Beware ofregional pay!by Liz Payne

The Coalition has made no secret

over recent months of its intention to

introduce regional pay in the public

sector whenever it can get away with

it.

The idea is to con everyone thatthere’s already huge regional variationin the cost of living and that pay in theprivate sector is based on local marketconditions. Yet, research shows this tobe a complete fabrication.

There’s little regional variation outsideLondon and the majority of largerprivate firms pay national not regionalrates.

The truth is this is a thinly disguisedattempt to impose further massive wagecuts on the public sector, enhancing itsattractiveness to profit-seekers, as jobsand services are privatised. The wholething is designed to cause maximumdivision and conflict between groups ofworkers and break trade union power innational pay bargaining.

It won’t be only public sector workerswho suffer. Wage cuts in so-called ‘low-cost’ areas (for which read ‘alreadypoor’) will increase skills shortages andhit services to the most vulnerable.

Slashing spending-power will in turnfurther depress struggling economies.Private sector businesses will close withfurther job losses and misery in a spiralof decline.

It’s all part of the age-old ruling classstrategy of ‘divide and rule’.

Stand together against regional pay!Always say ‘Never’! H

Liz Payne is a Unison activist in the SouthWest and the Communist Party’s nationalwomen’s organiser

Communists at the 2012

Tolpuddle Rally

by John Foster

The public sector cuts being imposed

by George Osborne are doing

irreparable damage.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that the2012 budget cuts were ‘twice as big’ as thoseinflicted on the public sector between 1975and 1982 and their extension to 2017 wouldmean ‘the longest sustained cuts in publicspending since the Second World War’.Since present government took office and

December 2011, 232,000 jobs were lost inlocal government alone. And this is only thebeginning. Osborne’s cuts are scheduled tocontinue at a real rate of 3.7 per cent annuallyfor five more years. For the economy as a whole these cuts are

crazy. The only gainers are Osborne’s pals inthe City who want spare state to cash to bailthem out. The cuts are killing the productiveeconomy and increasing long-term debt. Britain’s economy is now over 4 per cent

smaller than it was in 2007 – the only majoreconomy to have contracted to such an extentapart from Spain. It is still contracting. This iswhy alternative economic policies, based onactive state intervention, are needed.The last couple of years have seen a

transformation in attitudes to suchintervention. In 2010 the TUC backed thePeople’s Charter. In 2011 it additionally calledfor alternative economic policies based onexpanding the public sector. What we need now are specific demands that

can unite trade unions and communities tocampaign politically and add up to a coherentstrategy that can rescue our economy.The first demand is obvious: stop the cuts.

This is the quickest way of restoring consumerdemand: end the insecurity of imminent jobloss, halt the new pensions levy, reverse the

benefit cuts and end a wage freeze that iscurrently cutting real incomes by up to 3 percent a year. The second is for the governmentto create real, well-paid jobs and hence boosttax income as well as demand for goods.Council housing is one obvious area. There isdesperate need and the private sector hasfailed – house building has collapsed from180,000 in 2006 to 120,000 last year, thelowest since the 1920s.Building houses under local democratic

control also makes it possible to introducecomprehensive energy saving with greentechnology – another key area for investment.Equally essential is the demand to take

water, energy and transport back into publicownership, end extortionate pricing and stopthe state subsidies to monopolist owners.There must be action to stop closures in the

productive economy, to take over failingmanufacturing enterprises and to penalisecompanies that shift production overseas –even if this means defying the EU directives.Can this be paid for? Yes, easily – by

imposing a tax on the City’s financialtransactions, reclaiming the £100 billion lostthrough tax evasion, closing down Britain’smany tax havens and reversing Osborne’s taxcuts for the rich and on company profits. What we can’t afford is austerity. This is

actively destroying national wealth byshrinking the economy – with between £50billion to £100 billion lost every yearcompared to 2007. What’s needed is a mass movement that can

remove this government of financialspeculators and ensure the Labour Partyadopts the alternative policies needed save ourproductive economy – in the interests of thevast majority of the population.HJohn Foster is a member of the CommunistParty’s economic commission

Unity!

Why we need an alternativeeconomic strategy

First launched in 1935 the Country Standard journalis now run by an editorial collective of Communist andLabour Party members, environmentalists and tradeunionists. Get your copy from the Communist Party stall

The SouthWest of England and

Cornwall District of the Communist

Party of Britain was re-established in

early 2011.

Like other districts of the Communist

Party, we cover the same geographical

area as that of the regional TUC:

Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset,

Gloucestershire, Somerset and

Wiltshire.

We have an active branch network

and members involved in local trade

union, community, anti-racist, anticuts,

Stop the War, Cuban and Palestinian

Solidarity Campaigns and other

progressive organisations.

Most branches in the district also

work with Morning Star ‘Readers and

Supporters’ groups, raising funds for

the paper and selling it at trade union

events and on street stalls.

The Communist Party presence at the

Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival is growing

every year, as is our commitment to

promote the Morning Star to festival

goers.

Cornwall

The Communist Party also recognises

the special position of Cornwall in

relation to England. Our party’s

programme, Britain’s Road to

Socialism, notes that: “The distinctive

cultural and social characteristics of

Cornwall should be expressed through

a directly elected Cornish Assembly,

with powers that match local

aspirations” and that: “The national

movements in Scotland, Wales and

Cornwall also contain substantial

progressive and left-wing elements

that oppose reactionary policies of

monopoly capital and the British

state”.

Party Kesunyans a Vreten Vur - Randyr

Soth-West Pow Saws ha Kernow! H

Find out more on our district website:

www.southwestcommunists.org.uk/

21st Century Marxism Festival

21-22 July 2012Bishopsgate Institute 230 Bishopsgate London EC2M 4QH

www.communist-party.org.uk

The People's Charter for Change is

supported by the TUC, 16 trade

unions and many trades unions

councils up and down the country and

it is included in the TUC's plan of

work for the trades councils.

It promotes a progressive alternative set ofpolicies not only as an antidote to ConDemcuts, but also for the expansion of theeconomy through a programme of directedinvestment, control over the export of capital,public ownership, the development ofsustainable industries, a reduction in workinghours, and a programme of skills training andretraining. The Charter’s 6-point programme demands:

HA fairer economy for a fairer Britain HMore and better jobs HDecent homes for all HProtect and improve our public services –no cuts HFairness and justice HA secure and sustainable future for all Impossible? Far from it! The Charter shows how these could be

brought about through the implementation ofan alternative economic strategy to bringabout a fundamental shift in wealth and powerin favour of the working class. The People’s Charter deals with the whole of

society and aims to promote a positivealternative instead of just saying Stop theCuts. The Charter six points are aspirations which

any political party purporting to representworking people should be proud to putforward and demands that the Labour Partymust adopt it as a winning alternative politicalstrategy. Visit www.thepeoplescharter.org formore information and affiliation details orwrite to The Peoples Charter, PO Box 53091,London E12 9DA H

It’s time for the People’sCharter

by Anita Halpin

As the capitalist crisis deepens the

myth of the ‘social’ chapter, the reason

so many trades unionists loyally

backed the EU, lies shattered. Britain’s

withdrawal from the EU is the only

way to recover democratic control

over the economy, save

manufacturing, restore employment

rights and rescue our welfare state. 

The EU serves the interests of big businessand the banks. No wonder Cameron, Cleggand Cable support the Single Market as itenables the City of London to continue todominate EU finance and banking. The anti-democratic and pro-big business

character of the EU is now fully exposed as itreplaces elected governments and theEuropean Central Bank – with its partners incrime the International Monetary Fund and theWorld Central Bank – impose drasticdeflationary policies. In the USA, even Obama’s economic

stimulus package creates some new jobs butsuch investment programmes are outlawed inthe EU. So it is highly unlikely that the ECBwould be able or willing to replicate this forFrance or any other member state.The peoples of France and Greece have

expressed their clear opposition to EUausterity and privatisation policies in theirvotes for socialist, Communist and other leftcandidates. Yet both François Hollande and

the Greek Euro-leftist Syrzia coalition remaincommitted to the EU and the single currency.It is impossible to separate rejection of the

austerity programme from the institutions thatcrafted it or to discard policies created solelyto sustain those same institutions.The Communist Party believes that a

commitment by left and progressive forces inthis country to withdraw from the EU willstrengthen the position of all those in Europefighting to preserve and defend theirdemocracies and halt a race to the bottom.That is why trades unionists have a duty to sayenough is enough: we want to get out.The message is getting across. In March

the ETUC unequivocally condemned theTreaty on Stability, Coordination andGovernance, which imposes even moredeflationary budget controls and directlyabrogates the democracy of debtor states. In April the STUC annual conference

accepted a motion condemning the anti-democratic and deflationary character of theEU and calling for national powers to again beable to invest in the productive economy andprovide public services.Most significant was the call to negotiate a

new relationship with the EU based on a mostfavoured nation trade agreement on the samebasis as Norway but outside the provisions ofthe Single Market. While the STUC executivedid not endorse the call for withdrawal itstressed the critical threat the EU now posedto democracy and trade union rights. A threat that is all too evident. At the end of

last month the EU Commission report on theUK economy called for reinforced austerity. Aweek later, and following the ECB’s line, theBank of England monetary policy committeeplayed it safe (in banker’s terms) and keptinterest rates at 0.5 per cent. H

Anita Halpin is the Communist Party’s tradeunion coordinator

I want to join the Communist Party oPlease send me more information o

Name

Address

e mail

phone

return to CPB Ruskin House

23 Coombe Road Croydon CR0 1BD

Join Britain’s party ofworking class power

and liberation

Stop the European Union, we want to get off

Morning Stardaily paper of the left £1 from your newsagent

www.morningstaronline.co.ukH

by Gerrard Sables

The Tolpuddle Martyrs' Friendly

Society of Agricultural Labourers was

not the beginning of trade unionism in

Britain even of agricultural trade

unionism.

The Loveless’s Friendly Society ofAgricultural Labourers emulated and used therites of the Grand National Consolidated TradeUnion set up by the Chartists. Sidney andBeatrice Webb describes the six as “simple-minded Methodists”. This Fabianpatronisation was to be repeated by GeorgeBernard Shaw in the TUC Tolpuddle centenarybook published in 1934. The six were dedicated, courageous and

articulate members of their community as is

normal for trade union activists. But let’s putit in context. Three years prior to theindictment England had been racked by riotboth urban and rural and there had beenrevolutions throughout Europe. The judiciary reacted harshly. A seventeen

year old Dorset lad was hanged for knocking aJP’s hat off his head. But by 1832 the Duke of Wellington was

complaining to Lord Melbourne that half theagricultural workers in Hampshire werepaying contributions to a trade union. Thesentence of seven years was ordered by anewly-appointed judge and the Tories backedhim up. The Grand National went into action. It was

a trade union centre - an early version of theTUC which had rivals in the North of England.However the rivals joined forces in the

campaign for the overturning of thejudgement. The Builders' Union; the Leeds,Huddersfield and Bradford District Union;the’ Clothiers’ Union; the Cotton-spinners’Union and the Potters’ Union all sentdelegates to meet with the Grand National tohelp in the campaign. A quarter of a millionsignatures were collected. The Times put themarch in London (pictured) at 30,000 led byDr Arthur Wade Chaplain to the MetropolitanTrades Unions. It was the solidarity that we celebrate today.

In 1834 despite their differences the tradeunion movement understood that they were“all in it together.” Today we salute both theTolpuddle six and the solidarity of their fellowtrade unionists up and down the country. Gerrard Sables is the secretary of the NorthDevon Communist Party

The roots of the Tolpuddle union

by Carolyn Jones

Earlier this year there was a Mudoch-

led media furore when Len McCluskey

raised the spectre of “civil

disobedience” at the Olympics. Why?

A cursory glance at the state of employmentrights and trade union freedoms highlights theextent to which these freedoms and access tojustice is systematically being shut down. Cuts to the legal aid system of £350 million;

increasing the qualifying period for unfairdismissal from one year to two; proposals to endfacility time for trade union reps; exemptingsmall firms from “dismissal regulation”;compulsory conciliation before an ET can belodged; the introduction of “protectedconversations” and now proposals to chargeworkers for taking a case to tribunal. Workers are being systematically regulated

out of the justice system and denied a collective

voice at work. All at a time when they mostneed protection. So how exactly do those inpower (including Murdoch) expect workers andtheir unions to respond when failed austeritymeasures are eating away at jobs, pensions,standards of living and workplace rights? Cameron and his chums in the Cabinet may

be sitting happy on their combined wealth ofnearly £70 million, with the Minister in chargeof the Olympics – Jeremy Hunt – sittingparticularly comfy on his reported £4.8 millionfortune. But for the rest of us, waving the flagat the Olympics won’t pay the rent. Nor will itreverse the rush into economic policies thatmake the vulnerable pay for the arrogance ofthe rich and the misdeeds of the bankers.Workers need a legal framework that offers

fairness at work, social justice and economicopportunities. If not, civil disobedience willgrow. We saw it during the Lindsey oil refinerydispute. We saw it again during the electricians

dispute. We are seeing it daily throughoutEurope as workers resist failed austeritymeasures. Insecurity at work and fear of poverty may

demoralise workers. But as Jack London wrotein Iron Heel “there is a greater strength thanwealth....our strength, the strength of theproletariat....it is in our muscles, in our hands tocast ballots, in our fingers to pull triggers..... astrength stronger than wealth and that wealthcannot take away”. We should heed the words of Joe Hill: .Workers of the world awaken; break your

chains, demand your rights. All the wealth youmake is taken, by exploiting parasites.Shall you kneel in deep submission from your

cradle to your grave?Is the height of your ambition to be a good

and willing slave?Another world is possible and belongs to the

many, not the few. HCarolyn Jones is director of the Institute forEmployment Rights

Demand our rights at workOur History Tolpuddle special £1.50