Workers' Liberty

Solidarity’s current debate about the future of the nuclear industry appears to be an argument at cross purposes. Martin Thomas, Les Hearn and others have argued that nuclear is not as dangerous or as lethal as some other energy sources like coal. If only we had a planned economy under workers’ control without a £70 billion Trident replacement project in the pipeline, then nuclear would be a good idea.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union conference in San Francisco has passed a motion “calling on unions and working people in the US and internationally to mobilize for a “No Peace No Work Holiday” on May 1, 2008 for 8 hours to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of US troops from the Middle East”.

On 5 March, a 300-plus strong general meeting of UCL Union passed a motion proposed by socialist activist Sham Rajyaguru, president of UCL’s Stop the War Society, to ban the Officer Training Corps, University Royal Navy Units, University of London Air Squadron and all other military organisations from freshers’ events and other union-sponsored events, union premises, and student-run media. Now the right of the union has responded by suspending left-wing General Secretary Sam Godwin.

March 17 1968. 20,000 gather in Trafalgar Square for a rally and march to the US Embassy in protest against the US war in Vietnam. The Square is full of the flags of the National Liberation Front (the “Vietcong”), who, only weeks previously had launched the Tet Offensive that had taken a largely rural guerilla war into the cities of Vietnam, getting as far as the gates of the US Embassy in the capital Saigon.

Respect Renewal MP George Galloway has been far from sympathetic to the case of Mehdi Kazemi, instead choosing to spew homophobic bile and defend the Iranian regime. Showing his complete contempt for human rights and democracy, he has levelled the ridiculous accusation that people campaigning against the deportation of Mehdi Kazemi are “the pink contingent of imperialism” — even though the protests are against our own government.

From Education Not For Sale

On 5 March, a 300-plus strong general meeting of UCL Union passed a motion proposed by socialist activist Sham Rajyaguru, president of UCL's Stop the War Society, to ban the Officer Training Corps, University Royal Navy Units, University of London Air Squadron and all other military organisations from freshers' events and other union-sponsored events, union premises, and student-run media. Now the right of the union has responded by suspending left-wing General Secretary Sam Godwin.

The left devotes much of its efforts to campaigning against imperialism, which is no surprise given the present foreign policy of the American and British governments.

Is this Solidarity or Green World that I’m reading? According to Stuart Jordan (24 Jan), whatever the answer to climate change is, it’s not nuclear power! Nuclear plants are always late and over budget, unlike anything else.
Apparently, uranium would run out in 10 years, a fact that had escaped the companies that are keen to build and run new power stations. So why is Gordon Brown keen on nuclear? Because his brother is a “lobbyist” for EDF!

Of course!

It comes as no surprise that Gordon Brown’s comments about freedom to protest have turned out to be doublespeak and spin. The government is currently consulting — via a webpage! — on Sections 132-138 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) (2005), which ban unauthorised protest within one square kilometre of Parliament. The consultation is being presented as a move to repeal the draconian laws. But the way the questions are posed in the consultation suggest that is actually an attempt to bring in far greater police powers in relation to “public order”.

Last week my seventy year old mother, who walks with the aid of a stick, was deemed a security threat by a bus driver.

Judging by the level of security they put on for the event, University of Sheffield management were obviously expecting a lecture on "the use of military force and the employment of air power" - delivered by RAF top-brass, professional warmonger and all-round ruling class wanker Air Marshall Stuart Peach CBE - to attract a few troublemakers.

Eve Garrard has circulated the following on the activists' e-list of the lecturers' union UCU (first published here 22/11/07). Our union is affiliated to the Stop the War Coalition, which is holding a conference on December 1st. One of the speakers it has invited to this conference is Ibrahim Mousawi, the editor of al-Manar TV, Hizbullah's broadcasting network.

US Vice-President Dick Cheney is reported to have thought up a clever scheme to launch an attack on Iran.

A Heathrow shop assistant who wrote poems glorifying terrorism on WHSmith till roll and possessed “terrorist handbooks” has been convicted under the 2000 Terrorism Act.

The government wants to extend the time for which terrorism suspects can be detained without charge from 28 to 56 days.

The Stop The War Coalition conference on 27 October featured Somaye Zadeh from the SWP-led group Campaign Iran telling us that “the lies about Iran” aren’t true.

* The 1906 Speech of Leon Trotsky, on Trial for His Life, to the Tzarist Court.
* Introduction: Sean Matgamna

The “war on terrorism” being waged by George W Bush’s US hyperpower and its political satellites, such as Tony Blair’s Britain, poses strongly the question of the attitude of Marxists toward political violence.

Several thousand people, including many hundreds of London students, marched from Trafalgar Square to Parliament on 8 October as part of a Stop the War Coalition protest timed to coincide with Gordon Brown’s Commons statement on Iraq — in defiance of the police’s refusal to grant permission for the demonstration.

Nuclear power is dangerous, expensive and unnecessary to cut global greenhouse gas emissions. It is bound up with nuclear weapons. We should oppose the expansion of nuclear power in today’s conditions of capitalist globalisation.

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

Tubeworker is still trying to get our head round the idea that while the country as a whole has a security level of 'critical', ours is a mere 'serious' (one step less serious than 'critical'). What, is London Underground some kind of place of safety, a refuge from the unsafe streets?!

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.

The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty has been discussing the question of the troops in Iraq since the end of the last year. The debate will continue at our conference on 19-20 May. Here, two contributions to the debate (note: the second is not a reply to the first).

By Martin Thomas

It is hard to see how the Socialist Workers Party’s pamphlet No to Bush’s War could convince anyone not already “on side” to oppose the war in Afghanistan.

By Stan Crooke

Russia’s President Putin has threatened to target Russian nuclear missiles at European countries in response to American plans to deploy interceptor rockets in Poland and a radar base in the Czech Republic.

By Mark Osborn

John Pilger warns British citizens not to sit by while the government leads us all towards a crisis over Iran (Guardian 13 February also “Iran: a war is coming”, in New Statesman 1 February). In the process he gives us a good example of how the degenerate left gets it all so badly wrong.

By Martin Thomas

On Sunday 29 April, US troops in Baghdad fought a sizeable battle with Moqtada al-Sdar’s Shia-Islamist Mahdi Army. It was another indication that, as we reported in Solidarity 3/110, the US may be edging towards a “war on two fronts” in Iraq, against both the Sunni sectarian militias and the Mahdi Army.

by Colin Foster

In Iraq the USA is edging towards a war on two fronts. If that happens, the almost certain result will be another big lurch into further sectarian civil war and social chaos.