Cardiff Council Are Rubbish! Victory to the Bin Men & Women!

Wolfie Smith from North Cardiff Left Alternative reports on the upcoming bin strike on Monday.

Recently City Boss, Rodders (Rodney Berman, Leader of Cardiff Council - Ed.) has been trying to act the hard man facing down the unions. Berman is, of course, singular inappropriate to play the role of hard man as he doth more resemble a petulant child prone to temper-tantrums, but there is a nasty edge to the LibDem/Plaid Council and its attacks on council workers and trade unions: The petulant child is turning into a bully.

A few months ago it was the attempt to introduce a new tough regime for workers who dared to take time off sick, now it is the attempt to impose new shift patterns with no proper consultation.

Traditionally local refuse collectors have done a shift beginning at 7 am and wrapping up at 3 pm at the latest. But now the Council has taken a unililateral decision to change workers contracts and terms of employment, and replace shifts with two new shifts from 6 am to 2 pm, and 2 pm to 10 pm related to the introduction of new weekly food waste collections.

In response, to the failure to properly discuss these changes with the workforce, 90% of GMB members voted to stage a strike beginning on Monday. There seems no recognition from Cardiff Council that working from 2 pm to 10 pm would count as anti-social hours, especially if you have a family (ten minutes to see your kids at the breakfast table?!), and workers should receive a raise in wages accordingly. There also appaars be no recognition of the impact that such a radical change of working patterns might have, and the basic need to be led by workers representatives to facilitate any transition.

More disturbing is the report that our taxpayers money is going to be used by the LibDems and Plaid in Cardiff to pay for scab labour. Why not contact your local councillor to complain? We would also suggest putting signs on your rubbish saying, 'To be collected by GMB members only, Scabs don't touch!'

Left Alternative members and supporters of the People before Profit Charter will be sure to visit picket lines and workers to show support and solidarity for their just cause, for the workers united can never be defeated!

Message to Cllr Rodney Berman & Co. - "Hands Off Our Books!"

WATCH THE NEW VIDEO DEDICATION TO CARDIFF COUNCIL HERE!

Following our correspondent's story yesterday highlighting the LibDem/Plaid Coalition nefarious plan to auction of our city's cultural treasures to the highest bidder on the sly, we have been bombarded with emails from concerned citizens. We will post up contact details for the Cardiff Heritage Friends campaign shortly.

Now bombard local politicians with letters demanding that our cultural heritage be saved. The more letters, emails, etc, that can be sent to the Council's Executive (and to your local ward councillors and your Assembly Member and MP), the better. One thing to request specifically is that the matter be put on the agenda of the next Council Executive meeting. Also the more letters to the press and postings on websites, the better!

The email address for Cllr Nigel Howells, the Executive Member for Sport , Leisure and Culture (and therefore the councillor responsible for libraries) is NHowells@cardiff.gov.uk

The report recommending the sale of the collections is published on the Council’s website. The report is entitled - we kid you not - ‘Disposal of Surplus [sic] Library Stock’. Cardiff Council have made Farenheit 451 a reality!

Cardiff Council to Flog off our Cultural Treasures & Books to Highest Bidder!

"A lot of people are aghast about this. For Cardiff, having these books is the difference between Cardiff being a local and Welsh interest library to being a library in the international league. In the past the council has not invested in these books and did not include them on the electronic catalogue, which means that the majority of people did not know they were there."

Dr Wyn James, Secretary of Cardiff Welsh Bibliographical Society, speaking to the BBC

One occasionally suspects that certain senior Council leaders have never read a book, this certainly might explain the wanton barbarism of the mafia who run the Council putting up our cultural treasures up for auction. This act of cultural vandalism from the LibDem/Plaid Coalition marks a new low point and a step back for the city.

Books that may be flogged off include Tyndale's Bible, one of the oldest English translations of the Bible, published in the 16th Century when translating the Bible into the common tongue was a deeply suversive and political act, risking death; Second edition Shakespeare's; Key English and European texts from the Protestant reformation; And a substantial and significant collection of political tracts from the English Civil War, an epoch of democratic struggle and revolution that our politicians may wish to forget, when the people deposed an autocratic and out of touch leader.

While certain books will be saved - including the 13th Century Llyfr Aneirin (The Book of Aneirin), the manuscript collection (including the Captain Scott manuscripts and Bute papers)., and early printed Welsh books and bibles, including a Bishop Morgan bible - Already over 100 books have been sent to the auctioneer with little evidence of public consultation, and talk of up to 18,000 antique books - many dating as far back to the 15th Century - to be flogged to the highest bidder.

Indeed, according to Peter Keelan, Head of special collections and archives at Cardiff University Library, the first batch of books date back to the 1500s and are probably the most valuable of the books being sold.

He identifies the key importance of this collection:

"There is nothing else here in Wales as the library in Aberystwyth concentrates more on Welsh texts. Students would have to go to London for their research. If these books disappear from Cardiff, research will grind to a halt."

Cardiff University has expressed an interest in taking custody the books to so that people from all over Cardiff could see them, and they would be available for scholars and research, but how could a university library match the sums that the Council will get from the auctioneers?

A new campaigning group, Cardiff Heritage Friends, has been launched as a coalition of local residents, historians, other academics, solicitors, and librarians, that is calling for the council to stop the sale "of some of Wales' greatest treasures".

This marks an escalation of the local council's attacks on public libraries and our cultural heritage. The council claims that it will use the sale from its cultural vandalism to fund public libraries, but should culture be funded by attacking culture?

When Cardiff Central Library was moved to its temporary home in a glorified shed, Council Leader, Rodney Berman made much spin of Cardiff soon having a 'state-of-the-art Library' but beneath the blather lies the reality that the new Central Library will contain much fewer books than the previous incarnation - what is this but a cut? Indeed, before the Library moved to its temporary home, hundreds of important books, many of them out-of-print and unavailable from bookshops were similarly sold off.

"Where there is no vision - the people perish". The Leaders of the Council have made it clear that they are not men and women of culture: The disgraceful threats to close one of Wales' finest music venues, the Point, the demise of the Coal Exchange, the hassle around the Toucan show this, the attempts to build a road through Bute Park. Or rather they have their own culture based around money and profit, expressed in Rodney Berman fighting hard to bring a Super-Casino to Cardiff, the St Davids Centre 2, and one of Wales' poorest areas - Loudon Square - being in an area that has had billions poured into 'regeneration' and surrounded by new luxury flats.

We hope to articulate an alternative vision of our city, and struggle to make Cardiff a city of culture and a city of the people.

Our City is Not For Sale - No to Privatisation

The LEFT Alternative fully supports Cardiff UNISON's campaign against the possible privatisation of council services, which could see rising prices for swimming pools, leisure centres, libraries, theatres and other services: Our city is not for sale, and we will resist the corporate takeover of Cardiff - by any means necessary.

Branch secretary, Mark Turner was quoted last month as saying in the South Wales Echo, privatisation would

"sever the link between democratically elected councillors and the management of the service and replace public control with the control of the market. In other cities in the UK where charitable trusts have been set up to run leisure centres, libraries, swimming pools and theatres they have had to increase ticket and entrance prices to keep afloat. Council services are about people. Inevitably people take second place to profit if the private sector or its methods were to be used in Cardiff.”

In May, when the LibDems and Plaid Cymru formed a coalition to run Cardiff Council they made a public commitment that there would be a "presumption against privatisation", yet in the public "consultation" one of the options being considered, as part of the shake-up of council services, is for the delivery of services to be moved out of the council’s direct control to arms-length organisations and charitable trusts. We urge the ruling parties to keep this pledge.

If you want to know what privatisation would mean in practice, Cardiff UNISON on their website give a glimpse of previous sell-outs:

"Car Parks controlled by Cardiff Council sold to private company

Council now powerless to stop massive price rises seen recently. Profits going into private hands instead of supporting rate payers.

University Hospital of Wales entered into long car park lease with private company

Now unable to comply with Welsh Office requirements to cut patient parking charges for many years. Profits going into private hands instead of supporting patient care.

Suicide victim left in garage for 5 hours

Due to Police now using private firm for FME that do not have manpower to act swiftly. Unlike previous system of using local doctors

Do we want this happening to council services ?
This could happen under the council's 'Partnership for Change'
This is likely to lead to job and service quality losses"

Another Cardiff is possible!

CRACH WAR at the EISTEDDFOD

Working class people used to be the salt of the earth, now we're the scum of the earth. We need to rebuild old traditions of solidarity and start reclaiming our communities back from the profiteers and privateers. Enough IS Enough!

Nothing shows the contempt that the 4 main parties in Wales have for us more than their silence over a 35% rise in our gas bills at a time when British Gas is raking in record profits. What do the Labour Left in Wales have to say about this? What are Plaid saying? What are the LibDems saying? Nothing. What can one say about these jokers? Each is as bad as the other. Each is worse than the other.

The 4 capitalist parties don't have the bottle to rock against the rich. They could be calling for a wonderful windfall tax on the energy companies profits. They could demand the Brown raise corporation tax (not likely from Plaid who want to cut corporation tax even more than Thatcher did!), they could start campaigning for the government to put a cap on how much the corporations can increase bills.

But they are not doing it. Working people are gonna have to get organised themselves. As Che said, words are beautiful - but action is even better.

This week, Welsh speakers in the LEFT Alternative have produced hundreds of leaflets calling for an end to the great gas rip-off to dish out at the Eisteddfod. Nobody in the Welsh political establishment is calling for the gas and electricity companies to be re-nationalised, so we're gonna shout it from the rooftops! Wales has some righteous traditions of good old fashioned socialism and right-on working class militancy. It's time!

The LEFT Alternative defends the Welsh language, not out of nationalism but out of respect for international culture. International culture to us does not mean the 'culture' of Murdoch, Mcdonalds and Market Values, but of those who believe another world not only possible; but necessary. We believe our children should have access to the Mabinogion, Shakespeare, Salman Rushdie, Caradoc Evans, Dylan Thomas, Bapsi Sidhwa, Chinua Achebe and many others - and in whatever language they want! Such a stance also includes fighting for the rights of those who speak other languages such as refugees and asylum seekers and their children so that they have access to education and other facilities in their own languages.

We believe the money is there to provide this, but the government wastes billions on a war opposed by millions. Our movements, whether they be for language rights, or against war and injustice have begun to provide the basis for a real alternative to the status quo. But our views are far too often marginalized and disregarded by the mainstream political parties. We want to be a megaphone for the millions who are opposed to war, racism, privatisation inequality and the destruction of the planet. We hope to create a new fighting coalition of the working class.

LibDems & Plaid to Close More Schools

Last time Rodney Berman tried to close our schools he was defeated by the biggest street demonstrations and popular movement in Cardiff since the 2003 resistance to the Iraq War, a return to the streets is necessary if we are to defeat round two of the "school re-organisation programme". This is part of a battle across Wales, and we have tried to link up with campaigners elsewhere to compare and share experiences and strategies.

With the LibDem/Plaid council announcing the closure of Cefn Onn Primary School, in Llanishen, and St Anne’s Church in Wales Infant School, in Roath, it is clear that parents, teachers, school students, trade unions and citizens need to organise quickly to defend our communities. LEFT Alternative supporters who attended campaign meetings around the earlier attempt to close St Anne's will be pleased to offer whatever support we can to those fighting to save both schools threatened with closure.

The new attempt at closing schools has also shown up the utter cynicism of Plaid Cymru in Cardiff, who in exchange for power, have cut a completely unprincipled deal with the Liberal Democrats to just save schools in West Cardiff where they have their base while supporting closures elsehwere. People in Cardiff will wonder how Plaid can agitate to save schools in their patch, but support and vote for similar schools being closed in other areas of Cardiff. Such an approach is consistent with the approach of the mainstream parties who see politics as being about getting the best deal within existing neoliberalism rather than fighting to roll back the tide.

Quote of the Week - Aneurin Bevan

"That is why no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party that inflicted those bitter experiences on me. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.

They condemned millions of first-class people to semi-starvation. Now the Tories are pouring out money in propaganda of all sorts and are hoping by this organised sustained mass suggestion to eradicate from our minds all memory of what we went through.

But, I warn you young men and women, do not listen to what they are saying now. Do not listen to the seductions of Lord Woolton. He is a very good salesman. If you are selling shoddy stuff you have to be a good salesman. But I warn you they have not changed, or if they have they are slightly worse than they were."

The Nationalist parties have indicated that in the event of a hanged parliament after the next election they would be prepared to prop up the Tories. This follows them coming within a whisker of forming a coalition in the Assembly in 2007 that would have seen the Tories brought into power in Wales, such scabbing cannot be tolerated and is alien to the best traditions of working class struggle in Wales.

''Dim ysgol, dim cymuned'' – No School, No Community

When Rodney Berman, Leader of Cardiff Council brazenly announced the closure of 22 schools he could never have imagined that within the year popular protest from school students, teachers and parents would sink the LibDems flagship school “reorganisation” programme. The streets of Cardiff were filled with the biggest marches seen since the protests against the invasion of Iraq. The people won that battle but the war goes on with new attempts to close Cardiff schools.

But it is not only in Cardiff that schools are threatened with closure, North Wales has seen huge protests. The argument for school closures is phrased differently, but the closures are even more sinister, threatening to rip out the heart of rural communities. In Gwynedd, Plaid are attempting the biggest school closure programme in Wales. Some have tried to create spin from the fact that one or two of the schools have less than ten pupils, but this by no means typical of the schools being shut.

Bethan Wyn Evans is a teacher at Ysgol Bronyfooel, Y Fron, an old slate quarry community on the hills overlooking Caernarfon. She describes herself as “as not a very political person” but nevertheless was impelled by outrage at the effect school closures would have on rural communities to take a stand. Speaking to Adam Johannes from RESPECT, she eloquently demolished the arguments that small schools are a bad thing,

'Some schools in Gwynedd do have very small numbers of pupils' which she blames on rumours of closures, 'I assume that this pleases the council as they won't be blamed for the closure! - Our school has just short of 50 pupils. I teach 7-12 year old, there are 22 pupiles in my class. There is a high ratio of special ed needs, I feel stongly that they benefit from being with me for 4 years because I know their needs very well from year to year. These children would struggle in large schools and would fall behind and be 'ignored' within a big class situation. We have a special needs unit in the school - included in the 50 children'.

With many city schools failing our special needs children it is heartening to hear a village school is setting such a shining example, shamefully Welsh politicians are threatening this school with closure. But Bethan also believes that a fog has been created by the local council over figures and spending in order to push through their agenda, 'The figures and percentages of spending per head have been portrayed in a very unclear way. Our school seems to have a high amount of spending per head, when, in fact, part of the special needs teacher's wage comes into the total.' She notes children from the whole catchement area come to the special needs unit in the school, and suggests therefore that figures that include this in their spending are very misleading.

Extraordinarily the work of the special needs unit at the school has not been highlighted in any of the official papers or consultation around the closure, despite along waiting list of pupils to join it, this has led members of the Bronyfoel Action Group to accuse the Assembly and Council of discrimination against special needs children by preventing them from reaching their full potential. In selling the closures the council claimed that it would ‘reduce inequalities and promote equal opportunities for children’, but nowhere did they even consider how the proposals would effect children with special needs and disabilities.

Bethan also strongly defends the concept of small schools, 'As for education being better in bigger schools, I take this as a personal insult! Last month we had an OFSTED inspection, even though our school is under threat! We had an excellent inspection. We run a fruit shop, school council, our composting business, Urdd club, breakafst club......our children have all the experiences a child in a large school could have!'

But she also worries about the impact on the whole community if they lose the fight. Y Fron is like many old industrial areas,'rundown - empty and derelict houses, no shop, no pub, demolished Chapel, no village hall.' and identifies the school as 'the only lifeline in the village -The only place for a chat is outside the school, the only social activites, concerts, bingo, carboot... are held in the school. English speaking parents have learnt Welsh because of their children - why would they otherwise? Old people do not come to the Fron to live as it isn't very accessible to public ameneties. Young people come here as there is currently a shop here.'

Understandably she feels betrayed by politicians and worried for the future, 'What does the future hold? Alun Ffred AM said that ''Dim ysgol, dim cymuned'' (no school, no community) was only a slogan! He should take 5 minutes to come up to the Fron and see how fragile some poorer rural communities really are!'

The effects of Plaid's school closure programme are creating local and national ripples with big guns like Daffyd Iwan, the President of the party and Lord Daffyd Ellis Thomas berating those who oppose the closure as pie-in-the-sky middle class liberals with ‘no idea of how to operate in the constraints of a budget’, but there has also been high profile resignations from the local party and the announcement of a new party to contest the local elections. With our children’s education and futures under attack by cuts pushed by all four major parties there is a need to link all the different school campaigns across Wales against the closures. Closures are being justified by falling school numbers in some schools which has led the mainstream politicians to talk of 'surplus places'. But falling school numbers could be seen as a golden opportunity to achieve smaller class sizes.

Last month, 600 people marched in Cardiff to keep open one local primary school that is threatened with closure. It was an angry march led by working class parents, teachers and school kids. A popular slogan of the movement has been - “There are NO surplus places only smaller class sizes” - because, of course, educationalists are united in arguing that smaller class sizes are better for our children, all “surplus places” means is that class sizes will be smaller! In reality the politicians and their accountants are attempting a con-trick, an attempt to use bogus arguments to carry through a neoliberal cut, but what our children need is no more cuts in education but more investment and an education driven not by the needs of big business but creating rounded, fully developed human beings.

Local councils in Wales and the Assembly do face genuine problems with funding from Central Government, the unjust Barnett Formula needs to be replaced with funding that recognises Wales unique poverty and social deprivation. Unfortunately none of the mainstream parties have the stomach to fight for more funds preferring attacks on the very parents and teachers who voted for them. This is to be expected, a real fight for our children’s futures and our communities would demand a very different kind of politics involving trade unions, public meetings, demonstrations and the kind of mass struggles not seen in Wales since the defeat of the great miners strike.

In Gwynedd, the battle against school closures is also a fight to save rural Wales. Rural communities are being destroyed by the closure of village shops, schools and post offices, the absence of public transport and key services. Low pay, under-employment and deprivation for working families is now widespread with huge problems of poverty for small farmers and their low paid workplace

But for the wealthy and Welsh millionaires, with their large houses, holiday homes, leisure pursuits and four-wheel drives, the countryside will remain a playground. The polarisation between rural rich and rural poor is widening with the privatisation of bus services and the collapse of much of the rural economy.

Against the panorama of global politics, local residents opposing the closure of a small village school might seem a small matter, but it is precisely these numerous small battles across Wales to defend communities and their public services that will determine the world our children and grandchildren inherit.

Another Wales is Possible!

A School for Slaughter

This week a very important protest took place outside the National Assembly to protest the militarisation of Wales.

The 4 main parties in Wales have supported £14 billion of taxpayers money being spent not on the NHS, students, pensioners, child poverty or renewable energy but on War in the form of the St Athan’s UK Military Academy.

The Academy will train not only the latest recruits to the 'war on terror' from across the UK, but foreign militaries. While paid for by our taxes, the profits from military training will pour into the coffers of the private arms companies (including cluster bomb manufacturer, Raytheon) which are involved in running the academy.

The Military Academy looks set to become Britain’s “School of the Americas” a focus for imperialist adventures abroad and counter-insurgency training. It is also the biggest ever PFI in history. Some background here.

Many people will once again wonder: Why is there always billions for war but none for vital public services?

Many will wonder at Plaid Cymru who in the past have claimed to be anti-war but slavishly support the Academy, with not a single Plaid AM, MP or Councillor publicly opposing the Military Academy. Adam Price MP says he is against war, against militarism, against privatisation - yet he supports the Academy.

In a sense, the St Athan’s Military Academy represents the nationalists “clause 4" moment. Jewish philosopher, Hannah Arrendt once spoke of the ‘banality of evil’. She was thinking of the mediocre bureaucrats who oversaw the slaughter of millions of Jews.

Today we speak of the ‘banality of Plaid’ whose so-called left wing has been silent in the face of the militarisation of Wales and the spending of billions on War.

RESPECT is proud to have been the only party in Wales to have campaigned against the Military Academy during the Welsh Assembly elections, we say:

"STOP THE MURDER ACADEMY - BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!"

We want a Robin Hood Economy: Take from the Rich and give to the Poor!

Gordon Brown and Adam Price MP have one thing in common: Both believe in an economy founded on massive tax breaks to multinationals, only Plaid want to cut corporation tax to even lower levels than even Thatcher, Blair or Brown!
As outlined by Adam Price MP Plaid's economic strategy for rebuilding Wales is based on massive tax breaks to multinational coporations in order to attract foreign companies into Wales. Corporate globalisation means that multinationals race around the world looking for whichever country offers the lowest paid workers with worst conditions, Plaid's economic strategy can only mean the continuation of the low wage economy.
Adam Johannes from Roath RESPECT outlines a socialist alternative.

Once upon a time, sections of the Labour Party spoke of 'taxing the rich until the pips squeaked', of 'howls of anguish from those rich enough to pay over 75% on their last slice of earnings' - but that was a very long time ago! Since 1979, the burden of taxation has shifted decisively from the rich to poor. RESPECT believes that we need to tax the rich to rebuild the Welfare State: Join our fight to make the rich pay their fair share as part of the bigger crusade to combat poverty and inequality in Wales!

Shift in tax

There been a fundamental shift in tax in Britain over the last 30 years. The Tories and now New Labour have increased increased indirect taxes that hit the poor the hardest. When Thatcher's Tory government was elected in 1979 one of its first acts was to slash income tax on the rich and radically increase VAT on consumer goods. It radically cut the top rate of tax on the rich.

At the same time it doubled VAT from 8 percent to 15 percent, forcing up the price of many basic goods.

When the Tories were forced to abandon the poll tax in 1991 they hit back at working people by raising VAT to 17.5 percent. The Tories also introduced the nastiest fuel tax of all. They imposed a special 8 percent VAT tax on domestic fuel in 1994, and planned to increase it further.

The tax added 8 percent to people's gas and electric bills and hit pensioners struggling to keep warm in the winter especially hard. New Labour reduced this tax to 5 percent but refuses to scrap it. Since New Labour was elected in 1997 it has done nothing to change the Tory shift from direct to consumption taxes.

New Labour refuses to increase the top rate of income tax. And it has cut taxes on business profits even more than the Tories did.

There's an urgent need for a fight against the pro-rich, pro-business agenda of Tories, New Labour and Plaid. It should be based not on higher consumption taxes, but on a major increase in income tax on the rich. There should also be a massive increase in tax on corporate profits.

This should go hand-in-hand with price controls on basic goods to stop business protecting their profits by forcing up prices paid by ordinary people.

Let's recap: Under the first 8 years of the Thatcher government, the richest paid a rate of 60% on excess earnings, under New Labour this has sunk to 40%. Under James Callaghan the rich paid over 80% and under Harold Wilson almost 90%. If the government were to tax the rich at the same rate as Thatcher - hardly a socialist! - we could scrap student fees, rebuild the NHS, keep our schools open and provide for our pensioners. Instead New Labour have cut corpoaration tax again to the lowest rates of any major economy, lower than America, Germany and Japan. Incredibly, Plaid Cymru argue that corporation tax should be cut even further! In Wales, in contrast, RESPECT argues that we need to take on corporate power not extend it.

Scrap Council Tax - For a Local Service Tax

The policies of the mainstream parties in promoting tax breaks for the rich have mean council tax bills for working people have rocketed. The richest 20% of the Welsh population also pay a lesser proportion of their income on council tax than the poorest 20%. Council Tax is obscenely regressive. Other parties moan about the Council Tax: we demand its abolition. A local service tax based on income could actually generate more money than the current council tax!

Cardiff RESPECT will be campaigning in May for the scrapping of the council tax in Wales. We wish to see it replaced with a local service tax based on income. Under our scheme three quarters of people would be better off, while the rich would have to pay more. Low income houses would save more than £20 a week. We would campaign for those whose income was below £10,000 a year to be exempt from the tax.

To spread this system fairly across Britain you would have to continue redistributing wealth from councils in richer areas to those in poorer areas. Otherwise in areas where there were fewer people with high incomes, there would be less money to spend on services, or workers would have to pay more.

'The language of priorities' . . .

Aneurin Bevan called socialism, 'the language of priorities'. If this is the case, then the priorities of the two ruling parties in Wales are very far from socialism.

New Labour, Plaid Cymru, the Tories and LibDems have supported over £14 billion being spent on war in the shape of a huge, privatised, UK Military Academy at St Athan's. This money could have been spent on eliminating child poverty, on keeping schools and hospitals open, on creating jobs based on renewable energy and socially useful activities. Instead, New Labour and Plaid showed that while we are told that there is no money for vital public services, there will always be money to fuel the military-industrial complex.

Cardiff RESPECT is proud to stand against the tide of militarism and to have been the only party in Wales to have campaigned against the school for slaughter in the recent assembly elections. We believe that there is enough money in Wales to create a very different society, the problem is that it is concentrated in the hands of the few. We aim to build a party of the millions rather than the millionaires to build a society based on principles of equality, social justice, peace and sustainability. To get involved email: respect_yourself_cardiff@hotmail.co.uk

ANOTHER WALES IS POSSIBLE!

Cardiff RESPECT calls for

* A massive cut in military spending. Disband Britain’s weapons of mass destruction and scrap nuclear weapons. Decommission Trident. No to £14 billion being wasted on a military academy at St Athan's in South Wales.
* Transfer resources from military to useful production.
* Tax currency speculation.
* Abolish VAT and replace it with increased direct taxation.
* Raise the top rate of income tax.
* Raise the tax threshold to ensure that no one on the minimum wage pays income tax.
* A big increase in corporation tax, with an additional tax on the super-profits of the oil companies and the banks.
* A turnover tax on multi-nationals doing businesses in Britain.
* Raise the top rate of inheritance tax whilst putting higher duties on other transfers of wealth and financial transaction.
* Increased stamp duty on stocks and shares.
* A crack down on tax evasion by big companies and action against offshore tax havens.
* Abolish the ceiling on National Insurance contributions.

Plaid U-Turn on Nuclear Power - Briefing #2

Following an earlier article on Plaid's nuclear u-turn explaing why we opposed nuclear power in principle, Adam Johannes from Cardiff RESPECT explains why even on his own terms, Ieuan Wyn Jones' argument for Wylfa B is bogus.

The Leader of Plaid explains why their manifesto doesn't oppose nuclear power:

"The reason there is no reference to nuclear energy in our manifesto is because it is a non-devolved issue, with decisions taken at Westminster."

This was the same argument used by the Leader of Welsh Labour to justify his lack of position on Iraq. It attracted ridicule then & it deserves ridicule now.

It is also a little disingenuous.

In both their 1999 and 2003 Assembly Manifesto's Plaid took a position on nuclear power, they were unequivocally against - only in 2007 does it suddenly become a devolved issue that therefore doesn't require comment, many will suspect this is because the leadership has chosen to support Wylfa B.

We in RESPECT oppose nuclear power on principle, but even on his own terms, the leader of Plaid's arguments that he has to support a new nuclear power station in Anglesey due to jobs and the local economy are spurious and misleading.

In this briefing I aim to explain why:

JOBS - NOT UNTIL 2020!

Plaid claims this about jobs. But Wylfa Nuclear Power Station in Anglesey is due to close in 3 years.

The new nuclear power station - Wylfa B - won't be built until at least 2020! Yet we could transfer to renewable energy sources more cheaply in less than 6 years. These new jobs that Plaid tell us about are years away. What do the people of Anglesey do in the mean time?

Plaid also ignore the rich job creating possibilities of renewable energy. There is potentially huge employment for workers in the installation of a vast amount of marine current turbines and maybe even their manufacture according to research by FoE Cymru.

PLAID POLICY MAKES EASIER NEW LABOUR'S NEW PROGRAMME OF NUCLEAR POWER AND RESULTS IN GLOBAL NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION

The Welsh Assembly has resisted the UK government's interest in building new nuclear power stations in Wales.

Ieuan Wyn Jones's u-turn on Nukes represents capitulation.

It also facilitates New Labour's plan to embark on a new programme of building nuclear power stations rather than transfering to renewables.

Plaid are also encouraging nuclear proliferation, if the UK pushes ahead with it's nuclear programme then how can they argue that other countries in the world don't go nuclear?

This increases the danger of another Chernobyl and increased pollution: Radioactive contamination from Sellafield can still be found in the Irish Sea.

ELECTRICITY GAP

The closure of Wylfa in 3 years will result in an electricity gap. How to fill the gap? The government want to continue down the nuclear power/nuclear weapons route. But nuclear power is massively expensive and relies on millions of pounds of tax payers money in subsidies.

Plaid are closing the door to renewables filling the gap by supporting Wylfa B. Plaid and New Labour want to spend 10 years building Wylfa B, a new nuke on Anglesey. But we could transfer to renewables much faster and much cheaper.

Wylfa currently provides around 30% of Wales' electricity.

Existing and proposed offshore and onshore windfarms could generate almost the same amount of electricity in less than 6 years, and tidal lagoons on the severn and Swansea Bay might be able to generate more electricity than Wales needs.

The prospects for renewable energy on Anglesey are actually pretty favourable, just off the Wylfa headland there's a very strong marine current flow, some environmentalists argue that massive amounts of renewable energy could be coaxed through underwater turbines - possibly rivalling the output of Wylfa.

So the choice is a speedy transfer to renewables and educating the electorate, or copping out and arguing for a new nuke that probably won't be built until 2020 at the earliest and would rely on massive public subsidies and pave the way for more nuclear power stations.

There is potentially huge employment for workers in the installation of a vast amount of marine current turbines and maybe even their manufacture according to research by FoE Cymru.

So the choice is between cleaner, cheaper, more environmentally friendly job creating renewables or Plaid and New Labour's expensive, dangerous, unclean, unsustainable, polluting new Nukes.

RESPECT says make Wales and the UK a 'global showcase for clean energy' and demonstrate that nuclear power is unnecessary, unsafe, unclean and uneconomic.

Bridgend LoveMusicHateRacism gig - Easter Saturday!

Full details here:

www.lovemusichateracism.com/events/2007/04/07/876/
In this election socialists will be going forth into battle with the Shield of Unite against Fascism and the Sword of Respect.

Respect will be working in a united front with supporters and members of mainstream political parties, trade unions, community groups and ordinary working people to build MAXIMUM unity against the Nazis & expose the BNP as a Nazi party.

But we also need to go into working class communities with a programme that offers an alternative to the Nazis false solutions to the problems caused by thirty years of neo-liberalism

Dealing with the rats is not enough. You have to rip up the sewers where the rats breed.

Since 1997, New Labour have pursued a neo-liberal domestic policy and a neo-conservative foreign policy. The results have been a disaster for ordinary people at home and abroad.

The despair and anger caused by these policies runs deep, New Labour and the media are trying to deflect this despair and anger on to immigrants, asylum seekers and Muslims.

The 4 main parties in Wales are all wedded - to a greater or lesser degree - to neo-liberalism, that is why Respect aims to build a grassroots alternative to fight neo-liberalism in every sphere of society from the workplace to the ballot box.

In South Wales, Plaid sometimes claim to offer an alternative to New Labour. Yet their leader, has openly argued for a coalition with the Tories, their deputy-leader in the Assembly has called for a coalition with New Labour, while Adam Price MP supports a coalition with the LibDems!

How can you provide an alternative to the mainstream parties if you are in coalition with them?

Huw Williams, a Respect candidate in Wales in 2004 comments on Plaid:

Socialists do need to take on their arguments with regard to their solutions for Welsh workers. This is the weak link for Plaid. It accepts all the arguments of the free market and its consequences. It talks of the need to encourage Welsh businesses, which they see as more progressive than 'foreign capital'. At the same time it states that it would continue to encourage US and Japanese firms to invest. This implies the continuation of a low wage economy and huge tax handouts to the multinationals. These are the very policies which turn people against New Labour in the first place. Only grassroots-based, locally responsive socialist politics can provide a real alternative.

http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=8345

TEN REASONS TO JOIN RESPECT:

1. To End low pay and demand a living wage for all workers.

We call for a minimum wage of £8 per hour.

2. To tax the rich not working people to fund public services.

3. To fight for free education for all. We call for the restoration of a full living grant, abolition of all student fees and defend comprehensive education.

4. To defend council housing and build more sustainable council housing. We stand for cheap, affordable housing for all workers, close to their place of work.

5. To repeal the Tory anti-Trade Union laws.

6. To defend pensions and fight for a massive increase.

7. To stop attacks on asylum seekers, immigrants & Muslims.
We oppose prejudice of any kind, including racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia and discrimination on the basis of disability.

8. To build opposition to Bush/Blair oil wars and international solidarity with workers of all countries.

9. To put people and the environment before profit and build a massive, grassroots movement to save the planet.

10. To end privatisation and re-nationalise all the privatised industries and utilities.