For a workers’ government For social ownership of the banks and industry

No 326 4 June 2014 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org AFTER FAR RIGHT SURGE IN POLLS STAND UP FOR ! DEFEND MIGRANTS FIGHT BOSSES AND BANKERS!

See pages 5-8 2 NEWS

What is the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? Selling out Ukraine? Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to By Martin Thomas another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. dai [see page 9]. Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to increase their According to the Financial A few days before, the wealth. causes poverty, unemployment, the Times (1 June), reporting group which had seized blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the power in Donetsk and the destruction of the environment and much else. on upcoming meetings between Barack Obama group in Lugansk declared Against the accumulated wealth and power of the an intention to unite as capitalists, the working class has one weapon: and David Cameron and Russian leader Vladimir "Novorossiya" (New : solidarity. an old Tsarist term for most The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build Putin, "US officials ac - of southern and eastern solidarity through struggle so that the working class can overthrow knowledge that one of the capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership of crucial next steps is for Ukraine, and a term also industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy much fuller Ukraine to devise a more used by Putin). Poroshenko is making ef - than the present system, with elected representatives recallable at any decentralised constitution forts to regain areas of con - time and an end to bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. that satisfies some of trol in the east, but it looks We fight for the to break with “social partnership” Russia’s concerns. That unlikely that he can do that and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. will ultimately involve Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, without causing bloodshed coming to some sort of supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping on a scale which would give agreement with organise rank-and-file groups. Putin a good pretext for about Ukraine’s future..." We are also active among students and in many campaigns and large areas of the country. May poll invalid. Equally, sending in Russian troops. alliances. The Russian minority in Poroshenko is not a fas - he is not planning to meet Contrary to the story told Ukraine should have minor - cist (the far-right Svoboda Poroshenko when both of by some on , that We stand for: ity rights. That may well movement, presented by them are in France on 6 Putin is merely responding Independent working-class representation in politics. ● mean increased autonomy some as the dominant evil June. It looks as if he will defensively to US and EU A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour ● for the areas in eastern genius in Kiev since the talk with the US and EU aggression, the drift now is movement. Ukraine where the Russian flight in February of the powers, and try to get them towards the US and EU act - A workers’ charter of rights — to organise, to strike, to ● pro-Russian president to lever Ukraine into accept - ing as agents to secure picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. minority is large. The hitch Yanukovych, got 1.2% in ing Russian demands in re - Putin's wishes in Ukraine in Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education is that the US officials want ● the poll). But he is an oli - turn for Putin winding return for pacifying the cri - and jobs for all. to placate not the Russian garch and a neo-liberal. down the coups in eastern sis. A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full minority, but the Moscow Socialists should obvi - ● As yet the Ukrainian left Ukraine. equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden government. ously not wish for the US is not strong enough to In Donetsk on 29 May, a of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, On 25 May Petro or the EU to go to war unite workers across paramilitary group, the bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity Poroshenko was elected over Ukraine, even apart Ukraine, east and west, in a Vostok Battalion, reported against racism. president of Ukraine, with from the fact that they are battle for jobs and against to include many Russian-or - Open borders. 55% of the vote. The run - not likely to. But we ● the corruption and profi - ganised Chechens and Os - Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have ner-up, Yulia Tymoshenko, should support the ● teering of the oligarchs setians, ousted the previous more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist got 13%. The turnout was Ukrainian people's right which blights them all. pro-Russian ruling group rulers. 60%, not bad when pro- to national self-determi - Putin, keeping his options there, and installed a new Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or Russian militias systemati - nation. ● open, did not declare the 25 one, led by Alexander Boro - community to global social organisation. cally prevented voting in ● Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. Military tighten grip in Thailand ● Maximum in action, and openness in debate. ● If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! By Rosalind Robson also know as “yellow his supporters in rural and Contact us: On 22 May Thailand’s mil - shirts” — said the govern - Northern Thailand gaining itary declared martial law. ment was corrupt. They the upper hand. They also ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] 24 May they took power represent a section of the oppose policies that have The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley in a coup. Thai bourgeoisie, with brought in greater access to Road, London, SE1 3DG. backers in the military, and healthcare for the rural ● Printed by Trinity Mirror They have suspended the their goal has been for the poor and have improved constitution, banned military to “step into” a sit - the living standards for demonstrations and de - uation of political chaos. many of Thailand’s poor - An election called in Feb - A revised and 50%- tained politicians including est. Pro-Thaksin parties ruary this year was never expanded edition of the Get Solidarity every week! Yingluck Shinawatra who, have won every election until very recently, was completed because contests 2012 booklet Antonio since 2001. ● Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o prime minister. The head of where voting had been dis - Gramsci: working-class ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged o the military, General rupted had to be restaged. The military could meet revolutionary, summarising £9 unwaged Prayuth Chan-ocha, has ap - The coup is somewhat of opposition from the “ Gramsci’s life and thought . o shirts”. There could even The new edition is 50% 44 issues (year). £35 waged pointed himself the new a re-run of 2006, when the ● o prime minister. army acted to replace the be civil war. The immediate enlarged, with a “Gramsci £17 unwaged o The coup follows a court previous administration of crackdown looks severe, glossary”, critically ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o ruling early this month re - Thaksin Shinawatra. with arrests of political reviewing concepts and terms from Gramsci now or 50 euros (44 issues) moving Shinawatra from Yingluck Shinawatra is leaders, a curfew, and a o her position as prime min - Thaksin’s sister, and her media black out. Political widely used or misused in Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: ister on the grounds that party, the Pheu Thai Party, meetings have been political discourse. 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG she had acted illegally by is seen as a successor to her banned, social media have It also engages in debate Cheques (£) to “AWL”. moving her national secu - brother’s Thai Rack Thai been restricted, and jour - with, Peter Thomas’s big rity chief to another posi - party. Pro-government nalists have been banned study, The Gramscian Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. Moment ; disputes the “post- tion. supporters are known as from interviewing academ - Marxist” readings of For many months now “red shirts”. They have a ics with a critical stance to - Name ...... Gramsci; discusses the Thailand’s two main politi - support base among the wards the government. cal parties have been at mostly rural poor, but also The army’s promises to relation between Gramsci’s Address ...... war. represent bourgeois inter - implement political re - ideas and Trotsky’s. There have been anti- ests. forms are false. Even if ...... government protests and The bourgeois forces be - they were not, such re - Price £6, or £7.60 including I enclose £ ...... counter-protests. The anti- hind the “yellow shirts” forms would be under - postage. government force — the wanted to stop the possibil - taken in the worst of Buy online at bulk of whom are Demo - ity of Thaksin Shinawatra circumstances. workersliberty.org/gramsci-2nd cratic Party supporters, returning to Thailand and 3 NEWS English literature Gove-style One

By Patrick Yarker tails of the set texts students tion. million In a document made must study under the new Wariness about Govian available in November last framework. Some long-es - exam-reform is sensible. year, set tablished texts have been Gove has a reactionary view out on out his policy towards the dropped, in accordance of what teaching and learn - new English Literature with Gove’s view that at ing should be, and a GCSE, an exam he in - least in its modern form it is dogged determination to tends to be taught from only acceptable to study change the prevailing mind - 10 September 2015. This is prose fiction written both in set of the profession, which what the policy document English and within the he regards as pervaded by says: British Isles. “progressive” ideas. His de - This is a shift from the cision to do away with any July? This document sets out the previous position, which al - coursework element in the full range of content for GCSE lowed prose-fiction written English Literature exam, By Darren Bedford specifications in English litera - in English, but from (poten - and to prevent students ture. Awarding organisations tially) anywhere. Prose texts from having access in the Over one million work - may, however, use any flexibil - from the USA or Australia, exam to the texts they have ers could join a strike ity to increase depth, breadth for example, have routinely studied, is likely to see stu - on 10 July against the or context within the specified been set for study in the dents rehearse stock re - public sector pay topics or to consolidate teach - past, and some boards will enable students to read on schools by the wider ac - sponses and memorise only freeze. ing of the subject content. specifically include a choice a wider range of texts than countability and performa - an all-purpose set of quota - In addition to the content in of texts in English from has previously been the tivity regimes in operation, tions to deploy in any an - case. We shall see. His new most notably the pressure A set-piece confronta - the “Detailed study”, the ex - “different cultures and tra - swer. Such strictures tion between public sector amination must include ques - ditions”. framework requires the to ensure students secure a prevent students from exam contain questions on grade in line with imposed trade unions and the gov - tions on texts that students The loss under the new demonstrating informed, ernment could help have not read previously (“un - rules of John Steinbeck’s “unseen” texts (albeit such floor-targets, will have an responsive and authenti - texts must still meet Gove’s impact. reignite wider resistance seen” texts). Depression-era novella Of cally-personal rejoinders to to the Coalition, and gal - Students should study a Mice And Men helped spark parameters). This is a way There is an established questions, and from explor - to steer teachers towards body of evidence to show vanise workers’ confi - range of high quality, intellec - a furore in the media. This ing ideas during an exam in dence. tually challenging, and sub - text, reportedly a pet dislike engaging students with a that the backwash effect of close and detailed engage - choice of texts in addition to any high-stakes exam gen - The PCS civil service stantial whole texts in detail. of Gove’s, has been widely ment with the text. union looks like joining These must include: at least used in schools for decades. those named by the exam- erates intense teaching-to- Gove’s new policy raises board. the-test. Such teaching the 10 July strike (More: one play by Shakespeare; at Hostility directed at Gove again the issue of who page 11). least one 19th century novel; a seems to have stemmed tends to limit what pupils should decide the parame - TEACHERS are offered since teachers The National Union of selection of poetry since 1789, from confusion about what It is important not to dis - ters, if not the specific con - Teachers already has a including representative Ro - exactly has happened. opt to focus (perhaps exclu - tent, of what children learn? miss the extent to which sively) on what will be legal ballot mandate and mantic poetry; fiction or Gove did not ban any teachers can still, despite This issue is bound up with says it will join a 10 July drama from the British Isles named book, for he is not tested. arguments about the Na - Gove, decide the overall There is some counter-ev - strike. The Fire Brigades from 1914 onwards. directly responsible for the shape of the English Liter - tional Curriculum (NC), Union is another possible All works should have been specific detail of the exam. idence (notably via the from which, under Gove’s ature course, and choose Cambridge Primary Review participant. originally written in English. But his new framework has what their students study. destructive regime, increas - The date 10 July origi - To broaden their knowledge re-drawn the parameters in relation to KS2 SATs) ing numbers of English that a broader and richer nates with the Unison in of literature, and enhance their within which exam boards In a two-year course, it schools can opt out. local government. Their critical and comparative un - can operate, and this has would seem possible that curriculum-offer raises at - In such circumstances, tainment for all. But to ex - ballot started on 23 May derstanding, students should meant a change to the texts teachers will have some what is left of the argument and closes on 23 June. read widely within the range available. space to introduce texts (or pect secondary schools for common entitlement suddenly to let a thousand Unite and GMB in local above to prepare them for “un - Exam boards are regu - parts of texts) which they which underpinned broad government and schools seen” texts in the examination. lated by a body, Ofqual, think best suit the needs flowers bloom in the Eng - acceptance of the NC as lish classroom is naive. A are balloting in June. DfE 11 November 2013 (re - which is legally required to and interests of their stu - oriIgni nreallalyti oinnt rtood Euncegdli? sh Unite did a consultative vised from July 2013, after “have regard to such as - dents, regardless of the new crucial factor will be whether or not the revised Literature, what texts ballot of members in the consultation) pects of government policy parameters. ought students to be able NHS, but looks unlikely Exam boards (“awarding as the Secretary of State Equally, the room for ma - English Literature course figures as one of the sub - to meet, who should de - to do a full ballot in June, organisations”) have re - may direct”. noeuvre shouldn’t be exag - cide, and how? as does Unison in the cently begun to release de - Gove claims his reforms gerated. Constraints placed jects used to determine a school’s League Table posi - NHS. The strike should not be allowed to become a one- day-only exercise in let - Tenant evictions reaches record high tinWg eo fmf sutesat mst. rive to make it the start of an ongoing programme of By Tom Harris escalating strikes and those with a spare bedroom in moving people into sudden loss of income can farce and futility surrounds other action. The number of tenants is also responsible. smaller homes and freeing abruptly dump people into Britain’s increasingly acute being evicted has reached Some Labour councils up large homes for larger rent trouble. housing crisis. its highest level for over a have attempted to soften its families. The fact that the large ma - Demonising and perse - decade. impact by implementing it On the whole, those af - jority of repossessions were cuting tenants is of no bene - leniently, or promising to fected by the tax have made by landlords of social fit to anyone, other than to According to the Ministry circumvent it. Nonetheless, stayed put, but with less housing is particularly rip-off landlords and Tory of Justice, between January many people who are un - money to survive on. striking. ministers who want to slash and March this year, land - able to find new housing Pressure is also being ap - In a report by the welfare spending. The only lords made 47,220 court have been forced to stay put plied to tenants through the Guardian , lawyer Daniel humane, rational solution to claims to repossess prop - with reduced housing bene - change in Jobseekers’ Al - Fitzpatrick said this was the housing crisis is for erty — and average of over fit, causing them to fall fur - lowance. New powers to down to the shortage of councils to build more de - 500 repossession claims a ther and further behind sanction claimants, as well council housing and the cent, affordable homes and day. with the rent. as stricter requirements for length of the housing lists. to be enabled to take pos - The in evictions And the is signing-on, mean that the Councils were acting “ruth - session of and renovate comes from welfare cuts, ineffective even in its own unemployed face losing lessly” in a bid to force out emSpotcyi aplriosptse ratnieds . the housing shortages and stag - terms. A report from the both their Jobseekers’ and some tenants to clear space labour movement must nant wages. Joseph Rowntree Founda - housing benefit for months for new ones, thus shorten - raise these demand with The Bedroom Tax, which tion reveals that the meas - if they make even a small ing the lists. renewed urgency. docks housing benefit for ure has been unsuccessful administrative error. The A depressing cloud of 84 CFOEMAMTUENRET Anger is not enough Kool-Aid or truth? Since 23 May, debate has raged among economists about an attempt by journalists on the Financial Times to refute the claim by Thomas Piketty, in his the ruling and largely unchallenged ideas of the age. It would best-seller Capital in the 21st Century , that wealth in - be patronising and wrong to think those working-class vot - equality is rising and likely to continue to rise in the Letters ers who voted UKIP were duped into voting for a neo-liberal USA and Europe. anti-migrant party. They must to some degree be convinced Most economists, even quite conservative ones, reckon In the left’s comment on UKIP “surge” there is much by, share and reproduce those ideas. We would also be kidding ourselves if we thought that that Piketty has come best out of the row. about the anger and disenchantment with mainstream There are other elements to the dispute, but the core ar - politics. non-voters shared a form of left wing anti-austerity politics rather then reflecting the balance of ideology amongst those gument is about wealth distribution in Britain, specifi - It is true that there is an understandable revulsion against who do vote. cally, in recent decades. The background is that official the politicians and parties whose policies and ideology ac - We can win these people to independent working class figures for wealth are patchy and inconsistent. celerated the effects of the greatest economic crisis since the politics, but we must face facts squarely. Those who vote Piketty explains that he collated evidence from a num - 1930s. UKIP or are so despairing that they do not vote are much fur - ber of data series, and made adjustments for the differ - Tom Walker talks about that anger in his article for Left ther from socialism then most Labour voters or vot - ences in methods of calculation and to cope with the Unity (leftunity.org/a-party-for-the-pissed-off) ers. problem of discontinuities in data series. Walker sees UKIP’s support as primarily a repository for Anger is not enough to win people to socialism. We must For their central claim against Piketty, FT journalists anger with the mainstream that is channelled against mi - consciously build a socialist mass movement, a socialist Chris Giles and Ferdinando Giugliano rely on a single data series from the Office of National Statistics. In a re - grants, minorities and Europe by UKIP. He argues that a prTesos ,d ao s tyhsitse mth eo ff isgohctia tlois t readnuscfaotrimon t. he existing organisa - sponse to Piketty (28 May), Giles says that he made his strong “populist” party of the left could channel that anger to tions of the working class, the unions, is key. It will also criticisms because he was puzzled by the ONS figures not progressive ends. require a fight in the political organisation most left-wing matching Piketty's, and then "dug deeper". Other left commentators have argued a similar thing about workers still look to, the Labour Party. the nearly two thirds of voters who abstained in the election. His own Twitter feed gives a different picture. On 16 That many of them could be won over by a convincing left Dave Kirk May, the day after the latest ONS figures were published, party, if it existed. and without "digging deeper", Giles was denouncing I think this is dangerous wishful thinking that ignores ide - Piketty's argument as "coolaid". ology. Neo-liberal, pro-austerity and anti-migrant ideas are The reference is to the mass suicide of the Jim Jones re - Traditional values ligious cult in 1978, when cult members consumed poi - Like millions of British television viewers, I have had soned swigs of a branded fruit drink, Kool-Aid. many weekday evenings ruined by Kirstie Allsopp, self- "You need to think before you drink the Piketty coolaid satisfied co-presenter of the achingly tedious property on rising wealth inequality", tweeted Giles, implying (be - programme “Location, Location, Location”. fore any deep digging) that Piketty's message was so aberrant as to bring brain death. Allsopp has recently taken to the Telegraph to advise young "Not quite a refutation", Giles also tweeted, "but short- women on how to plan their careers. She advises women term trends contradict Piketty's predictions of rising against going to university as a waste of valuable time — wealth inequality". He cited figures which (even apart they should instead go to work straight after school, meaning from their unreliability, which Piketty discusses in his they can meet a “nice boyfriend” and “have a baby by the book) were really no more than a snapshot, not of compa - time you’re 27.” rable weight to Piketty's large documentation of longer- Far be it from me to suggest that Allsopp’s Victorian per - term trends across many countries. spectives on the value of education and independence for Even the ONS figures showed a sizeable rise in inequal - women might be a touch skewed by her position as the ity of financial wealth (the main form of wealth for the daughter of a millionaire baron, the beneficiary of a public veGryil erisc hm) iany thae vpee rdiodn eco uvse rae ds,e 2r0v0ic6e-2 b01y2 g. etting more school education and a close confidante of the Tory leader - UKIP voters and non-voters will not be won over by pretending people to read Piketty's book. ship. they are just “pissed off” Louisa May, south London • Review: bit.ly/pikty Working-class history at Ideas for Freedom

The AWL believes that socialist organisations must be the “memory of the working class”. A big part of our job is to From the Ruby Kid’s talk on the History of Revolutionary Jews preserve, rediscover, discuss and spread the lessons and inspiration of past struggles, victorious and defeated. The unions that Jewish workers in London formed were But they date only to 1905. Our annual event, Ideas for Freedom (3-6 July), will include often unstable, due to the extent of piecework and the Immigration controls are a modern phenomenon, and precariousness conditions of employment for many. many discussions on working-class history, with a focus on the work that Eleanor Marx, Rudolf Rocker, and others did — fighting the First World War and the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike. But the broad Jewish labour movement was a real move - against racism, IFF will open on the evening of Thursday 3 July with a Rad- ment that mobilised thousands of workers. and for solidarity ical Walking Tour of East London, looking at how working- In 1900 there were around 135,000 Jews in London, a fig - between migrant class, socialist and women’s liberation activists organised in ure that had trebled over the previous two decades. In re - and indigenous the East End in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. sponse, the British government introduced the 1905 Aliens worker — is very Our Friday night meeting on “One hundred years of Act, the first ever “modern” immigration control in British much necessary women’s struggles, 1914-2014” will include speakers on the history. today, particu - Much of the agitation of Jewish revolutionaries concerned women’s movement during the First World War and larly in the con - opposition to immigration controls, and agitation within the women’s role in the Miners’ Strike, as well as the 1976-8 Grun- text of renewed indigenous labour movements to see migrant Jewish work - racist agitation wick workers’ struggle. ers as class brothers and sisters rather than hostile aliens. On Saturday 5 July, we will discuss “How world war be- from the right- There are myriad parallels with contemporary politics. Im - wing media. came world revolution”, the “Shop Stewards’ movement and migration controls are seen as something fixed, and politics workers’ struggles during the war”, and “How could the min- which advocate their abolition are seen as wildly fantastical. ersS heasvseio wnso no?n” 6 July will include the “Miners’ strike and liberation politics”, with a speaker from Lesbians and Ideas for Freedom 2014 : Their and Ours will take place at University of London Union, Gays Support the Miners, and the “Miners’ Strike and the Malet Street, WC1E 7HY. state”, as well a history of migration and migrants’ strug- Free creche and accommodation (get in touch to book) and cheap food. For more information or to book online: gles in Britain and a look back at the history of Revolu- www.workersliberty.org/ideas or email [email protected] or ring 07796 690 874 tionary Jews and its lessons for radical politics today. 95 WHATF EWAET USARYE Stand up for socialism!

Hard-right and far-right parties surged forward in sev - eral countries in May’s Euro-elections. Soon after the Euro-poll France’s Socialist Party govern - ment evicted a migrant camp at Calais, and a group of France’s Front National, Britain’s “zombie-Thatcherite” Labour MPs (some with left-wing backgrounds) called for a anti-immigrant Ukip, and the Ukip-like Danish People’s harsher anti-migrant line from . Such anti-mi - Party, all topped the polls in their countries. grant gestures will feed, not deflect, the desire of far-right That does not mean that things are hopeless for those who voters for “something to be done”. value democracy, equality, and liberty. It is a loud alarm call There remains time and political space for the left to regain for the left. the initiative, if only we have the energy and confidence to do Since the 2004 Euro-election, the last one before the world so. economic crisis broke in 2008, the parties of mainstream neo- The political implications of the economic crisis have not liberal orthodoxy have sunk from 75.6% of the vote across yet played out. Nor even has the crisis itself. It is usual in his - Europe to 62.4%. Most of the drop came between the 2009 tory for the political implications of an economic crisis to de - election (which came just after the financial crisis of 2008 had velop with large delays and through twists and turns. segued into debt crisis for several European states) and 2014. In the same period as the electoral surge of the far right has triumphed in Greece. In Spain, Izquierda Unida developed, the Occupy movement “against the one per cent” went up from 3.7% to 10%, and the new Podemos movement won sympathy from many millions. At the same time as the got 8%. In Ireland, Sinn Fein, which would predominantly right’s triumph in May, Thomas Piketty’s 600-plus-page have attracted a leftish vote, went up from 11.2% to 19.5%. tirade against spiralling inequality and plea for a drastic But the hard right gained most. global wealth tax became a best-seller. Broadly speaking, the right-wing nationalists gained most But the left has been unable to organise adequately. The in the richer countries, less hard-hit by the economic crisis, revolutionary socialist left in France is probably the strongest and the left-wing or leftish parties gained most in the poorer in Europe, and has sustained a more consistent profile than and harder-hit countries. the revolutionary socialist left in Britain. In Portugal, the lost ground, and in Italy a coali - Yet it slumped from 6.1% of the vote in the 2009 Euro-elec - tion of groups to the left of the Democratic Party got fewer tion to only 1.6% this May. One of the major organisations of votes than the total of its components in 2009. But the gain - the French revolutionary socialist left, Lutte Ouvriere, has re - ers in those hard-hit countries were not the far right. The So - treated into appealing to voters to support it “in order to re - cialist Party (similar to Labour) and a gained in connect with revolutionary communist traditions”. The Portugal, and the Democratic Party in Italy. Far right parties promise little except penalising immigrants other, the NPA, failed to educate and tighten up after being Why has the hard right scooped so much of the discontent? formed by a self-expansion of the old LCR in 2009. Large Because the “official” left — the Labour Party leaders in chunks of its activists have split away to join the Front de Britain, the Socialist Party which runs Francois Hollande’s But the far-right voters listen to the noise about restoring Gauche, an alliance around the . administration in France, and the others — is wretched. national identity and national culture and “taking control of The FG itself stagnated, getting a little over 6% as it did in Because too many people of left-wing sympathies have our own borders”, and think that in that direction at least 2009. been cowed by the aggressive power of global capital, and “something will be done”. fear to campaign boldly for their ideas in public. SHORT-SIGHTED The Front National in France has a clear fascist lineage, and In Britain, the short-sighted search for “broadness” and Because the left-wing oppositionists who still exist within many hardened fascist cadres, though it has softened its the “official” left parties have been too weak and timid. gimmickry which drove the NPA splits has affected much image in recent years. Ukip and the DPP are more orthodox of the left. GRAND hard-right nationalist parties. Because the activist left has not found a way to cohere A fascist seizure of power, as in the 1930s, would mean the There was the Respect fiasco. Then the Socialist Party the tens of thousands of the left-minded into a political crushing of the labour movement and the suppression of free scrapped its independent political presence in favour of a force which offers a grand narrative to broader millions. speech and debate. limited anti-cuts platform (TUSC). This May TUSC, standing That is not just round the corner. None of the far-right par - in the council elections, was tainted by its association with Too often our activists are submerged in detailed campaign ties, except on a small scale Golden Dawn in Greece and No2EU’s candidacy in the Euro-poll. or trade-union work. Too often our public profile is medi - maybe Jobbik in Hungary, has the militant street-fighting No2EU was theoretically distinct from TUSC, but in fact ated through catchpenny campaigns and “fronts”. Too often base that the fascists of the 1920s and 30s had. the same people, the SP and leaders of the RMT union, just we opt for bland and limited messages for fear that more rad - And there are no irresistible demographic trends pro - wearing a different hat. For immediate anti-cuts resistance, ical ideas will isolate us. Too often all the socialist groups roll pelling the far right. they offered TUSC; if you wanted general political answers along in parallel, each with its favoured set of little schemes Where social destruction is worse, in Greece and else - or broad political philosophy, they offered No2EU. and tactics, without discussing and arguing with each other, where, the sour scapegoating of the far right had less grip in No2EU got only a joke-candidate score of 0.2%, one-fifth and without uniting in the large areas where we agree. the May polls, and people were driven more to look for real of the already-poor 1% it got in 2009. The discontented, looking for a grand narrative, hear a se - solutions which involve combatting capitalism. Left Unity, which in 2013 claimed it could catapult the left ductive scapegoating story from the right which appeals to With Ukip we also see a common pattern for far-right par - to fortune through clever soft-soaping able to win electoral basic feelings of identity and territory. ties: its supporters are disproportionately male, elderly, little- support from many people who would be “put off” by talk of The right proposes to blame and exclude worse-off, inse - educated, and they live outside big cities and the main areas socialism or working-class interests, did nothing in the Euro- cure people who have no entrenched power. To soured and of migrant population. elections. It stood just 12 candidates in the council elections, demoralised people, that sounds like an easier way of “doing It does not follow that the far-right parties are sure to de - seven of them in Wigan, and none got good votes. something” than battle against global capital. cline as the elderly fade, education levels rise, and more peo - We start on the back foot. We also start in a situation where In the 1930s, fascist parties used much social demagogy. ple live in cosmopolitan big cities. Far-right parties can tens of thousands of people, currently politically inactive or The Nazis in Germany, for example, after stating their na - extend their support beyond an initial base much faster than only minimally active, are responsive to the vision they see in tionalist and anti-Jewish aims, called for full employment, demography marginalises that base. movements like Occupy or books like Piketty’s. “abolition of unearned incomes”, “breaking of debt-slavery”, The Front National in France has been building its base, All precedent tells us that the drastic squeeze on wages “confiscation of all war profits”, extensive nationalisations, with ups and downs but an overall upward trend, for over 30 since 2008 will, some time soon, generate a backlash and an division of profits, and “expansion of old age welfare”. years now since it first made its electoral breakthrough, in explosion of wage struggles. Those wage struggles will not Ukip, by contrast, offered no social demagogy. Only now 1983. Its electorate is now younger than the average, and al - automatically push people to the left, but they will reinstate is Nigel Farage scrambling to collate a little. The Front Na - most gender-equal. solidarity as an option. tional offered relatively little. This or that right-wing group may rise or fall. This year the Workers’ Liberty and Solidarity will do three things. We These far-right parties promise not to solve social ills, or Lega Nord, the main hard-right party, went down from 10% will step up our agitation for social ownership of productive even to challenge the EU’s neo-liberal policies, but only to to 6%. In Britain, the BNP lost the two Euro-seats it won in wealth and for a workers’ government, and resist the pres - penalise immigrants. 2009, and is marginalised. sure on us to scale down to exclusive focus on more “realis - Few Ukip, FN, or DPP voters can really think that batten - But without active and adequate intervention by the left, tic” demands. ing down the borders is a “practical” solution. the far right can continue to advance overall. And advances We will get ourselves out on the streets and doorsteps Migrant workers contribute disproportionately to the pub - by a more “moderate” far right can provide a strong base for more, and resist also pressure to “hide” in small-scale polit - lic services and housing construction which xenophobic later advances by outright and militant fascist forces. (The icaWl aen wd itlrl aadpep-uronaiocnh btuhesy r-ewsotr okf. the left with a demand myth portrays as “overstretched” by migrants. Areas with Nazis in Germany in the 1930s built on previous advances for discussions about unity in action — unity in piece - fewer migrant workers generally have lower wages than by the more mainstream conservative, nationalist, and anti- meal campaigns, and also in joint activity to assert the those with many. Migrant workers are an enlivening part of semitic DNVP). basic ideas of socialism. the potential for a working-class fightback against the bosses The mainstream parties are responding to the surge of the and bankers. nationalist right by anti-immigrant gestures. 86-7 FEATURE 300 at global link-up

By Vicki Morris nary — discussing the way forward for LabourStart — speakers emphasised the potential for the labour movement LabourStart’s “Global Solidarity Conference” in Berlin in the region to fight the slide into nationalism and war on 23-25 May 2014 was its fourth major gathering and, among Ukrainians and Russians, partly through emphasis - with more than 300 participants, its biggest. ing social demands against the ruling classes on both sides. The conference was hosted by the German trade union We were urged to follow the LabourStart website for ver.di, and comprised nearly three days of plenaries and news from Ukraine and give as much solidarity as we workshops covered a range of themes. could. A substantial chunk of the conference examined “Digital Other highlights of the conference included a demonstra - communications” — how unions can use electronic media tion supporting workers from the supermarket chain Edeka to build themselves and their campaigns: LabourStart’s rai - who are fighting for union rights along this multinational’s son d’être! global supply chain, including in Brazil and Germany; and In an introductory session, Derek Blackadder, who works a multilingual singing of the socialist anthem “The Interna - for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, described the tionale” at the end of the conference. work and structure of LabourStart as a network of more or The venue for the next LabourStart conference is in dis - less prolific correspondents who only have to accept cussion. (LabourStart’s founding editor Eric Lee expressed LabourStart’s founding principle: unions are good. There his wish that one day the conference could be hosted jointly is an infinitesimally small amount of editorial interference in Jerusalem and Ramallah — sadly, a long way off.) in who posts and what they post. It is clear that LabourStart has a productive future though Workshops included: its shape is still evolving. It was initially set up to promote On Wednesday 28 May French police began dismantling and bulldozin • “Fair play? Working conditions at mega-sports events” the use of social media by trade unions through demon - just days after the anti-immigrant, far-right Front National topped the FN won 34 per cent. discussed using the interest in conditions for workers in the strating a variety of means: • its news website; The action, ordered by the prefect for the region, was justified by an run-up to events such as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as a fled conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan as well as poverty will go now, is n • an experimental trade unionists’ social networking site; way to boost longer-term union organising in those coun - Migrants coming to Calais are hoping to cross the Channel and will tries — no small task! • online solidarity email campaigns run jointly with na - impossible to treat the scabies. Many will try to resettle in the area bu • “Union strategies toward migrants” was a fascinating tional and international trade union bodies. In the meantime a large group has occupied the food distribution ce workshop which included migrant cleaner Henry Lopez What LabourStart clearly has become and hopefully will Migrant solidarity groups have called for equipment to be donated i describing the UK-based IWGB’s “3 Cosas” campaign. develop further as is a vital tool for building solidarity be - • For how to donate: https://www.facebook.com/events/70265394978 • Another workshop described campaigning for the re - tween workers around the world. • http://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com lease of jailed Iranian trade unionists, including Shahrokh In one important speech, Kıvanç Eliaçık of the Turkish Zamani. union federation DISK, speaking on the Soma mining dis - There was controversy in some workshops. In “Workers’ aster, found a moving way to express the need for this rights and labour organisations in Eastern Europe and post- global solidarity: “There are some words that all workers How to defeat th Soviet countries” a row broke out over the attitude to take know, whatever language they speak: Soma, Rana Plaza, to events in Ukraine. The Ukrainian participants, who were, Qatar...” We need solidarity in order to end the class rela - in the main and broadly speaking, “third campists”, were tioTnhse th Aatl llieaandc eto fdoirs aWsteorrsk leikrse ’t hLeisbee. rty was well repre - told by some German and Russian participants that the sented at the conference and we sold a good range of Article [abridged] from the website of the French group “Le country was run by fascists. our publications. Militant”: bit.ly/fn-lemil A Canadian participant who lives in Ukraine pointed out Bit by bit, while the majority of the working class, both the in reply that in that day’s presidential elections, the far-right Svoboda and the “right sector” were likely to get 2-3% of • LabourStart: http://www.labourstart.org/ young and the old people among the traditional “people of the vote, significantly less than the expected vote of fascists the left”, increasingly refuse to vote, the FN has made in - roads among new layers of workers and the worse-off. In in many countries in the EU on the same the first place it gains from the crisis of the UMP [the main - stream right-wing party]. day’s elections to the European par - The FN’s political machine is the heir of the [World War 2] col - liament. laborators and the OAS [far-right terrorists who resisted Alger - One participant ian independence], but labelling its actual or potential voters questioned why “fascists “ or “Nazis” or “dickheads” just helps the FN. some people are The current strategy of Marine Le Pen is not at all today to ready to accuse build a French version of the [Nazis’] storm troopers)... She rides Ukrainians of “fas - the tide from election to election, helped also by “anti-fascist” je - cism” while at the remiads, and the FN is now hailed by the media as the “first same time support - party of France”, although her actual vote was lower than her ing the actions of father got on 21 April 2002 [in the first round of that year’s pres - the Putin govern - idential election]. ment. The real earthquake in France is not the FN’s Euro-election Despite the very score as such. It is the crisis of the regime that the election reveals heated and emo - and promotes. That crisis has two centres... tional debate it re - • What one commentator has called the “decline of the Presi - mained — by and dent” large — comradely, • And the crisis of the UMP [damaged by repeated internal as a speaker from rows and scandals]. the IUF union feder - When he responded to the local government election results ation confirmed in [in March, when the SP and its allies lost 160 large local govern - the closing plenary. ment districts, and the FN gained eight] by promising a “fight - Sharp debates are ing government”, against his own social base, [president] necessary for the François Hollande doubtless hoped for something of a “Valls ef - workers’ movement fect” such as polls on the popularity and image of the Prime Min - to develop. Photo: Matt Heaney ister seemed to indicate. [Hollande sacked the prime minister In the closing ple - and replaced him by Manuel Valls, former interior minister, well-known as anti-immigrant, and relatively well rated in opin - 9 FEEAUTRUORPE E Italy: Renzi triumphs

By Hugh Edwards complicity by the unions in the face of successive gover - ments . The Euro-election result in Italy was different from any - The unions have signed a “patriotic pact” with the employ - where else in Europe. The governing party, the Demo - ers (Confindustria), signalling to the Democratic Party that cratic Party (product of a merger of most of what was they will do little or nothing to rock the boat. left of the old Communist Party with sections of the old Now the confident Renzi has branded the union leaders as Christian Democrats), increased its support and got 41% conservative reactionaries, out of touch with their members of the vote. and with the demands of a new economy and a new epoch. Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement got much less than it The unions remain terrified of initiating any resistance to expected: 21%. The old right-wing ruling party, Silvio Berlus - Renzi’s policies. Their silence renders them accomplices to coni’s Forza Italia, was down to 17%. The hard-right Lega Renzi’s cynical seductive lies and promises to an ever more Nord was down to 6%, and the left-wing “Other Europe” desperate and divided working class movement. slate got 4%. After six or seven years of the most grave political insta - The victory of Matteo Renzi, leader of the Democratic Party bility for decades, Italy’s ruling class has been able to trans - and prime minister since February 2014, has been hailed by form its crisis of consent. That opens the door for their the media as a model of how bourgeois governability can de - long-term plans for arresting the historical and structural de - fend itself against the barbarian hordes of populism. In fact cline of capitalist Italy to take a significant step forward. it is the very opposite. Renzi-ism represents a cold, deliber - The only genuinely left force in the elections was the ately calculated, and cynical exercise of typical populism. “Other Europe” slate, billed as supporters of the Syriza Despite the predictions of disaster from other party lead - leader ’s candidacy for president of the Euro - ng three campsites housing up to 800 migrants in Calais. This came ers, industry, and bankers, he announced a” permanent” pean Commission. It comprised Nicky Vendola’s SEL, the poll in European elections and in a district, Pas-de-Calais, where the bonus of 80 euros a month for millions of workers - repeating Federation of the left headed by Communist Refoundation, the gesture and extending it to millions more lower-paid and and a medley of radical intellectuals. In Emilia and Tuscany n outbreak of scabies in the camps. Where these migrants, who have precarious workers when a Grillo victory seemed possible in it polled 8 or 9 %, a very positive performance. not our concern, say the authorities. the elections. Tsipras’s appearance in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore saw a risk their lives to do so. The dismantling of the camp will make it large turnout, as did his speeches in Turin and Milan. Regret - ut a likely to be harassed for some time. The audacious gamble has paid off. It was not a victory for entre. the government, nor for the Democratic Party. It was Renzi’s tably, instead of arguing to build a working-class-led strug - including tents, sleeping bags, blankets and men’s clothes. victory! The Italian bourgeoisie are delighted, believing they gle everywhere across Europe, he resorted to pandering to 81042 can at last see political stability. residual Stalinism. In parliament, within the majority Alfano’s group [former When he invoked the names of former Communist Party Berlusconi followers] is vastly weakened, and that around leaders Berlinguer and Togliatti as models of proletarian pro - Monti [“technocrat” prime minister 2011-13] wiped out. bity, the square erupted in applause, and the leaders of the Within the Democrats Renzi’s opponents have been system - so called Marxist groups regrettably joined in. atically routed. Now the pro Tsipras forces are already splitting. SEL is he FN in France most likely, under weasel phrases, to opt for a “constructive” Millions of workers swallowed the con trick of the 80 euro bonus. That was the result of two decades of impotence and opposition to the government. On the other side Rifon - dazione is angling to ally with Grillo, and supporting his can - didate in the second round of the local administrative vote ion polls]. There has been no such effect: the crisis deepens. Sinn Fein gains in Livorno. In the same period, the Left Front [Front de Gauche, an alliance Grillo has made overtures to Farage and Ukip. That has The European elections in Ireland saw Sinn Fein top opened a chasm of dissent in his movement, with such of the French Communist Party (CP), the Parti de Gauche (PG, a the poll in and pick up three seats in people as the famous writer Dario Fo condemning it as splinter from the SP, and some smaller groups] has been weak - the Republic. a capitulation to racism. ened: • Firstly because of the CP’s support for the government of the In the North, it is cementing its position as the leading PCF leadership — the common lists [for the local government party in the nationalist community, putting yet more dis - elections] with [Anne] Hidalgo [successful SP candidate for tance between itself and the beleaguered SDLP,which con - mayor of Paris] in the first round [French elections take place in tinued its downward trend in the polls. two rounds, and it is common for left groups to rally to better- The Unionist Party (UUP) also dipped below its placed left candidates on the second round, but less so to form a 2009 European and 2011 Assembly totals, leaving the Dem - coalition with them for the first round], or the vote for the Peil - ocratic Unionist Party (DUP) as the largest unionist party, lon law [redefining state-school autonomy and state-school despite a strong showing for the hard-line Traditional teachers’ conditions], were not acts of unity, but acts of division Unionist Voice (TUV). of the social movement in favour of the government. In the , Sinn Fein has been the main • And because [PG leader] Jean-Luc Mélenchon and PG, nerv - beneficiary of increasing anti-austerity sentiment, oppor - ously combining verbal batoning on their left and overtures to tunistically positioning itself to the left despite its record of the EELV [], and insulting the Breton proletarians in implementing cuts in the Assembly in Stormont. struggle for their jobs [a movement in Brittany, mainly in Octo - The election in the south was a disaster for the Irish ber and November 2013, combined workers’ protests against job Labour Party, as voters punished it for maintaining a coali - cuts and small bosses’ protests against government plans for an tion with the right-wing party. Labour lost 8.6% “eco-tax”: Mélenchon denounced it outright], have not advo - of its vote from the last European elections, losing its three cated a policy of unity for an alternative majority. They con - MEPs and polling fewer than 7,000 ahead of the Green stantly waver between aggressive verbal denunciation of the Party. “Socialists” and opportunist politicking... Labour’s deputy prime minister, Eamon Gilmore, has If we really want to respond to FN and the right, then we must now resigned, and will most probably be replaced by the take action against the government’s cuts policies. The “antifas - party’s deputy leaders, Joan Burton. cist” jeremiads, which extend to a possible call by the leadership On the left, sitting Socialist Party MEP Paul Murphy of the CGT [biggest trade-union confederation] for a day of ac - scored 8.5% but lost his seat. He wasn’t helped by the SWP- tion on 26 June 26 against ... the result of the Euro-elections, will backed (PBP), who stood against Mur - only widen the communication gap. It is as if they actually want phTyh aen ldo cpaicl keeledc utipo 6n.s8 %w.e re better for the far-left, where to Fthaes cgirsemat eist npoots suibploen n usm, bbeur to pf owvoerrkteyr, sa tnod v loatce kF Nof. a future pacts delivered 14 seats each to PBP and the Socialist for our children, are. The [government’s] “pact of responsi - Party’s Anti-Austerity Alliance (AAA), and a slew of left- bility” is the policy that allows the FN to grow. wing independents. Matteo Renzi

8 FEEUARTOUPRE Greece: after Syriza’s poll victory

By Theodora Polenta Golden Dawn has reached a level of strength that the crim - The slogan “First-time victory for the Left!”, chanted on inalisation and imprisonment of its leadership, the uproar the evening of 25 May, denoted a genuinely unprece - around the revelations of its criminal, murderous activities, dented event: for the first time in 180 years of the exis - and the scandal around the cold blooded murder of Pavlos tence of the Greek state, a leftist party had come out first Fyssas cannot reverse. in nation-wide elections. The first focus should be to rally the anti-fascist movement which today should be able to win the overwhelming major - In the Euro-election, Syriza got 26.6%, and the ruling con - ity everywhere. In Athens the 16.2% of Kasidiaris was alarm - servative New Democracy party 22.8%. The results create a ing. On the other hand, the left in Athens (Syriza, KKE, and new post-election political landscape. In fact the election re - Antarsya) exceeded 30%. sults represents a major policy reversal of quality, substance If that force had been united and had the right program and political orientation. would have inspired a large chunk of the population that ab - Now the call for a united front of the radical left in all areas stained (50%) and would have rallied the immigrants ruled (the trade unions, the neighbourhoods, the councils, the re - out of the electoral process. gions, the parliament) becomes more urgent. That united The biggest responsibility lies within Syriza as the biggest front largely took place, in an unofficial way, in the second party of the left. Syriza’s positions include clear reference to round of the municipal and regional elections (voting on 18 the importance of the fight against neo-fascism. However, in May and 25 May 2014 for 13 regions and 325 municipalities). practice Syriza has not taken the necessary political initia - Syriza and Antarsya both supported the best-placed Left tives and organizational measures for the development of a candidates in the second round of the elections. The KKE massive nationwide anti-fascist movement. [Greek Communist Party] stuck to its self-absorbed sectarian The youth of Syriza has a very serious involvement in the politics and denounced Syriza and all other left candidates, anti-fascist movements and initiatives, and overall Syriza’s but with KKE’s rank and file and supporters refused to fol - rank and file is involved in anti-fascist committees and low the leadership’s line. demonstrations. But it is the duty of the party as a whole to Across Europe, we saw a “two-speed” Left — some groups develop the fight against fascism in a centrally-organised and making gains like Syriza, and some losing ground. The un - planned way, fusing it with the anti-austerity anti-memoran - evenness shows that the European left lags both in develop - dum struggle. ing an overall strategy and in terms of the development and Syriza won 27% For the leadership of the KKE [Communist Party} the an - coordination of a pan European anti austerity working class tifascist movement virtually does not exist, especially when movement. it is not under their control. KKE has made no serious initia - Syriza achieved something that seemed unthinkable four a solution for the working class under capitalism. The left in tive by itself to build the anti-fascist movement, and no at - years ago. (It won just 4.6% of the vote in Greece’s October and outside Syriza should fight for a socialist program that tempt at united action with the rest of the anti-fascist 2009 parliamentary election, and subsequently suffered a will overthrow the rotten capitalist system. movement. split by its right wing, who formed the Democratic Left). A united front of the left, and predominantly of Syriza, The result of KKE (6.1% in the Euro-election, up on its 4.5% However, Syriza did not achieve the second objective sum - KKE and Antarsya, under a socialist program, would directly in the 2012 parliamentary election, though down on its 7.5% marised in its election slogan: “On 25 May we vote, on 26 open the prospect of power for the working class in Greece. in the October 2009 poll and similar results in previous elec - May they are overthrown”. That was the call for the elections One such example would find itself quickly imitated tions) may indicate a degree of survival and stabilisation of to be the great political event — like a great political strike or throughout Europe, making possible the realization of the its influence, but not in any degree a radical change in the a vast radical movement on the streets — that would over - slogan for the United Socialist States of Europe, as the first balance of forces within the Left. KKE’s electoral results were throw the wretched coalition government. big step for the Socialist States of the World. enough to stabilize the position of the new leadership team The results of the European elections and the second round New Democracy and the government suffered a major po - installed in April 2013, but only for a while. of local elections show the shift of a significant part of society litical defeat. New Democracy has lost a large chunk of its A key element of KKE’s political orientation is to pose as to the left, but also the contradictions of the left as to whether voters and is now four points behind Syriza, and Pasok has the “anti-capitalist fortress” against the “onslaught of and how much it can inspire such confidence in the working gone down from 44% of the vote in October 2009 to 8% for Syriza”; which is treated by KKE as the new Pasok. KKE de - class and popular strata as could lead to big changes. the coalition it took part in for these Euro-elections. nounces equally the class enemies of Pasok and ND and the The official slogans of Syriza for the European elections in - But the coalition government is not yet falling apart. Dur - supposed “enemy in disguise” of Syriza. cluded, among other things: ing the next period the government will force through the There is an old saying in the Greek radical student move - • an end to the policy of austerity implementation of more unpopular measures and possibly ment that there is a revolutionary way to talk about your • increasing the EU budget and strengthening the weaker a new memorandum, and simultaneously work towards cre - school library and a counterrevolutionary way to talk about countries ating a “success story” and “primary surplus” narrative on the revolution. The KKE leadership unfortunately confirms • a “New Deal” for Europe with massive public invest - the short legs of a possible anaemic economic semi-recovery. this saying. When KKE chooses to postpone the battle until ment to find new jobs and revive the economy The government will try to implement all its Troika commit - new working class struggles fit in with the party’s require - • a European conference on the debt similar to that of 1953, ments then hold on until the presidential elections in Febru - ments, when everything is confined in the straitjacket of where Germany was relieved of its financial burdens. ary 2015. party patriotism, when it does not actively participate in the The leadership of Syriza also advocates measures to struggle to translate the people’s rage into a positive working strengthen democratic institutions in Europe. GOLDEN DAWN class perspective, then its formally revolutionary-sounding The problem with this program is that it does not corre - The neo-Nazi Golden Dawn scored just under 10% at the political manifesto and analysis are of secondary importance. spond to reality and the current context of national and inter - European elections and got double digit results in most The result for Antarsya [a coalition of radical left groups, national capitalism in crisis, although it is presented by the of the regional and council elections. including SEK, linked to SWP in Britain, and NAR, a left split leadership as a “realistic” program. from KKE] was negative. It got 0.7% in the Euro-elections. Ilias Kasidiaris, on bail from prison and facing charges of The argument that this result was due to being squeezed by Neither in Europe, nor in any other country in the world, leading the training of Nazi paramilitary squads, polled is a comprehensive “Keynesian” public investment program the main parties is inadequate, because despite the political 16.62% in the municipality of Athens. Ilias Panagiotaros polarization over 17 % of voters chose parties that could not like the “New Deal” of the 1930s likely to be implemented. scored 11.13% in the region of Attica. Nor are the strong European capitalists of the North likely to have electoral representation. In the area of Keratsini, and in the neighbourhoods where The ideological and political rearmament of the Left, over - agree to put “their hands deeper into their pockets” to help the anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas lived and was murdered southern Europe. For now there is no force that can convince all, should be at the top of our agenda. Syriza’s problem is by Golden Dawn members in September 2013, Golden Dawn the refusal to adopt a clear socialist program to break with the Germans and the other northern capitalists to give more scored double-digit percentages. money to Greece and Southern Europe for social policies. the status quo. KKE’s and Antarsya’s major issue is their re - Not all Golden Dawn voters should be treated as hard core fusal to form a united front with the rest of the left in order The European conference on the debt for 1953 Germany neo Nazis. Among Golden Dawn voters there are hard core was motivated by the USA’s desire to create a strong capital - to build broad social fronts and movements. supporters of Nazism. But in research suggests that this core There are many thousands of activists inside and outside ist Europe as a counterweight to the USSR. No factor like that does not exceed 2% of voters -the ideological descendants of operates today. the Left parties who understand those deficits. The struggle the Nazi-collaborator “Security Battalions” during the Sec - of all these should be coordinated in order to bring results. On the other hand, it is important to highlight that the ond World War, and those nostalgic for the days of the mili - problem for the workers in Greece is not the EU but the cri - The Left has an obligation to see the issue of cooperation of tary junta in Greece (1967-74) - people who believe that the the Left as a priority. sis of the capitalist system. The euro is not the cause of the cri - Jews are behind everything, that foreigners are taking our Syriza should be pressed to persist on the call of a sis. A return to national currencies under present conditions, jobs and that the junta did the soundest work in construction united front with KKE and Antarsya, aiming at forming a without replacing the foundations of capitalism, would for Greece’s future. government of the left and gaining power. KKE and An - deepen the crisis. It would lead to the collapse of the cur - There is a layer of Golden Dawn voters who think of the tarsya must be pressed to abandon their “isolationism” rency, inflation, and expansion of the debt burden. Golden Dawn vote as an anti-systemic and anti-government and “sectarianism”. Neither with the euro nor with the drachma with there is vote. 9 FEATURE New Donetsk ruler is fascistic By Dale Street “What is happening in the south-east of Ukraine can be In mid-May the previously unheard-of Aleksandr Boro - characterised as a Russian uprising. Russian in the broad dai was declared Prime Minister of the so-called sense of the word — in terms of culture, mentality and civil - “Donetsk People’s Republic”. isation. But I’d also like to point out that ethnic Ukrainians are massively involved in the resistance movement. This This fact alone should disabuse anyone deluded enough to process is not to be stopped.” believe that there is anything “progressive”, “anti-imperial - The Lev Gumilev praised by Borodai was a Russian eth - ist” or “left-wing” about the “Donetsk People’s Republic” nologist and anthropologist (and anti-semite) who theorized and its Lugansk counterpart. that ethnic groups went through a particular life-cycle. Such In 1992 Borodai fought as a volunteer in the war in the pre - groups expanded, through conquest, when their national dominantly ethnic-Russian Transnistrian region when it “passionarity” reached maximum heat. broke away from Moldova. In 1993 he took part in the de - “Passionarity” is stimulated by external, mostly natural, fence of the Russian Parliament after its dissolution by events (such as oscillations in solar radiation levels). Simi - Yeltsin. larly, it is natural events which set cultures apart. Hence, ac - Borodai went on to write for the Russian newspaper Zav - cording to Gumilev, the border between Russia and the West tra — poisonously anti-semitic, full of nostalgia for Stalin, coincides with the negative isotherm for January. rabidly Russian nationalist, and arguably outright fascist. Ac - Gumilev contrasted the “passionarity” of the Russian cording to the newspaper’s owner and editor, Aleksandr “super-ethnos” with “parasite states” which exercise only Prekhanov: “chimera statehood”. Examples of the latter states were “I’ve known him (Borodai) since 1991. In terms of his ide - “I see what is happening as a confirmation that history has America and France, both of which have been created by ology he is a Russian nationalist. He is a supporter of a strong not ended, contrary to the claims of fashionable philosophers. Jews (who, lacking a “passionarity” of their own, are neces - Russian state… He’s always been close to me, and has Today it is happening in front of our eyes. And the most im - sarily parasitic on other peoples’). preached the idea of a Russian national white — not red — portant thing is that it is the history of my native country.” But whereas Gumilev, who died in 1992, thought that the imperial consciousness.” “You are a product of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State life-cycle of the Russian “super-ethnos” had entered into a Apart from turning his hand to running his own PR con - University, the son of a philosopher. You’ll recall Plato’s idea that period of decline (as manifested in the collapse of the Soviet sultancies and working as deputy editor of the magazine philosophers must rule. I know you fought as a volunteer in Union), Borodai believes that the Russian “super-ethnos” re - Russian Businessman , Borodai helped Prekhanov to launch the Transnistria and defended the Russian Parliament in 1993. What tains its vital force of “passionarity”. Djen television channel in 2011. are your opinions?” On 23 May Borodai’s “Donetsk People’s Republic” opened Like Zavtra , the channel’s output consists of anti-semitism, “To put it briefly and simply, I am a Russian patriot. I con - its first foreign “consulate” — on the premises of the Moscow Russian nationalism, conspiracy theories, homophobia, mi - sider that the extent of the Russian world was artificially re - branch of the Eurasian Youth Union (EYU). sogyny, denunciations of the decadence of European civilisa - duced as a result of certain circumstances, and that the The EYU is the youth wing of the Eurasia Party, headed by tion, and, more recently, treatises on the “fiction” of a Russian world was divided by artificially created borders. fascist ideologue Aleksandr Dugin. Like its mentor, the Ukrainian national identity. Those borders divide people of Russian culture ... EYU’s politics are anti-semitic, Russian-imperialist, authori - From the Crimea Borodai moved directly to south-east “Is it true that you were personally acquainted with the philoso - tarian and “Eurasian” (i.e. in favour of the creation of a new Ukraine: “The territory of the Crimea is quite closely con - pher Lev Gumilev (see below). Could one say that his creativity Eurasian Empire, centred on Russia). nected to the Donbass, and naturally the people who set up has influenced your own views?” The consulate is to assist “the cause of re-unifying the ter - these popular movements are the same people, they are con - “Many early but valuable memories link me to this mystic. ritories of historic Russia which were artificially split up in nected to each other. So when I finished in Crimea, I auto - I highly value his contribution to Russian culture and science. 1991” and has already been recognised by a number of Russ - matically came here.” Absolutely, he has influenced me.” ian “patriotic organisations”, including Vladimir Zhiri - More information about Borodai’s politics can be found in “In that case, could what is happening in the Donetsk Republic novsky’s Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR — an interview recently published by Russkaya Vesna , the web - be regarded as an eruption of passionarity (see below) ?” anTohthee nr eRxuts tsiimane- iBmrpiteisrhia lSistta,l sineimstis-f awsacinst ,t eot cs.t, aegtce. paa prrtyo)t.est site of the Donetsk and Lugansk “People’s Republics”: “What’s happening confirms that the Russian cultural ar - about fascism in Ukraine — perhaps they could direct “Aleksandr, how did it come about that it was you who ended up chetype is far from having exhausted his vitality. Just as in their anti-fascist endeavours towards Prime Minister as the head of the republic’s government?” Transnistria, so too in the Donetsk Republic we are con - Borodai and his supporters? Or are they incapable of “Fate decreed it to be so. I cannot answer any differently. I fronted with the process of the self-organisation of the Russ - recognizing fascism when it comes draped in a Russian was prepared to take this responsibility on myself and to take ian world, in response to the uncompromising challenge it tricolour? up this role simply by virtue of my personal characteristics. faces. A visit to Putin’s camp

The Left tively scoffing at any idea that there was an inter-imperialist side, then he knows which side he is on — which can only context to the situation in Ukraine. mean Putin. By Michéal MacEoin In other words she endorsed the mentality which holds Due to the high number of top-table speakers, time for dis - that only the US and its allies can be “imperialist” — an atti - cussion was limited. One contributor spent most of his time Workers’ Liberty members attended the “Solidarity with tude which lets Putin and Russia’s regional capitalist inter - plugging a demo in Bristol and saying how glad we he was the Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine” meeting on 4 ests off the hook. to be in a room full of people he already agreed with. June, organised by the SOAS Marxist Society (Socialist In his opening speech, Richard Brenner raised the presence Most contributions, however, came from Ukrainians in - Appeal). of Svoboda in the government in Kiev. It is right to be wor - volved in London Euromaidan, who were horrified by the On the panel were Russian leftist Boris Kagarlitsky, Sergei ried by the presence of fascists in western Ukraine, and the pro-Russian line of the meeting. All the Ukrainian speakers Kirichuk from the Stalinist via Skype, Richard Bren - rise of right-wing nationalism more generally. were howled down by the audience, which is an indictment ner from Workers’ Power, Lindsey German from Counter - However, there is a double-standard amongst much of the of the degenerate culture of some sections of the left. fire, Andrew Murray from the Communist Party of Britain, left. It denounces the government in Kiev as fascist-shaped, Workers’ Liberty attempted to argue, over the hubbub, that and Alan Woods from Socialist Appeal. It was chaired by but it somehow wishes to explain away or fade out incidents self-determination for Ukraine does not depend on the char - Joy McCready, a member of Left Unity. such as the alleged attacks on the Romani population and the acter of the Ukrainian government. Though we oppose the All the panel, whether so-called “Trotskyist” or die-hard presence of figures such as Pavel Gubarev as “People’s Gov - government in Kiev, we should not whitewash the actions of Stalinists like Murray, shared variations of the same basic po - ernor” of the Donetsk Region, a former member of the neo- the militias and Russian agents in the east. sition: the Ukrainian government is a Western-backed fascist Nazi paramilitary organisation . Russia is a capitalist power with regional imperialist ambi - regime; the coups and seizures of buildings in the east are There were outright denials that Russia was involved in tions in Ukraine, Chechnya and elsewhere, and the proposed “anti-fascist resistance”; the main threat to Ukraine is not eastern Ukraine from Alan Woods and others. Woods at least campaign is hopelessly one-sided and objectively pro-Putin. from Russia, which recently amassed tens of thousands of made reference to the labour movement, but only as a The meeting voted to establish a campaign which hopes to troops on the border, but the ; and the best wooden after-thought. Much of his speech was a bizarre seek support in the labour movement. Any campaign run by thing we can do in Britain is to focus on opposing our own paean to the Soviet Union, and he outdid everyone by saying theInses t“euasde,f uslo icdiiaoltis”t sf osrh Rouuslsdi ac wouonutledr bpeo sae r estoroligdraarditey s wteipth. government. the problem was not that Russia is intervening too much, but Ukrainian leftists and workers, east and west, against There were some differences of nuance. German said she that they’re not intervening at all! the oligarchs, and support for Ukrainian self-determina - supported "Ukrainian self-determination" but her speech was Drawing out the two-camp logic, Woods ended by saying tion against Russia. mostly concerned with denouncing NATO, and pre-emp - that if Angela Merkel and other Western leaders are on one 810 FEATURE Ireland after the civil war

Matt Cooper reviews ‘Jimmy’s Hall’ who leads the local establishment against Gralton and his al - ‘Jimmy’s Hall’ is in many ways the sequel ro director Ken lies. Loach’s (and screen writer Paul Laverty’s) 2006 film ‘The While Gralton is portrayed as a secular saint without fault Wind That Shakes the Barley’. or personal ambition, here making a speech about how the poor must not pay for the financial crisis of 1929 (with the In the previous film Loach depicted the Irish War of Inde - obvious parallel), and there introducing the locals to the so - pendence (1919-21), siding with the losing republicans in the phistication of the world beyond rural Ireland in the form of subsequent civil war (1922-1923). It was a compelling film, New York jazz, it is the priest who has depth as a character. although Loach was criticised in this paper for oversimplify - He is an old man who long ago chose to serve a church ing the politics of the situation and finding no way of marry - rooted in a culture of privilege and inequality, but the ques - ing large scale politics to a more intimate human story. tions that Gralton poses to him are ones that he cannot re - ‘Jimmy’s Hall’ shares its predecessor’s strengths and weak - solve, only attempt to repress and control. In contrast no nesses. complexity is shown in Gralton’s character; when the priest The film, based on real people and events, opens in 1932 challenges him on Stalin’s famines and political persecutions, with the election into government of Éamon de Valera’s Fi - Gralton brushes this aside as something for later. anna Fail, a party rooted in the republican movement van - Loach’s films from ‘Kes’ (1969) onwards, are at their best quished in the civil war but nonetheless becoming an when he tells of people and their struggles, leaving the increasingly conservative force. The new government allows greater political context implicit. The less successful side of the film’s central character, Jimmy Gralton (Barry Ward), a his film-making comes with movement from personal stories veteran of the left-wing of Irish republicanism, to return from The heart of the film is, as ever with Loach, a human story. to the larger political picture. This film is no exception. So in the USA to his home in rural County Leitrim in the north Gralton re-opens the community hall that a rather ill-defined Jimmy’s Hall there is an awkward didactic discussion west of Ireland. group of locals had built ten years early. This is portrayed as amongst the hall’s trustees about whether they should sup - Here, the film is vague on the politics. Gralton’s opponents little more than a community resource, although it is also a refer to him as a communist and copies of Workers’ Voice, the port a campaign against the eviction of a tenant-farming fam - challenge to the Catholic hierarchy which claimed a monop - ily. It is much like the uncomfortable discussion about paper of the Irish Revolutionary Workers’ Group (RWG) oly on the welfare of the citizens. The film is more convinc - (which formed the Irish Communist Party in 1933), are seen, agrarian reform in Loach’s Spanish Civil War film, ‘Land and ing in this latter theme — the icy fingers of the church, acting Freedom ’ (1995). but only in the hands of Gralton’s opponents. Although it in concert with the big landowners, close around the heart of Loach has suggested this may be his last film (he will would appear that the real Gralton was a leading member of the rural poor in Ireland. This conflict is played out between be 78 later this month). This is a moving film, and he will the RWG in Leitrim, the film portrays him as a community Gralton and the local priest, Father Sheridan (Jim Norton) be a much missed voice in British film making. activist with socialist ideas but no political affiliation. Boko Haram and Nigerian capitalism

By Mark Sandell sive oil revenues of Africa’s biggest oil producer remain a Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act into law. Although Boko Haram’s terror campaign hit the world magnet for corruption within the state. Getting elected is the The workers’ movement in Nigeria has a proud history of headlines with its kidnapping of school girls, this group’s way to get your nose in the trough; often it involves ballot uniting across the divisions of region and religion. In 1945 a hatred of education is not new. Earlier this year they at - rigging and getting your ethnic or religious group to vote nation-wide general strike held out for 52 days and won a tacked a boy’s school, killing the children in their beds for you. major victory. The union movement also united in a success - and burning down the school. What conditions have Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan suspended the cen - ful national strike in 1964. In 1994 oil unions united in a strike given rise to the Islamist group? tral bank governor Lamido Sanusi earlier this year in what for democracy and struck again in 2012 against austerity. many saw as revenge. Lamido Sanusi had raised concerns The organised working class has often led other sections Boko Haram is based in the northern Nigerian states of about 10-20 billion dollars going missing from the state- of the population in national mobilisations especially in the Borno, Adamawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Yobe and Kano. They owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Exports of growing cities of the south. But still the ruling class can stoke want to end all secular education, and their name roughly oil and petrol are huge (35% of GDP, 70% of exports), but lit - divisions to stay in power. translates as “Western education is forbidden”. They also tle of the income makes its way to the wider population. Northern states are more rural and poorer than those in the want to impose a stricter sharia law on the people of Nigeria. CIVILIAN RULE south. Agriculture (60% of the economy) has progressed lit - A majority of the nine northern states have introduced sharia The last military junta gave way to civilian rule following tle, but changes have led to greater unemployment in the law, which supports the stoning of women for adultery and a movement for democracy that included oil workers’ northern states. The theft and corruption that has taken most other restrictions on human rights. strikes. of the oil wealth and left little to be used for development has The group’s origins go back to 1990, but its military cam - created a political space for those who hate modernity. The paign against the security forces started in 2009. Since then The leaders of all the oil unions, even those set up by the ruling class in the north has used traditional Islamic struc - thousands have been killed, including the founder, who was government, were locked up. The leading opposition politi - tures to impose sharia law and further oppress women and beaten to death by the police. The group has now retreated cian, M K O Abiola, a southern millionaire who credibly minorities in the north. into isolated rural areas, from which they run a terror cam - claimed he had won the Presidential election in 1993, was ar - Zamfara state in the north was the first to reintroduce paign against civilian targets as well as the security forces. rested and kept in solitary confinement until 1998 when he sharia law. As Lola Shoneyin, a Nigerian novelist and poet, In the year when economists have gushed about the MINT died in suspicious circumstances. wrote in the Guardian “...in Zamfara state, only 5% of the girls economies (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey), it seems In 1999, in a widely criticised election, Olusegun Obasanjo, between five and 16 could read and write. This is the state strange that the north of Nigeria is being thrown into crisis by the former military head of state was elected president. governed for eight years by Ahmed Yerima, a member of the a medievalist religious insurgency. One reason often cited is Obasanjo won in another “unfree and unfair” election in All Nigeria People’s Party, after which he became a senator. the desperate poverty of this part of Nigeria, but this is only 2003. In 2007 Umaru Yar’Adua of the People’s Democratic As a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Yerima re - part of the picture. Party (PDP) won another flawed election. When he died in placed his fourth wife (herself a teenager) with a 13-year-old A rich source of raw materials, the area that is now Nige - 2010, his Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, became Presi - Egyptian child. The ceremony was held at the central mosque ria was exploited by The Royal Niger Company (founded dent. in Abuja attended by several of his senate colleagues.” 1879). After Britain defeated the ancient state of Benin and The sharing of the spoils of the state between the ruling It is not difficult to imagine that those looking for more other states, colonial Nigeria was created under British rule classes of the south and the north has now been formalised in power for the northern religious elite and a more religiously at the end of the nineteenth century. Much of the north had an agreement within the PDP. The “zoning policy” rotates fundamentalist future for Nigeria quietly cheer on or even a long history of caste-based Muslim rule. The south, with a the presidency — eight years to a leader from the south and help Boko Haram. Buba Galadima from Congress for Pro - majority of Christians, had the biggest urban centres. eight years to someone from the north. The British were keen to keep Nigerians divided, especially Umaru Yar’Aaua was a northerner, and the zoning policy gressive Change lost to Goodluck Jonathan in the 2011 elec - as a radical movement for independence grew across Africa. demanded another northern Muslim PDP candidate for Pres - tioWnsit shp paorkliitnicgs r idootsm ainda t1e0d0 bdye atlhl s oinrt Ns orf trhuelring N cilgaesrsia s. ec - The British favoured the Muslim rulers in the north and in ident after he died, but Jonathan is a southerner. tarianism, only the Nigerian working class can provide the run up to independence (1960) lined them up to run the In 2012 Jonathan decided to remove fuel subsidies. After an answer. That must end the mass theft of oil revenues Nigerian state and military. Since independence Nigeria has five days of national protests and strikes, Jonathan an - and the poisonous medieval agenda of Islamic funda - suffered from military rule in 1966-1979 and 1983-1998. nounced that the pump price of petroleum would be 97 naira mentalism in Nigeria. A first step would be to put the oil In Nigeria access to wealth and power is through the state. per litre as against the 147 naira he planned. industry under workers’ control. In the south a capitalist class has developed rapidly. The mas - Jonathan is a homophobe. In January 2014 he signed a 311 REPNOERWTS

Doncaster care workers fight on PCS goes for 10 July

By Max Munday By a PCS activist of strike days and with bribe to get workers to ac - and that a voluntary levy time running out, the com - cept the permanent reduc - Doncaster Care UK The leaders of the civil should be launched to workers struck for 14 mittee want and need a tion of pay. With ongoing help fund it, to date the strike ballot so they can court action to prove the service union PCS have days in May in a fight agreed a consultative Executive has not col - against a 50% cuts in legally take action. Gina company has breached lected one penny in levy. said, “we don’t want a con - TUPE regulations and un - ballot of members for a wages and massive re - 10 July strike over pay That must now be recti - ductions in sick pay. sultative ballot, we should fairly dismissed staff, this fied in difficult circum - go for a straight vote, we may be Care UK’s last ditch alongside other public sector unions. stances but with A strike committee has want to go out again!” attempt to buy workers off determination and speed. now been formed for the 80 Unison is pushing the beTfohree sa tlreikgeal cdoemcismioitnt.ee Activists should now At PCS’s recent annual out of 120 rank-and-file consultative ballot but this believe that they cannot organise to turn out the conference, the leadership Unison members who have would delay action and rely on the law to protect vote for action as the nec - stated that members did refused to accept these con - risk losing at a them; the court case is essary prelude to d eliver - not want yet more one ditions critical moment in the dis - alongside, not instead of, ing an enthusiastic strike day protest strikes and Gina Beaumont, a mem - pute when they need more a militant and democratic on 10 July. that public sector wide ac - ber of the committee, told action to win. campaign. The union already has a tion had to be on the basis Solidarity how the workers support from unions to The mood at the end of legal mandate for strike of a programme of coordi - have learned to run the dis - sustain the strike fund and the strikers’ last two weeks action from the ballot held nated action that is de - pute as they have gone morale. Gina said “the of action was buoyant and • Send donations payable in February-March 2013, signed to win. Activists along; have for example strikers are leading now; fuelled by support from to Doncaster, District and which it has kept live need to need to know made decisions about mo - we’ve taken this in to our meetings they attended as Bassetlaw Health Branch since then. However last what that programme is bilising strikers to demon - own hands!” part of what they have 20511 via the Unison Of - year’s dispute was poorly and what commitments strate at Care UK offices Care UK has told work - dubbed their “UK tour”. fice, Jenkinson House, prepared, lacked any real the various union leaders across the country from ers they must accept the Having withdrawn an White Rose Way, Don - industrial strategy to win, have signed up to. Newcastle to London, new terms and conditions original offer of transitional caster DN4 5GJ along with was characterised by a If the PCS leadership re - while keeping a picket in by 16 June or be sacked. payments, Care UK has messages of support to marked lack of explicit de - peats the mistakes of the Doncaster; about gathering After over a month’s worth come back with a second [email protected] mands, and was waged past — campaigning for by a leadership that does public sector wide strike not really believe PCS can action but failing to de - Rep wins defeat the government on velop its own independ - Tube day of action 13 June its own. ent strategy to win on PCS in court Predictably the dispute issues — it will once again By Ollie Moore place the fate of PCS and opposed to the cuts plan as a whole, and is petered out as the leader - its members in the hands working with HOLT to build public politi - ship consulted branches By Jonny West The Hands Off London Transport of the unreliable leaders cal pressure. about the “next steps” in (HOLT) campaign, a coalition including of other unions. The best The union also plans a labour-movement the campaign in the sum - Mark Harding, a promi - student activists, Disabled People way of building the pres - and community conference on 26 July to mer of 2013. There has nent rep for Tube union Against Cuts, Occupy London, and sure on the likes of the engage with unions, passenger advocacy been no national action or RMT, has faced criminal Tube union RMT, plans a day of action Unison leadership is to groups, community organisations, and national “next step” in charges since February on Friday 13 June to protest against fight with them where others about the future of the Tube. LU the “national” campaign 2014, relating to allega - staff cuts and ticket office closures on possible and be able to bosses have refused to carry out public for a year now. tions about his conduct London Underground. fight without them if nec - consultation over their plans, as they know The Independent Left in on a picket line during the the PCS has been alone in essary. The RMT is still negotiating with LU the closure of ticket offices is deeply un - 4-6 February Tube strikes. its consistent criticism of If the dispute is sold to management over their plans to axe 953 popular. As committed in Mark finally heard his ver - the lack of explicit de - members as a public sec - jobs and close every ticket office on the his election not to close any ticket offices, dict at Hammersmith mands around which tor wide dispute then any network. Strikes in February and April se - LU management and the GLA are politi - Court on 2 June and was members could be mo - collapse in the common cured concessions around station supervi - cally vulnerable on the question. found not guilty. The RMT still has a live ballot and in - bilised and the leadership front — as there was in sion and salaries, with management forced dustrial dispute with LU, and could held to account. the pensions dispute — The pursuit of the case into a guarantee that no worker affected by strike again in the near future. The Executive is only will disorientate and de - against Mark was obviously the changes would be reallocated to a now, rightly, advancing a moralise members. Coor - politically-motivated, and lower-paying grade. But the union remains • rmtlondoncalling.org.uk designed not merely to vic - clear demand for a £1,200 dinated strike action must timise him but undermine or 5% pay increase. It has be presented as one effective picketing. dropped its previous weapon in PCS’ campaign Mark was supported out - Garden Halls workers to strike vague suggestion that the to win on pay in the civil side the court by a large strike is also about “jobs” service and wider public sector. demonstration of activists Members of the Inde - and “pensions”. The PCS leadership from RMT and other pendent Workers of Great and will last around two “summer of disruption” to Activists must ensure should have a plan in unions. Britain (IWGB) at the Uni - years. Current workers will the University’s summer that the pay demand is at place to keep the union That a trade unionist versity of London have be laid off. conference season. the forefront of all PCS going if the Tories now could be dragged through voted 100% in favour of There is also a danger The University of London campaigning, and does move to end check off. the courts for three months strike action over the loss that the University of Lon - IWGB and the wider 3 not morph into the earlier Activists need to know shows the need for a real of more than 80 jobs at don plans to hike rents or, Cosas campaign have al - nonsense of a demand for that the Executive does labour-movement fightback the Garden Halls, student ultimately, to sell off the ways been willing to go on “talks”. Strike action indeed have such a against the anti-union laws halls of residence near halls. the offensive and fight to should not be abandoned plan. which Cameron’s Tories are King's Cross. Students and others are win. A two-day strike in if and when talks with the determined to tighten and organising solidarity with November 2013 won major government do take place, The IWGB has served no - as that will enable the To - exTtehned .trade union move - the strikes, and are asking concessions on sick pay and tice of five days of indus - ries to demobilise the dis - ment needs to build on supporters to visit the holiday pay, and the mo - trial action against the two pute without even this victory. picket lines from 7.30am on mentum was continued in main outsourcing compa - each of the strike days. In January with three days of granting a single mean - ingful concession. nies at the University, recent weeks, activists have striCke natcrtaiol nto. the union’s The PCS leadership has Cofely which runs cleaning occupied the head offices of strategy has been the use no discernible plan for and maintenance services, Cofely in London and tar - of strike funds. The strike winning the dispute. Ac - and Aramark who employs geted the company’s presti - fund will be crucial to tivists must seek to shape catering staff. gious contract at the Shard sustain these five days of that plan. The strike will begin on near London Bridge. strike action, and those Despite last summer’s Friday 6 June and will con - The University of London wishing to donate can do consultation telling the tinue from Monday 9 June Union (ULU), the IWGB so at: leadership that selective to Thursday 12 June. and the 3 Cosas Campaign iwgb.wordpress.com Refurbishing of the halls have also gave notice of a action should be a begins at the end of June weapon in our armoury No 326 4 June 2013 Solidarity 30p/80p Support the Lambeth College strike

By Gerry Bates

Teaching staff at Lambeth College began an all-out strike on 3 June 2014. The workers are fighting new contracts which attack pay and conditions and which would affect all new workers and create a two-tier workforce at the college. These are con - tracts that college bosses are looking to impose across the further education sector. Picket lines will be at all three college sites, and both of the college unions are encouraging solidarity visits from local students and workers. UCU members backed the indefinite strike action by an 89% yes vote on a 72% turnout, in a second ballot called El-Sisi win strengthens after the first was the subject of an injunction under the anti-trade union laws. Unison members at the college have also voted for strikes and plan to start their action next week. They have pro - duced a letter in support of strikers after college manage - ment tried to divide the staff and trade unions against each counter-revolution other. Ruth Cashman, Unison Lambeth local government Branch Secretary said “We are fully behind the UCU. Our members want to be out and they stand in total solidarity with teaching staff. Unison members will strike alongside the UCU, unless the management back down on these pro - in Egypt posals. The Principal has no interest in the future of the Col - lege beyond making a name for himself as a ‘modernising’ union buster. By Phil Grimm “He has consistency sought to divide the workforce, Muslim Brotherhood. sending increasingly bizarre diktats out to all staff attacking Abdel Fatah El-Sisi has won the Egyptian presidential But in no way does El-Sisi have a truly democratic man - the unions and calling people to cross picket lines. He’s elections and will become the next head of state. date. The state media, as well as most of the corporate news used the anti-union laws, he sought to bully his staff, but outlets, flooded the country with propaganda for El-Sisi. every time he comes for these workers, they just come back El-Sisi, the senior general in the Egyptian armed forces The army, an enormously powerful force in Egyptian life, reaIfd tyh teo u fnigiohtn osn a.”t Lambeth College want to win the and former Defence Secretary, won over 90% of the vote in backed El-Sisi’s campaign. In a bid to make the electoral strikes against such a defiant management they will an election involved mass intimidation by police and crack- turnout more respectable, the polls were opened for an need to ensure their members are not forced back to downs on opposition activists and protesters. The election extra day, and a national day off from work was declared to work. UCU and Unison members should argue for a na - was the first to take place since the military coup against up the numbers voting. tional strike levy. This dispute has national significance. the Muslim Brotherhood government in July 2013. Meanwhile, the opposition faces severe repression. Thou - Abdel Fatah El-Sisi was the leading commander of the sands of political prisoners are jailed in Egypt, many of • Motion in support. See here: bit.ly/lcoll. Egyptian army when it deposed former president Mo - them Islamist supporters of the Brotherhood, and also hun - • Solidarity messages to UCU branch secretary Mandy hamed Morsi. Much of the military and state establishment dreds of left-wingers, secularists, democrats and even criti - Brown at [email protected] or UNISON has come to rally around him as its champion. The military cal journalists who have fallen foul of the regime. They branch secretary Ruth Cashman at council backed him as presidential candidate, and numer - include Al Jazeera journalist Abdullah Elshamy, who was [email protected] ous bourgeois political parties declined to stand their own arrested last August while covering protests and has been • Donations. Make cheques payable to J. Eldon and send to candidates, giving support to El-Sisi. on hunger strike for more than 130 days. Mandy Brown c/o Lambeth Trades Council, Hambrook Democrats and leftists fear his victory cements and se - A grim cycle has been established whereby those who House, Porden Road, London SW2 5RW. Or transfer to: cures the full return to power of the old state-military bu - protest against the imprisonment of activists are themselves Halifax, Acc Name: J Eldon. Sort Code: 11- 01- 07. Acc No: reaucracy of the Mubarak regime, the regime which the arrested and imprisoned. Given these authoritarian condi - 11242869 initial revolution of 2011 had hoped to overthrow. tions, it is unsurprising that many political parties, decided El-Sisi’s huge 90% majority was achieved on a turnout of against risking a candidate against El-Sisi. just 46%. Yet the turn out was an improvement on the num - Activists for the only other party contesting the poll, the ber who took part in the 2012 elections. El-Sisi’s support Nasserist Popular Current, were met with police harass - has some popular roots with some Egyptians hoping for ment. A number of them were arrested when making com - stability and prosperity after three years of near-constant plaWinhtes nr etghaer dairnmgy e lteocptoprlaeld f rMauodrs. i a year ago, some in the political turmoil. left and labour movement welcomed the move. It is now Some liberal forces in the Tamarrod movement which or - bitterly clear that military rule represents counter-revo - ganised against Mohamed Morsi have backed El-Sisi in lution. Independent working-class politics is necessary. recognition of the military's role in removing the hated