Trade union leader calls for co-ordinated action against cuts

In a contribution to the Guardian on Sunday, 19 December, Len McCluskey, the General Secretary of the powerful trade union Unite, called for co-ordinated action between students and trade unions against the public sector cuts of the Con-Dem government. Unless trade unions follow the students’ example of resistance, these cuts could not be stopped. ‘It is our responsibility’, he argued, ‘not just to our members but to the wider society that we defend our welfare state and our industrial future against this unprecedented assault’.

Resistance against cuts to further and higher education in the UK

Current Con-Dem government plans to cut back funding for further and higher education in the UK are an unprecedented attack on the right to access to higher education. This attack affects students and members of staff alike, but co-operation between both sides is neither secured nor automatic. Anybody interested in successful resistance will have to think carefully about how to co-ordinate the various struggles.

Chinese labour in the global economy

Prof. Andreas Bieler has been awarded a grant of £275k by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a project on ‘Globalisation, national transformation and workers’ rights: an analysis of Chinese labour within the global economy’ (RES-062-23-2777). The project will be located in the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice and includes a three-year fellowship for Dr. Chun-Yi Lee, who will be responsible for the empirical research in China. The project will start in October 2011 and run for three years.

The Con-Dem Budget as a class project

What attitude should one take towards last week’s Comprehensive Spending Review by the UK government? That all depends on one’s point of view. Neo-liberals take a different view from that of Keynesian analysts. And it is a Marxist understanding, which uncovers the underlying class dynamics.

‘No ifs, no buts, no public sector cuts!’ – Trade union demonstration in Birmingham on 3 October 2010.

The coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats is in the process of unveiling its budget cuts in order to address the national debt level resulting from the bailout of failing banks during the financial crisis. In practice, this means significant cuts in public sector spending of 25 per cent in each department affecting amongst others child benefit payments, school refurbishment programmes, services for people with disabilities, etc. Everybody should do his/her bit in order to get debt levels under control, it is argued. What sounds rather reasonable at first sight, however, masks three important facts.

‘No to austerity. Priority for jobs and growth!’ – Widespread resistance against public sector cuts in Europe.

Bankers caused the financial market crisis through their mistakes, but it is now the people, who are asked to pay for it. While many banks are back on profitable routes (see, for example, The Telegraph, 6 August 2010), citizens across Europe are expected to pay for the bailouts of banks, be it in the form of unemployment, be it in the form of wage cuts, be it in the form of cut-backs in public services. It is now that governments across Europe cut back on public services including health, education and other social services for disadvantaged groups in society. As Will Hutton wrote in the Guardian on 26 September in relation to the forthcoming budget of the British government, ‘while the country is now exhorted to tighten its belt and pay off its debts, those who created the crisis — the country’s CEOs and bankers, still living on Planet Extravagance, not to mention mainstream politicians — all want to get back to "business as usual": the world of 1997 to 2007’ (Guardian, 26 September 2010).

But workers are not only victims.

Emerging resistance against budget cuts and the problems with New Labour

On Wednesday, 22 September at 7.30 pm a public meeting took place in Nottingham/UK to discuss and organise resistance against cuts in the public sector at the local level. The meeting was addressed by representatives from the local Trades Union Council, the Communication Workers’ Union, the National Union of Teachers, UNISON as well as a whole range of local campaigns against Mental Health cuts, Learning Disability cuts and School Building cuts amongst others.