THE CLYDE WORKERS' COMMITTEE.

The following is a short extract from a recent article in "The Commune", you can read the full article HERE. 

SOLIDARITY.

"A week on, the feedback from the TUC demonstration seems broadly positive. To seasoned marchers, it might have seemed like just another trudge along Embankment – but for many it was their first demonstration, and the sheer weight of numbers carried some exhilaration with it.

And yet, we remember: eight years ago, on those same streets, there were twice the numbers, or more.  And what difference did it make? Labour ignored us, the war went ahead. And, if they can, the present government will ignore us in their turn. We know, if we are honest, that orderly demonstrations in central London will not stop the cuts. Such demonstrations pose no threat to the profit or power of the ruling class: and this, we know, is what makes the difference.

Our task now is to sharpen exhilaration with analysis, and ask: what will it really take to stop the cuts?"

 

      Glasgow, like most cities with an industrial history, has experience of workers taking control of industrial disputes by means of workers on the shop floor as opposed to allowing the union officials dictate the line of action. This principle was what gave The Clyde Workers' Committee, CWC, such strength and success. What started as The Labour Withholding Committee, LWC on Clydeside at the beginning of the first world war soon developed in to CWC as the workers realised that the only way that they could guarantee any sort of success was for the workers to dictate the direction and timing and all other aspects of any industrial action. Relying on the established unions with their top officials who are no more than another aspect of  industrial management was doomed to fail as compromise is the only game the know.

   

      In saying that, any battle to stop the cuts can only meet with temporary success as the system will inevitable claw any gains back again, at a later date. To end the cuts we have to end the system under which the cuts are deemed necessary. In other words, as long as we have capitalism, the workers will have to struggle to even maintain their standard of living. Under the present system, stopping the cuts this year, just means that there will be another "crisis" and the issue will have to be resolved again.

     

       The workers aims for a decent life free from the fear of deprivation, and the aims of the corporate world for ever increasing profits, are totally and utterly incompatible.

 

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NO MONEY FOR HEALTH - MONEY FOR DEATH.

       Since NATO took full command of the Libyan bloodshed, and that is approximately one week, it has carried out over 500 “sorties” (nice word that for “killing exercises”). Each missile fired costs between £700,000 and £850,000, while the running costs of the “sorties” varies from £30,000 to £70,000 depending on the planes involved. During all this devastating bombardment all we hear of is the casualties on the “rebels” side. If the Gaddafi forces can inflict this sort of carnage with small arms fire, tanks and field artillery, what sort of slaughter is the NATO deluge of weapons of mass destruction, doing to the Libyan people on the other side?

        At a time when the ordinary people of every country in the NATO alliance are suffering cuts to every fibre of the fabric of their society, because of the proclaimed lack of money, how can we still afford this massive outpouring of money for the purpose of killing Libyan people. Make no bones about it, all the talk of no-fly zones and protecting the rebel forces, is just double speak for war, slaughter and the destruction of a country's infrastructure. No matter the euphemisms trotted out in the media, this is death and mutilated bodies in large numbers and the largest number will be the result of the UN/NATO operation. Looking around the world at all the brutal dictators and their vicious oppression of their people, and our approach to them, prove to me that in this case, there was no other way!!!

 

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BETWEEN PEOPLE, BRING THE WALLS DOWN.

No need to write anything, David says it all with much more feeling than I could.



Although the wall is now a reality, a huge scar across the land, it doesn't mean we should ignore it. Walls keep people out, but they also keep people in, walls crumble, they can also be brought down.

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THE ANDREW LANSLEY RAP.

The NHS will last as long as there are enough people prepared to fight for it.



Our question is when do we really start to fight for the survival of the NHS? Tomorrow could be too late.

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DIRECT ACTION GETS THE GOODS!!!

     I always mention that we should know our history. We can learn a lot from the struggles of the past and what it teaches us, as far as the working class is concerned, is that it is the same struggle today as it was then. We struggle to get a decent standard of living against a class that wants it all for itself, without doing any of the work. We struggle against increasing prices, profiteering, and unemployment. Where we have won victories it is usually be direct action.

     One such victory was 200 years ago today, when a riot broke out because the price of butter had reach 2s.6p a pound. A group of workers including coal miners seized all the butter in their area and sold it at a price they considered fair and then returned all the money to the owners of the butter. Six of those involved were arrested and taken to Bridewell Prison.

SOLIDARITY.

     Perhaps there is a lesson there somewhere, direct action usually gets results. However the struggle for that decent standard of living will continue until we get rid of the system that allows profiteers and those with the wealth to continually exploit us for their selfish personal gain.

 

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WORLD'S BIGGEST WORKING CLASS MUSIC FESTIVAL,

3 weeks time the Working Class Life & Music Festival begins.

LET'S GET DOON THERE.

    The amazing 9 day programme of events makes the festival the largest celebration of working people on the planet.
Here's a taster of what's to come.

Fri 22nd - folk legend Leon Rosselson with support from Rich Mans Ruin, National Museums 800 Lives Exhibition at Radio Merseyside, Another Day In Liverpool photo exhibition.

Sat 23rd - Almanac's Radical City night at The Everyman Theatre, award winning actor Tayo Aluko's new show From Africa To The White House, Ken Loach's Navigators at The Casa featuring two of the actors in a Q&A, Kaya's Under The Influence, The Suitcase Ensemble's Railway Cabaret, Liverpool Music Barcamp for DIY musicians, The Leaving Of Liverpool at The Maritime Museum, AFC Liverpool v Eccleshall football match, Liverpool Socialist Singers flashmob workshop, and Metal's Edge Hill Archive Exhibition.

Sun 24th - A Night of Musical Comedy featuring award winning duo Jollyboat, Rathole Roadshow at The Zanzibar, Saturday Night Sunday Morning special screening at Crosby Plaza cinema, biographer Dave Harker on writer Robert Tressell, political historian Ron Noon on the 1911 Transport Strike.

Mon 25th - Great Stories' charming social documentary My Fifties Liverpool at FACT, Radical Rogues and Reformers Irish Heritage Walking Tour, Liverpool Socialist Singers workshop and fete, Philosophy in Pubs at The Crown host the first in a range of specially themed discussions, Mouth of the Mersey's Storytelling Club tell some working class tales at Studio 2.

Tue 26th - Acoustic Night at the Unity, The Radical Route Walking Tour of Liverpool's history as a city of protest, more musings from the Philosophy in Pubs gang at Keith's Wine Bar and The Victoria Hotel.

Wed 27th - Radio 4 poet Luke Wright at The Unity, Liverpool Socialist Singers in concert with Vinny T Spen and Claire Mooney, MESH Culture's Cool Kids at Tabac, Traditional Irish Ceili at St Michael's Irish Centre.

PEACE MAN.

Thu 28th - folk legend Roy Bailey at the Woody Guthrie Folk Club supported by local folk songwriter Alun Parry, more from Philosophy in Pubs at the Half Way House and The Vernon Arms.

Fri 29th - Michael Weston King at Liverpool Philharmonic, a community forum on art, culture and class at The Tate, a lecture on Robert Tressell by Stuart Borthwick, a traditional Irish music session at St. Michael's Irish Centre.

Sat 30th - Scottish folk star Dick Gaughan at the Liverpool Philharmonic, Rub A Dub Dub reggae night featuring We The Undersigned, News From Nowhere's 37th Birthday Party, the final match of the season as AFC Liverpool face AFC Blackpool in a promotion decider.

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HEALTH PROBLEMS = PROFIT??

       The pampered cabal of millionaire parasites that are governing us at the moment are pushing through rapid and massive changes to the NHS that will change it beyond all recognition, and not for the benefit of the ordinary people. The speed and scale of these changes is unprecedented and there will be winners and losers. The losers will be the millions of ordinary patients and the winners will be the corporate world of pharmaceutical giants and the corporate providers.

DID YOU VOTE FUR THIS?

      What these changes will do is open up the NHS to private profit, diverting tax payers cash from the NHS into the bank accounts of shareholders, money from the sick, I suppose you could call it, "sick money". Did you vote for this?

     The changes will result in longer waiting times for patients. With no cap on the amount hospitals can earn from private patients, NHS patients will keep sliding further down the queue. Did you vote for this?

     Under these proposals there will be a post code lottery. The care patients can expect will vary from place to place, creating health inequalities and hurting vulnerable people. Did you vote for this?

    Hospitals will have to compete for cash in the corporate world and those that fail as profit providers to that corporate world will die from lack of funding and will eventually have to close. Did you vote for this?

I STARTED TO INVEST IN THE SICK.

     To top it all most of the GP's in the NHS don't want this system to go ahead. They certainly didn't vote for this!!

     We are being governed by a group of pampered parasitical millionaires that have no mandate to carry out any of these changes. The vast majority of the people of this country did not vote for a Conservative government. I'm sure those that vote Liberal Democrat weren't voting for a Conservative government and although Labour looks like a Conservative party, its members did not vote for a conservative government. So who do they represent? Well their own class of course, the millionaires of the corporate world. Of all the changes introduced by this bunch of public school thugs, who stands to lose the most? You and I. Who will sail through this “deficit cutting”, “austerity cuts”, “recession”, “financial crisis”, totally unaware of unemployment, benefit cuts and inflation? Why the Cameron/Clegg club and their millionaire friends. Who stands to gain from these changes? Why the same millionaire's glee club, the corporate world.

What did you vote for??

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THE WORKING CLASS FESTIVAL.

 Help The Working Class Festival

         At a time when the ordinary people's culture and living standards are being savagely attacked we need more than ever to come together not just to celebrate our own culture but to regain that spirit of solidarity among all the ordinary people of this country. By coming together and hearing songs and poetry of the people's struggles, tragedies and victories we can find that common cause between us all. For this reason I feel strongly about Alun Parry's work in organising and running this WORKING CLASS FESTIVAL and would hope that such events will soon become common throughout the whole of the country. We the ordinary people have a culture, a history and if we come together we can have a future fit for all our children and our grandchildren. please support this Festival and perhaps, who knows, you might feel up to organising one in your own area. 

A MUSIC FESTIVAL--- THAT'S MAGIC.  

      The Working Class Life & Music Festival run by Alun Parry, starts next month in Liverpool. It has over 40 events and takes place right across Liverpool from 22nd April to 30th April. It is the largest celebration of working people on the planet.

      I’m urging supporters to join up as a Festival Champion to help spread the word. It’s really easy and only takes seconds to do each mission.

      If you believe in what the festival is doing, sign up as a champion too just by clicking this link

http://www.workingclassmusic.org.uk/get-involved/

http://www.parrysongs.co.uk/

P.S. Please do help the festival. It takes seconds and it's really needed and important. http://www.workingclassmusic.org.uk/get-involved/

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THIRD NATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST BENEFIT CUTS.

SPREAD THE WORD.

The 3rd National Day of Protest Against Benefit Cuts has been called for April 14th 2011.

      Millions are set to be affected by savage cuts to housing, disability, sickness and welfare benefits. People with disabilities, illness, the unemployed, single parents, carers the low waged, part time students, volunteers, homeless people and college students are all likely to see a devastating drop in disposable income sending people even further below the poverty line.

      The poorest and most vulnerable are being asked to pay for the mistakes and extravagances of the richest. Meanwhile poverty pimps like Atos Origin and A4e (they now operate in 10 different countries around the world.) are set to rake in hundreds of millions on government contracts to bully and intimidate people from claiming the pittance handed out in benefit payments. Many disabled people have threatened suicide if these cuts are allowed to continue. Some have tragically already carried out that threat.

     The first two days of protest against benefit cuts have seen demonstrations, meetings, unemployed discos, public pantomimes and occupations in cities across the UK. Atos Origin have been forced to close offices, protesters have gathered inside and outside workfare sharks A4e and demonstrations have taken place from Downing Street to local town centres such as Lydney and Crawley.

       We still have three more weeks to organise for the biggest day yet. We call on all claimants, as groups or individuals, to organise and take action around the country on April 14th.

WE HIV' TAE DAE SUMTHIN'.

       If you are planning an event in your town or city please add details in the comments below to be added to this page and the facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=164277070288955

http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/

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STUDENTS DIRECT ACTION.

By fleabite, submitted on Fri, 25/03/2011

      On Tuesday university security and approximately 80 police, including a canine unit, police horses and a police helicopter circling overhead from about 10am evicted us from the Hetherington in a heavy handed operation lasting several hours. Those of us that were not inside at the time resisted by sitting down in front of the doors and blocking the entrance in. Many of us sustained injuries including concussion caused by a security guard hitting an occupiers head off a wall and floor, several shoulder dislocations and many cuts and bruises. So far there have been 3 arrests as well.

       After the final occupier was carried out by several police, we marched on the main University building and approx 100 of us occupied the Senate rooms – the incredibly plush suite of rooms where the senior university management is based and where they host their meetings and events.

      After several hours the senior management team came and finally agreed to have the mass meeting we’ve been requesting of them for weeks! Escalating tactics clearly works!At that point access to the building was also restricted which meant that the folks who had gone to get food and, inevitably, coffee weren’t able to come back in. Donation from others who showed their solidarity in all sorts of wonderful ways including some yummy roasted vegetable pizzas (thank you whoever you are!) were not being allowed in. However we had a very cunning plan. Tying together the tablecloths that no senate room would be the same without, within the hour we brought all the food up and were able to hand out fresh, hot pizza in front of the management who had banned access to the building. They then agreed that those who had been involved earlier should be allowed back in as it was undemocratic that decisions were being made without them.Also at this time David Rovics appeared.  So immediately following the meeting with management we set up chairs in the biggest room and enjoyed a gig.About an hour into the gig, which included us going out onto the balcony so that those stuck outside could be a part of it, word came that management were offering us the Hetherington back, in return for us vacating the Senate rooms.  Direct action gets results!

       We had a meeting to decide what to do and agreed to return to the Hetherington, but that before we would leave Senate we wanted a delegation to be inside the Hetherington so that we could be sure it wasn’t a trick. We also wanted the water and electricity checked out as both had been turned off after the eviction. Finally the phone call came through and singing and chanting we left the Senate rooms and returned to the Refreed Hetherington to watch Jack give a fantastic performance on Newsnight Scotland

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THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT???

      With all the nuclear plants around the world and what is happening at the moment in Fukushima, Japan, I can't help but feel that as far as this planet is concerned,--The future is bright.

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WORKERS KNOW YOUR HISTORY - SINGERS STRIKE 1911.

  
      This March marks the hundredth anniversary of one of the West of Scotland's many bitter strikes. It was in 1911 that the management of the Singer Sewing Machine factory in Clydebank, known for its harsh working conditions and its anti-union policies, decided to sack some women workers and then demand that another group of women workers take on the extra work at no extra remuneration. The women refused and on 21 March 1911, there was a walk out and strike. You can read about the Singer 1911 strike HERE.

      In today's climate of cuts, pay freezes and rising unemployment we could do well to remember the women of the Singer factory who said, “enough is enough” and took direct action. The more you accept in cuts and hard conditions the more you will have to accept. You have to draw the line somewhere or continually see your conditions worsen. We have certainly reached the stage of “enough is enough”, so what will be our direct action?

SOLIDARITY.

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PAYING FOR THE WAR WITH NURSES AND TEACHERS!!!!

    
       Some updates on the financial cost of Cameron's Libyan caper, it seems that every Prime Minister needs a war. These figures are from defence analyst Francis Tusa's estimate gathered from Parliamentary Questions.

      The four RAF Tornado GR4s now based in Italy. Running costs are £35,000 an hour, once they are in the air. The Tornados fired Storm Shadow and possibly Brimstone missiles during their first two sorties, but the MoD won't say how many they used. Each missile costs £750,000 to £800,000.
      The 10 Typhoon fighters also in Italy, more expensive because they are new. The cost to fly them is thought to be £70,000 an hour, though that may reduce to £40,000 an hour the longer the operation goes on.
       The Trafalgar-class submarine HMS Triumph, which has been in the Mediterranean for more than a week. It has been firing Tomahawk cruise missiles at Gaddafi's air defence systems. Running a submarine costs up to £200,000 a day. Its cruise missiles cost £500,000 each.
      The navy's two frigates in the Mediterranean – HMS Cumberland and HMS Westminster. Running costs about £90,000 a day. HMS Cumberland was diverted to Libya on its journey home to be scrapped, so every day it is there is above and beyond budget.

     
       That's a lot of teachers and nurses and it will not stop the Libyans from killing Libyans, which can be added to those that are being killed and maimed by the compassionate West's weapons of mass destruction. I know that we are not getting figures of casualties, "collateral damage" but it is inconceivable that such weapons can be rained down on a large city, (Tripoli, population 1,065,405 (2006 census) night after night and the people are unscathed. But doesn't the West always fights clean wars, we never kill civilians, only combatants. Remember "Shock-and-Awe" in Iraq and the following slaughter across that country including Fallujah December 23, 2004?
      Forty odd years of us supplying Qaddafi with hi-tec weapons of mass destruction and then going in with ours to knock his out. No doubt after this is all over we will have to re-arm Libya, now that is good business.

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THE HEAVY HAND OF AUTHORITY.

SPREAD THE WORD.

      Hundreds of students are currently occupying the senate rooms of Glasgow University in an ongoing protest against the cuts both at the university and nationally.Earlier today the occupiers were, without warning, forcibly evicted from the Free Hetherington which had been held by students and staff since 1st February, making it the longest running anti cuts student occupation in the UK. Approximately 80 police, canine units and a helicopter were involved in what has been described by witnesses as a heavy handed response to the occupation.

        Immediately following the eviction from the building several hundred then marched from the Hetherington to the main Glasgow University building and at 2:15pm entered the Senate building where they

currently remain.

SOLIDARITY.

        A first year Glasgow University student, says “I was dragged out of the Free Hetherington by three police officers. It was completely disproportionate. All we were doing was protesting against cuts at

our university”

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THE HAND OF HYPOCRISY.

     

      As Western Cruise missiles blast holes in Libya's infrastructure, killing Libyans to save Libyans, and possibly laying the ground work for a civil war, nobody is saying where they go from here. How long will the no-fly zone last, don't know. What do we do if the Libyans killing Libyans drags on in a long stalemate, do we send in the Western cavalry to take sides and give one side a wee push, more or less guaranteeing a prolonged civil war and possible occupation. Just to keep the peace mind you. As in Iraq and Afghanistan, the moral policemen are up to the necks in shit. The idea that this will be a nice clean surgical operation with all of Libya being ever thankful to the West is an illusion. We have been “policing” Iraq since 1991 and Afghanistan since 2001. When does our involvement in Libya end and at what cost? Not counting the Libyan deaths and injured, there is already one American plane down with one pilot missing, and we have just started.

        Setting aside the human horror of what is happening in Libya and casting a glance at the financial side, there must be questions. Each time a Tornado jet runs a sortie it takes approximately £30,000 of fuel. How many have we run so far? If a Tornado is brought down there is the £50 million cost of a replacement. Each cruise missile that is fired cost £500,000. There have been more than 110 cruise missiles fired so far. A quick calculation comes up with £55 million already up in smoke and misery from cruise missiles alone, with the arms industry rubbing its hands at the thought of all those being replaced. I don't know what proportion of those cruise missiles were fire by the UK but I reckon that we would fire our fair share. Then of course we have our submarines out there in the Med. and I have no doubt our boys wanted a shot at firing their gear off, I wonder what it cost to send a sub to the Med. and then fire off a few £500,000 missiles? While this little pygmy war is being played out in Libya, let's not forget our long running and on going £4 billion a year affair in Afghanistan.

       I know you can't put a price on human life but at a time when we in the UK are being faced with draconian cuts to every fibre of the social structure of our society, wage cuts and mass unemployment, is this the right policy. Can we in the UK really afford to strut around the world bombing democracy into other countries? When we look at the figures of death and misery resulting from our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan can Libya be justified?

       Meanwhile in nearby Yemen and Bahrain protesters are being brutally crushed but no call for a no-fly zone. Well Bahrain is really a US naval base, which is very handy to have so near all that oil, and Bahrain is also on best buddy terms with that other autocratic despot regime, Saudi Arabia. So we don't want to upset that little power structure do we? Then of course no call for a no-fly zone over Israel while it carried out its policy of genocide in Gaza 2008/09

 

      It's all hypocrisy and is really about oil, resources and power, the Western powers have proved often enough that when it comes to the people of the Middle East and Africa, they don't give a shit.

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PLAYING FAVOURITES!!!

    The absolute monarch of Bahrain, King Hamad, violently crushes peaceful protesters, in the process dozens are killed and he claims that a foreign plot has been crushed. Across the way, Qaddafi claims that the protesters are a foreign plot and starts to crush them violently. In the first case the West nods approvingly, and in the second, it starts to bomb the shit out of the country. Could it be that the Western imperialist powers are playing favourites? To the Western powers are the protesters in Libya worth more than the protesters in Bahrain? We can stand by and watch one group being brutally crushed but must run in and save the second group. Though the saving may leave their country torn asunder and could lead to civil war for some years to come. Of course that would be fine by the West, it could set up a puppet government and take control of the oil, just like Iraq. Am I being a little too cynical?

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