Saturday 25 August 2018

Radical Actions, July & August 2018

As the sun beat down during a sizzling summer, Reading Trades Union Council (RTUC) remained vigilant, taking part in three actions with Reading & District Labour Party (RDLP). We stood up for local and national transport as well as for public health provision.

Celebrating 70 Years of the NHS
John Partington (left, TSSA) and Nikki Dancey (right, GMB) of the RTUC
join Matt Rodda MP, Labour Councillors John Ennis, Rachel Eden and
Ruth McEwan and supporters at the birthday card presentation
On 28 July, Labour's prospective parliamentary candidate for Reading West, Cllr Rachel Eden, joined Matt Rodda, Labour MP for Reading East, and other supporters and defenders of the National Health Service to deliver 70th birthday cards to the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Cards were signed by supporters of public health who condemn the creeping privatisation of the NHS by the Tory Government and they were addressed to several wards in the hospital. Delivered to the RBH reception, the security attendant - himself employed by an outsourced firm - assured the cards' distribution to the nurses, porters, doctors and other hospital staff in the designated wards. Kevin Brandstatter, Nikki Dancey (both GMB) and John Partington (TSSA) attended the event on behalf of the RTUC.

Cllr Rachel Eden and Matt Rodda MP hand over the
birthday cards at RBH reception

Reading Buses Open Meeting

Matt Rodda MP addresses the audience in the Reading Buses open meeting
On 1 August Matt Rodda, Labour MP for Reading East, organised an open meeting in Caversham Baptist Church to inform the general public of proposed timetable and route changes by Reading Buses. Alongside Matt on the panel were Caversham Councillors, Adele Barnett-Ward (Labour), Ed Hopper (Tory) and Jane Stanford-Beale (Tory).

The Reading Buses Chief Executive Officer, Martin Gilbert, made a noble effort, failing to address the absence of a workers' representative on the panel but doing his best on the logistics of timetabling. Ultimately, although Reading Buses does not aim to make a profit, it cannot make a loss and receives no subsidy from the Conservative Government - so timetabling and route determination are decided by market mechanisms with some redistribution of income across the town's regions.

John Partington (TSSA), attending for RTUC, set Matt up with a chance to promote the Labour Party manifesto and condemn Tory austerity by pointing out that bus services should not be a public service genie squeezed into a profit making bottle - but Matt preferred not to make party political points and instead acted as a meet and greet figure. Rather than be profit making organisations, bus companies are a public service which generate wealth for the local economy. As such, subsidy for unprofitable routes is essential.
Matt Rodda MP alongside Caversham Councillors
John also challenged the Councillors present with the notion of park-and-ride services to draw passengers out of cars in favour of buses to their rail commute from Emmer Green, Sonning Common and environs - but this did not elicit a direct response. The question of where a park-and-ride facility would be built was too thorny an issue for anyone to take on.

Cllr Adele Barnett-Ward did announce the Labour council's consultation on congestion charging and a company car parking levy. Either of which proposal would take great strides towards alleviating town centre congestion and really boost Reading Buses' public appeal.

Protesting Rail Fare Increases
Chris Reilly (RMT) and John Partington (TSSA) of RTUC leaflet the
commuting public outside Reading Railway Station

On 15 August, RTUC and RDLP members gathered in two shifts (07:00-09:00 & 18:00-19:00) to protest the Tory Government's announcement of rail fair increases for January 2019 of 3.2%. While commuters suffer below-inflation pay rises (and company directors average 11% pay rises annually), the rail fares will again increase above inflation.

Cllr John Ennis with RTUC's Nikki Dancey
and Kevin Brandstatter (both GMB)

Labour Councillors John Ennis and Ellie Emberson joined other Labour protesters alongside RTUC delegates John Partington (TSSA), Chris Reilly (RMT), Nikki Dancey and Kevin Brandstatter (both GMB) to distribute leaflets declaring 'Cut Fares Not Staff' and inviting the public to write to their MP to condemn the year on year inflation-busting fare rises.

Labour Party protesters leaflet
outside Reading Railway Station

This year's protest took on added flavour as the Tories also announced their desire to see pay negotiations with the rail unions to be based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rather than on the Retail Price Index (RPI) - a lower measure of inflation which ignores increases in mortgage rates - thus further squeezing pay for working people - while company directors receive an average of 11% pay increases year on year! Rest assured - the RTUC will oppose continued wage squeezes on all workers and will be back on the streets protesting fare rises in the run up to their January implementation, with a view to preventing or lowering them.


Defiance to Fascism in Oxford
Communist Party, Oxford Stand Up to Racism, Oxford & District Trades
Union Council and Palestine Solidarity stalls in Cornmarket St., Oxford

On 25 August, a coalition of radical groups and individuals assembled in Oxford's Cornmarket Street in a show of defiance against fascist thuggery under the banner, 'We will not be silenced'. The previous week, on 17 August, socialists at a stall at the Carfax Tower, protesting Tory MP Boris Johnson's Islamophobic comments about women in burkas, were attacked by two fascists who spoliated the stall, damaging literature and jostling and verbally abusing the stall-keepers.


The event on 25 August was attended by Oxford Stand Up To Racism, Oxford & District Trades Union Council, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), Palestine Solidarity and sympathisers from other groups. John Partington (TSSA) also attended, taking solidarity from the Reading Trades Union Council. Speeches were made by prominent local anti-racists and leaflets were distributed.

Upcoming anti-racist events publicised
The 'Love Music Hate Racism' festival in Oxford (1 September) and the 'Confronting Racism and Fascism' conference in London (23 October) were publicised. A petition against fascist demonstrations was also circulated, gaining dozens of signatures on the day. The message from the day was clear - for every one anti-racist stall disrupted by fascists, three or more will follow. 'We will not be silenced!'
Petition against fascist demonstrations in the UK 

Wednesday 22 August 2018

RTUC backs DPAC against attacks on disabled persons' rights

Kevin Jackson (4th left, Unison) and Nada al-Sanjari
(3rd right, NEU) from RTUC join the protest
In a second round of protests against Reading Borough Council's attacks on disabled people's concessionary bus passes, Berkshire Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) were joined by Reading Trades Union Council outside St Mary's Minster Church to inform the public of their campaign. While disabled people currently get free bus travel, as do their helpers, under RBC's proposal's, free travel for disabled people would only occur from 09:30 to 23:00 - and their helpers would cease to get any free travel at all. Also, the dial-a-ride ReadiBus scheme would become chargeable.

Nada al-Sanjari (NEU), Kevin Jackson (Unison) and John Gillman (Unite) of RTUC joined DPAC members and sympathisers to make noise on the issue, hold placards and leaflet the passing public. ITV Meridian News filmed the protest and publicised it on their website: http://www.itv.com/news/meridian/2018-08-22/protest-at-radical-proposals-to-cutback-on-bus-services-in-reading/, as did That's Thames Valley TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foYRQ1sZ_7Q&feature=youtu.be.

Following the protest, leafleting took place outside RBC's Civic Offices, including RTUC's John Partington (TSSA). This brought the issues to the attention of the public as well as Council workers and officers.

RTUC's John Partington (TSSA) leaflets the
public outside RBC's Civic Offices


Friday 17 August 2018

RTUC welcomes Reading Campaign Against Privatisation

17 August 2018 was the evening when the united forces of Reading's anti-austerity labour movement came together to say 'Enough is Enough'. Individuals from the Labour Party, trade unions and other campaign groups met to discuss the formation of a united protesting and campaigning group. The result is the establishment of RECAP - Reading Campaign Against Privatisation.

RECAP is determined to fight against any further cuts to public services, to privatisation of the same - and also to campaign for the return to public control of social services already handed over to the private sector and the 'third sector' (voluntary or charity organisations). The central objects of RECAP can be found on its debut leaflet:

RECAP identifies the austerity government of Teresa May's Conservatives as the principal target of its campaigning. However, Reading Borough Council - while being heavily constrained by government income limitations - needs to show leadership and opposition to the Tory's cuts agenda and work creatively to preserve the socialised control of public services. RECAP will oppose RBC's drive to privatise and rationalise public services and calls on the Council to engage with the trade unions to work through the difficult times until a Labour Government is elected. The trade union movement - being directly connected to the workers delivering services to and for the people of Reading - contains substantial intellectual capital that RBC needs to tap into in order to manage the austerity being imposed upon it by the Conservative Government. The slash-and-burn approach of cuts and privatisation will not maintain public services, will not save RBC money - and will not preserve public support for the incumbent councillors.

For more details about RECAP and for ways to get involved - including influencing RBC's current consultation on privatising services - 'Like' the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/readingagainstprivatisation/ and follow the website: http://recap.group/.