Solidarity 037, 25 September 2003

Daniel Randall What is a Zionist? For me, this is a key question in this debate and one that has not been sufficiently dealt with by the left regarding its positions towards the Israel/Palestine question. For John O'Mahony, "Zionism" "means a belief in the right of Israel to exist and defend its existence." In his article in Solidarity 3/36, John makes it clear that this is the only meaningful definition of Zionism, and logically and implicitly therefore the Alliance for Workers' Liberty should be a 'Zionist' organisation. By the same token, so is the CPGB, the Labour Party, George Bush's...

By Cathy Nugent Sixty or seventy Socialist Alliance "oppositionists" met in Birmingham on 13 September - non-aligned socialists as well as representatives of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty, CPGB (Weekly Worker), International Socialist Group and Revolutionary Democratic Group. The meeting had been called to discuss infractions of democracy in Alliance, particularly in Birmingham where newly signed up SWP members of the Alliance managed to remove the entire Executive of the local Alliance. Most of the meeting was spent discussing the problems in the Alliance and with the SWP's role in it...

By Angela Paton Mercy Ikolo is 32 years old and fled Cameroon to seek refuge in Ireland two years ago, where her 14-month old Percilez was born. Mercy made the mistake of visiting Scotland, being stopped at the port of Stranraer and taken to Dungavel Detention Centre on 17 August. Mercy and her daughter were recently bailed on a £100 bond to stay with socialist MSP Rosie Kane and her two daughers in their small two-bedroom flat in Govanhill, Glasgow until the Home Office decides on her application around 4 November. Rosie Kane said, "The imprisonment of the Ikolo family is staggering. It is...

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down Living on the hopeless hungry side of town I wear it for the prisoner Who has long paid for his crime But is there because he's a victim of the times I wear it for the sick and lonely old For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold I wear the black in mourning for the lives that could have been Each week we lose a hundred fine young men (From The man in black, 1971) Johnny Cash was great not just for his songwriting, performing and humanitarian outlook. He was great because he although he embodied the features of American country music...

A delegate gives a blow-by-blow account of TUC conference The first debate at the 2003 TUC was on employment rights. A composite highlighting the need for the right to take secondary action and the shortfalls in the current rights for union recognition was passed. Unfortunately the demand for the TUC to call a demonstration on the issue of employment rights was edited out of the composite, though it restated the repeal of the anti union laws. This demand for a demonstration was supported by the United Campaign for the Repeal of the Anti Union Laws who believe that the issue of workers rights...

The London Region of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has held a comprehensive post-mortem on the 30k pay dispute. London region rejected the final offer from the employers, and its activists were among those who pushed the dispute along after General Secretary Andy Gilchrist threw up his hands - right from the start, you might say! Now they have to prepare themselves to deal with management's 'restructuring'. In London an assessment is especially vital since they have a London Weighting campaign - on hold during the national dispute - to take up again. Edited highlights of their discussions are...

By Patrick Yarker All NUT members should by now have received a copy of the union's survey of members' attitudes to SATs. The survey is due to be followed by a boycott ballot, so ensuring as large as possible a return of the survey can be seen by activists as a dummy-run for the vital boycott-ballot itself. Now is the time to touch base with school-based reps or isolated members, to check that everyone has received their survey, to chase up the survey's return and to make contact with the broad-based National Anti-SATS Alliance which is campaigning across the country for an end to the wasteful...

By a TUC conference delegate Highlight of the fringe at TUC conference was the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs meeting as part of their recent 'Save Our Party' tour. Speaking to a packed room, several union general secretaries spoke about their commitment to change inside the Labour Party, not on the basis of behind-the-scenes deals with Blair - a strategy which, in any case, is clearly not working - but on the basis of genuine rank-and-file involvement in building real democratic structures inside the party. There was much discussion about positive and active involvement in change inside the...

Workers at the charity Child Poverty Action Group struck for the day on 17 September, in a strike for equality. Management is bringing in new workers on terms worse than those current employees receive, with cuts in sick pay, compassionate leave and annual holidays. The vote for strike action by Transport and General Workers Union members in a secret ballot was 98%. Twenty workers were on the picket line. The voluntary sector while it includes many fluffy charities is notoriously stony-faced in its dealing with its own staff and their unions. But the strike is believed to have been the first...

By Tim Row, Leicester Delivery Office Unit Rep There are no simple explanations for the CWU postal pay ballot defeat. The point is to learn the lessons and move on. The union said beforehand that the ballot represented the crossroads for Royal Mail. The defeat now represents the crossroads for the union. Simply blaming the defeat on headquarters, management propaganda or the "the North" doesn't begin to address anything. First, we need to acknowledge the fact that even if the 1,600 or so votes that made the difference had gone the other way, we would have been facing the situation of going...