Capitalism is all trick and no treats for the working class

A quick scan of the newspapers or TV this Halloween reveals plenty of evidence for the horrors of capitalism, locally and further afield.

• More than 5 million workers in the UK earn less than the Living Wage. In Wales, it was reported earlier this year that there are just 18 Living Wage accredited employers and more than 1 in 5 workers earn less than the Living Wage. Scandalously that includes council workers in Labour authorities, including Swansea.
• For whole groups of workers, the minimum wage, less than what is needed to get by on, has become the norm. Nearly one quarter of minimum wage workers have been paid at that level for 5 years.
• Bosses are getting more inventive in getting us to work for less and less. Casualisation, zero-hours contracts, bogus self-employment. These are all methods used to get more profit out of us. If you were expecting better from a Labour Council then think again. Our Council uses zero-hours contracts and outsources services to companies who use tricks like paying care workers only for 15 minute visits and not the travel time in between, meaning care workers effectively earn less than the legal minimum wage.
• No wonder the numbers of children in families living in poverty has topped 4 million. A report by the Children's Society in August revealed that 23% of Welsh families are struggling with household debt.
• The number of people having to rely on food banks is growing and the range of people having to use them has also increased, including working families who's wages don't cover the cost of living. A food bank was set up in one of Swansea's universities last year for students who can't afford to feed themselves. Hardly surprising with successive Labour and Con-Dem governments first introducing then raising fees on top of the rising cost of living.
• With families struggling to afford even the basics of life, luxuries are becoming a distant memory for many. Living in Swansea, we're fortunate to have some of the most beautiful coastline on our doorstep but did you know that Barnardos has reported that as many as 1 in 5 families can't afford a day out at the seaside and fish and chips?

It hasn't been bad news for everybody though; the richest have done very well out of austerity. The number of billionaires globally has doubled since the start of the economic crisis; austerity has been used as a cover to transfer wealth from the poorest to the richest. Just 85 people (about the capacity of the infamous Swansea bendy bus) together are worth as much as the poorest half of the world's population. Remember that when politicians tell you that "we're all in together" or that we have to accept cuts.

Unfortunately you will find no challenge to what one German economist has called 'zombie capitalism' from the zombie Labour party. So desperate is Ed Miliband to show he can manage capitalism that he's promised to keep within Con-Dem spending limits and won't commit to reversing Con-Dem cuts. Labour promises to be tougher on the unemployed and all those that rely on state benefits to supplement their incomes. And Labour plays the Tory/UKIP game of blaming immigrants and migrant workers instead of targeting the greedy bosses.

No wonder workers are turning away from Labour in disgust, leading to an emptying out of the party, which now contains the disillusioned who can't break lifelong loyalties and careerists aiming to make a living on the backs of the working class. When I was in the Labour Party, each ward in Swansea had a party branch, now branches cover multiple wards and are not capable of holding councillors to account.

The paper's are reporting Labour faces being wiped out in Scotland for their collusion with the Tories but that's just a taste of their future elsewhere. My wife, Claire, asked me what I wanted to wear to Swansea Socialist Party's Halloween Party. I said I'd go as the walking dead and asked her to get me a Labour rosette.

It was to provide a vibrant, 'no cuts', socialist alternative to the horrors of capitalism that the Trades Unionist and Socialist Coalition was founded. TUSC is what it says on our banner. We are workers and campaigners, united by a commitment to basic trade union principles of solidarity and socialism. We've come together because we want to challenge the acceptance by all the other parties that ordinary people must be made to pay for the crisis of capitalism. We say we won't pay for a crisis not of our making and so we commit to fighting and voting, against every cut to jobs, pay or services.

Next year we aim to stand 1,000 council candidates in England (there's no council elections in Wales) and 100 candidates for MPs positions in the General Election. I'm the prospective TUSC Against Cuts candidate for Swansea West, one of four candidates who've already come forward in Wales. Can you help us reach our target of  contesting 7 seats in Wales?

Ronnie Job

Vote TUSC Against Cuts in Uplands Ward council by-election on November 20.

The need for a publicly owned integrated transport network

Travelling home tonight I'll face a dilemma: Do I more than double my travel time or nearly double my travel costs?

The problem is the bus company awarded one leg of the quickest route, by the Council, doesn't accept the day travel ticket I've just bought with another company for the journey in.

The Welsh Labour Government and Welsh Labour councils all pay lip service to the idea of an integrated transport policy but do precious little about it. They've also made cuts in public transport, reducing subsidies for bus operators.

A publicly owned, integrated transport network could be planned to meet the needs of users, providing cheap, safe and clean travel. It could begin to reduce congestion on our roads and could be a big step forward in reducing the environmental impact of transport.

But the Labour Party will not even commit to re-nationalising the rail network, despite an overwhelming vote for this at their own national conference. The allocation of transport contracts to the lowest bidder will put more and more people in situations like mine where public transport is an uneconomic long drudge.

TUSC: For an integrated publicly owned and planned public transport network.

TUSC says council cuts are a threat to safety and security

Swansea Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) supporters out campaigning to get Ronnie Job elected as a TUSC Against Cuts councillor in the Uplands by-election last night were struck by just how dark it was. Yes, I know, the clocks go back every year but that's why we have street lighting to keep people safe.

It seems to be The Council's policy to turn off every other light, either that or cuts are affecting street light maintenance. TUSC supporters are in favour of saving energy as part of a plan to protect our local environment but I suspect these cuts are more to do with saving money and will come at the cost of increased accidents and injuries. Particularly when cut backs across the board at the Council seem to be leading to other hazards like wet leaves remaining on pavements.

There is also a very real threat to personal safety. Even students making their way home fro the University after the last lecture of the day will be walking in the dark thanks to street lighting cuts.

Don't take chances with peoples' safety and security. Cuts pose a danger to council workers and residents alike. Staff and resource council departments that keep us safe and free from injury properly. Oppose all council cuts and outsourcing.

How serious was Labour about scrapping the Bedroom Tax?

The news that Swansea's 2 MPs were among 47 Labour MPS who did not vote in the debate on the Bedroom Tax, tabled by their own party, and the suggestion that Labour MPs didn't vote because they were 'paired' with Tory counterparts in a gentlemen's agreement, prompted me to send this letter of protest to local publications and news programmes..

Dear Sir,

I note that Swansea's two MPs, Geraint Davies and Sian James, were among the 47 Labour MPs who didn't vote on their party's motion to immediately scrap the Bedroom Tax.

I don't know what reasons the two had for not participating in the vote and it may be they had good reasons not to be there. Having said that, I would have expected them to have informed their constituents, in that case, why they could not attend a vote on an issue that is so crucial to thousands of families in the city, some of them potentially facing eviction due to not being able to afford to pay bedroom tax.

A number of acquaintances have suggested that maybe they were 'paired' with Tory MPs and indeed, Labour Party whips have put out a statement to the effect that this was the reason why many of the 47 Labour MPs weren't present.

For anybody who is not familiar with the concept of 'pairing', this is the parliamentary guide: http://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/pairing/

Pairing allows MPs from opposite parties to enter into an agreement that if one can't attend a debate, the other also agrees not to attend. There are a couple of important points to be made here.

1) This is not a parliamentary rule but a voluntary agreement.

2) Pairing is not used for important political issues.

Labour's decision to pair so many of their MPs on this issue suggests that this debate was more about posturing in the opening shots of what promises to be an 18-month election campaign rather than a serious attempt to end the misery caused by the bedroom tax.

It seems that Labour prefers so-called gentlemen's agreements with a Con-Dem government of millionaires than fighting for poor constituents, who seem to be little more than voting fodder to them. The bedroom tax may not be a serious political issue for Labour MPs who agree to be 'paired' but it is extremely serious for tenants who can't afford it, potentially facing eviction.

It reinforces the feeling that parliament is a club, with obscure rules most of us don't understand, the main purpose of which is to provide MPs with a gravy train to ride.

If Labour wants to convince us they are serious about getting rid of the bedroom tax then they should immediately instruct all Labour councils to stop harassing and even threatening with eviction, people who can't afford to pay bedroom tax.

I am a member of the Socialist Party which believes that elected representatives should have the same income as the people they represent. We call for MPs to commit to being 'a workers' MP on a worker's wage'. We don't believe in entering into gentlemen's agreements with people that have caused so much misery for working class communities. And we demand an immediate 'no evictions' commitment for bedroom tax non-payers.

Labour MPs who didn't vote in the bedroom tax may just have put themselves at the head of the list for an electoral challenge by Trades Unionist and Socialist Coalition (which the Socialist Party is a constituent part of) candidates at the general election.

Ronnie Job, previous and potential Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in Swansea