From: New Worker Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 07 Jun 2001 20:32:18 +0100
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [New-Worker-News] New Worker Online Digest - 8/6/2001
New Worker Online Digest
Week commencing 8th June, 2001.
1) Editorial - Fight on.
2) Lead story - Leeds police attack provokes riot.
3) Feature article - CWU wants action against public service privatisation.
4) International story - Turmoil in Nepal.
5) British news item - Tube workers win no redundancies deal.
1) Editorial
Fight on.
IN the last days of the election campaign the Labour Party managers began
to worry about socalled voter apathy. Yet they and their Tory counterparts
should not have been surprised to discover that their campaigns left many
people stone cold.
And who can wonder at it when every public appearance of the party leaders
was stage managed to the smallest detail, when the issues for discussion
were picked by the parties' poll analysts and spin merchants, and when the
only non-party members of the public to get anywhere near the leading
politicians seemed to be babies too young to object and children in schools
obliged to be on their best behaviour.
Even the press got so bored that the last day's campaigning kicked off
with the Daily Mirror running a front page item about Tony Blair's
underwear -- and you can't get more trivial than that.
Yet it will be a great pity if Millbank's image makers and campaign
controllers end up driving potential Labour voters away from the polling
booth. After all one thing this election campaign hits clearly shown is the
utter disaster a Tory government would be for the majority of people.
Their proposed massive tax cuts -- going well beyond Thatcher's fat cat
tax bonanza -- would open the door to equally massive cuts in health,
education, and other social spending.
The Tories claim this would not be the case because in their hands the
economy would flourish and provide increased revenue from greater
productivity.
Who are they kidding? In the United States and in capitalist countries
throughout the world, all right wing parties are proposing far-reaching tax
cuts. Parties like the US Republicans are taking this line because they
fear another recession is around the corner and they want to cushion the
wealthy with lower taxes -- regardless of what that means for everyone else.
The Tories other plans include tougher measures to tackle crime, even
though crime figures are down, and many more detention centres for asylum
seekers. To an extent this is just cheap politics. But it also signals a
desire for an even more authoritarian society which also reflects the
nervousness of the capitalist class as it braces itself for recession and
crisis.
Capitalist elections can't offer us much. But we do get the chance to keep
the most reactionary of the mainstream parties out of office and to elect
the only party that is historically and organisationally linked to the
trade union movement -- the Labour Party.
Even then, the Labour Party is in the hands of a right wing leadership and
the TUC and trade union movement are not at the moment under much pressure
to Lake up a militant stance.
Blair and the rest of the Labour right have had a fairly easy ride and
have been able to push ahead with a number of pro-big business and
pro-imperialist policies at home and abroad.
Clearly voting, though necessaty, is not enough. If working class
interests are to be defended and the immediate demands of the class are to
be met there has to be a rising level of militancy and struggle.
In this way those important issues the party leaderships chose to ignore
in the election campaign can be put back onto the agenda -- the struggles
against Trident and the US star wars plans, the disastrous creeping
privatisation programme of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), the
campaign to bring transport back into public ownership and control, the
fight to restore the link between pensions and earnings -- and to defend
the principal of a universal state pension free of means testing.
The gloomy prospect of the capitalist crisis tipping us once again into
rising unemployment and growing hardship makes it essential to pin the
blame where it belongs -- with capitalism. Failure to do this will open the
door to reactionary responses to problems -- those who peddle racism will
be quick to step in. The election is over but the battle goes on!
*********************
2) Lead story
Leeds police attack provokes riot.
by Daphne Liddle
THE ARREST of an man in his home by police using CS gas led two days later
to rioting after talks between police and the Bangladeshi community broke
down.
Around 600 young Asians took the streets in the Harehills area in anger,
several shops and cars were set on fire.
The trouble began two days earlier when police raided a home using very
heavy-handed tactics and using CS spray according to a local witness.
He said: "There was supposed to he talks today to discuss the results of a
meeting between the Bangladeshi community and the police following the
arrest of a man, but nothing really happened.
"Tonight is a reaction to the lack of police action following the incident
in which the man was sprayed with CS gas."
Another witness said: "They took this man, they arrested him, kicked him
and sprayed CS gas at him in front of Asian people."
A recent survey headed by Professor Ellis Cashmere of Staffordshire
University found that Black and Asian police officers blame pressure to
improve performances in tackling crime for the racial stereotyping and
unfair targeting of ethnic minorities by police.
After interviewing over 100 Black and Asian officers the survey concluded
that constant assessment "had the unintentional consequence of promoting
racial profiling or selecting minority groups for unfair treatment."
The officers also reported racial abuse by white officers, which they say
is a "test". If they complain about it, or protest at the unfair treatment
of ethnic minority civilians, their careers could be damaged.
One officer said he was told by his superior to "pull over more black kids
with baseball caps and jewellery as they were likely to have the wrong
documents."
Many officer were aware of reports from the Metropolitan Police force
which claim high levels of offending by some sections of ethnic minority
groups, especially in regard to street crime.
This has led to unfair targeting. Police in London are now coming to
realise that "stop and search" tactics should be much more carefully
targeted and carried out only on those who fit descriptions given by
victims of crime.
* Detectives in Birmingham are investigating an unprovoked racist attack
in which an Asian youth was sprayed with an inflammable substance and then
set alight.
The victim, who does not want to be named, was walking with his cousin
when two white men approached. They taunted him with racist insults before
spraying him and setting him on fire.
The victim was detained in hospital for four days.
* Scotland Yard officers last week arrested Alan Rimmington, a 72-year
pensioner suspected of sending fascist hate mail and threats to a number of
prominent judges, politicians and television personalities.
When they searched his home they found a number of firearms and now the
bomb squad in investigating the case.
Rimmington is also suspected of sending supportive letters to the
convicted neo-Nazi nail bomber David Copeland.
*************************
3) Feature article
CWU wants action against public service privatisation.
by Caroline Colebrook
THE ANNUAL conference of the Communication Workers Union in Bournemouth
last week pledged to take industrial action to prevent the further
privatisation of public services.
This came in an emergency motion that was a response to news that
Consignia, formerly the Post Office, is considering contracting out key
sorting and delivery services to the German computer firm Siemens, in an
effort to improve productivity.
Trade and Industry Secretary Stephen Byers has told the Royal Mail it must
"raise its game".
Consignia is already being forced to operate more commercially and
consultancy firm KPMG is looking at ways to cut costs, improve flexibility
and outsource some services.
This all means cuts in jobs, wages and conditions for postal workers. It
is they who will have to be more flexible in the hours they work.
Attempts to impose new conditions and "flexibility" on postal workers
without consultation have already sparked unofficial strike action.
Feelings are still running very high.
One option under consideration is to allow Siemens or some other
contractor access to a new site in Bromley-by-Bow, cast London, as one of
73 mail centres.
The French Post Office is also waiting for when British licences to
deliver letters become available for operators to launch alternative
services to the Royal Mail later this year.
Martin Vial, who chairs the French state-owned mail, parcel and financial
services group La Poste, has said he would seek to enter the British mail
delivery market in partnership with Consignia.
The emergency resolution passed by the 1,200 delegates at the CWU
conference noted fears that Consignia is seeking to set up a "cut-price,
non-union operation" in a major city such as Liverpool while "the Labour
government has the privatisation of the postal business as one of its main
priorities after the election".
That agenda would not be likely to change whatever the result of the
general election.
failure
Labour's manifesto has failed to promise the Post Office will remain in
the public sector but instead says it will create "alliances and joint
ventures" with commercial operators and networks abroad.
The CWU warns this means that the private sector will be able to pick the
most profitable parts of the service, leaving Consignia with the costs of
running the non-profitable parts -- deliveries to remote places and so on.
Without profits to counter-balance these costs, Consignia will fail
economically and services to remote places will be cut.
CWU deputy general secretary John Keggie said: "Although people are saying
it is speculation, I'm pretty confident there are plans afoot by senior
managers looking at this option. If managers are speculating about the
future of the industry, we are entitled to speculate about how we are going
to respond to it."
The motion was passed just hours before Deputy Prime Minister John
Prescott addressed the conference, urging delegates to pull out all the
stops to ensure a Labour victory.
Rut he noticeably failed to give any assurance about the future of
Consignia and departed quickly after his speech.
*************************
4) International story
Turmoil in Nepal.
by Steve Lawton
TENSION in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal -- a country with less than half
the population of Britain buffering India and China -- remains high
following the still unclear circumstances of the Royal killings on 1 June
in Katmandu Palace which claimed the lives, among others, of King Birendra
and Queen Aiswarya.
In all, 10 Royals are now dead, that much is clear; while four other
wounded members are recovering. Ex-Eton educated Crown Prince Dipendra --
said to be responsible for their deaths is said to have received a gunshot
to the head leaving him in a coma. He was declared king while in hospital,
but soon died. The kingship passed from Dipendra to his uncle Prince
Gyanendra on Monday, the third Nepalese king in as many days.
The Palace was sealed off and a curfew imposed immediately after the
killings that virtually wiped out the Shah dynasty. The Nepalese people,
demanding to know what really happened, took to the streets in protests
that have so far caused the deaths of at least three people with dozens
injured.
The curfew was briefly lifted then reimposed -- as Nepal enters a period
of official mournng -- to check angry reactions. Condolences were received
from countries of the region -- Peoples China, India, Pakistan and
Bangladesh among others.
Britain and the United States have issued warnings about travelling to
Nepal. The British embassy is providing protection for tourists still
there, but most have already hastily left the country. Travel firms in
India and Thailand have cancelled planned tours of Nepal, while expeditions
traversing Nepal and Tibet have also been affected.
The new king immediately set up a three-member inquiry body -- including
the Supreme Court Chief Justice Keshav Prasad Upadhyay and Speaker of the
Lower House, Taranath Ranabhat -- to establish the "truth" and "facts" of
the killings by the time we went to press. The immediate questions being:
Who really pulled the trigger and what forces were, or were not, involved?
But the third and key member of the panel, General Secretary of the Nepal
Communist Party (United Marxist-Leninist) Madhav Kumar Nepal, pulled out.
The leader of the main opposition leftist organisation of six active in the
country said: "Our Party has reservations about the manner in which the
committee was set up and humbly conveys its inability to participate."
He declared the inquiry "unconstitutional" because the king had failed to
consult the government; and said that Prime Minister Ginja Prasad Koirala
-- who is part of the Raj Parishad, a 15 member committee appointed by the
king -- should have been responsible for initiating the commission.
While this second turn of events plays out, speculation about the deaths
remain rife. The protests have been fuelled by the failure of the Nepalese
government to get their story straight. At first, Crown Prince Dipendra was
said to have been a crazed gunman turning on his family because there were
objections to his marriage intentions.
Some Indian press reports suggested that after he killed them, he went in
battle dress from the dining hall across to the temple and shot himself
with a pistol, which he is supposed to have been given to test by the army
(the king, despite many powers having been transferred to the government
since 1990, remains supreme commander of the army).
Shortly after, reports suggested the automatic firearm exploded of its own
accord causing the deaths, in a move seen as vainly limiting damage to
royal esteem and recognising Nepali popular reaction. Jane's military
analyst Paul Beaver, like many others, said this was highly unlikely. He
had "never heard of an automatic weapon going off by itself before."
Pakistan's biggest Urdu daily Jang has been promoting the idea that King
Birendra was slain as a warning for growing too close to China and Pakistan.
Leftist guerrillas who have been mounting armed attacks to hasten a
republic said, according to the Los Angeles Times (5.6.01), that King
Birendra's "patriotic stand and liberal political ideology" was a factor in
his death.
It came at a time of growing workers' action which has most recently led
to a three-day general strike at the end of May, that brought all the main
left organisations together in concerted action.
The conjunction of these events is significant, and ultimately addressing
militant workplace and agrarian demands of Nepalese people will be the
judge of the country's future.
*********************
5) British news item
Tube workers win no redundancies deal.
THE RMT transport union last week called off further industrial action by
Tube workers after securing a deal with London Underground which will
guarantee their jobs in spite of the partial sell-off of the Tube network
in a public-private partnership.
The union remains firmly opposed to the sell-off. RMT assistant general
secretary Bob Crow said: "Breaking up and privatising our Tube would plunge
the network into chaos for years to come."
But the deal won by the unions and by London's transport commissioner Bob
Kiley will at the very least protect the Tube from the worst threats --
massive job losses and deterioration of safety standards.
Bob Kiley had already won the right to conduct negotiations with the
private consortia bidding to take on the contracts and is insisting on day
to day control over all safety issues.
The importance of this was highlighted by the Hatfield rail crash last
October, caused by a broken rail.
Railtrack was responsible for maintaining the rails but had contracted the
work out to Balfour Beatty.
The breakup of British Rail on privatisation has been a damning example of
how responsibility for safety has been tossed from one private company to
another with no one in the end being certain who is responsible for what.
This is why Bob Kiley, supported by the unions and most of the travelling
public, insisted that control over safety should remain centralised and out
of private hands.
The consortia bidding for the contracts are not at all pleased, either by
Bob Kiley's success nor by the new deal won by the RMT and there is now a
question mark over whether or not the public-private partnership will go
ahead.
This is as plain a statement as can be got that the private companies are
only interested in profit which call only be made by cutting staff numbers
and compromising on safety.
Under the Government's PPP scheme around 6,000 workers now employed by
London Underground will be transferred to the private sector companies
taking over.
Those companies recently warned the Government they could not guarantee
jobs for life for those workers. Their prospects looked dim.
But the new deal secured by the RMT means the private companies will have
to take on all the workers. Should any be "displaced" subsequently, they
will be offered another job and so on until they retire or wish to leave.
They can only be sacked for serious breaches of discipline.
The deal states: "As a result of this agreement, no compulsory
redundancies will take place".
The Tuberail consortium, which bid successfully for the Northern, Jubilee
and Piccadilly lines said it had not been aware that bidders would have to
agree to such a deal.
Spokesperson Steve Brammall said: "lt was not presented in that way. We
were not required during the bidding process to give any guarantees on jobs
for life.
"Whether or not we would offer one if we were preferred bidder I do not
know. The issue is whether the preferred bidder will accept these terms."
On the other hand Metronet, the preferred bidder for the Bakerloo, Central
and Victoria lines said: "We'll be spending �2.8 billion in the first five
years. That requires people -- not removing them."
The RMT has demonstrated that trade unions, in spite of being lambasted in
the press as dinosaurs, can still protect the interests of their members
through industrial action.
It is easy to predict that LU and the private companies will try to find
ways of reneging on the deal but no doubt the RMT will remain vigilant.
Bob Crowe said: "We never said it was about jobs for life. It was about
saving lives. This is an important first stage in preventing a repeat of
the widespread job cuts which have undermined safety on the national
railways."
*********************
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