the cuts consensus and the general election

by Dave Spencer

The 2010 general election will be a watershed for the politics of the British left.  Business as usual will not be an option because of the scale of the attacks on the working class that are coming. No matter which party wins the election or even if there is a hung parliament, it is clear that the ruling class has decided to make the working class pay for the economic crisis and the bailing out of the banks.

The left groups have failed over 14 years to form a united alternative to New Labour. If they use the same methods and politics as in the past, they cannot possibly be up to the tasks ahead.

migrant women on hunger strike at yarl’s wood

by Victoria Thompson

Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre was opened in 2001 and is the main detention centre for families and children. Run by a private firm, Serco Group plc who also manufacture nuclear weaponry, it has 405 bed spaces, and at any time scores of young children are detained within the grey prison walls. Yarl’s Wood has courted controversy since its opening, with hunger strikes, riots and even suicide attempts commonplace amongst the prisoners.

Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire is a prison for immigrants

Several investigations into the detention centre have concluded that the prison is “not safe” on a basic health and safety level, as well as the site of sexual and racist intimidation and violence.

photo-report of 19th march day of action against UBS

19th March saw an international day of action against Swiss bank UBS, who via its contractor Lancaster has imposed an effective 10.75% pay cut on its cleaners in the City of London, while sacking shop steward Alberto Durango.

The protests were called in solidarity with the cleaners’ demands for stable working conditions, the sacking of the contractor and the reinstatement of Alberto Durango. Demos were held in London, Zurich, Edinburgh, Manchester, New York, Buenos Aires and Stockholm.

sheffield communist discussion group, 14th april: alienation

The next Sheffield Communist Discussion Group meeting will be held at 6:30pm, Wednesday 14th April in The Rutland Arms. The topic of the discussion is “Alienation”.

Below is a reading list to give you a general introduction to the topic, but by all means also look elsewhere for further information to enrich the discussion. All welcome, email uncaptiveminds@gmail.com for more info.

no surprises as rat boards sinking ship

by Chris Ford

There is a long history of British trade union leaders becoming Members of Parliament. This has often represented the next step by individuals whose primary concern is the advancement of a cause very dear to their hearts – their own self-interest.

In some cases however there are those who have genuinely sought to take the workers’ struggle in the industrial front into the political arena: individuals with principle who have sought to maintain a loyalty and commitment to the labour movement, such as John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn. The coming general election should see a new recruit from union ranks – Jack Dromey, the Deputy General Secretary of UNITE.

tory co-ops mean privatisation

by Gregor Gall

The longstanding cross party consensus on cooperatives has taken a nasty turn. Traditionally, all the main parties have all supported – albeit a token way – the ideas of cooperatives.

For ‘old’, social democratic Labour, this has been about supporting workers and extending industrial democracy. Here the notion was that workers should be supported when they try to buck the outcomes of the market, even if cooperatives were a far from perfect means to do so.

international day of action against UBS: stand up for migrant workers!

Friday 19th March will see an international day of action in solidarity with cleaners at Swiss bank UBS in the City of London. The cleaners are facing cuts in working hours – effectively an 11 percent wage cut – and shop steward Alberto Durango has been sacked. For more background see Alberto’s article on events at the bank.

The day of action follows two strong and vibrant demonstrations on 12th February and 5th March at UBS’s 100 Liverpool Street site in London (as depicted in video). Tomorrow there will be protests in London (100 Liverpool St from 5pm), Manchester (1 Marsden St from 3pm) and also in Edinburgh, Zurich, Kyiv, Stockholm, Buenos Aires and New York.

why does unite employ ISS at its HQ?

A number of migrant cleaners employed by cowboy cleaning contractor ISS in the City of London have approached The Commune, concerned about the fact that their own union UNITE has its offices cleaned by… ISS.

Well known for terrible conditions and sacking workers who tried to organise on the London Underground and elsewhere, ISS was also complicit in the immigration raid and deportation of SOAS campus cleaners last June.

One such cleaner in the City wrote to UNITE asking why they employ ISS, and received this remarkable response…

rachel corrie (1979 – 2003): internationalism in action

by Joe Thorne

Many people were inside the houses we demolished. They would come out of the houses we were working on. I didn’t see, with my own eyes, people dying under the blade of the D-9; and I didn’t see houses falling down on live people. But if there were any, I wouldn’t care at all. I am sure people died inside these houses, but it was difficult to see, there was lots of dust everywhere, and we worked a lot at night. I found joy with every house that came down, because I knew they didn’t mind dying, but they cared for their homes. If you knocked down a house, you buried 40 or 50 people for generations…

– Moshe “Kurdi Bear” Nissim, D-9 bulldozer operator during the 2002 Jenin invasion

Seven years ago today, roughly a year after the Jenin invasion described above, Rachel Corrie – an American volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement – was crushed to death by a 50 ton D9 military bulldozer in the Gaza strip.  Last week (10th March), Rachel’s parents had their first day in an Israeli court, in an effort to compel the state to accept culpability for Rachel’s killing.  At the time, in 2003, a witness described her killing like this.

a labour of love? cut the union link

editorial of The Commune

As the general election nears, millions are worried by the sweeping public sector cuts planned by all three main parties.

Labour and the Tories’ plans are not the same. Gordon Brown’s government plan a more gradual process of cuts in public service provision and jobs.

However, the intention of this policy is to avoid stalling UK plc’s economic recovery by cutting the budget deficit too fast. It is not borne out of a desire to defend or promote free and high quality public services, still less the jobs of those working for them. Labour’s cuts will not seem too benign or ‘gradual’ to the 20,000 council staff due to be made redundant this spring.

immigration in britain today: london forum, 22nd march

The Commune’s next London forum is from 7pm on Monday 22nd March at the Artillery Arms, 102 Bunhill Row, near Old Street. Click here for leaflet.

The economic crisis has worsened anti-immigrant sentiment in British society. Not only has it created a breeding ground for the BNP and English Defence League to win support, but establishment racism is also on the up.

student anti-cuts occupations have management running scared

by Tali Janner-Klausner

This academic year, an ever-increasing number of students are seeing budget cuts at their university translate into sacked staff and lecturers, cutbacks of university support services such as counseling, whole departments threatened with closure and the like.

However with this has come a burgeoning anti-cuts movement across the country, with many new campaigns set up on individual campuses.

issue 12 of the commune

The March issue of our monthly paper The Commune is now available. Click the image below to see the PDF or see individual articles as they are posted online in the list below

To purchase a printed copy for £1 + 50p postage, use the ‘donate’ feature here. You can also subscribe (£12 a year UK/£16 EU/£20 international) or order 5 copies a month to sell (£4) online here. If you want to pay by cheque, contact uncaptiveminds@gmail.com.

a labour of love? – editorial of The Commune

english defence league march on parliament – by Amanda Latimer

strong pickets in two-day PCS strike – by Steve Ryan

turbulent times for public sector – by David Huckerby

student anti-cuts movement has managers running scared – by Tali Janner-Klausner

the lynch mob and our ‘broken society’ – by Adam Ford

michael foot: ‘not here to find elegant solutions’ – by Sharon Borthwick

recession bites in united states – by Dennis Marcucci

lightning strikes twice in greece – by David Broder

dawn of the crisis generation in california – from IndyBay

tory co-ops mean privatisation – by Gregor Gall

no surprises as rat boards sinking ship – by Chris Ford

defend migrant cleaners at UBS! – speeches by Jerry Hicks, Andy Higginbottom, Dave Esterton, comment by Alberto Durango

why does unite employ ISS at its HQ? – letter from Kwasi Agyemang-Prempeh

workers’ councils: red mole of the revolution – by Sheila Cohen

migrant workers across italy strike as one – by Andrea Strippoli

more hunger strikes at yarl’s wood – by Victoria Thompson

the cuts consensus and the general election – by Dave Spencer

should communists stand for parliament? – by Mark Harrison

twenty years after the poll tax – by Allan Armstrong

what is militancy? – by Nathan Coombs

why don’t we side with the humans in avatar? – by Sam Parsa

urgent proposals for dealing with global warming – letter from Chris Miller

jon venables, the lynch mob and our ‘broken society’

by Adam Ford

In 1993, two year old James Bulger from Kirkby near Liverpool was abducted, tortured and murdered by two ten year olds, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. The horrific case provoked understandable revulsion from the general public. Politicians gleefully seized on it to further their own agendas. Then Shadow Home Secretary Tony Blair promised that a Labour government would be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”, marking the beginning of New Labour’s attempts to outflank the Conservatives to the right on ‘law and order’, which had long been considered the Tory Party’s own territory. John Major responded by declaring that Britain should “condemn a little more, and understand a little less”. As we know, once in power, Blair focused on the second clause of his soundbite.

Perhaps for Merseysiders in particular, our horror was not at the killing itself, but that we now lived in a society that could produce such ‘monsters’ (as they were routinely labelled by the media). I was only ten – the same as Thompson and Venables – but I remember that my mum still warned me to be “extra careful” on the streets. Fear stalked the land.