From the KKE

A video short produced by the Greek Communist Party which highlights the struggle through 2011 against EU diktat and a government of traitors

 

From the SW and Cornwall District Committee

As chair of the South West and Cornwall District of the Communist Party of Britain, I'd like, on behalf of the Committee, to wish all comrades, supporters, friends and visitors to this website warmest season's greetings.

We hope that everyone who is celebrating a festival at this time - Christmas, Hannukah, Yalda (to name but three)- will have a very happy time and that all of you will be able rest and enjoy yourselves.

We hope also that 2012 will be a year of success in the struggle for a just, democratic and peaceful future.

With best wishes
In comradeship

Liz Payne
District Chair

Generally Speaking

A message from the General Secretary

Please accept my New Year greetings on behalf of the Communist Party, and my thanks for your efforts to build the labour movement and our party in the fightback against Britain’s unelected government of the bankers.

It has been an eventful year which has witnessed a shift from sporadic and isolated opposition to austerity and privatisation to something bigger, with a higher political quality that could prove much more durable. We have some way to go but it is clear that workers will not leave the battlefield to the ruling class. 2011 was the year history caught up with the Murdochs and their hit men and women. How fitting that at the same time, the labour movement rallied to save the Morning Star, the only newspaper owned by its readers.

It is now more necessary than ever for organised workers to speak out and to act. We have millions of unemployed. Young people cry out for decent jobs. Public services are being plundered and packaged up for sale. Education and the NHS, in particular, are being prepared for privatisation. Unnaccountable bankers, though rumbled and despised, continue to hold economic and political power. The fight continues to establish the sovereignty of the people against big business and European Union diktat. Ruling class aggression at home feeds British imperialist aggression abroad. Funds that should be used to build homes for the people are used to bomb others into submission.

Break the Coalition

The National Question

There has been some (very isolated) criticism of those on the left who take an anti EU position. Much of it rests on the opinion that to stand against the European project results in some sort of petty nationalist attitude. But to ignore the "national question" is a dangerous and immature position to take.

The following article appeared in the September/October 2011 edition of Challenge - the magazine of the YCL. You can read more about the CPB's position on Europe in this article.

Britishness – An Impossible Concept?

Britishness, like any concept of nation, is contested, socially and politically constructed, historically variable and both personal and public.

South West in danger of becoming low pay zone

George Osborne's plan to end national pay rates for public servants by levelling down public sector pay to that of the private sector would have a devastating impact on the South West, says the TUC.

This is partly because of the high percentage of public sector workers in the region (27.1%) and partly because of the already low pay (£1.58 per hour less than the UK average). Devon and Cornwall, in particular, would be badly affected because the pay rates for the two counties are lower still - £2.55 less for Devon and £3.59 less for Cornwall than the £14.90 national average.

Nigel Costley, Regional Secretary of the South West TUC, said: "When the Chancellor talks about regional and localised wage negotiations, what he really means is driving down pay to the lowest levels. This will have devastating impact on the economy of the West Country by embedding a low-pay culture that has already caused so much hardship for hard-working families. In recent years progress has been made to close the pay gap between average pay here and that of the UK average but we are in danger of going into reverse.

"The region is dependent upon the public sector and the government is already cutting earnings by reducing pay and increasing pension charges. The latest plan will involve a league table of pay rates across the country, consigning much of the West Country to the bottom divisions of pay.

"This will drive out valuable skills from the region and hit the quality of public services. Already the South West has problems recruiting certain skills in education and health, such as midwives, and this will make matters worse.

'Comparing public and private earnings is complex because public workers tend to be professionals such as teachers or nurses. Such workers have spent years in higher education and training. Professionals in private jobs having spent the same time developing their skills tend to earn a lot more.

The vision for our economy should be one based upon good pay and high performance. We want young people to aspire to develop good skills and help deliver top class public services as well as successful trading companies. A low wage economy will mean young people will do their best to escape.'

Taken from a press release

Is a Robin Hood tax all it seems?

Taken from the Morning Star

It seems a nice idea. Tax the financial speculators enriching themselves at our expense and use the proceeds to raise people out of poverty.

The Robin Hood tax campaign, which is sponsored by some 50 charities and other non-government organisations and supported by such luminaries as Comic Relief founder Richard Curtis and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, is pushing this course of action.

According to the campaign, a package of financial transaction taxes on the purchase and sale of foreign exchange, shares, bonds and various derivatives, could raise over $400 billion (£250bn) worldwide.

That is more than enough to achieve the Millenium Development Goals, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/Aids and providing universal primary education by 2015, or even more ambitious goals.

But aren't these campaigners being a little starry-eyed? Assuming this amount could be raised by such means, can we trust governments to spend it for that purpose?

International Solidarity

Nicaraguan workers express their solidarity with the workers of Great Britan as they prepare for strikes on the 30th of November