Workers' Liberty

Develop a culture of solidarity

Crime waves and gun battles sell newspapers. If you believe the media, we live in a war zone, terrorised by feral children and gangsters. Such press coverage is, in reality, a libel on working-class areas. Politicians just love the momentum this gives them to parade their "toughness" again.

By Jim Byagua

Trying to keep up with the almost daily reports about Charles Clarke and the Government's student funding review body's vacillations over tuition fees isn't easy. The discussion and headlines about the introduction of top-up fees - which would allow institutions to charge massive fees and exclude working class students from going to the more prestigious universities - have now shifted slightly.

By Sacha Ismail

As the left campaigns against a US war on Iraq, we should not ignore recent events in Iraq's eastern neighbour. Since the start of November, thousands of students at universities across Iran have taken part in pro-democracy meetings, rallies and demonstrations, by all accounts causing widespread panic among the rulers of Iran's Islamic Republic.


These are the largest such demonstrations since July 1999, when an enormous wave of student protest combined with working-class militancy to shake the regime to its foundations. Now, increasingly dissatisfied with the record of Iran's "liberal" President Mohammed Khatami, students are calling for the release of political prisoners and the lifting of the death sentence passed against academic Hashem Aghajari.

By a postal worker

OUR superb victory in defeating the privatisation of Cashco (workers responsible for handling cash) shows what can be done when the union fights properly. In the face of a 95% vote in favour of strike action amongst Cashco members and CWU leaders threatening to spread the action, the Government ordered Royal Mail Group management to halt the sell off. We must now ensure that the campaign is stepped up against the Post Comm proposals - stamp price increases and post office closures - and the fight against job cuts in Royal Mail.

By Janine Booth, Political Officer, London Transport Region RMT (personal capacity)

A MAILING from the rail union RMT to its members on the Tube has explained, over two pages, that the PPP is about to happen on London Underground and that the union will continue to fight for workers' interests once it is in place.

The other way of putting this is: RMT has given up the fight against privatisation.

Alan Turvey reports

To coincide with the European Union summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, in mid-December, at which ten eastern and central European states were admitted to membership, thousands of mainly young people demonstrated in the bitter Scandinavian cold - in the main not against "the EU" or "Europe" as such, but against "the capitalist EU".

Principles are indivisible

The Alliance for Workers' Liberty does not expect to be liked for it when, confronting the dominant politics and prejudices of the left and the pseudo left on the Jewish-Arab conflict, we drive wedges into painful contradictions.

Way back in the 1990s, a small group within the US Establishment started arguing for the USA to go to war against Iraq - people like Paul Wolfowitz, now Assistant Secretary for Defence. They knew that the USA's calculations after its 1991 war with Iraq over Kuwait had proved wrong. The US had thought some pliant general or other would sooner or later push Saddam out, but none had. (Since the USA wanted a united Iraq for that pliant general to take over, it was those calculations that made them let Saddam Hussein crush the post-war rebellions by southern Iraqis and Kurds. They had no objection to Saddam using "weapons of mass destruction" then!)

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
George Bush uses "war on terror" to restart "Star Wars"
Just before Christmas US President George W Bush announced that the United States military would actively deploy land and sea based anti missile defence systems - commonly known as "Star Wars".

Mark Catterall looks at the background

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
At a meeting in December, activists from range of organisations, including the socialist Pakistan Labour Party, decided to set up an Anti War Committee in Pakistan.
The meeting was called partly in response to the domination of the religious fundamentalists in the opposition to American aggression. The same fundamentalists have at one time or another made alliances with US imperialism. The Committee wants to counter support for the fundamentalists.
A full report is available at
www.labourpakistan.org

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
No support for the Iraqi government
The Stop the War conference in London on 11 January is due to feature applause for the "Cairo Declaration" adopted by an international conference in Cairo, Egypt, on 18-19 December.
The conference opposed the planned US war in Iraq - but from a standpoint of solidarity with "Iraq" (the Iraqi government), rather than with the workers and peasants of Iraq against both US militarism and Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. Saad Hammoundy, the Iraqi government's ambassador to the Arab League, was a keynote speaker.

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
By Paul Hampton
Sixty people heard the inspiring story of the occupied Zanon factory in Argentina at a London meeting organised by the Argentine Solidarity Campaign in December.

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
Workers face new attacks
By Gerry Bates
South Korea elected a new president - Roh Moo-hyun of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party - just before Christmas. His election offers little for the super-exploited workers of the country.

Roh beat Lee Hoi-chang of the conservative Grand National Party, taking 49% of the vote, 2% ahead of his rival. Roh polled strongly among young people, winning 62% of the under-30s vote. Of the 35 million eligible voters, roughly 70% turned out - lower than in previous elections.

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
Two items in the papers recently released by the Public Records Office interested Solidarity:

• Britain discussed repartitioning Ireland
• Some charity! Some revolution!

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
By Cheung Siu Ming
Wang Fan Hsi passed away on 30 December, aged 95, in hospital in Leeds.

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003

By Clive Bradley

Discussing the New Year's Day murders in Birmingham, Culture Minister Kim Howells described 'rappers', and by extension hip hop and garage artists in general, as 'boasting macho idiots'. He singled out So Solid Crew, several of whose members have been in trouble with the police - echoing recent comments by London's assistant police commissioner.

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
By John Chamberlin

There were three of Roy Jenkins, at least. The first Roy Jenkins was the son of a South Wales mining union official who moved out of his class up a ladder of labour movement positions.

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
Israel: democratic rights under attack
By Mark Osborn

Stop press: FROM YEHUDITH HAREL
THE ISRAELI HIGH COURT HAS OVERTURNED THE DECISION TAKEN BY THE ELECTION COMMISSION TO BAN BALAD AND MK'S BISHARA AND TIBI. THIS HAS BEEN A MOST IMPORTANT DECISION AND IT MAY GIVE ALL OF US THE OPPORTUNITY TO STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSOLIDATION OF ISRAELI DEMOCRACY, RENDERING ISRAEL INTO A STATE FOR ALL ITS CITIZENS.

MUSIC
Matt Cooper appreciates the music and times of the lead singer of the Clash


White youth, black youth
Better find another solution
Why not phone up Robin Hood
And ask him for some wealth distribution

From the Clash's "(White man) in Hammersmith Palais" (1977)

When Joe Strummer, one time front man of the Clash, died at the age of 50 on 22 December, it was more than a pioneering musician who died. Strummer linked rebel music with the politics of resistance in a way that was neither pretentious nor insincere.

• Government plans to decimate fire service

• Bain Report repeats the bosses message:
  Work harder and longer

• Unions should call a special Labour Party conference!

Matt Wrack of the London FBU spoke to Jill Mountford


JM: It's a long time since the last strike days. How do you think the membership are feeling? What are the prospects for further action?

Blair is out to smash FBU!

By Matt Wrack, London FBU

The FBU leadership has a mandate to strike for a £30,000 pay claim for firefighters and fire control operators, voted for by the membership at a rate of almost nine to one. That is a staggering result. It was achieved after months of campaigning amongst members; a clear illustration of the mood of a membership who want and need a decent living wage. That was almost four months ago.

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
Bring in more market mechanisms! Make the workers stretch and twist themselves more flexibly to meet the convenience and the budget-lines of the employer!
It's an old message, and the official Bain Report on the fire service, published in mid-December, just recycles it for another area.

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
Meeting in conference over the New Year weekend, the Democratic Socialist Party, largest of the groups within the Australian Socialist Alliance, reaffirmed its view that "the transformation of the Alliance into a united organisation (with right of tendency for all participating forces) remains necessary and possible".

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003
As the Scottish Socialist Party moves towards its conference - Saturday/Sunday 22/23 February at the Mitchell Theatre, Charing Cross, Glasgow - and the Holyrood parliamentary elections this May, exasperated hostilities have broken out between the SSP leadership (mostly former adherents of Militant) and the "Socialist Worker Platform", SWP members in Scotland, who entered the SSP recently.