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Contact: Socialist Fight: PO Box 59188, London, NW2 9LJ. Email: Socialist_Fight@yahoo.co.uk, Blog: http://socialistfight.com/

This year the TUC Congress meets in Bournemouth from 8th

-11th September. The crisis of leadership in the trade un-ions is very obvious. The bureaucratic caste in the TUC is stillunable to organise any section of the Working class in defence ofjobs and living conditions threatened by the onslaught of this

Conservative Liberal Democratic Coalition. At last years TUCCongress meeting in Brighton the POA, Unite, RMT and PCSproposed a motion That the TUC General Council look at thepracticability of a general strike. The General strike tactic hadfirst been raised by Len McCluskey General Secretary of Unite atthe massive Public Sector Strikes over Pension in 2011. Sincethat time the General Council has met several times but the mo-tion on the practicability of a general strike has lain dormantand no action has been suggested by the bureaucrats at CongressHouse.

At the recent Peoples Assembly and the Durham MinersGala both MCCluskey and Frances OGrady the new GeneralSecretary of the TUC have been silent over the issue. McCluskey

who was heckled at the Peoples Assembly to name a date wouldnot be drawn on the issue. Of course the trade union bureauc-racy has no intention of launching an insurrectionary movementto overthrow this government in the struggle for socialism. Atthis years Congress there is no mention of the general strike.

The whole issue has been dropped, proving once again that thereactionary trade union bureaucracy which purports to lead the

working class movement in Britain are a bunch of feeble cow-ards and will not fight for anything.

The National Shop Stewards Network a centrist organisa-tion in the trade unions and supported by the Socialist Party hasbeen calling for a 24 hour public sector general strike and will belobbying the TUC on September 8 th. The NSSN supports the socalled lefts in the bureaucracy on the General Council like,MCCluskey, Serwokta of PCS, Crowe of the RMT, Wrack of theFBU, and Gillian of the POA. The NSSN will not fight for a

rank and file leadership independent of the bureaucracy.As Trotsky observed The bureaucracy of the trade Unions

in Britain is the backbone of British Imperialism. The trade un-ion bureaucracy is the chief instrument for your oppression bythe bourgeoisie state A this years Meeting organised by theNSSN a number of these left trade union leaders will be speak-ing , but you will find no explanation of why the TUC GeneralCouncil has failed so miserably in carrying out TUC policy withreference to the general strike tactic. There has been no fight foreven the minimal demand of a 24 Hour Public Sector strike. Thebureaucracy remains prostrate before the capitalist class. It re-mains a loyal servant of the bourgeoisie.

The Con/Dem Coalition Anti Lobbying Bill if passed willmean the destruction of trade unionism in Britain. Any type of

action, however minimal will be illegal. What has been the re-sponse of this Bureaucracy, a request to the Coalition to thinkagain and put forward this Anti-lobbying Bill.

The proposed privatisation of the Post Office has led to two

consultative ballots in the CWU, the main Union in the PostOffice. There has been an overwhelming response by the CWUmembership for action to defend their jobs, pay and conditions.

The response of the Leaders of the CWU Billy Hays and Daveward has been plenty of talk but no action.

The task in this period is to fight for an alternative leadershipin the working class and force the trade union leaders to fightand lead an indefinite general strike or make way for leaders that

will.Socialist Fight and the Liaison Committee for the Fourth

International puts the following demands at this years TUCCongress.

Build Grass Roots Left as the Rank and File Organisa-tion in the trade unions! Election of all trade union officials!

Democratise the Unions!

Defeat and smash the anti-Union Laws!

Build a national housing campaign to fight for decentsocial housing for all, defeat the Bedroom Tax. Follow theexample of the Counihan-Sanchez campaign in Brent.

Defend the NHS , no to privatisation!

Nationalise the Banks and major Industries under thecontrol of Workers and Working class communities

The TUC must call an indefinite general strike! to bringdown the Con-Dem government!

Rebuild the Revolutionary International, The TrotskyistFourth International.

The disgraceful Miliband slogan which Len McCluskey hadUnites stewards sporting on their hi viz vests on the first 500,

000 Grand Old Duke of York demo on 26 March 2011.

Socialist FightThe TUC must call an indefinite general strike!Build Grass Roots Left as the Rank and File Organisation in the tradeunions!Election of all trade union officials!Democratise the Unions!

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Contact: Socialist Fight: PO Box 59188, London, NW2 9LJ. Email: Socialist_Fight@yahoo.co.uk, Blog: http://socialistfight.com/

We call on the TUC to demand the Greek Govern-ment drop all charges against Savas Michael-

Matsas a Greek Jewish Marxist intellectual and General Sec-retary of the Workers Revolutionary Party (EEK) ofGreece and Constantino Moutzouris, the former rector ofthe University of Athens, on 3 September 2013.

This is an extract from the letter handed in the theGreek Ambassador to the UK, H.E. Mr. Anastase Scopelitison Saturday 31 August 2013:

Savas Matsas is accused of defamation against theGreek openly Nazi party, the infamous Golden Dawn, forinstigation of violence and chaos and disruption of thecivil peace because, four years ago, in May 2009, the EEKhad issued a leaflet calling for participation into an antifas-cist demonstration of protest against a murderous attack bythe Nazis against the immigrant communities in Athenscovered by the Greek police.

Simultaneously with this preposterous legal action, theNazis have intensified a non-stop, vicious anti-Semitic andanti-communist campaign against the Secretary of the EEK,accusing him of being an instrument of the World JewishConspiracy to foment civil war among Greeks to impose a

Judeo-Bolshevik regime in Greece. Pictures of Savas Mi-chael are presented combined with anti-Semitic insults andopenly death threats: Crush the Jewish vermin!

We wish to express our total opposition to the Greekstate and government collaboration with the Nazi GoldenDawn in bringing these persecutions.

We wish to express our outrage at the collaboration ofthe Greek state and government in failing to oppose andthereby collaborating with the vile anti-Semitic campaignagainst Savas Michael-Matsas and thereby against all Jews.

We demand that the charges against Savas Michael-Matsas and Constantino Moutzouris be dropped immedi-ately and that the Greek state and government protect the

immigrant community against the fascist assaults of theGolden Dawn and cease prosecuting their defenders.

Signed OrganisationSteve Hedley on behalf of the Rail and Maritime Union(UK)

Weyman Bennett on behalf of Unite Against Fascism (UAF,UK)D.R. Rayner Lysaght on behalf of Socialist Democracy(Ireland)David Yaffe on behalf of the Revolutionary CommunistGroup (UK)Michael Holden on behalf of the Irish Republican PrisonersSupport Group (London, UK)

Michael Prbsting on behalf of the Revolutionary Commu-nist International Tendency (RCIT, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,USA, Brazil and Austria)

Alex Steiner on behalf of permanent-revolution.org (USA)

Martin Ralph on behalf of the International Socialist League(British section of the LIT)

William Keats on behalf of the Communist Left (Australia)Tony Gard on behalf of the Revolutionary Internationalist

League (British Section of the ITC)Movimiento Popular Unificado (Panama)Juan Marino and Lionel Zivals on behalf of TendenciaPiquetera Revolucionaria - TPR (Argentina)Matas Mlotek on behalf of Frente de Estudiantes en Lucha- FEL (Argentina)Daiana Asquini on behalf of Agrupacin de Mujeres en Lu-cha - Las Piqueteras (Argentina)Sirimal Peiris on behalf of Workers Voice (Sri Lanka)Felicity Dowling Cheshire West NUT Solidarity officer(UK)Martin Jansen on behalf of the Revolutionary MarxistGroup (RMG, South Africa)

Frank Fitzmaurice on behalf of the United Socialist Party(tUSP, UK)Martin Thomas on behalf of the Alliance for Workers Lib-erty (AWL, UK)Marcus Halaby on behalf of Workers Power (WP,UK)

John Byrne on behalf of the Anti Fascist Network (UK)Mark Fischer on behalf of the Communist Party of GreatBritain (CPGB, Weekly Worker)

Antnio Junior on behalf of Vanguarda Metalrgica (Brazil)Humberto Rodrigues on behalf of the Communist League /Liaison Committee for the Fourth International (LCFI, Bra-zil)Len Carlos on behalf of the Tendencia Militante Bolche-

vique (LCFI, Argentina)Gerry Downing on behalf of Socialist Fight, (LCFI, UK)

Yours Sincerely on behalf of the Ad Hoc CommitteeGerry Downing

We call on the TUC to demand of Greece President Karolos Papouliasand Prime Minister Antonis Samaras that they cease prosecuting Sa-vas Michael-Matsas and Constantino Moutzouris for defending immi-grants against the murderous attacks of the fascist organisation

Golden Dawn!

Smash Fascism and the Golden Dawn!Defend immigrant communities in Greece and worldwide!

Savas Michael-Matsas General Secretary of the Workers Revo-lutionary Party (EEK) of Greece