Month: February 2016

Coventry Tory councillor attacks benefit claimants

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Coventry Tory councillor attacks benefit claimants

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Cllr Julia Lepoidevin (Woodlands)

A Tory councillor in Coventry has attacked benefit claimants during a full council meeting – after previously calling food bank users “selfish”.

Cllr Julia Lepoidevin, who represents Woodlands ward and is shadow cabinet member for children’s services, claimed that “What drives families into poverty is more than just income measures. It is addiction, family breakdown, domestic abuse, debt, leaving school with no qualifications. Give an addict an increase in benefit and it will be spent on the addiction, create further debt, cause mental health issues and break up families.”

While no-one would deny that the causes of poverty can be complex, Cllr Lepoidevin deliberately chose to attack a tiny minority of vulnerable people rather than accepting that many ordinary people will be forced into poverty by her party’s benefit cuts. Labour councillors rightly attacked her for these disgraceful comments – unfortunately, they are passing on these cuts at a local level and they are hurting Coventry people with council tax rises.

This is not Cllr Lepoidevin’s first attack on working class people – in 2014, she called food bank users “selfish” and claimed they spend money on drugs and alcohol rather than food and rent.

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Sarah Smith (left) protesting against the eviction of a bedroom tax victim

Sarah Smith, Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in Woodlands ward, said the comments were “appalling”. “Not content with just making these cuts, Cllr Lepoidevin wants to rub salt in the wound. I will continue to campaign against her and any other councillors who want to attack ordinary people.”

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Coventry Socialists welcome advances for the Socialist Left in Irish elections

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Coventry Socialists welcome advances for the Socialist Left in Irish elections

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Ruth Coppinger was re-elected as a TD for Dublin West

Coventry Socialist Party send warm congratulations and solidarity to socialist and anti austerity campaigners in Ireland who have made fantastic gains in the General Election.

Though it has been completely ignored so far by news outlets such as the BBC, the Left has performed extremely well.

We are extremely proud to announce that the Socialist Party in Ireland, as part of the Anti Austerity Alliance (AAA) has won a fantastic 3 TDs (MPs) in the Dail (Irish Parliament). Paul Murphy and Ruth Coppinger were re-elected in Dublin and in a superb breakthrough Mick Barry was elected in Cork.  In Dublin West Ruth came second (it is a multi member constituency) with Joan Burton of the Labour Party only just scraping in to fourth place.

Over 100 people in Coventry heard Ruth speak at our election rally for TUSC last year and was warmly received by all of those who attended.

We would also like to pay tribute to comrade Joe Higgins, who has visited Coventry in recent years to support our election campaigns here. Joe stood down at this election and his record as a Marxist in the Irish and Euro Parliament fighting for the rights and interests of working class people is unsurpassed.

The AAA also ran strong campaigns in many other areas such as Limerick, where we only narrowly lost out on more MPs. The People Before Profit Alliance which ran on a joint ticket with the AAA has also won at least 2 seats.

What these election results show is that pro-establishment, business as usual, pro capitalist politics is in crisis. It also shows that Socialist and anti austerity ideas, backed up with decades of campaigning and organising in the interests of ordinary people can win support.

We are proud of the role that our brothers and sisters in the Socialist Party in Ireland are playing and the results this weekend. Moreover, with our comrades organised in the Committee for a Workers’ International in 50 countries across the world, we look forward with confidence to stepping up the fight for socialist policies in answer to the capitalist crisis.

We encourage you to join our international movement for socialist change!

Fill in the form below to get involved

Protesters lobby Coventry council against cuts

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Protesters lobby Coventry council against cuts

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Photo from Cov Telegraph

Protesters from trade unions, community groups and anti-cuts campaigners held a lobby of Coventry Council to protest against the budget passed yesterday.

UNISON Branch Secretary Sarah Feeney spoke and called on the council to use the £84million they have in reserves – a sum which they have increased by £3.5million in the last 12 months – to fund services and build a campaign against the cuts.

Dave Nellist spoke representing Coventry Against the Cuts and called on council workers to take action to defend their jobs – and their terms and conditions, which are also being threatened by the council – and echoed the call for the council to fight the cuts. “By the end of this Parliament 80p in every £1 of this city’s budget will have been robbed by the Tories in London, so that bankers can have the same Christmas bonuses this year as they did in the year they caused the financial crash.”

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Local Labour Cllr Pervez Akhtar then spoke and said that Labour councillors are “at pains” because of the cuts, but said they had no choice and they would not set an illegal budget. While it is welcome that Cllr Akhtar came and spoke – other councillors have not done so – he unfortunately misrepresented the position advocated by the groups assembled. We are not calling for an illegal budget to be set, we are calling for the council to pass a legal no-cuts budget by using the money they have in reserves. Of course Labour councillors do not want to make cuts – and we want to work with them to fight the Tories, rather than fighting them while they pass on Tory cuts.

These cuts will mean more job losses, play centres being closed, libraries opening hours reduced and council workers terms and conditions being threatened. We need to fight back.

 

Poll shows that Socialism is on the rise!

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Poll shows that Socialism is on the rise!

Socialism Rising

Socialism Rising

After the 2015 General Election many people will be understandably wary of polls, and for good reason.

However a poll released by YouGov certainly makes for interesting, and encouraging reading. A survey of 3905 people showed that British people are keener on Socialism than Capitalism and that 36% of people have a very favourable or somewhat favourable opinion of Socialism compared to 33% who have a very favourable or somewhat favourable opinion of Capitalism.

In the same survey, almost 1 in 5 people described themselves as Socialists.

As ever these poll findings should be treated carefully. No doubt what people understand as Socialism will vary greatly. But what we can say is that this confirms something we have said for a long time, Socialism is far from dead, on the contrary it is on the rise.

Hardly surprising given that it was announced earlier this year that the 62 richest people in the world own as much wealth as half of the world’s population put together.

So if you are one of the growing number of people looking at Socialism as an alternative to global capitalist crisis, why don’t you get in touch to join us or find out more? Change won’t just happen, we have to get organised. Fill in the form below!

 

Nellist and left wing trade unionists oppose the EU and say no public money should go to UKIP and Tory campaigns

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Nellist and left wing union leaders oppose the EU and say no public money should go to UKIP and Tory campaigns

Dave Nellist

Dave Nellist, National Chair of TUSC

The following letter from Dave Nellist and leading left wing trade unionists appeared in The Guardian newspaper today. The original can be read here

‘Now the referendum has been called , the Electoral Commission has the power to designate who shall be the “official” Remain and Leave campaigns, giving these organisations both political authority and millions of pounds of public resources. We call on the commission not to give taxpayers’ money to the Tory and Ukip-dominated Vote Leave, Leave.EU or Grassroots Out campaigns, or any amalgam of them, in the forthcoming EU referendum. The commission does not have to choose an official campaign at all, if there is not one organisation that adequately represents those supporting a particular outcome to the referendum.

We believe there are millions of trade unionists, young people, anti-austerity campaigners and working-class voters, whose opposition to the big business-dominated EU would not be represented by these organisations.

We condemn the mainstream media for promoting Ukip, Tory and other pro-austerity and racist establishment politicians and organisations as the only exit voices. We call on the Electoral Commission to recognise that a significant proportion of those who will vote against the EU do so because they support basic socialist policies of workers’ rights, public ownership, and opposition to austerity and racism.’
Dave Nellist Ex-Labour MP and chair of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
Janice Godrich President, PCS civil servants union
Sean Hoyle President, RMT transport workers union
John McInally National vice-president, PCS
Peter Pinkney RMT President 2013-2015
Paul McDonnell RMT national executive committee
John Reid RMT NEC
Dave Auger Unison public sector workers union NEC
April Ashley Unison NEC
Roger Bannister Unison NEC
Hugo Pierre Unison NEC
Karen Reissman Unison NEC
Polly Smith Unison NEC
Pete Glover National Union of Teachers NEC
Jane Nellist NUT NEC
Stefan Simms NUT NEC
Chas Berry Napo national vice-chair
Alan Gibson National Union of Journalists NEC
Elenor Haven PCS NEC
Marianne Owens PCS NEC
Paul Williams PCS NEC
Carlo Morelli University and College Union NEC
Richard McEwan UCU NEC
Sean Wallis UCU NEC
Saira Weiner UCU NEC
Mike Forster Unison local government service group executive (SGE)
Huw Williams Unison local government SGE
Gary Freeman Unison health SGE

 

Date set for EU referendum – the Socialist view

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Date set for EU referendum – the Socialist view

notobosses

For a Socialist Europe

David Cameron has announced that the EU referendum will take place on Thursday 23rd June. The months up until this date will see campaigns across the country advocating a leave or remain position.

What is the position of the Socialist Party?

The Socialist Party will be campaigning for a vote to leave the capitalist EU.

In a recent issue of our newspaper, The Socialist, we wrote

‘The Socialist Party opposes the EU because, as Greece showed (the EU enforced massive austerity on Greece which unfortunately has not been resisted by Syriza – Coventry SP), its laws and institutions, while they ultimately could not stop a determined workers’ government supported by a mass movement from carrying out socialist policies, are another hurdle to overcome. We oppose the EU, Cameron’s deal included, in order to defend working class interests and take forward the fight for socialism, in Britain and Europe.’

We will provide further comment over the coming weeks and months on the EU referendum, on our position and how we can build the fight against capitalism and support the struggle for a Socialist Europe.

For now, here are some links to articles which provide a useful resource of information

Cameron’s EU renegotiation charade

Don’t give taxpayers’ money to UKIP and Tory EU campaigners

Socialists and the EU referendum

No to a capitalist EU, yes to a Socialist Europe

Capitalists strangling Greece – article by a German Marxist

 

 

Lobby Coventry Council against cuts

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Lobby Coventry Council against cuts

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UNISON members marching against austerity

Coventry TUC has organised a protest outside the council house on Tuesday 23rd, when Coventry Council will set the budget for the next year. The planned budget includes proposals to close libraries and reduce their opening hours, close Edgwick and Eagle St play centres, close public toilets and cut another 1000 council jobs.

UNISON, the largest union on Coventry Council, is calling on the council to pass a legal no-cuts budget, using the £84million+ the council has in reserves to avoid making cuts and to build a campaign to win more money for local services.

The protest is outside the council house from 1pm on Tuesday 23rd February.

Ann Lucas told – cut cake, not libraries!

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Ann Lucas told – cut cake, not libraries!

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Protesters highlighting Lucas’ record of cuts

Library campaigners protested against Cllr Ann Lucas at an event last week. Sarah Smith was one of them, and she wrote this report.

February 10th marked the 30th birthday of Central Library, and the guest of honour at the celebration was Cllr Ann Lucas – leader of Coventry City Council. She proudly cut a cake to celebrate – despite her leading the council that’s cutting our libraries!

All libraries are still threatened with closure, and under the current plans almost all libraries other than Central will be closing on a Wednesday and Sunday, and Central will be closing an hour earlier. Willenhall and Arena library are both being moved to cheaper buildings, 35 library jobs will be cut and the mobile library is being scrapped altogether.

We at Save Coventry Libraries went to the event to tell Ann Lucas to cut the cake but not the libraries. We had a peaceful protest to highlight the hypocrisy of Coventry City Council.We were thanked and supported by a number of people in the audience at the event – and we will carry on fighting for our libraries!

Trade unionists protest in support of workers at Sports Direct

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Trade unionists protest in support of workers at Sports Direct

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Protesting in Coventry

Trade unionists in Coventry organised a protest on Saturday morning against the employment practices of retailer Sports Direct.

Members of UNITE with other union activists assembled outside the store based at the Central Six shopping area to hand out leaflets and to urge shoppers to sign petitions in support of decent conditions for Sports Direct workers.

The UNITE leaflet highlights that ‘90% of the workforce at Sports Direct’s high street shops are employed on zero-hour contracts. They have no future, and no security whatsoever as they don’t know how many hours they will work from one week to the next, with no sick pay or holiday pay and no guarantee of work’

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Support Sports Direct workers!

Hundreds of leaflets were distributed to make people aware of what is taking place. In many ways the situation at Sports Direct is a glimpse of a potentially disastrous future for the majority of the workforce in the UK. This is where the Tories and the employers would like to take us. We need to fight to build and rebuild our trade union movement on militant and socialist lines, to not only campaign against the bosses and their unfair practices but also against this crisis ridden capitalist system.

 

 

 

Junior doctors strike again in Coventry

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Junior doctors strike again in Coventry

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Striking doctors on the picket line at Walsgrave

Over 25 junior doctors took to the picket line yesterday morning outside Walsgrave Hospital. The youthful and lively strikers were inundated with support from the public with non stop honks and cheers from passing cars, pedestrians and other hospital staff.

Jeremy Hunt’s embarrassing attempts to discredit the doctors over recent days in numerous TV interviews have only given further determination to these doctors to carry on battling – and even more reason for the general public to support them!

As one doctor said as he was setting up flags and placards “the Tories have attacked the welfare state since its creation… now they have the cheek to get something for nothing off us.”

The wildcat unofficial strike action taken by Coventry refuse workers the day before was also widely discussed, and added a further inspiration and confidence boost to the doctors in this ongoing fight with the government.

STOP PRESS: Today the Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, has just announced in the House of Commons that the new contracts for Junior Doctors will be imposed on them. Coventry Socialist Party gives its full support and solidarity to the doctors in its battle with the Tories and and the wider struggle to defend the NHS.

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