BLAIR AT THE IRAQ INQUIRY - GEORGE GALLOWAY REPORTS

He lied then and he lied today!
Link: You Tube - video by Richard Searle

Under attack from all sides - Morning Star

Under attack from all sides - Morning Star

It's becoming progressively clearer how the recession and the massive public debt incurred by the rescue of Britain's feckless bankers will affect working people if the Labour Cabinet and others get their way.

And the effects are unpalatable, to say the least.

Government, the Tory opposition and the bosses all seem to be united in their determination that the working class will do penance for the bankers' sins.

It's hitting us from all sides at once and it won't be easy to organise against, because the attack is coming in such a huge variety of different approaches.

In many ways, it's the economic equivalent of the West's "shock and awe" assault on Iraq, so massive and so overwhelming that its intent is clearly to paralyse any opposition by sheer weight and volume.

Every element of people's lives is under threat and, the poorer you are, the greater the threat becomes.

In education, Universities Minister David Lammy warns that "it will be a good few years before universities can expect any really significant upturn in their income from the public purse."

Despite warnings from universities facing unprecedented demand that the system could be "brought to its knees" by spending cuts which could eventually run into billions, Mr Lammy, a barrister with a London University and Harvard education, signalled a freeze on spending and suggested turning to the private sector for funding.

In social housing, The National Housing Federation has just warned that the housing budget could be slashed by 17.98 per cent.

It said that, if this happened, around 556,000 planned affordable homes would not be built, while 278,000 jobs and apprenticeships in the construction industry and wider economy would also be lost.

In 2007, the government pledged to build a million affordable homes by 2020 to tackle the housing shortage, but only 162,000 will be built by April 2011.

On pay, Chancellor Alistair Darling said on Sunday that pay for top public-sector posts will be reduced.

That's on top of the 1 per cent cap on rises already announced. Top pay may not seem to be an immediate problem for most public-sector workers but, beware, freezes and cuts at the top will inevitably trickle down and affect workers throughout a sector already battered by huge job cuts, with even more planned.

It's not only the public sector, though. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says that the impact of the recession on workers has been "much deeper" than official figures showed. There were 6.2 million fresh claims for jobseeker's allowance between April 2008 and November 2009, 7.5 times the rise in the unemployment claimant count. And of those who found new jobs, two-thirds were paid an average of 28 per cent less than previously.

Employers are getting in on the act as well. In September, Jaguar Land Rover offered to guarantee that 8,000 full-time staff would be kept on until 2015 in return for cuts to the salaries and pensions of new staff.

Well, they still want the cuts, but talks with the unions broke down when the bosses changed their minds and withdrew the fragile guarantee on job security.

In Glasgow, workers are organising against cuts that may mean councils dumping 600 jobs in the city and as many as 20,000 across Scotland.

It's a unified assault across the board and it's going to require a unified response. The individual campaigns are going to have to develop a much broader view and unite in a struggle that encompasses them all.

Mutual support and solidarity are the orders of the day if anything is to be held and defended from the ruling-class onslaught that faces us.

Where better to start, then, than the People's Charter, which provides a unifying perspective and a banner under which all these elements can organise?

Lord knows, we are going to need all the solidarity that we can get to fight this concerted assault.

Link:Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Facebook Group
Link: Right to Work conference - Socialist Worker
Link: Morning Star

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition.

The birth of a new Socialist Coalition!

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition was launched last week in order to contest seats in the coming general election on a clear anti-cuts and socialist programme. Founding supporters include Bob Crow general secretary of the RMT, Brian Caton general secretary of the POA, Chris Baugh assistant general secretary of the PCS and other leading officers of the PCS. The core policy statement is above.

With the general election looming, time is of the essence. Over the next week, we want as many people as possible to become a launch sponsor of TUSC. Please sponsor it yourself and pass this appeal on to others that you think may be interested. To sponsor the coalition you just need to email electioncoalition@btinternet.com stating 'I wish to add my support to the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition election challenge'. Please provide your name, address, email address, phone number and which, if any, trade union or community organisation you are part of, along with details of any position you hold.

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Provisional programme for general election coalition
The working class and peoples of Britain face a ruling class offensive which will intensify over the coming period.
It is an offensive against public services, incomes, living standards and trade union rights in order to boost monopoly profit. Not content with receiving the biggest bail-out in the history of British capitalism, big business aims to make workers and their families pay to serve the interests, first and foremost, of the City of London's financial institutions.
It is also an offensive which will be stepped up regardless of which party wins the forthcoming General Election. The likelihood is that a Tory government will make earlier and deeper cuts in public spending than a New Labour one. A Labour government may also be more vulnerable to trade union pressure not to outlaw industrial action in 'essential' services.
But both main parties intend to prolong the imperialist occupation of Afghanistan and to maintain the expansion of nuclear power and a new generation of British nuclear weapons.
Therefore this coalition is contesting the General Election to show that there is a clear left-wing alternative to policies of public sector cuts, privatisation, militarism and environmental degradation.
We recognise that there will be Labour and non-Labour candidates who agree with our policies, who share our socialist aspirations and who will be supported by left and labour movement organisations participating in our coalition.
We also recognise that there are different strategic views about the way forward for the left in Britain, whether the Labour Party can be reclaimed by the labour movement, or whether a new workers' party needs to be established.
But our coalition is united on the need for mass resistance to the ruling class offensive, and for an alternative programme of left-wing policies to help inspire and direct such resistance. These are the policies which we therefore propose to put before the people:

PUBLIC OWNERSHIP, NOT PRIVATISED PROFIT
Stop all privatisation, including “PFI” & “PPP” - privatisation just rakes off our money into their pockets, for worse services.
Bring public services and utilities back into public ownership under democratic control.

NO CUTS - QUALITY PUBLIC SERVICES
Take rail back into public ownership and build integrated, low-pollution public transport.
Quality, free National Health Service under democratic public ownership and control.
Stop council house sell-offs and build eco-friendly, affordable public housing.
Good, free education for all under democratic local control, plus student grants not fees.
Keep Royal Mail as a publicly owned service, not a privatised cash cow.

STOP GLOBAL WARMING
Deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions - otherwise climate change, caused by capitalism, will destroy us.
Invest in publicly owned and controlled renewable energy - not nuclear or dirty fossil fuel.

JOBS, NOT HANDOUTS TO BANKERS & BILLIONAIRES
Bring banks and finance into true public ownership and democratic control, instead of huge handouts to the very capitalists who caused the crisis.
Tax the rich. Progressive tax on rich corporations and individuals, with a crackdown on tax avoidance.
Massive investment in environmental projects, for jobs and survival.

EMPLOYMENT & TRADE UNION RIGHTS
Repeal the anti-trade union laws.
A minimum wage set at half average adult male earnings, with no exemptions.
Invest to create and protect jobs, especially for young people.
Solidarity with workers taking action to defend jobs, conditions, pensions, public services and trade unions.

PROTECT OUR ENVIRONMENT
Recognise that we depend on our environment for survival.
Move to sustainable, low-pollution industry & farming - stop the pollution that is destroying our environment.
Recognise that many of our planet's resources are limited and that capitalism fritters them away for profit.
Produce for need, not profit, and design goods for reuse and recycling.

DECENT PENSIONS & BENEFITS
Restore the pre-Thatcher real value of pensions and link them to the higher of wages & earnings.
Protect entitlement to benefits and their value; end child poverty.

DEMOCRACY, DIVERSITY & JUSTICE
Welcome diversity and oppose racism, fascism and discrimination.
Ensure women have genuinely equal rights and pay.
Defend our liberties and make police and security democratically accountable.
For a democratic socialist society run in the interests of people not millionaires. For bringing into democratic public ownership the major companies and banks that dominate the economy, so that production and services can be planned to meet the needs of all and to protect the environment.

SOLIDARITY NOT WAR
Bring home all British troops from Afghanistan immediately - no more wars for resources.
No more spending on a new generation of nuclear weapons, huge aircraft carriers or irrelevant eurofighters - convert arms spending to socially useful products and services.
An independent foreign policy, based on international solidarity – no more US poodle, no moves to a capitalist, militarist United States of Europe, no Lisbon Treaty.

Join the SUSC Facebook group below: 743 members in two days!!
Link: Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Facebook Group