Solidarity 446, 23 August 2017

There has been a great deal of debate within the left over the proposed consultation on, and potential changes to the Gender Recognition Act. This was sparked by an article by National Union of Teachers (NUT) Vice President Kiri Tunks in the Morning Star, claiming the changes will undermine the rights of cisgender women. She argues this against her union’s supportive position, which has been reinforced by a statement coordinated by the NUT LGBT group. The changes aim to remove the dehumanising quasi-medical gender recognition process currently in place and replace it with a self-identity...

In the last issue we carried a piece on ever-growing xenophobia and racism across Italy, highlighting the launch of a ship by a gang of neo-fascists dedicated to “Defend Europe” by physically confronting the humanitarian NGO ships involved in rescuing refugees off the coast of Libya. On both sides of that ship were emblazoned the words — “No way, you will not make Europe home, no way”. The news of this putrescent exercise was greeted, typically, superficially, and dismissively by the bulk of Italy’s bourgeois media. All the more so as the farcical itinerary of the craft saw it driven from one...

Socialists should give no political space whatsoever to the “reasons” behind the cowardly attacks in Spain and Finland. We condemn these attacks, carried out in the name far-right Islamism and violent jihad. Our sympathies are with those affected. It seems the attack in Las Ramblas Barcelona was part of a planned attack, by 12 men. This was exposed when a gas explosion in a building killed two men likely to have been making bombs and storing explosives. The Sagra Familia Cathedral may have been chosen as their next target. The choice of a popular tourist area shows a similarity with the...

Kelly Rogers is one of the four sacked union reps at the Ritzy cinema in Brixton. She is also a supporter of Workers’ Liberty. She spoke to us about the Picturehouse workers’ long-running dispute. It’s become quite fashionable to ask whether we need new forms of trade unionism, and new tactics to attract different kinds of workers. Obviously there are obstacles and risks particular groups of workers face, but the way we’ve organised people in Picturehouse isn’t through any new-fangled strategy but basic organisational techniques that have been used for generations. We’ve gone into cinemas and...

UPDATE Following the announcement of the strike ballot below, City Cruises agreed to reinstate Hairia. RMT has hailed the outcome as a significant victory for union members at City Cruises. Captains and mates working for City Cruises, a company which runs sightseeing trips along the River Thames, will ballot for strikes to demand reinstatement for Hairia Abdo, an unjustly sacked colleague. Hairia, a Customer Service Assistant (CSA) at City Cruises, was sacked for something commonly accepted as an established working practice, despite her long service at the company. Workers at City Cruises are...

Venezuela’s growing social polarisation and slide towards civil war has intensified in recent weeks, the combined result of right-wing destabilisation and the actions of the Maduro government. The current political impasse arises from the unravelling of the “Bolivarian” project of Hugo Chávez. His successor Nicolás Maduro narrowly won the presidential election in 2013, but failed to retain the regime’s popularity with the majority of Venezuelan people. Maduro’s ruling PSUV party lost the National Assembly elections to the right wing opposition in 2015. Last year, the president suspended the...

Martin Thomas spoke to Andrew Gamble about the character of the Trump government. Andrew Gamble is a Professor in Politics at the University of Sheffield and the author of many books on political economy. [The interview was recorded at the end of July, before the North Korea crisis blew up] MT: Since the 1940s the world markets have been structured by a series of institutions: the WTO, the IMF, the G20, the G7, NATO. The USA has been central to all of these. Is Trump going to blow them up? AG: He hasn’t been tested by a major international crisis yet, but almost certainly there’ll be one...