Unity Tolpuddle Festival 2013

Unity Communists @ Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival 2013

AWB fight goes on from Country Standard

A movement to win, not just protest!

by Bill Greenshields At the People’s Assembly, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady declared that the Government was waging “class war”.

The General Secretary of Britain’s largest trade union, Len McCluskey again called for coordinated and increasingly general strike action and civil disobedience.

Unite’s Chief of Staff, Andrew Murray declared that it must be our aim to “make the country ungovernable” and to bring down the Tory led ConDem coalition.

Each received widespread applause from the thousands of activists had been brought together at the inaugural conference of The People’s Assembly to oppose all “austerity”, all cuts in public services, all privatisations, and to map out the alternative. In this environment their statements were challenging, but provoked no controversy.

Yet in our unions and communities, the course laid out at the Assembly is not

representative of the majority of people.

The Assembly steering group recently quoted a researched figure of 30% of the population who recognised that the governments programme of austerity measures and privatisation was unnecessary and unacceptable – not a bad figure given the almost complete consensus in parliament to the opposite, and the daily diet of “there is no alternative” from the big business press at home and world-wide.

But we are left with 70% of the population – including many active in the trade union movement and in our communities – who believe that no matter how the economic crisis was brought about, no matter how painful the process may be for ordinary people, “austerity” is somehow unavoidable, inevitable and even necessary.

Those organisations that came together to form the People’s Assembly have a big job to do. Not only do we need Continued on back page

Over 60 years of pay protection for 150,000 rural workers in England and Wales ended when the ConDem coalition government axed the Agricultural Wages Board without even allowing a proper debate.

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill debate, in which the AWB abolition was buried, was guillotined on April 16, as rural workers in the public gallery looked on aghast. Labour brought a motion a week later when it was debated briefly, but it was defeated by coalition MPs. Unite has made a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights that "the destruction of the AWB without replacement by an alternative collective bargaining body for the agricultural industry will be in plain breach of the UK's international obligations." "Unite has vowed to fight to restore the AWB and, like the Tolpuddle Martyrs, will not stop until we do so," declared its general secretary, Continued overleaf

Welcome from South West Communists

Communists in South West England and Cornwall pay tribute to the South West TUC for organising yet another great Tolpuddle. The existence of a major labour movement event in the heart of the West Country helps to keep alive and invigorate the vision of a socialist future and the traditions of community, militancy, solidarity and working class culture. This tremendous event is a vital element of the struggle against austerity and for a better world. Ken Keable, South West England & Cornwall Secretary

Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd London CR0 1BD 02086861659 @communists1920 office@communist-party.org.uk

Continued from front Len McCluskey. "The Tories and their Lib Dem coalition partners have taken the side of the employers and the supermarkets who wish to drive down wages to boost their own profits, at the expense of those that work on the land."

Yet there is one government in Britain that has voted to retain the functions of the AWB. Over 13,000 Welsh farm workers will continue to have their pay and conditions protected thanks to emergency legislation passed by the National Assembly of Wales on July 17th. A new body will be set up in October to take over the functions of the abolished England and Wales Agriculture Board.

"Our intention is to make something better than the old AWB to not only protect pay and conditions but also promote and develop agriculture as an industry with high quality training," Assembly member Mick Antoniw told the Country Standard.

The UK government avoided consulting with the Welsh government on abolishing the board by using the procedure of amending the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill.

Mick Antoniw (Labour member for Pontypridd) reacted by introducing a Wales government emergency bill, the Agricultural Sector (Wales) Bill.

"The abolition of the Agricultural Wages Board is just another example of the Tory Party ganging up to squeeze money out of the pockets of rural workers and into the pockets of the big landowners," he declared. "Just as the Tories have engaged in a class war against working families, the disabled, old and vulnerable, so they are planning to do so against agricultural workers."

Without the new Bill, he said, abolition would "create a new burden of administration and responsibility upon smaller employers who have not called for the abolition of the AWB" and "increase poverty in rural areas, and downward pressure on other forms of employment."

Wales Labour was committed to protecting agricultural workers' wages, as well as providing education, training and recruitment, he added. "Sustainability of a sufficient and well trained agricultural workforce is therefore a matter of necessary concern and importance to the Welsh government in fulfilling its

What does the abolition of the AWB mean to workers?

More than a quarter of a million permanent, seasonal and casual farm and horticultural workers will lose the following:  the right to national collective bargaining with legal underpinning;  the right to safe and secure accommodation fit for human habitation; a bed for the sole use of each worker, wholesome accessible drinking water and suitable sanitary facilities;  minimum rates of pay above the national minimum wage for six grades - currently from £6.21 to £9.40 per hour - reflecting skills, certification and experience;  overtime, in an industry characterised by long and unpredictable hours;  holiday entitlement and proper breaks from arduous manual work;  sick pay to underpin recovery from illness and injury in the UK's most dangerous occupation;  rates of pay for young workers, recognising the contribution made by under-21s;  compassionate leave; rest breaks; maximum deductions for tied housing;  agricultural minimum wage for agricultural students on work placements under a year;  legal enforcement of AWB rates by inspectors.  allowance for keeping a working dog, on-call and night allowance and a host of other benefits won by workers over the last six decades

Stand up for the trade No-one will be surprised that David Cameron is hostile to unions or that he believes that braying nonsense in Parliament about Unite controlling the Labour Party will be taken seriously.

What else would be expected from this expensively educated beneficiary of inherited and tax-dodged wealth? His contempt for working people and the organisations in which they organise to pursue their collective interests has never been in doubt.

Cameron made no secret before the last election of his intention of hiding his past life as bagman for Norman Lamont, supporter of apartheid South Africa and all-round right-wing Thatcherite because he knew that voters regarded the Tories as the "nasty party."

He claimed to have remade the party on the basis of compassion and respect and to have moved beyond the policies that made it unelectable in three general elections.

Reality proved otherwise. No sooner had he, fellow Bullingdon boy George Osborne and Nick Clegg's Orange Book neoliberal

Robert Griffiths, CP General Secretary As we seek to mobilise millions of people in favour of an alternative strategy to austerity, privatisation and unemployment we need to face facts about who the architects of the current massive attack are.

The big business monopolies and finance industry at home and abroad are aiming to remove all the gains we have made over 70 years – using their Tory led ConDem government in Britain, and their counterparts throughout Europe. But they don’t just use individual governments. They use the IMF. They use the G8. And they use their bosses’ club, the European Union.

There are those who desperately hope that the EU can be “reformed”, that a worker friendly “Social Europe” can emerge from it. But there’s about as much chance of this as “reforming” the Tory Party into a voice for workers.

The EU has spearheaded the global drive for deregulation and privatisation introducing measures that day in and day out translate into all the evils of austerity: massive job losses; poverty wages; near Victorian workplaces;

union link Morning Star Editorial

Miliband is hamstrung from doing this because of the crass decision to set up an investigation into Falkirk Constituency Labour zealots crossed the Downing Street threshold than they started Party, to place the CLP under "special measures" and to press ahead putting the boot in. with a parliamentary candidate selection process on the basis of an Public service workers are feather-bedded, benefits claimants are arbitrary cut-off date that excludes many CLP members. work-shy scroungers, foreign visitors are health tourists and trade Those Blairite MPs happy to join the Tories in putting the boot union leaders are power-mad dictators. This litany of bile and hatred into the unions should note that the process used by Unite to get its from Tory and Lib Dem leadership is accepted by the billionaire members to join Labour was approved when Tony Blair was leader. media, which is happy to publicise Cameron's rants and to carry on a Labour didn't lose office and five million votes because of its links daily propaganda onslaught to demonise his targets of hostility. to trade unions.

Not even Cameron could seriously believe that the unions control It was new Labour's closeness to the the Labour Party or that Ed Miliband goes "up and down the country Pentagon and the City of London, speaking for Len McCluskey." His childish "quip" that Labour's front expressed through imperialist wars, bench is "paid to shout by Unite" ought to have embarrassed him, but corporate excesses and disregard for such is the arrogance and sense of entitlement of this plummy product working-class living standards. of the ruling class that he takes back-bench shrieks and guffaws as his Labour should reject the due, even when he is talking complete cobblers. ruling class anti-union offensive Miliband was right to bite back on Cameron's ethical double and embrace the trade standards. Any politician who provides dinner in Downing Street for unions to rebuild the his wealthy patrons, gives a £97,000 tax handout to hard-up fellow movement in opposition to millionaires and appoints Murdoch man Andy Coulson as his the bankers' neoliberal communications director has clearly had an ethical bypass operation. austerity agenda operated by the But the Labour leader should have gone further, defending the ConDems. right of trade unions to encourage their members to join the party that they set up over a century ago, long before individual membership Read the Morning Star, daily was established. from all good newsagents

No to Austerity = No to EU! declining services in transport, energy, communications, health, education and local government.

No surprise then that many Tories and most sections of big business do not favour British withdrawal from the EU. However, emboldened by three decades of privatisation, deregulation and anti-trade union laws in Britain, they strongly believe that the EU need not grant any concessions to the working class in Britain and elsewhere in the name of ‘social partnership’ or a ‘social Europe’.

Furthermore, they reject attempts to create an equal playing field across Europe at the expense of finance capital's almost total freedom in the City of London, or at the expense of Britain's especially harsh anti-trade union and ’flexible’ labour market laws.

That is why the Tories want to renegotiate relations between Britain and the EU, while stopping short of withdrawal.

UKiP, on the other hand, believes that an even more right-wing government in Britain should be free in future to undercut social and economic provisions in western Europe, finish off trade unionism, ignore global warming and snuggle up still closer to US imperialist power.

This division represents a clash of views and interests within the British ruling class, although at this stage those who favour full withdrawal remain in the minority. Neither side has the interests of the mass of people in Britain at heart. They are arguing about how best to perpetuate super-exploitation, deregulation, privilege and inequality.

However, both the Euro-separatists and the Euro-sceptics attack the EU or aspects of it, playing upon a reactionary patriotism and xenophobia to garner support and conceal their class motivations.

There is a third section of ruling-class opinion, the Euro-fanatics, who see the others as jeopardising Britain's position within the neoliberal, big business European Union.

Still believing in the benefits and promises of the ‘Social chapter’.

Substantial sections of the British trade union movement and Labour Party continue to align themselves with this third camp supporting the EU from the workers’ perspective.

This is becoming ever more incomprehensible as the EU Commission and the European Central Bank continue to impose austerity, privatisation and mass unemployment on the peoples of EU member states one after another.

Solidarity with the workers of Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Portugal and elsewhere should mean opposing the anti-democratic and neoliberal treaties of the EU - not defending them, or merely attacking their right-wing critics.

Britain's unions should be exposing the anti-working class policies and institutions of the European Union, not confusing the European Court and Convention on Human Rights with the antilabour EU Court of Justice or brandishing the feeble working time directive as a fig-leaf for the EU of austerity, privatisation, poverty and despair.

Britain's labour movement should be defending all workers, whatever their country of origin, against EU-backed superexploitation. Its response should be to reject all three camps of British monopoly capitalism in favour of popular sovereignty and an independent foreign policy.

The left and Labour movement should be leading the fight against the corrupt, big business EU - not leaving it to UKiP charlatans, who ride the EU gravy train and whose main interest is to defend the corrupt, big business spivs in the City of London.

The labour movement should be campaigning for the policies in the People's Charter for public ownership, economic sustainability, progressive taxation and peace - against the Tory-led regime, UKiP, the EU, the US and Nato. This will show people that there is a real alternative to the common big business agenda of the Euroseparatists, the Euro-sceptics and the Euro-fanatics.

Continued from front page to challenge this existing consensus which the vast majority of the population have been conned into accepting…we also need to help build the confidence in those people that we can be organised and strong enough to stop it, and in the process sweep away the ConDem coalition government.

Trade unions must be at the heart – and head - of the work to build the People’s Assembly. Without the strength and discipline of the organised movement, the Assembly will only have limited success and will be condemned to be merely an organisation of protest.

With them it can become a major vehicle to help unify individual and sectoral struggles, build essential links with communities, and provide a forum to assist in developing the political significance of the struggle as a whole.

The Assembly made clear our opposition to all cuts and austerity measures – but it needs to go much further presenting a clear, detailed and coherent economic, social and political alternative. The People’s Charter provides both, and has already been widely adopted and re-adopted by the wider movement. Now it needs to lie at the heart of the People’s Assembly.

The continuing gap between the trade union movement and its proclaimed representatives in Parliament brings into sharp relief the need for the Trade Union movement to step up its political work. This has been made all the more clear by the subtext behind the Labour leaderships actions around the Falkirk selection row as well as continuing pronouncements by Miliband and Balls reaffirming their allegiance to finance capital, and reassuring the capitalist class that the Labour Party were “safe hands” when it comes to the economy and to “austerity” – the code word

for cuts, privatisation and weakening the working class etc.

How will the TUC and the unions generally square Frances O’Grady’s “class war” with the commitment of the Labour Leadership to more of the same? We need to build a militant mass movement of resistance to “austerity” and for the alternative program of the People’s Charter. It is the process of building that mass movement, and taking action challenging finance capital, that will EITHER lead to the success of those struggling within the Labour Party for its reclamation, OR will see that mass movement reestablish - through organic development - a mass party capable of representing the interests of working people and winning elections. In the meantime, no matter how reactionary - either by intent or incompetence - the Labour Party continues to be it has the undeserved honour to be the only possible vehicle by which the working class can remove the Tories and Lib Dems from office at the next election. Even the most delusional of wishful thinkers, know this to be the case.

The Communist Party has a strategy for Socialism in our lifetime. It is one which is entirely winnable. We are building a broad anti-monopoly alliance, in which the People’s Charter and People’s Assemblies are important, in winning a substantial and sustained shift to the left in the labour movement and our communities…the first step of many in the struggle for real Socialism.

We need to be geared up to fight to WIN – not just PROTEST! For those who say we cannot expect to see Socialism in our lifetime – we ask, “What then DO you expect to see?”

Britain’s capitalist class, are working on achieving a decisive victory over the working class. It is not a choice – it is a necessity for

21st Century

Marxism 2 & 3 November Clerkenwell Green, London discussions, debates, education, rallies, food, drink and music with leading national and international speakers from the labour and antiimperialist movements

www.marxism21.org.uk them. There never was a “post war consensus” – just a powerful working class and trade union movement, a strong reforming Labour Party, a Communist Party at the height of its membership, and a Socialist reality in the world. The ruling class were on the back foot. They retreated – but only temporarily. From the 80s on they have been following a strategic path of undermining and destroying working class organisation. The crisis has given them the excuse to step up their attacks.

So we need to reinvigorate the demands for Socialism, AGAINST the right of the tiny class of capitalists to control just about every aspect of society, and FOR the democracy of the working class. Such demands have always been embedded in our movement, and at the Miners’ Gala today there will be many who have fought that battle in recent history. But the ruling class also have always sought to convince workers as a whole, and their leaders in particular to know our place and limit our demands to what they, the capitalists, deem acceptable.

People’s Assemblies will now start to spring up around the country, and at local level begin to build a bottom up movement for resistance to austerity and for the alternative, as embodied in the People’s Charter. The success of these Assemblies will depend not on how many left political groupings sign up, but on how deep the determination of ordinary working people is to sustain, develop and see through this struggle.

We will see a future of “Socialism or Barbarism”… and the People’s Assembly’s contribution to that struggle is now firmly established and underway.