Bruce's blog

I have been on many picket lines in my time but until today they have all taken place in the real world. Today saw the first ever strike and picket to take place in virtual reality.

I have two accounts with Northern Rock, which together contain most of my savings, so I have been spending much of the last few days thinking about what to do and consulting advisors, Marxist and non-Marxist, about it.

Last night my father told me a story I had never heard before which I would certainly like to know more about. He was talking about his brother-in-law, who at the start of WW2 was in the fire service but was then called up and put as a Lieutenant in an unit designated as part of the Royal Engineers who worked on the Mulberry harbours which were moored off the coast of Normandy and served as the means to get supplies across.

A review of 'Circular Breathing: The cultural politics of Jazz in Britain' by George McKay. Duke University Press.

As it has spread from its American roots, jazz has been assimilated by many national cultures round the world. 'Circular breathing' deals with two aspects of the way this happened in Britain. The first is the importance of British jazz's relationship to the Left and a range of political movements such as CND and the anti-racist and women's movements. So, for example, the adoption by CND of New Orleans style marching bands in the Aldermaston marches of the late 50s helped spark the 'trad boom', which fuelled a counter-culture with its own music festival at Beaulieu and eventually crossed over into the pop charts.

Lest anyone think that repeated invites to Marxism for anti-semitic saxophone-playing conspiracy theorist Gilad Atzmon was an aberration on the part of the SWP, National Secretary Martin Smith is appearing with him again tonight in Manchester.

Over 100 people attended the rally to launch John McDonnell's leadership campaign in Manchester last Thursday. The platform included Tony Benn, Alice Mahon and Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the NUJ.

A couple of days ago I read a heart-warming story about how the Mayor of Caracas was going to expropriate several golf courses overlooking the poorer parts of the city and use the land to build decent housing for slum dwellers.

Stop this destructive war! Workers on all sides are paying the price!
A statement by the Workers Advice Center in Israel in relation to Israel's attack on Lebanon.

Since July 12, Israel has been carrying out a disproportionate and murderous war in Lebanon . It has killed hundreds of innocent civilians, including whole families. It has destroyed much of the infrastructure in the south, creating a humanitarian disaster. Those who suffer most are the workers and the poor. At the same time, the IDF continues to pummel Gaza , here too killing innocent civilians. The goal behind all this destruction is to restore the country's power of deterrence. It needs this power so that it can continue to behave unilaterally––without concessions to the Palestinians or the Syrians.

'Today' today had a feature on the 70th anniversary of the Spanish Civil War featuring historian Anthony Beevor and none other than Michael Portillo, who was there so that he could patronise his father who fought on the Republican side as a naïve intellectual. Their conclusion was that the best way to commemorate the Civil War was to forget all about it

ICFTU ONLINE...
Iraqi trade union leader kidnapped, tortured and murdered 30/5/2006

Brussels, 30 March 2006 (ICFTU OnLine): In the latest brutal attack against the Iraqi trade union movement, the General Federation of Iraqi Workers (GFIW) has reported the kidnapping and murder of Thabet Hussein Ali, Head of the General Trade Union for Health Sector Workers, on April 27. Ali was taken by a terrorist group as he was leaving his union's headquarters in Baghdad’s Al-Mansour neighborhood.

This item first appeared in
Jewish Socialist.

While Ahmedinejad celebrates Iran taking a step towards nuclear weapons and the Pentagon contemplates whether it should use its own nukes to prevent it, the press has paid little attention to social struggles in Iran. Despite the repression of the Teheran busworkers' strike in January and a legal ban on strikes, a wave of strikes has been taking place across the country. Details can be found here.