Solidarity 293, 7 August 2013

Cinema for socialism!

On 5 August, Workers’ Liberty Sheffield held a film showing of The Navigators, the Ken Loach film about railway privatisation written by Workers’ Liberty member Rob Dawber who died of mesothelioma contracted from exposure to asbestos during his time as a track worker. The showing, which included food and drink, raised £75 and featured a discussion about the fight for public ownership today. Workers’ Liberty branches in North East London and South London are also planning an ongoing series of film showings. North East London’s next showing takes place on Sunday 18 August at Menard Hall, Galway...

The spirit of utopia and the art of healing

“Sanatorium” is one of ten installations that make up the Whitechapel Gallery’s summer exhibition, “The Spirit of Utopia”. The title alludes to Ernst Bloch’s three volumes, written in 1917. The exhibition is described as “a remarkable series of installations and events [which] engage us in playful, provocative and creatively pragmatic models for social change”. Here, Isobel Urquhart reviews “Sanatorium”. In “Sanatorium”, Mexican artist Pedro Reyes creates a mockup of a clinical setting, with six rooms offering a different “therapy”, which is facilitated by volunteers in white lab coats in the...

Free whistleblower Manning!

Update - 21 August 2013 A military court has sentenced Manning to 35 year in jail for espionage, theft, and violation of military computer regulations. The below article was written two weeks ago, after the announcement of the verdict. Chelsea Manning [formerly Bradley: she has changed her name and gender identity] released military documents to WikiLeaks, documents which included footage of a US military helicopter gunning down a father taking his children to school; evidence of a death squad operating in Afghanistan; and files showing that Guantánamo held dementia patients, taxi drivers and...

Tories make racist play for UKIP votes

In July the Home Office launched a new anti-immigrant campaign. A mobile billboard was driven around north and west London with a giant poster warning “illegal immigrants go home, or get arrested”. Even Nigel Farage of UKIP (that’s right, UKIP!) said the billboards were “deeply divisive and unnecessary”. Yet the Tories felt able to defend the posters. Conservative MP Mark Harper said: “Let me clear this up once and for all – it is not racist to ask people who are here illegally to leave Britain. It is merely telling them to comply with the law.” Every person who has spent any time in a UK...

Left Unity: the tortoise and the hare

The Left Unity group, launched in late 2012 by Andrew Burgin and Kate Hudson after they quit Respect, and given a boost in early 2013 by support from film-maker Ken Loach, plans a conference on 30 November to constitute itself as an organisation and adopt a political platform. Burgin and Hudson are promoting a draft called the Left Party Platform. Its supporters include the Socialist Resistance group. Tom Walker, a former Socialist Worker journalist who quit early in 2013 and is now prominent in the SWP-splinter International Socialist Network (ISNers), writes, in support: “The Left Party...

Labour and the unions: much more threat than opportunity

On 24 July Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey told an emergency meeting of all members of the union’s Regional Political Committees and the union’s National Executive Committee that Ed Miliband’s new proposals for Labour Party structure are “not a threat but an opportunity”. “Ed Miliband has made some bold and far-reaching proposals for recasting the trade union relationship with the Labour Party. Some pundits were expecting me to reject them outright. When Ed made his speech, I saw it as an opportunity not as a threat”. Miliband’s main idea (9 July) was that trade unionists should be...

Victory at Lewisham Hospital!

On 31 July, a High Court judge ruled that health minister Jeremy Hunt had acted unlawfully in ordering the closure of Lewisham Hospital’s A&E and maternity unit. The ruling slammed the brakes on the closures. We won! The Save Lewisham Hospital campaign warned us in advance the announcement would be at 11:30am; a tweet went out at 11:37, and by midday everyone in the hospital that I could find already knew the result. Lots of friends and family texted me to congratulate me, and throughout, hospital staff have been commenting in wonder at how the “little people” have won. Everyone remarks about...

Tunisian unions fight Islamist violence

The 600,000-strong Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) organised a general strike on Friday 26 July in response to the murder of a secular politician, Mohamed Brahmi, a leader of the Popular Movement. The strike brought Tunis, the capital, to a standstill, as flights were cancelled, trains stopped running and most shops were shut. The following day police fired teargas on thousands of demonstrators protesting outside the parliament. Brahimi’s assassination is the second murder of an anti-Islamist MP this year. In February Chokri Belaid was killed. The government claims both men were shot with...

Zimbabwe poll rigged?

Robert Mugabe has claimed a landslide victory in elections held in Zimbabwe on 31 July for the presidency and national assembly. Yet Human Rights Watch reports that many voters were turned away and many duplicates were on the voter roll. A mole inside Mugabe’s Zanu-PF correctly predicted the alleged assassination of one MP and claimed that “disappearing ink” pens had been supplied to polling stations. In a poll last year 65% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that “fear of violence and intimidation make people vote for parties or candidates other than the ones they prefer”. Yet monitors...

Anti-fascists mobilise in East London

Seventy activists attended a meeting in Bethnal Green called by the Anti-Fascist Network to discuss mobilising against a planned EDL action in Tower Hamlets on 7 September. Speakers from London Anti-Fascists, South London Anti-Fascists and Brighton Anti-Fascists (who set up the successful “Stop the March for England” coalition to stop an annual far-right provocation in their town) set out working-class, direct action strategies for fighting the EDL, and the meeting discussed a range of possible approaches for the day. The current call-out is for 7 September is for 11 am at Altab Ali Park on...

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