Oxfordshire Socialist Workers Party

I Read Some Marx (And I Liked It)

2011-01-02T02:15:00.000-08:00

Branch Meeting: How can we bring down the government??

2010-12-12T03:12:00.000-08:00

How can we bring down the government??

Speaker: Jonathan Neale

7.30 Thursday 16th December

Methodist Church, Cowley Road

Ireland: austerity and bailouts why does the crisis continue?

2010-12-02T01:32:00.000-08:00

Socialist Worker

Branch Meeting – All Welcome

Ireland: austerity and bailouts why does the crisis continue?

Two years ago the Irish Government forced through drastic cuts,

yet the crisis continues and they're coming back for more.

We look at the lessons for us in the fight against cuts here.

7.30pm Thursday 9^th December

Methodist Church

Cowley Road

Support the fantastic fight-back

by school and university students!

Come to our meeting

to discuss what we can do!!

50,000+ students and lecturers show anger against ConDems!!

2010-11-10T10:29:00.001-08:00

ConDem Government reintroduces slavery

2010-11-09T05:37:00.000-08:00

The unemployed will be forced to work for nothing at charities and private companies in order to receive piss-poor benefits!!

Oxford Public Meeting to Fight the Cuts!!

2010-11-09T05:33:00.000-08:00

Tuesday 16th November, 7.30, Town Hall

Join CWU protest in Witney 9th January 2011

2010-11-09T05:29:00.000-08:00

COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION
EASTERN REGION
DEMONSTRATION AGAINST POSTAL
PRIVATISATION AND FIGHTBACK
AGAINST SAVAGE CUTS
CAMERONS CONSTITUENCY SEAT
WITNEY, OXFORDSHIRE
(Timings to be confirmed)
Sunday 9th January 2011
JOIN US, JOIN THE GROWING RESISTANCE AND
FIGHT BACK NOW AGAINST
PRIVATISATION AND THE DEEP PUBLIC SECTOR
CUTS. TELL CAMERON WE WILL NOT
STAND BY AND ALLOW HIM TO DESTROY
ORDINARY PEOPLES LIVES LEAVING
THEM WITHOUT VITAL PUBLIC SERVICES AND
LIVING IN POVERTY.
UNITE TOGETHER AND TAKE OUR FIGHTBACK TO
HIS DOORSTEP
For details contact: Eastern Regional
Secretary Paul Moffat 07912-945417
01908—318197 Email easternregion@cwu.org

United We Fight, Divided We Crawl

2010-11-09T05:28:00.000-08:00

UNITE TO DEFEAT AUSTERITY CUTS!

Following The Chancellor’s Spending Review of 20 October it is now clear how the coalition government expects the working class to pay for capitalism’s crisis.

A range of cuts in public services and welfare provision, and changes to a variety of essential benefits, will add to a pay freeze and pensions clawback to spell misery for millions. The Chancellor’s figures included an expected loss of 490,000 public sector jobs, and a Guardian estimate put 40,000 school jobs at risk.

Contrary to their own endless spin, we are NOT all in this together. How could we be with a cabinet containing 17 millionaires and even more privately schooled?

Latest figures on 18-24 year-olds in neither work nor education show a 40% rise since the recession, up to 593,000, with another 693,000 not even looking for work - or too ill to! This is over a million wasted young lives amongst our most recent school leavers, whose Education Maintenance Grant is being axed.

It will become harder for schools to motivate learners when the families we serve are wracked with the full impact of the austerity measures. Youngest kids will not be able to concentrate if their housing, diet, care and welfare are plagued by poverty and hunger. Older students will see no point in school with siblings and neighbours unemployable through no fault of their own.

Schools Not Safe From Spending Cuts

One of the many false notes in George Osborne’s speech was the claim that schools and health are protected from cuts. Not so!

The Financial Times of 30 October claimed that per pupil spending will be reduced by 2.5% by 2014-15. Regarding the much-hyped additional but actually re-cycled Pupil Premium based on free school meals numbers the FT added that, “A primary school would need to have more than one-fifth of its pupils in this category to avoid losing money.” The FT estimates that 62% of primary students will not be in such schools. However, without this PP the overall cut in per student spending would have been 9%.

But capital funds for building works are taking a huge hit – from £7.6BN to £3.4BN, or a real terms cut of 60%. This means unacceptable learning conditions for years to come, when the school roll is expected to rise 2.7%. The FT further claimed that 470,000 primary children are already in schools which are 4%+ above their stated capacity. Most mysteriously, there is no budget allocation for any new ‘Free’ schools.

Attacks on Our Income

On the 20 October the Chancellor also welcomed reforms proposed by Lord Hutton to teachers’ pensions. This former Labour Minister thinks we should pay more in monthly contributions and work longer to access our pension, and then get paid less.

Our contributions would go up from 6% to nearer 10% - which could cost a UPS level teacher £70 per month. Our pensionable age could move from 60 for most teachers to 65 - or more! Then calculations would possibly be based on a career average rather than final salary, and be paid according to Consumer Price Index (CPI) links rather than Retail Price Index (RPI). This will hit all existing pensioners from 2011.

The Chancellor also confirmed a two-year pay freeze for all public sector workers, with no clarity about subsequent years. Since then on 29 October Michael Gove, the education secretary, told the Commons he was abolishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body because it “did not fit well with the government’s priorities for greater deregulation”. Gove has also recently indicated that he wants to change the STPCD, probably giving greater discretion for heads to set pay levels, as well as regional and subject-based payments.

United We Stand, Divided We Crawl

The scope and depth of this attack on working people requires the utmost unity in resistance by the working class. The school unions have been forced to work in greater unison since the general election because divisions only favour the employer. But we have to work in the context of a Labour Party which accepts the need for austerity, and a TUC that prefers to broker compromises rather than ensure victories.

Meanwhile we must prepare to act on these issues, listed in order of what I think will impact most on our members:
• Our pensions and pay – every member will be worse off if we do not act. We must have a strategy which engages the minority of new teachers who are already destined to work to 65.
• Sharp rises in class size and related workload issues
• Job losses in our central service teams or schools – we need strike ballots on request across whole LAs when any job is threatened.
• Academies and ‘Free’ schools – the ideological attacks on public service quality and teacher unions, inspired by trends in USA
• Inadequate buildings and facilities now that BSF is gone in many areas.
• The potential for discrimination and victimisation of social and sexual minorities, amongst staff and students of our schools.
• Loss of other local authority services and benefits, and their impact on families and children, together with rocketing youth unemployment.

Part of preparing for such action is the solidarity we can show with other workers. Last week alone we saw strikes of London fire fighters, tube workers and BBC journalists. In Oxford strikes will not be far behind as the full effects of the cuts start to be felt. Our 104 centrally employed NUT members are for example at this moment facing threats to their jobs. We have a policy of opposing any compulsory redundancies. We must translate these words into action. As fellow trade unionists NUT members should engage in solidarity and support actions with any group of workers taking strike action to defend jobs and services. We know such solidarity is welcomed. This also fits with a common call for a co-ordinated general strike by all workers, because it is obvious that the government is taking all workers on.

However, the TUC wants us to wait until the 26 March for a national protest. Many, including myself, think that is too long to wait. We will certainly have to support and build for the 26 March, but meanwhile we need to play a full part in the Oxfordshire Anti-Cuts Alliance and give support whenever Oxfordshire public sector workers and users undertake local actions.

There can be no business as usual in these unprecedented times. Of course we have to continue to support individual members through casework, but those of us not directly involved can, and I believe should, play a vital part in campaigning work.

When you also factor in the ecological catastrophe of climate change to the political and economic crisis, we have a lot to challenge and change about our world. Our children, grandchildren and future generations will not forgive us if we do nothing!

Chris Blakey, NUT Executive

Lyon protest

2010-10-19T06:58:00.001-07:00

General Strike in France!!! This is how to fight the Tory cuts

2010-10-19T06:55:00.000-07:00

French General Strike!! That's the way to do it!!

2010-10-19T01:59:00.001-07:00

Ca va péter ! Manif Retraites 12.10.10 Bx (NPA)
Uploaded by Talenceagauchevraiment. - News videos from around the world.

Greedy Tories and lying Liberals Destroy the Welfare State to pay the Bankers

2010-10-16T06:43:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of the 20th century in 1900 the National Debt stood at a very manageable 30 percent of GDP and dipped to 25 percent of GDP by 1914 despite the intervening Boer War. But the Great War, World War I, caused an explosion in the National Debt up to 135 percent of GDP in 1919. Then, in the economic troubles of the 1920s it rose to 181 percent in 1923 and stayed above 150 percent of GDP until 1937. The National Debt dipped to 110 percent of GDP in 1940 before soaring to 238 percent of GDP after the close of World War II in 1947. This was when it was possible to build the Welfare State, the NHS, Council Houses etc....

After World War II the National Debt was slow reduced down as low as 25 percent of GDP in 1992. Thereafter it fluctuated in the 30s and 40s until the financial crisis of 2008. The National Debt is expected to exceed 100 percent of GDP in the aftermath of the crisis.

The real risk from government debt is the burden of interest payments. Experts say that when interest payments reach about 12% of GDP then a government will likely default on its debt. The Chart shows that the UK is a long way from that risk.

Source:http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/debt_brief.php

Protest at Tory Party Conference

2010-09-17T01:58:00.000-07:00

Oxford Right to Work Tory Cuts Wreck Lives-

Don’t let the Tories slash essential public services! It’s time to raise your voice against the cuts! Protest at the Conservative Party Conference

Birmingham

Sunday October 3rd 2010

Oxford subsidised coach leaves St Giles 9.30am Tickets £10 waged £5 unwaged To book phone 07947857906 Supported/sponsored by Oxford Right to Work, Oxford UNISON Health Branch, Oxfordshire National Union of Teachers, South Central No1 CWU and Oxford and District TUC More info at RTW National website

Fight back against the ConDem cuts

2010-06-24T01:05:00.000-07:00

Right to Work Campaign protest in Oxford.

2010-06-09T07:13:00.000-07:00

OXFORD RIGHT TO WORK CAMPAIGN

On the day of the Con-Dem Emergency budget,

join the nationwide protests...

The Tory Lib Dem Coalition will announce an Emergency Budget on 22nd June. We already know that it is going to contain `savage cuts`. That will mean huge job losses, wage cuts and the decimation of our public services.

But we don’t have to accept he cuts. The money is there. In Greece and Spain workers have shown how you can resist.

Assemble Cornmarket, Oxford, 5pm Tuesday 22nd June

For more info, please see www.righttowork.org.uk
or contact righttowork@oxfordactivists.co.uk
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123653381006123&ref=mf#!/group.php?gid=322588563911&ref=ts

Marxism 2010: 1-5 July 2010, London

2010-06-03T03:53:00.000-07:00

Marxism 2010: 1-5 July 2010, London

Marxism is the largest left wing gathering in Britain—and one of the largest in the world.

Thousands of participants—trade unionists, students, activists and academics, and those simply interested in how the world can be changed— converge on London to discuss the ideas that have inspired the struggles of the exploited and dispossessed.

But this year’s event has a special urgency. For three years capitalism has been in crisis.

Now, in Britain and beyond, we face an assault on our livelihoods, our public services and our right to work on a scale unseen for generations.

This assault comes at a moment of political weakness for our rulers as old ideological certainties melt into air and as the mainstream parties struggle to connect with ordinary voters.

This will frame the debates and discussions at Marxism 2010, where the best speakers on the left will introduce over 200 workshops, panels, film showings and rallies.

There will be opportunities to meet activists from every continent and from every arena of struggle. If you wish to be there, BOOK TICKETS HERE: http://www.marxismfestival.org.uk/

Highlights include

Slavoj Žižek joins a panel on the idea of communism
Sheila Rowbotham on her new book, Dreamers of a New Day: Women who invented the 20th Century
Gerry Conlon, Moazzam Begg & Gareth Peirce join a panel discussion on civil liberties
John Holloway discusses his new book Crack Capitalism
Gary Younge looks at Obama’s record and the US right
Hester Eisenstein speaks on her book Feminism Seduced
Panos Garganas brings news from the struggle in Greece
Michael Rosen hosts an evening of poetry
Matt Wrack & Jeremy Dear join discussions with other trade unionists
Gilbert Achcar speaks on his new book The Arabs and the Holocaust
Hannah Dee speaks on the struggle for LGBT liberation
Jeremy Corbyn joins a series of meetings on Latin America
Joseph Choonara, Andrew Kliman & Alfredo Saad-Filho discuss Marxist theory and capitalist crisis
Tony Benn speaks on democracy
Alex Callinicos asks where next for the left after the election
Die Linke German MP Christine Buchholz talks on Afghanistan and joins a panel on the radical left
Martin Smith & Weyman Bennett on the fight against fascism
István Mészáros discusses alternatives to parliamentarism
Judith Orr asks what makes you working class
Steven Rose discusses the future of the brain
Haifa Zangana, Sami Ramadani, Riaz Ahmed & others discuss Iraq & Afghanistan
Ghada Karmi speaks on Palestine’s fight for freedom
Tariq Ali speaks on the perils of Islamophobia
Eamonn McCann speaks on the Bloody Sunday inquiry
Costas Lapavitsas speaks on the crisis in the Eurozone
China Mièville examines how we judge art

Right To Work Protest on Budget Day 22 June 5.30pm Cornmarket, Oxford

2010-05-30T05:28:00.000-07:00

Join the Right To Work protest on the ConDems' budget day

22 June, 5.30pm, Cornmarket, Oxford.

Fight the Cuts! Fight for Jobs!!

Welcome to the New World Order!

Right To Work Conference 22 May

2010-05-20T07:13:00.000-07:00

Right to Work Emergency Conference 22 May

http://sites.google.com/site/righttoworkconference/

22 June is “Austerity Day” – the day the Con-Dem chancellor, George Osborne, will announce his emergency budget. The clock is counting.

Osborne states that tackling the budget deficit was the "most urgent issue" facing the Con-Dem coalition. He warned that if the coalition government did not act speedily it could lead to the sort of problems now afflicting Greece.

"Greece is a reminder of what happens when governments lack the willingness to act decisively and quickly, and when problems are swept under the carpet," he said. "If we fail to tackle the deficit we inherited from the previous government, the consequences could be disastrous."

David Laws, the Liberal Democrat Treasury Chief Secretary, accepted both parties in the coalition would have "hands stained with blood" as a result of the cuts, but it had to be done for the good of the country. Those of us reliant on state schools, nurseries and hospitals might ask which country? It’s certainly not the one inhabited by the likes of Osborne and Laws.

Osborne went to St Pauls, the same top public school Nick Clegg attended, and then Oxford.

Laws went to public school before going to Cambridge. After that he went into investment banking, becoming Vice President of JP Morgan then Managing Director, before becoming being the Head of US Dollar and Sterling Treasuries at Barclays de Zoete Wedd.

He added that they were "united in our resolve to deal urgently and decisively with the unacceptable state of our public finances".

The announcement of the Con-Dem emergency budget gives added urgency to Right to Work's emergency conference on 22 May.

Latest from Bangkok

2010-05-16T02:52:00.000-07:00

See snipers just calmly killing unarmed civilians

http://www.facebook.com/gilesji.ungpakorn?ref=profile#!/video/video.php?v=1122011908306&ref=mf

Let us not get side-tracked:
1. Abhisit's Government was NEVER elected. It came from a process started by the 2006 military coup. That is why they are very afraid of an election.
2. The Red Shirts are a mass movement of the poor. They want democratic elections. It is totally legitimate to stage peaceful protests for this demand.
3. Abhisit and the Army turned Bangkok into a war zone and started the violence. They have indiscriminately killed unarmed protesters by using snipers to shoot at civilians. Nearly forty are already dead from the actions of the army in the last few days.
4. Dissolving parliament and holding democratic elections would put an end to the protests. That is what any responsible leader would do. So why is Abhisit refusing and answering with live bullets? We know the answer.

Judge news reports and the commitment to the truth by journalists on the basis of these 4 points. Judge foreign governments by their public positions on Thailand in this crisis. Judge academics and NGOs on their positions.

Watch the slide show below..

Watch this good BBC report:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPrd0Ry4VZI

2010-05-13T02:35:00.000-07:00

Some great meetings coming up!

Wednesdays 7.30, Headington Community Centre, Gladstone Road.

19th May: Nancy Lindisfarne "Do we have the right to criticise other peoples cultures?"

26th May: Dave "The Spirit Level"

2nd June: Jonathan Neale "News from the Climate Assembly in Bolivia"

2010-05-02T10:15:00.000-07:00

What next after the election?

Come to the Socialist Worker public meeting

Old Seminar room, Wadham College at 7:30 on 13 May

Politicians want a coalition for cuts - we need a coalition of resistance

Come to the Right to Work conference 22 May, back the strikers at British Airways
The votes have been counted, but it’s the bankers and big business who are ruling Britain.
Whoever you voted for, all the politicians are agreed that workers everywhere must now accept wage curbs, job losses and public service cuts in order to keep the rich happy.
The talks about a government coalition in Britain have seen arguments about everything—except the need to impose cuts.
As the BBC’s economics editor Robert Peston put it, “Investors want a stable government perceived to be tackling the record public sector deficit in a serious, substantial way.
“Only in those conditions will they continue to lend cheap money to the state.”
Giving in to this disgusting blackmail will only encourage more demands.
When politician after politician speaks about “the national interest”, they mean the interests of those who own and control industry and those who move trillions around the money markets.
While the bosses and their tame MPs want a coalition for cuts, we need a coalition of resistance.
Workers need to support each other and coordinate their strikes. Trade unionists, students, the unemployed and pensioners need to stand together.
We can’t let racism and anti-immigrant feeling divide us.
That means backing every fightback—especially high profile strikes like the ones at British Airways.
And it means organising networks of resistance and solidarity. That’s what the Right to Work conference on 22 May is about.
Workers are fighting back together in Greece. We need to do the same here.

2010-03-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

OxfordSocialist Worker

meetings in 2010

Organised by Oxford SWP at Headington Community Centre,

Gladstone Rd, off London Road, OX3 8LL

Wednesdays 7.30 pm

7 April: “Marxist Theories of the Economic Crisis”

21 April: "Another lost generation. Youth in Britain."

19 May: "Do socialists have the right to criticise other peoples culture?"

further titles in April to be announced.

Civil and public servants across the UK will be walking out for a third day of strike action on budget day, 24 March

2010-03-22T08:22:00.001-07:00

Civil and public servants across the UK will be walking out for a third day of strike action on budget day, 24 March, unless an agreement with the government can be found over cuts to their redundancy terms.

Strike action began on 8th and 9th March following strong support in a ballot which saw 63.4% of those voting backing strike action and 81.4% supporting an overtime ban.

The strikes, which will involve Jobcentre staff, tax workers, coastguards, border agency officials, courts staff and driving test examiners, are a result of the government and Cabinet Office making unilateral changes to the civil service compensation scheme.

The imposed changes will see staff robbed of up to a third of their entitlements and lead to loyal civil and public servants losing tens of thousands of pounds if they are forced out of a job.

Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "If further disruption and strike action on budget day is to be avoided, then the government needs to enter into negotiations and reach an agreement that protects existing members' entitlements.

"Loyal civil servants will not stand by and allow the jobs and services that they are proud to deliver to be cut on the cheap and are willing to take action to defend jobs and services. The government cannot bury its head in the sand and needs to recognise the depth of anger it has provoked in tearing up the contracts of hard working civil servants."

Tracey Rogers, PCS representative at Oxford Job Centre said, "Making it cheaper to sack us means that more and more of our work will be done by the private sector. This means a worse service for the public and more money for companies that seek to profit out of the unemployed".

Lorna Merry, PCS rep at HMRC said, " The government says it can't stop bonus payments to RBS bankers because it has to honour their contract, but it's happy to rip up the terms for low paid civil servants whose jobs are at risk because of the mess the bankers created. If these changes go ahead we will see bigger and faster cuts to public service jobs'

There will be picket lines outside most civil service offices, including the Jobcentre on Worcester St/George St between 8am and 10am.

No to BNP in schools!

2010-03-15T04:36:00.000-07:00

Schools Minister Ed Balls has got it wrong again!

In an announcement today guaranteed to insult almost every teacher in the land, he has agreed with a commissioner's findings that members of the BNP are OK to teach in our schools.

How can this possibly be allowed when their Nazi core beliefs insist that some of us - school staff, students and governors - are more equal than others?

Every child does not matter for the BNP - only those of preferred ethnic origin. Together with sexual and disabled minorities plus trade unionists, they live in fear of BNP members on the streets of our communities.

Balls' hand-picked advisor Michael Smith claims that there would be no clarity about "where to draw the line". Yet what could be easier than stating unequivocally that BNP membership is incompatible with registration by the General Teaching Council, as the NUT believes?

It is a complete red-herring to worry about whether membership by teachers of other parties could be called into question. No other political organisations, apart from racists and Nazis, believe fundamentally that certain humans are less worthy than others.

Nor would a ban on them teaching be an infringement of civil liberties. It is for the BNP members to choose whether they want to be teachers or not. It's just that they should not teach as long as they remain BNP members.

Another red-hering is Smith's claim that banning BNP members from teaching would be disproportionate, "a very large sledgehammer to crack a miniscule nut". Strange how the government does not take that same view when it comes to the general question of child protection. Its Vetting and Barring registration system presupposes that anyone who works with children - up to 11million UK workers - is guilty until proved innocent by dint of paying a fee!

In any case Smith and Balls have started from the wrong initial question. They should not ask whether teachers should be banned from joining the BNP. They should insist that BNP members cannot join the teaching force.

The fact that there are so few BNP teachers at the moment is of no relevance either. The principles are clear. Being in the BNP is totally incompatible with fulfilling any teaching or civil service contract of employment, which is to serve all members of the public equally.

Lastly, we should all be worried that Smith and Balls see increasing OFSTED's powers as a key to stopping racism. OFSTED is already seen as the Spanish Inquisition by schools, where the lottery of exactly who the lead inspector is can mean a difference of implementation of potentially damning guidelines. Even the most progressive school regime cannot prevent the damage wrought on our communities by war and poverty, Islamophobia and recession. Schools do not cause racism and cannot fight it alone.

Everyone concerned about the growth of fascist and Nazi political groups should let Ed Balls know that he is wrong on this.
Let him and his team know what you think at:
dcsf.ministers@dcsf.gsi.gov.uk

Useful links:

1. Full Smith Review: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/mauricesmithreview/

2. http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6038620

2010-02-22T11:19:00.000-08:00

Be part of building a network of activists to fight for jobs, solidarity and public services!!

Oxford Right To Work Campaign meeting

Photos: Oscar Pereira

Come to the Peoples Charter workshop: 24 April Ruskin College, Headington

2010-01-31T13:10:00.000-08:00

Right To Work Conference

2010-01-31T13:02:00.000-08:00

Over 850 people gathered at the Right to Work Conference on Saturday 30th January 2010 in Manchester.

Activists from the Vestas occupation, Fujitsu strike, Leeds Bin workers, Tower Hamlets College, Royal Mail, South Wales signal strike, migrant workers fighting for union recognition and many other disputes joined trade unionists, unemployed workers and students from around the country.

Manchester Central Hall was packed to the rafters as the turnout exceeded expectations, with campaigners looking to learn from each others experiences and help build solidarity and resistance.

There were 11 workshops where hundreds of people participated in discussion and planning across a wide spectrum of issues including: How we stop the jobs massacre, jobs not bombs, green jobs, against the scapegoating of migrant workers, how we get a real political voice, defying the anti union laws, and much more.

The mood of resistance was fantastic as the conference agreed to support, and build, the steel workers’ protest on 13 February, the march for public services in London on 10 April and for a protest outside the Tory Party spring conference were unanimously accepted.

An initial report from the conference, pictures, and the statement agreed by the conference can all be found at www.righttowork.org.uk

More reports and video will follow soon.

2010-01-22T02:00:00.001-08:00

The warmongers come to London

Gordon Brown has called an international conference in London this month to try and pull the Afghanistan war out of crisis. Hillary Clinton, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and all the leaders of the occupying forces will be there.

Last year was the bloodiest yet since the invasion in 2001. Thousands of Afghan civilians have been killed, including many children, 319 US soldiers died and almost as many British soldiers died in 2009 than in the whole war up till then. Last year 109 British soldiers died, bringing the total number of deaths since the start of the war to 246 (in contrast only four died during the first four years). There seems to be no end to the suffering of the country’s population, one of the most impoverished in the world.

This year Barack Obama is sending 30,000 more troops. Yet at the conference all the talk will be about an exit strategy and the illusion that Afghan forces can take on security in the country. Hamid Karzai will attend the conference and Brown says he will be “told” to provide 50,000 more Afghan troops this year.

Meanwhile every poll in Britain shows a majority want troops pulled out, no one is falling for the claim that the wars are making our streets safer. The war looks unwinnable and the hawks in the US look like they want to start another one in Yemen.

These world leaders need to know what we think of their imperialist wars. Brown wants this conference to show him as a great political leader and statesman on the world stage. We want the world’s media to show how unpopular he and his cronies are.

Blockade the conference Stop the War is calling for Stop the War groups and all activists to be ready to protest as the political leaders arrive for the meeting. Brown is keeping the venue secret so far but as soon as we know where the leaders will be gathering more details will be announced. Thursday 28 January, central London

Give Blair the reception he deserves Tony Blair’s judgement day The date for Tony Blair’s appearance in front of Chilcot’s Iraq Inquiry has been announced as 29th January.

Stop the War is calling for all its supporters to mobilise for a protest from 8.30am outside the Inquiry from

8.30am Friday 29th January. (He will be in the Inquiry all day).

Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre, Westminster, London SW1P 3EE

As part of the protest there will also be a naming of the dead ceremony, street theatre, poetry readings, music and other performances. We want to get word out right across London and there will be activists from outside London who will want to come too. Every StW group needs to get together urgently to organise for next week.

Lots of people can get there before work, or can take some time off, for London students the protest is on their doorstep… students should get up in lectures to make announcements, leaflet libraries, cafes and bars, do banner drops and die ins. Locally StW groups can leaflet tube and rail stations.

We want a big and lively demonstration of the anger that millions feel about Tony Blair and his bloody wars.

This comes the day after we want to blockade Gordon Brown’s international war conference (StW protest at 8.30am, Lancaster House, Stable Yard, London SW1A) and the day before the Right to Work conference.

(From the SWP website)

Civil Service Crucial battle opens against vicious cuts

2010-01-16T11:17:00.000-08:00

Every PCS member should actively back the union’s call for strikes against the government’s assault on the compensation scheme.

The attack is the opening shot in a war against jobs. And if the cuts go through they will pave the way for much wider privatisation.

The vast majority of civil service workers will be worse off under these proposals. And everyone will be at greater risk of redundancy and outsourcing.

The changes would make job cuts and privatisation easier for the employer.

They make everyone more vulnerable to redundancy in the future as detrimental voluntary redundancy terms means less people are likely to opt for them and compulsory redundancies are more likely.

✸Campaign for yes

The bigger the vote for strikes, the stronger the union’s voice, and the more confident everyone will be to take action.

That’s why every activist needs to throw themselves into the campaign, to flood the offices with material about the attacks, and to hold meetings in every section.

It needs to be a political campaign that can appeal to every working person who wants to see services protected. The theme should be “Why are public services and those who work in them getting the chop while the bankers have been handed billions?”

The compensation scheme issue is not just about terms and conditions: it is about the vital services that PCS members deliver.

This needs to be forced on to the agenda of the general election.

And the planning needs to start now for hard-hitting strike action.

A two-day national civil service strike will be a good start to the campaign. But it must not be the end to national action.

The government (and the Tories) are determined to ram through massive cuts across the public sector.

They won’t be moved by regional action.

✸Broader unity

A victory against this attack would life everyone fighting back against the cuts. And it would be a powerful marker for what is to come after the election.

Every group of workers who fights back at the moment gets broad public support.

The PCS should seek to unite with other unions against the cuts, and to make an appeal to the whole working class to get behind the fight.

Let’s get a huge yes vote for action, and then push to make ministers regret they ever tried to attack us!

Only fat cat tax cheats will cheer

HMRC’s slash and burn closure policy is a disaster for the workers affected—and everyone else. The 130 offices given the death sentence include ones in every part of Britain—particularly Scotland, Wales and the East and South West of England;

The closures hit around 3,200 staff, and only 1,700 will be offered voluntary redundancy on compulsory terms.

The rest will either have to move or face compulsory redundancy.

Instead of cutting posts and offices, the government should employ more people to tackle the £130 billion of tax going uncollected, avoided or evaded.

PCS has policy of industrial action if there are compulsory redundancies.

In the run-up to the general election PCS should highlight the scale of tax evasion by the rich, and how the money could be used to boost public services.

And the issue of the closures should also be raised as part of the reason for the forthcoming national strike ballot.

Oxford School: a Cooperative trust is another version of privatisation

2010-01-16T08:23:00.000-08:00

Oxford School:

a Cooperative trust is another version of privatisation

I have, not for the first time, recently been accused of being unrealistic and demanding the impossible i.e. the continuation of a state funded, locally controlled and democratically accountable comprehensive Oxford School. If unrealistic means that it cannot be achieved by small scale meetings / negotiations behind closed doors with councillors et al, letters to newspapers or polite lobbying of ministers etc then you may be correct. Much more than this is needed.

I am under no illusion that the Save Oxford Sschool campaign will have to step up a gear if we are to maintain Oxford School as a publicly controlled comprehensive. We will need to get people onto the street, we may have to engage in 'civil disobedience’, occupy County Hall, convince people to take strike action and so forth. Yes the NUT and other unions locally will need to build this in the school and local community. I do not underestimate the task. We already have the support of the Trades Council so we will need to develop this. We can also link up and learn from the experience of local campaigners against the privatisation of the NHS also. But I believe such actions are necessary because there is an important MATTER OF PRINCIPLE at stake here which we should not loose sight of.

The Coop model is a short term so called 'solution' to a much longer more deep seated issue .i.e the destruction of state comprehensive education. The more we allow this to be broken up the more difficult it will be to provide a high standard progressive education for working class kids in the future. What will be the effect on the rest of the communities in Oxford? Note a major recent Nuffield review concluded that 'school diversity lowers standards and raises costs' (TES, 12 June 2009).

I reiterate the point that I have made in previous discussions, the Co-op Trust like all other Trust school models is another version of privatization, not too dissimilar from the increasingly discredited Academy model. I cannot understand why people have illusions in this model just because it is sponsored by the Co-op. It is an acceptance of the business model once again but disguised in cuddly COOP Party newspeak language. They are a business like any other and there is absolutely NO GUARANTEE that it will be any more democratic or accountable than other types of trust or academies. The Co-op's aim is to have 125 in place by September this year and 400 or 500 in the long run, and they have a lot of irons in the fire.

Their 2 main arguments are

1. that Local Authorities have lost the will to live and will in any case be killed off by an incoming Tory Government, so your best bet if you are an "under performing" school is to get under the wing of the Co-op before you are closed and replaced by an Academy.

2. The Co-op are good people and will see you all right, both in democratic participation and in protecting your conditions of employment.

The latter of these arguments is made dubious by the mutual model of participation in Co-op Trust schools that is proposed, so that like the Co-op retail you have to buy a share in order to have a stake. Parents could become stakeholders only by buying a share. This could lead to a 2-tier system whereby some parents will be stakeholders and have a voice and some will not. A Co-op Trust school like those in other types of Trust ceases to be democratically accountable to all of the local electorate and its community; there is no guarantee that local parents will be properly and democratically represented. The majority of the governing body can be appointed by the Trust rather than elected by parents. Trust schools are only required to have ONE governor elected by the parents. In community schools at least one third of governors must be parents and ALL must be elected. As with all Trusts any parent /community body that is created can only be advisory. It can have no decision making functions that will be obligatory on the Trust. In other words a bit like Councillor Waine's excuse for not having to take into account the concerns of local communities!

The COOP also has the stated intention to develop and market HR and other services as an alternative to those run by local authorities, suggesting the idea that the Co-op wants not to be just a facilitator of Trust status where schools remain in Local Authority bargaining and consultative frameworks, but a potential empire bigger than any currently

running academies!

Furthermore just as with academies THERE IS NO EVIDENCE ANYWHERE THAT COOP TRUSTS WORK any better in supporting teaching and learning in schools. There is no evidence for the Government's argument that Trust Schools provide additional social and intellectual capital that can help drive an improvement in standards, particularly for financially deprived communities. Trusts create many potential dangers for local children. Giving away the democratic control that parents and the community have on Governing Bodies could end up with schools having more power to choose the students they want - not the other way round.

Some will say that it is better to become a Trust than an Academy and that at least Trusts can be funded through the Local Authority rather than directly from Government like Academies. Surely, these are false choices. It's like asking whether it's best to be mugged or just robbed - neither is an option you would choose! Both Trusts and Academies are part of the same agenda to break up Local Authority schooling.

The setting up of a COOP trust at Oxford School would encourage further fragmentation in the City and the County of the education service - and its staff and unions. And from a Union point of view further fragmentation and the creation of a multiplicity of different employers makes the task of defending the interests of those that work in those schools that much more difficult. Instead of negotiating with one set of employers there could be dozens! I have heard it said by some commentators that fighting to defend and improve the rights of those people who work in the school "smacks of self interest" and should not be taken into consideration. Surely such people are condemning the teachers and support staff to be harassed, bullied, overworked and exploited and suffer every whim of school management and their bosses. If the workforce is allowed to be treated in such a way this will surely not be of any benefit to the students.

Let us remind ourselves that the COOP is a business first and foremost and not a philanthropic organization. It is obliged to have SELF INTEREST as a priority; it needs to make profits!!!! Schools should not have to owe their survival to such organisations. They are only concerned about themselves. Surely if nothing else has been learned over the last couple of years it must be that banks and business can't even successfully run their own system. And who is having to pay for their mistakes and their greed? Ordinary people like us of course. We are all now faced with threats of unemployment, wage and pension cuts and so on. The Labour Party and therefore the COOP Party in trying to pursue the mantra of deregulation have been apologists for this neo-liberal system since 1997. What are academies and trusts if nothing other than the deregulation of the school system!

It has also been said to me that politics has nothing to do with the campaign to Save Oxford School. Well let’s not be under any illusion. The whole issue is highly charged with politics. Who can forget Blair saying “Education Education Education.”? The establishment of comprehensive schools from the late 1940s onwards was as a result of overt political decisions. To deny politics is to bury ones head in the sand. The problem is that politicians of all main stream parties want to break up the comprehensive system believing that the free market method is better. When I trained to be a teacher in the early 1970s discussion around the political nature of education was an integral part of that training. The most influential text of the time was that by Paulo Friere “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed.” Education is not neutral; it is a reflection of the existing economic and social system … so this is why we are inundated with the dominant ideology about competition, league tables and ‘choice.’ The campaign to save nationally resourced, locally controlled, democratically accountable comprehensive education is also about a vision of education which is about social justice and international solidarity and one without false divisions between ‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ skills. In other words “Education for Liberation.”

The ruling class in all its different guises have always said to those who contest their ideas that we must accept what is possible, be reasonable, be 'realistic'. Yet I am reminded of the events of May 1968 when people say to me to be reasonable and realistic. As a 5th former preparing for my 'O' levels I was in fact paying more attention to the happenings in France during the biggest general strike in history. I was struck by one of the oft repeated slogans from the barricades of Paris at that time …

"BE REALISTIC DEMAND THE IMPOSSIBLE!"

Chris Blakey

National Executive, National Union of Teachers.

18/01/2010

See discussions at

http://www.saveoxfordschool.com/

2010-01-16T08:22:00.001-08:00

SATS testing madness

Despite recent “assurances” that teaching in Oxford primary schools will not be affected by SATS, the SATS exam madness has descended on year 6 teaching in Oxfordshire. This term kids are being tutored to pass exams rather than being educated for full personal development. They are constantly subjected to tests and exercises in maths and English using past SATS papers, rather than being encouraged to enjoy learning a whole range of subjects. For many, this experience will help destroy their self-confidence far into their future lives. When they do below average or just average, they will see themselves as “crap at maths”, “crap at English” or “crap at everything”.

While handing out anti-SATS leaflets at my local school a few months ago, some SATS fanatics claimed the examinations were “necessary because teachers needed a kick up the back side to get on with the job”. This is outrageous! Most teachers are totally committed to giving all children a decent education. Yet they are constrained by reactionary governments and bureaucratic assessments by OFSTED. The politicians who enforce SATS are not interested in child centred comprehensive education. They don’t want to improve real standards of education for all. They are looking forward with glee to cutting public spending and jobs in order to keep the bankers in a lifestyle to which they are accustomed and to wage wars in the middle-east. That is why we need a collective reaction to abolish SATS and a collective reaction to defend properly funded comprehensive education.

Giles Ungpakorn

2010-01-14T03:12:00.000-08:00

Why is Haiti so poor?

Giles Ungpakorn

The simple answer to this question is “Imperialism”. Under the influence of Imperialism, Haitians have been enslaved, robbed, subjected to brutal military dictatorships and faced repeated invasions by foreign troops.

The Caribbean island of Hispaniola was partitioned between Spain and France in 1697. It became a fantastically lucrative source of wealth based on slave production of sugar. However, in 1791, at the same time as the French Revolution, a slave revolt took place under the leadership of Toussaint L’Ouverture, which eventually ended slavery and resulted in independence from France. Before that could happen, the slave army had to fight off repeated foreign invasions which tried to re-establish slavery, including a British invasion. Never the less, despite independence, in 1825 France insisted that Haiti pay 150 million Francs in “compensation” for lost property. Haiti has never really recovered from this debt and subsequent cycles of debt.

In 1915 the USA launched the first of three military invasions. By 1957 the USA was backing the infamous anti-Communist dictator “Papa Doc Duvalier”, who used his private army of thugs, the Tonton Macoute, to instil a reign of terror on the population. After his death in 1971, his son “Baby Doc” was also backed by the USA. The present ruling elite originate from those who did well under Papa Doc, members of the military and other sections of the business community. Meanwhile the vast majority of the population live in total poverty. Even the official minimum wage, for those lucky enough to have a job, is below $2 per day.

In 1986 a mass uprising of the poor eventually managed to overthrow Baby Doc. This was the beginning of the “Lavalas” movement. The word means “flood” or “mass of people”. The Lavalas were led by a priest called Jean-Bertrad Aristide who won the 1990 Presidential Elections with 67% of the vote. He promised a programme of social reform. Naturally, the old elites were enraged by Aristide’s victory and did everything they could to frustrate his administration. One year later he was overthrown by a military coup. The elites were continually supported from behind the scenes by the US Government. In 1994 the army staged a massacre in the slums and the US launched its second invasion of Haiti to “restore order”. This was during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Clinton is now being touted as someone who will solve the problems of the earth quake. While in exile, Aristide was pressurised to accept a poisonous deal with the USA. He would be allowed to return on condition he accepted a sweeping neo-liberal programme which cut subsidies and welfare to the poor and brought in mass privatisation. The results on the already poor population were devastating. Aristide was only allowed to hold office for a year and barred from the next Presidential elections. However, he stood for President in 2000 and won. However, by this time the Lavalas movement was a shadow of its former self and there was general demoralisation.

Immediately after Aristide’s re-election, the elites organised an insurgency against the government. The US Government under George Bush froze aid to Haiti until an agreement could be reached between Aristide and his elite opponents. Jeffrey Sachs described this as a US-backed elite veto on all policy. Aristide’s opponents were also supported by the Chirac government in France and by a coalition of false “Civil Society” groups inside Haiti and international NGOs, including Christian Aid. The “Civil Society” groups were run and funded by the business elite. NGOs account for nearly all public services and receive 70% of funding from the USA and Canada. International NGO workers in Haiti are a growing elite, living life styles completely at odds with the local population. These groups supported the 2004 second coup against Aristide. He was forced on to a US jet and sent to Africa. The US invaded the country for a third time and then handed over power to United Nations troops who were used to suppress the Lavalas.

Is it any wonder that Haitians have been so devastated by the recent earth quake? While news cameras report international relief efforts, we must compare these efforts with the resources put into waging war in the Middle East and we must strengthen our resolve to fight Imperialism and Neo-liberalism at home and abroad.

Source and further reading: Peter Hallward (2007) Damming the Flood. Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Containment. Verso, London, New York.

3rd February at Headington Community Centre

2010-01-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

3rd February branch meeting

Why has the War on Terror been expanded to Yemen?

Headington Community Centre

7.30 pm

Gladstone Rd, off London Road, OX3 8LL

Happy New Year!! Forward to Socialism!!

2009-12-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

2009-12-23T09:17:00.000-08:00

New pamphlet available from local SWP branch meetings or Socialist Worker sellers in Cornmarket

BA Court order a disgrace

2009-12-19T08:10:00.000-08:00

It is an utter disgrace that the courts have bulldozed aside the wishes of trade unionists at British Airways and ruled a strike illegal. Delivering a 92 percent vote for action on an 80 percent turnout is no guarantee that the law will protect you in “democratic Britain”!

The judge accepted BA’s argument that some people had voted who, although they still worked at BA, knew they were leaving in the future.

Nobody claims that even if these votes were all discounted that it would have changed the outcome of the ballot. But claiming a technical infringement was enough for the bosses to win.

What an outrage that 12 years into a Labour government workers still have so few rights. And why does Unite, the BA workers’ union continue to give so many millions to that party?

Don’t back off

The best response to the injunction would be to strike anyway. On several high-profile occasions recently this is what trade unionists, mainly Unite members, have done—and won.

The Visteon car plants workers occupied their factory illegally in April and defeated the multinational Ford Corporation.

Lindsey Oil Refinery workers walked out in the summer and spread their action to dozens of other sites—without ballots or any of the other legal niceties—and they won.

The Vestas wind turbine workers occupied their plant illegally and made front page news across the globe.

If the union gave the nod towards unofficial action it could win again—just as the BA check-in staff won through an unofficial and illegal strike in 2003.

Or perhaps BA workers should do the same as the railworkers at London Midland did recently and all just happen to decide not to work overtime or do anything else that isn’t in their contract. Or go sick together.

Millions of people in Britain are furious that workers are being asked to pay for the bankers’ and bosses’ crisis. They supported the BA workers and would support a fight now.

Instead the union leaders accepted that they must reballot—and even that’s not certain. It’s no help that Unite leader Derek Simpson said the 12-day strike programme was “probably over the top”. That made it easier for the media to attack the strike.

Battle continues

We need much more serious leadership if BA workers are not to see jobs destroyed and conditions savaged. Calling off the strike is a huge setback. But the battle has to go on. The union must not surrender.

The stakes are very high. A very serious push is being made by the state, the bosses and their legal jackals to extend the anti-union laws by stealth. This is a threat to every trade union and, if successful, will make it virtually impossible to organise legal strikes.

On 22 October last year, some 14,000 London bus workers in the Unite union were due to strike. Union leaders called off the action because of a legal injunction. The same manoeuvre was used in 2007 to get an injunction against a national post strike.More recently energy multinational EDF stopped an RMT strike because a judge decided the union had not detailed the exact grades involved.

Defiance can win

The anti-union laws were brought in by the Tories under Margaret Thatcher and have been maintained in all their essentials by Labour. They were designed to hamper unions’ ability to resist, and to give union leaders a way to persuade their members not to strike.There should be a mass trade union campaign against these laws. In the end the only way to win is for a union to say that it is not going to back down in the face of injunctions and threats, and that it will strike regardless. And then every other union, and the TUC must support them.

Labour has let down workers and the Tories only offer more of the same.

We need a genuine working class political alternative.

SAVE OXFORD SCHOOL!!

2009-12-17T05:07:00.001-08:00

Why we should oppose the Co-operative Trust school option.

We should fight to keep Oxford School as a properly funded local authority school.

Trust schools are Foundation schools (such as Oxford School) to which trusts are attached. Trust partners can be local businesses, charities, Higher Education or Further Education colleges or other schools.

1. Democratic deficit

Trusts are as unaccountable and as undemocratic as Academies. Trustees have the power to dominate their school governing bodies by nominating the majority of governors. For example one third of the governors of a trust school have to be parents. BUT only 1 of these parents has to be independently elected! Trusts undermine the democratic rights of parents, the community and school staff to elect governors to governing bodies. Do not be fooled by the buzzword ‘stakeholder.’

However, Trusts are required to create a legally constituted Parents Council for each school but Parents Councils have no powers, they can only provide advice to the governing body.

Trust status is designed to be permanent. Only the governors who created the trust can take a decision to remove it!

2. Funding.

A Co-operative Trust school would continue to receive funding from the local authority on the same basis as at present. The Trust is not expected to make any financial contribution. BUT the trust will take over ownership of the land and buildings. Effectively, assets that have been paid for by the public will transfer into the hands of trustees. We will no longer have any say as to how these assets are used, for example land could be sold off for development.

3. Staffing

As with Foundation schools the governing body of the Trust become the employer of staff. The trust could opt out of nationally agreed pay and conditions agreements. There is no guarantee that rights for trade union representatives will be recognized or respected.

4. Education Provision.

There is no evidence that Trust School status of itself improves standards.

Trusts can set their own admissions policies.

5. Political Games

The proposal for a Co-operative trust is being supported by our local MP Andrew Smith and members of the local Labour party. One has to ask the question why. The Labour Government has since 1997 pursued a policy of wholesale privatization of the public sector. The break up of state run, democratically accountable comprehensive education has been one of their prime targets. But they know that this has been unpopular. Parents, students and teachers all want a good local community school.

So the move towards Co-operative Trusts is nothing short of a get out clause for the Labour party. Allied to Labour, the Co-operative party option of trusts is promoted as being a more acceptable, ethically friendly way of pushing through what is still in effect the privatization of public resources.

No Academies! No Trust Schools!

Chris Blakey, National Executive member, National Union of Teachers. 24/09/09.