Solidarity 151, 14 May 2009

Workers’ politics — to fight the bigger looters

The mass outrage against the politicians that has come with the publication of the details of their petty greed in claiming expenses is fully justified. Such reports as that: • A Tory MP charged it to his expenses when he got the moat around his big house cleaned; • Another Tory grandee drew expenses for having a crystal chandelier installed; • Yet another billed the Commons paymaster for the cost of having his lightbulbs replaced; • Many MPs (minister Hazel Blears among them) have had a lucrative line in claiming for “second homes”, decorating them, selling them, then buying another...

When French fascists seized on parliamentary scandal

In the France of 1934, similarly gripped by a world financial crisis, a scandal with some similarities to today’s — the exposure of the links of several Radical deputies to the embezzler Alexandre Stavisky — led to the resignation of the then Prime Minister Camille Chautemps on 30 January. The growing far-right of French politics mobilised massive support for a demagogic campaign against parliamentary corruption. There was a huge fascist demonstration on 6 February 1934. It led to the resignation of Edouard Daladier (who had replaced Chautemps), in favour of the more conservative Gaston...

Union News in Brief, UNITE, PCS, CWU and NUT

UNITE:  You might think the leaders of a union whose members occupied the Visteon factories and took wildcat strike action in engineering construction would be pre-occupied with struggle. Yet Derek Simpson, joint General Secretary of Unite and his supporters seem to spend much timein an unedifying turf war. The most telling part of this tussle was the leaking of details about Simpson obscene pay and perks to the bourgeois media. The red-faced Gen Sec responded not by giving up his bosses’ lifestyle but by starting a hunt for the leakers. Kevin Coyne, a candidate in the recent Joint General...

Higher Education: Build for strike on pay and job cuts

Lecturers at two thirds of higher education institutions face the real threat of losing their jobs. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has said that 100 institutions are planning collective redundancies. While most of these 100 institutions have yet to go public, Liverpool University has announced eight of its forty five departments risk closure, Thames Valley has proposed shutting completely one of its four campuses, and one in four staff at London Metropolitan University face the sack. Reduced student funding in the area of health means nursing and health profession...

Visteon: Gains won, but pickets continue

Visteon workers who occupied or picketed their plants when they were sacked without notice on 31 March have won an important victory. Many of the workers at the three plants in Basildon, Belfast and Enfield had been on Ford mirror contracts, since the company was spun off from Ford in 2000, but when Visteon UK went into receivership the company claimed it did not need to honour the contracts, even though the international company is still solvent. Ford also tried to wash their hands of the affair, although the fortunes of Visteon remain heavily tied to those of Ford — and vice versa. Yet, in a...

Fight the cuts!

A survey of 129 council leaders by the Local Government Association shows that half the councils in England have axed jobs in the last few months and seven in ten anticipate further redundancies. In the south-west, 67% of councils have already made cuts in staff; in the the south-east, 57%; and so on down to Yorkshire and Humberside (37%). In some areas, councils are the largest employer, and across the UK they employ 2.2 million workers. Cuts in jobs mean cuts in services — at a time when the economic crisis means an increase in the need for housing benefit, council housing, debt advice...

Council tries to bully workers into silence

Members of Unison employed by Wirral council have been threatened with immediate suspension if they express their opposition to council cuts and job losses publicly. Councillor Steve Foulkes has said that their treatment of staff iss reasonable as: “The council couldn’t have council workers, who are paid by the tax payers, spending 8 or 9 hours a day politically campaigning against the council.” Teachers who have links with the local libraries and who encourage the children to use them have also been threatened with suspension if they publicly support the libraries. Wirral council is planning...

Barnet battles sheltered housing cuts

If there had been a national debate on the fate of sheltered housing for the elderly, the cuts that are happening around the country could never have gone ahead! Why? Because the vast majority of people want to retain sheltered housing and are appalled to learn that it is disappearing. Instead, we are fighting council by council to save sheltered housing, with barely a word about it in the national press. Cuts have gone through in some areas. In some places, notably Brighton and Hove, they have been fended off. In Barnet we are still battling. On Saturday 9 May, at short notice, we organised a...

Ideas For Freedom 2009

The AWL’s annual event will this year focus on the capitalist crisis, and on socialist and working-class responses to it. Friday 10 July: evening film showing and social at the Bread & Roses pub, 68 Clapham Manor Street, London SW4. Will we be showing With Babies and Banners, the story of women's role in the great sit-down strike against General Motors at Flint in 1936. Saturday 11-Sunday 12 July: School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh Street, London WC1H Saturday night social. Cheap food, free creche and accommodation will be provided. Sessions include - How economic crises...

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