Workers' Weekly V.28 No.27

IN A FLYING VISIT to New York last week, Tony Blair has been at pains to present himself as an important world leader, deeply concerned with global problems, and putting forward various "new" and "modern" ways to resolve them.

Speaking at the New York Stock Exchange on September 21, he called for a new international financial system as well as short-term measures to deal with the immediate crisis. Financial havoc is devastating the lives of the people in south Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia and the other so-called Asian Tigers, the extent of economic collapse in Japan has yet to reveal itself fully, and the restoration of unbridled capitalism in Russia continues to threaten the direst consequences. And who knows when the stock markets world-wide could crash, turning the people's savings to dust and precipitating a devastating depression. Defying the logic of this situation, Tony Blair advocates a continuation of the present overall direction, only under more careful scrutiny and control by the big powers and the world's financial oligarchies. The "reforms" and "liberalisation", the very policies which have led to the present deepening of the crisis of capitalism and to the ruination of the economies of particular countries, must continue, he says. Short-term support should be given to the countries in difficulties only in exchange for further "reform", in other words further opening of their economies to international finance and the cutting of social programmes.

In a speech at the United Nations the same day, Blair reiterated these points concerning the global economy. He also dwelt on what he termed the need to strengthen the role of a widened Security Council – minimally so to include Germany and Japan and some representation from the developing countries – and to make military interventions under the aegis of the Security Council to "restore justice, democratic institutions, prosperity and human rights", where it was deemed necessary, more rapid and more effective. He boasted that Britain would be the first permanent member of the Security Council to conclude an agreement with the UN offering immediate access to a rapid reaction force.

Tony Blair has sensed that there is a desire and a need for reform of both the United Nations, to democratise it, and the international financial institutions, which must be completely transformed. Yet aside from the incongruity of Tony Blair posturing on the world stage like some 19th century imperialist with vast wealth and armies at his disposal, his talk is highly dangerous. It shows the government's overall policy as spelling only disaster for the people of this and other countries, not to speak of warmongering. The gearing of the entire life and economy of the country to the success of the financial oligarchy, particularly in the global market, the unbridled penetration into the economies of other countries, backed by military intervention by the big powers wherever they see fit, can only lead to financial ruination on a vast scale, ultimately to cataclysmic world war.

The working class and all progressive people must reject out of hand these policies being spearheaded by Tony Blair, and all attempts to manipulate their desire for change to in fact strengthen the status quo. They must take up their own agenda to lift society out of its present crisis with all the dangers which that threatens.

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NATIONAL CONSULTATIVE CONFERENCE

Improving the Content and Extending the Readership

We conclude our coverage of the Party's National Consultative Conference held on July 18 and 19 by reprinting an intervention in the discussion which focused on improving the content and extending the readership of Workers' Weekly itself. This discussion took place in the context of the session dealing with the role and work of RCPB(ML) at the present time.

I wanted to emphasise the dialectical relationship between improving the content and extending the readership of the newspaper, as well as the dialectical relationship between strengthening Workers' Weekly and strengthening the Party, and by doing so advancing the whole movement of the people for their emancipation.

Take the question of strengthening Workers' Weekly and strengthening the organisations of the Party. Clearly one way that everyone can assist the coverage of Workers' Weekly is by simply sending in reports. Workers' Weekly is very keen to give full coverage to the struggles of the working class and other sections of the people for their rights, for their emancipation, against the anti-social offensive, and so on. So this is one primitive way, in a manner of speaking, that anyone can assist in helping to strengthen the newspaper. But, of course, the issue goes a lot further than this, because obviously the comrades in the units need themselves to at least be reporting on the struggles in their areas and their regions as a matter of course. However, they will not make their full contribution unless the questions are addressed of analysing the struggles, what are the problems, how to advance the struggles in their particular area and so on. If then the results of that is applied both in their work and in contributions to the paper, this in turn strengthens the newspaper, enriches the content, assists the Editorial Board in further developing its coverage in depth and breadth. That in turn, when it finds its reflection in the paper, assists in extending the readership, first on the primitive level, as it were, when people find out that their concerns are reflected in the paper, when they are interested to take it and read it. Even more importantly, they will then find solutions there to their problems and indications as to what is the way forward and how they should affirm their rights. All this assists in strengthening the paper and the movement, as well as assisting in building and strengthening the Party. Once again, if the readership can be involved in discussion on this analysis, these questions, then that again strengthens the paper as well as assisting the people in struggle in finding their bearings. The principle underlying it is that people must have the initiative in their own hands and solve their problems and in the final analysis become sovereign, become the decision-makers in the country.

And then, the way the depth of Workers' Weekly develops, when you first look at the question of the Draft Programme or the question of Stop Paying the Rich – Increase Investments in Social Programmes, there is an issue that you can say, well, there are these aspects of the programme, and there are these demands of the class – Workers' Weekly should carry articles elaborating these issues. Which is true, but the issue all the time – and I think one of the reasons that comrades say that there is an improvement in the paper – is that the issues addressed are not simply questions of what are the basic positions, or should articles be written explaining these ideas. But the issue then is not to explain the ideas, but to address what are the problems in people's consciousness, or how to assist in people affirming their rights on these fronts. So again that is something the comrades need to bear in mind in the question of strengthening the paper.

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No Justice Will Come to Kosova from the Big Powers

ON 24 SEPTEMBER, NATO announced that it had issued an "activation warning for both a limited air option and a phased air campaign in Kosova". This announcement came a day after the UN Security Council had adopted a resolution calling on Serbia to halt the military offensive against the Albanian population in Kosova in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and calling on President Slobodan Milosevic and representatives of the Albanian population to seek a political solution to the Kosova crisis and take steps to alleviate the problems facing the hundreds of thousands of Kosovar refugees. The resolution also called on the Kosovars to "pursue their goals by peaceful means only".

The Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, welcomed the UN resolution, which Britain took the lead in preparing and stated that Milosevic would be held "accountable for his actions". There was also strong support from the US government, but the resolution was opposed by the People's Republic of China, which abstained during the vote, while the Russian government although supporting the resolution maintained its opposition to military intervention. For their part, the Yugoslav authorities opposed the resolution. The Yugoslav Foreign Minister referred to it as "groundless and counter-productive" while Slobodan Milosevic claimed that it would encourage "separatist forces" in Kosova.

The issue is that the people of Kosova, as with any people, wish to exercise sovereignty over their own affairs. It is well-known that the people of Kosova have been struggling since 1913 – when the big powers carved up Albania as these powers were preparing for the first world war – as well as before that, for their national rights and their elementary social rights as a people. The Yugoslav regime of Slobodan Milosevic, far from granting these rights, has stepped up its repression of the Albanian population of Kosova.

However, Britain and the other big powers in NATO, the EU and the so-called "Contact Group" have used the violence and destruction as a pretext to take measures to sink their own blood-stained hands further into the region while weeping crocodile tears for the Albanian population. Any intervention and interference by the big powers in the region for their own ulterior purposes must be utterly condemned. It could be said to destroy the very basis of what the people of Kosova are struggling for – their sovereignty and control over their lives, their culture and their future. The working class and all democratic people must give their internationalist support, as to any people fighting for their sovereignty and against imperialist intervention of any form. The big powers are themselves striving to make the waters extremely murky in the Balkans for their strategic reasons, and hoodwink the world's people as to their intentions. But, it must be asked, how can solutions come from the powers – spearheaded by the US – that bombed Iraq, that are engaged in intrigue, subversion and intervention throughout the globe? While the US does its utmost to impose a unipolar world under its hegemony, acting as a state terrorist, utilising the aggressive NATO alliance as its military instrument, the other big powers are also in contention for this area of the globe which stands at the crossroads of three continents.

It should also be emphasised that all the threats, bullying and intervention of Britain, the US and the other big powers have not so far done anything to bring peace to the region or justice for the people of Kosova. In the last seven months it is estimated that over 500 people have lost their lives and over 400,000 have been displaced from their homes as what has been described as a policy of "ethnic cleansing" has taken place throughout Kosova. In the last few weeks, the UN Refugee Agency has reported that another 60,000 refugees have been forced to leave their homes by the Serbian army and it warns of a worsening "humanitarian problem" in the region as winter approaches. Interference by foreign powers has only added to the instability in the area and created an extremely volatile situation.

History shows that big power intervention will not bring to the people of Kosova or the other peoples of the region what they are struggling for and what they most desire – peace, sovereignty and their national and social rights. The working class and all democratic people must oppose the interference of Britain, the United States and the other big powers and the threats of military intervention and support the right of the peoples of the Balkans to determine their own affairs.

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Vickers: Yet Another Indication of an Economy at Odds with Itself

VICKERS ANNOUNCED LAST WEEK that it would close its tank factory in Leeds, and cut 1,136 jobs. The Yorkshire factory will close by the end of next year with the loss of 650 jobs. However, 200 workers are also to be made redundant at Vickers' Newcastle-upon-Tyne plant, despite the fact that production of the Challenger 2 battle tank is to be transferred there. More workers will lose their jobs in the company's armaments operations, as well as in marine propulsion and turbines. This amounts to almost a quarter, 22 per cent, of the workforce. Vickers management has indicated that the immediate cause of the closure of the Leeds plant is a slowdown of work as the British Army's order for 386 tanks comes to an end.

In the space of a few weeks have come three indications of an economy at odds with itself. First Siemens announced its closure on Tyneside, then Fujitsu in County Durham, and now Vickers, also in the north of England. If the first two were indications that "inward investment" is no way to guarantee prosperity and a harmonious and balanced national economy, then the latter shows that neither gearing to "competitiveness in the export market" nor reliance on military production is any answer to economic crisis. As aspects of Tony Blair's programme of "Making Britain Great Again", they are set diametrically opposed to the direction for the economy which would guarantee the people's well-being. They are an exposure of the so-called "free market economy", of the policies of neo-liberalism. They show that whether workers are employed either by an industry of long-standing or one recently set up by the lure of maximum profits, capital and tax allowances or a high level of exploitation, they can just be thrown out of work in the blink of an eye. Furthermore, as the trend towards monopolisation, mergers and take-overs intensifies as the capitalists try and counter an accelerating falling rate of profit, not only are workers' jobs axed, but any control of their very existence is put beyond their reach, as the government is only too happy to put all the human and material resources of society at the disposal of these monopolies.

Workers cannot cooperate with such a scenario of how society is run whereby the direction of the economy ensures its resources are continually being laid waste. What alternative do they have but to put forward their own programme to lead society out of crisis, but to elaborate a vision of the economy where more is put in for the benefit of its members than is taken out in unproductive values to pay the rich, but to fight right now for a change in the direction of the economy so that it is the people's well-being that is put at the centre?!

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Develop the Pro-social Programme in Health and Education

THE SOUTH LONDON BRANCH of RCPB(ML) issued a call with the above title on September 19. The call opens by declaring: "A livelihood, education and health all make up three ingredients of a modern and humane society. A modern person is born to society and has rights by virtue of being human and living in society. A livelihood, education and health care are three such rights."

It goes on to point out that "today one of people's major concerns is that education of the younger generation is not being put at the centre of society's concerns. The same is true of health care. And that a livelihood in today's society is not recognised as a right is considered by the majority of people to be a scandal."

The call continues that "to facilitate the further development of society we need an economy which sets as its aim to satisfy the ever-increasing needs of the people. Just as a child consumes more as it grows, such should be the law for the society as a whole. If the government's budget were stepping up social investments as social product increased this would be a natural expectation. But what do the powers-that-be in society have to say on this? They want to turn the clock back to a time when there were no social provisions. What will be the result if such an agenda gets successfully pushed through?

"We are already seeing the results. Just in south London we have witnessed the closure of six out of 11 local colleges over the last few years, one of the latest being the Norwood Centre. Social workers in Wandsworth are set to take action in opposition to the sacking of a third of those dealing with children at risk of abuse. Staff are angry that 87 jobs are to be cut. The campaign to save Guy's and many other hospitals in London are well known. These are just some examples."

The call of the South London Branch says further on: "In education the anti-social offensive translates into the freezing of student grants, the introduction of student loans and more recently under Labour the introduction of student charges for tuition fees. Over the last decade, the ruling class and its governments have been busy selling off state-owned property to different sections of the bourgeoisie. By closing hospitals and introducing private finance schemes, the ruling class is making sure that there are increased possibilities for profiteering in the state health sector."

The call ends by stressing: "The conclusion is that the working class and people must put forward a pro-social programme to articulate and defend their rights and increase spending in health, education and social services.

"The South London Branch of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) therefore calls on the workers and people of south London, in common with all fighting against the cuts throughout the country, to develop their stand against the offensive in education and health by developing and elaborating their own pro-social programme."

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Cuts under the Guise of Funding?

Health Secretary Frank Dobson proudly announced at the beginning of September that two of London's leading hospitals – Guy's and St Thomas's – are to receive a total of £100 million. He claimed that the funding demonstrated the government's on-going commitment to the two hospitals.

However, this generosity is not all that it appears at first sight. The purpose of the funding, the government says, is to help them "re-organise". This "re-organisation" involves the closure of the Accident and Emergency department at Guy's from September next year. It also includes the "transfer" of children's and maternity treatment from Guy's to St Thomas's. The facilities to be built at St Thomas's allow only 25,000 of the 65,000 patients that are treated annually at Guy's to be taken to the A&E services at St Thomas's. Other casualties will have to be taken to King's hospital in Denmark Hill and Lewisham hospital. Furthermore, half of this funding of £100m is to come not from the government but from a charity, the Special Trustees of St Thomas's.

Health campaigners have condemned the plans. Geoff Martin of London Health Emergency said: "This is a disastrous decision that will pile unbearable pressure on over-stretched accident and emergency services across south London. The closure of Guy's Accident and Emergency department was unacceptable under the last government and it is even worse under a new Labour government elected on a platform of defending the NHS." The Liberal Democrat health spokesperson Simon Hughes also condemned the closure, pointing out: "Before the election, Labour pledged that Guy's would be saved on day one of a Labour government." He also drew attention to the fact that although £50m is to be spent on a children's hospital at St Thomas's, such a hospital already exists only a mile or so away from Guy's.

One might ask who is to benefit from this "spending" of £100 million – the companies who are to construct the facilities or the patients who rely on them?

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Pensioners National March and Rally

A MARCH AND RALLY of pensioners on Saturday, September 19, in London was supported by around 10,000 people. The rally was addressed by Jack Jones, as well as Rodney Bickerstaffe and other speakers.

The march and rally demanded an improvement in the state pension and the restoration of the link between the level of state pensions and average basic earnings. At present the state pension is uprated by reference to the price index with no consideration of the level of earnings. The rally also opposed all the attacks on the NHS and other public services.

It should be noted that the pensions review which New Labour had started when it came to power was due in January this year. When January came it was postponed to May, then to July and now it is promised in October. The fears are that the state pension will come further under attack and people be forced to take out private pensions or face destitution in old age. Already nearly half of the six million pensioners in Britain have to claim income support. This is in line with the government's pushing forward the policy of cutting social spending and making social services, as with other sections of the economy, a reservoir of profit for the financial oligarchy. In other words, the government is taking over where the Conservatives left off and accelerating privatisation and other neo-liberal measures.

There is increasing anger among those people of pensionable age, in common with other sections of society, at these attacks on social programmes and the uncaring attitude to old people who have made their life-long contribution to society. This was reflected in the size of the pensioners' march, where people from all regions of England converged on the Embankment to march to Trafalgar Square. There was also a large contingent from Wales, and the pensioners were warmly supported by the many people along the route. It is well-known that pensioners in many areas are campaigning vigorously to affirm their rights, tirelessly writing their own newspapers and in other ways fighting for a just society.

Workers' Weekly wishes the pensioners' movement every success in its endeavours.

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K&C Vigil Makes an Impact

K&C Image

A WEEK-LONG VIGIL to save the Kent and Canterbury Hospital (K&C) was held from September 14 to 18. The participants were there from 6am until 8pm every day outside the Department of Health in Whitehall. Some of those who had spent days in the often wet conditions doggedly handing out leaflets to all passers-by, or displaying posters saying "Save Our Hospitals", were women aged in the 60s and 70s who said they felt passionately about this campaign. As one woman put it, "These hospitals are our hospitals, and should not be able to be dismantled or sold at the whim of some profit-driven management or Trust." The protestors told of people's warm response to their call to fight the cuts, with a wide range of people voicing their support from taxi drivers to business people. A letter to Health Secretary Frank Dobson expressing concern at what is happening to acute hospital services, handed in on September 18, had thousands of signatures on it.

According to the organisers, it has emerged that one of the reasons behind the cuts in health care provision in Canterbury and East Kent is that the Trust responsible has committed itself to a deal with foreign investment banks. These financiers have made their loans contingent upon the payment of £5 million if the building contractors fail to keep their side of the contract in completing one section of the new hospital under construction. It appears that there is little or no expectation that this building work will be completed, and so the Health Authority know that it will be obliged to repay its moneylenders this £5 million in the immediate future.

Whatever the complexities of the financial arrangements, it is clear that the downgrading of the K&C is an attack on the people's healthcare and is opposed by them, and will benefit no one but the rich. As the leaflet from the "Save Our Hospitals" campaign points out, "All local GPs, and the Canterbury and South East Kent branches of the Royal College of Nursing are opposed to the Health Authority's proposals … Many people in East Kent feel their needs for acute services will not be met." It emphasises: "The Health Authority in East Kent has seriously misrepresented public response to its proposals."

The Health Secretary is at present considering the recommendation to downgrade and cut services at the K&C made by the East Kent Health Authority.

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An Irrational Economy

Fears are growing that the economy will be engulfed by recession, part of the global crisis of the capitalist economy, which is being fuelled by the neo-liberal policies of gearing everything to competing in the global market.

Just one example gives an indication of how irrational such policies are. It was on September 22 that Barclaycard announced that it plans to throw 1,100 workers out of their jobs. Its chief executive cited "tough competition in the credit-card market". However, less than a week before, the government was announcing that it is to give "regional selective assistance grants" to Bank One International, a merger of Banc One Corporation and First National Bank of Chicago, to offset the costs of £50m of building offices in the Cardiff Bay area of Wales, near the planned Welsh assembly. The company will market Visa and Mastercard credit cards.

This once more points to the need for the working class to put forward its independent programme to change the motive of production to serving the people's well-being as part of a rational planned economy.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Wandsworth Protest against Social Services Cuts

Over 100 protesters gathered outside the main gates of Wandsworth Town Hall on September 23. They voiced their anger against the proposed cuts of £2.6 million in Wandsworth Council's social services budgets. The protesters held banners and handed out leaflets demanding that the closures of children's centres be stopped and that 87 social workers should not be thrown out of work. They pointed out that it is children who are most vulnerable who would be the sufferers of the cuts. The lively painted banners carried such slogans as "Hands off St Margaret's Children's Centre!"

Despite passionate and informed arguments from representatives of the social workers and other concerned organisations, who sought to uphold the interests of the children, and pointed out that a series of cuts had been made last year as well as the years before that, the Social Services Committee gave the go-ahead to the £2.6 million cuts.

Besides being intent on setting the lowest council tax rate in the country, Wandsworth Council is expected to lose a further £3 million from the children's services as a result of government plans to switch funding away from London to the north, according to the Committee chairman.

Opposition to Teachers' "Cash-for-Results"

Teachers are so angry at the proposal of the Education Secretary, David Blunkett, for a "cash-for-results" scheme that the outcome of a vote on strike action may well be positive. As we go to press, leaders of the National Union of Teachers say it is "balanced on a knife-edge". This would be a direct challenge to the government's policy which is one which is described as "modernising" the teaching profession. In reality, it is one of taking education back to the dark ages, and one which blames the teachers for all the problems which the cut-backs are causing.

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Birmingham Meeting Denounces PFI

A PUBLIC MEETING was organised by the Campaign against Euro-federalism (CAEF) in Birmingham on September 14 on the twin topics: "Private Finance Initiative and Housing" and "What are the implications of the EURO for you?". The meeting was quite well attended, and there were two speakers.

The first speaker expressed concern that over the years, as the provision of housing has passed from local authorities and councils into the hands of the private sector, financial considerations are now ruling the running of housing associations and housing corporations. The needs of people in terms of the right sort of housing provision in keeping with their own wishes and those of their communities is rarely if ever considered. As time has gone on the drive to become financially successful has led to the merger or buying out of many small associations or housing cooperatives which, in the opinion of the speaker, generally had a more caring approach to housing provision and were more open to suggestions on people's needs. She deplored this trend of privatisation and the resulting higher rents which only add to the pressures already experienced by people trying to get decent homes for their families.

Some of the participants in the meeting expressed concern that such a fundamental social provision as housing was, like the NHS, becoming a source of profit for financiers. The meeting was in agreement that housing should be about the needs of people first and that the only people to benefit from the present state of affairs were the financiers who own or lend money to the housing associations.

The second talk centred around the effects of EU membership and the single currency. It prompted many questions and quite lively debate. One participant asked the meeting to consider whose interests did membership of the EU serve – the people had been sold the idea of the EU on the basis that there would be a better future for all, more jobs, job security and the like. But this promise contrasts sharply with the reality of life, high unemployment is still with us, social provision such as health care and education are constantly being cutback and eroded. They are not regarded as a right for human beings but are becoming sources of huge profit-making schemes for the rich. Membership of the EU has not solved any of these problems. Indeed many have been exacerbated since the coming of the EU. The only people to truly benefit from EU membership are the rich financiers and capitalists. We do not want a Europe of the monopolies, the participant emphasised, and the demand for withdrawal is entirely just. These comments were warmly received and applauded by some in the meeting.

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Fidel Castro Addresses the Need to Democratise the United Nations and Respect the Equality of Nations

At the 12th Non-Aligned Movement Summit held from August 29 to September 3, 1998 in Durban, South Africa, Cuban President Fidel Castro spoke frankly about the kind of world we live in today.

"To endure the global struggle between the superpowers is bad," he said. "To live under total hegemonic domination by one of them is worse. Let us speak frankly.

"It is not possible to resign oneself to a world order whose highest principles and objectives embody a system that colonised, enslaved and plundered us for decades.

"There is no swan-song, no close of history, no end to the struggle of this movement of non-aligned countries — the group of peoples that during the Cold War fought, supported and defended the interests and just causes of Third World nations in the struggle for national liberation.

"We do not have to ask permission or seek excuses from anyone to exist and to continue the struggle," he said. "Even the United States vehemently sought to be included in this summit as an observer. This way, the great emperor can see how its modest subjects behave."

Addressing the reform of the United Nations Castro said, "The United Nations needs to be reformed and democratised. The dictatorship of the Security Council needs to end. The General Assembly needs to recognise its rights and bring together representatives from every country in the world. The Council should be enlarged in proportion to the current number of countries. Its permanent members should be doubled, even tripled if necessary.

"Why the limitation on one representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, one for Asia and one for Africa? Whose idea was that? Who accepted it? Why not two or three representatives from each of these regions that together constitute the vast majority of the United Nations? If Western Europe has two members, why do more than four billion people of the Third World not have even one?

"The right to veto should disappear. Moreover, it should be impossible and unacceptable to have members of two different categories. If they are not going to rotate, they will only exist to deceive, confuse, divide and diminish the qualifications of new members. Everyone should have the same rights."

He also addressed the need to reform the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and World Trade Organisation so that they fulfil the functions they claim to respect.

"The International Monetary Fund should also be transformed and democratised. It needs to cease being an overall political destabilising agent and a financial gendarme in the interests of the United States. Nobody should have the power to veto its decisions. This applies to the World Bank as well.

"The World Trade Organisation, in which we are a majority, cannot be converted into a medium of deceit and division by using it as a tool to impose cruel, global neo-liberalism on the world. Nor can it be a party to a binding multilateral accord on investment which is a creation of the Organisation for Development and Co-operation in Europe — an exclusive club for the rich in which none of our countries participate but who are, nevertheless, forced to jump onto the bandwagon or be left out with numerous consequences. Freedom of movement should not only apply to capital and commodities but above all to human beings.

"No more bloodied walls along the border between the USA and Mexico that costs hundreds of lives each year! End the persecution of immigrants and the accompanying xenophobia! Stop the hypocritical cries of protest when other nations attempt to build nuclear arms while your privileged nuclear capability becomes more and more potent, precise and deadly! This only stimulates interminable proliferation that will never truly lead to total nuclear disarmament.

"The arms race has not slowed for one second — not so much in volume as in quality. It serves only to guarantee the privileges of the new order and is a source of profitable and dishonest business. Armaments are increasingly more expensive. Developing nations ruin themselves and kill each other with them. Trafficking in arms is worse than trafficking in drugs."

Castro continued with a stinging denunciation of the results of the neo-liberal anti-social offensive imposed world-wide.

"Neo-liberal globalisation is rapidly destroying our natural environment, poisoning our air and water, deforesting our lands, eroding our soils into wasteland, squandering our natural resources, changing our climate. How and with what shall 10 billion human beings live? International development aid is decreasing. The average Gross Domestic Product of 0.7 percent will never be reached and has dropped to an average of 0.25 percent. In the richest country on earth — and we all know who that is — it now stands at 0.2 percent.

"They think of us as a huge, free trade zone filled with low paid workers where no taxes are paid to provide for children, the elderly and sick.

"That fact that the population of Africa is left with AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy and dozens of old and new diseases is not an issue for the multi-nationals or the blind eyes of the world markets. Extracting oil, gold, diamonds, platinum, copper, bronze, uranium and other valuable resources are more important."

He defended the right of the peoples to their sovereignty and denounced the hegemonism, aggression and state terrorism of the big powers especially the United States.

"The unipolar world and its accompanying world order are wiping out sovereignty and independence. Interventions multiply. Terrorism — which kills and wounds innocent people — becomes a pretext for world powers to put into practice their own form of terrorism in dozens of countries in Latin America, Asia and America, including Cuba. Launching missiles in all directions without taking into consideration the innocent people who die or the legal ramifications, other than their own all-embracing will.

"The world is becoming a Western in the style of old Hollywood movies. Such reprisals have neither moral nor legal justification. This is not the way to fight terrorism. On the contrary, terrorism is encouraged by such brutal actions. Only a universal awareness of the common struggles of the people can eradicate it."

Castro voiced the demands of the people everywhere when he said, "End the economic blockades against other countries! Depriving millions of food, medicine, and other ways of life are terrorist acts of extreme cruelty and true genocide. Such acts must be considered war crimes and should be sanctioned by international tribunals.

"End the abuses against the long-suffering Palestinian people and offer them the possibility of peace! Comply with the previously agreed peace accords and return to the Arab peoples the territories taken away from them! End the double standard on international questions! End hunger and poverty in the world! End the lack of teachers and schools, of doctors and hospitals! End the interminable pillage of foreign debt which, as more interest is paid more debt accrues, blocking our very development.

"End unequal exchange such as that used by the Conquistadors when they bought gold from the Indians with mirrors and European trinkets! Pay up on the debt which those who exploited us for so many centuries have accumulated! End the policy of inundating the peoples of the world with the unsustainable life-styles of consumer society! End the destruction of our national identities and our cultures!"

Castro concluded his speech by stressing the need for the peoples to unite in defence of their rights.

"Many things must end," Castro said, "but, first of all, disunity among us must end. As must the ethnic wars and conflicts among our peoples who are called upon to struggle for their development and right to survive and take their rightful place in tomorrow's world.

"And someday, we won't distinguish between ethnic origins, we won't espouse national chauvinism, nor borders, nor rivers, seas, oceans, distances. We will be above that — all human beings called upon to live in a world inevitably globalised — truly just, filled with solidarity and peace.

"We must struggle to achieve that day."

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TUC CONGRESS 1998

ONE FEATURE of the TUC Congress this year was the procession of Cabinet Ministers that came to the platform to address delegates. One aim of this "charm offensive" was to convince delegates over government strategy. The delegates responded with an "offensive" of their own by showing the depth of feeling against the government's implementation of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). They denounced the use of private money to fund capital projects and public services as privatisation of public services, assets and buildings and demanding that it be scrapped. This rebuff reflects the mood in the country which is abroad amongst the working class and people against the increasing drive of the government to cut back and privatise public services using the PFI.

In addressing the TUC, Prescott, Mandelson and others tried to present a brave face on the policies of New Labour in the face of the huge job losses, factory closures and the continued anti-social offensive against social programmes. Their main concern, however, was to try and convince Congress that co-operation with the government and employers was the only policy for the workers' movement. "Congress, the choice is yours - opposition or legitimate influence," declared Peter Mandelson in a speech in which he lectured the unions on their role in an attempt to get them to forget once and for all that they can have an independent position and programme. Such a declaration is one of a charlatan and a trickster. But it gives a warning to the workers on the direction New Labour is heading. Not only is it increasingly backing out of commitments it has made, for example, over the Fairness at Work legislation. It also wants commitments from the trade unions to co-operate in pushing through the anti-social offensive in health, education, pensions and benefits under the signboard of "modernisation of public services". For the workers not to heed this danger will only leave them marginalised and defenceless and at the mercy of the drive of the bourgeoisie to increase exploitation and continue its anti-social offensive against the entire society.

What the TUC Congress showed this year was the need for the workers' movement to take the struggle against the PFI to its logical conclusion. Not only does the opposition to PFI give a rebuff to this government policy, something which clearly has the overwhelming support among the people, but it raises the whole question of where society is headed and in whose interests society should be organised. It rejects the programme of New Labour which places the interests of the financial oligarchy to make maximum capitalist profits out of the public services and social programmes and through robbing the state treasury. Instead, it focuses the attention of the working class on the need to place the well-being of the people in society at the centre of its own independent programme and raises the question of what kind of society has to be envisaged and built so that prosperity and the people's well-being is really brought about.

The workers should reject the arrangement that New Labour is trying to impose on the TUC and trade unions which it did through its "charm offensive" at this year's Congress. The working class must organise and develop its own arrangements so as to unite all sections of the people in the struggle against the anti-social offensive by advancing its own programme to Stop Paying the Rich! Increase Investments in Social Programmes!

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Petition to Oppose Closure of Day Unit

Workers' Weekly has received a press release from the Palmer Community Hospital Action Committee, Jarrow, in the North East. The press release points out that the Action Committee is campaigning against the closure of the Charles Palmer Day Unit which serves the Jarrow and Hebburn area. On September 1, the Action Committee handed in a petition signed by over 4,000 local people to the local MP.

The Action Committee point out that cutbacks are taking place to repay the £4 million deficit accrued by the South Tyneside Health Care Trust. They demand that the closure of the Unit be rejected by the health authorities and responsible governing authorities.

This campaign shows that workers at the hospital, as many concerned workers and people are doing throughout the country, have decided to take matters into their own hands by organising a committee in defence of their rights and to demand that society meet their claims on it.

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