Solidarity 087, 26 January 2006

Call for a rank and file public sector alliance

The Department of Work and Pensions London Regional Committee of the PCS union has issued the following statement and is appealing for support from other trade unions. In the London region of the Department Of Works and Pensions (DWP) we face a projected cut in staffing of nearly 2,000 between now and 1st April 2006. The members who remain in employment, are facing increased work pressures and many are coming under pressure to transfer from offices at one end of the greater London region to the other – for the privilege of the low wages handed out by the DWP. The DWP London region job loss is...

Rebuild the student women’s movement

By Tammy Love There seems to be a renewed interest in feminism among young women. The FEM 05 conference held at Sheffield University in November attracted at least 200 young and student women — although the event’s complete lack of politics meant that most of them went away none the wiser. The stereotype of young women finishing their sentences with “but of course I’m not a feminist” is simply no longer true. However their feminism is usually politically unformed and unclear. There are numerous issues which make a revived feminist movement an urgent necessity. From the anti-choice offensive to...

BNP routed outside Leeds court

By Mike Wood On Monday 16 January Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, and Mark Collett appeared at Leeds Crown Court charged with inciting racial hatred. A hundred or so BNP supporters greeted them as they entered the court. Around 700-800 people were there to protest against him. Whilst the BNP had bussed their membership in from all around the country to make the best showing possible, the protestors had mobilised people from the local area who could make it. This included a strong contingent from Leeds University, and a smaller one from the University of York. Also there were representatives...

Political change in Egypt

By Mike Rowley In last year’s multi-party presidential elections, the first such in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the oldest and largest political-Islamist organisation in the world, did not stand a candidate. In the December 2005 parliamentary elections, its candidates (nominally independents: the MB is still illegal in Egypt) won 19% of the vote, emerging as the main opposition group in parliament. Both sets of elections featured a lot of corruption and violence. Al-Wafd, the mouthpiece of Egypt’s bourgeois-democratic opposition, states “bullets govern[ed] the elections", with pro...

Lenska and Saddam: where’s the crime?

“I soon had occasion to become convinced, by experience, that the old bourgeois functionaries sometimes have a broader viewpoint and a more profound sense of dignity than Messrs. ‘Socialist’ Ministers.” Leon Trotsky, after his expulsion from Norway by the country’s Labour government in 1937. Maybe we should call it the “swallowing camels and choking on gnats” syndrome. Max Hastings summed it up nicely in the Guardian: Tony Blair has survived as prime minister despite lying his head off about the war in Iraq; if he had been “caught” with a prostitute, of either sex, he’d have had to resign. We...

The “IS tradition” and the Independent Labour Party

The “IS tradition” of the 1960s, which members and old ex-members of the Socialist Workers’ Party (SWP) cherish, was in fact largely taken from the Independent Labour Party in its last years. The first part of this article described the earlier history of the ILP. After 1946 the ILP mutated. This article tells the rest of the story. From about the time James Maxton died, and Fenner Brockway, John McGovern and others left to join the Labour Party, the ILP shed its character as a trimming, evasive, manoeuvring left social-democratic organism, and took on the character of an “ideological”...

workers news round-up

USA New York’s bus and subway workers, who shut down the US’s largest transit system for three days last month, have voted down the contract they were offered by seven votes. This agreement had called for wage rises of 3% in the first year, 4% in the second and 3.5% in the third, and an additional paid holiday. It would also have required workers to contribute 1.5% of their salaries toward their health insurance premiums. The union’s executive board, who were recommending the deal, put the vote down to a threat made by Governor Pataki, who refused to promise to ratify the pensions deal. The...

Writing on the wall

The wealthy’s way of giving birth — courtesy of the NHS Described by NHS bosses as, “an income generating” idea, the Jentle midwifery scheme — where women are guaranteed one-to-one regular care … for the price of £4,000 — is a step towards a two tier NHS pre-natal service. Supporters of the scheme — which runs out of Queen Charlotte and Chelsea hospital in London — say it saves the NHS money because having the benefit of an attentive and trusted midwife has been shown to cut the number of caesarian deliveries. Which shows the crazy logic the NHS top brass believe in. Put in the funds to train...

Letters

Religion: learning through struggle is not enough Two different and connected aspects of David Broder’s article in Solidarity 3/86 need to be challenged. Firstly David does well to attack those who are full-on apologists for the veil; yet he uses a confused line of argument that winds up with him supporting the actual imposition of the veil on girls. On the one hand David describes the tradition of women covering themselves up as “a relic ... of pre-capitalist societies where women were even more under the jackboot of their husbands.” Correct; but the veil is still with us, and girls’ wearing...

Industrial News

Terminal 5 strikes TGWU, GMB and UCATT members building Heathrow’s Terminal 5 struck on Friday 20 and Monday 23 January in their battle over bonuses with contractor Laing O’Rourke — despite claims in the bosses’ press that the action was being called off following a settlement. The strikers organised picket lines at half a dozen strategic locations in the environs of the airport. This was the second set of strikes which the workers have voted for in pursuit of an additional £1 an hour in bonus payments to bring them into line with others on site. The company offered an additional 22p in...

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