Workers' Liberty

By John O'Mahony

A small outcry greeted Tam Dalyell MP's assertion that there are too many Jews in Tony Blair's and George Bush's entourages, and that those Jews make Britain's and the USA's policy on the Middle East.

Five thousand nursery nurses across Scotland started a programme of rolling strike action on May 21st. The action started with walk-outs in the West of Scotland. Action in Edinburgh and East Lothian follows on Wednesday and Thursday 28/29 May.

The Alliance for Workers' Liberty will be at Lutte Ouvriere's fete at Presles, near Paris, 7-9 June. We have a stall, and are hosting a forum:

"How do we stop wars?: Lessons from the British Stop The War Coalition."

Speaker: Martin Thomas

Saturday 7 June, 8pm, Forum area 1

(check schedule at the fete for confirmation: owing to the volatile and exciting political situation, the schedule is subject to change!).

Come and meet us!

Details before Saturday: 07719 283132

Following an article in the Mail on Sunday, 11 May 2003, Socialist Worker (17 May) has claimed that George Galloway has been vindicated against the charges of taking money from the Iraqi government of Saddam Hussein..
The Mail on Sunday, which has employed Galloway as a columnist, says that documents adduced by the Christian Science Monitor were probably forgeries.

By Jill Mountford

The leaders of the Fire Brigades Union are yet again recommending that their members accept a pay offer which they have negotiated with the employers and which is backed by the Government.

"The master of more than an old Oxford College", Edward Thompson used to say of Christopher Hill, historian and Master of Balliol College, Oxford, who died in March 2003. Hill was the pre-eminent Marxist historian writing on the 17th century and the English Revolution. Harvey Kaye, in his book about the remarkable generation of "British Marxist Historians", judged Hill "one of the greatest historians to work in the English language in the twentieth century". In this issue of Solidarity Alan Johnson begins an appreciation of Hill, his view of history and the significance of his work.

What Solidarity has said recently about George Galloway is not new, and not a case of us "moving under pressure of the bourgeois press". We said more or less everything we now say about George Galloway nine years ago, in the editorial from Socialist Organiser reprinted in part here. We said it again in Solidarity two months ago, in an article which began by solidarising with George Galloway where he had called on British soldiers not to obey "illegal orders" and then went on to argue that Galloway had no place in the anti-war movement.

Solidarity has been debating whether unions should change their rules governing their political fund, to make it easier to donate money to political parties other than the Labour Party. The debate has widened out to take in many issues about working-class political representation. We print below some contributions and invite further discussion of this crucial issue for the labour movement.

Socialist Alliance members, from a number of local branches, met in London on 25 May. They decided to start the process of setting up a faction within the Socialist Alliance on the principle of independent working-class politics, as against 'pink-green' electoral blocs.

By Jack Cleary

The Northern Ireland elections, due under the Good Friday Agreement, have been postponed indefinitely. Since last October the power-sharing government in the Six Counties of Northern Ireland has been suspended, and there is no immediate prospect of it being restored.

The Workers' Party (PT) in Brazil has taken the first steps towards expelling socialists within the party who oppose government reforms. The move comes as Lula da Silva's government seeks to push through changes to the tax and pension system - slashing the pensions and other benefits for civil servants.

Over 60 Chinese miners were killed after massive explosion, according to the China Labour Bulletin. The blast occurred at the Luling coal mine near Hefei, Anhui Province. The mine employs over 5,000 workers. The incident highlights China’s appalling health and safety record. Last year there were an estimated 110,000 deaths from industrial accidents in China and nearly 14,000 accidents in the manufacturing and mining industries alone.

Pakistan’s sugar mill workers founded the first united sugar mill union in May. A convention brought together over 100 delegates to form the Pakistan Sugar Mill Workers’ Federation.
Organising in the industry is difficult. Pakistan’s government is liberalising its economy through reductions in tariffs and other protective measures and the sugar industry will face both foreign investment and competition from imported sugar. The government is also introducing more anti-union laws.

Workers in Thailand have commemorated the 10th anniversary of the world’s worst factory fire. On 10 May 1993 the Kader fire killed 189 people, mostly young women workers and seriously injured over 500. The Kader factory was a Thai- Hong Kong-Taiwanese joint venture, making toys such as the Barbie doll. The factory collapsed after a fire on the ground floor spread to solvents and paints stacked in narrow corridors.

Israel’s main public sector unions ended a five-day national strike that had shut down much of the economy in May.

Teachers in Zimbabwe have stayed out on strike, defying a court ruling to return to work.

The strike, organised by the Zimbabwe Teachers Association (Zimta), was declared illegal and teachers ordered to report for duty within 48 hours by the Labour Court on 20 May. Zimta said it would comply with the order and urged its members to return to work.

In probably the largest general strike ever seen, 60 million workers came out on 21 May in protest at the Indian government’s privatisation plans.


The impact of the one-day strike was felt in the power, fertiliser, banking, insurance, coal mining, oil, transport and postal industries. Union leaders claimed there was a complete shutdown in West Bengal, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and elsewhere.

By Edward Ellis

Weeks after the fall of the Ba’th regime — George W Bush declared it officially dead on 1 May — chaos still reigns in Iraq. The occupying forces have still failed to establish anything approaching stable government, or solve basic problems — like organise electricity, pay wages, and ensure the secure running of hospitals. As the Pentagon faces criticism for failing to prepare for its post-war role, despite warnings, the British army is accused of mistreating Iraqi prisoners.

By Mick Duncan

The Ethical Trading Initiative conference took place in Westminster, London on 21 May. There was much talk of corporate responsibility, codes of conduct and good funding opportunities for NGOs. Meanwhile, a few miles south in Brixton a rather different meeting was taking place.

The Palestine Liberation Organisation has, since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000, called for international intervention in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

By "Postal Worker"

Postal workers have sent a clear message on "partnership" by booting the current Deputy General Secretary of the CWU out of office. Former London Divisional Rep Dave Ward beat Blairite John Keggie by 2,600 votes.
The Keggie result is the latest warning to bureaucrats everywhere of the price of associating oneself with New Labour. Keggie's one-time militant image has been discredited by years of sell-out deals with Royal Mail management. But, whilst he is a better sort of bureaucrat than Keggie, Ward is still capable of negotiating agreements that do not meet the aspirations and potential strength of the membership. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the new deliveries agreement (TDS) to be debated at CWU annual conference.

By Liam Conway

Charles Clarke stumbles from one cock-up to another. But, clearly, the Government has no plans to take the funding crisis seriously, otherwise it wouldn’t have set up a committee led by Two Jags Prescott to investigate what happened to the £500 million Clarke says has been siphoned off from schools’ budgets.

Let him stay!

By Colin Foster

Abbas Amini has sewed up his mouth and eyes and gone on hunger strike because he wants "a square foot of earth to live on... in peace".
Tony Blair's government wants to deport him to Iran. The courts decided early in May that Abbas should stay here. Instead of accepting that decision, taken after two years' argument and delays, the Government is appealing against it.
It was the Government's move to try to slam the door shut on him again, just as it seemed to open, that made Abbas start his protest, modelled on similar action by asylum-seekers in Australia last year.