Lobbying Bill Passes Third Reading

The government’s attack on the organised workers’ movement and on the right to participate in politics, the Lobbying Bill (in full, the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill), was voted through the Commons following its third reading on October 9.

The Bill, which has become nick-named the “Gagging Law”, has been the subject of broad opposition. Through redefining third party activity leading up to elections, widening the definition of what spending counts as “for election purposes” and reducing the legal limit on such spending by up to 70%, it seeks to bring all political life and civil society under the control of the party-dominated system, and is in contempt of and mystifies the very nature of politics and political life.

Despite the opposition, it received a clear majority of 44 as a potential rebellion by government backbenchers failed to materialise.

Sir Stuart Etherington, Chief Executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, wrote to MPs on the day of the third reading to re-emphasise and raise further concerns about the Bill and its amendments. “In our view, the assurances given by ministers on the floor of the house that charities campaigning on policy issues will not be affected have not been met,” he wrote.

Though the Bill is of recognised constitutional importance, it has been rail-roaded through the Commons, beginning its report stage just a day earlier on October 8.

Graham Allen, the Labour MP for Nottingham North and chair of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, pointed out that the rushed schedule would make line-by-line scrutiny unlikely. He stated that “parliament has been disrespected”, declaring the timetabling “an insult to members of this house who are receiving representations about what is a very important matter but are unable to voice them in this chamber”.

The amendment put forward by Allen, which would have specified that the Bill would cover activity only if its “primary purpose” was to support an election candidate or party, was defeated by 261 votes to 298.

The whole process demonstrates the extent to which the dictate of the Cameron-Clegg government prevails, with power concentrated in the hands of the Cabinet, and a contempt for the aspirations of the electorate not only for their empowerment, but for any say in the direction of the political process. In particular, it attempts to reduce the organised workers’ movement simply to a lobbying group, which must be regulated, while the root cause of the corruption at Westminster, the subordination of the whole of decision-making to the interests of the monopolies and the financial oligarchy, goes unacknowledged and unfettered.

Following the third reading vote, the Bill received its first reading in the House of Lords, where its second reading is scheduled for October 22. This Bill must not pass. The working class and the whole electorate must join in the movement to defeat the Bill, which is against the most fundamental right of the people to participate in politics, to organise to defend their interests and to uphold the general interests of society.

On Saturday, September 9, more than 50,000 people took part in the TUC-organised national demonstration in Manchester to Save our NHS, defend jobs and services and no to austerity. The demonstration was timed to coincide with the start of the Conservative Party conference, which was billed as a conference “for hardworking people”. The demonstration marched past the Conference venue giving the lie to the government that far from standing with the working people it stands for the rich and their monopolies. It was the demonstrators that took a stand with the interests of the working class and people.

In particular, the demonstration was to confront the government over its plans for the NHS which it has no mandate from the British people. Represented among the contingents from trade unions and trade union branches across the country, there were large contingents from the people fighting to save A&E, maternity and other services at their hospitals such as at Lewisham, Stafford, Whipps Cross and Barts and many others. Their fight to safeguard the future of the NHS is a cause that is behind the developing opposition in which the organised working class movement is also beginning to play its part with demonstrations and actions that link up with these campaigns.

Representing these campaigns, Dr Louise Irvine, chair of the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign, addressed the thousands that attended the rally in Whitworth Park. She pointed out, “We as a community got together and we decided we were going to fight that: we were not just going to accept it.” Dr Irvine said that the campaign is not under any illusions, as the threats to Lewisham Hospital and hospitals across the country still exist. She concluded that the movement across the country can be built through building strong local campaigns.

Frances O'Grady, TUC General Secretary, said: “The NHS faces the gravest crisis in its history. We are seeing privatisation on an unthinkable scale as core services are hived off to the lowest bidder, budgets are flat-lining, and huge efficiency savings are being demanded by ministers – all at a time of record patient demand.” She continued, “After promising there would be no top-down re-organisation, the
government is wasting billions implementing reforms nobody wants and nobody voted for.” The TUC general secretary gave the call: “Our NHS is not for sale, not today, not tomorrow, not ever. We won't let this government destroy what has taken generations to build.” In their speeches, both Unison General Secretary Dave Prentis and Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey also told the rally that David Cameron lied to the electorate in 2010 about privatisation and about ordering “top down change” to the NHS. Both emphasised that its survival depended on people with the “political will to fight for it” and to “keep on fighting on the ground to defend our NHS”.

The demonstration emphasised the tasks of the working class movement in the wake of the TUC Congress. It was a demonstration that stood with the interests of working class and the public good. The demonstration shows that there exists a strong determination that whoever advocates a programme against the public interest is going to get opposed by whatever means necessary by the workers’ movement. This is the fertile ground in which to develop the movement to build and strengthen the Workers’ Opposition, the opposition of the organised working class against the “austerity” agenda which fights for the alternative, for a new direction of the economy and for society, in which it is the working class which is empowered and in which the people are the decision-makers.

Lewisham is a borough in South East London. The government announced last year that it was going to close our A&E, maternity, and all our acute services as in Stafford. We as a community got together and we decided we were going to fight that: we were not just going to accept it. Our meeting started off with just 12 people in a room. When we organised our first public meeting, we had to have three overflow venues, as there were 700-800 people at it! Our very first demonstration in a borough – just one borough of Lewisham – had 10,000 people. And finally our demonstration at the end of January had 25,000 people on it.

We decided to take the government to court. We took the government to court to challenge through a judicial review the decision to close down acute services in Lewisham Hospital, which were to bail out the PFI (Private Finance Initiative), debt-ridden neighbouring Trust. We took the government to court and we won our judicial review. This isn't just about doing legal things. We would never have had the courage to take a legal challenge without that mass campaign behind us. The government is going to appeal, but we are really confident that we are going to win our appeal. So today, we've won at the moment, we're on the up – we've won one battle, but it's just one battle in a much longer war. We are not under any illusions about the threat that is still affecting our hospital. We are not saying pack up and go home now, because we know there are still threats to our hospital, Lewisham Hospital, as well as to nine hospitals across London and to hospitals across the country. That is why we are linking up with other campaigns across the country.

We are already in contact with campaigns across the country and if anyone wants to contact us, they can through our website. I think the message is that we should fight on local issues and organise really broad-based community campaigns that bring together the whole community – the health workers, the unions, everybody – and they are open and inclusive. You have to fight what is there on the ground – your services. But there are wider and broader issues that you can then inform people about.

So I would say inform people, join in, defend your local services, build a movement and link up with others. Anybody across the country is welcome to contact our campaign – to invite people to come and speak and vice versa. We want to link up around the country because I think you can build a movement by building strong local campaigns as well.

WWIE correspondent

On September 14, the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign celebrated the judicial review success six weeks earlier with a victory parade and party. In his judgment, High Court Judge Mr Justice Silber ruled that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt had acted unlawfully in approving plans to downgrade services in Lewisham Hospital.

Despite the rain hundreds of people of all ages, from elderly pensioners to very young children, met in the centre of Lewisham and marched past Lewisham Hospital. The spirit of the march was very lively and celebratory but also militant and defiant with people shouting slogans “Save Lewisham Hospital!” and “Save the NHS!”. The purpose of the day was not just to celebrate victory but also to let the community know of the grave dangers facing the NHS and, with the government’s appeal against Justice Silber’s ruling, that the fight has to carry on.

The drabness of the weather could not dispel the celebratory spirit, and the streets of Lewisham were brightened by a sea of red placards proclaiming “Justice for Lewisham Hospital”, “Hands Off Our A&Es”, “The Fight Goes On!” and headed by the “Save Lewisham Hospital” banner. “A Victory for Lewisham Hospital is a Victory for Everyone!” as well as the Lewisham Pensioners Forum banner were also carried on the march. A big Lewisham Council
dustcart joined the march festooned with huge banners “Justice for Lewisham Hospital” and “Proud to be born in Lewisham Hospital”, from which the Lewisham community were addressed by megaphone.

The celebration ended in Ladywell Fields, just by the hospital, with a very lively and enjoyable party with local bands, choirs and entertainers from all parts of the local community, as well as children’s events and games and excellent food provided by local food shops and caterers. The entertainment, organised by Save Lewisham Hospital campaigner Shannon Daly, included the Tony Patience Band; Felix’s Rock Choir; Rathfern School; Olympic performers – nurses/drummers; “Street Party” performers; Seg 87 Umbrella performers; Felix School of Rock Band; The Usual Suspects; Heart of Steel steel pans.

A special printed edition of Workers’ Weekly Internet Edition was distributed along the route of the march as well as widely among the participants in Ladywell Fields. It contained the summing up, “A Victory for Lewisham Hospital! A Victory for Everyone! – Fighting to Safeguard the Health Service Step-by-Step”, and was well received.

The spirit of the day was of solidarity with people in other London boroughs and all over the country to fight to defend health services under such relentless attack from government cuts and privatisation. The great sense of optimism in the growing solidarity in the national campaign throughout the country was well reflected in the speakers. The Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, spoke of “our pride” in the NHS; health worker for Lewisham Hospital Chidi Ejimofo vividly spoke of the strength of the campaign as “…the most determined bunch I’ve ever seen; every time they’ve knocked us down we’ve got back up”. A nurse from the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital spoke of the health workers’ fight to keep their jobs in the face of government cuts and the merger of Lewisham Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This provides new challenges but also opportunities for improving local people’s health care, building up a new solidarity between the health workers of the two hospitals. A spokeswoman from the Whittington hospital campaign said, “Thank you Lewisham, your successful campaign is such an inspiration,” adding, “our health service is going to be won if we all stand together”.

Sian Lattimer from We Are Waltham Forest Save Our NHS said that “the Lewisham campaign has become a symbol of what whole communities can do when people refuse to be silenced” … “your campaign is not over and others like mine are just beginning. Now is the time for all communities to come together, for all communities to support each other to hold the government to account. The fact is the whole of our NHS is under threat.”¹

Finally the chair of Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign Louise Irvine said, “Today we are celebrating our big win recognising that the fight goes on and hoping for many more wins to come.”

The Victory for Lewisham is a Victory for Everyone!

On Tuesday, October 8, a crowd of over 150, mainly health workers, mobilised outside the Royal London Hospital in east London in the next step in a battle of huge attacks on pay, conditions and NHS services across the Barts Health trust.

The protest was called jointly by Tower Hamlets Keep Our NHS Public, Newham Save Our NHS and We Are Waltham Forest Defending Our NHS – campaigns from across the area covered by the trust, which now engulfs Mile End, Newham University, St Bartholomew’s (Barts), The London Chest, The Royal London, and Whipps Cross University hospitals.

Hospital workers had already started organising to build a campaign against the attacks across the trust, with a number of angry staff meetings and two protests of hundreds at Whipps Cross Hospital throughout September. A few weeks back, a mass meeting with workers from across different unions at Whipps Cross voted to move towards a consultative ballot for industrial action.

The argument behind the major assault is that the trust is in financial crisis. Meanwhile the Royal London Hospital PFI is costing an astonishing £2 million a week! In the face of threats of being taken over by a special administrator, trust bosses plan drastic attacks on pay and conditions, such as down-gradings.

Perhaps NHS bosses are trying to learn the lessons of Lewisham, where a mass campaign drove back plans to close the A&E. This time round, in Barts Health trust, rather than attempts to target a high profile ward or department such as the A&E, the attacks are emerging at a department by department level.

As home of the PFI, the Royal London hospital is an apt political focus. Tuesday’s protest marked an attempt by hospital worker activists to take the militant mood among Whipps Cross hospital workers and begin to spread it to the rest of the trust and link up with those in the other hospitals where many workers are just as angry. The protest could potentially be a key turning point in broadening the campaign across the trust.

(Unite the Resistance)

See the short video, demonstrating the fighting spirit of the health workers:
http://youtu.be/2hYH8Of6UTg

See presentation of We Are Waltham Forest Petition to Barts Health at Nye Bevan House, London:
http://youtu.be/gTZjVsDqbmo

See also the Whipps Cross demonstration and rally on September 21, at which representatives of the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign participated and spoke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dW8Eqwjjg1Mfeature=sharelist=UUQXxaOPRqGJgj6PiyCEpMXQ

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has announced a despicable attack on health workers’ national pay “rise”. Besides being a part of the anti-social offensive against working people, the decision also demonstrates the incoherence of the “austerity” programme of the Coalition government.

The Secretary of State has urged the two independent pay review bodies that set earnings for the NHS’s 1.3 million workforce to cancel the 1% rise due in April 2014 that the Chancellor, George Osborne, had previously said was “affordable”. The Health Department made out that there was no contradiction between Hunt’s intervention and Osborne’s 1% pledge, the argument being that Hunt did not want to see staff whose income was already increasing through progression pay also getting a salary increase. Osborne, though, has not made any link between the two in his public statements and the Treasury has said the planned 1% rise is to help tackle the rising cost of living.

Jeremy Hunt has tried to justify his decision by making out that: “The NHS’s £100bn annual budget is under such pressure that it cannot afford to increase salaries at all in 2014 or to continue to give staff automatic increments.” Hunt argued: “The planned 1% rise would cost £500m, while the incremental payments, which entail an average 3.5% rise, and 6.7% in some cases, would cost an estimated £700m more a year.” The head of health representative of the Unite union Rachael Maskell dismissed this claim pointing out: “Jeremy Hunt’s move to scrap the one per cent pay rise that already had been given the green light from treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander smacks of bullying and kicking a demoralised workforce in the teeth – again. … For him to claim that the Department of Health does not have the money to spend on staff is ridiculous, given he has just wasted £3 billion on a bureaucratic reorganisation that no-one wants and increasing sums each day on the administration of a healthcare market without a penny going to improve patient care.” She further pointed out: “Jeremy Hunt is responsible for either undermining the Treasury position or trying to act in an even more draconian way than the Treasury with regards to staff who work across the NHS. He blames the staff on a regular basis; now he want to further cut their terms and conditions.”

In attempting to “justify” this pay cut the government’s health department has sunk to the depths of moral blackmail counterposing health workers’ pay and patient care, claiming that a pay rise would mean hospitals having to lay off staff or hire fewer personnel than they would like. The government’s submission to the pay review bodies made the ridiculous claim that the safety and quality of patient care will be put at risk if health workers receive any more money and would make it impossible to maintain the safe staffing levels that several recent patient safety reviews have identified as a priority. Rachael Maskell accused Hunt of “trying to emotionally blackmail the staff to sacrifice their pay” and that this new threat to health workers’ terms and conditions was the latest of his “strange bullying tactics”. Dr Mark Porter, chair of council at the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, described it as “insulting at best, given doctors are working harder than ever before and have borne the brunt of the government’s efficiency drive”.

Hunt’s announcement has aroused huge anger from health workers and the unions, including doctors. Dr. Mark Porter, chair of council at the BMA, said: “Doctors fully recognise the economic constraints the NHS is facing, but for the government to imply that unless NHS staff endure what is effectively another year of pay cuts they will put patient safety at risk is insulting at best, given doctors are working harder than ever before and have borne the brunt of the government’s efficiency drive.” Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said it was “demoralising for nursing staff to discover that while senior managers have enjoyed a pay increase of 13% since 2009, the government are asking frontline staff to take another pay freeze to save the NHS money. Increments were only paid when staff could show their skills and experience had improved”. Phil Gray, chief executive of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists, said the department’s “very disappointing move shows contempt for the principle of working together in partnership to produce a fair deal for NHS staff” and that “NHS personnel had already faced a real-terms 12% cut in their pay in recent years”.

The fact is that whereas the 1,000 richest people in Britain have increased their wealth by £150 billion over the last three years, NHS workers have lost, on average, 10% of their pay over the same time period. In a statement on October 7, Unison said: “Just how much lower can this government sink? What an absolute disgrace for health secretary Jeremy Hunt to oppose the miserly 1% pay ‘rise’ promised to more than a million health workers and to add insult to injury by threatening to scrap increments. What kind of message does it send to health workers about the value this government places on their work? And what incentive is there for young people to join the NHS when they are so undervalued?” The Unison statement also pointed out that this threat exposes the extent of the government’s real cuts to NHS budgets as well as its willingness to ignore the lessons of the Francis report. Report after report has demonstrated the risk to quality arising from “putting finance before patients”.

Health workers from across the country organised and sent a letter signed by more than 80 of them to the Guardian to voice their outrage at the announcement. The letter said that, if the Tories are left to get their way, NHS workers would not receive any pay rise, not even the miserly 1% deemed “affordable” by George Osborne. This attack runs alongside the Tories’ attempts to take apart the NHS pay system, restructure the NHS, privatise and slash jobs and services, the letter emphasised.

Jeremy Hunt’s announcement can only be seen as part and parcel of the government’s wholesale wrecking of the NHS in favour of the monopolies. Health workers and all working people are not sitting back in the face of the government’s onslaught. Campaigns such as the one to save Lewisham hospital and similar ones up and down the country, including Staffs and Whittington hospitals, are growing apace. It was further shown in the 50,000-plus TUC demonstration outside the Tory Party conference on September 29. Health workers must get further organised in order to resist the anti-social offensive on them and on the health service as a whole.

Fight to Safeguard the Future of the NHS!

Monument to the Founding of
the WPK, Pyongyang, DPRKThe Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) was founded on October 10, 1945, by President Kim Il Sung. Since its birth the WPK has led the Korean revolution and socialist construction, performing tremendous feats. Under the guidance of Kim Jong Un, the present respected leader of the Korean people, the WPK is now leading the drive to build a thriving and impregnable socialist country.

It was under the guidance of the Workers’ Party of Korea that a people’s government was successfully established, and its function and role have been steadily enhanced in keeping with the needs of the times. This has guaranteed the independence and sovereignty of the DPRK and enabled the Korean people to live a full, creative and worthwhile existence.

Although the roots of the WPK were in the Down With Imperialism Union, founded by Kim Il Sung in 1926 when he was still a young schoolboy, it was nevertheless not founded as a centralised mass communist party until 1945, which is why October 10 is its 68th anniversary. This meant that the Party was built at the base in the course of the over-riding struggle of the Korean people, which was to free the Korean Peninsula from the occupation by Japanese imperialism. This struggle, led by communist cells in the midst of the people, was crowned with success on August 15, 1945, as the victories over Nazi fascism and Japanese reaction and militarism were celebrated.

After this liberation of Korea, all the necessary democratic reforms, including agrarian reform and nationalisation of major industries, were carried out smoothly.

Friends of Korea meeting at the John Buckle
Centre in London, at which Thae Yong Ho, minister
at the embassy of the DPRK in London, spoke
The Workers’ Party of Korea led the Korean people to victory in the 1950-1953 Korean War, known as the Fatherland Liberation War. Contrary to the disinformation propagated by the monopoly-controlled media and put forward as official ideology by the Westminster government and its educational system, this war was carefully planned and instigated by the United States administration. There are existing film and documentary records that amply prove that this was a war the US imperialists calculated would end quickly with the sweeping away of the legitimate government north of the 38th parallel – a veritable plan for regime change by force. But instead it led to the downfall and defeat of the US-led forces, not before US imperialism had effected the most terrible damage to the Korean people and their land.

Under the leadership of the WPK, out of the ashes of a devastated country, agricultural co-operativisation was completed in a short space of time and the socialist transformation of private businesses realised in order to lay the foundations for an advanced socialist system. The WPK then led the building of an independent national economy, guiding the DPRK towards becoming a powerful socialist industrial state.

Of great importance has been building the material and technological basis for national defence under the leadership of the WPK, simultaneously carrying out economic construction. By virtue of the importance given to the Songun (military-first) policy, the DPRK has successfully averted the catastrophe of war through imperialist aggression, defended its sovereignty and carried forward its socialist nation-building project.

Furthermore, it has provided the principles and benchmarks for Korea’s reunification and encouraged all Koreans in the north and the south of Korea, as well as abroad, to cherish their aspiration to see the Korean Peninsula and the Korean nation once again reunified.

Northern Region of the Society for Friendship with
Korea hosted Thae Yong Ho at a meeting in Newcastle In sum, the Workers’ Party of Korea has led the Korean people to solve the problems they face step-by-step, and it has enabled the people to unite with one will with their leadership in order to set an aim for the development of the country and remain faithful to that aim. This is an inestimable contribution to the peace, security and progress of the world’s people as a whole.

To celebrate the WPK’s 68th anniversary, the Friends of Korea held a meeting at the John Buckle Centre in London, at which Thae Yong Ho, minister at the embassy of the DPRK in London, spoke on October 5. The following day the Northern Region of the Society for Friendship with Korea hosted Thae Yong Ho at a meeting in Newcastle, where the minister spoke at length and answered questions. Both meetings were extremely successful in learning first-hand the facts not only of the situation in the DPRK, but the views of the Korean people and their leadership on the complex and dangerous world situation.

The comradely spirit of the meetings contributed very seriously to deepening the ties of friendship and unity of the progressive forces in Britain and the DPRK.