 First of all, before we talk about what happened after 1917, it's probably good to have a look at what happened before it. A period between 1910 and 1914 was a period really of unprecedented strikes in Britain, and strikes that spread right across different industries and what people would call mass strikes. A big fan of these was Rosa Luxembourg herself who said that this was a universal form of proletarian struggle that was taking part right across Europe at the time. So these strikes were in the co-fields up in Durham, and the other thing which was striking about the nature of these manifestations was that the official trade unions weren't in control of them. You had bodies setting up of rank-and-file shops, duards, committees, forgive me because I'm a trade union full-timer myself, so it's kind of sounds a bit hypocritical, but these were far more effective than the actual official trade unions in conducting the disputes. And even at this time, we had 1913 for example, we had 11 million strike days in Britain. So that was the build-up through the war period. In 1914, just before the war, there was a triple alliance which took place, and people were saying that that was the steel workers, the transport workers, mainly the railway workers and the coal miners. And people were saying this was a great advance in working-class history. Well, that's one way to look at it. The other way to look at it was, and commentators from my left have said, it was the government trying to regain control for the trade union bureaucracies of the mass movement that was going on. So these people were fighting for very basic demands in a way. Eight hour a day, 40 hour a week, free education, housing. They wanted decent housing. I don't think the concept of council housing was then up there, but they were looking for, I suppose, what we call social housing at affordable prices and the abolition of slums. The interesting part as well is what was happening in Ireland, of course, I don't want Ireland to take complete credit for the 1917 revolution. But in 1916 we had our own attempt at a revolution in Ireland, led by James Conley, and no less than Lenin himself said that he remarked on the class nature of the rising in Ireland, and it went on to form part of his reasoning about self-determination for the Soviet republics. Where other Bolsheviks, even other Bolsheviks, were dismissed as some sort of petty bourgeois uprising. Lenin saw the nature of the forces involved, especially James Conley's Irish Citizens Army, who were definitely of a left-wing nature, and that went on to influence Soviet policy. Well, during the war period there was basically a massive fall in the strike wave, and that was because of two reasons really. First of all, government oppression. People could be done for suspicion, for trying to organise strikes. And secondly, the abject capitulation of the trade union bureaucracy during that period to the government's plan, and they were advocating actually doing tours of workplaces, talking down strikes, trying to get people to go back to work where strikes occurred, and that saw a massive fall off in the number of people that were taking strike action. So obviously 1917 came, and that changed the picture completely. What we were talking about now in some cases wasn't just reformist demands, wasn't the 40-hour week, but who would actually control the country, which class would be run in the country, and in charge of the means of production and distribution. And there were, after 1917, large elements of people coming back from the war who were influenced by Bolshevik propaganda, and in no uncertain terms were not prepared to put up with what they had been put up with before the war. And I think even the Liberal government of Lloyd George, people like that, recognised that there would have to be concessions made, or there was going to be a revolution, or at least the potential of a revolution in Britain. And that's why they came up with a kind of proto-working welfare state. I'd say the origins of welfare state probably go back to there, or the theory behind it, welfareism, go back to that period, because they were actually afraid that people coming back from the war who'd been military trained had the capacity to have a revolution in Britain. So if we look back at some of the things that happened in that period, and just after that period, in 1918, we had 12,000 coppers go on strike in London, and that was out of a force of 19,000. And the Prime Minister of it, they said, we've never been closer to Bolsheviks in Britain. That was the response of the Prime Minister. We also had military uprisings or mutinies, because Churchill wanted to send troops to smash the Soviet government in Russia. He wanted to send conscripted troops from Britain over to Russia to smash what they saw as a system that challenged the very nature of what they had over here. And this resulted in over 90 mutinies in Britain, some big, some small. But at its height it involved about 100,000 different troops. So you can imagine that, 100,000 troops in Britain saying that they're not going to take part in going out and smashing the Soviet Union. Some of the, in East Kilbride, for example, one of the ships, they raised the red flag. Sailors raised the red flag and decreed a commune upon the ship. This is a British Navy vessel. And these people are facing hanging by the way from mutiny. But that's what they did. But seeing the situation, even Churchill, who was a war monger, said that we can't hang these people because we can't understand the effect that's going to have on anybody else. So they didn't hang them. Also in Ark Angel, we had a whole regiment, Yorkshire Regiment, who also set up a worker Soviet because they didn't want to fight. This was in Russia, Ark Angel, of course. They didn't want to fight the Reds in the Revolution. So this was a very, very dangerous time if you were a member of the British ruling class. So after the war these, we had a massive increase in the number of people joining trade unions. By 1921, it had nearly doubled. But there was also mass unemployment because people were getting demobilised from the army. And some of the strikes, I've mentioned before what they were, some of the strikes were a little bit reactionary in nature because of male unemployment, we had the situation where people were coming back from the war and they would be seeing women who'd actually taken their jobs or maybe black people or Asian people who haven't taken their jobs. And I'm ashamed to say that this actually resulted in some places in Lynchons and Cardiff and Liverpool where people were hundered out of their jobs and the government actually repatriated 600 people. So it wasn't all good. It wasn't all good. But we had this strange kind of coalition where these reactionary strikes, we would have this racism and sexism. At the same time, we would have left-wing elements on air fighting for progressive programmes. So this strike wave that took place was of a mixed nature but by and large progressive. But we shouldn't really hide in my opinion the bad parts of it as well. So in the end by 1920, there were 3,708 people in trade unions. Sorry, 3,708,000, 3,000. But they were in trade unions and these trade unions were becoming more and more militant. The aims again after the war and when we were in the period of this massive strike wave were millions and millions of days. In 1913, we had 11 million days of strike action. 1914, we had not during the war, it dipped below. And then we go back to 1918, 1919 and we're back in the millions again. We're back in the millions of days taken for strike action. And again, just like before the war, we had after the war, the nature of the strikes that were taking place were led by rank-and-file workers' committees. At a part of the time we have, and it can't be ignored, the rise of the parliamentary Labour Party. In Clydeside, we had a very sort of mixed bag and we had on the one hand people like John McLean who won the outright revolution and Willie Gallagher actually came from there as well. One of the first communist MPs entered up in Parliament and we also had people who were just there to become part of even the left of a kind of reformist Labour Party government. And we had people from Clydeside, indeed, all the industrial areas becoming Labour MPs and taking the parliamentary road forward. The strike wave was eventually curved and it was curved through concessions. They were given out the 40-hour week. Moves were made towards that, especially in engineering where they were suffering a 53-hour week. It was massively reduced. The government then tried to go on a counter-offensive and smash the demand for equal wages and cut wages even. And there was a strike wave against that in engineering coal and steel and they managed to fight that off and not only fight it off, but they gained more concessions for people on lower wages. They actually got their wages increased. So the trade union bureaucracy in the Labour Party couldn't have this going on. They met Lord George and Lord George actually said, look, there's two possibilities here. One, the state rules. Two, there's a force which is more powerful within the state which is going to take over. And I said to the trade union leaders, are you prepared to be that force? Are you prepared to take on those responsibilities? And basically they completely bottled it and said that they weren't and went about demobilising the strike wave. So I want to round up the lessons for today. We've got Jeremy Corbyn and if we look at the... Look at the demands back then. A 40-hour week, I wish everybody on the railway could do a 40-hour week. Nationalisation of industry. Corbyn's given that guarantees going to re-nationalise the railways and I hope he extends that to all utilities and I hope it takes it far, far further than that as well. I think that one thing that Corbyn has done is revived. I think the spirit of... If not revolutionary reform of socialism within the Labour Party and for that reason it's worth supporting. We as a union railway workers and transport workers we were partly foundering of the Labour Party and we walked away from its... in the early 2000s because it was no longer a party that represented our interests. It was a neoliberal party and we thought working class people would be represented by a new workers party. That was the view of my trade union and leave me self. I think no one saw Corbyn coming up. No one saw the revival within the Labour Party. It was kind of treated as an annoying irritant to maybe round up a few left-wing votes for the mainstream of the party and he's proved that all wrong. I think he will be Prime Minister but I think the point is when he becomes Prime Minister which forces will he be actually listening to and which forces will be influential in forming the Corbyn policy and if we leave that den of inequity down the road to trade union congress I'll tell you what, we'll look back and we'll see the sell-outs that happened after 1917 and those same sell-outs will be repeated. Because that trade union congress I don't know what they're there for I mean I know that it's a machine for lordships and ladyships and services to British capitalism I don't know what else they do to be quite honest but there's another and more important in my view pressure on Corbyn that comes from the working class the organised working class and militant trade unions and indeed in bodies like this and I think the real legacy of 1917 is the fact that workers are still in militant organisations and our union is not the only union we're not just the jobs club if you look at the rule one of our rule book replace capitalism with a socialist form of society that's what we're about and that's a demand we'll be making on Jeremy Corbyn we don't want this and that we don't want minor concessions we want capitalism replaced with a socialist form of society Hi, so as Ben said I'm a teacher and I work in quite a deprived in a city school in Shuffield so I'm going to be talking a little bit about the effect that cuts have had on education and what we should be doing about that I know teachers work insanely long hours for high school the average is about 55 hours a week and in primaries it's 60 hours a week and in that time teachers are carrying out more jobs than they ever had them before in addition to planning lessons and marking books the kind of traditional roles that you'd expect because of the sacking of teaching assistants and many other support stuff in schools teachers now take on a lot of different support roles trying to teach in a mainstream classroom students with incredibly high special educational needs and students who are new to English have literally been in the country maybe a couple of weeks at a time and on top of this caretakers and premises stuff have also been sat so we're taking on additional roles in terms of looking after the buildings setting up events and that's not just for people in schools that's running external events for schools that are putting on to raise a bit more money and on top of this we're expected to fulfil our wider responsibilities to the school which is actually a clause in the teaching contract that requires you to carry out additional tasks that are stated that you're not paid for so you're carrying out additional work on top of that and this is really putting on extra curricular activities, clubs and things which is necessary to plug the gaps that's left by their woeful national curriculum that goes how to hand in implementing and in addition to all of these stress on teachers the pay of teachers is often directly linked to the results of the students that they teach and our appraisals are linked as I said to how much additional work you do and the duties that you've actually paid for what extra are you doing to the school to determine whether or not you deserve your pay rise or not and then there is actually a clause in the teaching contract which I discovered once I became a rep for the NEU that states that a teacher is expected to work as many additional hours as necessary in order to get the jobs done and this is being stretched wavy on the imagination and the goodwill of teachers is really being put to the test I think the fact that this is having on teachers is palpable there's huge numbers of teachers off on sick with stress and I mentioned the statistics this morning but I think it's worth repeating the Najwa trade union and the teaching union did a survey of a certain number of people a couple of years ago teaching stuff and they discovered that just under half of them had not just had stress or experienced stress but had actually had to seek medical help to help them cope with that stress and this is I think that's an outrageous figure that it's just becoming a normal commonplace part of teaching it's compounded by further cost cutting measures as well so schools don't want to pay for cover and teachers are often pressured into coming in when they feel sick my boss in particular likes to ask you well could you make it in for 12 and horrifically on Wednesday I had to drive a pregnant colleague to the hospital in the morning who had come into work crippled over in pain, sobbing because she was too afraid and too worried to ask for another day off work because she'd already had a couple of days off due to her pregnancy this is the reality in teaching it's not exaggerated in any way this is the day to day life of many teachers and the effect it has on the kids is horrendous as well I've already mentioned that special educational needs students just aren't getting the support that they need because the government refused to fund special educational needs departments correctly but basic things just aren't happening in schools we don't have pens and paper some schools I think around the Nottingham area even sent a letter out to parents saying could you set up some direct debit so you can help us pay for basic things that we need in schools this is something that the state should be providing for people and it's just not happening and I think cuts elsewhere that you might not think are directly affecting teaching or having a big impact for example cuts to a public transport and things that some children are now having to walk up to an hour to school there's a child in my form who walks an hour in the morning every day to get to school on an hour back again so children are genuinely suffering as our teachers and I think it begs the question what are the government doing about this what do they say? Theresa May is adamant that they are funding education and she says that there's more money in education now than there ever has been in the past and physically that's true of course that's true there are more children you need more funding to pay for those children and of course as inflation goes up more money is there so compared to like 50 years ago there is more money in education but that doesn't mean that it in any way covers the costs of what is needed and even pens and papers is difficult to afford in schools right now and so teachers are kind of filling in for this they're buying resources out of their own pockets they're working for longer hours they're working harder and they're working for less money than they ever had done before and the reality of the situation is appalling and cuts to education have structured our schools literally to a breaking point as far as the majority of people in education can see and the government claims that there's no magic money tree apparently not when it comes to funding things like education, health pay and protection for the vulnerable and it's no wonder when they're spending it on propping up their weak government and pay out to the DUP the truth is though that there is plenty of money in society as we talked about this morning as we know through looking at economics thank you there is enough money to give everyone a decent education to be taught by properly trained professionals who work in decent conditions in schools that are fit to be studied in the problem is though that it's concentrated in the hands of the bosses and of big corporations who are refusing to invest they're refusing to put this money into use in a way that it could be used by the state they won't invest because they don't expect a big enough profit in return and this is the despicable reality to find the claim that they don't have any money they don't have money for us and unless really we build a society based on the needs of all and not just on the profits of an ever-growing profits in the pockets of the exploited the crisis in education and in all other sectors as well is only going to get worse it will only deepen teachers are going to continue to leave the profession in droves feeling infantilised by the system feeling depressed, exhausted stressed and patronised and ultimately it's children it's the future working class who is suffering the most proposes increasing taxes on the rich but also bringing back VAT on to private health care which is exempt from it at its moment in time but if we want to achieve a decent education for everyone we need to do far more than that we need to take back what has been robbed from us for decades as a working class we need to nationalise the banks and use the wealth of society to democratically plan our economy so that it benefits everybody people who know how to run schools we're in that system every single day we know how to work we know what is needed and we also know what the curriculum should look like we know what money should be spent on and so rather than people who have not set foot in a classroom since they graduated making massive decisions an old boss of mine at an old school used to just be a manager in a different corporation and he apparently has the transferable skills to know what we should be teaching our children we actually should have democratic grassroots control decisions made by working people for working people and that means that we teachers, students in the system parents, workers who have had any safe education at any point in their life so everybody needs to get active with our anger our frustration with the system teachers are actually quite well unionised but what is needed is the will to fight and that has to come from leadership but also from the general members to strike action to show the government and to show the heads of our academies that it is us who run the schools and it is us who educate the young minds of this country and we have had enough of 60, 50, 70 hour weeks we've had enough of pay freezism we've had enough of cuts that mean the children that come to our schools come to us tired, sleep deprived hungry and dirty we need change now we need investment now and if the system that we live within changes that system then we need to smash that system workers need to organise and we need to fight in our trade unions and we need your support the support of workers in every other union the support of parents and children like I've already mentioned and we need the support of those who understand that it isn't just this government but it is capitalism that's to blame for the mess that our education system is in teachers always get quite a bad rep for striking because it means that loads of people are affected by it they have their parents have to take days off work they're very angry about this because it causes a lot of disruption well good that is exactly what we want we want as much disruption as possible from our strikes and this is basically the only thing that we have to show that we are the people who control the system and by withholding our labour it causes more than just the teaching profession to come to us down still and it raises that vital question of who really runs society and when the answer becomes clear that it's us that we can clap we can then begin to bring an end to capitalism and bring a start to a social society that will allow equal opportunity for all decent wages and most importantly decent education for everyone forever Greetings from the Republic of Yorkshire which is bigger than the population of Scotland or Denmark we don't want any independence I remember having a conversation with great-grandma in 1973 about my great-granddad I didn't ever go to the seaside he said he only ever went abroad once he said he went to fight in the Boer War in 1899 and I was already I said 13 he said it must have been a massive thing going to fight in the Boer War and leaving school at that age and she looked at him and gone out she said Paul had been on the pitch since he went 8 and word is that's funny it's not funny is it because when you grow up post war you actually think what existed post war has always existed because that's what's in your consciousness but the reality of life is that in 1913 in Britain the two biggest occupations were most people guessed the first one the biggest occupation for men was coal mining there's a million coal miners in Britain but the biggest occupation for women and there was 1.3 million people doing it and people very rarely guessed what the answer is was domestic service and that is the reality like my grandma left Surrey Croydon in Surrey in 1913 to be a servant in Doncaster and she never saw her mother again she got one day a year off or mothering Sunday to remember her mother who couldn't possibly get to Croydon in the back in the same day and I think people need to know where we've come from to know where we're going in 1963 I said to my great-grandma I came home and said we need to pray for Churchill tonight and she said why because he's very poorly and she said he's not as poorly as he would be if I could get my hands on him and that's a political education that is a real education because I had believed things had been told and the last lesson I had at school on the 3rd of July 1973 and people of my age in any Labour party in Britain will tell you this is true a lot of people think it's exaggerated but it's not I was told that the biggest problems this is by a Labour councillor in social studies the biggest problems in Britain by the year 2000 will be working a five hour week because of technology will have free electricity because of nuclear power will have free petrol because of North Sea oil and the motorways will be used for cycling because we'll all be on free public transport now people I went to school with a lad who was terrified he didn't know what he was going to do for the rest of the week when he'd done his five hours on a Monday and that's the truth but the defining part of the 20th century in Britain was the 1984-5-strike because at that time the ruling class said they're not having their benefits there's a financial crisis but coming 77, 78, the IMF crisis you're not having their benefits anymore and we had the 84-5-strike and we saw what people did and that's carried on people haven't forgotten 84-5 particularly in the areas where it affected them and it's such that the Prime Minister who thought she'd won the Balkans War who thought she'd won the minor strike who was their greatest leader post Churchill he can't build the statue to her anywhere in Britain because they can't afford the security around the statue that is the truth that's what the official position is and the Financial Times said yesterday that 24 million people in Britain are financially vulnerable that means at some point in the next three months something could happen to them where they will be in a situation where they can't afford to live and 4 million people between 25 and 40 are in such a situation that at least once in the last six months they've gone without food because they can't afford to pay bills and that's the reality of the system we're in at this moment in time and I often, when I'm arguing with people refuse to argue on their terms when they say there's too many people on benefits and I say let's get Prince Charles to work and it's the same the endless stories about terrorism there is a real problem but what about the terrorism on the 24 million people who think they can't afford to eat the 4 million people that's the people who are waiting an hour on the phone to ring about universal credit that is the form of state terrorism that's terrorising every person in Britain at this moment in time and the fact of the matter is that a really good analysis on the last two general elections went round and did two more questions one of the questions was how many people thinking Britain that their lives will improve under capitalism in the next five years 15% and somebody said it on the television I think it was James Bright I can't remember it says the problem with capitalism at the moment is you want people to live under it but you're not giving people any capital that's the problem and I don't want to talk about statistics too much because the worst statistic I've ever seen was the other week where 15% of voters thought that Theresa May gave a good speech at Tory party conference now there's obviously 15% of people who vote yes for absolutely anything so let's keep away from statistics but what's interesting is according to the editorial in the financial time last week Theresa May is worried that Philly Pamond is too wooden and doesn't appeal to the electorate Theresa May thinks that and we've got a situation now where and I said this to people before the general election it's all right making fun of Jeremy Corbyn in Parliament in front of a situation where 80% of his own MPs are at his back and you've got 350 public school boys and girls laughing at your jokes and you're paying somebody £100,000 a year to write your script that's easy to do that's just entertainment in the city varieties but I tell you what going and addressing 100 coal miners or 100 school dinner staff or 100 bin workers you can't kid them so when she stands up in front of somebody when she's going around Britain and talks about real issues she can't cut it it's not because she's deteriorated she's just the same as she is in Parliament but there's just paid monkeys I'm neither for nor in the EU we're in real trouble whether we're in or out I voted out because I wanted to cause the Tories as bigger problems as they could have and let's be absolutely clear sometimes you have to appeal to Napoleon's maxim if my opponents are in the middle of a mistake I make a point of not interrupting them and that is what the EU is about it's their argument with each other about the future of Britain and we're in a situation now where our national executive meeting in April 2016 I made a speech about the EU when we were told that all the opinion polls were showing that it was 60% to 40% in favour of stopping it this is only two months before the referendum I said I don't know what you're talking to but it's going to be out it's absolutely definitely going to be out and Cameron's going to be gone within three weeks there's no way because Cameron will get replaced by Osborne Osborne will go with Cameron absolutely obvious that's what's going to happen and there'll be an out vote and you're a fantasist I was accused of being a fantasist that sort of fantasy I call he's been able to work out what's going on so when I went to the next NEC meeting they had a right go up and they said well you've got your wish now when do you think we're coming out I said I never thought we were coming out I never said we were coming out I said we'd go to out but I've got the Don Henley and the Eagles view of life and check out any time you want but you can never leave and that's what's going on at this moment and I've also got a view on the Corwin election as leader there isn't held by many on the left but I think some people on the left are too nice when they're analysing what the right wing are up to people are saying oh they were kind to Corwin letting them on the ballot paper they saw they were only fair that he should be on the ballot paper wow load of rubbish that he put what Don on the ballot paper at the previous election did they on the ballot paper them 10 of 11 right wingers did it because they wanted Cooper to win not Burnham they thought Corwin would soak up some of Corwin's votes and Cooper would win they're always thinking about whatever they're thinking about I might be right or wrong but they're not good things for you that they're thinking about and the election results themselves I've studied the election results really interesting it was a city vote if you look at the election result Liverpool three seats all had a 25,000 majority Cardiff for the first time since the 1960s all the seats went Labour Leeds for the first time since 1918 all the seats went Labour Corwin got a 34,000 Labour majority in London and wasn't in the top six Labour majorities in London it was a city vote Newcastle 25,000 majorities each it was a city vote that is where the action is first that's where the wins were it's bad enough being poor in Wakefield but it's ten times more worse being poor in London that is the problem and we've got a situation now where the votes in some of them areas were not as good as they were in the cities but that's because Yougubb said what question came up on the doorstep and the question on the doorstep was not do you like Jeremy Corbyn the question was can Labour win and the right wing were trying to make it look like it was impossible they were in league with the press the media, the banks etc to make it look like it was unwinnable and those people on the left who said the reason they hate Corbyn is because he is winnable they were laughed at by a lot of people and that's why people were shocked we've got a situation now I went to vote on that day I voted Labour as I always have done three things happened on that day that I think were a great importance one was 92% of the population voted Tory or Labour that's the first time since the 1960s that more than 90% that last vote those who were not part of that battle except in Scotland those who were not part of that battle just got disappeared, the Liberals the UKIP, they disappeared and I walked into vote behind a couple who were old in hands would have been in the 60s poor, you can tell when people are poor and they were nervous as hell they'd never ever voted before and they went in you used to see them, I've seen a lot of young people being like this never seen older people I've never voted on my own and the families I've been in it's a group thing voting everybody votes Labour together but these two went up and they didn't know how to vote and they just said they gave them a paper and they're walking out and he said what are you doing have you got me down for Labour, we're Labour, we want the living wage and that's what the election I cried in that polling station because to them it wasn't a matter is Jeremy Corbyn a revolutionary is Jeremy Corbyn a terrorist is Jeremy Corbyn going to get me £8.45 an hour when I can't afford to live that's the real issue and that's what they don't want to talk about in Parliament so that was the election the background now I think one thing Corbyn's taught us and he's taught a lot of people this within the movement is to keep away from the personal comments to keep away from that I think there's a lot of admiration for that I think that the attitude another two weeks Labour would have won the general election the problem was no access as soon as Corbyn had access to the media in that four week period we've got to allow that access it were completely all this stuff about 80% don't want to vote nobody's interested people started talking about 70% want nationalisation in the railways 80% want nationalisation in the energy 10s water has got a programme of repairs because all its pipes will have run out within the next 50 years the largest water company in Europe 15 million people will run out in 50 years and its current repair programme will take 357 years to mend the lakes that's what they're faced with they've abandoned they're not doing anything they've abandoned the structure in this country and if you get the chance go and see Dennis Skinner's film Nature of the Beast but if anybody's seen that film yet but however much you like Dennis you'll like him more when you've seen that actually his four brothers are better than him if you go and see the film they're all better but when I was growing up when I was living in school his elder brother were more famous than Dennis they didn't raise the rents he played cross in Derbyshire for 12 years and he says on the programme there would have been no camps while sales if we'd have frozen rents nobody wants the liabilities they just didn't want to pay the rent and that's what labor should have done should have frozen and cut rents all during that period and he says to his brother straight forward not drinking with them, not socialising with them reporting back to your constituents the problem is the others don't do that and that is the real issue that's why they get slaughtered isn't it because they won't, our lot, try and impersonate the rich what we should be opposed to the rich we've got a situation now where I read a history of the day about a miner from Wakefield in the 1840s who tried to set up the National Union of Mine Workers and he got victimised for that in the 1840s and he went to court and one of his aims was after a tragedy where somebody got killed at the pit there should be a miner on the enquiry somebody who knows about coal mining etc etc and the judge said you don't know enough about the law a miner can't be on that they don't know enough about the law and David Swallow the miner said I've had enough of the law I want some justice and I think that's the issue isn't it the trade union legislation we've had enough law to fill us up to here but I think we want some justice and that's what the situation is about Bob Dylan said when he accused the nicking riffs of BB King the good borough and the great steel and I think that's true about ideas there are no new ideas a lot of the discussions I've heard today come from that, the new circumstances the new nuances, life doesn't repeat itself you know, when Jeremy Corbyn finishes the leader of the Labour Party won't be replaced by another 68 year old there will be a debate taking place depending on boundary changes depending on re-selections but it's about learning and listening about what's going on because at the end of the day in the 1890s if you read the Tory press about organised people in this country were seen as skilled workers then unorganised people were seen as unskilled and not allowed into trade unions the doctors formed the transport engineering workers union and in the 1890s doctors were seen as ignorant, thick Irish immigrants who couldn't be organised that's what they were seen and portrayed as in the media because that's what they wanted organised workers to think about them by the 1950s they were the most organised well-paced workers in Britain and when you think about McDonald's workers when you think about fast-food workers of which there's massive amounts in this country they're the same sort of workers the only difference between a docker and a McDonald's worker is the means of communication the docker turned up to have his shoulder tapped or not tapped the McDonald's workers are home on a Sunday morning getting a text whether they've got a company that's the only difference there's no difference in the concrete circumstances about pay, about pensions, about sick pay about maternity leave because nothing changes unless we change society and that's what Corbyn is about and that should all be about changing society thank you, cheers thank you comrades we're obviously living through very turbulent times and of course the the subject of this event this weekend is the Russian Revolution and for us to understand the question of revolution what it means its relevance and I think one of the key things that we learnt is that paradoxically that revolutions don't begin at the bottom revolutions begin at the top they begin with a split in the ruling class it was Lenin who said that the first condition of revolution is a split in the ruling class and if you look at on a world scale you can see that is a particular feature of the current time of splits and divisions opening up in this leading layer of society starting with perhaps the united states where Trump is literally at war with a section of the ruling class is at war with the state department is attacking the secret services the whole situation is extremely unprecedented and what does it reflect it reflects the turmoil that exists within American society today the beginnings of a ferment that's going to have a revolutionary content in the future same also applies to Britain where the issue of Brexit has seen the biggest split in the British ruling class that we've seen probably have to go back to the repeal of the Corn Laws in the 1840s the ruling class in Britain was quite a clever ruling class it looked at its prospects not in days and weeks but in decades and centuries in the past because where it had differences it always discussed those differences behind closed doors it didn't express those differences openly mainly because of a third party that is the working class who could listen in but today we see these splits and divisions in Britain of very much in the public domain and again there are a reflection of the deep crisis affecting British society at this particular stage after all Britain I would say was one of the most stable countries in Europe it was certainly the envy of the ruling classes in Europe because they thought this two-party system in Britain created this relative stability for British capitalism but of course that is now completely vanished that we could say that Britain is not the most stable is the most unstable country in Europe and this instability is increasing I would say by the year, by the month very quickly we'll see how things pan out in the next two or three years where the situation is the most serious I would say for British capitalism that at any time probably for a hundred years the implications are extremely serious and the implications for the working class is even more serious but what we have is a regime in crisis the government is in deep crisis the splits and divisions openly in the cabinet they stab in each other in the back the jockeying perfor position who could become the next leader of the Tory party the Tory party is in crisis the average age of a member of the Tory party is 72 years of age most of these people are waiting in the departure lounge and that's a reflection of the cave if you like of this party the representatives of real British capitalism is a mess and that's a product of the past also we see a build up in Britain of anti establishment feeling and the establishment in Britain is very important for the defence of capitalism and yet every single institution of the establishment is in crisis because of the scandals particularly that have affected each and every sector whether it be the press whether it be parliamentary expenses or whatever one after another have been undermined in the consciousness of working people if it is a very dangerous position that they face of course the position they have now is a very serious one because we've got Theresa May as the prime minister and whereas in the past she viewed herself as someone who's very strong and very stable has now become dialectically very unstrong very unstable indeed and of course she's become a liability look how the mighty have fallen a year ago the Tories were 20% ahead in the opinion polls she had a personal rating which is far far higher than Corbyn and so on and yet within the space of a matter of a month or weeks all that was destroyed and it shows the volatility that is there but you don't have to wait years for something to happen things are happening very very rapidly at a very increased tempo because of the crisis of capitalism that Britain faces but she's a liability the only problem is for the ruling class they know they have to get rid of her George Osborne says she's a dead man walking or a dead woman walking she hasn't got much life left but if they remove her it means that all out bloody civil war within the Tory party because who's going to take over from Theresa May that's the big question and after this inevitable civil war because she's going to go at some point it's going to be someone like Boris Johnson our foreign minister Boris the Barbarian as my brother likes to call him he could end up as the leader of the Tory party or even better Jacob Rysmog now that is a specimen and a half I mean he's so reactionary he's so backward in a general election he was taking his nanny to do the canvas and he stood at the gate and sent her to deliver leaflets of life on the election take his nanny, his maid and he's even known by his friends as the the right honourable gentleman for the early 18th century which gives you a bit of an idea of how things like but this is alarming I mean get rid of May who are you going to have and therefore there's a panic you feel like a serious disquiet within the ruling class of what is the way forward in these circumstances and the reason why they're alarmed it's not just the top but why is this discontent well it's due to the deep economic crisis of British capitalism and the fact that this gives rise to a crisis within the working class itself the 2008 slump of capitalism ushered in an enormous attack on the working class in Britain and this has culminated in the biggest fall in living standards in the last decade that is real wages for 200 years in fact last week Paul Johnson he's the leader of the Institute of Fiscal Studies in Britain said that was not quite correct you have to go back to 1750 the actual birth of the English working class they see such a comparable collapse in living standards now this is an incredible situation the reality of working class life has deteriorated enormously the insecurity that is developed the fact that young people in particular are not going to have a living standards higher than their parents and maybe even their grandparents that's the situation that they face and therefore you have this this pressure exerted you know we have the flexibility of labour and that's been brought home with a vengeance in Britain the zero hour contracts the short term contracts the agency work an agency work more agency work is in Britain than the rest of Europe put together you know they're talking about oh there's a lot of people in work yes low skilled low aged work exploited it if work that's the reality of many young people in particular of a two tier workforce being introduced to undermine the conditions of ordinary work in people and therefore we have to understand the stress that has been caused in work and if you like even the terror that goes on in work look at the example of sports direct which I don't think is an anomaly where they have a big warehouse in the north of England where they introduced the scheme you know three faults and you're out three misdominias and you're out and workers are so afraid of taking time off work that he may go to work sick ill in fact it's well known that ambulances have been called to the work workplace because people have just collapsed because of illness even at that sorry example a horrific example where a pregnant worker was so terrified of taking maternity leave that she gave birth on the toilet floor the factory I mean that's Britain in the 23rd century that's the reality of life no wonder there's anger no wonder there's bitterness that's developed in Britain in the past period because of this crisis that we face even recognised by the ruling class the financial times last week explained that I quote there is a rising sense of grievance and a collapsing trust of the old political order the march to progress has ended the present has become a very much darker place why endure the hardships and inequities of the here and now if the future is still bleaker it asks this is I think power still of stuff it goes on however to say many Europeans are angry others fearful however I do not sense they want a revolution as an aside pass the mustard please but the fact that they even have to raise this higher well I don't think they're really looking for a revolution is more indicative of the real situation I face in the working class in Europe and Britain at the present moment all he says is what we need is a fairer balance and a sense of mainstream politicians are at least on their side he says that's the way to cure it obviously that's not going to happen and therefore the working class are going to be further under the cost in the next period in Britain so what is it preparing it's preparing a social explosion it's like a pressure cooker where the valve is closed down and the heat is turned up that's the situation in Britain at the present time and what's it going to be like in the next two or three years there's the heading of the standard of three days ago Brexit Britain things can only get worse they're going to get a dam site worse because even the bourgeois are recognised they're not going to get a deal it's very unlikely they're going to get a deal in Europe and they can crash out of the European Union and that would cause a slump in Britain which will have effect also in Europe itself that the words is there's turmoil coming big turmoil which is going to change the consciousness of the working class even more in the next period but this government is hanging by a thread that Corbyn can easily be pushed into power very very rapidly in the next period of course we want the Corbyn Government we will fight for a Corbyn Government but we do say it should be on a socialist programme why? because we've learnt the lessons of history on a capitalist basis there's no way forward capitalism is demanding counter reforms not reforms there's not a question of good capitalism and bad capitalism there's capitalism in crisis and cannot afford any longer the reforms who are working people they've taken it back and that's a very important lesson that we have learnt but the ruling class is terrified of the Labour Government got a quote here from the Anne McElvoy she's the editor of The Economist Labour is about to take an historic step for a step that will complete its journey from a left, a centre left party to one whose precepts are essentially Marxist they think that the Labour Party this is the bourgeois they are terrified that the Labour Party has become more a Marxist party I wish it was the case unfortunately we have a bit of a longer way to go but it shows how they fear the Labour Party getting into power and above all in a context of Britain being forced out of the European Union crashing out of a world slump developing as well where all the ammunition has been used up and the Labour Government comes to power under those crisis conditions of course the ruling class are going to be putting pressure they will blackmail they will sabotage they will undermine that Labour Government in order to try and get rid of it or at least make it capitulate and carry out its orders as they did in Greece with Syriza they want to do that maybe but what they are terrified of is that the working class will also put pressure on that Labour Government after all those years of iniquity this build up of pressure and Corbyn there he is the man who has got to carry it out that will be the way they will be pushing it and there will be a colossal pressure from the working class itself and we say that our Labour Government must not use the crisis as an excuse in order to water down its ideas and abandon its programme as has been the case in the past but use is the crisis in order to carry through emergency measures to put an end to capitalism and to carry through a socialist programme that is the only way that this can work out for working people and that's not a crazy idea it's not a new idea they was born after the impact of the Russian Revolution inside the Labour Party when they adopted clause for the socialist constitution of the Labour Party they were secure for the workers by hand on my brain the full fruits of their industry based on the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange those workers wanted to overthrow capitalism the capitalism was part of the problem and therefore it should become more of a reality in this period where capitalism is in deep crisis and needs a solution itself and therefore we say Labour Government mustn't bend the knee the capital but on the contrary it must go on the offensive against the sabotage mobilise the working class and yes carry out emergency powers to take over 150 monopolies the banks and insurance companies that dominate 80% of Britain's trade at the present time and yes well should they offer compensation in the socialist appeal it says no I think we can be a bit generous on that two weeks ago he had monarch airways it was the fifth biggest airway in Britain when he did the receivership and they sold it for a pound in order to avoid the pension liabilities actually and not so long ago Sir Philip Green sold off British home stores retail out it also for a pound so it's the going rate 150 quid that's no problem but on the basis of a socialist plan of production that we can raise the level of the living standards of the working class in this country as was said by Paul we can cut the working hours we can increase living standards we can abolish poverty squalor, homelessness, unemployment which is a product of capitalism itself and then we make a revolutionary appeal to the workers of Europe and of the world as the Bolsheviks did in 1917 to follow our example and establish a socialist united states of Europe and a socialist federation of the world that's what you'll be on offer for the working class in Britain and internationally because only on the basis of capitalism means a nightmare scenario for workers whether inside or outside the EU as it's pointed out and anyway those people talk about it the single market, the single market single market means privatisation it means austerity it means it cuts, it means attacks on working class people it's not a solution whatsoever we have to get back to the fundamentals the Russian revolution began a world event really it wasn't a Russian event it was a world event 100 years ago they started it we must commit ourselves to finishing the task of a world revolution whether it's in Britain, Europe or whatever that's the only outlet for humanity but the precondition of that is the building of a Marxist tendency from a small nucleus to a larger tendency to a mass force in the British labour movement to begin with so it has the backbone and the ability as the will power to carry through such a revolution as the Bolsheviks did itself and therefore we ask you it's the most important factor the subjected factor we as individuals can do very little but together we can change the world and therefore I say those who are not members of the international Marxist tendency or socialist appeal should decide to join us and build this Marxist tendency so that we can create the force to overthrow capitalism in Britain and international and start the real history of humankind itself Thank you, Thomas