Solidarity 242, 18 April 2012

“Edubusiness” vultures circle

This week owners and administrators of private capital will assemble in London to share ideas about how state education can be further opened up to their insurgency. Education Investor magazine (yes, it does exist) is hosting a conference to bring together established edubusinesses such as Pearson (owners of the “awarding body” or exam board Edexcel), academy sponsors (including Balfour Beatty and ARK), and representatives of private equity companies, some of whom have given large amounts of money to Education Secretary Michael Gove in recent years. According to material published by the GMB...

The fight for secularism

Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association, spoke to Ira Berkovic. What’s behind the resurgence in self-confidence on the part of organised religion? In many ways the apparent resurgence is only apparent and not as real as it seems. The situation is that of a diminishing group of individuals shouting louder rather, than a growing group speaking up with increasing confidence. However, it is certainly true that in the absence of other easily identifiable and self-promoting groupings, politicians are increasingly turning to ready-made religious groups whose leaders, even...

Why I became a third camp socialist, and what I've done

I grew up in a working-class neighbourhood on the South Side of Chicago. My Dutch immigrant grandfather, John Cornelius La Botz, became a socialist in Chicago during the Great Depression. As socialists, my father Herb and my uncle Bert La Botz were conscientious objectors to participation in World War II. They were drafted, interned in a camp for conscientious objectors in Big Flats, New York, and there became friends with other socialists, some of whom were associated with Dwight McDonald’s Politics magazine (est. 1944), which had broadly third camp politics. Since I was not born until 9...

Strike on 10 May!

The National Executive of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) has voted to strike on 10 May in the battle against government pensions reform. Its decision follows the announcement of the health section of the Unite union to “aim for” a strike on that date. Unite now says its 100,000 NHS members will be “staging protests and industrial action” on that date. The Executive of the University and College Union (UCU) meets next week to decide on its participation. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) Executive also meets next week, and will discuss further action. Although this strike...

Civil service union members protest against EDL

The far right, racist English Defence League demonstrated outside the Home Office in central London on 17 April. The protest was formally against the government's failure to deport Islamist ideologue Abu Qatada (though the Guardian reported on the same day that the government has in fact arrested Qatada and is making fresh attempts to deport him). In reality the EDL action was, predictably, a bile-filled demonstration of anti-Muslim hatred, with sieg heils and death threats against counter-protesters. The Unite Against Fascism campaign, with the support of the PCS union, which organises...

An appreciation of Mick Shaw

Mick Shaw’s death robs the labour movement of one of its finest representatives. He was a socialist, internationalist and trade unionist who devoted his whole life to the working class and the left. Mick was best known as a firefighter and Fire Brigades Union member, where he rose to become the national president. His work in the FBU started with the 1977 firefighters strike and finished with picket duty during the London strikes in 2010. He was the London representative on the FBU executive for a decade and was a perceptive, critical voice during the 2002-03 pay strikes. He was proud to have...

Why I changed my name to sound more Muslim

Recently, someone I know through my student AWL comrades told me about a claim a prominent student SWP member had made about me. This SWPer had told her that I changed my name to Sacha Ismail in order to sound more Muslim: the implication being that I was seeking to cover up or mitigate the AWL's supposedly "Islamophobic" - in fact secularist, anti-racist - politics. My original name, believe it or not, was John Smith . (Just to be clear, I haven't changed my name. Sacha Ismail is my real name. My father is Bangladeshi and my full name is Alexander Salim Ismail: Sacha is short for Alexander.)...

Trotskyism and the Spanish Workers' Movement

'There is nothing so destructive as illusion, whereas nothing can be of greater use to the revolution than naked truth.' Rosa Luxemburg, The Spartacus Programme. The Spanish Revolution was the last great confrontation in the Europe-wide class war sparked by the triumph of the Russian Revolution in 1917. It inspired workers from all over the world and its tragic defeat was a source of controversy for decades after the events. The writings of Leon Trotsky were important in that debate. The writings of other revolutionaries — such as Victor Serge — are less well known, though they were important...

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