POLICY

by Graham Stevenson

WE FACE five moreyears where ourtransport system

will be subject to a strictprofit-and-loss scenario wherethe first commitment will beto line the pockets of thefinanciers with returns ontheir investments of 25 percent or even more.

Communists argue for astraightforward policy on transportthat puts the need to move peopleand goods in a way that is integratedand sustainable, across all modes oftransport. This would unite theinterests of both transport workersand users.

Only a strategy that is based onpeople before profit and is based oninvestment in transport that isaccessible to all, affordable to all,and accountable to all is acceptable.For almost four decades, all we haveseen is privatisation andderegulation and both have simply

undermined workers’ terms andconditions and degraded the qualityto the user. Transport workers andthe public alike want safe transportwith decent working conditions andsafe standards.

Public investment in such formsof transport in the UK is well belowthe best international levels. Yet ourtransport infrastructure isdesperately out of date. This wouldneed to change radically. Fairprocurement must include socialimpact issues and ensure fairness forBritish manufacturing and futurejobs for the young.

The withdrawal of unionrepresentation on bodies such as theDisabled Persons Transport AdvisoryCommittee (DPTAC) was a first step indisregarding the expertise of transportworkers. Consultation with civil societyorganisations and transport unionsshould be a central part of anygovernment’s review of transportstrategy.

We should see an absolutecommitment not to cutconcessionary fares for the young,senior citizens, and disabled people.

A cap on annual train fare riseson every route is needed. Plus thereshould be a ban on train companiesaveraging out increases across abasket of fares.

The bus industry needs a majorover-haul, with a massive revision tothe way subsidy is provided. Thismust mean genuine and democraticpowers at all levels to co-ordinatestrategic transport planning.

In the rail, bus, and tram sectorsthere must be a move away fromfurther fragmentation and towardspublic ownership and accountability,with no support for the EuropeanCommission’s drive towards`liberalisation’. Unambiguously,franchising in mainline rail needs tostop and both train operatingcompanies and Network Rail needto be brought back in publicownership. Graham Stevenson is theCommunist Party's trade unionorganiser. For many years, he wasthe T&G's senior transport officerand is a former President of theEuropean Transport Workers'Federation

Communist Party 2015 Aslef conference

Delivering transport at the point of need

unity!PEOPLES ASSEMBLY

As we organise in the face ofthe election result, and the

acceleration of the ruling classoffensive that will inevitably

follow, The People’s Manifestofrom the People’s AssemblyAgainst Austerity becomes

even more important writes Bill Greenshields.

It is being taken up by bothlocal communities, and in the

trades unions – the NationalUnion of Teachers for

example having provided it toall Conference delegates, and

the national Trades UnionCouncils Conference in June

including it in all delegatepacks, and with orders rolling

in from local People’sAssemblies across Britain.

continued overleaf

All out against austerity

SOLIDARITY

by Alex Gordon

AS WE remember the 70thanniversary of the victoryover fascism on 8 May 2015,bellicose anti-Russianrhetoric from NATO and EUleaders (egged on by UKgovernment ministers) ispromoting the rehabilitationof virulent fascism acrosscentral and eastern Europe,while banning communist andleft wing parties fromstanding in elections.

German political weekly DerSpiegel reports: 'The EU hasprovided Ukraine with €30 millionto build and renovate migrantdetention centres.... Brussels isapparently hoping that the systemwill reduce the number of asylumseekers in Europe — withoutattracting too much attention.'

The resistible rise of Neo-nazisthrough some of Ukraine's rulingpolitical parties and theirintegration of known fascists intokey state positions is no accident.Promoting russophobic racism inCentral Europe is integral to theUS neocon strategy known as the‘pivot to Asia’.

This reliance on far right partiesand paramilitaries — until recentlyseen as fringe lunatics andholocaust deniers — echoes USforeign policy in Central and SouthAmerica for many years.

On 2 May 2014 (theanniversary of the day in 1933when German Nazis attackedtrade union centres across

Germany), a premeditatedmassacre of over 40 tradeunionists and antifascists inOdessa's Trade Union House wascarried out by members of theUkrainian fascist 'Right Sector'while police looked on. Over ayear later not one arrest, norprosecution of the perpetrators ofthe massacre has taken place.

On 1 January 2015 in Kievranks of torch-bearing neo-nazismarched in honour of StepanBandera, who murderedthousands of Ukrainian Jews andPoles during WW2.

In March 2015, 35 Britishmilitary personnel began trainingmembers of the Ukrainian army.Over 300 US military advisors arecurrently assisting Ukrainian'punishment battalions' in the so-called Anti-Terrorist Operationagainst the cities of Donetsk andLuhansk in the Donbas region.

Far-right groups ‘Right Sector’and Svoboda do not even botherto hide their racism — but as alliesof the pro-EU regime in thecountry are politely ignored byWestern governments and media.

Ukraine's president Poroshenkoand prime minister Yatseniukopenly pander to radical rightwingers in their party electoral listsor support them in single-mandateconstituencies.

In 2014 Poroshenko declared14 October the 'day of thedefender of Ukraine' tocommemorate the 'heroes' of thewartime Ukrainian Insurgent Army(UPA) which collaborated withnazis and carried out atrocitiesagainst Poles, Jews and communist

partisans.A number of commanders of

the Aidar Battalion, accused byAmnesty International of carryingour 'war crimes' includingabductions, unlawful detention, ill-treatment, theft, extortion andpossible executions were electedto Ukraine's parliament lastNovember.

Immediately after the electionthe openly neo-Nazi deputycommander of the AzovRegiment, Vadim Troyan wasappointed head of the KievDistrict Police.

Western media minimise therole of Ukrainian neo-Nazis, but inno other country in the world dodeclared neo-Nazis controlsecurity services and hold positionin Ministries and Parliament.

Trade unionists in Britain muststand resolutely against NATO'swar against the people of theDonbas and call for an end to theuse of British troops. Mostimportantly though we must offerour support to Antifascists inUkraine resisting the stateterrorism, conscription, andneoliberal economic restructuringproject of Ukraine's right winggovernment.

Alex Gordon is a member of thesteering committee of SARU(Solidarity with the antifascistresistance in the Ukraine)

Contact SARU onhttps://ukraineantifascistsolidarity.wordpress.com or follow theiractivity on Twitter @UkraineAntifa

continued from page 1The Manifesto opens with a

challenging statement that, ‘austerityis working only for the ruling class ina period when we have seen thesharpest decline in real wages sinceVictorian times. The scale of thetransfer of money to the rich andpowerful from the rest of us,unprecedented in modern times, iscombined with savage attacks on ourrights to organise and fight back.This means we must demand analternative to survive and make afuture for ourselves, our families andour communities.’It explains the real purpose of the

austerity economic model and makesa clear and cogent case for thealternative based on the needs ofordinary people rather than those ofthe bankers.In that respect, it directly

challenges the new ToryGovernmento’ and it also challengesthe political consensus of the‘mainstream’ parties and the massmedia in favour of continuingausterity cuts and privatisation; theever more strident message from bigbusiness and the bankers throughtheir representatives in nationalgovernments, the European Unionand Washington.The PAAA is working hard

nationally and locally to put downdeep roots into communities andtrade union memberships to establisha sustained political movement of atype not seen in Britain for manydecades – a movement of ordinarypeople not waiting for the nextdemonstration or event called by itsleaders … important as these are …but fighting every day against theeffects and the causes of austerity inevery way they can and to bringabout that economic alternative..The People’s Manifesto provides

us with another tool to build theresistance and fight for thealternative in Britain, alongside ourcomrades throughout Europe … thebest form of solidarity.There is a continuous print run –

so it can be ordered in large numbersas well as individual copies. Howcan YOUR organisation use it best?

Bill Greenshields represents theCommunist Party on the nationalcommittee of the People’sAssembly

The People’s Manifesto is availablefrom The People’s Assembly, 52Beachy Road, London E3 2NSoffice@thepeoplesassembly.org.ukweb@thepeoplesassembly.org.uk020 8525 6988 office hours 10am - 6pm

Buy and read the Morning Star£1 every day from your newsagentwww.morningstaronline.co.uk

MORNING STAR

by Ben Chacko

WHEN THE first DailyWorker rolled off the pressesin 1930, Britain was reelingfrom the Great Depression.

Working people faced soaringunemployment and hunger.Politicians and the monopolymedia demanded savage cuts towages and public spending in thename of balancing the books.Sound familiar?

The Daily Worker was foundedto counter that narrative, toprovide a voice for the millionsand not the millionaires.

On its first day a reporterphoned from the Daily Herald toask if it would come out again aday later. Eighty-five years on, ourname may have changed - we'vebeen the Morning Star since 1966 -but we're still here and still true tothat mission.

The Star is a co-operative - theonly co-operatively ownednational daily in the country. Thatmeans we answer only to ourreaders, not to some tax-dodgingnon-dom press baron.

Eleven trade unionorganisations are represented on

our elected managementcommittee. 

We remain the authentic voiceof working people in struggle -reporting on the stories the restof the press won't touch, whetherthat was last year's People's Marchfor the NHS, the battle ofLondon's Focus E15 mums foraffordable housing in the capitalor, most recently, the electionstories and candidates the rest ofthe media censored.

We're the only paper to standshoulder to shoulder with thetrade union movement,backing workers takingindustrial action to secure thepay and conditions theydeserve.

And we're the only paperto expose the lies andpropaganda of the rulingclass, opposing imperialismand fighting for peace andsocialism across the world.

The Morning Star isproud of the role it playsin the labour movementand as the sole voice forsocialism in the Britishmedia.

We’re proud of the way we'reevolving, with the paper publishinga wide range of contributors fromacross the left. In 2015 our paperis bigger, brighter and better thanever.

But we need more readers,whether of the printed paper orof our new e-edition, in order tomake that voice - the voice ofresistance - heard louder andmore widely and to ensure we'restill championing the rights ofworking people after another 85years.

If you aren’t yet a reader of theworld's only English-languagesocialist daily - what's stoppingyou?Ben Chacko is acting editor of theMorning Star

CLASS ENEMY

by Robert Griffiths

LAST WEEK the Toriesreceived a ‘green light’ tointensify the ruling class

offensive on every front signalling arenewed assault on working classliving standards, public services anddemocratic rights, while renewal ofBritain’s Trident nuclear weaponssystem would accelerate a newarms race and threaten worldpeace’

Local government and our hard-won welfare state are now indanger of being hacked to death bya fresh and even bigger round ofcuts, while workers face viciousattacks on their employment andtrade union rights.

Labour’s election campaignlacked courage and clarity, nosurprise given that its manifestofailed to represent the realinterests of millions of workingclass electors – something theyquite clearly sensed it.

With the assistance of the massmedia, Cameron and Osbornewere able to perpetuate the mythsthat a profligate Labourgovernment had crashed theeconomy, that austerity is essentialand that Britain’s recovery is thespectacularly successful result.

One of the most crucial factorsin Labour’s defeat was its refusal toconfront monopoly capitalism withpolicies for public ownership,economic planning andmodernisation and a massiveredistribution of wealth across afederal Britain

As soon as Cameron was back inNo 10 the floodgates opened for a

grisly procession of New Labourrelics who will be quite happy toreturn to full-scale Labourgrovelling to big business, thegutter press, the EU, the US andNATO.

This is not the time for aparliamentary fatalism that we’vegot to wait five years before wecan unseat the Tories. Thepotential does exist to build abroad-based, people’s allianceagainst Tory big business rule,drawing together the trade unions,workers on benefits, theunemployed, tenants, carers andpeace campaigners.

The all-Britain demonstrationagainst austerity organised by thePeople’s Assembly for SaturdayJune 20 in London is the beginningof a huge fight-back against aregime voted in by only one-quarter of the electorate.

We have to hit the groundrunning as working people face an18-month ‘bltizkrieg’ by the partyof the ruling class to get theirdraconian policies through beforethe dissent breaks out in theirranks in the run up to thereferendum on Britain’s EUmembership in 2017.

Britain’s communists will helpbuild a left, progressive andinternational alliance against EUausterity, privatisation and anti-democratic diktat. The left andlabour movement should not allowthe Tory and UKIP right tomonopolise the anti-EUropeanUnion case with their reactionaryanti-regulation and anti-foreignerarguments.

Robert Griffiths is generalsecretary of the Communist Party

Free from ManifestoBuilding an economyfor the peopleAn alternative economicand political strategy for21st Century Britain

Contributors include Mark Baimbridge; Brian Burkitt; Mary Davis; John Foster; MarjorieMayo; Jonathan Michie; SeumasMilne; Andrew Murray; RogerSeifert; Prem Sikka and PhilipWhymango to www.manifestopress.org.uk

Revolt against big business rule

The daily miracle ... alive and kicking at 85

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return to Communist Party Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road CroydonCR0 1BD office@communist-party.org.uk 02086861659 H Rail

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TTIP

by John Foster

THE EU poses two verysignificant threats; the first toworkers and their rights tocollective bargaining and thesecond which precludesindividual member statesfrom retaining publicownership or providing anyform of state aid to industry. It is therefore no accident that

the EU Commission is the jointarchitect of TIPP (the TransatlanticTrade and Investment Partnership)TTIP, taking us even further downthe privatisation road.Articles 120 and 121 of the

Lisbon Treaty specifically requiremember states to enable wage settingthat takes account of differing levelsof productivity and performancebetween firms and regions – in otherwords, to outlaw collectivebargaining procedures across nationsand industries.And this is no empty gesture. The

European Commission is currentlymaking it a very strong condition forthe Greek bailout. Other countriessuch as Cyprus, Spain and Italy arebeing forced to dismantle existingcollective bargaining structures andslash labour rights.Remember the EU asserts the

freedom of capital, not the freedomof workers to organise. Unless tradeunionists expose and challenge theEU on this, the legal drive to erodeworkers’ rights will only get worseThis also applies to the EU’s

assault on public ownership. TheSingle European Act and subsequentdirectives all require the phasing outof ‘state aid’ to industry and an endto public sector ‘monopolies’. Yetunless governments retain powers tointervene economically, and toactively develop their industries,most national economies,particularly Britain’s, are doomed todecline.Again the EU Commission is

using the financial crisis to enforcemassive privatisation programmesfrom Greece to Portugal, Most

recently, we have seen a centuriesold public service, the Royal Mail,sold off at a knock down price toprivateersTrade unionists need to challenge

all the comfort talk about the EU. It’snot the worker’s friend. It’s a falsefriend, the persuader for bigbusiness and, as in Greece, its brutalenforcer. Months after the Greek election,

the EU and the IMF are still waitingfor the government to agree its termsbefore handing out a cent of newbailout funds. Not that they will bethe life line that they might appear tobe. After all, only 15 billion euro(less than 4 per cent) of the pre-election bailout went into the Greekeconomy while 395 billion wasrepaid to external bank creditors inGermany, France, Britain and theUS. Within Europe, the Tories will

continue to give full support to theausterity policies of the ‘Troika’ (theEuropean Commission, EuropeanCentral Bank and the IMF). It is alsobacking the secretive EU-US tradedeal - TTIP - which will threatenjobs, hard-won working conditionsand environmental protections, aswell as enforcing privatisation ofmore public services.Through TTIP, the EU will be

opening public sector to for-profitventure companies. The Treaty willmake it virtually impossible formember states to regulate thenumber of providers in any one‘market’, develop accreditationprocedures or impose qualitystandards. Under investor-statedispute settlement provisions,foreign investors will be able tochallenge regulatory or policymeasures and sue ‘host’ nations.Since the first May Day organised

to commemorate those killed inChicago in 1886 demanding an eighthour day, workers have fought forgenerations to secure theirdemocratic right to regulate andcontrol capital. The EU and TTIPnow directly threaten those rights.

John Foster is the CommunistParty’s international secretary

COMMUNIST PARTY

THE DESIRE for a futurebased on peace, co-operation, community,

solidarity and common wealthhas long inspired the peoplesof the countries of the BritishIsles. The Communist Partycontinues that living,revolutionary tradition. Ourparty is a product, first andforemost, of the British labourmovement. Its roots lie deepin Britain’s trade unions,socialist societies and otherworking class organisations.

In the late 20th century, theCommunist Party led the fightagainst anti-trade union laws. TheLiaison Committee for the Defenceof Trade Unions united Communistand non-Communist militants inmass one-day stoppages in 1968,1970 and 1971. The last of thesemoved the TUC to call a one-dayGeneral Strike, thereby defeatingthe legislation. Powerful Communistand broad left organisations werebuilt in many workplaces andunions.

These very successes of theCommunist Party made it aparticular target of the capitalistclass. In recent years, the Party hasworked tirelessly to rebuildmembership and organisation intrades unions and mass movementsalongside many socialists andothers. Increasingly, the labourmovement has noted that theCommunist Party counts.

What makes Communistsdifferent? It is our analysis of thedominant structures and ideas ofsociety, which reflect the ownershipby a minority class of the means ofproduction and the exploitation ofworking people.

The capitalist world today isdominated by trans-nationalcorporations acting throughinternational institutions such as theEuropean Union, the InternationalMonetary Fund, the World TradeOrganisation, the World Bank andNATO. The rich get richer asbillions of people go withoutadequate food, shelter, clean wateror health and education services.

The need for popular resistanceand class struggle, for the workingclass to take state power is as greatas ever. But this requires theory aswell as practice, through educationand propaganda on the ideologicalfront to inform and learn fromaction on the economic andpolitical fronts.

Communist trades unionistsorganise together to make adifference. Why not join us?

The battle of ideas is crucial andour commitment to the MorningStar, the daily paper of the left isundimmed. We call on activists toread and buy the paper and asktrade union bodies to take out orexpand shareholdings in the PPPS.But Unity! can play a role also; ifyou want to link up with us withmore info or offers of help, emailus at: tradeunion@communist-party.org.uk

If not you, who?If not now, when?

The European Union,TTIP and all that!