WORKERSwww.workers.org.uk MARCH 2011 £1

15Marxist Thinking The force for revolution

Immigration cap? Secret talks exposed 12

IF YOU WANT TO REBUILD BRITAIN, READ ON

JOURNAL OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

Taxation No problem for the ruling class 06

DRUG RESEARCHTHREATAS PFIZER QUITS BRITAIN

HISTORIC NOTES

1871: THE PARISCOMMUNE

14

WORKERS

News 03

Features 06

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Contents – March 2011 The shrinking economy, p3; Cuts deluge London NHS, p4; Out of office,into clover, p5

Tax doesn’t have to be taxing – if you are the ruling class, p6; The factsbehind the BA dispute, p8; Blow to drug research as Pfizer closes Kent labs,p9; How to bring skilled workers into Britain despite an immigration “cap”,p12

HistoricNotes 141871: The 72 days of the Paris Commune, p14

WORKERS is published by the Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)78 Seymour Avenue, London N17 9EB www.workers.org.ukISSN 0266-8580 Issue 145, March 2011

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No to AVA REFERENDUM on changes to how we electMPs will go ahead on 5 May, after oppositionin the Lords collapsed. A Yes vote wouldreplace the First Past the Post (FPTP) systemwith the Alternative Vote (AV). Under AV, voters rank candidates in order

of preference. If the favourite candidate failsto secure half the vote, the 2nd choices ofvoters who voted for the least favouredcandidate are redistributed – a process whichcontinues until a candidate wins 50 per cent ormore.AV is a pathetic attempt to give a

democratic gloss to parliamentary elections inBritain, while the real issue is that in the pastthree general elections in a row the two main

parties between them persuaded less thanhalf of the electorate to support the twotogether. The party that “won” got fewerpeople to vote for it than did not vote at all.AV is far less democratic than FPTP, which

at least follows the principle of one personone vote and has the merit of clarity. UnderAV some will effectively have more than onevote as their second etc preferences count.The mass abstention of the British people

in general elections (over a third in 2010) isan embarrassment to reviled politicians whowish to rule “in our name”. Winners under AVwill claim over 50 per cent of the vote, even ifthey get fewer first choices than anothercandidate.

Hands off!IMPERIALISM IS trying to seize its chance toredefine nation states in the Middle East. Theclub of military intervention seems to havebeen set aside – for now – in favour of economicintervention on an unprecedented scale.The USA admits it has been assisting “pro-

democracy” organisations in some Middle Eastcountries for several years, based on similaractivities that it promoted in Eastern Europeand the former Socialist countries. The

Egyptian Army High Command is directlyadvised (and funded) by the Pentagon. The US, egged on by Britain, would like to

see feudalism replaced with regimes dedicatedto free markets. The economic restructuringsought by the USA would be as traumatic asthe military intervention in Iraq. The peoples ofNorth Africa and the Middle East must beallowed to decide what they want to happen intheir own countries.

ECONOMYTHE CITYNHSUNIVERSITIESCHILD CAREGRAVY TRAINLOCAL GOVTPENSIONSEUROBRIEFSWHAT’S ON

MARCH 2011 NEWS DIGEST WORKERS 3

The shrinking economy

RebuildingBritain

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Shrinking, shrinking The bonuses are back Cuts deluge London Glasgow campaign Cost rockets Out of office, into clover Attack on council press Indexation scam The latest from Brussels Coming soon

If you have news from your industry, trade or profession wewant to hear from you. Call us on 020 8801 9543 or email torebuilding@workers.org.uk

CITY

The bonuses are back

THE LATEST figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) show that the Britisheconomy shrank by 0.5 per cent in the last quarter. GDP was 4.4 per cent below the firstquarter of 2008; it was the same as in the first quarter of 2006; and it was 8 per centbelow the trend line for the last two decades.

Chancellor George Osborne put the fall chiefly down to the snow. However, the ONSsaid that GDP growth would likely have been flat even without the bad weather. This falloccurred not just before fiscal tightening had seriously begun but when both short-term andlong-term interest rates were already extremely low.

Inflation is rising because of the rising prices of imports (as a result of the depreciationof sterling in 2007 and 2008), the soaring prices of energy, and the rise in VAT. As theGovernor of the Bank of England stated, “the three factors described – higher import andenergy prices and taxes – have squeezed real take-home pay by around 12 per cent.Average real take-home pay normally rises as productivity increases – money wagesnormally rise faster than prices. But the opposite was true last year, so real wages fellsharply. And given the rise in VAT and other price rises this year, real wages are likely tofall again. As a result, in 2011 real wages are likely to be no higher than they were in2005.”

The government claims that higher net exports and corporate investment will offset thecontracting impact of its public spending cuts, falling real household disposable incomes,the highly likely further falls in house prices, and massive household indebtedness.

Meanwhile, December’s trade gap in goods was yet another new record – £9.2 billion,up from November’s £8.5 billion. These are the kinds of figures we used to see for awhole year, and a bad year at that. The overall deficit in goods and services was £4.8billion, up from November’s £3.9 billion. Some City analysts blamed December’s snow,which somehow cut our exports while mysteriously assisting imports.

Public spending should be directed towards investing in British industry, especially inhigh-growth sectors like nuclear energy, electric cars and high-speed rail, and in R&D,science and technology.

We shouldn’t keep bailing out the predatory banks, which take our money and pay it tothemselves in ever-huger bonuses and salaries. Labour sold the pass by not requiring thebanks to guarantee that they would lend and that they would not pay absurd bonuses. TheLabour government, with its PFIs, academy schools, tuition fees, marketising of the NHS,etc, paved the way for this savage ConDem government.

RETAIL

The high streets are emptying

LAST YEAR, Goldman Sachs’ profits fellby 38 per cent. Yet its head of UK andEurope, Michael Sherwood, is getting a 60per cent rise on his 2009 bonus, up to £9million. Its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, isgetting a 380 per cent pay increase, up to$2 million, plus $12.6 million of stock.The shares amount to a 42 per cent risefrom the $8.9 million all-stock bonus hegot in 2009. In the world of financecapital, nothing succeeds like failure.

THE PROPORTION of empty shops onBritain’s high streets has risen to 14.5 percent, compared with 12 per cent at the endof 2009, according to research from theLocal Data Company. The highest vacancyrate in Britain is Margate with 37.4 percent. The worst large and medium townsrespectively were Rotherham at 28.2 percent and Morecambe at 30 per cent.

SOVIET UNION

Celebrating treachery

BORED ON 30 March 2011? You couldhave attended the gala performance forMikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday. Billedas “The man who changed the world”, hewas inspired by Thatcher when SovietAmbassador to Britain to become thearchitect responsible for undermining theSoviet Union. It was in London: a traitorto his country, class and party, he did notdare put such a show on in Russia.

4 WORKERS

The latest from Brussels

UNIVERSITIES

Glasgow campaign

Powers to BrusselsTHE COALITION government has optedin to 8 of the EU’s 13 new laws on crime,justice and immigration proposed oradopted since the general election. All ofthese shift power to Brussels, includingthe controversial European InvestigationOrder and a new IT Agency to overseethe EU’s vast crime and immigrationdatabases.

Out nowTHE DAILY EXPRESS has delivered toDowning Street a petition with 373,000signatories calling for us to get out of theEU. The government has ended allpretence that it wants to take backpowers from Brussels.

Freeloaders UnitedEU FOREIGN Minister BaronessCatherine Ashton pays the lower EU taxrate on her earnings. While the lowerrates are automatic, EU officials canchoose to pay the difference between thatand national tax rates, giving the balanceto the exchequer in their home country,but most, including Ashton, do not.

About a sixth of MEPs check in forwork early on Friday mornings, in orderto get the £258 daily allowance, beforeleaving for long weekends. ConservativeMEP Robert Sturdy and Labour MEPPeter Skinner were both filmed signing into work on 11 February and then arrivingat the Eurostar, in a chauffeur-drivencar, to catch the 8:29 a.m. train toLondon.

Stop the fundingCOUNCILLORS ON Medway Council inKent unanimously backed a motionurging their local MPs to vote againstany increase in funding for Brussels whilelocal authorities had their budgets cut.

Costly and uselessTHE EU’S police training mission inAfghanistan has achieved very little in thepast four years. About 70 per cent ofAfghan police still cannot read or writeso they cannot process basic paperwork.The mission will cost 54.6 million eurosfor the year 2010-11.

The no work zoneYOUTH unemployment in the eurozone isnow 20.4 per cent, up from 14.6 per centin February 2008, before the start of theeconomic crisis.

EUROBRIEFS

FEBRUARY SAW 2,200 redundancies in London’s Primary Care Trusts and StrategicHealth Authority – and then saw announcements of 1,500 jobs losses in three key acutehospital trusts – Barts and The London, Kingston, and St Georges. Job losses will includedoctors, nurses and consultants. The Chief Executive of St Georges is quite clear: theTrust has to manage on a 25 per cent reduction in income. So much for Cameron’s ring-fencing of NHS funding.

Before the election, Cameron, Clegg and Kingston LibDem MP Edward Davey allcampaigned to stop cuts at Kingston. Davey set up a “Save the Kingston” campaignwhich was exposed by THE DAILY MIRROR as fake: Kingston was never under threat fromthe Strategic Health Authority or previous Labour cuts. The local LibDem BoroughCouncil Scrutiny Committee unanimously voted against cuts in 2010.

Now Davey vehemently promotes the cuts. When Cameron visited Kingston in 2010he said he supported “this hospital and the excellent maternity unit”. The draft plansinclude cutting 22 consultants, 214 nurses, midwives and health visitors.

Cuts deluge London NHS

SINCE THEIR day of action in December,students and staff at one of Scotland’sbiggest universities have been building astrong campaign of action against theUniversity of Glasgow’s plans to cut £20million to cope with their funding reduction.

The latest protest saw over 2,000 staffand students marching on 16 February andthe occupation of the popular ResearchClub, which is being closed down. Theactions have spread to several otherinstitutions such as the formation of an anti-cuts action network at the music college(the RSAMD).

The university’s cuts would mean axingseveral departments and abandoning the

university’s Department of Adult andContinuing Education. This vital linkbetween the local community and highereducation attracts over 5,000 adult learnersevery year.

Meanwhile, the Scottish FundingCouncil has ordered a 10 per cent reductionin college budgets this year alone. Speakingfor those who work in the sector, Unison’sCity of Glasgow branch officer said:“Cutting funding for higher and furthereducation will not help rebuild the economy.These cuts will not only affect staff andstudents – they will affect employers,families and entire communities. We wantto work with colleges to protect ourselvesand ensure there is no need for forced jobcuts; however, if compulsory redundanciesare imposed we will not rule out industrialaction.”

After the recently departed Chief Executive called for staff to give up a day’s leave sothey could fund the proposed new St Helier Hospital in Surrey, Unison staff and childrendemonstrate to ensure that the new hospital is not only adequately funded but remainswithin the NHS.

MARCH

Thursday 3 March

“Health – A front line in the fight forBritain”

7.30pm, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square,London WC1R 4RL.

Are we going to allow MPs to votethrough the legislation which formallyconsents to the destruction of the NHS?Public meeting organised by the CPBML.All welcome.

Saturday 26 March

“March for the Alternative: Jobs,Growth, Justice”

Assemble Victoria Embankment, 11am tomarch to a rally in Hyde Park

For more information, look for updates on www.tuc.org.uk/events. Details oftravel from Scotland down to this nationaldemonstration can be seen on the ScottishTrades Union Congress site:www.thereisabetterway.org

WHAT’S ON

Coming soon

LABOUR’S LOVE affair with the City is sealed with big money. Ex-City minister LordMyners has accepted a City post, as chairman of Autonomous Research, a stock analysisbusiness. He is also tipped to chair Justice, the ironically named cash shell that hopes toshake up Britain’s financial services with a £1 billion to £5 billion takeover.

Lord Mandelson has an advisory role at Lazard, at £200,000 a year for two days amonth. Former Brown aide Baroness Shriti Vadera has non-executive roles at BHPBilliton and AstraZeneca.

Former health secretary Patricia Hewitt has advisory roles at Alliance Boots andBUPA. She will also become the “special adviser” to Cinven, one of the world’s biggestprivate equity companies, which last year paid £1.4 billion for BUPA’s 25 privatehospitals. While Health Secretary, she championed the NHS’s use of private facilities totreat patients, carry out operations and reduce waiting lists. She is expected to get morethan £100,000 for the posts. In 2009, she got £159,575 on top of her MP’s pay in theprevious 12 months. She was paid up to £12,500 a month as a senior independentdirector for BT, and an undisclosed amount from city bankers Barclays Capital.

Former Defence Minister Adam Ingram got £159,800 last year from achairmanship, a director’s job and other paying consultancies.

Former education secretary Ruth Kelly, who also played a key role in implementingBrown’s useless financial regulatory system, now leads HSBC’s strategy unit – a£200,000-a-year job in the City – less than two years after she quit the Cabinet to“spend more time with her family”.

Out of office, into clover

THE COST of childcare increased by twiceas much as the average pay rise last year,according to research from the DaycareTrust.

An average nursery place costs £5,028a year for a child under two in England, a4.8 per cent increase during 2010, morethan twice the 2.1 per cent rate of wagegrowth.

Apparently, parents in Britain spend anaverage of one third of their net income onchild care, more than in any otherindustrialised country.

MARCH 2011 NEWS DIGEST WORKERS 5

Indexation scam

PENSIONS

Attack on council press

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Conflict of interest row

EDUCATION

PUBLIC SECTOR pension indexation willchange from the Retail Price Index (RPI)to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on 1April 2011. This means a direct 15 percent reduction in purchasing power forpensioners over the following 10 years.The pay freeze for these workers willpermanently depress the value still further.

The change is a direct result of theHutton Report into public sector pensions,commissioned by the Coalition governmentlast year. The headlines were about falseclaims that these were “gold-plated” andimpoverished other workers. But pensionsfor all workers are under threat too.

The aspirations and interests of 14million British workers and their familieswill be subordinated to those of the classresponsible for near collapse of thebanking system so that it can be re-capitalised at our expense. More “big con”than “big society”.

Outside the public sector theDepartment for Work and Pensions haspublished an impact assessment of the costimplications for up-rating all benefits,including pensions, in line with the lowerCPI as opposed to RPI. It shows that thevalue of these benefits would fall by £83.6billion over the next 15 years. That’s 8.4per cent more than the December 2010estimate of £76.66 billion.

Cost rockets

CHILDCARE

OFSTED’S INCOMING chair has becomeembroiled in a conflict of interest row afterit emerged that she will continue to advisean academies chain despite her new role.Sally Morgan, a former aide to Tony Blair,joins the board of the schools watchdognext month. Morgan is to continue in her

role as adviser to Ark,a charity set up bymillionaire hedge fund capitalists, whichruns a chain of eight academies and aims toexpand to twelve.

She has advised Ark’s global boardsince she left Downing Street in 2005. Sheis also governor and chair of the curriculumcommittee at the Globe Academy inBrixton, London – one of the schools itruns.

THE GOVERNMENT intends to ignoreboth local councils and the House ofCommons Select Committee onCommunities and Local Government overlocal democratic engagement. Both havereacted in dismay to the government’sdecision to limit direct communication bylocal authorities with their local citizensvia free newspapers to only four times ayear.

When journalists meet in Southport atthe beginning of April for the NUJDelegate Meeting, they will have beforethem a motion calling for the defence ofcouncil newspapers. The union’s PublicRelations and Information IndustrialCouncil rejects the argument that councilpublications are damaging the local“freebie” type newspaper. In fact, theclaim that advertising revenue has been hitis refuted by those newspapers themselves.

When Eric Pickles, Secretary of Statefor Communities and Local Government,compares local council newspapers to

“PRAVDA and Soviet style” propaganda, itreveals his real thinking. The SelectCommittee responded by viewing the newcentralising code as having negativeimplications for local democracy.

“We fear the impact of his onslaughtwill lead to important information aboutthe impact of government cuts beingconcealed and curtail open debate,” says amotion for the NUJ meeting.

Benjamin Franklin is often quoted on tax: “In this world nothing can be said to becertain, except death and taxes.” That isn’t true for the capitalist class.

CHANCELLOR OF the Exchequer GeorgeOsborne will deliver his Budget onWednesday 23 March amid the concern ofmost British people about what the futureholds. Higher taxes, less job security,reduced welfare benefits, rising prices andfewer public services are widely expected.

The ruling class however has adifferent outlook. It sees that thisgovernment, like the last one, is willing tomeet its demands. It expects a cap onwages even with rising inflation,restrictions on trade unions and above allto be itself insulated from the effects of theeconomic crisis.

Changes in taxation provide evidencethat the coalition government has only theinterest of capitalism as its guide. All elseis lies and deceit.

Cameron, Clegg and the rest brandishslogans like clubs. They think workers aretoo stupid to see what is going on or tootimid to do anything about it. Neither istrue, though many would be surprised atthe extent of the shift in the tax burdenfrom businesses and the wealthy toworkers and their families.

VAT went up in January, nationalinsurance will go up in April – for workersthese are unavoidable. Taxes oncompanies and wealthy individuals areanother matter. Corporation tax is due tofall by 4 to 24 per cent. More importantlymuch of it can be avoided quite legally,and often is. Some of this is open and wellknown – such as reducing VAT and bettingtax by the use of havens like Jersey orGibraltar. An argument runs that this isgood for us: it is “efficient” and keepscosts down – possibly true, but only for thecompanies and not their consumers.

In February Barclays Bank announcedworldwide profits for 2009 of £11.6 billionon which it paid about £1.3 billion tax. Butthe proportion of tax in Britain was around10 per cent – £113 million, which iscompletely out of line with its level ofactivity here. Barclays also sold its moneymanager offshoot, Barclays GlobalInvestors, for over £10 billion, with a netprofit on the sale of nearly £6 billion.Thanks to generous rules introduced byGordon Brown, the tax on that was £200

million, just 3 per cent of the profit.Late last year it emerged that a dispute

between Her Majesty’s Revenue &Customs and Vodafone had been settledfor £1.2 billion, far less than manyprofessional observers thought likely. Thetax bill is thought to have been sliced bypassing transactions through aLuxembourg subsidiary. Allegations weremade about a too-soft approach by theRevenue and that the outcome wasinfluenced by the position of the Vodafonefinance director as one of GeorgeOsborne’s corporate tax advisors. But whythey were using such offshorearrangements at all?

These two companies are not unusual– it’s just they have come to light. What wecan see shows how multinationals canmove their affairs around to minimise thetax they pay. And even that is not enough.

Britain: tax haven for the richNearly all developed countries have taxrules that attempt to prevent or minimisethe loss of tax in this way. At the momentBritain has such rules, but the governmentplans to let large business have anexemption so no tax is paid on earnings

from foreign branches. They will still beable to claim overseas expenses of course– and the financial sector will be the mostable to take advantage of the change.

There will be knock-on effects if theplan goes ahead. Banks and insurancecompanies will have a large financialincentive to move head offices out ofBritain and route profits through taxhavens. Any that do not follow suit will beat a significant commercial disadvantage.Other countries and sectors will then wantto join in. The result will be many fewerjobs in Britain and less tax for publicspending too.

Barclays chief executive Bob Diamondappeared at the parliamentary TreasurySelect Committee the week before its lowtax bill became public. He said that it wastime to stop bashing bankers, as ifsomehow unfair criticism was hurtingthem.

When the tax figure became public hiscompany claimed that they contribute £2billion in tax, but did not point out thatmost of that was in payroll taxes, in otherwords deductions from their workers’salaries. Nor did it admit that the mosthighly paid individuals have ways of

Photo: Andrew Harvey/Shutterstock

Tax doesn’t have to be taxing – if you are the ruling class

WORKERS 6 MARCH 2011

London, 9 December 2010: students get the message.

MAY DAY MEETINGS

avoiding tax through complex legalschemes that mirror those used bycompanies.

Some of this has been exposed andthere are suspicions about other wayscompanies avoid paying tax. But it is hardto find out more about what is happening,because companies are allowed to hideinformation about where they pay tax.

You can find out the pay of senior civilservants or hospital administrators, butyou cannot find out even basic informationabout the tax contribution of most wellknown companies operating in Britain. Weare deluged by superficial “transparency”initiatives about crime figures or schoolperformance, but banks and others are notcompelled to report country-by-country onwhere they make their money and wherethey pay tax.

Propping up profitsThe public purse is used to prop upcapitalist profits, but never the other wayround. The classic defence is thatcompanies must act in the interests of theirshareholders and so must indulge doeverything legal to minimise their tax bill.That argument is kept quiet when taxes onworkers are raised to pay off the publicmoney used to bail out banks and dealwith the outcome of the financial crisis.

Even Barclays (which did not take agovernment bailout) gained from supportfor the banking system in 2008.

Alternatively companies argue thatwhat is good for them is good for thecountry; even if it seems “unfair” theydon’t pay much tax. That is untrue in manyways – it ignores the international way thatcapitalism uses tax advantages. Irelandand other European countries have triedlow tax regimes to attract investment, andthey are abused and abandoned wheneverit suits the “investors”.

Meanwhile, the people living in taxhavens like Cayman or the British VirginIslands see very little of the vast wealththat flows through their offshore financialregimes. At worst it encourages corruptionand criminality to protect that status. Andit distorts the economy of countries whereprofits are generated. ■

Benjamin Franklin is often quoted on tax: “In this world nothing can be said to becertain, except death and taxes.” That isn’t true for the capitalist class.

MARCH 2011

Tax doesn’t have to be taxing – if you are the ruling class

Every economically successful nation has a national plan. Britain is one of the few not tohave one. Capitalism cannot plan for our country’s future because it sees nothing butgrabbing profits whenever and wherever it can. The god of the free market renderseconomic planning impossible. Financial capital does not create wealth. It is the workingclass which will need to take responsibility and plan for Britain.

There is a wanton savagery about the government’s attacks. It is moving with unparalleledhaste to undo much of the progress that the British people have managed to win overdecades, and to dismantle the real national economy, our industry and agriculture.

The challenge now for all thinking workers is to understand what is going on. What can bedone?

The first step must be the understanding and acceptance of the fact that the speed ofproposed change would be impossible had the Labour government not laid the basis for itso impeccably. In health and education, for instance, the legislation and thinking were putin place by Labour. Now the ConDems can pick them up and run away with them. Labour’sadoration of City speculators and contempt for production allowed a free for all buying andselling of British industry and land for massive profits, assets sold abroad, farmers squeezedto bankruptcy by the big supermarkets – with no attempt to protect the interests of thepeople.

In its decline, capitalism has turned its back on Britain.

Finance capital is in charge in Britain, but it recognises no nation. It is happy to invest incommodities one day, move the money to bonds the next, from country to country, fromindustry to industry.

What sort of Britain do we want? What do we need to do to get it? First, a commitmentto manufacture – making the things we need, and ensuring we have the skills and knowhowto service our own industries. And we need a plan for agriculture, deciding what we cangrow and produce here to feed our people. An independent British industry and agriculturewill create real wealth, the basis for a sound economy in which we can export to othercountries and import those goods and food which cannot be produced here.

Ours is the authentic voice of a Britain that wants to live in a civilised society and plan howit will work, and is prepared to fight for its country. We have nowhere else to go.

We invite you to attend our forthcoming May Day meetings –London and Edinburgh – for one unified national working class.

Sunday 1 May, 2 pm

Speakers and refreshmentsConway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL (nearest tube: Holborn)

Sunday 1 May, 7.30 pm

Speakers, music and discussionWord-Power Books, 43 West Nicolson StEdinburgh EH8 9DB

PLAN FOR BRITAIN:

MAKE IT AND GROW IT HERE

Celebrate May Day with theCommunist Party All welcome

WORKERS 8 MARCH 2011

ON 9 FEBRUARY the union Uniteannounced that for a second time in thislong running dispute a fresh strike ballotof British Airways cabin crew would haveto take place. The reason, it said, was alegal blitz by the company, which wasdeliberately upping the ante by onceagain seeking an injunction rather thanengaging in genuine negotiation.

In January, for a second time,members of the British Airlines Stewardsand Stewardesses Association (BASSA,part of Unite) voted decisively: nearly 80per cent in favour of industrial action. BAclearly failed to understand the power ofunion members at the workplace,irrespective of divisions at the top and alow turnout in leadership elections. But,as the new general secretary LenMcCluskey pointed out, there is usually ahigh turnout on workplace issues such asshop steward elections and voting on payrises and industrial action.

By prolonging this dispute, BA hasalready lost £150 million (Unite has spenta great deal, too – maybe as much as £10million). The company now intends to usethe 1992 Trade Union Act to declareaction based on the previous ballotunlawful. Under the Act, staff can bedismissed if they walk out for the samereason more than three months after theyfirst went on strike. Staffing cuts wereone of the reasons for action in 2010, andwhen Unite happened to mention this ontheir website, BA saw its opportunity andpounced.

IngenuityBut in this cat-and-mouse game,management has failed to take intoaccount the ingenuity of the workforce,who recognise that in a protractedstruggle such as this, tactics need tochange. They are now openly discussing amore guerrilla type of action, such asworking to rule, instead of the longwalkouts of 2010. Meanwhile, they haveagreed to mediation at ACAS.

A significant background factor is theBA merger with Iberia, f inalised inJanuary. As part of the InternationalAirlines Group, the new company seeks to

compete with low-cost carriers, and thereis a question mark over pensions as wellas current pay and standards of service.

A member of cabin crew, who cannotbe named for fear of victimisation, writestellingly from the heart of the matter, andwith an understanding of how theeconomic situation is being exploited todrive down wages and conditions:

“Here are the basic facts. BA had along-standing agreement with unions recabin crew numbers being 5 or 4 on shorthaul and wanted to reduce thesenumbers (and similarly with long haulfl ights). Not being able to reach anagreement with Unite, BA went aheadand reduced the numbers regardless.

“They also planned the introductionof a new ‘fleet’ serving both long andshort haul flights. The new fleet crewmembers would be on a contract giving asalary of approximately one half ofcurrent staff flying the same routes andthey would have fewer rest hours anddays off.

“In my contract there is a‘redeployment’ clause, which states thatif BA finds that [an employee’s] job forwhatever reason no longer exists, theymust find [the employee] a similar jobwithin the company with similar pay. BAwants to replace this with a clausestating that the employee has 52 weekswithin which to find him/herself a newjob in the company beyond which time heis on his own.

“These were the reasons for thestrike. The crew numbers were reduced,the strikers had their staff travelprivileges removed. Staff travel privilegeis where a member of staff (plus a limitednumber of family members) can fly at 10per cent of the full tariff plus tax. Thismeans typically a £80 return flight toVenice [standby]. After 10 years service,the cabin-crew member has 1 free flight (+taxes) a year. Availability for seats goesby seniority, position in the company andyears of service. Employees of BA whowent on strike have now had theirprivileges reinstated but with theseniority as of July 2010, as if they hadstarted work on that date.

Sacked“During the strike period several BAstrikers were suspended and then sacked[for taking time with union duties]...About 18 people moreover weresuspended for comments made onFacebook, which were pro strike or Union.The new fleet has been up and runningsince November 2010. Given that BA hasshown no compunction in breaking pastagreements, the fear amongst crew isthat their intention is to force ‘oldcontract’ crew to accept the new contract.

“… [In the past] there was a strongfeeling of pride in working for a companythat offered a good service. The divisionsin the company started back around 12years ago with a strike for the samereasons: working conditions wereworsened and a new contract wasintroduced with lower pay and differentconditions. […] The services BA offer arenow of an inferior quality compared withthe past, for example, no food on flightsunder 2 hours and fewer crew and theatmosphere amongst crew and betweencrew and management is one of fear andsuspicion.

“BA has used bullying tactics,supported by governments and even thelegal system … I refer to the judge whoruled the first attempted strike illegalbecause of the current economicsituation. Since when did legality dependon the economic crisis?” ■

Another ballot shows overwhelming support from cabincrew at BA for a strike. A member tells WORKERS why…

The facts behind the BA dispute

BASSA strikers picket in March 2010.

Pic: Andrew Wiard/www.reportphotos.com

Last month the largest pharmaceutical company in theworld decided its profits needed a boost – by closing one ofBritain’s premier research institutes…

MARCH 2011 WORKERS 9

Blow to Britain as Pfizer closes Kent labsNOTHING MAKES finance capitalistshappier than a good spot of destruction.On 1 February, shares in Pfizer, theworld’s largest pharmaceutical company,soared by 5.5 per cent. The reason: itsannouncement that it is to close its giantresearch and development site inSandwich, Kent, as part of a reduction inspending to offset expected reductions inrevenue. The decision “should be metwith a sigh of relief”, said an analyst forCredit Suisse.

What if a company took the oppositepoint of view? Two days after Pfizer madeits announcement, rival drug companyMerck announced a different strategy,one of investing in research. “I am notblind to what investors want us to do.They want us to invest in prudent ways, inways that actually drive return oninvestment and productivity,” said itsCEO. “But as a company we believe thatthe only sustainable strategy in thehealth-care environment that we’re in isreal innovation that makes a difference topatients and payers.” Its shares promptlyfell by 2.2 per cent.

Pfizer used to be an innovativepharmaceutical company. But with newproducts thin on the ground and patentprotection running out on profitable drugslike Lipitor, which combats cholesterol(sales £427 million in Britain in 2007), itseems to have decided around a decadeago to buy innovative companies ratherthan come up with ideas itself. It startedbuying, and buying big – using borrowedmoney.

Last October it bought KingPharmaceuticals for $3.6 billion – but thatwas a small purchase in comparison withwhat went before. In 2000 it boughtWarner-Lambert for $115 billion, followingthat up three years later with theacquisition of Pharmacia for $60 billion,and along the way turning itself intoBritain’s largest pharmaceutical companyand the largest supplier of drugs to theNHS.

In 2009 came another huge purchase,Wyeth, for $68 billion, but to complete itPfizer drained its own cash reserves by$22.5 billion and took on bank loans of a

further $22.5 billion, saddling itself withdebt (the remaining $23 billion wasfinanced with a share issue). At the time,one of the prices to be paid was the lossof 20,000 jobs around the world. Now –surprise, surprise – it needs to save evenmore money, and is cutting deep intoR&D across the globe.

Between them, Wyeth and Pfizerspent $11 billion on global R&D in 2008.In 2012, that figure will be cut by almost30 per cent, down to $8 billion. Apartfrom Sandwich, around 1,000 jobs are togo in Connecticut as well – though moremoney is going to Pfizer’s China Researchand Development Center in Shanghai.(China is a hot destination forpharmaceutical giants. In 2009 Novartisannounced $1 billion investment in abiomedical research centre in Shanghai,to be the company’s third largest R&Dinstitute in the world.)

DevastationUnite, the union, issued a statement fromnational officer Linda McCulloch saying,“This is absolutely devastating news forthe local economy.” She also pointed outthat Pfizer is the biggest employer in thearea. “The staff at this site are at the

cutting edge of developing life-savingdrugs. These are exactly the sort of jobswe need to keep in this country. Unite willbe doing everything possible to savethese jobs and seek alternatives toclosure.”

For Sandwich, the closure will be abody blow, with the loss of 2,400 highlyskilled jobs directly and another 2,400indirectly, in contractors. The historictown has a population of only 6,800,though of course many Pfizer staff liveoutside it. But it is also a body blow forBritain: the Sandwich laboratories housethe greatest concentration ofpharmaceutical researchers in thecountry.

The pharmaceutical industry isessential to the future of Britain. Itemployed around 72,000 people in 2009,of whom 27,000 worked in R&D (thoughthat figure was 5,000 down on the tally in2007). But its importance far exceeds thenumber of the workforce. It accounts for£14.5 billion in exports, and made up thebulk of a trade surplus in medicinalproducts of £9 billion in 2009 – greater

Continued on page 10

Pfizer’s new plant in Belgium. In November 2010 it announced it was moving itsveterinary research from Sandwich, Kent, to Belgium.

than any other industrial sector. Last year,for example, it accounted for 24.9 percent of all British exports to the US,according to the US Census Bureau.

In 2007 pharmaceutical companiesspent £4.5 billion on R&D in Britain. Toput that into context, that was 28 per centof all British industry investment in R&D.

But that figure must surely be set tofall: AstraZeneca announced on 1 March2010 that it will close its Charnwoodresearch centre near Loughborough –after the university the second-largestemployer in the area – with the loss of1,200 jobs, as well as a smaller facility inCambridge. In February last year,GlaxoSmithKline announced major joblosses in Britain as part of a globalreduction of 4,000 staff, with hundreds ofjobs to go in its plant in Harlow.

The giant companies are pinning theirhopes on a new paradigm in drugdevelopment, known as “openinnovation”. Instead of developing newideas in-house, they think they can sourceinnovative new medicines from smallbiotechnology companies. They don’tactually know if that strategy will work,but they do know that any saving on theirown R&D costs translates directly intomore money – short term – forshareholders. And the short term is wherePfizer is looking.

Pfizer calls its strategy “Invest toWin”, allegedly focusing on six diseaseareas, but increasingly it is looking asthough winning profits is all it isconcerned about. It has still to live downits admission in 2009 that it had illegallypromoted drugs for uses that were notapproved by the regulatory authorities.That resulted in a $2.3 billion fine in theUS, described by BBC Online as “thelargest healthcare fraud settlement in thehistory of the Department of Justice”.

ProtectionPfizer’s presence in Britain began in 1952with the opening of a factory inFolkestone, as a direct result of what isnow sneeringly termed “protectionism”. Ithad several antibiotics it wanted to sell to

10 WORKERS MARCH 2011

Continued from page 9

Pharmaceutical research is a central part of a modern industrial economy.

MARCH 2011 WORKERS 11

the NHS, but government regulationslimited the bulk importation of medicalmaterials and restricted the sale ofmedicines not made in Britain. So Pfizerhad to set up a plant here.

Two years later, Pfizer needed toexpand the factory, and found its presentsite in Sandwich. The Folkestone site wasconsolidated into Sandwich in 1960, bywhich time it employed more than 2,000workers in Kent. By the end of 1970s,according to Pfizer’s own information, theSandwich laboratory was the largestresearch facility owned by an Americancompany operating outside the US.

SuccessA string of research successes followed,including: Mansil (for malaria), Feldene(for rheumatism); the antifungal Diflucan;Cadusa (for hypertension); and mostfamously Viagra. These drugs not onlyimproved health but also boosted Britishindustry and employment. Beingdeveloped here, they were also morelikely to come onto the market quicker,benefiting British patients more quickly.Istin, for example, offering relief fromangina and hypertension with a singledaily dose, went on sale in Britain first.

Naturally, the Sandwich staff affectedwere the last to know. Among those who

received early warning was the EuropeanCommission in Brussels. Pfizer has hugemarkets in the European Union, and likesto keep good relations with it. Thereaction was typically vague and useless.Research Commissioner MáireGeoghegan-Quinn said it was a “wake-upcall” for policymakers, adding, “I’m sureI’ll be given lots of ideas about things todo.” One of her favourite policymakers isactually based in the Sandwichlaboratories. Gill Samuels, Pfizer’s head ofscience policy and scientific affairs, sitson the European Research Area Board, setup by the Commissioner to advise onresearch policy.

Business minister Vince Cable wasalso vague. He called the decision“extremely disappointing”, and said hewould be having meetings with Pfizer (“asa matter of urgency”, naturally) to discussalternative uses for the Sandwich site. Somuch for defending British interests! Thegovernment has set up a “task force” tolook at possible alternatives. It is set toreport early in March. There is talk thatthe University of Kent might open aTechnology Innovation Centre there, butin terms of impact that would be a far cryfrom Pfizer’s immensely influentiallaboratories.

Geoghegan-Quinn used the

announcement to call for increasedgovernment investment in R&D. Nowheredoes she mention policy action to forcecompanies to invest – after all, that wouldinterfere with commercial freedom andthe single market. And yet were it not forpostwar policies designed to protect andfoster the pharmaceutical industry, Pfizerwouldn’t be in Sandwich at all.

Make it hereIf our basic industries are to survive, weneed long-term policies to protect them.How about saying that companies can’tsell in bulk to the NHS unless theyresearch and manufacture in Britain? Itwould break EU law. It would go againsteverything governments, Labour andConservative, have been doing fordecades. It would take us back to … well,to 1952, and a Conservative government.But wiser this time – it would be a start inreversing the industrial abandonment ofBritain.

A week after Pfizer’s announcement,the Saga Group said it was planning totake on up to 1,000 workers for its“healthcare business”, based in EastKent. Goodbye industry, hello servicesector. That’s the trend in Britain today,but if allowed to continue it is a trend thatwill wreck the country. ■

CPBML/Workers

Public Meeting, LondonThursday 3 March, 7.30 pm

Health –A front line in the fight for Britain

Bertrand Russell Room, Conway Hall, 25 Red LionSquare, London WC1R 4RL. Nearest tube Holborn.

Are we going to allow MPs to vote through the legislation whichformally consents to the destruction of the NHS? Only people whoare willingly blocking their ears can fail to understand the fundamentalnature of this attack on the health service. Everybody welcome.

Pharmaceutical research is a central part of a modern industrial economy.

12 WORKERS MARCH 2011

IT HASN’T BEEN big news in Britain – it’sbeen bigger news in India – but theEuropean Union is currently negotiating aFree Trade Agreement. Not just beingnegotiated: it’s being “fast-tracked”, in thejargon of the European Commission, whichmeans that there is less time for scrutiny.

Free Trade Agreements are good forglobalised companies, allowing them tobreak down tariff barriers. So what doesIndia want from the European Union? Itssole demand – one that globalisedcompanies are only too happy to agreeto – is for something called “Mode 4access” to EU countries.

Four modes of destructionCross-border trade in services has beendivided into four “modes” in theinternational trade agenda. Mode 1 isservices bought from abroad, for instancevia the Internet. It is Mode 2 when buyersmove across borders, for instance studentsgoing overseas to buy study programmes.When corporations set up in anothercountry, this is Mode 3.

Mode 4 is the temporary movement ofskilled service workers to another country.

It allows workers to be physically movedacross borders on the pay and conditionsthey get in their home country, in this caseIndia. Its inclusion in the internationaltrade agenda allows transnationalcorporations to profit from cross-borderwage differentials, national insuranceexemptions, tax juggling and otherbenefits of “flexible labour”. It is clearly ofhuge commercial importance – but atwhose cost?

Calls in Britain and in the EuropeanParliament for information receive spunresponses that Mode 4 “intracorporatetransferees” are temporary and thus “notmigration”; and that “service suppliers”are not supplying “labour” or “workers”.But Mode 4 access will displace workersand devastate working conditions here asmanagers take up cheap migrant labour in“onshore outsourcing”, for which Mode 4is a perfect fit.

Leaked documents from another EUmember state government show that othercountries have consulted with organisedlabour and have opted for very strict limitson their Mode 4 commitments for thistrade deal. But not Britain. This

government, like the previous one, iswilling to take the lion’s share of theresulting labour influx into the EuropeanUnion: 40 per cent of the total.

There have been no openconsultations in Britain on thegovernment’s Mode 4 commitment, onlysecrecy. Instead, the government’s recentexemption of intracorporate transfereesfrom any supposed immigration “cap”serves to pave the way for an unlimitedMode 4 offer from Britain. So thecommitment to 40 per cent is not a limit.It’s actually “40 per cent or more”.

This means that Mode 4 commitmentswill impact disproportionately on Britishworkers while allowing other, more wary,member states to vote for the Treaty. TheEuropean Commission admits that thisnotionally EU agreement is actually 85 percent a British deal, but its existence hasbeen kept off the screen here and theMode 4 aspect is deliberately very secretindeed.

One example: last July’s hugegovernment “trade” visit to India, frontedby David Cameron and Vince Cable, failedto mention this deal to the British mediaposse.

A good time for bad newsIn February, while media attention wasdistracted by Project Merlin and bankers’bonuses, the government presented aTrade White Paper. Mentioned in only oneparagraph of the Paper, Mode 4 iscouched in the language of “brightest andbest”, and “competitiveness”. But evennow, under national labour migrationprovision, some of those “brightest andbest” intracorporate transferees are paidbelow the minimum wage, with“expenses” added to bump them up onpaper.

Only the White Paper’s supposedsupport for small and medium-sizedenterprises – actually very weak – wasselected for press attention. In fact thetrade agenda gives a privileged status totransnational corporations to the detrimentof national firms and small companies,particularly with Mode 4. World TradeOrganisation literature emphasises that

Secrecy and spin are the means for pushing forward a trade policy that is formulated to benefit City of London financiers.That’s no surprise, given that the policy involves undermining workers with cheap graduate labour from outside the EU. Nowonder it’s being done in secret. No wonder information is being withheld. No wonder the lie machine is on full throttle.

Mode 4: How to bring skilled workers into Britain despite an immigration ‘cap’

eet the PartyThe Communist Party of Britain’s new series of public meetings in Londonbegan in the autumn and continues into spring 2011. Except on May Day,all meetings are held in the Bertrand Russell room, Conway Hall, RedLion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL, nearest Tube Holborn.

The next meeting dates will be: Thursday 3 March 2011 (on the NHS),7.30pm; and Thursday 23 June 2011 (theme to be announced nearer

the date), 7.30pm. Interspersed with these public meetings, the Party runsregular political study and discussion groups for interested workers.

The Party’s annual London May Day meeting will be held onSunday 1 May 2011, in the Main Hall, Conway Hall, Red Lion

Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL, nearest Tube Holborn, 2.00pm startwith speakers, food, bar and interesting political discussion.

As well as our regular public meetings we hold informaldiscussions with interested workers and study sessions

for those who want to take the discussion further. If you areinterested we want to hear from you. Call us on 020 88019543 or e-mail to info@workers.org.uk

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MM

MM

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MARCH 2011 WORKERS 13

only transnational corporations can usethe cheap labour mechanism of Mode 4.

The progress of trade deals throughthe EU mechanism is secretly manipulatedat every point. Department of Business,Innovation and Skills (BIS) officials, whogo fortnightly for trade policy meetings inBrussels, are instructed by City of Londonfinancial services firms and banks inLondon meetings. Despite the enormousbearing these meetings have on the Britisheconomy – on trade policy and on the livesof British people – no records of thesemeetings, “private” in every sense, areavailable. Similarly no minutes areavailable for the Commission’s Brusselstrade policy meetings, so we can only findout our government’s input to EU policyanecdotally via other member states.

It’s different for transnational financialcorporations. They have privileged accessto information enabling them to influencetrade policy.

In the middle of February the non-governmental organisation CorporateEurope Observatory launched legal actionagainst the European Commission forgiving privileged access to its policy-making process to industry lobby groupsin relation to the EU/India Free TradeAgreement. The Observatory is demandingtransparency. A letter written by then-EUTrade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in2008 is a key part of their evidence.

Negotiations for bilateral trade dealssuch as the EU/India Free TradeAgreement are secret until effectivelyfinalised, or “frozen”. They are formallyfinalised when the European Parliamentgives final formal assent. But a pattern ofprovisionally implementing tradeagreements before this stage shows howeven that slim semblance of scrutiny isbeing bypassed.

Because of the European Parliament’shuge agenda, the committee stage, in thiscase the International Trade Committee(INTA), is vital, and consequently a key sitefor secrecy and trickery. A confidant offinancial services interests in London is ina key position on this Committee, and“academic” support from the think-tankECIPE helps agreements to slip through.

This academic advice, which denies theeffects on workers inside the EuropeanUnion, comes from the London School ofEconomics staff who run ECIPE.

When Conservative MEP Sajjad Karimpresented to the INTA the EU/India tradedocument that would subsequently go tothe European Parliament for approval, heomitted to mention Mode 4 or the fact thatIndia would not sign up without it. ButMode 4 had been the first and main itemin that committee session and wasincluded, albeit briefly, in the writtendocument.

Downplaying servicesThe common misapprehension that tradeis mainly agriculture and manufacturedgoods is encouraged. The services part ofthe trade agenda, despite its importanceto economies, its inclusion of banking andfinancial services, and its underpinning ofall other trade, is deliberately downplayed.

At the last high-profile meeting oftrade ministers (the “Doha” round) inGeneva in July 2008, the report of themeeting on services was issued only afterthe world’s media had left Geneva. Andwhen the next Doha meeting wasproposed, World Trade Organisation headPascal Lamy specifically advised states toavoid a media circus and any mention of

services. The trade agenda is not reported in

Britain by the BBC, even from its Brusselsoffice, despite its underlying importance todomestic policy-making – journalists seemto find trade too “technical”, whicheffectively deters media interest. Memberstate parliaments lost veto rights on tradeagreements in the Lisbon Treaty – whichfurther decreases the chance of tradeagreement reporting in Britain.

Mode 4 is inevitably described as“sensitive” in the trade context. This is acode signal that as public knowledge couldchange the dynamics, public mention is tobe avoided. Spin language of “competi-tiveness” reinforces the overridingimportance of individual companyefficiency, logically and legitimatelyadvanced through using the cheapestlabour from wherever. Labour is the maininput cost in services.

Information is an urgent priority.British trade unions can and shouldcounter the secrecy of the unreportedtrade agenda and how it will affect Britishworkers. The wariness of those who –wrongly – consider it a “Left” agenda notto discuss migrant labour has supportedthis secrecy, allowing legal commitmentsthat will undermine workers’ rights,including for future generations. ■

Secrecy and spin are the means for pushing forward a trade policy that is formulated to benefit City of London financiers.That’s no surprise, given that the policy involves undermining workers with cheap graduate labour from outside the EU. Nowonder it’s being done in secret. No wonder information is being withheld. No wonder the lie machine is on full throttle.

Mode 4: How to bring skilled workers into Britain despite an immigration ‘cap’

Mandelson addresses EU-India trade talks in Finland, 2008.

Photo: Confederation of Finnish Industries EK

IT GREW out of a war and a siege. In thesummer of 1870, Emperor Napoleon III ofFrance waged an unnecessary war withPrussia. The Prussians soon proved to bea superior military force and invadedFrance. By September 1870, the Frenchtroops had surrendered and the Emperor,taken prisoner, abdicated.

The Parisian crowds – in disgust –proclaimed a republic. Civilians werecalled up to serve in the National Guard,a part-time citizens’ militia set up in thegreat revolution of 1789. By October 1870Prussian armies encircled Paris, then acity of over a million and a half people.

Fortified walls and a chain of fortswere strengthened. Together with theremnants of the regular army, theNational Guard comprised 350,000 menand women, grouped in neighbourhoodbattalions with a great mistrust of themilitary authorities. Guard units electedtheir own officers and formed a centralcommittee.

The Prussians laid siege. ByDecember food and fuel were runningout. Then came the onset of one of thecoldest winters within living memory.People began to die from hunger andcold. In the middle of January 1871, rationcards were issued for the daily breadallowance.

On top of the recently widened gapbetween rich and poor in the capital, thefood shortages, military failures, and,finally, a Prussian bombardment of thecity contributed to widespreaddiscontent. Also, the temporarygovernment began secret negotiationsand agreed an armistice with theGermans, allowing them into Paris fortwo days to celebrate their victory. Parisfelt betrayed and outraged.

The CommuneIn the early hours of 18 March,government soldiers moved quietly totake over the 250 cannon held by theNational Guard in the hilly areas ofMontmartre, overlooking the city.Quickly, Parisians emerged from theirhomes to surround them. The

government soldiers following Head ofState Adolphe Thiers were ordered to fireon the citizens of Paris. They refused toobey the order, and joined the crowd.

Crowds and barricades emerged allover the city. Regular soldiers retired totheir barracks and the governmentwithdrew to Versailles in disorder. A redflag flew from the Hotel de Ville (CityHall). The Central Committee of theNational Guard was now the onlyeffective government in Paris: it arrangedelections for a Commune, to be held on26 March.

ElectedOn 28 March the Commune wasproclaimed. 92 members of the"Communal Council" were electedincluding a high proportion of skilledworkers and several professionals (suchas doctors and journalists). Nearly a thirdof Commune members were workingclass. It was the first time workers hadbeen elected freely to make policiesinstead of enduring them. A member ofthe Commune wrote, “After the poetry oftriumph, the prose of work.”

Other cities in France also set upCommunes: Lyons, Marseilles, Toulouse,Narbonne, St Etienne, Le Creusot andLimoges. However, all of these werecrushed quickly by the Versail lesgovernment.

The Commune was a new kind ofgovernment. There were no organisedpolit ical parties. The work of theCommune was done by committees,which elected delegates as leaders ofgovernment departments. By the middleof May, 90 trades unions were openlyflourishing. Some 43 workers’cooperatives sprang up, and theCommune attempted to provide money toinvest.

Women, who then had few rights,threw themselves into the commune,working alongside men on publiccommittees, an innovation. Day nurserieswere set up and an industrial trainingcentre for girls planned.

Everyone in public service had to be

14 WORKERS HISTORIC NOTES MARCH 2011

elected by popular vote. The Communeonly had time to issue and implement afew decrees – including the separation ofchurch and state; the remission of rentsowed for the period of the siege; theabolition of night work in the hundreds ofParis bakeries; the granting of pensionsto the unmarried companions andchildren of National Guards killed onactive service; and the right of employeesto take over and run an enterprise if itwere deserted by its owner.

On 21 May, the Versailles troops wereallowed through the German lines, toenter the city of Paris. The toughestresistance came in the more working-class eastern districts, where fighting wasvicious. 20,000 Parisians were killed inone week.

Ruling class brutalityThe ruling class brutality was severe anddraconian. The German army, partlysurrounding Paris, colluded with theFrench army to destroy the Commune.People fought tenaciously in their localcommunities until the 28 May . After theslaughter, Thiers said, “The ground isstrewn with their corpses. May this

1871: Cannon and rifles outside the City Hall in Paris.

The first jolt to the ruling classes’ arrogant belief that only they are fit to governcame in 1871 with the uprising of the Paris Commune…

1871: The 72 days of the Paris Commune

MARCH 2011

How do we counter capitalism’s relentless and absolute decline? How do wegather together our power (recently often left dormant) and commence ourabsolute rise?

Though our class has considerably less material strength than it used to have, we shouldnot doubt its role or underestimate its potential. The only force capable of challengingand removing capitalism is the working class. The fact that so far it has chosen not to godown that revolutionary route does not negate the stark truth: whilst capitalism cannotdo without workers, a working class can live without capitalists.

Experience over centuries has proved that there will be no salvation for workers bypledging allegiance to bourgeois parties or placing faith in bourgeois institutions, both ofwhich are utterly wedded to the ways of capitalism.

Only by re-building our class strength, by regenerating our networks of class power, canwe challenge capitalist decline and fashion our own agenda. Our starting point mustalways be – how do we create a collective response to the issues and problems facingus? How do we unite the many against the few? How do we assert and press our needs?Gradually, in this way, we can change the balance of forces between the exploiting andexploited classes in our favour and transform Britain into a nation fit for workers.

Yet inside too many of our trade union structures there prevail many trendy, harmfulnotions that are completely at odds with this necessary approach.

The most pernicious is the assertion that activists are essential to conduct and mobilise“campaigns”. This arrogant “elite” impedes natural class organisation. All that is neededis the mass involvement of members in their unions pursuing their class interests and outof struggle will be thrown up their leaders as well as appropriate forms of organisation.

Another debilitating obsession is the pathetic squabble over the “left” dominating the“right” (and vice versa) instead of a desire to unite the class wherever it may be.Everyone knows that the “left” can’t agree on who is its “best representative” andspends most of its time in unproductive bickering while Rome burns.

It needs the whole range of the working class, not an introspective sect, to developcorrect thinking, distilled and refined in action and through dialogue. Once a particularsection of the class truly gets involved in their trade union, then these diversions of leftand right reliably disappear, replaced by a true preoccupation on the things that actuallymatter. There is a working class discipline.

We are of and for the supremacy of the working class.

Interested in these ideas?• Go along to meetings in your part of the country, or join in study to help push forwardthe thinking of our class. Get in touch to find out how to take part.

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More from our series on aspectsof Marxist thinking

terrible sight serve as a lesson.”Obviously, the Commune made

mistakes. Probably the people of Pariswere so caught up in planning socialreforms that they did not get to gripswith the threat of the Thiers government.And if the Commune had taken control ofthe Bank of France in Paris (which heldthe country’s gold reserves), then itwould have had something powerful tocounter with. The Commune was neverfully prepared for civil war – it did nottrain the National Guard nor prepare thedefences of Paris very efficiently. Peoplewere left locally to fight behindbarricades that the enemy outflanked.

But the events in the French capitalcity ushered in the prospect of a newtype of society. To ruling classeseverywhere, it was a fleeting alarm, asthe Paris Commune was the first briefglimpse of the bounty of revolutionarypower, and of what it might bring to thepeople. Marx championed the Communewriting of “these Parisians stormingheaven.” It was short-lived, lasting only72 days in only one city, but it happenedand its example can never be erased fromhistory. It is still an inspiration. ■

1871: Cannon and rifles outside the City Hall in Paris.

TTTHE FORCE FORREVOLUTION

The first jolt to the ruling classes’ arrogant belief that only they are fit to governcame in 1871 with the uprising of the Paris Commune…

1871: The 72 days of the Paris Commune

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WHERE’S THE PARTY?“If you have preconceived ideas of what acommunist is, forget them and read thisbooklet. You may find yourself agreeingwith our views.” Free of jargon andinstructions on how to think, thisentertaining and thought-provokingpamphlet is an ideal introduction tocommunist politics. (Send an A5 sae.)

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‘By now itshould beblindinglyobvious to allbut the mostblinkered thatthe politicsthat got us intothis dreadfulposition willnot get us outof it.’

Back to Front – Unity is strengthWE FACE destruction, not cuts. Even thevery metaphor is misleading. If we get acut on our hand, it soon heals. But whatthe government is doing won’t heal. A 70 per cent cut in local government

funding is not a cut or an amputation; noris the attack on the NHS. The ConDemgovernment aims to destroy, not reform.The proposed sell-off of our forests,hastily abandoned after a wave ofoutrage, wouldn’t even have saved money. The attack on the NHS will not benefit

or empower doctors; any doctors who foolthemselves that this is the case will soonsee that they are merely the front men,the fall-guys for the vile “health”corporations poised to seize the NHS’sassets.We are fighting for the right to live as

a working class. So we cannot just beagainst things. We must be for them aswell. Positive thinking. For pay, for jobs,for dignity, for Britain, for a future. It is –sometimes literally – a life-and-deathstruggle. By now it should be blindingly obvious

to all but the most blinkered (and sadlythere are plenty of those about) that thepolitics that got us into this dreadfulposition will not get us out of it.Our response must be swift, all-

encompassing and clear, and it must comethrough our trade unions, the onlyorganisations that can unite us all. Wemust not let ourselves be divided into“left” and “right”, “militants” and“moderates”. We must not mentally, ororganisationally, separate our membersinto self-appointed “activists” and others. It sounds simple, but there are

powerful voices within our own movementfor whom true trade union democracy isanathema. Rather than have the tediousbusiness of representative meetings, orelecting delegates with a duty to report on

what they do, they form their ownunelected organisations, with smart-sounding titles like “Anti Cuts Union”.Well, we have anti-cuts unions. They

are called trade unions. They are the onlyones that can fight cuts rather than stagephoney demonstrations with thousands ofsurplus pre-printed placards. And theywon’t split because one faction decides itdoesn’t like another faction.There is an intense anger welling up

across the country. Unfortunately,opportunist organisations (guaranteedthese days to have an Egyptian speaker intow) are trying to seize control of thisopposition and resistance. A hundred-and-one self-proclaimed anti-cutsorganisations are trying to piggyback onthis wave of anger. In London last month, Barts and The

London Hospitals witnessed a“spontaneous” demonstration outside itsmain entrance in Whitechapel with aclamour to “storm the hospital”, and whenthat failed there was a sad attempt toblock the main road. Barts Trade Union Staff Side ignored

this infantile behaviour. The reps arelooking to build a tidal wave of resistancefrom porter to Chief Executive, from juniordoctor to senior consultant, every workerin the Trust, every patient, every GP, everylocal resident – not some false campaignoutside, but real unity and cohesion basedon those inside. We must not create parallel, substitute

organisations, of self-selected, non-elected, “activists”, outside the unionstructure. We must resist and defeat allsuch attempts to divide and destroy ourunions. We must not interfere in theinternal affairs of other unions, nor mustwe ever insult the elected representativesof other unions. Unity is strength.