Solidarity 395, 24 February 2016

Brexit will not be “left”, but a step backwards

A statement arguing for a “left exit” from the European Union (EU) appeared in the Guardian on 17 February, signed by several trade unionists, a smattering of Stalinists and a number of others. The statement contains a collection of mostly true claims about the EU. It is true that the EU is an undemocratic institution wedded to neoliberal capitalism and complicit in attacks on workers’ rights and social conditions. It is true that “Fortress Europe” discriminates, often murderously, against non-European migrants, and that the EU has imposed brutal austerity on Greece and other European states...

Make banks public utilities!

Banks should be public utilities, or at least so closely regulated that they must behave like public utilities. They shouldn’t be free to do whatever brings most profit to their bosses and shareholders. If you’re a regular reader, you will know that’s Solidarity ’s view. You may not be surprised to hear that in 2012 the TUC voted for public ownership and democratic control of the banks. You may be disappointed that the new Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell has not yet taken that TUC demand into their economic policy, or that Bernie Sanders in the USA calls only for...

Migrant solidarity activists gather

Anti-racist and migrant solidarity activists met at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies on 20 February. This was a summit organised by “London2Calais”, a solidarity network involved in building links with and providing practical support for migrants in the “Jungle” camp in Calais. The opening plenary featured a harrowing report, via Skype link, from Shakir, a Pakistani resident of the Jungle, who provides medical aid to refugees. He reported how much of his work involves tending to refugees injured by the French police or by the gangs of racist, far-right activists who now...

Junior doctors fight imposition of contracts

The BMA has called three 48-hour strikes over the next two months against government plans to impose a new contract on junior doctors from August 2016. The strikes will take place on 9-11 March, 6-8 April and 26-28 April. The new contract would mean a substantial pay cut for many junior doctors, changes to working patterns by introducting non-resident on-calls and increases in the hours designated “plain time” (rather than unsociable hours, and thus paid at a reduced rate). The contract and its imposition has been widely condemned by junior doctors and the wider medical profession. In a letter...

Strikes and boycotts in Iraqi Kurdistan

Aso Kamal, Kurdish socialist activist, spoke to Solidarity about class struggle in Iraqi Kurdistan. There is a recession in Iraqi Kurdistan, and there are strikes and demonstrations happening all the time. Since 2006, Kurdistan has had a share in the world oil market. From 2013, the oil price fell and the budget of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has fallen. The price was $100/barrel but now it is more like $30/barrel. So there is a currency crisis and an economic crisis. Now the KRG is $22 billion in debt. They are selling one million barrels of oil a day, from Suleimaniya, Kirkuk...

Cause to be grateful to “an erratic Marxist”

The queue on 9 February went all the way around the block for a ticket-only political rally that had nevertheless been sold out for months. It was standing room only in another part of the Volksbühne theatre at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin, where the event was shown simultaneously on a video screen — the launching of the “Democracy in Europe Movement”, DiEM, by “erratic Marxist”, game theorist and ex-finance minister in the Greek Syriza government, Professor Yanis Varoufakis. “What’s his game?” is surely the question to ask. A recent Solidarity editorial thought the event would be more of a...

Scottish Labour starts to make noise about local government cuts

The Scottish Labour Party organised a lobby of the Scottish Government Cabinet meeting in Clydebank last week, to protest against the SNP government’s cuts of £350 millions in local authority funding. This week the Glasgow City Council Labour Group is staging a lobby outside the Scottish Parliament, to protest at the SNP’s cut of £133 millions in funding for Glasgow, which will cost around 3,000 jobs. This is progress compared to muttering about underfunding and but getting on with ‘managing’ local authorities on a reduced budget anyway. So too does Scottish Labour Party leader Kezia Dugdale’s...

Comments on the US Civil War

Consider this sentence from an advert for a recent AWL public meeting on Sacha Ismail’s pamphlet, Workers Against Slavery: “When the war began, both sides, North and South, said they would preserve slavery. What changed? One thing was mass action by the slaves themselves, forcing their way into the conflict and helping to transform it into a battle against slavery.” Really, this is mysticism. Lincoln was obliged to re-set the Northern war aims in late 1862, declaring a war to abolish slavery, because he felt that was necessary in order to win. The slaves played no role in Lincoln’s policy...

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