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Solidarity 3/125, 24 January 2008


Solidarity 3/125 has gone to press

Solidarity 3/125 has gone to press. Download pdf.


Burslem postal workers' strike

Against victimisation
Author: 
Matthew Thompson

Around 600 postalworkers and other trade unionists took part in a national demonstration called by the Communication Workers’ Union in Stoke on 19 January.


Canary Wharf: Vote for action!

Against victimisation

Canary Wharf: London Underground management have sacked two Canary Wharf Station Supervisors over some missing KitKats!


Defend Gyles Henry

Against victimisation

London Underground has sacked a worker at London Bridge over an alleged incident with a customer. But the company’s only “evidence” against Gyles is the say-so of a different customer who admitted there was no violence involved, but speculated that there might have been! RMT is balloting members for industrial action. Vote Yes! More: www.workersliberty.org/tube.


Iranian regime murders student activist: protest to free our comrades!

Iran
Author: 
Sofie Buckland,

In December last year, several dozen left-wing Iranian students were arrested for organising or taking part in action on 16 Azar (7 December), Iran’s traditional “Student Day” of protest. Since then, many more activists have been arrested in a continuing crackdown, and one of the detained has now been murdered by the police of the Islamist regime.


The arguments for nuclear don’t add up

The environment
Author: 
Stuart Jordan

Having already announced his plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations in November 2007, Gordon Brown has just completed a “consultation” on the issue and officially announced the “new” energy policy! A policy which, surprise, surprise, proposes up to twenty nuclear power stations, which will start coming on line around 2017.


Nottingham students fight for free speech

Universities
Author: 
Charlie Salmon

Students at Nottingham University are calling a demonstration for 21 February against attempts to quash their rights to protest and organise. One student has been arrested and others banned from the library for failing to ask permission to demonstrate and circulate petitions.


Call to unite workers against BNP

Anti-Fascism
Author: 
Petra Hall

More than 100 people attended the regional conference that took place in Nottingham on January 19th called by Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP and sponsored by a number of trade unions and campaigning organisations in the Notts area and other parts of the East Midlands.

The conference was called to discuss a campaign to stop a repeat of the 2007 BNP “Red, White and Blue festival” in Codnor near both Derby and Nottingham.


Abortion rights — weak response from MPs

Abortion rights
Author: 
Amy Fisher

On January 16, a parliamentary rally organised by Abortion Rights packed out two committee rooms with over 300 people. Speakers included various MPs and Lords from all three parties, the TUC women’s officer, an adviser to Ken Livingstone and the Fawcett Society.


Feminist Fightback organises

Women

The second Feminist Fightback open steering meeting saw women from across the trade union and student movements discuss direct action on abortion rights, a pro-choice teach-in and plans for international women’s day.


The SWP and left unity — the case of the student movement

SWP
Author: 
Sacha Ismail

Like it or not, the SWP is the biggest group on the socialist left. Any attempt to unite will necessarily involve them, or at least substantial numbers of its activists. Nowhere is this more true than in the student movement, where the AWL has some experience of practical unity with the SWP.


An anti-capitalist party for France?

Anti-Capitalism
Author: 
David Broder

After winning 1.5 million votes in the April 2007 French presidential election, the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire launched a call for a new “anti-capitalist party” to bring together activists from across the spectrum of the far left in a joint organisation.


Dylan: He’s not there

Film
Author: 
David Broder

I must admit, I’m no Dylanologist, so I was not particularly upset by director Todd Haynes’ decision to merge Suze Rotolo and Sara Lownds into one character, nor the fact that I’m Not There is far from a biography of Dylan. However, while the film has an excellent score (unsurprisingly, it features lots of Bob Dylan tracks) and features some memorable performances from the six actors representing the singer-songwriter’s different personas, it feels like a simple homage rather than offering any particular insight.


City of Vice: Realistic and Dirty

Television
Author: 
Cathy Nugent

City of Vice, a new drama series about the Bow Street Runners, is now being shown on Channel 4 (Mondays, 9pm). Cathy Nugent interviews Clive Bradley, the writer of the most recent episode, which deals with molly houses — clubs where gay men and transwomen could meet each other.


A rich black man makes jokes

Author: 
Justin Baidoo

Chris Rock at the Hammersmith Apollo.


The story of the Blues

Music
Author: 
Peter Burton

The Blues? It’s the mother of American music. That’s what it is – the source. — BB King

Europeans involved in the slave trade stripped as much culture from their human cargo as possible but music was so deep rooted in the African men and women that it was impossible to tear it away from those who survived the horrific journey.


The ups and downs of Korean labour

North and South Korea
Author: 
Jack Staunton

On 19 January Housmans bookshop in King’s Cross was packed with around fifty people coming to hear Loren Goldner speak on the recent history of the militant South Korean working class. Goldner, a left communist and a former Shachtmanite talked about modern labour movement activism in the face of rapid economic development, and the post World War Two era and the labour movement’s attitude to the Stalinist state in the North.


Open Ken's books, but don't back Boris!

London

The knives are out for Ken Livingstone. He is targetted by the main London paper, the Evening Standard. He is the subject of a sustained smear campaign — he’s a drunk, a secret “Trotskyite”.


The strange history of Socialist Action

The Left
Author: 
Martin Thomas

“Exposed” in the current right wing campaign against Ken Livingstone, as the underground group central to Livingstone’s “team”, Socialist Action have always been a weird collection of individuals. Right-wing and strangely apolitical when Martin Thomas wrote this history in February 1991 (Socialist Organiser 476), they are much more right-wing today.


Capitalism is crazy: private profits, social losses

Crisis

Will the stock-market crash of 21 January continue, or ease? We don't know. But what about the monolines?


An insurance society for the ruling class

Alistair Darling

An editorial in the Financial Times (21 January) summed up well the Government's new plan for the collapsed bank Northern Rock.


Brown says: billions for shareholders, pennies for workers

Pay cut
Author: 
Gerry Bates

For the shareholders and potential buyers of Northern Rock, the Government is all smiles and graces. Another few billion pounds? Yes, sir, of course!


Debate: socialists should back John Edwards

USA/Canada
Author: 
Eric Lee

To write, as Sacha Ismail does, that U.S. "Republicans and Democrats are ... almost identical in policy terms" betrays either a startling ignorance of American politics or a form of ultra-leftism.


Pierre Lambert dies: comments on "Lambertism" from Vincent Presumey, Karim Landais, and others

Pierre Lambert
Author: 
Vincent Présumey

Pierre Lambert, leader of what for a long time was the biggest force in French Trotskyism, died on 16 January 2008 at the age of 87. His organisation - now called the "Workers' Party", and about to relaunch itself as the "Independent Workers' Party" - has in recent years focused most of its efforts on the "defence of the [French] Republic" and a call for French withdrawal from the European Union. In the 2007 presidential election it ran Gérard Schivardi as "the candidate of the mayors". But there is more to the history.


French revolutionary left discusses "new party"

LCR
Author: 
Chris Reynolds

The French revolutionary left is discussing the formation of a "new party". An important milestone in that discussion will be the congress on 24-27 January of the LCR (Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire).


US politics: a time for change?

USA
Author: 
Barry Finger

The 2006 election demonstrated a tentative move to the left by the American electorate. The discontent is not likely to abate any time soon. But a left that fails to force a break with the Democrats will find that this new aspiration for change will eventually dissolve into anti-political skepticism and despair.


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