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Who's Pulling Labour's Strings?

NEW LABOUR started the year showing its willingness to fight the forthcoming general election on behalf of big business by accepting mega bucks from the wealthy.

The furore surrounding Lord Hamlyn’s £2 million donation to its election fund shows that Labour can be just as sleazy as the previous Tory government. Like the Ecclestone donation a few years ago, workers will want to know who’s pulling Labour’s strings? How much influence are such large donations buying?

Just as New Labour have continued the Tory sleaze, so too they have continued the Tory policies of driving large sections of the working class into destitution.

Four years of Labour government has seen the wealth gap widen and big dividends continue to roll in for the rich.

We start 2001 seeing the poorest 20% of families having to struggle by on £94 a week according to government statistics. They show that the top 20% of families spend on average nearly £900 a week. The super rich have even more.

An academic survey showing maps of poverty in London, using data from over 100 years ago and today, shows how little has changed. It showed that "affluent places remained affluent and poor places have remained relatively poor".

100 years of so-called anti-poverty initiatives have had no impact on the patterns of inequality in inner London. Because of this continued trend the poor still die younger.

The biggest cause of poverty, the control, production and distribution of wealth by big business and the rich - the capitalist system - is the very system that New Labour will be defending at the polls.

It’s probable Blair will call an early election this year, to avoid suffering the likely effects of a US economic recession. The Socialist Party will be challenging New Labour. Unlike them we have no wealthy backers.

We don’t want the sort of backers New Labour has, who give large sums in return for favours that wreck working-class lives. Instead we will be campaigning to elect workers’ MPs on a worker’s wage, who will fight for a socialist redistribution of wealth and power in favour of the poorest and working people generally.

If you want to help us in that, join our party in 2001 and donate to our General Election Special Appeal.

 

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Special Appeal - Fund our campaign

THE SOCIALIST Party has smashed through its quarterly fighting fund target with a few days to go, thanks to the excellent campaigning activity throughout the quarter, despite the appalling weather.

Excellent sales of The Socialist were also recorded. A marvellous new record branch sale of 750 for one issue was set in Swansea, where the Save Free Education campaign and the anger over cuts in disability benefits continues to bring support for Socialist Party Wales.

On the Hackney day of action against job cuts on 20 December we sold an excellent 275, showing the bitter anger against the Labour-Tory coalition council and also raised £130 for our fighting fund (see full reports pages 2 & 7).

Many generous donations from readers also helped us get our target. This week we received 150 from Mike O'Connell in Brighton, £20 from Jack Pickersgill and £20 from Russ Green. London party members and readers raised £300 at their Christmas party.

Final figures will appear in next week's paper. All branches and regions should now draw up plans to reach next quarter's target, which will end on 30 March 2001.

The Socialist believes 2001 will bring another record year for sales and fund raising. So why not subscribe or donate now to help build the socialist alternative!

One of the most urgent demands for our cash will be standing candidates in the general election, likely to be held in the spring. We've reached 75% of our target in pledges so far and 36% of our target in payments for our special election appeal.

In order to mount a successful campaign we need all pledges before the end of January, with hard cash being paid into our funds by the beginning of March at the very latest.

Please rush your donations of a week's income to the Socialist Party.

 

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Rail Privatisation Bring Chaos

Nationalise the Railways

THE RAIL chaos that followed last October's Hatfield disaster has continued into the new year with more cancellations and lengthy delays adding to passengers' misery.

Railtrack, who paid out record profits to its shareholders last year, is expected to ask the government for extra cash subsidies to complete the necessary repairs to the crumbling privatised rail network.

One of the biggest problems is the shortage of maintenance and signalling engineers. The industry has lost 5,000 maintenance workers since the railways were broken up and privatised in 1996. Hundreds of train drivers and station staff have also been pushed out by the Train Operating Companies to cut costs and boost profits, compounding the network's problems.

But workers' concerns about safety and reliability under privatisation have been ignored by New Labour as Transport minister John Prescott pushes ahead with privatising the National Air Traffic Service and the London Underground.

Many workers looked to the election of Mayor Ken Livingstone to halt the Public Private Partnership (privatisation) of the Underground. But a likely compromise between Prescott and Livingstone over financing its refurbishment will still involve private finance capital whose main concern will be to squeeze profits out of the workforce and passengers. And to ensure the rail unions knuckle under, Livingstone has appointed former CIA man and union-buster Bob Kylie as his transport supremo. Kylie will get a £2 million house and a £500,000-a-year salary over the next four years!

Renationalisation

A SPOKESPERSON for a private train operating company accused Railtrack of "behaving like an organisation which owes its allegiance to the City and its shareholders. [And they should know!-eds] But it is first and foremost an engineering company with a duty to the public and it should remember this."

The Socialist can assist Railtrack's failing memory by demanding the renationalisation of the company. And to ensure the whole of the rail network delivers its duty to the public of providing a safe, cheap and reliable service we say, nationalise the train operating companies too.

But public ownership must go hand in hand with democratic control. We don't want the Underground or the railways run by unaccountable top civil servants or union busters. Instead, the day-to-day running should come under the control of workers in that industry who actually know how to run the network.

The industry's overall policy decisions should be determined by a democratically elected board made up of rail workers' unions, government reps and passenger groups.

End the transport chaos. Support our campaign for a socialist transport policy.

 

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Strike Shuts Down Hackney

OVER 5,000 Hackney council workers walked out on a 24-hour strike on 20 December. At least 23 schools closed down due to action from UNISON and GMB union members.

All building works and street cleaning stopped as did Social Services offices, administration and benefit offices. The Mayor’s chauffeur and mace-carrier were on strike for the evening’s council meeting!

In a lively rally outside Hackney Town Hall BRIAN DEBUS, Hackney UNISON branch chair and Socialist Party member, said that council managing director Max Caller wanted council workers to take a salary cut but he hadn’t offered to cut his own £150,000 a year salary.

Brian said the workers’ strike had to be linked in with a struggle by the local community to defend services. This wasn’t the end of the council workers’ struggle just the beginning.

The NUT rep from Haggerston school said there had been 62 on a picket line at that school and no-one had crossed it. She said that Nord Anglia, a company that had been found guilty of racist employment practises, was making £1.2 million from mis-running Hackney’s schools.

JUDE RITCHIE, UNISON steward at De Beauvoir school, warned that Hackney council planned to increase council tax by at least £84 a year - a 10% rise. Interest repayments accounted for £420 for every household in Hackney out of their council tax.

Jude asked the rally: "Are we prepared to go out on strike again in January?" He received a resounding "Yes".

CHRIS NEWBY, a Hackney tenant and Socialist Party member said that not one councillor had signed a letter sent out by Hackney UNISON opposing cuts and redundancies.

Chris said: "The whole shabby bunch of councillors should be driven out and replaced by community candidates." This could be done by a strong united campaign of workers and community.

 

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School students join the protest

HACKNEY COUNCIL is making over £22 million of cuts including £650,000 cuts in education services. Worse still it is seriously considering privatising every school.

Clare James

We wanted to see Hackney school students fighting for their education by joining the council and education staff strike on 20 December. We took leaflets explaining what was happening to many schools and there was huge enthusiasm for this strike.

Many students told us about how school toilets didn’t work and how repairs had been left for months, even years.

Sadia Ahmed from Clapton Girls said: "We don’t have enough qualified teachers. We need more equipment. They’ve started cancelling our school trips because they can’t afford it."

A few headteachers and staff moaned at us for asking students to join the strike, but we had a brilliant school student contingent on the march under the name of ‘Hackney School Student Action’.

In Homerton school, over 100 students left their classes to join the strike in their break time, but the headteacher locked the gates to stop them going. The students were arguing with the head to be let out. Many chanted: ‘Strike, Strike, Strike.’ Unfortunately they couldn’t attend but said they wanted to join action next year.

Those students who got to the demo were singing and shouting throughout. Many joined Hackney School Student Action, and a meeting is planned for 8 January to discuss further action to fight the cuts.

Other students said: "People think Hackney’s a London ghetto and we don’t have rights. We should have a decent education like Prince Harry and Prince William get just because they’re rich. We want all our friends and teachers to come to the next protest."

As Emma Kelsall said: "I’m glad I came today. I didn’t think there’d be this many here and it’s quite impressive. I’m going to get involved now."

 

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Hackney Workers can win

OVER 5,000 Hackney council workers across dozens of separate workplaces came out on strike on 20 December against draconian cuts to jobs and services. They left the councillors and council chief "Mad Max" completely isolated and demonstrated who really runs the council services.

Bill Mullins, Socialist Party Industrial Organiser

The well-supported strike was organised by all the council unions including UNISON, TGWU and GMB. Ground maintenance workers, estate workers, white-collar workers in the town hall and other workplaces maintained pickets from early morning with hardly any scabbing except by a handful of managers.

Based on this massive show of support the joint shop stewards committee have a real chance of winning. At their last meeting, Brian Debus, chair of the UNISON branch and a Socialist Party member, moved for a three-day and a five-day strike in January. Then if the council refuse to back down, the shop stewards should prepare for an all-out strike.

Unfortunately the committee amended his resolution merely to call for "an escalation of the action" without saying how this could be achieved.

This does not match the mood of the workers, who are clearly looking for a plan to make the management back down. They know that a one-day strike was a warning shot to the council but will not be enough to make them retreat.

The council are issuing 90-day redundancy notices to all workers. This means they can issue new contracts of employment which worsen conditions for all council workers.

The new contracts will be based on the lowest possible national terms and conditions. Local agreements will be wiped out, including the Hackney low-paid supplement of £40 per week. Long serving workers will see their holiday reduced by four days per year, paternity leave will be reduced from eleven days to six days. White-collar staff will be forced to work an extra hour per week without pay.

Hundreds of posts will be cut on top of the hundreds of temporary workers already sacked. Whole departments will be closed and the audit commission has demanded that the council privatise many more services.

A CRUCIAL question has developed over the control of negotiations. What has been won on the picket line can easily be lost over the negotiating table.

All negotiations should be subject to the shop stewards' and members' meetings. It is clear that some on the negotiating committee do not want this.

Already the negotiators have accepted that they will negotiate on the implementation of lower terms and conditions, instead of rejecting the council's demands outright. If they persist in breaking their mandate a resolution before the shop stewards' committee calls for the right of recall and the election of a new negotiating committee.

Refuse workers, including bin workers and street cleaners voted 91% to take strike action but the union did not call them out because their service was privatised whilst the ballot was taking place. TGWU leaders even sent a letter to other council workers who were planning to put pickets on the refuse depots, saying that to do so would risk the union being fined and made bankrupt!

The shop stewards must not accept this lying down. It was a weakness in the 20 December strike that whilst the strike was on, street cleaners and refuse trucks could be seen on the streets.  Delegates should visit the refuse workers, who want to take part in the next strike, to ask them not to cross the picket line and then the shop stewards should organise pickets on the newly privatised depots on the next strike days.

This strike can be won with proper planning. Now is the time for such decisive action and planning.

 

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Vauxhall Luton - Angry workers ready for Action

AFTER CAR multinational General Motors (GM) announced it was closing its Vauxhall plant in Luton, angry workers laid siege to the firm’s headquarters. Workers say that "everybody was involved" in the protests.

Socialist Party industrial organiser BILL MULLINS spoke to Vauxhall Luton workers the following day.

Martin, a new starter under the terms of the last agreement, earning only 82% of the pay of other workers, said: "I’ll have worked here nine months in April, we were told we’d get a full-time job at the end of nine months.

"Then we’re told we’re out the door with nothing. There’s 114 new starters being laid off on 1 April without a penny."

Sima, who works in the newsagent directly opposite the gates of the plant where her husband works, said: "They told us last year that we’d be having eight years more work with the new Epsilon car. Instead GM are closing this plant."

This is catastrophic for the car workers and thousands of others. For every one Vauxhall track worker five others depend on them.

GM took this decision in readiness for a collapse in the world car market. They predict that 2001 will see two million fewer cars sold than 2000 in GM’s home market of the USA. Big multinationals tend to retreat to their home base during an economic downturn.

Blair boasts that the UK is the "inward investment capital of Europe". Blair’s ready to offer overseas capitalists the right to set up shop without "restrictive regulations" such as the right of the unions to consultation before bosses close down plants, even without minimum legal rights for workers against redundancy. It also makes it also easy for GM to pull out of Britain.

Vauxhall’s profits increased massively from £72 million in 1998 to £127 million in 1999 yet this isn’t enough for GM. They want to concentrate their production in fewer European plants ready for the expected world recession.

Capitalist firms will do all they can to maximise their profits in the interests of their big shareholders and to hell with the workers.

The workers are prepared to take action to defend their jobs. Duncan Simpson, the national officer of the AEEU has promised a fight to defend the plant "tooth and nail". Now the unions must turn words into action.

 

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Socialist Alliances: another step in the wrong direction

THE SOCIALIST Alliances were initiated by the Socialist Party in the early 1990s. Throughout their history they have tried to bring together different Left parties and organisations.

Hannah Sell

Until recently, the Socialist Alliances always recognised that there were political differences between the constituent parts of the Alliance, but recognised that this need not prevent us working effectively together, provided it was on a democratic, federal basis.

However, in the last year the Socialist Workers' Party (SWP) have become seriously involved in the Alliances for the first time. They have an entirely different approach. Their goal is to control the Alliances through ruthless centralisation. The very small number of genuine forces involved in the Alliances at this stage mean that they have largely achieved this goal.

At the Socialist Alliance Conference in September an SWP proposal to establish a new Executive was defeated. The SWP then came to the first meeting of the leadership body that was agreed by the September conference, the Liaison Committee, and put forward the same proposal again. This time it was passed.

Unsurprisingly, the main effect of the new Executive is to increase the SWP's effective control over the Socialist Alliance’s national structures.

At the first meeting of the new Socialist Alliance Executive on 16 December, the SWP moved a resolution against the Socialist Party, "condemning" us for refusing to accept SWP attempts to centralise the Socialist Alliances under their control.

This resolution, along with the resolution moved by Socialist Party representatives in response, was left on the table until the next meeting. Meanwhile it was agreed that we would meet with the SWP to try and reach agreement.

More in the next issue of The Socialist.

 

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2001 - a year of Workers' reawakening

EIGHTEEN MONTHS ago, George W Bush was told by an economic adviser that the USA was heading for a "painful adjustment" (read recession or slump). Bush’s reaction was: "If you’re right, I’m not sure I want this job [the US presidency]"

Peter Taaffe, general secretary, Socialist Party

Through a mixture of the most blatant electoral fraud worthy of a "banana republic" and a ‘legal’ coup d’etat by the US Supreme Court, Bush stole "the job" from Gore, the inept Democratic Party candidate.

But he will regret this as his economic adviser’s predictions will be borne out in the US much sooner than he expects. The Nasdaq index of technology shares has already dropped by 50% in the last year. The current account deficit of the US economy (the difference between the amount of goods imported and those exported) is already at a record figure.

The only issue at doubt is whether the collapse in the US will have a "hard" or "soft" landing. The very prolongation of the boom, now officially the longest in US history, has deepened the problems of the US economy and enhanced all the factors which can lead to a serious recession or slump.

The collapse in the exchange rate of the dollar, a sudden drop in the profits of industry in the US in particular, or one of many other factors, could be the pin that pricks the huge bubble economy of the US. A default by a country such as Argentina could also bring the US house of cards tumbling down. The winner of the US presidential election could, ultimately, be the "loser".

Like the Duke of Wellington after the Battle of Waterloo, Bush may well ruminate that "nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won". So could Tony Blair. The effects of a US meltdown will wreak havoc on the world economy and particularly on the exposed British economy.

Eddie George, Governor of the Bank of England, may "welcome" the signs of a slowdown in the US economy. The people he represents, the richest fifth of the population, have seen their share of Britain’s post-tax income rise from 36% to a colossal 45% between 1978 and 1998-99. The bosses pay virtually no taxes now. They will not shoulder the main burden of the capitalist crisis.

Nor will the Chief Executive Officers of Britain’s largest 100 companies. In the past year their salaries rose by 20% to an average of £717,000. They popped champagne corks with 1,000 corporate financiers and analysts in the City who "earned" £1 million bonuses at the end of last year. In 1983 there were 7,000 millionaires in Britain, now there are 77,000!

BUT THE Luton workers, the Corus steelworkers in the north-east and South Wales who face mass redundancies and many others, unlike George, are not "pleased" at the prospects of a slowdown.

They are seething with anger at the capitalists who open and shut factories, throwing thousands on the scrapheap, with as much ease and as little thought of the consequences, as if they were opening and shutting matchboxes. These workers are given a brutal lesson in the realities of the workings of the "free market", the capitalist system.

Events have conspired to ensure the probable return of New Labour, albeit with a reduced majority. They stand more than ten points ahead of the Tories in opinion polls. The British people consider that the Tories, particularly Thatcher and her heirs, are like war criminals. Their policies laid waste to large parts of Britain, which has resulted in the present catastrophes. Hague promises to compound this.

Indeed, Britain today conjures up the biblical spectre of the "four horseman of the apocalypse". At one stage, an area the size of Lancashire was under water. Natural disasters have been compounded by the capitalist disaster of lack of investment on the infrastructure.

It is now estimated that five million people will be affected by floods in the future and it will cost a minimum of £12 billion for flood defences, whereas the government has committed only an extra £30 million for this work.

We have had the BSE/CJD crisis, which has justifiably aroused fears that hardly any food is now safe in Britain, or elsewhere for that matter. This has been aggravated by the rail catastrophe, which is in turn a product of the crime of privatisation under the Tories, stubbornly and damagingly continued by Blair and Prescott.

Without the memory of what the Tories did and the greater devastation they promise if they were ever re-elected to office, then New Labour would be faced with being turfed out of office in this year’s election. This Labour government, unlike previous ones, has been exceptionally lucky.

It has not faced any serious economic crisis since it has been in power. Gordon Brown wrongly ascribes this to his "prudence". The British economy has benefited from the upswing of world capitalism in the last eight years.

At the same time, the government has had lucky windfalls from the sale of mobile phone licenses and a certain rise in revenue from the increase in oil prices in the last year or two.

It is this which allowed Brown in his pre-budget statement to make concessions on education, to pensioners, and promised increases in funding to the collapsing National Health Service.

BUT BLAIR now admits that by continuing with Tory restrictions on state spending he has starved the NHS of funds. He can do little else in the teeth of the evidence of the shameful position which now exists in the NHS.

The chairman of the British Medical Association has admitted that doctors are "clinically depressed" at the state of the NHS. If so, imagine how the rest of us feel when we have to go to a doctor, dentist or wander into a hospital emergency department expecting to be treated efficiently and humanely.

Many emergency departments in hospitals resemble First World War medical outposts. This is the reason, perhaps, why "mobile surgical units, normally restricted to treating soldiers injured in battle, are riding to the rescue of the NHS". [Financial Times, 12 December].

The infrastructure in Britain is collapsing because of years of underfunding. Britain’s housebuilding federation has declared: "Britain has had the lowest level of housing investment as a percentage of gross domestic product of any developed country for decades".

Moreover, The Guardian informed us in November that "India’s railways still work". The trains in India are superior to Britain. Even writers in the Daily Mail have raised the possibility of renationalising the railways!

The founder of The Independent newspaper, Andreas Whittam-Smith, bluntly outlined in December in his column: "the capitalist case for renationalisation". Yet not only does New Labour refuse to renationalise Railtrack and the other rail companies, but billions of our money, will be pumped into Railtrack. It is now estimated this will give the bloodsuckers who invest in this company profits of £3 million a day in five years time.

The privatisation of air traffic control has been pushed through by Prescott for one reason only: to give a short-term financial boost to government finances in preparation for more pre-election bribes in the March budget.

Almost 40 Labour MPs voted against this measure in the House of Commons, but the House of Lords eventually acquiesced. 67 Labour MPs have called for the renationalisation of the railways.

But the muted parliamentary rebellions we now see are only a pale reflection of the deep and growing opposition, even abiding hatred, which exists among significant sections of the population towards New Labour.

A RECENT headline in The Independent summed up the situation: "Things are not getting better for Britain’s poorest". Half a million more officially classified poor have been added to the one-quarter to a third of the population in Britain already in this category when the government was elected three and a half years ago.

The Economist, mouthpiece of world finance capital, which fatuously described the present situation as "a golden age", and has hailed the "boom" in Britain, nevertheless admits: "The British people [some of those in work - PT] are doing better by working longer and harder, not by working ‘smarter’

It further comments on Britain’s economy that "its underlying inefficiency is actually getting worse in relation to the rest of the world" [The World in 2001, Economist publications].

The bill for this situation will be presented to the government in the post-election period by working-class people. The fuel uprising in September, which was preceded by the mass outburst of anger at Rover earlier in the year, and now by the fury of the Luton workers - who brought a little of France or Spain to Britain when they stormed Vauxhall’s headquarters - is a foretaste of what is to come.

If the bottom falls out of the world economy and Britain is severely affected by mass redundancies, outbursts on an even higher scale are inevitable.

Millions of workers are seething with indignation at their stagnating or deteriorating living standards, while the millionaires and billionaires coin it in. Teachers are straining at the leash to take action against their miserable wages. Two-thirds of university lecturers, according to their union NATFHE, are prepared to take strike action to improve their position.

Events just before the turn of the year in Spain, where a massive strike of 2.2 million public-sector workers - the first there since 1996 - a similar general strike in Greece and a huge industrial wave in Southern Ireland are portents of what will take place in Britain.

In matters big and small, this government is a mouthpiece for big business. The government knew about the proposed redundancies in Luton but never informed the unions or the workforce. Luton’s workers are cheaper to sack, as was the case with Rover and Ford workers, than their German counterparts.

Bowing the knee to businessmen specially invited to 10 Downing Street, Blair even promised them in November that the minimal defence measures for workers unfairly sacked would be further weakened. Employment Tribunals will be given new powers to strike out "ill-founded claims" that allegedly "have no real chance of success".

IN THE last three and a half years, the right-wing trade union leadership has shamefully acquiesced to the anti-worker, pro-big business agenda of the New Labour government.

Their attitude was perhaps best summed up by the discredited general secretary of the MSF union, Roger Lyons. He recently led officials and some national executive committee members in a vigil outside the Bank of England. Complete with a priest and candles, with some participants kneeling down, Lyons led a plea for a reduction in interest rates to "help manufacturing industry".

A "prayer" is the only policy of these trade union leaders rather than action to defend workers’ interests. But even they will be forced to reflect the growing indignation of workers against the bosses and the government.

Right-wing GMB general secretary John Edmonds has admitted that the trade union leaders were restraining workers before the election. But he claimed it would be a different matter after the election.

The British working class is sometimes very slow to move and appears a bit more ponderous than their European counterparts. However, the experience of Vauxhall’s Luton workers shows that this attitude could now be changing.

The new generation will not accommodate themselves to the prospect of being driven back into poverty and deprivation. This period will see the reawakening of the traditions of struggle and solidarity on the shopfloor, in the office and the workplace.

This will also be reflected within the trade unions. The victory of Mark Serwotka, a left candidate for the PCS general secretary, supported by Socialist Party members in Left Unity, is a symptom of this mood.

POLITICALLY, THERE is growing hostility to big business amongst workers and youth. Indeed, The Economist, in its survey for the next year, has admitted: "The anti-capitalists have scored notable successes"; [they] "have been winning the battle of ideas".

Yet, they also claim that globalisation, the "new economy" and the capitalist system which they firmly defend, will continue seamlessly in the next period.

The claims made for this system as the bearer of culture, of new technology for all, of rising living standards, and a future of undreamed of plenty for the mass of the peoples of the world will be further undermined in the next year.

Even now, before the onset of a serious recession or slump, the world’s resources are clearly seen as unequally divided. Barely 2% of the world’s population of more than six billion are linked to the Internet. Most people on the planet have not even made a telephone call.

There are more telephone lines in a big city like Tokyo than in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. In the US, Internet access costs the user only 1% of average monthly income, whereas in Uganda it costs more than a month’s average (per capita) income.

This unequal world, capitalist society, oozes inequality from every pore. But it has been seriously challenged by significant sections of youth and workers in the last year. That will continue on a higher scale in the next year but will go alongside those who are drawing the conclusion that not only is this system not working but that a real alternative, socialism, must be put in its place.

Ten years after the defeat of Thatcher - and her legacy has been continued by Blair - working-class people are set to reject not just the effects of Thatcherism but to turn to those very ideas she claimed she had buried, democratic, liberating socialism in Britain and the world.

 

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Greek general strike against bosses' attacks

ON THE same day that tens of thousands workers and youth were demonstrating on the streets of Nice, (7 December), the Greek working class held a general strike - the second in the last two months.

Christina Ziaka, Xekinina, Greek section of the CWI

Transport came to a complete standstill. Many workers in public utility companies struck and the civil service was semi-functioning.

Journalists in the private mass media went on a five-hour stoppage for the first time in their history. In the big private-sector companies a large majority went on strike.

The central demand of the strike was the withdrawal of the new labour relations bill that the government was pushing through parliament.

In the name of fighting against unemployment, the so-called 'socialist' government of Simitis, is aiming at taking away from the working class all the reforms gained since world war two.

The bill provides greater freedom for the bosses to sack workers without having to justify this; for the imposition of temporary employment on a much more extensive scale than before not only in the private sector but also in the public sector; and for the abolition of the eight-hour day and five-day week, through the annualisation of working hours.

The government is attempting to copy the flexibility models applied to the labour markets by a number of EU countries.

They use the "fight against unemployment" as a pretext, arguing that the flexibility of the labour market will bring it down. According to the confederation of industrialists themselves, however, the Greek labour market is not less flexible than the rest of the EU.

Greek workers work on average not 40 hours but 46 hours every week, while, at the same time, 43.6% are not paid what they are supposed to receive (unpaid overtime). Also seasonal employment is the most developed in Greece compared to any other EU country. Despite this, unemployment has been rising and has officially reached 12% during the last few months.

The picture of the government's plans is completed by the attempt to have the health service function on profit criteria, and the attempt to sell off major public companies like Olympic Airways, the electricity company and the telecommunications company. At the same time it is attempting to link post-graduate degrees in the universities with private companies and 'sponsors'.

In all these sectors we had strikes, protests and demonstrations in the recent period.

An additional factor that intensifies workers' dissatisfaction and their desire to fight back is the universally bad perception of the government. Only eight months after its election to office, a whole series of scandals, which involve top level government officials, have come to the surface.

In a recent opinion poll, only 14.5% had confidence in the government's policies, only 32.7% consider that the entry into the EMU will make their life any better, while 91% of the population considers that "public life" is identical to corruption.

Despite all this, the trade union leadership refuses to give a lead to the working class. In reality they function as a break on the labour movement, so that the latter is prevented from going on the offensive.

The previous 10 October general strike was also a great success as the working class responded massively, despite the complete lack of preparation by the union leadership. The president of GSEE (the Greek TUC) did not even openly campaign for a no vote to the bill, but only 'corrective changes'!

To thousands of activists the role of the union leaders is becoming clearer and they are searching for ways to fight back, not only against the policies of capitalism but also against the present union leaders.

You'll always find more in The Socialist

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