Solidarity 380, 14 October 2015

The Leningrad delirium

Among many other things, the new book published by Workers’ Liberty and edited by Sean Matgamna — “The Two Trotskyisms Confront Stalinism” — digs out a dramatic lurch in the “Orthodox” Trotskyist movement in 1941, described in this excerpt. The “Orthodox” were those who stuck to Trotsky’s formula of the Stalinist USSR being a “degenerated workers’ state” while, in the 1940s, the elements in reality on which Trotsky based that formula were changing dramatically. Along the way, they lurched one way and then another, never properly assessing their mistakes. The book argues that the “Heterodox” —...

“Bottom up not top down”

La Villita (Little Village), West Side Chicago, 2001. Parents demand that a school is built on vacant land. Nineteen go on hunger strike to achieve this goal. They pledge not to back down until there is justice on the south side of town. Many local people turn out to show solidarity with the hunger strikers. Not only do they win the demand for a school but also a role for teachers, parents and students in the design of the new building. So begins Banner Theatre’s musical account of the inspiring story of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and their supporters, in taking on and mostly defeating...

Writing the future in blood

Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth is visually stunning. The photography and design are almost too good; they nearly overpower everything else in the film, meaning one comes away not so much with memories of the complete piece but a series of its images seared onto one’s consciousness. Nearly, but not quite. There is no doubt, though, that look is hugely important to the film. Director of Photography Adam Arkapaw, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, and the hair and makeup teams have done exceptional work, and deserve a decent haul come awards seasons. Although some reviews have commended the film’s...

Momentum: welcome and worries (published October 2015)

It’s good that people from Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign team have launched a new grass-roots organisation, Momentum. At all levels in the Labour Party, from the Parliamentary Labour Party through the head office and regional organisations, through council Labour groups, down to constituency officials, hold-overs from the Blair era are entrenched. Unmindful of democracy, they will be hoping for a poor Labour showing in the May elections for local government, Scotland, Wales, and London, so that then they can make a coup against Corbyn. Only if the 250,000 people who voted for Corbyn, and...

An open letter to a young Labour member

Dear comrade, You are one of the tens of thousands of young people who have joined the Labour Party since Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign for and victory in the leadership election. Like me, you grew up and became interested in politics at a time when the Labour Party seemed like a very unattractive proposition to socialists, left-wingers, or people who just wanted to change the world. New Labour had taken Britain into a bloody and disastrous war in Iraq. Domestically, it had introduced tuition fees, privatised public services and overseen an increase in inequality. When a right-wing Tory-Lib Dem...

Lewisham shows how networks can be built

Workers’ Liberty members in Lewisham, South London, have been involved in setting up a Jeremy Corbyn supporters network in the borough. This network, which met for the first time on 17 September and had its second meeting on 12 October, has attracted a lot of interest, suggesting great potential for such local groups. During the leadership campaign, there was a lot of support for Jeremy Corbyn in Lewisham — he won two out of three constituency Labour Party nominations, despite opposition from the MPs. Moreover Lewisham has a strong history of left and working-class struggles — including two...

“Politics is about doing something about having an opinion”

Maria Exall, Communication Workers Union and chair of the TUC LGBT committee spoke to Solidarity in a personal capacity What are the factors behind the “Corbyn explosion”? It is a response to the Tory victory. Anyone who has half a socialist thought in their head will have been shocked by that, would have thought “we are stuck with this lot for another five years, they are going to do so much damage to welfare, the unions.” What is exciting about it, especially as this includes a lot of young people, is people thinking how politics does matter. Jeremy’s campaign came along and they were...

Favourable only so far

On 10 October the national committee of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty published its draft proposals to go to this year's Workers' Liberty conference, on 21-22 November, and opened the pre-conference discussion. In some activist socialist groups, the "pre-conference discussion period" is pretty much the only time when extensive debate is licensed. Workers' Liberty is not like that. Every activist can propose innovations, raise objections, or advocate censures, and group with like-minded others to do so, any time of the year. But the pre-conference period is a set time when we step back to...

Point-scoring and addled advice

Right-wing Labour MPs John Mann, Chris Leslie, and Mike Gapes have rushed to the internet, TV, and the press to score points against Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell. McDonnell said just before Labour Party conference that Labour would vote for the Tories' "fiscal charter", on the grounds that it has so many loopholes for running deficits that it carries little weight, and voting against it would help the Tories brand Labour as over-spenders. On Monday 12 October McDonnell, rightly we think, reversed his position and said Labour would vote against the "charter". Mann, of all people, is now...

Stay in and fight for a workers' Europe

David Cameron recently entertained German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Prime Minister’s country residence Chequers; he was trying to persuade her to support his demands for the UK’s re-negotiated membership of the EU. The Tories want to reduce workers’ rights and EU migrants’ in-work benefits. Cameron has promised a referendum on UK membership of the EU; if he fails to get the concessions he wants in the re-negotiation it is not clear whether Cameron himself will argue for the UK to remain in the EU. The referendum is likely to be in 2017, but this week the campaigning lines for “leave” and...

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