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Communist Bulletin

A May Day publication by Manchester Communist Students free/donation

s p ul l th e p l ug
fe s up p or t - L et’
p i tal i s m i s on li
Ca
FIGHT FOR SOCIALIST
REVOLUTION
Whatever the make-up of the new government, all of the parties are committed to deep cuts in public
spending. Schools, Colleges and Universities are just some of the institutions being targeted for cuts,
with both Labour and Conservatives hinting at raising top-up fees so they can further withdraw state funds
from education. The future for students, workers and youth looks bleak unless we move into action in
unity with the rest of the working class against the austerity measures. Only Marxism has the strategy for
victory writes Chris Strafford.

The crisis is not the fault of some greedy bankers like the
politicians and opportunist left would have you believe, the
problem lies in capitalism itself. The entire capitalist system
is in crisis and it is not just some cyclical crisis that the pro-
capitalist apologists want us to believe, this is a crisis of the
system itself and as the continuing debt crisis in the euro-
zone shows, we are not out of it by a long shot. Capitalism as
a system is historically in decline as the contradictions within
capitalism are increasingly solved by short-term measures
which are in fact increasingly counter-productive and trans-
formative of the system itself. Capitalism is sick and decay-
ing, it is like a person life support. The law of value is being
replaced by organised forms such as monopoly, nationalised
and regulated entities, increasing bureaucratisation and the domination of capital by finance capital, which is inher-
ently parasitic.

The solutions on offer from most of the Left are just radical sound-
ing versions of social democracy. They usually pose get rich
quick schemes and short-term opportunism instead of a long term
approach to win the working class to the programme of social-
ist revolution. Communists however pose a completely different
approach and a completely different society. Whilst the struggle
against the coming austerity measures will be the defining politi-
cal battle of the period we will not to fall-in behind some left wing
talking trade union bureaucrat but argue that we need to organise
the working class into a combat party of the working class. Such
a party would fight in workplaces, campuses, communities and
industries and that decisions on action such as strikes are decided by mass-meetings which would smash the
anti-trade union laws. The workers movement will have to fight to take these struggles beyond the barricades of
bureaucrats, careerist officials, the judiciary, the repressive state forces and ultimately capitalism itself.

The left needs to take unity seriously. We have to fight for unity around the programme of Marxism, not warmed-up
Labourism that has failed us so many times and led us from defeat to defeat. Look back at the last fifteen years
you will find the rotting corpses of left unity projects destroyed by sectarianism, opportunism and an inability to
forge a credible programme for revolutionary struggle. The dead ends that so much of the left is intent on going
down again and again will get us nowhere. The struggles we are facing, the disintegration of capitalism, ecologi-
cal disaster, creeping authoritarianism and imperialist slaughter all point to one solution. A long term approach to
implant socialist ideas and organisation into every workplace, every campus, every community and every struggle.
For working class power and socialist revolution!
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Fight for every job at MMU
We need unity and action against the cuts now!
As we go to press, MMU UNISON are holding a ballot of their members to take industrial action. If the
result is as expected then we could see a series of strikes from as early as May 13th, this is in response
to the announcement of 127 job cuts at the university. Keir O’Gorman looks at the issues.

Much can be made of Vice Chancellor John Brooks’ £250,000 annual salary, the 7% increase in his pay packet
last year, the increase in the number of highly paid managers, the development of new sites, the £1.3 million
budget surplus for the year 2009-10 and how the cuts were announced before Alistair Darling’s 2010 budget.
However, as communists we should not be brought into
the trap of blaming ‘greedy bosses’. Alongside essential
demands such as the democratisation of universities,
elected and recallable officers on a skilled workers’
wage and mass meetings to hold responsibility for deci-
sions, we must also point out that it is Mr Brooks’ role
to manage one rung on the ladder of capitalism. During
the latest of capitalism’s inherent crisis, the economy
dictates that the working class must pay, if the current
manager fails in their task then another, more compe-
tent member of the petit-bourgeoisie would be found to
do the job for them.

Historically it can be seen that the working class cannot


win a struggle confined to the union framework, recent
victories at Ford-Visteon and the Lindsey Oil Refinery
were achieved by workers operating outside of their
trade unions and spreading the struggle, indeed union officials played a reactionary role in both disputes. Like-
wise the CWU union, ‘sold out’ their members, during the national postal dispute this year.

Despite the declaration of the intended redundancies in November, it is 5 months later that we are seeing the
possibility of strike action, due to Tory (now Labour) anti-union laws, this has served to replace the initial anger
evident amongst workers with demoralisaiton.

UNISON is the Labour party’s second largest donor and does not wish to cause disruption which could see Gor-
don Brown forced out of office and the loss of their political influence. At recent demonstrations called by workers
at ManMet, regional full timers ordered that only official union reps were allowed to wield a megaphone and they
were instructed to confiscate those brought by trouble makers.

There has also been a shocking lack of co-operation between trade unions at the neighboring universities where
cuts are also taking place. Nevertheless, management will see this as an opportunity to do away with a number
of union militants at MMU, they have repeatedly been refused rooms in which to hold public meeting and have
been told that their number of part time reps will be reduced from 3 to 1. Management’s aggressive tactics and
the bullying culture they employ in the workplace appear to be paying off as a number of workers have already
taken the opportunity to jump ship by accepting ‘voluntary’ redundancies.

The Students’ Union, occupied by Labour, Liberal and Tory hacks has been expectedly passive. Despite Rob
Boardman, president of the Union and a card carrying Labour member commenting that although as a member
of a trade union he has his ‘sympathies’, he has failed to come out in support of strike action.

The new academic year will see a fresh set of independent greens occupy the union executive and I think it will
be important for socialists at MMU to pressure them into radical action.

See http://tiny.cc/eq8co for more info.


Get active and get involved - Join Manchester for Jobs and Education campaign group

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Can trade unions defend workers?
Our struggles must not be held back!
Ronan McNabb asks what avenues are open to the working class to defend themselves against these at-
tacks and ultimately in the struggle to overthrow capitalism?

For the past two years we have been living with the reality of capitalist crisis with the biggest attacks on living
standards since the 1980’s through mass layoffs, attacks on pay and conditions, spiralling unemployment, cuts
in services and attacks on claimants. With no sign of the crisis easing and all parties vying to undertake a pro-
gramme of cuts larger then that of the Thatcher government as soon as the formality of the general election is
over. While this does indeed paint a bleak picture of the shape of things to come, it would be fatalistic to believe
that there is nothing that can be done to resist these attacks. In fact there have been inspiring, although limited
developments in the recent past that point in the opposite direction. There have been encouraging signs in the
series of strikes that occurred recently such as the Visteon factory occupation, the strike movements in the oil
industry that originated at the Lindsey oil refinery and strikes at Royal Mail. During the course of these struggles
there have been obstacles and traps used by trade unions and the capitalist state to blunt their effectiveness and
keep them within the confines of legalism and the trade union framework.

In the past six months, court injunctions have been used to stop strikes happening at First Bus, Network Rail
and British Airways (BA). The court decided that there were irregularities in the ballot procedure, stopping the
BA strike at Christmas time. This effectively ends the possibility of legal strikes, especially considering that one
of the reasons for the court injunction on the strike on the railways was it would have a ‘negative’ impact on the
public interest. The increasing impossibility of legal strikes is interesting because these procedures for balloting
were made compulsory by the Thatcher government to stop workers making the decision to strike in mass meet-
ings, where solidarity is strongest and force workers to make the decision to strike as individuals like voting in
parliamentary elections. Accompanying this were the laws that made the autonomous action of workers through
secondary picketing and solidarity strikes illegal. Now the ruling class is placing restrictions on official trade
union actions due to an increasing reality that in order to stabilise the economy they might have to shut down the
very possibility of industrial action at all, thus reducing trade unions to the role of those in the old Stalinist and
Fascist regimes of ensuring labour productivity targets are met and more generally enforcing capitalist order on
the shop floor.

Trades unions from their inception were not revolutionary organisations, they were formed as defensive organi-
zation of the working class that negotiated the terms and conditions for their members. However as modern
capitalism developed to the point we are at today, where monopolies and state capitalism (i.e. a tendency for the
increased role of the state in the management of capitalism) dominate the world economy. It is no longer the
case that individual companies compete with each other for dominance in the marketplace and where the state
now acts as a national capitalist and protector of the national economy. Where previously workers in one com-
pany could withdraw their labour and outlast their boss, because his competitors would be a threat. This situation
of free competition is over.

Simultaneously there has been a trend to integrate trade unions into the structure of the capitalist economy,
where they participate in national state planning through the industrial relations apparatus and other institutions.
Thus adopting the role of managers of labour agreements, once signed their task is effectively that of policing
the workforce. Making sure that employers and more importantly workers live up to their ‘obligations’. Unions
prevent strikes, not cause them. By and large unions are successful in preventing the damaging and costly forms
of workers resistance such as strikes, but also go-slows and absenteeism. To summarise my basic argument is
that trade unions as legal, permanent, mass organizations wedded to the state, can’t support secondary actions,
never mind initiate it and they can’t politicise struggles.

The tasks for all militant workers and revolutionaries is to fight for a political perspective that says that workers
need to struggle outside and against the union machinery, in order to effectively defend themselves and develop
the consciousness and organisation that will be necessary for the working class to overthrow capitalism. As well
as forging the struggle for a to a single unified communist organisation. It is also important that workers who
agree with this perspective organise in networks of militant workers, to defend the perspective that struggles
should be controlled by workers through mass meetings and revocable strike committees and act as a militant
presence in the workplace to argue for the extension of struggles when they arise.

Want to discuss these issues? Go to www.communiststudents.org.uk


The origins of May Day
Remember our struggles and fight for socialism!
Mark Harrison looks at the origins of May Day in America’s revolutionary socialist history and the struggle
for the eight hour day.

At the October 1884 convention of the federation of Organised Trades and Labour Unions, a resolution was
passed unanimously which stated, “that eight hours shall constitute a legal day’s labour from and after May 1,
1886” and called for a general strike to meet these ends. There was great support for the cause and the American
working class duly answered the call of the OTLU, more than 300,000 workers downed tools across the country.
Chicago was the centre of the movement, 40,000 were out on strike and the city stood still. The first May Day
parade in history took place when Albert Parsons of the radical International Working People’s Association along
with his wife and kids, led 80,000 men and women down Michigan Avenue. Apart from banners calling for the eight
hours day, there were some which called for more radical demands: “Private Capital Represents Stolen Labour”,
“Workingmen Arm”, “Down with Throne, Altar and Money-Bags.”

On Monday May 3rd, as additional workers joined the strike, August Spies, editor of the German language Anar-
chist newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung addressed several hundred members of the Lumber Shovers’ Union. This was
down the road from McCormick Reaper Works on Blue Island Avenue. In April 1885, Cyrus H. McCormick Jr. had
been forced to withdraw a 15% wage cut after, “the bitterest labor-management struggle in the company’s history”
and had been determined to break the union ever since. He sacked those who had lead the dispute and then in
February 1886 declared a general lock and replaced the rest of his workers with non-union scabs. For the next
three months armed guards and the city police fought with the picketers who attempted to harass the scabs. As
an exhausted Spies began to finish his speech which did not mention the McCormick lock out, the bell rang at the
Reaper Works which signaled the end of the day. Although Spies pleaded for his audience to stand firm, 200 of
the crowd broke off to confront the scabs. The strikers had managed to drive the scabs back into the factory, which
now had its windows broken by those who threw stones. After the police and picketers fought with truncheons and
stones, the police drew their guns and fired into the crowd, killing two and injuring many more.

The next day some anarchists distributed a leaflet calling for people
to gather at the Haymarket Square at 7:30 in the evening to pro-
test the police violence, it was a rainy day and only 200-300 peo-
ple turned out. The meeting was peaceful, so peaceful in fact that
Mayor carter Harrison, Sr walked amongst the crowd then returned
home to bed, convinced that there would be no trouble. As Samuel
Fielden, the last speaker was finishing his speech at about 10:30, a
police contingent began to march towards the crowd and gave
orders to disperse. It was at this point that someone threw a bomb,
killing one policeman and injuring several more. The police opened
fire, killing at least four workers and injuring many more, in addition
many police were killed or injured due to friendly fire.

In the aftermath known socialists were rounded up, union offices


and print works were raided and a press propaganda campaign
launched against reds, alongside one of the most serious miscar-
riages of justice in US history. August Spies, Albert Parsons, Adolph
Fischer, George Engel and Louis Lingg were sentenced to death by
hanging. Lingg committed suicide by setting off a small bomb in his
mouth, it blew off his jaw and destroyed a large section of his face, it took six hours of pain for him to die. Michael
Schwab and Samuel Fielden had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment by governor Richard Oglesby
before being pardoned by governor John Altgeld, Oscar Neebe received 15 years in prison.

Two years later the American Federation of Labour decided to campaign for the eight hours day once again and
set May 1st 1890 as the next day for a general strike for the cause. In response Raymond Lavigne, at the first con-
gress of the Second International, meeting in Paris on the hundredth anniversary of the French Revolution tabled
a motion calling for, “a great international demonstration” on the 1st of May to demand the eight hours day. The
protest were such a success that it became an international tradition.

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