& Workers’ Liberty

SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 429 8 February 2017 50p/£1 FIGHT THE TORIES’ HARD BREXIT Inside: Picturehouse out on 11 Feb

Four London cinemas will strike on 11 February See page 11 Trump’s

Immigration controls are part of the means states use to “America First”, construct and maintain their power. When those states are administered by authoritarians and racists, as in the case of the current US administration, borders workers last can be used to propagate and entrench their racist ideology, by directly applying controls to people from particular countries, of particular religions, or with brown skin. But in all cases, even when the nationalist ideology is less clear, borders and immi - gration controls are tools of division. They cannot be other than mechanisms for discriminating against people on the basis of their national origin. This is why Workers’ Liberty, and many other revolutionary socialists throughout history, oppose immigration controls and fight for open borders. Unions should not be seduced by More page 5 Trump’s protectionism.. See page 9 The democracy WHY WE of others

Why plebiscitary democracy is only quarter-democracy See pages 6-7 SAY “OPEN Join Labour! Demonising the “hard left” BORDERS” See page 4 2 news More online at www.workersliberty.org

Unlike many other Parliamentarians Corbyn has been Any future for the steel industry? a consistent ally of LGBT people

By John Cunningham

I was born in a steel town – Stocksbridge, about 9 miles west of Sheffield. The steelworks were huge and employed at its peak 6,500 workers. The sirens which marked the start and end of shifts, the roar of fur - LGBT rights: Corbyn’s naces, the clanging of shunting trains and machinery, were con - stant background noise to my early years. critics are wrong However, as the poet W H that if given the option, we would Auden once wrote, “The past is an - q-news choose to be straight”. other country”. On my infrequent Unlike Milo Yiannopoulos, the returns to my birthplace I am al - By Elizabeth Butterworth Trump-supporting, self-proclaimed ways struck by how the place has “dangerous faggot”, I do not wish changed. An eerie quiet hangs over I were straight, or see it as “aber - everything now, and the river, At a recent LGBT History Month event, Jeremy Corbyn said that rant” and I don’t think my fellow which once had the colour of oxtail homos should “get back in the soup and an indescribably vile “Our defence of you is a defence of all of humanity and the right of closet”. stench, is remarkably clean. Steel is But the liberal “born this way”, still produced — although vast people to practise the life they want to practise, rather than be “love wins” rhetoric is also danger - acres of the site (now part of the ous and ironically exclusionary of Tata group) stand empty and silent criminalised, brutalised and mur - dered, simply because they the “wrong type” of gays. and only about 600 workers are It’s great for those who want to employed in total. chose to be gay, they chose to be lesbian, they were LGBT in lead a relatively conventional mar - I have been told that of the re - Anti-Chinese dumping: response is unrealistic and a distraction ried or monogamous life, but not so maining workforce none actually any form.” News outlets described this as a much for gay men who cottage, come from Stocksbridge. They all in Stocksbridge in the late 1970s 52% of the UK’s steel exports go to “gaffe” with some getting up in HIV positive people in our commu - travel in from outside. It is a story when the Regional Secretary of the the EU. What is going to happen to arms about the idea of homosexu - nity, LGBT sex workers, self-identi - which can be repeated up and then Amalgamated Union of Engi - this? Or what about the 12% that is ality being a “choice” rather than fying queer or questioning people: down the country. neering Workers (AUEW), George exported to the USA; Trump’s pro - something people are born with. roughly speaking, anyone whose In 1971 the steel industry em - Caborn (father of former Labour tectionist inclinations may make There is not enough scientific ev - existence lies outside that of what ployed 320,000. Today that figure MP Richard Caborn), thundered on this unsustainable. Although the idence either way regarding can be easily defined and measured stands at around 18,000. The recent in his inimitable Stalinist fashion drop in the value of the pound is whether being homosexuality is according to straight standards. closures at Redcar and the ongoing about the “Japs” dumping their good for exports, it has also raised something we are born with, al - In his speech, Corbyn also re - uncertainty about the future of steel in the UK and calling for tar - the cost of raw materials: coal, coke, though some geneticists suggest counted how he had, as a council - steelmaking in Port Talbot are con - iffs to protect “our” jobs. It went ore, and energy. that we may soon discover a “gay lor in the 1970s, worked with others stant reminders, if any were down well, in fact it raised the roof The report calls on the govern - gene” or something like it. Cer - to physically defend a Gay Centre needed, about the precarious posi - but the result was to deflect from ment to secure the best possible ac - tainly homosexuality is not limited from National Front fascists. His tion of what is left of the UK steel the urgent need for the various cess to the Single Market, but the to humans and exists in a range of voting record on LGBT rights, un - industry. steel unions and the plants up to UK might not even be in it! The interesting and surprising forms like that of many MPs including It is a depressing picture and it unite in a single workers’ response government is also urged to make among animals. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Far - was therefore not with any great to the threats of closure. steel a priority in future Brexit Critics have said that saying peo - ron, speaks for itself. expectations that I opened the re - But the steel unions (notably the talks; But there is no indication that ple “choose” to be gay or lesbian I have no doubt that Corbyn port by the All Party Parliamentary ISTC — Iron and Steel Trades Con - it is listening or that it gives a toss plays into the hands of the peddlers “misspoke” when he said people Group on Steel and Related Metal federation — and the AUEW) about the steel industry. of “conversion therapies”. Surely, “choose” to be gay or lesbian. But Industries: ‘Steel 2020: Forging a never developed a united response There is no mention of the rena - though, this only works if conver - so what if we did? It may be a mix Future for the British Steel indus - and left each plant to fight individ - tionalisation of the steel industry, sion therapy, and therefore straight - of nature, nurture and even (gasp!) try’. ually against closure — a hopeless although it is difficult to see how ness, is seen as something desirable choice, but that doesn’t make it il - The report is certainly important situation which led to inevitable many of the measures advocated and preferable to being LGB+. legitimate, it doesn’t mean LGBT reading for anyone concerned for defeat and demoralisation. On a by the Report can be co-ordinated Zak Thomas writes in the Inde - people can’t be understood, ac - the future of the steel industry and smaller scale this is roughly what is and implemented without it. Tata pendent online, “Trying to promote cepted and equal to cisgendered the steel communities’ remaining happening today. or Corus are interested in their some one-size-fits-all reasoning for straights. jobs, but there is a sense that we profit margins and not much else. our existence so straight people can If being a lesbian was a choice have been here before something ENERGY In the late 70s and in the 80s there were attempts, some of them by understand it reinforces the idea for me, or if I was influenced by that the use of irritatingly stupid There are calls in the report for a militants in the steel industry asso - that we have to socially manage those around me, then I still jargon such as “catapult” centres much needed reduction in en - ciated with the forerunner of this ourselves to be accepted”. By criti - would’ve chosen it. I don’t want and “reshoring” cannot disguise. ergy costs — steel production newspaper, to formulate a workers’ cising the idea that sexual orienta - to be straight. And perhaps that Central to the report is its con - uses huge amounts of electricity. response to the crisis in the steel in - tion might be a choice, “we imply kind of talk is what Corbyn’s crit - demnation of the dumping of Chi - On a wider point the UK does ics are really afraid of. nese steel in the UK. Put simply the not have a national energy policy dustry (a National Action Commit - Chinese produce so much steel that and the report wisely calls for a 10 tee was formed for a time). they cannot sell it via the usual year energy plan. A reduction in Although it is late in the day, market mechanisms. It is sold at a business rates is also advocated cit - steelworkers in alliance with local knockdown price so that Chinese ing the case of Port Talbot, where people and Labour Party activists producers get some kind of return. £200 million was spent on a new can still come together and try to The writers of the report wax in - blast furnace which resulted in work out a united, UK-wide work - dignant about this “illegal” policy business rates shooting up. The re - ers response. This Report provides (as if the Chinese authorities are sponse of Tata was to lay off 400 some much-needed information going to lose any sleep over this!) workers. and some of its recommendations and call for a “level playing field”. Research and Development, as are desirable, but there is no strat - A more feeble and useless response the Report states, lags behind many egy here. couldn’t be imagined — one of the other steel producing countries and As far as I am aware the gov - aims of all capitalist enterprises is this has been a long-standing prob - ernment has yet to respond to precisely to create an uneven play - lem in the UK. Tata, it is noted, has the report and, I for one, am not ing field and the Chinese with their centralised its research facilities in holding my breath. state directed enterprises are no ex - the Netherlands ception. Over everything hangs the spec - • The author worked at the British In the past the role of the Chinese tre of Brexit. What, for example, Steel Corporation, Corby [1969-71] was played by the Japanese. I re - happens to the European Emis - and Hadfields, Sheffield [1976-78] member well a steelworkers’ rally sions Trading Scheme? Currently workers’ Liberty @workersliberty news 3 Alt-right threat opposed at Berkeley A human slaughterhouse:

people to, as he called it, protect By Simon Nelson “women and homosexuals.” In the inside Assad’s syria same talk, he shouts down several Milo Yiannopoulos is an editor at Muslim women who heckle him, Breitbart, a news site of the so- tells them where the airport is and By Gerry Bates left to the Russian and Syrian gov - called alt-right. then jokes that actually that is the ernments’ actions is both inexcus - He is a self-described “super vil - able and sickening. lain”, a viciously right-wing inter - last place “we want you.” He has A report by Amnesty Interna - previously named and projected In December last year, Peter net troll who publicly attacks tional released on 7 February Tatchell wrote in the Independent : women, black people, Muslims, im - pictures of a trans student who he 2017 says that between 5,000 mocked. And he incited his Twitter “Stop the War Coalition has be - migrants. Unsurprisingly he is a and 13,000 people were mur - trayed the Syrian people who great supporter of Donald Trump. followers to harass the black actress dered in a secret prison in Syria Leslie Jones. protested peacefully for democ - So bad is he, he is permanently from 2011 to 2016. racy in 2011 and have been massa - banned from Twitter. the instigators of the cancelled ap - In this context, stopping his ap - Inmates at the prison were pearance was argued as a case mostly civilians who supported cred by Assad ever since. The He is currently making a hugely pearance, their destruction of prop - principles of internationalist soli - controversial speaker tour, and hit erty and the violent response of the where a direct threat was being the opposition to President Bashar made on students. That seems rea - al Assad. The information comes darity have been dumped. Re - the mainstream news when his police. This ignores the fact that the sponding to critics it its own planned appearance at UC Berke - black block was only “successful” sonable. from interviews with 84 people The US media has said this case who were former prisoners, ranks, the coalition belatedly, and ley was cancelled due to the because they were protected by a somewhat mutedly, condemned protests against it. much larger and broader demon - in Berkeley was a travesty, due to guards, judges and doctors. its birthplace of the Free Speech The report describes killing and the Assad and Putin bombing of There is now a debate on stration. civilians but has never organised whether this cancellation was an at - Yiannopoulos denies it, but in the Movement in the 1960s. That is torture on an industrial scale, “tri - wrongheaded. als” lasting between one and three a march against them. tack on free speech. The alt-right build up to his appearance it was “Indeed, although quick to have gone into online overdrive, at - believed he would provide details As the International Socialist Or - minutes, mass hangings of be - ganization have said, “this accepts tween 50 and 80 people that took demonstrate in opposition to any tacking their opponents for being of undocumented migrants study - and all Western interventions, the unable to handle opposing views, ing at Berkeley. The college is one the upside-down story of the free place twice a week. The hangings speech struggle sanctioned by the were conducted extremely cruelly, coalition has failed to even once calling “liberals” illiberal etc. But in of many sanctuary campuses that rally against the military interven - the age of social media and has policies against the removal of university administration that was with those who weighed less tak - opposed to the struggle. ing hours to die. tion in Syria by Russia, Iran and Yiannopoulos’s penchant for mak - undocumented migrants without a Hezbollah.” ing YouTube videos, as well as the warrant and non-cooperation with “The fight for free speech at The beatings that took place format of Breitbart itself, this is not Immigration and Customs Enforce - Berkeley was never about ‘dia - were extremely severe, and psy - so much a free speech restriction as ment (ICE). logue’, but militant demonstra - chological torture was also em - STALINISED a question of his access to certain Whether Yiannopoulos intended tions and direct action to ployed, including forcing Workers’ Liberty have been a platforms. to do this or not, he can be seen on overcome the university’s re - prisoners to rape each other. Pris - long-standing critic of the left’s Media attention has focused on video at previous talks displaying strictions on civil rights ac - oners were also denied food and Stalinised “two-pole” view on anarchist “black bloc” protestors as details for ICE and encouraging tivism.” water. Many suffered from sca - imperialism. bies, but were denied healthcare. Chris Nineham’s response as Amnesty says that it is likely Vice Chair of Stop the War Coali - that “thousands more” people tion was that the organisation had have been murdered by the to “focus on what our govern - regime since 2016, as there is noth - ment is doing” as protests would - Romanian anti-corruption battles ing to suggest that the practices n’t “make the blind bit of have been stopped: the field court difference” to what Putin does to is still in operation and people are prop up Assad’s regime. Yet By Keith Road still being transferred to Saydnaya STWC protests against Trump, an - prison. A former guard stated in other leader whom Brits do not The attempts by the Romanian his interview: “Saydnaya is the have democratic control over. government to weaken anti-cor - end of life, the end of humanity.” Tatchell writes, “STWC has re - ruption laws have been pushed The accounts of Saydnaya are fused requests to have Syrian de - back by mass protests. reminiscent of the accounts of sur - mocrats and left-wingers opposed A proposed decree would have vivors of Auschwitz. to Assad speak at its Syria events; lifted criminal sanctions from pub - This is not the first report of its but it has offered a platform to lic officials including MPs who ben - kind on the practices of the Syrian Syrians Issa Chaer and Mother efitted from abuse of office, if their regime. As the report notes, peo - Agnes, who have respectively de - gains were less than 200,000 Ro - ple have been arbitrarily arrested, fended the Damascus regime and manian leu (£38,000). The govern - tortured and “disappeared” since claimed that allegations of chemi - ment said this was necessary to the 1980s under former President cal attacks by Assad’s forces are comply with anti-corruption court Hafez al Assad. Since the popular fabricated.” rulings. Opponents believe this will uprising in 2011, a,nd as the crisis The report from Amnesty just legalise corruption up to that in Syria worsened “tens of thou - shows the extent of the brutal - level. Romania is ranked as the fifth sands” of citizens have been ar - ity of the Assad administration. most corrupt country in the EU. politicians, most notably Klaus Io - The Social Democrat government rested and detained. The left should stand against The Chief Prosecutor told the Fi - hannis, the President and formerly was elected at the end of December Viewed in this context, the soft this torture and murder of Syri - nancial Times that had the decree a member of the National Liberal 2016. It had promised a raft of approach of much of the British ans and not be silent. been passed, the fight against cor - Party (his membership is sus - changes; tax cuts, public salary and ruption would have become “irrel - pended whilst he is in the Presi - pension increases, and spending evant.” dency). promises. The average wage in Ro - When Romania joined the EU in mania is the equivalent of about 2007 it was given specific condi - DEMONSTRATIONS £5,000 and many young people tions to deal with corruption; both Since the government an - leave the country to find work the Romanian Direcţia Naţională nounced its plans, hundreds of across the EU. Anticorupţie (DNA), the anti-cor - thousands have taken to the The decision to amend corrup - ruption agency responsible for in - streets, with demonstrations in tion law does indeed seem to have dicting corrupt individuals, and the over 70 cities bringing almost EU Commission believed there had taken place at a time when Roma - half a million people out. nia was successfully convicting cor - been substantial progress made. These are the largest public gath - The Social Democratic Party erings since the fall of Ceausescu rupt public officials. In the first (PSD) who govern Romania had and the collapse of Stalinism. eight months of 2016 court cases something to gain from the decree. Frans Timmermans, vice-presi - took place involving 777 indicted Their leader Liviu Dragnea, cur - dent of the European Commission defendants, including ministers, rently banned from holding a cabi - said, “The efforts in Romania, I MPs, and judges. net post but still allowed to be must underline this, are phenome - DNA had indicted more offi - speaker of the lower house, is nal, really very good progress. So cials from the PSD than any under investigation for corruption. why would you in the final metres other party, and the party hierar - Protestors have been backed and of a marathon turn back and go the chy has accused the DNA of po - joined on the streets by opposition other way again?” litical bias. 4 COMMenT email your letters to [email protected] Demonising the “hard left” the office people that time, but with only par - shave voted on a constitution and some basic By Simon Nelson tial success) for Momentum to distance itself policy and campaign priorities. From that we from left antisemitism. As for procedural would have had a properly functioning or - Christine Shawcroft’s article ‘Just a wrangling, the bulk of that, since the start, ganisation and would have been able to Mo(mentum)!’ in the latest issue of Labour has come from the office faction. The same move forward and help to transform the Briefing (the “original” Briefing, not the people repeatedly “sat on” or blocked com - Labour Party and argue for socialist politics. magazine of the same name put out by mittee decisions, and effectively resisted We were never dogmatic about the details the LRC) is the first and only attempt to pressure from members, including us, for of the conference or the constitution, but the give political justification for the coup on Momentum to organise a presence at 2016 discussion was quickly obstructed by people 10 January in which a few people round Labour Party conference. around the Momentum office who opposed the Momentum office declared all the or - Shawcroft says that Momentum was set up any conference which would take votes, and ganisation’s democratic structures abol - in the “euphoria of victory” and something argued that Momentum should never debate ished. “new and different” was in the air. This or vote on policy. They claimed to stand for The coup-makers also imposed a new con - A Redbridge Momentum members’ meeting stitution in which Momentum members are seems to be shorthand for: Momentum decision-making via online one-member- now voting (through a voting system which should not have the democratic structures one-vote. We always accepted some online say for members, and for argued for strategy enables the largest minority to sweep the (meetings, votes, committees, conferences) voting, and the imposed constitution, which and campaigning that does not merely mirror board) only for 12 out of 28 or 32 places on a that have been used in the labour movement gives only minimal powers to online voting, support for the Labour leadership. committee which will meet (or “meet”, elec - and Labour Party since their foundation. makes clear that was never the real issue. The arguments are not new, and Christine tronically) maybe only four times a year, and Modern communication methods are good, Shawcroft knows this. She herself was much-talked-about online votes will be able but they should facilitate rather than trash vOTES around at the time that Michael Foot debated the idea of a democratic grass-roots move - to block office or committee decisions only in Shawcroft, however, argues that “the Sean Matgamna of Socialist Organiser about ment. extreme cases. usual suspects”, the “ultra-left groups”, democracy and the class struggle. A huge diversity of people had to be drawn Shawcroft’s argument is that from the very opposed e-democracy because we can Matgamna’s words about the witch-hunt of into activity: on that we agree. The MPs who first Momentum National Committee meet - only win votes in small meetings and have the left in the early 1980s are relevant now. were the initial sponsors “under pressure” ing in February 2016, “ultra-left [elsewhere in no appeal beyond a supposedly unrepre - “‘The Trotskyists are the enemy of democ - agreed to call a national committee. Shaw - that issue of Briefing , ‘hard left’] groups made sentative minority of members. racy’ is — perhaps predictably — the political it clear that while Corbynistas wanted to croft does not mention this, but the original Of course, being on the Labour Party NEC standard under which Labour’s right and build support for Jeremy and his policies in plan was for a committee made up by co-op - and an already well-known figure on the soft left are trying to rally forces for a counter- the Party, they were only interested in build - tion from the office. There was a small but Labour Left makes it easier for Christine offensive against the serious left. ing their own little group and wanted to use significant rebellion in Momentum groups — Shawcroft to win in an online election than “The direct target is the revolutionary left. Momentum to do so.” and amongst those volunteering in the Mo - new young activists who lack access to the But the main target is the much bigger seri - Since the only left groups involved in Mo - mentum office — and hastily-arranged re - media. ous reformist left... The obvious intention is mentum are Workers’ Liberty and Socialist gional meetings elected delegates to this A good thing about the article is that it to confuse and divide the left which, when Appeal, and Socialist Appeal has had a low National Committee. states (where the imposed constitution is am - united, secured victories and which, if it can profile, this comes down to saying that Mo - That NC, in February 2016, elected a Steer - biguous) that those unjustly expelled, sus - restore its unity, can still stop and beat back mentum’s structures had to be destroyed in ing Committee to oversee the day to day pended or auto-excluded from the Labour the present right-wing offensive… order to save the city from us. work of the organisation. The plan was that Party will not be expelled from Momentum. “Today, the Labour right has the union the National Committee should meet regu - Seemingly unironically, the article ends by leaderships and the help of the media, but it larly and a conference should be scheduled. stating that: “the days of a small clique grab - is very weak among the rank and file of the BEHAvIOUR Shawcroft says that all those structures bing hold of the steering wheel are over.” Labour Party… so the possibility of carrying Shawcroft cites nothing specific as amiss were temporary, and that no membership ex - Given that Momentum will now operate day- through a purge of the Labour Party which or unconstructive about the behaviour of isted at this point. (Why? Not because of us, to-day as a limited company in the hands of will not gut it and immobilise it as an elec - our (few) comrades at the February 2016 but because the office had set up Momentum its directors, including Christine Shawcroft, toral force for years ahead depends on split - NC, but describes December’s Momen - in October 2015 without creating any way for this appears to be far from the truth. ting the left. tum NC sarcastically as when we really people to join it, or any plan for democratic The scare-mongering in the article is all “The right want to isolate and drive out “excelled ourselves”. structures). along the lines that everything would be fine the Marxists, selectively purge the fighting There were challenges over the agenda and Indeed, those initial structures were tem - about voting rights being given to various if not for the “ultra-left”, the “hard left”, or reformist left, and intimidate the rest of porary and inadequate. So we were in favour the “Trotskyists”. It seeks to “criminalise” all the left.” “organisations” which either did not back of a conference for Momentum which would Momentum or were apparently not really or - those who argue for greater debate, for more ganisations at all (these, for example, in - cluded Jon Lansman’s blog!) The challenges came from many more than us. I suspect Shawcroft’s real objection is not the proce - dural issues, but the fact that the NC voted, at last, to make definite arrangements for the nuclear: not the answer Momentum conference agreed in principle at a May 2016 NC meeting (and cancelled by A crucial often overlooked problem with the 10 January coup). LeTTeR nuclear fission is that uranium ore is finite. A Yes, we have our own ideas and we seek to transition away from fossil fuels which relied convince activists to share those ideas and In Solidarity 428 “Copeland, Corbyn, and heavily on fission will deplete reserves faster. work with us to promote them. That helps, the future of nuclear”, Luke Hardy re - At best, nuclear fission could be a stop-gap not hinders, the building of a broad, inclu - minds us that “socialists should deal with during the urgent transition from fossil fuels sive, and active Momentum. Our people facts”. to renewable. In practice, capitalist govern - have been among the initiators and best True, but socialists should deal with all the ments are using nuclear to avoid proper de - builders of some of the most active and reg - relevant facts; and in the case of nuclear velopment of renewable energy, rather than ularly-meeting Momentum groups. power, some facts point in one direction, oth - as such a stop-gap. Nuclear fusion in the fu - Shawcroft portrays everyone else in Mo - ers in another. Hardy highlights many impor - ture would not have this issue, or most oth - mentum apart from us as “Corbynistas [who tant points, but overlooks other crucial facts. ers, as the fuel could be extracted from water. only] wanted to build support for Jeremy and It is simply not true that we cannot meet Furthermore, nuclear energy creates more more expensive (bit.ly/2kDIBNH). his policies in the Party”. This faux-naif pic - our energy needs with green and renewable carbon dioxide per unit energy than hydro - Recognition that nuclear fission is better ture of people who pledge never to have a energy generation, and without nuclear. Re - electric or large wind turbines, although at than many on the left see it as does not mean thought about politics not previously ap - ports have been made that detail exactly how current technological levels less than most we should necessarily support new nuclear proved by Jeremy Corbyn is untrue. Momen - it can be done (bit.ly/2ljT8wr). “Smart grid” solar-electric (bit.ly/2ljTcMH). This must be power stations. A democratically planned tum, as you’d expect, includes a wide variety technology significantly reduces the baseline one of the central considerations when plan - transition would aim to rapidly move away of political slants. electricity level needed, and biomass can pro - ning a transition to green energy. from fossil fuels with a minimal use of fis - For example, in the first months of Mo - vide electricity when the sun isn’t shining There is no shortage of money in our soci - sion, with an aim to ending that as soon as mentum, we and others had to wage a battle and the wind isn’t blowing. ety — there is huge wealth in the banks of the possible. (eventually successful) against people organ - Whilst the danger is overplayed especially rich — so the small differences in cost are in - ised around the Momentum office for Mo - It seems unlikely that construction of a compared to fossil fuels, we must recognise significance compared to environmental, whole new generation of nuclear power mentum to be Labour-oriented rather than a even with the minimised risks of workers’ safety and sustainability questions. Estimates diffuse “social movement”. Later, we had to stations would be part of that transition. control, mistakes do happen and should be put solar and onshore wind turbines slightly Neil Laker and Mike Zubrowski wage a battle (in more-or-less alliance with factored in. cheaper than nuclear, and offshore slightly workers’ Liberty @workersliberty wHAT we sAY 5 Against the Tories’ Brexit!

On Wednesday 8 February, just after Solidarity has gone to press, Parliament will vote on the third reading of the To - ries’ Brexit bill. Theresa May has made it clear that the Tories’ version of Brexit includes ending freedom of movement in Europe, quitting the “single market”, and largely quitting the loose EU “customs union”. She has sig - nalled that she wants to pay for trade deals with Donald Trump’s USA by courting Trump. Yet on the second reading (1 February), Jeremy Corbyn and the leadership of the Labour Party wrongly imposed a three-line whip on Labour MPs to vote with May. As we go to press, Labour List reports that they will impose another three-line whip to vote with May on 8 February. On 1 February, three Shadow Cabinet members, not right-wingers, resigned and voted against May. Ten junior shadow min - isters, three whips, and 34 other Labour MPs also voted against. Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott missed the vote, cit - ing a migraine. Labour right-wingers are calling for Abbott to be sacked. Shadow Business Secretary Clive Lewis, usually an ally of Corbyn’s, said on 7 Feb - Why we say “open borders” ruary: “I am prepared to break the whip and I am prepared to walk from the Those of us who took to the streets to be blamed for pay, terms, and conditions of “Muslim ban” can be the start of such of a Shadow Cabinet”. protest Donald Trump’s “Muslim ban”, a workers in the south. movement. In the Scottish Parliament on 7 February, racist restriction on the freedom of move - Freedom of movement also exists between Trumpism, along with the rise of Ukip in Labour is set to vote against Article 50. ment of people from seven majority-Mus - EU member states. The UK government the UK and Marine Le Pen’s Front National Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thorn - lim countries, were protesting against seems certain to end Britain’s participation in in France, is a symptom of a particularly vi - berry said on the BBC (5 February): “We immigration controls. the freedom of movement arrangement as cious tendency within ruling-class ideology, have said that we will not frustrate Brexit... Not all of us necessarily saw what we were part of the process of withdrawing from the which aims to confiscate popular disaffection There are many conversations going on doing in those terms. Many of us were mo - EU. While EU freedom of movement is lim - with aspects of capitalism and mobilise it for now. We are speaking to Government, we bilised by something more visceral and in - ited (and, necessarily, defined in a way that a model of capitalism that retains the hard- are speaking to Tory backbenchers and we stinctive: a raw opposition to the obvious privileges European people at the expense of nosed profiteering and private-sector-domi - are trying to get a compromise that will prejudice and injustice implied by the ban, migrants from non-EU countries), throwing nance of neo-liberalism, allying it to a work”. Translation: we hope the Tories will and by many other of Trump’s policies. up hard borders between European countries backwards-looking, nationalist-racist world- give us some sops to ease the dilemma. That reflexive opposition to injustice is the would be a victory only for nationalism, and view. In response, much mainstream ruling- Labour is putting amendments: beginning of much political wisdom, in this would do nothing to advance the freedoms class political discourse and activity has • to stay in the “single market” (which in and other cases. Our activity can have the of non-EU migrants and refugees. lurched rightwards in accommodation. Both fact means also keeping freedom of move - best and most effective impact if it extends Trumpism and more mainstream, “re - ment; but regrettably Corbyn has retreated beyond that to become a movement of polit - UTOPIAN spectable” forms of right-wing capitalist pol - from his explicit defences of freedom of itics involve a morally-obscene indifference movement) ical and practical solidarity with migrants Winning genuinely free movement seems to the fate of refugees fleeing war, or eco - • to protect in British law all workers’ and refugees, that opposes deportations and a far off and in some ways utopian de - nomic migrants fleeing poverty. rights which originate from the EU border controls, not just in America but glob - mand. It challenges much that has be - The instinctive solidarity shown with mi - • to guarantee legal rights for EU nation - ally – and, in the first place, where we are, in come accepted common sense around grants and refugees by the thousands of peo - als now in the UK Britain. the issue of immigration, for example the ple who have taken to the streets in protest • to increase scrutiny of the negotiations. Immigration controls are part of the means idea that migrants take jobs from, and against Trump suggest the foundations of a All the big amendments will probably states use to construct and maintain their drive down wages for, local workers. power. When those states are administered This “common sense” is endlessly recycled different world-view. To make that world- fail. by authoritarians and racists, as in the case of by politicians of all parties, and the media. In view – one based on internationalism, soli - Manuel Cortes, secretary of the TSSA the current US administration, borders can be a recent speech, Labour MP Lisa Nandy said darity, anti-racism – hegemonic will require union and a supporter of Corbyn, said on used to propagate and entrench their racist that free movement between EU member much patient work of arguing and dis - 6 February: “If Labour’s amendments fail, ideology, by directly applying controls to states had “allowed a skilled and mobile pop - cussing. In the meantime, direct action to then the facts change and our Labour Party people from particular countries, of particu - ulation across Europe to gain advantage at protest deportations, to demand the closure must whip our MPs into voting against an lar religions, or with brown skin. But in all the expense of the rest of us.” This is a of detention centres, to resist Tory attempts unamended Tory Brexit. If they don’t, then cases, even when the nationalist ideology is dressed-up way of saying “they’re coming to restrict existing freedom of movement, are our MPs must do the right thing and vote less clear, borders and immigration controls over here and taking our jobs”. all also necessary. against it anyway”. are tools of division. They cannot be other No evidence supports this. Repeated aca - Those who wish to defeat Trump should Cortes is right. The damage to Corbyn’s than mechanisms for discriminating against demic studies show that immigration has an extend the instinctive solidarity and oppo - leadership here is largely self-inflicted. people on the basis of their national origin. only very minor effect on wages, and that mi - sition to injustice that motivated them to Despite the use of this row against This is why Workers’ Liberty, and many grants are net contributors to the economy, demonstrate and protest into ongoing ac - Corbyn by a sub-section of the Labour other revolutionary socialists throughout his - paying more in taxes than they receive in tivism to build a movement that can win right, opposition to the Tories’ Article 50 tory, oppose immigration controls and fight benefits. the arguments for open borders, and de - and support for freedom of movement for open borders. We say that no human But more than reference to academic data feat the governments that seek to divide is a left-wing issue, not a right-wing being is “illegal”, and that, in a world where is necessary. What is required is a popular us. one. the wealth workers create is increasingly free movement, rooted in workplaces and com - to travel uninhibited across the globe, with munities, that can confront nationalist argu - no regard for borders, then workers deserve ments around immigration and persuade that same freedom. people of a different world-view: that they Stop Trump! Limited freedom of movement already ex - have more in common with working-class As we go to press Donald Trump’s ban on people from seven majority-Muslim coun - ists between some states, and within most. people of other nations than they do with the tries is still suspended, following a court order. People who live in Sunderland are free to rulers of their own nation, and that the right Protests against Trump’s state visit to the UK and in solidarity with migrants have been move to London to seek work. No-one in the to migrate and live where one likes is a called for 20 February. British labour movement argues that the human right. The protests against Trump’s The London march assembles at 6pm in Parliament Square. pressure of migration from the north should More online at www.workersliberty.org workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Help us raise £20,000 to The democracy of others By Martin Thomas representative democracy, based on continu - while in the other political forms humanity ous organisation and discussion at every has only legal existence. That is the funda - improve our level, with free and adequate flows of infor - mental difference of democracy” ( Critique of “No-one combats freedom; at most they combat the freedom of others”, wrote mation; Hegel’s Philosophy of Right , 1843). Karl Marx sarcastically, in an article de - • it must include accountability and the In the turmoil around the revolutions of website fending the freedom of the press. right of recall at every level; 1848 Engels and Marx came to understand For a long time now, in politics, “democ - • and it must eliminate privileges for offi - that a formal, merely-political democracy racy” has had the same status. No-one com - cials. was possible, which would preserve the rule bats democracy. At most they insist on their If those arguments are right, then British of profiteers and of profit in economic life. version of democracy. parliamentary democracy stands roundly In March 1850 they wrote that the “the... North Korea is officially the “Democratic condemned as a system of plutocratic semi- Democratic party..., far from wanting to People’s Republic of Korea”. The Iranian con - democracy or quarter-democracy. So it transform the whole society in the interests stitution insists on “the democratic character should. So should any “democracy” which of the revolutionary proletarians, only aspire of the government”. retains the privileges of wealth, ownership of to a change in social conditions which will On a less caricatural level, the 10 January productive assets, and capacity to compel the make the existing society as tolerable and £631 raised coup in Momentum, Donald Trump’s execu - majority to wage labour from which the priv - comfortable for themselves as possible... tive orders, and the Tory government’s drive ileged draw profits. They require a democratic form of govern - out of for a “hard Brexit” have all been defended as ment, either constitutional or republican, expressing democracy of some sort. RADICAL DEMOCRACY which would give them and their peasant al - £20,000 This article will argue that if democracy is Marx and Engels, in the 1840s, started as lies the majority... really to be the rule of the people, of the rank- enthusiastic democrats. Engels wrote: “As far as the workers are concerned one and-file, of the majority, then: “Democracy nowadays is communism... thing, above all, is definite: they are to remain • it must provide for the continuous for - All European Democrats are more or less wage labourers as before... The workers... mation, disputation, revision, and re-forma - clear communists”. must... inform themselves of their own class tion of a collective majority opinion, within Democracy meant the rule of the people. It interests, take up their independent political which minorities have their say, and always meant the millions of the worse-off imposing position as soon as possible...” have channels of opportunity to change or re - their priorities on the wealthy few. And universal suffrage could be separated verse the majority opinion; Karl Marx, a couple of years later, had de - from what had seemed its obvious social con - • it must be structured, mediated, delegate, tent, and be annexed by manipulative gov - We need to build a left that is open to clared: “Democracy is human existence, debate and is serious about self-educa - tion. Our website, including its extensive archive could help build a different kind of socialist culture — one where discus - sion and self-education are cherished. “The privilege of historic backwardness” From Trotskyist newspapers of the 1940s and 50s, to older Marxist classics, arguments sufficiently testifies to the incom - of a better name, we may call the law to discussion articles on feminism, na - 1917 pleteness of Russian feudalism, its formless - of combined development — by which we tional questions, religion and philosophy ness, its poverty of cultural monuments. mean a drawing together of the different and resources such as guidelines for We begin a series of extracts from Although compelled to follow after the stages of the journey, a combining of the sep - Marxist reading groups — it’s all there Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian advanced countries, a backward country arate steps, an amalgam of archaic with on the Workers’ Liberty website. Revolution , telling the story of 1917. does not take things in the same order. The more contemporary forms. Without this law, But to make our archive of real use we This extract explains Russia’s privilege of historic backwardness — and to be taken of course, in its whole material need professional help to make all con - such a privilege exists — permits, or rather tent fully integrated, searchable by date “combined and uneven” development content, it is impossible to understand the and subject and optimised for mobile how the country “skipped” historical compels, the adoption of whatever is ready history of Russia, and indeed of any country reading. We need to finance a website “stages”. in advance of any specified date, skipping a of the second, third or tenth cultural class. co-ordinator to ensure our news cover - whole series of intermediate stages. Savages Under pressure from richer Europe the age is up to the minute and shared on While the western barbarians settled in throw away their bows and arrows for rifles Russian state swallowed up a far greater rel - social media. We want to raise £20,000 the ruins of Roman culture, where many all at once, without travelling the road ative part of the people’s wealth than in the by our conference in November 2017. an old stone lay ready as building mate - which lay between those two weapons in West, and thereby not only condemned the Any amount will help. rial, the Slavs in the East found no inher - the past. people to a twofold poverty, but also weak - In the last week Solidarity readers The possibility of skipping over interme - ened the foundations of the possessing have sent in £200, bringing our running itance upon their desolate plain: their diate steps is of course by no means ab - classes. Being at the same time in need of total to £631. predecessors had been on even a lower level of culture than they. solute. Its degree is determined in the long support from the latter, it forced and regi - The western European peoples, soon find - run by the economic and cultural capacities mented their growth. • If you would like to donate by ing their natural boundaries, created those of the country. The backward nation, more - As a result the bureaucratised privileged paypal go to economic and cultural clusters, the commer - over, not infrequently debases the achieve - classes never rose to their full height, and the www.workersliberty.org/donate cial cities. The population of the eastern ments borrowed from outside in the process Russian state thus still more approached an • Or set up an internet bank plain, at the first sign of crowding, would go of adapting them to its own more primitive Asiatic despotism. The Byzantine auto - transfer to “AWL”, account deeper into the forest or spread out over the culture. In this the very process of assimila - cratism, officially adopted by the Muscovite tion acquires a self-contradictory character. 20047674 at Unity Trust Bank, steppe. The more aggressive and enterpris - tzars at the beginning of the sixteenth cen - ing elements of the peasantry in the west be - Thus the introduction of certain elements of tury, subdued the feudal Boyars with the Birmingham, 08-60-01 (please came burghers, craftsmen, merchants. The Western technique and training, above all help of the nobility, and then gained the sub - email [email protected] to more active and bold in the east became, military and industrial, under Peter I, led to jection of the nobility by making the peas - notify us of the payment and what some of them, traders, but most of them a strengthening of serfdom as the funda - antry their slaves, and upon this foundation it’s for); or Cossacks, frontiersmen, pioneers. ... mental form of labour organisation. created the St Petersburg imperial abso - • Send a cheque payable to “AWL” The existence of feudal relations in Russia, The laws of history have nothing in com - lutism. to AWL, 20E Tower Workshops, denied by former historians, may be consid - mon with a pedantic schematism. Uneven - The backwardness of the whole Riley Rd, London SE1 3DG (with a ered unconditionally established by later in - ness, the most general law of the historic process is sufficiently indicated in the note saying what it’s for). vestigations. Furthermore, the fundamental process, reveals itself most sharply and com - fact that serfdom, born at the end of the elements of Russian feudalism were the plexly in the destiny of the backward coun - sixteenth century, took form in the sev - same as in the west. But the mere fact that tries. Under the whip of external necessity Take a look at enteenth, flowered in the eighteenth, was the existence of the feudal epoch had to be their backward culture is compelled to make juridically annulled only in 1861. www.workersliberty.org established by means of extended scientific leaps. From the universal law of unevenness thus derives another law which, for the lack • From Chapter 1. FeATURe 6-7 In the 1930s, Trotsky would put this idea such a decision can the election of represen - that working-class democracy is centred in tatives to the conference be, not the result of lively organisation, not in formal procedures clannishness, friendship, or force of habit handed down by the state, another way: “In (‘We will elect our Nikolai Nikolayevich or the course of many decades, the workers Ivan Ivanovich!’), but the result of the consid - have built up within the bourgeois democ - ered decision of the ‘rank and file’ them - racy, by utilising it, by fighting against it, selves...” ( The Social-Democrats and the Duma their own strongholds and bases of proletar - Elections , January 1907). ian democracy: the trade unions, the political There is in fact a mathematical theorem parties, the educational and sport clubs, the which proves that no consistent democratic co-operatives, etc... These bulwarks of work - voting system is possible if individual votes ers’ democracy within the bourgeois state are are considered as atomised, and if there are absolutely essential for the [eventual] taking more than two alternatives to be voted on: of the revolutionary road” ( What Next? ). Arrow’s Theorem, formulated by the mathe - The details of procedures inside working- matical economist Kenneth Arrow, who was class parties and other voluntary organisa - an anti-Stalinist socialist in his youth and re - tions will differ from those appropriate for a mains a liberal social democrat. Arrow him - state. But the principles are the same, if only self discusses improvements to voting because democracy in working-class state systems to limit the problem: preferential and power can only be built from democracy in transferrable votes, rather than just first past working-class civil society. the post, for example. “Correct and timely information”, wrote But the chief political conclusion is that Trotsky, “is the basis of party democracy” ( It only the thinnest democracy can come from Is Time To Stop , 1933). Why? Because it is the plebiscite-type voting: basis of continuous, informed, responsible • in which each elector votes in an atom - discussion by members “constituted in com - ised way without reference to collective dis - munes”, i.e. in active collective units. cussion In the Russian revolutionary movement, • in which there is no accountability and Lenin had berated the Mensheviks for seek - recallability of those elected ing to take decisions by plebiscites. The Men - • and no control over the way that propo - sheviks had held a conference, he exclaimed sitions voted for are interpreted and imple - in 1905 ( A Third Step Back ), and then “a mented by the established authorities [plebiscite] vote will be taken on the resolu - • and those authorities can manipulate and tions with no opportunity for the voters to tailor the details of voting methods to suit offer proposals for changes or to have before themselves them a complete record of the discussion of A snap vote on an unamendable two-way EU referendum: atomised voting and manipulation of results the resolutions... We have here the principle choice is taken in an atomised way or even ernments ruling for the wealthy classes would describe Stalin’s regime as borrowing of Bonapartist plebiscites, as opposed to the online. It is picked up by an entrenched elite through entrenched state machines. Louis Bonaparte’s techniques. “The demo - principle of democratic representation...” group to authorise whatever interpretation or In December 1851 Louis Bonaparte, elected cratic ritual of Bonapartism is the plebiscite. A little later, Lenin wrote an article appear - implementation they choose. They rule out president of France but in conflict with the From time to time, the question is presented ing to call for a “referendum”, but actually in - amendment or further debate as undemocra - elected parliamentary assembly which had to the citizens: for or against the leader?” sisting that the party promote collective tic. come out of the 1848 revolution, staged a In the early 1880s Marx wrote: “ organisation debate at “rank and file” level. “Socialists These typical procedures of plebiscitary coup, dissolving parliament and taking all must be pursued by all the means the prole - consider that the political consciousness of democracy, exemplified by the Tories over power for himself. tariat has at its disposal, including universal the masses is the main force... Only after this Brexit or the Momentum hierarchy (or He had previously reinstated universal suffrage which will thus [i.e. by organisation question has been openly discussed by all the Blair in his day, in New Labour) is an ex - male suffrage — effectively abolished by the from below ] be transformed from the instru - Party members assembled is it possible for each ample of how chosen species of voting parliament in 1849 requiring each voter to ment of deception that it has been until now one to adopt an intelligent and firm decision can be used against all the generous, prove from tax records three years’ residence into an instrument of emancipation”. one way or the other. Only on the basis of egalitarian, social impulses of democracy. at his current address — and now authorised In earlier years Marx and Engels, like most his power by a referendum in which 92% ap - democrats, had supported rules allowing cit - proved his measures. izens to initiate legislation by plebiscite, such He continued to rule until 1870, keeping as exist now in Switzerland and some US universal male suffrage, having (tame) legis - states. But when the German socialists in - Why is the left in disarray? latures elected, and calling four further cluded that idea in an 1875 program, Engels With the Corbyn surge, the Sanders movement, and more, there is plebiscites on chosen questions, which he wrote sourly: “‘legislation by the people’ new life on the left. But the left’s positive political ideas, slogans, ar - won by majorities of between 83% and 99%. such as exists in Switzerland... does more guments are still paler than the right’s. After decades of Stalinist domination and infection, and then of re - Marx explained how the conservative ma - harm than good”. treats, the left needs rigorous debate to renew itself. It argues through jority of the peasantry had given Louis Bona - two issues in particular: the endorsement by much of the left of po - parte his majority: PARIS COMMUNE litical Islam as a progressive “anti-imperialism”; and the spread “Insofar as millions of families live under Marx and Engels saw expansive democ - within the left of an “absolute anti-Zionism”, unwittingly informed conditions of existence that separate their racy in the Paris Commune of 1871: “The by decades of Stalinist “anti-Zionist” campaigning after about 1949, mode of life, their interests, and their culture Commune was formed of the municipal which becomes effectively antisemitic. The book concludes by criticising also the mechanical inverse on the left of the addled from those of the other classes, and put them councillors... chosen by universal suf - in hostile opposition to the latter, they form “anti-war” and “anti-imperialist” negativists: those who respond by going for an idealised frage, responsible and revocable in short bourgeois democracy. a class. terms... The Commune was to be a work - “Insofar as there is merely a local intercon - ing, not a parliamentary body, executive nection among these small-holding peasants, and legislative at the same time... The Russian Revolution: and the identity of their interests forms no “The public service had to be done at community, no national bond, and no politi - workmen’s wages... cal organisation among them, they do not “The priests were sent back to the recesses when workers took power constitute a class. They are therefore inca - of private life, there to feed upon the alms of The 1917 Russian revolution was the greatest event in political history so pable of asserting their class interest in their the faithful... The whole of the educational in - far – the first time working-class people took political power and held it own name, whether through a parliament or stitutions were opened to the people gratu - for several years. Yet the real history is buried under myths. a convention. They cannot represent them - itously, and at the same time cleared of all Since the 1960s, and especially since the opening of archives in Russia from selves, they must be represented. Their rep - interference of Church and State. the 1990s, much more is known about the Russian revolution. This book resentative must at the same time appear as “Instead of deciding once in three or six aims to bring original Marxist perspectives together with a wide range of scholarship. It is written from what Lenin and Trotsky called the “third camp” independent working their master, as an authority over them” ( The years which member of the ruling class was class socialist perspective. 18th Brumaire ). to misrepresent the people in Parliament, The peasantry was atomised by economic universal suffrage was to serve the people, Both books coming soon. Available to pre-order now for £8 fundamentals. Other classes can be atomised constituted in communes ...” by political means. In the 1930s Trotsky www.workersliberty.org/books 8 FeATURe More online at www.workersliberty.org An argument against post-factual politics acter they show. about the High Ann Field reviews ‘Denial’ Irving also excels in a poisonous anti-semi - Court judge: appar - tism-by-innuendo. “Who pays you to write ently unaware of ‘Denial’ is a dramatisation of the libel case your books?” asks Irvine when he “am - the invention of the brought by Holocaust denier and Hitler bushes” Lipstadt in a lecture at the start of the computer, he writes apologist David Irving against the Ameri - film. According to his libel claim, Lipstadt is his judgements can academic Deborah Lipstadt (author of “part of a world conspiracy to destroy his with a fountain pen Denying the Holocaust , in which Irving reputation.” And in one of the court scenes while drinking featured prominently) and Penguin Books he refers to “those who funded her (Lipstadt) freshly made tea. (which published her book). and guided her hand.” And, without the The film has received mixed reviews. Some But, for all his bravado, Irving is also a pa - assistance of a but - critics have described it as “hammy”, “stuffy thetic figure. As Lipstadt’s barrister points ler, he would surely and repetitive”, and “a standard issue legal out, Irving wants to be seen as a great writer never manage to drama”. The character of Lipstadt has also and historian and hankers after respect — put his wig on been criticised as “so predictable” and “an “England is a club and he wants to be a mem - straight. impassioned mouthpiece with no internal ber of it.” Although ‘De - life.” That makes Irving’s defeat all the more nial’ was com - And given the well-known result of the complete and all the more enjoyable when it there is a succession of dramatic confronta - pleted before real-life trial — in 2000 a High Court judge arrives. tions between Lipstadt and her legal team. Trump’s election victory, the film’s found that Irving had knowingly distorted He loses the trial, he is exposed as a char - Lipstadt wants to give evidence at the trial. scriptwriter, David Hare, has emphasised history and ruled in favour of Lipstadt and latan rather than a historian, and when he Lipstadt wants Holocaust survivors to give that the film also has a more contemporary Penguin Books — the eventual outcome of tries to shake the hand of Lipstadt’s barrister evidence at the trial. Lipstadt promises a element: it takes a dig at Trump’s brand of the trial is not a source of tension in the film. — as if the trial had been a public school sixth Holocaust survivor that the voices of those post-factual politics: But the film is well worth seeing. Irving is form debate — the latter abruptly turns his who did not survive will be heard at the trial. “[In this internet age] it is necessary to re - such a truly repulsive character, and the con - back on him. But her legal team will have none of this. mind people that there are facts, there is sci - trast between him and Lipstadt so absolute, Lipstadt, on the other hand, is built up into Almost to the point of caricature, they are entific evidence and there is such a thing as that the audience can only enjoy the wait for a champion of the oppressed. Her name, hardheaded legal professionals who base proof. That was true with this court case and Irving’s eventual defeat in court, and then Deborah, she explains, means leader and de - their strategy solely on what is most likely to it’s important to say it now. [Trump’s politics] relish the moment of his demise fender of her people. She is a woman and a achieve victory in court. is a non-evidence-based approach to politics, Irving does not look at people. He leers Jew, which is one reason why Irving is so in - When Lipstadt objects that if she does not what you might call Trumpery. It’s terribly and scowls at them. When he speaks, his face tent on pursuing her. And she has no interest testify in court people will call her a coward dangerous.” twists into a grimace. He is full of his own in negotiating, compromising or reaching an and that she would have to live with that for Cinema-goers whose idea of a good film is bloated self-importance, but fawning and out-of-court settlement with Irving. the rest of her life, her barrister responds: a five-hour-long adaptation of a novel by sycophantic towards the judge in court. She also spells out the importance of the “That’s the price to pay for winning.” Proust, directed by Wim Wenders, and full of During the film Lipstadt and her legal case in which she is the central figure: if Irv - Not that her barrister is portrayed unsym - lengthy shots of dreary Swedish coastlines team watch clips of Irving addressing neo- ing wins, then Holocaust denial receives a ju - pathetically: he seems to live off red wine punctuated by endless internal monologues Nazi rallies, making racist “jokes”, and deny - dicial stamp of approval as a legitimate (preferably drunk out of a plastic beaker should steer well clear of ‘Denial’. ing the genocide of the Holocaust. The cheap opinion. rather than a glass), sandwiches and ciga - But for those who like a film where the and grainy quality of the clips helps empha - There is no face-to-face confrontation be - rettes. good guys win and the bad guys lose, ‘De - sise the tawdry and seedy nature of the char - tween Lipstadt and Irving in the film. But There is the same element of caricature nial’ is a must-see. Making garish pantomime of the colonial imaginary

guage to project his consciousness into the challenged to a duel seems to shout: “take disembowelling scene is a case in point; it’s Ira Berkovic reviews ‘Taboo’ (BBC) bedroom of his sleeping half-sister Zilpha, this seriously!”, and so rather spoils the ef - almost as if Knight and Hardy have read played by Oona Chaplin, who he then pro - fect. ‘Jonathan Strange’ and decided it had poten - By the time of its fourth episode, the point ceeds to rape. “You feel me when I break in, Hardy is making a career playing psycho - tial, but what it really needed was more tor - at which this review was written, ‘Taboo’, don’t you?”, he later snarls at her. Delaney is pathically violent comic-book hard men ture and rape. which had occasionally teetered on the far from an entirely sympathetic character, (Bronson, Bane, Alfie Solomons in ‘Peaky If ‘Taboo’ has a message, it is perhaps that edge of greatness, had collapsed into but he is clearly the show’s hero (much like Blinders’, and now James Delaney, to name a the proto-globalisation and empire-building rather grotesque pantomime. similarly damaged, brooding sociopath few), and he might be well advised to con - of the 19th century unleashed (figuratively, The aloofness of Tom Hardy’s perform - Thomas Shelby in ‘Taboo’ co-creator Stephen sider broadening his choices, lest his undeni - but also, the show seems to suggest, literally) ance, which in earlier episodes had given his Knight’s ‘Peaky Blinders’), taking on the twin able acting talent is allowed to dissolve into dark forces that threaten to disrupt the metro - character, James Delaney, a brooding malice, forces of evil represented by the British self-caricature. pole, and perhaps that the society of the is petering out into ridiculousness, as he crown and the East India Company. Are we There’s a lot of texture in ‘Taboo’, but in a metropole was in many ways just as “sav - growls his way through a script peppered supposed to root for him in his violent show so obviously concerned with weighty age” as they viewed their colonial subjects as with faux-profound cliches (“There is busi - “courtship” of his half-sister? themes it needs a stronger framework to pre - being. Setting aside the question of whether ness afoot tonight” he says, climbing into a The show’s laudanum-dream surrealism is vent it from collapsing into a gloopy mess. these messages have much value (the former carriage.) entertaining at points, and enough skill has Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have one. is, to say the least, “problematic”; the latter is The dark Other of the colonial imaginary gone into the world-building to suggest that ‘Taboo’ appears to be influenced by Su - more worthwhile but hardly original), looms large in the world of ‘Taboo’: Delaney this magical-realist Regency London might sanna Clarke’s ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr Nor - they’re lost in the morass of a show that has begins the show having returned from a so - have some potential as a terrain for other sto - rell’, another work of fantastical, and effectively bogged itself down — wallowing, journ in Africa, where he has apparently ries. Stephen Knight brings his distinctive frequently dark, Regency-era magical-real - as Emily Stephen’s ‘AV Club’ review put it, learnt various occult arts, and become a can - aesthetic, familiar to viewers of ‘Peaky Blind - ism; setting the show in the same period and in its own scandals. nibal. His nemesis, his brother-in-law, repeat - ers’, playing, often compellingly, with fire, naming a main character “Strange” is un - Some sharp turns in its character develop - edly calls him “nigger”. There are shadows, and spectrality. Jonathan Pryce likely coincidental, and we also get Ed Hogg, ment and narrative progression will be re - not-yet-fully-explained flashbacks to the hold takes a good turn as the comic-book bad guy who played John Segundus in the BBC adap - quired if we’re not to be left with a piece that of slave ships, with their screaming cargo of Sir Stuart Strange, a senior East India Com - tion of Clarke’s book, appearing as a cross- goes halfway to creating an aesthetically ar - enslaved humans, and a developing subplot pany official, and there are similarly strong dressing East India Company clerk. resting and intriguing world which it invites reveals that Delaney’s mother was a Native performances from Jessie Buckley as Lorna ‘Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell’ also deals the viewer to explore but then, through its American. Bow and the dependable Stephen Graham as with themes of class, race, slavery, gender, lack of a shaping framework, effectively What does it all mean? Whose story is it Atticus. and empire, and similarly figures magic as a abandons them in. trying to tell, and why? If ‘Taboo’ wants to be At points in the fourth episode, ‘Taboo’ potentially wild force that can subvert the so - Undoubtedly this is deliberate: disorien - a critical comment on the values of the pe - comes close to embracing and celebrating its cial mores and ordered hierarchies of the 19th tation, misdirection, deception, disguise, riod, it is unclear quite what critique it wishes status as garish pantomime. The introduction century. But where Clarke’s work, and even and deceit are all themes of the story. to make. of Tom Hollander as a camp, lascivious mad- the below-par TV adaptation, delights, That can be a gratifying experience as an And it is not even clear the comment is crit - scientist figure, and the scenes of Delaney amuses, comforts, and asks questions of an audience member, but here, in a show ical: in one, particularly gratuitous, scene, looking comically out of place at a Countess’s audience, as well as jolting them, ‘Taboo’ that, at its darkest, seems to revel in sex - Delaney uses an occult ritual involving fire lavish, hedonistic ball have promise, but a seems interested only in leering out of the ual violence and racialised othering, the and incantations in an unintelligible lan - hammy climactic scene in which Delaney is shadows in an attempt to shock. A gratuitous effect is rarely enjoyable. workers’ Liberty @workersliberty FeATURe 9 Trump’s “America First” means workers last

engineered for the benefit of US business, as By Lance Selfa (US International levers to pry open sectors of other countries’ Socialist Organization)* economies to investment and services in the first instance. Second, they allow for the free movement Perhaps it’s foolish to take anything Don - of capital across borders, but not the free ald Trump says as an articulation of core movement of labour. In fact, the era of principles or beliefs. But this passage NAFTA coincided with a huge increase in from his inaugural address hit many like a “border security” and repression that pro - bolt of lightning: duced a record number of deportations — From this day forward, a new vision will gov - more than two million — under the Demo - ern our land. From this moment on, it’s going to cratic Obama administration. be America First. That aspect of “Fortress America” — re - Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigra - pression at the border — is already in place. tion, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit Trump proposes to increase it. But the record American workers and American families. We should show that free trade policies didn’t must protect our borders from the ravages of other put out a welcome mat to immigrants, either. countries making our products, stealing our com - Our side will continue to analyse the eco - panies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will nomic ramifications of Trump’s policies, but lead to great prosperity and strength. we’re faced today with what to do about the I will fight for you with every breath in my body political challenges they represent. — and I will never, ever let you down. America In this case, there is a more complicated will start winning again, winning like never be - test for the left. Trump’s protectionism and fore. rhetoric about bringing manufacturing jobs This appeal to economic nationalism is back to the US have already won praise from very much in line with his “Make America Trump has restarted Dakota Access Pipeline project, gaining praise of Teamsters leader union leaders like Teamsters President James great again” campaign theme. But for those Hoffa. Hoffa and other labour officials like - whose political memory goes back a little and the subsequent US intervention, America will be sustained as new policies for the long wise hailed Trump’s executive order aimed way, “America First” means something very First organisations collapsed. The US emer - run. But in the immediate term, they present at restarting the Keystone XL and Dakota Ac - specific and very problematic. gence from the war as a global superpower our side with a tremendous set of challenges. cess Pipeline projects that activism forced the In the late 1930s, the Roosevelt administra - marginalised support for the “American The first of these is assessing whether they Obama administration to shelve. tion was increasing its support for an inter - First” outlook of staying out of foreign entan - are reality-based or not. Millions of people — After a White House meeting with ventionist foreign policy that would assert glements while building a “Fortress Amer - among them supporters of Bernie Sanders — Trump, North American Building Union US power on a world level. After the Second ica.” would agree with the sentiment of protecting President Sean McGarvey declared, “We World War started in 1939, the administration In the 1990s and 2000s, far right, antise - “our borders from the ravages of other coun - have a common bond with the president” lent massive amounts of military aid to mitic pundit and presidential candidate tries making our products, stealing our com - and that “We come from the same industry. Britain, with the intention of drawing the US Patrick Buchanan carried the “America First” panies, and destroying our jobs,” whether or He understands the value of driving devel - into the conflict. torch for a while. Then Trump came along. not they agree with Trump’s rhetoric. opment, moving people to the middle class.” From the late 1930s up to the Japanese at - Yet the empirical evidence that trade In speaking to reporters, McGarvey and tack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in December GLOBALISATION RHETORIC arrangements — like the North American Labourers President Terry Sullivan — whose 1941, a substantial sentiment against US in - Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or China’s This brief history of “America First” poli - unions both endorsed Hillary Clinton for tervention in the European war developed. accession to the World Trade Organization tics provides a context for Trump’s rheto - president — pointed out that they had never While on the whole sincerely opposed to a re - (WTO) — are the main culprits in the decline ric. It also shows that, far from being a been invited to a White House meeting in the peat of the imperialist slaughter of the First of US manufacturing jobs and workers’ stan - common sense advocacy for ordinary eight years of Obama’s presidency. World War, the anti-intervention mood also dards of living is thin. people in the US versus global elite, the intersected with an isolationist, rather than The liberal University of California-Berke - slogan drags along more than its share of internationalist, approach to the coming con - ley economist J. Bradford DeLong ALIBI historical baggage. flict. calculates that of the decline in US manufac - But there’s something else besides the It wasn’t accidental that Trump’s presiden - Democrats’ neglect behind the labour So when a number of college students — tial proclamation on Holocaust Remem - turing employment since 1971 that is greater including future Republican President Ger - than that experienced by other industrial leaders’ cozying up to Trump and his brance Day failed to mention the genocide of America First program. ald Ford, future Supreme Court Justice Potter European Jewry. powers undergoing similar structural eco - Stewart and future Democratic vice presiden - It gives them an alibi for their failures to do Trump’s America First policy asserts that nomic shifts, only one-tenth of even this extra much of anything to reverse the long-term tial candidate Sargent Shriver— along with “[e]very decision on trade, on taxes, on im - amount can be attributed to NAFTA and leading capitalists issued a call to form an decline of their organisations and to protect migration, on foreign affairs, will be made to trade with China. their members from worsening conditions. “America First” committee to keep the US benefit American workers and American Nevertheless, we know that during the out of the European war, hundreds of thou - Those problems stem from anti-union U.S. families.” same period, living standards for workers in employers and anti-labour US politicians, not sands responded. That rhetoric sounds radical, especially the US — and not just those in manufacturing America First also called for a US military overseas competitors or immigrants. when compared to that of the last genera - — stagnated. In real terms, the median US Hoffa, for example, has a long record of co - buildup to defend the continental US — a tion’s status quo, when most decisions on household income is no higher than it was in policy that came to be known as “Fortress operating with employers while bargaining trade and foreign affairs did little for US the early 1970s. away the rights and benefits of rank-and-file America”. workers and their families. For most of the Clearly something is wrong in the U.S. The banner of “America First” was also Teamsters. last generation, politicians — both Demo - economy, and no amount of statistical mod - For the likes of Hoffa, it’s much more con - embraced by supporters of the anti-semitic cratic and Republican — have told us that elling is going to convince people that they “radio priest” Father Charles venient to blame international competition or global trade is like a force of nature, which should just accept it. So when figures as di - Mexican truckers for eroding wages and con - Coughlin, along with fascists and sympathis - the US economy can only adapt to, not con - verse as Trump and Sanders point to global ers with the Nazi regime in Germany. In ditions than to confront US employers even trol. trade deals as the culprit for declining living ones, like UPS, making record profits. Joining speeches for the America First committee, the This notion of globalisation operating out - standards, they at least have the merit of re - aviator Charles Lindbergh contended that with Trump under the banner of “America side the influence of the world’s most pow - lating to people who know — unlike the First” won’t change Hoffa’s behaviour at all. Britain and Jews were the main advocates for erful government was always false. US state Friedmans and the Clintons — that not all is US intervention in the war, and that the in - Labour leaders like Hoffa give Trump the policy undergirded the bipartisan regime of right with the neoliberal world. cover to paint his economic program — terventionists’ main aim was to defeat Ger - free trade and the US global military projec - Trump promotes the notion that other many. which in reality is based on tax cuts for the tion. As that purveyor of “flat-world” banal - countries are “ripping off” the US through rich, allowing corporations free reign, and Other mainstream political figures — like ities Thomas Friedman once put it, unfair trade deals. But this inverts reality. Joseph Kennedy, ambassador to Britain and selling the US as a low-wage economy — as “McDonalds cannot flourish without Mc - One drastic effect of NAFTA has been the “populist” and pro-worker. And they lend le - father of future US President John F Kennedy Donnell Douglas.” destruction of small farming in Mexico when — shared the “America First” outlook. He gitimacy to an administration intent on at - If Trump’s tumultuous first week showed that sector was forced into unfair competition tacking whole sections of the working class, contended that Germany was too strong, and anything, it showed just how much govern - with US agribusiness. By some estimates, that Britain and US should make peace with including immigrants and the undocu - mental action can shift the terms of engage - more than one million farmers have been mented. the Nazis. ment and debate on these questions. driven from the land. Many of the victims After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor moved to Mexican cities or crossed the bor - Any labour union or worker who signs Given that decades of corporate, govern - up with Trump’s “America First” program mental and institutional practices are in - der into the US without documents to find work. will find out that — rhetoric aside — vested in the neoliberal regime, it remains to Trump will put them last. * From socialistworker.org be seen whether any or all of Trump’s actions “Free trade” agreements like NAFTA are Where we stand More online at www.workersliberty.org workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. McCluskey moves ahead, The capitalists’ control over the economy and their relentless drive to increase their wealth causes poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the environment and much else. but not left Against the accumulated wealth and power of the capitalists, the working class must unite to struggle against capitalist By Dale Street power in the workplace and in wider society. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty wants socialist revolution: In the election campaigning for collective ownership of industry and services, workers’ control, the post of Unite the Union’s and a democracy much fuller than the present system, with General Secretary, the Mc - elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to Cluskey election machine con - tinues to deliver the goods. bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. With a while still to go before We fight for trade unions and the Labour Party to break with nominations close on 17 February, “social partnership” with the bosses and to militantly assert over 300 branches have nominated working-class interests. Len McCluskey, who has been gen - eral secretary since 2011 but has In workplaces, trade unions, and Labour organisations; stood down early so he could run for a third term. A statement sup - among students; in local campaigns; on the left and in porting McCluskey has been wider political alliances we stand for: signed by 60 out of 64 Executive • Independent working-class representation in politics. Council members and a similarly • A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the overwhelming majority on other of problems, including the gap “The real-world impact of an EU- labour movement. top levels of the union. which separates McCluskey’s elec - wide free market in labour has tion rhetoric from reality, and the been a deterioration in wage rates A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to McCluskey’s election platform is • a series of uncontroversial prom - gap between McCluskey’s policies and other conditions. I therefore strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. ises: better pay deals; protect jobs; and the policies which Unite welcome Labour’s clear commit - • Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, defend union reps; more support should be championing. ment that it is not ‘wedded to free education and jobs for all. for members in dispute; and “for “I will continue to fight the per - movement’.” A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. power and against injustice”. nicious Trade Union Act,” Mc - Freedom of movement is carica - • Cluskey has declared. But a serious tured by McCluskey as a right- Full equality for women, and social provision to free women Right-wing challenger Kevin Coyne has not — or not yet — campaign against the Tories’ anti- wing policy: “We cannot embrace from domestic labour. For reproductive justice: free abortion on knocked McCluskey’s campaign union laws is yet to be launched by the neo-liberal dogma of free move - demand; the right to choose when and whether to have off course. Even his attempts to Unite, never mind “continued”. ment without safeguards – the ap - children. Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and highlight the scandal of the equity A workers’ plan of production proach championed by bad transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity against share deal whereby Unite paid which would reconcile non-re - employers and Labour’s right in newal of Trident with protection of the recent past.” racism. £400,000 towards the cost of Mc - Cluskey’s £700,000 central-London jobs and pay has disappeared off The “safeguards” proposed by • Open borders. flat have failed to pick up traction. the radar. Instead McCluskey’s line McCluskey are that only employers • Global solidarity against global capital — workers Left-wing challenger Ian remains: which recognise a trade union or everywhere have more in common with each other than with Allinson has also failed to dent Mc - “Everyone would love the whole engage in collective bargaining their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. Cluskey’s campaign. world to get rid of nuclear should be allowed to recruit out - weapons. … However, the most side of the UK. This would result in Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest When an internal Unite report re - • vealing the extent of bullying suf - important thing for us is to protect less migrant labour, says Mc - workplace or community to global social fered by Unite female full-timers jobs. In the absence of any credible Cluskey, as employers would no organisation. was published by Allinson, female alternative to protect jobs and high longer have an incentive to employ • Equal rights for all nations, against full-timers and female Executive skills, we will vote against any anti- them. imperialists and predators big and small. Council members rallied round Trident resolution.” Coyne’s promise to hand back When McCluskey visited Barrow control of Unite to its members is Maximum left unity in action, and McCluskey and issued a public • statement condemning Allinson for shipyards at the start of the election vacuous, populist demagogy. But openness in debate. publishing the report: campaign he attacked the Tories nothing in McCluskey’s election “Through Len McCluskey’s lead - not for squandering money on Tri - material makes any linkage be - ership we (women) are building dent but for “carelessness” and tween McCluskey’s re-election and If you agree with us, please take some “point-scoring”. a greater degree of real rank-and- copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! our leadership in workplace ac - tivism. We are appalled that this re - McCluskey’s election campaign file control of the union. port has been misrepresented and backs continuing access to the EU This underlines the need to used as a political football by can - Single Market but not freedom of couple campaigning for a vote didates in the election for the post movement of labour (even though, for McCluskey with a reassertion of Unite general secretary.” as McCluskey must know, it must of rank-and-file democracy Events But the slick campaign being run be both or neither). McCluskey is against all versions of machine Saturday 11 February Thursday 16 February for McCluskey conceals a number explicit in his opposition to free - politics – both left and right. Iranian Embassy picket: Free all Workers’ Liberty London forum: dom of movement: jailed workers! Socialist ideas to stop Trump 5pm, Iranian Embassy, 16 Prince’s 7pm, Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Gate, London, SW7 1PT Square, London, W1T 6AQ bit.ly/2kLSrfP bit.ly/2kOMKjJ Monday 13 February Monday 20 February Workers’ Liberty Leeds public Mass lobby of Parliament for meeting: Socialism or the new the rights of EU citizens in the barbarism UK 6.30pm, The Packhorse Pub, 208 2.30pm, Parliament, London Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, LS2 9DX bit.ly/2kLNbZC bit.ly/2kQh5eu Defend migrants, stop Trump 6pm, Parliament, London Tuesday 14 February bit.ly/2kIYbtU Show culture some love: day of action Saturday 4 March 11am, BBC, Portland Place, W1A National demonstration for the 1AA NHS bit.ly/2llHsdB 12 noon, Tavistock square, Lon - don, WC1H 9HW bit.ly/2h9wgBe Got an event you want listing? [email protected] RePORTs 10-11 Picturehouse out on 11 Feb Southern: Reject By Gemma Short this sell out! Workers at four Picturehouse branches in London will strike on Saturday 11 February. A new ballot including two new sites — Picturehouse Central and Crouch End Picturehouse — re - turned a 95% yes vote on a 75% turn out. The Bectu section of Prospect, the Picturehouse work - ers′ union, had already balloted in January, but the ballot was chal - lenged by bosses on a legal techni - cality. Individual workers have also been threatened with legal action Picturehouse workers and their over unfounded claims of intimida - supporters will also be holding a • Sign the petition: tion and secondary picketing. demonstration on 25 February in www.change.org/p/picturehouse- Picturehouse bosses continue to central London. They will start at pay-proper show that they would rather spend the Empire cinema, Leicester • Join a picket line from 2pm on things such as ″lateness, sickness, money on legal threats and busing Square which Picturehouse has re - Saturday 11 February in Brixton, By a rail worker in senior managers to run sites dur - and routine delays″; dispatching cently bought, before going on a Piccadilly Circus, Hackney cen - responsibilities have been trans - ing strikes than pay their workers tour of central London cinemas. tral or Crouch End. The ″deal″ that has come out the living wage. Bosses’ continued ferred to the driver; there is no Workers will walk out from • Join the demonstration on the of Aslef-Southern Rail talks at protection for drivers if a passen - insistence that they will not recog - 25 February: bit.ly/2jXQsIU the TUC is possibly the worst nise the union shows how much 2pm on Saturday 11 February ger comes to harm. Promises and welcome supporters on their • Donate to the strike fund: sell-out of workers in recent made in the deal are of the ″jam to - they fear their workers′ continuing bit.ly/2fmmJmF memory. ability to collectively organise. picket lines. Given that the RMT were ex - morrow and/or pie in the sky″ cluded from the talks and the type . TUC’s dismal record in interven - This agreement goes back on ing in disputes, many feared the everything Aslef has been saying worst. But what has come out of about safe train dispatch. Tube staff win concessions these highly secretive talks is It is not clear how Aslef will be mind-boggingly awful. able to sell this ″deal″ to its By Ollie Moore It is hard to fathom how the members in the referendum ASLEF leadership is going to con - which runs until 16 February. Station staff on London Under - vince its members on Southern Aslef members should reject ground have secured significant that this is acceptable. In reality it the deal and demand that concessions in their dispute over does almost nothing to protect strikes are called alongside the staffing levels. drivers from having to run trains RMT who remain in dispute. A proposal from the company, that would previously have re - which RMT negotiators accepted quired a guard. A list of agreed • Find out more on the Off the on Friday 3 February following dis - reasons why a train can be run Rails blog: cussion at a reps’ meeting, will re - without a guard event includes www.workersliberty.org/otrblog instate 325 jobs, and guarantee promotion for workers in the non- safety-critical, and lower paid, “CSA2” role into the “CSA1” grade, giving more safety-critical Public support Derby TAs staff on stations. RMT suspended strikes planned for 5-8 February and an overtime 8-9 January, we’ve forced the com - and magnificent: why, therefore, By Gemma Short ban. The rank-and-file socialist bul - pany to change its position [...] not maintain that pressure and mo - “Could we have come away from mentum to push for more conces - letin Tubeworker argued that, while As previously reported in Soli - this dispute with more? Tubeworker sions?” the concessions should be cele - darity , teaching assistants are believes so. When the dispute was An RMT rep told Solidarity : “Al - brated, it was wrong to suspend striking against imposed con - launched, members were told to though many of us feel more strikes as more could’ve been won: tract changes which will see prepare for a protracted battle, and could’ve been won if the strikes “There’s no doubt that these con - them lose up to 30% of their pay. cessions are big wins for us. When the 8-9 January strike (which many had been kept on, there’s no doubt Teaching assistants have been we began this dispute, the com - reps and activists felt should have that we’ve achieved a lot from this gathering a lot of public support, from Jeremy Corbyn who said: pany was intransigent, insisting been longer) was presented as the dispute. Significantly, we’ve also and this weeks action will also in - “I’m on the side of the teaching that not a single penny was avail - opening salvo in an ongoing cam - shattered the orthodoxy that had clude a ″love in″ for members of the assistants and the pupils and the able for a single additional job, and paign of strikes. Station staff may, developed on the job — and, it public to show their support for the parents. Let’s get together and that the CSA2 issue was non-nego - therefore, be bemused at being con - must be said, within the RMT — teaching assistants. sort it out quickly.” gratulated for a magnificent, solid that station staff have no industrial tiable. After three months of a Teaching assistants have also action in one breath, but being told leverage or power. highly effective overtime ban, received a message of support • More information: which led to over 100 station clo - we’re settling for something that “Our strike on 8-9 January derbycityunison.co.uk sures, and unprecedented strike ac - falls short of our demands in the blew that out of the water, and tion which shut down London on next. The strike was indeed solid should embolden us for future battles.” Kinsley Three sacked

By Simon Nelson ment, but just before Christmas Lse cleaners fight victimisation they were sacked on “trumped-up charges.” The three are now taking parental/adoption leave, their pen - The Kinsley Three are cleaners part in an employment tribunal By Peggy Carter students who support the clean - employed by C&D cleaning who sions and annual leave allowances ers have been organising soli - and continuing to protest and call are significantly lower than directly struck for 68 days for union for support against their dismissal. Cleaners at the London School darity events on campus, recognition and the living wage employed staff, their workloads Unison must provide national of Economics are balloting for including a strike solidarity after their jobs were outsourced have been increasing and one support for the workers and take strikes in their dispute with breakfast. when the school took academy cleaner, Alba Pasmino was unlaw - the case up to show the realities cleaning contractor Noonan. status. Cleaners do not currently get oc - fully sacked after 12 years at LSE. • Find out more and support the The three women returned to of outsourcing and academisa - cupational sick pay or The workers′ union UVW and strike: bit.ly/2jXRXqr work in December with a settle - tion. SolidaFor a workers’ giovertnment y No 429 8 February 2017 50p/£1 Nationalise the Big Six! month said there was “no justifica - holds. This was an increase from people finding it virtually impos - By an Npower worker tion” for a price hike. Indeed 2.35 million households in 2013. sible to stay adequately warm”. Npower made £67 million in the For the poorest the government’s In response, Shadow Chancellor On 5 February, Npower, one of first half of 2016. At the same time attacks on welfare such as the ben - John McDonnell condemned the the Big Six energy suppliers, they made a commitment to the efit cap and universal credit will increase but only talked about a hiked their electricity price by markets to cut 2400 jobs at just make the situation worse. For price cap. Whilst a price cap would 15% for electricity and 4.8% for Npower and among outsourced pensioners and the chronically ill, be welcome, it wouldn’t resolve gas for customers on their vari - workers. fuel poverty kills. the fundamental issues. When Je - able rates. This is the largest single hike by There has been a rise in whole - Caroline Abrahams from Age remy Corbyn stood for Labour any of the Big Six since at least sale energy costs over the last six UK said last winter: “The UK has leader in 2015 he argued – on and 2013. If past experience is anything months, but that’s from a rela - an appalling record on cold-re - off — for the nationalisation of the being denied to millions by the to go by, the rest of the Six will put tively low base; and hardy any of lated deaths, with one older per - energy sector. Labour has since profiteering of the few. their prices up too in the next few the fall in energy prices in 2014-15 son dying every seven minutes gone quiet on this front. Some - Labour should commit itself months. was passed on. from the winter cold. Colder coun - times it argues for a confused pol - to the democratic public owner - Npower bosses argued this price 2014 is the last year we have tries like Sweden are better at pro - icy of promoting small-scale and ship of the Big Six and the rest rise was forced on them by the complete Fuel Poverty Statistics. In tecting older people from the cold. municipal energy production, at of the energy sector – reorgan - wholesale price of energy and 2014, the number of households in Many older people will be feeling other times not even that. ised as part of a plan to tackle “regulatory costs”. However this officially defined fuel poverty in anxious about the current cold This is a mistake. There is an ur - climate change, save and im - has even been questioned by gov - England was estimated at 2.38 mil - snap, not least because high heat - gent need to sort out the byzantine prove jobs, and deal with fuel ernment regulator Ofgen, who last lion, representing approximately ing costs are prohibitive for many, energy sector. Heat and warmth poverty. 10.6 per cent of all English house - resulting in large numbers of older are basic human needs that are

Or subscribe with a standing order Contact us Subscribe to Solidarity Pay £5 a month to subscribe to solidarity or pay us more to make an ongoing contribution to our work 020 7394 8923 Trial sub (6 issues) £7 o To: ...... (your bank) ...... (address) six months (22 issues) £22 waged o, £11 unwaged o solidarity@ One year (44 issues) £44 waged o, £22 unwaged o Account name ...... (your name) workersliberty.org european rate: 6 months €30 o One year €55 o Account number ...... sort code ...... write to us: The editor Please make payments as follows to the debit of my account: (Cathy nugent), 20e Tower name ...... Payee: Alliance for workers’ Liberty, account no. 20047674 at the Unity Trust Bank, 9 Brindley Place, Birmingham, B1 2HB (60-83-01) workshops, Riley Road, London, Address ...... se1 3DG Amount: £...... solidarity editorial: To be paid on the ...... day of ...... (month) 20.... (year) and thereafter I enclose £ ...... monthly until this order is cancelled by me in writing. simon nelson, Cathy nugent This order cancels any previous orders to the same payee. (editor) , Gemma short, and Cheques (£) to “AwL” or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub Martin Thomas Return to 20e Tower workshops, Riley Road, London, se1 3DG. Date ...... signature ...... Printed by Trinity Mirror