RCT Residents Action Group - Who & Why we are.

Initially the group was formed in outrage. Outrage at the moral and social bankruptcy that seems endemic in RCT County Borough Council. The straw to break the camels' back for me was the decision to cut the salaries and conditions of the RCT workers at the sharp end such as school dinner ladies; meals on wheels staff; bin men, and home carers whilst at the very same time protecting the over inflated incomes of those earning more than £42,000 and, of course, all Councillors.

Exactly as the disgraceful and cruel coal owners did years ago this Labour controlled RCT authority cut the incomes of the coal face workers whilst they themselves sit on increasing fortunes and at the very same time having the brass-necked gall to spout synthetic sympathy over their 'tough love' decision. So, once again those who could least afford it were left to pay the bill and those who can best afford it, just like the bankers have been, were simply let off scot free. That sense of outrage still exists and has indeed grown. There is an enduring and wonderful maxim buried deep in very the souls of Welsh people - that of “chwarae teg”; that is, 'fair play'. In RCT Council that soul withered and died a very long time ago.

It seems to me and a growing number of others that far too many councillors are interested in the ballot for just a couple of weeks at election time and their wallet for the four years in between. This, I must say doesn't apply to all and there are good councillors who truly represent the wants and needs of the people of their wards. They are however heavily outnumbered and continuously bulldozed by others who were sent to the RCT Council Chamber by the people to represent the people and not some faceless political party who make decisions at Canary Wharf in London. They equate the wants of their party grandees and script writers with the needs of the people. It is rarely if ever the same.

There are, of course other issues like a council leader having 3 or 4 jobs with a collective income of close to £100,000 per annum and being the highest paid councillor in Wales when there are kids living in abject poverty right across the RCT area he leads, or the spending of close to half a million pounds of our rates money on legal opinions when RCT has a legal department stuffed with lawyers. No money for this and no money for that, stony broke until for instance it comes to appointing a new departmental Head of Education who gets a massive £21,000 pay rise to £113,000 on appointment. Was £92,000 a year not enough?

An increasing number of people living in RCT see what's going on and are very angry but frustrated by a system that offers a façade of consultation but in reality ignores their voice because the decisions have already been made before hand. People are made to feel part of a consultation exercise when in fact they are no more than an audience to a decision already taken. Eventually they feel they can get nowhere and so turn away, give up beating their heads against a brick wall and become silent. Problem is, of course, they want that. They want our silence because they can interpret silence as consent. They will not have silence from us. They want meek obedience and they won't get that either. They have the upper hand for now; but it is just for now.

So to sum up; RCT Ratepayers Action Group is an alliance of people from all across Rhondda Cynon Taff who want change. People who want at least some semblance of justice and “chwarae teg”. Like minded individuals who are willing to break their silence and who want to fundamentally alter the existing system for the betterment and proper service of the people of RCT rather than just sitting back quietly watching the continuing ugly twisting of that system to over-service the ever multiplying needs and greeds of the few as it does now.

But RCT RAG is more than this. For instance, the police have just about abandoned our streets to CCTV Cameras. The 'eye in the sky' approach. Health care services are either being downgraded or withdrawn completely as was recently seen with the closures of the Minor Injuries Units at both the Rhondda and Cynon valleys hospital sites. These are just another two of the issues we are formed to address. It's not just RCT Council although they do take the biscuit.

Membership costs nothing and you are more than welcome. We are not in any way allied to any political party and we are very much like the Rate Payers Associations of the past.

For more information please contact me on; 07789761151 or 01443 650478 or graemebeard@yahoo.co.uk That's free too.

There is strength in numbers; there is far less when alone.

Graeme

There is a God! RCT Councillors and Pay Cuts.

http://www.aberdareonline.co.uk/content/there-god-rct-councillors-and-pay-cuts

This report came before full council in September and was rejected by the Labour Group when they had the power to adopt it there and then thus setting an example to the other Authorities in Wales and also joining those that they had already cut in pay and conditions.

Despite loud opposition (I understand Mike Powell had to actually leave the chamber under threat of being thrown out) they bounced this off to the WLGA when they could have and should have adopted it.

One of the other recommendations made was that poor old Russell Roberts, our impoverished council leader, becomes a full time leader and that he should drop his other financially lucrative jobs to concentrate on RCT alone. But that's not all. The report also says that he must take a pay cut of about £6,000 per annum down to a mere £52,000(ish). How will he manage?

The irony is making my day.

Merry Xmas Russell.

Graeme.

The Empire of RCT

Seems to me that there are two abiding and central principles in RCT (and I assume other authorities);

1. If you kick a problem around for long enough it will go away. Especially if it goes from desk to desk at warp speed and nobody takes responsibility or action.

2. You are just politicians passing through. We (senior staff in the main) are here to stay. Thus we will pay you lip service but tie your hands with red tape that you do not (cannot with some elected members god luv 'em) understand. So go away and leave us alone to do the job of governance. We will smile, coo and nod then do what we know is best regardless of what you say, do, or want.

It becomes a war of attrition if you attempt to change this mind set. If just those two things could be changed within the first few months of any new administration by elected members willing to put their collective weight behind it then it would indeed be a huge victory for the electorate.

Emperors need Empires and it has always seemed obvious to me that this is where the priority of local authority senior management and the collective political ego lays. Preserving their Empires and the continuation of the illusion of "you (the public) need me/us" must be perpetuated at all costs. But it is an illusion. Problem is with illusions is that people live 'within' them and too often accept them as 'normal' and even 'desirable'. "It is the only way" becomes the mantra. It is accepted as the conventional wisdom not through rigorous inspection, constructive critique and consideration of alternatives but simply because 'it is'. It's always been that way so that's the only way.

Removing RCT political Emperors through the ballot box can be achieved once every 4 years, and at nil cost, but removing administrative Emperors is far more difficult and sometimes an almost impossible task that can be hugely expensive. However, that's not to say it can't or shouldn't be attempted.

For instance Carl Sergeant AM's idea of the 'sharing' of senior staff between local authority's. This says two glaringly obvious things to me;

1. He (and others at that level - since it must have been discussed and debated in the Assembly Labour Group and I have heard no objections to the idea from any other political party in the Assembly) have at last recognised that senior staff in our authorities are currently working at far less than full capacity (part time in effect) and that they could easily take on the same job 'as well as' and not 'instead of' in a neighbouring authority. (If that's the case then why are we currently paying them full time salaries?)

2. Not one authority in Wales has even made any serious attempt to pick this idea up and go with it. In fact it seems to have died a silently strangled death. And that by design. Why? Because it doesn't suit the Empires and Emperors, that's why.

It has, of course, taken the usual route of being first ignored; then heavily criticised; kicked in to touch; and will soon be forgotten. And I know there will be those who will say that sometimes neighbouring authority's have different political masters such as RCT (Labour) and Caerphilly (Plaid), but since these senior staff are supposed to carry out their duties in an apolitical manner then it should present no problem. If the two authorities were also to share the cost of ridding themselves of one (say) Director of Education or one Director of Highways then it could well become economically feasible. But, of course this is not the way of the Emperors because "it might be me next so this has to be stopped right now."

Of course, acting in concert with that are the political Emperors. What Emperor would want to share his/her generals with another army? Especially with one that, on a political level at least, they squabble with regularly in their own Council Chamber sometimes over the most trivial points? Sometimes it's almost akin to Gulliver's Travels and 'eggs pointing up-vs-eggs pointing down' dividing the warring Lilliputians, the divide is so minute. It is for all that though absolutely unthinkable. No - the political Emperor also wants to create and maintain the illusion of the grandiose; of the 'important me'. After all, I must be important. You only have to look at the Empire beneath me to see that!

It's about time some common sense and logic were applied. We have hugely top heavy authorities nation wide 'managed' by the over-paid and under-worked, whose first aim is to perpetuate and legitimise itself. And that takes place on a political and senior managerial level. It has to change.

Graeme.

"First they came.............." Pensions Robbery.

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

This  is a famous statement attributed to pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets. I see much the same now. If we don't stand up and fight this we are finished. 

The following is a video made by an American for an American audience. It's so close to what's happening now in the UK. Education priced above working class kids and legally sanctioned robbery of the poor and unfortunate if only via benefit stripping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q

Graeme.

No Tax on Bankers Bonuses but More Lashing for The Great Unwashed.

The ConDem Government has decided NOT to tax the banksters bonuses (again) this xmas. The latest estimate is that they will be paying out (of our money don't forget) £8.5 Billion on top of what are already enormous salaries. They have, instead, decided on even more benefit cuts and low pay settlements for the poorest in our society alongside trying to rob the public service pensioners of the near future. And for all those trying to justify that attack as well deserved if they get away with it then private sector pensions and state pensions will be next in line.

Let's be honest, there should be no banksters bonuses to tax in the first place, and for this government to lash the poor even harder rather than tax the rich and the robbers shows perfectly the disparity between their worm-tongue words and the true nature of this ConDem beast. And there was me thinking that the LD's would temper the natural slavering sadism of the Tories. Shows how bloody stupid and naive I can still be.

"A windfall taking just one year's bank bonuses would pay for all the cuts in youth services and the EMA for the next 23 years." Polly Toynbee.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/....ent?INTCMP=SRCH

Benefit Fraud - cost to the country per annum 
= £1 Billion. 
Tax avoidance/evasion - cost to the country per annum = £120 Billion.
Who do they go for? 

"Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he can rob the world." Anon.

Graeme.

Occupy Movement.

A lot of people think that the Occupy Movement world-wide is a 'leftists' revolutionary attempt to overthrow capitalism full stop. I disagree.


I don't think this is a confrontation or even an argument between left and right political beliefs. This is between 'up' and 'down' - 'top' and 'bottom'. In fact, judging by the Occupy movement in America and here in the UK left and/or right political leanings are being synthesised in this. It's the gross, 'rub your noses in it' huge injustice of a system that rewards both greed and failure that's at the heart of this. Banks are the only institutions on the face of the earth that are allowed to personalise their profits but socialise their losses.

Lots of people, mainly because of the propaganda being spewed out by the Daily Mail, the Sun and the rest of the gutter press paints the protesters as, let's face it, the scum of humanity. Much the same as they try to paint the strike against pensions robbing to help repay the debt their bankster friends have caused. They're not though. Most are just ordinary people who have had enough. And now even some conservative economists are joining the throng.


http://vimeo.com/32597394

People world-wide have had enough, and when you now have a EU country (Italy) being led by an unelected representative of Goldman Sachs (a bank that caused so much of this crisis in the first place) it illustrates the point perfectly. They are high-jacking our democracies.

Graeme.

More Scandal and Squandering of Public Money.

This is addressed to the Editors of The Pontypridd Observer, The Cynon Valley Leader, and The Rhondda Leader. 

Dear Editor,

Well - as unbelievable as it may sound I promise you that the following is true. You couldn't make it up and if I didn't live in RCT I would think it out of the ordinary, but I do, and it's not.

As we all know RCT Council has cut the salaries, and the terms and conditions of staff on less than £42,000. That's now a lost cause, but most people will not know how they went about it and this is where the madness begins again; extremely expensive madness too.

Let me make a start with this; Rhondda Cynon Taff Council has paid the law company Evershed's £496,552 since 2008 for them to give 'opinions on points of law'. Now keep in mind that RCT has a whole Legal Department of its own with a Legal & Democratic Officer leading that department who is being paid (notice I didn't say "earning") almost £100,000 per annum. In concert with this, and because this encompasses the Human Resources Department, again we have a man in charge there being paid almost £100,000 per annum. Their salaries and all departmental costs are paid for out of the (our) public pocket. Please also keep in mind that this £496,552 was also once upon a time RCT tax payers money. It's not any more of course because that nice little earner is now in the bank account of Evershed's. 

However here is the really sickening part. A whole £95,739 of that near half a million paid to this law firm related specifically to a obtaining an 'opinion on law' that actually gave RCT the legal sanctuary to force the staff to accept the pay cuts and poorer working conditions they have now imposed. They actually spent almost £100,000 of our money so that they would be able to cover their backs and feel legally safe in order to carry out their 'tough love' cuts for those who are at the sharp end and actually do the job for the people; home carers, school dinner ladies, bin men etc. It's sickening beyond measure, but it is RCT after all so should I truly be surprised? Probably not.

On saying that there's a couple of nagging questions that it raises for me: (a) Why are we employing a lawyer on a salary of almost £100,000 per year to lead a Legal Department that can't or won't give an opinion on a matter of law? and (b) Why are we employing a head of Human Resources again on near £100,000 to lead a Human Resources Department that can't or won't give an opinion on employment matters? Is it beyond them? If it is then what are they doing in post? What are we paying them for?

In the end though and I do hope this doesn't come as too much of a shock to Russell Roberts and his Labour Party colleagues and apologists (and no doubt another hagiography or two on the wonders of our Labour Leader will be winging their way to your pages shortly) but I really don't want my rates money spent on incredibly expensive and unnecessary legal opinion so that they can cut the wages and conditions of those at the bottom. Strange really because I must admit that if the cuts were aimed at those at the top then I would definitely have little hesitation. Well, as long as it didn't include wasting vast amounts of rate payers money of course. 

Graeme Beard.

Chairman RCT Residents Action Group.

(19, Coed Isaf Road, Maesycoed, Pontypridd. CF37 1EL. Tel: 01443650478 or 07789761151)

 

Occupy.

There's an awful lot of criticism surrounding the world-wide Occupy movement. Why? 

The Occupy people here in the UK or America and everywhere else are showing enormous and commendable courage and, for me, a glimmer of hope. They don't camp out in the cold and the rain and take the action they are taking for fun. They are brutalised, mocked, ridiculed and even accused of the most terrible crimes. All of it grown out of nonsense and sometimes hatred. May their gods bless them. They are fighting for us all.

I tend to take a swing back in time. The same as anyone who is politically active; in some way or another and at one time or another, years ago I decided one day that enough was enough. These Occupy'ers are no different. I may have taken different and more personally suitable action but that doesn't legitimise my way forward and shouldn't damn theirs. 

In the 70's & beyond, (especially during the Thatcher tyranny) I was out on the streets both as a union member and as someone who was simply pissed off protesting against what I saw as 'in your face' injustice. The only thing different here is that they are a constant presence and prick to the collective conscience since don't go home at the end of the shift. 

Personally I'm really glad they exist and all power to them. We need protest because if we don't have it our 'leaders' will march us straight in to hell. 

Graeme.

RCT Residents Action Group

What the Labour Party want from the electorate in Wales as a whole and RCT in particular is for them to turn out once every 4/5 years, put their cross in the Labour candidates box and then bugger off and leave them alone until the next time. In the meantime they represent the Labour Party to the people instead of representing the people to the Labour Party. And it's getting worse.

There has been public uproar in RCT about them cutting salaries and conditions for those below £42,000 but not for those above and, of course, not for themselves. Russell Roberts having 3 jobs paid for out of the public purse whilst also being 'full-time' leader of the Authority with a combined income approaching £2,000 a week! What have they done about it? Absolutely nothing apart from rejecting the recommendations of an Independent Remunerations Panel Report stating clearly that they should take a 5% to 10% decrease in Councillors allowances and that Russell Roberts should have his RCT salary cut from circa £58,000 to £52,000 and that he should shed his other two jobs to really be a full time leader of RCT. They (the Labour Party members) bounced it off to the WLGA. The result? No cuts; snouts still firmly in the trough; and Russell Roberts keeping his jobs and incomes. The gravy train moves on undisturbed by the people who want it stopped. It's sickening. Democracy RCT style. Blue Labour lives and thrives here in RCT. 

OK - and here's the plug. That's why I've formed RCT Residents Action Group. Because there is no other way but to fight them fire with fire. People have become apathetic and dislocated from local politics and all that is to the benefit of the RCT Labour Party rulers. Time for change do you think? Bloody right it is!

We now have people wanting to stand as Independents next May. Not allied to any main stream political party they will be in that Council Chamber to represent the people who put them there. Not governed or even influenced by any party whip they are even now committed to changing what's going on in RCT and changing it for the better. For gawd's sake give it a go! What the hell have we - what the hell have YOU got to lose?

As it stands right now there are LP Councillors sitting on wafer thin majorities (about 12/13 on less than 100!!). Some of those will fall to other parties but some could well fall to us. However it works out we have to at least try our best.

If you're interested please contact me on 01443 650478 or 07789761151 or graemebeard@yahoo.co.uk

Graeme.

Will history repeat itself?

An interesting article from the socialist party website.


On 4 February 1935, Ceridwen Brown of Aberdare led an army of women, some carrying babies, to Merthyr Tydfil Unemployed Assistance Board (UAB) offices. They broke into and wrecked offices, burning papers and smashing telephones despite the local Labour MP trying to dissuade them.

At the same time, there were massive demonstrations including a school students strike in Blaina in the next valley where the UAB offices were only saved by massed police baton charges. These battles followed a day of mass protest in the South Wales valleys where around 300,000 people across the area of the Welsh Coalfield had marched.

What caused this near insurrection? The 1929 crash and the ensuing slump hit industrial areas in South Wales particularly hard. The big steel works along the heads of the valleys all closed, as did most coal mines.

The town of Brynmawr claimed an unenviable record of 90% of insured men on the dole. Merthyr Tydfil had so little money to run its services that it was proposed to remove its borough status.

In the City of London, investors rushed to withdraw money and argued that only cuts in government spending could save the situation. This meant cuts in benefits to the unemployed.

A 'National Government' comprising Conservatives, Liberals and some right-wing members of the Labour Party, came to power in 1931 with a huge majority - their first action was to cut Unemployment Benefit by 8% and tighten up 'means testing' for benefits.

Anyone out of work for more than six months could have their 'assets' examined by inspectors who had the right to enter homes. Not only 'luxuries' such as cooking pots were considered but also the earnings of anyone else who lived in the house.

How did people survive? Families had to rely on Public Assistance Committees (PACs) financed and run by local councils - "taxing the poor to pay for the poor". These committees had to use the hated means test but were under the control of local councillors who in South Wales were often unemployed themselves.

In areas such as South Wales, the PACs refused to employ the means test rigorously and 'anomalies' were exploited. Nevertheless, in the Rhondda in 1935, 15% of children were malnourished according to a government report.
Huge demonstrations ensued.

But those cuts did not appease City investors. Local PACs were seen as 'too generous' and the Unemployment Benefit Act 1934 aimed to set up statutory Unemployed Assistance Boards which would have no leeway for 'generosity'. It was this final blow that sparked the huge demonstrations of 1935.

Dramatically on 5 February, the day after the eruption in South Wales, the government announced that implementation of the measures would be put off for a year and a half and much modified.

This was one of the few cases where popular movements (supported by parliamentary protests led by Aneurin Bevan, MP for Ebbw Vale) caused a government climb-down.

This climb-down was certainly not caused by the wrecking of a benefits office in a town that no government member had even set foot in. But it marked the breaking crest of a growing wave of organised people's protest.

Even in those days, the Labour Party, which then claimed the allegiance of most workers, refused to support direct action. 'Left' Labour MP, SO Davies described the Merthyr demonstrators as 'scum'. In South Wales the lead was taken by the Communist Party and the Independent Labour Party (a left-wing group which broke from the Labour Party in 1932) in the National Unemployed Workers Movement. These parties had many failings but they were prepared to lead the workers' fight.

Although working people have today won a standard of living that their grandparents in the 1930s could only dream of, City of London investors still bay for cuts to push us back into destitution. Even worse than then, Labour presents no alternative and even supports cuts.

As in the 1930s, women and young people are in the forefront of opposition. But if, back then, a coalition with a majority of 500 could be pushed back, how much easier should it be to defeat today's shaky Con-Dems?

As well as a mass movement it is vital to build up a new leadership for working class people to rally behind, one that will point the way forward to a new mass party of the working class to deal with the City parasites and their parliamentary hangers-on.