Solidarity 445, 26 July 2017

Saudis back off

The Saudi Arabian-led blockade of its smaller Gulf neighbour Qatar began on 5 June. The Saudis, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt put in place economic and political sanctions including closing their airspace to Qatari flights, shutting the Saudi-Qatar land border, forcing their citizens to leave Qatar and expelling Qataris from their territories. The Saudis demanded Qatar close the state-owned TV station al-Jazeera, end all cooperation with Iran, remove Turkish troops from Qatar’s soil, and cut contact with the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar was also to submit to regular compliance checks. The ultimatum...

What’s really wrong at the BBC

The row over high salaries at the BBC has so far shed very little light on the most pay important inequalities at the company, and more broadly in “the cultural industries”. The row has centred on the gender gap in pay among the top-paid “talent”. With Chris Evans netting £2 million last year and Claudia Winkleman on “just” £450,000. One of the higher-paid (but not highest-paid) men, Casualty star Tom Chambers, added some more sexist bullshit to the debate by saying men like him had wives and children to feed. Because, of course, women don’t have dependants. We didn’t get to know many of the...

Slow down in life expectancy

Life expectancy in England, which has been steadily rising for more than 100 years, has stalled. Government and World Health Organisation advisor Sir Michael Marmot looked at Office for National Statistics data showing that the rate of increase in life expectancy had nearly halved since 2010. Before 2010 life expectancy at birth had been increasing by one year every five years for women and by one year every 3.5 years for men. After 2010 that rate fell to an increase of one year for every 10 years for women and one year for every six years for men. Marmot described this slow in growth as...

The crisis in social care

Old people today eh, growing up with all the benefits associated with a welfare state they have had the audacity to not die of horrible childhood diseases, malnutrition or in childbirth, like in the good old days. They have the cheek to continue living for more than a couple of years after retirement. Some inconveniently remain alive for decades after ceasing to be productive members of the work force. If this wasn’t bad enough many of them chose to use this time to become ill and frail, needing extra support to indulge in unnecessary activities such as bathing and preparing food for eating...

Anti-migrant racism and Italy’s “morbid symptoms”

Soon after the racist, lying campaign initiated by a magistrate in Catania aiming to discredit the humanitarian work of the network of NGOs who have been rescuing refugees, a crowdfunding appeal has been launched in Italy to raise money to buy a boat to, it is said, “defend Europe from the plot to substitute the Italian population with the masses from Africa.” The first task of the 40-metre long boat will be to “confront in the waters of Libya the NGO 'Fifth Column' and drive the refugees back to Libya. While it is highly unlikely that the exercise will get beyond media headlines, it exposes a...

Yes, antisemitism is an issue

Controversies have arisen in some local Labour Parties and Momentum groups around whether to endorse definitions of antisemitism proposed by various civil society organisations. Two main definitions have been promoted in the labour movement, one from the European Union Monitoring Centre (EUMC) and one from the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA). Both include short “definitions”, supplemented by lengthier “guidance”. Some local government bodies, including Haringey Borough Council in north London, are due to debate endorsement of the IHRA definition and guidance. The local...

What's wrong with Stalinist iconography

In the recent past there has been a minor craze in and around the Labour left for using 1930s Stalinist iconography. This craze, based in social media, ranges from the use of Stalinist socialist realist “art” to images and memes attacking Trotskyists, including ice-picks emojis etc. Some people, so we understand, who volunteer for Momentum like to use jargon attacking Trotskyists, taken from these social media exchanges, such as “Clear Them Out”. They mean that people who support Workers’ Liberty or Socialist Appeal should be expelled from the Labour Party. In an effort to draw attention to...

Railworkers fighting for our safety

On July 20 2017 Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) organised a demonstration outside the Department for Transport, London. The demo was also attended by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). Activists handed in a 4,000 signature petition for the return of train guards who are being got rid of by management – for disabled’s and passenger’s rights and lives. It took officials at the Department for Transport 30 minutes to send someone to receive the petition, they may have been delaying to see if the protest would go away. The protest was very assertive and we...

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