Workers' Liberty

In ancient Athens the citizens gathered in the agora, the market place, to debate the affairs of the city state and vote on them. They did that with every issue that arose, including the appointment of military commanders. It has been called the “classic” democracy. In fact, only a fraction of those living in Athens could debate and vote.

On 5 November civil service workers in the PCS union will be taking part in the first civil service-wide strike since 1993. They will strike against the Government’s proposal to axe 104,500 civil service jobs — one in five of all civil service jobs. Members of the union voted two to one on a 42 % turnout for the strike.

By a Civil Servant

Identifiable left-wing politics first emerged in Ireland at the end of the 18th century.
It was the result of three revolutions.

By Thomas Carolan

The government’s paltry minimum wage — £4.50 per hour for workers over 21 and just £3.80 per hour for workers between 18 and 21 — has been the cause of a great deal of discontent in the labour movement, particularly over the apparent assumption that under-21s need less to eat.

By Mike Rowley

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling Party Line,
You are lost and gone forever,
Dreadful sorry, Party Line.

Leon Trotsky was a Nazi,
And I know it for a fact.
First I read, then I said it,
Before the Hitler-Stalin Pact.

(Anti-Stalinist song of the 1940s, to the tune of “My Darling Clementine”)

On 26 October, AWL took part in a meeting to plan action against the USA’s projected blitz on Fallujah. Initiatives coming out of the meeting include a demonstration on Sunday 7 November, 2pm at Parliament Square, which we urge all readers to support.

Bruce Robinson looks at the life of Dolly Rathebe

Matt Cooper applauds the legacy of JOHN PEEL

Kath Owen was a candidate on the Respect list for Yorkshire and Humberside in the Euro-elections. She has now left Respect, and explained why to Lesley Smallwood.

The conference of the Galloway/SWP coalition Respect (30-31 October, in London) voted down a motion to “declare that Respect is a secular organisation”. The motion, drafted by the longstanding and well-respected anti-racist activist Dave Landau, was very moderately worded.

Call centres, guns, railway workers and some interesting quotes...

Contemporary accounts of labour movement struggles from the 1830's.

The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs is used by the TUC to popularise basic trade unionism. Every summer there is a festival in Tolpuddle to commemorate the group of Dorset agricultural labourers who in 1834 were prosecuted and transported to Australia for trying to organise a union.

For most miners, the Notts coalfield was synonymous with conservatism and right wing domination. It was the first coalfield to return to work in 1926. The home of “Spencerism” (employer’s union) and the main area of support for the introduction of an incentive scheme in 1977.

Frederick Engels' description of Robert Owen's life and work.

We have received a number of comments to our recent material on Iraq, including our Reply to the Stop the War Coalition (see www.workersliberty.org/node/view/3237 and The “reactionary anti-imperialists” (Solidarity 3/60). The Reply to the Stop the War Coalition was a response to a statement put out by STW denouncing the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions and printed in the Morning Star of 11 October 2004. Here are three of the comments. They were all posted anonymously.

In the last few years there have been a number of instances where conflicts have caused confusion amongst the ranks of the left. Such times are important for the left in reassessing, and regrouping sifting out the healthier elements. Of course that is only true if the right lessons are learned, and the organisations which grow most quickly under such circumstances are in no way guaranteed to be the ones that have learned the correct lessons.

Once again, New Labour is stepping up its “campaign against crime” and they are proposing the usual mix of vague placebos and attacks on civil liberties. However one proposal stands out as being particularly dangerous, and particularly worth our opposition.

The North-West Area of the National Union of Students has written to trade unionists and women's groups in the area about threats to abortion rights.

Workers at the King’s Cross Channel Tunnel site have rejected new contracts brought in by their employer, Laing O’Rourke. A revolt over the contract is spreading across the company.

The latest news from current workers' struggles.

The National Union of Students “extraordinary conference” called for Monday 8 November to push through attacks on NUS structures looks set to be even more farcically undemocratic than the gathering which originated these attacks in June.

By Alan Clarke, NUS National Executive (personal capacity) and Education Not For Sale Network

With this issue of Solidarity we have reshaped the contents, introduced new elements and produced what we hope is a neater design. Why have we done this?

In the end, despite lobbying by the Polish government and others, the EU constitution signed by 25 member states on 29 October did not contain references to Europe’s “Judaeo-Christian roots” in its preamble. But the question whether the EU should in some senses be a club only for Christians rumbles on, including, strongly, in France.

Mark Sandell looks at Nigeria’s wave of general strikes

A burnt out skyscraper juts into the skyline of Lagos Island, the commercial heart of Nigeria’s biggest city. It is the remains of the Nigerian oil ministry.

The Lancet’s report that the US and coalition forces (but mainly the US Air Force) could have killed as many as 100,000 Iraqi civilians since the fall of Saddam in April 2003, is based on extrensive household survey research. Previous estimates for civilian deaths since the beginning of the war ranged up to 16,000, with the number of Iraqi troops killed during the war itself put at about 6,000. The figure of 16,000 comes from counting all deaths reported in the Western press, and is known to be an underestimate.

In the 2004 Presidential electoral campaign, just as in the 2002 election, it was predicted that Americans might end up with a President who did not win the most votes. That did not happen.

In the 2004 Presidential electoral campaign, just as in the 2002 election, it was predicted that Americans might end up with a President who did not win the most votes. That did not happen.

A round-up of international class struggle news

Under the banner of “Corporate Social Responsibility” the big companies and transnationals claim to have changed their ways. BP is now green. Nike promises transparency. Gap spends a packet on rebranding itself as a company that cares about the people who stitch its clothes.