Solidarity 211, 8 July 2011

Where next for pensions fight?

The strikes on 30 June by teachers and civil service workers against pension cuts were the labour movement’s opening salvo in a war against the government. If we are to win, the war will involve many more strike days and other creative forms of industrial and political action. In primary and secondary education, the strike’s impact was enormous. Even though NASUWT, one of the bigger teaching unions, was not participating in the strikes, the big majority of schools were affected. Even on Daily Mail figures only 28% of schools were fully open. The overwhelming majorities in favour of strike...

The strange story of Snowy

Last year another Workers’ Liberty member and I went to a meeting about organising against an EDL demo in Bradford. After a few minutes a group of about half a dozen young guys turned up. They were led by a middle aged guy calling himself "Snowy" (aka John Shaw). He was from the EDL. We had a bit of an argument. Snowy said he wasn't racist and had mixed race relatives. He described himself as a working class Tory who was just trying to counteract Islamic extremism. We argued back that the EDL acted like anti-Asian racist thugs. After a while he and his bored looking mates left. From this...

SWP substitute thuggery for argument

The Sheffield pensions demo on 30 June was no place for the unemployed, according to elements of the left and trade unions. Charles Cartwright, a brickie who has been unemployed for two years, started to heckle the crowd as it was forming in Ponds Forge. His point was that people on the demo were lucky to have a job. Unfortunately that is the sentiment of many working-class people, especially if they are feeling the sharp end of the recession. Workers’ Liberty members were able to speak to him for a short while. Unfortunately he was soon confronted and surrounded by a SWP NUT steward and...

Take the media from Murdoch

AWL London forum: Wed 20 July, 19:30, Calthorpe Arms, 252 Grays Inn Rd, London WC1X 8JR. Speakers Dave Osler and Cathy Nugent. “Freedom of the press in Britain is the freedom to print such of the proprietor's prejudices as the advertisers don't object to”—Hannen Swaffer, one of the early 20th century pioneers of British tabloid journalism, cited in Tabloid Nation , by Chris Horrie. The Murdoch empire has decided (7 July) to shut down the News of the World — hoping to dodge the discredit of the hacking scandals, and no doubt quickly to move on to a new venture. Murdoch should not be allowed to...

Europe for citizens, not for bankers!

Some say that the recent protests in Spain are similar to the upheavals in the Arab world. Much of the agitation has come from the 15 May movement, a “movimiento de indignados”. They advocate more participation by the ordinary people in government. They cite the pernicious influence of banks and major corporations. They have a slogan “No somos marionetas en manos de politicos y banqueros” — roughly, “We aren't puppets in the hands of politicians and bankers”. From as early as March this year, student unions have been holding demonstrations in centres like Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia...

Universities: pig of a White Paper

On 28 June, the Government released its White Paper on the future of higher education. It is dressed up with talk of improving “the student experience”, but, as the President of Oxford Student Union has said, that is like putting lipstick on the pig of big cuts in teaching budgets and big increases in student fees. Universities minister David Willetts wants to remove the legislative restrictions on private capital entering the university sector. The government wants more like A C Grayling’s New College of the Humanities, or Buckingham University. The interesting thing about the A C Grayling...

Harshest slump since the 1930's

Economic output in the UK has now been fairly static for about eight months. It is still 4% below 2008. This makes this slump harsher than any since 1930-4, when output was 5% down a similar time along. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research reckons it will be 2013 before output is back to 2008 levels. That prediction assumes no new convulsions. But the Bank of England reports that the prices at which old Greek government bonds is trading imply that international financiers guess an 80% probability of Greece defaulting (i.e. not paying debts when they fall due). The implied...

Syria: a new phase

In early July film footage came from an unnamed Syrian town, showing a group of young men – perhaps six or eight of them – bare-chested on a dusty road. They are so agitated they are repeatedly getting up and then lying down again. They are beating their chests and shouting at figures in the distance. The translation tells us they are screaming: "Cowards! Kill us if you dare!" at the Syrian armed forces. Over 1500 people have been killed in the course of the Syrian uprising. Those young men might very well be shot dead. Their extreme bravery illustrates the extent of the contempt and hatred in...

The labyrinth of Tripoli

As of early July, rebel forces are only 60 miles from the Libyan capital Tripoli. The war is continuing in the Nafusa mountains to the south, and the rebels are advancing from the east, although Misrata is still being shelled by government forces. Qaddafi is thought to be hiding out in hotels and hospitals. This kind of ending is what we hope for for all Shahs, Tsars, Caesars and despots of all kinds. In desperation Qaddafi has called for attacks on civilians in Europe in retaliation for NATO attacks on loyalist forces — on homes, offices and families of those who are attacking him. But the...

Gramsci and Trotsky

In June 1930 Alfonso Leonetti, Paolo Ravazzoli, and Pietro Tresso - three of the eight members of the Executive of the Italian Communist Party - were expelled. This version is longer than the one in the printed paper. Click here to download text as pdf . Stalin was imposing in Italy his "Third Period" line which had led the German Communist Party to denounce the Social Democrats as "social fascists" and dismiss the threat of Hitler taking power (it said "fascism" was already in power, and another form of "fascism" could thus be no new threat; and anyway, "after Hitler, our turn next"). Italian...

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