The Smart City Commission – smart for business but not so smart for citizens

‘Improved services, supporting the growth potential of businesses and laying firm foundations for Birmingham to be more innovative, vibrant and entrepreneurial are the key aims of the Smart City Commission’ launched on 26 July by Cabinet Member  Councillor James McKay.

 

The council wants economic growth and business wants a cutting edge information technology environment, so it is not surprising that big business is strongly represented on the 17 member Smart City Commission. (See the list below.)

 

Why no representatives of citizens and communities?

 

All out on November 30th- Put the boot into this government

The vote by UNISON, Britain’s biggest union, to take strike action on November 30 in defence of pension rights, with 245,358 in favour and 70,253 against, put the strike on course to be the most important such action for a generation. It is now by far the most significant initiative in the fight against the coalition cuts. It means that the around three million workers will be taking action on that day.

The strike is the product of several key actions taken over the past year which have pushed the movement forward. The first was the student revolt a year ago which electrified the struggle and exposed the lethargy of the trade union movement, which, despite conference speeches had still to take any form of action.

Then in March half a million turned out for the TUC London demonstration, making it far bigger and more militant than the organisers had anticipated. Around the same time UK Uncut emerged as an important and innovative direct action group.

This was followed In June by the highly successful strike by the teaching and civil service unions. This brought large numbers of young teachers and civil servants into strike action and onto the streets for the first time making it a game changer for the unions. The strike was a tribute to those in the teaching and civil service unions – not least Mark Serwotka of the PCS and left-wingers on the NUT Executive, who fought long and hard to deliver the action and make it a big success.

Now we have the November 30 strike which is a big step forward over previous actions.  Most of the teaching and civil service unions already have live ballot results which allow them to take action on November 30. These include: the PCS, the NUT, the UCU, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the Welsh teachers union the UCAC. The EIS Scottish teachers union has already voted in favour.

Those currently balloting for strike action with results out shortly are: Unite, the GMB, the NASUWT teaching union, the NAHT head teachers’ union, the FDA civil service union, Prospect, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, and NIPSA the Northern Ireland civil service union. Most if not all of these unions are expected to vote for strike action. Such united action has not been seen in Britain for a very long time.

Nor are the strikes just in defence of pensions – important as that issue is. It is widely seen as a strike against the whole of the coalition’s cuts agenda. People feel that it has been organised in this way to avoid the draconian anti-union laws which outlaw solidarity action.

The decision of the Government to offer some marginal concessions – a slightly better accrual rate and some protection for workers close to retirement – was an attempt to split the strike. The unions, to their credit, rejected them and decided that the strike would go ahead. It was also a sign of weakness. It was not a part of the plan. The plan was to face the unions down hard line and enforce their full terms. The offer was a clear sign that the coalition is losing confidence in its ability to see the struggle though.

The reasons for this are not difficult to see. They are shocked that they are facing a strike of three million workers at this stage and they are faced with the spectacular failure of their economic perspective, which, by whatever measure used, is falling apart in front of their eyes. They are facing the slide towards a double-dip recession no chance of the reversing it in time for the next election – which was the plan behind the coalition agreement. If they did not face a weak and compromised opposition, and did not have the media wholeheartedly on their side in the debate over the debt and the cuts, they would have been lucky to survive until now.

The coalition’s problems are compounded by the economic and political tsunami taking place in the Euro Zone, which threatens to overshadow and derail anything the coalition might do in Britain. This is exemplified by the catastrophe facing Greece, the contagion overtaking Italy, the imminent break-up of the Euro Zone, and the paralysis of the G20.

The crisis in the European Union has also triggered a remarkable revolt of Tory Eurosceptics, who are taking the chance to vent their nationalistic and xenophobic spleen. In fact Cameron is facing a bigger and more vociferous revolt than that faced by John Major in the 90s – the ones he called ‘the bastards’.

All this underlines the extent to which Cameron has swung the Tory party back to the days of Thatcherism and the rabid rightwing nature of recent Tory MP intakes. It is also politically divisive within the coalition with the hapless ultra-pro-EU Lib Dems caught in the middle of this mayhem disingenuously defending a coalition which continues to use them as convenient shields for Tory policies.

The lesson from all this for the trade unions and the anti-cuts movement is clear. This is exactly the time to pile on the pressure and build the fight back to its full potential. It is the time not only to maximise opposition to the cuts but is a real opportunity to put the trade unions back centre stage where they have not been for a very long time. The education unions were boosted by the strike in June. This strike can do the same right across the public sector.

The unions, therefore, have two important tasks for November 30. The first is to make the strike as solid and effective as possible. The second is the call for and encourage the widest possible solidarity action with it. This means calling on the whole of the labour movement and the anti-cuts movement to back the strike in any and every way possible. This means trade union demonstrations, student demonstrations, occupations, and protests of every kind in towns and cities right across the country.

An important new factor in this is the inspirational Occupy Movement with its highly successful tented presence at St Pauls in London and in other parts of the country. It brings to the struggle the spirit of Tahrir Square, the powerful example of the Arab Spring, and the image of mass popular movements bringing down brutal dictatorships which had been there for years – practical demonstrations of how such power can be successfully challenged.

But a big success on November 30, however, is still only a stage in the struggle, if a very important one. It is crucial that the dynamic and momentum of the strike is continued and the pressure maintained. This mean not only consolidating the gains of this action but preparing for the next. This is the best opportunity get to strike a serious blow against this government and it is important that the movement takes full advantage of it.

Education without jobs? Youth unemployment in Birmingham

Education without jobs? is a new pamphlet by Richard Hatcher, published by Birmingham Socialist Resistance. With a wealth of detail, it looks at unemployment trends and patterns locally and nationally, analyses both Coalition and previously, Labour policies and presents suggestions for an action plan for the labour and trade union movement to propose as an alternative.

You can read / download it here or get a printed copy from your friendly neighbourhood SR supporter for just 50p

So, how do we stop the cuts?

 Bob Whitehead poses a few questions for the movement…

Firstly, it helps to say that you are actually against them. And that immediately casts doubt that the Labour leadership, nationally and locally, could be part of the solution. Their “too deep too fast” attitude towards the ConDem cuts gives most of the ground away in advance. If they had been re-elected in 2010, they would have carried out a similar onslaught on the welfare state, but presumably, not-so-deep and not-so fast. “In his last budget before leaving the Treasury, Alistair Darling said a Labour government would halve the deficit by 2014, which would have meant cuts of 20% to those spending areas not protected – policing, schools and hospitals” (The Guardian 12/7/10). It is easy for Ed Balls in opposition to say that the target was too stringent, but we have to go on what they said before the election on the presumption of victory.

Youth Unemployment and Birmingham

UPDATE: 26th August

On 25 August, the day after this article appeared, Labour’s shadow business secretary John Denham proposed that any company wanting to win public sector contracts should have to prove it offered apprenticeships to out-of-work young people. The government “could take immediate action by supporting the creation of thousands of apprenticeships in companies that provide services to government including construction projects.”

 It’s a step in the right direction – pity Labour didn’t take it when it was in government. But it will be a dead end unless apprenticeships are guaranteed to lead to a proper job.

 In the meantime, as we have said, Labour councils could implement apprenticeship-compliant contracts today. Why doesn’t Denham demand that they do so?

Richard Hatcher has prepared this paper for Birmingham Against the Cuts

The causes of the riots are multiple and complex, but one major factor is the high level of youth unemployment. And while this is exacerbated by the recession, its underlying cause is structural, not just cyclical. There is a permanent change in the structure of the labour market which is drastically reducing the demand by employers for youth labour.

Coalition of Resistance conference report- 9th July 2011

By Bob Whitehead
The second national conference of the Coalition of Resistance was held last Saturday in London. The total attendance of three hundred was made up of 80% delegates and 20% visitors. There was a very good turnout of about ten travelling down from the Birmingham area; mainly people who have been active around “Birmingham against the Cuts”. The Green Left was also in evidence, and jointly proposed the resolution on climate change with Socialist Resistance.
As it was a delegate conference, it took on a different character than the much larger founding conference/rally that was held last year. It heard a wide range of inspirational speakers, such as John McDonnell MP, Wendy Savage (Keep our NHS public), Zita Holbourne (BARAC), Ben Hassa Mokhtar from Tunisia, Ted Knight, Mehdi Hasan (New Statesman), Dot Gibson (National Pensioners Convention), Alex Kenny (NUT), Barnaby Raine (School students against the cuts), Katy Clark MP, Paul Brandon (Right to Work) and Joe Malone (FBU). Other speakers introduced the discussions at the five workshops. Apologies were given from Tony Benn, who was at the Durham miners’ gala, Mark Serwotka, who was taking a breather from weeks of rubbishing Tory media spokesmen on pension cuts and from Caroline Lucas MP. A huge round of applause was given for the late Alf Filer, who made an inspirational fundraising speech at the initial conference last year, but who tragically died a short time ago.
Although the speakers were all good to listen to, it may, as so often happens, have been overdone. It was a democratic conference, where resolutions were tabled on request and debated fairly, but a bit more time could have been allowed to argue out some of the differences.
Yet this is not to carp too much. It was a good day; inspiring, informative, well worth travelling down for and a day that established the Coalition of Resistance as an on-going campaigning body. Fifteen resolutions were submitted, debated and voted upon and a new National Council of 50 was elected. Not bad when you consider the time given to speakers, workshops, breaks, and registration.
One of the burning issues of the movement is the need for unity against the ConDems. There are five national anti-cuts bodies in existence at present. How can this be justified? Talks are on-going with the People’s Charter and others about increasing coordination, yet a grand fusion does not seem on the agenda. A resolution calling for a unifying conference before the end of this year was defeated as premature. So, in a spirit of cooperation, time was given to the Right to Work speaker to explain why they were ploughing their lonely furrow. The explanation was unconvincing. Differences of emphasis were mentioned, but nothing that could not be contained within one campaigning body. Who benefits from this division on the left?
There was a division within the conference on whether to call for a General strike as the next step of escalation after the big successes of March 26th and June 30th. Two resolutions on this, from the SWP and Workers Power, were heavily defeated. It was felt that coordinated action across the public sector was within reach, but no more at this stage. We face the block on unity and breakthrough from the Labour Party dominated UNISON, UNITE and GMB.
The main resolution from the Steering Committee re-committed the COR to ‘opposing all cuts and privatisation of public services, the welfare state and the NHS’. This serves as a correct and welcome riposte to the “too deep – too fast”, pro-cuts position of the Labour Party. No one is against working with disaffected LP members where we can, but we must be clear what we stand for, otherwise how do you try and convince others?
The main resolution stressed that the ConDems had no democratic mandate for their attacks and this was forcefully echoed by Mehdi Hasan of the New Statesman. It also agreed to support; a second national demonstration against the cuts, a lobby and fringe meeting at the TUC, the national demonstrations at the Tory and Lib Dem conferences, the European Conference against Austerity and Privatisation on the 1st October (initiated by COR), the 8th October mass assembly in Trafalgar Square organised by Stop the War under the slogan “Welfare not Warfare” and to work with the People’s Charter to build a festival of resistance in the summer of 2012.
Other resolutions were passed on; how to work with the Trades Unions, against the Afghan war, how to elect the National Council (50 from conference + one delegate from each local and national anti-cuts affiliated organisation), supporting the campaign for one million climate jobs, opposition to nuclear power, for a youth specific COR conference, supporting the Bombardier demonstration in Derby on July 23rd and supporting a summit on the corporate media this summer. A resolution to base the COR purely on the local and regional network of anti-cuts groups was defeated.
The workshops were on; Crisis in the Eurozone, Unions and the Anti-cuts Movement, Fighting Privatisation, The Hardest Hit and Greening the Economy. The one on the Eurozone heard James Meadway from Counterfire claim that we are in an existential crisis of the Eurozone; it was all starting to fall apart, but we should respond with an internationalist, not a nationalist programme.
Some other points that were highlighted by the speakers included; September 2008 should be our constant reference point in a similar way that 9/11 has been theirs, the existence of a “Fair Pension for All” petition, the government had lost the argument over the affordability of public pensions, we were fighting to retain what our parents established, we should give full solidarity to all those sentenced over the last period for protesting and, in a concluding speech from John McDonell that brought many delegates to their feet, we should also aim to “destroy the system”.

Public good, private bad!

by Bob Whitehead
In the 1980’s, Nicholas Ridley MP set out the Thatcherite vision for local Council services; a council should meet once a year to award all the council service contracts to private firms. Here was the clarion call for the attacks on council services that we have been experiencing ever since; cuts, attacks on the work force and privatization. We are still on that road and the ConDem government seems intent on speeding up in that direction.

No to an elected Mayor for Birmingham!

by Richard Hatcher

Birmingham 2013: The Conservative Elected Mayor
Labour took control of the council in 2012. But the mayor is Tory Mike Whitby, elected in 2013 after the referendum in May 2012 voted for elected mayors, as proposed by the Coalition government. Whitby had been acting as ‘shadow’ elected mayor – he was actually imposed by the government – since 2011. He has just announced that he will also be taking over the job of chief executive of the authority, replacing Stephen Hughes. He has also announced his Cabinet.

From public services to market services

Richard Hatcher looks at the forthcoming government white paper.
In the next few weeks the government is publishing a new White Paper on public services. In February David Cameron wrote an article in the Sunday Telegraph signalling its purpose.

Health Emergency!

Superb video on the NHS featuring John Lister…

Wake Up Call Episode 1 “No decision About Me Without Me” from Health Emergency on Vimeo.