Stand Up To Racism - North West Regional Summit

Stand Up To Racism - North West Regional Summit

Supported by Unite Against Fascism

FROM TRUMP TO TOMMY ROBINSON

TAKING ON THE RACIST RIGHT TODAY

• Saturday 23 June
• 2pm to 5pm
• The British Muslim Heritage Centre, College Road, Manchester M16 8BP.

To book places, please contact northwest@uaf.org.uk

Walking football at the Pensioners' Parliament in Blackpool

Do you like football? Are you going to the Pensioners' Parliament 

in Blackpool? If so, this may be for you.

Conference votes to defend civil service pensions scheme

PCS national conference resolved on 23 May 2018 to defend the civil service pension scheme and other public service pension schemes and stay at the forefront of the fight for security and dignity in older age. Debating motion A63, proposed by Ian Albert on behalf of the NEC, conference heard how the government’s plans to shift away from defined benefit schemes and to offer only defined contribution schemes was part of its continuing attacks on public sector pensions.

Ian told conference we must resist the attacks on people in later life. He said: “It’s to the credit of this union in the way that we have stood up in defence of pensions but it’s a battle that’s far from over. The fight for dignity in retirement must go on, for the many, not the few.”

Renewed threat

The motion was seconded by Bobby Young of Revenue and Custom Glasgow and Clyde HMRC and Valuation branch. The motion condemned the government’s pension policy that will over time bring about a renewed threat to the future of the core civil service pension scheme. The motion reaffirmed our intention to explore any campaigning or legal options to challenge the use of measures such as CPI which offer less protection against inflation and to place unfair constraints on the transitional protection relating to imposed changes which have cut pension benefits.

It was agreed that PCS must work with the TUC, other trade unions, and campaigning organisations such as the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) and Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) to:

• secure substantial improvements to the state pension
• cancel any increase to the state pension age above 65
• compensate women who were affected by the speeding up of the move to a single pension age
• put back in place a state backed scheme which can guarantee an underpinning pension of 70% of the living wage, an option for an affordable earnings related pension
• extend the means by which our members can exercise the option to buy additional state pension to compensate for contracted out pension equivalent (COPE) deductions.

The motion, which was carried, also called for civil service pension administrator MyCSP to be brought back into the civil service.

PCS conference pays respects to victims of Manchester terror attack

There was a minute's silence at the start of PCS conference yesterday to remember those killed in the attack at the Manchester Arena on Monday night. At least 22 people, many of them children, were killed and dozens more injured as they left a concert at the venue. Our president Janice Godrich shared our union's thoughts on the attack in a statement she read to delegates:

"Our thoughts are with the victims of this horrific attack and their families, those who have lost friends and loved ones, and with all those affected by such sickening violence. We utterly condemn this abhorrent attack against innocent people, many of whom were young children. Today, we grieve for those who have lost their lives so tragically.

"We pay tribute to the dedicated emergency services and public sector workers who responded so selflessly and professionally last night, and who continue to work tirelessly to keep us safe at all times. Our union stands in solidarity with the people of Manchester against such appalling violence, and for peace and unity. We reject absolutely the hate and division that drive terrorist attacks like this, and reject all forms of prejudice and intolerance peddled by a violent minority in the aftermath of such incidents.

"We are strongest when we come together and we urge our members to take part in memorial events and to express their sympathy with the victims and their families."

From the PCS national website.

Petition for a conference to defend Jeremy Corbyn

The nine month nascent civil war in the Labour Party has been escalated in earnest. The majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party has never accepted Jeremy Corbyn’s democratic election as leader and is now determined to get rid of him by any means necessary.

This is not, as they claim, because Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable but because they fear he could win a general election. Blair himself said that Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister would "be a very dangerous experiment"; an experiment his acolytes are determined to prevent. Jeremy Corbyn was thrust into power by an uprising against austerity. If he was to win a general election the 1% are terrified that the hopes of millions of working class people would be raised and, as a result, that government would be pressurised to take radical measures which would threaten their system and gargantuan profits.

Now that war has been declared by the PLP, the worst possible response would be to capitulate. It is much to Jeremy Corbyn’s credit that he has so far stood firm. Now the labour movement, together with all those who are opposed to austerity, needs to mobilise to support Jeremy against the Blairite onslaught.

Petition here.

Corbyn’s pledge to PCS

Jeremy Corbyn became the first ever Labour leader to address PCS conference and pledged that a Labour government would return national pay bargaining to the civil service and repeal the hated Tory Trade Union Act.

He also gave assurances on pay saying it was "time for the public sector (1%) pay cap to end and to restore good industrial relations in the civil service."

Condemning the Tory austerity agenda of cuts, closures and low wages he stressed that this was "a political choice being made by this government, not a necessity"; the cap on pay in the civil service continued, while consultants were brought in on very high levels of pay.

He also pledged that Labour would invest in HMRC, pointing out the inherent contradiction of the government cutting jobs in the department when billions of pounds were being lost in uncollected tax revenue. He said: "This government doesn’t seem to understand that job cuts mean tax not collected" and he called for “a properly staffed HMRC".

He also paid tribute to PCS as a "fantastic campaigning union", to which "the door is always open" and said he looked forward to working with the union on policy development.

Pensioners Parliament 2015

16 to 18 June 2015 in Blackpool - by Tony Mulhearn

• March to Rally: speakers Care Workers Doncaster out for 90 days. Queen singer supported them received national recognition, eventually secured settlement by their action

Sessions:

• The NHS and privatisation: speakers from Unite and GMB, Rhianna Hazam. Excellent presentations confirmed the wholesale assault on the NHS. Unite speaker particularly clear and incisive. 

• Making Transport accessible. Good discussion with suggestions on improving transport network and making provision for elderly users. Conclusion that transport integration only possible under public ownership. 

• One of the speakers highlighted an interesting statistic: in 2010 2.5million pensioners voted Tory and 3million voted Labour. 

• In 2015 2.5m voted Labour and 3m voted Tory. 

• Cameron guaranteed the triple lock where as Balls in 2013 stated he would cap pensions.

• Perhaps we need to analyse that at a future meeting. 

Last Day: 

• Where next after general election. CWU speakers Dave Ward and a speaker from a research organisation gave interesting speeches. Again a vigorous discussion. With the general feelings expressed that the pensioners movement is up for the struggle. Dot Gibson summed up the feelings of the gathering of about 800 people when she called for a united struggle against the attacks on pensioners services and also called for building the pensioners movement, particularly its finances as it is getting increasingly difficult to meet the financial demands of paying for the Parliament and the conference which will take place next year. 

• Merseyside was well represented. Speakers at the sessions were myself, Julie, Terry, Ann and Margaret, who got in twice in one of the sessions. 

• Altogether a worth-while Parliament with Merseyside making its mark.

Anti-austerity conference in Manchester