& Workers’ Liberty SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 462 14 February 2018 50p/£1 Corbyn pledges more public ownership Inside: A year of strikes NATIONALISE in Iran Morad Shirin reports on workers organising in Iran. See page 3 UTILITIES Why you should be a socialist ASpeaking at a LNabour Party evDent on 10 Febru ary, JeBremy Corbyn rAeaffirmed LabNour’s 2017 manKifesto pledge “Sto bring energ! y, rail, water, and mail into public ownership and to put democratic management at the heart of how those industries are run”. “By taking our public services back into public hands”, he said, “we will not only put a stop to rip-off monopoly pricing, we will put our shared values and collective goals at the heart of how those public services are run”. We publish an extract from our new He promised “a society which puts its most valuable resources, the creations of our collective endeavour, in the hands of everyone who is part book, Socialism Makes Sense of that society”. More page 5 See pages 6-7 The story of Votes for Women Jill Mountford begins a series on the story of the women’s suffrage movement. See page 9 Join Labour! Fighting council cuts A protest by Fuel Poverty Action See page 10 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Share-price wobble gives warning By Rhodri Evans lower than their recent highs on 29 higher than the average over the But wobbles can turn into selling shares again at a higher January, 23 January, and 26 January last 14 years, which is 12.6. crashes. Sooner or later, they surely price. As Solidarity goes to press on 13 respectively. The wealthy have believed that will. Once the wealthy see profits “A cataclysm is bound to happen. February, the Dow Jones and So far, the early-February down - profits will rise, and so bought sagging, they sell off shares, and the The combination of overpricing and S&P 500 share-price indices in turn looks like a limited wobble in shares, and bid up share prices, on price-earnings ratio crashes down high leverage [debt] cannot lead to New York have been recovering a pattern of rising share prices since that assumption. Government to its norm, or below. anything other than a lot of de - 2009. The S&P 500 has risen from an bonds have been paying low re - The effect is quicker and more since 8 February, though they are faults... It is quite amazing that still at a lower level than when index value of 683 in 2009 to 2873 in turns, so more of the wealthy have drastic in particular sectors. We re - late January 2018: if you had shares preferred to buy shares instead. cently reported in Solidarity on an there is no collective memory that they suddenly dipped on 1 Febru - goes beyond five years, or that the ary. worth $1000 in 2009, by late January A trigger for the recent wobble Oxford finance professor’s take on 2018 you could sell them for $4204. has been that the US Federal Re - the “private equity” industry, world is organised in such a way The FTSE 100 index in London, that history keeps on repeating”. The “price-earnings ratio” for serve pushing up its interest rates which works by borrowing money No public control over high fi - the DAX index in Frankfurt, and the FTSE 100 shares, that is, the average and making it clear that it will push cheap, buying up firms’ shares, re - nance has been established CAC 40 index in Paris, have all been share price per £1 annual corporate up those rates further, thus promis - modelling the firms by slash-and- recovering since 9 February, but are profits, is currently around 29, way ing better returns on bonds. burn to boost profits, and then since 2008 to stop that repetition. Tesco equal pay fight South Africa needs a workers’ party By Charlotte By Luke Hardy Zalens As Solidarity goes to press on 13 Tesco faces an February, the ANC, the ruling equal pay party, has officially asked Jacob claim over pay Zuma to step down as President gaps between of South Africa. its mainly fe - Zuma has been under increasing male shop pressure to resign since December, floor staff and when deputy President Cyril its mainly male Ramaphosa was narrowly elected warehouse leader of the ANC at its conference. and distribu - The ANC has been the ruling Ramaphosa: nothing to offer working-class people tion staff. party in South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994. Yet in the Law firm ship, played a role defusing the Ramaphosa re-entered politics by Leigh Day has same period deep disillusion has have historically been underpaid, tribal violence incited by Zulu roy - becoming deputy president in elec - submitted claims through Acas on set in. with men in these roles also tend - alty in the KwaZulu Natal region. tions in 2014. behalf of 100 shop workers, This is The country has one of the most ing to be underpaid. Cases involv - Once in power the ANC leader - In 2016, the ANC lost some key likely to be followed by a submis - unequal income distributions in the ing council-employed cleaners ship wanted to open the country up cities in municipal elections for the sion to an employment tribunal. world. About 60% of the popula - and school lunchtime supervisors to big business. They set up quotas first-time, including Johannesburg Similar cases are currently in the tion earn less than R42,000 per who were paid less than refuse for black representative on com - and Pretoria. employment tribunal process annum (about US$7,000), whereas workers or street cleaners were pany boards. Often the people who At the ANC December congress, against Asda and Sainsbury′s. In 2.2% get over R360,000 per annum settled by several councils. took these lucrative roles were Ramaphosa narrowly won the the Asda case the latest ruling (about US$50,000). Employers across all industries leaders of the ANC or their rela - leader election against Nkosazana from the employment tribunal was South Africa has well-regarded are watching these cases, fearful tives. Dlamini-Zuma, Jacob Zuma’s ex- that shop workers have the right universities; but elementary educa - that a precedent is being set for Ramaphosa lost the battle in 1997 wife and ongoing ally. to compare their jobs to workers in tion for the poor is worse than in cases elsewhere. to succeed Mandela as ANC leader, Zuma retains support in some distribution centres. some much poorer countries. The Financial Times carried an ar - and went into business instead, be - sections of the ANC and loyal ap - The legal case has argued that There is a growing black middle ticle on Thursday 8 February dis - coming one of South Africa’s rich - pointees in the state security serv - the jobs contain a lot of similar class; but many people are still liv - cussing how companies might est capitalists and a member of the ices and judiciary, and is said to be tasks, with shop workers also ing in shanty housing in the town - respond. ships, and 27% are unemployed. board of Lonmin, a mining com - holding out for a promise of immu - doing a large amount of lifting and Tesco’s best option, the FT pany founded by the arch-imperi - nity or presidential pardon before carrying. Shop workers actually commented dryly, might be to Amidst the pauperisation, vio - lence has escalated. Rape Crisis alist Cecil Rhodes. stepping down. carry out a wider range of tasks outsource both operations, so A Ramaphosa presidency holds such as dealing with customers that a pay gap becomes just a South Africa reports that twelve MARIKANA times more women are raped and little promise for the working and handling money. gap between different firms. In 2012 miners striking against then murdered in South Africa masses. His idea of economic re - Jobs seen as ″women′s work″ Lonmin at Marikana were ma - every year than in the USA, which form seems to mean making South chine-gunned by the police. has a much larger population and Africa even more open to big busi - Ramaphosa condemned the is much more violent than Euro - ness. His ideas on rebuilding public miners, not the police. pean countries. services seem similar to Tony Trans women arrested in Aceh It also reports that every six Zuma became deputy leader of Blair’s marketisation of these serv - months in South Africa a woman is the ANC under Mbeki until ices. At best Ramaphosa promises a By Peggy Carter The attacks on LGBT+ people are killed by an intimate partner. charged with corrupt involvement more competent and even-handed not confined to Aceh. There has Both Zuma and Ramaphosa were with an arms deal in 2005. Later administration of neoliberalism. On 27 January 12 trans women been an ongoing campaign against heroes of the anti apartheid strug - that year he was also charged with Despite their histories both were arrested in Aceh province LGBT+ people all over Indonesia. gle. Zuma was sentenced to 10 rape. Eventually the cases against Zuma and Ramaphosa are now key in Indonesia and made to un - In April and May last year 150 gay years on Robben Island for his po - him were dismissed, but with seri - figures in the South African ruling dergo a “re-education program”. and bisexual men were arrested litical activities as a ANC leader ous questions still to answer. class. South African workers need and Ramaphosa was jailed as a stu - On the strength of populist calls a party of their own committed to They were subjected to beatings, and two young men publicly dent activist.