Child poverty in Wales: Labour’s failed strategy

Almost one in three children in Wales live in poverty. Even before the Coronavirus pandemic, the EHRC estimated that UK Government tax and welfare reforms would push a further 50,000 children into poverty.

This has happened on Welsh Labour’s watch. The Welsh Government’s recent Child Poverty Strategy sets out an action plan which boils down to little more than advice, raising awareness of existing inadequate programs, and improving takeup of free school meals for those who are eligible. Keyword: “eligible” - free school meals are mostly restricted to children of parents earning less than £7,400 a year. Shamefully, every Labour Member of the Senedd present voted against widening access.

Advice and awareness is all well and good, but no amount of advice on welfare benefits, the best energy deals, benefits of a smart meter, or begging for a slice of the discretionary assistance fund, will address the root issues: low pay, housing costs, and the shameful way this country treats unemployed people, ill and disabled people, and unpaid carers.

After twenty years of Welsh Labour "managing" capitalism and capitulating to Tory cuts from London, we need a real Socialist strategy for eliminating poverty in Wales.

Workers, socialists, and trade unionists, including Socialist Party Wales, are standing together in the Welsh Parliament elections as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). TUSC candidates believe that the Welsh Parliament should be leading a fight today for the resources we need in society, for universal free school meals, a mass council house building programme, rent controls, pay rises, and more.

Promoted by Dave Warren, TUSC Wales secretary, on behalf of TUSC Wales, 29 Tir Y Farchnad, Gowerton SA4 3GS

Why Wales should vote TUSC

Welsh Labour have spent more than twenty years in power in Wales. Still, one in five adults and almost one in three children are in poverty.

It's clear that twenty years of Welsh Labour "managing" capitalism and capitulating to Tory cuts from London has been a failure and we need an alternative.

Just waiting for a future Labour government in London has never been a good solution. It's unconscionable now that the Labour party is being led by Sir Keir Starmer.

In Wales, England and Scotland, workers, socialists, and trade unionists are standing together in elections as part of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

TUSC candidates believe that the Welsh Parliament should be leading a fight today for the resources we need in society. These candidates pledge to vote against all cuts budgets, not pass them on with crocodile tears.

Labour won't commit to this. Plaid won't commit to this. The Green Party won't commit to this. In Brighton last year, the Green Party's answer to Labour's proposed £1.47 million cut to learning disability services was a £1.24 million cut instead - and they said it like it was a good thing.

TUSC candidates reject the idea that we've got no choice. In the Welsh Parliament elections, everyone should vote for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition as the best way to support fighting candidates ready to defend and extend jobs, pay and services, not manage their decline.

TUSC candidates deserve your vote, your campaign donations, and your help getting their message out. If you can help in any way, contact us today.

All candidates have pledged to take only the average worker’s wage in Wales if elected. TUSC will be standing for:

• Universal free school meals for all pupils

• Opposition to all cuts and closures to public services, jobs, pay and conditions.

• For an immediate investment in the NHS to reverse previous cutbacks and a 15% pay rise for all NHS and care workers

• A united working-class struggle against racism

• Renationalisation of rail and public transport to electrify Wales railways

• For rent controls, secure tenancies and end to evictions.

• Nationalise energy utilities to create a publicly-owned energy company to build tidal lagoons on the Swansea, Cardiff and North Wales coasts and to make Wales 100% green energy self-sufficient

• For a multi-option referendum on independence

• Full law-making and tax raising powers for the Welsh Parliament including the power to nationalise companies threatening closure

Promoted by Dave Warren, TUSC Wales secretary, on behalf of TUSC Wales, 29 Tir Y Farchnad, Gowerton SA4 3GS

Solidarity with CWU strikers at BT!

TUSC Wales sends solidarity to the CWU members who were on strike today at BT.

Ross Saunders, who attended the picketline in Merthyr Tydfil, pictured, reported, "RPE Engineers are striking against changes to grading management are trying to impose. A resounding 86% of members voted in favour of strike action on a colossal 94% turnout which smashed throught the thresholds imposed by the Tory anti-union laws. RPE workers do important work making changes to the network to connect large-scale construction projects like the one at Prince Charles Hospital. Amongst the changes management wants to impose are the replacement of automatic pay progression with bonus payments which could be withdrawn at management's discretion. The changes are part of a general assault on the pay and conditions of the whole BT Openreach workforce. 

The CWU is to ballot all 40,000 Openreach workers for action against office closure plans and cuts to entitlements. A phenomenal 7000 workers attended an online meeting organised by the union on the 10th March.

Ross said, "All ordinary working-class people will back the efforts of these strikers to fight off plans by the bosses to cut their conditions as part of a general attempt to cut the share going to workers. Just like the British Gas workers who have taken action against the company's "fire and rehire" plans, this is a business that has boomed during the pandemic. Bosses are as usual trying to boost profits at workers' expense. Both companies should be nationalised under democratic control of the workers. So should the whole communications sector and the utilities too. Now that Labour has been recaptured by big business, workers will have to build a new party to make that programme a reality."

Welsh Labour Put Profits Before Our Safety in Covid Response

Mark Drakeford delayed the second lockdown by over a month against the advice of even official SAGE. Thousands died as a consequence of that and the slowness of the testing and tracing system - latest evidence. Still no recognition of the role that keeping schools and workplaces open played in transmission. Deaths were almost double in second wave compared to the first. This tragedy was avoidable if we had a government in Wales willing to stand up to the pressure big business was putting on it. Instead Welsh Labour prioritised profits over our safety.

(Image: Chris Fairweather/Huw Evans Agency, via Walesonline)

Justice for Mohamud Hassan!

Even now, after four police officers who dealt with Mohamud Hassan before his death have been served misconduct notices, not a single one has been suspended. Those officers are on still on the streets.

They should be suspended, and a full inquiry headed by workers should be called to uncover the truth.

The family have, quite rightly, demanded the resignation of Jeremy Vaughan, the Chief Constable of South Wales police.

There should be fundamental change as well to prevent these outrageous injustices from being repeated. No force claiming to exist in order to keep ordinary people safe should be so unaccountable to ordinary people. Democratic control of the police by working-class communities and organisations needed.

"No woman should have to be afraid to walk home at night."

End violence against women!

TUSC supporters joined the vigil outside the Senedd on Saturday to remember the life of Sarah Everard and demand an end to violence against women.

Mia Hollsing, TUSC candidate for South Wales Central, spoke to the gathering:

"Sarah Everard left a friend’s house at 9pm on the 3^rd of March. She was never seen again. Her body was found in Kent woodland on the 12^th of March. A serving police officer in the Met has been arrested suspected of her kidnapping and murder. This shocking crime has rightly left people outraged across the country. No woman should have to fear this kind of violence. No woman should have to be afraid to walk home at night.

"Unfortunately Sarah is not the only woman who has been a victim of male violence. On average two women a week are killed in the UK by a partner or ex-partner. Approximately one in every three women will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime. It is also estimated a further three women a week kill themselves as a result of experiencing domestic abuse. Despite this there are more animal shelters in Britain than refuges for women and children. Every week women are dying as a result of male violence, with the chronic underfunding of domestic abuse services making the situation worse. Already before Covid-19, in the year 2018-2019, 512 women were turned away from refuges in Wales due to lack of space, capacity or resources (Welsh Women's Aid).

"The pandemic has only made the situation worse. Lockdown, furlough and widespread working from home has meant women having to spend more time at home alone with their abusers, and homeschooling has meant children having to spend more time at home in families where abuse is present. At least 90% of VAWDASV (Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence) services in Wales have reported increased costs related to Covid -19. At the same time the number of survivors on waiting lists for support in the community has gone up by 143% (Welsh Women's Aid).

"What happened to Sarah is not an isolated incidence. It could happen to any woman and it needs to be stopped."

TUSC Wales demands:

* Long-term sustainable funding for all VAWDASV services in Wales to meet the needs of survivors of domestic abuse and to stop women being murdered.

* Democratic control of VAWDASV services.

* Refuge spaces for all who need them.

* A council house building building programme to make sure everyone has a safe home of their own, including women who need to move for their safety and to move on from refuge accommodation.

Security at Work For All

Insecure employment is one of the biggest issues facing ordinary people in Wales. Living on a zero-hour contract feels like living under a cloud. You can’t be certain, from one week to the next, that you’ll have enough hours to ensure that your wage packet can cover your rent or mortgage, your bills and your food costs. A sudden drop in hours leaves workers having to make the decision to buy food for the week and risk rent arrears or falling behind on mortgage payments or keep on top of their housing costs.  It can leave workers at risk of eviction or homelessness. 

This means that the bosses have a weapon to wield in any kind of dispute. Workers who are known to be outspoken about their conditions or pay can have their hours reduced. This makes attempts to organise workers into trade unions more difficult. Workers who experience bullying or harassment will avoid speaking out or raising grievances because they know that this carries the risk of being labelled a troublemaker and having hours taken off them. One worker reports incidence of racially aggravated bullying and sexual harassment going unreported and then festering and escalating into increasingly unacceptable behaviour. 

Precarious employment doesn’t just mean the week-to-week stress of a zero-hour contract, it can also mean the long-term insecurity of a temporary short-term contract. You could be employed on a temporary contract of a year or two years and that means you are always aware that the employer could decide not to renew your contract at the end of t he period. Again, this makes workers wary of getting involved with trade unions, joining other workers in demanding improvements to their pay or conditions, or making complaints about unfair treatment. 

The Wales TUC reported a 35% increase in the numbers of employees on zero-hours contracts between 2018 and 2019. In the UK as a whole, 3.6 million people were in insecure employment before the pandemic hit, and that the prevalence of insecure work is particularly bad in Wales and affects black and ethnic minority workers to a greater extent. This perhaps goes some way towards explaining why poorer part of Wales, and BAME workers saw higher instances of Covid-19 as they felt increasing pressure to return to unsafe working conditions in order not to be penalised when contract renewal time roles around. 

Part of the precarious work culture is down to organisations and institutions, including the Welsh government itself, who like to cut their payroll costs by outsourcing aspects of the supply chain to private contractor companies. Instead of employing their own security guards or cleaners and having to cover their holiday, sick pay and pension costs, it’s cheaper to pay a contractor like G4S or Mitie. This leave the workers vulnerable and disposable. If a client to the contractor takes a dislike to you or your face doesn’t fit, they can ask for you to be replaced and because the contractors must keep shareholders happy and profits rolling in. They will bend over backwards to keep the client happy whilst hanging their workers out to dry. 

This is why we need all public sector jobs to be brought back in house and an end to penny pinching contracting. This would mean that workers at all levels within the organisation would have their conditions and pay protected and they would have access to a HR department in order to raise grievances and stamp out bullying and harassment. We must also demand an end to zero-hours contracts, with the work being organised fairly amongst workers to end the absurd situation where some workers are overworked and some workers do not have enough hours to make ends meet. 

TUSC calls on the Welsh government to:-

•  Bring security and all other outsourced services back in house.

• Ban exploitative zero hour contracts in all public services. Workers who require flexibility should be given it on their terms - through enhanced rights to access unpaid leave or similar.

• Exclude companies who use zero hours from winning contracts with public bodies.

PCS Members in DVLA Swansea Vote to Strike: TUSC Backs You 100%

We send solidarity and good luck to PCS members in the Driver and Vehicle Licencing Agency in Swansea after acheiving a decisive vote in favour of strike action against the lack of safety in this dangerous period.

Forcing 2000 workers to attend the office unnecessary risks increasing the spreading the virus, threatening another lockdown.

Maximum pressure must be brought to bear on DVLA management to act now to protect the safety of their workforce. We cannot rely on the toothless Health and Safety Executive, which hasn't shut a single workplace in the whole of the pandemic despite 3500 outbreaks in work, or the Welsh government, which has failed to intervene. The union branch has been steadfast in its campaign to keep workers out of the workplace and safely at home. They are fighting to keep us all safe.

(Photo: Dave Warren, TUSC Wales Secretary and former PCS DVLA branch secretary)

Don't Mourn, Organise! RIP Bob Crow.

Bob Crow RMT general Secretary died 7 years ago leaving a record of industrial struggle, of solidarity and socialism. By example the RMT showed how effective militant trade unionism could protect and improve the lives of its members. He was central to the launch of the National Shop Stewards Network and TUSC - Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition which remain important bodies today. 

He will be remembered for the solidarity he and the RMT gave to the Vestas workers and their occupation on the Isle of Wight when other unions walked away from the fight.

Don’t mourn, organise ✊✊✊

By Nick Chaffey

The number is 15%, Angela

MPs like Angela Rayner got a £10,000 bonus at the start of the pandemic. Nurses, who on average earn less than half MPs, got nothing but danger as they fought in the front line against the virus.

It's disgraceful, when NHS workers have demonstrated up and down the country for a 15% pay rise to begin to recover the 20% they've lost in the last decade, that politicians like Rayner refuse to get behind that campaign, repeating instead the 2.1% figure that other leading Labour MPs like John Ashworth have been touting.

UK billionaires gave increased their wealth by a third during the pandemic, yet Labour won't even back a modest increase to the tax on profits.

Labour are a party of big business. Support TUSC candidates standing in elections this year as a step towards building a new party.

NHS Workers - "Disgusted but unsurprised" at real pay cut offer

Beth Webster, nurse at UHW hospital in Cardiff and TUSC candidate on the South Wales Central list, says, "Disgusted but unsurprised is how NHS workers feel about the 1% pay deal.

"Everyone's heard about the diabolical treatment of NHS workers during the pandemic, but we're not demanding a 15% pay rise because we think we need a reward or a pat on the back.

"We actually need a pay rise. Our wages have fallen by up to 20% in a decade.

"We shouldn't have to work extra agency or bank shifts, take second jobs, on top of full time hours, on top of all the unpaid overtime we do. We cannot provide good, safe patient care when we're exhausted.

"The pandemic shows however bad things get in the NHS, Westminster and the Assembly are never going to give us proper pay or funding off their own backs.

"We have to fight for it. Get involved in your union, in your local 'NHS Workers Say No' group. Talk to your colleagues, get them involved. Prepare to be balloted and vote for industrial action."

National Shop Stewards Network groups are hosting an online meeting TOMORROW (Thursday 11th March) at 6pm to assist NHS workers to organise and fight back.

TUSC Wales to Stand Leading Trade Unionist to Head SWW List

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition Wales (TUSC Wales) to stand trade union leader to head South Wales West list.

Workers should not pay for the Covid-19 recovery.

TUSC Wales today announced that Mark Evans, a leading trade unionist in Wales, is to head their list of candidates for South Wales West.

Mark represents Wales on Council workers' union Unison's Local Government Executive and has been the branch secretary of Carmarthenshire County Unison branch for over a decade. 

He has led Carmarthenshire branch to fight cuts to jobs and services proposed by Labour, Plaid and Independent-led councils and calls for councils to implement a needs-led legal no-cuts budget. 

(Photo credit: Walesonline)

The branch has been to the fore in holding the local authority to account on Health and Safety during COVID-19 and has successfully stopped cuts to services and jobs on many occasions.

 

Mark has been a socialist, trade union activist, community campaigner and opponent of racism and the far right all his adult life.

Mark, speaking in his capacity as a candidate for the Senedd elections, said "I have seen the consequence of ten years of Tory austerity on council staff and our working-class communities. Carmarthenshire council, for example, has had £120m stolen from it in central funding since 2010 with disastrous consequences. One in five Local Government jobs has been cut in Wales, damaging services and the local economy and putting huge pressure on the workers who are left having had to work harder for less.

"I have seen the failure of the WelshLabour Government to mount even a token resistance to the Tories. It is working class people in Wales working in the public and private sector who have kept this county and vital services running. They should not pay for the COVID-19 -19 crisis.

"It is an honour to be selected to stand as a TUSC candidate for South West Wales. We need real socialists in the Senedd who will represent the interests of working-class people. We need to show trade unionists, young people and the rest of our class who are suffering poverty, inequality, insecure employment, and low wages that there is a socialist alternate to the pro-big business policies of all the main parties.

"The Welsh Government should organise a mass campaign involving the trade unions, campaigners, local authorities, and working-class communities, demanding the return of the money stolen by the Tories through cuts to out budget since 2010. I will campaign for the building of a new mass workers party based on the trade unions and young people to offer this socialist alternative."

Mark follows the example of Militant (now Socialist Party) MPs like Dave Nellist and has pledged to receive only the wage of an average skilled worker if elected as an MS, donating the rest back to the trade union and socialist movement.

Contact TUSC Wales on 07772215281 
email: tuscwales@gmail.com
Facebook: TUSC Wales - CULS Cymru 
website: tusc.org.uk

A selection of press coverage of campaigning work in which Mark has been involved:

1) Demanding a legal no-cuts budget:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/31m-budget-cuts-devastate-services-13969107

https://www.tivysideadvertiser.co.uk/news/19098129.unison-wants-carmarthenshire-implement-no-cuts-budget/

2) Supporting Black Lives Matter and the fight against racism:

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/picton-carmarthen-black-lives-matter-18657135

3) Opposing the privatisation of services by Plaid Cymru:

 https://www.llanellionline.news/unison-statement-councils-plan-outsource-trade-waste/

4) Fighting cuts to services and victimisation by Labour:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ashfFQ5szo

Welsh voters given real alternative to mainstream parties in Senedd elections

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) has announced it is standing in the Welsh Parliament elections on 6 May.

It has decided to contest the South Wales West, South Wales East and South Wales Central regional lists.

TUSC is standing to provide a real alternative for working people, including traditional Labour voters, who have been abandoned by the main parties.

Mark Evans, lead TUSC candidate in South Wales West said: “Under Keir Starmer Labour has abandoned working people. Its defence of big business in opposing the raising of Corporation Tax is just the latest in a series of sharp moves to the right, which will see Labour support in Wales ebbing away.”

Mariam Kamish, TUSC lead candidate in South Wales East added: “Welsh Labour’s voting down of a proposal to allow all children of Universal Credit claimants to receive free school meals shows that Welsh Labour is also not prepared to stand up for the lowest-paid workers in Wales”.

TUSC will be standing for:

• Universal free school meals for all pupils

• Opposition to all cuts and closures to public services, jobs, pay and conditions.

• For an immediate investment in the NHS to reverse previous cutbacks and a 15% pay rise for all NHS and care workers

• A united working-class struggle against racism

• Renationalisation of rail and public transport to electrify Wales railways

• For rent controls, secure tenancies and end to evictions.

• Nationalise energy utilities to create a publicly-owned energy company to build tidal lagoons on the Swansea, Cardiff and North Wales coasts and to make Wales 100% green energy self-sufficient

• For a multi-option referendum on independence

• Full law-making and tax raising powers for the Welsh Parliament including the power to nationalise companies threatening closure

Candidates will include a council workers’ leader, NHS nurses and workers fighting for a decent pay rise in the pandemic, a leader of the rent strike at Swansea University, a prominent community anti-cuts campaigner, a Black Lives’ Matter activist and an 18-year-old college student.

All candidates have pledged to take only the average worker’s wage in Wales if elected.


TUSC list candidates

 

South Wales West

Mark Evans – Carmarthenshire council workers’ leader

Karen Gerrahty – Maesteg NHS occupational therapist

Gareth Bromhall – Secretary of Swansea Trades Union Council and care worker

Oision Mullholland – organiser of the rent strike at Swansea University

Charlie Wells – Swansea University organiser of Free Education campaign



South Wales Central

Ross Saunders – organiser of Cardiff Against The Cuts and secretary of Socialist Party Wales

Beth Webster – nurse at UHW hospital

Mia Hollsing – Cynon Valley campaigner against domestic violence

Kevin Gillen – Barry community activist



South Wales East

Mariam Kamish – Campaigner for A&E at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr

Cammilla Mngaza – Campaigning for justice for her daughter Siyanda Mngaza

Melanie Benedict – 18 year old campaigner for youth rights

Dave Reid – Trade union activist

Stop Women Dying!

Approximately one in every three women in Wales will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime. On average two women a week are killed in the UK by a partner or ex-partner. A further three women a week are estimated to kill themselves as a result of domestic abuse. 

Despite this there are more animal shelters in Britain than refuges for women and children. Every week women are dying as a result of the chronic underfunding of domestic abuse services. Already before Covid-19, in the year 2018-2019, 512 women were turned away from refuges in Wales due to lack of space, capacity or resources (Welsh Women's Aid).

The pandemic has only made the situation worse. Lockdown, furlough and widespread working from home has meant women having to spend more time at home alone with their abusers, and homeschooling has meant children having to spend more time at home in families where abuse is present. At least 90% of VAWDASV (Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence) services in Wales have reported increased costs related to Covid -19. At the same time the number of survivors on waiting lists for support in the community has gone up by 143% (Welsh Women's Aid).

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) believes this is completely unacceptable. We demand:

* Long-term sustainable public funding for all VAWDASV services in Wales to meet the needs of survivors of domestic abuse and to stop women being murdered.

* Democratic control of VAWDASV services.

* Refuge spaces for all who need them.

* A council house building building programme to make sure everyone has a safe home of their own, including women who need to move for their safety and to move on from refuge accommodation.

Mia Hollsing

TUSC candidate for South Wales Central

Bakers' Union Members are Right: Starmer's Labour Party Doesn't Serve Their Interests

Only 9% of BFAWU members think Labour under Starmer will fight for them. That's why support for building a new workers' party and TUSC is growing. 

As reported in The Socialist:

"Former Labour MP Chris Williamson, representing ‘Resist: the Movement for a People’s Party’ on the TUSC steering committee, said: “Amy’s decision to join TUSC’s national steering committee is a further indication that a political alternative is needed. “Usdaw has always been very loyal to the Labour Party, so it is very significant that one of the union’s most senior figures has thrown her weight behind TUSC. “We are building a strong coalition of trade unionists and socialists to give people hope that an alternative to the neoliberal nightmare is possible. People are understandably dissatisfied with the existing political status quo and I’m sure that Amy’s decision will encourage others to follow her example”."

A Pay Cut for the NHS in Real Terms?

If reports are accurate, and NHS workers are facing a pay cut in real terms after sacrificing so much (after sacrficing everything, for some), then there isn't a person in the country who wouldn't blame them if they went on strike to force the government into awarding a decent pay rise.

NHS workers have lost 20% of their pay over the last decade. They can't afford to lose any more.

We can't afford them to either, because if pay worsens further then the already acute recruitment crisis will sharpen to the point where it could collapse the system.

If elected, TUSC members of the Welsh Parliament would call for the Welsh NHS to pay a decent pay rise, regardless of what was happening in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. We'd set a budget that would start to rebuild pay in the NHS and pay for the health and other services we all need and we'd call for a mass campaign demanding the funding we need from Westminster. 

A Third Wave of Covid-19 is NOT inevitable

Contrary to Labour First Minister Mark Drakeford's claims, a third wave of Covid-19 infections is NOT inevitable.

In fact, there was nothing inevitable about a second wave.

If decisive action were taken to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus from the beginning, we could have defeated it by now, our schools would be back to normal and we would be repairing the economic damage rather than sustaining yet more of it.

But for that to happen we needed a testing and tracing system that worked effectively from the beginning. Rather than handing out contracts to the rich mates of the Tories, that would have meant nationalising the productive capacity we needed to make and process tests in a public sector that we controlled democratically.

And we needed the lockdown plan to be under the control of ordinary workers, not big business and the political parties they control. Because the bosses ran the show, we had big companies like EE calling in high street retail workers during the first lockdown, claiming they were "key workers". No wonder there have been 3500 outbreaks of infection in workplaces, with the toothless Health and Safety Executive not closing a single one during the pandemic.

120,000 died with Covid-19 last year, at the best estimate. Almost every one of them is an unnecessary tragedy. The death toll isn't a natural disaster: it happened because politicians like the Welsh Labour Government were not prepared to stand up to the pressure of big business when they demanded profits are prioritised over our safety. We are building the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition to put a stop to that criminal behaviour.

Take the Fight Against Racism into the Elections!