Stop the Sewage! Don't 'tinker' with the boards, nationalise under democratic workers' control!

Right across the country, privatised water companies are fleecing the public, and polluting our environment. 

Just in the last week, South West Water had to issue a "boil water" notice after a parasite outbreak in the water supply around Brixham. Anglia Water was found guilty of failing to release records that might have confirmed that they had again been releasing untreated sewage into the North Sea. 

Here in Cumbria, as highlighted by the weekly protests of the 'Save Windermere' campaign, United Utilities continues to use one of the Lake District’s most iconic lakes as a sewage pond, threatening its ecosystem and the health of swimmers and lake users. Local rivers and streams are also being polluted too.

On the weekly protest outside the United Utilities (dis)Information Centre in Windermere

Private firms simply doing what they are meant to do - making money!

But why should anyone expect anything different? After all, these privatised companies are simply doing what they are in business to do – to reward their shareholders. And, on that, you have to admit that they’ve been doing a very good job indeed.

A recent analysis from the University of Greenwich found that investors had withdrawn a staggering £85bn from water and sewage firms since the industry was privatised more than 30 years ago. 

The Save Windermere campaign has called out United Utilities (UU) as being one of the worst of the profiteers. Their figures indicate that, from 2016-2020, UU only invested £40m into the Windermere catchment area. At the same time, their investors received £1.6bn! For the last year alone, UU has just reported an operating profit of £518m and increased shareholder dividends by 9.4%.

Not content with continuing to pollute for profit, all the privatised water firms now want to fleece us further by hiking up water bills even more. It’s obvious to everyone that water privatisation has been a total scam. But how is it going to be stopped?

The answer is nationalisation under democratic workers' control

The obvious answer is nationalisation - but not just so that their debts can be written off before they are handed back to profiteers! No, these firms need to be taken back into permanent public ownership.

And, in place of the toothless ‘regulator’ Ofwat and the compromised Environment Agency, the renationalised firms also need to be placed under democratic workers’ control so that elected representatives of lake and river users, local communities, and trade unions, can exercise real control, and agree a plan for the investment that is urgently needed to stop the sewage. 

With public ownership, that vital public investment must also then be provided, but now, of course, without the money being siphoned off by greedy shareholders. In Windermere’s case, that would mean investing in infrastructure that could stop any sewage discharges into its catchment, channelling it all to treatment plants instead.

But neither Labour nor LibDems will call for it!

But, while party leaders like Ed Davey and Keir Starmer are happy to make some vote-grabbing headlines opposing water pollution, they refuse to make the clear and obvious call for nationalisation!

The renationalisation of water and other public utilities was one of the many commitments ditched by Keir Starmer after the defeat of Jeremy Corbyn. Instead, Labour’s policy now just says it will ‘strengthen regulation’ and ‘block the payment of bonuses’. 

The Liberal Democrats have now added the call for water firms to become 'public benefit companies' with "local environment experts" sitting on the company boards as non-executive directors to “improve public accountability and transparency”. 

But no amount of ‘regulation’ or rebranding of firms will stop these private companies being primarily in business for the benefit of their shareholders! Public money will continue to go towards private profit instead of into public infrastructure. Adding a few non-executive directors will never allow for the genuine control for, and by, the public in the way that democratic workers' control would be able to.

Nationalisation without compensation for the big corporations 

Windermere’s local Liberal Democrat MP Tim Farron was rightly asked by a BBC Radio 4 Today presenter today (May 28), “why not just nationalise rather than tinker with the board?”. His answer? It’s not “very sensible to be giving billions of pounds to shareholders and big corporations to buy those companies back into the state”.  New Labour has previously come up with similar excuses too.

But why should these fat cats receive a penny more? They’ve already fleeced billions out of the public purse and billpayers. They have no right to expect any more! Compensation should only be paid where there is a genuine proven need, for example to safeguard workers’ pension investments or small shareholders – but certainly none to the ‘big corporations’ at all!

***

Sadly, it seems that the establishment 'opposition' parties are too tied to big business to make the obvious call for nationalisation to stop the sewage. However, the Socialist Party and others standing in this May's General Election for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition certainly will!

Chorley needs a MP who will Speak Out against war and austerity, not the 'Speaker'

Now that the General Election has been called, I have been asked to stand as the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate for Chorley. If local trade unionists and community campaigners are in support, then I will stand to challenge the 'Speaker', Lindsay Hoyle. This video explains why.

I'm Martin Powell Davies from the northwest region of TUSC, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition. 

As we all know, Rishi Sunak has finally run out of options and called a General Election. So trade unionists, socialists, community campaigners, people fighting for an end to genocide in Gaza or an end to cuts in the NHS, we're all happy to see the Tories receive the drubbing that they deserve on July the 4th.

But the question for campaigners in every constituency is how do we make our demands heard in the General Election? Will voters have the choice of being able to vote for an MP that will stand firm against war, against inequality, against cuts and privatisation? And sadly, we know that that's not a choice that's going to be on offer from a government led by Keir Starmer. On Palestine, on NHS privatisation, on workers' rights, Starmer's Labour has already been found wanting.

And in Chorley, it's even harder for campaigners' voices to be heard because Lindsay Hoyle has built himself a comfortable parliamentary career as the Speaker. He won't speak up for the powerless against the powerful. His actions in the House of Commons over the ceasefire vote have proved that.

That's why TUSC has been campaigning alongside other left and independents to make sure that a real socialist alternative is on offer in as many seats as possible on July the 4th. And that should include Chorley.

Now, of course, taking on the Speaker is no small undertaking and that's why, as you may know, two longstanding local TUSC supporters, Jenny Hurley and Dave Beale, have asked whether I would stand as your local General Election candidate.
And if trade union and community activists are in agreement, I'm very happy to do so.

So let me introduce myself. I'm a lifelong teacher trade unionist, community campaigner and socialist, a member of the NEU, the National Education Union here in Lancashire, although I've spent most of my trade union life as a branch secretary, National Executive member and lead official in London.

I've helped fight and win many trade union victories, as well as the battles to defeat, for example, Thatcher's poll tax and the racist BNP in the 1990s. In fact, Chorley and Coppull are communities that have already supported my family - 40 years ago when my brother-in-law Pete, a striking miner from South Wales, stayed here during that epic battle.

And of course then Thatcher and the Tories were determined to defeat the NUM in order to unleash an attack on everything the union movement had won over decades. And we're still having to fight to defend, and sometimes now win back those gains of the past like the NHS, council homes, trade union rights and nationalisation of energy, transport and utility companies.

But what did Thatcher say her greatest achievement was? It was New Labour. What the powerful achieved under Blair and now under Starmer was to turn Labour into an alternative Tory Party when what we need is an alternative TO the Tories. And with your backing, I'm ready to stand to offer that alternative in Chorley as a workers' MP on a worker's wage, not taking the inflated salary of a careerist politician.

I'm standing to be your voice, highlighting demands that you think are key but including, for example,

• Fighting the cuts to services and beds across the region threatened by the New Hospitals Program and opposing NHS privatisation;
• Demanding an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people and to the siege of Gaza, and fighting for a united struggle against poverty, war and oppression across the globe;
• To demand a future for young people with properly funded schools and colleges and skilled jobs, apprenticeships or training, not national conscription.
  
• Demand the launch of a real green industrial revolution in energy, transport and homes to provide those skilled jobs, reduce bills and act on climate crisis as well.

I will be a candidate who will be saying that MPs should support trade unionists in action. That we should have a socialist MP that will make sure that Chorley isn't represented just by the Speaker, but instead by an MP who will Speak Up for you.

TUSC shock Labour with great result in Preston Deepdale

The 522 votes won by Hasan Tunay, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) candidate in Preston Council’s Deepdale ward, are just one indication of the changes in political consciousness that will emerge right across working-class communities, once the bitter reality of a Starmer-led Labour Government carrying out cuts and attacks in the interests of the capitalist class starts to sink in.

The result at the count in Deepdale (turnout 28%)

For an area like Deepdale, a majority Muslim area in the city of Preston, the Labour leadership’s stance over Palestine has already driven home the reality of Starmer’s Labour in advance of the General Election. Over the months of well-attended local demonstrations against the war in Gaza, Socialist Party members had consistently raised the proposal that anti-war campaigners should stand their own candidate to challenge the sitting Labour MP, Mark Hendrick. Following the success of George Galloway in Rochdale, a community hustings was called and Michael Lavalette, formerly an elected TUSC councillor in Preston, was overwhelmingly selected as the ‘Preston Independents’ prospective candidate.

However, Lancashire Socialist Party members felt that it was important that Labour wasn’t just challenged at the General Election, but in the May city council elections too. Although Preston Labour likes to cover itself with a radical veneer through its ‘community wealth building’ “Preston Model”, we knew that meant very little to local workers who saw services being cutback and rarely had a good word to say for the Council. We knew that a clear campaign to call for a vote against cuts, privatisation and war could get significant support. 

A call had been made in the community for “No Ceasefire, No Vote”, and to register a protest by spoiling their council election ballot papers. However, although we knew we didn’t have a strong base in the city, we thought local voters needed to be given the opportunity to not just protest against Labour but to actively vote for candidates opposed to war and cuts. 

That’s why two Socialist Party members in Preston agreed to stand for TUSC. One was Joel Patton, final year student at UCLan, in the Plungington ward that included most of the student halls. Joel received a very creditable 137 votes  - 10% of the total - on election day, showing the core support for a clear anti-cuts stand, even though the Labour candidate in that ward was seen as being individually supportive of the ceasefire campaign. Similar core votes were secured where TUSC candidates stood in nearby Chorley too. 

Joel Patton at the count in Preston Guild Hall

The other TUSC candidate was Hasan Tunay, a local restaurant worker, standing in Deepdale itself. We produced 7000 A5 leaflets that were distributed across the two wards, clearly putting the case for a vote for TUSC to oppose war, occupation, cuts and inequality. They were also given out at the Preston for Palestine demonstration in April too. But leaflets alone aren’t enough, what was also key was to discuss with as many people as we could meet on stalls, street corners and doorsteps. 

It was soon clear that we were pushing at an open door, particularly in Deepdale where, for example, right at the start of the campaign, one corner shop took a bundle of our leaflets and proudly gave them out to its customers for the rest of the day.

We also organised a public meeting. One of those who attended was a community organiser from Deepdale. He made the point that, although a vote for TUSC was being discussed, people wanted to know more about the candidate himself. Because Hasan is a shift worker, it hadn’t been easy for him to get around the ward during the campaign, nor even to attend our public meeting. Instead, we produced a short video message that helped put a face to Hasan’s name. Hasan was also then recognised as someone who had been supporting the Gaza protests, making sure that the ‘Preston Independents’ recommended a vote for Hasan in Deepdale.

At the election count, it was immediately clear that Hasan was going to get a good vote. The Labour candidate’s team looked worried. While Labour eventually secured 849 votes to hold the seat, Hasan’s 522 votes amounted to a significant 31.3% of the valid votes cast, well ahead of both the Tories and Liberal Democrats. If the many spoilt votes amongst the nearly 200 rejected votes had instead also been cast largely for TUSC, then the final totals would have been even closer.

The result proves that we were right to stand, even though we had quite a limited base in the city to start with – although a base that is now starting to grow. There was a political vacuum that needed to be filled, and our clear socialist program helped to fill it. 

The size of the TUSC vote in Preston provides a real platform that can be built on by both Michael Lavalette in the General Election and by a wider community and trade union backed electoral challenge in future council elections. 

Martin Powell-Davies, 3rd May 2024

For an initial response to the election results nationally, read the article on the Socialist Party website.