Solidarity 140, 16 October 2008

No deportations to war zones!

Refugee rights and anti racist campaigners took to the streets of Sheffield on Saturday 3 October to protest against the inhuman treatment of asylum seekers by the authorities in Britain. In particular they wanted to highlight the policy of locking up asylum seekers, sometimes for long periods, in detention centres — in some cases along with their young children. Over 100 people marched from Sheffield City Hall to the Peace Gardens to call for asylum seekers to be given the right to work and for an end to deportations to war zones. Amongst those on the protest were: • Iraqi Kurds who have been...

Extend abortion rights to Northern Ireland!

On 22 October, MPs will vote on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. As well as several anti-choice, anti-women amendments, there are real opportunities to extend abortion rights — including access to abortion for women in Northern Ireland, an end to the two doctor rule, increasing the pool of abortion practitioners, allowing more local abortion services and banning misleading advertising. Feminist Fightback are focusing on the extension of abortion rights to Northern Ireland, where currently it is illegal to have an abortion, even in cases of rape and incest. Working class women...

Stop fascists on streets of Leeds!

On Saturday 18 October the fascist British People’s Party are planning a racist march to HMV, Leeds, against rap music. As with the BNP leader Nick Griffin’s recent rally in Stoke this is a test to see if fascists can once again openly organise on the streets of Britain. In the 1930s and again in the 1970s fascists held open rallies, marches and meetings in city centres and in areas with large Jewish, black and Asian communities. Yet Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts in the 1930s and the National Front in the 1970s were largely driven from the streets by workers’ movement and local communities...

New Zealand: Left hopes to score in election

The eyes of the world may be transfixed by the spectacle of the race for the White House, but there’s another election in November that deserves some attention. New Zealand is going to the polls. There are a few similarities with Britain: Labour has been in office for long time, and there is widespread disillusionment; National (the Tories) has a new, young leader aggressively pursuing the political centre ground… But there are differences too: most unions are not affiliated to NZ Labour, and the voting system, Mixed Member Proportional Representation (MMP) means that small parties can end up...

International solidarity shorts

IRAQ: A leading gay activist in Iraq has been assassinated. Last month, 27 year old Bashar the coordinator of Iraqi LGBT in Baghdad and a university student, was assassinated in a barber shop. While homosexuality is not illegal in Iraq, several laws are used to persecute gay people. Laws against loitering, indecent exposure, spreading "dangerous diseases," committing an “indecent” act in public and making "indecent" advances are all used. But the main danger remains the threat of the militias groups. Support Iraqilgbt: http://iraqilgbtuk.blogspot.com/ IRAN: Repression against labour activists...

Austria: where fascists won 30%

The timely death of the Austrian far right “guru” Jörg Haider is a cause for a double celebration. First and foremost because the demise of Europe’s most prominent and successful fascist warms the hearts of all those committed to democracy and freedom. But also because, at last, he can perform some useful social function: fertilising the soil. In the recent Austrian elections close to thirty percent of the votes were cast for one of the two major fascist organisations. This comes after Haider led his “Freedom Party” [sic] into joint government between 2000 and 2006. Although it looks unlikely...

Comments on the crisis

John McDonnell MP: we have no say in this deal The government have come out with their statement, possibly the worst deal you could have, you shove in up to £50 billion... you get non-executive directors... we have no say whatsoever... this idea that they’ll control bonuses on executive pay for a limited period of time; they’re going to set up an arms-length body to monitor their investments... it’s laughable. It’s called nationalisation, democratic representation on all the banks. But reform of the structures is irrelevant unless we can really transform our financial strategy... based on the...

Questions and answers on the crisis

Q. Governments are now going to part-nationalise their big banks, offer cash in return for the banks’ dodgy assets, guarantee bank deposits, guarantee inter-bank loans, and promise not to let any big bank go bust. Will that fix the crisis? A. In principle capitalist governments should be able to guarantee their domestic banking systems against collapse by sufficiently drastic measures of “bankers’ socialism”. Governments can always print money, so they can never be unable to pay their debts to people within the same country. However, at least four problems remains. One: more drastic measures...

Teamsters against the Silver Shirts

The history, politics and struggles of the rank-and-file Minnesota Teamsters in the 1930s provides countless examples of how effective socialist leadership can transform the working class movement. Among these examples is the story of the “544 Union Defense Guard” (UDG). Formed in response to heightened activity from the anti-union, fascist “Silver Shirt” movement, the UDG developed from an organisation to protect union and radical meetings from attack to a tool that forced all fascist activities out of Minneapolis. The example of the UDG is an inspiring and timely lesson in militant, working...

New party to be founded in January

At its congress in January this year, the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire, one of the main revolutionary socialist groups in France, decided on a drive to reach out and build “a new anti-capitalist party” (French initials NPA) from below. (See www.workersliberty.org/lcr-npa ). The decision was based on the electoral and opinion-poll successes of the LCR, and especially its presidential candidate Olivier Besancenot, since 2002; and partly also on the relatively rapid growth of the LCR since then. There are no other big organised groups involved with the LCR in its “new party” project, though...

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