Solidarity 485, 7 November 2018

NUS set to gut democracy

The National Union of Students [NUS] announced last week, in a letter to affiliated student unions, that it is on the verge of bankruptcy. The NUS Group, which includes NUS UK plus NUS Services, the union’s commercial arm, could face a £3 million deficit this year and in future years. “Radical reforms to democratic and corporate structures” which will “drastically simplify and modernise NUS” are to be announced at NUS Conference 2019, which will take place in spring. Student union presidents and Chief Executives will be invited to a “strategic conversation” meeting in late November. These...

Push Labour to “remain and reform”

John Palmer talked to Solidarity . S: You’ve talked about a “Schrödinger’s Brexit”... P: The great Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger, who worked with Einstein, discovered that there are particles that have the strange characteristic of being in two places at the same time, or two states at the same time. He illustrated it by a thought-experiment of a cat in a box subject to such particles which is simultaneously alive and dead. I use this metaphor to illustrate the character of the Brexit deal which Mrs May’s government will — fairly soon now, I expect — come back with. It will have many of...

25 years of jail for Catalan leaders?

On Friday 5 November Spain's Supreme Court Prosecutor called for sentences of up to 25 years for the Catalan nationalist politicians jailed after the 1 October 2017 referendum on independence for Catalonia. The prosecutor's case is that the Spanish constitution says that such a referendum could be called only with the agreement of the Spanish government. The Spanish government did not agree: in fact it mobilised state forces to try to disrupt the referendum. The referendum ended inconclusively - 92% for Catalan independence, on only a 43% turnout. A December 2017 election for the Catalan...

Rayner Lysaght and Sean Matgamna debate "Socialism, Ireland, and permanent revolution"

On 9 November 2018, 7:30 at the London Welsh Centre, 157-163 Grays Inn Rd WC1X 8UE, Rayner Lysaght, author of "The Republic of Ireland" and many other books, debated Sean Matgamna of Workers' Liberty on the perspectives of Irish politics. Opening speeches, part 1 Opening speeches, part 2 Summing-up speeches Ireland: theory, history, debate. Contents page Solidarity 485 carries interviews with Lysaght and Matgamna outlining the ideas they will debate. Interviews by Martin Thomas: read below, or click here for Lysaght , and click here for Matgamna --- Rayner Lysaght: Threading together struggles...

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