So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y No 256 12 September 2012 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org For a workers’ government

South Africa: Jeremy Hunt: International strikes spread threat to the NHS dialogue page 3 pages 6-7 pages 9-10 Top bosses’ pay soars 11% 3.5m children live in poverty see Rich get page 5 richer, kids go hungry

Food banks (left) are now a feature of UK life. In its new campaign “It Shouldn’t Happen Here”, Save The Children will target child poverty in the UK for the first time. Meanwhile, research for the BBC found that the top 100 bosses increased their pay in 2011-2 by 11% while average pay rose by just 1.1%. The new Barclays boss Antony Jenkins (right) will be paid £8.6m this year. EUROPE What is the Alliance New turnouts on Greece’s streets for Workers’ Liberty? Today one class, the working class, lives by selling By Martin Thomas a subsidy to the feckless. September a letter from the rounding and deporting its labour power to another, the capitalist class, The German government is “Troika” was leaked, de - thousands of migrant which owns the means of production. Society European Central Bank backing Draghi, but one re - manding that Greece in - workers, have led to a is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to Mario Draghi’s “OMT” sult is increased pressure crease the legal working surge of the far right rather increase their wealth. Capitalism causes programme (6 Septem - for harsh economic condi - week to 6 days for all sec - than horrified rejection. poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives by ber) has been hailed as tions on debt-troubled gov - tors and cut workers’ mini - Unless the left in Greece is overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the the “bazooka” which will ernments. mum daily rest to 11 hours. bold enough to seize the environment and much else. save the eurozone, but it The Troika of the Euro - Economist Megan initiative, the far right will Against the accumulated wealth and power of the is likely to sharpen the pean Union, the European Greene, an expert on the feed off social frustration. capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. crisis in Greece. Central Bank, and the IMF eurozone crisis, writes: “If According to DEA, one The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity is likely to be even more the Troika does not grant of the revolutionary social - Under the OMT the ECB through struggle so that the working class can overthrow rigid with the Greek gov - the Greek government any ist groups within Syriza, will buy unlimited quanti - capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership ernment. A collision is concessions on its bailout the programme of local ties of eurozone govern - of industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy looming. programme, it is highly “popular assemblies” ments’ bonds, not much fuller than the present system, with elected likely that the two junior planned by Syriza in order new-issued bonds, but representatives recallable at any time and an end to ATHENS parties — the Democratic to build itself a mass mem - bonds already trading in bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. The right-wing Athens Left and Pasok — will drop bership base on the back of the global markets. The We fight for the labour movement to break with “social government headed by out of government. This its electoral success is now ECB has run such policies partnership” and assert working-class interests militantly Antonis Samaras is ask - would precipitate fresh underway after the sum - before (the SMP), but more against the bosses. ing for delays and con - elections, the third for this mer lull. limitedly. The claim is that Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, cessions, and even in year alone”. DEA comments: “Peo - ECB buying-power will supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, that framework cannot ple’s participation of peo - keep up the prices of Span - helping organise rank-and-file groups. reach agreement on de - COALITION ple in the process of ish, Italian, Greek etc. We are also active among students and in many campaigns tailed plans. Syriza, the left coalition changing Syriza will not bonds in the markets, and and alliances. that came close to vic - come by itself. It takes a thus help those govern - Talks between the leaders tory in the 17 June elec - great effort to make the ments sell new bonds and of the parties in the govern - tion with a programme of We stand for: ment coalition on finalising poll percentage into com - Independent working-class representation in politics. so finance themselves. reversing the cuts and G cuts ended in deadlock on bat a force... Regular meet - A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the Draghi stressed that the nationalising the banks G 9 September. ings of the Local labour movement. “bazooka” will be fired — under workers’ and so - Pressure on the govern - Committees, continued ef - A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to the ECB will set out to buy cial control, has gained G ment from below is increas - forts for membership, and strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. — only for the bonds of support slightly since ing. After lull in the large participation in the Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, governments which have June. G summer holiday months, processes, must be a con - education and jobs for all. officially requested it and demonstrations are filling According to the latest tinuous effort”. A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. agreed to submit to a pro - G the streets again. State poll, published on 6 Sep - DEA reports that Syriza Full equality for women and social provision to free women gramme of cuts and eco - schools in Greece are due tember, Syriza would win is calling a national confer - from the burden of housework. Free abortion on request. Full nomic restructuring shaped to start their new year on new elections held today. ence, probably in early No - equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. by the European Union and 12 September, but will be However, the biggest veTmhbee rp. erspective is for Black and white workers’ unity against racism. the ECB. on strike that day. poll shift since June is that Syriza to convert itself Open borders. Even with that proviso, G Yet the Troika is sharpen - the fascist Golden Dawn from a coalition into a Global solidarity against global capital — workers German representative Jens G ing its tone. It says that the party has risen to 12%, out - single party with wide everywhere have more in common with each other than with Weidmann voted against Greek government is lag - stripping Pasok and the democratic rights for mi - their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. Draghi’s plan on the ECB ging on cuts, and must Democratic Left. Brutal po - nority currents. Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest board. The German press G speed up, not ease off. On 4 lice operations in August, workplace or community to global social organisation. has denounced the plan as G Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. Left in Irish Labour Workers march in Rome G Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. G If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity olent stormtroopers pro - to sell — and join us! By Will Greene ∈ tecting the minister. ther 3.5 billion of auster - Scores of workers were ity measures next year. A row over health cuts injured as they were armed A new left-wing pressure only with their helmets and threatens to destabilise group inside the Irish Contact us: the Irish coalition govern - site uniforms. Demanding Labour Party, the Cam - to see the prime minister  ment of Fine Gael and the paign for Labour Policies, 020 7394 8923 Irish Labour Party in the Monti, the protesters will be officially launched By Hugh Edwards stayed on the streets; at the @ run up to the 2013 aus - on 15 September. They [email protected] terity budget. same time as they set upon have sent a letter to party Clashes have taken place the Democratic Party’s  members aiming to mo - The editor (Cathy Nugent) On Tuesday 4 September between workers of the Shadow minister of Devel - bilise support for “an [gov - Fine Gael health minister Alcoa aluminium plant opment, driving him from 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, ernment] alternative James Reilly announced (Sardinia) and police in the protest as “a parasite”, London, SE1 3DG. political programme” and ∈130 million cuts targeting Rome. a supporter of the Govern - Printed by Newsfax International UK for placing policy develop - home-help services, per - ment trying to leech onto ment back in the hands of A big demonstration sonal assistants for the dis - the protest for his own elec - the membership. marched to the offices of abled and the availability toral motives. the Minister of Develop - of certain medical prod - The union bureaucrats Get Solidarity IMF ment on Monday 10 Sep - ucts. are pinning all their hopes The IMF’s permanent rep - tember. The announcement was on another owner, but the resentatives have been Workers have been de - every week! met by a furious public re - recent history of Sardinia driven to seek assur - manding assurances on po - action. Opposition parties has witnessed the same G Trial sub, 6 issues £5 ances that there was no tential job losses under a  Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin tragic episode of workers’ split between the coali - putative Brazilian company are planning votes of no resistance being derailed G 22 issues (six months). £18 waged  £9 unwaged  tion partners. which is said to be about to confidence in Reilly when by similar promises. take over from the current G 44 issues (year). £35 waged £17 unwaged parliament returns later The right-wing Irish Inde - All over the island there   American owners. this month. pendent warned that “the are the same fights going G European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) or 50 euros (44 issues) The protest march was   In a sign of growing Budget is going to require on to resist closures, but confronted by thousands of grass-roots anger at the far greater discipline” on there has been little or no state armed thugs who re - Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: coalition, the Labour Party the part of the respective attempt to unite all of them peatedly sought to prevent chairperson Colm Keav - party leaders. or develop political de - 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG With battles over pub - it getting anywhere near eney, who was elected mands and strategies, such lic-sector pay, social wel - the office where the Minis - Cheques (£) to “AWL”. against the wishes of the as occupying the plants in fare cuts and income tax ter was presiding over a Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. leadership at the last con - question, and calling to na - set to rage as parliamen - meeting with American ference, attacked the pro - tionalise them under the tary returns for a new owners, the various Sardin - posed cuts and criticised occupiers’ control. term, the future of the ian authorities and the big - Meanwhile the govern - Name ...... the minister for not com - government is by no wigs of the three confederal ment is determined to municating them to the means guaranteed. unions, plus national secre - continue its scorched Address ...... Labour Party before an - taries of the metalworkers’ earth policies against nouncing them. sections. the masses to restore ...... Keaveney also prompted The workers stood up to the fortunes of Italy’s pu - speculation about another • N. Ireland riots expose and successfully broke the trid and criminal ruling I enclose £ ...... general election as the frailty of “peace process” ranks of the vicious and vi - classes. coalition considers a fur - — bit.ly/U6csIO 2 SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL South Africa: miners’ QCH dispute enters sixth strikes spread week

Why is there a commu - every new job. By Martyn Hudson backs of the miners, and nity protest at the When union organisa - there have been accusa - Queensland Children’s The Marikana strike has tion is weak or broken in tions that the NUM has Hospital site in Brisbane, now inspired a new wave construction, then even on been using the miners’ Australia? of strikes in the gold union dues to invest in the big sites workers are em - mines of the West Rand. very companies that em - Workers are demanding ployed by lots of different 15,000 miners have been ploy them — making a a union enterprise bargain - subcontractors, or by suspended for wildcat mockery of the “official”, ing agreement with the labour-hire companies, strike action. state-sanctioned trade main contractor, Abigroup, with no security if the union. The Marikana mas - and a clause to ensure that company fails. Similar There is much support sacre evokes the case of all workers employed by work is paid different for the strikers across South Andries Tatane, an activist subcontractors on the site wages. Workers are taken Africa, and the Marikana who broke from the ANC are paid the rate for the on as “self-employed” so massacre is widely per - and was beaten to death by job. Almost all the workers that the subcontractors can ceived as a critical moment the police in 2011. There on the site are employed avoid their responsibilities for the ANC and its future were another 1,769 deaths by subcontractors rather for sick pay, superannua - rule. The split between the in custody or as a conse - than Abigroup, and rates tion, etc. Fly-by-night sub - ANC old guard and Julius quence of police attacks for similar jobs with differ - contractors go for quick Malema, the former leader under investigation in the ent subcontractors can profits and take no respon - of the ANC’s Youth year before Tatane’s mur - vary by up to $10 an hour. sibility for the finished job. League, is rapidly widen - The workers want the der. How did the dispute ing. Tatane, like Biko and new hospital to be built to Hector Pieterson, and start? Malema is leading the places like the Democratic clear that the neo-liberal good standards and on solidarity work for the now the Marikana min - Republic of Congo, where policies of the ANC and its It started on 6 August time. They also want to miners and has raised con - ers, suffered deaths at companies like Anglo- settlement with interna - when a gyprocking sub - hold the line for decent ne - tinually the question of na - the hands of capital. American Plc are impli - tional capital in the early contractor failed, leaving gotiated standards in the tionalisation. His rhetorical Capital is bloodstained cated in genocidal politics 1990s have left the situation the workers employed by construction industry. offensive against “white whether under Apartheid and the vicious oppression of the mass of Black South it in the lurch. Trade union - capital” has struck a chord or under the rule of the Aren’t the workers of any nascent workers’ or - Africans unchanged since ists had been complaining in the South African work - ANC and its Communist breaking the law? ganisation. the end of Apartheid. on this point for months. ing class. It points (in how - Party lackeys. Malema is certainly The leaders of the ANC- The November 2011 Con - Injunctions have been ever illogical a way) to the using the Marikana dispute backed National Union of struction Journal , produced served against officials of reality of capital and its for his own ends and for Mineworkers (NUM) are • Info on the Marikana by the CFMEU union’s the CFMEU, the BLF, the domination of the means of his own factional reasons seen as having personally Support Campaign Liaison construction division, re - ETU, and the Plumbers’ production. Not just in against the ANC, but it is enriched themselves off the Committee: bit.ly/TNL2Kh ported: “Contractors are Union to stay away from South Africa, but in other cutting each other’s throats the site. The workers are to win [work at] the Abi - therefore continuing their group site at the Queens - dispute as a community land Children’s Hospital... protest. Injunctions have The left in South Africa been threatened against They are using tricks to re - duce their price... Some of protest organisers. The Ben Fogel, a socialist ac - ple trying to respond to Africa, which is the most and it looks like there are these plasterboard compa - great majority of the work - tivist in South Africa who everything with press state - socialist union in COSATU. more strikes at other mines nies are taking it one step ers have no legal proceed - writes for Amandla and is ments rather than mobilisa - A lot of people in social on the way, including the further, using multiple ings against them, and are active in miners’ solidarity tion. movements have experi - gold sector, so the left subsidiary companies not likely to have. The dis - work, spoke to Martyn WOSA, like a lot of other enced similar repression needs to aid the miners under their banner in order pute will continue, what - Hudson . movements, fell apart after but on a lesser scale, and here with food and mate - to divide up the workers’ ever the legal proceedings, 1994. A lot of people joined some have sent people to rial support. entitlements...” until Abigroup settles. Most of the historic Trot - Australian law is excep - the Communist Party meet with the miners. Hopefully we can build a How has Abigroup re - skyist tendencies in tionally reluctant to recog - South Africa are dis - (SACP) or lost interest. A Malema’s role is com - working relationship with sponded? lot of people though SACP plex. He's really monopo - the miners and something nise workers’ rights to solved to varying de - withdraw their labour. By grees. was de-Stalinizing and lised the left space in SA, can come out of that. Here Abigroup is owned by worth joining in order to because of the failings of it appears the working the giant Lend Lease cor - contrast, France’s constitu - The two most important push it in a new direction. both the independent and class is more militant than poration, which reported tion, for example, has the were WOSA, which was ANC-aligned left. He the unions, and the left is $500 million profits for the right to strike written into Neville Alexander’s group, ANC-ALIGNED speaks a little like someone being dragged forward by year to 30 June 2012. Its it as an individual right for which is now largely de - There is an ANC-aligned like Chavez. He's an oppor - this. We also need to give chief executive Steve Mc - every worker. France has, funct, and the Unity move - “left” within the COSATU. tunist, but he’s done the up on trying to convince Cann was paid $7.33 mil - by most measures, the ment which is now just a I don’t even count the most to help the miners in COSATU’s leadership to lion for the 2012 financial world’s highest labour pro - few people, but was impor - SACP as left. terms of material aid and join an independent work - year, a 66% pay rise. It has ductivity. Workers are not slaves or tant. Otherwise there is There is also the ANC so on. ersC’ OpaSrAtyT,U o’rs w lehaadtevrserh. ip is also recently had to side - Keep Left, which is linked The key here is to sup - line four top executives for serfs. The right to with - Youth League (ANCYL). ANC, and is directly im - draw your labour when to the SWP in the UK. There is the independent port the striking miners. plicated in the murder of financial misreporting. Most Trotskyists are in - The strike is still going on Abigroup says it is los - conditions become unac - left, and the social move - these workers. ceptable is a basic right. volved in other move - ment left. ing $300,000 a day. Until 4 ments, rather than being in The COSATU/ANC left September Abigroup re - How can we find out a specifically Trotskyist is split between condemn - Quebec student victory fused to talk or try to find more, or support the group. Most organise ing the massacre and then an agreement to enable workers? under an umbrella called covering the ANC’s back. A work to resume. It looks By Rob Fox ence by protesters, which The workers welcome the Democratic Left Front lot of people are turning like Abigroup underesti - included the blocking of messages of support which (DLF), or various civil soci - against President Zuma, mated the workers and The announcement of a Montreal’s two main show other workers are ety formations. and Julius Malema from thought the dispute would tuition freeze by the bridges and university with them in in the long The DLF has difficulties the ANCYL has won a lot quickly collapse. Now Abi - government of Quebec pickets, caused a panick - battle for a world where understanding what it is. of people over by speaking group has at least started on the 5 September ing administration to pass the working class controls It’s supposed to be a united left. Whether or not talking. The workers want marks a spectacular Bill 78, which suspended economic life, and where front uniting all of the Malema is actually on the talks and a speedy agree - victory for the student classes in 11 universities workers enjoy the right to small left formations with left is another matter. ment. movement. during the winter term a secure livelihood, worth - some independent unions The independent left has Why are the workers’ de - and made demonstrations while work, decent condi - and social movements in mostly tried to organise The attempt of the Gov - mands important? essentially impossible to tions, and good social order to form a bloc and solidarity groups, raising ernment of Quebec to in - assemble legally. Winning decent pay and provision — rather than win over the working class money and such, and has crease yearly tuition fees Despite this, the conditions on construction labouring for the profit of a in Congress of South called for an independent by 75% sparked walkouts CLASSE movement won sites is difficult, because jobs wealthy few. African Trade Unions inquiry into the massacre. of university campuses increasing support. Its (COSATU) and other red square symbol be - come and go. The same battle That call has been backed beginning in February. In - • Send messages to places. But it’s not that — came iconic. has to be fought again on by the National Union of creasing civil disobedi - [email protected] it’s mostly a bunch of peo - Metalworkers of South SOLIDARITY 3 REGULARS Defend the right to protest in Glasgow!

against other rights (such as the right not to have one’s pri - cance of George Square as the scene of social protest in Glas - vate life unduly disrupted by frequent demonstrations). gow. But no-one has ever claimed that their right to a private As the scene of the January 1919 “riot”, George Square oc - life has been disrupted by a trade union demonstration! cupies an iconic place in Glasgow labour movement history Scotland And the paperwork issued by the Council as part of its (although much of that “history” is legend rather than fact). By Dale Street “consultation” clearly indicates that complaints received The square has also been the assembly point for Glasgow by the council all relate to marches by Orange Lodges and May Day demonstrations since time immemorial. Officials of Glasgow’s Labour City Council are recom - other bands. Driving political protest out of the square constitutes a po - mending that the Scottish TUC’s anti-austerity demon - The proposals represent an attempt to depoliticise the litical statement: In the past, when class struggle was a real - stration of 20 October should not be allowed to city centre of Glasgow. In recent decades, “post-industrial” ity, this square was the scene of social unrest. Today, the assemble in George Square in the city centre. Glasgow has been subjected to a series of re-brandings, square no longer needs to be a scene of social protest because from “Glasgow’s Miles Better” through “Glasgow: City of society is — supposedly — no longer scarred by class divi - A “consultation exercise” currently being run by the Culture”, to the current version of Glasgow as the com - sions. Council also proposes that demonstrations should be re - mercial capital of Scotland. Class struggle is thereby not completely written out of his - placed by “static protests” wherever possible, and that REAL-LIFE tory. Instead, it is confined to history and relocated from the there should be a blanket ban on the use of George Square streets to museums, where a sanitised version of it can be as a muster and dispersal point for demonstrations. Real-life demonstrations about real-life issues such as racism, unemployment and social inequalities cut safely re-marketed as a tourist attraction. Such recommendations represent a drastic curtailment The Scottish TUC, Glasgow Trades Union Council, The on the right to demonstrate: across attempts to transform Glasgow city centre into a Unite Scottish Regional Political Committee and a number of By definition, the purpose of a demonstration is to mecca of consumerism. Glasgow trade union branches have already challenged the demonstrate particular concerns to as many people as pos - officials’ proposals — not just about 20 October but also the sible. Assembling in the city centre (i.e. in George Square) And the logic of the arguments in the consultation exercise and marching around the city centre (i.e. from your central for banning the use of George Square as a muster or disper - broader clampdown on the right to protest. assembly point) is the best way to achieve that purpose. sal point for demonstrations (e.g. the volume of traffic round Trade union branches should be demanding of the coun - True, the right to demonstrate is not an absolute political the square, and other health and safety issues) equally apply cillors on the Public Processions Committee and the Public right. We are against SDL and BNP demonstrations, for ex - to “static protests”. Petitions and General Purposes Committee — both of which ample. But that is because of the political content of any It is therefore not just demonstrations which are to be have a Labour majority — that they reject their officials’ pro - such demonstration — not because of where they assemble driven out of George Square but any form of political poAsanlds. the Scottish TUC should issue a statement saying and disperse! protest, including “static protests”. (And given that the City that whatever the position eventually adopted by the Nor is the right to demonstrate an absolute legal right. In Council Chambers are located in George Square, this would council, the assembly point for the 20 October demon - legal terms, the right to demonstrate has to be balanced be very convenient for budget-cutting councillors.) stration will be George Square. Thirdly, they represent an attack on the historical signifi - Assange’s refusal to face rape charges harms his cause

which unfortunately comes from the self-deluded or plain weird or conspiracy nuts — or a combination of those). But, anyway, the legal issue (Britain or Sweden: where is he safer?) doesn’t exhaust the matter. Both governments are right-wing, US allies. In the long-run he’s probably not very Letters safe anywhere. His ability to stay out of a US jail will largely rest on the campaign that can be built in his defence. And that defence campaign is now tightly bound up with an - Before I wrote the article on Julian Assange (“Assange, other question — the rape charges he faces in Sweden. rape, free speech”, Solidarity 254) I had a good look at Some comrades have argued that if the US does manage the bourgeois press. to seize and jail Assange it will be a blow against the anti- The serious mainstream papers and magazines seemed imperialist left. I think that’s true, and we should defend unanimous (based on legal opinions that they had solicited Assange against the US state. or examined) that the extradition of Assange to the US from Equally, given he is — at least in general terms — a part Sweden was harder than from the UK to US. Of course, if of our movement, we are also concerned that he uphold this is true, Assange’s case for staying here to best avoid minimum standards of a prominent radical. And he isn’t falling into the US state’s hands collapses. upholding them. It seems that he is running away from, and Paul Field, himself a lawyer, has a different view ( Solidar - attIef mit pisti ntrgu teo, avso hide, cthlaei macscu, sthataito nhse o ifs rianpneo. cent of these ity 255). And, here-and-there, there are others who should charges, he should face them in Sweden, removing an be listened to, that have opinions similar to Paul’s. Never - issue from the fight to defend himself from the US state. theless, the big bulk of serious opinion falls the other way. (I’m discounting much of the material written for Assange Mark Osborn, south London Left Foot Forward 2012 US Democrats: not perfect, but where workers are Matthew and Ryan ( Solidarity 255) both criticized my ar - On Sunday 9 September, the AWL’s five-a-side foot - think my argument is a valid one. And I think that Matthew ticle on unions and the Democrats, but they did so in ball team took part in Feminist Fightback’s “Left seems to accept at least part of that as being true. strikingly different ways. Foot Forward” tournament of left groups and As for Ryan, though he too rejects the idea that socialists campaigns — and won! In Matthew’s letter, a single word reveals the weakness in and trade unionists have any place in the Democratic Party, his argument. He concedes that the British Labour Party has he compares supporting the Democrats to supporting the Thanks to Feminist Fightback’s organisation the all- become a lot more like the Democrats but adds: “[It] is not Muslim Brotherhood, which is not just unfair but offensive. women and mixed-gender teams took part in a relaxed the same yet”. “Yet” is the key word. Because as critics of Matthew concluded his letter by asking if I think that and friendly competition. Labour here are quick to point out, that is exactly what’s British unions were right a century ago to form the Labour In future tournaments, the AWL should make efforts happening. The grip of unions on the party has weakened Party. Of course I do. It would be a wonderful thing if Amer - to get an all-women team together. dramatically. The Labour Party no longer even pretends to ican unions today did the same and formed a Labor Party. Working towards that “goal” we’d like to encourage be a socialist party. We don’t disagree on that point, and it’s And even better if that party adopted socialist politics. And women to get in - a central part of my argument. What Matthew neglects to better still if those socialist politics were not tainted by Stal - volved in Femi - comment on is my observation that the Democrats have inism or social democratic reformism, but reflected the great nist Fightback’s been changing too over the years, with unions playing a far tradition of independent, revolutionary socialism. Sunday morning more significant role today than they have in the past. But comrades, that’s a fantasy. There is not going be a rev - football training And it’s not just about unions throwing money at the De - olutionary, third-camp, Shachtmanite mass party of the in Victoria Park mocrats. Anyone who watched the Democratic National workers in America any time soon or, to be honest, ever. every Sunday,. Convention on television this month would have seen a Serious socialists who really do want to change the world For all levels of very large, proud union contingent with banners and signs. accept that our unions are not perfect unions, that our fitness and expe - And those trade unionists, elected delegates to the conven - Labour Party is not the party we’d like, and in the USA, that rience. Complete tion, were singled out and referenced by Obama, Biden and theB Dute tmhocsrea tairce P warhtye rlee apvreosg ar elosts itvoe b aer dee, swirheedr. e the work - beginners wel - other speakers. In fact, I’ll bet you’ll find that Obama and ers are, and our role is to fight side by side with those come. • More de - Biden are far more likely to make positive references to workers in those institutions — and not to fantasise tails here: trade unions in their speeches than Ed Miliband does. about a perfect world. bit.ly/QgVRBk If the Democrats are becoming more and more like Labour, and Labour more and more like the Democrats, I Eric Lee

4 SOLIDARITY WHAT WE SAY

TUC backs co-ordinated strikes The annual congress of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) on 9-12 September passed policy to support “co-ordinated strike action between unions over pay and pensions”. These strikes would take place over both the public sector pay freeze and the work-longer-pay-more-get-less pensions reforms against which unions struck on 30 June and 30 November 2011. That the TUC has passed policy supporting co-ordi - nated strike action is undoubtedly positive. The fight now is to progress from fighting talk from union leaders towards a real campaign based on a comprehensive in - dustrial and political campaign around specific de - mands, fought to win. We don’t want this promise of co-ordinated strikes to be used to fob us off for now and make us wait for what turns out to be another series of disconnected, one-day strikes. Unison’s Dave Prentis is already in the press declaring Rich get richer, the start of the “fightback”. But we’ve been here before. At his the 2011 Unison conference, he promised an in - dustrial battle on the scale of the 1926 general strike to defeat the pension reforms, before manoeuvring to keep his union out of the 30 June action (and then selling a shoddy deal to his local government members, while ig - kids go hungry noring his NHS members’ mandate when they voted to reject the government’s “final offer”). The pace sug - gested by Prentis, who sees the 20 October demonstra - tion as “a launchpad” for strikes in the new year, is not 3.5 million children in Britain are living in poverty. That encouraging. Action is needed now, not in six months’ But the capitalist system has crisis built into it. As long as is the headline of “It Shouldn’t Happen Here”, a report time. that system remains in place, our class will always pay the published by the charity Save the Children report last Simply applauding militant rhetoric from union bu - ultimate cost while the boss class will get richer. week. reaucrats or even simply calling on them to deliver, will We need a movement that fights. This means striking not not do. The job of socialists is not to wait until the bu - Best known for their work with the poorest children in simply to protest, but to win. The pensions debacle shows reaucracy seems to have a good idea, and then lobby “third world” countries, Save the Children have launched a us, yet again, we cannot rely on the leaders of our own them to act on it. campaign for Britain’s children living in poverty (defined unions. We have to develop and build rank-and-file organ - Our job is to build up consciousness, independent or - by the report as coming from a family with less than 60% of isations within the unions, built on democracy, our own de - ganisation, and confidence in our own strength amongst the median income). mands and direct action. Acting for ourselves, collectivising rank-and-file workers so we can fight to impose a win - That’s the rising number of children going hungry, mal - our grievances, and acting in solidarity with other workers ning strategy in the coming battles. nourished, in need of new shoes, and warm clothes; always in struggle leads to one, ultimate, necessary perspective: for Congress also passed a motion from the Prison Offi - excluded from school trips, unable to have friends round a workers’ government. cers’ Association, which commits the TUC to “consider - for tea, worrying and struggling as their lives are stymied We need to make our class fit to govern, fit to rule. We ing” the “practicalities” of a general strike. The debate by being poor. These are the children of the poorer sections need a government of our class (the whole of our class – was positive, and the focus must now be on the hard of the working class. Capitalism considers it safe to sacri - whether working or not), by our class, and for our class. We work of building up the rank-and-file strength in work - fice them so the rich can be cushioned from the crisis they need a government which will govern in our interests with places, and local and national co-ordination, without and their friends created. the same unswerving partisan spirit with which this gov - whAilcsho n aot sCuochn gsrtreiskse, ias pmoosstioblne . from the RMT that It shouldn’t happen here because we have the oldest ernment, and the New Labour governments before it, have advocated British withdrawal from the European labour movement in the world. Despite a fall in union mem - governed for the bosses. Union was defeated — a positive sign for those bership over the decades, and despite defeats for the work - wanting to push internationalist politics in the ing class, there are still 6.4 million workers organised in WORKERS’ GOVERNMENT labour movement. trade unions. It shouldn’t happen here because we have the A workers’ government would create jobs through power to stop it. building hospitals, schools, homes, and railways. It But it is happening here because the organised working would put major industries under the control of those class is weak, under-confident, and hindered by a trade who work in them, with no compensation for the expro - union bureaucracy with over-paid, over-comfortable lead - priated bosses and shareholders. Labour’s wealth ers. It is happening here because the working class has no political representation. No political voice that could impose Instead of the bankers’ socialism that socialised losses but real solutions to “save the children”. kept the profits and gains in the hands of the tiny capitalist class, we need working-class socialism — democratic, so - tax? BANKERS cial ownership by the working-class majority, working to - In 2008, when their big roulette game collapsed from On 6 September, Ed Balls announced that he would wards creating a society that can provide for everyone on support a permanent tax on high-value properties. their own vile greed, the cry from the bankers, their the basis of need. friends, and their political representatives was “save the We should all be individually and collectively outraged The latest move by the Shadow Chancellor seems less banks!” Save the rich! Save capitalism! Save the sys - that 3.5 million children in Britain — in the “first world”, in a response to Solidarity 's criticism of the Labour Party tem, so we can do this all again! the world’s seventh largest economy, in a world of abun - last week and more a tactical ploy to split the governing dance with the means to provide lives of plenty for all — coalition. And so the Labour government did, using taxpayers’ Although Balls rejected Nick Clegg's proposals for a money and public credit to the tune of £1,100 billion. The live in poverty. temporary one-off tax levy on the super-rich, his policy banks were saved. Capitalism was saved. And the rich got We should be collectively outraged that any child any - idea closely resembles Liberal Democrat business secre - remarkably richer — buying more Aston Martins and other where in the world lives in poverty; and that many die from tary Vince Cable's suggestion of a “mansion tax.” Ac - flash cars, works of art, diamonds, luxury designer goods, poverty. cording to the Independent , Balls “said he would be houses and gold than ever before. The pay of the bosses’ of There is more than enough wealth concentrated in the happy to discuss what he called Mr Cable's 'serious' pro - Britain’s top 100 companies rose by a staggering 43% be - hands of a few to solve these problems. And there is more posal for a high-value property tax” and he has subse - tween 2010 and 2011. The average boss of a FTSE 100 com - than enough potential power concentrated in the hands of quently followed up this initiative with an overture to pany “earns” nearly 200 times the average salary. the working class around the world to build a future that Cable to quit the government and join with Labour to “We’re all in this together”, the bosses’ government con - puts an end to child poverty. The starting point is collectivis - ing our outrage, grabbing hold of the anger and using it to implement a “Plan B” to austerity. tinues to insist. The welfare state is dismantled, benefits In 1903 Ramsay MacDonald agreed a “Lib-Lab” pact slashed, public services and jobs deleted from existence. fuel a drive for real change. We have to think independently about the interests of the with the Liberal leader Herbert Gladstone because the New food-parcel distribution centres spring up every week nascent Labour Party had not yet been born from the in churches and charity centres all over the country to feed working class and we have to act in solidarity at all times with workers all over the world. Labour Representation Committee. Experience showed the poor. Wages are driven down and under-employment that it was not just a tactical ploy but formed a sequence And when we act, we have to act not only in outraged op - becomes the norm. An ever-growing caste of working poor in a pattern of class collaboration, again with the Liber - position to the obscene injustices we see around us but pos - is created. The bosses aren’t “in it” together with us. They’re als and then, in 1929, with the Conservative Party too. itively, in the name of a better, more rational, more sane, doing fine. Just as it did then, “Lib-Labism” now in its modern- And the union leaders’ response? “For a future that more humane system, where the social needs of people day incarnation cuts against the growth and develop - works!” Maybe there will be another half million strong come before the phantom “needs” of the market and its meTnhte o fL ianbdoeupre nPdaerntty w mourksitn gp-rcolavsids ep omlitoicres. than mis - demonstration on 20 October. Maybe the strike threats made neTvhere- ennadmineg f,o cra tnhnaibt aslyisttiecm dr iisv es ofocria plirsomfit,. and by fighting by Unite leader Len McCluskey and Unison leader Dave chievous politicking and offers of a life-raft for the for it and winning it, we can hope to “save the children”, sinking ship Liberal Democrat. Prentis will be carried through. Maybe we will even win and much more. some of those strikes. SOLIDARITY 5 HEALTH The issues in Hunt carries a health warning Manchester By Todd Hamer By Colin Foster The promotion of Jeremy Hunt to the position of Health The outcome of this year’s Labour Party conference, Secretary is a sign of the supreme confidence of David opening in Manchester on 30 September, will depend Cameron’s adminstration and the contempt in which on how seriously the Unite union, Labour’s largest affil - they hold the electorate. Jeremy Hunt is the personifica - iate, takes its own policy. tion of the glutton and venality of the capitalist class at this time of austerity. The Unite union adopted a new document at its Policy Conference on 25-28 June 2012, for a more aggressive polit - Like the Health and Social Care Act itself, his appointment ical strategy in the Labour Party as Health Secretary only makes sense from the point of view On the agenda in Manchester is a rule change proposed of powerful corporate interests. by Bridgend CLP to allow Labour conference to amend Na - Educated in Charterhouse and Oxford University, he is one tional Policy Forum documents. Though the change sounds of the growing number of white, public school boys in the technical and fiddly, it could change conference dramati - Cabinet. Throughout his career he has distinguished himself cally. What was done at Labour conference before Blair as a stooge of corporate interests. two fingers to everyone who believes in the NHS or, indeed, through motions from Constituency Labour Parties and Having failed as a marmalade exporter, he set up a PR basic standards of human integrity. unions would be done through amendments to NPF docu - company and then followed a natural progression into Tory ments, and better, because in the old days often a National politics. RECORD Executive statement passed through conference as take-it- CLASS WARRIOR Hunt’s record on health is alarming. or-leave-it could be cited to neutralise awkward but success - Hunt turned to politics as a bourgeois class warrior de - After the Murdoch fiasco, Hunt returned to his consituency ful motions from CLPs. termined to use the power of government to the benefit to lobby on behalf of Richard Branson. NHS Surrey were de - Bridgend’s rule change has to jump three hurdles. It has of his class. liberating as to whether or not to hand over seven hospitals to avoid getting ruled out of order. The Conference Arrange - and a number of community services to the Virgin Care ments Committee has already ruled out 28 rule-change pro - Since his time in office he has served them and empito - Group. posals this year, on concocted grounds. Unite should back a mised them well. While still a relatively fresh face in Parlia - NHS Surrey were stalling on the £650 million deal, because challenge against ruling-out Bridgend. ment, Hunt managed to get involved in the MP expenses their risk register identified that such a massive transfer of Next hurdle: the platform can say that the issue is “under scandal and then later in a tax dodging scheme. management responsibility might put patients at risk. Hunt review”, and ask for Bridgend’s proposal to be “remitted”. His real career break came after he told Chancellor George stepped in to speed up the deal. Under his leadership, it is If Unite backs Bridgend, that manoeuvre can be defeated. Osborne of his support for Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to take likely that the whole NHS will follow Surrey’s lead. Finally, of course, the rule change has to win a majority. over BSkyB. He was quickly promoted to oversee the BSkyB Unlike his predecessor Andrew Lansley, Hunt has been Again, Unite’s vote will be pivotal. bid and did all he could to appease the world’s largest media quite plain in his vision for the NHS. In 2005 he co-authored No-one dares argue that Labour conference procedure is tycoon. a book with the Orwellian title Direct Democracy: Agenda for a fine as it is. The arguments will be that we should “give Hunt’s conduct throughout this affair was very far from New Model Party , where he said: “We should fund patients, ei - time” to Ed Miliband, not rush things, and remember that the free market principles that he prescribes for the NHS. ther through the tax system or by way of universal insurance, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Trouble is, time is short. When Murdoch’s operation turned out to be full of phone- to purchase health care from the provider of their choice. The By the time of the 2014 conference we will be only months hacking sociopaths, Hunt’s career looked likely to collapse. poor and unemployed would have their contributions sup - away from a general election, and big shifts of Labour’s di - However, like RBS, Hunt was “too big to fail”. If Hunt was plemented or paid for by the state.” rection will be more difficult. going to be blamed for his slavish devotion to Murdoch then He is also in favour of privatised provision: “Our ambition STILL LOW Cameron’s future would also be in question. So he was al - should be to break down the barriers between private and lowed to stay. His recent promotion is David Cameron giving According to the figures which the Labour Party is legally obliged to give to the Electoral Commission, Labour membership at the end of 2011 was 193,000 — 37,000 up on end-2009, but unchanged from end-2010, and still low. Social care White Paper: neglect for our future Despite Unite’s commitments to increase trade-union in - tervention in the Labour Party, Unite general secretary Len By Emma Burford “compare the care market” website. Transition arrangements McCluskey told the Guardian (7 September) that “member - for service users moving from one local authority to another ship of the Labour Party among Unite members was prob - The long-awaited government White Paper on social will be improved but this is underpinned by a desire to en - ably at its lowest ever figure of around 12,000, which care “Caring for our future” ducks the pivotal issue of sure proximity to family and shift the duty of care away from included 2,000 recruited this year through a campaign to at - funding. the state. tract more people into the party”. On 10 September, after the TUC made cautious moves to Creating more confusion than clarity, the government has - BIG SOCIETY consider further strikes against Government policy, Ed now officially agreed to the funding principles set out in the The “Big Society” crops up again in the concept of peo - Miliband shamefully rebuked the unions: “The public does - Dilnot Report (2011) whilst making no definite decisions. In ple caring for others to create a “bank of care” to draw n’t want to see strikes. Nor do your members”. particular, it ducked the issue of capping individual liability on themselves later. Labour rule changes are essential, but valuable only if for care costs (Dilnot suggested a cap of £35,000 and £100,000 used to win and enforce new policies. Again, much depends for those in residential care). There’s a welcome abolition of means testing for people on on what the big unions, especially Unite, do. As early as 2015 the number of people over 60 may out - the end-of-life care register but this is often too little too late. In recent speeches Ed Miliband has tried to define his new number those under 14. Yet, alongside mental health and dis - “End-of-life” care only relates to the last 12 months of life, by catchphrase, “an economy that works for working people”, ability services, older adult services have always been a poor which point life-long disadvantages and inequalities have by the term “predistribution”. relation within the impoverished social care family. Older taken their toll. Predistribution means what? Nationalisation of the banks, adults face increasing isolation and chaotic services, with In February 2012 the National End of Life Care Intelligence in line with the policy adopted by the unions at TUC con - under-trained workers on long shifts and low pay, leaving Network reported that working-class people are more likely gress on 10 September? Repeal of the Tory anti-union laws little opportunity for engagement. Basic care and support is to die younger and with less control over where and how and introduction of positive workers’ rights to organise and rushed or delayed for long periods. they die. This stems from a lack of access to resources to strike? Big increase in the minimum wage, even? The White Paper proposes a number of superficially inno - throughout life; to lack of personal support at home; to an Miliband mentioned nothing specific. vative ideas to tackle these challenges, but they are often un - entire system based on undermining working-class people’s Labour Party insiders guess that “predistribution” is dermined in practice or underpinned by hidden motives. sense of entitlement. likely to come up at Labour conference only in Ed A key plan is to provide £200 million over five years, start - The White Paper also restates the government’s commit - Miliband’s speech, or possibly in a motion which a right- ing in 2013, to encourage providers to develop new accom - ment to personal budgets, making them a legal right by 2015. wing union like Usdaw will have submitted after prodding modation options for older people. Leaving aside that the Personal budgets can be a good way for people to have from Ed Miliband’s office. source of this funding is unclear, private care homes are less more choice and control over the services they receive. But Unite and other unions can and should seize the high likely to meet minimum regulatory standards in areas such as too often they are a paper commitment, as workers are not privacy, hygiene, staff training and quality. given time or resources to plan collaboratively with service groTuhnedy . should submit motions insisting on “redistribu - A testament to the disaster of privatisation was the collapse users and to ensure meaningful personalisation. Research tion” for retired people, disabled people, and others; on of Southern Cross, the UK’s largest care home operator, in shows that, in particular, older people are less likely than the rich being taxed heavily to expand public services 2011, shunting tens of thousands of older adults towards dis - other groups to have raised expectations from personal budg - (run as public services, and not privatised and marke - ruption, confusion and increased health problems. eting, and are often anxious about planning and managing tised); and on actual measures of “predistribution” like National standards will allow improved assessment of care their own support. living wages, union rights, and bank nationalisation. — but rather than a person to help you with this, you get a If the cost of community care is greater than the cost of res - 6 SOLIDARITY HEALTH Hunt carries a health warning

public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain.” In 2008 he endorsed a Tory pamphlet called The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain , which said of the NHS: “Outcomes are poor, it costs too much and would be better broken up into an insurance based system.” HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE ACT Lansley’s Health and Social Care Act is a dense, repetitive, Labour: rebuild the NHS! obscurantist piece of legislation based on nearly a decade of study into how to privatise the NHS while pretending to be doing something else.

Cameron has now sacked the only person who can make LOBBY THE LABOUR PARTY CONFERENCE sense of it. The job of deciphering the Act has fallen to an army of bureaucrats organised into no less than seven different lay - ers of bureaucracy across a wide variety of new organisations. Hunt’s only credential to lead this army is an ideological com - mitment to neoliberal dogma and the destruction of the health Sunday 30 September, 2.30pm service. So with nothing but his reputation for using public office to help billionaire bosses, he is set up to blunder and exacerbate Manchester Central Convention the chaos that will rip through the NHS. His first act as Health Secretary was to announce plans to sell off 912 specialist services for rare and uncommon condi - tions. This is, in fact, the third of three planned waves of sell- Complex, Peter St, Manchester offs; the first (of community services) starts this month. The specialist areas (due to be privatised in April 2013) are areas of exceptional brilliance where all the finest minds in the Email: [email protected] NHS work on the most complex medical problems. The loss of these services is part of Hunt’s aim to create a rump service for the poor. When these services are under private control the best tel: 07904 944 771 / web: labournhslobby.wordpress.com clinicians will also be lost to the NHS. If the NHS risk register was flashing red on civil unrest and Supporters include: Unite North West region, Unite Women’s Committee, increased mortality rates before the Health and Social Care Act passed through Parliament, Cameron’s appointment of Hunt Merseyside Assoc of Trades Councils, Wirral Trades Council, Midlands has turned these risks into near certainties. The labour movement must set out its own clear alterna - RMT, Unite Manchester Community Branch, Liverpool Wavertree CLP, tive. Wirral South CLP, Broxtowe CLP, London KONP, Newcastle KONP, Leeds KONP, Sheffield Save Our NHS, Labour Representation Committee Social care White Paper: neglect for our future Transport from London: coach leaving RMT Unity House at 9.30am. To book a place (£15) email [email protected] idential care, choice goes out of the window. In just two months of 2011, 120,000 hospital days were used by older people who could have been elsewhere. Age UK and the Royal College of Nursing have warned that the new proposals could see the along and have their say the mood is very different though! NHS flooded with tens of thousands of people who can’t af - Manchester The campaign has started to link up with campaign - ford to pay for care at home. ers in other areas and hopes to share experiences and Older people already contribute heavily to their care — with look at ways to fight back effectively. half total expenditure on older adult social care in 2005-7 pro - G More details: www.savetraffordgeneral.com vided by self-funding or assessed care charges. The govern - Save Trafford ment now plans to allow local authorities to charge, not just for the services they outsource, but also for the administrative and management fees of the outsourcing process. “Caring for our future” is just another element in the drive Defend mental to privatise social care and shift responsibility onto individuals General! and families. In a society that measures social value by contri - bution to the production of profit, older adults are disempow - The Save Trafford General Campaign has gathered health services ered and sidelined. They have limited access to advocacy and more than 10,000 signatures on a petition to stop the In July service users affected by planned cuts in Man - fewer clear rights as a group. run-down and closure of the hospital’s A&E Depart - chester’s mental health services took the Trust that Older people’s and “pensioners’ action groups” have played ment, the closure of Intensive Care and children’s services and the ending of acute surgery. runs them to court for failing to consult with them or to a strong role in many local anti-cuts campaigns, but it is vital assess the impact the impact the cuts would have on that social care workers organise alongside service users. As a Local people know that these cuts place the whole fu - vulnerable people. result of older adults’ often complex support needs, this area ture of the hospital in doubt, and the campaign has at - offers opportunities for organising in solidarity with health Rather than fight in court the Trust “agreed to reconsider tracted a lot of support. A meeting of Trafford Council in and NHS workers, if union members can force their bureau - its decision to carry out the community services review”. July voted unanimously to oppose the plans. cratic leaders to move. So far so good, but the Trust are still planning to cut 40 But there is still a huge pressure for the NHS to make We need a coherent plan for a system based on high quality front line community post and to disband Assertive Out - these cuts, to “balance the books” and improve the fi - care, accessible to all on the basis of need, not ability to pay; reach Teams who support more than 300 service users who nances of the Foundation Trust that took over the services support, training, and a living wage for care workers; and the are the hardest to engage. They plan to cut services by 20%. in April this year. Manchester Community and Mental Health Branch rebuilding of public sector social services, bringing provision NHS bosses are holding a series of “consultation meet - of Unison is campaigning against these cuts and has back “in-house”, to improve accountability and the quality of organised a meeting on Monday 24 September — ings” over the summer and through to October: staged care. “Manchester Mental Health Services in Crisis” — at In contrast, “Caring for our future” is, as Jeremy Hughes events with 40 minutes of being “talked at” by NHS man - 7pm at the Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street, of the Alzheimer’s Society said, “not worth the paper it’s agers saying “there’s only one option”. M1 6DD. written on”. Where the campaign can ensure a lot of people come SOLIDARITY 7 REVIEW Why no British revolution?

By Dale Street stabulary Reserve was also told that any deaths which they Chartists and the 1926 General Strike — McLynn does put might be responsible for would be treated as justifiable forward credible reasons for their failure which are rooted Why has Britain never had a “real” revolution — unlike, homicide. in the particular history of Britain. say, France, Italy, Mexico, Russia, China or Cuba? That’s In the course of the strike’s nine days there were around Capitalism developed earlier and over a longer period of the question asked by Frank McLynn in The Road Not 4,000 arrests, more than 600 of them without a warrant. In time in England than in other countries. Unlike elsewhere, it Taken: How Britain Narrowly Missed a Revolution . Birmingham the entire strike committee was arrested, in was not the product of sudden social changes which, in turn, Glasgow sentences of up to three months in prison were im - triggered violent social conflict. As McLynn puts it: “Britain The result of his endeavours is a highly readable book. But posed for “impeding traffic”, and in Aberavon three strik - developed earlier and faster than the continental countries; not one which really gets to grips with the question he asks. ers were each jailed for two months for being in possession it had its civil war and ‘revolution’ earlier; it industrialised In fact, on more than one occasion, it all becomes very con - of communist literature. earlier; it embraced capitalism earlier; it solved its peasant fusing. McLynn assumes that there are factors peculiar to Britain problem earlier.” The English Revolution of the 1640s replaced feudal-ab - which explain why there has never been a “true revolution” This did not apply without qualification to Scotland. As solutist rule by bourgeois rule, even if feudal elements such in this country. He therefore ends up as a prisoner of his own Trotsky commented, in explaining why “the most radical el - as the monarchy and the House of Lords later returned. In question. He has to search for supposedly specific British ements” in the British labour movement were often natives doing so, it achieved “monumental change,” to use reasons for defeat. of Scotland: “Scotland entered on the capitalist path later McLynn’s expression, and should therefore surely count as But three of the might-have-been-revolutions covered in than England. A sharper turn in the life of the masses gave a “true revolution”. For McLynn, however, it is another the book occurred before Britain even existed. rise to a sharper political reaction.” failed revolution, because the most radical elements — the If one dates Britain from the Treaty of Union of 1707, Levellers and the Diggers — were defeated. rather than the Union of the Crowns of 1603, one could add PREMATURE McLynn covers “seven clear revolutionary situations a fourth as well: the English Civil War. It is called the English The fact that England, and then post-1707 Britain, was which did not, in the end, lead to revolution.” (In McLynn’s Civil War, not the British Civil War, for a good reason. the first country to strike out on the road of capitalist usage, “a revolution need not necessarily be in a leftward di - Nor was there anything particularly British (or English) development was “bad news” for its proletariat, writes rection, provided it satisfies the criteria for monumental about the failure of the peasant uprisings covered by McLynn. change.”) McLynn. Medieval and late-medieval peasant uprisings It meant that the working class came into conflict with the In addition to the 1640s, the seven might-have-been revo - failed in all countries — most notably, and bloodily, in Ger - bourgeoisie before it had developed its own class ideology. lutions range from the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and the rural many — because the peasantry as a class was incapable of Or, as Trotsky put it, writing of the failure of the Chartist uprising led by Jack Cade in 1450 through to the 1745 Jaco - stamping its own authority on society. bite uprising, the Chartists of the 1830s/40s, and the Gen - As Engels, whom McLynn himself quotes, put it, the me - movement: “The era of Chartism is immortal in that over the eral Strike of 1926. dieval peasantry was capable only of “communism nour - course of a decade it gives us in condensed and diagram - Those, indeed, did fail. Why? ished by fantasy”: they could point to the future, but not matic form the whole gamut of proletarian struggle — from It is certainly not because the potential for such a revolu - reach it. English peasants failed to carry out a “true revolu - petitions to parliament to armed insurrection. … Chartism tion has been sapped by a record of altruism, benevolence tion” because they were peasants, not because they were did not win a victory not because its methods were incor - and paternalism on the part of the British ruling classes. English (or incipiently British). rect but because it appeared too soon. It was only an histor - On the contrary — and this is what makes the book so ical anticipation.” readable — the ruling classes and their representatives are ENGLISH REVOLUTION The emergence of a labour movement in Britain before the There was nothing peculiarly English/British about the consistently shown up as duplicitous scoundrels, never hap - development and spread of a set of ideas which would have defeat of the radicals in the 1640s. The most radical el - enabled it to understand its position and role in society (i.e. pier than when grinding the faces of the poor and maintain - ements in later bourgeois revolutions (such as the Marxism) meant that that labour movement was ideologi - ing their grip on power through brute force and terror. French Revolution, or the European revolutions of 1848) cally shaped by hostile forces. HENRY VIII likewise went down to defeat. But that was in the nature Its perspective, and in particular the perspective of its Richard II, monarch at the time of the Peasants’ Revolt, of those revolutions. leaders, was not one of the revolutionary overthrow of cap - was “a devotee of cruel and unusual punishment” who italism and the seizure of power by the working class. On They were bourgeois revolutions which turned against the “wallowed in the reign of terror he unleashed,” while the contrary, the unions — and, in later years, the Labour more radical plebeian elements once the latter had helped Henry VIII, on the throne at the time of the Pilgrimage of Party — were committed to bargaining within the system bring the bourgeoisie to power. And those radical elements Grace, was a “ruthless, single-minded, vengeful and ter - for a better deal. Armed (or, rather, disarmed) with such a were necessarily too weak to defeat the bourgeois counter- rifying tyrant” with a “maniacal thirst for blood”. perspective, it was only to be expected that the leaders of the revolution to which they fell victim. 1926 General Strike would call it off at the first opportunity. As Marx wrote of the Levellers: “Only if those revolution - In more recent times, after the emergence of the modern But even these insights into why there has not been a suc - ary soldiers could have linked with a great mass movement working class as a social force, the ruling classes have con - cessful socialist revolution in Britain — the early develop - of the people would it have been possible to set up a gen - tinued their ancestors’ traditions. Between mid-1839 and ment of British capitalism, and the early, pre-Marxism, uinely democratic republic. … (But) the proletariat had not early 1840 some 550 Chartist activists were imprisoned, emergence of a British working class — cannot save the book yet appeared on the historical scene. Since none of these nec - some for a few weeks, and others for several years. Three of from itself. its leaders were handed down death sentences (which in essary economic conditions yet existed, a Levellers’ govern - 1840 still meant being hanged, drawn and quartered), albeit ment could have done little to change the march of events.” LAST subsequently commuted to transportation for life. In fact, if the English Revolution was not a “real” revolu - McLynn writes: “1919 was probably the last date at During the General Strike Churchill boasted that the mil - tion because the most radical elements failed to take power, which revolution could realistically have been attempted itary had assembled enough artillery in London to kill every then, the French Revolution was not a “real” revolution ei - in Britain.” living soul in every street in the capital, and that troops had ther. In relation to later might-have-been-revolutions — the The reason for this is: “After 1919 the dominance of the carte blanche to open fire. The specially recruited Civil Con - Labour Party on the left-centre of British politics gave the coup de grace to any lingering hope of revolution still enter - factured these differences after the event. SP leader Joe Hig - tained on the left.” gins declares on his website that “the many discussions Even if one ignores the almost magical powers attributed The real reason? that took place between Clare Daly and leading party by McLynn to the Labour Party as an obstacle to successful members in June and July were all focused on the question revolution, this is a particularly strange argument. The cen - of her political support for Mick Wallace. Clare Daly sim - tral thesis in his book is that a “real” revolution was never re - ply did not raise any points relating to a greater emphasis ally on the cards at any point in time in Britain (or England) on the ULA in recent months”. anyway. So why suddenly introduce a “cut-off date” of 1919, Wallace, a property developer, was forced to come to a and blame the Labour Party for putting an end to any “lin - €2.1m settlement after he admitted that his company had € gering hope” of a revolution? The Left under-declared VAT to the tune of 1.4m. Daly has not In any case, given his own hostility to revolutions in gen - only refused to break with him but has continued sitting By James O’Leary eral, McLynn should surely congratulate the Labour Party with him in parliament, even after the “Technical Group” for being “counter-revolutionary” and putting revolution, of independent TDs to which Wallace belonged asked him in his words, “beyond the pale”. On 31 August sitting Socialist Party (SP) TD (Irish MP) to resign from the group. A failure to condemn Wallace’s Revolutions, he writes, are bad things: “Everyone who has Clare Daly resigned from the organisation. She will behaviour is inappropriate for anyone publicly represent - studied revolutions must surely be depressed by the disap - keep her seat as a member of the United Left Alliance ing a socialist organisation. pointing outcomes.” It is a “serious error” to “romanticise (ULA). James P Cannon used to say that in politics there were revolution”, especially given their propensity to “kill mil - often two reasons: a good reason and the real reason. The lions of recalcitrants who refuse to adapt.” In a statement posted on its website, the SP is adamant contemporary applicability of this insight and the fact that that Daly’s public support for tax-cheat TD Mick Wallace And a revolution in Britain today, according to McLynn, is we do not have information beyond the contradictory pub - neither possible nor necessary: “No-one could seriously was at the centre of their differences. Daly, on the other lic statements of the SP and Clare Daly reflects badly on hand, cited political differences with the SP, announcing claim that today’s citizens face the spectre of starvation and honest accounting in the socialist movement. More than therefore have no choice but to pick up the cudgels or raise that “the potential of the ULA has not been fully realised this, it has allowed the right-wing press to distract from the the barricades.” and it is now time that the component organisations pri - real issues at the expense of the Irish left. In the introduction to his book McLynn writes: “I am not oritised the building of the ULA”. We do not know for certain whether the political differ - a Marxist, nor even a socialist, but I do have an instinctive Daly’s criticism that there has been a lack of emphasis on ences cited by Daly are more apparent than real, or what sympathy for the underdog, and this has informed my work; building the ULA is reasonable. Despite the profile of the went on within the internal organisational structures of the Household Tax Campaign, the ULA has so far failed to take theH visil lwaionrsd tse nadre t oa lbseo m ae fmaibr esrus mofm thaet ieolint eo of rt hthee biro moikn itosnesl.f”. SPW. hat we do know is that Daly continued to go out of an identity that transcends the largest of its component Not Marxist. Not socialist. But a good read if you want to her way to support a tax evading capitalist. Along with groups, the SP and the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). be reminded of the vileness of the English and British the SP, we believe this to be wrong. However, it is not impossible that Clare Daly has manu - ruling classes over the ages.

8 SOLIDARITY SOCIALISM A discussion among Marxists

Workers’ Liberty has recently begun discussions with a Marxist group active in Turkey, Marksist Tutum [Marxist Attitude]. We made contact with Marksist Tutum thanks to the help of the Iranian Revolutionary Marxists’ Tendency. Martin Thomas reviews their political literature. The Marksist Tutum website was started in 2002; the journal has been published since 2005. Since 2006 its supporters have been active in developing a wider workers’ association in Turkey called UID-DER (the As - sociation of International Workers’ Solidarity). The “pre-history” of Marksist Tutum is longer. It goes back to the studies and activities of a small group of com - rades who had first become politically active in the Turkish Workers’ Party, a legal front organisation promoted by the Turkish Communist Party, and who gradually developed their own Marxist ideas in critique of Stalinist ideologies. Some of the basic documents of Marksist Tutum date back to the early 1990s. Many of them are available in English on the Marksist Tutum website, http://en.marksist.net/. A longer version of this discussion of those documents is at bit.ly/m-tutum. Marksist Tutum define the basic traditions they draw on as we do: “Marx and Engels’ efforts to organise the Communist League, and those links that form the revolutionary chain ever since the First International; the Bolshevik Party in Lenin’s time, the Third International in the period of first four congresses, the Left Opposition (Bolshevik-Leninists) led by Trotsky who waged a struggle against Stalinism after Lenin’s death, and subsequently the International Left Op - position (International Communist League) and the general ideological-political legacy of the Fourth International...” They reaffirm the centrality of building a revolutionary “Sub-imperialist” Turkey deploys troops on border with Syria Marxist organisation which strives unequivocally for polit - ical clarity. Discussions with them indicate that they orient colonies” when in fact they are “sub-imperialist”, “con - igencies... The first and second terms of AKP governments to workplaces, to working-class milieus, and to working- duct[ing] directly expansionist relations in [their] own re - seem to constitute a new period in which these problems class organisations. gions” (spheres of influence, investments, unequal trade have started to be solved... For most of the twentieth century, the framework for left- relations, etc.). “AKP is not the representative or protector of the working wing politics was set by a world confrontation between the “It is... a caricature of Marxism not to take the demand of masses but a bourgeois party proper. And a genuine party big capitalist powers and despotic states calling themselves the right of nations to self-determination in a clearest way as of big capital voicing the interests of nascent groups of cap - socialist or communist. As Marksist Tutum put it: “Almost [the right to] ‘political independence, the right to establish ital thrived on the basis of a wild exploitation of the work - all left-wing activists aligned themselves with the Stalinist a separate state’ and think that economic independence can ing class... states, though sometimes adding harsh criticism. While put - also be achieved by a national liberation struggle”. “AKP and its milieu are now proud of the process of ting an end to the power of the working class, Stalinism en - “Today the wars provoked by the countries which strive Turkey’s transformation into a sub-imperialist power ceas - tirely distorted the worldview of the working class, i.e. to become imperialist (for example, Turkey, Greece, Iran or ing to be a peripheral country. As a matter of fact this Marxism. And the order of the bureaucracy has been theo - Iraq) with the aim of creating their sphere of influence are process has actually begun in the Özal period...” rised as ‘socialism’ for long years”. also unjust wars. The correct attitude towards such wars Marksist Tutum describes the Islamic regime in Iran as Their conclusion on states like the old USSR or Mao’s cannot be to support one’s ‘own’ bourgeoisie against the “fascist”, and writes of the “sometimes even fascist reac - China is the same as ours. other’s and to wage a ‘national’ war in the same front with tionary character” of Islamist movements; but reckons the DESPOTIC it”. AKP, by contrast, to be “a bourgeois party proper”. It argues “Such regimes are not a new mode of production sur - Another result of the ideological operation of translating that much “bourgeois secularist” agitation in Turkey about passing capitalism in the process of historical evolution the democratic right of nations to self-determination into a the supposed danger of Turkey becoming “another Iran” is of human societies [...] they cannot be characterised as struggle for “economic independence” is that the demo - manufactured to serve the interests tied to the old Kemalist- ‘post-capitalist societies’ in this sense. cratic demand itself is blurred over. Marksist Tutum entitle military structures. one of their documents: “Underestimation of Democratic “The despotic-bureaucratic regime is a genuine monstros - Demands: An erroneous political tendency within Marxist ISRAEL ity if it is considered from the standpoint of the historical movement still encountered”. Indeed! But, as Lenin de - The Marksist Tutum document, “The Marxist Approach epoch and conditions in which it exists. A despotic-bureau - clared: “A proletariat not schooled in the struggle for to the Issue of Palestine”, has not been translated into cratic regime surrounded by the world capitalism in the age democracy is incapable of performing an economic revolu - English, and an approximate translation using web of modern industry is a socio-economic phenomenon which tion...” services does not make its conclusions clear. has no future with its peculiar (sui generis) characteristic” . EUROPEAN UNION From discussions with Marksist Tutum, however, it seems “There is an exploitation of surplus-labour and these we have broad agreement in demanding the right to estab - regimes belong to the set of exploitative societies”. Marksist Tutum’s position on the debate about Turkey joining or not joining the EU is the same as the position lish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel: dem - “There is no rational point in appraising such a labour ocratic self-determination for both nations in conflict. regime [relative job security in some Stalinist states] as a which our tendency took on the debate about Britain joining the EU. From the documents, and from conversations, it seems ‘historical gain’, in which the working class is deprived of that two issues to which we come from different angles, and all rights of union, strike etc. in the face of an alienated Marksist Tutum declares that Marxists cannot be like “the where more discussion is needed, are tradition and organi - state”. nationalist bourgeois or petty-bourgeois left-wingers, work - sation. Like us, Marksist Tutum argue that the trajectory of Trot - ing to turn back the wheel of history”. But we do not say What Marksist Tutum writes seems to us to underesti - sky’s repeatedly-reworked analyses of the Stalinist USSR “yes” to endorse the projects of the bourgeoisie. “The de - mate the degree to which one generation learns from an - was towards recognising that the bureaucracy had become bate on EU accession [is] essentially a domestic issue of the other. much more than a bureaucracy — in fact, an exploitative bourgeoisie. In this discussion, in ‘yes’ or ‘no’ format, we do For example, Marksist Tutum writes that the Second In - ruling class — and that the most logical continuation of Trot - not have to take sides”. Our answer is to fight for working- ternational had “no continuity” with the first. We think that sky’s approach in the light of the facts in the years after his class unity across the borders whatever the details of the ne - untrue. Whole organisations, like the German socialist death was to recognise that. gotiations between the bourgeoisies. movement, and leading individuals (Engels, Bebel, From the earliest years of our own tendency, when we We note with interest Marksist Tutum’s analysis of the de - Liebknecht, Lafargue, Guesde...) created continuity. concerned ourselves with trying to define a working-class velopment of Turkish capitalism, on which we are not qual - Most of the parties of the Second International collapsed politics for Ireland emancipated from the nationalist con - ified to offer an independent opinion. politically by voting for war credits in 1914. But not all did. ventional wisdoms, but more and more in recent decades, “The fundamental weakness of the great majority of the And in all the major parties that did vote for war credits, we have found it important to understand that a division of left in Turkey is a conception of anti-imperialism without there were oppositions which did not fall from the sky but the world into “imperialist states” and “colonies” (or “semi- an anti-capitalist content. That is why the left in Turkey con - had been shaped and formed by the best elements of the colonies”, or “neo-colonies”) no longer has even the relative sidered Kemal’s movement as really anti-imperialist for work of the Second International. validity it had in the era of the great colonial empires. years, and even today there is sympathy for Kemalism “The Third International is not a continuation of the Sec - Marksist Tutum registers the same shift. “Relations of in - among the left... ond International”? Again, hardly true. It is true that “the equality in the capitalist world are still being presented as a “Problems such as the liquidation of the military tutelage Third International rested upon the critique of the Second kind of ‘neo-colonialism’”, i.e. as a product of political over - regime and democratisation of Turkish political landscape International’s experience”, but it was a critique carried out lordship, whereas in fact the inequalities stem from capital - have become items on the agenda of big capital in connec - by activists trained and educated by the Second Interna - ist market relations. “Countries such as Brazil, Argentina tion with its drive for going international and economic ex - tional. and Turkey [are described] as semi-colonies or neo- SOLIDARITY 9 SOCIALISM

We agree with Marksist Tutum that the “orthodox” suc - the fact that it preached the unity of the party secured to it a only by activity and discussion, democracy is a political ne - cessors of Trotsky started to make grievous and systematic certain popularity but no lasting political influence. cessity for a revolutionary organisation. errors within a very short time of his death. But we believe “Those who state the case for a faction or group usually in - It is democracy regulated by a practical purpose: deciding we have significant things to learn even from them; and cer - volve themselves in more or less complicated argument and on and carrying through clear-cut politics, and learning from tainly from the “heterodox” Trotskyists, Shachtman, Draper, address the upper and medium layers of their movement experience. Unlike with discussion circles, debates are or - and others, who regarded themselves as part of the Fourth rather than the rank and file. Those who say, on the other ganised to reach a clear decision and mobilise the organisa - International movement until 1948 at least. hand, that, regardless of any differences, the party ought to tion to carry it through collectively and in a disciplined way. Marksist Tutum declares: close its ranks have, as Trotsky had, a simple case, easy to The time for debate before a decision is made should vary “Compared to Lenin, there are many weak points of Trot - explain and sure of appeal. according to the issue. Some issues are and should be dealt sky in the field of organisation. As a matter of fact, Trotsky “But more often than not this appeal is superficial. Their with by an immediate decision by an elected leading com - could not completely free himself from the Menshevik con - opponents who win the cadres of a party for their more in - mittee; others may require long and wide discussion before ception of organisation...” volved arguments are likely eventually to obtain the hear - a decision. Specifically, Marksist Tutum raise doubts about Trotsky’s ing of the rank and file as well; the cadres carry their After the decision, a minority which disagrees should go advocacy of a labour party based on the unions in the United argument, in simplified form, deeper down. slow for a while on the debate. It should wait for experience States in the later 1930s. “Trotsky’s calls for the solidarity of all socialists were for to provide new data on which to re-raise the debate. But it They refer to projects for a “mass workers’ party” in the moment applauded by many — even the Bolsheviks in should not be obliged to disband, or to cease organising. It Turkey, argue that these “blur the conception of the work - Petersburg reprinted his Pravda . But the same people who can and should continue to discuss its distinctive ideas so ing class party and inherently contain a tendency towards now applauded the call were eventually to disregard it, to long as it does that in a way which does not damage the col - building a bourgeois workers’ party” and advocate “a prin - follow the one or the other faction, and to leave the preacher lective mobilisation to carry through the majority decision. cipled and distanced attitude”. of unity isolated. Democracy includes the right of opposition groups inside We are not qualified to judge on the specific case in Turkey. “Apart from this, there was in Trotsky’s popular posture, the revolutionary organisation to organise at all times, and It is certainly true that Trotsky’s argument on the call for a in his emphasis on plain talk and his promise to ‘serve not to not just in prescribed pre-conference periods. It includes the labour party based on the unions in the USA in the later lead’, more than a touch of demagogy, for the politician, es - right and in fact the duty of individual activists always to be 1930s can be used, harmfully, as a “frozen template”. pecially the revolutionary, best serves those who listen to honest about their ideas. They should cooperate with the But, for example, we believe that the Greek Trotskyists him by leading them”. majority line in public activity, but they should not pretend who in Syriza today combine their polemics with striving to Deutscher puts it well. His source for those ideas which to agree with it where they don’t. They should not hide their build Syriza into a mass party are on the right lines. he puts so well will have been articles by Trotsky from the true views. As a general rule debates should be carried in Many would-be Trotskyist groups today have, in our view, 1930s, notably What Is A Mass Paper? ouWr peu bbelilcie pvree sos uars iwdelal sa sa irnet eirnn alilnlye with the arguments wrong ideas of what a revolutionary organisation should be, Trotsky’s documents and speeches collected in The First and the practice of Lenin and Trotsky. and how to build it. Trotsky is not to blame for that. Five Years of the Communist International ; The New Course ; Les - The International Marxist Tendency, centred around So - sons of October ; Strategy and Tactics in the Imperialist Epoch ; and cialist Appeal, proclaims it as a universal iron law that in many writings of the 1930s about building revolutionary “when [workers] move into action they inevitably express organisations from small nuclei, in hostile conditions and Books from Workers’ Liberty themselves through the traditional mass organizations. Ted amid political tumult, are the richest resource for us to learn Grant developed and always stressed this law which has about party-building. What is capitalism? been confirmed by historical experience”. TROTSKY It deduces, for example, in Britain, that all Marxist activ - Can it last? ity is mere preparation for an inevitable left-wing mass surge Trotsky’s argument in the late 1930s for agitating for a into the Labour Party. Almost everywhere in the world it po - mass workers’ party based on the trade unions in the With articles from Leon Trotsky, sitions its activists as “entrist” groups in whatever approxi - USA seems to us sound. Max Shachtman, Maziar Razi mation it can find to the “traditional mass organisation of Where the mass unions (the CIO) were growing and rad - and many more. Edited by the working class” (even if the approximation is hardly an icalising, Trotsky explained: approximation at all, as with the PPP in Pakistan). “We cannot yet advocate in the unions support for the Cathy Nugent. £5 — buy online from The main ideologues of the network centred on the NPA SWP [the Trotskyist organisation]. Why? Because we are too tinyurl.com/wiccil in France (Fourth International) propose, almost as a law, weak. And we can’t say to the workers: Wait till we become that the next step everywhere is to build “broad left parties more authoritative, more powerful. We must intervene in to the left of social democracy”. This scheme has led them the movement as it is… Working-class politics into a role in parties like the Workers’ Party in Brazil, and “I will not say that the labor party is a revolutionary party, Rifondazione Comunista in Italy, more like advisers than but that we will do everything to make it possible. At every and anarchism revolutionary polemicists. meeting I will say: I am a representative of the SWP. I con - Trotsky himself, after coming over to Bolshevism in 1917, sider it the only revolutionary party. But I am not a sectarian. Debates between members of produced the best and richest explanations of what Bolshe - You are trying now to create a big workers’ party. I will help Workers’ Liberty and comrades vism in party-building really is. you but I propose that you consider a program for this party. Isaac Deutscher, in The Prophet Armed , expounds the differ - I make such and such propositions. I begin with this...” from various anarchist ence between the newspaper Pravda which Trotsky edited We believe, with Plekhanov, that “the sole purpose and traditions. £5 — tinyurl.com/wcpanarchism from Vienna from 1908 to 1913 and the Bolshevik press in a the direct and sacred duty of the Socialists is the promotion way which sums up Trotsky’s pre-Bolshevik errors on party- of the growth of the class consciousness of the proletariat”, building. and therefore political clarity is paramount. We aim, in Trot - Treason of the Intellectuals “On the whole, Pravda was not one of Trotsky’s great jour - sky’s words, “to base our program on the logic of the class Political verse by Sean Matgamna. £9.99 — nalistic ventures. He intended to address himself to ‘plain struggle”. workers’ rather than to politically-minded party men, and Since the logic of the class struggle can be investigated tinyurl.com/treasonofintellectuals to ‘serve not to lead’ his readers. Pravda ’s plain language and Key ally of Trotsky in Spain

the ICE into the Partido Obrera Unificacion de Marxista Munis collaborated closely with Trotsky’s wife Natalia Se - Our (POUM), a centrist organisation formed by the merger of dova in denouncing the American Socialist Workers Party Nin’s group and the BOC. (SWP) for their de facto support for the Red Army’s occupa - Movement When the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936, Munis tion of eastern Europe in 1944-5. became the leader of the Spanish Trotskyist organisation, In a 1945 article called “Defence of the Soviet Union and By Micheál MacEoin the Bolshevik-Leninists. The group opposed the Popular Revolutionary Tactics”, Munis wrote that the Fourth Inter - Front and sought to influence the rank-and-file of the national’s original position of “unconditional defence of the Grandizo Munis (1912-1989) was one of the earliest POUM, despite attempts by the POUM’s leadership to ex - Soviet Union” must be abandoned: “The only criterion must Spanish Trotskyists. clude the Trotskyists. It also took part in the “May Days” in be the revolutionary advance of the proletariat and the peas - 1937 along with the anarchist Friends of Durruti organisa - ants in the territories coveted by the bureaucracy... The slo - Born Manuel Fernandez Grandizo in Larena, Es - tion, and published a newspaper called La Voz Leninista , gan ‘an end to the Nazi occupation’ must be complemented tremadura, Munis joined Izquierda Comunista (ICE), the proposing a revolutionary programme against the Stalinists with another one: ‘an end to the Stalinist occupation.’” Spanish section of Trotsky’s International Left Opposition and bourgeois republicans. At the Second Congress of the Fourth International in at its conference in Liege in Belgium in February 1930. The Bolshevik-Leninist group, however, was infiltrated 1948, Munis sided with Max Shachtman’s Workers’ Party The majority in ICE, led by Andrés Nin, soon came into by a GPU spy, Leon Narvitch, and after Narvitch was killed and with Natalia Sedova against the “orthodox Trotskyists”. conflict with Trotsky over the section’s semi-detached rela - by a POUM squad avenging the murder of Andrés Nin by tionship with the rest of the International Left Opposition the Stalinists, Munis and his group were arrested. They In 1951 Munis returned to Spain to attempt to organise in (ILO) and its positive attitude towards the “Right Opposi - were accused of the murder, and of plots to murder leading the underground following the Barcelona tramway strike. tionist” Workers’ and Peasants’ Bloc (BOC). Republican politicians. After torture and Munis’s simulated He was arrested the following year and imprisoned until These differences erupted into a full-scale split when, in execution, a trial date was set for 29 January 1939 in 1957. Basing himself in Paris, Munis began to drift away 1934, Nin and the ICE majority opposed the ILO’s tactic of Barcelona. from Trotskyism, and by the 1970s organised his followers entry into the mass social-democratic parties, known as the Three days before the trial was due to begin, Franco’s in several countries into a small left-communist interna - “French Turn” because it was modelled on the entry of the troops entered the Catalan capital and Munis escaped tional called the Revolutionary Workers’ Ferment. French Trotskyists into the French Socialist Party (SFIO) amidst the chaos of the evacuation. Fleeing to Mexico via Munis was a brave and talented militant who raised the after fascist riots brought down the Daladier government France, he reconstituted the Spanish section in exile and met banner of international socialism high in the most adverse on 7 February. Trotsky in the spring of 1940. Munis attended the Emer - of Aci rwcuitmnesstasn tcoes a. nd participant in one of the 20th cen - Munis sided with Trotsky and the ILO against Nin, and gency Congress of the Fourth International in New York in tury’s most important revolutionary struggles, Munis is joined the youth section of the Spanish Socialist Party April of that year, and returned to Mexico to speak at Trot - a true hero of our movement. (PSOE) in 1935. He opposed the subsequent liquidation of sky’s funeral in August. 10 SOLIDARITY REPORTS Teachers’ unions launch joint fight

By Patrick Murphy, NUT to all members this school managements and abandon regional pay. The unions are in the same NUT Executive (pc) week. They empower local authorities to work - government needs to feel place in terms of the ability members to refuse a whole ing practices and condi - the action, not simply hear to take various forms of On Friday 7 September, set of demands from man - tions acceptable to of it from disgruntled action to resist a wide the National Union of agers covering all the key members in schools. headteachers. range of attacks. The dan - Teachers announced the workload pressures such Where there is any vic - It would have helped ger contained in this is that result of its ballot on in - as observations, meetings, timisation of members for that strategy if the two the specific issue of pen - dustrial action over a cover and the submission taking any of the action it unions had announced a sions gets lost in the More whole range of attacks of planning. is crucial that we argue for date for strike action as plethora of other issues. on including excessive Also they point to an el - a move to strike action as part of the launch this It is still more than pos - workload, pay, and cuts. ement of workers’ control soon as possible. In fact, campaign. It is not a par - sible for these two unions rail of the job by instructing where an employer per - ticularly hopeful sign that to defeat the proposals to There was a 93% vote for members to “refuse to im - sists in trying to frustrate it proved impossible to do make teachers work until action short of strike action plement any existing or the action both unions that. 68 and pay more for a cleaners and a 83.4% vote for new management-led poli - have indicated they would WORRYING worse pension. Together strikes. The aim is to force cies and working practices support escalation to strike they represent over 85% of More worrying, though the government to end its which have not been action in any school with - all teachers in England and sadly not surprising, is pay freeze, abandon re - workload-assessed and out the need for a further join pay the absence of any refer - Wales and they now have gional pay, and agree an agreed by the NUT”. ballot. ence to a return to a legal mandate for discon - acceptable contract which The possibility of esca - ACTIVISTS strikes to oppose the tinuous strike action. reduces teacher workload. lating to national strike ac - Activists in schools and pension proposals. All the evidence shows fights On Monday 10 September, in NUT branches should tion will depend to a that members of each the union announced that work to implement this significant extent on the The position of the two union are much more con - By Ira Berkovic the action short of strike action on the widest level of engagement in this main teacher unions is fident about taking action action will start on 26 Sep - possible scale. action. The NUT action in - now quite complicated. when the other is called Cleaning workers on tember. The campaign is structions are headed The NUT did not need out too. It isn’t the law, the East Coast and Lon - being conducted jointly The first step should be “Phase 1”. “Phase 2” is the to include pensions in this willingness of teachers, or don Midland rail with the NASUWT, the a meeting in each school, move to national strike ac - latest strike ballot as the the lack of industrial mus - routes became the lat - other large teachers’ union ideally called by the NUT tion which is planned if ballot which delivered cle that prevent us defeat - est cleaners to launch in England and Wales. and NASUWT reps, to dis - there is no indication from support for strike action in ing the appalling pension strikes for higher pay The overwhelming sup - cuss which of the list of 25 government that they will June and November 2011 changes. It is now down to when they walked out port for both forms of ac - instructions most apply meet the unions’ demands. remains valid. the union leaderships to on Monday 10 Sep - tion is impressive given and how they intend to This, after all, is a dis - The NASUWT already call and co-ordinate re - tember. the confusion and demor - implement them. Similar pute with the Secretary of had a ballot to sanction newed strike action on alisation sown by the fail - meetings should be held State, who has the power strike and non-strike ac - pensions. The cleaners work for They should do it now contractor ISS, and are ure to build on last year’s for reps across divisions to impose an improved tion on pensions and the on the basis of their own huge pension strikes. Also and associations contract on all schools in - other conditions of service paid marginally above campaign slogan that the minimum wage (be - positive is the action in - (branches). We should try cluding academies and to issues. This latest NUT “68 is too late”. structions issued by the to win agreements from lift the pay freeze and ballot means that both tween 42p and £1.42 more). Cleaners at de - pots in Northampton, Bletchley, and King’s Yorkshire health workers vote to strike Strike threat at Heath (which are all op - erated by London Mid - By a health worker land) have already The Unison branch, Birmingham airport struck for 24 hours. The which is led by left- workers have not re - Admin and Clerical staff wingers and has a good at Mid Yorkshire Hospi - ceived a pay increase for record of fighting cuts and tals NHS Trust, which By Darren Bedford of an increased workload three years, and are de - redundancies, has held covers Wakefield (Pin - for staff. Unite’s most re - manding a living wage. derfields), Pontefract, members’ meetings across Unite says it is “making cent consultative ballot on Bob Crow, general and Dewsbury hospitals, all sites, mobilised mem - preparations” for an in - the offer returned a 76.5% secretary of the Rail, have voted by 95% to bers for a day of protest in dustrial action ballot of vote against. Maritime, and Transport strike and by 98% for in - August and is building its its members at Birming - Regional Officer Peter workers union (RMT), dustrial action short of a membership in the sec - ham Airport after they re - Coulson said: “Birming - said: strike against the redun - jected their bosses’ ham airport is taking off “Our members at ISS tioTnhse s iogvneifriwcahnetlym. ing dancies and pay cuts. moted to a lower pay latest contract offer. but management have on the London Midland grade). In this case be - vote for action shows grounded their workers’ contract have already staged a rock-solid stop - Alongside most other tween 30 and 40 staff are the strength of feeling The offer included a 2.5 pay. Staff have endured page at three depots, hospitals, the Trust is car - facing compulsory redun - about these attacks per cent pay increase, and years of pay freezes and to and they will be joined rying out a workforce re - dancy and up to 200 staff amongst a predomi - a one-off non-consolidated make matters worse their on September 10 by view including proposals face downbanding. This nantly low-paid female payment of £150. Prior to pensions and conditions workers on the East for extensive downband - means pay cuts of £1,600 workforce. the offer, workers’ pay has have been slashed. Unite Coast contract where ing (workers being de - to £2,800. been frozen since 2009, has even proposed third the feeling is running so since when the retail price party intervention from high that only one vote Government index (RPI) has leapt 13%. Acas to assist in reaching was cast against taking Combatting the blacklist Workers have also faced an agreement in the negoti - u-turn on action. attacks on terms and con - ations but even this has “ISS should take note By Clarke Benitez status, claiming that so far, compensation ditions and their pension been decisively refused by of the clear anger of its only 194 of more than 3,000 schemes. Bosses are now the airport. Our members’ cuts staff and cough up a de - Trade unions are step - workers whose names ap - also proposing changes to patience is running out. “The airport is forcing cent pay offer, and East ping up their legal action pear on the list have been The government has shift patterns. a dispute and we have Coast and London Mid - over the employers’ notified. backed down from New routes at the airport no option but to prepare land should get their blacklist in the construc - The blacklist was first plans to restrict eligibil - have meant an increase in for an industrial action heads out of the sand tion industry. discovered in 2009. 44 con - ity to criminal injury passengers, so the attacks ballot.” and recognise their own struction companies were compensation. come against the backdrop responsibility to make Construction union involved. It has since come Cleaners at the Société sure it happens – or bet - UCATT is taking a case to to light that the informa - Their cuts would have made those claiming Générale bank ter still bring the con - the European Court of tion it contained could only compensation related to demonstrated on tracts back in-house.” Human Rights which will have been obtained the consequences of rail - Thursday 6 September to RMT Assistant Gen - argue that the govern - through the collusion of ways trespass (for exam - protest management eral Secretary Steve ment’s failure to outlaw state bodies, suggesting ple, drivers traumatised plans to cut their hours in Hedley was arrested on blacklisting breached Arti - government complicity in cles 11 and 14 of the Euro - by suicide attempts) inel - half, leading to a drastic an East Coast cleaners’ theT hbela cGkMlisBti nisg a plsraoc taisrgesu . - pean Convention on igiAb lme. otion to the TUC pay cut. Union pressure picket line at Kings ing for blacklisting com - Human Rights, which Disabled Workers’ Con - has forced management Cross station in London panies to have public guarantee the freedom of ference from rail union to agree a substantial after he intervened to sector contracts can - association and protection RMT highlighted the wage increase to the question the unex - celled, and for no new from discrimination. issue, and trade union London Living Wage of plained harassment and contracts to be awarded. lawyers have been in - £8.30 an hour, but the detention of pickets by The GMB union is de - Currently, blacklisting volved in the lobbying increase will be almost theH peo wliaces. held for five manding that the Informa - companies hold public that forced the climb - meaningless if bosses hours, but not tion Commissioner’s Office sector contracts totalling down. force through their cuts. charged. (ICO) immediately informs £15 billion. blacklisted workers of their SOLIDARITY 11 TUC Congress says: take over S&o Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y the banks!

By Darren Bedford spent most of his speech criticising the call for pub - TUC Congress passed a lic ownership, firstly on resolution calling for the the grounds that it would public ownership of the upset banks close to the banking system — the unions like the Unity first sign of politics at Bank and the Coopera - the otherwise consen - tive, and second because sual gathering. of the cost. A statement from the general council The resolution, pro - talked about the need for posed by the Fire “diversity” in banking — Brigades Union (FBU), ar - TUC code for more com - gued that the chaos cre - petition and a profitable, ated by the major banks capitalist, banking sys - and financial institutions tem. “should be ended through Wrack also argued that full public ownership of more regulation or a the sector and the creation break-up of the banks of a publicly owned bank - would not make them op - Stop deportations at ing service, democrati - erate in the interests of the cally and accountably wider economy, as their managed”. main objective would still Matt Wrack, FBU gen - be to make profits for eral secretary told Con - their shareholders and gress: “The failure of the bonuses for their top exec - London Metropolitan banks is not simply about utives. He said the answer regulation, or lack of reg - is public ownership and ulation. The problem is democratic control. By Bob Sutton been conducting a drive to with ownership. Not just Fight for Sites The labour movement ”clean up” the numerous shareholder ownership, has a big opportunity to Late on the evening of private language colleges Thursday 20 September, 7.30pm, Toynbee Hall, 28 but private ownership of raise the level of debate Wednesday 29 August, which are seen as the Commercial Street, London E1 the banks. And we think on the reasons for the cri - the UK Border Agency “weak link” in Britain’s the answer is for public Traveller Solidarity Network launch of a campaign to sis and what to do about (UKBA) announced that border regime. Hundreds ownership and demo - challenge local and national Government, bailiff companies it, putting basic socialist London Metropolitan Uni - of people have been de - cratic control of the banks. and the media, who together construct a cycle of arguments for collec - versity was losing its ported or forced under - That’s the argument our homelessness, evictions and racism for travellers. tivism and democracy ground. This is the first movement needs to make “highly trusted sponsor” against neoliberal plans time that such methods in the period ahead.” status. Plus preparation for a mass action on 19 October, the first from both the Con-Dems have been applied to a The resolution was sup - anniversary of the Dale Farm eviction. and New Labourites. This means that in the public university on this ported by the big unions The debate is clearly eyes of UKBA, being a Lon - scale. travellersolidarity.org including Unite, which not finished within the don Met student no longer organises the most bank labour movement, and makes you eligible to stay ATTACK workers. It was opposed the passing of one resolu - in Britain on a student visa. This attack goes hand in The administrative mess national fees will be used by some unions led by tion at TUC congress is a The right of the 2,600 hand with the removal of which the UKBA have used to justify further cuts. right wingers such as largely symbolic first step. non-EU students at London Tier 1, the Post Study as a premise to revoke the Prospect, and a handful of But it could create an Met to remain in country Work Visa, and the in - licence is a result of a WORKING-CLASS others (although only Ac - The “British” student in - opening with the unions has been stripped away creasingly inhumane botched merger in 2002. cord, a small finance take is dominated by and the Labour Party to with the stroke of a pen — treatment that people When the new funding union spoke in the debate working-class people raise the idea of public the single biggest expulsion who come here face at arrangements for against the resolution). the hands of the Border from London, with more ownership not just for since Edward I's “Edict of Home/EU students were The TUC general coun - Agency. Black and Minority Eth - banking, but for wider Expulsion” which kicked introduced in 2010, LMU cil recommended voting nicity students than the areas such as energy, out the Jews in 1290. announced its course pro - for the resolution, al - It is also no accident that whole of the Russell transport, and communi - The basic drive behind vision would be cut by though their significant all this has taken place at Group of “top” universi - cations. this unprecedented assault 70%. reservations suggested It is a debate social - London Met. Over the past ties combined. ists should join with rel - on international students in 10 years the university has This is a University they had only recom - mended acceptance for ish. higher education is the been used as a testing which the government was The response of the uni - government’s racist immi - ground for cuts and pri - already prepared to see go fear of not being able to versity management has carry the vote against. gration policy. For the past vatisation in higher educa - to the wall and many fear • For more from TUC been to wash their hands of Outgoing TUC general two years the UKBA have tion. the £30 million lost in inter - Congress, see page 5 the international students. secretary Brendan Barber They are refusing to enrol or grant library cards for Save the Women’s Library! the new term. The UCU and Unison branches and By Esther Townsend defying this and continue The Women’s Library is process as the only bidder to help the students. As it not just an archive. It also willing to keep the build - The fight save the stands, students still have does a huge amount of ex - ing open, was because the right to be in the UK. Women’s Library (based cellent community out - London Met suddenly This is going to expire after at London Met) is step - reach, acting as a hub for stopped talking about a statutory 60-period after ping up. local people, school stu - ‘transfer’ of the building notice is given. It currently dents and anyone inter - and started asking for The fate of the collection Chicago teachers strike ested in issues facing ‘rent’. The goal posts ap - looks like this will be on 1 will be decided at a meet - women today. pear to have changed dur - December. ing on 13 September. Insti - Teachers in Chicago, The London School of ing the bidding process.” Unfortunately interna - maining 144 only opening tutions have been asked to Illinois, have launched Economics (LSE) is now The details of the bid tional students are being for part of the day. bid for the collection. That their first strike for 25 the only bidder. Dr Laura are “confidential”, but re - positively distinguished by The teachers’ union, the decision will be ratified by years as they take on Schwartz, Assistant Pro - cent developments at LSE many in the press, politi - Chicago Teachers’ Union the London Met Board of city mayor Rahm fessor of Modern British indicate they would move cians, university manage - (CTU), is led by the Cau - Governors on 27 Septem - Emanuel over a raft of History at the University the library (there is no ob - ment and even the NUS as cus of Rank-and-File Edu - ber. issues including poten - of Warwick — a previous ligation to maintain its “good” migrants who serve cators (CORE), a radical The campaign de - tial job losses, changes bidder which planned to current location). as cash-cows for the British rank-and-file body which mands: to healthcare benefits, keep the collection in its The Save the Women’s economy, as opposed to has fought for union 1. Keep this unique col - pay, and classroom current building funded Library Campaign is call - “bad” migrants. democracy and militant lection in its historic and We need a campaign conditions. by the Heritage Lottery ing for the bidding indFuosrt mriaol rset roante gthye. dis - purpose built home in which is clear about op - Fund — said: process to be re-opened. The first day of the pute, see the live blog East London A rally has been called posing the Coalition’s “One of the contribut - strike, on Monday 10 Sep - from US revolutionary 2. The collection stays for 22 September. whole project for smash - ing factors (not the only tember, saw 434 of the socialist group Solidar - intact and accessible to all ing up public education one) as to why [Warwick] • savethewomenslibrary. city’s 578 schools shut ity at 3. The library must re - and repressing immigrant pulled out of the bidding blogspot.co.uk completely, with the re - tinyurl.com/ctustrike tain its expert workers. communities.