& Workers’ Liberty

SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 507 22 May 2019 50p/£1 Fence-sitting won’t beat Farage and far right

Climate strike

24 May Page 3

US-Iran stand-off Iranian socialist Morad Shirin con - demns Trump’s war talk but without backing the Iranian regime p.2 Labour: lead fight Discussing against Brexit! neurodiversity Janine Booth unpicks the debates An open letter to Jeremy Corbyn But even should your calculation here prove to be accurate, your around “neurodiversity” approach is wrong in principle. The relationship to the European Page 8 Comrade Corbyn! Union is Britain’s most important political issue in decades. Your wishy-washy politics on Brexit are usually explained as elec - To approach it in terms of manoeuvring for votes is a sign of polit - toral manoeuvring in an attempt to attract both anti-Brexit interna - ical and moral bankruptcy. This is an enormous issue in its own right. Renew Labour tionalists and pro-Brexiters to the Labour Party. Where the Labour Party stands on it is a measure of what Labour is It is likely to satisfy neither. “Because thou art lukewarm, and nei - about. ther cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth”, as somebody said a long time ago. More on page 5 Talks broken off with Tories Labour and Brexit: call a Special Conference! See page 5 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org US and Iran in stand-off increases, the more miscalculations tinue. channels for discussions with the brought in the al-Hashd ash- become likely. In any event, the The EU set up Instex in February US, through Switzerland or Aus - Sha’abi, the Shia militia force it set- worst scenario would be small skir - 2019. It is supposed to be a parallel tria. Oman has also helped with up in Iraq, to control the unrest — mishes, rather than something like barter system to allow European this, and its foreign minister was in threatening to use it against pro - By Morad Shirin the invasion of Iraq, or anything companies to trade with Iran, ini - Tehran a few days ago. testers. These mercenaries are cur - near that. But obviously even tially for medical and humanitarian Inside Iran, social conflict has rently stationed in the south of Iran, The US is applying pressure to smaller clashes could have reper - supplies. The EU says it should do picked up. On Monday 13 May in a region that includes the Haft get the Iranian regime to give cussions in the region. its first transactions in the next few there was a big demonstration by Tappeh. more concessions. On the first anniversary of weeks, but nobody knows how ef - students outside Tehran university, As regards our political position, Trump pulling out of JCPOA (the fective it will be. When it gets mainly about the compulsory hejab Marxists must not support this As long as something doesn’t go Iran nuclear agreement), and after going, the EU wants to expand it to rules. There have been more regime. This is a naked dictatorship wrong, that is precisely what will the US had said it would cancel the other types of trade and other protests and arrests at Haft Tappeh. of the capitalist class that even uses happen: the regime will give waivers which allowed a lot of countries. Many areas were hit by the floods to smash any mass organisa - ground after making a show of countries, especially China, to buy This is an important moment for floods in March and April. The tion independent of its state! being defiant. Proletarian class independ - oil from Iran, on 8 May the Iranian European imperialist countries. regime hasn’t done much to help. Things are more complicated ence has to be maintained no government gave 60 days’ notice The US is applying extra-territorial So people organised their own re - than before because the US has matter what happens. that it would suspend some aspects sanctions against Iran, and in a few lief efforts independent of the state. people like John Bolton, the Na - of the agreement. months maybe against China: do The Workers’ Action Committee tional Security Adviser, in charge of It has given the Europeans, and they fall in with the Americans’ re - has been organising independent • Morad Shirin is a member of the this policy. Generally speaking, the to some extent Russia and China quests, or step out of US control? deliveries of provisions for some Iranian Revolutionary Marxists’ US government is not intending to too, 60 days to come up with plans Officially, in front of the cameras, flood-affected people. Tendency, militaant.com. go to war. But obviously the more to allow some oil exports to con - the Iranian regime is always defi - The regime’s response has been their military presence in the Gulf ant. But they have always had back to arrest the organisers. It has even Organise for 4 June Salvini, leader of the Euro-right

By Maisie Sanders brexit). Lots said the school was their first Labour event. By Hugh Edwards of La Lega’s historic core base of euro entry penalty for every mi - Young supporters of Labour for support — thousands of small and grant rescued by the NGO vessels. As a follow up, Young Labour With rosary beads in hand, and a Socialist Europe went to activists are discussing getting to - medium sized businesses — retains To the cries of “racism”, “fas - Young Labour’s Political School flanked by eleven of the leaders priority. cism”, etc. from the centre-left and gether a youth presence at the of Europe’s most reactionary and in Birmingham on 11 May and demonstration opposing Trump’s His “flat tax” demand is pushed their backers in the liberal media, spoke to lots of attendees racist political parties, Matteo along without a cheep of serious he calmly points to their own state visit on Tuesday 4 June. Salvini, the leader of Italy’s La about Brexit. Another Europe is Possible and protest from the trade-union lead - record of studied indifference to the Lega and Minister of the Interior ers, or from the PD (Democratic thousands dying in the Med, and We also hosted an evening so - Labour for a Socialist Europe are in the country’s coalition govern - calling an anti-Brexit bloc: details Party), which still describes itself as their own measures of attempts to cial with Spoons Workers Against ment, rounded off his last Euro- “left-wing”. criminalise and ban the humanitar - Brexit. There was no mention of soon at anothereurope.org. election campaign rally in Milan’s Join the Young Labour for a So - Two decades of centre-left and ian vessels. Brexit on the agenda or in Jeremy Piazza Duomo. centre-right regimes effectively But a growing rash of growing Corbyn’s opening speech, but we cialist Europe Facebook group here: tinyurl.com/young-labour. He wound up, as he had begun gouged out from Italy’s distinctive protests has more and more fo - had a good reception with Labour The “Together against Trump” socio-economic formation a neo- cused on Salvini. His notorious for a Socialist Europe material and protest assembles from 11am his campaign, with a war cry against immigrants. liberal warren of the most preda - cynical latitude when former pub - the Young Labour Left against at Trafalgar Square, London. tory privatisation, and razed one lic buildings are occupied by the Brexit statement (tinyurl.com/yl - “With the support of my govern - ment I have replied to the appeal of after another rights and conditions fascist groups Casa Pound and the pontiff with deeds not words to etched in the history of working Forza Nuova is well known, at the reduce the deaths in the Mediter - class life and struggle. same time as he (and his predeces - ranean… A historic moment of lib - The scale of that defeat repre - sors of the centre-left and centre- Labour must face up to eration of the continent from the sented by the victory of the Lega- right) have physically and brutally abusive occupation organised from Five-Star coalition and what it has forced immigrants onto the streets. Brussels by the Europe of the finan - unleashed is still unfolding. The countless political meetings new antisemitism storm ciers and uncontrolled immigration and marches of Salvini and his sup - LENS porters are massively protected, is approaching. I trust in the im - Salvini, like Bolsonaro, has ruth - maculate heart of Mary to carry us but anyone opposing them with By Martin Thomas I’ve seen the evidence”. lessly exploited the race card. banners or signs is immediately The Labour Party has been in - to victory”. According to the 16 May issue The anti-immigrant pitch, in sub - He has used it as a lens through forced to desist. Banners hanging jured and skewed by a reflux of from windows overlooking his ral - of the satirical magazine Private people who were trained politi - stance, accounts for his meteoric which large sections of a defeated “former Labour staffers rise, and the support from millions class, defenceless politically and lies have been forcibly seized by the Eye, cally in the 1980s, in the era of fire service. have… collected 100,000 bans on university campus Jewish of Italy’s working masses far be - ideologically, are invited to make emails, including tens of thou - yond what, beyond parts of the sense of conditions in which The atmosphere of mounting re - societies and the like, and have not pression reached an even more sin - sands showing how the party re-educated themselves since. Veneto and Lombardia provinces, sense,coherence and horizons ignored complaints that sup - he and his predecessors got in the shrink in direct proportion as life ister point in mid-May when a Labour needs to “face up to it”, schoolteacher, having set a critical porters were promoting anti - as McDonnell said, and re-educate past. atomises. semitism”. Even in Salvini’s current govern - The coalition is now fracturing exercise of historical and philo - itself. sophical evaluation to his senior • Glyn Secker, secretary of Jew - ment coalition deal with Luigi Di under pressure of its contradic - They plan to submit the mate - Maio, leader of the self-proclaimed tions, but Salvini from the very first students on the Minister of the In - rial to the Equalities and Human ish Voice for Labour, a group fo - terior’s latest Security Law and the cused on depicting concerns about “radically new” Five Star outfit, the moment grabbed the reins, confi - Rights Commission, and probably nakedly anti-working-class profile dent that his rising popularity race laws of the Nazi party in Ger - also to make it public. antisemitism within the Labour many, found herself before the po - Party as baseless, has made a par - would win victory in these Euro- The story has been boosted by elections and promote him as a Eu - litical intelligence squad and the pro-Tory Daily Mail . The main tial apology for his speech at the suspended for 15 days without pay. Palestine Solidarity Campaign ropean leader of the Right. movers evidently have axes to Shock right Calculatingly and successfully he The penalty was immediately grind. “Exist! Resist! Return!” march on condemned and opposed by all the 11 May. has raised the stakes by ever more But that doesn’t mean that their Secker has written: “At the win in Australia extreme anti-migrant measures. unions in education, and strikes grindstones are invented, and rally, which highlighted the First he took action against the have been threatened if the teacher surely not that all of them are in - deaths and injuries suffered by The ruling conservative coalition NGO vessels in the Med, then he is Ano vt ircetionrsyta toend athnids pisasidu. e would vented. Gazans demonstrating for their won a surprise victory in closed the ports to them and then signal that the flame of working As shadow chancellor John Mc - freedom, I allowed my outrage Australia’s federal election on 18 his security law removed the hu - class resistance remains alight Donnell said on 6 February, when to dictate my expression and I May. Analysis on our website: manitarian status of thousands al - and, in the difficult days and invited on a phone-in program to am not pleased with the lan - bit.ly/aus-18 ready resident in the country’s weeks ahead, will begin to burn rebuff the “smears” about anti - guage I used…” (bit.ly/gs-apol). reception and care centres. ever more fiercely. semitism directed at the Labour Now he has announced a 3000 Party: “It isn’t a smear campaign... Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty CLIMATE 3 Socialism or extinction!

ing” rates of species extinction, and through a “platform” established “insufficient” current global re - by the large majority of the world’s sponse. (capitalist) states. “Fundamental, system-wide re - And yet its conclusions, as with By Mike Zubrowski organisation across technological, various other environmental re - economic and social factors” is ports, point straightforwardly in One million species are threat - needed to restore and protect na - the direction of radical conclusions. ened with extinction, 23% of all ture”. This can be brought about: Capitalism is the dominant land has suffered degradation, “[o]pposition from vested interests global economic and political sys - hundreds of millions of people can be overcome for public good”. tem today. That is, small numbers are at greater risk of floods and The most significant factors im - of individuals – the ruling class — Bees are vital pollinators hurricanes due to loss of coastal pacting nature globally, in descend - own and control companies in pur - habitats, and a huge proportion ing order, are ranked as: (1) suit of their own profit, with the lion million – on fossil fuel subsi - which could be highly lucrative. of global food production is at changes in land and sea use; (2) di - work that actually makes them dies in 2017, up from $4.7 trillion in On top of this, to fund such trans - risk due to pollinator loss. rect exploitation of organisms; (3) function being performed, for the 2015. Individual capitalists’ endless formations, we will need to take climate change; (4) pollution and most part, by the rest of us – the “The health of ecosystems on pursuits of profit, collectively con - control of a lot — or all — of the (5) invasive alien species. working class. This how most in - which we and all other species de - stitute unlimited pursuit of eco - wealth of the rich and in the banks. For more sustainable future poli - dustries are run, and most services pend is deteriorating more rapidly nomic growth, to the detriment of This can and would all be done cies, the report calls for “the evolu - and goods are produced, and it than ever [is] eroding the very humanity and the environment. by economies and societies run tion of global financial and shapes the functioning of our soci - foundations of our economies, Limiting harm to biodiversity genuinely democratically by work - economic systems to build a global ety. livelihoods, food security, health and ecosystems requires us to limit ers and communities, and organ - sustainable economy, steering The ruling class, through accu - and quality of life worldwide.” the short-term profits of the agri - ised rationally in the interest of away from the current limited par - mulating wealth, has incredible A report released on 6 May by culture and food industries; largely humanity as a whole. adigm of economic growth. ” power, not just within this or that To make such limits happen IPBES, the *Intergovernmental Sci - end the meat, fish, and fossil fuel Recall who wrote the report. It company, but over governments from the world as we find it in ence-Policy Platform on Biodiver - industries; dedicate large swathes isn’t from a left-wing, let alone so - and more widely. This power helps 2019, requires, at the very least, sity and Ecosystem Services* ( of land to promoting these aims cialist or anti-capitalist body. It is them protect their “vested inter - serious confrontations with cap - bit.ly/sp-xt), shows “unprece - which could otherwise be used to the most extensive and in-depth re - ests”. On 12 May, an IMF report ital, if not the revolutionary over - dented” declines in biodiversity accrue private wealth; and prevent search into a crucial topic, by a col - shows that world governments throw of capitalism. and ecosystem health, “accelerat - or transform many other activities lective of researchers organised spent $5.2 trillion – that is, $5.2 mil - Green politics and lifestyle change

By Mike Zubrowski ber of flights is increasing much could significantly undercut the venting working-class access to pansion of Heathrow’s third run - more than fuel economy. Reduc - growth of flights, but not entirely. travel, leisure, culture etc. We do way. Rectifying the absurdity of The Committee on Climate tions in meat consumption, because Modern telecommunications could not see indirect taxation as an in - flights generally being cheaper Change report, which I wrote meat and other animal products ac - make many “business flights” re - stinctive first response to carbon than trains, even for short dis - about in Solidarity 506, tags 53% count for 58% of global food-indus - dundant, but as yet such flights pollution. tances, would help reduce air of the carbon-emissions reduc - tries carbon emissions for only a continue to increase. “Almost half of journeys by air in travel. Currently, it can even often tions as “requiring some change fifth of the calories we consume. Some on the left see things being Europe are now less than 500km. be cheaper to holiday in a country from consumers”. I would like to see more individ - “local” as good in themselves, or For many such relatively short several hours flight away, where In this article I discuss the uals going vegan or vegetarian. But are against any kind of globalisa - journeys, air travel is now much everything costs less, than else - changes in individual lifestyle eating habits can be changed more tion. As internationalists, we see in - cheaper than rail, despite being ten where in the country or a neigh - which may be needed to get rapid effectively at the level of the whole creased global integration, times as polluting. That is in part bouring country. cuts in carbon emissions. food industry. Moralistic emphasis facilitated partly by faster travel, as due to the low rate of taxation on Environmentalists sometimes The CCC’s 53% includes, for ex - on the causal chain in the reverse a progressive, and not counter - air travel. There is no tax on avia - dismiss life-quality impact of tran - ample, “purchasing an electric car direction, from individual diet posed to being familiar with your tion fuel, and it costs about $800 per sitions as secondary in the face of or installing a heat pump.” Such choices to the food industries, is in - more immediate local surround - metric tonne, as against about the impending climate crisis. Yet to changes are not genuinely lifestyle effective. What people eat, and in ings. $3000 for petrol in the UK or $1000 bring about the transitions demo - changes, they simply involve intro - what quantities, mainly reflects The need to reduce flying comes in the USA, and $400 for bunker cratically requires tackling these is - ducing new technology to perform availability, pricing, and marketing. at a cost. The cost of not reducing, (shipping) fuel. sues head on, not hoping to impose equivalent tasks, leaving daily When varied and good quality however, is greater. “We demand policies that would a more austere existence on hu - habits unchanged. vegan diets are made cheaper, less Policy passed in Workers’ Lib - have the effect of replacing short- manity. Such transitions should not be time intensive, and more available erty’s 2008 conference (bit.ly/cc- hop air travel with rail and coach Marx wrote that “development left to individuals either to be co - than their alternatives, then wl-08) said the following: travel. Primarily, this means im - of the productive forces is the ab - erced by managed “market pres - changes in people’s habits can fol - proving and expanding rail and solutely necessary practical prem - low. Workers’ control of the pro - TAXES coach networks and regulation lim - ise [of Communism], because sures”, or to voluntaristically “Our general policy is for direct undertake their own transition. Cli - duction and distribution of food iting air travel, including bans on without it want is generalized, and can best bring the changes in food progressive taxation, summed flights if less-polluting, viable, al - with want the struggle for necessi - mate change warrants a social re - up by the slogan: ‘Tax the rich’. sponse: publicly funded, centrally industries. We should challenge ternative transport is available. ties begins again, and that means co-ordinated systematic programs simplistic opposition to genetic “Indirect taxation is almost al - Taxes on short-hop flights could be that all the old crap must revive.” to bring about such changes. modification, which comes in part ways regressive (anti-egalitarian – part of such a policy and we don’t Socialism requires a society able Serious investment to improve from sections of the left. because poorer people pay more as necessarily oppose them, but we to deliver a sufficient quality of life low-cost or free public transport, In fact, eating less meat is health - a proportion of their income) and shouldn’t make them our priority to its members to undercut this and to support walking and cy - ier for individuals, and social re - elitist (entrenching certain forms of demand… struggle for necessities, and to em - cling, would be best. This would be ductions in consumption have an consumption as the exclusive pre - “Our attitude towards rationing power them to seriously participate greener, and the lifestyle changes additional major benefit. Addition - serve of the rich). is basically the same as towards in its democratic functioning. The encouraged – more exercise – ally, current levels of production in - “We don’t rule out the use of in - taxation: acceptable only where degeneration of the isolated and at - would be an improvement. Other volve, and largely require, horrific direct taxes on particularly pollut - there is no better alternative but not tacked Russian revolution, building changes, such as slightly lower subjugation and abuse of, and un - ing activities and products but we the basis for a general strategy to on an underdeveloped economy, thermostat settings on heating, thinkable suffering by, literally bil - should only promote them where resolve global warming. Rationing provides a stark vindication of this would have little impact on quality lions of animals each year. alternative policies (regulatory and is more equitable than regressive concern. The brutal exploitative of life. The two more significant di - On CCC’s modelling, aviation infrastructural measures and subsi - taxation, though the rich will usu - class society that developed within rect behavioural changes required will remain the top source of emis - dies for greener alternatives) are ally have access to a grey market. It Stalinist Russia was at least as en - are reductions in meat consump - sions for decades to come. More ef - not practical and where the likely is in addition highly bureaucratic. vironmentally destructive as its tion and flying. ficient and lower-carbon fuels, and effect is a change towards less pol - We are opposed to individual car - weLsutecrkni lcya, pwitea ldisot ncoout nftaecrep asrutsc. h a Reductions in flying are called biofuels, can limit this slightly, but luting consumption patterns rather bon rationing, which would be un - catch-22. A high quality of life is for because carbon emissions from no major green technological than simply raising the cost of liv - workably complex.” fully compatible with environ - aviation are growing fast: the num - changes are on the horizon. Public ing for working class people or pre - These basic principles remain mentalism. funding of high-speed low-cost rail correct and we have opposed ex - 4 COMMENT Email your letters to [email protected] “Pro-EU fanatics” blamed for Tory-Labour rift

was wrong to break off those talks? Does he ing: there was no “debate” between Burgon laboration with fascists and racists” (all per - think that Corbyn should have reached a deal and Griffiths: just two separate articles. fectly true, of course). with May? The supposed “big debate” within the Why not stick to the CPB/ Morning Star’s That would seem to be the only possible labour movement and the left over whether usual position of calling for a Labour vote way to understand what Griffiths is saying. to vote Labour or support a “people’s boy - (something they did throughout the Blair By Jim Denham And now that May is talking about a new cott” is simply a figment of the fevered imag - years)? withdrawal agreement bill with (supposedly) inations of the CPB and the Morning Star. For Griffiths, the problem is that “most In the 18 May Morning Star , CPB (Com - stronger commitments on workers’ rights Has anyone witnessed any public debates Labour candidates have made clear their munist Party of Britain) secretary Rob and environmental commitments, would about a “people’s boycott”, any rallies, stalls support for remaining in the EU. Many have Griffiths indicts those he calls “Labour’s comrade Griffiths, the CPB and the Morning or even leaflets advocating it? No: this “cam - announced that they want a second referen - pro-EU fanatics”: Star advocate support for it? paign” had no real existence at all because it dum in which they would campaign for such It’s difficult to believe that they would. It is based upon a premise no different to that an outcome.” “They have succeeded in scuppering the would surely create an outcry within the of Farage. Worse still, such candidates “use their dis - talks with the Tory government by demand - labour movement if they did. But that seems Griffiths claimed that: “... the poll in Britain ruptive pro-EU position to undermine Je - ing that a permanent customs union and a to be the logic of their wretched, nationalist on May 23 is illegitimate. It is an insult to all remy Corbyn’s leadership – itself the result second referendum form part of any new politics. those who participated in the June 2016 ref - of yet another democratic election for which Brexit package”. Griffiths was writing in what the front erendum in good faith, whether they voted they have no respect.” Leave aside that a permanent customs On the subject of democracy, what of page of last Saturday’s Morning Star prom - leave the EU or remain [...] the people have union is agreed Labour policy, endorsed per - the relentless campaign of the CPB/ Morn - ised to be “The Big Europe Debate” — already decided to leave the EU and their de - sonally by Jeremy Corbyn time and time ing Star and its co-thinkers in and around Richard Burgon MP “makes the case to vote cision must be implemented.” again, and a second public vote is conference the Labour leader’s office, to water down Labour on May 23”, and Griffiths “argues But, said Griffiths, people must not vote for policy. What I’m struck by is that phrase: and undermine the policy on a public vote against going to the polls at all.” either of the two parties that are standing on “They have succeeded in scuppering the passed at Labour’s last conference? That sounded promising: a proper debate precisely that basis: Farage is reactionary, talks with the Tory government.” in the pages of the Morning Star for a change. anti-immigrant and Trump-loving, while “a Does Griffiths think the Labour leadership But no. Sadly, it was a case of false advertis - vote for Ukip is a vote to endorse its open col - Responses in PCS Peace demo at the Gaza border The victory in the PCS civil service union’s Assistant General Secretary (AGS) election for John Moloney, candi - date of the Independent Left and a sup - porter of Workers’ Liberty, has met diverse responses from the left press. My friends and I, who are active with Standing Together, came to Yad Socialist Worker , which backed Lynn Hen - Mordechai junction near the Gaza bor - derson, was the first to respond. It empha - der, and raised our voices in protest. sised the low turnout (it was low, but A new pamphlet from Workers’ Liberty, “The higher than last time) and claimed that German Revolution: Selected Writings of Rosa We were there, both Jewish as well as “Moloney… is against the union’s national Luxemburg”, has Rosa Luxemburg’s major Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel. We held campaign for a 10 percent pay rise”. Not articles from 1918-9. signs and chanted in Hebrew and Arabic, true: John Moloney emphasised pay equal - They span the time from when the German and we were demanding a change to Ne - ity, but not at the expense of a general rise. revolution of 1918-9 broke out, and she was A new pamphlet from Workers’ Liberty tanyahu’s policy: Safeguarding the future The Socialist Party, whose member Chris released from jail on 8 November 1918, summarises our arguments on Brexit, of the Israeli citizens in the South of Israel Baugh was the incumbent AGS, took through to her murder on 15 January 1919 by Europe, international solidarity, free — goes through negotiations and dialogue longer to respond. Both they and the Hen - a right-wing militia operating under the movement, immigration, and how to build with the Palestinian leadership and ad - derson faction pushed the story that the protection of the Social Democratic socialist politics cross-borders. vancing towards peace. votes for Moloney were, like their own government. For us, it’s very clear, that without lifting votes, votes for change, against the status- An introduction is provided by Paul 40 pages A4. Cover price £4. With postage the siege on Gaza and ending the Occupa - quo leadership. Vernadsky, author of the Workers’ Liberty — non-UK £6, UK £5. tion — there can never be real security for The SP also, and contradictorily, argued book The Russian Revolution: When Workers any of us. Just a non-ending cycle of esca - that Baugh’s vote combined with Hender - Took Power . It tells the story of the German Cheap rates for bulk orders: four for £15, lations and cease-fires. son’s represented a single “Left Unity” vote revolution and discusses the findings of ten for £35, twenty for £60. As we were standing there, some passing that shouldn’t have been split. (“Left recent scholarship on the events. drivers honked in support. Others — in Unity” is the longstanding dominant fac - 56 pages A4. Cover price £5. With postage • Buy online at bit.ly/r-rebel protest. tion in PCS, and until recently was itself — non-UK £7, UK £6. Cheap rates for bulk One driver, spotting our purple bilingual dominated by the SP. Baugh was the “offi - orders: four for £18, ten for £40, twenty for sign that read “Jews and Arabs Together” cial” LU candidate, but many LU people £70. Buy online at bit.ly/rl-gr yelled at us: “If you like Arabs so much, go backed Henderson). and live with them”. “Well, I am Arab”, an - Socialist Appeal backed Lynn Hender - swered the activist holding the sign — son, but headlined its response: “Baugh de - Ahmad Abu Mdighem, a fellow member in feated by John Moloney”. Henderson’s Audio version Standing Together. score? No worries, she was “a relative new - We were a few dozen locals in this gath - comer”. She has been a prominent PCS full- ering, which took place far away from the time official for 15 years, and had the Many thanks to the volunteers who have enabled us to produce an hustle and bustle of the big cities of backing of Mark Serwotka, general secre - Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. Our spirits were tary for 17 years. audio version of the paper. Links to the audio version are at higThh,e b emcaouvseem ouenr tc’asu sme oist troig hotf. Standing Mostly Socialist Appeal was pleased to Together is “Where there is struggle — see the SP discomfited. “In the past, the SP www.workersliberty.org/audio. there is hope”. We won’t give up hope, activists had played an important role in and we will definitely keep on fighting. defeating the right. But increasingly they Together. have put their own prestige above the gen - Defining “Islamophobia” era“lH iontwereevsetsr omf uthceh m tohveeym peuntt .a gloss on things, they will not recover from this Mark Joffe, Kibbutz Kfar-Aza, near the Gaza debacle”. The Government has rejected a proposed definition of “Islamophobia” from a cross-party Strip group of MPs. Read a debate at bit.ly/isl-def: comment favouring the rejection, from the National Secular Society, and opposing, from Daniel Randall, and an open letter from a va - [From the Standing Together website] Gerry Bates, London riety of people favouring rejection. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty WHAT WE SAY 5 Labour: lead the fight against Brexit!

from page one Lenin, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg, points us to The European Union is not the Socialist the second approach — to build on what the United States of Europe which socialists EU has developed, to fight to transform it, to put on our banner more than a century strive to realise adequate bourgeois democ - ago. It is not something built by the work - racy within it, to cut down the smothering ing-class movement. Like Britain and all tendrils of its bureaucracy, to build working- the other member states taken separately, class unity within the frame of the EU (and the EU is bourgeois. beyond it, of course), and finally to put the working class in control and create the Social - Despite that, it is an immense step forward ist United States of Europe. from the Europe that preceded it — a place Brexit on any terms involves regression to of fierce national conflicts, wars, forced pop - a walled-off British bourgeois nation-state. It ulation movements, ethnic cleansing, and counterposes that to the unity which the mass murder — a continent that engendered bourgeoisie has achieved over the last 60 or two world wars in the first half of the 20th 70 years, since the European Coal and Steel century. The borders within Europe are now Community of 1951 and the Treaty of Rome three years ago can bind Britain into a Brexit movement, meaning an incompetent, luke - more open than since the collapse of the in 1957. trajectory and ban the possibility of release warm, or treacherous political leadership in Roman Empire in the 5th century, and over a It also risks destabilising other EU coun - from the decision of three years ago? Democ - the labour movement. much larger area than that covered by Rome. tries’ integration, and the EU itself. racy froze and petrified itself in that moment The EU debate has revealed a major crisis Often in our history the labour movement It is to realise some of the program of the of putting ballots in boxes in 2016? The idea of bourgeois leadership in Britain. “Dodgy has had to come to terms with seeing the chauvinist, racist, and even fascist far right, is ridiculous! Dave” Cameron blundered into a referen - bourgeoisie do things we wanted done, and, and to encourage them in their foul work. The idea that people now are forever dum he didn’t need to have, and lost it. in the nature of things, doing them in their The Labour Party urged people to vote locked into and politically defined by the Theresa May chose to make it her political way and not ours, and for their own reasons, against Brexit in 2016. After the June 2016 ref - 2016 vote is a negation of living democracy mission to realise Britain’s break with the EU. which are not ours. erendum result, it should have turned itself and its replacement by a senseless automa - The Labour Party — the “Corbyn” Labour Our movement has two clear-cut choices into a great campaign for European unity, tism. Party — followed with a docility that bodes on such things. It can reject them out of hand and in the main place for working-class unity. And even if all that nonsense had sub - ill for a “left” Labour government, and as if and look to a reversion to the previous con - It should have lined up behind the call for a stance, no serious working-class party would you had no responsibility to question and op - ditions. As long ago as the Communist Man - second, informed, public vote. bow its head and meekly comply. Political pose the 2016 referendum result. ifesto (1847-8), Marxists defined some of Instead, the Labour Party has accepted parties don’t, or anyway should not, pas - What we need from you is serious work - those who took that choice — the well-mean - Brexit, and promotes it. It is a question of sively adapt even to their own “natural” elec - ing-class leadership, with a proper sense of ing ones, who among other things objected democracy? Nonsense! The referendum was tors. Serious parties exist to educate and history and of what the labour movement to the degradation of the working class — as three years ago, at the height of a wave of re-educate the electorate, to win support for must be and do in politics — not the daft pre - “reactionary socialists”. xenophobia against immigration. The Brexit what they believe is true and right and nec - tence that a confused one-off vote three years All of them were historically regressive vote was largely a vote against free move - essary. Instead, you abandon opposition to ago can obliterate the lessons of history and and reactionary. ment. Many, many people simply did not Brexit in deference to the referendum. You theF iogbhlitg Batrieoxnist !t hFeigy hptl afcoer oEnu srocpiaelaisnt sw. ork - The other approach has been and is to own know what Brexit entailed. speculate on electoral trends, acting as if the ing-class unity! Fight not for a return to that what the bourgeoisie has done in the Three years on they know more. A lot of question itself — in or out of the EU — is of British isolation, but for a Socialist United case has been progressive, try to reform and people who didn’t vote in 2016 are now of an little importance. As if, on the level of princi - States of Europe! reshape it, and build on it. age to vote. ple, socialists are indifferent on the issue of That second choice, fundamentally, is our It is one of the cornerstones of parliamen - European unity or fragmentation. approach to capitalism itself. The entire tary democracy that a Parliament cannot Marxists talk — perhaps too much — Sean Matgamna Marxist tradition, that of Marx and Engels, bind future Parliaments. But a referendum about a “crisis of leadership” in the labour Renew call for Labour special conference

According to all polls as we go to press on 21 May, the Brexit Party, the personal ve - and not just on a “bad Tory deal”. hicle of the ex-Tory, ex-Ukip-leader, Labour, he said, want to “get a deal which friend-of-Trump, right-winger Nigel guarantees trade and relations with Europe Farage is set to come top in the European in the future, and if we can get that through Parliament elections on 23 May. Parliament... then I think it would be reason - able to have a public vote to decide on that in The Tories will do very badly. Labour will the future”. get a mediocre result, and according to one He also made a statement which has been poll may even get fewer votes than the Lib- interpreted as reopening the door to Labour Dems. support for free movement, though in fact he Labour for a Socialist Europe (bit.ly/l4se- hardly said that. “It would be open for nego - w) has distributed around 47,000 pro-Labour, tiation, the level of movement of people be - According to a survey by the polling com - ance. The exercise is reminiscent of the anti-Brexit leaflets for the campaign to con - tween Europe and this country if we were a pany YouGov, 62% of Tory voters from 2017 “Kremlinology” used by journalists in the stituency Labour Parties and to individuals, non-member of the EU”. are likely to vote on 23 May for Farage’s heyday of the old USSR to estimate from and reports a good response on street stalls Prime minister Theresa May has said she Brexit Party. Labour will also lose the big ma - opaque public statements the trend of think - and on doorsteps. will put a revised presentation of (the same) jority of its 2017 voters, with more going to ing behind the walls of the old Tsarist fortress The official Labour campaign has been Withdrawal Agreement to a new vote in the anti-Brexit parties (21% to the Lib Dems, 16% which housed the autocratic government. weak. The Unite union has announced a spe - Commons in the week starting 3 June. to the Greens) than staying with Labour Ever since TSSA (transport union) general cial campaign to get out the Labour vote and She is unlikely to win that vote, and has (35%). 14% are estimated to be going to the secretary Manuel Cortes raised the call on 6 stop far-right leader Tommy Robinson (for - said that if she is defeated she will set out Brexit Party. December 2018, anti-Brexit leftists have been merly of the EDL) winning a Euro-seat in when she will stand down as Tory leader. The “on-the-fence” policy undermines campaigning for a special Labour conference. north-west England — but announced it only Boris Johnson and others have already Labour’s basic function as a proper political The demand is still relevant. It will be even on 20 May, just three days before polling day. started their campaigns for the new Tory party (to work out a policy and rally people, more relevant if the Labour results on 23 May On 17 May Jeremy Corbyn called an end to leadership election. It looks like the Tories by argument, around it), and is correspond - are as bad as expected. the six-week-long talks between Labour and will get a “harder-Brexit” leader, and one op - Labour for a Socialist Europe will con - ingly destructive for Labour’s internal life. Conservative leaderships for a compromise erating under the pressure of Farage’s prob - tinue to organise in the branches and con - Members should be debating the issues in formula on Brexit. able victory on 23 May. stituencies. Its next big public activity is a structures which allow for reasoned ex - Since then Corbyn has nudged his on-the- Labour’s current “on-the-fence” policy is left anti-Brexit contingent, alongside An - change of views and clear decisions. Instead fence position slightly in an anti-Brexit direc - unprincipled; is demoralising Labour ac - other Europe is Possible, at the anti- they are left sifting through media statements tion. On 19 May he signalled that he might tivists, and pushing a steady trickle of Labour Trump protest in London on 4 June. by different Labour front-benchers and try - support a new public vote on a deal passed members to quit; and is not even serving its ing to gauge the shifts and nuances and bal - through Parliament with Labour support, designed purpose of retaining votes. More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Organising cleaners in the 1970s

By Bruce Robinson tics and more general issues. Two of the or - The film repeatedly shows the then might ganisers of the Oxford conference, Sally of the unions on a massive demonstration Shown as part of the “Women Organise!” Alexander and Sheila Rowbotham, are seen against Heath government’s anti-union In - film season in Manchester, The Night - and heard in the film talking with the clean - dustrial Relations Bill — in contrast to the cleaners is a documentary about the ers. The newly elected 21 year old MP for limited resources and power of the cleaners. struggle to organise women office clean - Mid Ulster, Bernadette Devlin, is also seen ex - Many ideas float around in the discussions ers in 1970-2. plaining to some of the cleaners how capital - between May Hobbs, other cleaners and their The film has many resonances today when ism works. women supporters. One comments that the organising cleaners and other low-paid, inse - The film moves from showing the women should start their own union; another cure workers is again a central task for the women’s situation to following their cam - that the union needs to become a social unions. paign for unionisation, higher wages and movement. May talks to unionised cleaners The filmmakers of the Berwick Street Film more workers on the job. Central to this — about whether and how much less than their Collective (one of whom, Humphrey and the film — was May Hobbs. wage demand they’d be prepared to settle for Trevelyan, was at the Manchester showing) May Hobbs, an East Ender in her thirties, if they get to negotiate. were not traditional documentary makers, set up the Cleaners’ Action Group and was The film does not come to a conclusion. but saw themselves both as part of the victimised after she and other cleaners had Trevelyan pointed out that there were some women’s fight and as creatively producing a taken action to demand more cleaners on a successes for cleaners in the public sector and piece of cinema. particular job. in organising in smaller unions. There is a The result is a film that is a powerful de - She became the key organiser and is seen second related film. piction of the cleaners’ struggle with highly recruiting to the union (the T&GWU, a fore - The lack of a conclusion points to the film unorthodox elements. runner of Unite) and giving advice to clean - not being a standard documentary. Trevelyan It begins with the camera watching lone ers on how deal with a problem on the job. talked of it being influenced by a fashion for women cleaning offices in an otherwise dark - May Hobbs wrote an autobiography in 1973 She speaks in Trafalgar Square under a “deconstruction”. The film makers are them - ened office block, talking about the job and Women’s Liberation banner about how not selves filmed filming. There are long silent, why they put up with shifts from 10 at night tracts the cleaners and wishes to appear sym - all supporters of that cause are middle class, grainy, black and white focuses on the faces till 7 in the morning pathetic acknowledges that “without these and talks to the camera about how much she of some cleaners and silent pauses of a In interviews conducted on their break, people, I’d be penniless”, while also saying has learnt through the struggle. minute or two with a grey screen, presum - women talk about the financial pressures of that competition with a small number of sim - It quickly becomes clear that recruitment to ably intended to give the viewers time to re - providing for their families, in one case be - ilar firms for contracts puts a constant pres - the union is only the first major hurdle. The flect. cause a partner refuses to share his pay sure on wages. union itself fails to provide more than verbal These get a bit irritating after a while. packet. The double burden of paid and domestic support. Trevelyan reported that some people walked They still have to do all the work of child - work was a central concern of the “Second One union official, close to the stereotype, out, but that the cleaners who had seen the care, shopping and housework. Sleep suffers Wave” feminist movement which was just gives reasons why it’s not possible to do film did not object. It points to the experi - – one woman only sleeping for one or two coming into being in Britain with its first na - much: “500 people in 50 workplaces are not mental nature of much post-68 radical arts. hours a day – but none of them can afford to tional conference in Oxford in February 1970. the same as 500 people in one factory”. Other The film is available on DVD and deserves give the job up, and they stay partly also be - A major theme of the film is how the femi - officials don’t turn up for meetings. Partici - to Abne seexetnra acgta firno wmi dtheley .film and a link to an cause it enables them to accommodate paid nist movement interacted with the cleaners pation in union structures is impossible be - interview with Sally Alexander are at and domestic labour. through a support group doing work such as cause of the women’s working hours and bit.ly/nc-film. The boss of one of the firms who subcon - leafleting buildings but also discussing tac - home commitments. May Hobbs can’t get any financial support for her organising job.

Arguing for a The real Otto Rühle’s society based history of the abridged on human 1917 version of solidarity, revolution, of Capital, putting social the Stalinist aside current ownership of counter- factual material, industry and revolution, illustrations, banks, and and of the polemics, is a political, lessons good lead-in for economic learned. the full book. and social 131 pages , £6 democracy. 374 pages, £12 plus postage 182 pages. plus postage £5 + post.

A socialist approach Defending within the the new Bolsheviks “wave” of and their feminism. relevance today. 102 pages, 312 pages, £5 plus £10 plus 40 pages, £4 + post 408 pages, £12 + post postage The Two Trotskyisms £20 ; Fate of the Russian Revolution £8 ; postage Miners’ strike £9 ; Democracy, direct action... £5 ; In an era of wars and revolutions £9 ; Anarchism £5 ; Can Socialism Make Order from www.workersliberty.org/books. Add £2 per book for postage, or 50p for 1919 book. If you buy three or Sense £12 ; Gramsci in Context £6 ; How Solidarity... £6 . All more books, post is free, and the third and subsequent books are half-price. Pay at www.workersliberty.org/payment plus postage. FEATURE 6-7 The roots of inequality

By Matt Cooper der of which is a household disposable an - (popularised by Matthew Goodwin and nual income of £50,000) have been squeezed Robert Ford in their work on UKIP, bit.ly/jrf- On 14 May the Institute for Fiscal Studies closer together (hence the stable Gini score). bx, a view also underpinning Blue Labour (IFS) launched its Deaton Review into in - But the super-rich have become richer. and Lexit nationalism). equality in Britain. The zoom-away group is not even the so- There is a problem with this view. If in - The broadcast and print news outlets car - called 1%, but a much smaller group, more equality drives populism then it should be ried interviews about the five-year study into like 0.1% or even 0.01%. The richest five fam - less successful in more equal states, but this the nature and causes of inequality in the UK, ilies have wealth equivalent to that of the bot - is not the case. with the Nobel laureate Professor Sir Angus tom 20%. At the top, wealth is the decisive Populism is strong in some of the more Deaton in the chair and a budget of £2.5 mil - indicator, and income is less significant: it is equal states in Europe. Slovenia, Czechia and lion supplied by the charitable Nuffield just what you choose to draw from the Finland have the three lowest Gini coeffi - Trust. wealth that year. cients in Europe. In each populist parties are The research promises to be wide-ranging, The IFS review pulls back from looking at strong: the anti-immigration Slovenian Dem - looking at inequality not just in incomes, but this wealth. It does point to increasingly ocratic Party came second with 21% of the also in other areas such as health, wealth, po - bloated board-room pay packets, but it does vote in 2018’s general election, in Czechia litical participation and opportunity. not address this as indicative of the underly - populists are in power and the (True) Finns The first motivation for the report is that ing problem of the private ownership of so - won 18% of the vote in Finland’s April 2019 How income is distributed in the UK the UK is becoming more like America. The ciety’s productive forces by the 0.1%. general election. IFS has published a preliminary survey Many in the centre-ground of politics be - A better explanation is put forward by the (bit.ly/ineq-ifs), showing that the UK now side the IFS are worried about inequality Dutch academic Cas Mudde, who argues that lower income). has one of the most unequal income distribu - now. Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Cen - populism is fundamentally a cultural phe - Both Putnam and Cherlin see stable family tions in the developed world (only the US, tury was the left-wing publishing hit of 2014, nomenon originating in an intermediate so - units as the basis of society, and both use ed - Romania, Bulgaria, and Lithuania are worse with its argument that accumulation of capi - cial layer (lower-middle class, the ucation as a proxy for class. Their work, how - among European and North American tal by the richest, and hence their source of self-employed) which can then spread to sec - ever, is strongly empirical and clearly shows, states). income, exceeds the general rate of growth tions of the working class with a weak class as with Case and Deaton, the human cost of After 1945 inequality was (mildly) reduced and thus outpaces average incomes, but sim - identity because of de-industrialisation and increasing inequality in the US by redistribution through tax and benefits, ilar views are found way beyond the left precarious employment. The resentments that this is based on include economic pres - CAPITALISM full employment, and other welfare policies, The closest the IFS’s preliminary report CRISIS. sure and instability, but are not reducible to particularly affordable council housing. Im - Many other writers have blamed spiralling comes to holding capitalism and the pri - inequality. portant in this, as the IFS survey recognises, wealth inequality for the 2007/8 crisis. You vate ownership of the means of produc - Previous studies have produced strongly was a strong trade union movement capable can’t put a billion quid in the bank, so the tion responsible for poverty in the midst critical examinations of poverty but have of pushing wages up and supporting the wel - wealthy hectically hunt for new invest - of plenty is to suggest curbing chief exec - concluded with lame policy proposals. Stew - fare state. ment vehicles (most famously collater - utives’ pay. art Lansley and Joanna Mack’s 2015 Breadline The Gini coefficient measures inequality, alised debt-obligations on sub-prime Britain is a brilliant indictment of poverty, but They point to the economy becoming dom - with 0 being complete equality and 1 being mortgages), and that hunt was a factor in concluded that Britain should adopt a more inated by a smaller number of large compa - complete inequality (one person having the financial crisis. everything). On disposable income (after European model of capitalism with UK nies with larger mark-ups on prices over state redistribution by tax and benefits), Piketty’s policy proposals, wealth and in - Uncut and Citizens UK as the agency of costs — or what a Marxist, at any point in the when Thatcher came into power in 1979 the heritance taxes, are shared by a broad swathe change. It is likely that the IFS’s proposals last hundred and fifty years, might have Gini score was below 0.25. It had been stable of opinion, not least Christine Lagarde and will be even meeker. called the concentration of capital with a for decades. By the end of 1990 it was 0.35. the IMF. The IFS’s turn to concern about in - The IFS is well known for its fact-checking heightened rate of exploitation, although in That was a massive shift. 0.25 would make equality is less an outbreak of humanity commentaries on taxation and spending in the cases of the tech companies to which IFS the UK currently one of the most equal soci - within mainstream economics, more a reflec - the UK. It was formed in the late 1960s by is alluding, often the heightened exploitation eties in Europe. 0.35 makes it one of the most tion of the way that many pro-market econo - well-heeled Conservatives in response to the is in other companies down their supply unequal today. mists are seeking to dampen capitalism’s Labour government’s introduction of corpo - chain. Since 1990, the Gini score has remained at tendency to crisis. ration and inheritance taxes. It recruited The best that IFS can offer is the long stand - a little below this 0.35 level. In fact, since the There is a second reason why the Deaton Labour politicians to its board, but from the ing EU proposal of breaking these companies 2007/8 crisis, it may have decreased a little Review is happening now — the UK’s vote right of the party. The IFS’s first director was up to create more competition. Perhaps more (more equality). This might sound odd. to leave the EU and the underlying shift to Labour MP Dick Taverne, who left Labour in interestingly, IFS propose that unionisation In fact nearly everyone has seen their real populist politics that this reflects. The IFS’s 1974 to sit as an independent, ending up in be encouraged to give workers a voice, al - income stagnate or decrease since 2008, but, preliminary review implies that this is a re - the SDP; Roy Jenkins was another senior though very much along the German lines of particularly since Conservative-Lib-Dem sult of rising inequality, not just in income, right-wing Labour politician to serve on the workers on company boards in a more cor - austerity from 2010, the richest have got but education, political representation and IFS’s board. poratist capitalism. much richer. The bottom 90% (the upper bor - opportunity. This is the “left behind” thesis The IFS is firmly planted in the uncritical But the IFS proposals represents is a shift mainstream of academic economics, accept - in opinion in at least some of the policy mak - ing the inevitability of capitalism and is pro- ers around the ruling class in Britain and in - Distribution of market in its assumptions. ternationally. It parallels the social liberals at Deaton is in this mainstream too — his the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth wealth Nobel prize is for his work on the mathemat - century who argued both for welfare policies ical modelling of aggregate consumer behav - to create a more stable social order and that iour. But he has taken a different direction in increasing consumption could help capital - recent years with his work on “deaths of de - ism remain healthy. That school of liberalism spair” particularly among white, middle- nurtured both Beveridge and Keynes, the in - aged Americans, which Deaton and his tellectual architects of the post-1945 welfare co-author Anne Case, suggest is linked to in - state. creasing inequality and the absence of ade - But it was a strong, confident labour move - quate welfare in the US (bit.ly/d-desp). ment that forced the creation of that welfare Case and Deaton’s work is one of the foun - staWtei.thout the labour movement being dations of the approach the Deaton Review fundamentally rebuilt, it is unlikely that the seems set to take, along with other American- IFS report will lead to a new welfare state, focused work: Andrew Cherlin’s Labor’s Love let alone solve capitalism’s innate drive to Lost (inequality linked to people living alone ever increasing inequality. rather than in nuclear families) and Robert Putnam’s Our Kids (chaotic families linked to 8 FEATURE More online at www.workersliberty.org Two-and-a-half cheers for

By Janine Booth pression on the basis of sexuality and/or gen - their negative experiences. belled. der identity. But it consists of different initials But a flat insistence that a neurodivergent In 2013, the Diagnostic and Statistical Man - Since autistic activist Judy Singer coined meaning different things. I am part of the condition is never an impairment (or disabil - ual’s fifth edition (DSM-5) dissolved As - the term “neurodiversity” some twenty LGBT+ movement, but I am not LGBT+. I am ity, as used in common language rather than perger Syndrome under the heading of years ago, it has facilitated a great en - B. in the social-model sense) would be inaccu - Autistic Spectrum Disorder. lightenment and a progressive new ap - I am autistic, and therefore neurodivergent. rate. I haven’t come across any neurodiver - Although there was a case for doing this, it proach to the experiences and rights of Let’s use the overall approach where that is sity activists who actually argue this, as is has had an unfortunate consequence. While autistic and other neurologically atypical relevant and the specific condition where that sometimes alleged, but a bit more acknowl - it helps to identify what all autistic people people. is relevant. edgement of impairment would be welcome. have in common, it has also obscured our dif - It is now facing a backlash, much of which For example, people with Tourette syn - We can develop a “social model of neuro - ferences. is reactionary but some of which has been drome have tics. Stating instead that neuro - diversity” that says that people who are neu - But this change was made by the American helped by flaws in some presentations of divergent people have tics is unhelpfully rologically atypical are disabled by society, Psychiatric Association, not by the neurodi - neurodiversity. non-specific. Let’s not allow our understand - for some of us entirely by society, for others versity movement. The APA’s explanation for Here, I examine some of these issues. This able enthusiasm for the neurodiversity ap - by society in conjunction with our impair - the change does not reference neurodiversity. article references autism more than other proach to crowd out specific conditions and ments. It is more concerned with medical insurance neurodivergent conditions because this is the needs. It is important not to throw the social criteria than with a diversity agenda. area in which most of these arguments take On the subject of terminology, I am not – model and neurodiversity babies out with and neither is anyone else – “neurodiverse”. the impairment-denying bathwater. It is also PARENT-BASHING? place. Another allegation from the anti-neurodi - I conclude that an effective neurodiversity An individual cannot be neurodiverse: only important not to throw the impairment baby populations can. “Neurodiverse” describes a out with the medical model bathwater. I hope versity camp is that neurodiversity cam - approach is one that locates neurodiversity in paigners indulge in “parent-bashing”. social structures. population that contains individuals who you follow my meaning. have different neurologies from each other. IGNORING THE SEVERELY Neurodivergent people have good reason THE NEURODIVERSITY APPROACH An individual is either neurotypical or neu - to criticise aspects of parenting. At one end of AND ITS BENEFITS roatypical/ neurodivergent. AFFECTED? the scale, there are parents who administer The neurodiversity approach has enabled This may sound semantic, but the wide Linked to the previous point, one of the abusive “treatments” to their children (from us to supersede a highly pathological and misuse of this terminology, even in “official” main criticisms of the neurodiversity ap - bleach enemas to exorcism) in a vain attempt disabling view of autistic and other neu - documentation, reveals a misunderstanding proach is that it excludes neurodivergent to cure them. These are, thankfully, a very rodivergent people into a far more em - of what neurodiversity is, locating diversity people (specifically, autistic people) who small minority. powering one. In particular, it has in the individual’s identity rather than in hu - are severely disabled. However, more mainstream parenting manity as a whole. facilitated us to: Some critics of neurodiversity complain styles also warrant criticism. There is a com - DISABILITY OR DIFFERENCE? about the dominance of discussions about mon view that having a neurodivergent child • identify that humanity is naturally neu - (particularly an autistic child) is a tragedy rologically diverse, that differently-struc - Our society defines neurodivergent con - autism by more independent and vocal autis - ditions almost entirely negatively. Look at tic people and the neglect of more dependent and that the priority is to fix or normalise tured brains are not necessarily faulty, and them. It is legitimate and progressive to crit - that there are good reasons why these condi - the use of the prefix dis/dys in their official autistic people’s needs. I think there is a gen - names: dyslexia, autistic spectrum disor - uine issue here, although it is unfair to attrib - icise this view and its consequences for neu - tions have remained in the human gene pool rodivergent people. • progress from “awareness” to “accep - der, dyspraxia, attention deficit hyperac - ute this problem to the neurodiversity tivity disorder. approach. It is understandable that autistic adults are tance”, and thus from pity to demands for angry when they see parents publicly shame rights and equality Although some complain about the imbal - A growing body of evidence suggest that ance of voices between more independent their autistic children by, for example, post - • focus on how social structures and envi - dyslexic people are particularly skilled at ing videos of meltdowns. It is legitimate that ronments disable people who are neurologi - and more dependent autistic people, the re - spatial reasoning, but we still call their brain- ality is that all autistic voices are under-heard autistic adults who were traumatised as chil - cally atypical, rather than assuming that all wiring “dyslexia” rather than, for example, dren by (legal and mainstream) “therapies” our troubles are caused by our brains, and so in our society. We are talked about more than “enhanced spatial reasoning syndrome”. we talk, and certainly more than we are lis - speak out against them. to fight for social change in preference to The neurodiversity approach allows us to It would be far better for parents and oth - cures tened to. understand that different individuals may There is an urgent need to amplify autistic ers to listen to these critiques than to dismiss • highlight the positives of various condi - have different brain structures, that this oc - them as “parent-bashing”. tions alongside any deficits and other neurodivergent voices, and to fa - curs naturally, that it is not necessarily an im - cilitate self-organisation in order to do this. Parents take on these approaches not be - • draw on the experiences of movements pairment, and that deficits may be matched cause they are bad people but because they for the recognition of other diversities, such We can minimise imbalance within this self- by strengths. organisation by ensuring maximum accessi - live in a society which tells them to, and as sexual diversity or ethnic diversity. The social model of disability allows us to which simultaneously gives parents huge The neurodiversity approach has won bility, enabling people to contribute in their separate impairment from disability, stress - preferred format, with whatever support pressure and precious little support. Parent - wide support, but it has not become the dom - ing that the medical condition may be an im - ing a child who is often distressed, some - inant ideology of society. The older, patholog - they need. pairment but that “disabilities” are the Many of the most committed activists and times violent, difficult to communicate with, ical view still dominates our social structures barriers that society places in the way of peo - excluded by society and highly dependent is and political decision-making. advocates for high-needs autistic people that ple with impairments. I know are so-called “high-functioning” hard. Even where public authorities and employ - To apply the social model to neurodiver - It is harder than it needs to be in a society ers adopt the language of neurodiversity, autistic people who are strong believers in gence, we need to tweak the model to ac - the neurodiversity approach. They have cam - like ours which gives parents very little sup - they usually do not apply it in practice: they knowledge that some people’s brain port or resources and teaches them nothing still pathologise, discriminate against and paigned against cuts in support services, structure, while not impaired, is sufficiently against abuse in institutions, for justice for about neurodiversity. mistreat neurodivergent people. Neurodiver - different from the “norm” that those people This situation is rooted in the capitalist sity remains a minority, radical approach, those mistreated by the system. are disabled by society. Many are themselves parents and carers of structure of society: the economic system in and one that offers the hope of a liberatory For example, it may be a difference rather which production is carried out in the public social transformation. autistic people with very high needs, includ - than a fault in your brain that makes you un - ing those requiring 24/7 care. So the anti- sphere but reproduction (including child- OBSCURING SPECIFIC CONDITIONS usually sensitive to artificial light, but when neurodiversity allegation that neurodiversity rearing) in the private sphere. It is a society “Neurodiversity” is an approach which un - your living, working and other environments activists ignore the people that they call ‘se - that treats having children as a private indul - derstands that some brains are wired or all use that artificial light, then the distress verely autistic’ is unjust. gence rather than as the reproduction of the structured differently from society’s caused to your senses disables you, some - Moreover, when the term “neurodiversity” species. “norm”. It is not a diagnosis, or a condi - times quite severely. was coined, it was intended to encompass It is also a system which organises produc - tion. It is not a substitute for talking and (On a historical note, laws barring, say, people whose neurodivergence was prima - tion for profit and considers pretty much campaigning about ADHD, or autism, or women or Jews from public offices used to be rily difference rather than impairment. It everything a legitimate market, so entrepre - other conditions. referred to as “legal disabilities”, based on a seems unfair to accuse neurodiversity of fail - neurs market products and treatments to par - meaning of disability as a barrier that society ing to include something that it did not in - ents whether they are helpful or harmful. Consider anti-racism. It is hugely impor - imposes on a category of people.) tend or claim to include. We need to tackle this system and its poli - tant. But if we only ever pursued anti-racism However, some people’s neurodivergence However, ideas and terms develop over cies rather than vilify parents. We can do this as an overall theme, we would miss the speci - is an impairment. The mainstream, medical- time and “neurodiversity” is no exception: its by demanding the regulation of all treat - ficities of anti-Muslim bigotry, of anti - model view sees those people as disabled en - scope and usage has broadened. Alongside ments and the banning of proven abusive semitism, of anti-traveller racism, and so on. tirely by their neurological condition and this, distinctions between different autistic ones; a massive expansion of free, child-cen - Similarly, “LGBT+” is a useful term to overlooks the significant contribution that so - people have been reconsidered and rela - tred childcare provision; inclusive, well- bring together everyone who experiences op - cial structures and environments make to funded, progressive education; rights rather Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty FEATURE 9 neurodiversity

than charity; and proper support for parents. with ADHD, dyspraxia, dyslexia and other But since the early days of human history, we conditions as well as autistic people – and have done it in a way that divides people into POLICIES FOR LIBERATION policies that will benefit people wherever distinct classes with distinct interests, with a There has been a co-ordinated opposition they are on the spectrum of autism and/or ruling minority holding most of the power. from some who are involved in autism is - other neurodivergence. When we look at how employers exclude sues to one part of the draft Labour Party It is based on five key principles, one of neurodivergent workers, we are considering Autism / Neurodiversity Manifesto – the which is the neurodiversity approach. It a specific social relationship in which “em - appendix that critiques behaviourist ther - shows that the neurodiversity approach can ployers” and “workers” are different cate - apies. I don’t propose to address that be both unifying and inclusive. gories of people with different relationships issue in this article. to production. TOWARDS A MATERIALIST It is notable that there has been no similar When we look at parenting of neurodiver - opposition to the other policies in the Mani - NEURODIVERSITY gent kids, we are considering the way in festo. Of course, we would not expect people These arguments point to the need to un - which parenting is structured as a private ac - to agree with them if they do not agree with derstand neurodiversity in the context of tivity, as described above. And when we look the politics that underlie them: politics of the society in which people live. at disability, we are considering how our anti-austerity, of inclusion, of rights, of social - physical, sensory and social environment, People are part of the physical, natural en - and features of our own selves in conjunction ism. vironment. We also help to shape that envi - understand the oppression of neurodivergent But the apparent consensus of support with that environment, create difficulties for people. ronment. We both exist in our environment us. It will also enable us to imagine and from the political left and from people af - and interact with it – our physical and sen - fight for the reorganisation of society that fected by neurodivergent conditions for the Understanding our experience in these sory environment and the people who live in terms is known as a materialist approach. will embrace and support neurodivergent main Manifesto document suggests that our it alongside us. and neurotypical people. key demands are beneficial to the full range A materialist understanding of neurodiver - We form social structures, and unlike other sity, rather than one based simply on pathol - of neurodivergent people. species we do that in a very conscious way. It includes policies that will benefit people ogy or identity, will enable us to better Democratic Deficit USA

By Barrie Hardy didn’t have the right ID, encountered long office to any victor who represented a serious ironic exception of First Nation Americans. lines at the polling stations or couldn’t regis - challenge to the status quo. But there is a modern day equivalent dubious North Carolina’s 12th District was said to ter. Paradoxically, the Electoral College as orig - population count. be the most gerrymandered in America. Trump “won” by a combined total of inally envisaged by the “founding fathers” The “land of the free” has the largest prison Until 2017 it was a long, straggling, narrow 78,000 in three swing states. Trump lost the was just the sort of body that should have de - population in the world, with over two mil - strip, at points extremely narrow. One critic popular vote in the US Presidential Election nied a maverick like Trump the keys to the lion people behind bars. Incarcerated people quipped that a two hour drive down its by the order of three million votes, but made White House. don’t vote, yet their numbers are included in length with both car doors open would en - it the White House courtesy of an arcane in - However, with the firm establishment of a the population counts used to draw electoral danger the lives of most people in the district. stitution, the Electoral College. two-party system after the American Civil districts in the largely conservative rural The term Gerrymandering dates from 1812 Americans do not directly elect their pres - War, the Electoral College effectively became areas in which the prisons are situated, rather and refers to the manipulation of electoral ident. Instead, the winning party in each state a rubber stamp on the popular vote, only than the urban areas from which most in - boundaries to establish party political advan - secures all Electoral College seats for that counted state-by-state with winner-takes-all mates originate. Black American males were tage. It was coined from the practice of Gov - state, on a first past the post basis. Trump in each state. briefly given the vote during the “Recon - ernor Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts who won a number of key states by a very narrow Serious calls are now being made to scrap struction” period (1865-1877), only to have it had electoral districts drawn up in what margin, though he was way behind in others the Electoral College altogether, with a recent taken away from them de facto for nearly a looked like the shapes of a salamander. Ger - with huge populations. opinion poll showing 55% in favour of its century under the “Jim Crow” regimes, as rymandering continues in Republican states The Electoral College is a legacy of the 1787 abolition. It is not the only democratic deficit white supremacy was reestablished in the more than two hundred years later. US Constitution, which was drawn up to a resulting from a seriously flawed constitu - southern states. Today, in spite of advances The Republicans have effectively become a large extent by and for the benefit of slave - tion. made by the civil rights movement, black whites-only party in a country that is becom - owners. Ten out of the first 12 US Presidents voting rights continue to be suppressed. were slaveowners. REPRESENTATION Voter suppression is not the only reason ing ever more diverse. With their electoral Representation in the Senate is dispro - constituency becoming increasingly limited, George Washington and his ilk were no why general elections in the USA have noto - great fans of “democracy” in what it has portionately skewed towards the Repub - riously low turnouts, averaging around 50% the only way of holding on to power is to lican Party. Wyoming, with a population of adopt a full range of voter suppression meth - come to be regarded in its modern sense. of the electorate and heavily skewed towards They feared that electing the nation’s leader just over half a million, returns two sena - the wealthier sections of the population. The ods. tors to Congress – both Republican, Claims of widespread voter fraud caused via universal direct (male) suffrage carried other reason is traditional lack of choice be - with it the danger of plebeian rule. whilst California, with 40 million people, tween Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the by ineligible voters have been proved base - also gets two senators. less. Trump scrapped his advisory commis - Another founding father, Alexander two major capitalist parties. sion on electoral integrity last year because Hamilton, has become something of a histor - A Senate dominated by Republicans from As there is a myth that “the working class” they failed to come up with a shred of evi - ical hero due to the hit musical Hamilton. small states can frustrate all kinds of progres - voted for Brexit, so also there is the false dence to back his assertions. We’ll never know what he might think of hip sive legislation even though it represents a claim that Trump’s victory was down to The real frauds, largely uninvestigated, are hop, but he was certainly no great fan of Vox minority of voters nationwide. large-scale working-class support. A minority those practised by Republican politicians at - Pop. An especially pernicious aspect of the way of working-class people, mostly white, did tempting to rig the system to their advantage. He was opposed to an “excess of democ - the 1787 Constitution was drawn up was the vote for Trump, but the main shift was that These methods are legion. Voters lists are racy” and argued that American Presidents Three-Fifths Compromise. This proposed overall turnout declined. In nine midwestern purged of potential Democrat voters. Voter should serve for life. that three out of every five slaves be counted states, turnout in absolute terms dropped Registration is made difficult. Polling stations According to Hamilton “The people are as a person when determining a state’s total from 33.2 million in 2012 to 29.9 million in are shut down in areas with large ethnic mi - turbulent and changing. They seldom judge population for representation in the legisla - 2016. The decline reflected a sense of despair, nority populations. “Felons” are disenfran - or determine right”. In his opinion they ture. lack of choice, and resentment against two chised, often for many years after they’ve should be ruled by “landowners, merchants That gave slave states more seats in Con - unpopular candidates. served their sentences. and men of the learned professions.” gress and the Electoral College, without giv - Socialist can reverse this situation by ad - ID requirements disproportionately dis - To deal with the risk of a “populist” dema - ing slaves themselves a vote, and obviously vancing clear policies in defence of jobs and criminate against poorer electors. gogue, an extra filter on the popular vote was increased the power of the slavocracy. living standards and calling for universal Such tactics went a long way to help elect called for. Thus the Electoral College, a con - That Three-Fifths compromise was done heTahltehr aen md usoscti allissoed b me ecdaimcinpea. igns against Trump in 2016.It is estimated that over a mil - clave of “the great and the good” – guardians away with after the Civil War, when all adult all laws and ruses to suppress the vote. lion votes were lost because eligible voters of the propertied classes – who would deny males were in theory given the vote with the More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Where we stand From St George to Xi Jinping Courier fight widens Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour despised “liberals” against Donald other nation with minorities among power to another, the capitalist Trump of connections with Putin, it, that is, almost every other nation By Zack, IWGB National class, which owns the means of calling it “the big lie of Russiagate”. in the world). Deliveroo Committee “The interminable Mueller inves - The MS ran, for example, an ap - production. By Rhodri Evans chair The capitalists’ control over the tigation”, it declared, was out of proving review of Thomas Suarez’s economy and their relentless drive order because… the US too had in - State of Terror , a book portraying the The Times (18 May) has splashed Couriers and IWGB members to increase their wealth causes terfered in other countries’ politics. whole existence of Israel as an arbi - our denunciation of the wearing The MS does criticise Trump, but trary ideological act of “terrorism”, at The Doctor’s Laboratory will poverty, unemployment, the of the old Russian imperial em - strike for 48 hours from 7.30am blighting of lives by overwork, its indignation against the “liber - and the solution as “untangling the blem, the St George Ribbon, by als” and “human rights indigna - injustice” back to pre-1947 or even on 23 May until 25 May, over imperialism, the destruction of the some members of Lewisham better pay and terms and con - environment and much else. dos” is hotter (5/1/19). pre-1914 (3/1/17). Momentum. On Europe, the Morning Star has Israel is the axis of evil in the ditions and equality with non- Against the accumulated wealth courier staff. and power of the capitalists, the The incident is only a specially exactly the same policy as Nigel MS’s view of the world — after all, working class must unite to gaudy display of the general polit - Farage. “Britain should leave the the MS cuts even Trump some TDL have been trying to ille - struggle against capitalist power ical trend of the section of the EU on World Trade Organisation slack, on the grounds he is attacked gally intimidate couriers out of in the workplace and in wider Labour supposed-left which gravi - (WTO) terms to free a future by “liberals”. China is the axis of striking, but have not managed. society. tates around the Morning Star . Labour government from single good. The criticisms and demurs in Deliveroo couriers will be join - The Alliance for Workers’ The Morning Star is the continu - market rule” (27/1/19). It de - the MS’s coverage of Russia are ab - ing them in solidarity. Liberty wants socialist revolution: ation of the Daily Worker , which for nounces the Tory government as sent on China. The second issue of Puncture , collective ownership of industry decades from 1930 was a mouth - being too pro-EU — “the pro-EU A statement from MS -backed the IWGB Deliveroo bulletin, and services, workers’ control, piece for the regimes of Stalin, Tory minority regime” (27/1/19) candidates in the 2008 Greater Lon - started being distributed on and a democracy much fuller than Khrushchev, and Brezhnev. — and especially condemns any don Assembly elections, for exam - Thursday 16 May. We’ve had the present system, with elected It saw the old USSR as “social - customs union with the EU. ple, denounced Tibetan protesters very good reception from the first representatives recallable at any ist”. It based that claim largely on Like the Tory right and Farage, as “a minority of violent thugs” one, and we had way too much time and an end to bureaucrats’ the fact that all sizeable industry in the MS claims that the British gov - and claimed that their supporters content to fit into it — a good and managers’ privileges. that regime was government- ernment has no obligation or re - “echo the rhetoric of the far right” problem to have! We fight for trade unions and owned. There were no individual, sponsibility to prevent the and “put British Chinese people at It’s on A3 folded, with two the Labour Party to break with private capitalists. re-erection of a hard border within risk of racial discrimination and vi - sides in English, and two sides in “social partnership” with the Demoralised by the collapse of Ireland. olence from such elements as the Portuguese — a large number of bosses and to militantly assert the USSR, the Morning Star contin - The whole border issue, it says, is fascist British National Party and couriers are Brazilian. working-class interests. ues to side with Russia today. Its just “a concoction of cynical and the National Front”. bit.ly/puncture2 authoritarian regime is no obstacle. reckless politicians, commentators “The recent well-funded activists Beyond the issues covered in In workplaces, trade unions, Neither is the fact that the industry and top bureaucrats” from the EU, in Athens, London, Paris, San Fran - Puncture #2, couriers have been and Labour organisations; is now owned by loot-flaunting pri - the USA, and Dublin (18/4/19). cisco and elsewhere constitute an organising to tackle a restaurant among students; in local vate oligarchs. As in the old days of Stalin and attack on the constitutional and ter - refusing toilet access in Bristol, campaigns; on the left and in The MS sides with Russia in a de - Brezhnev, the MS’s attitude to gov - ritorial integrity of the sovereign re - and raising concerns of what wider political alliances we moralised, mealy-mouthed way. Its ernments across the world is public of China. seems like Deliveroo stealing chiefly governed by their diplo - stand for: real enthusiasm, as we shall see, is CHINA tips. • Independent working-class for the Chinese regime. matic alignments and alliances. On 17 May, it was revealed that Its comment on the popular re - MS editor Ben Chacko claims representation in politics. On Ukraine, for example, the MS that China is socialist, and in - Amazon is the biggest investor in • A workers’ government, declares: “The West has charac - volt against Nicaragua’s crony-cap - Deliveroo’s latest round of fund italist (and Russia-allied) ruler deed a refreshing improvement based on and accountable to the terised Russia’s attempts to defend on “top-down” socialism. raising, which overall raised £450 labour movement. ethnic Russian populations in Daniel Ortega is: “What happened million. Amazon, like Uber, have • A workers’ charter of trade Ukraine [i.e. its military interven - in Nicaragua last year was without “This vision, of a party educat - reportedly previously tried to union rights — to organise, to tion in eastern Ukraine] and its ‘an - doubt a US-inspired attempted ing, agitating and organising in buy out Deliveroo. Deliveroo strike, to picket effectively, and to nexation of the Crimea’ as further coup”. The MS denounces farms, factories and mines across said it would use the money for take solidarity action. evidence of its expansionist aims Amnesty International for “deny - China to give working people the international expansion, growing • Taxation of the rich to fund and aggressive policies” (5/12/18). ing” that (26/2/19). tools to fight for their rights, is a its “dark kitchen”, and “improv - decent public services, homes, The Morning Star doesn’t say In Venezuela, there are indeed at - fascinating departure from ‘top- ing its service”. Unsurprisingly, education and jobs for all. straight out that it supports Putin tempts at a coup with US support, down’ socialism and may owe there is no mention of higher or • A workers’ movement that in Ukraine, but gives its readers to which Solidarity has condemned. something to the methods used by more secure pay. fights all forms of oppression. Full understand that since “the West” The MS , though, ignores the facts the PSUV in Bolivarian Venezuela, In itself, investments in Deliv - equality for women, and social objects, Putin’s course must be ba - that the Maduro regime has al - a country the Chinese see as a close eroo, Deliveroo expansion, or De - provision to free women from sically healthy. ready carried out a “coup” of its ally” (6/1/14). liveroo being taken over by other domestic labour. For reproductive own against the National Assembly Challenged by the South China companies are not bad – these all justice: free abortion on demand; SYRIA elected under its own supervision Morning Post , in an interview, about have potential positive (as well as On Syria, the Morning Star hailed the right to choose when and and relies mainly on its support in China’s ban on free trade unions, negative) sides. It shows that the conquest of Aleppo by the whether to have children. Full the military, and that the actual big- Chacko replied: “We wouldn’t they could easily afford to pay us Assad dictatorship, with Russian equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual power troops in Venezuela are want to sit here and judge”. Non- better, and more securely, but support, as “liberation” and transgender people. Black Russian (backing Maduro). state companies, including foreign- that we need to fight to win this. (13/12/16) and white workers’ unity against The MS gushes: “Tens of thou - invested enterprises, account for Stuart couriers, subcontracted sands poured onto the streets of racism. It has mostly been more round - more than half of total economic by JustEat, continue to become • Open borders. Caracas to defend the socialist Bo - output in China. It is a thoroughly more organised nationally. Many about in its arguments. On livarian government from a US-led • Global solidarity against 21/12/18, it derided “British politi - capitalist regime, only one with a Deliveroo couriers also work for global capital — workers coup… The democratically elected fascistic level of suppression of Stuart and/or UberEats, often si - cians and media [who] will scoff at leader addressed crowds from the everywhere have more in Russian ambassador Alexander workers’ and democratic rights. multaneously, because of the pre - common with each other than Miraflores palace” (24/1/19). Yet Chacko told the SCMP : “for carious nature of the work. We Yakovenko’s suggestion that Sergei The Israeli government has good with their capitalist or Stalinist and Yulia Skripal may have been [the US and Britain] to say, ‘Oh will be — I hope — working very rulers. relations with Russia and China, China’s got a problem with human closely with IWGB Stuart couri - injected by British authorities with but the MS sees it as the worst of • Democracy at every level of a nerve agent produced at Porton rights’, is just totally out of order”. ers, and other takeaway plat - society, from the smallest the “Western” camp. It is the most And if Chinese workers and stu - form-based couriers. Down. vehement campaigner in the labour Internationally, in Bologna, workplace or community to global “They will be equally scornful of dents to say the same thing? No, couriers for Glovo, a service social organisation. movement for boycotts of Israel, in - Chacko tells them, “there [is] a lot Russian Foreign Minister Sergei cluding of Israeli trade unions similar to Deliveroo occupied • Equal rights for all nations, Lavrov’s declaration that Moscow more participation by ordinary res - Glovo’s headquarters on Mon - against imperialists and predators (2/5/17). idents in local decision-making in has ‘plenty of evidence’ that Britain The MS is formally for “two day 13 May, following the com - big and small. staged the alleged chlorine gas at - politics [in China] than I’ve ever pany’s refusal to accept or • Maximum left unity in action, states”, but says it’s against “a Jew - seen in Britain” (10/5/18). tack in the Syrian town of Douma”. ish state”. (It suggests that any negotiate their demands fol - and openness in debate. MS And on the repression of the The made no clear claim that “Jewish state” must be exclusivist. lowing a strike the previous the Putin regime and Assad were Uy“gChhuinrsa, ’tsh eF oMreS igrens pMonindis:try told Friday. If you agree with us, please But national self-determination for innocent. It just said that anyone re - US politicians today to stop pok - take some copies of the Hebrew nation in Israel no Solidarity jecting the Russian story lacked ing their noses in the country’s to sell — and join us! more automatically excludes full • TDL picket line details “scepticism over news we are fed”. rights for minorities than does na - business and posing as human MS bit.ly/tdl-23 The denounces the charge by tional self-determination for any rights authorities” (30/8/18). REPORTS 10-11 Campaign renews NEU

By Duncan Morrison had not been to a meeting before. The publicity will focus upon the (assistant NEU secretary, We signed up three new reps on the issue of restoring trust to those who night and had 14 primary schools work in schools as well as the detri - Lewisham, in personal represented. mental effects of the tests on chil - capacity) It is clear that this campaign mat - dren. ters to lots of school workers and The anti-union laws mean that National Education Union (NEU) has a big potential to mobilise and the dispute could not be about just districts across the country are to mend the fact that the union is the effect on children. However, the gearing up for the indicative bal - usually less well organised in pri - restoring trust is a central issue for lot to boycott high-stakes sum - mary schools than in secondary. school workers concerning these mative testing in primary It is also a campaign for action tests. It also links with the harm schools, which will open on 4 with a clear goal, which benefits all caused to children, as school work - June and close on 2 July. members and all children in pri - ers can see the damage the tests It is clear the campaign is having mary schools, and has a clear cause and if they were trusted they a hugely invigorating effect on method to achieve that goal. That would not inflict them on the chil - many NEU districts. Reports clarity marks off the campaign drWene. have a lot of work to do, abound of large meetings with pri - from the NEU’s indicative ballot but the evidence is we can get a mary members who have not been over funding and pay last year and significant turn out and “yes” Strike to stop bullying active before turning up, and many recent campaigns of the National vote in the indicative ballot. In signing up to be reps in schools Union of Teachers (the larger of the the fight to do this we are shap - where previously there were none. NEU’s predecessor unions). ing the NEU into a stronger fight - By Todd Hamer team against him to the point In Lewisham we had a meeting Nationally, the union is prepar - ing union for the future. where they are walking off the job. of 30 with around 20 members who ing a publicity campaign to back Workers at Harbinger Primary The union group, which compro - the work going on at district level. School on the Isle of Dogs in mised all qualified teaching staff East London, members of the except the head, voted 100% for National Education Union, are on strikes in an 87% turnout. Since the strike 21, 22, and 23 May against ballot almost every member of staff PCS: close vote on pay bullying and unacceptable be - in the school has joined the NEU, haviour by the headteacher. showing the power of an all-grades union. By a conference delegate Staff first officially raised con - Strikes of this nature are rare, but cerns in November 2018, when 18 the type of behaviour that Harbin - staff members submitted a collec - ger NEU describes is probably fa - On the first day of the confer - tive grievance in the hope of resolv - miliar to many school workers. The ence of the PCS civil service ing this issue. In their own words, government’s obsession with pit - union in Brighton, 21 May, a the official complaints process “got ting children and schools against composite backed by the Inde - us nowhere”. one another in endless high stakes pendent Left on pay was only The union’s demands are a tests has trained a new breed of narrowly defeated. damning indictment of the head - head teachers who care more about The debate centred round two teacher. They insist that the head gaming the system than offering a emergency motions, one from the must apologise for shouting at and well rounded, child-centred educa - National Executive (NEC), and a belittling staff, agree to anger-man - tion. composited backed both by the In - agement therapy, and admit that he The demands of the league tables dependent Left and by the Socialist has lied during the investigation cut against the best instincts of chil - Party, which until recently domi - ISS workers at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy into his behaviour. dren and the best values of teach - nated the union leadership. (BEIS) picketing on 21 May with the Free Our Unions campaign They call for competent leader - ing staff. In this high pressure It went to a card vote. The NEC ship. They also request an apology environment, management bully - motion passed 62,000 to 60,000, so from the Local Education Authority ingT hbe cHoamrebsin rgifeer. NEU group have ballots, which would permit strikes ing. It also took up questions of for their “disrespectful, negligent the alternative composite fell. in departments with over 50% union organising, and issues of had the courage, vision and or - The NEC motion could be and unbalanced” handling of their ganisation to stand up against turnout even if the overall average conditions as well as pay. original complaint. summed up as “do the same is below. The alternative motion The NEC motion was backed by the bullying. If they win it will in - again”. PCS’s latest attempt to beat In a letter to parents, head - spire many more to organise and also supported a new push, but close supporters of general secre - teacher, Andy Smith, said that the the 50% turnout threshold de - called for wider consultation and tary Mark Serwotka, by the Social - take on the bullies. manded by the Tories’ Trade Union strike is due to “concerns over my discussion with the membership, in ist View section of Left Unity, and leadership style”. However it takes Act 2016 in a ballot for strikes on a way which enables the member - by the SWP. pay failed narrowly, and the NEC The conference continues on a rare arrogance to describe his be - • For full list of demands, updates ship to make an informed choice on 22 and 23 May. haviour as “leadership”. Smith has and solidarity messages: bit.ly/h- wants to make another push. Its aggregated or disaggregated ballot - motion ruled out “disaggregated” managed to unite an entire staff binger Left at FBU conference

By Sacha Ismail union is moving towards a national national union to back the Free Our the mainstream of what has gener - labour movement. dispute. The conference debated Unions campaign (see the motion ally been fought for under the A real weakness in terms of inter - I attended the Fire Brigades various aspects of strategy and tac - on the Clarion website at Green New Deal banner so far nationalism, however, was that the Union conference in Blackpool, tics in taking the campaign for - bit.ly/2YMrtbt). That was after a (bit.ly/2JQP1r8). conference did not discuss Brexit. 15-17 May, as a visitor for the ward. packed Free Our Unions fringe But the highpoint for me, and I’d After deciding to take a strong left- Free Our Unions campaign. Issues of pay and job roles are in - meeting organised by the union’s guess for many of the delegates, wing Remain stand in 2016, the The conference saw debate about tertwined with questions about na - Eastern and West Midlands re - was hearing from Spanish fire - FBU has been much more divided the union’s industrial strategy as tional standards, so this is a debate gions, which I addressed along fighter Miguel Roldán, who the on the issue since the referendum. well as significant decisions and about reasserting a universal, high- with FBU General Secretary Matt FBU is campaigning to defend from Anti-Brexit socialists in the union stances on a number of big political standard fire and rescue service Wrack, anti-blacklist activist Dave the Italian government’s threats to need support and encouragement issues. after years of cuts and deregula - Smith and youth climate striker prosecute him for his work rescu - to change that. After FBU members resound - tion, as well as about firefighters’ Patrick Wakefield. ing migrants in the Mediterranean. The left-wing initiatives reported ingly rejected a pay proposal from conditions. The reality of tragedies Patrick’s speech evoked a very Miguel was warmly welcomed here were supported by the na - fire service employers which caused by growing holes in the strong response in the meeting, and and his impassioned defence of mi - tional leadership but came from of - would introduce open-ended con - service, and in particular Grenfell, was particular timely because after grants’ rights and free movement ficers and activists somewhat tracts, without a clear definition of was very much part of the discus - it the conference also debated and got a good response; Matt Wrack furItt hsehro duoldw bne i ns athide tuhnaito tnh. e FBU’s firefighters’ role, in return for only sions. passed a radical motion calling for spoke afterwards drawing out Eastern region played a particu - the possibility of a pay rise, the The conference voted unani - a Socialist Green New Deal, includ - many of the same themes and mak - larly important role in all of them. mously to make the FBU the first ing demands going well beyond ing the case for an internationalist SolidaFor a workers’ giovertnment y No 507 22 May 2019 50p/£1

1919: the year of strikes and struggles

• Zetkin, Luxemburg and the Sean Matgamna debates Ken Ruth Cashman debates Paul Paul Vernadsky debates Steve German Social Democratic Women’s Movement with Kelly Livingstone: The left and Embery: Socialists and Brexit Smith: 1917 and the legacy of Rogers and Kieran Miles Zionism the Bolsheviks • Luxemburg and Luxembur - gism with Justine Canady and Martin Thomas • Was workers’ revolution pos - sible in 1919? Was it desirable? discussion and debate with Simon Webb and Janine Booth • György Lukács: a Marxist of Ideas for Freedom 1919 with John Cunningham Reason in revolt: Third Camp socialism in the age of Brexit Eric Lee, Maya Ilany 20-23 June, London. Until 26 May tickets are £9 unwaged, £22 low-waged/uni students, and and Tom Harris £38 waged. After that date the price increases. Free creche and accommodation available.

The future of the left in Israel Education with Eric Lee (Labour Start, p.c.), • Education and the working Maya Ilany (Yachad, p.c.), Tom class : Diane Reay, author of Mise - Harris (Workers’ Liberty) ducation: Inequality, Education and the Working Classes • Independent working-class Book and Agenda education and the legacy of the Judy Singer, Janine Plebs League : Colin Waugh Booth and Fergus Visit workersliberty.org/ideas • LGBT+ education in schools : Murray for the full agenda and to book Khakan Qureshi, Birmingham online, or book over the phone South Asians LGBT, and NEU ac - tivists Arguing for Autistic Rights: the on 020 7394 8923. backlash against neurodiversity Thursday, 6:30pm, starts Richard Wilkinson and how to overcome it : Judy Herne Hill rail station , SE24; Fri - on mental health Singer, author of Neurodiversity: day 7pm, Student Central, WC1E the birth of an idea ; Janine Booth, 7HY; Saturday from 11am and author of Autism Equality in the Sunday 10am at Camden School The Inner Level: talk by Richard Workplace ; and Fergus Murray, For Girls, NW5 2DB. Wilkinson co-author of The Inner Danny Dorling and co-founder of Autistic Mutual Level: How More Equal Societies Re - Cath Fletcher Aid Society, Edinburgh. And More... duce Stress, Restore Sanity and Im - prove Everyone’s Well-being Brexit and imperialist nostalgia • 40 years of Southall Black Sis - ters with Pragna Patel, Southall Black Sisters • The Deliveroo strike: workers fighting back in the gig econ - The Collapse of Stalinism omy with Zack Murrell-Dowson and Tom Harrington, couriers • The breakup of Yugoslavia and IWGB activists with Sarah Correia • The bourgeois Marx: a critical Climate and Capitalism • Solidarnosc: workers against International Struggles appraisal of Max Weber with Stalinism with Chris Marks and Dan Davison Queer Walking Tour • An Introduction to Andreas Mark Osborn • US teacher struggles and re - • Identity politics and class Malm’s Fossil Capital: The Rise • The Tiananmen Square upris - viving the labour movement : struggle with Ralph Leonard and Join a guided walking tour with of Steam Power and t he Roots of ing: when Chinese workers and Teacher trade unionist and so - Christie Neary Ian Townson on the radical gay Global Warming : Mike students fought for freedom cialist activist Lois Weiner • What kind of left does Labour community and squats in and Zubrowski with Camila Bassi • The Uyghur people’s fight for need? around Brixton Road from the • What kind of “Green New • Hungary 1956 with John Cun - freedom : Aziz Isa Elkun, Uyghur • The Roots of Lexit with Paul mid-1970s to 1981, the year of the Deal” : Luke Neal Brixton riots ningham activist Vernadsky Subscribe to Solidarity 20E Tower Workshops, Subscribe online at Contact us Riley Road, SE1 3DG Trial sub (6 issues) £7 o Solidarity editorial: Simon Nelson, Six months (22 issues) £22 waged o, £11 unwaged o workersliberty.org/sub 020 7394 8923 One year (44 issues) £44 waged o, £22 unwaged o Cathy Nugent, Martin Thomas, European rate: 6 months €30 o One year €55 o Or send your name, address and postcode with payment to solidarity@ and Mike Zubrowski AWL, 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London SE1 3DG workersliberty.org Printed by Trinity Mirror