Category: Uncategorized

Rebuild Britain was formerly TUAEU. It is now considering opportunities offered following Brexit for Britain’s future. Rebuild Britain’s Fishing Industry is the first in a series of documents examining opportunities offered by Brexit in Britain. This is to be launched on 1st May, 2021. Rebuild Britain website. Other issues will be addressed including agriculture. This promises to give an informed base to debates post-Brexit aligned to those on the left who supported Brexit but whose voice was silenced in the media, but in political terms showed determination that the results of the 2016 referendum would prevail. The left agenda is fundamentally different to that of the right but believing that only by leaving the EU (without any deal which would tie us to the EU indefinitely). Doug Nicholls who led Trade Unions Against the EU (TUAEU) is now moving on the same issues post Brexit. Here is a flavour of what to expect: New developments in agricultural policy give some idea of our potential future as a sovereign nation… Change is on the way for agriculture. In November the government set out the future shape of farming subsidies in the “Path to Sustainable Farming”. It marks a major change in approach.
The EU’s subsidy system was based on land ownership. The more land you owned, the more you received in subsidies. Out of the EU, the new British system will instead be structured to reward “sustainable” farming practices, encouraging farmers to protect natural habitat and establish new woodlands.
One can argue about the detail of these measures, and the subsidy regime must provide better support for farmers to produce food, but in putting them forward the government has stolen a march on the EU.
Posing
Though Brussels likes to pose as the greenest of the green, member states have been bickering for decades about Common Agricultural Policy reform and failed to take any significant measures to make farming more sustainable. And still there is no agreement on reform.
A report commissioned by the Agriculture and Rural Development Committee of the European Parliament, also delivered in November, didn’t mince its words. It said that the European Commission’s latest (2018) proposal for “business as usual” CAP reform was only “marginally consistent” with the EU’s declared environmental aims. “In the longer term,” the report concluded, “it is difficult to see why taxpayers would accept the financing of a policy that no longer provides a public good.”
This is not the only area where Britain is about to accomplish something the EU has signally failed to do. In the 1990s and the 2000s, people in Britain protested against the export of live animals to the continent.
Yet nothing was done. Even recently, in 2019 70,000 sheep were transported from the EU to Kuwait in temperatures of over 40 °C, and 14,000 sheep drowned when a boat bound for Libya sank off the coast of Romania.
‘MEMBER STATES HAD BEEN BICKERING FOR YEARS ABOUT CAP REFORM…’
At the beginning of December 2020 the government launched an eight-week consultation on animal welfare in transport, including a proposal for a ban on live exports for slaughter and fattening, a move described by the RSPCA as “a landmark achievement for animal welfare”.
In a telling nod to the referendum campaign, an RSPCA blog has the subheading “We’re taking back rightful control” over the conditions under which live animals are exported. We can leave behind the lax and ineffective EU standards and establish our own.
Britain could even tackle the question of land ownership. Just as we can require fishing vessels that fish in our waters to be British owned, so we could require our farmland to be British owned to qualify for subsidies, or, better still, outlaw foreign ownership of British land altogether. We are the masters now.
The advantages of independence become clearer, day by day, to all with eyes to see. The EU’s terrible record on agriculture, the wine lakes and butter mountains, the dumping of chicken in west and southern Africa, the need to prop up small peasant proprietors in eastern Europe, need no longer constrain us.
But we still have some way to go to construct coherent agricultural policies that provide safe affordable food for workers. We must encourage the scientific research and manufacturing that a strong agricultural section of the economy needs.
Britain can only discuss and act on these questions because we decided as a nation to assert our independence and unity in June 2016. This is not sovereignty as discussed in the dry chapters of constitutional law textbooks. This is real sovereignty in action.

Remember the dead. Fight for the living. Events around Britain Birmingham event Workers’ Memorial Day

Seems as if the Government wants to make sure we’re dead one way or the other. If we’ve survived Covid one way or the other then we’ll be nuked before climate change can make the planet uninhabitable. Clearly when there’s compeition between the Arms Trade lobbyists and Environmentalists the former has the financial clout from arms dealing leading to death and destruction for poverty stricken regions like the Yemen and Syria, with the Balkans, Iraq and Libya long forgotten. Be interesting to know the effects of lobbying on politicians across the divide. One former Labour Minister for Defence went through the revolving door for a lucrative job with British Aerospace a while ago. New data published today by think tank SIPRI reveals that UK military spending increased by almost 3% in 2020, making the UK the 5th biggest military spender in the world. Today is the Global Day of Action on Military Spending. All around the world, campaigners are challenging the myth that spending ever more money on warfare will make us safer. Today, we come together to say: defund the military. Defend people and planet. Communities know what makes them feel safe, and it’s not increasing nuclear warheads or building killer robots. It’s things like secure housing, decent work, tackling the climate crisis, pandemic preparedness and ending institutional racism. Together, we can build a movement for change, from the ground up. Spead the word in your community about the need to shift priorities: Speak out in your local media. Contact your local media Use our tips to write to your local newspaper, or call in to your local radio show, to give the message: Defund the military. Defend People and Planet. Prefer not to talk to your media? Why not share a graphic with friends on your social media platforms or by email instead. Thank you sincerely for all you do to support CAAT’s work. In solidarity Caroline Public Campaigns Coordinator Campaign Against Arms Trade Posted by John Tyrrell 26.4.2021

Watching the iceberg melt. The NHS is melting away in front of eyes. Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) has launched a Peoples’ Covid Enquiry which is ongoing. Chaired by Michael Mansfield it is probing into what has been happening while the pandemic and other crises have turned our attention. KONP Our latest bulletin provides essential campaigning reading to keep you up to date with all the latest NHS stories. Our editor John Lister, working with your contributions, has hand picked the best and most relevant local and national must-read stories, including: The appointment of Centene boss Samantha Jones as a Downing St advisor Rishi Sunak’s continued austerity for NHS Soaring waiting lists and impact on cancer care The widening health divide as public health budgets are cut Private sector demands for changes to NHS White paper Hospitals crumble … as PM’s constituency hospital is pushed up queue for funding Lancashire plan killed off as Hancock shuts off capital KONP People’s Covid Inquiry Fighting against privatisation (various) Trade union news (various) Fury at Downing Street’s report that whitewashes institutional racism Philippine government offers to trade nurses … for vaccines HCT affiliates agree to build united pay fight People’s Covid Inquiry Podcast! As well as announcing our latest bulletin we would like to let you know of an exciting addition to our sister organisation’s ongoing People’s Covid Inquiry. The People’s Covid Inquiry Podfollow podcast provides the opportunity to listen to all the sessions that have so far taken place. The thing is, this needs more subscribers to encourage the techy algorithms to recommend it to more people. It’s a virtuous circle, so please, please, subscribe/follow/share while regular episodes are coming out, I am sure you will all agree that the Inquiry is a brilliant and very worthwhile initiative, so please get listening and sharing folks! Thanks as always for your continued support! John Tyrrell 20.4.2021

Reactions to the Sewell Report which the British Government has dreamed up have reached the United Nations which calls for the organisation producing it to be scrapped. However this is not for the first time that denial of institutional racism has affected the fight against racism and discrimination when following the issuing of the Rampton Report dealing with concerns on the achievement of Black pupils rcaism was mentioned. The Government then requested Lord Swann to look again leading to the Swann Committee and the report of 1985. What happened then is described by a member of both committees, Carlton Duncan, first Black Headmaster of a secondary school in the UK tells us. He says NOW is the time to implement a thorough programme combatting racism and discrimination in education and other institutions. The Welsh Government already has plans to do just this. The highly discredited “Sewell Report”. 2021 and another report on racism. Following on Black Lives Matter and the inequalities laid bare for all to see by Covid 19 and once more a disproportionate proportion of the burden on the Black community, particularly those working at the front line, in hospitals, in the care services. This latest report requested by the Government, seeks to put a lid on those saying that inequalities could and should be avoided if attention was paid to institutional practice and particularly discriminatory practices and procedures that have found there way into ways of thinking and doing things principally as a result of the colonial experience which is clearly in evidence all around us. The evidence is strikingly clear to those whose families have been on the receiving end of exploitation and degradation and continue to be in the hands of our institutions: the deaths of George Floyd in the U.S. and Belly Majinga in the U.K., the Victoria station ticket worker who contracted Covid 19 after being spat at on while on duty both of whom should have been protected by institutions they came into contact with: the police and rail services in these cases. To add insult to injury it has been reported that some of those named in the Government’s Sewell Report hadn’t been aware of the final document’s content. It has in fact been rewritten by unknown people at no 10 Downing Street. The attitude of the leading institutions in the country are not new as the following article written by a member of both Rampton and Swann committees testifies. Carlton Duncan’s article on Rampton/Swann: RAMPTON AND SWANN ANSWERS ARE AVAILABLE AND AWAITING IMPLEMENTATION Bernard Coard (a Grenadian academic and teacher living in the UK in the 70s) became alarmed by his experiences of how the British ESN schools (schools for those considered to be educationally sub-normal) operated and were populated. This prompted him to publish his book HOW THE WEST INDIAN CHILD IS MADE EDUCATIONALLY SUBNORMAL IN THE BRITISH SCHOOL SYSTEM. It is no longer accepted to use the term “West Indian”, hence, here from, the term “black is substituted. What Coard found was that 4 out of 5 children in ESN schools were black. Often these children found their way to ESN schools with the support and acquiescence of their parents because their children’s teachers told them that their children would be sent to “special” schools. “Special” is a term known to black people as something very good and beneficial. Incidentally, in spite of the fact that political involvement in Grenada eventually landed Coard a death sentence which was later commuted to life imprisonment, Coard has maintained a strong interest in this aspect of British education from his prison cell. His current view is that what is needed to bring educational justice to all children alike is: “quality education for all: that is one that is not dependent on the parental income/wealth or social status and connections of school children, does not have schools providing vastly different standards of education and does not have a two-tiered system, or multi-tiered system of education, providing differential education for the children of different classes, genders and ethnicities”. Though, at the time, Coard’s disclosure was the most significant in stirring black parents into action, he was not alone in identifying the educational obstacles and educational state of affairs for black children. Throughout the education system generally, black children were encouraged to take CSE as opposed to the then GCE examinations. The latter, of course was for high flyers (usually white children) whilst the former was of much less worth for children’s life chances. Studies, after studies, showed the damning effects of these practices on black children’s performance in schools. A Brent LEA study in 1963 raised alarm about black children performance in reading, arithmetic and spelling; Vernon 1965; Little’s studies 1966 and 1968 and a Redbridge study in 1978 all, similarly reflected major concerns about black children’s performance compared with white children in British schools. It was in this climate of concern that the Select Committee on Race Relations and Immigration in 1977 produced its Report on ‘The West Indian Community’. The Report highlighted the widespread concern about the poor performance of [black] children in schools. The Committee, therefore, recommended that the Government, as a matter of urgency, should institute “a high level independent inquiry into the causes of the underachievement of children of West Indian origin in maintained schools and the remedial action required”. The James Callaghan Labour Government with the Honourable Shirley Williams as Secretary Of State for Education, at the time, responded to the Select Committee’s recommendation positively but widened it to include all ethnic minorities whilst giving more urgent attention to children of West Indian origin. Hence, this was the birth of the Rampton and, subsequently, Swann Inquiries which reported in 1981 and 1985 respectively. Carlton Duncan, one of our members served on both Inquiries. This was the remit given to Anthony Rampton (Chairman) and his colleagues: “Recognising the contribution of schools in preparing all pupils for life in a society which is both multi-racial and culturally diverse, the Committee is required to: review in relation to schools the educational needs and attainments of children from ethnic minority groups taking account, as necessary, of factors outside the formal educational system relevant to school performance, including influences in early childhood and prospects for school leavers; consider the potential value of instituting arrangements for keeping under review the educational performance of different ethnic minority groups, what those arrangements might be; consider the most effective use of resources for these purposes; and to make recommendations. In carrying out its programme of work, the Committee is to give early and particular attention to the educational needs and attainments of pupils of West Indian origin and to make interim recommendations as soon as possible on action which might be taken in the interest of this group”. There was a change of Government in 1979 which produced two other Secretaries of State (Mark Carlisle and Sir Keith Joseph) during the life time of the Rampton and Swann Inquiries. On the Rampton Inquiry, there were 4 Afro Caribbean members; 5 Asian members and 13 Caucasians making a total of 22 members. For the Swann Inquiry, membership changed on account of resignations and co-options. By and large, the bulk of the original membership lasted the full duration of the five year inquiry. The Rampton Interim Report (West Indian children in our schools – Cmnd 8273, HMSO 1979) was based on considerable researched evidence, gathered information from parents, pupils teachers at all ranks, LEAs and community interested officials and others from all walks of life. Following the ensuing deliberations of the evidential material so gathered, we were able to report our findings with recommendations in June 1981. The evidence, findings and recommendation are far too voluminous for reproduction here. Consequently, the reader is referred to chapters 1, 2 and 4 severally of the Interim Report for the details. What these chapters will reveal is that the most prominent issue in our findings was racism (other issues included: the inadequacy of pre-school provision; linguistic difficulties of West Indian children; the inappropriateness of the school curriculum and the examination system, teachers’ low expectation of West Indian pupils’ a loss of trust and a lack of understanding between home and school, discrimination in employment, and by extension, poor housing and health issues, the state of race relations generally particularly with the police, the absence of black role models in high places). These other issues are themselves pregnant with racist practices: but let the Report speak: “In seeking to identify the factors which lead so many West Indian children to underachieve in our schools, many causes, both within the education system and outside it, were suggested by by those who gave evidence to us. That which was most forcefully and frequently put forward by West Indians themselves was racism, both within schools and in society”. Page 11 of the Report, chap. 2, Para 1. Did all this sound the bells of the impact of corona virus (COVID-19) upon the black communities; was Black Lives Matter clearly in the making? This Report, then. was the first ever Government official document to identify racism as a problem for black people and their children. This did not auger well for Anthony Rampton who was politely removed from the Chairmanship of the Committee and replaced by Lord Swann – a man who self-confessed to be ignorant of the issues upon which he is now called to give leadership. “The then Secretary of State’s invitation to me to take on the Chairmanship of the Committee came as a considerable surprise, i had been a scientist, the Principal of an ancient Scottish University and Chairman of the BBC, but I had little knowledge of the needs of Britain’s ethnic minority citizens…..”. So, following on from the Interim Report, the Inquiry would now be the Swann Inquiry and ultimately, The Swann Report (Education for All) Cmnd 9453, HMSO, 1985. Right from the start, it became obvious that part of Lord Swann’s role was to remove racism as an issue, more over the main issue, from the final Report. 11 members resigned from this Committee. Their replacements plus co-opted others ensured a viable Committee to the end. None of the Afro-Caribbean members resigned. They needed to see this through and they all did. Even against the background of Lord Swann picking them off one by one to dine at his up-market home, it didn’t work. They found their own survival methods and techniques to stay together in the light of the clear evidence of racism. Lord Swann was definitely not able to get the final Report to ignore the evidence. But he was not to be out done. Unknown to the membership of the Committee, Lord Swann prepared his own summary of the Report and ensured that it would find its way gratuitously into every school in the land. The Report, itself, carried a price tag of £24. In Lord Swann’s summary of nearly 7,000 words, he never managed to utter the word ‘racism’ once, except where he was quoting Professor Bhikhu Parekh (a member of the Committee) who had mentioned the word three times in the passage Lord Swann was quoting. Because the evidence which were collected from the people who mattered so clearly embodied racism, and because both the Interim and the final Reports openly dealt with the racism issue, Lord Swann had difficulties in shutting out that matter. It will be noted that throughout his summary, he sought refuge euphemistically in the terms “prejudice and discrimination. ‘Education For All’ is a volume of 807 pages with a price tag of £24. Clearly, it cannot be reproduced here. The reader is besieged to reach for this entire Report rather than rely on the more readily accessible but misleading summary produced by Lord Swann behind the backs of the members of the Committee. The damage which was done by the release of the summary has left us still grappling with issues that could have been laid to rest had the recommendations of the two Reports been implemented. Some members of the Committee, including our member, Carlton Duncan, foresaw this happening. Six members of the Committee, including Carlton Duncan, dissented from the wider Committee’s decision on the then popular call for separate schools which would alleviate many of the educational ills affecting ethnic minorities. (See page 515 of the main Report – Education For All) The main reason why the Committee took a different view from that of the six dissenters was based on the assumption that the Reports’ findings and recommendations would be implemented and thus removing the pressures for separate schools. Well, to date, the Reports have been largely shelved in dusty places. And although the answers to the vast array of problematic issues flagged up by COVID-19, Black Lives Matter and, more recently, Meghan and Harry are already known and documented, the arguments, void of action, still rage on indefinitely. Note: Sir Keith Joseph requested summary report of Swann to be issued to all schools. If they wanted the full report they were left to purchase it themselves: the debate is here. Belly Mujinga Posted by John Tyrrell 19/4/2021

American Aggression in the Ukraine. The American  Aggression in the Ukraine and Britain and NATO’s support is not only a danger to millions of people but also an act of Hypocrisy. Have the USA and Britain forgotten that Ukraine  fought with Nazi Germany in the second world war and was part of the Soviet Union after it was liberated by the Red Army. It really is hypocrisy for America to preach about sovereignty when it continues to occupy part of Cuba with a base and a prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. Its threats and sanctions against China about the sovereignty of Taiwan is just as bad; as anyone who studies history’s knows that Taiwan was and is part of China. The USA has involved itself in wars in Korea; Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan and have been responsible for thousands of lives but has lost the war in all four. The Labour and Trade Union movement should campaign against this madness which unless these mad men and women are stopped our children and grandchildren will live in constant  danger. STOP THE MADNESS AND HYPOCRISY OF AMERICA AND BRITAIN NOW AND SPEND THE MONIES CURRENTLY  SPENT ON ARMS ON SAVING LIVES OF ALL PEOPLES. ARTHUR SCARGILL.   SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY. 16.04.2021 In the modern era we have lived through three decades of NATO targeting smaller sovereign states. NATO has pursed “regime” change through its military power of each one. This starts with “evidence” of guilt or threat as a pretext for conquest. The April 2018 attack on Syria by the U.S.A., British and French military was carried out on the pretext of a chemical attack on Syrian civilians by Syrian government forces. Though terrorist groups have carried out chemical attacks in Syria, there is no proof that government forces have ever done that. Syrian witnesses have spoken out on “Russia Today” stating that there was no chemical weapon attack, but there was filming of people being washed with water. It was staged to provide an excuse for bombing Syria, with the aim of also putting pressure on Russia to abandon its defence of Syria. The reckless missile attack on Syria demonstrates again the NATO aim of worldwide domination. Yet again the British government and politicians have by a majority, if retrospectively, agreed to this missile attack, unable to understand how these attacks are driven by the Pentagon and weapons manufacturers. We live in an era of mass casualties caused by NATO . The Israeli state also inflicts on the Palestinian people a military which kills large numbers of their people. The Saudi Arabian airforce kills large numbers of Yemeni people. Both these states are supported by the USA – the most dominant military power in NATO. The recklessness and aggression of NATO could lead to a Third World War. We call for a referendum on Britain staying in, or leaving NATO. There should be equally funded representation of each side with no “official” campaigns only chosen by institutions of the elite political class. The Socialist Labour Party calls for Britain OUT of NATO. We call for a referendum as an urgent priority. The Pentagon policy of expansion and continuous war is now focussing on Iran, an illustration of this is the U.S.A. withdrawing from the Iran Nuclear Deal. Kathrine Jones for the SLP NEC 19th may, 2018 Further reading: Nato is a con-game European security landscape reshaped

The RMT Union banner displays its tradition of Socialism including pictures of James Connolly, founder of the Socialist Labour Party and Bob Crow, a founder member of the re-formed SLP in 1996, former General Secretary of the union. Members have been prominent in fighting against racism with leading figures bearing the scars to prove it. Claudia Jones, activist buried next to her hero, Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetary. The RMT, like the SLP, campaigned for Britain to leave the European Union from a left perspective. Prominent members like Steve Hedley, Alex Gordon and Eddie Dempsey, the latter two having spoken at a Socialist Labour Party meeting in London in October 2019 and the former standing for General Secretary’s position. We value their stand against railway privatisation and for common ownership, and for their representation of both union members and the travelling public.

https://www.shrewsbury24campaign.org.uk Last public event that the great Des Warren attending together with the great Ricky Tomlinson, and arthur Scargill, in the working men’s club, Crook, Co. Durham

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210310-the-trillion-dollar-plan-to-capture-co2 Arthur Scargill 15th March 2021

The Government ‘s decision to “award” a one percent “increase ” to NHS workers is a disgrace and a. breach of its nightly TV broadcast to “PROTECT THE NHS” The Labour Party’s failure to support the Union’s claim for a 12.5 percent increase demonstrates the bankruptcy of the Labour Party as an opposition party. The Socialist Labour Party calls on the TUC and all trade unions to give full support including industrial action to our wonderful NHS and all its health and care workers. The SLP and its Leader Arthur Scargill have always given support including industrial action to NHS Doctors, Nurses, Cleaners, Ambulance staff and all sections of the NHS. The Socialist Labour Party calls for an immediate £20 billion investment in the NHS;
an immediate investment of £20 billion and an immediate 12.5 percent increase for all NHS workers who have seen over 600 of their colleagues lose their lives. NHS workers deserve the same commitment they gave unstintingly to us in the past year and every year. The SLP’s policy can be paid for easily. Scrap the Trident Nuclear Missiles programme and cut the insane arms programme by two thirds. The obscene amount we spend on means of death should be used on improving life. We should stop Private Hospitals, Private Doctors, Private health Schemes and stop GP Practices being owned by companies whose interest is profit not health care. For over a year we have been told “PROTECT THE NHS” – let’s start protecting the NHS by paying all its wonderful workers a 12.5 percent increase NOW. Arthur Scargill.
President National Union of Mineworkers 1982 – 2002
Leader Socialist Labour Party 5th March 2021 Resisting Centene and the wholesale sellout of the NHS: https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/f/nhs-privatisation-resisting-centene