GLATUC AGM CONCENTRATES ON FIGHT AGAINST RACISM & FASCISM

The GLATUC AGM had two speakers on the battle against the racists and fascists who seek to eploit the current crisis. Laurie Heseldone the SERTUC Policy Officer gave the central talk covering the action plan developed by SERTUC and the immediate question in relation to the European elections in June.

A detailed discussion followed with points from the experience of Trade Union Councils in conducting local activity. These covered the needs to focus activity on critical areas; the problems of responding to the question who do we vote for ?given local conditions; the need to get the campaigning organisations like UAF and Searchlight to more closely liaise with TUs and local campaigners; the need for positive messages about political demands meeting peoples' interests.

There was a later presentation by the London Anti-Racist Alliance about some specific campaign tactics and materials.

The AGM, held at Marchmont Community Centrem near Euston, saw the return of the existing Officers and a commitment to continuing the programme of reviving trade union councils where required and supporting local fights by workers and communities.

  KELSO COCHRANE MEMORIAL PROJECT

C/O 42, ST LAWRENCE TERRACE LONDON W10 5ST

020 8 964 9531   Eddie Adams  samstjohn2003@yahoo.co.uk

Financial appeal

Dear Friend,

A number of organisations have come together to mark the 50^th anniversary of Kelso Cochrane's tragic death. Kelso a carpenter from Antigua, was on his way to his girlfriend's house. He had been to hospital for a hand injury sustained at work. At the corner of Golborne Road and Southam Street he was attacked by a number of white youths and stabbed. No one was ever charged with his murder.

Kelso's funeral was attended by hundreds of people. It was an important turning point in that it brought together the black and white communities in opposition to racialism and the threatened growth of fascism. Sir Oswald Mosley was standing for parliament for North Kensington in the 1959 general election

This 50^th anniversary   is occurring at a very vulnerable time for our country. The economic crisis is threatening the welfare of working people and unemployment is over 2million. It is a time of change and progressive people must come together to resist racialism and to defend and improve peoples living conditions.

We are asking organisations and individuals to give generously to this appeal so that we can give this anniversary the importance it deserves. We're planning a graveside tribute at Kensal Green Cemetery 12 noon on Saturday 16 May 09 followed by a march. We need   to produce posters, leaflets, adverts and show films etc, Any donations please make payable to Unite 1/684 branch to the above  address

This memorial appeal is supported by Hammersmith & Fulham Trades Council (including Kensington branches) Camden Trades Council Cities of London & Westminster Trades Council History Talk, Alliance for Green Socialism, Ealing Trades Council Unite Acts branch 1/684 Unite1/785 Advice & Legal Workers branch Black & Asian Studies Assoc.   

SUDDEN DEATH OF CROYDON TUC PRESIDENT

Malcolm Campbell the President of Croydon TUC  where he was a very committed Unison branch secretary for many years and leading activist in the union.

Malcolm was a key player in restarting the local annual Mayday March & Rally and was looking forward to heading this years parade, to which he had put in so much time. 

Malcolm also sat on the Ruskin House Management Committee and worked consistently to safeguard the future of Ruskin House as a centre for the trade union and labour movement. He also was instrumental in setting up the Save our Schools Campaign (SOS) and chairing many of its meetings.  

He was a very sound trade unionist, steeped in the traditions of the labour movement and the struggle for socialism. Malcolm was a staunch anti fascist and anti racist and stood for total opposition to the BNP and other similar bodies. 

Malcolm held leading positions within the rank and file movement and on a voluntary basis. Such commitment will be held in high esteem amongst all activists that knew him and worked with him over many years. 

To the organisation committee of the celebration of the Limerick Soviet, and Limerick Council of Trade Unions

As this world contemplates the recession caused by the failure of capitalism to live up to the myth it has created we look to history for lessons.

We as a working class should not tolerate the bosses determining who should work, where we should work, when we should work and at what rate.

We as free people should determine our future and not tolerate the imposition by the state, the church, or any group of owners any restrictions on our free movement to work and trade.

The Limerick Soviet reminds us that solidarity of class and community can defeat our oppressors, and greater solidarity will defeat a greater enemy of working people.

Best wishes for your celebration in 2009

Mick Houghton

Secretary

Greater London Association of Trade Union Councils

 

Car plant workers occupy factory

Workers spent the night at the Belfast factory Workers at the UK arm of US car parts firm Visteon have occupied a factory in Enfield, north London, the Unite union says. They are also protesting at a plant in Essex, while 80 workers are still taking part in a sit-in at a factory in Belfast which began on Tuesday. The workers are angry about more than 500 job losses and what they see as derisory redundancy packages. The company went into administration on Tuesday. Visteon, a US-based firm which was spun-off from Ford, has had a presence in the UK since 2000 through Visteon UK Ltd. The subsidiary has racked up losses of £669m since then. Visteon stopped funding the operation and appointed KPMG as administrators, who immediately shut down production at the three factories and announced 565 redundancies. According to KPMG, production has been diverted to other Visteon factories outside the UK. The workers are protesting at what they see as rough treatment. "They are just looking for a fair deal," said Pauline Doyle at Unite. Depending on length of service, they are only entitled to statutory redundancy. This is capped at £350 a week, and runs for a maximum of 30 weeks, said KPMG. But only workers who have been employed by Visteon for two years or more will qualify for redundancy. The protestors claim the company's former owner and main customer, Ford, had promised much more generous redundancy contracts which they now want to see honoured. There are also question marks over the workers' pensions. They might eventually be placed into the government's Pension Protection Fund. However, as yet the fund has "not even been informed officially of any insolvency", a PPF spokesman said. "We're not involved at all at the moment," he said. Visteon also owns another subsidiary - Visteon Engineering Services (VES) - in the UK. A spokesperson for Visteon said VES and its 400 employees were completely unaffected by the closure of the three factories. Visteon in the US is itself struggling to survive. It has been hit hard by a drop in orders as carmakers cut back production during the economic downturn.

 Croydon Save Our Schools Campaign (Croydon SOS)

 Press Notice 2 December 2008

 CROYDON COUNCIL REFUSES TO BALLOT PARENTS ON THEIR PLANS TO 'ACADEMIZE' CROYDON EDUCATION

 Despite pressure put on schools not to publicise the meeting, there was a lively and large demonstration outside the Council Chambers last night called by Croydon SOS, following which the public gallery was packed to hear the debate on the latest school reorganisation. See photo attached.

 Facing down the overwhelmingly hostile public gallery and questions from Labour councillors, the ruling Conservative group rejected calls for a public vote on the plans for an academy to replace Ashburton Community School, Ashburton Infant School and Ashburton Junior School. Croydon SOS considers that all proposals for academies in Croydon should be subject to a public vote by interested staff, parents and students. Combining infant and junior schools with a secondary school, as the Council plans for Ashburton, would, even without an academy, be a reckless experiment.

 Dr. Peter Latham - who prepared Croydon SOS's interim written response (see www.croydonsos.org.uk ) to the Council's proposals asked them at the meeting to ballot all stakeholders at the nine affected schools. After the meeting he said:

 "SOS deplores the Council's decision not to ballot parents, teachers, governors, staff and pupils at the affected schools and welcomes the Labour councillors' decision to support our ballot campaign. This confirms our view that Croydon Tories are the 'provisional wing of the academies movement'. Nevertheless we still ask them to reconsider their decision in the light of tonight's demonstration and the situation in Newcastle at Excelsior Academy where the sponsor - tax exile  Lord Laidlaw who gave £3.48 million to the Conservative Party last year - is a self-confessed sex addict. The local council appears to have belatedly concluded that the Lord is not a suitable role model for pupils but has no power to remove him."

Croydon SOS have called a meeting of trade unionists at 7 pm on Thursday, 4 December at Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, Croydon CR0 1BD. The meeting will be addressed by Bill Greenshields, President of the NUT. Industrial action is being contemplated and local trade unions will wish to consider how they could support any such action.

 BACKGROUND

 Croydon SOS was formed in October 2008 following an initiative by Croydon TUC to bring together teachers, parents, students, trade unions, councillors and anti-academy campaigners opposed to Croydon Councils plans to 'academize' Croydon's education – that is hand it over to unaccountable private businesses whose only loyalty is to their shareholders and unrepresentative, undemocratic 'faith groups' with their own hidden agendas.

 See our website www.croydonsos.org.uk for more information on the campaign and how to contact it.

 Croydon's Labour councillors oppose the Conservative controlled Council's plans, at least as far as they affect Ashburton, but are accused by the Tories of opportunism, not least because the legislation on which the Council is relying was passed by the current Labour Government. Having debated and voted on the issue in 2007, the TUC, the body co-ordinating trade unions nationally, is opposed in principle to the government's policy on academies and committed to campaigning against it. Croydon SOS stands shoulder to shoulder with the TUC.

Campaigners in the public gallery at Croydon Council Meeting - including Trade Union Council supporters.

Part of audience

A motion from Croydon Trades Council called on GLATUC to look at ways to defend working people's interests and oppose the massive dole outs to the banks and financiers who got us into the crisis. Support was given to the National Shop Stewards Demonstration outside the Bank of England on October 13.

At the Executive meeting at which actions were discussed the following statement was adopted and released -

The Greater London Associationj of Trade Union Councils (GLATUC) following detailed discussion at its monthly meeting has expressed its demands that if such large resources are being made available by the Government they should be guaranteeing the living standards, jobs, pensions and services of the mass of the population. If taxpayers money is being used in financial instituions then we should have control of those bodies and should be setting targets for the needs of the many not the profits of a few. We should be stopping the gravy train for directors, executives and consultants. If this is a crisis affecting everyone then those who have been making pay and bonuses of millions - in April 2 hedgefund managers got £400 million each - then those who drove us into this mess should have their assets seized or taxed 100% to contribute to the rescue plan. The gamblers with our lives should be made to pay and the City casino shut down.

At Congress 2008 the RMT motion calling for greater recognition of local TUC s was passed. It said -

87 Participation of the Trades Union Councils' Conference at annual Congress

Congress notes the status, role and purpose of TUC-registered trades union councils, county trades councils and county associations are recognised under rules, including:

i) bringing together local union branches to campaign around issues affecting working people;

ii) following the programme of the Trades Union Councils' Joint Consultative Committee (TUCJCC), such as assisting in building local union membership;

iii) being represented on the appropriate TUC Regional Council and at the TUCJCC and the Trades Union Councils' Conference; and

iv) the Trades Union Councils' Conference can submit motions for consideration by the TUC General Council which are in line with existing TUC policy and be represented at annual Congress by a fraternal/sororal representative.

Congress also notes trades councils in Scotland and Wales are entitled to send motions and delegates to their respective national Congress.

Congress further notes the 2008 Trades Unions Councils' Conference passed a motion calling for the trades council movement to be given the right to send delegates and resolutions to annual Congress.

Congress believes trades councils should have a greater voice at annual Congress and therefore instructs the General Council, in consultation with the TUCJCC, to implement a rule change which will have the effect of allowing the Trades Union Councils' Conference to submit one motion to annual Congress in similar way to the arrangements that exist for the equalities conferences.

Congress requests that this rule change take effect so that the Trades Union Councils' Conference will be able to submit a motion to the 2009 annual Congress.

National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

GLATUC is marking the 120 year anniversary of the key "Matchgirls" Strike of 1888. For full details open here.

There was a strong Trades Council presence on the May Day march. Banners were prominent on the Match and a large number of Trades Council activists assisted with the organisation and stewardfing of the March. GLATUC President and regional TUCJCC rep Linda Kietx co-chaired the Rally at the end.

For more details od London May Day go to www.londonmayday.org

GLATUC supported the Workers Memorial Day march to HSE HQ then City Hall on 28 April. President Linda Kietz attended with representatives of Islington, Brent, Croydon, Hammersmith & Fulham and Battersea & Wandsworth TUCs.

Download PDF here

 

At GLATUCs monthly meeting yesterday it honoured 2 trade unionists who had died. Steve Sinnott the NUT GS had died suddenly and Greg Tucker, long time activist in the RMT and the South London trade union movement had died after a long illness. NUT General Secretary, Steve Sinnott, died suddenly on 5 April, 2008. He was 56. His loss will be keenest felt by his beloved wife Mary, his son, daughter, grandchildren and extended family. Steve was General Secretary from 2004, having served the Union previously as member of the National Executive, President and Deputy General Secretary. Francis Beckett Monday April 7, 2008 The Guardian Steve Sinnott, who has died suddenly aged 56, was elected general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in 2004, and was regarded as the best leader the union could have for these difficult times. In a union which has always had warring factions, he was a unifying figure. He was about to lead the NUT into strike action over a pay rise of 2.45% with inflation running at 4% - the fourth annual pay cut in a row, he said. The last NUT strike, 21 years ago, was not a success, losing the NUT both members and prestige: Sinnott, as president, deputy general secretary, and then general secretary, played a considerable part in winning them back. He was determined that this one was going to be different, and there is no doubt that his calm, reasonable, thoughtful personality would have helped make it so. It would also have defused the inevitable sneer that the NUT did not care about children, for the charge would never have stuck to a man so transparently committed to the job he had done for years before he became a full-time union official. Born into a working-class Liverpool family with strong socialist traditions, he was the son of a worker at Ford's Halewood car plant and went to West Derby comprehensive school, Liverpool. He graduated from Middlesex Polytechnic with a BA in social sciences in 1974, and trained as a teacher at Edge Hill College in Ormskirk, where he joined the NUT. He taught humanities and was NUT school representative at Shorefields comprehensive school in Toxteth, Liverpool, before moving, in 1979, to Broughton high school near Preston, where he was head of economics and business. Website tributes from former pupils recall his effectiveness and friendliness as a teacher. In 1986 he was elected to the NUT's national executive, and, in 1994, he became the union's president - the first former comprehensive school pupil to hold the post, as he proudly pointed out. The presidency is held by a serving teacher, but during his year of office he was elected to the full-time post of deputy general secretary, from which he stood for the top job 10 years later. He was the first general secretary for many years to be on good terms with the union's hard left, and able to work with them. Though he was not their candidate for the job, they took to him, and the campaigns the union supports - for non-selective education and against academy schools - benefited from his tenure. At the same time he forged an equally good relationship with colleagues in the office, including those who had been rivals for the job. He set in train useful but undramatic reforms in the union's organisation that did not require redundancies. He addressed the longstanding problem of regional officials having too high a load of casework by providing them with assistants at a lower grade who could handle the more routine cases. A warm tribute from Gordon Brown, the prime minister, confirms that, despite the looming strike, he was also successful in ending the angry standoff which had started under his predecessor, Doug McAvoy, when Charles Clarke was education secretary. One result was that the NUT conference in Manchester last month was the most united that anyone can remember. Sinnott had taken trouble to make sure none of his members felt under attack. He found a way of so arranging union policy that it did not offend, for instance, either faith school teachers or those whose pupils went into the army. He was also able to establish himself on the international stage. He claimed that "teacher unions in both Israel and in Palestine have no closer friend than the NUT" and was active in bringing the two together, chairing Education International's advisory committee on the Middle East. Fred van Leeuwen, the EI general secretary, yesterday also drew attention to the key part he played in drawing up a protocol about teacher recruitment designed to prevent Britain from asset-stripping Commonwealth countries of their teachers. But the strike would have been his biggest challenge so far, and he had prepared meticulously. He took every opportunity to hammer home the message that a reduction in teachers' pay is bad for children: it leads to recruitment and retention problems, and people teaching well outside their subject areas. He is survived by his wife Mary, herself a talented teacher, his son Stephen, daughter Kate, and two grandsons. · Steve Sinnott, teacher and trade unionist, born June 24 1951; died April 5 2008   GREG TUCKER 1953-2008   Greg Tucker – who died yesterday from throat cancer – was no stranger to hostile media coverage; it’ll be interesting to see what some of the mainstream press obituarists come up with. But he never had any difficulty with being described as ‘an unreconstructed figure of the hard left’, because that is essentially what he was. Greg (pictured) and I got to know one another in the South London branch of the International Socialist Group in the early 1990s, and later worked together in the London Socialist Alliance. In the 2001 general election, he stood as a Socialist Alliance parliamentary candidate, polling 906 votes against Keith Hill in Streatham. He also served as a Labour councillor in Lambeth throughout the period in which that local authority was controlled by the hard left, achieving a certain amount of notoriety, including this mention in the House of Commons by a Tory former cabinet minister. As Michael Heseltine made clear, Greg lost his council seat not because he was voted out by the voters or democratically deselected by Labour Party members, but because he was deemed unacceptable by the Walworth Road machine: Mr. Heseltine : But there is a consolation prize for the Labour party. It will win the vote of no confidence that was passed today in its Labour candidates in Lambeth. The House is entitled to the latest up-to-the -minute information. Today the Labour executive kicked out 13 of Labour's councillors in Lambeth. The Labour leader, Joan Twelves, is out. The mayor, George Huish, is out. The deputy leader, John Harrison, is out. The chief whip, Julian Lewis, is out. Greg Tucker, Mrs. Twelves's partner, is out. I leave it to my right hon. and hon. Friends to interpret that for themselves ; whatever he happens to be, he is out on his ear. As all those great luminaries of the Labour establishment get the chop, they have given a new political significance to the meaning of the Lambeth walk. [Interruption.] It is a long way to Tipperary and it is quite a long way to Sheffield as well. As if all of this didn’t keep him busy enough, Greg went on to achieve notoriety all over again for his activism in the RMT transport union, playing a leading role in several strikes. In 1999, he stood for the position of general secretary on a rank and file ticket, and picked up around one-third of the ballot, a highly credible vote for a revolutionary. The Daily Telegraph headlined one story about him ‘Left-winger at the heart of the dispute'. It's almost a pity that Greg will be cremated rather than buried, because that would have made the perfect epitaph. Condolences to Joan and to Greg’s son by an earlier relationship. Posted at 13:09, 7 April 2008 from www.davidosler.com

Glatuc

 Bill Greenshields, incoming president of the National Union of Teachers has called for the private education system to be nationalised. Hesaid such a move would improve state education and make it fairer.

The NUT has long been hostile to independent education and to Labour’s programme of setting up academies with private-sector sponsors to replace failing schools.

But Greenshields’s comments to the union’s annual conference in Manchester yesterday (22/3/08) went one step further.

“Let’s consider our own direction of travel – from private to public, towards bringing all schools into the state sector,” he said. “Then we would soon see some urgent improvements in our state system.”

In a further sign of confrontation with the government’s education policy, teachers at the conference have also threatened industrial action over class sizes and inadequate pay.

Greenshields, an English teacher from Derbyshire, said the union was monitoring Gordon Brown’s “aspiration” of bringing funding for state schools into line with the levels enjoyed by the private education sector.

Click here to download the PDF.

Click here to download the PDF.