Solidarity 208, 15 June 2011

Blairites target Ed Miliband

A diehard-Blairite plot to oust Ed Miliband as Labour leader seems to be underway, with the help of the media. Miliband has been weak; and that may tempt disillusioned socialists in Labour and the unions to join the chorus for Ed Miliband to go. That would mean lining up with a diehard-Blairite coup. The biggest problem with Ed Miliband is that, since he was elected as the unions’ favoured candidate against the wishes of the Shadow Cabinet and Labour MPs, he has been under very little pressure from the unions or the left of the party. He was always going to be weak; the lack of pressure from...

My life at work: Pay frozen, offices closed, now pensions cut

Theydon Boyce is a benefits worker in East London. Tell us about the work you do. I work in a east London processing centre that administers claims for Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Employment Support Allowance. Do you and your workmates get the pay and conditions you deserve? Definitely not. Some long serving colleagues have not had a consolidated pay rise for five years now. Low pay is endemic. 63% of civil servants earn less than £25,000 a year. The starting salary in my office is £17,650, barely above the London Living Wage. The sickness absence policy is...

Southern Cross: it's political

The future for 31,000 elderly and frail people whose welfare is in the hands of the ailing Southern Cross care homes company remains uncertain. The company has withheld 30% of rent due to the landlords that now own its 750 homes. It has also said 3,000 jobs will be cut. The company is saying homes will close — but are, for now, playing down the number of homes that will close. They know that closure will mean certain death and devastating health problems for many elderly people. The landlords, being landlords, don’t like not getting their rent and are demanding the government “shares the pain”...

Is Syria's army cracking?

The Syrian army is “cracking” under the pressure of the indomitable rebellion in the country, which continues despite over a thousand deaths and an estimated ten thousand people jailed. Or so Hugh Macleod and Annasofie Flamand estimate (Al Jazeera, 11 June). They cite reports from people who have fled over the border to Turkey, including defecting soldiers. Joshua Landis, a US academic expert on Syria, is sceptical. “There is little evidence of wide-scale mutiny of Syrian soldiers. No solid evidence that they shot at each other... Individual soldiers do seem to have deserted. Some turned up in...

Checkmate in Libya?

In Tripoli there have been several reports of security tightening and repression stiffening up — obviously in anticipation of a potential uprising in the city as the rebel forces move closer. Apart from brief and brutally suppressed skirmishes by disaffected youth in some of the poorer suburbs of the capital there has been little activity on this front since mid-February in the week the insurgency began. At that point attacks by civilians on military installations and officers were defeated more by the extremely effective security measures of the regime then by any lack of will of the rebels...

Patrick Rolfe, 1987-2011

It is with great sadness that we inform you that our comrade Patrick Rolfe has died at the age of 24. He passed away on the evening of 10 June, following a long battle with a rare form of stomach cancer. Although he had been ill for some months, his death was unexpected and has come as a shock. Patrick Rolfe joined Workers’ Liberty in 2008 as a student at Cambridge University. Although he was new to revolutionary politics, he immediately threw himself into building a student campaign against the marketisation of education and higher fees. In 2009 he organised an action for the Education Not...

Feminism: back by popular demand!

For our previous article on the politics of Slutwalk, see here . *** After weeks of debate and controversy about the politics of Slutwalk the London march on 11 June was positive and full of a feeling of solidarity. The crowd of 5,000, marching through London shouting “Whatever we wear, wherever we go; yes means yes and no means no!”, was diverse: people of all sexualities and genders, not overwhelmingly white (which had been a particular concern). It was, however, mainly a demonstration of youth! In contrast to movements like Reclaim the Night – men, transgender people and sex workers’...

Work Programme: government builds on New Labour "welfare reform"

The Work Programme unveiled last week by Department for Work and Pensions minister Chris Grayling is in many respects another stage of the “welfare reform” process initiated by New Labour. Where the last government operated an array of schemes for the unemployed, sick and disabled, Work Programme essentially merges them into one. Many of the companies bidding for Work Programme contracts – A4E, G4S, Serco – also made large profits from running New Labour schemes like the New Deal. The New Deal like the planned Work Programme also included mandatory “work placements” of up to 26 weeks where...

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