Solidarity 168, 5 March 2010

AWL member Chris Marks is Vice President (Education) at Hull University Union and northern co-convenor of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts. At this year’s NUS conference (Newcastle, 13-15 April) he will be standing for President. He told us why. There are now anti-cuts campaigns appearing around the country – a real grass-roots student movement. That’s what made the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts possible. NUS, predictably, is doing nothing to support this development. Forget about free education - it doesn’t even oppose cuts, really. The leadership’s motions to NUS...

The press, including the left press, has rightly been full of reports of workers and service—users across the public sector beginning to feel the bite of cuts, but in the higher education sector at least we're happy to be able to bring some news of activists forcing bosses to feel the bite of our resistance to their cuts. The sector is faced with billions of pounds of cuts, which the University and College Union (UCU) estimates could lead to the massacre of tens of thousands of jobs. Grassroots campaigns against cuts have been springing up all over the country, many looking to coordinate with...

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), the Scottish teachers’ union, has called a march and rally in Glasgow on Saturday 6 March under the slogans “Why Must Our Children Pay? Invest in Their Education!” Like other services in the public sector, education in Scotland is threatened with major cuts in spending as the Westminster government attempts to make public sector workers and public services consumers pick up the tab for bailing out the banks. There are already 2,500 fewer teachers in classrooms than there were just two years ago. The number of teaching support staff has also been cut...

A second 24-hour strike by around 550 First ScotRail guards, drivers and sleeper-train managers took play on 1 March. The workers oppose company’s plans to run driver-only trains on the new Airdrie-Bathgate route, due to open in December. The striking RMT members had voted to back strike action by nearly five to one (“yes”: 379; “no”: 80) on an very high (82%) turnout. The level of support for the strike was the result of an RMT campaign. Members recognised that running trains without guards on this line was going to be the thin end of the wedge. If First ScotRail could get away with it this...

It’s been a long time coming but the National Union of Teachers and the union that represents most primary Heads, the NAHT, have finally agreed to hold a joint ballot to boycott this year’s SATs tests in primary schools in England. The ballot will open on 15 March and close on 16 April with the national executives of both unions meeting soon after to decide whether they have a mandate to proceed. The ballot timetable, the question and the constituency being balloted will be identical for both unions. Members of what in schools is known as the leadership group (Heads, Deputy Heads and Assistant...

A few weeks ago it seemed almost certain that David Cameron’s Tory Party would win the election and win a big enough majority in Parliament to push through a savage programme of cuts and privatisations. Now the polls show the gap between the Tories and Labour is closing. A tiny majority for the Tories or a hung Parliament is widely predicted. We should be careful of extrapolating sweeping conclusions from what the polls indicate about the political mood of millions of people. However some important “facts” about what’s happening in the economy, society and with the political parties are clear...

A general strike which mobilised two million workers brought Greece to a standstill on 24 February as the Greek working class moved into battle against the public spending cuts, wage freeze and other austerity measures by the “social-democratic” PASOK government. The strike led to the cancellation of all flights in and out of the country and the closure of countless public and private sector workplaces. Strikers who joined the mass demonstrations chanted slogans with clear anti-capitalist implications, demanding that the country's bosses and rich should pay for the crisis they created rather...

UPDATE: Strike dates have now been set for Saturday 20 March (for three days) and Saturday 27 March (for four days). In an act which again defies right-wing mythology about workers being passive and unprepared to take action, cabin crew working for British Airways have voted by an overwhelming majority — on a huge turnout — to take strike action against proposed changes to their contract. 81% of workers voted to strike, on a turnout of nearly 80%. This is the second time their union, Unite, has had to run the strike ballot. The first time round the figures were even higher, with over 90% of...

The Lord Ashcroft affair cuts like the sharp beam of a spotlight through the putrid pretences and hypocrisies of British politics. Here is a man of vast wealth who bought himself a peerage. He is paymaster to the Tory Party — to the tune of many tens of millions of pounds. He has bought a shaping influence in the affairs of the Tory Party, and thus on the policies of the Tory Government that may emerge from the 2010 General Election. He is pouring money into key marginal constituencies and thus he is a major force in determining the outcome of the General Election — of which party will govern...

Bob Carnegie, the MUA [Maritime Union of Australia] activist recently removed from a Chevron gas rig operating offshore from Western Australia, spoke to Workers' Liberty about the need for a union campaign against "no-fly" lists operated by companies like Chevron. Click here for the coverage of this issue by the Sydney-based rank-and-file MUA "Vigilance Bulletin" Q. The recent case of you being removed from work on the Ensco 7500 gas exploration rig, hired by Chevron and operating offshore from Western Australia, raises a lot of questions beyond the obvious one of your livelihood. What do you...