Solidarity 663, 15 February 2023

As the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 approaches it is worth taking a balance sheet of the war, its human costs, political consequences and the left’s response. Ukraine was a poor country before the war began, but its GDP slumped by 45% in 2022. Well over 100,000 residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed. 8 million Ukrainian refugees are now registered across Europe, from a pre-invasion population of 44mn; a further 5mn, at least, are internally displaced. In October 2022 Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Schmyhal estimated the cost of re...

Capitalist society generates and regenerates a class division between capitalists and workers (with at least one large intermediate class, the “petty bourgeoisie”, and many grey areas). Like many other societies, its course is shaped by class struggle. Victory by the working class in that class struggle will bring not a rearrangement, but the withering-away, of class divisions. Not complete and uniform equality of everyone in every respect (hard to imagine what that would even look like), but removal of the class exploitation, domination, and oppression that has blighted life under capitalism...

Coordinated strikes on 15-16 March, which coincides with Budget Day, can help galvanise and intensify the ongoing strike wave. Teachers in the National Education Union (NEU) will strike on both days; civil servants in PCS will strike on 15 March. It is likely that RMT members on London Underground will strike on 15 March, and on another day in the same week. Following RMT’s rejection of the latest offers from employers in disputes on the national rail, workers at Network Rail and mainline Train Operating Companies may join them. The University and College Union’s programme of strikes in...

A previous column about the right wing journalist Peter Oborne ( Solidarity 661 ) described how this one-time “conventional conservative” had been transformed by the Iraq war into someone feted by sections of the left. I described his politics as “right wing isolationism”. That column described Oborne’s largely uncritical admiration for Islam and Islamic regimes, including some ultra-reactionary Islamists. I will now go on to examine Oborne’s long-standing interest in the Birmingham Trojan Horse affair — an alleged plot or campaign by some conservative Muslims to take over Birmingham secular...

Everyone knows that the only way to end the war in Ukraine — to really end it — is to ensure a Ukrainian military victory over the Russian aggressor. A decisive victory by the Ukrainians would almost certainly lead to the toppling of the Putin regime. The result would be a de-fanged Russia, one that poses far less of a threat to its neighbours. Everyone also knows that Ukraine needs the latest tanks and aircraft to achieve that goal. The Russians have been hurling their best weaponry at Ukrainian cities. Ukraine has been fighting back with what they have on hand, mostly Soviet-era tanks and...

An Inquiry has found a culture of sexism, harassment and bullying in the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA). Helena Kennedy KC reported: “It gave me no pleasure to uncover a series of appalling incidents, alongside leadership and management failings in the TSSA. These incidents included inappropriate and sexual touching, sexual assault, coercive and manipulative behaviour, violent and disrespectful language, humiliation and denigration of members of staff, reps and members of the Executive Committee.” Included in the recommendation is that none of the current senior staff she calls...

Olenka and Brie, two activists from the Ukrainian socialist organisation Sotsialniy Rukh (Social Movement, SR), are visiting Britain in March. Their visit is hosted by Workers’ Liberty. The comrades will meet activists, trade unionists, socialists and feminists as they briefly tour the country, speaking at conferences and public meetings. No one on the British left should understate the significance of what they have to say or misunderstand the urgency of their message. The comrades of SR have been active in countless campaigns against the Ukrainian capitalist class. And now they have the...

Labour Party National Executive right-winger Luke Akehurst has posted on Twitter to recommend an article by Solidarity contributor Sean Matgamna on left antisemitism. “Quite a read”, he says. True enough. But how does Akehurst reconcile his support for purging people from the Labour Party just for social media “likes”, “shares”, or “retweets” of Workers’ Liberty output with his own tweet? The ban on Workers’ Liberty passed by the National Executive in spring 2022 had a “dispensation” saying it was all right for people to attend Workers’ Liberty meetings if they were “debating”, and that...

Since 2021, the UK government has contracted hotels to house Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) in lieu of moving them into Local Authority care. A recent investigation by the Observer found that dozens of under-18s had gone missing from a Brighton hotel with reports that they were being picked up from outside the hotel by traffickers, sparking outrage and protests. Fundamentally, this child protection failure is the result of decades of dehumanising anti-migrant sentiment and policy. Months before that investigation, another report counted over 200 children missing from hotels on...

Without immediate emergency measures, one of the Western Hemisphere’s keystone ecosystems is at risk of collapse. The Great Salt Lake in Utah, USA, has lost 73% of its water since 1860 and scientists have warned “without a dramatic increase in water flow to the lake in 2023 and 2024, its disappearance could cause immense damage to Utah’s public health, environment, and economy.” The saline lake provides habitat for ten million migratory birds and is the only significant body of water in North America’s most arid region. It is running dry mostly due to local farmers extracting water from...