Public and Commercial Services Union

Motion A37 was carried, NEC Attitude: support

This Annual Delegate Conference welcomes the statement issued by the TUC last July on the Middle East following the escalation of the conflict in Palestine and its extension to Lebanon.

Conference also welcomes the passing of Composite 16 (Motion 74 and amendments) at Congress in September 2006, which signals a major shift in the TUC’s position on Palestine. The motion called on Congress to support:

• the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination
• the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland
• the withdrawal of Israeli troops from all occupied territories
• the removal of the illegally constructed ‘apartheid wall’.

This Conference notes that this year marks the 40th anniversary of Israel’s military occupation of the Gaza Strip, and West Bank including East Jerusalem.

The occupation has created serious poverty for Palestinians as well as severe human rights violations.

Conference acknowledges that whilst PCS’s policy (ADC 2005 Motion A111) is to campaign in solidarity with the Palestinian people to achieve their legitimate demand for a viable independent Palestinian state, it also favours the argument for a two state solution which supports democratic and workers’ rights organisations in Israel.

This Conference endorses the Enough! campaign, a coalition of trade unions including PCS, UK-based charities, faith groups and other campaigning organisations such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, formed to mark the 40th anniversary by pressing for a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis alike.

This Conference also applauds the work that the Iran Crisis Action coalition is doing to promote diplomatic solutions on Iran’s nuclear proliferation, and welcomes the publication of the report “Time to Talk” on 5 February which received wide press coverage and support, and to which PCS is a signatory.

Conference deplores the huge and continuing loss of life in Iraq as a result of the invasion and occupation and the impact on the Middle East as a whole.

E marked motions associated with lead motion A37: E285-E288

Motion EM10 was carried NEC Attitude: support

This Conference notes with alarm the election of Nicholas Sarkozy as President of France.

We are aware that Sarkozy was elected on an openly reactionary platform including:

• The abolition of the 35 hour week.
• Attacks on workers rights, and public sector jobs.
• Racist assaults on the rights of immigrants, and on multiculturalism.

Conference is angered that Sarkozy received the open support of Tony Blair and New Labour for his xenophobic neo-liberal agenda.
Conference understands that public sector workers are likely to bear the brunt of attacks on jobs and conditions, and that success for Sarkozy can only encourage New Labour to increase the scale of attacks on the public sector in Britain.

Conference therefore understands that it is in our own interests to support our colleagues in the French unions, and therefore instructs the NEC to immediately contact our sister organisation in France to offer all practical support in the battles to come.

Motion A38 was carried, NEC Attitude: support

This conference notes that struggle of the workers and people of Oaxaca, Southern Mexico.

Beginning with a teachers’ strike in mid-2006 the movement grew in response to the local state’s attempt to repress the teachers. Soon an enormous movement emerged to oppose widespread political corruption and state violence in Oaxaca state.

A million people demonstrated, enormous clashes took place with the police as the state attempted to crush the movement.
Two dozen people have been killed and hundreds arrested.

Conference agrees:

We are in solidarity with the teachers’ union, the workers’ organisations and APPO, the mass, social movement in Oaxaca state. We support the teachers’ demands for better pay and we back the movement’s opposition to political corruption. We oppose the state violence that has led to many deaths and hundreds of arrests since mid-2006. We demand an end to repression in Oaxaca and the release of those detained.

We instruct the union’s officers to make our views plain to the Mexican state’s representatives in the UK.

We agree to link up with campaigns, such as that organised by No Sweat in solidarity with the workers of Oaxaca.

We agree to publicise the case of Oaxaca workers in our journal and on our web site.

E marked motion associated with lead motion A38: E290

Motion A39 was carried, NEC Attitude: support

This conference notes the hard work done by PCS and its members on the Make Poverty History Campaign and welcomes the limited progress made on debt cancellation. However, conference was disturbed to see the recent court case on Zambia’s plight and the emergence of “vulture funds”.

Companies are “buying” the debt of third world countries, even debt which is on the brink of being cancelled, and then demanding the full repayment, with interest and fees, from the impoverished nation, threatening them with court action and bankruptcy.

While conference welcomes the UK Government’s condemnation of such funds, conference feels that international action is somewhat lacking. Particularly when the Zambia case involved a country which is now in the EU (Romania) selling the debt to a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

Conference calls on the National Executive Committee to actively publicise this scandal and encourage members to lobby their MP’s and MEP’s to take action, as well as sign the petitions on websites such as Oxfam urging the government to act and urging the “vulture” company in the Zambia case not to make the country pay up the full court award.

Motion A40 was carried, NEC Attitude: support with statement

This Annual Delegate Conference notes with concern the plight of the Chagos Islanders who were removed from their homes (Chagos Islands Group, largest Island being Diego Garcia Island) in the late 1960’s by the British Government, the majority of whom currently live in exile on Mauritius.

In an effort to remove the Islanders from their homes, basic supplies were withheld from them almost 1000 family pets were destroyed (gassed using the exhausts of American military vehicles) in a psychological campaign designed to instil fear and break the Islanders. Initially relocated to a prison site on the Seychelles, the islanders were then moved on to a derelict housing estate on Mauritius with no water, electricity or sanitation. Since their exile, substantial numbers of islanders have died and there has been a high incidence of suicides.

The exiles from the Chagos Archipelago (UK Citizens) have waged a long and hard campaign to regain access to their homelands culminating in success in a high court ruling in November 2000 giving them the right to return home. The Court Case revealed that the British Government concealed the existence of the indigenous population of the Island Group in order they could “get some rocks which will remain ours” (Sir Paul Gore-Booth 1966 – reported by John Pilger in his documentary “Stealing a Nation”) in order to lease the “rocks” to the American Military.

The Court ruling should have meant that the Islanders had access to the graves of their families and at least gave them back some of their cultural heritage. Instead on 10 June 2004 the British Government used an “Order in council” (basically a legal trump card for the Government by authority of the Queen) to overturn the High Court decision.

The justification the Government gave for overturning the High Court decision was that the Islands would be subject to “global warming” and water damage from storms. In the most tragically ironic circumstances the tsunami in 2005 that caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and inflicted huge damage to most islands and countries in the area did not damage the American base at Diego Garcia whatsoever, exposing yet another falsehood on the part of the Government.

Conference is appalled that the British Government overturned the High court decision and notes with concern the implication such use of an “Order in Council” has on UK citizens in the absence of a written UK Constitution.

Conference further notes the momentous judgement of the High Court on 11 May 2006 supporting the rights of the exiled Chagos Islanders and strongly criticising the actions of the British Government.

The judgement declared that the order in council issued on 10 June 2004 banning the islanders return home and overturning a previous High Court decision in favour of the islanders in 2000 was “unjustified and irrational”.

The judgement indicates that the Queens powers over the British Indian Ocean Territories (BIOT), the Chagos Archipelago, were limited to maintaining “peace, order and good governance” and not to exile a whole population.

Conference is also concerned that despite the significant of the human rights and judicial rights pertaining to this case that it has still not received major media coverage in this country.

This is a telling indictment of prejudicial bias and trend that exists in the UK media at this time.

Conference therefore commits to publicising the case of the Chagos islanders in the “View” and also raising awareness of this important issue with other Trade Unions.

Conferences understands that whilst the judgement paves the way for the Islanders to settle on the smaller islands surrounding Diego Garcia the campaign is far from over because:-
a) The British Government has been given leave to appeal the case
b) Both Britain and the USA have rights of veto over who should live in the whole of the Chagos Archipelgo under the terms agreed to establish the US military facilities on Diego Garcia.

Until the outstanding grievances of the islanders are resolved this will remain a mark of shame on the Governments’ Human Rights record and points to serious prejudices in Government policy against UK citizens from ethnic backgrounds.

Conference is seriously concerned that a parallel between the treatment to the black population of the Chagos Islands to its treatment of the mainly white population of the Falklands Islands appears tantamount to state discrimination.

Conference understands that whilst the spectre of institutional racism hangs over any part of the organs of the UK state then the treatment of the Chagos Islanders can only be viewed as both barbaric and scandalous as it appears the remnants of British Imperialism still trundles on.

Conference therefore agrees to explore practical ways in which PCS can support the campaign for the exiled Chagos Islanders to return home including:-
1. In communication with the “Chagos Refugee Group” and the UK Chagos Support Association, publicise their campaign for access to their homeland in PCS VIEW and other PCS publications.

2. Give a donation of £500 to the Ilios Support Trust (the only registered charity supporting the Chagos Islanders).

3. Moving a motion at the TUC Conferences to raise the profile of the
Campaign and support for the Chagos Islanders and their rights to be treated equitably with other British citizens.

4. Lobbying MP’s to take up the cause of the Chagos Islanders.

Guillotined: A41, A42 and A43