Class: Parliamentary Launch "Why Equality Matters"

Collage is from the Parliamentary launch last Wednesday evening of "Class" The "Centre for Labour and Social Studies". A new "left" think tank.

The launch featured its latest report "Why Equality Matters". Which is a more populist and accessible version of the book "The Spirit Level - Why Equality is better for everyone". 

The meeting was packed with loads of Labour MPs. Including Stephen Timms from East Ham.

Steve Hart from Unite chaired the meeting, Emily Thornberry MP spoke first, then we had John Trickett MP, Owen Jones, Professor Richard Wilkinson and new TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady. Check out my twittering here on the event (31 Oct).

I asked the question about whether we were really preaching to the converted here tonight when we should be asking what actual policies will be needed to bring about a more equal society. Should we be honest with the electorate, that everyone will have to pay more in taxes not just the super rich, to bring about a society that benefits everyone? (such as truly affordable housing and childcare)

Owen Jones responded by saying that at first we we need to start with a tax on the rich and make sure that they do not evade their taxes, then we could be more ambitious. The wealth of the Sunday Times "Rich List" has grown during this "recession" by more than the total sum of the deficit.

Frances O'Grady was fiery and passionate in her response. Growth in real wages is key in reducing inequality and recession. UK companies have reduced wages and accumulated £750 billion in reserves. No wonder we have no demand in our economy.

Afterwards I met up with my best ever blogging mate, Dave Stroppy, (nee Osler) and we went with UNISON comrades to sort the world out at the Red Lion.

Middle picture hat tip Seph Brown

On board the Livingstone Battle Bus against Boris & CONDEM Cuts

Early yesterday morning I was with London UNISON convener, Gloria Hanson, at Euston to join other trade unionists who were helping London Labour Mayor Candidate, Ken Livingtone, launch his Boris and CONDEM anti-cuts campaign.  We went on a open air double decker bus to the Beormund Community Centre in Bermondsey, which itself is facing a Government £40k cut in its budget putting its existence in doubt. With us amongst others was Steve Hart, the Unite Regional Secretary, Paul Hayes the London GMB regional secretary, David Lammy MP and of course - Ken. 

Before we set off Ken got a good reception from passing commuters who shouted support and gave him the "thumbs up" sign and in return they received the famous grin.  Ken is of course notoriously a bit of a "Marmite" character, but ordinary Londoners seemed to be genuinely pleased to see him and offer support.

The bus driver was unsure of the best route to Bermondsey, so the Unite union Black taxi reps present offerred to help.  This could have been a "tricky" situation (taxi drivers telling bus drivers "what to do") but it seemed to work well (all comrades together!).  Perhaps also we were lucky there were no low bridges on route either? :)

The immediate Boris/CONDEM cuts already announced and the prospect of even much, much more are the defining issue facing Londoners.  We need the candidate who is best able to inspire and protect ordinary Londoners and then defeat in 2012 the ideological "slash and burners" who will be doing their level best to destroy our London.

In this particular battle - nothing else matters.

UPDATE: check out Mary Honeyball MEP top post here on her support for Ken.

“What Do We Want..Quantitative Easing..When Do We Want It..Now!”

The SERTUC Regional Council meeting on Saturday morning (see previous post) had invited the economist, Graham Turner, of GFC Economics to update us on the “impact of workers of the current economic situation and future prospects”.

A huge topic to cover in 15 minutes. Graham to his credit didn’t seem fazed at all by this and did his best to cram in a minor PhD worth of alternative financial info in the allotted time spam. Despite the odds - it worked.

Graham argued that the Banks are still lending as much as they did during the boom years despite the common perception of a “credit crunch”. However, what they are doing now is lending to the OFC or “other financial corporations” such as lease and finance companies who use to get their money from capital markets. Which have now all dried up. The Banks are using the money they got from the government to lend to this “shadow banking sector” rather than directly to industry and consumers. He wants the Banks to be nationalised outright since piecemeal recapitalisation of Banks is not working.

He feels for Obama “I really do” since he thinks he will be overwhelmed by events - 1:10 US mortgages are in arrears or being foreclosed. This will increase as the recession takes hold. 1.5 million US jobs have been lost or more commonly, people are forced to go part time. The true unemployment and forced part time rate is now 13%.

He believes that the weakening of Unions in the West contributed to the present crisis since it led to a squeeze on earnings which meant consumer goods and homes were unaffordable which resulted in excessive lending

Graham’s solution is the infamous “quantitative easing” - large scale financial fiscal stimulus of the economy. In April 1932 the tide was turned in the States by buying bonds not cutting base rates. The gilt yield at the moment in the UK is some 4% pa; it needs to get down to 1.5%. By printing money or by whatever is needed. There is no current inflation threat only a real deflation threat. We need to learn from Keynes and from what worked in the 1930’s. Probem is that the lesson of history is of course we don’t learn from history.

Graham is based in Mile End around the corner from where I work. Well done to SERTUC for having him speak. He went down very well with the audience. I did my usual question to him about the role of workers capital governance in the current crisis but got my usual reply (he thought that I was talking about the current dire financial state of many pension funds not workers capital – it must be me?).

Graham has a book out called “The Credit Crunch – Housing Bubbles, globalisation and the Worldwide Economic Crisis”. I queued up with many others to buy a copy which now sits on a shelf immediately to my right and is now glaring at me unread.

Two further things of interest – the first question he had from the floor complained that there hadn’t been enough “class analysis” in his presentation. Graham answered by apologising for not referring to the impact of on the working class of the crisis but made no reference to any theories on class consciousness (which was a relief and a welcome surprise).

Steve Hart, the Unite London regional secretary, asked Graham if could think of a more snappy, user friendly slogan to explain what he was arguing about. Steve, quite reasonably pointed out that he could not imagine going on a demo with thousands of people shouting “What do we want...Quantitative Easing... When do we want it?..."“Now”. I think that Graham suggested “Print Money Now” and “No Wage Cuts”. Which are not that catchy but will do.

SERTUC Regional Council – “Nationalise Liabilities, Profits remain Private”

This morning (Saturday) I attended the Trade Union Congress, Southern and Eastern Regional Council (SERTUC) as a UNISON delegate with my fellow Greater London Regional Council Officer, Gill Brown, who is our Equalities convenor.

The TUC is divided into regions and each region will hold quarterly Council meetings of affiliated union and trade council delegates. SERTUC meets every 3 months in Congress House, London. There were 76 delegates present. I will not pretend that this post is a full report on this meeting but I will mention bits and pieces I thought interesting.

The Council President, Martin Gould, in his introductory presentation referred to this anomaly about the current financial crisis, that while we have nationalised the liabilities or risks, the ability to take any profits from this nationalisation remain in private hands? A fair point I think. Martin made a number of other good points although I didn’t agree with everything (of course!). He brought up the fairly widespread view that the current problems had effectively destroyed the “Private Good, Public Bad” argument. We now have people who beforehand continually attacked the “nanny state” now begging and pleading for state aid. He also pointed out that it had been claimed that a public sector pay claim of over 2.5% would be inflationary. However, it appears that pumping £500 billion into the economy is not??? Martin argued that it was time for a “new approach”. To overcome a recession we need to increase demand by increasing pensions and pay. A wealth tax on energy to help pay for the renationalisation of utilities. To address rising unemployment he referred to Lenin’s “what is to be done”, which is the first time in recent times that I have ever heard that “name” mentioned in the hallowed grounds of the TUC!

We also had a minutes silence for 5 comrades who are no longer with us. Including John Onslow, who was Tower Hamlets GMB steward and member of SERTUC executive. John was a trade union and Labour party stalwart. He was old School labour movement from fingers to toes. He lived only 100 yards from where I work and we use to bump into each other from time to time. He is one of the very, very few activists that I have never heard a bad word against. RIP Comrade.

However, Martin came back to earth by saying that if we can’t get socialism during this crisis then we should at least take a step in the right direction and demand “Social Justice”. The creed of Greed, Parasites and the pursuit of profit at all costs has been shown wanting. The trade union movement needs to provide leadership. There can be no partnership with the multinationals. The door is open for change; all we have to do is push it.

The new regional secretary of the PCS (whose name I did not catch – apologies) reported on future strike action over pay. Interestingly he claimed that there were 52 billionaires in the UK and that 32 paid no tax last year. I think he meant income tax? He also spoke about united strike action in the public sector over pay. I’m afraid that I am not holding my breath.

My former Tower Hamlets JCC colleague (with John Onslow), Alex Kenny, from the NUT, spoke about their strike ballot over pay and united strike action. He criticised the supposedly independent teachers pay review board as being under the control of the government and exercising pay restraint.

The SERTUC regional secretary Megan Dobney reported that the new Mayor of London, Boris had agreed to meet SERTUC representatives next year in January, May and September. That should be fun.

Adrian Weir from UNITE reported on the House of Lords reversal of a section of the Employment bill which means that trade unions cannot expel Nazi’s. I will do a separate post on this important topic. All unions should use any influence they have with MP’s to overturn this measure.

Steve Hart, the regional secretary for UNITE gave a presentation on the finance and banking sector (75,000 members) and how they are coping with the financial crisis. Steve is someone you should listen carefully to and take note. He pointed out that UNITE not only have members facing problems in the financial sector but their members in UK car and van factories now face short time working after years of 24/7 shifts and unlimited overtime. Many building sites are now being shut up and moth balled. One good thing from this present crisis is the collapse of the neo-liberal fantasy. It is now important to have Keynesian measures in place. It is a “patriot duty” to increase wages rates to increase demand to prevent recession. He prased the chancellor for bringing forward big public building projects. Protect home owners from eviction by taking over their properties and renting it back. Take over insolvent private sector builders. Tax the rich. “The moment is here”. He finished by reporting back on the London bus dispute for pay parity across the capital which has run into problems with the Royal Court of Justice Judges (tell me about it).

During questions I did my party trick and reminded Council about the role that workers capital can play in preventing the misuse of our money and savings in the future.

Karen Livingstone gave a good presentation on the East of England development agency.

Finally, Chris Green from the White Ribbon campaign to end male violence against women gave a cracking presentation. 89% of domestic violence is by men against women. A woman is seriously injured by a man in this county every 10 seconds. After every football game that the England football team plays there is an increase in violence against women – won or lose. The 25th November is their action day. It is really positive to see men taking responsibilities for their actions. Their aim is to change attitudes, especially amongst young men. Mind you a speaker did point out in this country there were only 300 refuges for women facing domestic violence while there are over 2,000 sanctuaries for animals. Makes you think...