& Workers’ Liberty SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 486 14 November 2018 50p/£1 We say to Jeremy Corbyn: Brazil: time to regroup On 9 November Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the German See page 3 news magazine Der Spiegel that “we can’t stop Brexit”. But Labour can. The Tories and the DUP are divided about May’s LABOsketched-out sofUt-ish Brexit deal. If LabouRr MPs vote solidly against May’s deal, it probably can’t get through Parliament. That reflects the fact that May’s proposals are unpopular — in surveys, 73% think the negotiations are going badly. The “hard” Brexit formulas favoured by the Tory right are unpopular. A “no deal” Brexit is more unpopular still. More page 5 Putin’s thiefdom Barrie Hardy discusses the echoes of CAN Stalinism in Putin’s political method. STOP See page 2 Climate and class Arguing for class-based action on cli - mate change. See page 4 BREXIT Join Labour! Universal Credit in crisis See page 10 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Putin’s Thiefdom now put to use to facilitate grand on Mafia style crime operations by the police to fraudu - By Barrie Hardy larceny. linked to Russia (and mischief lently reclaim $230 mil - Russian president Vladimir The fallout from the poisoning of making over the Catalan secession lion in taxes. Putin’s personal fortune is esti - Sergei and Yulia Skripal in March conflict is another front in the at - Magnitsky’s exposure mated at $40 billion, making him made many feel they were back in tack on the EU). of the tax refund fraud one of the richest men in Europe. the Cold War era. The knee jerk re - Spain’s national court prosecutor, implicated police, the ju - He owns vast holdings in three action of some leftists was to give Jose Grinda, famously described diciary, tax officials, Russian oil companies which are the Kremlin the benefit of the doubt Russia as a “virtual Mafia state”, bankers and the Russian concealed behind a vast network of and cast around for alternative ex - claiming that it was impossible to Mafia. For his pains he offshore companies. The level of planations in conspiracy theories. differentiate between the activities was imprisoned, tortured corruption over which he presides Even some calling themselves Trot - of its government and organised and eventually murdered accounts for an enormous amount skyist questioned the Kremlin’s crime groups. Spain has conducted in jail. Then Magnitsky of Russia’s GDP — putting half of likely use of assassination as a two major operations against Rus - was put on trial for tax the economy in the hands of vari - means of silencing political oppo - sian inspired Mafia networks, ar - evasion four years after ous shades of criminal enterprise. nents. resting more than 60 suspects. his death and found In the early 1990s, advocates of Yet the attack on the Skripals had Grinda has received death guilty! free market capitalism promised all the hallmark of a Russian secret threats and is obliged to get around In Soviet times most bright futures for 150 million Rus - service operation, the MO being under armed guard. Comparable high ranking bureaucrats olution” in Ukraine in 2004. The sians, who would supposedly similar to the plutonium poisoning actions against Russian criminal ac - would have aspired to a bigger mass demonstrations organized by share the spoils of mass privatisa - of Litvinenko in 2006. tivity in Britain in the same period apartment, an official limo, a dacha the trade unions in October are a tion. Instead, 22 oligarchs ended up It was never plausible that the have been pathetic. The British au - in the countryside and privileged sign that large scale working-class owning 40% of the economy by the poisoning was organised by a thorities started their first case shopping in foreign currency protest in the region is possible. end of the Yeltsin era. The result British government mired in the using an Unexplained Wealth stores. Today they might still earn More oligarch will scurry to be was a vast increase in inequality. Brexit mess. The last thing May Order only in October 2018. official salaries of $1000 a month, united with their ill-gotten laun - The Russian people have been needed was a confrontation with Grinda says it’s an “unanswered but they manage to afford flats in dered cash — if they are still wel - robbed blind over the past three Russia that would graphically ex - question” as to what extent Putin Belgravia and send their kids in En - come in countries like Britain. decades as a result of incompetence pose Britain’s weakness in the run himself is involved with the Rus - glish private schools. They form a Socialists should have no illu - and criminal conspiracy. State as - up to departure from the EU. sian mafia and able to control its ac - strange political class. sions that the Putin regime is some sets to be privatised were valued at The Tories have always been par - tions. The kleptocrats keep their money kind of progressive or anti-imperi - eye watering low amounts. tial to accepting oligarch money outside Russia, thinking perhaps alist force. In a conflict between The valuation of the entire econ - with no questions asked. May that the stability Putin ensures soon BRIBES American and Russian imperi - omy, at $10 billion, was a sixth the dragged her feet for four years as Bribes and kickbacks are a come to an end. Despite frequent alisms we stand for the “third value of Walmart. Putin put his for - Home Secretary before allowing an major source of self enrichment. nationalist rhetoric, Putin has camp” of the working class against mer spy cronies in charge of run - inquiry into Litvinenko’s murder. It is estimated that bribery costs presided over the biggest single both sides. ning the country despite their lack Ten other mysterious deaths in the Russia $300 billion per year, ac - flight of capital the world has ever Meanwhile, the Russian state of economic competence. They UK of Putin’s enemies and their as - counting to some 18% of GDP. seen. plays a significant role in support - seized upon it as a chance to enrich sociates also went without serious Privatisation of state owned as - More people are starting to ques - ing the far right in Europe. Inside themselves beyond their wildest investigation. sets is another way the kleptocrats tion the corruption and the poor Russia it has also been complicit in dreams. FSB and GRU activity has not feather their nests, selling these, performance of the economy. Sup - or indifferent to numerous attack Although property relations been confined to assassinations. preferably to relatives, at knock port for Putin’s party, United Rus - on ethnic minorities perpetuated have changed since the collapse of Many cyber attacks and disinfor - down prices. Gazprom’s sale of sia, has fallen to 31% — its lowest by Russian neo-nazis. the Soviet Union, Russia’s foreign mation campaigns have been used seven major oil fields for next to ever. A big factor in this has been to further Russian state policy. nothing is one of many notable ex - the pension reforms which will When the likes of Jean-Luc policy still services the criminal Mélenchon, in France, or the gangs that runs the state, with as - Trump in the White House and amples. delay retirement by five years (Rus - Brexiting Britain are its most no - Tax fraud on a grand scale has sian men have the worst life ex - post-mortem Stalinist element sassination being its extreme form around the Morning Star , appear of censorship. Stalinist methods of table successes. been another way for the klepto - pectancy in Europe). Spain seems to have been a target cratic class to enrich itself. Sergei Putin and his stooges fear being to court Putin, that only shows dictatorial rule through the that “useful idiots” have yet to medium of the secret police are because law enforcement there has Magnitsky discovered that organ - overthrown by some kind of popu - been very active in cracking down ised criminals had been given help lar revolt such as the “Orange rev - call it a day. Iran sugar workers strike for workers’ control Free speech is a left wing issue pus. Like all attacks on free speech, “extremist” has always been a way By Shamsun Effendi they will eventually become attacks to narrow the “Overton window” Renewed strikes by the Haft on the left. of acceptable discussion and pre - Tappeh Sugar Cane Company In the past few years the press Prevent has rightly been opposed vent rowdy political debate and ac - workers in Iran have taken up has had a number of semi-sen - by the National Union of Students tivity. the demands put forward in Au - sationalist stories about student and many others. But the explicit The views of groups like Al gust 2018. The August strike unions banning or wanting to issue of free speech has often failed Qaeda and Daesh are appalling. was suspended after manage - ban something deemed offen - to gain much active support from But not because they are “extreme” ment and regime officials made sive. the campus left. — because they are hideously reac - a number of commitments that And in some cases the issue has Hopefully this case will remind tionary and violent. were then not fulfilled. been real. Now an essay by the late us that it’s increasingly unaccount - Some of their views, like for ex - On day three of the strike, 7 Marxist academic Norman Geras able bureaucrats who are getting to ample their aversions to homosex - November, the workers warned Iranian teachers strike on the ethics of revolution has been decide what material is judged ac - uality or equality for women, are that if the government did not “re - flagged up by the University of ceptable and what is deemed po - fairly standard features of many so - sugar-cane plantations and pro - spond to their demands”, “they Reading as potentially subversive, tentially “dangerous” or cieties around the globe, and in cessing factories, in the south-west will transfer the strike to outside so that students reading it must “extreme”.