Universal Credit Day of Action - 1 December

This Christmas will be cancelled for thousands of families claiming the new benefit Universal Credit. Despite knowing UC causes serious problems for claimants, Theresa May's Tory government is pressing ahead and rolling it out to thousands of people who will have to wait weeks to receive any money. Claimants are descending into debt, relying on food banks, getting into rent arrears and in many cases getting evicted from their homes because of in-built problems with UC.

As a former employee of DHSS/DSS/DWP myself, I can look at UC only with disgust combined with disbelief that a country that is the 5th or 6th richest in the world chooses to treat its own citizens in this way. It bears no resemblance to the system I worked for which, although perhaps it wasn't seen so at the time, was almost benevolent compared to UC.

Details of actions all over the country on Saturday 1 December can be found here.

Neville Grundy

Chair, ARMS Mersey

Greed is the watchword

What does the word 'football' mean to you?
The beautiful game - or snouts in the trough?

The Merseyside Pensioners' Association supports the Spirit of Shankly statement condemning the proposed 'golden handshake' of £5 million to retiring Premier League chief Richard Scudamore who has earned more than £26 million for running the Premier League since 1999 (Liverpool Echo 16 November 2018).

We believe this proposal is further evidence of the Premier League providing a milch cow for the group at the top of the sport, who enrich themselves while the fans pay exorbitant ticket prices and grass roots development is inadequately funded.

We call for more democratic control of the game through the establishment of a board to include representatives from fans' organisations, junior football organisations, the NPC, the PFA, and the TUC, with full voting rights.

We believe this would ensure that the voice of all those interested and involved in the national game would be heard and acted upon and would provide oversight to curb any abuse of the deluge of wealth the game attracts.

We also note that the obscene payment to Scudamore is proposed when a United Nations report states that for almost one in every two children to be poor in twenty-first century Britain is not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster, all rolled into one.

Tony Mulhearn, ARMS and
Media Officer, Merseyside Pensioners Association

Hotel workers in Myanmar are fighting for their rights

Workers who formed a union at the Hotel Tharabar Gate in the heart of the country's famous Bagan Archaeological Zone have been fighting for rights and recognition since 2015. Shortly after a majority of workers first formed their union, management attempted to dismiss elected union chairman Ko Nay Myo Win. Hotel staff including non-union members protested, and management relented. The union then joined together with other local hotel unions to form the area-wide union organization HLOB, which elected him as chair.

On August 24 this year, management again terminated the union chair, along with 11 other workers, including two members of the union executive and 7 active union members. Click here to send a message to management of the Hotel Tharabar Gate.

Keep the guard on the train - petition and meetings

One of many RMT demonstrations for safety

Train operating companies across the country are beginning to introduce DOO (Driver Only Operation) on their trains. Some companies want to keep a second person on the trains but purely for revenue protection, not passenger safety.

Arguments that DOO trains are just as safe simply do not stand up to scrutiny. Figures obtained in 2017 from RAIB (the Rail Accident Investigation Branch) showed that 80% of the deaths and the most serious injuries in the previous six years had occurred on DOO trains, even though such trains account for only 30% of all trains in the UK. If technology such as CCTV is beneficial, it should be operated by a crew member who can give it their full attention, not someone who needs to concentrate on staying on the correct side of a red signal.

Please sign the petition to Parliament here.

Two RMT public meetings supporting train guards:

Manchester: Thu 15 Nov 6.00pm, The Mechanics Centre, 103 Princess Street, M1 6DD.

Speakers include: Mick Cash RMT General Secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey MP, Mayor Andy Burnham, Peter Middleman (North West TUC).

Liverpool: Thu 29 Nov 6.00pm, Liverpool Adelphi Hotel, Ranelagh St, L3 5UL
Speakers include: Steve Hedley, RMT Assistant General Secretary, Dan Carden MP, Lynn Collins, (North West TUC), Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham.

Dulce Et Decorum Est

Some reflections to remember the fallen during these Centenary commemorations. 

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." - taken from the Roman poet Horace
(It is sweet and right to die for your country).

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. . .
Dim, through the misty panes) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen
This poem is thought to have been written between 8 October 1917 and March 1918.
Owen was killed in France one week before the Armistice.

Suggested by ARMS member, Steve Ion.