DOCSLIB.ORG

The Life of Max Levitas * 49Th Congress Reports * News, Reviews & More EDITORIAL Editorial Dear Comrades Welcome to the Latest Issue of Challenge

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Life of Max Levitas * 49Th Congress Reports * News, Reviews & More EDITORIAL Editorial Dear Comrades Welcome to the Latest Issue of Challenge NOVEMBER 2018 £1.50 Inside: * The Life of Max Levitas * 49th Congress Reports * News, reviews & more EDITORIAL editorial Dear Comrades Welcome to the latest issue of Challenge. The last month has been a busy one for the League and the Party both internally and in terms of political developments. The Party held it’s 55th All-Britain Congress in London on 17-18 November 2018. After much frank democratic debate and discussion, Party comrades decided on a clear program for advancing the class struggle in Britain over the next two years and crucially measures to continue to grow and rebuild the Party. Many noted the high number of YCLers in attendance as voting or consultative delegates. It was widely commented that this was the ‘most youthful’ and energetic Party Congress since the nineties. The League’s own Congress was held the following weekend. This was certainly the most successful and largest Congress since our own Our foremost refoundation. This edition of Challenge contains a report of the Congress priority (p.15) as well as the opening and closing addresses (pp.16-20). The success of the League’s 49th Congress reflects our own growing remains strength and level of organisation. Meeting with comrades from our sweeping branches across the country was a particular highlight for me. Discussion on the floor of Congress was honest about the current limitations we face as away an organisaiton. But more importantly clear conclusions were drawn about how we address these failings and continue to build Britain’s revolutionary Theresa youth. May’s All this being said, we are not an inward looking organisation. The struggle carries on in Britain and internationally. Our foremost priority remains rotten Tory sweeping away Theresa May’s rotten Tory Government and acheiving a Government People’s Brexit! I would also pay tribute to our departed comrade Max Levitas, a veteran of the YCL and legend of our movement. Your spirit lives on in our struggles! In comradeship Johnnie Hunter As ever, if you want to contribute to Challenge, either through writing articles, poems, reviews or providing artwork then don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing [email protected] or writing to Challenge, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Road, CR0 1BD. 2 CONTENTS editorial in this issue Statements 4-9 Autumn Budget 10-11 Max Levitas 12-14 Autumn Budget Congress Report p10 - 11 15 Congress Opening Address 16-18 Obituary Congress Closing Max Levitas Address 19-20 p12-14 Democracy & Dictatorship 21-22 Marxism against Intersectionality 49th YCL 23-24 Congress p15-20 Book@Bedtime 25-27 Back2Basics 28-29 November 2018 Volume 21, Issue 48 Layout & design: Ben Stevenson, James Rodie and Johnnie Hunter What We Stand For 30 Print: Communist Party Published by: YCL, Ruskin House, 23 Coombe Rd, CR0 1BD 3 STATEMENTS CP warns against ‘growing threats’ to peace and security ommunist Party Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty to the ‘criminal and corrupt’ catastrophe’, he insisted. international secretary with Russia, which bans both Saudi regime and reaffirmed At the CP executive CJohn Foster warned powers from producing, support for the Boycott, meeting, general secretary of the growing threat to possessing and testing cruise Divestment and Sanctions Robert Griffiths reported world peace, the international missiles. campaign against Israeli state a continuing rise in party economy and the environment The CP international policy. recruitment and membership, at the weekend (20 October secretary also argued that Referring to recent IMF which is now more than 7% 2018). the Western imperialist reports, Mr Foster claimed higher than in 2017. Speaking to the party’s powers had not given up their that international capitalism ‘A much stronger executive committee, he attempts to partition Syria, faces a ‘gathering crisis’. Communist Party is needed cited US President Trump’s while US sanctions against Economic growth is slowing, to help secure a “People’s increasingly aggressive attitude Iran’s oil exports would the pools of speculative capital Brexit” and a left-led towards China and Russia, further destabilise the Middle are expanding while leveraged Labour government that in keeping with what the US East. loans by secondary banks have is free to carry out radical National Security Strategy ‘Alongside these threats surpassed pre-2008 levels. policies of public investment, calls a new era of ‘great power to peace and stability, Saudi ‘The world is heading renationalisation, wealth competition’. Arabia’s British-backed towards recession and trade redistribution, sustainable ‘The history of the genocidal war against Yemen wars between the USA, the growth and peaceful 20th century shows how continues as does the EU, the Middle East and cooperation with the rest of the struggle for imperialist open sore of Israel’s brutal China just when the UN the world’, he stated. domination leads to war’, Mr oppression of the Palestinian Inter-Governmental Panel Foster pointed out. He was people’, he declared. on Climate Change is calling Communist Party speaking as Trump announced Britain’s Communists for urgent and coordinated his country’s withdrawal demanded that Britain’s Tory transformational policies 22 October2018 from the Intermediate-Range government halt all arms sales to avert global warming Communists attack ‘bogus budget’ Chancellor hancellor Hammond understand about the ‘People’s Brexit’ campaign delegates from the communist presented a bogus Chancellor is that he is the of meetings across Britain, and workers’ parties of Ireland, ‘Cbudget for a bogus chief representative in the beginning with a rally in South Africa and Cyprus Brexit and a bogus end to Cabinet of the City and big London on November 22 with would be attending the CP austerity’, Robert Griffiths business. His main mission economists Grace Blakely of Britain’s 55th congress told the Communist Party’s is to keep Britain tied to the and former Greek MP Costas on November 17-18, along Political Committee on pro-market, pro-austerity and Lapivitsas, RMT general with a number of guests from Wednesday evening (October anti-socialist rules of the EU secretary Mick Cash, Guardian embassies and domiciled 31). Single Market and Customs economics editor Larry parties here. ‘His budget sought Union’, the Communist Party Elliott, trade union officer He condemned the recent to browbeat and bribe general secretary insisted. Paula Barker, John Rees of violent attacks on communists Eurosceptic Tory and pro-EU Monday’s budget did not Counterfire, Robert Griffiths in the Ukraine and India and Labour MPs into supporting signal an end to austerity. and chair Mary Davis. said that solidarity messages the Cabinet’s proposed ‘Apart from a small rise The CP Political were being sent to the bogus Brexit deal - or else he next year, public spending as Committee also pledged Communist Party of Brazil and would bring in an emergency a proportion of Britain’s GDP support for the People’s the Workers Party now under austerity budget. At the same is set to continue falling to Assembly’s new ‘Britain is threat after the election of time, he was indicating to the 37.9 per cent by 2024 - down broken - we can’t afford the extreme right-wing president public that if the Commons from 38.5 per cent this year Tories’ initiative, calling for Jair Bolsonaro. votes down any such deal, the - according to the Office for the reinvigoration of local Tories would fight an early Budget Responsibility, with no campaign groups and stronger Communist Party General Election as a cuddly compensation to cover the links with Labour Party pro-NHS, anti-austerity party - cuts of the past eight years’, socialists and the trade union 1 November 2018 possibly under his leadership’, Mr Griffiths pointed out. movement. Mr Griffiths explained. Britain’s Communists International secretary ‘The key thing to welcomed plans to launch a John Foster announced that 4 STATEMENTS Brexit means more powers for Scotland and Wales, say Communists The secretaries of the cottish and Welsh franchises, equalities legislation, achieve their aim of Scotland Communist Party in Scotland Communists have long agriculture, forestry, land use, and Wales becoming separate and Wales have issued the ‘Ssupported the case for carbon capture and storage, member states inside the EU, followed joint statement: a federal Britain. We believe environmental and energy the prospects of these powers this is the only constitutional standards, planning consent, coming to our two countries settlement that will empower onshore hydrocarbon licences, are zero. What they would the workers and peoples of radioactive shipments, animal achieve, however, is separation our countries to control and welfare, food standards and from our two countries’ develop their economies, while public health and safety biggest trading partner by far, maintaining labour movement protection. namely, a non-EU England’. unity and redistributing the In 43 additional areas, wealth owned largely by the Scotland’s greater degree of Tommy Morrison, capitalist class. devolution will mean new Secretary, Scottish Brexit will take us closer powers over renewable energy, Committee of the to those objectives because rail markets and operating Communist Party it will mean a major transfer licences, social security and of powers from the European criminal justice including child Trevor Jones, Secretary, Commission and other sexual exploitation and human Welsh Communist Party bureaucratic EU agencies to trafficking. the elected legislatures and In all these areas, there is governments in Edinburgh and every prospect that Scottish Cardiff. and Welsh law-makers will As a result of Brexit, develop policies that can decision-making powers in only improve on the low 64 areas of policy will be standards set in Brussels and transferred from the EU and Westminster. Brussels to both the Scottish This makes it all the Parliament and the National more astonishing that, in Assembly of Wales.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • From Chicken Soup to Denial and Beyond: Fifty Years of Arnold
    1 From Chicken Soup to Denial and Beyond: Fifty Years of Arnold Wesker. Kelly McCloy, B.A. (Hons), MRes. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts, Ulster University. January 2021 I can confirm that the word count of the thesis is less than 100,000 words 2 Contents Acknowledgements 4 Abstract 5 Introduction 7 Chapter One: Food (i) Wesker’s depiction of food in the Anglo-Jewish domestic space. 33 (ii) Pigs and Capitalism in The Kitchen. 47 (iii) Wesker’s Roots and the Battle between Potatoes and Victoria Sponge Cake. 51 (iv) The Search for Strawberries and Dreams in I’m Talking About Jerusalem. 61 (v) The King’s Daughters: Wesker and an Anti-Tale made for Foodies. 68 (vi) “She promised herself many things…to stop drinking, to cut out chocolates…” Wesker and eating alone. 70 (vii) “Pools:” Mrs Hyams the Jewish Everywoman. 78 Conclusion to Chapter One. 82 Chapter Two: Women (i) “Centre of power:” Wesker’s early women. 85 (ii) “Preserving the mask of a busy, uncommunicative housewife:” Wesker’s invisible women in Chicken Soup with Barley and Love Letters on Blue Paper. 96 (iii) “Daughters of Eve:” Wesker’s Women from the 1980s-2000s. 125 (iv) “O, these men, these men!” Love against all odds in Lady Othello. 139 (v) “I have no distorted, rosy image of them.” Wesker as an authentic writer of women. 162 Conclusion to Chapter Two 180 Chapter Three: Denial (i) Supposedly “false accusations of child abuse:” Denial. 183 (ii) “There has to be a reason:” A Torn Family Portrait.
    [Show full text]
  • East End Immigrants and the Battle for Housing Sarah Glynn 2004
    East End Immigrants and the Battle for Housing Sarah Glynn 2004 East End Immigrants and the Battle for Housing: a comparative study of political mobilisation in the Jewish and Bengali communities The final version of this paper was published in the Journal of Historical Geography 31 pp 528­ 545 (2005) Abstract Twice in the recent history of the East End of London, the fight for decent housing has become part of a bigger political battle. These two very different struggles are representative of two important periods in radical politics – the class politics, tempered by popular­frontism that operated in the 1930s, and the new social movement politics of the seventies. In the rent strikes of the 1930s the ultimate goal was Communism. Although the local Party was disproportionately Jewish, Communist theory required an outward looking orientation that embraced the whole of the working class. In the squatting movement of the 1970s political organisers attempted to steer the Bengalis onto the path of Black Radicalism, championing separate organisation and turning the community inwards. An examination of the implementation and consequences of these different movements can help us to understand the possibilities and problems for the transformation of grass­roots activism into a broader political force, and the processes of political mobilisation of ethnic minority groups. Key Words Tower Hamlets, political mobilisation, oral history, Bengalis, Jews, housing In London’s East End, housing crises are endemic. The fight for adequate and decent housing is fundamental, but for most of those taking part its goals do not extend beyond the satisfaction of housing needs.
    [Show full text]
  • Jamie Stern-Weiner Tis Ebook Edition Published by Verso 2019
    anti-semitism and the labour party Anti-Semitism and the Labour Party Edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner Tis ebook edition published by Verso 2019 All rights reserved Te moral rights of the authors have been asserted Verso UK: 6 Meard St, London, W1F 0EG US: 20 Jay St, Suite 1010, Brooklyn, NY 11201 versobooks.com Verso is the imprint of New Lef Books ISBN-13: 978-1-78960-671-3 ‘Corbyn Under Fire’ and ‘Te Never Ending Story’, © Daniel Finn 2018, frst appeared in Jacobin. ‘Jeremy Corbyn is an Anti-Racist, Not an Anti-Semite’ © Jospehn Finlay, 2019, frst appeared in Times of Israel. 'Smoke Without Fire: Te Myth of the 'Labour Antisemitism Crisis’ © Jamie Stern-Weiner and Alan Maddison, 2019. ‘Te Chimera of British Anti-Semitism (and How Not to Fight It if it Were Real)’, frst appeared on Verso Blog © Norman Finkelstein, 2019; ’60 Times Jeremy Corbyn Stood with Jewish People’ © @ToryFibs; ‘Briefng for Canvassers: Challenging false allegations of antisemitism’ and ‘Te Riverside Scandal’ with permission from Jewish Voice for Labour; ‘A Disinformation Campaign’ © Media Reform Coalition, 2019; ‘Te Fake News Nazi: Corbyn, Williamson and the Anti-Semitism Scandal’ from Medians © David Edwards, 2019; ‘Is the Guardian Institutionally Antisemitic?’ and ‘Labour Party Conference or Nuremberg Rally? Assessing the Evidence’ from author’s blog, © Jamie Stern-Weiner 2019; ‘Hue and Cry over the UCU’ © Richard Kuper 2019; with permission of OpenDemocracy; ‘Why the Labour Party Should Not Adopt the IHRA Defnition or Any Other Defnition of Antisemitism’ from author’s
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright Statement This Copy of the Thesis Has Been Supplied On
    University of Plymouth PEARL https://pearl.plymouth.ac.uk 04 University of Plymouth Research Theses 01 Research Theses Main Collection 2014 Blackshirts and White Wigs: Reflections on Public Order Law and the Political Activism of the British Union of Fascists Channing, Iain Christopher Edward http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/2897 University of Plymouth All content in PEARL is protected by copyright law. Author manuscripts are made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the details provided on the item record or document. In the absence of an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), permissions for further reuse of content should be sought from the publisher or author. Copyright Statement This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s prior consent. 1 2 Blackshirts and White Wigs: Reflections on Public Order Law and the Political Activism of the British Union of Fascists by Iain Christopher Edward Channing A thesis submitted to Plymouth University in Partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Plymouth Law School March 2013 3 4 Abstract While domestic fascism within the United Kingdom has never critically challenged Parliamentary sovereignty, it has decisively disrupted public order since its roots were established in the inter-war political scene. The violence provoked by Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF) was one of the stimulating factors behind the enactment of the Public Order Act 1936.
    [Show full text]
  • Download the September/October 2016 Unity
    campaignLives Thein Matter Britain Black UnityAnti-racist and anti-fascist magazine September/October 2016 Issue 17 £2 (where sold) uaf.org.uk SINCE THE RS BIR EA TH Y O 0 F 4 Inside this issue Refugees in Calais Battle of Cable Street Teachers travel to France How the British Union of to support people stuck in Fascists was halted in 1936 ‘Jungle’ camp page 12 page 10 2 September/October 2016 Unity Headline Standfirst BODY Standing up to injustice The NUT is proud of the work it does alongside Unite Against Fascism to campaign against racists and fascists. Thanks to the contributions of thousands of teachers to the union’s www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts political fund, the NUT is able to sponsor Unity magazine and to support campaigns against racist and fascist election candidates. nut.campaigns The fight for justice will continue until we have equality for all teachers and students. @NUTOnline Unity September/October 2016 3 Make schools safe places in uncertain times IN MY previous column for Unity In these uncertain times it is vital that schools Magazine I talked about the are safe places for all children and young unpleasant tenor of the debate as people, free from the racism and negative the EU referendum neared, with language or attitudes which lead to bullying. the scapegoating of refugees and Teachers should be congratulated for creating a culture and ethos that challenges harmful migrants a particular concern. behaviour and ensures all parents and pupils Regrettably this has continued and must are welcome and safe in school.
    [Show full text]
  • Sculpture for the Hull Volunteers 23 March 2019
    RNA IONALE TE S IN D E S L O A I L R I A B T E N R U T L 1936 1939 A D O V ¡NO PASARÁN! International Brigade Memorial Trust l 1-2019 l £5 Sculpture for the Hull volunteers 23 March 2019 IBMT’s annual Len Crome Memorial Conference 11am to 4.30pm Football and theKellogg Spanish College, 60-62 Civil Banbury War Road Oxford OX2 6PN Sid Lowe Live music RNA IONALE Guardian Spanish football correspondent Maddy Carty, Robb Johnson and Na-mara TE S IN D E and author of ‘Fear and Loathing in La Liga: S L O A I L Barcelona vs Real Madrid’ and ‘Catholicism, Tickets R I A B T War and the Foundation of Francoism’ £15 in advance or £20 on the door E N R U T L l Book via Eventbrite: 1936 1939 A D O V Daniel Gray www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/len-crome- Author of ‘Black Boots and Football Pinks: memorial-conference-2019-tickets- 50 Lost Wonders of the Beautiful Game’ 48232321171 and ‘Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and l Or send cheques payable to ‘IBMT’ to: International Brigade the Spanish Civil War’ International Brigade Memorial Trust, Memorial Trust 37a Clerkenwell Green, London EC1R 0DU www.international-brigades.org.uk Chaired by Professor Sir Paul Preston For travel and accommodation Films information go to the website of the Oxford ‘With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain’ International Brigade Memorial Committee: (1938) and ‘Capitán Republicano’ (2018) www.oxibmcomm.org.uk The IBMT is an organisation which contracts with Kellogg College, the University of Oxford, for the use of facilities, but which has no formal With support from the connection with the university or Kellogg College.
    [Show full text]
  • Marxism and Multiculturalism Sarah Glynn 2009
    Marxism and Multiculturalism Sarah Glynn 2009 Marxism and Multiculturalism: Lessons from London’s East End The final version of this paper was published in Human Geography 3:1 2010 Abstract This article uses the lens of the East End of London, to examine 130 years of socialist and Marxist responses to racism and to ethnic and religious division. It looks both at how action was organised, and also at the debates of those trying to put Marxist ideas into practice, who all had to strike a balance between the pragmatic demands arising from working with ethnic minority groups, and the dangers of separatism. And it shows that, despite the difficulties, Marxism - far from neglecting divisions that cut across the basic economic categories of class, as is so often claimed – has a long history of analysing them and of arresting ethnic and racial conflict. Key words: Multiculturalism, Marxism, Jews, Bengalis, East End, cultural-national autonomy This is an account of 130 years of socialist and Marxist praxis in an area renowned both for its multicultural population and for its poverty. It uses historical examples as the basis for a critical discussion on the problems and possibilities that activists can face when campaigning for greater equality between and among different ethnic groups. The lessons this history gives in understanding and working within multi-ethnic societies, can provide us with an essentially different approach to that of - increasingly discredited - liberal multiculturalism. The East End The East End of London is a place associated with strong but, in some ways, contradictory images; a place of cockney kinship and immigrant ghettos, at once English and „alien‟.
    [Show full text]
  • MS 2018 04 28.Pdf
    Morning Star morningstaronline.co.uk 4 Saturday/Sunday news morningstaronline April 28-29 2018 @m_star_online n FRONT PAGE n ECONOMY n RIGHT TO PRIVACY WADSWORTH HUNG OUT Tory cuts to TO DRY BY LABOUR NCC blame for big Snoopers’ FROM P1: “It is a bitter irony that cratically elected party leader. fall in growth, Wadsworth’s unjust treatment “These rightwingers will would not have been possible if stop at nothing in their Charter not the relevant recommendations attempts to remove Corbyn.” says O’Grady of the Chakrabarti report had Dozens of Labour MPs had BRITAIN’S economy is suf- been implemented rather than marched in support of Jewish fering from an “avalanche” being obstructed by the party’s colleague Ms Smeeth as she of cuts, the TUC warned legal, High entrenched bureaucracy.” prepared to give evidence at yesterday as figures reveal Mr Wadsworth said in a Mr Wadsworth’s disciplinary Britain’s weakest quarterly statement that he was over- hearing this week. growth in five years. whelmed by the support he Mr Wadsworth accused the GDP figures published by Court finds received. “gang of white MPs” of bully- the Office for National Statis- He said: “I deplore anti- ing behaviour, saying it was “a tics (ONS) show the economy semitism, anti-black racism, crude attempt to influence the growing by just 0.1 per cent by Sam Tobin state having the kind of reten- Islamophobia and all forms of outcome of my hearing, and it in the last three months. tion powers provided by the Act, prejudice, bigotry and discrimi- seems to have had an effect.” It was the weakest quar- but he added that its “incom- nation that I have campaigned He was supported by Labour terly growth since the fourth THE TORY government suf- patibility” with European law against all my political life and MP Chris Williamson, who said quarter of 2012 and worse fered a humiliating High Court was a result of “failures to have will continue to do so.
    [Show full text]
  • Download PDF File
    v A MORNING STAR/UNITY! SPECIAL CABLE STREET FOREVER! The famous victory in 1936 is still felt today far beyond the East End, says LIZ PAYNE THE ROUTING OF Oswald Mosley’s For Peace and Freedom in East London!” black-shirted thugs and their police The Battle of Cable Street was inte- escort by 250,000 residents of Lon- gral to the international struggle to don’s East End in Autumn 1936 had sig- defeat the open terroristic dictatorship nificance way beyond the local streets of fascism, a system intent on stamp- or the year. ing out the struggle for socialism, and The Communist Party and YCL’s rally- the hopes and aspirations of working ing call (Daily Worker, 3 October 1936) people everywhere for a better life. read: “Against Fascism! For Freedom By 1936, fascism had already shown and Democracy! For the victory of the its true colours. Japan had invaded Man- Spanish People! For the raising of the churia in 1931. From 1933, a stream of blockade which deprives them of arms! 8Turn to page 2 ONLINE RALLY INSIDE: Jeremy Corbyn MP, 2.30pm Sunday 4 October Frances O’Grady (TUC), Patrick See p8 for details and how to register Roach (NASUWT) and more morningstaronline.co.uk Co-edited by Phil Katz and morningstaronline 2 Cable Street Forever James Rodie October 2020 @m_star_online Cable Street must inspire Cable Street action today S WE reflect on the his- by Frances O’Grady lisation against the National Front and toric victory at Cable BNP here in Britain. inspires Street 84 years ago, Today the threat from far-right we must be ready to working-class women and men — all ideologies has shifted into the main- mobilise against anti- joined forces with the local Jewish stream, and unions continue our fight us today semitism, racism and community to stop Mosley’s Black- in Britain and internationally.
    [Show full text]