Keep the Faith (with LABOUR)

The ideology of the Tories this country can no longer savour
All I ask is that you keep the faith with LABOUR
It is the ‘ordinary’ people they will always represent
Or perhaps the extraordinary is what I really meant
For the 99% can do so much better not worse
Please read the wise words in the following verse
 
Labour represents social justice and the plight of others
Stand beside us united as sisters and brothers
Working class people are joining Labour again
Recognising the urgent need for them to be in NO.10
It is obvious the non-labour left are going nowhere
So join us today and show that you truly care
 
Listen to what Ed Milband has to say
Don’t be influenced by the propaganda of the day
He has integrity is honest and decent, he has a great plan
He understand the needs of every child, woman and man
Labour will do all they can to sort out this mess
Build more houses, reduce tuition fees and save the NHS
They will also scrap bedroom tax and the gagging act
Introduce the 50p and mansion tax, that is a fact
 
They will be rid of firms like Serco , G4s and ATOS
Target zero hours and employers who don’t give a toss
Join the activists that are determined to fight
For policies that are after all our human right
Labour are the only party that will do it for you
 
For a left and equitable political and humane view
Ignore the dirty politics the hype and the spin
To not be involved in your own future is surely a sin
Get behind your local labour candidates support their cause
Do whatever you can, to open up those closed doors
Keep the faith, be the change you want to see
Be assured of a better place to live for you and me…
 
Hat tip ©Suzi@politicalsanity 2014 via Sue Jones on Facebook.
Picture Ed Miliband "Today I met Mark Radley who served on the same ship as my dad during the D-Day landings. He and my dad were only 19 and 20 years old when they set sail for France. We must never forget the bravery and sacrifice of those who fought fascism for democracy during the Second World War: http://labour.tw/UfwxDS"

Trade union renewal and the role of ideology, organising and servicing.

UNISONActive had an interesting post recently "Ideology - an essential component of union growth strategies". It argued that having an organising agenda alone does not work and that unions ought to be more "political". Organising is defined as  "empowering workers at work and in their union".

The American trade union SEIU has a world wide reputation for organising yet this has not resulted in an increase in trade union membership.  Instead this post believes that "Our core message has to address social injustice and the failure of market economies".

I tend to agree but I don't necessarily see any conflict with an union pursuing political goals as well as an organising model except of course that unions don't have unlimited resources so some form of prioritisation has to take place. 

Yet the solution offered is to "empower workers with an anti-caplitalist ideology". Which unsurprisingly as a fully paid up mixed economy reformist I don't agree with. We need to control the excesses of capitalism by political regulation, progressive taxation, quality public services and strong free trade unions. 

"Ideology" has always been a problem for unions but it is good to debate this issue and hopefully come to a consensus on what we can agree upon for the here and now.

I also think we should also mention in any discussion on trade union renewal the much maligned "servicing" model of trade unionism. I am a huge fan of organising and empowering members and stewards but if members need help at work then they have the right to expect speedy, responsive and competent representation. The best person to represent members on personal or collective issues is a trained, confident local rep who has the support of the membership. But reps need the support of the union and where there is no such local rep the union needs to be there.

Finally, we also need to think that if the Anglo-American school of trade unionism is declining then should we not be looking at those countries in Northern Europe where they seem to be more successful than us with much higher density levels and better protections for workers? 

“No Dividend Appropriation without Representation”

You don’t have to be raving loony left to get out of your tree at this recent report by the TUC “Pension Watch”.

They have found by examining the published accounts that the average top 100 directors of UK companies will look forward to a pension of £201,700 a year from pension pots that average £3 million each.

This is annual pensions, not salary.

The real issue is not just the size of these payments in itself (although many would disagree) to me the issue is that this is a stonking 25 times the average workplace pension that ordinary workers receive (£8,100 v. £201,700).

Not only that, while many large firms decide that they cannot “afford” to pay what is called “Defined Benefit” (or DB - pensions to its ordinary workers which are much less riskier and much fairer than the new “Defined Contribution” or DC), 76% of director schemes are still on safer “Defined Benefit” (DB)!

The shame gets even worse. Where you have directors on DC schemes, the top directors receive average pension contributions equivalent to 21% of their salaries, while the average for ordinary workers is only 6.5%. This unfairness is difficult (for me anyway) to really get your head around but remember that not only are the directors already paid far more than their average employees but the multiple that their pension contributions are paid is also far, far higher (unlike income tax?)

Finally, while we find that nearly all public and private pensions schemes for ordinary mortals now have a retirement age of 65, the majority of schemes allow directors to retire at 60!

This stinks! I can accept that there will always be in a capitalist society significant differentials in wages and benefits. But the scale of these differentials in pensions is just wrong and surely destructive. Do we really want to live in such a society where there is such blatant unfairness? Surely even those who do not believe in social justice will realise the drip, drip damage that such inequality will result in?

The irony is of course that the ordinary workers who get such a raw deal when compared to their directors are actually the real “owners” of these companies via their pensions and insurance policies. If these owners were able to exercise their rights of ownership would such abuses continue?

So do we need to dress up as native Indians, invade the London Stock exchange and then throw annual reports into Limehouse harbour under the call for “No Dividend Appropriation without Representation”?