NATO in Newport 2014

On 4th and 5th September 2014 the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport will be hosting this year's North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit.

A military alliance that consists of 28 member states across North America and Europe, NATO was originally established in 1949 as a Western counter power to the Soviet Union, ostensibly due to anxieties about the spread of communism. Since the collapse of the USSR it has found meaning in its existence through ‘humanitarian intervention’. Humanitarian intervention by NATO doesn’t mean, food, water and safer spaces for vulnerable people around the world. Instead, humanitarian intervention means military acts of war. Supposedly bombing, displacement and violence is to quash conflicts, and result in peace. Despite history repeatedly showing us that such actions only exacerbates conflict, creating more victims and escalating suffering.

Kicking back in austerity Britain

When the Coalition came to power in 2010, the knee-jerk reaction for me was to oppose them with everything I had. So I did what I normally do in times of crisis: pick up a guitar and criss-cross the country trying to raise merry hell playing at both gigs and protests. This is documented in the Picket Line Party project I released earlier this year.

Looking back, I was riding a wave of strikes, demonstrations, and protests that in some ways crashed and burned. I did too. Now, in 2012, the day-to-day indignities of the cuts continue, but the media-grabbing events of the likes of Occupy have turned into localised struggles to save jobs and services. This is a good thing, but the fight back is proceeding at a much slower pace than is necessary for any reversal of our collective fortunes, let alone a radical re-wiring of our society.

The question for me earlier this year was: what to do about this all now? My response has been to come up with the "Kicking Back In Austerity Britain tour"; a night of hard-hitting, socially engaged acoustic music in collaboration with Gail Something-Else.

A shift in the fight against cuts

The London march on 26th March was the biggest mobilisation by the trade union movement for decades, followed on 30th June by the biggest one day strike seen for many years. Now the question is "Where next?" The talk of a co-ordinated mass strike in the autumn, with the big battalions of UNITE and UNISON joining the fray. How do we keep the heat up over the summer?

In terms of keeping the action going there seems to be little concrete coming from the unions. The PCS has called a months overtime ban, and is relying on a legal route in the meantime on the pension question and is upping its tax justice campaign. All unions are to a greater or lesser degree looking for opportunities to ballot for action, usually on pay or pensions.

Certainly the summer needs to see the impetus continued. This means supporting the unions in ballots for and actual industrial action. It means militants in the unions pressing hard and arguing for action. The anti cuts groups need to continue organising meetings and demonstrations, but more co-ordination is needed, on a Wales-wide level for a start. The groups need to open up to encompass far more people, including the unemployed and pensioners. It would be better if anti-cuts groups became community defence groups with interaction with the environmental movement. Climate change is still a huge challenge, and is exacerbated by the cuts in its effect on working class communities as the race for resources takes its toll, and the cuts leave communities vulnerable.

The media and the cuts: Dirty tricks in Swansea

No one expects the commercial press to be sympathetic towards the anti-cuts movement. Most British newspapers take it for granted that cuts are necessary and that working people have to suffer in the name of fiscal rectitude. Nevertheless, it is becoming clear that coverage of the anti-cuts movement is more distorted in some publications than in others.

Although national newspapers such as the Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail are never less than scornful in their attitude towards the resistance, they usually report the facts about strikes, marches and demonstrations with at least a modicum of objectivity.The same cannot be said about many local newspapers. Aware that their work is rarely exposed to rigorous political scrutiny, regional journalists have done more than anyone else to mislead the public about the struggle against the cuts.

An especially shocking example of political bias has just appeared in the South Wales Evening Post. On Thursday 30th June the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) organised a well-attended rally in Castle Square in Swansea in support of the co-ordinated strikes in the public sector. In his front-page coverage of the rally on 1st July, Rob Goodman of the Post employed every trick in the book to convey the impression that it had been a miserable failure. His article is worth examining because it typifies the work of regional journalists across the country.

Thursday 30th June - strike!

On Thursdays 30th June public sector workers from four unions will be taking co-ordinated strike action together for the first time.

The simultaneous strike by Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), National Union of Teachers (NUT), Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and University and College Union (UCU) members is against proposed changes to public sector pensions that will mean paying more and working longer for less.

There will be picket lines outside all kinds of government buildings across the UK and with a significant public sector in Wales, there will be a large number here, as well as widespread school closures.

Though not the biggest industrial action since the General Strike of 1926 as some have claimed, it's a hugely important step in building a movement of resistance against the government's austerity programme. In an effort to further spread the message marches and rallies will be taking place in Aberystwyth, Cardiff, Llandrindod Wells, Newport, Swansea, Merthyr and Wrexham.

UK Uncut take action in Cardiff

In what was called the ‘emergency operation’, actions took place across the UK on Saturday 28th May, in protest at government cuts to the National Health Service. UK Uncut carried out 41 actions against banks and tax avoiders, some of which took the form of occupations.

In Cardiff the target was Topshop, the clothing store owned by retail giant the Arcadia Group, headed by Sir Philip Green, who has avoided the payment of millions of pounds of taxes. Following an anti-austerity rally dubbed "Busk against the Cuts" around 50 people simply walked down the main shopping street and straight past the shop's security guards, who were clearly overwhelmed by the number of protesters walking through the door. They then occupied the store for an hour, forcing it to close for at least half of that time.

It seemed to be the chants of the protesters that bothered Topshop the most. One of the more amusing aspects of the occupation was the rather pathetic attempt to drown out the chants by cranking up their own, awful ‘background’ music to ear splitting levels. In the end even the cops were begging them to turn it down. .

Direct action against austerity cuts

Early on Sunday morning, on the 6th of March, Jamie Bevan and I were arrested for taking direct action against the Tories in because of their cultural vandalism against the Welsh language. We broke into MP Jonathan Evans’s office in Cardiff and sprayed the slogan ‘Achub S4C’ (Save S4C) on the wall. The sirens went off straight away when we broke the window to get into the office. The police arrived while we were on the phone notifying them of what we had done. The policeman shouted at us to come out of the building and threatened to break the door down and spray us with pepper spray. We opened the door and came out peacefully, the police told us to get on the floor and on our stomachs.

We were then put into the back of the van and were taken to the police station at Cardiff Bay. Jamie and I had been arrested about 3 months prior for spraying a slogan on a government building in protest against the weak Welsh Language law that let big companies get away with not providing services in Welsh. That time I was only in the cell for about 8 hours and I was allowed my phone call straight away. I thought I knew what to expect but it turned out that that this it would be a little different. I was not allowed my phone call until 17 hours after being arrested and would be in the cell much longer.

I was very glad to get my phone call, i was worried that my father had come all the way down from north Wales, it was lambing season so this would have been quite an inconvenience! I received a newspaper while in the cell that my friend Menna had bought me. I don’t know what I would have done without it, being alone for 33 hours would have been absolutely unbearable without something to read! There were a few articles about protesters in other countries, this really made me appreciate how lucky I was that I was not worse off. I was allowed plenty of tea and almost all the police (except maybe one or two) treated me with respect and were perfectly pleasant.

Notes from the Aberystwyth occupation

In response to the proposed cuts to education by the ConDem government last autumn ‘Aber Students Against The Cuts’, an open movement of students and staff from Aberystwyth University plus members of the community, formed in Aberystwyth. Since then, the government has successfully raised the cap on tuition fees, abolished the Education Maintenance Allowance in England and introduced massive and unprecedented cuts to Education funding. Despite all the high profile protests, dozens of student occupations, publicity about alternative solutions, celebrity appeals and inspiration from popular revolutions in North Africa, the government has managed to begin the implementation its extremist austerity agenda.

One might conclude that the impassioned actions of hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of life have come to nothing: that this deeply unpopular government remains unstoppable. However, it would be to underestimate the power of the establishment to presume that a series of street protests or student occupations alone could bring it down. More than that it would be to misunderstand the nature and direction of the movement that has emerged in opposition.

Labour council pushes through Tory budget

On 19th October last year, amid an air of comradely bonhomie and a general feeling of a common cause, Welsh trade unionists sat in a committee room in Parliament and listened to Labour Party MPs declare that they would work closely with the unions to both fight the public sector cuts and defend working people and communities.

The following day, trade unions in Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) council were called in to an emergency meeting to be told that the Labour led council was to issue a ‘Section 188 Notice’, with a view to dismissing over 10,000 staff and re-engaging on lesser terms and conditions.

The changes were proposed in the context of an anticipated budget shortfall of £60 million over the next three years (which turned out to be £45m). Three areas were to be considered to close the gap; efficiency savings, service provision and staff terms and conditions.

ConDem circus coming to town

Will conman Cameron face cheering or jeering crowds at the Tory party conference in Cardiff this March?

On the weekend of the 4th - 6th March 2011 Cardiff will be the venue for not one but two government party conferences. The Conservative Party will be hosting their Spring Forum at the Swelec Stadium, whilst the Welsh Lib Dems will be having their party conference just down the road at the Angel Hotel.

The Prime Minister himself, David Cameron will be be coming to make a keynote speech to the party faithful on the Saturday afternoon. We should give him the welcome he deserves to ensure he knows that his cost-cutting policies are not popular with the poorest in society. 


His speech is already pretty much written: “Thank you for your wonderful Welsh welcome… blah blah… the cuts are necessary and tough decisions have to be made by everyone… a reference to recent Ashes victory… If we all work as team we can get through this together… ". Toad-like Welsh conservative leader Nick Bourne will lead the standing ovation, before staking a subtle claim for his surely inevitable seat in the House of Lords.

ConDems vs the Welsh language

The Welsh word for Tory (‘Tori’) also means ‘to cut’ in Welsh. Now there’s a coincidence. The cuts that the ConDems are imposing on us will have a profound impact on our society for generations to come. From the extra strain on our public services to our ‘jobless generation’ it will change the face of Wales. What people do not necessarily take into consideration is how the cuts are going to threatan our identity as distinct people. After 700 years of being ruled by our big next door neighbour, what we were left with as a symbol of our identity was our language. The ConDem’s plans to hack away at public services as well as their decision to put and end to S4C as we know it could be the final blow that could kill the Welsh language.

Statisticaly, the number of Welsh speakers is on the rise. Although this is heartening, a rise in the number of speakers does not necessarily mean that the language is in a healthy state. Latin, although being spoken by many, is a 'dead' languauge. In no part of the world is Latin the community language or the language of the home and the same must be kept in mind when we look at the situation with Welsh.

Defeat camouflaged as victory?

In October 2010, the Tory/Liberal coalition government announced the results of its comprehensive spending review. The majority of the planned cuts are at best harsh, at worst a cynical attempt to keep the rich rich and the poor firmly in their place. However, for people who believe in peace the 8% cut in the defence budget is at least a step in the right direction. One particular aspect of this 8% reduction has been seen as a particular cause for celebration: the cancellation of the proposed £14billion St. Athan Military Academy. The headline of a subsequent CND Cymru press release in response to the cancellation declared

“Relief and Joy at St Athan Military College Cancellation”.

But in their haste to declare victory on this issue, there is a danger of allowing a lesser, but still significant, defeat for the campaign, as the government has shown no loss of desire for a military training project in St Athan.

UK Uncut in Cardiff

In recent months the country seems to have suddenly come alive with resistance to the neo-liberal shock therapy that is being imposed by the coalition government. In the past my generation saw massive public opposition to the war in Iraq swept aside by an arrogant prime minister, convinced by his own lies that he had no obligations to the will of the people whom he supposedly represented, and popular dissent seemed to wither away as a result. Now though, we once again face an ultra-right wing government bent on a campaign of ideological scorched earth not seen since the dark days of Thatcher.

One of the new flowerings of dissent has come in the shape of the UK Uncut movement, although “movement” seems like too strong a word for something that is little more than an online message. The message goes like this – make the greedy corporations who (legally) evade their tax liabilities in the UK pay a fair share of tax, and in so doing, put the missing money into the government’s coffers that would pay for nearly everything that is being cut back. Watching from behind the safety of my laptop screen, it was frustrating to see the protests explode across the country while nothing seemed to be happening in Cardiff.

Tuition fee protests are just the beginning

It’s difficult not be heartened by the sudden upsurge in radicalism amongst students, not just in Wales but in the UK as a whole. A matter of months ago we were lamenting the creation of the Conservative / Liberal Democrat coalition that aims to make working class people pay for the follies of the rich. Suddenly the gauntlet has been thrown down by a younger generation who are not only prepared to say no, but hit the streets to make the point.

The catalyst was the introduction of higher fees for students. Despite being a devolved issue, the Plaid/Labour coalition in the Welsh Assembly were playing their cards close to their chests. Not only are they facing an overall cut of 1.2% of the Welsh block budget from Westminster, but five out of eleven Welsh universities have a deficit of £70 million and funding cuts of £50 million.

The initial solution, as far as the universities saw it, was to put up fees for students, and they lobbied the Assembly accordingly. This would mean universities charging up to £9000 annually per student, up from the original cap of £3000.

Fighting back in north Wales

No one active in the radical movement in Wales will now be unaware of the scale of the cuts proposed and being implemented by the ConDem coalition government, which they maintain are unavoidable due to the recession.

The cuts are already affecting public services from hospitals and schools to benefit and tax offices, public amenities from playgrounds to libraries.

Wales as always will be particularly hit as a very large number of people are employed in the public sector, and also rely on its services.

The human face of welfare reform

In the light of extensive plans from the coalition government to ‘reform’ the welfare and benefits system much has be written about it. Such a change in the current system has provoked a reaction from the entire political spectrum. Many of the radical left have looked at how this will affect working class people. Glyn Matthews interviews a benefit claimant living in Bridgend (who wishes to remain anonymous) to show the human face of the current welfare reform proposals.


Glyn: Firstly, can you just briefly outline your current circumstances as a benefit claimant?

Well about 15 years ago I had a slipped disc in my back, I had an operation to repair it but it has never been quite right since. About 5 years ago I found myself unable to cope with work as my back had deteriorated so much. I was assessed and started claiming incapacity benefit My back become allot better after awhile and I was much more active and mobile. The problem was there were still some days that I couldn’t physically move. I was able to go on to the back to work scheme and was able to get a job. I still took quite a few sick days due to back problems but as my sick pay was paid by the government and not my boss it was ok and I wasn't at risk of being sacked. I was made redundant recently though, I was just out of the 12 month period to go back onto incapacity benefit but not long enough to get any redundancy pay. At the moment I am waiting to be reassessed for incapacity benefit as my back problems have resurfaced and some days I haven’t been able to leave the bed.