This blog is written in a personal capacity. Its mission is to both maintain and reflect my interests in activist/worker education, as well as those areas of interest allied to my equalities and diversity role at Equity, the union for workers in the creative industries. No aspect of this blog reflects Equity policy.
From Mon-Weds this week I spent an immensely rewarding time at the final dissemination event which marked the end of the GFTU's successful SAATT (supporting active ageing through training) project.
Representatives of the partners from the GFTU's SAATT project
at the Raseborg Institute 12-13th June 2012
We were hosted at the Raseborg Institute by the project's Finnish partners, the largest public sector union in Finland, JHL (www.jhl.fi/portal/en). The Institute is an incredibly impressive educational and leisure facility owned by JHL and located in the south of Finland near the town of Karis.
Attending the event were representatives of all the project partners: EKA, the Athens Labour Centre, the Professional Staff Asssociation of the World Food Programme and COMMUNITAS the education and training arm of COMMUNITY.
At the heart of the project, funded by the European Commission's social dialogue strand, was a focus on the employment, economic and health needs of older workers facing retirement, employment past retirement age or a mixture of both. The project developed two training programmes one aimed at TU reps (including on online version) and focused on the primary collective bargaining areas around the concept of 'age management' and a programeme aimed at individual TU members which includes an element on diet and nutrition in later life.
The project is set within the context of an ageing Europe and where across EU member states the default retirement age is being withdrawn.
The project benefited from expert input from nutritional specialists from within the World Food Programme, and in particular Ann Callinan who spoke at the Finland event. So, whilst this particular project has concluded we are left with valuable training resources available to project partners and affiliates of the GFTU.
Tiina Saarelam of the Finnish
Institute of Occupational Health introducing
the FIOH approach to age power at work
Sirpa Puolakka of the WEA in Finland delivered
a session on the creation of well-being at work
A big thanks to Riitta Vehovaara of JHL for supporting
project activity in Finland and organsing the
June event
Ann Callinan of the WFP takes delegates through her resources
on diet and nutrition for trade union members
Over the next few weeks the students of the MA that I run at Ruskin (international labour and trade union studies) will complete and submit their dissertations.
Although they need to be marked and externally examined I will take this opportunity to share with you the phenomenally impressive body of original research undertaken and highlight its contribution to the future of labour movements globally.
I shall start with the research focus of Jenny Webber. Jenny's focus is on the trade union experience of trade unions organising sex workers in the UK and France.
As an ex-GMB official Jenny's starting point is an analysis of the approach of the International Union of Sex Workers (www.iusw.org/) which is a branch of the GMB. Her research focuses on a comparative analysis of the experience of the IUSW and STRASS (The Union for Sex Workers) (http://site.strass-syndicat.org/category/english/) in France.
When Jenny originally proposed the research topic I shared her enthusiasm for exploring the range of economic, social, health and political issues of sex workers both in the UK and globally.
What I admittedly was not fully conscious of was the depth and complexity of the debate around sex workers from a feminist perspective.
Some of this became clearer when a representative of the IUSW, Catherine Stephens, spoke to the MA cohort, and it was here where I understood for example, the historical rejection by radical feminists of sex work as work, and thus as something which is legitimised, even if partly, when unionised.
As an aspect of her research Jenny attended the Sex Worker Open University (SWOU) which was held in October 2011 in London. The clip of the activity within the SWOU gives a real insight to the atttitude of sex workers themselves to the issues of unionisation, and of their perspective of feminist and governmental attitude towards sex work.
From a personal perspective I share Jenny's primary conviction that sex workers are workers, and that their interests and concerns overlap with mainstream workers in several areas - not least in the form of protection from unfair employment practices. Whilst I acknowledge the need to debate the political and economic contexts of sex work, I feel uncomfortable denying a particular group of workers/people the opportunity for self-organisation and self-determinism.
Please take the time ot have a look at the clip and feedback on the issue raised. Jenny will hopefully be able to respond to those who post a response.
In solidarity
Ian
PS I should add that Jenny appears in this video. She is seen initially holding the placard 'There are no bad women, just bad laws'.
Later today we'll know whether the local and national labour movement in the US has been able to displace Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker through what's known as a recall - essentially a local referendum. This is the man who last year sought to take a hammer to the basic human right to belong to a trade union and to allow for free collective bargaining.
If Walker wins the referendum then all other Republican governors across the States will have a green light to attack trade union membership and bargaining rights just as we witnessed in Wisconsin last year. The battle in Wisconsin was one however, where the labour movement in the States clearlty pulled out the stops and, as on many occasion, they were able to show the trade union movement internationally that despite low union membership levels, there is still plenty of fight in the movement.
As Gary Younge wrote in yesterday's Guardian this battle tells us much about the state of the working class in the US and the price it is continuing to pay for the economic crisis. In effect, and with no attempt at grandstanding, Younge reports on the clash between this Tea Party Republican and the Wisconsin labour movement, as nothing short of class war.
Walker's record speaks for itself. In his first year in office Wisconsin lost more jobs than any other state, and was one from last in private sector job growth. He has cut tax relief to low-income families and the state's Medicaid program. He has introduced a voter ID bill that will limit minority and low-income electoral participation, reproductive rights legislation that has forced Planned Parenthood to suspend providing basic services to women and repealed the law that protects equal pay for women. In short, he has hammered working people, undermined the capacity of those who represent them and marginalised many of those who might vote for their interests while effecting a massive redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich: a more balanced budget for a more unequal society.
Allied to the situation in Wisconsin is the backing by US multinationals of Walker's campaign and, as Rachel Maddow, amongst others, has shown, what we are witnessing is an assault on workers' right backed principally by corporate interests. This clip of Maddow was shown at last Saturday's TUC Grassroots event and underlines the real concern about democratic accountability broadly, but more specifically the outcome of the Wisconsin recall for trade unionism across the US: http://tinyurl.com/cnwu6ng.
A key theme of Younge's piece, and of much coverage of the labour matters globally, is the extent to which workers, their families and communites are paying a high price for an economic crisis not of their making.
Whilst I wouldn't suggest that UK trade unions face the same local onslaught as sisters and brothers in Wisconsin, the national threat overall is very similar. Clearly the thrust of the Beecroft and Lofstedt reviews of employment and health and safety law, for example, are posited in the same oxymoronic tone by the Coalition as their acolytes in the Republican right - you can create new jobs by destroying existing ones, and if trade unions are the defence of workers and those jobs, well, we'll get rid of them too.
Obviously, we send a strong message of solidarity to US trade unionists today, and hope the that the Wisconsin recall goes the right way. If it does, then let us spend some time understanding how and why, and using this experience to defend workers' rights in states with Republican governors as rabid as Walker.
If not, then the battle in Wisconsin gets repeated across the US and our support in this fight will be required more than ever, not least because, their fight is ours.
Colleagues,
Just returning from a great time with international, European and UK trade unionists. First stop Rome for 2 days with trade unions allied to a European TU project on safeguarding the interests of older workers. Then onto the TUC Grassroots event on Saturday to run a stall (with my colleague Tracy Walsh - who co-ordinates the TU and labour studies BA at Ruskin). As you can see from the pictures the TUC event was also a great way to meet up with friends old and new.
Thanks again to Becky Wright (Director of the TUC's Organising Academy) for enabling Ruskin to have a presence at Saturday's event, and for putting together an impressive opportunity to explore the intersection between trade unionism and community organising - truly a major opportunity to secure social justice for workers and the communities they belong to.
But of course, this has been the mission of Ruskin College since its creation in 1899, so we were very pleased to be at the start of a modern push to explore a new approach to a traditional role of labour movements both in the UK and globally.
Tracy Walsh and I proudly promoting
Ruskin College at Grassroots
Standing in the Forum next to the Colliseum
in Rome on Friday
TUC Grassroots presented an installation created
by students from Goldsmiths comprising placards from
demonstrations in 2011
Outgoing MA ILTUS student Ben Egan pictured
with incoming MA student Jayne Pinder - both organisers
with the NUT
Ruskin is proud of its association with Amnesty International's
Trade Union Network. Shane Enright (pictured here) is AI's TU
Campaigns Managers
& Global TU Adviser - what a great job!
Ellie O'Hagen (just returning from the UK Uncut
party outside Nick Clegg's house) introducing
UNITE's community organising
campaign.
Just a brief post as I am on the hoof at the moment but I couldn't help noticing the sheer mess of contradictions coming from the right as news is released about the potential attack on employment rights contained in the Beecroft review of employment law due to be published at the end of the week.
At least Vince Cable has come out opposing the main thrust of the proposals and is quite rightly arguing that they send the wrong message and don't support a strategy of investment and growth.
It is quite clear that the proposals represent an assault on basic employment rights masquerading as a need for small firms flexibility during austerity.
As revealed in a BBC news item today the right can't identify whether the proposals are to enable business owners to more easily sack people, or to create more jobs for the unemployed - or perhaps they are both sides of the same coin? I suppose like most Tory messages, it is designed to appeal to different people on different days of the week.
Tory MP Damian Collins is quoted as saying "It would be terrible if smaller businesses were holding back on recruiting
because they're worried about whether they can sustain the income they need to
keep those people on over the longer period of time."
On another part of the lunatic spectrum Adam Marshall, director of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said:
"Of course employment rights are important, but should be weighed against
opportunities for the unemployed who are looking for work."
So, between Collins and Marshall British workers can expect the removal of a front door at their place of work, and the installation of one that revolves instead.
Colleagues,
GFTU staff (in the form of myself, Judith Jackson, and the General Secretary, Doug Nicholls - pictured standing on left) were proud to join REMPLOY staff and supporters at a lobby of Parliament and the DWP offices on Thursday.
Despite the looming closure of REMPLOY factories the Coalition has still offered no credible solution to the likelihood thst staff will lose their jobs and end up on benefit or, worse still, forced through the punative work capability assessment (WCA) into inappropriate work reduced benefit entitlement.
When the WCA was introduced many concerns were raised (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13611298) about the stringent measures used to assess the suitability of applications for incapacity benefit (now re-labelled as employment support allowance (ESA)) and of the particurlarly harsh outcomes for those with a mental health illness.
Despite the acknowledged support of a range of charities for the closure of REMPLOY factories it is an undeniable fact that the bulk of UK employers pointedly (although not explicitly) refuse to hire applicants who disclose a form of disability. This has been the case historically (and in fact was the catalyst for the creation of REMPLOY in the first place) and certainly since the creation of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act (now embedded within the Equality Act 2010).
The static state of high unemployment for the disabled is captured by the latest assessment of data by poverty.org: At every level of qualification, the proportion of people aged 25 to 49 with a work-limiting disability who lack, but want, paid work is much greater than for those without a disability.
So, what is to be done? Nothing probably. Despite the economic viability of many of the factories the government refuses to investigates proposals to rescue any. And, in the current economic context, supported by what the data tells us, the prospects of employment for those sacked do not look good.
But, the fight goes on - and I am sure I speak for all of those who look at this blog from time to time, when I say that we are in solidarity with them in their fight.
It was very sad to hear the news of the death of Vidal Sassoon as his departure marks the loss of one of the UK's true fighters again fascism. Most people only know of Sassoon as a high stylist - and of course he is rightly regarded in this respect - but for many on the left his true legacy is his active role as a member of the infamous 43 group of Jewish ex-servicemen and women who took the fight to Moseley's Blackshirts (and other far-right groups) in the immediate aftermath of the second world war.
I hadn't heard of this aspect of Sassoon's life until, as a student at Ruskin College, I read Maurice Beckman's famous analysis of the birth and activity of the 43 Group (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/43_Group).
Sassoon never hid his roots as an anti-fascist street fighter and in the period when he took up scissors rather than rocks invested time and money into tackling racism and anti-semitism. To get a flavour of why he joined the 43 Group and its relevance to the fight against racism here is an extract from an interview he gave to the Jewish Chronicle a few years ago.
The 43 Group: Their legacy remains
“It was a rather strange situation because the war was over. Before the war there was quite a strong fascist party led by Oswald Mosley and he and his cohorts were put in detention (jail) during the war by Churchill. After the war they came out and immediately started up again with their anti-Semitism and running through the streets and having meetings, it was quite ridiculous. Many truly brave Jewish ex-servicemen started the “43 Group” because there were 43 people at the first meeting they had. These were tough men who had been through the war. Of course volunteers were needed, I was 16 or 17 at the time, most of my friends joined the 43 Group and there were quite a few hundred of us. Truly the fascists were smashed in the streets and yes if you were scared at times [it was] because it was scary. But after we saw the pictures that came out and the whole story of the Holocaust, there was actually no way we could allow fascists to run through the streets. I was arrested one night and put in jail, the following day the judge told me ‘to be a good boy’ and let me go. That was our life in those days, we decided that we were absolutely not going to allow what happened pre-war when Jews were just beat up indiscriminately in the streets. It worked beautifully because of mainly the tough Jewish characters that were in the British armed forces during the war, they were the people that did it. But also there were quite a few gentiles who had seen the camps, the horror of Europe and fought with us.”
Sadly Sassoon lived long enough to witness the rise of new, virulent forms of far-right activity in the UK, but what he, and other members of the 43 group bequeath us is the spirit to continue the fight.
