So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y Volume 3 No 191 2 February 2011 30p/80p For a workers’ government

Murdoch under Double Why floods? pressure page 2 dip? page 5 page 10

Egypt: support democratic revolution and workers’ freedom No to Islamist counter-revolution! No to army takeover! See pages 5-8 NEWS

What is the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? Will Murdoch be saved?

Today one class, the working class, lives by wing scandal sheet — ploiting the story — well, selling its labour power to another, the amusing but nothing to do they have all been doing it capitalist class, which owns the means of with us. We should resist for years! production. Society is shaped by the that. What the phone-hacking capitalists’ relentless drive to increase Press Watch This is fast turning into scandal shows beyond their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, By Pat Murphy Britain’s equivalent of the doubt is the extent to unemployment, the blighting of lives by infamous Dreyfus case in which the various compo - overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the environment and France in the way it is ex - nents of Britain’s ruling much else. Rupert Murdoch’s News story. posing the corruption of an class are interwoven with Against the accumulated wealth and power of the International group has Then others became con - overconfident, unaccount - each other, with mutual in - capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. long been the bane of the vinced that they too had able ruling class. terests and personnel, all of The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity left. been the victim of hacking Earlier this month, after which they will fight to through struggle so that the working class can overthrow The Sun and News of the and pursued their own years of denying any protect. News International World (NoTW) have rou - complaints. Fearful of criti - capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership knowledge of the criminal has been able to get away tinely attacked trade cal damage, at least two of industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy behaviour of his journal - with persistent law-break - unions, demonised the left complainants, Professional much fuller than the present system, with elected ists, former NoTW editor ing for years because the and championed Thatcher Football Association leader Andy Coulson finally re - forces supposed to hold representatives recallable at any time and an end to and then New Labour. Gordon Taylor and PR ad - signed chief political ad - them accountable are actu - bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. There is great pleasure to viser Max Clifford, were of - viser to Tory leader David ally on their side whether We fight for the labour movement to break with “social be had, therefore, in seeing fered huge payouts by Cameron. that be the police, the PCC partnership” and assert working-class interests militantly it struggle to kill off the News International to get The Met police are being or the government. against the bosses. poisonous scandal which them to settle without a asked to explain why they That will become even Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, has developed around trial. supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, phone-hacking at the A trial would have meant failed to investigate the clearer when Culture Secre - helping organise rank-and-file groups. NoTW . the exposure of documents original allegations prop - tary Jeremy Hunt eventu - We are also active among students and in many campaigns It started in 2005, when and records showing just erly and failed to tell the ally — and inevitably — and alliances. the Royal Family began to how many journalists were people whose names ap - approves Murdoch’s bid to suspect that salacious sto - involved. The payments peared in Goodman and buy up the 61% of BSkyB We stand for: ries about them could only were again attempts to be Mulcaire’s records that that he does not already they had been hacked. own. • Independent working-class representation in politics. have been the result of done with the scandal be - The Press Complaints If these forces will con - • A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the phone hacking. An investi - fore the true scale of the Commission (PCC) twice spire together to help the labour movement. gation led to the conviction operation could be ex - carried out enquiries which tabloids keep us fed with • A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to of the paper’s royal re - posed. porter (Clive Goodman) But that didn’t work. The concluded that there was salacious stories about foot - strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. no evidence of further mis - ballers, soap stars and ac - • Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, and a private investigator cover-up unravelled as (Glenn Mulcaire). The more victims have uncov - conduct or attempts to mis - tors, we can only imagine education and jobs for all. NoTW bosses hoped that ered evidence, more jour - lead it. the ruthlessness with • A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full this would put an end to nalists have been sacked At every level of the which they would try to equality for women and social provision to free women from the story and so did the and the Met Police have British state there appears undermine any workers’ the burden of housework. Free abortion on request. Full Metropolitan Police. The been dragged into the scan - to have been a conspiracy movement to resist the cuts equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Black and white Met conducted a cursory dal. to cover up the criminality and challenge their power. workers’ unity against racism. investigation, sought no There is a temptation to of the News of the World. That’s not the paranoia the • Open borders. evidence of wider phone- treat the substance of all Even the paper’s media ri - left are often accused of. It • Global solidarity against global capital — workers hacking and essentially this as a sideshow — rich vals have shown no interest is simply knowing your everywhere have more in common with each other than with helped the paper bury the celebrities fighting a right- in investigating and ex - enemy. their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. • Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or community to global social organisation. • Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights NHS reform: is this GP choice or for all nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. • Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. market madness? • If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! 07950 978083 [email protected] By Stuart Jordan hand power back to the 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, medics, but only to burden London, SE1 3DG them with further financial The BMA has been in the restraint. vanguard of opposing the The Nuffield Trust’s re - Health and Social Care search into medical groups Bill now being debated in in California shows the Parliament, but it is not a GET SOLIDARITY massive expansion of mar - consistent or coherent op - ket mechanisms to regulate ponent. health care may come into EVERY WEEK! For instance, Dr Hamish direct conflict with GP’s Meldrum of the BMA qual - duty of care. Special offers ified his criticism with this Their report starts by ac - statement: “The BMA sup - GPs rule okay? G Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o knowledging the strong fi - ports greater involvement nancial incentives in the US G 22 issues (six months). £18 waged o £9 unwaged o of clinicians in planning to “over-treat” patients. For services”. tives in the UK are not fi - The old NHS operated example, patients are given nalised. But however it is without cash exchange, G 44 issues (year). £35 waged o £17 unwaged o Meldrum was expressing more expensive, compli - the BMA’s long-standing organised, we can expect fi - without financial incentives cated procedures in order nancial considerations to for staff or services. Serv - G European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o or 50 euros (44 issues) o grievance that GPs are that hospitals and doctors sidelined from decision- increasingly influence clini - ices and workers in the can tap higher insurance cal decision-making and NHS were motivated by Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: making processes in the payouts. NHS. But Meldrum should distort health needs. values of human decency 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG To counteract this ten - These tendencies will be not individual monetary remember that these pow - dency, firms like Kaiser Cheques (£) to “AWL”. ers were stripped from exacerbated by shortfalls in gain. Clinical decision mak - Permanente have incen - funding. The Guardian (31 ing was made without medics as part of the pri - Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. tivised “quality primary January) reported that west pressures of the market vatisation process where care” that promotes “pre - London GPs involved in a clouding medical judge - clinically-trained managers vention” and “minimises government “pathfinder” ment. To combat the Health were replaced with finan - Name ...... costly hospital-care”. GPs scheme for the new system and Social Care Bill, oppo - cially-driven executives. are given money to keep will face a £1 billion short - sition groups will need to Those executives intro - Address ...... people out of hospital. fall in funding by 2014-15. articulate an alternative po - duced the internal market, Meanwhile it is unclear And an internal NHS docu - litical vision which tells the which meant, for the first that the patient has re - ...... ment says “closing this truth about privatisation time in NHS history, finan - ceived the correct treat - funding gap will require and also challenges the un - cial restrictions were placed ment...... significant change in how derlying contemptuous on clinical decision mak - And more bureaucracy we deliver healthcare”. view of humanity as being ing. will be created around the I enclose £ ...... Saving money will be “the motivated purely by greed. The abolition of PCTs distorted structures of the bottom line” in the new Because that is the ideology and “GP commissioning” new system. system. of the boss-class. under the new law will The details of GP incen - 2 SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Italy: carworkers Irish election is the most strike against Fiat important since 1932 bosses’ attacks and austerity By Jack Cleary first, second, third, etc, preferences in the 26 coun - By Hugh Edwards will continue to be repre - The 26 counties general ties version of PR, are com - sented. plex and often surprising, However, the strike election on 25 February is Tens of thousands of Ital - but a lot of Fianna Fail turnout across the country the most important elec - ian workers in the metal - “first preference” voters (in Bologna 30,000 struck tion the state has had since workers Fiom-Cgil union vote Labour second prefer - and marched) demonsrated 1932, when De Valera and and the USB union took ence. The Labour Party a fierce determination to the Catholic nationalists part in a nationwide strike might benefit greatly from fight on among carworkers. — Fianna Fail — formed on Friday 28 January. The the disillusionment with Fi - Strikers were joined by their first government strike was in protest at the anna Fail. thousands of students, re - (with non-participating attempts by Fiat car com - Sinn Fein is offering a searchers and teachers, all Labour Party support). pany in Turin to imple - mixture of economic and acutely aware that the Irish politics is in the ment draconian work nationalist demagogy — struggle at Fiat is an inte - melting pot. conditions and reflected tear up international fi - gral part of everyone’s bat - The main governing the fear that this could nance agreements — that tle against the party, Fianna Fail, has a spread to other car manu - government’s attacks on new leader, Micháel Mar - could chime with the feel - facturers. education, health and wel - tin. It has not got much ings of many voters. It is Fiat’s conditions will fare services. else. The rats are deserting seemingly radical and out - mean intensification of the At many of the mass the sinking ship. No fewer sider, far more so than the workload, reduction of rest meetings the demand for than 30 — out of a total of Labour Party, veteran of and mealtimes and a severe an all-out general strike 72 — Fianna Fail TDs are many coalitions. curtailment of rights to drowned out much of the not contesting seats. Some The last thing the work - sickness benefits. pussy-footing trade union of them, such as Neal ers of Ireland need is a re - Fiom, which represents IMF-imposed cuts have shaken up Irish politics bureaucrats. Blaney in Donegal, are suscitation of the national the largest component of Fiom leaders announced scions of old Fianna Fail chauvinism of early Fianna metalworkers at Fiat, is mass meetings of all its local dynasties. The Labour Party, which This is belated, but looks Fail, during the Great now deprived of its right to workers to discuss widen - The small Green Party, in tandem with Fine Gael, like an attempt to do as the Slump. Yet, in desperation represent its members on ing the action. Fianna Fail’s partner in the 26 counties’ second British Labour Party did and disillusionment with the plant’s shopfloor com - If the momentum is not coalition, with six seats bourgeois party, is commit - before it lost the British the recent past, it will prob - mittees. to be lost the maximum now, is expected to have ted to a coalition, but has May 2010 general election. ably be what many of them Other unions — those unity of all the varied more after the general elec - now distanced itself from Unlike the British Labour go for. And Sinn Fein, de - who shamefully bought fronts of struggle against tion. Sinn Fein, the new the savage cuts imposed by Party, the Irish Labur Party spite the demagogy, is in into the bosses’ blackmail the goverment and bosses constitutional nationalists, international finance on the has not been in govern - the marketplace of Irish threat to pull out of Italy if is needed: a worker led the would-be new Fianna state and, following the ex - ment. With a bold policy it politics, too, looking for the the new conditions did not campaign of democratic Fail, is almost certain to ample of the British Labour should be able to greatly best coalition offer it can get passed in a recent and radical challenge. win more seats, maybe Party, is arguing for less increase its Dail strength. get after the general elec - plant-wide referendum — many seats. immediate cuts. The patterns of voting for tion. Southern Sudan: starting to build social movements

In the first complete re - of economic development. see parties split down eth - sults of a referendum, 99% For many, economic rela - nic lines is regarded by of South Sudanese have tions over the last 50 years most without a direct stake voted to secede from the of war cannot even be clas - in the government as virtu - north. Tim Flatman re - sified as subsistence. Sur - ally impossible, but crucial. cently spent three months vival through harsh years Nonetheless, there are in South Sudan and con - of war has been ensured by reasons to hope these con - tinues a series of articles scavenging for roots and ditions making political or - on the future of a new leaves. The collective mem - ganisation a challenge are country, set to become in - ory of how to cultivate has changing. For instance sep - dependent in July. evaporated in areas where aration makes political as - successive generations sociation more culturally Jobs, working rights, pub - have been forced to flee; relevant, as Southerners see lic services and control of often there is no point pro - a new set of political chal - resources are the current ducing anything, as it may lenges as immediate. demands of southerners. be destroyed before there is Southerners are already They are important not chance to reap the benefits. highly politicised — the only in themselves, not A frustrated returnee in - forms war has taken in the only because they impact volved in trying to build a South means a high degree on the environment in proto-trade union federa - litical organisation known war. This deference is only Recent unity between of political awareness has which social movements tion told me that the con - by most Southern Sudanese strengthened by the lack of Southerners is commonly been crucial for survival. operate, but also because cept of collective action is during the war and its set - available jobs, the informal regarded as being based on Knowing who to trust, who they are a precondition for culturally alien and that ting up of civil administra - nature of much work and the necessity of fighting a you can trust now but further political organisa - there was hard work ahead tions, youth leagues, etc, in the mechanism of patron - common enemy and guar - might not be able to trust in tion. And implementing to embed the benefits of as - the "New Sudan" (liberated age as a key means of se - anteeing the referendum. a few months, and under - separation takes priority sociations in public con - areas) rather than leaving curing work. For example, I (However, broadening of standing the intentions of over every other issue. But sciousness. This is made military hierarchies in con - witnessed government offi - the SPLM, church growth, your allies and enemies has there is also a psychology even more difficult because trol was a welcome ap - cials wait hours for permis - reconciliation measures, been a matter of life and that separation will give nearly all associations that proach. But now most sion from management peacebuilding between death for 50 years. Referen - Southerners permission to sprung up during the war associations have formal or rather than make trivial de - communities, recent inclu - dum is also seen as a mat - develop their own country, have clear ties to the Su - informal ties with the cisions on their own. sion of opposition political ter of life and death and so including developing polit - danese People’s Liberation SPLM, with implications Further complicating fac - parties and military par - conversations, for example, ical organisation. Movement (SPLM). for the level of political de - tors include high levels of dons from the Government about the political leanings One of the reasons I am It is too easy to charac - bate. fear and suspicion resulting of South Sudan have also of particular diplomats and using the label "social terise the SPLM as a domi - So too there is a defer - from war traumatisation; played their part. So too di - the structures they work in movements" instead of re - neering influence (such ence to authority and legiti - anyone you don’t know in - vision was based on actions in their home countries ferring to a working class, thinking led the West to mation of hierarchy that is timately is suspect as they of the Government of were common even labour movement, trade support splits which re - surely related to the high could have been bribed by Sudan which may now be amongst people who had unions or even agricultural sulted in hundreds of thou - degree of participation in the North as infiltrators or less prevalent.) Ensuring a no education or personal classes is that most of sands of Southerners losing the Sudanese People’s Lib - to sow division between transition to multi-party resources. South Sudan is starting their lives in the mid-90s); eration Army during the Southerners. democracy which does not Next week: expressing soli - from a blank slate in terms the SPLM was the only po - darity SOLIDARITY 3 REGULARS The militant working-class suffragist

trade unionist who had been sacked from the Post Office for of conscientious objectors and in 1917 Selina led a Women’s his union activities. They had three children, two of whom Peace Crusade march through Nelson to be greeted by de - survived infancy. rision and jeers from many caught up in the nationalism and On Whose Shoulders Juggling family life with work and political activity, she jingoism of the war. was active in many different campaigns, organisations and After the war Selina stood for election on the town’s coun - We Stand By Jill Mountford groups including the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) cil in Nelson; she stood as Labour candidate but her oppo - Selina Cooper and the Independent Labour Party (ILP). sition to the war and her outspoken views on birth control In 1900 Selina collected more than 800 signatures for the ensured her defeat. After this she concerned herself with 29,000 strong petition of women workers in Lancashire call - campaigning against domestic violence and threw her en - “Women do not want their political power to enable them to boast ing for women’s suffrage. This meant standing outside local ergy into the movement for birth control. In the hard eco - that they are on equal terms with the men. They want to use it for factory gates, knocking door-to-door, persuading women of nomic depression of the 1930s she campaigned and spoke the same purpose as men – to get better conditions. Every woman the need for their support for women’s suffrage. passionately for the right of married women to work. in England is longing for her political freedom in order to make the In 1901, supported by the SDF and the ILP, she was the In 1934, when she was 68 years old, she joined the pro- lot of the worker pleasanter and to bring about reforms which are first working-class woman ever to be elected as a Poor Law communist (Stalinist) Women’s World Committee Against wanted. We do not want it as a mere plaything…” Guardian (local administrator of “relief” payments to the War and Fascism. In 1940 she joined the People’s Conven - (Selina Cooper, from Wigan Observer 1906) unemployed), despite local newspapers campaigning tion (a CP initiative) for which she was expelled from the against her. Usually in a minority, Selina was generally out- Labour Party. At 76 she found herself outside of mainstream A millworker from the age of 12, and daughter of a navvy, voted by middle-class “do-gooders” on the committee. Labour politics for the first time in fifty years. She died in Selina Cooper (née Coombe) was born into a big working Selina now had a fast-growing reputation as a passionate 1946 at the age of 82. class family in 1864. She was a trade unionist, suffragist speaker able to put the arguments across and carry people I would offer no apologies for Selina’s drift towards sup - and socialist in the north of England, who began her cam - with her. She made her a home for herself in the National porting the Stalinist Communist Party, but it has to be seen paigning life fighting her bosses for better conditions for Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), which was in the context of the betrayals of the Ramsey MacDonald women in the workplace. the dominant campaign amongst women in the north of and Philip Snowden led Labour Party and the rise of fas - The fight for doors on the toilets and against sexual ha - England and operated in stark contrast to the Women’s So - cism in Europe. It would be wrong to judge her life’s work rassment at work meant more than just taking on the bosses cial and Political Union, led by Emmeline and Christabel by that last decade or so. though. The men who ran the female dominated Cotton Pankhurst, the “celebrity suffragists”. Selina Cooper is a fine example of a working class woman Workers Union had to be challenged too. By 1912 Selina was a paid worker for the NUWSS speak - who educated herself and fought tirelessly — juggling fam - Selina taught herself about history, politics and medicine; ing around the country and lobbying the giant Miners’ Fed - ily, work and politics — to improve the lot of working- studying the latter in order to be able to advise fellow work - eration to throw its weight behind the demand for women’s women. She saw the big picture, and looked beyond the ers who could not afford to pay for a visit to the doctors. suffrage. She won their support in 1913. question of the right to vote towards matters such as rights Selina married Robert Cooper, a commited socialist and Selina and Robert opposed the First World War, swim - at work, the right to work and birth control. These are shoul - ming against the political tide. They campaigned in support ders on which we stand. The Guardian goes “ultra-left”

The rights of the one-million-plus Israeli Arabs can be im - proved by negotiation and reciprocal agreements. Certainly they should be. For a certainty, the overall Jewish or Hebrew character of Reason in Revolt Israel will not be altered by negotiations or as part of a gen - eral Middle East peace settlement. By Sean Matgamna There are good-hearted people who consult only what they would like to see happen, and substitute that for what “Revealed: how Palestinian leaders gave up on refugees”. is conceivable now in the way of improvements — an inde - There were no two readings which either the quick-glance pendent Palestinian state alongside Israel. or the pause-and-reflect-on-it reader could make of the Unable to face the harsh realities on the level of calcula - front page headline on 25 January. to Jordan and Egypt). tion, they are easily led out to face them blindfolded with Or of the smaller bullet-point straplines: “Just ten thousand”? The Guardian thinks the five or six the realpolitik logic of those who want to conquer Israel, “Papers show PLO accepted just 10,000 to return”. “Rice million defined as Palestinian “refugees” (there are varying and in practice commit to further decades of conflict and suggested resettlement in Latin America”. “Negotiations ac - figures) can and should “return”, and accepting anything war, and more decades of hell for the Palestinians in the cepted Israel as ‘Jewish state’.” less — “just” some token number — is treachery by the West Bank and Gaza. This was all presented as “revelations” from leaked Pales - Palestinian leaders to the true Palestinian cause (the “cause” There are malicious pedants who quibble about the mean - tinian documents, but, as John Strawson pointed out in a embodied in Hamas?) ing of Israel being a “Jewish state”: isn’t it just a religious letter to the paper the following day, none of the information Let’s break that down a bit. In 1948 and in the years after, thing, etc.? The point is that the Hebrew nation in Israel is . was new. there were (mainly forced) “population exchanges” between It exists. It is a national entity. Full rights for Israeli Arabs Which paper was this? Socialist Worker ? The Morning Star , the new state of Israel and Arab and Islamic countries — can be secured within it, as rights can be secured for na - self-proclaimed “paper of the left”? about 750,000 Arabs driven out from the territory assigned tional minorities elsewhere; but cancelling out or suppress - The fact that seriously critical letters were published to the Jewish state by the UN, and about 600,000 Jews ing the national entity itself is another matter. shows that it couldn’t be either the Morning Star or Socialist pushed out from Arab countries. Much more could be said about the coverage in the Worker . Of course, it was the Guardian , headlining an article By now, of course, most of the five-million-plus Palestin - Guardian , did space permit. by Ian Black and the paper’s associate editor, Seumas Milne. ian “refugees” are descendants of refugees, not “refugees” It is an old joke in Solidarity that the SWP are “ Guardian The page one headlines set the keynotes for all the cover - in the usual meaning. “Refugee” here is a political defini - readers with placards”. Here we had the Guardian ’s front age in the paper. tion, almost the name by now of an Arab sub-nation. To a page, and five more pages of that issue, turned into crude Everything in those four headlines was more than merely large extent, the “refugees” are forced into living like pseudo-left (indeed, pseudo-ultra-left) placards. questionable. The substance, tone, manner was that of an refugees by the policy towards them of Arab governments, “Intransigence” was used as pseudo-left gloss on the pol - agitation exposing and denouncing outrageous departures denying them rights to become citizens or sometimes even itics of Arab and Islamic revanchism. The Guardian became from long-agreed positions and ideas — indeed, of a finger- to work. a conduit for “revelations” and “exposures” that help pointing, hoarse-voiced heresy-hunt. The “right of return” for those millions, who are as nu - Hamas and Hezbollah against the saner Palestinian politi - The headlines begged all the important questions in the merous as, or more numerous than, the Israeli Jews, implies cians. conflict between Israel, the Palestinians, and the Arab and the displacement of the Israeli Jews born in Israel, or most And against all the real political interests of the Palestini - Islamic states. of them. ans. In the real world, they lined up the Guardian behind the In some rational and benign other world, maybe, over five It is the Palestinian people who have over decades suf - positions and demands of Arab and Islamist forces commit - million Arabs could be added to the existing five million fered terrible consequences from Arab and Islamic “intran - ted to war until Israel goes down, and against those pre - Jews within Israel. That is not our world. Nations and na - sigence” and refusal to make peace. pared to make peace with Israel. tional identities are powerful things. Today it is Israel, from a position of great strength, that The Palestinian leaders “gave up” on refugees? But who There are a lot of people on the left who don’t think it refuses to make a peace which the Arab states and the Pales - among even half-informed people in Britain over the last 60 through beyond the impulse for a benign solution. But by tinian majority offer it. But the other millwheel that com - years ever believed that the bulk of “the refugees” could “re - now, there can’t be many people who have thought about it bines with Israel to grind down the Palestinians — and turn” other than in the wake of conquering armies that had and yet don’t know that the “right of return” is code for the perhaps, as settlements expand in Palestinian territory, first smashed the Israeli state? destruction and elimination of Israel. I doubt that Seumas eventually to remove the very possibility of an independ - Who thought that any negotiated “return” would be any - Milne, who in politics is a man of the would-be left, is ent Palestinian state — is Arab and Islamist obsession with thing but token thousands? among those who don’t know. eliminating Israel. Demagogy about the “right of return” is Who advocated full “return”, except those who wanted, “Accepting Israel as a Jewish state”? That is what exactly? today the standard code for expressing that obsession. or were prepared reluctantly to accept, the elimination and Accepting that it is not a Palestinian or an Arab or a bina - The Guardian is the organ of the invertebrate liberals — destruction of Israel (and in fact of the Hebrew nation). tional state? That it is, in its national character, what its big those who feel an inner compulsion to accommodate to re - Who has ever supposed that short of such conquest of Is - majority want it to be, their state? actionary forces, in the Middle East as elsewhere. Its “lib - rael, there could ever be a re-rolling of the film of history, And the Guardian’s alternative? How are the people of the eral” backbone crumbled long ago. The Guardian of 25 back to before 1948, when as a result of a 1947 UN resolution state to be prevented from making it their state? By the He - January is further proof that — as the would-be left shows both Israel and a West Bank/Gaza Palestinian state were set brew nation being deprived of the right of self-determina - painfully — demagogy rots your brain. up? (The Palestinian state was eliminated, most of it going tion? 4 SOLIDARITY EDITORIAL Egypt: support democratic revolution and workers’ freedom

As Solidarity went to press on 1 February, Hosni Mubarak, dictator of Egypt since 1981, declared that he would not stand in the country’s presidential election in September, and would work until then for an orderly transition. His rule had been fatally damaged since the Egyptian army, on 31 January, declared that it would not use force against the demonstrators on Egypt’s streets, and even that it recognised the demonstrators’ demands as “legitimate”. The main demand of the demonstrators had been that Mubarak should go. He probably will not make it to Sep - tember. The blows of the world economic crisis, and especially of the big food price rises of 2008 and the recent months, have cracked the established order first at a point where it looked most solid and congealed, but in fact was most worn and discredited. Mubarak is the third chief of a regime in office since 1952. In Tunisia, Ben Ali was the second chief of a regime ruling since 1956. Other Arab regimes are mostly of the same stripe: out - right hereditary monarchies, in Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia; dictatorships which owed their initial impetus to Arab-nationalist claims of decades ago, such as the Ba’thists in Syria (since 1963), the FLN/army regime in Algeria (since 1962), or Qaddafi in Libya (since 1969). They are the “oldest” regimes in the world. Tahrir Square protest In their day they consolidated national independence from European colonial rule, nationalised much industry, democracy, link that fight to its battles on wages and con - friend rather than an enemy. and pushed through land reforms. But all have been sti - ditions, and lead society forward to a workers’ govern - Direct military rule is perhaps less likely than the instal - flingly unfree. ment. lation of coalition civilian governments buttressed by and Despite the afflux of oil incomes to the region — some of For now the UGTT is committed to political coalition, and close to the army. which spreads out to countries with little or no oil, through the initial step of the working class separating itself out as A big difference from the Philippines, and from Indone - workers’ remittances home — economic growth has been an autonomous political force is yet to be completed. sia, although in terms of religious belief Indonesia is mostly poor. Rapid urbanisation and expansion of the education The upheavals in Tunisia and Egypt will reverberate Muslim, is the strong presence in Egypt and Tunisia, and systems in these countries has produced a generation of throughout the Arab world. A clear independent voice from across the Arab world, of political- Islamist groups as the urban young people often highly educated, taunted by the the workers’ movements in those countries — where it is longstanding legally-banned but visibly active opposition processes of capitalist enrichment and corruption around stronger than in many other Arab countries — can shape to the dictatorships. This is true even in Tunisia, by many them, but without jobs or prospects. In Egypt, over 30% of the outcome across the whole region. standards a very secularised society. young people are unemployed. Though the Islamist movements have played little part The new market-oriented economic policies of govern - OTHER FORCES in the upheavals, the fact that they have political cadres and ments like Egypt in recent decades have stripped protec - organisation already in place gives them scope to shape tions from the poor like food subsidies, but produced no Other forces than the working class will also strive to outcomes. flowering of private capital. shape the outcome. Iran since 1979 shows that political Islam is a deadly In Tunisia and in Egypt, the working class has been cen - In Egypt, the international diplomat Mohamed ElBaradei threat to democratic, workers’, and women’s rights. Iran in tral to the upheavals. In Tunisia, the trade-union confeder - has put himself forward. He appears to want a develop - 1978-9 shows that democratic promises by the Islamists be - ation UGTT, despite a long history of political ment like that in Indonesia after the fall of the Suharto dic - fore taking power are worth nothing once they gain power. accommodation to power, is the axis of the opposition. In tatorship in 1998, or the Philippines after the overthrow of It may be that the young people of the Arab countries Egypt, the movement on the streets follows a rise of work - the Marcos regime in 1986: a regime politically more liberal, know enough about Iran that they will strongly resist polit - ers’ strikes since 2004, and has given birth to a new inde - but economically neo-liberal. ical Islam. It may be that the Islamist movements in Egypt pendent trade-union federation. That would at least allow the working class space to or - and Tunisia, lacking Iranian Islamism’s structure of a cler - With independent political organisation and a chance to ganise. ical hierarchy, prove less solid than they seem. We hope so. educate itself and discuss — things which will take much The army chiefs are also contenders for power. In both Much of the left in Britain has ignored the threat of polit - effort and probably much time — the workers’ movement Egypt and Tunisia the army stood aside, effectively licens - ical Islam to the revolutions in the Arab world, or positively in these countries can take the lead in fighting for full ing the street demonstrations, and is seen by many as a endorsed political Islam, thinking that its demagogic hostil - ity to the US and European governments makes it progres - sive. This is a betrayal of the workers’ and women’s movements in the Arab world. Our solidarity should be with the workers’ movements, “Moderation” is reckless and with a fight for full and broad democracy in the Arab world.

The unspoken assumption by union and Labour Party The theory of the Tory/ Lib-Dem cuts is that by limiting leaders, that the Tory/ Lib-Dem cuts are inevitable and can the expansion of government debt they will limit interest only be alleviated by negotiating voluntary redundancies rates and the “crowding-out” of industrial and commercial Fund drive: £25,000 to and used as grist for electoral agitation, is being proved borrowing by government borrowing, and thus clear the reckless. way for private capital to expand. mark 25 years? Evidence is mounting that the cuts will bring not only Even on the most mainstream of economic assumptions, their obvious immediate damage, but also some degree or this argument depends on those desired effects outweighing another of “double-dip” downturn in the whole economy. the depressive influence of reduced market demand from After 25 years in Peckham, AWL has moved to new prem - The crisis of September 2008 came from overaccumula - workers who have lost their jobs and capitalists who have ises near Tower Bridge, London. tion of debt. An intricate network in which one capitalist lost their public-sector contracts. Our offices are a centre for producing the weekly Solidar - borrowed from another, who borrowed from yet another, The statistics of the decline of output in October-Decem - ity , but they're also an important space for producing other and then yet another, with households and industrial or ber 2010 suggest that the depressive influences are weight - materials and organising our activity. commercial capital as the first borrowers in the chain, even - ier. And that is before any economic shocks. Your donations were vital in allowing us to complete the tually toppled, as doubt about whether debts could or Such shocks are likely. Portugal, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and move, and they'll continue to be vital as we get the new of - would be repaid flooded through the system. Greece will probably not get through the next year or so fice established. Governments limited the collapse by taking over or guar - without further crises caused by doubt about their ability to Can you donate to support this work? One-off donations anteeing key debts of the major banks. Governments com - cover debt. Across the rich capitalist world, the unsustain - are great, monthly standing orders are even better. mand greater confidence as repayers of debt, but not able household debt levels of 2007-8 still prevail, and are un - Thanks this week to James P for new standing order, Rich unlimited confidence. Thus, now, the crisis of the debts of likely to improve soon. B for a £15 donation, Ed S for £30, Bryan E for £100 and Will Greece and Ireland, and soon of Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Not to fight to stop the cuts now is recklessly to accept the A for £200. That leaves our fundraising total for this week at To pay down the debts, even governments need ex - probable devastation of a whole generation by prolonged £347, and our overall total at £20,300. We're aiming to raise panded income. That is unavailable without an expansion economic depression. £25,000 by 26 March; if we make it before then, we'll set a of industrial and commercial investment and of household new target. Please help out as much as you can. consumption. SOLIDARITY 5 BACKGROUND From Egypt in revolt Mehmet Ali

By Clive Bradley Previously the Brotherhood had 88 MPs who (despite the Brotherhood itself long being banned) gave it parliamentary representation. At the time of writing Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt to Mubarak After several days of apparent silence, the Brotherhood an - since 1981, is still clinging to power. He probably won’t last nounced it was supporting the protests. More recently, it has long. Thousands of people are still in the streets of Alexan - issued a statement to the effect that it wants to be part of dis - dria, Suez and other cities, as well as Cairo, despite cur - By Colin Foster cussions about a new government. Other religious authorities fews, and despite a death toll of around 100 people. (Some called on people not to participate in the demonstrations; and reports put the numbers of dead higher.) the remnants of the “salafi” radical Islamist groups opposed Egypt is the largest country in the Arab world. Cairo, with The army is on the streets, but has declared (31 January) them altogether. more than 18 million people, is one of the world’s biggest that it “will not resort to force” against the people and tells It has been suggested that the Brotherhood kept a low pro - cities, a centre of great riches and ballooning poverty. the demonstrators that it is “aware of the legitimacy of your About one and a half million people in Cairo are estimated file as deliberate tactics, but it seems more likely that it was demands”. This follows the pattern of Tunisia, where the to live on other people’s roofs . About one million use the old simply taken off-guard by events. army’s refusal to shoot demonstrators was the signal for Ben Mameluke graveyard as home, making dwellings out of the Or maybe the Brotherhood is weaker than had been imag - Ali to flee the country. tombs. Other graveyards, particularly abandoned Jewish ined; its votes in a poll where it may seem the only feasible Many commentators expect that the army chiefs will tell cemeteries, are considered as “better” shantytowns, com - vehicle for protesting against Mubarak don’t translate into pared to the outlying ones, because they are more central and Mubarak to step down. Then there would be some kind of real support. We don’t know. they provide materials for comparatively solid dwellings. transitional government before elections are held. Whether It is true that the big protests on Friday began after prayers, Egypt was one of the earliest centres of human civilisation. that government includes, as in Tunisia, representatives of and hundreds of people have prayed together in Tahrir For centuries it languished under the Ottoman Empire, cen - the old regime — and whether, then, opposition groups agree Square. It would seem, though, that most have not prayed; tred in Turkey. Between 1805 and 1848, a local governor, to join it, as many have done in Tunisia — would be the big and in any case, religious feeling is not at all the same thing Mehmet Ali, made a drive to win autonomy for Egypt and immediate question. modernise it on European lines. He failed. as support for Islamist politics. After Friday 28 January, when the scales decisively tipped European capital rushed in, particularly with the building By the standards of Islamist movements, the Muslim Broth - and the demonstrations reached unstoppable proportions, of the Suez Canal (1859-69). The khedive (king, under the erhood has evolved in a legalistic and “bourgeois” direction. and prior to the deployment of the army, the much-hated po - overlordship of the Ottoman Sultan) ran up huge debts and It has officially renounced violence, and says it wants to par - lice vacated the streets. Many of them were then besieged in did not have a tax-gathering machine sufficient to pay them. ticipate in pluralistic politics. Britain invaded on behalf of the bondholders in 1882, and be - the Ministry of Interior, where there was armed fighting. In the 1980s and 90s, it was being pushed the other way by came overlord of Egypt for 70 years, until 1952. With the police gone, citizens in many areas formed “civil competition from much more radical Islamist movements in In 1952, a nationalist coup by army officers ousted the king. defence groups” to defend their homes and stop looting. the 1980s and 90s, such as Jihad, one of whose leaders, Gamal Abdul Nasser emerged as leader of the new regime. In There were reports of bands of thieves from poorer districts Ayman al-Zawahiri, went on to be Osama bin Laden’s right 1956 he nationalised the Suez Canal, and faced down an in - robbing houses in richer suburbs, but also extensive eye-wit - hand man. vasion by Britain, France, and Israel. ness evidence that the robbers were policemen. The USA, anxious for influence in the Middle East and con - Those militant jihadi groups were crushed by the state — Thousands of prisoners have been allowed to escape from vinced the old ways of European colonialism would not and that must be one of the things giving Mubarak the sense four jails. Many of these were political prisoners, among work, had applied decisive pressure to make Britain, France, that he can ride the storm. The Brotherhood’s canniness is them 34 recently-arrested members of the Muslim Brother - and Israel retreat. But after 1956 Nasser swung towards the testament to its experience and popular roots. hood. Many were ordinary criminals, presumably some of USSR in the Cold War polarity of world politics of that era. In recent years the Brotherhood has been prominent in He carried out big land reforms, which seriously improved them violent. protests against the Iraq war, and Israel’s wars in Lebanon peasants’ living standards for a while, and nationalised al - NEW WORKERS’ MOVEMENT most all of industry. Old owners of Egyptian origin generally and Gaza. It seems some sections of the left, including the far left, have made a turn to joint work with them, and more of continued to run their businesses as managers under govern - The protests have been marked by acts of solidarity, from ment ownership, but the large section of Egypt’s bourgeoisie an orientation towards their base. the sharing of food to the establishment of impromptu clin - which was of Greek, Jewish, or Armenian extraction were Trying to get the ear of the Brotherhood’s base may make dispossessed. Greek, Jewish, and Armenian families, includ - ics to deal with the wounded and dying. sense, especially if it’s true that many young Brotherhood ac - ing poor ones, were driven out of Egypt, and especially out They have been marked, too, by the near absence of reli - tivists aren’t particularly religious, but are attracted more be - of the once fabulously cosmopolitan city of Alexandria. gious slogans. cause of issues like the Iraq war. Nasser became the hero and leader of “Arab socialism”. According to one report, when a section of a Cairene crowd But it would be a mistake to lose sight of what the Broth - Briefly (1958-61) Syria joined his rule as part of a “United tried to raise a religious slogan, others drowned them out erhood is. It remains an organisation with a programme for Arab Republic”. with “Muslims, Christians, we are all Egyptians!” (which also a religious state (even if they declare themselves ready to In the early days Nasser had been relatively open to nego - rhymes in Arabic). About 10% of the Egyptian population is tiation with Israel, but nothing had come of that. Now, as share power). Even a few years it announced a political pro - Coptic Christian, recently victim to increased sectarian attack, gramme which declared that no Christian or woman could be Arab nationalist discourse burgeoned, it came to define Is - including a bomb on New Year’s Eve which killed 25 and rael as “the enemy”. Colonial rule had gone; there was now president of Egypt. wounded 200 in Alexandria. The chanting of anti-sectarian no further “national independence” measure that could Socially, it is a conservative movement. It sees its legitimacy mend the Arab states’ adverse position in world-market cap - slogans is very significant. as coming from God, not the people. It would be foolish for italism; Israel was targeted, essentially, as a scapegoat for the Groups active in the current uprising include unemployed leftists to trust it to stick to its promises of democratic behav - inability of bourgeois Arab nationalism to unify the Arab or underemployed students, some of whom have been mo - iour. world and make social improvements. bilised since 2008 in the April 6 Youth Movement, a group And it has, fundamentally, no economic programme, cer - Tension culminated in war, in 1967 — and a startlingly which began on Facebook to build support for a coming tainly not a radical one. This could prove decisive in the quick and complete defeat for Egypt and the other Arab major strike by textile workers in the Delta town of Mehalla weeks ahead. states. Nasser died in 1970. His successor, Anwar Sadat, al-Kubra. opened the economy up to Western investment and market And on the afternoon of Sunday 30 January 30, representa - WORKERS’ STRUGGLES forces (“infitah”), and, under US pressure, in 1979 made a tives of groups of workers who have been fighting for inde - peace deal with Israel, becoming the first major Arab country Underlying the current uprising, along with hatred of the pendent trade unions over recent years came together in after Jordan to recognise the Jewish state. dictatorship, are profound social and economic grievances. Tahrir Square to announce the formation of a new union fed - The peace deal was popular at first, but soured over time. The Muslim Brothers have no answers to these questions. eration, independent of the state, and to plan for a general Sadat was assassinated by an Islamist in 1981, and The emerging new workers’ movement may be able to de - strike. Mubarak has ruled since then. The regime, like most of those velop answers and combine them with giving a lead to the in the Arab world dating from the heyday of Arab national - Up to now, only tax collectors, who won a major strike a democratic aspirations of the millions. ism, has become more and more sclerotic, corrupt, and dis - couple of years ago, had won recognition of their union inde - Workers’ movements have a long history in Egypt. At the credited. Egypt is the world’s biggest recipient of US military pendently of the state-run federation. The new unions are an time of the so-called “Revolution” of 1952 which brought the aid, after Israel. enormous step — and the presence in the uprising of work - current regime to power, there was a powerful strike wave. ing-class militants who recognised the need to take an initia - The new regime quickly crushed the strike and executed its tive publicly, in the centre of the uprising, is very significant leaders. indeed. MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD Wages of most Egyptian workers are inadequate to pay for food, clothing, shelter, and education. Even with two wage earners, the It has been said for many years that Egypt’s long-estab - typical monthly wage of textile workers, which ranges from $45- lished political-Islamist movement, Muslim Brotherhood, $107 a month, is below the World Bank’s poverty line of $2 a day would win a fair election in Egypt. The last election was for the average Egyptian family of 3.7 people. According to the blatantly rigged, and the Brotherhood boycotted it, like World Bank, nearly 44 percent of Egyptians are “extremely poor” many other oppositionists, including the supporters of Mo - (unable to meet minimum food needs), “poor” (unable to meet hamed ElBaradei, the international diplomat who returned basic food needs), or “near-poor” (able to meet some basic food to Egypt on 27 January to put himself forward as a new needs). Joel Beinin, Foreign Policy , May 2010 Mubarak on TV leader. 6 SOLIDARITY BACKGROUND

As the Nasser regime moved, after 1956, towards “Arab pated in more than 3,300 factory occupations, strikes, demon - billion of it military aid. The US is very concerned that all that Socialism”, full employment and an improved standard of strations, or other collective actions protesting low wages, hardware could land up in the hands of its opponents. living were targets of policy. Genuine trade unions were not. non-payment of bonuses, wage supplements, and social ben - Israel, also, is worried. Almost any new government would The Egyptian Trade Union Federation is an arm of the state, efits, and private investors’ failure to uphold their contrac - be less cooperative with Israel than Mubarak is over policing its role to raise productivity and whip up support for gov - tual obligations to their workers”. (Beinin, Foreign Policy , 1 Egypt’s border with Gaza. Netanyahu is urging his col - ernment policy. May 2010). leagues to keep quiet. When the regime shifted towards the West with the policy This big wave of workers’ strikes last year is part of the That such a vast amount of aid to a poor country with of “infitah” under Sadat in the 1970s, it didn’t change its re - background to the revolution now. growing inequality is almost all military is a damning indict - lationship with the workers. The state unions stayed in place. The strikes included a campaign for a minimum wage of ment of the world in which we live. If Obama is worried There were strikes, and in 1977 a near-insurrectionary move - LE 1,200 ($215) — a demand emerging from the Mehalla al- about anti-American feeling in Egypt he could just give the ment when Sadat withdrew subsidies on food. Kubra strikes. The official rate, set in 1984, was only $25 — al - entire sum — $1.5 billion — in food instead of tear-gas can - In the 80s, Islamist groups came front-stage, but there were though in March last year Nagi Rashad, a worker at the South isters, guns, tanks, and jet aircraft. That is unlikely to hap - big workers’ struggles at the end of the decade. One of the Cairo Grain Mill and a leading figure in the workers’ protest pen. leaders of sit-in strikes at the Iron and Steel Co in Helwan, movement, won a court decision which theoretically guaran - Western fear of political Islam is one factor in backing south of Cairo, in 1989, Kamal Abbas, went on more recently teed the setting of a new, fair minimum wage. Mubarak, but not the only one. The US does not want a rad - to help found the Centre for Trade Union and Workers’ Serv - The strikes and sit-ins are usually opposed by the official ical development which remains secular, either. As working- ices (CTUWS), which is the source of information about the unions at national and local level. Often strikers call for the class and popular struggles begin to address the economic new federation. sacking of union officials, or for government recognition of issues underlying the current protests they will not find allies But the big resurgence of the workers’ movement began in the unofficial structures (strike committees) formed in strug - in Washington or London. 2004. For example, “During 2007 strikes spread from their gle. The already-combative workers’ movement can make its As in Tunisia, the world recession since 2008 is the back - centre of gravity in the textile and clothing industry to en - mark on unfolding events. ground. Much of what is driving people onto the streets of compass building material workers, transport workers, oil WEST’S SUPPORT FOR MUBARAK Cairo is the same that drove protestors in Athens, or Paris — workers in Suez, and many others. In the summer the move - or London. The revolts have already transformed the Middle ment broadened to include white collar employees and civil Tony Blair, speaking from Switzerland at the weekend, East. They could also be of global importance. servants”. (Joel Beinin, The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt , seemed to remember fondly working closely with We urgently need a socialist movement — a working-class Washington DC, Solidarity Centre, 2010). Mubarak in the Middle East peace process. Obama has based movement which fights for justice, equality, and an There was a big movement at the Misr Spinning Co, a huge gone a little further in trying to distance himself from the end to exploitation and oppression across the planet. It is out plant employing 25,000 workers, from 2006 to 2008. That was obviously-hated dictator, though he still has not openly of mass struggles from below like those now in the Arab the impetus for the formation of the April 6 Youth Movement. called for Mubarak to step down. world, that such movements can emerge and grow. Between 1998 and 2010 “over 2 million workers... partici - The United States gives Egypt $1.5 billion a year in aid, $1.3 Socialist revolution is not immediately on the agenda in Egypt; but out of this immense explosion of popular anger an independent workers’ movement, and a socialist current within it, and a workable democracy within which they can Why the Muslim Brotherhood is a threat operate, can be won. We should do what we can to help. G Centre for Trade Union and Workers’ Services (CTUWS) The Muslim Brotherhood, or al-Ikhwan, in Egypt is the old - ments but even the officially-Muslim-but-secularising gov - (http://www.ctuws.com/Default.aspx) — site apparently suspended at the moment by the government. est party of modern “political Islam” or “Islamism”. It was ernment of Egypt as “enemies of Islam”. Nasser’s govern - G formed in 1928. ment jailed Qutb and put him to death in 1966. The Struggle for Worker Rights in Egypt , by Joel Beinin It began as a conservative social movement, concerned In 1970, Nasser died. His successor, Anwar Sadat, at first (http://www.solidaritycenter.org/files/pubs_ about the spread of “Western culture” in Egypt. It opposed sought to co-opt the Brotherhood. egypt_wr.pdf) — downloadable book. British colonialism, but also opposed increasing freedom for More militant Islamist groups were developing. One of women. them assassinated Sadat in 1981 for making peace with “the In 1946 Tony Cliff, later to become the leader of the SWP in Jews” (Israel). Britain, then a Trotskyist in Palestine, defined the Brother - Since the 1990s, the Muslim Brotherhood has been the more New workers’ co-ordination hood as “a clerical-fascist organisation”. The Muslim Broth - moderate end of a spectrum of Islamist groups in Egypt. erhood was based largely in the urban middle class, More militant Islamist groups have killed secular intellectu - Representatives of independent trade unions and work - especially in Cairo. als, organised sectarian attacks on Christians, and murdered ers’ organisations, including the CTUWS, have set up a In 1952, a military coup brought nationalist army officers, tourists. new organisation to represent their interests in the cur - led by Gamal Abdul Nasser, to power in Egypt. At first, the The Brotherhood has chosen cannier tactics, “boring from rent struggle and its aftermath. nationalist government included people who were close as - within”, taking control of student organisations and profes - They say: “the labour movement is the heart and soul sociates of the Brotherhood. But later it turned sharply sional and business associations. of the Egyptian people’s revolution ...to emphasize the against it. By such methods it has become the strongest organised po - economic and democratic demands voiced by the inde - In the 1960s, the Brotherhood sharpened its ideology, litical movement in opposition to Mubarak. pendent labour movement through thousands of strikes, under the guidance of Sayyid Qutb. It has extended its support beyond its middle-class core by sit-ins and protests by Egyptian workers in the past Qutb was a government official, sent to the USA in 1948-50 welfare projects in poor districts, at a time when what little years.” to study on a government scholarship. He was shocked by social provision there ever was in Egypt has been trashed by Their appeal is being circulated by international trade US society and its liberalism, especially the (relatively free) Mubarak’s neo-liberal economic policies. union bodies. They called for a general strike on 1 Febru - position of women. There is said to be dissent within the Brotherhood between ary. Socialists and the British labour movement should Returning to Egypt, Qutb joined the Brotherhood, became its elderly leadership and younger activists. G throw their solidarity into supporting this initiative. its chief ideologue, and redefined not only Western govern - Cliff on the Brotherhood, 1946: http://bit.ly/fXqLsl SOLIDARITY 7 BACKGROUND Egypt: what How revolution can the left is be stolen by saying counter-revolution By Sacha Ismail

Socialist Worker ’s coverage of the Egyptian uprising is By Martin Thomas useful because their comrade, Judith Orr, is on the ground and thus able to paint a vivid and often moving picture of Is it good sense, or “Islamophobia”, to warn against the the burgeoning movement. danger of the uprisings in the Arab world being confis - It also contains some extremely important factual cated by fascist-like Islamist movements? nuggets, like the report from Monday 31 January that “three When socialists who said in the 1950s and 60s that revo - factories are now on indefinite strike until Mubarak falls. lutionary Stalinism, in China or in Indochina, was a reac - tionary and not a progressive alternative to the established One is a steel mill that produces 70 percent of Egypt’s steel... order, other leftists jeered that those “Third Camp” people Also news that workers in two Cairo factories, one textile were enthusiasts for revolution in theory, but never in prac - company another a printing press, have dismissed their tice. bosses.” It was an easy jibe, but glib. What are the facts? In the However, Orr’s reporting lacks any programmatic com - modern capitalist world, do mass plebeian upheavals — ment or even real political analysis. She is not at all focused based on working and poor people — always push towards on workers’ struggles or socialists’ ideas and role in the socialist and democratic progress? movement. It is more like an extended “Isn’t it wonderful?” Or can they be confiscated to produce tyrannies worse — which it is, but that isn’t enough to say! She reports: than they replaced? “Many believe ElBaradei is the person who can unite the They can. Witness Maoist China, with its tens of millions killed in opposition and force Mubarak out”, without comment. the “Great Leap Forward” and “Cultural Revolution”; Cam - “…everyone is united on one thing: Mubarak must go.” bodia, with its “Year Zero”; Iran, since 1979. And there is no mention of the Muslim Brotherhood, let Fascism, too, can confiscate great social upheavals. In Italy alone the idea that they pose a threat to the Egyptian work - in 1922 and Germany in 1933, the fascist coups, though con - ing class. ducted by leaders using social demagogy and with plebeian The Socialist Party, in contrast, trots out plenty of its support, were made in open opposition to strong organised stalest clichés, climaxing with: labour movements. “A socialist programme of nationalisation of all the big In Poland, however, as Leon Trotsky wrote, when Jozef corporations and banks under democratic workers’ control Pilsudski “was forced, in May 1926, to save bourgeois soci - would lay the basis for planning the use of Egypt’s re - ety by a coup d’etat directed against the traditional parties of the Polish bourgeoisie... the official leader of the Polish sources to meet the needs of all those who are denied a de - Communist Party, Warski took the coup d’etat of Pilsudski cent life under Mubarak’s corrupt and cruel regime.” to be the road of the ‘revolutionary democratic dictatorship’ Workers’ Power, predictably, goes one better by produc - and called upon the workers to support Pilsudski”. Revolutions can be confiscated by tyrannies worse than they ing an extremely detailed, 14 point (yes!) programme for the The socialist-turned-fascist Pilsudski was helped to revolution — despite not having any particular links, as far power with a general strike by workers disgusted by the replaced as you can tell, with comrades in Egypt. conservative Witos government which he overthrew. Both the SP and WP refer to the Muslim Brotherhood as a In their first revolutionary political declaration against and satisfied bourgeoisie and all its political chiefs bar a few bourgeois force, but there is no sense from either that it capitalism, the Communist Manifesto of 1848, Marx and En - rare exceptions, and draws his strength only from the ple - poses a reactionary alternative which could “confiscate” the gels were harsher against what they called “reactionary so - beian masses, poverty-stricken and confusedly disillusioned current revolutionary wave and turn it into counter-revolu - cialism” than against the bourgeoisie itself. by the republic. And with the people he has the elements Then, they assumed that this “reactionary socialism” not of a coup d’état, but of a revolution”. tion by crushing the workers even more comprehensively would surely fade as society “more and more split up into Engels rebuked Lafargue. “I want our people to show that than Mubarak’s regime. WP comes closer to acknowledg - two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly fac - there is a real third issue besides this pretended dilemma ing this, but in the student movement their activists have ing each other: bourgeoisie and proletariat”. [corrupt parliamentary regime or Boulanger]... and not to been arguing that Egyptian socialists should make a “united The most economically-developed capitalist societies take the muddling philistine and basically chauvinistic front” with the Muslim Brothers. have gone somewhat that way, though even there the “mid - Boulangist movement for a really popular one...” dle class” has great weight. But as capital has spread helter- Against Mubarak and the Muslim Brotherhood today, it is skelter across the world, planting modern factories amidst again the job of socialists “to show that there is a real third antique peasant societies, many countries have got more issue”. convoluted class structures. Defining that “third issue” only sociologically, as “sup - The capitalist class proper is encased in a mélange of priv - port for the workers”, is inadequate. Workers too, especially ileged groups clustered round the state machine and its pa - when lacking previous stable political organisation, can be tronage; the working class shades off into a huge social swept along into Islamist, Stalinist, or even fascist move - grouping, much bigger than the wage-working class proper, ments. Democracy, workers’ rights, politically-independent of paupers, semi-proletarians, people with occasional em - organisation of the working class, define the “third issue”. ployment, petty traders, and so on; and in between is a vast According to reports so far, the Muslim Brotherhood has urban mélange of better-off traders, lawyers, doctors, phar - played little role in the upheavals in Egypt, and the En - macists, clerics, officials, and so on. nahda Islamists have been marginal in Tunisia. In many countries, Egypt and most other Arab states They may yet be a threat. They have established cadres among them, the working class has never gained the open - and organisation; funds; prestigious associations (the suc - ings available under even limited bourgeois democracy, and cesses of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc.); and the ability to ap - (despite sometimes rich histories of struggle) has never es - peal to potent and centuries-old religious feeling. tablished a stable political movement of its own. There, the In 1989 the great plebeian movements against the old working class is especially vulnerable to being over - order in Eastern Europe were not led by Thatcherites. Their whelmed by mass mobilisations led by middle-class groups political sentiments were closer to social democracy or a and using nationalist or religious slogans. generous liberalism. A short and apparently freakish episode of French poli - But because the workers were not able to establish inde - tics in 1887-9 was the forerunner, in the day of Engels pendent political movements of sufficient strength, and the though not of Marx (who had died in 1883), of enormous Thatcherites had cadres in place, they dominated the out - political facts of the 20th century. come. A general, Georges Boulanger, whipped up a big political Islamism, as it showed in Iran in 1978-9, can confiscate a movement on the basis of chauvinism and condemnation of mass plebeian movement, fuelled by democratic aspira - corruption in the parliamentary government. tions, to the benefit of fascist-like counter-revolution. The French socialist movement was also on the rise at the Neither overawed by the Islamist threat, nor complacent time. Some socialists, notably Karl Marx’s son-in-law Paul about it, socialists across the world should do all we can to Lafargue, prefigured the Warskis and the leftists who would assist the emergence and triumph of politically independent SWP: unity around Mohamed el-Baradei? Who can tell? back Stalinism or Islamism in the 20th and 21st centuries. workers’ movements in the Arab world. Lafargue declared: “Boulanger has against him the rich 8 SOLIDARITY BACKGROUND Tunisia: the defeat of fear

Two Tunisian activists spoke on 26 January to a French libertarian-left group, the Collectif Lieux Communs. We’ve translated sections of the in - terview about grass-roots organisation in Tunisia, about the role of the UGTT trade union, about the army, and about the Islamists.

At the start, in the two or three days after the fall of the regime, what everyone talked about was corruption and about the political parties and individuals who were going to take over. Now, people are wondering about how the movement is going to go forward. Some people say: since... there are still four ministers from the old regime, the demonstrations must continue until they’re gone. Others think that behind the scenes parties are usurping the movement for their own interests, and ask questions about the strangely large number of political for - mations — when were they set up, etc. ... Some people fear that the army will take over if the movement continues... For us, what can be done now is to continue the revolu - all those practices and that mentality. If the movement carries on in the same way, the army will tion, but not in the form of demonstrations, riots, etc., rather The UGTT... has always had a fundamental political role in intervene directly, for the bourgeoisie will not tolerate the through struggles wherever possible, in the factories, in the the country, for example in the 1960s experience of collectivi - situation... administrations, etc. sation [of agriculture] in Tunisia: that was a UGTT project. The army refused to fire on the masses, and put pressure At the end of the day, what this “revolution” has given us Later, with the rise of raw capitalism in the 1970s, the on the dictator to make him pack his bags and go... Now the is the fact that people are no longer afraid to express them - UGTT supported what is called “liberal democracy”. The military is politicised and intervenes directly in the political selves, and not only in papers or in the internet, but above all UGTT has always been a prop for the government. and social field... in the workplaces where they are... Since the uprising went beyond all the party and union We think that the Tunisian Islamists are very dangerous. The main street of Tunis, Avenue Bourguiba, has become cadres, from the start, the UGTT is now pretending to em - They were absent from the uprising, except on the last day an enormous discussion space: everywhere you see people brace it. It is jumping on the bandwagon and hegemonising when they tried a manoeuvre to hegemonise it, by way of discussing, debating, or demonstrating. Currently there are all the opposition political organisations. the instrumentalisation of martyrs, but without success. demonstrations every two or three hours... For example, all the opposition parties now meet at the Their tactic today is to participate, but in an invisible way. Another gain is the constitution of neighbourhood com - UGTT offices. In fact they have infiltrated many plebeian areas of Tunis. mittees. Those structures are totally spontaneous. Officially, It put forward three ministers for the government, and The leader of the fundamentalist party Ennahda is about to publicly, they have been set up to supplement the forces of then withdrew. Why? Because when all the political forma - return to Tunis, and he intends to restructure the movement order and to maintain order... In fact, in practice, those com - tions, leftists, Arab nationalists, etc., all essentially petty to bring forward new generations. mittees have allowed people to chill out, to let off steam, to bourgeois, put themselves under the aegis of the UGTT, it The Islamists thus have a secret agenda: they do not put discuss, every night, and have thus in fact defied the gov - became the main political force of the country. themselves forward immediately, but are preparing for the ernment curfew. Thus it is no longer simply a union; it has practically be - next elections. They are there, they are ready. When the oth - That confirms a general tendency that can be summed up come a government within the government. The common ers have run out of puff, they will go onto the attack. thus: as soon as the masses begin to take their destiny in front under the aegis of the UGTT is haggling to try to get a The slightly reassuring factor is that the new generation, hand, and to reflect, they set up structures, committees, government where all the movements involved, 25 of them, let’s say those between 15 and 25, did not live through the councils, soviets, shoras — the name does not matter... will be represented, and that is impossible. There will be big rise of Islamism in the 1980s, and so it is a little inoculated There are many social demands. In Tunisia there are many political squabbles about places in government. against fundamentalism, though nothing is certain there. It workers who have no legal status, ill-paid day labourers... The UGTT was founded in 1946 and has always been a po - seems that people in the neighbourhood committees are al - Small and medium businesses do a lot of subcontract work litical force. I would even say — a political party, and a com - ready scared by the arrival of fundamentalism — the arrival for big European businesses. Conditions of work are truly ponent of the political machine of the Tunisian bourgeoisie. of Ghannouchi... lamentable. It participated actively in the national liberation struggle None of that stops the fundamentalists wanting to take A law of April 1972... allows foreign businesses to open ex - from the start, and the wages-and-conditions dimension has over, even if that’s not something they can do tomorrow. We port factories here with a five year tax break. Those busi - always been sidelined. It was always the national liberation have to remain very vigilant; all the more so because leftists nesses benefit in fact from state protection, from free struggle aspect which predominated... are now making alliances with the fundamentalists, and that infrastructure for example, on the pretext of the struggle [As for the army] it has to be said that Ben Ali did all he is very dangerous. against unemployment — and in them there are no trade could, from the start, to limit the role of the military. He is For example, in the meeting of all parties which took place unions or anything like that, despite the poverty wages. from a military background himself, and thus knows very recently, there were representatives of the fundamentalists There are also demands of a more political sort. In busi - well the danger that the army could represent for his power. there too: so in the same hall we had Trotskyists, Stalinists, Is - As a counterweight he consolidated the repressive appa - lamists, etc. We find it really incomprehensible that people nesses and administration, there is corruption, string- ratus of the ministry of the interior: today there are 50,000 ally themselves in this way. pulling, cronyism: there is a whole movement today against soldiers but 220,000 police... The two comrades make clear that they think it is a “leftist” il - The military did not want to intervene to limit the distur - lusion to believe that there are possibilities of social revolution in bances. Then, for 24 hours, there was total anarchy triggered Tunisia now: “you have to see things with their limits and work for UGTT backs coalition by the absence of the police... The military intervened, but the long term...” Their testimony is valuable even if we don’t agree only to re-establish order... on that. http://www.magmaweb.fr/spip/spip.php?article435

“The UGTT [Union Générale des Travailleurs Tunisiens, General Union of Tunisian Workers]... de - mands the ‘nationalisation’ of the property of the Ben Ali clan, that is, the taking of control by the Tunisian Republic of a large part of the economy... “Along the way, the UGTT calls for ‘a constituent as - Could Yemen be next? sembly through free and democratic elections which re - flect the will of the people’...” Hacine El Abassi, deputy general secretary of the Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East, has been Yemen shares many of the basic features of other Middle UGTT, stated the union’s views in an interview with the rocked by demonstrations following the Tunisian upris - Eastern states. President Saleh, has been in power for more 27 January issue of the French left-wing paper Informa - ing. than thirty years — first as the authoritarian leader of North tions Ouvrières . IO , representing the “Lambertist” strand Mass protests in Sana’a started on 16 January when Yemen, and then after unification with the South over the of would-be Trotskyism, gives uncritical support to the Sana’a University students took to the capital’s streets. 50% whole region. UGTT leadership. However, as of now, the UGTT is aiming only at a of the 23 million Yemeni people live on less than $2 a day, Parliament is currently debating a constitutional amend - coalition government with bourgeois opposition parties, and 40% are unemployed. Protesters demanded political re - ment which would allow Saleh to rule for life; it is ru - rather than an independent political voice for the work - form and an end to corruption. moured that he wants his son to succeed him. Al-Islah is ers. In response to the protests President Ali Abdullah Saleh demanding Saleh steps down. El Abassi told IO that “the UGTT... will help the oppo - announced a plan to raise the salaries of government em - The country is already home to a series of different con - sition political parties arrive at forming this government ployees and military personnel by almost $50. flicts — a secessionist movement is demanding independ - of national salvation, so that it can be posed as the tran - Tawakkol Karman, a journalist, has emerged as the pub - ence for the south; al-Qaeda is active; a Shia sect is waging sitional political alternative to this RCD government re - lic face of the protests. When she turns West her public face an on-off armed revolt in the north. President Saleh has lit - jected by the whole of the Tunisian people. is that of a feminist and campaigning journalist. But tle control over most of the country. “Our only agenda is the accomplishment of the goals Tawakkol Karman is also a senior member of the right-wing More democracy in Yemen might well lead to an Islamist of our revolution. The UGTT will play its role to help to rally and unify all the political opposition forces in that religious party, al-Islah, Yemen’s main opposition party. She government. It also could mean the break-up of the state it - direction”. has called for Thursday 3 February to be a “Day of Rage” self. throughout Yemen.

SOLIDARITY 9 FEATURE/LETTERS Why do floods happen?

cause the ground can only absorb so much water and sub - sequent rain runs straight into rivers. Science How can this cause the enormous depths of flooding seen Tommo Peaceful played by Mark Quartley in Queensland recently? Well, if 21cm of rain fell on Queens - By Les Hearn land in December and this was to run straight into the 6.5% of the state which is water (rivers and lakes), their depth Private Peaceful Why do floods happen? And why so fast rising? In would increase by a factor of 100 ÷ 6.5 or about 15-fold. Queensland, it had rained fairly continuously for a long That’s about 3m. Water running downhill to lower-lying time before the floods suddenly arrived. Their depth, areas will be concentrated in smaller areas and therefore rise Stephanie Ann Cooper (age 10 years) went to see Private some 5m in Brisbane, was also far greater than the depth higher. The speed of rise will be limited by the speed of the Peaceful at the Greenwich Theatre (now on tour). of the rainfall. flow into the rivers. This is where human activity can have Are the recent floods in Australia, Brazil, Sri Lanka and an effect. This is a story about a boy called Tommo Peaceful. It’s Pakistan, the forest fires in Russia and so on, symptoms of Australia has long had a policy of deforestation and brush about the First World War and about how young working- CO2-induced global warming and climate change? I don’t clearance. This increases the rate of run-off, while decreas - class men in Britain were taken for granted by their bosses know, and neither does anyone else. The science of climate ing the ability of the soil to absorb water. Also, people have and expected to kill young German working-class men. All is an inexact one, being better with long-term general pre - been placed in the target area by policies of building on these people were innocent, it was not their war. dictions than short-term ones relating to quite small areas flood plains. The degradation of Australia’s environment Tommo is the only person in the play. There are lots of since colonisation by Europeans is discussed in Jared Dia - of the Earth. 3 characters whom Tommo acts out while in a prison cell wait - It is interesting, nevertheless, to look at some of these mond’s book Collapse . ing to meet the firing squad who are going to kill him the long-term predictions: It is said that ocean surface temperatures were particu - next morning. 1. Rising air temperature (near surface); 2. rising atmos - larly high at the time of the rains and that this would have The firing squad is not the German army who are meant pheric moisture content; 3. rising ocean heat content; 4. ris - contributed to their amount, by causing more water to evap - to be the enemy but the English army, the side Tommo has ing sea level; 5. rising sea surface temperature; 6. rising orate. This does not amount to proof that global warming been fighting for. He spends his last night on earth reliving temperature over oceans; 7. rising temperature over land; 8. made the floods worse but it adds to the circumstantial ev - his 18 years of life. idence. loss of snow cover; 9. loss of glaciers; 10. loss of sea ice; 11. 4 Tommo comes from a poor family but he had some touch - Not everyone is convinced, though. Brendan O’Neill , em - latitudinal shift of the jet-stream; 12. changes in soil mois - 5 ing memories of times with his brother Charlie and his girl ture content; 13. increases in drought events and severity; inence grise of sp!ked , a compendium of contrarian Molly. He relives his time in the trenches. This is harsh and 14. increases in flood events and severity; 15. reduced crop thought, wonders whether environmentalists, with their powerful. He tells us about the German soldier who holds a production capacity due to precipitation and drought “obsession with global warming”, might have “exacerbated rifle to his head, looks him in the eyes and says “Go, get out events. the impact of the flooding in Brisbane.” This, he claims, is of here!” He then turns to the audience and tells us about his And, according to the OSS foundation, each of these is ac - because Australian politicians believe that the problem is brother Charlie, who has been badly injured by a grenade tually occurring. “increased heat, droughts and a lack of rainfall.” and cannot walk. This does not amount to conclusive proof. It is true that O’Neill is clearly not aware that low rainfall characterises Tommo decides to disobey orders from ‘Orrible ‘Anley, CO absorbs heat radiation and, all other things being equal, the Australian climate, except in narrow coastal areas. He the sergeant major, and says he won’t go into “no man’s 2 criticises the water policies of the Queensland government, it logically follows that increased atmospheric CO 2 would land” because he knows they would all be shot down by the lead to increased average temperatures. which built dams to collect water, not realising that between Germans. Tommo carried his brother Charlie on his back all Earth benefits from a substantial “greenhouse effect”, ex - 1991 and 1995 Queensland suffered its worst drought on the way to the base camp. For this he was court martialled. plained by the Irish physicist (and pioneering alpinist) John record, severely affecting agriculture. He is not aware of the He told the truth, but they said he was a coward even Tyndall, who showed in 1863 that water vapour in the at - effects of El Niño and La Niña events on droughts and though he had fought in the war for two years. mosphere absorbed infra-red (heat) radiation. He found that flooding He is also not aware that global warming models The play ends as Tommo leaves his prison cell at dawn. the contribution of other gases, such as CO , was negligi - predict increased droughts and floods. Off stage you hear the roar of the rifles as Tommo’s life is 2 Diamond describes how Australian farming policies are ble. At that time, average CO 2 levels were about 25% lower taken by people on his own side. I highly recommend this than today. This effect keeps the Earth about 30 °C warmer quite inappropriate for the climate, a deeply unwelcome play; if you can’t get to see the play, at least read the book than it would otherwise be and prevents substantial day- message for sp!ked, whose writers reject any suggestion that Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo. night fluctuations, clearly making the Earth much friendlier the world’s resources may be limited and believe that all to life. problems can be solved by technological progress. Around 1900, the Swedish physical chemist Svante Arrhe - Workers’ film and video 1. Open Source Systems, Science, Solutions nius studied the absorption of infra-red by CO 2, predicting http://www.ossfoundation.us/ that doubling current levels would lead to an average rise of 2. IPCC = Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change By Stan Crooke about 2°C. This compares with the 2-4.5°C predicted by the http://www.ipcc.ch IPCC2. He estimated that it would take 3000 years for this to 3. Collapse: How societies choose to fail or survive , Jared Diamond, occur but, at present-day rates, it will occur in about 100 Penguin 2006 “Workers Film and Video” is a new website which aims to years. 4. Brendan O’Neill, former journalist for LM (Living Marxism ) bring together into a single site links to footage of key magazine, journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party, now Throughout the 20th century, CO 2 emissions grew as fos - events in working-class history. sil fuels were burnt at an increasing rate. It was assumed finds himself blogging for the Telegraph : Material already accessible through the site, which was set http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/ that most of the extra CO 2 would be absorbed by the oceans. 5. www.spiked-online.com/ up only earlier this year, includes both historical material, In 1957 oceanographer Roger Revelle showed that the abil - such as the 1905 Russian Revolution and the German Spar - ity of the oceans to do this was lower than thought. takist Uprising in 1919, and also more contemporary mate - Earth’s climate is very complex, depending on energy rial, such as last year’s workers’ protests in Egypt. from the Sun, the Earth’s rotation, the tilt of its axis, and the Not all of the footage to which is the site links is unedited unequal distribution of land and sea. Australia is affected footage of events. The site also links to debates and docu - by periodic warming and cooling of the Pacific Ocean due mentaries about topics such as the French Revolution, the to El Niño and La Niña effects. Rainfall is extremely vari - October Revolution, “Did Trotsky Point the Way to Social - able from year to year and decade to decade. Occasionally, ism?”, and even the re-enactment of a (supposed) discussion extreme rainfall with flooding is to be expected. This is be - amongst Parisian Communards in 1871. A more in-depth political analysis of some of the events covered on the site is provided by links to articles in publi - cations and other websites such such as Critique , Revolution - Texas blues To: [email protected] ary History and the AWL’s website. Cc: The website is an open one. It welcomes suggestions for Subject: art and music Texas is in bad shape. Rick Perry was re-elected for an - other films and footage to which it could link. Letters other term as governor and the Republicans have a two- The question thrown up by the website is one of selection. thirds majority in the State House. Does the value of the documentaries linked to by the web - The Republicans are committed to solving a deficit with - site, for example, lie in the original footage which they in - X Factor toxins out a tax increase. Texas is one of the few states with no state clude or in the political analysis which they provide? (Or income tax, and the Tea Party has stiffened the resolve of the maybe in both?) Daniel Randall ( Solidarity 3-190) says he doesn’t want to “less government, less tax” current. Cuts are proposed to And has the footage selected for linkage been chosen sim - get snobbish about the fact that people like watching the funding for public schools, colleges and universities, and to ply because it is available rather than because it really is a X Factor . Fair enough. health coverage for poor people and children. “key event in working-class history”? Except socialists should not abandon critical judgement There is little in the Texas state budget that is discre - The site links, for example, to a collection of 58 videos of in an effort to be laid back and non-judgemental. The X Fac - tionary, so cuts are necessarily savage on the areas where speeches produced by the Communist Party of Great Britain tor , and most shows like it, really are toxic viewing. they apply. Weekly Worker (producers of the ). The drum ‘n’ bass producer Goldie, interviewed in the It is not clear that there is any group that will do much to Does Jack Conrad speaking on “The CPGB Draft Pro - Observer on 30 January 2011, could not have put it better: oppose the cuts. The state workers’ unions perhaps. gramme: What programmes are, how they should be organ - “Think about the people who aren’t making it on there Texas legislature meets for six months every two years. ised, and why they are important” count as a “key event in [i.e. on the X Factor ]. Think about how dysfunctional they The first issue of the session that started this month was the working-class history”? I think not. feel, how failed they feel, a panel of people going: ‘Sorry House Speaker. The Tea Party started a fight in the Repub - Another example is the site’s linkage to footage of the 2009 you‘re going to fail’. I find it quite crushing. I can’t watch it. lican Party over their support for Jo Strauss as House picket of the Iranian Embassy in solidarity with Iranian I actually physically want to vomit. It’s a circus. Simon Cow - Speaker. He is a fairly conservative Republican, but he was workers. This was a worthwhile initiative, but hardly on a ell is the George Bush of the music industry... I’d rather sit regarded as a fair Speaker. The campaign against his reelec - par with the Russian Revolution. down and have dinner with that guy from Korea [Kim Jong- tion focused on the need for a Christian conservative Even so, the site is well worth a visit and new links can il].” Speaker — Strauss is Jewish. In the end, the campaign col - be suggested by its viewers: Cathy Nugent, Lewisham lapsed with the Republicans mostly supporting Strauss. http://workersfilm.blogspot.com/ Will Adams, Texas 10 SOLIDARITY INDUSTRIAL/ANTI-CUTS Cuts: fight on the ground, fight now Tube: a rank-and-file

By Martin Thomas always prepared to try to rather than RPI inflation, a sponded aggressively, voice is needed reach agreement, but if the move which will cut your briefing the Guardian that government proves unwill - pension 16% by the end of “ministers are looking at According to the Morning ing to do the same then we 25 years’ retirement but raising the threshold in a Star , a meeting of all TUC By Becky Crocker, ing end of the cuts, closer in will press ahead with our was put through Parlia - strike ballot so that a strike unions on 28 January lifestyle to the management plans for industrial action”. ment in June 2010 and would only be lawful if RMT rep (pc) “united to beat Con-Dem Prentis said workers would takes effect in two months’ more than 50% of those en - they oppose, union leaders axemen” and “thrashed have “no choice” but to time, in April. titled to vote backed a will not lead a fight as if out plans” for action. Between September and take action if the cuts went The university and col - strike”. (Only 23% of those their life depended on it. Sadly, it’s not true. The November 2010, the RMT ahead. lege lecturers’ union UCU entitled to vote backed the At a recent meeting the union leaders reaffirmed and TSSA led a series of TUC general secretary is already heading for a Tories in the May 2010 gen - Assistant General Secretary the TUC’s 26 March solid one day strikes Brendan Barber stressed strike over pensions in the eral election). said tellingly that his prior - demonstration against cuts against job cuts on London the “concession” from the week before 26 March, and The core of anti-cuts ity at the end of each dis - — but that was already Underground. government of allowing FBU general secretary Matt strategy for a while yet will pute is “to keep the union fixed — and beyond that Then they stopped fight - three more months, until Wrack called at the 28 Janu - be local organisation; pres - intact”, i.e. to protect the resolved only not to rule ing. They declared a truce June, for negotiation on ary meeting for a coordi - sure on union leaders to union as an institution. I out coordinated strikes as a over Christmas and the how it will implement, nated all-union day of encourage, support, publi - tell be people that when we “last resort”. union leaders recently from April 2012, an average action. Apart from that the cise, and extend partial bat - strike, we are not striking The meeting may even have voted not to strike before 3% rise in public sector union leaders remain fo - tles in which groups of “for the union”, but for our worked against industrial ac - the cuts’ implementation on workers’ pension contribu - cused on pensions, rather workers feel confident to own interests. tion, by pressing all union 6 February. tions. than immediate job and fight cuts; and turning the We in Workers’ Liberty leaders to follow a common This has put local reps The Government insists service cuts, as the issue for unions to a real public cam - must push our perspective script in public. Talking to the and activists like myself in that neither the scale nor large action, and on the paign for the right to strike. that our union movement press after the meeting, left- a difficult situation. I am the timing of the increase is idea that an indeterminate should be led by rank-and- wing PCS general secretary faced with questions like, up for negotiation. Still less stretch of “seeking negotia - • Cuts fight round up: file workers, from the Mark Serwotka sounded less “Why have I lost four days’ flexible is the Govern - tion” lies between now and workplace. People are see - militant than right-wing Uni - tinyurl.com/ money and put myself on ment’s plan to index public action. son leader Dave Prentis. the line for this union? ing the results of bureau - sector pensions to CPI The Government re - anticutsroundup Serwotka said: “We are They have let me down and cratic, undemocratic I am still losing my job!” leadership. If we don’t Some of the best activists present another way of are disillusioned and do not doing things, they might Unions must fix “confidence problem” think that we can win fu - leave altogether. ture battles. Management This is why we produce will capitalise on this weak - our bulletin Tubeworker , By Pat Murphy, NUT enue and reduce the deficit elections. For the more left- pensions roadshow meet - ness. which encourages rank- Executive (pc) as an alternative to taxing wing unions it’s in part a ings all round the country I have tried to be as hon - and-file members to get the rich. problem of confidence. It’s in January, February and est as possible and not more involved. We need to Most unions, and all so - undoubtedly true that one March; members are being cover up for the union’s organise so that rank-and- Building a campaign of co- cialists, are for no increase union acting alone is un - surveyed on their willing - mistakes. Away from the file feeling can no longer be ordinated industrial action in the pension age, no in - likely to defeat these pro - ness to take action. workplace and the receiv - so easily ignored. to oppose the govern - crease in contributions and posals so a lot of effort is But there are also mem - ment’s attacks on public no cut in our living stan - being put into coaxing the bers already on strike sector pensions is proving dards in retirement. The less willing. But this is against job cuts, for exam - a very slow and painful idea that we can force the dragging on. ple at Rawmarsh School in In brief business indeed. government to withdraw There is little evidence in Rotherham. The East Lon - The TUC finally held a their plans in talks is risi - the NUT of “pressure from don division is balloting meeting on 28 January. ble. below”. But the confidence members in all schools to Notts County; February and action is Around 55 unions were in - What is needed at this problem is circular. It is un - oppose cuts in central serv - Southwark speech therefore likely to coincide vited based on an assump - time is the language of seri - likely that members will be ices at Tower Hamlets therapists with the demonstration. tion that they were ous intent to fight. We gung ho for action if they Council. For more, see nottsuni - “actively considering ac - should be saying that we detect uncertainty and cau - If we want to boost confi - son.org.uk. tion”. have agreed plans for joint tion in their leaders dence and encourage the Following a consultative Elsewhere, speech and The evidence of what and co-ordinated industrial A lot of material has idea that action is possible, ballot which voted 2 to 1 to language therapists work - happened at that meeting action over a specified pe - been sent into schools then these examples need move to a formal ballot, ing for the NHS Primary is not encouraging (see riod to have these propos - telling teachers what the to be publicised and cele - members of Notting - Care Trust in Southwark above). als withdrawn. What we government plans to do brated throughout the hamshire County Unison will strike on Thursday 3 The truth is there is little seem to have is a statement and urging them to “join union in material that goes will vote on taking indus - February. Cuts to services to talk about with the gov - of indecision. the campaign”, but it is not into schools and to individ - trial action against pro - will massively impact ernment. All of the public The politics of this slug - so clear how they can do ual members. posed job cuts. frontline care, meaning vul - sector pension schemes are gishness are complex. For this. Equally, members should The ballot will involve nerable children will be de - in the early stages of a new Barber and many of the The most common action mobilise for those meetings 3,600 workers and comes in prived of one-to-one set of arrangements which larger unions it’s about proposed is to “email your and invite their local response to a briefing paper support. was designed to make finding ways to curb the MP”. It’s not a worthless branch officers into school from council management Unite regional officer them more affordable. The enthusiasm of others. For thing to do, and more than to talk about the pensions which asserted that 1,000 Richard Munn said: “Our government’s latest plans them the pressure for ac - 15,000 NUT members have campaign. compulsory redundancies members have decided to are not based on an as - tion is little more than a done just that since No - An all-London meeting are “likely to be needed” in take a stand against the sumption that there is any - problem to manage. vember, but not enough to will take place at 6pm on 2011. cuts being made which will thing going wrong with In particular the big be described as “joining a Thursday 17 February at Unison is building for a have a detrimental effect on those arrangements. They Labour affiliates probably campaign”. NUT HQ, Hamilton House, demonstration at County some of the most vulnera - simply plan to pilfer public don’t want any industrial The NUT website in - Mabledon Place, WC1H Hall on 24 February. The ble children and families in sector pensions to raise rev - action this side of the May cludes a list of around 40 9BD. strike ballot closes on 15 our society.” Rebuilding solidarity in the trade union movement

as Marxists we need to face tion has been delayed until challenged before the bers’ Bill last year). growth — pay freezes, re - a few uncomfortable truths June, and everyone seems to change is made this April. But fear of not rocking the ductions in terms and con - about focussing on this be waiting for someone else We are being robbed — boat when Labour was in ditions, reductions in strategy alone. to make the first move… we must fight back. power is why we have the service delivery as well Maria The only co-ordinated ac - An issue that would unite There is a collective timid - absurd hurdles (40% and major job losses. Exall tion being seriously contem - public sector workers now ity amongst many on the differing bargaining units) The least we in the organ - plated by trade union (and indeed some private right of the trade union on ballots for union recogni - ised labour movement can leaders is against the attack sector workers and all bene - movement in the face of the tion. It is these concessions do in such circumstances is on public sector pensions. fit claimants as well) is the cuts, and it has a deeply that the Tories are using as a to practise effective solidar - Co-ordinated industrial ac - Of course the public pen - change in indexing from the worrying aspect in relation springboard for further at - ity. As trade unionists we tion by trade unions to halt sions issue is important and Retail Price Index to Con - to union rights. tacks on union rights. Now can’t demand that politi - (at least some of) the mas - it may well be possible to sumer Price Index. The Tories are talking is no time to compromise on cians fight every cut if we sive attacks on workers’ win a round of national bal - This, it is estimated, will tough on restrictions on the the right to strike. don’t fight for every job. jobs and living standards lots on the proposed mas - save the Government in the right to strike and many Public sector workers up • Maria Exall is an Execu - by this Tory-led Govern - sive hike in contributions long term £1.8 billion from right wing trade unionists and down the UK are re - tive member of the Commu - ment is promoted as the and other changes. But an - the value of public pensions don’t want to rock the boat. ceiving redundancy notices nication Workers’ Union current main demand of other set of negotiations and £6 billion from welfare (This was why many failed and many private sector and a member of the TUC the trade union left. with the Government is due, payments. But as things to properly support John workers are feeling the ef - General Council. She writes Perhaps it should be, but agreement on implementa - stand this is likely to go un - McDonnell’s Private Mem - fects of a slowdown in here in a personal capacity. SOLIDARITY 11 Luton: help the defence against S&o Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y EDL racists

By Ed Maltby The “official” counter- demonstration by Unite Against Fascism has been On Saturday 5 February Remember David Kato: moved from its original lo - the English Defence cation in St George’s League (EDL), a racist Square to Park Square, on street-gang drawn from the other side of the city football hooligan firms, centre, in order to min - will hold another imise the possibility of the “demonstration” in Luton. fight for LGBT liberation groups meeting. They are advertising it as However, local youth “the biggest yet”. and the Muslim Defence Luton has a special im - League, a religiously-de - portance for the EDL as it By Ira Berkovic The murder comes der was connected to a fined grouping of young was here in May 2009 against the backdrop of an robbery rather than hate- Muslims organised to de - when they first appeared, ongoing climate of homo - fend Muslims from EDL at - David Kato, one of the crime. Even in the ludi - as a bunch of white racists phobia in Uganda and tacks, have organised a crously-unlikely case that rampaging through the most prominent spokes - rally in Westbourne Road many other African coun - this claim is true, the tragic town, attacking Muslim- people for gay rights in to defend local residential tries. In 2009, Uganda’s fact is that the struggle for owned businesses and Uganda, has been mur - streets from attack. parliament considered a LGBT liberation has lost “Muslim-looking” by - dered. Stop Racism and Fascism bill that would have made one of its bravest activists standers. David was one of sev - Network, a working-class homosexuality punishable on a front where brave ac - The riot took place fol - eral LGBT individuals tar - anti-fascist network which by death. Kato was at the lowing a provocation geted by a recent tivists are perhaps most Workers’ Liberty and other forefront of campaigning staged by the Islamist campaign by Rolling Stone , needed. working-class activists par - against the proposal. group Al-Muhajiroun in a small Ugandan newspa - It is disgraceful that any - ticipate in, will seek to en - Uganda has also been tar - March 2009, at a parade for per. one, anywhere in the sure that the demonstators geted by American evan - soldiers returning from world, should be killed or are not hopelessly kettled; The paper published the gelical groups who have Afghanistan. in any way harmed be - and that local youth are names and whereabouts of visited the country to run The police are making cause of their sexuality. If not left to defend their several people as part of workshops on how to preparations to avoid any we want to honour David community alone. an article which called for “turn” gay people straight. clash with anti-fascists on them to be hanged, and re - David Kato Many Ugandan activists Kato’s memory and ac - Saturday. They will allow • If you want to join us peated the hoary homo - blame the evangelists for tivism, we should work to the EDL to parade tri - on the day, contact sto - phobic slander that gays sued the paper, which has helping stoke up anti-gay ensure that the disgraces umphantly through the pracismandfas - were infiltrating schools to denied any connection be - hatred. and outrages that perme - streets they terrorised three [email protected] or see “recruit” children. Kato tween its campaign and Ugandan police are ate capitalist society are years ago. http://srfnetwork.org and others successfully Kato’s death. claiming that Kato’s mur - consigned to history. London/Manchester show Jade Baker for NUS Women’s Officer student fight continues By Jade Baker, VP make that happen. I’m a Education, University member of Workers’ Lib - of Westminster (pc) erty and a supporter of the By Ron Canfael A parallel march in Manchester mo - National Campaign bilised around 3,000 people and was no - Against Fees and Cuts; I’m table for the frosty reception given to I’m standing for National proud to have been in - More than 5,000 students and workers sell-out NUS leader Aaron Porter. Union of Students volved in the recent stu - protested in London on 29 January in a On the initiative of AWL members from Women’s Officer as an dent revolt — a movement lively march that showed that the revolt cratic shell. Hull Students Against Fees and Cuts, anti-cuts activist and an where women have often which began in early November 2010 is We need a grassroots around 500 marchers demanded Porter jus - unashamed revolutionary been at the forefront. far from over. Although the parliamen - anti-cuts activist Women’s tify his record. Rather than engage with socialist feminist. Women students deserve tary votes to increase fees and abolish Officer, committed to so - them, he chose literally to run away and I oppose the current better than another year of EMA and the Christmas break have led to cialist feminism, who will hid behind a cordon of riot police. Subse - NUS leaders, because I an NUS Women’s Cam - an ebbing of the movement, 29 January build a militant, campaign - quent allegations that he was subject to want to see NUS lead the paign run by another represented a launch pad from which to ing student women’s anti-semitic abuse are, as far as AWL mem - student revolt against cuts Labour Student, who will rebuild. movement. For more on bers present can tell, fabrications. and fees, not continue to talk left but continue to A rally outside ULU featured labour my campaign see Shane Chowen, the NUS bureaucrat sell it out. The Women’s back up the NUS leader - movement speakers including AWL mem - tinyurl.com/jade4womens Porter appointed to replace him at the rally Campaign should be at the ship and run the Women’s ber Janine Booth, the London Transport re - officer. while he hid inside the Manchester Metro - forefront of the fight to Campaign as a bureau - gion representative on the RMT Executive. politan SU building, was unable to finish The march, called by the National Cam - his speech due to the amount of hostile paign Against Fees and Cuts, took protest - chanting. ers down Whitehall to Parliament Square, Police use CS spray on UK Uncut Following their abject failure to support and then to Millbank. From there, defying their own members, and their de facto col - police restrictions, a majority of the lusion with kettle and beating-happy po - demonstrators marched to the Egyptian By Padraig O’Brien handing out glossy leaflets have been involved in lice against activists, receptions of this kind embassy to show solidarity with the demo - telling marcher they were launching the Right to Re - are the least these scabs deserve. there to facilitate our sist initiative, which aims cratic uprising. Small groups of protesters Activists taking part in a • For more on the Aaron Porter incident “right to protest”, our to equip activists with the then dispersed to carry out smaller UK peaceful UK Uncut see tinyurl.com/porterchased and comrades in Manchester political arguments and Uncut-style direct actions targeting high- protest at a Boots store on tinyurl.com/portersmears. were being kettled . practical tools to fight po - street tax-dodgers such as Vodafone and 30 January in central Lon - Topshop. John McDonnell MP de - lice repression. don were attacked by po - nounced the police’s ac - The National Assembly lice using CS spray. Three tions at the Boots protest for Education, which was Why I marched cannot get a large bank loan you will not protesters were hospi - as “political policing”. He attended by several of the be able to study.” talised and others were has put down an Early UK Uncut protesters on still feeling the effects Glenda, pensioner Day Motion demanding an their way back from the Jack, trade unionist hours later. “My daughter is having a baby soon and inquiry into the incident. Boots action, voted to pro - “The Tories are using the bank crisis to Anyone who thought all of us are worried about the future. Of course all policing is mote Right to Resist along - privatise and cut everything in sight. It’s the police had calmed There are no jobs, benefits are being cut political. The very exis - side similar campaigns time people stood up and stopped letting down or softened up after and now poorer kids won’t be able to go tence of the police is part such as the “Defend the the rich and politicians screw them over.” their relatively laid-back to university.” of the means by which the Right to Protest” campaign showing at the London capitalist state defends its launched by the SWP. Minal, student, London James, postgrad, City University protest on Saturday 29 Jan - interests, ultimately by any Right to Resist’s “little “I don’t want to live in a country where “It is already very difficult to study on a uary will have been given means it deems necessary. red book”, which features everything is about money. What about postgraduate course unless you have a lot an unpleasant shock by To fight back against the legal advice from the people who can’t afford things? Vulnera - of money as you cannot get a government their attack on the UK stepping up of violent Green and Black Cross, can ble people will be the ones who suffer loan to do so. If you are not wealthy and Uncut action the next day. clampdowns against pro - be ordered from righttore - from the cuts.” And, while the Met were testers, AWL members sist.wordpress.com.