Solidarity 021, 9 January 2003

The three Roy Jenkins

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003 By John Chamberlin There were three of Roy Jenkins, at least. The first Roy Jenkins was the son of a South Wales mining union official who moved out of his class up a ladder of labour movement positions. Jenkins senior became an MP, and then Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister Clement Attlee. Roy, his son, went to Oxford and became a fully paid-up bourgeois. The second Roy Jenkins was the reforming Home Secretary of the mid 1960s. That Jenkins facilitated Private Member's Bills that revolutionised the law on homosexuality and abortion. The...

Stop the anti-Arab ban!

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003 Israel: democratic rights under attack By Mark Osborn Stop press: FROM YEHUDITH HAREL THE ISRAELI HIGH COURT HAS OVERTURNED THE DECISION TAKEN BY THE ELECTION COMMISSION TO BAN BALAD AND MK'S BISHARA AND TIBI. THIS HAS BEEN A MOST IMPORTANT DECISION AND IT MAY GIVE ALL OF US THE OPPORTUNITY TO STRUGGLE FOR THE CONSOLIDATION OF ISRAELI DEMOCRACY, RENDERING ISRAEL INTO A STATE FOR ALL ITS CITIZENS. The General Election Committee has decided to disqualify an election list and two Arab members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, from taking part in the 28...

Joe Strummer, rebel musician (1952-2002)

MUSIC Matt Cooper appreciates the music and times of the lead singer of the Clash White youth, black youth Better find another solution Why not phone up Robin Hood And ask him for some wealth distribution From the Clash's "(White man) in Hammersmith Palais" (1977) When Joe Strummer, one time front man of the Clash, died at the age of 50 on 22 December, it was more than a pioneering musician who died. Strummer linked rebel music with the politics of resistance in a way that was neither pretentious nor insincere. That punk should erupt in 1976 when Britain was in the throes of the greatest...

'Labour' government vs. firefighters: Unions should call a special Labour Par

Government plans to decimate fire service Bain Report repeats the bosses message: Work harder and longer Unions should call a special Labour Party conference! Government plans to decimate fire service The Government plans to abolish section 19 of the 1947 Fire Services Act to allow it to cut fire services without community consultation. FBU national political officer Mike Lawson said, "This is about giving the green light to slashing services in secret. It's to fast track fire station closures, cuts to the number of fire engines and slashing the number of firefighters. "Local consultation puts...

Firefighters: Build for solidarity action

Matt Wrack of the London FBU spoke to Jill Mountford JM: It's a long time since the last strike days. How do you think the membership are feeling? What are the prospects for further action? MW: The long break since the last strike action, almost seven weeks, partly due to Christmas and the New Year, means many members feel more than a bit left in the dark and confused about what's happening and how we're going to win this dispute. If, as is anticipated by many members, the employers make no significant increase on their last offer of 11% over two years with their modernisation strings attached...

Defend the fire service: Prepare solidarity action

Blair is out to smash FBU! By Matt Wrack, London FBU The FBU leadership has a mandate to strike for a £30,000 pay claim for firefighters and fire control operators, voted for by the membership at a rate of almost nine to one. That is a staggering result. It was achieved after months of campaigning amongst members; a clear illustration of the mood of a membership who want and need a decent living wage. That was almost four months ago. Since then the FBU leadership have cancelled five strike dates in favour of more talks with the employers and ACAS, even though nothing of any significance...

Bane of firefighters' lives

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003 Bring in more market mechanisms! Make the workers stretch and twist themselves more flexibly to meet the convenience and the budget-lines of the employer! It's an old message, and the official Bain Report on the fire service, published in mid-December, just recycles it for another area. Bain said that firefighters should get only 11.3% pay rise over two years, and only if they agree to the so-called "modernisation" he demands. An official with the firefighters' local government employers - not a union representative, not a socialist! - told the Financial...

Australian moves to new party stalled

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003 Meeting in conference over the New Year weekend, the Democratic Socialist Party, largest of the groups within the Australian Socialist Alliance, reaffirmed its view that "the transformation of the Alliance into a united organisation (with right of tendency for all participating forces) remains necessary and possible". It noted that: "Indeed, the possibility of reaching a higher form of unity, along the lines achieved in the Scottish Socialist Party, has already been advocated by another Alliance affiliate (Workers' Liberty)". The DSP conference felt that...

Defend the Socialist Worker platform!

From Solidarity 3/21, 11 January 2003 As the Scottish Socialist Party moves towards its conference - Saturday/Sunday 22/23 February at the Mitchell Theatre, Charing Cross, Glasgow - and the Holyrood parliamentary elections this May, exasperated hostilities have broken out between the SSP leadership (mostly former adherents of Militant) and the "Socialist Worker Platform", SWP members in Scotland, who entered the SSP recently. Some dissidents within the Socialist Alliance in England have seized on the row to exclaim: "It is to be hoped that the SSP will quickly suspend and then expel the SWP...

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