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

No 335 10 September 2014 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org Reduce borders, don’t raise them!

See pages 5-7 The socialist case against Scottish separation 2 NEWS

What is the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? Defend Iraqi and Kurdish socialists! On 5 September US presi - Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to dent Barack Obama an - another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. nounced a “game plan” to Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to increase their wear down the “Islamic wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, unemployment, the State” movement (ISIS), blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the environment and much else. which has seized a large Against the accumulated wealth and power of the swathe of Syria and Iraq capitalists, the working class has one weapon: and imposed Sunni-sec - solidarity. tarian ultra-Islamist rule. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity through struggle so that the working class can overthrow On 8 September US Secre - capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership of tary of State John Kerry industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy much fuller hailed the formation of a than the present system, with elected representatives recallable at any new Iraqi government in Refugees fleeing the town of Amerli time and an end to bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. Baghdad. We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” The US will bomb more. nally inclusive”. But then so Turkmen townspeople. exhume the mass graves... and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. (Obama ruled out ground has been every recent Iraqi But Greg Jaffe reports: “A few hundred yards Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, troops). There is much less government. Nominally. So “As the Kurdish pesh - away was the Sunni village supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping “breakthrough” than far this one is shakier than merga fighters approached of Suleiman Beg, once home organise rank-and-file groups. claimed. its predecessors, not the city to greet the resi - to about 10,000 people and We are also active among students and in many campaigns and Although every govern - stronger. dents they helped save... now completely aban - alliances. ment in the region fears and It has no Interior Minister ‘peshmerga forces are not doned... No one had any dislikes ISIS, so far the USA or Defence Minister. The al - allowed to enter this city!’ idea what would happen to We stand for: has only been able to sign lies of Hussain al-Shahris - yelled a Shiite militiaman the empty city. The pesh - ● Independent working-class representation in politics. up Turkey to its “core coali - tani, former deputy prime with Kataib Hezbollah, an merga and Shiite militia ● A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour tion”. US bombing may help minister, oil minister, and Iraqi group. He waved his fighters agreed that Sunni movement. the armed forces of the Iraqi acting foreign minister, have rifle at them and the pesh - Arabs couldn’t be trusted to ● A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to Kurdistan regional govern - threatened to boycott the merga retreated... return”. (Greg Jaffe, Wash - picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. ment hold their own or administration. Kurdish “After being turned away ington Post, 5/9/14). ● Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education make slight advances, but it politicians have set a slew of from Amerli, the peshmerga Qasem Sulaimani, the and jobs for all. has no prospect of pushing demands and threatened to fighters returned to their head of the Iranian Revolu - ● A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full back ISIS in a large way. withdraw if they are not met base, just three miles away, tionary Guards’ elite equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden (Remember what 13 years of within three months. passing through a half- “Jerusalem Brigade”, was at of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, US bombing have done in On the ground, the resist - dozen other Shiite militia the Amerli front coordinat - bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity Afghanistan—rebuilt a po - ance to ISIS is a sectarian checkpoints. Some belonged ing with Shiite forces. So in against racism. litical base for the once-shat - mosaic. Its biggest triumph to the Badr Brigades, others fact the US was bombing to ● Open borders. tered Taliban, not defeated has been the reconquest of to Saraya al-Salam and help the Iranian Revolution - ● Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have it). the northern-Iraq town of Asaib Ahl al-Haq. Each flew ary Guards ... more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist The new government in Amerli on 31 August. That their own militia flag; the ISIS can be efficiently de - rulers. Baghdad is, as the Iraq Oil was surely a relief to the Iraqi flag was nowhere to be feated only by a secular and ● Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or Report website says, “nomi - seen... democratic Iraq, and a secu - community to global social organisation. “On the side of the road lar and democratic Syria. It ● Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all near Amerli, lined up in a will be a long struggle to nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. Land grab in West Bank row, were the bodies of wiInn tthhoes em. eantime, we ● Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. about a dozen Shiite men must work to defend Iraqi ● If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — By Tom Harris nance an emotive issue. killed in June during the and join us! and Kurdish socialists Given its proximity to the first wave of assaults by Is - against both the ISIS The Israeli government 1967 border, it seems likely lamic State insurgents in the threat, and the sectarian - Contact us: has declared over a thou - that at least part of the land area... With the Islamic State ism and war fever mo - sand acres of territory in would become part of Israel fighters gone, it was finally bilised against ISIS. ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] the occupied West Bank in exchange for other terri - safe for the local residents to The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley to be “state land”, making tory in the event of a two- Road, London, SE1 3DG. the construction of Israeli state solution. settlements legally possi - ● Printed by Trinity Mirror Nevertheless, the seizure ble. of yet more occupied land is Violence against children The declaration, coming an aggressive and inflam - By Gemma Short girls aged 15-19 believed soon after the recent war on matory act. It makes an in - that a husband was justi - One girl in 10 from Get Solidarity every week! Gaza, has been condemned dependent Palestinian state fied in hitting his wife around the world has by Palestinian and Israeli alongside Israel difficult. under certain circum - ● Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o been raped or sexually peace groups as a land grab Different critics have read stances. ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged assaulted by the time she o and a provocation. US and different motivations into As with the Rotherham is 20. £9 unwaged o British government minis - the move, with some inter - scandal, reported in Solidar - 44 issues (year). £35 waged ters have also urged the Is - preting it as a calculated hu - ity 335, violence is dispro - ● o miliation of Fatah, who rule This amounts to 120 mil - £17 unwaged raeli government to reverse lion girls worldwide. These portionately suffered by o its decision. in the West Bank, for going poor, vulnerable and work - ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) into coalition with the Is - horrifying facts come from o The seized land is in Gush a new UN report on vio - ing-class children. Often or 50 euros (44 issues) Etzion, a cluster of Jewish lamist Hamas. authorities understand or o Others reckon Benjamin lence against children, Hid - Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: settlements south of den in plain sight . care little about these chil - Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Netanyahu has allowed the dren. 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG seizure to go ahead as a sop It also reported that The area is a significant one, 95,000 children and The report categorically Cheques (£) to “AWL”. both historically and in to the settler movement and condemns physical punish - his right-wing base, both of teenagers were murdered Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. terms of where the bound - in 2012 alone and six out of ment of children by their aries of a Palestinian state whom are being courted by parents or carers. Research political rivals to his right. 10 children aged between Name ...... might be drawn. Gush Et - Either way, the task of 2-14 are physically pun - in the report further em - zion had been a site of Jew - the left in Israel, Palestine ished by their parents or phasises that violence is Address ...... ish settlement before the and internationally is to carers. “detrimental to all aspects declaration of the Israeli demand an end to the oc - In many countries vio - of a child’s growth... with ...... state, but the Jews there cupation, an end to land lence against children and sometimes lifelong reper - were massacred by the Arab grabs, and the creation of young women is socially cuCsshioilndsr.e”n have a right to I enclose £ ...... Legion in the 1948 Arab-Is - an independent Palestin - accepted or tacitly con - grow up without being raeli war, making its later ian state. doned. In the countries sur - subjected to violence of reconstruction and mainte - veyed nearly half of all any sort. 3 NEWS Solidarity with Calais migrants Putin keeps his

By Ira Berkovic Around 1,500 migrants options open currently live in Calais, Migrants and solidarity with more in other towns By Dale Street activists demonstrated in on France’s northern coast - Battered by superior Russian firepower, the Ukrain - Calais, France, on Sunday lines. Migrants live in aban - 7 September, in opposi - ian government signed a ceasefire with the pro- doned buildings, or in Russian separatists on 5 September. tion to fascist and other makeshift squats and anti-migrant racists who camps, sometimes called Only a fortnight before the Ukrainian military hemmed mobilised in the town to “jungles”. Many migrants separatists into three small enclaves, albeit at the cost of protest the presence of hope to board vehicles thousands of fatalities. migrants in Calais. crossing the English Chan - But then Russia jacked up the military backing it had The racist demonstration nel in order to enter Britain. given to the separatists from day one. Three offensives was organised by “Save In increasing desperation, were launched from Russian territory, Russian troops Calais”, a local right-wing migrants have tried to took part in those offensives, and yet more Russian mili - coalition. Prominent fascists storm passenger ferries or tary hardware was handed over to the separatists. addressed the demonstra - stow away in i ndividual Ukraine’s military was no match for what was effec - tion, including Yvan tourists’ cars. tively a Russian invasion. Benedetti, whose banned According to Calais Mi - On both sides there are strong factions who regard the L’Oeuvre Française group grant Solidarity, “UK immi - ceasefire as no more than a breathing space before new was implicated in the 2013 gration law makes it near war. murder of anti-fascist ac - impossible for the vast ma - Migrants oppose fascist demo in Calais Some hardliners in Russia and the “People’s Re - tivist Clément Méric. Many jority of non-nationals to publics” want a “Novorossiya” (“New Russia”) covering enter the country, since you much of Ukraine, even stretching to Romania, reducing demonstrators displayed spond to the right only by nous labour in Britain, need a visa to do so, for Ukraine to a small rump. white supremacist symbols asserting that the scale of much hyped-up by left-na - which you need money and Last weekend leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk and slogans, and gave Nazi the migrant “problem” is tionalists in the labour must satisfy a strict criteria. “People’s Republics” announced that they would be de - salutes. Fascists began a not so great as imagined. movement, can be dealt “Unless you are already manding full independence, not specifying for which ter - planned weekend of action We must respond by chang - with not by restricting im - in the country on a visa, ritory, at the next round of talks. If there was no by attacking a 15-year-old ing the terrain of the debate, migration but by working- you cannot claim asylum agreement on that, they said, the ceasefire would be student outside her school and reframing entirely how class organisation and from abroad. British law called off. on Friday 5 September. the “problem” is under - struggle for higher wages. therefore necessitates illegal On the Ukrainian side far-right factions rail at “be - 150 activists, migrants, stood. The migrant “problem” is entry to the UK for almost trayal”. and local residents partici - To racist, anti-migrant not an individual but a so - pated in a football tourna - all those who want to claim asylum. This forces mi - policy in both Britain and cial one, a question of how PRO-WAR ment organised to promote France, we must counter - civilised society allows Russian president Putin and Ukrainian president solidarity and anti-racism. grants, most of whom have survived war or human pose a working-class social human beings to starve and Poroshenko are both under pressure from pro-war 100 marched in a counter programme, including abo - die on its margins, rendered factions. demonstration against the rights violations — and many of whom are very lition of immigration con - “illegal”, when there is racists. The right-wing trols. If France abolished its enough wealth to provide a One of Putin’s key goals was to keep Ukraine out of young — to risk their lives NATO. Until a few months ago, that was a very distant demonstration mobilised immigration controls, and deTcehnet hliifset oforric eavle traysokn eo.f making clandestine entries prospect. It is still distant, but the “common sense” view around 150. embarked on a meaningful socialists is to build a in or under the lorries that in Ukraine now is that military expenditure should be in - Natacha Bouchart, Calais’ programme of welfare re - world where no-one is “il - travel to the UK.” creased and Ukraine should join NATO. UMP (Tory) mayor, called form and job creation, many legal”. on Calais citizens to block - France, Germany, and Neighbouring countries which are already NATO Sweden all receive a far migrants might choose to ade the port in order to freely settle in France. • More information: member-states, such as Poland and the Baltic states, are pressure the British govern - greater number of asylum calling for more support from NATO. claims than Britain. The risk of migrant calaismigrantsolidarity. ment into dealing with the labour undercutting indige - wordpress.com In the “People’s Republics” there is now what amounts problem. The far left cannot re - to a Russian-backed military dictatorship. Although the “People’s Republics” have their own “Supreme Soviets”, these are unelected bodies consisting of handpicked loyalists whose only function is to rubber - US casts round for Syrian allies stamp decisions made elsewhere. Real power lies with the military commanders. As German academic Margarete Klein recently wrote: By Stephen Wood and by extension Iran and Ford argues that were the The PYD and its armed “Putin’s long-term goal is clearly to exercise influence the Lebanese militia Hesbol - opposition to become more battalions, the YPG, have over all of Ukraine, ideally through the federalisation and Six and a half million Syri - lah would have a very nega - open and less obviously sec - fought ISIS longer than any neutrality of Ukraine. If he cannot achieve that, then he ans are now internally dis - tive impact on the USA’s tarian, then the US could other opposition group will go for controlled destabilisation. The problem is that placed. Two and a half relations with Turkey, the provide it with support to within Syria. ISIS has tar - the process cannot be controlled with 100% certainty. million have fled to Gulf states, and the Sunni remove Assad from power geted them because of the “Right now it looks like Russia’s plan is the Transnis - Turkey, Jordan and the Arab population in Iraq that and become a key ally in oil rich areas which fall trian scenario, a “frozen conflict”. A de facto separation Lebanon. NATO and its allies hope to fighting ISIS. under their control in of parts of Ukraine but which are not annexed into Russia turn against ISIS. However, the FSA is a Northern Syria, and because would ensure that Moscow can continue to exercise influ - After up to 200,000 deaths Former US ambassador to loose movement. Its nomi - ence over Ukraine”. (Transnistria is a segment of neigh - since mass protests against Syria Robert Ford has called nal leaders, “hotel revolu - of its sectarian hatred for bouring Moldova, nominally independent but actually the regime began in 2011, for greater support to the tionaries” outside Syria who Kurds. Moscow-dominated). the use of chemical weapons more moderate Free Syrian attend conferences and take From the beginning, in “Russia could add weight to its core demands – against his own people, and Army as a bulwark against part in failed negotiations, 2011, Arab chauvinists in neutrality and federalisation of Ukraine – through the the attempted starvation of ISIS. have little control over it. the Syrian opposition have permanent possibility of the threat of escalation. This civilians in opposition con - Over the last few months Several brigades have cold-shouldered the Kurds. explains why more and more highly placed figures trolled areas, Assad still re - there has been a small but worked with the Al-Nusra They were excluded from from Transnistria have recently taken up leading po - mains relatively firmly in emerging opposition to Front, the official Syrian Al the early official opposition sitions in the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’.” control of a rump Syrian Assad from amongst the Qaeda affiliate, and some thaTth feo rYmPeGd’ sth reo FleS Ain. beat - state. Alawite minority from have defected to the “Is - ing back ISIS at Mt Sinjar Some politicians in the which he comes. Many of lamic State” itself. USA and Europe are even them have suffered sectar - The US and its allies see in Iraq and their increas - starting to recommend an ian attacks from the Sunni the Kurds as the main bul - ing collaboration with alliance with Assad to stop dominated opposition, but wark against the growth of some other militias has ISIS (the “Islamic State” they have also suffered ISIS, but remain sceptical improved their image with movement). under the increasingly grim about the PYD, the main the Western powers; but However, direct links are and siege-like conditions of Syrian Kurdish group, the de facto anti-ISIS al - unlikely to begin anytime Syrian government-con - which has close ties with the liance remains uneasy. Poroshenko meets Obama and Cameron at Nato this week soon. Working with Assad trolled territory. Turkish-Kurdish PKK. 84 CFOEMAMTUENRET Support the Raising aspirations, Scottish socialist confronting vested interests republican Maria Exall remembers Tom Cashman, who died last from. He was never patronising — he just expected more. month Tom and I used to meet up to discuss the nature of the I am missing Tom, both as a friend and as a comrade. trade union bureaucracy and the state of the link between campaign! Labour and the unions. We would exchange stories of the As a comrade, what I miss most is the chance to engage many absurdities of the trade union movement and the with his perceptive insights into the class struggle now, and Labour Party. These would be discussed by Tom with acute his analysis of the history of the class. He had a deep under - analysis and dry humour. standing of the British (and Irish) labour movements. Tom Tom got elected to the Unite Executive and took the oppor - Letters was a highly intelligent man who used his great abilities to tunity to put into practice his commitment to an industrially promote the interests of the working class, this purpose being based but political trade unionism at a national level. He at the centre of his life all the time I knew him. worked for the important reforms undertaken by United Left The arguments on Scottish independence are simple and Tom was extremely confident in his political analysis, supporters to make the union workplace focused and demo - which meant he took no prisoners in an argument. But this clear for me. There is just one question on the ballot cratically accountable. This meant he had to confront vested was combined with a security in his own opinion which paper “Should Scotland be an independent country?” interests not only in the bureaucracy but also within the left. The answer is, yes or no. meant he had nothing to prove. He offered his analysis up as He always did this in a well thought out and principled way. it was — he was never aggressive or hectoring. Salmond wanted a third way/more devolution (devo max) When I first got to know Tom I was somewhat bemused I met many Unite activists who disagreed with him, but also option but Cameron refused this. Now the Tories are panick - that a focus of his union involvement was trade union educa - resItp eisc theda radn dto h taadk aen o anff ebcotiaornd f othr ahti mso. meone with Tom’s ing and offering all sorts of goodies if Scotland votes “no”. tion, something I had never seen as a particular priority for great insight and understanding is gone. His influence We don’t believe they will deliver. socialist activists. As I got to know him better I understood lives on in those of us who had the privilege of knowing So most of the left here is for yes and there has been a shift why. Tom had a massive commitment to raising aspirations him. in the political landscape for the last few years. Everyone is of the class at the same time as accepting where you start involved in this, young people especially as they have a vote. Whichever way the vote goes, nothing will be the same again. This is most definitely not a diversion from the class struggle; a new constitution (and we’ll fight for a republican one) will set the scene for all class struggle in future in Scot - The man who would be leader land. Most or all of Workers’ Liberty’s arguments are econo - mistic, but there is more to this than the economy; Of course that is important but for us is not the central issue. By Jon Lansman “I have nothing against people who earn large amounts of money for creating jobs and wealth and taking risks in our The main point is one of democracy, we want to vote for The Labour MP for Streatham and Shadow Business the people who govern us and not vote left and get a load of country,’ Umunna insists, ‘but I didn’t feel that giving 14,000 Secretary Chuka Umunna was interviewed in the Sep - millionaires a £40,000 tax cut was the right priority for us at Tories as we do now. I know outside Scotland that’s also true, tember issue of GQ: I have much sympathy for your predicament, having lived this juncture [my emphasis - JL].’ “ in Doncaster. The difference is Scotland has been a country “Gordon Brown dealt a blow to Labour’s economic credi - Meanwhile, as reported in the Times (2 September) before and can do that again. bility by wrongly giving the impression in his final year as Umunna has accepted and received a donation of £2,500 for A yes vote may be not socialism or liberation of course, but prime minister that the party failed to understand the impor - the running of his personal office from chartered tax advisers it can open doors which are closed now e.g. no anti-union tance of tackling Britain’s unprecedented peacetime budget Signature Tax. laws — we’ll certainly fight for that. Marx said that every re - deficit, the shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, has The company’s website describes its services as “a progres - form is a victory for the working class and this will certainly suggested.” sive tax planning boutique delivering tailored tax solutions be a progressive reform. What he is quoted as saying amounts to: to individuals and organisations internationally“. By the way, no one here is talking about erecting borders “My view is that the seeds were sown under the last gov - According to their website, Signature Tax provides special - between England and Scotland. That’s not important to us. I ernment and Gordon [Brown] – for whom I have a lot of re - ist advice on off-shore tax arrangements such as those Chuka don’t believe there will ever be a concrete border there like spect. His refusal to use the word ‘cuts’ in trying to frame the has previously advised Barclays bank to close down, to the one between Israel and Palestine. Any system of crossing economic debate as investment versus cuts gave the impres - clients who are subject to HMRC investigations, and on struc - borders will be very simple and is yet to be decided on by the sion we didn’t understand that debt and deficit would have tures designed to avoid HMRC’s Disclosure of Tax Avoid - new government we’ll elect after a possible yes vote. to be dealt with.” ance Schemes regulations. Most of us have family in England and we do want to still The tactics are pretty standard. Don’t say too much. Include LEFT relate to them as well as the English, Welsh, Irish north and something contradictory (his “respect” for Gordon) and leave In the period before he was elected as an MP in 2010, south (the Welsh and Irish working class were missed out the real punchlines to the spin doctor. when he presented himself as on the left, Chuka Umunna from the latest “pro union/no” argument in Solidarity ) and But kicking Brown and underlying the need for cuts is not described tax avoidance as “daylight robbery” and international working class. enough for this positioning exercise for a future leadership pushed for an end to the tax loopholes whose promoters Also to put unionists in quotes in your articles (that is candidate. He has to seek positive identification with his tar - now fund his activities speaking for Labour on business, “unionists”) is very telling. It’s a wee bit embarrassing per - get audience: innovation, trade and regulation. haps to be aligned with Ian Paisley (junior) David Cameron, “I do think we need to talk more proudly about our record. Gregory Campbell, Nigel Farage etc. But that’s exactly who We do need to explain and rebut this notion that we crashed His office (like those of Ed Balls and Jim Murphy) has also AWL is aligned with by advocating “no”. There’s Orange the car … My main argument in my conference speech was “benefited” in the last year from the secondment of research Order and UKIP marches here in a Scotland soon to support that we did not crash the car. Labour left the country in a far assistance by Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) to the value theI hUoKp eu nyionu.’ lWl pirlli nAt WthLis b teo s ugpivpeo rthtien gd tehbeamte, a sgoaminest musu?c h better state, and I say it all the time.” of over £60,000. needed balance. The combination of stressing the importance of being Given that Chuka Umunna has previously been accused of “proud of our record” whilst kicking Brown makes clear that double standards because his family home had been pur - Pauline Bradley, Dumbarton it is the Blairite record of which we must be proud. chased through a trust based in Jersey which Chuka has him - The Blairites wanted austerity [in 2010] and they want it self described as a “well-known tax haven”, you might have now. expected more discretion. And Chuka Umunna is making clear that he is the candi - When it came to taking money from the trade unions, date to take on the task should one be needed anytime soon. Chuka Umunna told the Today programme on Radio 4: You would have thought that eight months from a general “I think undoubtedly … we’re going to take a hit in terms election and so soon after the Tories have suffered their worst of our finances… We will see [how much], but that doesn’t and most damaging setback for sometime with the defection meBaunt twhahte itn i sitn ’ct othmee rsig thot tthaiknign gto mdoo.n” ey from those who to UKIP of Douglas Carswell was not the time to be publicly help the tax dodgers dodge their tax, “doing the right preparing your future challenge for Labour’s leadership. thing” doesn’t seem to count for as much. Still, at least Chukka isn’t quite as “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich“ as his friend Peter (to whom he is “intensely relaxed” about being compared), at least not yet, • From www.leftfutures.org, 1-2 September. anyway: 95 WHATF EWAET USARYE Reduce borders, don’t raise them! Borders divide the working class more than they divide capital. That is the core socialist argument for voting no to separation in Scotland’s referendum on 18 Septem - ber. The core argument can be overruled where one nation is conquered and ruled to ruin by another. Then, the national oppression creates divisions as evil as any border. Separation lifts the oppression. Workers are better united by a common struggle in which the workers of the oppressor nation side against their own ruling class’s sway over others. But Scotland has been an equal partner in British capital - ism for centuries. Scottish capitalists were equal partners with English in ruling the British Empire, not victims of it. The core argument applies. Already Scottish workers will stand outside the big strike on 14 October, because public sector pay terms are a shade different in Scotland. Some will say that’s all right, because Scottish terms are a shade better than England. But a united struggle could win much better than that shade of not-quite-as-bad. It is still true today, as when Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto , that “the struggle of the proletariat [working class] with the bourgeoisie is at first a national struggle”. The first move in workers’ struggles is almost always against conditions, settlements, and laws within the borders We will win more by fighting together where they live. Working-class liberation can be won only by a struggle which unites workers across the world around common aims, transcending those local details. Each new But it makes no sense to set up a new national frontier on defend the status quo. border creates a new hurdle to jump in the effort to unite the strength of those promises. It makes no sense to rank such Our arguments — against increased nationalism and creat - workers globally. It can be jumped; but it is a new hurdle. unstable promises above the fundamental, long-term truth ing borders — are a world away from the official “no” camp. Global capital, however, flows across borders easily. It uses that the working class benefits from borders being reduced We have no truck with UKIP types who want to keep the sta - borders to its advantage, by imposing a race to the bottom. and removed. tus quo and the Act of Union out of “patriotic” commitment Governments compete to win and keep global capitalist in - The SNP used to promise that a separate Scotland would to the United Kingdom. vestment, by offering lower and lower tax rates for the rich join the “arc of prosperity” of small states on the edge of Eu - Will Hutton, no socialist but clear-headed on this issue, put and for business, easier and easier regulation, and more and rope: Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Finland. it well in the Observer of 7 September: more beaten-down workf orces. Then Iceland, Ireland, and Finland were among the hard - “If Britain can’t find a way of sticking together, it is the Individual workers move across borders. But often with est-hit by the 2008 world economic crash and its sequels. death of the liberal enlightenment before the atavistic forces difficulty: look at Calais, a border within the EU! Even where Norway is better off only because of its huge oil reserves. of nationalism and ethnicity — a dark omen for the 21st cen - individual workers can move easily, whole working classes Separation will not stop the decline of the North Sea Scottish- tury... can’t move. British oil reserves, or make the exploitation of declining re - “[But the only alternative is] to trump half-cock quasi-fed - Working classes cannot threaten a government with losing serves eco-friendly. eralism with a proper version... a federal Britain... a whole - its working class to a neighbour unless it cedes better condi - Scottish separatists used to mock socialists who opposed sale recasting of the British state... tions to workers. Yet global capitalists threaten governments separation on the grounds that we were implicitly defending “The first casualty would be the Treasury, which would... with capital-flight unless they match their neighbours’ sweet - the British monarchy, NATO, and the British financial sys - become a humbler finance ministry. The next casualty would eners. tem. beF tohre uHnoituesde wofo Lrokrindgs.-.c.” lass struggle within a democratic Now the SNP says that its separate Scotland will still have The Scottish National Party promises that in a separate federal Britain, within a democratic federal united Eu - the British monarchy, NATO, and the British financial sys - Scotland the NHS will be safer and the Trident nuclear sub - rope! marines will have to be moved to England. tem. Socialists and democrats who oppose separation do not What happens if Scotland votes yes?

Despite what some on the left pretend, the debate on Scottish separation has been defined by the main Paradoxically, Scottish separation, assuming that the sep - movers, the SNP, entirely in terms of a separate Scot - arate Scotland manages to negotiate EU membership, might reduce the drive for Britain to leave the EU. No bourgeois land allowing a better capitalism. would want a non-EU rump Britain stuck between continen - Given that Scotland is a net gainer from the British budget, tal EU and EU Scotland. Separation would also reduce that oil and gas revenue is declining, and that one of Scot - Cameron’s ability to get concessions from the EU, so it would land’s main industries after oil and gas is high finance, likely sharpen the battle in Tory and UKIP circles over the EU. to move away from a separate Scotland, all the “better capi - Even if separation is defeated, there will still be big impli - talism” arguments are dubious. cations for British politics, since all the main British parties Economically, the most certain result is “tax arbitrage” be - have now signed up to much more radical devolution. There tween England and Scotland, leading to pressure to reduce will be some of the same tax arbitrage effects, and there will taxes for the rich and big business. be unstoppable pressure for reform of the Westminster par - The SNP plan for independence in March 2016 if they win liament if even more of its legislation concerns only England. the referendum. Experts say that the negotiations, sure to be There will be some pressure for more autonomy for Wales. bitter, about what currency Scotland will use and on what What would the SNP deliver? Socialists should reinvigorate our agitation for a demo - conditions, what share of accumulated British government cratic federal republic. debt it takes, whether it can get into the EU, and so on, will Paradoxically, narrow defeat in the referendum may help almost certainly force delay. The Tories got 292 seats in England in 2010, as against 191 the SNP more than victory. If they are defeated, they will still However, the March 2016 date, even as a possibility, will Labour, 43 Lib Dems, 1 Green, 1 Speaker. Without a swing be seen to have won much more radical devolution, and they weigh on politics in the meantime. much bigger than Labour even dreams of for now, the Tories will have a strong hand in the negotiations about details. Any If Labour wins the (all-UK) general election in May 2015, a will still have a majority in England and Wales after May shortcomings they can blame on the shortcomings of those 2015. resulting Labour government will be a lame-duck adminis - deItfa tihlse. y win separation, they have a tricky road to navi - In the longer term that Tory majority could be shifted — tration from the start. It will be set up to fall in March 2016, gate, and they will incur the blame for problems. or whenever separation comes, because it will lose its major - Labour had the greatest number of seats in England in 1997, ity with the loss of MPs from Scotland. 2001, and 2005 — but not in 2015. 86-7 FEATURE A German soldier’s Which “us”, which “them”? peace poem “There are five million of us in Scotland, but sixty million in the rest of Britain. We’ll always be in a minority. That’s in the interests of capital while making, at best, only minor why we’ll never get the government we want.” concessions to the trade unions which created the Labour Party and which still control 50% of the votes in the party’s That’s the SNP case for a ‘yes’ vote on 18 September. Any - decision-making processes War Poems one who has attended referendum debates will have heard But the SNP, like any nationalist political formation, cate - this argument – word-for-word – from SNP MSPs. gorises people according to their nationality and national Even if not always expressed in exactly the same terms, identity, not their class. And because there are more English From The Workers’ Dreadnought , 29 June that’s also the argument being fired back on the doorsteps by in Britain than there are Scots, it concludes: “we will always 1918 people who are saying that they will vote ‘yes’ on Thursday be in a minority.” of next week. Different groups of people certainly do have different na - A poem was found on the dead body of a German sol - That argument also explains why socialists should oppose tionalities and national identities. We recognise that and de - dier. The British authorities reproduced it in facsimile a ‘yes’ vote. fend their right to define their own national identity. and threw it from aeroplanes into the German lines. “We in Scotland”, from a socialist perspective, are not in a Right now in Ukraine, for example, we defend the right of minority. the Ukrainian people in the face of claims, backed up by force Some of the copies were blown into the British lines, and The “we” that counts for socialists are the working class: of arms, by Russian fascists and ultra-nationalists that they a British soldier who caught one sent it to the New-York- people who work, the unemployed, those retired after a life are “really” Russian and therefore “belong” in the Russian based magazine Flying . The editor of Flying wrote: “Its of work, and their families. They are the majority of the pop - Federation. value for propaganda purposes is a matter of opinion. The ulation in Scotland, and they are the majority of the popula - Though Alex Salmond praised Putin earlier this year for sentiment is of the class that Americans describe as tion in the rest of Britain. “restoring a substantial part of Russian pride and that must ‘mTuhseh ’.W” orkers’ Dreadnought commented “we dis - This is not a coincidence or some transient state of affairs. be a good thing”! agree with the editor of Flying. This German soldier Capitalism, by definition, is a society based on massive in - But the SNP does not merely define people according to voices our own view.” equalities of wealth and power. A small minority lives off the national identity (us in Scotland – them in England). It seeks wealth created by the majority of the population. to mobilize people politically on the basis of their national That is why, for socialists, it makes no sense to say that identity. It does that because that is what nationalism is all I was a soldier, but only by compulsion “we” are in a minority or to accept that argument from other about as a political project. When they enlisted me a feeling of revulsion people. In England, in Scotland, in Britain, “we” are the over - And that is why the case for a ‘yes’ vote on 18 September Obsessed me, as away from those who cared whelming majority of the population. is inherently nationalist: They drove me to the barracks like the common herd We might not, and do not, get the government we want. We Scots are so different from those English that our vot - Yes, from the homestead and those I loved so dearly But that is not because we live in a state called Britain. It is ing patterns will always be different. Therefore, we Scots I had to vanish, and now I feel sincerely because of the checks and controls over elected government have to break away from the larger state unit in which we The pangs of longing for the home I blessed which exist in every capitalist country (and which would also Scots are a minority. Otherwise, we Scots will never get the And anger’s passion surges in my breast operate in an independent Scotland). government we Scots want. And, more importantly, it is because of the lack of democ - Socialists can have no truck with such an argument, based I was a soldier, but only one unwilling; racy and accountability in the trade union and labour move - as it is in seeing the world in terms of national divisions I hate the tunic, and all the life of killing, ment. rather than class divisions. A simple stick’s enough for my defence, This has allowed successive Labour governments to rule That deceptively simple but profoundly divisive national - To battle’s fearful orgy must I hence To slaughter hapless, blameless brother men Who had not hurt me — I was a soldier then!

I was a soldier, in discipline saluting, Instead of freedom, ‘midst a world of shooting Instead of working with its life and joys, How the pro-Yes left argues I saw the reckless courage of our boys, Oh! tell me why you need these soldiers, truly, An example of the argument. From Socialist Worker 19 Au - the people want to live in peace and ruly: gust 2014 ‘Tis but your ever gnawing lust for power — Socialist Worker supports a vote for independence. We But come, let’s live again the Golden Hour are in favour of the break up of the imperialist British state and weakening its ability to join US military adven - Brothers, arise, whatever be your nation, tures and illegal wars around the world. Hungarian, Frenchman, Danish, or Alsatian, Whate’er your colours, whatever be your land, Independence would be a blow to both sides of the so- Instead of lead shoot forth the brotherhand, called special relationship. And mimic warfare let us hasten toward, A Yes vote would also call into question Britain’s status as And from their troubles all our people free, a leading nuclear state and raise the possibility that it may Those who want war let them alone go forward - be forced to abandon its nuclear capabilities altogether. A freedom soldier I will gladly be. We should have no illusions that a Yes vote will bring a socialist Scotland. In an independent capitalist Scotland there would still be bosses wanting cuts and politicians willing to implement them. We will still need to make sure the SNP leadership does not get its wish to keep Scotland in Nato. A Yes vote should be a vote against war and nuclear weapons. We cannot rely on the SNP to win it. Anti-austerity and opposition to war and poverty motivate thousands of independence activists. We have to argue for a vision of real change to inspire working class voters to be a deWcishiavtee fvoerrc eh oanp p1e8 nSse,p otermdibnearr. y people’s raised expecta - tions of change will be hard for our rulers to put back in a box. But we still should throw all our efforts towards German and British soldiers together on Christmas Day trying to make Britain history. 1914, during a temporary ceasefire. 9 CLASS SFTERAUTUGRGELE

PROTEST AT TORY PARTY CONFERENCE

The Tory Party is holding its conference in Birmingham. The TUC has called a demonstration at the start of the conference.

Assemble 11:30 Saturday 28 October, Victoria Square, Birmingham

For more information, see here: bit.ly/1uua9DF

For information about the student bloc, see here: bit.ly/1CNhsv6

ist mantra of “us the Scottish minority and them the English And in this supposed “anti-austerity campaign” there is land” and drowns out the Internationale. majority” is the real core of the real case being put forward not even a picket-line or strike in sight! So is the SWP maybe And the little boy is left standing there. A rather sad sight, for a “yes” vote on 18 September. Everything else is just win - now going to tell us that change does come through the bal - no more than an unwanted add-on to an orchestra that is not dow-dressing. lot box after all, not through rank-and-file working-class ac - only not playing his tune but also drowning it out by playing Whatever happened to “Scrap All Immigration Controls!”? tion? a tune of a diametrically opposed content. Whatever happened to “All Borders Are Illegal!”? “We can’t wait for Labour!” used to be a favoured slogan The forces of the left in Scotland are weak. They will not Whatever happened to “No Gods, No Borders!”? of the SWP: Workers should not wait for a Labour govern - get any stronger by hanging on to the coattails of national - To call for a “yes” vote on 18 September is to call for the ment to be returned but should fight Tory cuts right now. But ism and pretending they are leading the struggle against creation of another border. now, it seems, the answer to austerity is to wait for an inde - woTrhlde ipmrope-irniadleispme.ndence left should throw away its tin And once a border exists, certain corollaries follow auto - pendent Scotland in 2016 and beyond. whistle, let go of the coattails of nationalism, and stop matically. Immigration rules to define who can, and who can - The referendum, supposedly, is some kind of settling of deluding itself, and trying to delude others, that there is not, cross it. Immigration officers to maintain those rules. scores, as one Radical Independence Campaign speaker put something positive — or even revolutionary — about Penalties to deter rule-breaking. And enforcement agencies – in a recent referendum debate, with “300 years of imperial - being cheerleaders for SNP nationalism. the police and the courts – to impose those penalties. ism and colonialism.” The pro-independence left cannot call for a “yes” vote on If it was, then Scotland, given its role as part of the imperi - 18 September and then object in principle to the state powers alist metropolitan centre, would surely be barred from voting needed to maintain the border which will be created in the on the grounds of “vested interest”. event of a majority “yes” vote. The referendum, supposedly, will lead to a true, “higher”, The pro-independence left cannot call for a new border on form of solidarity with English workers as Scotland creates GRAMSCI IN CONTEXT 18 September, and then, if there is a “yes” vote on the day, an austerity-free, nuclear-free, wars-free country. In the call for that border to be scrapped on 19 September. meantime, though, “us Scots” simply cannot live in the same “All Borders Are Illegal, Apart from the Scottish-English multi-national unit as “them English”. A revised and 50%- One” is not a very snappy slogan. And even if the immigra - Isn’t this argument a bad case of cod-dialectics? tion controls in an independent Scotland were to be more lib - The negation of the negation as the transcendence of itself: expanded edition of eral than the current controls, “Our Borders Are Better Than The existing unity of the British working class must be Yours” is not a very good slogan either. negated so that at some later unspecified date that negation the 2012 booklet The pro-independence left has retreated into a fantasy can in turn be negated and class unity be recreated on a Antonio Gramsci: world in which the referendum is not about what it is actu - higher level? ally about in the real world. The referendum, supposedly, is about whatever the Radi - working-class The referendum, supposedly, will be a mighty blow cal Independence Campaign happens to think it is about. revolutionary, against imperialism. “The workers of the world,” as one lead - Adapting a metaphor used many years ago in a rather dif - ing member of the SWP put it at a recent Unite debate on the ferent context, the pro-independence left is like a little boy summarising referendum, “want to see a ‘yes’ vote on 18 September. It will with a tin-whistle turning up for a performance of “The Gramsci’s life and be a body blow to the British Empire.” Flower of Scotland” by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Is it not a little strange that the only people who believe “I’ll join in with the Orchestra on my tin-whistle for the thought. that there is still a British Empire are Daily Telegraph readers first few bars so that they think that I’m really one of them,” and members of the SWP? says the little boy to himself, “and then I’ll switch over to the The referendum, supposedly, is a way to fight austerity. “Internationale” and they’ll all change tune as well and fol - £6, or £7.60 including postage from How strange, therefore, that this fight against austerity low me.” should be led by a party which is committed to a cut in cor - So the little boy starts playing “The Flower of Scotland” on www.workersliberty.org/payment. poration tax and a refusal to increase the top income-tax-rate his tin-whistle. But when he switches to the Internationale, to even 50p. the Orchestra, of course, carries on with “The Flower of Scot - 8 FEATURE Chun Tae-il: a life No pill for these ills of struggle Science Beth Redmond reviews A single spark. By Les Hearn I finished reading this book within three days of buying it. Few of us can remember a time when people could die When I’d finished, I asked everyone I knew what they from trivial injuries or infections which now respond to knew about Chun Tae-il — no one could tell me much. antibiotics. The World Health Organisation estimates This surprised me because his story struck me as hugely that drugs like penicillin and streptomycin have added significant to both the working classes (the “minjung”) some 20 years to our life expectancy. of his time, and to the struggles we face today. Yet antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as methicillin-resist - The author of this biography, Cho Young-rae, could for his ant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) could end our complacency Overuse of antibiotics is causing resistance own safety only be identified after his death. The first ver - and make even routine operations hazardous. Already, hos - sions of the book were inevitably banned by the South Ko - pital-acquired infections by MRSA and Clostridium difficile are capitalist market will supply a product for which there is a rean authorities. It has since been turned into both a film and a major difficulty. In fact, a scarier problem is that of multi- demand? This is certainly the expectation of those incorrigi - a play. drug-resistant bacteria or “superbugs”. ble optimists at spiked !, the website founded by members of Chun Tae-il set himself on fire in 1970 at the age of 22, in In the worst cases, bacteria may be resistant to all common the erstwhile Revolutionary Communist Party. protest against the cruel and inhumane working conditions antibiotics, as is the case with some strains of tuberculosis. Their correspondent Robin Walsh, a trainee doctor, ac - imposed on thousands of people in a local garment factory, Some 5,000 people per year die in the UK because they are in - cused CMO Sally Davies of “fearmongering”: new drugs known as Peace Market in South Korea. He has since been fected by resistant bacteria. In the US, some two million are would rapidly follow if the government would alter its pay - named “the father of democratic trade unionism” in Korea. infected each year, with 23,000 deaths. ment policy to the drug companies [5] and boost demand. Chun was born into poverty, and as a result received no The problem of resistance has been known since the birth Unfortunately, financial incentives are not necessarily formal education. He spent the majority of his childhood sell - of medical antibiotics. It was recently highlighted, by UK going to solve the problem. Drug industry insider Derek ing newspapers by day and sleeping on the streets by night. Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies in a report [1]. Fifteen Lowe who blogs and writes In The Pipeline for Chemistry He left home on several occasions because his father violently months later, David Cameron announced an inquiry into the World [6] points out that virtually all targets in bacteria have misunderstood Chun’s passion for learning. problem. already been attacked and no new targets have come up. Chun convinced himself that he would earn enough The new “Longitude Challenge” has chosen as its focus, Knowledge of bacterial genomes which has increased, but money to go to school selling newspapers and shining shoes after a public vote, the development of a cheap, accurate, yielded nothing of use in 20 years. in the city. In fact, he barely made enough money to buy a rapid, easy-to-use test for infections, so that bacteria may be He ruefully admits that it’s easy to come up with drugs bowl of noodles every other day. targeted quickly with the appropriate antibiotic. that kill all cells but difficult to find those that attack only From the day he was born, every moment of his life was a But why do we need new antibiotics to keep being found bacteria. Finally, any new antibiotic would rapidly come up struggle for survival — he had never known anything but or made? The answer is evolution. against the same problem of resistance. This is because we misery. After his father died, Chun’s guilt over leaving his Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin 85 years ago, are exerting “the most concentrated Darwinian selection family overwhelmed him, and he returned to his family warned that, if misused, resistance would soon develop and pressure on pathogens” which leaves survivors very well- home in Seoul. He started working in the local garment fac - it would become useless. If just one bacterium among a pop - equipped to defeat future attacks. Lowe doesn’t think that tory and dedicated the rest of his life to transforming the ulation of trillions mutates to become resistant, it will sur - money is the problem: it’s more that resistant bacteria are a working conditions of garment workers in South Korea. vive. If not dealt with by the immune system and doubling very hard target! There was a hierarchy of workers in the garment factory, every hour, its descendants will number trillions again in less This is highlighted by another recent finding — looking at which took years to move up — if you were lucky enough to than two days. And we will need a different antibiotic as the environments across the world, ranging from oceans to soil get work in the first place. The lower ranks, jobs which were previous one will not work. to human faeces, a French research team found resistance mostly occupied by young women and teenagers, had 16- genes relevant to human and veterinary medicine every - hour working days in rooms with no natural light, so small EVOLUTION The early antibiotics were naturally-occurring com - where [7]. the workers could not stand up. Workers suffered many and pounds produced by moulds or bacteria to inhibit com - In order to generate profits, companies need to sell more of often fatal ailments. petition from other bacteria. Bacteria did not stand idly their products at as high a price as possible. That works for This book captures the desperation of workers in a way by and mutations that conferred antibiotic resistance chronic illnesses, male impotence, headaches, diseases of the that I had not experienced before; people working all day for evolved and spread in nature. well-off, and so on, but not for bacterial infections. The more little, or often no, money just to survive. That’s it, that’s their antibiotics you use, the quicker resistance evolves in bacte - whole life. Women who had been working in the factories Bacteria have an extra trick — drug resistance can spread ria. Antibiotics need to be used as sparingly as possible — since they were 13 were not even considered good enough not just “vertically” (from parent to offspring) but “horizon - not a recipe for generating profits. And when resistance has to marry, because the conditions have made them so unwell tally” by exchange of fragments of DNA, within species and developed, there is little incentive to look for new antibiotics and unfit for bearing children. Often they died within a few even between species. This allows resistance to spread much when they will be only a temporary solution. years of starting work anyway. faster. New Scientist magazine is confident that solutions can be Chun had to quietly organise in his workplace, holding se - The chance of resistance developing is increased if insuffi - found if the free market is replaced by “socially-motivated cret meetings in his mother’s living room and producing sur - cient antibiotic is used, because more bacteria survive and medicine makers”. This goes against the worship of the mar - veys and bulletins to hand out in the factory. the chance of a resistant mutation is increased. As Fleming ket by the main political parties and certainly against extend - In his last breath, after dousing himself with petrol and set - said in his 1945 Nobel Prize lecture [2], “if you use penicillin, ing the role of the private sector in health, as even Labour has ting himself on fire on a picket line he had organised, Chun use enough”. The first patient treated with penicillin died done. was screaming “we are not machines”. only because there was not enough then available to kill all Other solutions include much more sparing use of antibi - The death of Chun Tae-il reignited the workers’ movement the bacteria in his bloodstream [3]. Mass production began otics in medicine, banning their use in farming, much more in South Korea, and workers and students began organising in 1943 and in only four years resistance began to appear. rigorous hygiene in hospitals, development of new vaccines, demonstrations highlighting labour issues which were re - That was due partly to black market sales of penicillin, where and quicker tests to identify bacteria so that more appropri - ported in the press on a daily basis, something which had the stolen drug was diluted to increase sales. Art was to im - ateT ahnetrieb iroetaiclsly c iasnn b’te “ uas pedill s ftorar iegvhet rayw ially”.. ne“vIe hr abteee nth siese enr bae wfohre.re people have become commodi - itate life with the 1949 Graham Greene book and film The ties, where a person’s individuality and basic aspirations Third Man [4]. are scorned, where the branches of hope are lopped off. There is also over-use of antibiotics. They are frequently I hate a humanity that chooses to degrade itself into a prescribed for virus infections, such as colds and influenza, Notes commodity in return for existence.” for which they are ineffective. They can also be bought over 1 CMO’s 2011 Report, Part 2 (published 2013): www.gov.uk/gov - the counter in some countries and taken inappropriately. ernment/publications/chief-medical-officer-annual-report-vol - This allows resistance to develop among the body’s natural ume-2 2 www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1945/ skin and gut bacteria. fleming-lecture.html Subsequent injury allows an infection to occur which can 3 Reserve Constable Albert Alexander had developed septicaemia no longer be treated with the antibiotic. Also, if the whole following a scratch from a rose thorn and was dying in an Oxford course of treatment is not taken (often because the patient hospital in 1941. He started rapidly recovering when given peni - feels better), the remaining bacteria have a greater chance of cillin but when it ran out he worsened again and died. a resistant mutation. 4 The anti-hero Harry Lime (Orson Welles) steals, adulterates and And enormous amounts of antibiotics are given to farm an - sells penicillin on the black market. Asked about the victims of his imals because they enhance rates of growth — more scope crimes, Lime dismisses them as insignificant as scurrying ants. for resistance to develop. Highly recommended (the film, not Lime’s views!). 5 www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/13447#.U_IhhhbaaX0 We have the greatest global economy ever, with enor - 6 www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/03/derek-lowe-antibiotics- mously successful pharmaceutical companies, yet no new research-pharma-business A statue to Chun Tae-il in Seoul class of antibiotic has been introduced since 1985. Surely the 7 www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(14)00328-5 9 FEATURE Pride! The power of solidarity Karina Knight reviews Pride, the film which tells the story of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners [LGSM], set up to collect money for miners during the 1984-1985 strike. The writer, Stephen Beresford, first heard the story of LGSM from a friend. He told a pre-screening audience that it inspired him greatly — the film is clearly a work of care and love. The characters are the real members of LGSM. Mike Jackson and others input into the writing and production, in - fusing the personalities, lives and experiences of the LGSM activists. Refreshingly, Beresford does not consider it necessary to provide background to justify the miners’ strike; it is accepted in the film that the strike was valid. That lesbians and gay men and miners share a common enemy in the ruling class. That it is right and necessary to organise and fight back. When we talk about Women Against Pit Closures, LGSM and their role in labour movement history, we talk about how communities, identities and ideas can change rapidly in struggle, about the potential for personal change and growth. Pride explores this — it is essentially a film about solidarity, acceptance of difference, and ultimate recognition that work - ing class people have much more that unites us than divides Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners, as depicted in the film Pride us. Pride tracks these personal journeys. Joe (Bromley) Cooper, The power of homophobia to divide us is all too apparent are a few good belly-laughs (A “great big Lez-off”, anyone?), a young man who discovers the strength to come out and when Maureen, so threatened by the presence of gay people I found more that I was moved to tears and laughter in equal finds acceptance and a new family; Gethin, a gay man es - in her community, provides fodder for The Sun . In her intran - measure: hope, disappointment, resolve, and hope again. A tranged from the community he grew up in, who by facing sigence she acts against her own basic class interests and is positive film, it tells an important part of our history to those his fears in entering a pit village is able to reconnect with his prepared to undermine the strike, such is her fear of change who were not aware of it, and will remain a useful organis - Welsh working class identity and rebuild a relationship with and of the unknown. ing tool, a permanent, widely accessible and true record of a his mother; Dai, whose life experience is “expanded” in the This is a mainstream film on general release, so it gives a semGoin aln tdim see feo rt hgiasy f irlimgh, tps oasnsdi bfolyr owuitrh c laa sps.a ck of tissues. gay bars of London; Hefina and Cliff, who recognise the feel-good factor similar to Made in Dagenham . Adverts de - Then get out and organise. value of the solidarity offered, the bravery, of the LGSM ac - scribe it as “hilarious”, but that isn’t quite right. While there tivists. “The miners needed solidarity” Clive Bradley was active in Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners. He spoke to Solidarity. tonomous” movement of the “specially oppressed” (as we people from working class backgrounds, it was not all mid - used to say) could struggle alongside the organised working dle class lefties. The vast majority were just people who Solidarity: What was LGSM and what did it do? class, and transform working-class consciousness in the wanted to do something. process. When you have a big confrontation between a section of Clive: It was a group that was set up of lesbians and gay Solidarity: Were other left groups involved in LGSM? the working class and the government you have to take sides, men set up to support the miner’s strike. It has to be said it What was their attitude to it? more than just in your head. was initially mainly gay men, but more and more women got There have been reunions [of LGSM] recently and many involved over the time. Practically it raised money for the Some members of different left groups were personally in - people still seem to hold broadly the same views that they miners who were on strike for a year. Mainly by standing out - volved, even members of Militant [forerunner of the Socialist used to. You can tell for many people in LGSM it was an ab - side lesbian and gay pubs rattling buckets, it raised quite a lot Party] and the SWP, whose organisations were more hostile to solutely formative experience in their lives, and very impor - of money. This was sent to a particular mining community in the project. Militant , for example, generally argued that any tant to them. south Wales, in the Dulais valley, with which connections had kind of autonomous organisation was necessarily divisive. Solidarity: Do you think there was rolling back after the been made. LGSM and Women Against Pit Closures, etc. showed that defeat of the dispute, both in the gay community and in Solidarity: Why did this get started, and how did you get quite the reverse was true. the mining community? involved? Solidarity: How was LGSM received in the mining com - munities? Clive: The miners were beaten and most of them lost their Clive: It was the idea of two people in particular, Mark Ash - jobs. Generally speaking in the class struggle, the defeat of ton and Mike Jackson. Both are dramatised in the movie. They Clive: The film does this quite cleverly. It is basically a rom the miners had a hugely bad effect. We’re still living with the put out a call at Pride in ‘84 and organised a meeting at “Gay com between two communities. The film shows you both ac - consequences of it. Is the Word” bookshop in London. At that time I was just ceptance and hostility, but a growing acceptance. That isn’t I doubt miner’s attitudes rolled back too much with re - moving to London from Manchester and was a member of far off what actually happened. gards lesbian and gay rights. You started to get stories of Socialist Organiser [forerunner of the AWL]. It’s not rocket I went to South Wales twice, the second time when the miners coming out. At reunions we get visits from miners. science to see how I got involved. strike was actually finishing in March ‘85. That was very emo - We often hear “it turns out my son is gay”. I went to the second ever meeting of LGSM. I was active in tional for all of us. My own experience was that people could - Ex-miners and their families came up from south Wales for supporting the miners and thought it was a brilliant initiative. n’t really have been more welcoming. the film premiere. It proved to have a very powerful effect on lesbian and gay The first time we went down, there was a minibus load of In the lesbian and gay community, struggle wasn’t rolled men and on the miners. The NUM went on to lead the pride us, we were being put up in people’s houses, that was the back. You got growth of the lesbian and gay movement after demonstration in August 1985. The NUM, a traditional union, deal. We all went down to the miner’s welfare in the evening 1985. Not long after was “Section 28” [the Tory law which not famous for its view on matters such as lesbian and gay to sing songs and get drunk. It was completely fine, no hos - prevented the “promotion of homosexual lifestyles”] against rights, became quite prominent in the changing policy on gay tility at all. which you had enormous demonstrations. The pride parades rights in the Labour Party. The reality was we were raising money for them. The min - in the early ‘80s were relatively small, but by the late ‘80s and ers needed solidarity, and I’m sure if people were at first du - Solidarity: What impact did it have in the gay community, certainly the early ‘90s they were enormous. and what arguments did LGSM make about why gay peo - bious about where the solidarity came from, need overcame ple should support the miners? that. And, of course, as you make contact with people you re - Solidarity: What do you think about the film? alise that you have more in common than you initially Clive: The strike lasted for a whole year and divided the thought. Why the suspicions broke down, as I’m sure there Clive: It gets an awful lot incredibly right. It’s in the broad country, divided everybody. A lot of people supported the were some, is no mystery. It was the nature of people meeting ball park of something like The Full Monty , but much more miners and didn’t need to be persuaded, but we argued that each other and the power of solidarity. political. Over the credits you have someone singing Solidar - we needed the miners to win. If the miners lost then the Tory ity Forever. It takes for granted that the strike was right. It’s Solidarity: What do you think members of LGSM learnt absolutely about the importance of class struggle and soli - government would be going for everybody, and these lesbian from the experience? and gay communities would be an easy target. People would darity between communities. The portrayals of the real peo - put a lot of money into the bucket to show solidarity — pre - Clive: For many people it was their first time going to that pleIt sar ge ovoedry t chlaots efo arn tdh ae gaonondiv terirbsuatrey. , this particular act of sumably a lot of money they didn’t have in many cases. sort of working-class community, though certainly not for solidarity will be remembered. LGSM was the first really concrete example of how an “au - everyone. We were a mixed group and certainly there were 810 FEATURE The real price of gold By Kieran Miles The pursuit of gold has led to great exploitation through - out history. From the demands of the Pharaohs to be buried with enor - mous wealth; the use of slaves in mining operations in the Roman Empire; the genocide of indigenous peoples, first by the Conquistadors, then Columbus and the colonisers of the Americas, continued in the Californian Gold Rush, the “Scramble for Africa” by the major imperialist powers, and the Klondike; the Boer Wars, fought over the Witwatersrand mines; the use of forced labour in the gold mines of the Kolyma gulag; the list continues. Gold is often used in important places of worship – the Har - mandir Sahib, the Dome of the Rock, the Wat Phra Kaew, the Sripuram Golden Temple, Saint Mark’s Basilica, and so on. Regal pomposity has long demanded the use of golden car - riages and crown jewels, and gold is used as a signifier of per - Workers in an open gold mine in Ghana sonal achievement, from the Oscars and the Nobel Prize, to Olympic gold medals. Gold has long been prized as a commodity, but by 564 BC, new Minera Yanacocha will be a lot bigger than the extant just changes hands! both the Ancient Chinese and the Lydians started to use gold small mines, and there are dozens of multinational companies Hand-wringing speculation about whether your personal for currency as well. This was because of gold’s easy divisibil - mining all over the world. To make just one tonne of gold necklace or rings should be gold or silver, when there is ity (it is far easier to divide a piece of gold into ten equal parts takes some 260,000 tons (not litres) of water. enough gold above the ground for more than just human need than say, a cow or a clay bowl), and because of its value in The scale of water use is obscene, especially when 3.4 mil - is unnecessary. We can recycle the existing gold used in terms of human labour. lion people die each year from lack of access to clean drinking coinage and bank hoarding for the production of jewellery. But most of all, once refined, gold has a universal regular - water or from a sanitation-related disease. There is no less exploitation in silver or copper mining. ity — unlike most commodities. If you trade, for example, a Mining has also devastated large areas of forestry. 40,000 The world should urgently cease all gold mining opera - pair of shoes for some linen, or a piece of furniture, there are hectares of Peru’s Amazon has been lost. The Cassandra tions. But what should we say about the workers in the min - so many variations in the quality, provenance, and craftsman - mines in Greece, sold to Eldorado Gold, an operation which ing industry in the here and now? ship of all of these items as to make setting a national or global will produce 380 million tons of gold ore — over ten times as much as has been mined there in the last two millennia — will WORKERS standard impossible; trading terms can only remain at the There are broadly two approaches to the immediate prob - level of barters between individuals. One ounce of 18 carat destroy 180 hectares of forest and farmland. In Ghana, ap - proximately 140 hectares of tropical forest, including a quar - lems caused by gold mining. Oxfam set up the “No Dirty gold is identical the world over. So gold was made a univer - Gold” campaign. sal means of exchange, its use becoming more and more wide - ter of the Ajenjua Bepo Forest Reserve, has been destroyed spread as class society grew globally*. since 2009. The campaign tried to source gold which was not mined in On top of these environmental catastrophes comes a long environmentally degrading ways, or by violating workers’ COST list of violations of workers’ rights, and mass displacements. rights. Over 100 jewellery stores and chains signed up. But the Although bank notes have existed for centuries, and most Fears over cyanide leaks into the Amazon led to huge protests campaign has many problems. Most reporting on ethical gold currencies are now depegged from the gold standard, in Peru, and operations were temporarily halted in late 2011. is done by auditors in the pay of the mining companies, who gold is still used in some parts of the world to trade with. But in December 2013, operations restarted after the military naturally underestimate the damage of the mining. Not all was used to forcibly displace the largely peasant-farmer pop - For example, in India, gold is so often used as an alterna - Fairtrade or Alliance for Responsible Mining gold is chemi - ulation. Those who refused to sell their homes to the mining cal-free. Mercury and cyanide are still used in certified “clean tive currency that the government has restricted its import. company were arrested and dragged through the courts for And about 10% of the world’s gold supply is still used in of - gold”. “occupying” their own land. Another mine in San Juan de This approach neither helps workers improve working con - ficial coinage. Kañaris, Peru, will displace 10,000 people. Gold mining is hugely environmentally damaging. Every ditions, nor halts the environmental damage in any meaning - gold ring produced makes about 20 tonnes of waste. Every ILLEGAL ful way. Whilst well-meaning, the logic of this kind of year an estimated 180 million tons of toxic waste is dumped In Tanzania, as elsewhere, the multinational companies campaign is fundamentally liberal: any small improvement into rivers, lakes and reservoirs by gold miners. The most hold a monopoly on legal mining. Many people, desperate in working rights comes not from workers organising, but commonly used method (90% of all gold produced today) of for money, mine illegally. from appealing to the compassion of mine owners, which has separating gold from ore uses cyanide, most of which is proved to be in short supply. dumped into the water supply. The local police force runs a racket, turning a blind eye to il - The socialist approach means supporting mining workers The Roșia Montană mines in Romania — first mined by the legal miners — for a bribe. In the last three years, 69 people in their struggles for safer working conditions and higher pay. Romans — are set to become Europe’s largest. Many Romani - have been killed near the North Mara mines, presumably At the same time we argue for cleaner methods of extracting ans are rightly concerned by the growth of the mine. those who were unable to pay off the police. This is not an iso - gold from ore, such as the use of hydroxylamine hydrochlo - In 2000, the Baia Mare mine flooded rivers and reservoirs lated incident – there are 20 to 50,000 illegal miners in Ghana, ride in gravimetric processes. Support for Spanish and South with cyanide used in extraction, including the Someș River under frequent threat of arrest and assault. African mining unions, new links with unions in Peru, Greece, and the Danube. Drinking water for some 2.5 million Hun - The list of environmental damages and attacks on workers’ and other countries should be our priority. garians was contaminated, and 80% of the aquatic life in the rights is endless: destruction of large parts of the Indonesian The environmentally destructive nature of gold mining log - Serbian part of the Tisza was killed. Similarly, the Grasberg fishing industry because of poisoned waters, causing birth de - ically points to its eventual abolition. B ut miners involved in mine in West Papua (the largest gold mine in the world) pro - fects from irreversible mercury poisoning; displacement of gold mining should not lose their jobs; they should be em - duces some 230,000 tonnes of waste a day. Most of this waste Gobi desert herders in Mongolia; 9,000 indigenous Akyem ployed in other mining industries, reskilled (at the company’s is dumped straight into the Aikwa River, killing most of the people in Ghana displaced by gold mining; use of “conflict expense) for alternative work. fish in the river. gold” in the DRC. And then, not least, problems faced by all Then there is the question of who controls the above- In the mountainous regions of Tragadero Grande, near Ca - miners — terrible working conditions, high risk of death and ground supply of gold. Lenin wrote in Pravda in 1921: “When jamarca in Peru, the mining company Minera Yanacocha has injury, low pay, long working days, union busting... we are victorious on a world scale I think we shall use gold for started opening a gold and copper mine (Minas Conga). It will Many of the easily available sources of ore have been used the purpose of building public lavatories in the streets of some be around 20 square kilometres and the largest single invest - up. Now mining companies are searching in extremely low- of tIh ae plaprrgeecsita ctieti eths eo fs tehne twimoerlndt.,” though there are enough ment in mining history in Peru, at US$ 4.8 billion. The site will grade sites — causing huge amounts of environmental dam - smartphones and dialysis machines to warrant some use destroy four mountain lakes: two will be completely depleted age for smaller and smaller amounts of gold. Some mines find of the world gold supply. There is more than enough gold for use in mining operations, and two will be turned into tail - as little as one gram of gold in one ton of ore. sitting around in banks for such use – we should seize ing ponds for mining waste. In 2013 Business Insider estimated that just 9% of gold was those banks! Each single gram of gold from the mine, will take ten thou - used for socially necessary purposes (1% for dentistry and 8% sand litres of water. In the Minas Conga area, an average for electronics and medical equipment). 49% was used for jew - campesina family will use 30 litres of water a day, in contrast elers, 10% in official coinage, 27% in bar hoarding, and 5% for * For a more in depth analysis of the use of gold as money, read this to a small mine, which will use 250,000 litres of water in just ETFs (investment funds). article: www.workersliberty.org/node/5537, and also Chapter 2 of A one hour. One single small mine will use as much water in an The small amount of gold we need for things like dentistry Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx. For hour as a local family will use in 22 years! And keep in mind and electronics already exists above ground, and unlike, say, an extremely detailed analysis of money in general, see Chapter 3 of there are multiple mines owned by Minera Yanacocha, the fossil fuels, gold that has been mined does not get used up, it Capital. 311 REPNOERWTS US fast food workers’ struggle escalates By Daniel Lemberger 100. They are the result of an nority strikes are held even Many leaders of the “Our are to grow, relationships Cooper intense summer of organis - before plan for raising union Walmart” campaign are for - will need to be deepened ing, including a national membership or collective mer organisers of “Justice and connected to other On 4 September, thou - convention held in Chicago bargaining. for Janitors”, a 1990s SEIU struggles in localities. A sands of fast food work - at the end of July. The first strikes might in - campaign amongst cleaners, great weight will need to be ers and other service The growth and momen - volve only a very small profiled in the Ken Loach placed on making new con - industry employees tum is impressive, and number of workers, but are film Bread and Roses. “Fight scious worker-militants and backed by the SEIU (Ser - should be discussed by bolstered by other trade for 15” campaigners have leaders who can democrati - vice Employees Interna - trade unionists in the UK. unionists and community established organising com - cally debate and decide on tional Union) and UFCW The strikes involve a campaigners and backed up mittees across several shops strategy and tactics (a neces - (United Food and Com - workforce that is young, with well-publicised direct in particular cities. sary counterweight to the mercial Workers), held black, Latino, predominately action. In August 2014, the Na - dominance of union staff). strikes and protests in female, all of whom are pre - There have already been Donuts store, managers fi - tional Labor Relations Board There is a risk that union cities across the US. carious workers on paltry victories. Some cities, in - nally installed air condition - ruled that McDonald’s officials could channel the benefits, low wages (the fed - cluding Chicago and New ing in response to strike could be held jointly liable campaigns away from in - They struck for improved eral minimum wage is York, have raised the mini - action. for employment and wage dustrial direct action and to - benefits, the right to organ - worth $2 less than it was in mum wage for city contrac - Since the movement violations by its franchise wards mainstream political ise, and for a $15 minimum 1968) and suffer routine tors. In Seattle, where a began, efforts have been operators. The move, which lobbying, or that they might wage. Hundreds of workers racism and sexism. socialist councillor promi - made to form more long- is being heavily contested in sign industry-wide agree - and supporters were ar - Traditionally in the US a nently involved in the cam - term organisations. For ex - the courts by the bosses, ments over the heads of the rested. union will try to achieve paign was elected, the $15 ample, several thousand could force fast food firms workers. Fast food workers The “Fight for 15”, a majority density in a work - minimum has been Walmart workers have to negotiate on wages and will need to own their strug - movement by fast food and place, petition the National achieved. signed up to join a “non-ma - allow SEIU to unionise gles, control their commit - other low-paid workers jority association”, to stay Labor Relations board for an Fast-food industry em - restaurants on a larger scale. teeTsr,a adned udneivoenloispt ss tarantde gsyo . - began in November 2012. connected to organising ef - election, and then if the elec - ployers have been slower to The support from pro - cialists in Britain must Actions took place in eight forts. The associations, and tion is won, seek recognition shift, but there have been gressive and community or - support the “Fight for 15” US cities in June 2013; 4 Sep - newly-formed worker cen - with the employer. In the improvements in conditions. ganisations have been movement. tember saw actions in over “Fight for 15” campaign, mi - For example, in one Dunkin' tres, are used for education, important. If the campaigns training and workshops. HOLT action on 15 September Traffic 21 more strike days for Care UK Care UK strikers cele - Strikers have voted for By Jonny West cut 953 jobs and close all brated their 60th day of 2% pay rise to non-TUPE a further 21 days of strike ticket offices across the wardens’ strike action for a living staff which equates to just action. The Hands Off London network. Tube union RMT wage on Friday 5 Septem - 14p increase per hour. 0% Transport coalition called off a planned over - pay fight ber. for TUPE staff, with a plans a day of action for time ban and boycott of vague commitment to raise 16 September, involving “development days” for Traffic wardens in East Workers have been pick - pay by the same level as leafleting, petitioning, Station Supervisors after London to strike on 11 eting Care UK offices in other NHS staff in 2015 (i.e. and demonstrations at management threatened September over pay. Doncaster daily, as well as not much). There was no Tube stations. legal action. Smaller union travelling the country to commitment to move TSSA backed down from The workers have re - speak at meetings or picket The action will coincide towards a living wage. calling action after man - jected a management offer other Care UK offices. On 9 with the introduction of The negotiators, members agement agreed to post - of a 1.5% increase, well September they joined care contactless payment tech - of the shop stewards’ pone the assessment below the current Retail wor kers in Barnet, who are nology on the Tube which committee, refused to give element of the “develop - Price Index of 2.5%. also on strike over pay, for unions say will lead to any response to the offer. It meTnhte d Laoysn”d. on Transport The workers are em - a joint rally and fundraising problems for both passen - will be put to the next strike Region of the RMT re - ployed by NSL Ltd., a pri - social. gers and staff. rally for a vote. They will be cently passed policy in vate contractor which runs Management recently The HOLT coalition recommending to reject the favour of joining the traffic and parking services made an offer in two parts. want to raise the profile of offer. public sector pay strike. forU mniasnoyn lmoceaml cboeurnsc ielsm . - cuts as a political issue, Some activists in the re - ployed by NSL on a con - mobilise community di - gion are pushing for the tract at Camden council rect action against them, union to act sooner. had a prolonged dispute and pressure GLAs and Defend Julie Davies! in 2012, which involved London MPs to take a •For more information, sustained strike action. In July this year, Labour- stand on the issue. bit.ly/ho-lt, run Haringey Council sus - an attempt to intimidate The suspension of Julie London Underground workersliberty.org/ •bit.ly/1lToKZb pended the Borough’s Julie Davies, who has been Davies, a Labour member, management insists it will twblog National Union of Teach - involved in recent high-pro - has caused anger inside the push ahead with plans to ers Secretary Julie Davies. file campaigns in the Bor - Labour Party. A motion con - ough against forced demning the suspension Strike at The council is responding academisation. passed unanimously at BBC workers to strike to pressure from some local During the campaign to Davies' own Tottenham headteachers who were re - stop Downhills primary Constituency Labour Party. By Stewart Ward While voluntary redun - Heathrow fusing to sign up to an school from forced academi - On 5 August the NUT dancy schemes are prefer - agreement on facility time Members of the media sation, Gove described wrote to schools asking able to bosses sacking while Julie Davies was in union BECTU at the BBC Airport Davies, other campaigners them to clarify their position existing workers, unions post. will strike in September Baggage handlers at and parents as “enemies of on facility time or the union should set their sights In a letter from those against job cuts. London's Heathrow Air - promise”. One local head of “will have no option but to higher. A “no compulsory heads to the council they port will strike on Friday governors disgracefully consider balloting our mem - redundancies” position say that “Ms Davies’ pre - The BBC plans 415 job 12 September. compared her to Nazi war bers for strike action in cuts in BBC News, and al - keeps any dispute on man - ferred approach and work - criminal Hermann Goering. those schools.” agement’s terrain, haggling The union should not though it promises to create Their employer has of - ing style is one of At the end of July, the rely on the High Court to 195 new ones, BECTU says over how job cuts are ad - fered a 5.5% pay deal over confrontation and obfusca - NUT gave Haringey two ministered, rather than protect trade union rights it has received no guaran - two years, which the tion.” weeks to drop the suspen - and should ballot mem - tees that compulsory redun - whether jobs should be cut workers' union, Unite, Haringey Council sus - sion, or face legal action “as at all. bers as soon as possible dancies will be avoided. BECTU says it will name says will not keep pace pended Davies for “gross Ms Davies is not centrally in schools where no Members of the National strike dates soon. NUJ with the soaring cost of misconduct”, pending an in - employed, and so could not agreement on facility time vestigation. Union of Journalists have has already announced a livTinhge. strike will involve be suspended by the council is forthcoming. This is an attack on NUT also voted for strikes. work-to-rule and a boy - workers at Terminals 1, — only by the school where members’ democratic right Unions are seeking a cott of a management ap - 2, and 3. she works.” The union will • Sign the petition: guarantee of no compulsory praisal process. to elect their own trade now challenge the council in bit.ly/1uG5iyh redundancies. union representatives, and the High Court. No 335 10 September 2014 Solidarity 30p/80p

14 October can be big! BRITAIN NEEDS By Gemma Short cession. related pay”; many will find further strike dates, and A PAY RISE A serious revolt over pay themselves not getting the commit their union to be On October 14 local gov - is urgently needed and 14 pay increment they ex - prepared to go alone if other ernment workers in Uni - October could kick-start pected. The NUT's live bal - unions in “the coalition” son, Unite and GMB this. But we need to take lot means those teachers can pull out. unions will strike over pay. stock. organise action in their It is important that ac - TUC March and Rally on They may be joined by Unfortunately, the 5 Sep - schools to fight this. tivists work to build action health workers in Unison, tember executive meeting of Union leaders hope that a on 14 October, having argu - Saturday 18 October Unite and the Royal Col - the National Union of few “protest strikes” will ments in workplaces about lege of Midwives (RCM) Teachers (NUT) voted 26-12 nudge the government into the necessity of strike action who all have ballots under against calling action on 14 trying to repair its popular - to move the government. way. If civil servants in October. This is a step back - ity in the lead up to the May This may not persuade PCS union join the strike wards. Teachers will be con - 2015 general election by everyone, but it puts onto Assemble 11am, Blackfriars this will be a very large fused, demoralised or angry making small concessions the agenda ideas of work - and important action about this decision. That's on pay. Some may also be ing-class militancy and Embankment, and march to against the huge cuts in why activists should call stalling action because they ways to address the eco - pay public sector workers meetings in schools and are waiting for a Labour nomic inequality that is rife local areas to discuss how to government. Vague hopes Hyde Park have endured since 2009. in society. support striking school sup - are not the basis on which to 14 October will be a dis - Health workers’ wages port staff. School groups build a serious strategy to play of the potential power have dropped in real terms should collectively refuse to win on pay. of the labour movement, between 12 and 15 percent cross picket lines and at - In 2011 several unions and will be a beacon of since 2010. This year 60% of tempt to shut schools by re - fighting to preserve public hope for all workers feel - See britainneedsapayrise.org health workers are been of - fusing to do work without sector pension rights settled ing the squeeze on wages. fered no rise, and others will the assistance of support on terrible terms. That could We must ensure that it is for more information get one percent. Real wages staff. happen again and that is not merely a beacon, but for all workers have Teachers will soon be what we have to fight the start of a concerted dropped by 12-14% since hearing the outcomes of the against. Activists should battle. 2008 and the start of the re - first year of “performance push their unions to name LOBBY LABOUR TO Good turnout SAVE THE NHS! 999 call for the NHS needed in health For a publicly owned, publicly union ballots funded and publicly By a health worker proved effective in the past, accountable health for example in Australia Strike ballots in the health during the campaigns on service. unions runs up to the end staff ratios. of September, with Uni - Short strikes can have an son's closing date on the impact without too much 18 September and Unite harm for patient care. Well Mobilise and rally on the 26th. supported strike action outside Labour Party A pay offer of 1% for 2 could give great confidence years, with no rise at all for to health workers, and short Conference on Sunday those who receive an incre - strikes can give an opportu - nity to build amongst those 21 September, mental rise, has angered workers, but a good turn out who have concerns about 2:30-5:30pm, in the ballot would be very action impacting too much significant. on patients. Manchester Central, The government has Another connected issue is stopped the Health Pay Re - the handling of emergency Windmill Street, M2 view Body from even going exemptions, which can be 3XG through the motions of re - minimised if strikes are porting on annual pay this shIotr its. vital that discus - year. Instead it has been sions on strike tactics are [email protected] asked to propose cuts in held at workplace level unsocial hours pay, should labournhslobby. where union members further galvanise the vote. know what action can be wordpress.com Thousands of people in Trafalgar Square welcomed the “Darlington Mums”, who marched for The proposal to begin three weeks from the North East to raise awareness against the privatisation of the NHS. most effective and that 07796690874 strikes in October with a these discussions happen four hour walk out is a good now. tactic in the NHS, which has