Solidarity 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

Continuing a series on the life and times of Tom Mann with an account of the London dock strike of 1889. Today the trading and industrial activities of the port of London are a shadow of what they once were. The areas where docks and wharves once heaved with cargo, boats, ships and people, are now sites for skyscraper office blocks, exclusive apartments, trendy studios and pricey restaurants — a product of Thatcher’s demolish and “develop” project for the docklands in the 1980s. Go to the London Docklands Museum (located between two bistros and opposite a smart marina) and you will find out...

Why Northern Ireland broke down

Part 1 of series: The Northern Ireland crisis of 1968-9 and the left Part 1: Why Northern Ireland Broke Down Part 2: The Irish Workers' Group, I S and the "Trotskyist Tendency" Part 3: Why Northern Ireland Split on Communal, Not Class, Lines Part 4: When militant sloganeering meant promoting communal war Part 5: When socialists looked to "Catholic Power" ; and Part 5 Section 2 Part 6: SWP (IS) and Northern Ireland in 1968-9: Advocating civil war — until it starts! ; and Section 2 Part 7: The end of the old order in Northern Ireland ; Section 2 ; Section 3 Part 8: IS/SWP conference, September...

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

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!” Your offer to punch your critic at least shows some fighting spirit — but, Tony, isn’t it the wrong sort of fight, and isn’t it misdirected? Evidently you have a bad political conscience? So you should! Your decision, and that of the other “left” and not-so-left trade union leaders, not to oppose Gordon Brown’s moves to abolish Labour Party conference is astounding. Abolition is what...

Inside the Crisis of Respect

Andy Newman is a former Socialist Alliance activist who has followed developments in Respect closely. Martin Thomas interviewed him. Both sides of the row are saying that Respect is in a bad way, yet you've chosen this time to rejoin. Why? I’m not sure that both sides are saying that it is in a bad way. The SWP’s line now is that it is business as usual. One of the biggest problems we had in the early days of the Socialist Alliance, and the early days of Respect, is that both were dominated by the particular form of democratic centralism associated with the SWP and the Socialist Party, not...

We did the only thing we could

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. Ring Lardner Jr. was one of the Hollywood Ten — the ten screenwriters who went to prison for refusing in 1947 to testify before the House of Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC). Today he is best remembered, if at all, for his response to the question as to whether he was or had ever been a member of the Communist Party — “I could answer the question exactly the way you want, but if I did I would hate myself in the morning”. Though HUAC is...

More Strikes at Freemantle Trust Care Homes

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. Protesting outside the company HQ, workers held up signs spelling out the words “Dismantle Fremantle” and “We will not be silenced”. The dispute started in April when the bosses announced that there would be a new regime of longer hours, slashed annual leave and sick pay, along with pay cuts of up to 30%. The Barnet Unison website (www.barnetunison...

DWP Pay Dispute

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% in year 3, PCS and Prospect have met with DWP bosses for further talks. Another meeting is taking place as we go to press, with the PCS DWP executive meeting on 27 September “to receive a report of these talks and take decisions on the next stage of our campaign.” (The Retail Price Index rate of inflation — PCS’s preferred measure — rose to from 3.8% in July to 4.1% in August.) It is not clear yet...

Defend Karen Reissmann

Manchester mental health workers have held a second three day strike to protest against the victimisation of their UNISON steward, Karen Reissmann. Karen was suspended in June for supposedly bringing the health trust she works for into disrepute after leading a previous strike against cut jobs and making public plans to cut services. Workers have decided to take two day strike action again from Wednesday 26 September. Patients bussed as far away as Darlington returned to their usual hospitals following the second strike but it is unclear whether that means that management has accepted the...

3 November NHS Demo

The long awaited national demonstration in defence of the NHS will take place on 3 November. It’s now 18 months since the decision to call a demo was made at UNISON’s health conference, but it has been an ongoing battle to make it happen. This despite the widespread popularity of such an idea with many hundreds of thousands taking part in local actions. Local campaigns have had great successes in stopping closures and saving jobs. But its been widely understood that local cuts are only symptoms of the national decisions made to further privatise the health service. We needed a national...

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