News from Leicester

October 2004 News - Updated 8/3/2004

On this page:

Special schools in Leicester threatened by closure

Cuts to Highfields Community Centre

Freshers' Fair reports

PCS strike report

European Social Forum: London 14th - 16th October

Other news:

Liberal Tory council push through cuts

Murdered by profit

Don't privatise education

Leicester Education Authority has put in a bid for £210m to improve school facilities in the city. However, this is to be funded in partnership with the private sector.

Already, proposals for a City Academy on the former site of Mary Linwood School are in place. A city academy is an independently run, state-funded school. They are run by a private trust, but receive their running costs direct from the government. They can select up to 10 per cent of students by ability - in line with other schools which have a specialism. Academies can also set their own pay and conditions for teachers. All academies are located in disadvantaged areas and are expected to be available for the wider community to use.

The council's proposal has left many people wondering who will provide the private funding and what implications this will have for the children of Leicester and the standard of education they will receive. As part of the Labour Government's new privatisation policy 10% of the funding required to establish a new school comes from the private sector. Even though the remaining 90%, along with the running costs, is fronted by the taxpayer, the private backer is considered the owner and is handed control of the whole school. With "City Academies" being exempt from the National Curriculum, this gives the owner free reign over what children can be taught.

The Socialist Party fights for equal opportunities for all children, whatever their background. We would like to see publicly-funded, local schools, which serve the needs of the community, not the whims of businessmen. Oppose privatisation. Help build an education system where people are free to make the most of their talents, with high quality, centrally funded, local schools.

The council also plan to close six special schools in Leicester. The Socialist Party have helped in the campaign run by parents and teachers to keep their schools open. Children with learning difficulties need small class sizes and experienced teachers. Under the council's plans, many will be hived off into specialist units attached to mainstream schools. They will be put at increased risk of bullying and suffer massive disruption to their education. Like the proposals for the City Academy, this is to be funded in partnership with private interests.

To help with the campaign, go to the Save Our Schools website.

Marching against cuts to services in Highfields

Highfields Youth and Cultural Centre (HYCC)has been providing an excellent service to the local community since 1973. Users of the facility successfully raised millions of pounds to renovate and extend the building. However, Leicester City Council are threatening to sack personnel and take over the running of HYCC.

Their plans are being pushed through without any consultation of the residents of Highfields. Why should the people who have ran the centre successfully for so long be replaced with a team who are not representative of the culturally diverse society that is Highfields?

Well over a hundred service users and staff marched around Highfields to protest at the council's plans. Placards read 'No more Blackmore, no more Back-door Deals!', reflecting people's anger at the undemocratic way they have been treated.

The Socialist Party is in favour of local services which meet the needs of their communities. If there is not enough money to fund services, we need to raise awareness of the issues and campaign for more money from central government. If the government can afford to fight a war in Iraq, then it can afford to fund decent public services.

Students sign up for socialism

The Socialist Party held successful Freshers' Fair stalls at Leicester, De Montfort, Loughborough and Northampton universities. We received a tremendous response, selling over 30 copies of the socialist in Leicester University alone.

This is not surprising, as students are tired of having to accept low paid jobs in order to make ends meet and to finance student loans. Education is a right not a privilege!

We would scrap the system of tuiton fees, which encourage the idea that a university education is only for the privileged. We need to ensure that students do not drop out of university, simply because they cannot afford to complete their course.

More info on ISR national site

Throughout Leicester, there was massive support for the PCS strike on November 5^th. Socialist Party members covered six of the benefit agencies and job centres which were offering only a very limited phone service due to the industrial action. At the pensions centre, an estimated 20 out of 300 staff were present. This action will highlight the fact that civil servants perform an important role in delivering frontline services to millions of needy people across Britain. It was followed by a rally attended by around 100 people from the picket lines.

Paul Vizard, Leicestershire Pensions branch chair said at the rally, 'For too many years we have had separate unions, but we need to stand up collectively for our rights. Today the PCS has really come of age.'

Ernie Hallett from a pensioners' rights group, the British Pensioners' and Trade Union Action Association (BPTUAA) spoke about how the PCS's fight was necessary, and how it should forge links with the fight for a decent pension, evidenced by the 10,000 strong TUC rally earlier this year. Only direct action, he said, can upset the establishment.

In 1979, the basic state pension was 24% of average earnings. Now, after decades of Thatcher's and Blair's cuts and "efficiency savings", it is only 14%. Now they are saying we will need to work even longer to receive a state pension. [This reminds me of the situation in Animal Farm, where Boxer the carthorse was promised a field of clover to retire in, but was instead sold off to the knacker's yard when he could no longer work. - ed.]

Civil servants deliver the pensions - even if it is a derisory £79.60 a week - which pensioners rely on. Cuts to their services will have a devastating knock-on effect in the delivery of vital public services.

Government 'efficiencies' = cuts

Paul Henderson from the Leicester Trades Council agreed with Ernie, speaking about the need to bring together struggles in the public sector, under a single banner, such as the fight for pensions. If the very services that trade unionists provided were being put at risk by government policies, in the NHS, in schools and in universities, then trade unions should campaign not just to protect members' pay and conditions, but also to defend essential public services.

To do this, it is necessary to challenge management's agenda of privatisation and cost-cutting. Profits were being put before the public sector's responsibility to provide decent public services. In education, teachers are being forced to teach to SATs exams, rather than deliver a broad curriculum. Our universities are increasingly serving the needs of big business rather than the students, who have to rack up massive debts to get through their course. In the postal services, branches are closing around the country. The same cuts and privatisations are being made in the NHS, the fire service and across the public sector. The government calls this "efficiency", in actuality it is a destruction of the human face of services.

This brings us into conflict with the traditional, cosy relations between the Labour Party and the trades union movement. It is time unions worked together to fight the cutbacks. Itis only by concerted action that the government will listen.

Tony Church, a Socialist Party member, compared the situation in Britain with that in the US, where the big parties are all indistinguishable from each other. Labour, the Tories and the Lib-Dems are all competing to make the most "efficiencies" in the public sector. This is not surprising, as their paymasters are big business, and like a faithful servant, their priority is to serve those who fund them, not the masses of ordinary people who elected them into office.

The civil service is seen as an easy target, but the work behind the scenes is no less vital than those who deliver public services at the point of need. An example of the effect of the job losses felt at the Department of Work and Pensions, is that benefits from Leicester will now be processed in Chesterfield, requiring a lengthy, bureaucratic process to find out claimant's details. Equally, cuts in the judicial system, will mean that the court system will slow down. For all Blunkett's preaching about being "tough on crime", cuts here will enable criminals to break the law with impunity. These are the sort of efficiency savings which are being made.

This action is not just about jobs. We are also attacking an unfair quota system of appraisal, where 5% of the workforce must be deemed to be performing poorly. It is only through the industrial action of workers in the DWP that an improved offer has been brought to the table.

Which way forward for the unions?

Through its fighting, democratic leadership, the PCS is showing the way forward. It has seen a tremendous growth in membership as a result of its struggle. Martin Page, Leicester Inland Revenue Branch Secretary, said, 'The strike had been a resounding success. Sixty-one new mwmbers had joined the PCS in Leicester in the past three weeks, and 51 pickets were outside council offices on the day of the strike.' We need to follow this up by approaching other unions and organise co-ordinated industrial action. Blair is picking on the civil service, as Margaret Thatcher picked on the NUM 1984. We need to build on the support shown by twelve general secretaries of trades unions and build action across the entire public sector.

The main political parties no longer represent the interests of ordinary people. At the end of the nineteenth century, the trade union movement founded the Labour Party. We urgently need to set about forming a new mass workers' party, which will stand up for our interests. This will not be easy. At the end of the nineteenth century, the process of forming the Labour Party would not have been easy either. Unless this is done, however, we will be continually embattled in similar struggles.

A Socialist World Is Possible

The European Social Forum

Sergei from Russia explained that even though the former USSR was not genuine socialism, the planned economy at least delivered a decent level of income, free education and healthcare and subsidised housing and transport. The restoration of capitalism has not brought in a truly democratic society, only privatisation and economic catastrophe.

Kristina from the Greek Social Forum talked about how young people and workers had been radicalised by the anti-war movement. However, to stop the war, strikes would have been necessary internationally.

Hannah Sell (Socialist Party National Executive) gave an inspiring speech, saying that a socialist world is 'necessary and urgent'. We support the Tobin Tax, a proposed tax on currency transactions, which would provide millions of dollars to alleviate poverty in the developing world. Unfortunately, under capitalism, the bosses would prevent its implementation.

The working class has the power to change society. Only by taking the commanding heights of the economy into public ownership could we plan the economy to benefit everybody, not merely a wealthy few.

Joe Higgins (Socialist Party MP in Ireland) talked about the threatened privatisation of Aer Lingus, and how he challenged Kofi Annan: 'All five permanent Security council members, and many others . . . [are] wasting billions of resources, which, if redirected, could provide for example, clean water, disease relief, clothes and shelter.'

Finally, Peter Taaffe (Socialist Party General Secretary)summed up, saying that we were the only party at the ESF putting across an alternative to capitalism and showing how it could be implemented. The working class need to unite on a European-wide basis to fight attacks on jobs and conditions. Socialism is not an option - we face socialism or nothing.

Edited from an article in the socialist 23rd October 2004, by Jim Horton.

Earlier stories:

Liberal Cuts in Leicester

Socialist vote in Braunstone, May 2003

Anti-war protests

Massive schools strike in Leicester against the war

For more info on what we've been up to in the past read our archive page