Solidarity 303, 13 November 2013

Remembering Kristallnacht

Synagogue in Hanover, Germany, set ablaze during the Kristallnacht pogrom On 9-10 November 1938, Germany and Austria were swept by vicious pogroms against Jews and Jewish property. The day was called “Kristallnacht” (crystal night) for the way it covered the streets with broken glass. It signalled a shift in Nazi anti-semitism beyond legal and administrative discrimination, and towards mass, violent assaults on the Jewish population. The pretext for the rioting was the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by Herschel Grynszpan, a Polish-Jewish refugee. Grynszpan shot the junior...

Targets or trade unions?

On 5 November, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reported that at Colchester General Hospital cancer waiting times had been misrecorded so that the hospital avoided financial penalties for not meeting targets. When staff tried to object, they were bullied by management. Alarm is a sound response to cancer waiting times being too long. Some cancers can metastasise (have the cancer spread from one organ to another) quite fast, and delay can make the difference between the cancer being curable or not. But if a hospital does not have the resources to meet the targets, what should it do? If it...

Reverse NHS cuts to stop A&E crisis

In September this year there were 43% more patients waiting more than four hours in A&E than two years ago. There were 89% more 4-12 hour “trolley waits” - patients who have been processed through A&E only to be dumped in a corridor somewhere waiting for a bed in another part of the hospital. Cliff Mann, of the College for Emergency Medicine, told the Guardian “This winter will probably be the worse than last year, which was the worst year we have ever had”. The figures reflect both A&E cuts and cuts elsewhere. Wards have been shut down. Community services have been cut. The number of...

Polemic was wrong on Lewisham

I am writing this letter in personal capacity since the consensus of Lewisham People Before Profit was against us replying to your attack on us as a group in Solidarity 301 (“Lewisham: Our plans to go on winning”, 29 October), largely since many of those present at our monthly meetings do not read your paper and believe that very few Lewisham voters do. However, your defamatory political attack has proved to be the preliminary to your involvement in an authoritarian bureaucratic manoeuvre of the kind one would associate with Stalinists or Cliffites. Namely, the moving of a new set of standing...

Facebook gives us access

Martin Thomas’ article on Facebook (“Facebook, CPA, and socialism”, Solidarity 302, 6 November 2013) makes some valid points about the ways in which people interact online, and the benefits of face-to-face interaction. However, I don’t think it should be forgotten that for some people online interaction is the only or main kind they can have. This may especially be the case for some people with disabilities. My health has been poor of late, and this has largely prevented me from attending meetings, but I value the online interaction I get via Facebook and email, even when I only read and don’t...

Mystics and mental illness

Martin Thomas is right that some mental illness “hurts” the sufferer (“Facebook, CPA, and socialism”, Solidarity 302, 6 November 2013). The person who is depressed knows they are depressed and does not like it. But a person experiencing psychosis — delusions and hallucinations — may not know they are psychotic and does not necessarily experience subjective suffering. Most of the suffering that such people experience is due to the specific content of their psychosis and the way they are treated by the society they live in. The social context has a large bearing on the content. In our society...

Nazis confronted

On Saturday 9 November, various fascists and neo-Nazis (including the newly-formed “New British Union”) called a demonstration at the Greek Embassy in London in solidarity with the jailed leadership of Greek fascist party Golden Dawn. Although many of those behind the demo are marginal cranks whose risible pretensions rather outweigh their social significance (the NBU’s handful of members enjoying dressing up in uniforms and pretending it’s 1936), such openly Nazi groups could grow in conditions of ongoing austerity and mainstream media and state racism by attracting disaffected activists on...

Decent homes for all! Fight to scrap the Bedroom Tax!

A report on the bedroom tax by Leeds Hands Off Our Homes shows the stress, poverty and intimidation being piled on the disabled and vulnerable. Housing officers and social landlords often force tenants to prioritise rent above food and heating. The right to family life, equality for the disabled, and food and shelter are all assaulted by the bedroom tax. Hands Off Our Homes is one of the most inspiring campaigns that has been seen in West Yorkshire for many years. It has helped prevent the eviction of two tenants, and is running a political campaign against the policy and Leeds city council’s...

Media whips up anti-migrant racism

That we have come to expect this kind of gutter racism from the Daily Express does not make its “crusade to stop new EU migrants” any less disgusting. Last week, the paper added that “95% support the Crusade”. Another headline proclaimed that “98%” were “demanding” a ban on new migrants. 95% of whom, exactly? Later in the article it is revealed that this was an estimate of callers to one radio show. The Express’s coverage is littered with unsubstantiated claims. They consistently and definitively talk of “70,000 new migrants”, despite the actual estimate being between 30,000 and 70,000, with...

Instead of Wonga, living wage for all!

High-cost credit/payday loan companies, whose turnover is estimated to be £2.2 billion per year, are coming under pressure both for their lending practices and for the way they advertise. In June Wonga raised its typical APR from 4,214% to 5,853%. Companies have been criticised for using cute advertising characters – such as Wonga’s “straight-talking” elderly characters the Wongies - and taking out slots during children’s TV. Representatives of three of the biggest companies, Wonga, QuickQuid and Mr Lender, appeared before Parliament’s Business Select Committee on 5 November to answer...

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