Solidarity 237, 7 March 2012

Help the AWL to raise £20,000

Horse trading between the Liberals and Tories over what goes into the Budget (21 March) has begun. Rumour has it the Liberals will “relax” their commitment to the 50% top rate of income tax. Rumour has it Ed Balls is also getting supine on the issue. The Liberals want to trade the top rate for a so-called “mansion tax” — higher council tax for big houses. Boris Johnson is heavily lobbying against that one, on behalf of London property owners. But what’s the betting the Liberals will roll over on all “principles” in the end. In a world when “principles” always give way to a pathetic and...

A trillion for the banks, more cuts for us

Quietly, without any of the stomping that accompanied Greece's “bail-out”, the European Central Bank has lent European banks more than a trillion euros at ultra-low interest rates, in two tranches, one in December and one in February. This is equivalent to an outright subsidy to the banks of maybe €120 billion over the coming three years. Banks borrowing cash cheaply from the ECB, at one per cent interest a year, can then use the same cash to buy Italian or Spanish government bonds at about 5% interest a year. So long as Italy and Spain don’t go bust, the banks make a net gain of 4% a year. 4%...

Islamist is new UAF vice-chair

The new vice chair of Unite Against Fascism is Azad Ali, leading activist in the Islamic Forum of Europe, an Islamist group based mainly in the Bengali community of East London. There are many things socialists should say about UAF, Ali and the IFE, but I want to concentrate on one. Our comrades, particularly in the student movement, are regularly called racist by the SWP and their friends for our position on Palestine. We oppose the Israeli occupation and support Palestinian struggle against it. Some of our members have travelled to Palestine, and been tear-gassed by the IDF while protesting...

The cancer “Rupert” meets his singing detectives

A week is a long time in the newspaper industry. On 26 February Murdoch launched the Sunday edition of the Sun in a blaze of hype about a “fresh start” and new era for the News International stable. Sales figures of over three million suggested that the Dirty Digger could begin to put the scandals of the last 12 months behind him and regroup. Within days the scandal was resurfacing — thanks to years of research by serious journalists like the Guardian’s Nick Davies into New International’s corrupt practice, piecing together a complicated web linking the corporation to dodgy police, the...

Vote Livingstone... very critically

Ken Livingstone has aligned himself with the Occupy movement and attacked the tax-avoiding rich. Now, however, it seems he is one of them himself. There has been a minor scandal in the media because Livingstone and his wife set up a company to channel money from his media appearances and speeches — allowing them to avoid the 50% income tax rate and pay 20% corporation tax instead. It’s right that there should be a scandal. It’s a shame it’s so far mostly limited to the press, and limited to the issue of tax-dodging. The real issue here is that Livingstone is a very rich man trying to get...

Escalation in Syria

According to the Washington Post (2 March), Saudi Arabia and Qatar have indicated they will send arms to the Syrian opposition. Kuwait’s parliament passed a non-binding resolution on 1 March calling for its government to provide weapons. The Saudis and Qataris, so the Washington Post’s sources said, are prepared to move “as soon as they physically can”, within days or weeks at the most. “The delays are logistical, not political”. “The Saudis see Assad’s early downfall as a major blow against Iran [Saudi Arabia’s main rival in the region]. Qatar, which played a leading role in arming the Libyan...

Iran: dancing towards war

On Tuesday 6 March, the European Union announced a move to restart talks with Iran over its nuclear programme. “The time and venue of these talks will now be agreed”, said EU foreign-affairs chief Catherine Ashton. The same day the Iran government said it would allow UN investigators to visit the Parchin military complex, to which it had previously refused access. The day before, 5 March, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, declared that his agency “continues to have serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program” and “is...

ESOL campaigners launch manifesto

On 3 March Action for ESOL held a large, national meeting to launch The ESOL Manifesto. The first part of the day was a celebration of the campaign which led to a u-turn on plans to make students on benefits pay fees of up to £1,200 for a course. The proposed cut would have meant that up to 75% of current learners, mainly women from black and minority ethnic groups would not have been able to attend classes anymore. The u-turn was an important victory for the campaign, a coalition of students, teachers, trade unionists, researchers, migrants’ rights activists and many others. It is important...

Ireland to vote on austerity

Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny has bowed to pressure and announced a referendum on the European Union’s fiscal treaty. The ensuing campaign is likely to turn into a battle over the wider issue of austerity and threatens to become a plebiscite on both the EU and the Fine Gael-Labour coalition. The fiscal treaty will place severe restrictions on governments’ abilities to run budget deficits. Not only does it entrench the Maastricht debt limit of 60% of GDP, but will also place tight limits on EU members’ budget deficits. It is a neoliberal charter and must be opposed. Ireland’s trade surplus reached...

Stop the treason trial: solidarity protest at Zimbabwean embassy

Members and friends of Workers' Liberty protested outside the Zimbabwean embassy in London on 2 March against the treason trial currently being conducted in Zimbabwe. Seven socialist activists, members of the International Socialist Organisation of Zimbabwe, could face years in prison if convicted. Our comrade Janine Booth, who represents London Transport workers on the RMT trade union national executive, handed in a letter of protest to the embassy. The ISO comrades will find out the verdict on 19 March. Meanwhile please send messages of solidarity to iso.zim@gmail.com

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