So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y No 281 10 April 2013 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org For a workers’ government

Thatcher is dead. Marxism and Debate on Kill Thatcherism! the oppressed Syria page 5 pages 6-7 pages 9-10 STOP “BEDROOM See article on page 3 TAX” EVICTIONS! 2 NEWS

What is the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? Who are FEMEN? Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. Society is shaped by the capitalists’ By Elizabeth relentless drive to increase their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives Butterworth by overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the environment and much else. When Tunisian feminist Against the accumulated wealth and power of the Amina Tyler posted top - capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. less pictures of herself The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity through online with “Fuck Your struggle so that the working class can overthrow capitalism. We want Morals” and “My body be - socialist revolution: collective ownership of industry and services, longs to me and is not a workers’ control and a democracy much fuller than the present system, source of anyone’s hon - with elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to our” written across her bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. chest, she received death We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” threats and was put in a and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. psychiatric hospital. “Top - Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, less Jihad Day” was the supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping Ukrainian feminist group organise rank-and-file groups. FEMEN’s response. We are also active among students and in many campaigns and alliances. In various cities, topless activists’ slogans were “Free We stand for: Amina”, “Fuck Your Showing solidarity only when it suits G Independent working-class representation in politics. Morals”, “Bare Breasts A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour G Against Islamism” and are not good. They do not grounds that it brought sex pose Morsi. They objected movement. “Viva Topless Jihad”. A few properly differentiate be - tourism with it, in contrast to Ikea’s erasing of women G A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to FEMEN supporters also tween Islam and Islamism. to the self-organised sex from its catalogues in Saudi picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. wore fake beards to dress as Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education They protest against not workers at the 2012 Arabia, with one Muslim G stereotypes of Arab men. and jobs for all. only the Muslim Brother - Olympics which called for activist holding a sign say - Some Muslim women re - G A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full hood but also outside regu - no arrests and no deporta - ing “Allah created me visi - equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden acted against this, saying lar mosques. tions. ble”. And, of course, Amina of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, FEMEN are Islamophobes Their politics are incoher - They are not interested in Tyler’s actions were coura - bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity and imperialists, posting ent and do not account for solidarity with sex workers geous and inspiring. against racism. pictures online with slogans cultural, societal and indi - or sex workers’ rights. They But it appears that to be G Open borders. such as “Nudity does not vidual interpretations of say that sex workers “sat - FEMEN one just has to be G Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have liberate me and I do not Islam. Their ignorance and isfy the lusty beast of patri - topless and daubed with more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist need saving”, “Do I look lack of interest in the global archy” and compare slogans. That’s limiting. rulers. like I need imperialists to women’s movement has led prostitution to fascism. Pol - White women dressing G Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or free me from oppression!” to this outpouring of anger ish sex workers have up as caricatures of Arab community to global social organisation. and “Islam Gave Me Free - from Muslim women. They protested against FEMEN, men is much worse. It is ab - G Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all dom”. show solidarity only when saying “FEMEN! Get the solutely racist and demon - nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. FEMEN’s response was it suits their message. fuck out of our business!” strates an attitude to G Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. an incoherent article by They demand people to non-white women that is at If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — G their leader Inna get totally on-board with BIZARRE best patronising. and join us! Shevchenko accusing Mus - them, for example saying Their version of feminism Our problem with lim women who are against “Muslim women: Let’s get is also bizarrely national - FEMEN is not that they are Contact us: FEMEN of not standing up naked!” rather than looking istic. One of their core “skinny white feminists” for themselves and saying into different women’s aims on their website is who get their tits out, but 020 7394 8923 [email protected] G G she would like to see a movements and supporting promoting the Ukraine as that they talk a load of The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley world free of various “trou - and working with existing “the country with great garbage, attack sex workers, Road, London, SE1 3DG. bles”. secularist and women’s opportunities for women”. patronise other women and The leaders of FEMEN G Printed by Trinity Mirror groups or even trying to Despite their usual anti- have no real analysis of convince people about their church stance they lobby for feminism outside of Europe. “Incompetent” still message. independence for the They say, “We have worked running the show A bit like internet hackers Ukrainian Orthodox out our own unique form of Get Solidarity every week! “Anonymous”, to some ex - Church. self-expression based upon tent it is a loose network. courage, creativity, effi - G Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o They have a strange atti - “This bank failed be - Women might support tude to womanhood as ciePnucbylaicndnusdhiotcyki”s. aRifgahir t. G 22 issues (six months). £18 waged o cause the management them without realising their well. They have said “we tactic. But what little sub - £9 unwaged o got it completely full range of aims and be - build up a national image of stance there is behind the wrong”, according to a liefs. Their leaders are quite G 44 issues (year). £35 waged o femininity, maternity and slogans and bare breasts Tory-chaired parliamen - vague. Yet it does have of - beauty based on the Euro- is troubling. £17 unwaged o tary committee investi - fices, leaders and stated be - Atlantic women’s move - G European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o gating the collapse of liefs. What are those beliefs? ments’ experience”. or 50 euros (44 issues) o HBOS, which collapsed FEMEN attack sex work - They train their activists and was taken over by ers. They support the at a camp in Paris, promot - “C2” women Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: Lloyds, which in turn Ukrainian state’s prohibi - ing “hot boobs, a cool head against the Tories 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG had to be rescued by tion of sex work, and advo - and clean hands”. Cheques (£) to “AWL”. semi-nationalisation. cate the criminalisation of There are positive aspects The top boss was prostitution in other coun - “C2” (skilled manual Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. to FEMEN. They are gener - “delusional”. Hundreds tries. They say they are ally secularists. They are worker) women have of billions of public waging a “war on the sex pro-choice. They are anti- swung away from the Name ...... money were pumped industry”. dictatorships, and have ac - Tories more than any into saving the banks. In a protest in Paris at a costed Putin shouting “Go other social group. Pro- Address ...... Now the Tories are try - porn industry event, they to hell Dictator”. They have Tory sentiment among ing to make the working physically attacked two per - them has declined by ...... protested against the Pope class pay the price, while formers, and invaded the for the Catholic Church’s 12% since the 2010 elec - I enclose £ ...... the “incompetent” still stage with “Go Rape Your - stance on contraception and tion, according to an run the banks and get self” written across their abortion. They worked with Ipsos Mori poll. huge pay-outs. bodies. They protested Egyptian feminists to op - against Euro 2012 on the 3 NEWS Stop “bedroom tax” evictions!

By David Kirk and Hove councils have 1 April was the start date will other rich people. said they will refuse to for the “Bedroom Tax”. It is For worse-off people, Across the country evict people who fall into a cut in housing benefit for there is a pitiful supply of demonstrations and arrears on rent payments social housing tenants of council and housing associ - meetings have been held due to the “Bedroom Tax”. working age who are ation properties available against the “Bedroom Nottingham’s right-wing deemed to have one or at any size because little Tax”. The organisers vary Labour council has said it more spare bedroom. council housing has been Leeds protest from area to area — a will re-classify rooms in all If you are classed as hav - built since the 1970s and patchwork of community its council houses so no ing one spare bedroom you the stock has been eroded “Bedroom Tax” is to attack groups and unions cam - groups, union branches, tenant gets hit by the tax. will have to find 14% of the by “Right To Buy”. social housing and push paigning against the “Bed - Labour Party people, and Knowsley Housing Trust rent; if two or more, 25%. The Government wants tenants into the private sec - room Tax” also to build a left groups. is one of several Housing Around 660,000 housing to cut the housing benefit tor. proper national campaign Associations that have re - benefit claimants’ will be bill. Yet if social-housing The Labour Party leaders that forces Labour to com - The chief demands are classified rooms too. hit by the bedroom tax. tenants are pushed out by have attacked the Tories mit to repealing the tax as for councils and housing These examples show The Government argues the tax into the private over the “Bedroom Tax” soon as it is power. associations to re-classify mass pressure can force that the tax will encour - rental sector, then rents sometimes quite effectively, Campaigns should also homes (so that they are even right-wing Labour aged people to move to there are higher, sometimes and the government has support non-payment by counted as having “stud - councils to stand by their smaller homes. But welfare more than double, and made some concessions. tenants and communities ies” or “storerooms” in - tenants. In putting pressure minister Lord Freud, who housing benefit may be However, the Labour lead - organising against eviction. stead of “excess” The “Bedroom Tax” can on Labour councils, trade has 12 bedrooms in his higher. The “Bedroom Tax” ers have not committed to bedrooms) and to pledge be beaten. unions and local Labour country house and his Lon - doesn’t apply to tenants of repeal the “Bedroom Tax” not to evict tenants who party branches are a vital don flat, will be spared private landlords. when in power. can’t or won’t pay. arena of struggle. such “encouragement”; so The real effect of the We should argue for the •handsoffourhomes.org.uk Dundee and Brighton Better to break the whip than vote for cuts

Gary Wareing is one of the not what we were elected to union, [train drivers’ union] need to provide decent conglomerates in the coun - “Hull Three”, three Labour do. ASLEF, has been very sup - services in their area, and try and running them for councillors who voted When we voted against portive of the position we campaign to demand the al - the benefit of the people against a cuts budget on the cuts, the Labour Party have taken. Council officers location of that amount of rather than the 1%. the city’s Labour-controlled locally responded really and staff may not feel able money. If they did not get What we have done is council. Along with Dean well. My ward Labour to say openly that they sup - that money, they should start to prick councillors’ Kirk and Gill Kennett, Party has passed a motion port us, but they have told then say they are not pre - consciences, and say “is this Gary has been suspended supporting us, and party me privately they are glad pared to set a budget. right?” We’re making them from the Labour group. He members have told that that somebody has taken a That would bring them ask the question of them - is involved in the Labour they fully support our stand against the cuts. into conflict with the gov - selves. Representation Committee stand. After we broke the whip ernment and would provide As far as I’m concerned, I Gary Wearing and the Councillors The Labour whip on the the Labour group on the an opportunity to mobilise remain a Labour councillor Against Cuts campaign. He council asked me if I knew council met and decided to local people and the local and of course a socialist. We year’s council budgets and spoke to Sam Greenwood how serious it was to break suspend all three council - labour movement behind have to try and win the ar - local elections. Unions have from Solidarity . the whip. But I don’t be - lors. One of us got a three- the council. Council staff gument at every level of the to start putting more pres - lieve breaking the whip is a month suspension and two should refuse to implement labour movement. We have We are against austerity sure on Labour councillors more serious crime than others got an indefinite sus - any cuts on behalf of the to show the Labour group as a means of solving the about what’s expected of making 600 people redun - pension, though all three of government. that party members and the current problems that the them and how they should dant, and closing libraries us carried out the same working class in general council and the country vote. and other services. vote. We have been banned CRISIS don’t accept it is Labour’s has got. All Labour-controlled I have had fantastic sup - from associating with other We are in the worst crisis job to implement cuts. councils should be fighting We weren’t happy about port from Unite and Unison Labour councillors. for 200 years, the longest Labour Parties locally collectively so individual being bailiffs for the Tory locally. At a local meeting, recession since 1930, and have in many cases been councils cannot be picked government and making Unite called on councillors MEETINGS this is only the beginning. hollowed out, so they’re off. Individual councillors, their cuts for them. That is not to vote for cuts. My own We now can’t attend often mainly made up of or even a single council, can I think there is still a feel - Labour group meetings councillors and their friends be a beacon but ultimately ing among people that if and make our argument, rather than being organs of one council cannot win on they keep their heads down so there’s a lower level of local working-class commu - its own. we will come out of this and debate within the group. nities and organisations. We heard the chancellor go back to the good times of But from the perspective of Even though we have no in the budget stating that the 1990s and early 2000s. the average working per - input into deciding Labour austerity will carry on till That is the past. The future son, Labour remains the policy on the council, we’re 2018 at least; we could have holds further deeper cuts, party of the working class. still expected to vote in line austerity for the next ten higher unemployment, and If people went into local with group decisions. years. The labour move - bigger shocks to the system. Labour parties and trans - The Hull Labour Repre - ment will need to respond We should be explaining formed meetings into sentation Committee (LRC) to this, or local councils will that, and the alternatives. mass forums where big A protest full of Unite trade union flags gathered out - and the Councillors Against not be running any services The Labour Party is not a decisions are taken and side Warrington Town Hall on 4 April as Labour council - Cuts campaign nationally at all in a few years’ time. capitalist party, it is a social - representatives are lor Kevin Bennett faced a disciplinary hearing over his were very important forums The question of whether ist party. It should be put - elected by a much larger vote against cuts. to discuss our ideas and councils should set deficit ting forward socialist and diverse cross section, Bennett was suspended by the Warrington Labour plan our actions. The LRC or needs budgets is difficult, policies in opposition to and if even a tenth of group. Unite activists now need to push the union to has provided a space for po - because council officers austerity and capitalism. We trade unionists joined and step up protest in support of Bennett and of the Hull litical discussion and cam - have a legal duty to stop should be explaining that were active in the party, Labour councillors penalised for opposing cuts. paign planning that isn’t deficit budgets being set there is no solution to the they could transform it. A motion (No. 42) supporting anti-cuts councillors is always available in official and would not allow this to current crisis under capital - on the agenda for the June conference of the public serv - Labour Party meetings. happen. The best response ism, and capitalism is caus - • Support the Hull 3 cam - ice union Unison. Supportive amendments, and deci - It’s the responsibility of for a Labour council that ing the problems. Our paign — facebook.com/ sions to prioritise the motion for conference debate, are the whole labour movement wanted to fight the cuts solutions should be a social - supportthehull3 needed from other Unison branches. to fight the cuts. The trade would be to outline to local ist programme of national - unions have to build a cam - people and the government ising the banks, rail, • councillorsagainstcuts.org paign in the lead up to next what budget they would utilities, and the leading 4 COMMENT “Live life to the fullest, make a better world”

Mike Kyriazopoulos, a cause the previous guy had been sacked, and no one else duties back eventually, but we managed to hold off the revi - Workers’ Liberty sup - wanted to do the job. sions for a good few years. porter based in New Pretty soon I attracted the attention of management. First In retrospect, I was hampered by being isolated in a sub Zealand/Aotearoa and they tried to get me to become a governor, then they tried to delivery office. I never made much progress towards estab - active in Fightback, sack me — twice. Both disciplinaries were related to organ - lishing a rank and file movement. But then, such a movement wrote this letter to com - ising wildcat action. The first time, they stuffed up the usually requires a great upsurge in militancy to establish it, rades. process, and I got off scot-free. The next time I copped a final so there’s an element of Catch-22. Early this year I was di - warning and two day’s suspension. In 2007, I emigrated to New Zealand, essentially for per - agnosed with Motor During a week-long wildcat strike involving many Lon - sonal reasons. Comrades, I’m sorry if it felt like I turned my Neurone Disease. It ap - don offices, I remember being on a picket line of one. One back on you. I never turned my back on the struggle. pears as though the does not make a virtue or a habit of such a thing, but some - I joined the Workers’ Party (now Fightback) because that “progress” of the dis - times it is a necessity. Most of our office scabbed because they was the most open and democratic group going. Unfortu - ease (oddly Stalinist were scared of the strike being sold out (which it eventually nately, it was controlled by a clique whose political back - terminology) is quite was). Only a handful of us struck, and one morning I was the ground was soft Maoist and kitsch Trotskyist. They rapid. So I wanted to only one who turned up for the picket line duty. Some of the encouraged a culture of avoiding tricky historical questions. thank all of you who strikebreakers implored me to come back to work, because I was remiss in going with the flow, taking the line of least know me for your polit - they were convinced I would be sacked, in which case, they resistance for a while. ical guidance, solidarity, assured me, they would go on strike to get me reinstated! I Perhaps subconsciously I thought that the insights of Third friendship and love over was not sacked. Camp socialism on the corrosive effects of Stalinism were not the years. so relevant in the 21st century. It was only when the leader - FORTUNATE ship clique abruptly walked out of the party, and retired to I first came across the I was fortunate to be in a left-wing union branch. I joined the blogosphere, that I did some rethinking. Mike on a protest against anti- AWL at York University the branch executive as political officer, where I worked After some discussions with Martin Thomas I published a union laws outside the Royal Labour Club. But I re - with other socialists to secure the branch’s support for number of internal bulletins on Stalinism, the fighting prop - Courts of Justice, London (mid alised the group was seri - Ken Livingstone and the Socialist Alliance in the London aganda group, Maori liberation, Third Camp socialism and 1990s). The wig was borrowed! ous when I joined an elections of 2000. Maoism. I hope that I have had a positive effect on the trajec - occupation because Ja - The decision was robustly debated at a meeting of rank and tory of the group, which now explicitly defines itself as anti- nine Booth was stood on file reps. The branch secretary voiced a prophetic word of Stalinist. the balcony of the Central caution about not knowing how long this alliance would last. I do believe the AWL has something precious in its frag - Hall with a megaphone, urging students to join the protest Our branch paid a heavy price, having all its funds frozen by mented Third Camp tradition. Not in the sense of a socialist against grant cuts. an unelected bureaucrat in head office, but they didn’t back “holy Grail”, or a “historico-philosophical master key”, but When I graduated, I got a job on the Post, in line with the down. To me, it highlighted how the Socialist Alliance had as a method of training revolutionaries to think critically. group’s policy on “colonisation”, or “inside organising”. begun to build something in the labour movement, only to I don’t need to tell any of you what’s wrong with Michel Those days were among the most vivid memories of my po - have that opportunity criminally squandered by the key Pablo. He did, however, have the best motto: “The meaning litical life, so forgive me if I reminisce a little. The seven years players within the Alliance. ofCliofemisralidfe sit,smelfo,sttoolifvyeoauswfuillllybeasbyleosusceadnw.” ith decades of I spent in the industry taught me heaps of lessons in the The greatest success we had at Finsbury Park Delivery Of - life ahead of you. Live them to the fullest making a bet - sometimes bitter realities of the class struggle. I was thrust in fice was winning extra jobs, night duties, following an unof - ter world. Aroha nui (all my love). the deep end, finding myself a rep within a few months, be - ficial overtime ban. Management always intended to claw the Labour must make a positive case for welfare

of ideological assault, is as insufficient as it is commendable. What we need to grasp is that the welfare changes intro - duced last week, reprehensible as socialists find them, are ev - Dave Osler idently popular among voters. Had Blairism still been the dominant force within the The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled, as the Kevin Labour Party, its instinctive reaction would have been to Spacey character argues in The Usual Suspects , is con - enter into a Dutch auction with the right, as it devised ever vincing the world that he doesn’t exist. more ingenious methods of paring down benefit entitlements Given our government’s success in persuading the elec - ever further. The likes of Caroline Flint or James Purnell torate, millions of claimants included, that it doesn’t need the would no doubt have drooled at taking on the task. welfare state, I’m starting to suspect that Old Nick numbers As it is, opposition work and pensions spokesman Liam among Lynton Crosby’s sources of inspiration. Byrne has come up with a timid attempt at triangulation, The sheer crudity of the Daily Mail ’s now infamous “Vile rewriting a famous Marxist slogan as “from each according to product of welfare UK” front page, directly linking Mick his contribution, to each according to his contribution”. Philpott’s murder of six kids to his receipt of benefits, prob - This might seem savvy now, given the feedback from the ably came across as just that little bit too strident for the os - focus groups. But the half-heartedness is all too apparent, and tensibly detoxified mainstream of what claims to be no leaves the political initiative entirely in Tory hands. longer a nasty party. The alternative — mounting a positive defence But that didn’t stop George Osborne serving up a watered of universal welfare provision, on ethical and pragmatic Labour politicians like Liam Byrne have joined in the grounds alike — requires a degree of moral courage that down version of this muck for the benefit of an audience of demonisation of benefit claimants low-paid supermarket distribution workers the very same Labour has long found it difficult to muster. day, piggybacking on the inevitable furore to boost to his own After all, there are many more Daily Mail front pages to media exposure. Only the cynical will suspect co-ordination come between now and the next election, and not a few will here, and in this case, you can include me within the ranks of leafier suburbs”. be revisiting the territory covered in the last few days. the cynical. Indeed, all you posh boys and girls should immediately But it will not be impossible, especially as the impact of What also seems clear is that these notions are gaining trac - put down the macchiato coffee O’Neill accuses you of drink - austerity will not spare that tabloid’s readership from its rav - tion. Look at some of the statistics contained in an otherwise ing, and ponder instead the British Social Attitudes Survey ages. The success of the petition to make IDS live up to his “I lamentable piece by one-time Revolutionary Communist findings he quotes. could live on £53 a week” and the grass roots campaign Party stalwart Brendan O’Neill. Which newspaper did it ap - According to this non-partisan source, in 2003 a surpris - against the bedroom tax demonstrates that the right is not pear in, I hear you ask? Guess. ingly high 40% of benefits recipients agreed that “unemploy - immune to challenge on this terrain. Ignore the gloating, almost hysterical, tone of the piece and ment benefits are too high and discourage work”. By 2011, Unfortunately, Byrne’s tactic of splitting the difference with the uncritical wholesale acceptance of questionable depend - that figure had risen to 59%, a clear majority. Understanding Dacre, envisaging as it does the reduction of the welfare state ency culture sociology, imported directly from the US right. this point has to be the baseline for a sober leftist assessment. to little more than a glorified insurance scheme, concedes de - Set to one side the clichéd invocations of “middle class liber - Simply pointing to the Spirit of ‘45 , by way of protective in - feaHtefrsohmotuhlde oreumtsiedme.ber that if this ground is lost, it may als”, who are depicted to a woman and man as “plummy- cantation against evil in an era when support for the postwar not be regained for decades. voiced radicals” and “left-leaning do-gooders in Britain’s social democratic consensus is crumbling after three decades 5 WHAT WE SAY

Help us raise £15,000 Thatcher: now her It’s been a good week for the AWL fund appeal, but we’ve had to step up to respond to a crisis. The riso - graph in our office finally gave up the ghost after a decade of dedicated service. A risograph is an industrial duplicating machine — ba - politics must die sically a heavy-duty photocopier — which allows us to copy the thousands of leaflets, posters, and campus and workplace bulletins that we use in our organisation’s day- of the worse-off — actually came much more under Blair and to-day activity. Brown, after they disappointed and crushed the hopes which For the purposes of persuading people to take active many still had in 1997 for a return to a more generous society. ownership of revolutionary ideas, social networking and Thatcher’s death after years of incapacitating old age brings the internet in general can’t replace face-to-face contact, no relief to the working class. There would have been better and if you want to talk to someone at work or college cause for celebration if she had died 29 years ago, strung up about ideas it’s much more direct to give them something by miners victorious in their 1984 strike. Or, better, 33 years to read than to tell them to look something up online at a ago, if the steel workers’ strike of 1980, the first big workers’ later date. Printed literature is vital for any political or - struggle against her government, had been conducted mili - ganisation. tantly and driven her from power. The AWL is not a slick NGO or some other corporate- Before Thatcher’s years in office, 1979 to 1990, Britain was style third-sector body. We’re an activist collective with an unequal and exploitative capitalist society, but much less only one full-time organiser run by working-class people unequal than now. The Gini measure of inequality rose from who are all feeling the squeeze of the worst recession 26% in 1979 to 37% in 1990. Inequality had decreased a lot be - since 1929. But the organisation exists because our mem - tween the 1930s and the late 1940s, but now a steady upward bers believe in its ideas, and that means we know how trend seems normal. important it is that we’re able to communicate them as ef - Before Thatcher, beggars and homeless people were rare on fectively our resources allow. Comrades have responded the streets of London. After a few years of her government, admirably to cover the costs of a new machine. Can you they were common. heHlpeulps tuoso? raise £15,000 by May Day 2013. You can Before Thatcher, most people thought the welfare state was contribute in the following ways: as established a fixture as the abolition of slavery or serfdom. G She started the axing-back which the current government Taking out a monthly standing order using the form continues. below or at www.workersliberty.org/resources. Please Trade union rights were also considered a fixture. The poGst completed forms to us at the AWL address below. Labour government of 1964-70 and the Tory government of Making a donation by cheque, payable to “AWL”, or 1970-4 had tried what, compared to Thatcher’s measures, doGnating online at www.workersliberty.org/donate. were marginal adjustments. By 1997-2010 we had a Labour G Organising a fundraising event. government which regarded the Tories’ huge curbs on work - Taking copies of Solidarity to sell. Above: the funeral of Joe Green, a miner killed by a scab- G ers’ basic rights to withdraw our labour and show solidarity Get in touch to discuss joining the AWL. More infor - herding lorry while picketing Ferrybridge power station in as a law of nature, not to be disturbed. mation: 07796 690874 / [email protected] / AWL, Yorkshire in the 1984-5 strike. Thatcher should have died Over decades up to the 1970s, mineworkers, dockers, car 20E Tower Workshops, 58 Riley Road, London SE1 3DG. then, not the miners! On learning of Thatcher’s death on 8 workers, and other groups once industrial helots had gradu - April 2013, Dave Hopper, veteran of the strike and secretary ally acquired some civilised conditions. Thatcher’s govern - of the Durham Miners’ Association, said: “It’s a great day for ment smashed their unions, their industries, and their Total raised so far: £9,416 all the miners; I imagine we will have a counter communities. demonstration when they have her funeral. Our children We raised £950 this week in donations have got no jobs and the community is full of problems. ENGINEERED and increased standing orders. There’s no work and no money and it’s very sad the legacy Alan Budd, chief economic adviser to the Tory govern - 6 Thanks to Dave, Gemma, John, Jon, 41 Jean, Heather, Mark, Paul and Stan. she has left behind.” ment in 1991-7, commented later: “What was engineered £9, there, in Marxist terms, was a crisis of capitalism which Promised donations and IOUs due recreated a reserve army of labour and has allowed the to pay in over the next week should If we believed in a hell, we would have no doubt Margaret yield another £1,000 or more. Thatcher would now be in it. Now we must send to hell, capitalist to make high profits ever since”. too, the politics which she represented. The “reserve army of labour” meant whole generations of Its manifesto of September 1973 demanded “drastic cuts in Labour leader Ed Miliband declared that: “We greatly re - young working-class people condemned to lives of unem - public spending”, “dismantling the nationalised industries”, spect her political achievements and her personal strength”. ployment or patchy, insecure, dead-end jobs. repeal of tenants’ rights and reduction of council housing to With a low-key comment that he “disagreed” a bit with The pre-Thatcher “settlement” had been built up over long “only those in true need”, “help to people in most need with - Thatcher, he said that she had “moved the centre ground of decades, from the legalisation of trade unions in 1825 on - out the high costs and lost liberties of the Welfare State”, and British politics”. That, from a Labour leadership always keen wards. Some of the way people thought is conveyed by the “a free market in education facilities”. to claim that it is occupying that same “centre ground”. jibe (by Michael Foot, I think) that a Conservative was some - Thatcher’s Tories came to office on a headline promise of In 2002 the Labour government — Labour, not Tory — re - one who accepted every reform except the next one. Today curbing price inflation (high in the 1970s), but with the Sels - pealed old rules banning monuments for living politicians “reform” means the opposite of what it meant before don subtext. They were emboldened by the ignominy of the from the House of Commons in order to erect a statue of Thatcher — a measure to increase inequality, to cut back so - previous Labour government, which, facing economic crisis, Thatcher. The act symbolised Blair’s and Brown’s acceptance cial provision, to make society meaner and more vicious. had adopted an early version of “monetarism”, declared “the of a Tory-crafted “centre ground”. Thatcher was not, however, a brave if misguided militant party was over” for social provision, and made sharper cuts The shift in popular attitudes attributed to Thatcher — to - who courageously defied the odds. She was ruthless — but to the National Health Service than Thatcher herself would. wards mean-spirited individualism, and hostility to and fear from the comfortable position of being well surrounded and The Tories got bolder as the labour movement stumbled supported by the rich and mighty. and retreated. They pushed through nine major rounds of From 1945 to around 1970, the rich and mighty felt that wel - anti-union laws. fare and trade-union rights were an inevitable and acceptable The claim that Thatcher’s measures ended economic sclero - We don’t need sexist language price for the smooth advance of capitalism. That changed sis is nonsense. Between 1995 and 1973, economic output per after the breakdown in 1971 of the international economic ar - person increased by an average of 2.8% a year. Between mid- to condemn Thatcher chitecture created in 1944-5, the sharpening of global capital - 1979 and mid-2012 it has increased by an average of 1.8% a ist competition, and the start of an era of sharper capitalist year. The rich have done relatively well, but the worse-off There are plenty of words with which to curse ups and downs. much worse than before 1979. Thatcher; we shouldn’t use terms with sexist over - By the time Thatcher became Tory leader in 1975, she was In the crises of the 1970s and 80s another way out was pos - tones. well integrated into a solid body of ruling-class opinion deter - sible from the collapse of the class compromise of mid-cen - mined to cancel the concessions which had been made to the tury. The working class, which in 1979 reached its In the early 1980s Women’s Fightback and the forerun - working class after 1945 for fear of revolutionary upheavals ners of AWL argued against the common anti-Thatcher highest-ever level of trade-union organisation, could have such as followed World War One. taken the initiative for socialism. We failed to do so because slogan “Ditch the Bitch!”, and over time it became less The Tories formulated a first scheme at Selsdon in 1970. current. the labour movement lacked leadership and political aware - Using “The Witch is Dead” to celebrate Thatcher’s Tory prime minister Edward Heath soon decided the scheme ness, and for no other reason. death is no better. was unworkable. Nicholas Ridley, who later formulated the In the new and more drastic capitalist crisis we can get Tories’ plans for the 1984-5 miners’ strike, formed a “Selsdon another chance. Not easy and quick, but a chance. Let’s group” to oppose the retreat. 6-7 The Marxists on oppression

The fourth part of a review article looking at the themes of tween theory and practice”. The Comintern established a John Riddell’s new book of documents* from the early com - women’s secretariat, which published a monthly magazine, munist movement. The week Paul Hampton looks at how The Communist Women’s International , and worked with they debated women’s liberation and other issues of op - women’s committees organised within individual parties. pression. The Comintern was highly critical of “bourgeois feminists” The early Communist International’s focus was on work - and sought to win women to the working-class movement. ing class self-liberation and this was reflected in the time The resolution at the Third Congress in 1921 stated that spent on discussions on party building, work to trans - “there is no special women’s question, nor should there be a form the labour movement and on the specifics of class special women’s movement”. Communism would be won struggle strategy. “not by the united efforts of women of different classes, but by the united struggle of all the exploited”. But the Bolsheviks had made their reputation as tribunes The Fourth Congress discussion on women was brief and of the people, taking up any and every matter of injustice and did not raise any significant new theoretical questions. How - oppression against the tsar. While seeking to win hegemony ever the speeches explained how the women section’s work in the working class, they also sought to gain hegemony for was to be developed and integrated with other party work. the working class among the exploited and oppressed as a Zetkin spoke of the need for autonomous organisation, re - whole. The Comintern debated matters of women’s libera - flecting that “however much Communist work among tion, anti-racism, peasant struggles and anti-imperialism. women must be firmly linked ideologically and organically to The early Comintern took time to discuss women’s eman - the life of each party, we nonetheless need special bodies to cipation. carry out this work”. She argued that “every man is welcome At the Second Congress in 1920, the German revolutionary to take part in the special Communist work carried out Clara Zetkin produced the Theses for the Communist Women’s among women. That applies to our committees as well as to Movement , which took a clear stand for women’s “full social our entire activity in its various expressions and arenas”. liberation and full equal rights,” but warned of a “gulf be - Zetkin approved of the work of women comrades in Italy, Graphic produced by the African Blood Brotherhood, an early twentieth century socialist/black nationalist organisation who she lauded for having founded groups for “sympathis - based mainly in New York. Such political developments formed *Toward the United Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of ing women”. And she argued that it was vital that Commu - the background to discussions of the 1920s. the Communist International (Haymarket, 2012) “The pamphlet changed my life”

I recognised a “rainbow coalition” approach without onto a government programme to apply for 20 jobs a week, knowing that term. A bit of radical feminism here, a bit of I eventually got a part-time job through nepotism and luck. AWL Chomsky there, and that seemed to be satisfactory for some, Working for a small business, and out of study, I started to but it wasn’t good enough because it didn’t add up to a understand labour alienation. I’d had jobs before but they “plan” for revolutionary change led by the working class. were short-term, and there was always more education to By new member Elizabeth Butterworth Everything was about building for the next demo, but what go into afterwards. This, now, was my life, at least until I got I have never been in a revolutionary socialist party be - were our ideas? Where were we going? What were we pro - a new job. Being a proletarian made me into a better revolu - fore and I don’t think I was serious about socialism until posing as alternatives? tionary, because things I understood vaguely in theory be - very recently. I had a comfortable middle class upbring - The pamphlet The Case for Socialist Feminism changed my came real things in my life. From the abstract, something ing where religion was the focus of our lives and the life. I’d been a committed feminist for years and years, but that happens to “other people”, it was happening to me. I economic system we live in was seen as inevitable. I didn’t understand how it fitted into class politics. This was marketing my labour power, selling my labour and tak - pamphlet answered so many of the questions I had. And it ing home a wage that had no relationship to the amount of I worked for a religious liberal charity for a year and then made me more interested in studying socialism. profit I was making for the business. went to an extremely middle class university where I don’t Comrades in the AWL were the first people to really force I eventually got a job in London. I was working long, long think I was challenged. I was already far to the left of many me to think about socialism. No one before had been bold hours, sleeping on my friends’ sofa, and being consistently of my peers, but for the first two years still actually a liberal enough to just tell me I was wrong or question me. Some treated like shit by my boss. This deepened my desire to be - social democrat. people find this kind of thing incredibly uncomfortable. It is come educated, it made me understand further the role of As I was radicalised by comrades in the student move - an uncomfortable process to realise just how wrong you are the working class in revolution and socialism and that, es - ment I slowly began to realise the scale and nature of the and how little you know. But it is absolutely necessary, and sentially, is why I joined when I did. forces that were in opposition to human liberation. I became I would rather know how much I don’t know than plough I am very glad I joined. Being in the group has provided a proper anti-capitalist socialist but without firm or devel - on in darkness. Being challenged is a very, very good thing, me with a structure that makes me more useful, a systematic oped ideas. I went around doing what I thought was sensi - and something revolutionary socialists must get used to. educational process, opportunities to develop my ideas and ble without any sort of “plan”. I still couldn’t really be bothered to join though! learn. At the same time as learning, though, I’m still an ac - I saw groups on the organised left, but I didn’t think they However after university, I went through a small personal tivIisjot ianneddsbtiellciamupsaertItbhrinogasdlIykangorweeadbowuittthoWotohrekres.rs’ Lib - had much of a “plan”, either. The groups I came into contact hell which I won’t go into, and also ended up unemployed with were mainly in the business of opposing the status quo erty’s politics, the project they (we) propose, and be - at my parents’ house without the means to support myself. cause I was serious about making that happen. I would without offering real alternatives — and I think this is partly Being unemployed, even for a short amount of time and where Workers’ Liberty’s disagreements with other British urge comrades who are close to us to think about this even in the grand comfort of my parents’ house, was horri - and become members. revolutionary socialists arise — on imperialism and the third bly demoralising, depressing and vile. And after signing camp. MARXISM

nist parties in colonial and semi-colonial countries had to from Marxist organisation. carry out this vital work. Zetkin was refreshingly candid Alongside specific political demands, the main transitional about the challenges faced. She argued: “In the countries of demand for this conception is to fight for a mass working the East, women live and work overwhelmingly under pa - class-based women’s movement, focusing on the need for the triarchal and precapitalist forms of social life, bending under women’s movement to orientate to working class women. prejudices grey with age, oppressed by social institutions, by However the Comintern emphasis on separate women’s religion, customs and habits”. committees and fractions within the party (and by extension The German Communist Hertha Sturm gave a sober as - within labour movement organisations), women’s papers, sessment of the state of the international’s women’s work. women’s schools and other measures to create a cadre of She told the congress, “we have a certain gauge in the num - Marxist women, retain their full force. ber of women members in the Communist Parties... perhaps The Fourth Congress held a discussion on black liberation. ten per cent”. She advocated small party schools for women A US delegate Otto Huiswoud remarked in the ‘Report on comrades and pointed to an extensive women’s press in the the Black Question’ that “the Second International is an Inter - International, mentioning Communist Women’s Interna - national of white workers and the Communist International tional; the Dutch De Voorbode [The Herald ]; Žena [Woman ] in is an International of the workers of the world”. The verdict Czechoslovakia; L’Ouvrière [Women Worker ] in France; and appears a little harsh: after all it was the Amsterdam confer - Compagna [Woman Comrade ] in Italy. Sturm urged delegates to ence in 1904 that one prominent Comintern delegate carry out “the decisions of the women’s conference last year Katayama Sen from Japan had embraced Georgi Plekhanov and the World Congress, women’s supplements must be from Russia, just as the Russian and Japanese states went to added to all party publications”. war. The same conference applauded Dadhabhai Naoroji, Other speakers explained what women’s organisations had founder and president of the Indian National Congress and done in Russia. Sofia Smidovich recalled that in 1917, the condemned English rule of India. Woman Worker was published in Petrograd, while a review But Huiswoud was not indulging in exaggeration. In fact appeared in Moscow, called Working Women’s Life . The Russ - Comintern discussions in the early 1920s completely trans - ian Communist Party central committee was in 1922 publish - formed conceptions of anti-racism and black liberation. ing two magazines for women workers. Varsenika Kasparova Claude McKay reminded delegates that women across the globe suffered BROKE James P Cannon recalled how American Communists from “particularly oppressive subjugation”. She said the broke with the socialist and radical tradition, which had The attitude of the Comintern was unequivocally against Comintern was about creating an “an intelligentsia of revo - no special programme on the black question. racist and colonialist attitudes among workers in general and lutionary women” to fight for women’s liberation and social - Communists in particular. Trotsky addressed Boudengha’s ism. It was considered simply as an economic problem, part of point in his speech on France. He said: “Not for a single hour, The Comintern continued the policy of earlier socialists the struggle between the workers and the capitalists. As Eu - not for a single minute, should we tolerate the presence in (with Zetkin the most prominent living link), where mass gene Debs, the best of the earlier socialists, put it in the lan - the party of comrades who think like slave-owners and want parties included all kinds of sections and sub-organisations, guage of the time, “We have nothing special to offer the [French President] Poincaré to hold the indigenous people and saw the women’s movement as existing with limited or - Negro”. unCdaenr nthoenbreengeivsotleernetdruthleeocf hcapnigtaelisotfcaivttiliitsuadtieo.nH”.e wrote: ganisational autonomy within the party. The Comintern per - Cannon wrote: “The American communists in the early “The influence of Lenin and the Russian Revolution... and spective was for mass Communist Parties to built mass days, under the influence and pressure of the Russians in the then filtered through the activities of the Communist Communist women’s movements, in competition with bour - Comintern, were slowly and painfully learning to change Party in the United States, contributed more than any geois feminist movements. their attitude; to assimilate the new theory of the Negro ques - other influence from any source to the recognition, and Today, in the absence of mass revolutionary parties and tion as a special question of doubly-exploited second-class more or less general acceptance, of the Negro question with very different women’s movements, to proclaim ab - citizens, requiring a programme of special demands as part as a special problem of American society — a problem stractly the need for a communist women’s movement would of the overall programme—and to start doing something which cannot be simply subsumed under the general be meaningless. Equally to argue that there are “no special about it” ( The Russian Revolution and the Black Struggle in the heading of the conflict between capital and labour, as it women questions” is also wrong — specific oppression out - United States , 1959). side of the capital-labour relationship is incontestable. During the Second Congress discussion of the colonial A Marxist approach to the women’s movement today is question in 1920, US delegate John Reed passed a note to very different compared to the 1920s. Today small Marxist Lenin, asking if this would be an appropriate occasion to propaganda groups support and intervene in the existing speak on blacks in the US Lenin’s written reply was, “Yes, ab - amorphous feminist/women’s movement, arguing for Marx - solutely necessary.” Reed delivered a powerful indictment of ist politics in women’s movement campaigns and to show racist oppression in the United States. the class nature of “the women question”. We fight for a At the Fourth Congress, a commission chaired by Huis - women’s movement that is led by class-conscious Marxists, woud drafted theses on the black question. Another Ameri - but such a movement would have organisational autonomy can, the poet Claude McKay who was not a party member was nevertheless seated as a guest, invited to commission meetings, and asked, along with Huiswoud, to address a ple - nary session of the congress. The resolution did not break great theoretical ground, but did include the demand for an international conference of black people. The final draft dropped a clause saying that “work among blacks should be carried out primarily by blacks” and was replaced by a pledge to struggle for full equality and equal political and social rights for black people. There were other issues of racism discussed. William Ears - man from Australia said “the main difficulty we must over - come is the prejudices aroused among white workers by the fear of cheap coloured labour”. Tahar Boudengha from Tunisia denounced the chauvinism of the French party’s members in Algeria. He read a resolu - tion adopted by a settler-dominated Communist conference in North Africa, which stated: “The native population of North Africa can only be liberated by the revolution in France. The native masses have been subjugated for centuries in a status of half-slavery. They are fanatical and fatalistic, pa - tient and resigned, oppressed and imbued with religious prejudices. At this time, they still cannot imagine their liber - Clara Zetkin Rwaabsotinittsha e, apprea-pceor maimeudnaisttwroamdeicnawl morkoevresm, weanst”fi. rst started ation… It is entirely unnecessary to publish calls to rebellion in 1917. This is a new edition — from 1923 in our press or distribute Arabic-language leaflets”. 8 FEATURE SWP: criticise, don’t “no-platform”

Left porters in the election included SWPers. One union branch has voted not to affiliate to the West of Scotland anti-bed - By Martin Thomas room-tax campaign on the sole grounds that the SWP has in - fluence in it. Some union branches have seen moves to oust Solidarity has criticised the Socialist Workers Party SWPers from office. (SWP) on its handling of allegations of sexual harass - The shouting-down and spitting disrupt the labour and so - ment and then of rape brought by a young woman mem - cialist movement rather than helping it develop a better cul - ber of the SWP against leading SWP organiser Martin ture on issues of women’s rights and gender violence. Often, Smith. in unions, such responses will play into the hands of the right wing, which has no better attitude or record than the SWP The SWP leadership’s approach, over two years and more, on women’s rights. A union branch which disaffiliates from was to steer as near as it could to bureaucratic brush-off. The a broad campaign because of SWP influence is less, not more, case is not closed: the woman involved should have the op - able to make that campaign hospitable for women. Confront the SWP politically tion of an independent investigation by labour-movement Some of those wanting to “no-platform” the SWP learned people unconnected with the SWP, and with some legal qual - this approach in the SWP itself, which has a long habit of try - ifications. ing to deal with political issues by anathemas and exclusions. due urgency to debate, but to replace it by curses (“Zionists!” Some on the left have attempted to “no-platform” the SWP The International Socialist Group (ISG) in Scotland was “racists!”). — for example, shouting down speakers on demonstrations formed by people who split from the SWP only in early 2011 The ISG writes that the way the SWP handled the scandal who are SWP members. We disagree. The SWP must be con - (when the Smith scandal was already brewing: there is no ev - “replicated the culture of... rape apologism”. On the streets, fronted politically, not “no platformed”. idence that the people now in the ISG did anything specially that translates into broadside denunciation of SWPers as The Glasgow protest against the bedroom tax at Easter, good on the issue when they were in the SWP). “rape apologists”. several thousand strong and the largest such demonstration There is a reasonable case for the labour movement and the in Britain, was disrupted by people (mainly young women) APPROACH left not accepting Martin Smith, in particular, as an organiser The SWP’s own approach is now coming back on them. trying to shout down an SWP speaker. Some were violently and a representative until some better tribunal than the SWP For example, the SWP and the AWL disagree on the Is - harassed by SWP stewards, who told them to “go back to Disputes Committee has delivered a verdict. And, in fact, de - raeli-Palestinian conflict. their rape demo”, and attempted to get the police to remove spite protesting that Smith remains “in good standing”, the SWP CC has quietly pulled him out of public organising them. The AWL argues that a workable and democratic settle - The SWP speaker was Dave Sherry, a member of the SWP roles. ment must recognise the rights to self-determination of both The investigation by the SWP’s Disputes Committee, all of Disputes Committee. We understand why people object to nations, Palestinian Arabs and Israeli Jews, and must there - someone so complicit in the SWP leadership’s handling of whose members knew Smith well, was unsatisfactory. But fore be a “two states” formula (a real one, not the Israeli gov - the wider left is even less equipped to deliver a verdict than the issue. ernment’s hypocritical “two states”, meaning all power to But shouting down SWP speakers, even Disputes Commit - the SWP’s Disputes Committee was. Smith, like any other Israel and parcellised bantustans for the Palestinians). The similarly accused, should be considered innocent until tee members, will not improve the culture of our movement, SWP argues that justice for the Palestinians can be achieved or making it more safe and welcoming for women. proven guilty. only by conquering Israel and subsuming its people into an Something like half the active SWP membership came out In Scotland, some members of ex-members of the Scottish Arab state. Socialist Party (SSP) have an added edge to their anger in one degree or another of opposition to the SWP Central We’ve seen the SWP, not in an over-excited outburst by Committee’s handling of the case. against the SWP because of memories of the destructive 2006 some young activist but in an official letter signed by Alex split in SWP, when the SWP sided with Tommy Sheridan. Other SWPers backed the CC because, despite everything, Callinicos, hyping this up into an absurd claim that the AWL they believed the Disputes Committee. Or because they were At a demonstration in York on 6 April, anarchists and “supports the Israeli state’s terror against the Palestinian peo - Maoist-Stalinists harassed SWPers and in one case spat at an persuaded by the Central Committee’s cursing of its critics ple”. The outrage is selective: the SWP is relaxed about coop - as feminists who had ceased to look to the working class, or SWPer. An AWL activist running for election in a Unison erating with people who really do support the Chinese state’s branch recently was denounced by some because her sup - as semi-anarchists. Such wrong attitudes do not make them repression of the people of Tibet. The hype serves not to give “rape apologists”. Their attitudes can be changed by serious argument, not by shouting and spitting, and not by tactics which help the right wing. The self-righteousness of the ISG does no service to For five years the ruling class, in women’s rights. As well as criticising the SWP, the AWL has Britain and worldwide, has been also attempted self-examination. How would we have dealt with similar allegations in our own organisation? Even the using the crisis of thier system to best political positions and education programmes are no their advantage — to right guarantee against individual abuse. Do we have strong enough safeguards against the sort of lower-grade wrongdo - roughshod over our living ing which seems to have formed the background to the Smith standards, rights and resistance. scandal: older activists using their “prestige” in political ac - tivity for sexual advantage with young members and con - tacts? To turn around the labour Attempts to “no-platform” the SWP cut against that sort of self-examination and against the rational argument — sharp movement, we need to turn and angry where necessary — by which alone the labour around the left. Is Marxism movement can progress. Russian soldiers entering Germany at the end of World discredited, or does Marxism need War Two raped as many as two million German women. In to be renewed? Join the east Berlin some 100,000 women were raped, and up to 10,000 died as a result (Antony Beevor: Berlin: The Downfall ). Com - discussion. munist Party activists across the world denied these facts or tried to explain them away. Trotskyists vehemently criticised Tickets bought before 20 April are £26 the CPs, but they still sought to work with rank-and-file CP waged, £17 low-waged/students, £6 workers in the labour movement where there was common ground, and to re-educate them. unwaged/school or college students. In 2001 the SWP openly “explained away” the Taliban’s Ticket price includes food for the weekend. abuse of women in Afghanistan ( SW , 6 October 2001). The AWL criticised the SWP, but did not rally against the SWP in any way that could help the “bomb Afghanistan” brigade, Find out more and book online at then in full flood after the Twin Towers atrocity. We sought to www.workersliberty.org/ideas discuss with and convince SWP members of the wrongness ofWtheeisrhpoouliltdicbs.e criticising, debating with, and politically Free creche and crash accommodation. confronting the SWP in an attempt to persuade activists and clean up the culture of our movement. 9 FEATURE Has Syria’s democratic revolution been hijacked?

We print US socialist Pham Binh’s criticism of the AWL’s foreign leftists poured over rumors of imperialist interven - analysis and attitude on Syria. The article originally ap - tion that never materialised, hundreds of foreign Islamists peared on the North Star website [northstar.info]. poured onto the battlefield to fight the regime. Given this, it As the Syrian revolution progresses, support for it should be no surprise that revolutionary Syrians prefer to abroad among Marxists recedes. [This shift to the right] sing songs honoring Allah and his devout followers at their parallels the evolution of petty-bourgeois Arab intellec - demonstrations instead of the International. tuals such as Jadiliya who supported Syria’s peaceful The longer and more agonising the overthrow of Assad, demonstrators but recoiled in fear when these same the more martyrs there will be; the more martyrs there are, demonstrators grew tired of being cut down by machine the greater the revolution’s religious overtones; the greater gun fire and took up arms to defend themselves. the religious overtones, the greater the influence of Islamists. This tendency will hold true unless and until states and/or If the revolution’s unavoidable militarisation repelled these grassroots organisations abroad deliver aid to secular-demo - intellectuals, the militarised revolution’s “Islamisation” re - cratic forces such as the FSA or the Local Coordinating Com - pelled Marxists like AWL, CWI, and As’ad AbuKhalil, the mittees (LCCs), providing them with the resources to Angry (but not intelligent) Arab. compete with the Islamists for mass influence. Only deeds Underlying these shifts is the question of method. can tilt the balance of forces in Syria away from the Islamists How do we determine when a struggle’s political and class towards the “democratic and working-class elements” AWL content changes from being progressive and worth support - “specifically back[s].” ing into its opposite, into something unworthy of support? Understanding how previously marginal Islamist forces — class character. They are the people with the key to the fu - When does quantity (the number of reactionary forces like extremist salafis, conservatives, and moderates — became ture. But Syria’s working class has been atomised and sup - Islamist extremists or salafis) become quality (the predomi - prominent players is the precondition for discerning how pressed by the Ba’thist dictatorship for generations. If those nance of these forces smothers the revolution’s democratic dominant they are today and assessing whether they have democratic and working-class groups exist, we don’t know character)? What role do Islamist forces play in the Syrian successfully hijacked the democratic revolution. about them.” revolution, how dominant are they, and how have they al - AWL correctly notes the “increasingly religiously radical The most serious problem with this characterisation is that tered the revolution’s political physiogomy? nature of the opposition” and that “initiative and power in the peaceful, secular-democratic mass demonstrations AWL These are important questions that the AWL raises explic - the anti-Assad movement has increasingly passed into the lauds never ceased. Every week for over two years Syrians itly and answers earnestly. Although AWL’s answers conflate hands of Sunni-Islamist militias funded by Saudi Arabia or have defied airstrikes, snipers, shelling, and snitches to worst-case possibilities with existing realities, they deserve Qatar, or led by jihadists from outside the country.” peacefully demonstrate against the regime in war sones credit for approaching the Syrian revolution in this manner However, the conclusion drawn from these accurate obser - (Aleppo) and regime strongholds (Damascus) alike. Footage instead of using each new development to vindicate a fixed vations — that “a victory for the opposition against the state of daily demonstrations is uploaded to YouTube on channels party line. Historical materialism is not about having the is likely to lead to ethnic cleansing and warlordism as Syria such as SyrianDaysOfRage and Souria2011archives. right answers; rather, it is about asking the right questions descends into chaos and breaks apart” — does not follow. To Have the slogans changed? Of course. Chants of “the peo - and then vigorously interrogating the available facts and ev - talk about Syria’s descent into warlordism, ethnic cleansing, ple demand the downfall of the regime” and “get out Bashar” idence to formulate provisional conclusions that can serve as and partition after the regime’s inevitable demise is to en - are now mixed with demands for arms, condemnations of a guide to action. gage in nightmarish speculation. Lenin warned such an ap - the international community for fiddling while Syria burns, A four-point resolution passed by AWL’s National Com - proach, arguing that “in assessing a given situation, a Marxist expressions of faith such as “God is great,” and, occasionally, mittee states the following: must proceed not from what is possible, but from what is Islamist chants like “the people want the declaration of 1. We oppose the brutal war being waged against the Syr - real.” Jihad” or “the Ummah wants an Islamic Caliphate.” ian people by the Ba’thist state. In the past two years, there have been no sectarian mas - Marchers often wave the black flag of Islam alongside the 2. We are for freedom, democracy, women’s and workers’ sacres except those committed by the regime and its support - pre-Ba’athist flag of the revolution. rights, and democratic rights for Syria’s national minorities. ers against Syria’s (and the revolution’s) Sunni majority. This where AWL’s condemnation of “all manifestations of We are for the right of Kurdish self-determination, including Revolutionary Syria is not occupied Iraq. Islamism” leads them astray, as if proclaiming the greatness the right of Syria’s Kurdish areas to secede. of Allah in and of itself is a demand for a Saudi-style 3. We oppose all manifestations of Islamism amongst the NOT IRAQ Caliphate rather than “the sigh of the oppressed creature” Syrian political opposition and rebel militias. Given the frag - Despite the regime’s relentless propaganda campaign to and “the spirit of spiritless conditions.” Union soldiers mented and often increasingly religiously radical nature of demonise the opposition as sectarian and genocidal to - marched to their deaths battling the Confederacy with God the opposition, a victory for the opposition against the state wards non-Sunnis and despite massacres by Assad’s on their lips as they sang the “Battle Hymn of the Republic;” is likely to lead to ethnic cleansing and warlordism as Syria forces of Sunnis at Houla, Aleppo, Al-Qubair, Samlaka in would we characterise these soldiers politically as Billy Gra - descends into chaos and breaks apart. Damascus, and Arbaeen in Hama, the opposition has not ham-style Christian conservatives? Similarly, mosques and We specifically back democratic and working-class ele - retaliated against Christian, Druse, Kurdish, Alawi, or Is - Friday prayers have been irreplaceable vehicles for mobilis - ments. maili communities as Iraq’s Shia death squads retaliated ing the masses to demonstrate for freedom in the Libyan, We will avoid, in our slogans and propaganda, any idea against Sunni civilians after Al-Qaeda’s massive car Egyptian, Yemeni, Syrian, and Bahraini revolutions — do that a victory for one or some of the currently powerful op - bombings of Shia markets and squares. these count as “manifestations of Islamism” to be condemned position militias against the Ba’thists will be a positive step and combated rather than encouraged and developed? This is not to deny that sectarianism is an ongoing prob - forward. AWL’s resolution is vague precisely where it needs to be lem for and a constant danger to the revolution. However, 4. As a consequence, while maintaining our right to criticise explicit and sweeping where it needs to be nuanced. the regime’s failure to spark a sectarian cycle of violence by and our political independence, we will not necessarily de - Crying out “God is great” as the Assad regime bombs repeatedly massacring of Sunni civilians shows that, al - nounce a political agreement between the Ba’thists and the Aleppo University and attacks civilian neighborhoods with though the opposition is disproportionately Sunni, its aspira - rebels that avoids the collapse of Syrian society into war - Scud missiles is akin to saying “oh my God” as the Twin Tow - tions remain national rather than confessional in nature. If lordism. ers crumbled on September 11, 2001 — it is a universal, the AWL was correct in claiming the opposite, would repre - CHANGE human reaction to wanton death and destruction. sentatives of the Alawi community meet in Cairo to call for AWL’s resolution appears beneath the text of an article Assad loyalists scream “we give our lives for you, oh Assad’s downfall, assert that “this revolution is for all Syri - entitled “Deadlock in Syria” that provides some flesh to Bashar” as they fight in addition to psychologically torturing ans,” and appeal to Alawi military personnel to mutiny? the bare-bones reasoning contained in the resolution. captured revolutionaries into saying blasphemous phrases The Assad regime was built on a sectarian basis to with - such as “Assad is great” (the US employed similar tactics at stand exactly the kind a popular uprising that is now under - According to AWL, there was a qualitative change in the Guantanamo Bay). Shouting “God is great” in response is not way. Given this starting point, what is remarkable about the Syrian revolution’s political character during 2012 with the simply an affirmation of faith, it is a statement of resistance, Syrian revolution is not its sectarianism but its anti-sectari - rise of Islamist forces: of defiance, of allegiance to a power higher and greater than anism, its dogged refusal to play into Assad’s hands and “The rebellion began in March 2011 with street demonstra - a miserable bloodthirsty dictator who ruled Syria with God- allow the regime to pose as the last line of defense for minor - tions mostly expressing a non-sectarian, secular, and demo - like authority over morality, law, economics, politics, reli - ity faiths. The masses have become too conscious, too politi - cratic impulse. But initiative and power in the anti-Assad gious matters, the public sphere, the private sphere, and life cally enlightened, have shed too much blood, and have movement has increasingly passed into the hands of Sunni- and death. struggled too hard for too long for the revolution’s lofty Islamist militias funded by Saudi Arabia or Qatar, or led by The “Islamisation” of the Syrian uprising in 2012 was the ideals to debase themselves by falling for the regime’s divide- jihadists from outside the country who have entered Syria to result of two factors: the increasingly desperate and brutal and-rule schemes. That is why they voted by the thousands join the conflict. nature of the armed struggle on the one hand and the histor - for “There Will Be No Sectarian State in Syria” to be the slo - “[W]hen the mass of opposition opinion was able to ex - ically unprecedented international isolation of the revolution gan of all the Friday protests held across the country on press itself, in the early demonstrations, it was mainly secu - on the other. March 8, 2013. lar, non-sectarian, and democratic. There may be small While Western imperialists refused to arm the FSA, the Is - groups within the opposition of a democratic and working- lamist Gulf states armed their ideological counterparts. While Continued on page 10 10 FEATURE

Continued from page 9 votes. Here, it is important to draw a distinction between re - and counter-revolution, democratism and barbarism, and so - ligious terminology and Islamist politics (a distinction Is - cialists have a duty to ensure by any and all means that the AWL’s dire post-revolutionary forecasts do not appear to lamists prefer to blur); “God Is Great” is not a political right side wins even if tomorrow’s enemy is temporarily on be based on a careful analysis of the 68 towns and cities program whereas “Islam Is the Answer” strongly suggests the same side as us today. that have been liberated from regime control. one. As the Assad regime stepped up its murderous repres - As the regime collapses, the struggle between fascism and These areas are ruled by a (sometimes overlapping and sion in 2012, the Friday slogans became increasingly religious democracy, between tyranny and freedom gives way to a competing) patchwork of civilian and military councils, only (invoking the name of Allah and appealing to the ummah for new struggle over the democratic content and boundaries of some of which have a pronounced Islamist character. In Idlib, help) but not Islamist (advocating Sharia law, a Caliphate, or that freedom. When the battle for democracy becomes super - Islamists were frosen out of the civilian leadership bodies. In jihad). Revolutionary Syrians respect the fearless heroism of seded by the battle of democracy, this is the beginning of the Kafranbel, a town famous for its humorous and sharp slo - the mujahadeen on the battlefield but do not look to them for second stage of the democratic revolution. Only during this gans attacking Assad, the international community, and at leadership on the political field or for ideas about good gov - second stage will the extent and depth of the democratic rev - times even the opposition’s exiled leadership, the local coun - ernance. olution’s corruption and distortion by anti-democratic forces cil is drafting a secular constitution to create an interim civil - To sum up: the hijackers may be on board the plane but like Jabhat al-Nusrah be revealed, and an armed struggle to ian legal authority. In Aleppo, a coalition of salafi, they are not in the cockpit and do not have their hands on crush and expunge them is inevitable if they try to replace conservative, and moderate Islamists have formed a judiciary the controls. Assad’s despotism with their own. called Hayaa al-Sharia to combat criminality and arbitrate PROGRESSIVE CONTENT? It is during this second stage that the real fight over the disputes among the population. AWL’s conclusion that it can support neither side in rights of women, minority faiths and nationalities, workers, Thus far, Hayaa al-Sharia has not acted in a sectarian man - Syria’s civil war proceeds from the assumption that both and free expression will begin. This battle will split the Is - ner by persecuting members of minority communities, and sides are equally reactionary from the consistently dem - lamist camp, pitting salafis like Jabhat al-Nusrah who oppose the same is true of the Islamist judiciary bodies that have ocratic standpoint of the working class, that the choice free elections against moderates like Muslim Brotherhood sprung up elsewhere in the country. When self-appointed Is - between Assad’s tyranny and Islamist tyranny is no who support them. There can be no question of neutrality in lamists authorities have acted to repress women or political choice at all. this second stage of the revolution just as there should no opponents, they have met resistance in the form of peaceful question of neutrality in its current, first stage. AWL’s failure protests, a kind of revolution within the revolution. They This equivalence is false and not only because liberated to distinguish between semi-political Muslims, moderate and have generally relented and released whomever they ar - areas are far from being Islamist tyrannies. One side in the conservative Islamists, and extremist salafis is a failure to an - rested instead of using deadly force against demonstrators. Syrian civil war tortures children, the other does not; one side ticipate the central fault line that is already emerging in lib - Studying areas where opposition militias have been victo - murders and tortures peaceful demonstrators, the other does erated areas and will become even more pronounced as the rious over the regime reveals a picture that has nothing in not; one side drops bombs on universities and fires Scud mis - regime is uprooted and destroyed city by city, block by block, common with the bleak predictions of AWL. Instead of a Tal - siles at civilian neighborhoods, the other does not; one side soldier by soldier. iban-style salafi dystopia rife with sectarian killings, perse - massacres hundreds of civilians of a particular sect, the other Only by doing all that we can now during the revolution’s cution of minority religious and national groups, and does not; one side relies on fear and terror to keep its troops first stage, no matter how small it might seem in the big apolitical warlordism, liberated areas are governed fairly ef - from defecting, the other does not. scheme of things, can we hope to influence the outcome of fectively by a mix of secular and Islamist elements, the latter Acknowledging that one side of this war is progressive the revolution’s second stage so that Syria’s workers, women, of which range from moderate to conservative. Even in areas does not mean that all the forces and people fighting on that and minority groups are in the best position possible to or - such as Aleppo where conservative Islamists are strongest, side are candidates for sainthood or guaranteed to be free of ganise and fight for their interests against bosses, patriarchs, their predominance is contested at best and contingent upon reactionary agendas. It does not mean that the progressive national chauvinists, and reactionary clerics. the extreme and unusual conditions created by the revolu - side of this war is free of unjust executions, torture, behead - Retreating into neutrality now because heavily armed tion. ings, looting, banditry, and sectarian tendencies. It simply bearded men are increasingly prominent on the battle - Despite their vanguard role on the battlefield, Islamist means that the interests of working people and democracy field today is to turn our backs on the revolution, and chants and slogans at demonstrations calling for a Caliphate demands the victory of the Syrian opposition, however with it, the only chance the Syrian people have for free are not terribly popular. Proposed Islamist slogans for the tainted and corrupted by Islamist extremists it may be. The and better lives tomorrow. weekly Friday protests such as “Armies of Islam: Rescue choice today in Syria is not between the lesser of two evils Syria” are regularly defeated by thousands-strong majority but between good and evil, progress and reaction, revolution Hollywood homophobia and economic crisis

stashed — though at this point Mara has betrayed her lover, and is wearing a wire. Some viewers and critics didn’t see any of this as homo - Eric Lee phobic, but others certainly did. If there were loads of films made by Hollywood A-listers in Four years ago, the stars of the successful BBC comedy which the lead characters were lesbians, Side Effects would series Gavin and Stacey made the mistake of starring in just be one forgettable movie in which the women were not an abysmal comedy known as Lesbian Vampire Killers . very nice. The movie was quickly forgotten, but I was reminded of it But how many Hollywood films with budgets of over $30 recently when I saw the latest — and last — film by ac - million feature a lesbian couple at the centre of the story? claimed American director Steven Soderbergh, Side Effects . Very few, I imagine. And the linking of forbidden love to Side Effects Soderbergh’s film could easily have been given a similar murder is quite explicit in . title, even though it was not in any sense a comedy. But the It may not be obvious to British audiences, or even to the theme of homicidal lesbians is central to the plot, and the film British leads in the film, but America is a deeply homopho - Catherine Zeta-Jones plays an “evil lesbian killer” absolutely reeks of homophobia. bic country which lags behind much of the world on issues Not everyone will have seen it that way, of course. When I like gay marriage or gays serving in the military. first heard about the film, a reviewer talked about it revolv - Homophobia is explicitly used by the right in America, in - a lesbian relationship with her psychiatrist, who treated her ing around a conspiracy in which the pharmaceutical indus - cluding even mainstream politicians like Mitt Romney. for depression when her husband was taken away by the FBI. try played a key role. Where right-wing policies such as austerity or tax breaks for The psychiatrist, played by Catherine Zeta-Jones, would The film’s tagline was “one pill can change your life”. The the very rich became unpopular, homophobia — like racism not have been out of place in Lesbian Vampire Killers . story seems at first to be about the side effects of a new anti- — becomes quite useful for the right. It is only at the end of the film that Mara’s character con - depressant which may — or may not — have contributed to It differs from most forms of bigotry in that it’s still quite fesses to Jude Law her motivation for killing the unfortunate a young woman (played by Rooney Mara) murdering her acceptable, it seems, to incorporate homophobic elements in Tatum. husband (Channing Tatum), who has just returned home a mainstream film. It would be hard (though not impossible) She first became depressed when her bourgeois lifestyle after a few years in jail. to do the same with more traditional prejudices, such as ha - ended suddenly as the FBI descended on a garden party to Jude Law plays the psychiatrist who prescribes the med - tred of black people or Jews. arrest Tatum on charges of insider trading. ication, and later becomes a kind of amateur detective, deter - There was an uproar in America when Kathryn Bigelow’s Zeta-Jones seduced her vulnerable, and much younger, pa - Zero Dark Thirty mined to figure out what really happened. implied that torture was an important part tient, and the two conspired — as lesbians do, apparently — So far, so good. What follows contains spoilers, so if you of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Right-wing politicians like to murder Tatum when he got home from prison. really want to see the film and don’t want to know how it John McCain led the charge on that one, and it’s one of the Their relationship was kept a secret from everyone. And turns out, stop reading. reasons Bigelow's film couldn’t be named “Best Picture” at their motivation wasn’t just love (or lust). There was some It turns out that the pharmaceutical company isn’t a pro - theNOosocnares. expects McCain, Romney and politicians like scheme to make a fortune by linking a pharmaceutical com - tagonist in the story, it’s done nothing particularly wrong, them to speak out against the homophobia in Side Ef - pany to the crime, thereby driving its share price down and and it doesn’t even seem that the young woman took the fects — but one wonders why the left, in America and reaping millions on the stock market. pills. elsewhere, hasn’t been more outspoken in taking on this Near the very end of the film, Mara and Zeta-Jones meet It’s not the “one pill” that changed her life, or ended the vile, bigoted film. up and embrace, discussing where the money has been life of her unfortunate husband. It was the fact that she had 11 REPORTS Unison officials sabotage democracy LANAC makes A worker involved with the until the following month, London Union officers. Our about us. Unison officials “3 Cosas” campaign spoke which leads to a lot of prob - platform was to transform sabotaged the election to plans to Solidarity about their lems for people. Aramark the Unison branch to make stop a democratic transfor - fight for equal rights and workers are on zero-hours it more diverse, more reflec - mation of the branch by By an NUT union democracy. contracts, which is a big tive of the membership, and grassroots members. conference problem. Aramark even more responsive to the When we organised a “3 Cosas” (“Three delegate Things”) is a campaign or - forced some workers who struggles we face. The out - demonstration outside Uni - ganised by outsourced had full-time contracts to sourced workers make up a son headquarters to demand At this year’s National workers at the University switch to zero-hours or risk near majority of the branch that the election results were Union of Teachers con - of London, mainly clean - losing their jobs. membership, and we announced, Unison called ference (29 March—2 ers in halls of residence The “3 Cosas” campaign wanted that to be reflected the police. April, Liverpool), dele - and the university’s flag - began around seven months in the way the branch was Following this, we’ve had gates debated what ship Senate House build - ago. We won the London run. a series of meetings and as - strategy the NUT ing, but also catering staff, Living Wage in July 2012 semblies to decide the way BRANCH should adopt in re - post-room workers, and after a very long campaign, forward and a majority of Without consulting the sponse to Michael security workers. so we decided to organise outsourced workers have the “3 Cosas” campaign as wider branch member - voted to withdraw our Gove’s attacks on ship, the branch commit - teachers’ pay. The three things we’re de - the next step in the fight for about how its contractors membership from Unison en manding are equal sick pay, equal rights. tee handed over the masse and transfer to the In - treat their staff. When we The NUT Executive’s pensions, and holiday rights running of the elections to dustrial Workers of Great couldn’t get support from priority motion prom - with our colleagues who are UNISON the London regional office Britain (IWGB). We see Uni - our union branch, we ised a rolling programme employed directly by the We were organised in Uni - of Unison. son as a dead end. We don’t launched the campaign on a of industrial action university. son, and from the start we want to be trapped in an un - self-organised basis. We’ve They totally messed it up; alongside NASUWT We’re employed by Bal - wanted our union branch democratic union that won’t consistently appealed to the many workers didn’t receive (Britain’s other major four Beatty (except catering to be the vehicle for or - back its members. branch for support but their ballot papers, and teaching union), leading staff, who are employed by ganising the campaign. We’re not stopping our we’ve been ignored and un - some received them in the up to national action Aramark) and come from a campaign. People who want We went to branch meet - dermined. Some people in wrong language. We were sometime in the autumn. diverse range of back - to support us, including ings and argued for the the branch leadership see us constantly pressuring Lon - But the proposal was de - grounds. We face all kinds people who are still in Uni - branch to launch a cam - as a threat to their control. don region to get it sorted, void of strategy or even of problems at work. We’re son or in other unions, paign, but our voices were Our campaign is entirely but they ignored us. They any concrete commit - not treated fairly, and there’s should come to our protests, ignored. led by the workers. We meet then declared the election ments about when action a constant pressure from support our actions, and Officials in the branch every week to discuss issues result invalid because of er - would take place, de - management to get the job write to the Vice Chancellor wanted us to focus our de - at work and make plans for rors with the distribution of spite existing policy done more quickly. We have of the University of London. mands on Balfour Beatty the campaign. ballot papers. They also We think our campaign passed in 2012 commit - to log in and log out, so only, rather than the univer - In March, we stood a slate cited a newspaper article, is a model for how out - ting the Executive to an - we’re monitored all the time sity management itself. in the elections for the written by a student, as hav - sourced workers can fight nouncing specific and every minute is counted But we’ve always been branch committee alongside ing undermined the election for equal rights. calendars of action for by management. If you clear that the University of our supporters amongst di - process, which is ridiculous industrial disputes. work overtime, it’s often not London has the power to rectly-employed university as we can’t control what ex - An amendment to added to your pay packet • facebook.com/3coca make the real decisions workers and University of ternal third parties write commit the union to a national strike on 26 June was defeated on confer - Civil servants continue strikes Camden workers fight contract cuts ence floor. Workers’ Lib - erty members had By Ollie Moore By Darren Bedford late as 10pm, and at week - survey conducted in Febru - wanted a more compre - Home Office workers due hensive amendment set - for the same day was post - ends. The new contracts also ary 2013 showed that 97.5% Local government work - ting out a wider plan of Civil servants continued poned following a legal institute local bargaining, of members though the new ers in the London borough action. their industrial action on challenge. meaning workers would be contracts were worse than of Camden are facing an Despite the setback in pay cuts, pension re - The campaign, which in - outside any pay increases or their current terms. attempt by bosses to the pay debate, the Local form, and job losses with volves rolling and selec - improvements to conditions The Unison branch is cur - bribe them into signing Associations Network two half-day strikes in tive action as well as negotiated at a national rently running an indicative April. new, worse, contracts. level. ballot for industrial action National Action Cam - national strikes, is a depar - paign (LANAC), a rank- ture from PCS’s usual Following months of ne - against the new contracts, The campaign began The new contracts will in - and-file network within “strategy” of holding inci - gotiations, management are which will conclude on with a national strike on 20 crease working hours, and NUT, held two large dental one-day strikes sep - offering a one-off payment MFonodr amyo2r2eAinpfroilr.mation, March. A half-day strike some staff are being told fringe meetings both at - arated by long periods of of £1,000 to try and bribe see camdenunison.org.uk involving all Public and they could have to work as tended by between 100 inactivity. workers to sign. A union Commercial Services But rank-and-file civil and 150 people. It plans union (PCS) members, servants need to make a steering committee apart from HMRC and sure the strikes are con - Safe spaces where we work meeting in Birmingham Home Office staff, fol - trolled from the work - on 18 May and a national lowed on 5 April, with place level up, and that By a transport worker conference shortly after - HMRC staff striking from they are fought for real, A motion written for The motion would com - wards. 1pm on Monday 8 April. A concrete demands, Rail, Maritime, and Trans - mit the union to ensuring The task for LANAC Women transport work - planned 24-hour strike of rather than just to win port workers union (RMT) “that women members activists now is to build ers have begun an effort bodies says: “management subject to assaults such as the regional strike on 27 to strengthen their and the police have a ten - this receive the full support June and make sure it union’s policy on gender dency to minimise these in - of the union in dealing has a national amplifica - violence in the work - cidents as drunken wiItthwthoeulcdonaslseqouseenecetsh”e . tion by organising place. laddishness, failing to give union “provide guidance protests and other ac - appropriate support. tions elsewhere on the Customer-facing trans - and training for RMT rep - “This culture can affect resentatives and branch samLAeNdAayC. will also be port workers often experi - the way our women mem - officers, making it clear pushing the Executive ence being grabbed or bers assess what has hap - that the union expects to stop ignoring agreed forcibly kissed by male pened. While we might feel them to take incidents union policy by refus - passengers and, in a male- deeply distressed, the envi - like this seriously and to ing to name an explicit dominated industry, often ronment encourages us to challenge the culture that calendar of action. feel unsupported in re - feel nothing serious has allows them to happen.” sponding to the issues. happened.” Justice for Steven Simpson! By Maxi B

S&oWlorikdersa’ Libreirtty y Content Warning: Contains Description Of An Ableist/Homophobic Killing. In the early hours of 23 June 2012, Steven Simpson was set on fire by 20 year Behind Korea’s war threats old Jordan Sheard, who had gate-crashed his house party in Cudworth near In early April North Korea Barnsley. declared that it was can - celling the armistice Steven had been verbally which ended the 1950s abused, stripped of his clothes and had phrases like “I Korean war and was “in a love dick” and “gay boy” scrawled across his body. He state of war” with South was then doused in tanning oil, Sheard lit his crotch with Korea. It threatened to hit a cigarette lighter and the flames engulfed his body. the USA with nuclear Those involved fled as Simpson’s neighbour tried des - weapons. perately to put out the flames. Simpson died the next day after enduring 60% burns to his body. It has withdrawn 50,000 Steven Simpson’s murder was the result of the hatred North Korean workers from and humiliation caused to him because of his sexuality a special industrial zone and his disability [Asperger’s]. He was bullied, de-hu - which is on the northern manised and then killed. It follows the format of many side of the Korean border killings of LGBTQ people worldwide. but houses South Korean Sheffield Crown Court’s view on the matter has been companies. frankly disgusting. Judge Roger Keen dismissed the No-one knows what crime as a “good-natured horseplay” that had gone too North Korea may do fur - Preparing for war? far, and sentenced Sheard to a unusually short sentence ther. The 86-year-old Fidel of three and a half years in prison. Sheard’s defence Castro has called the situa - or right of appeal. In most ers deemed to have misbe - may include absence from lawyer called what happened to Simpson a “stupid tion “incredible and ab - cases the reason is some haved. work, or leaving one’s prank that went wrong in a bad way”. surd”, and urged North sort of association with dis - We know about this from home village without per - This was clearly a hate crime. Simpson was being Korea to restraint, while sent. former camp guards who mission. A common “of - taunted for his sexuality and his disability. He was de - also denouncing any US It may be singing a South have escaped across North fence” is having fled to valued so much in the eyes of those involved that they military action. Korean pop song. Or being Korea’s long border into China and been recaptured. thought setting him on fire was somehow acceptable. He We know something of found to have parents who China, and prisoners who Women prisoners who are was a bright young man studying at Barnsley College what North Korea is like as dissented. Or showing in - occasionally get out. A pregnant on being returned but his last moments alive on this earth must have been a state. In the first place, sufficient respect for the Venezuelan Communist from China are routinely dehumanising, painful and terrifying. Kim Jong Un, the third in a works of Kim Il Sung. Party member who went to subjected to forced abor - dynasty of Stalinist rulers, The routine is to put not North Korea to do the offi - tions, or having their babies DISMISS can declare war without only the offender, but three cial translation into Spanish killed immediately after How Judge Roger Keen can dismiss this so flip - any chance for the people of generations of the of - of Kim Il Sung’s works, and birth on the grounds that pantly as “horseplay” is beyond me. North Korea to express an fender’s family, in the then fell into disfavour, was they might be Chinese-fa - He is re-enforcing the same notions that lead to opinion. camps, and to keep them eventually released after theWredm. ust oppose use of Steven’s death: that homophobic bullying is fun, rather A report by David Hawk, there indefinitely. diplomatic pressure from North Korea’s warmon - than a crime against LGBTQ people, that it is okay to The Hidden Gulag (2003), de - Prisoners are made to do Venezuela. gering to strengthen US mock or take advantage of someone’s disability rather scribes North Korea’s sys - forced labour, to subsist on North Korea also has militarism — but without than looking out for them and treating them with re - tem of prison camps. very little food, to do public labour camps for prisoners any shade or hint of apol - spect, that setting someone on fire and burning them to 150,000 to 200,000 people self-criticism sessions, and jailed after trials, for defi - ogy for Kim Jong Un’s death is “a joke too far” rather than one of the inevitable are held in forced labour to observe public executions nite terms, and for specified tyranny. consequences of the way we still treat people like Steven camps without legal process within the camp of prison - offences. Those “offences” in our society. It makes me sick to the stomach to think someone so young has been killed because he was different — and the frightening fact is that could have been any one of us Portuguese government plans new cuts that lives with a disability or who is LGBTQ. Many have commented on the lenient sentencing of Steven’s killer. On 5 April the Portuguese constitutional court ruled However, I think this misses the point. The point here is that some of the sweeping new government cuts (to that the criminal justice system is complicit in the op - holiday bonuses for civil servants and pensioners, un - pression of LGBTQ people and disabled people when it employment and sickness benefits) were unlawful (5 makes comments like those of Judge Keen’s. It is churn - April) were unlawful. ing out the very same ideas that lead to hate crime. But Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho responded by It is not a joke, funny or horseplay to treat someone in reiterating his right-wing government’s intention to make the way Steven was. If we condone this behaviour we are the cuts. He says cuts are obligatory under the terms of an sending out the message that LGBTQ people and dis - €78 billion EU/IMF bailout deal. abled people are fair game to be bullied and preyed The court held that the tax rises which will take place upon. We are sending out the message that it's okay for other young people to do what was done to Steven. It under the 2013 budget are legal. Demonstration against Coelho’s cuts The government survived a no confidence vote on appears it is all okay with Judge Keen, just as long as you Wednesday 3 April, tabled by the Socialist Party. The So - don’t kill someone. airline strikes. But the point is that the way Steven was killed was cialist Party had asked the EU for a bailout in March 2011, Official forecasts suggest the Portuguese economy will but now they say Coelho’s Social Democrats, the main precisely a result of how he was treated. If he had just shrink by 2.3% this year, following a 3.2% contraction in been treated like any other young person, with a bit of governing party, are cutting too fast. Since 2011 €13 billion 2012. in cuts — the equivalent of 8% of output — has been decency or respect, it would never have happened. Unemployment in the Euro-area reached a record high This is the message that Sheffield Crown Court should made. at the start of 2013, at 12%, or 19.1 million workers. Partic - There have been big street protests against the cuts and have put out. We should condemn Judge Keen’s re - ularly badly hit are Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal. In marks, call for him to make an apology and call for in November there was a general strike by workers de - Greece and Spain youth unemployment is over 50%. And manding an end to economic hardship. Sheffield Crown Court to recognise the daily battle peo - in Portugal the general jobless rate is now 17%, or nearly ple like Steven face because of their sexuality and their There were 3,000 demonstrations in Portugal in 2012, one million people. compared with 708 in the previous year. There is a contin - More than 2% of Portugal’s population — mainly disSatbeivlietyn. ’s death should serve as a reminder of what uing campaign against water privatisation. And the latest young and well-educated people — have emigrated in our LGBTQ and disabled youth face today. anti-government strikes, in March, involved many thou - the last two years. sands of workers across the country and included rail and • Taken from marxistqueen.wordpress.com