The growing anger against the Labour government’s handling of the recession is building momentum for protests at the Labour Party conference on 27 September.
The PCS civil service workers’ union and the NUT teachers’ union last week became the latest national unions to back the protests. The lecturers’ UCU and journalists’ NUJ unions are already backing protests on the day.
More than two million people are unemployed in Britain – and the number is rising quickly. Almost a million unemployed people are under 25.
This protest can unite all the strands of the workers movement, anti-war, anti-fascist and anti-privatisation campaigns in a huge outpouring of scorn for the failures of the New Labour party. However, in order to be united against the government's neo-liberal agenda, we have to be there! So it's time to contact people in your network, start arguing about why we need to demonstrate our anger with New Labour, and why we need a political alternative.
Tickets on the ‘Big Red Train’ from London to the march are available for £20 waged (£10 concs). Go to » www.righttowork.org.uk
Around 300 people gathered outside the occupied Vestas factory on the Isle of Wight this evening.
At 6:30 pm this evening the crowd heard the news that the company has applied for a possession order against the occupation. However, the court case is not until next Wednesday, giving extra time to build the campaign further.
The RMT union has come forward to back the occupation and pay the legal bills of the case.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said, “Why is the RMT here? It’s because we won’t walk away from workers whether they are in a union or not.”
Crow compared the Vestas struggle to that of the suffragettes and of Nelson Mandela who had defied the law for their causes. “Who are the real criminals?” he asked. “It’s the crowd that run this place.
The Campaign Against Climate Change has organised a public meeting in solidarity with the Vestas occupation on Friday evening in London, 6pm at the ULU, Malet Street.
Download support materials:
SW leaflet (» www.swp.org.uk/resources/v_leaf200709.pdf)
Collection sheet (» www.swp.org.uk/resources/v_coll200709.pdf)
For too long thousands of jobs have been destroyed without resistance. For too long the issue of unemployment—especially youth unemployment—has been ignored. It is time to organise the fightback. The occupations and campaigns at Visteon, the occupations at Prisme in Dundee and the occupation at Waterford Crystal have changed the atmosphere inside the working class movement.
We desperately need more resistance.
The economic crisis, internationally and domestically, is leading to soaring unemployment, insecurity and devastation of communities.
UK unemployment is well over 2 million and headed sharply upwards. Young people are particularly badly affected. There are already 820,000 unemployed under the age of 25, and 600,000 people leave school this summer. Many will not find jobs.
The government has found hundreds of billions to bailout banks and financial institutions.
But instead of saving jobs, Gordon Brown is pressing ahead with policies that cut them—from Royal Mail to local government to the civil service to the NHS.
Individual unions and the TUC should be leading the fight against job losses by opposing redundancies, resisting closures and demanding a transformation of government policy.
This is a conference to learn from the experience of resistance, encourage more struggles, and bring together trade unionists, the unemployed, school and college leavers.
It’s a chance to increase the pressure on trade union leaders, develop the networks of resistance, and come up with campaigning ideas over the most crucial issue facing workers today.
Make sure you are there, and get your union branch, stewards’ committee, campaign organisation or student union to send delegates.
An open letter to the left from the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)
Labour’s vote collapsed to a historic low in last week’s elections as the right made gains. The Tories under David Cameron are now set to win the next general election.
The British National Party (BNP) secured two seats in the European parliament. Never before have fascists achieved such a success in Britain.
The result has sent a shockwave across the labour and anti-fascist movements, and the left.
The meltdown of the Labour vote and the civil war engulfing the party poses a question – where do we go from here?
The fascists pose a threat to working class organisations, black, Asian and other residents of this country – who BNP führer Nick Griffin dubs “alien” – our civil liberties and much else.
History teaches us that fascism can be fought and stopped, but only if we unite to resist it.
The SWP firmly believes that the first priority is to build even greater unity and resistance to the fascists over the coming months and years.
The BNP believes it has created the momentum for it to achieve a breakthrough. We have to break its momentum.
The success of the anti-Nazi festival in Stoke and the numbers of people who joined in anti-fascist campaigning shows the basis is there for a powerful movement against the Nazis.
The Nazis’ success will encourage those within the BNP urging a “return to the streets”.
This would mean marches targeting multiracial areas and increased racist attacks. We need to be ready to mobilise to stop that occurring.
Griffin predicted a “perfect storm” would secure the BNP’s success. The first part of that storm he identified was the impact of the recession.
The BNP’s policies of scapegoating migrants, black and Asian people will divide working people and make it easier to drive through sackings, and attacks on services and pensions.
Unity is not a luxury. It is a necessity. If we do not stand together we will pay the price for a crisis we did not cause.
The second lesson from the European elections is that we need a united fightback to save jobs and services.
If Cameron is elected he will attempt to drive through policies of austerity at the expense of the vast majority of the British people.
But the Tories’ vote fell last week and they are nervous about pushing through attacks.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne told business leaders, “After three months in power we will be the most unpopular government since the war.”
We need to prepare for battle.
But there is a third and vital issue facing the left and the wider working class. The crisis that has engulfed Westminster benefited the BNP.
The revelations of corruption, which cabinet members were involved in, were too much for many Labour voters, who could not bring themselves to vote for the party.
One answer to the problem is to say that we should swallow everything New Labour has done and back it to keep David Cameron, and the BNP, out.
Yet it would take a miracle for Gordon Brown to be elected back into Downing Street.
The danger is that by simply clinging on we would be pulled down with the wreckage of New Labour.
Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the PCS civil service workers’ union, has asked how, come the general election, can we ask working people to cast a ballot for ministers like Pat McFadden.
McFadden is pushing through the privatisation of the post office.
Serwotka proposes that trade unions should stand candidates.
Those who campaigned against the BNP in the elections know that when they said to people, “Don’t vote Nazi” they were often then asked who people should vote for.
The fact that there is no single, united left alternative to Labour means there was no clear answer available.
The European election results demonstrate that the left of Labour vote was small, fragmented and dispersed.
The Greens did not make significant gains either. The mass of Labour voters simply did not vote. We cannot afford a repeat of that.
The SWP is all too aware of the differences and difficulties involved in constructing such an alternative.
We do not believe we have all the answers or a perfect prescription for a left wing alternative.
But we do believe we have to urgently start a debate and begin planning to come together to offer such an alternative at the next election, with the awareness that Gordon Brown might not survive his full term.
One simple step would be to convene a conference of all those committed to presenting candidates representing working class interests at the next election.
The SWP is prepared to help initiate such a gathering and to commit its forces to such a project.
We look forward to your response.
For more information or to show your support, email: openletter@swp.org.uk
Unite against Fascism Mass Lobby
PICKET THE NAZI
KEEP THE NAZIS OUT OF HERTS
The Nazi British National Party (BNP) has won a seat on Hertfordshire County Council.
Nazi BNP candidate Deirdre "Eva" Gates took the Labour seat of South Oxhey with 29% of the vote, beating Labour by 27 votes. This is the Nazi BNP's one & only Herts County Council seat BUT it is one too many.
Now is the time for anti-fascists & anti-racists everywhere to stand together and proclaim loudly & clearly:
The BNP is not a normal party.
The BNP is a Nazi party. They can be isolated. They must be stopped.
This requires the widest possible support from all sections of society. This means trade unions, faith groups, community activists & all those who reject the politics of hate.
Please be there next Tuesday morning with your families, workmates & friends. Bring your whistles, drums, banners & placards - let's make this protest as loud & as vibrant as possible.
10am, Tuesday 16 June
Council Chamber
County Hall
Pegs Lane
Hertford SG13 8DQ - map here
See the BBC interview with UAF after the protest at BNP leader Griffin's press conference.
New video produced by Love Music Hate Racism, about what the British music scene would look like without black, asian, and immigrant influences. Watch it, spread it, and get out campaigning against the BNP.
UAF North London is holding the first of our live music events in Palmers Green. The open mic night is taking place on 15th May at 8 pm in the The Fox.
The gig is one element of our campaign to raise awareness in the local community about the rising threat posed by the BNP, with a particluar focus on the upcoming European elections.
Please come along and support this worthy cause, oh the people already confirmed to play are awesome and the pub is cool and sells cheap booze, so no excuse really?
For further information, or if you would like to get invovled in our campaign please contact us:
uafnorthlondon@gmail.com or call 07794690091
I encourage comrades reading this to get involved with building UAF in north London to stop the fascists from organising.
Contact UAFNorthLondon@gmail.com for more details on how to get involved.
Hello comrades,
The membership of the G-20 comprises:These are the people that decide the fate of billions of workers around the world, and they are almost without exception the same people that are responsible for the current crisis.
We know what their response to the crisis will be: more attacks on workers, more assaults on public spending and public services and pouring yet more public money into the coffers of the capitalists who got us here.
It is more important than ever that we build a mass protest movement on the level of the 1999 Seattle protests, to fight for the rights of workers and ordinary people. We are the ones with power in this society, and we can make them pay for the damage that they have done, and intend to do. The only way to do this is to appeal to radical organisations, trade unions and workers both nationally and internationally to come together in a constructive way.
I believe that now is the time to begin thinking about this issue, and coming up with creative ways to engage with people, and move the debate forward.
Millions of working people across Britain are fearful and angry at the mounting economic crisis. Manufacturing industry is now shedding jobs at a rate of 30,000 a month. Now this fear and anger has exploded into unofficial strike action with thousands of workers in oil refineries and power plants walking out.
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