From: New Worker Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 19:02:55 +0100
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [New-Worker-News] New Worker Online Digest - 27/4/2001
New Worker Online Digest
Week commencing 27th April, 2001.
1) Editorial - Stand together.
2) Lead story - Workers plan May Day celebrations.
3) Feature article - Tories divided over race pledge.
4) International story - Grand turnout for Quebec anti-free trade protest.
5) British news item - Building bosses reject new safety scheme.
1) Editorial
Stand together.
EVERY week we hear of more and more job losses as firms, particularly in
the new technology industries, either close down or slim-down their
operations. The latest bad news is the threatened closure of Motorola's
plant at Bathgate in Scotland where some 3100 jobs are in peril.
In the last month the hi-tech multinationals have slashed a staggering
40,000 jobs and even older industries are cutting back on staff as the
recession in the United States starts to bite into other economies. Last
Tuesday the tyre maker, Goodyear, announced 600 redundancies.
As usual the pundits and politicians are doing their best to make light of
the problems in the hope of keeping confidence as high as possible in the
City of London and to conceal the depth of the capitalist crisis.
But for all the upbeat chatter, the recession is a reality in the US and
it's already affecting other capitalist states, including Britain. And in
every one of those capitalist countries the working class will be made to
pay for the crisis in order to keep the rich minority in clover. It's
unemployment, insecurity, and poverty for millions and even greater wealth
and privilege for a few leading monopolists who will grow fatter and fatter
as the mergers and take-overs speed up.
The last thing the ruling capitalist elites want is for the system of
exploitation to be exposed and rejected. Capitalists the world over fear
the strength of the working class acting together and more than anything
fears the advance of socialism -- which is the only way forward.
As a result everything that can divide workers, deceive workers and
confound workers is done all of the time. At times of recession and crisis
these efforts are multiplied.
A favourite and time-honoured ploy of the ruling class is to foster racism
in every way it can -- through the utterances of right-wing politicians,
through the bourgeoise media and by the underhand method of allowing
officials and institutions to turn blind eyes to racist bigotry and actions.
This provides a convenient diversion from the real issues. It creates a
totally unnecessary division within the working class. It sets minorities
up as scapegoats for the ills caused by capitalism and it encourages
reactionary elements and outright fascists to step up their anti-working
class propaganda.
Despite William Hague signing the Commission for Racial Equality's pledge
not to use racism in the general election, some Tories are clearly not
happy. It is also clear that quite a few other people, and certainly the
ruling class, would rather focus our attention on the latest group to be
picked out as scapegoats -- asylum seekers and refugees -- than discuss the
growing number ofjob losses, the mounting fear of mass unemployment
returning and the utter failure of the capitalist system to solve these
problems.
Nor are the reactionary forces only interested in heightening racism
during the run-up to the election. It is being elevated because of the
deepening economic crisis and because hardship and discontent are likely to
grow.
We need more than ever to say boldly and clearly that immigrants, asylum
seekers, refugees and people from ethnic minorities are not responsible for
the redundancies at Motorola, Goodyear, Corus, Ericsson, or any other firm.
They are not to blame for the teacher shortage, the nursing shortage, the
inadequate state retirement pension, the fortunes wasted on Trident
weapons, the social spending cuts, the anti-union laws, the lack of council
housing, the privatisation of the railways and every other service and
utility and they are not responsible for the poverty in other countries
which imperialism exploits.
We need to condemn racism and work to strengthen working class solidarity
and organisation. And we need to pin the blame where it belongs -- on the
capitalist class and its inhuman system.
*********************
2) Lead story
Workers plan May Day celebrations.
WORKERS throughout Britain are planning to eelebrate May Day as workers'
day and to mark the 75th anniversary of the General Strike, mostly on 1 May
itself rather than the designated bank holiday on the following Monday.
Then here will be a rally addressed by Mick Rix, general secretary of the
train drivers' union Aslef, Bob Crowe, deputy general secretary of the
transport union RMT and Eddie McDermott of the Transport and General
Workers' Union.
No doubt Mick Rix and Bob Crowe will be calling on supporters to sign the
unions' Take Back the Track petition urging the Government to renationalise
our railways.
A recent Mori poll showed that 76 per cent of people in Britain endorse
this call.
The South Tyneside May day Committee has organised a rally on 1 May at the
South Shields Labour Club, Victoria Road at 7.30pm.
This will be addressed by Arthur Scargill on behalf of the National Union
of Mineworkers an Eric Trevett on behalf of the Korea Friendship and
Solidarity Campaign.
Political singer/songwriter Paddy Shannon will provide entertamment.
tickets
Tickets for the event are just �l and are available from Roger Nettleship
on 0191 483 7766.
The Edinburgh May Day Committee has announced: "Radical voices to address
Edinburgh's May Day Rally on the 75th anniversary of the 1926 General
Strike -- a new generation of activists is expected to join Tony Benn MP
and Tommy Sheridan MSP at this year's May Day rally in Edinburgh.
"And this year's message on international workers' day is that the
struggle for social justice is every bit as vital, relevant and inspiring
today."
Tony Benn argues that: "For our generation the most important task is to
win the labour movement for socialism again and build democracy from the
bottom up. That is what the people are waiting to hear."
And Tommy Sheridan says: "May Day is an opportunity to highlight poverty
and public ownership.
poverty
"Poverty is unacceptable in a country as rich as Scotland with huge
natural resources, physical wealth, technology and social infrastructure.
"Poverty arises in Scotland not because we are a poor country but because
the distribution of our wealth is still obscenely unequal.
"The renatonalisation of the utilities stolen from ordinary citizens must
be put back on the political agenda in order that gas, electricity,
telecoms and public transport belong to the people."
He called for an independent socialist Scotland and for condemnation of
the support given by the British and United States governments for Israeli
occupation of Palestinian lands.
The Edinburgh May Day committee intends to mobilise hundreds of workers
for a march, including 100 children, each carrying a photograph of a
Palestinian -- adult or child -- killed by Israeli state forces in he
recent uprising.
A spokesperson said: "May Day is international workers' day and has always
highlighted the struggles of the oppressed everywhere.
"Just as the labour movement was an ally of those fighting apartheid in
South Africa, so it will be a key force in fighting against the
dispossession, ethnic cleansing and ongoing massacres of the Palestinian
people."
Bill Speirs, of the Scottish TUC and deputy general secretary of the
Irish trade union Siptu, will address the rally on behalf of the trade
union movements in Scotiand and Ireland.
He will point out the link between the two through the experience ofthe
Edinburgh-born socialist James Connolly, who was executed by the British
Army or his role in the Irish war of independence.
May Day in Edinburgh will be a cultural affair, with multicultural bands
and art exhibitions and treats for the children.
The march assembles at 11.30 am on Saturday 5 May in market Street for a
rally at 1pm in Princes Street Gardens.
There are dozens of other May Day events happening, including a rally in
Chapelfield Gardens, Norwich on Saturday 5 May from 10am onwards, where New
Worker comrades will have a stall.
**********************
3) Feature article
Tories divided over race pledge.
by Daphne Liddle
SHADOW chancellor Michael Portillo last week threw the Tory party into
disarray by playing politics with the race issue, using a pledge issued by
the Commission for Racial Equality as a weapon to try to upstage his leader
William Hague.
The Labour Party responded by also playing party politics with the issue
in a way that means racism will feature strongly in the election and
afterwards as the coming global recession starts to bite and mass
unemployment returns to haunt the working class.
The CRE pledge was a fairly anodyne voluntary agreement for all
contestants in the coming general election to sign to promise not to
campaign in a way that would increase racial prejudice or tensions.
Most signed it without battmg an eyelid, including William Hague, Anne
Widdecome, most other Tory candidates, and all the Labour and Liberal
Democrat candidates.
Most of the general public would hardly have been aware of it had not
three Tory backwoodsmen refused to sign it. Portillo seems to have seen
this as an opportunity to upstage his leader and also refused to sign.
Portillo himself is not a racist, he recently berated one of his own party
members for this.
But he knows that raising the issue will strike a chord with many in his
party and win him support electorally and in the battle for leadership of
his party.
He attacked the CRE and claimed the document was aimed to stifle debate on
asylum and immigration.
The right-wing press took up the issue with alacrity and acres of
newsprint appeared in papers like The Telegraph attacking the CRE as a
Labour stooge.
They wheeled out former CRE commissioner Dr Raj Chandran to claim that all
the current CRE leadership are Labour Party activists.
Portillo has been supported by many other Tories, including former armed
forces minister Nicholas Soames who called the CRE pledge "a loathsome and
offensive document", John Gummer and Aldershot MP Gerald Howarth who said
it was an attempt to "intimidate" Tory candidates.
This was a signal for Hague and Widdecome to jump on the bandwagon and
declare that although they had signed the document, they did not like it.
On the other hand, Steve Norris and Michael Ancram have been trying to
quell the more outspoken racists in their own ranks.
Steve Norris started by saying that Mr Hague had expected all candidates
to sign the pledge and Michael Ancram had written a circular to all Tory
candidates warning them not to come out with racist comments while
campaigning.
Meanwhile Labour itself is by no means innocent of racism. Home secretary
Jack Straw has accused Hague of weakness on the issue while he himself has
introduced new measures to remove 30,000 unsuccessful asylum-seekers this
year.
This is pure electioneering but it will have a devastating effect on the
asylum seekers who no longer get a fair hearing in the current fast-track
processing and will pander to unfounded public fears about excessive
numbers of asylum seekers.
And the right-wing press continues to attack the very existence of the
CRE. Many fear that if elected, the Tories would abolish it.
But the CRE funds racial equality groups all around the country which are
doing vital work in defending the victims of racism.
Dev Barrah of the Greenwich Council for Racial Equality told the New
Worker that if the CRE funding was withdrawn: "We would be dependent on the
council to pay our wages and they would love to close us down because we
challenge them on things they are getting wrong.
"We do loads of casework. Thousands come to us for help because we go out
into the community and talk to people. Eighty per cent of those from ethnic
minorities have no confidence in the police or the council. If we did not
exist, these people would have nowhere to go. There would be riots on the
estates.
"Some local CREs are not as effective as they could be, it depends on the
people who are on the management committees. They need to be improved, not
cut.
"And the CRE is vital to see that the recommendations of the McPherson
report are implemented. Who else is there to do that?"
*************************
4) International story
Grand turnout for Quebec anti-free trade protest.
by Liz Rowley of People's Voice
THE demonstration of tens of thousands goes on forever, thirty people wide
is bigger than anything I've ever seen. We later find out that 70,000
people came out, twice as large as organizers had hoped. The efforts by
police, governments, media and pundits to frighten people and keep them
away have failed.
In fact the opposite has happened. The massive police buildup of 6,000,
plus 1,200 army regulars brought up from Valcartier, has become an issue in
itself. Frightened by the efforts to restrict democracy and civil rights,
people and have come out in their thousands to show they will not be
silenced. TV images showing row upon row of riot police facing unarmed
youth climbing the hated perimeter fence have increased the anger. Why is
this fence here? Why are young people being attacked with tear gas and
plastic bullets?
But the mood is not primarily anger, although that erupts whenever the
demonstration passes a street with a clear view up to the ramparts where
people are intent on bringing down the fence.
Before the day is over, two of our own young people have been injured -
one hit in the head by a plastic bullet, another collapsed after being
gassed. Everyone gets a taste of the gas somewhere along the march. It
wafts everywhere throughout the city, potent and still able to burn eyes
and choke throats and chests.
In the end the tear gas also gets Chr�tien and the Summit leaders. The
conference has to be adjourned Saturday when the winds blow the tear gas
back into the Summit compound. There it gets into the ventilation systems,
and the buildings are evacuated. The news is hidden from demonstrators and
the public. But like the FTAA text, somehow it leaks out, the best news of
the day!
Friday's protests also delayed the Summit opening, as well as some of the
day's sessions. The protests cannot be ignored. The leaders WILL hear. And
they do.
On this side of the perimeter fence, there is the intoxicating power of
masses of people in motion. This is the real power of the people, of
democracy and social justice, of unity and solidarity, reflected in the
faces of people marching with dignity and moral authority.
They came in more than 300 buses and trains from all over Quebec, Ontario,
and the Maritimes. Even a busload from Winnipeg arrives. They are trade
unions, social justice groups, special event groups like Toronto's
"Mob4Glob" (mobilization for globalization). The CSN,
Quebec's largest public sector union, has done an outstanding job with more
than 20 buses coming from Local 301 alone; Montreal's outside workers have
outdone themselves! The Quebec's teacher union is also out in force, along
with many from the FTQ, the CLC's Quebec affiliate. The CAW has sent 15
buses, and paid for more to bring hundreds of social justice and community
groups to Quebec City. CUPE, CUPW, and other public sector unions are also
present in significant numbers. The Steelworker/CEP train has brought six
carloads from Toronto and stops
along the way.
The NDP leaders are here, a change from previous demonstrations, and a
shift away from the main direction of their policy on globalization. Have
the election results had an impact on their thinking? Many in the labour
leadership are glad to see them.
The Communist Party of Canada is also here, together with its Quebec
members, the Parti communiste du Quebec. Two busloads have arrived, one
from Montreal and the other, after a gruelling nine hour trip, from
Toronto. Everyone is happy to be here. Boxes of the CPC statement on
capitalist globalization spill out onto the pavement, along with banners of
all sorts -- and poles to put them on, what a relief! Advance rumours were
that the cops would confiscate anything attached to wood, even poles to
hoist and carry banners! Two hours later, 10,000 leaflets have been eaten
up by a crowd hungry for information. The Young Communist Organization also
has a leaflet, but it too is gone in short order.
One key demands - to release the text of the agreement for public debate -
has born fruit. On Friday, an important section of the text was leaked.
Dealing with constitutional issues and national sovereignty, it galvanized
opposition and focussed the demands for openness, publicity, democracy and
accountability.
Above all, demonstrators want Ottawa to put the FTAA on the public
agenda, and to take direction from the Canadian people, not the "economic
elites": the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the
World Bank, GATT, the G7, and other un-elected and
unaccountable corporate global entities.
The largest contingent are the social justice and community groups from
Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes, many of whom are also union members and
activists. The Council of Canadians is front and centre, along with the
Canadian Federation of Students. The largest proportion of demonstrators
are young, providing the protest with much of its enormous energy and
optimism.
Among them are Radical Cheerleaders along the route. "Go to the Left,
left, left! Not to the Right, right, right! We're going to fight, fight,
fight!" they holler out, pompoms flying this way and that.
Music and puppets are everywhere too, many homemade. The puppets are
enormous -- 15 or 20 feet high. George Bush in ghoulish flight. A huge
green condom to be used to "Protect yourself from the FTAA!" is covered
with reminders about the threat to the environment, social programs, labour
standards, and democracy. A huge Uncle Sam standing over a guillotine. A
gigantic mother protecting her children from corporate conglomerates. A
very ugly Ronald McDonald doing nasty things. And so on.
Much of the music is pots and pans, and rhythm and beat. When the pots and
pans brigade are too tired to walk, they climb the crossbeams on the lamp
standards, and entertain us from above with drum beats on metal. People
dance through the streets. "So! So! So! So-lidarite!" goes the favourite
chant throughout the day.
Street theatre is everywhere. A group of three show how government is
blinded and silenced by money, while corporations go fishing. A large group
of 20 or 30 walks in lockstep to the march of a drum, all dressed in
corporate suits and ties, movements synchronized including the stop to the
look at the relentless watch, and the stop to hold the aching, breaking
head.
The rejection of a world run by corporate, capitalist elites is plain to
see. People come dressed as sharks, ghouls, tycoons, carrying signs that
make the impassioned case for democracy, for civil and national rights.
Many came with US dollar bills taped across their mouths. Others carry
Cuban flags made of paper. The Che Guevara stickers made by the Young
Communist Organization go like hot cakes with hundreds of people wearing
them throughout the day. A broad sense of solidarity with Cuba, and the
Cuban trade unions and people, saturates the protest.
Thousands of people come in their cars and vans with friends and
relations, some because there weren't any buses, or because the buses were
long since filled. Whole families arrive, often with their own signs in the
trunk. Everyone has brought water, along with winter coats, boots, scarves
and mittens. Who knew the weather was going to be hot? Winter clothes are
stripped off, and suddenly the crowd is a mix of summer and winter, coats
tied around the waist, paper hats made of leaflets and newspapers,
everybody sunburned and exhausted at the end of the 10 kilometre hike.
Some turn back before the final kilometres, a stretch through industrial
land where marchers feel isolated and sidelined. Why did the march not come
close to the perimeter, many ask. The end is the exhibition grounds where
toilets await, together with brief speeches, and more music.
The buses finally arrive, and the worry about finding all the right bodies
begins. Who is missing? Who is lost? Is anybody hurt? Are the cell phones
working? A young woman lost turns out to be in the emergency ward. Drowned
in tear gas, she collapsed when her asthmatic lungs shut down. An ambulance
was called, she was treated in hospital where we recover her.
Finally we head out for the nine-hour trip home, secure in the knowledge
that we made our contribution to the blooming opposition to the FTAA, and
to its disruption and developing defeat.
*********************
5) British news item
Building bosses reject new safety scheme.
CONSTRUCTION companies last week rejected a scheme put forward by unions
and by the Health and Safety Executive for roving safety inspectors.
The Construction Confederation and the Electrical Contractors' Association
which represent more than 7,000 companies dismissed the scheme as
"counter-productive" because "it will be someone who doesn't know the site.
They may know health and safety rules but not the ways of working the site."
Building workers are more than six times likely to be killed or seriously
injured at work than any other occupation and a third of all health and
safety prosecutions relate to the construction industry.
Last year 80 workers died on building sites while death rates in other
industries fell.
Mick Holder of the London Hazard Centre, a campaigning group for improved
safety, said: "We want legislation. The days of employers being 'requested'
to take action should be over.
"The members of these organisations have caused the deaths of too many of
their employees, so we thought they would have been a bit more willing to
participate."
The HSE said that independent safety trained inspectors would have the
advantage of not being employed by the firms they are inspecting.
"Inspectors can be more objective about a problem if the company is not in
a position to sack them," said a spokesperson.
George Brumwell, general secretary of the construction union Ucatt, said:
"Denial of workers' rights, a culture of lawlessness at site level, a
chronic skills shortage and sickening health and safety statistics have all
contributed to the industry's poor image.
"A real change in the industry's culture will mean involving the workforce
in health and safety on building sites. That is why we strongly advocate
the trade union roving safety rep system."
A small number of roving safety inspectors will be launched next week as
part of a pilot scheme, though their powers have not yet been defined.
*********************
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