Socialist Fight No. 14 August-September 2013 Price: Waged £2 (€3) Concessions: 50p The Miliband/McCluskey conflict: “The crux of the matter is, of course, that the workers’ organizations, by asserting their anti-Liberal, ‘despotic’, Bolshevik right of enforced col- lection of the political levy, are in effect fighting for the real and concrete, and not a metaphysical possibility of parlia- mentary representation for the workers; while the Conserva- tives and the Liberals in upholding the principles of ‘personal freedom’ are in fact striving to disarm the workers materially, and thereby shackle them to the bourgeois par- ties… Even a blind man can sense here the purely class na- ture of the principle of personal freedom which in the given concrete conditions signifies nothing but the possessing classes’ attempt politically to expropriate the proletariat by reducing its party to nil”. Leon Trotsky’s Writings on Britain, 1926. ,đoàn kết là sức mạnh, Jedność jest siła اتحاد قدرت است ., ,Unity is strength, L’union fait la force, Es la unidad fuerza, Η ενότητα είναι δύναμη ykseys on kesto, યુનિટિ થ્રૂ .િા, Midnimo iyo waa awood, hundeb ydy chryfder, Einheit ist Stärke, एकता शक्ति, है единстве наша сила, vienybės jėga, الوحدة هو ,unità è la resistenza, 団結は力だ, A união faz a força, eining er styrkur, De eenheid is de sterkte ,אחדות היא כוח ,bashkimi ben fuqine !Ní neart go chur le céile, pagkakaisa ay kalakasan, jednota is síla, 일성은 이다 힘 힘, Workers of the World Unite ,القوة Page 2 Socialist Fight Where We Stand Socialist Fight is a member of 1.WE STAND WITH KARL MARX: which subordinate the working class the Liaison Committee for the ‘The emancipation of the working to the political agenda of the petty- Fourth International with the classes must be conquered by the bourgeois reformist leaders of the La- Liga Comunista of Brazil and the working classes themselves. The strug- bour party and trade unions Tendencia Militante Bolchevique gle for the emancipation of the work- 5. We support the fight of all the spe- of Argentina. ing class means not a struggle for class cially oppressed; Black and Asian, The Editorial Board is: privileges and monopolies but for women, lesbians and gay men, bisexu- Gerry Downing, Laurence equal rights and duties and the aboli- als and transgender people against Humphries, Ray Rising, Ailish tion of all class rule’ (The Interna- discrimination in all its forms and their Dease, Chris Williams, Clara tional Workingmen’s Association right to organise separately in that Rosen and Aggie McCallum. 1864, General Rules). fight in society as a whole. In particu- Signed articles do not necessarily 2.The capitalist state consists, in the lar we defend their right to caucus represent the views of the SF EB last analysis, of ruling-class laws within inside trade unions and in working Contact: a judicial system and detention centres class political parties. Socialist Fight: PO Box 59188, overseen by the armed bodies of po- 6.We recognise that class society, and London, NW2 9LJ lice/army who are under the direction capitalism as the last form of class [email protected]. and are controlled in acts of defence society, is by its nature patriarchal. In http://socialistfight.com/ of capitalist property rights against the that sense the oppression of women is Liga Comunista, Brazil: interests of the majority of civil soci- different from all other forms of op- http:// ety. The working class must over- pression and discrimination. Because lcligacomunista.blogspot.co.uk/ throw the capitalist state and replace it this social oppression is inextricably Voice of Anti-Capitalism in with a workers’ state based on democ- tied to private property, and its inheri- Guildford: ratic soviets/workers’ councils to sup- tance, to achieve full sexual, social and http://suacs.wordpress.com/ press the inevitable counter-revolution economic freedom and equality for all of private capitalist profit against we need to overthrow class society Subscribe to Socialist Fight and planned production for the satisfac- itself. IDOT Four Issues: UK: £12.00, EU: tion of socialised human need. 7.We fight racism and fascism. We £14.00 3.We recognise the necessity for revo- support the right of people to fight Rest of the World: £18.00 lutionaries to carry out serious ideo- back against racist and fascist attacks Send donations to help in their logical and political struggle as direct by any means necessary. Self-defence production participants in the trade unions is no offence! We support ‘No Plat- Cheques and Standing Orders to Socialist Fight Account No. 1. (always) and in the mass reformist form’ for all fascists but never call on Unity Trust Bank, Sort Code social democratic bourgeois workers’ the capitalist state to ban fascist 08-60-01, Account. No. 20227368. parties despite their pro-capitalist lead- marches or parties; these laws would erships when conditions are favour- inevitably primarily be used against able. Because we see the trade union workers’ organisations, as history has Join Socialist Fight bureaucracy and their allies in the La- shown. Would you like to join Socialist bour party leadership as the most fun- 8.We oppose all immigration controls. Fight or learn more about our damental obstacle to the struggle for International finance capital roams the work and revolutionary politics? power of the working class, outside of planet in search of profit and Imperi- Contact us at the above email or the state forces and their direct agen- alist governments disrupts the lives of PO Box address. cies themselves, we must fight and workers and cause the collapse of £10,000 building fund defeat and replace them with a revolu- whole nations with their direct inter- Socialist Fight has launched this tionary leadership by mobilising the vention in the Balkans, Iraq and Af- fund to help with our Interna- base against the pro-capitalist bureau- ghanistan and their proxy wars in So- tional work. We need to send cratic misleaders to open the way for- malia and the Democratic Republic of comrades to attend the projected founding conference of the Liai- ward for the struggle for workers’ the Congo, etc. Workers have the son Committee for the Fourth power. right to sell their labour internationally International in Brazil. Send do- 4.We are fully in support of all mass wherever they get the best price. Only nations to: Unity Trust Bank, mobilisations against the onslaught of union membership and pay rates can Sort Code this reactionary Con-Lib Dem coali- counter employers who seek to exploit 08-60-01, Account. No. 20227368. tion. However, whilst participating in immigrant workers as cheap labour to this struggle we will oppose all policies undermine the gains of past struggles. Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Page 3 Contents Editorial: The crisis in the Labour party…………………………………………….....Page 4 Defend Savas Michael-Matsas and Konstantinos Moutzouris! ………..………....…..Page 5 New Labour party cuts the unions?...............................................................................Page 6 Unify the struggles in Brazil!.........................................................................................Page 7 The National Shop Stewards Network Conference…………………….…...…………Page 8 The Peoples Assembly………………………………………………..………….……..Page 10 Death of Ruairi O’Bradaigh………………………………………………………..….. Page 12 The Dublin Lockout of 1913 ……………………………………………………….…...Page 13 Letter from France: The rise of the Front National…………………………..……….Page 16 For Adebolajo and Oluwatobi, ..…………………………………………………..…...Page 18 The Blood Never Dried….……..…………………………………………………..…. Page 20 Ticktin, Taaffe and Underconsumption ……………………...…………………..…...Page 22 Egypt; the coup that wasn’t a coup…………………………..……………………...…Page 24 Maggie Smith 18 April 1962— 29 June 2013...……..…………………………….…..…Page 32 Which of these imperialist-sponsored reactionaries will lead the “revolution” in Syria? In an article in the most pro-Imperialist of all the British press, The Telegraph on 25 July 2013, Face the truth about President Bashar al-Assad, It’s bad news for the region, and for the West Con Coughlin admits the bitter truth about Syria: the Imperialist-sponsored “rebels”, supported by some pro-imperialist leftists, are losing the war and, “the most wor- rying consequence of Assad’s survival, though, will be the sense of empowerment it will lend those countries, such as Russia and Iran that have given Damascus their unstinting support. Russians will take satisfaction from the fact that an important ally has been saved, and that they retain access to the Syrian port of Tartus, Moscow’s only naval base in the Mediterranean”. All serious revolutionaries seek the defeat of US imperialism. Leon Trotsky: I am confident of the victory of the Fourth International; Go Forward! Page 4 Editorial: The crisis in the Labour party he crisis of British capitalism is reflected in the war waging T inside the Labour party between Ed Miliband and Len McCluskey General Secretary of Unite, the biggest Trade union in Britain. Unite donates large sums of money to the Labour party. According to Channel 4’s FactCheck: Unite the union is Labour’s biggest donor by far. It has pro- vided 20 per cent, or £11.9m, of party donations since the elec- tion. Unite says it has given Labour £8m in fees in the last three years. The union told FactCheck that the remaining £3.9m (that makes up the £11.9m) “lumps in everything” across Scotland, England and Wales: sponsorship, conference fees, any funding to re-elect Ken Livingstone, regional campaigns – every last leaflet. [1] Miliband in a letter to Labour Party Members is propagating the idea of “one nation”, so that Labour can prepare for coali- Let us not forget that it was the response that Jerry Hicks got on tion government with either the Tories or Liberal democrats. this very question from 80, 000 Unite members, 36% of the vote Miliband states “A hundred years the Trade Unions helped to for Unite General Secretary, that aerated McCluskey to make his found the Labour Party” [2].