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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 £ ...... the global credit crunch by when people get angry at a fell back to 3.7 per cent in ultra-Keynesian policies, government. the first quarter, and the • bit.ly/nhs-chg releasing a flood of new However, evidently now normal cycle is back... The 3 NEWS The case for Next after Assembly? gained sponsorship from War, 2007 and 2003) many unions including which allowed for rousing Unison and Unite, de - speeches by celebrities but clared that: “We have a no detailed debate. the NHS plain and simple goal: to It is not clear whether make government aban - the local People’s Assem - don its austerity pro - blies are meant to be one- Plenty of backers: what By Jill Mountford, or questioning of the TSA’s gramme. If it will not it off local gatherings which next? Save Lewisham proposals was ignored. must be replaced with one can help give new impulse Hospital Campaign Doctors, nurses and pa - that will... to the anti-cuts campaigns tients gave scientific evi - By Gerry Bates “We will work together which exist almost every - Steering Group and dence, with passion and with leading experts and where, or “branded” alter - member of the emotion, telling of the im - The People’s Assembly, campaigners both here natives to those organising group plications of closing held at Central Hall and abroad, and friendly campaigns. Lewisham People’s Lewisham hospital for local The Lewisham campaign Westminster on 22 June, think tanks, to develop The Assembly declara - residents. Witness after outside the High Court on 2 backed the demonstra - rapidly key policies and tion said: “We do not seek Commission of witness, patient after con - July tion called by the Unite an alternative programme to replace any organisa - Inquiry (pc) sultant, academic after and Unison unions for for a new anti-austerity tions fighting cuts”; how - nurse, all put the case for Allyson Pollock ended the NHS at the Tory government”. ever, in Newcastle, the “I was mesmerised”; “I Lewisham. her evidence and cross-ex - Party conference in Red Pepper magazine one place where there was sat there all day, most of Allyson Pollock’s contri - amination to loud cheers Manchester on 29 Sep - tweeted after the Assem - already a local CoR group, the time on the edge of bution early on in the day and applause from the au - tember. bly: “Inspiring day at the it seems to be planning for dience. Along with Colin my seat”; “We should put the case for a publicly- It also called for a “day People’s Assembly — so a local People’s Assembly Leys, she set out the big have a People’s Commis - funded NHS and against of civil disobedience, many people who are seri - as a rival to existing anti- picture for the NHS and sion into all the cuts PFI. She called on the audi - everywhere” on 5 Novem - ous about fighting auster - cuts committees. left the audience in no The cuts will best be they’re making to all of ence to see the big picture ber, and “local People’s ity and winning”. Others doubt about what is hap - fought by united cam - our services”. of how PFI is to blame for Assemblies in every town who attended were more hospitals’ and Trusts’ pening to the National critical of the way the paigns, democratic and These were just a few of and city”. debts, and not “misman - Health Service under this event was modelled on based on delegates from the comments made by the The Assembly, which labour movement and agement” as the TSA and Tory/Lib-Dem government. previous rallies (Coalition 600 people who attended was initiated by Counter - working-class commu - Hunt want us to believe. In a world where we’re of Resistance, 2010; Peo - the Lewisham “People’s fire and the Coalition of nity organisations. She explained how every fed a daily diet of tripe as if ple’s Assemblies Against Commission of Inquiry” on Resistance (CoR) but hospital funded by PFI ac - we’re all too stupid to un - Saturday 29 June. derstand a detailed analysis tually cost the taxpayer the The Commission, organ - of anything, where we start price of two or three hospi - ised by the Save Lewisham to believe that we’ve all got tals because of the extor - Hospital campaign, was an the concentration span of a tionate interest rates being Forum fobbed off audacious and bold thing goldfish and all news and paid. to do. From 9.30am to information has to be sim - By Chris Reynolds 5.30pm, residents of REPORT plified and fed to us in bite - that of Ed Miliband on so - He said Labour would Lewisham were invited to sized chunks, the People’s cial security policy, or by Allyson introduced a re - reduce student fees (how attend the Inquiry chaired Inquiry proved the ab - The Labour Party Na - Jon Cruddas’s policy re - port she is completing for much?) and repeal the by Mike Mansfield QC. solute opposite. tional Policy Forum met view, could... not be dis - publication on the eve of Health and Social Care More than 25 witnesses More than seven hours of in Birmingham on 22-23 cussed, let alone voted on the Save Lewisham Hos - Act (and reverse its ef - gave evidence and were non-stop evidence being June 2013. by delegates in Birming - pital’s Judicial Review of fects?) cross examined by four presented and questioned, ham”. Hunt’s decision to down - In Tony Blair’s 1997 re - Christine Shawcroft re - barristers from Tooks with no intervention from Ed Miliband said that he grade, close, and sell-off structuring of Labour, Chambers in effort to ex - the floor, held an audience “hopes we can repeal the ports that she and others Lewisham Hospital land much of the Labour con - pose the lies the govern - captivated; and inspired Bedroom Tax”, but fended “put forward the argu - and services. ference’s policy-making ment and its agents have them to fight on in support off all clear commitment ments about axing Trident work was supposed to be told about Lewisham Hos - The report, “The TSA of Lewisham Hospital and with the protest that “our and called for a debate at transferred to this Forum. pital to justify the closure regime and the South Lon - the NHS. We raised over proposals must be credi - Conference. The facilitator In fact the Forum con - of services and the sell-off don Healthcare NHS Trust: £1,800 selling campaign ble”. said that we have no con - firmed what has long been of land. a case of blaming the vic - merchandise at the begin - “We won’t be able to trol over the party confer - clear: that it is a weak con - Packed into the Broad - tims” examines evidence ning of the Justice for promise now to reverse ence arrangements...” way Theatre in Catford, ignored by the TSA and the Lewisham week. sultative body, and real [Osborne’s cuts] because The unions should use residents and supporters government. This week, the Save policy-making is concen - we can only do so when their clout within Labour listened to in-depth de - It shows that the “clo - Lewisham Hospital Cam - trated in the party leaders’ we can be absolutely crys - to get debate on the rule tailed analysis from Profes - sures, redundancies, and paign will be attending a offices. tal clear about where the changes demanding As Jon Lansman has re - sor Colin Leys, Professor sale of land in South East three-day Judicial Review money is coming from”. more democracy which ported on the Labour-left Allyson Pollock, and a London are the result of the of Hunt’s decision, in the From implementing TUC pour into Labour confer - High Court in London. website Left Futures, “Im - policy to take the banks stream of consultants, GPs, government not acting in ence each year, and to the interests of the health Whether we win the Judi - portant issues addressed into public ownership? nurses, and patients from get them passed. Lewisham. service as required by par - cial Review or not, the Save in keynote speeches, like From taxing the rich? The Health Secretary Je - liament when triggering Lewisham Hospital cam - remy Hunt was invited to the TSA regime.” The re - paign is determined to give evidence, but of course port concludes that the cuts fight on to defend services Marxist ideas to turn failed to turn up. In his “do not serve patients, and to defend and rebuild place, the actor Peter whose needs have been, at the NHS. Treece, read actual words best, down-played and at On Friday, July 5, we will the tide Hunt has written and spo - worst ignored. PFI is play - be celebrating and organis - ken in defence of his deci - ing a major role in service ing to defend the NHS on Readings and reflections on revolutionary sion. closure and in the case of its 65th birthday, partying GPs and consultants Lewisham hospital there is outside the hospital with socialist strategy spoke of a meeting they no doubt that the govern - hospital workers, raising political demands and were invited to as part of ment is sacrificing a thriv - With articles by Clara Zetkin, Alfred Rosmer, the Trust Special Adminis - ing local hospital in order building Unite inside the hospital. trator’s (TSA) consultation to protect the interests of The day will end with a Leon Trotsky, Antonio Gramsci and more. before Hunt’s announce - bankers, shareholders and showing of The Spirit of ment was made in January corporate stakeholders ‘45 in the hospital fol - Buy now for £5 from bit.ly/m-ideas this year. They each de - rather than open up the lowed by discussion. scribed how any opposition contracts.” 4 COMMENT Our “Ideas For Freedom” 2013

in and seeking to transform mass organisations such as Unite lence, and the de - and Unison, versus joining or setting up smaller, radical bates on the In - AWL unions. dian left after the If you were there and have thoughts about what was good, Delhi protests bad or could be improved/done differently, or ideas for the following a gang The 200-plus people attending Workers’ Liberty’s annual future — please let us know. Email us at awl@ rape in the city in Ideas for Freedom event on 21-23 June were this year in - workersliberty.org or speak to an AWL member. December 2012. vited to attend discussions built around developing clear Sacha Ismail And we held a socialist ideas to strengthen the class struggle. panel discussion We looked at the idea of “transitional demands”, linking Liberation at IFF with RMT ac - immediate struggles to the goal of a different society, and at tivist Becky what a “workers’ united front” and “workers’ government” In the opening plenary of Ideas for Freedom 2013 Janine Crocker; CWU mean today. Booth described fighting oppression as one of Marx - activist and TUC Anti-cuts councillor Gill Kennett, from Hull, spoke about ism’s “big ideas”, and the battle for liberation was key to LGBT committee the fight to make councillors defy cuts. We looked at how to many of the weekend’s sessions. chair, Maria fight to save the NHS and welfare state while seeking to go Exall; and NUJ These sessions built on the successful series of meetings we beyond defensive struggles today. organiser, Jenny Gill Kennett in the closing plenary organised around the country on Marxism and feminism ear - Working-class history was the subject of many sessions. Lennox on how ler this year, exploring the role Marxist ideas have played in The event featured speakers from Turkey and Greece on the challenging sexism within the labour movement and left is past women’s movements and the possibilities of renewing mass struggles taking place there, as well as comrades from key, as the fight for women’s rights must be central to the that link today. Australia and Iran, and an assessment of Hugo Chavez’s struggle to transform and democratise our movement. At IFF we engaged with, and critiqued, key feminist writ - legacy in Venezuela We want to take these ideas into activity, working with ers and diverse viewpoints. Sessions on the Marxist traditions helped to solidify the others to think about how we can challenge sexism in the Cath Fletcher examined Silvia Federici’s ideas from other discussions. We talked about the distinctive Caliban and the labour movement. We’ll continue to publish our bi-monthly in which contributions of Gramsci and Lenin, the latter contrasted to Witch: Women, the body and primitive accumulation, feminist paper, , and blog as spaces for dis - Federici rethinks Marx’s analysis of the beginnings of capital - Women’s Fightback the invented tradition of “Leninism”. Sean Matgamna de - cussion and debate and welcome contributions from every - ism from a feminist viewpoint. bated John Palmer on the “International Socialist tradition” one. Kate Harris explored the impact of Judith Butler’s ideas on The next issue (July) will focus on the theme of social - of the SWP, and led another session on what is distinct about feminist activism, asking how her ideas can inform our en - ist responses to violence against women. the ideas and tradition of the AWL. gagement with the recent feminist revival and how this sits But the theme of transforming the labour movement ran alongside advocating more radical solutions to women’s and Esther Townsend across the board: how do we revolutionise the trade unions?; LGBTQ oppression. what should benefits workers do about the government’s • Longer report here: workersliberty.org/iff2013 Camila Bassi looked at the global picture of sexual vio - sanctions regime against claimants; lively debate on staying Not the way to tackle violence against women The Left have been strongly advised against issuing a public state - women, but we recognise that there are some cases of women ment whilst investigations are ongoing. being violent towards men. By Cathy Nugent “I know this puts the Socialist Party in a difficult position “Steve would clearly have preferred not to have to give a and am therefore resigning my membership. public explanation of the events concerned, but has had no At the 2013 AGM of the transport union RMT (23-28 June, “I will continue to support TUSC and the NSSN and work choice but to do so given the public allegations that had been Brighton), an appeal about the conduct of an investiga - constructively with SP comrades.” made against him.” tion into a complaint brought by RMT member Caroline There was no statement that the SP itself took the allega - They concluded that the SP “will continue to work with Leneghan against Assistant General Secretary Steve tions against Hedley seriously, or even a general affirmation Steve on the urgent task of building a mass movement Hedley accusing him of domestic violence was with - that they should be independently investigated. To repro - against austerity.” drawn. That was done at Caroline’s request. duce Hedley’s note without comment suggested he was In summary, the article accepted Hedley’s claims to have somehow being self-sacrificing in his resignation and that been the victim here and to have been “cleared”. The case is now “closed”. The way it was discussed over he was the victim in the situation. For information, a long article written by Andy Littlechild, some months has re-raised questions about to the conduct of That presentation is highly problematic. The vast majority the RMT activist representing Caroline in the internal inves - the labour movement and left which need to be addressed of victims of domestic violence are women. It is, as the SP tigation, was published on Caroline’s blog on 7 April, refut - now. should know, a problem rooted in systemic oppression of ing Steve’s claim that he had “no case to answer”. One general issue is the lack of knowledge, culture, and women; women do not make these accusations lightly. In any The Socialist Party’s only other public comment of rele - expertise in the labour movement about violence against similar situation a socialist, labour-movement, or any other vance is Hannah Sell’s long article “Combating violence women. But there also appears to be an almost wilful insen - democratic organisation should be, minimally, neutral. They against women: a socialist perspective”, published on 11 sitivity on these issues by some on the left. should not adopt a stance of disbelieving the victim. April. This was in part a polemic against the authors of a While the SWP’s handling of the investigation into rape al - Ten days later, Hedley published a statement in which he statement entitled “Our movement must be a safe space for legations against a leading member, which made it into the claimed he had been “cleared of domestic violence”. He also women”, published on 19 March. I commented on that here: mainstream press, continues to trouble us and others, less at - claimed publicly that the real issue was Caroline Leneghan’s bit.ly/sell-sp. tention has been focused on how the Socialist Party conduct mental health, and that he had been a victim, rather than a By the time of Unison conference (17-21 June), SP (and themselves. In particular how this, the second-largest far-left perpetrator, of domestic violence. SWP) members were arguing in favour of an amendment, group in Britain, of which Hedley was then a member, re - On 2 April the Socialist Party published an article entitled: submitted by one of the authors of the statement they had sponded to Caroline’s complaint. That too fell far short of “RMT investigation concludes: Steve Hedley has no case to polemicised against, which committed the union to take a what we should expect from socialist organisations. answer”. The article said: “Following an in-depth investiga - more serious attitude towards confronting violence against On 8 March 2013, Caroline published a blog post detailing tion the RMT has concluded that there is ‘no case to answer’ women. However, they supported it with so many qualifica - her experiences during her relationship with Steve Hedley against Steve and decided that the union ‘will not be taking tions that their “support” actually lent weight to the opposi - and including photographs of injuries she had sustained. any further action on this matter’. The police had previously tion. The amendment was voted down. Domestic violence is an under-reported but extremely se - investigated and concluded they would be taking no action.” The emphasis of the Socialist Party’s public statements rious crime — its effects can very damaging to long-term The article included (at last!) an affirmation of view that throughout this issue, notwithstanding a single sentence in health and well-being. Every socialist should know this. “all allegations of violence against women should be taken their statement of 2 April, was to defend Hedley, almost de - Yes despite the fact that Hedley was one of their most extremely seriously and investigated thoroughly, in a way claring him innocent in advance, rather than maintain a prominent trade union members, the Socialist Party made no that is sympathetic towards the woman making the accusa - proper distance from him while investigations and appeals public comment on the matter until 14 March, when they tion”. This should have been their immediate response! were ongoing. Their first concern seems to have been to reaf - published a short note explaining that he had resigned from The article also said: “Some have attempted to raise doubts firm him as an important figure whom they wished to con - the Socialist Party. The note said: “Steve refutes this allega - about the RMT’s investigation, but no flaws have been drawn tinue working with. tion, which is currently being investigated by the RMT.” to our attention.” The article did not mention that Caroline If Socialist Party comrades wish to make the labour It also quoted, without comment, from Hedley’s resigna - Leneghan was appealing about the conduct of the RMT in - movement and the revolutionary left accessible spaces tion letter, in which he said: “Regarding our conversation vestigation, though the SP must have known that. for activists of all genders, and challenge the male-dom - earlier the police have dropped the case and I’m currently The article concluded by linking to Hedley’s statement of inated, machismo culture that is still prevalent, they ur - awaiting the outcome of the RMT investigation. 28 March, about which the SP said: “Domestic violence is, in gently need to hold their leadership to account for its “I am not in control of when the decision will be made and the large majority of cases, a crime carried out by men against recent record. 5 WHAT WE SAY Still against Morsi!

The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is not just a neo-lib - eral capitalist party, but clerical-fascist. Former SWP leader Tony Cliff used that term for it in 1946. Despite the SWP’s subsequent shifts, which went as far as recommending votes for the Brotherhood in last year’s elections in Egypt, he was right. The Brotherhood is an approximate Islamic analogue of the Catholic fascist parties of Europe between World Wars One and Two. It is a canny, cautious variant of the type, but like those parties it has a mass plebeian activist base and a political trajectory which would shut down living space for the labour movement in the name of populist NHS put on road to demagogy (“Islam is the answer!”) The Brotherhood was the only political force able to build up a big semi-tolerated organisation, and large funds, under the Mubarak dictatorship; and so it won the Demonstrate in elections last year despite its equivocal role in the battles “user pays” against Mubarak. After a year, though — after November 2012, when September! Morsi claimed powers to rule by decree; after the killing In his recent Spending Review, George Osborne ring- and wounding of many activists by Brotherhood thugs on fenced the health budget until 2015-16. The unions have called a mass rally for the NHS the streets; after Morsi has offered only Islamist rhetoric for the economic plight of Egypt’s people — millions have Superficially the NHS is faring better than other areas of outside Tory party conference on 29 September. turned against the Brotherhood. the welfare state . In reality it is entering a third year of real- We should also organise for a lobby outside Egyptian socialists have been right to join the street terms freeze in spending. By 2015-16 services will be starkly protests against Morsi. They understand, also, that ugly deteriorating. This will pave the way for further charging for Labour Party conference in Brighton (21-25 forces are jumping on the anti-Morsi surge. services. It signals the begining of the end for the NHS as we September). Labour needs to commit itself to In most circumstances, we would side with any elected know it, that is, a service which has been free at the point of reverse all the cuts, to stop the privatisation, government facing a threat of military coup (or semi- delivery. coup, or quarter-coup). We would do that even if we How ironic, then, that this week is the 65th birthday of the cancel the PFI and invest in the NHS. hated the elected government and continued to oppose it. NHS. 5 July 1948, the official founding date of a National There are cases in working-class history of socialists Health Service, was a new dawn for tens of millions of peo - being swayed into support of populist military coups ple across Britain. In place of fear of illness and infirmity ideas for Tories often starts with “foreigners”. against unpopular elected governments (Pilsudski in came a measure of security. Yet when the figures for “health tourism” are examined, Poland, 1926). We learn from those errors. The NHS was an equaliser in a very unequal world. It they amount to no more than 0.01% of the overall NHS This is not the same. We are against a military coup. We recognised the demand for an equal right to life for working budget. Compare that figure to the net contribution made by are not for defence of the Morsi government. Why not? class people. It was the culmination of decades of battles, ide - immigrants through working and paying taxes, and the only Because that government threatens, if consolidated, to ological, political and economic. It was a civilising force in conclusion any rational person can draw is that racism and squeeze out the light and air for the Egyptian labour the uncivilised system where profit reigns supreme. the drive to change attitudes on NHS charges is central. movement even more fully than Mubarak could — or For more than three decades a consensus that there should Osborne’s spending review attacked the poorest in our so - even more fully than the army could in foreseeable condi - be healthcare for all, free at the point of need, paid for ciety — the unemployed, those with disabilities. He reaf - tions. through our taxes, was rooted in political life. firmed his war on welfare, announcing further cuts to The Egyptian working class is not yet politically In 1979, the counter-revolution began. Thatcher, deter - benefits. He will raise the “waiting” period before benefits strong enough to take power against both the Broth - mined to break up the welfare state, determined to push back are paid to workers who lose their jobs from three days to erhood and the army. Its priority must be to develop the working class, to make them pay for every gain, for every seven days. Public sector workers face pay freezes, that is, its political independence and to be the first fighter concession they had inflicted on the bosses class, tried to cuts in their living standards. for democracy and secularism against Morsi, against force through a new consensus. The welfare state, the NHS No shame, though, when giving the Queen, the 19th rich - any “transitional” government if he falls, and against included, should no longer be “free for all”. The “something est woman in the world, with a personal fortune of £350 mil - the army. for nothing” culture had to end. lion, a 5% pay rise. £2 million extra brings her “wages” up to just under £38 million per year. INFECTED At every twist and turn, the working class is made to pay Thatcherism infected the Blair-Brown led Labour gov - for the bankers’ and bosses’ crisis. ernments; in fact they took it and ran with it. To celebrate the birth of the NHS, that is an option. To or - They extended market mechanisms in the health service, ganise and defend it is a necessity. Labour movement ac - introduced Foundation Hospitals and massively expanded tivists need to spend the summer preparing for an autumn of PFI. Now “modernisng, privatising and marketising” the protest. We should gear up to stop the cuts and closures of departments and services. NHS has reached stratospheric heights with this Tory/Lib This is a government representing and fighting on be - Dem government. half of the rich and powerful. We have to demand, organ - On its 65th birthday,the NHS is being forced into early re - ise and fight for a government to represent us with as tirement, facing a rapid decline and horrible death. It is being much conviction and passion. We need a workers’ gov - killed off by those who worship profit and have scant regard ernment, not a bosses’ government. for the lives of working class people. The Health and Social Care Act is the death warrant for the NHS and a service free at the point of access. Final fund total The upshot of the Act and the project for the privatisers now is to force through another political consensus on health After totting up a collection at Ideas for Freedom, and care, one where paying for healthcare, to use this that and the other medical service, run by private businesses but dis - a donation from last month which we failed to count guised with the NHS logo, becomes the norm. (thanks Kieran!), the final total from our fundraising Hunt’s onslaught on so-called “health tourists” is another appeal was £13,025. Thanks once again to everyone prong in the attack. It serves to whip up racism and anti-im - migration sentiment while compounding the argument that who contributed. services have to be personally paid for. Winning the battle of 6-7 FEATURE How Trotskyists fought in Stalin’s camps

Suzanne Leonhard, once a militant of the Spartacusbund in method while I was abroad. Lola Ginsburg had become ac - Germany and a personal friend of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl quainted with the militant Trotskyist, Vladimir Smirnov, in Liebknecht, was forced to flee Hitler’s Germany because of Verkhni-Uralsk. An intimate political and personal friend - her underground Communist activities. She sought refuge in ship had grown between the two, and Lola married him in the USSR. prison. In October 1936 Stalin’s secret police arrested her and she In 1937 the wave of arrests took on unheard-of dimensions spent ten years in Stalin’s forced labour camps. On her liber- and hundreds of thousands of political prisoners were sent to ation (living in Western Germany), she wrote a book on her forced labor camps. Most of the prisoners at the political pen - experiences in these camps, One Quarter of My Life. The fol- itentiary at Verkhni-Uralsk were sent to far-away regions. lowing extract tells the story of Yelena Ginsburg, one of Vladimir Smirnov received assurances that he would be in - many Trotskyists who died in Stalin’s jails. terned together with his wife in a camp beyond the polar cir - cle. But they were separated a few days after the transport. She was then 24 or 26 years old. And her name was Ye - During the night Smirnov was sent to the camp of Vorkuta. lena Ginsburg. I met her in the Shor hospital near Tibizhu were undernourished. Lola arrived during the next days in Tibizhu. They had not during the summer of 1937. Lola, however, let nothing stand in the way of her enthu - been allowed to bid each other farewell, or to share their mu - This hospital, administratively, did not belong to the re - siasm and passion for study. She walked to school bare - tual possessions; part of Smirnov’s belongings were left with ception camp at Shor, but to the “Shel-Dor-Lag,” that is, the footed, or coatless, or without having eaten. All that mattered Lola in the women’s tent. network of the large camps whose prisoners had to construct was to be able to learn! Lola protested by means of a hunger-strike, and bom - the railroad from Kotlas to Vorkuta. A woman teacher took pity on her, gave her some books barded the camp administration with requests in which she During the construction of this railroad, many thousands and taught her languages. Her parents did not approve of explicitly spoke of herself as “the Trotskyist prisoner Yelena of prisoners died in the swampy forests, the marshes and the their eldest child’s preoccupation with books. They over - Ginsburg.” To appreciate her action, it is necessary to realise tundra. Those who fell sick were brought to the hospital of worked her with domestic chores. Lola found a solution to that Trotskyism was the most terrible and nefarious crime. Shor only when their recovery was practically excluded, and this difficulty. She got up early in the morning, took care of A thief, an embezzler, a bandit or even a murderer was con - a few days after their arrival at Shor, most of them met their the younger children, worked with her father after school, sidered a person of quality in the camp as compared with end. stood in the bread-line for hours with a book in her hands, any political prisoner; but a “counter-revolutionary agitator” Nevertheless, the hospital constantly overflowed with sick and continued to read or study late into the night, thanks to or one “accused of espionage” was judged relatively inno - people, and rarely could room be found for new patients. a small oil-lamp which her teacher filled with fuel. cent as compared with a “Trotskyist.” All those whose con - Three of us shared a small room: Smirnova, the wife of I N Lola became a member of the Komsomol (the Russian viction documents were marked with the fatal letter T Smirnov, who was condemned to death and executed on the Young Communist League) and obtained a job with the sec - attempted to keep it hidden as closely as they could. occasion of the first great Moscow (frame-up) trial in 1936; retariat of the Komsomol at the end of her studies. She was But Lola described herself proudly as Trotskyist even in Yelena Ginsburg; and myself. Yelena, or Lola, as she was happy with her education and had no inkling of its inade - official correspondence, when no one asked for it and when called, attracted my attention as soon as we became ac - quacy. She was proud of her knowledge which, she thought, it would have sufficed to sign her letters “prisoner so and quainted. could not only conquer but also improve the world. Lola so.” In this way she delivered herself gratuitously to her ex - earned more than her father and mother together, who were ecutioners. This can be taken as evidence of a lack of politi - CONSCIOUSNESS unskilled labourers, but the young Communist girl kept not cal maturity and great innocence; but the smile disappeared She was not pretty, her features were irregular, and she a single kopek for herself. Did not six children have to be fed from my lips when I saw the sacred fire in Lola’s eyes. Not even squinted a little; but her eyes flamed with the fire of and sent to school? only was I moved by the power of her convictions, but I had those who struggle for a supreme consciousness, who The struggles between factions in the Russian Communist to admire her. are ready to sacrifice themselves for their cause and fa - Party during Lenin’s illness and after his death; the Four - In the hospital, Lola’s thirst for knowledge was greater natically pursue the goal to which they have dedicated teenth Party Congress with its decisive political discussions; than ever. It made her happy to refresh and enrich her lin - their lives. the Fifteenth Congress where the entire opposition was ex - guistic knowledge with my help. She had somewhere ob - The strength of Lola’s conviction and her political serious - pelled from the party; and finally Trotsky’s exile to Alma- tained a history of French literature but the work had not ness could not fail to influence me; from my early youth I Ata: all these steps of Stalin’s road to autocratic rule and been written for one who was self-taught, and Lola soon re - have myself passionately striven for truth, and I have always infallibility had not been consciously lived through as con - alised that it assumed a more basic knowledge than she could fought for my ideas, even though my wings no longer carry temporary history by Lola. She gave herself body and soul claim. We began to read it together. Lola was happy that I me as far as in the old days. to the task of building socialism in the world’s only workers’ could answer many of her questions. Yelena Ginsburg was in the hospital following a hunger- state. strike which lasted two weeks, but proved ineffective be - It was only during the years 1929-30, when the question of DETAILED cause of forced feeding. Lola still felt rather weak, but she no the forced “wholesale collectivisation” of agriculture became I gave her a detailed account of the contents of many longer had to remain in bed. As I could get up myself for sev - the issue of the day, that the young Communist girl, then 17 classics and described their character, style and the eral hours and had medical permission to get fresh air, we years of age, began to think independently and critically epochs which had given them birth. about fundamental political problems. After serious inner were able to go for walks during which we could converse I acquainted her with the tragedies of Corneille and Racine; struggles, she decided to join the Trotskyist Opposition. As freely and without witnesses. My limited knowledge of the retold Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables , Flaubert’s Madame Bo - an opponent of Stalin, she was arrested as early as 1934. Russian language was not adequate at all for political discus - vary , Anatole France’s Crainquebille , and Edmond Rostand’s The political penitentiary at Verkhni-Uralsk, where she sions, but Lola had some acquaintance with French and Ger - drama Cyrano de Bergerac , which I remembered well from served her sentence, became her political university. In this man. my studies at the lycee. prison she met the political opposition groups of all tenden - I induced her to tell me her life. Her father had been a small The study of this brief history of literature made Lola re - cies and shades. If her descriptions are trustworthy, the Jewish itinerant peddler before the revolution, and later be - alise to what extent her knowledge of western writing was regime was then still very liberal in that prison. The political came a construction worker. Lola was the oldest of seven limited. She had read nothing of Balzac or Zola, Voltaire or prisoners had access to a well-stocked library and could dis - children. She had no recollection of pre-revolutionary times. Rousseau, La Fontaine or Boileau. Of the whole of French lit - cuss freely among themselves. We can easily imagine what Her entire childhood was spent in the shadow of infinite mis - erature she had a vague knowledge only of Guy de Maupas - heated political discussions must have taken place! ery, which did not recede after the October Revolution of sant and Romain Rolland. She did not even know the names As a result of her two years’ stay in this political peniten - 1917. But unlike her parents, who were illiterate, Lola man - of contemporary authors. The penitentiary library contained tiary, Lola Ginsburg acquired a solid Marxist training and a aged to enter school after the revolution. but few translations from foreign literature. When we read a thorough knowledge of the international labour movement During the first post-revolutionary decade, the general summary of one of Moliere’s comedies in which the details of and the history of political movements. Her knowledge sur - level of Soviet education remained very low. There was a a feast are described, Lola suddenly said with a far-away and prised me again and again. dearth of instructors and school-room equipment; there were child-like tone in her voice: “Roast? I have never eaten roast Many details of the history of the Russian Communist few buildings; it was impossible to obtain books or writing; food in my life.” Party and its evolution into the State party of the Soviet paper; there was often not enough coal to heat the schools; Our political discussions were not carried on in the hospi - Union were made clear to me by Yelena Ginsburg, because I children often could not attend for lack of shoes and coats, tal itself. They ranged over all the burning questions of the had studied these problems superficially and without or because they had to help out at home, or because they “permanent revolution,” “socialism in one country,” “spon - 6-7 FEATURE

knew so well! But was such activity still possible in the Soviet Union? Lola refused to admit the existence of a police regime so perfected that any martyrdom became impossible. “She fires toward death as a moth toward a flame,” old man Edelsohn kept telling me, shaking his head. And this is what finally happened. In September 1937 we learned that we would have to leave the hospital within a few days, as our convoy was leaving for its final destination — Kochmess. Yelena Ginsburg started a new hunger strike. She was waiting for an answer to her re - quests and refused to leave the hospital. The doctor, a good man by the name of Kukinadze who spoke German well, took me aside and asked what he could do for me. Perhaps I would also prefer to remain in the hospital. As a doctor, he could oppose my departure. I thanked him warmly for this token of humanity but decided to depart for the unknown. Sooner or later we would get beyond the polar circle, any - way; what difference did it make whether that would be a few weeks earlier or later, I said to myself. “Never have I taken so much pity on any hospital prison - ers as on you two,” sighed Kukinadze. “It is difficult enough for Russian intellectuals to live in such conditions. How much more difficult must it be for you who possess Euro - pean culture — and as I have been to Germany myself, I know what that means — and for this unhappy and fanatic child, Yelena Mihailovna. TOMORROW “It breaks my heart. Tomorrow I must resume the forced feedings. I have received orders from my superiors.” The day before my departure I went once more to Lola’s bed - side to bid her farewell. Her lips were swollen with fever, she felt very weak, al - though she had been forcibly fed for several days. “Suzanne, open my trunk, I want to give you a warm piece of clothing, you cannot leave as you are now dressed, you will die of cold,” she whispered. She calmed down only after I had ac - cepted a warm suit of brown material. It was almost new and had belonged to Vladimir Smirnov. Lola also game me some underwear, socks and handkerchiefs which had belonged to him. “They are men’s things,” she smiled, “but it is better than nothing. I know that we are separated forever. I will never see my husband again and I can’t send him these things. I’d rather give them to you than save them for that gang of GPU bandits.” Deeply moved, I bade Lola farewell. Two years later I learned that Lola Ginsburg had been shot at Shor during the winter of 1937. With her were a dozen vic - tims of NKVD terror, doctor Kukinadze, the male nurse This drawing, by socialist cartoonist Laura Gray, accompanied this article in Militant in 1951. Noack, a woman nurse, a Polish comrade who had worked in the clothing department, and the camp commander at Shor. “The entire Trotskyist nest was exterminated.” said one taneity of the masses,” etc. Lola did not trust our room-mate the truth to the world. She wished to cry out to the world the of the soldiers of the Okhrana. Smirnova. We walked in the garden or in the forest nearby real aims of Trotskyism, so miserably slandered by Stalin. The execution was mentioned nowhere, and for a long time which was part of the camp’s zone. She wished to demonstrate clearly that the road of Trotsky nobody knew where the victims had been sent, until the truth Lola’s knowledge of languages often proved inadequate was the road of world revolution, the only genuine road to came out. It is possible that the victims themselves did not and our discussions would have reached an impasse if the Communism in the USSR and Europe, whereas the road of know that they would be shot when they were taken to the engineer Edelsohn, a 78 year old man well-versed in lan - Stalin represented the shameful betrayal of the teachings of forest. Sophie Scholl, a young Munich student who had led guages, had not graciously offered his services as interpreter. Marx. an anti-Nazi resistance group at the University and was shot He liked to join us and translated Lola’s heated speeches for Her speech accusing Stalin, burning with faithfulness to in 1944, managed, from the very top of the Nazi gallows, to me from the Russian. Old Edelsohn had been in the camp her doctrine and passion for her convictions, had long since cry out words which echo to this day in the hearts of hun - twelve years. He had come from Baku, where he had been a been prepared in detail by Lola. She lacked only an opportu - dreds of men and inspire them to fight totalitarianism. The commercial engineer in the oil industry. He had travelled a nity to deliver it before an attentive world opinion. After clar - absolutism of the Tsarist regime could not prevent the words great deal in this youth, knew almost the entire world, Italy, ifying for the Communists of the whole world the true aims that the courageous Sofia Perovskaya spoke when she was Germany, France, Spain, England, the United States, and of Trotskyism and the reasons for the Trotskyist struggle led to her execution from being transmitted to other contem - spoke four European languages fluently, an addition to Russ - against Stalin, she was prepared to die. poraries and encouraging them in their struggle against ian. He loved to converse with me in French, German or Eng - She knew that her actions would certainly entail death. She tyranny. lish. We exchanged reminiscences of Paris and Vienna, the did not underestimate the unlimited power of Stalin and the Stalin’s terror alone makes martyrdom impossible. The op - Alps and the Cote d’Azur. NKVD. positional youth of the USSR became the target of the NKVD Politically, Lola and I were far removed from the old engi - But she hoped that her last words might bring thousands bullets, and the survivors had no news of it. neer. He represented a world which had vanished and con - of new militants back into the political arena. This is why I am happy to be able to tell the life and sidered us at best as two “poor foolish girls.” To die a martyr’s death for the cause of Trotskyism, that death of Lola Ginsburg. May her heroic story, symbol of This did not prevent him from being humanly very close to was young Lola’s life-dream. It was then that I began to un - thousands of brave fighters for the world communist rev - us and taking great pity on us, who had become, although derstand the enthusiasm with which she had followed my olution, not have been in vain. for a cause opposed to his own, victims of the regime he de - account of Karl Liebknecht’s anti-war agitation, the passion tested. with which she had listened again and again to the descrip - • From the US Trotskyist paper The Militant , 15 January 1951 Lola, the militant Trotskyist, dreamed of being indicted in tion of our Spartacist uprising and our struggles on the bar - • Workers’ Liberty 3/40: “Germany 1953: Workers rise a great political trial. She wanted on such an occasion to tell ricades of Germany. There was the revolutionary spirit she against Stalinist rule”: http://bit.ly/germ-53 8 GREECE Rulers more isolated than ever

leashing a historical counterrevolution against the rights and freedoms won by the Greek working class in the postwar pe - riod . Already, on Friday 28th, it became known that Labour Minister Vroutsis has begun the abolition of the five-day working week in the food and restaurants industry, where now there is no contract of employment. A circular indicates to bosses that under the second Memorandum, they can sign individual contracts with their workers forcing each worker into a six-day week and cutting wages by 20%, down to the level of the national collective agreement (gross pay below 600 euros per month). The same day, Justice Minister Charalambous Athanasiou announced a bill that would prevent temporarily-employed public sector workers from using judicial procedures to block sackings. There are 6,000 temporary workers, mainly in the municipalities, who have gone to the courts in order to se - cure temporary suspension order of their dismissal. The judge usually accepts that the workers are essential for the running of the council until final adjudication, perhaps years later. Athanasiou’s new bill will close cases permanently within three months. The government has also begun a barrage to prepare soci - ety for auctions of first homes. and confiscations of deposits, wages and pensions, to cover longstanding debts to the tax office and overdue loans. The government plans to lay off 1,000 workers from the Post Office, which currently has 7,500 workers with perma - nent contracts, down from 11,500. It will dissolve three mu - Workers protest the closure of the state broadcaster ERT nitions companies, DAC, EAS, ELVO, which currently employ 2,500 workers. Salaries and pensions will be slashed By Theodora Polenta stays as finance minister. again. New workers can be hired on individual contracts at Pasok was almost wiped out as a political force in the 2012 586 euros gross for a six-day rather than a five-day working On 25 June the remaining parties of the Greek govern - elections and is now at 6.5 percent in opinion polls. (It had work. ment coalition — New Democracy (ND) and the social- 44% of the vote in the October 2009 general election). Those pensions which remain at an acceptable level — democratic Pasok — announced a new cabinet. However, Pasok will play a much more leading role in the judges, engineers, journalists, chemical and some other in - The Democratic Left had left the government after a deci - new cabinet. Previously it held no key ministries. Now Pasok dustries — will be slashed, and there will be a further 10% sion by ND Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to close the Hel - party leader Evangelos Venizelos will be deputy prime min - cut in all pensions. lenic Broadcasting Corporation (ERT, Greek equivalent of ister and foreign minister. Michalis Chrysochoidis becomes BBC) on 11 June by ministerial decree, sacking its 2,600 em - transport minister, and Yiannis Maniatis environment minis - FEROCITY ployees. ter. Over four years, in spite of the increasing ferocity of aus - Democratic Left was never opposed to the restructuring of The health minister will be Adonis Georgiadis, a former terity measures and repression, the workers, the unem - ERT, but wanted layoffs done while it remained on air. Even member of the far-right LAOS party who was expelled last ployed, the pensioners, the young and poor have not now, Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis says that the “De - year and defected to ND, after voting for the second auster - stopped discovering their power. mocratic Left…will continue to support the European course ity package in defiance of his party’s line. The combative working-class movement is regaining its The government is tasked with carrying out further attacks of the country and the need to continue reforms in order for confidence with struggles like ERT. The potential to over - demanded by the troika (European Union, International Greece to overcome the deep crisis.” throw the government from below and from the left is back Monetary Fund and European Central Bank), which will re - But the base of the government is narrower. Meanwhile the into the agenda. turn to Athens next week to review the implementation of “Left Initiative” led by George Panagiotakopoulos has for - Without massive and militant struggles, ND and Pasok can austerity policies. Its first job is to confirm to the troika that mally withdrawn from Pasok. The core loyalists of the old govern for a long time escalating their class war and destruc - Pasok leadership of George Papandreou have political space 2,000 public sector sackings are in place, as well as moving 12,500 civil servants into a labour mobility scheme over the tion. There is only one way to stop them — and that is over - now to criticise current Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos throw them through our struggles. from the left. next few weeks. Without these measures, the troika will with - hold the next tranche of the loan agreement. The militant sectors in the trade union movement must DESPISED Samaras and Venizelos had based much of their hopes on meet, to discuss and coordinate, with a perspective of re - peated rolling strikes, demonstrations, occupations, sit-ins to With the withdrawal of Democratic Left’s 14 deputies, an national and international capitalist backing and their join with the civil disobedience movement and declare polit - already widely despised government is deeply unstable, chances of concessions from the Troika. But the international ical war against the government and the austerity policies. with its majority in the 300-seat Parliament reduced to environment is deteriorating. The EU summit, which was ex - three. Over the last year nine deputies have already left pected to give answers to critical issues of debt and banks, The Left must establish clearly the target of the fall of the the ND or Pasok fractions in parliament. The government effectively postponed decisions until the end of 2013. government and its replacement by a government of the Left could rapidly lose its three-seat majority in any crisis. According to the Financial Times: “A shortfall of €3bn- with a program that objectively leads outside the boundaries €4bn has opened up in Greece’s bailout programme, largely of capitalism: scrap the memoranda, refuse to repay the debt, Workers are still occupying ERT offices, although their because eurozone central banks have refused to roll over nationalise the banking system and strategic sectors of the union leaders are once again ready to work with the govern - some Greek bonds they hold. Delays to planned privatisa - economy under social and workers’ control and manage - ment in pushing through austerity. Panagiotis Kalfagiannis, tions have not helped either. ment, massive public investment and planning of the econ - the leader of the broadcast workers’ union, has said: “If the “Essentially, Greece’s bailout programme will run out of omy to the needs of society, socialist structure and government wants to restructure ERT we agree. We want re - money at the end of July 2014 because of the hole. But this organisation of economy, and a society grounded on a dem - structuring. Not a padlocked ERT.” has immediate repercussions. Under IMF rules, a govern - ocratic basis and committees assemblies in each workplace Workers in all hospitals — doctors, nurses and administra - ment must have its financing needs covered for at least a year and every neighbourhood. tors — had a five-hour work stoppage on Thursday 27th, and in order for the Fund to carry on making disbursements Merkel, Lagarde and Co. have threatened that if Greece demonstrations in all cities. Treasury workers had a 48-hour under the programme. The shortfall means that that cut-off calls new elections they will cut the funding! The Greek labor strike on 27 June. On 26 June workers at all ports in Greece moment is approaching faster than expected and will come at movement should answer: we can do without them, without had a work stoppage from noon to 7pm against privatisation the end of July 2013”. the EU of capitalists and neo-colonialists! But at the same and selling off ports. The Troika has increased the pressure on Greece. European time there should be no illusions in the drachma, no illusions On Saturday 29 June the council workers organised a rally officials say that the Greek government has enforced only in a go-it-alone road to a “national haven.” against layoffs in the public sector and utilities. Primary half of some 300 measures due by the end of June. We need common struggle with the movements of the school teachers have voted to commence the new school year The new government is morally and politically isolated South and the rest of Europe, we need to coordinate our with strikes. from society. That makes it even more dangerous than the struggles with them, aiming for large ruptures and up - Samaras remains prime minister in the new cabinet. Yan - governments which came before. Its only backup to stay in heavals throughout Europe, for a workers’ Europe, for a nis Stournaras, an unelected technocrat nominated by ND, power is the Troika and the Greek ruling class; which is un - workers’ world, for socialism. 9 FEATURE Venezuela’s workers’ movement

In Solidarity 290, Pablo Velasco began a four-part assessment tionary process”. of the legacy of Hugo Chávez and the meaning of his gov- The conflict between labour and the state increased dra - ernment and state. In this second part, he examines the rela- matically with the appointment of (ex-Morenoist) Rivero as tionship between the Chávez regime and the Venezuelan labour minister. He intervened in disputes to advance the labour movement. FSBT and sided with bosses, as with the case of Sanatarios Maracay, an occupied ceramics factory where he set up a par - For Marxists, the most significant criteria for judging any allel union and handed back the factory to the owner. regime — aside from its relation to capital and the na - The situation intensified in 2008 with the steelworkers’ dis - ture of the state — is its relationship with the working pute at Sidor. After more than a year of struggle for a collec - class. tive contract, Sidor workers found themselves in open This is so often missing from pro-Chávez apologists, who confrontation against management and with the local Chav - tend to treat workers as the passive recipients of Chávez’s ista governor, Francisco Rangel Gomez, and Rivero, who benevolence. It is also missing from neoliberal accounts, for tried to impose a referendum on the company’s final pay whom the working class is merely raw material for exploita - offer. At one point, workers were brutally repressed with tion. teargas and rubber bullets by the National Guard and the The picture is somewhat complicated by the state of organ - local police. Rivero slandered Sidor workers, claiming they ised labour before Chávez. The historic official trade union were “counter-revolutionary” and falsely claiming they had movement, the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), supported the boss’s lockout in 2002-03, when in fact, they was founded in 1936 and was effectively tied to the Acción had seized control of the plant from management. Although Democrática party, which dominated Venezuela between Chávez eventually overrode Rivero and nationalised the 1958 and 1998. As the Punto Fijo pact unravelled into neolib - plant, it was indicative of the government’s top-down ap - eralism, the CTV went into a steep decline. CTV density proach. dropped from 40% of the workforce in the 1970s to less than Another example took place in the state-owned oil com - 20% by the 1990s. pany PDVSA, where the minister responsible, Rafael The CTV was heavily involved in attempts to overthrow Ramírez, intervened during elections for the national leader - Chávez in the early years of his rule. It organised joint action ship of the United Federation of Venezuelan Oil Workers with employers’ organisations against the Chávez govern - (FUTPV), which represents more than half the oil workers in ment, culminating in active support for the April coup in the firm. In July 2009, Ramírez categorised the FUTPV as 2002. If it was widely discredited even before Chávez came to Chávez’s successor Maduro has a trade-union background. “Adecos” — meaning supporters of the opposition party Ac - power, then following the opposition lockout in 2002-03, its What is the relationship between the Bolivarian state and ción Democrática. role as an Acción Democrática tail was fully exposed. organised labour? However the eclipse of the CTV provided space for the dispute was the date of elections for the UNT leadership. The COLLABORATION The FUTPV was formed in April 2007 in collaboration with emergence of the Unión Nacional de Trabajadores (National pro-Chávez minority wanted to put off union elections to PDVSA management and the labour ministry as an at - Workers’ Union, UNT) as an independent trade union centre. concentrate on getting 10 million votes for Chávez in the tempt to unite the four main union federations in the oil The UNT was founded in April 2003 and held its first con - presidential elections in December that year. The current industry. gress in August that year, attended by more than 1,300 dele - around Chirino insisted that the leadership of the UNT must gates, representing over 120 unions and 25 regional union be elected as soon as possible, suggesting September as the Despite the merger, elections for the united federation have bodies. It organised a half a million-strong May Day demon - best date. The minority walked out of the conference and never taken place — a provisional national leadership com - stration in 2005 under the banner of “Co-management is rev - held its own parallel meeting. mittee was appointed by the ministry under Rivero. olution,” and “Venezuelan workers are building Bolivarian In June 2009 the CNE, which facilitates union and other Socialism”. It claimed over a million workers in affiliated C-CURA elections, ruled that forthcoming elections should be post - unions. At the second UNT congress in August 2006, out of the poned after receiving a complaint by Argenis Olivares, from According to Kiraz Janicke and Federico Fuentes, writing 1,750 delegates, over 1,000 supported the positions of the Socialist Workers’ Vanguard, (VOS), a pro-Ramírez cau - on the Venezuelanalysis website (29 April 2008), more than C-CURA. After that congress the government and the cus. Ironically, one of those accused of being “Adecos”, Gre - three quarters (77%) of collective agreements signed in 2003- FBT sabotaged the UNT. gorio Rodríguez, said he was a member of the PSUV and 04 were with unions affiliated with the UNT. In the private decorated with the “Order of the Liberator” for defending sector, the UNT signed just over half of all collective agree - They left the congress and never returned. The FBT tried to form the Central Socialista de Trabajadores (CST, Socialist the oil industry during the bosses lock-out in 2002-03. ments. Despite this growth, unionisation remained only In another example, 1,800 workers at a Mitsubishi plant slightly above 20% of the formal work force, while around Workers’ Central), but it was stillborn. The FBT became the Bolivarian Socialist Workers’ Force, FSBT. were involved in a struggle for over a year to put an end to half of workers are in the so-called informal sector, which is illegal sackings in the plant and reinstate 170 workers (in - largely unorganised by unions. When Chávez announced the formation of the PSUV party after he won the 2006 presidential election, almost all the cluding the 11 member board of the union, Singetram). COALITION trade union currents agreed to join it. C-CURA split over this Workers took part in long strikes, occupations, and two question, with Chirino’s supporters rejected participation union members were killed during protests. Many workers Janicke and Fuentes defined the UNT as originally a said they were PSUV members, but still criticised the new coalition of five political currents. (and calling for a spoiled vote in the constitutional reform referendum in December 2007), while others led by Stalin labour minister María Cristina Iglesias who failed to support These were: the FBT (the Bolivarian Workers’ Force) led by Perez Borges formed Marea Socialista (Socialist Tide) and their struggle. Oswaldo Vera; the Alfredo Maneiro current, whose key lead - went into the PSUV. Judged against actual class struggles, Chavista ministers ers included Ramon Machuca in the steel industry and In December 2009 and April 2010, some factions attempted and governors invariably act against the workers involved. Franklin Rondon in the public sector; the Collective of Work - to refound the UNT. The driving forces were Marea Social - The Bonapartist state wants a union movement compliant ers in Revolution (CTR), led by Marcela Maspero; the United ista, the CTR and the Bolivarian Educators. They also in - with its wishes – efforts to promote independent trade union - Revolutionary Autonomous Class Current (C-CURA), volved the Communist Party of Venezuela’s (PCV) trade ism are met with hostility, slander and sometimes repression. headed by Orlando Chirino and Stalin Perez Borges; and the union fraction, the Cruz Villegas Current, which had previ - Pro-Chávez apologists claim that his government gradu - smaller Union Autonomy, led by Orlando Castillo. (The FBT ously stayed outside of the UNT. Chirino has formed the ally radicalised. In particular, the proclamation of 21st cen - was originally organised by Nicolás Maduro, now Chávez’s Labour Solidarity Movement (MSL) with some remnants of tury socialism led to the widespread expropriation of large successor as president). the CTV, and opposed refounding the UNT. and medium-sized companies in steel, electricity and However there were tensions within the UNT from the The Venezuelan labour movement remains fragmented telecommunications since 2007. However even sympathetic start, over its relationship to Chávez’s government, the ab - and weak. Some sections are completely subordinate to the academic Steve Ellner acknowledges that the wave of expro - sence of internal democracy and how far it was defending government or the opposition. The labour movement is in no priations did not obey a preconceived ideological scheme, workers’ conditions. At the founding congress there was lit - sense a major protagonist, with its own independence, its but were the outcome of a series of battles between the state tle debate, leaders were appointed, and there were no elec - own strength and its own demands. These are the fruits of a and the hostile private sector, which had strong links to the tions. Machuca wanted an independent as president. decade and a half of Chavismo. opposition and the old elites. However the FBT and others proposed a “horizontal” struc - The active interference of the Chávez government in the The expropriations have primarily been designed to ture with a 21-member national coordinating committee and labour movement is one of the signs of its Bonapartist char - counter shortages, although some fulfilled other objectives. no president or secretary general. Although the FBT made acter. In April 2008 a joint press conference of the labour min - The state control of basic industry had been a goal of nation - some concessions — accepting the name UNT rather than ister José Ramón Rivero and Oswaldo Vera, the coordinator alist movements dating back to the 1930s and had been in - “Bolivariana”, Machuca refused to join. of the FSBT announced the formation of a new national union corporated in the 1961 constitution. The UNT effectively fell apart three years later. It held a federation and called on unions to disaffiliate from the UNT. conference in May 2006, where around three-quarters of the Rivero was quoted as saying “the National Union of Work - Continued on page 10 delegates supported C-CURA. The immediate cause of the ers does not represent the spirit of the Venezuelan revolu - 10 FEATURE

Continued from page 9 of its relationship vis-à-vis the working class. A lesser argument often heard on the left is that at least the Chávez government has promoted workers’ control in some Some firms such as the CANTV phone company, Sidor steel of the expropriated factories. In 2010, at a meeting of the So - firm and the national airline had been state-owned, and were cialist Guyana plan dealing with the future of the industry, then privatised before Chávez came to power. Other expro - Chávez said he would introduce workers’ control and said priations, such as those of contractor firms working for “I stake my future with the working class”. Worker-direc - PDVSA or the Corporación Venezolana de Guayana, in - tors, selected by the workers, were appointed to head many volved nationalisations to strengthen the central state’s hold of the CVG companies, including Carlos d’Olivera in Sidor over supply chains. Others still were taken over as a result and Elio Sayago at aluminium smelter Alcasa. of their owners abandoning them after opposition efforts to Co-management and related ideas have been discussed oust Chávez had failed. In some cases, pressure from work - since at least 2005 and they remain slippery. Having a ers contributed to these takeovers. worker-director, even one elected by the workers, does not guarantee workers’ control. In fact genuine workers’ control COLLECTIVE is very much a bottom-up initiative of workers rather than It is legitimate to ask how far these expropriated firms decreed from above. Powerful interests within the Bolivar - have become the collective property of the Venezuelan ian movement oppose workers’ control in the basic indus - people. There have been a series of transfers of private tries in Guayana. Bureaucratic Chavista trade union leaders capitals, at full market-value, into the hands of the bour - Figures like Orlando Chirino have tried to develop independent from the FSBT have sabotaged efforts, targeting for example geois state. working-class politics. Unfortunately Chirino has moved Elio Sayago. The FSBT organised a blockade of the Alcasa In most cases the state has paid compensation to the own - rightwards. factory gates in June 2011 which lasted for 34 days, including ers using oil-rents. Once in control, state functionaries have violent clashes in which a member of the FSBT threatened generally maintained hierarchical and profit-driven manage - of infiltration of the bourgeois state by an agent of the op - other workers with a pistol. When Sayago, backed by those ment. For good reason several UNT unions have taken up pressed classes. These conceptions stretched to their limit workers who support workers’ control, attempted to access the motto of supporting “neither capitalists nor bureaucrats”. imply the Chávez government was some sort of a workers’ the installations he was brutally beaten up. The day after, The expropriations have not paved the way for socialist plan - government, even if contained within the shell of a bourgeois Sayago was accused by two women workers, members of the ning. Only 30% of the economy is owned by the state, while state. FSBT, of assaulting them, even though there is video evi - the bourgeoisie still controls 80% of the national banking sec - Such a thesis is unsustainable. The strength of the Bona - dence of the attack having been against him, not the other tor, 90% of trade, and the transnational companies. partism thesis is that it allows for the political expropriation way round. It is therefore wrong to argue, as Michael Lebowitz and of bourgeois parties and the incorporation of other actors, Since Chávez’s turn to “socialism”, all sorts of firms such others do, that the commanding heights of the economy are while the state remains a bourgeois state, the bourgeois con - as Alcasa, Venepal, Inveval, Cadafe and countless others actually in the hands of the state, without asking which tinue to rule socially and economically and the working class have been hailed as blazing a trail for workers’ control, only class’s interests this state protects. Similarly, George Cic - for management to continue largely in the old way. remains exploited and excluded from power. It recognises This is not workers’ control as under in Russia in 1917, cariello-Maher argues that Venezuela is in a period of “long that the Chávez government does not follow the “normal”, or Spain in 1936, or other more recent efforts such as Ar - dual power”, where the bourgeoisie has successively lost its neoliberal rules of the game, but nevertheless remains critical gentina in 2002. grip on the state apparatus and that Chávez represents a sort

the National Public Order Intelligence Unit, cops have infil - trated the anti-apartheid movement, animal rights groups, the left, anti-racist and anti-fascist groups, Greenham Com - mon, anti-capitalist and environmental campaigns. In those groups they have sniffed round trying to find dirt (including as has been widely reported on the Stephen Lawrence family campaign), point the finger at “innocent” activists (as suspect police), egg on groups and individuals to break the law, broken into premises, and done lots of other illegal stuff themselves (which has been retrospec - tively authorised by their handlers). Knowledge about these operations came to light after the partner of undercover cop Mark Kennedy — who had led activists into a police trap during a protest at Ratcliffe-on- Soar power station — found his real passport. Further knowledge has been provided by ex-undercover cop and whistle blower known as Pete Black. With these starting points Lewis and Evans have done a great job at putting to - gether the evidence. A 1993 anti-fascist demonstration against the BNP in Welling. Undercover police had infilitrated both the BNP and the anti- So how to spot a political policeman/woman? They will fascists, and coordinated to ensure they could effectively sabotage and undermine the protest. arrive on the scene unannounced. They will have money. They will make themselves useful fetching and carrying. They may volunteer to be a treasurer. They will form a long- term relationship, the better to appear solid and authentic and real. After a few years they will fake a breakdown or The deceivers family bereavement and go to live on the other side of the world. You will feel sorry for them when you receive a post - card from Canada, South Africa or wherever. Don’t be fooled! Cathy Nugent reviews Undercover: the True Story of among them”. The government will resist calls for a public enquiry on Britain’s Secret Police by Paul Lewis and Rob Evans (Faber Chief Constable Mick Creedon, who is leading an inquiry the undercover police. Cameron’s response to the evidence & Faber, 2013) into undercover policing, has said that it is a bit like men in this book and in particular the embarrassing revelation lying about whether they are married: “It happens.” that the Lawrence family were spied on, is to say the police- How would you feel if you found out the person you had Not so, says Alison (not her real name), who is one of 11 been in a long-term relationship with had been acting led enquiry should be expanded (anything to ensure that women suing the police for planting an undercover cop in the police will always police the police). out a fictional persona, using the name of a dead child, her life: “The betrayal and humiliation is beyond any nor - But the left has more fundamental demands here. In under the direction of the state and subsidised by the mal experience... This is not about just a lying boyfriend or the first place we want the disbanding of the political tax payer? a boyfriend who has cheated on you.” police — undercover units, Special Branch, anti-terror - That is what male undercover cops have done to un - At least with normal lying bastards you can be sure there ist units — all of it. In that context we want to talk about known numbers of women according to this important some affection involved. None of these women can be sure. who the police are, what they do and whose interests Guardian investigation. Since the late 60s, “sleeping with Having become aware of the state-sponsored deception, they serve. the target” has been a central tactic of the police in their sur - they half-believe the emotional commitment was also pre - veillance of political groups. tence; understandably the apologies and emotional out - • Parliamentary testimony of women abused by under Nick Herbert, Tory minister for police and criminal jus - pourings of the scumbags who deceived are unconvincing. cover police: bit.ly/cops-parl tice, thinks the tactic is justified. A specific ban on under - This was, in fact, state-sponsored abuse. • A 2011 account of acquaintance with the undercover cop cover officers having sexual relationships would he said, But it was not the only dirty tactic that undercover police Mark Cassidy, who infiltrated anti-fascist activist circles in provide “a ready-made test for the targeted criminal group operations resorted to over the years. Hackney in the late 1990s: bit.ly/mark-cass to find out whether an undercover officer was deployed Under the Special Demonstration Unit and (from 1999) 11 REPORTS 3 Cosas campaigners Why link with North Korean “unions”? invade Senate House any meaningful sense, but the state-run labour fronts of totalitarian regimes, often used to police and By Stew Ward potential strike, but ISS has repress working-class not succeeded in kicking self-organisation and dis - Outsourced workers at the fight out of cleaners. sent. the University of London [Bosses] hoped newly-em - Recently the WFTU has are keeping up the pres - ployed workers would be experienced a slight re - sure on management as cowed by fear, but most By Luke Taverner vival, in part by placing part of their “3 Cosas” have eagerly joined RMT itself to the left of the campaign to win pen - after seeing you can’t stand The Council of Execu - ITUC, which it criticises sions, holiday, and sick alone against such a brutal tives of the RMT, at its for being in favour of so - pay equality with their di - management […] Once the June 2013 meeting, de - cial partnership. The rectly-employed col - bosses learn that we can’t cided to affiliate to the WFTU has rebranded it - leagues. be intimidated, they will World Federation of self as “class-based” and Trade Unions (WFTU). “democratic.” Some An unannounced The “Justice for Clean - human beings.” have nowhere to hide.” unions in South Africa demonstration disrupted a ers” campaign at SOAS, London Underground Industrial Workers of the The WFTU traces its have affiliated to it and conference in the univer - one of the University of cleaners have expanded World cleaners at the history back to the end of are pushing COSATU to sity’s flagship Senate London’s member colleges, their union organisation British Medical Associa - the Second World War, do so. House building on 28 June, also plans a protest for following management’s tion’s HQ have also taken a when an attempt was The RMT say they will and while some attendees Thursday 4 July. Speaking use of immigration raids to step forward. made to revive the old A motion to back their “seek to facilitate a meet - were angry at the disrup - at Workers’ Liberty’s Ideas attempt to break organisa - trade union international. campaign demands was ing between the ITF (In - tion, many expressed sup - for Freedom event, SOAS tion amongst cleaners em - discussed at the BMA’s Soon, opposition to the port for the workers. cleaner Lenin Escudero ployed by ISS. A cleaners’ Marshall Plan by unions ternational Transport Annual Representative Workers Federation) Gen - Demonstrators briefly Zarsoza said: “Before we rep writing in the rank- Meeting, and will now be in the Stalinist bloc, and blocked the doors to Vice started our campaign, we and-file bulletin Tube - the anti-Communism of eral Secretary Steve Cot - discussed by the BMA ton and the transport Chancellor Adrian Smith’s felt invisible. Look at us worker said: “ISS used Council. many Western unions, office. now. Now we feel like immigration law to crush a made the organisation un - section of the WFTU.” tenable. Most big union But the move may also centres outside the Stalin - be shaped by people in Posties reject pay deal ist world left, and set up the RMT who have some what is now the ITUC. sympathy for the sorts of The WFTU continued as regimes for which the and privatisation an organisation of state WFTU provides cover. Regardless of the mo - labour fronts and unions By Darren Bedford tive, the sad fact is that with various conditions in - historically linked to or the leadership of a mili - cluding cuts to pension led by their national Com - Royal Mail workers have tant industrial union in provision — as “misleading munist Parties (like the voted by 99% to demand Britain seems to have and unacceptable”, and French CGT) around the an above-inflation pay “laden with strings”. world. Its biggest remain - no problem aligning rise. The union says its execu - ing affiliates include the themselves with an or - In the same consultation, tive will meet “in the near Vietnamese General Con - ganisation which in - Teaching unions NUT and NASUWT reported a Communication Workers future” to decide what ac - federation of Labour, the cludes within it 98% turnout in Manchester and Liverpool for the Union (CWU) members tion to take following the Cuban CTC, and the Gen - representatives of some ballot. of the most repressive, 27 June regional strike, which took place across working for Royal Mail re - In a separate dispute eral Federation of Trade turned a 96% majority in anti-worker regimes in northwest England. 4,000 people marched to involving Crown Post Of - Unions in North Korea. opposition to proposed pri - These are not unions in the world. support the strike in Manchester (pictured). fice workers, CWU mem - vatisation, and a 92% ma - bers struck for a sixth Teachers were striking against proposals to jority in favour of time on 20 June, closing introduce performance-related pay, as well as to boycotting mail from pri - offices around the coun - FE workers face job cuts vate competitors, and a try. win demands around issues including workload 92% majority in favour of a and pensions. A national strike is promised for policy of non-cooperation some time next term. with company procedures By Jonny West lege Union (UCU) says in workplaces where The rank-and-file network LANAC is pushing for the proposals “leave stu - budget cuts have made Workers at LeSoCo dents in limbo”, as it is action to be escalated as quickly as possible. workload levels impossible (Lewisham-Southwark not clear whether the • nutlan.org.uk to deal with. College, an FE institu - courses will continue for With the company’s re - tion formed through the currently-enrolled stu - cent profits are in excess of merger of the two col - dents. £400 million, CWU has de - leges) are balloting for UCU members at Brighton golf strike nounced its latest proposals strikes against job cuts, nearby Lambeth College on pay and conditions — with the result due on are also due to strike on which offered an 8.6% in - Friday 5 July. Thursday 4 July. Workers By Ruben Lomas Members of both GMB and crease over three years but there face nearly 100 re - Unison will take part in the Management plan to cut 35 jobs, and abolish dundancies. Workers on council-run strike, which would be the English for Speakers golf courses in Brighton science and floristry second in the dispute so far. of Other Languages were due to strike on More industrial news online courses. Management Meanwhile, CityClean re - (ESOL) students re - Wednesday 3 July against claims the courses are un - cently staged a walkout fuse workers suspended pay cuts of up to £4,000. • East Midlands Trains workers to ballot dersubscribed, but both in support of their lec - their action on 21 June fol - have had a higher number turers and against the The workers are em - • BBC workers vote on pay deal of applications than they ployed by Mytime Active, lowing further negotiations cuts package of which with the council. • 100% vote for strikes at Portsmouth port did at the same point in the redundancies are who manage the Holling - They had previously 2012. bury Park and Waterhall part, and which will also struck for five days The University and Col - golf courses for Brighton bit.ly/indnews-brief hit ESOL provision. and Hove City Council. against cuts. Brazil protests S&o Wlorikdersa’ Libreirtty y continue few thousand demanding better public transport. “Then CSP-Conlutas, a left-wing labor federation, and CUT PODE MAIS, a dissident caucus within A new turn in Egypt the largest federation, By Rosalind Robson CUT [Workers’ Party dents since Gamal Nasser dominated mainstream federation], together with have rested upon it; SCAF Mass protests in Brazil has its own economic inter - other organisations, called against government for a day of action June est in the neo-liberal project. corruption and poor The danger of SCAF rul - 27. public services con - “That day General Mo - ing directly and staging a tinue, though President coup is very real. That tors workers, together Dilma Rousseff’s prom - with metalworkers from would signal revolutionary ises on political reform defeat. Whether Morsi will seven other plants in Sao and public investment Jose dos Campos, did a buckle remains to be seen. may demobilise. The task at hand is: the one-hour stoppage. Con - rescuing of revolution and a Meanwhile, many local struction workers demon - readiness to struggle authorities have backed strated in Belem and against the National Salva - down on public transport Fortaleza. In Rio de tion Front, the largest oppo - fare increases, the original Janeiro, 10,000 workers sition group and an spark for the protests. and students demon - organisation that itself en - Thousands marched in strated throughout down - compasses remnants of the over 300 cities on Sunday town. In Belo Horizonte, old regime. 30 June, to coincide with the unions joined the Despite claims to be an the Confederations Cup. huge demonstration of opponent of Brotherhood The tournament is a dress 60,000 in front of a foot - authoritarianism, NSF lead - rehearsal for the 2014 ball stadium where the A protester in Tahrir Square holds up anti-Muslim Brotherhood posters ers have attended secret World Cup, which Brazil Confederations Cup meetings with the Brother - is hosting at great expense match was scheduled. hood and wants to avoid di - — a focus for discontent. By Matt Hale from the International Mon - tential. Rightly, the Revolu - rect confrontation with Rousseff and her Work - LABOUR etary Fund, Morsi has in - tionary Socialists (linked to SCAF. Their difference with ers’ Party have promised “Simultaneously seven Protests in Egypt on Sun - tensified market the British SWP) have called Morsi’s Brotherhood is pri - a constituent assembly to Brazilian labour federa - day 30 June marked a liberalisation. The conse - for a general strike until the marily one of emphasis. debate political reform, tions along with the new stage of the revolu - quences have been devas - regime falls Both are opposed to the retaining laws which Landless Movement tion. tating and resulted in the (alturl.com/7eugs). Yet deepening of the revolu - criminalise political cor - (MST) met and declared ruption, investment in a ‘National Day of Strug - Called to coincide with effective collapse of the questions are posed about tion, but the NSF opposes city transport, more gle and Mobilisation’ for the one-year anniversary of Egyptian pound; there has what should replace Morsi. the Brotherhood’s Islamist money for education and 11 July. Mohammed Morsi’s Presi - been a 12% devaluation in In response to the character. health and (just to balance dency, and with estimates the first six months of 2013 protests, Brotherhood thugs At heart the NSF is but “Specific workers de - her promises up) “fiscal of 13 million attending na - alone. have been unleashed. They another tendency among mands include “[stopping responsibility”. tionwide, the protests de - While shortages in wheat have made violent attacks capitalist forces; all lack a the] auctioning off of manded fresh elections and and other basic commodi - on the revolutionary oppo - political programme ex - Brazil’s petroleum re - ties continue, military sition — sixteen were killed pressing the revolution’s so - PROBLEMS serves to private compa - the President’s resignation This falls far short of the and have once again high - spending has increased by on Sunday alone. cial character. nies, reduction of working $3.4billion — far exceeding Its National Coordinator, perceived problems of hours from the current 44 lighted the need for social - bourgeois democracy in ists to organise and argue the £1.4billion military aid STATE Mohammed el-Baradei is a hours per week, stopping that the Egyptian state gets State security forces are former Director General of Brazil. There are over 30 a bill to legalise outsourc - for a workers’ government. political parties and The “Tamarod” (Rebel) every year from the United for now staying away, but the International Atomic ing, and land reform, States. there is no guarantee that Energy Agency, an inter - most are mired in which has been frozen by protests have continued, al - cronyism. ready winning minor victo - This is the context in will continue. governmental organisation the administration.” ries with at least four which Tamarod, initiated On Monday 1 July, Gen - under the auspices of the Capitalist development Costa comments: “The ministers quitting the Cabi - by youth activists, emerged eral Abdul Fatah Khalil Al- United Nations. Like the has brought the rapid Workers’ Party was net. and was able to gather 15 Sisi, the head of the armed Brotherhood, it is based on growth of urban society, elected in 2002, raising Since January 2011 there million signatures for its pe - forces, appointed by Morsi, the same social-economic not matched by infra - workers’ expectations — have been many twists and tition — more than the strategy — market policies structure, adequate hous - which were not met. delivered Morsi an ultima - “Although some turns in the Egyptian revo - number of votes that Morsi and capitalist realism. ing or public services. tum: either meet the de - measures in favour of lution. Democratic de - received last year. With the cards being The demonstrations mands of protesters by the poor were taken, mands have often been But the 30 June protests stacked by SCAF, the for - have been overwhelm - Wednesday 3 July, 4pm, or such as bolsa-família accompanied by an expres - and the Tamarod petition mation of an independent ingly youthful. Brazilian a new “road map” will be (an allowance for the sion of the revolution’s so - will not be enough to bring working-class political plat - society is youthful — 40% announced. very poor), the adminis - cial character, in the form of down the regime. form, centred on popular of all Brazilians are under Unfortunately, judging by tration has carried out workers’ strikes and occu - In 2011, it was the interac - democracy and social jus - 25. reports, the military ultima - neoliberal policies bene - pations, protesters demand - tion of the protest move - tice, becomes ever more Just as the demonstra - tum has been largely wel - fiting big landowners, ing social justice and moves ment with workers’ paramount. tions are subsiding, for comed by protesters, seeing The urgent necessities banks, and foreign cor - to oust “mini-Mubarak” struggle that paralysed the now, Brazil’s labour it as a step towards their de - are: winning rank-and-file porations.” bosses. regime and realised the rev - movement has begun to mands. As Tamarod soldiers to the revolution, The Muslim Brotherhood olutionary potential of the mobilise. According to spokesman Mahmoud Badr placing working-class in - has cooperated with busi - movement, forcing Claudia Costa (writing for • bit.ly/costa-ln responded, the military terests at the heart of the ness interests, and in coop - Mubarak to step down. Labor Notes ), on June 20, “crowns our movement”. opposition, and the pres - eration with the Supreme Today the situation is dif - “the second-largest labour Yet for all claims about entation of an alternative Council of the Armed ferent. The economic and federation, Força Sindical, the independence of the revolutionary programme Forces (SCAF), Morsi has political crises — the decla - which is considered con - military and their aim to to the butchers and hid - opted for physical force to ration of the Shura Council servative, led a two-hour foster reconciliation be - den enemies of the revo - disperse opponents. as illegitimate — have metalworkers stoppage in tween government and op - lution. In the context of eco - deepened. The masses pos - position camps, SCAF an industrial district in nomic crisis and a proposed sess a collective knowledge remains the bedrock of the São Paulo, gathering a $4.8 billion loan package of their revolutionary po - Egyptian state. All Presi - • Editorial comment, p5