Tolpuddle unity! 2015*

BY TIM GULLIVER

WELCOME TO Tolpuddle and tothis special edition of Unity! fromthe Communist Party.

The government tells us the economicrecovery is under-way, withunemployment falling and wages rising.But as the South West TUC pointed out,our region has over three million people‘under-employed’ – in work but withfewer hours than they want.

House prices remain some of thehighest in the Britain while average wages

are amongst the lowest. Renters handover 35% of their incomes to theirlandlords, the third highest rent toincome ratio in the country. And therewas nothing in last week’s Conservativebudget that will change this!

The political map of the South Westchanged fundamentally in May. The LibDems disappeared entirely and LabourMPs can’t be found outside of Exeterand Bristol. But as is often the case withour voting system, the headlines do notreflect the reality.

Even in seats where Labour lost, theirpercentage share of their vote oftenincreased and local grassroot campaignsare also fighting back. New People’sAssembly groups are being formed in theSouth West and Cornwall every month.

The challenge, as always, is to move fromrallies and leafleting to coordinatedcampaigns that delivery concrete change.

So while the sun (hopefully) shinesdown on another fantastic Tolpuddlefestival, we all need to take the spirit ofthe Martyrs home with us. Let everytown and village in the South West raisethe watchword liberty. We will, we will,we will be free!

TIM GULLIVER IS A MEMBER

OF THE COMMUNIST

PARTYS EXECUTIVE

COMMITTEE AND IS THE

PARTY’S SOUTH WEST

MEDIA OFFICER

www.southwestcommunists.org.uk

The daily miracle:your paper at 85MEDIA

BY BEN CHACKO

When the first Daily Worker rolled off the presses in 1930,Britain was reeling from the Great Depression.

Working people faced soaring unemployment and hunger.Politicians and the monopoly media demanded savage cuts towages and public spending in the name of balancing the books.Sound familiar?

The Daily Worker was founded to counter that narrative, toprovide a voice for the millions and not the millionaires.

On its first day a reporter phoned from the Daily Herald toask if it would come out again a day later. Eighty-five years on,our name may have changed - we’ve been the Morning Starsince 1966 - but we’re still here and still true to that mission.

The Star is a co-operative - the only co-operatively ownednational daily in the country. That means we answer only toour readers, not to some tax-dodging non-dom press baron.

The recent election amply demonstrated the distortingeffect a monopoly media owned by non-dom tycoons canhave on public debate.

Indeed, the first post-election edition of satirical magazinePrivate Eye noted that every daily newspaper owned by a non-dom backed the Conservatives (or the coalition) in theelection, while every one that was not backed Labour (it didn’tmention the Morning Star, but such censorship is routine —the point holds).

We remain the authentic voice of working people in struggle- reporting on the stories the rest of the press won’t touch.

We’re the only paper to stand shoulder to shoulder with thetrade union movement, backing workers taking industrialaction to secure the pay and conditions they deserve.

We are the paper of the labour movement, with nine tradeunions and one trade union region represented on the electedmanagement committee.

And we’re the only paper to expose the lies and propagandaof the ruling class, opposing imperialism and fighting for peaceand socialism across the world.

The Morning Star is proud of the role it plays in the labourmovement and as the sole voice for socialism in the Britishmedia.

We’re proud ofthe way we’reevolving, with thepaper publishing awide range ofcontributors fromacross the left. In2015 our paper isbigger, brighter andbetter than ever.

But we need morereaders, whether ofthe printed paper orof our new e-edition, in order tomake that voice - thevoice of resistance -

heard louder and more widely and to ensure we’re stillchampioning the rights of working people after another 85years.

If you aren’t yet a reader of the world’s only English-language socialist daily - what’s stopping you?

And if you like the paper or a particular story or feature tellyour friends and comrades and remind them that as workingpeople face this Tory government intent onaccelerating the ruling-class offensive againstus, the role of the Morning Star is moreimportant than ever.

BEN CHACKO IS EDITOR OF THE MORNING STAR

Look out for your paper this weekend

CLASS WAR

BY ROBERT GRIFFITHS

CHANCELLOR Osborne’s‘emergency budget’confirmed, the Tory election

victory means that the ruling classattack on people’s living standards,public services, the welfare state,the trade unions and democraticrights will be stepped up.

The Bedroom Tax will continue and theprivatisation of education and the NHS –especially in England – will accelerate.

But as the demonstrations in Londonand Glasgow on June 20 showed, there isalso massive opposition to Tory policies.The Tory conference in Manchester inOctober will provide another opportunityto mobilise the many low incomeworkers, parents, carers, tenants, studentsand young people targeted in Osborne’sbudget.

We should take heart from the fact thatthe Tories won little more than one-thirdof the poll (37 per cent) of the votes onMay 7. In fact, only one adult in five inBritain (19 per cent) voted for them, aftertaking into account all those who eitherdon’t register or don’t vote.

So there is plenty of potential to build amass movement to pile the pressure onto

Prime Minister Cameron and his cronies –and force their wafer-thin majoritygovernment into crisis as soon as possible.

There is no reason why we should waituntil their five-year term of office hascome to an end. Once a governmentloses two consecutive votes of confidencein the House of Commons, it has toresign and – if no replacement is backedby a majority of MPs – a new election hasto be held.

That’s all the more reason to reject‘parliamentary fatalism’ by not waitinguntil a General Election in 2020.

We should work to challenge andremove the Tories before they do anymore damage

The People’s Assembly needs to bebroadened and taken into every localcommunity across Britain. Everyone whoopposes austerity, cuts and privatisationshould be made welcome – except forracists and fascists.

Within the People’s Assembly at local,regional and national levels, we need thetrade unions to play a major role, helpingto build a mass movement with theirorganisation and resources.

We should all do what we can to helpstrengthen trades union organisation –including local trades councils – not leastto resist a fresh round of anti-union laws.

The teachers’ unions should be

supported in their campaign against a newrash of ‘free’ schools across England(subsidised with lots of ‘free’ publicmoney for the business and religiousinterests who take them over).

Like a renewed anti-Bedroom Taxmovement, they can help strengthen anddraw solidarity from the People’sAssembly.

Women will continue to be hit hard assingle parents, carers and low-paidworkers by Tory attacks on socialbenefits, tax credits and public services.They can join and build the NationalAssembly of Women, a long establishedand now resurgent campaigning body forprogressive change, and a foundingaffiliate of the People’s Assembly.

Tory plans to renew Britain’s costly,unusable and immoral Trident nuclearweapons system have the support ofmost LibDem and Labour MPs. Only amilitant mass peace movement, withCND playing a leading role, can stop it.

Then there’s the possibility of defeatingCameron and his crew in the EUreferendum before the end of 2017.

The EU is a fundamentally anti-democratic, pro-austerity, pro-bigbusiness club increasingly linked toNATO’s aggressive military expansion.

continued overleaf

Communist Party at Tolpuddle Workers of all lands, unite!unity!

IMPERIALISM

BY JOHN FOSTER

TTIP SEEMS to move irresistibly forward – despitetwo million people now having signed the petitionto stop it. On 10 June the EU parliament voted to

suspend further debate. On 26 June the US Senate votedto give President Obama Fast Track Authority toconclude negotiations. Republicans supported; mostDemocrats opposed.

Almost two centuries ago the Tolpuddle martyrs wanted twothings: the right to organise collectively and the right to vote –economic and political democracy.

TTIP directly threatens both. Under its investor state disputeclause it gives corporations the right to challenge any democraticdecision made in parliament which they consider to infringe theirability to make profits. It could be raising the minimum wages,repealing anti-strike laws or changing pension or holidayentitlements.

And this legal challenge will not be made in a normal court butone which is closed, where only the corporation is allowed tomake representation and where the decision is made bycommercial lawyers.

This is not leftist scare mongering but, as John Hendy QC haspointed out, something that is already happening. Similar clausesoperate in existing free trade treaties and thousands of cases haveresulted. The Egyptian government was sued for imposing aminimum wage; the Slovakian government for repealing aprivatised health insurance scheme. Corporate law will trumpdemocracy.

It will also run a coach and horses through our already partprivatised national health service and education systems.

An even worse fate awaits ecologically-safe farming. Standardswill be levelled down to those already operating in the US. Therebig business domination has resulted most crops being geneticallymodified, with the seed patents held by a couple of giantmonopolies, and chickens, cattle, pigs and corn being raised on adiet of hormones and antibiotics. Three-quarters of all USmanufactured antibiotics are fed to animals. What price antibioticresistance?

This is why TTIP has to be stopped. But we should alsoremember one other key feature of the resistible rise of TTIP.Westminster no longer has power over trade policy. This is nowheld by the EU – and the EU parliament has virtually no powercompared to the unelected EU Commission and the EU Council.

This summer these bodies have shown their contempt fordemocracy in Greece in their bid to enforce to pro-big businessausterity across the EU – and the Left case againstthe EU is all about the type of economic andsocial democracy the Tolpuddle martyrsfought for.

JOHN FOSTER IS THE COMMUNIST PARTY’SINTERNATIONAL SECRETARY

UNION RIGHTS

BY CAROLYN JONES

THE LATEST Trade Union Billholds few surprises. We knewit was coming. So what’s the

Tory battle plan?

First they came for the strikersJohn Hendy QC defines collectivebargaining without the right to strike iscollective begging.

By demanding a 50% turnout thresholdin a ballot and an additional 40% yes voterequirement in ‘core public services’(health, education, transport and fireservices). Add to this the new timelimitations on ballot mandates and the Billis an open invitation to employers andcourts to interfere and delay legitimateindustrial disputes and it will be well-nighimpossible for unions to organise lawfulstrikes.

To make it worse, even during officialindustrial action, new laws will allowbosses to bus in agency workers to coverthe jobs of strikers, abandoning a lawthat’s been in place since 1973. Anyattempt to picket the workplace toprevent the use of ‘scab’ labour will besubject to new criminal sanctions, backedup by the new and intrusive surveillancelegislation.

Then they came for the trade unionreps Workers in unionised workplacesenjoy better terms and conditions andunions help to rebalance power relationsin the workplace – a fact commonlyrecognised by 70 per cent of respondentsin MORI polls who see unions as ‘essentialto protect workers’ interests’.

The last government put a cap on tradeunion facility time, restricted full timerelease and banned paid time off for tradeunion activities in the civil service. Thisgovernment now proposes to extend

these restrictions across local governmentand into the private sector.

Then they came for trade unionfinances Plans are also in place tochange how unions collect theirmembership fees – both throughindividual payments and through check-offarrangements. Believing that money ispower, the Tories are determined toundermine trade union finances to make itdifficult for unions to operate effectively.

Then they removed our rightsUndermining the role of unions at work isfuelled by the Tory determination toderegulate the workplace. They want alabour market free from what they call‘red tape’ and what we call rights at work.They want to use the UK labour marketas an example of what could be achievedthroughout Europe if governments weredetermined enough to resist unions,remove employment rights and restrictthe rights of workers to withdraw theirlabour.

Then they removed our benefitsThe back drop to this Bullingdon Boy Bill,is a set of additional proposals aimed atslashing benefits and creating a reservearmy of workers forced to beg for anytype of ‘apprenticeship’ or free work onoffer – including as scab agency workers.

Now we must stand togetherThis is adivide and rule Bill. The Tory aspirationsare clear. They want cheap workers,unable to withdraw their labour,unprotected by either trade unions oremployment rights and threatened withdestitution if they refuse to accept low-standard work. The Tories believe thatmoney is power. We know that powerlies in numbers and that by standingtogether and supporting each other westand a better chance of winning. Ouraspirations have to be to educate, agitateand organise. We are the many – they arethe few.

CAROLYN JONES, ISDIRECTOR OF THE

INSTITUTE OF

EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS

Danger: Tory union bill!

AUSTERITY

BY MARK O’NEILL

THE ANTI-AUSTERITYcampaign is growing.National demonstrations

help raise the profile of the growingnumber of local People’s Assembliesand allow us to express oursolidarity and confidence, tomotivate and mobilise others.

But demonstrations are not sufficientto win the class war that is now beingintensified by an emboldened Torygovernment. We need to build andsustain a huge movement which reachesdeep down into local communities andacross millions of trade unionists – anunstoppable force made up of ordinarypeople who no longer feel defencelessor directionless in the face of this rulingclass offensive, who know that there isan alternative to the policies of austerityand privatisation.

What is this alternative?It’s the People’s Manifesto, published

and distributed in its thousands duringthe General Election campaign and nowupdated, refreshed and renewed. It mustlie at the centre of our work with thePeople’s Assembly, face to face withpeople at the most local level … door todoor, street to street, pub to pub, incommunity organisations, village halls,workplaces, trade union and tradesunion council meetings and gatherings ofevery kind.

Strong links with the trade unionmovement, which is present in everytown and city in the form of workplacebranches and local trades union councils,can help ensure a strong base fortraining and support. The links are thereto be made!

We need to do the day-to-daypreparation and organising work forcoordinated industrial action, forgeneralised strike action, for civildisobedience … and not just ‘call’ for itand shout slogans about it.

We need planning, self-discipline, unityand solidarity to go along with ourcampaigning action.

We need a strategy for winning, notjust for protesting.

Class war does not end in a draw.

MARK O’NEILL IS

CONVENOR OF THE

COMMUNIST PARTY’SANTI-AUSTERITYCOMMISSION

Join Britain’s revolutionary party of working class power and liberation

1 want to join the Communist Party m more info m Young Communists m

Name

Address

Post Code

Phone e mail

Return to Communist Party Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon, London CR0 1BD Tolpuddle

The relentless force of TTIP

We need a winning strategy

ManifestoThe People’s

CLASS WARcontinued from page 1

It is run by the unelected EUCommission, the unaccountableEuropean Central Bank and the anti-trade union European Court of Justice.

That’s why the Tory Cabinet, most ofbig business and the City of London willbe campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote to keepBritain in the EU. They will be joined bythe LibDems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymruand – unless Jeremy Corbyn is elected –by the Labour Party leadership.

While the Tory Right and UKIPcampaign against the EU for all thewrong reasons, the Communist Partywill be joining with other socialist, tradeunion and progressive forces to put theleft-wing, democratic and internationalistcase against the EU.

In doing so, we will be campaigning insolidarity with workers and their familiesin Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Cyprus,Ukraine and elsewhere who are resistingEU policies. And we will be opposing thepro-big business Transatlantic Trade andInvestment Partnership (TTIP) beingnegotiated (‘on our behalf ’!) by the EUwith the USA in secret.

To coin an old slogan: ‘Workers andpeoples of all lands unite – we havenothing to lose ... except the Tories andthe EU’.

ROBERT GRIFFITHS

IS GENERAL

SECRETARY OF THE

COMMUNIST PARTY