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Stop the War: the Story of Britain’S Biggest Mass Movement by Andrew Murray and Lindsey German, Bookmarks, 2005, 280 Pp
Stop the War: The Story of Britain’s Biggest Mass Movement by Andrew Murray and Lindsey German, Bookmarks, 2005, 280 pp. Abdullah Muhsin and Gary Kent I am sorry. If you think I am going to sit back and agree with beheadings, kidnappings, torture and brutality, and outright terrorization of ordinary Iraqi and others, then you can forget it. I will not be involved whatsoever, to me it is akin to supporting the same brutality and oppression inflicted on Iraq by Saddam, and the invading and occupying forces of the USA. Mick Rix, former left-wing leader of the train drivers’ union, ASLEF, writing to Andrew Murray to resign from the Stop the War Coalition. Andrew Murray and Lindsey German are, respectively, the Chair and Convenor of the Stop the War Coalition. Their book tells a story about a ‘remarkable mass movement’ which the authors hope ‘can change the face of politics for a generation.’ It tracks the Coalition from its origins with no office, no bank account, just one full time volunteer, through the ‘chaos of its early meetings’ to the million-strong demonstration of February 2003. The book seeks to explain the Coalition’s success in bringing together the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and ‘the Muslim Community’ to create ‘the broadest basis ever seen for a left-led movement.’ The authors attack the ‘imperialist’ doctrines of George Bush and Tony Blair, criticise the arguments of the ‘pro-war left,’ and finish with a chapter opposing the occupation and demanding immediate troop withdrawal. In addition, the book includes a broad -
David Cameron and Greensill
A paper of Marxist polemic and Marxist unity David Cameron and Greensill: all n Letters and debate n Iran negotiations perfectly proper and above board n Royal family Nazis - according to the authorities n Nationalist nightmares No 1342 April 8 2021 Towards a mass Communist Party £1/€1.10 LOYAL SERVANTS OF LIBERAL BOURGEOISIE weekly 2 April 8 2021 1342 worker LETTERS Letters may have been This is a strange argument for agricultural commodities (wages) and extending them becomes manifest with the repeal of shortened because of space. Some names for a Marxist to make. Capitalist and so commodity production in back into history, rather than the Corn Laws. may have been changed production begins in the towns in agriculture. analysing each historical period Arthur Bough the 15th century, as the towns grow, Even, then, of course, as in its specificity. It is even more email creating the minimum size of market Marx describes - and Lenin also incongruous to do that at the same Blind alley required for capitalist production to establishes in ‘On the so-called time as trying to claim that the law Gramsci Writing in Weekly Worker, Ammar be able to undercut the independent market question’ - this commodity of value, as a natural law, only exists Debates over how Gramsci’s writings Kazmi asks me to “promptly handicraft producers. It’s why, as production in the countryside is not under capitalism, or indeed that the have been interpreted and deployed explain” and “correct” what I Marx describes, capitalism has capitalist production, unlike that concepts, value and surplus value, can be helpful in clarifying important wrote in my article, ‘Defend David to begin in the towns and such already established in the towns. -
Book Review : Bob Crow : Socialist, Leader, Fighter : a Political Biography Darlington, RR
Book review : Bob Crow : Socialist, Leader, Fighter : a political biography Darlington, RR http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12270 Title Book review : Bob Crow : Socialist, Leader, Fighter : a political biography Authors Darlington, RR Type Article URL This version is available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/43720/ Published Date 2017 USIR is a digital collection of the research output of the University of Salford. Where copyright permits, full text material held in the repository is made freely available online and can be read, downloaded and copied for non-commercial private study or research purposes. Please check the manuscript for any further copyright restrictions. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. Bob Crow: Socialist, Leader, Fighter: A Political Biography. Gregor Gall. Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2017., ISBN: 978-1526100290, Price £20, hardback. During his term of office as general secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) during 2002-2014 until his early death at the age of 52, Bob Crow became one of the most widely known British union leaders of his generation. His stress on the virtues of militant resistance towards employers and government contributed to RMT members on the railways and London Underground organising (on a proportionate basis) probably more ballots for industrial action, securing more successful ‘yes’ votes, and taking strike action more often than any other union. In the process, Crow became the bête noire of the tabloid media, with the Evening Standard claiming he was ‘The Most Hated Man in London’. -
A Socialist Schism
A Socialist Schism: British socialists' reaction to the downfall of Milošević by Andrew Michael William Cragg Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Marsha Siefert Second Reader: Professor Vladimir Petrović CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2017 Copyright notice Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author. CEU eTD Collection i Abstract This work charts the contemporary history of the socialist press in Britain, investigating its coverage of world events in the aftermath of the fall of state socialism. In order to do this, two case studies are considered: firstly, the seventy-eight day NATO bombing campaign over the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, and secondly, the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in October of 2000. The British socialist press analysis is focused on the Morning Star, the only English-language socialist daily newspaper in the world, and the multiple publications affiliated to minor British socialist parties such as the Socialist Workers’ Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee). The thesis outlines a broad history of the British socialist movement and its media, before moving on to consider the case studies in detail. -
No. 207, Summer, 2009
No 207 SUMMER 2009 40p Newspaper of the Spartacist League Forge a multiethnic revolutionary workers party! if" publish helow an edited alld Depression wasn't Roosevelt's New .~~ -'--- __ .1. ~_ •• ~.~. ___ ............. ___ •• ' f (}n~'&8'&W UJ (P. MONI',_ Deal, but World War 11. It was when . gil'cll h)' cOlJlrade Julia Effie,}' at a the imperialist governments In Spartacist League public meeting ;n Britain and the US mobilised their London on 4 April. economies for WWlI that they fully The ongoing world capitalist reces adopted Keynes's programme of sion is having a tremendous impact on deficit spending for "public works" the British economy and inflicting -- battleships, bombers, tanks and severe hardship on working people. finally atomic hombs. Thc lahour Across Britain the rate of home repos movement must oppose protec sessions is rising while the nllmber of tionism and fight fur international job losses is cnonnolls. The working~class solidarity. crisis has demonstrated quill..' Production itself is socialised openly the hmlkruptcy and irra~ Unions must defend immigrant workers! and international in scope tionality of the capitalist sys~ and the international working tem and what the leaders of all class must he mohilised capitalist countries agree on is Down with chauvinist construction strikes! across national and other that working people will be divisions. made to pay for it. It also confinTIs the Marxist understanding that ultimately Reactionary strikes tht..:rc is no answer to the boom-and-bust Since January a series of reactionary cycles of capitalism short of proletarian and virulently chauvinist strikes and socialist revolution that takes power out protests havc taken place on building of the hands of the capitalist ruling class sites at Britain's power stations and oil and replaces it with a planned, refineries. -
A Letter to Trade Union National Executive Committee Members
Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition, 17 Colebert House, Colebert Avenue, London, E1 4JP A letter to trade union national executive committee members Dear comrade, I am writing to invite you to consider joining the national steering committee of the recently relaunched Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC). As you may recall TUSC was set-up in 2010, co-founded amongst others by the late Bob Crow, with trade unionists at its core (a brief history is available at http://www.tusc.org.uk/txt/429.pdf). Our founding aim was to help in the process of re-establishing a political voice for the working class given, at that point, the transformation of the Labour Party into Tony Blair’s New Labour and its role in implementing the austerity unleashed by the 2007-08 financial crash. As our name says we are a coalition and all of the component elements of TUSC have played their part alongside other campaigners in the struggles of the last decade against attacks on jobs, services and conditions – in the workplace, in our communities, and in the trade unions. But we have also been prepared to stand in elections where necessary, believing that to leave politicians who are carrying out cuts unchallenged at the ballot box, is to voluntarily give up a weapon that could be used in the anti-austerity struggle. This is particularly so in local government, in which councillors are the direct employers and providers of local services. In this situation to positively decide not to have an anti-austerity candidate standing when cuts are being made would be to give an effective vote of confidence to the local authority’s policies. -
Congress Report 2004
Congress Report 2004 The 136th annual Trades Union Congress 13-16 September, Brighton Contents Page General Council members 2004 – 2005-03-15………………………………..4 Section one - Congress decision…………………………………………...........7 Part 1 Resolutions carried.............................. ………………………………………………8 Part 2 Motion remitted………………………………………………… ............................30 Part 3 Motion Lost…………………………………………………….................................31 General Council statement on Europe………………………………….……. ......32 Section two – Verbatim report of Congress proceedings Day 1 Monday 13 September ......................................................................................34 Day 2 Tuesday 14 September……………………………………… .................................73 Day 3 Wednesday 15 September...............................................................................119 Day 4 Thursday 16 September ...................................................................................164 Section three - unions and their delegates ............................................187 Section four - details of past Congresses ...............................................197 Section five - General Council 1921 – 2004.............................................200 Index of speakers .........................................................................................205 3 General Council Members John Hannett 2004 – 2005 Union of Shop Distributive and Allied Workers Dave Anderson Pat Hawkes UNISON National Union of Teachers Jonathan Baume Billy Hayes FDA Communication -
Although Many European Radical Left Parties
Peace, T. (2013) All I'm asking, is for a little respect: assessing the performance of Britain's most successful radical left party. Parliamentary Affairs, 66(2), pp. 405-424. There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher’s version if you wish to cite from it. http://eprints.gla.ac.uk/144518/ Deposited on: 21 July 2017 Enlighten – Research publications by members of the University of Glasgow http://eprints.gla.ac.uk 2 All I’m asking, is for a little Respect: assessing the performance of Britain’s most successful radical left party BY TIMOTHY PEACE1 ABSTRACT This article offers an overview of the genesis, development and decline of the Respect Party, a rare example of a radical left party which has achieved some degree of success in the UK. It analyses the party’s electoral fortunes and the reasons for its inability to expand on its early breakthroughs in East London and Birmingham. Respect received much of its support from Muslim voters, although the mere presence of Muslims in a given area was not enough for Respect candidates to get elected. Indeed, despite criticism of the party for courting only Muslims, it did not aim to draw its support from these voters alone. Moreover, its reliance on young people and investment in local campaigning on specific political issues was often in opposition to the traditional ethnic politics which have characterised the electoral process in some areas. When the British public awoke on the morning of Friday 6th May 2005 most would have been unsurprised to discover that the Labour Party had clung on to power but with a reduced majority, as had been widely predicted. -
The Barriers Come Down: Antisemitism and Coalitions of Extremes in the Uk Anti-War Movement
THE BARRIERS COME DOWN: ANTISEMITISM AND COALITIONS OF EXTREMES By Dave Rich These are strange times for the British far right. Long left alone on the political extremes where they obsessed about secret Jewish machinations behind every government policy, all of a sudden they think they have noticed the most unlikely people agreeing with them. The British National Party advised its members to read The Guardian for information about “the Zionist cabal around President Bush1”. Followers of the neo-Nazi Combat 18 have found themselves publicly supporting the President of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, while the National Front found itself in sympathy with Labour MP Tam Dalyell. No wonder John Tyndall, former leader of the British National Party, wrote gleefully that “certain things are coming out into the open which not long ago would have been tightly censored and suppressed…We are witnessing a gigantic conspiracy being unveiled2”. But are the antisemites of Britain’s far right correct in thinking that their view of a Jewish-controlled world is becoming accepted across the political spectrum? This excitement amongst Britain’s neo-Nazis has been fuelled by the widespread theory that the war in Iraq was devised and executed by pro-Israeli, mainly Jewish, neo-conservative lobbyists in Washington D.C.; that this is only one example of how American foreign policy has been hijacked by a Jewish or Zionist cabal; and that these neo-cons are pro-Israeli to the point that they did this not for the good of America, but purely for the interests of Israel and, by extension, Jews. -
St Joseph the Worker and Bob Crow
St Joseph the Worker and Bob Crow John Battle 1 May is the Feast of St Joseph the Worker, a day on which the Church encourages us to celebrate the value of work, and the dignity and rights of workers. These issues are already in sharp focus this week for Londoners, due to strike action by London Underground workers. John Battle asks to what extent the understanding of trade unions in Catholic Social Teaching matches that of the late union leader, Bob Crow. Any London-based readers are Caritas in veritate , his successor likely to be heading into the Pope Benedict XVI defined Feast of St Joseph the Worker ‘decent work’ as: on 1 May having experienced the chaos of a two-day tube ...work that expresses the strike organised by the Rail, essential dignity of every man Maritime and Transport Union and woman in the context of (RMT), the second such strike their particular society: work that is freely chosen, effect- to take place this year. The ively associating workers, public attitude to this industrial both men and women, with action, which caused widespre- the development of their ad disruption to London’s tran- community; work that sport network, has been largely enables the worker to be unsympathetic. The fact that Photos by Lawrence OP & Karen Fletcher at flickr.com respected and free from any industrial strikes are an increas- form of discrimination; work ingly rare occurrence (not least because it is now that makes it possible for families to meet their legally much harder for union members to take such needs and provide schooling for their children, action) has meant that, when they do occur, they are without the children themselves being forced into labour; work that permits the workers to regarded by many as throwbacks to a bygone age that organise themselves freely, and to make their have no place in a modern economy. -
Crow -V- Johnson
Neutral Citation Number: [2012] EWHC 1982 (QB) Case No: HQ12D01579 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL Date: 16/07/2012 Before : THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE TUGENDHAT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Between : Robert Crow Claimant - and - Boris Johnson Defendant - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Jonathan Crystal (instructed by Thompsons Solicitors) for the Claimant David Glen (instructed by Collyer Bristow LLP) for the Defendant Hearing dates: 16 July 2012 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Approved Judgment I direct that pursuant to CPR PD 39A para 6.1 no official shorthand note shall be taken of this Judgment and that copies of this version as handed down may be treated as authentic. ............................. THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE TUGENDHAT THE HONOURABLE MR JUSTICE TUGENDHAT Crow v. Johnson Approved Judgment Mr Justice Tugendhat : 1. The Claimant in this action (“Mr Crow”) is the General Secretary of the RMT, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers. In this libel action he sues the Defendant (“Mr Johnson”), who is now the Mayor of London, in respect of leaflets that Mr Johnson published as part of his campaign to secure re-election to that office at the election held on 3 May 2012. As every Londoner knows, Mr Johnson’s predecessor in the office of Mayor of London was Mr Ken Livingstone. Mr Livingstone had been Mayor until 2008, when Mr Johnson was first elected. Mr Livingstone was also a candidate for election in May 2012. Mr Livingstone is not making any claim in this action and is not a party to it. 2. Mr Crow was not a candidate for election, but he is referred to as Bob Crow in the leaflets he complains of. -
QOOOE2 As Their Plants They Cultivate
For National The Independence, Democracy Democrat and Jobs Paper of the Campaign against Euro-federalism ISSN 0967-3806 Number 140 March-April 2014 50p EU 3.5 million jobs lie uring the recent EU debates stitute of Economic and Social Research between arch euro fanatic (NIESR) estimated, using similar meth- D Nick Clegg and UKIP leader ods, that up to 3.2m UK jobs "are now Nigel Farage the Lib Dem leader associated directly with exports of dragged up the well-worn lie that 3.5 goods and services to other EU coun- million jobs in Britain depend on EU tries." It warned that: "there is no a pri- membership. ori reason to suppose that many of This claim is based on one study car- these, if any, would be lost perma- ried out over ten years ago which the nently if Britain were to leave the EU." researcher himself has since repudi- In fact, NIESR director Jonathan Portes, ated. who is certainly no Eurosceptic, de- scribed this research as "past [its] sell- EUBG to Afrrica page 2 report by Brian Denny by date." Yet it is still being pumped out by the The list of factories, car plants, engi- right wing campaign group British In- neering centres and jobs being stripped fluence, headed up by Tory spin doctor out of Britain's manufacturing base and Peter Wilding and one Peter Mandel- transferred abroad due to the logic of son, as well as by trade unions that the EU single market is never men- should know better such as Unite.