United Left

Disabled trades unionists' direct action against government welfare policies

by Seán McGovern

Last Wednesday evening, 22nd May, around 200 disability activists blocked the junction at Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street for over an hour in protest at this government's continued attacks on disabled peoples' benefits, welfare resources, and indeed in all too many cases, their very existence.

Earlier in the day, just a short distance away, a couple of hundred trade unionists were in attendance at the TUC's annual Disabled Workers' Conference, where Seán McGovern, Co-Chair of the TUC DWC, set the mood of for the event with a speech that told in stark terms this government's unremitting attack on our class, and especially the vicious lies and distortions it continued propagating at the expense of disabled people.

Finishing his address by stating that trade unionists must join with sisters and brothers within our communities, to send an unequivocal message to this government that disabled workers share the same struggle as unemployed sisters and brothers as well as those disabled who can't work.

Equinox workers on strike against drastic pay cuts

Staff at EQUINOX are taking Industrial action on 29 May in response to proposed pay cuts.

In the Social Care sector since 2010 front line staff are having to take salary cuts of up to £6000 a year.

EQUINOX run residential services for those wishing to address their substance misuse in London.

Please support the EQUINOX members.

See information from LE1111 about how you can help.

Send messages of support to Equinox members – email branch email addresses This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Join members at key service picket lines in Lambeth, Lewisham & Southwark. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Reps directly. Snacks, coffees, chat & support welcome!
Tweet @UniteHousing about the dispute over the weekend and on the day. Hashtags ‘Equinox’ ‘StopTheRaceToTheBottom’, 'StopTheCuts' or 'CouldEquinoxCareless'?
Share messages and support on our UNITE Housing workers website and through your networks
Visit the website for regular updates on this dispute and our other campaigns.

Spanish miners' heroic struggle of 2012

See advertisement for DVD and photobook showing the heroic struggle of the Spanish miners against pit closures decreed as part of Spain's austerity measures.

As in the UK, these "austerity measures" are destroying the only genuine sources of value for the economy - in manufacturing and the production of raw materials.

We must ally ourselves with the likes of the Spanish miners across Europe to defeat the stupidity of the troika's economic plans.

Political Fund ballot result

An excellent result for the Political Fund ballot - 87.4% in favour on an 18.6% turnout.

See full results here.

United Left's candidate in the by-election for the LGBT seat is Jenny Douglas

Jenny Douglas's details are as follows:

Membership number 13326312

Branch SC/79/16 Dundee City Council

Workplace Central Library Dundee

Sector Local Authorities.

See Jenny's letter seeking nomination - download and print off for your branch/workplace.

Lazy journalism from right-wing libertarian

"Left-wing activists’ treatment of disabled people as objects of pity is far more disgusting than anything the government has done..." Brendan O'Neill

Brendan O'Neill's article in the Telegraph of 6 May is yet another example of the lazy journalism to which we're exposed all too frequently these days. Here we have another ex-Leftie turned right-wing libertarian attempting to paint the Left as a politically moribund entity bereft of ideas and direction; while portraying the Right as the true champions of the working classes and disabled with their 'work is the only solution' message.

From beginning to end this piece is a gross insult to the very group O'Neill purports to defend - disabled people. He begins the article by speaking as though the "...Left-wing observers..." (the villains of this piece) are the spokespersons for disabled people; when the reality is that it is disabled people who are speaking up for themselves on a variety of social media sites, in Blogs, on Facebook, on Twitter, in newspapers and out on the streets via direct action.

Living in the world of neo-liberalism

From 1979 onwards successive governments have been dismantling the institutions of the welfare state and replacing them with those of a no-rights, deregulated market economy – what has become known as neo-liberalism.

On any indices – workers’ rights, the gulf between rich and poor, we are increasingly living with the consequences of the rise of the neo-liberal state. For example child poverty:

3.6 million children living in poverty in the UK .
This is 27% of children - more than one in four.
Almost two-thirds (62 per cent) of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one member works.

Contrast this with the obscene profits and greed epitomised by the bankers. Rather than an aberration, poverty and greed are the foundation stones of the neo-liberals’ creed. When the likes of Johnson or Osborne defend bankers’ bonuses they are then defending a principle on which the society they wish to rule is organised. Such people are out to privatise the world and they are winning.