Unite Against ConDem Cuts, Build the People’s Charter

Communist Party Fringe Meeting

Wednesday 22nd June, 7pm Friends Meeting House, Mount St M2 5NS

Tommy Morrison (CP Executive), Carolyn Jones (Director Institute of Employment Rights), Bill Greenshields (People’s Charter Commission). Chair: Anita Halpin (CP Trade Union Convenor) Tea & Coffee available before the meeting

Communist Party Public Services Advisory Statement:

Time to take on the common enemy It's over a year since the ConDems came to power and launched their all out, class-based ideological attack on the working class of Britain. The coalition government ,which has no legitimate mandate, is hell-bent on a radical redistribution of power and wealth and a relentless onslaught against public sector workers and the services they deliver. Now is the time for Unison to use its strength and size to organise its members in their workplaces and communities to build the fightback to defend services, jobs, pay, conditions and pensions. The union must be bold and outward looking and united in common purpose to fight the enemy of working women and men. Such unity of purpose can be forged if the NEC takes the lead to win the political arguments and works organisationally from the front and within the structures of the union. Now is not the time to be diverted from this task. In this respect the Communist Party firmly believes that internal disciplinary actions, in any union, to suppress political differences are all too often damaging; undermine confidence in the union’s democracy; deter participation in union activities, and so weaken the ability to protect members’ interests. Unity is strength - that’s not a hollow cliché. And while unions clearly have a responsibility to root out fraud and harassment, Unity is best built by making the case politically rather than using administrative and often disproportionate methods to settle political questions. In our view it’s time to call time on this approach and seek to move forward in unity to fight the common enemy.

Communists @ Unison Conference June 2011

Last year the TUC famously passed a resolution supporting co-ordinated industrial action against the attacks on the public sector and its workers’ jobs, pay and conditions. Despite a slow start, the magnificent turnout on 26 March; the developing anti-cuts alliances, and the actions planned for 30 June by education unions and PCS in defence of their pension schemes show the revulsion felt by the majority of the population at the nature and scale of the attacks. So far, despite campaigns being run by branches up and down the country, including strike action in several, there has been no national move for co-ordinated action amongst our own members, let alone with other public sector unions. The ideological attack on our pension schemes leaves us with no choice but to fight. If the Condems succeed in pushing through the Hutton proposals this will cost our members up to 40% of the value of their pensions – this represents a loss of thousands of pounds on both lump sum and annual pension entitlements. There is no

Cont. on back page

Every aspect of our members’ lives, and all workers’ lives, is under attack. The ConDem government is determined in just four years to do huge and irreversible damage to everything we have won over the last 60 years ; from pay and pensions to jobs and conditions at work; from benefits and support for the most vulnerable to the health and education systems for all. If allowed to get away with it, they will hand all potentially profitable sections of public services to the private sector, and slash and burn the rest. We face a real ‘battle of ideas’ within our own ranks, as well as a trial of strength with the ConDems and the class they represent. Surveys seem to show that, while the overwhelming majority of workers have seen through the government lie that “we are all in this together”, a great many still believe that, given that the ‘free market’ system is in a mess, some cuts are ‘necessary’ – or, at least, inevitable.

The fact is we can’t build a movement against the cuts strong enough to win if we start with many of our own members believing that those cuts are inevitable. That’s why “The People’s Charter” is vitally important. It spells out “The Alternative” that we all marched for on March 26th and offers a positive alternative to the cuts of the neo-liberal economic and political agenda of the main political parties in Britain. We congratulate UNISON on the success to date of its Million Voices campaign, designed to promote support for public services up and down the country and consider that The Peoples Charter compliments this and provides the basis of united activity within and beyond our Trade Union movement on its progressive social platform. The People’s Charter has recently produced a detailed program of taxation policies, industrial and social investment, employment and training programs, renewal energy development, public

ownership, tight private sector regulation etc which identifies “the alternative” that a progressive government could implement. The Charter is endorsed by the TUC and has 15 national unions affiliated to it – though UNISON bizarrely is not one of them… the new NEC will need to put that right. Of course, the ConDems – a government cobbled together out of two failed parties – will never follow such a program. It is a government of millionaires for millionaires, A government which uses the recurrent financial and economic problems of capitalism as a cover to attack workers, while the richest 10% get even richer and more powerful. For as long as they are there, the attacks will continue. We can’t put up with four years of attacks. We need to organise, within our unions and in our communities, to bring them down. The Peoples Charter is a real and achievable alternative- hear more about it at the fringe meeting. www.thepeoplescharter.org

Unity in Action. Cont. from front page financial justification for doing this – for instance the Local Government Pension Scheme has twice as much paid into it as paid out. Therefore this attack represents yet another attempt to get workers in the public sector to pay for an economic crisis caused by the financial disservice industry. There can be no workplace in which Unison organises which hasn’t been affected by the cuts – no workplace where jobs have not been cut, where terms and conditions have not been eroded and where pay has either been frozen (for two years in local government) or has risen well below the rate of inflation. Next year will be worse, with little scope for achieving further job cuts by voluntary means, raising the spectre of mass compulsory redundancies throughout the public sector. We call on Unison at national, regional and branch level to show support and solidarity with public sector workers taking industrial action on 30 June in defence of their pension schemes.

We welcome these co-ordinated actions; they can play a key part in building the momentum towards even wider actions involving both public and private sector workers. Calls to move progressively to a general strike is a clear signal that workers are up for this challenge, which is needed to bring about the collapse of this illegitimate government. The widest possible unity is needed to fight for jobs & defend services, there must be unity against attempts to divide public and private sector workers. It becomes a meaningless division as the privatisation agenda marches on relentlessly. After all once you're on the dole, it doesn’t matter if you're formally in the public sector or the private sector. That is why we urge the union to commit to organising with sister unions for co-ordinated strike action in the autumn, and in the meantime for the industrial action committee to do what it can to achieve co-ordination among branches currently engaged in industrial action campaigns against the impact of the cuts.

Join the fight against cuts, for peace & socialism

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postcode Age if under 30 phone E-mail return to CP Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd, London CR0 1BD

t: 02086861659 e: office@communist-party.org.uk

Unity!Unity! Fighting for the AlternativeFighting for the Alternative

Unity in action

Moz Greenshields

Ray Walker

If the Labour Party had stuck to its founding principles, New Labour would not have been invented to serve the bankers and Eurocrats. Labour could have won the 2010 general election if, when the last labour government bailed out the banks, it would also have ensured that we got our money back - with interest - rather than letting billions be squandered on obscene bankers’ bonuses. The May elections saw many previous LibDem voters turning to Labour. They felt betrayed by the LibDem leadership’s decision to join a coalition with the Tories and ditch the policies that 7 million people had voted for in the 2010 General Election. Labour on the other hand made some gains, winning 50 per cent more seats in England than they did in the same elections in 2007, and gaining 37 per cent of the projected national share of the vote (compared to just 29 per cent in the General Election last year). Progress was helped a bit by Ed Milliband seeming to put a little more ‘pink water’ between his regime and New Labour. Now his leadership needs to draw a red line against the past. But as long as the Labour Party continues to accept the false case for public spending cuts – instead of arguing for progressive taxation, public ownership, investment in manufacturing, energy, public transport, housing etc. – then it will never represent an alternative government. It is vital therefore, for the working class and peoples of Britain, that the Labour Party is reclaimed by the labour movement. If the struggle

proves to be forlorn then the Labour movement must take steps to ensure that workers have a voice in Parliament. Labour needs to look at the real reasons why they are not advancing more in the face of the Government’s vicious dismantling of public services. The argument that it’s just too much too quickly is wrong; it’s not a case of ‘our cuts are better than yours’. There has never been a need to make swingeing cuts to pay for the deficit. Simply by enforcing current tax laws and forcing big business and the super-rich to pay their fare share and abandoning disastrous wars and the renewal of Britain’s nuclear arsenal, we could raise enough money to pay off the deficit. Unison supported Ed Milliband to lead the Labour Party and should be demanding a change of policy to support the principles of our union and our movement. And a much more powerful case will be made if it can do this alongside those other unions who also supported Milliband. Over the past three months more than 90 per cent of Labour Party donations came from the unions. Don’t those who pay the piper have the right to call the tune? The Communist Party believes that as long as many of the biggest trades unions are affiliated to the Labour Party, the potential exists to wage a broad-based, resolute fight to reclaim the party for the labour movement and left-wing policies. But this will require the unions to fight both inside and outside the Labour Party to change to policies that offer a real alternative.

Anita Halpin is the Trade Union Organiser of the Communist Party.

'The first weekend in October will see a carnival of anti-fascist and anti-racist activities to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. On the first Sunday in October 1936, one hundred thousand socialists, Communists, Irish dockers, Jews and other local residents blocked the attempted march of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists through London's East End. 'This year's demonstration will celebrate that heroic victory and reaffirm our determination to overcome racism and the fascists in Britain today. cablestreet75.org.uk

A Party of Labour? Building the fight-back

Anita Halpin

Relations with Histadrut - More questions than answers

A Unison delegation went to Israel and Palestine at the end of last year, in particular to review the union’s relations with Histadrut (the General Federation of Labour in Israel). Conference 2009 called for this review because of the lack of any opposition by Histadrut to the Israeli occupation and the military onslaught. Following its support for Israel’s murderous assault on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, last year’s conference suspended relations with Histadrut pending the review And now this year we have motion 89 which, in calling for resumption of relations with Histadrut, ignores the crucial point that the PGFTU’s own relations with Histadrut are enforced by the conditions of occupation which hinders them from being a fully free and independent trades union. Unfortunately, the report fails to give convincing answers to several key questions. The report states that it was the PGFTU, in particular, which asked for Unison to enter into a special relationship with Histadrut, one of ‘critical engagement’, so the Palestinian Federation could put pressure on the Israeli one to take a more vocal public stance against the occupation and the settlements. But what did the PGFTU actually ask Unison to do? The main body of the

report does not go into any detail of this aspect of the discussion with the PGFTU but merely refers to this as being the PGFTU’s view. Yet it does not appear to be PGFTU general policy to ask overseas unions to intervene with Histadrut in this way and whether or not they ever asked Unison to do so is thrown into doubt by a statement issued in April: ‘Mr Shaher Saed [PGFTU general secretary] rejected the attempts by some organisations to exploit the relationship between the Histadrut and the PGFTU for political gain and to undermine the international trade unions efforts to defend the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.’ ‘Mr Saed has confirmed that the relationship between the PGFTU and the Histadrut is one of unequals. We live under an Israeli military occupation while trying to defend the rights of our Palestinians workers who are subjugated by the Israeli army which deny them their rights and subjects them to all sorts of violations in contravention of international conventions on human and workers rights.’ ‘We, in the PGFTU, call on all international organisations and trade unions not to use the relationship between the PGFTU and the Histadrut to justify establishing relationships with the Israeli occupation and its institutions that contribute towards strengthening the occupation.’ Clearly the Unison delegation report does not reflect this statement and hardly provides any basis to justify motion 89 which should be rejected; it will not help our Palestinian sisters and brothers. Think carefully what Histadrut’s response would be if the motion went through. How likely are they to be amenable to the kind of pressure the report and the motion envisage? The report comments that, although Histadrut has made statements in the past

supporting a two-state solution and resumption of final status negotiations, in their meeting with Unison they stressed that they did not take a stance

on wider political issues they feel international

relations with other trade unions should only be based on trade union related matters they are unwilling to

alienate members of theirs who do not support negotiations with the Palestinians they fear international

pressure on Histadrut would be used against them by the right wing in Israel.

How likely is it then that Histadrut would accept any one-way relationship that would be seen as Unison pontificating on political and humanitarian issues? What would the relationship of ‘critical engagement’ mean in practice and how would one assess whether it is working? Lots of questions, but there are no ready answers as the report does not draw on any other international examples of such union-to-union critical engagement . The PGFTU does have links with Histadrut but these relate solely to the representation and rights of Palestinians from the occupied territories working in Israel and PGFTU describes this as ‘a relationship under pressure’ and ‘a relationship of unequals’. Trades unionists have to understand and respect this situation rather than allow it to be used as a pretext to argue that trade unions internationally should maintain links with Histadrut, critical or otherwise. This has been explicitly stated by the General Secretary of the PGFTU (Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions)* but was not included in the delegation’s report.

John Foster is International Secretary of the Communist Party.

March 26 was a wonderful start to the fightback that is going to be needed to stop the cuts being imposed by local councils and the Condem government. Cuts are happening to local authority services, police and fire authority services, health services, quangos, the former regional government provisions and to the civil service. Never mind private firm job losses. The cuts involve all unions and most communities. Any fightback has to involve these two elements. The most visible cuts are those at local authority level, from libraries to nurseries, from refuse collections to Connexions offices. Workers are losing their jobs by the hundreds or seeing their terms and conditions ripped up. But jobs have also gone at regional government offices and the Regional Development Agencies, whilst the closure of quangos is hitting employment levels across the country. The cuts affect workers in all sorts of jobs and at all levels of pay and also hit the public as services are closed or provisions reduced. To fight back against the cuts workers are starting to organise. Birmingham Unison members are currently organising a strike ballot for action against their ‘martini’ contracts; strike action is underway in Southampton and other disputes are moving towards industrial action ballots. Public sector workers who take action in defence of their jobs and our services need and deserve support; they mustn't be isolated. And this is where a local campaign against the cuts comes in. Made up of local people and trade union

activists it has to be a vital element in building support for a fightback and also supporting workers who go into struggle. It needs to be broad and inclusive and willing to be flexible. A good example of this is Birmingham Against the Cuts. Built from a meeting called by the local trades council, it has developed into a large, open group where trade union activists and left wing stalwarts work with activists from UK Uncut and people from local community groups. Its meetings are attended by a wide range of people from those who are non aligned to activists from the CP, SWP, the Labour Party and other groups. It has held successful demonstrations and public meetings. From it, local groups have started in the suburbs which have seen street stalls with people queuing to sign the various anti-cuts petitions. Birmingham Against the Cuts is operating in a very non-sectarian manner and taking ideas from various sections of the anti-cuts movement whether that is trade unions, the local Peopleʼs Charter group, the Coalition of Resistance or local UK Uncut activists. No one group is trying to dominate and many times in organising meetings you get agreement and then an idea is built and developed. All areas need to build a broad anti-cuts group. Its name is not important, but its desire to be open to all who will join the fightback in whatever manner they can, is. Unions and community activists working together can build a true movement of resistance.

Andy Chaffer is a health worker, community activist and secretary of the Birmingham Communist Party.

Andy Chaffer

John Foster

NEC members have been warned that any of them clapping Conference speeches opposing NEC policy will be stripped of their credentials and sent home. Groucho suggests that the punishment should fit the crime and a sliding scale could be applied. An approving nod for an offending speech might be met by just an hour or two of house-arrest in their hotel bedroom. Polite clapping – the same, but with no access to the mini-bar. Enthusiastic clapping – loss of credentials. Whooping – a ban from office, and a standing ovation – exile and re-education in some location sufficiently distanced from reality.

Groucho

If the Labour Party had stuck to its founding principles, New Labour would not have been invented to serve the bankers and Eurocrats. Labour could have won the 2010 general election if, when the last labour government bailed out the banks, it would also have ensured that we got our money back - with interest - rather than letting billions be squandered on obscene bankers’ bonuses. The May elections saw many previous LibDem voters turning to Labour. They felt betrayed by the LibDem leadership’s decision to join a coalition with the Tories and ditch the policies that 7 million people had voted for in the 2010 General Election. Labour on the other hand made some gains, winning 50 per cent more seats in England than they did in the same elections in 2007, and gaining 37 per cent of the projected national share of the vote (compared to just 29 per cent in the General Election last year). Progress was helped a bit by Ed Milliband seeming to put a little more ‘pink water’ between his regime and New Labour. Now his leadership needs to draw a red line against the past. But as long as the Labour Party continues to accept the false case for public spending cuts – instead of arguing for progressive taxation, public ownership, investment in manufacturing, energy, public transport, housing etc. – then it will never represent an alternative government. It is vital therefore, for the working class and peoples of Britain, that the Labour Party is reclaimed by the labour movement. If the struggle

proves to be forlorn then the Labour movement must take steps to ensure that workers have a voice in Parliament. Labour needs to look at the real reasons why they are not advancing more in the face of the Government’s vicious dismantling of public services. The argument that it’s just too much too quickly is wrong; it’s not a case of ‘our cuts are better than yours’. There has never been a need to make swingeing cuts to pay for the deficit. Simply by enforcing current tax laws and forcing big business and the super-rich to pay their fare share and abandoning disastrous wars and the renewal of Britain’s nuclear arsenal, we could raise enough money to pay off the deficit. Unison supported Ed Milliband to lead the Labour Party and should be demanding a change of policy to support the principles of our union and our movement. And a much more powerful case will be made if it can do this alongside those other unions who also supported Milliband. Over the past three months more than 90 per cent of Labour Party donations came from the unions. Don’t those who pay the piper have the right to call the tune? The Communist Party believes that as long as many of the biggest trades unions are affiliated to the Labour Party, the potential exists to wage a broad-based, resolute fight to reclaim the party for the labour movement and left-wing policies. But this will require the unions to fight both inside and outside the Labour Party to change to policies that offer a real alternative.

Anita Halpin is the Trade Union Organiser of the Communist Party.

'The first weekend in October will see a carnival of anti-fascist and anti-racist activities to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street. On the first Sunday in October 1936, one hundred thousand socialists, Communists, Irish dockers, Jews and other local residents blocked the attempted march of Sir Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists through London's East End. 'This year's demonstration will celebrate that heroic victory and reaffirm our determination to overcome racism and the fascists in Britain today. cablestreet75.org.uk

A Party of Labour? Building the fight-back

Anita Halpin

Relations with Histadrut - More questions than answers

A Unison delegation went to Israel and Palestine at the end of last year, in particular to review the union’s relations with Histadrut (the General Federation of Labour in Israel). Conference 2009 called for this review because of the lack of any opposition by Histadrut to the Israeli occupation and the military onslaught. Following its support for Israel’s murderous assault on the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, last year’s conference suspended relations with Histadrut pending the review And now this year we have motion 89 which, in calling for resumption of relations with Histadrut, ignores the crucial point that the PGFTU’s own relations with Histadrut are enforced by the conditions of occupation which hinders them from being a fully free and independent trades union. Unfortunately, the report fails to give convincing answers to several key questions. The report states that it was the PGFTU, in particular, which asked for Unison to enter into a special relationship with Histadrut, one of ‘critical engagement’, so the Palestinian Federation could put pressure on the Israeli one to take a more vocal public stance against the occupation and the settlements. But what did the PGFTU actually ask Unison to do? The main body of the

report does not go into any detail of this aspect of the discussion with the PGFTU but merely refers to this as being the PGFTU’s view. Yet it does not appear to be PGFTU general policy to ask overseas unions to intervene with Histadrut in this way and whether or not they ever asked Unison to do so is thrown into doubt by a statement issued in April: ‘Mr Shaher Saed [PGFTU general secretary] rejected the attempts by some organisations to exploit the relationship between the Histadrut and the PGFTU for political gain and to undermine the international trade unions efforts to defend the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.’ ‘Mr Saed has confirmed that the relationship between the PGFTU and the Histadrut is one of unequals. We live under an Israeli military occupation while trying to defend the rights of our Palestinians workers who are subjugated by the Israeli army which deny them their rights and subjects them to all sorts of violations in contravention of international conventions on human and workers rights.’ ‘We, in the PGFTU, call on all international organisations and trade unions not to use the relationship between the PGFTU and the Histadrut to justify establishing relationships with the Israeli occupation and its institutions that contribute towards strengthening the occupation.’ Clearly the Unison delegation report does not reflect this statement and hardly provides any basis to justify motion 89 which should be rejected; it will not help our Palestinian sisters and brothers. Think carefully what Histadrut’s response would be if the motion went through. How likely are they to be amenable to the kind of pressure the report and the motion envisage? The report comments that, although Histadrut has made statements in the past

supporting a two-state solution and resumption of final status negotiations, in their meeting with Unison they stressed that they did not take a stance

on wider political issues they feel international

relations with other trade unions should only be based on trade union related matters they are unwilling to

alienate members of theirs who do not support negotiations with the Palestinians they fear international

pressure on Histadrut would be used against them by the right wing in Israel.

How likely is it then that Histadrut would accept any one-way relationship that would be seen as Unison pontificating on political and humanitarian issues? What would the relationship of ‘critical engagement’ mean in practice and how would one assess whether it is working? Lots of questions, but there are no ready answers as the report does not draw on any other international examples of such union-to-union critical engagement . The PGFTU does have links with Histadrut but these relate solely to the representation and rights of Palestinians from the occupied territories working in Israel and PGFTU describes this as ‘a relationship under pressure’ and ‘a relationship of unequals’. Trades unionists have to understand and respect this situation rather than allow it to be used as a pretext to argue that trade unions internationally should maintain links with Histadrut, critical or otherwise. This has been explicitly stated by the General Secretary of the PGFTU (Palestine General Federation of Trade Unions)* but was not included in the delegation’s report.

John Foster is International Secretary of the Communist Party.

March 26 was a wonderful start to the fightback that is going to be needed to stop the cuts being imposed by local councils and the Condem government. Cuts are happening to local authority services, police and fire authority services, health services, quangos, the former regional government provisions and to the civil service. Never mind private firm job losses. The cuts involve all unions and most communities. Any fightback has to involve these two elements. The most visible cuts are those at local authority level, from libraries to nurseries, from refuse collections to Connexions offices. Workers are losing their jobs by the hundreds or seeing their terms and conditions ripped up. But jobs have also gone at regional government offices and the Regional Development Agencies, whilst the closure of quangos is hitting employment levels across the country. The cuts affect workers in all sorts of jobs and at all levels of pay and also hit the public as services are closed or provisions reduced. To fight back against the cuts workers are starting to organise. Birmingham Unison members are currently organising a strike ballot for action against their ‘martini’ contracts; strike action is underway in Southampton and other disputes are moving towards industrial action ballots. Public sector workers who take action in defence of their jobs and our services need and deserve support; they mustn't be isolated. And this is where a local campaign against the cuts comes in. Made up of local people and trade union

activists it has to be a vital element in building support for a fightback and also supporting workers who go into struggle. It needs to be broad and inclusive and willing to be flexible. A good example of this is Birmingham Against the Cuts. Built from a meeting called by the local trades council, it has developed into a large, open group where trade union activists and left wing stalwarts work with activists from UK Uncut and people from local community groups. Its meetings are attended by a wide range of people from those who are non aligned to activists from the CP, SWP, the Labour Party and other groups. It has held successful demonstrations and public meetings. From it, local groups have started in the suburbs which have seen street stalls with people queuing to sign the various anti-cuts petitions. Birmingham Against the Cuts is operating in a very non-sectarian manner and taking ideas from various sections of the anti-cuts movement whether that is trade unions, the local Peopleʼs Charter group, the Coalition of Resistance or local UK Uncut activists. No one group is trying to dominate and many times in organising meetings you get agreement and then an idea is built and developed. All areas need to build a broad anti-cuts group. Its name is not important, but its desire to be open to all who will join the fightback in whatever manner they can, is. Unions and community activists working together can build a true movement of resistance.

Andy Chaffer is a health worker, community activist and secretary of the Birmingham Communist Party.

Andy Chaffer

John Foster

NEC members have been warned that any of them clapping Conference speeches opposing NEC policy will be stripped of their credentials and sent home. Groucho suggests that the punishment should fit the crime and a sliding scale could be applied. An approving nod for an offending speech might be met by just an hour or two of house-arrest in their hotel bedroom. Polite clapping – the same, but with no access to the mini-bar. Enthusiastic clapping – loss of credentials. Whooping – a ban from office, and a standing ovation – exile and re-education in some location sufficiently distanced from reality.

Groucho

Unite Against ConDem Cuts, Build the People’s Charter

Communist Party Fringe Meeting

Wednesday 22nd June, 7pm Friends Meeting House, Mount St M2 5NS

Tommy Morrison (CP Executive), Carolyn Jones (Director Institute of Employment Rights), Bill Greenshields (People’s Charter Commission). Chair: Anita Halpin (CP Trade Union Convenor) Tea & Coffee available before the meeting

Communist Party Public Services Advisory Statement:

Time to take on the common enemy It's over a year since the ConDems came to power and launched their all out, class-based ideological attack on the working class of Britain. The coalition government ,which has no legitimate mandate, is hell-bent on a radical redistribution of power and wealth and a relentless onslaught against public sector workers and the services they deliver. Now is the time for Unison to use its strength and size to organise its members in their workplaces and communities to build the fightback to defend services, jobs, pay, conditions and pensions. The union must be bold and outward looking and united in common purpose to fight the enemy of working women and men. Such unity of purpose can be forged if the NEC takes the lead to win the political arguments and works organisationally from the front and within the structures of the union. Now is not the time to be diverted from this task. In this respect the Communist Party firmly believes that internal disciplinary actions, in any union, to suppress political differences are all too often damaging; undermine confidence in the union’s democracy; deter participation in union activities, and so weaken the ability to protect members’ interests. Unity is strength - that’s not a hollow cliché. And while unions clearly have a responsibility to root out fraud and harassment, Unity is best built by making the case politically rather than using administrative and often disproportionate methods to settle political questions. In our view it’s time to call time on this approach and seek to move forward in unity to fight the common enemy.

Communists @ Unison Conference June 2011

Last year the TUC famously passed a resolution supporting co-ordinated industrial action against the attacks on the public sector and its workers’ jobs, pay and conditions. Despite a slow start, the magnificent turnout on 26 March; the developing anti-cuts alliances, and the actions planned for 30 June by education unions and PCS in defence of their pension schemes show the revulsion felt by the majority of the population at the nature and scale of the attacks. So far, despite campaigns being run by branches up and down the country, including strike action in several, there has been no national move for co-ordinated action amongst our own members, let alone with other public sector unions. The ideological attack on our pension schemes leaves us with no choice but to fight. If the Condems succeed in pushing through the Hutton proposals this will cost our members up to 40% of the value of their pensions – this represents a loss of thousands of pounds on both lump sum and annual pension entitlements. There is no

Cont. on back page

Every aspect of our members’ lives, and all workers’ lives, is under attack. The ConDem government is determined in just four years to do huge and irreversible damage to everything we have won over the last 60 years ; from pay and pensions to jobs and conditions at work; from benefits and support for the most vulnerable to the health and education systems for all. If allowed to get away with it, they will hand all potentially profitable sections of public services to the private sector, and slash and burn the rest. We face a real ‘battle of ideas’ within our own ranks, as well as a trial of strength with the ConDems and the class they represent. Surveys seem to show that, while the overwhelming majority of workers have seen through the government lie that “we are all in this together”, a great many still believe that, given that the ‘free market’ system is in a mess, some cuts are ‘necessary’ – or, at least, inevitable.

The fact is we can’t build a movement against the cuts strong enough to win if we start with many of our own members believing that those cuts are inevitable. That’s why “The People’s Charter” is vitally important. It spells out “The Alternative” that we all marched for on March 26th and offers a positive alternative to the cuts of the neo-liberal economic and political agenda of the main political parties in Britain. We congratulate UNISON on the success to date of its Million Voices campaign, designed to promote support for public services up and down the country and consider that The Peoples Charter compliments this and provides the basis of united activity within and beyond our Trade Union movement on its progressive social platform. The People’s Charter has recently produced a detailed program of taxation policies, industrial and social investment, employment and training programs, renewal energy development, public

ownership, tight private sector regulation etc which identifies “the alternative” that a progressive government could implement. The Charter is endorsed by the TUC and has 15 national unions affiliated to it – though UNISON bizarrely is not one of them… the new NEC will need to put that right. Of course, the ConDems – a government cobbled together out of two failed parties – will never follow such a program. It is a government of millionaires for millionaires, A government which uses the recurrent financial and economic problems of capitalism as a cover to attack workers, while the richest 10% get even richer and more powerful. For as long as they are there, the attacks will continue. We can’t put up with four years of attacks. We need to organise, within our unions and in our communities, to bring them down. The Peoples Charter is a real and achievable alternative- hear more about it at the fringe meeting. www.thepeoplescharter.org

Unity in Action. Cont. from front page financial justification for doing this – for instance the Local Government Pension Scheme has twice as much paid into it as paid out. Therefore this attack represents yet another attempt to get workers in the public sector to pay for an economic crisis caused by the financial disservice industry. There can be no workplace in which Unison organises which hasn’t been affected by the cuts – no workplace where jobs have not been cut, where terms and conditions have not been eroded and where pay has either been frozen (for two years in local government) or has risen well below the rate of inflation. Next year will be worse, with little scope for achieving further job cuts by voluntary means, raising the spectre of mass compulsory redundancies throughout the public sector. We call on Unison at national, regional and branch level to show support and solidarity with public sector workers taking industrial action on 30 June in defence of their pension schemes.

We welcome these co-ordinated actions; they can play a key part in building the momentum towards even wider actions involving both public and private sector workers. Calls to move progressively to a general strike is a clear signal that workers are up for this challenge, which is needed to bring about the collapse of this illegitimate government. The widest possible unity is needed to fight for jobs & defend services, there must be unity against attempts to divide public and private sector workers. It becomes a meaningless division as the privatisation agenda marches on relentlessly. After all once you're on the dole, it doesn’t matter if you're formally in the public sector or the private sector. That is why we urge the union to commit to organising with sister unions for co-ordinated strike action in the autumn, and in the meantime for the industrial action committee to do what it can to achieve co-ordination among branches currently engaged in industrial action campaigns against the impact of the cuts.

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Unity in action

Moz Greenshields

Ray Walker