TUC'S 'MARCH FOR THE ALTERNATIVE'

HALF A MILLION MARCH
Half a million people took to the streets of the capital on Saturday 26th March and the red flag flew beneath Big Ben.
Although pleasing, a far better sight would have been to see the hammer and sickle flying above Big Ben!


Now the question must be "So, what's next?" Many of those attending the demonstration will now expect the TUC to lead further actions against the cuts but, if history is anything to go by, they are likely to be disappointed.


In Furness, the work of the Furness Against the Cuts steering group has begun and further attempts are being made to encourage people, either as individuals or as representatives of unions, community groups or voluntary organisations to join the campaign.  Indeed, any person or organisation that is without prejudice towards age, gender, sexual orientation, race, colour or religion and sharing the aim to resist government-imposed cuts will be made welcome.


In a previous posting it was noted leaders and members of local unions, community groups and voluntary organisations (with the exception of Barrow & Furness Pensioners' Association) had never in the past twelve months shown the slightest interest in mounting a campaign against the cuts.  However, once the local newspaper, the North West Evening Mail, began to feature the national demonstration the various 'leaders' crept out of the woodwork to mouth off and get their mugshots published.


Bob Pointer, 'secretary' of the defunct Barrow TUC wrote a letter describing how important it was for ordinary people to resist the cuts blah, blah, blah.  Alec Proffitt, Unison Barrow Branch official, Pauline Charnley (Four Groves Community Association), Anne Carruthers (Barrow Island Community 'Activist') and Margaret Burrows (Furness Disability Association) each stuck their oars in for a nice piece of personal publicity. The only person missing was Steven Forbes of the GMB who has been very quiet of late - well, quieter than usual: silent.


This blog has been described (by some) as being 'snarky' which I believe is street-speak for 'sneering and sarcastic'.  Surely, this is not the way a communist ought to behave if the aim is to encourage people to unite against their oppressors.  To a certain extent, they have a point. It would be a joy to report how local organisations - unions in particular - were leading the anti-cuts campaign with all-inclusive rallies and demonstrations in the town centre once a month and how they'd organised coaches to take local people to the 26th March TUC event but none of this happened.  Those who have access to campaign resources have sat on their hands and, until very recently, kept their mouths tightly shut.  So what would be the point in pretending in this blog that they are genuinely concerned about the people of this area and taking action against the cuts when they have done precisely nothing?  Don't they deserve criticism?


But Unison did organise a coach for the London demo!  True, this union which had done nothing all year did in fact organise a coach - for Unison members only.  So a non-campaigning union took non-campaigning members to a national campaign.  Bravo!  And a jolly time was had by all, no doubt.  It's reminiscent of a union day trip to Blackpool but without the buckets and spades. 


As shown above, trade union 'tribalism' is alive and well here in Furness.  The instruction was that the anti-cuts campaign should be union-led.  But what do people do if the unions are incapable of providing that leadership?  If I had waited for my union (NUT) to instigate anything at all in the last thirty years I'd be fossilised by now.  The teaching assistants who  recently held their rally and petition in the town centre were Unison members who had been promised pamphlets, posters, banners and flags - but received none of these things.  One of the organisers bitterly remarked that Unison would see a significant dip in union subscriptions next year!


So, the next few months might be interesting.....or not.  Whatever the situation, this blog will continue to report the situation as it really is and not as some would pretend it to be.  And useless hoosegow-head (nothing gets in and nothing comes out) hypocrites deserving of criticism will indeed receive it.    

THE TEACHING ASSISTANTS' CAMPAIGN

TOWN CENTRE PETITION
The Teachers' Assistants certainly got their act together and held a very successful campaign and petition in Barrow's main shopping area.


The day began wet, draughty and chilly (nothing new in these parts) but at noon the clouds parted, the rain stopped, and the place was bathed in warm sunshine - just in time for the photo-shoot appearance of our local Labour Member of Parliament, John Woodcock.


I had met, some weeks previously, one of his assistants at the 'retirement do' of a mutual acquaintance and I remarked that I had imagined a conversation between our new MP and his predecessor, John Hutton - oops, sorry Sire, I mean Lord Hutton of Furness.  Anyway, the conversation went something like this:  "Well, Johnnie m'lad, you've landed on your feet.  And if you do like wot I did i.e. keep your nose clean, get lots of photos of you opening charity events and wandering around BAE in a yellow hardhat, say you're a socialist - but watch out for the commie git on the front row - kiss plenty of babies and keep away from Public Parks, then you'll end up just as rich as me and get to feel the irmine collar on your neck."
(The Public Park reference relates to an occasion when, soon after his election, our MP -JW- ventured into a park on Walney Island and was subjected to intimidating abusive language and behaviour by a bunch of young hooligan proletarian Island Aboriginals - a fitting introduction to the area, I thought at the time)  


The assistant was not amused nay, not one jot I kid you not. Now consider for a moment the scene of me standing next to that same assistant this fine sunny lunchtime and observing...  yes, you've guessed....John Woodcock with someone's child in his arms! The assistant, by the way, is the very same person to whom I gave a lift one evening (see Blog Archive  2010, September, 120 Years the Internationale Anthem - for a Socialist World! There Aren't Many Of You About, Are There? but only if you're interested!)


The TA cause is a just one.  Cumbria County Council has finally decided to introduce Single Status which lumps Teaching Assistants together with Dinner Ladies, Cleaners, Mid-Day Supervisors and Drivers yet, as campaigners respectfully point out, none of the latter would ever be called upon to obtain professional qualifications and to cover groups of children or supervise whole classes in the absence of a teacher. Some TAs stand to lose up to £3000 a year as a result of adjustment. These dedicated workers are merely asking for a wage that reflects their professional role in the education system and one which adequately recognises the value of their hard work. Sadly, the Steering Group of the Campaign Against the Cuts has not yet succeeded in obtaining recruits to support such local demonstrations.


MEANWHILE, the University of Lancaster has become the latest institution to charge students the maximum £9,000 in fees.  It seeks to justify this hike, to be introduced next year, by claiming the fee would reflect its teaching and research standing...................
Shopmobility in Kendal faces closure leaving hundreds of disbled people prisoners in their own homes.............
As price of metal increases so too does theft.  A floodwater pumping station in Barrow was disabled when copper wiring was stolen and there is a report of a break in at a scrap metal dealer in Kendal so wait for railway points and signalling systems to be rendered useless as scallies rip out miles of cabling and churches spring leaks as lead is repeatedly stripped from their roofs....
But things should get easier for our light-fingered acquisitive bretheren because Cumbria Constabulary must shed 80 officers and make plans about how an £18.7 million budget deficit is to be handled.  


   

FIGHTBACK BEGINS IN FURNESS?

AT LAST, A SPARK TOUCHES TINDER
The proposal for Barrow & Furness Pensioners' Association to call a meeting to which organisations and individuals would be invited to discuss what they wished to do about government cuts to public services was finally approved by a sizeable majority of members.


The original idea was to have a meeting in the last week of February but the secretary did nothing about booking a date and venue for three weeks.  Without a date and venue it was impossible to send out invitations to organisations, groups and individuals.  It turned out that the secretary, together with the chairman and deputy chairman, did not agree to holding a public meeting so decided to do nothing to make it happen.  The treasurer found a venue and established a date. Threatened with an unholy row about defying the decision of the members, the secretary reluctantly also began promoting the public meeting.  What a pathetic performance!


By Barrow standards, attendance at the meeting was 'good' i.e. twenty persons were present.  Five members of the Pensioners' Association attended and were joined by representatives of Kendal Against the Cuts, Greater Manchester Trades Union Council, the North East Shop Stewards' Network, and the Teachers' Assistants Pay Campaign.  A local Labour councillor gave his support and there were persons from disability and mental health groups.


The following were contacted but did not reply:
Barrow Trades Union Council, Ulverston Trades Union Council, Four Groves Community Association,  Barrow Island Community Association, MIND in Furness, Cumbria Disability Association, and the unions - Unison, GMB, Unite, Furness NUT, PCS, CWU, UCATT, and NAPO.


At the close of the meeting six persons signed up to found a Steering Group to establish a name and programme for a campaign against the cuts and a regular meeting place for discussion and planning.


Bearing in mind the TUC national anti-cuts march and rally was to be held in London on the 26th March it was most extraordinary that unions gave no input to the Barrow Public Meeting to enlist supporters for the rally and book coaches to allow Furness people to attend the event in the capital. 

INTRODUCTION TO CUTS AWARENESS IN FURNESS

DISMAL PUBLIC RESPONSE TO CUTS 
HERE IN FURNESS
It is said a picture is as good as a thousand words so maybe I ought to just leave these in place and sign out.....


But, if I did that, you wouldn't know what they were about and that would be unsatisfactory.


                                                                                 


 The top picture is of the meeting by Cumbria        
Local Police Authority (public police service 'watchdog') held to inform the public about measures to be taken to cushion the service against the imposed government cuts in funding provision.

Occupying the tables at the front are two members of the LPA and two senior police officers.  Two members of the local police force are sitting on the front row.  The next row shows an Ulverston town councillor being interviewed by a member of the local press, and the row behind them contains the secretary of Ulverston Trades Union Council and his wife.  Two other attendees are missing from the photograph: the local press photographer who completed his task and departed, and the person taking the picture - me! 


The majority opinion at this meeting was that measures to reduce waste and improve efficiency were to be welcomedbut some did not agree with the 'More can be done with less' government propaganda slogan.


The bottom picture shows attendance at the Cumbria County Council 'Public Consultation' meeting held at the same venue (Forum 28, Barrow) as the PLA meeting but in a different studio theatre.  It's hardly a case of 'standing room only', is it?!


Generally, the gathering consisted of persons having a special interest they wished to see preserved - even if this meant others got dumped on.  Interest was maintained by the application of a colourful Powerpoint presentation, a roving microphone and provision of an individual electronic voting device for each member of the audience.


Members of the public were allowed to promote their own particular area of interest but not a single person asked the most obvious question - "Why are we discussing these austerity measures when it was not us who caused the problem?" Which could have quickly been followed by the demand - "Let those responsible for creating this mess pay to clear it up!" 


Meanwhile, the secretary of Barrow and Furness Pensioners' Association ought to have secured a venue for an anti-cuts public meeting and be busy contacting various potential speakers for the event......

INNOCENT YOUTHFUL ENTHUSIASM AND BELIEF IN HONESTY

PARKVIEW SCHOOL PUPILS TAKE DIRECT ACTION

DETERMINED CAMPAIGN
FAILS TO HALT SCHOOLS
BEING HANDED OVER TO PRIVATE BUSINESS IN
BARROW.
Despite enormous pressure placed upon pupils of Parkview school, the majority defied their teachers and walked out onto the playing fields to express their opposition to the formation of an academy that would absorb their school and two other schools in the town


Concerned parents formed a committee to organise a campaign to oppose the proposed amalgamation of three local secondary schools to form an academy.  It was a carefully organised campaign and public meetings were well attended.  


Several local people were elected to the local borough council on an 'anti-academy' ticket and there was much coverage in the local press.  


The campaigners, of course, could not compete with the financial and material resources of those in favour of the academy - especially when the government of the day (New Labour) had promised to hand over 40 million pounds for the scheme if it was accepted....but NOTHING to upgrade the existing schools if the academy offer was refused. 


Borough and county councillors of all political hue drooled at the mouth and local school governors dribbled wetly at such a prospect for here was prime building-site land being offered up for the taking.  Not only that, but think of the highly lucrative contracts for supplying and maintaining the equipment of the new school......whilst the dumb local tax payers paid to run it without having any say in the matter!


And what of the teachers' unions?  Well, they were opposed to the formation of an academy and would have supported any teachers taking 'industrial action' against the scheme - but no Barrow teachers chose to do so.  Their pupils showed them the way but they did not follow.


The campaign 'fizzled out'  and Furness Academy came in to being because local people could not, or would not, continue to support the campaign opposing it.  The adults of Barrow sold out the future democratic education of their children because doing nothing was easier than resisting the plans of the profiteers.  


If nothing else, these blogs depict the genuine level of moral integrity of the local - adult - population and this probably explains why locals will willingly support building the new submersible launch platforms for American weapons of mass destruction, accept the transportation of nuclear material through their town and, in the region, condone the burial of highly radio-active nuclear waste in the countryside. Wage slaves take what they are given and are grateful for what they receive.  

PUPILS CAMPAIGN AGAINST ACADEMY IMPOSITION

NORTHERN TUC ANTICUTS AT BASSENTHWAITE

AND AUGUST HAD PROMISED SO MUCH!
Northern Region Trades Union Congress invited trade unionists and members of community organisations to attend a meeting at the Crown Hotel, Bassenthwaite last August.  Plans to resist  government- proposed cuts to Public Services would begin by dividing the county into three areas: North, Central and South.


Cumbria South, incorporating Barrow, Ulverston and Kendal, would have as its co-ordinator Deborah Hamilton, fulltime Unison officer for Cumbria.  No representatives of the shipbuilding trade unions or of Barrow Trades Union Council attended.  


Shamefully, apart from a single, very wet,  one-hour leaflet distribution in Barrow (see posting 1st Oct "Unions and Pensioners Unite Against Cuts") there has been no co-ordination in any part of the South since then.  


In November, a group of concerned people in the Kendal area decided they could no longer tolerate the absence of any trade union initiative and held a meeting of their own at the Shakespeare Centre on the evening of Wednesday 17th. (A similar meeting was held at Lancaster the following evening)  Both meetings were well-attended and Steering Committees were established.


AntiCuts campaigns are now being conducted in Carlisle, Workington, Kendal and Lancaster but here, in Furness, there is no activity because not a single organisation or group of people is prepared to call a meeting to plan action against the cuts.  There had been some expectation that Barrow & Furness Pensioners' Association, following months of campaigning on behalf of the People's Charter, might do so but this proved to be one step too far; the proposal was met with resigned defeatism and dismissed as 'impractical for Barrow' by its secretary.


Thus, in Furness, the way is now clear for any opportunist group (which has never expressed any interest or made any effort in the past eight months) to seize the moment and pour forth shouting against the cuts as if this is something recently announced. 


Two such groups spring to mind:  the egotistical councillor Hamezeian could declare himself 'The People's Hero' and with the assistance of the 'little helpers' of his local Socialist People's Party (he's got more 'little helpers' than Santa) and a very supportive spread in the local (capitalist) press, mount a self-promotional campaign dressed up as concern for the local community.  And guess who would be Chairman of any subsequent action committee........


Or the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) might call a public meeting.  The author of this blog is not anti-SWP.  The local SWP group actively campaigns on behalf of Unite Against Fascism (UAF).  Indeed, many of the aims of that organisation are shared here - it's just SWP strategies that can be a bit of a problem.


The SWP has called upon councillors to ignore the government and allow a budget deficit to be run up.  All very good revolutionary stuff, you might think.  Until you realise that  councillors would be held personally liable for payment of the debt and that failure to cough up would result in a term of imprisonment.  And the SWP response?  Then councillors should be prepared to go to prison!


Morecambe Bay & Lancaster Communist Party Of Britain (CPB) does not call for any councillors to be political martyrs but suggests that if councillors really have no desire to be held responsible for implementing savage cuts on their community then they should resign.
This would have two interesting outcomes: it would free them from unpopularity or risk of imprisonment and it would create a local political crisis, placing it straight into the lap of the government. And if the majority of councillors throughout the land did that same thing then it would become a national political crisis and, probably, the end of this slimey coalition gang now occupying the Houses of Parliament. They would be 'unable to govern in the same old way' and the Boss Class would be presented with a genuine crisis of democracy.  (See the posting  'What is a revolutionary situation?')


Perhaps the difference in strategy between the SWP and the CPB is now understood.

BARROW STUDENT AT LONDON 'RIOT'

UNIONS DITHER AS STUDENTS LEAD BY EXAMPLE


At its 2010 conference, the British Trade Union Congress agreed to hold a national demonstration against 'the cuts' in...............................March 2011.  It's fortunate they're not in charge of the fire or ambulance services! 


But, in fact, we do have an emergency situation and just another peaceful, civilised, 'carnival atmosphere' march in the capital (which the boss class can ignore and about which the news media may provide the odd paragraph/two minute broadcast) will be of little consequence for such demonstrations are as effective as having a picnic on the Thames Embankment.


Clearly, there is now a realisation that just holding parades and waving banners is ineffective and that something further is required if the authorities are to be made to sit up and take notice and that even modest damage to property is guaranteed to achieve this - especially if there are people around with devices to record the event and pass on 'dramatic' footage to the press and TV when it can then be described as 'mindless violence', 'thuggish vandalism', etc.  I can imagine that smashing a few windows is a good way of releasing some pent up frustration. At least no cars were overturned or buses hijacked and set on fire: well, not this time.


Barrovian, Ben Martin, a student studying for a degree in multimedia journalism at Bournemouth University attended the National Union of Students demonstration alongside about 300 other students from his university and was able to provide a first hand report.  He said some people were being deliberately antagonistic and getting the crowd worked up.  He went on to say that some people said the violence undid the good work (of the demo) but added that every aspect of the cuts is happening right now to him and his fellow students and they regard this as a violence made against them.  He declared that as far as he was concerned, it was a case of responding to violence with violence. He believed the NUS would be unlikely to call another mass demonstration and that further campaigns would be conducted at a 'local' university campus level. Ben's account was reported in full in an article published in the November 13th edition of the North West Evening Mail.


Public meetings against the cuts are being held on Wednesday 17th November at the Shakespeare Centre, Kendal, at 7pm and on Thursday 18th November at Lancaster Town Hall, at 7.30pm.


Meanwhile, in Furness..........................................................