From: New Worker Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 08:47:42 +0100
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [New-Worker-News] New Worker Online Digest - 17/8/2001
New Worker Online Digest
Week commencing 17th August, 2001.
1) Editorial - In the shadows.
2) Lead story - Tax the rich.
3) Feature article - Vigil for murdered asylum seeker.
4) International story - Middle East on brink of war.
5) British news item - Police protect fascists in Welshpool.
1) Editorial
In the shadows.
BUSH and Blair are trying to kid us that in the Middle East and in Ireland
the tail is wagging the dog. They pretend that despite the vast economic
and military power of these two imperialist countries their governments can
only shake their heads on the sidelines while Washington's puppet
government of Israel and the Unionist leaders of the occupied north of
Ireland pursue the policies of the most reactionary elements in their
respective camps and turn the clock back on peace and progress.
Yet the state of Israel is upheld and armed with US dollars. Its brutal
oppression of the Palestinian people and its flouting of United Nations
Resolutions can only continue for as long as the US dollars keep flowing in.
US Presidents come out every now and then to play at being great
peacemakers. But Washington exerts no real pressure on Israel and treats
the oppressor and oppressed, the occupier and the occupied as if they were
equally to blame for the violence. They expect the Palestinian Arabs to
swallow injustice in the name of peace.
It has to be concluded that it suits the United States very well to have a
running sore in the oil-rich Middle East -- a situation that enables US
imperialism to orchestrate the region to its own advantage. After all, what
Washington spends out will always be paid back with interest.
The British ruling class plays a similar game over Ireland. It pretends to
be in a complete quandary over the utterances and actions of Unionist
leaders like David Trimble and pussy-foots around the hardline loyalist
opponents of the Good Friday Agreement as if the British state was just a
helpless observer.
And yet, though it never spells it out, Britain is still the colonial
power in the north of Ireland. It has troops garrisoned there and, as we
have seen last week, has the power to suspend and then restore the devolved
Stormont government with just a nod from Britain's Northern Ireland
Secretary, Dr John Reid.
The British government's pretence that it must hang upon the words and
decisions of a handful of loyalist Ulster MPs or Assembly members is simply
a way of hiding its own foot-dragging behind the British state's own
loyalist cats-paw.
And it must be said that the whole impetus of the peace process was
deliberately slowed down during the term of former northern Ireland
secretary Peter Mandelson. His (and the British government's) failure to
progress with the modest recommendations of the Patten Report into Policing
and the future of the Royal Ulster Constabulary is deplorable.
The deadbeat attitude of the British government on this important issue
gave a signal to the anti-Agreement loyalists to dig their heels in on the
whole peace process and hope the British government would continue to play
along.
And it did. When the anti-Agreement loyalists kept up their spurious
ranting about IRA weapons' decommissioning the British government
completely failed to defend the actual terms of the Agreement on this
matter and failed to warn the loyalists that their wrecking ploy was
unacceptable.
It also failed to nail the loyalists on the matter of continuing
sectarian attacks by loyalist gangs on Catholic citizens and the
continuing presence of armed loyalist groups.
All along the British state has given a green light to the loyalists and
let David Trimble stand at the front before the TV cameras and the press.
At the end of the day there is no such thing as an Irish problem -- only a
problem of Britain in Ireland.
British and US imperialism must not be let off the hook. These powers are
not observers but the real movers and shakers in conflicts around the
world. The fight for peace and justice needs to be taken onto their
doorstep and their crimes exposed.
*********************
2) Lead story
Tax the rich.
by Caroline Colebrook
THE REALITY of the coming economic storm is making itself more apparent
daily as the disease spreads like a virus from one sector of the economy to
another.
Inevitably, as job cuts mount, unemployment will grow, demands on the
benefit system will increase and taxes from workers will reduce.
If the Government is to balance its books it will either have to follow
the Tory path of cutting spending on health, education and so on -- or it
will have to tax the rich who are still benefiting from the massive tax
cuts of the Tory years.
News of job cuts is mounting daily with no sector immune, many linked to
international companies that are caught up with the growing global crisis:
the Cordiant market services group announced 400 job cuts in June -- many
in the company's United States based operations. Now it says it may have to
cut another 700.
The Internet content management group Mediasurface has become another
victim of the collapse of the dot.com boom and has been forced to cut its
staff from 260 to 90.
BOC, the industrial gases and logistics group, last week said it planned
to offset the worst effects of the economic downturn at the expense of its
workers. Some 1,500 jobs are to be cut from its 43,000 global workforce.
The US fashion chain Gap is to cut 1,300 head office posts and another 800
jobs. Its two distribution centres, one in California and one in London
will be affected. It is relocating its London offices to Rugby.
The Park Brewery owned by Westwood in Wolverhampton which employs 900 is
facing closure.
The German drugs firm Bayer is shedding 1,800 jobs worldwide with the
possibility of more cuts ahead following the sudden withdrawal of its
cholesteral reducing drug Baycol, also known as Lipobay.
Consignia, formerly known as the Post Office, plans to cut 250 call centre
jobs.
Esk frozen food factory in Scotland is threatened with closure and the
loss of 140 jobs.
This, like all the other cuts, will have knock-on effects. In this case
many farmers who are contracted to supply food to Esk are now also at risk.
The total number of jobs cut recently by investment banks is estimated to
have reached 25,000.
And six million workers, a quarter of the total workforce of Britain, are
feeling insecure about the future of their jobs, according to a survey
published last week.
The sectors most affected are manufacturing, IT, telecoms, finance and
engineering.
A report published last week by the Confederation of British Industry
shows that small and medium-sized manufacturing firms have recorded yet
another drop in business confidence.
In its quarterly survey of such firms, the CBI found that only 15 per cent
were more optimistic about their general business situation while 43 per
cent said they were less optimistic.
Smaller firms are even more gloomy, with export optimism among such firms
at its lowest since 1998.
This is the result of the global economic slowdown which means that
companies cannot sell their products.
Official unemployment figures released on Wednesday show a tiny fall and
are expected to begin to rise soon.
In the regions, inward investment activity is falling or static throughout
Britain.
On 6 August John Prescott, who is currently deputising for Tony Blair
during the Prime Minister's holiday, gave the first warning that taxes may
have to rise if commitments to improve the NHS were to be fulfilled.
He said that Labour must "face up to the fact that it could either find
money from private finance or take the money in tax increases".
His comments followed a remark from shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox
who said the basic rate of tax would have to rise by seven pence to
increase the capacity of the NHS to "euro zone average."
Fox said: "No politician is ever going to do this."
Finding money from the private sector does not improve matters. It merely
incurs huge debts which have to be paid later at exhorbitant rates and
creates even greater funding crises in future.
It means that a far too high proportion of taxpayers' money simply goes on
servicing debts rather than improving services.
Since Prescott's warning a report from the Institute for Public Policy
Research has said the Government will have to raise taxes by four pence in
the pound to pay for commitments to schools and hospitals.
Most people would not object to a modest tax rise if they knew the money
was really going to improve schools, hospitals and so on rather than being
wasted on weapons or on paying back private sector financiers.
But the system must be made fairer by making the very rich pay their fair
share rather than trying to hit workers who face so many other financial
drains: low wages, increased housing costs, debts of all kinds and so on.
The demand must be that the workers should not be made to pay for the
coming crisis while the fat cats continue to pay themselves more and more.
Tax the rich, not the workers.
*************************
3) Feature article
Vigil for murdered asylum seeker.
by Renee Sams
A VIGIL was held outside the Home Office last Monday in memory of Firsat
Yildiz, a 22year-old Kurdish asylum seeker, who was stabbed to death by two
racists in the Sighthill area of Glasgow a week ago.
As his vigil was taking place, the Home Office announced that three new
police squads are being put in place to track down immigrants who go
missing.
The announcement also said that the Government would be rethinking its
strategy on the dispersal of asylum seekers but will not be scrapping it.
The vigil was organised by the National Assembly Against Racism and the
Federation of Iraqi refugees in Britain. The have also organised letters of
protest against the Government's policy of dispersing refugees to areas
where they have no support. The letters were handed in to Home Secretary
David Blunkett.
Refugee organisations are calling for an end to the policy of forced
dispersal and demanding that those responsible for the killing of Firsat
are brought to justice.
Two days after the murder of Firsat, an Iranian asylum seeker was stabbed
and seriously wounded in the same area.
Tragically there have been over 70 recorded incidents of racist attacks in
Sighthill recently.
These tragedies also highlight the existing poverty in many parts of
Britain and expose the levels of stress and insecurity many have to suffer.
As the International Federation of Iranian Refugees-UK pointed out in
their letter: "Such incidents do no take place in isolation. They are the
product of a hostile and pernicious environment created by the Government
and its policies against asylum seekers, fuelled by the right-wing media."
They fear "there will be more tragedies like the ones this week in Glasgow
unless something drastic is done to address the situation. The authorities
and the police have done nothing to improve the situation."
This, they say, "is the direct consequence of the Government's dispersal
policy -- a policy which has played into the hands of the perpetrators of
the recent attacks on asylum seekers."
The Speak Out Against Racism -- Defend Asylum Seekers coalition, involving
a wide range of refugee organisations, trade unions and religious bodies
has been campaigning for an end to the voucher system.
Many members of that campaign replied to last year's Home Office review of
the voucher system, setting out their concerns about the support system as
a whole. The review was instigated following motions at last year's Labour
Party conference.
So far the review has not reported, neither has any action been taken on
the issue of change for vouchers. And the Home Office is not willing even
to give a date for when the findings will be published.
The campaign is concerned about this delay and that the review "may not
provide a sufficiently speedy response to the situation this murder has
highlighted, which, the campaign says, "must be accompanied by immediate
steps to safeguard asylum seekers and refugees."
Asylum seekers have faced humiliation, vilification, abuse and assault as
a result of the iniquitous voucher system and the campaigners feel that
"the issues surrounding the voucher and compulsory dispersal schemes are
closely interlinked." Fazil Kawani of the Refugee Council called the death
of Firsat "a terrible tragedy" and he blamed the Government policies that
lead to asylum seekers being "stigmatised and demeaned".
He reminded the Government that it is "committed to the protection of
asylum seekers" under international law.
* Asylum seekers who have not been charged with any criminal offence but
are being held in prisons across the country are conducting a wave of
hunger strikes in protest at their conditions and to demand their
release.
Currently over 65 per cent of the 500 asylum seekers being held in pnsons
have not been convicted of any crime.
Speaking for the Refugee Council, Margaret Lally described the hunger
strike as "a desperate measure" and said: "We call upon the Government to
bring an immediate end to the grossly unjust process of detaining asylum
seekers in prisons.
"Asylum seekers are being forced into prison regimes when they have
neither committed nor even been accused of a crime."
* The United Nations Commissioner for Refugees last week said that some
British politicians and newspapers are partly responsible for creating a
climate of hostility against asylum seekers that has led to the murder of
Firsat Yildiz.
The UNHCR expressed concern and alarm at the attacks in recent weeks but
said the violence was predictable given the way asylum seekers have been
reviled in his country.
UNHCR spokesperson Kris Janowski said: "In some mass circulation
newspapers, asylum seekers are continually branded a problem, statistics
are being twisted and negative stories are being endlessly highlighted.
"This often deliberate attempt to tarnish the name of an entire group has
been so successful that the words 'asylum seeker' and 'refugee' have even
become terms of abuse in school playgrounds."
*************************
4) International story
Middle East on brink of war.
by Our Middle East Affairs correspondent
ISRAELI TROOPS and Palestinian resistance fighters are locked in battles
throughout the occupied territories amid fears that the conflict will soon
spiral into regional war.
Israel is reeling from resistance bombings in Jerusalem and Haifa over the
past few days, which left 22 Israelis dead, and over a 100 more wounded.
But Tel Aviv's response, to seize the Palestinian centre in Arab Jerusalem
and order its army to attack Palestinian targets deep inSide the
"autonomous" areas, threatens to set the whole Middle East ablaze.
In Russia there is open talk of forthcoming war. Russian expert Yevgeny
Stanovsky, head ofthe Moscow-based Middle East Institute, says another
Middle East war is inevitable in the wake of the failure of international
efforts to implement a cease-fire. In Cairo the head of the Arab League,
Amer Moussa, warned of a catastrophe to come and Egypt is hinting that it
might send its army back into the Sinai peninsular if the crisis continues.
dilemma
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is in a dilemma. His regime is totally
dependent on American economic and military aid a factor which has
virtually neutralised Egypt's role in the Arab world following its
surrender peace with Israel back in the Seventies. But the Egyptian leadq
is under mounting pressure from the Arab street -- from the left, the
nationalists to the Muslim Brotherhood -- who are demanding all-Arab action
to save the Palestinians.
Egypt's Third Armoured Army is due to take part in exercises in September
but any significant deployment in what is essentially a demilitarised zone
monitored by the Americans could easily provoke a political crisis in
Israel -- if not an immediate military response.
General Sharon, the hard-line Likud Zionist premier, has been lashing out
wildly over the past few months trying to crush the Palestinians with his
tanks and death squads. It's basically an old tactic favoured by British
and French imperialism when they tried to put down colonial uprisings. But
the colonialists realised -- as does some elements with Israel's
establishment today -- that in the end there has to be a settlement and
there has to be someone to talk to, to get it.
two objectives
Sharon's rivals in the Israeli Labour Party, uneasy junior partners in his
grand coalition, have two objectives. First and foremost they want to win
the next election. Then they want to try and restart the "peace process"
with the Palestinians at more or less the point it was left during last
winter.
Labour Foreign Minister Shimon Peres is trying to hold secret talks with
Yasser Arafat's Palestinian administration. At the same time he's pointed
out that last weekends seizure of Orient House, the unofficial headquarters
of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in Arab East Jerusalem, was
temporary and that the government will review the situation when the
closure order expires in six months time.
rampage
Israel's domestic politics are of little interest to the Palestinians
under fire while international appeals for "cease-fires" are meaningless as
long as the Israeli army is allowed to rampage across the West Bank.
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is also focusing on two points. He's
trying to get some sort of international monitoring presence in the
occupied terntories while appealing for Arab solidarity to help his
beleaguered people and put pressure on the West to respond realistically to
Palestinian demands.
Peres' "talks bid", which specifically excluded Arafat, have been
dismissed by the Arabs as little more than a public relations exercise.
"We have not received any invitation letter." Palestinian Minister Nabil
Sha'ath told the press in Jerusalem. "For that reason we are not about to
study or respond to such a supposed invitation, because it was an absurd
proposal announced through the media". He concluded by stressing "The
Israeli government must open Orient House and withdraw its troops from it
without any prior conditions".
*********************
5) British news item
Police protect fascists in Welshpool.
A MAJOR police operation was mounted in North Wales last weekend to protect
plans by the neo-Nazi British National Party to hold a two-day "Red, white
and blue" festival near the home of BNP leader Nick Griffin.
Their aim was to squash a counter demonstration organised by the Anti-Nazi
League and other anti-fascists.
At the end of the festival, Griffin, whose tiny party contains many
convicted thugs, hooligans and stirrers of race hate, thanked the police
for their work.
But not all anti-fascists were prevented from having their say, as
Councillor Ray Davies reports:
"For the last five years we have been campaigning vigorously in South
Wales against the extreme fascist organisations such as the BNP and Combat
18.
"We have seen the effect of their presence -- smashing up out community
centres, daubing our cenotaphs with swastikas, desecrating Jewish
cemeteries and vandalising Asian shops.
"It was therefore quite natural for our Cardiff Reds Choir and other
and-fascist groups to make our way up by train, bus and car to Welshpool
and join with others to campaign against the BNP's 'Red, white and blue'
rally -- a supposed family day out for fascists, to be held on Nick
Griffin's neighbour's land.
"Just 24 hours before the event, we heard the police had stopped the
Anti-Nazi League from holding their protest rally.
"Everyone was angry that we had been denied our democratic right to oppose
the racism of the BNP.
"Just weeks before, their presence in Oldham and Bradford had resulted in
violent racial disturbances and we were determined to stop Nick Griffin
from trying to do similar in Wales.
"When we arrived outside Welshpool after a three-hour drive, at 8.45am
police roadblocks were everywhere. The police had obtained an exclusion
order for an area some 15 miles around Welshpool and they were rigorously
enforcing it.
"Having hidden our banners, red shirts and leaflets, with our children in
the back, we looked just like ordinary tourists and were waved through.
"Welshpool was fairly empty as we parked our car in the main street. A
local man came up and warned us that the road may be closed by the police
later. "Why'.'" we asked. "It's the bloody BNP," said the man. "Nick
Griffin should be strung up by his thumbs for bringing them to Wales."
"A warm cup of tea in a friendly cafe, a quick look around the nice market
and we were ready for anything.
"We knew it was tight for us to be there and inform the local people what
the BNP stood for.
"I phoned the ANL at Llanerfyl and was told that only a handful who had
come the night before had arrived at their demonstration. The rest has been
stopped by the police.
"We rang the mobile phones of friends on the bus coming from Swansea and
were told they had been stopped and searched.
"We went down to the railway station and saw our comrades walking towards
us, neat and tidy, for all the world like day trippers.
"The vast majority of the protesters looked fairly obvious with their
banners, and were all penned in al the Gorsedd stones next to the railway
station.
"About 12 of us in the anti-racist coalition then set up under the clock
tower in the main street. We displayed our placards and sang our songs of
peace and freedom in many languages: Welsh, Scots, English, African and so
on.
"We handed out hundreds of leaflets about the BNP and passers-by responded
positively. One local resident came up to us and grabbed one woman by the
hand and gave an emotional thank you for having the courage to come to
Welshpool.
"Many others were generous and welcoming. They sat on street benches and
on the pavement, listening to the singing, reading our pamphlets and
looking at our placards.
"The passionate singing of Cor Cochion was not what they had expected.
"The police did not expect us either. They were present on horseback, in
their vans and on foot. They knew how to deal with the normal protesters,
fighting anarchists and so on.
"They had forbidden demonstrations and leafleting in town but they were
gobsmacked by the sight of us singing and left us alone.
"There were some fascists around, mostly in the pubs getting stoned. One
came up and snarled: 'Fuck off', emphasising it with a large mouthful of
spit.
"Another shouted: 'What the fuck are you doing here? You're supposed to be
banned'. I replied: 'We are here to stop you doing in Welshpool what you
did in South Wales'.
"We were proud of our stand but as we were getting ready to wind up news
came from the group still at the Gorsedd Stones that the police had reneged
on the promise to let them march through the main street.
"So we decided to walk down the main street towards the Gorsedd circle
singing Our own Democracy and were stopped by police after less than 50
yards.
"'This march is illegal,' said the inspector, 'get off the road or you
will be arrested'.
"We replied: 'Allow our friends who are illegally penned in at the Gorsedd
circle to march down the main street and we'll move.
"'NO. Emphatically no,' said the officer.'Then we are sitting down and
stopping the free flow of traffic,' we answered."
They did sit down and some 15 were arrested and charged with breach of the
peace and obstruction but at the end of the very long day "we felt drained
but happy that what we did was right".
Ray Davies says his only regret is that the police and local authority
have given the green light to fascists to come to Wales.
*********************
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