Lambeth Workers Power

Post Office staff vote overwhelmingly to strike

2011-03-18T18:06:00.000Z

The ConDems claim that post offices are safe in their hands. But counter staff face pay freezes and privatisation. Now they have voted 93% in favour of strike action, writes a CWU member

More here

Protest against the cuts, 26 March, join the South London feeder march

2011-03-18T17:57:00.000Z

We will marching on Saturday 26 March on the TUC march against the cuts.

We are also involved in building the feeder march from Kennington Park. This is being promoted by anti-cuts groups in Lambeth, Southwark and Lambeth.

So come along and join the feeder march. More details here at the Lambeth Save our Services website

Report on latest Lambeth SOS meeting

2011-03-06T22:39:00.000Z

After the success of the town hall demonstration and occupation two weeks ago, Lambeth Save Our Services met with new faces and its biggest meeting for some time.

Here is a report

100 years of International Women's Day: public meeting

2011-03-02T15:27:00.003Z

Born at a time of great social turbulence and crisis, when the imperialist nations were gearing up for world war, International Women's Day comes from a tradition of radicalism and revolutionary spirit.

Women and the struggle for socialism
As early as 1896, German revolutionary Clara Zetkin was arguing for the inclusion of women in the political struggle of the working class. She argued that the root of women’s oppression lies within the family – that there is an inseparable connection between the social position of women and private property in the means of production. Without a socialist revolution, women's liberation could not be achieved and, without involving women in the class struggle, the socialist revolution itself would be impossible.

The first International Women's Day 1911
In 1910, Zetkin came to the Second International Conference of Socialist Women with the proposal that Working Women’s Day become an international event. In 1911, more than one million women and men attended rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden under the slogan: “The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for socialism.”
Since then, women have demonstrated and protested on International Women’s Day against discrimination and for political and social equality.

Come to our celebration of International Women's Day with international and national speakers on the struggles of women past and present.

Thursday 10th March at 7pm
UCL – Chadwick G07 Gower Street, WCIE 6BT

Lambeth town hall occupied

2011-02-24T01:58:00.004Z

Local trade unionists and community campaigners occupy Lambeth town hall 23/02/2011

400 protesters demonstrated in Lambeth town hall tonight. The Labour councillors, supported by the Lib dems and Tories, wanted to vote in their package of cuts. The people of Lambeth demanded that they should be in the public gallaries. Despite filling one public gallery, the protesters were denied by council officers the right to fill the second gallery. The protesters then called for opening of the second gallery to the public. Despite requests from the people of Lambeth the councillors refused to allow the public into the second gallery.

Anti-cuts campaigners address demonstration against the cuts

Protesters outside of the Town Hall

Lambeth anti-cut activists then occupied the council chamber both upstairs and downstairs and debated the cuts. We heard from people who would actually be affected by Lambeth council's cuts package. There were children from Loughborough play ground, workers from housing and social services, teachers and teaching assistants, library workers, local residents and pensioners. Many speakers called for more demonstrations, protests, occupations against the government cuts and put forward the case for a general strike to stop the cuts and bring down the government.

Two votes took place tonight. One in secret by the councillors to push through £43 million of cuts; the other in the open by people in the council chamber to oppose every cut that the council wants to make.

There are loads more photos and video at the Lambeth Save Our Services website. You can see how people were angry and determined to fightback against the cuts

Join our campaign, build the 26 March demo in London, come to the next Lambeth Save our Services meeting on the Thursday 3rd March at the Vida Walsh centre in Brixton at 6.30pm.

Mass lobby of Lambeth Council 7 February

2011-02-03T16:54:00.003Z

Anti-cuts campaigners call for mass lobby of Lambeth Council over £37 Million cuts package

A packed planning meeting of local anti-cuts campaigners tonight called upon the people of Lambeth to rally at the Town Hall on Monday evening, 7 February, as the Council considers a £37 Million package of cuts which will cost 600 jobs, including all School Crossing Patrol staff and all Parks Rangers.

“Local people must demand that this Labour Council does not make these cuts,” said local resident Andy Tullis, “we need to be there on Monday night to make sure our views are heard.”

Representatives of local trade unions, pensioners and tenants were joined at the meeting by students and anti-cuts protesters from UK Uncut. Organisers are predicting a large turnout at the lobby of the Council on Monday night.

ENDS

Notes

Lambeth Save Our Services is a local umbrella organisation opposing cuts in public services, supported by the local branches of the UNISON, GMB and NUT unions, by Lambeth Tenants Council and Lambeth Pensioners Action Group. For more information see http://lambethsaveourservices.org/.
The lobby on Monday 7 February will commence from 6pm outside Lambeth Town Hall. Protesters will be dressed as School Crossing Patrol staff (“lollipop ladies”) as one of the Council proposals is to sack all their School Crossing Patrol workers.
Details of Lambeth’s Cuts proposals are included in papers going to the Cabinet meeting available online at http://comp-ap-75:8071/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=26672.
Contact – Jon Rogers 07957505571

Egypt: eyewitness report

2011-02-02T23:52:00.000Z

Here is a report from comrades in Egypt at the moment, including being in Tahrir square today when the pro-Mubarak supporters attacked.

Lambeth Save our Services, public meeting

2010-11-22T13:31:00.001Z

After the lobby of Lambeth Labour (see below), about 80 people gathered at the Lambeth SOS public meeting to discuss fighting the cuts in the borough.

Fighting the cuts
A speaker from South Bank University report in the struggle against education cuts and the hike in tuition fees. He also spoke about how the university management had banned all anti-cuts activity at the university and threatened any societies who supported the protests with having their accounts frozen (for the second time).

A speaker from The Pensioners Action Group spoke about the attacks on pensions and benefit and how the Con-Dems were trying to destroy the idea of universal benefits.

Campaigning priorities
The meeting then broke down into four workshops: education, welfare and benefits, housing and NHS. The workshops came up with action points to campaign on in the coming months to add to the Lambeth SOS statement (see below). Some of the ideas included having a roadshow around the borough of housing workers to meet tenants and to fight evictions from homes by pickets.

At the end speakers outlined the attacks on the workers in Lambeth Housing and the coming ballot on industrial action. Also workers from the One O Clock clubs spoke about their victory over the summer when they stopped the council cutting their service.

Everyone present was urged to join Lambeth SOS and join the fight against the cuts in the borough.

To join email LambethSaveOurServices@gmail.com

Statement adopted by Fighting the Con-Dem Cuts in Lambeth meeting

This Tory-Lib Dem government has unleashed the biggest attack on the

welfare state, working people’s living standards and even our right

to continue to live in our communities – “since the Second World

War”. Shamefully, Lambeth Labour Council is set to pass on these

cuts – of £40 million, one-sixth of its 2011-12 budget – rather

than defend the working people it was elected to represent.

Far from being “all in this together”, banks, big business and the

rich are benefiting from bailouts and profits, bonuses and tax

breaks, despite causing this crisis in the first place. These cuts

are a declaration of war and we will fight back.

This meeting of Lambeth Save Our Services commits ourselves to

resisting every single cut to services, jobs, pay, benefits and

pensions and every single rise in rents, tuition fees and taxes for

working class people.

We support the students opposing tuition fee rises, the firefighters,

tube workers, teachers and housing officers resisting cuts. We call

on Lambeth Labour Party to pass a no cuts budget and mobilise to

fight the government for more money.

We pledge ourselves to make the TUC demo on 29 March 2011 the largest

for years. We will organise solidarity with all struggles against

cuts and help co-ordinate demos, protests and strikes. We will build

for a conference of all anti-cuts groups in South London in early

2011 and attend national gatherings against the cuts.

Lobby of Labour Party meeting 20/11/10

2010-11-22T13:18:00.002Z

Lambeth Save Our Services and workers from the local libraries turned up to lobby a Lambeth wide meeting of the Labour Party on Saturday morning.

Protesters lobby Labour Party meeting in Lambeth 20/11/10
(credit Keith Spencer)

The meeting was called to hear head of the council Steve Reed tell Labour Party members that they had to carry out cuts. Lambeth SOS handed out an open letter to those attending the meeting calling for them to resist all the cuts and fight the government.

Here is a pic from the lobby and below the Lambeth SOS statement put to the meeting.

Dear Labour Party Member,

In the invite to this meeting Steve Reed described the devastation to our borough which will occur if cuts go ahead.

“The Government have announced their spending plans for the next four years. The news for our communities in Lambeth is devastating. We stand to lose almost a third of the council budget that pays for key public services like caring for the old, sick, vulnerable and disabled people, street cleaning, libraries, parks, school support, play, youth services, child safeguarding, HIV services, homelessness, skills training and careers advice to name just a few. Other cuts hammer the poor and the vulnerable, including a cap on housing benefit that could drive the poor out of inner London, rent rises of over 300% for new tenants, the end of secure tenancies, and a cut of 64% in funding to improve sub-standard council homes. Schools also take a big hit with our rebuilding and refurbishment programme slashed by 60% despite a growing shortage of school places across London . “

There have not been cuts on anything like this scale since before the Second World War. We know that the ConDem government made a choice to impose these cuts on our communities. This is an ideological attack, an attempt to dismantle our welfare state. In a crisis causes by profit greed and unregulated banking, the poor are being made to pay.

The numbers speak for themselves:

• Benefit cuts over the next 4 years: £18 billion

• Cuts in education and local services: £16 billion

• Bank profits for this year alone: £28 billion

But just as the ConDem government have a choice so does this Labour Council. Our council, elected by the people of Lambeth to protect them from a Tory government, should use their position and their platforms to build an anti-cuts movement.

You have been invited today to discuss the council’s budget. Tell your councillors:

• Don’t make social cuts now!

• Councils are large organisations with complex finances which give them leeway.

• Bring the ALMO back in house! Saving money on a separate board and creating duplicating teams.

• Cut top management pay

• Cut councillors' expenses

• Sack the consultants

• Use reserves, juggle accounts to move spending items from one financial year to the next, borrow (although there are legal limits on councils borrowing, there may still be loopholes)

• Pass a No Cuts budget and mobilise the unions, community organisations and residents to fight for more money from the government

Build the anti cuts movement!

> Mobilise council workers, council tenants, trade unions and local communities to fight the cuts. Cutting management pay and financial juggling aren’t an answer to the central government cuts but they can buy us time to build a movement to fight back.

> United action against the cuts!

> Aim to build united local action against the cuts in Lambeth - councillors refusing to budget within central government limits, council workers striking, council tenants rent-striking, residents withholding council tax, demonstrations - with the demand that central government restores the money for local services.

> Support Lambeth Living Unison workers' strike ballot and reverse the cuts.

> If all Labour councils took this stand, then the ConDem government would have to retreat very quickly. If even a sizeable few did, then the government would be in big trouble. This government has no democratic mandate for what they plan to do.

> Labour councillors should join Save Our Services the local anti- cuts campaign. Don’t tell the people of Lambeth there is no alternative, join us to discuss what we can do to stop the cuts.

Join us at our next meeting:

Vida Walsh Centre, 2nd December 6.30

Massive student demo occupies Tory HQ in London

2010-11-10T17:08:00.003Z

The biggest student demonstration in living memory has marched in London today against the Con-Dems. It is also the biggest demonstration against the government cuts so far.

Fifty thousand students from all over the country have protested against the raising of tuition fees and the government’s cuts in education. But already the leaders of the movement and the media a re preparing for a witch-hunt.

This was a huge militant demonstration of 50,000 students with sit-downs, banners and placards, flares and a massive occupation of the Conservative headquarters at 30 Milbank.

There were also more than a thousand students marching in the “free education block”, organised by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts and other organisations, that started marching from London’s ULU.

This was a huge militant demonstration with sit-downs, banners and placards, flares and a massive occupation of the Conservative headquarters at 30 Milbank.

The building was occupied by thousands of people and protestors reached the top. Staff in the building had to leave and the police were driven out of the building and the foyer. Socialist youth group Revolution flew its flag from the top of the Milbank Tower

This huge demonstration should act as a catalyst for the labour and trade union movement, which should follow suit and build for an even bigger demonstration on the scale of the anti-war movement against the war.

Backlash and witch-hunt

A few windows were broken and a couple of police were injured – with more protesters having been injured – all minor.

But that hasn’t stopped the leaders of the movement from criticising the protesters.

Sadly, the NUS president Aaron Porter has already gone on TV attacking the occupiers and the UCU’s Sally Hunt referred to a “mindless tiny minority".

Also the BBC and Sky 24-hour news operation have already blamed the students for violence, talked it up, even making up figures for injured people.They are also asking students whether they members of “other organisations” and talking about “balaclava-masked people turning up with hammers” – without actually providing any footage of such people.

Build the student movement against the cuts

Workers Power supports wholeheartedly the action of the students including those who have occupied Tory central office.

It is a great response to start building a national campaign against tuition fees.

We must also stand against any witch-hunt that will follow, condemn those in our movement who want to inform or criticise and set up a legal campaign to defend anyone arrested.

The students are not the criminals for fighting back – the Tories and their Lib Dem lackies are the real criminals for introducing their cuts.

ANTICAPITALISM 2010, this weekend

2010-11-04T11:55:00.000Z

ANTICAPITALISM will bring together a range of activists in the movement to discuss the global economic crisis, how we can build resistance and a socialist alternative to the profit system.

This is an ideal event to learn socialist ideas for the first time, as well as participate in debates on the future of the movement among seasoned activists – ANTICAPITALISM 2010 is not to be missed!

Full details of programme and speakers here

Lambeth Save our Services, tonight

2010-11-04T10:57:00.000Z

Lambeth Save our Services, tonight 6.30 at Vida Walsh Centre, Windrush Square

For all those who want to get involved and fight the cuts. We will be discussing the public meeting on Saturday 20 November.

Brixton Demonstration today

2010-10-30T20:43:00.002+01:00


Demo returns to Windrush Square in Brixton (all credits Keith Spencer)

About 200 people demonstrated in Brixton against the cuts today. We rallied in Windrush Square before marching around the High Street and then returning to hear the closing speakers. The mood was angry and determined as speaker after speaker spoke about the cuts on their workplaces or services. What was uplifting however was that the speakers also reported on the resistance, all over the borough and nationwide people were organising and fighting back.

Women from the 1 O Clock clubs speak at rally

There were plenty of speakers involved in fighting the cuts: women from the 1 O Clock clubs who fought off one of the first attacks on Lambeth services in the summer.

Housing and services savaged
Stewards from Lambeth housing outlined the scale of the attacks on the workforce (which will be fully revealed in November) and the housing stock with the Con-Dems savaging social housing. Also the cuts to housing benefit will mean that many people in the borough – one of London's poorest – will be made homelessness and be forced to move. London councils report that more than 80,000 households will be made homeless with the benefit cuts. There were speakers from adult and children's services who reported on the scale of the attacks and the fact that Lambeth is one of the most deprived boroughs in the country already.

Student from local university talks about the
fight against education cuts

A student from one of the local universities talked about the attacks on education and the need to unite students and workers. There were other speakers from Lambeth pensioners, Right to Work and other campaigns.

Labour councillor who fought
When we returned to the Square after the march former Lambeth Council leader Ted Knight spoke. Ted is one of the councillors who refused to implement Tory cuts in the 1980s and was fined and banned from office. He pointedly told Labour councillors that their duty was to the people who elected them not the government. And next to speak was Kingsley Abrahams, Labour councillor who has resigned the whip in Lambeth and who is against the cuts, he reported on what was going on in the council.

Lambeth SOS Public meeting
We finshed off with a steward from housing reminding people of the demonstration of Monday at 12.30 and a reminder to get involved with Lambeth Save our Services, which is holding a public meeting on Saturday 20 November 12.00 to 2pm at the St Mathew's Tenants Hall, St Matthew's Road, Brixton, London SW2 1NH.

Please come along. If you are interested in getting involved with Lambeth SOS e-mail lambethsaveourservices@gmail.com

Vodafone protest today in Brixton

2010-10-30T18:13:00.021+01:00

After the Lambeth Save Our Services demonstration in Brixton today some of us went off to protest outside Vodafone, the tax-doging company which owed £6bn but was let off by George Osbourne. This is the same Osbourne that is slashing our services claiming "we can't afford it" and the same Vodafone that is one of the world's largest multinationals.

ANTICAPITALISM 2010 6-7 Nov, London

2010-10-30T16:42:00.001+01:00

ANTICAPITALISM will bring together a range of activists in the movement to discuss the global economic crisis, how we can build resistance and a socialist alternative to the profit system.

This is an ideal event to learn socialist ideas for the first time, as well as participate in debates on the future of the movement among seasoned activists – ANTICAPITALISM 2010 is not to be missed!

Full details of event including speakers, sessions and how to book a ticket

Demonstrate against the cuts, Brixton Saturday 30 October

2010-10-28T13:29:00.000+01:00

The Tory spending review will destroy jobs, services and communities.
That's why in Lambeth we are

UNITED AGAINST THE CUTS

A demonstration will take place on
Saturday, 30 October
Meet 12.30pm, Windrush Square, Brixton
Please tell everyone you know to come out, and defend our jobs and services.

***
Called by Lambeth Save Our Services, (Lambeth Pensioners Action group, Lambeth UNISON, Lambeth GMB, Lambeth NUT, Lambeth UCU) and supported by Right to Work, Defend Council Housing, Green Left, Youth Fight for Jobs

For more info, call 07975 505571

Lambeth Save our Services actions

2010-09-01T16:08:00.000+01:00

There will be a weekend stall on Sunday 4 September between 1pm and 2.30pm at Lambeth Town Hall

Watch this space for stalls and the coming public meeting

One O' Clock Clubs victory in Lambeth

2010-08-13T16:28:00.000+01:00

The Lambeth One O' Clock clubs have won a victory against the council by stopping some of the cuts. This is an important success coming as it does at the start of the Save Our Services campaign and as Unison in the council starts balloting for action against the budget cuts.

It also shows that the cuts can be stopped. Workers and users campaigned and fought the council and have had some success.

However, despite the victory, workers know that the council is still out to get them. As one of the women from the One O' Clock clubs said at the Lambeth Save our Services meeting: "We've got 100 per cent union density - we know they'll be back for us".

We need to build a mass, united campaign in Lambeth to support the One O' Clock clubs and fight every other cut

Lambeth Save our Services, report

2010-08-13T16:17:00.001+01:00

Lambeth Save our Services met on Thursday 5 August. There is a report over at Lambeth Activists

The next meeting is Thursday 19 August at 6.30pm at the Unison offices at 6 Acre Lane, just opposite the Town Hall. All welcome

Below are the proposals that came out of the meeting on the 5 August.

• To lobby the next full council meeting and demand the right to speak. There was about a hundred people at the last lobby and it made it into the South London Press.
• To produce a regular bulletin.
• To hold weekend and lunchtime stalls.
• To arrange weekends where we go out on mass and go door to door on the bigger council estates trying to get people involved in the campaign.
• To hold a public meeting on 29 September.
• To consider the tactic of occupations.
• To write something about New Labour's "cooperative council" and what it really means.
• To organise a petition along along the lines of Labour councils off you knees (Labour councils should refuse to implement cuts).
• Get effected workers to local Labour Party meetings to argue against implementing the cuts.
• Join up with campaigns in other boroughs, especially those with Labour Councils.

Lambeth Save our Services public meeting

2010-08-04T18:50:00.000+01:00

is tomorrow night. please come along if you can make it. The more people there the better we can build a vibrant local campaign against the cuts.

Lambeth Save our Services, 6.30pm, Thursday 5 August
Vida Walsh Centre
2b Saltoun Road
Brixton, SW2 1EP

Protest tonight at council meeting, Lambeth Town Hall

2010-07-26T20:58:00.000+01:00

Here's a pic at tonight's Lambeth Council. Again most people went in to challenge councillors over the cuts. There will be a public meeting sponsored by Lambeth Unison on Thursday 5 August at the Vida Walsh Centre, 2b Saltoun Road, Brixton, SW2 1EP

Save Lambeth's children and young people's services

2010-07-20T23:39:00.002+01:00

Monday night saw nearly 100 people demonstrate outside the town hall in Brixton in defence of children and young people's services, which are facing the brunt of Lambeth Council's cuts. The demo was lively with lots of workers, parents and children attending. Afterwards many went into the committee meeting to challenge the councillors.

Joint trade union leaflet to Lambeth country show

2010-07-16T16:48:00.001+01:00

This is part of an 8-page leaflet being put out by Unison, GMB and NUT unions to the Lambeth Country Show this weekend. There will be leafleting and also a stall in the political village at the fair. Please read and show your support. It is crucial to services in Lambeth that the trade unions are supported in defending jobs and services. Show your support by taking some leaflets and getting active.

Nearly half of Lambeth Council homes are substandard

2010-07-16T16:27:00.001+01:00

The latest report from Lambeth Council shows that there has been an increase in the number of substandard homes in the borough from 30 per cent (March 2009) to 49 per cent.

During May's election campaign, Lambeth Workers Power highlighted that the council's own figures in its annual report showed that 50 per cent of homes were "Not Decent".

Now we learn that substandard homes in Lambeth have increased by more than 60 per cent since March 2009.

Lambeth Living crisis

The borough's Labour group set up Lambeth Living as an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) in order to win £230 million funding from the then government. Lambeth Living has been in severe financial difficulties since its inception and has struggled to improve housing in the area.

But it still managed to pay out loads of money to consultants and appoint former Streatham MP and housing minister Keith Hill to lead it.

Now with the Con-Dem package of coalition cuts it is a possible that Lambeth Living won't receive any of its £230 million from the government, meaning that the residents will suffer.

The Lib Dems in Lambeth have put the blame on the "shambolic management of the housing stock" but their masters in Westminster are busily carrying out cuts that will worsen our local homes.

Fighting cuts in Lambeth
The revelation over the housing stock comes at the same time that the council is cutting about 400 jobs and closing services. We need a united campaign to fight the housing, public service and job cuts that should include trade unionists and workers; housing campaigners, community groups, pensioners and local people wanting to defend their services.

In Lambeth, the various campaigns and activists should come together in an anti-cuts committee which can link up the struggles and lead a fightback in the borough. An anti-cuts committee can also link up with other anti-cuts campaign such as the one in neighbouring Southwark and others nationwide in order to build a united national fightback.

We should also mobilise in support of a budget based on need; whatever money the people of Lambeth require to improve jobs and services, including raising the standard of housing, should be spent and demanded from the government. The bankers and the rich made this crisis and now are cutting our services to pay for it. We say make them pay.

• For a Lambeth-wide anti-cuts committee
• For a budget based on need
• Tax the rich, the banks and multinationals

Lambeth Activists newsletter: summer 2010

2010-07-14T11:43:00.001+01:00

Lambeth Activists is a group of Unison activists who have played a key role in building the union in recent years, and getting fighting policies passed through the Lambeth branch. This is their newsletter for this summer. Download as a PDF here

***

Lambeth Activists Newsletter
Summer 2010

INSIDE:
GAZA – BREAK THE SIEGE!
THE TRUTH ABOUT TEMPS
NO TO EDUCATION CUTS
STAFF CONFERENCES – GOOD VALUE?
LETTERS
DEFEND EVERY JOB AND SERVICE!

• COUNCIL THREATENS TO CUT OVER 450 JOBS AND DECIMATE HOUSING AND SOCIAL SERVICES
• CON-DEM GOVERNMENT WARNS OF WORST CUTS SINCE WORLD WAR II
• LAMBETH UNISON BRANCH COMMITTEE PLEDGE TO DEFEND EVERY SINGLE JOB AND SERVICE
By Jeremy Drinkall, Lilian Baylis School Shop Steward (personal capacity)

Tens of thousands of working class turned out to re-elect Labour to Lambeth council in May in order to keep the Tory wolves at bay. But our councillors immediately repaid their working class voters by imposing over 450 job cuts – not “just” the 334 announced two weeks ago, but also up to 70 in Lambeth Living and 60 or more in Adult and Community Services.

The biggest cuts are to Children’s and Young Persons’ Services (215 jobs), Adult and Community Services (60-70 jobs) and Housing (about 125 jobs, including Lambeth Living). The cuts will destroy some services and inevitably it will be the poorest and most disadvantaged sections of our community that will suffer most.

In addition, the local authority is pressing ahead with plans to invite residents to “run their own services” in return for a council tax rebate in Britain’s first “cooperative council”. This can only mean:
a) privatisation, since firms would be brought in to “advise” residents and implement their proposals
b) job cuts, as volunteers would replace well-trained and experienced staff.
c) profit before people, as private sector organisations increasingly look to make even more money out of delivering public services in accordance with market principles.

What a recipe for disaster!
Nor are these the last of our problems. The Con-Dem coalition has been quick off the mark to announce big reductions in council services: £537 million from grants to councils, £311 million from funding for schools, £309 million from transport budgets.

Add to that, we’ve been offered zero per cent on our pay (while inflation is back up to 5.3%) and now the Whitehall politicians are whipping up a storm over the “cost” of public sector pensions, i.e. the wages we’ve put aside for our retirement.

We can resist these attacks
But those who want to put hundreds of working class people on the dole and slash public services have counted on us being shocked into silence. They hope we will become resigned to our fate and accept that there is no alternative and that local people will not stand with us in defence of our jobs.

But we will not be silenced. We know there is an alternative. And we have the capacity to lead the working people of Lambeth behind us in defending jobs and services.

Lambeth Activists is a small but growing group of Unison members who want to see the branch bring in new activists and develop fighting policies. We have been at the forefront of the resistance to the council cuts, persuading colleagues in our own and other workplaces to stop the cuts; as shop steward and branch officers, writing bulletins and motions for action; linking up with other unions, like the lecturers at Lambeth College, to launch a united campaign of resistance.

At the last branch committee, we won unanimous support for our policy of defending every job. Of course, some colleagues might be tempted to take voluntary redundancy rather than provide a deteriorating service with fewer rewards but with 2.5 million on the dole, any pay-off will soon be spent and it will be hard to find as good a job. Those left at work will still have to do the same amount of work with fewer colleagues.

We also won the argument to recruit and defend agency workers, some of whom have worked at the council for over a year. They too have families, rent or mortgages, bills. We demand they are made permanent, not redundant.

It’s not just Lambeth council, either. Civil servants face a recruitment freeze, tube workers are going on strike on 23-25 June over pay, jobs and conditions, and Lambeth college lecturers are striking (again) against pay cuts on 21 June. Our motion to the branch committee agreed to set up an anti-cuts committee with all the public sector unions, the trades council and community and campaigning organisations, like the Tenants Council.

Prepare for strike action
Most importantly, we must prepare to take strike action to stop the cuts. At the end of the day, it is unlikely that we will be able to persuade the council to back down by argument alone. But strike action may force them to back off.

At Lambeth College, serious concessions have been wrenched from management after a one-day strike, but the union is striking again to save more jobs. Last year Leeds refuse collectors and Tower Hamlets college staff went further and took all-out strike action until they won. And they did win.

We can do the same here. But we need everyone to recruit their workmates to the union. We need to build up a network of solidarity from service users and other unions, so we can sustain ourselves over the period of action.

And we need as many union members as possible to become activists, so that our campaign is run from the grassroots: every decision, every tactic, every action has to be the collective decision of the majority. No more sell-outs from Unison head office – this time we want to fight and win!

Join the union if you’re not already a member. Recruit others to the union. Put yourself forward to be a shop steward. And join Lambeth Activists today.

Lambeth UNISON is holding a meeting at 12:30 , 5th July 2010 in Lambeth Town Hall.

Together we can resist these attacks!

http://lambethactivists.blogspot.com/

GAZA – BREAK THE SIEGE!
By Gurmeet Khurana, Lambeth UNISON International Officer (personal capacity)

On May 31, Israeli commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara, the largest boat of the freedom flotilla that was carrying aid to the 1.5 million people of Gaza, and murdered 9 unarmed activists and injured many more. The boats were carrying much needed humanitarian aid such as food, medicine, building materials and books for the children of Gaza. The boat was in international waters at the time of the killings. This was not just mission to deliver aid to Gaza but also an attempt to break the illegal siege that Israel has imposed on the people of Gaza since the election of Hamas in 2006.

Israel claims that the murder of unarmed civilians in international waters was an act of self defence and that the murdered activists were armed and were members of Hamas and Al-Qaeda. These outright lies have been exposed by the testimonials of hundreds of activists who were eyewitnesses to the attacks. The autopsies of those killed has also revealed that they were actively targeted. Furkan Dogan, a 19 year old, was shot five times, from close range in the side of his nose, in the back of the head, in the back and twice in the left leg. Others were also shot from behind.

The IDF also admitted to doctoring audio recordings of communication between itself and the flotilla which had the activists saying things like “Shut up and go back to Auschwitz” and “We’re helping the Arabs against the US, don’t forget 9/11. And now the very people that committed the crime will be conducting an ‘impartial’ investigation into what happened!

Israel says that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza and so there is no need for aid convoys. But Gaza’s people are suffering terribly under the siege. Around 70 percent of people live on less than $1 a day, 75 percent rely on food aid and 60 percent have no daily access to water and unemployment is high. The International Committee of the Red Cross says that the crisis is so deep it cannot be solved by humanitarian aid, only by lifting the siege.

The Gaza Strip has been under siege since 1991, preventing the Palestinians from living meaningful and civilized lives. This was intensified in 2007 after Hamas won the 2006 elections thus collectively punishing the people of Gaza for daring to choose their own government!

In response to the murders of the courageous activists on board the Mavi Marmara, thousands of people have staged angry demonstrations across the world including London, Istanbul, Madrid, Sweden and in Israel itself. The workers movement has also responded with many unions issuing statements condemning the attacks and calling for the immediate lifting of the blockage. The most inspiring action has come from the Swedish Dock Workers Union who will be blockading all Israeli ships and goods, both to and from Israel, from 15-24 June! These actions now need to spread to trade union branches around the world in an effort to intensify the Palestinian call for a global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign!

There are also plans for two simultaneous convoys, one by land and the other by sea, which will leave for Gaza in September. The target is to enter Gaza by land with 500 vehicles and by sea with sixty ships. The convoy’s aim will be to arrive on Gaza's frontiers at the same time and to enter with the world's largest ever aid convoys thereby render the siege null and void. The workers movement needs to be behind this convoy and should look at sponsoring vehicles and ships as well as organising locally to fundraise and raise awareness of the siege and the Palestinian struggle in local communities.

Lambeth UNISON, alongside the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign, hold monthly boycott, divestment and sanctions stalls in Brixton. To get involved, contact Gurmeet on 07828 668496.
http://www.palestinecampaign.org

THE TRUTH ABOUT TEMPS
By Mary Kotey and Rob Gowland, Lambeth UNISON Membership Officers (personal capacity)

A lot of things are being said about Agency Workers at the moment and emotions are running high. We should not forget that Agency Workers are often the most vulnerable members of our workforce.

Management and union bureaucrats often view temps as entirely expendable. A recent union bulletin stated, referring to job cuts, that “deletions are of posts and not of people. Some of these posts may already be vacant whilst others may be filled by agency workers who will be terminated.” Sadly, this says it all.

Lambeth Activists are clear on their stance regarding agency workers - all workers should stand together to fight these cuts.

Aside from the financial effects of jobs losses, cuts will result in poorer services being provided; remaining workers will have to carry out the work previously undertaken by double the number of workers. The pressure will be immense!

Much work has been done on increasing the rights of agency workers, such as working towards guaranteeing that pay and working conditions are the same to permanent staff performing the same roles. Despite this there is still a lot of work to be done such as paid leave on bank holiday and sick pay. Agency Workers carry out important roles, often for lengthy periods, and always with the threat of termination with ones week’s notice and no redundancy pay. They are often given no indication of what is happening with their posts and are not given a chance to find alternative employment. Many have years of experience that will be lost if they are “terminated”.

What Agency Workers may not be aware of is that if they have served for a length of time, usually over a year, they may be entitled to assimilation rights into their posts. This is something the Union can and will help with. Lambeth Activists also believe any posts filled by Agency Workers should be advertised as permanent jobs and the Agency Worker covering the post given the chance to apply for the job. Furthermore, Agency Workers should be given the same redeployment rights as permanent members of staff.

Another thing people seem to have overlooked - or conveniently forgotten - is that many Agency Workers are members of our Union, and therefore should be receiving the same support as permanent workers who are facing the threat of their jobs being cut. Not simply being told that they will be “terminated”. Those of them who aren’t should join now.

An injury to one is an injury to all. We all need to stand together to fight these job and service cuts.

http://lambethactivists.blogspot.com/

NO IFS, NO BUTS, NO EDUCATION CUTS
By Dave Esterson, Lambeth College UCU Rep (personal capacity)

On Monday 21st June staff and students at Lambeth College demonstrated in the heart of Brixton against the planned £3.5 million in cuts this year. University College Union (UCU) members walked out on a one hour strike and were joined on the demonstration by college members of Unison.

The cuts that have been proposed are severe: scores of staff still face compulsory redundancy; courses are to be cut; many courses will see teaching hours reduced and class sizes increased; the cost for parents to put children in the nursery will rise as will the cost of many courses for local residents.

There has been a period of consultation with the Senior Management team but the reality is although some progress has been made by the joint efforts of Unison and UCU the managers here are still determined to push ahead with their plans.

In fact, management have proved themselves unprepared to alleviate the effects of the cuts and have scandalously defended their astronomical salaries. The Principal of the college receives a salary of around £160,000 and the other senior managers all receive more than £100,000. They have also defended the fact the college pays for them all to have private health insurance. Meanwhile they have decided to create another senior management position, again at a salary of over £100,000.

The truth is without more sustained militant direct action by workers at the college we will not change their minds. No amount of well presented arguments or articulate speeches in consultation meetings will convince them. Only the threat or actual carrying out of action that affects the running of the college will help them ‘focus’.

So far this has not happened. UCU members went on strike for one day but have since been reluctant to take further industrial action despite the agreed one hour strike to attend the demonstration. Unison is still waiting for the go ahead to get a ballot for action.

It is important to remember that the proposed cuts originated under the Labour government. We can only expect more of the same in the next few years from the new coalition government. The cuts at Lambeth have been repeated in many colleges and universities. We are now going to see the same story right across the public sector.

The situation cries out for united national action across the public sector – direct action. The demonstration on 21st June is also part of the joint education unions’ United for Education day of action but in the information sent out by the unions it made it clear this was not a day of industrial action. But to defeat the onslaught against our public services we will need to build an almighty movement, an alliance of public sector workers with the working class users of the services we provide. And it will need to take action – strike action, occupations, lobbies, demonstrations and blockades. At the heart of this must be national strike action led by the unions.

The problem is that the union leaders are running scared that any such action might fall foul of the anti-union laws. Trade union activists will have to argue that this means one thing: either we can’t take the effective action we need to defend our jobs and services or we will have to defy the anti-union laws.

Organising against the cuts in public services is a matter of urgency. An immediate thing that can be done is to organise networks or co-ordinating bodies made up from trade union reps and activists in local community campaigns. We should organise one in Lambeth and aim to build a campaign of united action.

The demonstration on 21st June was one such opportunity for local anti-cuts activists and trade unions to unite, and it is important that workers stand together in the future to defend public services and jobs.

http://lambethactivists.blogspot.com/

LETTERS FROM LAMBETH
PLEASE SEND LETTERS FOR OUR NEWSLETTER TO: lambethactivist@gmail.com

Questioning the cuts

Dear fellow workers,

Well what can one say in today’s climate - and I don’t mean the weather. What is going to happen to us, the hard workers in the public sector?

Will there be cuts? Where will the cuts come from? Am I safe? Can’t they cut elsewhere? What is the union doing about it? It’s not my fault we are in so much debt, why should I suffer? Why should my family suffer?

Well here’s news for you, the chancellor, George Osborne states that cutting the national deficit is going to be the great national challenge of our generation: “We’ve got to get Britain to live within its means…it’s time to show the country we are all in it together…after all it is our collective debt” Wow, strong words!

He is even going to ask and make sure that all the best and brightest brains in all parties across Whitehall and the public sector, voluntary groups, think-tank’s, trade unions, members of the public. They want us to tell them what to do. What a great PR exercise. Now if it all goes wrong it’s your fault.

Why the public sector? No real pay rises in years, left behind in inflation, rent rises, gas rises, electric rises, water rises, council tax rises, family grocery rises etc..

Well here are few suggestions. Bring back our forces from abroad. Talk to our so called “enemies”, not kill them. Get back the money we gave to bail out the banks - billions! Cut big business bonuses. Cut top Civil servants pay and Local Authority top executives pay. Stop the cancer of outsourcing and highly paid consultants in all walks of life doing the jobs that highly paid managers are supposed to do. Re-nationalise the electric, gas, water and railways - they all make a profit let that profit be shared amongst the people, not to a privileged few.

In answer to the questions asked at the beginning, there are no answers at this time, but please stop using the I word, we are in it together at least the working classes are.

Join a union and be heard and fight along side your fellow workers. If you fight alone you will be defeated, if you fight in numbers we can save our jobs.

In solidarity,

Reg Morrison, Lambeth Living UNISON Convenor (personal capacity)

Help!

Dear fellow workers,

Already this mixed bag of politicians is supposedly going to ask us all how we can help to balance the books,

So expect a letter from George Osborne and co. We haven’t quite got to the stage of all these charities on the television, please donate a fiver to save your nation but it may come to that.

Here are some ideas:

1. Slash the Civil List; let the monarchy pay for itself. Take some of the profits that Charles reaps from the Duchy of Cornwall. The Queen can open her doors to the “Flog It” team, or perhaps “Cash in the Attic”?

2. Slash the days that Tax exiles can spend in Britain to nil. Stay and pay their dues to the country that made them or stay away for good.

3. End charitable status of private schools. It would not only bring in millions but encourage the privileged few to send their kids to local schools, making Tories to end their token lip-service to state education and build the schools that any civilised country expects.

4. Evict David Cameron and co out of grace and favour homes and turn them into hostels for al the people he is about to make homeless. His cabinet are mainly made up of millionaires why do they need Chequers and Dorneywood, they have their own country homes?

5. Abolish the House of Lords attendance fees. If they are so interested in helping the country, let them do it for free.

6. Let’s not pretend we are super power any longer, cut our defence budget to the bone and scrap Trident immediately.

7. Cut every chauffeured limo for all cabinet members, let them use buses.

8. The most important cut should be on alcohol tax, for what we are going to go through we are going to need a drink!

We are looking at a hideous stream of lies about our financial situation. But what we are really facing is ruling elite that despises the public sector and are using the crisis, caused by the bankers ,as an excuse to attack us.

Anonymous

STAFF CONFERENCES:
THE QUICKEST WAY FORWARD?
By a UNISON shop steward (personal capacity)

Asked to explain why they are spending thousands of pounds hiring lavish conference facilities in a time of massive job cuts due to a supposed financial crisis, a Lambeth Council spokesperson said:

"this engagement approach and what follows is the cheapest and quickest way forward."

A couple of years ago I carelessly failed to book leave to coincide with one of these idiotic and offensively wasteful events, and so was obliged to sit and watch some DIY MBA throwing toy fish at his audience in an attempted illustration of American business acumen. Obviously when you are struggling to provide public services in collapsing buildings, what you really need to know is how Americans sell fish. Reminded of another American tradition, some members of the audience were looking around for a rope, and the presentation trailed off before they could locate one.

After this Derrick Anderson leapt on to the stage, punched the air, yodelled a greeting and appeared to expect us to rise and issue a roar of applause like a bunch of inebriated Illinois hinge salesmen on a jolly in Las Vegas. Instead he was received with discontented muttering, some of it quite unkind, and berated us for our lack of enthusiasm. He then gave way to the consultant hired to present the event (£1 million worth [sic] of senior executives obviously couldn't be expected to do that without outside assistance) who bounded over to me with his wireless microphone and asked me why I was facing the window and eating a sandwich instead of getting on board and engaging positively in the way forward with the team.

Having swallowed the obscenities which sprang immediately to mind, and the rest of the sandwich (crayfish tails and rocket, as I recall), I said I'd be happy to join in if he or any of the aforementioned executives could show me a single benefit resulting from the previous conference, or the one before that, or a single loss caused by their absence in the years when they didn't happen. Being an outsider, he considered this a reasonable request, and passed it on to the execs. Having little choice in the circumstances they too opined that it was a reasonable request. But they didn't answer it, and they still haven't.

The manager of the library where I work needs a functioning computer to book maintenance jobs, procurement, email, accounting, all the usual stuff. This engagement approach and what follows really is the cheapest and quickest way forward. It's a few hundred quid, but the council won't pay for it. They prefer to spend a similar amount every month sending out technicians to try to repair the (very) old one and tell her it needs replacing.

ACTIVIST LINKS

LOCAL

Lambeth Activists
http://lambethactivists.blogspot.com/

Transition Town Brixton
http://www.transitiontownbrixton.org/

NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL

Stop the War Coalition
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/

IndyMedia
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/

Industrial Workers of the World
http://www.iww.org/

Feminist Fightback
http://www.feministfightback.org.uk/

Marxists Internet Archive
http://www.marxists.org

Palestine Solidarity Campaign
http://www.palestinecampaign.org/

Join Lambeth Activists
Help us build fighting, member-led unions
We are a group of activists in Lambeth who believe that the trade union movement at large needs to be rebuilt from the grass-roots, encouraging maximum participation and control of unions by members and giving workers the confidence to fight collectively for their own interests in their workplaces. We want inclusive, active, fighting unions that effectively take on management and the government by involving all workers in action to defend and extend our rights.
There is an alternative. Email us at lambethactivist@gmail.com or text 07761 707135 to get involved. We have regular meetings in central Brixton.

Visit us at our blog: http://lambethactivists.blogspot.com/

Educate.
• Marxism 2010, - Ideas to Change the World, 1-5 July 2010, Central London
• Ideas for Freedom 2010, 9-11 July, Central London

Agitate.
• Lambeth UNISON/Palestine Solidarity Campaign – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel stall will be held at 1pm, Wednesday 30th June, 2010 outside of Brixton Tube

Organise.
• Lambeth UNISON Branch Meeting, 12:30pm, 5th July, Lambeth Town Hall.
• Anti-cuts planning meeting. UNISON office, 6a Acre Lane, Wednesday 30 June, 6pm
• Email us at lambethactivist@gmail.com or text 07761 707135 to get involved!

Lambeth Town Hall protest

2010-07-10T12:11:00.000+01:00

Picture of protest at Town Hall on budget day. See report below

Lambeth council workers prepare for strikes

2010-07-09T12:15:00.002+01:00

Council workers are ramping up the action to stop cuts to jobs and services. Jeremy Drinkall, a Lambeth Unison shop steward reports

Unison branch meeting largest for a decade
Indicative ballot for strikes called
Branch unanimously calls for general strike

Lambeth’s Labour council is threatening to cut 500 jobs, leaving hundreds of local families wondering where their next rent or mortgage cheque will come from. Inevitably, this will also destroy family services, too, such as parents and toddlers’ One O’Clock Clubs, Adventure Playgrounds and school services, like Ethnic Minorities Achievement and Special Educational Needs Literacy teams. Housing, adult and community services will also be decimated.

The feeling among the workforce is a mixture of shock and boiling anger. So it is no wonder that about 250 Unison members attended the branch’s biggest meeting for a decade to discuss how to fight the cuts. They overwhelmingly agreed to move quickly to a consultative ballot for “industrial action up to and including strike action in defence of jobs and services".

Branch Secretary Jon Rogers drew gasps when he told union members that, although some of the “deleted posts” had been vacant, management had now produced new figures, which deepened the cuts and added even more to the number of workers whose jobs are threatened. For example, Children’s and Young People’s Services would now cut – not 215 posts, but – 285 posts! As Jon told the audience, “One thing is certain about budget crises: never believe a word management has to say.”

Moving the amendment to organise the indicative strike ballot, I added a further warning: if the workforce do not resist in a united way, then management will come back for more and more cuts, because they will see the unions as easy meat; but if we unite and fight together, we can reduce the cuts and dissuade them from returning to the offensive and start building the movement necessary to beat the cuts altogether.

The general meeting also agreed to lobby the council from 6pm on 19 and 26 July, as well as leafleting the Lambeth Country Fair on 17-18 July, where branch officers and activists will also staff a stall in the “Union Village” tent. Now is the time for all union members to up their game and join in the battle to stop the cuts by:

recruiting their workmates to the union
volunteering to become a shop steward
attending lobbies, meetings and protests called by the unions
encouraging friends, families and their communities to get involved in the campaign to stop the Tory cuts which will effect us all.

Lambeth Unison recognises that these cuts actually predate the budget and will therefore be followed by more redundancies and privatisation. We unanimously passed motions rejecting the two-year pay freeze (in reality a pay cut, since inflation is currently running at 5.1%), denouncing the attacks on the state pension and public sector pensions and supporting the setting up of a local all-union anti-cuts committee. A 20-strong planning meeting has already set the ball rolling with such a committee; now we need to spread it beyond the NUT, GMB, Unison, Unite, the pensioners action group, housing activists and benefit claimants, who have so far shown interest.

As further evidence of the branch’s determination to take the fight to the cuts coalition government, we unanimously agreed to call on the TUC to organise a one-day general strike on the European Day of Action against austerity measures on 29 September, and to protest at the Tory party conference in Birmingham on 5 October.

A new, newspaper-style bulletin is now being produced, ready to give away at the Country Fair (despite its name, a very good reggae festival!). We are planning meetings and more leaflets to make sure we win a big “yes” vote in the consultative ballot – so that if, as seems inevitable, we need to take official strike action in early August, we will be ready. Indeed, even since the branch meeting, management has conceded that they have not sufficiently informed the unions about the cuts and therefore the 90-day “consultation” period has not yet begun. This only shows that we can shake their cocky confidence. Let’s continue to pile on the pressure – we have nothing to lose, and our jobs and services to save!

Lambeth fights cuts

2010-06-25T16:43:00.000+01:00

The Con-Dem cuts coalition was quick off the mark to announce big reductions in council services: £537 million from grants to local authorities, £311 million from funding for schools, £309 million from transport budgets. If you want to see how this billion pound bomb could impact on your town, take a look at Lambeth in south London.

Ironically, Labour increased its majority on our council in May, winning seats from Tories and Lib-Dems. But Labour immediately repaid its working class voters by imposing nearly 500 job cuts. In addition, it pressed ahead with plans to invite residents to “run their own services” in return for a council tax rebate in Britain’s first “cooperative council”.

The biggest cuts are to Children’s and Young Persons’ Services (215 jobs), Adult and Community Services (about 70 jobs) and Housing (about 125 jobs). Unison Convenor Andy Tullis told a 50-strong meeting of CYPS members, “Everything that is not a statutory requirement, like youth clubs, adventure playgrounds, on o’clock clubs, is being shut down.”

Our Unison branch has responded swiftly, energetically and with a good fighting policy. Meetings in the most affected areas have met with a good response; workers have joined or re-joined the union and at least three new stewards have been elected. In my school, which is not yet affected, we unanimously passed a motion of “solidarity with all those whose jobs are threatened up to and including industrial action”.

The branch committee followed this up by opposing all cuts – be they vacant posts, voluntary redundancies or agency workers’ jobs. This was important because an initial branch officers’ bulletin appeared to restrict its fight to the demand for “no compulsory redundancies”. Lambeth Activists, which is a militant grouping of rank and file Unison members, thought this made it more difficult to recruit agency workers and would lead to many cuts being unopposed, increasing the burden on those of us remaining.

We also agreed to call on the Trades Council to set up a broad anti-cuts committee with all the public service unions and community groups, and to prepare for a council wide ballot for strike action through a membership drive and workplace meetings. A full branch meeting has been set for 5 July, while we agreed to protest on the Town Hall steps in Brixton at 6pm on Budget Day, 22 June.

These cuts are the tip of the iceberg. David Cameron has said the Comprehensive Spending Review will launch a £70 billion package of austerity savings – the biggest since the 1940s. We must link up all the unions and working class service users in a fighting united front against the cuts:

• Oppose all cuts: no redundancies, voluntary or compulsory, no laying off agency staff
• Launch anti-cuts committees with delegates from all public service unions, other unions and community and campaign groups
• For co-ordinated action, up to and including an all-out indefinite strike, to stop the cuts.

Lambeth Council's public consultation sham

2010-06-09T12:44:00.001+01:00

Lambeth Council says that it is consulting over its plans for it to become a "John Lewis style partnership".

But it appears that its consultation is not quite the public exercise – in fact the public will have little say.

The South London Press reports that the commission set up to look into establishing a council where services are run by the residents is…run by the council.

"The commission is made up of Lambeth’s leader Steve Reed [Lambeth] and cabinet members Jackie Meldrum and Paul McGlone."

The commission defended itself saying it was going to consult widely. How wide? Well, not that wide…

The SLP quotes Cllr Jim Dixon, cabinet member for health and well-being, saying:

“It is a misunderstanding to think residents won’t be involved. The commission will hear the views of 240 residents and experts between now and October. It will involve people in Lambeth. They will come and tell us how we can make this a reality.”

So that's 240 minus the many experts and consultants. Call that a round 200 out of 272,000 people – about 0.0007 of the population (I think).

But of course it is not just in Lambeth where the people are to be consulted. The government announced yesterday their big consultation with the people about what will be cut. The danger is that the numbers consulted will be very few and the targets selected beforehand.

There is no debate about the alternative to cuts such as getting the money back of the banks and City by nationalising and taxing them. Afterall, they all seemed to be returned to profitability and receiving their huge bonuses while the rest of us face the sack or paycuts.

Consultations are being used as a way of rubber-stamping policies not coming up with a new ideas.

The coming cuts in Lambeth

2010-05-28T18:55:00.001+01:00

During the election campaign Workers Power warned about the coming cuts.

Now we have seen nationally what the Con-Dem coalition is considering with its £6 billion programme of cuts announced and more on the way with the emergency budget on 22 June and a spending review in the Autumn.

Already in Lambeth cuts are going ahead. Lambeth College are cutting about 50 posts, there has already been a day of strike action on 5 May.

The council are now planning cutting about 400 posts. It has embarked on a 90-day consultation with the unions and staff.

At the same time the council are also planning going ahead with their John Lewis style council. This is on the surface an attractive option and has been given serious thought by some.

We are all in favour of workers control but staff put into co-operatives will be forced to compete over ever-dwindling resources when the real fight should be to unite and defeat the government's cuts programme.

Now is the time to set up an anti-cuts committee in Lambeth.

Fighting the Tory/Lib Dem cuts. Meeting this thursday

2010-05-24T18:24:00.000+01:00

A key message of my election campaign was to start organising to fight the coming cuts. Now that the Con-Dem coalition has launched its cuts programme we need to start campaign in the area.

So I wil be speaking at the meeting below. The idea is to have a general discussion about the coming cuts and then come up with some ideas about what we can do in Lambeth.

Please come along




How can we stop the Tory cuts? Anticapitalist public meeting 7.30pm Thursday 27 May 2010 @ The Plough, 518 Wandsworth Road, London

General election result: what now?

2010-05-09T22:30:00.000+01:00

Thanks to everyone who voted for me. The election work was new and hard for me and my supporters. Now I am concentrating on what comes next: the cuts that every party has said they will make

Here is the Anticapitlist analysis of the election and what we must do next to fight back against austerity

If you wan tto get involved in fighting back against the coming cuts in Lambeth then please email me at jeremy.drinkall@googlemail.com
.

It's polling day!

2010-05-06T14:16:00.000+01:00

When you go to the polling booth if you wish to vote for me (Jeremy Drinkall of Anticapitalists - Workers Power) it comes as number 2 on the ballot paper.

Labour's housing policy: a disgrace

2010-05-06T13:59:00.002+01:00

Housing in Vauxhall is cramped and falling to pieces in many cases. But Labour’s got no intention of doing anything about it.

Last weekend the Anticapitalists visited many people in Myatts Field South estate where housing was the number one issue.

We were told how the council had hired – in the words of one gentleman – ‘cowboy builders’ to repair roofing. But after wooden roofing had been put in place it was left untreated for two years to suffer the elements. Now the residents were complaining of leaks but nothing had been done to stop them or treat the roof.

In Kennington Park estate we met a young woman, Vanessa who was forced to share a bedroom with two other people. She had been on the housing waiting list for months.

Perhaps it’s not a surprise. Labour has build less than 3000 council homes since 1997. Whilst Kate Hoey in the hustings at St Marks church in Kennington explained how housing was her top priority (strange because very few in the constituency seem to think that), her party leaders do not to share this view – in fact quite the opposite.

On Friday Gordon Brown was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman who asked “What about the housing budget, are you going to cut that?”

Brown at least gave a fairly straightforward answer – “yes”, albeit in a roundabout way.

Here’s what he said in full:
“Housing is essentially a private sector activity. Let’s be honest about this, Jeremy. Housing is essentially a private sector activity. We’ve renovated about 2m houses over the last 13 years. I don’t see a need for us to continue with such a big renovation programme. And if you take all that capital investment, Jeremy, let me just finish because it will answer most of your questions, if you take our capital investment, we’ve built hospitals, we’ve built schools, we’ve built roads, we’ve built infrastructure, you don’t need to do that a second time. You don’t need to do that next year if you’ve built a hospital last year. And that’s why there is scope for us reducing public expenditure on capital investment projects without actually affecting the basic health service and the basic schools and the basic policing. You don’t need to build your hospital or your school twice.”

It’s a shame the Anticapitalists don’t get more airtime. Our answer would have been:
“Housing should be a public sector activity and be provided based upon need, under the control of tenants. We want to take back the £1 trillion spent on the banks and build one million new council homes. We want to organise a national repair and improve programme to put the unemployed to work on decent wages – improving our homes and our communities.”

3 May rally a success

2010-05-04T14:05:00.003+01:00

Our May Day Rally held yesterday was very successful and thanks to all that came. Forty people enjoyed hearing inspiring speeches from people who have been at the forefront of resistance to the economic crisis.

I opened the rally with a speech outlining how the capitalist parties have given £1 trillion of our money to the rich bankers and how they are now planning to make ordinary people pay – through massive cuts to our public services.
I was followed by Joy Macready from the National Union of Journalists – she spoke of £6 million in cuts at the BBC, which should be maintained as public service. She said that the quality of journalism was being harmed and that this effects the opinions and information that we need to be informed members of society. She also spoke of how women workers have been particularly badly effected by the crisis and are often forced to work part time, casual contracts when they want full-time permanent posts. She called for women to build up and join anti-cuts action committees on their estates.

Gary Spink, a refuse worker from Leeds spoke about the 12 week strike by bin men and women against the Lib Dem-Tory council who tried to cut wages by a third. The strikers managed to hold out for victory. Gary ended by saying your vote does count – it can send a signal to the authorities that we won't pay for their crisis.

Joana Pinto from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts spoke of how tuition fees actually widen the gap between wealthier and poorer students as working class students can often not afford to finish their studies. She called for unity between teachers and students in fighting education cuts. She also spoke about how resources are being diverted to courses like business studies and finance at the expense of courses that further more socially useful knowledge.

Next there were some fine contributions from floor focusing on immigration, schools, the NHS, housing, police and the trade union.

We finished off the rally with speakers Guy Smallman – Kennington photojournalist, who had visited Afghanistan. He was followed by migrant cleaner activist Alberto Durango.

Guy spoke about the 2000lb bombs dropped on Afghan villages by US troops that often hit civilians. He went to a village after a bombing where the main casualities were children – who had been hiding in a Mosque for protection. Contrary to claims occupation forces have helped re-established schooling, Guy said that 53% children were working in awful conditions. He gave an example of children sorting through medical waste – including needles.

Alberto Durango spoke before I gave my final speech. He was very inspiring in his story of how the Latin American Workers Association recruited 1000 cleaners since 2005, but he said the cleaners often had to fight for the living wage without the officials. He said that migration status was often used to try and kick out those who were organised in unions, in a racist action to destroy workers organisation. But him and other workers are determined to keep fighting. Many thanks to Alberto for coming to our rally.

I summed up by calling for a new anticapitalist party – one which can "build a bridge from today's struggles to the struggle for power and open up the road to socialism."

Mass leafleting

2010-05-04T12:46:00.000+01:00

Last week we delivered thousands of these leaflets across the constituency, so I thought I'd put it up here too. You can view the leaflet as a PDF file by clicking here

Resonance FM podcast available: Jam Today!

2010-05-02T20:11:00.000+01:00

My thanks to Joe Kassman-Tod and Resonance FM for broadcasting an interview with me and making it available on podcast.

I'm on after about 17 minutes 30 seconds.

Vauxhall rally: The Anticapitalist challenge in the election

2010-05-02T15:41:00.000+01:00

The three main parties will make huge cuts. But Anticapitalist candidate for Vauxhall, Jeremy Drinkall, is offering an alternative –he wants to fight back. Speakers to include other workers taking action against the cuts.

He will speaking at an Election rally on Monday, 3 May at 5pm

King George Conference Centre

40 Stockwell Road (Stockwell tube)
London SW9 9ES
ALL WELCOME – Refreshments will be available – children welcome.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE

JEREMY DRINKALL – Anticapitalist election candidate in Vauxhall
ALBERTO DURANGO – Migrant worker leading the fight against exploitation in the City
GUY SMALLMAN – Kennington journalist and eyewitness to atrocities in Afghanistan
JOANA PINTO – Student from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts fighting to save higher education

Map details here

Vauxhall election: Unity can save the Triangle

2010-04-30T13:35:00.000+01:00

The Triangle is an adventure playground located in the Ashmole estate near the Oval cricket ground. It serves three local estates, and is one of the few spaces left in a densely populated area for young people to gather. The Triangle is a welcome meeting spot and is supervised after school hours.

But recently it has come under threat because of a tussle between the nearby Archbishop Tenison school and the Triangle Adventure Playground Association, which runs the space. Campaigners have been quizzing the Vauxhall candidates on their attitude towards the playground.

Archbishop Tenison School suffers from a lack of space and overcrowding, making it difficult to provide students with open areas for breaks and PE.

The school managers want to expand into the Triangle, with the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) drawing up plans to do just this.

Triangle supporters say the uncertainty over its future makes it difficult to obtain the funding to keep it going.

More funding for youth

The lack of space isn’t just due to the school’s location in a densely populated area. More than 200 school playing fields across the country have been sold off since 1997, with 49 of those in London. Before that 10,000 school playing fields were sold off under the Tories as cash-starved schools sacrificed play areas to cover their financial shortfalls.

Now Education Secretary Ed Balls is planning at least £2 billion more in cuts to education, so it is likely that more playing fields will be sold off.

Archbishop Tenison school and the Triangle Association should both use the Triangle in and out of school hours. The association should not have to rely on charitable grants, but should be properly funded by the local council, improved and expanded.

The school and the association should fight together and draw in the whole community to defend and expand facilities for youth, and for more resources for education – funded by taxing the rich.

Latin American hustings: English lessons, citizenship and recognition

2010-04-30T12:23:00.000+01:00

I attended the London-wide Latin American hustings for the Spanish and Portuguese speaking communities in South Bank University last night. A hundred people turned up for a lively debate. Candidates from all the main parties and the Greens, as well as myself and a few independents, were on hand to answer questions.

The topics that came up time often were the lack of free English lessons for migrant workers, the burning need for migrants to obtain a legal right to stay in the UK and the desire for official recognition for Latin Americans.

Education is a right

I was able to highlight my Anticapitalist demands for free education for all and an expansion of provision from school to college and university with full support for English for speakers of other languages (Esol) courses.

Simon Hughes, MP for North Southwark and Bermondsey, said all courses had to be paid for because of financial constraints – though he turned red and soon left after I pointed to the Lib Dems’ support for the bank bailout. Surely some of the £1 trillion we gave them in the crisis could be used to teach English to immigrants?

I also advertised the UCU lecturers’ union strike on Wednesday 5^th May and my support for Jenny Sutton, TUSC candidate in Tottenham and Esol teacher.

Open borders

There was a three-way battle over the potentially life-and-death issue of deportations and regularisation of immigrants. The Lib Dems had the most tortuous proposal: so-called “illegal” immigrants who had been here for 10 years, had no other criminal record, had a job, paid taxes, were prepared to do an unspecified amount of community service, paid the government an unspecified fee, had learned English and were of good character… could apply for citizenship.

Phew! No wonder this didn’t set the audience alight! The Greens offered, it seemed to me, a three year wait, not a 10 year one. Neither party talked of changing the racist immigration laws, merely of an amnesty.

There was clear support for our straightforward policy: scrap racist immigration laws and full citizenship rights, including the right to vote, to all who lived and worked here. Migrant workers were not just “consumers” of services, they were also producers. They should enjoy full and equal rights.

Invisible Latinos

Most controversial of all was the debate over gaining official recognition for Latin American people, who are ignored in most official forms and census and are therefore “invisible”. What does this mean in practice? There are no records of police harassment, hate crimes, school exclusions, unemployment rates and so on for Latin American people. If the discrimination is not recorded, then it cannot begin to be addressed.

The community itself seemed to be divided over this issue. Some, such as Minka News, preferred to be called Iberian-Americans and to be counted in with EU citizens from Spain and Portugal, which boosted their number considerably. Others said Central and South Americans had their own specific culture and set of problems and concerns, especially oppression by US and EU imperialism.

The Lib Dems – who have made a huge push for the Latino vote and had several candidates when the other parties had one – put their weight behind Minka News. This seemed to me to be a case of old-fashioned pork-barrel politics, where mainstream parties support token measures for ethnic minorities in return for votes.

I think it is up to the Latin Americans to decide how to take their case forward. I used the tragic case of Jean Charles de Menezes to show how Latin Americans, Portuguese, English and others rallied behind the demand for justice. The family’s campaign co-ordinator was an old friend of mine, Asad Rehman, a south Asian!

Class, in the end, is what unites people. And it’s international class unity that will count in the months ahead as the financial crisis, now raging in Greece, Portugal and Spain, threatens to engulf us once again.

My thanks go to Isaak Bigiot and Minka News for organising the event and hope that the anticapitalist message – that the £1 trillion bank bailout and the crash caused the crisis, so they should pay the price – reached many of those that came.

Check my Spanish language leaflet

Labour and trade unions must challenge immigration myths

2010-04-29T14:28:00.001+01:00

This article has been posted on the Workers Power website, and I think it really demonstrates some of the hypocrisy demonstrated by the main three parties.

The so-called ‘Bigotgate’ scandal – resulting from Brown’s comments after talking to an anti-immigration Labour voter – reveals a lot about how the mainstream parties all deal with the ‘immigration issue’.

If you look at the full transcript of Gordon Brown’s exchange with Mrs Duffy it’s clear that she is pretty typical Labour voter, frustrated with its failure to stand up for working people over the last thirteen years. With the recession having brought mass unemployment, cuts to workers’ pay and our public services, and with the mass media conducting a campaign against migrants, many people are now mistakenly blaming migrants for the effects of the economic crisis.

The right wing media has jumped on Gordon Brown’s comments and used it to argue he is out of touch with working people and has an aloof liberal attitude to immigration. It is a classic example of how the media, including even the so-called impartial BBC, has ‘framed’ the debate on immigration: it is always posed as “a problem” that the parties need to tackle and are failing to.

Migration is never presented as something to be welcomed.

In the conversation between Brown and Mrs Duffy the Prime Minister actually deals with her complaint about Eastern European immigration into Britain pretty effectively by pointing out that, while one million workers have come here, a million Britain’s are also working in Europe – “a million in, a million out” as he put it.

Gordon Brown should not be strung up and leached by the right wing press for a comment he made in a private conversation with his aide.

Instead we need to ask why Labour are letting the right wing media constantly dictate the terms of the ‘immigration debate’ and why no party is standing up for the rights of migrant workers from abroad to come to Britain with their families, and to join the workforce.

Gordon Brown may have dealt with the comment on Eastern European migrants fairly well, but his party policy is to ‘toughen up’ on immigration even further.

And it is Gordon Brown who first raised the idea of ‘British jobs, for British workers’ that was taken up in nationalistic strikes last year, when workers in the energy and construction industry took strike action under the slogan.

Whether ‘bigoted’ is a good choice of words is really not the point. Labour only has itself to blame for letting myths about immigration go unchallenged.

Moreover, by using nationalist rhetoric themselves, the Labour Party has capitulated to the agenda of the political right. They have let the ‘genie out of the bottle’ and allowed an anti-migrant consensus to form in British society.

And when they are getting no leadership from their party telling them any different it is hardly surprising that millions of Labour voters buy into the idea of an ‘immigration problem’.

That’s why it is urgent for socialists, trade unionist and anti-racists, to get out there and challenge this consensus.

And to challenge it effectively we have to link it to the need for a fightback against the attacks on our services, on jobs, and on pay. Mrs Duffy spoke several times about her concerns for her grandchildren, how they face massive tuition fees if they go to university, and how they will enter a jobless economy.

The great challenge faced by socialists today, is to show how these young workers of the future, the “lost generation”, share interests with the wider working class and the often super-exploited migrant population.

Fundamentally if every migrant left Britain immediately tomorrow, there would still be unemployment, because migrants are not the cause of it.

It’s caused by the capitalist system and it’s failures. The strain on public services, housing and a lack of jobs comes about through the failure of the capitalist parties – Labour, Tory and Liberal to invest in social needs – and now they are all planning to cut provision back further. Labour cannot and will not promise to protect working people from the capitalist crisis, and that’s why we need to build a new, anticapitalist workers party.

From the Workers Power website

St Mark’s hustings: the MP Candidates Debate

2010-04-29T11:13:00.002+01:00

On Tuesday evening, nearly 200 people packed the Vauxhall parliamentary hustings in St Mark’s Church, Kennington Oval, to hear and question seven candidates: Kate Hoey (Labour), Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem), Glyn Chambers (Tory), Joseph Healey (Greens), Jim Kapetanos (Animal Protection League), Daniel Lambert (SPGB) and myself.

It was a lively, wide-ranging and revealing debate. At times it was also entertaining – most people learned more from it and enjoyed it more than they did the Prime Ministerial debates on TV.

Hoey backs… capitalism

Kate Hoey said she “stood on my record” and emphasised her “independence” from the Labour Party. But she is standing as a Labour candidate and has supported the government’s budgets. She did not believe privatisation was good for the NHS, but has supported the setting up of Academies and transfer of council estates to housing associations. Hoey was also attacked for her disgraceful record of voting on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues: only voting progressively 14% of the times.

Just how far Hoey has travelled away from working class values was also revealed when she was asked whether capitalism could ever work for the majority. Despite the worst crash since the 1920s and the biggest round of cuts for 60 years, Hoey thought “life would be worse without capitalism as we’d only end up in some Stalinist dictatorship”. How little faith this lifelong parliamentarian and collaborator with Boris Johnson has in the working class!

Intelligent Tory?

Glyn Chambers started his contribution by claiming he was suitable for the job because of his “intelligence”. He then proceeded to undermine this bold claim by saying that Britain was “broken” because there was “less crime in the 1880s than there is today”.

D’oh – there were also fewer people and fewer laws. I drew applause when I exposed the fact that the Tories and The Sun were whipping up fear and divisions when in fact crime had gone down by 5% in the last year, according to the authoritative British Crime Survey, with bigger falls for violent crime, criminal damage and burglary. In fact only fraud and forgery were on the increase – Goldman Sachs springs to mind!

Small is beautiful?

Caroline Pidgeon traded on the more left wing pretensions of the Liberal Democrats: more progressive taxation, dropping Trident and tuition fees (though only after six years), and more social housing. But this was merely for electioneering. In office, the Lib Dems have proved as bad as Labour or the Tories. For example, in neighbouring Southwark, the Lib Dem/Tory coalition has rapidly sold of its housing stock and turned every single secondary school into a privately run academy.

Joseph Healy made some good points as you would expect – in particular exposing the fact that hate crime had increased by 47% in Lambeth recently. But the Greens, like the Lib Dems, were a) poor on the really big issues, and b) unable to explain away their record in office. For example, both Pidgeon and Healy answered a global warming question by going on about loft insulation. Sorry, but this is not good enough; we need to move rapidly from burning fossil fuels to using renewable energy sources, nationalise the power companies and implement a worldwide plan of production.

Knockabout?

Daniel Lambert of the SPGB started well, making some good points about the market, but faded badly. In particular, Lambert fell flat when he claimed that domestic violence was only the result of poverty. As Jim Kapetanos pointed out, it is far more complex than that. Indeed, aren’t women also victims of poverty? So why is it men who generally beat up and abuse their partners, not the other way round?

In fact, Lambert’s answer shows he has nothing to offer working class and oppressed people today except to wait for the SPGB to gain a majority in parliament. It reminded me of his callous remark at the Stop the War hustings that the Palestinians should “realise they cannot win and give up”.

Kapetanos was far more genuinely entertaining. He often used the platform to highlight the right wing agenda of the Countryside Alliance, of which Hoey is the chairperson. But he showed real understanding of social oppression, particularly for women and LGBT people.

Good response

It’s not for me to judge how well I did, though I received some very warm applause, for example, with the Anticapitalists’ call for all immigrants to be granted full citizenship rights.

After the meeting, we sold quite a few papers and distributed lots of leaflets. One young man asked me how he could get involved in political activities and another said he would definitely now vote for us. Many were interested in our May Day Rally in the YMCA, 40 Stockwell Road at 5pm on Monday 3^rd May.

My thanks to Rev. Mike Starkey for organising the hustings and chairing the event with professionalism and impartiality. And most of all, thanks to the audience for coming and making it a thoroughly enjoyable meeting.

General election hustings in Vauxhall: My policies for the borough

2010-04-29T00:47:00.000+01:00

Here is my introduction at the hustings outlining my policies in a couple of minutes.

General election hustings in Vauxhall: why i am a socialist

2010-04-29T00:41:00.000+01:00

I attended the hustings on Tuesday at St Mark's Church, Oval, Lambeth. See below for various reports. Here is a video of me speaking to the question "What is your moral compass". This was a question asked by the vicar after the introductions, which is all fine as he was the one who set the evening up.

Vauxhall election: Local bloggers report hustings success for anticapitalists

2010-04-28T13:58:00.003+01:00

I went to St Mark's Church hustings for the Vauxhall election in Oval last night. At least two hundred people turned up to hear the debate, with the church full almost to capacity.

The main three parties were all present along with some other candidates – from the Socialist Party of Great Britain, the Animal Liberation Party, and the Greens.

Local bloggers and journalists have kindly commented on how I put forward a strong Anticapitalist message for socialism.

The Onionbagblog writer, Jason Cobb wrote:
"Drinkall of the Anticapitalist party confirmed his credentials as a skilled, and yes, an intelligent public speaker"
"Drinkall repeated his call to nationalise the banks and to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. In return, the Anticapitalist candidate pledged to spend the money saved on eradicating poverty from Vauxhall and building new homes. I rather like Drinkall’s connection between the international and the hyperlocal."

"Drinkall drew upon his own status as a teaching assistant, congratulating teachers and support staff locally, but calling for an increase in funding."

"A rather deviously framed question asking simply about “the triangle” followed, put forward with the distinct aim of questioning the local knowledge of the candidates. The background is the threatened closure of the Triangle Adventure Playground close to the Archbishop Tenison’s School. Drinkall wasn’t fooled and knew his patch well."

http://onionbagblog.com/

The SE11 Blog wrote:
"Drinkall positively countered the broken society stuff, said that crime levels are actually going down, and welcomed further immigration. Exciting words from Lambeth politicians!"

"Two of his party's policies are apparently very popular locally; to nationalise the banks and bring the troops back to the UK"

http://southeasteleven.blogspot.com/

The SE1 website said:
Anticapitalist Jeremy Drinkall said that his policies were proving extremely popular on the doorstep. "We are against the trillion pound bailout which gave our money to the rich bankers and we want to end the war in Afghanistan."
http://www.london-se1.co.uk/news/view/4507

General election: Education for the masses…

2010-04-27T17:52:00.001+01:00

The election has moved onto the subject of schools – and about time, too.

For Tories class matter

The Tories’ plan to allow parents to run their own schools – “hundreds” in the first year, according to education spokesperson Michael Gove – has already run into the sands. Indeed, it has been sunk below the waterline by Kent and Hampshire Tory councillors Paul Carter and David Kirk. They point out that “free” schools could only be paid for by cutting the amount of money spent on state schools.

The fact that Gove immediately phoned Carter and got him to say he meant the opposite simply showed the shadow minister for schools up to be a playground bully.

The truth is that “free” schools would only be taken up by middle class parents, who could afford lawyers and raise the capital. Then they would fix the admission policy to ensure a disproportionate take of students from middle class backgrounds and exclude the disadvantaged and those with learning difficulties or English as another language. The result: more selection, more “sink” schools, more working class children failed by the system.

Liberals breaking the mould?

The Liberal Democrats sound better, claiming it would reduce class sizes for infants to 20 (currently averaging 26) and offer one-to-one tuition, after schools clubs and Saturday schools for children to catch up (which is already happening). They want a “pupil premium” to award £2.5 billion to students from the poorest 10% of families – £2,500 per pupil. They also like the Tories’ idea of “free” schools and Labour’s Academies.

The problem is who will pay? Only Labour has said it would ringfence (i.e. not cut) the schools budget. I see Chuka Umunna has used this fact to warn voters of the Tories potentially scrapping £280 million from school building funds in Lambeth.

The Lib Dems claim a £1.5 billion cut in tax credits for middle earners and £1 billion from “administration costs” would balance the books. One, we don’t think those on £25,000, or even £50,000 a year should pay more tax. Tax the super-rich and big business instead. Two, cuts to “administration costs”, as Paul Carter pointed out, would take money away from state schools, from child protection, from “statementing” (i.e. diagnosing and helping) children with special educational needs.

As the Institute for Fiscal Studies has pointed out, none of the main parties has properly set out how they plan to make the big cuts they say are necessary.

Anticapitalist solution

Only a nakedly anticapitalist plan can do that – by nationalising the banks and taking back the £1.2 trillion the Labour government gave them in the bailout, and by placing a steeply progressive wealth tax on the super-rich and big business.

We want to recruit, train and pay for more teachers and support staff to lower class sizes for all year groups to 20, to bring Academies and private schools into state ownership, and to run all schools under the direct control of staff, parents and the pupils themselves. Not the phoney “parents” control that is limited to the well-to-do, but control that has access to the funds needed to deliver education worthy of the name, education for life, not for the benefits of a capitalist economy.

Read our manifesto for more on schools.

'Abolishing the system of war, the capitalist system'

2010-04-27T08:54:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Sally, there is now a video of my summing up to the Stop the War hustings in Brixton.

Vauxhall election: Anticapitalists announce 3rd May Rally

2010-04-26T16:07:00.003+01:00

The Anticapitalist Challenge in the Election - Mon 3 May 2010, 5pm

The three main parties will make huge cuts. But Anticapitalist candidate Jeremy Drinkall is offering an alternative. He wants to fight back. Speakers to include workers taking action against cuts.

Mon 3 May 5pm | Facebook

King George Conference Centre
40 Stockwell Road
London SW9 9ES

ALL WELCOME – creche facilities and refreshments will be provided

Vauxhall election: Anticapitalists take to streets

2010-04-26T11:53:00.004+01:00

Saturday saw an excellent canvassing session round many different estates in South London.

Accompanied by a car with a loudspeaker, we also spoke to many people on the doorsteps who are fed up with the capitalist parties and their funding of the bankers' greed.

The day went extremely well for us. We met several dozen new supporters, as well as a number of Labour supporters who agreed with our arguments. We distributed lots of papers, leaflets and manifestos in Stockwell Gardens, Springfield and Mawbey Brough.

Rich get richer by 30% in a year: more thoughts on the Rich List

2010-04-25T09:16:00.001+01:00

The Sunday Times Rich List is published today and, guess what, the rich have just got richer. The collective wealth of the thousand richest individuals increased in 2009 by £77.265 billion to £335.5 billion.

This is the biggest leap in the 22 years the Rich List has been compiled and proves what the Anticapitalists have been saying throughout the election – the super-rich have profited from the crisis they themselves caused, while the rest of us have lost pay, pension entitlements, jobs and homes.

My thoughts go out to the people of Redcar, whose plant is being mothballed and town destroyed because the steel plant has closed down, throwing thousands on the slagheap, while former owner and big Labour Party donor Lakshmi Mittal doubled his personal fortune to £22.45 billion to top the Rich List. In fact, it is a sickening thought that the thousand richest people in Britain have, during the 13 years of Labour rule, seen their wealth increase by 340%.

We say: tax the rich; let’s create a steeply progressive wealth tax to take back the billions our hard work has created! Let’s take this enormous pot of gold and use it to meet the needs of those – in the UK and abroad – whose blood, sweat and tears (i.e. exploited labour) made this wealth.

£335 billion would go a long way towards eliminating poverty, fighting climate change and providing free healthcare and education for all. In all honesty, what’s the point of leaving this socially created fund in the hands of a tiny number of parasites?

Multimillionaires' wealth soar in record-breaking rise

2010-04-24T21:40:00.000+01:00

All three main parties have stated that they will make savage cuts to our services and public sector job to pay for the trillion pounds of our money given to bailout the banks.

Now the Sunday Times reveals that Britain's top 1,000 wealthiest people have had a very good year. Their combined wealth rose to £335 billion, up £77 billion on 2009. This is the biggest increase in the 22 years of the Sunday Times' Rich List.

So while the vast majority of the population have been told to put up with wage freezes, job losses and the closure of local services, the rich have been making record amounts of money.

And not one of the main parties will demand that the rich hand over any of their wealth.

That is why I am standing: to put the case for taking the rich far more and taking their wealth to pay for our services and benefits, to improve our homes and environment.

The banks should be nationalised and controlled by society to benefit everyone and the rich should have far higher taxes.

Lambeth College to strike against cuts

2010-04-24T10:40:00.001+01:00

Eleven London colleges, including Lambeth, have voted to strike on 5 May in protest at the Labour government’s decimation of further education. I give my full support to the staff in their action and urge students, parents and the community to come out in their support, too.

Lambeth College has announced £3.5 million cuts – 10% of its budget, equivalent to 100 jobs and scores of courses. Nationally £340 million is being swiped from further education budgets.

I work at Lambeth for one or two days a week, supporting 15 and 16 year olds in motorcycle maintenance and construction. The tutors there are top notch, dedicated to giving students, who are perhaps not academically minded, the best chance to find a suitable trade and career. The support staff from the canteen to the library to the stores all make great efforts to engage with the young students.

Only this week, I found out that the bricklaying tutors were called in and told one of them would not be working next year – even though the courses are full, the success rate outstanding and Britain needs at least a million new council houses. What further proof is needed that capitalism isn’t working and we need to end the madness of the market? That's why the Anticapitalists fight for a socialist planned economy.

College workers are now not sure whether they will have a job next September, whether their courses will survive or whether their students will join the other two and a half million on the dole – effectively on the scrapheap before they’re 20! This is the reality of the cuts that the capitalist parties – Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour – are demanding from working class communities.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said:

All the tough talk about cuts has moved on and it is no longer figures on paper, but people's jobs and access to education that are disappearing. We believe in the power of education to make a real difference to people lives and do not think we should be slashing funding at a time when more people than ever need access to education. UCU members are still on the side of education and they will be fighting to save jobs and defend education.

The Anticapitalists say. “Enough is enough! Strike to defend jobs and courses! College staff, students and local communities unite and fight!”

See what our manifesto says on education here.

Saturday canvassing

2010-04-23T15:01:00.001+01:00

Those wanting to help with the Anticapitalist candidate in Vauxhall can come along to the

Bear Pub

296 Camberwell New Road (The Camberwell Green end)

SE5 ORP

at noon on Saturday. We will then split up around the constituency.

Thanks

Two new videos

2010-04-23T02:13:00.002+01:00

I have posted a couple more videos on You tube. A better version of my speech at the Latin Amercian hustings a couple of weeks ago. And one from the STW husitngs earlier this week, this time me speaking on Iran

You can find them here with the others

Meet The Candidate

2010-04-22T07:44:00.000+01:00

The Anticapitalists are holding the first of our "Meet the Candidate" surgeries tonight:

6:30 – 8:00pm
Montgomery Hall
Kennington Oval
SE11

If you are unsure of where Montgomery Hall is, turn left from the Oval tube exit, swtay on the same side of the road, start to go round the Oval and you will find it immediately after the Oval Theatre and the "White House".

Please come along and bring your friends and neighbours.

There will be plenty of Anticapitalist supporters on hand, including myself, to answer questions or just to chew over the issues.

Most importantly, we will be discussing what we can do after the election. Because – win or lose – the next Government is going to attack working class people and, unless we are ready to resist, our communities are going to be torn apart. The election is just the beginning of that campaign of resistance!

I hope to see as many of you as can make it there, so please come along even if you can only stay for a few minutes on your way home. Light refreshments will be available.

Support the Palestinians

2010-04-21T20:21:00.001+01:00

Here is me speaking at the Stop the War hustings on support for the Palestinians. I have been to Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement and my union branch, Unison, in Lambeth has done some excellent work over the issue. I also support the six demands of the Palestine Solidarity Committee.

Stop the War hustings video links

2010-04-21T20:10:00.002+01:00

Following on from brief report yesterday, here are a couple of video clips of me speaking at the hustings on Monday night. Also see below for an audio boo link of the evening aswell

First one is where I call for troops out of Afghanistan now.

Stop the war hustings Brixton

2010-04-20T01:08:00.003+01:00

Fifty antiwar activists and Stop the War Coalition supporters came to the Brix in St Mattews Church, Brixton to hear candidates' policies on Britain's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I was invited and gave a five-minute introductory speech, along with the Green, SPGB and LIb Dem candidates. But there was no sign of Labour (who simply sent emails declaring that they were against the war in Iraq, but were not in favour of pulling the troops out of Afghanistan) or Conservatives.

My message of troops get out now, solidarity with the Palestinians and spending the money on jobs, homes and services rather than banks, bullets and bombs went down very well.

The Lib Dems were against the war – until the fighting and the killing started and want to scrap the Trident nuclear arsenal but not get out of Afghanistan. The Greens gave Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair a clean bill of health over the shooting of local man Jean Charles de Menezes and would leave Britain's military machinery in tact to be used again.

I'll post something soon, along with hopefully videos, as I am off to bwork. But Jason Cobb has kindly already posted recordings of the meeting including me summing up. So listen here for my summation and for other candidates views listen here.

And thank you to the chair and Stop the War Coalition for inviting me.

A Vauxhall view on my candidature

2010-04-17T20:44:00.002+01:00

Local blogger Jason Cobb interviewed me last night. I posted the link to the interview yesterday (see below).

You can read his thoughts on the interview and on the election in Vauxhall on his onionbag blog

Thanks to Jason for giving me the time.

Blue, open skies and the BA strikers

2010-04-17T16:38:00.001+01:00

What a beautiful day, sun shining bright and the sky a lovely deep blue free of clouds and aircraft.

The drifting dust from the Icelandic volcano has again grounded all air travel in the UK and Europe.

The media are full of stories of plucky individuals trying to travel abroad and of people enjoying the Sun and clear blue skies. I heard interviews on TV with residents who live below flight paths saying how wonderful it was. Life continues as normal.

Compare the calm, rational coverage with that of the BA strike. The cabin crews went on strike to defend themselves against managers ripping up their contracts with no negotiation. They were subjected to abuse by newspapers. The Sun called strikers "industrial terrorists" and said they were intent on wrecking BA and driving it out of business. Others joined in.

Demonisation of BA strikers

The Tories led the attacks on the strikers, quickly followed by Labour and Liberals. The Labour Party's attack was despite it receiving millions from the Unite union, which organised the strike.

Where is the frenzy now? Where is the talk of devious Icelanders getting their own back on the UK over the downfall of their banks? What about the passengers losing out on holiday or business trips, why aren't they being ferried around the world?

The double standards of the political parties and the media are there for all to see. The attack on BA workers had nothing to do with concern for passengers' holidays or concern for the smooth running of the economy; it had everything to do with a group of workers prepared to fight back and who voted overwhelmingly on two occasions for strike action to defend their jobs and conditions.

Green skies

The blue open skies also reveals that it is possible to shift away from burning fossil fuels. No doubt there are many flights that have to be made. But there are also many others that can be replaced by alternative forms of transport if they were cheaper, cleaner and more readily available.

What is needed is a planned socialist solution. Where travel need is more important than profit. And where money and resources can be injected into developing clean fuel for aircraft and other forms of transport developed such as cheaper and comprehensive rail and ferry networks.

Read more about my environment policies at http://drinkall4vauxhall.blogspot.com/p/anticapitalist-manifesto.html

Investment Bank Goldman Sachs charged with fraud

2010-04-16T22:41:00.000+01:00

Goldman Sachs has been charged with fraud. The Times reports that

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the Wall Street bank of creating a loss-making financial instrument called a collateralised debt obligation (CDO).

Goldman Sachs is an internationally renowned investment bank that has made billions from the financial crisis while workers around the world have been made unemployed and their public services cut.

The bank has been accused over the way it packaged sub-prime mortgages and sold them on.

Goldman Sachs has also been contracted by the Irish government to oversee its bond issues while the people of the country have been subjected to an austerity package that has seen benefits and public sector wages slashed.

Goldman Sachs is one of the banks that the three main parties in the UK handed our millions to and who are demanding even more cuts to our services.

That is why I am standing for the millions and not the millionaires. We gave a trillion of pounds to Goldman Sachs and other banks, let's take the money back from these financial robbers and ensure we have a future.

And that is why the bankers paper the Financial Times said about me standing:

"Drinkall has supported several protests over the years, from the miners’ strike to the anti-poll tax movement, becoming convinced the state was 'not neutral but defended the rich and powerful'.

It would appear there is yet another threat on the horizon for the City and its financial folk."

Interview with Jeremy Drinkall, anticapitalist candidate for Vauxhall

2010-04-16T22:04:00.000+01:00

Here is an interview with me about why I am standing as the anticapitalist candidate for Vauxhall by Lambeth's Jason Cobb. Please go and listen and tell me what you think. http://boo.fm/b117270

Leadership debate conclusion: the revolution will not be televised

2010-04-16T16:58:00.000+01:00

Today, the papers are full of discussion and comment about last night's televised debate. The consensus is that Nick Clegg won. Polling companies, such as YouGov, put Clegg in front and the state of the parties polls are now showing that the Lib Dems are picking up votes from the other parties. Even Cameron and Brown admitted today that Clegg did well.

Even so, I quite liked the viewer who said that none of the "leaders" addressed her concerns or had "anything to say for working families about jobs". Unfortunately, the whole exercise is aimed at moving the UK towards a US presidential style of contest, where personalities count for all because there are only capitalist parties in the ring.

So, a good debate for the Lib Dems but not for the workers. The three leaders' media show has framed the election debate around the need for cuts. Not one of them oppose cutting our services and living standards, not one of them stated that the banks should pay back the money that we bailed them out with, not one of them puts forward an alternative to cuts and austerity.

Liberal or more anti-working class rubbish?

Labour, Lib Dems and the Tories are debating about how and when to cut; there is little disagreement over the amount that needs cutting. Suddenly the Lib Dems are being promoted as "different", when in fact Vince Cable supports £80 billion of cuts and the party wants to curb the right to strike for public sector workers. I wonder why.

But by having the three parties debate, the media is excluding all other voices. Time and time again representatives from the three main parties and UKIP are interviewed about the need for cuts to please the Bond Markets. Newspapers from the Sun to the Times (or from one Murdoch title to another) run editorials about the need for cuts.

You will not hear one candidate actually saying, "No, we will not cut services". The candidates from the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition have had hardly any coverage, despite them putting out a no cuts message. The so-called debate about the election is actually a media show about about getting us all to accept the need for cuts – whoever wins.

That is why I am standing as the Anticapitalist candidate for Vauxhall to challenge this pro-cut consensus and start talking about aa alternative of striking against the cuts and fighting for socialism. And, as Gill Scott Heron pointed out… "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"!

Contact me if you can help with the campaign.

Transport for Vauxhall

2010-04-15T16:17:00.000+01:00

Here's my views -

Why I am standing

2010-04-15T15:01:00.001+01:00

Here I explain in a nutshell why I'm standing for the millions and not the millionaires

Lambeth Stop the War Election Hustings

2010-04-14T12:49:00.001+01:00

Next Monday I will be taking part in a debate with

Rahoul Bhansani - Conservative candidate for Streatham
Joseph Healey –Green Party candidate for Vauxhall
Daniel Lambert –SPGB candidate for Vauxhall
Chris Nicholson –Lib Dem candidate for Streatham

at the Lambeth Stop the War Election Hustings,

Monday 19th April
7:30pm - 9pm
The Brix, St Matthews Church, Brixton Hill, SW2 1JF

This will be an excellent chance for supporters of my campaign and voters to ask candidates questions about Afghanistan, Civil Liberties, Nuclear Weapons, Palestine and find out where candidates stand on the War on Terror generally.

Not to be missed!

Join the event below:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=109105112458882&ref=mf

Anticapitalists Launch Election Manifesto

2010-04-12T17:47:00.002+01:00

Here's the press release for our manifesto launch tomorrow…

'For The Millions, Not The Millionaires'

Labour, Tories and Lib Dems promise cuts to services, jobs and benefits
Anticapitalists say: take over the banks, take back our money and tax the rich
Use it to create three million new jobs, a million new council houses, a massive repair and improve programme for council flats and a £9 an hour minimum wage.
We need a new anticapitalist party to get rid of the chaos of financial capitalism and create a democratically planned economy

The Anticapitalists are launching its manifesto, For The Millions, Not The Millionaires, tomorrow morning, Tuesday 13 April, at College Green outside Parliament. The Anticapitalists are standing one candidate, Jeremy Drinkall, in Vauxhall, South London.
Jeremy will be outside Parliament with some of his supporters at 10.00 tomorrow morning. He will say:

“Vauxhall constituency is less than 100 yards from Parliament, yet it might as well be a world away. Over half the children in Vauxhall officially live in poverty. MPs have second homes, but over a third of all houses in Vauxhall are not fit to live in.

Labour has betrayed the working people of Vauxhall and Britain. After 13 years, they can only offer more privatisation for our school and hospitals and cheap labour schemes for our youth, while banks and big business get bailouts and tax breaks.

Let’s take over the banks, withdraw troops from Afghanistan and tax the rich. We should spend the money instead on three million new jobs, a million new council houses, grants instead of loans for students and a £9 an hour minimum wage.”

The Anticapitalists are standing Jeremy to offer electors a chance to vote against the rotten status quo and to support workers, like BA cabin crew and Network Rail signallers, fighting against the cuts. We hope that all the Trade Unionist and Socialist candidates do well in the election and that this leads to the formation of a new working class party that can challenge Labour for the loyality of working class people.

Weekend update part 2

2010-04-12T14:55:00.003+01:00

If Saturday’s demo was a little disappointing for its turnout, Sunday was the complete antidote. The Ibero-American Alliance and Minka News brought around 700-1,000 people along to hear Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dems), Jenny Jones (Greens), Val Shawcross (Labour) and myself give short speeches on the election.

There was no doubting who received the best reception. With clear statements on migrant workers’ rights, defence of Cuba and Venezuela and bringing killer police to justice, our message went down a storm. If an old fashioned clapometer decided elections, I’d be a shoo-in!

Jenny Jones is of course already on the Greater London Authority and a prominent member of its Metropolitan Police Authority. She took credit for finally getting the police to recognise Ibero-Americans as a distinct ethnic group.

But many remember her white-washing of Sir Ian Blair, then police commissioner, over the gunning down of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes. She wrote at the time:

“The recent court case made it clear that the huge blunder [sic] could not be laid at any one person’s door, and did not criticise the Commissioner.”

It's not enough to record statistics on police racism, we need representatives who will demand the heads of those police officers and chiefs who carry out racist and at times murderous policies against all parts of our community and who will call for the disarming of the police.

Val Shawcross also sits on the GLA. She focused on the London Living Wage, saying:

“We recognise that to live safely in London you need a little bit more than the minimum wage.”

So why hasn’t the Labour government after 13 years raised the minimum wage to the level that safety and well-being can be guaranteed?

The Anticapitalists suggest the European Union’s Decency Threshold of £9 an hour as the starting point. Labour, however, only promises to raise the minimum wage “in line with earnings” – a meaningless pledge when wages are stagnant or falling in real terms.

After the event, we made a number of new contacts, as brothers and sisters of all ages signed up to support our campaign. My thanks to Bruno for translating for me and Isaak and Isabelle for inviting me to speak. I’ve added our Spanish language leaflet under the Manifesto pages to this blog and print my speech to the Alliance below:

Banking Crisis

This Labour government gave £1 trillion of our money to the banks during the capitalist crisis. All three main parties supported this. But they didn’t take over the banks, they saved them for the greedy bankers.

Cuts

Instead, the main parties are demanding cuts to our pay, our pensions and our services. But only cuts for you, for us, not for themselves. We want to take over the banks and use that £1 trillion to

Create 3 million jobs
Build a million new homes
Raise the minimum wage to £9 – no worker or pensioner should live in poverty.

Fightback

The Anticapitalists support strikes against the cuts. We support black workers, white workers, Latin American workers. We want papers for all migrant workers – all should be equal, no discrimination. We know that the police and courts try to stop working people fighting back.

Down with the anti-trade union laws
Close the immigration centres and stop deportations
Disarm the police and bring those that kill innocent people, like Jean Charles de Menezes, to justice.

International

The UK government exploits people at home and overseas. It supports the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Who knows? Maybe it will be Venezuela or Cuba tomorrow. A vote for the Anticapitalists is a vote in solidarity with Latin American countries against imperialism. We are the only party standing in Vauxhall calling for:

Troops out now
An end to the blockade, and
Victory to the resistance fighting imperialism

Party

Many of you here know that capitalism is international. We must fight capitalism internationally. What this country lacks is a militant party. The Anticapitalists are fighting for a new party. A party for the millions, not the millionaires. A vote for us will help bring it into being.

Weekend update part 1

2010-04-12T13:40:00.001+01:00

The first weekend of the campaign proper was a busy one. On Saturday, I attended the demo to “Defend Public Services” in central London. Then on Sunday, I addressed a 750 strong public meeting of the Ibero-American Alliance in the Elephant & Castle.

I’ll tell you about the demo first.

The march in defence of public services was both noisy and colourful. I marched alongside students in the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, who kept up a constant stream of chants, like, “No ifs, no buts, no public sector cuts" and “Education is a right – when they say cut, we say fight". The RMT rail union assembled a brass band to lead the protest. Between 5,000 and 10,000 participated in all.

As the BBC reported, Unison General Secretary Mr Prentis said:

"There has never been a more urgent time to show our support, as the current economic recession shows that we cannot rely on the private sector to provide our essential needs. The result of the failure of the private sector is that ordinary people are paying the price, while the bankers retire to their guarded homes with their multi-million pound pensions."

Unfortunately, the party Mr Prentis supports, Labour, is wedded to privatisation. Even after the failure of the railways, PFI hospitals and Academy schools, Labour’s manifesto promises more of the same. Only the Anticapitalists and other trade unionist and socialist candidates demand public investment and working class control of our services.

Given the enormous attack on our public services that is coming – no matter who wins the election – the demo deserved a bigger turnout, 50,000 or more. But it seems that many of the national trade union leaders failed to mobilise their members for the protest. Why? Because they know that many of us are angry at Labour and they don’t want to embarrass the party on the eve of an election. Yet more proof of the fact that we need a new party.

Trade unionists

I spoke to a number of marchers from around the country. There were banners from Sheffield, Nottingham, Leeds and Bristol, as well as dozens from London. Among the most prominent unions were Unison, the public services union, general unions, the GMB and Unite, the civil servants in the PCS and the NUT teachers.

I had a good chat with Jerry Hicks, who was a Socialist Alliance candidate in the early noughties and is now standing for general secretary in Britain’s largest trade union, Unite. We exchanged leaflets and pledged support for each other.

Jerry wants to democratise the union and supports rank and file members’ control of their disputes, which is vital if workers, like the BA cabin crews, are to win their battles against the employers and defy the courts, should they again try to outlaw their strikes.

I recognised a number of Unison members, including my own branch secretary, Jon Rogers. Unison full timer Stuart Barber has advised Lambeth branch committee that we cannot organise a union hustings to question the candidates about their policies. Apparently this would be tantamount to “supporting parties other than Labour”! What bureaucratic nonsense. I will continue to fight for a proper meeting so Lambeth trade unionists can meet the candidates and hear their views.

One of the best speeches from the platform came from Matt Wrack of the Fire brigades Union. He said:

“It wasn’t our people who caused the crisis. We won’t accept cuts now or after the election.”

Most everyone I spoke to on Saturday agreed with this message. Let’s spread the idea of forcing the bankers and the bosses to pay for the crisis – by taking strike action and linking up our struggles at local and national level. And after the election, let’s draw all the campaigns together and discuss the immediarte formation of a new working class party.

To read the leaflet the Anticapitalists gave out to the demo, visit workerspower.com

Latin American hustings and Spanish leaflet

2010-04-11T14:30:00.001+01:00

A really good hustings at the Elephant and Castle with more than a thousand Latin Americans. I'll write a full report soon as I am off leafleting estates but here is the Spanish text of our leaflet

Vote Anticapitalista en Vauxhall, Vote a Jeremy Drinkall

El gobierno les dio un billón de libras esterlinas a los banqueros millonarios.

Pero más que la mitad de los niños en Vauxhall viven en la pobreza, y uno de cada tres residencias municipales es calificado como “no decente”.

Tanto el Laborismo como los Conservadores y los “Lib Dems” apoyaron este saqueo. Es por esto que una nueva fuerza – los Anticapitalistas – nos presentamos en esta elección.

Queremos que se expropie a los bancos para utilizar esta gran riqueza para crear trabajo, y construir hogares, hospitales y colegios.

El Laborismo ha decepcionado a la gente común, gastando todo nuestro dinero para salvar a los banqueros y conducir guerras en Afganistán e Irak. Ahora el Laborismo quiere que paguemos la crisis, con desempleo, rebaja de sueldos y recortes a los servicios públicos.

Los Conservadores harán lo mismo – pero de manera más rápida y profunda. Son el partido de los super-ricos y quieren que los recortes sean más brutales y más inminentes.

El líder de los Lib Dems Nick Clegg ha pedido “recortes salvajes”. Con respecto a los banqueros dice que: “No tengo ningún problema con pagarles mucho dinero – démosles un auto grande con chofer.”

Todos los grandes partidos apoyan a los grandes capitalistas y quieren que las gente de clase trabajadora pague por una crisis que no causamos.

Pero ahora en Vauxhall hay una alternativa.

Jeremy Drinkall representará a los Anticapitalistas. Quiere que se expropien a los bancos, impostar a los ricos y terminar con la presencia de las tropas Británicas en otros países. Usaríamos estos miles de millones de libras para mejorar las vidas de millones de personas comunes.

Las posiciones de los Anticapitalistas:

¡ES NUESTRO DINERO, RECLAMEMOSLO ¡

El gobierno le dio un billón de libras a los bancos. ¡Queremos que se devuelva! Los Anticapitalistas decimos que hay que expropiar a los bancos, quienes otra vez están acumulando enormes ganancias, y subirles los impuestos a los ricos.

POR UN DIPUTADO OBRERO QUE COBRE UN SUELDO OBRERO

Jeremy solo aceptará el sueldo de un trabajador común. Luchará para que se encarcelen los diputados ladrones del sistema de compensaciones, para abolir sus privilegios, y abolir al House of Lords y a la Monarquía.

POR UN VAUXHALL NUEVO

El 51 por ciento de los menores en Vauxhall viven en la pobreza y el 36 por ciento de todos los hogares es calificado como no aceptable.

POR TRABAJO Y VIVIENDA DECENTE

Gastaríamos el dinero en un programa masivo de obras públicas – crear tres millones de trabajos, un millón de casas para la gente común, y un programa nacional de mantenimiento y mejoramiento de los apartamentos y las casas municipales.

COMBATIR EL RACISMO

Los medios y el gobierno intentan combatir culpar a los migrantes por la crisis económica. Jeremy quiere lanzar una campaña para defender los derechos de los trabajadores migrantes. Reclama por que se despiden los policías racistas, que se paguen sueldos iguales por el mismo trabajo, combatir a los racistas como el BNP, y darle ciudadanía a todos que viven aquí.

LA EDUCACIÓN NO ES GRATIS

Como trabajador de la educación, candidato Anticapitalista Jeremy Drinkall ve la importancia de la educación para el futuro de nuestros hij@s todos los días. Quiere revertís los recortes que se están implementando en los colegios, las escuelas y las universidades para que estos sean gratuitos para todos, y que los estudiantes reciban un subsidio desde los 16 años. Quiere mejorar nuestros colegios y que se pongan bajo el control de los padres, l@s docentes y l@s estudiantes, y que se deje de recortar los sueldos de l@s trabajadores/as.

UN FUTURO SOCIALISTA

La crisis crisis económica demuestra el fracas del sistema capitalista.

Somos revolucionarios y luchemos por que se quite el dinero y poder de las manos de los super ricos y se de a la clase trabajadora. De esta manera se puede construir una economía planeada socialista donde todos trabajemos para cumplir con las necesidades sociales, y no la ganancia privatizada.

Por los millones, no los millonarios, en Vauxhall ¡vote Jeremy Drinkall!

Troops Out of Afghanistan Now!

2010-04-09T02:47:00.002+01:00

The Stop the War Coalition is surveying PPCs' attitudes to the war in Afghanistan. The campaigning organisation has set up a tool on its website where you can e-mail the candidates in your constituency requesting their views on the war.

The Anticapitalists are for Troops Out Now.

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are not about restoring democracy – the corruption of the Karzai regime in Kabul shows that – but about controlling oil rich areas. The results are the deaths of thousands of people – such as the recent footage that revealed US aircraft attacking Iraqis known to be civilians – war crimes and torture. Whole countries are occupied by thousand of US/UK troops as their wealth and industry are sold off to western companies.

And the people who lied to us about the war are earning huge amounts from it. For example, Tony Blair is being paid an undisclosed sum by a South Korean oil company with extensive interests in Iraq and a million pounds by the Royal family of Kuwait (which neighbours Iraq).

Fight poverty not wars

Our enemies are the capitalist leaders who lead countries into war and whip up racism and profit from misery; our allies are the workers and peasants around the globe who are fighting against oppression and resisting occupation.

In our Manifesto (Fight Poverty not War section) we state:

Get the troops out now! Immediate withdrawal of British forces from Afghanistan and Iraq
End the British government’s support for Israel and its oppression of the Palestinians
Solidarity with people resisting occupation of their country
Soldiers should have the right to disobey immoral orders
Stop the torture – open up the secret archives to expose it to all
Our real enemies are at home – the bankers and the rich
Not a penny, not a person for the defence of this system of poverty and war
Cancel Third World debt – aid without strings, not war without end.

Tories lose lesbian and gay support

2010-04-08T16:13:00.001+01:00

Chris Grayling, you may remember, is the Tory shadow Home Secretary, who said that B&B owners should have the right to turn away lesbian and gay couples. This currently contravenes the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 and therefore suggests that, should the Tories win, they may seek to amend the Act.

A number of observers also noted that David Cameron edited out a reference to "gays and straights" in his speech about the Tories turning to the "great ignored", where he listed "young and old, black and white, Christian and Muslim", etc.

Now the chairperson of the main Conservative lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender group LGBTory, Anastasia Beaumont-Bott, has declared she is now voting Labour – in disgust at David Cameron's failure to reprimand Grayling

It's been in my head for a while to speak out, but the Chris Grayling issue has made me realise that a year-and-a-half ago, I was someone who was standing up and telling gay people that they should vote for Mr Cameron. But I became disillusioned after meeting one too many people in that party who were not like what the leader was saying the party was about.

So much for the new Tories!

Please check out our LGBT manifesto, which was published today:

Fight homophobia
Lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transsexual (LGBT) people face a thousand obstacles, from discrimination at work and victimisation at school, through to bullying at home and violence on the street. The atmosphere of hatred against sexual minorities frequently spills over into brutal attacks – like the recent murders of Ian Baynham and Michael Causer.

One in five LGBT people in the UK have been attacked in the last three years. Recent reforms have made discrimination against lesbians and gays illegal. But from the pulpit to the classroom, hatred is still being whipped up against people who do not conform to the “norm”.

Tory shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling recently advocated the idea of allowing B&B owners to turn away lesbian and gay couples. If this is made legal, then bigots across the country will be given free rein.

The deep roots of the oppression of lesbians and gays lie in the capitalist system, which wants us to live in standard family units. Anticapitalists, on the other hand, stand for the complete liberation of lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people.

Fight all discrimination – no jobs should be barred to lesbians or gays, not in the military, the clergy or anywhere else
Equal rights to marry, have children, adopt
No discrimination on grounds of lifestyle
Organise self-defence against homophobic “queer-bashing” attacks.

Cameron and Brown clash over National Insurance

2010-04-07T19:35:00.001+01:00

Predictably David Cameron focused on Labour’s proposed rise in National Insurance in the last parliamentary question time. But despite the rise of indignation from businessmen (yes, check it out, all of the Telegraph business leaders who called for the NI rise to be reversed are men, except Anya Hindmarch), this measure would hit workers, not bosses.

Cameron said:

"This prime minister would wreck the recovery by putting a tax on every job, on everyone earning over £20,000, a tax on aspiration, a tax on every business in the country."

Instead of the £10 billion the 1% rise would bring in, the Tories are proposing… well, £10 billion of cuts in public services and service providers’ jobs, pay and pensions. Or, as Gordon Brown pointed out, an even bigger hit of a 2.5% rise in VAT.

But in fact, the NI rise is not anti-boss. First off, every worker would pay an extra 1% of their wages to the Treasury. Secondly, according to the Telegraph:

“Economists say that rises in employer Nics are effectively passed on to workers in the form of lower wages or job cuts.”

What neither party nor the Lib Dems are proposing is to tax big business and the rich, close the “tax avoidance” loopholes, and jail the tax evaders. That's the blindingly obvious answer – but only the Anticapitalists and the TUSC candidates are calling for these measures in this election.

I’ll be taking this message out to the trade union backed “Defend Public Services” demo this Saturday. Join me and thousands more marching from the Embankment to Trafalgar Square!

Financial News: "bankers beware!"

2010-04-07T11:44:00.000+01:00

The Financial News website has warned bankers that my election campaign is "not exactly financier-friendly". Vivek Ahuja writes on their blog:

Drinkall has supported several protests over the years, from the miners’ strike to the anti-poll tax movement, becoming convinced the state was “not neutral but defended the rich and powerful." It would appear there is yet another threat on the horizon for the City and its financial folk.

Anticapitalists Target Bankers In Vauxhall Election Challenge

2010-04-06T10:52:00.003+01:00

We sent out this press release this morning. Finally the official campaign is underway!

New initiative to stand in Vauxhall at General Election

Local teaching assistant Jeremy Drinkall is candidate

Anticapitalists say take over the banks, take back the bailout billions

Drinkall:

“Spend it on 1/3 of all Vauxhall council dwellings that are officially not decent.
Spend it on 51% of local children officially in poverty”

Jeremy Drinkall – a teaching assistant at a local school - today announced his candidacy in the coming General Election. He will stand in Vauxhall on the Anticapitalist ticket.

Anticapitalist activists have already spent several weekends canvassing local council estates in support of his challenge. Scores of traditional Labour voters on the doorstep sick of Brown and his pro-bank, pro-war stance have already pledged support for the Anticapitalists.

The new movement says the Government has spent more than £1 trillion on the bank bailout and is now expecting working class people to pay for it in job cuts, pay freezes, reductions in benefits, and cuts in college places, services and pension entitlements.

The Anticapitalists want to take over the banks, tax the rich, pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and spend the money instead on creating three million new jobs, a million new council houses, a massive repair and improve programme for council flats and a £9 an hour minimum wage.

Anticapitalist candidate Jeremy Drinkall said:

“The government has given £1 trillion of our money to the millionaire bankers.
Yet more than half of the children in Vauxhall are officially living in poverty, and one in every three council homes fails to meet official standards of decency.
The Anticapitalists want to take over the banks and take back the trillion. We are standing because we want to spend this huge wealth on jobs, homes, hospitals and schools.”

Published and promoted by Vauxhall ANTICAPITALISTS – WORKERS POWER on behalf of Jeremy Drinkall both at Unit 256, 99-103 Lomond Grove, London SE5 7HN

Anticapitalist Manifesto online

2010-04-05T17:38:00.000+01:00

The Anticapitalist Manifesto, Drinkall for Vauxhall: for the millions, not the millionaires is now online!

You can view it by either clicking on the chapters on the right or by viewing it all in one click by going to Workers Power.

All feedback welcome!

Support the RMT's right to strike

2010-04-02T14:43:00.000+01:00

What a disgrace British justice is. A judge has decided that Network Rail signallers in the Rail Maritime and Transport union cannot strike next week because of technical faults in the balloting process. I condemn the use of these undemocratic laws and call for their immediate repeal – will Kate Hoey, who is supposed to represent the RMT in parliament?What were these faults? Apparently the RMT failed to correctly identify where all of the signallers currently worked. But, as RMT General Secretary Bob Crow explained, this had no bearing on the ballot result. All ballot papers were sent by the Electoral Reform Society to RMT members' home addresses – not their workplaces.

But the anti-union laws – introduced by the Tories, but kept in place by New Labour – oblige trade unions to tell the employer where each and every one of its employees work!

In an industry, where workers are often and at short notice relocated to 1,700 signal boxes around the country, it is impossible for the union to keep absolutely up to date and cortrect records. But the RMT did its best, basing its returns to Network Rail on the latest Network Rail figures from this year, 2010. So it is possible for any large employer to foil its workers' democratic decision to strike by providing the union with inaccurate figures.

Worse, Crow pointed out that Network Rail only provided the union with its evidence half an hour before the court case began, giving it no time to check its accuracy. Once RMT officials did get the chance to investigate, they found that Network Rail had submitted false information to the court. Does this invalidate the injunction? The hell it does – the strike has been declared unlawful and the decision sticks. And, I'd add, stinks!

Repeal these anti-union laws!

In my manifesto, I call for the repeal of all these undemocratic, anti-union laws, which stopped BA cabin crew members striking at Christmas, and have now done the same to signallers. How can it be right for unions to jump through hundreds of hoops before workers can lawfully withdraw their labour – but the bosses can sack people and rip up their redundancy pay packages at a few minutes' notice?

I support any group of workers who defy these laws – break the law, not the poor! But will Kate Hoey?

Leisure services in danger despite Streatham Hub deal

2010-03-30T18:44:00.000+01:00

Lambeth Council and Tesco's have finally signed a deal over the Streatham Hub, the area around the swimming pool, the ice rink and bus garage, in return for building a great big Tesco's next to Morrison's and few hundred yards away from Safeway.

The plans involve having a temporary ice ring and swimming pool on Streatham Common, so using up valuable green space, while building goes ahead.

Or did it? Campaigners gave the plans an angry reception on Monday night at the Town Hall while the council's legal officer said that secretary of state had to be consulted over the Streatham Common usage. Also in 2005 an agreement was announced so, while hoping we will get a new swimming pool and ice rink, I'll celebrate when it happens.

Pool closures
Streatham Pool was closed at the end of last year because the building had fallen into a state of disrepair as Tesco, the council and Transport for London spent 10 years failing to reach agreement.

The closure comes at the same time as Clapham Pool closed because of rebuilding and the cutting of the hours at Brixton Pool. Neighbouring Southwark isn't much better. It has closed two out of four swimming pools including Camberwell, which I frequently use along with Brixton.

During the past 10 years leisure services have been run into the ground while councils have sold off services, land and buildings to private companies such as Tesco's.

And with all the main parties talking about "deeper cuts than under Thatcher", this privatisation will only worsen, despite Lambeth Labour promising four new leisure centres in its manifesto.

My Anticapitalist Manifesto calls for: free leisure and youth centres  , which offer: sports, recreation, drama, dance, art, music, computing and language courses. This should be paid for by taxing the rich.

Hat Tip for Monday night news Jason Cobb at http://onionbagblog.com/

Labour 'not supporting working people'

2010-03-29T19:26:00.000+01:00

Great clip from the Today programme on Radio 4 about left wing challengers to Labour:

Labour 'not supporting working people'

David Henry, Salford TUSC candidate sends solidarity greetings

2010-03-29T12:07:00.002+01:00

This weekend saw the annual national conference of Workers Power. It went really well and we discussed what we think will happen in the year ahead, and how Workers Power should respond. Many thanks to David Henry, the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition Salford candidate who sent a touching solidarity message to our conference.

Trade Union and Socialist Coalition launch rally London

2010-03-27T09:27:00.001Z

Thursday night I attended the launch rally of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) in the Friend's Meeting House, Euston, London. Newsnight, Radio Four and other media were there covering it.

It was a good, lively meeting and the candidates outlined why they were standing to fight back against the cuts. I wish all the TUSC candidates the best in their campaigns. As Dave Nellist said, "It's not just about votes, but what we do after the election." Hopefully we can use the next few weeks as a springboard for the launching of a new mass party of the working class.

Here is a longer report of the meeting from Workers Power.

Ashmole Estate at the Oval transferred

2010-03-25T21:41:00.003Z

Metropolitan Housing Trust have taken over the Ashmole Estate. The deal with Lambeth Council is supposed to deliver a £40 million regeneration programme.

I was involved in campaigning against this and leafletted the estate several times. The actual vote that passed the deal was 53 per cent in favour on a 64 per cent turnout, if it was a union balloting for action it would have been declared illegal.

It seems from the press release that it was the only way to get the estate up to decent standard. As I have posted before, half of all houses in Lambeth are not decent (and that is according to Lambeth's own figures) and the main ALMO is in financial difficulties.

That is why I argue for a massive injection of funds, tenants taken control of public housing and an residents audit of housing stock stock to determine improvements. No more reliance on ALMOs etc for "improvements", we must take housing back into public ownership and put tenants in control.

• See my manifesto on housing

Kennington Park residents tell Kate Hoey of Hyde Southbank failures

2010-03-23T18:00:00.002Z

I was invited along to a Tenants Association meeting on Kennington Park estate in the Oval last night. It was a packed and lively – at times angry – meeting. I counted at least 40 residents and almost all of them had grievances against housing association Hyde and privatised utility firm Thames Water.

Vauxhall Labour MP Kate Hoey was also there. Kate recounted how she had encouraged residents to abandon their council tenant status and transfer to Hyde as she believed it to be a “completely new way of getting tenants listened to” and “genuine local management”.

But this is not how tenants viewed it last night! The cleaning service was shoddy and haphazard. Hyde don’t even publish a rota of when the cleaning is supposed to be done. Despite this, Hyde’s service charges had shot up by 30-40% (from £80 a month to £116).

Other complaints centred on Hyde reneging on their promises at the time of privatisation. Cycle storage facilities had not been installed. Raised flower beds had been unplanted for two years. And Hyde had twice recently tried to sneak through the closing of their local office on the estate on Magee Street. But tenants felt that their complaints were ignored.

Privatisation was also under fire because Thames Water, which is carrying out very extensive (and long overdue) repair work on Kennington Oval, which had brought the water pressure on the estate so low that some had experienced no water after 9pm for weeks. Typically Hyde and Thames Water batted complaints back and forth, both denying responsibility.

And it is this that is at the heart of the problem on the privatised estates. Despite Hoey’s touching faith in the private sector restoring the rights of tenants, in reality they run roughshod over tenants. Hyde, Metropolitan and co. may be “not for profit” organisations, but they are legally obliged to make a “surplus” (i.e. profit!) and pay their managers and executives hundreds of thousands of pounds. And that comes from cutting corners, underpaying and overworking staff, charging excessive rents and service charges.

All the main parties support this rotten status quo. That is why I am standing to demand:

• ALMOs, TMOs, etc. to be taken back into council ownership and control

• A national repair and improve programme

• Freeze rents and charges – rent strike against rent hikes!

• Public housing to be managed by tenants

Lambeth Council has built only one in nine of the homes needed

2010-03-22T22:34:00.001Z

Lambeth Council has built only 11 per cent of the affordable homes needed in the borough.

Experts claim that the council needs to build more than 4,000 to provide for people in the borough. The council has built 478 homes, so that's one in nine of the houses needed.

A report from Homelessness charity Shelter ranked Lambeth 241 out of 323 councils for meeting the need for affordable housing. It was 22nd in the list of London councils.

Shelter estimates that 1.8 million homes needed to be built and that one million children live in crowded conditions.

In addition, the council has also stated that half of its houses are not decent and the organisation it put in charge of the homes is in financial difficulties.

Threat of repossession

Meanwhile, when I was out canvassing in Vauxhall at the weekend, my supporters and I came across leaflets thrust into letter boxes advertising for flats and houses. Apparently these leaflets were offering to buy out people who were in debt with their mortgages (obviously a number of flats have been bought by their occupiers).

This is a tempting offer for someone deeply in mortgage debt. But it shows how unscrupulous would-be landlords are taking advantage of the recession and unemployment to buy up more property and then rent it out at great expense.

Instead of the council building plenty of cheap housing to cater for working class families and providing cheap, quality housing, we have the bosses and their cronies making money out of workers' misery while the rest of us face rising rents and fewer council houses to rent.

Labour has overseen a housing crisis both locally and nationally. But let's remember that it was the Tories who sold off the council houses in the first place and that the Lib Dem/Tory run Lambeth did nothing to solve this crisis.

I will fight for no repossessions, a frieze on rents and for building a million homes to give people affordable housing.

Read my policies on cheap housing for all

Lambeth College workers join 1000 in march for education

2010-03-22T15:43:00.003Z

The Lambeth College UCU banner was among those which joined Saturday's central London education protest. The march was held to defend the jobs of teachers who are threatened with Labour's cuts to the education budget.

Up to 1000 members of the University and Colleges Union (UCU) marched to Downing Street yesterday in defence of jobs and education.

At first, demonstration organisers had been told by police that the march would need to stick to the pavements, but as numbers swelled at The Strand, we took the roads.

Although some education activists, and many London students had gone to Bolton for the day to stop the English Defence League, many new people were drawn in. There were banners from colleges and universities that have only just had cuts announced – such as Lambeth College in South London. Some teachers brought their families along, and young children held placards calling to save their parents’ jobs.

This helped bring an important message home – when jobs are cut, it can have a devastating impact on many lives beyond those immediately affected.

Students from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts formed a loud and lively contingent with student activists from King’s College, UCL, Westminster, Oxford Brookes, Oxford, Colchester, and the University of Sussex which recently won a huge victory against management attempts to victimise activists. The air was filled with the shrill sound of whistles, and chants against Lord Mandelson who has been leading moves to privatise education, turning universities into businesses.

The National Campaign held a brief sit down protest outside Downing Street before moving to the UCU rally opposite where speakers called for a united campaign by teachers and students involving strikes and occupations to stop education cuts.

From WorkersPower.com

BA cabin crew strike to defend jobs and wages

2010-03-21T22:32:00.002Z

The BA cabin crew strike has become a key political issue in the forthcoming general election. The Tories are clamouring against workers’ right to strike over terms and conditions, while Gordon Brown has disgracefully denounced Unite for striking.

British Airways cabin crew staff in the Unite union are standing firm on the second day of their strike. Only a third of BA flights have taken off, with 80 per cent of Unite members obeying the strike call, many of them on noisy and vibrant picket lines. Despite BA claims that it has fulfilled its much-reduced emergency flight schedule, Unite says many of the flights are empty and an average of 14 passengers per flight are on board.

Solidarity has not been slow in coming. A demo supporting the strikers yesterday attracted contingents from the RMT rail union, PCS civil servants, who are also in dispute and striking on Wednesday, the UCU lecturers and NUT teachers. Further afield, Air France cabin crews have arranged to strike alongside Unite next week, while German, Italian and American unions have pledged solidarity.

Union busters

Unite general secretary Tony Woodley said on Friday, "BA does not want to negotiate and ultimately wants to go to war with this union." The company withdrew its offer on the eve of the walkout and demanded the union return to work, which would have nullified its second strike ballot.

Now it has threatened to withdraw Unite’s facilities at BA. This comes on top of a massive campaign of intimidation, including the withdrawal “for life” of flight discounts and other “perks” – most of which are essential for the job.

Currently 38 Unite cabin crew members are suspended or being disciplined for matters as trivial as making jokes or expressing dismay at a company notice board on which anti-strike comments, such as “Cabin crew scum”, have been posted.

Tories lead battle cry – and Labour follows

The Tories have decided, with the help of BA chief executive Willie Walsh, to show how tough they would be in government. They even dare to criticise Labour for being funded by a union - as if it is ok for parties to be funded by millionaires, as they are, but not for workers' organisations to be political. In this the Tories show their fear and hatred of workers' political organisation.

But Labour has not exactly acted to represent the workers who are paying for the party! The Labour front bench has responded with its usual anti-working class instinct and condemned the strike – despite accepting £11 million of the union’s money to fund its election campaign.

Anticapitalists are campaigning for victory for the Unite strikers. Cabin crew are not privileged workers; their starting salary is £11,000 a year and 70 per cent earn less than £20,000, way below the average wage. They have every right to strike until BA reverses its imposed changes, which will cut 1,000 jobs and introduce worse pay and conditions on new staff.

But strikers and their supporters should demand Unite breaks from Labour and uses its millions to help fund a new, anticapitalist workers’ party that can fight against the Tories’ Lib Dems’ and Labour’s attempt to make the workers pay for the bosses’ crisis.

A longer version of this article can be found at Workers Power

Published and promoted by Vauxhall ANTICAPITALISTS – WORKERS POWER on behalf of Jeremy Drinkall both at Unit 256, 99-103 Lomond Grove, London SE5 7HN

Election work, Saturday, 20 March

2010-03-19T16:30:00.002Z

Anyone who wants to help us leaflet tomorrow, please come along.

We are meeting midday at Oval tube, south London (it's on the Northern Line) to go leafletting in the area. So come along and help us.

Published and promoted by Vauxhall ANTICAPITALISTS – WORKERS POWER on behalf of Jeremy Drinkall both at Unit 256, 99-103 Lomond Grove, London SE5 7HN

Stockwell Job Centre walks out to defend jobs

2010-03-16T19:21:00.002Z

The Public and Commercial Services union took two days of strike action last week. I attended the picket line at Stockwell Job Centre, where the strike seemed fairly strong: only 14 scabs crossed the picket line out of a workforce of 70, i.e. 80% solid.
The Labour government has unilaterally ripped up the decades-old redundancy pay agreement and seeks to impose far worse terms on those it sacks in the future. The union says long-standing staff would lose between a third and half of their entitlement.

As the pickets told me, this reveals the bosses’ intention of sacking thousands of workers, closing or reducing much needed services, and privatising much of the rest. The vulture companies which bid for government contracts have been lobbying New Labour for years to reduce the costs of making state employees redundant, as this is the biggest financial barrier to them profiting from privatisation. This seems to be Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling’s parting gift to the millionaires.

I spoke to Jackie Dutton, the Works and Pensions PCS branch secretary. She confirmed that the Job Centre staff are currently working incredibly hard because the department cut staff just before the massive hike in unemployment.

Worse, they are now going to shut Camberwell Job Centre, which will put further pressure on Brixton and Peckham offices. Apparently, the government sold off the Job Centre offices to make a few quid some years ago and now the lease is up. Tesco has offered a huge sum to open up an “Express” supermarket, so the jobless will have to get a bus to queue up and sign on. That’s how government policy is made these days: by estate agents and Tesco’s!

I also enquired of the pickets whether in their experience it was true that claimants were having their money stopped for the smallest of bureaucratic reasons, like being a few hours late for an appointment or forgetting to bring their record of job searches. One of the pickets, Gordon, explained that this was true. The frontline workers had no leaway and had to play it by the book.

What a shame. Surely the PCS should urge its members to treat unemployed workers like their class brothers and sisters and help them to their entitled money (meagre as it is) and into decent jobs, not minimum wage slave labour. I have heard that in some parts the local PCS branch is supporting unemployed workers’ groups. I will see if I can use my campaign to achieve something similar here.

The strike will recommence on Budget Day, Wednesday 24 March. If the PCS doesn’t win after that, it should take further and more extensive action. Let’s link up all the current disputes and say – we will not pay for their crisis!

Published and promoted by Vauxhall ANTICAPITALISTS – WORKERS POWER on behalf of Jeremy Drinkall both at Unit 256, 99-103 Lomond Grove, London SE5 7HN

Lambeth College plans £3.5 million cuts

2010-03-14T21:35:00.007Z

I’ve learnt that up to 100 workers, many of them support staff, low-paid women and men, could lose their jobs. The University and Colleges Union (UCU) wants to ballot for strike action.

I was at a meeting of Lambeth Activists, a group of socialist Unison members in my branch, last week and heard Dave Esterson, convenor at Lambeth College UCU, explain how a number of colleges, including Tower Hamlets, where workers won a four-week strike last year, were facing cuts of 10%.

Lambeth College is a vital resource for our community. At its best, the Vauxhall site is buzzing with students learning real trades, like engineering, motorcycle maintenance, and painting and decorating. Increasingly school, like my own, rely on the college.

With the school leaving age soon to rise to 17 and a million young people without work, we need to expand the colleges and offer all young people the choice of academic courses or work with training on the job – real apprenticeships with real wages. Instead the government is decimating our colleges.

Dave said that the UCU may go on strike around mid-April (to be decided democratically). Lambeth Activists agreed to help our fellow Unison members in the college in whatever way we could.

I sometimes support school students at Lambeth College and have always rated the staff – support workers and teachers. I will do whatever I can in my campaign to help their fight and urge others, including Kate Hoey and her supporters, to do so, too.

But Labour leaders are driving this anti-working class policy of unemployment punctuated by low paid jobs. That’s why, in Tottenham, Jenny Sutton, a lecturer and branch secretary of the UCU at the College of North East London, will be standing as a Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate against higher education minister David Lammy.

I wish Jenny and the Lambeth UCU comrades all the best in the struggles ahead.

Lambeth backs down over school catchment area

2010-03-12T18:26:00.005Z

Good News. The council has now backed down over the primary school with the exclusive catchment area. They have said they will build an extra primary school. As I wrote at the time why did the council come up with a plan in the first place to exclude children from council estates from the school

Campaign off to a good start

2010-03-10T18:32:00.003Z

We kicked off our campaign last Saturday with a meeting of supporters, followed by leafleting and canvassing.

Twenty of us gathered in the Oval ward. While most were locals, some came from as far away as Colchester and Norwich. We started by discussing the big issues of this election: who should pay for the economic crisis, how all the main parties were offering the same, how to get the troops out of Afghanistan.
Unlike the other parties, the Anticapitalists also discussed how we could use the campaign to promote local struggles for public services and jobs and against racism.

Once we started knocking on doors and talking to people, this all came in very handy. One resident I spoke to was instantly in support of our campaign as he was going on strike the following week to defend the civil service compensation scheme.

Together we gave out over thousands of leaflets and talked to hundreds of people. None of us received any abusive comments – even Labour supporters were friendly and respectful. Quite a few residents offered to support us and even more were prepared to think about voting for us. Not bad for a first day out.

If you would like to join us on the campaign trail, please contact us. It’s good fun talking socialism on the doorstep and there’s great camaraderie within our team. From now on, we will be out nearly every weekend and plan activities for weekday evenings, too.

Icelanders refuse to bow to bankers and governments

2010-03-10T17:52:00.004Z

Heartening news came over the weekend from the far north. Asked in a national referendum whether Iceland should pay British and Dutch banks £3.4 billion, the islanders voted by 93% to put much needed public services first. Only 2% of the people backed the deal brokered by British and Dutch governments.

Alistair Darling admitted that this means the debt will remain unpaid for “many, many years”.

The BBC reported:

Many Icelanders believe the plan should be rejected because they feel they are being penalised for the mistakes of the banking industry.

"I will vote 'No' simply because I disagree very strongly with us... having to shoulder this burden," Ingimar Gudmundsson, a lorry driver, told AFP news agency.

Icelanders were also incensed that the British Government used anti-terrorist laws to seize the assets of the failed bank IceSave in 2008. We were assured that anti-terrorist legislation was only there to combat bombers and hijackers. But now it is being used against anyone – even Iceland!

Why can’t we have a referendum in the UK on whether we should pay back the £1 trillion we gave to the banks? Could it be because 94% of us would vote to deny the greedy bankers and protect the NHS, schools and social housing budgets? I think so.

Published and promoted by Vauxhall ANTICAPITALISTS – WORKERS POWER on behalf of Jeremy Drinkall both at Unit 256, 99-103 Lomond Grove, London SE5 7HN

Why are so many young people in jail?

2010-02-21T17:16:00.005Z

The Prison Reform Trust has published figures for the number of 10-17 year olds given custodial sentences last year. The Guardian reports:

The resulting league table was topped by Lambeth in south London, where almost one in 200 young people were given custodial sentences over the year, 25 times more than the equivalent figure for Dorset.

This is an appalling state of affairs. While overall crime rates in Lambeth are falling, our courts are locking up more young people — some as young as 10.

According to the Children’s Rights Alliance, Britain locks up more children than almost any other developed country: 2,500-3,000 at any one time. Thirty children have died in jail since 1990 but there has never been a public inquiry.

This is totally unnecessary and counter-productive. In prison, young people are cut off from the support they need. They are branded criminals and – surprise, surprise – some of them start behaving like criminals.

It is no coincidence that Lambeth also has staggeringly high rates of child poverty (51%, just over half of all children) and unfit housing (32%, just under a third).

Here’s my three steps to turning this around:

By offering all our young people a guaranteed full-time job on at least £9 an hour or a place in college or university with a full grant to live on, we could massively reduce the numbers tempted by crime.
By helping the small minority who do stray into real antisocial behaviour to get their lives back on track – rather than locking them up and forgetting about them – we could help them learn from mistakes instead of them learning a life of crime.
And by creating three million new jobs, building a million new homes and renovating others, we could eliminate poverty.

That’s what I call “Being tough on the causes of crime”. Labour seems to just want to be tough on children. And that doesn’t make them look big in my eyes.

Published and promoted by Vauxhall ANTICAPITALISTS – WORKERS POWER on behalf of Jeremy Drinkall both at Unit 256, 99-103 Lomond Grove, London SE5 7HN

Lambeth primary school to exclude poor children?

2010-02-21T15:01:00.006Z

The Streatham Guardian has this story about a new primary school – good you may think, Lambeth needs more schools. But this school's catchment area excludes council estates.

Even the Tories are up in arms about it. Conservative councillor for Gipsy Hill ward, Andrew Gibson said:

"The plans are discriminatory against all Gipsy Hill residents and indeed against most council tenants in Knights Hill, as the council’s own map shows. In short, Lambeth Labour is resorting to little-used powers to allow queue jumping.”

But in case you arre warming to the Tories for sticking up for the poor, remember what Oliver Letwin said in 2003.

"In Lambeth, where I live, I would give my right arm to send them [my children] to a fee paying school. If necessary i would go out on the streets and beg rather than send them to a school next to where I live."

Not so much sticking up for, but sticking it to the poor.

Published and promoted by Vauxhall ANTICAPITALISTS – WORKERS POWER on behalf of Jeremy Drinkall both at Unit 256, 99-103 Lomond Grove, London SE5 7HN