Solidarity 141, 30 October 2008

In the aftermath of the First World War, and the betrayal of those sections of the socialist movement who supported that war, revolutionaries formulated the idea of a different kind of policies for workers’ struggles. They rejected the old focus on minimum, “enough for now and maybe forever” reform demands, and began to do something different. Their policy now comprised demands which intersected with the living struggles of the workers but also pointed the way to the revolutionary transformation of society. The Communist International set up after the Russian Revolution of 1917 never produced...

On Wednesday 29 October, the Government confirmed to the Guardian that it plans to slash eligibility for student grants, and cut student numbers by up to 10,000. Higher education minister Jim Denham denies that this has anything to do with the economic crisis, but it is a clear indication of how New Labour plans to cut back as things get tight. Its shows how we need to take social wealth out of the hands of the bankers and capitalists so it can be used for social need. That goal is a long way off; but we begin now by fiercely resisting every cut, and demanding what students need. On 22 October...

On 15 November the Labour Representation Committee meets for its annual conference. The rail union RMT has called a cross-union conference on working-class political representation for 10 January 2009. And Nottinghamshire Trades Council is planning a local trade unionists' meeting on workers’ representation in February 2009. East Midlands RMT branch is involved in this plan, which, like the calling of the 10 January conference, is in line with a resolution carried at the RMT’s conference in June 2008. Significant numbers of activists want to move beyond the current alternatives of sullenly...

From the start this programme’s commentary promised “spiced up” footage and propaganda. And I was hoping to see a proper documentary. “We look at the dark and dangerous netherworld [of London’s sex industry]” the programme makers said. And, “We look at the work of the Clubs and Vice Squad... who have become a byword for integrity and honesty.” As far as the dangers of the sex industry go, we get to hear just a few facts, but not their true implication; we get to see some dangers faced by sex workers, but not the total story. For instance the programme reported that two-thirds of female...

In 1950 four young Scots stole a lump of rock from Westminster Abbey and took it to Scotland. It was the “Stone of Scone”, reputedly used in the coronation of kings of Scotland, but taken to London in 1296. The piece of rock was eventually abandoned in the grounds of Arbroath Abbey, and police took it back to Westminster Abbey. One of the four, Ian Hamilton, wrote a book about it in 1952, No Stone Unturned. Re-titled Stone of Destiny, and provided with a foreword by Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond, the book has been republished to coincide with the release of a film of the same name...

Nick Holden and his partner Kate Ahrens, both of whom are Unison members in Leicestershire, have been expelled from the Labour Party. Nick explains how he feels about that. Having lived together for thirteen years, Kate and I plan on doing most things together now. One thing we didn’t plan on doing together was getting expelled from the Labour Party. But in September, two days before Kate was due to travel to Blackpool to join Unison’s delegation to the Labour Party conference, we both got identical letters from Roy Kennedy, who styles himself the “Director of Finance and Compliance”: “I have...

Riot police fired tear gas on Tuesday 21 October to disperse demonstrators amid a nationwide general strike that brought air, rail and ferry traffic to a halt. The general strike by millions of workers also crippled urban, rail and sea transport and kept schools, banks and public offices shut. State hospitals and utilities, including the partially privatized OTE telecom company, operated on skeleton staff while journalists staged a media blackout. The GSEE private sector union federation and its public sector counterpart ADEDY organized the strike. Both unions represent about half the country...

“They are pissing on us, but the government tells us it’s raining”. These words on a banner in Rome on 18 October say it all: the five-month post-electoral honeymoon between the right-wing racist government and large sections of the Italian masses is unravelling. It was carried by a transport worker from the Confederazione Italiana di Base (Cobas, Italian rank and file confederation) whose one-day strike brought 300,000 marchers to the capital, and large parts of the educational and transport systems to a stop. The demonstration was the largest ever mobilised by the “Base”, graphically...

The strikes set to shut down most London bus companies on 22 October were suspended following an injunction gained by TfL against the union. There is talk of the strike being re-scheduled to 5 November, but the whole balloting process may have to be restarted. The pretext seems to be that the union had failed in certain garages to display the results of the strike ballot and that the union’s membership records are not up to date. This situation poses difficulties for drivers and the union. The pay settlement date was April, so drivers will be increasingly tempted to accept any offer just for...