Hello comrades.

weekend just gone The Socialist Party set up a booth to speak with festival goers and union members, other political groups were present too such as the SWP, Communist Party and the RCP, Workers Party. this year we faced less mud but also less crowds although the weather was mostly wet we all had a pretty good time paying respects to the martyrs of Tolpuddle with banners and flags raised high. looking forward to Socialism 2024 Festival where again we can share in solidarity but hopefully in dryer weather and cheaper beer.

while at Tolpuddle Martyrs we pushed unions to consider forming a workers party with mass union backing, this could be the party to confront Labour and the greater capitalist structure of our politics, we campaigned with flyers as well as through petitions and dialogs in large talk-events held by notable union members.

Who is striking and when? Find out the strikes this week and how they will affect you with the UK Strike Action Calendar. Full date listings of all currently planned regional and country-wide strikes.

A recent BBC interview with the president of Guyana, Irfaan Ali, has racked up millions of views. In it, he calls out the hypocrisy of the interviewer questioning his government’s plans to extract billions of dollars worth of oil and gas from Guyana’s newly discovered reserves, on the basis that this will contribute to global climate change.

Ali points out that, even after extracting those resources, Guyana will still be carbon neutral due to its huge untouched forest, covering 80% of the country, with the lowest deforestation rate in the world.

He poses some questions to the interviewer: ‘If you value biodiversity and the climate, are you [the West] willing to pay for it?’ He argues that the global capitalist system leaves him no choice but to extract the oil and gas: “We have this natural resource. And we’re going to aggressively pursue this natural resource because we have to develop our country.” Around half of Guyana’s population live under the poverty line, but the country has seen economic growth averaging over 40% over the last three years due to the influx of oil money. Profit problem

This highlights the major problem with attempting to solve the climate crisis under a capitalist system: the lack of profit to be made from protecting natural resources and the inability of capitalist nation states to cooperate in developing global productive potential. Capitalism is incapable of taking the united international action needed to reverse climate warming.

The serious thinkers of capitalism are only too aware that climate change is an existential threat that needs urgent action. Their proposals, however, are always constrained by the limits of the system they defend. To implement the urgent and sweeping changes needed to avoid climate catastrophe requires a global socialist plan of production, based on nationalisation of major industries under the democratic control and management of the working class.

In a recent address to investors, the former British Petroleum (BP) chief executive Lord John Browne urged them to consider Aesop’s fable of the rider who stops feeding his horse in peacetime, only to find it lame when war comes. The soldier in the analogy represented the companies who are pulling back on climate action, creating more long-term risk for all concerned as the ever-greater effects of the climate crisis loom.

We need council homes. Over a million people languish on waiting lists for council housing. In the main, these are people who cannot get together huge deposits either for rent or a mortgage, who can’t afford gruelling private rents, and don’t have the ability to buy a home either.

So-called affordable housing is out of reach for millions. 40% of council housing built in the last century is now in the hands of private landlords thanks to Thatcher’s ‘Right to Buy’ – kept in place by Labour and Tories since – and the fact sold homes haven’t been replaced.

Add in to the mix the amount of housing, social and private, that is in horrendous condition with black mould, damp, lack of proper fire access, and everything else making tenants unwell and sometimes causing death.

A tenant who puts their head above the parapet and complains about the condition of their home faces the threat of a Section 21 ‘no-fault’ eviction. The previous Tory government said they were going to end these but, considering they have so many landlords in their ranks (as with Labour), it’s no surprise that they weren’t willing to make it happen.

As the sun rose on 24th February 1834, Dorset farm labourer George Loveless set off to work, saying goodbye to his wife Betsy and their three children. They were not to meet alone again for three years, for as he left his cottage in the rural village of Tolpuddle, the 37-year-old was served with a warrant for his arrest.

Loveless and five fellow workers – his brother James, James Hammett, James Brine, Thomas Standfield and Thomas’s son John – were charged with having taken an illegal oath. But their real crime in the eyes of the establishment was to have formed a trade union to protest about their meagre pay of six shillings a week – the equivalent of 30p (or roughly £50 when adjusted for inflation to today’s money) and the third wage cut in as many years.

With the bloody French Revolution and the wrecking of the Swing Rebellion fresh in the minds of the British establishment, landowners were determined to stamp out any form of organised protests. So when the local squire and landowner, James Frampton, caught wind of a group of his workers forming a union, he sought to stamp it out. Workers met either under the sycamore tree in the village or in the upper room of Thomas Standfield’s cottage. Members swore of an oath of secrecy – and it was this act that led to the men’s arrest and subsequent sentence of seven years’ transportation.

In prison, George Loveless scribbled some words: “We raise the watchword, liberty. We will, we will, we will be free!” This rallying call underlined the Martyrs’ determination and has since served to inspire generations of people to fight against injustice and oppression. Transportation to Australia was brutal. Few ever returned from such a sentence as the harsh voyage and rigours of slavery took their toll. After the sentence was pronounced, the working class rose up in support of the Martyrs. A massive demonstration marched through London and an 800,000-strong petition was delivered to Parliament protesting about their sentence.

The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the campaign that freed them inspires us to fight on. The annual festival reflects the spirit of those prepared to stand up and be counted and for those just learning about the history it is a joyful celebration of our solidarity.

any comrades coming to Tolpuddle Martyrs festival?

Every year 5000 people gather in the green fields of Tolpuddle to celebrate our movement, how far we've come, and debate and strategise for how we continue fighting for workers rights in the UK and beyond. Join us in the green fields of Tolpuddle, 19-21 July 2024!

Now the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) is publishing a statistical review of the election – The 2024 General Election Fact File – a draft report prepared by the TUSC national election agent Clive Heemskerk for the first post-election meeting of the TUSC all-Britain steering committee taking place on July 17th.

Including the TUSC candidates’ results, after discussion at the steering committee it will be published on the website’s Candidates Page as a public record – as has been TUSC practice for every election we have stood candidates in since 2011.

The result, in terms of the number of seats, is a Labour landslide, just shy of Tony Blair’s New Labour victory in 1997. But enthusiasm for Keir Starmer’s Labour was absent from this general election. The absolute vote for Labour was 9.6 million, lower than the 10.2 million vote Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour got in 2019, never mind the 12.8 million he got in 2017. Labour’s vote share, at around 34%, is the lowest ever for a general election victor, whereas in 2017 Corbyn got 40% of the vote, the biggest jump for a national party in one election since 1945.

The turnout, at less than 60%, was at least as low as 2001, and perhaps the lowest ever in a general election. None of this, of course, has stopped spokespeople for Labour, echoed by the capitalist media, spending election night endlessly repeating how it was only Starmer’s successful ‘change’ in the party (in reality into pro-capitalist New Labour) that had allowed them to go from the allegedly ‘worst election result since 1935’ in 2019 to victory in 2024.

The book Manufacturing Consent and leaked secret service documents have been guiding forces for many to wake up to our reality. We are easily manipulated: manipulated to believe right-wing politics are on the side of workers, manipulated to see immigration as ruining our public services, and manipulated to believe our biggest issues are what might be in someone's trousers, so much so that we can tarnish political figures by asking, "What is a woman?" We openly see political parties practicing doublespeak, yet the media hardly reports on it or reports with bias.

The worst part is the new form of news: bot farms churning out tweets and Facebook posts with automated sharing, liking, and AI-generated comments. As social creatures, we follow the herd. We look to what seems to be grassroots movements without realizing who those movements benefit, like the anti-climate change rhetoric preached by red-pilled peddlers or the class wars we see between race, gender, and sexuality, along with the return to Christian values.

How we fix this: its no easy task, its a systemic issue and requires systemic change which wont be possible in a system that profits from our lack of media-literacy, our need for outrage; best i can offer is don't blame our brothers and sisters as they are victims instead seek to enlighten them.

Relief, rejoice, cautious optimism, scepticism… There will be mixed feelings in the minds of working-class people on 5 July. But whatever the cocktail, the fact clear to everyone will be that the Tories, historically the bosses’ primary political party, which has inflicted 14 years of misery on ordinary people, will be resoundingly defeated.

At the time of writing, before polling, Labour are odds on with the bookies to have an overall majority, too short even to make it worthwhile Tories betting on their own demise. Their electoral annihilation will dissolve any remaining cohesive substance holding the world’s oldest capitalist party together.

The source of its fragility? The fragile state of the global capitalist economy and particularly British capitalism’s falling standing within it. And Starmer’s Labour will build a government on those same ruined foundations.

But although Starmer is committed to defend the capitalists’ interests, that doesn’t mean workers can’t or won’t struggle, or that concessions can’t be extracted from the new government, whatever its intentions entering office.

Solidarity to all. Like most of you, I am glad to have witnessed the end of Tory rule, who faced an embarrassing defeat after 14 years of enforcing austerity measures that inflicted suffering on the working class. However, this change will not be resolved by another capitalist party. Labour, under its current leadership, has shown it’s not a workers’ party, a fact that became evident with Tony Blair’s tenure and their eagerness to remove leftist elements from within their ranks during the last election.

The struggle continues. Fight for true representation and justice for the working class. The end of Tory rule is a step forward, but our journey towards genuine change is not yet over.

Exeter City Council is to sink an additional £1.25 million into Exeter Science Park after it emerged that the joint venture is unable to repay a total of £7 million in debts owed to or guaranteed by its shareholders, which also include Devon County Council, East Devon District Council and the University of Exeter.

Exeter Science Park is the third city council company to run into trouble after the dissolution of Exeter City Futures, which received more than £1.5 million of public funding, and losses of £4.5 million incurred by Exeter City Living that the council has yet to recoup.

The council’s external auditor recently criticised the council’s approach to governance and financial management of all three companies, identifying a range of issues including lack of performance monitoring, lack of objectives against which performance could be monitored and lack of oversight by councillors.

Tories nearly out

Vote Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Because Starmer’s Labour doesn’t fight for us

Put the champagne on ice! Because by the time you receive the next copy of the Socialist, the Tories will be out of office.

We can be as sure of that as the Tory insiders placing bets on the date of the general election. In the last days of Rome, they are rinsing the country for everything they can – showing the same disdain for working-class people as they have for the last 14 years.

The workers’ movement has to prepare now for the new Starmer-led Labour government. On 22 June, fighting trade union reps met for the National Shop Stewards Network to discuss how (see pages 6-7).

By striking between 27 June and 2 July, junior doctors have put their pay top of Keir Starmer’s very packed agenda. And from 8 July, Tata Steel workers in Port Talbot will strike to defend hundreds of jobs, demanding action from the new Labour government – nationalisation is needed, with no compensation for the fat-cat Tata bosses.
Years of cuts and crisis

At this election, 40 candidates are standing as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, including many Socialist Party members campaigning for the socialist policies needed to transform working-class people’s lives after years of cutbacks and the cost-of-living crisis, and a new mass party of the working class.

Vote socialist on 4 July, celebrate seeing the back of the Tories and get ready for the working-class fightback to continue on 5 July.

This post will be segmented as it has been a busy week. Starting with Exeter.

Exeter:

I have been given the privilege of heading an Exeter branch. Speaking with branch leads and branch secretaries, what once felt like a slight nudge has turned into a full endorsement. I am not the type to appoint myself or to ask, so I am glad to have had the insightful chats over the last two days.

So now, how do I go about creating a branch in Exeter? From what I have heard from others who have done the same, with both success and defeat, they all gave similar insights: “It’s hard, but once you recruit one, it’ll get a lot easier.” So far, I have begrudgingly made a Facebook page and created an email account through Tuta. The rest is feet on the ground, leafleting across Exeter in the hopes of finding committed comrades.

Plymouth:

I was in Plymouth from Monday through to Tuesday morning. We had an early start, leaving Exeter at 7:30 am and arriving by 9 am. We headed to the Branch Lead’s house where we wrote the daily itinerary. Then, we moved on to canvassing Plymouth’s social housing estates. The reception was beyond anything I had seen before; we were selling newspapers left, right, and center, and getting TUSC votes. After that, we went to a school where we spoke with parents and handed out leaflets in a final push for the general election. More canvassing took up most of the day until the public meeting with locals hosted by The Socialist Party. The locals were eager to know who we are and what we represent as a workers’ party. The evening continued with drinking, which went on until the early hours.

Lessons Learned:

Election season is intense. The fun kind, like working a bar with four other staffers on World Cup finals – no time to think, but suddenly the bar is empty and we’re closing. Before we leave, we drink, we chat, and we’re all bound by the same experience.

The general election isn’t about the outcome for us. It’s state machinery and it needs dismantling, so it’s not important. What it’s about for me and my fellow comrades is class consciousness. People wake up and see the reality during a general election. We have contaminated drinking water for profit, electric and gas pricing that enriches shareholders and incentivizes environmental destruction, and a political class that sees us as mere objects to step over. We won’t see rent go down, we won’t come out of austerity, and we will continue to pad the pockets of our overlords.

So, comrades, take this time to push and agitate. Turn up to pickets, knock on doors, and ask, “Why are you voting reform?", "Any thoughts on our NHS?". Be revolutionary.

Solidarity comrades,
Squid