Solidarity 220, 12 October 2011

Observing the sudden outpouring of sentimentalism, there is no doubt that the passing of Steve Jobs has struck a chord in our collective commodity fetish... Steve Jobs... was the man who offered the bourgeois intelligentsia of the West a way to keep consuming while still being able to hold on to the illusion of being a hippie. In the process, Jobs took our age-old commodity fetish to a whole new level... Wielding an iPhone was no longer just a matter of utility or an affirmation of status — it became an act of rebellion. Against what, nobody knew. But “thinking different” felt great. No...

Trotsky warned against turning permanent revolution into a “superhistorical master-key” applicable to all societies in all circumstances. He rejected a “theological” conception of permanent revolution. Sadly, since Trotsky’s death in 1940, most would-be Trotskyists have subscribed to the label while hollowing out the perspective. The original version of this book, The Politics of Combined and Uneven Development: The Theory of Permanent Revolution by Michael Löwy (1981) became the standard text on permanent revolution for “orthodox” Trotskyists. Now Part One and the conclusion of the book have...

In discussing fixed capital, Marx refers to growing “pressure on the money-market” as a factor in the downfall of capitalist booms. “If we conceive society as being not capitalistic but communistic, there will be no money-capital at all in the first place, not the disguises cloaking the transactions arising on account of it. The question then comes down to the need of society to calculate beforehand how much labour, means of production, and means of subsistence it can invest, without detriment, in such lines of business as for instance the building of railways, which do not furnish any means...

By Eric Lee Last month I sent out a mailing to LabourStart's 75,000 subscribers asking people to support the struggles of striking oil workers in Kazakhstan and at a steel company in Georgia. As these were both former Soviet republics, I gave the message the subject of line “Back in the USSR?”. I was quoting the Beatles song, of course, but I also wanted to point out that the increasing repression of independent trade unions in the post-Soviet era was a throwback to the dark days of Stalinism. The last thing I expected was to become the target of a wave of angry emails from unrepentant...

Not since the General Strike of 1926 has there been any comparable move by so many unions to strike together on the same day. 30 November is shaping up to be one of the biggest strikes in the history of the British labour movement, drawing in many workers who have never struck before. The big local government and health union Unison will send out ballot papers from 11 October, to be returned by 3 November. The teachers’ union EIS and the head teachers’ organisation NAHT have already sent out ballot papers for strike action against pension cuts on 30 November. Six other unions hold live ballot...

The proportion of children living in poverty — defined as below 60 per cent of median income — will rise from 19.3 per cent in 2010-1 to over 24 per cent by 2020. According to new research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, that is the certain result of changes in welfare benefits and cuts in real wages which are already underway. The Child Poverty Act 2010, which the Tories did not then oppose, sets a legally-binding target to cut the percentage of children in poverty below 10% by 2020. The Financial Times (11 October) reports Government officials shrugging this off with comments that...

On 11 October the Health and Social Care Bill has its second reading in the House of Lords. The Bill went through the House of Commons between January and September 2011, slower than usual because of a two-month “pause” allowed by the Government midway, but is now being pushed full speed ahead. Even this late public pressure can push crossbench or Lib-Dem members of the House of Lords into voting through amendments which will block the Bill, or cause problems for the Government when the Bill comes back to the Commons for consideration of amendments (as it must), and thwart this drive to...

By Jayne Edwards I agree with Cathy Nugent ( Solidarity 219) that children need rules, just as adults — ones that make sense and that are logical. However, if it is not reasonable to reduce adults to tears and frighten them it is not with children, who are more vulnerable; yet with children that approach is considered fine. My argument is children shouldn’t be subjected to threats and punishment. Young primary school children are at their most upset and frightened when they think they are in trouble. The thing they have done is nearly always a misunderstanding or trivial — but what overwhelms...

By Martyn Hudson Sacha Ismail raises some issues in his response to my brief introduction to Serge (Letters, Solidarity 219). I will be raising the issue of Kronstadt in a future piece but will briefly respond to some issues now. The Reiss affair is significant not only in the manner of his death but also because Ignace Reiss exemplified the best aspects of a Bolshevik party as it was being destroyed by Stalinism. Suzi Weissman is currently completing a long article on the Zborowski/Etienne affair and this will look in detail at Sneevliet and Serge. To describe Sneevliet as a quasi-Trotskyist...

By Patrick Murphy Last week the Facebook status of a good socialist friend of mine bemoaned the lack of coverage of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and contrasted it to the copious reporting on Amanda Knox. The basic point was fair. Yet again the press decided their readers would benefit more from titillation and prurience than from an example of mass popular resistance to untrammelled capitalism. Moreover the Amanda Knox story was bursting with evidence of the deepest and darkest prejudices lingering just below the surface of the British media. Amanda Knox was found guilty and imprisoned in...