Unity!@TUC 2014Unity!@TUC 2014

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Join Britain’s party ofworking class power and liberation“The aim of the Communist Party is to achieve a socialist britain in whichthe means of production, distribution and exchange will be socially ownedand utilised in a planned way for the benefit of all.

This necessitates a revolutionary transformation of society, ending theexisting capitalist system of exploitation and replacing it with a socialistsociety in which each will contribute according to ability and receiveaccording to work done.

socialist society creates the conditions for advance to a fully communistform of society in which each will receive according to need.”

by andREw MURRay

THE sUddEn and stunning militarytriumphs of the fighters of the is(previously known as isis) is both

the consequence and the collapse of thepolicy launched with the anglo-Usaggression against iraq in 2003.

The overthrow, by means of illegalinvasion, of the dictatorial regime ofsaddam Hussein in iraq spawned anincreasingly sectarian, authoritarian andcorrupt state which is now on the brinkof disintegration along more than oneaxis.

now the Us appears to be doubling-down with a further military intervention,allegedly to stop is advances, fuelled by

the barbaric murder of James Foley. Theonly certainty is that this new militaryincursion will not solve the crisis in iraqand the wider Middle East but will mostlikely end up exacerbating it.

so far the Us has limited itself tosupporting military operations by KurdishPeshmerga fighters, who had been losingground to the is. Clearly this will notdefeat is on its own, since the Kurds arenot likely to carry the fight far outsidetheir own territory.

The other initiative taken bywashington is to shuffle aside theincurably sectarian and authoritarianpremier Maliki and replace him with whatthey hope will be a more inclusive regime.again, it can be stated with a fair degreeof confidence that this will not restorethe corrupt, sectarian and dysfunctionaliraqi state to anything like a condition inwhich it can confront is with confidence.The iraqi army created by the Usa afterits occupation liquidated the existingarmed forces, had its sectarian characterenhanced by Maliki to the point where itseems uninterested in fighting outside “itsown” territories in baghdad and to itssouth.

The leadership of the autonomousregion of Kurdistan, forever looking forthe opportunity to upgrade theirautonomy to the foundations of anindependent Kurdish state, tookadvantage of the chaos to seize controlof Kirkuk and the surrounding oil field, aposition which they will not voluntarilyrelinquish. a de facto independentKurdish state based in iraqi Kurdistan isnow becoming a reality. as with theerasure of the iraqi-syrian border by is,the nefarious work of the 1918 VersaillesTreaty in the Middle East is graduallycoming unglued.

Thus the scene is set for a tripartitedivision of iraq – an effectivelyindependent Kurdistan which would be apole of attraction to Kurds in otherstates, including Turkey, iran and syria; afundamentalist-ruled is in the north (alsoincorporating much of syria, wheredislodging it would require as a minimumcooperation with the assad government)and a shia-based authoritarian Us satrapyin the south. democracy could perhapsknit it together again, bombing certainlywill not.

continued overleaf

Finale of the war on terrorif credit were given where due,

the black banners of the islamic state now flying over

Mosul, Fallujah and Ramadi would be emblazoned with

portraits of Tony blair and george bush

by ZOE HEnnEssy

TUC Congress is taking place at acritical time for the labourmovement and the left in britain.

The Conservative-led coalition continuesto swing the axe at the welfare state, selloff publically owned assets at rockbottom prices, whilst still playing a bloodyrole in global imperialism. There is norecovery for the 2.16 million people outof work, no recovery for the near millionpeople who have been referred to thefood banks this year, and no recovery forthose forced to endure unending wagefreezes.

Thousands of young people are beingforced into part-time, casual work, wherethey have few rights and where tradeunions are finding it difficult to reachthem. Unions often organise under classcollaborationist partnership agreements.

These essentially deny workers theircollective bargaining rights and the rightto strike. This will not strengthenindustrial democracy but will weakenworkers and their trade unions’ ability tochallenge austerity, as has happened inireland.

youth unemployment is still running at18.5%, and many are forced to deal withdevastating sanctions and othersuspensions of benefits which are beingdished out unfairly and with impunity.

according to the Prince’s Trust, one inthree young people have contemplatedsuicide due to being out of work. it ishard for unions to reach people in thesecircumstances, and yet we need to inorder to build the next generation ofactivists. This is why Unite communitymembership has such an important roleto play in the struggle and must be fullysupported and developed.

we, in the young Communist leaguecontinue to work towards developing anew generation of committed, militantand politicised trade union activists.

we continue to grow, and develop ourmembers through organising socials andcamps, and organising day schools tofacilitate political education.

we continue to publish our magazineChallenge quarterly with various specialsthroughout the year.

The young Communist league calls onthe TUC to fully invest in its youngmembers, and build the next generationof trade unionists. as bob Crow said: ‘if

you fight you mightlose, but if you don’tfight you will lose’.

ZOE HEnnEssy is

gEnERal sECRETaRy OF

THE yOUng COMMUnisT

lEagUE

by Owain HOlland

THE 1970s were the most equalitarian period in the historyof britain. This period of prosperity and equality wasushered in by a strong trade union movement with a high

proportion of collective bargaining agreements. The 1970s was aperiod when nearly 80% of britain’s workforce was covered bycollective bargaining agreements. a period where unions wereubiquitous and every member of society down evenschoolchildren knew what the role of a union was.

Contrast that with the conditions we find today: children leaveschool with little or no idea of the role trade unions play, or havethe potential to play in the workplace, in society and forthemselves. Today only two out of every ten workers (a 60%decline in 40 years) is covered by collective agreements.

This has resulted in an increase in poverty and inequality withinour society and, as John Hendy QC and the institute ofEmployment Rights (iER) state; the “troika” - iMF, EuropeanCommission and European Central bank - are currentlythrowing its weight around Europe's poorer countries forcinggovernments to pass legislation aimed at crippling the ability ofunions to win collective bargaining agreements for theirmembers. This attack on workers’ conditions fulfills theneoliberal ideology of squeezing the wages of those at thebottom of our pyramidal society in order that the wealth flowsup into the pockets of wealthy shareholders

Things may look bad on paper, and as workers we all knowthey feel bad in reality, but there is hope. To paraphrase JohnHendy; the only way we, as trade unionists, as socialists, canbuck the neoliberal trend and reverse the sweeping tide ofinequality is with a strong trade union movement. This can onlybe done by teaching the youth of today about the role tradeunions can play in making their lives better.

as a movement we need to think seriously about how to maketrade unions relevant to young people, and how we are going toaccess them in the increasingly precarious, low paid andcasualised labour market.

The future of trade unions relies on young members comingthrough so that we can make demands of our employers, inorder to improve our employment contracts with collectivebargaining agreements which will help make the UK a better,more equal society, halting neoliberalism in its path.

To do this the movement needs to betargeting young people and the places theywork ensuring they know what unions can dofor them.

Owain HOlland is THE yOUng COMMUnisT

lEagUE nORTH wEsT ORganisER

Unions must take youth seriouslyWednesday 10 September 2014Unity!

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by JOHn FOsTER

wHEREVER we turn we seeimperialism’s long armsand even longer shadows.

And whatever the mass media does toconvince us otherwise, we know thatevery arm ends in a savage clawraking in the world’s resources or acontrolling iron fist. Imperialism’s tentacles reach outfor resources, supply routes, evercheaper labour and control ofmarkets. They reach out to invest inevery place and every scheme theycan devise to suck out profit. In Gaza we see the Israeli warmachine slaughtering civilians andbeing daily supplied with munitionsand funds by the leader of the NATOalliance, the US. Netanyahu’s cynicalobjective is to destroy the recentlywon unity between the PLO andHamas and thereby derail anycomprehensive peace agreement onterms set by the United Nations: twostates, Palestine and Israel, withintheir pre-1967 borders. Our movement needs to win publicopinion to impose a total boycott ofIsrael and demand that the Britishgovernment condemns the US fundingof the Israeli war machine and itselfends all material support for theIsraeli stateIn Libya, Syria and Iraq we see theconsequences of two decades ofmilitary intervention. As in Israel,those whom Western imperialismsought to use as its agents havedeveloped their own deadly agendas.The Jihadi fighters use the equipmentsupplied by the US and Britain, fundsfrom the West’s traditional allies,Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States andTurkey while their ideological appealstems directly from anger against acentury of imperialist oppression. Urgent support must be given to thesecular and democratic forces in Iraqand Iraqi Kurdistan but it must bechannelled through the UnitedNations and genuinely internationalagencies. All military intervention inSyria must cease. Further US andBritish intervention can only fuelsupport for jihadi reaction.Equally in Ukraine we see the tragicconsequences of US and EU politicalinterventions to topple ademocratically elected governmentand secure one aligned to NATOdirectly on Russia’s borders. Wellover 2,000 civilians are now deadand hundreds of thousands of families

homeless and displaced. Extremeright-wing and openly fascist elementsare entrenched in the Kievgovernment’s state apparatus and theaggressive US agenda continues: theSeptember NATO summit in Cardiffwill consider proposals to shift NATOheadquarters to Eastern Europe, indefiance of all previousunderstandings with Russia.Our movement must demand an endto Britain’s membership of theaggressive military alliance with a‘first strike’ nuclear policy. It mustalso support calls for an end to theKiev government’s drive to outlaw theCommunist Party of Ukraine, a massparty with 2.5 million votes in 2012,that has consistently worked for apeaceful and democratic solutionbased on regional autonomy, respectfor linguistic and cultural rights andan end to oligarch dominatedpresidential powers. In Latin America, US imperialismhas clamped down on any breath ofprogress; supporting dictatorshipsacross the continent to suppresshuman, democratic and trade unionrights, fomenting devastating civilwars and conflicts, militarising wholeregions and using every means in anattempt to halt the development ofsocieties that have taken the roadtowards a just and peaceful future.The Bolivarian revolution is abeacon of hope throughout theregion. No wonder that everythingimperialism can muster is beingthrown into Venezuela. With Chavezdead, all resources are nowconcentrated on the fall of thedemocratically-elected governmentof Madura, on reversing the gains ofthe Venezuelan people in health,welfare, education and infrastructuredevelopment and restoration ofcomplete control to the elite strataand their multi-national backers.We need to understand that, insolidarity with working people acrossthe world, our struggle must be toend capitalism and its exploitation, toreplace imperialism with socialismand to ensure that it is the peoplealone who have the right todetermine their future. Only by this

can we achieve anequality, justice andpeace.

JOHn FOsTER is THE

COMMUnisT PaRTy’sinTERnaTiOnal

sECRETaRy

war on terrorcontinued from page 1

it is cold comfort to say that precisely this fracturing was aclearly foreseeable outcome of the invasion of 2003, joining thelong list of prescient warnings ignored by the hubristic andmessianic Tony blair.

Undoubtedly the most humiliating aspect from the point ofview of london and washington is the triumph of is across notonly much of iraq but a large slice of syria as well, where theyhave benefitted from western and saudi support for therebellion against assad.

so here is the finale of the “war on terror” – an islamist terrorgroup ruling across the heartland of the arab world as a directresult of western intervention. add that to the growing powerof the Pakistani Taliban – unknown in 2001 – and it is fair todescribe the bush-blair war as a strategic disaster almostbeyond measure.

For blair, of course, none of this is his fault. bizarrely, heargued on his Faith Foundation website – the faith in questionseems to be his own omniscience – that the rise of isis couldhave been avoided had the west intervened militarily in syria.yet the intervention in syria he was urging – he likes anuncommon amount of Middle East wars for a Middle East peaceenvoy – would have been against the assad government, not is;so it could only have left the islamist insurgents even stronger.

so Obama is left contemplating the virtual disintegration ofthe bush-created surrogate state in iraq. bombing is is likely toprove of only limited effectiveness if translated into action, forthe reasons outlined above. it would also be deeply ironic if henow bombed those in insurrection against the syriangovernment when this time last year he was gearing up to bombthe troops of that self-same government.

seldom have the contradictions of imperialism’s policies beenso nakedly displayed, highlighting the difficulties the greatpowers now have in assembling an acceptable cast ofsurrogates to preserve their interests in the region.

Contradictions abound. iran now appears to be cooperatingwith the Us in propping up the government in baghdad, overwhich it exercises considerable influence. and will Turkey standindifferent while a Kurdish state emerges, or will it claim theright to protect the Turkoman population around Kirkuk as theiraqi state disappears?

in total, the picture is a more vivid indictment of blair’s warpolicies than anything likely to emerge from the elephantinegestation of the Chilcot report. Every charge made against theinvasion in 2003 by the anti-war movement – including thedanger of sparking a wider regional conflict – has beenconfirmed in spades.

Of course, there will be those keen to double down ondisaster, and the familiar neo-con personalities on both sides ofthe atlantic are urging an anglo-american return to iraq inforce. The large-scale deployment of land forces seems unlikely.but we have already embarked on the familiar route of “missioncreep” in which supposedly humanitarian intervention againstthe barbaric depredations of is morphs into a full-scalerenewed war. The anti-war movement must mobilise againstthis. britain owes the iraqi people the obligation, after a centuryof disastrous and bloody intervention, of now doing nothing.

One thing is clear. in Mosul, in eastern Ukraine and in thesouth China sea the 1991 world order isbreathing its last. The new order is full ofdanger of new and expanding wars, but alsoof the possibility of the defeat of imperialismon a world scale.

andREw MURRay is dEPUTy PREsidEnT

OF THE sTOP THE waR COaliTiOn

Unity!@TUC 2014

by RObERT gRiFFiTHs

THE nORTH aTlanTiC TreatyOrganisation (naTO) was formedin 1949 on the basis of a pack of

lies. The people of britain were told atthe time that this military alliance wassimply a mutual self-defence pact. it wasnot aimed at any other country inparticular and so did not contravene theCharter of the United nations.

but it soon became clear that naTOwas at the core of a string of Us-ledmilitary alliances to encircle the sovietUnion, alongside sEaTO and CEnTO.Us, british and naTO forward militarybases stretched from alaska, Canada andiceland across to scandinavia, britain andwestern Europe (including the thenfascist Portugal), the Mediterranean,Turkey, the indian Ocean, south-Eastasia, south Korea, Japan and the Pacific.This ensured that soviet cities could behit by short and medium range as well asinter-continental nuclear missiles.

when the soviet Union attempted tosite its own short range missiles withinstriking distance of the Us, to defendCuba in 1962, the white Housethreatened all-out nuclear war to havethem removed.

naTO was set upwhen the britishgovernment was lying aboutUs bombers visiting here ontemporary ‘training’ and ‘goodwillpurposes’. some 66 years later, they arestill here at Us controlled sites originallydesignated as 'RaF' bases to fool thepublic.

The late 1940s was also the periodwhen the post-war labour governmentwas developing britain's own atomicbomb, an operation initially kept secretfrom most Cabinet ministers.

From the 1950s, it was claimed thatnaTO had been formed in order tocounter the threat to western freedomsposed by the soviet Union and its allies,who had launched an arms race againstthe west.

yet the warsaw Pact was notestablished until 1955, six years afternaTO, and then only because the latterhad rearmed and enrolled westgermany in its ranks. Meanwhile, in thearms race, both the atom and hydrogenbombs were developed first by the Us, aswere nuclear bombers andintercontinental ballistic missiles.

The soviet attack on western Europenever remotely looked like materialising

before the warsaw Pact was wound upin 1993. but instead of this being thesignal for naTO to dissolve itself, newenemies were invented such as the ‘roguestates’ led by gaddafi, saddam Hussein,Milosevic and the iranian ayatollahs tojustify naTO’s continuation.

naTO forces have since bombed orinvaded bosnia (1992-95), serbia andKosovo (1999), afghanistan (from 2002)and libya (2011).

breaking pledges given to ex-Presidentgorbachev, naTO has driven eastwardsto the borders of Russia and with newcapabilities to hit China. Twelve sovietand warsaw Pact states have beenenrolled with new Us bases alsoestablished in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan,georgia, azerbaijan, afghanistan and iraq.

Plans to incorporate georgia andUkraine into naTO and the EU have ledto civil wars and to militaryconfrontations with Russia. naTOproposals for a European ‘missile defenceshield’ in eastern Europe would ensurethat it could attack Russia without fear ofeffective retaliation.

since the berlin Plus agreement in2002, the European Union has becomeincreasingly enmeshed in naTO,reflected in the militarisation programmeoutlined in the 2007 EU lisbon Treaty.

Moving into such policy areas asinternational piracy and cyber crime isdesigned to extend naTO's reach acrossthe globe. This same ambition has led tothe conclusion of a strategic pact withColombia, whose right-wing governmentsact as a Trojan horse for Us disruption ofanti-imperialist unity in latin america.

as Communist MP Phil Piratin warnedin 1949, far from upholding the authorityof the Un, naTO undermines it. alwaysin line with Us foreign policy, naTO picksand chooses which Un decisions toenforce and which to ignore (such the Ustrade embargo of Cuba or israel’s illegaloccupation of Palestinian, syrian andlebanese territories). when the Un failsto fall into line, naTO goes ahead to takemilitary action anyway.

The naTO powers now account formore than 70 per cent of global militaryspending.

naTO has no democratic structures,nor is it accountable to any. it underminesthe Un, promotes militarism and is theworld's single biggest menace to peaceand stability.

britain should withdraw from naTOand the EU to pursue an independentforeign and defence policy which rejects

military aggression andnuclear weapons.

RObERT gRiFFiTHs is

gEnERal sECRETaRy OF

THE COMMUnisT PaRTy

Long shadows

Unity!@TUC 2014

NO MORE WARS FOR BIG BUSINESS