Solidarity 080, 22 September 2005

Experiments In Struggle

Dan Katz reviews The Take, a film by Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein In the early 1990s Argentina’s government under Carlos Menem carried out IMF instructions and pegged the local currency, the peso, to the dollar in order to check inflation. State owned banks, publicly owned utilities and airlines were privatised. Later in the 90s the economy went into recession. The new government of the Radical Party borrowed from the IMF and, in return, made cuts in health and education spending. In 2001 the GDP was $97 billion and the debt stood at $240 billion. At the end of 2001 Argentina defaulted on its...

Iraq: Has The Time Come For "Troops Out Now"?

The deteriorating situation in Iraq, and the decree of the Baghdad government confiscating the funds of the trade unions, requires of international socialists that we review our politics and our slogans on Iraq. Should the demand be raised for the immediate withdrawal of US and British troops? We opposed the 2003 US/UK war. We champion self-determination for Iraq. We are for troops out of Iraq. But we have refused to join in the calls of the “anti-war” movement for troops out of Iraq now. We reject the idea of supporting the so-called “resistance” against the forces of occupation, which is —...

Gate Gourmet Workers Need Solidarity Action

By Chris Hickey TUC congress expressed “profound anger” at the dismissal of Gate Gourmet airline-catering workers at Heathrow Airport, who were sacked by their employers simply in order to replace them all by agency workers on worse pay and conditions. It called on the Government “…to permit lawful supportive action, simplify balloting procedures, protect strikers from dismissal, and bar the replacement of workers in dispute; and also to seek implementation urgently of the European Union temporary agency worker directive.” The TUC General Council had previously endorsed a letter with similar...

Union Rights Make It To Labour Conference Floor

By Maria Exall At this year’s Labour Party Conference (25-29 September) the issue of trade union rights will be centre stage for the first time since 1997. And appropriately so. The situation with the Gate Gourmet workers has written large what is wrong with the Blairite commitment to the “flexible labour market”. The TGWU has submitted a contemporary resolution on employment rights in the light of the Gate Gourmet dispute. It calls for legal “supportive” action along the lines of the emergency motion agreed at the recent TUC Conference. Included in the motion is the demand for adherence to...

"Proletarian Astonishment"

Pat Yarker reports on the AWL’s day-school for rank-and-file trade unionists “Actions that aim only at securing peace between employers and men are not only of no value in the fight for freedom, but are actually a serious hindrance and a menace to the interests of workers. Political and industrial action direct must at all times be inspired by revolutionary principles. That is, the aim must ever be to change from capitalism to socialism as speedily as possible. Anything less than this means continued domination by the capitalist class.” Tom Mann (1856-1941) quoted by Trevor Griffiths in his...

Tesco Workers Fight Back

At the session on partnership Mick Duncan of the T&G described how British bosses today feel they can get away with super-exploitation and this makes the quietism of trade unions today — which goes under the heading of “partnership” so dangerous. USDAW members from Tesco described their experience of “partnership” — it is not good… The Tesco “partnership” deal has been in place for eight years. At first 70 reps were involved in negotiating the wage deal. Then, after those reps refused to acquiesce to a pay deal, the negotiating team shrunk to four. Now ordinary union reps have no say in...

TUC Backs Women's Rights In Iraq

By Janine Booth, RMT delegate to TUC Conference It took several days of headbanging to get the CWU emergency motion on women’s rights in Iraq on the agenda of the TUC Congress (11-15 September). Some TUC bigwigs thought that it wasn’t an emergency because we should have been able to guess that women’s rights would be under attack in the Iraqi constitution! The CWU motion called for opposition to Sharia law and for women’s civil rights. Despite the opposition of the top bureaucrats this motion struck a chord and the plight of women journalists in Iraq was raised by an NUJ delegate. The motion...

Defeat For Jerry Hicks

By Dale Street The campaign for the reinstatement of victimised Bristol Rolls Royce convenor Jerry Hicks has ended — in defeat. Jerry had worked for Rolls Royce in Bristol for 30 years. He had been an elected steward for 20 years, and elected convenor for the Test area of the Bristol Patchway plant for the past 15 years. For the last three years he had been the deputy chair of the Bristol Confederated Site Committee. On 20 July he was sacked, charged with organising unofficial strike action to defend two of his members from dismissal, and that he had sought to influence the outcome of...

PCS Votes For Strike

Members of the PCS civil service union in the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) in London have voted by a majority of 1400 to 500 for “discontinuous” strike action against the Government’s plans for drastic job cuts. The ballot result was announced on Tuesday 21 September. The union's DWP Group Executive Committee will meet in the week starting 27 September to make a recommendation on action to the National Disputes Committee. Activists will be demanding a definite action plan, including more than one cross-London one-day strike announced in advance, and longer-term selective action in...

Academies Scam Rolls On

Tom Unterrainer reports from Nottingham Despite all the critical reports, investigations and public opposition the Government appears more determined than ever to press ahead with City Academies. It seems that for each concern raised about the scheme, an “innovation” is announced. The latest idea is to give one school away for every three purchased — so if you’ve got six million pounds to spare you can buy yourself half a local education authority at a bargain price. In the same way that Ruth Kelly, Lord Adonis and the other jokers running education in this country have picked up a few tips...

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