Report from YCL Congress

The 46th Congress of the Young Communist League was held on 30th June 2012. The Congress was held in the International Brigades room of The Marx Memorial Library. The aim on the congress was to amend, add to and generally improve the Political and International Resolutions which the executive committee uses to guide its work during the next two years.

Each district had already suggested amendments, so it was the duty of the congress to go through all of the amendments, discussing them and then voting whether to accept, accept in principal, accept in part or reject the amendment.

Congress started with the amendments to the political resolutions. Specific debate was had on to what extent the ConDem coalition had gained power “illegitimately” because it was a coalition government - it was eventually decided we cannot condemn coalition governments as Britain's Road to Socialism calls for one uniting progressive groups in an anti-monopoly alliance.

Country Standard

First launched in 1935 the Country Standard journal is now run by an editorial collective of Communst and Labour members, environmentalists and trade unionists.

When CS was established in 1935, our founders wrote about their aims: peace, socialism and unity of town and country workers. These are the principles that continue to inspire us today. We won’t stop writing or campaigning "till the wrong is put right". We invite you to join with us.

Read back issues on the SWCPB site and follow the Country Standard Blog

Government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich

SW District Communist Party Secretary in South Africa

Taken from http://21centurymanifesto.wordpress.com/

Ever wondered how the underground banned political movement communicated their messages to South Africans during the apartheid years? 

In 1967 a little-known chapter in the history of the anti-apartheid movement began. Radical students from London Universities, mostly socialists, traveled to South Africa to take part in illegal activities against the regime. This is the subject of London Recruits: The Secret War Against Apartheid, a new book edited by Ken Keable.

It draws together the stories of 35 students recruited by Ronnie Kasrils. He was a leading South African Communist Party activist and founding member of Umkhonto We Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC.  Kasrils was speaking on Morning Live with one of the secret agents, Dennis Walsh.

Here's to 60 inglorious years of the Queen

Republicans across Britain are gearing up for what has been described as the "biggest anti-monarchy protest in living memory."

Events will take place across the country over the next four days in protest against the vainglorious jubilee celebrations with one of the largest demonstrations scheduled for Tower Bridge on Sunday.

Protesters will assemble near City Hall for what campaign group Republic has said will be a "loud, bold and provocative" demonstration in full view of the royal barge as the Queen and other royals disembark to watch the jubilee flotilla pass through Tower Bridge.

Earlier this month Republic published a new pamphlet 60 Inglorious Years which made the argument that the Queen's reign had been characterised by "personal enrichment, feeble leadership and an obstinate refusal to allow real scrutiny of her role."

Republic chief executive Graham Smith said: "The royals spend most of their lives shielded from criticism. This protest will give them a rare glimpse of the strength of republican sentiment in Britain today.

"The hereditary system is offensive to all the democratic values this country has fought for in the past. The jubilee represents a celebration of everything we, as republicans, oppose - it is our right and duty to challenge it and promote the alternative."

Read the full story in the Morning Star

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) has slammed the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) decision to place £350m worth of design contracts for the next generation of nuclear-armed submarines – describing Britain's nuclear weapons as a 'bottomless pit' for spending.

The MoD's review of alternatives to like-for-like replacement of Britain's Trident nuclear weapons system is not due to report its findings until late 2012 or early 2013. But the MoD has now placed contracts for designing new submarines with BAE, Babcock and Rolls-Royce, totaling almost £350m, which prejudges the outcome of its own review.

"Rather than acting on the priorities of the British public, the government is determined to keep pouring money into the bottomless pit that is Britain's nuclear weapons system" said Kate Hudson, CND General Secretary.

"A majority of the public want to scrap Trident now. The last thing they want to do is replace it. And yet they are being forced to fund its replacement while they see local services cut.

"The sad truth is that as shocking as today's announcement is, £350m is just a drop in the ocean compared with the total cost of replacing Trident, which will amount to well over £100 billion over its lifecycle.

"A parliamentary decision on whether or not to build replacement submarines is not due to take place until 2016. We must act to stop this now before more taxpayers' money is sqaundered."

New Morning Star Editor Outlines Plans

Richard Bagley in the Morning Star  http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/119165

It was while doing some digging 25 years after the 1984-5 Miners' Strike that the full sweep of history of our great paper really hit home.

In the national newspaper archives at Hendon, north London, edition after edition was raised from the bowels of the building and the changing shape of the paper from its 1930 birth as the Daily Worker, through the '40s, '50s and '60s and beyond was clear.

As the fortunes and level of working-class organisation and political consciousness has waxed and waned so too have the fortunes of our paper.

In the 1980s came the disastrous divisions that allowed a deceitful cabal to smash up the Communist Party of Great Britain - and nearly snuff out the Morning Star too.

In the 1980s too came huge, epoch-changing setbacks for working people. The temporary victory of capital and free-market finance unleashed a whirlwind on us that still whips around us today.

The Morning Star survived the troubles of the 1980s and the '90s, and lives on thanks to generations of readers and staff who have made sacrifices, including going without pay in the bleakest years.

Our challenge now, though, is to turn the constant quest for survival into a plan for growth.

Statement from the KKE

The Greek Communist Party issued the following statement regarding forming a left coalition government

"In order to agree with such a government the KKE needs to make a U-turn, a summersault and not merely a small retreat, a small turn. It must make a root and branch change. And above all it would have to make unacceptable compromises that have nothing to do with the people's interests. Maybe the people are not interested in the ideological purity of the various parties, but in a party that all these years, from the very first moment of its foundation, has been in the frontline of the struggle does not want to abandon this position in order to gain some ministries. The people do not need this kind of KKE"

Read the statement in full http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2012/2012-05-07-ekloges

For a People's Europe

On international Workers' Day 15 communist parties across the European Union came together to agree a common position against the Treaty on Stability, Co-ordination and Governance in the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). All the parties call upon workers throughout the EU to mobilise and resist these treaties and the anti-people policies of the EU and its allies.
All signatories expressed their solidarity with Irish workers and supported the call for a No vote by the Irish people in the referendum due on May 31.
Eugene McCartan, general secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland


Read the full text on the SW CPB site http://www.southwestcommunists.org.uk/129-for-a-people-s-europe

Depression

First short film by Maya Llamazares. Based on the financial crisis. The film demonstrates the struggle among the working class who have been the most effected within this rough period which could become an economical depression.

Contains footage from the recent Morning Star conference.

Government Destroying NHS Direct Services

UNISON members in the South West are taking action to highlight the threat to the services provided by NHS Direct.  Nursing and Health advisors providing the NHS Direct helpline services to Cornwall and the South West based at Exeter are today, Tuesday 1 May, holding a ‘work-in’ in protest against the Government’s plans to replace NHS Direct.

From midnight last night until to midnight tonight NHS Direct staff in Exeter are having a ‘work-in’, with extra staff are voluntarily coming in, in their own time to help staff the NHS Direct phone lines in a protest to the forthcoming changes from NHS Direct to the new 111 services, which will result in clinical staff losing their jobs and a reduction in clinical service provision.

May Day

On May 1, 1890, demonstrations took place around the world at the behest of the Socialist International of left-wing parties.

The main demand was for limiting the working day to eight hours.

Frederick Engels noted that in all of continental Europe "it was Vienna that celebrated the holiday of the proletariat in the most brilliant and dignified manner."

But, he added, even this dramatic revival of the Austrian trade union and socialist movement was "thrown into the shade" by the "most important and magnificent" London May Day march and rally three days later.

What had, in Engels's words, roused the English workers from almost 40 years of slumber to join the great international army?

He pointed his German readers to the previous year's dockers' strike and the founding of the Gas Workers' and General Labourers' Union, which had grown to embrace 100,000 members.

He proclaimed the unionisation of huge numbers of unskilled workers and the fact that they wanted their unions to be led by socialists.

This rise of militant, left-led "new unionism" could be contrasted with the aloofness and conservatism, both industrial and political, of the craft-based unions led by the aristocrats of labour.

No to an Elected Mayor in Bristol

In May Bristol residents will be asked to choose in a referendum whether or not they want an elected mayor. The Communist Party opposes elected mayors and in the article below Peter Latham, a member of the party's Economic Committee, outlines why.

The Tory-led coalition Government plus previous Conservative and New Labour governments - despite their rhetoric emphasising "community empowerment" and "localism" - in practice have all intervened on behalf of monopoly capitalism to restore the conditions in which profitable investment and capital accumulation can take place.

Hence the main aim of the Localism Act 2011 - which gives Eric Pickles (Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government) at least 142 powers to lay down regulations and issue guidance and should be called the Centralism Act - is to complete the privatisation of local government services started under previous Tory governments and intensified under New Labour.

There are 13 English councils (Bedford, Doncaster, Hackney, Hartlepool, Leicester, Lewisham, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Newham, North Tyneside, Torbay, Tower Hamlets and Watford) with US-style executive mayors following New Labour's Local Government Act 2000. Moreover, the mayoral system:

• with power in the hands of one person leads to cronyism, patronage and corruption;
• is the optimal internal management arrangement for privatised local government services;
• removes the working class from this layer of local democracy;
• creates an arena focused on personalities not politics;
• has not increased turnout;
• lacks voter support;
• has an undemocratic voting system;
• gives voters no right of recall.

Read the full article: http://www.southwestcommunists.org.uk/press-releases/125-no-to-elected-mayors

Tolpuddle 2012 Tickets on Sale

The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival is a unique event and hard to describe. There has been a celebaration of the Tolpuddle story every year since the 1930s and the Festival is a key date for the Labour Movement. But it is a lot more than a rally for trade unionists.

Over the weekend there will be lots of debates and discussions on a wide range of topics. Controversial subjects will be tackled. Leading speakers will inform, captivate, inspire, argue with, rant at and challenge us. Between or even instead of the politics there will be a diverse mixture of some cracking music. Many performers will reflect the exciting burst of radical new talent that is emerging. Some old favourites will be there too.

The Saturday will be the 100th anniversary of the birth of the great radical US singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie and we will remember him and mark the legacy of his music.

The enclosed Kids' Area will host a new menu of fun for children of all ages and we plan to develop ideas for teenagers.

The Sunday welcomes lots more people who come for the day and the grand procession of banners through the village. Wreaths are laid on the grave of Martyr' James Hammett.

For those fascinated by Britain's radical history please see the Radical History School to book your place. Radical History School The theme will be to discuss the changing nature of protest including the Swing Rebellion, early unions, the General Strike, grass roots power and direct action.

Festival tickets go on sale from 1st April (the Sunday Rally is free apart from parking)

http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/

The Case for Communism

A great video from the other end of the country:

Strathclyde University & Glasgow University Communist Societies presents - The Case For Communism. Marc Livingstone, Chairperson of the Communist Party in Scotland and also Communist Candidate in the General and Scottish elections, sets out the case against Capitalism first, and then goes on to speak to the benefits of Communism. Finally, the floor was open for anyone to ask questions, so a session of discussion on the points raised finishes the video.

A Budget for the Rich

Britain is still one of the world's richest societies. We can afford first-class public services, higher wages, decent pensions and welfare benefits.

But most of the wealth is owned by a small minority. The richest one-tenth own £4,000 billion in personal wealth.

The following flyer sets out measures that would make Britain a better, fairer society.

Open publication

Not the Budget Britain Needs

Robert Griffiths, general secretary of the Communist Party, on how the 2012 Budget is just another slap in the face for working people.

Chancellor George Osborne has done it again. He's used yet another Budget to attack workers, the unemployed and benefit claimants and to enrich still further big business and the super-rich.

As before this Con-Dem regime claims that its overriding priority is to close the deficit between what the state and central government spend and what they receive in taxes.

This, we are told, will give private enterprise and the "markets" the security and incentive to invest in economic growth.

Yet the government's policies of slash, burn and privatise have so far halted economic recovery dead in its tracks.

News and Views - March

VISIT CP WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | CPTV | SOLIDARITY NETWORK | CHARTER FOR WOMEN | PEOPLE'S CHARTER | MORNING STAR Book Launch The CPB's SW District secretary, Ken Keable, has compiled and edited a new book, London Recruits - The Secret War against Apartheid, which is now on sale. You can find out more, including a short video here. Palestine Solidarity Campaign On March the 22nd, three groups from the Yeovil area have come together to hold the following meeting - What is the Palestine Solidarity Campaign? | DETAILS Devon The South Devon branch have committed themselves to holding a stall every month in either Exeter or Plymouth this year. Meanwhile North Devon have played a leading role in launching a branch of Liberation. Read the report of the launch here. Morning Star The South Devon Readers and Supporters group has held it's first "Political Breakfast". Email for more details and future meetings. | DETAILS Website Update The full text of our party programme Britain's Road to Socialism is now on the District website. We are also now working on a Cornish language version of key articles. District Commitee The next meeting is on Saturday 12th May. The Committee will be discussing plans for the party's presence at the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival on 13-15 July and for promoting the Morning Star there. Facebook CP supporters group Follow on Twitter Forward to a Friend Events Visit our site for full listings Facebook CP supporters group |  follow on Twitter  |  forward to a friend  You have requested to recieve Communist News & Views or made an enquiry to the CP Copyright © 2012 Communist Party, All rights reserved.  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

Swindon - Demonstrate This Saturday!

GMB have called a demonstration in Swindon for 17th March, on the theme of “We demand Respect at work”, which will be led by the strikers from Carillion at the Great Western Hospital.

Assemble 11:30 am behind Broad Green Community Centre, Salisbury Street, Swindon, of 17th March. Rally at 1:00 pm Canal Wharf

Please bring banners

Devon NHS children's services set for privatisation

Taken from the Guardian

Core children's health services in Devon may be about to be privatised in a move that critics have warned is a foretaste of the breaking up of the NHS that, they say, will take place when the government's health and social care bill becomes law.

The Guardian has learned that NHS Devon and Devon county council have shortlisted bids led by two private, profit-making companies – Serco and Virgin Care – to provide frontline services for children across the county, including some of the most sensitive care for highly vulnerable children and families, such as child protection, treatment for mentally ill children and adolescents, therapy and respite care for those with disabilities, health visiting, and palliative nursing for dying children.

Also on the shortlist for the £130m three-year NHS contract is Devon Partnership NHS Trust, bidding along with Barnado's and other local charities. But a source close to the process, which is now in its fourth and final stage, has told the Guardian that one of the two commercial companies' bids looks likely to win the tender.

Union leader threatens public sector strikes to disrupt London Olympics

Taken from tomorrow's Guardian. Here's some of the best quotes:

Government attacks on public sector justify targeting 2012 Games, says Unite general secretary Len McCluskey

"If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity, then that's exactly one that we should be looking at," said McCluskey.

"Our very way of life is being attacked. By then this crazy health and social care bill may have been passed, so we are looking at the privatisation of our National Health Service. I believe the unions, and the general community, have got every right to be out protesting."

"Our parents and our grandparents, having defeated fascism in Europe, came back determined to build a land fit for heroes. They gave us the welfare state, the National Health Service, universal education. All of that is being attacked," he said. "I, for one, am not prepared to stand by and have my children or grandchildren say to me, what did you do when this was being taken away from us?"

Read the full article here

Rejected: EDF injunction against peaceful anti-nuclear protests

Taken from a press release

Today in the High Court of Justice, EDF Energy failed to win an injunction against a number of anti-nuclear power campaigns. The energy giant is seeking permission to build a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset but is facing major opposition at a local and national level. In a clear attempt to suppress opposition to its highly controversial plans, EDF has not only sought the eviction of individual protestors occupying farm land near to the proposed site, but also attempted to secure an injunction against four anti-nuclear groups: South West Against Nuclear, Stop Nuclear Power Network UK, Stop Hinkley and Stop New Nuclear to prevent them protesting on the land in future.

Mr Justice Floyd granted a possession order against the defendants camping on the land, but refused to grant the injunction application against the four anti-nuclear groups describing it as ‘inappropriate’. Stop New Nuclear, the campaigning network which includes CND, welcomed the judge’s verdict.

Kate Hudson, General Secretary of CND, representing Stop New Nuclear at the Court, said:
‘We regret that the protestors will be evicted and admire their principled stance, but we are delighted that Mr Justice Floyd has upheld the right of freedom of speech and protest. As governments around the world are rejecting nuclear power it would be scandalous if British people were deprived of the right to speak out and campaign against nuclear power and to change government policy. Today that right has been upheld. We invite all concerned citizens to join us at Hinkley Point on Saturday March 10th – to surround the site using public footpaths and rights of way – in a totally peaceful and legal protest against a dirty, dangerous, expensive and totally unnecessary form of energy.’

Message from the Communist Party of Greece

Recently, demonstrations have been held in many countries across the world under the "umbrella" of slogans of "solidarity with Greece" and "we are all Greeks". Working class and popular solidarity are powerful weapons in the struggle of the peoples. But the workers must deal with any attempt to mislead them.

Which Greece needs solidarity? The Greece of the capitalists, who seek to acquire new loans from the EU and the IMF in order to strengthen the profitability of their capital, to reinforce their position against the people, or the Greece of the working class and the other popular strata, who are suffering due to the consequences of the capitalist crisis, for which they bear no responsibility?

In many of these events this issue remained unclear. And this is the case because there is an effort by certain forces (mainly of social-democracy, the opportunists of the Party of the European Left and the "Greens") to use vaguely the "solidarity with the Greek people" to whitewash their support which they had provided in the past to the Maastricht Treaty, and the other Euro-treaties, to the EU of capital itself, which is reactionary and in no way can be "democratised", as they are even now claiming.

2012 Party Campaign Plan

The following text is taken from the introduction to this year's party campaign plan
COMMUNIST PARTY CAMPAIGN AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN 2012

1. The Communist Party's central objective in the current period remains that of turning the financial and economic crisis of capitalism into a political crisis for the Con-Dem government and the ruling class. In the course of this struggle, it is likely that deeper questions would be raised within the working class and progressive movements about relations between the battle for reforms, political representation of the working class and the fight for state power.
2. Our strategy is to build a broad, democratic, popular anti-monopoly alliance aimed at the big capitalist monopolies and the British state power which promotes their interests. Such an alliance would have to be firmly based on the leading role of the organised working class, developing its power and winning recognition by trade unions, campaigning organisations and local communities of the class nature of the crisis. It also demands that divisions within the working class are overcome, notably between public and private sector workers, the employed and unemployed, men and women workers, workers in the regions and nations of Britain and between those of different national or ethnic origin, while also combating false-consciousness notions of 'Middle England', the so-called 'squeezed middle' and who is or not 'middle class'. We need tactics and slogans which emphasise collective interests and the common enemy, for working class and people's unity against the Con-Dem government and monopoly capital.

Morning Star National Conference

This government is an unelected bankers’ dictatorship, alongside the other dictatorships already imposed by the EU in Greece and Italy. A broad mass movement can force it to retreat, thereby preparing the ground for its removal – and progress towards alternatives based on the People's Charter and the Alternative Economic Strategy. The labour movement - and the trade unions within it - have to meet and plan strategically if they are to win victories. How can we make the Labour Party leadership be part of the solution, not part of the problem? How can we forge a mass broad alliance?

Speakers include: Michael Meacher MP, Michelle Stanistreet (NUJ), Sally Hunt (UCU - tbc), Len McCluskey (Unite), Bob Crow (RMT); Kelvin Hopkins MP, Bill Greenshields (People’s Charter), Anita Halpin (Morning Star Management Committee); John Haylett (Morning Star political editor) Owen Jones (author of "Chavs: the demonisation of the working class"), Megan Dobney (SERTUC), Hugh Lanning (PCS), Paul Mackney (former UCU Gen Sec, Vice-Chair of the Coalition of Resistance)

Download the full flyer here

Broadening the Battlelines

This pamphlet by CP Chair and former NUT President Bill Greenshields addresses the immediate issues confronting public sector trade unions in their battle against the ConDem governments plans.

Open publication - Free publishing - More britain

North Devon: anti-imperialists campaigning together

An initiative of Chilean Socialist José Mateo and British Communist Gerrard Sables led to the founding of North Devon Liberation www.devonliberation.org the only local branch of Liberation the long time campaigning body against imperialism.

Liberation was formerly the Movement for Colonial Freedom.

On Saturday 14 January to celebrate a year of campaigning the branch held a musical event. Jorge Morales thrilled the 50 or so gathered in Barnstaple's historic Guildhall with songs from Chile. Cahit Baylav member of Liberation's national steering committee read out the message of support from Jeremy Corbyn our national president  and told us how in Turkey they had sung Chilean revolutionary songs in Turkish. He then entertained us with his violin and performed a duet with his wife Akgül. Gerrard then told of the history of Liberation in North Devon and made the collection of £236.

Breaking Boundaries is a Latin American quartet comprising Colombian singer Ludz, Chilean singer Patricia, Bolivian guitarist and vocalist Milton and Peter on guitar and vocals who had come from the Outer Hebrides for the event. they had the audience clapping and stamping in appreciation.

Dave Clinch played us out and we went for a splendid meal cooked by our good friend Belal whose excellent curry was devoured.

All in all a great afternoon's entertainment and one which has made us many new friends.

The crisis of political representation in the Labour Movement

Statement issued by the Communist Party political committee - January 26, 2012

The Communist Party rejects the analysis peddled by the banks, hedge funds and Con-Dem government that past levels of public expenditure were the main cause of the economic and financial crisis.

We reject, too, the remedy dictated by City of London financial institutions and the EU Commission and European Central Bank, notably that massive public spending cuts and a savage attack on the wages and pensions of public sector workers are necessary in order to reduce the public sector financial deficit.

The policy of the Labour Party leadership to align itself with this analysis and these remedies is a betrayal of the millions of workers and their families who should be able to look to Labour for support and solidarity. In particular, recent statements by Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and Liam Byrne in support of deep cuts in public sector wages and pension entitlements, and in welfare benefits, represent a shameful capitulation to the banks, the Con-Dem regime and the right-wing mass media.

Local CP artist to exhibit alongside Cuban contemporary art

Beyond the Frame presents fresh and diverse work by 29 of Cuba's leading artists, never before seen in Britain, in support of the campaign for justice for the Miami Five.

From the political to the poetic, the visionary to the everyday, the show embraces the vitality of the island's contemporary art scene, together with original works by other internationally acclaimed artists plus artworks by two of the Miami Five.

It includes painting, drawing, mixed media, prints and photographic work, all available for sale. All proceeds will go the on UK campaigning for Freedom for the Five.

Up to 20 artists mainly based in the UK but also from Ireland and the US have also generously decided to exhibit alongside the Cuban artists with donated artwork of their own. The Chair of the Exeter and South Devon Branch will be among them.

For full details visit http://www.cubabeyondtheframe.com/Site/Home.html

20p for Peace & Socialism

We start the new year as we ended the last, with the Conservatives cheerfully leading a fresh assault on working-class people, whether it be those with a disability or children whose household claims benefits.

The onslaught on pensions, public and private, continues.

The massive handover of the state and its workforces from democratic control to the private sector goes on relentlessly.

Wage cuts, long-term unemployment, particularly among our youth, who should be looking forward to their life ahead with excited anticipation but instead face destitution and despair, are the defining features of our age.

And all the while we know that worse is yet to come.

We lived better under socialism

Over the seven decades of its existence, and despite having to spend so much time preparing, fighting, and recovering from wars, Soviet socialism managed to create one of the great achievements of human history: a mass industrial society that eliminated most of the inequalities of wealth, income, education and opportunity that plagued what preceded it, what came after it, and what competed with it; a society in which health care and education through university were free (and university students received living stipends); where rent, utilities and public transportation were subsidized, along with books, periodicals and cultural events; where inflation was eliminated, pensions were generous, and child care was subsidized.

Read the full article on 21stCenturymanifesto

The Countdown to Gulf War III

As tensions heighten in Persia, the threat of a Western attack upon Iran inches ever closer. Jane Green considers the background to the situation

Taken from the Morning Star

With 10 days of Iranian naval exercises having just been completed, including the testing of long-range ballistic missiles, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi - naval commander for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) - has announced further activities next month.

Fadavi has said that the drill in February will be "different compared to previous exercises held by the IRGC."

The exercises - coupled with the warning that Iran could close the strait of Hormuz, the narrowest point in the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of the world's traded oil passes - has now encouraged the US and Israel to announce that they are to carry out extensive joint manoeuvres in the region.

The US and Britain have said they will act to keep the shipping lanes open.

Swindon tenants claim vote victory

Council housing campaigners scored a victory in Swindon today when thousands of the local authority's tenants voted overwhelmingly against plans to transfer of their homes to private providers.

In a ballot of more than 10,000 Swindon council tenants, nearly 73 per cent voted against the plans despite the city authority's best efforts to persuade them otherwise.

"The Swindon tenants' Vote No campaign was a grass-roots affair," said Paul Burnham of Defend Council Housing, which helped run the campaign.

"The council spent in excess of £600,000 on the transfer consultation, while the Vote No campaign spent less than £6,000 - but still the tenants delivered a No vote."

DECLARATION OF 19 EUROPEAN COMMUNIST YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS 20 YEARS AFTER THE COUNTERREVOLUTION

Our future is the new world, Communism

The Communist Youth Organizations that sign the following announcement call upon the youth of Europe, and of the whole world, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the dissolution of the USSR and the overthrow of socialism.

This anniversary, from the scope of the bourgeois governments and parties, from the scope of the forces of capital, is a chance to slander socialism and its contribution, to project the capitalist “eternity” and “welfare”. These are the ones that with their applied politics have taken back all the youth’s rights; they have made dozens of imperialist wars and are planning even more; they have condemned us in poverty and unemployment; they penalize communist ideology.

From our scope, the scope of the workers, of the peoples and the youth of the world, this anniversary is a chance to remember and highlight the achievements of socialism, its contribution to humanity; a chance to draw significant conclusions of the defeat in the years 1989-1991.

We address to the young people, to learn and know the truth about socialism; To tell them that our future is the new world, Socialism-Communism.

COMMUNIST CALL: "Advance in unity not retreat in disarray"

ROBERT GRIFFITHS considers the labour movement's prospects in 2012  and calls for the line to be held on pensions.

Where stands Britain's labour movement at the beginning of 2012?

In the course of last year, millions of trade unionists in the public sector have demonstrated their willingness to resist the Con-Dem government's attack on their pension schemes.

They are angry about much else besides. They see the value of their wages being cut, while the public services they struggle to deliver are being slashed to the bone.

Like millions of other workers and their families, they see the real cost of living rising faster than the bogus picture painted by the official figures.

Housing and disability benefits are being chopped and a million young people are among the three million – and rising – who are out of work. Yet we are not even one-quarter of the way through the austerity cuts demanded by the finance monopolists in the City of London. Up to 700,000 more jobs are to be scrapped in the public sector, putting hundreds of thousands of workers out of work in the private sector which depends on public sector wages and contracts.

Bledhen Nowyth Da!

Taken from the Morning Star

This Happy New Year in Cornish - or Kernewek - heralds a revival of the campaign to make Cornwall a separate nation.

In what could be a major Celtic resurgence Welsh nationalists gave their backing yesterday to calls from the south-west peninsular for autonomy.

Cornish nationalist party Mebyon Kernow is demanding an elected assembly and ultimately devolved powers from Westminster similar to those enjoyed by Scotland.

Its campaign comes a decade after 50,000 people - 10 per cent of the population of Cornwall - signed a petition supporting its aims.

And in a show of pan-Celtic unity Plaid Cymru has given the initiative its backing.

Carmarthen East and Dinefwr MP Jonathan Edwards has launched an early day motion calling "for the formation of a democratically elected Cornish Assembly to take decisions for the benefit of the people of Cornwall."

So far it has been signed by 10 MPs from his party, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, including Cornish Lib Dem MPs Andrew George (St Ives), Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay) and Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall).

Dick Cole, Mebyon Kernow leader, said: "We are campaigning for devolution within the UK and for powers similar to those of the Scottish Parliament."

The nationalists argue that Cornwall has never politically officially been a county of England but is a separate country which after the Romans left Britain 1600 years ago, was independently ruled.

Cornwall's language has been undergoing a revival with dual-language road signs and, in January 2010, the opening of a creche teaching young children the language.

The Cornish language is closely related to Welsh and Breton and a little more distantly to Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic.

The Communist Party also recognises the special position of Cornwall in relation to the rest of England. Our party's programme, Britain's Road to Socialism, notes that:

“The distinctive cultural and social characteristics of Cornwall should be expressed through a directly elected Cornish Assembly, with powers that match local aspirations” and that:

“The national movements in Scotland, Wales and Cornwall also contain substantial progressive and left-wing elements that oppose reactionary policies of monopoly capital and the British state”.