So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y No 260 6 March 2013 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org For a workers’ government

What is Italy’s Lessons from Inequality 5 Star Movement? Bulgaria kills! page 4 pages 6-7 page 8 Stop the rise of Ukip For a workers’ Europe JOBS, HOMES, See EDUCATION page 5 FOR ALL 2 NEWS What is the Alliance for An injury to one is an injury to all. Workers’ Liberty? Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of Defend Bob Carnegie! production. Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to increase their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the By Colin Foster (EBA) and replace it by a struggle. loved ones. environment and much else. union agreement with a Since initially being However, there are many Against the accumulated wealth and power of the On 11,12, and 13 Febru - subcontractors’ clause charged, Bob Carnegie has things we all can do to capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. ary, as Bob Carnegie guaranteeing equal pay for had to face court four make it known that we The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity through faced trial, thousands of equal work. times. view the attack on Bob struggle so that the working class can overthrow capitalism. We want construction workers That victory for construc - If Abigroup gets a guilty Carnegie was an attack on socialist revolution: collective ownership of industry and services, walked off the job to tion workers did not come verdict and a heavy sen - all of use: “touch one, workers’ control and a democracy much fuller than the present system, show Bob that he had easily. The QCH workers tence on the contempt touch all”. with elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to their full support. Bob is went more than eight charge, then they will be The following motion bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. extremely grateful for weeks without pay, and encouraged to pursue ag - could be moved at union, We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” that support. many workers suffered gressively other court pro - work, site, or shipboard and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. many hardships. ceedings they have already meetings. Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, However, the trial has not finished, not by a long After the victory, work - started, suing both Bob “This meeting of union supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping ing-class people who sup - Carnegie and the unions men and women calls upon organise rank-and-file groups. way. On 2 April there are ported the QCH workers for damages over the dis - the ACTU and respective We are also active among students and in many campaigns and further submissions. Some alliances. time after that the court during the dispute are pute. That case will be state organisations, and our will give its verdict. Should being hounded in the heard after the contempt own union, to fully support We stand for: Bob be found guilty, sen - courts by Abigroup. case. a campaign of industrial ● Independent working-class representation in politics. tencing will follow a little It could potentially lead and political agitation ● A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour time later again. to damages and costs of against Lend Lease (who movement. CHARGED many millions of dollars own Abigroup) to demand There is a very real possi - Bob Carnegie, who ● A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to bility of Bob Carnegie being awarded against the it drops its vindictive and picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. played a significant role unions. It could set a prece - spiteful attack on Bob being jailed for his support during the dispute, was ● Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education of the QCH workers. dent so that even in dis - Carnegie, a community ac - and jobs for all. charged with 54 counts putes, such as QCH, where tivist”. All this started soon after Motions should be for - ● A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full of criminal contempt of the bosses finally conceded 2 October2012, when warded to ACTU Presi - equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden court, 36 hours after the to workers’ demands, those CFMEU and BLF members dent Ged Kearney at of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, CFMEU and BLF mem - bosses can use the threat of voted to return to work at ACTU, Level 6/365 Queen bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity bers decided to return to huge damages to deter the Queensland Children’s Street, Melbourne, Vic against racism. work. unions from pursuing Hospital (QCH) construc - 3000. ● Open borders. those demands. ● Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have tion site. This vicious and spiteful That was after Abigroup attempt by Abigroup to We realise, as does Bob, more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist that 2 April falls in the mid - • bobcarnegiedefence. rulers. (part of the Lend Lease em - punish Bob Carnegie is a dle of the Easter break for wordpress.com ● Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or pire) finally agreed to scrap blatant attempt by corpo - community to global social organisation. their non-union, John- rate Australia to intimidate construction workers. Bob • facebook.com/ ● Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all Howard-era, Enterprise any community support for hopes that unionised con - defendbobcarnegie nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. Bargaining Agreement union workers involved in struction workers will • defendbobcarnegie@ ● Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. enjoy the break with their gmail.com ● If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! Revolutionaries at work Contact us: ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley regular industrial bulletins Road, London, SE1 3DG. AWL news — shared experiences and ● Printed by Trinity Mirror took part in exercises aimed at improving the bulletins’ contents and or - The Workers’ Liberty ganisation. Get Solidarity every week! workplace activists’ The second day of the school took place over school was dedicated to po - ● Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o the weekend of 2-3 litical discussion: assess - ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged o March in central London. ment of the situation in the £9 unwaged o The school, which is held class struggle, and practical plans for AWL’s industrial ● o at least annually by the 44 issues (year). £35 waged Materials from a bulletins workshop work. Much of the discus - o AWL, brings together £17 unwaged members and supporters of sion focused on how our ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o the organisation to discuss comrades in other indus - or 50 euros (44 issues) o and develop socialist politi - understood by trade union cused on arguing for social - tries and unions can learn from the work of AWL Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: cal activism in their work - leaders. Participants shared ist ideas in the workplace, places and trade unions. their own experiences and looking at both positive members in the National 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG Saturday 2 March was a worked together to develop and negative experiences of Union of Teachers, who Cheques (£) to “AWL”. day of practical skills work - socialist responses. raising revolutionary argu - played an integral role in Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. shops for workplace ac - A second workshop, ments in often hostile launching the Local Associ - tivists. “real life problems”, looked workplace environments. ations National Action Name ...... The “Beyond ‘organis - at building collective cul - There was also a stream Campaign (LANAC), one ing’” workshop discussed ture in workplaces based of workshops on writing of the only genuine rank- Address ...... whether “the organising on real grievances felt by and producing socialist and-file initiatives in the agenda” had replaced part - workers, no matter how workplace bulletins, in British labour movement in ...... nership as the new ortho - small, and discussed how which activists involved in decades. doxy of the union to build links between Tubeworker , Tower Hamlets For workshop notes I enclose £ ...... bureaucracy and looked at those issues and “bigger” Class Struggle , and from the Saturday of the the positive aspects, and political questions. Lewisham Hospital Worker — school, see limits, of “organising” as Another workshop fo - three of Workers’ Liberty’s bit.ly/XU55WY 3 NEWS Why has UK been downgraded? Hull councillors

By Martin Thomas The immediate hitch is that Britain depends heav - What are the UK govern - ily on selling its bonds defy cuts ment credit ratings which (IOUs) in international fi - were recently down - nancial markets. Britain in graded? 1945, and Japan now, have By Stephen Wood and have committed to A bit like your personal a much bigger proportion building a broad cam - 200 people protested credit ratings which decide of their bonds held by paign within the commu - both in and outside the whether you get a mort - banks and other institu - nity and labour council hall in Hull gage or a credit card or a tions within the country movement to defend jobs throughout the day on bank loan. which can’t or won’t dump and services and defend them to buy other coun - 28 February as the rul - their right to remain But government’s (and What are the credit rating crisis might worsen relative tries’ bonds instead. ing Labour group Labour councillors. big corporations) credit rat - agencies? to other countries’, and that passed its cuts budget. ings are published, and The international finan - The councillors spoke to There are three main financiers wanting to sell they are not yes/no ratings, ciers might respond to in - The protest was called a packed meeting of local agencies, Standard & British bonds quickly but a long scale from AAA creased public spending by by the local government activists after the vote. Poor’s, Fitch, and Moody’s, might be able to do so only (top rating) downwards. panicking and dumping unions and backed by The platform also in - all US-based. They are paid at a loss. British bonds. If they did Hull Labour Representa - cluded John Dunn, a What are the conse - by governments and corpo - How can the debt and the that, even on economic cal - tion Committee and the member of the Clay Cross quences of the down - rations to give a rating to deficit be increasing if culations which were three Labour councillors Labour councill which, in grade? their bonds. the government is mak - “wrong” to start with, they who were committed to 1972, defied the Tory gov - The agencies were dis - Many other countries, in - ing so many cuts? would then make those cal - voting against the budget. ernment over council rent credited in 2007-9 when cluding the mighty USA, culations “right” by crash - After five hours of dire rises. mortgage-based and other By making cuts, the gov - have been marked down ing the prices of British speeches from all the par - In Warrington, council - bonds which they had ernment is pushing the from AAA, and can still bonds and making it ties, the budget passed lor Kevin Bennett also de - rated highly turned out to whole economy down. As a sell their bonds (IOUs) harder and more expensive with 38 Labour council - fied the Labour whip and be junk. result, its tax income de - without trouble. for the British government lors voting through 600 voted against cuts. However, the reasons for creases. Some welfare Gill Kennett said: “I A drastic downgrade to borrow. job cuts and a spending downgrading UK bonds spending increases even send my support to would matter economi - Fear of the financiers is cut of £350 per head of are clear enough. Despite despite cuts in benefit rates. Councillor Kevin Ben - cally, because banks are probably the reason why population all the government’s talk, nett for his great stand often constrained by rules What do socialists say? Ed Balls, who argued the Three councillors — the British government’s against the cuts. Having to keep a certain propor - “Keynesian” line strongly Dean Kirk, Gary Wareing, debt is increasing, and its The “Keynesian” answer been in the same posi - tion of assets in the form of in 2010, has become more and Gill Kennett — took a annual deficit (the amount of increasing, rather than tion I am aware of how highly-rated bonds. But a and more mumbly about it stand and voted against added onto the debt each cutting, government spend - difficult it is and want to small downgrade like the the more his argument is the budget, urging their year) is probably increasing ing would probably im - say we in Hull are UK’s has small economic vindicated. colleagues to join them. too. prove things. The answer is to expro - wholeheartedly behind consequences. After each speech by There is little chance of That worked in Britain priate the financiers — him.” Politically, the conse - the three, the public the British government not after 1945 (when the gov - preferably through an in - quences are bigger. George gallery cheered, clapped making payments due on ernment’s debt was much tegrated European Osborne made a big deal of and stamped its feet in • Councillors Against its bonds. If it comes to it it bigger than now). It may scheme of public owner - his “success” in keeping approval. Cuts meets for its first can just print more pounds. work in Japan (where a ship and democratic con - Britain’s AAA rating. He is Each of these council - conference in Birmingham However, there is some new and quite right-wing trol, failing that country now discredited. lors stood up in favour of on Saturday 16 March. risk that Britain’s economic government is trying it). by country. what they were elected on councillorsagainstcuts.org Where dissidents are “terrorists” By Eric Lee bomber) were killed. uine threat of Stalinist they’re being abused by the We have to admit that domination of Europe was state to persecute legiti - When George W. Bush Turkey does in fact suffer used to justify a crackdown mate dissenters, like the proclaimed his “War on from a lot of political vio - on any form of dissent. unions. Terror” more than a lence — on all sides. In Turkey, the organiza - Unions around the world decade ago, there was Kurdish fighters of the tion the government is have rallied to the defence some concern in the USA PKK, far-leftists angry at blaming for the US em - of KESK and Egitim Sen. and its allies that the war the USA and Israel, and bassy bombing is known as The Brussels-based Inter - might not be confined to others have from time to the Revolutionary People’s national Trade Union Con - fighting actual terrorists erful “national security quarters of KESK, the pub - time engaged in horrific vi - Liberation Party-Front, or federation, representing overseas and could also state” emerging have lic sector union, arresting olence. So has the Turkish DHKP/C. The DHKP/C is 175 million organised be directed against ordi - thankfully not been real - over 100 activists. Over 160 state. listed by the US State De - workers, was the first to nary dissenters at home. ized. arrest warrants were is - partment as a Foreign Ter - issue a strong statement. It’s not as if armed riot sued. Fifty were arrested in TERRORISM rorist Organization (FTO). They were followed by the For that reason, civil lib - police would storm Uni - Istanbul. The teachers erties groups were particu - It’s not like the Turkish But KESK is not. And global union federations son’s headquarters on the union Egitim Sen was also government is making up Egitim Sen is not. And it’s for public sector and edu - larly concerned about any Euston Road, arresting subjected to a wave of ar - “anti-terror” legislation the idea of “terrorism”. an important distinction. cation workers, Public hundreds of activists, ac - rests. Amnesty International Services International and that could be seen as cur - cusing Dave Prentis of “ter - The leaders of KESK and The problem is that it ap - tailing human rights. says it “has long cam - the Education Interna - rorism” because he’d Egitim Sen were accused of pears to be using a genuine paigned against the abuse tional. The good news is that the All three groups have spoken out against some involvement with terror - security situation to justify of Turkey’s overly broad democratic rights we had teamed up to launch an government policy. ism. attacks on organisations and vague anti-terrorism pre-2001 are largely intact appeal on LabourStart But that’s precisely The arrests were, it was that it doesn’t like for other laws to prosecute legiti - in countries like the USA which has been signed — what’s happening today in claimed, part of an investi - reasons, such as unions of mate peaceful activities.” and the UK. The intelli - so far — by over 8,000 Turkey, one of the junior gation into a suicide teachers and other public Note that Amnesty isn’t gence services no doubt trade unionists. partners in the US-led “war bomber’s attack on the US sector workers. saying Turkey shouldn’t have larger budgets and on terror”. embassy in Ankara at the This is, of course, remi - electronic spying on all of combat terrorism. It’s say - Two weeks ago, police end of January in which niscent of the McCarthy era ing that the laws are overly • LabourStart campaign: us has probably increased, stormed the Ankara head - one guard (and the in the USA when the gen - but the fears of an all-pow - broad and vague. And http://bit.ly/13QoD18 4 DEBATE What is the 5 Star Movement?

demonstrated — to the poisonous currents of nationalist, The M5S’s success thus far rests on its campaign against racist reaction, incarnate among Italy’s multi-millioned the corrupt political establishment as a whole. Demands to Beyond the net? small and medium-sized producers, to say nothing of its cut their incomes drastically, raze to the ground their priv - Beppe Grillo’s 5 Star Movement (M5S) is tapping and hordes of outright fascists. ileges, abolish public funds to all political parties, render now successfully channelling outrage, anger and ha - Furthermore, M5S has no physical roots in the trade transparent and accountable all political activity, disqualify tred, has fabricated a massive internet -based “anti unions, workplaces, or communities — the indispensable owners of the media from political office... political radical populism” unique in Europe and it is bedrock for any democratic mass resistance to emerge. These are just some of the measures which are, as far as now the largest single political force in Italy, with 108 Rather, it defines itself as an exercise in “liquid democracy”, they go, progressive reforms. But they have not gained the seats in La Camera and 54 in the Senate. It won more whose electoral success underlines the débâcle of a stagnant, M5S overwhelming support from the working class, in mil - than a quarter of all votes cast. bureaucratic workers’ movement in tandem with a radical lions still abstaining or backing Bersani via the orientation of left stuck in one opportunist cul-de-sac after another. the trade unions, especially the CGIL confederation. Worse, M5S pledges to reject austerity and eradicate corruption M5S’s difficulties are further complicated by the figures large swathes of the South, like Calabria, backed Berlusconi. from political life. M5S has tapped into, and now success - of Grillo and Casaleggio, not only as the legal proprietors But the vast bulk of these are anti-austerity! They can be fully channelled, outrage, anger, and hatred of the political of the M5S website, but also because of the latter’s murky won! To overcome their doubts and reservations, M5S has to establishment. relations with international financial foundations and think- widen its demands, political, economic, and social. It must It has built a massive anti-political radical populism”, tanks, which raise questions about accountability and dem - demand massive tax increases on the rich; nationalisation unique in Europe. It is now the only genuinely national ocratic control within the movement. under workers’ control the poisonous steelworks at Taranto force geographically, with its support coming in relatively Grillo has rejected the offer of entering government with and other similar plants; an end to public funding to all equal measure from all over Italy. Bersani’s Democratic party, an offer that contained an church and private schools; increases in public funding for In contrast, the 10 million or so votes lost between them agreement to initiate a number of the key reforms de - state schools, universities, hospitals etc.; an end to tax ex - by the Democrats, Berlusconi, and The Northern League has manded by M5S. emptions for church, business, and financial activity; an in - seen their respective power bases shrink, especially where Grillo stated that if Bersani and Berlusconi were now creased minimum wage and state-provided unemployment they were formerly strongest, and their support is now con - “converts to honesty”, they should form a government and benefit; public ownership and democratic control of all busi - centrated in specific regions. demonstrate it. nesses declaring mass redundancies. It must also go beyond the net, to the workplaces, While Grillo correctly exposes the obscene disparity of the Most M5S supporters want another election to “finish the streets and squares, the hub of popular political life in incomes and corrupt privileges of the corrupt political-es - job”. The current president, Napolitano, was due to leave Italy, and seek to bring back into struggle all the forces tablishment “caste” and their cliques in the social adminis - office in May, but is now preparing to stay, as no successor at the mercy of the hideousness of capitalist existence tration of the country, little is said of the same obscenity is possible without a government in place. He will no doubt in Italy today. among bosses like Marchionne, head of Fiat. Instead, M5S’s summon Mario Monti back once more to save the state from rhetoric appeals to a vision of a utopian petty-bourgeois, further implosion. The mighty arsenal of bourgeois propa - pre-modern self-sufficiency. ganda is being unleashed to sow confusion and doubt on It is fatally open — as Grillo has already shamefully Grillo and his newly-elected “citizen” deputies. Hugh Edwards

No excuses for Grillo Another “new mood” Hugh Edwards ( Solidarity 277, 27 February) is proba - bly less enthusiastic about Beppe Grillo than some on Left the Europhobe left, who adore Grillo’s demand for an immediate Italian exit from the Eurozone and return By Martin Thomas to the lira. Socialist Worker describes Grillo’s Five Star Movement Socialist Worker (26 February) hailed the success in (Movimento 5 Stelle, M5S) as “leftwing”, CPBers like Italy’s recent general election of “the left wing, anti-cor - Brian Denny rejoice in Italians’ apparent rejection of the ruption, Five Star Movement” of Beppe Grillo. Euro by voting for Berlusconi or Grillo, and Counterfire members such as James Meadway compose longer and Revolutionary socialists in Italy do not agree that Grillo’s more elaborate intellectual apologias. movement is “left-wing”. Franco Grisolia of the PCdL (Work - Nevertheless, I was shocked to find absolutely no men - ers’ Communist Party) writes: “There is nothing to celebrate tion of Grillo’s appalling racist stance on immigration, op - in this vote, which... expresses all the recent defeats and con - posing citizenship rights for children of immigrants born fusion in the labour movement and its vanguard”. in Italy, and his willingness to publicly consort with the Grisolia concedes: “We know that there are contradictions, neo-Nazis of Casa Pound (who, amongst numerous other that some of the political personnel entering parliament violent actions, mounted a physical attack on an election today with the 5 Star Movement are not reactionary”. candidate of the radical left Rivoluzione Civile in Lazio a But Grillo says that: “The unions are outdated. We no few weeks ago) in Edwards’ article. longer need them. We should do as the US does”. tion on immigration by declaring, in terms often used by the Grillo has also openly stated his desire to “wipe out” The programme of Grillo’s movement has two main ele - Northern League: ‘Italy can not take responsibility for the the trade unions and believes workers should be content ments: denunciation of corruption, especially among politi - problems of the world’... he has spoken out against... the with representatives on company boards — presumably cians; and enthusiasm for the internet. One of its main granting of citizenship to children of immigrants born in in the manner of Mussolini’s 1930s corporate state, as demands is for free internet access for all. Italy”. CGIL leader Susanna Camusso rapidly pointed out. Grillo has flirted with the neo-fascist movement Casa - Grillo’s demands for egalitarian anti-hierarchical trans - DEMANDS Pound. parency in public life would be more credible if M5S were It has a spread of other demands, some very detailed, To party politics Grillo counterposes his “movement” — not itself run in a totally top-down way. the axis of which is a hope that smaller capitalist enter - in which, however, the only central authority is his own per - Whilst it may be that the quotations from and images prise, using the internet and providing for shareholder sonal blog, run by computer businessman Gianroberto Casa - of Mussolini that Grillo recently used to back up anti-par - participation, can clear away the congealed corruption leggio. There are no committees, conferences, or branches. liamentary rants on his blog are mere posturing and not of the Italian state and big business and make Italy “like Italian Trotskyist Enrico Pellegrini comments: “The M5S is part of a drift towards classical fascism, there can be no other countries”. based on simple adherence to [Grillo’s] blog... The ‘new’ ambiguity in our own opposition to this right-wing dem - Thus Grillo calls for: “Reduction of public debt with strong movement is only the will of a single man” and his inner cir - agogue, even when we need to understand why M5S got cost-cutting measures of the state by cutting waste and with cle. 37.9% of the under-30 vote, 54.8% of the student vote, and the introduction of new technologies”; and the “abolition of Casaleggio, as a businessman, has had close links with the 41.1% of the unemployed vote. Xenophobic, racist, nation - monopolies, particularly Telecom Italy, Highways, ENI, American Chamber of Commerce in Italy and the Aspen In - alist and semi-fascist answers to an international capital - ENEL, Mediaset, State Railways”. stitute think-tank, whose board members include Madeleine ist crisis must be firmly rejected and austerity fought on a Conservative commentators are not worried that Grillo’s Albright, Queen Noor of Jordan, and Condoleezza Rice. Europe wide basis. electoral success will feed anti-capitalist mobilisations. Their Socialist Worker ’s demagogic hyping-up of miscellaneous The partial success of the southern European gen - chief worry is Grillo’s call for a referendum on Italian mem - “new moods of anger” — Hamas, Hezbollah, Muslim Broth - eral strike of 14 November 2012 shows how we can bership of the euro. Grillo, however, is not anti-EU. erhood, Grillo, you name it — is no service to working-class build a real fight back. He says: “We want to bring honest people to the head of politics. And it squares ill with SW ’s sectarian dismissal of Toby Abse, south London our country. Just as it is in the rest of Europe, but not in Italy. Syriza. I am a convinced European... I want a united Europe...” Grisolia notes: “Grillo has repeatedly reaffirmed his posi - • More: bit.ly/pellegr, bit.ly/grisol 5 WHAT WE SAY Help us raise £15,000 According to Forbes mag - azine, there are now 1,426 billionaires on the planet with a total net worth of Stop rise of Ukip $5.4 trillion (around £3.5 trillion). What does £3.5 trillion its working-class supporters. mean? The entire UK budget It would be patronising and complacent, though, to believe deficit is less than 0.01% of that working-class people who vote Ukip do so simply to ex - that amount. A global tax of press a vague “protest” without any real understanding of just a few percent on the Carlos Slim Helú, the or belief in what the party stands for. It is dangerous to imag - wealth of the super rich world’s richest man ine that if some left-wing electoral vehicle can replicate could wipe out the alleged Ukip’s populist pitch (but from the left), we can repeat their economic “need” for auster - success. ity policies across the globe. The world’s rich, and the The Socialist Party-led Trade Unionist and Socialist Coali - governments that serve them, have used the economic tion (TUSC) stood in the Rotherham, Middlesbrough, and crisis to screw down social costs. They have increased Eastleigh by-elections on as “populist” a pitch as one could their wealth while the rest of us suffer. wish for — a lowest-common-denominator anti-cuts appeal. Workers’ Liberty exists to fight for a world in which the TUSC came out of the “No2EU” coalition, an attempt to tap immense wealth that modern, globalised capitalist society into anti-EU and anti-migrant sentiment “from the left”. has created is not concentrated in the hands of a tiny elite TUSC polled 620 votes in total across the three by-elections, but democratically managed by those who produce it. less than half of Ukip’s lowest single score. Unfortunately Workers’ Liberty has, of course, written to all 1,426 of Ukip’s vote represents a layer of anti-migrant, anti-Europe these worthy individuals to ask for donations to our fund feeling amongst working-class people — which the left needs appeal. We’ll keep you informed as the replies come in. to relate to with a serious long-term political campaign based But in the meantime, why not donate some money your - on socialist ideas and emphasising working-class unity. self, just in case our letters to the billionaires get lost in The United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) has Peter Woodhouse, a Ukip-voting train driver and former the post. Help us raise £15,000 by May Day 2013. You can seen support surge, most recently in the 28 February Labour supporter interviewed in the Guardian , said: “One of the reasons I voted for Ukip is immigration. I’m worried contribute in the following ways: Eastleigh by-election where it won 11,571 votes — ● 27.8%, an increase of 24%, and enough to beat the To - about the dropping of the barrier in January. I fully expect 2- Taking out a monthly standing order using the form ries into third place. 4 million Bulgarians and Romanians to come over. What’s it below or at www.workersliberty.org/resources. Please going to be like? We’re a small island.” Sarah Holt, a shop - post completed forms to us at the AWL address below. Last year, in the Croydon North by-election, Ukip polled ● worker, said: “They have talked to me about their policies Making a donation by cheque, payable to “AWL”, or 1,400 votes, an increase of 4%. In Rotherham, it won 4,648 and I agree with a lot of what they have told me. There’s donating online at www.workersliberty.org/donate. votes (21.67%), coming second. In Middlesbrough, it also fin - ● going to be more and more foreigners coming in and taking Organising a fundraising event. ished second with 1,990 votes (11.8%). ● everything from us. It’s diabolical.” Taking copies of Solidarity to sell. In a recent YouGov poll the party showed 12% overall ● Although senior Tories like Kenneth Clarke have warned Get in touch to discuss joining the AWL. More infor - support — equal third with the Liberal Democrats. against a rightwards lurch in response to Ukip’s success, a mation: 07796 690874 / [email protected] / AWL, The trends suggest that Ukip stands a good chance of gain - cabinet committee met on 5 March to examine “wide-ranging 20E Tower Workshops, 58 Riley Road, London SE1 3DG. ing the most votes of any party at next year’s European Par - plans” to restrict Bulgarian and Romanian immigration to liament elections. Britain without breaching EU law. A great deal of debate has taken place in the mainstream Total raised so far: £8,017 press about whether Ukip’s recent electoral gains were just LABOUR “protest votes”, rather than indicators of the party consoli - But, critically, where is the Labour Party, the wider labour We raised £735 this week. This com - dating a longer-term, loyal base. If the vote was an expres - movement, and the left? Eastleigh was a dismal showing prised £105 in donations at our sion of “protest”, the questions are: who was doing the for Labour, finishing fourth in a by-election while in oppo - Industrial School, £30 at a recent protesting, what were they protesting about, and in the name sition for the first time in nearly 15 years. 17 London forum, and individual do - of what alternative? ,0 Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was set to unveil £8 nations. Thanks to Dave and A study into Ukip’s vote at the 2009 European elections, Alistair. where they came second to Labour and won 16.1% of the a new immigration policy on Thursday 7 March, and while it vote, argued that Ukip’s “core supporters” are “a poorer, is focusing on “crackdowns” on employers who exploit mi - more working-class, and more deeply discontented group grants, previous “crackdowns” have been used as cover to Standing order authority who closely resemble supporters of the BNP and European deport migrant workers rather than level up their conditions. radical right parties.” The far-left is politically hamstrung on the issue, having been desperately attempting to give a progressive gloss to To: ...... (your bank) anti-EU sentiment for years. The “No2EU” coalition even at - BNP ...... (its address) The BNP would sometimes pitch “to the left”; leader Nick tacked “the so-called ‘free movement of labour’”, and “the Griffin claimed in 2002 that his party was “the only so - social dumping of migrant labour”. A speech by the then- ...... cialist party in Britain”, and the BNP’s local work often RMT President Alex Gordon to a 2011 conference of the “Peo - has an explicitly “working-class” edge and includes op - ple’s Movement” (an Irish anti-EU coalition) argued for Account name: ...... position to cuts to local services. Ukip’s pitch is differ - restrictions on immigration on the basis that continued “mass ent. migration” would “feed the poison of racism and fascism”. Account no: ...... The left needs more than a change of approach or tactics; it Where the BNP might demagogically and disingenuously needs a change of politics. Attempting to convince Ukip-sup - Sort code: ...... attack Labour for abandoning white workers, Ukip’s leader porting workers that their anti-migrant and anti-EU feeling Please make payments to the debit of my Nigel Farage focuses on attacking David Cameron for not would be better and more progressively expressed by voting being conservative enough. The Tories failed in Eastleigh, for some left-social-democratic electoral formation (Respect, account: Payee: Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, Farage said, because “traditional Tory voters look at No2EU, TUSC, next?) than for Ukip is a dead-end. account no. 20047674 at the Unity Trust Bank, Cameron and ask themselves: is he a Conservative? And they We need to convince workers of an alternative set of ideas <, conclude, no, he is not. He is talking about gay marriage, that the enemy is not “Europe” but capitalist austerity, and 9 Brindley Place, Birmingham B1 2HB (08-60-01) wind turbines, unlimited immigration from India, he wants that the answer to fears about increased migration putting a Turkey to join the EU.” The Daily Mail ‘s Peter Hitchens de - strain on jobs, wages, and services is not to restrict migration Amount: £ ...... to be paid on the ...... day scribed Ukip as “the Thatcherite Tory Party in exile”. Ukip but to organise all workers — British-born and migrant — to of ...... (month) 20 ...... wants compulsory “workfare” schemes for anyone on bene - fight for the levelling up of conditions to provide living (year) and thereafter monthly until this order is fits, greater privatisation in education, and a part-privatised wages, decent jobs, housing, and public services for all. The cancelled by me in writing. This order cancels “national health insurance” model to replace the NHS. labour movement needs an emergency plan that can unite But despite its right-wing pitch, figures in the Independent workers across Europe to fight for working-class policies any previous orders to the same payee. show that more than 40% of Ukip supporters oppose the To - against the policies of austerity. ries’ cap on tax credits and benefits, 43% want increased Winning working-class people to that fight is the only Date ...... spending on public services, and more Ukip supporters than way to stop and reverse the rise of Ukip. Lib Dem supporters believe that “the government is cutting Signature ...... too deeply”. There is a potentially unstable contradiction be - • Sign this statement — “Equal rights for migrant workers!” tween Ukip’s ultra-Tory policies and the instincts of some of lrcyouth.org.uk/eqriworkers 6-7

Anti-capital ism in Lessons from Bulgaria In Bulgaria there have long been active, but small anti- capitalist groups; they have had major weaknesses and lacked connections to the working class. Bulgaria The unions have been crushed by the successive right- wing governments of 1997-2005. Individual contracts were signed and trade unionism was almost illegal, re - By Theodora Polenta ity” wrote the German magazine Der Spiegel ! garded as an activity punishable by dismissal. Some small “The most important aspect of those days was that people organisations of the revolutionary left and the anarchist In Greece, a place all too familiar with poverty and the no longer fear to challenge state power,” said sociologist milieu were oriented towards the ecology and social results of “austerity”, Bulgaria is reknowned for starva - Haral Alexandrov. rights movements. tion wages (although the cost of living is far cheaper), “When the refrigerator overpowers TV”. This was the But in December 2008 Bulgarian anti-capitalist groups the host country for Greek companies looking for cheap phrase used by a Bulgarian journalist and aptly describes the protested outside the Greek Embassy in solidarity with labour and as the site of dangerous nuclear power social explosion that struck Bulgaria. On the one hand, a gov - the December 2008 uprising in Greece. plants. ernment that implements a rigid austerity plan fixated by fis - Channels of communication were opened between the “You do not want to become like Bulgaria” has been the cal numbers. On the other hand, the masses of youths, Bulgarian anti-capitalist activists and the left-wing anti- cry of the Greek’s mainstream politicians and media acolytes workers, and pensioners who are “opening their fridge” to capitalist and anarchist organisations in the north of - although recently the most “adventurous” of the Greek see their stocks being depleted day-by-day. Greece. politicians and capitalists have been flirting with the idea of The 53-year old Borisov tried to portray himself as a hero, From 2010, industrial and ecological/social movement the Greek minimum wage and workers’ rights sinking to Bul - saying that he was forced to resign because “I could not par - struggles have erupted in Bulgaria. There have been mo - garian standards. ticipate in a government, where citizens are beaten by police bilisations against landfills and a squatters movement. Then the Bulgarian working-class stormed into the news and threats of demonstrations replace the political debate”. There has been a long term strike at the Litex plant with their militancy and defiance in overthrowing the right- The truth is very different. As revealed by news agency against decreases in wages, a hospital workers' strike wing government of Boyko Borisov on 20 Feburary. Borisov Focus, Borisov, resigned on the recommendation of the US against the privatisation of health and starvation wages had pushed through austerity measurements and privatised embassy in Sofia and to defuse the popular explosion. Ulti - for hospital workers. all the country’s resources condemning the majority of the mately, It was the wrath of Bulgarian voters, the momentum More recently there has been a major railway workers' population to extreme poverty and destitution. and militancy shown by the movement against the increases strike against the privatisation of the railways. in the electricity prices, that led to the resignation of Borisov. Bulgarian protesters care unemployed and precar - For over ten days last month Bulgaria was saturated with demonstrations in all of Bulgaria’s cities. At the heart of the government was the “centre-right” ious workers, educated youth who are "looking for - party GKERMP (Citizens for European Development of Bul - ward" to having to leave Bulgaria, discredited In the last twenty years successive neoliberal governments in Bulgaria have privatised all the country’s utility compa - garia. GKERMP literally means “crown”). It was created in industrial workers with starvation wages, doctors and 2006 by Boyko Borisov when he was Mayor of Sofia. teachers who are daily experiencing the plundering of nies — water, energy, power, communications, banks, hospi - their public infrastructure, sweatshop workers of tals, transport, roads, airports, ports and even a part of social BORISOV multinationals without rights and starvation wages, insurance, has been handed over for peanuts into the hands Borisov’s CV is as follows. A karate athlete in his youth, and pensioners. of private companies, a majority based in Germany. he was the bodyguard of Stalinist dictator Zivkov in the In July 2012 the three private companies monopolising Bul - 80s. He became an arms dealer and founder of a “Sports garia’s electricity network, the Czech CEZ and the Austrian Club” (companies of “security”/bodyguards), taking ad - Energo Pro and EVN, announced increases of 13% in elec - vantage of a 1996 bankruptcy to establish himself as a tricity bills. The average Bulgarian would have to fork out “businessman”. 25% of his/her wages to pay for electricity. Youth and workers began to organise against the ein - Borisov was in charge of the “protection” of former king creases with massive protests holding placards with slogans of Bulgaria Simeon Saxe Coburg Gotha, who when he be - like “We will not pay”. The movement grew rapidly and the protesters’ demands started to include the elimination of all hikes and regressive taxes. From 10 February the government was faced with a series The Formation of demonstrations of thousands and sometimes tens of thou - sands all demanding the government’s resignation. On Sunday 17 February, 100,000 protesters flooded the centre of Sofia while tens of thousands marched in Blagoev - of the grad, Varna, Plovdiv and other major cities. On the same day thousands of protesters attempted to oc - cupy the central offices of the Power Company. SWP On Monday 18 February tens of thousands took to the streets of Sofia, Plovdiv and Varna again, this time seeking Report of a nationalisations of all Bulgaria’s utility companies. The next day Borisov sacked his Finance Minister and hinted that he participant would reduce the electricity prices. He even pledged to re - voke the licences of the three electricity companies. Workers’ Liberty 3/38 But that evening tens of thousands of protesters demanded the downfall of the government and clashes with riot police took place in the centre of Sofia near the parliament. Eleven were arrested and dozens were injured. Borisov resigned on Wednesday afternoon. Read online or download PDF and ebook Demonstration against shale gas This ten-day nationwide protest was enough for the gov - www.workersliberty.org/node/20534 ernment of Borisov — who wanted to become a pragmatist Putin of the Balkans — to collapse. “Another victim of auster - EUROPE

Mass protests have seen off Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov (botton right)

came prime minister in 2001 assigned Borisov to the Interior This is all in stark contrast to Greece who, so say EU and country to country. From Bahrain to New York, the working Ministry. IMF propaganda, have not applied correctly and quickly class is resisting the barbarity of capitalism. In 2005 Borisov broke with Simeon and became the Mayor enough the Troika’s orders. 4. It exposes in all its “glory” the result of the memoran - of Sofia, winning the council elections under the agenda of But Bulgaria is still the poorest country in the EU. The min - dum/austerity programmes: selling off public utilities and “Law and Order” and plenty of doses of racism against Roma imum wage has long been just €380 per month, the vast ma - public services, the causaliation of labour relations, the abo - and Turkic speaking minorities. He founded GKERMP and jority of Bulgarian workers take home no more than €500 and lition of collective bargaining agreements, tax breaks on cap - won the election in 2009. As a prime minister Borisov comes the average pension is around €150 per month. Bulgaria is ital, reductions in wages and pensions, and increases in direct from the classical neo-liberal right which emerged from the bottom of the EU league table for per capita income. Degrad - and indirect taxation for the working class. These things have countries of the former Eastern bloc. Initially he was very ing and slashed down salaries for the workers and hunger one sole aim — the impoverishment of the working people in popular. In parliament he is supported by the fascist party pensions for the elderly, while all the country’s resources and order to enrich and preserve the profits of a handful of local Ataka (“Attack National League”). wealth — the water services, electricity, telecommunications, and foreign capitalists. During his time in government, Borisov fully served Amer - etc — are fully privatised. The only solution lies with independent working-class or - ican interests in the region (blocking the Burgas-Alexan - But that the Bulgarian people overthrew an unpopular, ganisations — trade unions and political struggles. The Bul - droupolis pipeline in full collaboration with George ultra neo-liberal, EU-US biased government should be food garian workers need political representation — their own Papandreou), but also tightening Bulgaria’s link with Ger - for thought for the European and the Greek left in particu - political entity ready to clash with the vested interests of the many. lar. In politics we need to take up the slogan “We should all ruling class, with a revolutionary and ecological programme The huge hikes in electricity prices were brought in by the become Bulgarians!” The victory of the Bulgarian working that gives perspective and goals to their struggles and ties three large private companies, with full government consent. class/people was the result of the large, continuous, and these with the struggles of other workers in nearby countries. Stable and permanent solutions cannot be achieved at Needless to say, this demonstrated clearly to the Greek peo - united mobilisations of the people. an isolated national level. For this, the ultimate goal of ple what the “miracle” of the purported release of electricity When working class people and popular strata are united the Bulgarian working class and popular strata can only and the sale of DEH had in store for us! and determined, then no government, no troika, no media be the struggle against the EU of capital and multination - With his resignation, Borisov wanted to buy time, but also acolytes, no monied interests, no repression can stop them. als and for socialism in the Balkans as part of a socialist to leave the opposition unprepared for the election battle The protests in Bulgaria were organised by social media federation of a democratic, equal and voluntary Europe. ahead. The elections, scheduled for July, will now take place following in the footsteps of Spain’s indignants. Thousands in late April. But the economic situation is bleak and it would of Bulgarians are still in the streets. be difficult for Borisov to regain the support of his voters. The harsh austerity imposed by his right wing government, LESSONS has balanced the budget, drastically reduced the deficit From the struggle of the workers in Bulgaria we can draw the following rough conclusions: (1.5%) and public debt at 19.6% of GDP in 2012. But unem - Ultra-right intervention ployment reached 11.9% and the average family monthly in - 1. It has emphatically demolished the stereotype of “the come does not exceed 400 euros. defeated and inactive workers of the former Eastern bloc”. The neo-Nazi party Ataka tried to intervene in the The Bulgarian government has been a role model for and The resistance movements in Romania, Slovenia and now in protests, as did the nationalist VMRO. the most obedient student of the IMF and EU. They have Bulgaria, demonstrate that the emergence of new anti-capi - Ataka adopted the demand for the nationalisation of faithfully fully executed the orders of Brussels and Washing - talist left organisations is at a preliminary stage but on the the electricity grid, as Borisov promised to renegotiate ton, causing jubilation to both political leaders and tech - agenda. the contracts to exploit the energy market in the coun - nocrats in the two imperialist organizations. Privatization? 2. It has emphatically demolished the stereotype that “we try! Excellent performance — the country’s electrification has not can not do anything” and “austerity is unbeatable.” Our A similar view was also expressed by the VMRO, stat - only been given over to private companies, but these compa - working class brothers and sisters in these countries, where ing that it is seeking to prosecute and expel the foreign nies are foreign! the anti-capitalist left is in its infancy and with no prior his - companies from the region of Pirin Macedonia. The Bulgarian economy has some of the “best” indicators torical experience, where trade unionism is almost forbidden VMRO did not specify if the goal is to nationalise the in Europe. It has the third lowest debt in the EU; inflation is and where the working class have experienced the full ex - local network, or to hand it over to local private Mace - at 1.61%; the national currency has been “locked” into a fixed ploitation of capitalism, are showing us the path of resistance. donian capitalists. parity, 2:1 (approximately) with the euro, and it is expected 3. It highlights the influence of instinctive internationalist to be the next country to join t,he Eurozone. class solidarity and the inter-linkage of movements from 8 FEATURE Inequality kills!

Marmot shows that it does not explain the health gradient. The Whitehall Studies showed that there was a social gradi - ent in the incidence of disease (i.e. first occurrence, before Science health care was involved). In any case, thanks to our health service, civil servants received appropriate levels of health Average life expectancy in the UK is one of the lowest care. among comparably affluent countries in the world. Gov - A similar social gradient was later found in women, de - ernment fixes focus on life style. But that would be to ig - spite the different ways that social status might be attributed. nore some of the complex underlying causes as well as So what explains this? For a scientist, it not enough to show political responsibility. Les Hearn reports. a statistical relationship between two things. Does one cause the other – or is there a third factor that explains both? And In 2008, the WHO reported that life expectancy not only the answer has implications about what, if anything, should varied widely between countries (a girl in Lesotho has a be done. life expectancy 42 years less than one in Japan) but It is simplistically thought that it’s merely a matter of within countries also (children born eight miles apart in money – or of lifestyle choices. Marmot quotes a colleague the Glasgow area have 28-year differences in life ex - reviewing the evidence for the social gradient in health as pectancy). coming from two studies of free-living primates: British civil These facts come from the report of the WHO’s Commis - servants and baboons in the Serengeti! As Marmot points out, sion on the Social Determinants of Health, a three-year inves - baboons don’t have money and neither do low-ranking ba - tigation whose findings are truly shocking. boons smoke, consume junk food, or fail to attend doctor’s One commission member was Michael Marmot, Professor appointments. But like civil servants, they do have a social For most people being “in work” is important to our sense of of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College, gradient in health which mirrors their position in the hierar - status and that has implications for our health London. He has been involved in one of the longest-running chy of baboon society. studies of the health of workers, the Whitehall Studies, fol - Does this mean that, since hierarchies naturally form in pri - mate societies, the health gradient is a fixed fact, determined reproductive functions, inflammatory responses, tissue re - lowing civil servants’ health since 1967 (male workers) and pair and immune response, are postponed. 1985 (both male and female). by evolution? No, says Marmot. Hierarchies are a fact but “what it means to be high and low in a hierarchy varies”. Bi - Referred to as the fight or flight response, these changes This and many other studies throughout the world reveal involve release of the hormones adrenalin and cortisol. a “social gradient” in health. We might expect the poorest ology and society are interacting and can interact differently in different situations. In money-based societies, it is the rel - Adrenalin increases heart rate and breathing rate, causes re - sections of society to have worse health than the well-off but lease of glucose from the liver and in the muscles. Cortisol Prof Marmot shows in his book Status Syndrome that the pic - ative income that reflects one’s status. This shows in self-re - port of happiness, with richer societies such as USA reporting suppresses the immune system, increases glucose levels in ture is rather more complex. He shows that the social gradi - the blood, and suppresses inflammatory responses. ent in health is only partly due to absolute poverty. Also, it is no change in happiness in a period where the economy grew by 50%. This is appropriate for an immediate threat but, main - only partly due to more unhealthy behaviours. Incidentally, tained over a long time, has the following effects. Insulin’s his findings are the same as but predate those of the more CONTROL action is inhibited, risking diabetes; fat is deposited round well-known book The Spirit Level . Both conclude that it is our If it is not income that determines happiness, what does? the waist, rather than the hips; there are low levels of “good” relative level that is crucial. Or, more to the point, what is it about one’s position in a cholesterol; blood pressure is high: these changes are associ - Put simply, Marmot concludes that we all live in hierarchi - hierarchy that ultimately gives rise to the health gradi - ated with developing CHD. Marmot comments that, in peo - cal societies and where you are in the hierarchy, at work or ent? ple with CHD, acute stress, such as an earthquake or losing in society in general, affects your health. This is still true even a football match, could easily trigger a fatal heart attack or after taking all other factors into account. Marmot identifies the degree of control one has over one’s stroke. Now, in different societies, or in the same society at differ - life circumstances as the key factor, with stress as its inverse. To show the link, he refers to studies on rhesus monkeys, ent times, different diseases are prevalent. In 19th century There are five aspects to this — “control, predictability, de - social primates that form hierarchical groups. The monkeys Britain, tuberculosis was a widespread killer: nowadays, it’s gree of support, threat to status, and presence of outlets” — were fed a diet high in saturated fats and cholesterol, known heart disease. But there is a social gradient in both. Then, 16% which can modulate the effects of a psychological threat. to cause atherosclerosis, narrowing or “furring up” of the of gentlemen were “consumptive”, while 30% of labourers Marmot illustrates this with a hypothetical low-paid work - coronary arteries that supply the heart muscle with blood, were. Tradesmen were in between at 28%. Now, heart dis - ing couple, already poor, one of whom loses his job, becomes However, not all the monkeys developed atherosclerosis: ease affects those lower down in the hierarchy more than depressed and starts drinking, instead of helping to look after those of lower rank were significantly more likely to get it. those in the next rank…and those in the next rank… and so the children. The other’s job is also under threat as the factory And this was only due to their rank as was shown by chang - on. she works in is being undercut by cheaper imports. Both face ing their groups: when top ranking monkeys were put in a The Whitehall studies divided civil servants into Admin, loss of status if they end up on benefit. Outlets to relieve the group by themselves, a new hierarchy developed and those Executive, Clerical and Other. The last group, porters, door - stress would cost money they no longer have. The boss, in now lower down started developing atherosclerosis. men, drivers and so on, had the greatest risk of dying of coro - this example a caring individual who does not want to lay Studies on baboons found that low ranking ones had nary heart disease (CHD); then came the clerical staff; then off staff, may have to move production off-shore. He how - higher cortisol levels and lower “good” cholesterol levels in the executives; and lastly the senior, administrative, grades. ever has his community work which enhances his status, his their blood. Measurements were taken after shooting the ba - The lowest grade had an 80% higher chance of dying from support from a wife with a professional job, and his outlet of boons with tranquiliser darts. Marmot remarks that they de - CHD than the top grade. They also had the highest rates of golf. cided not to “dart” civil servants but were able to show that, smoking, blood cholesterol, blood sugar and raised blood Can lack of control or power over life cause illness? Mar - the lower the grade, the lower was the level of “good” cho - pressure, all consequences of unhealthy eating. But, crucially mot gives diverse examples to show that it can. lesterol, the higher the blood glucose, and the more fat round for Prof Marmot’s argument, the health gradient persisted In 1981, a major earthquake struck Athens. The death rate the waist, changes linked to high levels of cortisol and predis - after these were taken into account, the lowest grades still from heart attacks shot up by 50% over three days. In 1991, posing people to CHD and diabetes. having a 50% higher chance of death from CHD. in the Gulf War, Iraq bombarded Tel Aviv with Scud mis - Clearly, status affects health and the steeper the differences The same pattern is found in the whole population: life ex - siles. During the first week, heart attacks increased signifi - in status the more health is affected. Broadly, this is the same pectancy increases steadily from Class V (lowest) to Class I. cantly. In 1996, 60% of the Dutch population saw on TV their thing as inequality and, in The Spirit Level , it is pointed out Of course, as health treatment has improved and people have team lose on penalties to the French in the European football that in both UK and USA inequality, as measured by the dif - become more health-conscious, life expectancy has increased. championships. The rate of deaths from heart attacks and ference in incomes between richest and poorest, increased For men in England and Wales, Class V life expectancy in - stroke on that day rose by 50% in men (but not in women). greatly in the 1980s. It is no exaggeration to say that the at - creased from 65.5 to just over 68 in 20 years (between1972-6 Marmot as a scientist is not satisfied with the vague diag - tacks on workers’ rights spearheaded by Thatcher and Rea - and 1992-6): for Class I, it rose from 72 to 77.5. The gradient nosis of “stress” causing these excess deaths or the other gan which have persisted till now are responsible for a great not only persisted but even got steeper over a period that in - health problems linked with status. He wants to understand deal of disease and death. Now Cameron’s government is cluded Thatcher and her attacks on unions and workers’ how external factors (“control, predictability, degree of sup - cutting benefits and demonising claimants. Does the lesson of rights. port, threat to status, and presence of outlets”) “get into” the this need to be spelt out? There are a whole lot of social gradients which nearly all body and cause illness. Here he refers to Robert Sapolsky’s mirror the health gradient. They include education, social studies of stress in animals on the East African savannah. class of parents, job prestige, and income ( The Spirit Level goes Sapolsky describes a lion chasing a zebra, a life-and-death • www.who.int/social_determinants/thecommission/final - into more, like social mobility, violence or women’s status). situation for both. Energy release must be maximised so that report/en/index.html Do these cause the health gradient? Or is it the other way the muscles can work best. The sympathetic nervous system • Michael Marmot, Status Syndrome: How Your Social Standing round? Do one’s genes explain it? Marmot goes to great is activated and hormones released to increase heart rate, Directly Affects Your Health , Bloomsbury, 2004. lengths to tease out the chain of causality. blood pressure and blood glucose levels. Unnecessary activ - • Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, The Spirit Level: Why While unequal access to health care is no doubt a factor, ities, energy storage, digestion (hence a dry mouth), growth, More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better , Allen Lane, 2009. 9 FEATURE A manual of revolutionary socialism

Paul Hampton begins a review article looking at the main stabilised, the working class was on the defensive and the theories of imperialism that have carried over to today. Cap - documents and themes in John Riddell’s Toward the United Communist parties were in a minority. At the Fourth Con - italism has been able to develop without colonies since World Front: Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of the Communist gress, Trotsky expressed it in the following way: “An Italian War Two and capitalist development has not been confined International (Haymarket 2012). journalist once asked me how we assess the world situation to core European and North American states. To deny capi - at present. I gave the following banal answer: ‘Capitalism is talist development across the globe, or that many states are Toward the United Front is a tremendous work of schol - no longer capable of ruling... The working class is not yet ca - not really politically independent, that they remain neo- arship in the tradition of David Riazanov. Its 1,300 pages pable of taking power, that is the distinctive feature of our colonies are both theoretically wrong in the present but also repay reading — it is a manual for revolutionary socialist time’”. effectively arguments used to justify workers’ subordination strategy, in the words of many of its finest representa - Karl Radek shared this assessment. He said: “What charac - to nationalist forces. tives. terises the world we live in is that although world capitalism The Fourth Congress of the Communist International has not overcome its crisis, and the question of power is still FASCISM (Comintern), which took place in Russia in November-De - objectively the core of every question, the broadest masses of A somewhat underdeveloped assessment was made of cember 1922, was perhaps the greatest gathering of Marxists the proletariat have lost the belief that they can conquer po - the nature of fascism. The discussion was highly pre - ever to assemble. Present were Lenin, Trotsky, Radek, Zi - litical power in the foreseeable future.” Tersely, he told the scient. A month before the gathering, Mussolini had or - noviev, Preobrazhensky, Krupskaya, Marchlewski, Bukharin congress: “The conquest of power is not on the agenda as an ganised his march on Rome and had come to power in and others from the Russian Communist party. They debated immediate task”. Italy. Getting to grips with this development was vital for with Zetkin, Gramsci, Rosmer, Serge, Souvarine, Meyer, Nin, In his report of the Comintern executive committee, Gre - the whole international. Thalheimer, Tresso, Eberlein and Murphy from European gorii Zinoviev proposed that “the Fourth Congress merely A number of comments at the Fourth Congress indicated Communist parties, Cannon and Swabeck from the US, as confirm the theses of Trotsky and Varga at the Third Con - that a specific analysis of fascism was still lacking. Amadeo well as Asian Marxists such as Katayama Sen, Chen Duxiu, gress on the economic situation”. Bordiga, leader of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), argued Tan Malaka, Liu Renjing and MN Roy. The clash of ideas was There was however some difference of emphasis among that “fascism does not represent any new political doctrine” evident throughout, with “left” criticism from Bela Kun, the Bolsheviks about the time-scale of these perspectives. Zi - and that “our analysis leads to the conclusion that fascism Varga, Bordiga, Fischer and Urbahns. In total, 350 delegates noviev argued that “what we are now experiencing is not one has added nothing to the traditional ideology and pro - from parties in 61 countries met for a month to hammer out of capitalism’s periodic crises but the crisis of capitalism, its gramme of bourgeois politics”. In his opening report, Zi - global socialist strategy. twilight, its disintegration”. The resolution On the Tactics of noviev gave unstinting praise to the Italian party despite the The African-American poet Claude McKay confessed with the Comintern stated that “What capitalism is experiencing defeat it had suffered: “If we were to develop a policy man - too much hyperbole that he feared speaking to “such an in - today is nothing other than its downfall. The collapse of cap - ual for Communist parties, then Italy will provide the most tellectually developed and critically minded world audience” italism is inevitable”. However, Trotsky warned that “if the important chapter, the most important example” . more than facing a lynch-mob. In his closing speech, Zi - capitalist world lasts another several decades, well, that However, this line was contested. Two days before the noviev said that it was the first time the Comintern had met would be a sentence of death for socialist Russia” and Radek opening session, the German Communist party (KPD) as “a genuinely international world party” and that the con - stated that the policies of the Communist International “em - adopted a motion instructing its delegation to urge an inter - gress was “a great university for us all”. Arguably the Fourth brace a perspective for an entire epoch, but must still be cut national campaign against fascism. Delegates from Germany, Congress was the most important Comintern meeting, with to the shape of the next immediate period”. Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia raised the issue during the the greatest relevance to today’s socialists, because it dis - IMPERIALISM congress proceedings. Bukharin argued that “fascism is not cussed strategy and tactics in circumstances of retreat but be - merely an organisational form that the bourgeois had in the Another aspect of assessing the global capitalist system fore the Comintern itself was ossified and cauterised by past; it is a newly discovered form that is adapted to the new at the congress was the comments about imperialism. Stalinism. movement by drawing in the masses”. Similarly, Radek said Riddell’s volume contains for the first time in English all The Second Congress in 1920 had largely adopted a Lenin - that the fascists represented bourgeois counter-revolution, the speeches and resolutions from the main proceedings. ist analysis of imperialism, dividing the world mostly into were wreckers of workers’ organisations who maintained the These texts are particularly important for the Marxist tradi - oppressor imperial states and oppressed colonies. What was power of the bourgeoisie. He said: “I believe Mussolini is tion developed by Workers’ Liberty. Our forerunners pub - noticeable at the Fourth Congress was the virtual absence of something different [from other bourgeois politicians]... and lished translations of parts of the congress record in the references to Lenin’s views, even though his pamphlet Impe - his distinctive character is extremely important”. 1970s, when the texts were hard to find in English, in an ef - rialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism had been published in By the time it came to the debate on Italy, Zinoviev had fort to learn from the experiences of these revolutionaries. German and French in 1920 (it was first published in English changed his tune and adopted the main points of his adver - Reading the volume helps understand why we use terms like in 1928). saries. He criticised the PCI for making “gross errors” such as transitional demands, the united front and the workers’ gov - Instead, most contributions appear to have been influenced failing to work with the Arditi del Popolo to form workers’ ernment. by Rosa Luxemburg’s very different theory of imperialism. defence guards. Instead he said the united front against fas - The watchword of the congress was, in the words of Clara Willem van Ravesteyn, the main reporter on the “Eastern cism was needed. However, Zinoviev still managed to equate Zetkin, “Clarity, clarity and again clarity!” The sentiment was Question”, made this connection explicit: “Comrades, our social democracy with fascism, in terms that would be echoed by the youth leader Richard Schüller, who recalled unforgettable pioneer and theoretician Rosa Luxemburg pro - adopted disastrously by Stalin’s third period during the rise the old slogan: “First clarity, then majority”. Their underlin - vided proof in her greatest and best theoretical work that the of Hitler. Although some progress had been made, it was still a ing conception of hegemony was clear: Communist Parties process of capital accumulation cannot take place without a long way from Trotsky’s more sophisticated assessment sought to win the majority of the organised labour movement surrounding non-capitalist territory, on which it acts destruc - in the early 1930s. to their ideas as part of a strategy to win the majority of work - tively. In other words, without older, precapitalist modes of ers to self-liberation. But Communists did not stop at that: production that it destroys”. He added later: “Because the the intention was to win the leadership of all struggles liberation of the Islamic and other Eastern peoples signifies against oppression and for democracy; they discussed the that their tribute to European capitalism immediately ceases. role of peasants, women’s liberation, anti-imperialism, The accumulation of capital cannot proceed without this trib - racism and the national question. ute”. There were a number of areas where the congress refined Similarly, August Thalheimer quoted Luxemburg and crit - important Marxist ideas. icised Kautsky, Hilferding and Lenin on imperialism. Even Delegates elucidated the meaning of perspectives in terms Nikolai Bukharin, who had criticised Luxemburg’s book on of the global political-economic situation, the balance of class imperialism, argued that the growth of capitalism was based forces and the conjuncture they found themselves in. From “essentially on bourgeoisie’s colonial policy and the flower - this assessment of reality, in which large and sometimes mass ing of industry on the European continent was rooted mainly Communist parties had been formed but nowhere outside in the exploitation of the colonial peoples”. Russia did they represent more than a minority of workers, Some of these conceptions were also articulated in the sup - they elaborated strategies to win the majority of workers, as plementary theses at the Second Congress in 1920. The au - well as other oppressed groups. thor of those theses was the Indian Communist MN Roy. A further field of development was the Marxist “holy trin - However at the Fourth Congress he introduced some dissent. ity”, of the programme (including transitional demands), the He argued: “Imperialism is right now making the attempt to united front and the crowning demand for a workers’ gov - save itself through the development of industry in colonial ernment. These informed assessments of fascism, of relations countries... India... was during the war permitted adequate with other workers’ parties as well as work in the trade industrial development… Of course we can raise the objec - unions. tion that this cannot happen, because it is in imperialism’s The discussion of the international political situation at the interests to keep the colonial countries backward in order to Fourth Congress took place on the same ground as laid down absorb all goods produced in the dominant countries. Well by the Third Comintern Congress in June-July 1921. The basic and good, but that is a very mechanical way to view the ques - A month before the Fourth Congress Mussolini had come to assessment, made by Leon Trotsky, was that the post-war tion”. power revolutionary wave had ebbed, capitalism had temporarily This rebuke is an important counter to dependency-type 10 FEATURE The two sides of Abraham Lincoln

The following article, by black socialist CLR James (writ - were brought and kept before the American people for thirty ing as GF Eckstein), was first published in the US Trotsky - years by the constant rebellions among the slaves, by the Un - ist paper Militant , on 14 Feburary 1949 derground Railroad, and those elements in the North among the whites who supported these revolutionary actions. One part of the 1948 election platform of the Socialist Lincoln bitterly opposed all this. He was prepared even as Workers Party [US] read as follows: President to use the power of the federal government to cap - “In 1860 William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. ture and return fugitive slaves. John Brown and Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and One of the great chapters in American history is the aboli - Thaddeus Stevens, personified the forces which waged mer - tion movement of Garrison, Phillips, Douglass and the others ciless war against the slaveowners’ attempt to perpetuate who, often hounded, stoned and beaten, called incessantly their ‘outmoded system, halt the expansion of our economy for an end to slavery, denouncing it as a crime against civi - and destroy the liberties of our people.” lization and the American people. But in 1948 the Republican Party, the Progressive Party of Lincoln hated the Abolitionists as trouble-makers, and ex - Wallace and the Stalinists and even President Truman, the pressed his approval of their being beaten up. Democrat, all to one degree or another sought to relate their policies back to Lincoln. They are trying to fool the workers. REPUBLICAN PARTY It was not so with us. The formation of the Republican Party was a triumph of To the name of Abraham Lincoln we added Garrison, the creative power and energy of the American people. John Brown believed in armed insurrention to end slavery Phillips, John Brown, Frederick Douglass and Stevens. We Suddenly in 1854, all over the country, party units sprang hailed them for waging ‘merciless war’ against the reac- into being and in 1860 it swept into victory. tionary south. It is obvious that when we talk of Lincoln we is plain — monopoly-capitalism, the modern slave-holders. are poles apart from Dewey, Truman, and Wallace. Lincoln had nothing to do with this. Only when it was clear that the Whig Party was doomed, did he throw in his lot with The class that is to be emancipated is the working class; the What is it that the working class must remember about workers with the poor farmers and their allies, the great ma - Abraham Lincoln? He himself expressed it best in his second the new party. Not only was Lincoln driven to emancipate the slaves by jority of the nation. The party that is to be formed is a great inaugural address when he said of the Civil War: “Yet, if God mass party of the proletariat, that will do for American soci - wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bond - force of circumstances. He was ready to consider the forma - tion of a Negro republic in Texas. He would have sent all the ety today what the Republican Party did in 1860-1865. The man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be revolutionaries today are those who will carry on the tradi - sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall slaves to Africa if he could have managed it. Thus with all his virtues he shared to the full the reac - tions of Garrison, Douglass and John Brown — brutal state- be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three ment of the facts, refusal to pretend that there is any way out tionary capitalist prejudices of his day. And it was precisely thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ‘The judgments except by the destruction of capitalism, struggle for the inde - these that blinded him to the truths which the escaping slaves of the Lord are true and righteous altogether’”. pendent action of the masses, refusal to compromise on prin- and the abolitionists taught the American people for thirty ciples. RECOGNITION years. In the end he had to follow the direction in which they We can do this and do this better than they did, because Here was the recognition at last of what the Negroes had pointed: civil war, arming of Negroes, total emancipation, done for America, and of what America had done to the we have before our eyes the mighty power of the American crushing of the slave-power. proletariat and behind us the great traditions and experiences Negroes, the determination at whatever cost to break Lincoln could make these mistakes and still triumph as a the power of the reactionary slaveholders. of Bolshevism. leader because John Brown, Garrison, Douglass and the oth - We take a Marxist view of Lincoln. We pay him the tribute All idle chatterers and fakers can be made to turn green ers had to limit themselves to carrying on a revolutionary due to him as a great historical figure, with a place in the and look another way, simply by asking them to explain propaganda and aiding escaping slaves. struggle for human emancipation. But for us he is no model. these words of Lincoln as part, of what they call the “demo - Brown’s isolated attempt at a slave-insurrection was Rather, in the failures of his career and particularly in cratic process” and “the American way.”? doomed to failure. The workers did not have the numbers, the men who were so consistently right against him, we Abraham Lincoln was a genuine democrat. When in the the organisation, the social power, the political experience to find the points of departure to struggle for the unity, not Gettysburg address he said “government of the people, by offer an independent road. The revolutionaries were right as only of North and South, but of all the nations of the the people, for the people,” he meant it. In those days mo - against Lincoln but had no concrete programme to place be - world, for the emancipation not only of chattel-slaves but nopoly-capital did not exist. A great percentage of the popu - fore the country. Thus like Lincoln, when the Republican of the vast majority of the peoples of the world, the work - lation in the North consisted of small farmers, mechanics and Party came [in 1856], they turned to it. ers, farmers and all the exploited and oppressed. artisans. It seemed to many men that on the boundless acres Today we live in an entirely different situation. The enemy that stretched beyond the Mississippi there was room and opportunity for everybody to acquire independence and ex - ercise self-government from the town-meeting to the presi - Songs of dential elections. Liberty But today, with a few giant corporations owning and dom - inating the economic life of the country and the lives of whole & Rebellion nations abroad; with tens of millions of workers beginning to punch the time-clock at the age of 18 with no other per - spective for the rest of their lives until they are thrown out as infirm or incompetent; with press, radio and a vast govern - ment bureaucracy controlled by a few hundred people, to Reckoning talk about government “of the people, by the people for the people” is a mockery and hypocrisy of the worst kind. Lincoln and others used to say plainly that if the people were dissatisfied with the government it was their revolu - Song tionary right to overthrow it. If he had returned and said that Samiya Bashir’s poem stakes a claim to on any platform in 1948, [US politicians] Dewey, Truman, universal access to joy and freedom. It takes Wallace and Norman Thomas would have united at once to the form of a series of questions, but there are denounce him. no question marks, and the lack of the formal The FBI would have tapped his telephone and investigated interrogative turns the poem from a tentative him. And unmitigated scoundrels ... would have had him up wondering into a series of demands for the way before some House Committee and tried to jail him for his things should be. “un-Americanism”. Samiya Bashir is an African-American poet Believer in democracy and in the people, determined born in Somalia and the founder of “Fire & Ink”, enemy of slave-power, from these Lincoln drew the power an organisation supporting and promoting the which made him a great war-leader, a writer and speaker work of LGBT writers of African descent. whose best efforts will last as long as the English language, a Several of her poems appear on her website genuine na-tional hero. as photo-art pieces. We reproduce “Reckoning Enemy of the slave-power, a believer in the people. That Song” here as it appears on her site. For more, was one side of Lincoln. But there was another which was see www.samiyabashir.com. widely known and commented upon in his own day. The Ruby Kid The viciousness of the slave-power, its cruelties and its crimes, its ambition to suppress liberty all over the United States in defense of its precious hordes of slaves, these things 11 REPORTS

Uni staff NUT delays on strikes fight attacks By Darren Bedford posal was defeated. in January and February cision and announce a Executive members were made it clear that there was programme of strikes The National Union of instructed not to report the a mood for an early fight and other action begin- on union Teachers (NUT) Executive outcome of the meeting or on pay and that they felt ning as soon as possible met on 27 and 28 Febru- its decisions, allegedly so action was necessary im- (which, given the current ary to decide whether to as not to compromise a ne- mediately – with NASUWT timeframe, is likely to be strike this term against gotiation meeting with NA- if possible, but without May). proposals from Michael SUWT on Monday 5 them if not. The Executive Gove to abolish national March. But Monday came majority has shackled NUT pay bargaining for teach- and went and no further members to the pace of a Local ers. Sup- information was forthcom- slower, more conservative eaning that there Unfortunately, the Exec- porters of the Local Associ- ing. This indicates a lack of union, m Associations ot be any action utive chose to prioritise a ations National Action regard for the right of NUT may n st Gove’s plans until continued focus on pursu- Campaign (LANAC) on the members to know what de- again National Action By a UCU activist mber 2013, by which ing joint action with NA- NUT Executive submitted cisions their union’s lead- Septe he new pay arrange- Campaign SUWT, the other large proposals for early strikes ing body is taking. time t A packed extraordinary s will already be in teaching union, rather than as part of a wider cam- Strategic negotiations with ment general meeting of other unions should not place. A rank-and-file striking now. There is no paign of action, and argued LANAC supporters are over 90 University and take precedence over mem- network for indication that the NUT, for that decision to be rati- now mobilising to submit College Union (UCU) bers’ right to hold their teachers with or without NASUWT, fied and launched at the policy amendments to members at Sheffield elected leaders to account. will take action in time to upcoming NUT national NUT’s conference to re- University voted on 28 NUT members at “pay www.nutlan.org.uk fight Gove’s proposals conference (29 March – 2 verse the Executive’s de- February to fight man - properly. April). However, this pro- briefings” around the UK agement attempts to partially derecognise the union. Tories attack civil servants’ UCU currently repre - John Lewis cleaners sents admin, library, and computing staff on higher grades (earning to strike again union rights £24k and above) as well as academic staff. The By a civil servant relevant ACAS code of presently drafted, does not University had threat - practice to argue that there readily lend itself to a cap ened to restrict UCU’s The government has should be no time off for on facility time. negotiating rights only to begun reducing facility union activities (e.g. atten - Compared to many coun - academic staff on grades time (paid time off from dance at union confer - tries where union activity is 7, 8, and 9 — excluding work duties in order to ences). During the “good” met with violence, a cut in not only the academic- carry out trade union ac - years under New Labour, facility time is much less of related staff but the most tivity) within the civil the TUC made no attempt a threat and can be over - senior academic staff service. to get this changed or to come. It certainly will not (professors on grade 10) strengthen rights for reps be easily initially, as civil too. By the end of this year, to have time off. This re - service trade union activity Though the derecogni - we expect facility time will flects the ambivalence that has been based on having tion proposal has now be reduced by about 50% John Lewis cleaners strike in June 2012 union leaderships always ample facility time and so been withdrawn, the is - and many, if not most, have towards lay officials, past practises will have to sues are not resolved. union activists currently on That this was even pro - By Ira Berkovic Cleaners, however, are ex - and the lack of foresight be partly unlearnt. But it a 100% facility time will be posed shows a determi - cluded from the staff that unions generally have could lead to there being a on 50% or less per cent. nation on the part of the Cleaners at John “partnership” scheme on in failing to fight to wider base of activists than There are good union ar - University to divide aca - Lewis’s Oxford Street which John Lewis prides strengthen and extend ex - now, each on a small guments for nobody to be a demic staff from their store are balloting for itself and will not receive isting rights. amount of facility time as full-time rep. But there is colleagues and weaken strikes to win the “Lon - a bonus. If the government tries to opposed to a handful of our collective bargaining don Living Wage” of Alberto Durango, an or - the world of difference be - operate a rigid cap on the “100%ers” doing every - power. Alongside this at - £8.55 per hour. ganiser for the Industrial tween the labour move - amount of facility time thing. Whether things turn out tack on the union, the Workers of Great Britain, ment deciding that and a used, it would probably John Lewis cleaners that way is yet to be University is trying to re - said: “The John Lewis Tory minister cutting over - lose a legal challenge as struck in summer 2012 seen. Union activists move the enhanced pro - cleaners each earn just all time off for all activists. current laws give reps time and, although they did should resist attacks on tection against above the minimum This government is obvi - off to carry out union du - win a 10% wage increase, facility time, while fight - redundancy and the in - wage; in London that is ously hoping to weaken the ties. Depending on those they are still paid well ing at a workplace level dependent disciplinary poverty wages. When the union movement within duties, particularly around below the amount that the for better distribution of procedures that under - campaign started last year the civil service. personal cases, reps should, GLA deems the minimum the time currently allo - pin the commitment to the workers realised they It is noteworthy that the in theory, have as much necessary to live a decent cated. academic freedom in the can win. Now our union government relies heavily time off as needed to carry life in the capital. The on guidance found in the them out. So the law, as University Statutes. cleaners, who are em - is stronger and more con - The meeting voted to ployed by the contractor fident. Management are endorse a formal dis - ICM Ltd., are paid £6.72 trying to divide us, but Defend Jawad, Max, and Steve. pute with the Univer - an hour. we’re not stupid, we have sity if that becomes On 7 March, John Lewis one voice. Other unions Stop the witch hunt! necessary and to are also helping us and launch both a cam - will announce the annual A new website has been set up by the campaign to win bonus for directly-em - with solidarity we will paign to inform mem - win.” reinstatement for Jawad Botmeh, Max Watson, and Steve bers of these threats ployed staff (“partners”). The IWGB served ICM Jefferys, three workers at London Met University victimised and to recruit new The company is expected with official notice of by a management with a long history of anti-union activity. members within UCU’s to announce a 17% in - the dispute on 1 March, Visit the site, support the campaign! existing membership crease in annual profits in and will begin balloting remit. the year to January 2013. on 8 March. stopthewitchhunt.wordpress.com French car S&o Wlorikdersa’ Libreirtty y strike continues Portuguese A strike at the Citroen car plant in Aulna y, to the north-east of Paris, started on 16 January and is now in its sev - enth week. Factory owners PSA group (Peugeot Citroën) plan to close the Aulnay march against factory, causing large job losses. The company plans to shed 8,000 jobs The strikers’ logo overall in the next few years. Around 400 workers, out of a workforce of 3,000, or - ganised by the CGT union, are on strike, but also some workers who are not striking are taking part in some of the protest actions and the general assemblies. austerity The strike has largely succeeded in stopping produc - tion at the factory and held strong in spite of an eight- day lockout in February. The strikers also visit other car plants, including of rival car manufacturer Renault, and are being warmly received. The whole industry faces problems and there are other industrial disputes throughout the sector. Tripartite negotiations between the union, Citroen management and the government have so far not pro - duced any results. The strikers and suporters are busy collecting money to support the strike; on 22 February, for ex - ample, they collected €10,000 at the St-Arnoult toll. • Strike website: http://cgt-psa-aulnay.fr/ • Detailed report on Marxist Revival website: http://alturl.com/qmyx8

Portuguese demonstrators say: “Screw the Troika. We want our lives back!”

The demonstrations that ers...) converged. also demanded the resigna - In Caldas da Rainha took place on Saturday 2 In Lisbon, 800,000 people tion of the government there were nearly 3,000 March in Portugal once people, likewise in Leiria, demonstrated singing made up of PSD [Social Demonstration in support of the CGT Aulnay strike again beat all the previous “Grândola, Vila Morena” (a Democratic Party — despite and 3,500 in Marinha records for participation famous song of the Carna - its name, a centre-right Grande; 2,000 in Viseu; in this country that is on tion Revolution of April party] and CDS-PP [Democ - 6,000 in Faro and 5,000 in life support, severely af - 1974) and chanting slogans ratic and Social Centre-Peo - Portimão. fected by the crisis, and such as “The people united ple's Party — a centre-right, • From Esquerda.net “Born in Lewisham” austerity measures im - will never be defeated”, Christian Democrat party] . posed by the “Troika” (the “Down with this govern - IMF, European Union and ment now”, “Spain, Greece, Portugal: why people are demonstrating demonstration European Central Bank). Ireland and Portugal: our Under the banner “Que se fight is international”, “The The demonstrators are protesting against the gov - Support the campaign against cuts to lixe a Troika!” (an expres - street belongs to us” and ernment’s austerity measures, which include: sion that can be translated “The struggle continues, • Cutting wages Lewisham Hospital maternity services as “screw the Troika!”), the down with the Troika”. • Laying off 1,000 civil servants wave of anger brought to - In Porto, 400,000 people • Cutting pensions gether more than 1.5 million took part in the largest Saturday 16 March, 2pm • Increasing the retirement age people in towns both large demonstration in the city’s • Reducing unemployment benefit and small. As far as the eye history. In Coimbra, 20,000 • Abolishing benefits paid to hundreds of “Hands around the hospital” could see a veritable tidal people demonstrated. In thousands of children and young people wave where several groups Braga, 7,000 people, like - • Increasing fees in Higher Education www.savelewishamhospital.com in struggle (artists, pension - wise in Aveiro. ers, unemployed, work - In Vila Real, 1,800 people