Appledore strike update

Industrial action at Appledore shipyard is currently suspended pending negotiations currently taking place between the unions and Babcock Marine.

The suspension has come at the same time as an announcement by the company of record profits of £50 million in the first half of the year, up 30%! This is the same company that continues to make threats of closure and losing contracts in response to the reasonable request by Appledore workers that they earn the same as other Babcock workers in equivalent jobs. At the moment, they earn around £60-80 per week less than their counterparts at Devonport dockyard. They tried to claim that this was due to the higher cost of living in Plymouth, something easily contradicted by a worker who had previously lived in Plymouth!

In reality, they have tried to take advantage of the fact that North Devon is a low wage area. They, and the company that preceded them, have made no investment at the site, the consequence of which is that a site previously used as a model for overseas fact finders now has grass growing all over the roof. In addition to the pay insult, picketers have been unhappy about a number of issues at the site. There is widespread bullying by management (including threatening middle managers with the sack if they went on strike), and unilateral decisions taken, such as to change shifts and deploy workers to other sites. The petty attitude of management is exemplified by a previous round of negotiations, in Hatherleigh, when in response to an unofficial overtime ban, managers refused to meet with and speak to shop stewards situated in another room. The union officials had to act as messengers and go-betweens!

In response to our comments on the picket line that the workers themselves should run the shipyard, pickets gave examples of management incompetance and short-term thinking. For instance, apprentices were not allowed to go on day release to college, the skills base is kept narrow, and civilian contracts have been turned down.

It is clear that private ownership cannot develop and safeguard the future of the shipyard in Appledore. We renew our call for the nationalisation of the yard and for its placement under democratic workers control.

We also reaffirm our complete support and solidarity for this action, which has remained solid, with as many as 50 on the picket line at times. Unanimous support has also come from the Confederation of Ship Building and Engineering Unions (CSEU).

We would like to make a solidarity appeal, for support and donations to the Appledore shipyard workers. If you would to express your support or to make a donation to the strike fund, please email North Devon Socialist Party at socialistpartydevon@gmail.com and we will give you the details of how to help, and pass on your messages.

19/6/07 Exeter branch meeting report + solidarity appeal

After discussing organisational issues including how we will work to support the postal workers and firefighters in their coming struggles, SB led the discussion on why internationalism is so important for a socialist organisation.

Because of the international, globalised nature of capitalism and the need for global unity of workers and poor peasants to replace this system with a system of democratic socialism, socialism and internationalism need to be two sides of the same coin.

In the Socialist Party, this means being part of an international organisation (the Committee for a Workers' International, the CWI) which has organisations and parties affiliated to it in around 40 countries, from Chile to Russia, South Africa to Sweden, New Zealand to Israel. Being a part of an international organisation allows cooperation and coordination of action as well as sharing information - unclouded by the capitalist media - about what is going on in these countries.

Solidarity work also forms a key part of the internationalism of the party, for instance, supporting a CWI member recently arrested in Bolivia.

An internationalist approach, focussing on the power to change the world for the better only the united, organised working class have, serves as a counterpoint to the dead-end of nationalism (swapping one set of oppressors for another) and Stalinist ideas of 'socialism in one country'

The discussion that followed included contributions from all those present, ranging from discussion of how the Socialist Party's position - a consistent focus on the importance of class - differs from other left groups, the heroic and often dangerous work some of our comrades undertake in places like Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka, and how internationalism influences our approach to analysing world affairs and wars (such as in the middle-east).

In summing up SB accepted the points raised in the discussion and added that three books that had helped him in preparing for the meeting, would be useful and instructive to anyone wanting to find out more about internationalism.

These books, from different eras of struggle, are 'Socialism Made Easy' by the Irish revolutionary James Connolly, 'What We [Militant, the forerunner to the Socialist Party] Believe', by Peter Taaffe, and 'Marxism in Today's World', also by Peter Taaffe. All are available from Socialist Books, or for loan if you email Devon Socialist Party at socialistpartydevon@googlemail.com.

--- As this report was being written, details of another solidarity appeal have come through:

KAZAKHSTAN SOCIALIST JAILED AGAIN

Ainur Kurmanov, leader of Socialist resistance (CWI) in Kazakhstan has once again been jailed for five days after participating in a protest in support of residents in the Bakai region of Almata, who for over a year have been resisting forced evictions to allow building speculators to use the land for more profitable projects.

Please protest immediately to the Kazakhstan Embassy: london@kazakhstan-embassy.org.uk

Please also send messages of support to Kazakhstan social protesters and CWI members at:
bolshevik1917@list.ru
with copies to
pabgem@online.ru