Socialist Party’s first North Wales District meeting

Picture: The Stilletoes performing at the Youth Fight for Jobs gig

On Sunday the 21st of June the Socialist Party’s first North Wales District meeting was held in Rhyl, a demonstration of the growing support for the party in the area as several people who do not have a local meeting to attend, came to their first party meeting. The meeting was opened by Keith Pattenden discussing the recent gains of the BNP in local and European elections and what could be done in Wales to campaign against their racist poison. He examined the reasons for their rise in votes and members over the last decade particularly looking at New Labour’s abandonment of the working class. We discussed how people without a viable alternative of a progressive party can turn in frustration to the BNP to express their anger. However, an important point was made that in this years Euro Elections the BNP vote actually dropped and they won MEPs only because many working class people didn’t vote! This showed how a new workers party is the only way to win over those people who feel utterly disillusioned with the main three parties and give them a positive place to put their vote.

The second session on building the Socialist Party in North Wales was introduced by Bangor Socialist Party branch secretary Iain Dalton. The branch in North Wales has expanded massively over the last half year with members now in several towns in Gwynedd as well as in Rhyl and Wrexham with mnay contacts even further afield, there has also been an influx of sixth form and college students over the last few months too. We reviewed our activities over the last few months from the protest against the onslaught in Gaza we organised to our recent activity around the Youth Fight For Jobs campaign, particularly emphasising the need to link this campaign with trade unionists locally. The importance of our Students Societies was highlighted too, owing too the NUS’s current unwillingness to campaign for students shown by their acceptance of fees and lack of support for UCU lecturers action against cuts was mentioned, particularly at Bangor University where cuts of 10% across all departments are being discussed.

In the week since the meeting we’ve already begun putting our plans into action with a fantastic Youth Fight for Jobs fundraising gig held near Bangor which raised over £100 as well as excellent stalls in Bangor and Colwyn Bay against the privatisation of Royal Mail where we sold record number of papers at both. We are also holding our first party meeting in Wrexham this week, which will hopefully be the beginning of a new branch building on the activity in the town over the last few months.

Anger in North Wales - Hundreds March in Bangor; Teachers demonstrate in Rhyl

There seems to have been a flurry of protesting across North Wales last week, the first report was something I was personally involved in and was a weird protest with passersby stopping and cheering on the demonstration as it passed by and was greeted by a huge mass of people in the city centre (our estimate is perhaps on the low side!)

Hundreds March in Bangor

‘The Citizens of Bangor Deserve Better’ – is the Facebook group set up a few months ago in protest atthe poor leadership of the local council. People are desperate for affordable housing, but local developers building houses for their own profit which usually consists of student accommodation and is a source of anger in the city. The recession has brought the closure of around fifty shops, adding to the lack of jobs in the city. The city also lacks a cinema and lost its theatre recently.


The list of problems is endless and with the council allowing endless amounts of expensive private student accommodation to be built, increasing service charges and taxes and not seeking to create new public amenities which residents have been asking for, they decided to get active.They know that the mass reserves of money taken by the council, rumoured to be at £47million could be used to improve services in the area. A lot of discussion on these issues was seen in the local press. The leaders of the county council were interviewed about their response to the protest group and gave poor answers, in answer to one question about improvements to youth clubs and play areas they answered that they were doing up the library!


Saturday saw the first public action of the group, a demonstration of around 100 people who were greeted by at least 100 or so more people when we arrived in the city centre, lots of shoppers also stopped to cheer on the marchers. Once there, three speakers addressed the rally, including Iain Dalton from the Socialist Party. He pointed out that the government had given billions to the banks, but only a small proportion of that would be needed for what we were demanding. He also held up the example of the struggle of the Militant-led Liverpool City Council in the mid-80’s and contrasted it with Gwynedd Council’s dumping of cuts onto ordinary people. Another speaker spoke out against the threat of privatisation of local housing, which will further worsen the situation of unaffordable housing. The Socialist Party and Socialist Students helped to organise the protest, particularly with regards to drawing up the demands of the petition, helping to advertise the event and giving ideas at meetings. There was also a strong Socialist presence at the protest with a contingent on the march and the sale of 22 copies of the Socialist and several pamphlets. The campaign will continue with talk of potentially setting up a new party to represent ordinary people in Bangor, with plans of an open meeting and further actions to take the campaign forward.



Teachers Protest in Rhyl


Over 40 teachers, members of NASUWT took one day strike action in protest at plans to axe two six form facilities in Rhyl, North Wales. The council’s plan to close Rhyl High School Six Form and Blessed Edward Jones Sixth Form would mean that the only sixth form provision in the town would be at Llandrillo College.
The action was well supported with almost 100% turnout on the picket line at Rhyl High School, where the governors are controversy supporting the councils proposals. Rex Phillips, NASUWT organiser, told The Socialist, “Aswell as the threat to teachers jobs and conditions, we are also concerned that transferring all Sixth Form provision to the FE sector means there will be no local democratic accountability. We are disappointed that the school’s governing body is supporting Denbighshire County Council. This is in contrast to Blessed Edwards, where the Governors and the Head teacher are very supportive”.
A initial public consultation revealed 240 out of 250 responder were opposed to the plans for a single six form. The one day action is unlikely to be the end of the dispute and further action is being considered, with union members at Blessed Edward Jones being balloted-results are to be expected early next week.

Stop fees, No to cuts, Save education

Article from the back page of this weeks The Socialist.

FOR YEARS the government, echoed by the National Union of Students (NUS) leadership, has told students they would get a fantastic job at the end of their course to pay off their student debt. But as the economy went on the slide last year, so did many final-year students' employment prospects.

Iain Dalton, Bangor Socialist Students

Now students increasingly question the current system of funding university education. And it's not just job opportunities in jeopardy. As The Socialist previously reported, several universities face big cuts in funding which threaten them with potential bankruptcy.
The government's director-general for research and science, Professor Adrian Smith, blames these crises on the government taking too long over the question of raising the cap on tuition fees. He says neither Labour nor Tories want to touch the question, afraid of the backlash that they might face.
The government and university vice-chancellors are looking at three options, increasing fees, raising interest on student loans or making cuts to courses. None of these options are acceptable to students.
Despite the recession, all the main parties still support the capitalist free market and this is reflected in their plans for education. Ideally, they want a US-style system where student debt can run over £100,000. The next step for them is to further lift the cap on tuition fees, probably to around £7,000 a year, although many university vice-chancellors are pushing for more.
As the bailouts to the banks show, the government can find plenty of money when it wants to. But it wants to give it all to its fat-cat friends in the banks and other industries while we bear the costs of the crisis they caused.
Figures released by the PCS civil service union revealed £21.5 billion in uncollected corporation tax as well as £25 billion lost through tax evasion. Why not spend this money on education and other public services instead of letting it slide into the back pockets of the rich?
Socialist Students has been at the forefront of campaigning against fees and cuts, organising protests around the country. In Bangor, Socialist Students has won the support of Bangor Students' Union for the Campaign to Defeat Fees.
But where has the national voice of the student movement, the NUS, been in all this?
The pro-New Labour NUS leadership are celebrating their victory in getting a 'governance review' passed that will transform the NUS into little more than a charity for students rather than a national union. Students though have been increasingly by-passing them.
Such is the case with the demonstration against fees on Wednesday 25 February in London. This is organised by various left/campaigning groups including Socialist Students and the Campaign to Defeat Fees.
We encourage all students to join our contingent on the demonstration and discuss with us how to build the fight-back for free education across the country.

Protest Against Fees

Wednesday 25 February. Assemble 12 noon
SOAS, Malet Street, London WC1

Fight for your future!

Bangor Socialists and local residents stand up and say “NO” to Israel’s attack on Gaza

On the 17th of January, Bangor University Socialist Students, Bangor Socialist Party members and other local residents, trade unionists and college students braved the cold winter wind to take part in a protest against the continued attacks by the Israeli military on the Gaza strip. Socialist Students had been canvassing University Halls of Residence, and doing stalls outside the local college and in the city centre in the days leading up to the protest with vast amounts of support shown towards the demands for an end to the conflict.

Sean Homan, Bangor University Socialist Students

Starting at 11am a stall was erected upon Bangor high street and petitions were signed by many approached by volunteers. At noon, the high street rang with the sounds of “ one, two, three four, stop the bombing stop the war” along with other such chants. The protest was later joined by a march into town from the local mosque by an estimated group of around 70 people, with a further and thus larger rally on the high street. Both rallies were addressed by Iain Dalton, Bangor Branch Secretary of the Socialist Party who called for and end to the blockade of Gaza and united working class struggle in the region and worldwide The turn out throughout the day was over 100, with people from all generations young and old taking part.
Over 30 copies of the Socialist were sold in addition to 20 sold during the previous week and £30 was collected for the fighting fund. 3 people asked about joining the Socialist Party and many others expressed an interest in attending our public meeting on the crisis the following day.

Protest yn erbyn y lladdfa yn Gaza / Protest against the slaughter in Gaza

If anyone's wondering why I haven't posted for a day or two it's cos i'm helping organise this! (and therefore I probably won't post til after this)

12.00yh wrth y Tŵr Cloc yng nghanol Bangor
Dydd Sadwrn 17 Ionawr
Dewch â phosteri a baneri

12.00 o'clock, by the Clock Tower in Bangor City Centre
Saturday 17th January
Bring placards and banners

50 Protest in Caenarfon Against Gaza Carnage

A report by members of Bangor University Socialist Students on the vigil in Caenarfon this evening.

On Monday 12th January, members of Bangor Uni Socialist Students braved the cold to attend a 50 strong vigil in Caenarfon protesting against the inhuman slaughter occurring in Gaza. This follows a 100 strong demonstration around Bangor on the 3rd of January. We talked to other organisations there to discuss plans for further protests and demonstrations in the Gwynedd area along with advertising our upcoming public meeting about this humanitarian disaster. 4 copies of the Socialist were sold to people wanting to read about our alternative to the capitalist system which has led to this catastrophe.

Wales - The True Extent of Student Debt Exposed

From the most recent issue of the Socialist.

On Thursday 4 December, members of Bangor Socialist Students organised a 'Wall of Debt'.

Laurence Winch-Furness

Students could estimate how much debt they would be in by the end of their course. Around sixty students participated and the estimates were written on colour coded stickers, with the lowest estimate (0-£5000) being pale pink, whilst the highest (over £20,000) were dark green. Over half of all estimates were green, whilst only a handful were pink.
The highest estimate, at $128,000 (£78,000), came from an American overseas student. Joint second were two law students at £64,000. Only two students were in no debt at all, and one of these was a visitor from Finland, where education is free. Many students in the lower debt bands informed us they had had to save large sums of money before coming to university.
This is an indication of the problems facing students in Wales before top-up fees have been introduced. There is an urgent need for a mass campaign for free education and against all attacks on education in Britain.

Socialist Students beat NUS leadership!!!

In Bangor Student Union referendum!

After a hard week of campaigning by Socialist Students and other supporters of the Camapign to Defeat Fees, our hard work clearly paid off when 271 students voted YES to supporting the Campaign to Defeat Fees, whilst the no campaign only received a 104 votes, a clear majority supporting our clear policies of opposing ever increasing stduent debt and fees as well as our strategy of the need for a mass camapign to be built. A longer report will follow...

So if anyone's wondered why i've not posted not for the last week, as you can see I was otherwise occupied - and I certainly think I spent my time profitably.

Kicking Off The New Term

Below are two reports from Bangor from campaigning amongst students in the last two weeks. For reports from the rest of wales see http://www.socialistpartywales.org.uk/front2.html

Coleg Menai

Last Tuesday, members of Bangor University Socialist Students ran a stall outside the FE college, Coleg Menai against EMA payment delays.
We received a lot of support from students who, in particular, agreed with our demand that FE students deserve an EMA they can actually live off, that does not leave them reliant on their parents.
One student came back after reading our leaflet and said we should organise a protest. We invited her to join our Campaign to Defeat Fees day of action on 16 October and our upcoming meetings. Others came back later with friends to sign the petition and buy copies of The Socialist and the new Student Socialist magazine. We now aim to build links between college and university students in Bangor.
It looks like a busy autumn as we also prepare to campaign for the student union to support the Campaign to Defeat Fees, despite opposition from the national leadership of NUS.

A Bangor Socialist Students member

Bangor - Success at Serendipity

With the undertaking of a new academic term around the corner, Bangor was buzzing with fresh faces and an encouraging sense of avidity.

Lizz Evans. Bangor Socialist students.

‘Serendipity’ or ‘Freshers Fair’ took place on the 24th and 25th. The response to the two Socialist Student stalls that were set up on both days was very encouraging to say the least: twelve Socialist Student magazines and 12 copies of the socialist were sold in total, also nine people paid membership fees on the actual days of Serendipity. In addition to this, the response to the hard hitting posters that blazed the slogans of ‘Fight for Free Education’ and ‘Solidarity with Venezuela and Bolivia’ was promising; thirty people altogether approached the stand in order to sign up for further information, with many more signing our petition and taking away leaflets. With all this said, the Bangor Socialist Student society looks forward to another year.

Fresher's Week

Next week is Freshers week at Bangor University so I will be incredibly busy printing leaflets, petitions etc. Doing stalls, holding meeting etc. and generally trying to win as many people as possible to Marxist ideas. That said I'll be taking a break from blogging for the next week and a few days as I'm doing all this as well as working.

To keep you entertained, why not check out these old posts

Charities and Private Companies Getting Cosy in a Prison Bed?

On Arbitrary Laws and Punishments

Nid oes bradwr yn y ty hwn (No traitor in this house) - The Great North Wales Quarry Strikes

Scrap This Broken Fees System

A discussion document for Bangor University Socialist Students.

At the beginning of September NUS launched their latest report into higher education funding, entitled ‘Broke and Broken’. Inside it sets out a quite damning critique of the top-up fees system that was created by the 2004 Higher Education Act and of the governments plans to lift the cap they set on top-up fees.

The document starts out by noting that by lifting the cap would raise student debts to unprecedented levels – a student paying £7000 a year in fees and claiming maximum living expenses in London would owe about £37,000 by the time they graduated (and some universities are pushing for the new cap to be higher than that!). They also point out that students would need to be earning over £25,000 to begin paying off just the annual interest of a debt of £25,000 – they note that an Association of Graduate Recruiters survey found that £24,500 was the average starting salary for a graduate position, but the report points out “many graduates do not take jobs designated as ‘graduate’ jobs, so the true average of all post-graduation salaries is likely to lower than this figure.”(pg.6)

Top-up fees were also supposed to widen access to universities, but the report shows that students going to the prestigious Russell Group universities are more likely to be from higher socio-economic groups and have gone to private schools. Furthermore, there is also an inequality in the bursaries that universities can provide to poorer students (another key plank of the 2004 reforms). As the report points out, “institutions at the top end of the market of prestige are able to give large needs-based bursaries to their relatively sparse population of students from low income backgrounds…The low end of the market of prestige has far more students from low income backgrounds, and these institutions cannot afford to provide as much support to individuals.”(pg.4)

The report in conclusion comes out with no clear recommendations, with instead NUS President, Wes Streeting’s introduction to the report saying “our next duty is to produce a rigorous alternative policy, and we will do so in the coming months.”(pg.1) and also uses his introduction to take a swipe at campaigning for free education, arguing “…I know the debate has moved on and we won’t tin by dredging up the old arguments.”(pg1)

In truth, Streeting and the NUS leadership have already made up their minds as to what they want. As Streeting details in the debate between himself and Matt Dobson in the latest issue of the Student Socialist, NUS are arguing for a graduate tax to fund higher education. But such a tax will mean a similar drain on graduate students resources as paying off a student debt, with the added problem that it won’t be written off after 25 years. How will low paid graduates (for example those who go into some public or voluntary sector work) be able to buy a house and afford increased living costs as the coming recession hits? It doesn’t really solve the problem at all.

The Broke and Broken document also makes a big play of the fact that the businesses that benefit from the education students get hardly contribute anything to it, they simply reap the rewards. But a graduate tax proposal doesn’t change any of this, instead, as Socialist Students argue, the cuts in corporation tax should be reversed, tax loopholes should be closed to bring in more revenue and fundamentally the biggest companies in the economy should be taken into public ownership so their wealth can be used for public need rather than private profit.
NUS also has announced that they will be holding local days of action on student debt. About time too! Socialist Students organised the first Campaign to Defeat Fees (CDF) day of action over a year and a half ago and have been calling on NUS to organise action even before then. Whilst we will support NUS’s ‘Students in the Red’ day on November 5th, we will use that and the CDF day of action on the 16th October to call for the NUS to also organise National Action that goes further than the mere lobbying of parliament NUS proposes. Socialist Students will also continue calling for local Students Unions to back the CDF, including at the referendum being held in October at Bangor University.

Bangor University students union fees referendum

From this weeks Socialist. An Article and a letter.

Over the last year Socialist Students and the Campaign to Defeat Fees (CDF) have been tirelessly campaigning for our students union to take a campaigning approach to the question of tuition fees.
April last year saw us hold a small protest to accompany the handing in of a 250+ strong petition calling on the students union to organise a referendum on whether the union should adopt the CDF demands on free education as its own. In the last few weeks the students union have finally got back to us with a proposed date for the referendum - Thursday 16 October, which coincidentally is the same date as the next CDF day of action.
In addition to this we have been informed that the national NUS leadership would like to come down and take part in the referendum. It has even been suggested that they would form the main opposition to our proposals. Although, based on their failure to campaign effectively against fees, we find it unsurprising that the current leadership of the National Union of Students is opposed to the CDF.
Surely the NUS's resources would be better spent on doing something about the ridiculous amount of debt just about every student gets into (of which fees are one part of), rather than using bully-boy tactics against students who don't want to accept the poverty we have to endure.

Letter: New broom needed

Increasing evidence of the growing levels of student debt has evoked an interesting response from Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students (NUS). In an NUS survey he describes students as “sleepwalking” into financial crises. But as the official leader of those ‘sleepwalkers’ shouldn’t he be doing something to rouse them?
His answer is to provide more information and advice to students about coping with debt. But students would probably not be in such a predicament if the NUS leadership didn’t keep squandering opportunities to build a mass campaign against fees and for the replacement of loans with a living grant. The Campaign to Defeat Fees was set up because of the failures of those like Streeting in the leadership of NUS. Part of the fight for a free education must be to sweep our student unions and NUS clear of these miserable creatures.

Contaminated Water – Yet Again!

Taken from the Socialist Party Wales website, yet another thing not on the list but it is a big thing up here.

For the third time in three years there has been an outbreak of cryptosporidium in the Gwynedd and Anglesey water supplies. Last time over 200 people were left ill after contracting the parasite which causes severe diahorrea, in late 2005 and a notice to boil all water (which kills the parasites eggs) was in place for several months.
Last time the company (Welsh Water / Dwr Cyrmu) agreed to compensate 37,000 customers £25 each for their inconvenience and were fined a tiny £60,000. After the incident the company spent £1million on new treatment equipment.But, the bug is back again with a notice to boil water on 30th August which will affect 45,000 people. It appears that this new treatment isn’t working either. A letter released by the Drinking Water Inspectorate pointed out that Welsh Water had been warned about possible problems with Cryptosporidium way back in 1998. The investigation into the 2005-06 incident said that treatment was in line with regulatory standards because it was believed the bug would be sufficiently dilute in the water not to cause harm!
Welsh Water, like other water companies across the UK was privatised by Thatcher in 1989. The debts of these companies were written off by the government, but this still led to price increases and staff cuts. Maintenance and investment was also cutback on as part of ‘cost-cutting’ exercises. So we have seen water shortages, outbreaks of bugs like cryptosporidium and poor maintenance of sewerage which made last years flooding much more severe.
The provision of water is a vital public service and should never have been privatised. Socialists argue for the re-nationalisation of the water companies, under democratic control and scrutiny of the local population.

Nid oes bradwr yn y ty hwn (No traitor in this house) - The Great North Wales Quarry Strikes

When people think of centres of working class militancy in Britain, Gwynedd in North Wales would probably not feature at the top of the list. Yet it was the scene for one of the most bitter disputes in the history of working class struggles in Britain, with a series of strikes and lock-outs at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, culminating in a three year long strike as hard fought and vicious as any in working class history.
In the area, the main employment was to be found in slate quarrying and mining – indeed not only was it the area’s major employer, but it during the 19th century it produced about 90% of British slate
To give an example of the conditions that workers had to endure, in Bleanau Ffestiniog in 1875 the average life expectancy of someone who worked in the slate mine was just over 37 years whereas it was just over 67 years for those who didn’t! But quarry mining was quite a skilful occupation, taking many years to learn, a position that gave the men a large say in how they worked in the quarry.

Workers' Organisation

The organisation of the workers engaged in this struggle, the North Wales Quarrymen’s Union, had been established in 1874 and came immediately under attack from the bosses, with workers at one mine after another given the choice between repudiating the union or losing their jobs. This culminated in lock-outs at the two biggest quarries, Dinorwic and Bethesda owned by the landlord-capitalists Assheton-Smith and Lord Penrhyn – one becoming rich off the back of the Lancashire cotton trade and the other off the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The two quarries employed about 2000 workers each (to give an indication of the relative weight, the total membership of the union at their first conference the following year was 7,196). In Dinorwic the lockout lasted five weeks, but the dispute was most fierce at Bethesda where after being threatened the men drew up their own demands and won – seeing an increase in wages and the quarry management being replaced. Boosted by this triumphant emergence, the union won wage increases and decreases in hours over the next few years.However, the union faced its first major test in 1878/9 when an economic downturn affecting quarry production was expected. The union leadership was not made up of workers, but rather mostly other locals who supported the union and were able to help finance it. Their concept of the union was of an organised pressure group, and they were tied to the Liberal party, whose main local figurehead, David Lloyd George was at that time a leader of the radical nationalist group Cymru Fydd (Future Wales) who attempted to unite all Welsh people regardless of class distinctions against English. (After the collapse of this movement, Lloyd George moved into the mainstream of English politics, ending up as Prime Minister in World War I) The version of the union these well-meaning middle class men aspired to was one that was based on ‘strict adherence to the rules of a market economy’. Such strict adherence saw them advocating acceptance of wage cuts expecting that these would be reversed when the short downturn they expected was over. Instead the downturn turned into a depression and the wages were not increased back, a warning to those union professing the greatness of ‘partnership’ today.This union leadership group however, stayed in control of the union for about twenty years after this when several defeats led to a clamouring for quarrymen to be in the leadership of their own union. The first of these was the 1885-86 Dinorwic Lockout where a further management onslaught in the wake of the depression that had hit the industry at the end of the last decade was leading to wage cuts and redundancies, with management locking out the workforce until they accepted the new conditions. Even after trying re-open the quarry several times without one of the locked-out men returning, management still managed to win a victory after the union ran out of funds and had to stop paying lock-out pay , but the defeat left the impression that the leadership had been far from sympathetic, misleading the men into a bad deal.Second was a planned pay rise claim in 1892 across all the Gwynedd quarries of 5s a day. The strike ballot was won 5,781 to 1,534, but the leadership blundered and lost the moment and the men’s confidence in them and support dwindled. But the final straw was the first Penrhyn lock-out in 1896-97. The union lodge here had been one of the main proponents of a united wage claim earlier in the decade, but had been restrained by the leadership.

First Lockout

The actual dispute occurred over the men wanting leave to attend a Gwyl Lafur (Labour Day) demonstration in Bleanau Ffestiniog. After they were refused leave, over 2,500 stayed away from work and were subsequently suspended for two days. After this attack on their conditions (men expected to be able to take the day off whenever it suited them) they drew up demands including this and a wage increase, which was rejected by management with the agreement of Lord Penrhyn. Although the quarry workers agreed to take strike action in March (when the quarry industry would pick up more and alternative employment on farms was available), but management provoked them to strike in November by sacking 74 of the most militant union members. The men’s response was to call a mass meeting of 3000 where they burned pro-Penrhyn newspapers and declared a strike. Funds were a priority after Dinorwic and collections were carried out at other quarries, during public meetings and at concerts. The biggest contributors were trade unions across Britain. Even despite this, over a thousand former workers at the quarry were soon to be found working in other quarries, coal mines, docks and brickworks throughout Wales and North-West England. Like Dinorwic, there were several occasions when management tried to re-open the quarry, and again no workers went back. However, behind the backs of the workers committee, the union leadership negotiated a sell-out deal that effectively meant the de-recognition of the workers committee as the voice of the workers at that quarry.Although the quarry management used this deal to further attack working conditions at the quarry, the main leaders of the quarry workers committee squarely put the blame on the non-worker union leadership and took over the union leadership at a special conference.The union membership at Bethesda was at an all time low, but a ban on collecting dues led to union membership doubling at the quarry. Such an increase in membership gave the union the opportunity to try and claw back some of their working conditions, but a tit-for-tat battle between the union and management led eventually to a court case after several supervisors (newly brought in to dictate to workers what stone they were to cut, previously workers had worked in a manner that reduced waste, but now management wanted speedier production) were assaulted and thrown out of the quarry. When the men marched into Bangor in November 1900 in support of the men on trial, they were suspended for a fortnight.

The Second Lockout

With this incident the second Penrhyn Lockout from 1900-03 began, with a conscious plan of the quarry management to smash the union and reduce the workforce. Penrhyn tried to re-open the quarry in July 1901, which saw a mere 500 return. However, this saw the beginning of the lock-out becoming very bitter, attacks were made against blacklegs (scabs) and they became socially ostracised. So bitter was the divide, in Bethesda today the houses of the scabs are worth less money simply because of this. By June the following year, despite a trickle back to work, only 700 were back and 2000 were still out of work. The dispute however, came to a head when in September 1903 the General Federation of Trade Unions stopped paying strike pay to the men (after the previous problems at Dinorwic they had signed up to a joint fund with other unions), and a mass meeting decided by a small majority to return to work. But Penrhyn was determined not let any men back who were too ‘disloyal’ and four years after the end of the dispute the quarry was only half full.The dispute had however, wrecked the Welsh slate industry. Because most of Penrhyn’s income came from rent from land and property in North Wales, with the quarry as an extra he could afford for it to be relatively idle for all those years. It was not until 1908 that a newly formed ILP branch in Bethesda raised the slogan of the nationalisation of the land that could have been used to unite the tenant farmers around the workers and given the potential to break Penrhyn’s stranglehold. Penrhyn also had the full weight of the state behind him, not only with the original trail but also with the hundreds of police and troops moved into the area, some of whom to escort the scabs to work. Finally one lesson that was made perfectly clear by the strike was to not put the support in radical Liberalism, but a need for an independent voice of the working class – which was reinforced when Keir Hardie spoke to 4000 at a mass meeting in the area.
Looking back on these strikes, the sheer determination and bravery of these workers has to be admired. But this is often unfortunately not enough to win. Bold and far sighted leadership is needed. The quarrymen’s defeat was due to a great extent to the half heartedness of the union leadership.
Today, the quarry workers’ battles are seen by the ‘official’ historians of the labour movement as the last stand of workers in an industry that was doomed to die. On the hundredth anniversary of the final Bethesda strike there were commemoration events with the bigwigs of the major parties in Wales attending.
A much better way of remembering these struggles would be to carry on the fight they begun for a fairer society, where workers have control of their lives, the socialist society that the Socialist Party fights for today.

Bangor: Bus protest

This comes from this weeks issue of the Socialist http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/main/The_Socialist

THE WESTERN Mail recently reported that Arriva buses would be buying seven buses from rival local operator KMP and paying them to stop running some of their services. That shocked many people in north-west Wales.

From 4 August it will cost more than twice as much to take the same journey as it does at present, with a service that will most likely be far less frequent.

Socialist Party members in Bangor (where all the routes affected run through) organised a stall in protest at the constant placing of corporate profits before public needs that results from the fragmented privatised transport system we have.

People came up to the stall explaining about the problems they face with public transport and agreeing with our call for renationalisation under democratic control.

Reports from the Local Government strike in Wales

Socialist Party Wales members visited dozens of picket lines across Wales offering solidarity and support and receiving a warm welcome for our special public sector leaflet as well as selling our paper to many of the pickets.

SOUTH WEST WALES

The strike in South West Wales was solid and our members reported overwhelming support for the action.
Alec Thraves reports:

Swansea
Pickets at the County Hall, Guildhall, Refuse depot, Building maintenance, social services, the Grand theatre and others all reported just a handful, of mainly non union members, crossing the picket lines.
Clive Williams, UNISON shop steward for the Housing Department of the City and County of Swansea said: - “My colleagues ask me – Do I think this dispute is winnable? I reply, yes I do think it is winnable but it depends on the tactics of the trade union leadership. There are two factors I would like to highlight:-Firstly, the Labour Party has to be taught a lesson and that is you don’t bite the hand that feeds you! The Labour party is funded by the trade union movement and that funding must stop because we aren’t get anything in return for the money we are paying out, so that link must be broken.Secondly, when industrial action is being considered, the leadership of the public sector trade unions should carry out a ballot simultaneously with a recommendation for strike action and if that happens then success will be very likely. Today’s action has seen 99% out on strike and the few who have gone in have been insignificant”!
40 copies of the Socialist were sold in Swansea city centre at a lunch time stall supporting the council workers.

Llanelli
The main council building had a lively picket with hardly anyone going in and similarly at the leisure centre.Mark Evans, UNISON, Assistant Branch Secretary of Carmarthenshire County Branch, with 4000 members spread across Carmarthen, Llanelli and the Amman Valley told the Socialist that the strike had been solid with the most number of pickets ever!“The GMB refuse depots have been picketed with no one crossing the picket line, whilst pickets at other council premises were solid, upbeat and reported that very few staff have gone into work. Our shop stewards discussed the excellent response today but felt that 2 days would not be enough to win our demand and that in September we expect an escalation of the dispute. There is a great deal of enthusiasm for joint action with other public sector workers”.

SOUTH EAST WALES

Cardiff
Report by Ross Saunders Cardiff UNISON Schools Convenor (personal capacity)

Thousands of Unison members went on strike in Cardiff and the rest of South East Wales today against a pay offer that amounts, yet again, to real-terms pay cuts. Many schools and Council workplaces were shut, with a number of lively picketlines outside those that management refused to close. Postal workers refused to deliver the mail and many members of GMB and other unions refused to cross the picketline in solidarity.
Council management have been condemned in the press for risking unsafe working practices in order to try and hide the impact caused by the strike. They forced Butetown tunnels, a series of covered dual carriageways, open with a small crew of 3 untrained scabs. Every 12 hours 40,000 cars travel through the tunnel, which is usually staffed by 20 skilled technicians, all UNISON members out on strike.
There was a feeling of grim determination on the picketlines I visited. Local Government workers are the most lowly-paid in the whole of the services sector, and UNISON organises some of the worst off of these - including the care-workers, teaching assistants and cleaners. Pickets said that, despite the financial sacrifice, they were glad they were taking action against attacks on their pay, working conditions and the quality of the services they provide.
Labour Assembly Member Carwyn Jones spoke at UNISON, saying he thought it was unfair for some to have to suffer "pay restraint" and not others. The irony was not lost on the members who listened to him speak from the platform, which was decorated with placards, including one pointint out Assembly Members had themselves just accepted an 8% rise in their already inflated earnings.

Report by Mariam Kamish
Cardiff County Unison strikers at County Hall have been very effective. They've stood in the road, stopping every car, with a polite but firm, "May I ask you not to cross the picketline?" As a result, even most managers have felt the need to explain themselves. Delivery vans have turned back and not attempted to cross the picketline. About 30 strikers were on the picketlines at County Hall at some point during the day.People crossing (other than management) were those with exemptions from the union, because they were about to retire (and days off would count against their pensions) and temps. Temps were encouraged to join the union and assured that - management threats not withstanding - they would not have action taken against them for taking part.Management had sent out an email warning staff that they would be in breach of their contract if they didn't belong to the union, but respected the picketline. Pickets explained that all strikers were "in breach of their contracts", but were covered by provisions for legal strike action.The second day, the small numbers going into work - including management - were greatly reduced. An excellent result.

Bridgend
Pickets at the Council buildings in Bridgend town centre reported that the strike was solid with fewworkers turning up. Bernard Roome, CWU National Executive member, spoke to them and gave solidarity and support from the communication workers union.

MID WALES

Geoff Jones
Powys Council headquarters was closed and picketed. Schools and librarieswere also closed. Workers in rural Wales have been particularly hit by rising fuel costs. One striker who has to travel around the county as part of her job commented that Powys' mileage allowance now did not cover the cost of fuel so that she was subsidising the Council.

NORTH WALES

Ruthin, Denbighshire
Liz Cowell
Strikers from across Denbighshire converged at Ruthin for a lunchtime rally calling for Fair Pay; many wore T shirts emblazoned with the slogan "I'd rather be skint than a scab". Many reported support from the public and as the rally progressed many passing vehicles sounded their horns in solidaritory. The majority of strikers highlighted that the Welsh Assembly Members had no shame in awarding themselves an 8% pay increase (double the rate of inflation), while expecting ordinary workers to accept 2% (half the rate of inflation) - irony gone mad.The UNISON/UNITE strikers chanted ,"What are you going to spend your £3 rise on?"" A gallon of petrol" came the reply from the crowd. Other demands raised were "We want the John Lewis list and Money for bread and milk".Several raised the point that while striking for a pay rise to keep up with inflation they were also there protesting at cut backs in their departments - resulting in worsening services for vulnerable people and extra workloads for the staff. The speakers at the rally commented that council workers have worked so well that they have doubled the government's target for efficiency savings, meaning that Conwy council has £3Million of unallocated funds and Denbighshire £5Million. In the Strikers own words this would be more than enough to meet the unions pay demand in full.

Gwynedd
Iain Dalton
Socialist Party members visted the picket line at the Town Hall in Bangor (Almost all other council run buildings were simply closed for the day). The picketers described their anger at seeing the farce of MPs expenses whilst they were being forced to put up with a miserable below-inflation pay increase. On the Thursday, members visited several picket lines in Caenarfon where news had just come in of all the GMB members (who are not on strike) refusing to cross the picket lines at some workplaces in the south of Gwynedd in a show of solidarity with their striking fellow workers. The mood was one of determination, particularly after finally actually taking action after years of below inflation pay increases and workers on the picket lines discussed what could be done to make future action even more successful.

France '68, Remembering the 40th Anniversary of the revolutionary uprising.

Okay I promise I'll post something on crime tomorrow, but for today I thought I'd post up some meeitng reports from Wales, taken from the Socialist Party Wales website

France came to Wales last week as successful meetings were held in Swansea, Cardiff and Bangor to discuss the events in France in 1968.

Dave Reid , Alec Thraves and Ian Dalton report:
In Swansea, South Wales Evening Post advertised our meeting but mistakenly gave out the wrong day of the meeting. The following night we had to go back and explain to some disappointed members of the public why they had missed an excellent meeting. Despite their frustration we sold a couple of papers and one is coming to the Swansea Socialist Party branch meeting next week. The previous night there was a lively debate amongst an enthusiastic audience who agreed we could expect more revolutionary movements of a similar kind in the future. The biggest lessons that came out of the meeting were the central role of the working class in changing society and the need for a determined socialist leadership.

In Cardiff six non members of the Socialist Party attended the meeting including three people who had seen publicity on the streets.
Clare Doyle, author of Month of Revolution: France 1968, outlined the events in 1968. She pointed out that while the media has mentioned the battles of the students with the police which opened the events in Paris there is little or no mention of the general strike by the working class, the biggest general strike in history.
A “strike chart” on the wall visually brought home the scale of the movement in 1968. Clare gave an inspiring account of the thousands of factory occupations which seized the factories from the bosses and led to similar action by the middle layers in society like journalists, doctors and actors. All four conditions for revolution outlined by Lenin were present in France with the exception of the existence of a party of revolution that understood the events and was able to lead the working class.
A wide-ranging discussion ranged from France to Britain to Saudi Arabia to Sweden to Czechoslovakia. Some questions were raised about whether the modern working class has the power to carry through the strike movement that the French workers fought in 1968 and whether British workers are as militant as French workers.
A PCS member pointed out that we can take a step forward towards that of France 1968 by building towards united action in the public sector against the government’s pay freeze. Civil servants are one section of the workforce today who would have regarded themselves as middle class in the 1960s who are now clearly part of the working class.
Andrew Price, a member of the UCU national executive, joined Militant, the forerunner of the Socialist Party, in May 1968. He explained that in the same week that he joined Militant the Labour Party had received an even worse result in the local elections than New Labour got in 2008, but what was different was that the working class base of the Labour Party in 1968 moved to the left and the ideas of Marxism received an increasing ear with 3 million votes for nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy at Labour Party conference that year. Today there is no party for the working class and we will have to build it. 10 copies of Clare’s book were sold and £166 fighting fund raised at the two meetings.

In Bangor Rob Williams(Swansea SP) spoke on the 10 million strong general strike that shook the capitalist system. He described how the movement developed with workers occupying factories causing French president de Gaulle to flee the country and how the so-called Communist Party betrayed the movement and saved the day for capitalism.
The discussion covered other mass strikes such as the 1984-5 Miner's Strike, the 1926 British General Strike and movements that the Militant (the fore-runner of the Socialist Party) played a leading role in such as the heroic 1984-7 Liverpool City Council battle. The difference in the world economy and situation between now and 1968 was also discussed. Books, pamphlets, and the 1968 special issue Socialism Today were sold.

Protest Against Fees in Bangor

Bangor Socialist Students held a protest on the 23rd April encouraging the Student Union to support the campaign to defeat fees, which follows several weeks of gathering support for the cause.

Following the rejection of the Student Union to support the motion submitted by Socialist Students, calling on it to support the campaign to defeat fees, the group has been campaigning to change the attitude of the union. Members of the student society have held stalls and canvassed student accommodation to collect a petition that will force the union to hold a referendum regarding their position on campaigning against tuition fees. A total of 250 signatures were needed, but over 300 were collected. People who signed were also encouraged to attend a protest at the union to demonstrate their attitudes towards tuition fees. The campaigning contributed to the sale of over twenty copies of The Socialist in two weeks.

Unfortunately the turnout at the protest was low in comparison to the amount of signatures collected, with a total of ten students attending over the half hour the protest was held, possibly due to it coinciding with dissertation deadlines. Despite this, the protest went well with press coverage from local newspapers, and the addition of a few more signatures, as well as several people passing by expressing an interest in joining Socialist Students. The protest consisted of chants, such as ‘no to war and occupation, spend the money on education’; and a stall providing further information on the campaign and the activities of Socialist Students. At the end of the protest, everybody went to hand in the petition, and a response is expected soon. The petition means that every student at Bangor should get the opportunity to vote in a referendum regarding whether or not the union should support the campaign to defeat fees.

The campaign has revealed the attitude of a large amount of students, who are against tuition fees and has shown that there needs to be more opportunity for students to voice their opinions to an increasingly ignorant government. It is hoped that the Students Union will recognise this and support the campaign to defeat fees.

James Nock

Students also agreed the following message of support, which was signed and shown to workers taking industrial action yesterday

Statement of Support for Striking Teachers and Civil Servants

We here today declare our solidarity with teachers and civil servants taking industrial action against the governments below inflation pay offers. The current government is responsible for the biggest gap between the rich and the poor in this country, and moves to increase tuition fees and hold back the incomes of public sector workers will increase this gap. Student debt will only be compounded even further if pay is held back even further. Therefore this protest wishes to send greetings and its support to teachers and civil servants in Bangor and the surrounding area, taking strike action on Thursday 24th April 2008 and hope for a speedy victory in your struggle.

The Local Elections

This piece is from my column in the latest issue of Seren (our SU newspaper) - after writing it I realise I didn't discuss the BNP which I maybe should have - but I am writing an article for the next issue on them. People may also be interested to know that the Student Union passed a motion submitted by Socialist Students (well, me directly) which responded to recent stuff in the local press blaming students for housing problems around Bangor and also opposing cuts to local public services.

In case people haven’t noticed, it’s going to be local election time very soon. So I would suppose the question of the day is who to vote for? In Wales there are four main parties represented in the Assembly Government – Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru.
As for their records – successive Labour and Conservative governments scrapped student grants and introduced tuition fees – so if you have to work whilst you’re at university to support yourself or if you’re worrying about the huge amount of debt you’re going to get into by the end of university here’s who’s to blame.
As for the Liberal Democrats and Plaid Cymru, although both have not governed from Westminster, both have been involved in coalition governments in the Assembly and have run several local councils. Both have been involved in making cuts to public services – which if students aren’t using at the moment – they certainly will be in the future. In Gwynedd where Plaid Cymru are in control of the council, they have, on the back of some funding cuts from the Assembly, drawn up plans to close 29 schools and merge or federalise many others – similar plans are being attempted to be put into effect by the Liberal Democrat controlled Cardiff Council. In Gwynedd, as well as withdrawing funding from Gwynedd Museum and Art Gallery, the Plaid Cymru-led council are cutting 300 jobs and closing various other facilities.
So what have we? Four parties with very similar policies. I’m sure people have heard of voter apathy – surely if you’ve got four choices and you don’t want any of them you’re not going to vote. Indeed, this seems to be increasing, especially amongst younger people.
For the majority of the population, including many students, there is no party that represents them. Thus a new one needs to be created, resting on policies that the majority of the population want. Fundamentally for most students, the demand for free quality education is a must, with the provision of a living grant for all students to live off, rather than many students being forced into part-time work which research by NUS and the TUC (Trades Union Congress) has shown can lower grades by a whole classification. But alongside this should be the right to a decent job at the end of university, or as an alternative to university (obviously these probably wouldn’t be the same types of jobs), but they should have a guaranteed minimum wage that is above the poverty pay that the level is set at at the moment.
Linked to that needs to be opposition to the policies of privatisation which have devastated the National Health Service (NHS), particularly the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). What happens under PFI is that to keep public borrowing down, private companies are invited to raise the finance for new building projects and then lease the buildings back to the NHS. Not only do these companies reap huge profits by doing this, but they can also re-finance their original loan, as once the building is built because they have a guarantee from a government institution they are going to get the money back, they can borrow at a much reduced interest rate, making even more money. Add in that the NHS is locked into these deals for periods of upto 25 to 30 years when in some cases they may not need the buildings even 5 years into their life, and you have an NHS which is saddled with massive debts which means that other services have to be cut – the most common recently have been mental health and maternity services. And it isn’t just restricted to the NHS: schools, museums, courts, and other public facilities (even police stations) have been built under PFI.
Another issue that many young people and students are interested in is in opposing the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. These actions were justified as being part of a war on terrorism – but all they’ve been is attempts at plundering the resources of these countries – if anything they’ve destabilised these countries and increased terrorism in the world – both in these countries and abroad. Additionally, draconian legislation reducing civil liberties and various other measures have seen an increase in state terrorism. Removing civil liberties and invasions of other countries must be opposed. If they were really concerned, then the US and Britain wouldn’t have armed Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden in the first place.
I’m involved in a group that aims to create a party like this the Campaign for a New Workers Party (CNWP – see www.cnwp.org.uk). However, such a party needs to be created still and this doesn’t exactly tell you which party to vote for. I’d look at the election materials of candidates in these elections and see if any match up to what I’ve outlined above. If, as they probably will, they don’t match up then I’d argue that rather than ignore the elections, you should show your disapproval by spoiling your ballot paper. But more importantly get involved with campaigns that argue for things your in favour of, and help create the kind of party that is worth you voting for.

Scapegoating Students

This letter written by myself was published in this weeks Bangor and Anglesey Mail.

Yet again Bangor councillors try to blame students for all the city’s problems. This time it is for the shortage of affordable accommodation. We’re told in the article in last weeks Mail (12/03/08) that the city is overrun with students and this is the reason that there is no affordable housing for local people. Whilst some developers are clearly targeting students because by cramming students into buildings so they can charge more money per let, this certainly isn’t the fault of the students. Indeed the case of hidden extra charges for students living in Neuadd Willis shows how these developers are ripping students off!

The real way for affordable accommodation can be provided is by the provision of new publicly funded social housing, at affordable rents – what are the councillors doing about that?!