Notes from North London AWL branch meeting, 18 January

Political report: Murder of IFTU's Hadi Salih


Dan introduced.



The security situation in Iraq has been deteriorating - the death toll is getting worse, and includes trade unionists eg. railworkers who are members of the IFTU.



Now, Hadi Salih - IFTU's International Secretary - has been murdered, apparently by Saddam supporters.



Why? Because of his links with the CP and by association the occupying authorities? Or simply because the Saddamites are anti-trade-union? Whichever, it is a terrible thing which we utterly condemn.



At the same time, the FWCUI is growing, following a spate of strikes. It has launched a specific appeal, which can be found on its website, which we should support. It has condemned the killing of Hadi Salih.



Points from discussion:

• 'Stop the War Coalition' is appealing for £100 donations from union branches for 'military families campaign' - we should argue for money to be donated to FWCUI appeal as an alternative.
• Tower Hamlets UNISON branch would not discuss our resolution about the murder - on the pretext of procedure.
• Some apologists for the reactionary 'resistance' have compared the attacks on trains which have killed Iraqi railworkers to the bombing of train lines to Auschwitz - this comparison is absurd.
• FWCUI is a much better union federation than IFTU: we should direct our practical solidarity to FWCUI and were we in Iraq, we would affiliate union branches to it. IFTU is a bit like, say, AMICUS - bureaucratic, too close to the government, not very militant. And like AMICUS, it is a genuine workers' organisation. If reactionary militias killed an AMICUS bureaucrat, we would totally condemn it. Much of the left, however, does not understand this in relation to the IFTU.

Paper Sales



We sell Solidarity at the following times and places:

• Kings Cross station - before each branch meeting
• Stratford shopping centre - Saturdays 11am
• Hackney, door-to-door - Sundays 2pm
• SOAS - Mondays 6pm
• Liverpool Street station - Thursdays 4.45pm
• and also around workplaces and at union meetings

Future events



We will be:

• holding a discussion meeting about capitalism and housing on Marcon Court [1] in late February.
• visiting the Child Labour exhibition at Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, and having a discussion about child labour and a plan for a local campaign.
• visitng the 'Women Under Thatcher' exhibition at Women's Library, Guildhall.

Future branch meetings



We agreed to have a series of three meetings on Religion and Politics [2]

• the politics of Hamas

• schools and secularism
• religious movements of the right and the left - from liberation theology to the US religious right

Discussion - the tsunami disaster



Janine introduced, mainly covering points in articles on this website [3], and emphasising that the disaster was made much worse by the poverty of the areas affected.



Other points:



The scale of this disaster is huge - in terms of numbers of dead, the geographical area affected, and the deaths of people from countries around the world.



There exists an attitude that it is vulgar to talk about politics in relation to a terrible disaster like this - but it *is* political, and if your politics are not relevant in a situation like this, then what use are your politics at all?



Multinationals will feed off this disaster - will be looking at contracts for "reconstruction" and using the desperate need to rebuild infrastructure and create jobs as an excuse for paying terrible wages for awful working conditions.



We should give donations socialists and to trade unions in the area - preferably to trade union appeals that will reach union organisers on the ground, rather than refurbishing the General Secretary's office!



The row about whether Blair should have called off his holiday is apolitical and well wide of the real issues.



The scale of the tsunami disaster also brings home the massive scale of death and suffering deliberately inflicted by ruling classes - compare the numbers dead with wars, massacres, the holocaust, Stalin's terror etc.



Respect's response - firstly, a resolution to Preston Council which boasted of cross-party support and was indistinguishable from bourgeois charity; later, a more political statement on the Respect website, but which led on condemnation of Blair for not cancelling his holiday, leaving the substantive political issues further down the page.



Discussion points:

• the struggle for independence/autonomy in Aceh.
• The Indonesian government/military has been using aid against the Free Aceh movement - this is an example of the use of aid as a political weapon, as we discussed at our last meeting.
• report on the discussion at a local Respect meeting.