Stand up for public services
By Rodney Bickerstaffe, General Secretary Unison

NEC report
25th July Labour Party National Executive Committee report

Challenges for the TUC
Andy Gilchrist, Gen. Sec of the Fire Brigades Union looks forward to TUC Congress

Pressure mounts against tube privatisation
Assistant Gen. Sec. RMT, Bob Crowe looks at the opposition to tube privatisation

Political perspectives in a divergent world economy
Brian Simmons examins the economic differences in Britain, the US and the rest of the world

FBU says re-admit Ken

Fiddling the figures on
private finance
Lynne Jones MP contests the claim that private finance initiatives are cheaper

Speaking out for asylum
Milena Biyum, Vice Chair of the National Assembly Against Racism reports on a public meeting in support of asylum seekers

Speak out against racism —
Defend asylum seekers

Winning for Labour: Democratic Socialism in the 21st Century
Reports from the Winning for Labour conference
Extracts from:
John McDonnell MP, Mary Turner GMB, Mick Rix ASLEF, Diane Abbott MP, Raghib Ahsan, Alan Simpson MP and Barbara Castle

Party democracy is vital
Andrew Mckinlay MP looks at the 'command and control' structures of the PLP.

A second term agenda
Tony Benn MP puts forward a proposal for Labour's second term

Women want real change
Maria Fyfe MP looks at Labour's poor level of support among women voters

Opposition grows to US ABM violations
Alice Mahon MP analyses the opposition to US plans for a national missile defence system

Model contemporary motions
for Labour Party
conference 2000
Suggested resolutions on: mayoral electoral college, parliamentary selections, pensions and others.

Scotland the what?
John McAllion MP/MSP looks at the moves towards increased levels of private finance to fund government programmes in Scotland.

UNISON welcomes the extra £43 billion spending and investment in public services announced by the Chancellor in the second Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR 2).

However, we believe that CSR 2 is only a starting point in terms of rebuilding infrastructure, services and promoting opportunity. Public sector capital investment had fallen every year since 1993 before CSR 2. Money from successive budget surpluses, £21 billion last year, and the reform of the taxation and national insurance system must also be used for public service investment and recurrent expenditure.

UNISON is concerned that the government is enhancing a privatisation culture in Britain through its continuous promotion of externalisation, sell-offs, the private finance initiative and public-private partnerships. UNISON believes multi-national facilities companies like WS Atkins and Hyder have no place running education services in this country. Public opinion massively supports the view that public services should not be run for profit. This contract agenda is misguided and inefficient, especially when the country is desperate for measures to correct years of under investment in public services. The National Audit Office recently reported that Group 4, for the first PFI prison, Fazakerley in Liverpool, had raised their profits 75 per cent to £30.6 million by re-financing the deal with the banks. The British Medical Association are concerned that PFI hospitals which have less beds than those they replace will scupper the commitments in the NHS plan to increase bed numbers. The chief inspector of Social Services recently admitted that many jobs involving the care of the most vulnerable children are offering lower pay than supermarket jobs.

UNISON will be running a Positively Public campaign throughout the year and launching a public services manifesto at TUC that states the key principles that should guide us in the 21st century:

a) democratic accountability in planning and delivering local services;

b) effective delivery of services underpinned by a commitment to directly employed staff;

c) adequate funding and measures to address the historic shortfall in public investment;

d) the important statutory duty on public authorities to promote equality of opportunity;

e) equality of access with services responsive to the needs of all members of the community;

f) the end of two tier workforces through protecting pay and conditions and fair employment practices for the whole workforce, and in particular, through the introduction of fair wages regulation in public contracting;

g) partnership at work and workforce involvement based on recognition, consultation and negotiation.

The adoption of such principles would help make Gordon Brown's objective of CSR 2, opportunity for all, become a reality.

Independent investigation demanded on police racism

A Sikh police officer, who gave evi- dence at the Stephen Lawrence in- quiry on racism in the Metropolitan Police, was racially discriminated against by the Met, an employment tribunal found on 23 August. Sergeant Gurpal Virdi was wrongfully accused of sending racist hate mail to himself and other colleagues, agreed the tribunal. His case was backed by the CRE.

Mr Virdi, who was sacked by the Met in March, said he had been discriminated against after challenging white officers on race crime. After the tribunal Mr Virdi said: ‘I am pleased with the result but sad that it has taken two and a half years to clear my name. We are supposed to be a democratic society but three complaints by myself to the Police Complaints Authority were brushed aside while the media splashed the Met’s claims against me about. There needs to be a new way to investigate claims of racism against the police.’

A day after this case an inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing in the case of Christopher Alder, who was filmed by security cameras choking to death, half-naked, handcuffed and lying on a police station floor in Hull while police officers stood in attendance.

The National Assembly Against Racism is calling on the Home Secretary to establish a fully independent police complaints authority with powers to investigate. Lee Jasper, NAAR secretary, said ‘there has to be an end to the system whereby the police investigate complaints of racism against the police themselves. There has to be a fully independent police complaints authority.’