No2EU:Yes to Democracy supporters clashed on saturday with members of the BNP in Carlisle as they were out campaigning for for RMT-backed left-wing coalition which is contesting seats across the UK in next months Euro elections on June 4.
Police were called after the BNP reacted with hostility to No2EU campaigners handing out leaflets in close proximity to the regular BNP street stall in Carlisle. In an hour long standoff RMT/No2EU campaigners refused to be moved on by the BNP.
Shoppers told the No2 EU campaigners that they were delighted that at last someone had had the courage to stand up to the BNP on the streets of Carlisle. ASLEF activist and No2EU candidate John Metcalfe said:
“The BNP have been leafletting Carlisle City Centre for months and obviously didn’t take kindly to being exposed for the fascists that they are by our campaign. They were openly agressive and hostile and it didn’t take long before the mask slipped and they started shouting fascist slogans.”
Craig Johnson, from the RMT Executive and another member of the No2EU slate, added:
“I have lived and worked in and loved the city of Carlisle for 45 years. No one is going to intimidate and harass me off the streets of my home town.”
Bob Crow, RMT general secretary and convenor of No2EU, said:
“RMT members and No2EU supporters will not bow to intimidation from the BNP in Carlisle or anywhere else in the country. What today’s incident proves is that the BNP are worried about the socialist message of No2EU and it’s appeal to voters who are sick of the political elite in the UK and in the EU. No2EU is the only left-wing group challenging the BNP on the streets for the votes of the angry and the disaffected on June 4th.
“We will be stepping up our campaign in the coming weeks and offering voters a socialist alternative to the poison and hatred of the far right,” he said.
Socialist Resistance
Showing posts with label ASLEF. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ASLEF. Show all posts
May 11, 2009
November 03, 2008
Unions call for right to expel BNP members
Fear of election gains sparks a bid to alter the law
Trade unions want the right under UK law to expel British National Party activists - and deny them membership - as part of Labour plans to check the electoral advance of the far right.
Labour backbenchers, supported by all the biggest unions, will unveil the plan on Tuesday when they put forward an amendment to the Employment Bill that would allow them to ban racists. The proposal - labelled 'Stalinist' by the BNP - comes amid concern that it could win as many as three seats in next year's European Parliament elections and make strong gains in council elections.
Labour MPs, many of whom feel threatened by the BNP's advances in their constituencies, are concerned that the party is encouraging activists to infiltrate unions in order to spread subversive, racist messages in the workplace.
Tony Lloyd, chairman of the trades union group of Labour MPs who has tabled the amendment, said it was vital that unions had the right to get rid of people working directly against their aims: 'What the unions are absolutely right to demand is the right to kick racists out of their organisations.'
Until now unions have had to work under a legal framework set down under the Thatcher government in the early 1990s which prevented them from excluding people because of their membership of a particular political party. The Tory rules were seen at the time as a ploy to prevent unions from excluding or expelling those who broke strikes or were Conservative party members.
But the government has to bring UK law into line with European law after Aslef, the train drivers' union, won a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights which upheld its right to expel a driver who was a BNP activist.
A spokesman for Thompsons solicitors, the trades union law firm, said: 'The amendment would mean a union could expel or deny membership to someone whose membership of a political party runs contrary to the union's rule book.'
The BNP has 10,000 members across Britain and 46 councillors. Labour is worried that under the proportional representation system that will be used in European parliamentary elections next June it could secure seats in three of the 12 regions.
Experts say that, under the list system, the BNP would need as little as 7.5 per cent of the vote in northwest England and only 11 per cent in Yorkshire and the West Midlands to install Euro-MPs in the Brussels and Strasbourg parliament. Labour also fears the BNP could become the largest party in two councils - Barking and Dagenham in Essex and Stoke-on-Trent - in next year's council elections if its anti-foreigner rhetoric struck a chord during the recession.
MPs, anti-BNP campaigners and lawyers say the bill as recently amended in the Lords would leave the law in limbo and not guarantee the right of a union to eject BNP members. Nick Lowles, director of the anti-fascist group Searchlight, said: 'The current wording of the Employment Bill leaves us in the worst of all worlds. Aslef would still not be able to expel Jay Lee [the BNP member at the centre of the original European Court ruling] and unions would be left open to further legal action from the BNP.'
Lowles said the amendment would give clarity, letting unions discipline and, where necessary, get rid of individual members for activities contrary to a union's rules and constitution.
A Department for Business spokesman said: 'This is a very delicate issue that involves people's rights to freedom of association and their political beliefs. The government's approach will strike a balance between these rights. Our present position is in line with the cross-party opinion in the Lords and Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights.'
Observer
Trade unions want the right under UK law to expel British National Party activists - and deny them membership - as part of Labour plans to check the electoral advance of the far right.
Labour backbenchers, supported by all the biggest unions, will unveil the plan on Tuesday when they put forward an amendment to the Employment Bill that would allow them to ban racists. The proposal - labelled 'Stalinist' by the BNP - comes amid concern that it could win as many as three seats in next year's European Parliament elections and make strong gains in council elections.
Labour MPs, many of whom feel threatened by the BNP's advances in their constituencies, are concerned that the party is encouraging activists to infiltrate unions in order to spread subversive, racist messages in the workplace.
Tony Lloyd, chairman of the trades union group of Labour MPs who has tabled the amendment, said it was vital that unions had the right to get rid of people working directly against their aims: 'What the unions are absolutely right to demand is the right to kick racists out of their organisations.'
Until now unions have had to work under a legal framework set down under the Thatcher government in the early 1990s which prevented them from excluding people because of their membership of a particular political party. The Tory rules were seen at the time as a ploy to prevent unions from excluding or expelling those who broke strikes or were Conservative party members.
But the government has to bring UK law into line with European law after Aslef, the train drivers' union, won a landmark case in the European Court of Human Rights which upheld its right to expel a driver who was a BNP activist.
A spokesman for Thompsons solicitors, the trades union law firm, said: 'The amendment would mean a union could expel or deny membership to someone whose membership of a political party runs contrary to the union's rule book.'
The BNP has 10,000 members across Britain and 46 councillors. Labour is worried that under the proportional representation system that will be used in European parliamentary elections next June it could secure seats in three of the 12 regions.
Experts say that, under the list system, the BNP would need as little as 7.5 per cent of the vote in northwest England and only 11 per cent in Yorkshire and the West Midlands to install Euro-MPs in the Brussels and Strasbourg parliament. Labour also fears the BNP could become the largest party in two councils - Barking and Dagenham in Essex and Stoke-on-Trent - in next year's council elections if its anti-foreigner rhetoric struck a chord during the recession.
MPs, anti-BNP campaigners and lawyers say the bill as recently amended in the Lords would leave the law in limbo and not guarantee the right of a union to eject BNP members. Nick Lowles, director of the anti-fascist group Searchlight, said: 'The current wording of the Employment Bill leaves us in the worst of all worlds. Aslef would still not be able to expel Jay Lee [the BNP member at the centre of the original European Court ruling] and unions would be left open to further legal action from the BNP.'
Lowles said the amendment would give clarity, letting unions discipline and, where necessary, get rid of individual members for activities contrary to a union's rules and constitution.
A Department for Business spokesman said: 'This is a very delicate issue that involves people's rights to freedom of association and their political beliefs. The government's approach will strike a balance between these rights. Our present position is in line with the cross-party opinion in the Lords and Parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights.'
Observer
Labels:
ASLEF,
BNP,
Employment Bill,
European Parliament,
far-right,
Jay Lee,
Searchlight
November 06, 2007
Unions get new expulsion rights
Unions will be given the right to expel members for belonging to a political party under proposed new laws. It comes after train drivers union Aslef defeated the UK government in the European Court of Human Rights over the expulsion of a member of the BNP.
The UK government argued the union could not exclude someone for belonging to a legitimate political organisation. But the European court said Aslef had the right to expel members whose views were incompatible with its stated aims.
The case centred around Virgin train driver Jay Lee, who was expelled by Aslef after standing unsuccessfully as a BNP candidate in 2002. Mr Lee won the right to remain a member of Aslef at two employment tribunals, which both said that a union could expel someone because of their conduct, but not because they were a member of a particular political party. But the European Court over-ruled the tribunals, saying Mr Lee would not suffer financially as a result of being expelled, as Aslef did not operate a closed shop and he was free to join another union.
In background documents issued with the Queen's Speech, the government said its new Employment Bill would amend trade union membership laws "in the light of the European court judgement in Aslef v UK".
Under proposed new legislation, unions will be able to "expel members on the basis of their membership of a political party," it added.
BBC
The UK government argued the union could not exclude someone for belonging to a legitimate political organisation. But the European court said Aslef had the right to expel members whose views were incompatible with its stated aims.
The case centred around Virgin train driver Jay Lee, who was expelled by Aslef after standing unsuccessfully as a BNP candidate in 2002. Mr Lee won the right to remain a member of Aslef at two employment tribunals, which both said that a union could expel someone because of their conduct, but not because they were a member of a particular political party. But the European Court over-ruled the tribunals, saying Mr Lee would not suffer financially as a result of being expelled, as Aslef did not operate a closed shop and he was free to join another union.
In background documents issued with the Queen's Speech, the government said its new Employment Bill would amend trade union membership laws "in the light of the European court judgement in Aslef v UK".
Under proposed new legislation, unions will be able to "expel members on the basis of their membership of a political party," it added.
BBC
Labels:
ASLEF,
BNP,
European Court of Human Rights,
Jay Lee,
Virgin
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