Workers' Liberty

by Sean Matgamna

By Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky was murdered by an agent of the Stalinist USSR in August 1940. Leon Trotsky was a great defender of the traditions pursued by the Bolshevik Party when they made a revolution in Russia in 1917. One of the Bolshevik’s great contributions to socialist ideas was their approach to the national question.

Stop the slaughter!
Israel out of Lebanon!
Stop rocket attacks on Israeli civilians!

This is a demonstration against Israel and the USA. We are together here because we oppose the policy and "strategy" of Bush and Blair... most of the ideas and more or less all of the policies advocated by the leaders of the ‘Stop the War Coalition’ make no sense... You hold to some or all of the following ideas.

BY THOMAS CAROLAN

This article will do no more than tabulate some of the symptoms and some of the causes of the political and moral chaos that has engulfed the erstwhile “revolutionary left”. In pursuit of “anti-imperialism” the most numerous force on the left — the SWP — is now in close alliance and makes solidarity with clerical-fascists such as Hamas and Hizbollah.

The Israeli armed forces have inflicted a vast destruction on the infrastructure of Lebanese economic and social life. They have killed hundreds of civilians.

By Clive Bradley

The Lebanese political system, from 1943 until its collapse in the 1970s, enshrined the religious divisions in the population. There was a Christian president, a Sunni Muslim prime minister (and a much weaker Shi’a Speaker of the House); parliamentary seats were allocated with six Christians to every five Muslims.

By Ruben Lomas

“Only they who can keep their heart strong and their will as sharp as a sword when the general disillusionment is at its worst can be regarded as a fighter for the working class or called a revolutionary.”

Antonio Gramsci

By Paddy Dollard

Socialist Worker has come out against a two-state solution to the Jewish Arab conflict (Alex Callinicos, SW 5 August).

Joan Trevor looks at what some of the French left say about Lebanon

In an unusual collaboration, the Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR) issued a statement jointly with the French section of the Lebanese Communist Party (PCL) for the demonstration in Paris on 29 July.

By Dan Katz

Following a small — 60-strong — march in Brick Lane, East London, the companies involved in making a film of Monica Ali’s novel, Brick Lane have unfortunately caved in to the protestors’ demand that they stop filming in the area.

“The United States respects your aspirations as citizens and we will stand with you to secure your rights — to speak as you choose, to think as you please, to worship as you wish and to choose your leaders freely and fairly in democratic elections”.

In an interview with the Daily Record on 7 August, leading Scottish Socialist Party member, Tommy Sheridan, fresh from the surprise victory in his defamation case against the News of the World, attacked his opponents in the SSP as “political scabs” and vowed retribution against them. Before the interview, a split in the SSP looked possible; now it looks very likely indeed.

By Sofie Buckland

Home Secretary John Reid has wasted no time in capitulating to the pressures of the tabloid press.

by Paul Hampton

The reality of Iraq’s drift towards civil war and break up has been inadvertently exposed by leading ruling class figures in the last week.

William Patey, the UK’s outgoing ambassador in Iraq sent a final memo to the Blair government, in which he wrote: “The prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy.”

By Mike Fenwick

The TUC has successfully led the formation of an alliance of 12 unions and professional bodies to fight the privatisation of the health service. This lead is very welcome considering the passivity of the unions in response to the cuts so far.

By Amy Fisher

Islamist violence against LGBT people in Iraq is reaching a new level with the extension of homophobic attacks to children.

The Isreali peace campaign, Gush Shalom report the biggest anti-war march of the present war on 5 August, in Tel Aviv, Israel.

by Uri Avnery

What were the aims of this war? "We shall create a new situation in the Middle East" [it was said]

This aim has indeed been achieved — but not the way Olmert told himself (and us).

By Dan Katz

As fighting in Lebanon seizes the headlines, the crisis in Gaza — sparked by the seizure of an Israeli soldier on 25 June — continues.

According to the UN, Israel has been firing 150 shells a day into Gaza. Israeli tanks move from area to area, along the length of Gaza and helicopters fly regular raids.

By the Workers’ Advice Centre in Israel

Since July 12, Israel has been carrying out a disproportionate and murderous war in Lebanon . It has killed hundreds of innocent civilians, including whole families.

An Israeli soldier — Staff Sergeant Itzik Shabbat — has refused to comply with an emergency order (Tsav 8) to report today for reserve duty in Lebanon.

Samir Adil, president of the Iraq Freedom Congress, a movement initiated by the Worker-communist Party of Iraq, spoke to Martin Thomas when he visited London in July.

by Alan Porter

On 1 August the Worker-communist Party of Iraq and related campaigning organizations staged a protest against state terror in Iraqi Kurdistan. That week forces of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, part of the Kurdish government, had opened fire on a picket line at the Tasloja cement factory in Sulimaniya.

Venezuela

The Venezuelan revolutionary socialist party, the Partido Revolución y Socialismo (PRS) has debated standing a candidate against Chávez in the presidential elections in Venezuela in December.

NHS Logistics: strike ballot against privatisation

Vote Yes to strike action and say no to profit from care

After some months of delay Unison has finally decided to go ahead with a ballot for industrial action over the proposed privatisation of NHS Logistics. Set up in 2000, NHS Logistics provides the health service in England with a huge range of critical products - from food to needles and syringes, beds and dressings.

Journalists at South Yorkshire Newspapers, owned by the Edinburgh Johnstone Group, are taking strike action to raise the paltry wages paid to staff on a number of local titles throughout the South Yorkshire region.

By an RMT member

Network Rail operational staff have won a 35-hour week — but after an unacceptably long wait and at the price of being locked into a two-year pay deal. Workers will get 3.2% for this year and an inflation plus 0.75% increase in April 2007.

Around 50 people packed a meeting organised by Hackney TUC to launch a local campaign against the privatisation of the East London Line. The Line - which currently does not serve Hackney - is due to be extended in time for the 2012 Olympics, but will be sold off to private contractors. Stagecoach and National Express are amongst the list of "preferred bidders".

by Stan Crooke

Tommy Sheridan’s libel action against the News of the World was really two trials for the price of one.

Tommy Sheridan spoke to the Daily Record on 7 August. Sheridan told the paper that he might stand in the election for convenor, due in October.