOR JOBS, HOMES & SERVICES NOT RACISM!
In the afternoon Socialist Party members were out on the streets of Northwood delivering leaflets which explained why voting for the BNP only helps big business bosses and the government’s attacks on our jobs, pay, conditions & public services.
Below is the main text of our leaflet
“The BNP are trying to exploit the devastating economic crisis to promote racist ideas but have no solutions to the misery caused by the crisis.
Over one trillion pounds of our money was used to prop up banks as top bankers continue to pay themselves massive bonuses. Bosses and their politicians want us to pay for bailing out bankers!
New Labour, Tories & Lib Dems are competing to carry out the most savage cuts in public services, already cut to the bone. It’s no surprise that electoral support for parties like Labour has collapsed allowing the BNP to get 2 Euro MP’s and councillors elected in places like Stoke-on-Trent.
Leading BNP members try to hide their neo Nazi ideas and past activities but not because they have changed their ideas or their long term aims. They know that if they tried to build an openly Neo Nazi party with an organised street fighting wing to carry out physical attacks on trade unionists and large scale racist attacks – they would get limited support and be defeated as they were in the massive mobilisations of the late 1970’s & early 1990’s.
This does not mean that the BNP are not dangerous to ordinary working class people; by blaming Muslims, immigrant workers & asylum seekers they are providing a smokescreen to allow big business bosses and the government to make us all pay for the crisis they have created.
It’s our government that used our money to bail out millionaire bankers but refuse to bail out much needed jobs and services. It wasn’t immigrant workers or asylum seekers who closed all our pits & potbanks. Its local councils who are cutting jobs, closing or privatising our schools, care homes, swimming pools etc & pushing up council tax.
BNP councillors in Stoke-on-Trent have not seriously opposed any of these slash & burn policies. They lined up with the Tories and others to support the City Council Budget passed on 25th February which will mean further savage cuts in jobs, closure or further privatisation of more services and an almost 3% council tax increase!
The BNP have proved in action that they have no solutions! Blaming Muslims, immigrant workers and asylum seekers is not a solution but is just shifting the blame from the real culprits – the 3 main parties, their friends in big business & spineless local councils. But what can you do at the General Election?
SUPPORT THE SOCIALIST PARTY & TRADE UNIONIST & SOCIALIST COALITION IN THE GENERAL ELECTION
Stoke Socialist Party member, Matt Wright, 
(pictured) will be the candidate of the Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition (TUSC).
TUSC will be standing candidates across Britain to provide an opportunity for you to support a serious trade union & working class based opposition to the slash & burn policies of New Labour, Tories, Lib Dems and the far right divisive poison of the BNP.
For more info – www.tusc.org.uk
THE DECISION to establish the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has been widely welcomed by many fighting trade unionists.
Three regional councils of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) have declared in support of an election challenge. Applications are going in to the union’s national executive from RMT branches for authorisation to back local candidates. The RMT executive has made its first such endorsement, for the contest in Carlisle.
The TUSC steering committee has agreed the first 24 coalition candidates, including the former RMT executive member Mick Tosh, standing in Portsmouth North, and Keith Gibson, a leader of last year’s Lindsey Oil Refinery construction workers’ unofficial strike committee, challenging cabinet member Alan Johnson in Hull West.
Other candidates endorsed include the Socialist Party councillor and former Labour MP Dave Nellist, standing against Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth in Coventry North East, and a former Labour parliamentary candidate, Dave Hill, in Brighton Kemptown.
Growing support
Last week also saw a meeting to establish a TUSC steering committee for Scotland Drawing in representatives from the regional council of the Fire Brigades Union, and branch officers from the RMT, the Communication Workers Union, the PCS civil servants’ union and the largest Unison branch in Scotland, it was a further indication of the potential of TUSC.
The list of TUSC sponsors continues to grow, reflecting the enthusiasm of many workers that, at last, there is a prospect of a trade union rooted challenge to the ’savage cuts’ pro-capitalist consensus of all the establishment parties.
Many trade union leaders, however, still clinging to New Labour, don’t see the situation in that way. This, of course, will have an effect amongst some rank and file trade unionists also, who are increasingly apprehensive about the likely outcome of the election.
New Labour, beginning with chancellor Alistair Darling, has made it clear that massive attacks on workers’ living standards, including draconian public spending cuts, are planned post-election. But then, looming in the background, is the spectre of a revived and even more vicious Thatcherism. The former Tory minister Michael Forsyth, a hated Scottish office minister during the battle against the poll tax, has called, for example, for annual cuts of £75 billion under a new Tory government. Surely in this situation, the argument goes, trade unionists should back the ‘lesser evil’?
New Labour
This, at bottom, was undoubtedly the key consideration behind the decision made by the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) at its January executive committee meeting not to participate in TUSC. As one of the core organisations of the ‘No2EU-Yes to Democracy’ European election coalition, from which the discussions to establish TUSC developed, the CPB’s decision is a disappointment. But more importantly, it offers no way forward for trade unionists on what can be done now – in this particular election – to begin to overcome the crisis of working class political representation.
The Socialist Party believes that the Labour Party has now been totally transformed into New Labour, which bases itself completely on the brutal logic of capitalism. Previously, as a ‘capitalist workers’ party’ (a party with pro-capitalist leaders but with democratic structures that allowed the working class to fight for its interests), the Labour Party always had the potential to act at least as a check on the capitalists. The consequences of radicalising the Labour Party’s working class base was always a factor the ruling class had to take into account.
Now the situation is completely different. Without the re-establishment of at least the basis of independent working class political representation, the capitalists will feel less constrained in imposing their austerity policies.
TUSC will not fully provide the necessary alternative but it is still an important step forward. Above all, by drawing in the most combative sections of the working class in defence of jobs, public services and workers’ rights, it can help to prepare the necessary forces to take forward the argument for a new political vehicle for workers in the post-election period. Not to do everything possible to help that process is a mistake.
Steering committee
The Communist Party’s decision was also shaped, they argue, by the fact that to date there is no official national trade union participation in TUSC. This is in contrast to the No2EU campaign, which was officially endorsed by the RMT.
The TUSC steering committee includes, all in a personal capacity, the RMT general secretary Bob Crow, the general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, Brian Caton, the PCS assistant general secretary, Chris Baugh, and PCS vice president, John McInally. But the argument has been made that, nevertheless, TUSC is a step back from No2EU.
The lack of formal endorsement of the coalition from even left-wing trade unions like the RMT and the POA reflects a concern that more time was required to convince the broader membership of the need to take such an important step. But it is wrong to say that TUSC is a step back from No2EU.
The RMT’s backing of No2EU was significant, the first national challenge to New Labour by a trade union since Labour’s formation. The European elections, however, are not viewed as being as important as a general election is, not least by opponents of the union leadership within the RMT.
TUSC has attracted support from many RMT members but has also sharpened political debate in the union. No doubt New Labour apparatchiks are looking on for any opportunity there may be to undermine a militant trade union leadership, in the same way they aided the Blairite candidate who unseated the left wing general secretary of the Aslef train drivers’ union in 2003. In this context, the enthusiastic participation in TUSC in a personal capacity by leading trade unionists – in the RMT and other unions also – is highly significant. It is a clear signal that ‘non-political’ trade unionism will increasingly be seen as ‘not an option’ when the axe men are coming.
Role of trade unions
A new mass political vehicle for workers, a new workers’ party which could fill the present vacuum, will not necessarily develop through the official structures of the unions. It is certainly unlikely that a majority of the larger unions, at least nationally, would initially embrace a new party – in the same way that the biggest unions remained wedded to the Liberal Party in the early days of the Labour Representation Committee (the forerunner of the Labour Party).
But big events loom, as the next phase of ‘the great recession’ unfolds, which will relentlessly pose before trade unionists in struggle that there must be an alternative. TUSC can play a critical role in developing this consciousness.
Trade unions are still the basic organisations of the working class, which gives them enormous social weight. It is not for nothing, for example during the British Airways dispute or the postal workers’ strikes, that the capitalist media routinely denigrate the unions as ‘holding the public to ransom’ or ‘crippling the economy’. For long periods, it is true, the formal structures in some unions can atrophy, with limited participation by rank and file members, but even these unions still possess social reserves.
For the Socialist Party the importance of TUSC lies above all in its potential as a catalyst in the trade unions, both in the structures and below, for the idea of working class political representation. It can also play a role in drawing together anti-cuts campaigns, environmental campaigners, anti-racist groups etc. It is, however, only secondarily a vehicle for developing ‘left unity’, in other words, of socialist organisations collaborating for specific goals, or ‘left regroupment’, the bringing together of different socialist groups into one organisation.
This conception of the role of the coalition was not accepted, however, by the Alliance for Green Socialism (AGS), another of the No2EU core organisations, in the discussions prior to TUSC’s formation. AGS representatives, for example, proposed that one criteria for a socialist organisation to be admitted onto the steering committee should be a membership of “at least 100″, while opposing trade unions from having more than one representative (the RMT has 80,000 members). This proposal would have ‘crowded out’ the most important component of the coalition.
The AGS’s other concern was to include an environmental reference in the coalition’s name, which was not accepted by the other participants. The Socialist Party insisted that the threat that capitalism poses to the planet must be reflected in the coalition’s core policies. But when, as recent polls show, 59% of the population believe that the establishment politicians, all claiming the green mantle, are using climate change as a back-door way to raise taxes (The Guardian, 12 January), including ‘green’ or another environmental term in the name could be a potential barrier and not an aid to dialogue with broader layers. Unfortunately, despite an offer that the AGS could stand under their own name where they provided the coalition candidate but still have a place on the TUSC steering committee, they decided to withdraw.
Federalism
TUSC HAS been established as a federal ‘umbrella’ coalition, with an agreed core policy statement but with participating candidates and organisations accountable for their own campaigns. The steering committee welcomed the support of a number of socialist groups, including the Walsall-based Democratic Labour Party and its councillor, Peter Smith. Amongst the first tranche of TUSC candidates approved, are members of four different socialist organisations, including Socialist Resistance and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).
The admission of the SWP to the coalition was not automatic, however. TUSC is a federal coalition but each component, its candidates and participating organisations, will be scrutinised, certainly by New Labour opponents inside the trade unions. With this in mind the record of the SWP was questioned.
Bob Crow, reflecting the response of RMT militants as last year’s Lindsey strike unfolded, immediately and rightly condemned those “misrepresenting the strikers as xenophobic – a posh word for racist” (in a letter to The Guardian, 6 February 2009). The SWP, on the other hand, criticised the strikes as ‘nationalist’.
The SWP took a similar stance towards No2EU, the electoral body which was supported not just by the union tops but a big majority of RMT activists. These and other political mistakes by the SWP will not make winning support for TUSC easier inside the RMT, and other unions too.
Moreover, there is also suspicion amongst many activists of the methods of the SWP when working in broad coalitions. The SWP rejected a federal approach in the Socialist Alliance, for example, using its weight of numbers to dominate, which compelled the Socialist Party to leave and led to the eventual demise of that organisation in 2003.
On the other hand, it was argued, the SWP’s record will not be known particularly to workers moving into struggle for the first time. They could be attracted to TUSC and would naturally want to see the widest possible unity. It is necessary not to do anything that could be a potential barrier to them.
On balance then, it was felt that the potential drawbacks of the SWP’s involvement could be overcome. So, after assurances that they would accept the federal character of TUSC, the SWP have been invited onto the coalition steering committee.
An important step
THE FOUNDING of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in February 1900 was greeted by The Clarion, a popular socialist newspaper of the time, as “a little cloud, no bigger than a man’s fist, which may grow into a United Labour Party”.
TUSC is certainly not a new LRC, which itself was not pre-ordained to develop into a mass party. It contested just 15 seats in the 1900 general election and affiliated union membership halved in its first year.
But the capitalists’ offensive then against the workers’ movement, typified in the Taff Vale court decision to open up the railway workers’ union funds for strike damages, compelled the unions onto the political plane.
The period ahead will be no less turbulent than then, in fact more so. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is today just a modest step on the road to establishing independent working class political representation but its potential role, as it fills out or as a precursor to future developments, could be immense.
Trade Unionist & Socialist Coalition
“YOU CALL this cuts – I’m not scared to say cuts… The amount of money available to the NHS is decided by the government. We will have less money to meet rising demands… There are hard decisions to be made. I have to balance the books.”
That was the £140,000 a year chief executive of North Central London NHS (NCL) trying to explain to 350 people at a protest meeting why NCL were discussing seven different “scenarios” to cut £560 million from its £2.27 billion budget by 2016-17.
These NHS bureaucrats, who blame the “global recession”, plan to cut services at local hospitals, particularly closing some Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments.
Highly paid NHS officials put a positive spin on this, proposing to set up enlarged neighbourhood health centres (“Urgent Care Centres”) outside hospital entrances and saying that long-term treatment for conditions like asthma and diabetes should move to new ‘polyclinics’.
NHS demonstration, photo Paul Mattsson
But, whatever the merits of polyclinics in an integrated health system, they are being promoted now as a way both of cutting spending and providing further opportunities to effectively privatise health services.
There is widespread opposition to these cuts – one north London hospital, the Whittington, treats 80,000 A&E patients annually. With a general election and London borough elections pending, all the local political parties have been protesting, but none gets to the root of the crisis in NHS spending.
Some election candidates just say: no cuts in ‘my’ borough. This helps NHS bureaucrats play a ‘divide and rule’ game.
So while Labour leaders insist that the National Health Service is safe, proposed cuts in services countrywide threaten to hit the NHS hard.
Campaigns against local NHS cuts and closures need to be linked to the wider battle. The economy’s decline and the huge amounts spent bailing out the banks have brought mounting pressure for cuts in working peoples’ living standards and services.
Determined local campaigns with protest rallies, meetings, lobbies and demonstrations can save particular NHS facilities, and such victories are welcome.
But as national cuts are being prepared, we also need a generalised nationwide campaign that challenges the government’s policies; otherwise repeated anti-cuts campaigns will be unavoidable.
The Tories will probably be worse than Labour on the NHS, but this is no reason to go soft on the Labour government’s plans. Unfortunately this is what many trade union leaders and backbench Labour MPs have done.
Alongside local campaigns, the longer term battle to save and improve the NHS needs a real socialist alternative to the Labour, Tory and LibDem parties’ pro-capitalist policies.
In the coming election, candidates from the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) can vitally help link together different local campaigns. This should be part of a drive to build a national movement to resist the bosses’ efforts to make working people pay for the economic crisis.
