Unity! TUC 2010 Monday by Communist Party

Unity! Communists at the TUC

Monday 13th September 2010

That’s enough!

Two million workers took to the streets in France last week in protest at plans by Sarkozy to raise the pension age to 62. The key to the French success in mobilisation is the thousands of local committees uniting unions and the public. In paris 100,000 marched but in 200 cities and towns throughout France there were large local demonstration.

Our public services are the key battleground by Jane Carolan The ConDem victory in May was a victory for blue blooded neoliberalism over its more pink tinged New Lab o u r counterpart. The Blair and Brown failure to move from the economics of finance c apitalism, combined with an espousal of privatisation and reactionary social policies saw the Labour core support neglected. These are the people for whom a Labour Government should have meant a substantial benefit but Labour was offering only more of the same. The new government has a right wing, reactionary neo-con ideology committed to ruling in favour of

one class only – its own. The declared Con Dem agenda is not a rational economic one – from the viewpoint of standard economic theory reducing public expenditure is the economics of the asylum. But if it is not rational in economic terms, it is entirely rational in terms of the stated aim of shrinking the state. In short, the post 2nd World War consensus based on the welfare state of Beveridge report – health care, education, homes for all and benefits for those in need – is being ripped apart. Reforms announced so far begin the process of dismantling universal benefits and ending the provision of public services by a workforce directly employed by democratically accountable public bodies. The NHS is likely to become

a brand name, attached to a few failing services for those without private insurance. Local schools provision by Councils from nursery level up will be at the bottom of a hierarchy of education dominated by academies and frees schools in middle class enclaves. The latter will be bastions of privilege. Desperately needed social housing for 1.6 million on council waiting lists will simply not be built - a tragedy for those without homes and for building workers without jobs. Adding to these social pressures, all forms of welfare are being attacked. Deemed scroungers by the right wing tabloids, those millions surviving on the poverty line as a result of unemployment, sickness or disability will see their inadequate incomes cut

and state provided employment services decimated as civil service jobs are sacrificed. Across the country, councils are preparing redundancy notices for essential workers from classroom assistants to social workers, from dinner ladies to home carers. Even for those of us who lived through the Thatcher regime, what is in prospect under this government is terrifying. The only victors are likely to be the privatised providers of those services deemed too essential to be scrapped, turning taxpayers pounds into private profit. The key to winning a sufficient consensus to oppose these changes is to demonstrate the value and quality of publicly provided provision, not easy when on a daily basis the media derides them. Shouting slogans demanding ‘fight back’ are easier than immersing unions in community and workplace based campaigns. continued overleaf

Unity! TUC Conference 2010

Witness the painstaking work of Spanish unions above over the past six months building up to their September general strike But there is no real alternative to creating campaigning organisations based on the coalition of interests between communities and unions. Not just on the lowest common denominator of saving this or that local service provider – important though that is - but based on a dialogue and greater understanding of why services are being dismantled and why they must be protected. Campaigns focusing not just on job cuts, but also on the value to communities of public services. Projecting an alternative economic strategy which increases rather than decreases public spending, taxing bank transactions, the obscene profits of the financial sector and the wealth of those luxuriating in personal billions. Ending war adventures in support of US imperialism and cancelling unaffordable weapons such as Trident replacement. Rebuilding a manufacturing base through substantial industrial investment by the state It's not only about unions as national organisations publicly opposing Con Dem policies. It's about every trade union branch looking beyond the grind of daily workplace issues and playing a leading role in communities. That's the challenge we must face up to make our resistance to the austerity attack a reality rather than rhetoric. Jane Carolan is chair of the UNISON NEC Policy Committee and a member of the TUC General Council She wrirtes in her personal capacity.

Holding them to account by Kevin Halpin

vast profits and pay obscene salaries and bonuses. All money that they owe to the taxpayer This ye ar ’s TUC is the and, combined with scrapping first after Labour’s Trident,would clear the deficit defeat for 17 years. We and put the country back in the now face a government black. with the Liberals This is the background against supporting the Tories bid which unions affiliated to the to completely reverse Labour Party are being balloted the social policies and for a new leader. institutions set up since There has been much debate the 1945 general about the past records of the five election. The agenda this week shows a candidates. Of course this is sharp recognition of this, calling important (and some were better than others) but we must look for strong and co-ordinated forward and ask what they would action to defend the public services and union rights. Action do in the future. The first test would be to ask that will be required as, while how many of them support John the TUC will of course attempt McDonnell’s private members to engage with the new government, they will have very bill (Trade Union Rights and Freedoms); Diane Abbot little success. certainly does. The rationale from both new Unions are backing different Labour and the Coalition for the cuts is that the country is in the candidates for a variety of reasons, but all affiliated unions red. This is a myth. PCS and other unions correctly point out have one thing in common – that the origin of Britain’s they support the Labour Party financial crisis is the bankers’ and the great majority of its MPs bad debts which government financially. Each union has its own subsidised by £1.3 trillion. individual policies and after this The banks continue to make

TUC they will also have a common policy of how to defend workers in the face of the savage attacks of this government. These are the policies that affiliated trade union members must expect the new leader of the Labour Party and ‘sponsored’ MPs to support and promote. It is time that the big unions insist that Labour will lose financial and political support unless it turns to policies that benefit working people. This is a more positive position than harking back to which leadership candidate did what and is key to ending the new Labour strategy that was instrumental in losing the general election and the best chance of avoiding 17 miserable years of Tory rule, with or without the Liberals won’t make much difference. Kevin Halpin was chair of the Liaison Committee for the Defence of the Trade Unions in its heroic days of confrontation with both Conservative and Labour attempts to shackle the unions

TUC Conference 2010 Unity! Du passé faisons table rase Groucho is the embodiment of many forms. One of which will be in Paris this week, recovering from the excesses of the Fete de L’Humanite. One of the delights of life in France is the constant media presence of our old friend John Monks. Freed from the obligation to stonewall every attempt to push Blair’s government in a progressive direction he is now reincarnated at the spokesperson of the European TUC. Who can forget his grumpiness when delegates disobeyed (hats off to the Unison delegation) the diktats of the top table and voted for a motion condemning PFI. Opposition to PFI was seen back then as a betrayal of our obligations to Labour and it was a rare union leader who doubted the magic of Gordon Brown’s wand. But the cosy conventions of Congress House won’t do over the channel and Monksy often pops up speaking in tones more militant than we are accustomed to. Latest outing sees him calling for a continent-wide tax on financial transactions. In the words of the Internationale “Of the past let us make a clean slate”.

Groucho

Performance appraisal Hard Talk on the BBC News channel rarely lives up to its selfpromoting title and thus it was when, a few days ago, our gensec appeared before Stephen Sackur. Despite Sackur’s rather weak attempts to tempt Brendan into wild predictions and wordy militancy he kept the discussion grounded in facts and reality. Particularly telling was Brendan’s example of the teacher with a smaller class size seen as “inefficient” in private sector terms but more efficient when measured against public service criteria. My drinking companion (a former general secretary) remarked that where once he sounded like a retread of Monksy he now sounds like his own man. So he must be less than delighted by this patronizing put down. “Brendan is bright, capable and imaginative, and he is very aware of others. He handles problems very well, finds his way through complex issues and is the source of excellent advice with which he is very generous.” A free copy of Lenin’s “Two Tactics of Social Democracy” for the first person to identify who said it and where.

■manifesto press Politics and analysis, action and culture making the link between working class power & liberation The imperial controversy Challenging the empire apologists by Andrew Murray £12.95 (£2 p&p) 150pp The education revolution Cuba’s alternative to neoliberalism by Théodore H. MacDonald £14.95 (£2 p&p) 265pp Illustrated Killing no murder? South Wales and the Great Railway Strike of 1911 by Robert Griffiths £12.95 (£2 p&p) 126pp illustrated

www.manifestopress.org.uk

Pamphlets, flags, badges and books from www.communistparty.org.uk or CPB Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CRO 1BD

Britain for the people not the bankers Wednesday 7pm, Mechanics Institute, Princess Street Anita Halpin on unions at the forefront of struggle Rob Griffiths on the alternative strategy Jane Carolan on resisting public sector cuts Bill Greenshields on the People’s Charter Chair Carolyn Jones

Unity! TUC Conference 2010

Union rights and freedoms: ‘We love Liam!’ by Carolyn Jones Two years ago, TUC delegates backed the call for a Trade Union Rights and Freedoms Bill. The Bill aimed to simplify the procedures relating to ballots and notices so that a democratic decision to strike by workers could not be overturned by a judges’ forensic examination of technical legal errors. The Bill failed to reach the statute book and injunctions are

increasingly hitting unions hard. The Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill (LIAM) was introduced by John McDonnell in June 2010. Like the Trade Union Freedom Bill, LIAM aims

Johnston Press v NUJ In May 2010 the NUJ had to abandon a strike of journalists when the employer claimed to “employ no journalists”, despite the fact that the Johnston Press website states the company employs 1,900 journalists. The NUJ are pursuing their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

to simplify the requirements surrounding industrial action ballots and notices. The Bill introduces five main improvements: • Small accidental failures in ballots will be disregarded • Small accidental failures in notices will be disregarded • Minor errors in the information about the result of the ballot will be disregarded • Forensic examination of procedures will be replaced with the concept of “substantial compliance”. • Evidence will be required that “substantial compliance” has not taken place before an injunction will be granted. The anti working class economic strategy of the ConDems is clear and we know

they have a nasty agenda on employment rights and trade union freedoms. It’s vital the labor movement responds with alternative political, economic and industrial strategies. LIAM provides for “appropriate measures for the protection of workers to engage in industrial action” - as demanded by the ILO Committee of experts in response to the recent BALPA case. If the voice of workers is to be heard in the increasingly bitter, class-divided battle around the distribution of wealth, it’s vital that the Bill gets a second reading on 22nd October. Carolyn Jones is director of the Institute of Employment Rights

Network Rail v RMT In April 2010 a High Court injunction was granted to Network Rail citing inconsistencies in the strike ballot. Metrobus v Unite In August 2009 the Court of Appeal overturned a 90% UNITE ballot vote in favour of strike action. The Court claimed first, that the union “had not acted as soon as reasonably practicable” in giving bosses the ballot result even though the union received the result on 2nd August and informed Metrobus on 3rd. Second, that on the pre-ballot notice UNITE had stated the employer had 766 on check off (employer kept records) when in effect they had 776. EDF Energy v RMT In 2009 the RMT issued formal strike notice to EDF. The uion identified 65 members working in three workplaces but EDF won an injunction because the terminology used to categorise the union wasn’t good enough. BA v UNITE In December 2009 BA Cabin Crew voted to strike by a margin of 92.5% on a ballot turnout of 80% of 12,000. The Court granted BA an injunction on the basis that the ballot included 811 crew who had since taken redundancy despite the fact that if the 811 had been excluded, the vote would still have been 8 to 1 in favour of action. BA v BALPA BALPA had to abandon a high court battle when BA claimed the ballot did not meet European law, suggesting BALPA would be liable for a bill of £1.25 million. BALPA complained to the ILO and in March 2010 the ILO recommended that UK laws be “reviewed” and appropriate measures considered to protect the right to take industrial action. www.communist-party.org.uk www.solidnet.org