Solidarity 054, 24 June 2004

For Palestinian rights and against police homophobia

Anwen Bailey reports A contingent of people from the lesbian and gay rights groups OutRage! and the Queer Youth Alliance joined a demostration for Palestinian rights on 14 May. The demonstration was organised by the Palestinian Solidarity Committee. The contingent were there in solidarity with Palesitnians, but were also urging the Palestinian Authority to halt the arrest, torture and murder of homosexuals. They marched with placards reading: "Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!" According to the group, as soon as they arrived in Trafalgar Square to join the...

French far-left election blow

Les luttes continuent! By Vicki Morris The French far-left suffered a knock in the recent elections for the European parliament. The joint list of the Ligue Communiste Revolutionnaire (LCR)-Lutte Ouvriere (LO) received 432,000 votes, 2.58% of the total. They lost their five MEPs (although because of European enlargement they were always going to struggle to get an MEP this time). The LCR's website reports glumly: "From one constituency to the next, if not from one département to the next, there is no big variation, all the departmental votes were under 3.6%. Let us recall that at the regional...

June 30 "handover" approaches

New tensions in Iraq An opinion poll conducted by the Coalition Provisional Authority in May - but not initially released to the US public - revealed that 55% of Iraqis would feel safer if the occupation was to end. 41% wanted it to end immediately, and 45% immediately upon the interim government taking power (which it has now done; formal sovereignty is passed to it at the end of June). Over half thought the behaviour of US troops in Abu Ghraib was typical. 78% have no confidence in the CPA, and 81% no confidence in the US. Only 11% expressed approval for the CPA (against 47% last November)...

The past, present and future of Irish republicanism

By Thomas Carolan "Ireland occupies a position among the nations of the earth unique... in the possession of what is known as a physical force party - a party, that is to say, whose members are united upon no one point, and agreed upon no single principle, except the use of physical force as the sole means of settling the dispute between the people of this country and the governing power of Great Britain... "The latter-day high-falutin hillside man exalts into a principle that which the revolutionists of other countries have looked upon as a weapon, and in his gatherings prohibits all...

The innovators

Bruce Robinson looks at the lives of Ray Charles and Elvin Jones Two major innovators in African-American music have died in the last few weeks. Pianist and singer Ray Charles (died aged 73) was central to the development of soul music. Elvin Jones (76) transformed jazz drumming and played in John Coltrane's 1960s Quartet which was a major influence on subsequent generations of jazz musicians. Their contrasting but parallel lives show the richness of African-American music in a period of rapid musical - and social - change in the late 50s and 60s. Ray Charles learnt music in a school for the...

James Connolly: An Spailpin Fanach

An Spailpin Fanach (Phrases in italics are James Connolly's) Young nightsoil man who shovels human shit Left in the streets for such as you to lift, Half-starved Hiberno-Scot untouchable Who sign yourself in print 'R. Ascal', Here in the crumbling 'Labour Chronicle' Of Edinburgh and Leith, I find your tracks: A young man's anger stains the page like blood; A thoughtful, humorous, loving, bitter man, In hasty, driven, sometimes muddled work, Still rages, jokes, is fervent: - Hope, and fight! A full free happy life for all, or none! Rage, for a father's useless, broken bones, For childhood in a...

Socialist Appeal woos Hugo Chávez

What is the role of Marxists in politics? To tell the truth to the working class, to instill a sense of what Gramsci called 'the pessimism of the intellect'. It is to map out a path for independent working class politics, so that the working class can emancipate itself, take power and bring about a socialist society. That is so far from the political method of the tendency associated with Ted Grant - known as 'In Defence of Marxism' (IDM) and publishing Socialist Appeal in Britain. So far that it has become enamoured with the 'Bolivarian revolution' in Venezuela to the extent that it provides...

Debate and discussion: For a democratic anti-fascist movement

A letter from the Jewish Socialists' Group to Unite Against Fascism You can read this letter here . .... and from a Solidarity reader As a member of both the ANL and the SWP I fully support all the points made within the letter and also the proposal for a conference open to all anti-fascist/anti-racist organisations irrespective of affiliation. I believe a conference of this nature with the aims of democratising and de-centralising UAF, is the logical next step forward. I have also written to other comrades urging them to support this move. AD Williams

Debate and discussion: Back Nader?

Jim Bywator's comments (Inside America, 10 June) on the presidential campaign seem a little wide of the mark. True, the case against backing Nader is easy: he's not a leftist, but, rather, some sort of radical, and his campaign certainly isn't 'independent working-class politics'. And I'd be happy with that if there was something better on offer. Two facts seem to suggest backing Nader: 1. Nader does state, plainly: impeach Bush, withdraw from Iraq, repeal the Patriot Act, make deep cuts in military spending, double the minimum wage, provide universal health care etc. His radicalism is an anti...

Debate and discussion: What socialists should say about the PJP

Gerry Bates (Solidarity 3-52 27 May) says "The PJP has called on Muslims not to vote Lib-Dems because the Lib-Dems are in favour of equal rights for gays and lesbians." Gerry knows this is not true. Jim Denham reported in early May on one of the left e-mail lists, that the leaflet had been withdrawn. The sequence of events is as follows: A draft leaflet by two candidates of the PJP in Saltley which had a homophobic comment, was available at a PJP meeting in Saltley on 2 May 2004. I am informed by Raghib Ahsan, a left wing ex-Labour Councillor and candidate for the PJP, that leading members of...

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