Solidarity 171, 16 April 2010

Tory "people power"?

The ex-Etonian Tory leader David Cameron’s promise to lead a people’s revolution against bureaucracy and the state is funny. But only if you think the degradation of British politics into clownish demagogy is a laughing matter. Thatcher too, promised to “cut back the state” in 18 years of power did the very opposite. Cameron won’t do any better. The most likely consequence will be to let people “start their own schools” — to allow middle class and religious groups to opt out and accelerate the decline of the existing national school system. Cameron’s talk of “the people” disguises the fact...

Catholic Church cover-up: yes, prosecute the Pope!

Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens are right. Of course, Pope Benedict should be prosecuted when he comes to Britain! It is alleged that as a bishop he helped cover up for paedophile priests and shielded them from prosecution. If he is not guilty, then prosecution would clear his name of the stigma that will otherwise attach to it— that Benedict XVI is the pope of the paedophile priests! If he is found guilty then he should be punished according to the law — as any citizen in any civilised country should and would be. The Pope, the spiritual absolute monarch of the world's 1.4 billion...

Labour Party: bringing people back on a principled basis

To judge from the official manifesto, Labour appears to have learned some lessons about the last thirteen years. But not enough. The manifesto fails to make a challenge to the financial system. It leaves the banks in private hands, free to start the casino economy again. It maintains a taxation system that allows the rich to escape the cost of maintaining public services. It continues to allow privatisation of our public services. We have seen a lot of anti-immigrant coverage in the press in recent days. I am fearful that comments by both Labour and Tories on immigration are playing into the...

Lies about immigration only help the rich

In autumn 2008, people alien in values and way of life to the great majority wrecked our economy. They were the financiers, the bankers, the bosses, the capitalists, the profiteers, whose competitive scramble for profit caused the economic crisis of 2008. Now they want us to pay through public service cuts and high unemployment for the huge bailout — £1100 billion in cash, loans, and guarantees, or £18,000 for every child, woman, and man in Britain — which the government had to do for the banks in 2008. To smooth it through, they’re trying to blame all the problems of joblessness and...

Australian teachers boycott SATS-type tests

Australian state school teachers will ban SATS-type tests due to take place on 11-13 May. The federal state school teachers' union, the Australian Education Union, voted on 12 April that it would block the tests "until the federal government stops the results being used to publicly brand students and schools as failures in league tables". The action will be carried out by the various state teachers' unions affiliated with the federal AEU. The Queensland Teachers' Union, for example, has told its members: "All action associated with the administration of the 2010 NAPLAN tests should be...

Italian elections: Berlusconi defies predictions

Following events in France, Italian liberal and left opinion confidently awaited the results of last weekend's regional elections, secure in the belief that the expected fall in the overall turnout would augur, at the least, a setback for the Berlusconi govenment, mired in corruption and scandals as never before. News of his political death was greatly exaggerated, alas! Of the 13 regions contested, Berlusconi added four to the two already in his power, thus consigning the administrative rule of the country to an almost equally divided centre-left/center-right split. But the nude facts say...

Australia: preparing for the next turn

Australian capitalism got through the 2007-9 economic crisis with less damage than any other rich capitalist country. Output never actually fell. All the banks got through without nationalisation or government bail-outs. The Liberal [Tory] opposition is making an attempt to stir up a panic about government debt, but it's desperate stuff. In fact Australia, unlike almost all other rich capitalist countries, has no problem of spiralling government debt, and the international financiers know it. To our surprise, and others', the housing market in Australia - which is similar to those in the USA...

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