Solidarity 068, 3 March 2005

Reforming Saudi Arabia

By Cathy Nugent In February Saudi Arabia held the first round of municipal council elections — the country’s first direct elections since 1964. As democratic elections go they are very poor: only half the council seats are to be elected, the rest are appointed; the decision-making power of these councils is limited; no party affiliations are allowed (because all political parties are banned in the country); women were not allowed to vote, despite election rules which say that all Saudi citizens over the age of 21 are eligible to vote. A US spokesperson’s comment on the election was, “Saudi...

Travellers’ protest march

Travellers will march through central London on Saturday 9 April, calling for an end to evictions. Please join us by coming to St James’s Church, Piccadilly, at 12 noon for the Commemoration of Roma victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing. The march will start at 1.30pm. It will be followed by a public meeting to launch the first ever Traveller election campaign. A candidate will be adopted to stand against anti-Gypsy Tory MP John Baron, who is leading the campaign to “clear” Dale Farm, the biggest Traveller community in the UK. More details from Grattan Puxon, 01206 523528.

The Rafia at bay

By John O’Mahony The “Chief of Staff” of the Provisional IRA, Thomas Murphy, has in the course of his IRA career, amassed a personal fortune of 58 million euros. That is one of the startling facts that has come to light in the current propaganda war being waged by London and Dublin governments and the media they influence, on the Adams IRA. From being friendly and tolerant towards Sinn Fein, the governments and media have turned sharply hostile to them and their private army, the IRA. Because of its vast “underground” network of illegal money-making activities, they are calling it the “Rafia”...

“Super-union” plan could mean turn inwards

The proposed “super-union” formed from a merger between AMICUS, TGWU and possibly the GMB, is an issue that should be taken seriously by all socialists. The idea that there should be no barriers between working class people in the representation of their interests at work is an important and progressive one. The UK trade union movement has been beset by historical and personal rivalries, partial views of the class struggle. Coming together can sometimes eradicate out these weaknesses. Unity is strength! However there are areas of serious concern about the proposed merger. I do not think the...

1,300 workers protest to demand redundancy payment

Cambodian riot police fired assault rifles and used electric batons last week to break up a protest by 1,300 workers demanding redundancy payment from a garment factory that shut down in January. The demonstration, outside the South Korean-owned Sam-Han Fabrics Company in the capital Phnom Penh, was also baton-charged by police. The Cambodian textile industry, which employs more than 240,000 workers, has suffered as a result of the expiry of the Multi-Fibre Agreement at the beginning of the year. At least 20 garment factories have closed in and around Phnom Penh in the last four months...

Stop the killing!

From Justice for Colombia The National Trade Union School [NTUS], a EU funded research institution based in Medellin, Colombia, records 94 assassinations of trade unionists in 2004, an increase on the 90 trade unionists that both the NTUS and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) registered killed in 2003. The NTUS has also reported an increase in “disappearances” and arbitrary detentions. This deterioration contrasts with Colombian government claims that human rights abuses against trade union members are declining. Send messages of protest to: President Alvaro Uribe...

Hunger strikes over wage arrears

A wave of hunger strikes by workers protesting over wage arrears has swept across the Urals in Russia. In Tavda, 38 workers at a bankrupt methanol plant are on hunger strike. They were dismissed last autumn but received no severance pay after the factory closed and were not paid their last two months’ wages. Nearby, in Novouralsk, 34 employees of a car factory have been on hunger strike since 18 February. Last year there were dozens of hunger strikes over wage arrears in Russia, mostly by workers of bankrupt private companies.

The looting freedom

Pat Longman reviews “The freedom” by Christian Parenti, The New Press This book makes real for the reader the total chaos, brutality, madness, violence and corruption that is US-occupied Iraq. Parenti observes how the young US soldiers, “the grunts”, are completely bewildered by their role, and ignorant of Iraqi culture, language and politics. They have a seething hostility to their superiors. There are tensions between the multi-ethnic working-class ranks and the army of “freshly minted MBAs” and “self deluding zealots” holed up in the safer “Green Zone”. Parenti spent time with members of...

Boost for Wal-Mart workers

Workers trying to organise a union in retail giant Wal-Mart in Canada have received a boost from the Quebec labour relations board, who recently ordered Wal-Mart to stop intimidating and harassing workers. The board found that Wal-Mart officials had intimidated three female employees, seeking to prevent them from exercising their rights under the labour code to form a union. The United Food and Commercial Workers union is trying to organise workers at more than a dozen of Wal-Mart’s 235 stores in Canada. Wal-Mart has now threatened to close the Jonquière, Quebec store that was the first Wal...

Twenty years too late

Mick Duncan reviews "Faith" , BBC1, 28 February The Tory Party complained about William Ivory’s Faith, claiming it painted Margaret Thatcher in a bad light. Ivory is a talented writer, and this feature length drama of love and betrayal, set in an anonymous Yorkshire town during the miners’ strike, certainly had its moments. But painting Thatcher in a bad light? It would take the dramatic talent of Shakespeare coupled with a god-given gift for abuse equivalent to that of Hunter S Thompson to achieve that. You can’t make the devil more evil than he already is. So it is with Thatcher. What this...

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