For the past sixty years, Remploy has offered skilled work to
disabled workers who otherwise would, frankly, have been dumped in a
corner and forgotten about by capitalist employers. Now the
government plans to close half the 83 factories that offer their unique
contribution from Aberdare to York. Remploy currently employs about
5,000 in its factories.
Management in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are imposing a
three year pay deal on staff in their November pay-cheque. This is
because they believe that staff want money for Christmas, which is
true, but we must not be fooled into thinking short-term. The pay deal
is being hailed as a great offer by management who, in an unprecedented
move, have been putting pressure on local managers to promote the deal
and sell it to staff.
The present Pope, Ratzinger or Benedict XVI as he has chosen to
call himself, far from being a "transitional" Pope is not only following in the
footsteps of John Paul II, he is putting his foot on the accelerator of
Christian fundamentalism. While talking of reconciliation he promotes conflict,
backs reactionary politicians of the Bush type and condemns anyone who wants to
really change the material conditions of millions of poor and working class
people.
After the government has pursued a series of attacks on the poorest
section of the working class in recent years, they have apparently
decideded to try and give something back to the poor by launching a new
Child Poverty Unit. This is a way of the government showing its
willingness to end child poverty which was, believe it or not, a stated
Labour policy in 2007. In Scotland for instance one in four children
still grows up in poverty. This nakedly displays the utter bankruptcy
of New Labour’s market orientated policy.
Two hundred day care workers in centres across Glasgow are now entering
the second month of an indefinite strike, after the Council refused to
negotiate pay and conditions until the workers agreed to ‘modernisation
of services’. The day care centres provide support and education for
people with disabilities and learning difficulties and are crucial not
only for the clients who use them, but for their families.
On June 15th psychiatric nurse Karen Reissmann was ordered off the
premises and suspended in the middle of a delicate and difficult
consultation with a patient. Manchester Mental Health and Social Care
Trust charged her with ‘bringing the Trust into disrepute’. Don’t let them sack Karen Reissmann – an injury to one is an injury to all!
The
proposals for constitutional change have been defeated by 50.7% to 49.3%. The
opposition hardly increased its absolute vote, but there was a high level of
abstention. This is a warning. The masses are demanding decisive action not
words! It may be that this defeat will have the opposite effect. It can rouse
the masses to new levels of revolutionary struggle.
Last August Northern Rock was the subject of the first run on a bank in
this country for a hundred and forty years. People queued up all night
to try to get their money back. But, of course, their money wasn’t
there. Where had it gone?
This week, a CIA memo has been discovered that confirms the existence of a coup plan, which is code-named Operation Pliers.
On Sunday, we will be rallying against the CIA coup attempt outside
Bolivar Hall, where the Venezuelan community in London will be voting,
from 5pm once the poll has closed.
Production at the
American dream factory has slowed down as workers organised in the Writers
Guild of America just completed their third week on strike. 4,000 marched in
support of the strike down the famous Hollywood Boulevard.
We are publishing
here an interesting piece on the Irish trade unions by Peter Black, an active
member of the TGWU (now fused with Amicus to form "Unite") and the Irish
Republican Socialist Party. Trade union membership is growing in Ireland, as is
the militancy of the working class and Socialist Republicans, in the tradition
of James Connolly, can play an important role in providing the militant
leadership the Irish workers deserve.