Workers' Liberty

The Lord Ashcroft affair cuts like the sharp beam of a spotlight through the putrid pretences and hypocrisies of British politics. Here is a man of vast wealth who bought himself a peerage. He is paymaster to the Tory Party — to the tune of many tens of millions of pounds.

One of the demands of the first workers' movement in the world, the Chartists, most active in Britain between 1838 and 1848, was annual Parliaments.

As regular Solidarity readers will know, Workers’ Liberty will be standing our comrade Jill Mountford as a candidate in the next general election, in the south east London constituency of Camberwell

The Conservative conference has confirmed what we can expect from a Tory government: deep cuts, attacks on the working class, and radical right-wing politics.

During recent protests against the blatantly rigged Iranian Presidential election result, the Islamist regime detained thousands of demonstrators.

With the votes counted, results declared and MEPs both new and old sworn in, the immediate concern of the comfortably salaried parliamentarians turns to the nitty-gritty of bourgeois politics: power.

Now the street mobilisations in Iran have ended, at least for now, how should socialists assess what happened? Here we print the reflections of an Iranian student activist now living in England.

The current scandal over MPs’ expenses builds on a long process of disaffection and disgust. Turnout in general elections has fallen from 78% in 1992 to 59% in 2001 and 61% in 2005.

The mass outrage against the politicians that has come with the publication of the details of their petty greed in claiming expenses is fully justified.

Such reports as that:

• A Tory MP charged it to his expenses when he got the moat around his big house cleaned;

• Another Tory grandee drew expenses for having a crystal chandelier installed;

Alice Mahon, the former Labour MP for Halifax, resigned on 17 April over government policy, in particular the Welfare Reform Bill.

On Wednesday 1 April thousands of anti-G20 demonstrators protesters converged on the City of London in a series of protests which aimed to highlight capitalist responsibility for climate change, environmental destruction, poverty and war.

When the police raid the office of Tory front-bencher Damien Green and take him into custody for some hours, it is tempting to laugh out loud. One of the habitual biters bit!

The rail union RMT has called a workers' representation conference for 10 January 2009 at Friends House on Euston Road, London (11:00-15:00 - leaflet attached).

The FEM conferences (see www.femconferences.org.uk) have made a name of themselves as the feminist conferences to go to, particularly within the mainstream of feminism and with the media and public. Certainly they have the numbers, with the latest — FEM08 — pulling a crowd of about 400 people, in fact it was supposedly oversubscribed. However if you look at the way they are run and at the list of topics for any one of the conferences most women would be forced to say there is very little for them there.

The FEM conferences don’t hide the fact that their brand of feminism is firmly rooted in bourgeois ideals, with sessions such as “sexism and the city” concentrating the fight for liberation on achieving equal pay for high flying city workers — made worse by their patronising nod to the Justice for Cleaners campaign.

At FEM08 there was a prevailing feeling of meek contentedness — “we’re all very good feminists for coming to these events, lets all give ourselves a pat on the back”. Despite the many things to criticise about their approach to feminism (which would make a very long article) the main problem I wish to highlight about the FEM conferences was the absolutely stifling political atmosphere the event took place in; it was like a vacuum.

Not only was there no time for debate (being a one day conference, and running late, this I would slightly understand) it was positively discouraged. Sessions were conducted to the strict method of listen to a speaker, have other speakers comment, approximately two or three questions from the floor, a bit of a self congratulating summation and, well, that would be it. No debate, no discussion, no plans for action or link-ins to existing campaigns.

Several Workers’ Liberty women went as part of Education Not for Sale Women (as the conference is held at Sheffield University student union and is aimed predominantly at students and young “activists”). We had bulletins dealing with some specific issues, such as sex work, equal pay and political representation. We also devoted a section to the type of women’s movement we need, about open and democratic structures, an orientation to the labour movement and working women, and the importance of direct action.

Predictably they did not go down well with the organising group, who accused us of undermining the work the volunteers do for the FEM conferences and going deliberately to spread “anti-FEM08” literature. This highlights perfectly the way FEM08 deal with any view differing to theirs. Despite requests for a stall neither Feminist Fightback nor ENS Women were recognised nor allowed room at the event.

Although I can understand that FEM08 wished to accommodate many speakers and organisations, this does not excuse the lack of open debate. Apparently debate is not needed when you have such important speakers as Germaine Greer (who apparently made very transphobic comments... again) or Julie Bindle (who thinks prostitution will miraculously disappear overnight if we criminalise men for buying sex).

We have criticised the organisation and structure of the FEM conferences before, and I think if anything it has got worse. They are organised by a small set of people with a slightly larger section of volunteers. Appeals are put out on the FEMSOC website and within local Fawcett and FEMSOC groups for people to get involved and help. However at no point are other feminist groups approached, there are no open meetings.

Weighing up the pros and cons of “consensus decision-making”.

Socialist Party member, Tony Aitman, was arrested for selling 'The Socialist' by police in Liverpool.

THE END OF HISTORY?

In our New Age, this Age of Gold,
We've reached the end of History;

The Treason Of The Intellectuals

Bookless, you have the one sweet narrow time,
Can know only your own brief hungry place,
Live in a dark slow-burning carapace

Come to the Reclaim the Campus conference on 17 May to discuss the way forward for the student movement!

On 1 April, the National Union of Students conference in Blackpool narrowly voted to reject the NUS leadership’s “Governance Review”, which would have abolished what little democracy remains in our union and institutionalised its conversion into a pro-government lobbying organisation.

How should student and labour movement activists respond to fascists being given a platform to speak — in student unions for example? Do normal considerations about “free speech” not apply?

On 21 February, around 100 students from the University of Nottingham and the local area took to the campus grounds in a demonstration demanding their basic democratic right to free speech.

The demonstration followed a number of recent protests at the University where this right had been denied. One of these involved the arrest of a member of the Palestinian Society for “breach of the peace”. The University authorities had called the police while he was protesting peacefully against the abuse of human rights in Palestine.

It’s very simple. We want to see social change in the world in which we live. We want to see this social change because we are human beings who have ideas. We think, we talk, we discuss, and when we’re done thinking and talking and discussing, well then, we feel that these things are vacuous unless we then act on the principle that we think, talk and discuss about. This is as much a part of a university education as anything else. - - Jack Weinberg, Berkeley Free Speech Campaigner

The NC notes: 1. The rise of workers' struggles in Iran
2. The anti-worker repression of the Ahmedinejad regime
3. The much increased international clout of the Iranian regime. (a) As an unintended consequence of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Tehran has huge influence in western Afghanistan and southern Iraq. (b) The rise in oil prices and the paralysis of the Iraqi oil industry strengthens Iran's position as an oil and gas exporter

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

On Sunday 4 November, a meeting was held at Birkbeck College in London to launch a united campaign against the attacks on democracy included in the “Governance Review” of the National Union of Students. Attended by 50 student activists and student union officers — including members of Education Not for Sale, Workers’ Liberty, the SWP, Socialist Students, the Young Greens, and a variety of independents — the meeting discussed the nature of the attacks within the context of years of NUS inaction and mismanagement, began to plan a campaign against them, and elected a steering committee to take things forward.

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.