May 2012 Local Election Organising Meeting!

In the run up to the 2012 local elections we will be holding a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) organising meeting to coordinate the campaign.

Roth. TUSC 2012 Organising Meeting Leaflet

TUSC election conference

A TUSC conference open to all supporters of TUSC, candidates and agents, and those still considering whether to stand in the local elections on 3 May 2012.

Saturday 28 January 2012, 11:00am – 4:00pm, University of London Union, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HY

The conference will be divided into two sections:

How can local councillors fight the cuts? To answer the many questions that are continually raised around this issue and as an introduction to the draft policy platform

Organising an election campaign. To give some guidance to the prospective candidates and/or their agents

Please let us know if you are planning to come by sending an email to: tuscbulletin@yahoo.co.uk

If you have already selected where you are going to stand candidates please let us know, or do so when you decide, so that we can build a national picture of our electoral challenge.

The conference will also debate and vote on the draft policy document set out on the TUSC website - PLEASE CLICK HERE.

South Yorkshire Stagecoach bus drivers take eighth day of strike action.

As South Yorkshire Stagecoach bus drivers took their eighth day of strike action SP members visited the picket line. Article by Alistair Tice.

Stagecoach busdrivers in Barnsley and Rotherham, members of the Unite trade union, took their eight day of strike action on Monday 16th January in pursuit of their pay claim for £9.50/hour.

Boosted by a branch members ballot which had overwhelming rejected the company offer by 206 votes to 89, pickets at the Rawmarsh depot were in determined mood. One steward said that he had spent 16 hours on the picket line last time, put newspapers down his trousers and mustard powder around his toes to keep warm in the freezing temperatures!

Drivers were on £8-57/hour and had a 2% rise imposed, taking them to £8-74.

The ‘offer’ was £9-05/hour but with no back-pay (due from April 2011) and no further rise until 2013, in other words a two year pay deal, with many strings attached.

How far Stagecoach South Yorkshire pay has fallen behind other bus drivers was illustrated by three Arriva bus union reps on the picket line in solidarity - they are on £11-43/hour.

The Barnsley and Rotherham drivers have been taking strike action since November but Stagecoach is bussing in supervisors and managers from all around the country who are prepared to take the “boss’s shilling”. The result is the depot is able to get out about 60% of the services.

But at what cost? The pickets have seen a pay slip showing up to £155 bonuses per day for strike breakers on top of their wage. Hotel and travel is also paid. So the strikers are not disheartened because Stagecoach can’t keep this up as its more expensive than paying the drivers and they clearly can afford to pay the increase they are seeking!

Messages of support should be emailed to Barnsley Unite branch secretary Tony Rushforth at a-rushforth@sky.com Cheques should be made payable to Unite, 8-9/9 Barnsley and sent to A Rushforth, 45 Tune Street, Wombwell, Barnsley S73 8PX

What’s the Alternative to Capitalism?

An article by Iain Dalton - from Leeds branch of the Socialist Party - discussing the "ever greater questioning of the current way society is organised".

As the Occupy movements signify, there is an ever greater questioning of the current way society is organised, with many questions the capitalist economic system itself. For socialists, it is incredibly encouraging to see wide layers of people criticising the current economic system, but one feature of the present questioning of capitalism, is confusion and a lack of any definitive alternative. Therefore all sorts of ideas are being thrown up and seized upon by people eager to find a way out of the current economic impasse. Yesterday the Yorkshire Evening Post (YEP) published an article ‘Is the golden age of capitalism over?’, which discuss this and raises some alternative views, in particular steady-state economics.

The main thrust of steady-state economics is that rather than aiming for growth within an economy in terms of production of resources, people should be content with maintaining what already exists, or as the article puts it “instead of continually accumulating more things, we would have to be content with what we have – we would be encouraged to fix things instead of buying new, to grow our own vegetables or buy locally produced ones”.

This questioning of the need for growth, is something that is common to many of the people taking part in the occupy movement. For many it is synonimous with environmental destruction, wastage and greed and as one of the interviewees in the article explains “the economy simply cannot grow forever on a planet which has finite resources and we can see that happening right now with the price of oil”.

For socialists, the question of growth has to be related to the needs of people, the very essence of socialism relies upon the democratic planning of the economy to ensure the production and distribution of the resources that are required by people to live a full life. But to take a glance at the consumption levels for most people even in the advanced capitalist countries such as the UK, reveals the high levels of poverty currently existing, let alone the neo-colonial world. For the majority of people “most of us changing to a more modest lifestyle” (ie a majority, not simply the super-rich 1%), would simply not be viable and is an attempt to turn back the clock of development.

Critics of socialism often accuse socialists of wanting to level down everyone’s income in such a manner, but as is pointed out “The idea with the steady state economy is to accept we have this low level of growth and that we are happy with it and to figure out how we live within that. It sounds like socialism but it’s not.” Or as another interviewee comments “A steady state economy is simply another version of capitalism".

But is such a steady-state even possible under capitalism?

...

Please click here for the full article.

What have we been up to?

In December we produced this leaflet to review what the SP Roth branch did in 2011 and to begin building the campaign for the local elections in early May 2012! Election 2012 Leaflet Decmber2011

Name the day of the next strike!!!

PCS Left Unity is organising a 'organising conference' early in 2012 to put pressure on the TUC to stop the pensions sell-out!

PCS Left Unity National Committee

DEFEND PENSIONS - ESCALATE ACTION

NAME DAY FOR NATIONAL STRIKE

Organising Conference Saturday: Friends Meeting House

(opp. Euston Station) 7th January 2012 11am – 4pm

Chair: Janice Godrich PCS President

Speaker: Mark Serwotka PCS General Secretary

(other speakers to be announced)

November 30th was the biggest show of strength from Britain’s trade unions in living memory. It shook the coalition government and provided a firm foundation for the escalation of industrial action to defeat the unjustified attack on pensions and to challenge the coalition’s pay freeze, cuts and privatisation programme.

At the TUC’s Public Sector Liaison Group Mark Serwotka on behalf of PCS argued the TUC should set the date for a further day of nationally coordinated strike action to bring the government into serious negotiations. Although there was some support for this position the TUC general secretary Brendan Barber argued that all the unions should sign up to a so-called “Heads of Agreement”, this means the core issues, on which we took action, working longer, paying more and getting less, are surrendered, just  as the government have wanted. Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison, argued for acceptance of this “deal”.

It is almost beyond belief that when the confidence of the movement is at its highest point in decades as a result of November 30th and with an additional 100,000 recruits due to the action such an abject surrender is being considered. Now is the time to set the date, as early as possible in 2012, preferably January, for a further day of nationally coordinated industrial action which can be escalated by bringing even more unions on board including workers, like those in Unilever, fighting to defend private sector pensions.  

The PCS Left Unity National Committee invites all activists from all unions to an organising conference on the 7th of January to debate how we can build the campaign to defend our pensions and fight the cuts and prevent any unacceptable “deal” that makes us work longer, pay more and get less.

This will be an organising conference, not just a debating forum. It is intended to arm activists with the issues so they can go back to their workplaces and into their unions in order to build a campaign that will secure justice on pensions.

To cover costs there will be a registration fee of £5 for waged delegates.

FAIR PENSIONS FOR ALL - STOP THE CUTS - NO PRIVATISATION

Sheffield Nov30 pics: Matt Holmes via IndyMedia Sheffield All photos by Matt Holmes. Originally posted on IndyMedia Sheffield.