RCT Socialist Party launches a blog

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.

Total Politics Blog Awards - Vote Me!

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.

Radical Wales Launch

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

Cardiff Communities Against Racism

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

For Jobs and Services Not Racism

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

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.

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

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.