by John Foster

Last year George Osborne announcedausterity cuts that would reduce publicspending at a real rate of 3.7 per cent ayear till 2017. This year we have seen the first results: adouble dip recession now lasting for ninemonths, benefit payments up 6 per cent, taxreceipts down 1 per cent and the governmenthaving to increase its borrowing in June. Now Osborne is threatening even more cuts –on the Greek scale – to be announced thisOctober. What crazy economics!The government’s only major intervention hasbeen through the Bank of England’s‘Quantitative Easing’: which has handed £375billion to the banks to back up their reservesand use for short-term speculation. None of it has gone into the realeconomy. Industrial investment is at an all timelow. And no wonder. There is no demand. Realdisposable income has fallen to its 2003 level.The only way to reflate the economy is to stopcutting public sector jobs; invest in jobcreation and skills training to increase highstreet spending power and renewing the call fora shorter working life as an important elementof tackling long-term, crippling unemployment.

Britain’s economy is now over 4 per centsmaller than it was in 2007 – the only majoreconomy to have contracted to such an extentapart from Spain. It is still contracting. This is why alternative economic policies,based on active state intervention, are sodesperately needed, as Unite argued stronglyin its motion to last year’s TUC.We need specific demands that can unitetrade unions and communities to campaignpolitically – demands which also add up to acoherent strategy that can rescue our economy.The first demand is obvious: stop the cuts.This is the quickest way of restoring consumerdemand: end the insecurity of imminent jobloss, halt the new pensions levy, reverse thebenefit cuts and end a wage freeze that iscurrently cutting real incomes by up to 3 percent a year.The second demand is for the nationalisationof the retail banks that handle the savings ofworking people – to stop these savings beingpillaged by the investment banks to the benefitof the super-rich and instead invested in theproductive economy.The third is for the government to createreal, well-paid jobs and hence boost taxincome as well as demand for goods. Councilhousing is one obvious area. There is

desperate need and the private sector hasfailed – house building has collapsed from180,000 in 2006 to 120,000 last year, thelowest since the 1920s.Building houses under local democraticcontrol also makes it possible to introducecomprehensive energy saving with greentechnology - another key area for investment.Equally essential on this front is the demandto take water, energy and transport back intopublic ownership, end extortionate pricing,stop the state subsidies to monopolist ownersand make the investments in infrastructure sodesperately needed.There must also be government action to stopclosures in the productive economy, to takeover failing manufacturing enterprises and topenalise companies that shift productionoverseas – even if this means defying the neo-liberal directives laid down by the EU.Key to rebuilding manufacturing would bethe introduction of controls on the export ofcapital and limits and/or taxes on the import ofmanufactured goods, both ready-madeproducts and components. Can this be paid for? Yes, easily - byimposing a tax on the City’s financialtransactions; reclaiming the £100 billion lostthrough tax evasion; closing down Britain’smany tax havens, and reversing Osborne’s taxcuts for the rich and on company profits. Achieving this requires a mass movementthat can remove this government of financialspeculators and ensure the Labour Partyadopts the alternative policies needed to saveour productive economy – in the interests ofthe vast majority of the population.

John Foster is a member of the CommunistParty economic commission and is the party’sInternational Secretary

Communists at the TUC 2012

Monday 10 September Unity!

Why we need an alternativeeconomic strategy

TODAY!COMMUNIST PARTY

LUNCHTIME MEETINGALTERNATIVES TO

EU AUSTERITYBrighthelm Church & Community Centre

(just aroud the corner and up West Street/Queen's Road)

Tsiaples Anastosis PAME and presidentregional TU centre of Larissa in Greece

Alex Gordon RMT President Chair Anita Halpin Communist Party

trade union organiser

by Mick Carty

A number of motions of directrelevance to Britain’s youth are onthis week’s agenda. Motion 8 deals with the necessity ofdeveloping a political educationprogramme in order to educate youngworkers, and potentially students, aboutthe past achievements of Britain’s tradeunion movement. The call from the TUC Young Members’Conference for such a programme shouldbe welcomed. This is especially the casebecause in the motion the necessity foryoung workers to both value and defend thepast achievements of our class against thecurrent ruling class assault is recognised. The focus on industrial issues in isolationas opposed to the wider industrial andpolitical achievements of the organisedworking class through the labourmovement, the Communist Party and theYCL, should not detract support from the

motion but rather encourage participationin and careful scrutiny of the programme’sdevelopment.Motions 28 and 29 deal directly withyouth unemployment.In addressing the growing (anddeliberate) stratification of the workingclass, and ultimately the creation of asubservient under-class substantiallycomprised of Britain’s youth, motion 28sees the National Union of Teachers pointto the exacerbation of existing incomeinequalities through commodifiededucation and unpaid internships.The motion goes on to outline a numberof key campaign demands which reflectpolicies reaffirmed at the 46th Congress ofthe YCL, including the call for workplacebased apprenticeship schemes leading toguaranteed employment paid at least at thenational minimum wage, the call for anapprentice quota to be included in publicworks commissioned and procured frompublic funds (necessitating at least an

approach towards a national industrialstrategy), the eradication of unpaid workfor young people and acceptableemployment contracts. In terms ofeducation the restoration of EMA and theabolition of tuition fees are also demanded. The Associated Society of LocomotiveEngineers and Firemen note that theGovernment’s agenda will ‘irrevocablydamage their [youth] long-term earningand employment prospects’ and the forcingof ‘older people to work until the age of 68…will …entrench the cycle of long-termyouth unemployment, depressed wages andrestricted career progression’.Whilst the YCL believes that this is adeliberate and central part of the rulingclass strategy (and not simply ‘misguided’or ‘ineffective’ policies as the motionstates), the recognition of the threat to ourfuture and the call for the TUC to furtheraddress the issue of youth unemploymentmust be welcomed. The important features of both these

Unemployment amongst 18-24year olds has risen from 13%to over 21% from 2005 to

2011 reports the Financial Times. Thisrise is not unique as youthunemployment in Greece rose from26% to over 41% and in Spain fromunder 20% to over 45%.The youth unemployment rate is not evenlydistributed, neither geographically nor interms of gender, ethnicity or disability. Thereare sectors where youth unemployment isabove 50% and LSE research for TheGuardian into last year’s riots showed howmost of the youth were from ‘impoverishedbackgrounds’. There were, said the ‘Readingthe Riots’ report and the even the CabinetOffice, a feeling of ‘desperation at the verylimited options’ for ‘disadvantaged youths’.There is now emerging a serious problem ofgraduate unemployment with nearly 10% ofgraduates still out of work six months aftergraduation. More serious in its social impactis graduate under-employment wherebygraduates displace those others who wouldnormally have filled jobs where a degree wasnot previously required. This knock-on effectends with those with the fewest qualificationsforced out of work altogether.Government attempts to be seen to bedoing something about this betrayal of thehopes are far too little and too late for manyalready sunk into a culture of despair. Apaltry increase in ‘apprenticeships’ will dolittle to provide long term solutions for mostof the youngsters involved. The ‘apprentices’are mostly offered little worthwhile trainingand relatively few get permanent jobs oncompletion as they are often replaced byanother young hopeful. On these placements

WORKING WITHYOUTH ANDSTUDENTS

We are all working for a big turnout for the October TUCdemo but it is going to take more than demonstrations todefeat the ConDem’s public service cuts. We need a strategy that will create the conditions to bring about achange of government to a Labour government that will support ourdemands. Central to this is unity with public and private sector unionsdeveloping joint action and building alliances with working classcommunities. Local anti cuts committees - with trades union councils playing a keyrole - have the potential to create mass local movements which can thencompel local elected councillors to fight the attacks on public services

by setting needs budgets rather than meekly implementing cuts dictated by central government.Without such extra parliamentary movement any talk of setting illegal budgets is just an ultraleft pipe dream.The sustained attack on pensions, the introduction of regional pay, the privatisation of publicservices and the attacks on trade union rights are all part of the ruling class strategy toredistribute wealth from the poor to the rich through cuts to our terms and conditions. Smash the unions and it’s a green light for this big business agenda. At the heart of our campaigning must be a political campaign which goes beyond the usualindustrial relations rhetoric. The politics of resistance has to be taken into every workplace andcommunity where we have organisation. Over the past months in the pensions battles, working women and men were won to take actionas they realised that was about so much more than ‘just’ pensions. It’s about pay freezes and pay cuts, extending working life, cutting jobs and services anddismantling our welfare state at the very time when demand for these services is rising. Theoverall effect is misery for millions, declining living standards and quality of life.Workers who at one point were saying ‘well at least I’ve got a job’ are now saying that ‘enoughis enough’ and will be part of the fight back. Even workers not in public sector pension schemeswere willing to strike because they were sick of the decline in their current and future livingstandards. Concern for the lack of opportunity for their kids who will have nothing to lookforward to but working till they drop; that’s if they can get a job at all.May’s local election results confirmed that the majority of voters had had enough, but the lowturnout indicated that many people have already given up voting in the belief that all politiciansare the same. That is why it is crucial that Labour councillors become ‘champions’ of theircommunities, working alongside local trade unionists and community groups. Labour authoritiesmust maintain a dialogue with their local trade union movement, no matter how tough theconversation.And if Ed Milliband is serious about fighting for the rights of ordinary working class familiesand winning back trust he must act quickly and imaginatively to ensure that Labour controlled

councils get the support theyneed and that they and a futureLabour government act in theinterests of those that electedthem. But the fightback is not justabout resistance to Tory-ledpolicies. Our movement haspolicies which, if implemented,would begin to eat into the powerand wealth of the ruling class andlay the basis for real advance forour class to a better future.The need of the hour must be tobuild for the October demo bypoliticising the fight and makingthe case for getting rid of theConDems and replacing themwith a government that will beheld to account by the organisedworking class and theircommunities.Articles in Unity this week willhighlight key elements of the leftwing programme for a future thatwill work in favour of the millionsnot the millionaires. .

motions are that they call on the incomingGeneral Council to undertake workspecifically orientated towards Britain’syouth, which has the potential to broadenthe TUC’s role in the struggle against theonslaught which both current and futureworkers are facing from Britain’scapitalists, and their rivals across theEuropean Union.At the 46th Congress of the YoungCommunist League of Britain, it wasagreed that ‘YCL notes thedisproportionately low level of youthmembership of trade unions, andunderstands that this can only bechallenged through the development of agenuine class consciousness amongBritain’s youth.’Support for these motions couldpotentially push the TUC towardscontributing to that development.Mick Carty is general secretary of the Young Communist League www.ycl.org.uk

youngsters are at the beck and call of theiremployer and fearful of the loss of benefits ifthey are sacked.Those graduates who have at least someparental support are directed towards‘internships’ at which they are expected towork for nothing, or at best their expenses, inthe vain hope that this experience will lookimpressive on their CV - or an opportunity tomake a useful connection with otheremployers on the lookout for those with theright attitude to work (i.e. prepared to workfor a salary that leaves them little in the wayof meeting their obligation to repay studentloans, find suitable accommodation or savefor the future prospect of family life oradequate pension provision).There is little possibility of a solution to thiswastage of talent and skills within theconfines of the current austerity programmesbeing implemented by the countries of theEuropean Union and within the straightjacketof IMF loans. It will take a much moredecisive implementation of a programme ofgovernment intervention in the economy forany impact to be made upon this ‘GreatRecession’.This will only happen however as aconsequence of a much more decisivepolitical intervention in Government toimplement a social programme that developsan alternative economic and political strategybuilding on initiatives such as the Peoples’Charter in order to take state power away fromthose who would otherwise condemn a wholegeneration to an insecure and unfulfillingfuture. Young people themselves must bemobilised as part of this campaign. A societythat sacrifices its own children is sowing theseeds of its destruction

TIME FORA CHANGETime for the People’s CharterThe People’s Charter for Change issupported by the TUC, sixteen tradeunions and many trades unionscouncils up and down the country andit is included in the TUC’s plan of workfor the trades councils.It promotes a progressive alternative set ofpolicies not only as an antidote to ConDemcuts, but also for the expansion of theeconomy through a programme of directedinvestment, control over the export of capital,public ownership, the development ofsustainable industries, a reduction in workinghours, and a programme of skills training andretraining. The Charter’s 6-point programme demands

HA fairer economy for a fairer Britain.

H More and better jobs.H Decent homes for all.H Protect and improve ourpublic services – no cuts.H Fairness and justice.

H Equal pay for women.H A secure and sustainable

future for all.Impossible? Far from it! The Charter showshow these could be brought about through theimplementation of an alternative economicstrategy to bring about a fundamental shift inwealth and power in favour of the workingclass.The People’s Charter deals with the whole ofsociety and aims to promote a positivealternative instead of just saying Stop theCuts.The Charter six points are aspirations whichany political party purporting to representworking people should be proud to put forwardand demands that the Labour Party must adoptit as a winning alternative political strategy.

by Richard Bagley

Phone-hacking, corruption and abuse.Neither the links between those inpower nor the rock-bottom tacticsoverseen by newspaper editors willsurprise any thinking person.But the Leveson inquiry, initiated followingthe first grubby revelations thatmultibillionaire anti-union boss RupertMurdoch’s print titles had systematicallyhacked into the phones of various victims, hasnevertheless put the issue of our media frontand centre.Among those putting their point across arethe National Union of Journalists and theCampaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom(CPBF) - rare voices from within and aroundthe industry calling for substantial change tofailed self-regulation and increasingconsolidation within the trade.The idea that the poachers can begamekeepers via a voluntary code is bitterlydefended by the upper echelons of thejournalistic establishment.But it has become clear that the wealthyindividuals who own the bulk of the media,and the editors who do their bidding, need notjust a watchdog but massive scrutiny of theirevery action.A properly functioning layer of well-trainednews-gatherers is central to democracy. Mediaowners have no such concerns. Almost everymonth comes the news of fresh closures oflocal and regional papers.

Talking to those journalists still clinging on totheir traditional role of actors and chroniclerswithin our communities, holding the abuserslocally and ultimately nationally to account, itis clear that the agenda of the industry’s bigplayers is total shutdown.Profit margins remain large but mass staffingcuts and long-term pay freezes are nowstandard practice.It is this ongoing onslaught by big industryowners interested not in the role ofnewspapers, or even news stories themselves,that led to an overwhelming 80 per cent vote inMarch backing strike action at one behemoth,Newsquest.Other names include Mirror group, JohnstonPress and Archant. All adopt the sameapproach.It is now common for a ‘local’ newspaper tobe based in a regional warehouse beingproduced by a handful of journalists rewritingpress release stories for a raft of titles, themain difference being the title on page one.Not for nothing do professionals in the tradebitterly label the owners’ approach to the trade‘churnalism’. And it’s no surprise either thatreadership of these increasingly thin, poor-quality newspapers continues to plummet.Yet millions still buy daily papers.That means Leveson is important.It has put the issue of the media front andcentre for the first timeOwnership control is massively importantand there must be limits on the maximumstake controlled across the full spectrum of our

media to prevent individuals such as Murdochand co manoeuvring themselves into a positionwhere their pronouncements are heard moreloudly by politicians than the electorate.But we must go further. Access to the marketis increasingly in the grip of a handful ofsupermarkets.Distribution networks are prohibitivelyexpensive since Murdoch smashed thecomprehensive system during the Wapping waron the unions. And unlike countries such asFrance or Norway there is no concept thatmedia outlets without the big bucks backing ofan oligarch should have support to give analternative voice, backed by law in theinterests of a healthy, thinking, functioningdemocracy.Leveson at worst will result in anothervoluntary code and a lot of heat and light.The industry will ultimately revert to type.But even if the outcome is one with real teeth itshould not be deemed the end of the struggle.Trade unionists, socialists - every decentperson - need to put the issue of mediaownership, coverage and ethics front andcentre in their campaigning.The NUJ's submission to Leveson is requiredreading. The union knows, like anyone close tothe industry, that if the battle is lost we face afuture where knowledge is dictated by a cabalfor whom ‘journalism’ is solely a means formoney-making and political power.

Richard Bagley is editor of the Morning Star

END MEDIA MONOPOLY

£2 Based on an expanded and revisedseries of articles that first appeared inthe Morning Star in March 2012.