Party Notes

March 8th 2010

The resistance grows – PCS national strike – EIS protest and students in occupation

Over a quarter of a million civil servants at tax offices, job centres, museums and ports were on strike today and will be on strike again tomorrow.

The mood on many of the picket lines was angry. Workers were asking why they should be paying for a crisis they hadn't created.

The PCS members on the picket lines were the front line of a more general battle that is set to erupt across the public sector as the cuts take hold.

It's not just the PCS that have started to fight.

A record strike vote by UCU members at Sussex University has opened the possibility of strikes there while UCU members at Kings are balloting, Westminster University are set to ballot and UCL will follow them.

We have to be at the heart of this resistance.

We need to go all out to back those workers, like the civil servants, who are fighting back. The resistance now will shape what happens after the avalanche really starts after the election.

If a fighting strategy doesn’t win the day there are alternatives being put forward by sections of the union bureaucracy.

Despite a 92 percent strike vote followed by a second vote of 80 percent Unite are pushing for an appalling deal including a two year pay freeze to “save jobs” at British Airways. If the PCS don’t break through there could be “more of the same” from union leaders who don’t believe it’s possible to fight during the recession.

Socialist Worker went down really well on the PCS picket lines – see sales report.

In Newcastle the University UCU banner was on the Tyne View picket line this morning. At a 50 strong Leeds strike rally a Right to Work speaker was offered the chance to address the workers. Right to Work activists collected over £100 for the PCS on the ten thousand strong education protests in Glasgow on Saturday.

Comrades took the collection to the Glasgow strike rally today. Along with a collection from Glasgow SWSS this was the only collection and got a huge cheer!

Workers at Tower Hamlets College collected £150 on Friday and took it down to their local job centre this morning.

Kingston students are organising a delegation to go to the national records office picket lines tomorrow where they will deliver a collection as are students at Kings and the LSE.

Everywhere we have to be aiming to get delegations onto the picket lines with collections. We need to be fighting to mobilise networks around Right to Work.

And of course we have to maximise the number of comrades we are getting onto the picket lines to sell Socialist Worker.

With more strikes to come in the PCS (the next national strike is set for 19 March) we have to make sure that PCS members are at every Right to Work event, every student protest.

And we have to be raising the demonstration called by the National Pensioners Convention on 10 April and making sure that transport is booked everywhere.

A new leaflet for PCS picket lines will be out this afternoon as will a flyer for a London readers meeting being held this Thursday evening for civil servants.

Socialists, trade unions and the crisis-Sunday 21 March

Everything we’ve said above makes it essential that we are forging a serious strategy in the face of the huge attack that is being launched on the public sector.

That’s why, following a motion passed at SWP conference, we have called a day event on Sunday 21 March.

Of course the timetable over the next few weeks is incredibly crowded and the event follows the Bolton protest. But there simply isn’t another weekend to hold the event…the union conferences begin with the NUT meeting in Liverpool at Easter. We would urge every comrade to “make a weekend of it” book now and take part in the debate.

Please email michaelb@swp.org.uk to reserve your place at the event. There will be a £15 pooled fare but we can only refund the cheapest possible fares so please book transport now.

Glasgow education protest

10,000 teachers, pupils and campaigners poured onto the streets of Glasgow on Saturday to protest against cuts in education.

People traveled from across Scotland to attend the EIS demonstration which united under the slogan 'Why should our children pay?’ Campaigns to stop closures and those involved in anti-cuts groups brought their own home made banners as the march led by huge contingents of classroom teachers snaked through the city centre.

The demonstration made it clear to all mainstream parties in both national and local government that the fight to defend education, jobs and services is on.

The march was a coming together of everyone fighting back against cuts to education. Teachers, parents, local government workers and service users as well as the Unison campaign Defend Glasgow Services took their anger to the streets.

The city is also facing deep cuts in community facilities, with no back up being provided by the council. One community worker who was on the march said, 'Glasgow city council has passed a budget that will see the closure of 12 community facilities across the country. There will also be cuts to the grants for voluntary organisation and community groups. All this at a time when there is money for a war in Afghanistan that people don’t want.'

This demonstration was a coming together of resistance, but it is only the start. We need more demonstrations, mass meetings rallies and strikes to win. Where possible we should be pushing for occupations of our facilities to defend our living standards

We intervened to publicise the Defend Glasgow Services campaign and public meeting, formed a RtW contingent, sold 150 SW, collected £100 for the PCS strike (which was announced at this morning’s PCS rally) and signed up 1 for Marxism.

Sussex / Westminster University occupation

After a week of student occupations and strike ballots around the country, university managements are beginning to feel the heat. At Sussex University lecturers returned a strike vote on an 81% turn out, Kings started their strike ballot and Westminster and UCL looked set to follow. Students at Sussex Uni marked the ballot result with demonstrations and occupations; at Westminster Uni over 200 students and staff stormed a board of governors meeting where the VC was grilled for half an hour and then occupied, 200 demonstrated at UCL and 100 students at UEA picketed the VCs offices after being prevented from occupying.

Management at Sussex Uni also struck back this week, bringing riot police onto campus to attack a demonstration with dogs and tazers and arrest several students (see video http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=20474). 6 students – including several of our comrades – were subsequently suspended, bypassing normal disciplinary procedures, and barred from campus property. Now management has even taken out an injunction banning any further protests on campus without their express permission.

Such extreme measures show that management are on the defensive like never before, and rightly so: the record turnout set by Leeds University UCU’s ballot for strike action has already been beaten back cuts and the student protests there have been essential in laying the foundations for a fightback, setting the high watermark for the movement nationally. Management have lashed out because they are cornered. However, if they get away with this attack it can ruin 6 people’s lives and set an alarming precedent for other universities to follow.

This is why we need to mobilise as much solidarity as possible. The protests in their defence have been well-attended, and the petition for their reinstatement has gained many signatures including Caroline Lucas. We need to circulate this petition widely and isolate management politically until they have no choice but to crack – like the governors at London Met. Also approach unions and especially academic faculties at other unis to write letters of complaint and condemnation to Michael Farthing VC signed by members of their dept. Send protests to VC Michael Farthing's email: VC@sussex.ac.uk copy educationactivist@googlemail.com.

A motion to pass through student and trade unions will be out later today.

As we do this we need to continue to build resistance on to the attacks on education. Following from the success of the Take Back Education teach in we need to:

1. Organise local teach/regional ins that can launch local education action networks. At Essex 33 people attended a report back from the teach in and have organized a teach in for the 23rd April. We need to follow this example in every area.

2. Build support for regional and national actions including 20th March UCU London demonstration and 29th April backed day of action in support of education.

3. Circulate the Take Back education national bulletin available on the website. http://educationactivistnetwork.wordpress.com

4. Please send reports for the new education activist website educationactionlondon@gmail.com

Westminster – Bolton’s dress rehearsal - stop the EDL

Later last week the EDL publically announced it was going to march on the Houses of Parliament in support of Dutch racist/ Islamophobe Geert Wilders. Two members of the House of Lords had invited Wilders to show his anti Muslim film – Fitna.

At very short notice UAF organised a counter protest. Hundreds of activists turned up and blocked the route of the EDL march for over 2 hours. Despite the police using public buses to hold the arrested protestors only one activist was charged.

The protest was supported by groups of RMT activists, bus workers and teachers. John McDonnell MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Ken Livingstone and Hugh Lanning (the Dep Gen sec PCS) all joined the protest.

The police played a despicable role on the day – allowing drunk EDL supporters to roam around the streets intimidating people and used all its powers to break the UAF blockade. The police finally cleared the blockade and escorted around 300/400 EDL supporters to the green in front of Parliament.

The UAF protest meant only 12 people went to see the film and the 50 EDL supporters who were given invites did not get in.

That is the good news, but the worrying fact is that on a working day the EDL were able to put hundreds onto the street and the police have made it clear that they are going to do everything they can to protect the EDL.

Friday was a dress rehearsal for Bolton.

If we are going to defeat the EDL in Bolton we have got to put ten times as many people on the streets.

Every UAF group, SWP branch and anti-fascist has got to do all they can between now and 20 March to ensure that we get the maximum turnout – 57 coaches have been booked already.

So far 8 MPs have officially come out in support of the protest – Peter Hain, Dawn Butler, Margaret Hodge, Beverly Hughes, Gerald Kaufman, Ruth Kelly, Tony Lloyd and John Leech. Also two national trade union secretarys have signed up – Christine Blower and Mark Serwotka.

Just like Codnor we will be holding two planning meetings for the demonstration. At them we will be discussing the tactics on the day. It is vital that every branch sends two delegates to one of the meetings. The details are:

London: 15 March, 6.30pm

Manchester: 16 March, 7pm

The details of the protest are:

Victoria Square Bolton 11 am, Saturday 20 March. Comrades need to ensure that the transport they book gets you into Bolton before 11am. We want Comrades from the North West to get to the square for 9am).

Days of action at Barking and Dagenham and Stoke

Saturday 13 March, Sunday 28 March, Saturday 10 April, Sunday 11 April and Sunday 25 April. We are asking PCS members and other public sector workers to make a special effort to mobilise on Sunday 11 April—the day after the major "Save our public services" rally in London called by trade unions.

TUSC needs your help – join the mass leafleting

The TUSC election campaign has now begun.

The RMT executive has now endorsed all the TUSC candidates (except Karen in Manchester) which now enables local branches and regions to back TUSC. RMT activists have also announced that they are standing Darren Ireland the RMT secretary of North Wales and NW region in Liverpool and Paul Crofts an Independent Socialist Council from Wellingborough has come forward as a TUSC candidate for the town.

More good news, regions of the FBU are also considering backing TUSC.

And now we hit the campaign trail this Sunday. We are asking as many districts and branches as possible to help with leafleting and canvassing this Sunday. The meet up times are bellow

Sunday 14 March TUSC Day’s of action

Manchester 1pm Roby Church, Dickenson Rd, Longsight, M13 – we are asking comrades and supporters from across Manchester to help out.

Tottenham 12 noon, Seven Sisters tube station, Tottenham High Rd N17 – We are asking all London, Kent, South Coast branches to help out. After one of the Turkish groups supporting our campaign will be serving food for a small cost.

Cambridge 10.45am, Romsey Labour Club, Mill Road, Cambridge, CB1, lunch provided! Cambridge, Essex, Home Counties and East Anglia.

Sheffield 11am, Elsmere Green off Spital Hill, Sheffield – we are asking comrades/supporters from the following districts to help - Sheffield (inc Barnsley and Doncaster), Leeds, Chesterfield and East Midlands.

Sunday 18 April

Saturday 24 April

Tuesday 4 May

Thursday 6 May – General Election Polling Stations.

TUSC Trade Union Days of Action

Tuesday 27 April

Tuesday 4 May

Right to Work – linking the battles

Over the coming days & weeks Right to Work will be combining solidarity with the PCS strikes here and solidarity with the resistance to austerity in Greece. Both affect the future of us all. The PCS is in the front line resisting attacks on our rights while Britain could well find itself in the same boat as Greece.

Every organising group needs to be organising collections for the PCS strikes, delegations to picket lines with the money collected and inviting PCS activists to address local organized groups.

RtW has organised a tour by a leading Greek trade union activist; Vassilis Sylaidis, executive Member of the Employees’ Union of IIntracom Group, a founding member of the Greek) Solidarity Committee of Syndicates and Trade Union Activists,& a member of the Greek anti- capitalist Antarsya political coalition.

On 23 March he will speak in Central London, 24 in Manchester, 25 in Glasgow and 26 in Dundee alongside PCS speakers, representatives of local struggles against cuts and leading labour movement figures.

At this Sunday's RtW steering committee we will propose launching a statement of solidarity with the strikes & demonstrations in Greece which can be signed by trade unionists, students, pensioners etc.

Sponsors - sponsors continue to flow in for RtW. One of the latest is Dundee Trades Council which voted to affiliate. Keep pushing to get sponsorship from trade unions, student unions, pensioner groups & campaign groups.

Report from Hackney: 30 people came to the Hackney Right to Work report-back meeting on Tuesday 2 March, including members of Hackney NUT, USDAW, NUJ, CWU and Homerton Hospital Unison. The meeting was also very well attended by comrades from Gik-Der, the Refugee Workers Cultural Association.

Ibrahim Avcil, chair of Gik-Der, said that he felt that the Right to Work Manchester conference was a key turning point in the struggle against unemployment in the UK , and that we can use Right to Work as a mobilising centre for workers of all nationalities as we prepare to fight the cuts.

Involving migrant workers is especially important in Hackney, as there are 105 languages spoken in the borough, with 5 or 6 major community languages.

Coming out of the meeting several people have agreed to raise solidarity for the upcoming PCS strike next week and will be visiting the picket lines with us. People also pledged to help leaflet local schools for an upcoming Anti Academies Alliance meeting in Hackney, and we have set up an interim committee including a representative from Gik-Der youth, Ibrahim Avcil, the London organiser for CWU and a UNISON rep at Homerton Hospital. The committee will meet next week to plan what we do now in Hackney and are considering planning a big public meeting and translating Right to Work material into the main Hackney community languages.

Make this weekend one for climate

This weekend is going to be a very important one for the SWP’s climate work. Consequently, every branch and district needs to think about the two events happening and plan what they are doing around them. As we discussed in the climate session at SWP conference in January, the rising importance of climate politics means that this is no longer an issue that can simply be left to a few specialists – it needs to be integrated in to our wider analysis and work.

Campaign against Climate Change trade union conference for a million climate jobs!

10:30 – 16:45, Saturday 13 March, South Camden Community School, London, NW1 1RG

The argument about climate jobs (taking a million people off the dole to employ them in renewable energy, public transport, home building and insulation, etc.) is a key weapon in our arsenal in the crisis. This conference is a very important opportunity to bring trade unionists and environmentalists together to talk about the fight for climate jobs, and to broaden and strengthen our analysis and campaign. There will be people in every college, union and workplace interested in this event – we need to be raising it, booking them up and coming along with them. Attached is the final leaflet and timetable for the conference.

More information on the attached flyer, the website http://cacctu.worpress.com or on Facebook here.

There will be a caucus for all SWP members attending the conference on Friday 12 March at 6:00pm in Bookmarks.

National SWP climate caucus

12noon, Sunday 14 March, SWP centre

Following the occupation at the Vestas wind-turbine plant, the failed UN climate summit in Copenhagen and the demonstrations which accompanied it, we started a very important discussion at SWP conference about the party’s work around climate change. This is clearly an issue that is going to be part of the future political landscape, and which we need to have a strategy around both nationally and in every district.

Every district should send a minimum of 2 comrades to this meeting where we will be looking at the developments since conference and, most importantly, how we move ahead with our climate work. The caucus is being held in the SWP centre – if you plan to attend reply to colins@swp.org.uk / 07886 226 515, and you will get directions.

WE WILL PROVIDE ACCOMODATION on Saturday night in London for anyone attending both the above events for anyone who responds by Thursday 11 March.

StWC SWP fraction meeting

There will be a national fraction meeting in London for comrades involved in StW work on Saturday 17th April. On the evening of that day is the memorial meeting for Chris Harman which hopefully many comrades could stay on and attend. This leaves plenty of time to book cheap fares! £15 pooled fare will apply

1pm Saturday 17th April, central London. Any queries contact juditho@swp.org.uk.

Marxism – 3 weeks left of the £5 discount

1 – 5 July, central London

BOOK UP NOW!

www.marxismfestival.org.uk / 020 7819 1190

The resistance in Greece, the strikes in the PCS, the students occupations, the pubic sector attacks, the debates around Labour and the election, the rise of the EDL and the militant anti-fascist challenge… it becomes more important by the day that we have the biggest and best Marxism for years to debate and discuss, and get to the heart of all these and other questions, to pull activists and campaigners together, to build the resistance. We are now over 200 bookings ahead of where we were at this point last year – and March is a very important month to build on this.

As we pointed out last week in party notes, March is a big month for Marxism because it is the final month of the £5 discount on all ticket prices.

Of course we have to fight to maintain momentum in April and May but the reality is the discount can make a massive difference this month – and we need to fight to maximise its impact. Because so many bookings can come in throughout March, the more we drive this up the greater we can increase our lead over last year’s figures. What happens in March will shape every district’s Marxism turnout, and therefore the event nationally.

We need to be doing a number of things every week for the next three weeks:

• Marxism phone rounds of three groups of people: comrades, non-members who attended last year (these lists are now available from the Marxism office) and other contacts around us in the united fronts, trade unions and colleges.

• Emails, texts, Facebook, etc. These things aren’t enough in themselves, but combined with a strategy to chase people up can be very important for spreading the word. This is especially true in the universities where we should email academics, departments and SU clubs and societies too and get them to forward info on to their contacts.

• Mass postering: every district should now have the new poster (contact us for more). We need to get this up round every city-centre, in shop/café windows, on our stalls, in our meetings, and especially in the colleges and universities.

• Marxism stalls in/outside the colleges: large numbers of students have already booked for Marxism, including 7 who signed up at Oxford University’s “Radical Forum” event organised by one of our comrades on the weekend. The cheap tickets mean we can book loads more before the end of terms, especially in the context of the attacks on education and the resistance amongst lecturers and students. There should be Marxism stalls happening every week where we sell the paper but make sure everyone who stops gets Marxism publicity and we try and book them up or at least use the contact sheets to get their numbers.

• Make sure Marxism is everywhere: on the PCS picket lines, international women’s’ day meetings, local strikes and disputes, demos, public meetings, etc. we need to make sure there is at least one comrades with the forms going round, talking to people and getting bookings.

• Trade-unions: we need to get backing and money for Marxism through the unions to shape the event on a national level and to help build it locally. This means trying to get the attached trade union motion (edited as appropriate) through branches as well as booking up individuals (and of course, the two things reinforce each other).

FINALLY: please make sure you get bookings into us in the office ASAP – ideally by phoning them through. The Marxism office can be contacted at: 020 7819 1190 / info@marxismfestival.org.uk.

Socialist Review

The new issue is “going a bomb” to quote Mary from East London who has sold 25 copies so far. Everywhere you go right now there is massive discussion about the EDL, people are also talking about the threat of the Tories, whether to support Labour and the rise of Islamophobia. All these issues and more are in this month’s issue. Every comrade can take the opportunity to sell some copies at work even if they haven’t tried it before. If you need more copies as a branch or just for individual sales let the Review office know by 2pm Tuesday. 020 7819 1176.

Sales news

Civil service picket lines: So far we have the following reports in for civil service picket lines: Central London 31, Southwark 13, Croydon 7, British Museum 2, Harwich 6, Leeds 6, Cardiff 11, Manchester 9, North London 7, Norwich 2, Telford 2. So far we have sold 142 SWs on PCS picket lines.

Sales this week include 71 in Bolton building the anti-EDL demo, 60 in Birmingham, 80 in Brick Lane, 129 in Camden, 125 in Dundee, 100 SWs in Manchester, 63 in Leeds. Weekday sales include 40 in Cambridge and 51 at Holborn tube.

We sold 150 on the EIS education demo in Scotland.

We sold 30 papers and 17 reviews on the anti-EDL protest in London on Friday and 7 people joined the SWP.

Bus garage sales last week included: 13 at Edgware, 9 at Willesden, 2 at Leyton, 2 at Bow, 1 at Palmers Green, 1 Tottenham.

On the Brighton march for jobs comrades sold 40 SWs and a GMB steward.

Bookmarks news

Bookmarks will stay open until 10.30 pm for International Women's Day Event Tues 9th March

Author Event in Bookmarks

Fifty Million: Short Stories, Abdul Wakil Sulamal Shinwari Stories of everyday life in Afghanistan under occupation

March 17th 6.30 pm

Contact us to reserve your free place

events@bookmarks.uk.com mailorder@bookmarks.uk.com

Bookmarks sales report: Are you using our new publications to build networks and strengthen political relationships at work? Here are some reports from sales of Sean Vernell’s pamphlet Don’t Get Young in the Third Millennium (£2) and Dave Sherry’s book Occupy! (£5):

City & Islington College, 60 pamphlets; Tower Hamlets College, 25 pamphlets (so far) and 10 Occupy!; Socialist Teachers Alliance meeting 35 pamphlets; SERTUC meeting on fighting cuts, 15 pamphlets; Glasgow district, 45 Occupy so far; Bristol teacher ordered 50 pamphlets and sold 20 so far; Another Education is Possible conference 45 pamphlets and 15 Occupy; York College UCU branch has agreed to order 50 pamphlets and get Sean in to do a meeting.

Phone in your orders now on 020 7637 1848 – discounts for bulk and branch orders.