Plymouth TUC May Day Newsletter

the Future

2011

Trade Unions for aSustainable Future

Unemployment above 2.5 million, infla-tion at 4.5% and a stagnant economy aretogether causing real crisis for millionsof working class families.

June 30th!

www.plymouth-tuc.org.uk

Solidarity donation £1Solidarity donation £1Solidarity donation £1Solidarity donation £1Solidarity donation £1

Jobs!Jobs!Jobs!Jobs!Jobs!Justice!Justice!Justice!Justice!Justice!

Growth!Growth!Growth!Growth!Growth!THE ALTERNATIVE:

Fight for

Meanwhile, oil companiesannounce record profits,with Shell alone braggingof £4,400,000,000 profit inthe first three months ofthis year. Petrol pricesstay sky high, raising foodprices and transport costs.

But things are aboutto get far worse. Atotal of £18 billion incuts to welfare ben-efits have yet to hit.Tax credit cuts areleaving families £30 aweek worse-off,benefits to more than1.5 million people withdisabilities are beingcut, eligibility forhousing benefit iscapped, and pensionsare being reduced byan average of 11% asthe calculation ismoved from RPI toCPI*. And half-a-million public sectorjob cuts

Rich getting Richer

Banks

BuildingSolidarity

Against theCuts

Strikes and ProtestsMake it a Day of Action against Cuts

March Against the Cuts! 12 Midday

Then there’s the banks.We, the people who paytax, paid tens of billions ofpounds to bail them out.Tens of thousands of bankworkers have lost theirjobs, whilst bank profitsgrow. Lloyds, 41% ownedby us, the tax-payers, hasmade profits of £1 billionfor the past half-year,despite writing-off £6.6bn of“bad debts”. Lloyds own athird of all UK mortgages,and are profiting out of the40,000 home-repossessions this year.But the banks are not beingstopped from continuingthe speculation that causedthe 2008 crash.Meanwhile, the sufferingis increasing. PlymouthTrades Union Council isbuilding co-ordinatedaction against deepsocial injustice.

Rally at the Guildhall, 1pm

Join the Picket lines

Raise support in your workplace andneighbourhood

Sign the Petition agaisnt the Cuts

*For more on CPI and RPI, see centre pages

Privatisation byany other name

The transfer of com-munity health servicesto Social Enterprise isa slow-burn journey toa private health serv-ice. On 17th March,managers in Plymouthagreed the transfer ofour community healthservices to Sentinel.

* Railways* Bus transport* Waste disposalIn fact, the history ofprivatisation is not justabout profit. It is alsoabout social control. It isthe history of taking everynecessity of life out of thecollective ownership anddemocratic control of us alland into the hands of a fewsuper-rich who ration anddeny us our needs unlesswe can pay over the truecost.Privatisation fragments co-ordination of services,forces competition to cutthe unit cost of care, hikes

productivity and forcesdown workers wages.In the NHS, everyoneknows that “lean” workingmeans working your butt-off for less pay.The Government is set tospend £1.7billion on“restructuring” the NHS,calling it “Liberating theNHS”. Yes, the privatehealth companies arebeing given legal rights toliberate the assets of theNational Health Servicethat working people paidfor, owned and enjoyed forgenerations.They must be stopped bypopular protest and co-ordinated strike action.

www.keepournhspublic.com

The end of National Insurance - Why?

Hidden

The new NHS bill laysthe legal foundations forthe privatisation of theNHS, writes Sue Franklin,PTUC Publicity Officer.Health Secretary AndrewLansley is acting with lightningspeed, dismantling bits of thehealth service even before thebill becomes law.The Health & Social Care Billstates that no NHS body willbe allowed to be overspend.So the next part of the jigsawbecomes clear.As £20billion of cuts hit ourHealth Services, GP commis-sioning groups will start to failfinancially. And as they do,private sector companies will beready to move from a supportrole to taking on the wholebudget themselves. The Bill willmean the privatisation of NHShospitals and communityservices. No longer will NHSorganisations be “preferredproviders”—the catchphrase is“any willing provider”.

And the new NHS marketregulator, Monitor, will step toadjudicate if any private hospitalcompany complains that theywere not given the opportunity tobid for NHS contracts.

Hospitals will be allowed tocompete on price, with onehospital vying to undercut thenext. And the management ofany hospital that fails financiallycan be taken over by the privatesector.Gone will be NHS nationalpay and negotiations, withthe new Foundation Trustsfree to set their own payscales. Pensions too will beunder threat.Couple this with “personalbudgets” forced on patients withlong-term conditions.We will end up with a two-tierNHS, with richer patientstopping up their NHS careprivately, just as alreadyhappens in NHS dentistry.

Stop

- Keep OurNationalHealthServicePublic

Privatisation

Marketisation

Pay Cuts

Thanks to Steve Bell for the cartoon All Rights Reserved

£80,000,000,000 is tobe transferred to GPsfrom April, to “pur-chase” the health carethey think we need. InPlymouth, the GPsconsortium, Sentinelwill take over, as a not-for-profit organisation.But wait. What areprofits? Profit is theamount of money thata service produces,after paying for costsof staff and resources.So if the GP’s paythemselves £120,000a year each, plusdividends, thatdoesn’t go on theprofit line.If they “commission”services from themany US-basedprivate medical firmslining-up to make akilling out of our healthneeds, their profitsdon’t show-up onSentinel’s surplus line.

The profit is hidden, butvery much there. Profit isthe hallmark of privatisa-tion. Private businessescharge the tax-payermore to provide a servicethan public non-profitservices ever cost. Thinkof the price-rises byprivatised services overthe past 30 years:* Water* Gas* Electricity

Profit

The National Insurance contributions paid by allworking people include money specificallyallocated to the National Health Service.

In the March 2011 Budget,the Chancellor announceda consultation on theoperational integration ofthe NI contributions andincome tax systems. Why?If you are to privatise theNHS and start chargingfor Health Services, youcannot have peopleseeing their monthlypayments identified intheir pay packets.“Integrating” the taxsystems stops us beingreminded that we pay

specifically for our HealthService, our pensions andour welfare benefits.

Plymouth

No ProtectionNI contirbutions amount to£90billion - 17% of annualgovernment receipts. Thelink between paying NIcontributions and right tobenefits has been weak-ened - now they’re trying toend it. Today, NI paymentscannot be used for generalgovernment spending. Butafter “integration”, wherewill our money go?

Cuts Hurt

Recent employmentfigures show a riseup to 2.5 millionpeople now unem-ployed, writes SarahAllen-Melvin, PTUCVice Chair.Analysis by the TUCshows that unemploy-ment rates amongyoung women haverisen much faster thanmen over the past twoyears, and could get farworse. Saga’s latestresearch shows thenumber of job losses forwomen over 50 hasstarted rising again.The ConDem cuts arenow seeing dramaticreductions in servicesand changes to welfarebenefits and tax that willforce women back intothe home as carers ofelderly relatives andchildren, and at thesame time reduce theirincome as a punishmentfor not working. This is agross social injustice.

More than one in five(about 10,000) children,are living in poverty inPlymouth, admits Ply-mouth’s Tory-led Council.Their plan is to cut Ply-mouth’s poverty by half by2020, but research showsthat child poverty is to risein Plymouth until at least2015. The spending cuts,including cuts to tansportfor disabled children, andmore than £2.5 millionfrom the Council’s Childrenand families budget,including cuts to Children’sCentres, are likely to makematters worse.

The OECD Report*published in April explainedthat “sustained early yearsinvestment is needed tomeet the UK’s childpoverty targets”.

Cuts to services and welfarebenefits, tax-hikes, risinginflation and interest raterises are set to makematters worse, not better.With a million under-25’sout of work, student feesof £9,000 a year prevent-ing access to highereducation, and cuts toservices for vulnerablechildren and youngpeople, the Government isletting down a wholegeneration.The fight against cuts is afight for our children’sfuture.

Condemn

Women WorkersMost of all

Child

Oil price hikesincrease inflation

Sell-off ofpublic servicesputs lives andwelfare at risk

4.5% inflation, taxincreases, andcuts to pay andbenefits reduceworkers’ spend-ing power by 15%

Poverty

Existing benefitcuts mean that 18million house-holds will be atleast £1,000worse off eachyear.

Cuts in child taxcredits from Aprilsee half a millionlose some £440 ayear.

Join Us:Plymouth Fightback Against the Cuts

Phone or text: 07803 620390

@PlymouthTUC

www.plymouth-tuc.org.uk

PO Box 378PlymouthPL1 9BN

Trade Unions for a Sustainable Future

Come to the Tolpuddle march and Rally -Tolpuddle Village, Dorset. Sunday 17th July.

Coaches from Plymouth £10 return all-in.More information, and to book via PayPal go

to www.plymouth-tuc.org.ukBRING BANNERS AND FLAGS!

* The Organisation for EconomicCo-operation and Development(OECD) report can be accessed at:www.oecd.org/social/family/doingbetter

Survival of the Welfare State

7 City Centremarches

10 publicmeetings

8 flashprotests

11 coaches tothe 26th MarchTUC NationalDemonstration

Weeklycampaignstalls

Anti-cutsPetition linksunions withcommunitycampaigners

Plymouth relies onpublic services morethan most cities. His-toric lack of investmentby the private sectorhas left Plymouthisolated and economi-cally vulnerable, writesTony Staunton, Secre-tary of Plymouth TUC.So the 28% cut to publicsector services and jobsby 2014 is a major blow toany hopes for a brighterfuture. And most of thepain is coming in 2011,with terrible job cuts andattacks on pay rates,conditions of service andpension rights.More than 400 jobs arebeing lost at DerrifordHospital, let alone the fall-out after transfer of theCommunity Health Trust inApril.500 more jobs are to go atPlymouth City Council andmore at Princess Yachts andthe airport. As predicted,the privatised CityBus are

cutting jobs and services.Shops are closing downevery week, building work-ers sacked and factoriesshedding their workforcemonth-by-month.

Plymouth Trades UnionCouncil re-launchedPlymouth FightbackAgainst the Cuts in August2010, and has broughttogether students, work-ers, pensioners groups,claimants campaigns,local politicians, tradeunionists andcommunity groups incommon cause to fightagainst all the cuts.Whatever your particualrissue, the cuts to localjobs and services, payand conditions threatensthe medium term hopesfor our city, and we mustjoin in a united front tostop the cuts and fight forevery job!

Inflation rise'won't helpcut jobless'Rising inflation willhinder attempts totackle unemploy-ment, Governmentministers haveadmitted, as figuresshow a markedincrease in Ply-mouth's jobless total.The number ofpeople claiming dolein the city was 6,741in March 2011, and

rising. A third ofthose out ofwork inPlymouthare aged 18-24, higherthan thenationalaverage of28%.

United Front

Plymouth-tuc.org.uk

Unionsconsider30th June

Co-ordinatedStrike Action

The National Union ofTeachers is leading the callfor co-ordinated industrialaction to defend pensions.The UCU and PCS unionshave already declared theirreadiness to ballot. Healthworkers in Unite are talkingabout co-ordinated action.These unions are comittedto industrial action toprevent workers having topay more every month, andwork much longer toreceive less in pensionpay-outs.This issue is getting morebitter as inflation and thetwo-year pay freeze bite.Current public sectorpension schemes are notshort of funds and areaffordable. The highercontributions are a new tax.This is a simple classattack on the very exist-ence of a decent publicsector, final-salarypension scheme.

www.plymouth-tuc.org.uk

5 CouncilLobbies

We’ve only just begun!

This is a fight for the

13 more

Half-a-Million on TUCMarch Against Cuts!

The largest protest bytrades unions in over 70years! We wage slavesare revolting!The movement against thecuts is growing fast. Justconsider that each one ofthe half-a-million returnedto their workplaces andneighbourhoods strongerand more resolved to fight,knowing that we are notalone, isolated or in theminority.The vast majority ofordinary working peopleare against the cuts.But Britain is divided, moreand more polarisedbetween the rich and thepoor. The media is ownedby some of the richest tax-dodgers in the world. Littlewonder they played-downthe demonstration.

A secret ‘war plan’ to prevent a general strike has been drawn up by

ministers – with thousands of union-busting workers lined up to cross

militant picket lines. A unit has been set up in the Cabinet Office to

prevent Britain grinding to a standstill in the event of mass public sector

walkouts.Officials have conducted ‘war games’ to ensure that strike breakers are

available to run vital facilities such as the Tube and energy hotspots such

as power stations. Transport managers and prison bosses have been

ordered to organise agency workers and teams of managers to cross

picket lines amid fears of a nationwide summer of industrial action.

Ministers believe militant union bosses are planning to bring Britain to a

halt with coordinated strikes throughout the public services.

The unit, run by Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude has analysed the

workforce to work out where the most militant union staff are based. The

plans, drawn up in utmost secrecy, are the coalition’s attempt to emulate

Margaret Thatcher’s preparations ahead of the miners’ strike in 1984.

Ministers are conscious it would be extremely difficult to keep every

public service functioning in the event of coordinated strikes.

The strikebusters:Secret plansdrawn up to tacklethreat of a mass walkout By Tim Shipman

22nd February 2011‘

’‘Nuff Said

Reasonsto

the

1. 162,000 council jobcuts and 52,000 HealthService jobs to goThe proposed council job lossestotal currently stands at162,718, according to the GMBunion. The TUC publishedresearch showing at least52,000 NHS jobs will be cut thisyear.

2. The rich are gettingricherThe wealth of the 1,000 richestpeople in Britain stands at arecord £336 billion, according tothe Sunday Times rich list.It went up by an incredible £77billion last year. Why not tax thatinstead of cutting jobs andservices?

3. Tax dodges of thewealthyThe rich already avoid or evade£120 billion a year of tax,according to the PCS civilservice workers’ union. BarclaysBank paid less than 2.5% tax ontheir £6.2billion profit this year,whilst workers pay between 25and 33%. Companies such asVodafone and Topshop uselegal tax dodges to get out ofpaying their way. Tax the Rich!

4. Bosses’ obsceneand growing payThe bosses of the FTSE 100top companies paid themselvesan average of £4.9 million lastyear.Bart Becht of ReckittBenckiser, Britain’s highest paidchief executive, pocketed £92.6million—more than 3,000workers at the firm put togetherCuts!

Fight

5. Billions spent onkilling and dyingThe war in Afghanistan costsBritain £4.5 billion a year, letalone the cost of casualties -bring the troops home now!

6. Stop the war onthe poorThe Tories are forcing unem-ployed people into unpaid work.And they have brought in harshtesting for disability benefits.Private contractor Atos hasdeclared people with severedisabilities as “fit to work”, whichhas thrown them off badly-needed benefits

7. Fight to save ournurseriesIn Manchester, the cuts meanthe council is closing everySureStart nursery unless“volunteers” can be found to runthem. This could soon happeneverywhere. In Plymouth,Children’s Centres are currently“out to tender”.

9. Cuts discriminateServices dedicated to women,LGBT people, black and Asianpeople and people withdisabilities have been some ofthe first to go in the cuts. Thesegroups also make up a higherproportion of workers in thepublic sector, and so are morelikely to lose their jobs. InPlymouth and Devon, servicesfor people suffering DomesticAbuse have been slashed by atleast 40%.

10. Plans to banstrikesThe Tories are threatening tomake the already draconiananti-union laws even harsher byrequiring minimum turnoutsbefore strike ballots are valid—and to make it legal to sackanyone on the spot who hasbeen employed for less than twoyears

8. Pensions slashedUp to five million public sectorworkers will work for longer andpay more in contributions, andend up with lower pensions atthe end of it.The government is alreadyplaying the trick of changing therate they increase at from RPI

inflation measure to the lowerCPI rate.This means the average publicsector worker will see theamount paid into their pensionfall from £7,250 a year to just£4,750.But the government has evenworse plans lined up. Itspensions review is also lookingat raising workers’ contributionrates—effectively a pay cut.And the pension age is risingmore quickly to 66. If you’remale and under 40, you’ll haveto work until you’re at least 68

11. Health and safetycuts killThe Tories’ plan to deal with50,000 work-related deaths ayear, according to TUC figures,is to slash the number of healthand safety inspections.

13. Royal MailprivatisationNot even Margaret Thatcherdared to sell Royal Mail—but thecoalition has private mail firmslined up to take it over. Leadingbidder TNT closed all its ownpost officesin theNetherlandstwo yearsago - go to:

12. Academy SchoolsAll the talk about parents andcommunity groups runningschools is a Trojan horse forhanding over control ofeducation to business groupsand privateers, costing parentsmore for less for their children.

www.cwu.org

www.antiacademies.org.uk

www.stopwar.org.uk

PlymouthUnions

News

BriefTHE Welby respite unit forpeople with learningdisabilities closed onMarch 31, with no alterna-tive resource. ColwillLodge is due to be ex-tended, but work has notstarted and is anticipatedto take seven months tocomplete. This facility willonly available for theminority of people who useWelby, and those who areable to use it will have norespite for several months.Prime Minister DavidCameron recently statedthat councils were given anextra £8million to fundrespite care. This figurewas not ring fenced, sowhere is this money beingused in Plymouth?

Day Care Cuts

October's defence reviewannounced 8% cuts tomilitary spending by 2014,set against 28% cuts to theCity’s council services. TheReview honoured thecontract for two aircraftcarriers and spared HMSOcean at an estimatedcost of £7 billion. Follwoinga huge public campaignagainst these cuts lastAutumn, the Governmenthas declared committmentto keeping the frigates inPlymouth, as well as thereplacement of the Tridentnuclear weapons pro-gramme, currently costing£2.2billion a year.

Defence Jobs success

Just as we predicted when we supported the Unite trade union campaignagainst the sell-off of our public buses last year, the private company iscutting jobs and services, putting profit before public need, writes DaveFranklin, Chair of PTUC. PLYMOUTH Citybus is axing 'loss-making' routesin the latest round of public transport cuts. Angry residents have slammedchanges as "diabolical" while others said elderly and vulnerable people arebeing left trapped intheir homes.Citybus bosses saidthe withdrawal offive services andchanges to a furthersix are "frustrating"but necessary toprotect drivers' jobsand the network'sfuture. The com-pany is also consid-ering a general fareincrease, and hasplaced driverrecruitment on hold.Plymouth TradesUnion Councilsupport the Plymouth Campaign: “Save Our Bus Services” and will workclosely with local neighbourhood campaigns and the Plymouth TransitionsGroup, whoseSustainable Trans-port Plan, SmileyTransport, wasendorsed by PTUClast year.

Save OurBus Services

Plymouth SOBS

in

Plymouth Trades UnionCouncil believes thatcatastrophic climatechange is the greatestthreat to the future ofhumanity and the envi-ronment.There is no doubt that ClimateChange is with us, as extremeweather conditions across theworld have proven in the pastfew months.Governments are doing littleor nothing to address thescale of the challenge todramatically reduce emissionsof CO2 and other greenhousegases quickly. The ConDemCoalition has cut £40billion ofinvestments earmarked for

green energy productionand green jobs.We support the call forthe Marine Energy Parkat South Yard of Devon-port Dockyard. and theCampaign againstClimate Change cam-paign for investment in 1million green Jobs toreflate the economy andreduce energy emissions.Buy the pamphlet at:

www.campaigncc.org

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BillyHayesGeneralsecretary, PostalWorkers unionThere is a real danger thatCameron will give everyracist a licence to intimidateMuslims.I welcome the response ofUnite Against Fascism,Love Music Hate Racism,and One Society ManyCultures, to challengehim.In the unions we mustensure our members andactivists are alert to theincreased potential forattacks upon Muslims, insidethe workplace and thecommunity.

Mark SerwotkaGeneral Secretary,CivilServiceunionCameron wants to return us toa time before anti-racism—when other cultures wereregarded as second class.This is just the latestdespicable attack on Muslimpeople. But this is also anattack on us all.His words were deliberatelychosen to cause division, atexactly the time when people inour communities the length andbreadth of the country areuniting.Instead of addressing thegenuine concerns of workingclass people of all cultures,faiths and skin colours,Cameron is seeking toscapegoat minorities.I, and my union, stand forsolidarity. We supportmulticulturalism for the samereasons that we oppose thegovernment’s devastatingplans to slash public servicesand spending.These are the things that bindus together and we must not letCameron, the far right oranyone else drive us apart.

Sign the statement on-line atwww.gopetition.com/petitions/defend-multiculturalism.html

KanjaIbrahimSesayNUS Black Students’OfficerCameron’s flawed concept of thebig society is that it appears toinclude everyone but the Muslimcommunity. Multiculturalism ispart of British life. It leads to amore integrated society thatpromotes social cohesion basedon being nformed andrespectful. We must continue tocelebrate it and do all we can topromote it. We can create amore inclusive society, which willdefeat extremism and fascism.

Len McCluskey, leaderof Britain’s biggestunion, Unite, is aleading signature tothe petition opposingDavid Cameron’s atack

on multiculturalism,writes Hayley Kemp,PTUC.He is joined by MPJohn McDonnell,Aaron Porter presidentof the NUS, TSSAgeneral secretaryGerry Doherty, DilowarKhan, the executivedirector of East Lon-don Mosque andLondon Muslim Centre

and London Assemblymember MuradQureshi, along withlocal councillors,campaigners, artistsand thousands ofothers.The petition waslaunched afterCameron’s attack onmulticulturalism andBritain’s Muslimssparked outrage.

uaf.org.uk

No Divide-and-RuleUnite Against Fascism

lovemusichateracism.com

David Cameron feelssupport draining awayand he’s fighting backby sinking into thepolitics of the racistgutter—with a speechscapegoating immi-grants.He wants us to blameeach other for thecrisis, rather than therich.Immigration hadnothing to do withcreating the crisis. Butif people blame mi-grants it will allow theTories to continue theirattacks without resist-ance.

Cameron says thatlarge scale immigrationis a problem because itdestabilises Britain’scommunities.But apparently havinga library, hospital orswimming pool closedhas no such effect. It is

the Government that ismaking £86 billion ofcuts, not immigrants!And he can’t get awayfrom the fact that mostpeople who arrive inBritain come from withinthe EU or as students.

The prime Minister usedhis latest speech duringthe April local govern-ment elections to alsoattack people on welfare:“Migrants are filling gapsin the labour market leftwide open by a welfaresystem that for yearshas paid British peoplenot to work.” For him, itwould appear, any poorperson on benefits is ascrounger.This cynical speech isenough to give confi-dence to the racists andto try to divide workersin order to divert atten-tion from the true causeof the Cuts - banker’s

greed and non-paymentof taxes by the super-rich.The problem is thatthese lies about migra-tion can take hold. Arecent poll for theRefugee Councilshowed that mostpeople “wildly overesti-mated” the numbers ofrefugees in Britain.Nearly half thought that100,000 were acceptedin 2009. The true figurewas 4,175.

Despite this discrep-ancy, the survey foundthat a large majority ofpeople were sympa-thetic to those fleeingpersecution to seekprotection.We can stop Cameron’sfilth by countering hislies and pointing to thereal cause of povertyand unemployment -private profit.

Destabilising

Divide & Rule

Unity is Strength

More Information:

www.thepeoplescharter.org

www.righttowork.org.ukwww.campaigncc.orgwww.campaigncc.orgwww.campaigncc.orgwww.campaigncc.orgwww.campaigncc.org

www.tuc.org.uk//economy/tuc-18115-f0.cfm

www.plymouth-tuc.org.ukwww.plymouth-tuc.org.ukwww.plymouth-tuc.org.ukwww.plymouth-tuc.org.ukwww.plymouth-tuc.org.uk

Plymouth Trades Union CouncilPO Box 378, Plymouth PL1 9BNPhone or Text 07803 620390

Plymouth Trades Union Council supports:

www.antiacademies.org.uk

Buy the new Pamphlet:“Defending the WelfareState” at www.righttowork.org.uk

Support Fightback, printed quarterly:

www.defendcouncilhousing.org.ukwww.stopwar.org.ukwww.amnesty.org.uk

IIW c/o PO Box 378, Plymouth PL1 9BN07722 140726 www.iiw.org.uk

80 metre chimney stack, lorries and toxic fumes

NO INCINERATOR!RESIDENTS in Barne Barton, St Budeaux and Weston Millhave been fighting controversial plans for a waste incinerator onDevonport Dockyard land. Plymouth Trades Union Councilhave offered support since more than 100 people launched thecampaign at a public meeting in February 2010.Set up to oppose the plans for the Incinerator, the IIW are angryabout MVV Umwelt's proposal to build an Energy From Waste(EfW) Incinerator plant on a plot in Devonport's North Yard. 4major protests marches in the City, and lobbies of PlymouthCouncillors have raised issues of toxic fumes, 120 lorries a daypast primary schools, and the lack of democratic accountabilityin the process of deciding a £1.5billion Private Finance Initiativecontract tying Plymouth to hefty repayments for 25 years. Thescheme is an attack on working class communities and thecouncil tax payer, and must be stopped.

Plymouth Trades Union

Plymouth Trades Union Council comprisesdelegates from 14 trade union branches inPlymouth with a combined membership of18,000 workers in the City and surrounding area.

We offer support, solidarity and an actionnetwork between workers, pensioners, studentsand claimants across Plymouth, and link withprogressive campaigns in the community, withthe intention of helping develop a mutuallybeneficial and sustainable future for the peopleof Plymouth.

Plymouth Trades Union Council is affiliated tothe Trades Union Congress (TUC) nationally.

Why not Join Us? www.plymouth-tuc.org.uk

Secretary: Tony StauntonAssistant Secretary: Diana BealChair: Dave FranklinVice Chair: Sarah Allen-MelvinPresident: Paddy Ryan

Council

Thanks to Steve Bell for the cartoon All Rights Reserved

Trade Unions call for an

Unite the union, UNISON, the Scottish Trade Union Congressand the Plymouth Trades Union Council are leading growingconcern about the NATO military intervention in Libya. Thestatement from Unite sums-up the issue:

end to War on Libya

Unite the Union believes the attack on Libya by British, French and USforces is wrong and should be halted. While holding no brief for ColonelGaddafi and his regime, and strongly supporting the movements nowdeveloping for democracy and freedom across the Arab world, Unitebelieves the present military intervention is a mistake because:

It risks killing Libyan civilians while doing nothing toend hostilities on the ground.It prolongs a civil conflict when what is needed is aceasefire followed by mediation. It raises the possibility of escalation leading tomilitary occupation of all or part of Libya, whensimilar occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan haveshown how disastrous and counter-productive suchinterventions are. This could lead to a wider war inthe region.The action has little or no Arab involvement, and isopposed by, amongst others, Russia, China andIndia, leaving it dependent on those westernpowers whose policies have aroused deep hostilitythroughout the Middle East.It stands in contrast to the indulgence shown by thegovernment to the autocrats in Bahrain, SaudiArabia and elsewhere who have been allowed torepress movements for democracy in their owncountries with impunity.

We urge the British government to think again, call a halt to the militaryaction and urge a general ceasefire to be followed by internationalmediation. www.stopwar.org.ukMore info: