Britain

Tory Free Speech bill the real threat to free speech – defend the right to protest

June 15, 2021

Niamh Marlow
Rights and wages of Pizza Express workers sliced and burned

June 14, 2021

Daisy Bradford
Priti Patel targets victims of capitalism’s ‘refugee crisis’

June 3, 2021

Rob Tetley Socialist Alternative member and support worker for child refugees
Cummings lifts lid on deadly Tory failures. Now organise the fight back

May 27, 2021

Connor Rosoman
Say no to voter ID – fight for real, socialist democracy

May 23, 2021

Rob Flamson
Greens boost votes in locals: But are they the left alternative we need?

May 15, 2021

Tom Costello

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Tory Free Speech bill the real threat to free speech – defend the right to protest

Education minister Gavin Williamson’s new ‘Free Speech’ Bill, which is due to be implemented into university policy, is a sinister attack on students, lecturers, and any person who believes in protecting the voice of the oppressed.

Williamson’s bill, under the guise of ‘protecting’ free speech, allows any individual who feels they are being unjustly censored to “bring civil proceedings” against universities. This comes at the same time as Kill the Bill protests and nationwide protests against Israeli state terror – both movements with the goal of resisting governmental policy which violates democratic rights (here and in Palestine).

The Tories claim the bill will ‘distinguish between lawful, if offensive, views on one hand and unacceptable acts of abuse, intimidation, and violence on the other’. But who are the Tories to make this distinction? If, for example, fascist or far right speakers, or representatives of a repressive regime, arrive to speak at universities – like the Israeli ambassador did at universities in Warwick and London to the anger of students there – the bill could outlaw the right to protest against them. Surely this is the real threat to free speech. In fact, a protest against the Israeli ambassador was just one example of a so-called “free speech violation” cited by the Tories to justify this bill.

History of empire

In an atmosphere where the Tories seem to pick and choose what is and isn’t a “violation of free speech”, this bill could actually be used to silence the voice of the progressive left, while the right is given a protected platform to speak, with protests and other actions restricted. While we don’t support blanket ‘no platform’ policies being used in all cases, and believe such policies should be reserved for use against fascists, we defend resolutely the right of students and staff to democratically decide who is invited to speak at, for example, student union debates, and to protest against figures who represent oppressive and exploitative policies. This includes all pro-capitalist politicians!

This bill essentially attempts to provide a shield for individuals with harmful, backward ideas to speak freely without fear of opposition. On the gov.uk website, the Tories also point to a so-called case of ‘censorship’ in the one-hundred plus academics who expressed opposition to one Professor Nigel Biggar’s claim that we should have ‘pride’ in the British empire. This epitomises the danger of the Tories possessing the power to decide whose ‘free speech’ needs protecting: according to Williamson, to feel a degree of ‘pride’ at Britain’s colonial history is an opinion which must be safeguarded, and at the same time, those who oppose this are unjustly censoring them?

The wounds of Britain’s colonial past are still felt today. Black and Asian people still face systemic racism. Large numbers were arrested while attending recent BLM protests – arrests which Boris Johnson has openly supported. The passing of the free speech bill would suggest very ominous times ahead. As well as aiming to create a more comfortable environment for right-wing and far-right voices, the threat of sanctions on universities and student unions if they are deemed to violate the bill is actually an assault on progressive debate.

Real threat to free speech: The Tories

Another such case of “free speech” being “violated” was seen at the University of Edinburgh, where university management renamed a building which had previously been named after David Hume – an 18th-century philosopher with racist views – after months of campaigning from anti-racist students. So called ‘free speech warriors’ have argued that this, as well as the tearing down of colonial statues, is not only a violation of free speech but an attempt to erase history.

In reality, these movements represent quite the opposite. This is an empowering example of people exercising their right to demand action to reckon with the racism of British capitalism’s past. Far from the erasure of history, many students want to shine a light on the parts of history the Tories don’t want us to acknowledge. If anything, it is the Tories who are the real threat to freedom. We must remember that they don’t really care about free speech.

This bill is, at its core, another means of protecting those in power. The targeting of universities is all about intimidating young people. They hope to prevent people from speaking out against oppression, especially when this gives us confidence to take it further. As defenders of capitalism, they want universities to consistently reflect the interests of the ruling class, and are clearly anxious about growing radicalism and anti-capitalist sentiments among youth. The possibility that any person would have the right to sue a university if they feel they are being unfairly censored is problematic. Capitalist courts are not impartial and will not be ‘even handed’ in applying such legislation – not least because it is the wealthy who will be best able to fund these proceedings.

It is no surprise that this bill, along with the latest Police and Crime Bill, should come at the same time as monumental waves of protest against gender-based violence, against Israeli state terror and the UK’s role in supporting it, among other issues. The Tories feel threatened by the power of mass resistance, but will always try to frame it another way. Whether claiming to protect free speech with a Free Speech Bill, or claiming to protect the public from ‘criminal’ protesters with a Police and Crime Bill, the Tories rely on our division to maintain their power. This is why, when the Tories attack our freedom, we need to respond to this by ramping up struggle, and not being afraid.

Resistance and collective struggle have been proven to be effective recently, such as through the student rent strikes which won a number of key concessions across the country. Action from staff at the University of Liverpool has also recently reduced the number of redundancies being made, although the strike continues to say ‘no’ to all job losses. Where staff are fighting back, we campaign to build student strikes in solidarity. We need democratic control over our universities – not an elite few running them like businesses, so that students and staff can democratically decide on the nature of the curriculum, on guest speakers and invitees, but also how to fund education, what to prioritise, and so on. A socialist movement to democratise our education is not violating free speech at all. It’s about fighting to reclaim universities from forces that restrict our rights.

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Rights and wages of Pizza Express workers sliced and burned

The head offices of international chain Pizza Express are guilty of decimating the wages and livelihoods of the waiters and chefs who work for them. The attacks come in many forms.

In 2020 Pizza Express fired 2,500 staff members (in the middle of a pandemic!) instead of granting them access to the Job Retention Scheme that has supported millions throughout the crisis. Now the company is attempting, with little success due to sector-wide labour shortages, to hire 1,000 new workers. These new employees will be expected to work more hours (the reduction from 2.5K to 1K workers is massive) on worse contracts (no sick pay, no paid breaks nor extra pay on Sundays/Bank Holidays) than the workers who preceded them.

The percentage of hard-earned tips going to waiting staff have been slashed from 80% to 50%, in order to subsidise kitchen staff wages. Both groups of staff urgently need a decent pay rise. For this to be real and secure it must be funded by the company itself and guaranteed for all workers. The current plan not only deprives the front-of-house staff of a much-needed portion of their already low income, it also keeps back-of-house staff on low wages with an insecure ‘top-up’ from tips.

Contract amendments mean that workers no longer receive paid breaks nor extra pay on Sundays and Bank holidays. Such changes chip away at an already pitiful wage and the stripping away of 50% of waiting staff tips compounds this hardship. One worker told The Guardian “When we signed the contract that was the understanding. We are not arguing that chefs and cleaners don’t contribute to service but we agreed to certain terms.” These sly amendments relate to the “fire and rehire” policies that are currently being resisted by workers in many different sectors, with the success of the #NoGo Bus driver strikes in Manchester an important recent victory.

This cynical move is aimed at breeding animosity between waiting staff and kitchen staff – keeping back and front-of-house staff divided and suspicious of each other. Employers purposefully generate and maintain such resentments to divide workers and therefore make them easier to exploit. Socialist Alternative fights for the cutting across of all divisions amongst the working class. When workers are united in struggle, we can win huge victories.

Workers were barely consulted about the changes to their contracts and tips, informed only 10 days before Pizza Express restaurants reopened. This allowed them little time to question and resist the amendments or to find work elsewhere.

Another shady aspect is that Pizza Express staff who manage the tips, or “tronc”, are not chosen by other workers, nor are there clear mechanisms by which they can be held accountable by other members of staff. Moreover, staff had no access to the minutes of meetings determining new proposals for tip distribution. Why are the head office unable to share this information? Witnessing this unethical opacity can have a big impact. We as workers, in our millions, must not tolerate these policies. Within the failed system of “trickle-down economics”, all that flows down is exploitation.

Where are the unions amidst all of this chaos?

Unite the Union has spent six years calling on the government to “deliver on its 2019 Queen’s Speech commitment and bring in its promised Fair Tips legislation.” Over the last few years we have seen how the Tory government has no intention of delivering on this promise. Unite and all other trade unions must help organise their members and support them to resist and where necessary strike to demand an end to these abuses.

Unite, and all other other unions, must focus on building a campaign at the grassroots, based on the workers who joined them.

After decades of Tory anti-Trade Union laws, union membership in sectors such as hospitality has been on the decrease. Such legislation has given some unions an excuse to be more timid. Trade union leaderships need to work harder at mobilising the power and strength of the workers who chose them as representatives. Through struggle, workers gain confidence and camaraderie with their fellow workers. When the working class is united, real change can begin.

Socialist Alternative organises to help build fighting unions with leaderships who are willing to struggle to the end. We need working-class fighters to lead the unions, willing to openly resist the capitalist class.

If workers did not share potentially huge collective power – the hidden seeds of revolution – then why would the ruling class do everything in their power to keep us divided and depressed? Workers have incredible potential power when we come together in a united cause.

Socialist Alternative fight for:
- £15 an hour minimum wage for all
- 100% of tips to go to hospitality workers themselves
- For decent pay rises to reflect the real cost of living for all staff (back and front of house), funded directly by the company and not based on tips
- Fully paid sick leave, pensions and holiday pay for all
- The scrapping of anti-trade union laws that limit workers rights, to enable all workers to organise and resist
- Fully democratic election of all trade union officials on an average wage
- The election of true working-class fighters as trade union reps, unafraid to go on the offensive against the elites
Priti Patel targets victims of capitalism’s ‘refugee crisis’

In recent months we have seen the so-called refugee crisis re-emerge as an issue being discussed in the British press. Last summer, the Tory government attempted to whip up xenophobia by highlighting the hundreds of asylum seekers and migrants crossing the channel. Of course, this ignored the millions of people flying into the country legally, with only those most desperate attempting to cross from Calais. Asylum seekers and refugees were once again being scapegoated – used as a political tool by the ruling class in attempts to divert attention away from the failings of their capitalist system and divide the working class.

There is a fraught relationship between refugees and migrants and the capitalist system. On the one hand, capitalists love access to migratory labour to super-exploit. On the other, they love weaponising the issue of immigration to divide workers and distract from their own responsibility for a lack of decent jobs, homes and services.

Now Priti Patel has launched (potentially wildly illegal) new plans for the handling of asylum seekers coming to the UK. These have rightly been greeted with outrage and condemnation, with even some right-wing politicians opposing the plans, along with the United Nations. Patel is proposing a system that for the first time categorises asylum seekers as either legal or illegal. This is before their claims have been heard and resolved. Services offering support to refugees will only have the ‘right’ to deal with those claimants arbitrarily deemed to be legal asylum seekers. What is more, Patel argues that any asylum seeker deemed to have passed through a ‘safe’ country on their way to the UK should be immediately deported back to said country, despite there being no clear legal basis for this.

Asylum seekers in the UK are increasingly forced to live in prison-like conditions while they face an extraordinarily long wait to get their decision from the UK. Old army barracks which have been described by former soldiers as not fit for human habitation seem to be the new norm. Napier camp recently faced a mass outbreak of Covid, almost certainly made worse by the fact that people were being forced to live in spaces not fit for purpose, living and sleeping right next to one another.

Often quoted to justify this inhumane policy is the EU’s Dublin Protocol. When this came into effect in the late 1990s, its basic principle was that those fleeing persecution should claim asylum in the first country they arrive in.

And often, this is the case. Over 80% of the world’s refugees live in the world’s most economically deprived nations, often their neighbouring country. Nearly half of Lebanon’s population is made up of refugees and not one European nation comes in the top ten global homes for asylum seekers. As imperialist wars and their ongoing consequences have devastated the Middle East, an increasing number of refugees have been forced to flee, with many attempting to reach safety in Europe. Responding to this, the Dublin Protocol has been through many agreed changes. This culminated in 2013, with the statement that the country in which an asylum seeker is processed is where they shall claim asylum. This made more sense than the original basis of the protocol but is a widely abused idea: asylum seekers are regularly processed in various European countries then packed onto trains to their neighbours.

2015 saw the complete and total breakdown of any idea of international capitalist collaboration during a period of crisis. Whilst Germany accepted over one million asylum seekers that year, other EU countries took dramatically different approaches. Eastern Europe attempted to shut its doors, whilst even the governments of countries like Denmark and Sweden began adopting the language and policies of the far right with regards to refugees and asylum seekers.

The ‘mainstreaming’ of far right rhetoric by traditional pro-capitalist (and even some former Social Democratic) parties, has had repercussions in the UK and Europe. Such politicians have used anti-migrant propaganda in their attempts to shore up a social base in the context of mass disillusionment with neoliberal austerity politics. This gives confidence to the actual far right, who have frequently targeted hostels and hotels where asylum seekers are being lodged, threatening those who have already fled persecution along with honest workers who are doing their jobs at these facilities. As Hope Not Hate noted:

“Britain First […]activists stormed into a hotel in Birmingham, currently being used to house refugees and migrants. Cameras in hand they walked down the corridors, banged on room doors and confronted residents when they opened. Similarly, BF leader Paul Golding went to Epping and harassed migrants at a hotel there which has already been the target of For Britain activists in recent months”

Patel’s new proposed policy can be seen as a kind of political extension of this far right violence. It is clearly vital that a movement is built that can defend refugees and asylum seekers against these attacks. But what can we do to better understand and try to tackle this issue now?

Firstly, Solidarity

We have to recognise that asylum seekers and refugees are members of the working class. The ruling class has always relied upon migrants to further its economic interests and boost profits. Whether it be Latin Americans travelling to the United States to provide labour on farms or in restaurants, or women from the Philippines migrating to Britain to work in care or for the NHS, international capital loves to exploit migrant labour.

Even Germany’s apparent openness in accepting one million refugees in 2015 must be seen through the prism of an ageing population and German capitalism’s need to expand and protect its reserve labour army. Employers often seek to use migrant workers in order to undercut wages or undermine existing trade union agreements, creating division between workers of different backgrounds. The fact that asylum seekers are denied the legal right to work in the UK only increases the chance that they will be forced to work in highly exploitative situations – often receiving less than the minimum wage, for example.

Instead of treating this highly exploited group as ‘outsiders’ or seeing them as competition, the workers’ movement and trade unions must instead fight to expand and broaden job security and trade union representation to all workers – demanding the trade union agreed rate for the job is paid to all and fighting to secure decent wages and conditions for every worker. If all members of the working class have access to well-paid, secure employment, including for those fleeing persecution, then the sense of resentment and mistrust the capitalists aim to foster can be undermined. After all, a worker who happens to have been born in England has far more in common with a member of the Syrian working class than with a British Billionaire. This can allow a shift in focus to the unjust and corrupt nature of the capitalist state.

The outpouring of sympathy and mass protests that followed the incredibly tragic death of the toddler Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed up on the beach in 2015, showed that there is huge potential to build movements in solidarity with refugees. Such a struggle must demand that refugees are really made ‘welcome’, including by being given the right to work, access to decent housing, help and support to learn English if this is required, and so on. With fresh attacks being planned by the Tories as outlined above, we need to once again take to the streets in defence of refugee rights.

Fighting capitalism, war, and environmental destruction

As socialists, we recognise that there is an intrinsic link between the destruction of the planet and human lives through the greed of capitalism.

The misery that imperialist wars and their consequences bring for the world’s poorest across the globe is horrifying. War is currently the main driver of people having to flee their homes and seek sanctuary elsewhere. And this is likely to be vastly dwarfed by a looming human catastrophe of capitalism’s making: environmental degradation.

The destruction of the environment in the pursuit of never-ending profits will cause a catastrophe that has the potential to spare no one, and yet the ruling class internationally can still not see beyond a short-sighted pursuit of profit that ruins the natural environment. We are starting to witness the effects of this as sea levels rise and volatile weather becomes increasingly normal across the globe.

In the coming years, this is likely to only get worse. More and more land will become inhospitable. If there is a presumption that we have a refugee crisis now, one can only begin to imagine what we are likely to face in the future.

Capitalism means war. Only by ending capitalism can we end class exploitation. And by ending the profit system, we end the economic conflicts of interests which drive conflicts over access to markets, land and natural resources which force so many refugees to seek safety and shelter elsewhere in the world.

As well as exploiting working-class people the world over, capitalism creates insoluble social problems. And because capitalism is a system of class exploitation, it is in the interest of all workers – whether they were born in Britain, are refugees, or are workers living elsewhere in the world – to fight to abolish it.

Only by ending the private ownership of the world’s key resources, as well as the central means of producing wealth, will we be able to establish a global social system where production takes place directly and solely to meet human need. Socialism will be based on co-operation, not on competition and conflicting interests. This is because it will necessarily be based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of production and distribution, on production to meet human need not private greed. A democratic plan for production combined with solidarity across borders, would pave the way for a society without war, to end environmental destruction, and to prevent people being forced to leave their homes agains

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