The TUC have called coordinated strike action against attacks on public sector pensions on 30th November.

This is a fantastic development. Trade unionists and anti cuts campaigners around the country will be cheering the decision today.
Up to 3 million workers could be on strike on the 30th November. This follows the 750,000 strong strike by NUT, UCU, PCS and ATL members on 30th June. The 30th November looks set to be the biggest strike since 1926.

Amongst unions set to take action are Unison, GMB, Unite, NIPSA, FBU, PCS, Prospect, NUT, ATL, UCU, NASUWT, NAHT, UCAC, and EIS.
The Right to Work Campaign has always argued that to drive back the Tories the power of the trade union movement had to be tapped. Some said we were crazy to talk about mass strikes, it doesn’t look so crazy now!

In negotiations on public sector pensions the Tories have treated the unions like dirt. They have not negotiated they have dictated terms. It’s clear they are determined to make us pay more to work longer for less.
Now, on 30th November, they are going to reap the whirlwind.

There were a lot of fine speeches at the TUC. Union leaders from Paul Kenny to Bob Crow and Len McCluskey rightly attacked the anti union laws and raised the prospect of breaking them.

Everyone talked of this being a fight to the finish.

There are 11 weeks to go to the 30th November. Every trade unionist, student and anti cuts campaigner has to get behind the strikes. We have to push for an all out fight to break the Con-Dem coalition and win a clear victory for every worker.

We need joint union meetings, pickets of MP’s and protests in every town and city in the run up to the November strikes. We need to build the momentum for a campaign of action that can topple Cameron. And that process starts on 2 October with the TUC “March for the Alternative” (initiated by Right to Work) in Manchester.

Let’s show the Tories that they face an autumn of resistance they’ll never forget.

http://righttowork.org.uk

 by Michael Roberts

The Vickers Report on the UK banking sector (http://bankingcommission.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ICB-Final-Report.pdf) is supposedly aimed at avoiding any future financial collapse by making the banks safer.

This committee of bankers and economists propose to increase the amount of capital funds that banks must hold relative to the loans they make and financial assets they purchase.  They also want to reduce the holdings of ‘risky’ assets that banks can hold.  And they have gone halfway to separating the activity of banks between their ‘traditional’ role of lending to business and households and their ‘investment’ role of gambling in bond and stock markets and inventing all kinds of exotic instruments of ‘financial mass destruction’ to make bigger profits and bonuses.

The argument is that it is the latter role that brought the capitalist world to its knees.  So if banks want to gamble or speculate, then that should be separated from any liability of the taxpayer to bail them out.  The Vickers committee has not gone the whole hog and demand a complete separation of banks into two sorts.  Instead it has said that, within each bank, some bulwarks or firewalls must be introduced to keep any losses from speculative activities feeding through to ‘ordinary’ practices of the banks.  But the devil is in the detail.  It won’t be easy to make these separations clear and indeed the banks have been left to come up with their own definitions for separation.  Moreover, the whole implementation process  has been put off until 2019!  Who knows whether another crisis won’t have happened before then.

Anyway, as former UK Labour Chancellor Alastair Darling commented, what makes the committee think that a banking crisis can only happen in the ‘speculative’ part of banking?  In Britain, the banking crisis first erupted in the ‘ordinary’ banks like Bradford & Bingley, Northern Rock and HBoS.  Only later did the ‘universal’ banks that speculated in US mortgage-backed assets and credit derivatives like RBS get into trouble when the whole banking world began to implode.  As Marx would have argued, loan-bearing capital is inherently vulnerable to the possibility of crisis, because loans may not be paid back and deposits may be withdrawn and transactions can break down.

And boy was the banking collapse in the UK expensive to capitalism and, of course, mostly to working households who are still paying for it in extra taxes, reduced public services, lower economic growth and incomes.  One-third of the decline in the income of the UK economy since the crisis began was due directly to the banking collapse.   The UK economy is still 4% smaller than its peak in March 2008 and 2.8% lower than September 2008 when Lehman Brothers went bust in the US and the banking crisis began in earnest.  Of that fall, about one-third can be accounted for by a fall in banking activity, even though banks account for just 5% of UK GDP.  If you add in the ‘second round’ effects of tighter credit for businesses and houseeholds in the ‘ordinary’ part of banking, the losses caused by the banking sector are even larger.  So far this year, the banking industry has contracted by 2.6%, which followed a 5.1% fall in 2010 and a 7% decline in 2009.  And yet  an estimated £6.7bn of bonuses were paid in the City of London in the 2010-2011 financial year.  It’s business as usual in that department.

The banking collapse that the Vickers Committee wants to avoid again led to the big five UK banks receiving a £46bn ‘too-big-to-fail’ subsidy in 2010.  These large banks were able to borrow at lower interest rates than the average Joe because government guaranteed their bonds.  On top of this , the government (under Alastair Darling) bought shares in these top banks.  This was very far from nationalisation with management and control going to the public.  And the cost of this investment was very generous to existing bank shareholders.  It was made in three tranches – £15.0bn @ 65.5p in October 2008, £5.3bn in March 2009 and £25.5bn at 50p in December 2009.  By the time the last tranche was made, the share price at RBS had fallen to 29p and yet the government paid 50p.  The current price is 23p.  So the taxpayer is currently losing billions. 

The same generous bailout terms were instituted in the US.  About $1.2 trn of public money was handed over in loans, share purchases and guarantees to the banks.  The largest borrower. Morgan Stanley got $107bn, Citigroup got $100bn and Bank America $91bn.   This has been kept secret for over two years.  US bailout funds also helped the UK’s RBS which took $84bn, UBS $7bn and Hypo Bank in Germany got $29bn, or $21m per bank employee.  The banks were saved, but homeowners continue to lose their houses and households their jobs.

And yet, there are some mainstream economists who continue to insist that it should be ‘banking as usual’.  Indeed, banking profits and bonuses are seen as essential to the well-being of capitalism.  Take this new paper by Nobel prize winner Roger Myerson (A model of moral hazard credit cycles, 4th meeting in Economic Sciences, 2011).   With not a hint of a tongue in his cheek, Myerson tells us that investment bankers may be paid too much i.e. they get ‘moral hazard’ rents because banks are backed up by the government.  But the cost to the taxpayer can be spread over years and we can pay bankers their bonuses on performance if they make successful investments.  Booms and cycles in the economy may continue but that is the way of the world.  Indeed, Myerson says, “a tax on poor workers to subsidise rich bankers may actually benefit the workers as the increase of investment and employment can raise their wages by more than the cost of the tax.”   Trickle down economics is still alive and well.

I’ve argued in this blog many times that banking plays an important role in a modern capitalist economy and credit mechanisms will do so for many generations even if capitalism were to go as the dominant economic system.  But banks need to be run as a public service to small businesses and households providing credit for projects that create jobs and incomes, with loans at reasonable rates.  But this ‘traditional’ role has all but disappeared in the binge of financial speculation.  The assets of British banks, for example total #6trn, or over four times the UK’s annual GDP.  But loans to business is just #200bn or 3% of that total!

The Vickers Committee does not want to stop banks speculating and gambling. It just wants to separate that activity from ‘ordinary’ banking so that taxpayers don’t suffer.  But if banks collapse because of their speculations that will still have a huge impact on the economy even if the ‘ordinary’ part  of the banks are safe.  Creditors will lose money, jobs will disappear and all the connecting employment that goes with them.  Moreover, these new proposals may never see the light of day or be watered down to nothing by 2019.  In the US, when former Fed chairman Paul Volcker proposed similar measures to the US administration, they ignored him.  The governments of the major capitalist nations want banks to continue as much as possible as before.

The real issue is whether we want banks to provide a public service to the wider economy or just be dangerous risk-takers that could take the economy down with them.  Banks cannot be a public service by just returning to regulation with new ‘firewalls’ in their structure.  How well did that work last time?  The answer is proper public ownership of the sector with democratic accountability, so banks operate as part of a social plan for growth and employment.  The Vickers Committee report will do nothing for that.

http://thenextrecession.wordpress.com

  from www.socialistworker.org.uk

 Manchester - as it happened

 and 15,000 in Glasgow

by our reporters in Manchester

5.06pm:

Over 30,000 people marched today, Sunday, in a magnificent show of strength.

Workers, students, disability activists, pensioners, Labour Party activists, first-time protesters and veteran campaigners united together in Manchester against the Tories.

The day reflected the scale of resistance the government faces—and the growing determination among ordinary people to fight back.

Chants for a general strike were popular on the march. Union leaders were cheered for making militant speeches and calling for united strikes.

Today gave a glimpse of what 30 November, when millions of workers will strike together, could look like.

Strikes by millions of workers on the day could shut down Britain. Demonstrations in towns and cities can bring together everyone who hates the Tories and show the strength of our side.

30 November can kickstart a wave of resistance so strong it can stop the Tory assault.

It’s now up to every activist to make that a reality.

---

5.03pm:

More than 350 people crammed into the Mechanic’s Institute in central Manchester for a rousing rally organised by the Right to Work campaign. More people crowded in the doorways.

Simon Hester from Tottenham was cheered when he described August’s riots as a cry of rage. He said trade unionists had to take the fight to the Tories on 30 November.

Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, praised all those who struck on 30 June. “People said it wouldn’t succeed, but it was the rebirth of our movement,” he said.

“We all have something to gain from 30 November. We need a plan of action to get the best possible vote—and make it the biggest action in Britain for decades.”

Ian, an electrician, got a fantastic response when he spoke. Electricians are currently fighting bosses’ attempts to cut their pay by a third.

Ian said, "We are trying tooth and nail to get a ballot to get out on 30 November. Unite officials say its difficult. I don't care how difficult it is—we want to be out.

“So union backed or not union backed, with or without a ballot, we are coming out on 30 November."

Sam James from Right to Work closed the rally saying, "Today was a magnificent day. It shows what is possible when working class people move into action.

"Now we go back from tomorrow to build 30 November into an unprecedented day with an maximum turnout across the class."

---

4.17pm:

Paul Novak from the TUC announced on stage at the rally, "What a fantastic turnout and a fantastic day – 30,000 people in Manchester today.

"On 30 November we will organise the largest mobilisation of the trade union movement in a generation.

"Together we'll fight tooth and nail for our public services. Let's fight together and win together."

Brian Davies, a Remploy worker said, "They say its easy to get a job".

"It isn't," the crowd shouted back.

He added, "We don't want charity. Just dignity like everyone else. The Tories don't care. We'll fight and we'll fight and we'll fight some bloody more.

"If Remploy closes, me and thousands of others like me will never work again. Support our fight.

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the firefighters' FBU union, told the crowd that the Tories were, "planning to destroy our communities and public services".

He added, "Thatcher used to bleat 'there is no alternative'. These Tories want to finish her work."

"We'll build our alternative starting here today. Stand together, fight together"

Terry Hoad UCU president said, "There's never been a time when the trade union movement has had a more important job to do."

Manchester sixth form student
 Jamil Keating was the last speaker at the outdoor rally. 
In the riots, he said, "we were told young people in this city were feral rats. But the fact the riots spread so fast is a sign something is systematically wrong in our society."


He added, "As college students, we look to you, to the unions, to take our fight to the streets."

---

3.48pm:

Union leaders have brought a militant message to the rally in Manchester. Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, told the crowd, “We need coordinated industrial action. If you want to call that a general strike then so be it.

“We need civil disobedience. That's the oldest form of democracy. We should take the lead from the students.

“The media would have you believe there's nothing you can do. There are some in our ranks who believe that. I reject that defeatism.

“When the working class comes together, everything is possible.”

Others spoke of the strikes they had already taken against the Tories’ assault on workers. Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT teachers’ union, said she was “very proud” that the NUT was part of the 30 June pensions strikes.

“We exposed lies on pensions,” she said. “We are sure on 30 November we'll have action on much bigger scale as unions join us in the fight.

“Let's hope the sleeping giants of the trade union movement wake up to fight for growth, jobs and justice. Together we can win.”

Rena Wood from Unison said, "The Tories want to let their friends in the City bid for our services without having to pay for pensions. That we are going all for a yes vote for industrial action."

Mary Bousted general secretary of the teachers' ATL union said, "No one can say we anger easily, It took us 100 years to strike on 30 June. And we will strike again on 30 November.

"The government's behaviour has been a disgrace. And if Labour doesn't support us Labour will be a disgrace as well."

And Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said “Four brave unions—the NUT, PCS, ATL and UCU—should be congratulated for striking in June and changing the mood in this country.

“Now we're on the edge of the biggest strike for 80 years. If they carry on after 30 November we have to strike again and again until we win.

"Now’s the time to fight. Now's the time to defeat the government.”

---

3.10pm:

The rally is taking place after the TUC march in Manchester.

Tony Lloyd, Labour MP for Manchester Central, told the rally, “David Cameron is not welcome in the city.”

He said that Cameron should “go back to London with the message that you are wrong. Do it quickly or you, in the end, will have to go.”

Danielle Leadbetter got a huge cheer when she spoke about defending Sure Start. And Lee Jasper, from Black Activists Rising Against the Cuts, told the crowd, “We back the trade unions’ call for civil disobedience”.

Inside the conference, Tory chair Sayeeda Warsi has been forced to refer to “the protesters out there”. She explains the fury on the streets by saying that leadership means telling people what they don’t want to hear.

She also spoke about the student protest at Millbank last year. “We defended the picture of HM and got ready to defend the statue of Lady T,” she said.

The student protests made an impact on demonstrators too.

John Power is a GMB union shop steward from Ashton under Lyne. He told Socialist Worker, "I'm here because of jobs going, student fees the lot. The joint strikes in november are a good idea"

His wife, Patricia Power, agreed. "The Tories have got a shock coming to them,” she said. “Our work keeps everything going.”

---

2.30pm:

There are up to 200 union and campaign banners on the demonstration in Manchester. Lots of people are stressing the importance of groups of workers taking action together.

Marcher Dean Price is from the Rhonda and Cynontaf Unison branch.

He said, “It's the unity we have now that's important. What the Tories are doing affects us all.

“I am more optimistic about striking now than I have been before. The important thing is to get a big turnout in the ballot and a strong yes vote."

Mark Sewotka, general secretary of the PCS union, told Socialist Worker, "It's clear from the attendance and mood today that this can build into the forthcoming strikes. There's a mood to fight against the Tories' austerity packages.

“Now we need to ensure the biggest yes vote across the unions. Today's

demo is a big part of that."

Health workers wearing “Never trust a Tory with the NHS” t-shirts are shouting “We hate Cameron”.

Health worker Pauline Stanley said of the Tory leader, “He will still get his pension. He doesn't have to worry. He doesn't use the services we provide. If we lose our jobs then our clients lose our services.”

She added, “Cameron is bad and as for Clegg, I don't know what he was invented for.”

Norma Moys works with adults with learning difficulties. "My clients have already received letters telling them their care packages have been changed because of the cuts.

“It’s frightening them."

---

2.20pm:

The jails aren’t full enough even after August’s riots. So Boris Johnson plans to throw yet more people in the cells.

He wants police to be allowed to arrest people for swearing at them. Currently police are told they can’t do this.

An instruction card given to officers reads, "The courts do not accept police officers are caused harassment, alarm or distress by words."

But Johnson is expected to tell Tory conference delegates that this should change. He told the Daily Mail, “It is time to restore borders to behaviour, discipline, decency and respect for the rule of law.”

Hopefully the demonstration today will cause "alarm and distress" for the Tories.

---

1.51pm:

One family on the march is dressed as zombies with placards covered in fake blood. Some of the slogans include "Generations of the living dead" and "If you're hungry, eat the rich".

The Tories say they have no choice but to slash public sector pensions. They say there’s no money.

In fact, the government has millions of surplus cash—and George Osborne has already drawn up plans of what to do with this “underspend”.

Lib Dem treasury secretary Danny Alexander has already identified £500 million of cash floating around government departments. As one adviser to Nick Clegg put it, “If Danny gets £500 million, God knows how much George has found”.

---

1.40pm:

Lots of marchers are looking forward to striking on 30 November. Firefighter Mark Taylor from Merseyside FBU union said the reason he was marching was “One word—pensions.”

He told Socialist Worker, “I’ve got six years left to work, but if the Tories make their changes it’ll be 15. I’ll definitely be striking next month.”

Gary Keary is the brigade chair of the FBU in Manchester. “We already pay 11 percent in pension contributions,” he said. “The Tories want to raise it to 14. And we’re in the middle of a four-year pay freeze.

“I’ve gone to lots of branch meetings across the brigade. In some of them workers are voting by 99 percent to back resolutions calling for industrial action.”

Tony Hammond from the Prospect union said he was marching to stop an “unprecedented” attack from the Tories. “Our union is balloting for industrial action for the first time in 25 years,” he added.

Baker Jeff McCarthy said the Tories didn’t need to make their cuts. “The country is in a mess but it doesn’t have to be,” he said. “We could wipe out the deficit at the stroke of a pen if we abolished Trident.”

The mood of the march is angry but defiant. One banner reads, “Guy Fawkes—we need you”. Another daubed with red paint reads, “You cut, we bleed”.

Chewbacca from Star Wars has also joined the march. His placard reads, “Class wars—the workers fight back”.

---

1.40pm:

Meanwhile in London up to 1,000 people are marking 75 years since the Battle of Cable Street in 1936.

The battle saw a mass mobilisation of people on the streets stop fascists from marching through London’s East End.

Ninety-six year old veteran Max said, “We stood united in 1936 here in Cable Street and we must do so again against all fascist movements.”

Frances O’Grady, deputy general secretary of the TUC, said, “We are not just here to honour our past. We are here to say they shall not pass to the EDL and the BNP.”

---

1.25pm:

There will be no peace for the Tories for the rest of their conference after today’s protest. Workers at Fujitsu in Manchester are set to strike on Tuesday—and protest when their CEO addresses a fringe meeting at the Tory conference.

Alan Jenney, a victimised Unite union rep from Fujitsu in Crewe, is on today’s march. He told Socialist Worker, “This march is about numbers. The fight should not be about private sector or public sector. Everyone from all walks of life is here. We have to be united.

“People shy away from using the term general strike but it’s the only thing we can use to fight.”

---

1.10pm:

The march has set off.

David Cameron claims the Tories are "firing up the engines of the British economy" by encouraging people to buy their own homes.

In reality, things are getting so desperate that record numbers of people can't afford to feed themselves.

FareShare, a leading food charity, says it is feeding 20 percent more people than it was a year ago – from 29,500 to 35,000. Meanwhile, a thinktank has found that more than one in five workers are earning less than a "living wage".

Video of the march setting off.

---

1pm:

The main march is filling the road all the way from the Hilton hotel tower on Deansgate, back past the Museum of Science and Industry and towards the old Granada studios.

The march is already noisy and packed with union banners and flags – as well as huge Unison, Unite and NUT balloons. Political stalls line the street.

Disability rights activists have joined the demonstration in Manchester. Eleanor from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) traveled from Coventry to march.

She told Socialist Worker, “It takes a lot to get me out of bed early on a Sunday morning. But I am so angry with the Tories I had to come. They are attacking the rights of disabled people.”

Private sector workers are also on the demo, including Mohammed from Rotherham, south Yorkshire, who was on his first protest. He said, “I don't work in the public sector, I am in the motor parts industry. But it’s important for the private sector to show unity. The cuts affect all of us.”

There is also big delegation of parents and their children fighting to save Sure Start in Manchester. Parent Helen Nicoll said, "We have got to stop them shutting down Sure Start. Its about more than childcare. My partner is recovering from cancer and they helped our whole family through it."

One FE student, Lewis Holden, is a Labour party member and has made his own placard, "I can't believe its not Thatcher". He said, "I didn't want the Tories to feel welcome in Manchester."

---

12.55pm:

The whole area in front of the posh Hilton hotel is a sea of blue banners and massive balloons of the Unison union section ready to lead off the march.

A big delegation of Unison union members who work in the NHS in Rotherham are filing up behind their banner. Anita Heaton, a Unison steward, told Socialist Worker that the Tories have left workers “with no alternative but to strike”.

She said, “Right across the NHS there is a general feeling of frustration and sadness about what's happening. We are dedicated people. We just want to provide our services to people.

“The Tories don't need the NHS, they can all afford private health care.”

Unison branch chair Alan Daw said workers are organising to win big strike votes among Unison members in the ballots that begin this week.

He said, "We have been cascading leaflets and posters through all our members. Some workers are scattered around in small workplaces so it will be hard work. But we are confident we will win."

---

12.40pm:

At the Tory conference chancellor George Osborne is set to announce a series of measures to slash workers’ rights.

He wants to make it easier for bosses to sack workers by changing employment tribunal legislation. Currently workers can take an employer to an employment tribunal if they’ve worked for the boss for a year. Osborne wants to change this to two years.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, said the move would create a “hire and fire culture where bad employers cannot be challenged”.

The government unveiled its plans in its report One-in, One-out: Second Statement of New Regulation released last week.

It said, “We are increasing the qualifying period for employees to be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal from one to two years and introducing fees for lodging employment tribunal cases to tackle vexatious claims.”

Disgustingly it said that this would “give business the confidence to take on staff”. Osborne is also to say the government will cut the number of union officers in the civil service.

---

12.35pm:

Video of students assembling

---

12.25pm:

A feeder march has joined the main protest from Salford. There were at least three Unison union banners on the 200-strong march, along with Salford and Bolton trades council banners and others.

Martin McLaughlin from Bolton trades council summed up the mood among people when he said, “We’re fed up of cuts.”

Other protesters are arriving from further afield.

Neil Bendelow, a CWU union member, traveled from Cleveland, Teesside, to march against the Tories.

He told Socialist Worker, “I’m here because of what the Tories want to do to the post office. The Tories only value one thing—bankers’ profits.

“There is plenty of money around if they taxed the bankers to the hilt.

“I support the strikes on 30 November. My wife is in Unison. We work for peanuts. You start work on a pension scheme and you don't expect them to change the rules half way through.

“Cutting everything isn't going to fix things. But Cameron and Clegg are too arrogant to see that.”

---

12.15pm:

Several hundred students assembled outside the University of Manchester for a feeder march onto the main demonstration.

They are making placards, putting up posters and playing instruments.

Union banners from the UCU and Unison are up, and one group has arrived with a large paper mâché vulture with scissors for a head.

Sophie, from Manchester Metropolitan University, was part of the group of students carrying the vulture.

"Cutting the arts means the arts establishment can't do outreach work. It has a detrimental effect," she said.

"This is a symbol of the art and culture that Manchester's proud of," she said. "It's our culture vulture."

The crowd is constantly swelling, and people have many reasons to be here.

"The Tories aren't welcome here," said Amy Taylor, the University of Manchester Students' Union LGBT officer.

"I hate them. They're the class enemy.”

Amy is angry at Tory attacks on minority groups, including LGBT people.

"Cuts to LGBT services affect people. Homelessness and mental health problems are more common for LGBT people, and we're being disproportionately affected.

"The mood among students is getting more and more angry. Today is a build up to mass action to bring them down."

Tom Brooks graduated with a degree in History and Social Sciences earlier this year, but is now looking for work.

"It's difficult finding work, interviews are few and far between," he said. "The only option is bar work, if you can get that.

"It's hard living on £53 a week.

"My mum's about to lose her council job thanks to the cuts.”

But Tom is hopeful about today's demonstration.

"People are fighting and resisting," he said. "And today can build for the 30 November public sector strikes.

"There's some demoralisation, but today can help change people's feelings. It can give them hope."

---

11.20am:

Thousands of people are heading to Manchester from across Britain to protest against the Tories, who are meeting there for their annual conference.

Protesters on coaches from London ran into Tory Liam Fox at the motorway services at 10am. They chased him off, chanting "They say cutback, we say fightback" and "Tory scum"

In the city itself, activists spent every last minute building for the demonstration. A trade union-sponsored “battle bus” toured Salford and Manchester yesterday, Saturday.

Lee from the PCS union told Socialist Worker “Wherever we stopped we were well received. People kept beeping horns at us as we drove down the road”.

Danielle Leadbeater was one of a group of young mothers who brought their children on the bus. She said, “We’ve been out to raise awareness of the threats to Sure Start. The councillors accuse us of sitting around in our pyjamas all day—but we’ll be marching in our pyjamas on Sunday”.

Sam O’Brien from the Unison union said the bus got “a great reception in Salford and Moss Side”.

“People are clearly very angry about the cuts,” he said. “It was great to see people from the TUC and Labour Party getting involved—we had a Labour councillor on the bus.”

Sean Molloy, a 17-year old unemployed activist, told Socialist Worker “People are really angry, especially young people who have lost their EMA.”

Mark Krantz from the Right to Work campaign organised the bus. Branches of the NUJ, PCS and Unison unions, along with Greater Manchester TUC, funded it.

Tory conference delegates will be greeted by a warm “welcome to

Manchester” on almost every advertising hoarding around the venue.

But the message coming from local people is very different.

Coalition of Resistance Conference Report – Saturday July 9th 2011 – held at University of London Union WC1E 7HY. Attended by: 240 delegates and 60 observers

Opening Session chaired by Romayne Phoenix, CoR Chair

Platform Speakers included:
Wendy Savage, Co-chair, Keep Our NHS Public

Zita Holbourne, BARAC Joint Chair

Ben Hassa Mokhtar, RAID & CADTM (Tunisia)

Lindsey German, Stop the War,

Jim Malone, FBU,

Ted Knight, former leader Lambeth Council.

Vice-Chair Paul Mackney relayed a message of support from Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary. Romayne from the Chair announced apologies from Caroline Lucas MP.

Andrew Burgin, CoR Secretary, moved the Steering Committee Report and proposed Motion A from the Steering Committee on the Way Forward which was CARRIED

“The world economic crisis of 2008 continues to deepen. The near collapse of the entire financial system was only averted by a trillion dollar bail-out of the banks.
The debts of the banks have been socialised and working people throughout the world are being forced to pay for the banks’ losses through draconian austerity measures.
The governments of Europe and the international financial institutions have been unable to stabilise the financial system. Greece stands on the brink of default. The Eurozone is in crisis and its failure could plunge the entire world economy back into recession.
In Greece and Spain there has been mass resistance to austerity together with ongoing protest across the continent.
The Coalition of Resistance is preparing an international conference to bring together all those opposing these austerity measures. Such a conference will take practical steps to co-ordinate and support this resistance.
In Britain the Con-Dem government has cut wages, pensions, benefits, libraries, the NHS and social services whilst wasting billions on nuclear weapons and war. The economy has been further weakened with growth below 0.5%, unemployment rising and a lack of consumer spending.
Here too there has been resistance. Students have taken to the streets in their tens of thousands protesting the huge rise in tuition fees. More than 500,000 joined a TUC led demonstration on the 26th March against the cuts and hundreds of thousands of public sector workers have taken strike action to defend their pensions.
The Coalition of Resistance has been at the heart of all these protests.

We re-affirm our commitment to oppose all cuts and privatisation of public services, to defend the welfare state and the NHS, and to resist any attempt to make us pay for the debt and economic crisis. We reject the transformation of private banking debt into a debt of the public sector or that “we are all in it together”. This government has no mandate for either its austerity programme or for its continued wars in Libya and Afghanistan into which vast sums of money are being poured.

The Coalition of Resistance will continue to seek the broadest possible unity in co-ordinating the campaign against the austerity measures, to provide a national framework for the campaign, to organise in the communities and the workplaces with others against all cuts, and to support trade-unions taking industrial action in defence of public services, jobs and conditions. We will encourage trade-unions, with the support of communities, to extend their industrial action as far as possible in order to force the government to retreat from its attacks on public services and jobs.

The Con-Dem government is a weak one and has already been forced into withdrawing its plan to privatise Britain’s forests. Its NHS privatisation policy is in disarray.

The Coalition of Resistance will raise the following demands to take the burden of the austerity measures off the backs of ordinary people and promote economic policies that will restore real sustainable growth to our economy:
Carrying out an audit of the debt as a step towards cancelling the debt.
Call for a programme of public investment to break the private sector investment strike.
To fund this by instructing the banks already in public ownership to increase investment in council housing, infrastructure, transport, education, and a more sustainable economy.
This to be supplemented by windfall taxes and levies on corporations who are sitting on cash mountains This can also finance a series of progressive taxation measures aimed at fundamentally shifting the balance of taxation from poor to rich.
Introducing a statutory living wage and reversing both the cuts to benefits and corporation tax of the Tory-led government.
Opposing all privatisation of state-owned assets including Northern Rock, the Royal Mail, RBS and Lloyds banks, and instead using them as vehicles for increased public investment.
Creating a million green jobs to tackle climate change and sustainably regenerate the economy.

The Coalition of Resistance also commits itself to the following campaigning initiatives over the next few months:
To campaign for a second national demonstration against the cuts
To support all action by the unions in defence of jobs and pensions
To hold a lobby and fringe meeting at the TUC.
To build the demonstrations at the Tory and LibDem conferences.
To support the G20 European demonstration in France.
To build the European Conference against Austerity and Privatisation on the 1st October initiated by CoR.
To promote the case for alternative economic policies that will generate employment and move towards a sustainable economy
To help build the 8th October mass assembly in Trafalgar Square organised by Stop the War against the war on terror and raise the slogan ‘welfare not warfare’ there.
To work with the People’s Charter to build a festival of resistance in the summer of 2012.

B. Motion from Steering committee on working with trade unions was CARRIED

The TUC organised demonstration on March 26th was a massive display of unity between the workers in the public sector and the users of services.
As the struggle with the Government grows it is important that this unity is developed in a systematic way through the community anti-cuts groups and all trade unions.
The following are some suggestions that could help to build our movement:
Community groups
Close links with local trades councils
Activist with responsibility for 2 way links with trade unions in each of the main sectors under threat
Support trade union activists on picket lines and other activities
Help to distribute trade union publicity
Speakers at trade union meetings
Trade unions (all not just those organising in the public sector)
Win national policies to work with Coalition of Resistance and anti-cuts movement
Set up regional/local networks of staff and activists to liaise with the anti-cuts movement
Promote support for trades councils and that these become central to the local movement
Have activists active in the local anti-cuts groups
Offer speakers at anti-cuts events and invite their speakers to branch meetings and protests

Proposed by Andy Bain

C. Motion from Steering committee on Afghan war was CARRIED.

This conference notes:
1. That the Afghan war is now in its 10th year and has cost tens of thousands of Afghan lives, thousands of US soldiers lives and nearly 400 UK soldiers lives.
2. The cost of the Afghan war is 5 billion a year and the current cost of the Libya war will be 1 billion by autumn 2011.
3. The current troop withdrawals will still leave as many troops in Afghanistan as there were before the surge in 2009.

This conference believes:
1. That the war is neither in the interests of the British or Afghan people.
2. That the cost of the war is a direct threat to the welfare spending on which many working people depend.
3. That UK and all Nato forces should be withdrawn from Afghanistan.
This conference resolves:
1. To campaign on the slogan of Welfare not Warfare, Jobs not Bombs, and similar slogans, as appropriate.
2. To mobilise as appropriate for anti-war activities where these issues are relevant.
Proposed by John Rees

Motions on Procedure for Electing National Council (Chair: Fred Leplat)

Fred moved a one minute tribute to Alf Filer

D. Motion from Steering committee re CoR National Council was CARRIED

1 The National Council will comprise of fifty members who shall be individual members of the Coalition plus one delegate from each national and local anti-cuts affiliated organisation.
2 The individual members of the National Council shall be elected by National Conference.
3 Candidates shall stand on an open ballot. Each delegate to National Conference shall have as many votes as there are vacant seats.
4 Delegates shall vote for the individual members of the National Council in a secret ballot.
5 Each delegate shall have 50 votes.
6 Nominations shall be received by 12.30 on 9th July 2011 (extended to 1300hrs)
Proposed by Chris Bambery, CoR

E. Motion from Lambeth Save our Services was DEFEATED

Conference notes
1. that since the founding conference of CoR in Nov 2010, almost 200 anti cuts groups have sprung up around Britain. These have the support of those building a fightback against the cuts – Trade Unions, students, older peoples campaigns, user groups etc. They, alongside the TUs, are the focus and centre of the anti-cuts struggles.
2. that a national co-ordinating campaign that is able to take initiatives and has the confidence of the local anti-cuts groups has yet to come into existence. A major reason for this is that the movement has been divided between three competing campaigns – CoR, RtW, NSSN. This division serves only to undermine the fight against the cuts and weakens the fight back against the Con-Dem coalition.
3. that a real national anti-cuts co-ordination will only be built from the bottom up, drawing in the most active anti cuts groups, as well as local/regional TU organisations fighting the cuts. It must be democratic, non-sectarian and based at national and regional level on bodies of delegates from the anti cuts groups and TUs. It must be made up of individuals rooted and active in their local anti-cuts struggles.

This conference therefore takes the following steps to start to transform the CoR into such a body. This will be done by:
a) re-electing its National Committee with 20 members being elected directly from this conference based on their experience and positions in the anti cuts movement.
b) inviting local anti cuts groups to send two delegates to the NC with full voting rights, elected and removable by them, and encouraging local/regional/national TUs who wish to affiliate separately to send two voting delegates.
The aim of this change will be to give a built in majority to local anti cuts groups and to rank and file TU activists.
c) the NC will meet every 2 months and its dates will be fixed for the year. Two weeks’ notice will be given of its agendas and resolutions and standard labour movement practice will be followed in terms of minuting i.e. publication of attendance, minutes, resolutions and decisions via the website etc.
d) the executive of the NC will meet on a weekday evening or weekend so that those who work can attend. Its size and structure will be decided by the NC, but a majority of its members should be active members of local anti cuts groups. It too will publish its minutes.
e) The CoR will call a further policy conference within six months of this conference and it will take place outside London e.g. in Manchester, Liverpool or Newcastle. It will be hosted by the local anti cuts groups there.
Proposed by Stuart King

An amendment to Motion E from Workers’ Power was DEFEATED

In para 3 delete: “that a real anti-cuts co-ordination will only be built from the bottom up, drawing in the most active ant-cuts groups, as well as local/regional TU organisations fighting the cuts.” Insert: “that a real anti-cuts co-ordination will only be built by bringing together the most active anticuts groups, drawing in local and regional trade union organisations fighting the cuts, federating anticuts groups at a regional level and in this way compelling the various anticuts bodies to unite.”
Proposed by Richard Brenner

The following workshops were held:

Crisis In The Eurozone: James Meadway, Yasmin Khan + international speakers
Unions and the anti cuts movement: Chris Bambery, Joe Malone FBU Scotland, Cat Boyd PCS Youth Rep, Jon Duveen, NUT
Fighting Privatisation: Michael Burke ,Tony Kearns CWU Senior Deputy Gen Sec, Clare Solomon ULU President.
The Hardest Hit: Joseph Healey, Zita Holbourne, BARAC, Deborah Sowerby, disability activist and Nathan Sparling, NUS LGBT Officer
Greening the economy: Romayne Phoenix, Peter Allen Co Convener Green Left, Cllr Jonathan Essex

National Council Elections – The following 50 were elected:

Nathan Akehurst; Rebecca Allen; Andy Bain; Chris Bambery; Mark Bergfeld; Cat Boyd; Andrew Burgin; Michael Burke; Matthew Caygill; Andy Chaffer; Craig Clark; Jeremy Drinkall; Jess Edwards; Sam Fairburn; Neil Faulkner; Lindsey German; Dot Gibson; Jenny Golden; Bronwen Handyside; Simon Hardy; Joseph Healey; Penny Hicks; Zita Holbourne; Kate Hudson; Lee Jasper; Steve Johnson; Andrew Kennedy; Alex Kenny; Haeiko Khoo; Stuart King; Fred Leplat; Paul Mackney; Graham Martin; James Meadway; Su Murray; Chris Nineham; Romayne Phoenix; Pete Ramand; John Rees; Frances Rifkind; Ian Scott; Ruth Serwotka; Cherry Sewell; Alex Snowden; Clare Solomon; Alastair Stephens; Chris Walsh; Godfrey Webster; Jude Woodward.

Final plenary session chaired by Paul Mackney, CoR Vice-Chair

Dot Gibson, Secretary National Pensioners’ Convention, addressed the conference in a personal capacity.

Barnaby Raine, School students against the cuts, addressed the Conference

F. Motion from Socialist Resistance /Green Left was CARRIED

Conference calls on CoR to support the “One Million Jobs” campaign http://www.campaigncc.org/greenjobs being run by the Campaign Against Climate Change. Conference instructs the CoR steering committee and national council to support the campaign by promoting it on our website, at our meetings and at every level of activity. The campaign seeks to build a new Green economy which would help us both combat the cuts and harmful climate change.

We are facing a global environmental crisis and a global economic crisis.
We need solutions to both – now. Many climate activists, and several national trade unions, have decided to fight to make the government create one million green, climate jobs. The TUC has also supported this policy at its Congress last year.

Sooner or later gradual climate change is going to turn into swift catastrophe. So we need drastic cuts in the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases we put into the air.
This will take government regulation and international agreements. It will also take a lot of work – jobs.
We have to build wind, wave, tide and solar power. We have to renovate and insulate our homes and buildings.
And we have to provide a network of cheap buses and trains. There are officially two and a half million unemployed people in Britain. Many more are not counted in government figures.
We may be facing a long recession, or the economy may ‘recover’ sales.
But the experience from many countries now is that business has to sell a lot more, for a long time, before jobs start to recover. We will have mass unemployment for many years.
We have people who need jobs and work that must be done.
A million climate jobs in the UK will not solve all the economy’s problems. But it will take a million human beings off the dole and put them to work saving the future.

The cuts proposed by the current government will ensure that hundreds of thousands of public sector workers will lose their jobs. The result will be another plunge into recession.

We cannot halt climate change only by action in the UK. Climate change is an international issue – our campaigning and successes here will have an impact on campaigners internationally as we have been inspired by mass movements elsewhere – whether it is the Arab revolutions, the Greek and Spanish protesters or the huge mobilisations against nuclear power in Germany.
Proposed by Joseph Healey

Mehdi Hasan, New Statesman, addressed the Conference

Katy Clark MP addressed the Conference

G. Motion from Socialist Workers’ Party was DEFEATED

We won’t pay for their crisis – support the call for a General Strike
This conference notes:
1) The all out attack launched on working people and the vital services they rely on by the Con Dem coalition government.
2) That the attacks on British workers are part of a global attempt to make workers pay for the economic crisis.
4) The magnificent turn out of more than 500,000 on the TUC “March for the Alternative” on 26 March.
5) Unison leader Dave Prentis’ statement that the unions are set to unleash a wave of action that will be “the biggest since the 1926 General Strike”.
6) The huge significance of the mass co-ordinated strike by 750,000 members of the UCU, NUT, ATL, PCS and thousands of council workers in Birmingham, Southampton and Doncaster on the 30th June.
7) The very real possibility of co-ordinated strikes by up to 4 million public sector workers in the Autumn.
Believes that

1. This crisis was caused by bankers and politicians not workers. It’s the bankers and the rich who should pay the price
2. There should be no cuts made to working class people’s jobs, conditions, and services. We should not pay for the bankers crisis.
3. That we share a common interest with working class people across the world who are facing the consequences of the bosses crisis.
4. We oppose any attempts to divide us, public sector against private sector, students against workers, employed against unemployed. We defend the rights of migrant workers and oppose the Tories attacks on “failed multiculturalism” and the scapegoating of our Muslim brothers and sisters as the “enemy within”.
5. The government should be creating jobs and investing in a sustainable future
6. The response of the trade union movement in countries such as Greece should act as a model of resistance here.
7. We need to build the fight against the cuts at a local and national level both through a mass political campaign and industrial action.
8. It will take strike action on the scale we have seen in Greece to stop Cameron.
9. Alongside a campaign of mass protests and civil disobedience mass co-ordinated strike action, a general strike, will be necessary if we are to stop the Con-Dem attacks

Resolves:
To work with trade unions, anti cuts, student and campaigning organisations at a national and local level to stop the cuts.
To call on our union leaderships at branch, regional and national level to seek to co-ordinate campaigns and strikes with other unions and to build support for any action amongst anti cuts campaigns.
To support planned strikes in defence of public sector pensions and jobs in the Autumn and to call on public sector unions not at present taking action to take steps to join the strikes.
As a step towards the scale of action needed to stop the Con Dems we call on the TUC to co-ordinate a 24 hour general strike against the cuts and attacks on wages and pensions.
Proposed by Amy Leather
Opposed by: Alex Kenny

K. Motion from Workers Power was DEFEATED

This conference raises the call for a general strike to stop the cuts package and bring down the Coalition government.
Proposed by Rebecca Allen
Opposed by Liam McQuaid

RULING: The Chair emphasised that policy is made on the basis of carrying motions not by assuming that every line in a defeated motion is unacceptable (E.g. most of the debate on Motion G had been over the question of the General Strike call; apart from that, the motion was uncontroversial and indeed much was already CoR policy.)

EMERGENCY MOTION on Phone Hacking was CARRIED

In the light of the recent phone hacking scandal that has illustrated corruption between police, press and politicians at the highest levels, the Coalition of Resistance agrees to support campaigns calling on the Culture Secretary to halt the proposed acquisition of BSkyB by News Corp and to sponsor in conjunction with other campaigning media organizations a summit on corporate Media this summer.

Proposed by Des Freedman

H. Motion from People’s Charter was CARRIED

Following united action on pensions, the increasingly successful campaign against the Coalition’s health bill, the PCS preparations for industrial action over conditions and the latest declaration of war against the rail unions, a national focus for united activity is essential.

To this end, the Coalition of Resistance and the Peoples’ Charter would welcome discussion with individual trade unions and the TUC concerning a new national demo of opposition to the cuts to be held in the Autumn or the Spring, led by the Trade Union movement and maximising the involvement of anti-cuts groups, community campaigning organisations and individuals. The Coalition of Resistance the Peoples’ Charter will approach the TUC and affiliated unions to propose such discussion.

Furthermore, that Coalition of Resistance and the Peoples Charter will support the call for a Festival of Resistance, prepared for the summer of 2012 aimed at celebrating and promoting all aspects of the anti cuts movement.

Proposed by Brian Heron

EMERGENCY MOTION ON BOMBARDIER IN DERBY was CARRIED
(after deletion of words which might have implied support for a ‘British work for British workers’ policy)

Over 1400 more workers in Derby are to be thrown on the dole, railway engineering apprenticeships are to be abandoned and the last rail rolling stock works in the country is possibly to be closed – that’s what the policies of privatisation, and a refusal to invest in jobs and a British manufacturing base to its economy are leading to. And it’s all been predictable over the last couple of decades, since the privatisation of the rail industry.

The Government’s decision to give the £1.4 billion Thameslink rolling stock contract to Siemens in Germany instead of to Bombardier in Derby means that 1400 jobs will go at Bombardier, with a further 13000 jobs in and around Derby put at risk as a ‘knock on’ effect. It’s all part of the generalised attack by this government on working people. It will be devastating for Derby and the Midlands – if we let them get away with it.

While Siemens talk about ‘importing’ some of the workers from Britain into their German operations reminding us of ‘Auf Wiedersehn, Pet’ and the Thatcher government’s instruction to workers to ‘get on their bikes and look for work’ – we need to respond by refusing to accept this huge attack. We can and will defeat it, if we are determined and organised enough.

Unions representing workers at Bombardier have called for a massive demonstration in Derby on July 23rd – and many others are rallying in support. There is no time to lose. Every union and community organisation needs to be thinking and deciding how they can help force the ConDem government – an unelected coalition of millionaires, cobbled together out of two parties each of which failed to win the General Election – to U-turn, invest in industry, and keep the jobs in Britain Derby.

2011 is the 40th anniversary of the fight by workers at Upper Clyde Shipbuilders to save their jobs and industry in the face of a similar refusal by a Tory government to invest. They took over the shipyards in the name of the people – and created history. Such bold initiatives are demanded by the times we are living in.

The Coalition of Resistance calls on all workers to attend the July 23rd demonstration, and to redouble efforts through coordinated action to win the policies of The People’s Charter which includes the following policies on jobs and industry:
More and better jobs
• Introduce legislation to prevent closures and mass redundancies in profitable industries.
• Legislate to compel the re-investment of a percentage of profits in British industry
• Limit export of investment capital to stop asset stripping by transnational big business
• Take back into public ownership essential industries – energy, water, telecommunications and post, rail and bus transport – to put them and their profits to work for the British people.
• Introduce Government support for other industries.
• Target public and private investment to create new jobs – in particular in manufacturing, construction and green technology. Greater investment in renewable energy sources, ecological development and the recycling industries for domestic and industrial waste would lead to a new million green jobs.
• End job insecurity through casualised work and short term contracts without agreed reasons.
• Reduce working hours – not pay – to create more jobs – and so more spending power – to stimulate the economy, increase tax revenue and reduce the number of people forced to live on benefit.

These are burning issues for all of us who want to see a future for ourselves and future generations. The workers at Bombardier cannot be left to fight it on their own.
Proposed by Andy Bain

Paul Brandon, Right to Work Campaign, addressed the Conference

I. Motion from Green Party Trade Union Group was CARRIED

We call on CoR to use all possible influence to persuade those Trade Unions who favour the use and expansion of Nuclear power that this is a false solution to Climate Change offering only the prospect of pollution and damage for future generations. We also call on CoR to
lobby the UK government to decommission all existing nuclear power stations and to ensure, in conjunction with Trades unions, that all workers in the nuclear industries are offered a just transition to employment in more ecologically friendly industries. Proposed by Romayne Phoenix

Alex Kenny, NUT Executive, addressed the Conference

J. Motion from School Students Against the Cuts was CARRIED

This conference recognises the harsh cuts and discrimination that the Youth face in this climate, including:
The steep and unfair rise in tuition fees to £9,000, which will cause graduates to be in debt by over £27,000 –not to mention the debt acting as an obstacle and disillusionment to many potential university students who will definitely forgo university in consequence.
The abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) which is crucial for many Further Education students to convene to college and fund themselves during the week at college.
The ideological and harsh cuts being made to vital youth services, which many youths depend on to socialise, to receive psychological support, and advice on sexual health.
The harsh cuts being made to educational institutions, some of which are essential for young people to take foundation courses in practical education and national qualifications, e.g. plumbing, A levels, GCSE retakes and the International Baccalaureate.
The ‘academization’ of state schools by Michael Gove, which will offer a diminished, profit driven and ideological education, with no accountancy to the taxpayer whatsoever.
The demonization campaign being led by the right wing press for protesting and taking direct action against the implementation of all of the above.
Therefore, this conference proposes that:
We reinforce our strong anti-fees position and campaign to bring the £9,000 fees down, as well as voicing support and actively campaigning for wider options to be opened to potential Higher Education students, e.g. apprenticeships.
We propose to found and facilitate anti-cuts student groups in as many universities and any other educational institutions as possible.
To openly oppose and campaign against the politically motivated show trials of student activists and send a clear message to activists that this should NOT deter students from actively campaigning from an anti-cuts stance.
To back anti-academy campaigns and publicly voice our opposition to Michael Gove’s plans to ‘academize’ the majority of the schools in the UK.
To fight cuts to educational institutions and vital youth services both at a local and national level. To continue our fight against the abolition of the essential grant to Further Education students that is the Educational Maintenance Allowance. To work towards a youth-specific Coalition of Resistance Conference, which will aim to mobilise and educate students about the youth cuts, and how to effectively run an anti-cuts campaign.

Proposed by Amy Dunne

L . Motion from People’s assembly network was ruled OUT OF ORDER
since no-one was there to propose it and the organisation which had sent it was not affiliated

In support of a similar, near unanimous decision made at the National
Education Assembly of 30th June at the LSE, and in recognition of the
various People’s Assemblies convened in Britain (e.g. in Lambeth on May
21st and Liverpool on June 4th) and now throughout Spain and Greece (as
part of the Real Democracy Now! movement) the Coalition of Resistance
likewise urges communities throughout Britain and Europe to build
inclusive city-wide and local People’s Assemblies that can:
ensure the anti-cuts movement maintains an effective unity via a
genuinely democratic, long-term strategic and non-sectarian process
- unite students, workers, trade unionists, community groups and all
those resisting austerity and ConDem cuts, as well as other activists
and members of the general public
- develop an alternative democratic voice and permanent/longer -term
presence to effectively challenge corporate/financial power and its
grip on the existing political system.
Proposed by: Mark Barrett, Councillor, Coalition of Resistance and Organiser, Co-convenor Peoples Assembly Network, Campaign for Real Democracy UK. Seconded by: Corinna Lotz, Councillor, Coalition of Resistance,
Co-convenor, Peoples Assembly Network, and Secretary, A World to Win.

EMERGENCY MOTION FROM Communist Students was DEFEATED

Conference believes that the existence of several competing anti-cuts campaigns all of them with essentially the same message weakens our movement’s ability to resist the Coalitions austerity measures. Conference resolves to mandate the Coalition of Resistance to contact Right to Work, the National Shop Stewards Network, the People’s Charter, local anti-cuts groups, trades councils, etc with a view of organising a united anti-cuts conference before the end of 2011.

John McDonnell MP addressed the Conference

The Chair reminded people to take the new ‘No Cuts’ badges, international leaflets and broadsheets.

Apologies and messages of support were given from Tony Benn, CoR President, and others attending the Durham Miners Gala.

Delegates were reminded of the European conference against Austerity, Cuts and Privatisation – Camden Centre, Bidborough Street London WC1H 9AU

Conference closed at 1705 hours.

 11.07.11  http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk

COR conference – a slump in numbers, politics and ambition

http://www.workerspower.co.uk  10 July 2011

At its second conference on 9 July, the Coalition of Resistance consolidated itself as a rightward moving organisation within the anti-cuts movement, reports Simon Hardy.

While the founding conference in November 2010 saw around 1,200 people gather to launch the new initiative, this was attended just over 200 people. The audience was mostly older, made up of members from Socialist Resistance, Peoples Charter (the Communist Party), Green Left, the International Socialist group and of course Counterfire, which remains the driving force behind the coalition.

The highlight of the initial opening speeches was former Lambeth council leader from the 1980s Ted Knight’s fiery calls for an end to capitalism and a fight for socialism – though it was certainly not part of the COR conference script. In fact there was a real sense of tension from the organisers, who seemed concerned that a resolutions conference would lead to arguments and debates opening up which might threaten the colition. Romayne Phoenix (Green Party) from the chair repeatedly urged the conference to act in a spirit of unity and comradeship, clearly nervous about political debates over the key issues.

The two most contentious positions concerned the organisation of COR and whether it should call for a general strike.

How to organise COR

The outgoing steering committee proposed a 50 person National Council to be composed of people put forward at the conference. This was the status quo – and it is worth mentioning that the National Council has met but twice in 8 months and COR has been effectively run by a self-selected Steering Committee, which meets during working hours in London.

The alternative, from Lambeth SOS, proposed a delegate based body made up of two from each local anti-cuts group and trade union body. The strength of Lambeth’s resolution was that it would have made COR accountable to grassroots organisations, which would have democratically controlled it. It would have got rid of the current set-up, whereby Counterfire use COR’s website and news-sheets to promote its preferred union leaders and its political slogans. Increasingly, as the poor attendance proves, local groups see COR as distant and yet another party front.

Chris Bambery argued against this saying we needed provision for delegates from national organisations like Keep our NHS Public, BARAC or UK Uncut. This was a problem with the Lambeth resolution, which is why Workers Power proposed an amendment deleting the reference to delegates only coming from the unions and the local groups and replacing it with:

“A real national anti-cuts co-ordination will only be built by bringing together the most active anticuts groups, drawing in local and regional trade union organisations fighting the cuts, federating anti-cuts groups at a regional level and in this way compelling the various national anti-cuts groups to unite.”

If this had passed then Bambery’s criticism would have been answered – all the national organisations fighting the cuts could have been represented, and COR could have been qualitatively transformed into a broader, truly dynamic organising centre for the resistance. As it was the Lambeth motion (and amendment) was defeated with only 15 delegates supporting it.

 

General Strike struck down

Two separate motions were proposed to the conference which called for a general strike, one from the SWP and one from Workers Power. Workers Power proposed compositing them but the SWP wanted to keep them separate – so in the end both motions were put to the conference.

NUT National Executive member Alex Kenny was wheeled out to argue against the general strike. He said we needed some humility – “there is only 200 people in this room” – and to limit ourselves to support what the trade unions were already calling for. Of course, comrade Kenny: after all, only five trade union conferences have called for a one day general strike now, including your own!

Socialist Worker reported that at the NUT conference the entire national executive backed calls for a one day general strike – yet when Kenny comes to COR conference, less than three months later and after his own union has played a crucial role in the coordinated strike of  750,000 workers, the call has apparently become abstract and “lacking in perspective”.

Kenny claimed that no one had raised the call for a general strike at the TUC. Then why has he and the rest of the NUT leaders ignored their own conference decision? When Zita Holbourne spoke from the PCS and BARAC she explained her unions position – to organise a general strike, but from members of other unions with similar policy they are silent on it. There is clearly a conspiracy of sorts at the heart of COR and among the TUC leaders, both left and right, to prevent a general strike from happening.

Again and again the arguments were trotted out: the unions are too weak, the demos are too small, no one is calling for a general strike, etc. The message from the conference was clear – yes we can organise another national demo, but that is all. Of course if strikes happen then we will support them, but COR refuses to provide any genuine leadership in the anti-cuts movement.

Their starting point, as Andrew Burgin explained, was 26 March (not 30 June). Burgin quoted Hungarian Marxist Istvan Mesteroz who has said that these attacks are more serious than 1930s and could see every gain made since the Second World War destroyed. Therefore we needed to focus all our energies on… another national demonstration backed by the TUC! This is Stop the War Mark II: more protests and more demonstrations, build the confidence to fight the cuts but constantly tack to the right and prioritise alliances with “big figures” in the movement which means no criticism of the leaders of the trade unions. (It was significant that no mention was made of Len McCluskey or Bob Crow – so much for the backing of the left bureaucrats.

A common argument was that a call for a general strike will somehow interfere with the “work on the ground” of building the struggles against the pension cuts or job losses in different sectors. The image that the people who use this argument want to project is that those who are advocating the general strike simply run around everywhere, shouting, “General strike!” and are indifferent to the struggles taking place in the here and now.

I challenge these people to find one serious example where a group has downplayed or argued against the 30 June strike because it was limited only to pensions and not a general strike. Find me one example where the general strike has crowded out other immediate slogans or where the general strike has been counterposed to an actual dispute, leading to a division of forces. I make this challenge confidently because I know that the people who make this claim are doing so in bad faith – constructing a “bogey man” which they can easily knock down.

Around 25 delegates voted for the general strike resolutions. No doubt various people can be pleased with this result; after all, isn’t this a victory for common sense against supposed ultra-left posturing? No. What it shows is that the COR conference entirely failed to reach out to the new forces in struggle, the young teachers and civil servants, the postal workers moving into battle against privatisation, the journalists fighting job loses. All of these sectors of workers have called for a general strike at their union conferences, which represent far more people than COR does – if a significant number of them had come to COR then the vote would have been different.

Although the motivators of the general strike resolutions gave it a good go, the delegates had already made up their mind in advance – many of the people in that room will be arguing up and down the trade union movement against a general strike and for them COR is an essential vehicle for their perspective that all we need for the immediate future is just more demonstrations to “build confidence”.

A further move to the right

The conference also passed an emergency motion from the People’s Charter concerning the Bombardier job losses. The motion contained many supportable things, but was riddled with dangerous Stalinist popular frontism – including a call for reinvestment of profits in British industry and to limit export of investment capital. While it called for renationalisation of “essential industries”, it did not call for nationalisation of the industry that was making the cuts, i.e. manufacturing. This is the old Stalinist project of the popular front, appealing to British captains of industry to form a bloc with workers against the City of London.

The resolution contained dubious statements about the government’s “callous disregard for workers in Britain”. Although this reference was removed at the request of Dot Gibson, the resolution reeked of “British jobs for British workers”. Tellingly, there was no provision for contacting German trade unions and making common cause. The resolution was passed by a large majority; despite significant opposition, the “Trotskyists” of Socialist Resistance and Counterfire merrily swallowed this nonsense.

Even more bizzarely, a short resolution from Communist Students, which committed COR to a unity conference with other anti-cuts forces before the end of 2011, was defeated by an overwhelming majority. The steering committee’s argument boiled down to COR being busy with no time for such an initiative, and anyway it was unneccesary because there is already practical unity “on the ground”. Considering the need for unity was raised repeatedly throughout the conference, it is very revealing that the only motion which proposed concrete action around it was so roundly defeated. All talk of unity is just posturing (on all sides) until something more real emerges.

 

The future for COR

 

What conclusion can we draw from COR’s second conference? Unless there is a dramatic turnaround, it will not become a driving force in the anti cuts movement. It is consolidated as a project made up of those forces that want to limit the resistance in the current phase to protests and co-ordinated strikes, while handing out broadsheets with a mixture of socialist and Keynesian arguments.

Workers Power thinks that the entire perspective needs to be changed. We need a radical overhaul in the anti-cuts movement as no single group – neither Right to Work, COR nor the National Shop Stewards Network – represents a real united front of the forces fighting the cuts. On the contrary, they are in danger of becoming obstacles to one emerging. There is too much posturing, too much empire building by the various groups, too much division and an utterly unserious perspective to how we can actually win.

We reiterated what is needed, an All Britain Anti-Cuts Federation, uniting in committees of action the movement locally, regionally and nationally, with delegates from all groups and organisations involved. Alongside this, we need a rank and file movement in the unions and a campaign for a general strike as the strategic goal of our movement. We need an alternative leadership, an alternative centre of power, one that can organise the protests, strikes and occupations – with the labour movement leaders if possible, without them where necessary. Without this alternative leadership we cannot win.

It seems that COR does not want to become that alternative – it wants to act as an adjunct, a subordinate coordination of those forces which will uncritically support the left union leaders and MPs, consciously limiting the working class action to what is acceptable to these leaders, rather than what is necessary to win. COR can still play a vital role in this movement, it can act to unite the broader forces into an effective movement to fight the cuts and bring down the government.  We need to build the movement from below – supporting and initiating rank and file organisations, forging joint union committees and building active and powerful anti-cuts groups – and take the argument into the wider movement for the kind of anti-cuts alliance and the sort of tactics that can beat the government without fear or favour.

30 June strikes: This is just the start

  9 July

 by Viv Smith

The strike by public sector workers on Thursday of last week was a magnificent success.

Some 750,000 PCS, UCU, ATL and NUT members took part in the action—furious over the government’s attacks on their pensions, jobs and conditions.

Teachers, lecturers and civil service workers walked out. Council workers in Birmingham, Doncaster and Southampton struck too (see right).

In the run up to the strike the government and the right wing press portrayed strikers as greedy dinosaurs and a threat to the nation.

Government ministers Francis Maude and Michael Gove, backed by David Cameron, begged workers to break the strike.

But the strikers held firm in the face of a government and media onslaught and marched across towns and cities in their tens of thousands—from Truro in Cornwall to Dundee in Scotland.

It was a strike that resonated with millions under attack by this Tory government of thieves.

That is why the majority of people supported the strikes.

And that is why, the day after the strike, the government and right wing press suddenly changed their tune.

On Friday the Sun ran a tiny story at the bottom of the front page with the headline “Pension walkout is a flop.” They claimed that workers voted with their feet “and marched into work”.

The Daily Mail ran two pages quoting 10 Downing Street on the supposed low strike turnout.

But these are lies. The strike was massively effective.

Some 13,000 schools out of 21,000 were hit. Ben Morris, joint NUT branch secretary in Sheffield, told Socialist Worker, “People have poured into the union because of the strike.

“In one school membership went up from 17 to 36 before the strike. A school near the NUT office came in to join as a group.

“There were requests for seven new NUT banners from different schools—we’ve never had that.”

Claim

The government tried to claim that less than 100,000 civil servants struck. But the PCS union says that 84 percent of members walked out.

In London cops were pulled off the streets to answer the phones for 999 calls—because 192 out of 202 staff refused to come in to work.

Across the DWP the strike was 90 percent solid.

Revenue and Customs (HMRC) was hit hard. Some 85 percent of workers were off work—around 64,000 people, more than the total 57,000 PCS members in HMRC.

The PCS reports that their HMRC group recruited nearly 600 members before the strike, bringing new members to 1,755 this year.

Marianne Owens works at Cardiff Revenue and Customs. She told Socialist Worker, “Our car park normally has 2,000 cars, but there were only 40 today. The strike is solid. We had NUT members bring us solidarity.”

Even the courts ground to a halt. In Liverpool only five workers turned up, and two major trials had to be postponed. Six of the seven courts were closed at the Scottish Court Services in Dundee.

At airports, travellers described long queues because so few passport desks were open.

These examples show up the government spin.

And next time we can hit them even harder.

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk

Teachers and Civil Servants vote to strike

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PCS fights cuts to pensions, jobs and pay

15 June 2011

More than a quarter of a million civil and public servants today (15) joined teachers in voting for a strike over cuts to their pensions, as well as jobs and pay.

In a national ballot 61.1% of PCS's quarter of a million civil and public service members voted for a strike and 83.6% voted for other forms of industrial action, on a 32.4% turnout.

Meeting this afternoon, PCS's national executive committee confirmed the union will prepare for a strike on Thursday 30 June and will work with the National Union of Teachers, Association of Teachers and Lecturers and the University and College Union to co-ordinate any action.

Unless the government does an about-turn on its plans to force public sector workers to work longer and pay more for much less pension in retirement, this first joint strike will include 750,000 public servants. And there is also a very real prospect of hundreds of thousands more workers joining the dispute later in the year.

The union says the government's slash and burn approach to tackling the budget deficit will mean vital public services are axed, hundreds of thousands of public sector workers will be thrown out of work, and those that remain will have their pay and pensions cut.

Ministers have fixed the terms of negotiations over public sector pensions to seriously undermine the possibility of an agreement being reached. They also admit that money cut from pensions will go to the Treasury to help pay off the deficit, not into pension schemes, which the union says amounts to a tax on working in the public sector.

They have accepted Lord Hutton's proposals - which mean members of civil service pension schemes face a doubling or tripling of their contributions as well as having to work longer for less pension - and have ruled out any negotiations on their decision to use the CPI measure of inflation to uprate pensions instead of RPI.

The government is sticking to its proposals despite the National Audit Office, Lord Hutton himself and most recently the Commons public accounts committee confirming public sector pensions are affordable now and sustainable in future.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This result shows that public servants, who provide vital services from the cradle to the grave, will not stand back while everything they have ever worked for is taken from them.

"The government admits that money cut from pensions will go straight to the Treasury to help pay off the deficit in what is nothing more than a tax on working in the public sector. The very modest pay and pensions of public servants did not cause the recession, so they should not be blamed or punished for it.

"Unless ministers abandon their ideological plans to hollow out the public sector, they will face industrial action on a mass scale on 30 June and beyond."

Pension Ballot - Teachers vote 92% to strike

Today, (Tuesday 14 June), the NUT announced overwhelming endorsement by its members for strike action to defend teachers' pensions. In the NUT's strike ballot 92% voted in favour of strike action with a turnout of 40%

We will be campaigning alongside the ATL who have had similar strong results in their ballot of members.

The NUT executive will be meeting tomorrow to take the formal decision on a day of national strike action planned for 30 June.

The NUT believes that our pensions are fair and affordable. The Government wants teachers to pay more, work longer, and get less. They are pressing ahead with unnecessary reforms despite the changes already made to the Teachers' Pension Scheme in 2007.

The National Audit Office has confirmed that public sector pension costs are falling as expected due to the reforms already in place. Teachers are already paying more, the normal pension age has been raised to 65 for new entrants and employer contributions have been capped.

The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has also been highly critical of the Government's pension strategy which they say is based more on public perception of public sector pensions than on actual figures.

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers' union, said:

"The Government's unnecessary attack on public sector pensions has convinced NUT members that there is no alternative but to support strike action.

"It is disgraceful that the Government is pressing ahead with its reforms which will affect teachers' pensions. The Government knows that they are affordable. This is a policy which has nothing to do with economics and everything to do with politics.

"The NUT is party to the TUC negotiations with Government to protect public sector pensions. It is not too late for common sense to prevail and for these unnecessary changes to be stopped. It is in no one's interest to create a whole new swathe of people who are a burden on the taxpayer in old age.

"The NUT alongside TUC affiliated unions will do all we can to ensure fair pensions for all."

Don’t let the Tories off the hook!

http://www.labourbriefing.org.uk

After one year in office, May’s local and regional elections provided this Government’s first real test in the court of public opinion. While the results appear inconsistent, one clear theme emerges: the desire of voters to punish the Lib-Dems and hit the Government at its weakest link. In local elections, the Lib-Dems lost 747 council seats. Labour gained 857, nearly half of which were from the Conservatives – not a bad result, even if it was regionally uneven, with a disappointing failure to break through in the South. In Wales, where the Party has distanced itself from the morass of New Labour, it took half of the seats in the Assembly. However, Scotland was a disaster for Labour. The Guardian suggested the poor result underlines the importance of personality, with Labour’s Iain Gray failing to match the SNP’s presidential Alex Salmond. The truth is that the Scottish parliamentary election shows the importance of policy. Gray, a former advisor to Alistair Darling, failed to put forward a clear anti-cuts position – those Labour MSPs who did so bucked the trend. Clearly, Scottish voters made an assessment about which party would be most able to protect Scotland from the ravages of the Tory-led Westminster Government and concluded that the SNP could perform this role better. The contrast between Labour’s Scottish and Welsh showings dramatically underlines this. Voters also chose to punish the Lib-Dems in the AV referendum defeat. There was clearly little appetite for a system that is not remotely proportional and would benefit only the Lib-Dems, and there was an opportunity here to make that Party rethink what it was getting from a coalition with the Tories. The Lib-Dems have now paid a high price for propping up a government which is Conservative in all but name. Worryingly, it is the Conservatives who are boosted by these results. They gained 85 council seats at a time when they should have been taking a real beating for their policies of spending cuts and NHS privatisation. Within the Government, they are in a stronger position to face down any gestures the Lib-Dems make to appease their grassroots. The Government remains weak overall. It has U-turned repeatedly in the face of hostility to its right wing agenda, and within two weeks of May’s elections it was convulsed in “open warfare”, according to newspapers, over its stalled NHS reforms. There is huge scope here for Ed Miliband to press home his advantage. Instead, he has managed repeatedly to let Cameron and co off the hook. It was a tactical mistake for Miliband to be so closely associated with the AV campaign, although some believe it was a deliberate ploy not to destabilise the Government too much at this stage, as a Lib-Dem pullout could provoke a General Election which Labour is not prepared for. This is a hopeless strategy – we can’t afford another four years of cuts and attacks on the welfare state. In any case, Miliband’s fear that an early election would produce a majority Tory Government is simply not borne out by these election results. Labour’s front bench needs to be far more proactive in mobilising against the cuts. If the leadership declared that the private healthcare providers poised to bid for NHS services would lose their contracts the day a Labour Government was elected, there would be far fewer companies moving in for the kill. Miliband should also commit to cancelling Trident and pulling out of Afghanistan – popular policies on which there is no need to be invisible. It’s not just that Ed Miliband is playing a long game: he’s actively making concessions to the New Labourites he defeated for the leadership. His brother’s campaign manager, Jim Murphy, has been put in charge of a review of Scottish Labour following their dire results. Ed Miliband is also apparently looking to bring in Matthew Taylor, Blair’s former Head of Policy and Chief Advisor on Strategy, as the Party’s new General Secretary – a really retrograde step. Briefing argued after last year’s General Election defeat that the Party needed root and branch reform. The leadership seems to be retreating from this, just as it is avoiding giving a clear lead on policy alternatives. Above all, as workers go into industrial action in defence of our pensions, it is vital that Ed Miliband commits the Party to support them – and everyone else who is taking up the battle against the cuts and the erosion of our hard-won rights. Anything less would not only make it immeasurably easier for the Tories to implement their programme, it would set back the prospect for a future Labour victory.

Why Labour failed to pose an alternative to the SNP

By Ewan Gibbs and Patrick Orr (Glasgow North CLP and Glasgow Uni Occupation- personal capacity)

Wednesday, 11 May 2011       http://www.socialist.net

On Thursday history was made as the Scottish National Party, who only a decade ago seemed destined to play second fiddle to the Labour Party in Scottish politics, became the first party in the Scottish Parliament's twelve year history to form a single party majority. More importantly, for the first time there is a pro-independence majority in the Parliament, and consequently a referendum on whether Scotland should leave the United Kingdom will be held within the next five year term. The Labour Party's performance in terms of seats was very bad, in what the Party tops have long considered their safest stomping ground. Labour lost seven seats overall; more importantly it lost twenty constituencies, the figure being topped up by seats on the regional lists, which are designed to even out constituency gains and make the result more proportional. One after the other previously safe Labour seats in West and Central Scotland fell to grinning Nationalists. Needless to say the Scottish Labour leader, Iain Gray, had announced his resignation by the next day. Why the Nationalists won So does this mark an increasingly nationalist feeling amongst Scots, are they champing at the bit to get out of the Union? In short: no. Opinion polls consistently put support for independence at around 25-30% and there has been no major upswing to accompany the SNP's sweep to power. There is one single reason why the Nationalists won on May 5. They ran a campaign that was, both on paper and in style, to the left of Labour. However, Salmond is in no way an undercover socialist (he was an economist at RBS once), and there were clear signs of pro-big business political alignment in the SNP programme. Salmond was unashamed in promising a five year public sector pay-freeze, which is a cut, possibly a big one, in real terms with inflation as high as it is. The day after his victory he was demanding corporation tax powers for Edinburgh in order to “keep Scotland's economy competitive”, which can only be read as a cut in tax for big business. However, on the campaign trail it was a few key centre-left policies he was pushing: maintenance of free-prescriptions, no introduction of student contributions in higher education and investment in infrastructure to create jobs. The main concern of working class people in Scotland is the cuts. Scotland is very reliant on the public sector and, due to a deal Salmond struck with Cameron, the cuts have not yet fully hit the economy. Scottish workers sense a return to the dark days of Thatcher and voted for the party that talked most about investment and jobs. Labour did match some of the key SNP pledges, but only after the SNP had made them. They were playing catch-up the whole campaign. The Labour leadership completely misjudged the mood and tried to fight the SNP by standing to their right on law and order (promising an automatic six month jail sentence for those carrying knives) and by trying to whip up fears over independence. Most Scottish people know that you can vote for the SNP and then vote down separation at a subsequent referendum but there is only one chance to vote in a Scottish Government that might protect you from the worst of the cuts. They chose the Nationalists. The failure of “centre-ground” politics Results of elections on 5 May. SNP in yellow, Labour in red, Conservatives in blue and LibDem in orange.The result is a warning to those in the Labour Party who continue to claim that electoral success depends on “capturing the centre-ground”. In Scotland, during the most vicious Tory Government in generations, a Labour victory should have been guaranteed. Indeed, it looked like a Labour victory was a dead cert: opinion polls earlier this January put Labour on 49% of the constituency poll and 47% of the regional list. Yet Labour could only manage 31.7% and 26.3% at the ballot box last week, behind the nationalists on 45.4% in the constituency vote and 44% on the regional list. This reflected Labour’s woeful campaign where they stood more to “the centre” than the SNP and consequently lost resoundingly. If Labour had stood on a programme based on setting a budget refusing to implement cuts from Westminster by implementing a defiance budget they could have won a landslide victory. Instead Labour slumped to their lowest levels since the first devolved parliament elections in 1999. The fact is that the current Labour leadership were not willing to implement such a programme. Iain Gray would have pushed through the cuts of Cameron and Clegg for them, as will Alex Salmond. The Nationalists will have no alternative but to make cuts because the Scottish Government block grant has been cut in line with other British departments. Salmond has talked about building houses, infrastructure projects, investment in renewable energy sources etc., but he still hasn't told us how he's going to pay for them. He will be forced by necessity to make huge cuts, despite his promises during the election. Scotland's Constitutional Future The SNP victory throws Britain's constitutional future wide open. It was only in the last week of the campaign that an independence referendum was mentioned by the SNP and this was only to assure everyone that no bill would be brought forward until the second half of their term in office. Salmond's strategy has been to talk about independence as little as possible, and bide his time until further into the Tory-Lib Dem Westminster government, when there might be more of an appetite for independence. But despite his best efforts, the national question has reared its head, if only because of the SNP landslide. The Westminster government has said that it will not stand in the way of a referendum, and will allow the Scottish Government to set the question, probably knowing that any interference on their part would probably serve to make the idea of separation more popular. As socialists we cannot lose sight of the real issues at stake regarding the national question. Nationalism is a blind alley, particularly under the current conditions of crisis. The SNP have made it clear that they are willing to force Scotland into a race to the bottom through lowering corporation tax and before the crash in 2008 cited Scotland as potentially ranking alongside Ireland and Iceland in the so-called “Nordic arc of prosperity.” The Labour Party leadership has responded to the SNP with a defensive call not to break up the union, but this is not a meaningful alternative to workers and youth facing cuts to their living standards. Autonomy and the Labour Movement We support full economic powers for a Scottish parliament, not out of a romantic nationalist sentimentality but because these powers could be used by Labour to propose and implement socialist policies, around which it could mobilise the labour movement in both Scotland and Britain as a whole against the Tory government. In an age when big business is international, fighting struggles on national lines is limited. A Scottish Parliament, with full tax and spending powers, following a socialist economic policy would be a model to mobilise the whole British labour movement. There can be no socialist solution to this crisis in Scotland alone, as the big banks and corporations are based in London. We need to fight alongside our sisters and brothers south of the border, with an end goal of nationalising the City of London for the benefit of all the peoples of these islands. For a Socialist Programme in Scotland The Nationalists victory has made independence the issue of the day, and it should be answered as soon as possible. Whilst we are opposed to independence, we have always argued for an immediate referendum, as we believe the people of Scotland have the right to choose their constitutional future. A two question referendum must be called within the next year, the first question asking for full fiscal autonomy for the Scottish Parliament and the second on independence. If Labour was willing to campaign on these demands, and demonstrate how it would use extended financial powers to challenge Tory austerity, it could regain the trust it has lost through years of right-wing policies at Westminster and Holyrood. A socialist Scotland as a fighting example within the UK would be a serious challenge not just to the Tories, but to the whole capitalist system. An immediate referendum on Scotland's future with voters given the option of fiscal autonomy Full tax raising and spending powers for the Scottish Parliament Labour to fight on a socialist economic programme A socialist plan of job creation and investment to challenge the Tory cuts Nationalise the banks and big businesses based in London whose system causes misery for all the working people of Britain Fighting for a socialist federation of Britain

4.25pm: I'm going to wrap this blog up now. My colleague Amelia Gentleman will be filing a full news story shortly, which you will be able to read here. Many thanks for all your comments.