May 2008

As ‘Socialist Appeal’ goes to press, members of PCS, which represents
over 300,000 workers in the civil service and associated bodies, are
awaiting the full details of the agreement reached between the civil
service unions and the government via the Cabinet Office. There will be a significant number of PCS members out with the NUT on
24 April, but a national strike would have massively strengthened
teachers, civil servants and others in the public sector in our fight
to secure a fair pay settlement. Militancy pays and this the only way
we can break the 2 % pay cap.

Stock markets around the world have been rallying. They are up 15% since they hit a low for the
year in mid-March and they are now hardly down in value since credit crunch
began last August. Investor optimism is
rising that the great global credit crunch is nearly over. Now
that the financial sector is in trouble, the weakness of capitalism in its
downphase of profitability is being exposed. It is paving the way for a serious worldwide economic recession, despite
the current optimism of the stock markets.

Friday 16 May saw two unconnected judgements that
have put a spoke in the wheel of the UNISON bureaucracy’s witch hunt against
prominent lefts in the union. As we have explained before, the
UNISON leadership have a responsibility to stand up for the members - not
to waste their time policing the membership and attacking some of the best fighters
that the union has in its ranks. The members deserve better than that. We need
a fighting democratic union.

Gordon Brown was delivered a rap on the knuckles by the House of Commons transport committee. As Chancellor he insisted the contract to upgrade London Underground be awarded to private consortium Metronet. Predictably, Metronet went belly up last year amid much scandal leaving us with a £2bn bill. The committee denounced Brown’s “spectacular failure, ”  for which of course us taxpayers will be picking up the bill. Committee chair, old-style right winger Gwyneth Dunwoody, commented on the debacle, “Any reasonable person, looking at the current situation, would find scant evidence to sustain a dogma that the private sector will always […]

Forty years ago the world was experiencing upheaval on a world scale
that hadn’t been seen for a generation. In the US opposition to the war
in Vietnam gathered momentum, as it did in Britain. In Pakistan
revolution was on the order of the day, and in Czechoslovakia we saw
the Prague spring and Soviet Invasion. In May there was the glorious
rising of the French working class, that saw 10 million workers down
tools in a general strike.

On the 14th May 1948 the state of Israel was proclaimed independent. The
immediate results were an outbreak of killings and the creation of huge
numbers of Israeli and Palestinian refugees. Palestinians refer to it as
the naqba (catastrophe). Luke Wilson explains how Israel has become a
bulwark of imperialism, what it has meant for the politics of the Middle
East, for Israeli Jews and Palestinians, and how the creation of Israel
has perpetuated anti-semitism elsewhere.

Union
busting is as old as trade unions themselves. Ever since workers started to
form their own organisations back in the 18th century to fight for
decent working conditions, employers have tried to break them. In the old days
workers would be beaten, imprisoned, and sometimes killed for participating in
trade union activities. Better working conditions meant less profits for the
boss, and a harsh hand was dealt to keep the rich ruling minority firmly in charge.

The UNISON Local Government Service Group Executive
has voted to reject the employers’ 2.45% pay offer. The outcome of the
consultative ballot was 45% to accept and 55% for rejection. The issue will now
go to the Industrial Action Committee with a proposed timetable of a ballot
beginning 27th May and strike action to commence on 8th July.