Solidarity 472, 6 June 2018

Jenö Landler 1875-1928

It is 90 years since the death of the Hungarian Communist Jenö Landler. His is not a name that will evoke much response today. He did not leave a written legacy but he was one of those who work tirelessly behind the scenes and never occupy the spotlight. Without him and countless thousands of other unsung activists where would we be today? They too should be remembered and honoured along with the “big names”. Landler was born in Gelse in Hungary in 1875, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He trained in early life as a lawyer but quickly attached himself, to the rapidly growing Hungarian...

Officials suppress the rank-and-file at UCU Congress

The congress of the University and College Union (UCU) on 30 May to 1 June was repeatedly shut down by officials to prevent discussion of motions criticising the General Secretary, Sally Hunt. The 14 days of strikes this year to defend USS pensions in 65 universities, and a coordinated wave of local campaigns in further education colleges, have boosted union membership and pushed forward a new generation of activists. But in mid-March Hunt attempted to sell members a raw deal from the employers to halt the strikes, only to be pushed back by a resounding “no” from branch delegates and a...

Haringey: “the first Corbyn Labour council”

We do face a challenge with the budget. We have lost about 53% of our budget since 2010 and it’s not going to get any better. We have a lot of people in temporary housing, we have a lot of people waiting for council housing and it’s not good enough. We have changed direction on housing, and our policies are now more in line with the current Labour Party Leader and the 2017 [General Election] manifesto. People are going to watch us as “the first Corbyn council”, to expect us to fail and will perceive anything we might see as a setback as a failure. I don’t blame parts of the Party for feeling...

Build the left against Brexit

Pressure is growing inside Labour for it to take a firm stance against Brexit. Some of this pressure comes from the right of the Party. On Sunday 3 June Sadiq Kahn called for Corbyn to oppose Britain’s departure from the single market. He advocated Labour supports an amendment to the EU Withdrawal Bill which aims to keep Britain in the European Economic Area, effectively signing the UK up to the so-called “Norway option”, which would retain access to the Single Market. The Withdrawal Bill is scheduled to return to the House of Commons on 12 June. When it does, MPs will vote on a total of 15...

"Bennism" warm and cold

There was nothing grand about Tony Benn’s house in Holland Park Avenue, Notting Hill, West London, but it was a big house in an expensive area, and with the sort of high-quality shabbiness which, so I learn from literature, is typical of “old wealth”. John Bloxam and I were visiting, around 1981, to interview Benn for Socialist Organiser, a forerunner of Solidarity. We asked him questions about the battles against Thatcher, and Labour Party affairs, and got answers which gave ideas close to our own added weight and audibility as coming from one of Labour’s best-known figures. As on public...

Preserve the right to criticise Israel

Former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has recently said that “anti-Zionism” is the new antisemitism. “In the 19th and 20th centuries [Jews] were hated because of their race. Today they are hated because of their nation state, Israel”. That is true, I think. But it needs explication if we are distinguish well between that anti- Zionism and reasonable criticism of Israel. And it’s been true for a very long time, for decades in fact. It is now the specifically “left” strand of antisemitism. In one of the “traditional” antisemitisms “the Jews” figure as the arch-embodiment of money and money-power, of...

Industrial policy in one country?

The economist Costas Lapavitsas, who has done important work on financialisation, has written a widely-cited article for the US magazine Jacobin (30 May) to argue that Labour should back Brexit after all. Indeed, his article systematically cites the “hardest” sort of Brexit — where Britain has no arrangement with the European Union to reduce economic barriers other than that given by general World Trade Organisation rules — as preferable. Up to now, very few pro-Brexiters, outside a few right-wing nationalist Tories, have described that “no deal” Brexit as anything other than an admittedly...

LETTER: Clarity or rhetorical flourish?

More debate on the Right of Return here . The exchange between Ashok Kumar and Sean Matgamna in Solidarity 469 was very interesting. Ashok managed to spend over a thousand words saying remarkably little beyond vague allusions and rhetorical games. His contribution could be summarised as claiming that Workers’ Liberty differs in attitude from much of the left on various related issues – not substantiating how – and that Ashok’s own attitudes conversely are more widely supported. Sean by contrast gave insightful analyses of both the relevant political issues, and of the culture of debate on the...

Positive links not boycotts

It is surprising that the Eurovision Song Contest, a festival of high-camp commercialism, should have become a focus of political interest. For some of the participating countries the contest has pushed the boundaries of gender politics. The contest was won in 1998 by the transgender Israeli singer Dana International and in 2014 by the genderqueer Austrian Conchita Wurst, perhaps best described as a drag queen with a beard. Much other controversy around the competition has focused on Russia which has twice invaded other countries in the competition. After Russia’s annexation a region in...

Psychedelic drugs as therapy

On 19 April 1943, Swiss chemist Albert Hoffmann ingested a small dose of a chemical he had synthesised and experienced the world’s first LSD trip. His experience ushered in two decades of experimentation and clinical research into psychedelic drugs until it was cut short by prohibition in 1970. 75 years on, the USA seems poised to start licensing psychedelics for the treatment of mental illness. This may not only lead to a huge breakthrough in psychiatry but may also mean that we are approaching a time when human beings are once again free to take whatever mind-altering substances they fancy...

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