Unity! June 30th Strike Edition

Unity!

Communist Party bulletin June 30th Strike Edition

A Day for Solidarity & Unity Unity in action

Gawain Little

The POA is calling upon prison officers to hold lunchtime meetings in The industrial action on June solidarity with the public 30th is a vital step in building sector action. the mass popular movement Of course, the Con-Dem needed to challenge the Congovernment, employers' Dem government's attack on representatives and the mass the people of Britain. media will try to downplay Three-quarters of a million June 30th. They will claim that workers from the PCS, NUT, UCU, ATL are striking in the action lacks support from defence of their pension rights fellow workers and the general and, in the case of PCS, civil public – while bemoaning its service jobs and pay. impact on travellers, But they are not alone. Some schoolchildren, parents and 15,000 Unison council workers students. will be out in Birmingham and Ministers will bluster that the Doncaster, protesting against strike will have no effect on job losses and worse terms of government policy or ongoing service. Their sisters and public sector pension talks. brothers in Southampton, But then, recent statements already on strike against pay have made clear that the cuts, are being joined by negotiations are having little or colleagues in Unite. no impact on government NUJ members in south policy anyhow.

London are striking against Nobody should fall for these compulsory redundancies, well-worn responses. There has while Camden housing workers never been a strike yet when were also planning to walk out government ministers or for the same reason. employers say they have been

Robert Griffiths

taken aback by its support and effectiveness – so much so, indeed, that they are rethinking their position and want to make an improved offer.

More serious is the propaganda drive by the big business press to drive a wedge between public sector and private sector workers.

But many private sector workers might wonder whether their loss of decent pensions, job security and superior pay is not unconnected to the decline of private sector trade unionism and strikes.

The Office for National Statistics estimates that the 'trade union wage premium' – its term – in 2010 (the extra percentage in wages earned by unionised workers) was 21 per cent in the public sector and 7 per cent in private enterprise.

The problem is not the higher level of strikes and union

Teachers and lecturers, alongside colleagues in the civil service, are taking strike action today in response to attacks on our pensions scheme. The government has proposed three main changes to the Teachers' Pension Scheme:  Changing the index of inflation from the Retail Price Index (RPI) to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) – This will knock about 15% off the value of the average teacher's pension;  Linking the retirement age of the scheme to an everincreasing state retirement age – This will mean teachers working until 66, 67 or 68, as opposed to 60 or 65 as currently;  Increasing the employee contribution level from 6.4% to 9.8% - This will cost teachers somewhere between £60 and £120 extra every month.

Taken together, these proposals amount to teachers being forced to pay more and work longer in order to receive less at the end of their working lives. These

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A Party of Labour?

with the Tories and ditch the policies that 7 million Labour leader Ed Miliband people had voted for in the has said that today’s strikes 2010 General Election.

Labour on the other hand to defend pensions are a made some gains, winning mistake. He has also said 50 per cent more seats in that the Labour Party has England than they did in lost touch with its core the same elections in 2007, constituents. and gaining 37 per cent of But he can’t square this the projected national share circle when Labour’s core of the vote (compared to just constituents and founding parents are organised labour 29 per cent in the General Election last year). Progress - the trades unions who are was helped a bit by Ed striking today.

Miliband seeming to put a Unions have taken the little more ‘pink water’ democratic decision to between his regime and New withdraw their labour. If Labour. Now his leadership Miliband doesn’t respect needs to draw a red line this, then he is tacitly against the past. condoning strike breaking But as long as the Labour which no union member Party continues to accept should do. the false case for public How much longer will it spending cuts – instead of take before the current arguing for progressive leadership of the Labour Party realises that, if it had taxation, public ownership, investment in stuck to its founding manufacturing, energy, principles and respected its public transport, housing historic supporters, ‘new’ Labour could not have been etc. – then it will never represent an alternative invented to serve the bankers and the Eurocrats. government.

It is vital therefore, for the Labour could have won the 2010 general election if, working class and peoples of Britain, that the Labour when the last labour Party is reclaimed by the government bailed out the labour movement. If the banks, it would also have struggle proves to be forlorn ensured that we got our money back - with interest - then the Labour movement must take steps to ensure rather than letting billions that workers have a voice in be squandered on obscene Parliament. bankers’ bonuses.

Labour needs to look at The May elections saw the real reasons why they many previous LibDem are not advancing more in voters turning to Labour. the face of the Government’s They felt betrayed by the vicious dismantling of public LibDem leadership’s services. The argument that decision to join a coalition

Anita Halpin

it’s just too much too quickly is wrong; it’s not a case of ‘our cuts are better than yours’. There has never been a need to make swingeing cuts to pay for the deficit. Simply by enforcing current tax laws and forcing big business and the superrich to pay their fare share and abandoning disastrous wars and the renewal of Britain’s nuclear arsenal, we could raise enough money to pay off the deficit in one fell swoop.

Those unions, that supported Ed Miliband for Labour leader should be demanding a change of policy to support the principles of the trade union movement. Over the past three months more than 90 per cent of Labour Party donations came from the unions. Don’t those who pay the piper have the right to call the tune?

The Communist Party believes that as long as many of the biggest trades unions are affiliated to the Labour Party, the potential exists to wage a broadbased, resolute fight to reclaim the party for the labour movement and leftwing policies. But this will require the unions to fight both inside and outside the Labour Party to change to policies that offer a real alternative.

Anita Halpin is Communist Party Trade Union Organiser

'The first weekend in October will see a carnival of anti-fascist and anti -racist activities to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street.

On the first Sunday in October 1936, one hundred thousand socialists, Communists, Irish dockers, Jews and other local residents blocked the attempted march of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists through London's East End. 'This year's demonstration will celebrate that heroic victory and reaffirm our determination to overcome racism and the fascists in Britain today.

cablestreet75.org.uk

Unfair Burdens International financial institutions treat even relatively rich European nations in exactly the same way that they have treated the developing world for decades – put them into debt, make them cut services, lend them money at higher interest rates than needed and then ask them to start again as economies falter – so much for the much vaunted EU being a level playing ground for labour and capital.

The European Union and European competition law – in making privatisation compulsory and eroding workers’ rights are fundamentally anti democratic and anti people.

falseecononomy.org.uk no2EU.org.uk ier.org.uk

marched for on March 26th and proposals this will cost most public sector workers up to 40% offers a positive alternative to of the value of their pensions. the cuts of the neo-liberal There is no financial economic and political agenda of justification for doing this – for the main political parties in instance the Local Government Britain.

Pension Scheme has twice as The People’s Charter has much paid into it as paid out. recently produced a detailed Therefore this attack represents program of taxation policies, yet another attempt to get industrial and social investment, workers to pay for the capitalist employment and training economic crisis. programs, renewal energy There will be no workplace in development, public ownership, the public sector unaffected by tight private sector regulation these moves – no workplace etc which identifies “the where jobs have not been cut, alternative” that a progressive where terms and conditions government could implement. have not been eroded and where The Charter is endorsed by the TUC and has 15 national unions Andy Chaffer, Moz Greenshields, Ray Walker & Midland Red pay has either been frozen or has risen well below the rate of affiliated to it – with more inflation. losses. The cuts involve all signing up all the time.

Last year the TUC famously Next year will be worse, with unions and most communities.

Of course, the ConDems – a passed a resolution supporting Any fightback has to unite these little scope for achieving further government cobbled together co-ordinated industrial action job cuts by voluntary means, forces together. out of two failed parties – will against the attacks on the The most visible cuts are those raising the spectre of mass never follow such a program. It public sector and its workers’ compulsory redundancies being carried out at local level, is a government of millionaires jobs, pay and conditions. for millionaires, A government Despite a slow and stumbling from libraries to nurseries, from throughout the public sector.

We face a real ‘battle of ideas’ which uses the recurrent refuse collections to Connexions start, there are now signs of a growing resistance. The massive offices. Workers are losing their within our own ranks, as well as financial and economic a trial of strength with the jobs by the hundreds or seeing problems of capitalism as a turnout on 26th March; the ConDems and the class they cover to attack workers, while growing anti-cuts alliances and their terms and conditions represent. Surveys seem to show the richest 10% get even richer ripped up. But jobs have also movements at the local level, that, while the overwhelming gone at regional government and more powerful. and the actions being taken by majority of workers have seen For as long as they are there, up to three-quarters of a million offices and the Regional through the government lie that the attacks will continue. We Development Agencies, whilst workers today in defence of the closure of quangos is hitting “we are all in this together”, a can’t put up with four years of pension schemes, demonstrate great many still believe that, employment levels across the attacks. We need to organise, the revulsion felt by the given that the ‘free market’ country. within our unions and in our majority of the population at system is in a mess, some cuts The cuts affect workers in all communities, to bring them the nature and scale of the are ‘necessary’ – or, at least, sorts of jobs and at all levels of down. The Peoples Charter is a attacks. inevitable. real and achievable alternativeThus far however the response pay and also hit the public as The fact is we can’t build a services are closed or provisions around which we can build a has generally been unmovement against the cuts reduced. movement to - not only defeat coordinated, localised and strong enough to win if we start this government - but to Public sector workers who sporadic, in contrast to the with many of our own members fundamentally shift politics in ConDems broad assault against take action in defence of their believing that those cuts are jobs and our services need and favour of workers, pensioners, working people. inevitable. That’s why “The students, young people, the The ConDems, representing a deserve the maximum possible People’s Charter” is vitally unemployed and away from the relatively united ruling class are support; they mustn't be important. It spells out “The isolated. super-rich and big business . not just interested in reducing Alternative” that we all And this is where local the deficit – they also want to campaigning against the cuts curtail working class advances and divide us. Tax increases are comes in. Made up of local people and trade union activists being imposed on working it has to be a vital element in people – their class see their taxes fall. Our pensions are cut. building support for a fightback and also supporting workers Wealth is transferred from the state to the private sector. Debt who go into struggle. It needs to be broad and inclusive and is transferred from the state to individuals. Support is given to willing to be flexible.

Many such non-sectarian antiinternational financiers. cuts movements have been built The cuts are already well at the local level, but the work underway in local authority is only just beginning in earnest. services, the police and fire This specially produced 60 minute documentary, made in The ideological attack on services, health services, association with Platform Films, charts the 90 year history of public sector pension schemes quangos, the former regional Britain’s Communist Party. Featuring previously unseen leaves us with no choice but to government provisions and to interviews, footage and much more. fight. If the Condems succeed in the civil service.

DVD £5.50 (inc. p&p) from www.communist-party.org.uk pushing through the Hutton Never mind private firm job

further changes without considering what is affordable.

The report went on to warn that the government has failed to use pensions to recruit and retain workers to vital public sector jobs.

This goes to the root of the problem. The attack on TPS is part of two broader processes.

Firstly, the assault on all pensions, in both the public and private sector. The change from RPI to CPI has already been implemented for all public sector pension schemes and this is having a knock on effect in both privatised public services and the rest of the private sector.

Workers are already seeing their pension rights under attack across the board and those who escape today are likely to be swept up in a second wave of “affordability changes”.

But changes to TPS are also part of a more generalised programme of cuts to education and all public services. These have seen the loss of a whole range of local services provided by local authorities – libraries, youth centres, school support services, social care and services.

It is also leading to the complete privatisation and break up of the National Health Service and the state education system, as outlined in the Health and Social Care Bill and the Academies Bill which preceded it.

This is effectively open class warfare. This government is attempting to destroy all the gains made by working people over the past 70 years and take us back to a time when our lives were dependent entirely on the whim of private employers; to a time when universal health care and education were little more than a dream.

The trades unions, and the working class as a whole, need to take this fight to the government. Pensions is an issue around which all public sector (and many private sector) unions can be united but it must be linked to the broader battles against cuts if we want to engage all sections of the working class.

And it is a battle we cannot afford to lose.

Support Teachers and Public Servants - Cont. from front changes will affect every teacher, from those already retired, right through to those who have not yet trained. The impact will be most severe on those at the beginning of their career but no-one will escape unscathed.

The argument being used by government is that teachers' pensions, and public sector pensions as a whole, are “unaffordable” and are “costing the taxpayer”. However, this is simply not true. The Teachers' Pensions Scheme (TPS), like other public- and private-sector pension schemes, is funded through a combination of employer and employee contributions. It is therefore deferred pay for the work teachers have done. Describing this as “taxpayers money” and painting public sector workers as a burden on “the taxpayer” is an open attempt to divide the working class and to pit us against ourselves.

Over its lifetime, TPS has more often been in surplus than in deficit. In 2006, changes were made to the scheme to make it even more affordable and these apply to all new entrants from 1st January 2007. Since these changes, the government has not carried out a valuation of the scheme, even though this is required by law, so it has absolutely no basis for judging the affordability, or otherwise, of teachers' pensions.

Last month, a report from the House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts confirmed the view of the National Audit Office that costs are falling and public sector pensions are Gawain Little is President of affordable. It criticised the Oxford & District TUC and local government for proposing NUT officer

A day for solidarity & unity - Cont. from front

action by all workers against this government's EUbacked austerity and privatisation programme. All density (56 per cent) in the unions need to work together public sector, but the low for that essential goal, with level of strikes and unionisation (14 per cent) in no single union arrogating to itself the 'right' to lead such the private sector.

Further attempts may soon an alliance.

It will be vital to mobilise be made to split private and trade unions, trades councils, public sector workers through a new round of anti- community groups, students, the unemployed, pensioners union laws. and service users to defend The Con-Dems may try to impose longer notice periods the essentials of a civilised or a balloting threshold (for society.

That is why the Communist example that the majority Party supports the for action must be of all formation of local, broad, those eligible to vote) in 'essential' public services. If non-sectarian and unionbased anti-cuts campaigns. so, workers in the private The aim should be to create and 'non-essential' sectors the conditions where this can be sure that such restrictions will be extended illegitimate government, with no democratic mandate to them in due course. for its reactionary policies, 'We're all in it together?' – turns in on itself, topples and that's true of public and falls. private sector workers, But bringing down the Conalthough it hardly includes the bankers and speculators! Dems might itself bring little improvement, unless the Mass action in unity can labour movement begins to defeat the current ruling class offensive against public project policies like those in the People's Charter, and services, jobs, wages, fights to make them the pensions and trade union policies of the next Labour rights. Disunity will government. guarantee defeat.

June 30th must be the next Robert Griffiths is General step, after the great TUC Secretary of the Communist demonstration of March 26th, Party towards generalised strike

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