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New Battles for Students and Education Workers

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New Battles for Students and Education Workers So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y Volume 3 No 202 4 May 2011 30p/80p For a workers’ government Labour’s “new” Voices from Arab Defending the political colours revolt pages 6-8 Easter Rising page 2 page 9 New battles for students and education workers See pages UNI CUTS 3 and 5 HUNDREDS OF COURSES NEWS What is the Alliance The dead end of “dissident republicanism” for Workers’ Liberty? By Liam McNulty another Catholic police of - Today one class, the working class, lives by selling ficer and the scale of its its labour power to another, the capitalist class, The murder of Constable operations indicate a level which owns the means of production. Society Ronan Kerr in Omagh by of expertise probably at - is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to dissident republicans at tributable to the presence increase their wealth. Capitalism causes the beginning of April of former Provisional IRA poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives by was just the latest members in its ranks. overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the deadly instalment in their The Kerr murder was environment and much else. increasingly dangerous claimed by a “new” IRA Against the accumulated wealth and power of the campaign. also believed to be com - capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. prised of former Provision - The Continuity IRA, The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity als. with roots in a 1986 split in through struggle so that the working class can overthrow These defections and re - the Provisional movement, groupings reflect a grow - capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership was the first major group ing awareness that the tions to rival groups advo - more important in distin - of industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy to challenge Sinn Féin’s Sinn Féin political strategy cating armed struggle. guishing them. much fuller than the present system, with elected gradual abandonment of is unlikely to lead to a Although Martin They are characterised representatives recallable at any time and an end to armed struggle. The most United Ireland. McGuinness can point to either by ideological eclec - bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. “traditional” of the armed In the last decade, Sinn the large trade union ticism or an almost apoliti - We fight for the labour movement to break with “social groups, it claims the direct Féin has subtly managed demonstrations against the cal militarism. partnership” and assert working-class interests militantly lineage of the Provisional to shift its emphasis from latest murder as evidence When in the summer of against the bosses. Government of 1916. In the “Brits Out” to the more re - that the dissidents have lit - 2010 the RIRA opportunis - Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, past it has dabbled with formist demand of equal - tle mass support, he is well tically adopted a radical supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, pan-Celtic nationalism and ity for Catholics within aware that physical force posture on the Irish finan - “third way” distributist helping organise rank-and-file groups. Northern Ireland. republicanism has never cial crisis, their solution — theories derived from We are also active among students and in many campaigns Although the flagrant sought a democratic man - damaging a branch of Ul - Catholic social teachings. and alliances. civil injustices of the old date. It derives its legiti - ster Bank in Derry — was However, by all ac - Stormont state have been macy from elsewhere — indicative of a lack of any counts it is newer groups We stand for: redressed and, as Sinn Féin from a particular reading wider political perspective. spearheading the latest up - G Independent working-class representation in politics. spokespersons are keen to of the 1916 Easter Rising It is probably true to say surge in violence. G A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the point out, the “Orange and a one-sided narrative you can fill the vessel of The Real IRA emerged in labour movement. State” is gone, the pursuit of Irish history. Talk of physical force republican - the months leading up to G A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to of the civil rights agenda democratic mandates or ism with any social pro - the Good Friday Agree - strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. was never really what mo - mass support misses the gramme, and even radical ment, and although it was tivated the Provisional IRA point when we are dealing or “socialist” proposals are G Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, once debilitated by arrests or its volunteers. A shift in with what amounts to a conceived as instruments education and jobs for all. and informers, it claimed emphasis poses little or no modern-day carbonarism. to build support for the na - G A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. the Massereene Barracks problem for Sinn Féin in Despite some political tional struggle rather than Full equality for women and social provision to free women shootings (March 2009) terms of building electoral nuances, the dissident using elements of the na - from the burden of housework. Free abortion on request. Full and is believed to be be - support. Indeed, in aban - groups all share a tional struggle to build for equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Black and white hind a spate of disruptive doning many republican fetishism of physical force soNciealviesmrt.heless, these workers’ unity against racism. car bombs in Derry. ideological positions (espe - and stale mid-70s Provi - groups are dangerous G Open borders. Since 2009 a group cially regarding the police) sional rhetoric. As such, and they show little sign G Global solidarity against global capital — workers called Óglaigh na hÉire - in pursuit of the equality their similarities outweigh of abandoning their futile everywhere have more in common with each other than with ann, a splinter from the agenda, Sinn Féin has their differences and geo - campaign. RIRA, has been responsi - their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. reaped electoral dividends. graphical rather than ideo - ble for critically injuring G Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest But it has also led to defec - logical factors are probably workplace or community to global social organisation. G Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all nations, against imperialists and predators big Something old, something borrowed, something Blue... and small. G Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. G If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity By Dave Kirk Toryism”, the scheme by which has become “the big working-class tradition, to sell — and join us! writer Philip Blond to monster that we don’t like cohesion and solidarity. 020 7394 8923 [email protected] According to the Ob - reposition the Tories as a to talk about”. Mass immi - He argues unions should server (24 April), Labour party of communities gration under Labour, he pursue coalitions across 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, leader Ed Miliband “is rather than just of markets. believes, served to “act as class lines with faith London, SE1 3DG. set to make two Blue Labour’s chief cham - an unofficial wages pol - groups and “community speeches informed by pion, Maurice Glasman, icy”. He said Labour occu - organisations”. The cam - the ideas of Blue Labour describes it as “a com - pied a “weird space where paign against the privati - over the summer, al - pletely agitational idea to we thought that a real as - sation of forests, which though insiders insist he provoke a conversation sault on the wage levels of involved unions with Tory GET SOLIDARITY is also listening to con - about what went wrong English workers was a squires, NGOs, and envi - tributors to a soon-to- with the Blair project”. His positive good”. ronmentalists, would be be-published Purple critique of New Labour is He blames the “real as - his model for political EVERY WEEK! Book”. both very limited and reac - sault” on migrant workers, unionism. tionary. not on rapacious capital - Special offers The Times (19 April) re - Jon Cruddas, who tried He says Labour needs ists and New Labour’s de - to position himself as a ports that the “Purple “to build a party that bro - cision to keep the crippling G Trial sub, 6 issues £5 Book” will be diehard- more pro-union and kers a common good, that Tory anti-union laws. slightly leftish figure Blairite — “Purple was the involves those people who Glasman champions G 22 issues (six months). £18 waged £9 unwaged under the Blair and Brown colour of new Labour. It’s support the EDL [the “Family, Faith, and the regimes but backed David G 44 issues (year). £35 waged £17 unwaged what you get if you com - racist, Muslim-hating, Flag”. (Just which “faith” Miliband for leader, and bine red and blue. It sym - street-fighting English De - he has in mind is not clear. former hard-Blairite minis - G European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) or 50 euros (44 issues) bolises the need to stay on fence League] within our Some of his ideas resemble the centre ground” — and party. Not dominant in the old fashioned Catholic so - ter James Purnell, are re - Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: will come out about the party, not setting the tone cial teaching, but he is of ported as key supporters of Glasman. 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG time of Labour Party con - of the party, but just a re - Jewish background and ference in September. connection with those peo - still described by the Jewish The Labour Party is in Cheques (£) to “AWL”.
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