15Marxist Thinking Working class governance

Pensions The truth behind the ‘deficits’ 06

IF YOU WANT TO REBUILD BRITAIN, READ ON

JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

UCU Defeat the lies, fight for quality 08

ACADEMIES: THE FRANCHISING OF OUR SCHOOLS

WORKERSwww.workers.org.uk JUNE 2012 £1

WORKERS

News 03

Features 06

Contents – June 2012In London in the Olympics? Then walk! p3; University and College Union:executive stress, p4; Unite mulls EU motions, p5; Greece, Germany, andthe election, p6

The truth behind the pension fund “deficits”, p6; UCU: Defeat the lies, fight forquality, p8; McAdemies: franchising state schools, p9; Ireland’s choice: bowdown before the European Union, or declare that enough’s enough, p12

HistoricNotes 141861 to 1865: British workers and the American Civil War, p14

WORKERS is published by the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)78 Seymour Avenue, London N17 9EB. www.workers.org.ukISSN 0266-8580 Issue 159, June 2012

Cover photo Andrew Wiard/www.andrew-wiard.info

It’s disdain, not apathyTO SAY Labour was the winner in the May localelections is to take all the power and fun out ofthe word “winning”. With slumping turnoutsaround the country, the best that can be said isthat Labour did the least worst of the partiesstanding. Two-thirds of voters ignored theexercise.That’s not just because Labour’s policies,

where it has them, are often so close to thoseof the Liberals or the Conservatives. It’sbecause the people of Britain have twiggedthat local democracy is fast becoming a thingof myth and legend: all the important decisionsare being taken by central government – or bythe private companies that have been givenlucrative contracts to run services.Those who did turn out offered one spec-

tacular rebuff to Cameron: overwhelmingly,they rejected the idea of directly electedmayors. It’s not hard to see why, since theconcept leads to one more highly paid localdictator and even less point in electing a localcouncillor.People have had enough of freeloading

politicians. Ten cities held referendums on 3May on whether to replace local councilcabinets with directly elected mayors, whileDoncaster voted on whether to keep its electedmayor. Nine cities resoundingly said No.

Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle,Nottingham, Sheffield, Wakefield, Coventry,Leeds and Bradford all voted No, with Bristolvoting Yes and Doncaster opting to keep itsmayor. Bradford said No (on a 35 per centturnout) even though the self-admiring new MPGeorge Galloway pronounced himself in favourof the idea. Bristol, meanwhile, saw a turnoutof just 24 per cent, less than one in four. In oneward, Filwood, just 9.9 per cent voted. Onevoting station in Cabot ward recorded just 6 percent turnout. Bourgeois democracy in action.Commentators are quick to dismiss low

turnouts as signs of voter “apathy” (as ifanyone but the candidates could get trulyenthusiastic about it all). But one result showsthat this is probably not the case: Thurrock.Yes, this Essex town managed just 27.15 percent turnout across the 17 wards involved in thelocal elections – down from 35 per cent lastyear, and lower than the lowest ward turnout of2011. Yet in April 30.4 per cent had turned outwhen the People’s Pledge campaign organiseda (completely unofficial) referendum inThurrock on whether there should be a nationalvote on staying in or leaving the EU. So people do care about politics, just not

about bourgeois politicians. And the last thingwe want is more of them. ■

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OLYMPICSBATTERSEAUCUTUITION FEESEUAFGHANISTANPRIVATISATIONNEWS ANALYSISEUROBRIEFSWHAT’S ON

JUNE 2012 NEWS DIGEST WORKERS 3

In London in the Olympics? Then walk!

RebuildingBritain

Forget about transport Buyers line up Executive stress Pushing up public debt Unite mulls motions Costs out of control Nuclear contract Greece and Germany The latest from Brussels Coming soon

TRANSPORT FOR LONDON has all but given up the ghost overtransport delivery in London during the Olympics: they have nowresorted to issuing leaflets at critical London railway stations suchas Charing Cross, advising people to walk to work during theOlympics. The quality of public transport is being pushed back2000 years to Greek Olympic days – use shank’s pony!

In another rushed move, after only nine hours of Commonsand House of Lords debate, the Coalition rammed throughemergency legislation to suspend Sunday working legislation forthe eight Sundays over the Olympics. The convention is that MPsand Lords have a free vote over matters affecting Sunday working.These measures followed a three-line Coalition whip to liftprotection and rights at work for thousands of shop staff.

USDAW, the shop workers union, surveyed 20,000 membersand found 78 per cent opposed to the suspension of Sundayworking legislation. Half (51 per cent) were already underpressure from employers to work Sundays, and 73 per cent felt

they were being pressurised to work Sundays if opening hours wereextended. And the last public opinion poll on Sunday working andextending shop hours in 2010 found 89 per cent of the publicopposed to extending Sunday working.

Meanwhile, South London residents have received an apologyfrom the Ministry of Defence over screaming jets, low flyinghelicopters, attack boats on the Thames and similar sillinessassociated with the early May London-wide week-long “anti-terrorism” exercises associated with the Games. Calls for publicmeetings and enquiries into the siting of ground-to-air missiles ineast and southeast London are being ignored.

G4S, previously known as Securicor, the world’s second-largest provider of security, mercenaries and privatised policeservices, pocketed £30 million in profit for the first quarter of2012 just for security at empty venues for the Olympics. They willclear £200 million for security during the eight weeks of theOlympics and Paralympics. ■

’’ CPBML/Workers

Public Meeting, LondonThursday 14 June, 7.30 pm“Olympics: a city hijacked”

Bertrand Russell Room, Conway Hall, 25 Red LionSquare, London WC1R 4RL. Nearest tube Holborn.

It was supposed to regenerate east London. But the buildingjobs went to migrant labour, costs rocketed, landlords insearch of an Olympics bonanza are evicting long-standingtenants – and now they’re talking about missiles. What’shappened to London’s Olympic dream? Everybody welcome.

4 WORKERS NEWS DIGEST JUNE 2012

The latest from Brussels

BATTERSEA

Buyers line up

Fourth ReichPANOS KAMMENOS, leader of theIndependent Greeks party, said, “TheGerman government is trying, througheconomic policy, to conquer Europe …The Germans are trying to forcesubmission on the rest of Europe andcreate a fourth economic Reich.”Germany insists that growth can onlycome from austerity (that is, fromdestroying growth). German FinanceMinister Wolfgang Schäuble saidrecently, “The first precondition inorder to have sustainable growtheverywhere in Europe is fiscalconsolidation.”

Backing for German militarismBRITISH DEFENCE Secretary PhilipHammond wants to see the Germanarmy re-arm and march round theworld. Speaking in Berlin on 2 May, hesaid a military transformation will rely,“in Germany in particular, on the abilityto generate the political will and publicsupport for the deployment of militaryresources more widely in the future insupport of [NATO] operations beyondour borders.”

He went on: “By re-focussingexisting budgetary resources on moredeployable capabilities, Germany hasprobably a greater capacity than anyother European NATO partner tocontribute to short-term enhancement ofthe Alliance’s capabilities.

“It is in all our interests toencourage Germany to realise thatpotential.”

Fascists on screenTHE GREEK Nazi party – GoldenDawn – got just 7 per cent of the votes.Yet the BBC in its News on 8 May choseto let its leader speak to camera. But itdid not do so for any of the leaders ofanti-austerity parties. Similarly, afterthe French election, the BBCinterviewed no member of the winningSocialist Party but it did find time totalk to a National Front MEP.

Britain to agree EU bailout fund basisTHE GOVERNMENT wants to pass aBill which would see Britain ratify anEU treaty change, agreed in March2011, to give the eurozone bailout funda legal base. This would have the effectof tightening the euro’s grip on membercountries. ■

EUROBRIEFS

UCU: executive stressUCU, the University and College Union, has an NEC of 72 and 119,401 members. Incontrast, the National Union of Teachers has an NEC of 40 for 295,000 members. PCS,Unite and Unison all have proportionally fewer NEC members.

As reported in May’s issue of WORKERS, the University and College Union ballotreturned an 88.6 per cent vote to cut the size of the union’s National Executive Committee.85.1 per cent voted to be balloted when UCU negotiators believed a final offer was on thetable. 82.4 per cent voted to elect lay national negotiators by one member one vote. Thepolitical faction UCU Left had called on members to vote against all three.

An open letter from some branch officers, some of whom are members of UCU Left,said that the second proposal meant that “any and all offers that are so described by theemployers or the Government as ‘final’ offers will be put out to ballot.” This was a directmisrepresentation, since the question on the ballot paper said that members would beballoted “whenever the majority of UCU negotiators believe a final offer is on the table”.

Ever more one-day strikes, with ever-smaller numbers, won’t do, unless we are trying toteach our members that strikes don’t work.

Of course the argument has been won: our members know how bad the pensions“reforms” are for them. But they can also see that repeated one-day strikes will not gain usanything. We need a long-term strategy, of reclaiming control over our workplaces, inparticular, by asserting control over the hours we work. For instance, let’s reclaim ourlunch hours.

We could work to rule, including working to contract by refusing to work extra unpaidhours, withdraw cooperation to implement projects, and adhere strictly to health and safetyrules. We need to improve wages, hours and conditions. We need to rebuild our tradeunions, starting by organising in our workplaces. ■

Photo: Workers

FOLLOWING the WORKERS article in Aprilexposing the speculation and parasiticcapitalism associated with the old Batterseapower station site in London, there arereports of yet further “new” development.

The original £1.5 million purchase of

the site in 1983 has blossomed into a£500 million price tag in 2012 – a priceescalator of around £16.5 million a yearduring the past 30 years of standingderelict – and at least 10 interested buyers.

Wading in with a £1 billionredevelopment proposal is Chelsea FootballClub, toy of the Russian multi-millionaireRoman Abramovich, the 68th richest manin the world. ■

GMB members at threatened Remploy factories led London’s annual May Day march asit made its way from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square.

JuneThursday 14 June, 7.30pm. Conway Hall,Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL.

“Olympics: a city hijacked”

Is this what they meant by regeneration?Come and discuss what the Games reallymean for London. Everybody welcome.

WHAT’S ON

Coming soon

MOTIONS TO THE Unite national conference in Brighton in June epitomise the dividein the union over the European Union and Britain remaining a member. Four motionsclearly call for Britain’s withdrawal – CYWU & NFP, London and Eastern Region,London United Craft Branch, SE/Weybridge Branch and Long Eaton. Wigan is callingfor a referendum.

Only Southampton 0854 Branch calls for retention of membership and, worse,greater integration of Britain into Europe. Its motion reads as a textbook model motiondrafted by the fifth column in the unions once spearheaded by certain characters in theTUC or even past general secretaries of MSF one of Unite’s predecessor unions.

The threadbare so-called social and economic rights bestowed by the EU cannot hidethe draconian anti-strike, anti-union, anti-worker Thatcherite legislation of the EU.Unions need to recognise the devastating destruction of Britain’s manufacturing andindustrial base, which should be the heartlands of Unite, by successive EU treaties..

It is in the interests of the British working class that we remove our country from thiscapitalist alliance of destruction and rebuild Britain. Unite has the opportunity to take alead and vigorously campaign for a referendum on the EU. And if so, best keep it simple:the question on the ballot should read, “Should Britain leave the EU – Yes or No.” ■�

Unite mulls EU motions

JUNE 2012 NEWS DIGEST WORKERS 5

Costs out of control

AFGHANISTAN

SERCO, ONE of the largest outsourcingcompanies in the world, has announced ithas been awarded the maintenance contractfor Britain’s nuclear warheads, worth over£1.5 billion. It has “won” public sectorcontracts worth £2.9 billion since Januaryand expects another £1 billion to beannounced shortly.

If the continued privatisation ofBritain’s nuclear deterrent makes younervous, consider Serco’s other interests. Itmanages the Atomic WeaponsEstablishment along with Lockheed Martinand Jacobs. This is the most advancedresearch, design and production centre inthe world.

Serco also manages the fleet of over100 ships that enables the Royal Navy toaccess naval bases in Britain – Faslane,Portsmouth and Devonport. It supplies tugs,pilots, stores, fuel, munitions and passengerservices to the Royal Navy. It also providesfacilities and information systems to theScience and Technology Laboratory, theMinistry of Defence’s research centre, andhas a £400 million contract to rationalisethe Laboratory’s estate – selling it off inother words. And who manages Britain’smilitary presence in Gibraltar? Serco.

Provision of engineering andmaintenance to the Fleet Air Arm and RoyalAir Force and logistical support to RoyalAir Force bases are all run by Serco.Military satellite communication, RAFFylingdales, the US base at Menwith Hill –again Serco.

The compamy also trains helicopterpilots, advises on safety for the Royal Navy’snuclear submarines, and even manages theCabinet Office’s Emergency PlanningCollege, the government training centre forcrisis management and emergency planning.

Surprised at the extent of privatisedinfluence in Britain’s defences? In fact, theBritish state has used privateers forhundreds of years from Elizabeth I’s era,with private companies occupying Africaand India. ■

Pushing up public debt

TUITION FEES

THE FULL withdrawal of British troopsfrom Afghanistan, scheduled for 2014, hasbeen overshadowed by the US proposal tosubsidise the Afghan army and police. TheUSA intends to support the Afghan armyand police for at least the next ten years.

The military costs at present are £4.3billion a year, which surpasses the rest of the entire Afghan budget of £3.1 billion.The US is looking to its NATO allies toprovide financial support, and in Britain’scase a figure of £620 million for the nextdecade.

A House of Commons research paperanalysing the costs of the war estimates thatit has cost £62 million for each individualTaliban (Afghan) fighter, which it describes

as an “expensive waste of equipment andmanpower”.

This is the fourth major intervention byBritain in Afghan affairs in the last 160years. All have ended in disastrous loss oflife and pointless destruction if not outrightdefeat. G.R.Greig, a British militarychaplain writing about the First Afghan Warof 1839-1842 described it as “a war begunfor no wise purpose…brought to a closeafter suffering and disaster. Not one benefit,political or military, was acquired with thiswar. Our eventual evacuation of the countryresembled the retreat of an army defeated.”

Not another penny should be spent inAfghanistan, not another day should passwith the British military (or any foreignnational) being on Afghan territory. Nointervention in the sovereign affairs ofAfghanistan. Getting the troops out nowshould be the order of the day. ■

A REPORT by Andrew McGettigan, for theIntergenerational Foundation, calculatesthat the government scheme to allowuniversities to charge £9,000 tuition feescould push public sector debt up by £100billion over the next 20 years. Thegovernment itself forecasts that student loandebt will peak at £50 billion in 2030.

The study warns, “the cost ofgovernment borrowing adds significantly tothe national debt in the short and mediumterm.” Students at England’s universitieswill be able to take out government-backedloans covering the higher fees, as teachinggrants are slashed from 2012.

The Office for Budget Responsibility

estimates the loans will cost £12 billion ayear by 2015-16. This is an increase of £5to £6 billion a year and “eclipses”the £3billion saved by the cuts to the teachinggrant. So the policy of higher student loanscosts twice what is saved by cutting thegrant. The report also claims that thegovernment is ‘secretly investigating’ sellingoff student loan liabilities.

General Secretary of the University andCollege Union Sally Hunt said the reportconfirmed that the government’s punitivecuts had nothing to do with reducing thenational debt and everything to do withshifting the funding of higher educationfrom the state to the individual. She said,“Instead of being guided by ideology andadding billions to the national debtministers should follow the example of othercountries and invest in higher education.” ■

Nuclear contract

PRIVATISATION

Photo: Workers

IN ITS ATTACK on pensions the government has employedshock and awe tactics – inflating pension fund deficits andclaiming these to be based on workers’ longevity. In factthe chief reason for pension deficits has not been longevitybut the use of false accountancy standards that were firstintroduced under Labour in 2000 and since continued bythe Coalition. In their struggle to protect pensions, it hasbeen the organised working class who have recognisedwhat has been happening and trade unions have begun todissect the legitimacy of government claims.

To their shame many professional bodies involved withoccupational pensions had until recently gone along withthe government’s nonsense that pension deficits had beencaused through us living longer. But, as with most things,once the “rock begins to roll” those who were previouslytimid start to join in. For example since November last yearthe National Association of Pension Funds has beenpointing out that the latest round of quantitative easingand the pension funds’ method of deficit accounting (whichvalues assets on short-term market prices rather thantaking a longer view, and has led to the closure of perfectlyviable funds) “is a recipe that is destroying the value ofBritain’s retirement savings. It is a torture for pensionfunds because it artificially suppresses long term interestrates”.

Even the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) isfinding that its covert support of inflating deficits tofacilitate the closure of final salary pension schemes hasan unwelcome twist. Its member companies are still facedwith trying to shore up artificial deficits by having to investnew sums of money into closed final salary funds. A CBIspokesman recently said, “Money which companysponsors might have spent on job creation is insteaddiverted into filling the deficits. It’s a vicious cycle.”

UndervaluedThe fact is that if a more realistic set of financialassumptions were used, our pension funds would beshown to be something like 30 per cent to 40 per centcurrently undervalued as a result of having to apply thegovernment’s prescribed accountancy basis. Thereforethose pension schemes that have been closed need nothave done so. Perhaps this could be something that thesocial democrats and their paid talking heads in the mediacould take up when they witter on about the cost of usliving longer, “pensions apartheid” and the need foreconomic growth.

A good example of where things can begin to beaddressed is the fact that we currently have over 800,000people toiling at work beyond age 65, while over a millionyoung people between the ages 18 to 23 are unemployed.Clearly there is a need here for intergenerational planningto match the requirements of young and old, so that both

JUNE 2012

The combination of quantitative easing and government accountancy rules is forcing upsupposed pension fund deficits, closing schemes that are in fact perfectly viable…

The truth behind the pension fund ‘deficits’

IN THE GREEK election centre right New Democracy and formercoalition partner Pasok (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) weredecisively rejected along with their EU-dictated bail out. Theirvotes collapsed from 33.5 per cent to about 19 per cent and from43 per cent to about 13 per cent, respectively. Syriza (Greek for“from the roots”, itself a coalition of groups opposed to the deal)came a close second with about 17 per cent. Their leader AlexisTsipras, while not yet explicitly advocating a Greek exit from theeuro, rejected the deal, describing it as “barbaric” and inparticular called for the repeal of laws cutting wages andpensions and abolishing collective bargaining rights. The GreekCommunist Party (KKE) with about 8.5 per cent of the vote hadunequivocally called for leaving the European Union and the Euroand for the writing off of all Greece’s debt. The extreme right wing Golden Dawn, mainly campaigning on

an anti immigration ticket, got about 7 per cent. Even before thecurrent crisis many Greek workers, especially in the constructionsector, had lost their jobs to low-paid immigrant labour. The elections followed months of strikes and demonstrations

against an unprecedented assault on living conditions, workers’rights, pensions and public services in line with principles set outin the Lisbon Treaty. Following the election results GermanChancellor Angela Merkel said that the austerity measures were“not negotiable”.

German capitalists have profited from a similar savage attackon German workers in 2005 under the banner “Agenda 2010”. In2005 the SPD/Greens coalition imposed the largest cut in theGerman social security system since the war with drasticreductions in pensions and unemployment benefits. There weremass demonstrations and strikes against “political” issues beingbanned by the German constitution. Chancellor Merkel seems tothink Greek workers need a dose of the same medicine, thoughthe Greek economy is completely different and hampered by itsassociation with Germany through the euro.According to government statistics the number of Germans

living below the poverty line has increased to 18 per cent and oneout of every six children is officially classified as “poor”, onethird of children being poor in big cities such as Berlin, Hamburgand Bremen. But the country’s capitalists have built the industrialpowerhouse of Europe, sweeping aside nascent and smallerindustries in such countries as Greece and Spain.New elections in Greece are being planned for June after none

of the three leading parties was able to put together a coalition.Latest opinion polls show increasing support for Syriza with agood chance it will be able to form the next government. Yetclarity about the euro still seems to elude the Greeks, with about75 per cent of them wanting to keep the currency that has ruinedtheir economy. ■

NEWS ANALYSIS

Greece, Germany, and the election

Anti-bail out demonstration in Heraklion, Crete.

Photo: Workers

JUNE 2012 WORKERS 7

The combination of quantitative easing and government accountancy rules is forcing upsupposed pension fund deficits, closing schemes that are in fact perfectly viable…

The truth behind the pension fund ‘deficits’

are satisfied during the transition betweenwork and retirement. Yet the only thing onoffer from the Coalition is to extend stateretirement age to 68 and beyond.

In October 2010 WORKERS reported thatpension liabilities had leapt by £10 billionin one month and in 2012 it is no different.The wild swings in the government’s deficitaccountancy measure have been such thatthe total pensions deficit rose by £10.6billion in a fortnight during April. How areorganisations able to fund pensionschemes and plan their annual budgetswhen faced with this type of accountancynonsense that has absolutely nothing to dowith longevity?

The complete disassembling of thegovernment’s pension position alsoenables other areas of political economy tobe examined. Previously WORKERS haswarned that the government plans to createthrough “regulatory prudence” a captivesavings market in Britain that will be forced

to invest in “risk free” government debt(gilt-edged securities, or “gilts”).

This regulatory approach is a classicexample of where the attack on workers isorchestrated by the British governmenthiding behind EU legislation and directives.Concealed behind the noise of deficits isthe European Insurance & OccupationalPensions Authority (EIOPA), which is basedin Frankfurt. On behalf of the EU and theWestminster Parliament it is EIOPA’s deadhand that prescribes the basis on which ourpension liabilities should be measured.

Germany has few pre-funded

occupational pension schemes and whatschemes there are only represent 16 percent of its GDP, while Britain hasaccumulated pension funds worth 85 percent of our GDP. So why from its EU bunkerin Frankfurt does EIOPA dictate how wemust measure our pension liabilities, whileprescribing how our pension assets shouldbe invested so as to cover useless govern-ment debt – that will result in our pensionfunds incurring a massive capital loss?

The question of pensions runs deepinto the political economy of Britain, andthe struggle will unfold in a number ofways. Cameron’s recent announcement thathe will now make a stand on EU financialdiktat (Solvency II) should be watchedclosely because as a euro team player anystand by him will be about as useful as achocolate fireplace. Increasingly it is urgentto formulate what we need as Britishworkers and put this in place alongsideBritain’s withdrawal from the EU. ■

Health visitors on the picket line at Whipps Cross Hospital, northeast London, during the 10 May strike against changes to pensions.

“The attack on workers isorchestrated by the

British government hidingbehind EU legislation…”

8 WORKERS JUNE 2012

WHEN TEACHERS andlecturers meet at theUniversity and College UnionCongress in Manchester inearly June they face threemajor challenges: agovernment determined not tofund education; employersdetermined to competeagainst each other rather thanact collaboratively against thatgovernment onslaught; andtensions within the unionitself following recent changesto the National ExecutiveCommittee (NEC).

The UCU is currently theonly organisation with acoherent policy for post-school education for thewhole of the country, so the future of theunion has a significant bearing on thefuture of the country.

Frightened of the public reaction butquoting “coalition harmony” as the reason,the much-trumpeted government plan for ahigher education bill giving private firmsmore access to the university sector wasnot in the recent Queen’s Speech. Yetprivate companies continue to gainfootholds without legislation, seen in newsthat a US multimedia company is making abid to take over distance learning at theUniversity of Leicester.

The abolition of the EducationMaintenance Allowance in colleges, triplingof university fees from this September (seenews item, page 5) and the numbers capon home students, all achieved withoutnew legislation, are already having asignificant impact. It is already known thatthe “cap” on home students was breachedby 25,000 this year as applicants rushed toavoid the fees hike. The government isnow handing down the fines for that “overrecruitment”, with London Met alonefacing a £6 million fine. Existing privateproviders are not subject to the cap andare allowed unlimited recruitment oftaxpayer-backed students on coursesspecifically designated by businesssecretary Vince Cable.

When fees were introduced the countrywas told two enormous lies. One was that

it would lead to an improved education forstudents and the second that this wouldimprove public finances. Neither could befurther from the truth.

A recent report from the HigherEducation Policy Institute (HEPI) hashighlighted how few contact hoursstudents have with their teachers and thatin many prestigious universities thatcontact time is with teaching assistantssuch as doctoral students rather than withqualified teachers. So no promisedimprovement, rather a growth in studentdissatisfaction. Likewise, the suggestionthat a rise in student fees would helppublic debt has now been shown to be theexact opposite.

Employer attackA recent announcement allowinguniversities to recruit uncapped numbersat the lower A-Level grade threshold ofABB (previously AAB) will in effect meansome universities will no longer be subjectto the cap. It will largely affect, to theiradvantage, recruitment to the RussellGroup universities. These are theinstitutions which have the highest ratedresearch according to a controversial“Research Excellence Framework” knownas ‘the REF’ to which all universities aresubjected (a sort of Ofsted inspectionexcept the main focus is universities’research rather than teaching).

Competition for universityplaces is highest at the RussellGroup universities. Loweringthe entry requirements in away that will affect just thisrelatively small number of morefinancially secure universities –i.e., a “cap some but notothers” policy– is a perfectrecipe for competition amonginstitutions and financialinstability across the sector. Itis also another block to thosestudents wishing to move fromFE to HE with their accessqualifications because theuniversities which recruit them,that is, not Russell Groupuniversities, will continue tohave their numbers capped.

This “divide and rule” employers’response to the lowest level of publicfunding for higher education in Europe isnow compounding the damage done bygovernment. Another maladaptiveresponse is the massive increase inoverseas recruitment by British univer-sities. It is the norm for at least 15 per centof university students to come fromoutside the country, but for manyinstitutions it is a much higher percentage.The sector as a whole is now relying on athird of its income from overseas fees – arecipe for instability.

Union responsibilities The recent ballot result whereby the uniondecided to reduce the size of the NationalExecutive Committee was a good decisionas the NEC has been too big (see newsitem in this issue). What matters now ishow the money saved is spent andwhether the new NEC can offer leadershipto members dealing with the rising attackon the FE and HE sectors.

Some delegates will want to useconference time to revisit that decision butmembers will not forgive that indulgence.Government plans for the sector aredemonstrably increasing public debt andstifling the education and research thatcould rebuild the country. Every memberhas a huge job to expose the lies andensure the quality of education. ■

The annual congress of the University and College Union inManchester meets at a crucial time for further and highereducation in Britain…

UCU: defeat the lies, fight for quality

Terry Hoad, University and College Union President, addresses thepensions rally at Central Hall, Westminster, on 10 May.

Photo: Andrew Wiard/www.andrew-wiard.info

This government has both an ideological and a commercialcommitment to privatisation of public services in Britain…

BACK IN SEPTEMBER 2011, in Norwich,Prime Minister Cameron spoke of“changing the structure of education,allowing new providers in to start schools –providing more choice, more competitionand giving schools greater independence”.

He went on to elaborate who thesenew providers might be. “We’ve said tocharities, to faith groups, to businesses, tocommunity organisations, teachers: ‘Comein and set up a great new school, in thestate sector’.”

A few days earlier, Education SecretaryMichael Gove had said in response toquestions on the BBC, “We don’t need tohave profits AT THE MOMENT” [ouremphasis].

In other words, the necessary change inthe law to allow profit-taking from state

McAdemies: franchising state schools

JUNE 2012 WORKERS 9

schools has not been ruled out – and giventhe government’s pressure to set up moreand more academy trusts and so-called“Free Schools”, the likelihood is that suchchange is already planned.

Denis MacShane and David Ward, bothMPs in Yorkshire, have repeatedly askedquestions on the funding of new freeschools in their Rotherham and Bradfordconstituencies. Their questions on funding,demand for the schools, pupil numbers,start-up costs and so forth, remainunanswered on the spurious ground of“commercial confidentiality”. Since whenhas the funding of state schools ever beensubject to “commercial” considerations?(Maintained school budgets are alwayspublished annually.)

This government has both an

ideological and a commercial commitmentto privatisation of public services in Britain.

Gove has often stated his support forthe charter schools in the USA and the“free schools” in Sweden, both the productof free market, anti-state provisiongovernments heavily influenced by ChicagoSchool privateers and Wall Street vultures.This type of organisation seems to be themodel to which he’s working, particularlywith free schools and the “forced”academies where it is claimed a school isunderperforming.

The net effect of this twin movement isto diminish local authorities so that anycouncil control of schools ceases or just

Photo: Andrew Wiard/www.andrew-wiard.info

Continued on page 10

Protest march in January against attempts by Education Secretary Michael Gove to force four primary schools in Haringey, London –Downhills, Noel Park, Coleraine Park and Nightingale – to convert to academy status.

covers a rump of school provision. In turn,this means that people in the locality of aschool lose any semblance of control overwhat that school does, and any effectivemeans of holding the school accountablefor the provision it offers.

The head of the Association ofDirectors of Children Services recentlyasked for public clarification from thegovernment as to where responsibility liesfor holding academies (no longertechnically schools) and free schools toaccount. No public response.

The experience of academy trusts, freeschools in Sweden and US charter schoolshas been mixed. Some adhere to local andnational curriculum requirements; somediverge. Some stick to national staffingprovision, conditions and pay; others don’t.

Some adhere to admissions procedures;some try to ring fence their admissions. Interms of quality, studies in the USA showthat charter schools do not generally makethe improvements claimed for them whentested against the same measuresestablished for school board/state schools.

Susanne Wiborg’s* excellent paper on

the Swedish experience cites evidencefrom studies that show a similar patternafter 17 years of “free schools”.

Gove and his government hold upacademies as a shining light of progress.But the evidence is not unequivocal.

Some of the original academies havecertainly achieved better outcomes thanthe schools they replaced. But that is notuniversally true and in many areas theimprovements made by other local schoolshave been equally impressive. Indeed,much of the progress claimed foracademies does not stand up to scrutinyaccording to the government’s preferredmeasures. For example, in 2010, half the 5GCSEs (A–C grades) claimed by academieswere “equivalent” qualifications such asGNVQs – the percentage of such quali-fications for other schools was 25 per cent.

So why this break up of state schooling

10 WORKERS JUNE 2012

Continued from page 9

“It’s a big market byanyone’s standards,

especially as once you’rein it, there’s a guaranteedfunding stream and no

competition.”

Babcock and Wilcox: the slide from manufacture to ‘services’EARLIER THIS YEAR, parents, children andteachers woke to the news that DevonCounty Council was transferringresponsibility for education provision toBabcock International. In the rapidlychanging landscape which is education inthis country, such a seismic event barelycauses a ripple beyond the boundaries ofDevon, so accustomed have we become toschools being treated as a saleable, andtherefore disposable asset.

Previous such experiences teach usthat, in all likelihood, not a great deal willappear to change. The same advisors willadvise, the same heads will run schools,and the same teachers will teach in them.What has changed fundamentally, ofcourse, is that public money devolved tothe council to manage education now getspocketed by Babcock. A total of £125million in a seven-year contract. A nicelittle earner.

The pattern which has developedelsewhere in the country does not bodewell for Devon. The usual scenario runs asfollows. Private company takes overeducation services in an area, with

extravagant claims about transformingoutcomes for students. For a few yearsthey will ply their trade, but standards willstubbornly refuse to rise in line with initialtrumpetings. Eventually they will packtheir bags and withdraw to try their luckelsewhere, leaving the council to pick upthe pieces.

Guinea pigsFor nursery-age children in Devon today,this experiment will run until they are nomore than halfway through theireducational lives and then…what? Anotherexperiment?

And just what is the trade that thesecompanies actually ply? What willBabcock do?

Its history makes curious reading. Inthe second half of the 19th century,George Babcock and Steven Wilcoxestablished a company in America tomanufacture their revolutionary “non-explosive boiler”. In 1881 they opened anoffice in Glasgow and expanded rapidly,trading worldwide.

Over the course of the 20th century,

Babcock and Wilcox grew and prospered.War proved no setback as its factoriescould readily adapt to manufacture tanksand munitions, alongside the marineboilers already in great demand. By 1960it was diversifying into the nuclear energyindustry, but still in a manufacturingcapacity.

Tellingly, it was in 1979 that Babcockand Wilcox became Babcock InternationalGroup. As Thatcher unleashed her war onindustry, Babcock began to develop other,non-manufacturing strings to its bow. Itsfocus became not simply engineering butthe “support services business”, a worldthat did not exist when Messrs’ Wilcoxand Babcock first picked up a spanner.

So it was government policy 30 yearsago that prompted Babcock to dilute itscore business of making things and enterthe world of selling management. Now,today’s government policy unlocks therealm of public service and hands it toBabcock on a plate.

We need educationalists to manageeducation, and, more importantly, weneed boilermakers to make boilers. ■

JUNE 2012 WORKERS 11

if it’s not about quality, as claimed?At the beginning of April 2012, Cameron

repeated his assertions about providing“more choice”. as a “child of Thatcher”would be expected to. But the Swedishfree schools have been shown by Wiborgand others to have limited choice for many,by increasing the segregation of studentswhere integrated schools were previouslythe norm.

Most Swedish free schools continue tofollow a curriculum similar to that ofmaintained state schools. The exceptionstend to be where the proposers/ownershave a curriculum or method or “platform”that they wish to market. Or where they are“faith-based”.

Additionally, after nearly two decades,the number of providers of Swedish state-funded free schools has fallen significantly.Monopoly rules apply, with there nowbeing five large providers, some smallergroups and relatively few left in the controlof the original proposers, i.e. parents,teachers etc. The number of free schoolsfunded by the state has risen to 700, butthe three largest for-profit companiesrunning free schools now have a quarter ofall free school students in their institutions.

And profits are plentiful from thesestate handouts. In most of these schoolsprofits ranged from 8 per cent of turnoverto a magnificent 50 per cent.

Follow the moneyAnd that’s what this is all about. Ideology,certainly; profits, most certainly. As Lestersays in the fictional crime series THE WIRE

when talking about municipal corruption,“Follow the money, Jimmy, follow themoney.”

Charter schools, too, have shown asimilar pattern in the USA. There have beendodgy statistics to try and justify theirimpact on pupil progress, demystified in2009 and 2010. Companies have collapsed,leaving children and neighbourhoodswithout schools and school boards withoutschool places as they have lost thepremises to (now bankrupt) companies.Some school boards such asPhiladelphia’s, have taken back charterschools because of their abject inability to

deliver their promises and boasts.Some charter school providers have

been ditched by investors because theyhave failed to make the profits envisioned.Talking of one prominent educationcompany also involved in British schooling,a Wall Street guru blamed the collapse ofthe share price on the company’swillingness to form partnerships with stateschool boards rather than set up “cheap torun” schools of its own. As with thestripping of the New Orleans state schoolsystem after Hurricane Katrina, where thereplacement charter schools immediatelysacked over 4,500 teachers so they couldintroduce lower wages and conditions, thisis what these asset strippers want.

What is the attraction in England?Education here has been involving privatecompanies for well over a decade. Capita,Edison, Cambridge Education, Serco andothers have been involved in running orpartnering local education authorities inthe past 12 years. Whole swathes ofgovernment initiatives and schemes havebeen managed by private contractors.

Ofsted, arguably one of the mostpowerful organisations ever established toenforce compliance to government will inthis country, has always relied on privatecontractors. Originally, there were about150. Now, there are three core providers forthe whole country.

There is big money involved. In 2009,contractors in education support servicesand running Labour’s education strategieswere involved in a market worth £2 billion.Yet even this is small compared with thetotal annual spend on state education inEngland and Wales. Revenue expenditureon schools will stand at about £50 billionthis year. Total expenditure is likely to stayjust below £90 billion. It’s a big market byanyone’s standards, especially as onceyou’re in it, there’s a guaranteed fundingstream and no competition.

Sweden is a much smaller “market”but is still proving popular with companiesrun for profit. The John Bauer organisationmade 120 million Swedish Kronor profit in2006. In 2008 it was sold on to the Danishcompany Axcel, a venture capital companythat had previously specialised in home

styling products and dog food.Kunskappskolan runs its schools on aMcDonald’s-style franchising basis. Thiscompany, the sixth-largest free schoolprovider in Sweden, has plans to operateacademies in London and Suffolk.

Gove’s reforms, if taken to fruition,would have a fundamental effect on thequality of education for our children, onconditions in schools, on pay and on ourability as a nation to plan for the future asthe cash pours into private pockets.

Anders Hutlin, CEO of GlobalManagement Education Systems, acompany based in the United ArabEmirates, was quoted in 2010 as saying, “It[English education] can’t just be handedover to amateurs. We are exploringopportunities right now, supporting groupsof parents. That’s a natural starting point.”

Do we really want our schools to be runby these people? ■

*Wiborg, S (2010) Swedish Free Schools:Do they work? published by the Centre forLearning and Life Changes in KnowledgeEconomies and Societies. Seehttp://www.llakes.org

A pupil at Downhills school makes hispoint. NUT teachers at Downhills wenton strike against forced academy statuson 22 May.

Photo: Andrew Wiard/www.andrew-wiard.info

12 WORKERS JUNE 2012

ON 31 MAY Ireland, alone among itsEuropean partners, goes to the polls in areferendum on the European StabilityMechanism (ESM) Treaty and the FiscalCompact Treaty. These treaties are thelatest EU attempt to shore up the eurofollowing the collapse of the Greek andIrish economies, providing a means to bailout any other EU state in trouble whiletightening EU control over the economy ofmember states.

The treaties were, of course, designedin such a way as to avoid the use of theterm treaty, thus avoiding the troublesomeand messy business of putting them to thepeople of Europe in a series of referenda.In this respect the Irish government, a FineGael/Irish Labour Party coalition, was nodifferent from the other EU governmentsand had hoped to avoid a referendum aswell, but in the end had to bow to theoverwhelming desire of the Irish people tohave their say and to the advice of theirown Attorney General.

Failed banksIt is easy to understand why it adopted thisposition. Having already been clobbered bythe EU in order to bail out their own failedbanks, it saw two treaties set up to clobberIreland again – this time to bail out thefailed banks of Italy, Spain or any other EUnation that falls victim to their greed andincompetence. Needless to say thegovernment and all the main oppositionparties are campaigning relentlessly for aYes vote.

If they were to succeed in this thenthey will be handing over to the EU whatlittle remains of an Irish sovereignty thathas been steadily eroding since Ireland’saccession to the EU in 1973. The impacts ofthe ESM are quite staggering for Ireland. Itwill have the power to call on Ireland tomake a contribution to the Agency (noteven the EU itself) of up to 11 billion euros– a sum equivalent to one third of all Irishgovernment tax revenues in 2011. This vast

amount can be raised by the ESM at itssole discretion at any time in the future.

There is no limit on the sums that canbe sought from members of the ESM. Andas if this were not enough it has also beengiven wide-ranging immunities in theexercise of its powers so that, in effect, it isoutside the scrutiny of the governments of

the states who sign up to it.A government which was only elected

in February 2011 on a wave of populardiscontent with the way in which the Irisheconomy was being managed in favour ofbanks and other financial institutions, nowwishes to pass into law a treaty whichwould actually allow a body outside

Photo: Jess Hurd/reportdigital.co.uk

Dublin: protest outside Dail at the end of 2010 against the IMF-imposed budget. Thegovernment was swept away two months later, but the new one is now trying to hand allpower to the European Union.

The Irish government was elected in February 2011 on a wave of popular discontent with the way in which the Irish economy wasbeing managed in favour of banks. Now it now wishes to pass into law a treaty to allow a body outside Ireland, one which is notaccountable to the Irish people, to control all Irish revenue and expenditure…

Ireland’s choice: bow down before the European Union, or declare that enough’s enough

This article is an edited version of aspeech delivered by a visiting Irishcomrade at the CPBML May Day Meetingat Conway Hall in London.

JUNE 2012 WORKERS 13

Ireland, one which is not accountable tothe Irish people, to control Irish revenueand expenditure.

The ESM will be able to order Ireland toraise sovereign debt and then hand it overto a body which will then decide where,when, whether and how to use it. Once thedebt is handed over, the Irish governmentwill have no claim to it or any saywhatsoever in how to use it. Astonishing –vote Yes and wave the resources of thecountry away.

But at this stage in the referendumcampaign, it is clear that the Irishgovernment has a fight on its hands tosecure a Yes vote, and current indicationsare that the referendum will be lost. Butwhat then? What if the Irish people do voteto reject the treaty? Will that be the end ofthe matter? Will the EU technocrats say,“fair enough – we tried but in truedemocratic fashion the Irish people havespoken and said No. We must respect thisand look at alternatives.” Of course not –Ireland has been here before and haslearnt the hard way that saying No is notthe correct response, and leads to the EUforcing another referendum upon themuntil the answer is Yes.

This happened when the Irish, anxiousabout the seemingly interminable loss oftheir sovereignty, rejected the Treaty ofNice in 2001 and the Treaty of Lisbon in2008. Impervious to any sort of democraticrestraint, the EU launched a sustainedcampaign of lies, threats and bribery tosecure a Yes vote in a repeat referendum.

Far from respecting Ireland’s decision,Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson andEuropean Commission President RomanoProdi said in response to the rejection ofthe Treaty of Nice in 2001, “The MemberStates and the Commission will pursue theenlargement negotiations withundiminished vigour and determination inline with our firm commitment given to theapplicant countries.” In other words, to hellwith what the Irish or anybody else want.This is going to happen because we say itis going to happen. So much fordemocracy, so much for the myth ofindependence and sovereignty.

Unless the Irish working class learn

from this and consider carefully the logic ofrejection – that the real problem is notactually membership of the ESM butmembership of the European Union itself –then the same thing will happen againwhenever Ireland dares to vote No. For in avery real sense Ireland’s current financialdistress has been caused by membershipof the European Union and subsequentadoption of the euro as its currency. Theterms of the debate are even the same.According to the Irish government, Irelandmust vote Yes. In the words of Joan Burton,an Irish Labour member of the governmentand Minister for Social Protection (An tAireCoimirce Sóisialaí), “saying Yes to thestability treaty is vital for a stable currencyand for investor confidence.”

But who are these investors, thesefairy godmothers, riding to Ireland’s rescuewithout a care in the world and without athought for their own wellbeing? They areexactly the same investors, the samefinanciers whose reckless investment incrooked property deals and nothing elseled to the EU-directed Bank Guarantee thatbankrupted the country in 2008. The ESMwill simply provide them with anotheropportunity to enrich themselves on thebacks of the further impoverishment of theIrish working class. As Marx says in theCOMMUNIST MANIFESTO:

“Constant revolutionising ofproduction, uninterrupted disturbance ofall social conditions, everlastinguncertainty and agitation distinguishes theBourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. Allold established national industries havebeen destroyed or are clearly beingdestroyed.”

This then is what the European Unionis all about. Forget about social justice,forget about maintaining the peace inEurope, the European Union is designed tosupport this bourgeois class, in our dayfinancial capitalists, by forcing membercountries to abandon their own historicallyconditioned social contract between capitaland labour, always, always to the benefitof capital. Because in Ireland one thing iscertain: these so-called investors socourted by the Irish government, no matterhow confident they become, will never

invest in things – industry, education,social welfare – that will actually benefitthe Irish working class rather than theirown short-term interest to make as muchmoney as they can and then get out whenthe going is good. Why would they? They,at least, know what side they are on.

A vote in favour of the ESM will simplyinstitutionalise austerity in Ireland forgenerations to come, will not create asingle job, will lock down Irish economicactivity at its current low level byshredding demand, create massunemployment, impoverish Ireland anddrive away its main resource – its workingclass. If Ireland says No on 31 May theymust not allow themselves to bebrowbeaten again but continue to say No,No to the ESM, No to a Banker’s State, Noto the EU.

For over 800 years the Irish peoplehave defined themselves in terms ofresistance to oppression. They have foughtfor the right to determine their own future,in their own land and for the right for thosewho produce the wealth of the country tocontrol how that wealth is used.

Not over yetThis fight is not over yet. One master hassimply been replaced by another. As JamesConnolly puts it in LABOUR IN IRISH HISTORY:

“As we have again and again pointedout, the Irish question is a social question,the whole age long fight of the Irish peopleagainst their oppressors resolves itself, inthe last analysis into a fight for the meansof life, the sources of production in Ireland.Who would own and control these? Thepeople or the invaders; and if the invaders,which set of them – the most recent swarmof land thieves, or the sons of the thievesof a former generation?”

Call them what you like, the thievesand sons of thieves are still with us, stilldictating how Ireland’s wealth is ownedand controlled. The main enemy forIreland’s working class and for all theworking class of Europe is the EuropeanUnion. Workers of all countries must uniteto destroy it. The Irish working class canmake a start by saying No on 31 May andcontinuing to say No. Enough is enough. ■

The Irish government was elected in February 2011 on a wave of popular discontent with the way in which the Irish economy wasbeing managed in favour of banks. Now it now wishes to pass into law a treaty to allow a body outside Ireland, one which is notaccountable to the Irish people, to control all Irish revenue and expenditure…

Ireland’s choice: bow down before the European Union, or declare that enough’s enough

IN DECEMBER 1860, 11 slave-owning statesbroke away from the United States ofAmerica to form the Confederacy. WhenAbraham Lincoln became President inMarch 1861, he denounced the secessionas unconstitutional. April saw a Unionblockade of Confederate ports and theonset of a bitter civil war.

Between 1840 and 1860 the UnitedStates provided 80 per cent of Britain’scotton. The Confederacy thought “cottonfamine” caused by the blockade would cutoff Lancashire’s textile industry from itssupplies of raw materials and propelBritain into conflict against the Union toend the blockade. But matters did notdevelop in that way.

Great distress overwhelmed the Britishcotton industry. Between 1861 and 1865the Lancashire textile industry suffered aperiod of severe unemployment with over320,000 workers unemployed out of533,950 by November 1862; there werestill 190,000 fewer jobs in December 1864.

Fairly ample stocks of cotton had beenstored in British factories and warehouses.It was the speculative bidding up of theprice for raw cotton that did damage,particularly hitting smaller manufacturerswho could not withstand the strains of thehigh price. The crisis in the textile industryalso gave British manufacturers theopportunity to extend the working day,depress wages and equip factories withlabour-saving machinery.

The civil war acutely divided Britishopinion. Friends of the Confederacy inBritain came largely from the aristocracy(who had social and political ties withAmerican slave-owners) and thecommercial classes (who had businesslinks and wanted to escape Union tariffs).These upper classes dominatedparliament. Their newspapers – such asTHE TIMES – openly advocated aiding theConfederacy.

But British workers, driven by a deephatred of slavery and striving for a moredemocratic government at home,restrained the pro-confederate leanings ofthe government class. Though notrepresented in parliament, the workingclass was the preponderant part of society

and therefore not without politicalinfluence, able to pressure the governmentinto adopting a policy of non-interventionin the civil war and thwarting assistance tothe Confederate States.

At the beginning, northern US leadersasserted the main object of war was topreserve the Union and not to touchslavery. Lincoln’s Emancipation of theSlaves Proclamation strengthened Britishworkers’ support for the Union cause. Thespinners and weavers of Lancashiretranscended their economic self-interestand took the lead in upholding the Unionblockade. They realised that helping theslave-owners win would defeat the causeof freedom represented by the North andset back their own struggle for politicalreform in Britain.

Massive meetingsThroughout 1862 and 1863, massive pro-Union meetings were held by workers inAshton-under-Lyne, Blackburn, Bury,Stalybridge, Liverpool, Rochdale, Leeds,London and Edinburgh, calling on thegovernment to not depart from strictneutrality in the conflict. On 31 December1862, thousands of working men in theManchester Free Trade Hall expressedsympathy with the North and called forLincoln to eradicate slavery.

The efforts of those seeking to glorifythe slave power and corrupt the minds ofworking people were utterly in vain.Working-class newspapers not only printedthe Manchester meeting’s ADDRESS TO

LINCOLN but also President Lincoln’s replyrecognising British workers’ sacrifice.

In order to ascertain the effects of the“cotton famine”, THE NEW YORK TIMES sent areporter to Lancashire in September 1862who reported on the acute distress of thecotton manufacturing workers and cameup with a practical suggestion – launchinga campaign to send food aid supplies toLancashire workers.

Meetings were held and money raisedthroughout the Union. On 9 January 1863,the GEORGE GRISWOLD relief ship, loaded withgifts of food, left New York to the cheers ofspectators. Her cargo consisted of flour,bacon, pork, corn, bread, wheat and rice.

14 WORKERS HISTORIC NOTES JUNE 2012

American stevedores loaded the shipwithout charge. Additional ships were soonsent: the ACHILLES and the HOPE.

When the GRISWOLD docked atLiverpool, all the dock workers refusedpayment for their services and the railwaysoffered free transport. On 23 February1863, 6,000 working men were at the FreeTrade Hall (inside and out) to greet thearrival of the GEORGE GRISWOLD. One speakerobserved, “If the North succeeded, libertywould be stimulated and encouraged inevery country on the face of the earth; ifthey failed, despotism, like a great pall,would envelop our social and politicalinstitutions.”

‘The cause of labour is one’On 26 March 1863, 3,000 skilled workersat St James Hall assembled in a pro-Uniongathering organised by the London TradesCouncil to hear trade union speakersincluding a bricklayer, engineer,shoemaker, compositor, mason and joiner.Two contributors noted: “The cause oflabour is one, all over the world” and “We

Despite having no representation in parliament, the British working class were ableto restrain the pro-slavery leanings of the ruling class…

1861–1865: British workers and the American civil war

British workers transcended narrow economic self-interest to support the Union cause.

JUNE 2012

Disenchantment and disillusion with the political system are widespread.Banks and big business set the agenda of politicians. There is little differencebetween the major parties, which submit slavishly to the whims of themarket. With no real choice, people feel disenfranchised and disinclined toparticipate in bourgeois elections. Mistrust of politicians is commonplace andnot just confined to the MPs’ expenses scandal.

We live amid sophisticated technology and amazing scientific breakthroughs but ourpolitical system is archaic and outmoded. Its instinct is to stifle, thwart and deny theinvolvement of the people in running and controlling society even though the workingclass is the vast majority. Yet political life cannot stop evolving. To claim that mankind’sideological evolution has reached an end-point with the emergence of bourgeoisparliaments and universal suffrage is mere wishful thinking and completely unhistorical.

People’s strivings for a better way of arranging society are far from exhausted. Historyhas not ended; it’s somewhere in the middle. Though it’s pointless to speculate andimpossible to predict the exact arrangements needed to run socialist society, revolutionwill generate new forms of governance. There must be new methods of massparticipation and involvement, to link and root the exercise of power and the shaping ofnational policy within the burgeoning networks of working class control – inside theactual workings of the whole economy.

Revolution will rescue politics from bourgeois models which restrict and reducepeople’s role to that of an “electorate” casting a vote every few years for “politicalrepresentatives” then having no further involvement or role beyond passive andpowerless observers of events set in train by a caste of professional politicians. FailingWestminster or EU-type parliaments will not suffice.

There will be no need for a breed of separate politicians – workers will assume anddischarge the role of governance themselves. Revolutionary governance will beembedded inside and through an active working class, inside its permanent networks andthrough its levers of power. Compared with the slim pickings capitalism has offered,there will be a great expansion of democracy combined with a massive increase inresponsibility. Workers will be obliged to determine how our country develops. Plansfor the development and rebuilding of Britain will be discussed and set by a working classacross industries and sectors.

Our class is so extensive that it has every skill and talent needed to run society within it.We have all the requirements to manage society. Revolutionary politics will harnessthem for the greater benefit of everyone within a growing economy.

Workers still have a world not only to win but also to shape.

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More from our series on aspectsof Marxist thinking

are met here … not merely as friends ofEmancipation, but as friends of Reform.”With the North’s victory, a working classnewspaper wrote “No nation is reallystrong where the majority of its citizens aredeprived of a voice in the management ofpublic affairs.”

As a result of working-class resistance,Britain neither recognised the Confederacynor intervened to break the blockade.Despite terrible hardships, particularly inthe northwest, workers refused to allowtheir sufferings to be exploited by pro-Confederate sympathisers.

As Marx said, “It was not the wisdomof the ruling classes but the heroicresistance to their criminal folly by theworking classes of England that saved theWest of Europe from plunging headlonginto an infamous crusade for theperpetuation of slavery on the other sideof the Atlantic.”

The American Civil War generated abroadening of horizons among Britishworkers that blossomed even further in theFirst International. ■

WWWORKING CLASS

GOVERNANCE

Despite having no representation in parliament, the British working class were ableto restrain the pro-slavery leanings of the ruling class…

1861–1865: British workers and the American civil war

British workers transcended narrow economic self-interest to support the Union cause.

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‘We should notfight for wagesas individualsdependent ona statemechanism toset pay rates…’

Back to Front – Drive up wagesTHE GOVERNMENT recently announcedthat the national minimum wage is torise from October 2012 for those 21years and over – by 11 pence, from £6.08to £6.19 an hour. For those aged 18 to20 years, the princely sum of £4.98 anhour; 16- and 17-year-olds the luxurioussum of £3.68 an hour; and “apprentices”move up 5p to £2.65 an hour. When it was introduced in 1998 the

national minimum wage was trumpetedas an attempt to address low andpoverty wages across workplaces andindustries. And indeed an estimated 1.5million workers benefited from theintroduction of the minimum wage. Butthis has to be set against a history ofWages Boards having been in existencein Britain for the previous 80+ yearssetting minimum wages, for example inagriculture, hairdressing etc where itwas felt workers could not fight forwages. But what was seen by many as

progressive in 1998 has now clearlyshown itself as regressive, withemployers trying to drive wages downfrom established higher bargaining rateswon by the trade unions to a one-size-fits-all application of the nationalminimum wage for all. And if the minimum wage is one form

of the state depressing wages then so isthe so-called campaigning for a “livingwage”. Elaborate calculations whichdemonstrate that if only “nice”,“decent” philanthropic employers wouldpay £1, or £2, or £2.50 more than theminimum wage then we could obliteratepoverty in our cities and all workerscould happily raise their families secure,well-fed, warm, housed and smiling. And there’ll have to be a living wage

campaign running differently in differentregions because these do-gooders have

swallowed hook, line and sinker thegovernment’s lies and fantasies aboutregional pay. We are all for the abolition of poverty

but it is not achieved by beggingcampaigns or shaming campaignsagainst employers. Nor is it aboutbelieving that all work is the same or allskills are the same or that all wagesshould be the same. It is a depression of wages to

clamour for a living wage level as muchas it is a depression of wages to set anational minimum wage as a safety net.It is not safety nets we want butspringboards for driving wages up.Some of the arguments presented for

a living wage, or a “real” nationalminimum wage etc are as ridiculous asthose demolished by Karl Marx in hisWAGES, PRICE AND PROFIT, written in 1865[£3.00 including postage fromWORKERS]. The employers always try todepress wages; workers should try toraise wages. Workers perhaps have forgotten how

to do that after many years of payreview bodies and such like bailing themout. We have to challenge this almostbenefit-dependency culture in our classof always waiting for a handout, alwayswaiting for someone to do it for us. Weshould not fight for wages as individualsdependent on a state mechanism to setpay rates. Wages in Britain are being driven

down; the value of our take home pay isdiminished as other necessities of life –food, shelter, clothing, fuel – are risingin price. We have to fight for wages, anddo so collectively. That meanscombining together, building the tradeunions – rebuilding them in somecases – and re-directing our unions ifneeds be. ■