Solidarity 401, 20 April 2016

EU: stay and fight for a workers’ Europe

US President Barack Obama is expected this week to make a speech calling for Britain to remain in the European Union. When Obama does this, he is saying that Britain remaining in the EU is what is best for capitalism. However, what is bad for capitalism, in this case leaving the EU, is not necessarily good for workers. Remaining in the EU is also better for workers. European capitalism (which the US has an interest in keeping stable) has — in its own interests — substantially integrated Europe both economically and politically. By doing so, European bosses have also increased the possibilities...

The worst of all worlds

Matt Cooper is right to criticise the article about Basic Income, written by Andrew Harrop on the Fabian website, for its timidity ( Solidarity 400). However, a bigger problem is that Harrop makes something fairly simple unnecessarily complicated. A major advantage of BI is that it does not require much in the way of paper work, calculations, assessments and, most important of all, there is no means testing. Harrop’s “half-way house” proposal gives us the worst of all worlds: it is not a BI and it requires some kind of means testing. There is no reason for this. Experience demonstrates that a...

Oppose all nationalisms

In his article Proud to be a Zionist ( Solidarity 400), Eric Lee argued “a Zionist is a person who supports the Jewish people’s right to a national homeland.” Under that generous definition vast numbers of people are Zionists. Eric’s definition of Zionism is actually the same as many “absolute anti-Zionists” on the British left who would argue that anyone who concedes that Israeli Jews, as a people, should have the right to self-determination alongside the Palestinians, is Zionist. Both positions nullify Zionism of its political content and its context and they deny the possibility of a...

A different “no” could win

British worker militants have an interest in campaigning for a workers’ “no”, and particularly in pushing Jeremy Corbyn that way. It is David Cameron who is demanding a “yes” vote. It is not a “yes” to “Europe”, but a “yes” to keeping the country in a EU which offers maximum guarantees to the City and deprives hundreds of thousands of migrant workers of social rights, thus pushing down wages in Britain. Concretely it is a matter of saying “yes” to that, and to the leader of the current government. Some say that “no” would be worse. It would advance the xenophobic surge by Ukip, the Tories, and...

Bosses dodge living wage

It’s only been two weeks since the introduction of the ″living wage″ of £7.20 an hour but already employers are attempting to claw back costs wherever possible. B&Q has reportedly implemented the raise by cutting Sunday and Bank Holiday pay and bonuses, making some workers as much as £2000 a year worse off. Toyoda Gosei, a car parts manufacturer, has ended paid breaks. Morrisons, Tesco, Dunelm and Wilko are all cutting Sunday and overtime pay. Waitrose has ended higher Sunday and Bank Holiday rates for all new staff. A nationally-imposed higher minimum wage should not result in losses for...

Schools protest grows

Campaigning against the education White Paper — Educational Excellence Everywhere — is beginning to gather pace across the country. On 23 April the Parents Defending Education conference will take place in London. Organised by the Anti-Academies Alliance the conference is supported by teaching unions NUT and ATL. The Rescue Our Schools campaign has also been set up by parents to stand up for state education. What is required to defeat the White Paper, as well as industrial action to defend workers’ conditions, is local vibrant campaigns. Barnet Trades Council and Barnet Momentum have passed...

Next steps for junior doctors

You may have watched an hour of half truths and lies slander from the Secretary of State for Health in Parliament on 18 April. Here are some answers to Hunt’s slander. Junior doctors cannot close Accident and Emergency Departments, despite what the government will have you believe. During the all-out strike on 26-27 April the consultants and specialist doctors who would normally be providing non-urgent or elective services will cover our work. Emergency and Urgent Services will still be running and patients will be seen by the most senior doctors in the hospital. Who can close A&E’s? 1. Jeremy...

Kuwaiti oil workers take on the ruling elite

By the time this paper goes to press over 13,000 oil workers in Kuwait will have been on strike for four days. Strikes are exceedingly rare in the oil producing oligarchies of the Gulf States. The workforce, made up of mainly migrant workers, usually have appalling living conditions and no civil or trade union rights. This is the first major strike in Kuwait in many years, although the last months have seen growing activity from a number of Kuwaiti unions in tourism and from municipal workers. There was a flurry of public sector strikes in September-October 2011 leading to street protests, the...

Telecoms workers strike against corporate greed

Around 40,000 workers employed by Verizon, one of America’s biggest telecommunications companies, are striking to win a decent contract. The strike began on Wednesday 13 April, when the company failed to settle a contract with the workers’ union, the Communication Workers of America (CWA). Verizon wants to cut workers’ pension and healthcare benefits. It also wants to continue a policy of outsourcing jobs to other countries; the CWA says Verizon has outsourced around 5,000 call centre and customer service jobs to Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and the Philippines since the last contract...

Looking back at his Manor

On Made In The Manor , his fifth album, East London emcee Kano weaves a number of distinct thematic threads into a vivid, vital whole. Much analysis of this record will undoubtedly focus on its “realism”, or “grittiness”, ascribing a social-realist intent to Kano's tales of working-class black life in East London. But that would not do the lyrical content here justice. In fact, there's an almost magical-realist quality to much of the writing. The titular "manor" is evoked as a kind of nostalgic, contradictory dream space, frozen in time as a snapshot of a particular point in Kano's childhood...

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