What happens in Wisconsin matters world-wide
contribution by Owen Tudor
The new independent unions of Egypt have been on the receiving end of a lot of solidarity messages from around the world as they struggle for democracy and human rights. But they are also sending solidarity messages to other workers engaged in the struggle for human rights: such as the trade unions of Wisconsin in the US mid-west.
It may seem bizarre to suggest that workers in the state capital of Madison, Wisconsin are engaged in a similar struggle as those in Tahrir Square, but it doesn’t seem bizarre to those Egyptian trade unionists, and they’re right.
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Upcoming NUS elections: meet the three candidates
There are three front-runners in the election in April to replace Aaron Porter as President of the National Union of Students. The contest is significant for students and non-students alike, so I’ve interviewed all three.
Liam Burns is currently President of NUS Scotland, Shane Chowen is Vice President (Further Education) of the NUS and Mark Bergfeld is member of the NUS National Executive and spokesperson for the Education Activist Network.
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Five reasons why Aaron Porter was right not to seek re-election
It’s official: Aaron Porter will no longer be the British student movement’s official figurehead. For only the second time since 1969, a NUS President will not serve a second term.
Aaron Porter chose the wrong time to be a Blairite at the helm of the student movement. If the joint NUS/UCU demo on November 14th had been half as big, Porter would still be in office. But it lit a torchpaper. No-one on left or right had a real sense of the burning anger on campuses and in sixth forms across the country.
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Ed Miliband will address the big TUC march – and why it matters
So, it’s official. Ed Miliband will be speaking at the TUC’s ‘March For The Alternative‘ on 26th March. Well, that’s what Peter Hain told me on Twitter today, and I’m willing to take his word for it.
Cue right-wing hysteria about ‘Red Ed’. In other countries, no-one would blink if the left-of-centre opposition leader joined his supporters in marching against an aggressive neo-liberal government.
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Why the student movement in England is essentially dead
There is growing media chatter globally about the “rising anger” of this generation’s youth. Student protests in the UK; uprisings across the Middle East; the rise of India and China; things kicking off elsewhere etc.
But its also too easy to overstate the impact of these changes, especially if the student movement here is anything to go by.
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Guardian today misrepresents unions and the fight against cuts
The Guardian today carries a comment piece by Unite union’s gen-sec Len McCluskey arguing: Unions, get set for battle. It has been turned into a rather simplistic news story title: Unions warn of massive wave of strikes.
It is also accompanied with a leader titled: Trade unions: Leading nowhere “Len McCluskey sadly sounds as if he stopped thinking in 1979. What a waste.”
I would be willing to bet money it was written by Julian Glover, because it once again misses the point and misrepresents the left and unions.
Labour and the unions: the Blairites are back
Second only to the Granita pact in the list of most memorable New Labour meals is surely Stephen Byers’ fish supper of 1996. Labour’s frontbench spokesman on industrial relations was in Blackpool for the TUC conference, and speaking to journalists over a restaurant meal, expressed the opinion that the party should cut ties with the unions.
Even for a man who started out as a principled revolutionary socialist and ended up touting himself to lobbyists as a ‘cab for hire’ at £5,000 a day, it was hardly a career high.
That the Blairites wanted to go through with the divorce was at that time received wisdom among the political classes. The game plan was to get into office, introduce state funding, keep on tapping the pockets of the super-rich, and then kiss the horny-handed sons of toil goodbye.
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Why the BBC strikes deserves public support
Members of the NUJ started their 48 hr strike at the BBC at midnight on Thursday over changes to their pensions.
When I arrived at BBC White City studios yesterday I had expected a deflated and demoralised picket line. But it proved to be much more optimistic. Coffee and cake was circulating the picket line. Even the heavy downpour of rain didn’t harm the fighting spirit.
Paul Mason, economics editor for Newsnight and the Father of the Chapel, told me he expected them to win the strike, providing an agreement can be found with the management.
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David Davis: ‘libertarian’ against striking
Too many of those directly engaged in industrial relations regard it as all a bit of a laugh. As a journalist who has covered numerous disputes ever since the 1980s, I know plenty of union officials and employer reps who get a kick out of showing what a clever clogs they can be across the negotiating table.
A spot of brinkmanship here, a threat of some argy-bargy there.
Then split the difference, maybe 70/30, 80/20 or 90/10 in favour of the bosses. The ‘concessions’ get presented to the members as ‘the best deal that could be done in the circumstances’, and everyone’s happy. See you same time next year, mate.
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More evidence Tories know little about Trade unions
I see Iain Dale’s verging on the ridiculous again; this time insulting millions of people in trade unions:
Have you noticed something? Trade Unions very rarely call their members out on strike over pay any longer. Nowadays it is on ‘safety’ issues. Usually spurious ones. This now seems de rigeur for the RMT whose strike today is ostensibly on the safety consequences, and the Fire Brigades Union also cites safety as one of the reasons for their strike.
So Iain think that trade union members care nothing for their role in ensuring public safety, are simply interested in their own paypacket, and that public safety is just a recently thought up bargaining chip?
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A firefighter speaks out: ‘who would you trust, us or politicians?’
This was posted as a comment on an earlier article, and we thought it was good enough to publish properly as an article. It has been slightly edited for clarity.
I’m a London fireman.
What annoys me is a lot of people choose to believe the spin made up by politicians who are infamous for spouting lies to support their cause rather than believing the voice of firefighters who are prepared to risk everything to get people out of dire situations.
Who would you trust with your life – a firefighter or a politician?
Firstly, I think the beds argument is irrelevant, I’ve not heard this mentioned once at work, there are much more important things at stake.
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London fire strikes: what the media won’t discuss
Coverage of the controversy around London fire-fighters strike on 5th November has been abysmal. On Channel 4 News last night, Jon Snow managed to get the two sides to agree to talk but shed little light on what is behind all this.
I also wish the FBU’s website was a bit more media friendly and they explained to people in simple language why the strikes were taking place. It’s abysmal.
Anyway, Here’s what I’ve gathered so far.
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How small technicalities are used against workers’ rights
contribution by Jon Stone
On Friday John McDonnell MP’s private members’ bill the “Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill” was put before the Commons.
The bill amends existing legislation on strikes to prevent employers using minor technical errors in balloting and reporting processes to win court injunctions banning strikes.
Using the courts system to crush industrial action has come into vogue in the past few years. For illustration, I list five examples.
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Why Boris Johnson’s 50% rule against strike action won’t work
Boris Johnson was elected Mayor of London in an election where the turn out was 45.3 per cent.
But he wants industrial action ballots to be valid only if the turn out is greater than 50 per cent.
As well as the obvious whiff of double standards, it’s a bizarre proposal when you examine the detail.
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Why I’m supporting the London tube strikes
There’s a strike on on the London tube at the moment.
I know anything that causes mild inconvenience is always treated as a gross affront to our human rights and anyone exercising their actual human rights is to be automatically denounced as selfish and evil -but I still support the strike.
Is it because I’m a godless communist? Well, yes and no. Certainly being a godless communist helps if you’re going to oppose the press, the government, the Mayor of London and just downright, globally accepted, common sense. However, there is some common sense on my side too.
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The Cuts won’t work, and why we have to fight them
In 1910, 100 years ago this year, people demanded a basic state pension so that no one had to be terrified of poverty in old age. The Tories said we couldn’t afford a basic state pension. They fought tooth and nail against it.
But our great grandparents disagreed. The people of this country came together, and finally, they beat the Tories.
They forced through the people’s budget, and laid the foundations of the welfare state. They showed that the Tories were wrong.
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‘A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats’ – Jimmy Reid’s speech in 1972
Jimmy Reid, the Clydeside trade union activist who died this week, was an inspiring orator. This speech, delivered on his inauguration as rector of Glasgow University in 1972. We reproduce it here in honour of the anniversary.
Alienation is the precise and correctly applied word for describing the major social problem in Britain today. People feel alienated by society. In some intellectual circles it is treated almost as a new phenomenon. It has, however, been with us for years. What I believe is true is that today it is more widespread, more pervasive than ever before. Let me right at the outset define what I mean by alienation. It is the cry of men who feel themselves the victims of blind economic forces beyond their control.
It’s the frustration of ordinary people excluded from the processes of decision-making. The feeling of despair and hopelessness that pervades people who feel with justification that they have no real say in shaping or determining their own destinies.
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Why civil servants are angry with this Coalition government
contribution by ‘State of Red’
One particular area that seems to be taking heavy fire, under the guise of austerity, at the moment is the Civil Service. Yes… those bowler-hatted bureaucrats in Whitehall [sic].
Francis Maude is happy to point out the PCS union’s folly at daring to take the previous government to court – and win – over redundancy packages by simply saying “We’ll just change the law, it’s the unions fault we’re doing this”.
All in the name of bringing public sector redundancy into line with private sector ‘best practice’(!). If they’re using BP’s chief executive Tony Haywood’s redundancy package as the example of best practice then I’m all for it. No, I didn’t think so either.
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How Hackney cuts
Have started to spend time with people in poorer boroughs who are likely to be affected by public sector cuts. Will post interview extracts while several of us work on longer pieces with video, and go back to people to see how they’re getting on:
I talk to Anthony Rhoden at a Saturday afternoon Hackney Unites clinic for people who need free workplace and employment advice. Two Russell Jones & Walker solicitors are there as advisors, as well a TUC and local union rep.
A longtime (now unemployed) chef and restaurant worker, Rhoden says that he is a Unite organiser for bar and restaurant employees -’there’s a lot of problems in the catering industry – there were lots of problems even before the recession. It happened to me all the time – wouldn’t get paid, or wouldn’t get all my pay. People don’t know they have rights. You get bullied all the time.’
In a recession, though, people count themselves lucky to have a job, even if they’re abused in it. That’ll be nowhere more the case than in Hackney. Hackney’s unemployment figures are already the worst in London, with a June 2010 TUC analysis putting the ratio of people claiming jobseekers’ allowance to available jobs at 24:1. continue reading… »
What would it take to make Middle England militant?
The coalition is on a collision course with Middle England, and just how Mondeo Man, Worcester Woman, the C2s and the Dinkies are going to respond remains to be seen.
I’m taking it as read that the turn to the small state unveiled in the emergency budget will hurt the poor. But the poor are, by definition, suffering anyway.
The long term unemployed will continue to be long term unemployed; pensioners subsisting on the basic state pension will remain pensioners subsisting on the basic state pension. Their deprivation will be ratcheted up a notch or three.
But like the legendary frog gradually boiled to death in a saucepan, they may not particularly notice.
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» Rich Ricci: the class politics of £44m bonuses
» Rejoice! Cameron is planning to take over the No2AV campaign
» How exactly will IDS pay for his flat pension scheme?
» When will something be done about street harassment?
» How times have changed
» Duke of York: time to get a job, mate
» How I’m trying to stop library cuts in Camden
» Don’t tell us we don’t need feminism any more
» How Ed Miliband could win the AV vote for Labour
» What happens in Wisconsin matters world-wide
» How the upcoming welfare cuts will hit blind and disabled people
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