Unity@unison 2017 ge

unity!@UNISoN CP BRITAIN

CPBRITAIN

communist-party.org.uk June 2017

COALTION OF CHAOS

T

HereSA MAy is born-again.

The tactics of the Grand Master of Oz, Lynton Crosby, have been ditched and he now bangs the Lambeg drum for the Grand Mistress of the Conservative and Unionist Party – first among equals in a marching band of grey men in suits and Arlene Foster.

Ms May, a decade after she described the Tories as the ‘nasty party’, is now first flautist in a coalition of two such. The dirty little secret of ruling class politics is the longstanding coalition between the ruling and landed elites of England, Wales and Scotland with those in the Six Counties.

Northern Ireland is a different country and a different world. There is barely a single political figure in the six counties statelet who could credibly contest a constituency on this island and none of the various political formation over there are active here. Not one political party on our island is elected to Stormont.

It is bizarre that Ms May could suggest that a government sustained by a sectarian group from another country, and one with intimate ties to Loyalist paramilitaries and gangsters, could offer strong and stable leadership for ours.

So bizarre are the politics of unionism that we can credibly argue that if they don’t live on a different planet they assuredly live in a different century. It’s not just their infamous homophobia. DUP health minister Jim Wells told us in 2015: “The gay lobby is insatiable, they don’t know when enough is enough.”

The DUP oppose the right of women to an abortion, with a former assembly member supporting a ban even for rape victims. Maybe it is the hallucinatory powers of poteen but the DUP’s creationist tendency objected to a notice explaining the formation, millenia ago, of the Devil’s Causeway, on the grounds that the Bible demonstrates that the earth was formed just a few thousand years ago. DUP politician Edwin Poots said that the planet is a “young earth” created just 4,000 years ago.

This government cannot survive. May must go. Hear the case for a left-led government and gain an informed insight into the Tory’s extremist friends.

Communist Party Fringe

End Theresa May’s Coalition of Chaos Liz Payne chair Communist Party eugene McCartan general secretary Communist Party of Ireland rob Griffiths general secretary Communist Party of Britain Wednesday 21 June at Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, at 6pm

Labour is winning Build now for a Labour government

T

He eLeCTION results of 8 June show that the people of Britain are open to progressive politics that will improve their lives writes Andy Chaffer.

The Labour Party Manifesto ‘For the Many Not the Few’ outlined polices such as the renationalisation of the railways, the establishment of publicly controlled utility companies and also proper funding of public services and people across england, Scotland and Wales voted for this in their millions.

The Labour Party campaign coordinated by the Corbyn office and Momentum reached out to and won over people who had never

been involved in politics before. It worked especially well with younger voters but it was people of all ages who were enthused. The campaign mixed social media with good old political rallies and by-passed the Tory-controlled media by meeting the people on the streets, on the doorstep and on their social media page.

Now the political agenda has moved in a progressive direction we need to build on the work.

The Conservatives are establishing their ‘Coalition of Chaos’ with the bigots of the DUP but we need to help the MPs to make sure this coalition is history as soon as possible. That means

building the campaigns against austerity, defending the NHS, supporting strikes and trying to stop all attempts to cut services.

Hopefully the Labour Party in Parliament will be supporting this by trying to defeat the Government whenever possible and proposing some of their popular policies .

It also means starting now for the next election by working in those seats that should be Labour or are winnable to be Labour with campaigning work. Try and work out in your branch who lives where and make sure everyone is registered to vote. Start making contact with the Labour Party in constituencies that need to be won

and suggesting some door to door leafletting from now. Let’s build to the next election because we need it NOW.

May must go Build support and join the People’s Assembly national demonstration on Saturday 1 July to get rid of ‘Theresa and the terrorists’.

The demonstration will meet at the BBC headquarters in Portland Place from 12 noon before marching to Parliament.

ANDy CHAffEr IS A SECrETAry of UNISoN’S BIrMINgHAM AND SoLIHULL MENTAL HEALTH BrANCH

This is what the Tories plan if they get a chance

T

Hey WILL Squeeze every ounce of work out of us for as many years as they can writes Liz Payne.

After we finish work they will spend as little as possible on us from the public purse, privatise our care to line the pockets of profiteers, charge us as much as possible for services which should be ours by right, take away our benefits, back-track on our pension promises and leave us vulnerable to neglect, isolation, loneliness and abuse. The Tory Manifesto

couldn’t make it plainer - the fleecing of every older generation to come.

As it is, millions of pensioners live in poverty or on the edge of poverty. Every year thousands needlessly die of cold and neglect. Almost all fear or are uncertain of their futures.

To ‘justify’ their onslaught, the bigbusiness-owned mass media peddles scurrilous lies about gold-plated pensions and the drain that older people are on the younger generation. This has one aim - to turn us against each other while

masking the true cause of poverty of the old and young, the iniquitous capitalist system and its unrelenting pursuit of profit.

As UNISoN has long argued, the truth couldn’t be more different from the media portrayal nor the potential for older people’s lives more contrasting. We have consistently campaigned alongside others against poverty-level pensions and cuts to caring and support services and for a decent life for everyone in their post-retirement years.

Labour’s Manifesto, which has won such massive support from every generation, promises dignity and security for all older people and sets out some of the measures the Labour Party would take immediately to this end. Now more so than for many years, we are confident that together we can win a better life for older people and that they in turn can stand with us in winning a better life for all.

LIz PAyNE IS CHAIr of THE CoMMUNIST PArTy

May must go represents a “left of centre” alliance.

Certainly, there is no case for doing anything that might rehabilitate the Lib LMOST 13 million people voted for a left-wing Labour Dems. Their share of the vote has deservedly fallen and the ejection of manifesto with its policies Nick Clegg from his seat should spare for more progressive taxation of us many more of those TV appearances the rich and big business, massive where he misrepresents almost public investment in the NHS and public services, public ownership of everything about the EU and the strategic industries and utilities, an progressive case for leaving it.

It is now up to Lib Dem, Green, SNP expansion of employment and and Plaid Cymru MPs to decide trade union rights and a halt to whether or not they want to privatisation writes Rob Griffiths. concentrate their fire on the Tories and The Tories have no mandate for public spending cuts. In raising Labour’s their policies and help ensure a fresh vote by 10 percent, Jeremy Corbyn and general election and a Labour his leadership have been vindicated. And government as soon as possible.

The prospects are bright. In this in the teeth of a vicious media particular, the UKIP collapse and the campaign, including obnoxious attacks return of many working-class in the supposedly left-of-centre supporters to Labour vindicates Guardian.

Corbyn’s insistence last year that the It is an even more remarkable referendum decision — that popular achievement in the wake of a two-year sovereignty in fact — should be campaign inside the Parliamentary respected and implemented.

Labour Party (PLP) to slander and His principled stance enraged the unseat him.

Corbyn confounded his critics with a pro-EU fanatics in the PLP and triggered a second Labour Party leadership campaign of public meetings, election — and a second overwhelming walkabouts, workplace visits and TV Corbyn victory. Half of UKIP’s appearances. He took his manifesto message directly to the people, trusting deserters turned to Labour and class politics accounting for at least half of them to put aside Tory and media lies the increase in Labour’s share of the and misrepresentations. poll. This underlines the importance of His own strength of character has Labour maintaining its principled stance shown through the most scurrilous in favour of leaving the EU while character assassination carried out in protecting the interests of workers and British politics since the days of their families not only here but in Labour’s founding father, Keir Hardie.

Europe and internationally..

Corbyn and Labour’s campaign and Finally, the Communist Party insisted policies enthused millions of students and young people to vote, many for the that progressive voters everywhere should vote Labour. In most cases, this first time. Turnout among young is the approach which has enabled electors nearly doubled. Workers and Labour to win seats, including in Wales trade unionists also rallied to the red flag, helping to raise the overall turnout where the party trounced the Tories.

Britain’s Communists have also to 68 per cent — the highest since the argued consistently that mass 1997 election that put Blair in office. campaigning, workplace action and class Now the priority must be to unite around the Labour Party leadership and politics raise people’s class consciousness, confidence and political its policies, while reviewing the rightwing’s love affair with nuclear weapons. understanding. So it has proved in two Labour Party leadership elections and There was some tactical voting for now in this general election.

Labour by some Green, Lib Dem and This same perspective will bring Plaid Cymru voters. Some working-class further advances for Labour in the new electors in Scotland are returning to election that will be necessary in the class politics, without abandoning their national aspirations. This is all the more very near future, once Theresa May resigns by popular demand. reason to bury all chatter about building some kind of “centre-left” ROBERT GRIFFITHS IS GENERAL SECRETARY OF alliance in British politics.

Electorally, the Labour Party already THE COMMUNIST PARTY eLeCTION

A

Scotland holds the key to No. 10

G

et rid of the Tories forever was the cry from some of our Trotskyist friends during the Scottish Independence referendum, but the results of the General election exposed it as nonsense writes Tam Morrison.

The Conservative vote in Scotland increased by a staggering 13.2 per cent while Labour increased their vote by a very modest 3.2 per cent compared to 10.2 in England and Wales.

So much for Scotland being more left wing than the rest of Britain and us being in touching distance of an ‘Independent Socialist republic’.

The fact that Labour made any gains at all was down to the Corbyn effect which has taken some time to reach Scotland due to the toxic legacy that remains from Scottish Labour’s involvement with the Better Together campaign during the referendum and their right-wing

leadership. The gains could have been greater but for the Labour Party machine going on strike where left candidates stood (some of these lefts losing by very small margins) as they poured resources into seats contested by Blairite candidates. This ‘strike’ was of course evident in many parts of Britain not just Scotland.

The SNP vote dropped by 13 per cent with many Tartan Tories, especially in the north of Scotland, switching back to their political home in the Conservative and Unionist Party. There was also the protestant unionist vote, but it was not just them who saw the Tories as best placed to protect the union. on the constitutional front, Communists in Scotland and their allies will continue to argue for progressive federalism, an argument which is gaining traction in the movement, to assist with the redistribution of wealth and power in the nations of Britain. Mass campaigning

PeOPLeS’ PreSS

rallies and meetings. It is stocked at all Martin McColls and one-Stop outlets and plenty of other independent retailers and many Co-op stores. If your local retailer doesn't already stock us ask them to do so, it is no risk to them as we are sold in the same way as the other papers. There is an e-edition of the paper read via an app or as a pdf.

We do not have billionaire backers, we are a readers’ owned co-operative - the Peoples Press Printing Society. Not only can you join the co-operative by purchasing shares yourself or you may wish to encourage your union branch to do likewise. fill in the application form here or visit me at the stall today for further information. www.morningstaronline.co.uk

The pamphlet examines the eU: its positive achievements but also its neo-liberal economic framework and the consequences both for the crisis of social democracy and the rise of right-wing populism. It looks at the objectives of British big business and the City of London, the relationship with the US, and most important of all, why British big business and the City will not and cannot resolve the basic problems facing the British economy and why public sector intervention is essential.

BErNADETTE KEAvENEy IS CIrCULATIoN MorNINg STAr.

Buy at http://tinyurl.com/hwj6pby www.communist-party.org.uk

I

HOPe that by the time you are reading this you will have already got your copy of today's Morning Star writes Bernadette Keaveney. Copies are available on our stall in the exhibition area.

If you are a regular reader of the paper, this week is an ideal opportunity to convince your fellow delegates of our unique place in the labour movement which may lead to winning new readers.

This week may be the first time that you have come across the paper. It seems odd saying this as we are a national daily title but without the resources of the capitalist press we are unable to get into every retail outlet and we can’t afford the large advertising campaigns to bring us to everyone's attention. The Star is always available at union conferences and demos,

MANAgEr of THE

on class issues in the workplace and the community by UNISoN and other trade union activists is required to raise the level of class and political consciousness of the people, turning that into action which can propel Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street.

In playing its part in the mass struggle UNISoN’s new executive must address why its members on the Labour Party NEC consistently vote against Corbyn and his team and counter other reported rightwing manoeuvres such as the filling important posts with enemies of Corbyn.

There is likely to be an early general Election, the Tory’s unholy partnership with the DUP will crumble long before 2022. In Scotland the unity of left and progressive support for Labour holds the key to No 10.

TAM MorrISoN IS SCoTTISH SECrETAry of THE CoMMUNIST PArTy

Join Britain’s revolutionary party of working class power and liberation I want to join the Communist Party/young Communist League

Communist review theory & discussion journal of the Communist Party Spring 2017

name

H Overthrow of Tsardom Part 1, The Gathering of the Storm Andrew rothstein H Chinese CP contribution to IMCWP in Vietnam H Writers and the Spanish Civil War John Manson H Space, Time – and Dialectics. Part 4 Martin Levy H RA Revolution review Nick Wright H The Sealed Train Lars Ulrik Thomsen H Soul Food with Mike Quille. £10 fior four quarterly issues

address

post code age if under 28

email

return to Communist Party Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road Croydon CR0 1BD e mail office@communist-party.org.uk or call 02086861659 H Unison 2017

www.communist-party.org.uk