Solidarity 248, 6 June 2012

Italy's rank and file assembles

“The urgent need in this country is for a government of workers to decide its direction.” So said Dante De Angeli, an Italian train driver, one among 500 delegates representing workplace and factory committees at an assembly in Rome on 3 June. They met against a background of the economic crisis and the savage austerity programme of Mario Monti. The 20-year decline in wages and living standards is plummeting yet further. The words of another delegate summed up succinctly the purpose of the assembly: ”The unity of the trade union movement so far [i.e. the “Social Contract” of the Confed unions...

Palestinian hunger strikers win

The mass hunger strikes by 1,550 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention ended on 14 May with significant Israeli concessions. Palestinian prisoners were objecting to “administrative detentions” - the policy of detention without charge or trial. The deal between the prisoners and Israeli authorities means that these detentions can no longer be extended if no new evidence emerges. As a consequence perhaps 300 prisoners will be released before the end of the year. Israel also promised to stop the use of solitary confinement. The Israeli state was worried that if hunger strikers died mass...

Ireland ratifies austerity treaty

After a campaign dominated by fear, the Irish electorate voted 60% to 40% on 1 June to ratify the EU fiscal pact. Turnout was low, with just over half of Irish voters going to the polls. Rather than an enthusiastic endorsement of Fine Gael-Labour and EU policies, the vote reflects fears of deepening the crisis and worries that Ireland would be unable to access funds from the European Stability Mechanism. As Fine Gael junior finance minister Brian Hayes said, voters feared putting Ireland “at the centre of the storm — a bit like what has happened in Greece.” This is a reminder of the...

Egypt: not Shafiq, not Mursi!

In the run-off vote for the Egyptian presidency on 16-17 June, Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister and a long-time ally of ousted former president Hosni Mubarak, is facing the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Mursi. In the first round both got about a quarter of the vote. Many Egyptians have already decided not to vote in the run-off, as they find the choice — between illiberal Islamists or backers of the former regime — repulsive. The Brothers took an overtly Islamist stance during the campaign for the first round of elections, held last month. They were trying to head off competition from a...

Student activists make autumn plans

Student activists met in Edinburgh over the weekend 2-3 June for a National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC) training event. The event was structured around the idea that it is not enough for us to just fight against government proposals around fees and privatisation. We also need to articulate a positive vision for democratic education. There was a wide variety of workshops, each of a high quality, ranging from NUS history to privatisation in education. Ed Whitby, a member of Unison, and I ran a workshop on class-struggle trade unionism which delved into union structures, the problems...

The poor kept poor

Thatcherism was reputed, despite its right-wing drift, to increase social mobility. The gap between the rich and the poor increased, but maybe the chance of people from poor backgrounds becoming rich would rise. A grocer's daughter became prime minister. Proverbially, East End barrow-boys became ultra-rich financial traders in the City. In fact, however, social mobility is decreasing. Poor children born in the 1970s are more likely to be poor in adulthood than poor children from the 1950s. 33% of top journalists are supplied by Oxford university alone. 54% of them, as of 2006, had been to fee...

Exploitation behind the pageantry

Unemployed people were bussed into London and made to sleep under a bridge before working as unpaid stewards at the Jubilee pageant. The benefits claimants were brought into London from Bath, Bristol, and Plymouth to work jobs administered by Close Protection UK. The company said the unpaid work was a “trial” for potential paid jobs at the Olympics. It confirmed using 30 unpaid workers (as well as 50 apprentices paid just £2.80 an hour) at the pageant. Workers had no access to toilet facilities, and were made to change into their uniforms in public. They slept on concrete under London Bridge...

What is jubilee?

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Jubilee 1 - a year of emancipation and restoration provided by ancient Hebrew law to be kept every 50 years by the emancipation of Hebrew slaves, restoration of alienated lands to their former owners, and omission of all cultivation of the land. 2 - a religious song of black Americans usually referring to a time of future happiness. The Hebrew usage is said to be based on a custom by Babylonian kings of decreeing, irregularly in the Babylonian case, a general cancellation of debts. Thus the Jubilee Debt campaign demands the cancellation of debts for poor...

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