Greetings!

Hi comrades

I'm Vincent and I'm the Youth and Young Communist League Liaison Officer for the South-West, elected at last year's district congress. I want to try and revive this page, so hopefully there'll be more posting on here from yours truly. You can email me at vincent@southwestcommunist.org.uk or message me on facebook. I've also recently set up a South-West Young Communist League facebook page, which all YCL comrades are free to join.

Just a reminder to all comrades that both the CPB & the YCL, have got quite a lot happening this summer and very soon, some of which is within our district. If you can, do try and get yourselves along to any of these events. Sadly due to other commitments, I won't be able to make most of these events myself, except for the summer camp. That I will definitely be there for and I look forward to seeing other young comrades there too.

Pilton Green Man Festival (19/07/14): Following it's revival in 1982, the Green Man Festival has become a regular event on the calendar in North Devon, celebrating this ancient symbol of nature and fertility. Our comrades in the North Devon branch are regular attendees of this festival, with a very impressive party stall. Volunteers are welcome, please contract the North Devon branch on their facebook page. More information about the Pilton Green Man festival can be found on the festival website page.

Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival (18/07/14 - 20/07/14): The annual festival in Dorset celebrating the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Comrades of the labour movement from all over Britain descend onto Tolpuddle for this celebration of an important and remarkable chapter in working-class history. You'll find many of our comrades busy handing out copies of the Morning Star. Any volunteers will be greatly appreciated. Contact your local party branch for transportation information. More information about Tolpuddle, including the Tolpuddle Martyrs Museum can be found on this website page.

21st Century Marxism 2014 (26/07/14 - 27/07/14): The Communist Party of Britain will be hosting yet again, 21st Century Marxism 2014. It's a weekend festival of discussion, debate, culture, music and food in London and all comrades of the labour movement are welcome. For more information on the event and how to registered for attendance click on this link and check out the leaflet in this link.

Young Communist League Summer Camp 2014 (29/07/14 - 31/07/14): Taking place in Edale, the Young Communist League will be gathering together for a weekend of discussion, education and fun. This is a great opportunity for comrades to meet other YCL members from across Britain. To register for this event click on this link. But hurry, there aren't many places left! Also, if any YCL members in the south-west need any help at all attending this event, then please don't hesitate to contact me.

Also, don't forget to check out the South-West Communist Party of Britain website page for more news and events of what's going on in the area.That's all for now comrades, hope to catch you at the summer camp and wishing you all the best for the summer.

In solidarity,
Vincent

Cornwall Public Meeting - EU Exit Left

This April, the Cornwall branch of the Communist Party will be holding an open meeting on the No2EU campaign, in Truro. The main speaker, CPB general secretary Rob Griffiths will present the Socialist argument for withdrawal from the European Union. 

With unemployment in the Eurozone at a record high, and EU enforced Austerity causing huge problems for workers across the continent, it is time for a Socialist discussion on leaving the union.

The discussion will touch on problems facing young people in Europe, such as the high levels of youth unemployment, and YCL representatives will be attending. All young workers and students interested in socialist politics will be very welcome.

The meeting will take place on Saturday 12th April, at 2pm, at the GWR Staff Assoc. Club at Truro train station, TR1 3HH. The venue is simple to find; on leaving Truro train station, turn left, cross the forecourt and the Staff club is on a small rise ahead of you.

You are now leaving Working England, Welcome to Middle England: The socio-economic underachievement of Neo-Liberalism

Since the economic reform of the 1980s politicians like Blair, Thatcher and Prescott absolutely believe that the working class no longer exist and the majority of UK citizens are now middle class (Jones, 2011). This is most probably because they are afraid of the potential working class solidarity and the action it can generate as seen in the events of the Cuban revolution, the UK miners’ strike, the UK general strikes etc. In 2011 ‘Britain Thinks’ conducted research into class identification and results showed that around 71% of people claimed membership of the middle class (Shimshon and Mattinson, 2011). Great news! However the study barley holds any representation and generalisability for the UK population; the online poll used 2,000 participants which is the grand total of 0.003% of the overall residents living Britain, furthermore the study focused on areas of Leeds, London and Birmingham which means that it is difficult to generalise for other parts of the UK, especially when the rural South West and industrial North West aren’t taken into account.

However when party rhetoric falls short the media steps in with discrimination, alienation and mockery of working class communities; most famously the invention of folk devils such as ‘Vicky Pollard’ and’ Wayne and Waynetta Slob’ who are described and presented as feckless, drug using, lazy, benefit scrounging, lacking in self control and aggressive. These stereotypes help re-enforce unfair and fictitious views of the lower class in UK society which helps promote not only a hate and distrust towards them by the general population, but also leaving distrust among the working class themselves (Jones, 2011; Adams and Raisborough, 2011). Depictions of working class people using recreational drugs in TV shows like Shameless is the result of the increase in drug users, 40,000 extra, in the 1980’s under Thatcher, perhaps they forgot to mention it may be due to the ‘firing squad’ that the Tories led through their tearing up of public-sector jobs.

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.