Solidarity 264, 14 November 2012

Roma, Traveller, and socialist activists demonstrated outside the Czech and Slovakian embassies in Kensington on Tuesday 13 November against the policy of “special schools” for Roma children in these countries. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has called the schools “Educational Apartheid”. The schools, which are invariably inferior and chronically underfunded, have continued to exist in defiance of a ECHR ruling, and illustrate the rising tide of anti-Roma persecution across the former Eastern Bloc. One activist told Solidarity : “I’ve been involved in Roma solidarity for over fifty...

Istanbul branches of the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party, the main Kurdish nationalist party in Turkey) held sit-ins, and other direct actions on 10 November, in solidarity with Kurdish political prisoners who have been on hunger strike since 12 September. More than 700 prisoners in 60 prisons have been participating in the strike. On 9 November, leading figures in the BDP – including four MPs — joined the strike in solidarity. Large demonstrations and other direct actions have taken place in the Kurdish provinces of Turkey, including a student strike and “boycott” (i.e. shops not opening for...

The Labour Representation Committee, the largest socialist grouping inside the Labour Party, unanimously voted to support the Bob Carnegie Defence Campaign at its 2012 AGM on Saturday 10 November. Since the vote, LRC-supporting MPs John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn have expressed their personal support for the campaign. The East Ham branch of the transport union RMT, and the Glasgow Community, Youth Work, and Not-for-Profit branch of the Unite union have also passed motions supporting Bob. The National Shop Stewards Network promoted the campaign in its November bulletin. Support is growing in...

DEA (Internationalist Workers' Left) is one of the two Trotskyist groups active within Greek's left coalition Syriza. Like all the political components of Syriza, DEA agrees that Syriza should transform itself from a coalition into a “single political body”. Like the majority of Syriza, DEA supports dual membership, so that people will be able simultaneously to be members of DEA (or another political component) and of Syriza. The right wing of Syriza (ex Pasok members) are asking for the dissolution of all Syriza’s components and disciplinary measures against political deviations from Syriza’s...

The Guardian (13 November) sums up the evidence given by Starbucks, Amazon, and Google on why they pay almost no tax in Britain. "The man from Starbucks... said Starbucks paid almost no tax in the UK because... with one exception, they had made a loss for 15 years. Year after year, the business failed. Yet somehow it survived, and the UK boss was even promoted!... "The man from Amazon... denied that amazon.co.uk was, in any sense, a UK firm. But he didn't know what kind of firm it was, because he didn't know who owned it... "Matt Brittin of Google... at least admitted that the company shipped...

The Marikana Support Committee was launched in the wake of the massacre of 34 striking mineworkers on 16 August at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine in South Africa. It is working to: support the fight for justice at the Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the massacre support the familes of the arrested, injured, or slain support the mineworkers' struggle for a living wage . It appeals for donations to: Account name: HRMT1 for Marikana Support Campaign Bank: Nedbank. Branch: Constantia Branch code: 101109. Account no: 1011202366 Reference: Marikana Support Campaign SWIFT code: NEDSZAJJ...

On Thursday 8 November a meeting was held in the grounds of Lewisham Hospital about the campaign to prevent the cuts proposed by the 'Trust Special Administrator'. The proposals include shutting the A&E, maternity services, and complex and emergency surgery. In reality this would lead to much of the supportive services such as acute medical admissions and ITU being shut as well, and much of the hospital services and site would be shut down. The meeting room overflowed into two additional rooms where video link ups were used to involve as many people as possible, though some of the hundreds...