& Workers’ Liberty

SolidarityFor social ownership of the banks and industry 50p/£1 • No 537 • 4 March 2020 • workersliberty.org BUILD UNIONS Women's NOT BORDERS Fightback 16-page Women's Fightback for International Women's Day 2020, also available to buy separately See pullout Third runway blocked

Misha Zubrowski reports on the fight against climate change after the court decision against Heathrow expansion Pages 8-9 Hegel, Marx, Arendt

Eduardo Tovar completes our survey of Robert Fine's books by discussing the 2001 book Political Photo: Gemma Short, @g_for_gemma Investigations Pages 10-12 ≫Block Tory drive for hard Brexit Inside Open borders for Syrian refugees Labour ≫ The case for voting RLB ≫Get Labour on the streets See page 5 Page 13 2 Upcoming events at www.workersliberty.org/events Bernie Sanders’ Cuba problem Agenda ver the next ten days or so, to 14 March, the main activ- Oities for Workers' Liberty people Sanders will be organising for our "Class Struggle Environmentalism" day campaign school on the 14th, and activity to support the UCU strikers, whose By Eric Lee fourth week of strikes runs from 9 to 13 March. s the possibility grows of We're also continuing distri- Bernie Sanders winning the bution of the Workers' Liberty ADemocratic nomination for Pres- Postalworker bulletin (bit.ly/ ident, his opponents are looking post-b). The new CWU union for vulnerabilities that can be ex- ballot in Royal Mail runs to 17 ploited. March. This shouldn’t be difficult, as This issue of Solidarity includes Sanders has been politically active (printed as a pull-out to reduce for some six decades. Surely he has costs) a new issue of Women's written or said something embar- Fightback, which has published rassing during that period. in various forms and frequen- But after trawling through the cies for 40 years now, on and off, various archives, they have found since 1980. It is timed for use es- very little to work with. Until now. pecially at International Women's Last week, the attention of the Day events on 8 March, but is de- mainstream media focussed on signed also for longer-term use things that Sanders had said about and engage with Cuba have been people in Cuba can now read, they Sanders has shown that he can over coming weeks and months. Cuba in the past. reversed by Donald Trump. In have been very limited in what do this, as his views on Israel and Our Workers' Liberty London It seems that many years ago, March 2016, Obama said that “The they can read. The regime has Palestine have shown. He does not forum on 28 February, to discuss Sanders made reference to two United States recognizes progress never tolerated dissent, and strictly see the world in black and white. In our new book Solidarnosc: the achievements of the Castro re- that Cuba has made as a nation, its limited what kinds of books can be fact, his understanding of the tragic workers' movement and the rebirth gime: raising literacy levels in the enormous achievements in educa- published or sold in the country, as nature of the conflict in that region, of Poland in 1980-1, drew about country and creating one of the tion and in health care.” well as print and online media. It is his empathy for the people on both 40 people, including a number of best health care systems in Latin But this did not stop Sanders’ true that there are some exceptions, sides, has helped turn him into the Polish people living in London America. When pressed on these critics, and not only Republicans, such as Leonardo Padura’s 2009 most popular politician among and people who were active in comments by CNN’s Anderson from attacking him for being an book, The Man Who Loved Dogs, both American Muslims and Jews. the Polish Solidarity Campaign Cooper, Sanders doubled down apologist for Castro. One British which is sympathetic to Trotsky. He has also shown that he knows in the 1980s. and said, “We're very opposed to writer blasted him in a Facebook But for many years, such dissident to speak clearly about dictators in Workers' Liberty union activ- the authoritarian nature of Cuba post, saying that Sanders “has a writing was banned. a way that the current American ists in the National Education but you know, it's unfair to simply record of being a bit soft (and a bit President has been unable to do. Union (NEU) and the civil service say everything is bad... When Fidel daft) on anti-western dictators”, COMPLEX For example, he says of Russian union PCS are busy with prepa- Castro came into office, you know comparing him to Jeremy Corbyn. President Vladimir Putin, “He is an rations for those unions' confer- what he did? He had a massive lit- The problem with what Sanders This view is, I think, unfair to autocratic thug who is attempting ences: 6-9 April, in Bournemouth, eracy program. Is that a bad thing? says about Cuba is that it's compli- Sanders. to destroy democracy and crush for NEU; 18-21 May, in Brighton, Even though Fidel Castro did it?” cated. Yes, the regime has done a The first thing to say in Sanders’ dissent in Russia.” for PCS. When asked about the dissidents few good things. But overall, it is a defence is that what he says is not He needs to show the same clar- If you want to liaise with us Cuba’s Communist government repressive society, noted for a lack wrong. Or as he put it, “facts are ity when talking about Castro and at either conference, email awl@ has sent to jail, Sanders replied that of human rights and ugly forms facts”. Literacy rates in Cuba did Cuba as well. □ workersliberty.org and we'll put “we condemn that.” of prejudice, including state-sup- rise dramatically following the • Eric Lee is the convenor of "Lon- you in touch. Later, he said that his view dif- ported homophobia. This means 1959 revolution. And Cuba does don for Bernie", writing here in a Dates for your diary (details of fered little from that expressed by that when discussing Cuba, one is have the best health care system in personal capacity. For all Eric's col- all these at workersliberty.org/ former President Barack Obama, required to display an awareness the region. umns on Sanders, and other Sand- events): whose efforts to end the blockade of the complexities. But it’s not that simple. While ers coverage, see bit.ly/el-bs. 5 March: Uyghur solidarity protest at the Chinese Embassy 8 March: International Wom- en's Day. 14 March: dayschool on class struggle environmentalism Behind the Rutnam case 21 March: UN anti-racism day march. Together with others, we By Luke Hardy nationalist politics and centralise We do not see the senior civil governments assault on the civil are supporting a free movement power in the hands of Boris John- service as a neutral arbiter. It is a service. Or perpetuate comforting bloc on the march n a basic trade union level we sons chief adviser Dominic Cum- tool of class rule. Tony Benn wrote fictions about their role. 27 March: Workers' Liberty should be against the bullying mings. about that in relation to civil-ser- We want a radically democratic London forum - debate with So- Oof even a very well paid civil serv- Cummings sees the traditional vice pressures on the Labour gov- workers' state that cannot be won cialist Alternative ant like Philip Rutnam, head of the levers of state power as domi- ernments of the 1960s and 1970s. by simply laying our hands on the 18-21 June: Workers' Liberty Home Office, who resigned on 29 nated by wishy-washy "Oxbridge bourgeois state and its civil ser- summer school, Ideas for Free- February, complained that many of humanities graduates" (though he INSTITUTION vice. We seek government through dom his staff had been bullied, and said himself is one of those). He sees his However, the senior civil service elected and recallable delegates, 22-26 July: Workers' Liberty he would sue the government for role to clear out the liberal infec- is also an institution that can be with full transparency, and with residential week school on Trot- "constructive dismissal". tion and centralise power so that subjected to laws, parliamentary all official jobs done at workers' sky's History of the Russian Revo- There clearly is a turf-war ele- the chosen leader can operate with oversight, rules and regulations wages. lution ment here, as in the resignation of the mandate of the silent majority. more than an absolutist cabal led Millions of people are un- 9-19 November: COP26, Glas- Chancellor Sajid Javid over prime Cummings wants like-minded by Cummings can. convinced of the need for a social- gow minister Boris Johnson's insistence "radicals" committed to the trans- If Johnson and Cummings ist reconstitution of society on a At bit.ly/mo-pe, you will find on replacing Javid's staff by staff formation of the British state, smashes the senior civil servants' international scale but are deeply suggested text for motions on: under Johnson's control. Or the though even he had to let the union, the FDA, and reconstituting concerned about the authoritarian • "Get Labour on the streets" case of Javid's adviser Sonia Khan, openly racist Andrew Sabisky re- the civil service in its own image, rightward turn across the globe. • Free movement who was marched off the job last sign (18 February) after journalists then the way is clearly open to They are looking for movements • West Bank annexation September by armed police called dug out Sabisky's blog posts. wider attacks on left-leaning offi- and social forces that can effec- • Iran and Iraq in by Johnson's adviser Dominic However right wing this govern- cials in education, academia or the tively fight and resist it. • Free Our Unions Cummings, and whose union is ment is, we cannot cheer on senior broader public sector. If the workers' movement takes And now suing over unfair dismissal. civil service officials who imple- You do not have to whitewash the lead, many of them may yet be • Downloadable pdf for peti- mented the hostile environment, the politics of the privately ed- won to our cause and the banner of tion on free movement Beyond that, we see an effort by □ the new government to transform austerity, the war on the disabled ucated wealthy mandarins who international socialism. • Charter for democracy in the the state to suit its authoritarian and the poor. Those people are not dominate Whitehall to oppose the labour movement □ allies. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 3 Green New Deal, not airport expansion!

impact they would have on the in the courts has followed. UK and beyond. protected.” planet; with local residents oppos- In June 2018, despite an upsurge Ultimately, the decision has not GMB National Officer Nadine Climate ing community destruction and of anti-expansion activism, the and will not be settled primarily Houghton is likewise “disap- noise and air pollution. government got Parliamentary in the courts. The political obsta- pointed” in the verdict on the basis The resurgent environmental support for its plans by 415 votes cles so far are down to widespread of jobs. She attempts to reassure By Misha Zubrowski movement in 2006-11 increased the to 119. Shamefully, while Labour's campaigning, winning large num- us that “[l]ike everyone else, GMB opposition, with the 2007 Climate Corbyn leadership stated oppo- bers of people to opposition, and members are very worried about xisting plans for Heathrow air- Camp targeting Heathrow. Solidar- sition to expansion, Labour MPs so placing government and parlia- climate change, but we would have Eport to be expanded with a new ity supporters, through Workers' were given a free vote and many ment under pressure. held Heathrow Airport Ltd’s feet third runway have been ruled ille- Climate Action, were involved in voted supported the government. The government may now aban- to the fire on their target for zero gal by a court of appeal, in the lat- this climate movement and oppos- Challenges to expansion were don the runway, or draw up a new carbon by the mid-2030s.” est move in a battle stretching back ing a third runway, while also sup- dismissed by the high court in May policy document to attempt to Members of these unions, and the best part of two decades. porting strikes of BA cabin crew 2019. However, on 27 February this approve expansion. On the latter activists across the labour move- On 27 February the court ruled based at Heathrow. year, a court of appeal delivered course of action, they may attempt ment, must fight for serious en- that in June 2018 Chris Grayling, Nonetheless, in January 2009 the the more favourable verdict. to square the circle, or it may be vironmental policies. A socialist then the transport secretary, was Labour government announced Boris Johnson has himself pre- possible to reconcile expansion Green New Deal would create acting unlawfully by not taking aims for a third runway on eco- viously opposed Heathrow's with the comparatively weak Paris many more good new jobs than into account the government's nomic grounds. The tireless cam- third runway. Despite being a agreements. It is down to environ- a third runway; in any case, our commitment - under the Paris paigning continued, and the plan fair-weather climate sceptic, his mentalists and the labour move- movement cannot continue to take agreements - to tackle the climate was later scrapped by the Con- opportunist political stances have ment to pressure them to abandon the conservative option of accept- crisis. The Government said it servative-Liberal Democrat coali- sometimes fallen in our favour. it. ing the bosses' immediate plans for would not appeal, though Heath- tion government in 2010. Or so it The Conservatives' 2019 election Unite and GMB, two of the three job creation when doing so drives row airport itself will. seemed. manifesto stated that: biggest UK unions, two unions climate change and with it net Air travel is extremely emis- While recognising and commit- “Parliament has voted in prin- which represent many Heathrow harm to our class. sions-intensive, releasing a much ting, “no ifs, no buts”, to honour ciple to support a third runway at workers, and two unions which We must counterpose to this: no higher quantity of greenhouse gas- the opposition to the third run- Heathrow, but it is a private sec- have a lot of sway within the La- third runway, an end to airport ses per individual or unit of goods way, the coalition government es- tor project. It is for Heathrow to bour Party, have consistently expansion, and policies to reduce moved than other major public tablished an Airports Commission demonstrate that it can meet its air backed a third runway. flights. transport or freight methods. to consider London's supposed quality and noise obligations, that Continuing their attempt to We must also boldly champion In December 2003 a governmen- airport capacity problems. In 2015 the project can be financed and square the circle, Unite's press of- worker-led transition of the trans- tal white paper, "The Future of Air this commission recommended a built and that the business case is fice said following the latest court port industry. Jobs guarantees and Transport”, advocated a third run- third runway at Heathrow. realistic. The scheme will receive verdict that Unite are “urging the retraining where necessary: ex- way at Heathrow and an expan- In October 2016, Theresa May's no new public money.” government to take immediate panding low cost, high quality, in- sion of Stansted. government approved the third The court's verdict is the first action to ensure that the planned tegrated, democratically run public Since then, environmental cam- runway plan, against opposition major ruling in the world based on construction of a third runway at transport, especially trains. □ paigners have been fighting these even from some of her own MPs. the Paris climate agreement, and Heathrow goes ahead, while en- proposals, given the harmful Further opposition by activists and may inspire similar attempts in the suring the environment is fully

WORKERS’ LIBERTY INVITES YOU TO... CLASS STRUGGLE ENVIRONMENTALISM 10.30-17.30, SAT 14 MARCH 2020 PARK VIEW SCHOOL WEST GREEN ROAD, LONDON, N15 3QR.

A day of workshops on how capitalism is the driver of environmental crises and what we can do to fight it.

Workshops on Marxist ecology for beginners; building local, changing the global; how to fight the fossil fuel industry; climate struggles in Australia; n Thursday 27 February, activists responding to a call "For Two States and Equal Rights", bit.ly/2s-er, socialist strategies; food, forests, fighting climate protested near the Israeli Embassy in London against the Trump Plan and the threats by Israeli political Oleaders to annex large areas of the 80%-Palestinian West Bank. catastrophe. The planned annexations would reduce the residual autonomy of the Palestinian cities, towns, and villages to that of disjointed patches of land surrounded by and completely dominated by areas claimed permanently for Israel. Tickets: £20 high waged, £8 low waged, We thought it urgent to get onto the streets before Israel's elections on 2 March, because annexation is likely £3 unwaged. £1 for school students to follow very fast after the election results are in. As we go to press, Israel's long-standing right-wing prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has made slight from Eventbrite bit.ly/cse-tickets gains, but with his established allies is still short of a majority. However, his main opponent, Benny Gantz of Blue and White, has already endorsed annexation of the Jordan Valley. The turnout by Arab voters was markedly up, and the mostly-Arab Joint List came in as the third largest + vegan food, second hand books, party. Palestinians living in Israel, and democratically-minded Israeli Jews, will continue fighting for two states networking and equal rights. The Jewish-Arab movement Standing Together commented: "There are no shortcuts. What is needed after workersliberty.org • 07752379924 • [email protected] • facebook.com/workersliberty/ the elections is the hard work of building a grassroots movement from the bottom up. A Jewish-Arab people's movement that will transform Israel and create change. Where there is struggle, there is hope". They need our active support. □ 4 Email your letters to [email protected] Morning Star welcomes end of free movement

Nowhere is this demonstrated more non-racist migration policy that both serves sure: but what we do know is that the Star plainly than in the Star’s response to the end- our economic needs and meets our human- believes immigration is a major factor in ing of EU free movement and the introduc- itarian obligations, but does not denude driving down wages, and has published ar- Antidoto tion (from next January) of a "points-based" poorer nations of their skilled personnel”: ticles (by no less an authority than Len Mc- immigration policy that will (supposedly) which is exactly what the Tories say they Cluskey, complete with an out-of-context end “unskilled” migration into Britain. are introducing and which, would of course, quote from Marx), arguing just that. By Jim Denham The MS has spent years claiming (on the make any human being who slipped in with- The 20 Feb editorial warns us that: “Pos- basis of very little evidence) that free move- out sufficient points... illegal. ing as champions of the EU’s free movement t is scarcely a secret that the biggest prob- ment of labour drives down wages, so it was model is likely to alienate as many people Ilem the Morning Star has with the Johnson hardly surprising to read in an editorial (3 CONFUSED as it appeals to, since the government has government is that, on so many issues, they Feb) that the Star positively welcomes the The Star’s real dilemma over all this was at shrewdly pointed out that when the new fundamentally agree. ending of free movement: “Brexit means least partially revealed in a further editorial system kicks in non-EU immigrants will no On Brexit (preferably “no-deal”), national- that our nation state is no longer bound by (20 Feb): longer be at a disadvantage ...” ism, hostility to “liberalism”, “human rights” the free and often forced movement of labour “It [the points-based system] is presented I think we can read that word “shrewdly” legislation, the “metropolitan elite” and “fi- that accompanies the EU’s free movement of as a bid to help British workers, and bosses’ as meaning “quite rightly”. nance capital”, the Star (and its ideological capital.” ability to undercut pay and conditions by What the Tories are doing, of course, is masters, the Communist Party of Britain) That phrase “often forced movement of bringing in cheap labour has been a key extending to EU citizens the racist and op- sing from much the same hymn-sheet as labour” is worth interrogating: what exactly factor in creating the ‘bargain-basement’ pressive policies they’ve long operated to- Johnson and Cummings. does the Star mean by it? The only possible economy, dominated by insecure work and wards non-EU migrants – and (as far as can Yes, of course, the Star ritualistically de- understanding is that workers often feel poverty pay, that we see around us.” be judged) the Star thinks that’s progress! nounces Johnson’s cruder forays into out- “forced” to travel in order to find employ- Now, just read that paragraph again, and The one unquestionably internationalist right racism and warns that the Tories can’t ment – something that applies to British try to work out what it’s really saying: is slogan the Morning Star has come out with, be trusted with workers’ rights; but that can- workers relocating within the UK and which the Star in agreement with the Tories’ prop- in the course of their recent coverage of im- not hide the underlying political correlation (as far as I’m aware) the Star has no objection osition that their new immigration policy migration, were the words “No human being – and, indeed thinly disguised admiration to. will “help British workers” and stop bosses is illegal” – however, unfortunately, they for his “boldness” and “unerring” political The same editorial proclaims “No human “bringing in cheap labour”? Given the con- should have added “but some are more legal acumen. being is illegal” but then goes on to call for “a fused wording, it’s impossible to say, for than others.” □ Fewer boons of HS2 major cities could help to free up congestion, it will only run on two tracks, it cannot possi- but at this rate the second stage of HS2 could bly serve all the cities in its zone of influence. Selina Todd and Letters be completed somewhere between 2035 and I agree about electrification of all existing 2040, far too late to have significant impact railways. Back in 2011 Network Rail was the Twitter storm on carbon emissions and reduce the amount investigating the complete electrification of here is a lot to agree with in Mark Catter- of freight and commuters moved by road. the York to Hull line, but that was officially social media storm broke out after a fem- all’s letter in Solidarity 536 - bit.ly/hs2-mc And where will capacity will be freed up? abandoned in 2016 by the then Rail Minister inist conference in Oxford on 29 Febru- T- but I am less optimistic about the capacity As I read it HS2’s congestion relief to the Paul Maynard. □ Aary asked Oxford University historian Selina argument for HS2. WCML is compromised by the failure to pro- Simon Nelson, London Todd to hand over her two-minute opening High speed direct rail services between vide interconnection with the WCML. Given address to a colleague, following threats by some speakers to boycott the event. Todd is associated with Women’s Place UK, which was set up to oppose progressive reform of laws on transgender rights. In a strange twist, WPUK types de- Brown shoes don’t make it manded the AWL immediately denounce the "disinvite". But none of us even knew about say, Britain's 1908-16 Liberal support the denial of seats to expanded by two million. Suc- the event, let alone had involvement in it! prime minister H H Asquith, the 64 delegates from the Missis- cessful strikes against federal And our position on such things is clear: we who also presided over reforms. sippi Freedom Democratic Party wage restraint helped to boost support trans rights, but oppose "disinvites", Letters Eric mentions Johnson's enact- who challenged the all white those incomes far more than the boycotts, etc. on this issue because we favour ing of new voting rights and civil and avowedly segregationist government assistance. dialogue. n making the case that Bernie rights legislation, as well as the Mississippi Democratic Party at Another concern about equat- But the radical feminist Twitter mob de- Sanders will not be the equiv- initiation of basic Medicare and the 1964 Democratic National ing Sanders with Johnson is that fending Todd made dialogue impossible. Ialent of George McGovern, Eric the “war on poverty”. Missing Convention. Johnson and his Vice Presiden- It is not normal communication to demand Lee paints a rather skewedly is the fact that Johnson escalated The war on poverty did pro- tial nominee in 1968, Hubert instant and pointless clarifications. Or to over-favourable picture of Lyn- the war in Vietnam and tried to vide some federal support for Humphrey, raised huge sums falsely accuse one feminist group at the event don Baines Johnson (LBJ), who suppress proper reporting of it. new initiatives, but later he from big business, far outstrip- (Feminist Fightback) of being responsible for was US President following Even leaving aside Vietnam, would take from those pots ping what Goldwater raised. the disinvite. Kennedy’s assassination and till Johnson unlike Sanders showed to plough more into Vietnam. Johnson was the safe pair of Or to denounce those who wanted to stand 1969. (How Sanders Wins, Solidar- no evidence of a particular per- Some initiatives like the Job hands in that election. up for trans rights (whatever the problems of ity 536, bit.ly/hsw-el). sonal commitment to civil rights. Corps training were abject fail- Sanders has rightly eschewed method in doing so) in vile misogynistic and Johnson was president at a Under the pressure of the March ures, with more than 25% of corporate financing of his cam- transphobic terms. □ time of vigorous social agitation on Washington in 1963 he was those who took part in it still out paign. We want him to continue from below, and responded to pressured into the Civil Rights of work, though the same money a stance that would make it im- • “Support trans people's rights!”, motion the pressure with reforms, as Act, while still trying to keep invested could have paid for col- possible. □ passed at Workers' Liberty conference 2018: conservative politicians some- many of the avowedly racist lege tuition. Will Sefton, London bit.ly/stpr18 times have done. That doesn't Southern Democrats onside. Between 1964 and 1968 union- • Workers' Liberty 3/61: "Gender: the right show that he was better than, He personally intervened to isation in the US public sector to choose". bit.ly/g-rtc Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 5 Build unions, not borders! ries and their counter- parts in other countries, the left must insist that Editorial economic and cultural flourishing, meaningful he Tories have threatened to abandon political democracy and talks with the European Union in June social progress depend on Tand spend the second half of the year pre- the lowering of borders paring for a No Deal Brexit. between countries and in- No expert thought it would be easy to get creased international links a UK-EU trade agreement even by the end of and solidarity. the year, when the transition period is due Free movement of peo- to end and Brexit really kicks in. Getting an ple is an essential part of agreement largely sorted by June will be that all that, and of left-wing, much more difficult. It looks like the Tories pro-working class politics. are trying to bluff the EU into concessions by Hostility to migrants is an a game of brinkmanship which could easily essential part of the nation- end in No Deal anyway. alist project and its hostil- The Tories have abandoned their earlier ity to the left and workers’ promises to maintain a “level playing field” interests. on workers’ rights, environmental stand- At Labour Party con- ards, state aid and other issues, and are justi- ference 2019, after years fying themselves by noisily demanding full of campaigning on the is- “sovereignty”, i.e. the right to diverge from sues, socialists won strong EU-mandated standards as they see fit. policy to defend and ex- Overwhelmingly, of course, the diver- tend free movement and gences will be in the direction of an even migrants’ rights. In the more neoliberal, anti-working class regime Labour leadership elec- than exists at present. tion, Keir Starmer and Lisa It's all part of the same package as the Nandy have said they sup- Tories' plans to stop all immigration of so- port maintaining existing called "unskilled" labour. free movement, and Re- dium in which far-right nationalist politics borders! Against the nationalist drive of the To- becca Long-Bailey has made positive noises have grown so spectacularly. On 21 March, Workers’ Liberty is co-spon- about it. The Turkish government has threatened soring the “No borders” / “Free movement” As the general election result showed, to open its borders with the EU and allow bloc on the UN Antiracism Day march in Get Labour on adopting a left-wing policy does not auto- masses of migrants from Syria to cross. London, organised by the Labour Campaign matically win wide support for it in society. Those migrants face being held as prisoners for Free Movement and others: Join us there the streets Pro-migrant and pro-free-movement policies in concentration camps on Greek islands or to say “Build unions not borders!” □ need to be systematically argued and cam- in limbo while Turkey tries to extract more olidarity is campaigning in the labour paigned for, particularly after years and dec- money from the EU. • The Free Movement/ No Borders bloc, Smovement for the Labour Party to ades when the vast bulk of campaigning has Migrants should be welcomed and in- sponsored by Labour Campaign for Free launch a concerted on-the-streets drive of been on the other side. tegrated into society. The most important Movement, Labour for a Socialist Europe, demonstrations and mobilisations to de- Free movement should not just be de- mechanism to welcome and integrate mi- Mutiny, Red Flag, Socialist Resistance, and mand: rebuild the NHS, save our schools, fended, but extended. The increasing grants, and to make society capable of Workers' Liberty, assembles 12 noon at Rid- end austerity. Text to adapt for a motion to closedness and hostility of Europe to migra- □ welcoming and integrating, is a strong ing House Street/ Langham Place, London your CLP or union branch: bit.ly/l-o-s tion from outside has been the culture me- working-class movement. Build unions, not W1B 2QS. Covid-19: the case for public spending and public ownership shut down. from day one for all workers regardless of The first answer to a financial and credit That would happen with a pandemic even income… Bosses should not put their profit crash triggered by a spread of the virus is with a socialist economy. With capitalism, margins ahead of public health and people public ownership and democratic control of Editorial though, the "supply shock" can also trigger need to be able to follow medical advice". high finance. □ an economic crisis of the more usual cap- As it stands, workers get statutory sick pay ovid-19 is spreading. Spreading even italist sort, through a snowballing slump of £94.25 per week only from the fourth day faster, in the last week of February, was of demand as laid-off workers lose income off, after three days unpaid. Democracy in the Cfinancial panic. and capitalists pause investment and luxury Sick pay clauses in union collective agree- The Dow Jones share-price index in the spending. ments give sick pay more comparable to reg- labour movement USA went down 12% in the week ending 27 The labour movement should demand ular wages, and often from day one, though olicy-making in the labour movement February, its biggest drop since 2008. a crash increase in NHS funding to enable sometimes there is a twist with "attend- should be the property of conference The first economic effects from a pandemic currently-overstretched hospitals and other ance bonuses" which effectively make each Pand duly-elected committees, not of a des- are in some ways the opposite of the usual facilities deal with the risks of the virus. By month's full pay depend on no day off sick ignated “Leader” and their “Leader’s Of- beginning of a capitalist slump. enabling hospitals to hire more staff, that that month. fice” handing down announcements. That usually begins with "overproduction" increase in funding will also counteract eco- The labour movement should demand full To push back the Tories week-by-week, - when capitalists, vying each to outstrip the nomic slump. sick pay across the board, no loss of bonuses, and to build a movement which can get other in a boom, find they've increased ca- Lisa Nandy, though in general she has and no loss of Universal Credit for claimants the Tories voted out, we need to get a real pacity way beyond available market demand, positioned herself as the Labour leader can- "self-isolating" over Covid-19. democracy-from-below in the labour move- and suddenly cut back on new investment. didate least wanting to "pick sides" against We should also demand a crash restora- ment, and to clear away the very large With a pandemic there is instead a "supply big business, has rightly demanded "emer- tion of funding to local authorities, which Blair-era elements still in Labour Party and shock", a disruption of production caused by gency legislation to guarantee people the will need to deal with much of the social fall- union structures. See bit.ly/d-l-m for our factories supplying production inputs being rights they deserve such as statutory sick pay out if the virus spreads widely. proposals. □ 6 More online at www.workersliberty.org UCU: how to continue after Easter By a UCU activist ences, will suggest to the employer that the more difficult. The Easter break, when many full pay. We have to be prepared for that, but strike is weakening, and relieve pressure on staff will take leave or be away from campus, not intimidated by it. s I write, negotiations with the employ- them to offer a new settlement. will necessarily slow things down. Unions A national programme of selective and ers are ongoing, and we’re told they’re Most fundamentally, solid picketing on should look to organise local actions, such rolling strikes, with dates determined by A“constructive”, but we have no further detail every strike day means maximising the pos- as meetings and demonstrations, to keep as input from local branches depending on beyond that. sibility of persuading fellow workers, and many people mobilised as possible, but some what would be more disruptive in their Greater transparency in these negotiations students, not to cross, therefore maximising loss of momentum is almost inevitable. particular institutions, targeting exam days is essential; rank-and-file members of the the disruption of the strike. The question is, how can we ramp things themselves, with an ongoing marking boy- union need the right to scrutinise and assess In the 2018 strike, the union leadership back up and escalate after Easter, when we cott in between strike days, could be a next what the employer is putting on the table, wanted to call off action to ballot on an ex- move into exam seasons, with schedules var- step. and collectively decide how to respond. tremely shoddy offer. A big factor in what ying across different institutions? That might seem like a de-escalation fol- Lively pickets are being organised in stopped them was that lively and well-at- lowing two rounds of all-out national strikes, many places, but on the whole the pickets tended picket lines acted as spaces for col- DISRUPT EXAMS but if it was planned and executed effectively since 24 February seem smaller than the Oc- lective discussion, and a strong rank-and-file The aim must be to disrupt exams. None of it could be an escalation in terms of the im- tober-November 2019 strikes, and than the pushback to the leadership’s strategy de- us will relish the impact this will have on our pact of the action. USS pension strikes in 2018. Some branches veloped, which eventually forced them to students, but the nature of the work we do For strikes on exam days to be effective are strategically deciding not to picket every change course and prevented the demobili- means this is where we have most leverage. would require solid pickets, as well attended day, in some places because they’re con- sation of the strike at that point. We must look to call action that will disrupt as possible, that made a real effort to prevent scious that workers can’t afford to live close Without something similar now, it be- the exams themselves, and the period of students and other workers from crossing. to their institutions and travelling in to picket comes much easier for the union leadership marking afterwards. Exams are often administered by non-aca- is a financial burden to people already losing to construct an unsatisfactory exit strat- The AUT, one of UCU’s predecessor un- demic staff who aren’t in UCU. money due to being on strike. egy from the dispute. That’s not to suggest ions, called a marking boycott in 2006. It Appeals not to undermine the strike But ways need to be found around this, they’re consciously looking to engineer a sell was fairly effective, and would’ve been even should be made to them, both directly via whether that’s via agreed picket duties al- out, but seeing the dispute through requires more so if the union leadership hadn’t called picket lines and via the local campus organi- continual pressure from below, even on lead- it off prematurely. Since then, a precedent sations of unions such as Unison, Unite, and lowing people to rotate, or using hardship □ funds to pay for travel expenses. Allowing ers whose hearts may be in the right place. has been set whereby many institutions view GMB. pickets to dwindle, or become token pres- After the next set of strikes, things become boycotts as a form of strike, and will dock Regaining strike momentum By a Cambridge UCU more than 80% in Cambridge. the union in parts of the university as many institutions as it did in Oc- tions and direct action would force Whilst we haven’t seen a propor- most in need. tober, and a poor result would be a the hand of local management to member tional increase in organisers, the Cambridge University remains major gift to our opposition. intervene nationally. It wouldn’t strike has allowed members to lay one of just 5 out of 150-plus UCU Time really is running out. take more than a handful of UCU fter the first two weeks of pick- better foundations for longer-term branches in the UK that aren’t Member morale is being tested, branches to do this before the bal- Aeting in the UCU "Four Fights" union building. A number of peo- yet recognised by their employer. with many hoping for even a slight ance of forces shifted vastly in our dispute, the number of activists ple have stepped up to help organ- Having active departmental reps in improvement in the current offer favour. and people on the pickets has re- ise their departments and become every department and faculty will (rightly rejected by the negotiating This spells the need for both local mained almost static. active reps, and importantly in the strengthen the case to change this, team) that would halt our action. organisers to call for heightened Whilst we’re evidently not los- case of some traditionally poorer and should be a priority campaign This shouldn’t be an excuse disruption, and for a national UCU ing momentum, we’re not notice- unionised faculties, such as Neu- locally irrespective of the outcome for members to accept weak rank and file network prepared to ably gaining it either. This is down roscience, Astronomy, and Physics. of this round of strikes. half-measures, but a call for action. coordinate militant activists to take by approximately a half compared Whilst building short-term There will soon be a long break If we were serious about winning, these steps in a joined-up manner. with the 2018 USS pensions strike; strikes and long-term sustaina- between academic terms, and we could do this tomorrow □ somewhat disappointing for a ble branches require different ap- the strike ballot runs out in May. With over 1600 members and union that grew during this period proaches, I’m optimistic that the It isn’t clear that a re-ballot now well over 100 committed activists by over 16% nationally, and by strike has at the very least activated would break the 50% threshold in in Cambridge alone, staff occupa- Salford, Liverpool, and Tower Hamlets

By Martin Thomas "Words were turned into deeds, which to increase reserves, because they want to son branches have returned huge majorities saw over 1,000 people march in support improve their financial position for 2021-2 for strikes, on big turnouts, and the GMB n 26 February, Paul Dennett, the Labour of the joint campaign, of which the council and later years, because they are "rolling for- branch is also balloting, with its ballot due mayor of Salford, announced that "for were part. Chants that would previously ward" cuts plans already made, or because to close on 4 March. Othe first year since 2010/11… Salford Coun- have been directed towards the council, they want to cut one area in order to boost They are resisting a scheme called "Tower cil has managed to set a no cuts budget after were instead directed towards the govern- another. Rewards", which the Labour council threat- nine debilitating years of Tory-Lib-Dem and ment". ens to impose on workers from April. Tory cuts, which have taken £211 million or The other background to this move is the HEROIC? The scheme is essentially about pushing 53% of central government funding out of government's decision about central funding So the declaration on 30 January by Joe An- Tower Hamlets workers down to the min- Salford". for local councils for the year 2020-1. Feel- derson, the Labour mayor of Liverpool, was ima set by the national "green book", and This is surely a good move, and some ing, probably, that they had too many other less heroic than it seems. eliminating better conditions which have of the credit must go to campaigning over problems to worry about, the Tories in- "I will refuse to make any further cuts to been won there over the years, especially on years by unions and community groups in creased "core funding" in line with inflation. our budget because we are now at the stage severance payments. Salford. That move did not reverse the cuts on the where doing so will mean closing down vital Like other councils, Tower Hamlets is Steve North, Salford branch secretary of last decade, It did not - reopen the libraries, services". under no strong pressure from central gov- the local government workers' union Uni- the children's centres, and the other facilities That's good, but it can almost certainly ernment to make redundancies in 2020-1, but son, writing in a personal capacity for So- closed. Nor did it prompt the local govern- be done by adjustments within the financial seems nevertheless intent to push through cialist Alternative, says: "The most significant ment employers to offer more than 2% pay framework set for the council by the govern- its scheme in order to ease redundancies in step taken was in 2018, when the mayor and rise to council workers in 2020-1, despite ment. Over February Anderson has given no later years. his council colleagues abandoned plans to their average 22% loss in real wages since sign of organising any great mobilisation or Activists will argue for solidarity with the close five threatened council-run day nurs- 2009. confrontation. Tower Hamlets unions, and for the labour eries and instead campaigned with trade But it meant that there is no rigid pres- Some Labour councils, however, are con- movement to set plans to win a good pay unions, parents, carers and the wider com- sure from central funding cuts onto local tinuing cuts-minded policies. rise for council workers, end further cuts, councils. Where councils have made cuts In Tower Hamlets, East London, the local and start to restore some of the services lost munity to fight for the requisite resources to □ keep them open. nevertheless, that will be because they want National Education Union (NEU) and Uni- in the last decade. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 7 A case for a rank- and-file network By Camila Bassi now. This dispute has brought to the fore new faces, new energy, new confidence. We y perspective and participation in the recognise now that part of the reason we have national dispute over pay deflation, ended up in a crisis situation of workload in- Mcasualisation, excessive workloads, and the tensification – apart from, most decisively, gender and BAME pay gaps has very much the forces of sector-wide marketisation – is been shaped by our local industrial dispute that we as staff and union members have at Sheffield Hallam university over work- sleepwalked into it. Our silence has been ef- load intensification and stress. fective complicity. Without a doubt, what pushed our branch If the latest offer from management is ac- over the legal threshold in the national dis- cepted by our members, we recognise this pute was the 84.4% mandate in the local dis- moment as the beginning of a genuine, rank- pute – a dispute that has built up over a long and-file struggle. We are planning to expand time. Through the lens of the local struggle, the number and activity of Health and Safety our members have easily drawn the connec- Reps, using Health and Safety legislation as tions and seen the holistic picture: linking a point of education, agitation, organisation rising workloads and unpaid work, pay in- and leverage; carrying out regular stress sur- equality and deflation, and runaway levels veys, for instance, publicising the findings, of precarious employment, to a university applying pressure on management, further sector ravaged by market forces - and said, growing the union. “we’ve been the shock absorbers for a broken Before this industrial dispute, we had system, no more!” members who have never been on strike be- The UCU's "four fights" fore and members disillusioned by previous Our local dispute has been directed by our national strike action called for odd days and he UCU's "four fights" are: On workload, a 35 hour week. well-attended branch meetings, our demo- cratic sovereign body. Our branch committee hours in months like June when we are no On equality, action to close the gender longer teaching. What this local dispute has T• pay and ethnic pay gaps. of elected officers and reps has run the day- to-day of the dispute and formed our strike taught all of us is, if we organise properly, • workload On casualisation, demands include: end from the rank-and-file, we move forward, we • equality zero-hours contracts; transfer hourly-paid committee for the first eight days of action. We made this strike committee open to all gain. We’re taking that lesson forward now. • casualisation staff to fractional contracts; take outsourced Our experience locally demonstrates the staff back in house; give postgraduate teach- members in the run up to these 14 days of action. critical need for a national rank-and-file net- The main demands on pay are for an in- ing assistants guaranteed hours and proper work. The 2018 USS pensions dispute devel- crease of Retail Price Index plus 3%, £10 employee contracts. □ The organic development and partici- pation of a collective of student activists oped forms of such a network, but specific per hour minimum for in-house staff, and to the pre-92 sector. What we need doesn’t Foundation Living Wage (£9 per hour out- • UCU strike bulletin, by Workers' Lib- called Hallam Students Support the Strike has added a critical dimension and point of preclude what already works and exists. side London, £10.55 in London) for outside erty activists in UCU: bit.ly/ucu-b The formal, bureaucratic structures of the contractors. leverage to our struggle: organising impres- sive solidarity action on the picket lines and union itself should open up and extend to- through social media, and gaining us impor- wards the grassroots to enable a rank-and- tant national media coverage. file network across the pre- and post-92 HE At present, we are putting the latest offer sector and FE sector. Not only to horizontally from management to members. While it's not share lessons in class organisation, but also Students back the strikes what we asked for, our negotiators suggest to understand how the local vertically con- that it's as close to a maximum of what the nects with what is happening nationally. For my branch, the disconnect is vast. We structuring which will take decision-making employer will actually offer right now. What By Maisie Sanders have no national negotiators in our branch, away from academic departments. This is we have learnt is that every time the em- ployer has said they cannot offer more, and unlike our UCU comrades up the road, and hirteen students at Stirling University being pushed through under the ridiculously we have run and won an indicative ballot have been relying on a daily basis on social who were suspended for taking part in named “Evolving Goldsmiths” plan. for action, run and won a legal ballot for ac- media and hearsay to decipher what might Tlast term’s occupation in support of the strike The Student Union, which has been ac- tion, taken strike action, taken further strike be happening nationally. Demanding a rank- by university staff union have won their first tively supporting the UCU strike, has said action, each and every time, the employer and-file network goes hand-in-hand with victory – they will not now be made home- it will take action alongside campus unions. has moved. Class organisation and struggle democratically opening the national union. less! Although everywhere across the country works. Practically, that would mean the They had been told that their suspension student solidarity groups are beginning to Every time a local member has faced bul- live-streaming of national negotiations, would mean losing their accommodation. develop – holding open planning meetings, lying management during this dispute, once which would promote accountability and The win is a result of pressure being put on encouraging students to attend pickets, or- they have told us, as a branch we have had democratic steer from local branches, and the University by supporters. ganising direct action, helping put on teach- their back. With no exceptions, management provide a clear sense on the ground of why On 26 February Edinburgh students occu- outs - this will need to quickly grow and □ have backed down. What's more, we've we are or should be on the picket lines. pied in support of the strikes and adding a strengthen. grown our branch to record numbers. • Camila Bassi is UCU branch chair at Shef- further demand to “end the hostile environ- Immediately those groups have vital work At the rank and file level, we have never field Hallam university, writing here ina ment on campus affecting international staff to help convince students not to cross picket been as confident and organised as we are personal capacity. and students”. A campaign of misinforma- lines, to build rallies, and to help strengthen tion, including by the Tab newspaper, sought this stage of the UCU’s dispute. In the longer to undermine the occupation, claiming stu- run they will need to organise to oppose dents were being blocked from using the oc- future cuts, attacks on democratic rights, Left challenge in NUS cupied building as study space. redundancies, future casualisation and the restructuring of higher education. By Maisie Sanders the BAME attainment In fact the occupation aimed only to dis- gap, improving men- rupt classes, to strengthen the strike. The Tab Cambridge students are now occupying the Old Schools management building. Stu- will be standing for the full-time position tal health services and is on the wrong side in this dispute. tackling sexual vio- Students across the country must help step dent Strike Solidarity is calling for students of Vice President Higher Education, in to escalate solidarity actions with occupa- INational Union of Students (NUS) elections lence. up the pressure and demand the right to pro- However, the emphasis is on professional test. tions and blockades of management offices next month. In that election I will be the and to help make the picket lines huge as only distinctly socialist left candidate, with expertise rather than an activist orientation. Another form of attack on student organ- Larissa Kennedy, standing for President, ising is cuts to student union budgets. Sus- negotiations take place on the UCU's Four a clear commitment to support the UCU Fights. dispute and to take a clear political stand is an leftist activist candidate, but she gives sex Uni student union have been told their no commitment to reversing wide-ranging budget will be cut by 5-10% despite growing Student Strike Solidarity is planning a na- against marketisation as well as push for tional meet-up to discuss the ongoing battles. piecemeal student demands. anti-democratic reforms in NUS which have student numbers left the organisation with just three full-time The UCU branch at Goldsmiths (Univer- Send a direct message to SSS via Facebook Most (but not all) of the candidates across bit.ly/f-sss to find out more. □ three full-time officer positions are gener- officer positions and a toothless National sity of London) is now officially in dispute Scrutiny Council. □ with management over proposed 15% cuts, ally leftist, with good commitments, to, for example, restoring free education, closing including possible redundancies, and re- • Manifesto: bit.ly/ms-vphe 8 More online at www.workersliberty.org The story of the Polish workers

“KOR”). Throughout his historical overview, Os- born provides a running critical commen- Book review tary from a Third Camp socialist perspective, drawing out both positive and negative les- By Eduardo Tovar sons for today’s political left and organised labour movement. This critical commentary is bolstered by the appendices, which include his year marks the fortieth anniversary of pieces published by Socialist Organiser (a pre- the founding of Solidarność (Solidarity), decessor of Solidarity and Workers’ Liberty) Tthe Polish independent trade union, at what in the 1980s and Stan Crooke’s summary of was then the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. political developments in Poland from the Solidarność both emerged from and pro- 1981 coup to the present day. vided the organisational infrastructure for Solidarność has degenerated tragically. the mass strikes of August 1980. The political balance within it shifted to the This intense period of struggle thrust right when it was underground between strike leaders like Lech Wałęsa and Anna 1981 and 1988. Today the union has only 5% Walentynowicz into the international lime- of the membership numbers it had in 1980. It light. With the signing of the Gdańsk Agree- is caught in “the political slipstream of right- ment on 31 August 1980, Solidarność became wing populism” (p. 100). the first independent union to be recognised The positive lessons Osborn draws out by a Warsaw Pact country. from the experience of Solidarność include At its height in September 1981, the wide circulation of an oppositionist press Solidarność boasted a membership of 10 mil- amongst organised workers (including the lion, representing a third of the entire work- KOR’s periodical Robotnik), the creation of A new history of Solidarność ing-age population of Poland. It proved on a regional Inter-factory Committees confed- larger scale than Hungary 1956 or East Ger- from its dawn until the erated into a delegate-based National Com- many 1953 the ability of the working class mission, the rank-and-file’s successful push to organise against the fake-socialist regimes 1981 military coup. £5 + to prevent Wałęsa from ending the Gdańsk of the Eastern Bloc; shook the foundations strike on 16 August 1980, and the live broad- post. workersliberty.org/ of the bureaucratic empire in the USSR and casting of the negotiations in the Lenin Ship- Eastern Europe; and left the structure shaky solidarnosc yard via the PA system. enough to be brought down by the surges an extremely costly war in Afghanistan, and from below in 1989-91, after the USSR's LESSONS debacle in Afghanistan and the failure of at- wary of the American reaction that an inva- tempts to escape economic "stagnation". The negative lessons include Solidarność’s sion of Poland might provoke (p. 67). In his new book Solidarność: The Workers' unwillingness to make a direct challenge to Even in 1956, Polish troops successfully Movement and the Rebirth of Poland in 1980- the PZPR’s right to rule and, by extension, blocked a Soviet armoured column advanc- 81, Mark Osborn provides a short and ac- its unwillingness to take power. One sees ing on Warsaw, prompting Khrushchev to cessible overview of the developments that this from how, strong though many of the back down rather than risk triggering an culminated in Solidarność’s birth. He also lu- famous 21 Demands of August 1980 were armed conflict. cidly explains the dramatic events of 1980-81 (e.g. the right to strike, paid maternity leave), Moreover, by seeing themselves as having themselves, which ended with Solidarność Solidarność made little in the way of specif- to make some degree of compromise with being forced underground by Wojciech Jaru- ically political demands, e.g. the freedom to the Stalinist party-state and viewing Jaruzel- zelski’s imposition of martial law in Decem- form independent workers’ parties, or dem- ski (who would lead the 1981 military coup) ber 1981. ocratic control over the administrative appa- as an officer who could be trusted, Wałęsa In Poland, more so than in other East Eu- ratus. and the other national leaders of Solidarność ropean countries where Stalinist parties had The omission is especially noticeable when severely underestimated the party-state’s at least some pre-1945 base of support, the one bears in mind that the left-wing intellec- systematic inability to accept opposition to "Communist" rulers "were aware they were tuals Kuroń and Modzelewski, who were its rule and left the workers’ movement vul- a beleaguered minority imposed by a hated crucial to Solidarność’s founding and direc- nerable to that 1981 coup. foreign power”. That prevented them from tion, had previously placed such political de- At the time, the influence of Stalinism and ever achieving complete totalitarianism (p. mands front and centre in their “Open Letter the resulting “Second Campist” support for 9). Even in the period of High Stalinism, the to the Party”. the Soviet Union led some sections of the Polish United Workers' Party (Polska Zjed- To Osborn, much of Solidarność’s reluc- British left to dismiss Solidarność as little noczona Partia Robotnicza, “PZPR”) could tance stemmed from how its hybrid nature more than a front for the CIA or the Catho- neither subjugate the Church nor collectivise as “[p]art union, part network of workers’ lic Church. A broader section of the labour private agriculture. councils, and part political movement” was movement was pro-Solidarnosc in a tepid, All independent working-class organisa- not conducive to sharpening and resolving passive "yes-but-on-the-other-hand" way. tion or free speech was banned, but Polish internal differences on an explicitly polit- When Jaruzelski shipped coal to Thatcher cultural and political life had a higher de- ical basis (p. 65). Moreover, Kuroń and his to help her counter the British miners’ strike gree of autonomy than elsewhere in East- co-thinkers had drifted towards a strategy of in 1984-5, that shifted perceptions, but too ern Europe. Those conditions facilitated the “self-limiting revolution” out of fear that, if late. Still today there are some on the left further laying of long-term foundations for Solidarność were to engage in party politics who look fondly on the police states of the Solidarność. Stepping-stones were the 1956 directly or seize power outright, the Soviet Eastern Bloc as a historically progressive al- Poznań uprising, Jacek Kuroń and Karol Union would respond with military force. ternative to capitalism. Modzelewski’s 1964 “Open Letter to the The fear was understandable in light of the By writing such a readable introduction Party”, the 1968 student revolt, the 1970 Russian invasions that crushed the Hungar- that acknowledges Solidarność’s pitfalls and 1976 strikes over price increases, and ian Revolution in 1956 and the Prague Spring without losing sight of its major significance the 1976 founding of the Workers' Defence in 1968. Nevertheless, as Osborn points out, as a story of working-class courage and or- Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników, at the height of Solidarność’s power in 1981, ganisation in the face of repression, Osborn the Russian military was bogged down in has done us a tremendous service. □ Audio of Solidarity 40 pages A4. Many thanks to the volunteers who have enabled us to produce an Cover price £3. With audio version of the paper. UK postage £4.20. Cheap rates for bulk Links to the audio version are at workersliberty.org/audio, and orders. can be found through many podcast providers: search “Workers’

•Buy at Liberty” or “Solidarity & More”. Email [email protected] for workersliberty.org/ e-reader versions of Solidarity. www.workersliberty.org/books climate-pamphlet Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 9 Open the borders for Syrian refugees! By Pete Boggs

or a long time, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been "threatening" Fto open Turkey’s western borders, and allow the millions of refugees to travel to Europe. Now he is upping the threats and raising the stakes. His aim is not to get better con- ditions for the refugees. It is to force Europe into greater support of Turkey. Yet, with the renewed attacks on migrants, it is the responsibility of socialists all across Europe to challenge the racist anti-immigra- tion laws being put forward by our govern- ments. In Britain the losses have far outnumbered border security to level maximum, do not at- near as bloody as the Khartoum Process in yet have consistently presented themselves the victories as Home Secretary Priti Patel tempt to illegally to cross the border.” Sudan and the broader Horn of Africa, where as working together to bring peace to these tightens up restrictions under the direction of They have cancelled all asylum applica- Libyan and Sudanese authorities have cap- areas. The TurkStream pipeline has been the hard-right Tory government. Even before tions at least for the next month, and fully tured and tortured refugees. However, it still built as a joint project, bringing Russian na- Brexit the UK was one of the most restrictive armoured riot police have fired tear gas. demonstrates the unwillingness of Europe to tional gas to Turkey and beyond to southern countries in Europe for Syrian refugees. Already one child has died when a dinghy accommodate refugees, and their willingness Europe. The UK had admitted only 10,600 refugees capsized. of EU states to deport those who manage to Since the renewed fighting in and around by late 2018, while Germany had admitted Erdoğan’s response to the migrant crisis, slip through the cracks. Idlib, both Turkey and Russia have been 770,000 and Sweden over 120,000. Now Patel allowing millions of refugees from Syria The background to all this is the beginning more and more antagonistic towards one wants to add extra fences and barriers. into Turkey at a time when Europe has been of full-scale conflict between Turkey and another, at least in words. Russia has said it Even the global total of the refugees from beating up asylum-seekers and turning back Syria, and a developing new surge of refu- cannot guarantee the safety of Turkish planes Syria, maybe six million, makes an entirely boats in the Mediterranean, looks humane gees seeking to flee across the Syria-Turkey if they are flying over Idlib. It says that, when manageable number for Europe's relatively by comparison. However, refugees in Tur- border. asked, Turkey refused to say where Turkish wealthy countries, with a total population key have been banned from working, and troops were so that Russia could exempt over 500 million, to integrate. These refugees restricted to specific areas which are often ESCALATION from attacks or push Assad to exempt them. deserve a welcome and a chance to rebuild lacking in basic infrastructure. Ultimately What had previously been limited to spo- Turkey, on the other hand, says that they their lives, not barbed wire and persecution. they have been used as a political pawn. radic violence largely carried out through did give Russia this information, and holds Turkey holds maybe four million refugees In the Turkish state’s existential war proxies has seriously escalated. Russia responsible for the deaths of Turk- from Syria, and many more people are seek- against the Kurds (existential for the Kurd- As I write on 2 March, about 100 pro-As- ish soldiers in Idlib. As of yet, it is unclear ing to flee from formerly rebel-held areas of ish people, that is) Syrian refugees have sad soldiers (whether government troops or whether any of the Turkish casualties have Syria now under attack from the Assad re- been forcibly and often violently resettled in from other forces such as Hezbollah) have been directly caused by Russian forces. gime. north-eastern Syria as part of an attempt to been killed in the last few days, following The situation might become clearer after In March 2016 a deal came into effect be- change the predominantly-Kurdish nature of the death of 33 Turkish soldiers in the Idlib Thursday 5 March, when Erdoğan will visit tween the EU and Turkey to hold the refu- the region. Governorate. Moscow. gees in Turkey, in return for a payout from This latest episode of talk of opening the The big question for both powers is Russia, The situation at home for Erdoğan is not the EU to Turkey which was supposed to borders with the EU has also shown how the and what Putin will decide. Ostensibly, Rus- disastrous, but it is not good either. The Re- help provide maintenance for the refugees. AKP will carry out its political plays at the sia is the central concern diplomatically for publican People’s Party (CHP), the secular Turkey helped to police the borders, and an- expense of refugees’ safety and lives. Syria and Turkey. nationalist opposition to Erdoğan’s Justice yone found to have entered the EU through Erdoğan has revelled in taunting Europe Since the coup which brought Hafez al-As- and Development Party (AKP), has made Turkey without having already undergone a with the threat of sending more refugees up sad to power in 1971, Russia has effectively noises against the war and criticised the formal asylum application process would be against barbed-wire fences and truncheons acted as an overlord for Syria. That status has government over the deaths of "martyred" returned to Turkey. of Fortress Europe. Süleyman Soylu, the given Russia the warm-water port of Tartus, soldiers. However, only the left-wing and Now thousands of people have attempted AKP Interior Minister, tweeted the unsub- one of its few ports other than Sevastopol Kurdish-linked People’s Democracy Party to gain access to Greece: at least 500 peo- stantiated claim that 76,385 have left Turkey which are ice-free throughout the entire year, (HDP) has been able to bring itself to vote ple have arrived at Greek islands including through Edirne, which borders Greece and and its only access to the Mediterranean against the government’s most recent parlia- Lesbos. According to the UN at least 13,000 Bulgaria. Sea. In return Putin has dutifully defended mentary motion authorising the war. people were preparing to make border cross- EU member states are not very squeam- Bashar al-Assad, vetoing UN sanctions on The government has further tightened re- ings on the weekend 29 February/ 1 March. ish about carrying out the brutalisation of Syria during the civil war, and Russian air strictions on social media since the end of Greece’s response to this has been un- migrants themselves, but for the most part support has been an important part of the February, and temporarily detained the ed- welcoming and violent. All international their preferred method has been to outsource war effort. itor-in-chief of Sputnik (a Russian-govern- phone numbers in the vicinity of the border that work to authoritarian leaders, such as The situation is more complicated for Tur- ment funded news outlet) in Turkey. □ received a text from the government: “From Sudan’s Omar Bashir and Turkey’s Erdoğan. key. Putin and Erdoğan have been on op- the Hellenic Republic: Greece is increasing The deal with Turkey has been nowhere posing sides in conflicts in Syria and Libya, Trump visit triggers anti-Muslim violence By Matt Cooper Trump’s visit ended. The CAA is part of a the minority Muslim population, calling homes and beaten, pregnant women were drive to deny Muslims Indian citizenship if them traitors and anti-Indian. The BJP failed kicked to the ground. ate February saw an outbreak of an- they can't produce adequate paperwork, as to make major inroads into the AAP’s local As well as the dead, one hospital has seen ti-Muslim violence in New Delhi, the many poorer people in India can't. support - the BJP increased its vote from 32% more than 500 injured including knife and Lurban area around the Indian capital. Mishra particularly focused on the wom- to 39%, but the AAP won more than half the gunshot wounds, acid burns and mutilated Although reports vary, they suggest for- en’s Shaheen Bagh protests, occupying an vote and most of the seats in the local as- genitalia. There was no official action against ty-three dead and many hundreds hos- arterial road in New Delhi. He stated that if sembly - but the campaign did stoke up an- the attacks for days. pitalised. Muslim homes, businesses and the police would not move the demonstra- ti-Muslim feeling. Only on 26 February did the BJP prime mosques were attacked, burned, and de- tors, then his mob would. The mob that the BJP whipped up went minster, Nahendra Modi, call for calm and stroyed. Most of the dead and injured were That came after the BJP’s campaign in the on the rampage on Sunday 23 February, and send in paramilitary police to restore the Muslim. election for the local Delhi legislative as- included members of the right-wing Hindu semblance of order. The trigger for the attack was President sembly early in February. Although the BJP Sena (the “Hindu Army”). Armed with iron The BJP has benefited from the collapse Trump’s visit to the city. On Sunday 26 hold the national seats in Delhi, local power bars, chains, knives and some fire arms, they since 2014 of the sclerotic and corrupt Con- February, a local leader of India's govern- is held by the anti-corruption Aam Aadmi attacked not only the anti-CAA demonstra- gress Party, which had been India's major ing part, the Hindu-chauvinist BJP, Kapil Party (AAP). The AAP is non-sectarian and tion but Muslim neighbourhoods. ruling party since independence. It is imper- Mishra, speaking at a rally, demanded that has broadly social-democratic welfare poli- The police (controlled by the central state, ative that socialists and working class activ- cies, although it is socially conservative. not locally) stood by, and there are some re- ists build a secular alternative to Modi and police clear protests in the city against the □ BJP’s Citizenship (Amendment) Act before The BJP’s campaign in the election at- ports that they joined in the attacks. Shops the BJP. tempted to ramp up scapegoating against were ransacked, people dragged from their 10 More online at www.workersliberty.org To bring revolution "down to earth" By Eduardo Tovar sides of a single social order” (p. 4). thoroughly studied and understood the minations in human life, situating it: Although Fine pays considerable respect whole of Hegel’s Logic.” György Lukács, “...historically as the achievement of the he socialist activist and scholar Robert to both Hegel and Marx, he gives additional the Frankfurt School, Raya Dunayevskaya, modern age, socially as a determinate form Fine, who passed away on 9 June 2018 at praise to Arendt because, in Fine’s view, “no C L R James, and other “Hegelian Marxists” of subjectivity, dynamically as a movement Tthe age of 72, was a long-time sympathiser one has more subtly elaborated both the po- have made varied attempts reconceptualise from one form and shape to another without and sometime activist with Workers’ Liberty. tentiality for barbarism and the possibilities Marxism by drawing on Hegel’s writings. a given end, holistically as a system of intrin- Our series of book reviews to commem- of freedom that arise out of modern politi- There have also been attempts to bring Hegel sic connections and critically as a system rent orate Fine continues with Political Investiga- cal life”, thereby “[picking] up the mantle of back into the foreground of social theory in by its own contradictions.” (p. 28) tions: Hegel, Marx, Arendt (Routledge 2001). Hegel and Marx far more than is currently general, perhaps most notably Gillian Rose’s By embedding the idea of right in the em- Karl Marx (1818-83) was the first writer recognised”. (p. 4) seminal book Hegel Contra Sociology (1983). pirical world, Hegel broke with the natural to integrate socialist politics with compre- In his own re-evaluation of Hegel, Fine law tradition that had dominated political hensive and well-documented theories of THEMES focuses on Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy philosophy. ("Natural law" meant law de- economics and history. Most working-class In my view, Political Investigations repre- of Right (1821: the title could also be trans- duced by pure reason from eternal facts of socialists since his time have regarded them- sents a further exploration of several themes lated as "philosophy of law"). Fine begins human nature or of God). He allowed po- selves as Marxists to one degree or another, on Marxism, Stalinism, and anti-Stalinism he by outlining the different orthodoxies in litical thought to escape “the presumption and by now most of us vehemently reject the discussed in his Workers’ Liberty article The interpreting Hegel. There was an old ortho- that philosophy can deduce ‘what ought to idea that the so-called "Marxism" of the Sta- Poverty of Anti-Stalinism (bit.ly/p-astal). doxy which started with Rudolf Haym in be’ from a priori conceptions of right or from linist states had anything to do with Marx's In that 1990 article, Fine raised several the mid-19th century, became popular with transcendental principles of history, moral- real legacy. related concerns. Firstly, he was concerned English-language writers during the World ity and language, and then impose this sollen G W F Hegel (1770-1831) was the most in- about his fellow anti-Stalinist Marxists mak- Wars, and was further pushed by Karl Pop- [moral duty] on the rest of us” (p. 27). fluential philosopher of the tradition which ing shallow criticisms of Stalinism simply for per after 1945. That saw Hegel as a forerun- Hegel “does not abandon the struggle to developed, starting with Immanuel Kant being insufficiently anti-capitalist (such as in ner of totalitarian ideology, someone who bridge the gap between what is and what (1724-1804), on the basis of the Enlighten- its “right” turns towards class-collaboration- “elevates the state into an object of divine ought to be, but he addresses this gap in a ment and the rise of science and of liberal ist Popular Fronts) rather than recognising worship and debases the individual into a way that is designed to forestall the use of politics. Marx in the early 1840s was part of a how Stalinism could be militantly anti-capi- superfluous and expendable ‘moment’ of the violence, terror and annihilation to bring the group known as the "young Hegelians". talist in its own right while still being deeply state” (p. 5). ‘is’ in line with the ‘ought’” (p. 27). In doing Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was a po- reactionary. Secondly, he was concerned A newer orthodoxy (Fine cites Allen Wood so, he “preserves the space which separates litical philosopher who spent her youth in about simply counterposing Stalinism to ei- and Shlomo Avineri: more recently, for ex- our understanding of political life from the Germany but wrote most of her best-known ther the abstract idea of socialism or its ideal ample, Terry Pinkard) stresses how embed- practicalities of political action and leaves us books after fleeing from the Nazis to the realisation rather than positively reformulat- ded in the liberal tradition many elements of free to make our own political choices” (p. USA. She was broadly associated with the ing our understanding of socialism in light Hegel’s “rational state” are. These elements 27). left and with Zionism, but a dissident and of our critique of Stalinism. In Fine’s words: include “individual rights, the rule of law, In this explication of Hegel’s approach, the maverick in both contexts. “Marxism cannot be defined negatively; it trial by jury, a written constitution, a rela- main contrast Fine draws is with Kant, the Fine argues that reading Hegel, Marx, and is neither simply the negation of bourgeois tively autonomous civil society, the separa- chief figure in German philosophical discus- Arendt together offers insights into “the forms of social life nor is it simply the nega- tion of church and state, etc.” (p. 8). sion before Hegel. In Fine’s words, “if Kant common concerns they confront - the spec- tion of Stalinism. The slogan of ‘anti-capital- Nevertheless, the new orthodoxy slides turns individuals as they appear in our own tres of both freedom and barbarism by which ism, anti-Stalinism' may be a useful starting into its own problems of reading Philosophy society into an a priori condition of political the modern world is haunted” (p. 2). To Fine, point for socialists, but is no substitute for of Right one-sidedly. It often downplays He- cohesion, Hegel begins with individuals as this approach “allows us to see the relation the positive reformulation of Marxism.” gel’s more disconcerting propositions about they are found within our society in order to between the subjective forms of right and (Fine 1990: 155) the state’s “divinity” and indifference to in- denature their form of existence and unpack the objective forms of the commodity as two Fine’s point here about Marxism being dividuals, as well as the archaic nature of what is distinctive about the modern subject” more than simply the negation of bourgeois several of the institutions Hegel includes in (p. 48). This is because Kant, unlike Hegel, is forms of social life also suggests a deeper his “rational state”, such as the monarchy. not able to distinguish between morality and thematic continuity between Political Inves- More fundamentally, both orthodoxies ethical life. tigations, The Poverty of Anti-Stalinism, and “treat liberalism itself as the standard against This not to say simply that “Kant con- his previous writings on Democracy and the which the text must be judged”; “[f]rom the centrates only on inner-directed feelings of Rule of Law: Marx’s Critique of the Legal Form misplaced outrage of the old orthodoxy to morality at the expense of any orientation (Blackburn Press 2002 [1984]). In the latter the increasingly uncritical pronouncements toward the social and political institutions of book, Fine sought to combat two “equally of the new, liberalism itself remains strangely the community” (p. 53-54). Rather, the dif- mistaken” characterisations of what Marx unquestioned” (p. 15). ference is that Kant viewed institutions of thought about law: one in which Marxism In contrast, critical theorists, such as those ethical life such as civil society, the state, and appears as little more than an extension of of the Frankfurt School, “accepted that in his the family “as actual or potential emanations liberalism and another in which Marxism youth Hegel was revolutionary in both po- of our will”, whereas Hegel viewed them as appears as little more than a negation of lib- litical and philosophical terms, and that he objective and necessary relations that impose eralism. was profoundly inspired by the French Rev- binding duties on subjects (p. 54). Fine did this by trying to understand Marx olution”. (of 1789-94: p. 19) Nonetheless, they Hegel’s distinction between morality and in relation to previous political and legal lapsed into “stereotypical views of a move- ethical life allowed him to distinguish be- thinkers, including Hegel. This also reflects ment from the radicalism of youth to the con- tween state and civil society in the modern Fine’s broader interest in bringing questions servatism of old age” at the cost of seeing the sense as “the stage of difference between of normativity back into the academic disci- deeper connections between Hegel’s earlier the family and the state” (p. 58). This sets pline of sociology, which often views itself and later writings (p. 20). up Hegel’s understanding of political rep- as exclusively concerned with narrowly de- resentation. As Hegel presents it, “[t]he real fined empirical research. MISUNDERSTANDING function of political representation...is to Trying to gain a more complete perspec- To Fine, a recurring problem across these admit the private interests of civil society tive on Marx by going back to Hegel is not different prominent readings ofPhilosophy of into the organism of the state as one of its itself anything new. Perhaps the most fa- Right is a misunderstanding of Hegel’s pro- several elements...and to serve as a middle mous Marxist writer on the methodological ject. It is “not to prescribe ‘what ought to be’ term between civil society and the state” (p. significance of Hegelian dialectics is G.V. but rather to understand ‘what is’” (p. 24). In 65). Plekhanov, who in 1891 observed that “He- doing so, Hegel sets out to study “the idea of This intermediary function of political rep- gel’s importance in the social sciences is de- right as it is conceived and actualised in the resentation entails many exclusions. Its dual termined first and foremost by the fact that modern age”; “i[t] is an investigation into the role is “to embody the ‘subjective moment in 56 pages A4. Cover price £5. he considered all their phenomena from the dynamics of subjectivity - not in abstract but universal freedom’ in order to prevent the standpoint of the process...of coming into as it is made concrete and real in our own isolation of government which might other- With postage — non-UK £7, being... i.e., from the standpoint of their ap- social and political lives” (p. 24). wise be an arbitrary tyranny, and to prevent UK £6. Cheap rates for bulk pearance and their disappearance”. Rather than isolating and privileging one the isolation of civil society which might oth- Similarly, much is often made of Lenin’s particular form of right [law] over another, as erwise crystallise into a bloc in opposition to orders. Buy online at bit.ly/ 1915 aphorism that “[i]t is impossible com- tends to occur when thinking about “right” the state” (p. 65). In other words, Hegel de- rl-gr pletely to understand Marx’s Capital, and in the abstract, Hegel comes to understand parted from liberal philosophers’ view of the especially its first chapter, without having the idea of right in a diverse range of deter- state as the actual “united will of all”. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 11 To bring revolution "down to earth"

Hegel Marx Arendt Fine

This brings us to the aspect of Hegel’s writ- ways, mimic the very forms of domination talitarianism (1951). Recounting “the failure this in her explication of the inherent tension ings that Fine wishes to bring out more in and mystification one seeks to overcome in of liberalism to live up to its own ideals and in the revolutionary constitution of freedom, relation to subsequent thinkers: “the critique the first place (p. 75). its inability to resist the rise of totalitarian which is thought to establish an absolute be- of the critique of representation”. In other All this sets up Fine’s reassessment of movements”, Arendt argues that “when lib- ginning through the act of foundation. words, whilst Hegel critiques political rep- the connection between Hegel and Marx. eralism presents totalitarianism as the Other The inherent tension in question is be- resentation, he is wary of turning this critique To Fine, it is a mistake to take at face value of itself, it understands neither totalitarian- tween, on the one hand, freedom as a ground into a demand to abolish representation as Marx’s own view of his relationship to Hegel, ism nor itself, for although totalitarianism for authority on which lasting institutions such or to make representation wholly active especially Marx’s remark in the 1873 postface reaches fruition only at limited times and can be built following the revolution and, on and unrestrictive. to the second German edition of his most fa- in particular times and in particular places, the other hand, freedom as a repeatable event This is because, “[a]lthough Hegel recog- mous book, Capital, about having “inverted” it has deep roots in the modern system of that extends beyond simply augmenting the nised that the demand that everyone should Hegel’s dialectic “in order to discover the ra- right” (p. 107-08). constitution established by the revolution. participate in the business of state arises nat- tional kernel within the mystical shell”. This is why, in Arendt’s view, “we have to urally in opposition to the many formal and Instead, reading Philosophy of Right to- DESTRUCTIVE stop thinking that the concept of revolution substantial exclusions established by repre- gether with Capital helps us notice the struc- To Arendt, “the ‘spiritless radicalism’ whose can be actualised in some ideal form” (p. 130) sentative government”, he was troubled by tural similarities between their analyses. As a hostility to the whole rational architectonic This informs Arendt’s turn to a “critical how “it issues the instruction that everyone matter of method, both works analyse mod- of right, law, nation, and state proved so vi- cosmopolitanism” in the spirit of Hegel’s ‘must participate in this business’” (p. 67). ern society by starting with its most abstract olent and destructive, was itself the product ethical philosophy. That is, Arendt looks for Similarly, Hegel was deeply concerned and simple elements, and then work their of the system of right broken down under the a politics based on the idea that all human that “a ‘pure’ form of representation, one in way “upwards” to these elements’ more con- weight of its own contradictions and partial beings can or should be citizens in one com- which citizens appear only as an atomised crete and complex manifestations. reconfigurations” (p. 119). munity, but does so in a way that “refuses to mass of individuals and the state is treated The main difference is that Marx addresses Arendt means this in multiple senses. Most make any leap of faith – be it faith in the state as the only legitimate association, would modernity’s material or economic forms, obviously, totalitarian movements such as or faith in the cosmopolis; it refuses to stop turn the state into a slave to public opinion”, whereas Hegel addresses its ideal or politi- Nazism and Stalinism found their mass ap- time by predetermining the structure of what thereby undermining the independence cal forms, which makes their analyses com- peal in people’s justified disgust at repre- has not yet come into being” (p. 148). needed for critical thought. (p. 67) plement each other. Moreover, the works sentative institutions’ real deficiencies and All this follows the intellectual agenda of Whilst Hegel accepted the value of the supplement each other because Philosophy “channelled this contempt for representative both Hegel and Marx. This is “an agenda that people’s empirical consciousness, he never- of Right and Capital identify modernity itself institutions into a doctrine of ‘movements’ confronts the central perplexity of modern theless thought that public opinion deserves with the ideal forms of political life and the which obscured the very distinction be- political life: that the critique of representa- to be “respected as well as despised”, since material forms of economic life respectively. tween the inner-party elites and the people tion cannot rest content until it links hands by its nature public opinion is a repository of Read together, Hegel and Marx “offer a with whom they claimed identity” (p. 115). with the critique of the critique of representa- not only “true needs” and “substantial prin- more complete image of modernity, one One practical consequence of this was that tion” (p. 162). This agenda faces up to per- ciples of justice”, but also of “false informa- which includes both the social forms of “all forms of representation were suppressed plexity but seeks neither to “resolve it with tion”, “errors of judgement”, and other such the subject and the social forms of the ob- except that of the totalitarian movement it- premature judgements and conclusions”, nor “contingencies of opinion” (Hegel, Philoso- ject, than each offers in isolation from each self: representation was not overcome, it was to “use it as an excuse for inaction in the face phy of Right, §317). other”; “we are forced to concede that the monopolised” (p. 115). of injustice” (p. 162). This is why, although Hegel never aban- modern age cannot be reduced either to its Additionally, “equivocations and perplex- I shall leave the question of how solidly doned his enthusiastic support for the French ideal or its material aspects” (p. 97). ities inherent in the idea of right” themselves Fine’s interpretation of Hegel is based on Revolution of 1789-94, he believed that much In doing so, we can keep the modern age’s manifested in totalitarianism (p. 118). For in- Hegel's actual writings to readers more fa- of the Terror of 1793-4 occurred because the real dichotomies in mind and “start from the stance, since “the modern idea of right was miliar with them. For now, I shall say that, Revolution “replaced the indeterminate ‘I’ substance of the social order rather than... from the eighteenth century attached to the whilst I think Fine overstates the matter of the bourgeois property owner with the proceed atomistically and end up only in the nation state as its author, provider, and en- when he speaks of a “unity” of Hegel and equally indeterminate 'we' of the people as juxtaposition of these separate spheres” (p. forcer”, “[w]hen certain groups were denied Marx, I find his joint reading of the two the- if the world were a void waiting only to be 98). The political and economic spheres each the right to have rights by virtue of their orists highly thought-provoking. filled with its soul, but when it discovered give rise to their own illusions and abstract statelessness, it was a small step to attribute This is especially true in respect of how that the world was not a void, it could ex- forms of domination. In the political sphere, to such people certain natural characteristics Fine’s reading grounds the often-perplexing press its frustrated sense that ‘everything there are the illusions of free will and the (such as their ‘Jewishness’) to account for Hegelian notion of simultaneously preserv- was possible’ only in a fury of destruction” domination of law and the state; in the eco- and justify the expropriation of their rights” ing and changing contradictory elements (p. 73). nomic sphere, there are the illusions of deter- (p. 118). that interact. In short, Hegel warned of how overcoming mination and the domination of money and To Fine, this sensitivity to the fundamen- Continued page 12 power using only abstractions of freedom capital (p. 98). tal contradictions within modernity itself – (for example, the idea of “true democracy”) This reassessment of the Hegel-Marx rela- to both its light side and dark side – places could prevent the establishment of concrete tionship sets the stage for Arendt. Here the Arendt in deeper continuity with both Hegel freedom and, in irrational and destructive work Fine stresses most is The Origins of To- and Marx than she herself realised. One sees 12 More online at www.workersliberty.org To bring revolution "down to earth" From page 11 Arendt often comes across as unduly dis- is often misidentified with becoming a mind- resolve the contradictions that the critique of missive of material factors like poverty or less instrument of evil, such as a pen-push- political representation highlights without One sees this in how attempts to overcome even viscerally emotional factors like fear, ing bureaucrat, the phrase actually denotes any risk of reproducing those contradictions. the forms of domination, mystification, and focussing instead on a kind of existential how otherwise perfectly ordinary human By this point, it is hopefully clearer how the alienation that arise from the contradictions psychology or mass pathology of people beings can very consciously commit horrific themes of Political Investigations connect to of modernity, such as marginalisation from atomised and dislocated by modern society. deeds for the most petty and selfish of rea- Fine’s earlier criticisms of forms of left-wing political representation, can end up replicat- Similarly, as Gertrude Ezorsky’s critical sons. What Arendt found chilling in her view anti-Stalinism which fail to comprehend that ing these forms in terrifying manners. review of Arendt’s famous book Eichmann of Eichmann was how he appeared entirely Stalinism is deeply hostile to capitalism and As for Arendt, I admit that, unlike Fine, I in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil willing to oversee genocide for the sake of working-class liberation alike, that we cannot do not place Origins of Totalitarianism espe- (1963) in New Politics (vol. 2, no. 4, 1963) il- his own career advancement. Whilst Arendt simply counterpose Stalinism to an abstract cially high among her writings. I am much lustrates, Arendt was often guilty of ignoring might have misidentified Eichmann himself idea of what we think socialism or how we more partial to The Human Condition (1958). I available evidence that contradicted her con- as a representative figure of this “banality think it has been realised ideally, and that we also admit that my intellectual connection to troversial claims that Adolf Eichmann was of evil”, we are certainly no strangers to the cannot treat Marxism as only the negation of Arendt has always been something of a love- an entirely “normal” man who did not hate phenomenon of people putting aside their liberalism and bourgeois society. hate relationship. Jews fanatically and that Jewish leaders and moral and political judgement for careerist Despite its more guarded perspective on organisations cooperated with the Nazis to a reasons and the dark paths down which such revolution and what it can unleash, one ILLUMINATING “truly extraordinary degree”. careerism can lead. should avoid the temptation to read Political On the one hand, I often find Arendt’s ob- Arendt also seemed excessively pessi- As such, Fine is justified in paying such at- Investigations as a renouncement of revolu- servations illuminating and intellectually mistic about ordinary people’s ability to tention to Arendt’s thoughts on “the banality tionary politics. In Fine’s own words: stimulating, such as her observations about change their conditions through collective of evil” in his closing chapter and locating “This is not to abandon or to reject the idea the shift of meaning in the term “revolution” organising, as seen from her Reflections on the its significance within her development of a of revolution, which is our only resource from an act of restoration to an act of funda- Hungarian Revolution (1958). Although she critical, cosmopolitan perspective. Whilst I against the continuation of injustice, but mental rupture with the past and her critical identified the councils that emerged in these shall have to save the topic for another time, rather to bring it down to earth, to recognise treatment of sociology’s reliance on histor- struggles as spaces of freedom and as foun- I also agree with Fine that there is a case for its mystique and acknowledge that it is not ically familiar categories when analysing dations for a new form of government laid reading Arendt and Trotsky together. This above the equivocations of political life.” (p. qualitatively new phenomena, which in her from below, she still remarked that the stat- is because both Arendt and Trotsky were 130) view inhibits proper understanding of their ure of the 1956 revolution “will not depend unafraid to liken the barbarism of Stalin’s “The proclivity of revolution to repro- novelty and significance. upon victory or defeat; its greatness is secure USSR to that of Hitler’s Germany and both duce, sometimes in more irrational form, the On the other hand, to the extent that her in the tragedy it enacted”. attempted to understand the significance of power it overturns is not a reason for us to writings can be read as attempts to offer She further remarked that it would be the two regimes’ similarities whilst acknowl- throw up our hands in despair, but rather causal explanations for social movements, “rather unwise to expect from the Russian edging their differences. to face up to the burden of events, whatever people, after forty years of tyranny and thirty Additionally, Fine’s analysis provides rel- message it delivers, to explore the dynam- years of totalitarianism, the same spirit and evant perspectives to bring to recent debates ics of our own disillusionment, and see the the same political productivity which the in the pages of Solidarity on the question of notion of ‘absolute beginning’ for what it is: The world's Hungarian people showed in their most glo- morality and revolution. This is because Fine merely the conceptual aspect of political life rious hour”, despite the fact that she herself asks us to confront and comprehend the ter- divorced from its actuality.” (p. 4) had never expected the Hungarian Revolu- ror that can come in the wake of a revolution, In the end, Fine calls on us to reject finding tion and other anti-Stalinist uprisings in the even when the revolution itself was justified. something within human nature that guar- housing crisis Eastern Bloc to happen in the first place. One should understand Fine’s engage- antees opposition to totalitarianism. Instead, So there are broader problems with Arendt, ment with Hegel, Marx, and Arendt in the he centres our own agency in the world and and Fine does relatively little to deal with context of his long-running effort to combat the freedom and responsibility that agency them in his interpretation of her writings. Is the way that many of us on the left treat our entails: “Everything depends on us – on there still value in reading Arendt alongside idea of true democracy, by which we usually what we do, how we act, whether we find an Film review Hegel and Marx? I would say there is. mean a system of directly democratic com- adequate political response. None of this can Although the phrase “the banality of evil” munal councils, as something that will itself be predetermined.” (p. 162) □ By Steve Allen A landslide for Starmer will be bad new film,Push , documents the work of a UN Special Rapporteur as she travels than him winning narrowly, or of course Athe globe to understand the housing crisis. By Sacha Ismail Long-Bailey winning. That strengthens the On the face of it, it could be an inspiring argument to vote for Long-Bailey. call to arms. Unfortunately, it provides few eir Starmer looks on course to be elected Some on the left have tried to paint solutions beyond governments working to- Labour leader by a big margin. Balloting Starmer as more right-wing than he is. Oth- gether to tackle global finance. Kopened on 24 February and will close on 2 ers, however, have tried to paint him up as a The film title is a nod to the process April. relatively strong left-winger. That is absurd. of gentrification, whereby residents are According to a Survation poll for LabourL- There is a reason why the likes of Labour “pushed” out of their homes to make way ist, Starmer will win 45% to 34% for Rebecca First organiser Matt Pound are central to his for typically more expensive developments. Long-Bailey and 21% for Lisa Nandy, and campaign. Housing has become a financial asset to be beat Long-Bailey 64-to-36% in the second Even respondents to the LabourList poll traded at the whims of private equity firms. round. According to a YouGov poll, he will expect Starmer to move Labour “closer to the Meanwhile tenants face ever increasing win in the first round 53-31-16. centre” (79%, as against 1% who expect him rents and stagnating wages. Our “protag- The YouGov breakdown is interesting. to move “further left”). onist” asserts that the right to affordable Among members who have joined since the Socialists in Labour must begin to organ- housing is protected by international law. general election, Starmer has 67%, to 22% ise a serious left opposition to a Starmer While she acknowledges the housing mar- for Nandy and only 11% for Long-Bailey. Labour First organiser and Starmer deputy leadership, and campaign above all for a ket has failed, she puts this down to “dis- Among those who joined before 2015 it is Chief of Staff Matt Pound has led workshops democratic running of the party, with deci- aster capitalism” rather than capitalism in Starmer 56%, Nandy 22%, Long-Bailey 21%. on how to prevent the AWL from gaining sion-making in the hands of members and general. This is a common liberal view- Only among those who joined between 2015 influence in local Labour parties affiliates, not of an anointed leader. □ point, but one also espoused by some on and 2019, which is over half the total sample, • Charter for a democratic labour move- the left in the form of “de-financialisation”. does Long-Bailey lead, 46-43-11. 25-29 year olds, losing to Starmer 35-48, with ment bit.ly/d-l-m The film features many poignant testi- Among affiliate members, i.e. mainly trade 17% for Nandy. monies, especially from former residents unionists – who voted strongly for Jeremy Angela Rayner, on paper supporting Re- of Grenfell Tower. There are also small ex- Corbyn both times – Starmer has 66% to 22% becca Long-Bailey but in practice sharing MORE ONLINE amples of community organising, such as a for Long-Bailey and 18% for Nandy, and 75% a lot of supporters as well as politics with to 25% in the second round. rent strike in Toronto. However, more time Starmer, is also well ahead of the pack. She crapping the anti-union laws: where do the Starmer is ahead among every age group – is given to talking heads: economists, aca- has 47% in the first round to her closest rival leadership candidates stand? particularly older members, but even among demics and politicians. Richard Burgon’s 19%. SSacha Ismail reviews the stance of La- 18-24 year olds he has 48% to 28% for Nandy All in all, the film gives an underwhelm- We have been sceptical about Rebecca bour's leadership and deputy leadership and only 22% for Long-Bailey. In the second ing answer to such a large-scale problem. Long-Bailey’s left-wing record and creden- candidates on repealing Britain's anti-strike □ round, he would defeat Long-Bailey 75-25. tials. However, Starmer winning by a mile laws, and finds them all wanting. See The (Admittedly, the 18-24 age group is a very • imdb.com/title/tt8976772/ is more likely to embolden Labour's right Clarion bit.ly/leadersunionlaws small sample.) Long-Bailey does best among Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 13 Reasons to vote Rebecca Long-Bailey for leader

By John Bloxam But over the last two weeks she has une- they’re embarrassing relatives of the party. quivocally and publicly said she supports I will be there every step of the way with s Mark Osborn wrote in Solidarity 533: workers taking action both now and in the workers and stand with them on the picket “Now, having seen the practical results future as a matter of course and necessity. line and will have no hesitation in which side Aof leaving politics to professional politicians That has clearly marked her out from the I pick.” (bit.ly/lu-lship). and media pundits, we should judge can- other leadership candidates, and must be There is a short distance between “Stand- didates for the Labour leadership by their the starting point for the test of judging can- ing on the side of workers and trade unions, willingness to launch mass, sustained action didates against the mobilisation and protest no questions asked… in standing up to this in defence of the NHS and for free and state- action that is needed now. reactionary Conservative government”, and run education for all. She has said she is on the side of working taking an active, leadership role in promot- "All the candidates have put on their ‘left class action. ing such action. We should argue for RLB face’, but none has talked about the need to “As leader of the Labour Party, I have to go that extra distance now. That can only mobilise and protest in our thousands and committed to back workers in every dispute have any real weight if we do that as part millions, across the country. That needs to be and strike against unfair, exploitative and of an effort to get her elected Labour leader done. Labour and unions, onto the streets!” unjust employers. This will range from ac- in the present elections. That should be an That’s our yardstick in the Labour Party tions on opposing cuts, tackling the climate important element now in developing the leadership elections, and from that point of crisis, and standing up to the resurgent far- drive we have called for to "Get Labour on view we call for a clear vote for RLB. right. Standing on the side of workers and the streets". As leader, has she said she will immedi- trade unions, no questions asked, is going to Calling clearly and prominently for a vote ately call for Labour and the unions to get be crucial in standing up to this reactionary for RLB does not mean being silent on areas on the streets against the Tory Johnson gov- Conservative government. of criticism and disagreement, any more than ernment? No. Is there plenty that can be "As Labour leader, I will be as comforta- it does in other labour movement elections. of workers’ action, would be the best result criticised in her policy pronouncements and ble on the picket line as at the dispatch box, But the justifiable criticisms should neither for the necessary campaign to "Get Labour campaign to date? Yes, and we have itemised and under my leadership Labour will never dominate nor obscure what we are saying. on the streets!" and taking on the Tories now. it in recent issues of Solidarity. return to condemning striking teachers or Electing RLB as Labour leader, given her Vote RLB. □ firefighters, or to treating trade unions as if clear and unequivocal statements in support Indicted for opposing cuts Antisemitism By Ann Field colleagues or trying to throw them under a bus. That’s not unity. Through this (Dep- book offer isciplinary proceedings have been initi- uty Leader) contest it has become clear that ated by the leadership of Glasgow City Jackie Baillie is the real change candidate. I DCouncil Labour Group against Matt Kerr, will be voting for her.” who is a candidate in the Scottish Labour For the right wing, the key and sole issue Party deputy leader ballot running from 21 is that Matt broke the Group whip (although February to 2 April. the Group standing orders only say that At a City Council meeting a fortnight ago councillors are “expected” to abide by Group the minority SNP administration proposed decisions). a cuts budget. The Labour Group also pro- But what the issue really highlights is the posed a cuts budget, with the usual homi- utter spinelessness of the Glasgow Labour lies about it being "less painful", "the fault of Group. When Matt proposed at a Group Holyrood underfunding", "our cuts not as meeting that Labour should propose a no- bad as yours", etc., etc. cuts budget, just one other member of the Matt, a Glasgow Labour councillor, de- Group backed him. cided that he could not vote for either of the Garrity – a close ally of Group Leader cuts budgets and walked out of the meeting. Frank McAveety – equates refusing to sup- As he subsequently explained: port cuts with throwing members of the La- bour Group under a bus. But throwing the tion with the Tories. “Yesterday (at the Council meeting) I an- Baillie has not condemned the councillors nounced that I could not vote for any cuts poorer sections of the population under a cuts steamroller doesn’t seem to even regis- for allying with the Tories and implementing budget being proposed for the city that I cuts. represent. I have had enough, this city has ter on her political radar. The debacle also highlights the useless- Her complaint, and key plank of her had enough, and we owe it to the people we election platform, is that they have been represent to put up a fight.” ness of the Glasgow Labour Local Campaign Forum, which is meant to exercise some de- suspended by the SLP. She wants them to gree of control over the city’s Labour coun- implement cuts in alliance with the Tories as GLASGOW cillors. full-blooded re-instated members of the SLP. “Declining to support a Labour Group deci- The Forum hardly met last year, was badly Baillie was on the Board of Directors of sion is not something I did lightly, but each attended when it did meet, exercises no con- "Better Together", the Labour-Tory "No" alli- Workers' Liberty has got a cut- of us has to make a stand against the SNP trol over the Labour Group, does no cam- ance in the 2014 independence referendum. price deal on a bulk order of the cuts at some point. I could not have in all paigning, and functions only as the passive Class collaboration with the Tories is second new edition of Steve Cohen's That's conscience voted for any of the budgets pro- recipient of tedious lectures by the Labour nature for her. Funny You Don't Look Anti-semitic. posed in the Chamber yesterday.” Group leadership about municipal realpo- With a shameless contempt for reality, the The response to Matt’s refusal to support litik. pro-Trident, pro-fracking, pro-class-collab- The 1984 book has become a well- further cuts sums up the sorry state of Scot- Jackie Baillie, Matt’s opponent in the oration, pro-cuts Jackie Baillie – who wraps known source for understanding and tish Labour after years of right-wing control. Scottish deputy leadership contest, has de- herself in a Union Jack at every opportunity, combating left antisemitism. And nowhere is its state more lamentable nounced Matt’s conduct in a particularly and was thrown off Scottish Labour’s front We are selling these books for £5 than in the ranks of the dysfunctional Glas- surrealistic manner: “I’m not in favour of bench in Holyrood for briefing against Rich- each. They can be bought alongside gow City Council Labour Group. councillors walking out and abdicating ard Leonard – now proclaims: According to the Labour Group finance responsibility. Matt walked out and left “I am the real change candidate. Next one of the pamphlets for £7, two of spokesperson: “You (Matt Kerr) broke the the rest of the Labour Group behind. They year’s (Holyrood election) campaign can’t the pamphlets for £9 or all 3 for £10. group whip, you engaged in personal grand- stayed to argue and protect the interests of be driven by a small group advocating more All orders are subject to £1.50 for standing and gifted the SNP an attack line their constituents, and I think that’s critically of the same. We need to open our doors, re- postage). before walking out and leaving your Labour important.” build and unite the Labour Party.” Please make payment at www. colleagues to deal with the consequences.” But in what way is a cuts budget a mecha- Scottish Labour members, especially in Labour Group chair Marie Garrity went nism to protect the interests of constituents? Glasgow, should: oppose any disciplinary workersliberty.org/payment and one (or several) better, claiming that Matt’s Baillie’s enthusiasm for bonding Labour action against Matt; build an effective Local email [email protected] to conduct had led her to back arch-right- to council cuts finds it highest expression in Campaign Forum; build the anti-cuts alliance confirm which of the books and winger Jackie Baillie in Scottish Labour Party her support for the "Aberdeen Nine" – nine which the Labour Group is inherently inca- pamphlets you want. (SLP) deputy leadership contest: councillors suspended from the SLP because pable of building; and campaign for Matt for “Leadership is not walking out on your they joined a Council coalition administra- Deputy Leader. □ 14 Upcoming events at www.workersliberty.org/events Where we stand Combatting antisemitism oday one class, the working class, lives by selling its Tlabour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. The capitalists’ control over the within the revolution, too economy and their relentless drive to increase their wealth viet structures but Jewish non-Bol- of splits and fusions as they moved causes poverty, unemployment, shevik socialists, although many towards membership of the Bol- the blighting of lives by overwork, Book review of them subsequently joined the shevik Party. imperialism, the destruction of Bolsheviks. Their “more urgent form of an- the environment and much else. McGeever’s immediate focus ti-racist praxis” was facilitated by Against the accumulated By Dale Street on the two waves of antisemitic their commitment to a Jewish so- wealth and power of the pogroms leads him into a broader cialist-national project: capitalists, the working class olshevism has made Rus- discussion revolving around the “The closer one stood to a Jew- must unite to struggle against “Bsia safe for the Jew. If the different responses and strate- ish socialist-national project in the capitalist power in the workplace Russian idea should take hold of gies formulated by Bolshevik and Russian Revolutionary context, and in wider society. the white masses of the western non-Bolshevik socialists to combat the more likely one was to elevate The Alliance for Workers’ world, then the black toilers would antisemitism. and take seriously the question of Liberty wants socialist revolution: automatically be free,” wrote the Did the Bolshevik view of antisemitism in one’s own political collective ownership of industry Jamaican-American author Claude antisemitism – essentially a "tool" practice.” and services, workers’ control, McKay in September 1919. of the ruling classes – disarm it But even the analysis and pro- and a democracy much fuller By contrast, journalist and play- politically in combatting the prob- posals of these Jewish socialists, than the present system, with wright Isaac Babel’s description of lem in the ranks of revolutionary which flowed out of their project elected representatives recallable antisemitism in the Red Army in forces? McGeever even goes so of Jewish self-reconstruction, could at any time and an end to the years immediately following far as to imply that the Bolsheviks be “vulnerable to an antisemitic in- bureaucrats’ and managers’ the October Revolution led him were guilty of “a race-blind class terpretation”: privileges. to ask the question: “Which is the reductionism.” “Those Bolsheviks [i.e. the We fight for trade unions and Revolution and which the coun- And how should the struggle ex-Bundists and ex-members of the Labour Party to break with ter-revolution?” against antisemitism have been Poalei Zion] most prone to perpet- “social partnership” with the Echoing Babel’s question, the conceptualised and politically de- uating racialised conceptions of bosses and to militantly assert writer Ilia Ehrenburg described his McGeever’s book focuses on two fined? This was a contested issue Jewishness were, in fact, the archi- working-class interests. experience of waiting to vote in the particular instances of Red Army at the time. tects of the Bolshevik confrontation In workplaces, trade unions, and Constituent Assembly election in pogroms of Jews: in the Chernihiv Was antisemitism to be combat- with antisemitism.” Labour organisations; among November 1917: region (northern Ukraine) in the ted specifically as a threat to Jews students; in local campaigns; “People were saying: ‘Whoever’s spring of 1918; and in southern and (as argued by the Jewish non-Bol- DISCUSSION central Ukraine in the spring and on the left and in wider political against the Yids, vote number 5 shevik socialist activists), or was it Such arguments might not merit summer of 1919. alliances we stand for: [Bolshevik]! Whoever’s for world- to be combatted as an element of uncritical endorsement, but they In the former, Red Army units • Independent working-class wide revolution, vote number 5! the overall threat to Soviet power certainly merit further discussion. attacked Jewish self-defence representation in politics. The patriarch rode by, sprinkling (as argued by some of the "main- Drawing on Moishe Pos- groups, plundered Jewish homes, • A workers’ government, holy water. Everyone removed stream" Bolshevik leaders)? tone’s writings on the "ability" of destroyed a synagogue, and de- based on and accountable to the their hats. A group of passing sol- And was antisemitism to be chal- antisemitism to “appear to be an- manded that Jews hand over their labour movement. diers began to belt out the Interna- lenged as a specific form of national ti-hegemonic, … the expression wealth. Jews were also summarily • A workers’ charter of trade tionale in his direction. Where am hatred, or was it to be subsumed of a movement of the little people shot in large numbers. In the town union rights — to organise, to I? Or is this truly hell?” into a generalised opposition to all against an intangible global form of Hlukhiv alone, over a hundred strike, to picket effectively, and to Who was right? McKay? Or forms of national hatred? Again, of domination,” McGeever also ad- were killed. take solidarity action. Babel and Ehrenburg? the same divisions emerged. dresses a more fundamental issue: The latter pogroms were carried • Taxation of the rich to fund Brendan McGeever’s answer, in Themes used in Bolshevik prop- “Popular anti-bourgeois senti- out by forces under the command decent public services, homes, his recently published Antisemitism aganda and agitation, argues ment, an important reservoir of of Nikifor Grigor’ev. The worst of education and jobs for all. and the Russian Revolution, could be McGeever, were open, albeit unin- revolutionary socialism, could, them occurred after Grigor’ev had • A workers’ movement that summed up as: McKay was closer tentionally, to antisemitic interpre- at the same time, be a reservoir "switched sides", abandoning the fights all forms of oppression. Full to the truth (after making due al- tation. In particular, the campaign of antisemitic mobilisation. … Bolsheviks and staging an anti-So- equality for women, and social lowance for rhetorical flourish), against economic “speculation” Antisemitism provided a nexus viet insurrection. provision to free women from but Babel and Ehrenburg were cer- chimed in with the antisemitic that enabled people to move be- domestic labour. For reproductive tainly not wrong either. identification of speculation with tween the seemingly antithetical justice: free abortion on demand; The antisemitic pogroms which RIFE Jewishness. categories of revolution and coun- the right to choose when and took place in the former Pale of But local Soviet officials and Bol- What was at stake here, writes ter-revolution.” whether to have children. Full Settlement in the years following sheviks, and even Red Army units McGeever, “was the capacity for Thus, the pogroms of 1918 and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual the October Revolution were the sent to fight him, joined in the po- racialised conceptions of Jewish- 1919 on which McGeever focuses and transgender people. Black most violent assault on Jewish life groms. And even while Grigor’ev’s ness to be reinscribed through Bol- “illustrate the explosive capac- and white workers’ unity against in pre-Holocaust modern history. troops had been constituted as a shevik economic policy.” ity for revolutionary discourse racism. Around 100,000 Jews were mur- Red Army Division, antisemitism Even in formulating a response and populist anti-bourgeois sen- • Open borders. dered. Over half a million Jews fled had been manifestly rife in its designed to challenge and eradicate timent to be expressed through • Global solidarity against their homes to escape the carnage. ranks. antisemitism, McGeever continues, antisemitism.” global capital — workers The bulk of those pogroms were The central Bolshevik leadership the Bolsheviks accommodated to As examples of the slogans everywhere have more in carried out by military forces fight- and Soviet government did not re- antisemitic stereotyping of Jews – raised in that period McGeever common with each other than ing to overthrow Soviet power. main passive in the face of these not enough Jews in the front line of cites: with their capitalist or Stalinist The Russian autocracy had used pogroms. They decided on a num- the Red Army, but too many Jews “We are the Bolsheviks. Beat up rulers. antisemitism and tolerated, if not ber of measures, including sum- in positions of power. the Yids!”, “Smash the Yids! Long • Democracy at every level encouraged, Jewish pogroms. To mary execution, to stem the tide of According to McGeever: “Every Live Soviet Power!”, “Death to the of society, from the smallest the Bolsheviks, therefore, it seemed antisemitism. step taken by the Bolsheviks in the Yids and Communists! Long live workplace or community to only "natural" that the forces of But such decisions were often not campaign against antisemitism Soviet power!” and “Down with global social organisation. counter-revolution should again followed through on the ground. risked perpetuating the racialising the political speculators [from the • Equal rights for all nations, resort to antisemitism and po- Or, if implemented, then only logic they sought to criticise.” land where they crucified Christ]! against imperialists and predators groms. half-heartedly and late-in-the-day. By contrast, it was in the ranks of Long live the power of the soviets big and small. But antisemitic pogroms were The contemporary Soviet press and the non-Bolshevik Jewish socialists of the people of Ukraine!” • Maximum left unity in action, also carried out by forces fighting, later official histories also omitted that “a critically important degree It was no wonder that Babel and openness in debate. at least ostensibly, in defence of So- mention of manifestations of Red of anti-racist agency” was to be found it difficult to distinguish rev- If you agree with us, please viet power. Antisemitism, includ- antisemitism. found. olution from counter-revolution, take some copies of Solidarity ing its most virulent forms, was to In fact, as McGeever convinc- These non-Bolshevik Jewish so- nor that Ehrenburg wondered if he to sell — and join us! □ be found amongst Bolshevik Party ingly argues in his book, the driving cialists originated in the ranks of had arrived in hell. □ members, officials of local Soviet force in responding to the pogroms the Bund and Poalei Zion. Under governments, and units of the Red and Red Army antisemitism was the impact of the Russian Revolu- Army. not the "official" Bolshevik and So- tion they went through a process Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 15 Bullying is not CWU ballots until 17 March just Rutnam By Ollie Moore and parcel delivery aspects of The CWU has held 800 “gate portunity not to make those meet- Royal Mail’s business separated meetings” at Royal Mail work- ings forums for more participatory, s Solidarity went to press on into distinct companies, a move places across the country to build democratic discussion about where John 3 March, Royal Mail workers which the Communication Work- the ballot campaign, which the to go with the campaign.” The in- Moloney Awere beginning a new ballot for ers Union (CWU) says could union says is a record number. A dustrial action ballot closes on 17 industrial action, after a successful threaten up to 20,000 jobs. Royal Mail worker told Solidarity: March. ballot last year was injuncted by The CWU is also demanding that “Gate meeting mainly used as a In pay negotiations separate to n the Driver and Vehicle Stand- the High Court. Royal Mail honour an agreement mechanism for reps and full-time the dispute, Royal Mail’s latest Iards Agency (DVSA), part of The ballot will close on 17 March. reached in 2018 which included a officials to convey information to offer, for a 6% pay increase across the Department for Transport, commitment to a reduced working the members. That’s useful and three years, has been rejected by one of our leading reps, Paul Wil- It is about action to prevent a re- □ structure that could see the postal week. worthwhile, but it’s missing an op- the CWU. liams, is being targeted for com- pulsory redundancy. We believe this is an attack on the union in the workplace. Paul's local branch is discussing a pos- Tube workers ballot from 6 March sible dispute and strike to resist By Ollie Moore new pay arrangements, with the organise across all functions and nority union across LU as a whole that attack. The union will ensure previous deal having expired in grades of LU staff, has balloted its but a slight majority amongst Tube there is a national focus on this ube union RMT will ballot its April 2019. RMT’s claim was for a entire LU membership in nearly drivers, is also balloting over pay, campaign. entire membership across Lon- “substantial, above-inflation pay five years. That last ballot took in a vote running from 28 February In wider politics, a light is Tdon Underground, around 10,000 increase”, with a flat-rate mini- place before the turnout thresholds to 12 March. If the ballots return being shone on the relationship workers, for strikes over pay and mum for the lowest paid, and for required by the 2016 Trade Union majorities, Tube workers could between the government as an conditions. The ballot runs from 6 a 32-hour, four-day week. LU’s lat- Act were imposed, but had they strike in the run-up to the mayoral employer and the civil service. est offer is for an RPI+0.2% pay rise been law at the time, the RMT’s and GLA elections, due to take Clearly there are tensions at the to 31 March. □ LU workers are already almost for four years. The ballot marks the ballot would have cleared them. place on 7 May. top, in terms of how the people a year in to what should be their first time RMT, the only union to Driver-only union Aslef, a mi- around Mr Cummings want to restructure the civil service, and possible resistance to that from TfL workers some senior managers. It's perfectly conceivable that strike on pay Getting the contract in-house senior bosses, like Philip Rut- nam, have been the victims of By Ollie Moore bullying by hard-right Tories. Unfortunately, the bullying, in- tense workloads, and overbear- nite members employed Interview ing management faced by much across Transport for London less high-profile, far lower-paid, U(TfL), including on the Woolwich By a UCL worker frontline civil service workers, Ferry, recently taken back into including outsourced workers, direct operation by TfL, struck n outsourced UCL worker and every day has not received equiv- again on 28 February, in a series IWGB union rep spoke to Dan- alent media attention. of disputes over pay. Aiel Randall from Solidarity about We're yet to see any concrete Workers in TfL departments in- their campaign for improved con- details of Mr Cummings' plans, cluding Dial-a-Ride, bus revenue, ditions and direct employment. but whatever he is planning, our and streets and taxis enforcement Outsourced workers at Univer- union will resist any attempts to are striking against a deal propos- sity College London (UCL) are worsen our members' working ing a 1% pay increase and a cut fighting for company sick pay, and conditions. in annual leave. A further strike for our union, the Independent Outsourced workers at the For- is planned for 27 March. Workers' union of Great Britain our struggle. In the run-up to our ost soon, who doesn't have a good eign and Commonwealth Office RMT members working for (IWGB) to be recognised, so we strike in November, Axis gave the record, so we don't expect this fight concluded a month-long strike London Underground revenue, can bargain collectively. We want Unison reps on the contract time to be easy. on 28 February. Reps are meeting who recently returned a majority equal terms and conditions with off to go around discouraging We have a very good relation- with Interserve, the outsourced in a ballot for industrial action directly-employed staff, and ulti- people from striking, telling them ship with the local UCU branch. contractor, along with the con- against attempts to impose a two- mately for our jobs to be taken in they'd get in trouble or even be We've been to their meetings and ciliation service Acas, next week tier workforce in their depart- house and for UCL to employ us sacked. Although our strike was they've been very supportive of us to discuss union recognition. If ment, are discussing when to take directly. successful there's no doubt this had and our dispute. I think we've even the dispute is not resolved, the action, and could coordinate with The security contract is held by a an impact, and intimidated some been a source of inspiration for workers have already made clear TfL revenue workers in Unite. □ company called Axis. The caterers, people out of striking. On the se- them; our picket lines and protests they are prepared to escalate their porters, and cleaners are employed curity contract, there are different have a lively, party atmosphere, action. Free Our Unions by Sodexo. We last struck in No- types of workers – building attend- which I think other unions can Our members on the ISS clean- vember 2019, alongside univer- ants, operation and patrol officers, learn from. There have been some ing contract at three HMRC of- oetry on the Picket Line, a col- sity workers in the University and and control room workers. But the discussions about the idea of one fices, in Liverpool, Bootle, and lective of radical poets who College Union (UCU). There are Unison reps are all building attend- union for all campus workers, but Birmingham, have returned a Pperform in solidarity with strikes currently discussions taking place ants, and many people feel they are not many. Some UCU members are resounding majority in a vote for and other workers’ struggles, about pay grades for outsourced only interested in one section of the also members of IWGB, in part as strikes to win living wages, sick held a benefit gig for the Free Our staff, but those discussions in- workforce. a way of showing support for us. pay, and union recognition. They Unions campaign on Tuesday 3 volved Unison, not IWGB. Unison Axis manage the contract in a But forming a single union is a long voted 97% in favour of action, on March. has a recognition agreement with very unfair and nepotistic way. way off, I think. One of the reasons an 89% turnout. The event also launched the UCL, and with Axis, despite only There's a lot of bullying and harass- people wanted to join IWGB is that For the Merseyside cleaners, new book of verse by Workers’ a small minority of outsourced ment from managers, and it seems it is completely independent. It has who've been in dispute for some Liberty supporter and Poetry on workers being members of Uni- like friends and relatives of certain no ties to the institution. However, time and have struck multiple the Picket Line member Janine son. IWGB is the majority union managers are being given better we still want to work as closely as times, this was a re-ballot, as the Booth. amongst outsourced staff. jobs. Axis uses its relationship with possible with UCU, and other un- mandate of their original ballot On 22 February, RMT London It's frustrating that our union is the “client”, UCL, to intimidate ions that support us. had expired. We were able to Transport Region organised a excluded from these discussions. and micromanage us. A manager IWGB is still growing in the spread the dispute this time by training session for activists on Unison also excludes their own will approach a security officer at workplace. Hopefully that will involving cleaners in Birming- understanding and confronting members from meaningful discus- a gate, who might be standing near continue. Some outsourced work- ham. anti-union laws, which used Free sion and consultation; we're cur- a wall, and say, “the client has told ers are still under-confident about A programme of rolling strikes Our Unions materials. If you want rently running a petition campaign us they don't want you standing standing up for their rights, or un- is due to begin across all three of- □ help developing a similar training to demand that outsourced work- there, you must stand here, in the sure as to what their rights even fices from 16 March. course for your own union, email ers are properly consulted in the middle,” even if it's pouring with are. Continuing to build the union • John Moloney is Assistant Gen- the campaign at freeourunions@ current talks over pay, and we've rain. Axis's contract expires in late will help with that. eral Secretary of PCS, writing gmail.com □ even had some Unison members 2021. We want to have a big push We will keep fighting and, when here in a personal capacity. sign that. to get the contract taken in-house. necessary, strike again. □ Unison has actively undermined UCL is also due to get a new prov- SolidarityFor a workers’ government 50p/£1 • No 537 • 4 March 2020 • workersliberty.org

Students supporting the recent UCU strikes at Bristol University

Student solidarity

for UCUpetition called “Boycott Brighton” forced tostrikes actually survey its mem- hours, reading, distributing leaf- As we begin week three, the By Rachael Baylis, Brighton and sent people to question the bers. Just over half of respondents lets, painting signs and eating the Trade Union Solidarity Society has University Board of Governors outside their explicitly supported the action food provided to us by the SU been set up and will act as the ve- meeting. Others were looking into being taken by the UCU, and so cafe! By the end of the demo, the hicle for organising and educating he second wave of (UCU) class action for tuition fee refunds. for the first time Brighton SU sup- Facebook group we used to organ- the student body on unions, strikes TUniversity and College Union Because of the nature of the ported the strikes. ise had grown from 30 to 70 mem- and working-class politics. Plan- strikes, taking place from 20 Feb- campus layout in Brighton, it isn’t On the first Friday of the strike, bers. All in all it was a success. ning for a fundraiser to go towards ruary, has been bigger and more often you get to interact with peo- about ten of us got together and sat In the second week, there was the strike fund is well underway. active than the ones that took place ple on other courses. Being able to in the main foyer of one of the cam- another sit in and a blockade of a Featuring testimonials from staff before Christmas. Student activity communicate between different puses, and had management down mezzanine at a different campus. at Brighton, art work from students has turned up a notch, with stu- groups was extremely beneficial. within five minutes. They stood on The students, dressed in black and and performances from our more dents from arts courses and the In the meeting, we exchanged de- our banner, brought about seven wearing price tags of their tuition musically talented comrades it is humanities in particular organising tails in order to organise. We’ve security guards around us, and fees, stood like mannequins in the looking to be a successful and fun demonstrations of support. also applied to the student union told us that the strikes were about window to demonstrate how we evening that will be educational, At my university (Brighton), be- to establish a Brighton University national issues and didn’t affect are not commodities. Ironically moving and importantly – full of fore the strike began, there was an Trade Union Solidarity Society. Brighton! enough, the same day we saw a booze and solidarity! open meeting in which staff gave In the previous wave of strikes, Obviously, that’s rubbish. I have tweet about university Vice Chan- Onwards to victory for UCU! □ presentations on strikes and the there was a battle with the stu- spoken to numerous staff who are cellors attending a meeting put history of collective action. Fasci- dent union (SU), who issued an devastated at the manner in which on by Amazon about increasing • Brighton UCU strike fundraiser, natingly, the overwhelming major- anti-strike statement and moreo- they’ve been treated by the Univer- productivity. Brighton VC Debra 7.30pm, Monday 9 March, Ye Olde ity of those present were women. ver without canvassing student sity of Brighton, casualised, forced Humpris was clearly identifiable King & Queen, Marlborough Place, Following the presentations, stu- opinion. Following a campaign to take on unsustainable work- in the picture, leading to a placard BN1 1UB. £2 entry/donation on dents discussed with one another regarding the poor behaviour of loads, with the sacking and push- being taped to the Amazon deposit door, bring cash for donations. potential actions we could take. A the president, who repeatedly lied ing out of BAME members of staff. boxes that reads “People not Prod- group of art students had begun a to students about it, the SU was We sat in the foyer for four ucts”. Write to us: 20E Tower Subscribe to Solidarity Contact us Workshops, Riley Road, Trial sub (6 issues) £7; Six months (22 issues) £22 waged, £11 unwaged; European rate: 6 months €30, One year €55 London, SE1 3DG Solidarity production team: Cathy Subscribe online at www.workersliberty.org/sub 020 7394 8923 Nugent, Martin Thomas (editor), Or send your name, address and postcode with payment to 20E Tower Workshops, London SE1 3DG Misha Zubrowski, Sacha Ismail, and solidarity@ Simon Nelson. Printed by Reach Plc. To subscribe with a standing order: £5 a month, or pay us more to support our work. Forms online, as above workersliberty.org