From: New Worker Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 20:07:17 +0100
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [New-Worker-News] New Worker Online Digest - 10/8/2001
New Worker Online Digest
Week commencing 10th August, 2001.
1) Editorial - Soft soap.
2) Lead story - Historic IRA arms move.
3) Feature article - Rail guards' C2C strike digs in.
4) International story - Palestinian resistance hits Israeli defence
ministry.
5) British news item - Manufacturing recession now official.
1) Editorial
Soft soap.
BRITISH manufacturing is in recession, and that's now 'official'. But we
are still having the wool pulled over our eyes by pro-capitalist
economists, media hacks and politicians in an effort to gloss over the
fundamental truth -- that we are not just entering a temporary recession
but are heading into the stormy waters of a deepening capitalist crisis
that is afflicting every continent on earth.
And so we are jellied along with charts and figures trying to kid us that
things are not really bad because the recession is only in the
manufacturing sector which makes up just 17 per cent of the economy these
days. Therefore, they say, around 70 per cent of the economy is in the
service sector which is not being hit.
What a nonsense argument this is. Not only is manufacturing industry at
the very heart of the economy as a creator of wealth but it is impossible
to isolate one part of the economy from the other sectors. The different
parts of the economy do not exist in separate compartments.
It is obvious that the closure or scaling-down of manufacturing plants
will have a huge impact on the economy as a whole and that job losses in
manufacturing will have a knock-on effect on jobs in the service
sector.
We have seen this all before. Workers that are "shaken out" of
manufacturing jobs, whether they take early retirement, join the dole queue
or find less well paid jobs elsewhere, are all worse off. Thousands go from
earning a full-time wage to the income provided by pensions, benefits and
the low wages of jobs these workers would not have chosen otherwise.
Inevitably these changes affect local shopkeepers, they affect local
councils who lose business rates from plants that shut down, colleges lose
courses in engineering and other industly-related studies, subsidiary
industries that supplied parts and services to the big plant are often put
out of business and a whole downward spiral gets underway.
On top of all that the recession, wherever it begins, helps to drive wages
down across the board. Those still in work are threatened by the clouds of
unemployment around them and made to feel vulnerable to pressure from the
boss and those looking for work find themselves in a take-it-or-leave-it
climate. Eventually the government uses the benefits system to force people
into accepting low paid work.
We are also told other lies such as the myth that the wise management of
the govemment will head-off the worst effects of recession. They pretend
that making cuts in interest rates will rescue manufacturing and keep
confidence high both at home and abroad.
But the trouble is every country does the same thing once the troubles
begin and the supposed help this is supposed to give to the pound is very
short-lived. And we can already see that one effect of lowering interest
rates is to push up house prices in many places to such a degree that
public sector workers like nurses can't afford to rent or buy a home at
all. Many are driven out of their jobs or are forced to travel long
distances to work every day.
Of course the government is not offering to significantly increase public
sector wages to meet these rising costs nor is it pledging to restore
affordable, council-owned housing as a national policy.
We can be sure that worsening problems will only bring forth a further lie
-- that the recession is just one of those things that happens from time to
time, like bad weather and influenza. And like an epidemic of flu, it will
be said to come from somewhere else in the world and that nothing can be
done about it.
Yet capitalism and its recurring slumps and intractable problems are
created by human beings not supernatural forces. It is inflicted on the
majority of the world's people for the sole purpose of enabling a minority
of rich capitalists to live lives of luxury and idleness. It is driven by
its own economic forces which make it unresponsive to reason and control.
The immediate need is for the working class to unite in the trade unions
and fight together to defend wages, conditions and jobs. The unity of
workers is itself a force for change and a necessity in these times.
At the same time we need to carry on the fight for socialism which is the
only system that can bring these horrors to an end and provide stability,
peace and prosperity for everyone.
*********************
2) Lead story
Historic IRA arms move.
by Steve Lawton
CANADIAN General John de Chastelain, chairman of the Independent
International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), was satisfied last
Monday that the Irish Republican Army will "put IRA arms completely and
verifiably beyond use."
"This is a hugely historical breakthrough", Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams
said; while SDLP leader John Hume cautiously welcomed the commission
statement: "We look forward to IICD reports of further significant
developments and want to see all armed groups make real progress..."
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader David Trimble, while admitting the
position was "significant", remained insistent that the IRA must declare
immediately (ie, as we go to press) that they will begin actual destruction
of weapons immediately.
David Trimble called the move nothing more than "preparatory procedural
steps". The UUP council met and decided it would not respond until the IRA
acted. At the same time hardline Trimble rival Geoffrey Donaldson said it
was a "delaying tactic" and that the IRA must now "move quickly" to show
they mean it.
But Sim Ftin chief negotiator Martin McGuiness rounded on the UUP leader
for "hindering" and "minimising and diluting the potential" of the Good
Friday Agreement.
He said David Trimble had made a "grievous error of judgement" and that
this was, of all his errors over the last three years, the "greatest
mistake of all".
While Gerry Adams pointed out that the IRA doesn't lightly make its
decisions. He said there was "very firm proof of the IRA's ability and
commitment to keeping its promises. When, how and all the other technical
questions should be left to the IICD to sort out."
The IICD statement came just prior to the deadline set by British-Irish
'The Way Forward' proposals, borne of Weston Park talks in which parties to
the Good Friday Agreement met to head off the looming collapse of the
northern Ireland Assembly.
After decades of republican resistance to British occupying forces, it is
clear how deeply the fears must run behind the public theatre unionists
have made, in a one-sided way, of the IRA weapons factor.
Since the IRA first declared a ceasefire, its very cautious approach to
the issue of arms has been one of the most significant political stages in
its difficult transition away from a war footing. Now, it is formally
declaring that the silence becomes the non-existence of its guns -- a major
psychological leap.
The IRA's position, Gerry Adams said, should be supported "especially so
when viewed against the backdrop of loyalist killings, the almost daily
attacks on Catholics, with the unionist leaderships working to undermine
the Good Friday Agreement and a British Government which has broken past
commitments."
Sinn Fein north Belfast councillor Margaret McClenaghan spoke of the
recent local loyalist violence: "Six car loads of loyalists, shouting UFF
[Ulster Freedom Fighter] and anti-Catholic slogans, attacked houses on the
Crumlin Road with bricks and paint bombs... homes were seriously damaged
and a number of people have had to be taken to hospital."
She said "time has long since past when unionists and loyalists can
pretend that north Belfast, and indeed the whole of the north of Ireland,
is not being held to ransom by this orchestrated anti-Catholic pogrom."
The IRA has demonstrated a ceasefire normality after four years. Even the
Financial Times (8.7.01) editorial acknowledged that the IRA "remains
disciplined" and "has broadly done what it said it would do."
It said "unionists must therefore put aside any doubts, accept General de
Chastelain's judgement and re-engage constructively with the agenda set out
in... the statement by the British and Irish Governments."
The IRA is committing itself in the context of the Good Friday Agreement.
Gerry Adams said last Monday that Sinn Fein now looked to a positive UUP
response on this and other matters, not least the illegal ban preventing
Sinn Fein from taking up cross-border ministerial duties.
If by Sunday a new first and deputy minister have not been elected -- the
six week interim from David Trimble's resignation as First Minister on July
1 having expired -- the British Government must then consider suspension of
the institutions or call new elections.
Essential to the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, republicans
and nationalists argue, is the restructuring ofthe RUC into a
cross-community accepted policing service; British troop withdrawal and
demilitarisation; stabilising the half-functioning political institutions;
giving real bite to various rights commissions; producing a Bill of Rights
and setting out a new criminaljustice system; and halting sectarian attacks.
How these issues are addressed defines the changes in the role of the IRA,
and not through a singular tactical insistence on decommissioning.
Whether the British Government gets back to Good Friday Agreement basics
in the light of the IRA's position, remains to be seen. Yet it is now clear
that unionist opposition to this IRA move must mean anti-Agreement
opposition to the entire process.
The Anglo-Irish proposals suggest the British and Irish Governments want
to proceed more forthrightly. If so, unionism will have to be more
decisively lent on if they fail to grasp this especially tantalising
prospect of renewed confidence.
*************************
3) Feature article
Rail guards' C2C strike digs in.
by Trevor Southchurch
GUARDS on the C2C Shoeburyness-Fenchurch Street mainline continue to wage a
determined battle with rail bosses over cuts and attacks on safety as the
company prepares to introduce driver only trains.
Last Wednesday and Thursday Rail, Marine and Transport union (RMT) members
turned earlier 24-hour actions into the first 48-hour response to the
latest failed talks. Derrick Marr, RMT officer, said: "We've got a lot of
public support, but we're a long way off any agreement."
RMT leader Bob Crow, just prior to the two-day strike, slammed C2C
management for seeking to undermine safety still further with plans to
cover the guards' absence: "This is a despicable way of addressing this
dispute." He said they were "flagrantly flying in the face of safety by
bringing in untrained managers with no proper route knowledge to carry out
a key safety role."
Management insisted that passengers (note, not customers this time) were
not at risk because managers trained as guards were not yet being brought
in. The official made it obvious what it was about: "We are trying to
pre-empt the possibility of another strike."
Strike breaking as it is otherwise known as, not safety, is clearly
uppermost in their minds. Millions of pounds are believed to have already
been spent in this preparation work.
This provocation, among other dubious tactics that question the conduct of
RMT negotiators and what was and was not agreed to, has simply escalated
the dispute. At the end of July, the usual scare tactics were employed by
C2C, by sending letters to warn strikers that they are jeopardising their
future.
The company alleges that RMT's decline in union membership is the real
reason for these actions. The day after the 18 July strike, C2C attacked
RMT in more forthright terms as possessing a "1970s militant trade union
dinosaur mentality"
clapped-out
But the real dinosaurs are to be found in charge of the near clapped out
slam-door 50-year old trains which are still in service, despite the long
overdue new rolling stock only now, at Iast, coming onto the tracks.
These have been full of technical faults for the last few years. The
profit (and often incompetent) dinosaurs are actually impeding the advance
of new, safe transport systems when they fail to plan for changes in safety
and employment. Such is capitalism.
The trend to reducing rail staff in favour of supposedly cost-effective
technological methods -- by reducing ticket collectors and station staff
generally -- has contributed to putting commuters and remaining staff at
risk from personal attack. Proof of that was the eventual introduction of a
private security firm on the C2C line, as with other lines.
At Barking station, for instance, there were regular boasts on billboards
of how they had reduced crime for the benefit of commuters -- crime that
had risen with the reduction in rail staff. The guards issue is directly
related to the overall rundown, greater risk, stress and death that the
industry -- and people who use it -- suffer.
The Southend Rail Travellers' Association is now lobbying C2C to resolve
the dispute. Derrick Marr said: "The company is infamous for taking people
on temporary contracts. There is no trust in the management at all.
Everyone is in agreement that it is a lot safer with a guard than without."
First Great Eastern, also serving Essex, running from Liverpool Street to
Southend Victoria, has just been named as one of the worst in the country
for overcrowding, reflecting a London-wide trend.
*************************
4) International story
Palestinian resistance hits Israeli defence ministry.
by Our Middle East Affairs correspondent
A PALESTINIAN guerrilla opened fire on Israeli soldiers outside the Israeli
Defence Ministry in Tel Aviv last Sunday in a daring drive-by attack in the
heart of the Zionist entity.
Ten Israeli troops were injured and one settler killed outside the
ministry complex. One Palestinian fighter was fatally wounded in the
exchange of fire but his comrade escaped.
Fighting is continuing throughout the occupied territories with Israeli
death squads trying to murder leaders of Yasser Arafat's Fateh movement and
the Islamic resistance.
On Monday Israel troops shelled several Arab towns and Palestinian
teenagers responded by ambushing an Israeli military vehicles in the West
Bank. In Jordan an Israeli businessman was shot dead by the Islamic
resistance - accused of being an agent of the Israeli intelligence service
Mossad. And an Israeli settler was killed and several others wounded in
other clashes during a week of spiralling violence.
Israeli Premier General Sharon is in Turkey holding talks with his only
ally in the region. But the Turks have little or no influence on the Arabs
and in any case they are little more than American pawns.
Efforts to restore the so-called Mitchell plan cease-fire have ground to a
halt. The Sharon government has rejected European Union initiatives and it
says it will never accept international observers -- currently the major
demand of the Arafat leadership.
Israeli Labour party leaders, junior members in Sharon's coalition, seem
more favourable to some sort of international presence, preferably an
extension of the existing CIA monitors who operate inside the "autonomous"
Palestinian zones. But Sharon's hard-line Likud bloc, which relies on
fanatical Arab-hating settler support is dead set against any formal
international observer force in the occupied territories. They claim this
is because it would be ineffectual and biased against them. The real reason
is that any force sanctioned by the United Nations could not recognise the
illegal Zionist annexation of Arab Jerusalem and its environs and therefore
would have the right to "observe" in areas the Zionists think they've
seized forever.
The Palestinian Authority has warned that Tel Aviv's current stand poses
grave dangers to the region and the Chairman of the Political Bureau of the
Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, stressed this week that the intifada will not
stop, regardless of pressure and that the Palestinian people are ready to
continue the fight for years to come.
Sharon clearly hopes he can out-gun the resistance with his killer
commandos and cow the Palestinian people with tanks and helicopter
gunships. The Palestinians are determined to prove him wrong. Nearly 600
Arabs have been killed since the uprising began ten months ago. The
resistance has killed around 130 Israelis during the same period.
Ower 10,000 Israeli peace campaigners gathered near the Israeli Defence
Ministry in Tel Aviv Saturday night demanding the resumption of peace talks
with the Palestinians.
*********************
5) British news item
Manufacturing recession now official.
by Daphne Liddle
TRADE union and business leaders last week called for Government help to
Britain's failing manufacturing sector after official figures revealed that
industry is now definitely in recession.
The figures from the Office for National Statistics show that although
manufacturing output rose by 0.3 per cent in June, it had fallen by two per
cent over the second quarter of the year. This is the biggest drop for over
a decade.
Manufacturing output fell by 0.7 per cent in the first quarter of this
year and it is the two consecutive quarters of negative growth that confirm
a recession.
There have also been indications that the economic slowdown is even
hitting the service sector, which the Government has counted on to offset
bad news from manufacturing industry.
The purchasing managers' survey of service sector companies shows that
overall activity had fallen to a two-year low in July. Most economists had
expected it to rise.
The growing down turn is already affecting jobs. The Confederation of
British Industry has estimated that some 29,000 industrial jobs are likely
to be lost. But it seems these figures are modest compared to other
estimates.
A CBI survey shows that companies in the south-east of England are
gloomiest about future prospects with new technology industries likely to
be hardest hit.
In America, dotcom companies have made around 125,000 redundant and
economists estimate that some 50 per cent of British jobs in this sector
could go.
Over 100,000 manufacturing jobs have already been cut since the start of
the year and that another 250,000 are at risk.
The TUC has called for a �1 billion rescue package for manufacturing,
warning that other parts of the economy will soon be affected.
Peter Booth, national manufacturing sector organiser for the Transport and
General Workers' Union, said: "Government must encourage investment by
improving capital allowances and corporate Britain must concentrate less on
its own pay and more on making long term investment decisions.
"Today's dismal figures show the clear need for a rethink and a step
change. Over the last three years the TGWU has consistently called for
lower interest rates.
"Whilst recent cuts have been very welcome they are just not enough. We
must now see action to boost investment to tackle productivity.
"The Government should take action to improve capital allowances for all
new machinery, equipment and research and development.
"They should introduce emergency legislation on information and
consultation to give British workers the same rights as their European
counterparts and remove the stigma of British workers being cheap, quick
and easy to sack when companies are considering closure or rationalisation."
*********************
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. Box 66
00841 Helsinki
Phone +358-40-7177941
Fax +358-9-7591081
http://www.kominf.pp.fi
General class struggle news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Geopolitical news:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
__________________________________________________
