> >New Worker Online Digest > >Week commencing 18th August, 2000. > >1) Editorial - The good life. > >2) Lead story - Give us back our buses and trains. > >3) Feature article - Front line project against racist attacks. > >4) International story - NATO troops storm Serb factory in Kosovo. > >5) British news item - Builders lives held cheap. > > >1) Editorial > >The good life. > >"SPIN", or what used to be termed "deception ", is not just a method used >by politicians to put the best possible gloss on their own party or >government. It is also a general tactic employed by the ruling class, >through the mouths of their many lackeys, to put the best possible gloss on >the capitalist system itself. > > Celebrities and their partying lifestyles are constantly pushed under our >noses. There are even magazines devoted to photographs and stories about >the homes, clothes, romances, divorces and so on of rock and film stars, TV >personalities, fashion models and various others of the rich, thin and >well-tanned brigade. > > Such over-exposure is obviously meant to convey an image of the good life >and to inspire all of us to want this for ourselves. The rich are to be >icons for the people. > > The trouble is the fashionable "celebs" are for the most part just >extremely well paid members of the entertainment and fashion industries. >They are not the wealthy capitalist elite that comprises the ruling class >-- that section of society prefers to shun the limelight. > > And the idea that we should all dream of living in this fairyland world is >the biggest deception of all, since, in the real world, the gap between >rich and poor is widening all the time. > > What's more this gap will continue to get wider and wider for as long as >capitalism holds sway. This is because capitalism cannot escape from the >dynamics of its own system -- in particular the tendency for the rate of >profit to fall and the efforts of the capitalists to deal with this dilemma >by screwing the workers more and more. > > This involves attacks on wages, increases in working hours and worsening >working conditions. > > These days even this deterioration of the quality of life is done by >sleight of hand and is accompanied by spin. Modern management, particularly >in white collar sectors, is less likely to court a workplace struggle by >announcing a rise in working hours. > > Instead workers are given individual job-plans, contracts or projects >which they are expected to carry out. The tasks are designed to overrun the >usual work time and the workers feel obligated to slay until the work is >done. Like Pontius Pilate, the management will wash its hands of the >problem and pretend the hours have not been changed and suggest that the >workers are simply inefficient or slow. > > In the manufacturing sector the worsening of conditions is often achieved >by crude threats of plant closure if productivity is not increased. > > Wholesale privatisation and deregulation has also been used to break old >agreements and replace them with new contracts on terms that are worse for >the workforce. Collective national bargaining has been seriously undermined >by the ensuing break-up of industries. > > These trends make it more important than ever for the labour movement to >organise along the lines of industrial unionism -- that is for workers in >the same industry to be represented by the same union. Trade union mergers, >which are mainly done for financial reasons, need to reflect the needs of >the workers and not just the needs of the full time officials. > > It is also vital to step up the struggle to roll back the anti-union laws >introduced by the Tories. The Labour government has made a move to restore >the right to trade union recognition. But that is just a beginning -- there >is still much that needs to be won back. It is especially important to >reverse the ban on secondary picketing now that so many industries, like >the railways, have been broken into a multiplicity of different companies. > > There also needs to be an awareness that low pay can only be properly >addressed by organiscd trade union struggle -- plans like the National >Minimum Wage are too passive to provide the wage rises we need and they do >not ensure that all bosses comply. > > In short, capitalism can only deliver the good life to a tiny minority. >Most of us will continue to rush around juggling work and family >responsibilities. We hardly have time to live our own lives let alone swan >around at film premiers or spend weeks of every summer traipsing between >Henley, Ascot, Queens Club and the Long Room at Lords. > > For the majority of people the real good life requires the building of a >socialist society, in which the interests of people are the priority. > > ********************* > >2) Lead story > >Give us back our buses and trains. > >by Daphne Liddle > >PUBLIC transport in Britain continues to decline while it is owned by the >private sector as yet another batch of reports has revealed last week. > > One report from the pressure group Transport 2000 which hit the press last >Sunday showed that big bus operators are cutting the rural services in >favour of the more lucrative town centre routes. > > Passengers from places as far apart as Glasgow, Cornwall, Cheshire and >Gloucestershire are complaining that services are disappearing fast. > > Three big companies -- Stagecoach, Aniva and First Group -- control most >of Britain's local buses. > > David Redgewell, the Somerset area campaigner for Transport 2000, warned >that First Group is planning to withdraw completely 57 routes in Cornwall, >Devon, Dorset and Somerset. > > Four depots are scheduled for closure along with at least two ticket and >information centres. > > Mr Redgewell admits the services to be withdrawn could never be >profitable. But he says, the operators should be compelled to keep them >running as a vital lifeline for isolated communities. > > In theory the franchises held by these companies do compel them to >maintain rural services but the clauses are not enforced. > > The new Transport Bill, likely to be enacted this autumn, will give local >authorities more power to enforce the terms of the franchises -- but there >are still no guarantees they will. > > Often when a service is withdrawn itis the local authority and taxpayers >who must pick up the bill of restoring some sort of skeleton service -- >that is bound to continue to be a drain on the public purse. > > And local authorities just do not have the same legal and financial >resources as giant companies like Stagecoach for court battles. > > Instead local authorities have gone down the less contentious and more >trendy "partnership" route. Since privatisation, a process of >monopolisation has taken place among the private bus companies leaving just >a handful of giant companies that are far more powerful than the local >authotities. > > Tom Harris, speaking for the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Authority, >said: "We are sceptical about partnerships between bus companies and local >authorities being effective without binding contracts behind them." > > The Government has promised to double expenditure on local bus services >over the next decade to �4 billion. But until the service is renationalised >there is no way to ensure that money is spent where it is most needed and >does not simply end up as share dividends for the big companies. > > Meanwhile on the railways the effects of cost-cutting by private companies >was exposed last week by a report in the Western Mail from a young driver >working for Valley Lines. > > He warned that safety is being compromised as train drivers are being >rushed through training so quickly they are known as "microwave drivers". > > This driver, who preferred to remain anonymous, said also that cuts in >middle management was hampering management ability to control safety. > > The company has refuted these claims but they seem to be supported by >figures from the Health and Safety Executive. > > These showed three incidents of trains passing signals at danget on the >small Valley Lines network in the first quarter of this financial year. > >The HSE is also looking into an incident of a train setling off along a >single-track line without the required authorisation. > > One HSE staff member said: "There have been instances where employees have >been told to keep a train in service by the control office, when all the >guidelines tell you it must come out of service for safety reasons. Profit >comes before safety." > > There are further claims concerning the inadequate training of the new >"microwave" drivers. One HSE staff member said: "The standard of training >is poor and drivers are pressurised into signing for routes before they are >fully familiar with them. > > "There are some good people employed by Valley Lines and there are bad >apples, as with any company. But even the most conscientious employees are >suffering low morale." > > The inquiries into the Southall and Paddington rail crashes have shown >these companies have littie to fear from the law even when neglect and >cost-cutting does lead to disasters and the loss of passengers' lives. > > Another report last week confirmed yet again that London commuter train >services are continuing to decline, with Conner, which operates the busiest >routes in the country, providing the worst service. > > When the services were privatised we were assured the various watchdogs >would ensure the quality and safety of service. Most of us knew even this >promise was hollow. The watchdogs are toothless. > > Now the Labour government is assuring us the new Transport Bill will >introduce effective controls. It will not. The legal departments of the big >business companies will continue to shrug off the regulations while >pocketing profits from passengers and tax-payers alike. > > The only solution is to bring public transport back under public control. > > There is just one London bus company heading in the right direction. The >publicly owned and controlled London Buses Limited has retaken control of >routes formerly operated by Harris Bus in Hackney, east London and >Belvedere in south-east London and is running them under the newly formed >public company East Thames Buses. > > Dave Wetzel, deputy leader of Transport for London, the new umbrella >authority for London buses under mayor Ken Livingstone, has promised this >new public ownership will be permanent. > > We should demand it is the first of many such transfers. > > ********************** > >3) Feature article > >Front line project against racist attacks. > >by Caroline Colebrook > >DEV BARRAH, racial harassment officer for Greenwich Council for Racial >Equality, last Monday (14 August) opened an empty flat on the Ferrier >estate that has been set aside for a new racial harassment monitoring unit >office. > > The giant south-east London estate -- just a mile or so away from the spot >where black teenager Stephen Lawrence was knifed to death by racists -- was >built by the Greater London Council in the 1960s and is now showing all the >signs of neglect and vandalism associated with the west council estates. > > The tenants are a rich ethnic mix but the Ferrier has a long history of >racist attacks and harassment. > > A number of families have been forced to move out. GCRE has mixed views on >the policy of moving the victims of racist attacks. > > Its most recent report says: "The policy provision that the council could >transfer or rehouse tenants on account of racial harassment in certain >circumstances is a very positive and important one. > > "Of concern however, is its susceptibility to random use and abuse. Abuse >because some people are wont to see it as an easy way to gain a transfer >and avoid the queue and points system. > > "On the other hand, some officials would prefer the transfer option Tot >its convenience. It is useful in ending frustrating or heady cases by >simply offering an alternative accommodation. There is however a common >danger in both scenarios. > > "in the absence of action against the perpetrators, moving victims is not >a terminal solution. The perpetrator is left to harass future ethnic >minority families who may be allocated to the vacant property." > > Often the families moved out -- who are given only one choice of new >address -- find themselves moving "from the frying pan into the fire" and >have to move again. > > There is a great shortage of safe places to move victim families to. The >nearest council estates to the Ferrier, in the south of the borough are >several decades older. > > These pre-war estates are on average 97 per cent white. This is due to >racist housing policies in the past but there are several reasons why >change does not come quickly. > > Around 40 per cent of the homes on these estates have been bought by >tenants under the right to buy and around 30 per cent of what is left is >occupied by pensioners. > > All this adds up to very few homes becoming available on these estates and >those black and Asian families who do live on them feeling very isolated. > > The real long-term solution is to identify the attackers and evict them. >The local borough has clauses against racist harassment in all its tenancy >contracts and does occasionally enforce them. > > The GCRE racist attacks monitoring unit has recorded a 32 per cent >increase in racist attacks in the borough over the last year, including 182 >assaults and 28 incidents involving knives. > > And it is calling for a policy from the council that does not only offer >help and support to victims after an attack but takes the initiative on >prevention. > > The aim of the new office on the Ferrier is to monitor all kinds of >harassment and to identify the perpetrators. > > So far funding has been won from strategic renewal budget for this office >to be a pilot scheme -- staffed for just one week a month for six months. > > Dev Barrah told the New Worker this is not enough to engender confidence >in the project from victim families and he is now engaged in recruiting >volunteers to keep the office staffed for normal office hours every weekday. > > The project cannot yet offer a rapid response service though the GCRE >racist attacks monitoring unit does offer such a service on a borough-wide >basis. > > Already local racists seem to have got wind of the arrival of the race >harassment monitoring unit and the outside has been graffitied. > > The daubings include nationalist flags, a bulldog and the question "Who's >in the house?". > > This is a project in the heart of where it is needed most, right on the >front line against racism. > > ************************* > >4) International story > >NATO troops storm Serb factory in Kosovo. > >BRITISH SOLDIERS along with other Western troops stormed a Serb factory in >Nato occupied Kosovo last Monday, shutting it down on the pretext that it >was a health-hazard. Four Fusiliers were slightly injured in clashes with >the workers who pelted the KFOR detachment with bricks and stones. One Serb >worker was gravely wounded when he was hit in the head by a rubber bullet. > > Nine hundred British, Danish and French KFOR troops backed by armoured >cars and helicopters moved in on the Serb-owned Trebca lead smelter in >Mitrovica in a pre-dawn raid on the last remaining factory in Kosovo still >in Serb hands. > > They claimed they were enforcing an edict from the UN imposed >administration (UNMIK) to ensure the installation of filters. Susan Manuel, >speaking for UNMIK said: "The lead smelter was a health hazard to the local >population. Blood tests have shown alarming lead levels in Mitrovica,". > > She also claimed that the smelter's Serb managers had refused to >co-operate with UNMIK's demands for the installation of the filters. But in >this town which still has a sizable Kosovan Serb community the general >feeling amongst the Serbs is that this is yet another move to strip them of >any remaining control in what is still legally a province of Yugoslavia. > > This was made clear by the UNMIK spokeswoman when she added that "the >plant's managers are appointed by Belgrade and they were not producing for >Kosovo". She said UNMIK was determined to assert its right to manage the >firm, part of the big industrial complex in the town, and its profits. > > "We are determined to revive the Trebca mining complex as part of a >unified Kosovo," she stated. > > The Serb general manager of the plant, Novak Bijelic, was arrested by the >KFOR police the night before the raid and expelled from the province >without explanation. Now in Serbia, he remains defiant. > > "Fascists expelled me and my parents from Metohija in 1941 when I was just >a toddler," he told the press. Bijelic was born in Kosovo and has lived >most of his adult life there. > > He added that 16 Trepca factories had been destroyed on the orders of the >UN governor, Bernard Kouchner. He cited the example of the torching of the >zinc processing plant in the southern, ethnic Albanian populated part of >Kosovo-Mitrovica. And he said the flooding of coal mines owned by the >Serbian electric power company in Kosovo had thrown many Kosovan Albanians >out of work as well. > > Trebca's own figures refute the claims of dangerously high levels of lead >and suphur dioxide in the air, a view backed by the Kosovska Mitrovica city >hospital. > > The UN administrator. Bernard Kouchner has appointed a 30 strong team of >administrators and engineers to run the plant. He says an agreement will be >shortly signed with an international consortium to take over the running of >the whole mining complex, appoint executives and a Board from all the local >communities. As for the old Serb manager, Novak Bijelic, he's been told he >will not be allowed back into Kosovo for three months. > > ********************* > >5) British news item > >Builders lives held cheap. > >by Renee Sams > >THIRTY workers have been killed in accidents on construction sites in >Britain in the first four months of this year, a union leader told a large >crowd of building workers on the steps of London's St Paul's Cathedral last >Friday. > > George Brumwell, general secretary of the construction workers' union >Ucatt was addressing a mass rally called to commemorate all those workers >who have been killed on construction sites. > > He warned that if employers did not stop the carnage then "builders will >have to stop the job". He said that Ucatt is planning to launch a safety >campaign to gain support from other trades unions and the general public. > > Just the day before the rally, a building worker had fallen eight floors >from a site in central London -- while Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott >had been meeting officials from the Health and Safety Executive to discuss >safety. > > On 21 May this year, three men employed by Hewden Stewart plunged to their >deaths from 25 storeys as a crane collapsed at the site of a new HSBC bank >at Canary Wharf. > > These two accidents highlight the appalling dangers building workers face >every day. > > Recently released HSE figures show that site deaths increased by 20 per >cent last year compared to the year before to 86. > > "I put the blame squarely on employers," George Brumwell stressed. "There >are plenty of laws, plenty of rules and regulations. What is needed is the >will to implement them." > > "When it comes to law," he added, "we have to fight for our rights. But it >is apparent that employers can get away with flouting it." > > And when it comes to fines they get away very lightly. Only 41 >prosecutions were brought last year and 13 of these resulted in fines of >less than �1,000 -- the same as for failing to have a TV licence. > > He noted that the Government has talked tough on accident prevention but >also that promises have not been kept. > > The latest issue of the Health and Safetv Bulletin reported that over the >last two years staff employed by local authorities -- who now have the main >responsibility for enforcing safety at work legislation -- to work on >health and safety have been cut by over 16 per cent. > > George Brumwell was quite clear that "if the employers and the Government >don't do something about it then we will have to take action ourselves. > > "We are not prepared to put up with the way building workers have been >treated over the years. > > "We want to go home to our families safely after work every day as other >workers do. Justice is on our side." > > The Transport and General Workers' Union is also putting its weight behind >this campaign. > > Bob Blackman, TGWU national secretary for building and construction >workers, said: "These fines are insulting and more importantly they are not >working. A corporate manslaughter law would create 20 years of change >overnight and instil a safety culture in an industry where the fine for >fatal negligence can be less than for forgetting to pay your TV licence. > > "The Government is Britain's largest construction client so they are >perfectly placed to take a lead on these issues. > > "Their contracts make up 40 per cent of the industry's business and they >should be leading the way in instilling a safety culture in construction. > > "At the moment there is no safety culture whatsoever and these fines are >proving no deterrent." > > The Construction Safety Campaign is calling for: > > * safety representatives to be protected from victimisation by employers >and roving safety reps to be appointed; > > * all information from the HSE to be publicly available; > > * workers to have the legal right to stop any job when faced with danger; > > * for HSE investigations and prosecutions to be based on breaches of law >and not the availability of resources; > > * every employer whose negligence results in the deaths of workers to >serve a term in prison; > > * substantial penalties for serious injuries to workers when employers >are found guilty; > > * compulsory surveys for asbestos and its safe removal when found in >properties. > > The Construction Safety Campaign has organised a national meeting for 9 >September at the Trade Union and Labour Club, North Bridge Road, Doncaster >starting at 11am. > > ********************* > > >New Communist Party of Britain Homepage > >http://www.newcommunistparty.org.uk > >A news service for the Working Class! > >Workers of all countries Unite! > > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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