15Marxist Thinking Britain’s destiny

Trade unions Collectivity is the key to strength 06

IF YOU WANT TO REBUILD BRITAIN, READ ON

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FOOTBALL: WRECKED BY CAPITALIST GREED

WORKERSwww.workers.org.uk SEPTEMBER 2012 £1

HISTORIC NOTES

THE TOLPUDDLEMARTYRS

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WORKERS

News 03

Features 06

Contents – September 2012Rail madness exposed, p3; Milk action delivers results, p4; Forensicarchive at risk, p5; News Analysis: Energy – eyes wide shut, p6

Trade unions: collective action is the keystone of strength, p6; How capitalismrelegated Rangers, p9; For genuine economic development, p11; Internationallaw violated as NATO and its allies seek to dismember Syria, p12

HistoricNotes 14The Tolpuddle Martyrs, p14

WORKERS is published by the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)78 Seymour Avenue, London N17 9EB. www.workers.org.ukISSN 0266-8580 Issue 161, September 2012

Playing the numbersTHE WORKINGS of capitalism remain a mysteryto its proponents. They tell us “the market”decides, and that everything depends on“confidence”.

When things go right, or seem to, it showshow wonderful the system is. When they gowrong, well, that’s a surprise. And when theydon’t make sense, that’s another mystery.

In August the statistics told us that theeconomy was in decline but that employmentwas on the rise. Truly, an economic miracle!

Precisely what is going remains – true toform – a mystery, but one fact emerges clearly:

that the government’s definition of anemployed person is not the same as mostpeople’s. The government says that if you workjust a bit, then you are working. Withincreasing numbers working part-time orintermittently, that’s increasing numbers whodon’t appear on the jobless totals – but whocertainly don’t count themselves as employed.

If things carry on like this, we will reach fullemployment when the economy disappearscompletely – the ultimate triumph ofcapitalism. Of course, by then there may be nostatisticians left to report the good news. ■

HELP FOR Heroes has been phenomenallysuccessful as a charity. Huge sums areroutinely raised for it around the country. Butnow at last soldiers themselves have beensounding the alarm. As one former RoyalMarine, himself a patron of the charity, pointedout last month, it seems to take its orders fromthe Ministry of Defence. The interests ofordinary squaddies come second.

The bulk of the money raised is earmarkedfor showcase facilities so that the Ministry of

Defence can boast about what it is doingwithout having to dig into its budget.Meanwhile, ex-servicemen are having to paythemselves for decent prosthetic limbs. In fact,the only soldiers it helps are those actually inthe services. Leave, and you can forget it.

So money is being raised not for ex-soldiers, but for the Ministry of Defence tobuild centres it should be building anyway. It’sa funny kind of charity whose purpose is todirectly subsidise the government. ■

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Spare a penny for the MoD

TRANSPORTWAGESDAIRYAIRLINESPORT WORKERSPOLICEEUNEWS ANALYSISEUROBRIEFSWHAT’S ON

SEPTEMBER 2012 NEWS DIGEST WORKERS 3

Rail madness exposed

RebuildingBritain

Rail madness exposed Unite survey Milk action delivers results EU attack on safety Victory at Portsmouth Forensic archive threatened Permanent bailout Energy: eyes wide shut The latest from Brussels Coming soon

If you have news from your industry, trade or profession wewant to hear from you. Call us on 020 8801 9543 or emailrebuilding@workers.org.uk

US

Urban bankruptcy

THE MADNESS of Britain’s privatisedrailways was cruelly laid bare by recentgovernment announcements. Huge fareincreases from next year, and theappointment of a new operator for theWest Coast Main Line from London toGlasgow, highlighted the fact that therailways are being run to maximiseprofits for private companies ratherthan being run as a vital public service.

Rail user groups and unionscondemned average fare increases of6.2 per cent from January 2013, withsome fares going up by 11 per cent. Ata time when salaries are falling in realterms, such massive increases in commuting costs will hit hard-pressed communities and donothing to boost Britain’s ailing economy. Even some government MPs are getting jittery.

First Group has wrested West Coast from Virgin, winning the race to the bottom intheir bid, which promises to make huge payments to the government over the 15-yearfranchise. The only way it can do so is to make swingeing cuts to staff in order to protect itsprofit margins. RMT has already warned First that it will defend vigorously the jobs oftheir members, taking industrial action if necessary.

We were treated to the nauseating sight of the politician's favourite entrepreneurRichard Branson protesting about Virgin having lost the franchise. He failed to mention thefact that had he won, he was planning much the same cull of jobs.

The West Coast is the first franchise to be awarded since the infamous McNulty Report,which advocates reducing costs on the railways by reducing staff and service quality, andjacking up fares. With the government having wholeheartedly accepted the report, recentannouncements come as no surprise.

The profiteering private rail companies now receive upwards of three times the publicsubsidy received by British rail at the time of privatisation in 1994, says railways expertChristian Wolmar. There is growing public support for the campaign to seize back therailways from the grip of privateers and return it to public ownership and control. It is acampaign that has become much more urgent. ■

UNITE THE UNION estimates that theaverage monthly pay of its members is£150 less than a year ago, and 82 per centwho responded to a union survey said thattheir wages didn't last the whole month. Ofthose 38 per cent had to be helped by familyand friends, 29 per cent had a second job orfell back on their savings, 21 per cent hadan overdraft or used credit cards and 12 percent had to resort to payday loans. Moneythat had to be borrowed was used mainly topay for rent or mortgage or fuel bills or toput petrol in the car.• In a separate report on the £2 billion ayear payday loan business, Which? foundthat borrowing £100 for 30 days cost from£15 to £40. In one case with interest, fees,interest on the fees, debit/credit cardcharges, etc, the repayment on a £150 loanfor 28 days would have been £205. ■

STOCKTON, the river port city 90 mileseast of San Francisco particularly badlyhit by the US property crash, couldbecome the largest American city to goformally bankrupt. A quarter of the city'spolice force has been cut, a third of itsfire staff and 40 per cent of all otherworkers. Wages and medical benefits ofthe remaining workforce have beenslashed.

Violent crime rates are now among thehighest in the US and the unemploymentrate is nearly twice the national average.The Californian cities of Mammoth Lakesand San Bernardino have also filed forbankruptcy. ■

WAGES

Unite survey

’’Virgin train at Birmingham New Street.

4 WORKERS

The latest from Brussels

AIRLINES

EU threat to crew safety

The jobless zoneEUROZONE UNEMPLOYMENT was11.1 per cent in May, the highest levelsince records began in 1995. Meanwhile,manufacturing is contracting: Spain,Italy, Greece and France all reportedsteep falls.

Unemployment in Greece was arecord 23.1 per cent; and 54.9 per centfor the 15-24 age group. Suicide ratesare up by 40 per cent. Yet the Greekgovernment wants to cut another 11.5billion euros in 2013-14, breaking itspledge to renegotiate the bailout.

Spain is similar: 24.3 per centunemployment and over 50 per centamongst the young. The number ofhouseholds with no wage earner has risenby 10 per cent since January, up to 1.7million. Over 1 in 5 of Spain’s 47 millionpeople are at risk of poverty. Thegovernment wants to cut 27 billion euros,yet by mid-2015 Spain faces a fundingneed of 547.5 billion euros. That’s overhalf its GDP and more than half its debt.

Helping Germany outTHE BRITISH government is backingEU treaty changes Germany wants tokeep the eurozone alive. It is pushingthrough a Bill to approve the necessaryEU treaty change to give legal status tothe EU’s bailout funds, without callingthe referendum it promised.

We want outAN ANGUS REID poll in August aboutBritish membership of the EU found that46 per cent of respondents would vote toleave; 29 per cent would vote to stay andthe rest are undecided. The proportion ofBritons who would be willing to adopt theeuro as the national currency remains insingle digits (6 per cent), and over 80 percent would vote against any change. Aseparate poll in July found that 63 percent of us want either less integrationwith the EU or complete withdrawalfrom it.

Iceland’s second thoughtsICELAND COULD withdraw itsapplication for EU membership earlynext year after elections in June. Theelected president Ólafur RagnarGrímsson and runner up ThóraAnórsdóttir both campaigned against it –and won 85 per cent of the votes betweenthem. Anórsdóttir asked, “who wouldrent a room in a burning hotel? ■

EUROBRIEFS

Milk action delivers resultsIN JULY thousands of dairy farmers demonstrated in London against the latest cut in theprice the big processors are paying them for milk. The reduction of about 2p per litrefollowed hard on the heels of a similar fall in May. Agriculture Minister Jim Paice washowled down when he suggested farmers should look at their own costs.

Days after the demonstration, hundreds of farmers blockaded milk processing plantsthroughout the country with their tractors and threatened to hold back their milk fromsuppliers – saying they would rather pour it down the drains at Westminster. StephenBritten of the newly formed Farmers for Action said they could not go on any longer.Supermarkets must pay more for milk “but it has to come out of their profits and not fromconsumers”. The National Farmers Union (NFU) reckons that its members are losing upto 6p on each litre of milk they produce and that many are deserting the industry.

The farmers’ action has produced results. But as some of the main supermarketsincreased the price paid to farmers, they have also deferred some of the price reductionsplanned for August and their agreement to a new code of conduct designed to give thefarmers more bargaining power. The government has also said it will try to persuadesupermarkets to source more of the milk used in cheese, butter and yoghurt from Britishfarms rather than importing it.

In 1933 the Milk Marketing Board was formed to guarantee a market for British dairyfarmers. It also ensured that milk was clean and free from diseases such as brucellosis.Production was controlled by any excess liquid milk being turned into butter or cheese forwhich the farmer got a lower price.

The Board was sacrificed as part of the deal for Britain joining the Common Market,the forerunner of the European Union. Only a system such as capitalism would destroy acoal industry in an island made of coal and a dairy industry in a land of rain and grass. Arewe to end up drinking French milk in the same way that we now import Polish coal?• According to publicly funded research, Britain imports 40 per cent of its food (see, forexample, www.foodsecurity.ac.uk). Many people recognise that it is crazy to import foodthat can be grown here. Around the country local groups are springing up with the aim oftackling this issue – no point waiting for politicians to do anything! Just one example isIncredible Edible Prestwich and District – a community group set up two years ago bypeople living in and around Prestwich, in north Manchester. They have held a number ofpublic meetings on the issue. For details of their next event, see What’s On (page 5). ■

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NEW RULES proposed by the EuropeanAviation Safety Agency would seriouslythreaten the safety of airline pilots, crewand passengers, says the British AirlinePilots Association, the pilots’ union. Forexample, pilots could be required to land aplane after having been awake for 22 hours.The union accuses the agency of ignoring

scientific advice and points out that evenBritain’s present more stringent standardshave their own weaknesses, such as theunder reporting of fatigue.

The effect on air safety of tired pilots isa growing issue. For example over Canadarecently a pilot nodded off and awaking witha start mistook the unusually bright planetVenus for an oncoming aircraft. Followingcorrect procedure he immediately put theplane into a steep turn resulting in extensiveinjuries to passengers and crew. ■

September

To 9 September. Science Museum,Exhibition Road, London SW7 2DD.

Make it in Great Britain

With all the focus on the finance industryand its alleged importance to Britain, awelcome look at the country’smanufacturing champions, showcasingleading products and processes from awide range of industries.

Sunday 2 September, 11am to 4.30pm

Burston School Strike Rally

Village green, Burston, near Diss,Norfolk. Celebrating the longest strike inBritish history, a fight against the localsquirearchy. Speakers, entertainment,march, stalls. Car and coach parkingavailable in Burston. The nearest railwaystation is four miles away at Diss, butseveral organisations are laying oncoaches. More info at burstonstrikeschool.wordpress.com/the-rally/

Wednesday 12 September, 7.30pm.British Legion, Bury Old Rd (near HeatonPark Metrolink), Prestwich

Food Growing Revolution in Cuba

Public meeting organised by IncredibleEdible Prestwich. In 1989 the collapse ofthe Soviet Union meant Cuba lost itsmain export trade and its economy wasdramatically destabilised. Then the UStightened its existing trade embargo. TheCuban people, almost totally isolatedfrom the rest of the world, facedstarvation. But rather than roll over anddie, Cuba responded to the crisis with arestructuring of agriculture. Can we learnfrom the experience of Cuba? Can weproduce more of our food locally and stillat reasonable cost? Can we create jobsand a greater sense of community in theprocess? Come to the meeting and findout more. For info, see http://incredible-edible-prestwich.org.uk/events

Thursday 27 September, 7.30pm.Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, LondonWC1R 4RL.

“The European Union – War on Europe’sPeoples”

Public meeting organised by theCPBML. The European Union doesn’tjust want to break up Britain. It wants todestroy all independence within Europeand subject its nations’ peoples to directrule by Brussels – and by capitalism.Come and discuss. Everybody welcome.

WHAT’S ON

Coming soon

THE GOVERNMENT wants to close the archive of the Forensic Science Service – all thatis now left of nationally organised forensic provision, forcing each individual police forcesacross England and Wales to maintain its own storage system without extra funding.

The archive costs just £2 million to run and holds nearly 2 million case files, somegoing back over 30 years. It is regularly used to investigate unsolved crimes and in appealsagainst unsafe convictions, and has been characterised by the Association of Chief PoliceOfficers as “a safe, secure and efficient facility”.

Andrew Miller MP, chairman of the Science and Technology Select Committee, haswarned: “They have destroyed a very valuable resource. They have put nothing in its placeand miscarriages of justice will occur.” He also pointed out the potential effect on futurescientific advances that up until now have been possible with a central facility.

Alastair Logan of the Law Society, who was involved in the freeing of the GuildfordFour, has described the closure as an act of vandalism and has asked how police forces willknow, for example, about different rapes committed by the same person in different partsof the country. Dr Peter Bull of the University of Oxford, an expert in forensicsedimentology, says the new measures are totally inadequate and could lead to majormiscarriages of justice. He called the decision “horrendous, absolutely horrendous”.

Separately, new Home Office figures reveal that police officer numbers are at theirlowest for nine years with a fall of 5,000 in the last year alone. The number of civilianpolice staff and community support officers has also fallen. ■�

Forensic archive at risk

SEPTEMBER 2012 NEWS DIGEST WORKERS 5

Permanent bailout

EUROPEAN UNION

Victory at Portsmouth

PORT WORKERS

THE EUROPEAN Union on 29 Juneagreed changes to its European StabilityMechanism. The ESM has become apermanent eurozone bailout fund, not fornations or governments, but for banks.

It can now give directly to failedprivate banks funds intended for indebtedgovernments. Taxpayers’ money is againhijacked to prop up failed banks. Onceagain, workers subsidise private profitsand bonuses.

There is no limit set to the demandsmade on taxpayers. Workers faceunlimited liability. Its constitution says,“ESM Members hereby irrevocably andunconditionally undertake to pay ondemand any capital call made on them …such demand to be paid within seven days

of receipt.” (Article 9.) Its Article 8 says,“The authorised capital stock shall be 700billion Euros”, but Article 10 says, “TheBoard of Governors … may decide tochange the authorised capital and amendArticle 8 … accordingly.”

Governments cannot take actionagainst this unaccountable body. It isbeyond review, beyond the law.

As its constitution says, “The ESM, itsproperty, funding, and assets … shall enjoyimmunity from every form of judicialprocess…” (Article 32.)

Its “Governors, alternate Governors,Directors, alternate Directors, as well asthe Managing Director and other staffmembers shall be immune from legalproceedings with respect to acts performedby them in their official capacity and shallenjoy inviolability in respect of theirofficial papers and documents.” (Article30.) ■

QUAY ASSISTANTS at PortsmouthInternational Port are claiming victoryafter settling their dispute with theemployer at the end of July. Unite regionalofficer Ian Woodland said, “Thisdemonstrates the importance of collectiveaction.We had a 100 per cent turnout onthe vote for industrial action and thisstrong action made management reconsiderits position.

The 18 assistants, responsible for tyingup and releasing cross-Channel ferries,voted for industrial action earlier in June

after the employer decided to dismiss themand rehire them on inferior contracts – ineffect creating a two-tier workforce, saidthe union. Among other things, the newcontract demanded that quay assistantsguarantee to service vessels beyond theircontractual finishing time of midnight.

Management made their move againstthe workforce after hiring new staff on theinferior contracts. But under the agreementreached after the assistants balloted foraction, the two-tier arrangement is to bescrapped. “Basically, management hasagreed to bring people on inferior contractsup to the contracts and all overtime aftermidnight will be voluntary,” saidWoodland. ■

THE BRITISH STATE has released the results of its latest Labour ForceSurvey. What does it tell us about trade union membership and activity? Adifferent picture emerges in public and private sectors, but it is not allgloom and doom. Overall a drop of 143,000 trade union members, but withan increase of 43,000 members in the private sector. That means 186,000public sector trade unionists lost, but bear in mind there were 369,000public sector jobs cut in the last 12 months.

Membership density in the public sector is up, representation inbargaining units is up, trade union presence in workplaces is up. Theprivate sector, though increasing members by 43,000, saw density drop by0.1 per cent, while bargaining remains the same at 16.9 per cent andpresence in the workplace dropped marginally from 29.6 to 28.5 per cent.

But the increase in this sector reversed a huge drop during theprevious three years, where over 450,000 members were lost, leaving 3.9million members in the public services and 2.5 million members in theprivate sector – 6.4 million TUC affiliates. It is estimated that non-TUCaffiliates account for roughly the same number with density the best since2000 and presence in bargaining units up for the first time since 1998.

Desertion?So after two years of the Coalition and its economic programme of poverty,have workers deserted their trade unions? Obviously not. There are quirksin the figures as Lloyds Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland trade unionistsare now classed as the “public sector” and as yet it is not possible todetermine how many outsourced trade union members who have beenprivatised have contributed to the increase in the private sector.

But the most draconian anti-union legislation in Europe is about to bemade even more vicious. This time the attack is not only against thecollective of trade unions but also at every individual employment rightexercised by workers. The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill is part ofthe Coalition’s attack. Their rhetoric is that over-regulation in theworkplace holds entrepreneurs and business back from growing out of theeconomic disaster they have been responsible for.

“Efficiency” and “competitiveness” are the buzzwords, to create cowedworkers who will do whatever they are forced to do while the threat ofdismissal and long-term unemployment and poverty hang over them. Inother words, all legal protections achieved in the workplace need to beremoved. Hence the much-trailed Adrian Beecroft report on employmentlaw, Lord Young’s report on Health and Safety, the review on sicknessabsence, the “streamlining” of the national minimum wage and so forth.All are intended to return the whip hand to the “masters” in the workplaceand a clear understanding by us, the “servants”, what servitude means.

So what is Beecroft’s proposal? He says, “I strongly favour a fourthapproach which allows an employer to dismiss anyone without giving areason provided they make an enhanced leaving payment….This type ofdismissal could be known as Compensated No Fault Dismissal.” So scrapunfair dismissal law and legal precedents and go back to hiring and firingas in the good old days – but with a caveat of limiting compensation to£12,000 maximum. Plus raise the one-year qualifying period forcompensation to two years. This means employers can often sack withouteven paying any paltry sum.

SEPTEMBER 2012

With the TUC Congress convening in Brighton this month, there are encouraging signs of a possiblerenaissance in recruitment. But the government is gearing up for yet another legal assault on tradeunions…

Trade unions: collective action is the keystone of strength

THE GOVERNMENT’S Energy Bill and ElectricityMarket Reforms (EMRs) are clearly at odds withthe TUC’s 2011 “Roadmap for Coal” strategy, butlike previous governments this one has its fingerscrossed and its eyes firmly closed. The drive fromthe EU, signed up to by all British governmentssince the 1984-85 miners’ strike, has been for amix of low-carbon generation. This has meantessentially the dash for gas with the cosmetics ofwind farms polluting the countryside and coasts,closure of coal power stations and eitherindecision or closure with regard to nuclear powerstations.

The challenges to Britain’s energy industriesare clear: to provide a low-carbon generation mix;to implement carbon capture and storage; toprovide security and affordability of supply.

The numbers employed in coal mining and theelectricity supply industry have dwindled to thelowest ever: around 60,00 miners and 4,250 powerstation workers. But there is the potential toincrease those employed, adding between 150,000and 400,000 highly skilled wealth-generatingjobs, by using Britain's energy expertise tobecome an energy-building centre for the world.

Where the power comes fromUnderstanding Britain’s electricity supply industryis critical. There are an estimated 1000 years ofcoal reserves in Britain. Britain mines 18 milliontonnes of coal at present and importsapproximately 34 million to make up the coal-firedpower station burn of 52 million. Nineteen of thesepower stations produce 28 per cent of Britain’sgeneration; gas generation produces a further 47per cent, with nuclear, renewables and importsmaking up the rest. Britain is committed tosubstantial decarbonised-fuel generation by 2030with complete carbon-free generation by 2050.

There are 28 gigawatts of coal-fired generationat present. Under the EU Large Combustion PlantDirective five coal-fired power stations will close in2015, taking 8 GW out of the coal-fired powerstations' capacity and contribution to demand.

The government plan is that imports of gas willcover the shortfall. Otherwise the shortfall willmean instability of supply and power cuts. Dealsto import ever-increasing amounts of gas fromNorway, Russia and North Africa are literally in thepipeline. And then a gas-fired power station – aglorified gas fire in an aircraft hangar – can bethrown up in months as opposed to the 10 to 15years lead-in time to build a coal or nuclear powerstation, subject to planning permissions,modernised designs and carbon capturetechnology being in place. To build a new coalmine would take a similar lead-in period of 10-15years.

But gas is not clean, reliable in supply or in thelong run affordable. So the question as to whathappens first – provision of clean, reliable,affordable energy or power cuts – is the questionexercising many minds in industry. ■

NEWS ANALYSIS

Energy: eyes wide shut

Continued on page 8

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SEPTEMBER 2012 WORKERS 7

With the TUC Congress convening in Brighton this month, there are encouraging signs of a possiblerenaissance in recruitment. But the government is gearing up for yet another legal assault on tradeunions…

Trade unions: collective action is the keystone of strength

Trade union membership in the private sector has been rising, including at the RMT, which has maintained tight organisation.

CPBML/Workers

Public Meeting, LondonThursday 27 September, 7.30 pm“The European Union –War on

Europe’s Peoples”Bertrand Russell Room, Conway Hall, 25 Red LionSquare, London WC1R 4RL. Nearest tube Holborn.

The European Union doesn’t just want to break up Britain. Itwants to destroy all independence within Europe and subject itsnations’ peoples to direct rule by Brussels – and by capitalism.Come and discuss. Everybody welcome.

8 WORKERS SEPTEMBER 2012

Small businesses would be exemptfrom almost all employment legislation.Discrimination law as introduced in theEquality Act 2010 is to be binned.Employment Tribunal Procedures andAwards are to be stood on their heads andfees for every case lodged to be introduced– make the victim pay! There are furtherattacks on pensions and tweaks to theCriminal Record Checking System whichwill introduce additional costs of £50million for a watered down system.Changes are being made to work permits;getting migrant workers into Britain bybypassing Jobcentre Plus and goingstraight abroad to recruit.

There is a full-blown attack on theTransfer of Undertakings Protection ofEmployment (TUPE) regulations, most ofcan have a coach and horses driventhrough it even now. Likewise, we seeweakening of collective redundancyconsultation and Equal Pay legislation;abolition of the Gangmasters LicensingAuthority; and abandonment of the AgencyWorkers Regulation – another EU directiveineffective in protecting agency workers.

Beecroft’s and similar reviews wereleaked and then extensively published in2011. The Enterprise and RegulatoryReform Bill in nine short pages addressingemployment law brings in all if not worseoptions though it drops the CompensatedNo Fault Dismissal. It introduces a lessermeasure whereby an employer can be“fined” up to £5,000 for sacking someoneunfairly, a small sum in the scale of things.

Fees for hearings will be introduced;compensation for loss of earnings claimsslashed by 65 per cent, which ironicallyBeecroft opposed; awards will be capped,with differing awards depending on thesize of the company and so forth. In thename of setting business free, the existingemployment law, which already works onthe principle that a worker is guilty untilproven innocent, should give a still biggerstacked hand to the employer.

Of course the idea that employmentrights are what hold back business andeconomic revival is nonsense. Employmentrights are a response to the inequality in

the workplace. They have never been asolution. With these changes, workers aregoing to have to face up to the reality.

There is no third way of duckingissues. There will not be that day in courtwhich always gives the victim some illusionthat all wrongs will be righted. Usually theworker loses anyway when the employershows “reasonableness” in process ordecision making despite behaviour whichborders on criminal.

Back to the unionSo where does it bring us back to? Beingorganised in the workplace and assertingour collective rights as workers. Thatmeans being members of our respectiveand appropriate trade union. Not as somemeaningless so-called community,divorced from the workplace, unwaged,non-working, with an affinity to a local pubor park, but as “The Union”.

What does being the union mean?Coming together around our employer,around our skills, around our economicinterests, around the things which unify us

at work or through the work, not someseparate or sectarian agenda whichremoves us from the workplace.

What constitutes, past and present,our greatest strength and greatestvictories? It is our collective action in theworkplace, not dissipated outside theworkplace – whether in election,demonstration, rent strike or other. Thecontradiction of being in conflict with theemployer, whether public or private, largeor small, being at the workplace as thesharp end is far more valuable andinstructive than stepping outside andtaking that energy elsewhere.

Workers are going to have to find outor rediscover that when under attack thatthe only form of defence is to attack. Ourfirst move in battle will be to find re-awakening class consciousness. Workersmight also reflect on the fact that every EUcountry and many others – as far flung asAustralia and the USA – are almostidentical in their clamour for their so-calledausterity programmes. And the first thingto go are workers’ rights at work. ■

Continued from page 6

eet the PartyThe Communist Party of Britain’s new series of London public meetingsbegins on 27 September, with further meetings on 15 November, 12February and 11 June; all are held in the Bertrand Russell room, ConwayHall, Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL, nearest Tube Holborn,and start at 7.30 pm. Other meetings are held around Britain. Allmeetings are advertised in What’s On, see page 5.

The theme of the first meeting, on Thursday 27 September, is: “TheEuropean Union – War on Europe’s Peoples”. Details of further

meetings will be announced in WORKERS and at www.workers.org.uk. Catch our WORKERS sellers this month at the Burston School StrikeRally (see What’s On, p5).The Party’s annual London May Day rally is always held on MayDay itself, regardless of state bank holidays – in 2013, Wednesday

1 May, in Conway Hall, Holborn. There will also be May Day meetingselsewhere in the country.

As well as our regular public meetings we hold informaldiscussions with interested workers and study sessions for those

who want to take the discussion further. If you are interested we want tohear from you. Call us on 020 8801 9543 or e-mail toinfo@workers.org.uk

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Tragedy has followed farce as one of the most prestigiousnames in Scottish football has fallen victim to capitalistgreed…

PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL has alwaysattracted crooks and frauds. Many clubsand their supporters have suffered, themore so since rewards have grown greatlyover the past 20 years. But few events havebeen as spectacular as the fall of GlasgowRangers, one of the most prominent andsuccessful clubs in Britain.

The dominance of English sport in themedia and the 2012 Olympics haveovershadowed the story, so too have otherfinancial crises. In any other year thisunfolding story would have made headlinesacross the country, not just locally inScotland. The events at Rangers mirrorthose at other clubs, but few have been sodramatic or on the same scale.

Rangers FC started this season inScottish League Division Three againstPeterhead, until relatively recentlymembers of the Highland League. They arebeset by legal and financial difficulties and

How capitalism relegated Rangers

SEPTEMBER 2012 WORKERS 9

are in dispute with the sport’s governingbody. Yet at the start of last season theyhad won three consecutive titles andexpected to play in Europe every year. Howdid this happen?

The company running the club wentinto administration in February 2012, withpotential debts of £134 million. Thegreatest established debt was £27 millionowed to Ticketus, a finance company, andsecured on three years’ future ticket sales.This loan was part of deal by Craig Whyteto take over the club from a company runby long-term Rangers chairman Sir DavidMurray. Rangers were in effect under adouble burden.

The forward ticket sales security was asimilar arrangement to that which nearlybrought down Leeds United a decade ago.Using the club’s own assets to fund atakeover was the method used by theGlazers for their acquisition of Manchester

United in 2005.The greatest threat to the club at the

time of the administration was a taxtribunal case for which the potential liabilityis estimated at £93 million. A verdict fromthe tribunal is still awaited. The disputewith HM Revenue & Customs is about thealleged use of Employee Benefit Trusts(EBTs) to reduce tax bills of the club, theformer owners and its players, over morethan ten years. Payments through EBTs arenot confined to football; they are usedmost notably in the financial sector for thesame purpose – to avoid deduction ofincome tax and national insurance.

The BBC Scotland documentaryRANGERS, THE MEN WHO SOLD THE JERSEYSbroadcast in May, revealed that around 100players, club staff and Murray Group

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Rangers v Dundee at Ibrox, 2 May 2012. Rangers won 5–0. Now the erstwhile Scottish Premier League club is in Division 3…

employees benefited from the schemethrough payments totalling £47 million,though several of those named denyreceiving such untaxed payments.

After the club went into administration,the tragedy turned to farce. Despite muchpublicity and the obligatory stories ofrescue by “lifelong” supporters backed bymysterious overseas businessmen, biddersdropped out one by one. The most oftenquoted reasons were uncertainty about thesize of the debt and a lack of transparencyabout the dealings that led to theadministration.

Last bidThe last bid remaining was from aconsortium led by Charles Green whichbought Rangers’ assets for £5.5 million.Green was chief executive of SheffieldUnited from 1996 to 1998. At the end of theperiod that club’s losses had grown fromaround £60,000 to £5.9 million, whichGreen attributed to the large wage bill.Supporters at the time suggested insteadthat the club had been over-ambitious andpoorly managed. While it’s too early to sayif history will repeat itself, football has seenmany serial offenders who pass from clubto club, seeming to repeat their mistakeseach time. That may be another burden forRangers.

In May the Scottish Football Association(SFA) imposed fines and sanctions on theclub and the now removed director CraigWhyte. These were in connection with afailure to disclose that in 2000 he had beendisqualified as a company director forseven years. The SFA considered that hewas not a fit and proper person to be adirector and that both he and the club hadbrought the game into disrepute.

Whyte said none of this was going toaffect his life, and shed crocodile tears forthe club’s fans. Rangers’ supporters believethat it is unfair to burden the club with themistakes of the past and to punish it to agreater extent than the perpetrators. Theyblame Whyte and Murray for effectivelydestroying the club. Fans ask morepointedly why the SFA is blessed with great

hindsight, but can never spot rogues beforethe damage is done, just like theircounterparts in England.

Other factors caused Rangers greaterproblems than the SFA fines. Punishmentfor bringing the game into disreputeincluded a transfer embargo. The club canonly sign players under the age of 18 forthe next year.

England has a “football creditor” ruleunder which a club emerging fromadministration must first pay off debts toother clubs – at the expense of othercreditors. No other type of business isallowed to do that and it does not apply inScotland. Rangers owned money to otherclubs in the Scottish Premier League (SPL),and were charged by the SFA with failing topay gate receipts to Dundee United from aScottish Cup match. That hadconsequences later on, when Rangersneeded support from those clubs.

Green’s plan was apparently to takeRangers out of administration by coming to

an agreement with creditors, paving theway for a return to the SPL. Players andstaff agreed wage cuts to enable lastseason's fixtures to be completed. Suchgestures were not going to be enough tosatisfy their creditors and HMRC. The oldcompany lost its SFA and SPL registrationsand will eventually go into liquidation. Anew company was set up and had to applyafresh to be admitted to the league.

There was no way out for new Rangers.There were disputes with players whorejected the claim by the new club thattheir registrations transferred over from theold company. A majority of SPL clubsrejected the application for re-election. TheScottish League only permitted Rangers tojoin at the bottom, playing against clubswhose regular attendance is lower than inthe English Conference. The whole ofScottish professional football is likely tolose sponsorship and other income as aresult of Rangers’ demotion.

There is no certainty that Rangers’ owntroubles are over. In August the SFA set upa commission to consider if the EBTpayments by Rangers broke SFA rules. Aswell as a massive tax bill, there could befurther sanctions against the club forbreach of SFA rules. These require that allpayments to players must be declared; it’ssaid that those made into EBTs were not.

Supporter-owned clubsSupporters elsewhere have in several casesset up supporter-owned clubs after theirclub has been hijacked. The most notableand successful of these is AFC Wimbledon,which started from scratch in 2002 and isnow in the Football League. In other casesfans have raised money to “rescue” a club,but have only succeeded in giving it tothose who created the problem, with nocontrol.

This tale has many parallels with thewider economic crisis. Supporters believethat a club is a social and culturalinstitution, and that it only exists becauseof their support and patronage. Capitalistsbelieve that if they own the shares of thelimited company currently running the club,it’s theirs to do with as they will. Both areright, and in the end irreconcilable. ■

10 WORKERS SEPTEMBER 2012

Continued from page 9

“The whole of Scottishprofessional football

is likely to losesponsorship and otherincome as a result ofRangers’ demotion…”

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SEPTEMBER 2012 WORKERS 11

THE SHORT-TERM vision of today'scapitalists is nowhere more obvious thanwhen you look at infrastructure – forexample gas, water, electricity, railways.At present Britain’s decision-making oninfrastructure is conducted by differentsets of capitalists, influenced by differentconcerns and not paying much attentionto each other. This goes some way toexplaining the obstacles that currentlyrestrict economic development. Apartfrom the maximisation of profits there isno strategy or co-ordinated planning.

Now is the time when we should catchup with infrastructure needs too longneglected. But the capital demands forthis work are such that they could neverattract voluntary investment on the scalerequired from those private organisationsthat currently control our utilities. This isbecause the costs and time needed forthe building of new infrastructure wouldmean tying up their capital for too longbefore generating any profit.

So private capital hoarders are onlyinterested in infrastructure already builtfrom public finance which then becomesavailable for asset-stripping throughpolitical connivance.

Bearing this in mind, it is not byaccident that Coalition thinking oninfrastructure is confined to new projectsonly. It conveniently overlooks theprivatised infrastructure that was grabbedwhen many members of our class decidedto play the fool by agreeing that ourassets should be levered from publicownership – as when the “Tell Sid”adverts of the 1980s urged people to buya few shares in hitherto public utilitieswhile the controlling stake was grabbedby finance capital.

So in an attempt to “skin the cattwice”, the Coalition now seeks to confineitself to greenfield sites and load start-upcosts onto the backs of workers via a levyon the price of gas or other utilities. Ifthey can find any way to wrap up andmarket such levies inside a bit of greenenvironmental nonsense, then so muchthe better.

To run alongside this, the Coalitionhas also been investigating other ways of

using our assets to do the grunt work. Aslittle helpers, the local government think-tank Localis and Lloyds Banking Grouphave come up with the idea of setting upa National Infrastructure Bank that couldbe used to syphon capital from our public-sector pension funds.

Our trade unions must be clear andactive about this scheme. Havingdismembered the Coalition’s “we are allliving longer” arguments for downgradingour pensions expectations, unions shouldnow push forward and reject any proposalthat permits our pensions assets to beused as infrastructure start-up fodder forcapitalist companies.

Go furtherWe need to go further – to rid ourselvesof the parasites who pretend to addresssocial needs through levies and raids onpensions funds and take back our existinginfrastructure from private ownership andcontrol. Such an approach would free upfor use here a steady flow of revenue nowgoing in the form of profits to companiesmostly based abroad. Instead thisrevenue should be used to finance fresh

loans for new infrastructurearrangements.

Apart from the economic benefits andthe ability to raise large loansimmediately, it would also serve to bringtogether workers in building new projectsthroughout the British Isles, combiningexpertise with a national rather than aregional perspective. Such ideas areanathema to the Coalition, representingthe exact opposite of the instructions theytake from the EU on further privatisationand geographical division of the country –for example, to push forward the EUannexation of Scotland.

The British government, as we haverecently experienced, has no problemwith nationalisation. During 2008Northern Rock, RBS and Lloyds (HBOS)were nationalised in all but name. Butwhat that nationalisation amounted towas the socialisation of debt by placingbank losses onto the balance sheet ofBritain’s public accounts.

This private sector mess has sinceresulted in Government debt rising tosome £1 trillion. In contrast, nationalising(socialising) our infrastructure would helpprovide a way out of the mess by fullyutilising current infrastructure revenue toraise credit as an instrument of planningin pursuit of growth.

No doubt the idea of taking backthese assets from the privateers will raisesqueals from the opposition andnaysayers hoping that we will fall for theirfake National Infrastructure Banking ruse,and so on. But their smoke-and-mirrortechniques are no longer working.

The desire of the working class,having experienced the effects of over 30years of industrial decline, is now forgenuine national economic development.This puts the Coalition, the private capitalhoarders and the other managers ofBritain’s decline under the spotlight. In particular, they get uncomfortablewhen they are forced to talk abouteconomic growth.

Within their limited vision they haveno idea how to make it happen. Time forour class to take the lead. Only we havethe country's interests truly at heart. ■

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In the name of infrastructure, capitalists are to be enrichedand our pensions funds looted. But there is another way…

For genuine economic development

12 WORKERS SEPTEMBER 2012

NATO IS targeting Iran through its allySyria. Sir John Sawers, head of MI6, ispreparing to “fix” intelligence on Iran, ashis predecessor Sir John Scarlett did bycreating “dodgy dossiers” hyping thethreat of Iraq’s non-existent “weapons ofmass destruction”. On 4 July, Sawers toldBritish senior civil servants that Iran is“two years away” from becoming anuclear weapons state. Even the CIA doesnot believe this.

Since March 2011, al-Qaeda groups,covertly backed by NATO and Israel, havecarried out terrorist attacks in Syria, justas they did in Bosnia in 1992-95,Azerbaijan in 1993 and Kosovo in 1997-98.These mercenaries have targeted thepolice, armed forces and innocentcivilians, as the Arab League ObserverMission reported.

The USA and Britain are planning a“humanitarian” military intervention likethe one on Libya. Special forces fromBritain, France, Qatar and Turkey arealready on the ground inside Syria inblatant violation of international law.

NATO and Israel are backing Kurdishseparatists in northern Syria, who arelinked to the Israeli-backed KurdishRegional Government in northern Iraq. Theaim, as the Jerusalem Post said, is to‘Break Syria into Pieces’.

NATO countries and their new Islamistallies have deliberately undermined anysolution to the unfolding tragedy in Syria,frustrating all efforts by Kofi Annan andthe United Nations. Consider the 30 JuneGeneva meeting of the five permanentmembers of the UN Security Council andits aftermath. Despite Russia earlier

suspending Syrian arms deliveries, Qatarand Saudi Arabia had flooded theopposition with weapons, making surethat the best, including anti-tank missiles,went to their Salafist and Islamistprotégés.

Meanwhile US Secretary of StateHillary Clinton called for regime change.With Kofi Annan’s ceasefire plan in tatters,he organised the conference in Genevaand managed to achieve a commonagreement between the five to call for theformation of a Government of NationalUnity in Syria, a timetable for elections ina fair environment and the maintenance ofgovernment institutions.

Later in the UN Security Council,Russia proposed a resolution to endorsethe Geneva Agreement, only to findBritain, the US and former colonial powerFrance proposing a resolution thatreasserted their position of regime changeand more sanctions. This is what led KofiAnnan to resign as UN/Arab League Envoyto Syria. While the British media falselydeclared that Annan had blamed Russiafor his resignation, the US, Britain, France,Qatar and Saudi Arabia rejoiced that theywere now free to continue supporting the“opposition” with arms (hinting at anti-aircraft missiles), money, communicationsand special forces.

Any opposition will doThe most quoted opposition group is theSyrian National Council that BritishForeign Secretary Hague recognises as the“legitimate representatives of the peopleof Syria”. Its main spokesperson is Paris-based Bassma Kodmani. The SNC iseffectively made up of a plethora of Syrianexile factions and is currently based inTurkey. Kodmani has been vociferous incalling for foreign armed intervention inSyria. Interestingly, she attended hersecond Bilderberg Conference in Chantilly,Virginia. Bilderberg Conferences are agathering of the world’s capitalist elite. Atthe 2008 conference she listed herself asFrench.

In September 2005, after the collapseof Syrian/US relations, Kodmani was madeExecutive Director of the Arab Reform

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It’s become a tried and tested formula: find some wealthy foreign exiles with absolutely nothing in common with the people ofthe country they have left, build them into opposition heroes, then impose them on the country…

International law violated as NATO and its allies seek to dismember Syria

Syrians demonstrate for Syria and Assad in the centre of The Hague, Holland, on 19 May.

SEPTEMBER 2012 WORKERS 13

Initiative, the brainchild of US neo-conservative think-tank the Council onForeign Relations, which includes PeterSutherland, the chairman of GoldmanSachs International, Brent Scowcroft, aformer US National Security Advisor andZbigniew Brzezinski, who succeeded him,among its board members. Financialoversight of ARI was transferred to theCentre for European Reform overseen byLord Kerr, who is chairman of Royal DutchShell, and by Charles Grant, a member ofthe European Council on ForeignRelations, which lists as one of itsmembers Bassma Kodmani, along withfinancier George Soros.

So here we have a coming together ofintelligence, industry, banking and foreignpolicy with Kodmani, the “pro-democracyactivist”, as she is hailed by the Britishmedia, at its centre. She is not the onlyone with links to the US and EU elites.Radwan Ziadeh, another oft-quotedspokesman for the SNC, is closely tied inwith US neo-conservatives. Another isNajib Ghadbian, a political scientist at theUniversity of Arkansas – and so it goes on.

US fundingMany of the exile opposition groupsdeclare funding from the US “DemocracyCouncil”, which is in turn funded by the

US State Department, headed of course byHillary Clinton. Then there is the US SyriaDemocracy Program, which offers grantsto “accelerate the work of reformers inSyria”, and then the Syrian BusinessForum thought to have assets of $300million launched in Qatar to “support allcomponents of the revolution in Syria”.There are around 200 disagreeing Syrianopposition factions, with now three“governments in exile” competing forthese funds.

So these are the people that ourForeign Secretary, the US StateDepartment and President Hollande wantto take over in Syria, effectively the re-colonising of the country. Hollande’s firstdeclaration after being elected aspresident of former colonial power France

was to call for military intervention inSyria. So NATO is following the example ofwhat the US and Britain did in Iraq: buildup wealthy foreign exiles who havenothing in common with the people livingin Syria and impose them on the Syriannation.

al-QaedaBut what about those fighting insideSyria? Two British news photographerswere recently captured in Northern Syriaby a brigade claiming to be al-Qaeda.Interviewed after their release theydescribed their al-Qaeda captors asChechens, Pakistanis and British. It’sknown that Jihadists and Salafists fromTunisia, Libya, Morocco and Iraq areamong the fighters as well as someSyrians who fought for al-Qaeda in Iraq.

But the real factor determining whofights who is the clan system, fatallymisunderstood by the US in Iraq. After USplanes notoriously bombed a weddingparty in northern Iraq close to the Syrianborder in 2003, US forces were surprisedthat Syrian members of the same clancrossed the border into Iraq to avengethose deaths by killing Americans. Manyof the groups in the “Free Syria Army” areclan based. The US and Britain shouldnote that clans can also change sides. ■

It’s become a tried and tested formula: find some wealthy foreign exiles with absolutely nothing in common with the people ofthe country they have left, build them into opposition heroes, then impose them on the country…

International law violated as NATO and its allies seek to dismember Syria

THE ROYAL United Services Institute forDefence and Security (RUSI), a London-based think-tank, with close links to bothBritain’s Ministry of Defence and thePentagon, says “some sort of western[military] intervention in Syria is lookingincreasingly likely ...” What the RUSI hasin mind is outlined in its SYRIA CRISISBRIEFING, A COLLISION COURSE FOR INTERVENTION.

It says, “A better insight is needed onthe activities and relationships of al-Qaeda and other Syrian and internationalSalafist jihadists that are now entering thecountry in increasing numbers. Thefloodgates are likely to open even further

as international jihadists are emboldenedby signs of significant opposition progressagainst the regime. Such elements havethe support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar andwould undoubtedly have a role in Syriafollowing the collapse of Assad.

“Issues include the possibility of anIslamist-dominated or influenced regimeinheriting sophisticated weaponry,including anti-aircraft and anti-ship missilesystems and chemical and biologicalweapons that could be transferred intothe hands of international terrorists. Atthe tactical level, intelligence would beneeded to identify the most effective

groups, and how best to support them. Itwould also be essential to know how theyoperate, and whether support might assistthem to massacre rivals or carry outindiscriminate attacks against civilians,something we have already witnessedamong Syrian opposition groups.”

The briefing confirms that continuedand effective support to the Free SyrianArmy (FSA) rebels will eventually requirethe use of “air power in the form offighter jets and sea, land and air launchedmissile systems” combined with the influxof Special Forces and the landing of “eliteairborne and amphibious infantry”. ■

The think-tank that’s thinking about intervention

“NATO countries and theirnew Islamist allies havedeliberately undermined

any solution to theunfolding tragedy in

Syria.”

IN 1833 FARM labourers in the Dorsetvillage of Tolpuddle suffered severereductions in their wages, prompting fortymen to form a trade union. In February1834 six of them were arrested: JamesBrine, James Hammett, George Loveless,James Loveless, Thomas Standfield andJohn Standfield. Convicted of swearing asecret oath, they were transported toAustralia, triggering widespread agitationfor their release and return.

Progressing alongside the IndustrialRevolution was a parallel agrarianrevolution, and poorly paid agriculturalworkers were a significantly large thoughoften overlooked group. The long processof enclosure, whose high point camebetween 1770 and 1830, saw land carvedup by act of parliament and given to biggerlandowners. Lands once held in commonand villagers’ small strips of land for foodproduction were expropriated. If youremained in the countryside and wanted toput food in your belly, you had no choicebut to work for large landowners whodictated the rate of pay.

With no land of their own, theTolpuddle labourers earned a weekly wageon the farm of George Frampton, a majorlocal landowner. At the beginning of the1830s the going rate in Tolpuddle was 9shillings a week. This would have beensufficient to buy bread but not enough topay rent and purchase other foods. Yet, in1833, the landowners cut the rate from 9shillings to 8, then later to 7 and wereconsidering a further reduction to 6.

Starvation wagesThese were starvation wages. How did therural poor respond to such desperateconditions? Some suffered in silence,others moved to work in the growing cities.Some fought back: in the Captain Swinguprisings across East Anglia in 1830,labourers set fire to hayricks: 644 wereimprisoned, 481 transported, 19 hanged.

A different approach was taken inTolpuddle. Farmworkers there met withdelegates from the Grand NationalConsolidated Trades Union (GNCTU) andthen founded the Friendly Society ofAgricultural Labourers in order to overturn

the wage reductions, which were an acuteproblem in remote parts of southernEngland, where farmers did not have tocompete with the higher wages paid toworkers in London or the northernindustrial towns. The introduction ofmechanisation and a surplus of labourmade the situation worse.

The Tolpuddle farm labourers wereprepared to stand firm and push Framptonfor a living rate of 10 shillings a week. Theypresented their “perfectly reasonabledemands” believing the landowner wouldhave to agree, as they represented asubstantial part of the village workforce.The landowners and local magistrates took

14 WORKERS HISTORIC NOTES SEPTEMBER 2012

fright and wrote in 1834 to the HomeSecretary, Lord Melbourne, to complainabout the union. As there was no lawagainst forming a union (the CombinationActs having been repealed in 1825), the sixwere arrested and tried at Dorchester Courtfor breaking an obscure 1797 law, theMutiny Act, which prohibited the swearingof oaths to stop mutiny at sea. A jury wasselected from those most unfriendly to thefarm labourers’ cause – landowners andland-renters.

Their stated “crime” was that each hadmade an oath promising not to reveal thecontent of their meeting. In fact the martyrswere punished for having the audacity to

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported for resisting starvation wages and forming atrade union…

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EVERY YEAR workers gather in Tolpuddleto remember the martyrs’ struggle. Here’sa report on this year’s march from oneparticipant.

“My coach from the Isle of Wight had18 trade unionists of various politicalpersuasions on board. I sold a number ofcopies of WORKERS and handed out leafletson the ‘10 reasons to leave the EU.’

When I got to the Tolpuddle memorialsite, I started to hand out the leaflets toeveryone who walked near me. Most tookthe leaflet, but a small number, maybe,about three, people, gave them back,horrified at the thought of leaving the EU!

Most people took the leaflet and afterglancing at it, some people said, “Only tenreasons to leave the EU. You must bejoking”. It would appear that most of thetrade unionists who took the leafletcouldn’t wait for a referendum on leavingthe EU. After a number of lively debateson the topic and running out of leaflets, Igot myself geared up to carry the Isle ofWight Trades Council banner.

There were banners from as far afieldas South Wales, Bristol, Southampton,Portsmouth, London and all places in-between. It was quite a festive event, withbands playing various types of music, witheveryone jigging about as they walkedthrough the village of Tolpuddle.

While I was having a pint in the beertent, I met a number of fellow Unitemembers. One, a young shop steward forthe binmen in Southampton, had beeninvolved in the industrial action with theCity Council, which secured a restorationof his wages after they had been cut bythe previous council administration.

I had a number of discussions withtrade unionists about growing the unionto fight for wages and conditions, andsaving Britain from destruction bycapitalism. I felt, as I boarded my coachback to the Island, it had been a goodday.” ■

Rally commemorates martyrs’ struggle

SEPTEMBER 2012

People are increasingly grappling with fundamental questions about ournational destiny. Where is Britain headed? What is happening to society?What kind of Britain is on offer and what ought it to be? Once, workingpeople shied away from such reflections. Now these discussions arecommonplace.

No one selling their labour for a living feels safe or secure. A deep unease pervades thecountry as declining capitalism bombards us with the everyday terrors of massunemployment, underemployment, privatisation, worsening conditions, attacks onpensions, impoverishment, assaults on the NHS and state education.

The only remedy to this state of permanent anxiety is for workers to take radical steps.There needs to be a deliberate change of direction: putting an end to a failing system,constructing a socialist society that meets the needs of working people.

Capitalism is fundamentally flawed. Its manic adoration of private profit skews thedirection of society in an anti-social fashion. Its entrenchment and defence of wealthaccumulation for capitalists in every nook and cranny of society means the exclusion ofworkers from economic progress and political control. Its premise leads to the elevationof a profit-sucking elite which is set apart from society. The system shuns the mass ofworking people and condemns millions to unemployment.

After the revolution, a different Britain will emerge with a superior set of values. Theprime shift will see everyone’s right to work honoured. The constricting homage toprivate profit will disappear. A new reverence will move centre-stage: generating socialprofit through the construction of a modern economy based on multi-faceted, wealth-creating industry and a planned investment in the whole population which will unleash afull flowering of the latent talent left to slumber and atrophy under capitalism.

A new Britain will introduce innovative ways of involving the whole society of workersin actually governing and running everything. The working class, representing all facets inan interlocking society, will become the political community. The discharge of politicaldecisions will not be devolved elsewhere. A changed society will bring a marked changein our country’s relations with the world. Our armed forces will not be used tointervene as an imperialist force in other people’s internal affairs. Our military willdefend the gains of the revolution inside Britain. Abroad, we will want to trade goodswith the world and exchange culture.

A better life for all workers is possible, but it will have to be struggled for. We findcapitalism wanting and in decline. Rather than tolerate untold riches and privilege for afew, we should seek a new arrangement, where society allows workers to prospercollectively and in a national combination of mutual support.

Interested in these ideas?• Go along to meetings in your part of the country, or join in study to help push forwardthe thinking of our class. Get in touch to find out how to take part.

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More from our series on aspectsof Marxist thinking

form a union. Secret oaths undertaken byfreemasons in their lodges were common,but secret oaths by workers smacked ofrevolution to the rulers of the day.

George Loveless observed in theirdefence, “We have injured no man’sreputation, person or character. We wereuniting to preserve ourselves, our wivesand our children from utter degradationand starvation.” Summing up, the judgeremarked, “If such societies were allowedto exist it would ruin masters, cause astagnation in trade and destroy property”and “The object of all legal punishment isnot altogether with a view of operating onthe offenders themselves, it is also for thesake of offering an example and warning.”The Martyrs were sentenced to a maximumsentence of seven years' transportation.Their convict ship took four months toreach Australia, where they worked likeserfs in penal settlements, on chain gangsand farms in New South Wales andTasmania.

Grand MeetingThe treatment of the Tolpuddle Martyrstriggered huge opposition. In March 1834over 10,000 people attended a GrandMeeting of the Working Classes called bythe Grand National Consolidated TradeUnion. On 21 April a vast demonstrationassembled near King’s Cross inCopenhagen Fields. 800,000 signatureswere collected for their release. Becausefamilies of the transported men and othermembers of the Tolpuddle union wererefused parish relief by farm-owning localmagistrates, the trade unionist LondonDorchester Committee (LDC) collectedfinancial support for the families.

A campaign to take legal action againstthe Duke of Cumberland (the King’sbrother) on the grounds that he took asecret oath as head of the Orange Lodgesof Freemasons led to a full pardon from theKing in 1836, though they only returned toBritain in 1837. James Hammett returned in1839. Until 1845 the men leased two tenantfarms in Essex out of LDC funds. OnlyHammett returned to Tolpuddle working inthe building trade. He died in theDorchester workhouse in 1891. ■

BBBRITAIN’S

DESTINY

The Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported for resisting starvation wages and forming atrade union…

1833 – 1838: The Tolpuddle Martyrs

‘It was a greatparty, a partyof and forBritain. But thehangover willcome…’

Back to Front – A nation reclaimedANYONE BRITISH who watched theopening ceremony for the LondonOlympics could not fail to understandwhat it was saying. It was a celebrationof – among other things – work, industry,the NHS, and of the breadth of ourculture, from symphony orchestras to TVsoaps. It was also a celebration ofBritain, of our nation, of our one nation.

As the wonderful athletes got goingand the medals began rolling in, it wasTeam GB that won them. It is hard tothink of a more perfect rebuff to petty-minded micro-chauvinists like AlexSalmond: Scots, Welsh, English unitedby one flag. Except, of course, infootball, where the Scottish FA declinedto contribute. Their loss.

It was hard, too, to think of a moreperfect contrast to the nakedcommercialism and disregard for thepeople of London and Britain thatcharacterised the run-up to the Games.We the people were shut out from almosteverything: virtually no jobs for localpeople building the stadia; too fewtickets on general sale; the militarytaking over blocks of flats to sitesurface-to-air missiles; the Zil lanes forthe Olympic “family” (and what anextended family that one is) and thebloated corporate sponsors.

They even re-routed the Marathon sono one would have their TV screenssoiled by glimpses of East London.Londoners have had their city hijacked.You couldn’t buy any British beer in theOlympic venues, leave alone LondonPride (whose pumps were ripped out ofLords for the archery events), becauseHeineken was the Olympic sponsor. Timefor a boycott there.

The only thing really left to thepeople was the bill. Nine billion poundsand counting. We will be paying forthese Games for decades to come.Cameron had the nerve to say that theproject came in on budget! True, but itwasn’t the original budget, nor thesecond one.

With the Paralympics ending, it willall be back to normal, they hope. TheOlympic Park will be shut and“repurposed”, with the housing stockand sites for new housing sold off toQatar. Tough luck for the originalinhabitants of the Park, displaced aroundthe wilds of outer East London andEssex.

The Olympics also turned a brightspotlight on plans to enable the sellingof yet more school playing fields,exposing the government’s lies.

And yet it was a great party, a partyof and for Britain (with the hangover tocome). Andy Murray singing (some of)the national anthem at Wimbledon. ChrisHoy and Mo Farah wrapped in the flag.

For so long anyone in the labourmovement talking about Britain has been called, somewhat oddly, a “littleEnglander”. Governments, Labour andother, keen to invite in foreigncorporations and low-paid migrantlabour, have sneered at the very conceptof Britain. The ultra-left have denigratedsupport for Britain, for our country, ourplace, our home, as on a par with supportfor the extreme right.

So if one result of the Games is thatBritain is once again back on thenational agenda – and back on theagenda of some trade unions as well –then that will be a result to savour. ■

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