Solidarity newspaper


 

Search Workers' Liberty sites using Scroogle


User login

Join the debate!

We welcome debate and encourage free discussion. Log in with a user name, and you can add comments to the debates on this site. We operate no political censorship, but we reserve the usual editorial right to delete or cut comments which are racist or sexist; advertising; abusive; excessive in volume; or otherwise inappropriate.


Navigation

Solidarity 3/118, 27 September 2007


Solidarity 3/118 is out

Download the whole paper as pdf here (see "attachment", below) or read the articles online.


Tom Mann 3 —1889: The Great Trade Union Turning Point

Marxists
Author: 
Cathy Nugent

Continuing a series on the life and times of Tom Mann with an account of the London dock strike of 1889.


The History of the International Socialists: The British Left and the Irish Crisis 1968-70 Part 1

Ireland
Author: 
Sean Matgamna

Part 1: How and Why the Six-County State Broke Down

Recently the British army in Northern Ireland was withdrawn to where it was in relation to Northern Ireland society before 14 August 1969, when it was put on the streets to be an emergency scaffolding for a state and society that had begun to break down into Protestant/ Catholic civil war.


Why did union leaders vote to end Labour democracy? An open letter to Tony Woodley

Unions & politics
Author: 
Solidarity

Dear Tony Woodley,

We hear that at a fringe meeting at Labour Party conference in Bournemouth (23-27 September), you invited a mild critic of your knee-bending before Gordon Brown to “come outside and say that!”


Inside the Crisis of Respect

Andy Newman is a former Socialist Alliance activist who has followed developments in Respect closely. Martin Thomas interviewed him.


We did the only thing we could

Books

Steve Cohen continues a series about important socialist novels, looking at Ring Lardner Jr and the background to his novel the Ecstasy of Edwin Muir


More Strikes at Freemantle Trust Care Homes

Defending jobs

200 careworkers at the Fremantle Trust, which holds the contracts for care homes in Barnet, North London, took their fourth day of strike action on Thursday 20 September as part of an ongoing fight against drastic cuts in their pay and conditions.


DWP Pay Dispute

PCS
Author: 
civil servant

Following their rejection of a three year pay offer that will see 27% of staff in the Department of Work and Pensions staff get consolidated rises of 2% in year 1, 40% get 0% in year 2 and 49% get 1%


Defend Karen Reissmann

Issues and campaigns

Manchester mental health workers have held a second three day strike to protest against the victimisation of their UNISON steward, Karen Reissmann.


3 November NHS Demo

Public sector pay battle 2007-8
Author: 
health worker

The long awaited national demonstration in defence of the NHS will take place on 3 November.


Unions vote for political hara-kari: LRC responds

Unions & politics

On 23 September the Labour Party conference in Bournemouth voted to ban unions and local Labour Parties from putting motions on current political issues to any future Labour Party conference.


Build Local Solidarity

Broad lefts and rank-and-file groups
Author: 
Mike Fenwick

At TUC conference motions were passed calling for coordinated action, and use was even found for the old slogan that “unity is strength”.


Tube Workers Debate Elections

Rail unions

Last month the Camden No 3 (London Underground) branch of the RMT rail workers’ union passed a motion advocating the union run a slate of candidates in the 2008 London mayoral and Greater London Ass


Al Quds counter-demo

Islamism

On 7 October, supporters of the Iranian regime are organising an “Al Quds Day” demonstration in London (assembling 12:30 at Marble Arch).


Algerian Trotskyists recover forces

Africa

From 5 to 7 September the first summer school of the PST [Socialist Workers’ Party of Algeria] took place in Algiers, with about 200 activists and sympathisers taking part, from 19 regions.


Organising fast food workers

Sweatshops

Mike Kyriazopolous interviews Jared Phillips, a Unite Fast Food Organiser and Workers Party activist in New Zealand.

MK: How did Unite plan its organising in fast food?


Respect: How did the SWP get into this mess?

The Respect coalition was set up in January 2004 by the Socialist Workers’ Party, using George Galloway MP, expelled by the Labour Party in October 2003, as a front person.


Iranian unions under attack

Iran

GOVERNMENT repression of the emerging labour movement continues in Iran, with more arrests, charges and harassment.


France: No divide and rule; Defend the right to strike

Anti-union laws
Author: 
Introduction and translation by Joan Trevor

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has hit the ground running, hoping to capitalise on the apparent mood for change that saw him elected in May. He will need momentum to push through the changes that will make France more like Thatcherite Britain; that is, to bulldoze the working-class opposition that thwarted his predecessors.


Pakistan Wave of Arrests

Pakistan

Farooq Tariq is the General Secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan. He explains how he has been caught up in the government’s suppression of opposition parties.


The General Strike as it was lived

General Strike 1926

Sacha Ismail reviews a play about the general strike, produced by New Factory of the Eccentric Actor.


Lessons of Northern Rock's collapse?

Economics
Author: 
Rhodri Evans

Some questions and answers on the Northern Rock collapse


Royal Mail Goes for Broke

Trade union issues
Author: 
Sacha Ismail

GREG Charles is branch secretary of South West London Postal Communication Workers’ Union.


Migrants are Not the Problem

For equality, against bigotry
Author: 
Mike Rowley

Julie Spence, the head of Cambridgeshire Police, launched a vitriolic attack in early September on the numbers of Eastern European migrants working in the county.


Mail Bosses Want to Smash Union

CWU
Author: 
Amina Saddiq

WITH the announcement of new strike dates by the Communication Workers’ Union (all out on 5, 6, 8 and 9 October, with rolling action after that), the Royal Mail bosses have decided to go for broke — for instance by announcing a drastic attack on postal workers' pensions.


Syndicate content