& Workers’ Liberty

SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 433 22 March 2017 50p/£1 Inside: BIGGEST INEQUALITY Keep the guard on the SURGE SINCE 1980s train!

Strikes against driver-only operation spread. See page 10 Greece: a fourth memorandum?

Theodora Polenta discusses the current political situation in Greece. See pages 6-7 The art of Buffy

“If nothing is done to change [the] outlook, the current parlia - ment [2015-20] will go down as being the worst on record for in - come growth in the bottom half of the income distribution. “It will also represent the biggest rise in inequality since the end of the 1980s”.

More page 5 On the 20th anniversary of the TV RICH AND series, Carrie Evans discusses its impact. See page 9 Join Labour! POOR: THE Grassroots Momentum: an opportunity almost missed GAP WIDENS See page 4 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org G20 deletion signals danger By Rhodri Evans From revolutionary to bourgeois minister When 20 governments met for the G20 summit in late 2008, at the worst of the global credit crash, their agreed joint state - Martin McGuinness ment included just one hard commitment: to resist protec - tionism, to avoid new trade By Gerry Bates minister, and made a series of real barriers. and symbolic concessions to union - Not perfectly, but on the whole, ism — signing up to support Police Martin McGuinness became a that commitment held, and Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), helped the slump level out in late revolutionary, by his own lights, and shaking the Queen’s hand in as a teenager, and ended his life 2009 rather than continuing June 2012, which he described as downwards for three or four as a bourgeois minister in a po - “in a symbolic way offering the litical system he had vowed to years as in the 1930s, when states hand of friendship to unionists”. spiralled into competitive tariff- shun. He died on 21 March, only We wrote in 1995: “The Provi - a couple of months after resign - raising and world trade col - sionals will become a narrower lapsed. ing as Deputy First Minister of communally-based Northern Ire - Northern Ireland. On 18 March, the statement He was a young commander of land reproduction of Fianna Fail — from a meeting of G20 finance the Provisional IRA in the early which, from origins very like the ministers and central bank gover - 1970s. We wrote: “The Northern Provos, became the main party of nors deleted the now-traditional Ireland Catholics fight in isolation, bourgeois rule in Ireland — or of pledge against protectionism. It in the most unfavourable condi - the smaller, more left-wing, splinter also deleted commitments to ac - tions imaginable. The rearguard of of the 1940s and 50s, Clann na tion on climate change. the Irish fight for national freedom, Poblachta”. Steve Mnuchin, Donald they... are simultaneously cut off Sinn Fein has made more politi - Spanish dockers win Trump’s US Treasury Secretary, from the allies that would make an cal progress in the South than blocked both pledges. Mnuchin seemed likely then, or when it is reckoned less nationalist than advance on a socialist basis possi - Jordi Aragunde, coordinator of dockworkers. dropped abstention from the Dail others in Trump’s circle. He soft - ble — the Orange majority of the the International Dockworkers’ - “Action has been cancelled indef - in 1986. It scored 14% in the Febru - ened his stance by claiming: “It is Northern Ireland working class” Council, has reported a victory, initely. However, IDC will continue ary 2016 general election, and is not our desire to get into trade (Workers’ Fight , 23 July 1972). at least a temporary victory, for to watch over new developments The Provisional IRA’s campaign currently running in the polls at closely. wars... The president does be - about 20%. the Spanish dockworkers. had already won a first victory — They have been fighting the “IDC would like to express lieve in free trade but he wants the abolition, in March 1972, of But the underpinnings, in na - Spanish government’s plan to abol - gratitude for the great show of free and fair trade.” Protestant-majority home rule in tional-communal division, of the ish the “pools” through which they support to Spanish dockworkers Coming with the Tories’ de - Northern Ireland. Such were the re - poisonous Partition structures are employed. these past weeks, which is a sire to make Brexit “hard” by alities, and the limits of the Provi - which McGuinness set out to “As of March 17, the Spanish point of pride for the interna - quitting the EU Single Market sionals’ politics, that the further 22 fight remain entrenched. Only Government was unable to pass the tional docker community — and and Customs Union, and the years of their war could produce working-class and consistently Royal Decree to reform the Spanish one victory among many yet to rise of Marine Le Pen in only deaths and deep communal France, the G20 deletion sig - democratic politics will change port system. The Spanish Parlia - be achieved.” division. No further political ad - ment has rejected this Decree, nals dangers of a rise of eco - that. vance. therefore acting to protect Spanish • www.idcdockworkers.org/en/ nomic nationalism. McGuinness became a big figure in the Provisionals’ turn to politics, which followed the hunger strikes of 1981. In 1982 the Provisionals dropped their clumsy version of advocating a federal Ireland, and Italy: a shift in the political centre argued (as McGuinness put it in 1995): “Unionists will come to the to the heights of party leader, then, inist leaders in the Communist and figures more explicitly pointing negotiating table... but they will By Hugh Edwards after ruthlessly shafting the then in - Party who, after 1989, were princi - to the need for a more social dem - only do so when the British govern - cumbent, seized the office of pre - pal actors in the formation and pro - ocratic orientation, even the notion ment actively encourages them to At its recent conference Italy’s mier. Renzi stamped on both gressive mutation of, first, the Social of an explicitly working-class party. do so”. “Encourage” meaning “co - governing party, il Partito Demo - government and party and cen - Democratic Party of the Left (PDL); The details remain unclear. As to erce”. cratico (PD), split. This follows a tralised management and control, then the Democrats, to finally to the “radical” left, Sinistra Italiana He became chief negotiator for massive defeat in the December surrounding himself with young fa - embrace in 1996 the Left/ Liberal (SI), a group of them have aban - the Provisionals up to the Good Fri - 2016 referendum for party leader natic loyalists, openly and contemp - centre of the Democratic Party in doned their party in order to join up day Agreement of 1998. It reinsti - and head of government Matteo tuously humiliating and the “Olive Tree” coalition govern - with D’Alema. tuted the political deal brought in Renzi. Defeat and a subsequent resigna - marginalising older leaders. The ment headed by Romano Prodi. As events unfold in what has ef - by Britain in the aftermath of 1972, split is a vindictive retort of those The former Stalinists’ historic fectively been a shift in the centre of the Sunningdale power-sharing tion as premier did not stop Renzi from deciding to remain as leader of usurped forces who considered links to the Italian trade union gravity of the Italian political sys - agreement of 1973-4, but in a more Renzi as an abusive interloper in movement served to help impose a tem, the PD crisis will deepen fur - intricate institutionalised-sectarian the party. And at the party conven - tion he gave no quarter to his oppo - “their” party. program of ruthless fiscal, mone - ther. form. The split consists of 30 members tary and social counter-reform de - As the European bank prepares In 1974 a Protestant general nents — representing a diffuse spectrum of left /liberal forces. He of the Camera, 15 in the Senate. It manded as a condition of Italy’s to raise interest rates and end Quan - strike had smashed the deal, but in seems unlikely to become a new fitness to join the single currency. titative Easing, the vulnerability of 1998 the deal survived Protestant declare for a general election in June, reiterating the need for him to party; its name, Democrats and Pro - Beneath the cant about Renzi’s the country to any systemic shock is resistance. McGuinness became gressives Movement, suggests a awful treatment of ordinary people, apparent. Minister of Education in a power- keep hold of the power of the party profile as vague as it is tentative. the splitters are more than eager — Meanwhile the Five Star Move - sharing regime in 1999, and Deputy leader so as to control the selection The principal political compo - again in tandem with marginalised ment is ahead in the opinion polls First Minister from 2007 to 2017. of electoral lists and mandates. nents come from the camp of the union bureaucrats — to rise to be - and in spite, or because of, its He refused to take his full minis - A rupture has been developing left/liberal bourgeoisie, associated come trustworthy servants of capi - congenital incoherence, it might ter’s pay. He approved two new in - ever since Renzi rose from relative anonymity and political obscurity with Massimo d’Alema and Pier - tal. just light a fuse in Italian politics. tegrated schools when education luigi Bersani. Both are former Stal - There are a number of groups Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty NEWS 3 Israel enters Syrian conflict Abortion: denying

the Syrian regime to be under - By Simon Nelson mined and a consequent under - mining of regional influence for women A surprise rebel assault on the Iran, a vastly weakened Hezbollah. eastern suburbs of Damascus But Russian intervention has has been driven back by the Syr - swung the conflict back Assad’s ian Army. way. fundamental rights Meanwhile a further round of peace talks in Geneva, between the Rebel groups and Daesh are now government and major rebel fac - under enormous pressure and Iran By Honor Wilkinson-Bell wards abortion providers. tions, will soon begin. Since the so- has been given almost free reign to Trump has already signed an called ceasefire began in December supply weapons to pro-govern - and Beckie Walker, Executive Order withdrawing fed - last year, both sides have, with jus - ment militia. Darlington Young Labour eral money from organisations, tification, accused the other of Assad’s forces and Hezbollah (p.c.) such as Planned Parenthood. It is breaching the agreement. have clawed back territory, creating clear that Trump’s election win Israel has increased its involve - conditions more conducive for Iran means support services for to supply weapons to the Lebanese As young females, we both feel ment in the war, with a drone strongly about the liberation of women are hanging by a thread. killing of an alleged pro-Assad militants. To make matters worse, Planned Distance from Mount Bental to It seems both Russia and Israel women. fighter, part of a militia supported We believe it is abhorrent that Parenthood disproportionately Damascus are reluctant to step back from their by the Lebanese Hezbollah. Ex - women across the world are still helps women of colour and those respective positions and military changes of fire between the Syrian denied their fundamental rights, with a low-income and from a supplies. This is the first time that offensives. Israel wants to cut off army and Israel have also intensi - especially in the 21st century. One working-class background, mak - Syria has deployed anti-aircraft Hezbollah’s access to high-pow - fied after anti-aircraft missiles were significant example is how the missiles in retaliation. ered weaponry. ing this an even larger issue of fired at Israeli jets. issue of abortion, which is still Increased tensions on the Israel’s A former defence chief Brig Gen racial and class discrimination. The latest strike by Israel was stigmatised in the US, arguably northern border are bad news. The Nitzan Nuriel put it starkly, “Rus - judged to be too close to Russian even more so in the Trump era. far right Defence Minister Avigdor sia got the messages it needs to re - GORSUCH troops and the Israeli ambassador Lieberman has said he would not Despite the 1973 Roe v. Wade to Moscow has now been sum - ceive from Israel... Israel will not The Supreme Court nomination, hesitate to destroy the Syrian air allow anyone, including Russia to ruling, attacks on women’s right to moned to the Russian government choose, have continued for years. of anti-choice judge Neil Gor - defence system if it fired on Israeli get in the way of implementing our such, follows Trump’s claims to explain what happened. jets a second time. Violent attacks have taken place in military mission.” that he holds a “pro-life” stance Rules of engagement agreed be - Israel’s increased involvement clinics and there have been cam - Israel’s intervention may have on the matter. tween Russia and Israel now ap - reflects a potential obstacle to the paigns to overturn and restrict Roe pear to be fractured. Israel had still more terrible costs for the v. Wade. Gorsuch’s appointment means now almost inevitable, if slow, vic - civilian populations across the the courts are potentially able to been given the go-ahead to target tory of Assad. Israel had wanted Across the world women still Hezbollah weapons caches and Middle East. face restrictions when making de - overturn or restrict Roe v. Wade. cisions regarding their own bod - Clearly, Trump and the Republi - ies, which reflects the gender cans do not understand how much inequality that still exists in soci - women rely on these services, hav - ety. ing very little compassion, respect Marine A is no hero We recently visited the United for women’s privacy and their States and saw how though abor - constitutional right to access abor - By Will Sefton tion is legal, the restrictions placed tions. This disgusting attitude was upon women in many states lead clear in Trump’s comments about Marine A: Right, get him closer in so them to feel that there is no other “grabbing the pussy” of a woman. PGSS can’t see what we’re doing to choice but to have their child. More difficulities for women are him… Since 2013, the number of clinics occurring in Ireland — where Marine A: Where is the CAT, Ugly in Texas has been reduced from 42 abortion is illegal. Many women call sign? [Referring to the helicopter to 19. Legislation requiring the foe - every year must make the journey that is watching them pretending to tus/embryo/zygote to be issued to have an abortion in the UK, and apply a field dressing to an injured with a death certificate and have a there is very little support pro - Afghan insurgent.] funeral was introduced in Texas vided for them. Despite women Marine B: It’s gone that way? despite public opposition. There being desperate, alone and terri - Marine A: Yeah was deliberate misinformation in fied, they are treated as criminals, Marine B: Went south, mate? state-level law and adds unneces - rather than human beings entitled (Gunshot) sary pressure to women. to a fundamental right. M: What was that? Women in the US already face The World Health Organisation Marine A: There you are, shuffle off an immense amount of societal estimates that 21.6 million women pressure when faced with an un - this mortal coil you cunt. It’s nothing will rightly stick in the throat of all are consequences, is extremely im - worldwide experience an unsafe wanted pregnancy, which is only you wouldn’t do to us. those who have been unable to portant. abortion each year; 18.5 million of worsened by the increasing use of Marine B: I know. hold the British army accountable Marine A is not a hero. Shooting these occur in developing coun - violence and intimidation. Many M: Exactly. for their actions in conflicts around someone who was no further threat tries; 47,000 women die from com - anti-choice groups have violently Marine A: Obviously this doesn’t go the world. to him or his comrades is not a plications arising from unsafe attacked Planned Parenthood (one anywhere fellas. The court has determined that heroic act. He knew he had broken abortion each year. Deaths due to of the main health providers in the Marine B: Yeah, roger, mate. Blackman was suffering from com - the Geneva Convention. The agree - unsafe abortion remain close to Marine A: I’ve just broke the Geneva US) centres and intimidated peo - bat stress and that the atmosphere ment of those with him, to keep his 13% of all maternal deaths. ple in clinics, stigmatising the convention. in the military in Afghanistan dur - secret, shows that this was proba - issue even more, forcing women to We must stand in solidarity with After a campaign by former and ing the invasion put immense pres - bly not an isolated incident. choose not to abort. Doctors and women in the US and Ireland and current members of the military, sure on the army’s lower ranks. Alexander had previously served even families of those having abor - all over the world who are denied the Daily Mail and his family, Ma - This is no doubt true. It is all too in both Northern Ireland and Iraq. their right to choose. We must op - rine A, Sergeant Alexander tions have been targeted. possible that when you train young He was not a newly recruited, inex - pose the likes of Trump. We must Blackman, has had his convic - There have been 54 bombings on men to be killing machines that perienced soldier. encourage those in power to end tion for shooting a wounded abortion clinics since the 1980s; they do not always differentiate be - It should be noted that Alexander the unconstitutional denial of member of the Taliban in 2011 nine physicians who have been tween the definitions of what is was only caught because one of his women’s freedom. quashed and he will now be tried lawful and unlawful. Such condi - comrades had filmed it on an unof - brutally murdered. We spoke with for manslaughter. the US pressure group National We must educate men about re - tions no doubt contributed to many ficial helmet camera, and had the productive rights, sexual health If his defence team successfully atrocities in Vietnam, Iraq, North - footage on a laptop which he sent Abortion Federation (NAF), which and other gender issues, in order argue that he has served his sen - ern Ireland and numerous other for repair. offers legal support for women to have an informed debate. We tence, as he was imprisoned in war zones. making the difficult decision 2013, Alexander is very likely to be Meanwhile the army has never whether to have an abortion. They must recognise the problem in de - Should we feel sorry for the Tal - had to account for numerous freed. explained that hatred for women’s veloping countries and provide iban insurgent? I don’t think so. But bombings of civilians, destruc - The sight of the Daily Mail rais - choice has increased; since the safe and correct aid and informa - the principle that if war happens, tion of medical facilities or im - ing £900,000 to fund the court ap - 2016 United States election, there tion. minimum rules must be followed, proper detention of Afghan peal and MPs and former heads of has been a 46% spike in online and that if these are broken there civilians. We must show that “pussy the armed forces taking up the case, threats and negative rhetoric to - grabs back”. 4 COMMENT Email your letters to [email protected] Excluded from Labour for An opportunity almost missed

By Simon Nelson and Sacha Ismail but nobody argued straightforwardly for being a founding a new organisation. There was some implication, though it wasn’t clear, that Two hundred Momentum members, in - the vote against a small committee was a vote cluding about 80-90 delegates from local against splitting from Momentum. Certainly socialist! groups, attended the 11 March national the majority of those pushing this defeated grassroots networking conference held proposal seemed more sympathetic to leav - by the organising committee appointed by ing Momentum, while the majority of those By Keith Road the old, pre-coup Momentum National elected to the committee oppose a split. Committee. The outcome of the conference was overall We are pleased that, on the initiative of our A Socialist Appeal member, expelled comrade Jill Mountford on the organising from the Labour Party, recently went a positive one, but there were a number of problems that marred what could have been committee, two striking school support court to contest the expulsion. Unsur - workers from Derby and a Picturehouse prisingly the Party had their side upheld a much better event. What formal discussion we did have on the striker spoke and lot of solidarity organising and he will not be reinstated, at least was done during the day. not through court procedures. political direction for Momentum and The submission to the court from the Labour was over in about an hour right at the Jill felt that she was not able to have much Labour Party is the first clear statement of beginning of the day! Future events must input into the shape of the conference, due to the pretexts they use for suspending and give more time for structured discussion. the way the organising committee func - expelling socialists from the Party, includ - This discussion revolved around the docu - tioned, so this was really the only part of the ing supports of the AWL. ment circulated by email prior to the confer - agenda she was responsible for, and that re - Labour’s document quotes Chapter ence with ad-hoc amendments and additions quired some argument. That doesn’t fit with 2.4.1.B “A member of the Party who joins being made solely from the floor. Some the chair saying from the platform that, on and/or supports a political organisation things like clarification on defence of mi - the organising committee, there was agree - Matt Wrack, general secretary of the FBU other than an official Labour group or grants’ rights and agreeing to campaign on ment on all aspects of the conference. There is nothing wrong with admitting there were candidates must be “conciliating” Jon Lans - other unit of the Party... shall automati - the huge school cuts were positive additions. man. cally be ineligible to be or remain a Party Another, to add to the existing statement of serious disagreements about the purpose and format of the conference! The new committee needs to push forward member.” opposition to unjust exclusions a line about quickly on the proposals agreed, with some This clause has been used selectively. fighting an “anti-semitism witch-hunt”, was simple but properly carried out campaigning Members of groups on Labour’s right and not (see box). ELECTED initiatives on issues like school cuts. It needs centre, Progress, Labour First, Open No motions could be submitted in advance Conference responded warmly to newly to work to solidify a grassroots Momentum Labour, have not been excluded on these and it was unclear what passing the Where elected Momentum National Coordinating network, including local groups. It also needs grounds. We Stand document would even mean. There Group members Sahaya James and Rida to find ways to kick-start the discussion not Labour officials conceded that Socialist were planned interventions from the top Vaquas. had on 11 March about how the left can push It is good that they were elected to the Appeal is not in fact a proscribed organi - table for many of the sessions, that in our forward in its fight to transform the Labour NCG (and now to the grassroots NC) and sation. But they argued that Socialist Ap - view would have been too long anyway, but Party and turn the labour movement’s for - that they were there, using their position to peal’s socialist views criminalise it! Its they completely fell off the agenda. The con - tunes around. stated aim to put send the market econ - ference was not informed why for example strengthen our struggles. The argument for omy, “into the dustbin of history” is in con - the morning session was changed and why boycotting the NCG election now looks We hope to work constructively with travention of Labour’s view that the two speakers were held over till the after - pretty threadbare, though not as threadbare others in the new network on these things “enterprise of the market” and the “rigour noon. as the idea that anyone who supported left while continuing to debate our disagree - of competition” are important to a modern This was not a recipe for well-functioning ments. economy. democracy. Neither was the confused process OPEN for making and agreeing proposals, or the The case shows the need to campaign hostility to people attempting to raise things On the “anti-semitism witch-hunt” to open up the Labour Party, end auto- from the floor. This led to a sometimes frac - can and must be combined with a proper exclusions and suspensions, and fight tious and needlessly confrontational atmos - An amendment was carried which was recognition that the left must put our own for natural justice against bureaucratic phere. written down on a flipchart on the plat - house in order on antisemitism. manoeuvres. The options presented to conference about form (illegibly to many) as “opposition to The campaign Stop the Labour Purge electing a committee was not very clearly dif - the antisemitism witch-hunt” and read A number of people have been sus - will be advocating useful rule changes at ferentiated. out (inaudibly to some) as “opposition to pended on charges to do with antisemitism. Labour Party conference: to stop member - Without accusing anyone of bad faith, the the false antisemitism witch-hunt”. Mostly they will get a hearing with at least ship eligibility being defined by conserva - practical effect at least of the proposal that This was done without debate, and with some rules and safeguards. Some have had tive political standards. It should be based was narrowly defeated – a six-strong national a fair scattering of abstentions, votes their suspensions lifted. on supporting Labour in elections and coordinating group, with each position against, and people just not voting. helping the Party in its activity. There elected individually – would have been a Most people surely voted for the amend - SOCIALISTS should be proper procedures for discipli - narrow, tightly controlled but probably dys - ment because they oppose the Compliance The far bigger section of the victims of nary action based on standards of natural functional organisation. Unit’s arbitrary ways, know that some the Compliance Unit are those excluded justice. Moreover, there seemed to be determina - charges of antisemitism have been invented just for being left-wing, for allegedly In the run-up to the 2015 Labour Party tion from some to prevent the conference or inflated arbitrarily, and anyway believe sympathising with Workers’ Liberty or leadership election hundreds of exclusions from voting for both a broader committee that prejudice is best dealt with primarily Socialist Appeal or Left Unity. were made by the Compliance Unit, an un - and regular national meet ups of delegates by discussion and education. Almost all of them have been denied a elected body with no clear status in the from groups. That, however, is what the con - However, the term “antisemitism witch- hearing, or an appeal, or even what would Party rules. Many were “automatic exclu - ference went for, electing a reasonably di - hunt” is ambiguous and slippery. In some in any halfway fair system be considered sions” under Chapter 2 Clause 4 (A); the verse, gender balanced committee of 20. (We of the arguments elsewhere of those back - definite charges. excluded have no notice of the charges proposed it be elected by STV, but were de - ing the amendment, it is taken to mean that An amendment which just said “opposi - against them until after they are excluded; feated on that, again in a fairly inadequate any charge of antisemitism against anyone tion to the witch-hunt”, reinforcing the al - no hearing; and no right of appeal. debate that did not allow for the case to be on the left must automatically be assumed ready-included “opposition to unjust The possible grounds for these “auto - properly put). to be witch-hunting invention motivated by expulsions and suspensions”, would have matic exclusions” are so broad that proba - The committee has its problems. There are hostility to the Palestinian people. been much better. bly the big majority of Party members only three people under 30 on it, and a big That is not true. There have been streaks Tony Greenstein and Gerry Downing — could, in theory be “automatically ex - majority are from London and the South East. of antisemitism in the left throughout our in their different ways, the most vocal ad - cluded” if a Compliance Unit official so Nonetheless it represents a step forward and, history — and, where Stalinism has been in - vocates on the web of the view in which the wishes. if the committee starts functioning and work - fluential in the left, more than a streak. The core of politics is about the heroic resistance The grounds for exclusion need to be ing well, means there is a possibility of coor - best sections of the left have sought to clean of “anti-Zionists” such as themselves to the made much more precise and should dination of work by local groups and a push up that antisemitism and educate ourselves, supposedly all-powerful, all-pervading, be based on current, active hostility to for Momentum to be an active campaigning rather than wave away all concerns as fab - ever-conspiring “Zionists”, and the most Labour (such as being a Tory), or being force, not dictated to by an unaccountable na - rications by the right wing. strident denouncers of leftists such as Rhea shown to be (through evidence and in - tional office. We have called for an amnesty for all Wolfson (“Zionist ally of Jon Lansman”) — vestigation) guilty of such things as Unfortunately, disagreements about how those summarily suspended or expelled by stood for election to the committee. racist or sexist abuse. to relate to Momentum were not debated se - the Compliance Unit. We have opposed the We are glad to report that they both • stopthelabourpurge.wordpress.com riously. There were repeated comments to the suspension of Jackie Walker. Those stances failed, with Downing coming bottom. effect that “Momentum has already split”, Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty WHAT WE SAY 5 Help us raise £20,000 to improve our website

£1396 raised out of £20,000 Rich and poor: the gap widens

“If nothing is done to change [the] out - at first sight, look, the current parliament [2015-20] will that inequality We need to build a left that is open to go down as being the worst on record for within coun - debate and is serious about self-educa - income growth in the bottom half of the tries is almost tion. income distribution. It will also represent always either Our website, including its extensive the biggest rise in inequality since the end high or rising. archive could help build a different kind of the 1980s”. In class soci - of socialist culture — one where discus - So concludes an analysis on 16 March, by eties, includ - sion and self-education are cherished. Adam Corlett of the Resolution Foundation, ing capitalism, From Trotskyist newspapers of the of the latest official figures on low incomes, political and 1940s and 50s, to older Marxist classics, published the same day. economic to discussion articles on feminism, na - The toxic mix comes from low wage power boost tional questions, religion and philosophy growth — which the government’s own Of - each other and and resources such as guidelines for fice for Budgetary Responsibility predicts — pass down Marxist reading groups — it’s all there and a great wave of pre-programmed cuts in generations. on the Workers’ Liberty website. working-age welfare benefits. Only some pe - tween us and the very top incomes, with But to make our archive of real use we Where George Osborne proclaimed a riods go against the grain, and chiefly not some modest relative improvements for the need professional help to make all con - squeeze on the poor with brassy confidence, happy ones: great breakdowns of society, very worse-off. tent fully integrated, searchable by date and then in practice eased off here and there, where the rich fall further than the poor. Now the inbuilt dynamics of capitalism are and subject and optimised for mobile the May government feigns concern for the The new strength of trade unions in the being mobilised again, helped on by the gov - reading. We need to finance a website worse-off but adds to Osborne’s legacy only richer capitalist countries stopped inequality ernment, and by a long period of world cap - co-ordinator to ensure our news cover - such measures as ferocious planned cuts in increasing for a generation after 1945, but did italist depression. age is up to the minute and shared on school budgets. not really decrease it. Then, in the 1980s, the Unions must rebuild. And labour-move - social media. We want to raise £20,000 The percentage of children living in neoliberal, union-battering, market-worship - ment political activists must set their by our conference in November 2017. poverty, which rocketed from 18% to 33% in ping assault of Thatcher and Reagan pushed sights, not on palliatives like New Any amount will help. the Thatcher 1980s, then decreased from 34% inequality up again. Labour’s, but on the replacement of the In the last two weeks Solidarity sell - to 27% in the Blair-Brown years, has been ris - Inequality continued to rise under New whole mechanism of class exploitation by ers have increased standing orders, ing steadily since 2010 and is set to rise fur - Labour, only more slowly, and mostly be - a cooperative commonwealth. bringing in £240. ther. Meanwhile profits are rocketing. The rift between the worse-off and the top 1% is in - creasing faster than the gap between us and • If you would like to donate by the routinely-prosperous top 10%. Public sector pay slumps paypal go to The grinding increase in inequality has cu - www.workersliberty.org/donate mulative effects. By Simon Nelson says: “There is now an overwhelming and Death rates have been falling for decades. unarguable case to end the public sector pay • Or set up an internet bank cap to prevent a further decline in living transfer to “AWL”, account But then about 30,000 more people died in The Resolution Foundation, in research 2015 than in 2014, a 5.6% increase. That is the standards in the coming years. All the analy - 20047674 at Unity Trust Bank, published on 15 March, finds that public sis shows wages across the economy are biggest annual leap for 50 years. January 2017 sector pay is set to continue to fall. Birmingham, 08-60-01 (please saw another peak almost as high as that in stagnating, but the government can kick- Adjusted for inflation, the average salary email [email protected] to 2015. in the public sector by 2019-20 will be no start the revival by lifting the 1% cap in the And no recent winters have been specially higher than it was in 2004-2005, and £1,700 public sector.” notify us of the payment and what cold. Academic researchers collating the fig - lower than in 2009-10. Some other sectors, notably “professional, it’s for); or ures say they can’t be sure the rises are not Average real earnings now stand at £23 a scientific and technical”, also have slumping • Send a cheque payable to “AWL” pay. The main exception is “finance” where blips, but they think they’re a trend caused week less than at their pre-crisis peak. Both to AWL, 20E Tower Workshops, by the cuts in health and social care. — probably thanks to big pay-outs at the top PCS and Unison have called for an end to Riley Rd, London SE1 3DG (with a The estimated number of homeless on the the public sector pay freeze, but done little end to exactly the same people who helped streets in England has increased each year to mobilise in action. Recent ballots nation - bring us the 2008 crisis — average real note saying what it’s for). since 2010. The autumn 2016 total was more ally in Unison have had turnouts that would weekly earnings went up about £100 a week than twice as high as 2010’s. see no action likely under the new Trade between 2014 and 2016. Take a look at A recent wide-ranging study of inequality Union Act. We need to rebuild union strength from within countries across world history by the PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka workplace level upwards. www.workersliberty.org US researcher Walter Scheidel finds, bizarrely • bit.ly/ps-pay More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Meet the Lords? Abolish the Lords! Greece: Towar By Theodora Polenta By Simon Nelson The latest poll in Greece shows Syriza has ‘Meet the Lords’ was the the support of just 15% of the electorate. BBC’s three-part series on Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos has the inner workings of the boasted that a third of the austerity measures House of Lords. Greece had to impose as part of the current At its most critical it programme have been “totally completed”, showed how few peers bother another third are “totally agreed”, while the doing anything, although a large proportion still claim rest are subject to “political negotiation.” their full allowance. For the Alexis Tsipras’s Syriza-Anel government, most part the programme elected in January 2015 with the claim and was a tribute to the work of the hope that it would be Greece’s first gov - the £300-a-day “unsalaried” ernment of the left, is overseeing a social parliamentarians with no counterrevolution. democratic mandate. Lord West of Spithead, former Admiral More than a third of the population (35.7 The programme maker’s idea of a rebel is and Labour Minister, is very proud to show percent) are officially in poverty. Unemploy - Baroness King (Labour) and Lord Bird off his great achievement — some extra flag - ment stands at 23 percent and 46 percent (Crossbencher) — but not because they con - poles to ensure Scottish, Welsh and English among youth. Last year alone Syriza slashed demn this relic of Britain’s feudalism. Lord flags can be flown at all times at the Palace another €350 million from the health budget. Bird says “bugger” in his maiden speech of Westminster. and tells the kitchen staff he too used to 2.5 million Greeks have no health-care cover - Sadly this is not the only silly part of “tra - age. work in a kitchen and he was a member of dition” we are asked to take seriously. The Public spending on higher education was the WRP. Baroness King believes things fact that Black Rod, — the Head of Security move very slowly, most peers do nothing, and House Operations Manager — wears gutted by 75% five years ago, with 15 to 25 but she’s different — she wears trainers. tights and carries different swords for differ - percent cuts in each subsequent year. An ex - Mild critics like Lord Tyler (Lib Dem) ent occasions is something the British peo - ample of the impact of this is at the Univer - praise the oversight and expertise that can ple are supposed to be immensely proud of. sity of Crete, which had a budget of €17.5 be garnered from the debates in and lobby - As a student, I once met a previous Black million in 2011, but now operates with just ing of the second chamber. Much of the leg - Rod and asked whether junking stupid cos - €3.1 million. islation passed to them from the House of tumes, writing on vellum, and wasting time GDP showed a decline of 1.1% in the fourth Commons is poor. The only way it gets im - on ceremonies might make the work of the proved is by passing it through the Lords — quarter of 2016, instead of the expected Greek farmers protesting tax hikes in Athens clash w legislature feel slightly more like it existed growth of 0.3%. GDP decreased by €338 mil - a hodge podge of former Cabinet Ministers, in the real world. My comments were lion, and added value fell much more, by “experts”, friends of previous Prime Minis - treated with polite disdain: “Millions of peo - reported, “Officials said the lenders would ters, bishops and the landed gentry. ple watch the State Opening of Parliament… €637 million. Gross capital formation fell ask Greece to take €1.8 billion euros worth of these traditions are part of the very fabric of 30.7% compared with 2015. new measures until 2018 and another €1.8 bil - POWERFUL Britain”. lion after 2018, focused on broadening the tax Lord Strathclyde, the Tory leader in the The current Labour leadership, both John DEBT base and on pension cutbacks.” House, aka Thomas Galloway Dunlop du McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn, and even The Syriza government must make a fur - The new cuts represent 2 percent of GDP, large numbers of the Labour right have Roy de Blicquy Galbraith, is very worried ther €7 billion payment to its creditors by which has already fallen by 25 percent since that the House has become too powerful called for the abolition of the House of July or risk default on its entire debt, 2010. Or taking another €327 from every and sometimes attempts to overturn the Lords. Right-wing former Labour MP man, woman and child in the country. Austin Mitchell wrote a whole book on it! which remains at a staggering €330 bil - government’s wishes. The government returned from the Eu - This is a particular problem for the current Yet, Corbyn has so far failed to take up the lion. government because crossbenchers and issue or other democratic questions. Amid For the last two years, the IMF has been in - rogroup meeting of 20 February celebrating. other parties outnumber Tory peers — the press furore over how he would relate to the volved in a fraught standoff with the EU, in - In fact we are on the way to the imposition of result of Blair, Brown and Cameron avoid - Queen if elected Prime Minister, Corbyn sisting that it would not back any further a fourth memorandum. ing reform of the Lords by expanding it with said that in the current circumstance he bailout programmes for Greece if they did These are the measures of the “govern - life peers. would have to interact with the Queen, but not include some debt relief. The IMF is on ment’s step forward” towards the completion Elsewhere we are treated to the spectacle would like to see the monarchy, the House record that Greece’s debt is unsustainable of the second evaluation: of Lord Palmer, one of, as the programme of Lords and other feudal remnants abol - and opposes demands from the EU that • Reductions of the lower income thresh - continually repeats, “only 92 hereditary ished. Yet he appointed peers into the Athens must show a primary budget surplus old of tax free allowance from €8,600 to peers” Lord Palmer lives in a house that cost Shadow Cabinet. That should not have hap - of 3.5 percent. Instead, it calls for Greece to €5,900, so that all minimum wage workers £400 million to build in today’s money. He pened. are set to lose about €500 per year. is a real grown-up, though; when watching The House of Lords may have recently be bled dry more slowly, with a 1.5 percent a Labour MP call for an end to hereditary amending Brexit legislation for the good primary budget surplus and debt relief. • 1.4 million pensioners, those getting peers, he says you have to take this sort of (but it didn’t challenge the government The IMF estimates Greece’s debt will be more than €700 monthly, will see their pen - thing on the chin and just get on with your when its amendments were removed), but 170% of gross domestic product by 2020 and sions further reduced in 2020-2025. work — that is eating subsidised meals, any serious radical, socialist and pro-work - 164 percent by 2022, and “become explosive • Privatisation of the remaining large pub - claiming £300 a day and drafting written ing class Labour Government would find it - thereafter”, escalating to 275 percent of GDP lic services (electricity, water transportation). questions to the House about whether they self forever hampered by the existence of the by 2060. Restructuring of the Superfund and the pass - will bring back the TV room where he used second chamber. A Workers’ Government Germany responded not by backing down, ing over to it of additional public assets and to enjoy watching cricket. would also need oversight, accountability but with brutal language and further threats wealth. Lord Borwick is a Tory whip who is doing and restraints. But these should come from against Greece. German Finance Minister The coming fourth memorandum will his best to get the Government’s Housing broader democratic structures rooted in so - build on the ground laid waste by the previ - Bill through. The legislation makes afford - ciety. Wolfgang Schäuble has warned: “We can’t able housing scarcer and protects million - The kind of reforms that we should advo - undertake a debt haircut for a member of the ous three memoranda. However, there is aire landlords and property developers. cate, as well as abolition of the Lords, could European single currency. It’s ruled out by some extra political weight here: the Syriza- Lord Borwick is the man for the job because be an executive elected by and accountable the Lisbon Treaty... For that, Greece would Anel government is already creating the he knows a lot about housing: he is a partner to parliament, annual elections, the right to have to exit the currency area... The pressure framework for post-2019, when it is highly in a firm dealing in real estate and director recall MPs, and the opening up of work - on Greece to undertake reforms must be unlikely to be in power post-2019. None of of five of its subsidiaries. He’s also the chair - place and economic democracy. maintained ... otherwise they can’t remain in the previous memorandum governments man of two holding companies and a direc - Sadly we have not had even minor tin - the currency area.” (Papandreou, Papademos, Samaras, Venize - tor of a further subsidiary. On film we see kering suggested by Her Majesty’s Loyal When the IMF and the Eurogroup reached los) dared commit that far in the future. him being driven round some of his latest Opposition. The fourth memorandum will not, unlike property developments. a tentative agreement on 10 February, Reuters HISTORY 6-7 rds a fourth memorandum?

supporters, remains at the level of symbolic protests. At the last meeting of Adedy, the represen - tatives from the Greek Communist Party (KKE) union faction, Pame, did not propose even one strike day. The tide can be turned only by united struggle of the working class and popular strata movement. Only by rallies, demonstrations, sit-ins, civil disobedience, solidarity networks, strikes, based on the rank and file and our own forces of self-organisation. A united front is needed, on a political level, of all the anti-capitalist radical and rev - olutionary anti-memorandum left forces. This includes KKE, Popular Unity, Antarsya, and the groups of the revolutionary left. A working-class-based, radical, anti-capi - talist transitional program must have at its centre workers’ power, the nationalisation of the banks and all key sectors of the economy under workers’ management and control, and the creation of a workers’ government as the only way to safeguard and defend the im - plementation of our program of transitional demands. Throughout the history of the working- class movement, first comes the “revolution against something”, a broad united front of all forces rallied against a common enemy. with police the previous three, be supported by a new sation. The other parties of the establishment, populistic right and far right, some of these MELANCHOLY loan or “bail-out” agreement. Bankrupt such as Pasok and Potami, are dreaming of countries may withdraw from further financ - And then comes the “revolution for some - Greek capitalism will have to self-fund, and national salvation governments. The Greek ing of the Greek program without IMF in - thing,” the breakdown of yesterday’s that can only be done by plundering salaries, CBI is “campaigning” for collective redun - volvement. united front and the coming to the fore of pensions, health, education, and public dancies, reduced taxes for the capitalists, and Greece’s stalemate not only maintains the those who will go to the end to build a wealth. Bulgarian levels of wages. widespread social distress, but carries the new order. To mislead the Greek public, and to sooth The Versailles summit of the four biggest risks of sudden acceleration and shocks. An What makes the Greek left currently unat - the residues of their left conscience, the spin countries of the eurozone (Germany, Italy, “accidental” and regressive Grexit is creeping tractive is that it is permeated by an array of doctors of the government offer a gloss on the France, Spain) on 6 March announced a pro - back onto the agenda. melancholy and an air of honourable defeat. negotiations over the second evaluation and gram of a two speed eurozone and the disso - It is us — the workers in the public and pri - No revolution would have ever have been the prospect of a fourth memorandum. lution of the hypothetical front of the vate sector, the pensioners, the unemployed, won if the vanguards had only responded to They say the government will implement countries of the south upon which the hopes the youth, the struggling self-employed — the interests of the subordinate classes, and a package of counter-measures in favour of of the Syriza-Anel government were based. against them. Hopes for the reversal of the not also sparked the collective imagination, workers, pensioners, etc., to counteract the It remains to be seen how this two speed Eu - social Armageddon cannot be placed with projecting a dynamic, confident, winning pic - anti-working class measures of the fourth rozone will be institutionalised. the bureaucrats of Greece’s union confedera - ture. memorandum and produce a “neutral ef - After the Dutch elections on 15 March 15 tions, Gsee and Adedy. The leader of Gsee re - Missing most cruelly in these dramati - fect”. come the French presidential election on 23 fuses to organise any resistance. He is going cally difficult days for the Greek working The same argument was used in the past April and 7 May, the German elections in late to the negotiating table with the Greek CBI class is just that sort of “story” of a differ - when Syriza was signing off on a third mem - September, and the Italian elections on a date for another round of misery. Adedy, under a ent future. orandum and promising a “parallel pro - yet to be set. If there is a turn towards the coalition leadership of ND, Pasok and Syriza gram”. Any crumbs will be given only after 2019 and only if the target of a 3.5% primary budget surplus is met. They say that Tsipras, with the World Bank, Why is the left in disarray? The Russian Revolution: will be preparing a €3 billion program to re - duce unemployment and create 300,000 jobs With the Corbyn surge, the Sanders movement, and more, there is new life on the left. But the left’s positive political when workers dared to fight in 2018-2020. ideas, slogans, arguments are still paler than the right’s. In fact, the miserable government of After decades of Stalinist domination and infection, and The 1917 Russian revolution was the greatest event in po - Syriza-Anel will vote through all the anti- then of retreats, the left needs rigorous debate to renew it - litical history so far – the first time working-class people working-class measures (with an ever-de - self. It argues through two issues in particular: the en - took political power and held it for several years. Yet the creasing pool of tears) in order to cling to dorsement by much of the left of political Islam as a real history is buried under myths. Since the 1960s, and especially since the opening of power. progressive “anti-imperialism”; and the spread within the left of an “absolute anti-Zionism”, unwittingly informed archives in Russia from the 1990s, much more is known Meanwhile, the opposition ND (Tory about the Russian revolution. party) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who now by decades of Stalinist “anti-Zionist” campaigning after about 1949, which becomes effectively antisemitic. This book aims to bring original Marxist perspectives has a 20% lead in the opinion polls, is claim - together with a wide range of scholarship. It is written ing (rightly so) ownership for his party over The book concludes by criticising also the mechanical inverse on the left of the addled “anti-war” and “anti-imperialist” negativists: those who re - from what Lenin and Trotsky called the “third camp” in - all the memoranda. He endorses the line of a spond by going for an idealised bourgeois democracy. dependent working class socialist perspective. smaller state, budget surpluses, redundan - cies in the public sector, and further privati - Both books coming soon. Available to pre-order now for £8 www.workersliberty.org/books 8 FEATuRE More online at www.workersliberty.org SNP nationalism no answer to Brexit nationalism

voted “Leave”. Confirming the other-worldly nature of its SCOTLAND By the end of the week Theresa May had politics, the SWP goes on to say that Corbyn’s stated her opposition to a second referen - decision to oppose independence for Scot - By Dale Street dum, at least in the short term (“now is not land “is likely to find few friends in the the time”). This means that Tory-controlled (Labour) Party.” On 13 March a school in the constituency Westminster will not grant the “Section 30 The Socialist Party (SP) also supports a sec - of SNP Education Secretary John Swinney order” needed to stage a referendum. And ond referendum. But it will give only “critical sent a letter to pupils’ parents asking the SNP had also recalibrated its position on support” for a pro-independence vote, basi - them to help teach maths in the school, a second referendum. cally because socialism will not be on offer in due to a shortage of maths teachers. It was not a referendum which, if success - the referendum: Later in that week a new report revealed ful, would lead to Scotland joining the EU. “We stand for an independent socialist that child poverty, income inequality and the The alternative to the UK and Brexit had be - Scotland (which) would seek to forge the number of people living in relative poverty come membership of the European Economic closest of relationships with a socialist Eng - in Scotland were all increasing. Area and the European Free Trade Area (with land, Wales and Ireland as a step to a socialist Over the past year child poverty increased possible membership of the EU at an unspec - Europe.” by 4%, to 260,000. The numbers in relative ified later date). At the same time, the SP sees a second ref - poverty increased by 2%, to 1.05 million. The This shift in emphasis was unsurprising. erendum as a great chance for the left: “Be - income of the top 10% of the population is 38% of Scottish voters, and 34% of SNP voters cause a second indyref would have the issue Scotland would be the pound sterling: “It’s now 38% higher than the income of the bot - voted “Leave” last year. Voting for Scotland of the bosses’ EU as a central issue … there our currency, it’s a fully tradable, interna - tom 40%. In 2014/5 the income difference to leave the UK only to join the EU (i.e. “re - will be a big space to the left of the national - tional currency.” (Sturgeon qualified it by had been 15%. gain” powers from Westminster only to ists.” That is to say: the SP’s target audience saying: “I have a growth commission looking Reflecting the ongoing fall in the median “hand them over” to Brussels) was unlikely consists of pro-Brexit and pro-independence at a plan for the economic future of Scot - income in Scotland, 70% of Scottish children to motivate them. voters. land.” And to say in 2017 that an independ - in poverty are in households where someone There was also some room for debate, it Socialists outside the ranks of this “inde - ent Scotland would use the pound is open to works. 15 years ago the figure was 48%. But turned out, about the date of a second refer - pendence left” have not been “thrilled” by the same criticisms as in 2014.) teacher shortages and growing poverty endum. According to Sturgeon: “If she Sturgeon’s “bold move”. And with good rea - At the time of going to press, th e Scottish hardly merited a mention in the news. (Theresa May) is talking in the spring of 2019, son. Parliament is debating a motion calling for Nor did SNP First Minister Nicola Stur - a bit later perhaps than I was suggesting, The answer to nationalism is not more na - Westminster to grant a “Section 30 order”, geon have much to say about them in her there may be some room for discussion about tionalism. Not even if the latter nationalism even though it is already clear that it will not keynote speech to SNP conference (11-12 that.” Later, a second referendum was no is of a different brand, calls itself a “civic” na - be granted. But grievance-mongering is the March). Schools and education got one men - longer being posed as “the will of the Scottish tionalism, and postures as being different DNA of nationalist politics. tion each, amounting to 94 words out of a people” which Westminster would ignore at from, and morally superior to, all other na - The SNP are in a minority at Holyrood. But total of 4,297 — despite Sturgeon’s promise its peril. Instead, it was posed as “the will of tionalisms. SNP nationalism is no answer to the Scottish Greens will ensure a majority for during the Holyrood election campaign that the Scottish Parliament” (which Westminster Brexit nationalism. the motion, even though this contradicts their “improving Scotland’s education system” would ignore at its peril). 2016 manifesto commitment: “If a new refer - would be her “number one priority”. Both the latter changes can be put down to endum is to happen, it should come about by UNITED Instead, what dominated the news and opinion polls carried out during the week. the will of the people and not be driven by A socialist response to Brexit is to help Sturgeon’s speech was her announcement They consistently revealed majority opposi - calculations of party-political advantage.” build a united working-class campaign at about another referendum on Scottish inde - tion to an early referendum and majority op - Sturgeon’s drive to call a second referen - a UK level which, at a minimum, prevents pendence, to be held some time between au - position to independence (in slightly greater dum also enjoys the support of the Socialist a “hard” Brexit. tumn of 2018 and spring of 2019. numbers, according to some polls, than in Proffering independence for Scotland as an Workers Party (SWP). Her “bold move” has The case for a second referendum, accord - 2014). appropriate response to Brexit cuts across “thrilled independence supporters”: “Weak - ing to Sturgeon, was that Scotland had voted Throughout the week SNP spokespersons building such a campaign. 13 million “Re - ening the junior partner of US imperialism, “Remain” in last June’s EU referendum, had ducked the question of the currency of main” voters in England — the existence of especially in the era of Donald Trump, will be whereas a (narrow) majority at UK level had an independent Scotland. Then Sturgeon an - whom is hardly visible in the SNP’s black- a positive thing.” nounced that the currency of an independent and-white England-Leave, Scotland-Remain portrayal of the EU referendum result — are potential allies. A referendum on Scottish in - dependence is not a bridge to link up with The origins of the Petrograd soviet them. A renewed focus on possible Scottish inde - The February revolution, thanks to the re - mittee of the Soviet. pendence — although, in fact, the focus has volt of the troops [in Petrograd], was victo - That was one of those half-intentional fal - never gone away since 2014, or 2011, or even TROTSkY’S rious before the workers had created a sifications with which all history is filled, es - 2007 — will push aside a focus on class poli - soviet. The Executive Committee was self- pecially the history of popular revolutions. tics and social and economic issues, and on RuSSIAN constituted [mainly by members of the Men - In a revolutionary turn of events involving the SNP’s record of failure in Holyrood. shevik faction of the Russian Social a break in the succession, those “educated” The 2014 referendum campaign — con - REvOLuTION Democratic and Labour Party] in advance of classes who have now to learn to wield the trary to the current SNP rewriting of history the soviet and independently of the factories power, gladly seize hold of any names and — was socially divisive. It counterposed pre - and regiments after the victory of the revo - symbols connected with the heroic memo - viously co-existing national identities (Scot - Continuing a series of extracts from tish-British and Scottish-only). The prospect Leon Trotsky’s History of the Russian lution. ries of the masses. And words not infre - We have here the classic initiative of the quently conceal the essence of things — of a second referendum will exacerbate such Revolution . Here Trotsky describes divisions. the inception and initial political and radicals — standing aside from the revolu - especially when this is demanded by the in - tionary struggle, but getting ready to harvest terests of influential groups. The displacement of class politics and social character of the Petrograd class-based voting by politics and voting soviet. For most of 1917 the soviet its fruit. The real leaders of the workers had [The Executive Committee], ratified by the not yet left the streets. They were disarming first chaotic meeting of the soviet, thereafter based on national identity has consolidated backed the bourgeois Provisional an electoral base for the SNP and boosted the Government. some, arming others, making sure of the vic - exerted a decisive influence both upon the tory. The more far-sighted among them were membership of the soviet and upon its pol - Tories. Opinion polls put the SNP on 48%, the alarmed by the news that in the Tauride icy. This influence was the more conserva - Tories on 26% and Labour on 14%. The Palace some kind of a soviet of workers’ tive, in that the natural selection of prospect of a second referendum will rein - The organisation created on February 27 deputies had come into being. revolutionary representatives which is guar - force that political polarisation. in the Tauride Palace, and called “Execu - Just as in the autumn of 1916 the liberal anteed by the red-hot atmosphere of a strug - Labour, quite rightly, is opposed to a sec - tive Committee of The Soviet of Workers’ bourgeoisie, in expectation of a palace revo - gle no longer existed. ond referendum and to independence for Deputies,” had little in common with its lution which somebody was supposed to It required months of new conflicts and Scotland. So too are the Tories. This will be name. put through, had got ready a reserve govern - struggles in new circumstances, with the the trigger, and has already been fired to The Soviet of Deputies of 1905, the origi - ment to impose upon the new czar in case it consequent reshuffling of personnel, in some degree, for a fresh bout of post-factual nator of the [soviet] system, rose out of a succeeded, so the radical intelligentsia got order that the soviets, from being organs for denunciations of Labour as “Red Tories”, the general strike. It directly represented the ready its reserve sub-government at the mo - consecrating the victory, should become or - staple diet of SNP loyalists. masses in struggle. The leaders of the strike ment of the February victory. Inasmuch as gans of struggle and preparation for a new The prospect of a second referendum at became the deputies of the soviet; the selec - they had been, at least in the past, adherents insurrection. some undefined point in the future is an tion of its membership was carried out of the workers’ movement and inclined to unfavourable terrain for socialists. But under fire; its Executive Committee was We emphasise this aspect of the matter cover themselves with its tradition, they when politics is polarising around the elected by the soviet for the further prosecu - because it has until now been left com - now named their offspring Executive Com - false alternatives of Brexit nationalism or tion of the struggle…. pletely in the shade. SNP nationalism, socialists have an irre - Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty FEATuRE 9 The inspirational art of Buffy Buffy is unable to stop this from happening tunity for a joke and ran with it. But there By Carrie Evans or even recognise it because she is so lost her - were a lot more thoughtful criticisms of cap - self. italism, state power and modern culture in On 10 March 1997 something was created The Trio is a group of super villains who Buffy than in most popular TV. that changed my world forever. This is not are in fact just three misogynistic men, who Buffy was one of the first shows to treat TV using hyperbole to illustrate a point. Buffy can’t cope with not being popular, athletic or as a complex art form, rather than just cheap the Vampire Slayer shaped my world. Unfortunately for me (or fortunately de - sexy and decide to turned their frustrations entertainment. It established a reputation for pending on context) I’m not the only person on the Scooby Gang. innovation, experimentation, witty dialogue who feels this way. Which is why Buffy has The Trio start out as comedy villains — and meta humour. It broke new ground in launched a thousand think-pieces. typical sad, hapless, kind of pathetic, misog - what a prime time TV show could do. But Buffy’s originality still stands up today ynists, but morph into something a lot more When Whedon was accused of using witty, because it took every cliché and trope and sinister. By the middle of the series, one of the pithy dialogue as a crutch for the show, he turned them on their heads. To the people Trio has bewitched his ex-girlfriend into decided to do a whole episode, ‘The Gentle - who still think Buffy is exclusively for hor - being his sex slave. Fortunately for her his man’, in silence. It is still one of the funniest monal teenage girls who long for the “bite” spell goes wrong; she wakes from the spell, and scariest things I’ve ever seen. of a vampire and basement-dwelling neck- confronts him with the reality of what he did, Here, The Gentlemen come into town and beards — where have you been for the last 20 telling him that this isn’t just some sick fan - steal everyone’s voices in order to help them years? tasy but that he has repeatedly raped her. He harvest organs. When they rip out your heart The first time I saw Buffy I was seven years freaks out and murders her. no one will hear you scream. old and BBC 2 just happened to be on. There Whedon and his gang of merry writers There is also a musical episode, a few was this new American show with a stupid often analysed society’s ills in a single episodes set entirely inside dreams and an art name, but the title sequence caught my atten - episode, often directly critical of capitalism. house episode called ‘The Body’ which has tion... In the episode ‘Double Meat Palace’, Buffy is absolutely no score — a first for television. Episode One opens as a horror genre show forced to take a job in a fast food restaurant Another stand-out arty episode is ‘Normal would open. A beautiful blonde, with a petite but soon realises that her co-workers are dis - again’. In this episode we find out (or do we? frame and soft voice, wearing a Catholic appearing at an alarming rate. At first we no we don’t. Wait, maybe we do? No. Fuck, I school uniform, is being talked into breaking think the secret ingredient in the double meat have no idea what is going on...) that the into school by her bad boyfriend. medley is in fact human meat, but there is ac - whole Buffyverse is actually just the complex The boyfriend is an archetypal creep who the most beloved daughter of a gipsy clan. tually a demon who is picking the workers delusion of an institutionalised girl. By doing is simultaneously trying to impress a girl They exacted the perfect revenge by putting off one at time. In our culture, workers are this, the writers were able to tear down the with his badness and bully her into “making his soul back into his body to spend the rest just disposable pieces of meat; they come, fourth wall and critique their own work out” with him. I remember the rush of fear of eternity fighting with his demon. Angel they go and no one notices. without being obnoxious. and excitement I had knowing she was about has a conscience. Angel has to be suffering all Buffy: “Wow they’re all so identical”. Psychiatrist: “But Buffy, it all fell apart to die. the time. If he feels even one moment of true Boss: “Yeah they all start to look the same when you introduced this sister character “I’m scared. I think I can hear something happiness the curse will be broken and his to me too.” into your delusions didn’t it? You can’t just outside” says Darla. (“Owww, she’s defi - soul will be freed. Buffy: “No not the employees. The chicken invent a sister out of nowhere.” nitely about to get it”, thinks me.) Here’s the real kicker though, guess what slices”. “Baby, there’s nothing out there” says makes Angel happier than anything else? Similarly in the episode ‘Life cereal’ Buffy GENDER takes a job in retail and gets caught in a time creepy boyfriend. You’ve got it, Buffy. Or more specifically, sex Breaking new ground was very apparent loop, forcing her to live the same day over Then in a plot twist that my seven-year-old with Buffy. in the way the show dealt with gender and and over again. This is a pretty obvious (even mind could barely comprehend, Darla says In the episode ‘Surprise’ Buffy turns 17 and sexuality. “Good”, transforms into a vampire and sinks loses her virginity to Angel. Only to wake up heavy handed) metaphor for the monotony Buffy isn’t just one super-woman in a her teeth into creepy boyfriend’s neck. the next day with a boyfriend that’s a mon - of working life. In the same episode Buffy man’s world. The whole show centres “OMFG! She was the monster!” ster. The story is fantastical yet completely gets a job in construction but is fired because around amazing women. Women who are From then on I was completely and utterly truthful at the same time. Many women ex - the men can’t cope with her being stronger powerful, intellectual, magical, caring and hooked. I was a Whedonite (fan of Jess Whe - perience this phenomenon of going to bed than them. sexual. Some of them butch, some of them don, the show’s writer). with one person and waking up with some - In ‘The wish’ the vampires work out how fem, some of them gay, some of them I wasn’t disappointed by the rest of the one else. The phrase “He wasn’t like this to mass-produce and start factory farming straight. Most of them are a mixture of both show. Whedon purposefully makes the open - when I first met him” is a cliché for a reason. humans. They reflect on their activities: “Un - bad and good. All of them however, are be - ing scene a microcosm of what is to come. deniably we are the world’s superior race. Yet littled, talked down to and held back and we have always been too parochial, too Buffy started out simply. Firstly, what if a MAGIC physically abused by men who couldn’t even young woman walks down a dark ally at bound by the mindless routine of the preda - dream of being in the same league as them. Demons and magic also act as devices tor. Hunt and kill, hunt and kill. Titillating? Then when you think you’ve seen it all, night and gets attacked by a monster. But in - through which to analyse wider society. stead of dying as she would in a horror show, Yes. Practical. Hardly. Meanwhile, the hu - Buffy goes and pulls the ultimate socialist Sometimes this takes the form of long over - mans, with their plebeian minds, have she kicks that monster’s arse. arching narratives, as with the dark and bril - feminist move by giving her super powers Secondly, growing up and going to second - brought us a truly demonic concept: mass away to every woman in the world. She is no liant Season Six, with three separate but production!” ary school is hell for most of us. But what if intertwining story lines painting a grim pic - longer the chosen one, nor is she the bur - your school was built on the mouth of hell? Marx delved into the world of gothic hor - dened one. We all share the power and work tures of what it’s like to be a twenty-some - ror when explaining capitalism and often Buffy is a typical teenage girl in every respect thing woman in the modern world. together. apart from the fact she is the vampire slayer. (quite poetically) compared it to Vampirism: Buffy: “What if you could have that power A lot of this season focuses on Buffy trying “Capital is dead labour, which, vampire-like, The one girl on earth with the supernatural to reconnect with humanity. The Scooby now? In every generation a slayer is born be - strength and skill to fight the forces of dark - lives only by sucking living labour, and lives cause a bunch of old men made up that rule. Gang (Buffy’s friends) accidentally bring the more, the more labour it sucks.” ness. Buffy back from heaven, thinking that they Those were powerful men. This woman is Horror is a brilliant medium through Another favourite episode was ‘Anne’. more powerful than all of those men com - were saving her from a hell dimension. Only Here Buffy runs away to LA and takes a job which to represent society’s fears. It is why her mother has died, so she’s pulled out only bined. So I say we change the rule… From “penny dreadfuls” and Dracula became in a diner. Again, she notices young run - now on, every girl in the world who might be to face being the primary carer to her kid sis - aways are disappearing with no trace. She widely popular during the 19th century’s in - ter, having medical debts her mother’s brain a slayer, will be a slayer. Every girl who could dustrial upheaval and intense urbanisation. follows the trail and it eventually leads her to have the power, will have the power. Can tumour incurred and having no prospects ex - a church group that are doing outreach work Buffy is simply the last and in my opinion cept menial jobs and poverty wages. stand up, will stand up. Slayers everyone of best example of this tradition. with the young and homeless. But free meals us. So make your choice. Are you ready to be The season is a great big metaphor for the come at a cost. If you allow the group to bap - On the surface it a show about vampires, depression you face in your mid twenties. strong?” demons and the forces of darkness. However tise you, you get sucked into a parallel hell So yes, Buffy may look like a show about Buffy is directionless and lacking inspiration. dimension where you are forced to slave in a the demons are metaphors for our own She isolating herself, alienating her friends vampires and high school, with cheap pro - demons. They allow us to safely process and factory until you die, for a boss class of duction and a painfully outdated wardrobe, and engaging in risky sexual behaviour. demons. analyse our own deepest fears. Meanwhile two “big bads” are developing but there’s a reason it consistently features in For instance, Angel, the love of Buffy’s life, As a final cherry on the cake for communist “best TV ever made” lists. right under her nose in the forms of Dark buffy fans, when Buffy does lead the factory is a vampire cursed with a soul. In the buffy - Willow and The Trio. It is camp, complex, beautifully moving verse the demon takes your body when rebellion, she picks up two tools to fight with and never patronising. It inspired women Dark Willow is the storyline in which — a Hammer and Sickle. Buffy literally de - you’re “turned” and the soul quits you, un - Buffy’s best friend becomes addicted to and girls all over the world to stand up and harmed. All that’s left should be a remorse - stroys the exploitative class and frees the be strong. It got a generation of writers to magic. She transforms from being everyone’s slaves using a Hammer and Sickle! less killing machine with no empathy or favourite shy geek into the world’s most treat TV as art and push the boundaries on morality. I don’t think every staff writer on Buffy what is acceptable. powerful and out-of-control dark witch. was a Bolshevik; I think they saw the oppor - However Angel is thought to have killed Forever a Whedonite. Where we stand More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. The capitalists’ control over the economy and their relentless drive to increase their wealth causes poverty, unemployment, DOO strikes spread the blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the destruction By a railworker day on the network were driven by coming Grand National horse rac - of the environment and much else. managers, and the company had to ing festival at Aintree 6-8 April but Against the accumulated wealth and power of the capitalists, almost completely scrap its no agreement was reached. RMT On Monday 13 March RMT planned timetable of reduced serv - has now announced strikes on 8 the working class must unite to struggle against capitalist guards and drivers on Southern ices. This show of unity with April on Northern, Southern and power in the workplace and in wider society. Railways struck and were joined guards by Aslef drivers, ignoring a Merseyrail. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty wants socialist revolution: for the first time by RMT guards circular from their union advising RMT has written to Arriva Rail and drivers on Northern and them to work normally, massively North asking for talks — presum - collective ownership of industry and services, workers’ control, Merseyrail. and a democracy much fuller than the present system, with RMT continues its fight against increases the likelihood that a cam - ably to make itself appear reason - the extension of driver-only opera - paign of industrial action against able. A better approach would have elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to DOO can succeed in defeating em - been to announce strike dates and bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. tion on Southern, while the leader - ship of drivers’ union Aslef seems ployers and the Tory government. declare itself available for talks. We fight for trade unions and the Labour Party to break with desperate to surrender. Two days Meanwhile, on Northern, where This dispute is likely to rumble “social partnership” with the bosses and to militantly assert after the latest RMT strike, Aslef an - there is no pre-existing culture of on, spreading as it does so. It is to working-class interests. nounced to its members the result respect for picket lines between be hoped that it spreads from RMT of the latest secret round of talks. Aslef and RMT members, only one to Aslef, or at least to ASLEF mem - The result? The same deal, with Aslef driver chose not to cross the bers, following Merseyrail drivers’ In workplaces, trade unions, and Labour organisations; picket line. Arriva Rail North man - lead. among students; in local campaigns; on the left and in some very minor improvements. The Financial Times was open in de - agement attempted to victimise Real unity is needed in order wider political alliances we stand for: scribing it as the same deal rewrit - that driver but were forced to back for rail workers to defeat the • Independent working-class representation in politics. ten and talks about this whole down or face a dispute with Aslef. bosses and the Tory government • A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the debacle as a “humiliation” of Aslef. Talks were held between in their attempt to smash organ - labour movement. It is unsurprising that the union Merseyrail managers and RMT to ised labour on the railway. try to avert a strike during the up - • A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to finds itself in this current mess — it strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. should have returned to strike ac - tion before going back into talks. Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, • The ballot of Aslef members on this Guard found not guilty education and jobs for all. deal closes on 3 April. • A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Meanwhile at Northern and by Janine Booth The prosecution of Martin Zee Full equality for women, and social provision to free women Merseyrail, the RMT has begun took place in a political context. taking action in its disputes with The government and profit-moti - from domestic labour. For reproductive justice: free abortion on RMT member Martin Zee has those companies over the same vated train operating companies won an important legal battle demand; the right to choose when and whether to have issue. On Northern RMT members want trains to be operated by driv - concerning his actions as a train children. Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and were rock solid, with only very ers only, without the support of guard. transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity against small numbers of scabs and none at Martin was a guard on a guards. This prosecution was a racism. all at some depots. The picture Merseyrail train in 2015 when an vindictive attempt to discredit guards to make it easier to scrap • Open borders. among RMT members was very elderly passenger tried to board a similar at Merseyrail. them. Global solidarity against global capital — workers train after the door closure proce - • Perhaps the biggest story to come So the “not guilty” verdict is everywhere have more in common with each other than with dure had started and was injured. out of this day’s action was the Martin carried out his role prop - not only a huge relief for Martin, their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. massive show of solidarity by Aslef erly, ensuring the train and track but a welcome blow to the push • Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest drivers at Merseyrail. None of the were made safe and climbing towards driver-only operation. workplace or community to global social drivers booked to work that day down to support and reassure the crossed the RMT picket lines, passenger until the emergency • Full article online: organisation. meaning the only trains to run that bit.ly/2mLs2yB • Equal rights for all nations, against services arrived. imperialists and predators big and small. • Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. Student union cuts cleaners’ hours If you agree with us, please take some is likely that they will ballot for in - dents are currently circulating a pe - By Justine Canady, UCLU dustrial action if these cuts go tition calling for the Board of copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! Women’s Officer-elect through. Trustees to “respect UCLU’s clean - (personal capacity) There has also been some contro - ers and respect democracy”. versy around the cleaners′ pay. UCLU is currently running a UCL Student Union’s senior UCLU is a London Living Wage deficit, and needs to balance its Events management have agreed cuts employer. However, some cleaners books; with cleaning currently ac - in the region of 90k to the clean - provided pay stubs showing that counting for such a high cost, it Saturday 25 March Tuesday 28 March ing budget. they in fact received slightly below would appear to make sense to go Unite for Europe march The left and Brexit — Secura Clean, the company con - LLW. after this budget first. Balancing the 11am, Park Lane, London Manchester Workers’ Liberty tracted to carry out UCLU cleaning, UCLU Board of Trustees will be books must not be done by sudden, bit.ly/2nNNa98 public meeting have promised there will be no re - meeting 23 March to discuss the drastic changes to the contracts of 7.30pm, Central Methodist hall, dundancies. However, hours will cleaners’ situation. It is likely, the the most vulnerable at a moment’s Saturday 25 March Oldham St, Manchester M1 1JQ be drastically cut, meaning that board will not want to overrule notice. Durham teaching assistants’ bit.ly/2nNNAfL some cleaners possibly losing one- management’s decision to make Instead, the cleaners should march third of their hours. Many cleaners cuts, despite the Union Council be made in-house staff and cuts, 12pm, Gala Square, Durham Saturday 1 April are currently organised through in - passing a motion earlier this month if needed, should be made to bit.ly/2n3D6J8 Protest Against Housing Benefit dependent trade union CAIWU. It to support the cleaners. UCL stu - managerial pay. Cuts For 18-21 Year Olds 12 noon, Parliament Square Monday 27 March bit.ly/2mi4R1Q Strike while the mic is hot — Sacked for using holy water? Picturehouse fundraiser Leeds march for the NHS C&D cleaning, struck for 68 days dressing as vampires and throwing 7pm, The Victoria, 451 11am, Victoria Gardens, Leeds By Simon Nelson for union recognition and the living “holy water” amounts to an attack Queensbridge Road, London E8 LS1 2LH wage. They returned to work in De - on their Christian faith. It would 3AS bit.ly/2naClNn Three cleaners at Kinsley Acad - cember with a settlement, but just appear laughable if it were not bit.ly/2n9wtGX emy near Wakefield have been before Christmas were sacked. these women’s jobs on the line. sacked on trumped-up charges Another Europe is still possible The outrageous charges stem C&D themselves have shown 11am, Museum of Science and In - relating to allege religious dis - from their Halloween protest, the Have an event you crimination against the employ - complete disdain for the workers dustry, Liverpool Road, Manches - “Kinsley 3 Vampire Gathering”. and have refused from the begin - want listing? Email: ter M3 4FP ers! The three cleaners, employed by C&D claims that the mere notion of ning to engage with, let alone [email protected] bit.ly/2nihnze recognise, their Union. REPORTS 10-11 Picturehouse strikes spread to six cinemas

currently being balloted to join the festival with Picturehouse next By a Picturehouse worker strikes, with the result expected year if it does not pay the living on 29 March. This will be the sixth wage, and NUS NEC has passed a On Saturday 18 March workers cinema in the chain on strike. We motion calling for its member stu - at five Picturehouse cinemas want to tour other UK Picture - dent unions to remove Picture - struck in their ongoing dispute houses, which are currently not on house from their freshers’ fairs. for the Living Wage and union strike, and organise meetings with More strikes are planned for 31 recognition. It was the first strike workers. We are starting a cam - March, to coincide with the release by workers at the Duke of York paign for statutory recognition. of ‘Ghost in the Shell’. cinema in Brighton. The strike was successful. The This wont happen overnight, but Picturehouse and Cineworld Duke of York strike marks the first we think we currently have half the have demonstrated that they are time our campaign has reached out numbers we need to win a statu - not prepared to ″play nice″. The of London. In addition to about 50 tory recognition ballot. We don’t union and individual activists have enough staff to cover pickets at all up with the need to win the dis - workers coming down from Lon - want to rely on the law, though, been receiving legal letters with lu - sites. We have the capacity to or - pute. At a certain point we have don to demonstrate outside of and whilst we do this we want to dicrous threats, which are factually ganise strong and effective picket to push back so our action is ef - Duke of York’s, we were joined by spread the strikes to new sites. incorrect. But none of these threats lines which turn away cinema- fective. lots of supporters from have yet resulted in legal action. goers, and the campaign has great Brighton. The Duke′s workers BOYCOTT The intent is to intimidate the momentum. It is frustrating when • The Picturehouse strikers have union and activists, whether or not came away feeling quite positive There is also now a boycott we have that sort of momentum to a new website with resources for there is any substance in the about it. Over the course of the day of Picturehouse and its parent have restrictions placed on us or - supporting them: www. threats, and to tie the union up in they recruited quite a lot of new company Cineworld. ganising effecive picket lines by the picturehouselivingwage.com members — some workers who A lot of celebrities are getting in - replying to and examining legal law, but also by our union which, • Lewisham Momentum will be weren′t working the day shift, and volved in the boycott campaign threats. rightly or wrongly, is increasingly leafletting Greenwich Picture - had previously not joined the and calling on Cineworld and Pic - As a consequence of this, as nervous of legal action and is there - house for the boycott on Friday 7 union, ended up not go in for their turehouse to pay the Living Wage. well as the new Trade Union Act, fore being overly cautious. April — bit.ly/2nhXaKd scheduled evening shift. In addition to individuals boy - we have seen greater regulation put We should be cautious to not • Write to your MP and ask them We also marched from the Duke cotting Picturehouse and on our picket lines and put members at unnecessary to sign EDM 1000 in support of to the Komedia cinema, Cineworld, which could be useful protests. The latest issue is having risk, but it needs to be weighed the strikes — bit.ly/2nNO8Cm another Picturehouse branch in but won’t be decisive in the dis - a picket supervisor, and our Brighton. We are confident that pute, the boycott is gathering pace union Bectu is currently not allow - staff at the Komedia will soon get with Picturehouse partners. For ex - ing this to be a lay activist but involved in the dispute. ample the Human Rights Film Fes - rather a full-time union official, TAs force concessions East Dulwich Picturehouse is tival has said it will not host its meaning Bectu does not have ards agreed to put a proposed deal By Ralph Peters out to ballot with a recommenda - tion to accept. As we go press, we On 15 to 17 March there was a do not know the details. Teachers say: “not our deficit!” dramatic reversal of the bullying Last June Derby Council unilat - and confrontational attitude erally imposed a new contract on that Derby’s Labour Council had the school staff. Allegedly because until then shown to Unison in Teachers at Forest Hill school of an equal-pay review, it led to a the 10 month long dispute with pay cut of about 25% for the teach - in Lewisham struck on school support staff. Wednesday 21 March. Joe The sudden change followed ing assistants (TAs, mostly women) and an attempt to make Cowley, the NUT union rep, several weeks in which increasing them work longer hours. spoke to Solidarity . solidarity had been shown to - wards the school support staff. The deal included promises of Both wings of Momentum gave compensatory payments. The pro - In September we were told that support at national meetings or portion of staff receiving those the school had fallen into budget conferences. The Clarion magazine payments, and the extent of com - deficiet — a projected £1million launched a petition that got the pensation, have not been yet re - — and that this would necessi - signatures of leading national offi - vealed. tate a massive restructure in the cials of Labour-affiliated unions. The council is saying that much school. been unable to find any reason for expect to be joined by members Reports started flooding in of sup - of that funding will have to come This is about job losses, and the from the local schools. That will detrimental impact that will have the deficit or anyone to hold ac - from the Forest Hill parents’ action portive motions being passed at countable. Neither senior manage - group and students who have Labour Party meetings. make it difficult to get agreement on workload, and therefore on stu - at the many academies in Derby. dents’ education. It will impact the ment or the council seem to want to jumped at being part of the cam - Another pressure was the likely have that discussion. They just bat paign we have been building. reopening of the dispute of the School support staff will need curriculum, particularly in areas to extend the solidarity they de - such as the creative arts and tech - our questions away and describe More strikes are named for Durham Teaching Assistants’ dis - the situation as “financial misman - Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 pute. A march has been called in veloped with parents and de - nology. Everything that we as velop campaigning links with teachers believe in, providing qual - agement”, so it’s difficult to know March. There is a real committment Durham on 25 March as frustra - where the deficit came from and amongst the union group to win tion builds at the suspension with - other education unions against ity education for young people in all the cuts on school budgets. our community to address the im - suggest alternatives. this. I don’t see any reason why we out progress of their dispute. The council has said it will pro - would cease until we win. On Friday 17 March, the stew - balance of inequality, will be made • Full article: bit.ly/2mQnuYI difficult if not impossible by the re - vide some deficit management aid, The NASUWT is not currently structure. We’ve already had cuts but this comes with strict stipula - involved in the dispute, but some through natural wastage, which tions on cutting the wage budget — of their members would like to has meant that the special educa - clearly there will be no RBS bailout get involved, and they won’t be tional needs department has been for schools! We want to force the covering any NUT members’ Sacked for organising council into accepting that it’s their work on the strikes they are not deccimated. and IWW member Jack Hannam job to protect education in currently involved in. We were told that the deficit was By Luke Hardy said: due to both external and internal Lewisham, and the varied curricu - lum we provide to students. “One rider who was disgruntled factors. The external part is that of Deliveroo drivers in Leeds are for some reason showed it to man - a bigger crisis facing education in As the NUT we are demanding fighting for the reinstatement of that redundancy payments (at a More industrial news: agement and within a week two the change to the national funding seven workers and for union union members who were active on formula. The NUT projects this will projected £450,000) are covered by Bromley library strike recognition. the local authority, who are legally The workers had an online dis - it had their contracts terminated, mean cuts of up to £25 million in Five of us had our hours cut. Lewisham schools alone! Along - responsible, not the school as we bit.ly/2nG3NXq cussion group for workers which side the increased national insur - are currently being told will be the got into the hands of management. “I had about 40 hours sched - ance and pensions contributions. case. This could make a huge differ - Fujitsu workers strike Two riders were sacked and five uled and they have been taken As for the internal factor — clearly ence to the school budget. had their hours cut. off me. “ We will be holding a demonstra - again Deliveroo employs about 300 something has gone catastrophi - • Donate to the hardship fund at: cally wrong, and as of yet we have tion at Lewisham council cabinet bit.ly/2n9cKr4 workers in Leeds, with only 30 on Wednesday 22 March, and we working full-time. Deliveroo rider bit.ly/2nFQnea SolidaFor a workers’ giovertnment y No 433 22 March 2017 50p/£1 Labour should fight Brexit all the way and no public services. It is a night - something that the majority clearly By Martin Thomas mare vision that I believe would be voted for then. rejected by the majority of people Since January, Theresa May has Prime minister Theresa May will who live here”. repeated that “no deal is better formally announce her wish to Labour should be convincing than a bad deal”, meaning that the quit the European Union, and people, including those who voted Tories retain the option — to be thus trigger separation proceed - for Brexit last 23 June, that this Tory used by them at will, whatever ings under Article 50 of the 1991 Brexit should be rejected by the ma - Parliament thinks — to go for quit - Maastricht Treaty, on 29 March. Current Labour Party policy is to jority, and that the majority should ting the EU on terms that would give the Tories a free hand to shape have the means to block it. leave British citizens in EU coun - Brexit. Labour leaders say they Plebiscitary democracy — deci - tries, and EU nationals in Britain, must defer out of respect for the sion by one-off vote, with terms of stranded; that would block travel referendum decision on 23 June the vote decided by the govern - and movement between Britain 2016. ment, and the implementation and the EU; that would disrupt Labour leaders have talked which determines what the one-off trade and supply chains by tariffs about “holding the Tories to ac - vote really means also decided by and heavy border paperwork; that the government — is a thin form of would erect “hard” borders be - count” and pushing a “People’s Union, which even Turkey is in. also undermines the work of re - democracy. tween North and South in Ireland Brexit”, but surrendered the means They want, above all, to stop free building Labour support. and, quite possibly, between Eng - to make those words reality by vot - movement and cut immigration, The Labour right wing’s staged land and Scotland. ing with the Tories when they leg - DEMOCRACY from non-EU countries as well as Shadow Cabinet resignations in On 15 March Brexit minister islated to give themselves a free Lively democracy means the from the EU. Making Britain a June-July started the process which David Davis said: “We wanted to hand. continual formation, revision, walled-off, meaner country will has given Theresa May a lead in be clear we could actually manage The Tories explicitly rejected and re-formation of a majority hurt working-class unity between the polls despite unpopular poli - this [a no-deal exit] in such a way amendments requiring regular re - opinion, with minorities always workers of different countries and cies (continued benefit cuts, new as to be better than a bad deal and ports to Parliament, or allowing having the chance to become origins, and impoverish it econom - schools cuts, grammar schools...) that is true... It’s not as frightening Parliament to vote down a “final” majorities. ically. Since immigrant workers But the new line of deferring to a frankly as some people think”. deal and force renegotiation. Labour’s deferential attitude pay in so much in taxes, and dis - supposedly fixed Brexit majority So he has found “clear” facts? Shadow Chancellor John Mc - means letting live democracy be proportionately staff public serv - has worsened it. Not at all. “I can’t quantify it for Donnell said last October: “The killed by dead quarter-democratic ices, the walling-off will create While the Lib-Dems — despite you in detail yet. I may well be able Government is hurtling towards a forms. great pressures for further social their so-recent record in govern - to do so in about a year’s time”. chaotic Brexit that will damage our The referendum result gave a cuts. ment, despite the fact that one- What if the Tories get what they economy, and hurt the poorest and new right-wing leadership in the So far the Tories are circumspect third of their voters went for Brexit think a “good deal”? Even that will most vulnerable most of all. Tory party a boost for their agenda. about trashing workers’ and other on 23 June, despite everything — be bad. “By pulling up the drawbridge Labour has to accept that as a fact. rights which entered British law have doubled their membership by They insist on quitting the EU and tearing up longstanding ties to It doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, from the EU. But they say openly making at least some show of fight - Single Market, which allows trade Europe, we will inflict huge and “accept” any moral obligation to that they will use so-called “Henry ing the Tories’ Brexit, Labour’s to flow across borders without tar - unnecessary pain on our society. cease opposing that agenda. VIII powers”, allowing the govern - surge in membership has been iffs or delays, although polls have Yet a hard-line Tory minority be - The Tories are shaping Brexit in ment to change laws without refer - paused or even slightly reversed. shown 90% in favour of staying in. lieve [in] the fantasy of turning our a right-wing way. In our view, that ence to Parliament. They want to withdraw, in large We cannot beat the Tories by whole country into a giant offshore goes with the terrain, but it was not Labour’s deference on Brexit part, from the looser Customs deferring to them. Labour should tax haven, with rock-bottom wages clear to the voters on 23 June, nor fight Brexit all the way! Or subscribe with a standing order Contact us Subscribe to Solidarity Pay £5 a month to subscribe to Solidarity or pay us more to make an ongoing contribution to our work 020 7394 8923 Trial sub (6 issues) £7 o To: ...... (your bank) ...... 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