Solidarity 174, 27 May 2010

Building a real rank-and-file movement in UNISON

Members of the public sector union Unison should be at the forefront of a fightback against the cuts. That’s the message being put forward by Paul Holmes who is standing for the general secretary election (running until 11 June) against Dave Prentis. But Unison under Prentis is not “fit for purpose” — undemocratic, passive in the face of massive attacks. Todd Hamer describes the state of the union and the kind of campaign the activist left needs to change the union’s culture. With 1.3 million members Unison will be the lynchpin of any defence of public services. But it is a union that is...

Journalists against the anti-union laws

On 19 May, journalists at Johnston Press became the latest workers to fall victim of a High Court injunction against planned strike action, on the basis of ballot discrepancies. Bizarrely Johnston Press, which owns many titles across the UK including the Sheffield Star , managed to convince the court that it employs no journalists, and that to be lawful industrial action needs to be balloted for against each individual subsidiary company. This despite company literature proclaiming that it employs 1,900. Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said: “Johnston Press management’s claim that...

Adult education under threat in Lewisham

Community Education Lewisham has been the target of annual cuts under a restructure which has been affecting learners and staff for at least five or six years. Now there has been an announcement of cuts to the ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) courses of around 30% for the 2010/11 academic year. CEL have recently announced a “proposal” to close all crèches run by CEL and set their own limit on the “consultation” period of three weeks. But it is obvious that management have long had this plan in the pipeline and are now repeating the mantra of enforced cuts due to forces outside...

Trades Councils national conference

At this year’s Trades Councils conference there were around 70 councils represented. There are now 157 Trades councils and 23 County associations which is an increase of 31 from the previous year... It was quite a left-wing conference but also quite old. There were three people under 40, a dozen 40-50, and all the rest... We opposed the idea of “promoting the Morning Star as our daily paper” and tackled those who thought that Europe was to blame for attacks on the working class. One delegates made a speech about how “all this [cuts, etc] is coming from Europe”, and reiterated it in a later...

Jersey: fighting for workers' rights and democracy

On the back of the hugely successful result on the ballot for industrial action by teachers on Jersey against pay freezes and cuts, the workers’ committee in Jersey last week began to move towards realisation of its own independence and the importance of now linking the industrial with the political. Heavily dominated by Unite and its affiliates, the committee remained resolute in its determination to grow as a body that would welcome all unions on the island to its ranks. Rather than being subsumed by the defunct Trades Council, it decided to co-opt the Trades Council and the benefits that...

Student unions: "remould a rank-and-file student movement"

This year a number of socialists, including supporters of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, have been elected as full-time student union sabbatical officers. Below is an interview with one of them, Michael Chessum, who is a non-aligned socialist, an NCAFC supporter and Vice-President Education-elect at University College London Union. What’s your political background? I’ve been politically conscious since forever — my parents were Marxists in the 70s, my dad later a left Labour parliamentary candidate — but only got active from university onwards. I’ve always been consciously...

Middlesex University: defend the student and worker occupiers!

Four students and three lecturers have been suspended by Middlesex University management, in retaliation for the 12-day occupation of the philosophy faculty by students and staff in early May. On 4 May, students and staff took over the philosophy faculty at Middlesex to protest against its closure, and after management had failed to show up to a meeting with students at which they had promised to “explain” the cuts. Over the next 12 days, the campaign against the closure grew, drawing in messages of support from academics and trade unionists all over the world. The occupied building was used...

Student fees: take the fight to the government

The election of the Lib-Con government has given bosses in the education sector a renewed enthusiasm for further marketisation and profiteering of universities. Universities UK, the university bosses’ organisation has published a statement in which it said that, while it favours tuition fees remaining “regulated”, it “envisages a... future in which [the] upper limit is appreciably higher than its current level”. The current cap on fees is set at just over £3,000, and students can expect to graduate with over £15,000 of debt when accommodation and living costs are taken into account. UUK's...

British Telecom: our first strike

At this year’s Communication Workers Union (CWU) Conference, BT workers announced a ballot on strike action over pay... for the first time in 23 years! This is as a consequence of a collapse in negotiations on the issue (due for resolution on 1 April). BT had offered a below inflation pay increase of 2%, a breaking of the link with pensionable pay, and a performance related element. All this issues are “show stoppers” for the union. BT management appear emboldened by the recent General Election result. When their annual profits were announced (£5.78 billion, up by 6%) there was no move in...

Debates on the French left

AWL ran a stall at the annual fete of the French revolutionary socialist group Lutte Ouvriere on 22-24 May. This event, drawing about 20,000 people each year to an open-air site near Paris, is one of the biggest events of the French left. This year it also benefited from unbroken sunshine. It is a gathering of the international left: LO provides a stall free to any revolutionary socialist group willing to run one, though the number of such groups with sufficient energy to turn up has dwindled sadly in recent years. This year, for example, AWL people were able to meet and discuss with activists...

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