by MARk o’NeiLL

WORKING PEOPLE inBritain are suffering thesharpest decline in real

wages since the Victorian days. The TUC reports that we would

have to go back to the mid 19thcentury for a pay squeeze as deepand prolonged as this one. Forseven years wages have fallen asprofits have soared. Wages havetaken an 8 per cent hit since 2007but corporate profits and fat catincomes have risen tounprecedented heights.

In 1998, bosses received 45 timesthe average pay. Now they paythemselves 185 times the averagepay. In other words they makemore in a day and a half than whatmost people earn in 12 months!

Today one in five people earn lessthan the living wage, and for thefirst time ever we have morepeople in work below the povertyline than the number of peopleunemployed! 

It’s increasingly clear that it’s notthe work simply of Tory politicians,but a continuing offensive by themillionaire class against so-called“ordinary people” – the 90% of thepopulation that is the workingclass. Now the attack is intensifiedby that tiny but all-powerfulcapitalist class – out of necessity!

though the slogan ‘Austerity isn’tworking’ is still carelessly used, it’s nowwidely recognised that the political intentof capitalism is to drive down wages andpensions, boost profits, privatise publiclyowned services and industries for privateinvestment and profit, reduce high-earners’ and corporate taxation, andweaken and undermine trade unionorganisation. in the light of its economiccrisis, all these are necessities forcapitalism. it all hangs together doesn’t it?

tory politicians have becomeincreasingly bold in asserting that‘austerity is here to stay’ – furtheremboldened by the quiescence of theLabour’s ‘balls Up’ leadership and itsslavish adherence to neoliberal policies.

Across europe, the european Unionbrings big business and the financeindustry together to impose austerity aspart of the troika of european Centralbank, european Commission andinternational Monetary fund.

the capitalists of europe love their eUclub, directing its work, and allowing theirtame politicians to hide behind its skirtswhen it suits them. Dirty deals are beinghatched between the eU and UsA andothers – such as the transatlantic tradeand investment Partnership (ttiP). theyaim to enforce austerity and privatisationthrough international law, to make publicownership unlawful and punishable.

Austerity IS working in theinterest of the capitalist class.

but the trade Unions are now

recognising the necessity to coordinateour struggles against the same enemy…and are organising to find ways to activelyengage members in both the day to dayand longer term fightback, neverforgetting that strong organisation in theworkplace is the foundation of allsuccessful struggle. it’s a challenge formany unions – used to fighting their ownfights in isolation from others – but co-ordination is more necessary now than itever was. there can be no individualindustrial dispute solutions to ageneralised political attack!

And the unions are reaching out too tonew forms of ‘social movement tradeunionism’ – enthusiastically embracing thePeople’s Assembly and its People’sCharter, strongly endorsed by the wholetrades Union Congress in september aspart of a very radical agenda.

from the 4000 strong foundingConference of the People’s Assembly inJune 2013, through the establishment ofover 100 local Assemblies, its democraticconferences and national committee, its50,000 strong demonstration, and itspositive joint work with the tUC, thePeople’s Assembly has continued to growand strengthen – and the CommunistParty is proud to be amongst its founders,and active at all levels of its work.

Now the Assembly is to publish a‘People’s Manifesto’ firmly based on thePeople’s Charter in the run up to theGeneral election - a General election thatneeds to show a resolve to defeat the

tories with the only possible alternative, aLabour victory… and then continuingresolve to stop any government that seeksto impose continuing austerity andprivatisation. No election will finallydeliver us from it – we need to deliverourselves!

the ‘People’s Manifesto’ will be achallenge to all candidates… and voters.More than that – it will be a challenge, aninvitation and an exhortation toeVeRyoNe to get involved to build a realsocial movement deeply rooted incommunities and trade unionmemberships, with organised workers atits heart and head. Nothing less will do infacing up to the ruling class attack.

What will you do in the class war?We need to ask friends, families,neighbours, workmates – everyonewhose huge combined, collective strengthcan defeat the tiny capitalist class and itsgovernments. Class war doesn’t end in adraw. We have to win, not just protest. ifwe lose, the situation will get even worseas a result of our defeat. things don’t juststand still.

What will our movement need to win?A sustained programme of resistanceshown through increasingly generalisedstrike action supported by communities,themselves refusing to bow down to theattacks but organising daily against them…to win, not just protest. We’ve a long wayto go – but it can and must be done.

And as we do it, we’ll see a growingrecognition that we have to go beyondfighting just the symptoms of capitalism toget rid of the whole rotten, divisive, crisis-ridden, corrupt, exploitative, dog-eat-dog,war-mongering system itself. that’s whyyou need to find out more about theCommunist Party! We look forward tohearing from you… H

MARk o’NeiLL is

CoNVeNoR of the

CoMMUNist PARty

ANti AUsteRity

CoMMissioN

Unity!DoesLabourreallyintend to winthe nextelection? by RobeRt GRiffiths

THE QUESTON arisesbecause of Labour’s feebleresponse to the issues facing

the people of Britain. Cynicalvoices suggest that it might bebetter to let the Tories deal with aresurgent economic and financialcrisis after May 2015 until the crisispasses.

this would betray the hopes andinterests of the workers and peoples ofbritain. Labour cannot abdicate itsresponsibility to govern in their interests.

the problem is that it would fail to doso unless it radically changes its policies.tories crow about britain’s economic‘recovery’, we still have more than twomillion unemployed (over 6 per cent ofthe workforce), half of them youngpeople (17 per cent).

it means nothing when we are toldmonthly by the monopoly media that‘more people are employed than everbefore’. britain’s population andworkforce have increased almost everyyear since the 1350 black Death.

We have more low-paid, part-time orprecarious jobs than ever before.

What’s needed now is a massiveprogramme of public and private sectorinvestment in public services, housing,green technology and manufacturing.

that means taxing the rich and bigbusiness, closing down tax havens aroundthe world under british jurisdiction anddirecting private capital to where it ismost needed.

yet Labour threatens ‘austerity-lite’continuing the ConDem drive againstpublic services, workers and the poor.

While Labour’s pledge to reintroduce a50p top rate of income tax is welcome, amodest Wealth tax on the very richwould wipe out britain’s public spendingdeficit overnight.

Repealing the bedroom tax would enda nasty assault on the unemployed anddisabled. Allowing councils to use theproceeds of council house sales to buildnew homes would be a step forward. butbritain’s housing crisis cries out for a waveof public sector housebuilding, backed upby training programmes to help createmillions of new jobs.

Cancelling plans to renew britain’snuclear weapons system would free up to£100 billion for useful investment.

the two eds, Miliband and balls, witteron about a ‘cost of living crisis’. yet theyrefuse to control the costs of food andclothing while the retail monopolies pileup the profits. Nor will they commit thenext Labour government to a substantialrise in the statutory minimum wage orcompulsory equal pay audits in the privateas well as the public sector.

continued on back page

AUSTERITY ISWORKING. . . for the capitalist class

www.communist-party.org.uk18 October 2014

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by ANitA hALPiN

oCtobeR RALLies in citiesacross europe saw thousandsopposing the european

Union/Us transatlantic trade andinvestment Partnership (ttiP).

hundreds of thousands of people havesigned up to a petition demanding an endto the ttiP negotiations while more than520,000 people have now added theirnames to the european Citizens initiative’scall for a ban on the ttiP.

ostensibly the aim of ttiP is tostimulate trade by removing tariffsbetween the eU and the UsA but theseare already very low. the main aim is, toremove regulatory ‘barriers’ which restrictthe potential profits to be made bytransnational big business. by ‘barriers’ ismeant environmental regulations, rights atwork, food safety laws, controls on toxicchemicals, digital privacy laws and evenbanking safeguards introduced to preventa rerun of the 2008 crisis.

Lowering regulatory standards to thelowest level goes hand in hand with the

aim of exploiting new markets in publicservices, health and education and ingovernment spending and procurement.

ttiP includes a new ‘investor-statedispute settlement’ machinery that wouldallow corporations to subvert any chanceof democratic policy making by giving bigbusiness a new power to sue nationsbefore transnational tribunals for loss ofprofits. so big business trumpsdemocratically elected governments!

the ConDem government is desperateto deflect attention away from the newthreat ttiP poses for our Nhs and stateeducation.

the Maastricht treaty of 1992 openedthe door to big business to capture publicservices and utilities in a privatisationscramble that has left millions ofeuropeans with mounting energy bills,failing public services and soar-away fares.

the free fire zone for big business andthe banks has given us an unemploymentcrisis while youth unemployment tops 60per cent and millions of women aredriven out of the jobs market or sufferforced part time working.

ttiP dovetails with the single european

Act which has pawned directivesrequiring member states to:H end the public ownership of basicutilities, transport, postal services,communications, energy and banks;H end ‘state aid’ for industry;H introduce compulsory competitivetendering in the public sector; H end council direct labour schemes; H introduce private pension schemes.

the devastating effects of thesedirectives are a stark reminder of exactlyhow much power the eU has to dictatedomestic policy to member states.

the eU’s mandatory deficit reductiontargets – implemented by osbourne andunchallenged by labour are stifling growthand decimating public services.

ed balls-up remains wedded to thistransatlantic orthodoxy and unless the

joint Labour/ConDemconsensus is endedthere will be no end toausterity. H

ANitA hALPiN is the

CoMMUNist PARty’stRADe UNioN oRGANiseR

continued from page one

Britain needs a pay riseWorkers in the public and private sectors,together with the unemployed,pensioners, students, carers and peoplewith disabilities all need a substantial risein incomes to boost economic demand -instead of building a castle of sand basedon house price inflation, household debtand yet more subsidies to the banksthrough ‘Quantitative easing’.

Labour’s proposals to freeze householdenergy charges will bring only partial andtemporary relief, even prompting the bigsix monopolies to get their price rises inearly from the end of 2012.

britain managed to expand andmodernise our gas, electricity and waterindustries without parasitical privatedirectors and shareholders for fivedecades from the 1940s. Who needsthem now? Public ownership would be avote winner.

A massive investment programme innon-nuclear renewable energy, gasstorage and a national water grid wouldcreate long term energy security andcreate more than a million jobs.

furthermore, instead of subsidisingbritain’s rail bosses so that shareholderscan receive fat dividends, the wholeindustry should be taken back into publicownership. instead of tinkering with the

franchise system, the next Labourgovernment should legislate to shortenthe franchises and then renationalise eachsection for free as these expire.

What a vote winner that would beamong the million of rail passengers whopay the highest fares in europe for one ofthe worst services!

then there is the distorting dominationof our economy by the spivs, crooks andgamblers of the City of London. A Labourgovernment should extend publicownership and control into the banks andmarkets and channel their funds into lowinterest investment in new houses andsustainable productive industry.

however, the prospects for Labourchanging course and winning the Generalelection on May 8 are poor.

Miliband’s leadership has not clearlybroken from blair-brown neoliberaleconomics and Us-NAto militarism.

the failure to confront the eU, which isdriving austerity and privatisation acrosseurope and destabilising the former sovietrepublics, is handing a gift to UkiP whichopposes the eU from the right whenLabour should be doing it from the left. itis not surprising that some peopleswallow the 'easy answers' being offeredby UkiP to real problems ofunemployment, poverty, poor housingand underfunded public services includingthe Nhs.

this summer’s Labour NeC elections

produced some welcome gains for the leftbut the special Conference reforms willentrench centralised diktat and furtherweaken the links with the trade unions,perhaps fatally.

in this context, the proposals to form atrade union party, linked to Labour atleast for the time being, are worthy ofserious consideration.

in the meantime, we need the tradeunions, the People’s Assembly and thepeace and other progressive movementsto campaign together against austerity,privatisation and war, in favour of the kindof policies set out in the People's Charter.

on every front, the prospects forsuccess would be stronger if we had more

readers for the Morning star and moremembers for the Communist Party.

the labour movement needs a militantparty active on every front, based onMarxism, rooted in the working class, partof an international movement and with itsown programme for revolutionarychange, namely britain's Road tosocialism. if you agree, join us! H

RobeRt GRiffiths is

GeNeRAL seCRetARy of

the CoMMUNist PARty

I want to join the Communist Party/Young Communist League

name

address

post code

age if under 28 email

return to Communist Party Ruskin House 23 Coombe Road Croydon CR0 1BD e mail office@communist-party.org.uk or call 02086861659 H 18 October demo

Join Britain’s revolutionary party of working class power and liberation

nFree fromManifestoPress

Building an economy for thepeople An alternativeeconomic and political strategyfor 21st Century britainContributors include Mark Baimbridge;Brian Burkitt; Mary Davis; John Foster;Marjorie Mayo; Jonathan Michie; SeumasMilne; Andrew Murray; Roger Seifert; Prem Sikka; and Philip Whymango to www.manifestopress.org.uk

Transatlantic threat

TTIP explained http://tinyurl.com/mdde57g

THOUSANDS OF youngpeople are being forced intopart-time, casual work,

where they have few rights andwhere trade unions are finding itdifficult to reach them.

Youth unemployment is stillrunning at 18.5%, with many youngpeople forced to face unfairsanctions and benefit suspensions.

According to the Prince’s Trust,one in three young people havecontemplated suicide due to beingout of work.

There is no recovery for the 2.16million people out of work, norecovery for the near millionpeople who have been referred tothe food banks this year, and norecovery for those forced toendure unending wage freezes.

As a movement we need tothink seriously about how to maketrade unions relevant to youngpeople, and how we are going toaccess them in the increasinglyprecarious, low paid and casualisedlabour market.

The future of trade unions relieson young members coming

through so that we can makedemands of our employers, inorder to improve our employmentcontracts with collectivebargaining agreements which willhelp make Britain a better, moreequal society, halting austerity.

To do this the movement needsto be targeting young people andthe places they work ensuring theyknow what unions can do forthem.

The Young Communist Leagueseeks a revolutionarytransformation of society, an endto poverty, unemployment,exploitation and oppression andtherefore and end to capitalism.Communists want a society thatcan guarantee full equality. H

Zoe heNNessy is

GeNeRAL seCRetARy of

the yoUNG CoMMUNist

LeAGUe

www.yclbritain.wordpress.com

WHETHER YOU are a first timedemonstrator or a veteranmarcher I hope you enjoy readingthis weekend’s Morning Star.

In these days of monopoly mediaownership its easy to forget thatthere is one daily paper owned byits readers; you too can become anewspaper owner!

Even more important though, isto buy and read the paper dailyeither by getting it at your localretailer or purchasing our e-edition by visiting the websitemorningstaronline.co.uk.

If you like a Star article don'tkeep it to yourself, pass it on viafacebook or twitter and spread themessage that the Morning Star isthe only newspaper truly on theside of working people.

Labour leader Ed Milibandrecently said: ‘It’s always a goodidea not to read the newspapers…I don't read much British news.’

He also revealed that he didn’tget any newspapers delivered tohis home, relying on aides to briefhim.

Ed’s local Labour Party shouldbuy him an e-subscription for theonly paper that would promotethe policies he needs to lead thenext government H

beRNADette keAVeNey is

the MoRNiNG stAR’sCiRCULAtioN MANAGeR

Labour: is the Party over?This new pamphlet gives aCommunist perspective on thelabour movement, the LabourParty and the crisis of working classrepresentation.

This is a contribution to the debatein both affiliated and non-affiliatedtrade unions in the run up to the2015 general election and beyond.

£2 from www.communist-party.org.uk

Ed Miliband needsthe Morning Star

HCrisis for youth

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