Political Islam, Christian Fundamentalism, Marxism and the Left Today

In many countries, religion and disputes about, or expressed in terms of, religion have long been central to political life — in Christian Spain, Portugal, Ireland, or the USA; in Muslim Iran or Algeria; in Lebanon; in Israel-Palestine. Today, since Islamist terrorists attacked New York on 11 September 2001, religion, or concerns and interests expressed in religion, are at the centre of international politics to a degree without parallel for hundreds of years.

Phyllis Jacobson: Neither Washington nor Moscow

Third Camp revolutionary socialist Phyllis Jacobson (1922-2010) is best known as the co-editor of the US journal New Politics.

Phyllis was born into a working-class New York Jewish family. Her first political activity was in the Young People’s Socialist League (YPSL),the youth wing of the Socialist Party of America. Here she met her future life partner Julius Jacobson. Both were involved in the Trotskyist faction of the Socialist Party. After the faction was expelled in 1937, it “relaunched” as the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).

Firefighters could strike again soon

Last week’s successful firefighters’ pensions strike is unlikely to be the last action, unless the government returns to the negotiating table, according to the Fire Brigades Union.

The four-hour strike on Wednesday 25 September in England and Wales was solid, with the vast majority of firefighters walking out collectively part way through their shift to set up picket lines outside stations. Firefighters held rallies across the country, including in Brighton, Cardiff, Leeds and London. Some London Underground drivers refused to take trains out in solidarity.

Oil workers vote for strikes

Unite members in the Ineos oil refinery in Grangemouth have voted by 81% for strikes and by 91% for action short of strikes. The turnout was 86%.

Unite called the ballot, and recommended a “yes” vote, to defend shop stewards’ convenor Stevie Deans, who has been subject to ongoing investigation by senior management since the summer of this year.

Industrial news in brief

The 20,000 members of Unite working in Higher Education have joined Unison and the University of College Union in balloting for strikes to win better pay.

Unite says its members in HE, who work as technicians, laboratory assistants, facilities management workers, and admin staff, have faced a five-year “pay drought”, and have seen their real pay decline by around 13% since 2008.

A Unite statement said: “The employers have shown a callous disregard when it comes to fair pay treatment for their staff — and now strike action is very much on the cards.”

The world of neo-liberalism

A background document for the 2013 annual conference of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (26-27 October), by Paul Hampton and Martin Thomas.

See below for a critical comment from Barry Finger

1. The AWL has pioneered a distinctive assessment of the development of global capitalism over recent decades, which underpins our orientation, concrete slogans and differences with much of the left.

Damian McBride: a repentant spinner?

If Damian McBride’s Power Trip: A Decade of Policy, Plots and Spin has any value – a highly debatable question – it lies in its exposure of how politics was systematically debased during the years of the Blair-Brown control of the Labour Party.

Politics – a word hardly to be found in the book – was nothing to do with achieving social change by attacking inequalities of wealth and power. It was everything to do with media manipulation and undermining political opponents by leaks about their personal lives.

Deserters or class fighters?

Since 2012, Workers’ Liberty members have been involved in supporting outsourced workers at the University of London in their fight for sick pay, holiday entitlement, and pension equality with their directly-employed colleagues.

Their campaign, “3 Cosas” (“3 Things”), began after their hard-fought campaign to win the London Living Wage, which they won in summer 2012. Throughout both fights, the workers have been self-organised, holding regular workers’ and campaign meetings.

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