Workers' Liberty

A TUC investigation has found that the number of workers working unpaid overtime increased by over 100,000 in 2007, with the total topping the five million mark.

Birmingham city council has upped the ante in its battle with its staff over equal pay, by seeking to impose new contracts which mean drastic pay cuts thousands of workers and longer hours for thousands more.

In response to the impact of August 2007’s 12-hour strike, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced plans for a strike-ban for prison officers on January 8. Tabled as an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, the measure will be discussed in Parliament as Solidarity goes to press.

Workers in Manchester’s Community and Mental Health Services, who struck last year against the victimisation and sacking of their Unison branch chair, SWP member Karen Reissman, have now returned to work — but are building a political campaign for her reinstatement.

The new Pakistani general [Musharraf], he’s just been elected — not elected, this guy took over office. It appears this guy is going to bring stability to the country, and I think that’s good news for the subcontinent. (George W Bush, 1999)

It comes as no surprise that Gordon Brown’s comments about freedom to protest have turned out to be doublespeak and spin. The government is currently consulting — via a webpage! — on Sections 132-138 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) (2005), which ban unauthorised protest within one square kilometre of Parliament. The consultation is being presented as a move to repeal the draconian laws. But the way the questions are posed in the consultation suggest that is actually an attempt to bring in far greater police powers in relation to “public order”.

David Cameron has launched a fresh offensive against single parents, unemployed and disabled people with plans to force them into work. The Tory leader’s proposals include making the unemployed participate in “community work”, penalties for those who turn down “reasonable” job offers and cutting the number of people receiving incapacity benefit by 600,000 over the next five years.

In 1996, an independent Labor Party with over two million affiliated trade unionists was established, but it failed to break completely with the Democrats and eventually withered. Reviving such initiatives is the key task for socialists, and all those who want to see something more like real democracy in the US.

A public meeting on 10 December 2007 was part of the build-up to the No One is Illegal Trade Union conference against immigration controls.

Javez Lam from the GMB, who has supported Chinese families following the Morcambe Bay cockle pickers disaster, spoke about organising the Chinese workers in Soho.

Following the upsurge of action by French railworkers, students and others in October and November last year, a group of young AWL members and contacts visited the city for thee days in December. We joined up with two Workers’ Liberty members who are currently teaching in Paris as part of their university course. As well as learning about the ongoing struggle, we revived our ties with sections of the French revolutionary left. In the process we gained valuable ideas about the way forward for socialist activists in Britain.

On December 22 2007, Andrew Glyn, left wing economist and prolific author of books and articles about capitalism, died of a brain tumour.

A smug doctor, played by Emma Thompson, gives a TV interview about how she has adapted viral bacteria to, in effect, cure cancer.

Last week my seventy year old mother, who walks with the aid of a stick, was deemed a security threat by a bus driver.

In mid-December of last year Tommy Sheridan, former Scottish Parliament member and leader of the Scottish Socialist Party was arrested and charged with perjury.

In 2006, after the News of the World had carried articles alleging that he had engaged in extra-marital affairs and visited a swingers’ club in Manchester, Sheridan took the newspaper to court and was awarded £200,000 in damages after the jury found in his favour.

The first state-funded Hindu faith school in the UK — the “Krishna-Avanti primary school” — is set to open this September in Edgware, north-west London. The sponsor is none other than the International Society for Krishna Consciousness — aka the Hare Krishna movement.

It’s time to challenge Labour Students for control of the NUS women's campaign. For Sofie's manifesto, supporters' list and more on the campaign, see the ENS Women website.

At the start of December, the Iranian government arrested over 40 left-wing Iranian student activists. Some have been released but many are still in prison. (A full update will appear in the next issue of Solidarity.) Meanwhile, there have been a number of protests held in London, and British students and education workers have launched this statement of solidarity.

A report on discussions between Education Not for Sale and Student Respect (published in a spirit of openness and accountability)

Representatives of the SWP/Student Respect met members of Education Not for Sale on Sunday 9 December to discuss the idea, proposed by ENS and others, of a united left slate for the six full-time officer elections at NUS conference 2008.

On Sunday 13 January, activists from the labour and anti-climate change movements will meet in Nottingham to develop the Workers’ Climate Action network. This network aims to fill a void among those fighting climate change; to create unity of purpose and tactics between these often-divergent forces, with a purposefully working-class focus.

Shop workers have been on strike in Berlin (and other parts of Germany) — a number of supermarket chains, department stores, the biggest bookshop chain, and also H&M.

Part seven of a series on the Northern Ireland crisis of 1969 — the start of nearly 40 years of “The Troubles” — and the responses of the left.

• Section 2 of this instalment of the series

• Part 1: Why Northern Ireland Broke Down
• Part 2: The Irish Workers' Group, I S and the "Trotskyist Tendency"
• Part 3: Why Northern Ireland Split on Communal, Not Class, Lines
• Part 4: When militant sloganeering meant promoting communal war
• Part 5: When socialists looked to "Catholic Power"
• Part 6: SWP (IS) and Northern Ireland in 1968-9: Advocating civil war — until it started!

THE EVENTS OF AUGUST1969

Before the general breakdown of “law and order” between 12 and 15 August 1969, parts of Northern Ireland are already on fire. Serious clashes between police and Catholic youth had erupted in Derry on 12 July.
Section 1 of this article
Section 3 of this article

The aftermath

The crisis that erupted in Derry on 12 August, the breakdown of the Northern Ireland state system, would be followed after October — after the decision to abolish the B-Specials and a major gun battle by RUC and British soldiers against Protestant gunmen on the Shankhill — by a lull. Then it would erupt again, in old and familiar forms.
Section 1 of this article
Section 2 of this article

Download Solidarity 3//124 as pdf here ("attachment", below)

In my last summary article on Iraq (Solidarity 3/117, 13/09/07) I wrote that the Bush "administration now seems to have no strategy but to bash on and hope it can keep things relatively under control until it hands over the mess to another US presidency in January 2009".

TGWU/Unite members in the homelessness charity Shelter have voted by an overwhelming 87% to reject a raft of proposed cuts to pay and conditions, in favour of a strike ballot.

Kosova, formerly the Albanian-majority province of Yugoslavia, is likely to declare independence in February 2008. The European Union, the USA, and NATO will support independence, despite Russia (a longstanding ally of Serbia) blocking UN approval for independence and declaring that independence will be "outside international law".

The British National Party is in the throes of a major crisis after a series of high profile expulsions and resignations. The root of the crisis is the outspoken fascism of leading BNP member Mark Collett and the contradictions implicit in an organisation attempting to hide its real politics.

Download two leaflets from the "Notts Stop the BNP campaign" (pdf): BNP in Turmoil and Stop the BNP in Kimberley.