Russian Revolution in Somerset

Subject: The Russian Revolution in Somerset

Friends,
Bridgwater Trades Union Council is hosting a special public discussion to mark the October 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

Date: Tuesday October 31st. Time: 7pm. Venue: The Engine Room, 50-52 High St, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 3BL

The meeting is part of the Engine Room's "Bridgwater Together" celebrations, running from Saturday October 28th to Saturday 4th November.

From Tuesday 31st to Saturday November 4th, the Russian Revolution theme continues with an Engine Room exhibition of rare and original Soviet Posters and photographic magazines, organised and curated by Bridgwater's Irena Brezowski.

                                                                     *********************************************************

Dave Chapple, Bridgwater TUC Secretary, said:

‘For millions of people throughout the twentieth century, and for many thousands of socialists in our country today, the overthrow of Kerensky's Government by the Bolsheviks, led by Lenin, Trotsky, and Kamenev in October 1917, was a world-changing, inspiring and liberating event.

‘October 1917 was hailed by most shades of left-wing opinion in Britain: the militant shop stewards and syndicalists, South Wales miners, Glasgow engineers, the Socialist Labour Party, the British Socialist Party, Sylvia Pankhurst, John Maclean, and many like George Lansbury in the Independent Labour Party. During the next few years it was British Labour's strike threats against Lloyd George's war-mongering  that helped to ensure that the besieged fledgling "soviet" state survived.

‘However, even before Lenin's death in 1924, many previous admirers world-wide, begun to have doubts about the policies and direction of the new state.

‘As Lenin and Trotsky gave way to Joseph Stalin's murderous dictatorship, and right down until 1989, millions of workers in the Soviet Union and its satellites developed negative, critical or hostile attitudes to communist state authority, attitudes which led some Russians and Eastern Europeans after 1989 to seek intellectual consolation or refuge in the bright lights of western consumer capitalism.

‘In Bridgwater today, still Somerset's premier working-class town, live hundreds of unrepentant and dedicated local socialists, and they are working alongside hundreds of migrant workers from Eastern Europe, including many Russian speakers from Lithuania. Local trades unions have welcomed migrant workers into membership and some are already shop stewards. Of course, many migrant workers retain personal or family memories of pre-1989 days, and so will have their own views on communism and October 1917. 

‘This is why Bridgwater TUC's  public meeting on October  31st is being organised as a serious discussion between different opinions and perspectives,  and not a celebration.’

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Speakers are Liz Payne, President of the Communist Party of Britain; Dave Chapple, Secretary of Bridgwater TUC; and Irena Brezowski, a Bridgwater College lecturer who has family and personal links to the old Soviet Union.

Tuesday October 31st, 7pm, The Engine Room, 50-52 High St, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 3BL

Please pass this invite onto any of your contacts who might be interested.

ALL WELCOME!

******

Orgreave Campaign & Dave Douglass pamphlet

Friends,

When Barbara Jackson of the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign, spoke recently at the AGM of Bridgwater Trades Union Council in Somerset, she was presented with a pamphlet, written by Dave Douglass, which commemorates the replication of the famous old Follonsby (Wardley) Lodge Banner, with portraits of Geordie Harvey, James Connolly, AJ Cook, and Keir Hardie.

Hope this short tribute is of interest!

https://youtu.be/GjR2xdEuU5s

Dave Chapple,

Secretary,

Bridgwater TUC.

Crewe Conference of Trade Union Councils

Where Are The Workers?

THE Sunday Times in an editorial following the May 2015 elections declared:

'Trade unionism is a minority cause.  The days of an economy dominated by large manufacturing industries are long past.  The proportion of private sector employees who belong to a trade union is just 14%.' 

Last weekend's Crewe Conference dramatically displayed the gulf between private sector trade unionism, and  public sector unions like the PCS.  Some eight Motions were dedicated to the attacks on trade unions and about half referred to the PCS union.  Other Motions  expressed concern about the representation of the working class following the defeat of the Labour Party in the General Election.   

A Motion 7. from Cardiff noted 'attacks by local government on union branches' and the 'clear intention of (Francis) Maude and the Tories is to destroy PCS financially by withdrawing the check-off from government departments'.  From the building trade, a UCCAT delegate questioned this domination of the public sector when things were so bad on the building sites, and the anarcho-syndicalist trade unionist Dave Chapple from Bridgewater TUC, challenged the call in Motion 17. from Merseyside TUC that the TUC should 'wave affiliation fees from [the] PCS [union]'. 

Similarly the reference to the 'blacklisting and victimisation of union reps' in Motion 7. must strike people working in the British industrial wild west of the building sites as strange, when they have suffered for donkey's years from blacklisting on a massive scale.  To a former blue collar worker like myself; the delegate from UCATT; the thousands of workers in the British building trade; and even a postman like Dave Chapple, the Secretary of Bridgewater TUC who said that his delegates 'would be displeased if the PCS delegates had their affiliation fees waved'; the plight of the PCS would seem somewhat feather-bedded.


In Spain, in the famous anarchist trade union, the CNT, there were times when the land-labourers of Andalucia had their union dues waved because of the hardship they suffered through the irregular work pattern in the field with unpredictable harvests:  the anarcho-syndicalist industrial workers in the factories of Catalonia and Barcelona were more than willing to shoulder the costs of their Andalucian brothers and sisters. 

But, comparing the English PCS union today to the Spanish trade union confederation the CNT of the 1930s is like comparing a white-collar pygmy to an industrial giant: it just doesn't bear comparison on any scale of reference. 
In 1966, I led a raid with group of Manchester anarchists on my local dole office in Rochdale to obtained a my labour exchange file.  When we examined my file compiled by Labour Exchange staff (the kind of people who are now members of the PCS) we found that it contained a section marked 'Derog' in this derogatory dossier, as part of my labour exchange record since I was involved in the national apprentice strike in 1960, there was a stream of derogatory references entered by those law abiding employees at the Rochdale Labour Exchange who had interviewed me over the years after I'd been sacked after the apprentice strike up to 1966 when we purloined my dole documents. 

It's nice to know that the people in the Labour Exchanges of the 1960s, and would now be members of the PCS union working in Job Centres, were routinely black-balling me back then and for all I know may still be blacklisting claimants now.  Yet, these people in the PCS, who operated as willing blacklisters of working people in the 1960s, are now asking me and my Trade Union Council for support because the Government, to which they have been for years the loyal  servants of the State is getting at them. 
I have a heart, but isn't this kind of cant and humbug asking rather too much of me under the circumstances?

Ken Loach presents 'It's a Free World'

“It’s a Free World”

Thursday June 11^th: Ken Loach to visit Burnham-on-Sea for film screening.

 

ACCLAIMED British film director Ken Loach will present a special screening of his film ‘It’s a Free World’ at the Princess Theatre, Burnham-on-Sea on Thursday June 11th 2015.  Doors open 6pm for 6.30pm start.  The screening will be followed by a question and answer session with the director.

Ken Loach is a prolific and world-renowned filmmaker, noted for his social realism style and for ground breaking films such as ‘Kes’ and ‘Cathy Come Home’ and more recently 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley', ‘Spirit of ’45’  and ‘Jimmy’s Hall’

‘It’s a Free World’ (cert 15, 2007) won Best Screenplay at the 2007 Venice Film Festival.

The film follows Angie, played by Kirsten Wareing and nominated for a BAFTA for this role, who having been unjustly sacked from her job in an employment agency, sets up on her own. But this is no conventional tale of plucky entrepreneurs building their business through sheer determination to win well-earned prosperity.  While Angie and her partner see their new business as a way out of economic hardship, it soon becomes clear that it will shape them more than they shape it.

'The result is a reminder that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and is a layered and complex character study of Angie, with Wareing on career-making form.'   Empire Magazine

The film screening has been organized by Somerset Film and Bridgwater & District Trades Union Council.  Organiser Phil Shepherd said 'Ken Loach has always been at the forefront of socially-engaging cinema, not afraid to put his political arguments at the heart of his films.'   With 'It's A Free World' he does much more than highlight the scandal of how migrant workers are exploited, he challenges the prevailing wisdom that  'ruthless entrepreneurship is the way that this society should develop – that everything is a deal, everything is competitive, acquisitive, market-orientated and that’s the way we should live.' 

Tickets cost £5 or £3 for those receiving jobseekers allowance. These are available from the Princess Theatre box office on 01278 784464.

For further information please contact Deb Richardson on 01278 433187.

Somerset Film

is a registered charity dedicated to empowering individuals and communities through film and creative technology.

Bridgwater and District Trades Union Council works and campaigns around issues affecting working people in their local workplaces and communities: bringing together activists at a grassroots level, it represents the trade union movement to the broader community. 

Bridgewater Soft Drink Dispute

A short walk for workplace justice!

MARCH AND RALLY

FOR REFRESCO-

 GERBER WORKERS

to support Unite the Union members on strike for ten weeks

SATURDAY MARCH 28^TH

Assemble Cranleigh Gardens 11.30am

March at 12noon through Eastover and Fore St to Baptist Church, St Mary St, Rally at 1pm

Speakers from Unite the Union, South West TUC, Fire Brigades Union and Bridgwater Trades Union Council

270 workers at the Refresco-Gerber soft drinks factory at Express Park are fighting a David and Goliath struggle against a multi-national company determined to destroy terms and conditions that have been previously negotiated with trade unions without problems for decades. This is a struggle between corporate greed and workplace justice that all Bridgwater people should support. Please join Unite the Union members at Refresco-Gerber, their friends and families on the day!

Organised by Bridgwater Trades Union Council and Unite the Union. Contact Roy Winter on 07720 705087 or roy.winter@unitetheunion.org  



Fruit Juice Strikes in Bridgewater

UNITE the Union demonstrators have been a familiar sight at the Express Park roundabout at the north end of the Bristol Rd in Bridgwater for months now.  This week's demo was their seventh 36-hour strike protest against plans by Refresco-Gerber to radically worsen pay and conditions at the factory, which produces household-name fruit juices.

At least three more stoppages have been planned for the next two weeks, and yesterday local Unite the Union officer Roy Winter said:
'Our members contribute their working lives to this factory, which makes a handsome profit for Refresco-Gerber.  Unfortunately, under new owners whose HQ is now in Rotterdam, those profits are not enough: the plan is to double or treble them at the expense of Unite members sick pay, shift allowances, pay protection. We are talking here of corporate greed, nothing more or less.  Refresco-Gerber is making a bad mistake. There has been a recognised union organisation here for nearly fifty years: Unite the Union will not walk away from this dispute until the company agree an acceptable settlement.'

Two mass meetings will be held on the 16th & 17th March to inform Unite members involved in the dispute of the latest negotiations.

Dave Chapple, Secretary of Bridgwater Trades Union Council, has said:

'This is a David and Goliath struggle against a vicious multi-national company going all out to weaken or smash trade union organisation.'

Future 36-hour strikes are set for Wednesday /Thursday the 18th/19th March, 0645am to 1900pm; Tuesday/Wednesday 24th/25th March, 0645am to 1900pm; Wednesday/Thursday 1st /2nd April, 0645am to 1900pm. Trades unionists are welcome at picket lines, key times are 7am/7pm.

For further information please contact Roy Winter on 07720 705078 roy.winter@unitetheunion.org

 

Dave Chapple,

Bridgwater Trades Union Council

Working-class education?

A day conference for all trades unionists including Union Learn reps, trade union branch officers, TUC/ Trade Union Studies tutors, WEA/adult education lecturers, and mature students, organised by Trade Union Solidarity magazine and Bridgwater Trades Union Council
11am to 4pm, Saturday 2nd August GWRSA/Railway Club, Wellington Rd, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 5HA.

Speakers:
Marie Hughes South West TUC Regional Education Officer
Trish Lavelle CWU National Education Officer
Becca Kirkpatrick Co-editor Trade Union Solidarity
Shan Maidment TU studies tutor, City of Bristol College
Carole Vallelly GMB Southern Region/TUC tutor
Nigel Costley, Secretary, South West TUC
Dave Chapple, Bridgwater TUC
Ian Manborde, Ruskin College
Richard Ross London Metropolitan University
Cost is £5 per person which includes buffet lunch. Places are limited: please register in advance if possible, make cheques out to “Bridgwater Trades Union Council” and send to Dave Chapple, Conference Organiser, 1 Blake Place, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 5AU. Further details phone 07707 869 144 or e-mail davechapple@btinternet.com

Programme
10.30am to 11am: registration tea and coffee
11am: welcome: Vicki Nash, Somerset NUT and President Bridgwater TUC
11.05am: First session: Chair, Andy Newman, GMB, White Horse (Wiltshire) TUC
Speakers: Marie Hughes, Trish Lavelle, Dave Chapple
11.50am: discussion
12.30pm: Second session: Chair, Glen Burrows, RMT, Bridgwater TUC
Speakers: Nigel Costley, Shan Maidment, Richard Ross
1.15pm: discussion

2PM BUFFET LUNCH AND LICENSED BAR
2.40pm: Third session: Chair: Richard Capps, PCS, vice-Chair South West TUC
Speakers: Carole Vallelly, Ian Manborde, Becca Kirkpatrick
3.25pm: discussion including conference follow-up
4pm: Close of conference

The last few generations have seen, overall, both a crisis and decline in the general field of what used to be called working-class education. Despite substantial government Union Learn funding, now of course under severe pressure, and some impressive internal trade union shop steward programmes, the subsidised and ‘liberal’ adult education sector where many of us learned the theory and practice of socialism has almost disappeared.

This conference is a ground-breaking attempt to address this crisis, asking these questions amongst many others: would the internet have destroyed adult ‘liberal’ education without any government cuts?  Do any trade unions educate their members for socialism or merely effective trades unionism? Can a volunteer/community-led strategy restore cuts to Union Learn and adult evening courses?
 
What about the left-wing political parties, including Labour and the Greens?  What are the strategies to restore a once-thriving Independent Working Class Education as part of the workers’ emancipation project?  Do TUC courses succeed in teaching solidarity between workers in different unions?  Could local trades councils play a new educational role?

These of course are only a few possible ways of approaching our conference subject: make sure you raise yours!  Our speakers will all, hopefully, give us personal reflections of all their years teaching workers, as well as their own ideas for future education campaigns.

Bridgwater GWRSA/Railway Club is 100 yards from Bridgwater rail station at the east end of Wellington Rd.  Car parking in adjacent station car park. Bridgwater station is served by an hourly train service throughout the day, arriving from Bristol at 40 minutes past the hour and from Taunton at 15/20 minutes past the hour. Bridgwater is also easily accessible from the M5 motorway with two junctions: north (Dunball/Junction 23) and south (Huntworth/Junction 24).  The GWRSA/railway club itself is one of the national network of railway clubs which in themselves are an important part of working-class history-they were funded by the employers, and so can be understood both as social concession or dangerous palliative.   However, you will find the Bridgwater GWRSA a friendly, thriving but last-surviving local working class club.  We look forward to seeing you on 2nd August!

The Future of Working-Class Education?

Does working-class education

have a future?

A day conference for all trades unionists including Union Learn reps, trade union branch officers, TUC/ Trade Union Studies tutors, WEA/adult education lecturers, and mature students, organised by Trade Union Solidarity magazine and Bridgwater Trades Union Council

11am to 4pm, Saturday 2^ndAugust GWRSA/Railway Club, Wellington Rd, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 5HA

Speakers:

Marie Hughes South West TUC Regional Education Officer

Trish Lavelle CWU National Education Officer

Becca Kirkpatrick Co-editor Trade Union Solidarity

Shan Maidment TU studies tutor, City of Bristol College

Carole Vallelly GMB Southern Region/TUC tutor

Nigel Costley, Secretary, South West TUC

Dave Chapple, Bridgwater TUC

Ian Manborde, Ruskin College

Richard Ross:  London Metropolitan University

Cost is £5 per person which includes buffet lunch. Places are limited: please register in advance if possible, make cheques out to“Bridgwater Trades Union Council” and send to Dave Chapple, Conference Organiser, 1 Blake Place, Bridgwater, Somerset, TA6 5AU. Further details phone 07707 869 144 or e-mail davechapple@btinternet.com

Programme

10.30am to 11am: registration tea and coffee

11am: welcome: Vicki Nash, Somerset NUT and President Bridgwater TUC

11.05am: First session: Chair, Andy Newman, GMB, White Horse (Wiltshire) TUC

Speakers: Marie Hughes, Trish Lavelle, Dave Chapple

11.50am: discussion

12.30pm: Second session: Chair, Glen Burrows, RMT, Bridgwater TUC

Speakers: Nigel Costley, Shan Maidment, Richard Ross

1.15pm: discussion

2PM BUFFET LUNCH AND LICENSED BAR

2.40pm: Third session: Chair: Richard Capps, PCS, vice-Chair South West TUC

Speakers: Carole Vallelly, Ian Manborde, Becca Kirkpatrick

3.25pm: discussion including conference follow-up

4pm: Close of conference

The last few generations have seen, overall, both a crisis and decline in the general field of what used to be called working-class education. Despite substantial government Union Learn funding, now of course under severe pressure, and some impressive internal trade union shop steward programmes, the subsidised and ‘liberal’ ‘adult education sector where many of us learned the theory and practice of socialism has almost disappeared.

This conference is a ground-breaking attempt to address this crisis, asking these questions amongst many others: would the internet have destroyed adult ‘liberal’ education without any government cuts? Do any trade unions educate their members for socialism or merely effective trades unionism? Can a volunteer/community-led strategy restore cuts to Union Learn and adult evening courses?

What about the left-wing political parties, including Labour and the Greens? What are the strategies to restore a once-thriving Independent Working Class Education as part of the workers’ emancipation project? Do TUC courses succeed in teaching solidarity between workers in different unions? Could local trades councils play a new educational role?

These of course are only a few possible ways of approaching our conference subject: make sure you raise yours! Our speakers will all, hopefully, give us personal reflections of all their years teaching workers, as well as their own ideas for future education campaigns.

Bridgwater GWRSA/Railway Club is 100 yards from Bridgwater rail station at the east end of Wellington Rd. Car parking in adjacent station car park. Bridgwater station is served by an hourly train service throughout the day, arriving from Bristol at 40 minutes past the hour and from Taunton at 15/20 minutes past the hour. Bridgwater is also easily accessible from the M5 motorway with two junctions: north (Dunball/Junction 23) and south (Huntworth/Junction 24). The GWRSA/railway club itself is one of the national network of railway clubs which in themselves are an important part of working-class history-they were funded by the employers, and so can be understood both as social concession or dangerous palliative. However, you will find the Bridgwater GWRSA a friendly, thriving but last-surviving local working class club. We look forward to seeing you on 2^nd August!