Solidarity 035, 14 August 2003

By Jim Byagua The United Students Against Sweatshops 2003 conference met in New York on Thursday 7-Sunday 10 August 2003. This was a conference about building student-worker solidarity. Naturally, the subject of sweated labour in the "third world" was a large part of the conference discussion, but no less significant were the discussions that focused on organising with unions in the US. We heard reports from International Interns of their several-month-long placements with unions in countries such as Mexico, Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, El Salvador and Bangladesh. But a large part of the...

Limits of No Logo No choice Poor old women? NTL Fat Cat League Arms sting - dicey Arnie terminated Dictator-mail I have mixed feelings about the following: "McDonald's has won a poll run by www.adbusters.org for the most infamous multinational corporation. The burger giant, which has suffered 14 consecutive months of sales decline, got 5524 votes for worst worldwide corporate exploiter and despoiler. Runners-up were ExxonMobil, Nike, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, and Disney, followed by Coca-Cola, Gap, AOL Time Warner, and Starbucks." Adidas, Reebok, and Pepsico, rivals of Nike and Coca-Cola...

The SWP and some of its allies in the mobilisations for the European Social Forum and elsewhere have taken to portraying the French left as complacent about anti-fascism and anti-racism. This article reminds us of a day 30 years ago when part of that left, militants organised by the French Ligue communiste révolutionnaire (LCR, then the Ligue communiste), fought the police to get at the fascists, and got their organisation banned as a result. Alain Krivine, a leader of the Ligue and now one of their MEPs, was among several imprisoned for a while. This article is by the Ligue's François Duval...

In the aftermath of the war in Iraq, there are the first stirrings of an independent labour movement. Workers are beginning to organise to deal with the problems of unemployment and unpaid wages, war damage and reconstruction. Many bourgeois commentators look back to the post-war reconstruction of Germany and Japan as enlightened alternatives to US policy in Iraq. In this article, Bruce Robinson examines the history of the German labour movement in the immediate post-war period and discusses questions of relevance today in Iraq. After the collapse of the Nazi regime in May 1945, Germany was a...

A collection of contributions from members of the Socialist Alliance from all over the country: Support this statement and conference! What next for left unity? The opposition should move together Bring the different perspectives together "A Titanic looking for an iceberg" Don't throw away left unity! Stick in there, try to make it work We need unity We can still be a broad, pluralist socialist party Get back to basics Support this statement and conference! There remains an objective need for the unity of socialists in Blairite Britain. The Socialist Alliance has been the best attempt at...

This song was written by Malvina Reynolds - a member of the American CP in the 30s - and Barbara Dane . They wrote it after the 1966 "Freedom Summer" campaign against desegregation in the American south. Megdar, referred to in the song, is Medgar Evan, who was one of a number of people involved in the campaign to be murdered by the police. It isn't nice to block the doorway, it isn't nice to go to jail, There are nicer ways to do it, but the nice ways always fail. It isn't nice, it isn't nice, you told us once, you told us twice. But if that's freedom's price, we don't mind... No, no, no. We...

An electoral coalition with "sections of the middle class, or the petty bourgeoisie, to use the Marxist jargon" would be alright for socialists, writes John Rees in Socialist Worker, 2 August 2003. In his view, only alliances with full-strength capitalist forces are impermissible on principle. He then proves to his own satisfaction that electoral coalitions by socialists with any "Muslim community" group is alright. There is "a minority inside the Muslim community that is middle class", but apparently no capitalist section worth mentioning; and the middle-class section is in good part...

The trade unions are not only the bedrock of the labour movement. With the Blairite hijacking of the Labour Party, which had been founded at the beginning of the 20th century by the trade unions and socialist organisations such as Keir Hardie's Independent Labour Party to fight for working class interests, the trade unions are pretty much all that's left of the labour movement. Even though the number of trade unionists has fallen from its peak strength 25 years ago it is still a very powerful movement. There are twice as many trade unionists in Britain now as there were in France in 1968, when...

By Maria Exall Peter Tatchell's articles in Solidarity (3/34) contain two arguments that are less than helpful in campaigning against homophobia in Britain today. He attempts to define a new social phenomenon of "heterophobia" to explain why the Government is only proposing civil partnership registration for lesbian and gay couples. The Goverment's decision can however be more easily explained by their prioritising of good old fashioned money and marriage. This year the Goverment has to introduce regulations to implement the "European Directive on Anti Discrimination on the basis of Sexual...

Against the road map We can't just denounce it Peace but not democracy? Against the road map Sean Matgamna (letter Solidarity 3/34) writes: "Mark Osborn insists: '[The US does] not intend to use a great deal of force against Israel'. I agree. But where does the idea that they might 'use a great deal of force against Israel' come from? He implies: from the Solidarity editorial. Nothing like that is in the editorial." Unfortunately for Sean, there is. The editorial in Solidarity 3/31 states: "If the Americans do not force the Israeli government genuinely to accept a 'sovereign, independent and...