Everyones Favourite Comrade

Outrage at the council revelations

2011-03-20T21:26:00.000Z

Originally written for the Socialism in RCT blog

SP member of the ponty anti-cuts demo

On March 17th an article appeared on the WalesOnline website explaining that far from being in huge debts Rhondda Cynon Taff council actually had a £2 million surplus. This is the same council who only weeks ago, threatened the entire workforce with dismissal unless the excepted worse pay and conditions, the council claimed they had no other choice but to do this in order to balance the budget and many workers have signed the new contracts through fear of loosing their jobs.

The fact that this Labour council has forced through these savage cuts to the pay and employment conditions of its 10,000 strong work force whilst maintaining a surplus of £2 million shows exactly how sincere the Labour Party is to opposing cut backs!

The revelation of this surplus highlights the betrayal of the Labour councillors, who shed crocodile tears over the cuts they voted for whilst all along leaving the council with an incredible surplus. In reality it just confirms what we already knew - Labour don't represent us anymore!

It is true that whilst there is a surplus currently of £2m but cuts in wages have 'saved' the council £5.6m leaving an obvious gap of £3.6m. This does not mean that cuts have to be made, rather on the contrary this presents a real alternative to fight and defeat the austerity measures driven by central government.

The council could use the current surplus as a temporary measure in order to avoid the cuts for now. This would make the council extremely popular amongst the workers and the community in general. (A far cry from the harsh reality of the feelings towards the council at the moment) The council could then use this popularity to build a mass campaign throughout the county to defend the council against any attack from the Assembly or Westminster and to demand the money necessary for all the jobs and services needed within the area.

If the council was willing to set a 'needs budget' - a budget based on the needs of the area, rather than based on the forced cuts budgets of central government, then they would easily gain mass support - and rightfully so from whole sections of working class people in the area. This is exactly what happened when the Liverpool council did this in the 1980s. If the council was to do this then the Socialist Party would through it full weight behind the councillors to defend them and the budget from attack.

Unfortunately, we feel that this scenario is extremely unlikely. We saw 13 years of a Labour government committed cuts and privatisation of public services and where they are still in power, in the Assembly and in councils they are willingly carrying out cuts today. In Cumbria the Labour councillors are even in a formal coalition with the tories! If that doesn't demonstrate whose side they are really on then nothing will. The Labour Party has shown itself to be a party fully committed to rolling back the welfare state.

This is why the Socialist Party will be standing in the Welsh Assembly elections and next years council elections as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, standing on a platform of opposition to ALL cuts and for a united fight back to defeat this government. If you are interested in getting involved with the election campaign in RCT then you can contact us here.

RCT Socialist Party launches a blog

2011-03-09T22:38:00.002Z

Earlier today Rhonndda Cynon Taf Socialist Party Launched a blog called Socialism in RCT. Below I reproduce the statement relased by RCT Socialist Party regarding the blog.

Why we have launched this blog

As the economic crisis continues for millions of ordinary people around the country and internationally, the rich get richer and ordinary working class people are made to pay the price shown by the obscene profits and bonuses paid to bankers and other corporations.

The media, government and all the major political parties are constantly telling us about Tina - There is no alternative.We are told that this was all unavoidable, that it was the international markets and governments who had no control over this. We are told that this could not have been predicted, but these are all the lies which are constantly fed to us..

None of this was inevitable, Karl Marx pointed out over 150 years ago the inherent contradictions of capitalism, the constant and unavoidable cycle of boom and bust. It was not just the capitalist markets which caused this either. The deregulation of the banking sector around the world by governments, in the case of Britain by the Thatcher government, and maintained by New Labour over their 13 years in office made it possible for the 'elastic' to be stretched further to create an ever growing credit bubble. As with an elastic band the more it is stretched the harder it will snap and this has all been made worse by the de-industrialisation of Britain, the loss of manufacturing jobs and the replacement by service sector jobs has meant the British economy is extremely dependant on the finance sector which has plunged us further into crisis.

When they tell us there is no alternative this is just a big con trick. Whilst £billions have been given to the banks in a bailout, huge bonuses have been paid out, huge profits have been made and ordinary people like us have been forced to pay the price with job cuts, wage cuts and freezes, cuts in pensions, higher tuition fees and cuts in pretty much all public services and benefits. On top of this council tax is set to rise as is the cost of living.

With high levels of unemployment there are nearly 1 million unemployed young people who are also having the door to higher education closed in their face.

We should not have to and we will not accept this. The banks should be fully nationalised and run democratically in a way where the profits can go into funding the NHS, education and other public services and not the other way around as the government is currently doing. We could scrap the war in Afghanistan, the replacement of the trident nuclear weapons systems and end the financial scam of Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) which allows private companies to make huge amounts of money out of providing public services at a lower standard.

The government could also start collecting the £120 billion tax per year which is avoided or evaded by the rich every year but instead the government is proposing to cut staffing numbers in HM revenues & customs making it almost impossible to close the tax gap. These are public sector workers who actually bring in revenue which shows that this is definitely an ideological attack on the public sector are the services working class people rely on.

Many people both in Britain and around the world are beginning to wake up to this reality and have begun to fightback in various ways, be it the recent student demonstrations and university occupations in Britain, the mass demonstrations and revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East or the mass movements developing in Wisconsin in the United States just to give a few examples. There are of course already some fantastic websites already covering these events which we fully support such as the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI - International organisation of which the Socialist Party is affiliated) website and of course both the Socialist Party and the Socialist Party Wales websites.

We are also facing attacks on our communities. The Labour led Rhondda Cynon Taf council recently sent out section 188 notices to its 10,000 strong workforce, which threatened them with the sack if they did not sign new contracts which would ensure that the workers loose on average between £2,000-4,000 per year! On top of this the council has proposed a rise in council tax by nearly 3%!

The Labour council say they have no choice because their budget has been cut, but they do have a choice. The council should refuse to implement the cuts and instead set a needs budget (a budget which meets the real needs of people in the area) and follow the heroic example set by the Liverpool council in the 1980s. They could do this by using the council reserves for now, whilst building a mass campaign amongst trade unionists, community campaigners, students and young people to support the council and demand the necessary funding from central government. This is exactly what they did in Liverpool and they won! If every Labour council in the country did this then it would bring this ConDem government crashing down.

There is a real choice for the council, they can either implement the tory cuts or the can stand by working class people and refuse to make us pay for the crisis. If they did this then RCT Socialist Party would give our full support to the council. Unfortunately we think that this is unlikely to happen so we should stand anti-cuts candidates at next years council elections.

Since its inception Socialist Party members have participated in and helped to build RCT Against the Cuts and bring along to it a strategy to defeat the cuts and we will continue to do so. There is a real need for a political alternative to workers and youth, who will people in RCT vote for when the Welsh Assembly elections come around this May? The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are attacking us from Westminster and the Labour Party is attacking us from the council chambers. Plaid Cymru are attempting to present themselves as an alternative but where they are in power they are making huge cuts themselves, such as in Cardiff council.

We need a real alternative and that is why RCT Socialist Party will be standing in the forthcoming Welsh Assembly elections in the South Wales Central regional list as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which is committed to opposing all cuts.

It is for all these reasons that we have made the decision to launch this blog. In order to comment and analyse events and to offer a strategy and tactics for the way forward for workers and youth in RCT. Look out for regular updates here. It doesn't stop there, we have also launched a facebook page RCT Socialists and you can follow us on twitter @RCTSocialists

Don't stop there join the Socialist Party and help us fight for our future.

Rhondda Cynon Taff marches against the cuts

2011-02-22T01:04:00.003Z

This article was orginally posted on the Socialist Party Wales website.

Over 400 trade unionists, community campaigners and young people marched against cutbacks in a demonstration organised by UNISON. Also in attendance was a sizeable contingent from GMB, PCS NASUWT and other trade unionists. The demonstration was loud and angry as we marched through the town centre with the Youth Fight For Jobs contingent especially loud.

Many council workers are angry at the labour run Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) council for the blackmailing of staff, threatening them with the sack unless they except worse pay and conditions, which will affect their pay home pay for most workers of between £2-£4000, and in some cases even more!

The anger of the workforce was noticeable at the rally in the Muni at the end of the march, which was reflected in the speeches UNISON leaders in Wales were made even if up until now this has not been matched by their actions. It is clear that the weight of their members’ anger is pressing up against them.

Hundreds of RCT Against The Cuts leaflets were distributed on the day, both to those on the demonstration and passers-by. After the rally Socialist Party Wales held a very successful public meeting with about 50 in attendance. At the meeting several council workers expressed their anger towards the trade union branch leaderships, who they say had not really gone out of their way to inform the workforce that the demonstration had taken place, one worker went on to add “I only found out about the demo today, but most of the people I work with probably still don’t know after it has happened”.

In reply one of the organisers of RCT Against The Cuts said that this shows the importance of building this anti-cuts alliance which can communicate to all trade unionists and other campaigners in the area about the events coming up and to build a network of activists throughout all trade unions in the area to act as a lever on the leaderships to make sure they are doing what we elected them to do as represent their members interests.

On the day dozens of people said they would come to the next meeting of RCT Against The Cuts on February 24th in Pontypridd Museum and are going to help build the campaign. Two people joined the Socialist Party and many more expressed an interest in finding out more and joining as well.

A day trip to Birmingham, but for what?

2010-10-04T15:30:00.007+01:00

Last Sunday saw a demonstration of somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 people in Birmingham to protest outside the tory party conference. An impressive turn out with all things considered, the rain probably damaged the turn out and the governments spending review has not taken place yet. The demonstration also displayed a great cross section of working class society with banners displaying various campaigns to stop cuts in services, with various trade union banners, student groups, political organisations and a sizable amount of disabled people in attendance as well, fearful of the cuts in Disability Living allowance. All of this shows the potential is there for a united campaign against cutbacks but it wasn't all positive and I am not just referring to the rain.

Despite such anger against the cuts you would be forgiven for not realising this demonstration was against cuts, in fact I am not entirely sure myself if it was or if it was simply against tory cuts! The Right to Work posters read 'Protest against Tory cuts' and there was nothing said about anyone else but the tories. Whilst some may say this is pedantic it is not at all. Travelling on a coach from Cardiff we were well aware that the Welsh Assembly government is run by Labour and Plaid Cymru whilst Cardiff Council is run by the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru. Do the cuts they will carry out not matter? With any of the 3 main parties and a 4th in Wales in power they have all committed themselves to huge public sector cuts. But there was no mention of this throughout the demonstration simply stating that 'tories are scum' whilst I completely agree lets have some clarity and make it clear that all the main parties are committed to making to working class pay for the capitalist crisis.

This is a very important point because it is no good to simply direct the anger at tories (and liberals) when it will be labour/Plaid Cymru/SNP councils as well as the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament carrying out the cuts as well. It seems that the 'keep is so broad it is ineffective' strategy is still in full effect though. I am not opposed to members of those parties being involved in campaigns against cuts, but only if they refuse to vote for cuts and condemn those in their parties who do. Where there are council that refuse to carry out cuts they should receive the full and active support of anti-cuts campaigners but where there is not, then anti-cuts candidates should stand for election, unfortunately this did not feature at all in the Right to Work organised demonstration whatsoever.

Fortunately however Dave Nellist former Labour MP and currently a Socialist Party councillor in Coventry spoke from the platform at both rallies, he made the points which I have made in this article and pointed out that anti-cuts campaigners have had electoral success, in Kidderminster twice winning an MP as well as councillors and councillors won by anti-cuts campaigners in Huddersfield, Wigan, Wallsall and many other places and there is a need to build on this in the next election. This was also made clear in a very good Socialist Party leaflet which to my knowledge was the only material on the day highlighting a real strategy to defeat the cuts which was very will received, after all that was the point of the demonstration was it not?

There were other problems with the demonstration with between 50-100 pseudo-anarchist youth attempted to breach the fence and get into the conference centre, which then led to a long confrontation with the police which was eventually separated off from the main demonstration. This clearly resulted from the frustration at the relative inaction from the demonstration organisers in my view and will only continue and the trend will increase unless a clear strategy to defeat the cuts is put forward.

It is also worth noting that despite all this talk of the Coalition of Resistance on the Internet, I did not see any sign of them existing on this demonstration, which would have been the experience of many others, if they were actually there at all, or does this 'coalition only exist on the Internet? That has been my sole experience with it.

On the day Right to Work gave out a leaflet calling for 'unity talks' on the 5th December, but if they actually wanted unity then two things would have happened differently at least. Firstly when the chair of Right to Work attended the steering committee of the National Shop Stewards Network the day before he would have raised this at the time and secondly they would not have organised a 'unity event' the same time as the already publicised Youth Fight for Jobs national conference. It seems that based on this the 'unity project' is just for show, especially considering Right To Work was set up when the NSSN and YFJ already existed in the first place! Nevertheless unity against cuts is welcome but at the moment I am dubious that Right to Work actually want unity with others, and who could argue otherwise based on the facts.

After this demonstration it seems clear to me that nothing has changed and that if we wish to stop the cuts that the tasks remain the same, to build local campaigns against the cuts!

Nick Clegg 'answers' questions in Cardiff

2010-10-02T18:28:00.005+01:00

Last Thursday I had the dubious honour of attending a question and answer session with Nick Clegg in Cardiff City Hall. It was meant to be invitation only, probably due to the grilling he got last time he visited the city, but despite that and despite not being on the guest list I was able to get in.

What did I get for managing to blag my way in? Well I managed to waste 45 minutes of my life which I will never be able to get back! Clegg was indeed his usual self, that of a despicable liar, I did not expect anything else but the levels to which he was willing to go to lie would have been amusing if not true.

The first question from the floor started off well with the speaker ironically offering greetings from his mother who had voted for the liberals to keep the tories out. However the questions were not all that great in my opinion and there was only to be a handful of them as Clegg only stuck around for 45 minutes, i think in reality it was probably less than that. Whilst it seemed obvious that the majority of people in attendance were angry at Clegg, noticed by the whispers amongst the audience this didn't really translate into the questions.

Those able to ask questions (many included myself despite having are hands up the whole time were not brought in to ask a question) generally asked about services they used or sectors they worked in to seek assurances that this services wouldn't suffer from the cuts. Naturally Clegg was able to worm his way out, particularly as this meeting didn't grant the questioner the right to reply. One example was when a teacher asked about the situation in schools where funding restrictions have already seen cuts to learning support staff which allows children with learning difficulties to remain in mainstream schools, she asked how this would be prevented. Clegg's reply utterly appalled me! He said that it was because there was too much bureaucracy in the system, that although funding would be cut giving schools and teachers the freedom to decide how the money would be spent would prevent this from happening. He gave the example of academies to exlain why this gives the freedom to choose! Quite disingenious as this doesn't give the teachers or any other educational specialists the choice of how resources are spent, it gives private companies, rather than accoutable public authorities th choice. In any case if the budget is cut some services will have to go but when this is coupled with a private company taking a profit out then the end result can only ever be cuts.

Clegg was caught out at one point though when he stated that future genrations should not be made to pay for 'our' mistakes, so he was questioned by a student on why the government was proposing to raise tution fees, Clegg responded by acknowledging it was a problem and went on about the difficulties that students face but generally avoided actually answering the question as you would expect from a politician.

Throughout the whole time Clegg managed to get in lie after lie, I presented it as a fact that there is no other choice but to cut public services, such a blatant lie, what he should have said is that according to his political philisphy there is no other choice! In reality there is definately anothr choice, reading through the last few entries of my blog will be able to see that. He also stated that NHS funding would increase, and whilst this technically is not a lie it is very disingenious as the funding will be below inflation rates in the health sector and therefore in real terms is a cut to health expenditure. He also stated that over all public expenditure would increase, this to me seems like it must be an out right lie, but if there is some truth in it then it can only be on the basis of bailouts for the rich and trident nuclear weapons, hardly the public services that come to mind when people think of public expenditure.

Over all the 45 minutes was a complete waste of time, though it would have been well worth it if I was able to get into the discussion and put these points and the alternative to cuts to Clegg, such a grilling would have changed the whole mood of any following questions and th general atmosphere in the room.

Campaigning against cutbacks

2010-09-29T13:52:00.005+01:00

This article was orginally posted on the GlamSU website, However since publishing some details have changed. The demonstration reffered to October 23rd in Pontypridd is no longer taking place, however there will be a demonstration against cuts in Cardiff on that day organised by the Wales Shop Stewards Network. Below is the article

On the 20th of October the ‘ConDem’ government as it has come too referred as will announce its spending review. In Orwellian fashion this spending review will only review how to spend much less across the entire public sector. In reality this will equate to huge job losses, particularly in Wales where a third of the workforce is in the public sector, along with the jobs cuts will come the inevitable slashing of public service provisions, including provisions in the education system.

In light of this there has been resistance emerging from trade unions, student groups and community campaigners alike. Already several joint initiatives have been announced. The National Union of Students (NUS) and the University and College Union (UCU) (the trade union for lecturers and other academic staff) have announced a joint campaign called ‘Fund of Future’ and have planned a joint demonstration for November the 20th against cuts in university funding.

There have also been moves for a national demonstration against all cut backs. The National Shop Stewards Network organised a demonstration of over a thousand people outside the Trades Union Council (TUC) Conference to put pressure on the TUC to call a national demonstration against cuts. Such a demonstration organised by the TUC which has over 6 million members in Britain could be a huge rallying cry for a campaign to defeat the cuts!

On a more local level in the last week a meeting organised by Cardiff Trade Union Council agreed to set up a campaign against all cut backs. The meeting was well attended by members of a variety of public sector trade unions as well as those working in the private sector. Of note to us as students is that in attendance at this meeting there were staff and students present from both the University of Glamorgan and Cardiff University. At the meeting the need to unite campaigns together soA all the variety of campaigns against these cutbacks was stressed heavily. A sentiment I completely agree with, if we let ourselves get divided into saving our own services and our own jobs then we will all loose out in the end. This was something that Cardiff Council attempted to do a few years ago, when they attempted to divide individual campaigns against school closures. This was done in an attempt to get some campaigners to support the closure programme but campaign solely for their school to remain open. This would have led to smaller sectional and therefore weaker campaigns.

It is therefore important that we as students wishing to defend education cuts should support any campaigns in the area against public sector cuts. There is a demonstration on the 23rd of October in Pontypridd against public sector cuts organised by the Wales TUC. All students at the University should attend that demonstration and campaign alongside public sector workers, but we should also appeal for those on that demonstration to come along with us to the demonstration in London against cuts in University funding.

We have been constantly told there is no alternative to the cuts by the government and the media, and the old saying that “If a lie is told long and loud enough then it will become the truth” is very appropriate in this situation as there is no basis for this assertion whatsoever. The only reason that we have a deficit is because all the money was given to the banks, yet the banks are still able to make millions in profits and still give out millions in bonuses to the top city bankers. So why not demand that the bankers pay for the crisis instead, why not demand that the government nationalises the banks and put the profits into the education system and other public services.

Even if we accept this debt from the bankers it is not true that we need to cut public sector spending at this rate, in fact we do not need to cut spending at all. After World War 2 when the British government was racked by debts much bigger in fact than the current debt crisis it was still possible to invest heavily in public services including the introduction of the NHS as well investment in many other public services, which led to a period of economic boom. Contrast that to the response of governments after the Wall Street crash which was to drastically reduce public spending which led to the great depression, showing that making public sector cuts on this scale can only make things worse!

Cardiff anti-cuts alliance

2010-09-22T17:39:00.004+01:00

This Tuesday just gone (21/09/10) Cardiff County Trades Council held a public meeting. The purpose of which was to discuss the impending public sector cuts, those which have already been announced, some of which have already been carried out and those cuts expected to be announced next month as part of the government’s spending review on October 20th.

The meeting was well attended with n seats left over for any late comers. A definite sign of the mood to fight back against the public sector cuts. There were platform speakers from a variety of trade unions including the PCS, RMT, CWU and Unison and speakers from the floor representing a variety of other trade unions, student groups, community campaigners and many others. This alone should reflect the scale and the desire to fight back against these cuts.

Speaker after speaker explained how the cuts will affect them; CWU members spoke about postal privatisation and the need for the whole community to campaign to stop this from happening. Pensioners explained the change that moving pensions from the retail price index to the consumer price index pointed out that this will reduce the living standards of pensioners and stressed the need for trade unionists to fight for pensioners rights. Youth fight for jobs activists stressed the need for all workers to help them fight against rising youth employment which is clearly linked to the fight to stop jobs cuts. The list went on and on.

Throughout the evening it became more and more clear that there was a desperate need to link up the struggle to save jobs and services with other campaigns. Some campaigners pointed out the lessons learned in recent years in Cardiff, when the council proposed to close 22 schools in the city and then attempted to play campaign off against each other, in an attempt to get campaigners arguing for some schools to be closed in order to save their own. It was pointed out that if this did happen and different campaigns were divided then we would all loose out.

More and more speakers were making it clear that there was a need to set up a campaigning body which included all sections of the community to oppose all cuts. Other speakers disagreed, pointing out that we should support cuts to the banks, the politicians, to the replacement of trident nuclear weapons and to the military funding which allows young working class people to be sent to fight a rich man’s war in Afghanistan.

It was agreed at the end of the meeting to setup Cardiff anti-cuts Alliance which will start its campaigning activity very shortly and will aim to unite all campaigns that spring up against cut backs in the area into a united campaign to oppose all cuts to public services. Towards the end of the meeting one speaker from the floor said, I want to see council staff on demonstrations to oppose postal privatisation I want to see postal workers on demonstrations to oppose cuts in education; I want to see students standing side by side with striking workers. Only by standing together and supporting our individual struggles will we be able to stop these cuts.

This is clearly a big step forward for anti-cuts campaigning in South Wales, particularly as this initiative as followed in the footsteps of a recent initiative by Swansea Trades Council.

Making the Top Ten!

2010-09-08T13:18:00.003+01:00

Despite a recent lapse in my blogging when it came to the Total Politics Blog Awards for the Top 50 Welsh blogs I managed to scrap into the top ten.
In the run up to the announcement I was pretty confident that I would make it into the top 50, not because I thought my blog was that great but because quite frankly you would be hard pressed to find 50 active blogs in Wales. However making it into the top ten was a definite surprise, beating the likes of Leanne Wood and Bethan Jenkins easily with 2,200 voters in the poll, quite a significant result in the blogging world.
It really shows the grasp for ideas, as one of the only blogs in Wales which not only comments on events but actively promotes a viable alternative to many issues it shows the grasp by the welsh blogosphere for the need for an alternative.
It hasn’t all been good on the blog awards front though. I made it to number 82 in the top 100 worst political blogs, not an accolade I was particularly looking for, however judging by the obscure blogs I voted for which polled high I can only assume that the voting in the poll was quite low. I can only speculate why anyone voted for me, I will will assume its because of the recent low frequency of the posts appearing so I will try and rectify that now so I do not appear in next years poll.

Total Politics Blog Awards - Vote Me!

2010-07-11T23:42:00.004+01:00

It is the time of year for the Total Politics Blog Awards. My blog is just under a year old, so when last years awards were released this blog was not eligable (being as it did not exist)

This year I want to get into the charts particulary the category of Welsh blogs, though I would not object to appearing in the left of centre category.

Last years results showed Plaid Cymru affiliated blogs dominate the top and generally the establishment and their supporters dominating all the top places. It would be good to see the foundations shake with a radically left blog shooting up the charts. So vote for Everyones Favourite Comrade.

Voting is all explained here, just click on the link below.

Of course the miners' strike was financially supported by communists!

2010-07-11T00:41:00.009+01:00

On July 9th an article, written by Dr Norman Laporte, was published on the University of Glamorgan website. This article was, strangely and grammatically incorrectly, entitled “Was the Miners’ Strike was "secretly financed by Communists"?”. The first response that came to mind as soon as I had read the article was simply ‘I am so glad he doesn’t lecture me’. Now that is not because I disagree with him, as any of my lecturers or peers can testify as I am quite happy to debate out any and every issue with any lecturer or fellow student and do so on a regular basis. My simple reasoning behind it is that Laporte just seems to be so bad at what he does!

Firstly he starts the article with the massive assumption that this revelation comes as some surprise as if no-one expected it, hence the title. In fact there was no secret at all! Communists openly supported the miners’ strike, yet Laporte in a very tunnelled-vision manner seems to ignore all the open evidence; that communists in Britain and internationally for that matter openly supported the miners’, raising funds to support them amongst many other things. The cheek of the man to call himself a historian whilst omitting such obvious facts!

The article is based around a book he has written in order to publicise it ahead of its impending release later this month. The thrust of the argument appears to be documents from the East German Communist trade union federation which suggest they gave considerable financial support to the National Union of Mineworkers’. I don’t dispute this in anyway whatsoever, in fact I would be more shocked if it was revealed that they didn’t add any financial support. Laporte unfortunately doesn’t display the capacity to understand this.

The miners’ strike lasted from 1984-85 and was a heroic stand of the working class. On strike for a year the miners and there families made huge personal sacrifices in the face of an onslaught from the Thatcher government. With no income for the duration of the strike, the miners were forced to live of the unions strike fund. However it was impossible to maintain this over the course of the strike, the strike fund of the NUM was simply not equipped for this task. Organised workers in trade unions and socialist or communist organisations in Britain and internationally rightly saw this as a class war and rushed to the aid of the miners, spawning miners’ support groups throughout the country. Money was raised throughout the world to offer financial support ,in order to help the miners maintain their stand. So of course finance was raised in a basic act of class solidarity, something of which Laporte once again fails to understand.

Laporte claims in the book that “the Communists perceived the NUM as an ally in the international class struggle against capitalism – hence the close interest in the strike” and in this he was absolutely right. It seems to suddenly dawn on him, as if for the first time he decided to open his eyes and take a peek over the blankets.

But this is where Laporte goes in for the ‘kill’: he adds ““It was, above all, the anti-capitalism of left-of-centre British trade unionists which made them believe that East European Communism was on the right path.... But the British Left ignored massive human rights abuses and the lack of basic freedoms behind the Iron Curtain because they believed that the basic development in the direction of Socialism was right.” As if he thinks that once and for all he has stumped all advocates of communism and won the argument! How wrong can one man be? Well, apparently quite a lot. He is quite right in his assertion that anti-capitalists in Britain saw those who had over-thrown capitalism as ‘along the right track’. Yet he returns to his anti-historical perspective almost immediately when he adds that the British Left ignored massive human rights abuses – a statement which flies in the face of reality.

The British left is, of course, not a homogenous unit in any way shape or form, and much of the British left were and still are very critical of the undemocratic and totalitarian nature of the Stalinist regimes. Whilst at the same time explaining that the economic system, the planned economy, was something worth defending. In such an anti-historical move Laporte chooses to omit this, as well as omitting the human rights abuses of capitalist states, including those of the British government at the time and the violence dished out to the miners.

It is clear that Laporte is trying to present a false image on the past and could teach McCarthy a thing or two. I hope his students are aware of how much is academic work is void of legitimacy!

The human face of welfare reform

2010-07-09T17:43:00.002+01:00

This article was originally published on Radical Wales and is now shown below

In the light of extensive plans from the coalition government to ‘reform’ the welfare and benefits system much has be written about it. Such a change in the current system has provoked a reaction from the entire political spectrum. Many of the radical left have looked at how this will affect working class people. Glyn Matthews interviews a benefit claimant living in Bridgend (who wishes to remain anonymous) to show the human face of the current welfare reform proposals.

Glyn: Firstly, can you just briefly outline your current circumstances as a benefit claimant?

Well about 15 years ago I had a slipped disc in my back, I had an operation to repair it but it has never been quite right since. About 5 years ago I found myself unable to cope with work as my back had deteriorated so much. I was assessed and started claiming incapacity benefit My back become allot better after awhile and I was much more active and mobile. The problem was there were still some days that I couldn’t physically move. I was able to go on to the back to work scheme and was able to get a job. I still took quite a few sick days due to back problems but as my sick pay was paid by the government and not my boss it was ok and I wasn't at risk of being sacked. I was made redundant recently though, I was just out of the 12 month period to go back onto incapacity benefit but not long enough to get any redundancy pay. At the moment I am waiting to be reassessed for incapacity benefit as my back problems have resurfaced and some days I haven’t been able to leave the bed.

So at the moment you are not seeking employment?

No I am, my back is causing me allot of problems at the moment but it is not all the time. I went to the jobcentre and explained that I wanted to go back to work but that I was not confident that I would ending calling in sick all the time, that I wasn’t sure if I could cope with it didn’t want to risk losing my benefits. I was hoping they would put me back on the back to work scheme again but they wouldn’t

What did they do then?

At the moment they have put me on this scheme for 10 weeks, I work for Tesco three days a week, I don’t get paid though I just collect my Job Seekers Allowance as normal.

How do you feel about this?

Well to be frank I feel used, I don’t see why I should be expected to work for free for a company with as much money as Tesco, and I do not see how it benefits me in anyway. They obviously need the staff they could either pay me or advertise a vacancy. I am only guessing but I imagine I’m not the only one doing this, so it could be thousands of extra jobs created, instead it just means Tesco are able to save a packet on their wages bill. I don’t see how this is fair at all.

You mentioned earlier that you are waiting to be reassessed for incapacity benefit; recently the government have announced new plans regarding this with the aim of getting more people off this benefit and into work. How do you feel about this?

I think it’s quite worrying myself, as I have already said I do want to go back to work but some days I am physically unable to even leave my bed. If they tighten up the rules and I am assessed on a good day then I will be turned down. I don’t see why these MPs should be allowed to rule over us and make us beg for the crumbs whilst they take anything they want from the table.

What are you referring to? The MPs expenses?

That is part of it yeah, but it isn’t just that it’s everything, their wages are really high as well, and they are all involved in business and stuff like that. They just look after themselves at our expense. At the same time they want us all to stop claiming benefits and work, but there are no jobs, it isn’t our fault there are no jobs it is theirs.

Well the government have recently revealed proposals to give incentives for people to move to towns or cities where there are jobs. What are your thoughts about this?

I am quite scared by this idea, I certainly do not want to move away all my family are in the area, my elderly and ill mother, both my son and my daughter and In the last 2 months my first grandchild was born. I have deep roots in this area I don’t want to move away from here.

You said you were scared by this idea, why are you scared? After all, the government have said this will be optional and they will just add incentives to people to help them move.

Well that is true but it depends what they mean by optional. I mean I have heard that housing benefit payments are going to be cut, if they are I won’t be able to afford to pay my rent whilst I am on benefits, that’s why I am on housing benefit in the first place. I might have a choice between being evicted and taking up the governments offer to move to where the jobs are.

Another thing which concerns me about this is that if people are encouraged to move out of areas where there are few jobs then it will make it worse and worse. I live in Bridgend and a few years ago there was a string of suicides amongst young people. I don’t know the reason behind it but it was clear that there is no future on offer to young people in this town maybe that had something to do with it. I have two children in their early twenties and a newly born grandchild, I am worried about the future on offer to them.

All the main political parties say that “we are in this together” referring to the economic crisis. Do you agree?

Definitely not and I don’t know anyone who does. I didn’t do anything to cause these problems neither did you. Yet the banks were given billions the MPs took as much money as they could get away with but its people like us losing there jobs, its us who suffer when they cut public services and its us who are made to feel guilty and ashamed when we can’t find a job.

You, like me, obviously disagree with the governments policies, what do you think should be done?

I think we need to say “NO” I think we need to say that we will not accept this, I don’t know how I just know that we should not accept this.

Okay, thank you for your time, as you know this interview is going to be published on Radical Wales, perhaps a discussion about how to take this forward will take place on the comment section. Will you be following that discussion?

Definitely, I am really interested to see what we can do, I haven’t been involved in anything like this before but I don’t think we have a choice anymore. We have to do something.

Radical Wales Launch

2010-07-05T00:44:00.004+01:00

Radical Wales will be launched later today. (Monday July 5th) The obvious question that many reader will be asking is What is Radical Wales? Well the answer is simply, Radical Wales is a new blog which has been set up involving the radical left in Wales, anarchists, communists, environmentalists, left republicans and socialists outside of any of the main political parties, in this case in reference to Labour and Plaid Cymru who do have activists who would otherwise fit the definition.

The idea behind Radical Wales which has been building for a few months before the launch is that it can act as a forum for the ideas across the left spectrum in Wales. The blog has existed for sometime but simply acted as a blog aggregator initiated by Tom Fowler. It has now developed into much more. The site now houses a blog aggregator, twitter feed, directory of left organisations and campaigns in Wales, a calendar displaying events of the radical left and most importantly now the blog which as of today will start to publish individual material.

This is what it says on the Radical Wales site

About
Loss of heart and burnout ends many people's contact with radicalism in Wales, as elsewhere. Many of those who don't completely turn their back on politics end up compromising and accepting mainstream 'realities'. This is partly because our respective movements suffer from visibility and image problems: the limited coverage given to protests and campaigns by the mainstream media fails to address the core reasons for discontent, and much of what's left of the radical media suffers from an inward looking culture that only preaches to the choir.

Radical Wales exists as a platform for considered radical political commentary and discussion in Wales. We hope to attract a wide range of submissions from across the spectrum of anarchists, communists, greens, left-republicans and socialists.

Inspired by the long line of rebels and revolutionaries who have stood outside and against the political process of the ruling class in Wales, we'll publish original articles that continue that tradition. Are you interested in writing an article or becoming a regular contributor? Then read our guide to submitting an article and get in touch to discuss your ideas further.

By including contributors from different radical traditions there will doubtless be countless political and tactical disagreements. Many (probably most) of these will never be resolved, but through honest and frank discussion we hope areas of common ground can be found. We're keen to encourage debate, but ask all that everyone makes themselves aware of the comments policy.

As well as a being a platform for original articles, this site aims to be a hub for radical politics and an activist resource. With that in mind we ask for your help updating the calendar, keeping the directory up-to-date, and joining us in sharing ideas and events using social media. Please get in touch about anything we've overlooked or you feel is missing.

We hope you enjoy reading the site, but we can achieve more collectively than we can individually so please do get involved, leave comments, write articles, send in updates and publicise what you like on the internet and beyond.

This gives you a flavour of what to expect from Radical Wales in the future. There is currently an editorial group, but they aim to limit their editorial role to an absolute minimum. The editorial group currently includes me (regular readers of my blog should know my political background. Tom Fowler, who initially created the site to collect together all radical blogs in Wales,. He described himself as a libertarian socialist and has been active within South Wales Anarchists and No Borders as well as various of campaigns since the late 1990s. Adam Johannes, a Marxist currently unaligned with any political party but still active in various campaigns most notably Cardiff Stop the War Coalition. Finally there is Andy Williams, who I must confess to knowing very little about other than he is an academic and an anarchist. This editorial group is not a complete or definitive list it’s just the one we have started with. Other current contributors include anarchists, Marxists and greens.

So keep an eye on developments here, watch out for the articles to come forth in the next few weeks and the launch article later today and get involved. If you are interested in getting involved then what better way to do get in touch with me on my cool new e-mail address glyn@radicalwales.org!

Radicalwales.org

An Open letter reply to Janet Daley

2010-06-28T21:32:00.002+01:00

After reading an article by Janet Daley in the Sunday telegraph I felt compelled to respond to her comments. Below I publish a copy of the letter I have sent to the Sunday Telegraph letter page, of which I am sceptical about the possibility of it being published. The article written by Janet Daley can be found here.

In last weeks copy of the Sunday Telegraph (June 27) Janet Daley in her column stated “Virtually everybody who is in touch with political reality now accepts that the old contest – socialism vs. Capitalism is over.” I can honestly say that I was shocked by this ascertain, I don’t see how Janet can match this with reality at all.

I have been an active campaigner and advocate for socialism for the last 7-8 years since the age of 17, in that time I have witnessed a growth in the support for socialist ideas particularly over the last 2 years and more increasingly now. Indeed it was as recent as June 16th that the BBC News at 10 aired a piece about Nottingham. The news piece showed the leader of the council Kay Cutts with a picture of Thatcher on her office wall on the one hand. On the other hand the news piece showed activists organising against the proposed cuts. In particular it showed a meeting of the Socialist Party and referenced the increasing support recently due to the polices of all the main parties in response to the recession, the reporter even went as far to say that the old ideological battlegrounds are being redrawn!

Whilst Janet infers that none of the major political parties in Britain now engage in this ideological debate, agreeing that capitalism is the only way forward. It is simply untrue to say as she did that “those in touch with political reality agree capitalism is the only way”. It is of course the capitalist policies which have created this global recession. This current financial crisis was not inevitable it is only capitalist policies which make this kind of policies inevitable and this is becoming recognized by more and more workers and young people.

If Janet Daley is so confident about her claims that anyone politically in the know would rule out socialism then why doesn’t she attempt to prove that and agree to a public debate with me? Capitalism or Socialism? This could happen within the pages of the Telegraph, on the Telegraph website in text or video, on my own blog or a live debate in person. I am confident enough that my ideas and views can hold up in a debate but is Janet? Or is she just wiling to make these kinds of statements when they can go unchallenged?

What a difference opposition makes...

2010-06-24T22:52:00.003+01:00

On Monday I attended a meeting at the University of Glamorgan organised by UCU, the speakers were two Labour Party members, the first Owen Smith the MP for Pontypridd, the second was the proposed candidate for the Welsh Assembly election, though his name escapes me.

As I was 11 years old in 1997 when Labour came to power this was the very first opportunity I had had to hear the wisdom of Labour in opposition. Of course I had seen bits and pieces from Labour since the election, but this was my first opportunity to see it in the flesh so to speak. But what I saw could only ever be described as pathetic.

Whilst both speakers were so keen to agree with each other and both were so keen to agree with each other and denounce the tories, in fact they were falling over each other to point out that the tories policies towards education were “ideologically driven” and of course they are correct. But what both Labour Party representatives neglected to mention was the last 13 years of a Labour government and their very own attacks on education including academies which can only be described as the ideological pursuit of the right-wing. How else could you describe the privatisation of schools?

So whilst the labour representatives were willing to condemn these tory policies and even added that the lib dems had let people down (at which point I had to chuckle as the lib dems have never been on our side, but such is the degeneration of labour that they could even say that openly) neither of them was willing to respond to questions about Labour’s own record. Neither was willing to promote any alternative other than saying that the tories were wrong in the vaguest of ways. There were a couple of other labour party members in the room who I guess would be described as the ‘grassroots activists’ and again what they said was virtually the same. Though it is also worth noting that there were move people in the room who had either resigned from the labour party or who would have joined 20-30 years ago.

The message that the Labour representatives were trying to convey although in the most of sloppy ways seemed to be, that the solution was to vote Labour, now there are several problems with that theory the main one of course was that people did and 13 years later things were worse. Secondly though as the Labour candidates acknowledged they are in a minority and they effectively have no influence over government policy, so what they were really saying is until the next election there is absolutely nothing that we can do!

This is the most disastrous of roots to take and effectively meant that Labour at this stage were attempted to quell the organised working class from organising effectively! It was left to myself to and other members of Socialist Students to publicise a demonstration at the Welsh Assembly organised by Cardiff Trades Council, after all one of the Labour representatives spoke of the need to organise effectively in trades councils but this once again proved to be hollow words.

I spoke during the meeting and despite the notable speakers from Labour on the platform and other members in attendance I was the only one to raise the need to take a campaign against cuts forward. I stated the need to build a campaign on campus amongst members of all three trade unions (UCU, Unison and GMB) as well as students and pointed out the need to extend this to the local area to other universities to colleges and throughout the local community to defend schools and other public services as well as pointing out the extreme failure and hypocrisy of the Labour strategy, well if you can call it a strategy.

The points were well received and as the meeting ended we faced many requests for more information about the Trades Council demo and others congratulated me on what I had said, which included a few trade unionists who were eager to offer me their contact details in order to build a campaign in the future.

This strategy in my view demonstrated coherently that the strategy I put forward of arguing for the need to build campaigns to defend education and attacking Labour’s record was extremely beneficial towards building links amongst organised workers and to remain outside of the Labour Party. It would be interesting to see how PhilBC over at A very public Sociologist would respond; after all he rejoined labour precisely for that very reason!

What difference does opposition make? At this stage it seems to make very little.

We stopped the EDL in Cardiff!

2010-06-09T02:31:00.003+01:00

Last Saturday we saw the arrival of The English Defence League (EDL)) or calling themselves the Welsh Defence League (WDL)) in Cardiff for the first time. Towards the end of last year we saw them attempt to have demonstrations in South Wales, first in Swansea and then two weeks later in Newport. In Swansea around 30-40 EDL members turned up, but because anti«fascist protesters had occupied the Square they intended to protest in hours before it became impossible for them to do so. They attempted to march past but were surrounded and had to be escorted from the city by police. In Newport only a handful of EDL members were spotted in the city and didn’t dare to stage a protest as John Frost Square had been occupied by hundreds of anti-fascists,

This Saturday in Cardiff did see the biggest mobilisation of the EDL to Cardiff, which should not go unnoticed. I would estimate that in total there were up to 150 EDL demonstrators. Luckily however they were massively outnumbered by anti-fascists on the day. Some estimates have put it at a 5:1 ratio and I think that is probably right. Once the EDL attempted to enter the area where their demonstration was due to be held a surge of anti-fascist protesters ran the 100 yards down the road to stop them from assembling. The charge was led by members of the Soul Crew (Cardiff City Football fans) who were immediately followed by a wave of other anti-fascists. There was a stand off for some time but eventually we were pushed back by the police and the EDL were taken around to their allotted assembly point in-between City Hall and the Museum.

The EDL stayed there for sometime, it was quite difficult to get a good look at them from here as the we were all in the park enclosed by a hedge lined with police man and behind them a row o riot vans, from what I can gather though the EDL did have their demonstration as planned unfortunately, but not without being surrounded visibly and audibly by several hundred anti-fascists.

After awhile the police began to push us back and it was clear that this was in order to get ready to escort the EDL out of the area. Naturally the police were resisted, there were no violent altercations that I could see but nobody was making it easy for the police to move us on. At this point due to being in the front row I was now penned in, I had the police pushing me from one side and on the other were about 100 protesters, it was obvious at this point that both the EDL and the majority of other protesters were no longer there. As the event had been thoroughly uncoordinated I was not in a position to do anything about it, but where had they all gone?

By piecing together the reports I have since heard and read it seems that the EDL were escorted by the police by but all along the way were surrounded by anti-fascist protesters. I have also hear d some reports which suggest that along the way there were a few points were anti-fascists were able to brake through or go around police lines and get to the EDL although I am not sure if this is true. They were escorted all the way around the edge of the city centre to central train station. Not long after this around 20 EDL members were spotted waiting on platform 6-7. As everyone who uses trains in the Cardiff area will know, platforms 6 and 7 are those which are used for the local lines so it was not simply the case of EDL members being shipped in from across the border although it did seem that the majority of them were from England.

The EDL were forced to go home with their tales between their legs. This was due in part to the fantastic response of the Soul Crew in confronting the EDL. The EDL had seen them as allies previously as they are a football firm, but that was obviously not the case. Whilst in many ways this was a victory for the anti-fascist movement there were also many short comings, I will not dwell on them for the sake of it, however if we are to be serious about confronting fascism in the future then we must take a serious look at the problems and how we can rectify them in the future.

Mistakes were made in the run up to the demonstration, Unite Against Fascism (UAF) insisted on a demonstration starting in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff Communities Against Racism (CCAR) warned against this tactic and argued for a city centre demonstration only as this was where the EDL intended to be. For the sake of unity however whilst disagreeing with a demonstration CCAR agreed to go along with it and heavily publicised the event. Leading up to the demonstration CCAR obtained more information which suggested that the EDL would be in the city centre and once again appealed to UAF to change the plans on the day; once again UAF ignored these warning. The result was that CCAR members acting as spotters on the day were able to spot EDL members chanting on St. Marys Street in the city centre completely unopposed!

At the demonstration itself UAF stewards urged everyone to go behind the fences which the police were using to cordon us in and to keep us away from the EDL. Many anti-fascist protesters refused and for that refusal a UAF steward using a megaphone said “they were as bad as the WDL” But the fact is that if everyone had agreed to go behind the police cordon at the request of UAF we would not have been in the position to confront the EDL and run them out of town as we did.

Another failing was the decision of UAF to remove all stewarding from the demonstration for no conceivable reason, potentially putting many at risk. The real problem was though the general lack of coordination. Information about the EDLs movements was not relayed. As mentioned earlier CCAR spotters had seen the EDL unopposed in the city centre, when this information was passed to a CCAR member at the demonstration they attempted to pass it on to a UAF organiser who response was that he was “too busy to deal with it”. The same can be said about a suspected local redwatch photographer who was spotted waiting near the new theatre as if he was waiting for people. This suggested that the EDL would be coming in via the new theatre, again UAF did not act on this information but the EDL did indeed come from that way.

Failings in communication also affected the ending, although the EDL had left the area surrounding the Park they were being marched around the city centre. Although many anti-fascists were able to follow them all the way to the train station. Many simply did not realise this was happening and at the same time a UAF organiser was still in the park on the megaphone declaring a victory whilst the EDL were being marched through the city centre.

It is clear that the EDL were shamed on Saturday but this won’t be the last time we have to deal with this kind of demonstration and lessons need to be learnt for the future of anti-fascist demonstrations in South Wales and Britain as a whole.

Fighting against job cuts at Uni Glam!

2010-05-20T16:52:00.002+01:00

This tuesday saw a demonstration of about 200 people at the Main campus of the University of Glamorgan with smaler demonstrations held at another two campus'. The demostration was called by the Unison trade union in response to a proposed 40 compulsory redundancies amongst its members.

It wasn't just unison members in attendence but members of UCU, GMB and plenty of students as well. The turn out of students was particuarly impressive as it was not annouced publicly on the Student Union website until the afternoon before (though I may be mistaken) I certainly didn't find out until the afternoon and that was by chance from a brief discussion with a unison member.

The 40 jobs cuts which have been mentioned is just those threatened amongst unison members but there will also be job cuts coming in other areas of university staff as well and these are just the cuts which have already been announced. The fact that at short notice over 200 attended a demonstration during the exam period shows not only a definate need to fight back against the cuts but also that there are alot of people willing to be a part of such a campaign. There needs to be a co-ordinated campaign from all four unions on campus. Unison, UCU, GMB and the SU.

A united struggle of all staff unions and students is the only way in which we will be able to stop the cuts at uni glam and demand that management open up the books and show us where the money is going.

More to come shortly at the moment I am having difficulties uploading pictures of the demonstration

The Right to Strike?

2010-05-17T21:51:00.003+01:00

Once again the scheduled BA cabin crew strike has been ruled out as illegal. The story is reported by the BBC here. The ruling of this strike as illegal comes after the scheduled strike at Christmas time had previously been ruled out by the High Court as illegal and since then another strike this time of RMT members had also be ruled out by the high court once again on a technical basis.

This all comes out even with Britain having already got the most restrictive trade union legislation in western Europe. The high court has ruled the strike out on this occasion as Unite had failed to inform every member of the result of the ballot. This of course seems to be an absurd notion for several reasons. There was no mention of any problem with the election process or with any member of the union being unable to vote or any problem with the result. The only problem is that not every member had been informed of the result! Unite had stated that due to the international nature of the industry they did the best they could have done, posting results on key notice boards, on the union website and via the use of e-mails and text messages. The only conclusion that any sane person can come to is that this has been a blatant attack on the democratic right to strike.

So we have the situation where three scheduled strikes have gone through a democratic procedure and voted for strike action only to be ruled illegal by a completely unelected High Court judge! A Unite official said it was "an affront to democracy in this country". And Steve Turner, Unite’s national officer said that "decent citizens had voted in an open ballot which had then been ruled out by the judiciary”. And went on to say “the union would hope to be in the Court of Appeal as early as possible, possibly on Tuesday”

But all this does beg the question should a legal challenge be the only route? It is not simply a case of High Court judges acting out of turn but the problem is systematic and the Court of Appeal is part of the same system. It is clear that this is a class war at this stage initiated by the ruling class against the organised working class and there is no indication that the Court of Appeal will be any different.

The situation trade unionists now face on top of the already restrictive laws on the right to strike are several recent precedents set in law now which further curtail or could even be said to make strike action virtually impossible, furthermore this attack comes in the most blatant and class biased of ways and therefore the time to defy the anti-trade union laws and these recent court rulings and launch wildcat strike action is now.

It is only by the trade unions defying these laws with the help and support of the rest of the labour movement that we can show these laws to be worth less than the paper they are written on and enter the coming struggles for jobs and public services in a position of strength. If the anti-trade union laws are not defied then it seems clear that this will continue to happen and possibly even worsen under a tory government and will mean that at the most critical time the entire trade union movement could remain stagnant and paralysed.

For further updates on the BA cabin crew strikes check out the AirStrike blog.

The Life and Death of St. Kilda

2010-05-16T14:01:00.007+01:00

A few months ago after lengthy debates with a lecturer which dominated seminars about the nature of the Human race,centred around whether humans are inherently selfish with particular reference to the prospects of a classless society. Eventually the lecturer in question offered to lend a book to me called "The Life and Death of St. Kilda - The moving story of a vanished island community"

I have since read the book and although there was nothing within the book that surprised me about human nature, being a marxist I obviously firmly believe there is nothing inherent human nature to prevent a classless society from existing. However I was struck by the existence of a classless society which had existed for centuries still in existence in 20th Century Britain.

The book by Tom Steel outlines the history of the people on the small island group of the coast of Scotland, its the furthest out island group in the region, after the islands there is nothing again until the Americas. The islands are very inaccessible and therefore remained largely isolated from the outside world though some communication and movement of people were possible.

The book begins by delving into the history of the St. Kildan people and the island itself but very little seems to e known about its origins. It goes on to outline the state of life in St.Kilda which due to the harsh climatic nature of the Island was not easy, nevertheless although technically having a feudal overlord they never visited and the community lived in peace never having seen war.

When the St. Kildans had to took they worked hard those capable all chipped in those incapable due to age illness or temporary illness did not go without and every abled bodied person covered there share of the work in essence St Kildan society lived by the motto "From each according to his ability to each according to their need" Men and woman in St Kildan society performed different roles, it wasn't simply that woman stayed at home to rear children and cook and clean but that men and woman were geniunely given different roles within society. This is where i can find the only criticism that where men met every day to divide up the work for the day between themselves this would also be where any decisions would be made for the community in general, whilst not neccessarilly of major importance it did mean that woman were prevented from participating.

However this society did not end because of internal factors but due to external factors from outside from the capitalist world on its doors steps. During the world wars St Kilda was taken over by the armed forces as a strategic outpost and in exchange, not that the St Kildan's had much choice they were employed by the military to help install installations etc. Although the St Kildans had for centuries traded with the outside world this was the first instance in which currency had been introduced into daily use in their society. With wages being paid to them by the military and purchases being made for stores built for the use of military personell or even a tavern which had been built. It was in this period in which many of the younger males and females decided to venture out into the world and this began the demise of St Kilda.

With many of the able bodied deciding to venture out to explore the world or even just Scotland in some cases it became increasingly difficult for the remaining St Kildans to continue to provide for those still there. Despite the government having caused much of the problems for the islanders after using it as a military base and subsequently as a research base they became increasingly reluctant to provide support for them.

Eventually a plan was hatched to relocate them to the mainland with employment in the forestry commission, an odd choice as there were no trees to be found on St Kilda. Many of the St. Kildans did not want to leave and it took a number of years for them to eventually agree. However what happened next enbittened the majority of the St Kildans whose livestock was all sold at auction and they received very little for it. They were split up into different areas some of which were completely isolated and very soon became very aware of the nature of capitalism and the difficulties of surviving on the poverty wages.

The St. Kildans soon came to realise that life on St. Kilda was much better and found difficulties in adjusting to wage-slavery. More and more the dominant idea amongst the St. Kildans was that after all there life was much better of back on St. Kilda and many of them lobbied the government to allow them to return. Some were allowed to return but only on a temporary basis as and none were allowed to return permanently even though they were simply asking to go home!

The story will live on of a classless society who's land was taken by a capitalist government on the promise of a better life in the modern world, but soon the reality of the modern world hit them and they began to realise that life before had always been better and they would have been better of if they had.

Cardiff Communities Against Racism

2010-05-15T16:52:00.005+01:00

Last Thursday Cardiff Communities Against Racism to co-ordinate events on the 5th of June. The racist English Defence League or as they are calling themselves around these parts the Welsh Defence League (WDL) plan to bring their racist ideas to Cardiff on the 5th of June.

Cardiff Communities Against Racism (CCAR) an ubrella group which had various anti-racist organisations attending and participating in the meeting of between 60-70 people included members of Searchlight Cymru, Unite Against Fascism, Youth Against Racism Newport Communities Against Racism and a whole host of other organisations as well as trade unionists and Students. The campaign has also recieved the official backing on both the University of Glamorgan and Cardiff Students' Unions'.

The meeting was there to thrash out ideas to show everyone in Cardiff and in particular the racist thugs that their ideas are not welcome in our city. Several ideas were mentioned throughout the discussion including producing stickers to give to rugby fans (as the protest coincides with the Wales vs South Africa rugby match. But most importantantly of looking back at the recent success that anti-fascist protesters had in both Newport and Swansea towards the end of last year in which neither of the planned WDL protest were able to go ahead to due the fantastic response of anti-fascists to mobolise into the area and force the police to remove the WDL from the vicinity in Swansea and in the case of Newport where the WDL were to embarressed to even turn up. Many of those in attendence had been at either one or both of the demonstrations and could of their experiences in a favourable light.

Due to the fantastic turn out at the meeting and the passion for action within the room it was impossible to come to a concrete proposal for the demonstration on the day but there will be a follow up meeting of CCAR this time held in Cardiff University Students Union this Thursday which will hopefully allow the campaign against racism to continue with some solid proposals.All anti-facists welcome to attend more information to follow shortly

Back Again!

2010-05-11T23:41:00.003+01:00

So I have let the blog lapse a bit in the last few months, but now I am back and will soon be blogging reguarly once more.

And what blog topics to cover? Well there is a tory government but I will imagine within the next week a will have several blog posts about the election covering different aspects of it.

I fought the presidential elections for Uni Glam Students Union and lost but a month later won the position of Chair of the Treforest (the main campus) so there will be some stuff on student politics touching on the NUS, cut backs in education, student radicalism and also the damage the liberals have done amongst thier student base.

On a personal note several things have been happening much of which will not appear on the blog, but I have recently become an uncle, my sister had a baby boy a couple of weeks ago and that may be blogged on as well.

More to come shortly.

Everyones Favourite Comrade.

150+ Outside UKBA

2010-02-26T16:26:00.004Z

Earlier today there was around 150 people (maybe more) protesting outside the UK Border Agency offices in Cardiff. The demonstration was organised by Refugee Voice Wales in the background of allegations of a racist culture within the offices when dealing with asylum applications. Something that most people could take an educated guess at anyway, but these allegations were made by a former employee at the Border Agency who revealed that the racism was not just of individuals but was a systematic practice within the office.

The demonstration was extremely significant because it is very rare for asylum seekers themselves to participate in demonstrations outside the Border Agency but on this occasion they were organising the demonstration, speaking from the platform and leading the chants all afternoon. At least half of the demonstrators but probably more were asylum seekers. A significant step forward in the campaign for migrants rights.

There was at least 150 people there but possibly more than that, for a weekday demonstration in Cardiff it is quite rare to see a demonstration of that size and the police were clearly stunned by the amount of people there and had to call for reinforcements, although it must be said that the reinforcements brought the total number of police officers up to only four anyway so was a rather pointless exercise on there part and they clearly didn't have any control over the demonstration which was effectively stewarding itself.

This is definitely a step towards a campaign to unite workers and migrants with many workers and youth participating in the demonstration alongside asylum seekers. Youth Fight for Jobs members participated in the demonstration and gave out leaflets for the March 13th anti-racist demonstration in Barking the leaflets went down really well and one member spoke from the platform explaining the importance of the demonstration to cut across the racist propaganda of the BNP and the main parties of trying to blame the economic crisis on migrants taking jobs and using public services. That we needed a campaign that will able to unite all working class people to fight for decent jobs and public services for all. This was well received by the demonstration.

For more reports of the demonstration check out No Borders South Wales.

Outside the senydd with UCU

2010-02-24T17:13:00.002Z

This afternoon I attended a UCU Higher Education (HE) lobby of the Welsh Assembly. There were UCU members from the 4 Universities in south east Wales (Cardiff University, UWIC, Newport University and the University of Glamorgan) as well as a few members of Socialist Students to show solidarity.

The lobby was called in order to defend Higher Education against future cuts in the sector and to fight to secure adequate funding for the future. With it looking likely that the will be a funding cut from the Welsh Assembly to Higher Education institutions when the finances for next year are released, there has already been cuts at several welsh universities if not all of them even before budget cuts have been announced. For more information go to the UCU Wales website.

Several Welsh assembly members came out to speak to the lobby, but with one or two exceptions as predicted as soon as the camera’s left so did they! This of course did not go unnoticed by UCU & Socialist Student members who were present. Some of the AM’s even went as far as to question the value of education whilst at the same time having the cheek to stand next to us and tell us that they were on our side, couldn’t even be bothered to put in the effort to hide their blatant opposition to defending Higher Education.

It seemed clear to everyone there that despite no official decision having been made yet, that it was more than likely that the majority of AM’s had made up their mind to support cuts rather than to make the bosses pay for the economic crisis. After the lobby a few UCU members along with myself went off for a coffee and discussed the need for joint action between students and university staff to stop the cuts in Higher Education all in all a very productive day.

For Jobs and Services Not Racism

2010-02-21T23:18:00.000Z

March 13th is a date for your diary. On March 13th there will be a Youth Fight for Jobs Demonstration in Barking, London. This follows on from the fantastic demonstration that YFJ organised a last November with more than 1,000 marching through the streets of London 1and demanding a future for young people demanded decent jobs and free education for all.

YFJ DEMO VIDEO

Why on this occasion is it so important to demonstrate in Barking though? Barking is the constituency that Nick Griffin the fascist himself, who is the leader of the BNP. They already have several councillors in the area and now with the finanicial resources they possess having two MEP's means that they will seriously targeting the area. As as ever the BNP have picked an area with a sizeable immigrant community in attempt to blame immigranst for the social deprevation of the area.

There clearly is social deprivation in the area, but its the fault of government cut backs and the rich who scapegoat migrants in order to distract from their own roles. It is for this reason that Youth Fight For Jobs will be marching through Barking to present a campaigning positive alternative to the racism of the BNP.

There will be transport from all over South Wales to Barking for the demonstration (and from other areas of the country no doubt) for more information leave a comment on the blog and we can take it for there. YFJ Says:

NO TO THE RACIST POLICIES OF THE BNP

THE RIGHT TO A DECENT JOB FOR ALL, WITH A LIVING WAGE OF AT LEAST £8 AN HOUR

NO TO CHEAP LABOUR APPRENTICESHIPS! ALL APPRENTICESHIPS TO PAY AT LEAST THE MINIMUM WAGE, WITH A JOB GUARANTEED AT THE END

NO TO UNIVERSITY FEES. SUPPORT THE CAMPAIGN TO DEFEAT FEES

Demonstrate at the Border Agency

2010-02-20T00:55:00.004Z

Following on from the recent demonstration at the UK Border Agency in Cardiff which took place just after the revelations of an ex-employer who said there was a culture of racism in the office, there have been calls for an investigation and a halt to any deportations as a result of casework in Cardiff. The call for an investigation is being led by Bethan Jenkins AM.

To show opposition to the UK Border Agency there will be a demonstration on Friday 26th of February. This demonstration is more significant than the last though. The previous demonstration was organised by No Borders South Wales, who have more information on their site. This demonstration is also supported by No Borders but this time it has been organised by Refugee Voice Wales, which is significant because previously they have been apprehensive about protesting outside of the Border Agency themselves so this is definitely an event to attend. Refugee Voice put out a statement which included:

“We are calling for an immediate stop to consistent racial abuse and harassment of asylum seekers by the UKBA staff. We demand:
that all cases dealt by unscrupulous officers be reviewed
immediate suspension of all removals / deportations
the suspension of all corrupt staff and their supervisors
an instant independent overhaul of the whole system at Cardiff UKBA
An independent inquiry into all UKBA offices to uphold the Refugee Convention

Tell everyone you know to come! Come play your part to create freedom. If you have BLACK GLOVES please wear them on the day for the freedom salute! Come let’s have a mass toyi-toyi (African War dance for freedom and equality). This is a mockery to the inclusion and integration policies so encouraged by the Welsh Assembly.”

I would have to disagree with the emphasis of this statement which seems to suggest that the the problem is down to a few racists in the office, whilst that may be true the real problem is that the whole system is racist and as No borders South Wales put it. “Any attempts to remove ‘a few bad apples’ will be of little effect because the barrel itself is rotten to the core.”

Nevertheless this is definitely a step forward in the fight for refugee support so come along of Friday the 26th February between 1pm-3pm outside the UK Border Agency offices on Newport Road, Cardiff.

Fighting for the Future

2010-02-17T19:00:00.002Z

Earlier today between 30-40 people demonstrated outside the Welsh Assembly. The demonstration was organised by Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ). We demanded that there should be ‘No Cuts & Closures’. We were campaigning against the lack of Job opportunities available, but particularly to young people. Against the attacks on education which will result in huge job losses as well as a huge reduction in the number of university places and at a detriment to the education of those who are able to gain a place in the first place.

We demanded that the Welsh Assembly does not simply play the role of administrator, in which they simply administer cuts dictated to them by Westminster and proclaiming that they have no other choice. Instead they should refuse to implement any cuts but rather demand that the Westminster provide them with the necessary funds to create jobs and improve education. This could easily be done by nationalising the banks under democratic control and using the vast profits to fund public sector works.

There were a range of speakers at the rally which reflected the wide range of the campaign, from trade unionists to student activists to unemployed youth. Who all highlighted the harsh conditions that young people face today with very few decent jobs around and the lack of university places around, magnified but the onslaught of cuts to come in the public sector.

The demonstration signalled the beginning of an organised fight back against cuts and closures in South Wales and afterwards we went to the pub to discuss strategy and tactics for building towards the YFJ in Barking on the 13th March. It was a well worth discussion with a lot of ideas coming out for the future. Consequently though, I am a bit pissed after spending all afternoon in the pub so I will leave it there for now.

The importance of listening

2010-02-15T21:11:00.000Z

Recently I have had several discussions with people who should really know better, people who call themselves Marxists but have advocated a vote for the Labour Party in the forthcoming General Election. A position which I cannot understand for any socialist to hold, to advocate a vote for the neo-liberal agenda of New Labour, a party which has lost all the democratic structures which means there is no hope of reclaiming the party. Nevertheless these points seem to have fallen on deaf ears amongst many so I thought I would blog from a different angle.

Earlier today I spend several hours outside to different Job Centres in Cardiff leafleting for the Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) demonstration on Wednesday at the Welsh Assembly. As such a had the opportunity to discuss politics with a lot of people as they were hanging around waiting for their appointments in the job centre. I heard the same thing from each person I spoke to. The anger was most certainly there but so was the demoralisation.

Everyone I spoke to agreed that labour doesn't care about ordinary people any more. Particularly amongst the youth but not exclusively the people I spoke saw no difference between Labour, Tory or Lib Dem and rightfully so. The problem was that they were all extremely demoralised and saw noway forward. Nobody I spoke to said this but one or two did display the potential of voting for the BNP because of how disenfranchised they have been by the main parties and of course because of the media scapegoating as well.

But it exactly for these reasons that Socialists should not call for a Labour vote because this will increase the disenfranchisement and the feeling that nothing can e done which on one hand could lead to political apathy and on the other hand it could lead to the kind of rise in the BNP vote which we have already seen so far.

When we spoke to people about both the YFJ demonstration and the TUSC electoral challenge the conversation took a turn, it significantly changed their outlook and many said they would come along on Wednesday. The Labour Party has already hung itself which is evident by the outlook by many people who rightfully so no difference between Labour and the other main parties. Instead of offering them more rope we should pull the noose shut, refuse to offer them any support. It is important now that we support candidates of the left and where there are not any agate for abstentions and the urgent need to build an alternative

VOTE TUSC AT THE ELECTION AND COME TO THE YOUTH FIGHT FOR JOBS DEMO ON WEDNESDAY

7 Years On...

2010-02-14T18:39:00.003Z

I thought it would be appropriate for some political reflection of the past 7 years. It was 7 years ago today that saw 2 million people (including myself) on the streets of London and 35 million worldwide. Demonstrating against the prospect of an invasion of Iraq. An invasion which unfortunately did happen and the occupation that continues until this day, As this was the beginning of my political activity the fact that not only the invasion happened but that the misery continues to this day is something which pains me everytime I think of it.

The day also had a personal significance to me, it was the day I joined the Socialist Party, which is not inconsequential on the matter. The demonstrations were an eclectic selection of people and individuals, significantly though there was a significant amount of young people involved this was where my generation who up until this point had not been politically involved but burst on to the scene in the biggest demonstration in British history, many demonstrators including myself were not at this point old enough to vote.

Unfortunately though over the years we have seen that despite the anger against the war the demonstrations have got smaller and smaller, we have seen national demonstrations go from the size of millions to a few thousand. It is not something that we as anti-war activists should just except but something we just learn from in order to avoid these mistakes again. Days after the demo the New York Times dubbed world public opinion "the second global superpower" Yet although the potential was there for the anti-war movement it become a superpower it was unable to. For a superpower doesn't just walk the streets and threaten no further action than that ultimately the anti-war movement did not provide any reason not to go to war other than public opinion and we all know that public opinion does not concern the government.

Whilst my peers around me slowly stopped coming to demonstrations because it seemed that they were not making a difference, the demonstrations starter getting smaller and consequently there was a domino effect where we had national demonstrations with only a few thousand despite pubic opinion remaining high against the war. I can only assume that those who simply stopped demonstrating because they felt that it was not working and indeed it wasn't, so the question you ask is why did I stay.

As I already mentioned this was the same time as I had joined the Socialist Party, the members I discussed with explained al this to me at the time so I was prepared to for it,but crucially they also presented an alternative strategy for a way forward, explained the need to escalate action,such as A call for a political strike at the 2 million strong demonstration. If that happened then the course of events could have been drastically different. Subsequently in the years following up until this point I have been arguing for the rebuilding of the anti-war movement and to learn the lessons from the past, i.e. it is pointless to resign ourselves to demonstration after demonstration with no prospect of further action.

The need to learn the lessons from reason history is something I have raised within the Stop the War Coalition, unfortunately some have responded to me by saying that the anti-war movement did not fail and that it achieved so much. This is the kind of response given to me about the rise of the BNP which you can read here. Now although saying things like this is done with the intention of keeping spirits high, it would be correct to say it is a lie. What is more it is clear that we have failed, Iraq was invaded and occupied and 100,000s have died. So we need to learn the lessons and re construct the movement rather than painting a huge defeat as a victory as unfortunately some do.

I would attribute the fact that so many youth left the movement whilst I stayed to my membership of the Socialist Party, because it was through this party that I was given and extremely good political education explaining the need to escalate action on the movement would die a death. Although one might say a pessimistic outlook, it was a honest appraisal of the situation which not only prepared me for the inevitable demoralising decline on the anti-war movement but more importantly gave me a strategy of how to fight for this to be prevented.

7 years on from the biggest demonstration in British history, it is time we learn the lessons. So that we can end the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

2010-02-14T01:16:00.003Z

With a General Election approaching we are face with a bizarre situation where all the main parties have promised to dish out huge and savage cuts to us. The only arguments are over where the cuts will be and who can be the most serious about it. This is in the background of the MPs expenses scandal where all the parties were shown to be as corrupt as can be. Where we have seen public purse handed over to the banks to do with as they please whilst we suffer job losses, education cutbacks and losses in vital public services. Ir doesn't take a genius to work out that all the main parties are out for themselves and their rich friends.

But there is an alternative now, The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) will be standing in various constituencies in the Election, for a full list of candidates click here. The Coalition is a federal one and as such each candidate has the right to set there own policy but a basic programme which has been agreed by all candidates and supporting organisations can be found here.

This is definitely a welcome turn, I entered political activism at the age of 17 and started campaigning for Socialist candidates even before I was able to vote. I didn't then nor do I now see an fundamental difference between all of the main parties. They all just treat the symptoms in ever so slightly different ways and never address the real problems facing us. It is clear that whoever wins the General Election we will face wide scale attacks on almost everything the working class has fought for and won over the years, that's why we need an alternative now.

TUSC was born out of an electoral alliance for last years European Elections, the coalition involves several left organisations including the Socialist Party, Socialist Workers' Party, Socialist Resistance & the Socialist Alliance, as well as the support of the 'Hazel Blears must go campaign' and many regions and branches of the RMT (Rail Workers Union) including the General Secretary Bob Crow, and support is growing it has been reported that a group called independent Socialists in Wellingborough is also considering participating and for a more in depth look and those supporting TUSC out can find a list here.

This is obviously a positive step in Cardiff I will be out campaigning in Cardiff Central for Ross Saunders, TUSC candidate and Socialist Party member, who if elected will only take the average wage of a skilled worker, a far cry from the average MPs wage isn't it. But it is clear at this stage that this is just the beginning, we need to fightback after the election as well against the cuts we will be facing, and that starts now, well on Wednesday outside the Welsh Assembly at 2pm for a Youth Fight for Jobs demonstration where we will fight for our future.

The Rebel Sell

2010-02-11T20:55:00.002Z

After receiving the feedback for one of y recent essays on Youth Culture one of my lecturers suggested I read 'The Rebel Sell' by Joseph Heath & Andrew Potter. A very interesting read which developed the themes of an anti-capitalist counter-culture and the inherent flaws in such a tactic in much more detail than I had in the essay.

The book starts out with an attack on culture jamming as a useless tool of resistance pointing out that it is not a threat to capitalism but also and most importantly culture jamming in itself is a market with organisations such as adbusters. It goes on to point of the hypocrisy in many of these campaigns with passages like the following

Yet this animus toward Nike did create the occasional moments of embarrassment. During the famous anti-globalisation riots of Seattle 1999, the central Niketown was trashed by protesters, but videotape recorded at the scene showed several protesters kicking in the front window wearing Nike shoes.

The book goes on to explain that if Nike is this evil a company that warrants the trashing of the building so much, then how can one wear the said shoes. It also argues that whatever the shoes you are wearing generally they will have been produced in an equally exploitative way. I would argue that this has been attributed to the lack of an ideological base of any real kind to this kind of demonstration, movements or whatever they can really e described as. Although in many respects revolutionary, it poses the question how can anything be revolutionary when it has no idea where to go next. If these protesters were able to get into the room full of world leaders at any event, what would they do next? Of course there is no answer, the only thing that keeps them going is the ability to fight with the police who were inevitably hold them back and ultimately stop them from achieving their aims.

The book goes through several chapters along this strain of thought explaining that you can not uy resistance by buying into an alternative culture because the said alternative culture will always be a product of the current capitalist society and hence will end up being marketed or in some cases starts of as a marketed product simply tapping into that 'alternative culture' as their target audience.

It explains very well that we are all victims of this consumer culture in varying degrees it must be said but that it seems almost inescapable in modern society. It must also be said that aswell as pointing this out the book does not attack these forms of counter-culture as a cultural form but makes it clear that it would be deluded to see this as a form of resistance.

Although in this background there is a whole chapter dedicated uniforms and what they represent from the authority of the police or military uniforms right through to the uniforms of conformity such as the grey flannel suits. The book argues that the counter-cultural styles were a reaction against the authority and uniformity of modern capitalist society and once again whilst there is some truth in this once again this does not fundamentally challenge the system.

Whilst much of the book concentrated on North America particularly Canada, most interestingly the polemics against Naomi Klein which I won't dwell on here but will venture into in a future blog. The book however does venture both beyond North America and in other points to the past. There is section about California from the period before Europeans colonised the continent and points out that even then it was a consumer dominated society based on material possessions , the author paints the picture therefore that this was a natural development and has always existed. The author neglects to mention that this was in a class society and also neglects to mention that class society has not always existed.

The book goes on to talk about India and the search amongst some counter-culturalists for either spiritual relief or enlightenment. Though in this piece India is just one of many examples which are used. The authors point out the hypocrisy of 'rejected' outright one form of modern culture only to replace with another which for some unknown and never explained reason is different because it comes from another part of the world. It is in this section of the book where the class nature of this so-called resistance begins to unfold. It is of course obvious that the pursuit of exotic lands around the globe in research of enlightenment or resistance or relief or whatever it is in the first place, this option in general is not open to the poorest in society yet by many this is presented as our liberation!

It goes much further than this with s scathing revelation of a Canadian restaurateur who in order to source local products, hardly an option for the average person. It doesn't stop here there are many examples of this extremely middle class route of individual anti-capitalism/environmentalism which in reality serves no other purpose than to make the 'activist' feel good about themselves.

As well as these points the book goes through various many other points such as the technological advances society has made and how they have not fulfilled our hopes and dreams. But unfortunately it becomes apparent that the whole point at which the book has been getting at all along is not that the methods of struggle of these so-called anti-capitalists is wrong but the whole idea of another form of society is just wrong. The authors go out of there way to explain the benefits that capitalism can offer and indeed many of the examples they give are very good arguments of how capitalism can save our planet. Unfortunately the authors move throughout the book.

At the beginning of the book the authors have a very ridged analysis of everything that the critique and to justify some of these critiques Marx is quoted so it gives the illusion that the conclusion will be to go beyond the realms of capitalism. When it comes to arguing for a nice form of capitalism which essentially what the entire book as been leading up to, although the authors present a strong argument they are only able to do so by taking certain aspects of capitalism in isolation which of course in doing so you could prove absolutely anything. This is exactly where their entire argument comes crashing to the ground. Despite a good number of critiques against counter-culturalists and the so-called anti-capitalists the kind that never had any vision beyond capitalism in the first place. It does not go unnoticed that there is absolutely no critique of any Marxists or anarchists found within the book at all,neither is there any ideas presented in how we can go from the current capitalism to this so-called mythical nice capitalism.

One the whole the book is very thought provoking and full of valuable and interesting information a well worth read for any left-winger and others. However the book is severely let down down by the authors bind faith in capitalism and it does become apparent that the whole exercise was to paint the left as futile insignificant and has no ideas how to change society, but in doing so the authors neglected to confront the serious left. An interesting read nevertheless.

An Abandoned Generation

2010-02-10T00:12:00.001Z

Through all the rhetoric of New Labour over the years it has become quite clear that they are failing on their flagship promise of 'Education Education, Education'. Of course New Labour not content with simply that but look like they are on the right track to failing a whole generation!

According to UCAS 570,556 applications for university places have already been made by the end of January which is a rise in 22.9% from last year. If applications continue to come in at the current rate throughout the summer it is estimated that there will e a shortfall of 300,000 places! That is not just 300,000 less students but 300,000 more to join the already long and ever growing dole queues!

But why has there been such a rise in applications this year? There does seem to be various reasons for this according to UCAS,which states that many more school leavers are opting to say on in Higher Education because of the lack of employment opportunities. Many young people who have already lost out on a place last year have reapplied this year. Most significantly there has been a huge rise in the applications of mature students, presumably because there are no jobs around and the alternative is the dole queue. It is the very reason why I am back in Higher Education and the reason for the significant amount of mature students I see around campus as well. Figures show that applications for over 25s has risen by over two thirds.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of UCU said “the government were abandoning a generation who instead of benefiting from education will find themselves on the dole. It gets worse though as Vice-Chancellors have openly admitted that students from working class backgrounds are more likely to loose out as students from better (i.e. in middle class areas) schools would be selected over others. Despite the obvious need for more university places the official statistics show that the level of places will remain static although many universities have indicated that places will go down.

To any current student it seems obvious that places will be down just by looking around at the cuts already taking place. In the University of Glamorgan there has already been huge cut backs and officially they haven't even began. Seeing many courses disappear it is obvious that places will e down. In the background though universities are trying their hardest to entice more and more international students because of the higher fees they pay bring in higher revenues, the solution they see for the cuts in the Higher Education budget. A problem easily solved by VC's and their ilk taking a pay cut from their obscene wages.

New Labour spin always tells us they have opened up opportunities for us, but what are the opportunities for a young person today? To take party in the University lottery and if you are one of the unlucky 300,000 to join the never ending dole queue? Despite the spin that New Labour have opened up access to education recent figures published in the Telegraph say that the amount of British students has actually fallen by 0.6% in the last 10 years and the increase in students numbers has been the result of more and more international students rather that a widening access to Higher Education.

It seems clear now that young people no longer has a choice of whether to fight back, the decision has already been made and the only decision left to take is how to fight back.

Join the Youth Fight for Jobs demonstrations outside the Welsh Assembly on 17^th February and in Barking on the 13^th March. - For Decent jobs and Free eduction for all!

Where now for UAF?

2010-02-08T23:58:00.000Z

After attending a meeting of Cardiff Unite Against Fascism (UAF) today it once again poses the question where next for UAF. There was only 6 people in attendance including to members two of the Socialist Party and one member of the Socialist Workers' Party, a low attendance despite recent mobilisations to both Swansea and Newport for anti-fascist demonstrations.

In the introduction we were all told that at the recent UAF Wales conference Peter Hain was elected as the Honoury President. This is the same Peter Hain who has served in the Labour cabinet as both Work and Pensions Secretary and the Secretary of State for Wales for a government which has attacked the working class continuously. This is not inconsequential because if we do not recognise the reasons why voters are turning to the BNP then we might as well not bother fighting it. It is clear that there is racism involved in the rise of the BNP, but it is not the sole reason,it is also because of the social deprivation and the betrayals of the Labour Party towards the working class. So we have a situation where many voters are turning to the BNP because of the policies of the Labour Party and the biggest anti-fascist organisation campaigning against this is headed by a former government minister, what a sick joke.

So when it came to strategies for anti-BNP campaigning at the general election I made the point that it is not enough to carry on as UAF have with simple anti-racist campaigning, the European elections and the subsequent election of 2 BNP MEP's proved that that strategy alone has failed. I put to the meeting that because of the thread that the BNP posed it was essential that anti-fascists played a much more pro-active role in positive campaigning, rather than simply saying the BNP is bad we must say something else is good. I proposed that UAF Cardiff support the Youth Fight for Jobs (YFJ) demo outside the Welsh Assembly on the 17^th of February and particularly the YFJ demo in Barking on the 13^th March. Barking is where Nick Griffin intends to stand in the General election so it is extremely important that a positive alternative is posed here.

Initially the SWP member present seemed to oppose this idea and said it wasn't important to back such a demo! He even went as far as to say that the campaign to stop the BNP in the Euro-elections was not a failure! At this point I had to interrupt to point out that the BNP did get elected so it quite clearly was a failure, one we must all learn from. Eventually seeing that the tide had turned and the majority in the room supported the strategy of a real class alternative it was agreed that Cardiff UAF would publicise both YFJ demonstrations. This has not always been the case and in the past leading figures in UAF generally from the SWP have blocked this kind of support for a class based demonstration, nevertheless this change is most certainly welcome.

But what is the future of UAF, how can it play a positive role in anti-fascism if it does not support demonstrations against cut backs and the like in the future. How can it play a positive role when it has former ministers of a Labour government involved, when it has Liberals who preside of huge pay cuts such as in Leeds or even when it has tories involved! With this kind of set up how can UAF help provide a positive alternative to the working class to stop them from turning to the BNP in the first place?

An intro on why Socialists shouldn't call for a Labour Vote

2010-02-07T20:42:00.003Z

A recent article by Workers' Liberty has caught my attention so much so that I thought it worth commenting on. I find it extremely difficult to grasp the reality in which they are living. I find it is extremely difficult how a Marxist organisation can at the present time can advocate a vote for the Labour Party. The do add stipulations though, The slogan is 'Vote Labour, Prepare to Fight'.

What does this actually mean though? To say 'Vote Labour', however you say it is to say 'Vote Labour'. Throughout the article it is many clear how bad the Tories are and of course this is all true, in reality the article completely misses the point. Born in 1985 I have spent the whole of my life under tory policies because there is no real difference between Labour and tories these days, in fact in many sectors Labour have gone even further than the Tories dared. The article goes out of the way to point of some of the progressive reforms of Labour such as Tax credits but fails to mention that what Labour has given with one hand has been taken away with the other and the gap between rich and poor is greater than before 1997! Without much democratic structures left in Labour there is not a route to 'reclaim it' so this is simply leading towards a dead end.

The AWL make a point of the trade union link with Labour and the importance of it. Whilst this is a valid point the trade union link can not be ignored. But one only has to look at the TU's which are not affiliated to Labour and those that are. Even amongst those that are it is easy to see a huge mood for braking that link amongst the rank and file and the bureaucracy is hanging on. So really with this as the background the position of 'Vote Labour, Prepare to Fight' plays the role off holding back the the most militant Trade Unionists and giving the bureaucracy left cover. I do not see how the trade union link can be seen as a reason for voting for labour. Whilst there was no official affiliation between TU's and the Liberal Party, but it clear that the Liberals were not a workers party. In the United States the TU's give huge some of money to the Democrats but they again are not seen as a workers party. In Germany we have seen the rise of Die Linke which is supported by socialists internationally yet most of the TU's remain affiliated to the SPD. In consequence the TU affiliation to Labour is nothing more than a historical hangover but not a reflection of Labour's aims. It is what Labour has done which counts.

The actions of the Labour Party of the last 13 years has resulted in pushing away the working class on mass. Membership has more than halved, the only youth to join are Blairites, often even constituency meetings can't get quoracy. At the Welsh Labour Party hustings there was only MP's, AM's, councillors and a handful of others present. The Labour Party is a shell of its former self and the working class generally no longer see it as their party any more. I certainly don't and never have, my first political activities began campaigning against the Labour Party and have done so now for over 7 years. A whole generation of working class youth have only ever known a right-wing Labour party. This is why the tories are likely to win the election despite the working class hatred that exists for them,this is why the BNP is able to gain ground in ex-labour heartlands, because there are countless voters, amongst the older voters who have always voted labour but say they will never vote Labour again because of the betrayals.

So with huge anger of working class people towards the Labour Party, where even the LRC go as far as to say that people are looking for a new party. To say vote Labour in this situation is to say that working class people can not build there own alternative they can only resist the cuts when they come. More importantly though it is a way to drive a wedge between yourselves and anyone you try to convince to vote Labour. Instead socialists should support TUSC or other left candidates where they are standing and where there are none, with a possible few exceptions, Socialists should call for spoilt ballots as a protest and link that to the need to build a real alternative.

Where were you when?

2010-02-06T23:07:00.002Z

Suffering from mind block today probably induced by a hangover I can't really think of a topic to blog about with minimal effort. So I have decided to do one of these 'Where were you when' things which I have stolen from someone else's blog, Although from the questions they do seem to be considerably older than myself so I don't know how good this will turn out.

So, this is where I was when.......

1) Princess Diana's death - August 31st 1997

I remember going downstairs in the morning to watch TV with my little sister,it was fairly early and my parents were still in bed. I remember announcement coming on the TV that Princess Diana had died in a car crash and soon it was all over the news. I remember waking up my parents as it seemed to be huge news over every channel instantly. My parents seemed only to be interesting in the sense that it was a huge news story but soon the novelty wore off and they didn't seem to be all that bothered. The more I think about this in many way this way my very first political experience if you could call it that. I remember thinking why does everyone care so much she is just one person and people die every day and nobody cares what was so special about her? I put this question to my mother at the time, she told me it was because she had done so much good, charity work etc. But that explanation didn't really sit well with me. She was rich, she didn't have to work like everyone else so I didn't see that she had done that much to help people other than having fun travelling the world. I guess this really was the first time I thought the world needed changing in any conscious way and was the very first step on the road to where I am today

I also remember the wave of mass hysteria that engulfed the country. The funeral that happened the following week seemed a voyeuristic affair and I remember the events around it for the way the royals showed how far out of touch they are with the public and Blairs sycophantic 'Peoples Princess' routine.

2) Margaret Thatchers resignation - 22nd November 1990

I was only 5 at this point and had only started school in the September so although I would like to say I celebrated that day. All I remember is hearing different adults saying that she had gone and they seemed pretty happy, so I guess I was happy because everyone seemed to think it was a good thing, but I couldn't say I really understood what was going on.

3) Attack on the Twin Towers - 11th September 2001

If the death of Diana was my very first political though then 9/11 re-opened that gateway and it has never closed since. I was 16 and on the 11^th September 2001 I started college, it was a new strange environment, most of my friends stayed at the 6^th form in school and only 2 of us had chosen to do our a-levels in college. As I was in a strange new environment when people started telling me what had happened I thought it was a joke, it soon became apparent that so many people were saying it that it was likely to be true. I went for a spliff with a guy I met that day, who is still a friend today. We talked about what had happened. I remember that he said 'America has got the bloody nose it deserves, but so many innocent people have died' I remember agreeing completely with the sentiment I thought they deserved to be taken down a peg or two but not like this. In the afternoon we had a tutorial and although I was quite stoned I can still remember what happened. Someone asked if we could have a minutes silence and light a candle. From this point on I have always hated the idea of a minutes silence. I remember thinking what good will saying nothing do? At that point I said something like, we shouldn't be silent for the dead we should shout to protect the living, the ones who will be attacked next. It didn't go down particularly well but it wasn't long before Afganistan was invaded so I feel vindicated.

4) England's World Cup semi final - 4th July 1990

All I can remember are some vague scenes on the TV during the news, but I can't even remember whether I actually do remember that or if it is some memory I have planted in my head retrospectively.

5) President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963

My mother was born the year before that

No Cuts, No Closures

2010-02-05T15:13:00.004Z

Despite huge job losses, widespread pay freezes, plans to increase tuition fees and cutbacks in universities, colleges and schools Alistair Darling announced that the recession was over. The Chancellor made this announcement the day after Bosch announced plan to close their Miskin factory with 900 job losses and three days before Chevron announced that 1400 jobs could go in Pembrokeshire, all of this with the prospect of huge public sector cuts after the election.

All this has happened at the same time as the banks being GIVEN billions to carry on lining their own pockets whilst the government have stood back and done nothing when workers are faced with job losses. It is quite clear what the chancellor meant when he said the recession was over. He meant that the rich were beginning to recover at the expense of the rest of us! The Welsh Assembly are guilty as well. I went to the demonstrations in Merthyr to save the Hoover factory but all the AM’s that were there did was offer kind words, no practical action. The same could have been said for Anglesey Aluminium, but even more so as the Assembly was in a position to actually save jobs but didn’t.

This situation is particularly hard for young people who are twice as likely to be out of work and bear the brunt of the education cut backs which have led to a reduction in university places. Despite unemployment figures going down there has not been an increase in employment and can only be attributed to people simply giving up on looking for work and who can blame their when there are 5 times more unemployed workers than there are job vacancies and that is according to the official stats which are not an accurate reflection.

This is why Youth Fight for Jobs has organised a demonstration outside the Welsh Assembly, to protest for Jobs, training and education for young people. The demonstration will take place on Wednesday the 17th of February at 2pm. Meet on the Senedd steps, outside the Welsh Assembly Cardiff Bay.

These are the Youth Fight for Jobs demands
· Nationalisation to save jobs: take into democratic public ownership workplaces that are threatening redundancies.
· No public-sector job-cuts to pay for bankers bailouts: nationalize the banks and cut millionaire bank bosses pay instead
· No education cuts: give us what the bankers got! Invest in Universities, Colleges and Schools to guarantee a future for young people.
· For free access to education for all: scrap tuition fees and bring back grants

Age and Ageism

2010-02-04T23:57:00.001Z

It is clear that in Europe there is an ageing population with a significant amount of people of retirement age, in Britain this stands at around 20%. This growth in the elderly can clearly be attributed to advances which the working class have taken over the last century, through the introduction of the NHS and other gains won through the welfare state. Which has helped rise life expectancy to an average of 79.

The picture in Wales is slightly different though, the life expectancy is lower particularly in towns such as Merthyr. Now it would be ridiculous to just assume some kind of random geographical anomaly, but a real class distinction in life expectancy, you only have to look at the deprivation in Merthyr to see that. Despite this the elderly population in Wales make up approximately 1/6 of the overall population, yet still face severe discrimination, but why?

It is clear that elderly people are worse of than those of working age and worse than the elderly of 10 years ago. This is the case despite the government allocating more funds than previously to the provision of services for the elderly. This is clearly not just bad accounting but an ideological offensive, it is widely known that the New Labour policy of tendering out public services to private tender is not only more expensive but offers less. Hence more money is spent but less help is available for the elderly.

Throughout history we can see this disdain for the elderly, in most class societies this is something that we can see quite clearly. In Roman society the elderly were tossed over a bridge into a river when they had outlived their usefulness and in Britain we need only to look back at the experiences of the workhouse to see how the elderly were treated here. This is a clear feature of a class society were everyone is determined by the economic worth. Whilst an elderly working class person is deemed as worthless because they are unable to work effectively, the elderly of the ruling class are held in high regard as nothing has changed for them; you can live of the profits of others however able you are.

With this as the background we have a situation where 65% of pensioners survive solely on the pitiful state pension The savings they have been able to scrape by on throughout their lives are swallowed up to cover the gaps in their income and as we see the continuation of the privatisation and closures of state funded facilities for the elderly such as care homes, this again helps to swallow up any money they were able to put aside. The elderly along with single mothers constitute the poorest sections of British society, yet both these groups are among the most in need of help.

The discrimination against the elderly is not simply felt economically but it is also cultural. Elderly people make up the main body of TV viewers but are hugely under represented. The elderly are marginalised in most spheres of leisure activity and there is a huge emphasis in modern society on the appearance of the body and how it should look, with particular emphasis on looking young, something of course which the elderly have significant difficulty in doing. In fact the only sphere in which the elderly have not be marginalised is within organised religion, but that itself has become extremely marginalised.

In modern British society we can see the almost complete disenfranchisement of the elderly who are virtually tossed on the scrapheap when they have outlived their usefulness but even workers approaching retirement age who find themselves unemployed are likely not to find employment again. Those who are in employment are in most cases forced to leave upon reaching the retirement age. This is the background in which we find the rise of 'grey power' or pensioner power. But how significant is this power? Over 55's make up 30% of the electorate so it would seem to be a significant power particularly as this demographic is more likely to vote than any other. This poses the question most starkly in a marginal constituency, where a campaign amongst pensioners could shift the balance of power.

The media particularly around election time always go out of their way to show that grey power is extremely strong but in reality it is not that strong, While they may be able to change the winner in a marginal constituency they slit have the same choice of the major parties that everyone else has, they still face 5 years of lies from politicians after the election as everyone else does. Even more of a factor though is that 5 years on many of them may either have died or face heath problems which seriously restrict their abilities to carry on actively more so than any other demographic.

For this reason the government is very unlikely to take the concerns of pensioners seriously, and why not, in the logic of capitalism they are no longer useful and are a drain of resources. We can see the governments attitude to the elderly displayed quite obviously. £4.6 million in benefits lay unclaimed by pensioners every year, some of this will be accounted by pride getting in the way of pensioners claiming these benefits but it is also attributed to ignorance about what are entitled to, for 2 reasons, there is simply not enough helped offered to explain this and because most government information about benefit entitlement is now on-line, the elderly are the least likely to have access to the internet. It is clear that there are some in the ruling who want to make it even harder for the elderly with recent proposals revealed in the Telegraph that children should be forced to care for the elderly so the state does not have to.

Outside the Border Agency

2010-02-03T22:47:00.002Z

Earlier today there was a demonstration outside the UK Border Agency in Cardiff to coincide with a demonstration outside the Nigerian Embassy in London. The aim of the protests were to highlight the plight of Nigerians who are facing the prospect of a chartered flight back to Nigeria. Many of the deportees are victim of cult and gang violence, torture, rape, female genital mutilation, armed conflict and state oppression, however as Nigerian is deemed as a safe country, the asylum application of a Nigerian national are almost automatically rejected. For more information check out the No Borders South Wales Blog.

Flames were added to the fire by an article in today's Guardian which highlights the internal culture within the Border Agency offices at Cardiff. In the article an ex-worker there said there was a culture of hatred and anti-immigrant feelings running throughout the workforce. That if they were faced with a difficult case they would simply deny the application and leave it to a tribunal to sort out. More worryingly though, the article goes on to state that there was a canteen culture of intolerance, that those who accepted applications were mocked and taunted and the aim was to refuse the applications as if was simply a game rather than the life and death situations which they really are. As one of my ex-housemates works there I can definitely see this as the internal culture there, he wasn't the most likeable or understandable character you are likely to meet in fact quite the opposite,

The protest itself was good with somewhere between 30-40 in attendance. Pretty good considering the demonstration started at 4.30pm when many people would still be in work and it was raining quite a bit as well which always harms the turnout. The railings outside the border agency were absolutely covered in anti-immigration control banners. Most importantly though out of everyone there there was obviously the usual faces that you expect to see at demonstrations but there was also a lot of new faces that I had not seen around before and a significant amount were young activists.

Some things never change

2010-02-02T18:23:00.001Z

Once again the ex-nazi officer Pope Benedict is causing a stir, when he accused the UK Government of pursing unjust equality laws. Surely a contradiction in and of itself. The Pope argues that the government’s new rules limit religious freedom. While there is some truth in this the law only limits the freedom to discriminate. One of the few freedoms I cannot support.

At the same time I do have some sympathy with the position that the Pope outlines, in that these laws may violate their religious beliefs. They maybe be bigoted religious beliefs but they are religious beliefs none the less. If the Catholic Church feels it cannot have homosexuals in the clergy then I guess ultimately it is up to them. I can’t quite understand why any homosexuals regardless of their belief in Catholicism would want to enter into an organised religious institution with such beliefs anyway. However if the church wants to pursue a policy along this lines then I certainly would object to their charitable status and any state funding which they so often request for church building repairs and other Catholic buildings such as schools, village halls etc.

This opens up a whole other issue as it is not just clergy who are employed by the Catholic Church. There is administration staff for the church, maintenance workers etc. Also there is a whole other issue of Catholic run Schools. It has been questioned as to whether the church has the right to only employ a head teacher who shared their faith. Clearly this is discriminatory to oh so many. Ministers have also wanted to force faith schools to take a quarter of their pupils from other religious backgrounds. Although I would a oppose such a quota system for entrance into a school I think it is ridiculous that you can only be admitted to the school on the basis of your religion in the first place. Well in reality the religion of your parents as the whole ethos of the religious schools is to brainwash young people into following that religion.

So while I think it is fair to say that the church has the right to decide who their clergy are, in essence who their spiritual leaders are, whoever bigoted that may be. I do not see how on that basis or on any other basis for that matter how the Catholic Church should be able to maintain it’s charitable status. I also cannot see any argument to allow the continuation of religious schools in this manner for several reasons, if they cannot except the equality bill as a guide to who is employed is is clearly unacceptable. The whole purpose seems to religious teaching and to teach the idea that homosexuals are not equal is intolerable, although the Archbishop of Cardiff words it slightly differently when he said.

“But I think there is a misunderstanding, because sometimes in government legislation equality seems to be that we are equal in dignity, beyond that each of us is unique.”

He seems to be able to find some dignity in being discriminated against because of your sexuality, (a situation which is hard to deal with generally because the prejudices of society) in a way that I cannot. Clearly the Catholic Church continues to show what they really stand for again and again. All Catholics should break with the tyranny of organised religion and find their spiritual beliefs in solace, free the shackles of bigotry.

TAG - A Reply to Matt Higgins and Matt Smith

2010-02-01T20:06:00.003Z

I have just read the latest copy of TAG the University of Glamorgan Students' Union newspaper and two things in particular stand out. The front cover leads with an article by Matt Higgins which is a report from a demonstration in Swansea, however I don't remember things quite the same as he seems to. He says

Our Students' Union recently sent a bus full of lecturers, students and members of the Student Union Executive Committee to protest outside the Welsh Labour Party leadership hustings in Swansea

Firstly yes there was a coach from Uni Glam to Swansea however it was not the Students Union who arranged it was the UCU branch. The coach was nowhere near full in fact it was over half empty. Now this is not simply nitpicking. Clearly the article is meant to showing the students union to have done something but this is in stark contrast to reality. It was UCU who organised the coach and approached the Students Union to help build for the demonstration, which they agreed to do but in reality did very little, the real reason why the coach was over half empty. The only reason why there were as many students on the coach as there were was not because of the SU but because of the hard work of Socialist Students who held campaign stalls and leaflets sessions giving out close to 1,000 leaflets in total. Much more than the SU was prepared to do with their massive resources!

He goes on to talk about the proposed 5% cut in the budget of Higher Education in Wales and the impact this could have on students. Whilst everything he says in true he neglects to mention that the University of Glamorgan is proposing cuts of up to 16%. The SU gives the impression that they do not want to build a campaign against the cuts whilst at the same time appearing as if they are! It seems that the only reason they came to Swansea was for the photo opportunity, the photo which now appears on the front page of TAG.

The other article which caught my eye was an article by Matt Smith the chair of Glamorgan Student Liberal Democrats . The only thing which Matt says which makes sense is that our vote does not count, but he then goes on to say its all because of the choice between Labour and Tory and the bad policies they offer, plus labour and tory have been caught out in the expenses scandal as crooks. However he goes on to explain that the Lib Dems are not the same. Matt must be a member of a different Liberal Democrats than the rest of us know about. This would be the same Liberal Democrats who were equally exposed as crooks in the expenses scandal. The same Liberal Democrats who have equally promised savage cuts after the election, the same liberal democrats who in Cardiff council are already promising huge cuts now. The same Liberal Democrats who have already back down significantly on abolishing tuition fees before an election, how much further will they go afterwards?

You can get the picture it is clear that the picture Matt Smith paints is a very fake one, and even clearer that all the main parties are out for themselves and offer us ordinary folk nothing but cuts!

Moving forward in Wales

2010-01-31T18:45:00.001Z

The Socialist Party Wales annual conference was today and it was a definate reflection of the steps forward we have taken in recent years. The attendence alone not only highlighted the growth but a huge shift in the average age. Despite there being an increase in the number of older comrades in attendence there was a much bigger increase in the number of young comrades.

The first session on British and Wesh perspectives was introduced by Peter Taaffe, General Secretary of the Socialist Party. He highlighted the dramatic changes which had happened to the party in Wales since his last visit 2 years ago, that the party was well placed to live up to the traditions of the welsh working class. Throughout his introduction he pointed the situation currenty facing us both in Britian but also internationally, I'm not going to go through it all as I ay as well just upload a perspectives document if I were to do that but one thing that did stick in my mind was a statistic Peter mentioned about Spain in which he stated that unemployment amongst the youth stood at between 40-45%! Peter went out to point out that despite our relatively small size we were able to accurately predict the crisis at every stage and have been in a prime position to react because of this.

The discussion that followed was excellent, the only problem being time constraints. Various things that were covered in the discussion included an good explanation of why were talk about perspectives, as they are a guide to action. It was generally agreed that Wales despite facing huge job losses already has been cuishioned up until now as 30% of employment is withing the public sector, but that there will e huge battles to face there after the general election. One speaker highlighted the savage attacks which are already begining in Higher Education and that these battles will intensify after the election, and we have to be prepared for the divide and rule tactics which are begining now. Throughout the discussion from both new and old comrades there was a general emphasis on youth and how to attrack them, pointing out the role that new and enthusiastic comrades play on the mindset of older comrades whuch keeps them going in the positions they hold in the labour movement. It was also pointed out that there was a need to reach out in particular to young workers in the current period, they will be explioted more so in the future with an increase in insecure temporary and even cash in hand jobs. It was also noted that voter turnout amongst young people is likely to be at an al time low.

Next we had the finance appeal which was fantastic raising some approaching £4,000, and then the lunch break,where Itook the opporutunity to discuss the progress up North with the comrades from Wrexham and Bangor. Before returning just on time for the afternoon sessions.

Alec Thraves introduced the next session on organisation, although it seems that I lost the edge with my note taking by this point. Alec highlighted the growth in the last year or so particularly with the growth Cardiff, the solidification of Newport and the north wales expansion, but went on to highlight the possibilities of the coming year with a third branch in Cardiff, new branches in Swansea, Llaneli, Ammanford and Wrexham. He explained that we are different to all the main parties, that we are not a discussion group , but a combat and activist party. Though stressing the need for a theoretical grounding in marxism as that guide to action. He pointed out that within the conference were several leading trade unionists,pointing out that they all came to that position by the support of the Socialist Party, he highighted in particular Rob Williams and his recent battles with Linimar for his reinstatement, that Rob relied on the support and advice of the party and that within 2 hours of him being dismissed Socialist Party members from all over Wales we stood outside the factory gates. He said "If you take on one member of the Sociaist Party you take on the entire Party, we don't work alone we work together as a unit" He went on to say that it is the youth comrades in the room today will be the ones leading these kind of struggles in the future.

Next we spit up into three commissions, one on trade unionism, one on youth work and the final one on branch building. I went to the commission on youth work which was introduced by Matt Dobson from the youth dept. As there were many new comrades there it was a much more interactive discussion than the others which discussed various issues, such as Youth Fight for Jobs perspective for the national demonstration in Barking and the demonstration planned at the Welsh Assembly as well as other ways in which to build support for the campain. We also discussed the importance of future campaigns within Higher Education which within Wales will be hit pretty hard mentioning some of the things processes which have already began. Overall it was a very posiitve discussion involving many new comrades involving about 20 comrades and as other young comrades had gone to the other sessions and many youth comrades were unable to attend the comference it was a great step forward from about 5 years ago where A welsh youth meeting would typically have only 6 people at it.

We then went make to the main hall for the closing of the conference, both the Welsh Perspectives document and the slate for the Wales commitee were passed unanamoiusly. A raffle was drawn and despite not buying a ticket I won a trotsky t-shirt after complaining no one told me there was a raffle and a comrade gave me one of his tickets. We closed the conference with the singing of the internationale before retiring to the pub. Overall a very positive day which set out very well future perspectives, where we are now and how far we have come and the perspectives for future developments. Aiming to double our membership in Wales within a year.

You are a Liar and a Murderer!

2010-01-30T20:10:00.001Z

Yesterday Tony Blair faced the Chilcot Inquiry over the Iraq war. An issue which had a profound effect on me personally as it was what turned me into an activist, so with my hatred of Blair all clear and out in the open what happened?

The enquiry from start to finish has been a farce declaring from the outset that the findings would not result in any prosecutions. Which brings into question the whole point of the inquiry, if not charges will be brought, if it won't result in a troop withdrawel and it obviously cannot reverse the damage caused to millions already.

Despite this Blair showed absolutely no remorse and the inquiry did not really push him all that much. Afua Hirsch from the Guardian said:

He responded to a question about the controversial intelligence dossier with a speech about how seriously he takes the nuclear threat from Iran. He responded to a question about weapons of destruction in Iraq with a a reply about military action taken joinlty with Bill Clinton in 1998.

It wasn't restricted to simply avoiding the questions put to him George Galloway went as far as to say

He was allowed to report that Iraq was in breach of UN resolutions in general and 1441 in particular. But in fact, they weren't in breach of it. There were no weapons of mass destruction..... Blair was allowed to tell a blatant lie.

The whole thing was clearly just for show and it was put incredibly well by Haifa Zangana when she said

Undergrads would have asked more probing questions.

Of course she is absolutely right and as an undergrad myself here coming the more probing investigation albeit confined to my blog. The whole argument about the legality of the invasion puzzles me as it was taken as fact previously that it was. Despite a vote in parliament agreeing to the invasion, the British government had no jurisidcition within Iraq and the UN didn't saction it. Not that the rights and wrongs should be determined by the law of the land.

I guess the argument about whether it was legal or not is focusing on whether the infomation provided was correct or not, but once again wasn't this blatantly obvious to anyone at the time. Blair said the 45 minute claim was a minor point so didn't really matter but it was picked up by the media. Now that may be true except for one important detail, Blair nor any other government official tried to correct the misinformation of the media. Quite happy to ride it out with a Lie. He also stated that it wouldn't have made a difference if the weapons inspectors had been given more time it would not have made a difference, well he's got that right they certainly would not have found any weapons.

By looking at what Blair actually said he made it clear that this was only able to happen in the post 9/11 era and that it was possible to gather the forces to do so! That despite there being no evidence between Saddam Hussien and Al'Qaida (and how would you find a link between a secular regime and religious hardiners?) that he could no longer take the risk with countries who wanted to aquire weapons of mass destruction. Then went on to say that they did everything to stabilise Iraq, to stop attempts to distabilise the economy by protecting the oil fields.

So it's there that Blair gives us the real reason, Oil its the only explanation why so many barbaric regimes are left alone or become good 'friends'. Throughout the whole process Blair makes it quite obvious to anyone seriously looking at it that here knew what was really going on at the time and just lied for the sake of war. He claims that it has made the world a safer place but once again this is a blatant lie and doesn't really compare well up against the facts

Blair did however tell a couple of truths, the first being that the cabinet were well informed and made the decision collectivey, it is clear that they were all in on it and Blair is just being seen now as an individual to take the blame, not that he doesn't deserve it but the rest of them do too.

The other truth which he tells is that we shouldn't ask the questions of 2003 in 2010, we should be asking the questions of 2010 in 2010. So let's do it. Why are there still 7 years later imperialist troops occupying Iraq as well as Afganistan causing terror and destruction!

Meanwhile it is clear that Blair will walk free without any problems or a care in the world, unfortunately the same can not be said for Joe Glenton who is facing a 2 year sentence for going awol and refusing to fight in these imperialist wars

No Shelter

2010-01-28T20:16:00.000Z

This post is abit late but I thought I would comment on the Christmas No. 1 fiasco. Inspired to write this by my recent research on counter-culture and the resistance against consumerism.

Whilst even Rage Against the Machine jumped on the band wagon and saw this as a way of 'saving' music in Britian, they should really be reminded on the lyrics to their own song No Shelter

The main attraction, distraction
got ya number than number than numb
Empty ya pockets son, they got you thinkin that
What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin'
From the theaters to malls on every shore
The thin line between entertainment and war
The frontline is everywhere, there be no shelter here
Spielberg the nightmare works so push it far
Amistad was a whip, the truth feather to tar
Memories erased and burned to scar
Trade in ya history for a VCR

Cinema, simulated life, ill drama
Fourth reich culture, Americana
Chained to the dream they got ya searchin for
The thin line between entertainment and war

There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere

Hospitals not profit full
The market bull's got pockets full
To advertise some hip disguise
View the world from American eyes
Tha poor adore keep feeding for more
Tha thin line between entertainment and war
fix the need, develop the taste
Buy their products or get laid to waste
Coca-Cola was back in our veins in Saigon
And Rambo too, we got a dope pair of Nikes on
Godzilla pure motherfuckin' filler
Get your eyes off the real killer

Cinema, simulated life, ill drama
Fourth reich culture, Americana
Chained to the dream they got you searchin for
Tha thin line between entertainment and war

There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere
There'll be no shelter here!
The frontline is everywhere

American eyes, American eyes
View the world from American eyes
Bury the past, rob us blind
And leave nothin behind

American eyes, American eyes
View the world from American eyes
Bury the past, rob us blind
And leave nothin behind

Just stare!
Just stare!
Just stare!
Just stare!

and live the nightmare!

In Particular the line of the song which goes like this

What ya need is what they sellin
Make you think that buyin is rebellin'

It is in this line we find the crux of the problem. We were told that buying a 1992 single which everyone already had either legally or illegally would be able to save musical culture. As if at some point in the recent history we already controlled it!

But what was achieved? Bigger sales and free marketing for the x-factor winner, and huge sales for Killing in the name which is already a huge track played regularly internationally. As both were signed to Sony subsidiaries all we saw was sony cashing it in with loads of free publicity.

Far from being described as a blow against the music industry this couldn't even e described as culture jamming as the track chosen was a worldwide hit and a classic still reguarly played of rock radio and tv stations and clubs throughout the world. The only thing achieved was an illusion in consumerism.

I will keep it short as a discussion on this woud be interesting, but I will post more on counter-culture and culture jamming in the future

A Special Kind of Dilema

2010-01-26T01:33:00.001Z

I now find myself in what I have termed 'A Special Kind of Dilema'. The Dilema in question is not really special at all but I found it to be a much better title than simply'I am very lazy'.

The problem orginates from the very reason I started the blog in the first place the reasons for which are outlined in my first post Everyones Favourite Comrade. However this is where the problem began. It was at this point that I was unemployed and had given up on looking for employment due to my iminent return to education. That in itself was one of the motivating factors behind the blog, as I had not had to write in a structured way since dropping out during my A-levels in 2004.

Upon begining University my blog went very quiet and until a few days ago hadn't been updated since October! I felt I had no need to in someways I guess and in other ways as I am generaly lazy I just didn't bother as I was begining to write essays and so was already back into the habit of writing through this anyway.

However the university setting so far has caused a lot of frustration on my part. This is partly self-inflicted due to my laziness but also because of my distain for the education system. I chose to study Sociology hoping to get a lot out of it,as I did previously studying at both GCSE and A-level (which is where I came into contact with marxism and the Socialist Party). However a number of factors it has not led up to my expectation so far and those factors in no particular order are.

The production line layout of education, while i find many of the lectures interesting I find myself at the end of 1 hour thinking "is that it! just 1 hour on the topic and we come back next week to do it all over again" and this is compounded by the fact that it is geared towards answering specific essay questions which I have found very restrictive in the main, and become disinterested in the subject because it is not the subject that I want to write about.
Seminars- hate is too strong a word to describe this but I have grown to dislike many of my seminars. Not because I do not like the concept of seminars but because it doesn't seem to be working. Instead of a discussion amongst the students more often than not it becomes a disussion between myself and a lecturer with maybe one or two others joining.
Complacency-I have become very complacent with much of the work I have handed in because of the advantages I have over many of my peers having studied sociology for 4 years previously and been an active marxist for 7 years now I appear to have the edge over the others straight away. Whilst this is true and my grades so far have reflected this my writing style could do with much improvement and my sociological knowledge outside the realms of marxism are less than desirabe.
Most importantly and for all the reasons above I have become lazy and lack drive, putting in little effort or time into assignments which has been aided incredibly by my laziness, and although up until now my grades have been good I can't sustain this forever and neither will it improve my understanding.

So after recently reading Blogging, Academia and Sociology over at A Very Public Sociologist it got me thinking about how I can rectify this and how blogging can play a part. It got me thinking and the answer was simple. If the lecture subject is interesting blog about it! If the essay questions are too restrictive, as well as writing the essay, blog away free of the restrictions of the question itsef! If the seminars are simply a back and forth between me and a lecturer then blog about the topic hoping a discussion will follow free from the parameters of the amount of people sat in the room (although restricted to whoever looks at the blog) I hope by doing this and reaching out into the world of political and sociological blogs I will be able to over come my complacany force myself to put the effort and research in which is so lacking and can be noted by my last blog entries Youth Culture which was simply one of my essays I uploaded onto the blog. Although I got a first from it, It is quite evident that it lacks so much. I hope that by putting either some of my work into the public domain or writing articles specificaly for the blog it will improve my work over all and overcome my laziness and complacancy and everything else which I have become dissatisfied with.

So I guess the point I have been getting at is that along with the original 'mission statement' I put forward for this blog. Which is admittedly a very broad scope.

"What topics will this blog cover, well its a political blog but as capitalist society effects every aspect of culture and human interaction in someway that means that this blog will be open to covering any subject matter."

But now my aim is not only to reboot that up but to delve more into sociological aspects as wel and to update much more frequently time permitting.

Youth Culture

2010-01-22T12:00:00.000Z

I haven't made a post for awhile so I have decided to post one of my recent essay's as I beieve it could be the starting point for an interesting discussion. The essay is not a definitive answer to the question by any stretch of the imagination as ever with academia I was limited by time and space as well as by the nature of the question it self.

Nevertheless I feel that this could be a good starting point for a discussion on the changes of youth culture and its relationship with capitalism.

The question of youth, is one that is ever changing, by the very nature of youth being a stage of life that everyone goes through. A question however of great importance for a very obvious reason pointed out by Giroux

Any discourse about the future has to begin with the issue of youth because more than any other group, youth embody the dreams, desires, and commitment of a society’s obligation to the future.
(Giroux, 2004)

However the youth are not simply developed in isolation from society as something to mould it in future. On the contrary young people are born into a society already in existence moulded and developed by the material realities around them as explained by Pierre Bourdieu

'’youth' has been an evolving concept, layered upon layers with values which reflect contemporary moral, political and social concerns'

(cited in Jones, 2009)

It's for this reason that the question of youth cannot be discussed in isolation of previous events that have moulded and developed them and their outlook and expressions. I will explain here how the collapse of the Soviet Union along with the destruction of the manufacturing industry led to a major crisis in youth culture in the early 90's through the rave culture that had developed. Due to the increased alienation and lack of a ideological outlet. The Rave Culture emerged as a political act of defiance, creating their own society their own norms their own values, with sheer disregard for the laws accepted by society as a whole. But as this died down through the enforcement of the Criminal Justice Act and the rise of the legitimate club scene there arose a conflict in youth.

The crisis which arose was on one hand a dual fragmentation into the overtly political in the form of the anti-capitalist movement and the apolitical with the development of chav culture, both of which in reality were very political reactions to the alienation felt most acutely by young people. Alongside this was a stark contradiction, the young people were further fragmented, lost without their own identity, simply holding the identity that had been thrust upon them.

The big change, in fact probably the biggest change which will have changed youth culture forever, is the spread of the internet, which has opened up contemporary as well as historic ideas, values beliefs and norms to a generation who grew up with the internet as the norm. This coupled with the biggest economic crisis for nearly 100 years has had a profound effect and leads to major changes to come.

As the 1990s began the Berlin Wall had fallen and the rest of the Soviet Union had either collapsed or was on the verge of doing so. Their followed a huge ideological extravaganza that capitalism was the only way forward in which society can be run. Encapsulated by the Wall Street Journal which in 1990 simply declared as the headline 'We Won' (cited in Taaffe, 2009). This did not however match the reality of the experiences of young people at the time.

During this period of the so-called global triumph of capitalism the manufacturing industry in Britain had begun to decline and replaced with service sector jobs or unemployment (REFERENCE) in the recession of the early 90s. Leading to increased alienation, as Marx explained they do not see their work as part of their life but merely a way in which to gain the earnings necessary to for subsistence and leisure. (Marx, 1999) Hannah Sell brings this into a modern context by showing that young people were further alienated

The description of working life would apply just as much to the workers in McDonalds. Tesco, call centres on modern building sites or in factories, as it ever did to the weavers and labourers Marx was describing. Instead of making life easier the increase in automation has reduced ever more jobs to mind-numbing repetition and boredom.
(Sell, 2002)

All this happened in the backdrop of the ideological offensive that capitalism was the only way. Young people had been cut off from a political voice by the closure of the Labour Party Young Socialists in 1988 which previously would have filled out with working class youth.Young people who were alienated and denied a political voice, being told that this was the only way and growing up in Thatcher's Britain to be told 'There is no society' set out to create their own society. In both a form of escapism from the mundane routine of employment or lack of and a political response to their own space, or norms, own values etc. In essence they tried to create their own society and so the burgeoning rave scene filled out.

It was a movement of the abandoned who found a space for themselves in the spaces and gaps left by society in the wake of abandoning a generation.
It occupies the ‘cracks and vacancies’ left by the state, including abandoned industrial complexes, - the detritus of Euro-American post-industrial society. As manifestations of the TAZ, raves are utopian social formations temporarily convened in Turner cracks, crevices and interstices of social structure - in the margins of society.
(John 2004)
It is clear from this that the emergence of the rave culture was an attempt to reinvigorate the abandoned and betrayed areas of society which had alienated young people so much. However this was not simply a case of young people trying to re-establish the forms of society that had been destroyed this was a case of young people trying to create a new society based on their own norms and values as Steve Redhead points out.
It can be used and usually not affect the person’s ability to work the next or the following day. It is associated with politics of pleasure, a hedonism (in hard times) – a pleasure for its own sake in times when moral regulation of youth is pervasive and deep economic crisis is rife.
(Redhead, 1993)
Whilst functionalists would argue that this deviance is necessary in order to maintain a functioning society even going as far as to say 'anomie does not cause deviance, it is deviance which is the solution to anomie' (Blackman 2004) I would turn this on its head and say that the isolation is both the cause of the deviance and that the deviance is also the solution to isolation. Not however that this is the only way in which society could function, but simply that this is the only way in which the current order of society can be maintained. It was for this reason and that the rave culture was seriously questioning the power and authority of society that it was eventually controlled and stamped out. Through the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act which clamped down on illegal raves and through the legitimisation of rave culture in the commercial scene.
It was through this discourse that young people were conflicted, the young were fragmented and no dominant sub-culture was there to encapsulate the hopes and dreams of a generation. This can be summed up by the rock band Pitchshifter, who point out the alienation felt by youth and the searching for a voice, for a generational statement.
The jobs we get when we graduate from school are stupid, boring meaningless and a dead end to insanity..... Every generation has a statement they wanna call their own, tattoos, piercings, that’s for mums and dads.
(Pitchshifter 2000)
It is in this period which prompted Steve Redford to proclaim that youth as a genre is fast becoming a cliché (Redhead 1995). Whilst this was partially true there was also during this period two phenomena’s that changed things forever.

It was around this period in which the anti-capitalist movement developed, due to the lack of political organisation in workplaces but the relative political freedom and individual wealth that had developed an unique situation developed where young people alienated from society decided to fight back against the capitalist order directly
The kind of workplaces that young people work in often do not have unions. Politically-conscious youth are expressing their politics outside of work, through anti-fascism, through defending their right to party, through involvement in a counter-culture (in which the internet plays a large part). The internet gives young people contact with the world. They form ideas about their place in the world, without attending meetings. The internet makes it possible for young people in the UK to define themselves in relation to struggles for emancipation in Korea or Mexico, without the mediating role of an organisation in their home town or even home country. Lots of internet kiddies know more about the politics of the Zapatistas than they do about the political systems they live under. The Zapatistas are exciting rebels, even the best of the politicians available at home are either dreary careerists or patently unserious.
(Workers’ Liberty, 2001)
This clearly displays that young people are clearly and overtly searching for a political alternative to run society and this happened because of the spread of the internet opening up global ideas to a lost generation who now have the ability to search out those very ideas. It has led to the development of a youth culture with is anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist in nature and one which embraces and even celebrates their differences. This can be summed up in a nutshell by the anti-capitalist musicians Sonic Boom Six who point out that the differences between then are in essence meaningless it’s just about finding your own identity in a failing world.
Well I remember at the party, a couple years ago, when I saw an MC. He ripped the mic and passed it to me. I learnt a little lesson he helped me to see. It’s not about choosing guitar or the decks it’s about doing it yourself that get’s the respect. So punks say Oi! B-Boys say Bo!
(Sonic Boom Six, 2006)

This form of culture amongst youth has undoubtedly developed because of the rise of the internet which encapsulates all the history and culture available and the click of a button which has led to the acceptance of other styles of youth culture.

Conversely however this was a dual process and the other main trend to flow from this was the emergence of chav culture which has also been a political reaction by this change has occurred in a covert nature. Chavs have also taken an anti-authoritarian stance but one of intimidation coupled with a desire for commodities previously adorned with the middle class. (Atkinson, 2008) ‘Chav culture’ has taken the alienation and frustration of young people in a consumer society and manifested itself in a disregard for authority and a yearning for those consumer goods which they see as defining their status.

Both these dualities which have appeared in youth culture over the last decade are a reaction to the alienation and abandonment felt by young people in the modern world.
One of the worst things of all experiences in capitalist Britain is to be a young person who cannot get work – to have been thrown on the scrap heap before your teens are over.
(Sell, 2002)
Yet these different sub-cultures have manifested themselves in opposing forms. One seeking to change the world and one seeking to simply change their own circumstances. These differences are likely to be exacerbated in the next few years as the economic crisis will further beat down on an already battered generation and it is for this reason that the subject is so interesting as the ideas and objectives of the youth will be the ideas and objectives of the future.

I have outlined here the developments of youth culture in the last two decades, starting from the conflict in young people, alienated from a society that they were told was the ‘only way’ which manifested itself in a merger of cultural resistance and of a political response in the form of rave culture. But once this began to disseminate there was a crisis in youth. There appeared a young generation angry and disposed with their isolation but with no obvious outlet neither political nor cultural. But this began to change with the fast paced spread of the internet opening up the world to young people and a duality in youth developed.

Young people were increasingly isolated from society and manifested themselves into to opposing ways, one in which they attempted to change society and another in which they attempted to change their own position in society. These differences are likely to exacerbated in the next few years as the looming economic crisis deepens and the dominant ideas which emerge amongst the youth with be the dominant ideas of the future leading to more changes.

Where now?

2009-10-27T20:27:00.000Z

On the 17th of October the Fascist English Defence League attempted to march through the streets of Swansea. Fortunately this did not materialise and there was a very good reason for this.

400 anti-fascists turned up in Castle Square which is exactly where the EDL wanted to be. Due to the fact that they were outnumbered by atleast 10-1 they were easily prevented for getting anywhere near the square and were forced to hide away in a near by pub.

It was clear when they emerged that the idea of an actual demonstration was no the intention at all, they had no placards, no banners, no megaphones or anything else to highlight any kind of demonstration. It was clear that all they aimed to do was cause racial tension and have a punch up.

However as they were outnumbered by 10-1 once the police attempted to march them on everyone surrounded them and the police instantly they were unable to do anything for a whole hour and once that time was up they had no choice but to except a police escort to the train station and out of Swansea with their tale between their legs!

After the humiliation in Swansea, the EDL 'officially' called of the demonstration in Newport. I went on the EDL forum and whilst it also said that it was called off many EDL members said they still intended to come to Newport and it appeared that calling it off was simply just a tactic to damage the turnout of the Newport Communities Against Racism demonstration.

Luckily this tactic failed completely and several hundred anti-fascists turned up in John Frost Square where various organisations participated. When the time came the EDL did not show their face at all. So victory was ours on the day!

There was a rally throughout the day in John Frost Square with various speakers in between music, life performances and chanting. I was one of the speakers at the rally and I think its important that I mention what I said because I think it really sums up the situation facing us now and how we can effectively fight it.

I spoke about how it was not enough to just oppose fascism, how It isn't enough to organise counter-demo's everytime the EDL announce a demonstration. The EDL came out of no where and started organising demonstrations not long after the BNP gained two MEP's. The 2 organisations are clearly linked. The fact they have those MEP's has obviously given them the confidence to feel they can get away with racist marches on our streets.

Unfortunately Griffin did come across well on Question Time because despite the panel attacking him at the begining and in general Griffin made a fool of himself. When it came to the issue of immigration and jobs all the main parties were quick to blame immigration for unemployment, none of them were willing to acknowledge the problem was the mainstream parties, the bankers, and capitalism in general. That without a real political challenge the BNP will continue to grow.

I said that the BNP was a political entity and they need to be taken up politically. If there was a New Mass Workers' Party it could have effectively exposed the BNP's scapegoating of immigrants and for that matter the all three of the main parties who are responsible for the rise in the BNP by using the same tactics. It is only by exposing the main parties and capitalism, it if only by offering a positive alternative and articulating in the correct manner the concerns of working class people about job losses, unemployment and public service cuts that we can stop the growth of the BNP and send them back to the gutter!

I finished by urging everyone to come to the Youth Fight for Jobs demonstation - For Decent Jobs, For Free Education. To Actively take up these issuesand expose the capitalist system and fight for our future!

We won the battles of Swansea and Newport but the war continues.

Zombie God Delicious

2009-09-12T14:35:00.000+01:00

The unique blend that Pink Punk offer of a mixture of elements from metal, punk, hip-hop, slam poetry, spoken word & electronica to name but a few and other parts which can only be described as rambling is definitely an acquired taste. One I have fully acquired.

The first album Pink Punk released in 2006 'Zoo Politics' quite honestly blew my mind.

The first album brought with it a blend of various musical styles, something I thoroughly enjoyed and along with that quite overtly political lyrics particularly in the flagship track Yapolitical. the album did not hold back on its attacks on capitalist society and how celebrity culture is blinding the masses to the truth. This can all be summarised in one line from the album 'Kylie move your plastic ass, your blocking out the genocide'.

This follow up album did not disappoint with the added bonus of appearances on the album of the Excentral Tempest and Bill Hicks (posthumously) Zombie God Delicious provides an excellent listening experience both musically and in terms of lyrical content. So lets take a look at the tracks.

The opening track 'Universe on tap' brakes in slowly but then talks about the bad situation facing people in the style accustomed to Pink Punk but in the same style explained that forces of ordinary people can change things.

The second track, 'Pink Punk Presents' starts of much quicker, indeed it flows straight from the previous track. A much more fast paced track which offers us the organised lyrical chaos associated with Pink Punk so much.

The third track, 'Catalogue Democracy' starts of with much more aggressive beats. Again with the customary ramblings, to me is this track Yap is attempting to tackle the hypocrisy of capitalist society, but also the resistance developing against this with particular reference to the Seattle riots.

The next track, 'Old Enough to Die, Old Enough to Listen' makes it clear that we should not hide the truth of society from young people and they should not be shielded from the reality. Clearly pointing out that the current setup is about greed rather than people. and the tracks finishes suddenly with a bang.

Bill Hicks makes an appearance on the next track 'Advertising' which has for the intro a segment of Hicks stand up performance ranting against advertising. It doesn't stop at Bill Hicks speech and indeed the whole track is a tirade against the role advertising plays in society, and its effects of ordinary people, one of the best tracks on the album if not the best.

'Down a Hole with Alice' is the next offering. My interpretation is that this track is a tirade against the life capitalist society claims to offer us, and how we must in someway fight for our own culture. This is my interpretation of this track and maybe I am reading to much into it. Nevertheless this track is full of interesting lyrical and musical content

Track 7 brings us 'Lollipops' This track seems to be putting forward the idea the he (that is the vocalist Yap) could have quite clearly bought into the capitalist ideology and been everything they wanted him to be, but chose instead to resist it.

Up next is 'Press the Panic Button' which offers a tirade against organised religion and offers alot musically as well is an excellent addition to the album.

The Excentral Tempest makes an appearance on this track 'Rockstars' and this is definately the high point of the track, as ever providing insightful lyrics and an awesome vocal style. and don't really know how else to describe it so I suggest every take a listen.

Track 10 'Calling Time' a much more sombre track, a much slower pace from the previous tracks. a good point at which to reflect on the album so far. Yap talks about how he is at war with the world, how he trying to spread the word as far as possible. From the mood of the song, it becomes clear that this struggle he is involved with is something he is deeply saddened by. sentiments I can completely agree with. The fight for a better society is not something I necessarily enjoy but something I see as necessary.

The penultimate track 'Freedom' is a departure from the politcal lyrics seen on the rest of the album, but that in and of itself is a political stament, with the title Freedom it is a reminder as to why we are fighting for an alternative society, so we can truly enjoy the things around us such as music free from the dictates of big business.

The final track 'Outer Space' flows perfectly from the last track. It talks about how we cannot afford to sit back and do nothing. Then Yap bursts in with a last stab at his ranting as ever though, parts of it definately resemble more of a rambling. An interesting ramble never the less. The track ends with an acapella session from the Excentral Tempest who brings a medly of her lyrics fro her album with Sound of Rum, definately a good way in which to end the album.

The whole album is a great listening experience to follow on from the debut album 'Zoo Politics' and well worth a listen, this review is by no means complete, there are many topics on this album not covered in the review, and of course the review on many of the lyrics are clearly my interpretation to them.

I would definately encourage everyone to take the time to listen to this album. Unfortunately all of Pink Punks works are incredibly hard to come by, but it can be streamed at Spotify so you can make a judgement for yourself.

Reflecting the growth

2009-09-11T18:44:00.000+01:00

The 7th edition of the Student Socialist is a huge improvement in previous issues in many ways and really does reflect the huge growth and success of Socialist Students. The first issue to be in full colour it is both attractive in design and content.

The opening article 'Unlocking the Potential?' by Stephen Burrell of Aston University is a fantastic article which delves into what education is used for currently under capitalism and what education should be. It also poses the philisophical question of what a socialist education would look like and what its purpose would be. A fantastic place to start the magazine and make someone knew to socialism really think about what the alternative to capitalism would be. It really does set the reader up for the rest of the magazine.

Matt Dobson, National Organiser follows that up with 'Fight The Recession!' in which Matt outlines what the recession will really mean for young people and students in particular, what cuts in educational standards we will face and the battles against these cuts that we expect to face.

The next article is by Sean Figg, National Organiser of YFJ entitled 'What Is Socialism?' is an unfortunate neccesity in many ways. Unfortunate that we are in a position where we have to explain to young people what socialis is, but of course very neccessary for that reason. Sean provides an excellent article in that respect outlining the problems with capitalism and the socialist solution. Sean neither over simplifies in a patronising way nor over-complicates it to the point that someone new to socialist ideas would not be able to follow it.

Up next is a collection of small articles entitled 'Fighting Back!' with an introduction by Ben Robinson (YFJ Chair) and a selection of reports from various Socialist Student groups. This article highlights the camapagining work that Socialist Students in continually involved in on campus' all around the country.

Paul Phillips from Northumbria comes next with the article 'Discredited Parliamentary Shambles' in which Paul highlights the corruption of all the major parties, pointing our that they have no intention of helping out the working class or students. Paul Highlights the need for a Socialist alternative, a well worth read.

'Say No To Racism' is the next offering from Paddy Meehan, a young member of the Socialist Party in Northern Ireland. He highlights the rise of the BNP and the need for a class response to that. He also discusses the recent attacks on Romanian families in Northern Ireland and the role the Socialist Party played in defending them. Once again a quality offering.

A joint effort next from Kay Shipway (UCL) and Sarah Wrack (Sussex) 'For Womens Rights' They outline the problems facing young women currently, such as low pay, poor child care facilities in education, objectification & how a women's right to choose is not simply an issue for women but is quite clearly a class issue, this is highlighted by the accompanying picture which quite clearly shows many male activists also at an abortion rights demonstration.

Sarah Wrack comes back with another offering 'Stop The Slaughter' in which Sarsh discusses the Israeli assualt on Gaza earlier this year and analyises the new wae of student activism that followed from this, A must read article for an attempt to understand future campaigns.

the final article 'Afganistan War' by Jon Redford of Hertfordshire analysises the current devasting role of imperialism in not only in Afganistan but also in Northern Pakistan. Jon goes on to argue for a socialist solution to the problem.

Other important features to the magazine include:
A full page advert for the November 28th YFJ demonstration, A demonstration that Socialist Students will be helping to build for.
A full page advert for Socialism 2009, an excellent weekend of discussion ad debate at which Socialist Students will undoubtly be hosting sessions at again this year
A subsribtion advert for both 'the socialist' and 'socialism today' both excellent periodicals which often carry articles by Socialist Students members.

Overall this edition of the magazine is fantastic, the use of pictures really adds alot, it shows quite clearly that socialist students discusses ideas but is also very activist orientated.
Previous editions of the Student Socialist have always been good, but the edition is definately a pace setter both in terms of content and layout I would urge everyone to get a copy of the Student Socialist Issue 7

What will happen on thursday?

2009-09-10T23:01:00.000+01:00

VESTAS WORKERS' SOLIDARITY DEMONSTRATION - CARDIFF

SUPPORTED BY
Cardiff RMT Branch
PCS Wales
Campaign against Climate Change
Leanne Wood AM
Climate Camp Cymru
People and Planet
World Development Movement Cardiff
South Wales Anarchists
And others

After occupying their factory and gaining international support from socialists, trade unionists and environmentalists the Vestas workers have called a day of action to ramp up the pressure on the factory bosses and the government. It’s been an inspiring struggle so far…

Vestas is a wind turbine factory on the Isle of Wight, the only wind turbine factory in Britain.
The factory bosses decided to close down the plant in August, making 600 people redundant and loosing a vital source of renewable energy. Their excuse was that it was no longer “viable”. The Government remained silent and let the free market decide the fate of the factory and its workers. On the one hand, they talk about investing in green jobs and renewable energy and protecting ordinary people from the effects of the crisis. On the other hand, they actually do nothing.
Now they've been nationally and internationally embarrassed. When Ed Milliband went to Oxford to lecture people on climate change 600 people turned up after discovering Vestas workers were going to be there. The audience demanded that the two men speak against Miliband's wishes. They demanded nationalisation to save their jobs. After huge popular resistance like this and over a month of tireless campaigning the government wants to be seen to be doing something. It says that it will buy the factory but that Vestas won’t sell. The campaign goes on because it’s quite clear that it’s not up to Vestas whether there’s a wind turbine factory in Britain or whether 600 workers get sacked, it’s in everybody’s interest. And it’s possible that we can beat both the government and Vestas, saving jobs and the possibility of preventing catastrophic global warming.

We’re holding a rally in Cardiff with a worker from the factory coming down to speak alongside Trade Unionists, Socialists and Climate Activists.
But this is not all we should do.
We should encourage people to put banners outside their windows at work, college or home supporting the campaign, do collections and get people to leave their work or college for an hour on the day in protest. The Campaign against Climate Change has produced teacher’s packs so that students can learn about climate change on the day.

We will be selling Green Ribbons in the run up to the day and on the day for £1 and send all the money to the workers who’ve lost their jobs.

The occupiers and the people in the campaign have asked for this kind of solidarity. They have also demanded that the fight should be taken to the labour party conference in Brighton on 27th September.

In the Hub: Lessons of Liverpool

2009-09-10T03:49:00.000+01:00

Cardiff West Socialist Party met to discuss the lessons of Liverpool city Councillor from 1983--87 under the control of Militant. Comrade AP from The Cardiff East branch paid us a welcome visit to lead the discussion on this heroic struggle and his experiences of it as a Cardiff Militant.

It is of course a discussion I Have heard several times before but one that always interests me and inspires me. Various aspects of the struggle were discussed including all of the facilities the council proived to the community the job creation and the implementation of a minimum wage of £6 an hour (£8 an hour today) and how they kept to every manifesto pledge despite attacks fromthe goernment constantly.

We also discussed several negative aspects of the period such as the unfortunate attitude the Socialist Workers Party took and how their approach led them to being chased out of the city when they tried to sell their paper. It was generally agreed that it was a mistake to issue the reduntacy notices.

There was also a very interesting and healthy debate over whether it would have been correct to stand independantly as Militant Labour once we had been barred fro doing so by the politically bankrupt Labour leadership of Kinnock. A very interesting discussion indeed, one which continued informally after the meeting and spilled over into the tactical question of when it was correct to leave the labour party.

All these topics of course vitally in the current situation where various councils are implementing huge cuts, including Cardiff council, in which the lib dems have proposed £21million in cuts. Important again because of the approach we take inside a broad formation which with any luck we will be doing in the near future.

A truly inspiring discussion, one that has inspired me to re-read the book, the only problem is that I have leant it to a comrade who has moved away :( for more information about the struggle i recommend you read the book Liverpool A city that dared to fight

Keeping up the tempo

2009-09-08T21:38:00.001+01:00

Following on from the extremely successful Youth Fight For Jobs participation at the demonstration yesterday 16 YFJ activists descended on the Cardiff City Stadium for a weekday protest at Alistair Darling's visit. The Chancellor was in Cardiff to address business leaders, and YFJ decided that it was only fair if the chancellor would also speak to us!

Several of us were wearing suits, If the chancellor would be speak to business leaders in suits then he should speak to young people in suits! Naturally though Darling refused to except a delegation of young people! Obviously we are not rich enough to warrant his time.

Not put of by this and of course expecting it, we remained to picket the entrance chanting for some time the chants included some of the following

YOUTH FIGHT - FOR JOBS
WHEN THEY SAY CUT BACK - WE SAY FIGHT BACK
DECENT JOBS AND DECENT PAY - THAT IS WHAT WE WANT TODAY
DARLING DARLING STOP THE ROT - GIVE US WHAT THE BANKERS GOT
ALISTER DARLING - HEAR US SAY - UNEMPLOYMENT - NO WAY - LOW PAY - NO WAY
MAKE THE BOSSES - TAKE THE LOSSES
DARLING DARLING DARLING - OUT OUT OUT
DECENT JOBS AND NO TO WAR - THAT IS WHAT WE'RE FIGHTING FOR
WHEN THEY SAY PRIVATISE - WE FIGHT BACK AN ORGANISE
WHEN THEY SAY FEES WILL RISE - WE FIGHT BACK AND ORGANISE
FIGHT THE POWER - CHANGE THE SYSTEM - WHAT WE NEED IS - SOCIALISM

As well as the militant chanting 2 of us were interviewed by the BBC first was Lana

She explained that there is nearly 1 million unemployed young people now, but the governent are not investing in decent jobs for young people. Instead they choose to finance the bonuses for bankers. She went on to explain that many young people are put off university but the fear of debt and the government respond by attacking educationand threatening to raise fees, we need decent quality free education. Lana finished by explaining this government is creating a lost generation and that we would not except it

I was interviewed next I started by explaining that as an unemployed youth I could expect to face a decade on the dole while Darling addresses business leaders and bails out banks he won't even come and speak to us! The government have clearly shown they don't care about ordinary people and expect us to pay for a crisis that the bankers and businesses created and we won't except it. I was asked about the difficult decisions of which public sector cuts to make. I said that there was no difficult decisions to make. We need to invest more and improve public services and pay for it by nationalising the banks under democratic control and for the profits of which there is still millions to go into the public sector. I was also asked about my thoughts on the looming general election. I explained that the Labour Party had been in power since I was 11 years old and I was no longer willing to put up with thier crap, neither was a prepared to put up with the crap fro the tories who i spent my childhood under, nor the liberals who are implementing £21million of cuts in Cardiff currently, that we need a new workers' party that will genuinely represent the interests of ordinary people and not the bankers like we currently have. I finished by saying that saying that Youth Fight for Jobs is here to stay we are here to fight for our future all we ask for is what we rightfully deserve and we will accept nothing less!

Naturally Darlling showed his cowardice by skipping about the back entrance afraid to speak to the lost generation, we considered this to be a victory, a warning shot that we are here and that we will fight.

Unfortunately the BBC showed there true colour today despite filiming the protest and conducting the interview. When they reported on the news that darling had addressed business leaders in Cardiff, they refused to even acknowledge that the protest had taken place! Instead they decided to show an extensive news piece on the changing of a name of a dessert in a Flintshire canteen!

This is not the last that you or the BBC will hear about this!

Uskmouth demo

2009-09-07T11:18:00.001+01:00

Having been at the demonstration only a few hours ago my head is still spinning with all the events that happened. It was by far the best political event I have ever attended and I have been active in politics for the last 7 years! My report here for those reasons may become more of a ramble than a structred report.

The demonstration was called as there is a large amount of workers in the local area who are not being taken on at the site despite their being jobs available, the companies of course simply finding the cheapest labour possible to smash the proud history o the trade union movement in winning the pay and conditions they currently have. Instead choosing to bring in ununionised foreign labour on cheaper rates.

I left Cardiff to head to Uskmouth power station at 4.30 am this morning, upon arriving everyone gathered in a small car park just off the road that leads to the power station. About a hundred people congregated, this included construction workers from other sites, unemployed construction workers largley members of Unite and some from the GMB, young apprentices, unemployed youth, and members of other trade unions in other sectors such as the RMT, PCS and NUM. Of this 13 were members of the Socialist Party (many of whom Youth Fight for Jobs activists) and 2 were members of the Socialist Workers Party.

At around 6am everyone moved out of the car park and onto the road to form a blockade. The road was blocked in order to cause maximum disturbance at the site and to call on workers who have jobs on the site to take wildcat action today. There was a very militant mood at this point so much so that a potential scab was attacked physically by one protester. The protester was the restrained by others and explained that we were not at that stage as the worker had been turned away anyway. The cars and mini-buses began to queue up very quickly and soon it was impossible to see just how far! Members of Unite along with members of the Socialist Party walked along every car explaining to as many workers as possible the issues and requesting on them to either join the blockade or turn away, many workers did either one of those options. This continued for some time and we maintained the blockade until 8am.

The period of 2 hours we spent at the blockade there was a fraternal atmoshpere amongst all the comrades involved and discussions about the issues and the tactics and strategy flowed between many protesters. There was only 1 banner which had questionable content, it read

'Gordon Brown REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE British workers on British Contracts'

subsequently the discussion amongst some protesters did cover this area. A few of the unemployed workers I spoke to were very bitter and down trodden. They have seen their jobs and other dissappear and saw foreign workers as scabs. It was said that I live in a different world to them as I don't work in the industry. I agreed that to a certain extent it was true that I lived in 'a different world' but pointed out that I have been involved in the labour movement since I was 17 as a shop steward for a number of years and now as an unemployed 24 year old I face the prospect of a decade on the dole, so my world and the battles I face are very similiar which is why I was at the protest in the first place. I explained that although the concerns of the workers present was to secure jobs for themslves and their community the only way to do that was to understand why we are in the current situation. That foreign workers are being used because it is cheaper because of a century of trade union struggle in Britain we have won great victories which gives us the pay and conditions we currently have in national agreements. That the only way to secure a future for them and their children was to fight to organise foreign labour into the union.to be on the same pay and conditions as to cut across the race to the bottom. In general the discussions I and various other SP members had with protesters on this subject convinced themm of an internationalist approach. It must be noted however whilst all these discussions were taking place no members of the SWP intervened despite their heavy handed criticisms of the LOR strikes!

Whist at the blockade sky news did a series of interviews with protesters including a live interview with Newport Socialist Party member Mike John, that is really testament to the position of respect we have been able to build up at Uskmouth that the workers in struggle would be willing to put an SP member forward to speak on their behalf as Mike is not directly inolved in the struggle as he is not a construction worker!

We then decided to march from the blockade right up to the entrance of the site. This is where it got really interesting for me because Youth Fight for Jobs were asked (and in some cases workers demanded) to head the march with our banner. This was a truly humbling experience, having been around and involved in the labour movement to understand the significance of YFJ's being asked to lead the march was a very proud moment for me personally but also for YFJ as a whole, something we did not nor ever will take for granted. It is something I will never forget.

But the fact that YFJ was at the front of the march had even wider ramifications than that! There were 2 banners of the demonstration, the YFJs banner calling for an end to cheap labour apprentencies and for a living wage and free education. The other banner being the one mentioned earlier calling for Britiish workers on British contracts. As we began the march the YFJ contingent lined up in the front line along with the other banner, but as we set off we purposely but subtley moved in front of the other banner without question, so that the slogan was only visible to the back of my head. This really is a microcosm of the whole campaign that when a serious alternative is posed to the status quo backward ideas in the labour movement will easily be sidelined.

We marched down to the entrance and then the police allowed slowly all the workers to go in which included both british workers and polish and german workers and maybe more nationalities. Chants of 'solidarity brother were shouted to polish workers in a basic appeal of solidarity mindful of language problems. There were again 1 or 2 questionable comments to foreign workers but this was by and large isolated. To the British workers chants of 'scabs' and many shouts such as 'take the day of, we are skint we have families to' and 'have a good day in work, but you will work on other jobs with us and we know who you are now'. Other workers who had jobs on the site turned away and refused to go in, from what I heard particularly scaffolders, and other workers consulted with Unite stewards whether they should go in or not on safety grounds and it was agreed that certain workers should.

During this time YFJ activists were engaged in discussions with many members of Unite, particularly around the role that we had played of organising a demo in the Rhonndda valleys which one of the Unite convenors had seen. It was agreed that YFJ would formally contact the Unite branch for a request to finance a coach to the November 28th demo and also to help build for it amongst Unite members.

I had to leave at this point to return to Cardiff but it seemed to be winding down. This is definately not meant to be a complete account of events but simply what I saw at the time. It was definately something to be proud to be a part of and to be proud of the role of YFJ in the coming period. Watch this space.

Disunite Left

2009-09-06T13:02:00.000+01:00

Just a few thoughts on the now infamous United Left meeting which only took place yesterday. Although I am not a member of Unite and so wasn't in attendance I feel it is my duty as a marxist to give my thoughts on the matter. From my limited experience involved in the Usdaw broad left (The Usdaw Democrat) I can quite clearly see that there are many complicating factors and difficult tactical decisions to be made. I think its important however to have some positive proposals on the way forward as most of the posts of Socialist Unity are simply about the blame game.

It is quite clear that the outcome of the meeting with McCloskey the current Deputy General Secretary as the official candidate of the Broad Left is not good for genuine lefts in the Union. It is also clear that rules of United Left membership were followed too ridgidly in the light of recent developments which have brought radicalised workers into the United Left. That however is the crux of the problem, why would the broad left want to keep out these new activists?

The answer is of course that despite the name there is very little that is left about the United Left, with many full time officials in attendance, the same FTOs who did nothing to support workers at visteon or the construction industry and who had to be dragged along by Rob Williams in his employment dispute. Unite needs a drastic change in leadership and this will not come from the Unite Left.

The actions of Jerry Hicks and his supporters are questionable, but not neccessarily wrong. There is of course occasions where it is principled to walk out of such meetings as this. As I do not know the exact details of the build up to the meeting and the meeting itself I will not make a judgement. I will say however that Hicks does seem to have been discredited by walking out several times and that if planned to walk out he should have co-ordinated it better with other genuine left forces. It is also clear that If Hicks and his supporters stayed in the meeting and voted for Rob Williams it still would have not changed the outcome.

That of course is the real problem, how can the union offer a left leadership to sections of workers involved in huge struggles to come when the United Left is putting forward the current leadership as the new leadership.

The solution to me has to be a brake away from the United Left of the SP, SWP, CP, AWL, Hicks and his supporters and the new layers of radicialised workers at Visteon and in the construction industry along with other genuine lefts for a fighting right and file left challenge. Not only should this new block contest the electoral positions of the leadership but it should play the role of leading the struggles of the workers where the leadership will not.

As far as I can see there are already obvious candidates which come to mind both Rob Williams and Jerry Hicks. Despite Hicks polling well in the previous election against Simpson it has to be acknowledged that his moment to a certain extent has passed. Rob Williams on the other hand played a superb role of solidairty amongst Visteon workers, in reality playing the role the Union leadership should have done. Also the struggle for Rob's re-instatement was inspirational and unlike Hicks in a similiar situation was able to win his battle. It would therefore send a much more positive message to new radicalised activists if Rob Williams was the candidate.

This will obviously require further discussions amongst genuine lefts in Unite, of which I will not be a part of although I will continue to comment on it but my suggestion is for genuine lefts to brake from the Unite Left and form a fighting broad left with Rob Williams and the GS candidate and Jerry Hicks as the DGS candidate.

I look forward to hearing other comrades thoughts on the matter.

Socialist Students moving forward

2009-09-05T23:01:00.000+01:00

I have been in london today for a Socialist Students national meeting, so I thought I would write a report about the meeting to show the progress that Socialist Students are making currently. I was slightly late to the meeting due to road traffic diversions in central london but I think I only missed a few minutes of the meeting.

Matt Dobson, the National Organiser of Socialist Students led-off the first session on perspectives for the coming academic year. He pointed out that in the first term alone it is projected that there will be £65m in cuts and 6,000 job losses in higher education institutions. There are several universities which are in genuine financial difficulty but that there are also many more which are using the recession as an excuse to cut back and concentrate their resources of the profitable subjects and that there are similar cuts in FE colleges. This process is being sped up by the recession and the class divide in education is growing. It shows that our role is essential, particularly to combat the right-wing careerist student unions. That there is a definate need for a co-ordinated fightback of left SU's and left student groups within the NUS.

He pointed out comments made by the tories that they would like to see businesses coming in to directly run university courses, and as it is highly likely that they will win the general election, this is something we have to be ready to fight.

Matt also commented on the tactics used in the student movement, concentrating on occupations and the role they play, drawing comparisons with recent occupations of workers. He pointed out that it is our role to link up struggles, to reach out to wider sections of youth and not just students. Matt finished by pointing out that the role of education under capitalism will always be to educate a workforce for big business and we have to pose the question of what education should really be for and that links to the case for socialism.

First into the discussion was James from the drama school at Essex University who pointed out the hidden charges of a £300 Learning Resource Fee. He pointed out the need to link up campaigns with other drama schools where they are facing similar attacks. He also highlighted the tactics being used to resist the attacks of with holding the fee payments until their demands are addressed.

Toby from Oxford University commented on the occupation there which occupied an important admin building and involved a few hundred students in fact achieved nothing due to the fact that there was no democratic leadership or direction to the campaign. He asked whether socialist students responded quick enough to the mood for occupations at the time?

Neil from London commented on the big struggles taking place in FE colleges, which are more intense than in many universities, he said this was due to a lack of a students union to act as a block on the movement. He posed the question of the need to raise demands for student strikes on the days of UCU strikes to close the colleges down for the day.

Paul from UWE made the point that there will be attacks that can't be put off before the election but that we must be prepared to face much bigger cuts after the election.

Ben from London spoke more about tactic of occupations ad how it would have been a mistake to call for a blanket policy of building for occupations, that occupations are simply 1 tactic that we can use. That we have to prove ourselves as consistent campaigners and that our perspectives and the material circumstances determine the tactics that we use.

Jon from Kings College talked about the problems of the occupations not linking up with the broader issues either in the student or the workers movement and the problem of the divisive role played by the university of playing Jewish students off against the occupations and that we need a political perspective to be able to combat those attempts in the future

Edd from Cambridge University pointed out that education is under particular threat because it is politically easier for the government to cut than other things. Recently even Cameron has been forced to come out and defend the NHS, and that it would be difficult to cut from the military budget due to all the recent propaganda. Edd also talked about occupations back you into a corner because those activists who would be drumming up support for the campaign are inevitably locked away in a room.

Then followed several contributions including one from myself about the importance of linking up with UCU when they take strike action I commented that in the current climate it wll be easier to cut through student anger at the effect on their education of the strike action because they can clearly see what effect all the cuts wll have on their education.

In summing up the discussion Matt commented that the issue of the Gaza solidarity occupations did dominate the discussion and that he thought we had responded effectively and that we have to have a serious analysis of the situation at individual universities and were correct not to fall into the trap of fetishising the occupations like organisations such as SWSS had done so.
He talked about the need to get stuck in with the real campaigning work amongst students that we should not concentrate on the NUS, but neither should we leave it and we should get out of it what we can. That there is clearly going to be a sizeable 'educated unemployed' which will lead to radicalisation and that the main task was to build Socialist Students and to actively build for the Youth Fight for Jobs demonstration.
The session ended with Matt stressing that Socialist Students will have to be quick to adapt to new poltical developments in the coming period.

The second session was led-off by Sarah Wrack from Sussex University Socialist Students on the running of societies. The key features mentioned were the freshers fairs and how much of an opportunity they are to attract new people. That due to the current climate there will clearly be a layer of freshers actively seeking out a poltical alternative.
We need to organise effectively at the freshers fair with as many comrades as possible, make sure we have all the relevant material, really push the new Student Socialist and the importance of having a freshers meeting on either 'What is Socialism?' or 'Which way forward for the economy?' and finally the importance of locating key potential activists amongst the students who join the society.

Rob from Southampton highlighted the importance of having a mixture of meetings, activties and social events to fully engage new members and the importance of giving them a role so they are a part of the activities of Socialist Students.

I spoke next and pointed out that in South Wales we were starting of in a very strong position particularly in Cardiff University and the University of Glamorgan and that we intend on having stalls outside as well as in the freshers fairs.

Toby from Oxford pointed out the importance of building for the YFJ demo and that we should be selling coach tickets at the freshers fairs.

Beth from Sheffield highlighted that the best campaigns recently have been around troops out of Iraq/Afganistan and anti-bnp. That we shouldn't just turn up at the freshers fair but that we should be around as much as possible in the first week to show we are serious campaigners.

Paul from UWE pointed out the importance of messages of solidarity from one society to another when we are involved in particular campaigns to reflect that we are a national organisation.
He pointed out the extreme importance of YFJ being built in FE colleges to show us the potential that we really have.

Ben from London said that on a positive point capitalism is in crisis and that points socialism clearly on the agenda, that people will be more willing to get involved and stressed the importance of marking out key people at freshers fairs.

Neil also from London pointed out the much more informal nature of Socialist Students groups in FE collegs and how we can organise them more effectively.

I commented on the advantges of debates with other societies such as in Cardiff University where we may have a debate with the young greens of at Glaorgan where we have challenged the liberal youth.

In summing up Sarah highlighted the steps forward that we have made, how we are braking ground in new universities and a clearly prepared and in a strong position to grow in the coming term.

The final session was a disucssion led-off by Rob Sutton, Southampton and Matt Dobson, National Organiser on the Organisationl strutures. Everyone agreed that due to the huge growth in Socialist Students in recent years that we need to review this, during the discussion many ideas came forward. It quickly became apparent that with the time available we would not come to a conclusion so it was agreed we would review the organisational structures in more depth at a meeting in january.

Overall the meeting was very positive, both on what we have already done and the potential that we currently have, there was a real feeling that Socialist Students was moving forward.

How I became a Revolutionary

2009-09-04T16:43:00.000+01:00

Following on from my last post Political First! and the comments I received both on and off the blog, I thought it would be good to write about my political awakening and where it has taken me.

As I have previously mentioned it was in 1999 that I first started thinking about the world around me. It was around the time of the NATO bombing of Serbia. I was only 13 at the time but I Will try and recount my thoughts at the time as opposed to what they would now be. The only source of information I had available at the time was the BBC and ITV news coverage.

I remember thinking that if the majority of the Kosovan people wanted a seperate country then there is nothing that could morally stand in the way of that, I saw the Kosova Liberation Army as heroes of the people and silently cheered them on as I watched the news coverage. I remember my opposition to the bombing of Serbia however, remember the news showing ordinary Serbians being bombed and could quite clearly see that it was the fault of the Serbian government and not the Serbian people, In any case I couldn't understand why the bombing of Sarajevo had to happen at all. As far as I was concerned all that needed to happen was for Serbian forces to be driven out of Kosovan land and for the borders to be maintained to establish a Kosovan state. I can't really remember much more about this, but I do remember it made me think about my own position as a welsh boy living and growing up in Wales and my place in the United Kingdom. I remember for awhile after this going on a mild welsh nationalist slant but this soon faded away.

The next events in my political development were much more sporadic and unconnected, so much so that I can't remember much and what I can I cannot remember the order in which it happened. I will endeavour to explain the best I can. Neither of my parents were political in any way so I can say quite confidently I didn't pick up much from them. I remember watching a few British films which gave me a class conscience of sorts, basic things like knowing to never cross a picket line. I soon began to identify with the word 'Socialist' as something that could describe me. I remember trying to talk to my mother about the news stories in a vaguely political way in a desperate grab for more information. Looking back now I can see that although she was taking pride in the fact that I was taking an interest in the world around me, it was a much bigger interest than hers so consequently these conversations were limiting. When it came time to pick my GCSE options I picked both History and Sociology because I wanted to understand the past, present and the future, this was again was limiting but did advance my understanding slightly. I remember at the age of 15 or 16 clearly identifying myself as a socialist, but also thinking that the Liberal Democrats were the way forward. I had no knowledge of the existence of any parties outside the main 4. I had learnt by this point the tories were evil, my nationalist slant was way gone so that ruled out Plaid Cymru and I had never even considered the Labour Party as an option, they had been in power since I was 11, it was the only government I had ever known and there didn't see to be anything socialist about it to me.

On September the 9th 2001 I began college. A day that went down in history. Unfortunately not because I started college but because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Although this did signal a huge turn in my political development because of the people I met. It was a curious decision on my part all of my friends bar 1 stayed on in School at the 6th form. It was in the end only myself and 1 friend Lyndon who left to study our A-levels in college. Meeting a lot of new people, particularly on the back on the biggest terrorist attack in history really did have a huge impact on me as discussions were dominated by it. I remember going for a spliff with a new friend I had met once previously before we began college. I remember agreeing that America had got the bloody nose that it deserved, but that it was innocent people who were killed once again rather than the US government that really deserved it. I remember immediately talking about how this would lead to a US invasion of somewhere and of course I was right. I was completely against the invasion of Afganistan but I did not do anything political at the time.

My second year in college was much more fruitful, at this time I considered myself to be a marxist due to what I had learnt in my A-level sociology class, but in the true academic sense I knew very little about what marxism actually was. I did agree completely with what I heard. I Particularly remember an analogy of housing used to describe the capitalist system, something I remember so clearly having lived my whole life in a council house. Towards the end of the first term my friend Lyndon announced on the walk from the train station to college that he had joined International Socialist Resistance. We joked about the name and how it sounded a bit like they were trying to resist socialism. I did express my interest though, particularly as we seemed to agree on all political matters we talked about.

In the build up to the invasion of Iraq I felt I needed to do something, by this time my friend Lyndon had joined the Socialist Party and I found out that another friend in college Matt was already a member as was my sociology lecturer. They began to organise a Stop the War group in the college and I got involved with the group. I quickly began to identify with the SP despite not being a member at that stage.

Eventually I asked Matt if I could join the SP to which he said yes. On February 15th 2003 on the way to the demo in London Matt gave me a join card to fill out. I spent the whole day in London giving out leaflets and it felt so good to finally be doing something! Soon after the invasion came my first disagreement with the SP, I remember saying how I thought the invasion was wrong that now it had happened then the United Nations should move in on peacekeeping grounds. Although everyone disagreed with me I was willing to stick it out. My second disagreement that I can remember was over the issue of Communism. I remember stating how I thought communism would never work. I was asked why in such a way that made me realise that all the other members thought that it would work and that was what they were aiming for.

It was at this point with those disagreements that I thought about leaving, at this stage I was very much a reformist and did not really want to be part of a revolutionary organisation. At the same time however I felt I had to be a part of something. I used the college computers to try and find a reformist organisation to join but I could not find anything. I remember requesting more information from the Socialist Labour Party as their website seemed to suggest a reformist programme but I never got a reply.

I decided to stay in the SP as I wanted to be a part of something, I wanted to continue learning about socialism and I wanted to be involved in all the campaigns the SP were. I had it in my mind that I would only stay until I found a reformist group to join. Over time though as I learnt more from reading and discussing such areas as the marxist view of the state, state and revolution, and examples of a possible coup in Britain, the Allende government, and the removal of the left-wing government in Australia I became convinced of the need of revolution. I was still not convinced that communism would work but I was willing to try, but soon over time I was convinced.

My political evolution continued rapidly learning a lot from the branch meetings, individual discussions with different comrades (particularly Dave Reid) and reading with writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin & Trotsky as well as that of the CWI I became a committed trotskyist and remain so to this day. I began to come into contact with more and more socialist organisations at national events so I began to read up on many of them. I understood that the size of the organisation was not the most important it is the ideas and how you organise which is most important. The day I discovered broadleft.org was a bit of an eye opener but throughout the years I have remained committed to the ideas of the CWI.

My political development didn't stop there however. Observing how much of the left acts in simply following their particular party line, and in most cases simply the first party they came across. The simple explanation was obviously that they had been taught solely in the ideas of their own organisations. This led me to question my own political development which was largely through the Socialist Party. This re-assessment did lead me to change my views slightly but largely remained the same. Rooted largely with an orthodox trotskyist outlook with a libertarian tinge to it.

I remain a committed and active member of the SP/CWI as I see it as the best organisation to held with the emancipation of the working class.

Workers of the World UNITE, you have nothing to loose but your chains.

Political First!

2009-09-03T20:52:00.000+01:00

I stole this idea from another comrades blog Leftwing Criminologist and I thought it would be the perfect place to start my blog and and easy way to explain my political background.

First political experience: well this answer will be split into three parts: my first political experience, my first political experience I understood and my first active political experience.

My first political experience would have been the Kosovo war or more accurately the NATO bombing of serbia in 1999. I was 13 at the time and was just begining to think about the world around me but the only source of information I had available to me were the tv news reports. All I can really remember thinking was that 'something wasn't quite right with what the news was saying'
The first political experience which I understood was 9/11 and the subsequent invasion of Afganistan. 9/11 happened on the first day I started college, so it was definately an interesting topic of discussion for getting to know people. I remember getting stoned with a friend and talking about how the US had got the bloody nose it deserved but it was directed at the wrong people, that it was the ruling elite and US government that needed to be targeted not civilians. Instantly we both understood that this would lead to US imperialism stamping over the middle east.
I first got active in politics in the build up to the invasion of Iraq, seeing through all the lies and deceptions of the government propaganda I finally had to do something. A few friends and lecturers were involved in a Stop the War group in the college so I got involved with that, 2 of my friends involved and 1 of my lecturers were Socialist Party members so I discussed with them alot about the issues and quickly began to identify myself with the party.

First Vote: My first vote was in 2004 the first election I was old enough to vote in. For the European Parliament I voted for Respect as the only left challenge. For the council elections I had 3 votes but I chose to use only 1 which was for Chris Franks, a Plaid Cymru candidate who I knew to be a relatively good reformist who had helped my parents obtain medical equipment that I desperately needed as a child. I chose not to vote for the other PC candidates or use those votes for any of the other candidates. Although that was the first election I voted in at the 2003 General Elecetion I was out on the streets and door-to-door canvassing for Dave Bartlett, Socialist Party candidate. Although I had already joined the SP by that point it was that election campaign that convinced me to stay.

First Demo: My first demo was the February 15th 2003 STWC demo, the biggest demo in British history. So every demo I have been on since has always been considerably smaller which really made it easy to make the correct connection between the declining anti-war movement and the tactics and strategy used by the leadership of the STWC. Also worthy of a mention in this answer would be the Day X protests as it was the first deonstration I played a part in organising. Along with 2 other SP members in college were organised a walkout of around 30 students, we marched into the town centre and met up with a 300 strong demo from the university.

Last Vote: My last vote was for Socialist Labour Party in the 2005 general election, I went to the polling station with the intention of spoiling the ballot by writing with a marker pen something all the lines 'call this demoncracy all these candidates support capitalism!' but I found to my suprise that the SLP were standing so I voted for them. I haven't voted in any elections since because either there were no candidates worth voting for or because I have been moving around alot so I haven't been registered. For anyone who is wondering though If i was registered in 2009 I would have voted for NO2EU in the European elections.

Last political activity: My last political activity in the real world, ie not on the internet, was last saturday in the Canton area of Cardiff for a Socialist Party campaign stall on Troops out of Afganistan.

So Its a bit weird that my first political though that I understood nearly 9 years ago was also the very same thing of which my last political activity was about!

EVERYONES FAVOURITE COMRADE

2009-09-02T23:49:00.000+01:00

So I have finally got around to setting up a blog, I've done this for several reasons which include, to more orientate and structure my rants, to encourage my to write and read regularly as I get distracted easily and generally to get my specific views out there!

What topics will this blog cover, well its a political blog but as capitalist society effects every aspect of culture and human interaction in someway that means that this blog will be open to covering any subject matter.

The format it will take will be very varied from reviews of books, articles, docuentaries, films, etc to reports of demonstrations and meetings. Right through to random thoughts of the world around me.

I would encourage responses to my blog posts just to know I'm not speaking to myself but also to debate out issues.

And finally I have no idea how frequent the blog posts will be I reserve the right to be sporadic.

Comradely