Rob Williams, a well-known union activist
and Unite union convenor at the Linamar car
parts site in Swansea,
was called into the management office last Tuesday and without warning given
the sack. Why? Officially because of a ‘breakdown in trust and confidence’ (what
ever that means!) but in reality because of the role of the union in
challenging the bosses attempts to run the factory down.
Today is May Day – International Workers Day. Mick Brooks looks at the origins and traditions of May Day and why it matters.
One the events board are just some of the events taking place today and over the weekend to celebrate May Day. In London workers will be assembling at 11.30 at Clerkenwell Green to march to Trafalgar Square – see you there!
Landing a job in British Television would be considered by most to be a
real prize. The industry has long since been associated with decent
wages, prestige, and glamour. It’s no surprise then that thousands of
young people compete to get into the industry each year. But the
industry is hiding a dirty secret. Many of these young applicants, who
have often gone to great effort and expense to gain media degrees, are
given their first job in the industry paying them… wait for it… £0.00.
That’s right. Nothing!
Over the past decade, as budgets have shrunk in an ever more
competitive market, privately owned production companies, collectively
known as the independent sector, have been cheating applicants into
accepting unpaid ‘work experience’ positions. Lured by the shallow
promise of ‘promotion’ later down the line, ‘work experiencers’ are
often held for many months before being offered paid work. In many
cases companies never offer them pay at all.
The workers and poor of South Africa voted massively for an ANC that had
been purged of its right wing. Now that the ANC is once more in office,
the bourgeois – having failed to stop this – are putting enormous
pressure on its leaders to steer away from any radical pro-worker
policies. What is required is a struggle within the South African
labour movement to anchor its organisations to genuine socialist
policies. David van Wyk in South Africa looks at the election results and what they mean for the working class.
Editorial.The events around the G20 demonstrations have underlined the fact that, when working people stand up against capitalism, sooner or later we come slap up against the capitalist state. The police were talking up the prospects of violence well before the G20 began. Ian Tomlinson was killed by riot police on his way home. He wasn’t even part of the demonstration against the G20, just a worker going about his business. Complaints and evidence about heavy-handed and brutish policing are pouring in. Des Heemskerk led a group of workers in Basildon, concerned only about protecting their jobs, to occupy their factory – Visteon. They came up against police in full riot gear with slavering dogs on hand.
Ted Grant seizes on evidence of a plot against the right wing Labour Prime minister Harold Wilson to show the real nature of the capitalist state. Behind the democratic façade the state is an organ of capitalist class rule. The establishment will strive might and main to preserve their privileges and will resort to whatever undemocratic measures are necessary to preserve the capitalist system.
After the trauma of losing their livelihood and pensions
and a difficult seven nights of occupation on the cold floors of the factory, Visteon Enfield car parts workers were advised by their trade union leaders (Unite) to leave
the premises and continue the struggle outside the gates.
Now, funds are running low and the workers are getting tired. Now is
the time for the financial, physical and political support from the
broader community in order to make sure these workers win their just
demands.
Jack Jones, former General Secretary of the TGWU (now part
of Unite) from 1969 to 1978 has died at the age of 96. Although he moved away
from the Left towards the end of his union career he was without a doubt one of
the best-known and most militant trade union leader of his day.
After a budget speech that might as well have ended with Alistair Darling announcing to the speaker of the house that it was goodnight and goodbye from the Labour government it seems that the way is being paved for a Tory government and a bosses’ offensive. In Scotland the repercussions from the budget are already having an accentuated effect due to the different political set up of the country; namely the impact of this budget on that of the SNP administration’s at Holyrood.
Today, underground workers (RMT train operators working out of the
Seven Sisters depot covering the Victoria Line) are holding a 24 hour
strike that started at 9pm last night and goes until 9pm tonight closing the entire line.
The budget figures show starkly how desperate is the position of the British economy, faced with what Darling called the ‘worst global economic turmoil’ in living memory. The amount the economy will shrink has been revised to a record 3.5% fall this year, the biggest drop since the Second World War.
Despite their small numbers, the Mitie cleaners are punching
well above their weight. Every Friday at 1pm they gather in front of the
offices of Willis insurance brokers in the heart of London’s business district,
and with the help of a megaphone kindly donated by the Clerkenwell and St
Pancras branch of Unite, they begin their protest. The cleaners and their
supporters don flourescent vests, blow whistles and shout slogans demanding the
reinstatement of the unfairly sacked cleaners.