& Workers’ Liberty

SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 451 18 October 2017 50p/£1 Defend Freedom of Movement! Inside: By Martin Thomas Iraqi troops out

Opinion polling on 10-11 October of Kirkuk! showed 64% saying that the Tory government is doing “badly” in nego - tiating Brexit, and only 21% saying it is doing “well”. 47% said that, with hindsight, they thought the vote for Brexit in June 2016 was wrong, 40% that it was right. Only a small minority say that Brexit will make Britain better off economically — only 23% overall, and only 12% of Labour voters. 44% think Brexit will make Britain worse off. The Iraqi army has entered Kirkuk as Kurds flee. More page 5 See page 3 STOP The Russian Revolution 100 years on

The Russian Revolution happened on 25-26 October 1917 (old calendar). BREXIT See pages 6-7 Royal Mail wins injunction against strike

What does the High Court injunction against the postal strike mean? See page 2 Join Labour! Open up the democracy review! See page 10 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Weinstein case exposes reality of work-related sexual assaults

ing the actions of Weinstein and curred in a work setting. A study in particularly from the bosses. This is policies on sexual harassment but By Caroline Jeffries sending messages of solidarity 2016 found that 52% of women in not to compare the work of Mc - rarely organise around the issue. to the survivors of Weinstein’s as - the UK had experienced sexual ha - Donald’s workers to Hollywood The labour movement needs to use Dozens of women have come saults. And now the hashtag rassment at work, with one in eight actors, but rather to highlight that this horrific case as a moment to forward accusing the famous #Metoo is trending, where women women reporting unwanted touch - sexual harassment is a significant step forward. Just as we organise Hollywood producer, Harvey We - from all over the world share their ing of their breast, buttocks or gen - issue regardless of industry or around pay and conditions we instein, of sexual harassment, stories of sexual harassment and itals. Despite these high numbers, work being done. need to organise around respect assault and rape, with some assault. While bringing survivors four in five women said they did No doubt the precarious nature and safety at work for the most op - cases dating back to the 1980s. Many women detail how he together, these events have demon - not report the incidents, mainly cit - of jobs like those at McDonald’s pressed groups in our society. would corner them asking for sex - strated the prevalence and accept - ing the fear that they wouldn’t be make reporting and finding sup - We can’t wait for our bosses ual favours with the clear implica - ance of gender-based abuse and taken seriously. port even harder. If you are on a and well meaning liberals to tion that he could make or break bullying globally. We should remember that one zero hours contract, standing up to change the conditions for their careers. But none of this is surprising, reason the McDonald’s workers your boss could mean you aren’t women; it is up to us in the Mainstream media, celebrities, particularly that most of the as - went on strike last September was offered any more hours. labour movement to define our and even politicians are condemn - saults in the Weinstein case oc - over workplace sexual harassment, Many trade unions have good grievances and organise to fight them. Royal Mail injunction Universal Credit on the rocks? sets precedent? The High Court ruled that the By Matthew Thompson By Gemma Short CWU had to abide by the agree - ment it signed. This raises ques - The government is coming under On Thursday 12 October the tions for the labour movement over High Court granted an injunction pressure to halt the roll-out of how deals signed by unions could Universal Credit, the new benefit to Royal Mail, stopping a strike be enforced by a court. organised by the Communica - which is replacing six existing The external mediation process ones: Jobseekers’ Allowance, tion Workers Union (CWU) due to in the ″Agenda for Growth″ agree - start on Thursday 19 October. Employment and Support Al - In granting the injunction, Mr ment is set at a five to seven week lowance, Housing Benefit, Work - Justice Supperstone said “I con - timeframe. It involves the appoint - ing Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit sider the strike call to be unlawful ment of a mutually-agreed external and Income Support. and the defendant is obliged to mediator, submissions from both Created by the Conservative-Lib withdraw its strike call until the ex - parties, the mediator producing Dem coalition government as part ternal mediation process has been non-binding recommendations, of the Welfare Reform Act in 2012, exhausted.” talks between both parties, and ei - Universal Credit was launched in In October 2013, at the time of ther the drawing up of an agree - 2013 as a pilot in a single area, the Royal Mail privatisation, the CWU ment or the notification of former textile town of Ashton- signed the “Agenda for Growth” intentions (i.e. declaring a dispute) under-Lyne just to the east of Man - agreement with the company. if the parties disagree. chester, and has since been Royal Mail intended this agree - As Royal Mail says it is now in - extended across the country, with ment to significantly decrease the voking this process, we can expect full implementation for new number of strikes in Royal Mail, a minimum of seven weeks before claimants due to be complete by Delays in Universal Credit has caused a spike in food bank referrals. particularly the unofficial ones any strikes. Strikes may happen the end of 2018 (existing claimants from the start of December, in time receiving benefits being replaced which postal workers have a long benefits, currently £16,000, after The government has already for the Christmas period. by it are due to be transferred onto history of organising. which benefits are annulled. made a series of recent u-turns on It is unlikely that either the CWU Universal Credit between the end The agreement commits the The implementation of Universal controversial policies such as the will call strikes despite the ruling, of this year and 2021). union to an external mediation Credit, if not all the principles un - so-called “dementia tax”. Northern or that there will be unofficial As well as delays caused by IT is - process in the event of a national derlying it, has been criticised by a Ireland’s Democratic Unionists strikes. Despite a tradition of unof - sues, Universal Credit has led to disagreement, or in the event that a wide spectrum of voluntary organ - have threatened to abstain in a ficial strikes on local issues, such as problems caused by the structure of local, unofficial, strike is not re - isation and charities, groups repre - House of Commons vote on the a worker being suspended or the benefit itself. solved (the emphasis being on the senting claimants, PCS, the trade issue. sacked, this has never been ex - The brainchild of former Work CWU controlling its members). union of the civil servants respon - tended to national disputes. and Pensions Secretary Iain Dun - A pause in the roll-out of this The ″Agenda for Change″ deal sible for implementing it in jobcen - Royal Mail clearly intends to dis - can Smith, Universal Credit is in - continuing attack on some of the gave workers a 9.1% pay increase tres, Labour’s Shadow Work and rupt the momentum of the dispute tended to mimic the payment of poorest people in Britain is now over three years, and committed Pensions Secretary Debbie Abra - after the large ballot result for wages, and so is paid four-weekly, a real possibility. Royal Mail to protect workers’ hams, and even some Tory back - strikes. However there is no reason rather than weekly or fortnightly as terms and conditions for at least benchers. five years. However this was seri - why the CWU cannot maintain mo - most benefits were before, with an ously undermined by the attempt mentum through the mediation initial six-week waiting period and, to curtail strikes, and by a loophole process. in the case of housing costs, directly which allowed Royal Mail to re - The CWU should publish full re - to claimants rather than to land - nege on those commitments if ports of the negotiations, including lords as has been standard until Egypt tortures LGBT people bosses deem any of them “reason - what the employer says, in the in - now. The Egyptian government has campaign of moral panic and ho - ably likely to have a materially ad - terests of democracy and keeping This has led to a spike in referrals conducted an intense campaign mophobic outrage after images verse effect on the employer′s members involved. to food banks in areas where it has of arrests, torture and intimida - circulated of rainbow flags being business or prospects″. Workplace meetings which de - been introduced and a build-up of tion against LGBT people over waved at the gig. Immediately 57 Part of the current dispute is over livered the large ballot result rent arrears, and ultimately evic - should continue for members to tions, for tenants in both social the past month. people were arrested, but the cam - the imminent likelihood of Royal Dozens of LGBT people have discuss the outcomes of the me - housing and privately rented ac - paign has not let up. Mail using that loophole to change been arrested, and many subjected diation, and make plans for the commodation. Homosexuality is technically workers’ terms and conditions. to torture in custody in the form of The deal also states “The em - strikes. Self-employed people with small legal in Egypt, although “public earnings, who until now have re - so-called “anal examinations”, homosexual acts” are considered ployer shall be entitled to notify the since 22 September, when the ceived Working Tax Credit, are also criminal; and LGBT people are CWU at any time that any of the wave of repression was launched Protections will no longer continue, being adversely affected by the ex - routinely arrested under vaguer tension of Universal Credit to them, following a gig by left-wing if […] there is national-scale indus - Lebanese band Mashrou’ Leila in charges like “debauchery” which trial action (in the form of a strike with the introduction of a so-called carry long prison sentences. minimum income floor, which re - a suburb of Cairo. The band’s lead or action short of a strike) which singer, Hamed Sinno, is openly Perhaps 300 LGBT people has been authorised at national quires them to earn the equivalent gay and a vocal advocate of LGBT have been arrested since mili - level by the CWU [which] will of the National Minimum Wage freedoms. tary-backed strongman Field have, or is reasonably likely to every month, and the applying to Conservative and pro-govern - have, a [...] disruptive effect.” them of the cap on savings which is Marshal el-Sisi took power in already part of other means-tested ment media outlets orchestrated a 2014. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty NEWS 3 Iraqi troops out of Kirkuk! By Simon Nelson

Iraqi government forces and Shia militias have occupied Kirkuk for the first time since 2014, the year Daesh made their away across Iraq. Although Kirkuk is not part of Iraqi Kurdistan it has been under the control of Kurdish forces. In the September referendum it voted by a sizeable majority in favour of in - dependence. Up to half a million Regional Government, Masoud PUK’s retreat and made the re-tak - Kurds are now fleeing Kirkuk for Barzani, has accused the rival Patri - ing of Kirkuk easier although some northern Iraq otic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of PUK units refused orders to stand Solidarity with Mogadishu victims Following the referendum Kur - abandoning Kirkuk to the govern - down and return to KRG territory. dish peshmerga and civilians gath - ment. The Iraqi President Abadi said, ance with Somalia’s mainstream ered arms and prepared themselves The PUK has met Qassem “We call upon all citizens to co-op - By Michael Elms Sufi religious tradition. for a threatened takeover. The Kur - Suleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds erate with our heroic armed forces, Al-Shabaab has been driven into distan Democratic Party (KDP), the Force, whom the New Yorker named which are committed to our strict Over 300 people were killed and pockets in the countryside and ex - largest Kurdish party and the party as “Iran’s chief spymaster.” The directives to protect civilians in the many more injured in a massive pelled from most major cities, but of the President of the Kurdistan meeting seems to have led to the first place, and to impose security truck bomb attack in the Soma - rural poverty, a weak central state, and order, and to protect state in - lian capital of Mogadishu on Sat - and the current severe drought that stallations and institutions.” One of urday 14 October. Somalia is suffering have given it their first tasks has been to remove The truck bomb was detonated outside the Foreign Ministry build - opportunities to build a power Turkish forces in Syria against the Kurds Kurdish flags from buildings and base. Afrin. Afrin is under the control of institutions ing on a busy road, and ignited a Turkish forces are now under - nearby oil tanker. The attack comes two weeks after taking an operation in the Syr - the Kurdish YPG, the largest con - The USA has said it supports Al-Shabaab captured a military stituent part of the Syrian Demo - “joint administration” in Kirkuk The Federal Government of So - ian province of Idlib. malia has said that the attack was base close to Mogadishu, in Barire. In agreement with Iran and cratic Forces (SDF) who receive but has called for negotiations, as The Somali community in the UK US and coalition support. has the UN. Neither recognise the almost certainly carried out by Al- Russia they are there to enforce a Shabaab, a Salafist group which has is organising events and initiatives so-called “de-escalation zone”, to The Syrian Observatory for result of the referendum. to alleviate the suffering of victims Human Rights has reported HTS been waging a war to overthrow seek an end to the fighting. The Kurdish people have the the Federal Government since 2006, and their families. The labour Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), escorting Turkish troops to an right to determine their own fu - movement and left should give area adjoining Afrin. when US and Ethiopian troops the al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, are ture, the Iraqi government drove the Union of Islamic Courts their support and solidarity. the largest anti-Assad force oper - Turkish President Erdogan should immediately withdraw from Mogadishu. A Bristol Support for Mo - ating in Idlib. Turkey’s main con - has said that he will not allow from Kirkuk and negotiate on the Al-Shabaab was the youth wing gadishu meeting has been or - cern, however, is the the YPG to form a “terror corri - basis of recognition of the refer - of the UIC, and became hege - ganised for 23 October at 6pm at neighbouring Kurdish enclave of dor” to the Mediterranean. endum result. monised by Salafi politics at vari - Bristol City Hall. Hunt’s A&E threat Joanne creasingly common in the NHS. Re - By a junior doctor ferral management systems have become commonplace in the NHS. A senior figure at NHS England Landy Referrals from General Practition - has suggested that Jeremy Hunt, ers to Consultants can be screened, Joanne Landy, one of the last the Secretary of State for Health and can be rejected by a panel of surviving representatives of a is considering a “talk before you administrators. These systems have thin thread of living continuity walk policy” for all presentations previously been criticised by the between the Third Camp Trot - to the Emergency Department in BMA as being unnecessary and skyists of the 1940s and poli - the NHS in England. tics today, died on 14 October Patients would need to either see “performance seems to be related in New York, aged 75. their GP or call 111 before attending to blocking referrals rather than pa - tient care.” She was one of the early mem - A&E. bers of the Independent Socialist The comments have provoked a Attempts to delay, divert or dis - suade patients from attending Club which was founded by Hal backlash, and both the Department Draper in Berkeley, California, in of Health and NHS England have move the pressure around the sys - tem, storing up problems for later 1964, to regroup the revolution - denied the plans to pilot such an ary socialist wing of the remnants approach. NHS England is seem - and placing greater burdens on other areas that will also be within the Socialist Party USA of ingly divided and in disarray about the old “Shachtmanite” Workers’ how to deal with the sustained and stretched beyond capacity. Extra barriers make the NHS Party and Independent Socialist severe pressure the NHS is cur - League. rently facing. harder to navigate, particularly for Virgin: stop deporting LGBT migrants! the frail, infirm and unwell. The ISC expanded rapidly into Contingency plans for another a US-wide organisation, and in difficult winter have been criticised Alongside these barriers the wait UCL Workers’ Liberty and Out Gays Support the Migrants said: for many services are increasingly. 1969 renamed itself “Interna - “Virgin Atlantic exploit vulnerable with the promised help of an extra tional Socialists”. Despite Draper and Proud African LGBTI £100 million funding, described as Labour MPs have recently high - demonstrated against the visit people for profit. Public pressure lighted the current wait for autism dropping out in 1971, the IS did and direct action can make a real a “sticking plaster” by the RCN. significant educational and trade- of Virgin Atlantic’s CEO Craig Alongside all this, has come the diagnostic assessments are often Keeger to UCL on Monday 16 difference — queer solidarity over two years, yet national stan - union work until it was dis - smashes borders”. announcement of a 10,000% rise in rupted by about seven splits in October. the number of patients waiting 12 dards say these assessments should They were protesting at Virgin Mable Nalule, from Out & take place within three months. 1975-7, prompted by moves by hours in Emergency Departments the British IS (forerunner of the Atlantic’s role in the deportation Proud African LGBTI said: “The since 2012. The Labour Party needs to en - of asylum seekers, and of LGBT Home Office must stop the de - sure that the disastrous failings SWP) to gain control of the US or - In 2012 only 15 patients suffered ganisation. asylum seekers in particular. The portations of LGBT asylum a “trolley wait” of over 12 hours; by of this government are high - In later years Joanne organ - protestors highlighted the cases of seekers and refugees back to last winter the figure had risen to lighted and that the Party has a ised through the Campaign for Hadija Mwenshee, from Tanzania, their home countries where 1597 patients a year. plan in place to ensure it is put - Peace and Democracy, a com - and Lazio Nabanda, from they will be persecuted and Drives to ration healthcare and ting forward the practical solu - mittee launched in 1982 to take Uganda. killed. Please free Lazio Na - prevent patients accessing the serv - tions that health workers “Third Camp” initiatives in in - A spokesperson for Lesbians & banda from the detention cen - ices they need have become in - desperately need. tre so she can live her free life.” ternational politics. 4 COMMENT Email your letters to [email protected] BBC bashing the Bolsheviks companied by the music of Dimitri skills of Laurence Olivier to rescue anything how come they defended the city, success - LETTERS Shostakovitch (How original! Who would from this stilted, cheapskate mash-up. Go to fully, against Kornilov? have thought of that?). your local amateur dramatics society and Funnily enough, despite the fact that the Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin were played by watch their Christmas production of Pirates Bolsheviks were friendless and entirely with - The BBC should hang its head in shame. Their documentary (aired 9 October) about three actors who bore about as much resem - of Penzance and you’ll get more entertain - out support or allies, why did the pro - the Russian Revolution was appalling. Any - blance to them as Norman Wisdom, Frankie ment and intellectual stimulation. gramme makers talk only about them? In the one wanting to know what happened and Howard and Benny Hill. The only other per - Tariq Ali and China Mieville tried to offer whole programme there was no mention of why in 1917 will need to go elsewhere, con - son played by an actor was Kerensky who a counter perspective but, in effect, they only the Social Revolutionaries (Left or Right), the sulting the Oracle at Delphi would be more made couple of short appearances talking to had “walk on” parts presumably to offer at Mensheviks, Anarchists and Kadets. Nor did rewarding. camera (oh very avant-garde!). As for the rest least a fig-leaf of “balance”. All the usual the Kronstadt sailors feature despite their No kind of analysis or narrative of the of the “dramatis personae” only General Ko - tripe was turned out, for example: the revo - leading role in the events of October and events of 1917 was offered, nor any attempt rnilov and the Tsar are mentioned by name. lution was a coup d’etat. No arguments were heaven forbid that women should be men - to tackle important questions and certainly Alas, if this farrago of ham-fisted produc - put for that conclusion, other than that Amis, tioned despite their key role, particularly in no attempt to offer a range of views for de - tion values and clichéd dialogue wasn’t bad Montefiore and the rest said so. We were con - the February Revolution. bate. Instead the viewer was bombarded enough, the poor viewer had to, additionally, stantly told, gleefully, that the Bolsheviks had Finally, I would mention three other with a venomous and, at times, monumen - suffer the likes of Martin Amis, Victor no support and crowds only turned up at the major flaws connected with this docu - tally stupid, lambasting of the Bolsheviks, Sebestyen, Helen Rappaport, Orlando Figes Finland Station to greet Lenin because they mentary: first, that the production team particularly Lenin and Trotsky. The makers Simon Sebag-Montefiore and other self-opin - had been offered free beer! This at least was ever bothered to make it; second, that the of the documentary couldn’t even be both - ionated right-wing windbags whose only a new fairy tale to add to all the others. No- BBC decided to broadcast it and third, ered to find genuine archive footage (which contribution was to tell us endless anecdotes one seemed prepared to tackle an obvious that I wasted an hour of time watching is readily available) instead we were mainly about how nasty/scheming/two-faced Lenin question: if the Bolsheviks were “Johnny-no- this rubbish when I could have been in the shown clips from Sergei Eisenstein’s film of was and how ambitious/vain/arrogant Trot - mates” how come they mobilised many thou - pub. the Revolution, ‘October’ (made in 1927) ac - sky was. I actually felt sorry for the actors – sands for the revolution, closing down Len Glover to be fair to them it would have taken the Petrograd when the crucial time came and Learning and working No proper Brexit debate Alex Nunns’ report of Labour Party Con - tion on freedom of movement! The spectre of Progress and Labour First arguing for I agree with Paul Vernadsky’s reply ( Soli - velopment ference for Red Pepper is one of the bet - of the math - ter pieces written about the debate and Labour to back the single market is given as darity 450) to Colin Waugh (449). a reason to distrust agitation that the Labour Colin quotes Marx from 1845: “The coinci - ematics of atmosphere in Brighton this year. Party should discuss its response to Brexit dence of the changing of circumstances and complex Nonetheless it is another example of at - at its own conference! of human activity or self-change can be con - analysis be - tempts to portray the lack of discussion of Nunns concedes, as we have argued, that ceived and rationally understood only as rev - tween the Brexit as either tactically clever or a minority a firm commitment to maintaining freedom olutionary practice”. He interprets this as mid-18th interest only shared by the Labour right. of movement arrangements may have won saying “that most insights into how [the and the Neither claim bears up to scrutiny. significant support but would not have been world] functions must be arrived at by work - mid-19th His contention that the AWL and others the focus of the Brexit motion. The Labour ers” and “through work, especially work century was are just moaning about Momentum organ - Campaign for the Single Market did have with a large physical component”. Non-man - linked with ising delegates is misleading in the extreme. more text submitted than the Labour Cam - ual-workers can produce new understanding the develop - While true that Brexit was not prioritised be - paign for Free Movement but we cannot only by dialogue with those manual workers. ment of cause Momentum was able to convince peo - predict the compositing process nor what Yet Marx’s picture was of “the detail- Newtonian ple to vote for different topics, there was no would have motivated a majority left-wing worker of to-day, grappled by life-long repe - physical sci - debate as to why Brexit should not be pri - Karl Weierstrass conference to choose to frame the debate. tition of one and the same trivial operation, ences and in oritised, or any other areas for that matter. Conference did vote on Brexit but this was and thus reduced to the mere fragment of a turn of in - Well over 250 people were at the eve of to endorse the NEC statement which, much man”. dustrial technology. conference CLPD rally, where delegates like Keir Starmer’s speech, contained very Workers, Marx wrote, would under capi - But none of the key contributors were man - were told what to prioritise. There was no little substance. talism gain chances to enlarge their under - ual workers. Nor did they fit into the other debate as to who had made the decision but standing not from their routine physical category of thinkers envisaged by Colin: “in - it would be foolish to believe that the In conclusion he believes that the de - work processes, but from the pressure on tellectuals produced by the ruling class in the Labour leadership did not also intervene feat of the reference back on staying in capitalists to develop “fitness of the labourer interests of its continued dominance”. with the Momentum and CLPD leadership the Customs Union and European Eco - for varied work, consequently the greatest All were of modest social origin (Gauss son to avoid discussion of a potentially divisive nomic Area are proof that had a motion possible development of [their] varied apti - of a bricklayer, Euler and Riemann of poor issue. been prioritised it would have fallen. Of tudes” — often by formal training and edu - priests, Cauchy and Weierstrass of govern - Nunns refers to it as a “pragmatic desire course this was a possibility, but stop - cation. One of the great advantages of the ment officials, Dedekind of a university offi - to avoid a split.” What would a split have ping a debate should be seen as a failure modern wage-workers over previous labour - cial...) None had much interest in technology. meant? A chance to discuss the most impor - of the left leadership, not a success. Keith Road ing classes is our variation of jobs, and our The links between their work and technology tant implication of a Tory Brexit, the restric - capacity to win more free time and wider cul - were indirect and complicated. ture outside work. The great Karl Weierstrass when young Did Marx paint too unfavourable a picture was a school teacher, covering many subjects, of manual labour in the capitalist workplace? including gymnastics, as well as maths. Far Pro-independence left? Some craft workers develop inventions. from the physical labour of gym lessons stim - But what about the typical machine-mind - ulating Weierstrass’s research, he saw that Jamie Sims argues ( Solidarity 450) that I may be. I continue to think that would pres - ing worker? And the workers who transport time as one of “unending dreariness and made a false equivalence between Span - ent a democratic problem for a new state. products, or repair and maintain them — boredom” when he “had neither a colleague ish and Catalan nationalism, written out Regarding the pro-independence left: true, dockers, electricians, cleaners? Or office for mathematical discussions nor access to a the pro-independence left and given in - I was mainly talking about the Catalan gov - workers? Can they learn only by being in - mathematical library”. sufficient weight to Catalan civil disobedi - ernment. Sims argues the pro-independence structed by manual craft-workers? Social understanding, too, develops ence. left, and in particular the CUP, has “main - Marx’s 1845 statement means not that only through a complicated collective process, not Some of what he writes — how the Spanish tained its autonomy from the pro-indepen - the individual physically making widgets or by the individual gaining revelation from her government has interfered with Catalan self- dence coalition government”. But the waffles can develop new understanding of or his physical labour. What workers — and government; how hostility to the rotten old “Together for Yes” coalition is precisely an al - the world, but that the collective human all of us — need most to raise our under - post-Francoist order fed independence — I liance of right-wing and left-wing national - process of developing new understanding is standing is what Weierstrass needed: “col - don’t disagree with. ists, and relies for its survival on a confidence linked with the collective human process of leagues for discussion” and “access to a However in saying “whatever its flaws”, and supply arrangement with... the CUP! transforming the physical and social world. library”. the referendum “represented a massive act of This is one of the reasons we need to be Workers’ greater social understanding is Those come “from outside” the imme - collective disobedience by millions of Cata - wary of nationalism — its tendency to pull gained mainly through collective social diate labour process, and through the lans”, I don’t think he answers my point. As the left into lending cross-class support struggle (and associated discussions) rather work of a revolutionary socialist party with far as anyone can tell, there is not a majority to bourgeois governments, in the cause of than from their labour for the capitalist. a strong tradition. for independence, however impressively “national” aims. To take a field I know a little about: the de - Martin Thomas dedicated and courageous those in favour Tony Holmes Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty WHAT WE SAY 5 Stop Brexit!

Opinion polling on 10-11 October showed about a very vaguely-sketched alternative. 64% saying that the Tory government is Democracy means stopping elites like the doing “badly” in negotiating Brexit, and Tories grabbing full power to make and only 21% saying it is doing “well”. shape things to their own liking from such 47% said that, with hindsight, they thought vague mandates. The populace must retain the vote for Brexit in June 2016 was wrong, its say. Minorities must retain a chance to be - 40% that it was right. come majorities. Only a small minority say that Brexit will Given we’ve already had the first referen - make Britain better off economically — only dum, probably the only way to stop the To - 23% overall, and only 12% of Labour voters. ries trashing people’s rights is a second 44% think Brexit will make Britain worse off. referendum. 39% expect Brexit to be bad for jobs, 22% “A Labour MP”, quoted by the Financial bad. 31% expect Britain to be bad for the Times on 17 October, said: “the public would NHS, 25% bad. Among Labour voters, 51% need another vote on whether to go ahead, expect “bad for the NHS”, 17% good. given that the Leave camp had offered a (bit.ly/brex-1011). more positive manifesto [than any possible another referendum, so it’s a hypothetical Brexit supporters on board. Meanwhile the Tories’ talks with the EU exit deal] in June 2016... It would be a ‘final question but yes, I voted remain because I This craven, manipulative approach to pol - are going badly. say’ now that we know the facts. The people thought the best option was to remain. I itics is incompatible with socialism, and un - On Thursday 19th and Friday 20th minis - would want to have the final say over all of haven’t changed my mind on that”. likely to work in the long or even medium ters, and then chiefs, from the 27 other EU this”. Last week I met by chance, on a bus, a term. states will hear a report from Brexit negotia - That MP also told the FT : “this would not member of Corbyn’s inner circle, someone Tens of thousands joined a “Stop Brexit” tions after five rounds of talks. be a ‘second referendum’, despite all appear - I’ve known for decades. I can’t quote him by march at the Tory party conference on 1 Oc - The EU 27 are insisting that the UK must ances to the contrary”. Huh? It would be sec - name, because it was a conversation on a bus, tober in Manchester — some of them chiming promise a clear list of closing-the-account ond, and it would be a referendum, wouldn’t not an on-the-record interview. But those in with pro-EU Tories like Stephen Dorrell, payments before they will even start dis - it? who have followed Labour statements on some of them going on to join the anti-aus - cussing a new deal on trade. In any case, the MP is right. We didn’t want Brexit will recognise his responses as only a terity march the same day. That new deal itself will be difficult. the first referendum, but now it’s happened snappier and more candid rendering of the So far there’s still a majority for the re - Canada’s trade deal with the EU, with much we must demand a “final say” for the popu - official line. signed view: Brexit will be not very good, or less baggage to impede it, took eight years to lace. What should Labour do about Brexit? Re - positively bad, but now we just have to go negotiate and ratify, and nearly collapsed. The alternative is to let the Tories have their sponse: oppose the Tories, criticise the Tories through with it. There is no sign of progress towards the way unchecked, to let them cancel the rights at every step, wait and see, and avoid further That majority is beginning to break up. trade deals with other countries which the of EU citizens and of British citizens to be commitment. Probably it will wane and wax in the next Brexiters airily promised back in 2016. With able to work and study in the EU, to let them What if the Tory government falls before it months and years as the talks between the right-wing nationalists like Trump gaining make difficult-to-reverse decisions, all on the can complete a deal? Won’t Labour then have Tories and EU go worse or better. ground in many countries, the terrain is more authority of an old referendum and the Par - to say something definite? Response: long si - difficult for such deals. liamentary majority of a moment. A determined drive by the left and the lence. Then: “That would be very difficult”. All that should be a signal for the left and Our basic guideline should be working- labour movement can and should turn the The Corbynista insider was sure of one the labour movement to start a drive to stop class solidarity and social levelling-up across majority into a minority, and stop Brexit. thing: Labour cannot, must not, come out for Brexit. We should oppose and harry the To - borders. Immediately, we should also be stopping Brexit. Labour must equivocate in Martin Thomas ries at every point. We should demand — as backing French workers in their battle order to keep both its pro-Brexit and its anti- some pro-EU Tories are already demanding against the very pro-EU but anti-worker — that any exit deal must be voted on by Par - Macron government. liament. Also, however, we cannot let the immedi - Not just in the my-way-or-the-highway al - ate issue of the re-raising of economic and so - ternative the Tories are offering — their deal cial barriers, and the suppression of rights to or a crash exit with no deal at all. free movement, wait on the general and Help us raise £20,000 And not just by Parliament. The June 2016 longer-term issue of reorienting the labour referendum had the defects of all referenda movement towards a workers’ Europe. — a poor form of democracy. It was biased “Stop Brexit” and “Second referendum on because 16-17 year olds and EU citizens resi - any exit deal” should be immediate slogans, to develop our website alongside “Freedom of movement”. dent in Britain were denied votes. It was run The newly restructured Workers’ Liberty We have to raise £20,000 by our conference On 12 October Jeremy Corbyn said that he in a way which artificially limited the mass- website is online at in November 2017. Any amount will help. would vote Remain in a second referendum, media debate to a Tory-vs-Tory contest. www.workersliberty.org Thanks this week to Lesley Maher (£400) but in these terms: “There isn’t going to be And on top of all that, it was a one-off vote Our website, including its extensive and to other donors, for a total of £451. archive, aims to help build a different kind of socialist culture — one where discussion and self-education are cherished. From Trotskyist newspapers of the 1940s Pay cap lifted in the NHS and 50s, to older Marxist classics, to discus - sion articles on feminism, national ques - On Wednesday the 11 October Jeremy the government wants workers to work tions, religion and philosophy and Hunt told the House of Commons that more, or change their roles, just to get a near resources such as guidelines for Marxist £15, 953 the 1% pay cap will be lifted for NHS inflation-level pay rise. reading groups — it’s all there on the staff. The long running 1% public sector pay Workers’ Liberty website. raised out After the government buckled under cap has been well and truly breached now, To make our archive more accessible we pressure and lifted the public sector pay cap and other workers should be demanding have paid for professional help to make all of £20,000 for police and prison officers, the govern - their turn. Civil service workers are cur - content fully integrated, searchable by date ment had shown it was weak and it was rently being balloted by the PCS union in an and subject, and optimised for mobile only a matter of time before it was forced indicative ballot over pay. But the strongest reading. We still need to finance a website into lifting the cap for other workers. section of the union, workers in the Depart - co-ordinator to ensure our coverage is up Hunt has failed to say if the pay rise will ment of Work and Pensions, are locked into to the minute and shared on social media. be funded, or whether NHS employers will a four-year pay deal, and the pay settlement have to find the money within existing, too date in HMRC passed in August and the tight, budgets. So will NHS employers be government imposed the 1% cap. • If you would like to donate by paypal go to www.workersliberty.org/donate left with the ″choice″ of making cuts else - With the Office of National Statistics • Or set up an internet bank transfer to “AWL”, account 20047674 at Unity Trust Bank, where in order to fund pay rises? announcing that inflation has hit a five- Birmingham, 60-83-01 (please email [email protected] to notify us of the payment Hunt has also refused to say how high a year high of 5%, when many public sec - and what it’s for); or pay rise NHS workers should get. He also tor workers have had real-terms pay cuts • Send a cheque payable to “AWL” to AWL, 20E Tower Workshops, Riley Rd, London SE1 said that the pay rise will be linked to ″pro - of 15% since 2010, we are overdue a ductivity improvements″, which suggests fightback on pay. 3DG (with a note saying what it’s for). More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty The revolution betrayed The Octobe By Max Shachtman* By Paul Vernadsky* The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 opened up a new epoch for humanity. In the early hours of 24 October the soviet What no other social upheaval before it seizure of power began. had ever dared to hope for, the Russian Rev - This was not a response to the govern - olution proclaimed boldly and confidently. ment’s ill-conceived decision to launch puni - Not the great French revolution, not even the tive action against the Bolsheviks. The Paris Commune of 1871, not even the re - blueprint had already been drawn up by the hearsal of the Russian Revolution in 1905, Military Revolutionary Committee; insurrec - dreamed that it was the immediate forerun - tionary forces were to seize the Marinskii ner of international socialism. Palace and disperse the pre-parliament. Then The Russian revolutionists of 1917, from the Winter Palace was to be surrounded, min - their leaders down to the most obscure mil - isters arrested and the Provisional Govern - itant, did believe that they had only made ment overthrown. the magnificent beginning, and that the Red Guards and pro-soviet soldiers were Stalin murdered his enemies, the foremost of whom was Leon Trotsky flame they lighted would burn until it illu - mobilised to control the bridges over the river and key buildings such as railway sta - minated and warmed the whole earth with one thing only: in the weakness of the work - products of Russia’s isolation, however, is tions were occupied. Trotsky’s plan focused the victory of socialism. ing class which is destined to destroy it. And the growth and triumph of the Stalinist bu - on defensive measures designed to guarantee But the promise of the Russian Revolution wherein is the weakness of the working class reaucracy. Capitalism’s victory over the rev - that the congress of soviets opened as sched - required for its fulfilment the victorious or - represented? In its lack of numbers? Not at olution in the west gave birth to the uled on the following day. ganisation of the revolution in all the great all; it is numerous enough to crush any bureaucracy in Russia as a powerful social Around midnight the insurrection shifted and advanced countries of the world. It was enemy. In its social unimportance? No; it re - force. The bureaucracy, in turn, has repaid its from defensive to offensive action. This was required, not only in order that the peoples mains the indispensable foundation-stone of capitalist midwife by invaluable services connected to two events: 1. a growing reali - everywhere might emerge from the blind all modern society. rendered to keep it in power throughout the sation that the government was much alley into which capitalism had driven them, Its weakness is only in its lack of full class world. What the social democracy could do weaker than had previously been thought but in order that the revolution in Russia it - consciousness, in its lack of complete inde - for only a few years after the end of the war, and that the city was coming under the phys - self might establish a socialist order, and pendence from the capitalist class, in its lack Stalinism has succeeded in doing since 1923, ical control of soldiers and Red Guards rally - even less than that — that the Russian revolu - of fully independent class organisation, class for 18 long and horrible years. ing to the defence of the soviet, and 2. the tion might be maintained at all . program, class leadership and class aims. Masquerading as revolutionary commu - arrival of Lenin at soviet headquarters. Every intelligent person understood this nists, defaming the names of Lenin and Bol - Lenin’s arrival dramatically changed the simple truth. That the two great titans of the shevism under which they operate, the SOCIAL DEMOCRACY situation. The Bolshevik soviet leaders Russian Revolution, Lenin and Trotsky, un - Stalinist bureaucrats systematically under - The political name of that weakness, shifted from a defensive posture about 2am derstood it, goes without saying. That the mined the revolutionary and labour move - from 1914 on (and even earlier) and espe - on the morning of 25 October. In response, whole Bolshevik Party understood it is ments in one country after another. They cially from 1917 on, was: the Social the government managed to assemble only a equally incontestable. Even the backward took up the work of the social democrats — peasant understood that what he gained Democracy, the Second International. small force of military cadets, officers, Cos - It saved capitalism during and after the often cooperating directly with them — in from the Bolshevik revolution was con - sacks, and a detachment of the women’s bat - First World War. It mowed down the prole - disrupting the unity of the working class. stantly in danger of being lost if imperialism talions to protect the Winter Palace and key tarian revolution in Western Europe with Those organisations they could not domi - abroad continued to remain in power. buildings. machine guns. It seduced and traduced the nate, they destroyed. Those revolutionary Woodrow Wilson understood it, and so Kerensky’s exit was pathetic. On the morn - working class, trading on its past services to uprisings they could not misdirect, they did Lloyd George and Winston Churchill ing of 25 October he paced the rooms of the labour, on the inertia of traditionalism, on crushed, as in Catalonia, with armed force. and Georges Clemenceau and Benito Mus - Winter Palace in an overcoat, issuing minis - the short memory of the workers. It alter - The hundreds of millions of colonial slaves solini and the Emperor of Japan and all the ters with instructions. He wanted to leave the nately beat the workers into unconscious - who saw in the great Russian Revolution a other pillars of the old order, including Adolf city to meet the troops coming from the front ness with clubs or lulled them into paralytic beacon of liberty, they cynically betrayed to Hitler, an obscure corporal in the German for the defence of the Provisional Govern - sleep with soothing whispers that by careful imperialism. The class-consciousness of a Imperial Army whose name was not known ment. One of his adjutants requisitioned a car medical treatment of the poisoned body of whole generation, they tore to shreds. Those at that time to more than 50 people. belonging to the American embassy. Keren - capitalism, by transfusing workers’ blood they could not win to their ends by persua - Was the immense confidence of the Bol - sky “made off in this car, which carried the into it, it would not only get well but become sion or intimidation or outright bribery, they sheviks in the world revolution mistaken? American flag and aided by this disguise, transformed painlessly into socialism. sought to discredit and isolate by methods Before saying categorically “yes” or “no,” it slipped through the numerous Bolshevik pa - By driving back the wave of revolutions that any half-decent capitalist politician would be better to ask whether Lenin or trols which were already active in the city”. that followed the war of 19146-1918 the cap - would hesitate to employ. Trotsky were right in arguing from 1914 on - On the afternoon of 25 October the Winter italist class and its social-democratic assis - In Russia itself every trace of the great rev - ward, and especially from 1917 onward, that Palace was besieged. However, the socialist tants isolated the revolution from the rest of olutionary promise of 1917 has literally been the world is living in a period of the final journalist John Reed and three other Ameri - the world. The products of this isolation of wiped out by reactionary force. The workers decay of capitalism, of dreadful wars, of so - cans bluffed their way in and wandered the revolution are uniformly and universally were reduced to the status of slaves, toiling cialist revolutions and of colonial uprisings. around the palace talking to various people, reactionary. under the despotism of the new ruling class, The Bolsheviks’ complete lack of confi - before walking back out past Red Guards Because the workers of Germany did not the bureaucracy. The peasants were made dence in capitalism’s ability to restore the and soldiers. take power into their own hands, Hitlerism like serfs again, wiped out wholesale, by the old, pre-war, more or less peaceful relation - The battleship Aurora, then anchored in was imposed upon Germany and then upon millions, to suit the needs of the bureaucracy. ships has been confirmed over and over the Neva river, responded by firing a blank the rest of Europe. Because the Chinese For every big factory set up, another concen - again in the last quarter of a century. For 24 round from its bow gun. Most of the shells workers did not take power when they had tration camp rose to surround the victims of years there has been one revolutionary up - the chance to do so, the rotten regime of Chi - a totalitarian regime. All intellectual life was rising after another, with no continent, with ang Kai-shek kept the power, enfeebled transformed into organized, compulsory hardly any one country, exempt. China, facilitated the attack of the Japanese bootlicking of a vulgar, vain and voracious But they were mistaken in their confi - barbarians and helped in general to perpet - autocracy, “with Comrade Stalin at its head.” dence, too. The Russian Revolution did in - uate the precarious rule of these barbarians A small section of the heroes of the deed spread to other countries, but it was * An extract from The in Japan itself. Because the French and Bolshevik Revolution was corrupted; by not triumphant. Each time it was crushed, Russian Revolution, British workers did not lake power, they far the greater part of it that remained and often with the greatest bloodshed. When Workers Took must now fight in an imperialist war against alive after the rigours of the civil war was Yet, wherein is the strength of capitalism Power , by Paul resurgent German imperialism and fight it decimated by Stalin. The noblest figures represented? In our times, in one thing, and Vernadsky. Available under menacing handicaps. So it is through - of October were sent to their graves by for £14.80 including out the world. assassination, including our greatest * Abridged from Labor Action , Vol. V No. 46, postage from Not the least monstrous of the reactionary contemporary, Leon Trotsky. November 1941. www.workersliberty.org/books HISTORY 6-7 er revolution: taking power and holding on

support from the garrison was uncertain. However the Moscow workers’ soviet voted to support the Petrograd MRC’s seizure of Clockwise from above: participants in the October revolution, Red Guards and Lenin, who was the power and to create its own version. The leading Bolshevik figure in the elected Congress of Soviets. fighting in Moscow was bitter, symbolised by the shooting of several dozen pro-soviet fighters after they surrendered in the Kremlin fired exploded spectacularly but harmlessly, These speakers declared their intention to im - on 28 October. Red Guards fought with but one shattered a cornice on the palace and mediately walk out of the congress as a tenacity. another smashed a third-floor corner win - means of opposing the Bolshevik action. The total number of deaths in Moscow was dow, exploding just above the room in which The new soviet central executive commit - never established, but probably ran to several the government was meeting. tee was elected, with the Bolsheviks initially hundred dead and others wounded. By 2 No - Finally, during the late evening, the insur - taking 62 seats, the Left SRs 29 and 10 were vember, when victory was assured in gents filtered into the palace in small num - divided among the Menshevik-International - Moscow, the Bolsheviks had gained tentative bers, rather than actually “storming” it (as ists and other left groups. The soviet cabinet control over a belt of territory across north- depicted in subsequent fictional romanticised was dubbed the “council of people’s commis - central European Russia. paintings and films). sars” (Sovnarkom) by Trotsky and began to The new workers’ government was ex - The losses in the taking of the Winter outline a programme of government. tremely productive in the first two months of Palace were negligible: five sailors and one The old regime did not go quietly and its existence. It issued no fewer than 116 dif - soldier killed and a number slightly some sections took up arms to fight the new ferent decrees by the turn of the year. On the wounded among the assailants. workers’ government. The Petrograd city first day after the seizure of power decrees on council formed a “committee for salvation of land and peace were passed and the death SECOND CONGRESS OF SOVIETS the fatherland and revolution”. penalty abolished. While the Provisional Government was On the morning of 29 October Petrograd On 27 October a temporary decree estab - under siege the second congress of sovi - awoke to sporadic bursts of rifle fire and the lishing press control was passed and two ets began to assemble. fighting was considerably bloodier than on deal: swap Kerensky for safe passage to their days later the new government decreed an In his recollections of Lenin published in the day of the revolution. About 200 were homes in the south. Learning of this, Keren - eight-hour work day. 1924, Trotsky wrote: “The first session of the killed and wounded on both sides in the sky fled once more, disguised in a sailor’s On 2 November it issued the “declaration second congress of soviets was sitting in storming of the Vladimir junker school (a uniform wearing driving goggles. He was ut - of the rights of the peoples of Russia”, for the Smolny. Lenin did not appear here. He re - military academy), which put up especially terly discredited. right of self-determination for Russia’s vari - mained in one of the rooms of Smolny in stubborn resistance. ous nationalities. Some of the junkers were thrown from the which… there was for some reason no furni - OPPOSITION A decree on 10 November abolished the ture, or almost none. Later somebody spread roofs and killed by enraged red forces, al - Other opposition came from within the many social, legal and civil distinctions, blankets on the floor and put two cushions though Antonov-Ovseenko kept his word to ranks and titles that were part of old Russia, ensure the safety of the junkers who had ar - labour movement. on them, Vladimir Ilych and I took a rest On 29 October Vikzhel, the all-Russian ex - while church schools were transferred to the rested him in the telephone station when there lying side-by-side.” ecutive committee of the union of railway people’s commissariat of education by decree they were obliged to surrender. According to a preliminary report to the workers, issued an ultimatum, calling for ne - on 11 November. Meanwhile Kerensky managed to obtain credentials committee, 300 of the 670 dele - gotiations between the Bolsheviks and the Full separation of church and state fol - the support of a small Cossack force under gates were Bolsheviks, 193 were SRs (of parties that had voluntarily withdrawn from lowed in January. General Pyotr Krasnov’s command and per - whom more than half were Left SRs), 68 were the soviet. The Bolsheviks for their part felt The decree on workers’ control was passed suade them to march on Petrograd. Ironically, Mensheviks and 14 were Menshevik-Interna - that they needed to accept the proposal and on 14 November. these were units of the same cavalry corps tionalists. More than 500 came to Petrograd entered into talks. On 22 November the old judicial system that Kornilov had relied on against Kerensky committed in principle to supporting the However, the Mensheviks and SRs took a was abolished and replaced by new “peo - in August. The key battle between Krasnov’s transfer of “all power to the soviets”. hard position, demanding repudiation of the ple’s courts”. thousand-strong Cossack force and the revo - The wait for the Winter Palace to be taken seizure of power on 25 October and insisting On 16 December a decree abolished all lutionary forces army ten times larger, made meant the opening of the congress was de - that the new all-socialist government formed ranks and titles in the army and provided for up of workers’ detachments, soldiers of the layed. The congress endorsed Martov’s mo - must not include Lenin or Trotsky. the election of commanders. Petrograd garrison, and Baltic sailors, took tion, calling for the creation of a democratic In Moscow the Bolsheviks were less pre - The marriage decree on 18 December place on 30 October on the Polkovo Heights, coalition government by negotiation. How - pared for a revolutionary seizure of power. introduced civil marriages and non-reli - 12 miles from Petrograd. ever, a succession of speakers, representatives They had a majority in the workers’ soviet, gious weddings, and made it easier to get The leader of the Baltic sailors, Pavel Dy - of the formerly dominant moderate socialist but not the separate soldiers’ soviet, and so divorced. bloc, rose up to denounce the Bolsheviks. benko, offered the demoralised Cossacks a 8 FEATURE More online at www.workersliberty.org Vote Richard Leonard for SLP Leader leftist platform. and pay the Scottish Living Wage). And election contest was being “rigged” to favour SCOTLAND Unlike Sarwar, whose record of political ac - partly because Leonard is seen as “not as bad Leonard. He also demanded that Alex Row - tivity scarcely goes beyond having been an as”Corbyn. ley resign as SLP deputy leader because he By Dale Street MSP for a year and an MP for five years be - But Leonard’s lead amongst nominations lacked “impartiality”. fore that, Leonard also has an established from CLPs and trade unions does not guar - The “rigging” allegation related to Unite Supporting nominations from Con - record of over three decades of activity in the antee him victory. signing up Labour Party affiliated support - stituency Labour Parties in the Scottish labour movement. Only a small proportion of SLP members ers. Like all affiliated trade unions, Unite was Labour Party (SLP) leadership contest Sarwar presents himself as the “centrist” attend CLP meetings. And recent weeks have required by the SLP to delete its database of closed on 13 October. Richard Leonard unity candidate. In fact, he is the rallying seen a substantial influx of new members, affiliated supporters and begin the process had 42, compared with 16 for Anas Sar - point for the most right-wing elements under the SLP”‘special offer” of membership from scratch again. war. within the SLP. for £1 a month (with no requirement to re - Unite made an initial mistake in the proce - main a member longer than the time needed The right-wing Community trade union It says much about the lack of confidence dure for signing up affiliated supporters, to cast a vote). backed Sarwar. All other unions which sub - of the Labour right that its candidate – who which was subsequently rectified. But this mitted a supporting nomination backed called on Corbyn to resign in last year’s lead - was enough for Murray to unleash the alle - Leonard. Leonard also has a narrow majority ership contest – now has to present himself MUDSLINGING gation of “rigging”. of nominations from the seven Scottish as a loyal Corbyn supporter who will help The worst of Sarwar’s supporters have Murray’s attack on Rowley was based on a Labour MPs, while Sarwar enjoys a majority propel Corbyn into Downing Street. now opted for transforming the SLP lead - covert recording of a private conversation in of nominations from MSPs and councillors. Sarwar’s campaign has failed to pick up ership contest into a re-run of last year’s which Rowley said that he backed Leonard. Leonard is the left-wing candidate in the traction. Much of the centre ground, and national contest, by throwing out un - Rather than condemn the covert contest. Although not a member of the Cam - even some of the soft right, have backed founded allegations with a total disregard paign for Socialism (which doubles up as the Leonard at CLP meetings. for the damage which they inflict on the recording of a private conversation, Mur - Scottish “wing” of Momentum), he has a This is partly because of Anas Sarwar’s SLP itself. ray chose to attack Rowley (whose sup - solid track record of promoting left-wing past shares in, and dividends from, his family Edinburgh South Labour MP and Progress port for Leonard was already well-known). policies and is contesting the election on a firm (which fails to recognise a trade union member Ian Murray has claimed that the 1980s ozone layer to return by... 2050

5500 degrees Celsius). Spectroscopy showed such as Freon (Cl2F2C) is hit by a UV photon that it did, with the puzzling exception of a and a chlorine atom (Cl) is knocked out. If SCIENCE region of wavelengths shorter than 310 this collides with an ozone molecule, it grabs By Les Hearn nanometres, just beyond the violet region. an oxygen atom to make a ClO molecule, This, the UV region, was about 1% of the pre - leaving an ordinary oxygen molecule that dicted intensity. This meant that about 99% doesn’t absorb UVR. The ClO collides with Good news! The ozone hole is shrinking of UVR was being absorbed by something another ozone molecule, making more O2 at last, a rare success for collective action 1 and an exhaustive search of likely chemical and regenerating the original Cl atom… in response to scientific evidence. Unfortunately, it will take until 2050 to re - substances found that ozone was largely re - which can now repeat the process with more turn to its 1980 levels. This is because the sponsible. ozone. The Cl is thus a catalyst for the break - chemicals largely responsible for its deple - The amount of ozone differs in different down of ozone. Each cycle removes two tion are very stable and those already re - parts of the world and at different times of ozone molecules and there can be thousands leased will persist in the atmosphere until year, as does the intensity of UVR, so the of cycles before the Cl atom collides with then, even if no more emissions take place. amount of UVR reaching the ground is vari - something else and the process stops. It’s 30 years since the signing of the Mon - able. In general, UVR is highest when the Sun This was realised in the ‘70s but no-one treal Protocol which aimed to tackle the prob - is higher in the sky, i.e. in equatorial regions knew if the effect was significant until the late lem of the accelerating destruction of the and during summer in northern and south - Joe Farman and colleagues found a massive ozone layer by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). ern regions. hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica. The Ozone in the stratosphere absorbs most of the levels had dropped by some 40% in about ten Sun’s ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and with - years. Farman had been measuring the levels MIDGLEY The shrinking ozone hole out it life would be difficult or impossible ex - The UVR that gets through can be damag - for about five years, first fearing that his in - cept several metres below the surface of the ing to life, including humans in whom it struments were faulty. NASA had failed to warming. One option is to amend the Mon - oceans. causes sunburn, cataracts, and poten - detect the drop as its computer software was treal Protocol to include HFCs (they are al - Ozone (O3) is made from oxygen (O2) by tially fatal skin cancers. programmed to ignore “unusual” readings. ready in the Kyoto Protocol) but the the action of UVR in the stratosphere. But for Many humans have melanin pigment in The clear threat was that, as thinning of the alternatives also have their own problems. there to be oxygen in the stratosphere there layer spread, organisms would be affected by their skin which can absorb UVR before dam - Propane/methylpropane mixtures are first had to be oxygen in the lower atmos - the increased UVR, particularly UVB. This age can occur but lighter-skinned people in very effective refrigerants but are flamma - phere and this only appeared when Earth would affect plant growth, harm populations high-UVR regions are at risk. Australia and ble (but then so is methane, piped to most was about half the age it is now, with the evo - of plankton in the upper levels of the oceans, New Zealand have the highest rates of houses in the UK). lution of photosynthesis by bacteria in the melanoma in the world. It was therefore and cause increased skin cancers and oceans. These produced oxygen as a waste alarming to learn in 1985 that there was a cataracts. Australia would be the first to be product which gradually began to accumu - great hole in the ozone layer above Antarc - affected, with potential epidemic levels of Notes: late in the atmosphere. Ozone started to ac - tica. However, the story started earlier. skin cancer. 1. http://www.unep.org/stories/story/still-fresh- cumulate also and by half a billion years ago Refrigerators use the evaporation and con - Due to different weather patterns, the Arc - 30-ozone-hole-healing-montreal-protocol-takes-cli - was absorbing enough UVR for the land to densation of liquids to transfer heat from the tic had not yet developed an ozone hole but mate-change become habitable. contents to the outside (you may have no - would eventually if nothing changed as the 2. Thomas Midgley had “form.” In 1921, he Scientists only became aware of these facts ticed warmth from the back of a fridge). Early amount has also declined. Farman published showed that tetraethyl lead when added to petrol with: his results in 1985 and, despite the opposition prevented the damaging phenomenon of engine fridges used easily liquefied gases such as “knock.” Despite knowing of its toxicity Midgley A. the prediction and then discovery of dif - methyl chloride, ammonia or sulfur dioxide, of the chemicals industry, the Montreal Pro - insisted that it was safe. It was marketed as “Ethyl” ferent types of light (radiation) with different but these were toxic if released. Chemist tocol phasing out CFCs was signed in 1987. with no mention of lead. Midgley then inadver - wavelengths; Thomas Midgley 2 developed the efficient Readers may be surprised to learn that Mar - tently initiated the destruction of the ozone layer B. the development of spectroscopy, the synthesis of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) garet Thatcher played a positive role in this. 3 through CFCs. It has been said that he “had more study of how matter absorbs and emits light; around 1930 and proposed their use as safe It will take a long time for the ozone layer impact on the atmosphere than any other single or - and refrigerants. CFCs are very unreactive which to return to its original thickness. In the ganism in Earth’s history.” C. the understanding of how hot objects is excellent for a refrigerant. Midgley demon - meantime, we must make sure that govern - 3. You won’t often hear a good word from me about Margaret Thatcher but with a Chemistry de - emit energy in the form of light. strated their safety by inhaling some and ments and businesses adhere to the Montreal These were mostly the result of curiosity- gree and PhD, this may have partly explained why blowing out a candle. However, if released Protocol. But there is another problem: CFCs she protected the funding of the British Antarctic driven research. when a fridge is damaged or scrapped, their are actually more potent “greenhouse” gases Survey. She could also understand the scientific ev - It was realised that the Sun should emit ra - very stability means that CFCs persist in the than carbon dioxide and some of their ozone- idence about CFCs and supported the Montreal diation of different wavelengths in the pro - atmosphere, eventually reaching the strato - friendly replacements, such as hydrofluoro - Protocol. She also supported UK’s membership of portions predicted for the spectrum of a sphere. carbons (HFCs), are even worse. Phasing out CERN and the establishment of the IPCC to re - “black body” of the same temperature (about Here the problem starts: a CFC molecule CFCs has already reduced the rate of global search climate change. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty FEATURE 9 Experience and revolutionary politics young women into the “appropriate” — i.e. The experience of oppression further has This article by Louise O’Shea from the usually sexist — ways for women to look and the potential to politicise those who suffer it. Australian fortnightly paper Red Flag behave. It can provide important insights into the outlines the important but unstable role But the experience of oppression can also way in which power is deployed and in - of experience in revolutionary politics. have the opposite effect. Under the right cir - equality maintained, which is harder to ob - Abridged and reprinted here to cumstances, it can politicise people and in - serve by those who are spared such promote discussion. cline them towards rebellion. You only have treatment. And it can push people to resist – to think of the daring acts of the women’s lib - without resistance there can be no liberation. eration movement of the late 1960s or the Often, although certainly not always, op - The label “identity politics” is applied to a protests and riots in offshore detention cen - pression can lead to greater empathy with range of positions and practices, the key tres. The sense of injustice born from experi - other groups subject to similar treatment, unifying features of which are sectional ence can transform an individual into an even if those empathising are themselves not approaches to challenging oppression activist and fighter against the powers that directly affected. and the prioritisation of subjective expe - be, just as much as it can force them into sub - The experience of oppression can equip rience. mission. people to better recognise the operation of These can be highly theorised or simply re - The way in which the oppressed respond power and control, or the common social flect a common sense based on what seem to their experience of oppression is thus consequences of it. This raises the potential like readily observable truths: that the world highly subjective. It can be influenced by per - for solidarity and can help make clear the is divided between people who suffer op - sonal factors, other aspects of the individual need for an integrated theory of society that pression and those who do not, and that such as their class position or political back - can account for different forms of oppression, group interests flow from multiple sectional who do not share this experience can do no ground and the broader political climate in the interests that connect them and the strate - divides. For example, the fact women are op - more than play a passive role supporting which they are immersed. This is reflected in gies needed to combat them. That is, it can pressed makes men at best constitutionally those who do, or else become complicit in the the various and divergent political manifes - push people toward an understanding of so - disinterested in women’s liberation or at problem. tations of resistance to oppression: there are cial inequality that goes beyond their own worst culpable in their oppression. So it goes Like other varieties of identity politics, it conservative women’s groups and radical narrow experience. for other forms of oppression. links the validity of any argument to the ones. There are refugee groups that campaign A white person could not have been Martin The way in which identity politics is ex - identity of the person making it. What is against the government, and others that at - Luther King Jnr and a straight person could pressed changes over time. In the 1960s sep - being said becomes a second rate considera - tempt to curry favour with it. not have been Harvey Milk. When members aratism was a key manifestation, in particular tion to who is saying it. Finally, the causes of oppression cannot be of an oppressed group challenge their op - among women and, later, lesbian women. The problem with this approach is that, on elucidated from experience alone. It is not pression, it is much more compelling for oth - Marcus Garvey’s Pan-African movement, its own, experience is an inadequate founda - possible to understand the workings of the ers who are not yet part of the resistance. which encouraged Blacks in the US to return tion from which to develop an analysis of op - whole economy from the vantage point of Their experience imbues them with a greater to Africa to be free of racism, was an earlier pression or to devise political strategies to one workplace, nor is it possible to develop moral authority among those they are at - example of a similar political outlook. end it. an appreciation of the multitude of structural tempting to lead, which is why struggles Today, separatism doesn’t attract much In part, this is because the experience of op - factors that underpin women’s oppression against oppression tend to be strongest when support. Much more widespread is a form of pression is not uniform, and the oppressed from the sexist realities of daily life. they are led by those who suffer it. identity politics in which experience (often are not a homogeneous bloc. In reality, there To understand complex social reality, it is To win liberation, the active participation emphasised with the entirely superfluous ad - are as many experiences as there are individ - necessary to move beyond the limits of expe - of a critical mass of the oppressed is essential, jective “lived”) is accorded primacy, endow - uals who suffer oppression. rience. and inconceivable without the emergence of ing an unquestionable validity upon the [For example] the experience of a refugee Expecting to derive any meaningful under - leaders from among these same social layers. subjects and their analytical and strategic ap - who has spent years languishing in detention standing of oppression by passively listening But this isn’t because only the oppressed, proach to oppression. and one who has managed to avoid this or - to the experiences of the oppressed is by virtue of their experience, possess the nec - A recent example demonstrates this point deal are very different, although equally doomed to chronic confusion and ultimate essary insight into their oppression to lead a of view. valid, examples of the refugee experience. failure. So too is elevating to a principle the struggle. Martin Luther King Jnr wasn’t a One is a statement released by the refugee Political strategies based on subjective ex - belief that experience alone gives an individ - great leader of the oppressed because of any advocacy group Refugees, Survivors and Ex- perience will tend to arbitrarily elevate cer - ual exclusive insight into what is needed to particular experience or because his was Detainees (known as RISE) in the lead-up to tain experiences over others, reduce the remedy oppression and understand its more “authentic” than that of other would- the Palm Sunday march, traditionally the complex reality of oppression to a mere causes. be leaders, but because he could rouse peo - largest pro-refugee demonstration of the stereotype or become overwhelmed to the ple, raise their confidence to fight and their point that the coherence of the oppressed year. As part of a demand for greater RISE OPPRESSION sense of hope. This came from his broader so - representation on the speaking platform, the group itself is called into question. cial vision, analysis and political influences. This is not to say that the experience of group argued: Attempts to determine which experience is Likewise, the successes of women’s rights’ oppression does not matter or that those “RISE is the only organisation within Aus - “authentic” or properly representative are struggles in the 1960s were connected with who do not experience oppression should tralia that is entirely governed by refugees, highly problematic. Rather than capturing the strength of the trade union movement asylum seekers and ex-detainees. The work some pure reality of oppression, they more or can provide any greater clarity. Rather, it highlights that experience alone and the overall climate of rebellion, which that we do is underpinned by our belief in often reflect the broader prejudices – or the cannot adequately inform an analysis of op - shaped the political approach of activists just the power and necessity of self-determina - political agendas – of those people making pression or a political strategy to fight it. Such as much as their experience tended to. tion. It is integral that the voices of those with the determinations. an analysis must be arrived at through argu - A theory of oppression and struggle for lib - lived experiences are amplified, leading the The second problem with this approach, ment and debate among the oppressed, and eration is strongest when it is built on a the - conversation on all matters pertaining to related to the first, is that the way in which those who share the goal of liberation. Ulti - ory of society that can account for all forms refugees … It is a movement like RISE that individuals respond to their experience of mately, analysis and strategy must be tested of oppression and inequality, identify accu - should be placed at the fore of the refugee ad - oppression can vary widely, even when the in practice through the experience of struggle rately their causes and provide a strategy for vocacy space.” experience is very similar. as well as by reference to historical experi - liberation. The strength of any such theory An article supportive of this statement , The experience of oppression can, for ex - ence. can only be tested by history and in ongoing published in Community Four, further elab - ample, lead to an acceptance, whole or par - In this process, experience undoubtedly struggle. orates this position: tial, of a particular group’s subordinate place plays a role. It is self-evident that those who Experience alone is an inadequate starting “Over time these communities have taught in society, whether because individuals have experience oppression are best placed to de - point from which to develop such a theory. It us that effective and sustainable change for internalised their oppression or because they scribe the way in which it is perpetuated, is not sufficient to be concerned only with the oppressed only truly comes when they feel they have no choice but to adapt to the both overtly and via more subtle means, and that which you have experience of, or to pas - themselves take control of their own move - apparently unassailable status quo. understand the deleterious effects it can sively take a lead from those with no other ment. This is because they are the ones that Entirely understandably, many refugees re - have. This can help others become better at - qualification than belonging to an oppressed live with the daily reality of oppression and spond to their oppression by more eagerly tuned to the social realities of oppression, group. are the ones that will have to live with any embracing their adopted country and its cul - which in turn helps to create a more inclusive All those committed to liberation and change that is achieved (unlike those of us ture and institutions to demonstrate their political environment. social equality have an obligation to ac - who can switch the lights off and go home at gratitude or because they feel that to do oth - The common experience of members of op - tively engage with, question and test dif - the end of the day as truly free citizens). It is erwise might provoke hostility. This can be pressed groups, even in very different social ferent theories of society and oppression, their diverse voices that we need to listen to the case even though the very same country circumstances, also confirms that structural and learn from the lessons of struggle before taking another step forward.” and its institutions may have brutalised them discrimination is what underpins a particular that have tested these historically and in The theme here is, first, that experience of in their efforts to gain asylum. group’s subordinate position, not merely bad the here and now. This can’t be done with - oppression confers an incontrovertible au - Likewise, many women pro-actively im - luck, individual failings or general social dis - out moving beyond the narrow politics of thority that alone qualifies a person to speak, pose sexist norms and values on other advantage. This helps to identity the problem identity and experience. analyse and present strategies to challenge or women, despite experiencing the negative ef - and highlight what is needed to achieve lib - eliminate oppression. Second is that those fects of sexism themselves. It is overwhelm - ingly mothers, for example, who socialise eration. • bit.ly/2hNgbQ4 Where we stand More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns Open up the democracy review the means of production. The capitalists’ control over the economy and their relentless drive to increase their wealth causes poverty, unemployment, LABOUR the blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the environment and much else. By Keith Road Against the accumulated wealth and power of the capitalists, the working class must unite to struggle against capitalist Former left MP Katy Clark will be power in the workplace and in wider society. leading on the Labour Party The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty wants socialist revolution: democracy review but the terms of the review are not yet clear. collective ownership of industry and services, workers’ control, Rule change motions that were and a democracy much fuller than the present system, with remitted by conference will all be elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to left on the table. Similar promises bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. of a democratic review were made We fight for trade unions and the Labour Party to break with in 2010 ,with bad results. However Labour Party conference 2017 with the Corbyn leadership firmly “social partnership” with the bosses and to militantly assert at the helm, there is hope for more very much at all. lowing conference. working-class interests. thoroughgoing and democratic re - At the time the Labour Party Conference should have the right form. Democracy Task Force was set up to not just refer back the National In workplaces, trade unions, and Labour organisations; As selection procedures will not by CLPD and others, including Policy Forum documents but to among students; in local campaigns; on the left and in form part of the review, there will supporters of Workers’ Liberty, to delete and amend whole sections. wider political alliances we stand for: be no discussion of mandatory re- write its own submission and to If an elected policy development is • Independent working-class representation in politics. selection or reform of the trigger campaign for real democratic needed, the opaque and poorly ballot procedures. It is unclear if A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the change. Many of its broader pro - functioning NPF would not be it! • CLPs will be asked to make sub - posals are still relevant today. The current review will report di - labour movement. missions, exactly what role the Na - The task of the review should be rectly to Corbyn and to the Party • A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to tional Executive, leadership, to empower members to run the Chair Ian Lavery and should be strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. Parliamentary Labour Party, party. This means it should discuss completed before next September • Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, unions and so on will play. not only selection procedures for in time for the 2018 conference. What would thoroughgoing education and jobs for all. MPs but move towards a confer - It is vital that activists start to democratic change in the Party ence that is focused on discussing argue in the local branches and • A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. look like? In 2011 the Labour Party policy and debates. This means CLPs to have control over the Full equality for women, and social provision to free women launched Refounding Labour. being able to discuss actual policy process and to start a debate on from domestic labour. For reproductive justice: free abortion on Chaired by Peter Hain, this process resolutions and not contemporary the kind of reform we need now. demand; the right to choose when and whether to have was ostensibly able to review motions that must refer to an event everything including the “Partner - children. Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and on a specific date. Rule changes • For the “A Living, Breathing ship in Power” structure intro - should be heard the year they are Party” submission to Refounding transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity against duced by Blair in 1997. submitted and implemented fol - Labour see bit.ly/2zvFwWI racism. Unsurprisingly it failed to deliver • Open borders. • Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. Left debates at Young Labour Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest • tant debates: on freedom of move - Jews had to be removed from for - workplace or community to global social By a delegate ment and Israel-Palestine. merly Arab lands for justice to be organisation. The motion on free movement done — a superficially “militant” Around 200 delegates attended • Equal rights for all nations, against submitted by Clarion supporters position, but one which, carried to the 2017 Young Labour Policy pointed out that migration did not its logical conclusion, would lead to imperialists and predators big and small. Conference at Warwick Univer - Maximum left unity in action, and cause falling wages, called for genocidal war, bitter enmity to - • sity over the weekend of 15-15 Labour to oppose an end to free wards most of the world’s Jews, openness in debate. October. In a marked change from previ - movement and to close down de - and no prospect of improvement in ous years the mood of the confer - tention centres. the lives of most Palestinians (who If you agree with us, please take some ence was left wing. The conference overwhelmingly support a two- state solution). Bizarrely, some par - copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! voted for free education, shrugging FREE MOVEMENT off the attempts of the much-re - ticularly sectarian professional “left-wing” Israel-baiters slandered duced Blairite faction to garner This motion met with demagogic the internationalist trade union support for their graduate tax pol - opposition, including from the WAC-Ma’an as “Zionist” for hav - icy. Likewise, the conference voted Unite Young Members delega - ing Israeli-Jewish members. Events to leave NATO — a clear break tion. from the foreign policy of recent They made conservative argu - At one point in the conference, some supporters of Workers’ Lib - Friday 20 October Saturday 28 October years. ments packed with left-sounding The conference revealed three jargon – i.e. that migration in fact erty voted against a motion that The Russian Revolution 100 Beyond the Backstreet: Fighting called for the application of the years on — London Forum for Abortion Rights 50 Years political tendencies: a Blairite right did suppress wages (a notion with wing organised around activists no basis in fact) and that freedom 1967 Abortion Rights Act to North - 7.30pm, Room 675, Institute of 10am, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, ern Ireland. That was a mistake. Education, 20 Bedford Way, Lon - London E1 6LA from Labour Students, now very of movement had been invented much on the back foot; a diverse “by capitalists, for capitalists” and Workers’ Liberty has long sup - don WC1H 0AL bit.ly/2iiNWwC ported the extension of the Act to bit.ly/OctForum “middle” tendency broadly influ - that therefore locking workers be - enced by the politics of Momentum hind national borders would be Northern Ireland, and abortion Wednesday 15 November rights for all women all over the Monday 23 October National demo: Free Education and the leadership of Unite; and a preferable. Sadly, the motion fell, left wing current grouped around although a subsequent motion, world. Is socialism possible? Now — Tax The Rich The growth of the broad left in 6.30pm, The Trent House, 1-2 1pm, Assemble Malet Street, Lon - supporters of the Clarion magazine, more limited in scope, about de - that put forward clearer class- fending migrant workers’ rights, Young Labour is to be warmly wel - Leazes Lane, Newcastle NE1 4QT don WC1E 7HX comed. But the debate on free bit.ly/2greJ61 bit.ly/2yvbmEU struggle socialist ideas, including passed. some supporters of Workers’ Lib - Conference also voted against a movement and Israel-Palestine erty. In votes on many bread-and- socialist motion on Israel-Palestine. shows the need for a fight for so - Wednesday 25 October Saturday 18 November cialist, internationalist politics. Sheffield students support the Surround Yarl’s Wood demo butter class-struggle issues such as It called for an end to Israel’s occu - Eastern Avenue Jobcentre strike Coaches from London the Clarion supporters’ call for the pation of the Palestinian territories, Moreover, for the debates at 7.30am, 19 Eastern Avenue, bit.ly/2ghkSRZ nationalisation of the banks, the an independent Palestinian state, this conference to have mean - Sheffield S2 2FZ conference was a left-right fight, and support for the workers’ move - ing, more Young Labour groups bit.ly/2ij0T9V with the Blairites on one side and ment in both countries, such as rad - need to be set up at the con - the centre-left and the hard left on ical binational unions like stituency level, and organise the other. But differences within the WAC-Ma’an. Speakers opposed the meaningful and attractive social - Have an event you want listing? Email: centre-left came out in two impor - motion on the grounds that Israeli ist activity in working-class com - munities. [email protected] REPORTS 10-11 Cinema workers empowered DOO strikes grow again

By a Picturehouse worker

On Sunday 15 October Picture - house workers at five London sites struck, and protested at the closing gala of the London Film Festival. We had large “billboard” plac - ards (as the closing gala hosted the premier of ‘Three Billboards Out - side Ebbing, Missouri’), visible across the red carpet crowds. We linked arms to physically block en - trances to festival venues including the red carpets. We sent paper Aslef has also been involved in the planes with our messages flying By a railworker dispute, but has repeatedly pulled onto the red carpet. We let off its members out of strikes for talks smoke flares. We organised the Guards on Northern, Merseyrail, with the employer. Statements demonstration specifically to be Southern, and Greater Anglia about these talks are vague, sim - struck on 3 and 5 October in the noisy and disruptive. We certainly caused a huge amount trying to recruit people to Bectu ply stating that ″pay talks at The summer is a quiet time for on going dispute over Driver- Southern have had a break - of embarrassment and disruption might find they start having better Only Operation (DOO) of trains. the cinema industry, and also there - to LFF. Festival organisers have al - luck now with more people on shift On Greater Anglia workers will through, we expect to finalise a fore for the strike. The London Film ready privately communicated to and new faces. begin an overtime ban for four proposed settlement soon.″ No Festival (LFF) represents the start of us that they are rethinking their use Community support has been in - weeks. This is a tactic which needs deal should be done for drivers at busy period of big releases, which of Picturehouse. We will be target - creasingly important to the strike. to be extended to all the other the expense of guards on South - we hope to target. ing other festivals and events in the Both for putting pressure on the franchises involved in the DOO ern. Guards′ union RMT has high - After spreading to six sites in the same way. The business model of company and giving confidence to dispute. Workers on South West lighted that Greater Anglia′s last year the strike has not grown the Picturehouse is particularly re - tired strikers who felt alone. The di - trains have voted for strikes and insistence on strike breaking al - for a while; we have had the same liant on special events, such as film rect action and community picket are set to join the next round of most resulted in serious incidents. number of sites and members for festivals, more so than other chains. lines has been wonderful to see. strikes: these should be an - Southern has continued to try and some time. However the LFF The summer is very hard time to The company seems more worried nounced now in order to build intimidate guards who strike. strikes show a considerable deep - recruit cinema workers to the at the moment about this unknown pressure on the rail companies Both the RMT and Aslef ening of militancy and determina - union. Work is relatively seasonal, element than it does about us. and the government. should look to dig in for a long tion. For the first time our meetings with a lot of sites running with From the company’s perspective On Southern Rail, drivers′ union fight, and the labour movement discussed plans not simply to pro - minimum staffing levels in the the community demonstrators should gather round to help. vide symbolic protest but to dis - summer months, and the company come out of nowhere and the com - rupt, representing a real turn in lets go as many staff as it can to pany can’t use its normal tactic of attitudes. keep the wage bill down. Most staff legal threats and bullying. The After the demonstrations during are doing fewer hours and their company has been sending re - London Film Festival we feel em - mind is not on their Picturehouse peated demands to Bectu demand - powered and energised by this working life. ing Bectu put a stop to it and police more radical turn. To win the strike Now dozens of new staff are community actions. Bectu of course we need more sites on strike. We being recruited shaking up the can’t do this even if it wanted to, as have the energy, commitment and makeup of each site. Workers are these are outside of the union’s persistence to get them recruited. taking more regular shifts, and control: a situation the company We targetted the London Film their mind is very much on the job cannot plan for. Festival to get it to pull out of using and the conditions they work in. We are now planning our next Picturehouse cinemas, and to get Community support campaigns set of strikes. Watch this space. other film festivals to follow suit.

Cleaners on London Underground, RMT activists and other supporters School strips workers of sick pay demonstrated at London City Hall on Thursday 12 October. They called for justice for cleaners — an end to outsourcing, £10 an hour wage, travel passes, sick pay, holiday, and pensions. More information on the campaign school had offered to pay staff an School management have on www.rmtlondoncalling.org.uk By Patrick Murphy, National extra £15 per month to allow them claimed accepting the unions’ de - Education Union executive to buy their own sickness insurance mands for a fair and equal pay pol - ever, the university has ignored through money-market.com! icy for all staff would lead to By a UCL student their requests to negotiate new School workers at a London The new Sickness Procedure also redundancies because of the cost. terms and pay. Academy will strike to win states that where a worker is signed This is scaremongering for which Workers at University of London Now a student and community proper entitlements to sick pay. off with stress, depression, or anxi - not a shred of evidence has been have been organising for better Workers at Charlton Park Acad - supporter campaign is starting, Jus - ety as a result of a grievance, per - produced but it highlights once pay, an end to outsourcing, and tice for UoL Workers, to help push emy, in Greenwich, found that, formance, or disciplinary issue, again how cuts and underfunding respect at work through the since becoming an academy, the forward the demands of these they may find that sick pay has are used to force workers into a IWGB union. workers. school is abandoning sick leave been stopped. As one member of race to the bottom. A majority of those involved in conditions contained in the Bur - There will be an open meeting staff at CPA explained: “This is a Workers and their unions at the campaign are security guards, gundy Book (for teachers) and the for this campaign on 25 October bully’s charter — managers can Charlton Park Academy need but increasingly admins, post room Green Book (for support staff). at 5pm, Nunn Hall in the Institute bully us, threaten disciplinary and your support and solidarity. workers, and porters are unionis - While some staff have TUPE pro - capability, and make us ill and then ing and joining the dispute. How - of Education, 20 Bedford Way, tection which means they continue refuse to pay us our sick pay enti - • Messages of support to NEU rep, WC1H 0AL. to have the previous conditions, tlements”. Aliye Neal and GMB rep Tony new staff do not. For many staff Members of the GMB and the Smith can be sent via this means being out of pocket National Education Union (NEU) [email protected]. Night tube to ballot within a month of ill-health. One struck together last summer term • The campaign is also raising member of staff who was injured at and plan more strikes this term. money to help GMB members reneged on an agreement reached work found that she was on Statu - By Ollie Moore The GMB will strike on 17 October who do not receive full sustenta - following a previous dispute and tory Sick Pay (£89.35) after only 20 and the NEU are currently ballot - tion for strikes. Please send threat of strikes that was intended days and had to pay her rent with ing. A joint GMB-NEU campaign cheques payable to Greenwich Tube union RMT has declared a to guarantee drivers fair progres - a credit card. has been launched which includes Teachers Association to Graham new dispute with London Under - The attitude of the employer is public meetings, video clips and so - Trafford (Treasurer), Greenwich ground involving its driver mem - sion into full-time roles. Dickensian. The Chair of Gover - cial media promotions as well as NEU, Eltham Centre, 2 Archery bers, over issues relating to RMT is preparing to ballot its nors, Graham Harknett, wrote to the strikes. Road, London, SE9 1HA career progression. Night Tube driver members for parents recently to boast that the Night Tube drivers say LU has strikes. SolidaFor a workers’ giovertnment y No 451 18 October 2017 50p/£1 CATALONIA: NO TO MADRID CLAMPDOWN!

National Assembly) and Jordi By Tony Holmes Cuixart of the Catalanist political and cultural institution Omnium. The Spanish government in The Puigdemont government Madrid says that it will suspend had hoped that a referendum regional autonomy and impose would force Spanish PM Mariano direct rule on Catalonia from Rajoy into granting concessions on Thursday 19 October unless further autonomy. The conserva - president Carles Puigdemont tive Spanish prime minister, Mari - abandons his push for inde - ano Rajoy, with one eye on pendence for the territory. A Madrid clampdown would, right-wing and anti-Catalan senti - soon if not immediately, lead to vi - ment in his voter base, called olent clashes such as happened Puigdemont’s bluff and sent cops when the Spanish government to try to repress the referendum tried to stop Catalonia’s 1 October with police methods. referendum. The Catalan police might well side with the Catalan AWKWARD government against Spanish gov - Both Puigdemont and Rajoy are ernment forces. caught in awkward positions. On 10 October Catalan president Puigdemont is being pushed to - Carles Puigdemont fell short of a wards a declaration of independ - full-scale declaration of independ - ence which he probably wasn’t ence, instead making a “symbolic” planning on: on the latest polls this declaration to the Catalan parlia - year, there is as yet no clear major - ment which he then immediately ity in Catalonia for independence. “suspended”, calling for negotia - The Spanish government is tions with the Spanish state and in - moving to more and more auto - ternational mediation. cratic measures, feeding a crisis The Spanish government has that is damaging Spain’s diplo - tried to face down Puigdemont, matic position and sending panic demanding he confirm whether through the economy. he’s actually declared independ - We are not for Catalan sepa - ence or not. Puigdemont has re - ratism. We believe that whatever fused. extra autonomy is necessary to sat - Catalonian firefighters protect crowds from Spanish police at polling stations in the 1 October referendum Spanish police have already ar - isfy Catalan rights can be won rested two pro-independence without setting up new border time. cisions, without coercion, of the for an end to repression from politicians on charges of sedition, posts — not under the current Yet the issue can be settled Catalan people themselves. The Madrid and to oppose the re - Jordi Sànchez of the ANC (Catalan Rajoy regime, but within a feasible democratically only by free de - priority now must be to demand voking of regional autonomy or

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