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No 296 18 September 2013 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org For a workers’ government

Israel displaces Labour and Greece’s new Bedouin the unions strike wave page 2 centre pages page 8 BENEFIT OVERCLAIM? UP TO 10 YEARS JAIL

British retail billionaire Philip Green avoids around £285 million tax per year by registering his company abroad. The rich plunder while the poor are prosecuted: see page 5 2 NEWS

What is the Alliance for Defend the Bedouin, stop Prawer Plan Workers’ Liberty? By Tom Harris cities, but tens of thousands Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to live in villages and farms another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. In the last few months which the Israeli govern - Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to there have been many ment refuses to recognise increase their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, protests in Israel over or to provide with proper unemployment, the blighting of lives by overwork, government plans to re- infrastructure. imperialism, the destruction of the environment and move tens of thousands of The fear is that if the much else. Israeli Bedouins from their Prawer Plan goes ahead the Against the accumulated wealth and power of the ancestral villages and Bedouin will be forcibly capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. land. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity through uprooted once again. struggle so that the working class can overthrow capitalism. We want Named after prime min - Left-wing activists and socialist revolution: collective ownership of industry and services, isterial advisor Ehud Arab-Israelis question why, workers’ control and a democracy much fuller than the present system, Prawer, the “Prawer Plan” since the Bedouin are for - with elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to is the Israeli government’s plan as discriminatory and raelis in the 1948 war, Is - merly Israeli citizens, the bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. attempt to “resolve” the an attempt to clear the re - raeli forces further re - government is entitled to We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” disputed ownership of land gion for Jewish settlement. pressed and displaced the clear them from their and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. currently inhabited by The Israeli Bedouin have them, leading many to flee homes. Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, Bedouin Arabs, primarily experienced decades of re - to surrounding countries. They fear that space is supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping in the Negev desert. pression and displacement. Most of those that re - being cleared for further organise rank-and-file groups. The government claims They used to be nomadic. mained were subsequently settlement by Jewish Is - We are also active among students and in many campaigns and that residents will be com - Ottoman, British and Israeli relocated to restricted raelis. alliances. land expropriation forced desert areas under martial In places like Um Hiran, pensated and provided right-wing organisations with alternative accommo - them into stationary settle - law. We stand for: have already been setting dation in specially de - ments. Around 170,000 Independent working-class representation in politics. up temporary accommo- ● signed towns. But many When the Bedouin in the Bedouins live in the Negev ● A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour dation near the villages Bedouin and human rights Negev largely sided with today. Many live in the movement. the Arabs against the Is - outskirts of towns and set to be demolished. ● A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to organisations denounce the picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. ● Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education and jobs for all. Bob Carnegie back in court: Support ● A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, Shahrokh bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity defend the right to protest! against racism. Zamani! ● Open borders. By Colin Foster ● Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have rather than the main con - hardship fund for the dis - Iranian trade unionist more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist tractor. Days later, Abi - pute? Or sent a message of Shahrokh Zamani has rulers. On 16 October, Australian group initiated charges support? been imprisoned since trade union and commu- ● Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or against Bob Carnegie of If you joined a demon - June 2011. His crime? community to global social organisation. nity activist Bob Carnegie contempt of court. They stration against the invasion Attempting to build in- is due to appear in court ● Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all said he had disobeyed court of Iraq, should the police be dependent trade unions again. nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. orders which instructed able to sue you for the cost to stand up for his and ● Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. Construction company him, too, to stay away from of the measures they took? fellow workers’ rights. ● If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — Abigroup, part of the Lend the site. Or shopkeepers in the area Shahrokh, a member of and join us! Lease empire, is suing him There was a campaign by of the demonstration, if the Painters’ Union, was and two unions, the trade unionists and social - they lost business? Or the CFMEU and the ETU, for a ists to defend Bob Carnegie, government, if it had been charged with “propa - Contact us: total of $15 million damages which included strikes at all forced not to join the inva - ganda”, “endangering ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] over the strike in August- the big construction sites in sion and thus suffered the national security”, and “participating in an ille - The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley October 2012 at the Queens - Brisbane, Melbourne, and cost of cancelled military gal organisation”. Road, London, SE1 3DG. land Children’s Hospital Sydney on 11-13 February preparations? (QCH) construction site. (when the case came to To defend Bob Carnegie International human ● Printed by Trinity Mirror Bob Carnegie, a member court) and strikes and a on this issue is to defend the rights organisations say of Workers’ Liberty Aus - demonstration in Brisbane basic right to protest. Of that Shahrokh has been tralia, got involved in the on 18 August (when the course Abigroup does not physically and psycho - Get Solidarity every week! QCH dispute, despite not verdict was announced). Fi - think it can get millions of logically abused, denied working on the site, because nally Bob was acquitted on dollars in damages from medication, and denied ● Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o court orders had been the grounds that the terms Bob Carnegie, a seafarer by visitors. ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged o served on, and obeyed by, of the court orders had been trade who has also worked Shahrokh is a class-war unclear. in construction and has no prisoner. If we allow the £9 unwaged o all the union officials, in - cluding the site delegate, to But the civil case for dam - more economic resources Iranian state to get away ● 44 issues (year). £35 waged o stay away from the site. ages remains. than the average worker. It with crushing him, it will £17 unwaged o The QCH workers, still in is bringing the case in order be a defeat for all those IMPLICATIONS to intimidate others. fighting for workers’ ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o dispute but deprived of leaders or organisers, asked Suppose you see striking There will be a mediation rights in Iran, and or 50 euros (44 issues) o Bob to come and help. He workers on a picket line. meeting between the around the world. Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: came and helped them or - You ask about the issues; unions’ lawyers and Abi - Between now and Jan - they convince you of their group’s on 8 October, and it 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG ganise a regular community uary 2014, Workers’ Lib - protest at the site, regular case; and so you stay, and is conceivable that a deal erty will be seeking to Cheques (£) to “AWL”. dispute meetings with dem - come back again on other will be struck there so that collect 10,000 signatures Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. ocratic discussion, dispute days, to support them. the case does not go to in workplaces, universi - bulletins, delegations to You have signed no con - court. For now, however, ties, colleges, schools, Name ...... other workplaces, and a tract with the boss against we must assume that the and communities to de - hardship fund. whom the dispute is con - case will go to court and mand Shahrokh’s release. Address ...... The workers won their ducted. You have no obliga - Abigroup’s lawyers will do Please support the demand for a union-negoti - tion to him. And yet he can all they can to bankrupt Bob campaign. Email ...... ated site agreement includ - sue you for the losses he Carnegie and intimidate all [email protected] ing a clause with suffers through the dispute? future supporters of protest. or ring 07775 763 750 I enclose £ ...... Support Bob: see de- for more information. guarantees for workers em - Could he also sue you if fendbobcarnegie.word- ployed by subcontractors you just gave money to the press.com. • bit.ly/s-zamani 3 NEWS Bedroom tax: thank you, Raquel Rolnick! The unions and the

By Dave Kirk should pay the cost of the about her being “a woman once carried out a Can - anti-lobby Bill economic downturn, which from Brazil” and to demand domble rite to help with a Earlier this month the UN was brought about by the from the UN “an apology university study on Marx. By Professor Keith Ewing Special Rapporteur on financial crisis. People in and investigation into how For campaigners, Rol - Housing, Raquel Rolnick, testimonies were crying, this came about”. nick’s intervention is wel - [The furore over Falkirk and Labour’s relationship with reported on UK housing saying, ‘I have nowhere to Even more sexist, racist, come and keeps up the the unions] conveniently masks a potential scandal ... conditions (including the go’, ‘I will commit suicide’.” and bizarre was a Daily pressure on a Government the government’s announcement on political lobbying, implications of the Bed- Rolnick, formerly housing Mail headline that accused that is already on the defen - soiled by its unexpected inclusion of an attack on room Tax). minister in Brazil, and a her of being a “dabbler in sive about the policy. trade union support for the Labour Party. After talking to ministers, member of the reformist witchcraft who offered an This is why it is so impor - Apparently any money spent by an affiliated union civil servants, tenants, ex - Workers’ Party, called for animal sacrifice to Karl tant that Labour is pres - campaigning at an election is to be treated not only as a perts and activists she an - the Bedroom Tax to be Marx”. The details in the ar - sured to pledge to repeal nounced a scathing verdict scrapped. ticle were actually much the Bedroom Tax. “third party expenditure” as at present, but also as a The Tories and the right more mundane. On the ground campign- Labour Party expenditure for the purposes of electoral on the Bedroom Tax: “I was ers remain determined to very shocked to hear how wing press were livid. Tory As a young woman Rol - law. As such, it will count towards the Party’s electoral Chairman Grant Shapps ap - nick developed an interest force social landlords and spending limit. people really feel abused in councils to pledge not to their human rights by this peared on the BBC Today in Candomble, a Brazilian Since 2001, there has been a limit on the amount of programme, not to respond religion which originated evict Bedroom Tax vic- decision and why — being tims. money a political party can spend at an election, the so vulnerable — they to her report, but to rant with African slaves. She limit being based on the number of candidates standing in the party’s name. For parties that put up candidates in every constituency, this works out at somewhere just £730 a month for a below £20 million on the campaigning costs incurred in the year before the election. A separate limit applies to so-called third parties — windowless cell businesses, pressure groups and trade unions. Here the limit is set somewhere just below £1 million in the year before the election, on election campaign costs incurred By Omar Raii graduate students in mind. supporting or opposing a particular political party. We didn’t realise post - The government’s plan appears to be that affiliated Though universities like grads are less human than union expenditure will be treated as Labour Party ex - UCL [University College other students and there - On Friday 13 September around 30 workers and community penditure whether or not the Party has approved it, and activists occupied Wallsend Memorial Hall in East Newcastle. London] have an annoying fore it’s perfectly fine for whether or not the Party benefits from it. As such, the habit of bringing up their Workers who have not received wages since the beginning of them to be charged up to proposal looks like it has been lifted straight from anti- place in university rank- September, occupied after managers from the centre’s £730 a month for wretched, union political funding legislation recently introduced ings, something tells me funders, the Social Investment Business, announced plans to windowless rooms. by a right wing government in New South Wales. they won’t be mentioning For too long, students, in - repossess the building. Since its creation in 1883 the centre remains legally entrusted to “the people of Wallsend”. one particular accolade cluding those at UCL, have “ESTABLISHED CUSTOM” very often. been held ransom by uni - Occupiers say they will remain there until their demands — that the centre stays open, in the hands of the people of It is also a disgraceful example of government pro- New halls built for UCL versities, charging extor - Wallsend, and that owed wages are paid — are met. The hall posing to use the power of the state in breach of “an students have just been tionate amounts of rent for is used for college courses, toddler groups, youth club, established custom” recognised by Churchill in 1948, awarded the Carbuncle unacceptable conditions, services for benefit claimants, migrants and martial arts Cup, an award given by knowing full well that stu - that “matters affecting the interests of rival parties classes Building Design magazine dents will be forced to shell should not be settled by the imposition of the will of to the worst new building. out. one side over the other”... Just to repeat, that’s not First year and interna - The proposal is almost certainly unlawful in this “worst new university tional students are among country, as it is said convincingly to be in Australia. the most exploited, often halls” or even, “worst new First, it is a violation of the Convention rights of affili - seen as cash-cows by uni - block of flats”, but Worst ated unions, which alone of electoral participants will be New Building. versities, who are often as gagged for a year before an election, unless they do one The magazine has un - sneaky and uncaring as the of two things. Either they can disaffiliate from the favourably compared the worst landlord you could new flats with HMP Pen - imagine. Labour Party to retain electoral freedom; or they can tonville, which is on the It’s time to put a stop to seek Party permission to incur an expenditure that will same street, noting that the this. Students shouldn’t be attributed to the Party. prisoners receive a better stand for it. We deserve to Either way, the right to freedom of expression of trade view than the students. be treated better than an unions is thus made conditional. It is conditional on not It seems even sunlight is endless source of revenue exercising their right to freedom of association by affili - considered an extravagant for universities while being ating to the Labour Party in the first place. But if unions extra for university stu - cooped up like sardines in exercise their right to freedom of association, it is condi - tiny flats. dents. The student movement tional on securing the permission of the Party to exercise A UCL spokesperson, at - needs to campaign for fair their right to freedom of expression. It is implausible to tempting to defend the ugly rents and decent housing. believe that freedom of expression can be contingent in monstrosity, said it had “ex - this way, all the more so when the contingency applies cellent” transport links and in such a discriminatory manner. was designed with post- • bit.ly/465cal But it is not only affiliated unions that will have cause to complain: so will the Labour Party. The Labour Party’s case will arise where a union incurs expenditure Stop this sell off! without its approval, which will nevertheless be treated as the speech of the Party, even though the Party is op - The government wants to sell off student debt to private posed to the speech in question. companies. To sweeten the deal, the government is This cannot be consistent with the idea of freedom considering upping the repayment rates. This would be the of expression, which is designed to enable me to say equivalent of a huge and retroactive stealth hike in tuition what I think, not to hold me responsible for what fees. someone else may think. It is grotesque. The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts is calling for national and local action against the sell-off of the student loan book. • From the website of the Campaign for Trade Union • More details here: bit.ly/sell-debt Freedom. Full text: bit.ly/lobby-ke 4 COMMENT “Welfare not warfare”?

ple of the reactionary politics of the government waging it – ternationalist consciousness among workers and others in spending money on “bad things” while underfunding or cut - Britain, ie to argue for opposition to imperialism and mili - Letters ting “good things”. But it is quite another matter to suggest tarism on principle. that the war is bad essentially because it costs money. The left slips into this for two reasons. Firstly, straightfor - Short-term slogans along the lines of “Spend money on ward opportunism. And secondly, a genuine element of iso - Slogans like “Welfare not warfare”, “Fund education not public services, not this war” run the risk of implying that lationism or indifference in “left” politics. You can see this in war” or “Books not bombs” are good as “longer range” services are being underfunded or cut because there gen - the rare cases when an imperialist intervention by Britain or slogans. They sum up our advocacy of resources being uinely isn’t “enough” wealth in society, rather than because spent on socially useful goals, serving human need, not the US aids some democratic cause (despite being done for the ruling class is waging class war in order to increase its cynical, imperialist reasons) — like stopping Serbia from de - the capitalist priority of militarism, and can help develop wealth. (This is particularly problematic when the military political consciousness and mobilisation. stroying Kosova in 1999, or stopping Qaddafi crushing the action in question is brief and relatively low cost, e.g. the Libyan rebels in 2011. But used as slogans against a particular war or military ac - threatened bombing of Syria rather than, say, the war in Viet - tion, they can confuse more than clarify. They can be depoliti - nam.) They could also imply that money should be spent at “WHO CARES?” home rather than waging war abroad, ie that the problem cising, parochial and nationalistic. In those cases, some “left” arguments for flatly opposing with foreign wars is that they involve deploying resources in Having explained or sloganised the political reasons why the interventions (as opposed to advocating absolutely a war or military action is bad (it will cost many lives, pro - other countries. This plays into the already very strong na - no trust in them) came pretty close to “Who cares? The mote reactionary goals or forces, serve capitalist/imperialist tionalistic opposition to relatively benign things such as for - most important thing is opposing our own government”, interests, etc), it is perfectly legitimate and in fact necessary eign aid. to point out that the spending of resources on it is an exam - Such an approach also undercuts attempts to develop in - a kind of inverted imperialist nationalism. I oppose US plans to bomb of Syria, and I’m glad that the UK probably won’t be taking part, but saying “Fund welfare, No absolutes in niqab debate were forced to back down. not warfare” as a way of opposing that was not good. It im - Compromises can help create a better environment in plies indifference to the fate of the Assad regime’s victims, The ruling by Judge Peter Murphy which allowed a which to discuss issues about the hijab and niqab. But dis - because spending money on public services in Britain is more cuss this we must. Muslim woman to wear her full-face veil in court except important – rather than opposing the bombing (and, second - The niqab and hijab is not just another piece of clothing. when giving evidence is sensible. arily, spending money on it) because we think it is bad and Whether it is religiously sanctioned is a matter of debate will do harm. It distracts from the fundamental points. It is a compromise between an individual’s religious be - among Muslims, but that is not what concerns me. lief and a social necessity. Even if chosen by the wearer, this female religious cloth - If we do raise slogans about the cost of a war we oppose, There are times when facial expressions are an essential ing is an artefact of social and sexual control of women. they need to be very clear about the key thing being its reac - part of communication or need scrutiny. Those occasions And that is not something we should tolerate anywhere in tionary character. For instance, an Israeli socialist could say are not many but they do exist. Truth telling is something the world. “Spend money on services, not oppressing the Palestinians” that human beings assess by body language, facial expres - Women do not always have choice over whether or not to – though saying “Spend money helping the Palestinians, not sions in particular, and that is surely useful in a court room. wear the hijab — in some parts of the world the hijab is an oppressing them” would be more advanced politically! And There are no absolutes here — for instance sight-impaired absolute rule, and defiance brings informal or formal pun - something like “Scrap Trident, fund public services” at least people can’t assess another person’s body language, but ishment, social ostracisation, or much worse. And very suggests adequate political criticism, even though it doesn’t that should not exclude them from jury service. young girls in the UK are dressed in head coverings by their say it explicitly. In the case of Birmingham Metropolitan College the case parents without choice in the matter. But this is not about having a go at anyone who uses these for stopping female students from wearing the niqab was All of this should be a matter of a public debate. If we sort of slogans in an unclear or problematic way. ridiculous. They said they wanted to create a “safe and wel - can do that while opposing bans and noxious Daily The instinct to apply “Welfare not warfare”-type ideas coming environment”. They can do that by effectively ex - Mail -type hysteria over imaginary dangers posed by is good, particularly at a time of public services being cluding a small minority? By stigmatising students niqab-wearing women, so much the better. decimated. But socialists’ job should be to promote clar - (including, so they said, students who wear hoodies)? They Cathy Nugent, south London ity, not add to the lack of it. Sacha Ismail, south London Left Unity Socialist Support the Palestinians!

Trade union and student union activists are promoting the following We will work for the British and international labour Platform meets statement on Israel/Palestine. The Palestinians’ struggles have been movement to liaise with and help efforts in the region, somewhat sidelined by the international focus on the wider “Arab including by Palestinian and Israeli activists, to fight for The Left Spring”. The Israeli government’s policy aims to make Palestinian workers’ rights, democracy, secularism and the right of independence a historical impossibility. This cannot be allowed to all nations to self-determination. happen. Please sign the statement by emailing By Martin Thomas [email protected], and put a motion of support in your trade union branch, student union, or campaign group. (All individual signatories in a personal capacity) • Pat Murphy, Nation Union of Teachers national executive The “Socialist Platform” within Left Unity, which Workers’ We call for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli troops • Ian Leaver, NUT national executive Liberty supports, met on 14 September. from the Occupied Palestinian territories, and the cre - • Roy Bowser, NUT national executive At the founding conference on 30 November of the Left ation of a really independent Palestinian state in the • Camila Bassi, Sheffield Hallam University UCU Unity group, the main debate will be between the “Left Party West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, in contiguous ter - Maria Exall Platform” (LPP), proposed by Kate Hudson and others, and ritory, alongside Israel. • , CWU Greater London Combined Branch sec - retary the “Socialist Platform” (SP), proposed by Nick Wrack, This is of great urgency because the Israeli government • Rosie Huzzard, National Union of Students national exec - Soraya Lawrence, Will McMahon, Chris Strafford, Cat continues to build settlements in the Palestinian territories, Rylance, and others. and refuses to negotiate seriously. It aims to make a gen - utive council The (rather manipulative, but also very unrealistic) uinely independent Palestinian state impossible. This situa - • James McAsh, NUS NEC philosophy behind the LPP approach is that masses of tion is a factor endangering the whole region. • Roshni Joshi, NUS NEC 2012-13, National Campaign people can be inveigled into left-wing politics, or at least There is also a religious-sectarian polarisation across the Against Fees and Cuts NC into voting for a new leftish electoral effort, by offering region. Secularism, equal rights for all religions and none, • Janine Booth, RMT council of executives them something just a bit to the left of Labour but vague and the right of self-determination for all nations — includ - • Tony Byrne, RMT Midland Regional Council Assistant Sec - enough not to startle them. ing the Palestinians, the Kurds and the Israeli Jews — are an retary The SP, on the other hand, believes that any worthwhile essential part of winning democracy, peace between nations, • Liam McNulty, London Young Labour committee left-wing project must clearly declare itself socialist and working-class unity and social advance in the Middle East. • Hannah Thompson, London Young Labour committee and working-class from the start, and look to building up We call on the British government, the EU and the US to Labour Representation Committee NC through patient activity to convince working-class people. withdraw the political, economic, diplomatic and military • Shreya Paudel, Middlesex University Students’ Union Full report at bit.ly/lu-sp-report “aid” they give the Israeli government until it negotiates a president 2012-13 deal giving the Palestinians the right to a really independent • Daniel Cooper, University of London Union vice president state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. • Matt Wells, PCS 001026 Branch Organiser 5 WHAT WE SAY

The rich plunder while BOOKS FROM WORKERS’ LIBERTY poor are persecuted Antonio Gramsci: Announcing the new prosecution guidelines for so-called working-class “benefit cheats”, Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said: “benefit and tax fraudsters cost the revolutionary taxpayer [£9.1 billion every year]”. Benefit fraudsters, the new guidelines insist, should there - This booklet fore should be sentenced under laws which carry a maxi - mum jail term of ten years. What Starmer did not say was discusses a major that benefit fraud accounts for just £26.9 million, or 0.3%, of recent study on the the £9.1 billion total. According to the Tax Research website, the figure for tax Notebooks — Peter fraud (based on undeclared income) is an underestimate, and Thomas’s The could be as much as £70 billion. So why does the government (and Starmer, who acts for the government) treat these two Gramscian Moment issues as equivalents? — and argues that The short answer is that they want to demonise people who over-claim on their benefits. the Notebooks were in fact a powerful By any reasonable assessment, “tax fraudsters” should also contribution to the working-out of include tax avoiding companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Vodafone — who, to use Starmer’s language, “cost the tax - revolutionary working-class strategy in payer” a further £25 billion a year. developed capitalist societies. There is a huge moral difference between someone who “makes a few quid on the side” and a fat-cat tax evader. £4. Buy online at http://bit.ly/gramsci Take someone like Philip Green, boss of the Arcadia Group (Top Shop, Wallis, BHS). Knighted by New Labour for serv - ices to British retail and adopted by the current government What is capitalism? Can it as an advisor on government spending, Green is the quintes - sential “pillar of society”, an example of where hard work last? can get you. With articles from Leon Trotsky, Max But Green used inherited wealth to make much more cash. Shachtman, Maziar Razi and many more. He employs accountants and lawyers to avoid paying tax. He registered his company in the name of his wife. She is Edited by Cathy Nugent. from Monaco, and not liable to pay UK taxes. This is how £5. tinyurl.com/wiccil Green avoids paying £285 million a year in taxes. That is fraud and everyone knows it is. But because it is technically legal, and because Green is a rich man, it is toler - This is demonising the poor ated. The government is not rushing to change the law to stop Green defrauding the state. The Daily Mail will not be Working-class running shaming headlines about how he is robbing the tax because they have not met this or that criterion of a bureau - payer. He will not be inconvenienced for ten minutes, let cratic system. Disclosing new information about your cir - politics alone lose his liberty for up for ten years, because of what he cumstances is a sure-fire way to have your benefits stopped and anarchism does. for weeks and weeks. Every week thousands of people will visit a food bank be - Debates between RICH cause they have lost their job but have had to wait weeks to members of Workers’ Rich individuals and corporations routinely steal from receive benefits to which they are entitled, and therefore have public finances all the time. nothing to eat. They are not, as Michael Gove would have it, Liberty and comrades And we should count among the thieves, fraudsters, and people who cannot manage their money. They are people from various anarchist cheats the banks which grabbed — and wasted — so much who have had the money they are entitled to mismanaged public money over the last five years. In 2008 about £1.1 tril - by the state. traditions. lion from public finances was poured into the banks, to buy And every year millions of people are entitled to benefits £5. tinyurl.com/wcpanarchism their shares or give them loans or guarantees. that they do not claim. Those unclaimed benefits (including Most tax evasion (as opposed to the legal tax avoidance) is pension credit and Job Seekers’ Allowance) are worth £12 bil - committed not by people who don’t declare a bit of “cash in lion. hand” work, but by rich people who have lawyers on their Moral standards under capitalism are upside-down. Rich side and are able to negotiate with the government over the individuals and companies are lauded for accumulating and Marxist Ideas to Turn the Tide punishments they receive if found out. Those people do not hoarding unimaginable wealth and therefore bleeding dry Readings and reflections on revolutionary get locked up for ten years. resources that should be used to fund schools, hospitals and Contrast these multi-billion pound fraudsters to the indi - create jobs. Banks are praised for rediscovering their profit socialist strategy. Articles viduals who mis-claim and over-claim on their benefits. mojo and overcoming the crisis. on the history of the A survey of the cases that come to court and are reported Then they propose to lock up working-class mothers for in local newspapers shows people very different from organ - just trying to survive. Communist International, ised criminals like Philip Green, who plot and plan with their The left and the labour movement needs to make the polit - associates and relatives to defraud. ical arguments against these inequalities. The ruling class the United Front, Very often they are women with families living in difficult gets away with continual attacks and daily humiliations circumstances. Very often they are entitled to benefits, but against the poorest and most vulnerable in society because Workers’ Government, have failed to disclose they are living with a partner (who the labour movement is passive and weak. revolutionary may or may not be working) and therefore their claim for Our demands should include opposition to all means- benefits is administratively wrong. tested benefits. Everyone who is jobless, regardless of their organisation and They are hard-pressed people who have tried to get a bit of “ability to work”, should have a basic, guaranteed income extra money for themselves and their families. They do this that is enough to live on. programme. Our campaign needs to base itself on proposals to re - because they are poor. They have fallen foul of a stingy, hu - dress the wealth inequality — expropriating the banks, £5. bit.ly/m-ideas miliating, and increasingly draconian benefits system. taxing the rich, and stopping them avoiding tax. Every day hundreds of people have their benefit stopped 6-7 LABOUR REPRESENTATION Behind the Blairite drive Why Labour’s right wing fears the union link

against the unions By Martin Thomas Union leaders are usually satisfied with sops and ges - By Dale Street The fact that the “tradi - tures. So why are many on Labour’s right wing pushing tional” right wing treated Ed Miliband to damage and weaken the link? In 1943 the Economist magazine offered this helpful ad - affiliated unions as the It is because they remember , or have been taught by those vice to the Labour Party: “The Labour Party is based on natural allies of the who remember. an out-of-date doctrine. Its social basis does not match Labour Party — even if After 1979-80, a breach between the union leaders and the modern social structures. Its dependence on the trade that alliance, to use Labour parliamentary leaders opened space for an unprece - unions ties it to conservative sectional interests. The Minkin’s expression, dented rank and file upsurge in the Labour Party. ‘labour coalition’ of the party and the unions should be could sometimes be “con - The upheaval was triggered by the intersection of two scrapped and replaced by a regroupment of non-Con - tentious” — underlines curves: ferment within the trade unions, and successive col - servative forces”. the seismic shift repre - lapses by the Labour parliamentary leaders. Both were, in Two years later the Labour Party won a landslide general sented by the emergence turn, generated by the economic turmoil of a capitalism election victory, hailed by its national election organiser as of Blairism in the Labour crashing and lurching through transition from the consen - the moment when “the working classes, hitherto a subject Party in the 1990s. sus-politics boom of the 1950s and 60s to the neoliberalism race, succeeded in the organisation of political power and Ex-union leader and current The Blairites were hos - of the 1980s. became the ruling class in their own land.” Blairite Alan Johnson tile not just to the policies In March 1971 the TUC organised a march of 150,000 Clearly, therefore, there is nothing new in calls for the which the party might through London, protesting at the anti-union legislation of Labour Party to cut itself loose from affiliated trade unions adopt because of its links with the unions. They were hos - the Tory government which had been elected in June 1970. as its only means of survival. According to Lewis Minkin’s tile to the links themselves. They were the leaders of a Part-way down the Embankment, the march paused. Hugh history of the Labour-union link, The Contentious Alliance : labour movement which they did not think should even Scanlon, then president of the big engineering union which “For the Centre and the Right, it became a priority to seek exist. would after many mergers become part of today’s Unite the destruction of the union-Party relationship. Often they For some Blairites the solution was to reduce the role of union, jumped up on one of the street benches and gave an diagnosed inevitable degeneration or suicide as the future the unions in the party to such a degree that it became impromptu speech. of the labour movement.” meaningless. For others, the solution was to break the link We must drive out the Tories, he declared, and get a new But when Minkin spoke of “the Centre and the Right”, completely. Labour government. But — he added to applause — it must he was referring to the centre and right of the political spec - be a Labour government committed to socialist policies! trum as a whole, not to the centre and right within the BLAIR Never another Labour government like the one that had lost Labour Party. Two years after Blair’s election as party leader his ally office seven months before! In fact, for virtually the entire twentieth century, even the and fellow Labour MP Stephen Byers was already brief - That government, starting off quite popular in 1964-6, had Labour Party right wing accepted the Labour-union link as ing the media that the Labour Party might sever its links by 1970 become deeply discredited on the left and — after it the bedrock of the movement. More often than not, it was with the unions. tried to bring in anti-strike laws in 1969 — even with union usually the right wing who benefited most from the link. In 2005 the ex-CWU general secretary and then Trade and leaders. The block vote generally protected Labour’s parliamentary Industry Secretary Alan Johnson advocated that the unions’ leaders against conference challenges from left-minded share of votes at Labour Party annual conference be cut to LEADERS local Labour activists. 15%. The Labour leaders were trying to manage capitalism in Even the future leaders of the breakaway SDP, such as In early 2007 Johnson lined up with former TGWU gen - times when the world market allowed less leeway. They Bill Rodgers, acknowledged just two years before their split eral secretary Bill Morris and the fake-left Jon Cruddas MP were directly under the influence of bankers, bosses, and that “there is no salvation for the Labour Party in a break to advocate further reductions in the unions’ role in the top civil servants, who had definite ideas on how to man - with the trade union movement.” The subsequent fate of Labour Party. age crises while the Labour leaders were baffled the SDP was to prove him correct. In late 2010 Blairites returned to the attack on Labour- Meanwhile a susurrus of working-class industrial mili - union links. MPs Andy Burnham and Tessa Jowell “ques - tancy, starting in the mid-1950s, was becoming a roar, and tioned” affiliated union members having a vote in Labour would become an explosion in 1972-5. Party leadership elections. Margaret Hodge MP advocated Scanlon had made his career in the union as a supporter that Labour “cut the umbilical cord” with the unions on the and promoter of shop-steward organisation, which became grounds that they were “irrelevant in British society”. increasingly dense in many industries in the 1960s and 70s. And ex-MP Alan Milburn — so right-wing that some To - The unions, bureaucratised though they are, are also based ries wanted him to be offered a post in the Con-Dem coali - on workers organising as workers in our workplaces. They tion government — proposed that the unions “should no have to be. They die if they are not. That makes them unsta - longer have a structural relationship with Labour.” ble from a conventional capitalist point of view. In February of this year Alan Johnson again raised the Scanlon himself would end up in 1979 as “Lord Scanlon”. issue of reducing the unions’ role in the Labour Party. He followed the usual route for a once-militant shop stew - In an interview in the magazine of the ultra-Blairite ard who climbs the ladder of union position without clear “Progress” faction, he attacked union leaders as “fat, white, working-class politics and without the discipline of an active finger-jabbing blokes on rostrums shouting and screaming” rank-and-file movement or a coherent socialist organisation. and called for their share of the vote at Labour Party confer - But the pressure from the rank and file, piecemeal and po - ence to be cut to “about a third”. litically inchoate though it was, continued. At the end of the Unsurprisingly, when Miliband announced his propos - 1970s, the union leaders’ desire to conciliate and temporise als to replace “opting out” by “opting in”, they won ap - could not move fast enough to keep pace with the Labour plause from these old-time Blairites and from Blair himself leaders’ pursuit of capitalist interests. (“bold and strong ... long overdue and probably, frankly, I The 1974-9 Labour government had come to office in the should have done it when I was party leader”). wake of a wave of working-class revolt. It started off with Miliband’s proposals are not, as Unite General Secre - some reforms. Then from early 1976 through to 1978 the tary Len McCluskey has claimed, “an opportunity Labour government made deep cuts — sharper cuts in the rather than a threat.” His proposals represent the latest NHS, in fact, than Thatcher would ever make — and tried to stage in the long-term Blairite project of destroying limit wage rises by law. what defines the Labour Party as the party of organ - Labour’s elected National Executive Committee, domi - ised labour in Britain. nated by trade unionists and elected representatives of local Labour activists, remained leftish. In November 1976 it sup - 6-7 LABOUR REPRESENTATION Why Labour’s right wing fears the union link

ported a demonstration against the Labour government cuts which mobilised 80,000 in London on a working day. Still, the Labour leaders thought they could deal with such things. Demonstrations? Protests? Votes at Labour confer - ence? Those were irritations, but surely the top union offi - cials would ensure that nothing became too serious. In the winter of 1978-9 the Labour leaders still felt confi - dent to flout a decision of the 1978 Labour conference against continued wage controls, and to try to squash an ensuing re - volt by low-paid workers (the “winter of discontent”). The union leaders of 1979 were people who felt they had faced down the Tories in 1970-4, and were as yet fairly con - fident that they would face down the new Tory administra - tion. Behind them stood hundreds of thousands of workplace union reps, similarly minded. They wanted to pull Labour back into line, and see off the Tories. Straight away, in October 1979, the Labour Party confer - ence voted for mandatory reselection of MPs — meaning a new selection contest before every election — and control over the Labour Party election manifesto by the National Ex - ecutive (not the parliamentary leader). Both measures had been campaigned for steadily since 1973. Tony Benn had been a minister in the 1974-9 government, with a more left-wing image than other ministers, but no rebel. Now he distanced himself from the discredited leader - ship of James Callaghan. RANK AND FILE MOBILISING COMMITTEE In May 1980, the Rank and File Mobilising Committee was formed, on the initiative of SCLV, a forerunner of AWL. As Patrick Seyd puts in a detailed academic study of the period: “Each organisation associated with the RFMC was repre - sented on the organising committee but it was CLPD [Cam - paign for Labour Party Democracy] and the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory, later to become the Socialist Ed Miliband wants to be seen to be “tough” on the unions. Unions should resist his plans to reduce their collective voice in politics. Organiser Alliance, which provided the direction and organ - isational drive for the campaign. “John Bloxam from Socialist Organiser was the campaign organiser and Jon Lansman [CLPD] became its secretary. procedure was installed. MPs, feeling the heat from below, counter-revolution got underway. Prior to the 1980 Party conference the RFMC organised rejected Callaghan’s chosen candidate, right-winger Denis Many factors helped the Labour right reassert itself: the in - twenty country-wide rallies to win support for the Left’s re - Healey, and instead chose Michael Foot, who was a left- dustrial defeats of the early 1980s; the political vagueness of form proposals. winger, though a faded one, and at age 68 obviously an in - the Labour left. “It successfully provided the tactical drive and organisa - terim figure. But the Labour right had been given a frightening glimpse tion in the face of opposition from both the Right and parts In March 1981 a whole segment of the Labour right split of its own mortality. It had been shown how frail its position of the parliamentary Left, to secure the adoption of new pro - off to form a “Social Democratic Party”, which at first did became as soon as the working-class base began to move, cedures for electing the Party leadership, and it then went on well in the opinion polls and then merged with the old Lib - even in a limited way. to provide the main base for the campaign to elect Tony Benn eral party to form the Liberal Democrats. It has shored itself up both by Blair’s restructuring of the as the Party’s Deputy Leader. Between April and September 1981 Tony Benn cam - Labour Party in 1997, and by striving, with some success, to “The RFMC was a remarkable organisation in the history paigned against Denis Healey for Labour’s deputy leader - embed some self-limiting adages in the common sense of the of the Labour Left. For a period the Labour Left was united... ship. Benn won 83% of the votes from local Labour activists, labour movement. and the multitude of organisations operated together as a sin - and Healey scraped in only thanks to the union vote. We mustn’t go back to the strife of the 1970s, they tell us — gle unit”. In Socialist Organiser (a forerunner of Solidarity ), we when in fact that strife won victories, and without it the To - The regular 1980 Labour conference, in October, voted for warned of the limitations of the upsurge at the same time as ries would have done ten years earlier what they did in the the principle of election of the Party leader by the whole we made ourselves central to organising it. 1980s, when we couldn’t rouse enough strife against them. party, not just the MPs. (The exact procedure would be set - We argued that the struggle for democracy must be taken We can’t have the Labour Party divided as it was in the tled by a special conference in January 1981). into the unions. The left’s alliance with top union leaders 1980s, they say. Actually, in early 1981, at the peak of the “di - It also adopted unilateral nuclear disarmament and backed could only be temporary and fragile. vision”, Labour stood at 51% in the opinion polls. It was the direct action against local government cuts. “The victories so far are formal”, we wrote. “They must be subsequent disappointments which brought it down to a Callaghan resigned as leader on 15 October 1980, trying to filled out with the content of working-class struggle if the miserable 28% in the 1983 general election. get a successor in place before the new leadership election movement is to be regenerated. A ‘democratised’ labour Labour should never promise much, they declare. Prom - movement will become a fighting organisation of the work - ises in 1964 and 1974 led only to Labour governments which ers, hammering at the Tories and their backers, or it will at first made popular reforms and then collapsed abjectly. In - quickly fall again under the control of bureaucrats and time - stead (they say) Labour should commit itself in advance to Defend the Link campaign servers” — and, we warned, they would use witch-hunts and orthodox capitalist policies — as Neil Kinnock, Labour leader bans to help them neutralise the democratic reforms. 1983-92, put it, it should do all its betrayals in advance — and So it was. In January 1982 the union leaders met with the then if things go well it can hand out some reforms. defendthelink.wordpress.com Labour Party leaders at Bishops Stortford and agreed to work To try to make adage into unbreakable law, the Labour together to tame the rank and file. A long, slow, grinding right want to exorcise the union link. 8 FEATURE New strike wave in Greece

By Theodora Polenta erations, too, to vote for strike action. Workers in municipal - ities were among the first to be attacked by the government According to official figures, participation in the strike by and the Troika. Greek teachers on 16 September was over 90%. However, so far the leaders of the federations of workers in Over 30,000 teachers, university administrators, students the municipalities (POE, OTA, and POP OTA) seem unwill - and workers in pension funds, and others flooded the centre ing to escalate or coordinate their struggle. of Athens. Four other sectoral union federations have coordi - The Memorandum also plans to reduce 140 hospitals to 80 nated with OLME (the union federation for high school and 80,000 health workers to 40,000 by 2015. teachers) and have announced repeated five-day rolling So far the government has “promised” that its current job strikes against government plans to cut jobs and suspend cuts will not affect university professors, tax office workers, tens of thousands of workers for eventual sacking or possible and public health workers, but that promise is just to buy redeployment. time. There were also around 10,000 demonstrators in Thessa - An effective strike movement, coupled with a political loniki. The public-sector union confederation Adedy has agenda aiming to overthrow the government and establish a called a 48 hour strike for 18-19 September. government of the Left is the most powerful weapon that It is very important to continue efforts to compel the lead - the labour movement has against its oppressors. ership of the primary teachers’ federation (DOE) to join the The initiative for a general strike cannot be left at the hands movement. The primary school teachers have decided to of the leaderships of the big union confederations, Gsee (pri - strike for 48 hours on 18-19 September, and there are very vate sector) and Adedy (public sector). A general strike can strong voices inside the federation calling for a more dy - only be imposed from below, and that should be with full namic mobilisation. The front of unions committed to five- awareness that the central trade union leaderships, even if day rolling strikes must widen as soon as possible and as dragged to adopt the proposal, will do everything they can to much as possible . sabotage it. Among the high school teachers, over 90% of local unions The mass movement should take control of the struggle, voted in favour of strike action. On Tuesday 17 September, with frequent general meetings at each workplace, with occupations and protests are planned at government offices. elected (and removable) strike committees, with communi - There will be a motorbike-rally in the centre of Athens. rally at 12 noon outside the Ministry of Health. cation teams that will disseminate strike information and On Thursday 19th high school teachers will be holding These are critical times which will test the ability of the left counteract government and media propaganda. meetings to discuss the continuation and escalation of the in Greece not only to support struggles but to lead them and strike, and on Friday 20th the presidents of the local high extend them. MILITANT MOOD school teachers’ unions, the constituent parts of the OLME High school teachers are in the forefront, because since Sadly, the Greek Communist Party’s trade-union front federation will meet. 2011 2,500 primary and secondary schools have been closed PAME has chosen at yet another turning point in the Many workers want to see the total overthrow of the Sama - or merged. movement to stand against the militant mood of work - ras government and the rule of the EU-ECB-IMF Troika over Many courses have been shut down in the technical col - ers. the Greek economy. leges, and will now be available only at private colleges. According to KKE any slogan short of workers’ govern - The union Federation of Public Hospitals (Podein) will 16,000 teachers’ jobs are at threat in secondary education. ment and control is a reformist slogan that serves the interest hold a four-hour nationwide stoppage on Thursday 19th and 2,500 are being put in redeployment, 5,000 have been trans - of Syriza, and Syriza is only an alternative management for ferred, 5,000 temporary staff have lost their jobs, and 3,500 the capitalist system. have been retired early. PAME’s unionists, in education, health and elsewhere, led Dawn in New York Many have been compulsorily transferred to other areas. the fight against strike escalation: “The climate is not ready”, New laws will turn high schools into centres of continu - “We should not close schools and hospitals”. ous testing, geared to “results”, making them a mechanism to In the local high school teacher unions’ general meetings, filter out and downgrade working-class kids who will be the proposal for rolling five-day strikes was supported by Songs of Liberty & Rebellion forced to leave school without a high school diploma. Syriza and the “Agonistikes Parembaseis” group. The ND Already 27 rank and file local unions in primary education unionists’ group, the Pasok unionists’ group, and PAME ar - have signed a statement in favour of primary and kinder - gued, often together, for a one-off 48-hour strike, i.e involve - garten teachers joining with the high school teachers in the ment in the strike already planned by Adedy for 18-19 Claude McKay (1889-1948) was a Jamaican poet who, during his rolling five-day strikes. 21 out of the 36 local general assem - September. The small forces of the Democratic Left also sided time in London, became involved in revolutionary socialist cir - blies of the teachers voted for the rolling five-day strikes. But with ND and Pasok. cles. the leadership of the primary teachers’ federation is domi - Important now is the creation of strike committees in local He attended the Fourth Congress of the Communist Interna - unions, with the participation of parents’ associations, school tional in 1922. While he did not associate himself with Trotsky - nated by members of the government parties, New Democ - ism, he became disillusioned with Stalinism in the 1930s racy and Pasok, whereas the high school federation is now students, and residents who want to support the teachers’ (unfortunately ending up as a Roman Catholic). led by the left. struggle. They should organise a daily presence of strikers He was a key figure in the “Harlem Renaissance”, and his 1922 Students are also mobilising. Groups like the “Disobedient and supporters in schools, pickets, discussions with parents poem “Dawn in New York” reimagines William Wordsworth’s School Students” can help form a common front across the and students, and financial support for colleagues through “Upon Westminster Bridge” for 20th-century Manhattan, writ - whole education system against the government. strike funds. ing in the stories of human struggle and suffering that The federations so far joining with the high school teachers Syriza’s leaders have so far shown willingness to go for - Wordsworth’s picturesque rendering of London painted out. in the programme of rolling five-day strikes are those of ward in this battle. But this must be concretised and materi - The Ruby Kid workers in the Employment Agency (OAED) , in social secu - alised. Syriza should mobilise in every neighbourhood to rity (IKA), and in social policy (POPOKP). work with the teachers’ struggle. Another four federations, health insurance (EOPYY), Min - The goal of bringing down the memorandum government The Dawn! The Dawn! The crimson-tinted, comes istry of Labour (OSYPE), the insurance fund for self-em - of Samaras looks ever closer. The important issue is not so Out of the low still skies, over the hills, ployed (PSE OAEE), and tax office (POE-DOH) took much the time of the elections as the level of class struggle Manhattan's roofs and spires and cheerless domes! decisions in the summer in which they called on the public when the government is overthrown. The Dawn! My spirit to its spirit thrills. sector workers’ union confederation Adedy to coordinate The evolution of the international crisis makes it clear that Almost the mighty city is asleep, and organise an ongoing general strike. a left-wing way out requires the greatest possible social mo - No pushing crowd, no tramping, tramping feet. Adedy is still led by New Democracy and Pasok members, bilisation, something much more active, much more con - But here and there a few cars groaning creep and so unlikely to do that. The federations should move di - scious, and much more militant than just voting. Along, above, and underneath the street, rectly to join the programme of rolling five-day strikes, and The primary responsibility for the successful escalation of Bearing their strangely-ghostly burdens by, create a common centre of struggle with the other federa - the strikes belongs ultimately to the political Left, predomi - The women and the men of garish nights, tions. nantly Syriza, and not the trade union movement and its Their eyes wine-weakened and their clothes awry, This fight can and should be connected to the struggle leadership. Grotesques beneath the strong electric lights. waged by workers at the public broadcaster, ERT. ERT of - Syriza should development a clear, unambiguous com - The shadows wane. The Dawn comes to New York. fices remain occupied, broadcasting under workers’ control, prehensive proposal for termination of the old and new And I go darkly-rebel to my work. and can become the voice of the strike movement. memorandum and an explicit statement of immediate And now is the time for other public sector workers’ fed - termination of debt payments. 9 FEATURE Chávez’s Trotskyist cheerleaders

Pablo Velasco concludes his assessment of Hugo Chávez’s political legacy and the relationship of the “Bolivarian” state to Venezuela’s working class. In this article, he looks at the at- titude of international Trotskyism, and particularly the “In- ternational Marxist Tendency” to Chávez. The accommodation and prostration of the apparently “Trotskyist” left to Chávez was one of the principal sig - nifiers of a wider ideological collapse of socialism that took place in the early years of this century. Alongside support for the murderous Islamist “resistance” (instead of trade unionists and secular forces) in Iraq, sup - port for Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian state against Is - rael, support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, along with quietism over Libya and Syria, the abasement before Chavismo was a clear sign of the residual gangrene of Stalin - ism within the workers’ movement. How did the left divide on Chávez? Workers’ Liberty was one of the few critical voices on the Marxist left to charac - A feature from pro-Chávez Venezuelan newspaper Ciudad CCS reporting (approvingly) on Alan Wood’s sycophantic praise for Chávez terise Chávez as a Bonapartist. The fragments of the Workers’ and the “Bolivarian Revolution” Power/Permanent Revolution group took a similar position in Britain, although Workers’ Power were credulous about find international apologists. Chávez flattered Woods by gressive against capitalism, while Woods misread Bona - Chávez’s creation of the PSUV, and advocated that Venezue - reading extracts from his book Reason in Revolt on his TV partism in Venezuela for a genuine workers’ movement. lan independent socialists join it. The International Socialist show “Alo Presidente” on 21 March 2004. He also talked Woods wrote that the big industries must be nationalised, Organization in the US was also somewhat critical. about the HOV campaign for 20 minutes. At the filming of but insisted this “can be done by introducing emergency leg - The British SWP, along with the “Fourth International” “Alo Presidente” on Sunday 18 April 2004, Woods was islation through the congress” – a version of the old “en - (Socialist Resistance in Britain) and others such as the “placed in the front row, in a prominent position immedi - abling act in parliament” that Militant used to preach in Weekly Worker/ ”Communist Party of Great Britain” group, ately opposite the president”. He was also “received by Pres - Britain as the key step to building socialism. He added that took a typically centrist position, welcoming the Bolivarian ident Chávez for a private audience that lasted well over an an appeal should be made to workers to introduce workers’ “revolutionary process” (and advocating working within it), hour”. control to “ensure a peaceful and orderly transition to a without clearly identifying its class character and its dangers Chávez apparently flattered Woods on camera, reading planned economy”. Woods wrote that the masses must for working-class independence and political representation. from another book and saying, not without a touch of irony, “purge” the state. He believed in 2004 that the Chávez gov - Thus Joseph Choonara’s SWP pamphlet, Venezuela and that “he who does not learn from history is doomed to repeat ernment had carried out a partial purge — but “a serious Revolution in the 21st Century (2006) cheered on the “revo - it”. The website report coos that, “In the course of the pro - purge can only be carried from below”. lutionary process”, and pulled its punches about Chávez. It gramme, Hugo Chávez mentioned Alan at least three times” took Chávez’s rhetoric about socialism at face value, arguing and “has given his personal support to the publishing of the REFORMIST that “Venezuela has placed the questions of socialism and Venezuelan edition of Reason in Revolt ”. So: the state does not need to be smashed, and the army workers’ power back on the agenda”. Worse, the SWP ad - Woods’ own account of his visit provides Chávez with an does not need to split — the existing state merely needs vised Venezuelan socialists to “work within the revolution - unqualified endorsement. He says: “Hugo Chávez for the to be “purged” (“from below”, of course!) to ensure a ary process”, accepting the hegemony of Chávez, going first time gave the poor and downtrodden a voice and some “peaceful and orderly” transition to socialism. This is an along with his methods, and remaining silent about the na - hope.” Woods swoons: “From my limited contacts with utterly reformist perspective. ture and direction of Bolivarianism. Hugo Chávez, I am firmly convinced of his personal honesty, Woods’ method is well summed up in the opening and courage and dedication to the cause of the masses, the op - closing paragraphs of his “Theses on revolution and coun - SPECTRUM pressed and exploited.” terrevolution in Venezuela”. He described Venezuela as po - At the far end of the spectrum has been the Australian Chávez apparently told Woods that he didn’t consider larised between “two antagonistic camps” — the Green Left Weekly, whose longstanding Castroism was himself a Marxist “because I have not read enough Marxist “revolution” (including Chávez) and the “counterrevolu - complemented by its support for Chávez’s Bolivarian books”. To this Woods wrote: “From this conversation I had tion”. project. Although its reports from Venezuela were some - the distinct impression that Hugo Chávez was looking for He calls on Marxists to become the “extreme left wing of times informative of developments in the workers’ move - ideas, and that he was genuinely interested in the ideas of the Bolivarian movement”. By grouping the working class ment, the paper provided no independent strategy for Marxism and anxious to learn.” He finishes his report by say - with Chávez, he effectively does away with our class as an in - Venezuelan workers, tying them hand and foot to ing: “I believe that a growing number in the Bolivarian move - dependent political element. The workers are subordinated Chávez. ment are looking for the ideas of Marxism. I am sure that this to the Bolivarian revolution, with no interests separate from However the accolade for the most sycophantic “Trotsky - applies to many of its leaders. And Hugo Chávez? He told Chávez – in short, they are merely a stage army for petty ist” capitulation to Chavismo must surely go to the “Interna - me that he is not a Marxist because he had not read enough bourgeois politics. tional Marxist Tendency”, which publishes Socialist Appeal Marxist books. But he is reading them now.” Woods included a chapter entitled “foxes and grapes” in in Britain and runs the misnamed “In Defence of Marxism” Woods provided a “Marxist” capitulation for the “Bolivar - his book, selectively quoting from AWL articles without cita - website. Its leading theoretician Alan Woods was previously ian revolution” in two long essays: “Marxism and the tion. We debated his supporters on a number of occasions, infamous for his comments, during the Militant Tendency Venezuelan Revolution” and “Theses on revolution and where they played the role of energetic but uncritical defend - days, about “dark masses” in Afghanistan, which provided counterrevolution in Venezuela”, both written after his visit ers of Chávez. Woods sat with Ken Livingstone, Tariq Ali, cover for Militant’s support for the Russian invasion in 1980. in 2004. and others fawning over Chávez during his visit to London After Militant split in the early 90s (with those around Peter Woods offered an interpretation of Trotsky’s theory of per - in 2006. His supporters tried to organise flag-waving outside Taaffe going on to found the Socialist Party, and sect leader manent revolution to justify turning Chávez into a (uncon - Chávez’s hotel in a sickening parallel of royalist pageantry. Ted Grant, Alan Woods, and others founding Socialist Ap - scious) socialist revolutionary. He wrote that socialist Meanwhile, most IMT supporters in Venezuela took Woods’ peal), the group was in an advanced state of decomposition. revolutions normally require a Marxist party to be victorious advice very seriously and dissolved into Chávez’s PSUV. Its embrace of Chavismo gave it some new life, although on – but, since this is absent today, “all sorts of peculiar variants After Chávez’s death, Woods appeared on television and a reactionary basis. are possible”. He made it clear that Chávez is such a peculiar wrote a tribute, demonstrating that he has learned nothing Socialist Appeal launched the “Hands off Venezuela” locum: “In the absence of a mass revolutionary Marxist party of value to Venezuelan workers or indeed the workers of the (HOV) campaign, which went beyond the laudable goal of the forces of revolution have gathered around Chávez and world. He repeats the passage about Chávez not being a opposing US intervention in Venezuela and tried to put a so - the Bolivarian Movement.” Marxist “because he hadn’t read enough Marxist books… but cialist gloss on Chávez’s bourgeois and Bonapartist politics. Woods spread the most ridiculous illusions about the he is reading them now”. But nearly a decade on, with capi - The HOV statement requires signatories to agree to the “de - peaceful road to socialism. He wrote that, in Venezuela in talism still extant and the bourgeois state still intact in fence of the revolutionary process” in Venezuela, and its April 2002, “it would have been possible to carry out a peace - Venezuela, this slippery formula simply does not wash. website is subtitled “in solidarity with the Venezuelan revo - ful transformation of society after the collapse of the coup”. If socialism is to be renewed in the 21st century, it lution”. He added that a peaceful transformation was also possible must be scrubbed clean of substitutionist politics that Woods’ book The Venezuelan Revolution (2005) deserves after the bosses’ lockout in 2002-2003. He followed his men - look to other class forces — Stalinist states, Islamists, its place in the catalogue of infamy, providing a “Marxist” tor Ted Grant, who argued for similar forms of substitution - or petty-bourgeois Bonapartes like Chávez — to carry rationale for dissolving working-class politics in Venezuela ism and peaceful overturn in Portugal in 1974, adding for out historical goals that only an independently organised into Chavismo. good measure that “the lower officer caste becomes – for a and politically conscious revolutionary workers’ move - The book recounts a relationship instigated by Chávez to period – the unconscious agent of history”. Grant also saw ment can fulfil. the “proletarian Bonapartism” of the Stalinist states as pro - 10 FEATURE Rivers of rubbish Some left groups tell straightforward lies about the positions are “degenerated and deformed workers’ states” per se, with of other groups — and particularly about Workers’ Liberty. sharing responsibility for the Stalinist “rivers of blood”! At the 14 September meeting of the Socialist Platform of Left A broadsheet by the “Revolutionary Internationalist Unity, the Weekly Worker-CPGB (very unsuccessfully) League” (RIL), given out at Labour Party conference, put the pushed a motion to exclude AWL, saying we were “pro-im- anti- Socialist Organiser canard like this: Socialist Organiser perialist”, and supported the US bombing of Syria. said “rivers of blood” lay between Eric Heffer and Militant In fact, the issue of Solidarity on sale at the meeting in- because “they regard the East European states as deformed cluded the headline “Against US bombs”.... This 1991 article workers’ states”. Full stop! That would indeed be strange – by Sean Matgamna from Socialist Organiser, Solidarity’s and indeed very cur-like – since we ourselves were “workers’ predecessor, documented some of the older streams of falsi- statists” when we took the opposite view to that of Militant fication on which today’s diatribes draw. on Russia’s “Vietnam War” in Afghanistan! RIL is on the extreme idiocy wing of kitsch Trotskyism (the Biblical scholars, I understand, have a terrible time of it same publication called on the – mainly Kinnockite – confer - working out what some of the long-vanished early Chris - ence delegates to “disrupt” conference and force a way in for tian groups believed. Nellist and Fields, the two expelled Militant-supporting They have to rely on such chance survivals as the “Dead They say Socialist Organiser failed to oppose Thatcher’s Labour MPs!) Sea Scrolls”. Most of the rich history of the competing Chris - Falklands War! That lie seems to have originated in the Workers’ Press , tian groups in the later Roman Empire is lost: the victorious published by one of the saner splinters from Gerry Healy’s Catholic Christians entwined with the Roman and later states stead of military sanctions against Argentina. The same issue WRP. There the sentence from Anne Field appeared in full from the early 4th century onwards, suppressed their oppo - of SO opposed that idea editorially — on page one. Neverthe - quotes, but with a full stop after “workers’ states” and the nents and left little trace of them and their beliefs except for less the sectarians say, “ SO called for economic sanctions”. example of Militant’s line on the invasion of Afghanistan factional slanders and lies. Mostly we don’t know what they And so on. [...] simply lopped off, with no indication of a cut. believed. One of the worst examples is a pamphlet put out in 1970, If all the files of Socialist Organiser were to be destroyed and kept in circulation for over a decade, by the SLL/WRP. It POLEMICS and future historians of British socialism had to rely on the alleged that Workers Fight [forerunner of AWL] supported The author of t he Workers’ Press effort was a certain comments of our “socialist” contemporaries and critics, they the deployment of the British army in Northern Ireland. Charlie Pottins, who used to lend his name — and his would face a similarly hopeless task establishing what So - It had a picture of British soldiers searching a man in status as a Jew and a member of the all-too-tolerant cialist Organiser believed in. Northern Ireland with his hands in the air, and the caption Jewish Socialists’ Group (JSG) — to some of the foulest Examples of grotesque misrepresentation are legion. Some seemed to blame us, and me personally, for it! In fact Work - anti-Socialist Organiser polemics produced against us are products of emotion blended with incomprehension. For ers’ Fight opposed the deployment of the troops in 1969. by the Healy WRP. instance, on issues of national or communal conflict, like When the SWP (then called IS) supported the deployment of Themselves subsidised by Arab governments – Iraq, Libya those in Northern Ireland and in Israel/Palestine we base our - troops, the Workers’ Fight grouping inside IS organised an – and paid by them to spy on Arab dissidents and prominent selves on the Marxist idea of consistent democracy, and take opposition to that policy and, after a heated campaign, forced Jews here, they used to have crazy articles accusing us of as our model the application of that idea by the Bolshevik them to reverse it. being in a “Zionist conspiracy” with Reagan and Thatcher! party in the vicious cauldron of ethnic and national conflict I co-authored a pamphlet which helped change people’s (The episode, in passing, demonstrates with wonderful in which they operated. minds and went round the country speaking and debating irony the advantages of principled Leninist politics over We reject the demonisation of Israeli Jews and Northern on it; I moved the resolution at the IS National Committee in everything else on the left. The JSG is a rather strange and Ireland Protestants; we say there is right on both sides and May 1970 which reversed the policy. loose political group, organised round an ill-defined Jewish - that no national or ethnic group forfeits its right to exist be - Before that it so happened that in 1969 I was a member of ness rather than precise political ideas. Here, their apolitical cause it is, for now, an oppressor or a would-be oppressor; the council which, between August and October 1969, ran solidarity with Pottins meant that they allowed themselves to we advocate mutual accommodation and a common struggle Catholic Derry — behind barricades to keep out the British be used as camouflage for Healy’s WRP, who were the paid of the working class in the conflict-ridden peoples, based on Army. When the people now in John Hume’s SDLP moved agents of various Arab governments, agents whose brief in - support for the oppressed and mutual guarantees against that we remove the barricades and let the British Army in cluded the task of spying on prominent Jews in Britain. A fear of future oppression. Thus we propose a federal Ireland peacefully, the local leaders of the left backed the motion — blinkered apolitical self-definition as “Jewish” led these Jew - with local autonomy, and two states for the two peoples in Is - they felt we were in a complete impasse — and I moved the ish socialists into an unwanted — but, for the Healyites, very rael/Palestine. defeated motion of opposition to letting the British Army useful — association with mercenary anti-Semites who were Ignorant of the ideas of historical Marxism on questions take over “Free Derry”. My amendment rejected the right of nothing less than potential pogromists. The JSG may not like this; delirious with vicarious “Third Worldist” national the committee to liquidate “Free Derry”, and proposed that recognise Leninist politics, but Leninist politics recognises and communal chauvinism distilled from sympathy with the issue be put to a mass meeting of the people who lived the JSG!) those presently oppressed; religious in denying that such there. Workers’ Press is sectarian and disoriented, but it has peoples can ever be chauvinistic, the sectarian left denounce Later, it so happened that the Workers’ Fight group was made strenuous efforts in the last 6 years to slough off the us as supporters of the oppressors, as “pro-imperialist”. the only British left group to have its headquarters raided by lying practices of Healy. So why this misrepresentation of So - Thus the SWP, not just in offhand heated exchanges but in armed police in connection with Ireland — in September cialist Organiser ? What purpose is served? [...] an official document written by Alex Callinicos, has accused 1973. (The WRP “college” was raided by police in 1975, after [This situation] presupposes a world of closed groups, the us of supporting the Israeli state’s terror in the West Bank a member had complained about ill-treatment there). “Trotskyist” archipelago, with little dialogue or exchange of and Gaza! They seem unable to comprehend what we are on information between the inhabitants of the different atolls, about. Some of the incomprehension, no doubt, is our fault; BRANDED and little desire or demand for it — a demand, on the con - but communication is a two-way enterprise. But still, we, and me in particular, were branded as sup- trary, for myths and lies and the sustaining half-truth and a Or take the Falklands war. We opposed that war. We did porters of the British Army in Northern Ireland in 1969. keen eagerness to believe stories that the people of the neigh - not, like the “anti-imperialist” left (and much of the Labour Therefore we had a direct responsibility for what the British bouring island go around with their heads under their arms left), support Argentina; nor did we dismiss the claimed state was doing in Northern Ireland in the ‘70s! Or so the because their ears are three feet long. It testifies to a political rights to self-determination of the British population of the WRP said. world way below the standards of truth and objectivity of Falkland Islands, 400 miles from Argentina. The fascistic self- Everyone knows that the Healy WRP were liars. But so is even the serious bourgeois newspapers. It presupposes a aggrandising military junta which then held Argentina in a the IS/SWP. In the mid-70’s SWPer David Widgery edited a mental world where people don’t want to know, or — and murderous stranglehold invaded the islands in a search for Penguin book on the left in Britain consisting almost entirely this is the point, I think — cannot afford to let themselves chauvinist prestige at home. of old IS/SWP articles. In it he defined WF as a group which know if they are to sustain their commitment and their con - Since the Falklanders oppressed no-one, the islands were “proposed the repartition of Ireland”. It was a lie. [...] viction. They cannot afford to let themselves think. not a British base for oppressing anyone, and the British had Or take this more recent example: during the Walton by- It is a world in which the citizens have lost the battle on been there 150 years, long before the modern Argentinian election an article in Socialist Organiser rejected Militant’s the ideological front against bourgeois society, and have re - state existed, we saw no reason to back Argentina’s claim to claim to be the political heirs of the recently dead Walton MP, treated into private political worlds of their own, hidden be - the islands. Eric Heffer. hind protective barriers of myths, lies and special pleading to But we were, by any standards, against Thatcher’s war of “Rivers of blood” separated Heffer, the consistent anti-Stal - protect them from the often painful choices of the real world. prestige and nostalgic gunboat imperialism. Throughout the inist, from Militant, wrote Anne Field. Militant “regards the A healthy revolutionary socialist movement would en - war we carried on SO ’s masthead a variant of Karl now-collapsing Stalinist states as workers’ states and even gage critically and creatively with that real world, going Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg’s slogan in World War I: supported the Soviet Union’s bloody occupation of out to take on the ideological battle rather than shelter - “The enemy is at home”. Yet ask any sectarian today, and Afghanistan” (Emphasis added; and there are examples ing behind lies, myths, and demonisation of those who you’ll hear that SO did not oppose the Falklands (sorry, other than Afghanistan of Militant’s enthusiasm for Stalin - refuse to hide as they hide, in other words, who refuse to “Malvinas”) war. ism, though none so terrible). put their own political eyes out. Then again: SO , which tries to be an open paper, carried At least two publications have denounced Socialist Organ - • Report of LU SP meeting: bit.ly/lu-sp-report. an article by the then MP Reg Race advocating economic in - iser for equating adherence to the theory that Stalinist states • Polemic following this article in 1991: bit.ly/rivers2 11 REPORTS

Tube Firefighters to strike cleaners to boycott By Darren Bedford action had to be called. The has yet been reached in strike on Wednesday lasts Scotland. biometrics Firefighters in England four hours from 12 noon to London FBU has been and Wales will strike on 4pm. critical of this decision, By Jonny West Wednesday 25 Septem - The FBU issued a state - which it says is “divisive, ber after governments in ment stating it had “no op - damaging and ultimately Tube workers have re - Westminster and Cardiff tion” but to call periods of wrong for a campaign”. In - turned a 98% vote in refused to budge in the strike action in England stead, it argued that “only favour of industrial ac - pensions dispute with the and Wales. Last week, a proposals that have the tion against the intro - Fire Brigades Union motion to the executive (FBU). support of all three admin - duction of biometric from the London region istrations will, if worthy, be fingerprinting in their noted that “the apparent The FBU does not accept put to FBU members for workplaces. lack of progress and reluc - the proposed pension consultation”. tance to set strike dates, is Cleaners employed by scheme that may see fire - members for acceptance. in offering further conces - The London region is fighters forced out of the causing frustration, and ISS are now expected to A London FBU statement sions. So the message from right that strike action is job early or forced to work some degree of disorienta - sign in and out of work said: “Enough is enough. the London region to the necessary now, to test the using biometric thumb- to 60, putting public safety tion, among our members”. We have negotiated for national union is clear: at risk. It demanded that the exec - resolve of the government print machines. Their over two years. We have Something needs to hap - and to make it clear fire - union, RMT, has called Firefighters voted by utive not to agree to any talked until we are blue in pen now.” nearly four-to-one in the extensions to the legal time fighters will not accept a the introduction of the the face. We have tested The FBU nationally says machines “a draconian ballot over the summer. Al - limit for taking strike ac - our members’ patience to that revised proposals from botched pension scheme. However a well- attack on civil liberties”. though some progress has tion unless either signifi - breaking point (and proba - the Scottish government thought through strategy Tube bosses and clean - been made in Scotland, cant progress had been bly far beyond). There is no mean industrial action will is needed to ensure fire - ing contractors have a which means strikes will made in negotiations or indication at all of any real not proceed in Scotland at fighters don’t end up with not take place there next proposals had been re - progress in recent negotia - this time, while consulta - history of colluding to week, the lack of move - ceived which it is prepared tions; no sign that the gov - tion with members there a shoddy deal once the use cleaners’ often pre - ment at Westminster meant to recommend to all FBU ernment is truly interested takes place. No agreement action has taken place. carious immigration sta - tuses to intimidate workers and undermine Hovis pickets stay strong union organisation; there Teachers’ campaign needs are fears that the intro - By Darren Bedford duction of biometric early-morning picket booking on will increase “quite a sizeable demon - their ability to do so. Police have attempted to stration”, numbering al - rank-and-file strategy The action, a boycott break up picket lines at most 100 people. A of the machines, will the Hovis factory in Facebook video shows the By Martin Thomas Wigan where workers picket obstructing a goods begin on Thursday 19 are striking against the lorry so that it took 40 From the “Rally for Edu - September. use of zero-hour con - minutes to travel just 500 cation” called by NUT ISS cleaners on East tracts. metres, under police es - and NASUWT on 14 Sep - Coast Mainline also struck on Monday 16 Three people were ar - cort. tember in London, I con - September to win living rested in the early hours of The continuing strike clude that to combat wages. The RMT said: 16 September, and one ac - was bolstered by a city- Gove and the govern - tivist was thrown into the centre demonstration in ment, we will also have to “ISS Ltd. is loaded with road on her back as police Wigan on Saturday 14 organise at rank-and-file cash. Even after deduct - September. level, and challenge the ing for its liabilities, it used force to clear a block - The strike’s first de - ade of the road leading in leaders of our unions. had total assets of over mand (that Premier £129 million. The direc - the factory. Foods, which owns the We will have to challenge According to the Union the supposedly left-wing tors also continue to be factory, stop using zero- highly rewarded. News website, “two peo - hours contracts directly) leaders of the National “As a group they re - ple were arrested on sus - has already been met, Union of Teachers as well Teachers need to organise independently of union leaders ceived £2.265 million in picion of obstructing the but workers are fighting as the openly professional - remuneration, up from highway while a third was on to win their second ist NASUWT leadership. £2.115 million the year arrested for a public order demand — an end to The rally was supposed wouldn’t know about the tion on pay and standards offence. One of the three is before — a rise of over agency labour in the fac - to be the first step in a re - strikes at all. is strong union organisa - 7%. And the highest a local Unite organiser.” newed campaign about tory. I left the rally at 12:15 for tion in the schools, and that paid director alone re - The police called the pay, pensions, and quality another meeting. The rally has to be built in the first ceived £620,000.” of education. was due to close at 12:30. place by effective action on The next step is strikes in Up to 12:15, no speaker the day-to-day issues of Strike vote in some regions on 1 October from the platform — not workload, management and others on 17 October. I NUT exec member Alex bullying, and the blighting More Lambeth libraries know that from socialist Kenny, introducing the of education by perform - leaflets distributed at the Unison members working in rally; not Patrick Roach, ance appraisals. industrial door of the rally. I can con - The left needs to define libraries in Lambeth, south deputy general secretary of firm it on the NUT website, a new strategy, rather news online London, have voted the NASUWT — had even than a stepped-up ver - unanimously to strike against though that website leaves me puzzled on why Wales hinted at the strikes. sion of the current tac - proposed cuts to jobs and In effect, “the dispute” is tics. I hope for a new • Cleaners’ strike in services. has been deleted from the list of strike areas pub - being narrowed down to an direction to come out Britain’s richest borough The consultative ballot, appeal to Gove to negotiate from the Local Associa - bit.ly/kenchel-cleaners which had a 73% turnout, was lished earlier. with the unions, with very tions for National Action called in response to If I relied on the speeches few specifics about what Campaign (LANAC) steer - • Unison ballots for proposals from Lambeth at the rally, or on the offi - cial union leaflets about the unions will ask for in, ing committee on 21 Sep - Higher Education pay Council to cut library services tember. strikes to the lowest levels in London. “what next” placed on the or hope to get from, the ne - gotiations. bit.ly/unison-he-ballot Unison can now move to a chairs at the rally, or any • Abridged from formal ballot. other official union posters The necessary ground - bit.ly/nut-rally or placards there, I still work for any effective ac - Syria: bombing averted, prospects S&o Wlorikdersa’ Libreirtty y still grim

By Stephen Wood Tellingly Syrian Gov - ernment reconciliation Plans by the USA to minister Ali Haidar bomb Assad’s military thanked his “Russian bases have been stalled friends” for helping by the “Framework for achieve a “victory for Defend unions’ the Elimination of Syrian Syria”. Chemical Weapons”. It may well be, though, This agreement be - that despite the official tween the US and Russia statements Obama is re - demands Assad hand lieved that he has been over his chemical “forced” not to bomb: say in politics weapons and allow for there were no clear gains, the handover to be veri - even from a US point of fied by the Organisation view, which he could ex - for the Prohibition of pect from a bombing raid. Chemical Weapons By Liam McNulty Collins produces a report democrats to the CAC: Katy (OPCW). This would be a rubber-stamped by the Na - Clark MP and Pete Wills - condition for Syria joining FSA Activists meeting on 16 tional Executive Committee man from the Campaign for the Chemical Weapons The opposition Free Syr- September have decided and then bounced through Labour Party Democracy Convention and removing ian Army has con- to launch a broad “Defend the special conference. (CLPD). its stocks of chemical demned the deal as the [union] Link” cam- Yet we know that some One rule-change, submit - weapons much faster then allowing Assad to get paign, based on a state- even within the Miliband ted by the train drivers’ other signatories to the away with further mas- ment issued in July which camp have misgivings union ASLEF, proposing to agreement — including sacres. has already got wide sup- about the danger of damag - crack down on the hugely- the USA and Russia! port. ing the union link on which funded Blairite organisa - Even if chemical As socialists, we are Labour depends, and most tion, Progress, has been weapons are removed, the Keith Ewing will be the glad of the reprieve from of the affiliated unions do withdrawn under pressure Syrian state will still at - president of the new cam - bombing. Military experts not like Miliband’s plan at from the party leadership, tack its own people. The paign, Mark Seddon will be had said that a short spate all. A vigorous campaign and apparently without FSA has called for further chair, and Jon Lansman and of bombing would across the movement can ASLEF wringing any con - supply of arms and more Marsha-Jane Thompson achieve little; more sus - force the leadership to back cessions in return. direct political support for will be joint secretaries. tained bombing would down. Of the two remaining overthrowing the Assad They are confident of win - bring “mission creep”. We Delegates for the spring Ray Collins rule-changes one, from regime. ning the official support of detest Assad, but the vic - conference will probably be Northampton Borough Increasingly, however, at least some unions. tory of the militarily dom - the militias on the ground The campaign will be out the same as for the 2013 an - Labour Party, seeks to end ketisation. inant groups in the are quite distinct from the and about as delegates will nual conference. The De - open-ended suspensions of On the Sunday morning opposition would bring FSA. assemble on 21-22 Septem - fend the Link Campaign party members by reducing of conference, Save nothing better. Military consultants ber in Brighton for the will organise to convince the period of suspension Lewisham Hospital and The UK, US and France IHS Jane’s have released Labour Party Conference delegates and unions of the pending investigation to a other NHS campaigners say they want a UN reso - estimates of the makeup 2013, in the shadow of Ed need to preserve the collec - year. The other, from Ley - will be outside the confer - lution under chapter VII of the estimated 100,000 Miliband’s proposal to tive affiliation and voting ton and Wanstead CLP and ence centre on the demon - of the UN Charter which fighters of the Syrian op - count out trade unionists power of the unions at its Redcar CLP, would allow stration organised by would allow UN cover for position. They count who do not individually current level. local Labour parties to elect Brighton People’s Assembly military action against the 35,000 “hard-line Is - “opt in” to pay the political We should also resist any their group leaders on and Brighton Benefits cam - Syrian regime should the lamists” and 30,000 “mod - levy to Labour. move by the Labour Party councils through an elec - paign. “Framework” fail. The US erate Islamists”. Former Labour general to try to force its affiliated toral college, rather than Rule-changes were sub - says it is still prepared to There are 10,000 “ji - secretary Ray Collins was unions to change their own leaving the decision in the mitted last year by a total of bomb without UN agree - hadists”, many of them asked by Miliband to carry rulebooks. hands of a small group of 21 CLPs. There is a one-year ment if it sees fit. foreign fighters linked to out a review on the Labour- councillors. Delegates delay on rule changes from But for Russia and Syria salafist groups. The re - union link, and into a “pri - POLICY MAKING should support both. CLPs, though not the NEC. Miliband cannot be al- the deal has obvious ad - maining 25,000 are listed mary” (with non-members The opportunity for real But five of the proposals lowed to come out of this vantages. Russia can con - as nationalist and secular participating) for the selec - decision-making by con- have been ruled out of conference without visible tinue to back the regime groups. tion of Labour’s London ference has been heavily order by the Conference discontent from party and provide weapons, Progress in Syria de- mayoral candidate. curtailed since the Arrangements Committee members and trade union- and increases its diplo - pends on the emergence Collins conducted an “in - changes imposed by Tony (CAC), without grounds or ists over his threats to the matic prestige. Assad can of a democratic and terim review” over the sum - Blair in 1997. on flimsy pretexts. collective affiliation of the continue his war, only working-class Third mer. It is possible that he Most policy is now just This year, for the first unions. with fewer or more dis - Camp opposed both to will provide an interim re - “announced” by the party time in ages, there has been creet chemical weapons, Assad and to the sectar- port to the Sunday (22 Sep) leadership, with a desultory a strong campaign to elect and avoid US bombing. ian militias. session of conference. Prob - sham of consultation • bit.ly/d-t-l ably it will be a token affair. though policy commissions We hope so: we do not and the National Policy want a repeat of 2011, when Forum. LABOUR — STOP a huge package of rule Nevertheless, annual con - changes, entitled Refound - ference will debate some SUPPORTING TORY POLICIES ing Labour, was bounced contemporary motions and through conference with rule changes to the party scarcely a chance even to constitution. Labour Party Conference demonstration read them and no speakers The NHS Liaison Net - taken against them. work is promoting a motion • Oppose austerity As we understand it, the re-affirming last year’s Labour leadership then unanimously-agreed policy, • Support real paid employment plans a “consultation committing Labour to the • End corporate welfare process” culminating in a repeal of the Health and So - • Tax the rich to fund decent benefits special conference, probably cial Care Act, the cancella - 1 March 2014. From past ex - tion of PFI debts and a UN chemical weapons inspectors perience, the leadership will reversal of cuts and mar - Sunday 22 September. The Level, Brighton, 10.30 am be hoping for a fix, in which