If wishes were fishes…

 ...we’d all cast nets they used to say, Now all we hear in the Westminster bubble are the odds on the gravy-trainers lobbying for jobs in the new Burnham government and the echoes of the media pundits on the direction that the “King of the North” will take when he moves into Downing Street. A lot of the speculation is, of course, inspired directly by the Burnham team who hope their leader’s “coronation” will lift Labour out of the pit of despair Starmer left the party in after his two years of misrule ended this month.
Burnham is an ambitious politician who did little during the Corbyn and Starmer years to hide his ambition to lead the Labour Party and the country. Now his time has come with a “Burnham bounce” that has given Labour its first lead in over a year in the opinion polls amid talk of “Manchesterism” and a “new vision” for the future. But what actually is on the Burnham table?
The answer is nobody knows. Burnham is talking about launching the biggest council house building programme since the Second World War. He hasn’t given a figure but last year he talked about building half-a-million “social homes” by 2030. If he ends the “right to buy” and the restrictions on council borrowing that has been upheld by successive Tory and Labour governments since 1979 that will drastically cut the shameful UK homeless figures and create more work for the younger generation throughout the country. Vague promises to return the water industry and the power utilities to public ownership have not been followed up with concrete plans to restore part of the public sector while talk of more power to the councils and the regions is all very well – but it’s meaningless unless these local authorities are given the power and the funds to provide the social services that people so badly need.
Burnham’s people are talking about electoral “reform” which would get the Greens and the Liberal-Democrats on track for a tactical vote alliance at the election. Your Party may be dead in the water as far as a national party is concerned but, nevertheless they look likely to keep the five parliamentary seats they hold at the next election. It could even sway the Corbynistas, if only Burnham could swallow his fear of bringing Jeremy back on board.
But all this is meaningless without a social programme – a genuine commitment to implement the union agenda, restore the welfare state and the public sector we once had. That’s what the unions have got to fight for and that’s where the struggle has only just begun.

The right to roam

by Ben Soton

Contested Commons – A History of Protest and Public Space in England by Katrina Navickas; Reaktion Books, London 2025; 384 pp. Hbk £20

The pages of the New Worker are full of articles and stories about protests be they progressive reactionary or anything in between.  But what of the places, usually outdoors spaces, where protests take place? 
Sometimes these places are the subject of protest themselves.  In Contested Commons, Katrina Navickas provides the story of these places.  Her book covers the history of public spaces and their role in popular protest.
A book like this should be welcomed at a time when the right to protest is under attack. 
First of all it challenges the “myth of the commons” – the idea that at some point in time we all had access to common land which was later on stolen by the landowners. The problem is that no such Golden Age existed.  Although enclosures of common land did become widespread from the Tudor times, there is little actual evidence that any such Golden Age ever existed. Another theme is the concept of Enclosure versus Commoning.  For instance in her section covering the anti-roads protests of the 1990s, Navickas sees the road builders as enforcing enclosure and the anti-road protesters as defending the ancient commons.     
The book is written in two halves.  The first concentrating on the rural man-made landscape; with chapters including Commons, Waste and Verges.  This section begins with examples of enclosures of common land in the 18th Century as well as the mass Kinder Scout Trespass protest in the 1930s and the Right to Roam.
The second part of the book covers urban protest with chapters named after street furniture such as, Railings, Pavements and Barricades. Railings is a reference to the protests during the  Second Reform Act of 1867, (which enfranchised urban, male property owners) where protesters used the railings surrounding Hyde Park to defend themselves from attack by the police. Barricades is a reference to the Battle of Cable Street when the people took to the streets to beat back the Mosleyites on the streets of London’s East End in 1936.  Later chapters cover events such as the Battle of the Bean Field in 1985; an event that took place during the miners’ strike which the author makes no mention of.  And it ends with coverage of the New Age Travellers of the 1990s, which she refers to simply as New Travellers.  
In a recent article in the Morning Star Ian Sinclair points out that “92 per cent of land and 97 per cent of rivers in England” are not legally accessible.  Subsequently, a book that covers issues of land ownership and common land is to be recommended.  Whilst with the legitimate right to protest under attack it is reminding us of the long history of protest in the country.   

 

Putting people first in People’s China

by John Maryon

People's China has launched its new 15th Five Year Plan which aims for high quality growth.  A far more ambitious project than merely increasing industrial and agricultural production and expanding the nations G D P.   Boosting the service sector, continuing to invest at a high rate in infrastructure, further improving health and welfare provision to meet people's needs and ensuring stability by the reinforcement of supply chains are all given priority. The country’s defences will be strengthened to resist imperialist aggression. Traditional growth strategies are being replaced by new development methods aimed at transforming the economy to higher value production levels driven by innovation. 
It is a sustainable and comprehensive programme that includes boosting domestic consumption by upgrading technology to develop new high quality productive forces and also to extend a new development pattern. This consists of two drivers for growth. First domestic circulation where production, consumption and innovation within China is used to provide a main driver for growth. Secondly international circulation with trade, Investment, technology transfer and tourism reinforcing domestic development. The plan lays the basis for the major task of achieving basic social modernisation by 2035.
With its commitment to multilateralism China has become a major contributor to global development and a defender of the international order. China has increased its influence within the Global South countries through its participation in development projects that are open and honest without interference or political pressure. Belt & Road is a symbol for win-win in international development. Such measures all contribute to stable international economic growth. China opposes unilateralism and protectionism that challenge global stability. 
A priority feature of the Five Year Plan is the construction of a unified national market. This allows for resources to be allocated efficiently, discourages the preservation of uncompetitive industries and replaces redundant capacity with new investments that drive quality and innovation. Steps will be taken to allow for remote less well developed regions to access a wider range of goods and services. 
Green and sustainable development is a cornerstone for China's development. The country will move quickly to adopt an increasing number of eco-friendly production processes and lifestyles to ensure that carbon emissions peak by 2030, paving the way for achievement of carbon neutrality before 2060. Being the world's leading industrial powerhouse and with one of the world's largest populations China is faced with an important and monumental challenge.  During the next five years green and low carbon technologies will be expanded with more wind turbines, solar panels and hydro power stations being built. The new generation of safe thorium nuclear reactors will continue their development.  An additional 60,000 km of zero-carbon transport corridors will be constructed and over 100 zero-carbon industrial parks will be built.  China's electric car numbers will continue to increase rapidly.  China now leads the world in both renewable energy capacity and manufacturing. 
The Five Year Plan puts people's welfare and fulfilment as a top priority. The country's bio-diversity will be improved further as endangered aquatic species are reintroduced into upgraded water streams and lakes. Steps will be taken to ensure that the increasing number of once rare animals can live safely with the human population. Nature reserves will be upgraded. Work will continue with large forestation projects to tame the deserts. More people living in the great cities will experience the freshness of countryside quality air. An already harmonious society will develop further with the respect given to the environment and it's creatures. 
Artificial Intelligence (A I) applications across key sectors will continue to play a major role in building a Smart Economy.  A faster achievement has been called for by the government to build more intelligent terminals and to promote an increasing number of large scale commercial applications. Unlike the capitalist system with its basic contradictions, a reluctance to invest and the constant threats of surveillance and war the people's republic is in a good position to use the technology for the benefit of everyone. Repetitive, unpleasant and hazardous tasks may be carried out automatically leaving comrades more free time to engage in sports, cultural activities, music, the arts and study. While some Western powers become excited over the prospect of using A I for war, China views it as an essential tool for the full advancement of a people oriented society. 
The Chinese revolution that established the people’s government in 1949 has transformed the country that was then the poorest in the world. China has now risen from being a weak semi-feudal, semi-colonial country to become a force for peace in the global arena, with the second largest economy in the world. Productivity gains, innovation and consumption needs have become the main drivers of growth. China's manufacturing, innovation and construction now serves the entire world. As China transforms it shares what it has learned with other developing countries facing similar challenges. And equally the communist party, which led and continues to lead the Chinese people’s march to socialism, is always ready to share its knowledge and experience with the rest of the communist movement around the world.
People's China, under the leadership of its Communist Party, has made remarkable progress in the transformation of a poverty stricken land into a leading power within a few short decades. It looks forward with confidence to the future and offers friendship and respectful relations with all good people. 

So long Keir Starmer…

It didn’t take long to get rid of Starmer after all. His pathetic resignation speech marked the inevitable end of his dismal two years in office spent crawling to the Americans and what he believed was the dominant trend amongst the British bourgeoisie. No longer of any further use to the ruling class following the overwhelming Burnham victory at the Makerfield by-election. Stabbed in the back by his phoney friends in Parliament. No one will miss him.
In the corridors of power Labour politicians and senior civil servants are already drafting plans for the new Burnham administration while union leaders lobby for the return of the water industry and the power utilities to some form of public ownership.
Burnham’s team say their man will revitalise a moribund party, head off the challenge of the Faragists and a resurgent Tory party, and lead Labour to victory at the next general election.
They like to present the “King of the North” as a new broom. But there’s nothing new about Andy Burnham, who while not a Blairite, nevertheless comes from the ‘Old Labour’ class-collaborationist tradition that still holds sway through much of the labour movement.
Economic stagnation, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, drug abuse and crime. These are the problems that face the incoming Burnham government. These are the problems of end-days capitalism. Ultimately, the only answer is socialism. But in the meantime there’s plenty of scope for a country as rich as Britain to take on board the demands of the labour movement that include the restoration of the welfare state and the public sector that Britain once possessed.
The days when people listened to the rich men who told us that the greatest virtue of humanity was the possession of the largest amount of money are over. Great mass movements are again sweeping the continents. The masses are demanding social justice, democratic rights and an end to exploitation. It’s capitalism that’s finished – not us. 
On the streets millions want a decisive break from the imperialist agenda that led to the Zionist genocide in Gaza and countless other Western war-crimes in other parts of the Global South.
The billions consumed by the arms race and the pointless nuclear “deterrent” would be better spent restoring industry to provide work for the younger generation and decent pensions for the old. Progressive taxation for the rich, who can well afford it, would pay for the “safety-net” benefits of old and guarantee free education and medical for the sick and infirmed. 
Burnham says he listens to the unions and the street, unlike Starmer and the ageing Blairites the former Labour leader surrounded himself with, Whether Burnham will actually do anything about it remains to be seen. His decision to appoint former head of Labour Friends of Israel, James Purnell, as his chief of staff gives little ground for optimism...