>
>New Worker Online Digest
>
>Week commencing 5th May, 2000.
>
>1) Editorial - The Spirit of May Day. & Stand by Zimbabwe.
>
>2) Lead story - Rover's fate again in the balance.
>
>3) Feature article - No to performance related pay.
>
>4) International story - British spy centre spreads it's web.
>
>5) British news item - May Day around Britain.
>
>
>1) Editorial
>
>The Spirit of May Day.
>
>MILLIONS UPON MILLIONS of workers all around the world took to the streets
>last Monday to mark international workers' day. In the socialist countries
>the Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cuban peoples celebrated the
>success of their revolutions and paid tribute to the struggle of the
>international working class.
>
> In the developing world workers and peasants gathered to rededicate
>themselves to the struggles ahead against imperialism and oppression. And
>in the heart of imperialism, in the United States, Western Europe and
>Japan, organised labour marched in defence of trade union rights and for
>socialist advance.
>
> On 1 May 1886 American workers went on a general strike over the
>eight-hour day and better working conditions. In Chicago workers were
>gunned down by the cops during a rally in Haymarket Square. Eight of- their
>leaders were sentenced to death on trumped up charges and despite mass
>protests at this travesty of justice four were hanged the following year.
>
> In 1889 the First Congress of the Second International decided to mark
>every May Day as a day of remembrance for the Chicago martyrs and
>international workers' solidarity. These were the "martyred dead" our
>Labour Party leaders honoured, often in their ignorance, when they sang the
>Red Flag.
>
> Chicago's Haymarket is now covered by massive skyscrapers. Bourgeois
>historians hardly ever mention the 1886 struggles. On the rare occasions
>when they do, they present the May events as a local episode which has long
>lost its significance.
>
> But the capitalist class has never been able to marginalise May Day or
>prevent its observation by the working class. Here in Britain the ruling
>class have never accepted even the modest acknowledgement of May Day made
>by the last Labour government in the 1970s, which established a May bank
>holiday on the first Monday of the month.
>
> Every year we read the predictable complaints in the columns of the
>reactionary press. We're told that there are too many public holidays or
>that there are too many in the spring. This is usually followed by a demand
>to replace the May holiday with one in the autumn -- usually around some
>nonsensical date like "Admiral Nelson Day" which they say would have more
>significance to the public.
>
> Needless to say none of these critics would dream of marking Oliver
>Cromwell -- 3 September would be the obvious choice -- nor do they ever
>call for the abolition of Whitsun, whose religious significance is lost to
>all but the handful who actually go to church. No, it's only May Day they
>hate, and they have good reason to hate it.
>
> This is the one day of the year the entire world labour movement marches
>in step, east and west,north and south. It is a time for reflection, a time
>to pause and honour the martyrs who died for the cause. And it is a
>powerful symbol of working class unity and strength -- a challenge to the
>capitalist system of oppression, plunder and exploitation which must be
>ended once and for all.
>
> **************************
>Stand by Zimbabwe.
>
> Not a day passes without news from Zimbabwe. Foreign Minister Robin Cook
>is now going to spend much of his time in trying to resolve the land crisis
>-- a crisis whose roots lie squarely with British imperialism which robbed
>the blacks of their lands to give it to colonial settlers when the country
>was the British colony of Southern Rhodesia.
>
> Every day a Serb is killed in Kosovo by thugs from the Nato-armed "Kosovo
>Liberation Army". The Nato-led occupation force turns a blind eye, the boss
>media and the "human rights" gang in Britain say nothing. Millions of
>Palestinian Arabs live in refugees camps and little or nothing is said.
>Romanies and other minorities are driven out of their homes in Eastern
>Europe and this is ignored -- unless they flee to the West, and then they
>are branded "bogus asylum seekers".
>
> But the death of two white land-owners, killed fighting landless peasants
>in Zimbabwe is front-page news and the peasants, many of them former
>freedom-fighters, are portrayed as savages.
>
> The government drivels on about "free and fair" elections in Zimbabwe,
>barely veiling their wish to see President Mugabe ousted. They say nothing
>about the rigged polls in Russia, Ukraine or the Baltic States, or the
>gerrymandered elections which used to be held in the occupied north of
>Ireland.
>
> Zimbabwe's elections are a matter for the Zimbabwean people, not Britain.
>Zimbabwe's land-reforms are also nothing to with British imperialism and if
>British imperialism wants the landowners compensated for the loss of part
>or all of their enormous estates then it can easily pay for it out of the
>billions it stole from the Zimbabwean people throughout the last century.
>
> *********************
>
>2) Lead story
>
>Rover's fate again in the balance.
>
>by Daphne Liddle
>
>
>
>WORKERS at Rover's Longbridge plant in the West Midlands last week faced a
>rollercoaster ride of hopes raised and dashed and raised again -- and the
>banks really stuck the knife in by blocking overdraft facilities to the
>Phoenix bid to save the company.
>
> Last week the Alchemy finance group withdrew its longstanding bid to buy
>most of the Rover car manufacturing company from its BMW parent.
>
> Workers greeted this initially with joy as it meant that BMW would now
>have to look more favourable at the bid being hastily put together by
>Phoenix, under the leadership of former Rover chief executive John Towers.
>
> Bill Mouls, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union,
>said: "Once again we are seeing the ugly face of global capital. While they
>pick over the carcass of Rover our members are struggling to work out how
>they are going to pay the bills.
>
> "This is another opportunity for Towers to be treated seriously. BMW
>should start talking with John Towers immediately BMW should stop playing
>roulette with our members' jobs."
>
> Until then BMW had looked unfavourably on the Phoenix bid as it basically
>just wants to unload what is seen as a heavy loss maker as quickly as
>possible.
>
> Whatever happens there will be heavy job losses but the Phoenix proposal
>will keep large-scale motor manufacturing going in the West Midlands.
>
> The situation was confused by many rumours that were floated and then
>denied -- for example that BMW, which has decided to hold on to the more
>profitable Mini manufacturing plant in Cowley, Oxford, would vastly
>increase production there.
>
> Then there was a rumour they would withdraw entirely from Cowley and
>switch production of the Mini to Germany at a cost of 120,000 jobs in Britain.
>
> Alchemy then hinted that it might revive its bid but was rebuffed by BMW.
>
> Then came good news that there had been real progress in the talks between
>BMW and the Phoenix consortium.
>
> Towers spoke of "detailed and positive" talks at the London offices of
>BMW's solicitors.
>
> He was at last allowed to see all the necessary documents to work out a
>realistic bid for Rover and said: "We have now identified the relatively
>small number of items that our teams have to work on this week and it is
>all moving in the right direction."
>
> The Labour government and the unions put all their strength behind the
>Phoenix bid with the Government hinting it may help with finance as it had
>previously agreed to give BMW help in renovating the Longbridge plant.
>
> That plan, drawn up as a survival plan for Rover about 18 months ago, also
>had full Government and union backing. It fell through because the
>Government grant was long delayed by European Union red tape which
>restricts uncompetitive government subsidies to industry.
>
> That same red tape would apply to any Government plan to subsidise the
>Phoenix plan.
>
> TGWU chief negotiator Tony Woodley reported Rover workers coming forward
>to add their savings to backing Phoenix.
>
>
>optimism
>
> On May Day the workers headed the London march with optimism but the very
>next day they read that the British banks are refusing to underwrite the
>Phoenix bid.
>
> These included the HSBC (formerly Midland), Barclays, NatWest and Lloyds.
>John Towers seemed surprised by this. Now he is looking to banks in the
>United States and Canada.
>
> But the accounts of the Longbridge plant will count against them. The
>banks will be concerned only to ensure they make a profit, not a loss and
>Longbridge has been making huge losses.
>
>
>distorted
>
> The figures are of course distorted by the investment put into the plant
>over the last year by BMW to renovate it -- renovations which have yet to
>come into operation and start paying off.
>
> But the future still looks bleak. BMW says that if no firm bid is
>confirmed by the end of this month, it will simply close Longbridge.
>
> The truth is that there are two many cars being produced around the globe.
>Existing stocks of unsold Rover cars already amount to a value of "hundreds
>of millions".
>
> Stepping up productivity is no cure if you can't sell what has already
>been produced.
>
> The whole story underlines where the real power in our society lies -- not
>with unions or governments or even manufacturers but with the big banks.
>
> The only cure for the ugly face of global capitalism is to overthrow it
>and replace it with socialism -- production planned to meet human need, not
>profit greed.
>
> **********************
>
>3) Feature article
>
>No to performance related pay.
>
>by Jill Brown
>
>IT MAY have seemed to some of our readers, from comments in other papers,
>that teachers just love to spend Easter holiday in an annual confrontation
>with anyone who comes to address their conferences. But in fact the
>majority of daily sessions are spent dealing with classroom issues and
>inner union matters.
>
> This was certainly the case in Harrogate last week, where over 900
>delegates from associations (union branches) of the National Union of
>Teachers from all over the country gathered for their annual conference --
>to listen to each other and invited guests, in the hope that they too will
>be listened to.
>
> Without any doubt, the most serious matter on this year's agenda was pay.
>This is not unusual but this year the difference was the imposition of
>performance-related pay, as warned in the conference preview in New Worker
>print edition, issue 1097.
>
> Also to be expected was the call for a one-day strike and other action
>against this latest innovation.
>
> The issue was introduced as a priority motion by the NUT executive but the
>debate that followed was conducted in disjointed chunks. This is because
>conference standing orders means that the contributions of six invited
>guests had to be inserted at regular intervals.
>
> During the debate there were two card votes as well as shows of hands for
>certain parts. This meant the final, vital vote was announced in the very
>last minutes of the whole procedure.
>
> One could he forgiven for suspecting this was a deliberate ploy, as hinted
>in the press.
>
> Certainly delegates were getting restless at the parade of party education
>spokespeople. These were Labour Schools Minister Estelle Morris, Teresa May
>for the Tories and Phil Willis for the Liberal Democrats.
>
> Both Morris and May said much the same thing about the future funding of
>education. They spelt out the end of local education authorities (LEAs) as
>we know them but with differing details. Both were heckled.
>
> NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy responded to May by assuring delegates
>that the Tory education policy will be carefully scrutinised in the run-up
>to the next general election.
>
> His remarks following Morris's speech were largely to soundly chastise
>delegatus for heckling her extremely patronising remarks. Thus he angered
>even the mildest teachers sitting in the hall.
>
> Other guest speakers included Graham Lane of the Local Government
>Association, TUC general secretary John Monks and the general secretary of
>the Ethiopian Teachers' Union, Gemorav Kassa.
>
> Lane supported many NUT policies with a defence of state and comprehensive
>education. He pointed out that the only way to deal with problem schools is
>through LEAs. Central government cannot handle such localised issues.
>
> This can be seen where heads have been specially appointed under the Fresh
>Start arrangements. Three of them have recently resigned within two years
>
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