Workers' Liberty

By Daniel Randall

Throughout the course of the debate leading up to AWL's 2007 AGM, and the debate at the AGM itself, it became obvious that many AWL members did not have a clear understanding of what those of us who held a minority position on Iraq were really advocating.

For Iraq — Troops Out Now? The Debate in AWL, click here

Cathy Nugent continues a series on the life and times of Tom Mann

When Tom Mann joined the Social Democratic Federation in May 1885 he was nearly thirty years old. That would have been an advanced age to be converted to socialism by the standards of later, more revolutionary times. But then these were not yet revolutionary times, and socialist ideas had been quite thin on the ground in Britain up to the beginning of the 1880s.

By John O'Mahony
The Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri has (July 10th) threatened Prime Minister Gordon Brown with mass murder in Britain, in retaliation for the award of a knighthood to Salman Rushdie. The knighthood, al-Zawahri said, was an "insult" to Muslims. This once more expresses, and in its most brutish and blood-thirsty form, the paradoid intolerance that governs political Islam.

by Albert Glotzer
Many of the core activists of today’s left had their thinking shaped by the dramatic struggles of 1979-84, or of the late 1960s and early 70s — times when capitalism seemed to be in intractable crisis, and mass working-class action to change society was a prospect near at hand.

By Pete Keenlyside (CWU Executive, personal capacity)

As a member of the executive of the Communication Workers Union I want to appeal to the broad labour and trade union movement to rally to the postal workers in our dispute with Royal Mail.

By Maria Exall

The media reported that the Government is planning to change the law to help women gain equal access to membership benefits of golf clubs.

Paul Hampton reviews 2006, Marxism and Ecological Economics by Paul Burkett (Amsterdam: Brill)

By David Broder

At a recent conference in France I spoke to a young man who was a member of the Parti Communiste Français (PCF, French Communist Party). When I asked him why any young activist would join an ossified party now in terminal decline, he replied that “I intervene in the PCF because I am a Luxemburgist. I can see the difference between the leadership of an organisation and its membership.”

Editorial, Solidarity 3/114
The rulers of Israel are frequently accused, and justly so according to the evidence, of wanting a “settlement” with the Palestinians in which a “Palestinian state” is really a series of “Palestinistans”, what in South Africa were called bantustans.

By Sofie Buckland, National Union of Students Executive Committee (pc)

On the announcement of Brown's effective coronation as the new Prime Minister, the NUS leadership immediately released a set of five demands for students upon the new government.

Solidarity Editorial:
When King Charles The Second was dying in 1685, after 25 years on the throne, Catholic priests were smuggled in to accept him into the Church and give him the comfort of the last rites of the “one true Holy and Apostolic religion”. Both Charles and the priests believed that he was, so to speak, having his passport put in order to ensure, after he died, a quick and smooth journey to Paradise.

By an NUT member

After stalling for months Education Secretary, Alan Johnson finally responded to teacher unions requests for a review of the current pay award. In his submission of evidence to the STRB (School Teachers’ Review Body) for the 2008/11 award he said “...if teachers get more than 2% it will take away money aimed at one-to-one tuition for vulnerable students.”

By Colin Waugh

For Tom Unterrainer, click here
For Martin Thomas, click here
For Sheila Cohen, click here
For Martin Thomas 2, click here
For Colin Waugh, click here

By Jack Haslam

Last December, during the row about the Hayden Philips Report on state funding of political parties, Solidarity warned that Gordon Brown was telling trade union leaders that he wanted an end to the situation where trade union votes defeated the leadership at Labour Party conference.

Management on the London Underground are attempting to force lone working by detrainment staff at two Bakerloo line stations.

On 27 June refuse workers in Salford mounted a 24-hour strike action in protest at the council's exploitation of agency staff.

Thousands of blood service workers rallied across the UK on June 15th to protest against a multi-million pound cut in the service. The planned cuts will mean the loss of 800 jobs and the closure of nine out of the twelve regional blood centres serving England and north Wales over the next two years.

Dave Prentis clearly signalled in his conference speech that organised left activists were in his sights.

The Unison local government conference saw an attack on Socialist Party comrades from four branches who had tried to raise the issue of why Standing Orders Committee had ruled out of order so many motions. The leaflet they produced had used the “three wise monkeys” as a symbol of how their questioning of the decisions had been ignored. This was laughably deemed to be racist and an investigation is underway.

Three leading SWP activists are also under fire from their employers, the union or both.

The Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions has claimed a tactical victory in the Basra oil pipeline workers’ dispute.

Union leader Hassan Jumaa announced on 11 June: “An enlarged meeting was held with... the minister... Most of the issues within the remit of the prime minister were dealt with....”

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has launched a criminal inquiry into the dodgy business practices of BAE Systems, the worlds fourth largest arms supplier.

IRAN

On 9 April 2007, Iranian security forces detained Mahmoud Salehi, under the pretext that he must liaise with prosecutors over arrangements for a May Day demonstration.

BY Mike Rowley

On 1 June, public sector unions in South Africa called a general strike of over a million public sector workers in response to a derisory pay offer from the government (originally 5.3%, creeping up to 6%, then 6.5%) that would be completely cancelled out by inflation. Public sector workers in South Africa are very poorly paid and have not had a pay rise in real terms for ten years.

BY Mike Rowley

Pakistan is going through a period of heightened struggle against the military-based government of Pervez Musharraf. The current struggles began in earnest on 14 May when a general strike shut down Pakistan’s major cities, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Rawalpindi and Quetta.

Farooq Tariq, general secretary of the socialist group Labour Party of Pakistan, has been released from prison following his detention without charge by Pakistani security forces. Released on 19 June after a 16-day detention, Tariq describes his imprisonment as “one the of worst jail experiences I’ve had during my 30 years of political activism”.

By a PCS activist

In his June 2006 Mansion House speech Gordon Brown promised to peg increases in the public sector pay bill to 2% over two years. It is symptomatic of his politics that he should assure an audience of rich men and women of his commitment to cutting the real pay of many thousands of public sector workers in this way.

Sofie Buckland reviews “Sex, The City and Me”, BBC2, June 17

I wasn’t expecting to much enjoy BBC2’s one-off drama about sex discrimination at a city bank, “Sex, the city, and me”. It was one of those programmes you only switch on after being faced with a Sunday night schedule barren of anything remotely entertaining.

Amy Fisher reviews the centre for political song website, www.caledonian.ac.uk/politicalsong/song

The Centre for Political Song, a website hosted by Glasgow Caledonian University, makes reasonably interesting reading — none of the traditional political songs are here, like the Red Flag or the Internationale, but instead lots of lyrics written to familiar tunes, by activists.

International Federation For Iraqi Refugees (IFIR) and Coalition to stop deportations to Iraq (CSD Iraq) kickstart a campaign of action against deporting Kurdish Iraqi Refugees 22 June - 7 July

The impending battle between the postal workers and Royal Mail management is a political as well as an industrial battle.