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& Workers’ Liberty SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 516 11 September 50p/£1 NOW WIN Understanding “PEOPLE’S VOTE” the new right Cathy Nugent reviews Dave Renton’s new book Page 10 Build-up to 20 September Mike Zubrowski on plans for the next global student climate strike day Page 3 Peter Tatchell on For Labour, against Brexit — Robert Mugabe Tyrant not absolved by a militant past organise for general election Page 13 We’ve pushed Parliament into instructing Boris Johnson to drop Renew Labour his plans for a crash no-deal Brexit on 31 October. a Labour government. But the Labour leadership’s shift to a de-facto Remain stance has Next we must force the calling of a new public vote, Remain vs the beWenh selorew, and otsot etnhtea teioxutselnyt r ethluactt athnte. Labour leadership fails to No to “tactical available Brexit formulas. take up the anti-Brexit fight, local Labour Parties must make The healthier and more vital parts of the Labour left, and the ma - good, by clear “Remain and Transform” campaigns for the gen - jority of Labour members, have pushed the Labour leadership into eral election. voting” opposing the available Brexit formulas and pledging a new public vote with a Remain option. The way to get a “people’s vote” is to elect More on page 5 Page 5 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Beijing goes for attrition Iran condemns workers By Chen Ying to 110 years jail On the morning of 9 September, outside hundreds of secondary From the Shahrokh Zamani sentenced the May Day detainees. schools in Hong Kong, thou - Action Campaign Marzieh Amiri was sentenced to sands of students, supported by ten-and-a-half-year in prison and their alumni, held hands to form Seven workers and activists 144 lashes. Atefeh Rangriz was human chains. from the Haft Tappeh sugar- sentenced to eleven-and-a-half years in jail and 74 lashes. The This followed days of school stu - cane complex in Iran have been court will be sentencing Neda dent protests the previous week, at sentenced to a total of 110 Naji, another of the May Day de - the start of the academic year. years in prison and 74 lashes tainees, later. That previous week too, Chief after the industrial action there The Shahrokh Zamani Action Executive Carrie Lam eventually last year. Campaign strongly condemns announced the complete with - Branch 28 of the regime’s so- “the Iranian regime’s medieval drawal of the Extradition Bill. called Revolutionary Court has and reactionary judiciary. We con - Immediately the entire spectrum passed the following sentences: demn the arrest and continuing of the protest movement declared Esmail Bakhshi, Haft Tappeh detention of activists and support - this as “too little, too late” as they worker and workers’ rep: 14 years ers of the labour movement in Iran insisted that the Hong Kong Gov - in prison. and call for the immediate and un - ernment concedes to all five of their because it would be focusing only and dislocated or fractured limbs Sepideh Gholian, journalist and conditional release of workers and demands. on the police. while being held down and hog- student: 18 years. activists arrested on May Day 2019 Lam opposed the demand for a The conflicts between frontline tied. Protestors have continued to Amir-Hossein Mohammadi- and those who have supported the full public inquiry and instead protestors and the police has con - escalate their actions, including Fard, journalist: 18 years. strikes of the Haft Tappeh work - added two more local members to tinued every evening on a daily more large-scale use of fires and Asal Mohammadi, journalist: 18 ers. the special panel of the Independ - basis, and has affected over a third Molotov cocktails. years. “We call on all trade unionists, ent Police Complaints Council of the city’s Mass Transit Rail As we approach the 70th an - Sanaz Alahyari, journalist: 18 socialists and other political ac - (IPCC). The special panel of five in - (MTR) stations as well as the air - niversary of the founding of the years. tivists to help us in defending ternational experts is headed by Sir port. The brutal assault of protes - People’s Republic, China appears Amir Amirgholi, journalist: 18 the rights of all workers, social Denis O’Connor, who served as tors and travellers by the riot police to be playing a waiting game, wait - years. rights’ activists and political Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of on 31 August in Prince’s MTR sta - ing for more and more arrests to Mohammad Khanifar, Haft prisoners in Iran”. Constabulary in 2008-2012 (cover - tion has been widely condemned as wear down the protestors, while Tappeh Worker: 6 years. ing the 2011 Tottenham/UK riots). even worse than the 12 July triad launching its barrage of propa - In late August the same court • shahrokhzamani.com The protest movement stated attacks on protestors in Yuen Long. gaBndeiaji nangd s ienetmimsi dtoat bioen w. aiting for that this panel would have narrow The use of excessive force by the the Hong Kong economy to go terms of reference while lacking the police after arresting protestors has into recession as a means of power to summon witnesses. continued, despite numerous video grinding the city down. Those opposing the protestors reports showing people bleeding Against Salvini, against Conte also complained against this panel from truncheon blows to the head By Hugh Edwards new government may signal a will - ingness to ease the pressure on the Israel votes again on 17 September Italy’s new government won its Italians.But the margins of ma - vote of confidence in parliament noeuvre are very tight in the pres - on 9 September. ent and worsening climate of By Ira Berkovic he could support some form of an - crack the stalemate, Benny Gantz, The Democratic Party (PD) of economic stagnation. nexation. As Meron Rappaport the leader of the Blue and White Nicola Zingaretti monopolises all The new minister of education Israel will hold new elections on asked in 972 Magazine : “Has Meretz party, seems to be betting on a of the principal offices articulating has already declared that any new 17 September, after right-wing given up on the basic principles unity government with Likud, but relations with Italian and European money for the already long-disinte - nationalist Prime Minister Ben - that have guided it for years? In an one that does not include its leader, “big” capital and with the appara - grating public education system jamin Netanyahu failed to form a agreement over ‘ideological guide - ‘King Bibi’. That would be a huge tus of the state — defence, econ - will not come from public expendi - workable governing coalition lines’ signed by the three parties and taboo move for Likud, as Ne - omy, infrastructure, agriculture. ture, and has announced the taxa - after he won elections in April. that make up the Democratic tanyahu has won his party more The Five Star Movement (M5S) tion of children’s school snacks. At the same time the government Just before those elections Ne - Union, the words ‘ending the occu - than a straight decade in power occupies those it already had in the pation’ or ‘two states’ do not ap - and become the country’s longest- preceeding governmental alliance plans new tax cuts for the rich, and tanyahu announced plans to for - new incentives for profits. mally annex to Israel some or all of pear.” serving prime minister.” with Salvini’s Lega, justice, labour, Hadash, the electoral front of the The April elections were charac - environment, and gains education The satisfaction of the world of fi - “Area C” of the West Bank (60% of nance and capital with the govern - its land area, surrounding the 160 Israeli Communist Party, is again terised by low voter turnout from and the Foreign Office. running as part of the Joint List, Israeli Arabs, many of whom boy - The “left” Free and Equal Party ment has a clear material base. cities, villages, and other areas of But the satisfaction of those who Palestinian-populated land which with a range of Arab parties of cott elections. Right-wingers at - (LeU) got the Ministry of Health, so varying political complexions. In tempted to intimidate more Arabs this abject orphan has dutifully re - claim to represent the Italian left, are Areas A and B). He has made who claim to speak in the name of overtures to far-right, Jewish-su - the April elections, the Joint List into not voting, including by in - turned to its PD home. split, weakening the Arab vote. stalling cameras in voting booths. The PD’s allies here have the task and for the working masses? LeU premacist parties. has been only too happy to return The left, which slumped to its This time it has reunited. The for - One Arab voter, interviewed in of managing ministries “at the coal mal leadership of the Joint List slate 972 Magazine , said: “In the 90s, we face”, of offering crumbs here and to base, once more, to offer service. worst ever results in April, remains Sinistra Italiana announces its in a weak position. The mainstream by Hadash’s Ayman Odeh, a yearned for peace and equality. The there to sustain the government, prominent Arab MK (Member of right has created a reality in which helped the collaboration of a trade “vote of confidence” in the “turn”. Labor Party, led by corporate mil - Rifondazione states, truthfully, lionaire and right winger Avi Gab - the Knesset), may help give it a there is, de facto, no peace and no union officialdom, craven before more left-wing character.