Peter Hain's Aspirations for Wales

Former minister Peter Hain has argued that Welsh Labour must move to the right, but his analysis is way off the mark, writes Huw Williams, a socialist activist in Blackwood, South Wales.

Following New Labour’s disastrous election results on 1 May, the Neath Labour MP and former cabinet minister Peter Hain has written a pamphlet, Changing Wales: Changing Welsh Labour.

The pamphlet, published by Blairite think tank Progress, essentially calls on the Welsh Labour Party to enact the changes to its policies that New Labour undertook in England during the 1990s.

Hain argues that the nature of Welsh society has changed to such a degree that “Old Labour” type politics no longer have a mass appeal.

He says that Welsh Labour needs to look to what he terms the “aspirational vote” as well as the “core vote”. The terms are essentially bywords for middle class and working class voters.

Hain argues that the working class and its organisations no longer provide the mechanism by which Labour can dominate Welsh politics as it has done for generations.

It is a familiar argument – the decline of the mining and steel industries is seen as the end of the working class. Hain points to the decline of trade union activity in Labour but also to how wider working class social networks such as rugby clubs have declined.

He states that people live more private lives and gain their views via the television and not the workplace.

Hain is right of course that the mining and steel industries have been in sharp decline for many years. However the view that this somehow signals the end of the Welsh working class is fundamentally flawed.

Those working in the NHS, local government, education or service industries are part of the working class. They have to rely on collective organisation to better their conditions as much as miners or steel workers did.

The real reason for longtime Labour voters staying at home is the sense of betrayal caused by New Labour’s hand-outs to the rich, its worshipping of big business, its lies about the Iraq war, its commitment to privatisation and its scapegoating of immigrants.

Hain argues that it is wrong of the “ultra new Labourites” to simply expect “core voters” to keep turning up and to assume they have nowhere else to go. He cites the worrying vote for the British National Party.

However he fails to address the fact that the main haemorrhaging of Labour’s vote in the Welsh council elections was in its heartland of the valleys.

Here Labour voters in great numbers switched from Labour not to the fascists but to historically large numbers of independent candidates.

Many, although not all, of these independents are former Labour Party members and some are grouped around the Welsh Assembly Member Trish Law from Blaneau Gwent.

In the main the appeal of these independents is that they are seen as critical of New Labour from the left and able to connect with the concerns of working class communities in those areas.
Plaid Cymru also continues in the main to speak an “Old Labour” message – albeit now compromised by its coalition with New Labour in the Welsh Assembly.

Hain argues that the councils that Labour retained – such as Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend – did so because they took tough financial decisions and provided good services.

Of course Hain doesn’t mention that Bridgend council workers in the Unison union are contemplating strike action due to a deal which offers only a 12 month protection of wages, or that they have privatised meals on wheels and leisure service provision.

Likewise Hain argues that young people are not interested in politics.

Yet many school students took part in strikes against the Iraq war and school students in Pontllanfraith Comprehensive School in Caerphilly recently held a day’s strike and protest against teacher redundancies.

Surely Hain should be asking why the Labour Party has no appeal for these people.
There is no doubt that Wales has changed dramatically over recent generations. The loss of mining and the defeat back in 1985 of the Miners’ Strike still has a resonance in Labour heartlands.

Communities have been fragmented by these changes but the question is how socialists rebuild those traditions of struggle and solidarity.

The vast majority of workers still believe that there is a fundamental divide between the rich and those working.

Lastly, the very fact that middle class voters are described as “aspirational” smacks of the elitism running through New Labour.

The working class have aspirations – but these are for affordable housing, good healthcare and education, an end to wars and privatisation.

The real problem for New Labour is not how its message is spun but that it doesn’t share the aspirations of the mass of working people.

Hain’s message is a call for more of the same from New Labour and to remove what little was different in Welsh Labour from New Labour.
Welsh workers deserve better.

Welsh Soldier's death: Rhodri Morgan's silence

With another Welsh soldier dying in Iraq, anti-war campaigners have angrily accused Rhodri Morgan of failing to represent the people of Wales and are launching a mass campaign to demand that the Assembly Government and the new Labour/Plaid administration take a clear anti-war position and call on the UK government to pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Adam Johannes from Cardiff RESPECT said:

"Another Welsh soldier is coming home from Iraq in a pine-box, yet the Assembly remains silent on the war.

The Mayor of London and the First Minister of Scotland unequivocally oppose the war, yet the First Minister of Wales shamefully refuses to take a position on it.

With more Welsh soldiers fighting and - in some cases - tragically dying in Iraq and Afghanistan it is time for Rhodri Morgan to show some principles and represent the overwhelming majority of Welsh people who want an end to our involvement in foreign wars.

Wales has some of the poorest communities in the UK, yet billions that could have been spent on pensioners, hospitals and eliminating child poverty is being spent on the illegal wars that Rhodri Morgan refuses to oppose.

The Iraq War has now created twice as many refugees as the Darfur crisis. Up to a million people have died joining the million who perished due to the UN administered genocide of sanctions in the 1990s. Half the population live in absolute poverty, while even more are unemployed: You can almost imagine some well-meaning liberal calling for Western intervention - only this is Western intervention"

RESPECT VS. NEW LABOUR

The following debate took place between RESPECT and New Labour AM Jeff Cuthbert, during the Assembly elections, in the Western Mail; after First Minister Rhodri Morgan appealed to voters not to punish him because of New Labour’s role in Iraq -

Anti-War vote has a home on May 3rd

Rhodri Morgan was dead wrong when he suggested that voters who wanted to give Labour a bloody nose for the war in Iraq should wait until the next general election, rather than on May 3.

Perhaps he is still guilt ridden after his shambolic performance on Question Time last year, when he refused to make a commitment either way on the basis that the war "wasn't a Welsh issue".

He should try telling that to Reg Keys in North Wales, who lost a son in Iraq, or the numerous other Welsh families that have lost sons, daughters and loved ones in a needless war.

May 3 would be the ideal date for punishing Rhodri for impersonating a jellyfish on such a crucial issue. The only problem is that the mainstream parties are more interested in bartering for a place in a coalition government and will therefore sidestep any discussion of the war during the Assembly elections.

That is why it is so important that RESPECT is standing in the South Wales West and South Wales Central electoral lists.

RESPECT emerged from the anti- war movement, and stands against the neo-liberal policies of Blair and Brown.

We have played a key role in campaigns against racism and war and in defence of public services and council housing.Those who have voted with their feet and demonstrated against the war in South Wales can now vote at the ballot box for a party that believes the billions of pounds wasted on war should be invested in our hospitals, our schools and our communities.

DES MANNAY, Gwent RESPECT

This shabby tactic will not fool Wales - New Labour responds

I refer to the letter of April 11 from Des Mannay, of RESPECT. He criticises Rhodri Morgan for not stating a view on Iraq.

But it is Mr Mannay and not Rhodri that is at fault.When Rhodri speaks he does so as First Minister (that was certainly the case on Question Time).

It is unfair and unreasonable to hound him to state "personal" opinions.

Someone in Rhodri's position will always be judged as a public figure and not as an individual.

What Mr Mannay and his friends are trying to do is to shift the focus of this election campaign away from the true issues. By that I mean the areas of devolved government that the Assembly is responsible for.

Mr Mannay, and others that use the same tactic, are simply being opportunist.They do this because they know that the record of Welsh Labour is a good one. Our investment in education, healthcare and our communities is huge and has increased markedly over the past few years.

There is no evidence to support Mr Mannay's claim that spending in Wales has suffered because of UK Government actions.

But they do not want to debate the real issues so they switch to issues that they know are outside the scope of the Assembly. This is a shabby tactic and will not fool the people of Wales.

JEFF CUTHBERT, New Labour Assembly Member for Caerphilly

RESPECT stands with all those fighting for a better world

Labour AM Jeff Cuthbert states in his letter of April 13 that RESPECT are wrong to try to suggest that Rhodri Morgan should take a position on the Iraq War in public since it doesn't fall under his remit as First Minister.

The same could be said of Labour's elected Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, yet he is able to make the war a point of principle - why should things be different for Rhodri?

The fact is that this illegal war has diverted money that could be spent on public services to maintain an occupation that has seen the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of coalition troops.

Mr Cuthbert lauds the Assembly's investment in health and education, seemingly not realising that Labour's slavish devotion to market solutions to social issues has led to much of this investment being frittered away on overpaid management and consultancy. The result? Hospital cuts and massive waiting lists. An excess of school places becomes an excuse to close schools rather than use that excess to drastically cut class sizes.

Rhodri Morgan's slavish devotion to New Labour as opposed to working people has left him sitting idly by while the party is transformed into a party of sleaze, war and big business.

By contrast, RESPECT stands with all those fighting for a better world. This means supporting those who campaign against war and racism; and public service workers fighting to defend our essential services.

It also means supporting the council residents of Swansea who magnificently defeated the privatisation that the Assembly government and city council tried to force on it, or the kids who came out of Cantonian High School to protest against the cuts and closures that have become the hallmark of Labour in Cardiff and Westminster.

JONNY JONES, RESPECT Wales Steering Committee

Postal Workers on Strike! Smash the Pay Freeze!

In the hot summer of 2004 we launched our coalition, RESPECT.

At that time, the CWU in South East Wales voted to support us in the European Elections.

On Friday, RESPECT members in the postal service joined other workers in a strike against Gordon Brown's attempt to impose a pay freeze on workers across the public sector.

Many other RESPECT members also visited picket lines in solidarity and collected donations at their workplaces for striking postal workers.

This follows strike action by workers in the PCS and other unions on the same issue. Mark Serwotka, General Secretary of the PCS and a member of RESPECT's National Council has been pushing for different unions to strike together on the same day. It is rumoured that he has written 5 times to Billy Hayes, the leader of the CWU with the proposal that they co-ordinate strike actions and not received even a reply.

It seems that Labour Party member, Billy Hayes, places loyalty to his discredited party over the interests of CWU members and working people as a whole. RESPECT members are organising at the grassroots to put pressure on the union bureaucracies to co-ordinate strike action to smash Gordon Brown's pay freeze.

Jonny Jones from Splott RESPECT in Cardiff visited picket lines to show solidarity, he writes:

"From the Post Office in the Mumbles to the massive sorting office in Cardiff, the CWU picket lines in South Wales were friendly and very determined to win their dispute.

There were around a dozen pickets at the main sorting office in Swansea, most of whom were very glad to see Respect supporters on the picket line. One picket joked that there were more teachers than posties!

In Cardiff the strike was almost completely solid. One picket said that only one person had gone in and that we should feel free to print his name in bold.

AJ Singh of Cardiff CWU said, “If Alan Leighton wants dignity and respect in the postal service then he needs to show some dignity and respect by paying staff properly and not eroding their working conditions”.

Strikers talked about the possibility of joint action with the PCS and will be working with PCS members to set up a joint union meeting on how best to beat Gordon Brown’s pay freeze."

STRIKE!

TUESDAY 1ST MAY - INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY

Gordon Brown has given the Ministry of Defence a blank cheque.
He has set aside billions to wage war while telling public sector workers to accept a wage freeze.

In Britain, hundreds of thousands of PCS members of the civil servants workers' union will be striking against job cuts that will devastate services and against privatisation and low pay. Many other trade unions will be joining the protest.

Show solidarity with fellow working people by joining the Cardiff protest:

PCS Rally and Picnic
11 am - 12 Noon
Tuesday 1 May
Steps of Assembly Building
Cathays Park
Cardiff

Labour have betrayed socialist values and the trade unions.

RESPECT offer a new, better home for fighting trade unionists, a party that will fight to always put workers interests above business interests. We back the Trade Union Freedom Bill and want all anti-trade union laws scrapped. Labour have been in power for 10 years and the anti-union legislation is still in place.

RESPECT have emerged in the last three years as the natural home for socialist trade unionists, with leading members of leading unions joining the party and RESPECT's members at the forefront of trade union and industrial action.

RESPECT is absolutely opposed to job losses in the civil service, and such cuts are an attack on both service provision and trade unionism.

RESPECT rejects any further privatisation of public services and the provision of services at the convenience of the free market.

RESPECT strongly supports national pay negotiations and opposes the divide and rule strategy used by the government in splitting up pay negotiations into separate deals.

PCS members can fight back in three ways:

1. Unity in action on May Day in a mighty strike. Build unity with other workers and trade unions to maximise pressure on Gordon Brown.

2. Build a rank and file movement of trade unionists in every workplace to organise resistance to Brown and Blair on both economic questions and political questions such as war, racism and destruction of the planet. Elect a fighting, democratic and socialist leadership to the union NEC - one that stands up for members, not for upper management accountable to rank and file members. Build unity across trade unions to oppose the government.

3. On May 3rd vote for the one party, the ONLY party in Wales, which has unreservedly supported the PCS members fight for jobs, pay and conditions and is dedicated to building fighting trade unions:

RESPECT - The Party of Trade Unions

Reclaiming the legacy of a South Wales MP

In 1893, Keir Hardie entered parliament. He created a scandal when he insisted on wearing working clothes and a cloth cap instead of the regulation frock coat and top hat.

His choice of dress was deliberate. He wanted to send a clear message to the establishment that he was a workers' MP representing working people and their interests unlike the other MPs who represented the powerful and vested interests.

Just as Labour Party activists have broken away from New Labour to join Respect, so people then were breaking away from the Liberal Party to create a party that would represent working people - the majority of society.

In 1900, Keir Hardie was elected in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales on a platform of abolishing the House of Lords, granting votes for women and home rule for Ireland. He was the first Labour MP.

His election address denounced militarism, imperialism and the use of the army against strikers.

Today, Respect not New Labour are the true heirs of these early fighters for working class representation. We will be standing in South Wales as True Labour against New Labour.

The need for a party of the millions not the millionaires is greater than ever.

In 2005, for the first time in 60 years, a party standing to the left of Labour gained a seat in parliament with the election of the first Respect MP.

Get up! Get into it! Get involved!

Join Respect today!

www.respectcoalition.org