Country Standard Summer 2010

Country Standard Summer 2010 1 Founded 1935 Vol.12 No.1 Summer 2010 FREE

ou read it here first, the fight is on to save the Agricultural Wages Board, just as the Tolpuddle Martyrs fought for their rights

more than 170 years ago, farm workers must again fight for justice. Farm bosses, the Tories with their Liberal lackeys in tow, wish to consign the AWB to the dustbin and with it decades of wage protection for farm workers. As the only national rural radical monthly the Country Standard stands full square with the Unite the union and all farm workers to save the Agricultural Wages Board. It’s been saved before and will be saved again. So why is the wages board under attack? Is it because it provides farm workers with amazing wages that are

the envy of workers through out the world? No it is simply another means by which the rural ruling class can squeeze the maximum profit out of hard pressed, hard working often isolated farm workers and return the industry to one characterised by casualisation, low pay with few if any employment rights. We need only look at the experience of workers in seasonal farming work; low pay, terrible housing, bullying from gang masters, getting ripped off by employment agencies and the sack if you complain! Meanwhile your boss drives around in a new Range rover and frets over the kids school fees! It is not even as if the AWB offers princely sums for farm workers. In the

June 2010 AWB settlement, the pay rate for a maximum 39 hour week was set at £5.95 per hour for a grade 1 agricultural worker and at £8.88 for a grade 6 farm worker. The National Farmers Union had the nerve to describe the outcome of these negotiations as challenging! When they had managed to walk away from the negotiations having a derisory award of only 2.8% agreed by the AWB board and even then only on lower grades in the industry! With 2.4 awarded to grade 6 workers. They would have probably had a heart failure if the more realistic Unite claim of 6% had been awarded! If farmers really want to experience a real challenge then perhaps they’d

like to get out there and do the work and support a family on the top rate of £8.88 let alone £5.95! The Deputy President of the NFU Meurig Raymond has called on the ConDem coalition to scrap the board at the earliest possible opportunity, stating that farm workers “Salaries must be market driven, and that “The AWB is an industrial relations relic that has no place in modern society. It serves no other purpose than to add cost and complexity to farmers and growers.” Farmers do not seem to have a problem with complexity when it comes to getting their hands upon the panoply of EU grants that are available. The AWB is not complicated it makes life simple, employ a farm worker and pay the rate and god forbid your farming neighbours find out, but maybe just maybe you would like to stretch to a bit more! A market driven farming industry equals low pay, loss of rights and fractured rural communities with loss of meaningful work and hope! The British farming industry will be one characterised by increasing insecurity of employment with the minimum wage being paid across the majority of the industry. Workers across the whole country are under attack, and rural working class communities are being hit hard; the loss of public services, post offices, bus services, affordable housing and decent jobs. The fight starts now to save the Agricultural Wages Board. Eddy Batchelor is an Organising Research Officer for Unite the Union.

Race to the Bottom The fight is on to save the Agricultural Wages Board Eddy Batchelor

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Inside this issue Standard Leader p2 Tackling Racism & Fascism p3 Wilf Page tribute p4 Tales from the riverbank p5 Rural Schools p5 Gangmasters’ Licensing Act p6 Rural Healthcare p6 The People’s Charter p7 Common Agricultural Policy p8 Land in Common? p9 Lessons from Greece p9&10 Marinaleda p11

2 Summer 2010 Country Standard

ountry Standard rides again! After a spell in cold storage our radical rural

campaigning paper has been lovingly revived by a collective of enthusiastic young blades, who recognised the vacuum left by its absence, and more seasoned rural activists - some of whom can even remember the publication of our first edition, whose 75th anniversary we celebrate this year. The world is changing faster than it's ever done before. Science and computer technology have revolutionised our capabilities. We're able to produce food in abundance. Yet half the world is starving and facing catastrophic water shortages and famine. The global grip of big business and finance has concentrated wealth and power into the hands of the few, who are unwilling to save the planet from environmental suicide. Capitalism, once a stimulus for constructive change is in the hands of 'neo-liberal' economists and politicians, neither new nor liberal - responsible for vast transnational movements of

capital and economic migrants, switching production to wherever labour is cheapest and curbing food production to keep prices up. No wonder we're campaigning! Our agricultural and rural workers, often responsible for livestock and machinery worth thousands of pounds are paid peanuts. They sew it, they reap it, but they can't afford to eat it! And if the ConDem government succeeds in abolishing the Agricultural Wages Board they will be paid even less - with paralysing effects on the rural economy. Up to half a million permanent and temporary agricultural and horticultural workers have their legally enforceable pay rates determined by Unite and NFU negotiations. But many other rural industries such as food processing and engineering use the AWB settlement as a benchmark. We must mobilise the widest possible coalition behind the Unite crusade to Save the AWB. Country Standard has a long tradition of speaking up for

peace and socialism. But it offers a forum and friendship to all who would raise the standards of the countryside. Write to us and let us know your views on the many topics covered in this issue, or indeed anything we haven’t covered. We want a lively debate, not passive participation. CS has over the years memorably campaigned for the abolition of the hated tied cottage system, for a ban on the weedkiller 245T and control of pesticides, for increased use of organic farming, defending rural services like hospitals, post offices and buses, calling for affordable rural housing, health and safety at work and a healthy environment. We will continue to do so, putting forward our alternative vision for the countryside, calling for sustainable food and employment policies in the UK as part of our global perspective of solidarity with rural workers and people’s struggling in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Caribbean.

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Standard Leader

Years ago when I was studying the ways of the Chicago Wheat Exchange

I suddenly grasped how they managed the whole world's wheat there

And yet I did not grasp it either and lowered the book

I knew at once: you've run Into bad trouble. There was no feeling of enmity in

me and it was not the injustice

Frightened me, only the thought that

Their way of going about it won't do

Filled me completely. There people, I saw, lived by the

harm Which they did, not by the good. This was a situation, I saw, that

could only be maintained By crime because too bad for

most people. In this way every Achievement of reason, invention

or discovery Must lead only to still greater

wretchedness. Such and suchlike I thought at

that moment Far from anger or lamenting, as I

lowered the book With its description of the

Chicago wheat market and exchange.

Much trouble and tribulation Awaited me.

Poetry Corner

Years Ago When I Bertholt Brecht 1898-1956

Country Standard Summer 2010 3

Challenging Racism & Fascism in Schools

believe that the experience of teaching in North Devon, following the first 20 years of my career in inner city schools

shows that work around the issue of racism and fascism is equally important in rural schools. The gains in recent years by the fascist British National Party and other far-right parties such as the UK Independence Party, which has a strong following in the South West region, show the necessity of revitalising anti racist teaching in schools and higher education institutions. The National Curriculum, Ofsted and other bureaucratic pressures, e.g. capability procedures against teachers, have threatened to sideline equalities issues in schools. It is imperative, therefore, that the work of organisations such as Unite Against Fascism and Hope Against Hate is woven into and across the curriculum e.g. via teaching packs and other resources, thus avoiding the pure tokenism of ‘ticking the cultural diversity box’. Several schools in Devon have longstanding links with countries in Africa for example, arranging exchanges and other links. Under the umbrella of ‘Citizenship’ an all day conference was organised in a secondary school on the issue of Palestine. In Okehampton College a hustings meeting was set held during the European Parliamentary elections in which the issue of immigration was discussed with powerful and supportive contributions from students. Many schools have also contributed to the annual Exeter Respect Festival

Refugee Week is a feature of the school year, although I believe schools could be far more involved. Links are being made in the primary sector with the Sunrise Group in Barnstaple, an organisation that supports migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers along with other settlers in the area. It is a task that requires commitment from teaching staff who should then be free to identify needs, discuss them, (with students also) use and develop curriculum materials for the classroom. This is not ‘pie in the sky’ thinking. It has happened in Devon in the 1990’s for example, where nationally recognised anti-racist materials were developed by serving teachers for the English curriculum. It’s happened during the Make Poverty History campaign. My former school Ilfracombe Arts College in conjunction with what is now the City Academy Bristol set up a cultural exchange involving reciprocal visits. Pressure on teachers in these schools has prevented, as yet, a deepening of the relationship. Through our link with author Beverley Naidoo our students were also engaged in a videoconference with Thandokhulu High School in Cape Town, South Africa and the Tamer Institute in Ramallah, Palestine. A project called Young Voices for Change emerged and resulted in the students at Ilfracombe Arts College producing a DVD of performances they arranged under the title ‘Freedom is . . .’ . At her former school, The Park

School in Barnstaple, Liz Clinch, an English teacher, developed materials relating to the Holocaust. She also used the novels The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne and Friedrich by Hans Peter Richter, both of which made a considerable impact on her students. Finally, I think that the way in which many schools, such as Filton High School in Bristol, approached Make Poverty History back in 2006 showed the possibilities for education. The formal curriculum was suspended, with students asking big questions about lack of resources in countries around the world and then leading debates and projects. ‘Why is half the world starving?’ ‘Why is clean drinking water at a premium?’ ‘Is there a fairer way to trade crops such as coffee?’ ‘How can we make links with children in different countries to try to share ideas and culture?’ The skills of different subject areas were deployed, and united, across the curriculum in searching for reasons and answers. That was an exciting time, which showed me that it is possible for classroom teachers to have a positive influence on what is taught, and crucially, what is learnt in schools across the curriculum. In doing so it challenges the insidious and frightening ideas of racism and fascism. It’s worth fighting for now. Dave Clinch is the President of Devon NUT

Dave Clinch

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Politics and analysis, action

and culture making the link

between working class power &

liberation manifesto

manifestopress is a new venture that aims to publish working class history, socialist theory and the politics of class struggle. It is republican and anti-imperialist; secular and feminist; anti-fascist and anti-racist; committed to working class political power, popular sovereignty and progressive culture.

£5.95 114pp illustrated. Published in association with the Communist Party History Group This special new booklet published in association with the Communist Party History Group to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the defeat of fascism in Europe is a celebration of that victory and also a warning of the continuing dangers posed by fascism and the attempts to re-write history. Phil Katz is a designer, a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. He has an MSc in Eco-nomic History from Birkbeck. His previous publications include 'The Long Weekend – combating unemployment between the wars'; 'Thinking Hands – the power of labour in William Morris' and 'The People, Organised – trade unions on the home front 1939-1945'.


f anyone was a revolutionary working class hero from the cradle to the grave it was Wilf Page, who edited the Country

Standard from 1974 until 1997. He led his first strike at the age of nine or ten, and was still selling Country Standards just before his 83rd birthday – as the mud splattered “oldest hippy in town” at Glastonbury pop festival. His commitment, dedication and self-sacrifice were unquestionable. He also had a great sense of humour which made him great fun to be with. A man of immense stature, both intellectually and physically, he excelled in his youth at boxing, football and rugby. Wilf was born just north of Norwich on September 11, 1913, the son of a rag and bone man and a domestic servant. His mother was a Methodist and sent him to the local Sunday school, where one of his teachers was a socialist agricultural labourer called Billy Furness. When his village was besieged by police during the 1923 agricultural workers’ strike against wage cuts and longer hours Wilf asked Billy what it was all about. He explained the exploitation of the workers as animals with a biblical quote: “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads the corn.” Wilf learned the lesson and when his school’s favourite teacher was not allowed to keep her job because she was getting married, he led a strike of the pupils. It lasted several days, but ended with them all being thrashed and victimised by being barred from going to the grammar school. He had to leave school at the age of 13 when his father broke both legs in a fall, and Wilf had to help his mother collect scrap. Later he worked as a servant and as barman, before signing up for the Royal Air Force at the age of 19. Here he met a Jewish communist called Dan Cohen who was being beaten up by anti-Semitic thugs in a toilet. Wilf, who was handy with his fists, beat them off. Dan explained how capitalism bred racism and inequality, which Wilf equated with some of his Sunday school teachings. In 1935 Wilf was posted to India where he became an aerial photographer, and witnessed class discrimination between officers and other ranks, and racism against native Indians. After representing the RAF nationally at boxing and rugby, and having two good conduct badges, he was recommended for promotion from sergeant to officer. But this was rejected, probably because of his reputation as a trouble maker for taking up cases of injustice and his distribution of the Daily Worker. After being demobbed at the end of the war he joined the Labour Party, became an agent for the Norwich MP, and, because he could not find a member willing to stand for

councillor in Edgefield village, stood himself and got elected. In 1949 he resigned from the Labour Party because of its wars in Korea, Malaya and Indonesia. The following year he saw his old friend Dan Cohen was standing as a communist and needed an agent, a post that Wilf successfully applied for. He joined the Communist Party, but continued standing as a councillor in Edgefield and kept getting re-elected for 27 years. As a councillor he studied the law in detail and used this knowledge to prevent evictions or to get people re-housed. He also made imaginative use of laws to get building grants for working class people when they were really meant to benefit employers. As a communist he was naturally blacklisted and had to take on a series of different jobs before his background was discovered and he was sacked again. Variously he was a lorry driver, bus driver, gardener, caravan site attendant, travelling fish salesman, and occasional farm worker. As a farm worker he joined the agricultural trade union and became an active branch secretary (starting each meeting with a reading from the Ragged Trousered Philanthropists). It being the height of the Cold War he was frozen out by the union leadership, which barred him from union courses, and castigated him in the union journal. After 17 years of defeat, however, he was finally elected in 1969 as the Norfolk representative on the union’s national executive. His ability to form alliances and be articulate saw him speaking for the union at the TUC and gradually becoming a respected figure in the union even among his political opponents. In 1976 he wrote a Communist Party pamphlet called “Farming to Feed Britain” which further enhanced his reputation. International recognition followed when he became president of the European Federation of Agricultural Workers’ Unions, representing 2.5 million workers and 100,000 self-employed farmers, in 1979. After a heart attack in 1980 he still managed to spearhead the union’s campaign for land nationalisation. When the union merged into the T&G in

1982 he was elected on to that union’s executive representing agricultural workers. At the age of 70 he had to retire from it but took part in the People’s March for Jobs, chaired the union’s largest trade group, restarted the Burston Strike School annual rallies, and founded the Norfolk & Norwich Pensioners’ Association and its journal the “Anglian Pensioner”. He was also arrested for cutting the fence of the USAF base at Sculthorpe. Wilf remained a committed Communist throughout his life, reading the Morning Star and seeing Marxism as an analysis of society useful in changing it rather than an inflexible dogma. After his death in 2001 he was cremated at St Faith’s Crematorium, in Horsham St Faith. This had been a workhouse when Wilf went to school opposite it as a child. His teachers had told him not to walk on that side of the road as the inmates were diseased. Ignoring this he saw a hand come through the hedge. “I went to touch and hold it. It was an old lady and she was so pleased she’d got somebody who was touching her who was outside.” That summed up his lifelong commitment to humanity. Mike Pentelow is the author of Norfolk Red a biography of Wilf Page and was editor of the Landworker, the journal for rural and agricultural members of Unite the union, from 1999-2008.

Wilf Page Working Class Hero Mike Pentelow

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Cliff Harper illustration of Wilf Page beating off Dan Cohen’s attackers


Tales from the riverbank s attention about the budget focuses on the

macroeconomic implications of massive public sector spending cuts, its important not to forget the impact on some of our most vulnerable and isolated communities. The government has decided to cut housing development grant by up to 70%. This will have a severe impact on the development of affordable housing everywhere. None more so than in rural areas where local people are priced out of the market by second home owners and equity rich refugees from the cities. The entire budget of £30million for the development of Gypsy and Traveller sites is due to be cut. The housing needs of this community, among the most disadvantaged in the Country, have been assessed, and all Local Authorities were required to make provision in line with that assessment by the end of this year. It is one of the more shameful failures of rural housing authorities – the vast majority of them true blue – that almost no progress has been made to meet this need despite this grant being available for several years. This is a manifestation of the institutional discrimination that this community faces,

despite its extreme deprivation. Life expectancy for Gypsies and Travellers is 10 years less than the general population; Gypsy and Traveller mothers are 20 times more likely to experience the death of a child; Educational attainment among Gypsy and Traveller children is less than 50% of that of children in the general population and over 50% (12,000) of Gypsy and Traveller Children at Key Stage 4 are not registered with a school. All research shows that living on well-managed, good quality official sites improves the life chances of children, access to healthcare, employment, benefits and housing security. However too many rural authorities seek to avoid their duties to this community for fear of alienating their nimbys. An inflexible approach to planning applications has helped to stifle the development of authorised sites, forcing more Gypsies and Travellers onto unauthorised encampments and the roadside. The time has come to take a more flexible approach to meeting the housing needs of this community. This is a prerequisite for improving their inclusion in education and health services, and ultimately, wider society.

A he NUT calls for a good local school for every child and for every community. In the years

ahead it will be this issue which will separate those who want to see education flourish and those who see only budgets to be cut. A good local school is true for all in Education, from the smallest rural school to the biggest in an inner city. It’s what we should all be campaigning for. In rural areas the struggle to maintain funding and the knock-on effect that any cut backs would have on class size and teacher/pupil contact time will be key. I stared my teaching career in a small rural school and have not really got away from them since! The school I taught at for 3 years had less than 50 children split into 3 classes. The small class size meant that teachers could speak to every child almost every lesson. The creative curriculum involved the whole school and the flexibility with timetabling was a real benefit to all. Mixed year group class teaching can be tough but does lead to more thought going into differentiation. Social interaction is a consideration as for example I only had two girls in a year group one year and they were like chalk and cheese but the school being in a partnership with another school and then later another one means that events and opportunities for the pupils to meet can be arranged. Funding, or lack of it, meant that the school went to two classes – which is much harder work. Supply teachers are said to not be affordable and Higher Learning Teaching Assistants and TAs are asked to work way beyond their job descriptions. Teachers are left to pick up the pieces and the blame and the HLTA or TA is more than likely exhausted and not paid for the experience. Parents need to be aware of how much time their child spends with a fully qualified teacher and if it is not 100% ask why.

Both children and teachers need the choice of where they would like to go to school. Children that had been excluded from the larger town schools arrive in our smaller schools and go on to flourish. They benefit from the increased attention and more family like atmosphere. After the housing boom and the subsequent economic crisis few people could afford to move. This along with the lack of any new building of council houses to attract people to rural areas resulted in falling rolls. There have been staff cuts as a result. Teacher workload has gone up significantly since many TA hours were cut. Recent cuts and falling rolls have lead to schools merging and closing in Norfolk. Yet this has not gone unopposed. I attended some of the public meetings and the passion of parents was fantastic. The monetary value of the choice and care in small rural schools cannot be easily measured and is not factored in the figures produced by the County Council when it makes cuts. Recent attempts to close schools have been challenged. Parents spoke out. They took on the “suits” which cooked up plans in their offices and forgot that real people would be affected. Planners were sent to look again at their Excel spreadsheets. Teacher stress has risen and yet at a time when redundancies is threatened the Norfolk Support Counselling that was available to all teachers in Norfolk has not been included in the small schools package. Schools would have to buy in the service separately at a time when budgets are being cut. Parents, teachers, governors, trade unions and children all need to make it clear that small rural schools have their place. They need to campaign to change county council and government plans.

Kendra Deacon is the NUT national executive member for Norfolk and East Anglia

T Kendra Deacon

School Choice?


t was the single most poignant moment in over 35 years as a union official. It happened 6 years ago in a small church in

London's Chinatown. I had been invited by the relations of the 23 Chinese cockle pickers drowned in Morecambe Bay to a Memorial held in their honour. The grief was jagged and tangible. It was almost unbearable to think of their loved ones trying to phone home on their mobiles as the chill waters rose around them All I could offer was to help ensure that they had not died in vain. That the private members bill from T&G MP Jim Sheridan would establish a licensing system for gangmasters would mean that such man made catastrophes could never happen again. With cross party support and the backing of a remarkable coalition of unions, the NFU, legitimate gangmasters, supermarkets, the Ethical Trading Initiative and the churches and CABs, led by the T&G - the Act was finally passed establishing the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (of which I became a founder Board member). It was the culmination of a half century's campaigning, first by the old NUAAW with the likes of Joan Maynard and Don Pollard, then as a trade group (RAAW) with the added clout of the whole T&G, backed by the Country Standard - to end the exploitation of seasonal agricultural and food workers. The GLA's core task is to protect vulnerable, often migrant workers, in food and farming, from exploitation by rogue gangmasters and agencies. Often isolated, farming employs anything from 250-350,000 temporary workers (nobody knows for sure). A fertile field for cowboy bosses to abuse casual workers, like the strawberry growers I encountered who subjected their large numbers of eastern European workers to: cramped and expensive housing

conditions illegal deductions for transport

and rent keeping their passports and

papers so they became 'prisoners'

poor medical facilities and dangerous conditions where, for example, lacking drinking facilities in the heat workers were drinking from old pesticide containers and then had no access to doctors to deal with poisoning

One unusually honest Midlands

employer told me 'foreign workers come cheap, illegal workers come even cheaper!' The GLA is designed to stamp out these abuses. A gangmaster will only get a license after a thorough auditing on labour standards. If they operate without a license they will be prosecuted - as will any labour user who uses an unlicensed labour provider. The license can then be rescinded if they step out of line. But the GLA is run on a shoestring. It's record on compliance and enforcement is first rate. It punches above its weight, but there are many villains still 'making hay'. A measure of its influence, however, is that many cowboys have legged it into construction, catering and caring industries. That's why we need: An extension of the GLA remit to

cover those sectors (David Hamilton's Bill gets a second reading in Parliament in September, looking to cover 'construction and elsewhere')

Proper funding of the GLA to provide stronger enforcement (the unpaid tax and VAT it recoups for the Treasury would pay for several GLAs

An education campaign to better inform the public and the workers on the ground about the GLA role

A recruitment campaign in this difficult terrain because we have demonstrated that the workers best form of protection is their union.

That's the best answer for those decent gangmasters and agencies who play by the rules only to be undercut by the rogues. Join our campaign. Despite all the strains, the coalition that gave birth to the GLA is holding firm. Long may it continue...until that sunlit upland when it is no longer needed.

Chris Kaufman is the former National Secretary for Rural & Agricultural Workers in Unite the Union.

Never Again

Chris Kaufman

The fight to defend at risk workers continues

n the pages of the Countryside Alliance Manifesto you will find few words on rural healthcare. Why should we be surprised?

Because the establishment has never taken an interest of the wellbeing of rural communities. Over one quarter of the UK’s population live in rural areas yet they receive only a small fraction of healthcare services. The few services that are available are often limited and notoriously difficult to access. While well hidden, rural poverty is ever present, due in good measure to Tory local council neglect. An estimated one million children in rural areas live in poverty. Workers in rural areas earn on average £5,000 less than those in urban areas and only 5% of rural housing is designated as social housing. Now Rural health care services are facing the swinging axe of the ConDem government. Cottage and community hospitals, health centres, GP Practices, District Nursing all face cut backs or wholesale closure. District General Hospitals such as Addenbrookes (Cambridge) in the constituency of Tory health Minister Andrew Lansley, plan to cut 500 jobs, including 170 nursing posts. This is just the beginning. Make no mistake these cuts will have a detrimental impact on NHS services available and waiting times. Indeed one of the reasons the Tories were so quick to scrap NHS Targets was to ensure that waiting lists especially in rural areas, would grow, thus stimulating a demand for private healthcare. Other factors faced by rural communities is the recent restructuring of Primary Care Trusts. Many have been merged becoming remote from the communities they serve or merged into District General Hospitals leading to a fear that

outlaying or satellite services will be the first to be cut. Another threat will be the move towards GP Commissioning of NHS services. The Tory proposal is to empower “clusters” of GP’s to commission services for their patients. Many fear such a system will lead to GP’s who fall out with local service providers placing contracts to remote hospitals or even the private sector, while other services such as mental health may not be commissioned at all. Little has been said about patient’s involvement or choice to use local NHS services. What is clear is we need to build up a broad based anti cuts campaign in every town and village to defend NHS services and for an expansion in services such as rotating mobile health services, nurse lead services and services like NHSdirect. A good example of a community based campaign is the recently formed 'Hands Off Hinchingbrooke' campaign. and residents have come together in The campaign although initiated by initiated by Huntingdon and St. Neots Trades Union Council but draws together activists, trade unionists and the local community in mobilising opposition to the proposed privatisation of Hinchingbrooke Hospital. (For more info see www.huntingdonandstneotstradescouncil.blogspot.com) We also need to address the causes of ill health - poverty pay, unemployment, diet (lack of school meals which are also under threat), poor housing and transport - if were to ensure that the improvements we’ve made over the last 60 years since the introduction of the NHS aren’t overturned.

Michael Walker is a Regional Organiser for UNISON and editor of the Country Standard blog.

Health Matters Michael Walker

I I


here have been many moments in history when working people have looked at what was happening around them and knew, clearly and

without doubt, that things were very wrong and who then set about affecting a change for the benefit of all. My own great hero in this regard, and one which every person with an interest in the countryside should know, was Gerrard Winstanley (1609-1676) the leader of the radical movement known as the Diggers who felt that the earth and its fruits were a "Common Treasury" for all. He once memorably asked: "Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease, and for them to bag and barn up the treasures of the Earth from others, that these may beg or starve in a fruitful land; or was it made to preserve all her children?" (Gerrard Winstanley The New Law of Righteousness, 1649) Our age is not Winstanley's but the situation we find ourselves in after years of following a neoliberal agenda which has foisted upon us all a market driven approach to economic and social policy makes Winstanley's words resonate with us today in a remarkable way. The frightening cuts to the whole range of public services caused by the greed of big business and banking is increasingly leading many working people into real poverty whilst, at the same time, we see those who have run and supported this destructive big business capitalism continuing to live at ease by bagging and barning up what should be common fruits

in obscene pay packages and bonuses. All working people across the UK are suffering but the countryside has been hit in its own, particularly hard ways. The litany is almost too painful to rehearse, and here are just a few of the issues that spring immediately to mind: the removal of bus services isolating many individuals and communities; the closure of many local shops and traveling libraries; the scandalous lack of affordable rural housing; the lack of jobs and, when they do exist, we know that they are often ones with extremely low pay and with bad conditions of employment. Winstanley and his followers took their fate back into their own hands - they refused to remain silent in the face of the many painful injustices they had to face. Their response was to dig common land as a powerful expression of the truth that the fruits of the earth are common to all. As I said at the beginning our times are different from Winstanley's but we, too, can offer up a powerful expression of this same beautiful truth by actively supporting, in word and deed, the People's Charter. The People's Charter is nothing less than our way of ensuring that we will preserve all the earth's children and give them a better future - not only those in our own country but, as the Charter concludes, for all the people of the world. Andrew Brown is the Minister of the Memorial (Unitarian) Church, Cambridge and a member of the Unite Faith Workers branch.

A Charter for Change Rev. Andrew Brown

s trade unionists gather in Dorset this summer to commemorate the Tolpuddle Martyrs’ and

reflect upon difficult times in our past, so workers face a difficult time in the future. It is abundantly clear that even this early in the Con-Dem coalition’s tenure, far from the promised ‘progressive’ agenda, workers can expect to be hammered for the excesses and risk taking of the fat cats and the ruling classes – thus it ever was with capitalism; with workers exploited for the benefit of the ruling elite. As we reflect upon the Martyrs’ and remember our history, we must not only look to the banners of the past, but find a new banner under which we can mobilise and organise workers in struggle. The Meat Workers Combine believes that the Peoples Charter can provide such a banner. It reflects our aspirations for workers and society, and like the previous charter of the 19th century, although more modest in its demands (many would say too modest), the People's Charter is just a common sense alternative to the savage cuts and attacks which are to be inflicted upon the working classes.

Surely no fair minded person could object to the principles on which the charter is founded: A fair economy for a fairer Britain: More & better jobs; Decent homes for all; Protecting and improving public services; Social justice and a secure and sustainable future. The Charter is a national petition, seeking a million signatories in support of its policies, but it is not just a worthy document with worthy ideals – it provides a genuine, non sectarian opportunity for the left to unite under common cause, mobilising workers and giving voice to our shared protestations against cuts which will hit the poorest the hardest and devastate public services. The Con-Dem government is seeking to use the difficult economic climate as camouflage for ideologically driven attacks on workers. There is an alternative to the government’s cuts agenda, but we must be united in common purpose and goal if we are to withstand the oncoming onslaught - The Peoples Charter provides an opportunity to do just that. Scot Walker is Chair of the Global Meat Workers’ Combine.

Scot Walker

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Progressive taxes without loopholes or tax havens. Stop writing blank cheques to bankers and spivs in the city, we should own & control the main banks if we’re paying for them. Guarantee all pensions, mortgages & savings. Tie pensions and benefits to wages. Give Pensioners free transport and heating.

A Fair Economy for a Fairer Britain Protect existing jobs. Make a massive investment in new jobs, especially in green technology for our children’s sake.

More and Better Jobs Create 3 million new publicly owned homes. Control rents and stop the repossessions.

Decent Homes for All

Energy, Telecommunication, Water and Transport to be owned by all of us; keep the post in public ownership. Remove profit making from the NHS and education. Support our public service staff.

Save and Improve our Services Equality for all. Together against all racism and discrimination. Equal pay for women. End child poverty. Give young people a future. Free child & youth facilities, education and training for all. Repeal the anti-union laws to fight poverty and inequality.

For Fairness and Justice No more blood and money for war. Bring the troops home. No more billions for nuclear weapons. We want massive investment for a greener, safer world. Get rid of the debt economy in Britain and cancel the debts of the poor of the planet.

A Better Future Starts Now

http://www.thepeoplescharter.org London Civil Rights & Arts Centre, 28 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LH


Norfolk Red The Life of Wilf Page, countryside communist

by Mike Pentelow

published in association with Unite the Union and the Marx Memorial Library

£13.99 paperback Order from Lawrence & Wishart, 99a Wallis Road London E9 5LN T:020 8533 2506 F:020 8533 7369 [email protected]

The Common Agricultural Policy is a hugely expensive system of European Union

agricultural subsidies, which represents half of the EU’s total budget and represents the ‘dark soul’ of the EU project. Yet it is rarely discussed or exposed in the media, probably because it is also the most expensive, damaging and controversial EU programme. Despite its free market rhetoric, the EU is purchasing millions of tonnes of surplus output every year at guaranteed market prices and hoarding it in huge quantities. This has led to mountains of butter and rice and lakes of wine and milk, before selling the produce wholesale to the world’s poorest nations at lower prices in a process called ‘dumping’. The CAP also rewards larger producers over small scale farmers. Because the CAP has traditionally rewarded farmers who produce more, larger farms have benefited much more from subsidies than smaller farms. According to the 2003 Human Development Report the average dairy cow in the year 2000 under the European Union received $913 in subsidies annually, whilst an average of $8 per human being was sent in aid to Sub-Saharan Africa. The 2005 HD Report described the CAP as "extravagant, wreaking havoc in global sugar markets". As a result, many Third World farmers cannot keep up with such cheap competition from Europe,

driving them off the land and forcing whole populations to rely heavily on imports of EU-subsidised exports. In 2007, in response to a parliamentary written question, the UK government revealed that over the preceding year the EU Public Stock had amassed “13,476,812 tonnes of cereal, rice, sugar and milk products and 3,529,002 litres of wine”. In January 2009 the EU will also purchase and further subsidise the export of 30,000 tonnes of butter and 109,000 tonnes of powdered milk to the third world. A few years ago the Italian Rice Industry Association said that EU paddy rice stocks of 500,000 tonnes, nearly half of which are of Italian origin and 20 per cent of the EU's annual production, were in danger of rotting and should be used to help the world’s poorest people. AIRI director Roberto Carriere said: "If the European Union does not use these stocks for food aid as quickly as possible, they will deteriorate and have to be destroyed". However European Commission spokesman Gregor Kreuzhuber said "No! We have a huge structural surplus and we need to balance the market. It is wrong to say this could be solved either through dumping goods on third world markets or by giving it away as food aid, we need to reform the sector ". Yet increasing quantities of rice are being poured into so-called intervention stocks, buying in food commodities at guaranteed prices under

the EU farm policy. This process ensures EU "price stability" rather than increased production and EU calls for "reform" will mean slashing jobs and capacity in the industry. AIRI estimated that EU taxpayers had paid over 100 million euro for the rice stocks and it costs more than one million per month to store it. This insane example of the destructive nature of CAP can be multiplied by any number of agricultural produce grown within the EU. Brussels is forever demanding that Africa drop trade barriers, designed to protect beleaguered African economies, in order to allow EU goods to flood their fragile markets. This is formally organised in the Lome convention between the EU and nearly 70 Afro-Caribbean-Pacific states. The CAP is not about producing food for people. It is a model created by the need for a complex political fix within the EU. As part of this political trade-off agricultural member states like France, Spain, and Portugal receive more money under the CAP. Ultimately, it distorts agricultural development in the member states to the needs of the EU and the CAP itself. This is not only damaging to these domestic industries but creates the conditions for a deeply imperialist neocolonial relationship with the so-called third world. Brian Denny is the Convenor of the No2EU - Yes to Democracy campaign.

CAP: The Dark Soul of Europe

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Advertise in Country Standard Reach thousands of rural activists, workers and people in the only journal that deals with Land Ownership, Environment, Peace, Transport, Public Services, Agriculture , the EU.....and all aspects of rural life.

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The history of the agricultural labour movement can be traced in "A Pub Crawl Through History" by Mike Pentelow and Peter Arkell. Featured are pubs named after Wat Tyler (leaders of the 1381 Peasants' Revolt), Jack Cade (leader of another

peasants' revolt in 1450), and Robert Kett (leader of an uprising against the enclosure of common land in 1549), all of whom were executed. Others commemorate those who were deported for resisting wage cuts: The Trouble House (after the 1830 Captain Swing rioters), and the Martyrs Inn (for forming a union at Tolpuddle in 1834). And there is the Joseph Arch, who formed the first national agricultural workers' union in 1872. Published by Janus (ISBN 978-1-85756-701-4) it costs £16.99.


What determines the value of land? Land is what nature has provided for free. It is human productive activities and the demand for land that this generates that gives land its value. Since the supply of land is fixed, the more it is in demand in particular localities, the more its value tends to rise – which in capitalist society is reflected in the price one has to pay to acquire the land. The demand for land, and its value, depend on many factors. Today, the most valuable land is in towns because that is where most productive activities are concentrated, and therefore is where most people choose to live in order to obtain a livelihood. In the countryside, the value of land is determined largely by its fertility and proximity to markets. Note here that the value of land is due not to the individuals who happen to own or occupy a particular site, but to other people, and the community at large, through their economic and social activities, and their demand for goods and services requiring land – including agricultural and manufactured products, commercial activities, homes and public amenities. Note also that the value of land is quite separate from the value of the productive activities on the land – whether farming, manufacturing, commerce or residential – which derives from the labour and capital invested in making use of a particular site. Over time, in most areas, land has tended to rise in value due to growing populations and increasing economic activities, which increase the demand for land. However, this is not necessarily a smooth process. Land values will tend to rise more rapidly when the economy is in an expansionary phase, and fall when in recession. Who benefits from rising land values? When land is largely privately owned, as in Britain, it is not the community as a whole that benefits from rising land values, but landowners, including owner-occupiers. They are able to sell or rent out their land or properties (which include the land that buildings stand on) at higher prices as land values increase. In effect, they profit freely at the expense of other people

and society whose investments in various activities and services are responsible for raising land values. In other words, landowners appropriate the economic rent from land that is generated by society as a whole. Banks are also beneficiaries because people and businesses, if they need credit to acquire land or property, have to borrow more as prices rise, which means that banks and other lenders get more interest. Since it is nature that has provided land free for all of humanity, there is the argument that land should not be privately owned at all. This begs the question of how land came to be owned privately in the first place. In fact, until quite recently, in terms of human development, societies everywhere treated land as common property. It was yours as long as you used it, but could be taken over or re-allocated if you did not. The private ownership of land – especially when highly concentrated among a few wealthy families as in Britain – more often than not can be traced to outright theft at some stage by those with political and coercive powers. How society as a whole could benefit This concentration of land ownership has led many to call for the nationalisation and state ownership of land, thus returning land to common ownership, as the only fair way for society as a whole to benefit from the rising value of land that society itself creates. People and businesses could be charged rent for the land they occupy based on its value, and the revenue used to expand public services and productive activities for public benefit. However, in a country like Britain, where the private ownership of land is thoroughly entrenched – which is the result of the big landowners gradually selling off small parcels of their land to property developers or farmers wishing to own their own land, with some 70 per cent of people now having some vested interest in land ownership, and almost 60 per cent of farmland owner-occupied – land nationalisation would be severely disruptive. Moreover, if the aim is to collect the economic rent from land for public benefit, it is not even necessary. This could be achieved simply by the state – acting on behalf of society –

collecting an annual tax from all owners of land in proportion to the value of the site that they nominally own. Such a land value tax (LVT), as proposed by the Labour Land Campaign, would be fair, because it would return to society the value of the land that society itself had created. Furthermore, LVT would have a number of other economic benefits. In particular, it would encourage the more efficient use of land, in line with prevailing planning regulations, and end the wastefulness of derelict land and decaying buildings standing empty for years blighting neighbourhoods, because the landowners would have every incentive to develop the land, or sell it on to someone who will, in order to pay the LVT due. And it would end land speculation again because those holding land in the hope of selling it at a higher price later will be penalised by having to pay LVT. By gradually raising the rate of LVT, and at the same time reducing other taxes that have a negative impact on the economy (such as income tax), not only would this raise economic performance, but also it would make land ownership in itself increasingly insignificant. Ultimately, the only point of owning land would be to use it. In other words, the income and profit from land would derive solely from the particular economic activity or buildings on the land. There would be no gain simply from owning land, as now. The profiteering of the big landowners in Britain, with estates mainly inherited from feudal times, will become a feature of the past. Faced with LVT they will want to dispose of their land as quickly as possible because it would no longer generate the rental income that they desire. And, of course, it is for that reason that they are the leading opponents of LVT, since everybody else, including farmers, manufacturers and owner-occupiers will benefit from the fact that land will be cheaper to acquire, making more money available for other things. For more information on LVT, see Manifesto of the Labour Land Campaign: Towards a Fairer Tax System and a More Just Society, and Land Value…for Public Benefit by Jerry Jones, both available from the Labour Land Campaign website at www.labourland.org .

The Land in Common? Jerry Jones

Lessons from Greece? PASY (Peasants’ Militant Rally)

hen Greece joined the European Community in 1981, it was still exporting agricultural products to the rest of the world, having a positive agricultural commercial balance, and being

entirely self sufficient in most areas of agricultural. Today, Greece has a negative agricultural commercial balance; it spends approximately €2.5 billion annually importing goods that it has the ability to produce. The decisions contained within CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) and WTO (World Trade Organization) agreements for the complete liberalisation of agricultural production, the reduction of support for agricultural production, the complete unbinding of subsidies from production and the adjustment to the laws of the market, has driven thousands of small and middle-small scale farmers to destruction. Between 2000 and 2008, total income generated by agricultural production has fallen by 20%. The vast majority of producers have been forced to search for alternative sources of income in order to make ends meet, and in most cases it is in areas that do not create stable and permanent jobs (e.g., construction, tourism, etc). 75% of all farms in Greece now have an annual income of between €1,200 and €9,600 from sources other than farming. With the capitalist economic crisis these problems have been more pronounced. Despite the producers’ prices remaining low food prices are rising. The cost of production is increasing, a large proportion of the production remains unsold due to cheaper imports, manufacturing units are shutting down and bank debts are growing. The small to medium scale farmers are becoming poorer and are being crushed, while large merchants, industrialists and bankers are gaining ever greater profits. After 2013, state support and subsidies for the agricultural sector across the EU will shrink even further. Those remaining will be large scale farmers owning with large businesses. Continued on Page 10...

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Lessons from Greece? Cont The European Union’s strategy, as laid out in “Europe 2020”, is for “competitive agriculture”. That is, large scale agricultural property held by corporations, which shall concentrate land-production-subsidies, in order to be ‘competitive’, crushing the majority of small and medium scale farmers in the process. In Greece, in recent years, there have been major opposition to this strategy, which is supported by successive governments, from farmers. This year, for 22 consecutive days, day and night, farmers organised at a national level to block the main motorway junctions, to draw attention to the problems they face, but also to put forward anti-monopoly demands which clash with the reactionary, agricultural policy being pursued by the government and the European Union. PASY is putting great efforts into organising the struggle of the small to medium scale farmers, and linking up with the organisations and action of the working class and the self-employed as part of building the resistance to the enforcement of the austerity measures. PASY fights for the development a national agricultural production strategy, which would satisfy the major nutritional needs of the people, with quality control, a strategy exempted from the blind drive to creating monopoly super-profits. This strategy requires the socialisation of the means of production, the creation of a productive cooperative of small and small to medium scale farmers. It would require the utilisation of science and technology to produce high quality, safe and cheap food for the people, reduce working time for those employed in the agricultural sector and thus expand free time to help raise the cultural and educational level of all people in Greece. At the same time, the socialisation of the means of production will provide the capability to develop a central plan for the utilization and distribution of the entire workforce, to elimination the scourge of unemployment.

Small & Medium scale farmers block Motorways during 22 days of continual protests against the Greek governments Agricultural policy

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The Global Financial Crisis, caused by the unfettered markets of neo-liberalism and the ideologues who drive it, continues to cause hardship and pain for people around the world. The failure of the “free market” having been exposed, governments should be providing certainty in the public institutions that guarantee every citizen’s right to quality public education and other essential public services that are the hall mark of civil society. Rather than promoting policies which will further entrench disadvantage, governments should be ensuring the maintenance of a public school of the highest quality in every community. The marketisation of schooling promoted as the means via which to enhance so called parental choice is not only the antithesis to but in fact displaces democratic notions of schooling namely the common good, equity, and the collective empowerment of the citizenry. We have an obligation to the future generations of children to intensify our efforts and campaigns to put an end to discredited neo-liberal policies that are to the detriment of public education. Angelo Gavrielatos Federal President of the AEU

South East Blood Service

Delivering to Rural Communities. Fight the Cuts-Give Blood Branch Secretary: Debbie Jones


round 100km east of Seville in Spain lies a small town of 2,700 people called Marinaleda. It's one of many

agriculture-based towns and villages in the province of Seville, surrounded by mile upon mile of flat, agricultural plains What makes Marinaleda different, indeed from anywhere else in Spain and possibly Europe too, is that for the past 30 years it has been a centre of continuing labour struggle and a place where a living, developing and actual form of socialism has emerged. In the 1970s and '80s, in a struggle for jobs, workers in Marinaleda were involved in occupations and expropriations of land from local landowners. They were led by a charismatic trade unionist called Juan Manuel Sanchez Gordillo of the Sindicato de Obreros del Campo (Agricultural Workers' Union). In 1979 the union activists established the Colectivo de Unidad de los Trabajadores - Bloque Andaluz de Izquierdas (Collective for the Unity of Workers - Andalusian Left Block, or CUT) and stood in the local elections on a radical socialist platform of agricultural reform. They were immediately elected and Sanchez Gordillo became mayor. Since that day the party has held a majority on the local council. In 1986 CUT became part of Izquierda Unida (United Left, or IU), the main political grouping of socialist, communist and green parties in Spain. Marinaleda Council

currently has seven IU councillors and four from the reformist Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party). Sanchez, who typically wears a Palestinian scarf given to him on a visit to the occupied country, is a history teacher, mayor, IU member of the Andalusian parliament, national spokesman of CUT and secretary for housing on the IU federal executive committee. Marinaleda hit the national news when its workers successfully expropriated a 3,000-acre estate from the Duke of Infantado in 1991. El Humoso, as the estate is known, was turned over to local people and now comprises eight agricultural co-operatives where the majority of local people work. The co-operatives concentrate on labour intensive crop production such as artichokes, peppers, beans and also wheat and olives. Every worker gets paid the same wage - €47 for a six-and-a-half-hour working day. According to official statistics there are 130 registered unemployed in the town of 2,700, which, during a time of deep economic crisis and unemployment in Spain, must be the lowest in the country. Marinaleda has also developed an utterly unique form of truly socialist housing provision. In contrast to the rampant speculation that has ruined the Spanish housing market, much of the high-quality housing in Marinaleda has been built on municipal land by local people

themselves. They subsequently become the owners of the houses paying just €15 a month while contributing an agreed number of working hours each month to constructing more. There's a clear agreement that they cannot sell the houses at any time in the future. The system means that house owners do not have mortgages and there is no possibility of financial speculation. As an example of Marinaleda's socialist principles and belief that power has to be in the hands of local people, the local council has created general assemblies where around 400 to 600 local people meet 25 to 30 times a year to voice their concerns and vote on issues from festivals, town planning and sport to ecology and peace. A further example of the council's form of local democracy is the use of "participatory budgets" whereby each year the council's proposed investments and expenditures are taken to local areas for discussion. On "Red Sundays" local people do voluntary work in the community. Another example of the town's radical socialist policies is that they have disbanded the local police force, saving €260,000 (£214,000) per year. This must be unique not only in Spain but also the rest of Europe. On my admittedly brief visit to Marinaleda, the social and educational provision in the town seem impressive. There are modern schools, a health centre that is comprehensively

resourced so that people don't have to travel to get standard treatment, an active ayuntamiento (council building), a modern and well-equipped sports centre, home services for the elderly, a pensioners' centre, a large cultural centre, a swimming pool, a football stadium and an immaculate nature park and gardens. Perhaps most impressive is the town's nursery, which opens from 7am to 4pm and costs just 12 euros (£9.90) per month per child. The social provision is outstanding. The town also has its own radio and television broadcasts, recognising the need to oppose the mainstream and conservative media. Whilst providing a wide range of music, chat, news and cultural programmes, Radio/TV Marinaleda promotes an alternative ideology based on solidarity, generosity and collective spirit. Radio and television are important aspects of the council's policy towards the diffusion of alternative political philosophies based on radical socialist thinking and solidarity activities in support of struggles in Palestine, Western Sahara and parts of Latin America. There are streets in the town named after Che Guevara and Salvador Allende and others named Solidarity, Fraternity and Hope. Together with many political murals and graffiti, these all play their part in raising political consciousness and providing alternative values to those promoted by capitalism. On the town's official coat of arms it states: "Marinaleda - Una Utopia Hacia La Paz" (a utopia towards peace). One fascinating aspect of the town is that there is next to no commercial advertising in the streets. The small local shops have no advertising outside or in their windows and even the bars have few beer adverts outside. It might not be a deliberate policy, but it stands in stark contrast with the rest of Spain. In an era of rampant global neo-liberalism and economic crisis, Marinaleda and the radical political path it has followed is a wonderful example of what can be done when people struggle together to pursue truly radical socialist policies. The people of Marinaleda deserve the highest praise and support for what they have achieved over the past 30 years. At a time when cynicism is endemic in politics, Marinaleda provides a refreshing example of what can still be done. Another, better world is indeed possible. This article originally appeared in the Morning Star on Friday 11th June.

Another World is Possible Douglas Hamilton

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Country Standard Summer 2010