Solidarity 447, 6 September 2017

Deal with the serious feminist concerns

I thought Claudia Raven’s attempt to navigate the recent discussion around trans rights and women’s rights was far too unquestioning of the dominant left narrative on the issues. A recurrent feature of that narrative is to minimise or dismiss the concerns raised by some feminists as exaggerations, shallow or, worse still, transphobic. I agree that we should be for the freedom to break out of gender roles, including the championing of the rights of transgender people, transsexuals, and transvestites, opposition to discrimination on grounds of gender identity as well as sexuality and for the...

Scottish Labour: vote Leonard!

For the third time in as many years there is to be a leadership contest in the Scottish Labour Party (SLP). In October 2014 Johann Lamont was ousted in a coup for which the groundwork had been laid by the right wing several months earlier. Super-Blairite Jim Murphy subsequently defeated Neil Findlay for the post of SLP leader. Murphy, claimed the right wing, was the “big hitter” the SLP needed to revive its fortunes. When Murphy was elected, the SLP had 41 Westminster MPs. Six months later it had just one. Even so, Murphy refused to resign — and the Scottish Executive Committee (SEC) passed a...

Mental health cause of most absence from work

Analysis of over 12 million fit notes, the New Labour replacement for sick notes, has just been published. The results (relating to notes issued in 2016) are unsurprising but troubling. There was a 14% rise in notes relating to stress and anxiety and 31% were issued for mental health problems; these notes now account for the biggest proportion, overtaking numbers of notes issued for bad backs and other musculoskeletal conditions, Fit notes were intended to provide employers with information on what workers can do. At the time the Labour government was less interested in tackling bad working...

Trump boosts troops in Afghanistan

Those who wished to see an end to the United States’ longest ever military venture, its sixteen year-long war in Afghanistan, were left disappointed when in late August, Donald Trump committed to send more US troops in the country. Trump has promised a further 4,000 troops and to scrap timetables for withdrawal. He has gone further than previous US presidents in explicitly calling out Pakistan for its “failures” in dealing with jihadists operating from Pakistani territory. The move marks a clear shift for Donald Trump, a man already not known for predictability and consistency. Prior to his...

McDonalds workers lead fightback on low pay

On Monday 4 September workers at McDonald′s stores in Cambridge and Crayford made trade union history by becoming the first UK McDonald′s workers to strike. Welcomed out by a large number of supporters, around 40 workers from the two stores walked out early on Monday morning before picketing their stores. Workers′ Liberty activists joined the 100 strong picket line in Crayford along with supporters from across the labour movement. Workers are fighting for a £10 an hour minimum wage for all — ending the use of youth rates and raising pay significantly for all workers; an end to zero-hours...

Libya: imperial rivalry and corruption

At the end of July, when France and Italy were about to sign a deal sealing the grip of Italy’s largest and most profitable company, Fincantiere, on France’s massive shipbuilding industry, Macron upset the applecart by announcing the suspension of the business agreement. Macron claimed it was to protect French jobs: but it was clearly a move to reassert French control over one of the country’s most strategically important companies. The Italian media, having first hailed Macron’s presidency as the promise of “the exemplary Statism and Europeanism” so lacking in their own bourgeoisie...

North Korea plays a deadly game

The criminal game of brinkmanship being played between the rulers of the big capitalist powers and the Stalinist monarchy of North Korea continues to menace millions of innocent people with the threat of nuclear war. On 28 August, North Korea’s rulers fired a missile over Japan; a week later, they tested what they said was a hydrogen bomb, proving that they are now well on the way to developing a nuclear arsenal capable of hitting the mainland United States. The increased tensions are a result of two destabilising factors: a string of technical successes for North Korea’s engineers (or...

All-out attack on French workers

Olivier Delbeke, a CGT activist, and a contributor to the socialist newsletter Arguments pour la lutte sociale, on the new draconian labour laws After dragging out a sham consultation which had nothing in common with real negotiations (because many aspects of the proposed laws were not revealed to the trade union delegates), Labour Minister Mireille Pénicaud finally unveiled 150 pages of legislation, on 30 August. Once adopted by the Council of Ministers on 22 September, they will have the power of law without any need for a vote in parliament, because parliament allowed the government to rule...

"The horizon of socialism" - interview with Bhaskar Sunkara

Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of the US socialist magazine Jacobin , spoke to Solidarity . (For an interview with another Jacobin editor, Peter Frase, when he took part in a tour of Momentum groups last autumn, see here .) What’s your assessment of the current political situation in the US, and how is the left responding and developing in that context? As counterintuitive as it may seem, especially after a wave of terrible activity from the far right and given who’s in the White House, many of the trends are positive. There’s a growing trend among young people towards broadly social-democratic...

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