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Volume 45 Number 18, June 13, 2015 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
Workers' Weekly Internet Edition: Article Index :
Carry Forward the Struggle against the Austerity Agenda! End Austerity Now!
Justice for the Miners!
From the Party Press:
The Struggle of the Miners Is the Struggle of the Whole Working Class against its Enemies
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Demonstration "No to Austerity", Newcastle June
6 The struggle against the Cameron government's
austerity agenda is building. We call on all concerned to block this austerity
agenda to participate in the demonstrations in London and Glasgow on June 20.
Take a stand against austerity! End austerity now!
What the victory of the Conservatives shows is not only that the struggle against the austerity agenda must be intensified. It also shows that a collective consciousness must be built on the necessity to turn things around, to reverse the direction in which the Conservatives are taking society. The victory of Cameron is a hollow victory, in that the Conservatives have no mandate to carry out the austerity agenda. The almost clean sweep of the SNP in Scotland in the Westminster election has demonstrated that the flag of opposition to austerity and the neo-liberal agenda is the flag round which the people are prepared to rally. It must be carried forward!
What are the goals to aim at in carrying forward our resistance to austerity and neo-liberalism? In our opinion, political renewal, empowerment of the people and a new direction for the economy and society are the goals. These are the alternatives to austerity, attacks on the rights of the people, and neo-liberal globalisation.
Westminster Bridge banner dropsThe
Conservatives' legislative programme needs serious organising work to build
effective opposition. On every front, the struggle is to block and reverse the
direction in which the Cameron government is taking society. This struggle must
be taken forward on the basis of involving working people in participating in
the fight. The government is not only ensuring every aspect of society is
geared to paying the rich, and causing fundamental economic and social crisis
as a result. It is working to try and ensure that working people are excluded
from decision-making at every level. This agenda of dictate from the government
downwards is one which it is crucial to challenge and organise against.
The Conservative neo-liberal agenda is also one of attempting to negate the collectives of the people from exercising their rights. The people have set their sights on the right to participate in governance, and they cherish the right to have control of their own lives. The austerity agenda promotes fatalism, hopelessness and passivity on these fronts. But the people are getting further organised to actively participate in asserting these rights. In the struggle to reverse the direction in which the government is taking the health service, for example, it is being affirmed that health care is a right. The agenda of privatisation, financial constraints, fragmentation and closures is first and foremost an assault on this basic right and the right of health workers and the community to decide on the direction of the health service. The same is true in the field of education where the people are affirming that education is a right, not a privilege. Similarly in the struggle to realise the principles that a livelihood is a right, that the people have a right to housing, to food, and to building a new society. The government's legislative programme is a challenge to all these rights.
Demonstrations in Newcastle and Truro
Equally of concern is the government's agenda to impose the tenets of neo-liberalism and national chauvinism as “British values”. This is of concern to all sections of society. We are supposed to think of affirming the right to conscience as “extremism”, and that to uphold principles of international justice and human rights is “un-British”. It is crucial that working people in opposition uphold the banner of defence of the rights of all. The unity of the people and the exercise of their rights and dignity can only be forged in such a struggle to defend the rights of all.
The Cameron government pushes that Britain must assert its role in the world, by which it means interference, aggression, and being a willing participant in the contention and collusion of the imperialist system of states. The ruling elite has not given up its programme to “make Britain great again”. In opposition, the people have the duty to organise from the base against war and in defence of the sovereignty of nations and peoples. Their goal is for an anti-war government on the soil of Britain, and an end to all the blocs such as NATO and the EU which threaten peace, sovereignty and the fraternal unity of peoples who are fighting to be in control of their own destiny.
These are the challenges facing the movement to bring an end to austerity, bring about a new direction for society, effect democratic renewal and empower the people. Let us meet this challenge!
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After two and a
half years of deliberation The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)
decided on June 12 not to conduct an investigation into South Yorkshire
Police’s handling of events at the Orgreave coking plant during the
miners’ strike, and the subsequent prosecutions in 1984 and 1985.
The IPCC had been investigating whether officers accused of framing striking miners on riot charges, following the “Battle of Orgreave” on June 18, 1984, had a case to answer. The decision comes more than two years after the force referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) over events at Orgreave coking plant near Rotherham 31 years ago.
The miners had been holding mass pickets outside the Orgreave coking plant, standing firm against the police cordons which had been attempting to prevent the miners from carrying out their successful picketing. In the “Battle of Orgreave” on June 18, 95 miners were arrested and at least 50 people injured.
When the cases came to court, all were abandoned after it became clear that evidence provided by police was unreliable. South Yorkshire Police paid £425,000 in compensation to 39 pickets in out-of-court settlements.
South Yorkshire Police referred itself to the IPCC in 2012 after a BBC documentary claimed officers may have colluded in writing court statements which saw miners wrongly charged.
South Yorkshire
Police – which is already under intense scrutiny over its role in the
Hillsborough disaster – faced claims that officers used excessive force
against picketing miners, manipulated statements and gave false evidence in
court. But following a two-year analysis of thousands of pages of documents
related to the case, the IPCC said it had decided not to launch an
investigation.
The Independent Police Complaint Commission said it made its decision after an extensive review into the organisation’s remit to investigate allegations of police misconduct.
They say the passage of time means that allegations of assault and of misconduct could not be pursued. They also said their reasoning was because some matters were subject to complaints and civil proceedings at the time and detailed analysis has not revealed any other issues in relation to individual officers which could now be investigated.
A Home Secretary spokesperson responded to Friday’s news, saying that Home Secretary Theresa May “will consider any request that she receives to set up a public inquiry into Orgreave”.
OTJC Press Conference
Following the
IPCC's announcement, the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (OTJC) and the
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) hosted a press conference at the
headquarters of the NUM in Barnsley. Granville Williams, one of the founders of
the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, said the two-and-a-half years the IPCC
had spent on its scoping exercise had been a “cul-de-sac” for his
group.
He called for an inquiry to be set up similar to the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which was formed in 2009 by then-Home Secretary Alan Johnson and exposed the scale of wrongdoing by police during Britain’s worst ever sporting disaster.
Describing the IPCC as a “flawed organisation”, he added: “We need a full public inquiry, this is what Hillsborough got. We need to remind ourselves that back in October 2012 it was the Hillsborough Independent Panel that showed the behaviour of South Yorkshire Police during the Hillsborough disaster.
“It is quite clear that while this seems like a set back for us it is end of a log-jam. It is getting something out of the way so we can say ‘we want a full public inquiry’.
“I think from today we have a clear road, we have been on a detour and we are back on the road.”
When asked whether a public inquiry was still worth pursuing more than three decades on he said: “I have been asked before, why bother? It is because of the burning injustice. You only have to talk to people about their lives’ work, about the closure of the pits.
“If you live outside the mining community you don’t understand the harrowing destruction that took place. it is not going away and that is why it is important.”
OTJC chairman
Joe Rollin said after the press conference: “We are not the first
campaign organisation to say the IPCC is not fit for purpose. Our reaction is
that it is disappointing but not surprising. We never wanted the involvement of
the IPCC in the first place.
“We have been very nice and a bit of a fluffy campaign so far, we have co-operated fully with the authorities. That is going to start to change. We are going to use some more imaginative measures and direct action to get ourselves in the press.
“We might have to start taking lessons from some of the more imaginative protest groups like Occupy and UK Uncut. We are not going to go away, we are going to make more noise if anything.
“The Hillsborough families never gave up. Working people have never been given justice on a plate, we have had to fight for it. I am looking forward to getting stuck in for the next few years.”
At the press conference, chaired by Unite organiser Joe Rollin, the Orgreave Truth and Justice campaign (OTJC) expressed their frustration but said they remained staid in their resolve to continue their fight for a full public inquiry.
“The fact that the IPCC, described – rightly in our view – by many prominent individuals as ‘not fit for purpose’, is stepping aside on Orgreave affairs will not therefore be deterring the OTJC from continuing its campaign,” the campaign group said in a statement:- “OTJC notes that the IPCC itself recognises in its report the limitations of what the organisation can do and that only a Hillsborough style public inquiry can eventually get to the truth.
“The OTJC continues to gather increasing support from organisations and individuals for a full public inquiry into why it was that on 18 June 1984, 95 miners were arrested at Orgreave after thousands of police officers – many in riot gear, with others on horseback – brutally assaulted miners participating in a strike aimed at defending jobs and mining communities,” the OTJC noted.
The OTJC
explained why a full public inquiry would be necessary in the search for
justice.
“An inquiry will help reveal exactly why, when the subsequent court cases took place, all of the charges, including riot were abandoned. It must inevitably lead to two things.
“Some officers being charged with a series of offences – assault, perjury, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public office. Secondly, a paper trail that would indicate that the actions of the police at Orgreave were influenced by political pressure from within the highest ranks of the government of the day,” the campaign group said.
Kevin Horne, 64, from Mexborough in South Yorkshire, was among more than 90 people detained on June 18 1984 during the miners' strike before his case was dropped 14 months later. He said, “It is a public inquiry we wanted in the first place. It was the police that referred themselves to the IPCC, we think they only did it as a buffer to slow us down. It should have taken two-and-a-half weeks to say they can’t do anything and there are too many people to interview, not two-and-a-half years. It is a poor excuse. The IPCC are not fit for purpose. It took Hillsborough families more than 20 years so I think we can still achieve what we want to, which is a public inquiry.”
He said, “It was a strange day. There was an atmosphere of doom for some reason. When we saw the size of the police presence, we were all very frightened. When the horses charged, we were running for our lives. It was a frightening experience. I had experienced being chased by police horses and dogs before, but this was something different. I was black and blue with cuts and bruises. I was locked up all day and not released until after midnight when there was no public transport and my three sons were in bed. I think the police and government had decided that would be the last day of the strike.”
Kevin Horne said that he still found it emotional recalling the events of that day. “First aid was being given to people with broken legs,” he said. “People were unconscious. That's the emotional bit. We had to bandage people with our T-shirts.”
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said, “This decision is a hammer blow for the Orgreave families who have fought for over 30 years to get justice. They have displayed huge courage and tenacity in trying to hold the authorities to account.
“It is
shameful that no-one will have to answer for the events of that day, which left
dozens injured and many locked up for simply exercising their right to protest.
“There should be a full public inquiry into what happened at Orgreave. This is a bad day for all those who care about civil liberties.”
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper publicly condemned the decision stating the IPCC had “let down the Orgreave families”. She now wants to see an independent inquiry set up that mirrors the model used in the Hillsborough panel.
Yvette Cooper said, “It has taken the IPCC two-and-a-half years to decide not to investigate the events at Orgreave and to conclude that the big questions weren’t within their remit or resources. If they are too limited to do the job then someone else needs to.
“For too long there have been serious allegations about the way the miners were treated at Orgreave, but we have never had the truth. It’s time for an independent inquiry, potentially modelled in the Hillsborough panel, to open up everything. It’s time for the truth.”
WWIE adds its voice to the call for justice for the miners and for a public inquiry into the events of June 18, 1984. Truth and justice are indeed the watchwords. At the time of the Battle of Orgreave, the miners were in the forefront of resisting the anti-social offensive launched by the Thatcher government, and they defined the character of the working class. Powerful demonstrations had been held in the days prior to June 18. Over 5,000 miners and other workers had marched through Newcastle on June 15, for example. In Wakefield on June 16, a large demonstration was led by the comrades of Joe Green, who had been killed on the picket line the previous day. Other demonstrations were held subsequently such as the miners' demonstration through Treorchy, South Wales, on June 19.
While the miners arrested on June 18 at Orgreave were cleared of wrong-doing, it is still the case that the police acted with impunity. A genuinely independent inquiry would indicate who must be held accountable. Justice must prevail!
In advance of its press conference the OTJC issued the following statement:-
Whilst
disappointed, OTJC members are not surprised that the IPCC will not be
conducting a full investigation into policing at Orgreave on 18 June 1984. It
was back in November 2012 that South Yorkshire Police referred itself to the
IPCC, which ever since has acted slowly and conducted little independent work
in assembling and collating information.
The fact that the IPCC, described – rightly in our view – by many prominent individuals as ‘not fit for purpose’, is stepping aside on Orgreave affairs will not therefore be deterring the OTJC from continuing its campaign. OTJC notes that the IPCC itself recognises in its report the limitations of what the organisation can do and that only a Hillsborough style public inquiry can eventually get to the truth.
The OTJC continues to gather increasing support from organisations and individuals for a full public inquiry into why it was that on 18 June 1984, 95 miners were arrested at Orgreave after thousands of police officers – many in riot gear, with others on horseback – brutally assaulted miners participating in a strike aimed at defending jobs and mining communities.
An inquiry will help reveal exactly why, when the subsequent court cases took place, all of the charges, including riot were abandoned. It must inevitably lead to two things. Some officers being charged with a series of offences – assault, perjury, perverting the course of justice and misconduct in a public office. Secondly, a paper trail that would indicate that the actions of the police at Orgreave were influenced by political pressure from within the highest ranks of the Government of the day.
THE FIGHT FOR TRUTH AND JUSTICE GOES ON. Come to the 31st anniversary rally on Thursday 18th June at 5.30pm at Orgreave.
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From the Party Press:
Intensify Support for the Miners' Strike! All for One and One for All!
(From Workers' Weekly, June 23, 1984)
The miners'
strike, which has now lasted for three and half months, is the most important
struggle in the history of the working class in recent decades.
The savage onslaughts of the bourgeoisie against the miners on the one hand, and the fierce and heroic resistance of the miners, on the other, have seen the class struggle in Britain raised to a high level. In pursuit of its class aims – to crush the struggle of the miners and inflict a serious defeat on the entire working class – the bourgeoisie and the Thatcher government have sent thousands of police armed with batons, staves and shields to unleash savage, fascist violence against the miners; they have hurled riot squads, mounted police and dogs against the miners in their thousands, many facing long jail sentences on charges such as “riot”, and two miners have been killed on the picket lines. The Thatcher government has brought its war cabinet into operation again, including regular consultations with the chiefs of the armed forces, whilst a national police operation for the suppression of the miners has been carried out, and the national riot squad has for the first time been used against the working class. Mining areas have been occupied by police squads and some villages placed under a virtual curfew.
The miners have responded to this escalation of the attacks by the class enemy with resistance at a level also not seen in years. Miners and other workers have joined the pickets in their thousands and tens of thousands, have fought pitched battles with the police sent to suppress them; they have defied the police assaults with rocks, stones and petrol bombs; they have built burning barricades against the police charges and erected barricades of stakes to force back the mounted police. The miners have marched to the police stations to demand the release of their arrested comrades, attacked the police stations and developed to a higher stage the tactics and organisation necessary to defeat the onslaughts of the police. The miners have held mass demonstrations throughout the country and a powerful wave of solidarity has come from rail workers, seamen, transport workers, dockers and others, whilst miners' wives and other sections of women, youth, students etc. have been drawn into the struggle in support of the miners. The working class as a whole has seen the importance of the miners' strike for its struggle against the capitalist offensive and has increasingly responded to the situation.
[…]
It is most important for all sections of the working class and working people to fight alongside the miners, to come out in their support, to join their picket lines and demonstrations and whole-heartedly fight for the victory of the miners' strike. The miners and the entire working class must intensify the struggle for the victory of the miners, against the attacks of the police and courts, [and] intensify the solidarity actions in support of the miners […].
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WWIE correspondent
The Confronting a World at War
conference was organised by Stop the War Coalition on June 6 at the TUC
Congress House in London to discuss how to resist the continued Anglo-US
aggression and to oppose the assault on Muslim communities taking place under
the signboard of combating “extremism”.
The conference was well organised. It consisted of an opening Plenary in the Congress Hall called the “Wars Abroad – Austerity at Home”; three workshops covering different areas of regional conflicts and issues; and the final Plenary which ended the conference in the Congress Hall, the closing speech being made by George Galloway. There were about 20 speakers from Britain and abroad and each presented their own analysis of Anglo-US aggression and its results, coming to the conclusion that the world is a much more dangerous place than it looked fourteen years ago, before the launch of the “war on terror”.
In 2003 and since then the anti-war movement predicted that these interventions would set the Middle East on fire, the conference underlined. We are now seeing it burn, and the politicians, like David Cameron, who continue on this course are fanning the flames of war.
The conference pointed out that meanwhile, great power confrontation has returned to Europe as NATO has pushed progressively eastwards towards the Russian border, triggering crisis and civil war in Ukraine, thus creating the conditions for the return of the Cold War. “Confronting a World at War” brought together key writers, campaigners and politicians to analyse this alarming situation and to discuss and plan how the anti-war movement should respond.
Palestinian speaker Mustafa Barghouti in the Congress Hall
“Eyewitness Palestine” – Mustafa Barghouti gives a graphic analysis of the recent Israeli aggression with video images showing the large scale destruction and the deaths of around 2,200 Palestinians. The destruction is still visible while the Western media turns a blind eye. The US and British politicians routinely defend “Israel's right to self-defence”, while accusing Hamas of terrorism. The speaker exposed Israeli war crimes and pointed out that “there is no point in negotiating for peace as this always turns out to be a deception”. The other speaker was Sarah Colborne from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign who called for a boycott of Israeli goods, and explained how companies profit and big business supports Israel. There was a long ovation.
Another view of the Congress Hall
Speakers Barbara Ntumy and Explo Nani-Kofi present their analysis on
“Africa: New front in the War on Terror” in one of the meeting
rooms
Speakers Barbara Ntumy and Explo Nani-Kofi speak about the West's interference and extension of the war into Africa: e.g. the role of AFRICOM. NATO has completely destroyed Libya's infrastructure thus creating the present chaos with no stable government. Before NATO's aggression Libya was a developed state with its own welfare state and health service. Today it is failed state. UN cannot be relied upon as the UN Security Council passed the resolution for imposing "No Fly Zone to protect civilians" yet 30,000 people were killed. There was a long ovation.
Imperialism, ISIS and the Middle East: This was a very popular event held
in the
Council Chamber with all seats taken. Speakers included Seumas Milne,
Lindsey German, and Erdelan Baran
Seumas Milne stated that there was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq before 2003, and that the invasion of 2003 has been the cause of the catastrophe in the region.
Lindsay German stated that the “war on terror” is war for the destruction of states, and that it is necessary to oppose wars abroad and austerity at home.
Erdelan Baran asked where ISIS came from – is it backed by imperialism? He stated that ISIS is being used as another justification for war by imperialism.
This was a popular meeting with interventions from the floor.
Final Plenary
The closing session of the final Plenary, the final session of the conference, was introduced by Jeremy Corbyn MP in the Congress Hall. Jeremy Corbyn spoke of the endless wars being waged by the West which beget even more wars and why the anti-war movement must oppose these wars abroad and austerity at home. The anti-austerity demonstrations in London and Glasgow on June 20 were highlighted with a call to join the anti-war blocs.
Another view of the closing session in the Congress Hall
George Galloway presenting the final speech of the conference
George Galloway talked about Britain's wars, and that another world is possible. He warned that US imperialism has unleashed unending evil on the modern world. The conference ended with a standing ovation and a further call to participate in the demonstrations on June 20 demanding an end to war and austerity.
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by Michael Brown
L-R: Kevin Flynn, John Scott,
Bill Moran and Dennis VaseyNewcastle and Gateshead Centre
Against Unemployment (CAU) has reopened in a temporary home thanks to the GMB.
Volunteers at the CAU will resume offering benefits and jobs advice, at the
GMB's Mosley Street offices, every day from 10am to 3pm. Volunteers say their
anti-unemployment service will be back up and running within days after being
offered a new home by the GMB union.
The Newcastle and Gateshead CAU, which for more than 35 years had provided advice on benefits and jobs to thousands of people on Tyneside, closed at the end of November last year amid a bitter row with its Cloth Market “landlords”. But now the organisation hopes to bounce back with a six month stay at the GMB’s Mosely Street offices – and efforts continue to find it a more permanent home.
“It’s wonderful,” said CAU co-ordinator Kevin Flynn. “We’re only 150 yards from where we left and in much nicer office space. We have to say a big thank you to the GMB’s regional secretary Billy Coates as we sent him the information about our situation and he said he wanted to help, and was good to his word.”
Kevin said he now hoped word would spread of the service’s new temporary home, and that he and his fellow volunteers could return to helping workers across the region. “The big thing is to tell the people of Tyneside that the service is back on stream,” he said. “We know in the time we’ve been away that the demand for our service hasn’t dropped – people are still unemployed, in need of benefits support or in jobs but facing changes to their conditions – and we’re here to help, Monday to Friday between 10am and 3pm. We’ve been doing it for 37 years, with nearly 29 years at the last place, and now we’re here. And hopefully in the six months that we are we can put plans in place to find something more permanent and continue on for another 37 years.”
Bill Moran, HR manager at the GMB, said he was “more than happy” to welcome the service to the union’s offices on Mosely Street. “We had a little spare office space and it’s great because they are very much aligned with what we do,” he said. “Advising people on benefits, welfare and employment is part of our ethos and I’m more than happy to have them here.”
(Source Newcastle ChronicleLive)
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