Solidarity 043, 9 January 2004

PCS plans strikes on 29/-30 January

In the recent ballot in our union, the PCS, ballot we saw huge majorities (around 92%) voting for the principle of a national pay claim for 2004 and to defend existing pension rights. The ballot turn-out was unfortunately low (just over 21%). The idea of the national claim is that although devolved bargaining will still take place in the civil service's 172 bargaining units, in 2004 the union will lodge the national claim in each and every area. The pay claim is to be lodged on the same day and this will probably be 1 April. Our claim is likely to be high to take into account the fact that...

First victory in effort to reclaim FBU

Paul Woolstenholmes has won the election for National Officer in the FBU. He got 52% of the vote in a three-way contest with the previous National Officer, Mike Lawson, and Bob Pounder. Lawson played a leading role in the conduct of the year-long FBU fight for a living wage which collapsed toward the end of last year in return for a 3.5% pay rise. This result is widely seen as a victory for those who wanted the fight to be continued and fought with more militancy. Woolstenholmes, from Suffolk, has been a leading critic of the agreements made between the FBU officials and the employers, and has...

Left wins in Amicus

The left slate has won 23 of the 48 places on the executive of Amicus, the union formed by merging AEEU and MSF. The new executive took office on 1 January. According to Amicus insiders, most likely is the development of a 'centre-left' majority in the executive working closely with new general secretary Derek Simpson. But it will be spurred on by a harder left minority within the executive and represents progress over the old right-wing regimes in AEEU and MSF.

Postal offer on pay and Major Change - Vote no to this shameful deal

By a London postal worker After talks at the arbitration service ACAS, the postal workers' union, the CWU, have finally cut a deal with management on pay and "Major Change". Members were kept in the dark about this for weeks. Now we can see why… it's a complete sell-out! What have our main negotiator Dave Ward and his team managed to achieve? The so-called £26 per week increase we get in return for implementing "Major Change" and achieving Royal Mail targets includes up to £5 from existing bonuses and supplements. The delivery targets are based on "the unit manager's assessment of a 3.5 hour...

East London line to be privatised - Stop this sell-off in its tracks!

By Janine Booth, President, Hackney Trade Union Council, RMT London Underground London Underground plans to hand over the East London Line to a private Train Operating Company. Even though railway privatisation is one of the least popular policies ever, it is to be inflicted on us again - unless we fight to stop it. The line currently runs from New Cross to Shoreditch, but for years there has been a plan to extend it both northwards through Hackney and southwards to Croydon. That plan has been repeatedly held up. First it took a back seat to the Jubilee Line Extension, because projects linking...

Israel Public sector strikes end in "disgraceful deal"

By David Merhav in Haifa After long months of bitter fights over the austerity plan of Israel's Finance Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Histadrut (the Israeli TUC), Amir Peretz MP, reached an agreement that will end the public-sector labor actions of the last three months. Many Israeli trade unionists who wanted a determined struggle and victory were disappointed with the "disgraceful deal with the capitalists". The Israeli daily Haaretz reported, "Netanyahu said the government will continue to cut the fat off the public sector while taking into consideration the needs of the...

How Farce Became Tragedy: 'Permanent Way'

a new play by David Hare I saw this play about rail privatisation at Sheffield's Trades and Labour Club. It was refreshing to see a national theatre production taken out to an alternative venue. But I'm not sure how many of the audience on the night wouldn't have made it to the local theatre - a few maybe. Permanent Way explores the scandal of rail privatisation. It is based on a series of interviews with individuals involved - civil servants, managers, politicians, and most powerfully, those injured and bereaved in the post privatisation rail disasters. Characters talk directly to the...

Big Read: BBC

My mother recently confessed she looked forward to getting old so she could have more time to read. After bringing up nine children and a lifetime of underpaid care work (she still volunteers, looking after "old people" often younger than herself), that may seem scant reward. But it brought home to me just how imaginative literature can immeasurably increase the pleasure and quality of even materially impoverished life. Socialists are unquestionably in favour of literacy. Like clean water, it forms the basic hygiene of intellectual freedom. But we rarely celebrate its pleasures. It's as if...

Autonomist Marxism: three themes, three critiques

A critical survey of "autonomist" Marxism, from its origins in Italian "operaismo" in the 1960s through to the writings today of Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt. Other material on this site: Review of Negri and Hardt's "Empire" Autonomism, workerism, and Trotskyism in Italy ; Review of Steve Wright's book on the history of autonomism in the 1960s and 70s . On other sites: A compact summary of autonomism, in the form of an interview with the American autonomist Harry Cleaver by Massimo De Angelis: www.eco.utexas.edu/Homepages/facstaff/Cleaver/InterviewwithHarryCleaver… . Mario Tronti's...

Storming heaven: class composition and struggle in Italian autonomist Marxism

Martin Thomas reviews Storming Heaven: class composition and struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism, by Steve Wright. Pluto Press. "Autonomist" Marxism is influential in the new anti-capitalist generation. Quite what it means is hard to tell from its best-selling books, like Toni Negri and Michael Hardt's Empire , or even the practice of its avowed partisans, like Italy's Disobedienti. Steve Wright's book Storming Heaven: class composition and struggle in Italian Autonomist Marxism (Pluto Press) - readable, critical, but sympathetic - is much more down to earth, tracing the origins of...

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