No 291 3 July 2013 30P/80P for a Workers’ Government
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So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y No 291 3 July 2013 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org For a workers’ government Still against A Trotskyist in Greek Morsi Stalin’s camps government page 5 centre pages isolated page 8 NHS put on road to “user pays” Fight back: demonstrate in September at Tory and Labour conferences. See page 5 2 NEWS What is the Alliance for Turkey: freedom, not more police! Workers’ Liberty? By Martin Thomas [29th] at midday. Organ - In police action against the them in the same category” ized by the workers’ union protests over June, four as the mass street move - Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to On Friday 28 June, Turk - KESK and the Kurdish BDP teenagers were killed, ments in Tunisia and another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. ish government forces party, they chanted slogans thousands of people were Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to Egypt, or in Greece and fired on people in the including: ‘We don’t want increase their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, injured, and thousands Spain, because of the ab - Kurdish town of Lice, in a police station. We want were arrested, sometimes sence of demands based on unemployment, the blighting of lives by overwork, eastern Turkey, protest - imperialism, the destruction of the environment and freedom!’” for being “members of a the urgent material needs ing at the construction of much else. Generally, according to terrorist organisation”, or of the working class, “jobs, a new base for the gen - Against the accumulated wealth and power of the Turkish socialists, the “damaging public prop - food, and social security”. darmerie, a militarised capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. protests which exploded at erty”. Many individual workers police force. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity through the end of May against On 25 June, however, po - took part in the protests, struggle so that the working class can overthrow capitalism. We want They killed a teenager Turkey’s AKP government lice kept back their tear gas and of course organised so - socialist revolution: collective ownership of industry and services, and injured several other have “subsided consider - and water cannon, and al - cialists did too, but there workers’ control and a democracy much fuller than the present system, people. ably”. lowed thousands of pro - was no organised collective with elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to Prime minister Erdogan According to Deutsche testers to fill Taksim presence of the working bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. has carefully combined re - Welle, “Protests followed Square, in Istanbul. The class. We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” pression and concessions. in Istanbul on Saturday demonstrators, for their There are still forums in and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. part, were careful not to parks across Istanbul, but Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, block the traffic. Remember Afshin Osanloo! the socialists report that the supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping According to the Finan - organise rank-and-file groups. turnout in the forums has cial Times : “officials say We are also active among students and in many campaigns and By Ira Berkovic Afshin’s brother, Man - they are taking steps to decreased quite a lot after alliances. the first week. sour, is also a prominent meet the demands of the The remaining small- Afshin Osanloo, an Iran - trade union leader who Alevi religious minority... scale forums and actions We stand for: ian workers’ organiser, Independent working-class representation in politics. suffered imprisonment and to speed up efforts to take place either in ● has died in Rajai-Shahr ● A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour and torture in the notori - reach peace with Turkey’s mainly Alevi [religious- prison in the city of movement. ous Evin prison. ethnic Kurds”. cultural minority] neigh - Karaj. The protests, according ● A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to The International Al - bourhoods, or picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. to the Turkish socialists of He suffered a heart at - liance in Support of Work - middle-class neighbour - ● Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education tack. He was 42 years old, Marksist Tutum, were “a hoods dominated by Ke - and jobs for all. ers in Iran is running an democratic movement”, and had no previous his - malists and supporters of ● A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full online appeal calling for “against authoritarianism tory of health problems. It the CHP [the successor equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden and widespread police ter - is widely suspected that justice for Afshin and the of the old “state-party” of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, ror”, “a useful experience” his death was caused by release of other political which ruled Turkey under bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity for those many taking part. the torture he suffered prisoners. Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) against racism. Support it at However, Marksist ● Open borders. during his imprisonment and Inonu from 1923 to bit.ly/iaswi-appeal Tutum also write that it is ● Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have since December 2010. “not correct to consider 1950]. more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. ● Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or community to global social organisation. Chinese workers face new challenge ● Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. ● Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. By Chris Reynolds credit. Total debt in the the government has de - largest, China... kept grow - If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — ● Chinese economy has risen cided it must do something ing [in 2008] with huge in - and join us! In the week ending 22 from 150 per cent in 2008 to to deflate the credit bubble. fusions of state spending June, Chinese banks more than 200 per cent. Whether it can do that and credit. Now... China’s Contact us: suddenly faced a cash- Since 2009 something like without bursting it is an slowdown could end in a crunch. Interest rates on 20,000 “wealth manage - open question. stall”. ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] the short-term borrowing ment vehicles” have been A perceptive article in In past decades, China The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley from each other which set up, in addition to the the Financial Times by has developed the world’s Road, London, SE1 3DG. banks habitually use to local governments’ arm’s- banker Ruchir Sharma biggest-ever working class, sustain their stocks of ● Printed by Trinity Mirror length companies, to comments: “This age is working in some of the cash soared. repackage dodgy loans. chaotic only in comparison biggest-ever factories in The central bank, which This credit bubble func - to the brief ‘Goldilocks’ era some of the biggest-ever would normally deal with tions as an “endemic, insti - that began in 2003. Before cities. There is already a Get Solidarity every week! this by making cash avail - tutionalised form of that year, the emerging constant ferment of illegal corruption” (Ryan Perkins, world’s share of global eco - wildcat strikes. Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o able, remained stony-faced. The Chinese workers’ ● Since then, the central The Atlantic , 28 June 2013). nomic output had been ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged o stagnant for half a century response to a Chinese bank has eased its attitude economic crash will £9 unwaged o a bit, but China’s govern - COUNTERPART and in decline for a The counterpart is many decade... shape the future of the ● 44 issues (year). £35 waged o ment and central bank are world. still signalling a drive to almost-empty buildings; “After the US Federal Re - £17 unwaged o deflate the bubble of cheap little-used roads, bridges, serve and other central ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o credit on which China’s airports, and rail lines; banks cut interest rates or 50 euros (44 issues) o economy has fed. The and chronic overcapacity sharply to engineer a re - Australia “purchasing managers’ in many industries. covery from the technology Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: index”, the most-used indi - The Chinese government bust [in 2000-1] much of the 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG cator of trends in manufac - is anxious to keep the plate resulting easy money Some leftists feel relief at Cheques (£) to “AWL”. turing production, points up in the air, still spinning. flowed into the emerging the ousting of Julia Gillard to decline. world, doubling the aver - Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. Paradoxically, its despotic as leader of the Labor Local governments in regime makes it more brit - age annual gross domestic Party and prime minister China have long financed tle, and more cautious product growth rate to of Australia. But not be- Name . construction by setting up about imposing slump con - about 7.5 per cent from 3.6 cause Kevin Rudd is bet- autonomous, off-the-books ditions on the population, per cent in the previous ter: bit.ly/rudd-g Address . companies that can borrow than parliamentary democ - two decades. freely. In 2008 the Chinese “The annual GDP growth . racies which have many Osborne government responded to fallbacks and safety-valves rate of emerging nations I enclose £ .