& Workers’ Liberty

SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 494 6 February 2019 50p/£1 LABOUR AND BREXIT

Brexit can still WHERE be stopped See page 4

ARE THE The Tory government is floundering, seeking to square the circle for a Brexit deal. They are scratching around for a for - mula which both avoids a “hard border” in Ireland, and placates the Tory right Socialism and who want no link to EU standards and rules after Brexit and don’t care about Ire - land. neurodiversity ‘THREE Ms’ Janine Booth on how socialism can deal Yet, as the Tories lurch from chaos to crisis and back again, the Labour leader - with the disadvantages suffered now by ship has dropped its call for an early gen - dyslexic, dyspraxic, and autistic people eral election, and abandoned even the lip-service it gave to the demand for a Pages 6-7 new public vote on Brexit. TAKING US? Turn to page 5

Marxism and science Marxism is not a set of super-scientific keys to knowledge which can shortcut scientific research, argues Les Hearn See page 9 Renew Labour!

Seamus Milne, Andrew Murray, Karie Murphy — key figures in the unelected “Leader’s Office” of the Labour Party. Milne and Murray are L4SE longstanding Stalinists, Murphy is a former aide for Tom Watson and close to the Unite union leadership. conference set for 9 March Labour: call a Special Conference! See page 5 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Schools should teach LGBT rights

ham Council Labour Group for the with it, but the reality is, no parents By Simon Nelson councillor to say he had “over - are on board with it.” In protests by some parents at stepped the mark”. The idea that Muslim children the Parkfield Community School For a group of parents to stop are not LGBT is what drives this in Birmingham against the “No their children being taught about opposition, and teaching unions, Outsiders” project, a number of LGBT equality because it goes and the labour movement should parents say their religious free - against the religious beliefs that stand up for schools being welcom - dom is threatened by the com - some of them choose to promote to ing and safe spaces for LGBT stu - mitment of the Assistant their children goes beyond the dents and school workers. The Headteacher to teach LGBT rights of religious freedom. objection that children will become rights. For the children to learn about “confused” by these ideas is non - The 400 parents, predominantly different relationships, and read lit - sensical. Muslims, who have signed the pe - erature with same-sex-couple and Lots of things are confusing as Health-anuary trans characters is part of a you grow up. Being confused and tition say that “No Outsiders” goes The Marxist Social Democratic beyond the idea of treating LGBT rounded education. It provides trying to understand things, learn - By Martin Thomas support for LGBT students. ing, asking questions are all an im - Federation and British Socialist people with respect and is not ap - Party scorned temperance more propriate for young children. Some parents have withdrawn portant part of childhood and life. For January 2019, 4.2 million their children from the school. Sim - The use of “confusion” is a cover people said they would join “Dry than the moralistic and religiously- Andrew Moffat, the teacher in influenced Independent Labour question, has long been an advo - ilar threats have been made for the children wondering about January”, a pledge to drop alco - amongst some sections of the the contrast between certain reli - hol for the month. Party; yet Trotsky, too, in the 1920s, cate of LGBT education in schools. would make open “propaganda He has written a book, Challenging Haredi Jewish community, particu - gious beliefs and the beliefs of their The Alcohol Change UK group, larly in North London, who say parents, their own feelings and which organised “Dry January”, against alcohol”. Homophobia in Primary Schools . He In the era when working-class resigned from a previous school in they will home-school their chil - what the school is teaching. says that (even if some of those 4.2 dren if they are forced to teach Nor is this question, as some of million had lapses) this year’s re - homes were often too bleak to be a 2013 when Christian and Muslim comfortable refuge after work, and parents objected to a similar about LGBT equality. the protesters say, of teaching about sponse was the biggest ever, and Fatima Shah, who has led the homosexuality crowding out hugely up on January 2013, when the pubs were the chief alternative, scheme. alcohol incapacitated, pauperised, The parents’ protests were sadly protests, has said that, “Children maths, science and English. the project started with just 4,000 In fact some of the lessons are and destroyed the health of, many backed by a Labour councillor. It are being told it’s OK to be gay, yet signing up. in effect English lessons, only working-class activists. It still does. appears it took the threat of disci - 98% of children at this school are “Veganuary” had 250,000 people reading and using books that Even today, the statistics show plinary action from the Birming - Muslim. It’s a Muslim community. adopting a vegan diet for the He said all parents are on board have LGBT characters. month, more than its total for all its hard-up students spending an av - previous Januarys combined, 2014 erage of £60 a month on “entertain - to 2018. ment”, mostly alcohol. It is a good 84% of January-vegans and thing that spending is decreasing. maybe 70% of all vegans are female Between 2005 and 2015, non- (2018 stats), although vegetarians drinkers among 16-24s rose from Stansted 15 to be sentenced are nearly 50% male. “Dry Jan - 18% to 29%. The number who, in a uary” also seems to draw many snapshot, hadn’t drunk alcohol By Todd Hamer more women than men. over the previous week rose from In the Observer of 3 February, the 35% to 50%. Binge-drinkers fell On 6 February the Stansted 15 writer Linda Grant ranted against from 27% to 18% (bit.ly/nhs-al). will be sentenced. “Dry January” that it was “boring” If socialist dry-January people They have already been found and “what I missed was a sense of contribute the money they’ve guilty under anti-terrorist legisla - variety, that days could be different saved from alcohol to our Workers’ tion following their successful ac - from one another”. Liberty fund drive, that’s good too. tion around a plane to halt If your way of avoiding same - I wasn’t aware of “Dry January” deportation of 60 migrants to West ness is to booze more or differently or “Veganuary” until they ended, Africa on 28 March 2017. They one day than another, then you cer - but by coincidence I’d decided in could receive life sentences. One of the likely deportees is Brexit vote. tainly should go “dry”. mid-January to go vegan. On the same day, 6 February, it is Owen Haisley who has lived in the The policy of “deport first, ap - Temperance was a big strand in I went vegetarian after the mass believed the Home Office has char - UK since he was four years old. He peal later” has been ruled unlawful the early British labour movement. slaughter of cattle in the BSE crisis tered a flight to deport over 50 peo - was told he could keep in touch by the Supreme Court but the prac - A temperance group, the Socialist of 1996. Then I became aware that ple to Jamaica. If it flies, this will be with his three British-born children tice continues. Prohibition Party, was one of those the dairy industry delivers as much the first chartered plane to the “via Skype”. Courts overturn 42% of the which came together to form the cruelty to animals, if not quite as Caribbean since the Windrush Over 10,000 people a year are Home Office’s decisions to refuse then-revolutionary Communist much environmental harm, as the scandal was exposed a year ago. forcibly deported under a system the right to remain yet many are Party in 1920, and it contributed meat industry. One of the Stansted 15, Emma which the Home Affairs Select deported before their case can be one of the CP’s early leaders, Bob I was pushed into going vegan Hughes, is mother to a five-week Committee describes as “inhu - heard. Stewart. by the advice of a vegan comrade old baby. It is at the whim of the mane”. Around half of these are Find out how you can support on how it can practically be done; judge whether she will be sepa - EU citizens, a figure that has in - the campaigns at enddeporta - and more fundamentally by the in - rated from her baby. creased by over 40% since the tions.org Radical Readers: fluence of a former school student of mine, a quiet and undemonstra - tive vegan in defiance of pressures Black Boy from her family. She’s also a brilliant mathemati - Black Boy is a memoir by cian and an admirably determined Working week gets longer African-American Communist character. There’s a lesson here for Richard Wright. Radical Read - socialists: our ability to convince “In the decade since they have likely explanation for the recent rise ers in Space will be meeting workmates depends not just on our By Rhodri Evans been flat, and average hours have in hours is that, with lower real via online video-call to discuss speeches about socialist politics, actually risen recently”. hourly wage rates (and benefits), it on Thursday 28 February. but also on us showing in other Average work hours per week The book is a memoir of areas that we are thoughtful, hon - are now increasing, for almost The decline was more like 20 people are working longer to keep minutes per year from 1945 to the household income at least up to Wright’s youth as a black kid in est, reliable people, so that they’ll the first time since the early 19th the American South, written think it worthwhile listening to us century. early 1980s. That was the period pre-2008 levels (which they have when it became standard for work - done). from a Marxist point of view. on issues where they start with a A research report from the Reso - Please take a moment to share blur. lution Foundation finds: ers to have two days off a week. It There has also been a big rise, to was already common for Saturday record levels, in the percentage of and RT the event page very Socialist organisations need to “Since the early 19th century widely. unite the activists willing to pro - there has been, at least outside of to be a half-day, and full two-day the working-age population in jobs. The statistics tell our unions bit.ly/rr-rw-bb mote socialism, without being dis - wartime, a pretty steady decline in weekends had been common in the that they have a strong basis for There’ll be a regular stream tracted or divided by lifestyle average hours worked. From the USA since the early 20th century. battles to increase wages and of content coming out on the arguments. Second World War until the finan - In the neoliberal era after the reduce hours — a “tight” labour page in the weeks leading up But we’re more likely to have cial crisis average hours worked early 80s, with unions weaker, the market in many sectors — but to the meeting. There’s an au - an environment conducive to declined by an average of 12 min - decline slowed to five or 10 min - they are failing to wage those diobook of Black Boy at that if the successes of “dry Jan - utes a year. utes a year. The Resolution Foun - dation researchers reckon the most battles. bit.ly/bb-rw-ab uary” and “Veganuary” continue. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty NEWS 3 Venezuela: risk of invasion

apartment building. By Eduardo Tovar The US, Brazil, and others con - Over the weekend 2-3 February, tinue to back Guaidó’s power grab. thousands of protestors gath - White House national security ad - ered in rival demonstrations on viser John Bolton was recently spot - the streets of Venezuela’s capital, ted carrying a notepad that read Caracas. “5,000 troops to Colombia”, which Juan Guaidó, who declared him - borders Venezuela. self interim President on 23 January, Nonetheless, Maduro remains remains committed to forcing out resolute. He has offered to hold early new elections to the National Nicolás Maduro. Guaidó has an - Venezuelan ambassador to Iraq, has Venezuela are backed by imperialist Assembly, though it is not clear nounced further opposition rallies declared his support for Guaidó, so powers – the US in Guaidó’s case, how this re-elected National As - for Wednesday 6 February and Sat - far only one high-ranking military and Russia and China in Maduro’s sembly would relate to the govern - Brexit and urday 9 February. The latter date is officer seems to have defected, case – the Venezuelan people would ment-controlled Constituent the last day of the ultimatum to namely Gen. Esteban Yanez Ro - suffer even worse if the sabre-rat - Assembly, which has the authority Maduro set by several leading Eu - driguez of the Venezuelan air tling becomes an actual military in - to rewrite the Venezuelan Constitu - ropean states, including France. force’s high command. I say tervention. unreason tion. On 31 January Guaidó gave a “seems” because the video purport - In short, we want Maduro to go, Guaidó has refused to rule out ac - speech outlining his “national plan” ing to feature Yanez is edited and but it matters who ousts him. Un - cepting US military support. Still, By Colin Foster for Venezuela, in which he priori - yet to be independently authenti - fortunately, the Venezuelan work - for now Maduro still seems to have tised coordinating humanitarian as - cated. ing class is not presently in a Steve Richards is a routine po - the upper hand in this power-strug - sistance, restoring public services, With some polls indicating that as position to oust Maduro by its own litical pundit, probably (in his gle. and solving people’s dependency many as 81% of Venezuelans want power. 2017 book The Rise of the Out - As I reported in Solidarity 493, on subsidies. He also seeks to estab - Maduro to relinquish power and We will keep supporting efforts siders, for example) a bit less Guaidó’s self-declaration as Presi - lish a “transitional government” Maduro continuing to keep control to build an independent, class- hostile to Jeremy Corbyn than dent appears to be a gambit to drive and hold free elections. via the military, we stand by our as - struggle left in Venezuela, while most of his type. a wedge between Maduro and the In the same speech, he claimed sessment of Maduro’s regime as opposing any imperialist inter - In the Financial Times on 1 Venezuelan top brass. that members of the Special Action Bonapartist authoritarianism. vention February, however, he was acid Although Jonathan Velasco, the Forces came to threaten him at his Although both major sides in about Corbyn, and with some justice. “Like Mrs May, [Jeremy Cor - byn] asserts rather than explains, repeatedly declaring that he sup - ports ‘a customs union’, ‘a close alignment with the single mar - More rail, less carbon ket’ and ‘workers’ rights’. Why is this his position? What does he high passenger and freight mean by these terms?” throughput. In some media interviews Cor - The rail system should be nation - byn may have no choice but to alised under democratic control, limit himself to summary By Mike Zubrowski and be publicly funded to be free at phrases. Yet he, or his office, the point of use for passengers. It could arrange longer printed-up New evidence backs up the need should be progressively electrified speech texts, op-eds, or such as for a socialist, environmentalist and aggressively expanded to re - back-up — and they don’t. transport policy. Meanwhile, place other medium and long dis - Reasoned argument is missing Transport For London (TfL) and tance forms of travelling. just because the position asserted London Mayor Sadiq Khan con - Logistics and freight transporta - does not come from reasoned ar - tinue to pursue regressive mar - tion, too, should be taken into pub - gument. It comes from “triangu - ket-based “environmental” lic ownership, facilitating a lation”, the desire to find a policies, which will likely make transition from road and aviation formula acceptable to a wide no reduction in emissions. transport to rail and shipping. range of lobbies and groups. A report by the International En - TFL has introduced regressive Minicab drivers protest over the congestion charge In principled politics, the pro - ergy Agency (IEA) released at the congestion charges for minicabs, cedure is to work out what’s drivers spend on the road is with - 100 years. end of January makes the case for which will see drivers lose up to right, then seek to convince peo - 25% of their already low take-home out passengers, often “idling”. Water held underground in soil ple of it. In triangulation-politics, “aggressive” expansion of railways Significant investment to reduce across the world, to reduce net pay, disproportionately impacting or between rocks, “groundwater”, the procedure is to guess what low-income and BME workers. the cost of public transport, and is the world’s largest source of people would like to hear, and transport emissions. promote cycling and walking, Rail is the most efficient mo - Weekly protests, starting 4pm freshwater and is relied on by over then find something blurred Mondays on London Bridge, have would have much greater positive two billion people. Climate change enough to fit both what they torised method for passengers to impacts, too. travel, and much more so than cars been called by the Independent will impact the way rain and mois - want to hear and what you and planes. In freight, it comes sec - Workers Union of Great Britain’s ture soak into the soil and reckon acceptable and workable. ond only to shipping, and only just. (IWGB) United Private Hire ENDING COAL “recharge” the groundwater. Another new twist is Jeremy Diesel and electricity account for Drivers branch (UPHD). Crucially, The world’s fourth-largest fleet As well as impacting water sup - Corbyn echoing some of the crit - roughly half of rail energy use each, TFL’s policy will likely have little of coal-fired power plants is Ger - plies, changes to moisture could icism from the Tory right and the and rail’s global energy use has re - impact on emissions. many’s. In the last weekend of push soil past a “tipping point”, DUP of the “backstop”. After his mained roughly stable in recent The IWGB instead proposes: cap - January, the German coal com - from a net absorber of CO2 to a net talks with Theresa May on 30 Jan - years. When electricity is predomi - ping the number of minicab vehicle mission published its plan for emitter, according to a different uary he said it was unacceptable nantly coal-powered, electric licenses; place a licensing cost levy how to phase out coal. study by Nature, thus creating a that the UK could not quit the power is no greener, but with a on private hire operators (e.g. However, it falls seriously short positive feedback loop driving fur - “backstop” unilaterally. Does he transition to renewable and nuclear Uber), based on the frequency of of even the Paris agreement, start - ther climate change. really think it wrong that Britain energy sources it could be ex - private hire vehicles from their fleet ing reductions of CO2 emissions Internationally, socialists and the should agree an open-ended tremely green. It is most green with appearing on the congestion zone, only after 2030, and emitting 1.3 bil - labour movement must seek to guarantee against a new “hard rather than a flat daily charge to the lion tons over the “below 2C path - limit climate change as much as border” in Ireland? drivers themselves; enforce work - way” limit. possible. Condescending, manipula - ers’ rights within the industry, as But we must also seek to miti - tive, splitting-the-difference minimum wage enforcement gate its impacts, in this case politics can never build a so - WATER SHORTAGES through taking the sourcing, cialist movement capable of would encourage operators to re - A study by the science journal transportation and distribution of enabling the working class to duce the number of vehicles; and Nature forecasts that climate In Solidarity 493 , the name fresh water into collective demo - mobilise for its own emancipa - provide “rest spaces” for minicabs change will impact half of the “Roberto Fiore” was printed by cratic control, and ensuring ev - tion. in London zones, as 50% of the time world’s aquifers over the next mistake as “Roberto Fico”. eryone has adequate access. 4 COMMENT Email your letters to [email protected] Brexit can still be stopped

fudge on the backstop that she can get a By Martin Thomas tweaked deal through with help from some Sheffield Labour for a Labour rebels. Socialist Europe stall Brexit can still stopped. The first step, on 2 February though, is to halt an emerging mood of re - But the EU will give her little — very little treat among anti-Brexit people. indeed before 14 February, maybe a little “People switch off from responding to more as the “cliff-edge” approaches. The every depressing political twist and turn of logic is clear: a “backstop”, by definition, can Brexit”, one activist wrote to us this week. fall as soon as a working alternative is avail - Another: “people in my local [anti-Brexit] able, but only then. group feel down after Jeremy Corbyn’s re - Moreover, a significant number of the Tory sponses on 28 and 29 January”. Yet others right are positively happy with “no deal”. have said: “Face facts. Brexit is going to go The problem with May doing a deal with through. No amount of agitation now will the Labour front bench through warmer make much difference. The task now is to words on workers’ rights and a lasting cus - prepare the left for after Brexit”. toms union is not lack of common ground, Versions of the same sentiment appear but that neither side really wants to do such among the not-politically-active — “of course a deal. Brexit is wrong, but it’s too complicated, I For May to get a deal by defying the Tory can’t deal with it” — and among the defer- back benches by instead wooing the Labour to-Corbyn types — “only the mainstream front bench would mean splitting the Tory media is really bothered about Brexit. We party. Conversely, Labour’s Leader’s Office should focus on other social issues”. want to appear to be “seeking unity” and This phase gives a textbook example of “not blocking Brexit”, but they do not want how a minority ruling class rules in a for - to end up taking responsibility for May’s for - mally-democratic political system. Working- mula and risking a Labour split. class people “switch off”, persuaded that the A no-deal Brexit is now more probable. Yet rulers can always spin diversions and eva - the Tory government will do a lot to avoid sions faster than we can keep up with. becoming seen as the team who caused a no- The job of socialists is to overcome this in - deal crash-out because they were incompe - In short, there will be continued turmoil of them has to happen, so we can be sure that ertia and resignation. Sometimes we lose. By tent to make a deal. and disarray at the top, at least up to 29 an improbable outcome will happen. definition, as long as capitalism remains sta - Jeremy Corbyn dropped talk of an early March, and very likely longer. A postpone - The improbable outcome of a complete im - ble, mostly we lose. But in the case of Brexit general election, let alone a referendum, in ment of Article 50 is quite likely, but will not passe in Parliament which leads to an early all the improbabilities remain still open. his response to May on 29 January. end the turmoil or resolve the impasse. general election, or a new public vote, is still May may eventually get enough of the It will be hard for him avoid re-raising The Labour leadership is still under di - on the cards. DUP and Tory right to settle for some minor them if May fails to fix something on 14 verse pressures. Labour-focussed campaigning is espe - February, as she almost certainly will. All the outcomes are improbable, but one cially vital in keeping that option open. The curious incident of the Stalinists who didn’t bark

crucial vote. Morning Star would have to say about the pletely ruling out a second referendum to re - An amendment pushing what is some - Parliamentary outcome. Sadly, it had gone to verse it cannot hold forever. You can’t please times charitably referred to as Labour’s press before the votes. That day’s editorial all of the people all of the time. Brexit “policy” was then roundly defeated, was headed “Parliament’s paralysis on Brexit Given that the paper is ultimately con - before May’s plan for reneging on her agree - must be broken from without” and warned trolled by the Communist Party of Britain, it’s ment on the Irish backstop was passed – with Labour against ruling out no-deal or support - worth noting the CPB’s policy on Brexit (as By Jim Denham support from seven Labour MPs. ing an extension to Article 50 (i.e. the Cooper outlined in the paper on 28 January): Corbyn’s office denied giving MPs from amendment). “The ‘pro-EU Tory minority regime’ and In possibly his most famous Sherlock Leave seats a “nod or a wink” that it was OK That was to be the last editorial comment the EU Commission could not be trusted to Holmes short story, Silver Blaze , Conan to rebel, but also made clear that shadow we’d see that week (or, indeed, up to the day reach any withdrawal agreement that did not Doyle introduced the idea of the “negative ministers who helped save Theresa May’s I am writing, 4 February). Thursday’s Morn - serve the interests of big business and the fact”: plan will not be sacked. ing Star came and went with no comment. capitalist class ... Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there Big news, you’d think — especially for the And Friday’s. And Saturday’s. And Mon - “‘Locking Britain into the EU Customs any other point to which you would wish to draw Morning Star , a publication that has carried day’s. Union would make any such agreement even my attention?” repeated editorials and articles backing a no- Can it be that the editorial team simply worse’, Robert Griffiths explained, ‘because Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in deal Brexit, claiming that EU membership can’t work out whether or not to applaud the it would outlaw import regulation to protect the night-time.” would be the major obstacle to Corbyn im - step towards no-deal and MPs “standing up strategic industries such as steel, while also Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night- plementing his policies, accusing May of se - to” Brussels? Or is it just that the Labour impeding a mutually beneficial fair trade pol - time.” cretly plotting to derail Brexit, denouncing “rebels” included that old Morning Star icy with developing countries’ ... Holmes: “That was the curious incident.” the nefarious schemes of Brussels bureau - favourite Dennis Skinner, and they’re not “The CP executive called for a ‘People’s Holmes drew a conclusion from an ex - crats, and warning of sinister “subterranean going to criticise him, whatever he does? Brexit’ to leave the EU, its Single Market pected fact (the dog barking) that did not channels of communication between ele - Then there’s the suggestion (raised by the [and] Customs Union.” occur. ments in Labour and the EU powers that be.” New Statesman’s Stephen Bush as long ago As that policy is in direct contradiction to On Tuesday 29 January the Commons held Indeed, on the day of the votes, the Morn - as October last year) that close Morning Star Labour’s call for a new, permanent customs a series of big votes on Brexit. Probably the ing Star carried a lengthy report of the Com - associate Andrew Murray – who works part- union and the “closest possible alignment” most important was Yvette Cooper’s amend - munist Party’s call for “a People’s Brexit” and time as Len McCluskey’s chief of staff at with the single market, maybe the Morning ment creating procedures to keep Britain in a rambling editorial claiming that “Brazil and Unite and part-time in Corbyn’s office – ar - Star ’s editorial team decided their best bet the EU beyond 29 March in the event that no Russia, India, China and South Africa, find gued at a Team Corbyn strategy meeting that was to say... nothing. deal is reached by the end of the month. Cor - their individual and collective interests are the Labour Party should vote for Theresa As Holmes would say: “When you have byn’s office had come out in support of this, best served by a more equal trading relation - May’s deal. eliminated the impossible, whatever re - albeit very late in the day. ship with developed capitalist countries than Perhaps the Morning Star realises that in mains, however improbable, must be the Fourteen Labour MPs defied the Labour one constrained by EU rules.” the end Corbyn is going to upset someone: truth.” whip and voted with the Tories, and a series The following day (Wednesday 30 January) the so-called “constructive ambiguity” of of shadow ministers went missing for the I was looking forward to reading what the promising to deliver Brexit while not com - Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty WHAT WE SAY 5 £4,532 to go, £10,468 so far

£200 came in for our fund appeal this week — £130 in sales money for our new book on 1919 (Janine Booth has paid the production costs of the book as her contribution to the appeal), £30 in three kilograms of small change from Zack in Bristol, and £40 miscella - neous. The same day as we write this fund col - umn, we’ve mailed Amazon with three copies of our book The Left in Disarray and two copies of our book on the miners’

strike. Odd but true, in most months we sell more copies of our backlist of books via Amazon than hand-to-hand or via our website. Selling more books hand-to-hand isn’t strictly speaking fund-raising, but it has the same effect. After mailing books to Amazon we do no better than cover our costs, because Amazon takes 60% of the Where are the “3 Ms” taking us? revenue. A copy of The Left in Disarray sold hand-to-hand is £8 gain above the print Continued from front page retary Keir Starmer and shadow chancellor Straight Left, the ultra-Stalinist fragment of costs — or £12 direct gain. Keep sending John McDonnell. the old Communist Party, in the early 1980s. the donations — bags of small coins, or e- Labour’s shift was symbolised, and ex - Starmer is no left-winger, but has favoured Their world-view remains much the same. payments, whatever — but also consider pressed, by Jeremy Corbyn’s meeting a new public vote and even (on 5 February) Murphy comes more from an old Labour- buying and selling more of our books. with Theresa May, the day after the Com - free movement. McDonnell has said that a right background — she used to work for We failed to pick up on “dry January” mons votes on 29 January, to discuss new public vote is “inevitable” and that he Labour deputy leader Tom Watson — but has — our bad — but it’s still not too late for Brexit plans. would vote Remain in it. allied with Milne and Murray. comrades who did go “dry” for January to To meet May with him, Corbyn took his Milne, Murphy, and their close associate Solidarity vehemently opposes Milne’s and send us the money they saved by avoid - backroom “director of strategy” Seumas Andrew Murray, were not elected to their Murray’s world-view. We want to deal with ing alcohol. Milne and “chief of staff” Karie Murphy, plus high posts by the labour movement on the it by open debate and discussion in the If you missed “dry January” too, why the chief whip, the old Labour right-winger basis of their activity in the movement. labour movement rather than by bans or pro - not consider a “dry February” and redi - Nick Brown. He sidelined shadow Brexit sec - Milne and Murray were members of scriptions. rect the money saved to help our cam - But Milne’s and Murray’s influence at the paigns against Brexit and for free top of the Labour Party (and their well-paid movement? jobs: over £100,000 a year for Milne) come not • www.workersliberty.org/donate Rallying Labour for migrant at all from them having won debates and es - • www.workersliberty.org/books tablished their standing through activity in the ranks of the labour movement. rights and against Brexit Before 2015 Murray worked for the Morn - struggle, not used as an excuse to move to ing Star as a journalist, and then (no thanks equally bureaucratic and neoliberal, but more in all this by Stalinist politics in the trade to any activity in the union as a rank-and- walled-off, nation-states. By Sacha Ismail union bureaucracy (particularly in Unite). filer) in different unelected-official posts in Labour should take its stand on those the Unite union. Milne was a senior journalist truths, and campaign to win a majority for Fifty Labour activists from ten boroughs And we discussed the more general ques - for the Guardian . them, not dither and “triangulate”. across London attended a 4 February tion of exerting pressure on the Corbyn lead - When Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour Since 29 January the Labour leadership has emergency meeting in Lewisham to dis - ership and the role of the organised left. leadership in 2015, it was by a surge of scat - offered no more than mild demur to the cuss the Labour Party’s stance on mi - Participants suggested amendments to a tered social revolt at the base, not by the tri - eleven shadow ministers who abstained on grants’ rights. statement drawn up by Labour for a Social - umph of a long-organised and well-formed the Cooper amendment which would have The meeting was called by Labour for a ist Europe and added their names; the meet - Labour left. Corbyn cast around in the top empowered Parliament to stop a “no-deal” Socialist Europe, Labour Campaign for Free ing also came up with other ideas for circles of bourgeois society for “experts” to Brexit. Movement and Another Europe is Possible, campaigning. run his “Leader’s Office”, and ended up with It has complained only in a mutter about in cooperation with local left activists, in re - L4SE campaigners around the country Milne. Murray, and another old Straight- the 14 Labour MPs, mostly right-wingers, sponse to Labour’s fiasco over the Tory Im - were on the streets on 9 March with “stop Lefter, Steve Howell, followed later. who voted against the Cooper amendment, migration Bill. In Parliament on 28 January, Brexit” stalls, are gathering signatures for a Labour’s policy on Brexit should be de - and the few who voted for the (right-wing the Labour front bench at first recom - petition demanding Jeremy Corbyn back a cided by democratic debate, not by office ca - Tory) Brady amendment. mended abstention on the Tory bill. It new public vote, are pushing motions in bals. It looks unlikely that the Labour leadership swung to voting against only under pres - Labour Parties and trade union branches. And will protest in Parliament Square Labour should call a special one-day or will actually do a full-scale deal on a Brexit sure and at the last minute. on 14 February, the day of the next Com - half-day conference on Brexit, as demanded formula with Theresa May. The backlash The meeting heard speeches from two mons votes. by the rail union TSSA and groups such as against such a pact, on both Tory and Labour L4SE Steering Committee members – Urte Labour for a Socialist Europe. sides, would be too much. Macikene of Dulwich and West Norwood That special conference would be the best Short of that, though, the current Labour and Alena Ivanova of Tower Hamlets – be - •For more and updates, see the L4SE web - way to marginalise those in the anti-Brexit stance could well license enough Labour fore a wide-ranging discussion. site: labourforasocialisteurope.org. section of the old Labour right who are whis - MPs, in pro-Brexit constituencies, to vote for The contributions touched on issues rang - pering speculations about a split to team up the Tories and get them through their crisis. ing from the party’s position on Brexit and •Labour for a Socialist Europe conference — with pro-Remain Tories (and maybe the Lib The revolt against the Labour front bench’s how we can organise most effectively to stop Saturday 9 March, 11:30 to 5, at Camden Dems) to form a new “centre” party. plan to abstain on the Tories’ Immigration Brexit over the next weeks, to Labour coun - School for Girls, Sandall Road, London The reversal of the economic integration, Bill, on 28 January, forced the front bench at cils and policies under which children are NW5 2DB. Register now: bit.ly/l4se-9m the lowering of borders, and the limited so - the last minute to switch to opposition. denied school meals on the grounds that cial levelling-up achieved in the EU would be That shows what can be done. It shows their migrant families must have “no re - •Labour for a Socialist Europe protest at a step back, not forward. The EU’s bureau - the way forward. Build Labour for a So - course to public funds”. Parliament Square, on the day of the next cratic and neoliberal shape should be cialist Europe. Call a Labour special con - We also talked about the role being played Commons votes about Brexit — Thursday 14 February, from 5pm. changed by cross-Europe labour movement ference. Stop Brexit. Force a new public vote. More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Neurodiversity, capit By Janine Booth fied the sensory environment, generating ing support services or campaigning for ac - work and the pace and method of our work much more light and noise than previous so - ceptance, and in doing so is harming autistic will take a great deal of pressure and hostility Autistic, dyspraxic, dyslexic and other cieties, particularly in big cities. people by portraying autism as a tragic ill - away from neurodivergent people. It would people with atypical brain wiring have Social premium. How confident you are, ness or defect that needs to be eliminated. make workplaces less distressing and there - particular experiences under capitalism – how easily you get on with people, how well Uneven progress. The brain wiring that fore more accessible. with positive and negative aspects, but you “fit in”: such social factors are becoming is now called dyslexia has probably existed Only sixteen per cent of autistic adults of for many people including distress and more and more important to your “success” for thousands of years, but it did not become working age are in full-time employment – disadvantage. in the capitalist marketplace. This makes it a problem and was not labelled “dyslexia” not because only sixteen per cent of autistic This article looks at the experience of neu - harder for people who find social interaction until written language became widespread. adults are capable of working full-time, but rodivergent people under capitalism, how difficult or stressful, who dislike eye contact So the reason that dyslexic people have a because working conditions are so hostile socialism might remove distress and dis - or who communicate in atypical ways, problem or disability is not because they are and we have so little control. crimination, and how we can achieve that. which includes many autistic and otherwise faulty, but because society developed written Many autistic people struggle with jobs neurodivergent people. language in a form that does not suit their where it is not clear how their work fits in to Capitalist production has shifted towards brain wiring. There is an interesting case of the overall production process. This is com - CAPITALISM AND NEURODIVERSITY service industries, where “soft skills” are val - an English man raised in Japan, who grew mon under capitalism, which does not con - Capitalism developed society’s produc - ued more highly, and even public services up bilingual, severely dyslexic in English sider this to be the worker’s concern, and tive capacity, enabling it to provide peo - have become commodities in which man - and not dyslexic at all in Japanese. This which requires you only to do your bit to ple with goods and services that no agers insist that “customers” require service shows that his so-called impairment, his dis - produce a product which is taken away from previous society had been able to. with a smile. For example, railway employ - ability, is constructed by something that has you and sold. Socialism will end this alien - But it placed productive resources with ers have become less concerned about their developed socially i.e.. the form that lan - ation of workers from the products of our private owners, so production increased in a staff’s ability to do railway work and more guage takes. labour and reconnect us with the work we narrow, profit-driven, undemocratic way, concerned about their ability to say “thank Capitalism did something fantastic – it in - do. creating inequality and distress, and also you” and “have a nice day” to people after herited, developed and universalised writ - The good without the bad. We want so - marginalising neurologically atypical peo - telling them that their train has been can - ten language – but it did so in a way that cialism to benefit neurodivergent people by ple. celled. suited the majority neurology and left be - combining the advantages of mass production How does capitalism do this? Commodifying neurodiversity. As knowl - hind the minority that it does not suit. with a renewed scope for diversity and indi - Rigid organisation of work. Capitalism edge of neurological diversity has grown, so viduality. We don’t want to go back to pre- makes every worker in a production process capitalists have become aware of a new mar - capitalist societies or to abandon the levels do the same thing in the same way at the HOW COULD SOCIALISM DO ket for new products. Companies produce of production that we have now (although same speed, which does not work well for BETTER? and sell software, toys, sensory aids, expen - there are levels of production that we don’t people who work at a different pace or who Under socialism, production will sive treatments and more. Some of this is need, such as weapons, advertising and du - see things in a different way. be planned for need rather than for profit. useful, but some of it is not, and some of it is plicate products). Although there have been many changes Universal design. With collective owner - harmful. It promotes the idea that what atyp - We want mass production without every - since the mills and factories of the nineteenth ship and democratic planning, we could ical people need is not acceptance but prod - one having to be the same, sitting next to century, modern workplaces such as call cen - transform the built environment, applying ucts. each other, doing the same thing, producing tres, offices and warehouses work in simi - “Universal Design”. Buildings and outdoor Profit-driven research. What research the same fifteen widgets per hour, meeting larly rigid ways. Lack of control over work designed spaces can have not only step-free there is into autism and other neurodiver - the same performance targets. If you want to processes is a key factor in the disadvantage access but also a minimum-distress sensory gent conditions is driven by the companies go off on an obsessive tangent about some - and distress that neurodivergent people ex - environment, clear navigation, information doing the research, which are driven by de - thing then you might actually come up with perience. in various formats, relaxation spaces, and so veloping products that they can sell. Re - a real breakthrough, so let’s have a society Sensory overload. Many neurodivergent on. search is very important, but there is a that allows that. people have unusually high (or low) sensi - Support services. Socialism will provide political content to what is driving it. Co-operative not competitive. Compe - tivities to sensory inputs. An autistic or a the support services that neurodivergent The awful American charity “Autism tition is distressing for many neuroatypical dyspraxic person may, for example, be af - people need, and which capitalism does not Speaks” spends millions of dollars on trying people (as well as for many neurotypical fected more than average by light, sound, provide. to find a cure for autism rather than provid - people). Capitalism encourages us to compete smell or texture. Capitalism rapidly intensi - Pluralism in communication methods. In our current society, it is “efficient” for a par - over everything. Employers pit workers ticular capitalist enterprise to insist on com - against each other: who is going to do better munication conformity. For example, a com - in their performance review, who is going to pany will exclude dyslexic people by insisting get the bonus, who is going to be employee on all reports being in writing, or exclude of the month. Firms compete with each other, autistic people by insisting on eye contact in making employment insecure. A cooperative interviews. By contrast, socialism will organise economy would remove that level of hostil - society collectively, rather than in competing ity. Reduced sensory overload. units, so can enable people to communicate Democratic, verbally, visually, or in whichever way suits considerate planning could reduce sensory them. stimuli. A clean, sustainable environment Democratic and accountable re - would be better than an assault on your search. Under socialism, we will be able to senses. A co-operative rather than competitive resource research, and to focus it on better economy would reduce the volume of ad - understanding neurological difference in vertising. Imagine a world without adverts order to reduce disadvantage and distress, and see how much calmer and more pleasant with neurodivergent people having a say it would be. from each according to about the sort of research that is done. More - Karl Marx said: ability, to each according to need. over, instead of having lots of separate re - This is search departments of separate companies the guiding principle of what we are fighting competing with each other, researchers will for: that people contribute to society in the be able to co-operate and thus achieve more way and to the level that they are able to and rapid progress. receive the support and resources that they Workers’ control. Having more control need to get on with their lives. Keyring card for someone with dyspraxia, which affects about 10% of the population over our sensory environment, the hours we FEATURE 6-7 alism, and socialism FROM CAPITALISM TO SOCIALISM We have achieved some progress under capitalism. For example, left-handedness is a neuro - logical variant, and in the not-too-distant past, left-handed people were seriously mis - treated. Schools caned kids’ left hands or tied them behind their backs to force them to write with their right hands. But now there are left-handed scissors and guitars, and very few left-handed people would say that they are oppressed, even if things might be a bit awkward at times. That is an example of how by campaign - ing, arguing and enlightenment, we can achieve progress within capitalism. But these changes were at low or no cost to capitalists, and even profitable for some. That is not going to be the case with other disadvantages facing neurodivergent peo - ple. Capitalism will not willingly make changes that cost it money or power: it will mean that they are not in charge of “their” workplaces any more, and they will not accept that graciously. We can make the case for liberation through socialism: we can say to autistic, dyslexic, other neurodivergent people and our allies that yes, we can fight for advances within this society, but we can go beyond this to imagine and fight for a different soci - them openly admitting this. support of John McDonnell, has all sorts of Of course people form friendship groups in ety. We can do this most effectively if we de - There are employers who actively recruit progressive policies to address the issues we political movements, but let’s be aware that velop theory, write and discuss seriously autistic people, attracting praise for provid - have mentioned. this can leave people out and let’s ensure about Marxism, autism and neurodiversity, ing employment to people who struggle in We can also discuss what transitional de - that people are included in what we do, in as Workers’ Liberty has started to do. other jobs. But then you might read an inter - mands would be useful on the issue of neu - our events and activities, even if they don ’t As knowledge grows about autism, view with the Chief Executive, who explains rodiversity – what demands could guide us banter like others do. dyslexia and the diversity of human brain that they like autistic workers because “they in the fight that we have now but also Harassment and bullying exclude neu - structure, it is important to avoid going don’t waste time having conversations with prompt people to look at changing society as rodivergent and other people. The labour along with mainstream “neurodiversity other people, so they are more productive”, a whole in order to achieve them thoroughly. movement has never been immune from awareness” and the employers’ agenda. or something similar. These employers seem We need to educate and mobilise our these, and I think the problem may be on the Bland “awareness” campaigns ask only that interested in us because they think they can movement. Let’s be out there protesting increase. If people are treated badly and people notice the issue a bit more; they do exploit us more than others, and are proba - against abuse and discrimination. Activists made to feel bad about themselves, then in not demand change. We need action not just bly recruiting the more independent, skilled have protested against US charity Autism the end they burn out or walk away. The cul - awareness. autistic people, rather than those who have Speaks and its negative portrayal of autism, ture of respectful comradeship does not exist Some employers now acknowledge neu - more limited capacity and need constant against the Judge Rotenberg Centre and its across our movement in the way that we rodiversity. For some, this gives them an - support. electric shock treatment of autistic young need it to. other equality kitemark, another badge to We campaign for radical, life-improving people, against snake-oil salespeople and We can also improve the sensory envi - wear to show that they care. Others are tak - demands. The draft Labour Party Autism their quack cures. And let’s step up our ronment at our events: provide a quiet ing up the issue for directly exploitative rea - and Neurodiversity Manifesto, which a training and educational programmes across room, tone down the sensory stimulus. sons, and if you look close up, you can find group of us have been working on with the the labour and neurodiversity movements. We will be more effective if we make the TO SUMMARISE: left and the labour movement neurodiver - Capitalism develops productive re - sity-friendly and more accessible to neuro - sources, but it does so in the interests of divergent people. the small ruling class that is motivated by That means using materials in different making profit and so creates distress and formats. We can not just rely on a text-heavy disadvantage for neurodivergent people. newspaper any more. People may not read By reorganising society on a socialist basis, it if they are dyslexic; or they may not read with a democratically-planned economy huge chunks at a time if they have a shorter geared towards human need not private attention span than others. Thanks to capi - profit, we can start to remove those barriers talism, the technology exists where we can and problems that capitalism creates and easily do things in different formats. make a more inclusive, less discriminatory We can very easily make short videos society. about what we want to say about socialism; We have looked at some of the ways of we can use graphic methods; we can travel how to get there – mobilising, developing around and speak to large and small gather - theory, making our own movement more ac - ings; we don’t have to rely on just the cessible. printed word any more. We are beginning to show the potential We can also be more socially inclusive. of achieving liberation through socialism. 8 FEATURE More online at www.workersliberty.org Bolshevism, the civil war, and Stalinism

centralised machine apart from and along - munism and the Red Terror were inaugu - By Martin Thomas side any state centralism. rated following the assassination by Left-SR In the weeks after the Russian workers’ The “making” of the revolution was not Cheka people of the German ambassador councils declared themselves the coun - just the uprising on 25 October and the vote (designed to provoke renewed war with try’s rulers, on 25 October 1917, the Bol - in the Congress of Soviets to oust the un - Germany) and abortive insurrection of July shevik (and then Bolshevik/ Left SR) elected Provisional Government, but the ac - 1918; the assassination by SRs of the Bolshe - government had essentially no means to tivity in the first few months through which viks Volodarsky (June 1918) and Uritsky implement its policies other than power the new workers’ government won support (August 1918), and their attempt to assassi - and cogency of its political agitation. as a viable administration. nate Lenin on 30 August 1918. It inherited no functioning state machine. Many of the best-known Bolshevik leaders War communism and the Red Terror were On 12 February 1918 the Soviet government resigned from their positions soon after the emergency measures by a government officially decreed the total demobilisation of revolution in protest at the Bolshevik major - which had just seen even those who had pre - the army, which was anyway in collapse. ity’s refusal to accept the Mensheviks’ and viously been its closest allies attempt an Most government officials at first refused SRs’ conditions for a coalition government. armed uprising against it, and try to tip the to cooperate. The new People’s Commissars Then they were won round. country into a new disastrous war with Ger - had to scrabble just to find an office, a table, In October, the Mensheviks and the SRs many. some chairs, some ready cash, to begin even had walked out of the Congress of Soviets in There were some incidents of “Red Terror” nominal operation. protest. Their entry into discussion on a before August 1918. For example, the mas - The Red Army was officially inaugurated coalition government, even though they sacre of five thousand officers by rank and on 20 February, but at first it could be built posed impossible conditions, was a first step file soldiers in two incidents in January 1918, into an actual army only by persuasion and back. In April 1918, Martov’s “Menshevik In - which were neither decreed nor agitated for agitation. ternationalists” voted to recognise the Bol - by the Bolsheviks. shevik regime as a proletarian government, Russian peasant life before the Revolution The Bolshevik party’s central “machine” overthrow of Robespierre – initially, by what The first attempt at armed overthrow of was extremely violent. Part of the mission of consisted essentially of Sverdlov and half a presented itself as merely a dissident Jacobin the Soviet government was set in motion on the revolution was to end that culture of vi - dozen assistants. Their ability to keep strict faction – on 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794), fol - 31 October, by General Krasnov, leading a olence. But first the revolution had to hap - organisational tabs on party members and lowed within a few months by a smooth but body of cossacks. It was defeated by two Bol - pen, and consolidate itself if only for a short units was slight even in St Petersburg and speedy slide into full-scale White Terror. sheviks smuggling themselves into the cos - while. Moscow, let alone in outside areas with They knew also that Thermidor had been sack barracks at 3am and arguing with the The Red Terror was partly designed to which even basic communication was diffi - triggered, paradoxically, by the great French soldiers for five hours until they persuaded control and restrain the terror “from below” cult. victory at Fleurus (26 June 1794). The Fleurus them to wait and see. (there was something of the same with the The Bolshevik party was a powerful revo - victory produced a backlash against the The next day, Bolsheviks were able to ar - Terror in the French Revolution, which also lutionary factor because of the force of its rigours of the revolutionary regime. rest Krasnov. They released him as soon as started “from below”), and was partly moti - ideas and its revolutionary will, not because The Bolsheviks in 1921 faced a far greater he gave his word of honour not to attempt vated by the fact that, where persuasion of any special strength of its organisational mass exhaustion than the Jacobins in 1793. counter-revolution again. The freed Krasnov could not work – and it couldn’t always – machine. Fourteen million dead since 1914! Four and immediately headed for the south in order and where you needed to terrify the enemy Far from the Bolshevik party imposing a a half million dead in the civil war! Seven to mobilise a counter-revolutionary army – and in war you do – mild measures could centralised structure of its own on the new million abandoned children! Industrial pro - there! not work with a population accustomed state, the Bolshevik party acquired a strong duction collapsed! It would be as foolish to mock the Bolshe - over generations to high levels of viole nce. centralised machine only as a by-product of Harassed, exhausted, the Bolsheviks nev - viks’ “softness” in late 1917 as it would be to Formal and procedural democracy was no its effects to construct a new state centralised ertheless resolved to try to stave off Thermi - recoil in horror from their “hardness” in incidental for the Bolsheviks. For decades it enough to fight a civil war. dor long enough to keep open the possibility 1921. In neither era could the Bolsheviks had been the chief cause for which they en - of reconstituting the working class and (as jump over the head of history. dured jail and exile. Right up until 1917, the Rakovsky would later out it) “re-educating “NESTED” INSIDE Tsarist Russia did not give them the possi - Bolsheviks had argued that the maximum [it] in the love of liberty”, and the possibility Dangerously, and ultimately tragically, the bility of organising a party that could be possible in Russia, short-term, was radical - of victorious workers’ revolution in Western centralisation of the Bolshevik party was “ideally” efficient, centralised, and ruthless. ism in cle aring away the old Tsarist lumber Europe. “nested” inside the centralism of the The Red Army was built, and the civil war and instituting a democratic republic. So, they emphasised closing ranks, keep - state machine, rather than standing be - was won, only by repeated episodes of dar - ing the party solid against the triple threat side it. ing comparable to that of the Bolsheviks who CRUSHING PROSPECTS posed to it by the large surviving corps of But that happened through the constraints won over Krasnov’s cossacks. As the Red After the civil war got under way, the Bol - Tsarist officials, the exhaustion and revolu - of the civil war, not through deficiencies in Army acquired military clout and structure, sheviks believed — and with evidence tion-weariness of the mass of workers and the Bolsheviks’ ideas of democracy. the Bolsheviks used that ruthlessly. But from Finland in 1918 and Hungary in 1919 peasants, and the new layers of merchants Arguably, the tragedy of the civil war throughout, and right through to the peasant — that their ousting would not lead to and rich peasants who they knew would could have been diminished if the Bolshevik revolts in summer 1921, agitation, by voice, some moderate regime but to a Russian emerge with NEP. party in October 1917 had been more stereo - leaflets, and pamphlets, was primary. version of fascism. They were defeated. The party was typically “Bolshevik” – ruthless, organisa - They could only have won the civil war by It would also lead to a crushing of the crushed between the stones of officialdom tionally tight, capable of having its own that agitation being successful. All the ad - prospects of revolution in the West. So their and mass disillusion, with the assimilation vantages of pre-established force were on the determination was to hold on as long as they of a part of the party into the officialdom on side of the Whites, who had most of the old could, which they were sure would not be the one hand, and the “Lenin levy” on the Tsarist generals and top officers, plus the very long, to keep those prospects open. other. backing of substantial foreign forces includ - The remarkable thing about, for example, Lenin wrote to Miasnikov in August 1921: ing the “Czech Legion” (the strongest coher - the stories of the Bolsheviks manipulating or “We have many maladies. Mistakes… ent armed force in Russia at the time of the delaying soviet votes in 1918 is how high the have greatly aggravated the maladies revolution). standards were which they had set them - springing from our situation… Want and As the civil war proceeded, the SRs and selves, and which they felt they had to in - calamity abound… They have been terribly most of the Mensheviks swung back to the fringe on. intensified by the famine of 1921. positions they had had between July and Oc - For governments in all-consuming war, “Revive the Soviets; secure the co-opera - tober 1917, when they allied with bourgeois war which threatens the very existence of the tion of non-Party people; let non-Party peo - politicians who, when they could, sup - polity, to allow elections at all is rather rare. ple verify the work of Party members: this is pressed the Bolsheviks and their newspa - The British government in World War 2 absolutely right. No end of work there, and pers. By the end of the civil war, there was counts historically as exceptional wartime it has hardly been started”. widespread weariness, resentment at democracy because it allowed debates in The work was soon engulfed by Stalin - rigours, desire for a “return to normal”. Parliament and a fair degree of press free - ism. That happened, not because the Bol - Many follies were committed under war dom. Yet it pretty much suppressed popular shevik party was too strong, but communism. There was much misguided votes – there was no general election be - fundamentally because history made it making virtue out of necessity during it. tween 1935 and 1945, and in wartime the big impossible for it to be — in relation to the Trotsky’s call for a proto-NEP in early 1920 parties renounced all contests in by-elec - pressures of the time — other than “too was surely not too early, possibly should tions. Newspapers and MPs favouring the weak”. have come earlier, and conceivably would enemy, even implicitly, were banned or have done better than “war communism” jailed. Yet Britain was never invaded. • This article is an abridgment from a right from the start in 1918. In early 1921, the full-scale civil war had Order online for £12 including UK postage. much longer one discussing Sam Farber’s But look at it without hindsight. War com - finished. But the Bolsheviks knew that the www.workersliberty.org/books book Before Stalinism : bit.ly/b-cw-s Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty FEATURE 9 Marxists and science their existence in his 1905 paper on Brown - By Les Hearn ian motion (and Jean Perrin had actually “Marxism does not provide a ready-made key for done so in 1908). making judgements about scientific ideas. It can - This was because no-one had directly ob - not substitute for a detailed knowledge of the ap - served them, a rather poor reason given that propriate scientific material.” — Peter Mason, many small objects had been invisible to the Marxism, Science and the Big Bang human eye until the invention of the micro - scope and one might have allowed that other Clover harbours nitrogen-fixing bacteria Marx and Engels saw themselves apply - smaller objects might exist, particularly with the overwhelming indirect evidence for ing a scientific method to economics and incompatible blood group: the student re - atoms. The atomic nature of matter is so fun - the dynamics of class societies. Lysenko measures the growth of wheat in a covered. damental that the great physicist Richard Their philosophical approach was derived field. Lysenko rejected Mendelian genetics in Lenin seems to have been widely read on Feynman once said that the simple sentence from that of Hegel who used dialectics, a dis - favour of “soft inheritance”. nature and ecology and would go for long “Everything is made of atoms” encapsulated cussion between opposing points of view, to hikes in the wilderness and mountains while the most important scientific knowledge we arrive at truths. Marx and Engels applied the whole is simply the sum of the parts, not in exile in Switzerland. While desperate to possess. Hegel’s methods to the real world, in partic - recognising that higher forms of order may find ways of increasing agricultural produc - Principles 2 and 3 were rather more sound ular showing that the capitalist mode of pro - emerge from combinations of factors. tivity and aware of the latest science on soil and Einstein praised them as important in - duction gave rise to a class whose interests Engels criticised idealists who believed in fertility (such as the discovery of nitrogen- fluences in his development of the theory of lay in overthrowing it and replacing it with a static universe since his dialectics, “con - fixing bacteria in leguminous plants in 1888), relativity. a socialist society. ceived as the science of the most general he understood that people could not simply Nevertheless, Mach, with his habit of Marx and Engels’ methods were therefore laws of all motion,” did not admit of stasis ignore the forces of nature. backing the wrong horse, rejected Einstein’s historical and materialist but later came to be in nature, any more than in human society. It was essential to understand nature and theories; indeed Mach’s name was included called dialectical materialism (DM), unfortu - While he was correct in this, it is not gen - work with it: “To replace the forces of nature in a rather embarrassing tome entitled A nate because this jargon term masks its erally helpful to try to apply DM in the nat - with human labor … would be just as impos - hundred authors against Einstein (though he straightforwardness. ural sciences. Indeed, the attempt to force the sible as replacing the arshin with the pood… appears not to have contributed). Einstein re - Seeing their work as part of science in gen - natural sciences into the straitjacket of man may merely avail himself of the actions marked that, if he was wrong, one author eral, both were deeply interested in the nat - Stalin’s distorted idea of DM was counter - of nature’s forces, if he knew these actions, would have been enough! ural sciences of their time. Indeed, Marx productive, to say the least. Where it came to enlisting machines and tools to make this wrote of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species Stalin’s influence on agricultural science in process easier”. that it “contains the basis in natural history the Soviet Union (USSR) through Lysenko, it PURE SCIENCE? for our view.” may rightly be said “It was worse than a Aleksandr Bogdanov, an interesting char - acter, is given quite a bit of attention by TROTSKY AND SCIENCE Eleanor Marx’s partner, Edward Aveling, crime – it was a blunder.” The other great leader of the October Ings. was a populariser of Darwin’s theory. Simon Engels was particularly impressed with Revolution and leader of the triumphant Ings, in his recent Stalin and the Scientists , Mendeleev’s prediction of “eka-aluminium” Bogdanov, a medical doctor, was very in - Red Army, Trotsky, who is not really dis - sees Marx as believing in scientific govern - from an anomaly in his Periodic Table of the El - terested in science, seeing capitalism as frag - cussed by Ings, had an important though ment, where science would be extended into ements . Mendeleev found that arranging el - menting scientific progress into separate, short-lived role in Soviet science. non-communicating, disciplines. The “pur - politics until there was “no distinction be - ements into columns of those with similar After being forced to resign as People’s suit of ‘science for its own sake’ was a tragic tween knowledge and policy.” Sadly, evi - properties led to some contradictions. Commissar of the Army in 1924, he was error.” In a socialist society, “practice and dence-based government policies are just as Guessing that not all the elements had given two scientific posts in 1925, head of the theory would once again be fused, and sci - elusive now as then. been discovered yet, Mendeleev left gaps (in Electro-Technical Board and chair of the Sci - ence could at last be put to the service of so - Engels was particularly interested in mod - order to preserve correspondences in be - entific-Technical Board of Industry, nomi - ciety.” In other words, “there is no such thing ern science: he saw his philosophy of “new haviour) and predicted the properties of the nally in charge of science in the USSR. He as pure science.” materialism” (i.e. DM) potentially uniting all ‘missing’ elements. He was resoundingly clearly rejected the idea that politics could This is a profoundly misleading approach disciplines. It was materialist, in that all phe - vindicated when eka-aluminium, since direct science, as he stated in a speech to the as there is no way of knowing what there is nomena arose from the physical world, and named gallium, was discovered in 1875, 1925 Mendeleev Congress (on the centenary to discover and you can’t just say “Let’s find dialectical, in that all knowledge was ob - with the predicted properties, just as Engels of Mendeleev’s birth). the cure for cancer” (though of course you tained through reasoned argument and in - was compiling his thoughts on science. “An individual scientist may not at all be can try to find it). Unfortunately, this is close quiry. Engels saw the periodic table and its re - concerned with the practical application of to the attitude of Stalin to science. As Lenin As a philosophical method, DM was there - sulting predictions as a manifestation of the his research. The wider his scope, the bolder recognised, Bogdanov, a follower of Mach, fore a study of how all things change, dialectical law of the transformation of quan - his flight, the greater his freedom from prac - had departed somewhat from Marxism whether these be species, chemical sub - tity into quality. tical daily necessity in his mental operations, some 10 years before the revolution. stances, or societies. Perhaps the most suc - all the better.” Bogdanov did not rejoin the Bolsheviks cessful of Engels’ attempts to use DM in Clearly, Trotsky understood that science LENIN AGAINST MACH but did set up Proletkult, a “proletarian” art considering a scientific problem is contained Lenin’s interest in science led him to take cannot simply be ordered to come up with movement whose rather ultra-left aim was in his unfinished 1876 essay The Part Played time out in 1908 to write a weighty tome the answers. Soon he was to resign over Stal - to completely replace the old bourgeois cul - by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man . demolishing the philosophy of Ernst inist political interference in science policy. ture. He later became interested in the idea Mach, a respected physicist and a fairly The history of science in the USSR from of rejuvenation through blood transfusions influential philosopher. the revolution through Stalin’s counter-rev - MATERIALIST NATURAL SCIENCE but seems not to have been aware of the Modern natural science has no choice Mach’s ideas had caught on with some olution to its collapse (and even to the pre - painstaking work that had revealed the ex - Bolsheviks, such as their co-founder Bog - sent day) confirms Paul Mattick’s conclusion but to be materialist and both Engels and istence of blood groups and their role in danov who was challenging Lenin for lead - that Marxism has nothing to say about the Lenin sought to connect science to DM, death following blood transfusions…in 1901! seeing scientists as unconscious dialec - ership, and Lenin thought this was a physical sciences, beyond taking their results dangerous departure from materialism. Bog - He died in 1928 after receiving blood from tical materialists. into consideration when considering the de - danov was subsequently expelled. a student with malaria, tuberculosis, and an Engels likened the scientists of his day to velopment of the class struggle and setting Mach enumerated three principles for Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme who physical limits to what may achieved by a valid physical theories: had been speaking prose all his life without workers’ government. 1 They should be based entirely on directly realising it. Suffice to say that the reverence for facts observable phenomena; These included natural scientists, such as that characterised the early scientific policies 2 They should based on the principle of the chemist Mendeleev, who pulled together of the Bolshevik government gave way to relative motion, rather than on absolute the different chemical elements into a sys - the idea of science as a tool to implement the space and time; tematic periodic table, or the physiologist plan. If scientific theory indicated the impos - 3 Any properties apparently based on ab - Pavlov, who with his dogs elucidated the sibility of the plan, so much the worse for sci - solute space and time should instead be seen conditioned reflex, found widely in the nat - entific theory – and for the scientists who as arising from the large-scale distribution of ural world. tried to explain this. matter in the universe. All too frequently, the messenger was In practice, scientists are often “reduction - Principle 1 led Mach into error when he re - shot! ist” in that they break up problems into Gallium, predicted by Mendeleev as “eka- fused to accept the existence of atoms, even smaller parts to work on. This has been crit - aluminium”, sits immediately below after Einstein had show ed how to prove icised but is only wrong if one assumes that aluminium in a modern periodic table. • Version with full references at bit.ly/lh-ms More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Where we stand Deliveroo: next strikes 14 February? Today one class, the working By Zack, a Bristol Courier to restaurant. In Nottingham, too, class, lives by selling its labour Deliveroo reportedly supplied power to another, the capitalist and treasurer of Bristol bouncers to restaurants too. class, which owns the means of Couriers Network In Cheltenham, around 30 people production. struck, a significant proportion of a The capitalists’ control over the Strike action by Deliveroo couri - much smaller fleet. 22 people economy and their relentless drive ers has spread across the coun - joined in a protest, chanting and to increase their wealth causes try, with simultaneous strikes talking to customers in the busiest poverty, unemployment, the having been held in various loca - restaurants. Deliveroo attempted to blighting of lives by overwork, tions over pay, on 1 February. bring in riders from other zones. imperialism, the destruction of the These strikes were inspired by an There was nonetheless a significant environment and much else. energetic and visible strike that backlog of orders with long waits, Against the accumulated wealth took place in Bristol on the 18 Jan - and restaurant managers report - and power of the capitalists, the uary, and precipitated by steadily edly furious at Deliveroo. working class must unite to decreasing pay. Horsham saw 11 people striking struggle against capitalist power Bristol, Cheltenham, Horsham, in a smaller workforce still, with a in the workplace and in wider London, Nottingham and Wor - few of them talking to couriers who society. thing all saw strikes by couriers, hadn′t heard about it before. Most The Alliance for Workers’ mostly starting 6pm. Birmingham of the riders had been brought in Liberty wants socialist revolution: struck earlier that week. from other zones, although some collective ownership of industry Couriers in those six places are were from Horsham but felt unable and services, workers’ control, all, it seems, discussing or planning to strike because of loss of pay. and a democracy much fuller than further strike action and protests. Some restaurants turned off their the present system, with elected Couriers in Bournemouth, Cardiff, Deliveroo service, and others saw representatives recallable at any Leeds, Manchester, and at least one over two hours delivery times as time and an end to bureaucrats’ other place, are also planning fu - they struggled with a backlog. and managers’ privileges. ture strikes, and probably many Worthing, perhaps the smallest Deliveroo riders protest in a restaurant in Cheltenham more beyond these 12 places that I workforce of them all, reportedly We fight for trade unions and country, perhaps significantly bone of how we can build a suc - know of at the time of writing. saw slightly fewer people striking. the Labour Party to break with more, in lost or refunded orders. cessful strike movement to force Many places have been dis - The majority of restaurants turned “social partnership” with the We know that they were scared Deliveroo to pay us better. BCN has cussing strikes on Valentine’s day, off their Deliveroo service, and the bosses and to militantly assert enough to email restaurants across affiliated to the IWGB union, and 14 February. This is a busy day for others had a backlog. Deliveroo working-class interests. the country warning them about it, lots of us have joined. Cheltenham Deliveroo, and riders can commu - called some riders about their strike and to hire bounces in many places. Couriers′ United likewise have a nicate ″no love for Deliveroo″. action, confused about what was In workplaces, trade unions, In many places they raised pay sig - growing number of members, and Other places have been discussing occurring. and Labour organisations; nificantly to attempt to break the activists in various other places are alternative dates. Couriers in London went on among students; in local strikes — but they should raise that members too, and hopefully more On 1 February, in Bristol, we built strike for longer, starting earlier in campaigns; on the left and in pay not just for a day, or weekend, will join up and more places will af - upon the previous protest, with the day, with perhaps 50 present at wider political alliances we but in the longer term! filiate. IWGB′s Couriers and Logis - around 250 or more riders striking, the protest — much more on some stand for: tics Branch (CLB) has been very the bulk of the active workforce. reports — and others passively • Independent working-class supportive and has a wealth of ex - This led to three quarters of Deliv - striking. There is a much larger DEMANDS representation in politics. perience of fighting and winning in eroo′s normal operation shutting total number of couriers in London, Most places had fairly similar de - • A workers’ government, the courier industry in London. down — 120 of 160 restaurants across many zones, and Deliveroo mands, as we encouraged them based on and accountable to the Couriers nationally should try to stopped delivering — and very reportedly placed a £2 boost on all to model theirs on ours labour movement. co-ordinate and come together in a long waiting times, and cancelled orders to try to bring in strike (bit.ly/demandsBC). The core of • A workers’ charter of trade more organised way nationally, or refunded orders. breakers. these demands is higher pay a union rights — to organise, to which will help us to support each A large proportion were striking Riders picketted a restaurant and hiring freeze which would allow strike, to picket effectively, and to other better. The similarity of de - by simply logging out and choos - a set of Deliveroo′s ″dark kitchens″ us to work more orders and so take solidarity action. mands in most places across the ing to stay at home, rather than in Islington. Dark kitchens are pre - raise our weekly pay. • Taxation of the rich to fund country is a good step in the right joining the protest, because of the fabricated shipping containers with We also have demands around decent public services, homes, direction. snow and the cold weather. They industrial cooking equipment due process for termination — i.e. education and jobs for all. One demand that hasn′t yet been struck despite Deliveroo yet again which Deliveroo rents to restau - job security — and transparency. • A workers’ movement that raised in these strikes is for us to be offering ″boosts″ — additional pay rants wanting to expand their de - Most places have one or two de - fights all forms of oppression. Full categorised as workers rather than — in an attempt to undermine it. livery service. mands about particular aspects of equality for women, and social ″independent contractors″, a de - Around 40 of us — couriers and Nottingham saw a large number their local working conditions. provision to free women from mand that would automatically supporters — were on the protest, of riders striking, causing severe To escalate this strike, activists in domestic labour. For reproductive win us many workers′ rights. De - which was energetic and loud. We delays and cancelled orders. Birm - all of these areas need to build ro - justice: free abortion on demand; liveroo has promoted a lot of mis - protested outside and leafleted ingham, earlier in the week, had bust local organisation, and reach the right to choose when and information about the supposed within four restaurants. We know seen a strike by 50 couriers, who out to more and more couriers. This whether to have children. Full but non-existent advantages of the that Deliveroo was scared of this protested outside Deliveroo′s of - means organising local meetings of equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual way they (mis)categorise us. too, as they had it seemed hired fices. couriers, to plan democratically and transgender people. Black Many riders have accepted or re - bouncers to be outside some of the We know that the strike caused and to organise how to reach out ef - and white workers’ unity against peated this misinformation. Locally restaurants, and at least one of Deliveroo to directly lose tens of fectively to yet more riders. racism. and nationally we need to have this them followed us from restaurant thousands of pounds across the Bristol Couriers′ Network (BCN) • Open borders. discussion, and I think most couri - • Global solidarity against have regular and well publicised general meetings for all couriers, ers will be won round when they global capital — workers know the facts. everywhere have more in and we make sure that we always Ideas for Freedom 20-23 June have one shortly after a strike that Finally, the spreading of these common with each other than strikes increases the urgency and with their capitalist or Stalinist we publicise at the strike. BCN also The 2019 Ideas for Freedom — Workers’ Liberty summer school — importance of building a strike rulers. elected a committee that does more has been set for 20-23 June, in London. fund. In Bristol we have almost • Democracy at every level of detailed organising between these As well as main sessions on the weekend 22-23 June, there will be a meetings. For every strike and £1,600 altogether, but with hun - society, from the smallest dreds of riders altogether we de - workplace or community to global walking tour on the evening of Thursday 20 June, and a debate on the meeting we make bilingual leaflets. evening of Friday 21 June. At every restaurant where we see cided that it wasn′t enough to make social organisation. available for the last strike. • Equal rights for all nations, We’re only just beginning to organise the agenda, but it will include other riders, we discuss the strug - presentations and debates on issues round Brexit, antisemitism, climate gle, try to persuade them if they are IWGB′s CLB is also reviving its against imperialists and predators slightly bigger strike fund, to be big and small. change, 1919, and 1989, and more. unsure, give them leaflets, and take Super Early Bird tickets are now on sale, and until 24 February at half their phone numbers. We keep in further supported by a propor - • Maximum left unity in action, tion of membership dues, and to and openness in debate. of what will be the price “on the door” — £25 waged, £12 low-waged contact through texts and What - and student, £5 unwaged. sApp. Press releases, getting sup - be available to members. If you agree with us, please After 24 February, ticket prices will go up in instalments. port from local union branches and Book now, fix the date in your diary, and be ready to book your •gofundme.com/bristol- take some copies of Solidarity left-wing groups, and social media, transport to London at cheap rates when they become available couriers039-strike-fund to sell — and join us! have been very useful too. (probably late March). www.workersliberty.org/ideas This local organising is the back - •fb.me/bristolcouriersnetwork •twitter.com/couriersnetwork REPORTS 10-11 NEU: call a march on school funding!

bers in London felt used and mis - By Patrick Murphy (NEU led. national executive, in The demands of the proposed ac - personal capacity) tion have been a problem from the start. School funding is a critical On 28 February the Executive of and popular campaigning issue, the National Education Union but the main effects are yet to be (NEU) meets to consider the next felt and will be different between steps in our campaign on fund - different schools and areas. ing and pay. The most significant new infor - PAY mation available to NEC members The pay element of the cam - will be the results of a lengthy in - paign was very weak. dicative ballot which closed in mid- The NEU abandoned its own pay January. After a number of claim (for a 5% increase for all) and Lambeth children’s centres “warm-up” questions about sup - replaced it with a demand for 3.5% port for the union’s campaign, the for all. This was justified by the point of access to a range of ser - plans to increase its reserves. The ballot asked whether members claim that 3.5% was the recommen - By Kelly Rogers vices from ESOL classes, through Council could then continue fund - would support industrial action to dation of the School Teachers’ Re - Local parents, residents and breastfeeding sessions, to LGBT ing children’s centres for the next achieve its demands. view Body and it would embarrass trade unionists in Lambeth are parenting support groups. four years, by which point there Support for industrial action the government to have that high - campaigning against the latest The right-led Labour Council might be a new government. from those who voted was over - lighted. round of cuts to children’s cen - have been running a public consul - Lambeth UNISON and commu - whelming (over 80%) but the In fact the majority of teachers tres. tation since mid-December, which nity-campaigning group Lam - turnout across the union was 31%. were already getting a 3.5% in - beth Save Our Services have Lambeth Council’s proposals has been met with a huge backlash The 2016 Trade Union Act requires crease under the government’s pay distributed thousands of leaflets, would close five of 23 children’s from children’s centre users and a turnout of 50% and a yes vote award. The Union was asking the held meetings with parents and centres in the borough, and cut in other local residents. from 40% of eligible members. majority of teachers to vote for workers, organised a well-at - half the provision at another seven The Green opposition in the The Executive is unlikely to call a strike action which might gain an tended demonstration in Brixton centres. council has submitted an amend - “official” national ballot for strike increase in the pay of school leaders on 26 January and occupied Children’s centres are places for ment, to be decided on later in action on the basis of this result. and such but would not gain most Lambeth’s newly refurbished children to play, and, for parents, a February, which asks the Council to There must be a serious risk that in - teachers a penny. reduce the amount by which it Town Hall with toddlers in tow. dustrial action will be shelved for It is unlikely that a viable pro - the moment. posal for strike action which really If action remains on the table it is builds a national dispute will likely to be in the form of some sort emerge from the 28 February Exec - of selective strikes in areas or utive meeting. PCS left focus on living wage phases with the highest turnouts. But the NEU should call a na - There are major problems with tional demonstration on a Saturday all options there. Members who to demand increased funding, de - both appear in the official pay further failures to meet the 50% voted yes to action in the indicative cent pay, an end to the exam-fac - By Mike Chester claim. There has been almost no turnout threshold and allows the ballot did so on the understanding tory model of education and emphasis on them, so the likeli - funnelling of resources into any that they were supporting unified bringing academy schools back The civil service union PCS has hood of them being addressed group [sector of the civil service] national strikes. They weren’t vot - into local authority control. We just completed a membership looks minimal. which fails to reach the threshold. ing to take action only in their own should call on Labour and the rest consultation on the 2019 civil IL’s alternative claim makes com - There is a serious strategic and schools or geographical area. of the trade union movement to service pay claim and campaign mon rates and a living wage the organisational deficit in the leader - There is also little point in selec - support it. plan. central points on which the claim ship’s reliance on the biggest sec - tive action unless the intention is to Such a demonstration would A February meeting of the hinges. tions of the union to drag the rest roll it out across the country. In the not only put education on the po - union’s National Executive (NEC) The claim eradicates the worst over the line for the ballot. 2012 pensions dispute, London was litical agenda in a new way, and will “press the button” for a new injustices of the current pay system As we saw with the MoJ pay called out for a one-day strike with build confidence and engage - civil service pay ballot. — that there are workers who don’t offer that followed the ballot, an ag - the promise that other regions ment ahead of the national in - At a December NEC, general sec - make enough money to live, and gregated ballot doesn’t hide organ - would follow. In fact no other re - dustrial action that will retary Mark Serwotka and the lead - that those of the same grade can isational weakness from the gion was called out. Many mem - eventually be needed. ership proposed a pay claim of have wildly different rates of pay. employer, though even from such a 8-10%. Phil Dickens, a member of If such things remain apart from weak position, the reps in that the PCS Independent Left, the or - the claim, the government could ar - group pulled off a heroic effort to ganisation where Workers’ Liberty guably agree to the percentage PCS see off the attack. activists organise in within the asked for without giving a living In a disaggregated ballot, any union, proposed the following al - wage to all or equal pay for equal group which didn’t make it past Checks only after 82 days? ternative claim: work. the line could similarly regroup, •A living wage of £10/hour but instead of having to do so alone By Ollie Moore job cuts, union activists say that a (£11.55 in London) for the lowest SERWOTKA they would have the cover of an reduction in head count could fol - grades Serwotka and the leadership of ongoing campaign by those groups low an extension of train prep • Pay at all other grades to be up - that passed the threshold. Tube union RMT is preparing to the union’s dominant Left Unity ballot members working in fleet schedules. lifted in proportion faction said IL’s claims was “too We will know the results of the Elsewhere on London Under - •A spot rate [standard rate] for membership consultation in the maintenance for industrial ac - complex”. The points about spot tion to resist an attempt by Lon - ground, station staff on the Dis - AO and EO grades based upon the rates and progression pay were week starting 4 February. We ex - trict Centre group, covering pay max in the civil service pect the leadership’s proposal to don Underground to extend mere “details for negotiations.” train preparation schedules. stations including South Kensing - •Contractual pay progression But for many members the lack win through as it was presented as ton and Gloucester Road, are plan - where there aren’t spot rates a fait accompli at the consultation Currently, trains are prepped, of contractual pay progression with all basic checks being per - ning a ballot for strikes against •Outsourced pay to be mini - being as big any issue as the lack of meetings, often poorly attended. short-staffing, after a similar ballot mally brought in line with civil ser - IL will continue fighting for our formed, every 24 hours. New pro - a substantive pay rise. posals from the company would on the Bakerloo Line forced signif - vice pay Phil also argued that the ballot claim and our strategy and en - icant concessions from manage - Previously PCS has had a peren - courage members to support extend that by varying lengths on (or re-ballot) should be disaggre - different lines, to a 96-hour sched - ment. nial “5% rise” formula, and IL has and vote for our candidates, in - Drivers at the Acton Town gated by departments, but with a ule on some lines and an 82 day argued that goes nowhere near ad - cluding John Moloney for Assis - depot on the Piccadilly Line are clear central steer on the demands. one on others. dressing the pay injustice PCS tant General Secretary. also preparing to ballot, after This doesn’t divide or erode the na - Although LU bosses are yet to members have suffered. management imposed a new tional nature of the campaign, but announce any definite plans for The Living Wage and common instead serves as a backstop against • pcsindependentleft.com roster. pay rates across the civil service SolidaFor a workers’ giovertnment y No 494 6 February 2019 50p/£1 Nissan and Students vote “no confidence” payout politics

In the first months after the By Natalia Cassidy Brexit referendum of June 2016, the Tory government re - The National Union of Student vealed, triumphantly, that it (NUS) Trans Students’ Confer - had reassured the car-making ence, on 30-31 January in multinational Nissan. Manchester, unanimously Nissan, whose 7000-worker passed the Student Left Net - site in Sunderland is the biggest work motion of no confidence in car factory in the UK, wouldn’t NUS President Shakira Martin. move production from the UK Earlier in January, an NUS UK after Brexit after all. board meeting had voted to scrap The government refused to say the trans students’ campaign, bud - what had done the trick. It in - get, officer and committee. and Workers’ Liberty were active We argued that while tactics of The Student Left Network and sisted “there was no special deal The motion condemned the at the conference. The Student Left leaking personal information Workers’ Liberty interventions for Nissan”. NUS leadership’s “deeply un - Network spoke to delegates about about trans students should be had a positive effect on the confer - Business minister Greg Clark democratic” handling of NUS’s fi - the upcoming Student Left Net - condemned and dealt with by ex - ence as a whole: normally, all mo - said: “There’s no chequebook. I nancial deficit. It called for NUS to work conference, 2-3 March in isting well-being policies to ensure tions pass unanimously and there don’t have a chequebook”. open the books and to call an ex - Sheffield, and produced a well-re - the safety of students, this does not is little political debate or con - Now we know Clark offered traordinary conference of dele - ceived bulletin with articles about represent the core threat that fas - tention. Similar interventions Nissan bosses £80 million. It gates elected on cross-campus no platform and free speech, NUS cism poses to the labour move - should be organised into as many turns out Nissan is moving its ballots from affiliated student democracy, and materialism ver - ment and minority groups: that is, upcoming NUS Conferences as new production lines anyway, so unions to give members, not an sus identity as a focus for the an immediate, physical threat to possible (Women’s, LGBT+, Dis - won’t get most of the money. unelected trustee board, the final women’s and trans liberation their continued existence and abil - abled, Black Students, plus Na - The Tories offered no similar say. movements. ity to organise. Transphobic femi - tional Conference in April). pay-out to workers facing Brexit The motion also demanded no The conference also passed a nists are simply not building NUS National Conference is 9-11 clouds. They were happy seeing cuts be made to NUS democracy motion submitted by Workers’ movements on the streets. April in Glasgow, and the deadline EU-citizen workers pushed out, or campaigns and resolved to cam - Liberty students resolving to cam - Unfortunately, transphobic atti - for motions is 28 February. Work - and knew British-born workers paign for a “radical, campaigning paign alongside the labour move - tudes are widespread, not ers’ Liberty students have already would have little choice but to National Union of Students that is ment for better provision for trans marginal, in society. Only through submitted motions to on solidarity endure whatever came. much more democratic and repre - healthcare in a fully funded, pub - democratic rather than bureau - with Brazil, campaigning against This is a curtain lifted on a sentative, with real control in the licly and democratically owned cratic techniques can we hope to Brexit, for free movement and mi - whole world of capitalist lobby - hands of its elected representatives and run NHS. make a lasting impact on the val - grants’ rights, and for radical so - ing, deals behind the scenes, and and student members.” Another motion we submitted ues and ideas present in the wider cial and democratic changes in the pay-outs. Both the Student Left Network argued against the dominant view movement and society as a whole. EU, actively supporting workers’ A book published in 2014 esti - on the student left that transphobic It is crucial that the left champion struggles and campaigning to mated the lobbying industry in feminists should be “no-plat - the right to free speech. bring outsourced workers in- Britain at £2 billion a year, which formed”, making the case that This, by necessity, includes fight - house. The Student Left Network means an average of £3 million a Contact us protest, discussion and debate are ing for free speech for those who will be submitting motions of no year per individual MP, and a lot more effective than bureaucratic hold ideas we do not agree with. confidence in Shakira Martin and more for the more powerful MPs. 020 7394 8923 methods such as bans at rooting Although we lost the vote this the NUS Trustee Board, plus oth - The lobbyists expect a return for out reactionary ideas within the time, the large number of absten - ers on positive demands NUS what they pay. solidarity@ movement. tions shows that opinions on the democracy and other political is - The other side of that coin is workersliberty.org An amendment to the motion student left are starting to shift sues and campaigns. the lavishly-paid “adviser” and argued that transphobic feminists slowly in our favour on “no-plat - Student Left Network candi - “non-executive director” given to Write to us: 20E Tower should be denied a platform be - forming” as a tactic and on free - dates Justine Canady and Ross ministers and MPs after they fin - Workshops, Riley Road, cause they often use “fascist tac - dom of speech. Taylor are running for President ish with politics. Former chancel - London, SE1 3DG tics” such as “doxxing, allying Workers’ Liberty held a fringe and Vice President Higher Edu - lor George Osborne now has with the religious right, and stir - meeting entitled “Bolsonaro, trans cation respectively, with more eight jobs on top of his post as ed - Solidarity editorial: Simon Nel - ring up the demonisation of trans liberation and class struggle in candidates to be announced. itor of the Evening Standard, in - son, Cathy Nugent, Martin people on the street.” The amend - Brazil”. Fifteen people came (the • Read the Student Left Network cluding a one-day-a-week gig ment passed, although around total at the conference was 50 or bulletin: bit.ly/nustrans Thomas, and Mike Zubrowski with Blackrock which pays forty percent of delegates ab - 60), and interesting discussions • Register for the SLN confer - £650,000 a year. Printed by Trinity Mirror stained. were had. ence: bit.ly/SLN19 The Tories have attempted a feeble “workers’ version” of the same ploy by suggesting Labour MPs who vote for whatever Brexit deal the government Subscribe to Solidarity To: ...... (your bank) ...... (address) comes up with may get central government investments in their Account name ...... (your name) Trial sub (6 issues) £7 o constituencies. Six months (22 issues) £22 waged o, £11 unwaged o Account number ...... Sort code ...... Labour right-winger John One year (44 issues) £44 waged , £22 unwaged Mann, who voted for May’s deal o o Please make payments as follows to the debit of my account: European rate: 6 months €30 o One year €55 o on 15 January anyway, shame - Payee: Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, account no. 20047674 at the Unity Trust lessly responded “show us the Bank, 9 Brindley Place, Birmingham, B1 2HB (60-83-01) money”. 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