From: New Worker Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2001 15:24:39 +0100
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [New-Worker-News] New Worker Online Digest - 20/7/2001
New Worker Online Digest
Week commencing 20th July, 2001.
1) Editorial - Bet your life.
2) Lead story - Privatisation war heats up.
3) Feature article - Privatised tennants face 300% rent rise.
4) International story - New African union slams Britain.
5) British news item - Death and danger in the workplace.
1) Editorial
Bet your life.
THE dramatic fall in the value of many of Equitable Life's pension policies
is not just a misfortune for the hapless policy-holders, it's also a
salutary lesson on the whole business of using the volatile stock market to
provide money for people's basic needs.
It shows how risky private pensions can be. Even if you keep clear of
outright crooks like the late Robert Maxwell, there is still the danger
that a pension scheme could fail because of poor investment management or
stock market slides.
This gambling element in the financial markets is no doubt all in a day's
idling for wealthy investors -- a bad run of fortune might mean having to
part with the luxury yacht orthe penthouse flat in New York. It is not
likely to spell real hardship or suffering.
But when the pensions and small-scale savings of working class people are
hit by a market fall or some shady or incompetent finance broker it's quite
another matter and the struggle of scrimping for years can be tossed aside
as if it were nothing at all. The effect is devastating.
Unfortunately, it's not enough just to warn people of these risks. Most
workers are dragged into the up and down world of the City of London
without seeking to be involved and without having any means of controlling
the situation.
This is because many occupational pensions are invested by employers in
the City and everything that has been privatised is out there on the floor
of the stock exchange.
The privatised industries, utilities and services are all up for grabs by
whichever investors choose to buy into them and they are all subject to
market forces such as labour force shake-outs, cuts in customer services
and price increases. We are all hooked in to this City casino whether we
want to be or not.
Yet in the same week as Equitable Life announced its cut in the value of
its with-profits pensions, Tony Blair was riding roughshod over everyone
and anyone who dared to oppose his latest wave of privatisations.
He lectured public sector workers on his determination to push ahead with
letting the private sector crawl through the backdoor of the health,
education and other services and claimed such private involvement was
essential. His words provoked anger among the public sector trade unions --
but Blair is hoping to tough it out. He will soon discover that the unions
are not alone and have widespread support in this matter.
Then he tried to sack the chairpersons of some House of Commons Select
Committees only to be defeated on the matter in the Commons itself. Few
doubt that he acted because the chairpersons in question were not "on
message" when it came to the question of privatisation and were holding
things up.
Finally, last week he sacked Bob Kiley from his job as chair of the London
Transport board just days before he was due to give his reports on
technical and safety matters that, it is thought, could have raised
difficult questions for the government's plan for a public private
partnership (PPP) of London Underground. Some believe Bob Kiley was only
given the post in the first place to keep him busy, and quiet, while the
election campaign was underway.
This whole business of privatisation is developing into a battle royal
with the unions and a large section of the public on one side and the
government front bench and big business on the other. The capitalists are
absolutely desperate to get investment opportunities in everything and
anything and the deeper the crisis becomes the more desperate these
profiteers are.
Blair knows very well that this is very unpopular and tries to pull the
wool over our eyes by maintaining that schemes like PPP and PFI (Private
Finance Initiatives) are not privatisation schemes at all. Of course no one
is fooled since we've all been there before when Thatcher introduced
schemes like Compulsory Competitive Tendering for local services and
buy-your-council house schemes which ended up with huge estates falling
into the hands of giant private companies.
We need to stand together with the public sector workers and fight back
against these anti-democratic and anti-working class measures. And we need
to fight even harder to defend the principle of a decent universal, state
retirement pension that is linked to average eamings and to tell the
finance houses to stuff their private policies where the light doesn't
shine.
*********************
2) Lead story
Privatisation war heats up.
by Daphne Liddle
PRIME Minister Tony Blair last week told the unions and his own
backbenchers that he intends to carry on his programme of back-door
privatisation of public services -- he calls this reforming them --
regardless of the growing opposition.
In doing so he has found himself embattled on many fronts and has already
suffered some defeats and knock backs.
In the House of Commons, his attempt to sack the Labour chairs of two
Commons select committees because those committees had been too critical of
Government policy rebounded.
On Friday he sacked veteran Gwyneth Dunwoody who chairs the transport
committee and Donald Anderson who chairs the foreign affairs committee.
But on the Monday, the House of Commons had voted emphatically against the
newly appointed committees. The composition of the committees will now go
back to the committee of selection with a clear signal that the House will
tolerate nothing less than the reinstatement of Mr Anderson and Ms Dunwoody.
Mr Anderson described this defiance by the backbenchers as a "peasants'
revolt".
On the London Underground front, Tony Blair sacked Bob Kiley as chair of
London Regional Transport just weeks after giving him the appointment in
the run-up to the general election.
This makes plain the cynical nature of the appointment -- to clear the
unpopular issue of Tube privatisation from the headlines when it could cost
votes, with no intention of really making any concession to the clearly
expressed wishes of Londoners and Tube workers that the Tube should remain
intact and in public ownership.
Bob Kiley, who remains transport commissioner for London, as appointed by
Mayor Ken Livingstone, retaliated by accusing the Government of firing him
in order divert attention from the dangers of the public private
partnership which would break up the Tube, separating the responsibility
for running the trains from track and station maintenance.
Kiley's attempts to negotiate with the prospective PPP companies failed
predictably on his insistence of himself, as London Transport Commissioner,
retaining day to day centralised control over safety issues. The companies
regarded this as much too much interference in their profit making.
"I will go into the night but I will be making a lot of noise along the
way," he said and promised to wear his dismissal as "a badge of honour".
His sacking came just before he was about to present two damning reports
to the London Transport board, both of which support his argument that PPP
is bad in terms of safety implications and financial terms.
"Interesting timing isn't it?" he commented. "The Government has silenced
me in front of the board meeting and this is effectively muzzling the board
which is supposed to be independent and represent the public."
Meanwhile, Mayor Livingstone is pressing ahead with his court case to halt
PPP on safety grounds. He said that Mr Kiley's sacking would make little
difference as Mr Kiley remains head of Transport for London which will take
over responsibility for the Tube when the PPP future is resolved.
The London Evening Standard newspaper has opened its pages for public
debate of the PPP issue and has shown the overwhelming public opposition to
it, and the consternation from many commuters that the Government, in a
"democracy" can be so determined to flout public opinion.
But the Government in a bourgeois democracy must answer to the needs of
finance capital before those of the people. Tony Blair is not digging his
heels in out of childish petulance but because it is demanded of him
capitalism needs and demands privatisation and it will have it regardless
of the will of the voters unless they are prepared to do more than just
vote. They need to challenge the whole system.
So Blair continues. Last week he told a meeting of health workers and
other public sector employees at the Royal Free Hospital in London: "It is
reform or bust".
He said: "I give a commitment and a warning. My commitment is that I will
not flinch from the decisions and changes to deliver better public
services, no matter how much opposition. If the changes are right they will
be done.
"My warning is equally clear. If we who believe in public services don't
change them for the better, there is an alternative political party and
position that will seize on our weakness and use it to dismantle the very
notion of public services as we know them. It is reform or bust."
"Bust" was an unfortunate term for the Labour Party in this context as
Blair's intransigence provoked the GMB general union to cut its financial
contribution to the party by �1 million over the next four years - down
from �650,000 a year to �400,000 a year.
The Labour Party, after all, owes its origin and continued existence to
the organised working class -- the trade unions.
But there is a real danger that Blair could use cuts in party finance to
seek funding from big business. This could end in the separation of the
party from the unions which would be a disaster for the working class. The
best outcome would be an irreversible separation of Tony Blair and his
cronies from the Labour Party.
Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers'
Union, was also making clear his union's opposition to any increase in
private sector running of our education system.
Speaking at a degree awards ceremony at the University College of
Northampton last Tuesday, where he was awarded an honorary masters degree,
he said there is a need for industry to reconnect with schools, colleges
and universities.
But he added: "We don't want Railtrack running our schools...
"In the education debate, some are left confused as to how the mantra of
'education, education, education' can be quickly translated into grants
being replaced by loans and a student population with an average debt of
�10,000 who face the choice between working and studying and 85 per cent of
whom leave higher education in debt.
"Clearly the debt burden is not a Third World phenomenon but a plague on
our student population."
Blair's speech at the Royal Free Hospital provoked not only the unions
but his own backbenchers, who are now becoming more confident in their
strength to defy him.
David Taylor, MP for Leicestershire North West, said: "The Private
Finance Initiative truly is prohibitive in cost, flawed in concept, and
intolerable in consequence for taxpayers, citizens and workers."
Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North said PFI was "irrational nonsense"
that was less popular than the poll tax. And Diane Abbot, MP for Hackney
North, attacked the Government's "obsessively ideological approach".
*************************
3) Feature article
Privatised tennants face 300% rent rise.
by Caroline Colebrook
A GROUP of tenants in the London Borough of Creenwich, many of them
pensioners, whose homes used to belong to Greenwich Hospital Estates, are
facing an increase in rent from �57 a week to �190.
One of the elderly residents of Trafalgar Grove -- 81-year-old army
veteran William Denford -- said: "We couldn't believe it when we got this
letter saying our rent was going up by so much.
"I get my pension, army pension and council pension which comes to �180 a
week. That leaves me �10 short a week."
The tenants live in Travers House which was owned by Greenwich Hospital
Estates until last September.
The residents, most of whom are ex-services, were in protected housing
and had no fear of massive rent rises.
When Greenwich Hospital Estates decided to sell the estate, the tenants
were given the choice of buying their homes.
Mr Denford explained: "We got a letter, saying if we wanted to by our
places we all had to agree to buy our houses.
"We were told the total cost would be �1.2 million. And we would have to
raise a deposit of �129,000 between 20 houses.
"But as most of us are pensioners, we don't want to buy our homes. We
wouldn't even get a mortgage anyway."
Then, earlier this month, a letter arrived from the Essex based property
company B Bailey and Company.
The letter admitted that the rent rise was steep but added: "This is due
to your current rent being artificially low. It is necessary to reduce this
imbalance and increase the rents to market rent levels."
The company also included a new tenancy agreement to be signed that was
not mentioned in the letter.
Fortunately Mr Denford phoned his son Harry before signing the new
agreement. Harry has worked in housing and advised his father not to sign
the agreement because that would effectively be agreeing to pay the new
rent.
Harry Denford said: "Luckily my dad rang me and because I have worked in
housing before, I thought it was a bit dodgy for my dad and his neighbours
to sign the new agreement.
agreement
"It was strange that they made no mention of the tenancy agreement in the
letter. You would really think they would let elderly people live out their
lives here."
William Denford added: "I have never been in debt. I collect my war
pension eacn Thursday which is �50 and I go straight to the rent office to
pay my rent.
"The only thing I can do now is to go to the Department of Social Security
which I really don't want to do. It is my pride. I have gone through my
whole life without benefits."
The local council claims it tried to persuade Greenwich Hospital Estates
to sell to a "social" landlord and has set up a dedicated surgery at the
town hall to advise them on the situation.
But it seems there is not a lot they can do. Most will be eligible for
some housing benefit but there is a limit on the level this will cover and
of course it is means tested.
Those with savings will be expected to use them up paying the high level
rents before they become eligible for housing benefit.
This is a dire warning of what can happen when housing is taken out of
the public sector and into the private sector. Greenwich Hospital Estates'
was reckoned to be a safe, "social" landlord with guaranteed affordable
rents like a housing association.
But when it decided to sell up the tenants were left at the mercy of the
private market.
*************************
4) International story
New African union slams Britain.
by Steve Lawton
AFRICA has travelled a hard, illusive road to unity during the near-forty
year existence ofthe Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which met for the
37th time last week in Lusaka, Zambia.
On this occasion it was a landmark conference creating its successor, the
African Union (AU), with a comprehensive reappraisal of continental
priorities.
The initiative was led by Libya's leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who
first projected the need for change at a special OAU conference in
September 1999. UN secretary-general Kofi Annan paid tribute to him for
"spearheading this development."
Since then a number of governments have been engaged in formulating an
Africa-wide political, economic and social framework that would tackle both
continental survival and real development.
In Lusaka the 53 state leaders and ministers agreed to merge two major
strands into the New African Initiative: The Millennium African Recovery
plan headed by South African President Thabo Mbeki, and the Omega Plan led
by Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade.
The machinery to project it has now to be put in place: An all-Africa
parliament, executive council and central bank. They hope to have
everything up and running by the time of the AU summit in South Africa next
year.
With about three quarters of the worlds worse off nations, Africa has
little choice but to take an active collective approach.
It has major pandemics afflicting and killing millions, widespread
destitution, persistent wars that affect half of the African states and
depleting resources that benefit transnationals at the expense of its
peoples.
The global realignment of imperialism between the US and the European
Union, and Asian regional economic co-ordination with China at its heart.
has led African leaders to seek a more effective place on the international
stage.
China's Premier Zhu Rongji sent the conference a solidarity message
lauding the OAU's history since 1963 of struggling for African solidarity,
unity, national independence and liberation.
He linked China's co-operation with the modern initiative for greater
African integration, to the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation held in
Beijing last October. That set out a new basis of working together as the
OAU began its transformation.
Outgoing OAU secretary general Salim Ahmed Salim said the changes were
necessary if there was to be any chance of achieving "a stronger and united
continent".
They have "no other option", he explained, "but to remain together because
separately none of us can make it, and individual linkages with the outside
world are not viable."
It is therefore not surprising that African leaders slammed the British
Government for leading an international effort to "isolate and vilify"
Zimbabwe as it proceeds with the land reform programme.
"This is not the way Africa works," the Ugandan High Commissioner, George
Kirya, said. "We work in a collective manner. We find there are some people
who are trying to isolate Zimbabwe."
He said Europe and the US are "siding with Britain and I think this is why
the leaders in Africa are saying that this problem ought to be solved, and
they can only do it if they collectively find a solution to it."
Zimbabwe's leader Robert Mugabe insists that Britain is liable for the
payment of compensation for expropriated land, while the British government
barely disguises its hostility, refusing to recognise the way the reform is
carried out.
The 12 million of 30 million hectares of land designated for 5,000 black
landless inhabitants was never likely to be given up by the white farmers
through a gentleman's agreement. The very idea of this land reform is
anathema to capitalist property relations and the powerful precedent it
sets.
As isolation moves to the threat of sanctions, we see that when real
challenges occur, global vested interests always attempt to stick the boot
in. Precisely why the AU is defending Zimbabwe and is intent on taking the
offensive.
Even though there is some progress in achieving a cessation of conflict in
some African countries, these have often been short-lived. So the
effectiveness of the AU's members over the coming year is crucial for its
legitimacy.
South Africa has been busy taking the message into Europe and to the
latest G8 top Western nations' summit. It meets amid draconian defensive
measures, as we So to press, against expected anti-capitalist protests.
The collective solution of Africa's problems ultimately rests with
re-drawing the economic relationship with the big capitalist powers and the
transnationals.
With global recession intruding, precious little done about debt
cancellation (which of itself is not a solution), how much co-operation is
Africa going to get? Even so, China has just announced a cut in Tanzania's
and Zanzibar's debts and arranged no-strings loans.
A former UN development director Bimal Ghosh pointed out in the
International Herald Tribune (ll.7.01) that "African countries will find it
hard to diversify their economies if rich nations continue to impose higher
tariffs when Africans strive to process their own raw materials for export
abroad as part of their belated move toward industrialisation and
technological upgrading."
The new chairman of the OAU, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba said:
"With the ongoing unprecedented acceleration of technological change and
the consequences of globalisation with its attendant competitiveness,
regional economic co-operation assumes even greater importance and urgency.
The AU initiative, set against efforts to re-fashion the role of drug
transnationals in South Africa and beyond, is a clear pointer that suggests
more stident action is to follow.
*********************
5) British news item
Death and danger in the workplace.
A NUMBER of instances of workers who have suffered death or serious injury
in the workplace as a result of neglect of health and safety regulations
have come to light this week.
In Newport, South Wales, one man has been killed and two injured by
leaking chemical fumes at a waste disposal plant. Roads around the plant
had to be closed as firefighters struggled to bring the release under
control.
Leicester Crown Court imposed penalties totalling �500,000 on the
Harvestime Bakery after two workers suffered a horrendous death when they
were sent into a hot bread oven to carry out repairs before it had properly
cooled down.
David Mayes and Ian Erickson died in agony after being ordered to carry
out repairs in temperatures of 100 centigrade at the Harvestime factory in
Leicester.
The oven should have been left for 12 hours to cool down but that would
have cost a lot of production time.
The parent company Fresha was fined �250,000 with �175,000 in costs and
Harvestime was fined �100,000 with �75,000 in costs. Three executives were
fined �20,000, �2,000 and �1,000.
More than 150 employees of the engineering company Colebrand Limited
suffered weight-loss, insomnia, memory loss and impotence after being
sub-contracted to Railtrack to remove paint from station buildings at Lime
Street in Liverpool.
It turned out the paint was lead-based and the employer should have
provided proper safety equipment. But they were given only paper masks and
ate and smoked on site.
The lead poisoning has caused serious permanent damage to the workers
including loss of fertility and neurological damage. They are now seeking
compensation with the support of Liverpool Trades Council.
A spokesperson for the trades council said they were trying to trace other
Colebrand workers throughout the country who may also have claims. He
added: "If they had been trade union members this wouldn't have happened,
because shop stewards would have recognised the danger."
And in Blackfriars Crown Court, London, a judge accused London Underground
Limited of "institutional blindness" after allowing a regime of risk and
danger to continue for four years.
LUL had paid only "lip service" to safety issues and fallen "lamentably
short of the standards expected" as track workers were forced repeatedly to
risk death at night from electrocution and passing trains.
The Tube signals operations manager, David Elkingon, known as "Dangerous
Dave" was fined a total of �5,000 and branded a "dictatorial bully" by
Judge John Samuels QC after the court learnt he had forced engineers to
work in the darkness with track current still switched on and often while
it was raining.
It was only luck that no one was killed or seriously injured but several
suffered electric shocks and one man ended up in hospital wired to a heart
monitor machine for over three hours.
The judge deferred sentence on the six health and safety breaches which
LUL had admitted until next January because of the uncertainty surrounding
the future of LUL regarding the Public Private Partnership.
And he said: "The root cause of this state of affairs was a lack of
effective managerial control at LUL throughout this project."
Council workers belonging to the TGWU general union had voted unanimously
for action and workers in the public sector union Unison were expected to
join them. The local National Union of Teachers will ballot in September.
The rally was addressed by local TGWU branch secretary Bob Tennant, local
Unison secretary Dave Knight and Ron Haycock from the NUT.
Bob Tennant told the crowd: "In this borough and across the country,
privatisation has failed to improve or even maintain the quality of
services to the public."
*********************
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