u nityC o m munist Party T U C d a i l y

Kevin Halpin

F a c t o ry closures and thee x p o rt of jobs continue apace.Not because firms are in thered – far from it. No, thec l o s u res are becausetransnational corporations arealways engaged in a re l e n t l e s sdrive to maximise profit. Theyseek to cut costs, employcheaper labour, spend less onhealth and safety and other‘ o v e rhead’ expenses.

At the same time, Cityfinancial institutions exporthuge amounts of capitaloverseas to invest in pro p e rt yspeculation, oil, banking,retailing, cheap raw materialsand sweated labour.

British governments c o u l dtake measures against the de-industrialisation of Britain andthe super-exploitation ofworkers overseas.

For example, if Peugeottransfers production fro mRyton to eastern Europe and

then exports cars to Britain,the company should facep rohibitive levies and taxes.Another option would be tof reeze the export of its pro f i t sf rom Britain, leaving itscapital to lie dormant – for bigbusiness this is a crime!

But this is only part of thesolution. Govern m e n ti n t e rvention is needed to takeover viable enterprises whichg reedy employers want to cutor close altogether. Publicmoney should always bematched by a public stake.

These are just some of thepolicies put forw a rd by theCommunist Party in the L e f t -Wing Pro g r a m m e .

It should not be forg o t t e nthat after capitalist ownershad bled the ship-building,motor car and airc r a f tindustries dry in the 1960s, itwas a Labour govern m e n twhich had to take thesestrategic industries into publicownership in the 1970s. They

w e re put back to work after amassive infusion of publiccapital – only for the Tories tosell them at knock-downprices. Coal and rail industrieswould have to shut downt o m o rrow if the govern m e n t ’smassive subsidies werewithdrawn. Large sectors ofthe armaments andc o n s t ruction industries wouldcollapse if they were n ’tguaranteed fat profits bypublic sector contracts.

Yet New Labour and theCBI have the nerve to lecturetrade unions and public sectorworkers about the so-called‘independent’ and ‘wealth-c reating’ private sector!

The Amicus and TGWUcall for a boycott of Peugeotp roducts is a step in the rightd i rection. Why should workerse v e ry w h e re not hit back whentheir jobs, livelihood andcommunities are thre a t e n e d ?

When some on the ultra-leftaccuse unions of jingoism,

they are standingi n t e rnationalism on its head.Allowing the transnationals todrive down wages andconditions pre p a res theg round for non-unionism.

Despite weaknesses, Britishtrade unionism can take pridein its intern a t i o n a l i s m ,especially in the oldestimperialist country of all. Theunion-led campaign to pro t e c tand unionise migrant workersh e re is a credit to our labourmovement, standing in sharpcontrast to the New Labourg o v e rn m e n t ’s shameful scape-goating of immigrants, asylumseekers and re f u g e e s .

Our capacity fori n t e rnationalist actionweakens every time aunionised workplace is shutand work is transferred tonon-union or super- e x p l o i t e dl a b o u r.

Kevin Halpin is industri a l

o rganiser of the Communist Pa rt y

Wednesday 13 September 2006

Action needed to save jobs and manufa c t u r i n g

unity TUC Communist Party daily Wednesday 13 September2

Geoff Bottoms

While five Cuban politicalprisoners remain in US jailsfollowing the recent re j e c t i o nof their latest appeal by theC o u rt of Appeals in Atlanta,the Bush administration hasreleased a second re p o rt fro mthe so-called Commission forAssistance to a Free Cuba.

The re p o rt re i n f o rces thea d m i n i s t r a t i o n ’s aggre s s i v eannexationist plans for thesocialist island and tightens itsillegal blockade. Unashamedlycommitted to the idea ofillegal regime change in Cubafollowing the death of FidelC a s t ro, the commission callsfor $80 million (about £45m)in spending over the next twoyears to fund 'oppositiong roups' in Cuba, a pro p a g a n d ao ffensive to break 'the Castrore g i m e ’s inform a t i o nblockade', and support fori n t e rnational eff o rts to assistU.S. corporations and theirc ronies in a bid to re - c o l o n i s ethe island.

T h e re has already beena g g ressive lobbying of theBritish and Euro p e a ng o v e rnments by the USg o v e rn m e n t .

The most disturbingelement of the re p o rt is theinclusion of a sinister secre t

appendix that re m a i n sclassified in the interests ofnational security. In fact, there p o rt is written in a way thatwould gladden the hearts ofindividuals like Orlando Boschand Luis Posada Carriles, whohave been called the Osamabin Ladens of the We s t e rnH e m i s p h e re and enjoy USp rotection as a re w a rd fortheir terrorist activities againstCuba.

It is in this hostile climatethat Cuban intelligence agentsG e r a rdo Hernandez, RamonLabanino, Antonio Guerre ro ,F e rnando Gonzalez and ReneGonzalez (the 'Miami Five')remain unjustly imprisoned inthe US for collectingi n f o rmation on Miami-basedt e rrorists responsible form u rdering 3,500 Cubans andinjuring a further 2,000.

An International Month ofAction from September 12 toOctober 6 is set to highlightthe hypocrisy of the case. Allof us who believe that anotherworld is necessary shoulddemonstrate our solidaritywith these true fightersagainst terrorism and itscauses. Geoff Bottoms, is the coordinator

of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s

Wo rking Group to Free the

Miami Five.

Unity in solidarity

R o b e rt Gri f fi t h s

Ve n e z u e l a ’s ‘ B o l i v a rian revo l u t i o n ’ is using that country ’s vast oilwealth to benefit the poorest and most downtrodden sections ofthe people.

Almost all children of pri m a ry school age now receive full-timeeducation and – as the result of a new programme - the poorestalso receive free school meals.Venezuela is now one of the mostl i t e rate societies in the A m e ri c a s , with the gove rnment struggling tomeet the rocketing demand for books of eve ry kind.

Four thousand health clinics have recently been opened across ac o u n t ry where, until recently, the rich monopolised the doctors andh o s p i t a l s . In addition, there are the thousands of neighbourhoodmedical units established in the wo rking class barri o s , s t a f fed by14,000 Cuban doctors who live among the poor. Although theyh ave now been joined by 6,000 Venezuelan medical staff, the vastm a j o rity of home-produced physicians prefer more lucra t i vep ractice among the the ri c h .

M a ny more women are entering a variety of professions as thestate wages a major campaign against domestic violence.Ve n e z u e l a ’s indigenous peoples are beginning to benefit from landr e fo rm and for the fi rst time have elected representatives in thec o u n t ry ’s National A s s e m bly.

N ow 4,000 citizen‘s asemblies are being elected in a huge dri veto develop a genuine people-based mass democra c y. And all thisis being achieved as Venezuela not only maintains its independencefrom IMF and Wo rld Bank neo-liberal ‘ a d j u s t m e n t ’ p o l i c i e s , but isra l lying other Latin A m e rican countries to the Bolivarian patri o t i c,i n t e rnationalist and progressive altern a t i ve.

No wonder US President Bush and his ‘ n e o - c o n s ’ are furi o u s .Their creatures in Caracas – the plundering oligarchs – in have lostpolitical and military power and their grip on the all-important stateoil corp o ra t i o n . This is why the US and its counter- r e vo l u t i o n a ry‘ fifth column’ are going all out to try to discredit the presidentialelections set for 3 December.

President Chavez and now the gove rning coalition of hisM ovement for the Fifth Republ i c, s o c i a l - d e m o c ra t s , l i b e rals andC o m munists have won six elections since 1998.The US-backe dm i l i t a ry coup of A p ril 2002 – so enthusiastically welcomed by failedB ritish foreign minister Denis McShane – was trounced by ‘ p e o p l ep owe r ’ .

It is vital that the T U C, t rades unions and other progressiveo rganisations send observe rs to Venezuela during the fo rt h c o m i n ge l e c t i o n , to witness a process that could only be an improve m e n ton presidential elections in the US.

In a climate of orchestrated hostility to Chavez and the Bolivari a nr e vo l u t i o n , it is also vital that solidarity wo rk is stepped up inB ri t a i n . If a wide and dive rse alliance for the revolution can be bu i l tinside Venezuela itself, it should be possible to develop greater unityon a pri n c i p l e d , n o n - s e c t a rian basis among its support e rs ove rh e r e.

That is why the proposals from the NUJ at this ye a r ’s T U Cd e s e rve support , in the interests of the peoples of Venezuela andLatin A m e ri c a .

R o b e rt Griffiths is general secretary of the Communist Pa rty and

recently returned from the congress of the Communist Pa rty of

Venezuela

Solidarity with the Miami Five

Wednesday 13 September 2006 TUC Communist Party daily unity 3Andy Bain

A year ago in Brighton, theTUC celebrated thewinning at the pre v i o u sy e a r’s Labour Part yc o n f e rence of a policycommittment to ‘re t u rn therailways to publicownership’. We re g re t t e dthe re t u rn of SouthE a s t e rn Trains to theprivate sector and wepraised transport ande m e rgency workers for‘demonstrating high levelsof pro f e s s i o n a l i s m ,compassion andcommitment’ anddemanded no reduction ins t a ffing levels.

We have got used to thefact that with a NewLabour government thingsd o n ’t get better unless weput up a fight, and theissues concerning the TUCthis year are little diff e re n tf rom last.

The rail unions are stillcampaigning for publicownership and they haveworked sometimes inconjunction, sometimess e p a r a t e l y. The TSSAconducted intern a lconsultation to try to putsome details on how and inwhat priority the manysectors of the industryshould be taken from theprivateers. The union’smotion submitted to thisy e a r’s congress states that‘a publicly owned andaccountable railway shouldbegin with the passengertrain operating companies’.This is a good start i n gpoint and joint uniondiscussions could considerf u rther demands andd e t a i l s .

The RMT is leading acampaign to retain theLondon Underg round EastLondon Line in the publicsector and not befranchised like the ex-BR

lines. The South EasternTrains battle was lost, butthis time the unions arecalling on the LondonMayor to do the rightt h i n g .

‘… it is import a n t

t h at the three ra i l

unions unite, put their

d i f fe rences behind

t h e m ’

Despite government andemployer praise forworkers reacting to theJuly 2005 bombings, therail industry is reluctant tocollectively engage withthe unions on securityissues. A trained, tru s t e d

and well-treated workforc ewould be to the benefit ofpassenger and publics e c u r i t y.

Other issues to the foreat this year’s congress arenothing new. ASLEFcontinues to push thee n v i ronmental arg u m e n t sfor investment in rail,especially for rail to ro a dand port hubs.

The rail industrypensions campaign,initially in reaction tot h reats of incre a s e dcontributions, started withfull unity between theunions in the industry. Theeventual strike ballot ofRMT and TSSA members

on the rail industrypension scheme led to thesetting up of a pensionscommission. This stru g g l eis not over, and it isi m p o rtant that the thre erail unions unite, put theird i ff e rences behind themand maximise theirinfluence. Losing thepensions battle now wouldbe a terrible loss foryounger rail workers andthose of the future.

C o o rdination of actionsin the many pensionss t ruggles will stre n g t h e nthe situation for all of us inthis crucial politicalc o n f l i c t .Andy Bain is TSSA president

J e rry Jones

Several motions at this year’s

TUC highlight the disastrous

consequences of the

government’s ‘hands-off ’

attitude towards Britain’s

manufacturing industry, and the

limited resources going into

scientific and technological

research needed for it to

advance.The government

interventions that they

advocate are sound, but need

to go further.

In particular, as the failure of

the government’s ‘let-the-

market-decide’ dogma

becomes increasingly obvious,

the trade union movement

needs to have more confidence

in pushing for more

involvement of the public

sector.

For instance, we should be

pushing for the public takeover

of the abandoned Peugeot

Ryton factory, and – since

chronic overcapacity exists in

the auto industry – convert it

into making something else,

such as buses, which currently

are mostly made by foreign

firms. Once established, the

factory could be turned into a

co-operative owned and

managed by the workers.

Similarly for the HP sauce

factory – allowing such a

quintessentially British product

to go abroad surely speaks

volumes for the contempt the

government has towards British

manufacturing.

Meanwhile, a thriving public

sector research programme

could indeed provide the basis

for public sector investment in

manufacturing to replace those

productive activities that can

more economically be

undertaken elsewhere. But how

would this be financed?

First, controls on capital

flows and on creative

accounting to avoid tax must

be re-introduced to prevent

financial resources created by

Britain’s workers from

disappearing abroad into

offshore tax havens.

And to prevent the

undermining of public

investment in research and new

industries, quotas or tariffs to

control the amounts of

particular products being

imported are needed to

prevent imports destroying

quality jobs in Britain.

Furthermore, new employment

laws are needed that oblige

employers to re-train and re-

deploy workers in new

productive activities to replace

those that are no longer viable,

rather than ditching them when

old skills are no longer

required.

Jerry Jones writes on economic

matters for the Morning Star

Reviving Britain’s manufacturing industry

C o - o rdinated action needed on rails and pensions

£2 post free from the

Communist part y

w w w. c o m m u n i s t - p a rt y. o rg . u k

unity TUC Communist Party daily Wednesday 13 September 4B rian Denny

The discredited proposals fora neo-liberal EU Constitutionshould have extinguished anyillusions among tradeunionists that the euro -federalist project wasdesigned to enhance the livesof workers.

Clause after clausere p resented a blueprint forcorporate capital to tear up allnational laws that impededthe complete free movementof goods, capital, services andlabour within the EU in therelentless pursuit of pro f i t .

The peoples of France andthe Netherlands clearlyrecognised this and re j e c t e dthe constitution inre f e rendums. Delegates toTUC Congress last year alsosaw the dangers and opposedthe constitution, the serv i c e s

d i rective and other privatisingd i rectives.

H o w e v e r, to read theGeneral Council statement onE u rope you might think thereis a new wave of milk, honeyand socialism flowing acro s sthe continent. The statementopenly criticises the decisiontaken by delegates last year!

Attacks on manufacturing,public services and skills arei n c reasing with dire c t i v e sdemanding the sell-off ofpostal services, railways,h e a l t h c a re and educations e rvices, pensions and manyother essential industries.

Existing EU tre a t i e sintensify the assault onworkers and the powers of theunelected Commission andthe unaccountable Euro p e a nC o u rt of Justice result ind i rectives that weaken theposition of trade unions.

The employers andcapitalists want absolutelye v e rything dere g u l a t e d ,including the deregulation ofall national borders andremoval of the right ofE u ropean nation states toc o n t rol who comes into theirc o u n t ry.

In effect this neuters andd e regulates government itself.The objective is to letcapitalism rip where marketf o rces reign without a care forthe social or humanconsequences. The purpose isv e ry simple, to maximise

p rofit by undermining hardwon rights, conditions, decentpay and social pro t e c t i o n .

This reality is having anadverse effect of millions ofworkers every day. It is timethe organised working classacted in defence of theseworkers rather than sleepwalkinto obscurity. That meansopposing European Unionpolicies and diktats fro mB ru s s e l s .

B rian Denny is spokesman fo r

Trade Unions Against the EU

C o n s t i t u t i o n

B e w a re the General Council’s ‘milk and honey’ on the EU

Trade Unionists Against the EU Constitution

The Services Directive and the EU drive against workersToday at 12.30pm Quality Hotel, West Street, BrightonSpeakers include: Swedish trade unionist in the Va x h o l mcase, Socialist MEP, Jane Carolan UNISON, Bob Cro wRMT Refreshments provided

Pauline Fra s e r

I s raeli violations of the

lebanon ceasefi r e c o n t i nue and

I s rael continues its offe n s i ve

against the Palestinian people

in Gaza, where recently m o r e

than 200 people have died.

There must be an arm s

e m b a rgo on Isra e l . O u r

g ove rn m e n t ’s complicity in

a l l owing US arms – including

anti-civilian cluster bombs – to

be tra n s p o rted from airp o rt s

in Britain must be condemned.

I s raeli troops must be

w i t h d rawn from the occupied

t e rri t o ries to allow meaningful

negotiations with the elected

g ove rnment of Pa l e s t i n e. A

b oycott of Israeli goods adds

pressure on the Isra e l i

G ove rnment to enter into

n e g o t i a t i o n s .These must aim

to create a viable Pa l e s t i n i a n

state and include the right of

r e t u rn for all Pa l e s t i n i a n

r e f u g e e s , the dismantling of

the apartheid wall and roads.

I s rael holds over 10,000

Palestinian pri s o n e rs , i n c l u d i n g

122 women and 400 children

under 16.There can be no

case for holding minors , w h i c h

violates the UN Declara t i o n

on the Rights of the Child.

B ritish trade unionists can

g i ve backing to the 80,000

Palestinian publ i c - s e c t o r

wo rke rs who are taking stri ke

action to demand their

s a l a ri e s , which have not been

paid since March.The pressure

on MPs and MEPs must be

i n t e n s i fied for the EU to

release funds to the Pa l e s t i n i a n

A u t h o rity to pay their wages –

including back pay – and to

alleviate the food crisis in

G a z a , n ow affecting 70 per

cent of the population.

While the population of

Gaza is being starve d , I s ra e l

e n j oys a preferential tra d e

agreement with the EU.T h i s

agreement should be ended.

The Fire Brigades' Union is

to be congratulated for ra i s i n g

these demands at this T U C.

As well as ensuring that the

TUC has a clear and

p r o g r e s s i ve policy on this

i s s u e, all unions should affi l i a t e

to the Palestine Solidari t y

C a m p a i g n . This summer the

PSC supported the two

national demonstra t i o n s

against the war in Lebanon

and for the rights of the

Palestinian people, i n i t i a t i n g

four other events in protest at

I s raeli war cri m e s .

A rsenal support e rscan call

on the club to ditch its

s p o n s o rship deal with the

I s raeli Ministry of To u ri s m .

While A rsenal is promoting

‘fun in the sun’ h o l i d ays in

I s ra e l , the ludicrously - n a m e d

‘ I s raeli Defence Force’ h a s

been busy massacri n g

Palestinian families on the

beach in Gaza.

w w w. p a l e s t i n e c a m p a i g n . o rg

Defend the rights ofthe Palestinian p e o p l e