Solidarity 209, 22 June 2011

New research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that the rate of inflation is systematically higher for the worse-off than for the well-off. Over the eleven years 2000-10, the inflation rate for the poorest 20% of households averaged 3.4%, and for the top 10% of households, 2.9%. The difference looks small, but, accumulated, means a 7.5% difference in total inflation over the eleven-year period. The general reason is that prices of things that poorer people spend most on, like food, fuel, and housing, usually rise faster than prices of, for example, electronic gadgets. The exact...

Bitter sectarian violence erupted at the interface between the republican Short Strand and the loyalist lower Newtownards Road in east Belfast on the evening of Monday 20 June. Several hundred people were involved in clashes which saw two people shot in the legs and petrol bombs, bricks, bottles and other missiles were thrown on both sides. Inevitably, conflicting reports have been given from both sides. The Sinn Féin lord mayor of Belfast, Niall Ó Donnghaile, blamed Loyalists for organising the violence, while Ulster Unionist MLA, Michael Copeland, alleged that the events were “a follow-on...

The challenge by Workers’ Liberty member Bob Carnegie for the secretaryship of the Queensland branch of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA, dockers’ and seafarers’ union) has been defeated by the narrowest of margins. Bob led in the count up to the last day, when a batch of seafarers’ votes, always expected somewhat to favour the incumbent Mick Carr, was counted. After a recount, the final score was: Carr 506, Carnegie 504, and a third candidate, Brett Membery, 56. It is the closest vote in MUA history. As one of Bob’s supporters said after the result: “We have just got to fight harder and...

Yemen — even given the best possible of governments — would not be a well functioning state. And Yemen has not got the best of all possible governments. It has the corrupt rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power for over 40 years, and unwilling to let go. President Saleh has not been seen in public since he was wounded on June 3, in an attack on his palace which left him with burns and shrapnel wounds. He left the country to be treated in Saudi Arabia, declaring he would soon be back. Saleh had just backed away from an attempt to negotiate a transition of power with the coalition which has led...

On 17 June, Lib-Dem minister Danny Alexander chose the Tory Daily Telegraph to try to lecture public-sector workers that their pensions will be cut, no matter what. He declared: "millions of other taxpayers are asking why they should be asked to pay more tax to fund them – especially as those in the private sector often receive considerably less or nothing at all by way of employer contributions". What millions? Private-sector workers know that their pension schemes have been trashed (and sometimes, as by Robert Maxwell, looted) by their profit-hungry bosses, not by public sector workers. No...