Over the last week I have been out there speaking at various meetings including Saturday's Morning Star successful conference on "Politics After Blair,", the standing room only "Public Services Not Private Profit" Campaign meeting and the Broad Left fringe meeting at Unison conference, last night's RMT Cuba Solidarity night and today's packed RMT seminar in Parliament on the future of the railways.
What they all had in common was that they reflected the issues and concerns of people living in the real world. At Unison conference the real world means the next wave of privatisation of its members' jobs and this year's pay cut. For the RMT the real world means demonstrating solidarity with the people of Cuba in preventing the US blockade undermining their economy and also for RMT's rail workers the real world means dealing with the chaotic consequences of a privatised railway.
Representatives from PCS spoke at the Unison meetings and explained that the real world for their members meant 100,000 job cuts, a wage round of pay cuts, a continuous process of new privatisations and now the introduction of local pay rates linked to local labour market conditions.
Has the real world permeated into Gordon Brown's speeches at the Labour party hustings or into the Deputy Leadership statements for that matter? In Brown's case of course not. With the Deputy Leader candidates, some real world issues have been raised but it is difficult to take seriously any of them as they have all for last ten years been supporting the very New Labour policies which have privatised services, cuts jobs and undermined wages and conditions in the public sector. I have to say that I smile at the greatest irony which is to listen to the deputy leadership candidates pronounce on the vital need for restoring democracy to the party when they all refused to nominate to allow a democratic leadership election and some actively intervened to prevent nominations securing a leadership election.
Over the coming weeks and months Labour MPs, the media and many others will be falling over themselves to celebrate the glorious first 100 days of the new Prime Minister. However in time the real world will innevitably intrude. For Unison members, no matter how hard the Unison leadership seeks to prevent it, Unison members will want to take action to protect their jobs and living standards. PCS members with the full backing of their union's leadership have already recognised that there is no other way but to stand up and fight. CWU members have clearly taken the same view.
Each of these campaigns deserve our fullest support and I will do all I can to back these trade unionists whether in Parliament or on the picket line. Each campaign could be strengthened greatly if action was co-ordinated across the disputes to maximise their impact and to secure an early settlement.
The secret discovered by the first trade unionists was that their strength came through solidarity. At a time when Gordon Brown has put the whole of the welfare state under threat of privatisation and pay cuts there is no more important time to remember the lesson of solidarity.
7 Comments:
regarding the privitisation that's constantly going on, isn't it time that we started taking the struggle to the very people who are taking the jobs?
IMHO, the Unions need to start publicising the companies and so-called charities that are taking member's jobs and begin lobbying them not to do this. We need to be engaging with their unions and seeking solidarity from them, and boycotting the companies and charities that seek to ruin the lives of those whose jobs they will steal...
Brown is now going beyond what anyone (even his own supporters) would have predicted and planning to appoint non-Labour people to his Cabinet. Meanwhile, outside the Westminster bubble, we must do all we can to support trade union campaigns against the cuts and privatisation which is bound to continue under a leadership which now looks like being to the right of Blair.
Re the Deputy leadership: last night went to meeting @ local Labour Club to find entire BOX of DL ballot papers ( about 1,000) unopened, unposted.
An irony which, despite it all, did make me laugh. Turned out the Trades Club committee couldn't be bothered to send out the papers as they didn't like any of the candidates. Says it all.
I am absolutely disgusting that Brown is courting the Liberal Democrats and inviting them to take up cabinet positions, while denying anyone on the left of the party the opportunity. What a sell-out! It's fine to have a coalition when no party has an overall majority, but Brown clearly wants to sideline members and bolster his position by co-opting members of the opposition in order to railroad legislation through. However, a coalition with the LibDems would not be a comfortable situation and, in fact, could lead to the repeal of some Blairite policies as happened in Scotland. But this is all irrelevant; Brown is prepared to marginalise the grass-roots by secret deals with the Liberal Democrats, who are the main opposition in northern towns. Absolutely disgusting.
There are so many goals the left could be taking pot shots at if it became more cohesive, etc, just look at this in the Daily Mail. If Dm readers are getting angry about the superich, why aren't we, instead on Browns coronation day, there is yet another Stop the War demo!
85% of Britain's super rich don't pay income tax
Loophole costs Britain £2billion a year
Last updated at 14:58pm on 21st June 2007
Comments Comments (43)
Only a fraction of Britain's super rich are paying income tax new figures reveal today.
At least 400 UK-based individuals earn, or are capable of making, £10 million a year.
But 335 (85 per cent) didn't pay income tax, according to the latest returns obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Evening Standard newspaper. The rest use a battery of sophisticated but legal techniques to avoid paying.
It is not known exactly how much money is being lost to the taxpayer in this way but analysis by the suggests it could be as much as £2billion a year.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=463252&in_page_id=1770&in_page_id=1770&ct=5&expand=true#StartComments
the fact that Gordon Brown want's to bring in libdems to the cabinet says loads about the 'yes men/women' that are in the cabinet already! what's next? Norman Tebit as chancellor??
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