Solidarity 117, 13 September 2007

National Service? No thanks!

The Tories are trying to bring back a toned down version of National Service. The original version, under which all young men had to do two years military service, was abolished in 1963. David Cameron is advocating that all 16 year olds should take part in a six-week programme of charity work and physical activities after their GCSEs — whether they plan to stay at school or college or get a job afterwards. This will help people develop pride in themselves and in Britain, strengthen national identity, tackle anti-social behaviour blah blah blah... Let’s list the reasons why socialists should...

Brown's plan is a death blow

It’s all very quiet. You won’t have read a lot about it in the press, heard much about it on TV, or even been told much about it by your union, if you’re a union member. But at the Labour Party conference starting on 23 September, Gordon Brown plans to end 107 years of working-class political input through the Labour Party. Not just to add “a further attack on Labour Party democracy” to the many made since Neil Kinnock’s time. Not just to introduce “more of the same”. Not just to add a further ailment to the already very sick state of working-class political representation in the Labour Party...

Industrial news: Metronet, Fremantle, Karen Reissman, Remploy, Wembley city academy

Metronet By an RMT member A strike by Tube workers, working for bankrupt infrastructure company Metronet was suspended earlier this month when talks between the company, the administrator and the union resumed. The union say they are happy on the pensions and other issues raised by the backruptcy, but which way will the union go on privatisation? Faced with two resolutions from the RMT London Transport Regional Council — one which demanded a ballot to bring Metronet immediately under TfL control and the other a demand for a campaign to lobby politicians and pursue guarantees over pensions etc...

TUC: good words. Now for action!

Following the debate on trade union freedom, the other big debate at TUC conference [by the time Solidarity went to press] was on public services and public sector pay. The TUC had attempted to sedate us all in advance, with guest speeches from not just the CBI but also government ministers Jacqui Smith and Peter Hain — the latter telling us that the government, trade unions and employers had reached an “historic consensus” on pension reform, prompting me to heckle “I didn’t!”. The two main composites were 12, on public serivces, and 13, on public sector pay. There was never any doubt that...

PCS to "consult" yet again

If looks could kill... If “consultations” could crush, then civil service workers would already have a levelling-up of pay to across-the-service decent rates, and stopped the Government’s drastic job cuts. After “consulting” its members at length over the summer about its barely-started campaign on jobs and pay, the civil service union PCS has announced that: “Feedback from the consultation meetings was that members clearly accept the need for further national action to resolve the dispute, alongside other unions if possible”. So the PCS will call action? Alongside the postal workers, due to...

Learn from the prison officers!

by Colin Foster What is the government going to do with illegally striking prison officers? Send them all to jail? The strike on 29 August by prison officers showed up the union leaders who have been dithering and “consulting” and making calculatedly vague threats of future action for months about Brown’s imposed cut in real wages. The strike was doubly illegal. The Tory government in 1994 made all strikes by prison officers illegal. And anyway, under the general Tory anti-union laws, continued by Blair and Brown, any strike is illegal unless the bosses are given seven days’ notice. The...

Local government: strike call blocked?

Local government employers have upped their pay offer to trade unions in an attempt to stave off industrial action. Their deal would give a 3.4% pay rise to the poorest paid council workers and 2.475% for all others. It’s still a paycut. On the other hand, while falling short of the aim of an increase in line with inflation it is the first major public sector deal to break the 2% limit. At TUC Brown made it clear that such pay restraint will be required for some years to come. Becuse Brown has been saying there will be no exceptions to 2% the employers have had to justify their offer by saying...

Postal workers to strike again

CWU postal workers will strike again this month (September) in their dispute with Royal Mail over pay and over the bosses' drive to transform the industry radically, with large job cuts, on free-market lines. The strike action follows talks which ended without agreement on Sunday 9 September. As we go to press strike dates have not yet been announced but are set to be before the end of September. In the talks the union was offered a better deal on pay —a number of options amount to 6.7% on basic pay over two years with additional lump sums. This includes more money in the first year. However...

WOZA defiant against threats

At four in the morning on 24 August, Zimbabwean police carried out a raid on the homes of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) members in Bulawayo, taking six women and a one year-old baby into custody. This came just a week after WOZA’s “Sheroes” gathering, a conference held in secret in the face of Mugabe’s police state, under the tagline “beaten, jailed but still determined to be free”. Smashing down gates and doors, the police seized the feminist activists from their homes and drove them to the bush around Khami Ruins, some 40 km outside Bulawayo, telling them that it was the last time they...

Musharraf regime on the rocks

General Pervez Musharraf’s eight year grip on political power in Pakistan looks increasingly precarious. His desperation showed in his response to the return from exile of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif this month. Sharif returned to challenge Musharraf and his cronies in elections due in November. He was deported hours after his plane touched down in Islamabad. Musharraf’s term as President is set to legally expire before the November elections, but Musharraf wants to extend his term — by some ruse or other. The current Parliament, which in which his supporters have a majoirty, may give...

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