So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y No 268 12 December 2012 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org For a workers’ government

Help Congolese Plan B in Greece Marx and Lenin workers! pages 6-7 on press freedom page 3 page 10 Tories squeeze poor to boost profits Corporation tax cut to 21%. Benefits cut by £5 a See page 5 week on average. 2 CAMPAIGN

What is the Alliance for Steps forward for left student campaign

Workers’ Liberty? By Luke Neal Women’s, LGBTQ, Black might be accomplished education and campaigns. Power, Disabled, Interna - here. The clause in Policies to extend the cam - Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to The National Campaign NCAFC’s new constitution another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of tional Students — elected paign’s focus towards areas Against Fees and Cuts reps and people to sit on the facilitating emergency con - such as the NHS, student production. Society is shaped by the capitalists’ held its fifth national con - relentless drive to increase their wealth. Capitalism NC (all independents, ex - ferences of delegates from debt, housing and organis - causes poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives ference at Birmingham cept the Women’s Cam - local activist groups re - ing student workers were by overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the Guild of Students on 8-9 paign which elected a flected these lessons. adopted, and a proposal to environment and much else. December. About 120 stu - committee that will decide It was decided to call an - facilitate a speaker tour Against the accumulated wealth and power of the dent activists took part. its NC rep). other conference within six with a striking Wal-Mart or capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. Conference voted over - months to discuss the set - Many were independent fast-food worker from the The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity through whelming (with only SWP ting up of something like a left students, in addition to US. struggle so that the working class can overthrow capitalism. We want and Socialist Action trying “Fighting Federation of Stu - groups from Workers’ Lib - A Royal Holloway socialist revolution: collective ownership of industry and services, to block it), to develop the dent Unions”, i.e. an alter - Labour Club motion to de - workers’ control and a democracy much fuller than the present system, erty, the Socialist Party, the native SU federation SWP and Socialist Action. structures of the campaign mand trade unions fight for with elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to by agreeing a formal consti - organising independently bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. The latter two groups had free education, including in tution with individual of NUS. Whether NCAFC We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” again come with a sectarian the Labour Party, passed membership and an affilia - should operate within NUS and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. agenda. but was predictably contro - tion system for anti-cuts was a contested point — we versial. After several critical Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, This time, however, their generally believe it should. groups and student unions, socialist contributions, So - supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping disruption failed. The con - A sizeable number of in - organise rank-and-file groups. as well as a charter of politi - cialist Action’s motion pre - ference was extremely dem - dependents, reacting to the We are also active among students and in many campaigns and cal demands. senting Venezuela as a ocratic and constructive, record of the SWP, as well alliances. model for free education with lots of time for mo - STEP their own scepticism about tions, good-natured debate As the NCAFC has been the possibilities of working was rejected. There was a We stand for: and positive discussion and lively debate on how to ex - G Independent working-class representation in politics. held back by lack of in NUS, voted against the planning in the workshops. structure, this is a step SWP proposal to work to - press our opposition to war G A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour and militarism. The confer - movement. Workshop topics included forward. wards a united left chal - ence also passed policy in G A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to further education and lenge at the 2013 NUS picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. schools organisation, inter - The NCAFC should now conference. Workers’ Lib - solidarity with Tamil stu - G Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education national students, what’s be stronger, more dynamic erty’s Rosie Huzzard spoke dents in Jaffna suffering re - and jobs for all. happening in higher educa - and responsive during peri - in favour of the proposal pression from the Sri G A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full tion, organising at work, the ods of heightened struggle. and it passed with support Lankan state. equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden lessons of the Quebec strug - There was much debate from many independents. The NCAFC is the only of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, gle, abortion rights, student about the federal model of But conference voted down forum where left student bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity union democracy and cam - organisation used by the attempts to say that left activists with different against racism. paigning on the NHS. radical student federation unity should include “Stu - views can debate political G Open borders. The conference elected a ASSÉ which led the recent dent Broad Left”. issues while organising to - G Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have national committee of 14 student uprising in Québec, The conference passed a geTthheorsfeorwsheroiohuasvsetrbuegegnles. more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist people (nine independents, and how — in the absence motion that argued that, in - rulers. involved in the NCAFC’s one from SA’s front “Stu - of the long-established de - stead of waiting next “big Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or development should be G partmental associations community to global social organisation. dent Broad Left”, four bang”, during the relative proud of what has been G Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all Workers’ Liberty) and au - which form the base of lull in struggles NCAFC achieved so far. nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. tonomous caucuses — ASSÉ — something similar must develop organisation, G Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. G If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! Barnet against Capita Fight Sheffield early years cuts

Contact us: By Vicki Morris By Rosie Huzzard parents, but also a range of intervention and prevention G 020 7394 8923 G [email protected] On Thursday 6 December On 4 December, Sheffield services to working class around 50 Barnet resi - The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley City Council announced a families, including health Road, London, SE1 3DG. dents took over a com - “redesign” to Sheffield’s visitors, inclusion work, G Printed by Trinity Mirror mittee room in Hendon Early Years services (in - Town Hall for an hour, and and in-home support. cluding both public and The council has told the ran an impromptu resi - voluntary sector nurseries dents’ forum. local press that there will be Get Solidarity every week! and children’s centres). "no impact" on children or Tory Cabinet members This will mean cuts in intervention work. But in - G Trial sub, 6 issues £5  were forced to adjourn to one-day strikes by the Uni - front line provision serving tervention money is being another room to do their son branch, but these have 9000 people in Sheffield, re - redirected to the city’s Multi G 22 issues (six months). £18 waged  work. not been enough to deter ducing the 36 sites to 17 Agency team, which cur - £9 unwaged We were protesting at  the Tories and the outsourc - "areas", the removal of rently works with the most their decision to grant a G 44 issues (year). £35 waged  ing companies from pursu - statutory funding to 16 vol - at-risk families. The services contract to outsourcing ing their privatisation £17 unwaged  untary sector services, the under threat deliver a dis - giant Capita to run a large agenda. The residents’ cam - tinctly different service G European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) chunk of services for 10-15 effective removal of funding  paign has however built which can prevent the need years, under the Council’s for one and two year olds or 50 euros (44 issues)  reaWl emaormeednetutemrm. ined that for "responsive" work. “One Barnet” privatisation across Sheffield, and at least Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: Barnet’s especially arro - programme. 150 redundancies. Staff families and sup - gant and stupid Tories will 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG The contract, worth £320- These changes are based porters are demonstrating pay a political price for Cheques (£) to “AWL”. 750 million, will entail on a review of Early Years at a public meeting with their misdeeds. in Sheffield published councillors on Wednesday Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. around 500 staff, currently delivering services such as • Barnet Council will go around nine months ago, 12 December. The campaign which has had no subse - has also produced a briefing Name ...... revenues and benefits, to court on 18 December for transfering to Capita em - a possession order against quent consultation with paper, and there is a peti - staff, parents or trade tion at tinyurl.com/ Address ...... ployment. Around 200 jobs the Occupy campaigners are likely to move out of the who have re-opened Friern unions. It will be a £3.578 d7Icfttmhwe ap. etition reaches ...... borough to a call centre in Barnet Library, closed by million cut to frontline serv - 5000 signatures, Sheffield another part of the country, Barnet Council in April. The ices. City Council will be forced I enclose £ ...... where pay is lower. campaign to save the li - These funded services not to hold a full meeting dis - The campaign against brary will continue. only provide childcare for cuss these issues. One Barnet has included More: barnetalliance.org working and unemployed 3 INTERNATIONAL

federation Confédération Démocratique du Travail Workers key to real (CDT, a main union federa - tion) was later dismissed unlawfully. And the telecommunications opera - development in Congo tor Tigo, and Lebanese com - pany Strippes have used the lack of laws to dismiss huge Jonny Keyworth reports on During the Cold War, workers are struggling in swathes of workers whilst workers’ struggles in war- Mobutu became a good sub-Saharan African too. the union’s application for ravaged Congo. friend of President Nixon Yet international solidarity the new minimum wage is “History will one day have and enjoyed substantial with Congolese workers being processed. its say, but it will not be American aid, which he em - will aid them not only in the history that Brussels, bezzled as the Congo be - their struggles for rights, in - SHAM UNIONS The private sector, mostly Paris, Washington, or the came his own personal cluding the right to mining, is dominated by United Nations will kleptocracy. unionise, but also in their sham unions. teach... they will teach in Mobutu’s faux pan- struggle for a place in the Africanism had kept a di - development and sustain - the countries emanci - These unions have no ac - vided Congo together, but ing of peace as key political pated from colonialism tive members and are cre - at the end of the Cold War, agents. and its puppets... a his - ated by employers to Artisan miners need secure jobs and safe conditions he was no longer needed by tory of glory and dignity”. discourage real attempts at the west; his patrimonial CONFLICT CONDITIONS workplace organising. This In areas that have not only through limited peace These are the words of networks were no longer fi - Workers are still suffering is perpetuated by foreign been so adversely affected deals and agreements. the first Congolese Prime nanced. The Democratic Re - from the effects of war companies such as the by conflict, mining compa - International left solidar - Minister, Patrice Lumumba, public of the Congo and instability. China Railway Engineering nies regularly clash with ar - ity based on working-class who led a nationalist move - collapsed into conflict and The conflict has destroyed Corporation which has tisan miners who dig political economy extends ment against Belgian colo - instability, with the First productive activity in most begun to build roads and illegally on mining conces - our analysis of the DRC to nial rule. At the ceremony and Second Congo wars, rural and peri-urban areas, railways. Labour inspectors sions. The minerals from the “conflict minerals” for the handing over of the genocide in Rwanda, sparking a surge in the in - are too frightened to take these mines are often which drive and fuel the power Lumumba declared and the more recent conflict formal economy, now in - action against investors, termed “conflict minerals”, conflict, and the consequent (whilst the Belgian King in Kivu and Ituri, tearing volving 80% of workers. after a history of witch- particularly in the Eastern explosion in informal work. and his entourage sat nerv - Congolese society apart. The entrenchment of in - hunts and harassment. provinces, as the profits We can begin to see the con - ously in the front row): Analyses of Congolese so - formal work mitigates In 2010, when railway from their sale have fi - flict as more than just apo - “We are proud of this ciety have been preoccupied against the development of workers went on strike in nanced the conflict in the litical jostling for power struggle, of tears, of fire, with ethnicity and conflict working-class conscious - protest at 36 months of Kivu and Ituri. between opposed, self-in - and of blood, to the depths management, rather than ness. This phenomenon is salary arrears, union leader terested groups. of our being, for it was a the structure of society and SOLIDARITY prevalent across the African Mulumba Kapepula was ar - For a sustainable peace in noble and just struggle, and the class relations that per - The disaster imagery that continent, yet when cou - rested and tortured by the the DRC an end to the “con - indispensable to put an end petuate these divisions. has plagued representa - pled with ongoing conflict National Intelligence flict minerals” industry, and to the humiliating slavery “Disaster pornography” tions of the DRC in recent and displacement as in the Agency. the respecting of trade which was imposed upon has dominated images of years is understandable; DRC, informal work is not Minerals are the key com - union rights in the mines is us by force”. Congo since the fall of the country faces an un - only exploitative but lethal. modity for the DRC. The re - needed. Workers can then Lumumba was soon ar - Mobutu, and the horizons certain future as unrest in Foreign companies take cent global plummet of begin to flex their strength rested and killed by firing for progressive political the Kivu continues and advantage of this situation. mineral prices has led to and drive a worker-led eco - squad, in a coup orches - change have been limited to the rebel M23 movement For example the Chinese mass layoffs in the formal nomic development in the trated by Belgian com - precarious peace agree - emerges. Cobra Tyre & Rubber Com - mining sector; these work - DRC. manders who had stayed in ments between the govern - The creation of secure pany are suspected of brib - ers have fled to informal ar - the Katanga region after in - ment and rebels. Yet to neglect workers’ jobs and the promotion of ing the labour inspector tisan mines where dependence. He was re - Whilst the international struggles limits us to a lib - workers’ rights will be at who backed them in refus - protection and safety meas - placed with his former chief left rightly highlights the eral, “human-rights” re - the heart of that develop - ing to apply the minimum ures are absent, and child of staff of the Army, Joseph struggles of labour move - sponse, seeing progressive ment. wage. The workplace repre - labour is commonplace. political change as possible Mobutu. ments in North Africa, sentative for the main union New Zealand Lend Lease Climate talks fail, alternative needed workers back Bob Carnegie The Northern section of the By Paul Vernadsky World Bank report warns emissions. The agreement with extreme energy such Amalgamated Workers’ Union (New that we are currently on was hailed by some small as shale gas fracking, tar Zealand) has lent its support to The irony should not be track for a 4°C world, with states and NGOs, but it is sands oil extraction and victimised Australian trade unionist Bob lost. The irony of holding extreme heat-waves and difficult to see what price more coal-fired generation Carnegie, and has written to David the latest round of climate life-threatening sea level can be put on the submer - threatening a ‘second com - Saxelby (the boss of Abigroup, the talks in the desert in rises. sion of whole ecosystems or ing’ for fossil-based power. construction company behind the legal Qatar, which has the high - This month the Kyoto the destruction of whole The Tory-led government is case against Bob) to demand it drops its charges. est per capita emissions protocol, the only pitiful cities. The arrangement backing a revived fossil fuel AWUNZ’s support is particularly significant because it of any state as well as an global agreement made to does not constitute legal lia - strategy. Its Energy Bill has represents Lend Lease employees in New Zealand. Lend appalling record on work - limit greenhouse gas emis - bility and the funds are not excluded a “decarbonisa - Lease is Abigroup’s parent company. Secretary Ray Bianchi ers’ rights. sions, will run out. Kyoto compensation – they are tion target” for 2030. The writes: “On behalf of the union that represents Lend Lease covered about 15% of global most likely to come from autumn statement included employees in Auckland, New Zealand, we call on you to drop The UN 18th annual cli - emissions, mainly from the miserable existing aid the setting up an Office for your legal proceedings against community activist Bob mate change conference in European Union. No agree - budgets. Unconventional (Shale) Gas Carnegie in relation to his role in the August-October 2012 Qatar was an abject failure, ment to replace Kyoto was There were few signifi - dispute at the Queensland Children’s Hospital construction which no amount of spin - worked out at Copenhagen cant protests in Qatar dur - — dubbed Ofshag — even site. ning can disguise. in 2009 or at subsequent UN ing the conference. though the drilling is highly “The financial losses incurred by Abigroup during the The World Meteorological conference. Nor was it re - However on Saturday 1 De - damaging and the potential dispute would have been better avoided by negotiating and Organisation reported a solved in Qatar. Instead the cember, 40 union delegates beCnelifmitsatuenaclcetairv.ists need agreeing to the workers’ demand much earlier. new high of 390 parts of powers squabbled about join a march through Doha an alternative approach, “Your proceedings against Bob Carnegie can only be seen CO 2 per million in 2011 — carrying over “hot-air” under the banner: “No opposed to all sections of as a spiteful attempt to intimidate every community activist the planet needs 350ppm to credits. world cup in Qatar without capital, including the car - who may in future wish to assist workers in obtaining meet the 2°C increase target The headline agreement labour rights”, protesting at bon marketeers and justice.” most scientists believe is concerned adaptation, for the 300 annual construction based on the interests • For more on the campaign, and to find out how you can get necessary to avoid the “loss and damage” for workers’ deaths in the state. and organisations of mil - involved, visit bobcarnegiedefence.wordpress.com worst consequences of cli - poorer states from a warm - Climate politics is cur - lions of workers. mate change. Even a new ing world as a result of past rently in a very bad place, 4 COMMENT Fight in British unions for solidarity, not boycotts

But unfortunately Unison and the Public and Commercial the national executive, it was rejected and Unison carried on Services union (PCS), unions which should, in theory, be pro - with a policy supporting boycotts of the Jewish state and its moting solidarity with the Israeli nurses and indeed with all trade union movement as well. Eric Lee the Israeli public sector unions, have played a rather different This makes absolutely no sense. role recently. If you oppose the right-wing, neoliberal policies of the Ne - In the course of just a few days, three news stories came Unison and PCS were among the leading unions which ac - tanyahu government, shouldn’ t you support the struggle of across my desk that highlighted one of the problems we tively pushed the recent congress of Public Services Interna - the Israeli nurses? Shouldn’t you support the Histadrut’s face in the British trade union movement. tional (PSI) to adopt a new policy supporting boycotts, general strike which resulted in such an important victory? divestment and sanctions (BDS) targetting Israel. PSI is also Instead of engaging with the Israeli labour movement, As I write these words, the Israeli nurses’ union is engaged now on record supporting the slander that Israel is an unions like Unison and PCS are moving away from it. in a major fight with the Netanyahu government. Netanyahu “apartheid state”. There was a time not long ago when British unions played is the health minister (as well as prime minister) and his gov - a more constructive role. They would bring over representa - ernment stands accused of starving public hospitals, while UNUSUAL tives of the Histadrut and the Palestinian unions to Britain coming up with millions to construct new illegal settlement It is unusual for a global union federation like PSI to take where they could meet British trade unionists — and each housing. The nurses strike deserves the support of unions such a strong position in opposition to Israel, even if its other. British unions saw their role as bridge-builders, taking everywhere, in particular unions which organise nurses. BDS call was limited to “firms complicit with the occupa - no sides in a tragic conflict between two nations. Israel’s public sector unions solidified a major victory early tion”. One doesn’t want to get all nostalgic about this -- instead, this month. An agreement that ended February’s general I suggest we try to find ways restore some sanity and balance strike has now been translated into results on the ground. The pro-Hamas Palestine Solidarity Campaign hailed the into the British labour movement’s view of the Israeli-Pales - The general strike had been fought over the question of pre - decision as a breakthrough. I want to step back here and try tinian conflict. Above all this means educating activists and carious employment and the Histadrut won a substantial vic - to understand what is going on. members, whose only source of information seems to be the tory. This week, contract workers in the public sector will get Israel is the only country in the region with a strong, inde - pro-Hamas camp, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. huge wage gains and back pay thanks to the solidarity of pendent trade union movement. It is not a perfect movement Unfortunately, there is no effective alternative voice in the unionised workers who shut the country down and com - and there is much to criticise about it. But when Unison sent British labour movement today. pelled the government to make concessions. a delegation over to meet with Israelis and Palestinians, If members of Unison, PCS and other unions were to be Both examples show an independent, and sometimes mil - everyone they spoke to — including the Palestinians — en - made aware of the reality of the Israeli trade union move - itant, Israeli trade union movement that deserves the solidar - couraged the British union to keep up its relationship with ment, its struggles and its victories, I think it might be possi - ity of trade unionists in Britain. Indeed, the Israel public the Histadrut. ble to have a more interesting and productive debate. sector unions may even have a thing or two to teach their No one, not even the far-left critics of the Histadrut, sug - At the moment, the agenda in those unions is being British counterparts about how to win on issues like contract gested to Unison that it disengage. dictated by supporters of Hamas, and that, comrades, is labour. But when the report of the Unison delegation was put to not a good thing.

But there is no reason to expect the new Board, a souped- to pay lawyers’ fees even if the case against us was found up version of the current Press Complaints Commission, worthless. which in turn was a souped-up version (from 1991) of the As it is, the British libel law enables rich media companies Letters previous Press Council, to be radically better than the PCC. to abuse poor people with impunity. People without wealth When the PCC considered phone-hacking in 2009 it censured cannot afford to bring libel cases. Rich people with a taste for not the News of the World , but the Guardian for blowing the it can go to law to suppress criticism of themselves. It is easy Don’t back Leveson whistle. for them to win libel cases, and difficult and expensive for The Board’s appointments panel will be made up of people publishers to defend themselves in those cases. Since the publication on 29 November of the Leveson re - outside the press, the House of Commons, and the Govern - In Leveson’s scheme publications outside the Board would port on issues raised by the phone-hacking scandal, the ment? So is the PCC’s Nominations Panel. Its majority should be regulated by a government body, Ofcom. big national newspapers have agreed a plan for a new be independent of the Press? So is the majority (10 to 7) of the Leveson also throws in a recommendations that “names or self-regulatory body as Leveson recommended, but PCC. It will have no serving editors? But it can have deputies. identifying details of those arrestµed... should not be released without Leveson’s proposal for a legally-empowered It can impose fines? But will it? And is justice served by to the press or the public”. In the phone-hacking case, we body to vet the self-regulatory body. quango-type bodies being able to fine without legal process? wouldn’t know that Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson had Fines which, with a maximum of £1 million, would be very been arrested. Labour has shifted from backing Leveson’s proposal for affordable for, say, the Murdoch empire, but could be crip - Patrick is right that the Leveson recommendations are far Ofcom as the vet to proposing a panel of judges. pling for a small dissident publications? from broad “state control” of the press. But it would be The debate is narrowing. As Patrick Murphy pointed out Leveson recommends that publications that are not part of wrong to back its bland recommendations, in the distant (Solidarity 267), “the big question is avoided... ownership and the Board — as smaller radical publications like Solidarity hoTpheetyhaatlsthoeydemflaeyctrefsrtormainthaebucseenbtyratlhiesspureesss panrodficteoenrsta. in diversity”. Leveson’s report talks about the need for plural - wouldn’t be — should face worse difficulties with libel law much-less-distant threats to journalistic exposure of ism in the press, but without sharp proposals, let alone any - than we do now. other abuses. thing resembling the socialist proposal that the major means The law, he says, should be changed to “permit the court to of printing, broadcasting, and distribution be publicly owned deprive [the] publisher of its costs of litigation in... defama - Colin Foster, London with guaranteed access to those resources for every substan - tion... cases, even if it had been successful”. We would have tial body of opinion, and guaranteed rights of reply. MUTTERS Debating Stalinism in the Labor Action 3/6/46) as lasting only a few years, rather than On relations between top politicians and the press (as happened) a few generations . bosses, Leveson mutters about “cause for concern”, ac - 1940s He wasn’t wrong to resist the idea implicit in Carter’s tions which produced “a perception of bias” and of scheme that “bureaucratic collectivism”, though “an ex - pression of world social reaction”, was nevertheless as his - which he “doubts the wisdom”, and “too close a relation - Mike Wood’s very valuable account of the “Third Camp” torically logical a system as capitalism. ship... not in the public interest”, but again proposes lit - Trotskyists of the Workers Party in the 1940s ( Solidar - Second, a disorienting assumption of the whole debate tle. ity 267) misses three points, I think. was that capitalism was in an epoch of collapse. The WP Patrick, however, seems to suggest some support for Leve - First, the narrowing of the differences between Max saw that capitalism was resilient enough for a “democratic son as far as it goes.That would be wrong, I think. Shachtman’s version of a “bureaucratic collectivist” analy - interlude” after 1945, but only an interlude. Leveson proposes no real change in the people who run sis of Stalinist Russia and Joe Carter’s was not all a matter I don’t know why, but Max Shachtman continued to as - the press and licensed phone-hacking, or the people (the po - of Shachtman discarding follies and accepting Carter’s sert that capitalism was “at the end of its rope”, in “decay lice) whose job it was to investigate the phone-hacking. He good sense without acknowledgement. and disintegration”, right into the 60s. Hal Draper too offers some mild comment on the cops (“unduly defensive”, It was a virtue of Shachtman’s analysis that it allowed for seems never to have explicitly corrected that view. “insufficiently thought through”, etc.), but finds their deci - experience and events to correct it. In a way he corrected Third, a by-product of the WP debates with C L R James’s sion not to take phone-hacking investigations further in 2006 too much. Sixty-odd years later, Shachtman’s idea that the version of “state capitalism” was the consolidation of the “fully justified” and “indeed inevitable”, “because of their Stalinist bureaucracy was a freakish ruling class, not “vi - idea that “bureaucratic collectivism” and “state capitalism” incredible workload that was a consequence of terrorism”. able in the same sense as the historical capitalist class”, weBrefsohraerp19ly40d,etfhineerdeowpeproesmiteavniyewdisffoenrinthge“UbSuSreRa. ucratic His new Board would not have helped in 2006. looks more sensible than it did in the late 40s. collectivist” accounts of Stalinist Russia, and many Some things in Leveson are welcome, for example his sug - Shachtman got the timescale damagingly wrong. He “state capitalist” ones, but no Chinese wall between gestion (but it is only a suggestion) that the Board should seems to have thought of a “historical quirk” (as Irving them. suggest to media companies that they write into contracts Howe still called it, in a big article on perspectives of bu - that journalists will face no disciplinary action for refusing to reaucratic collectivism just after the WP’s 1946 convention: Martin Thomas, Islington act contrary to codes of conduct. 5 WHAT WE SAY Tories squeeze poor Help us raise £15,000 We thought about replacing this week’s fund appeal with an amusing picture of Karl Marx in a Santa hat. to boost profits Surely the seasonal cheer that the merest glance at this image would inevitably induce in all our readers Tory policy in government has been based on an age-old Ed Balls condemns Osborne for punishing “hard working would be more likely to loosen your purse strings ruling-class mantra: take care of the rich, squeeze the families”. But he will never defend unemployed and disabled than another worthy exhortation. poor. With a few concessions to the barely-alive social benefit claimants. Labour willingly swallows the centuries- conscience of the Lib Dems, George Osborne’s recent Unfortunately there are so many amusing pictures of old disgusting ruling-class tactic of dividing the poor in “de - Spending Review was no exception. Karl Marx in a Santa hat out there the Solidarity office staff serving” and “undeserving”. Because speaking up for all of couldn’t agree on which one to use. So you’re getting nei - He helped the rich by cutting corporation tax to 21% — a the poor would be to direct the blame at capitalism and its ther amusing picture nor worthy exhortation. If anything level lower than even big business claims is necessary to political system. this is the worst of both worlds. make the British economy “competitive”. He squeezed the Yet a programme to get capitalism to pay up is relatively Seriously though, folks – give us your money. We need poor by fixing annual benefit increases at 1% for the next simple. A government that stood up for all working-class it because our paper is important, and producing it is ex - three years. At two percentage points lower than the Retail people would, minimally, increase taxes on big corporations, pensive. You obviously agree, otherwise you wouldn’t Price Index this is a big cut. For the jobless, disabled, and low ruthlessly pursue corporate tax-dodging, raise the taxes of have paid to read it. A small monthly standing order from paid it will mean, on average, £5 less a week. When you have the super-rich, and force bosses to pay a living wage. you will help Solidarity to continue to provide labour very little £5 is an awful lot. It would also expropriate the wealth of banks and high fi - movement news, working-class history, revolutionary Despite the obvious evidence that capitalism has caused nance. It would create a public bank run under democratic theory, and a space for socialists to debate and discuss capitalism’s troubles, the Tories continue to pin the blame on control. ideas. Publications like ours — with a clear and unapolo - the poor. That wealth could then be used to stop all cuts, fund jobs getic political agenda, but also built around serious de - It is not the system which relentlessly pursues profit that anWd epuabrelicasleornvgicews.ay from that, but a first step would be bate rather than cult-like repetitions of a facile “line” — has led to global debt crises, the Tories say, but the colossus to raise the debate in the labour movement around such are all too rare. Please support our fund appeal. of a welfare state. And because New Labour let the “some - demands. Help us raise £15,000 by May Day 2013. You can con - thing for nothing” culture run away with itself. tribute in the following ways: G WAYSIDE Taking out a monthly standing order using the form George Osborne blames everyone except himself. Even below or at www.workersliberty.org/resources. Please as all of his original economic forecasts — on debt re - post completed forms to us at the AWL address below. duction, deficit reduction and growth — fall by the way - G Making a donation by cheque, payable to “AWL”, or side. doGnating online at www.workersliberty.org/donate. The Tories are driven to return again, and again, and again G Organising a fundraising event. to the troublesome, hateful poor. To the policy of cutting, G Taking copies of Solidarity to sell. freezing and capping benefits. They do this because they Get in touch to discuss joining the AWL. More infor - want to create a political climate where the rich can do as they mation: 07796 690874 / [email protected] / AWL, please. They figure people in work will be so busy despising 20E Tower Workshops, 58 Riley Road, London SE1 3DG. those out of work they will fail to notice top directors getting fat pay rises, big corporations paying no tax. But you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Starbucks has been shamed into paying (some) taxes; some of the low - Total raised so far: est paid, cleaners in London, have struck for a living wage. This month thousands will have to visit a food bank to get 66 £6,666 ,6 We raised just £190 this week their Christmas dinner. Why isn’t Labour making a scandal All in it together? By 2015 Spending Review will cost the 6 £ from a new standing order and an out of the staggering increase in food aid? 250,000 adults and richest £8.05 a week (a drop in the ocean for them). The anonymous donation. children will use a food bank this year. poorest lose £5.10 a week on average (a huge sum when you Because Labour can’t or won’t abandon their timid ap - have very little). proach to Tory social barbarianism. Standing order authority

To: ...... (your bank)

Special offer on books from Workers’ Liberty ...... (its address) Offer lasts until 16 February...... Account name: ......

* Three-pack: Antonio Gramsci: working-class revolutionary (ed: Martin Thomas); Account no: ...... Working-class politics and anarchism (ed: Ira Berkovic); and What is capitalism? Can it Sort code: ...... last? (ed: Cathy Nugent). Three books for £10 (plus £2.20 postage within UK) Please make payments to the debit of my * Four-pack: Gramsci; Anarchism; Capitalism; and How Solidarity Can account: Payee: Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, Change The World (ed: Sean Matgamna). Four books for £12 (plus £2.20 postage) account no. 20047674 at the Unity Trust Bank, 9 Brindley Place, Birmingham B1 2HB (08-60-01) * Five-pack: Gramsci; Anarchism; Capitalism; Solidarity; and either Treason of the Intellectuals (by Sean Matgamna) or Fate of the Russian Revolution (ed: Amount: £ ...... to be paid on the ...... day Sean Matgamna). Five books for £17 (plus £7.40 postage) of ...... (month) 20 ...... * Six-pack: All six books for £20 (plus £8.30 postage). (year) and thereafter monthly until this order is cancelled by me in writing. This order cancels any previous orders to the same payee. More details and to buy online: www.workersliberty.org/bookoffer. Or send cheques to AWL, 20E Tower Workshops, Riley Rd, London SE1 3DG. Date ...... Signature ...... For postage prices for destinations outside UK, email [email protected] 6-7

Songs of Liberty & Rebellion The Greek left and Plan B Nobody Knew She Was There By Theodora Polenta Greece is taken by surprise when forced to exit the eurozone, Ewan MacColl is best known as a working-class bal - with people panicking, this is going to be a main disaster. ladeer, and the architect of Britain’s “folk song revival” The Greek working class has made its choice: against “If the exit from the Euro takes place in an orderly way of the 1950s and 60s. the sectarian isolationism of the Communist Party (KKE) with the people’s support, led by a government of the Left, it His political and artistic legacy is complex and contra - and in favour of Syriza’s proposal for left cooperation and can be the start of a dynamic response to poverty, unemploy - dictory – he wrote and sung stirringly on many working- a government of the Left as the political means to es - ment and destruction of social cohesion”. class struggles, but he was also a dyed-in-the-wool cape the catastrophic quagmire in which we find our - Thus Alavanos suggests that a government of the Left Stalinist and a cultural conservative with a narrow and selves. should initiate in an organised way something that market forces, the EU, or the ECB may impose on Greece. No other dogmatic view of what represented “real” and “authen - Yet the leadership of Syriza is failing to face up to the is - preconditions apart from the act of exiting the eurozone are tic” art. sues, arguing that “there is no risk of Greece being thrown stated in order to achieve full employment, regain our in - This song, about his mother, is not one of his most fa - out the euro, because that would have huge negative conse - come, and (says Alavanos) get “a new equitable European mous but is exemplary of the moving human sensitivity of quences, financial and political, for the eurozone”. economic and monetary cooperation”. some of the best of his work. It is politically poignant, a The Syriza leadership is wrong when it claims that the rea - Alavanos aims for “Greece focusing on its exporting power poetic broadside against the treatment of working-class son why the ECB/ EU/ IMF Troika has imposed the third and potential” and revitalisation of the “internal market”. But women, exploited at work and alienated and oppressed Memorandum on Greece is because “the three party coali - that road that has been extensively tried in the past decades, into invisibility by gender relations in the home so they tion government [Pasok-ND-Democratic Left] was not tough sometimes by populist social-democratic types of govern - become mere “faded servants”. The line “at what point enough in negotiations”. ment, and sometimes by extreme anti-working-class dicta - did she cease to be her?” expresses how that oppression Demetris Christofias, the AKEL [Communist Party] presi - torships. alienates women even from a sense of self. dent of Cyprus was the model cited by Syriza leader Alexis Cleaners, and other low-paid, mainly women workers, Tsipras for being tough with the Troika. But now Cyprus has DRACHMA have often been an invisible caste, carrying out backbreak - a Memorandum too. Imposition of or resistance to cuts does In truth, return to the drachma by itself is not going to ing work long before the “normal” working day begins, or not depend on governments’ negotiating skills. solve any of the contradictions of the capitalist system, aftAesr itthhoasseewndoerdk.ers begin to move into battle against Even if it costs a lot to Merkel and the other EU leaders to and is not going to solve any of the problems of the eco - their employers, this song should stir us into solidar - throw Greece out of the euro, and it does, it costs them much nomic crisis, ity with their struggles against the manifold oppres - more, politically and ideologically, to tolerate little Greece If transition to a national currency could solve the prob - sion they face at work, in the home, and in society overturning their policies. If a government of the Left of lems, why do countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, more widely. Greece can overturn their strategic plans without being pun - ished, that will give a “bad example” to the rest of the South with their national currencies, remain in conditions of de - The Ruby Kid and the labour movements across Europe. pendency, poverty, and hunger? Posing the slogan “out of the EU and the euro now” carries She walks in the cold dark hour before the morning ILLUSION an extremely high risk of creating national illusions, disguis - The hour when wounded night begins to bleed It is an illusion to believe that a government of the Left ing the centrality of class struggle. Stands at the back of the patient queue will be able to implement pro-working-class, anti-Mem - Greece’s loss of national sovereignty is the result and not The silent almost sweeping queue orandum policies smoothly and the EU leaders will con - the cause of the crisis. The explosive social problems of Seeing no-one and not being seen tinue to fund Greece, respecting the “democratic will” of Greece are directly linked with the crisis of a capitalist system the Greek people! which operates on a global scale. Working shoes are wrapped in working apron This crisis is not a Greek crisis. The “debt crisis” encom - Rolled in an oilcloth bag across her knees The threats and witch-hunting against Syriza in the May passes all the weakest economies of the eurozone. The crisis The swaying tremor soaks the morning and June elections were a prelude for the confrontations to started in 2007 from the housing market in USA, and mutated Blue grey steely day is dawning come. in 2008 to a crisis of the international banking system. When Draining the last few dregs of sleep away It is true that there is no standard procedure for the expul - the European governments intervene to rescue their collaps - sion of a country from the eurozone, but eviction from the ing banks, the turmoil was again transformed into the pub - Over the bridge and the writhing foul black water euro is simple: the EU cuts funding, and the ECB excludes lic “debt crisis”. Down through empty corridors of stone Greek banks from the euro payments system. Capitalist governments around the world have tried to Each of the blind glass walls she passes A significant section of the revolutionary left selects an in - deal with the crisis in an “internationalist” and coordinated Shows her twin in sudden flashes stinctive solution, “Out of the EU and the euro”, as its plan B. way. In 2007-8, in order to contain the financial crisis , the big Which is the mirror image, which is real? In an interview given to Prin , the newspaper of NAR, one central banks (Fed, European Central Bank) handed over 13 of the main components of Antarsya, former Syriza leader trillion of dollars to the commercial banks of their countries. Crouching hooded gods of word and number? Alekos Alavanos, now of MAAS (Front of Solidarity and Between 2008 and 2012 the Greek banks received 150 billion Accept her bent-backed homage as their due Rupture) says: euros to support their liquidity from the EFSF and the Euro - The buckets steam like incense coils “The focal points are the cessation of payments, cancella - pean Central Bank. Around the endless floor she toils tion of debt, exit from the euro and regaining our national What consequences of the global capitalist crisis will Cleaning the same white sweep each day anew monetary policy, nationalisation of banks, public planning in Greece be protected from outside the eurozone? Supporters order to kick off the reorganisation of production, redistrib - Glistening sheen of new-washed floors is fading of Plan B answer this question by saying that the recovery of ution of wealth through measures that go beyond taxation There where office clocks are marking time sovereignty in the monetary and fiscal policy will solve prob - and should confront property and wealth, workers’ control”. Night’s black tide has ebbed away lems. However, the dramatic devaluation of the new national “We call the program Plan B. Other forces of the left, such By cliffs of glass awash with day currency that would follow Greek exit from the euro would as Antarsya, refer to it as an anti-capitalist program. In my She hurries from her labours still unseen lead to a big rise in costs of imported tools (from Western Eu - opinion it is a revolutionary program in the sense that it chal - rope) and raw materials (the Middle East), and cause un - lenges the central choice of the ruling class of Greece from He who lies besides her does not see her precedented poverty to the vast majority of the population. the 60s until today... Nor does the child who once lay at her breast Greek exports would be cheaper, but large benefits from that “The euro is the central point... Syriza with its pro-euro po - The shroud of self-denial covers fact are not at all certain, given that the forecasts for growth sitions defines itself on the other side. Syriza’s presumption Eager girl and tender lover in global markets are bleak. A boom for the tourist industry that “exit from the euro equals disaster” provides an ideo - Only the faded servant now is left is unlikely in the event of turmoil caused by the currency logical firewall for systemic eurozone domination within change in Greece. Greece. How could it be that no-one saw her drowning? Since 2010 many “emerging economies” have hit crises, in - “In Europe all the big powers, the parties, the banks, the How did we come to be so unaware? cluding the country cited by the Greek radical left as the pro - big corporations have a plan B to deal with the prospect of At what point did she cease to be her? totype for the benefits of “going it alone”, Argentina. An Greece’s exit from the eurozone. Only Greece has not in hand When did we cease to look and see her? “independent” Greece with its productive base already dra - a plan B. Both the government and the parties in opposition How is it no-one knew she was there? matically shrunk will be in a worse position than other “in - have neglected the necessity to work on a plan B. If however, GREECE

Members of DEA (Internationalist Workers Left, a tendency inside the Syriza coalition), march. The left could form the next government, but the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn — whose MPs, above right, give fascist salutes in parliament — is a growing threat. dependent” capitalist economies. to come — to prepare the working-class movement politi - mon struggles with the workers in the rest of Europe, also hit In Serbia, the debt is only 50% of GDP, and there is no euro. cally, ideologically and organisationally (by encouraging the by the crisis — especially workers in the South, where there Yet the government says it is “forced” to proceed with cuts. flourishing of workers’ committees and neighbourhood com - have been militant strikes and social movements. The Finance Minister repeats the new “There Is No Alterna - mittees and other forms of workers’ self-management and The Greek working-class movement and the government tive” message: “You will live worse but will not die.” The control). Otherwise, an unprepared and disarmed working of the left will be in an infinitely better position to confront issue goes beyond currencies and even beyond Memoranda. class movement will turn against the government of the Left blackmail, if we can coordinate our struggle with the Por - Look at Germany itself, the “best” country of the EU. Mil - blaming it for all the difficulties; and a regress led by the tuguese, Spanish, Italian, Irish, Cypriot workers. lions of workers in full-time employment cannot make ends darkest forces of fascism and chauvinism and capitalism will It is imperative for the revolutionary left in and out of means and are forced to have a second job. Approximately be inevitable. Syriza to raise on every occasion the question of socialism. 1.3 million full-time workers are forced to seek state benefits. It is highly possible that confrontation with both national Without a revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist system, More and more Germans are working for just 400 euros a and international capitalism and its institutions will lead a the austerity measures will never end, in or out of the euro. month (“mini-jobs”). A worker paid 2,500 euros gross per government of the Left, based on workers’ control and work - month will receive in 2030 a pension of just 688 euros, a sum ers’ power, to exiting the euro. That is very different from in - NO SACRIFICE A “no sacrifice for the Euro” slogan can unify the work - which cannot cover even housing expenses. The retirement tellectual a priori plans to restructure the national economy ing-class movements against the blackmailing and bul - age has already risen to 67. starting from the idea of return to a national currency. His - lying of the EU leaderships. The only way out is to stop functioning in the framework torically, the working class movement has never encountered of capitalism, and not just to quit the eurozone. a “currency road” to socialism. The only truly practical strategic response to the crisis and Faced with a left government in Greece, the Troika would deadlock of the capitalist European Union is the red Europe FORGET stop lending, the European Central Bank will cease to give The proponents of Plan B “forget” the international envi - of the workers. credit to the Greek banks, and probably the ECB would cut ronment, for example-the wave of workers’ struggles in We need a workers’ government, based on workers’ off the Greek banks from the euro payments system, thus pre - the European South. What should the workers in Greece democracy, workers’ and social control, and workers’ mili - venting the Greek central bank from creating new euros valid propose to the workers of Spain? “Equal partnership” tias. The main axis of struggle should be the following: outside Greece. G between capitalist states in Greece and Spain? Fight for the development and escalation of industrial ALTERNATIVE and social struggle against the attacks of the government and The priority of the Greek Left should be in inverse order: The left government should be prepared to issue an al - Troika, with rolling strikes, occupations, stoppages, demon - Independent of whether a government of the left would be strations, reinvigoration of the neighbourhood movements ternative currency, which could run alongside the euro G forced to use and manage a national currency or will remain for a transitional period. Fight for the overthrow of the three party coalition gov - within the eurozone, the Greek Left should prioritise inter - ernment and all the capitalist parties G national solidarity, cooperation, joint action with the Left and This currency could be national (drachma, say, or “geuros”, In every neighbourhood the trade unions and the neigh - the working class in other European countries. euros which would be valid within Greece but not outside, as bourhood committees should form popular defence squads Supporters of Plan B talk about nationalising banks, in - would also be the euros in Greek bank deposits if the ECB and solidarity squads to defeat fascist violence and solve so - creasing public expenditure on salaries, pensions and invest - cuts Greece out of the payments system). If the conflict ex - cial problems through solidarity and cooperation G ments etc. and productive reconstruction. But they do not panded into a series of countries, for example across south - Fight for a united front and cooperation of the left in the clarify whether the nationalisation of banks would be done ern Europe, there could be a common currency for those industrial and in the political sphere G with or without compensation to their bosses, or whether the countries. Fight for a government of the left and a workers’ govern - policy of nationalisation (with or without compensation) will The government would have to nationalise all strategic sec - ment G be extended to other strategic sectors of the economy, nor tors of the economy under workers’ management and con - Fight to alert and prepare the working class for the how they will find the revenues which will provide increased trol, in order to create “national syndicates” per economic prospect and the consequences of a eurozone or EU exit G public spending. sector and for the economy to be designed and planned to Fight for a program of transitional demands based upon The only way out is to nationalise the banks without com - cover the needs of society. A government of the Left would workers’ self-management and control and the nationalisa - pensation, under workers’ control and management, and to create jobs in areas of immediate need, such as infrastructure, tion of the banks and the main pillars of the economy with - ban the outflow of capital from the country — to put a work - education and health, reducing or cancelling the debts of out compensation to the capitalists and under workers’ ers’ state in control of the whole credit system. Economic re - poor households and businesses and then turning public in - control G Fight alongside the European working class, and construction will only benefit the people if it overthrows vestment into agriculture, renewable energy, tourism, and in - particularly the working class of southern Europe, for the capitalist social relationships of production. dustrial production. overthrow of the capitalism and the establishment of the The Syriza leadership’s duty is to tell the truth to the Greek On that road, the Greek working-class movement and the United Socialist States of Europe. people, and not to conceal the hard times and confrontations government of the Left should coordinate and instigate com - 8 FEATURE One nation SWP and Egypt celebrates? led to a polarisation along a secular/religious axis”. The Brotherhood have set up an “Islamist Coalition” with the The Left Salafists to rally support against the popular rebellion. There can be no alliance with the Islamists, no softness on them. They are the other “side of the same coin” as the old Dave Osler regime. The attack on the Egyptian Yet the SWP persists with its confusion. Anne Alexander (5 The late Ralph Miliband made his name as a Marxist Revolutionary Socialists December) states: “The crucial question is, which side is con - theoretician through detailed elaboration of the member Taha Magdy tinuing the revolution?” Mursi and the Brotherhood were the proposition that the Labour Party can do absolutely poses in a most brutal “right wing of the revolution”, she suggests, and are back - nothing for the working class. fashion the failure of the sliding. Presumably if Mursi tacks “left” again, the SWP will strategic orientation over once again support him politically. His two boys, or so the lefty joke has it, have very loy - many years of the SWP, But “the revolution” is not a disembodied ruse of reason. ally done their best to prove the old man right. which has influenced the The working class is the revolutionary agent and has to take Now it looks as if Ed is trying to vindicate his father’s Revolutionary Socialists. a stance on the other actors, particularly its enemies. A clean analysis of Britain’s royal family as well. On p.189 of his break with the SWP’s popular frontism is necessary. Inde - 1973 book, The State in Capitalist Society , Ralph displayed In The Prophet and the Prole - pendent working class politics should be the watchword in a sophisticated understanding of how the bourgeoisie tariat (1994) the late SWP Egypt, as it is elsewhere across the globe. utilises the House of Windsor for its own ideological ends: leader Chris Harman argued: Pablo Velasco “The unifying and socially emollient role of the British “The left has made two mis - monarchy, for instance, has long been recognised and un - takes in relation to the Islamists in the past. The first has been Croydon: what error? derstood… The monarchy is not simply another element to write them off as fascists, with whom we have nothing in of the constitutional system; much more important at the common. The second has been to see them as ‘progressives’ In Socialist Worker of 1 December, the SWP explained: present time is what Bagehot called its ‘dignified’ func - who must not be criticised...” “Respect’s Lee Jasper has tapped into anger around po - tion which, properly understood, means the element of Harman concluded that revolutionary socialists should lice racism and other issues in the Croydon by-election. reverence which it helps to create towards the state and sometimes work with Islamists “against imperialism and the the traditional order of things, and the sense of national state”. Their watchword would be: “with the Islamists some - “But Socialist Worker cannot campaign for him, following unity, beyond the ‘mere’ conflicts of class, which it is in - times, with the state never”. Respect leader George Galloway’s disgraceful and well-pub - tended to foster.” The AWL argued that this approach was bankrupt from the licised comments on rape”. National unity beyond the mere conflicts of class? Right start. Over the years the SWP has drifted into approaching SW called instead a vote for Labour. When the article was on cue comes @Ed_Miliband on Twitter: “Fantastic news the Muslim Brotherhood as analogous to social democratic put on its website, however, that sentence was changed, with for Kate, William and the country. A royal baby is some - parties with whom revolutionaries should make a “united the comment: “This was an editorial error. Socialist Worker is front” — as “progressives”, although to be criticised. The not endorsing any of the candidates in the Croydon North thiFnigliatlhpeiwethyojluesntadtiooenswn’itllgceetleabnryatbe.e” tter than that. Brotherhood, said Socialist Worker (23 June 2012) as it recom - by-election”. mended voting for it, “represents the right wing of the revo - What was SW editor Judith Orr’s “error”? For the 2010 gen - lution. It is not the counter-revolution”. eral election, the SWP said: “The majority of voters will be in When the Brotherhood took power, the SWP rejoiced that constituencies where there is no alternative. By calling for a the ensuing “contradictions” would speed revolution. vote for Labour in these areas, we are also standing alongside “[Egypt’s] new, democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood millions of workers casting a class vote” ( Socialist Review , Feb government is already caught in the contradictions of power... 2010). This was brilliantly exposed by Egypt’s Revolutionary Social - On the SWP’s own account, there was “no alternative” in ists when they called on the new government to stand by its Croydon. Why not apply the 2010 line? Is it just typical SWP pre-election policies” ( SW , 24/11/12) mealy-mouthedness and half-thinking? That they have seen Yet, as SWP founder Tony Cliff had written in 1946, the through Respect, but still can’t quite bring themselves to Brotherhood are clerical fascists. recognise that it is “no alternative”? By late November, the RS recognised: “all the masks fell The SWP trashed the Socialist Alliance in order to set up from Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood organisa - Respect with George Galloway in 2004, and ran Respect in tion... They and the remnants of the old regime are two sides uncritical alliance with him until Galloway booted them out of the same coin, which is tyranny and enmity towards the inH20is07v.isGibalelocwoallyabwoarsantioonbewttiethr tShaedndthaamnHnuowss. ein’s regime people”. Morsi was trying to become “a new pharaoh”. for a decade was at least as “disgraceful” as his foul Above left: parasite. Above right: parasite. Not pictured: The RS noted that “the efforts of Morsi and his group to comment on rape in the Assange case. embryonic parasite. win a large majority... through the votes of the Salafists have Gerry Bates A forgotten newspaper of critical Trotskyism

name) in 1940 over what attitude to take to the Stalinist ist content as to tend towards anti- USSR. It also developed a more open attitude to questions of Semitism. The accounts of the Work - party organisation and internal democracy. In AWL’s view, ers Party’s industrial organising the Workers Party/ISL represented the authentic continua - during World War Two, contributions tion of the libertarian, revolutionary-democratic core of the from neglected heroes of the tradition Marxist project, almost entirely obliterated by a Stalinist like Stan Weir, and much else, make counter-revolution whose effects twisted most of the Trot - this archive invaluable to anyone By Ira Berkovic skyist movement to some degree into its own image. who wants to renew a libertarian, Between 1940 and the late 1950s, the WP/ISL built up an anti-Stalinist revolutionary tradition, Socialists will have unprecedented access to a largely- enormous wealth of independent, anti-Stalinist, revolution - organically linked to the Marxism of Hal Draper forgotten but incredibly valuable body of literature, fol - ary socialist analysis on a whole range of questions, much of LeMnianr,tTyroGtoskoyd,manadnLoufxtehmebRuiragz.anov lowing the Marxist Internet Archive’s digitisation of the it contained in the pages of Labor Action , that has until now project and David Walters of the MIA have done the so - entire run of Labor Action . been hardly accessible. cialist movement another huge service. The debates in the pages of Labor Action about the founda - Labor Action was the newspaper of the Workers Party tion of the state of Israel represent an immeasurably more G (later the Independent Socialist League (ISL)), an American sophisticated analysis of the situation than the common- G Read the archive at tinyurl.com/laboractionarchive organisation which split from the Socialist Workers Party sense of today’s left, based on vicarious Arab nationalism More: tinyurl.com/thirdcampsymposium (no relation to the contemporary British group of the same and an “anti-Zionism” so emptied of working-class social - 9 FEATURE Gramsci and the party

Murray Kane reviews Antonio Gramsci: Working-Class Revolutionary , published 2012 by Workers’ Liberty. Although only 70 pages long, Martin Thomas’ Antonio Gramsci: Working-Class Revolutionary is remarkable in containing more insights than many a full length book on Gramsci. In five short essays, Martin Thomas expertly summarises a mass of historical material relating to Gramsci’s political life, including evidence for the relationship between Gramsci and Trotsky and about Gramsci’s thoughts on Stalinism. He of - fers a succinct critique of the various interpretations and mis - interpretations of Gramsci’s work by subsequent left-wing political formations (the Italian CP from the 50s, the New Left in the 60’s, the “Eurocommunists” in the 70’s, and later var - ious “post-Marxists”), particularly in relation to the key con - cepts of “hegemony”, “integral state”, “East/West divide”, Orchestra or iceberg? “war of position”, “passive revolution”, and perhaps most Which metaphors best fundamentally, in connection with the nature of the revolu - help us understand tionary party. Gramsci’s perspectives Intriguingly, the booklet is complicated by the inclusion of on the revolutionary an extended interview with Peter Thomas in relation to his party and its role in book The Gramscian Moment , and two of Martin Thomas’s es - class struggle? says — “The Revolutionary Socialist as Democratic Philoso - pher” and “Anderson’s Antinomies” — constitute direct their compatibility with centrality of the revolutionary party and absolute necessity of responses to The Gramscian Moment . each other and with the tradition that organisations such as mass working-class involvement in creating, developing and I say “complicated”, because whereas Martin Thomas is Workers’ Liberty keep alive today, the insights offered are organising this party, Martin Thomas is also very clear that clear, direct, and keen to raise sharp questions about what more subtle. It is worth noting, for example, that despite the with the passing of time and the transformation of the com - Gramsci’s concepts mean and how they might be applied in fact that Gramsci and Trotsky took for granted that a serious position, terrain and consciousness of the working class by the present by activists, Peter Thomas devotes his concentra - socialist would operate within a revolutionary party, they the multiple processes of globalisation, that there are ques - tion to “problematising” Gramsci’s thought and finding shared a realistic and generous attitude towards “sympathis - tions as to what this actually means in the here and now. ways to sidestep conclusions. I am surely not the only one ers” and “fellow travellers”, and in a word, saw it as impor - It would seem that Peter Thomas is interested in the same who will find that Peter Thomas renders Gramsci’s thought tant to encourage and accept different types of commitment question, but as already remarked, despite continual at - so dense and nebulous that the key concepts lose coherence. from people who were drawn towards the socialist banner. tempts to draw him into debate in the course of the interview, The benefit of this however is that in his repeated attempts Martin Thomas’s third independent essay, “Gramsci and he is tentative and inclined to sidestep practical suggestions to avoid giving concrete answers, Peter Thomas provides an Post-Marxism”, presents a concise critique of left-wing aca - about “what is to be done”. He chooses his words carefully excellent foil for Martin Thomas’s questions, which become demic thought over the last 25 years, and charts the rise and and tends to suggest that much preparatory work needs to be more penetrating as the interview (which took place over dissipation of the energy of this tendency by situating it in - done before the issue really comes onto the agenda again. He three years) proceeds. side an account of the economic and political developments emphasises the need to “problematise’ the form that the brought about by the intensification of globalisation during party, or “Modern Prince”, or “hegemonic apparatus” might INTRODUCE this period. For those who are already familiar with Gramsci’s work, take. The essay focuses on the work of Laclau and Mouffe, and this interview will provide much food for thought; but the ties their explicit rejection of both Marx and Lenin to their DIFFERENCES three stand-alone essays by Martin Thomas which intro - one-sided and tendentious appropriation of Gramsci’s use of The section of the interview entitled “The Decisive Ele - duce and conclude the collection — “Gramsci’s Life”; the concept of “hegemony”, the more accurate and useful in - ment” is characteristic and brings these differences in “Gramsci and ‘post-Marxism’”; “Gramsci and Trotsky” — terpretation of which is given a full treatment in the sections viewpoint to light. constitute a very useful resource in their own right. in which Martin Thomas and Peter Thomas are in dialogue. Martin Thomas says: “Yes, the revolutionary political party The first commences with fascinating comparative details EMPHASISE is not an already-finished thing, with a ‘finished programme’ about the economies of Italy and Russia in the period before Amid all this material, there are two things that Martin and so on, which then just radiates out and ‘colonises’ other the First World War as context for a presentation of Gram - Thomas seeks to emphasise and demonstrate — that groups... sci’s early political career as a journalist for the Socialist Party Gramsci himself was a revolutionary socialist who “But surely the party is central. It is the organised body of press, as editor of Ordine Nuovo , and as a central figure in the shared the fundamental perspectives of Marx and Lenin activists who are systematically and collectively politically Turin factory council movement. Judiciously selected facts on the nature of capitalist societies, and that mass work - active in a continuous way, not just at high points; who, with and quotations are used to illuminate Gramsci’s decisions ing-class activity and organization is central to the strug - a continuously-developed and sustained theoretical basis, when faced with the competing tendencies of conservatism gle to overcome and transform these societies into most resist the ‘conceptions of the world mechanically im - and ultra-leftism inside the Italian Socialist Party, as well as socialist ones. posed by the external environment’”... his role in the emergence of the Italian Communist Party, and To which Peter Thomas responds: “Again, the question is: his work between incarceration and death (1926–1937) which This has of course been argued before, but for those who what type of party? And further: how is this party formed? resulted in the immense body of writings that have survived have not read a biography (e.g. Fiori’s) in conjunction with Gramsci was well aware that, in the broader sense, there is as the Prison Notebooks . The essay concludes with a series of Gramsci’s writings, then these essays provide an admirable nobody without a party, or nobody who is not in a certain quotations illustrating Gramsci’s conviction that a revolu - introduction. The booklet works at a number of levels, then, way a ‘partisan’, even if only in a practical state, of certain tionary party is absolutely necessary in the struggle for so - but the point of real interest in the essays is what they have choices, values and interests they share with others in simi - cialism. to say about the revolutionary party and the kind of organi - lar social positions. However... it is not a case, it seems to me, The second of the independent essays — “Gramsci and sational perspectives which the most active socialists in the of stating that, regardless of complicating and intervening Trotsky” — considers Gramsci’s meetings with Trotsky in present moment should seek to develop, and what they factors, the party remains ‘central’, in either the first or the Moscow and the factors bearing upon his surprising misun - might learn from a study of Gramsci’s work. On almost every last instance... Rather than conceiving of the party as a ‘cen - derstanding of Trotsky as an ultra-leftist, as well as their re - page there is reference to this in one way or another. tre’, it might be better in this Gramscian perspective to think spective appraisals of the rise of Stalinism. What emerges is Martin Thomas presents the revolutionary party as central of such explicitly institutional-political coordinating and or - a field of fundamental agreement between the two on the to the way one thinks about socialism, but also takes pains ganising functions as the tip of the iceberg of the Modern kind of party and the kind of strategy that those committed to bring out the historical dynamics underlying the very flex - Prince, the visible 10 % supported by the invisible 90% below to revolution from below would have to hold on to in order ible perspectives that Lenin, Trotsky and Gramsci developed the waterline.” to negotiate the immense difficulties caused by the defeats of about the party when the struggle was at its height in the pe - For Peter Thomas, Gramsci is interested in the revolution - the late 20s and 30s. riod from the end of World War One to the rise of fascism in For those who are already largely familiar with Gramsci the 20s and 30s. Continued on page 10 and Trotsky’s perspectives, and don’t need to be convinced of While remaining clear about the general principles of the 10 FEATURE Marx and Lenin on press freedom

7 December 1953, quoting a speech by the secretary, Julius Braunthal, at the third International Socialist Press Confer - ence, with representatives from socialist parties in various Is the revolutionary party like the tip of an iceberg? countries.. Labor Action commented: “For socialists, the denial of free - dom of speech is the blackest treason against the tradition of Continued from page 9 socialism; the enslavement of the free word is a fundamental mark of the counter-revolutionary nature of [Stalinist] Rus - sia’s political system — a system which justifies itself by an ary party as a “dynamic social relation of democratic ped - appeal to Marxism.” agogy”, yet rather than giving practical examples of the Braunthal continued: “And now let me quote what Marx kind of institutions or situations that might give rise to thought of the press in authoritarian states — the kind of this social relation (the closest we get to this is a cursory press which we know so well from Russia and the East Zone list: “institutions inside the trade-union movement, … of Germany. even including sporting associations, community group - ‘Hypocrisy, that vice of vices, is inseparable from it’, he ings and so forth”), Peter Thomas renders his account wrote. ‘From this basic vice all its other sins derive. . . . even less coherent by problematising the notion of the rev - ‘The government hears nothing but its own voice. It knows olutionary party as a centre, and replacing this with the that it hears nothing but its own voice and yet persists in the idea that it be seen as “the tip of the iceberg”. illusion that it is hearing the voice of the people and demands Quite how this metaphor is intended to enhance our that the people should submit to the same illusion’. conception of the political party I cannot say, for the point [Without a free press] people fall either into political super - about the revolutionary party constituting a “centre” is re - stition, or political scepticism, or else they take no further part ally a dynamic or dialectical question of how decision- in the life of the State and become a disorderly mass of indi - making complexes form an identity by feeding back upon viduals. Meanwhile — although it was only on the sixth day each other and coming together more or less organically to that God himself said of his creation: ‘And behold it was form and enact a coherent transformative strategy. On the Marx analysed the problem of a free press thoroughly in good’ — the press makes a daily boast of what the govern - other hand, the tip of an iceberg is joined mechanically two long essays which are to be found in the first volume ment has willed into existence; but since, of necessity, one day and inflexibly to the bulk of the ice that forms it, and of the collected edition of his works. contradicts the next, the press lies continuously and must stands proud of the surface in the Arctic winds while the deny all knowledge of the lie and stifle its shame.” ice below invisibly experiences the relative warmth of the For Marx “the right to think and speak the truth” was an el - sea waters. ementary human right and freedom of the press — as he said LENIN — merely “human freedom in practice”. Marx recognized Vladimir Ilyich Lenin discussed another dimension of this DYNAMISM question. He wrote: There is no room for dynamism of any sort with an that human freedom is made up of a complex of interdepend - iceberg other than the kind of melting that is associ - ent freedoms. “Each form of freedom”, he said, “postulates the other in “Freedom of the press” is another of the principal slogans ated with global warming, and that is not an inspiring of “pure democracy”. And here, too, the workers know — connotation. the same way as one limb of the body postulates another. Whenever one particular freedom is threatened, freedom it - and socialists everywhere have admitted it millions of times — that this freedom is a deception while the best printing My own view, which has only been strengthened by self is threatened. Freedom is always freedom, whether it is presses and the biggest stocks of paper are appropriated by reading the work of Martin Thomas and Peter Thomas on expressed in printers’ ink or in terms of land and possessions, the capitalists and while capitalist rule over the press re - Gramsci, is that there is something of a paradox in Gram - in terms of conscience or in a political meeting”. mains, a rule that is manifested throughout the world all the sci’s survival as a text or source of ideas across so many Without freedom of speech a nation is subject to an author - more strikingly, sharply, and cynically, the more democracy university disciplines, and that this stems partly from the itarian regime — the slave not only of economic and social and the republican system are developed, as in America for creative misinterpretations analysed by Martin Thomas, tyranny but of a tyranny of the spirit. example. but also, more directly, from the usefulness and flexibility Marx regarded freedom of the press as an indispensable “The first thing to do to win real equality and genuine of Gramsci’s conceptual formulations on the complexity premise for the people’s collaboration in shaping its own fate, democracy for the working people, for the workers and peas - of social groupings and the constitution of relationships as an essential instrument for deciding its own destiny. With ants, is to deprive capital of the possibility of hiring writers, with interpenetrating material and ideological layers. a passion such as is extremely rare in his works he described buying up publishing houses, and hiring newspapers. And to For people on the left from the 60’s onwards, Gramsci the free press as “the watchful eye of the people, the living ex - do that the capitalists and exploiters have to be overthrown perhaps offered a resource with a different quality to it pression of the people’s trust in itself, the vocal link which and their resistance suppressed. than what could elsewhere be found among the giants of unites the individual with the State and the world, the incor - “The capitalists have always used the term ‘freedom’ to the Marxist tradition: a more compassionate voice, even poration of culture which, by a process of refinement, makes mean freedom for the rich to get richer and for the workers if this seems hard to reconcile with Gramsci’s resoluteness material struggles intellectual and gives ideal expression to to starve to death. and commitment. There is an implicit “patience” in Gram - their coarse, crude strength”. “In capitalist usage, freedom of the press means freedom of sci — for different levels of knowledge and development Without freedom of the press, he wrote, he could not fulfill the rich to bribe the press, freedom to use their wealth to in the subaltern, and a correspondingly wider and less di - himself. Discussing the debate on freedom of the press in the shape and fabricate so-called public opinion. rect approach to questions of education and political in - Rhenish Landtag, he deplored the cool attitude of those lib - “In this respect. too, the defenders of ‘pure democracy’ volvement, although this is also enigmatic. eral deputies for whom freedom of the press is “only an af - prove to be defenders of an utterly foul and venal system that It may be the case that Gramsci’s imprisonment, disabil - fair of the head in which the heart plays no part”. gives the rich control over the mass media. They prove to be ity and sickness, in conjunction with the particularities of He recalled Goethe’s saying that a painter succeeds only deceivers of the people who, with the aid of plausible, fine- his personality, tended to imbue his prison writings with with those types of feminine beauty which he has at least sounding, but thoroughly false phrases, divert them from the a mythological “for eternity” (“für ewig”) dimension that loved in some living person. concrete historical task of liberating the press from capitalist evokes a compassionate response even, or especially, in “Freedom of the press, too, is a kind of beauty”, Marx enslavement. periods of defeat and downturn. The writings of Trotsky stated, “which one must have loved to be able to defend. It is “Genuine freedom and equality will be embodied in the and Lenin, and even Marx, are tools forged for the impact something which I love truly, whose existence I feel to be es - system which the communists are building and in which of the fight which come in to their own when the struggle sential, to be necessary to me so that without it I cannot live there will be no opportunity for amassing wealth at the expense of others, no objective opportunities for putting beIcfomPeetsemr oTrheoomvearst.’s metaphor of the iceberg is to at peace, or live a full life”. the press under the direct or indirect power of money, stand, then perhaps Gramsci is what we should read And he closed his essay on the conditions of the press in and no impediments in the way of any working man (or when the iceberg is melting; Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky, Prussia with the words: “Those periods in which one can groups of working men, in any numbers) for enjoying and when the sea is starting to freeze and the iceberg think as one wishes and say what one thinks enjoy great good practising equal rights in the use of public printing coming together beneath its revolutionary tip. fortune”. The summary of Marx, above, was given in Labor Action of presses and public stocks of paper.” 11 REPORTS Daring strategy needed in civil service fight

By a civil servant will be put to the govern - but it will persist with that ment, defending terms and tactic. A statement from the civil conditions (which all de - To win, we need as much service union PCS says: partments are currently re - national, all-members ac - “The union’s national ex - viewing) and (possibly) tion as can be had, coupled ecutive [NEC] has agreed opposing increases in pen - with selective, targeted plans for a determined sion contributions will be strikes and other industrial campaign for fair pay and the real focus of the cam - actions. We need a strike working conditions, in - paign. levy so that we can sustain cluding a ballot for indus - a dispute, and we need get trial action by more than REAL FIGHT members involved in the There will be, yet again, a quarter of a million civil cover “cuts to pensions and much as ignored. If PCS running of the campaign no real fight on pay or and public servants.” jobs”. Our ballot in 2011 leaders undertook an hon - through democratic action jobs. was for those issues as well est accounting of what has committees with real Steve Charles (NUT rep from “The NEC agreed that if Stratford Academy, where (remember the pension dis - happened to our national We are not opposed to a power. In our conception of employers do not respond teachers have struck for pute!) disputes since 2011, and set fight over terms and condi - the union, members are not satisfactorily to our de - nine days against pay The current leadership against what they said they tions and pension reform; just passive recipients of mands, we will move to a management’s use of pay has an irritating habit of wanted to do, they would we just want the union to occasional circulars, who national ballot in the new cuts to intimidate staff out starting disputes it never find themselves greatly be honest in its dealings can be called to strike when year for a programme of in - of striking) speaks at the concludes, allowing them wanting. with members. And that the union deems it neces - dustrial action.” second conference of the to fade away or merge into All the signs are that the honesty extends to strike sarWy.e will of course build One of “the demands” is Local Associations Network ever-wider (and less fo - union will ballot in late Jan - tactics. No doubt we will for a yes vote in any bal - on pay, yet we are still in a (LAN) in Leicester on 8 cused) disputes, with only uary or early February. have our ritualistic one-day lot on action, but we will pay dispute from 2011! In December. the union’s radical left act - Conveniently (again we see national strike – possibly in also argue for a radical the ballot that started in LAN is a rank-and-file ing as a collective memory. shades of previous national co-ordination with other transformation of the May 2011, the NEC said school workers’ caucus In George Orwell’s 1984 votes), such a ballot will co - unions – but what next? union’s tactics and that demand was for “an based mainly in the the record of the past is incide with the NEC elec - PCS knows that such lim - strategies we believe end to the pay freeze and a National Union of Teachers. continually being changed. tions. We think that despite ited action will not win necessary to win. fair pay rise for all”. The Delegates discussed the In PCS it isn’t altered so the many demands that anything for the members, new ballot in 2013 will also joint NUT/NASUWT campaign on workload, Mid Yorks NHS including how to escalate McCluskey to stand again in 2013 and spread disputes so victimisation individual reps and school groups are not left isolated. threat argued against the changes The new political strat - The conference also held to the constitution, as we egy, while still remaining a Skype link-up with By Ollie Moore think that democratic pro - largely a paper exercise activists from the Caucus of cedures and accountability that needs to be imple - Rank-and-File Educators, NHS bosses in York - are important and should mented, is also a positive the grassroots network shire have moved to not be manipulated in development that cuts both which led the Chicago take reprisals against order to allow incumbents against those who think the Teachers’ Union to a clerical workers in - to continue in office. Labour Party can be by - significant victory over the volved in a recent Jerry Hicks, a maverick passed and those who want summer. For a full report of strike against down - left-winger who came sec - an uncritical attitude to its the conference, see banding. ond to McCluskey when he leadership. tinyurl.com/lanconf2012 won his position in 2010, is - However, we disagree A worker was sum - sued a statement saying that a general secretary moned to an “investiga - that the manoeuvre was Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite (Britain’s biggest election in 2015 would be a tion” on 10 December to opportunistic. More look into “an incident union), is planning constitutional changes to allow him to stand terrible distraction, and which came to light dur - again in an early election. STOP with the claim that Mc - industrial ing the strike”. Manage - Hicks said the move Cluskey played a positive news online ment refused to give By Jayne Edwards ments while in office, in - would stop others (i.e., role in the pensions dis - more details in advance. cluding civilising the inter - himself) from standing, pute. We also disagree that • Postal workers’ Talks between man - as only McCluskey — The Executive Council of nal regime of the union and Unite’s industrial strategy boycott threat agement and the unions, Unite has backed the pioneering industrial with his access to greater makes it a “fighting which resumed on proposal from incumbent strategies that have won resources and the union union”. Wednesday 29 Novem - • “Cleaners’ general secretary Len various disputes. They also machinery — would be It is not clear who, other ber, have been sus - McCluskey to make con - claim that McCluskey has able to prepare and run a than McCluskey, will stand pended until charter” launched stitutional changes to helped stabilise the union proper campaign in the in the election. It currently management withdraws time available. allow for an election for since its creation from a seems unlikely that there the threat of victimisa - the post to be held “as • London merger of TGWU and Ami - Some of the changes will be any credible chal - tioCnl. erical workers at soon as possible”, rather cus, and should therefore under McCluskey have lenge from someone with a Overground strike hospitals in Wakefield, than in 2015 as planned. continue in post. A national been positive. better political and indus - Dewsbury, and Ponte - United Left meeting fol - The changes in the trial strategy. • Tesco drivers’ fract struck for three A statement from United Whoever stands, the lowing the EC endorsed union’s internal regime, to - days from 20 Novem - Left (a political grouping election should be used this position and agreed to wards a more democratic strike ber against a plan that within of which McCluskey as an opportunity for so - back McCluskey in the could see some work - is a member and in which culture and greater toler - cialists to lead a discus - election. All at tinyurl.com/ ers face pay cuts of up Workers’ Liberty is also in - ance of criticism and de - sion on what kind of to £2,700. volved) issued prior to the There has been very little bate, have allowed union we need to win the indnews EC decision salutes Mc - opposition to this proposal. discussions on industrial struggles ahead. Cluskey’s various achieve - Workers’ Liberty members and political issues. S&oWlorikdersa’ Libreirtty y Flag-gate reveals Against the “Ikhwani state” working-class divisions

By Harry Glass long to the Ikhwani [Broth - By William O’Leary erhood] state”. Protesters Hundreds of thousands of blocked entrances and exits On Monday 3 December, Belfast City council re - people took to the streets to the city. solved by 29 votes to 21 to remove the Union Flag in Egypt in the first week Ahram Online said the po - from the top of City Hall on all but 15 designated of December, with further litical forces involved in the days a year. mass protests against Mahalla rebellion include President Mohamed the Free Egyptians Party, The motion, a compromise from the liberal Alliance Mursi’s cold coup, which Constitution Party, Strong Party, was passed in preference to a nationalist-sup - includes plans for a new Egypt Party, Egyptian Social ported proposal to remove the flag completely. constitution that would Democratic Party, the Popu - Violence ensued, with loyalists breaking into the give him exceptional pow - lar Current and socialist ac - building. ers. tivists. Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) councillor Christo - Also on Friday, protestors pher Stalford was typical of much of the unionist re - The protests forced Mursi set fire to three Muslim sponse. There was “absolutely no excuse” for what to backtrack on some emer - Brotherhood or Freedom happened after the vote, he said, but "those who started gency powers. He is press - and Justice Party offices in this debate should have known from the outset that it ing ahead with the Cairo. There were demon - would stir up tension and cause division.” referendum on the constitu - strations in several other The hypocrisy is astounding, given that the Ulster tion. cities including Alexandria, Unionist Party (UUP) and the DUP jointly put out 40,000 On Friday 7 December, where crowds chanted, leaflets before the vote attacking the Alliance and en - tens of thousands rallied in “The people want the exe - couraging people to complain. Alliance Party leader the square in front of the cution of the president”. Naomi Long received a death threat, and party con - presidential place in He - that a member of the Revo - Taha is still alive. The protests started after stituency offices have been attacked. liopolis. They broke lutionary Socialists was On Friday 7th also, thou - Mursi seized wide-ranging through barbed wire, with killed. “We are mourning sands of protesters in the in - powers and immunity from PRINCIPLES some police apparently let - the death of Taha Magdy, dustrial city of Mahalla the courts, and then an - It is legitimate for nationalist councillors to vote to ting them through. Protest - who was killed by Brother - al-Kubra were reported to nounced a 15 December ref - remove, or limit, the flying of the Union Flag on pub - ers had been expelled from hood thugs,” the Revolu - have announced the city erendum on a hastily lic buildings. This principle is important and the na - the area by Muslim Brother - tionary Socialists said on “independent”, and drafted constitution. tional question is not just a “distraction” from hood thugs on Wednesday their Facebook page. There planned a “revolutionary • The SWP and Egypt, page economic concerns. 5 December. have since been reports that council”. “We no longer be - 8. Ahram Online reported Northern Ireland was created following the partition of Ireland to ensure a unionist majority in the largest possible contiguous territory on the island, whilst simul - taneously locking in a nationalist minority. State institu - tions are still the site of contested national identities, Keep Lewisham A&E and maternity open! with unionism winning out for purely majoritarian rea - sons. Removing the Union Flag is part of the removal of this By a Lewisham homeowners paid signed shaw (Special Administra - have been paid for many vestigial, British, national privilege, without forcing a health worker up to mortgages at the 33% tor in South London) to en - times over. The people rival, Irish, national identity upon the unionist majority. PFI rate then their monthly sure that the NHS can who now own PFI debt are Attempts by loyalists to resist, with violence, the neu - The campaign to stop repayments would be continue to function as a simply holding entitle - tralising of public space are wholly reactionary. the closure of the A&E £6785 a month. moneyspinner for the PFI ments to future streams of Much of the loyalist violence has involved paramili - and maternity depart - The average homeowner capitalists — even at the income tax. tary organisations, especially the Ulster Volunteer Force ments at Lewisham hos - would have to earn a pre- expense of shutting down If we decided to keep (UVF), and it is likely that the networks in and around pital continues. tax salary over £150,000 a hospitals. open the services they such groups have played a role in facilitating the mobili - year just to pay off their But we should not be too want to cut by carrying on sation of discontented loyalists. The threat stems from mortgage! Homeowner - superstitious about the working , what would At one rally the crowd was addressed by the fascist problems at the South Lon - ship would be restricted to power of these dodgy debt happen? A handful of ex - former BNP member and anti-abortion fanatic, Jim don Healthcare Trust and “the 1%”. obligations. The hospitals ceedingly rich individuals Dowson. The UVF-aligned Progressive Unionist Party these are entirely due to But the SLHT are not might be a bit upset, but (PUP) leader Billy Hutchinson and Ulster Defence Asso - PFI debt. alone in signing up to would they send the ciation (UDA) leader Jackie McDonald were also in at - Back in the 1990s PFI these extraordinary rates bailiffs in? If the doctors tendance. consortia built two hospi - of interest. It is estimated continued to perform life- But the nationalist parties are guilty of double stan - tals in Woolwich and that PFI consortia have saving treatment would dards too. Loyalists can point to Sinn Fein and SDLP Bromley at a cost of £210 built £11.4 billion of hospi - they be arrested? If the councillors in Newry voting to name a children’s play million. The annual repay - tals and by 2049 will have nurses at continued to park after IRA hunger striker Raymond McCreesh. ment is £69million and pocketed over £65 billion admit patients would the It is not unreasonable for unionists to see the partial over the course of 30 years in taxpayers money. police try and barricade removal of the Union Flag as a continuation of the na - the total bill will come to This means that the av - theThdeoopres?ople who make tionalist political project to promote an Irish identity at over £2 billion. erage PFI contract is pay - Lewisham hospital work the expense of their own. Using the handy mort - ing out at around 19% rate have the power to stop At a time when all the major Northern Irish political gage calculator on the of interest — a higher rate this closure. By ignoring parties are involved in an Executive attacking working- Money Savings Expert than has ever been seen in orders to shut down the class people, the labour movement in Northern Ireland website, Workers Liberty the history of the credit hospital we can force the urTgreinvtialyl anseetdhseay pmoaliyticsaeleemxp, risessuioens.such as the flying calculated that SLHT are markets. government to cancel of flags still have the potential to divide workers in locked into a mortgage As more and more NHS the rip-off PFI debt and Northern Ireland and need to be addressed with a with a 33% interest rate. Trusts struggle with the Taken from the AWL’s new nobody would suffer. programme which “prohibits any privileges whatso - To put this in context, PFI debt, the government workplace bulletin, Hospital ever to any one nation and any encroachment what - the average house price in will be sending in bureau - Worker • www.nhsunity.com soever upon the rights of a national minority.” the UK is £250,000. If these crats like Matthew Ker - savelewishamhospital.com