Solidarity 306, 4 December 2013

Six weeks before Romanian and Bulgarian workers will get unrestricted access to European labour markets, David Cameron has announced new benefit restrictions on all EU migrants. The initiative is, to borrow the word used by European Commissioner Laszlo Andor, “nasty”. It is also, to judge it in terms of bourgeois policy-making efficacy, nonsensical. Under the proposals, newly arrived EU jobseekers will not be able to claim any housing benefit ever, will not be entitled to out-of-work benefits for the first three months of residency, will not be able to claim benefits for more than six months...

Left Unity , launched in late 2012 by ex-Respect members Kate Hudson and Andrew Burgin, held its founding conference on 30 November. This is a longer version of the article than in the printed paper. The one day conference was to debate and decide the safer spaces policy, aims, constitution, electoral strategy and campaigning priorities of the organisation. How did it do? The conference voted through a constitution and founding platform statement, but political debate was thin. The time allocated for the platform debate was ridiculous; a three-minute proposing speech by each platform,followed...