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Sleazy Labour Rewards Greedy Bosses

ROGUE TRADER John Rusnak hit the headlines when he gambled away £530 million at a US outpost of Allied Irish Bank. But top businessmen use their wealth to gamble with our futures daily, helped by capitalist politicians.

Last June, international steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal of LNM Group gave a £125,000 gift to New Labour. It wasn't his first donation.

In July Tony Blair wrote to Romania's prime minister Adrian Nastase, enthusiastically backing LNM's multi-million pound bid to buy out state-owned Romanian steel company Sidex.

Last year Brian Moffat, job-destroying boss of Corus steelworks, closed his south Wales plants admitting "I'm interested in making money not steel." Blair didn't intervene then to save steel workers' jobs.

Now Mittal, with the same capitalist attitude, can give New Labour money and get Blair's support for the biggest privatisation in Romania's history. Steel workers in Wales and eastern Europe suffer to keep one millionaire happy. No wonder union members ask: "Why do we keep giving money to New Labour?

When multinational power company Enron went bankrupt recently, many workers lost their jobs and pensions. Enron gave vast gifts of money to Republican and Democrat politicians in the USA and smaller sums to New Labour.

Like gamblers, big businesses expect big returns for their 'investment'. Enron got aid with building a massive gas-fired power station in Teesside, and help in buying Wessex Water.

Companies related to Enron's auditors Arthur Andersen gained contracts for private finance initiative schemes worth over £10 billion. Other accountants had their snouts in the same trough.

The Treasury gave consultancy contracts to accountants from firms such as Ernst and Young and PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC).

Ernst and Young are auditors for two companies in the consortia which bid successfully to run PPP (privatisation) on London's tubes.

Yet they were allowed to produce a nonsensical report for the government saying that PPP was good value for money. So it is - for them!

What else do you expect of capitalist firms? Their first priority is maximising their profits - that's Blair's first priority too. We're campaigning for the nationalisation of such greedy companies under the democratic control and management of the workers.

We're also fighting for a new mass workers' party that represents our interests and not those of money-grabbing capitalist bosses.

 

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No fees!  For a living grant!

ON 20 February, students will show their anger about tuition fees in a massive demonstration in London. Since the government was forced to accept that the fees system is unworkable, anger has continued to grow.

Christian Bunke, Manchester

Over 30,000 students, graduates and parents have already signed an online petition against fees (www.payuptony.com)

Tuition fees are driving students into poverty, student debt is rising by £1.6 billion a year. Working- class students are discouraged from going to university, simply because they cannot afford it. And those who still go to university are forced into ridiculously underpaid dead-end jobs.

Students are simply stopping paying their fees and £ millions go unpaid every year. So the government is reviewing its fees policy but Tony and Co seem absolutely clueless about what to do next.

One suggestion is the introduction of a graduate tax, meaning that instead of paying fees before starting a course, students will have to pay after finishing their degree. But debt will be debt, whether caused by fees or by a tax.

Students have to fight for a fully funded education system. But the National Union of Students (NUS), with the resources to lead such a struggle, does little.

Last year, for example, the then general secretary of the Manchester University students' union refused to support an occupation of the main administration building during an NUS day of action against fees, because he feared losing his "great relationship with university management."

We cannot rely on such leaders, who are only interested in their personal careers and not in fighting for students' rights and living standards.

In Manchester, Save Free Education (SFE) and Socialist Students picketed several university buildings in order to make the day of action happen.

An international day of action against privatisation and cuts in education has been called for 15 March. We will build to make this day a big success, demanding:

A fully government-financed education system and a decent living grant. We need to organise protests, demonstrations, occupations and mass non-payment of fees in order to achieve this.

For a democratic NUS, with a fighting leadership accountable to NUS members, so that an effective mass campaign against fees can be organised.

 

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Welsh Assembly Short-Changes Students

STUDENTS IN Wales will greet the recent announcement by the Labour-Liberal administration in the Welsh Assembly that they are restoring grants as a partial victory for their campaigning for "Grants not Fees".

However, closer examination of the details of the package shows that very few students in Wales will benefit from the changes and they fall far short of even the Rees Report recommendations.

The Lab-Lib majority in the Assembly is promising 'learning grants' from £800 to £1,500 for Welsh students with proof of three-year residency in Wales. This sum will barely cover the cost of tuition fees, let alone living costs and will be means tested.

No student whose parents earn jointly more than £15,000 will get anything and for those who are eligible, the grant will only start at £800, less than a year's tuition fees. A student whose parents both earn just the minimum wage could well receive nothing at all from the Welsh Assembly!

Scandalously, the Assembly has refused to carry out one of the key proposals of the Rees Report - to call on the UK government to abolish tuition fees.

ANDREW LAST, Swansea University Socialist Students Organiser said: 

"These proposals will make hardly any difference to the present level of student debt.

"In truth it will just aggravate the situation because students will see it as a cynical attempt by politicians to give the impression they are doing something about student poverty.

"Along with myself, from Essex, the vast majority of students in Wales will not even be entitled to this measly sum because we haven't resided in Wales for the required three years. For those very poor Welsh students who will be eligible, a grant of £800-£1,500 a year will mean very little when you still have loan debts of up to £14,000.

"Nonetheless, now that there's been a crack in the government's position, students from Wales and all parts of the UK should step up the campaign to scrap fees and restore grants for everyone".

 

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Free Education Now!

International Socialist Resistance Day of action 15 March

THE INTERNATIONAL Socialist Resistance (ISR) conference held in Brussels on 15 December, decided to launch an international campaign for free education. 

Bart Vandersteene, International Resistance, Belgium

An international day of action will be taking place on 15 March. This is to coincide with a European Council meeting in Barcelona, which will discuss education in the European Union.

The European Round Table (ERT) is the biggest business lobby-group, consisting of 45 European multinational leaders with assets worth 550 billion euros (the equivalent of twice the Gross National Product of France).

They complained back in 1989 that European governments spent "too much" on students who do not pass exams or who follow "useless" classes.

The bosses moaned that young people study "too long" before they can work for them, they are "too critical" and have to be "re-educated" when they arrive in the workplace.

The so-called democratisation and expansion of education in the 1960s was necessary for the capitalists to fulfil the need for more skilled workers. The development of new, more advanced production methods made it necessary to open universities for working-class young people.

But today, with their profits under pressure and chronic unemployment in many countries, bosses think that "too many" students want to follow higher education. They think the money spent on higher education is wasted if it produces an unemployed highly skilled workforce.

Over the last few years there has been a common tendency worldwide to prepare education for privatisation and commercialisation and give courses a pro-business slant. The Bologna agreement, signed by 29 European ministers of education, is designed to prepare European universities for "competition" with the US and Canada.

In Europe the bosses see part of this competition with the US as "opening" the education system to the market, with less state intervention and more big business control. In the US state funding of higher education has fallen from 50% in 1987 to 34% in 1999.

Attacks on education have been taking place across the world and resistance from teachers and students against these attacks has been growing.

There has been an occupation of students in Canada, against deregulation of education. Last year 200,000 students marched through Madrid with their teachers and parents against the privatisation of education in Spain. In Russia teacher's strikes over pay are growing. Students there now have to pay fees for higher education.

Students all over the world will be confronted with further attacks on the education sector. Higher fees, student loans, limitations on student numbers, privatisation of services, are concrete measures that every student will be confronted with.

The struggle against these attacks will have to defend the right of everyone to a democratic and free education.

• Join the 15 March action against the commercialisation and privatisation of education.
• Join International Socialist Resistance

 

There are many reasons why students in England and Wales should take part in the Free Education Now! campaign. By Clare James The introduction of tuition fees and abolition of the student grant in universities in 1998, has forced many working class students out of higher education. And those who do go are forced into low pay 'McJobs' to try and survive and left with huge debts from student loans. Further Education is continually under attack, with services being privatised, campuses closed down and a general lack of resources. Schools are also hugely underfunded and New Labour are looking to big business to 'help' run services (in exchange for a nice profit at the expense of students' education). 40% of teachers leave after only three years in the job. Our education is in a mess; it is our future that governments and their big business friends are playing with. Education should be a right, not a privilege. Get organised, join the half-day education walkouts on 15 March.

 

Building For The Walkout

• Pick a college/school or university in your area which the walkout will centre on.
• Decide what time the strike should start.
• Issue a press release to local newspapers, TV and radio to announce the walkout and keep in touch with them in the run up to 15 March.
• Plan action and events in the local area to let people know about what is happening. Try and get students from other colleges involved. Organise lobbies of your local MP, information stalls and publicity stunts.
• Trade Unions and Students' Unions should be app-roached as soon as possible to try and get support for the walkouts and ensure no students are penalised for missing lectures.
• The college which the walkout is being built in, should be leafleted regularly so students know about what is happening and are confident to take part.
• Ask students who are willing to help organise the strike to form an organising group. Also try and encourage students to organise regular canteen meetings in the run-up to 15 March. This is so everyone can have a say in how things will be run on the day; i.e.: where students should meet up, will there be a rally / demonstration, if so where should that be etc.
• Governments across the world have dictated to us long enough about what kind of education we should have and how it should be run - it's time we had our say.
• Strike for a decent, free education for all!

 

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Resisting Exploitation

LAST SATURDAY Coventry ISR hit the streets for its first public activity, with a stall campaigning against low pay and for a mass socialist/anti-capitalist movement.

"With a banner of Che Guevara behind the stall, and songs by the likes of the The Clash, Sex Pistols and Rage against the Machine blaring out across the precinct from a stereo, youth were queueing up to sign our petitions and take our leaflets," said Paul from Coventry.

"We got phone numbers and emails of eight young people who were interested in finding out more about ISR and future activities. And we sold five pamphlets containing the ISR founding statement. A great start for ISR in Coventry and this after our first meeting on Monday where eleven turned up to hear Christian from Manchester talk about the life and legacy of Che Guevara".

Leeds and Leicester organised regional days of action against Gap. In Leeds, four security guards prevented ISR members from entering the shop to leaflet staff and handed out Gap leaflets to customers claiming Gap don't use sweated labour. However these were more than answered by the ISR leaflets detailing wages and conditions of workers making Gap clothes around the world.

In London, ISR held a protest outside Andersen Consulting against big business involvement in public services. Ian Page, Socialist Party councillor for Pepys ward in Lewisham, handed in a letter of protest from ISR. There was interest from passers-by, particularly when Tony Blair turned up to show his support for Andersen.

 

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Blunkett's White Paper Reinforces Racism

THE GOVERNMENT'S new white paper on nationality, immigration and asylum is yet another attack on refugees' rights and a step backwards in the fight to cut across racism and division in Britain.

It is an attempt by New Labour to alter immigration controls to help British big business attract workers from abroad. But at the same time, in order not to be undercut by the Tories, and in some areas the far-right, it gives in to racist pressure and proposes further attacks on the right to asylum.

The riots in northern England exposed the depth of racial segregation that exists in some parts of Britain. They also reflected the burning frustration and anger about poverty and unemployment that exists amongst the working class in all communities and in particular the anger felt amongst Asian youth towards racist policing tactics.

The riots and the increased votes for the British National Party (BNP) sent shock waves through the establishment. Yet the new white paper "Secure Borders, Safe Haven - integration with diversity in modern Britain", despite its soothing name, will only reinforce and strengthen racism while New Labour's economic policies further entrench poverty, deteriorating social conditions and alienation.

The measures in the white paper aimed at attracting skilled foreign workers and unskilled or semi-skilled short-term or seasonal workers are an attempt by New Labour to adapt current immigration controls in the interests of big business.

Partly they are attempting to compensate for three decades of cuts in education and industry that have caused a huge skills shortage in Britain.

The white paper proposes reduced rights of appeal for asylum-seekers, compulsory ID cards, increased visa restrictions and a 40% increase in "secure removals centre" places.

In reality, proposals for a new citizenship pledge and compulsory tests on the English language and "knowledge about British society" are extra immigration controls, added to try and block poor people from poorer countries being able to settle in Britain.

Instead of threatening migrants entering Britain, the government should provide English classes free for all those that need them, as well as investing in jobs and social spending to improve people's living conditions.

The Socialist Party opposes the white paper. We fight to defend the right of asylum for all those fleeing persecution and the right of families to be reunited when the immigration process has separated them.

New Labour are more interested in serving the interests of big business and kow-towing to the tabloids' racist propaganda, then they are in the right of asylum.

The Socialist Party is fighting for a system where all applicants should have the right to a full and democratic hearing and the right to appeal if their case is rejected. The right of appeal should be to an elected tribunal that includes representatives of trade unions, community organisations, and welfare and legal rights organisations.

Divide and rule

Hampered by their pro-big business policies New Labour will never find a way to solve the contradictions of capitalist society. 

The enormous wealth that exists alongside widespread poverty; the need for stability and social peace alongside big business's need to divide and rule in order to exploit human beings for profit - these problems can only be solved by ending class society.

Socialists need to fight for better jobs, wages and conditions for all, including migrant workers, to help cut across the divisions capitalism creates to destroy working-class unity.

While money flows around the world unchecked, the people that create this wealth are only allowed to move from country to country in the interests of profits. While big business rules, the problems of racism, poverty and exploitation will always exist.

The only way to solve these problems is to fight for a democratic, socialist society run for the needs of all not the profits of the few.

 

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Strike For The Full Claim

A MEMBER of Bristol Communication Workers' Union (CWU) spoke to The Socialist about the ballot result for a postal strike:

"POSTAL WORKERS have voted to strike, not only over pay but the way we've been treated by management, especially the announcements about cuts in jobs.

"A lot of people think the strike should have started months ago when they announced job cuts and when they started talking about changing the deliveries.

"I work in a delivery office, with 160 workers. I start at 5am and work until 12, six days a week. We were promised five-day weeks but I'm still working six days. And the basic wage is only £250.53.

"People are fed up with the way management treat us, I'm being disciplined myself over trumped-up charges.

"When the ballot result was announced, Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said there would be no action for a fortnight but the mood is for action now. People have voted by a big majority to strike so we shouldn't delay it.

"Management want us out until 2 o'clock or 3 o'clock in the afternoon delivering mail. We don't want that and the customers don't want that. They just want to serve business. What it will mean is amalgamating two or three deliveries so they can make cuts.

"They'll hive off the business stuff to private companies and we'll be left guaranteeing deliveries up to Scotland for 27p."

The ballot result was 63% in favour of industrial action on a 65% turnout.

The Socialist says:

• End low pay for long working hours. For the full pay claim of a minimum wage of £300 for a 35-hour week.
• Stop the break-up and privatisation of the Post Office.
• Renationalise what has already been hived off and run it as an integrated public service under democratic workers' control and management.
• End all closures, redundancies and 'rationalisation'. For improved technology and working arrangements which will benefit postal workers and provide a better service.

 

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Capitalism Has No 'Conscience'

TONY BLAIR dismally failed to resolve any of the many problems facing the peoples of central Asia on his recent tour. But that didn't stop him jetting off to Africa to try and solve that continent's problems.

However, news pictures of 'saint' Tony grinning widely won't actually eliminate poverty, HIV/Aids or war.

Tackling these problems requires a massive redistribution of wealth and power from the multi-billionaire capitalists and their Western governments.

HIV/Aids pandemic

TAKE THE issue of Aids for example. The giant pharmaceutical companies are determined to defend their profits by preventing the production of cheaper versions of drugs to treat HIV/Aids.

In southern Africa, where one in five people are HIV-positive, these companies organised a legal challenge to stop the South African government importing cheap retro-viral drugs.

But mass pressure from trade unions and community campaigns in the country and internationally exposed their profiteering.

The pharmaceutical companies also realised that their price fixing would be exposed if they went to court. Consequently, they dropped their legal action.

However, sufferers and campaigners alike are still battling with president Mbeki's capitalist government which refuses to fund a drugs treatment programme.

'Debt' relief

DESPITE ALL the ballyhoo in recent years by Chancellor Gordon Brown and other finance ministers in the world's powerful G8 countries to write off $100 billion of the $260 billion debt of the world's poorest countries, precious little has happened.

Of 25 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries only one - Uganda - is anywhere near having its debts written off. But given the dominance of the rich capitalist countries in international financial institutions like the IMF, this is hardly surprising. For example, the US has 18% of votes at the IMF whereas Mozambique has just 0.06%.

Debt relief is also conditional on implementing IMF-approved Structural Adjustment Programmes, ie. measures to open up their economies to foreign competition, deregulating labour and privatising publicly-owned industries.

Needless to say the unfavourable terms of trade, whereby the price of exports from the poorest countries are forced down by the economically dominant countries, remain.

In Africa, Asia and Latin America, child labour is used by local producers to produce cash crops like cocoa and coffee which are bought by multinationals who profit from such practices.

Wars of profit

AS THE Socialist reported last week, British arms manufacturers have increased their sales to some of the poorest countries and repressive regimes in Africa, including Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Kenya.

In 1999 African nations bought £52 million of British arms, rising to £125 million in 2000 and to an expected £200 million last year.

So when Blair piously lecturers us on 'failed states' perhaps he could explain how Britain's arms sales are making for a safer world.

Again, it is the Western based multinationals who have benefited from the blood-soaked trade in diamonds and other precious goods, fuelling devastating wars in Angola, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In the case of the Congo, its eastern mineral rich areas are permanently occupied by armed forces all extracting gold, diamonds and now coltan. Coltan is the heat resistant compound used in mobile phones and 'playstations'. The US considers it "highly strategic".

This is why the imperialist powers are reluctant to act against these conflicts because they allow easier access to mineral riches.

Guilty conscience

WHEN TONY Blair piously speaks of the problems of Africa as being "a scar on the conscience of the world", he is deliberately missing the point.

It's not the world's workers and poor who are to blame, rather it's the greed of the multinationals who are guilty of causing and perpetuating poverty, disease and wars.

It is the former, by taking control of the world's resources and democratically planning production within a socialist system, who will begin to solve the world's problems.

 

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Colombia

Workers Win Victory In Teeth Of Reaction

A DECADE of civil war in Colombia has left 300,000 people dead and two million internally displaced.

By Simon Carter

Over recent years the Colombian government has received $1.3 billion in military assistance and 300 military 'advisors' from the US. This has been facilitated through the US's 'Plan Colombia' - ostensibly to fight drug operations but in practise to bolster the weak army in its fight against the left-wing FARC and ELN guerrilla groups.

Operating out of their 42,000 square kilometre 'safe haven' in the south of the country the FARC have in the last two weeks stepped up their bombing campaign of oil pipelines and electricity pylons and car bombings in the urban areas.

The right-wing paramilitary AUC - which is closely allied to Colombia's armed forces - has also stepped up its murderous activities. And with presidential elections due in May, political violence is expected to increase.

On 5 February Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International called on US secretary of state Colin Powell to suspend assistance to the Colombian government on human rights grounds. However, the US government is asking Congress to approve a $98 million plan to protect the Cano Limon oil pipeline which pumps oil for the US firm Occidental Petroleum Corporation.

This could be the start of a stepping up of US involvement in Colombia. The US Ambassador, Anne Patterson, has said there are more than 300 sites with infrastructure of strategic importance to the US in Colombia.

Workers' struggles

THE COUNTRY'S working class (of whom only 22% are economically active) have been pulverised by the Pastrana government's capitalist policies and its war against the guerrillas.

Harsh anti-union labour laws and privatisation measures have extracted a heavy toll on the organised working class. Many public sector workers do not have the right to strike. In the last decade hundreds of union branches were forced to close, to the extent that, today, only 8% of the workforce (95,000 workers) are unionised.

Trade union leaders are regularly targeted and assassinated (3,100 since 1987) by right-wing paramilitaries.

It is all the more remarkable then that public-sector workers in the SINTRAEMCALI union, Cali, defeated government plans to privatise municipal companies.

On 24 December 2001, the government militarised the workers' plants forcibly privatising them. The union responded by occupying the CAM Tower administration offices and for the next 37 days battled with armed riot police.

Eventually, on 30 January, the government withdrew the privatisation measures and agreed not to victimise any of the workers.

Of course, the right-wing forces are expected to retaliate. During the workers' struggle 13 union members were killed and 200 arrested. But as Luis Hernandez, the union's Vice-President, says: "We will not bow down before the dark forces of paramilitarism even if that means spending the rest of our days in prison."

 

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Queen's golden jubilee

Last Stand Of A Feudal Relic?

MEMBERS OF "the establishment", it seems, are very worried by public apathy towards street parties celebrating the Queen's Golden Jubilee this year. The Times blames the cost of organising them, but thousands of pounds are on offer to community organisations which put them on.

By Steve Score

In reality there is much less enthusiasm for the monarchy than when Liz took the throne 50 years ago, or even at the Silver Jubilee celebrations in 1977.

Then the Sex Pistols epitomised anti-royalism for many young people by sneering: "God save the Queen, a fascist regime..." Nevertheless, 100,000 street parties were held. This time, so few have been organised to date that the Queen has offered to pop in to some of them, presumably for a beer and a sausage on a stick!

Half a century ago Britain could still claim the remnants of an empire and the Queen headed its replacement - the "Common-wealth" - which appeared to mean something then. Royalty still had a wide base of support.

But backing for the monarchy has slipped drastically and many who still support it believe that it's a harmless tourist attraction, that maybe ought to be slimmed down and the "hangers-on" ditched.

Many see them merely as an upper-class TV soap with all the family doings picked over by the tabloids. One newspaper columnist called them "a group of light entertainers".

Last year a Mori opinion poll commissioned by senior royals found that less than half those surveyed thought the monarchy was "important to Britain".

Guardian/ ICM polls show the number of "republican-minded" (as opposed to "indifferent" to the monarchy) has gone from 13% in 1987 to 34% last year. Only 40% of 16-24 year olds wanted to keep the monarchy - its support is dying out with each generation. Indeed half the population thinks the monarchy will be gone before the next 50 years is up.

The monarchy's image is battered by family scandal but even more by revelations of extreme wealth, sponging and business corruption - and of course the Queen's hubby and his bigoted racist public comments.

Royal riches

LAST YEAR Sophie Rhys-Jones, Prince Edward's wife, boasted to a News of the World journalist (disguised as an Arab sheikh) that she used her royal connections to make money through her PR company.

Edward and Sophie apparently need those few extra quid from business. They find it hard to get by on the £141,000 a year of taxpayers' cash they get, plus the run of a 50-room country house in Surrey (again taxpayer-subsidised).

Several minor royals have "grace and favour" apartments in Kensington Palace overlooking Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. One is occupied by Prince and Princess Michael of Kent (funny that they both have the same name) who don't even do "royal engagements".

This "modest pile" includes nine reception rooms, seven bedrooms and the use of the Palace staff of cleaners, gardeners and 18 craftsmen for maintenance. True, after getting it free for the first 18 years, they now make a contribution. But they pay a similar amount to the rent on a council house - £67 a week. Its market rent would be around £10,000 a week.

Never mind, if they get evicted they could always stay in their £1.6 million country mansion in Gloucestershire. This royal wealth looks more obscene now so many are living in poverty in Britain and when public services are starved of cash.

Every year taxpayers fork out £15 million to maintain the royal palaces. On top of this the Windsors get £9 million for the "Civil List". This is despite the vast fortunes that they privately own (and pay no inheritance tax on).

These pressures lead some people to propose a "modernised monarchy" which would cut back on expenditure, slim down the civil list just to the immediate family, and create a new "people's monarchy" image.

This is a desperate attempt to revive its support. However if Tony Blair's "modernisation" of the House of Lords is anything to go by, these proposals would not amount to much.

Reserve powers

BUT WOULD this cheaper, slimmer monarchy be acceptable? Socialists say emphatically no. In peaceful times, the monarchy just tries to reinforce feelings of deference towards our ruling-class betters.

There is a more serious side, however, to the British monarchy. Despite the claim that the Queen is just a "figurehead", she has important reserve powers.

The monarch has to sign parliamentary bills before they can become law, has the right to appoint the Prime Minister and the government (irrespective of who has a parliamentary majority), and the right to dissolve parliament.

The armed forces, judges, MPs and all senior government officers swear allegiance to the Crown - not the elected parliament.

At a time of crisis these powers could be used to dismiss a government and even use the armed forces against anyone trying to change society or resisting the ruling class's interests.

This is why the monarchy's social base of support is so important to the ruling class. It could be used to try to build support for action against working-class and socialist movements. The ruling class worry about the recent trend away from the royals.

Interestingly, in a 1996 Gallop poll 37% said they would vote for the Queen if she led a political party. This would perhaps be less today, but it shows more about contempt for political leaders than support for the monarchy.

Is this fantasy? Surely these powers are just nominal and wouldn't be used by today's emasculated monarchy. Yet they have been already.

In 1931 Ramsay MacDonald split the Labour Party by resigning as Prime Minister and forming a "national government" in coalition with the Tories and Liberals in order to carry through attacks on the working class. It was the King who gave him the commission to resume as Prime Minister of the new government.

More recently, it was the Queen's representative in Australia, Sir John Kerr, who dismissed Gough Whitlam's Labour government in 1975.

During the lorry drivers' fuel protest in 2000 the Queen was wheeled out to invoke emergency powers through the Privy Council. Blair was considering using the Army to drive tankers if the protests hadn't ended when they did.

We are entering a period of working-class struggle. If the capitalists feel their profits and system are under threat they would try to use any weapon they can to preserve them, including the monarchy.

That is why the Socialist Party calls for the abolition of the monarchy altogether, along with the House of Lords and all other feudal relics and symbols of privilege.

 

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Talking of gold...

THE QUEEN'S private wealth is valued at £1.15 billion, excluding the main royal palaces and property "held in trust for the nation" (which we never get to see) such as the world's largest private art collection.

We were only told last year that a secret deal in 1952 with Winston Churchill, allowing the Queen to reclaim tax on dividends and interest from investments, has been worth about £1 billion to her.

Some royal assets include:

• Six properties that the Queen owns as sovereign - including Buckingham Palace with its 600 staff and vast art collection, and Windsor Castle with its 1,000 rooms.

• The Queen's privately owned estates at Sandringham and Balmoral

• £102 million stamp and medal collection

• £72 million in jewels

• £7.1 million worth of cars

• £3.6 million in race horses

• 30 furs (kept in the fridge at Buck House!) worth £1 million

 

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