Despite
the almost incessant rainfall we are officially in a drought. There
can be no doubt that climate change is contributing to changing
weather patterns to adversely affect our water supply. This is a
foretaste of what conditions will be like here in the not too distant
future if something is not done to halt and reverse the destruction
of our environment on a global scale.
Following the hugely successful visit to London by
Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, where he addressed audiences of hundreds,
the Hands Off Venezuela campaign is to be launched in Scotland with a press conference
at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, 31st May.
Thirty delegates and visitors from the national conference of the
Communication Workers Union attended the very first Hands Off
Venezuela fringe meeting, held on Monday lunchtime in windswept
Bournemouth. The day before, the 250,000-strong union, which organises
both postal and telecommunications workers in Britain, had unanimously agreed to
support the Venezuelan Revolution and also affiliate nationally to HOV.
After being labelled a “butcher” by
the British press following last week's bad election results for the
Labour Party and the subsequent Cabinet reshuffle, Tony Blair
suffered another blow, this time not at home but abroad. In Basra the
British army lost five soldiers, including the first female casualty,
as their helicopter crashed and British soldiers came under attack.
Labour suffered a heavy defeat in England's local council elections,
but Blair is desperately clinging on to office for now. In an attempt to
cover up Labour's losses and to shore up his support Blair quickly moved
to sack several high ranking ministers and promote loyal supporters.
What Blair has installed is a Final Days administration. It is a bunker
cabinet. Blair is finished and so is Blairism. These elections
illustrate a growing class polarisation taking place in British society.
In Blackpool over the May Day Bank holiday, the British shop workers’
union USDAW, representing some 330,000 workers, passed a resolution
unanimously supporting the Venezuelan Revolution and affiliating to the
Hands Off Venezuela Campaign.
In Part One of
British Perspectives Phil Mitchinson looks at the general trends in
British politics, with an eye to the international situation, the war
in Iraq, and the decline of Blairism.
The workers at the Peugeot plant in
Ryton (near Coventry) risk losing their jobs and livelihood. Darrall
Cozens reports on the latest situation after interviewing John
Cummins, Deputy Convenor from Amicus, about the trade union plans to
keep the plant open.
This year’s rally was bigger than usual with thousands of workers taking part from many different unions, but there was a contradiction between some of the moderate speeches of the leaders and the real problems faced by the workers facing the onslaught of the bosses.
Hands Off Venezuela made a very good intervention in May Day. At the beginning of the march in Clerkenwell, a large stall was set up behind a massive HOV banner selling literature and t-shirts. The new HOV magazine was on sale throughout the demonstration.
Eighty years ago an earthquake shook the very foundations of British capitalism. In the greatest display of militant power in its history, the British working class moved into action in the General Strike of 1926. For 9 days, from May 3, not a wheel turned nor a light shone without the permission of the working class. In such a moment, with such power, surely it ought to have been possible to have transformed society? How can such a position have ended in defeat? (by Phil Mitchinson, originally published in May 2001)
On the 80th anniversary of the 1926 general strike in Britain we look at what led to it and why it eventually was defeated. In spite of the tremendous militancy of the British working class, the top leaders of the trade union movement proved to be only too willing to compromise and get the workers back to work.