AWL conference 2010

A weekly paper; Building the AWL

Decisions of AWL conference 16-17 October 2010 on a weekly paper, and on building the AWL. A weekly paper 1. AWL is not now properly tooled-up to meet the new political situation which we are in. We have over a long period gone through a process of slow "managed decline" and progressive enfeeblement. This is shown in such things as the circulation of our press and our ability to raise money for political purposes. It must and can now be reversed. It is the duty of every member of AWL, and of AWL as a whole, to reverse it, and turn the coming period into one of advance, growth and re...

AWL and the unions

THE THREAT TO THE UNIONS The unions face a challenge, both industrially and politically, without any recent precedent. Since the early 1990s, and to a large degree even up to 2009 in the public sector, the unions have generally dealt with relative boom conditions. Now they face huge cuts, carried through by a government which believes that the crisis mandates huge cuts and which is led by people who relish the chance to hack at the public sector and extend privatisation and marketisation. The unions must fight back, or they will suffer huge setbacks. Our programme for the fight-back is as...

Trades Councils and anti-cuts committees

1. Prior to the 2010 general election it was clear that whatever the exact political complexion of the new government, significant cuts would be made to public sector spending. The only open question was and to a degree still is, how deep will these cuts be? and to what extent they will affect the wider economy. We now know that the Tory-Liberal government will make cuts of up to 40% if not more, across all government departments excluding health. The effects of these cuts are easily imagined on the human scale: the vast bulk (sometimes up to 80%) of departmental spending is on salaries and...

Report on women's movement activity

Adopted by AWL conference 16-17 October 2010 In terms of the politics of women the AWL defines itself Socialist-Feminist. We do so because, while we fight for the politics of women's liberation within the labour and student movement here and now, we recognise that the emancipation of women can only happen with the emancipation of humanity as a whole through the socialist transformation of society via the class struggle. The building of anti-cuts committees together with the pressure on Labour and TU leaderships to face towards the left, in conjunction with the gradual but increasing...

Anti-racist and anti-fascist activity

Report on anti-racist and anti-fascist activity adopted by AWL conference 16-17 October 2010 (as amended). Race and immigration featured prominently in the popular imagination as one of the "key" issues of the general election. Both New Labour and the Tories pandered to racism. Cameron was elected promising to cut immigration by 75%and the coalition has since introduced a cap which even Vince Cable has criticised as being irrational. Fully-blown anti-migrant and anti-Muslim racist populism is now appearing regularly on the front covers of several tabloid papers. The labour movement itself is...

Reports on student activity, work in Workers' Climate Action, work in No Sweat

Student report Report on our activity in No Sweat Report on our activity in Workers' Climate Action Student report 1) The general situation and anti-cuts work a. Until this year, the education sector had experienced more than a decade of unbroken growth. In that period universities have sharpened their exploitation of staff and focussed their resources on 'profitable' courses and research projects. Now the growth has been broken. With the opening of the economic crisis in 2007/8, and particularly over the past academic year 2009-10, the sector has seen significant cuts, and now faces much...

Amendments to the perspectives document, and discussion

Defeated amendments Discussion on the amendments: "Why conference should reject the amendments" "My amendments to the Perspective discussion: explanation and response" "Comments on the 'motivation' document for the amendments" "Discussing with the man who wasn't there" "The Last Stand of the Disaffiliationist" "Note of reservation on the perspectives document" Click here for earlier debate on related questions, from April 2009 Defeated amendments Amendment 1, candidates Section 6 'Outside-Labour left electoralism', the last paragraph. Delete the first sentence ("Anti-Labour electoralism cannot...

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