Solidarity 210, 29 June 2011

“There is total class warfare going on in Egypt right now,” Joshua Stacher of Kent State University told Time magazine. “If [middle-class] people in Cairo and Alexandria get some of their demands met, they could[n’t] care less about minimum wage, or the fact that the healthcare system is complete crap. [They think] ‘You shouldn’t have a minimum wage right now, you’re being greedy.’” (“Has the Revolution left Egypt’s workers behind?” Time , 23 June). The biggest public debate in Egypt is whether parliamentary elections, scheduled for September, should be postponed. Much liberal and leftist...

In their submission to the Labour Party’s review of structure (24 June), the affiliated trade unions have proposed: * “To remove the ‘contemporary’ criteria”, so that Constituency Labour Parties (CLPs) can put motions to Labour Party conference without having to prove that they are “contemporary” (i.e. based on events in August) and running a large risk of almost any motion being ruled out of order. * “To enforce the original proposal for 4 + 4”, that is to allow CLPs to put four issues on Labour Party conference agenda. (At present, if the CLPs choose an issue which is also chosen by the...

“Ministers are threatening to end the practice of part-time and full-time union officials working in Whitehall departments and quangos”, reports the Financial Times (27 June). The threatened attack is on “facility time”, the arrangement by which employers release union reps from part or all of their regular work to do union duties. The purpose is to weaken unions. The basis of “facility time” is the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992, which mandates employers to allow union reps time off for such things as representing members on individual grievances. In larger public sector workplaces...

Belfast saw its worst Loyalist-originated rioting in several years on Monday-Wednesday 20-22 June. Three people suffered gunshot wounds and houses on both sides of the east Belfast community — on the interface between (Protestant) lower Newtownards Road and (Catholic) Short Strand — were damaged by petrol bombs, stones and other missiles. What lies behind the violence? The lower Newtownards Road, a main arterial route through east Belfast, lies in the shadow of Harland and Wolff’s famous twin cranes, Samson and Goliath. With de-industrialisation, the shipyards employ only a fraction of their...

Who loses, who gains? Almost all workers and pensioners lose. Employers and the Government gain. The Government plans to save £2.8 billion a year immediately by levying bigger pension contributions from public sector workers from April 2012. Already the Government has changed inflation-uprating for pensions from one price index, RPI, to another, CPI, which on average is about 0.8% lower each year. That's an accumulated cut of 15% in your pension after 20 years of retirement. Or if, say, you work as a teacher for 20 years, then do other work for another 20 years, then the value of the pension...