10 Things I'd Like to...Nationalise

I just love to nationalise stuff. 


1) The Railways. 

We pay more for trains than anywhere else in Europe. We've spent £11bn so far on privatisation and we're still subsidising the fare-raising, profit-grabbing, good-fer-nuffins. 

. 

The Hogwart's Express was not run by Virgin. 

2)  Your Nan.

No, not actually your Nan, just care homes. You think they're nice businesses, looking after old folks but actually they're leaching money out of the NHS, local councils and any person than needs care who's not absolutely on the bread-line. 

Let's nationalise the industry and provide everyone with decent care, free of charge, regardless of their income.






3) Pharmaceutical Companies.

These bad boys make a killing out of us. And they don't even do that much inventing new drugs that people need. Mostly, they re-invent old drugs that are going to make them a bucket load of money. Not Cool.






4) Royal Mail

Yeah, they've even privatised that!!!

Poor Pat. 

5) Gas & Electric 

Can you imagine. No more annoying adverts. No more "yooooooooooou gotta switch- you gotta switch". Just one price of gas and electric, set in a democratically accountable fashion, with revenues re-invested into renewable technology. 


Bliss.

6) Water

Come on man, it's a human right!




7) Justice

Did you even know prisons are being run by private companies? And the management of offenders in the community was sold off to the chief executive's wife? 





8) Houses. 

Not all of them. You can own the house you live in.  Just bring all the private Housing Association places back under local council control. 

That way, we could have some democratic control over rents. We could build more homes, which we desperately need and we'd be able to re-invest revenue rather than it sitting in some private bank account. No-Brainer!

Winter is Coming

 9) Aylesford Newsprint.

Anywhere really, that's going out of business and is going to see its workforce redundant. Aylesford Newsprint could be bought into public ownership as some sort of regional recycling depot, recycling all of our crap from across the South East. They have the technology. 



10) The Banks. 

Firstly, they deserve it. Second, you can't control what you don't own and we definitely need to control money. That's just obvious. 





If you don' t agree, consider how well running things for profit has worked out thusly. 

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Them Immigrants

Them immigrants eh? You're always hearing about 'em. Coming over 'ere. Taking our jobs. And living off our benefits. It's cos we're so soft as a country.

 

People are worried about immigration, like really worried. Especially in areas with next to no immigrants. 

Curious.



Anyhoo, beyond the hate fuelled agit-prop, there are some workers who do have legitimate concerns that bosses are using migrants to drive down wages. This is SUPER-exploitation. Also, it pisses people off, having their wages depressed or even not getting the job in the first place. Fair play, that is annoying. 

But what about the NHS?

Without migrant workers, we wouldn't be able to run a service. From cleaners right up to consultants, we're a pretty diverse bunch and for the most part, we get on relatively racial-tension-free. 

We don't wear the hats any more.

What makes the NHS different from a cold storage warehouse or a building site is that we are covered by a national trade union agreement, which sets the going rate for the job. This means whether you signed up at a recruitment fair in the Philippines or you happened to be born in that very hospital itself, you'll get the same. This is important because it protects everyone, equally. 



Migrants have always been a big part of the NHS so we're quite used to working with people from all over the globe. In the context of a chronic global nursing shortage, the NHS has always sought to attract skills from overseas. 

Most recently cuts in student nurse places have exacerbated a shortfall in the number of qualified nurses. The gap is being partially filled by a new crop of colleagues from Spain and Portugal, where the austerity fuelled economic crisis has left a generation of skilled workers very little in the way of prospects. 

And isn't that really the point? Immigration is a by-product of global capitalism. When the madness of the free market causes entire national economies to fail, the casualties will inevitably seek a better life elsewhere. 

Workers of the world have far more in common with each-other than with the billionaire we happen to be born on the same bit of land as. We should unite- it's not like we've got anything to loose...other than our chains ;-) 



PS: If you think immigrants are undermining your pay, my advice: 
1) stop scape-goating your co-workers 
2) join a union 
3) get all your workmates to do the same (including the foreign ones) 
4) collectively bargain for better wages for everyone. 

Capeesh?

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Nice Hose! (Support the Firefighter's Strike)

Ding Ding- Round 66 in the fire-fighters strike. 



Solidarity!!!

Members of the Fire Brigades Union have refused to roll over and accept attacks to their pensions. 

The government want fire-fighters to 

• pay more- 13% of their salary

• work til they're 60- I don't know what good a 60 year old would be in a blazing inferno but whatevs, get in that burning building lad

• get less- you'd have to work for 40 years in the fire service to get your full pension. As it stands, the stringent fitness standards mean most wouldn't qualify. Pisstake.  

It was Labour's idea to make fire-fighters work until they're 60 in the first place. The ConDems are just picking up where Labour left off. 

FBU website, personified here by their General Secretary, Matt Wrack said:

Sounds familiar. 

Nurses, fire-fighters, teachers- we need a political voice of our own. 

Click Me!!!

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Aylesford Newsprint: What is to be Done?

Yesterday, the news broke that Aylesford Newsprint was going into administration. Cue earnest tweets from earnest politicians, earnestly wringing their hands for BBC South East. 

The sight of parliamentary cretins, stranded on a windswept industrial estate and hi-vis clad- it's almost like there's an election on. 

Non-Cretin TUSC candidate for Chatham and Aylesford, railway worker and RMT type Richard Andrzejak said: 

Aylesford Newsprint recycles paper into newspaper. They also do a lot of the recycling for councils across the region. 

Clearly, that's a good thing!  

Instead of the £70billion in government subsidies to nuclear power, we should nationalise Aylesford Newsprint and expand its recycling capacity. 

Not only would this save the jobs of existing staff, it could, with proper public investment create jobs with huge social value. 

If it's good enough for the banks, it's good enough for Aylesford Newsprint. 

We send solidarity to the workers at Aylesford Newsprint and want to get in touch to help build a campaign to fight back. 

Hit Us Up: northkenttusc@gmail.com

Scandal Alert!

MP's take backhanders for big business. Who knew?



Tory Malcolm Rifkind and Labour's Jack Straw got caught pimping themselves out to a fake Chinese company.

Both of them seem to think its fair game, actually. Jack Straw's defence is that he's leaving soon and in any case, no-one seemed to mind when he was paid by some commodities firm to use his name and contacts to keep their sugar-production on the cheap. Seems ligit.

For his part, Rifkind seems to think the only way you'll attract professional people into a jobs with a £67k salary is to let them use the ensuing power and connections to to the bidding of super-rich. 

I suppose they do have to eat. 

If Labour MPs are happy to take money on the side to negotiate on behalf of sugar magnates, but they're not prepared to lift a finger when it comes to supporting trade union members, fighting against attacks on our pensions, our pay and our living standards, then what exactly is the point of them? 

With a starting salary of £67k, can we really expect MPs to represent anything other than the corrupt, self serving elite which they belong to? Their existence is so far removed from everyone else's. 

I'm a socialist. If elected, I will only take the average worker's wage of £26k. It's not a stunt or a gimmick, it's a principal. You can't claim to represent the interests of the 99% on a salary of the 1%



PS: Rifkind, I am a professional. I'm a nurse and you could employ three of us on the salary that you don't think is enough for one of you. Dick. 

A Job's not Just for Christmas....

Unless you work at Bluewater! 

Unemployment has gone up after Christmas as thousands of seasonal workers find themselves back on the dole. 

Nothing gets you in the festive spirit quite like working 10 hour days on minimum wage. 

Being called in to work at any time, sacked for no apparent reason and turfed out when the turkey goes cold- this is the reality for thousands of precariously employed young workers. 

In the face of the bank bailout and the ensuing austerity agenda, decent, secure employment for young people has been sacrificed in the name of economic recovery. 

As the bankers take £80 billion just in bonuses, hundreds of thousands of young people, unable to leave home, are forced to scratch out an existence on zero-hours-contracts, lining the pockets of retail tycoons. 

That makes me pretty angry. 

Fun Fact!

All three of the TUSC Parliamentary Candidates in Medway are shift workers!

I'm a staff nurse at Medway Hospital. Richard for Chatham and Aylesford and Dan for Rochester and Strood work on the railways. All of us are well versed in the joys of nights.



 
How many other parties can say that?

Anyway, when you go to the polls on the 7th May, remember: It is only TUSC which stands shoulder to shoulder with all workers, day and night.

Night Won't Prevent us from Working- B Reshetnikov & A Dobrob, 1956

You Can Stand Under My Um-ber-ella...

Well, it not my umbrella exactly, but you can stand under it.

TUSC- the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is putting together the biggest socialist challenge in the general elections, since, like, ever! In Medway, everyone will be able to vote for a socialist or a union activist to be their MP on 7th May.

On the same day, Medway are holding local elections and we want every person in the Towns to be able to vote for councillors that would refuse to implement cuts. No other party are committed to rejecting the austerity measures of the Westminster parties and the big business interests they represent. 

Do you agree with raising the minimum wage to £10/hr? 

Do you think the railways should be re-nationalised? 

Do you support a cap on rents and a massive council house building program?

Do you oppose free schools and academies, privatising our schools by the back door? 

Do you reject divisive anti-immigrant propaganda? 

Do you stand for a free, high quality NHS, publicly owned and democratically accountable? 

WE WANT YOU! 

We're not career politicians, we are a team of working class people who think we need political representation.  If you agree, stand with us. It doesn't matter if you've never thought about standing before. It doesn't matter whether or not you're in a political party. TUSC is a federal organisation, so provided you agree with our basic demands, you can produce your own literature if you want to. 

Confidence in the traditional parties is at an all time low. UKIP seek to capitalise by whipping up division as a cover for their viciously pro-austerity agenda. The Greens offer no real solution, capitulating to making cuts whenever really tested. Working people need a party of our own. I'm not saying TUSC is it, but its a start. 

Get involved and make history with us! 

Nurses: Why do you even need money at all?

Last year, MPs awarded themselves an 11% pay rise. In the NHS, we got zero. Nurses, porters, physiotherapists got not a penny extra to share for the fourth year running. 

So when the Department of Health refused to implement the minuscule recommendation of the Pay Review Body, a 1% pay rise for all staff for 2014-2015 and again for 2015-2016, unions had no option but to ballot for strike action.  

We took 4 hours in October and another 4 in November. Public sympathy was high. Cars and ambulances providing essential cover beeped in support and strangers came to picket lines with hot tea and fresh samosas. It must've been working because the government made an offer. It's complicated but when you scratch the surface it really is a pretty poor offer. 

1) scrapping pay-point 1 so everyone earns £15k minimum. 

2) £200 cash for anyone below £17k, so bands 1, 2 and some 3s. 

3) 1 year increment freeze for band 8as and above. 

4) some talks about how redundancy payouts are calculated. 

5) The meat and gravy: a 1% consolidated pay rise for all staff up to top of 8b for financial year 15-16. 

That's it. 

By writing off 2014-2015, we're duped out of 1%. 

Top Banders:
People at the top of their band won't get anything for 15-16. Top Banders were awarded a 1% non-consolidated rise for 14-15 only. They are due to loose it in April. This offer means the 1% non consolidated will be consolidated, which means its pensionable and payable on unsocial hours. Depending on your shifts, you could end up with a reduction in your take home pay. Plus, you've been conned out of 1% overall. 

Non Top Banders:
Got nothing for 14-15 and 1% consolidated for 15-16. So we too have been denied a pretty small award of 1% year on year, 14-15, 15-16. 





Even the Pay Review Body recommended we get 1% per year, over the 2 years. This is 1% over the 2 years. And we achieved this with just 8 hours of strike action. In the run up to the General Election, no-one wants a strike in the NHS less than the government. This puts us in a pretty strong position to get what we asked for. REJECT!!! 

I wrote this letter to the Medway Messenger!

Councillor Jarett boasts a “pro-business” budget, but what about the rest of us?

The loss of 137 jobs, the axing of the Fuse Festival and a real terms pay cut for carers, library workers and refuse collectors. This budget smacks of a council complicit with central government’s austerity agenda.

If councillors are only prepared to re-arrange the deckchairs on the Titanic, then what exactly is the point of them?  When chronically under-resourced Local Government is subject to further cuts handed down from Westminster, we need councillors who will fight back. 

We need a budget that meets the  social and civic needs of the people of Medway and councillors who will demand the funding for it from central government.

George Osborne boasts of recovery, but where’s ours?