Solidarity 209, 22 June 2011

In autumn 2008 big banks in the world’s richest countries went bust. Governments bailed them out or nationalised them. The sharp end of the crisis was swivelled to point at governments, and their ability to manage debt, rather than at the banks. The governments have managed the sequel by giving priority to getting banks profitable and independent again, and making the working class pay. That is the story behind the “bail-outs” of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal, and Greece’s second “bail-out”, currently being negotiated. On the estimate of most economists, the “bail-outs” of Greece will not stop...

Patrick Rolfe, a revolutionary socialist activist and member of Workers’ Liberty between 2008 and 2010, died on 10 June from a rare form of stomach cancer. Patrick was a leading activist in a number of campaigns, particularly around issues of climate change and free education as a student at Cambridge, Sussex and Leeds. He was one of the young AWL members who helped spark the occupation and solidarity campaign against the closure of the Vestas wind turbine blades factory on the Isle of Wight. He was later one of the “Sussex Six”, the victimised activists suspended by the University of Sussex...

As we approach the first large-scale strike against the Coalition cuts offensive, unrealistic demagogy about “General Strike” continues to proliferate on the left. The Socialist Party calls for a “one day public sector general strike”, i.e. not a full-scale general strike, usually with GENERAL STRIKE in huge letters and the rest tiny. Meanwhile, in the leadership of the PCS union, it deflects discussion of the kind of action that can actually win. PCS conference was told that “nothing is ruled out”, but delegates were not allowed to debate specifics. The SWP continues to raise the slogan...

Predictably, the mainstream press has been full of suggestions, from figures such as “Paymaster General” Francis Maude MP, that the relatively low turnouts in some of the unions’ strike ballots for June 30 somehow delegitimises their actions. Certainly, it would be preferable if our unions did not have to jump through the hoop of a bureaucratic and atomising balloting process, where workers receive their voting papers individually, at home, away from the collectivism and solidarity of the workplace. A mass workplace meeting that took a vote on whether to strike would be infinitely more...

Croydon: teachers and students uniting By a Croydon teacher and South London AWL member I got the news of the NUT and ATL [teachers’ unions] ballot results from an email at 3.10 on Tuesday 14 June. At 3.15pm I walked out of my classroom to find a group of very excited year 10s shouting “teachers are going on strike!” The teacher who runs the art club got the kids to help make banners today, some of the slogans (which the kids chose) included “no pension, no work” and “we won’t clean up your mess”. Locally, our association (Croydon) is encouraging picket lines but it looks like few will happen...

On 18 June, Dave Prentis, general secretary of the public service workers’ union Unison, told the Guardian that in the autumn the union, with others, will start a campaign of industrial action, “the biggest since the general strike”. “It won’t be the miners’ strike [of 1984-5, which shook the country for a year but eventually was defeated]. We are going to win.” He promised more than one-day strikes. “I strongly believe that one day of industrial action will not change anyone’s mind in government... We are prepared for rolling action over an indefinite period”. And he demanded support for the...

A little while ago I attended a regional meeting of the United Left in the Unite union. Myself, a woman comrade, Rhiannon, and her six-year-old daughter Star were there. We had political debates on Unite and the Labour Party, Libya, reports from the executive and from the United Left AGM. The most surprising thing was how Rhiannon and Star were treated. Afterwards I emailed some of the United Left people with the following: “I just wanted to say I was very surprised at how Rhiannon was spoken to at the meeting. “Someone said that in politics you get lots of unpleasant things said and that you...

David McDonald ( Solidarity 209) says that nobody of Gil Scott-Heron’s stature should end up in jail (in Heron’s case, for cocaine possession). I think I know what David is saying here — that it is a shame to see such a talented musician get so low. However, Heron would never have claimed any privileges for himself and neither should we. Nobody, no matter who they are, should go to jail just for using drugs, particularly if, as in Heron’s case, drugs are making them ill. Over 25% of the world’s prison population are in US jails (2 million of its 307 million population). And 10.4% of all black...

This government has not only betrayed existing pensioners with this new pension scheme, it’s about to hit some pensioner couples who are also receiving Pension Credit, if an amendment in the Welfare Reform Bill goes through parliament in its present form. “Welfare Reform Bill Explanatory Notes: Page 22 145. Paragraph 64 amends the State Pension Credit Act 2002 so that a member of a couple who has attained the qualifying age for state pension credit may not receive state pension credit if the other member of the couple has not attained that qualifying age. This is to ensure that all claimants...

I have harboured the usual Hollywood and rock ‘n’ roll-inspired English white boy road trip fantasies ever since my teenage years, and a couple of weeks back, I finally found myself out on Highway 61. As I approached the celebrated Interstate — top down on the bright red Mustang convertible hired for the occasion, the inevitable choice of Dylan CD blaring from the speakers — I was met by a sign reading “lane closures in both directions”. That’s not quite how I imagined it was going to be. Obvious lack of infrastructural investment was not the only thing that struck me about the state of the...