Solidarity 170, 2 April 2010

Working-class anti-fascist network launched

The opportunities for anti-fascists to meet and debate the issues facing us are few and far between. The need for such opportunities is intensified by the prospect of 400 British National Party candidates in the coming election and continued mobilisations by the anti-Muslim racists of the English Defence League. Any honest assessment of the current state of anti-fascism would have to concede both the generally unconsidered failings and the massive potential for the movement. These considerations were the starting point for a conference of anti-fascists and anti-racists in Nottingham on 27...

Gramsci's idea of hegemony

Antonio Gramsci was an activist in the Italian socialist and communist movement from his early 20s (shortly before World War One) until 1926, when he was jailed by the fascist regime. He was an important figure in the factory councils and factory occupations in Turin in 1919-20, and the central leader of the (then-revolutionary) Italian Communist Party from late 1923 until he was jailed. In prison, between 1929 and 1935, he wrote the Prison Notebooks which, while fragmentary, are today his most-read writings. He died in 1937. After World War Two, the Italian Communist Party (by then thoroughly...

Can music change the world?

The Ruby Kid is a hip-hop artist who performs with Black Jacobins. Al Baker is a songwriter from Manchester who fronts folk-punk band The Dole Queue. As part of the recent “Red Scare Tour” they joined up to play to hundreds of people across the country, including a packed-out benefit gig for Leeds UCU’s strike fund. Here they discuss the crossovers between politics and music, and what it means to make “political” art. The Ruby Kid: We both get referred to as “political” artists a lot of the time; what does that label mean to you? Do you think it’s a useful one? Al Baker: I never describe my...

Camberwell and Peckham: talking socialism on the doorsteps

Solidarity spoke to three people who have recently been out canvassing for Workers’ Liberty’s socialist election campaign in Camberwell and Peckham. Jill Mountford is our election candidate : “Two things have made an impression on me. One is the issue of low pay. On our leaflets we’ve put forward the idea that MPs should only take a skilled worker’s wage — ‘about £30,000 a year’. The thing is, that sounds like a massive amount to a lot of people. Many of those we’ve canvassed work in the black economy and don’t even get the minimum wage — they’re on £5 an hour or even less. When we say £8.80...

The left and the labour movement in the General Election

How should the working-class left respond to the general election and the cuts that are likely to follow, whichever party wins? Solidarity spoke to a range of activists (all in a personal capacity) from across the left. We will continue the discussion in future issues. Make the unions assert themselves! Maria Exall is a vice-chair of the Labour Representation Committee, and a member of the national executive of the Communication Workers’ Union and of the TUC General Council. The Hewitt-Hoon-Byers affair is an index of the fact that New Labour — or, at least, that part of New Labour — is not...

Their democracy and ours

“The energies of a mighty kingdom have been wasted in building up the power of selfish and ignorant men, and its resources squandered for their aggrandisement. The good of a party has been advanced to the sacrifice of the good of the nation; the few have governed for the interest of the few, while the interest of the many has been neglected, or insolently and tyrannously trampled upon.” — From the text of the first Chartist mass petition to Parliament. Elections, according to Karl Marx’s famous adage, give workers the chance to vote every five years or so for which member of the ruling-class...

What is the Socialist Campaign to Stop the Tories and Fascists?

We pose the questions in the form of a dialogue. Q. What is the Socialist Campaign to Stop the Tories and Fascists? A. It is an attempt to maximise the socialist presence in the general election. Q. How? A. By running an election campaign wherever we have people, whether or not we have a socialist candidate. Q. That sounds like a whimsical or “Irish” joke, an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. A. It is neither a joke nor an oxymoron, but an attempt to grapple with the contradictions. Socialists are organisationally weak. There is no broader left coalition, even on the small scale of the...

Fight the cuts in Further Education

Further Education (FE) colleges in England are facing a cut to adult education budgets of over £191 million for the year 2010-2011. That’s an average 16% budget cut per college, but in some institutions the figure is as high as 25%. The employers have set the number of jobs under threat nationally at 7,000. The FE sector, like the HE sector, is moving toward a business-focused, market-driven funding model that serves the needs of local employers at the expense of less vocational courses and adult learning. Against these cuts, UCU lecturers’ union members in 11 colleges in London will be...

Sussex University: from a campaign to a movement

The anti-cuts campaign as Sussex University has grown massively in the last few weeks. It has seen two occupations, numerous demonstrations, and the first signs of victory against the course cuts, service cuts, and 115 redundancies. The last Thursday of term (March 18) saw a solid strike by academic staff, and the University and Colleges Union has promised more industrial action. On March 3, around 80 students entered the offices of the Vice Chancellor and his executive group, asked staff to leave the building and chained the doors closed. Riot police with dogs were on the scene very soon, as...

British Airways dispute: "we've got to be ready to stand up again"

There are conflicting figures about the impact of the strike. BA are claiming that most flights flew, but we reckon around two-thirds of workers were on strike. That’s positive, but there’s still an awful lot of fear; we’re not like the dockers or the miners where you had a strong culture of trade union militancy. Walsh used “wet leases” from other carriers such as EasyJet and Monarch to get some planes in the air, as well as running a few flights with volunteer crews. A lot of empty planes were moved around, too. That happens normally — smaller aircraft need to be moved to allow large planes...

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