Solidarity 198, 23 March 2011

Clashes in Bahrain

The protest movement in Bahrain has revived recently, with thousands of activists blockading the King Faisal Highway which leads to Bahrain’s main financial district. Security forces attempted to disperse them using tear gas. At least three people are reported to have been killed in the clashes, with the regime claiming that three policemen have also died. Following King Hamad Bin Isa al-Khalifa’s declaration of a three-month state of emergency, Saudi troops were invited into the country to help quell what the regime is denouncing as an “external plot”. Over 60 people are reported to have gone...

Egypt: new constitution goes against left

There were big turnouts for Egypt’s referendum on constitutional amendments on Saturday March 19, with people queuing sometimes for hours to cast their votes. The vote was heavily — 77 per cent of the votes cast — in favour of the amendments. But most of the groups involved in the “25 January” revolution which toppled President Hosni Mubarak had called for a “no” vote – demanding instead that the entire constitution be scrapped and a new one drawn up by a Constituent Assembly. The Muslim Brotherhood called, however, for a “yes” vote. Conservative Muslim leaders have told voters that it is...

Yemen opposition gunned down

In an effort to maintain himself in power Yemen’s president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, resorted to extreme violence on Friday when over 50 anti-government protesters were killed by snipers in the capital, Sanaa. Denying he was responsible for the murders, Saleh then stated, “The great majority of the Yemeni people are with security, stability and constitutional law [bizarrely, meaning himself].” The protest movement in the capital has been organised by a coalition of nationalist, Islamist and self-styled leftist parties. Much of the movement’s membership is made up of young people who – as in...

Inflation error leads to pay cuts

Workers have suffered the equivalent of a pay cut of thousands of pounds due to statistical errors which miscalculated the rise in inflation. The Bank of England admitted in February that the consumer prices index (CPI) should have been 0.3 percentage points higher than it was for every years between 1997 and 2009. The retail prices index (RPI) was even more seriously miscalculated; it should have risen by 0.6 percentage points. The errors mean that if wages had risen in line with the actual rates of inflation, a worker earning £10,000 in 1997 should now be earning £15,000. Instead, the...

Cut top bosses' pay!

Will Hutton has published the Final Report of his Independent Review into Fair Pay in the Public Sector, along with his recommendations to the Government. David Cameron and George Osborne commissioned the review in June 2010. The Treasury website summarises Hutton’s recommendations: “…senior public servants’ pay will be directly linked to their performance and will be explained transparently to the public. In return, public service leaders are entitled to expect improved public appreciation of the responsibilities of senior public service roles, and the ethos of public service that motivates...

Children will still be detained

The government’s promise to end the detention of child asylum seekers has been exposed as a lie as plans to close a special needs school to convert it into a “pre-departure accommodation facility” were revealed. The centre, in Pease Pottage, Sussex, will be surrounded by a barbed-wire fence and detainees will be transported in and out of the site in UK Border Agency vans. This is the detention of children by another name; the only possible beneficiaries are the landowner who will rent the site to the UKBA and whichever multinational firm the UKBA chooses to run the centre. Britain’s racist...

NUS Women's Conference - left makes an impact

This year's NUS Women's Conference was a far cry from last year's mundane and poorly attended Labour Students saturated affair, complete with an uncontested election for the National Women's Officer position. Women on the left, present at this year's conference in larger numbers, passed many pieces of progressive policy such as Free Education. I am a member of AWL, supporter of NCAFC and Vice President Education at the University of Westminster. I stood for National Women's Officer against Labour Students and NUS Welsh Women's Campaign stalwart Estelle Hart. In a sign of the times when the...

Tunisian socialist: "the revolution has two pillars"

Loumamba is a militant from the Trotskyist group Left Workers' League (LGO) in Tunisia. Are PCOT [Worker-Communist Party of Tunisia, the main Stalinist party in Tunisia] making a front with with Ennahdha [the largest, hardline Islamist party in Tunisia, previously banned by Ben Ali]? The PCOT has set up something called the Committee for the Safeguarding of the Revolution – within this committee the left has accepted the presence of Ennahdha to make liberal demands - the constituent assembly, liberty of expression, and so on. It has no social or economic foundation. But Ennahdha does not...

Stop the War Coalition's pro-Qaddafi demo

Today's Stop the War Coalition protest outside Downing Street, against Western military intervention in Libya, was attended by about a hundred people. It was heavily dominated by Stalinists, with a definite majority from groups including the CPB, Socialist Action, the Greek Communist Party and the CPGB-ML - the last of which was distributing a leaflet saying "Hands off Libya! Victory to Qaddafi!" This was, at least, more coherent than the SWP's oxymoronic line of "No to intervention in Libya! Victory to the Arab revolutions!" I saw a Counterfire activist with a placard listing the anti-working...

Libya: no illusions in West but “anti-intervention” opposition is abandoning rebels

On 17 March, after much procrastination, the United Nations agreed to military action against Libya’s dictator Muammar Qaddafi, whose murderous forces were advancing on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi. The Stop the War Coalition immediately issued a statement condemning “a new war”, and “escalating armed intervention in Libya”. Socialist Worker headlined “No to intervention in Libya! Victory to Arab revolutions!” Much other left-wing commentary has focused on opposing intervention. But the rebel forces in Benghazi greeted the UN decision with jubilation. Benghazi is a city where Qaddafi has...

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