Unity! TUC 2007 Monday

Labour’s laws

unity at the TUC in Brighton Monday 10 September 2007

TURN OFF THE PROFITS TAP! IT IS TIME TO PUT PUBLIC OWNERSHIP ON THE AGENDA A bid to shift basic indust ry and utilities into public ownership has re c i eved wide b a cking in the labour movement.

The initiative emerged at the very successful ‘Politics After Blair’ Morning Star conference on June 16 when it wa s proposed that the labour movement should seek to put public ow n e rship back on the political agenda.

An initiative was suggested to e stablish a body under the name ‘Common Good – the C e n t re for Public Ownership’.

Its role would be to pro d u c e re s e a rch briefings bulletins and m a s s - d i stribution leaflets; issue sta tements to the media; hold meetings, seminars and c o n fe rences; and launch a we b s i te .

The body would not be aligned with or affi l i a ted to any political party.

The idea has won a positive response in trade union, political and academic circles and a founding sta tement has been drafted and circ u l a ted to leading fi g u res in the labour and pro g re s s i ve movements.

The founding statement 'Common Good'—the Centre for Public Ownership campaigns for the speedy return of the water, gas, electricity, coal, railway and bus industries to public ownership and control on the grounds of democratic accountability, financial rectitude, public utility, economic efficiency and environmental security. In these and other areas, privatisation has proved to be an expensive failure for the citizens of Britain, benefiting private directors, big shareholders and financial institutions at enormous cost to the general public and the workforces concerned. 'Common Good' will therefore strive to expose privatisation as the greatest political and financial swindle of the 20th century and will oppose any further measures to privatise any section of Britain's public services, including such preparatory steps as marketisation and the introduction of share ownership.

In particular, the role of European Union policies in promoting privatisation needs to be brought to the attention of trade unions, consumers and the general public. New and more democratic models of public and social ownership are needed to ensure that Britain's energy and transport industries are run in the interests of citizens, consumers, workers and society as a whole.

'Common Good' will also research, publish and take other initiatives to indicate the benefits that would flow from public ownership of other key sectors of the economy such as banking, armaments production and pharmaceuticals.

Affiliation to 'Common Good' and participation in its affairs shall be on the basis of a constitution approved and adopted by its founding members.

A list of supporters and the founding statement is to be published and a meeting of supporters convened. For details write to 'Common Good' at Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd., Croydon CR0 1BD

by Carolyn Jones For the past two years Congress has called for the repeal of antiunion laws and a Trade Union Freedom Bill and for greater labour market regulation to protect worke rs.

This year’s agenda shows that equal treatment for agency workers, rights from day one and union freedoms in line with international standards are still demanded. What is different is a new premier, a new cabinet and an election round the corn e r.

So will Brown deliver the long awaited rights and freedoms?

On the eveidence not voluntarily.There are no trade union appointments in the ‘big tent’ to match the elevation of Digby Jones; the Fundamental Charter of Social Rights has been ‘red lined’; the Trade Union Freedom Bill has been bl o c ked at an early stage as has the Agency Worke rs Bill; proposals on changing the law to reflect the decision on ASLEF v UK fail to recognise union autonomy and their right to determine their own rules and attempts are in hand to reduce the union vo i c e at Labour’s conference!

But politicians are not beyond persuasion – especially at election time. Effe c t i ve campaigning and lobbying by unions and their members helps. Asserting political, financial and industri a l pressure will focus minds.The Trade Union Rights and Freedoms Bill is due a second reading on 19 October.The United Campaign has organised a lobby of parliament in support of the Bill for18 October and the General Council is backing it.

If Brown refuses to listen, we should consider following the example of our sister unions in Australia and organise a centrally coordinated, multi-union funded campaign aimed at raising the political profile of the calls fo r trade union rights at work.

Globalisation will not delive r fairness.Trade unions can.

Carolyn Jones is director of the Institute of Employment Rights

Wa n t e d ! ... a labour party Robert Griffiths on Britain's mass party of labour

Over 100 years ago, the TUC initiated the steps which led to the founding of the Labour Party.

This was a great political leap forward for working people.They had seen through Liberal Party claims to speak for labour, to represent the interests of worke rs as well as those of factory owners, coal barons and shipping magnates.

Millions of working class voters elected Labour governments in 1924, 1929, 1945, 1951, 1964, 1966, 1974 (twice), 1997, 2001 and 2005.They did so not because they believed it would lead to a socialist society. Most people long ago realised that Labour Party leaders ‘played the game’ to win votes and not upset the Establishment too much.

Compromises came to be expected from Labour in office, some sell-outs even.

But all Labour regimes tried to redistribute wealth, improve social and welfare provisions for worke rs and their families, defend and enlarge the public sector, extend democratic rights, oppose racism and – in intern a t i o n a l affairs – uphold the League of Nations and the UN in the face of military aggression.

Labour often fell a long way short.The Communist Party in B ritain was formed in 1920 to mobilise workers and people to

fight for progress and socialist revolution. Communist attempts to remain in and then affiliate to the Labour Party were rejected by right-wing Labour leaders, despite at times winning substantial trade union support.

Nevertheless, a large section of the working class has stayed loyal to Labour.The Communist Party has long recognised this reality, working in alliance with others on the left to improve Labour’s policies rather than try to replace it as the mass party of the labour movement.

But the ‘tectonic plates’ have been shifting in ways which the trade union movement and the left can not ignore.

In its first term , the New Labour gove rnment met pledges to a national minimum wage, increased some employment and union rights, and devolution for Scotland and Wales. But since 2001 New Labour has gove rned primarily for big business.

Wealth has been redistributed – but to the richest tenth of the population, who now own more than half Britain’s wealth.The basic state pension has been continuously devalued, and future workers will have to get to 68 before qualifying for it.

Instead of fulfiling its pledge to t a ke the ra i lways back into public owners h i p, New Labour has indulged in an orgy of privatisation and contracting out.

Profiteers are given a red carpet into our state education and health services. PFI repayments will cost more than £100 billion over the next 12 years.

Our civil liberties have been curtailed to a degree unknown in peacetime, costly ID-card ‘dog licences’ are coming. Incessant government attacks on asylum

seekers and migrant worke rs have stoked racism, turning the BNP into the most successful fascist party in Britain’s history.

Blair – with Brown’s shameful acquiescence – has locked us into the foreign policy of the most reactionary circles of US monopoly capitalism.The UN is treated with contempt. Hundreds of thousands, civilians and soldiers, have died, while the giant US oil, construction and armaments corporations have reaped the benefits.

Now prime minister Brown is ripping up international disarmament treaties by committing Britain to the US Star Wars project and a new generation of nuclear weapons.

We do not have a Labour gove rnment in any sociald e m o c ratic sense. Brown’s proposals for the policy-making process in the Labour Party will complete the anti-democra t i c, anti-trade union dri ve begun by Partnership in Power.

The TUC, individual unions, the Communist Party and the left can do all in our power to combat the most reactionary New Labour policies.The Left Wing Programme provides a unifying, coherent and progressive alternative.

But we cannot ignore the elephant in the room which is the Labour Party in the grip of New Labour. Some unions have already disaffiliated, and more may regrettably follow as their members have enough of attacks on their jobs, pensions and living standards. Individual membership has halved and millions of fo rmer Labour vo t e rs have deserted the Labour Party at the ballot box.

The trade unions and the people of Britain need a mass party of labour. Opting out does nothing to secure one. Affilliated unions must fight as never before to break New Labour’s deathgrip, with the support of all sections of the labour movement.

But from next month’s Labour Party confe r e n c e, every trade union and eve ry socialist organisation has a responsibility to outline its proposals fo r reclaiming or re-establishing Britain’s mass party of labour.

Robert Griffiths is general secretary of the Communist Party

Us and them There’s an unusual motion (16) in the employment rights debate this afternoon. Not because it calls for a Trade Union Freedom Bill – and the POA knows all about the lack of trade union freedoms – but because it clearly spells out what progressive trade union democracy is about. Firstly, that once adopted, policy should be fully supported by all affiliates.

Secondly, that while in constructive debate with government, TUC policies which are contrary to government policies should still be fully acted upon.

Don’t mention the class war Any reminder of the Warwick agreement is in extremely bad taste. Ministers don’t like being reminded that they promised the unions anything and union leaders don’t like being reminded they were taken for a ride. But this convention holds no fears for the ‘class cuddle comrades’ of Unions 21. Their annual TUC outing today is more about accommodating to privatisation than fighting for public ownership.

Bravo Brendan Brendan Barber hit the nail on the head when he warned Gordon Brown that ‘his absolute rigid position on pay is neither acceptable nor economically viable’.

It is around the division between profits and pay that the contradictions in government policy strike most workers. And as capitalism slips again into crisis pay struggles will sharpen.

OPPOSE THE NEW NUCLEAR THREAT NO TRIDENT AND TO US MISSILE DEFENCE CND fringe Monday 5:30pm Quality Hotel, West Street Hear Kate Hudson CND. Roudabeh Shafie Campaign Iran, G e r ry Doherty TSSA

REFERENDUM NOW NO EU CONSTITUTION THROUGH THE BACK DOOR Monday lunchtime 12.45pm Belgrave Hotel Tony Woodley Unite, Bob Crow RMT, Kartika Liotard Dutch Socialist Pa rty MEP, Carolyn Jones, Director IER, Ian Davidson MP Chair: Moz Greenshields Unison Organised by TUAEUC

LABOUR LAW WHAT’S ON THE AGENDA?

End the housing crisis

by John Foster The government’s Green Paper Housing for the Future proposes an increase in the number of houses to be built annually from 185,000 to 240,000. It also suggests that the government should consider the option of some of this housing being built by councils on council-owned land. Both proposals are welcome. They represent the first hesitant step towards revising a disastrous policy inherited from the Tories which has resulted in an enormous crisis. But it's not enough. Councils must be allowed to access funds without coming under pressure to enter public/private partnerships, set up separate companies or sell yet more valuable land for private housing. There must also be funds to improve existing council housing stock, including on estates which have voted against privatisation. What caused today's housing crisis? The Tory drive to destroy council housing and recreate the housing market as a source of super-profit.

Currently housing has the highest rate of return apart from oil. Immense fortunes are being made out of land sales and land hoarding, speculative development, old-style

landlordism and corporate lending to home buyers. These superprofits have one simple cause: scarcity – deliberately created. The building of public sector housing has virtually stopped. Only 277 council houses were built in England last year. Most old housing has been sold off and rents pushed up to a level that cannot be afforded by working families. There are now 1.6 million people on council waiting lists, with 800,000 living in overcrowded conditions in London alone. The average price of a house is eight times the average annual wage, far higher than in the last housing crash in the early 1990s. Repossessions have already increased 30 per cent this year over 2006. Only the building of many new houses will resolve this crisis. The Green Paper targets are just too small.

And the private sector has already shown it is quite unwilling to meet even the existing targets. It already owns enough land. But it does not want to reduce its profits – and will be even more unwilling during the current credit crisis, 137 Labour MPs have now signed Early Day Motion136, demanding that council tenants should have a ‘fourth option’ of remaining council tenants and

receiving the necessary investment. The government’s Green Paper represents a key opportunity to secure a change.

The TUC has policy. So does the Labour Party, where the last three conferences have demanded a level playing field and an end to penalties against council housing. It is now a matter of the trade union movement, tenants, council housing campaigners, Labour CLPs and MPs ensuring that policy is implemented – and the threat of poverty and squalor lifted from future generations.

For campaigning materials and more information go to www.defendcouncilhousing.org.uk John Foster is international secretary of the Communist Party

Monday 5.30pm (or end of TUC session) Meeting Room 1 Brighton Conference Centre Hear Brian Caton POA, Bob Crow RMT, Jon Cru ddas MP. Keith Ewing President IER, Sally Hunt UCU, Pam James National Group on Homeworkers, John McDonnell MP, Sarah Veale TUC, Tony Woodley UNITE. Chair: John Hendy QC IER Sponsors: Thompsons Solicitors Refreshments available Organised by the Institute of Employment Rights & United Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti Trade Union Laws

CUBA SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN WHOSE RULES RULE? Why the US blockade forces firms to break UK law. Monday 5:30pm, Room 7, Brighton Centre Havana Club rum reception, featuring live Cuban music, guest speakers and Cuban rum cocktails Hear Tony Woodley Unite, Dave Prentis Unison; Brendan Barber T U C, plus Cuban guest

rally Tuesday lunchtime 12.45pm Hilton Brighton Metropole Defend UK manufacturing; equal treatment for agency and temporaryworkers; end of privatisation of public services; employment rights to protect jobs; building affordable housing for working people. Hear Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley of UNITE, Carolyn Jones of the Institute of Employment Rights; Jon Cruddas MP for Dagenham Chair: John Haylett, Editor, Morning Star Refreshments will be provided. Sponsored by Unite.

Communist Party TUC Fringe DO WE HAVE A PARTY OF LABOUR? R o b e rt Griffiths General Secretary, Kevin Halpin Industrial Organiser Chair: Joanne Stevenson YCL Women's Organiser Wednesday 12 September 12.45-1.45pm Sussex Room, Old Ship Hotel, Kings Road

3.5 MILLION CHILDREN ARE STILL BELOW POVERTY LINE

by Joanne Stevenson In 1999,Tony Blair pledged to eradicate child poverty in Britain by 2020 and to cut it from 4.1 million to 3.1 million by April 2005. The latest revised figures now show that the number actually fell by only 500,000, missing the target by half a million. And over the following financial year, the number of children in poverty ROSE by 200,000, from 28 per cent of all children to 30 per cent. A family is officially considered to be ‘poor’ if it lives on less than 60 per cent of the median income for that type of household in Britain (ie. the line which divides the richest half and the poorest half). The number of children living in absolute poverty— below 60 per cent of the 1998/99 median in real terms— also INCREASED for the first time in over a decade, to 2.4 million (almost one child in every five). In money terms, a twoparent household with two children would be defined as 'poor' if their weekly income was below £301 after housing costs.

For a single parent with two children, the threshold is £223.

The absolute poverty levels would be £246 and £182, respectively. How can it be that, in the fourth wealthiest country in the world, we tolerate a situation in which the parents of more than three million children receive such meagre incomes?

We have a government which spends more pursuing the poorest people who commit benefit fraud than it does on tax evasion by the super-rich. Instead of adverts telling us to shop

social security scroungers, how about a massive blitz to tell poor families how they can take up council tax benefits and others to which they are entitled? That would reduce poverty numbers dramatically. The government’s policies have forced more than 300,000 lone mothers to find employment—but at what cost?

Many large families and those with disabled children are still in difficulties. Half of the poor children in Britain live in households with one or more parent in paid work. Work, on its own, is no guarantee of a living income. Not only do we need to improve the miserly benefits for people in these dire circumstances and create more full time secure jobs. It is also our task as trade unionists to insist on a living wage for all, not only for our own sakes, but especially for all those children who will otherwise live in poverty. We must push harder to end child

poverty across the whole range of housing, jobs, education, health and transport policies. In particular we need to fight for: universal childcare, free at the point of delivery better jobs, not just more jobs higher benefits and tax credits (particularly during pregnancy) an end to regressive taxes such as council tax and VAT (especially on children’s goods) full access to school meals, uniforms and activities for all children income support, child tax credit and child benefit to be linked with earnings growth benefit entitlements for all residents irrespective of immigration status reform of the tax credit and benefits administration. ★The Households Below Average Income report is at www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/hbai.asp Joanne Stevenson is the Young Communist League women’s organiser

Equality means extending childcare Grandparents among us will recall the early days of childcare provision at labour movement events. Remember how we used to put on a brave face as we left the kids in cold, dreary halls with few facilities? It’s much better now, but it’s still not perfect. At TUC events at least, childcare is limited to the ‘formal’ sessions.

But we all know that there’s much more to a union conference, not least delegation and fringe meetings. That’s why this year’s Women’s TUC conference voted overwhelmingly to put down motion 80. The motion is very clear. Delegates who are parents want to be able to represent their union to the best of their ability.That means being a full-time delegate, not clocking off at 5.45 pm and turning back into a mum or a dad. It’s not that the 'girls' want time to go off to the pub – although that’s where a lot of business gets done! But if a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing well and that means full-time. Motion 80 deserves everybody’s support so that childcare provision is extended beyond the formal business of congress.That would give every delegate the opportunity to participate fully in every aspect of our congress.

Communist University of Britain 2007 ‘a weekend of discussions, debates, rallies, food, and drink and music with leading national and intern at i o n a l speakers from the labour and anti-imperialist movements’ Friday October 26 7pm 90 YEARS OF THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION Rally organised by the Co-ordinating Committee of Communist Pa rties in Britain Saturday October 27 ‘INSATIABLE, INEQUITABLE, INHUMANE: THE CRIMES OF CA P I TALISM’ ★ From slave ry to neocolonialism ★ Anti-communism ★ Imperialism and the drive to war ★ Capitalism Exploitation, boom and slump ★ Fascism yesterday and today ★ Capitalism vs women Global future or globalised disaster? ★ Public ownership or private profit? ★ Free capital and flexible labour ★ Environmental security Saturday evening CELEBRATING CHE Cuban speaker. Film. Music Sunday October 28 MARXISM AND REVOLUTION IN THE 21ST CENTURY ★ Women, race and class ★ A Scottish Road to Socialism? ★ Trade unions vs. transnational capital ★ Reforms and revolutions: which way forward?

VENUE: Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon office@communist-party.org.uk www.communist-party.org.uk 0208 686 1659