Solidarity 456, 6 December 2017

Illusions of Power: The lessons of last time round

In the early 1980s, many Labour councils were committed to defy Tory cuts. Sadly, every single one of these councils backed down in the end. There are many lessons to be learned from that defeat. Today business rates are set by, and channelled through, central government. In the 1980s, councils set and collected rates levied on local businesses. They had more scope to offset central government cuts through these tax-raising powers. In that context many argued that this tax-raising was progressive and redistributive. Socialist Organiser ( Solidarity 's predeccessor newspaper) argued against...

Letter: Russian civil war: not just red and white

Numerous commentators on the Russian Revolution also make comment and offer analyses of the civil war that followed. In his reply to Eric Lee ( Solidarity 455) Paul Vernadsky mentions how “...the Bolsheviks fought a civil war against the White generals and the imperialist powers”. I have no disagreement with what Paul Vernadsky has written (and I note it was a short letter not a full-length article), but it is necessary to add more detail. The Russian civil war that followed the revolution was a very complicated often confusing affair. The armies of the imperial powers never really posed a...

Zimbabwe: no change at the top

Emmerson Mnangagwa has been sworn in as the President of Zimbabwe, following Robert Mugabe’s on-off resignation. In his rambling inauguration speech Mnangagwa was keen to heap praise on his “father” and “mentor” which added to the heap of slogans he used in Mugabe’s praise — an attempt to rehabilitate his former boss. Zanu-PF and the new president are very clear that that Mugabe’s dismissal should not be seen as admitting that there is anything structurally wrong in the country, or inherently bad in the hucksterish way Zanu-PF has controlled Zimbabwean politics in the last thirty years. It...

Daesh Sinai attack linked to growth of Islamism across the region

On 24 November, in the Egyptian province of Sinai, Daesh carried out one of their most sickening attacks. Killing 305 and injuring hundreds more, Daesh attacked the Rawdah mosque. Gunmen waited to shoot down fleeing worshippers after their bombing. Ansar Beyt al-Maqdis pledged allegiance to Daesh in 2014 and has since been known as the Sinai Province of ISIS. It was founded out of a number of competing factions previously linked to Al Qaeda. It could now be the most capable and dangerous section of Daesh in Egypt. The declaration of a “state of emergency” in Sinai since 2014 has not slowed...

Stop this slave trade!

Recent reports about the Libyan slave trade adds further to the horror of what is going on in Libya and across the south Mediterranean region. The Libyan slave trade has been known to be in operation for years. It accompanies the brutal exploitation of those fleeing poverty in Sudan, Chad and Nigeria. It is well illustrated by the story of Victor Imasuen, the young Nigerian interviewed by US broadcaster CNN on his return to Nigeria, a video that subsequently went viral. Unemployment and poverty in Nigeria mushroomed in the wake of the 2014 collapse of oil prices. This in part led to the 2015...

Haggling over the price of life

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved two new medications which will help women with advanced breast cancer. Ribociclib and palbociclib have been welcomed as “breakthrough”medicines which can prolong life and give women more time without chemotherapy. Both are suitable for post-menopausal women with hormone-receptor-positive (HR+/HER2-) breast cancer which is locally advanced or is spreading. Both are taken as a daily tablet, and are used in conjunction with an aromatase inhibitor such as Letrozole. Currently, 85% of women with this type of cancer do not...

Vote is tight in Catalonia

On 5 December, the Spanish Supreme Court withdrew its international arrest warrant against Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and four other members of the government who have sought refuge in Belgium. Other Catalan politicians, arrested in Spain, have however been refused bail and will have to run their campaigns for Catalonia’s 21 December elections from jail. Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy still hopes to regain control on 21 December by scaring lukewarm supporters of Catalan independence into voting for anti-independence parties. The opinion polls still show little movement. They...

Cuts could devastate domestic violence refuge service

According to Women’s Aid there were over twenty thousand referrals to refuge services in 2015-16. Of these, a quarter were turned down due to lack of space. The actual numbers of people accessing all domestic violence services is much higher. The figures are staggering. It is very, very hard for a woman to find a refuge space and therefore to be able to afford to leave an abusive relationship. The government are now considering changes that will make it even harder for women, changes that threaten the very existence of refuges in many areas. Currently women are able to claim housing benefit to...

How the 0.1% rule

"How does a political party dedicated to the material interests of the top 0.1 per cent of the income distribution win and hold power in a universal suffrage democracy?", asks columnist Martin Wolf in the Financial Times (21 November 2017). It is indeed the question of questions about the politics and economics of today's social system. Wolf is a former right-wing Labourite who recounts that in the early 1970s he shifted "from social democracy to classical liberalism. I remain such a liberal today". He interprets the question as one only about the Republican administration in the US today. He...

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