Solidarity 384, 11 November 2015

What is a "Leninist sect"? Is AWL one?

In 1990, Socialist Organiser was banned by the Labour Party, apparently on the instigation of Frank Field MP, the same Frank Field who now floats the idea of Labour right-wingers contesting elections as “independent” against democratically selected candidates of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party. A challenge to the ban at the 1990 Labour Party conference won a majority of Constituency Labour Party delegate votes, but failed to overturn it. Then, as in the current moves against associates or alleged associates of Workers’ Liberty, the “defendant” received no charges and was given no hearing in which...

Economic policy and creating space

Over recent months Jeremy Corbyn, now Labour Party leader, and John McDonnell, now Shadow Chancellor, have made four major statements on economic policy. Corbyn issued a document, The Economy in 2020, on 22 July, as part of his Labour leader campaign. McDonnell spoke at Labour Party conference on 29 September, and wrote articles for the Guardian website on 12 August and 12 May. They are a step forward from what we had from Ed Miliband, let alone what we had from Gordon Brown or Tony Blair. McDonnell and Corbyn commit clearly to restoring union rights and to renationalising rail. They advocate...

End the occupation of West Bank and East Jerusalem!

Since 1 October ten Israelis have been killed in knife, car and gun attacks, with several dozen more injured. In response to the surge in Palestinian violence, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 76 Palestinians, including bystanders and unarmed protesters. Over fifteen Palestinian children are among the dead. The immediate reasons for Palestinian attacks and protests are right-wing Israeli settler violence and the perception that Israel intends to restrict Palestinian access to a Muslim religious site in Jerusalem. The underlying reason, however, is lack of Palestinian hope and...

Portugal: settling for neoliberalism?

On 10 November, the conservative Passos Coelho government in Portugal, in office since 2011, fell. It is likely to be replaced by a government of the Socialist Party (SP, similar to pre-Corbyn Labour) supported by the Portuguese Communist Party and the Left Bloc. Passos Coelho has carried through Portugal’s mandated cuts programme since it applied for a eurozone “bailout” in April 2011. The SP, which had gone for the bailout, crashed in parliamentary elections in June 2011. In new elections on 4 October 2015 Passos Coelho lost his parliamentary majority. His bloc was still the largest minority...

Another Europe is possible

In the summer, Workers’ Liberty was involved in launching the Workers’ Europe initiative, to oppose British withdrawal from the European Union on the basis of campaigning for international working-class solidarity, democracy and migrants’ rights. Workers’ Europe has launched a social media presence, got significant support and interest, and already sent speakers to a number of union branches, Labour Parties and so on. Meanwhile, others on the left have set up a similar initiative, Another Europe is Possible. AEIP is somewhat “softer” politically and seems less clearly labour movement-focused...

Land Value Tax and gentrification

I agree with the main points made by all contributors in the discussion on gentrification ( Solidarity 378, 379, 381, and 382). I particularly endorse the condemnation of the vandalism inflicted on the “Cereal Killer” cafe. The futility and stupidity of this “action” by a bunch of apolitical louts masquerading as anarchists reminded me of the equally futile and pointless spate of cottage-burning by a small group of Welsh nationalists calling themselves the “Sons of Glyndwr” back in the 80s. Their targets were second homes bought by English people. This campaign of arson, which went on for a...

Sanders: welfare statism is not enough

Bernie Sanders has a very real chance of becoming the next president of the United States. He doesn’t exactly have the most stiff competition. The only legitimate candidate he has to beat for the Democratic Party nomination, Hillary Clinton, is a criminal whose inconsistency on policy and questionable moral compass is not unknown to anybody in the country. The other party in the bipartisan system, the Republican Party, still has a candidate pool the size of a small town to select from, the two most popular of which, Donald Trump and Ben Carson, aren’t even members of the Republican National...

Tories push for free market universities

Less than 48 hours after ten thousand students hit the streets calling for free education and living grants for all on 4 November, Universities Minister Jo Johnson announced the long-awaited Green Paper on Higher Education. If the proposals become law, it would mean nothing short of the end of public higher education. This Green Paper follows neatly on from the fee hike of 2010. £9,000 tuition fees ushered in a new type of education system. Students have to make astronomical investments in their education. Rather than education being about a love of learning, or for the social good, going to...

Labour: no bans, no expulsions!

The suspension from the Labour Party of Jeremy Corbyn’s adviser Andrew Fisher, for tweeting joke support for Class War against prospective Labour MP Emily Benn, makes it clear what is happening. Blairites are trying to paint the mass democratic Corbyn surge in conspiratorial terms, and “criminalise” the wider left. They want to undermine the new leadership. Emily Benn publicly supported the Women’s Equality Party, but with impunity. Insiders say some hundreds of Labour Party members or would-be members remain expelled or excluded from the patchy and partially-reversed purge during the...

Stop bans at universities

The proclivity for censorship in some student unions isn’t going away. University College London Union has refused to allow Macer Gifford to speak. He is a British man who last year travelled to Rojava, Kurdistan, to fight with the YPG against Daesh. Reasons given by the student union included that they were afraid that him speaking “could lead to others going and fighting in the conflict”. Where does this logic end? Should no meetings be held to discuss conflicts? Should we stop the British Army having stalls at freshers’ fair in case someone goes to “fight in conflicts”? Why are soldiers...

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