May Day Onwards (The Morning Star)
May Day is an historic opportunity to celebrate our radical past and make demands for the future. It is not just a shopping list of demands on how the working class can benefit from one reform or another, but a coherent declaration of the internationalism of the labour movement.
On Monday morning the BBC led with another alleged Blair-Brown rift, but this time over Pensions. It was claiming the Prime Minister wanted to link future pension rises with earnings, whilst the Chancellor wanted this limited to those over 75. The deeply suspicious would read from this that the ultimate Treasury mandarin aim was for the retirement age to be braised to 75.
Last week at the Annual meeting of Greater London Forum for the elderly, an enormous delegate body of pensioner groups from each of London’s 32 boroughs came together to demand a decent pension, and also to insist upon security in social services, publicly run and accountable care homes and nursing care being part of the NHS. My old friend Mick Kavangh from the engineering workers’ retired members section said Nye Bevan would be turning in his grave at the elderly being forced to sell their homes to pay for nursing care. The debate at the Pensioners Parliament in Blackpool will be stern and strong, for we are on the verge of an historic opportunity.
When the Government finally makes its decision on pensions it should be an opportunity to finally deliver the justice for pensioners that the Tories took away in 1980 and 1986. The facts are all there about pensioner poverty, means testing and the unreliability of the private sector. Perhaps unwittingly, Adair Turner and his voluminous reports have provided all the arguments and evidence.
By breaking the link with earnings in 1980 the Tories succeeded in creating poverty for many pensioners, forcing many more into means tested benefits, and by de-valuing the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme forced many younger workers into dubious private schemes.
Labour, since 1997, has obsessed itself with Pension Credits which, whilst welcome, in the sense they do provide more money, are means tested and do have to be applied for. Many simply cannot or will not apply and thus they lose, whilst the Treasury gains. The mis-selling of pensions by the private sector in the 1980’s was a by-word for Thatcherite free booting capitalism. But we have an opportunity to pout a lot of this right, very quickly.
Firstly, by asserting that the state pension should rise to the Pension Credit level and thus remove the anomalous means testing for a level of income that the State decrees every retire person is entitled to, and then link it at least to the level of earnings rises. For the tiny minority of super rich pensioners, taxation applies anyway, but this would radically improve the lives of many people.
The struggle of public sector workers to defend their pension scheme, which is contributory, is an important one not just for the tens of thousands of members involved, but also for the principle of the final salary schemes. The Government in the form of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is the final guarantor of the Local Government Pension scheme and could, and should, ensure that the Local Authority Employers come to an agreement with the Unions not just to protect existing members, but to ensure that new employees do not become second class employees. We fought to end the anomaly of a two tier work force; and we don’t want two tier retired members either.
The message an agreement on public pensions gives to the rest of the economy is an important one. Company after company is lining up to not just refuse to re-imburse the funds for the contribution holidays they awarded themselves but to end the whole final salary system. Victory in the public sector for justice is a good message elsewhere.
Some self-appointed experts are wont to argue that the National Pensioners Convention charter is un-affordable, and workers should save for themselves in retirement and the state role should be as a final reserve safety net, not a principle provider. In an historic context, this argument belongs more to the pious ravings of Victorian free marketers than the 21st century, but it is still being pursued. At its crudest level it is forcing workers to save privately, another form of taxation, without the accountability or reliability of publicly owned and run schemes.
Barbara Castle did a great deal for the cause of pensioners in 1975 when the economic conditions were very tough. Now we are told by the business pages of the daily papers that, globally, costs must be reduced to compete. It remains a judgement of the quality of our society how we treat our elderly. The next move by the government will tell us which way they want us to go as a society.
Trade Union freedom has always been a demand of the Labour Movement, right back to the repeal of the Combination Acts in 1825. Without the freedom to organise and associate, the ability to represent and demand change is constrained. The whole theme of the history of trade union activities in Britain has been to protect hard won freedoms and develop the working class movement. Each advance is later met by a set back or repression of Union activities. Attacks on funding, the Taff Vale judgement, imprisonment on conspiracy charges of the Shrewsbury builders, the National Industrial Relations Court, sequestration of funds and the Tory legislation under Thatcher are all part of a continuum. After the 1974 election the (then) Labour government rapidly repealed the heath legislation and enshrined Trade Union rights in the 1975 law, which led to a rapid growth in Union membership. New Labour with a much larger majority and a much easier economic environment have been more than timid in refusing to protect workers rights to even the European norm.
The sacking of the Gate Gourmet workers by megaphone and intimidation last year at least alerted the wider public to the crudity of the methods, and the law in this respect. Last year the loss of jobs at Longbridge showed how weak our job protection regulations are. This month the Peugeot workers at Ryton realised they too are expendable because of the weakness of our laws.
The May Day theme this year is the Trade Union Freedom Bill which a large and increasing number of Labour MPs support. John McDonnell, the Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group and of the Labour Representation Committee is right when he says that the test of support for any candidate for the leadership of the Labour Party should be their attitude to this Bill.
Internationalism is not a slogan; it is the only way to bring peace and justice to the world. Protection of social security, welfare systems and workers rights in Western Europe are best done not by compromising and retreat, but by international solidarity to gain workers’ protection and security around the world.
That is best done by strong, independent, and free trade unions.
