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Hundreds of workers protest against Italians/Foreigners 'taking jobs'...

MC5 said:
Videos.

Keith Gibson, particularly in part two of the vid, makes for good listening. :)
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Yep - as the fella says - It wasn't even the strike committee that 'asked' the BNP to leave - it was ordinary members on the picket. The limited origin and rapid overturning of the BJ4BW slogan is clearly explained along with the role of the press. The strikers should demand an apology from the so-called 'left' groups who condemned those on the picket line - if they could be bothered to take the idiots seriously.
 
this weeks SW

much better article .. lol

"Controversy over construction walkouts
by Mike Barton and Simon Basketter

Building workers at two sites went on unofficial strike on Wednesday of last week as part of the battle over jobs in the construction industry.They walked out at the Staythorpe construction site near Newark in Nottinghamshire and the Isle of Grain site in Kent.At Staythorpe around 400 people waving flags – Unite union banners and Union Jacks – blocked the main gate before dawn despite a heavy police presence.

The protest targeted Spanish subcontractors of Alstom, the site’s main building firm. Unions are demanding that British workers get a share of 850 skilled jobs at the site, most of which are currently held by Spanish and Polish workers.
The Spanish and Polish workers are on the same hourly rate no matter how long they work – an arrangement that undercuts the “blue book” national agreement.

Protesters shouted “fair share” and held banners quoting Gordon Brown’s poisonous “British jobs for British workers” slogan. A smaller protest, involving around 100 workers, took place at the Isle of Grain.

The Daily Star newspaper turned up at the picket line and distributed placards emblazoned with Union Jacks and the “British jobs for British workers” slogan. They told pickets to line up for a photo with two models carrying the placards. Some pickets refused to do this and argued with others not to.

The protest’s official banners read “Stop excluding British workers” and “Fairness for British workers”.

A number of the protesters are concerned that the fight for the national agreement and against subcontractors undercutting wages is getting lost in the arguments over foreign labour. The answer is not to argue for hiring a quota of British workers, as the unions did at the Lindsey oil refinery. And it certainly isn’t to cuddle up to the Daily Star like Unite general secretary Derek Simpson did (see picture page 2).

Unions need to refocus the fight by attacking the subcontracting system and demanding full implementation of the blue book for all workers, wherever they are from.

Staythorpe strikers produced leaflets in Spanish and Polish informing foreign workers of their blue book rights. Another protest at the site is set for this Wednesday. At Staythorpe workers are also organising a construction workers’ contingent on next month’s TUC-backed Put People First march against the G20 summit."

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17165

and good letter

"Too negative on strikes

Your reports of the “British jobs for British workers” strike has been far too negative. Although couched in nationalistic terms, this dispute was about attempts to drive down the going rate for a job. Workers celebrated the action because they put unofficial strikes and solidarity back on the agenda. You were right to criticise the strikers for repeating the crass language used by Gordon Brown, but your arguments would have been much more persuasive if you had stood shoulder to shoulder with the strikers.

David Waller, West London" http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17126

and a fair enough slag off of Derek Simpson http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=17182

methinks SWP rightly got such a kicking over this they have had a little rethink .. lets see
 
I believe it was Spion who asked for further analysis from the SP.

The link below - called "How to fight the economic crisis - Capitalist crisis, mass consciousness and a socialist programme" - provides a fuller outline, including more detail as to how events played out in the British oil refinery strikes (subheaded: confusion and clarity)

http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2009/02/2302.html

a snip:

"Without leadership and organisation when the capitalists have used the cover of the crisis to put the boot in, mass anger has poured out spontaneously both in the factories and onto the streets. This happened in Ireland as the government sought to eliminate health benefits for the elderly. It was followed by angry protests including occupations or threats to do so at Waterford Crystal and Dell, as brutal capital shut down whole factories with as little difficulty as shutting a matchbox. The same outrageous scenes were seen in the ending of the weekend shift at BMW’s Mini plant in Cowley, Oxford, which provoked unprecedented protests including fist fights between workers and supervisors. However, for this elemental revolt of the working class to lead to a sustained movement, what is required is a clear programme, including fighting slogans, and organisation."

and a wee snipe at those who condemned from the sidelines:
"How would they have reacted to James Larkin organising mass demonstrations of Catholic and Protestant workers in 1907 with Orange and Green bands in the common struggle against the bosses?"
 
Derek Simpson to Lead March for Fair Access to Jobs at Staythorpe

LONDON, February 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Unite's joint general secretary, Derek Simpson, will lead a march (see notes) of hundreds of unemployed construction workers tomorrow (Tuesday, 24th) calling for fair access to jobs for unemployed construction workers being refused work at Staythorpe power station.

Alstom has been contracted by RWE to build the Staythorpe power station, a gas-fired power station near Newark. Two companies, Montpressa and FMM, have been subcontracted to carry out construction work on the site. These two non-UK contracting companies say they have no intention of employing any local labour to undertake the work.

Unite estimates that 600 jobs will be needed to build the power stations turbine and boiler (Montpressa will fit the turbine and FMM will fit the boiler), and another 250 to build the pipe connecting the two. None of these jobs will go to UK workers.
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http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=249905


March today
 

I told the people of this country British workers have a right to work in Britain. Are you agreeing with me? Well, well let’s get the hecklers shut up, the rest of yer, the decent workers, the ones that aren’t on about foreign workers but are on about British workers for British jobs, shut the hecklers up, let’s get the fight.
This is a bitter fight, a fight to destroy wages and conditions and their using foreign workers to do it and we need to stop em. All of us need to stop em. Not standing here gobbing at me because your in an election or because your from the BNP or just cos your a tosser whose had too many pints.
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^^^ oh FFS how to alienate your members

ffs he said basically the right stuff ( that the dispute is not against foreign workers .. that it is about the attack on TsNCs etc ) but in way most people would think was out of order :( .. and tbh it was HE that sounded drunk )

and was that jerry hicks he was having a go at?
 
Strike warning over cut-price foreign worker pay

Unions accuse subcontractors of 'lying' as Alstom site document shows nationally agreed wages undercut by £4 per hour

Official strike action has been threatened following claims by trade unions that Polish workers are being paid £4 an hour less than the UK nationally agreed rate of pay.

The allegations were made after trade unions said they had a copy of a contract showing subcontractor Remak was paying a Polish worker £10.01 an hour at the Alstom Isle of Grain site.

Under the UK Engineering Construction Industry National Agreement, the national rate of pay for an advanced craftsman is £14 an hour.

The GMB said they also had statments from subcontractor Zre Katowice, who are also working at the Isle of Grain site, that they are also paying lower rates of pay than the national agreement.

Paul Kenny, GMB general secretary said: “GMB Organisers also have documentary evidence of the same thing at the Lindsay Oil Refinery site.
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I would think The Olympic site is the next flashpoint, locals are spitting blood that they have not been offered the jobs they were promised by the ODA and that contractors are flying in groups of workers from across the world at minimum wage rates.

will find the link later
 
not sure if anyone had linked to this yet .. here is even Nick Lowles, from Searchlight/HnH saying the dispute was not racist etc "These are difficult issues and often there is no simple solution, but we ignore the anger and fear of these workers at our peril. These are real people struggling with the downturn in a global economy and if we don’t address their concerns then we’ll face the backlash. There is a growing tendency in some quarters to dismiss the protesters as bigoted xenophobes but that certainly wasn’t the impression we encountered today. To dismiss them as such and not answer their concerns would surely lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy."

http://www.hopenothate.org.uk/blog/article:280-
 
treelover said:
I would think The Olympic site is the next flashpoint, locals are spitting blood that they have not been offered the jobs they were promised by the ODA and that contractors are flying in groups of workers from across the world at minimum wage rates.

will find the link later
Click to expand...

What about "No Borders" though.
 
Plaid MEP Jill Evans has attacked the Conservatives for letting down Welsh workers once again by voting against a law to control subcontractors who exploit workers.

She was speaking in Strasbourg after an important vote in the European Parliament on subcontractor liability, which was adopted with 321 votes to 235, meaning that the Conservatives and their allies lost the vote.

Jill Evans, who represents the whole of Wales in the European Parliament, said:

“As we have seen from recent disputes, the practice of subcontracting across Europe has resulted in undercutting wages and working conditions. Subcontracting is used by some, especially in the construction industry, as a means of exploiting workers and getting away with it. If often leads to a race to the bottom in terms of rights and conditions as employers compete with each other for lower labour costs.

"Eight EU member countries have brought in their own liability schemes. These have worked well and in Germany it led to posted workers getting back payments worth thousands of pounds.

"But a European law is needed for when subcontracting takes place across borders. Companies have to be responsible for the conditions of workers employed by people they subcontract work to. We are calling for "joint and several liability" which would ensure this. We also want to see campaigns to inform workers about their rights.

“Plaid Cymru is on the side of Welsh workers. By opposing a new law, the Tories have shown once again that they put profit before people.”
lewis lewis posted this on another thread
 
Deceptive denigration of Lindsey strike

One of those who turned this strike around speaks about the continuing distortions of some on the left - in particular the SWPs recent article in Socialist Review. I'm putting the link up because a number of 'critics' on this thread did keep questioning the SPs 'understanding' of the mood and wanted clarification.

Some short extracts:

"Under the leadership of the strike committee, this was not a strike against the employment of foreign labour, but was against the use of the capitalist EU laws which allow workers to be brought in from abroad without being part of the national 'blue book' site agreements. The workers knew that this was the real issue and not the use of foreign labour per se.

But it seems that, since the strike, the SWP and some other groups on the left are doing their level best to undermine its achievements by focussing on the issue of 'British jobs for British workers' (BJ4BW). "

...

"The SWP leaflet given out on the Lindsey picket line said: 'Those who support this strike are playing with fire'. What could this mean, except 'don't support the strike'? Yes, unfortunately they got it wrong, and all that they say now is a result of their wrong position from the beginning."

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/7160
 
this is the bit about the SWPs refusal to face facts once they become clear:

"The concerted attempt by the SWP to muddy the waters seeks to feed on the very real fears of migrant workers and others when they see the media's promotion of the slogan 'British jobs for British workers'. Migrant workers and others justifiably fear that such a stance, if it was in reality adopted, would be at their expense.

The Socialist Party has consistently opposed the BJ4BW slogan and has never closed its eyes to the dangers that exist if slogans of this nature become predominant.

But after decades of neo-liberalism and attacks on trade union organisation, is it any wonder that there is confusion in the minds of many workers as they see the looming threat of mass unemployment? As a result, some, especially when they don't see a progressive alternative, seek to blame immigrant workers.

It is the responsibility of socialists in these circumstances to put forward demands that clearly identify the real enemy, the bosses of the major construction companies, to cut across any turn to racism and nationalism and not allow workers to be divided. This was the role played by the Socialist Party alongside others.

Every struggle, after the period workers have been through, will contain elements of confusion, including wrong demands. But the job of socialists is to see what is primary and what is secondary. The SWP rightly gives full support to the struggle of the sacked Visteon workers despite the flying of nationalist flags by some of those workers, but draws a contrived line of division between the Visteon workers and the Lindsey workers.

The SWP has chosen to 'big up' the BJ4BW slogan as the main feature of the Lindsey strike, seemingly for sectarian reasons because of the central role of the Socialist Party in that strike."

The racist BNP did attempt to intervene in the construction strikes but they were ignored or chased off the picket lines. If it had been left up to Martin Smith and his party then indeed the BNP might have been able to make some headway, but the conscious intervention of the Socialist Party and other left trade unionists elevated the need for workers' solidarity in struggle, and that is what came to the fore."
 
cheers dennis .. yes was simply terrible politics from the SWP .. i wonder how many of them realise how important is was to have a w/c socialist involved with this dispute and how and why that socialist was from the SP not their org?

btw the BNP have not touched the Visteon dispute at all .. even at Basildon .. at Enfield the workforce is pretty mixed though predominantly old school TU middle aged white .. wonder if they got burnt at the construction dispute? they would have got murdered i think at Enfield :D
 
Will read this later - hopefully some crucial lesson there in how to relate to the important struggles we've got coming over the next few years. I still hear people who took a totally counter-productive postion (including those old enough and experienced enough to know better) talking as if they managed to avert a nationawide series of murderous pogroms, rather than demionstrated the gulf seperating their membership from the w/c.
 
durruti02 said:
they would have got murdered i think at Enfield :D
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even less chance in Belfast...

i think the BNP only appeared because of the initial mistaken slogans and the media coverage - it wasn't an nazi SA 'left face' moment on their part. The remain a solidly anti-worker party
 
butchersapron said:
Yeahm just read it with my cuppa, don't know why, but i thought it was a pamphlet.
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I'm guessing that this is a short reply, largely to the Swappies pamphlet "Why BJ4BW Won't Solve the Crisis"

I don't reckon we would go that far at this stage (ie producing an entire pamphlet over the single issue) stuff is in the pipeline re the general mood that this strike wave reflect though (which will cover the slogan and mistakes of the left)
 
i've had someone on facebook recently alleging that SP were cheerleading a 'nationalist strike' and that i should read Workers Power to learn the truth of this! .. i listenned to and read enough qoutes fronm the workers themselves to know what went on ..
 
Well, let me tell you in West Wales, the deputy leader of the BNP was invited and did address a picket line during the Lindsey dispute.

At Straythorpe, there is video footage of the march being led by people with Unite banners chanting - 'What do we want? Foreigners OUT! When do we want it? NOW'

The SP continually gloss over this, saying that this was a small minority, but the fact that they could get away with leading the march chanting those kind of slogans (not generally found on a trade union demo) shows that there were serious problems. I've never been on any trade union march where racist slogans have been chanted by those fronting it up.The SP also seem to think that just because the strike committee at the top voted for a reasonable set of demands that this somehow wins the battle of ideas at the rank and file level.

We also see Derek Simpson, leader of UNITE having snaps taken for the Daily Star of him with 2 Star models wearing tight t-shirts with the slogan - 'British Jobs for British Workers'

I'm not a member of the SWP, but a number of myths seem to be being spread about their intervention. In South Wales where I lived, SWP members visited picket lines and showed solidarity, they told me that it wasn't a racist strike, the union full-timers were quite concerned to say that they had no problems with foreign workers, but there was a dangerous dose of nationalism, most of the placards contained the slogans 'Put British Workers First' and 'British Jobs for British Workers' and who was being targetted was ambiguous - that's precisely why the union bureacrats have been much more favourable to the Lindsey dispute than Visteon.

In Merthyr, where the main employer in the town - Hoover - recently closed down, the union focused mainly on the issue of a foreign company, that immediately channels anger along nationalistic rather than class lines, and cuts off people from uniting with other workers.

Of course, any group of workers taking militant action should be supported & if there is nationalism or racism present then the job of socialists is not to duck the arguments and jeer from the sidelines, but win people's respect so you can give the counter-arguments.

As the late Tony Cliff put it, you are on a picket line and somebody makes a racist remark, you have 3 options:

1. You can storm off because you won't unite with racists. This is ultra-left sectarianism, beacuse if the emancipation of the workers is the act of the workers, you have to unite with them.
2. You can pretend you didn't hear and gloss over it and stay where you are (this seems to be the SP/CPB line)
3. You can link arms with fellow workers to defend the picket line against the bosses and police, but at the same time argue tooth-and-nail against racism and explain why this weakens the working class - this is the socialist approach.
 
Of course, any group of workers taking militant action should be supported & if there is nationalism or racism present then the job of socialists is not to duck the arguments and jeer from the sidelines, but win people's respect so you can give the counter-arguments.
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Well, the SWP will be along time waiting, another question why do tiny sects think that workers have any thing to learn from them, i accept that the SP manouvered quite well in the Lynsey dispute, but who are the far left to lecture people on picket lines, etc.
 
Its a shame only an ex-member of the SWP chooses to defend their position

Unfortunatly you do that by simply repeating two lies that have already ben repeated enough times

Number1:

Udo Erasmus said:
The SP continually gloss over this, saying that this was a small minority .. The SP also seem to think that just because the strike committee at the top voted for a reasonable set of demands that this somehow wins the battle of ideas at the rank and file level.
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Far from 'glossing' over SP members played a key role in turning that movement around. Show evidence that anything was 'glossed over' by the SP - where the SP has not bought out both the fact such attitudes exist or why they exist. Show me where they say that 'voting at the top' 'wins the battle of ideas'. It was won on the ground. They 'won respect' rather than quoted a line from Cliff - by raising the correct slogans they certainly did not 'stand in line silently' as you poisonously claim.

Number 2:

Udo Erasmus said:
I'm not a member of the SWP, but a number of myths seem to be being spread about their intervention. In South Wales where I lived, SWP members visited picket lines and showed solidarity, they told me that it wasn't a racist strike, the union full-timers were quite concerned to say that they had no problems with foreign workers, but there was a dangerous dose of nationalism, most of the placards contained the slogans 'Put British Workers First' and 'British Jobs for British Workers' and who was being targetted was ambiguous - that's precisely why the union bureacrats have been much more favourable to the Lindsey dispute than Visteon.
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This entirely contradicts what you are trying to say at the beginning (that racism was central to the dispute). It entirely vindicates the SPs point of view - no 'glossing' there.

Anyway, to number 2: For all of you 'militant' qouting of Cliff - what role did the SWP play ACTUALLY were it counted? Look above for the report direct from the stewards and `Lindsey about what they said in thier material - was the same material handed out were you speak? Did they flog a couple of papers? Why do they continue to plug the 'racist' line given the comments of your ex-comrades above?

Either your ex-comrades are out of sync with the organisation or they are turning another face to you.
 
Udo Erasmus said:
1) Well, let me tell you in West Wales, the deputy leader of the BNP was invited and did address a picket line during the Lindsey dispute.

2)At Straythorpe, there is video footage of the march being led by people with Unite banners chanting - 'What do we want? Foreigners OUT! When do we want it? NOW'

3) The SP continually gloss over this, saying that this was a small minority, but the fact that they could get away with leading the march chanting those kind of slogans (not generally found on a trade union demo) shows that there were serious problems. I've never been on any trade union march where racist slogans have been chanted by those fronting it up.The SP also seem to think that just because the strike committee at the top voted for a reasonable set of demands that this somehow wins the battle of ideas at the rank and file level.

4) We also see Derek Simpson, leader of UNITE having snaps taken for the Daily Star of him with 2 Star models wearing tight t-shirts with the slogan - 'British Jobs for British Workers'

5) I'm not a member of the SWP, but a number of myths seem to be being spread about their intervention. In South Wales where I lived, SWP members visited picket lines and showed solidarity, they told me that it wasn't a racist strike, the union full-timers were quite concerned to say that they had no problems with foreign workers,

6) but there was a dangerous dose of nationalism, most of the placards contained the slogans 'Put British Workers First' and 'British Jobs for British Workers' and who was being targetted was ambiguous -

7) that's precisely why the union bureacrats have been much more favourable to the Lindsey dispute than Visteon.

In Merthyr, where the main employer in the town - Hoover - recently closed down, the union focused mainly on the issue of a foreign company, that immediately channels anger along nationalistic rather than class lines, and cuts off people from uniting with other workers.

Of course, any group of workers taking militant action should be supported & if there is nationalism or racism present then the job of socialists is not to duck the arguments and jeer from the sidelines, but win people's respect so you can give the counter-arguments.

As the late Tony Cliff put it, you are on a picket line and somebody makes a racist remark, you have 3 options:

1. You can storm off because you won't unite with racists. This is ultra-left sectarianism, beacuse if the emancipation of the workers is the act of the workers, you have to unite with them.
2. You can pretend you didn't hear and gloss over it and stay where you are (this seems to be the SP/CPB line)
3. You can link arms with fellow workers to defend the picket line against the bosses and police, but at the same time argue tooth-and-nail against racism and explain why this weakens the working class - this is the socialist approach.
Click to expand...

1) evidence please

2) ditto

3) well first i am not sure i believe but lets say it is true .. there was hours of other video where workers stated over and over that they had no beef with foreigners / people travelling to work ( after all they probably all have done so ) but they were really really pissed off with being cut out by the sub sub sub contracting .. tbh i think this is as much a language thing .. a lot of people i know will say 'birds' or 'pakishop' who are NOT misogynist or anti pakistani but that is simply the language they and the people around them use .. but i'll wait for the video

4) not relevent to the origins or fundamentals of the strike nor the SPs involvement

5) so they were disagreeing with the line afaics?

6) it is language .. socialists need to understand that people cover themselves with flags of their birth country and that does NOT mean they are ideologically committed to them .. some may be but to say British Jobs does NOT mean they same ot them as it does to you

7) not true .. the lindsay dispute featured 1000s walking out with no union call, and was clearly winnable in that there is tons of money still flowing in these work area and in which delays hurt profits more than workers .. Visteon is a company that is shut .. there is no actual industrial dispute but a protest .. for them to win industrially Unite need to call out Fords .. they are scared to do so as that could mean people lose their jobs .. yes Unite have given NO support at all but that is a very differrent situation

they Cliff qoute is fine .. but SP were 3) not 2) .. and it was the SWP who were clearly 1)
 
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