It’s planned to be the big one, so if you can get there, do! There are loads of FREE coaches going. From Bristol, where I am going from, there are 40 alone at present, so no excuses :-p!

These cuts effect us all and we must fight them, else they’ll win and roll back people living standards. The Rich caused this crisis, so why are we paying? Make the tax dodging greedy rich pay instead!

For more information visit this web site

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Proportional Representation would have been the best one, of course. Well, better, hardly democracy because after all we live in a Capitalist system and democracy isn’t compatible with that. It’s strange how people can think we live in a democracy when we have little of the choices that actually matter. We have no democratic control over our working lives, unless you’re rich, you can only sell yourself for a fraction of what you make and be dictated to. Sure you can start your own business but that takes a lot of time and money which most of us don’t have. You don’t have the freedom to distribute your opinion on a wide scale unless you’re rich and can afford to own a newspaper or TV channel. And even the supposed choices we have, do we? Who get into power time and time again? Parties that are totally out of sync with public opinion, who are rich men, on the most part, who don’t have the majorities interests at heart. Just take the cabinet. Their mostly multi millionaires. Look at the cuts, which ever way you look at them the working and middle classes are hit the worst and the rich get corporation tax cuts and bailouts. We must fight for a new workers party, and break free from the cycle of voting for the lesser of two evils…

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The bankers caused this crisis yet we pay for it, with cuts to our services, pay and jobs.  Everyone will suffer (unless you’re a banker) and many many will die, let’s not mince words after all that is the grim reality of this all. All in the name of profit and keeping a live a outdated system that serves no one but the rich of our society.

Allowing this to continue is a crime, we can change things if we organise. The rich need us, we don’t need them, like they pretend we do. They are and do what they do because we allow them to. If we all just said ‘no’ who would do all the work to produce things and services that make them the profit? Huge profits I might add and in return give us a fraction of those profits in wages when it’s us that does all the work!

They know this, which is why they must keep such a tight reign on the media to spread their lies. But people aren’t stupid, people know it’s bollox what they read in the paper but feel powerless to do anything. But it’s simply not true, we have the power, all they have is the piles of money, without workers to make them their vast profits they are powerless to control us, this needs to be remembered!

We have nothing to lose my friends, nothing but our chains!

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The production values are ridiculously bad, but try and push through that, important messages within!

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Fighting for Democratic Unions

Was a very good talk from Rob Williams who, most in the movement will know well. If not, check out his background here. Also Linda Taffee Spoke. The talk was a good one and outlined the outrageous actions of certain trade union leaders in the movement, the more I hear the more I can’t believe it. It makes you wodner why they joined the movement in the first place. The problem is bad trade union leadership tends to raise in dark days, which the 90s certainly was for socialism as well as trade unions. However we are now enetering a time that if we hope to stay above water, we need a fighting trade union leadership! The role of a leadership is to communicate to workers why action is important. No one wants to take action, strikes mean a loss of pay and a risk of losing. But, the bosses will forever come back at you so if you don’t fight you will lose, if you do fight you might win! You might not want anything to do with poltics but it’ll take a big chunk out of you if you like it or not!

The amazing thing is that in so many cases it’s the workers saying to leaderships we want to take action while the leaderships try to talk workers out of it, quite rediclious. Of course there are exceptions, the Prison Officers Association (POA), Fire Brigade Union (FBU) and the RMT are three examples of good unions, and by the way seeing massive growth in membership while the Unite and Unison Dinosaurs leadership fading away, and if we’re not careful taking the movement with them!

Saturday Rally

The rally on Saturday evening was good. It included three trade union leaders. The head of the POA and member of the Socialist Party, Brian Caton. The General Secretary of the FBU, Matt Wrack.  Bob Crow, General secretary of the RMT. Peter Taaffe, General Secrtary of the Socialist Party as well as Irish Socialist Party Member of the European Parliament Joe Higgins spoke.

All very good, passaniate speaches, esspially from the trade union leaders. Which, is always good! Bob used the S word too! That being socialism, I believe for the first time! Also he seemed pretty sure that the Union and Left Party Collation that started with the No2EU Campaign (under a new name of course, thank god!!!) will be seeding candiates in the General Election next year!

In Defence of Trotsky

On Sunday morning I went to a talk on Trotsky by Peter Taaffe. This was a very interesting talk, the Russian Revolution is a partcilar interest for me. Robert Service, a British Historian on Russia at Oxford University recently brought out a book on the life of Trotsky. Which is hard to find a truthful line inside it! It is nothing more then an ideological attack. Totaly indefensible, which has been proven. He refuses to engage the Party in any sort of debate on the accuracy of his book, and recently when he found out General Secretary of the Socialist Party Peter Taaffe was going to be speaking at the same conference as him in Russia, Mr Service pulled out! Another example of how we as Socialists have the truth on our side. We maybe small but we do have that! Our opponents refuse to engage us in debate and rather use their power and resources to rubbish us instead. You can crush a man but you can’t crush an idea!

What now for the German Left

Ok, I probably shouldn’t say this but… by the time I got to this talk I was very tired as I hadnt slept much the night before, coupled with drinking much more then I thought I had… I really couldn’t take anything in from this talk, so errm, yeah. I’m sure it was good though …

Final Rally

Had woken up a bit by this time, some good speeches from mostly Union representives including Rob Williams, Janice Godrich President of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). John Denton, Regional Secretary of Communication Workers Union (CWU), London. Mark Smith from the Vestas Struggle. Sean Figg from Youth Fight for Job Campaign and finally Hannah Sell the General Secreary of the Socialist Party.

All good, I was esspially interested to hear what John Denton from the CWU had to say with the recent call off of strikes for the time being. He seemed to be saying that the managers of Royal Mail have learnt their lessons and expected major victories for the Union when they go to negotiate again. I’m a little concerned though if calling off the strikes was a good idea, even if it might just be for a short period. I think these strikes poteitally could have been as major as the Miners Strikes in the 80s. You had a work force who were willing to do whatever it took, if the CWU don’t win everything they demanded then I worry what this could mean in the future, but we will see, I guess!

All round fun weekend, looking forward to Socialism 2010!

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Capitalism Hits the Fan: A Marxian View from UVC-TV 19 on Vimeo.

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A came across this on you tube a minute ago and it annoys me mostly. It’s one of those projects that try and push the idea of real debate and an open fourm to discus ‘new’ ideas when it’s anything but. You just need to watch the videos and look at the polls to see how narrow the debate is, the discusions have been decided really. It’s just propghanda at the end of the day to say ‘hey look we have changed, we are good now!’, when they haven’t they are just trying to save their skins.

You know it’s nothing new either, Capitalists throughout our history have been willing to give up on their free market ideas in favour of regulation in the market if it means saving their little system, and a few years down the line they will be pushing for de regulation again in the market. It’s what we would call a ‘old boys network’, ‘socialism for the rich’. The people at the top have no princpals, no idiology really, just greed. They don’t believe the rubbish they spew about the free market and capitalism being the best way to lift the world out of poverty and all that. The sad fact is that while class consciousness amongst the working class has gone down it’s clear from the events that have happened that the rich have maintained their class consciousness despite notions of a ‘classless society’ with Nu Labour. 

I suppose what concerns me and no doubt will happen is we will re brand the problem as the solution, unless people unite together and say no! Radical change is needed, and I believe that socialism is the answer, the system we have now doesn’t work, it’s clear the majority of the world live in poverty and capitalism has done nothing much to change that. When you take away the gloss they put on the system all it has done is create misery in the world.

But they use fear and lies to discourage the general population from any real change in society. Class Conciseness is the key. The solution really is simple, once the majority agree then there’s nothing they can do. The corporations, corrupt governments in the world only have the power because we allow it. If we all said, no, and took real democratic control then there is nothing they could do.

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Mark Steel talking at the final Rally about forming a new workers Party:

Part One:

Part Two: 

Highlights from the Rally the first day, the camera work is rather appalling…

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