& Workers’ Liberty

SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 436 26 April 2017 50p/£1

Workers’ Liberty members, including those ex - pelled from Labour by the party bureaucracy, will Inside: be out campaigning in the next six weeks for a Labour victory in the 8 June General Election. The hopeful signs are that we will be campaigning Brexit and the alongside many of the half-million or so people who have signed up as Labour members or supporters election since 2015. VOTE More page 5 The election is being fought on Brexit, Labour needs a clear policy. See page 5 Reverse the rise LABOUR in inequality!

Solidarity examines Labour’s economic policy. See pages 6-7 Far right surge in France

The Front National’s Marine Le Pen comes close to the French presidency. See page 3 Russian lessons for today’s workers Joan Trevor reviews The Russian Revolution: when workers took power PREPARE TO FIGHT! See page 9 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org US rush to state killings

Arkansas’ lower courts to the US of sordid ones we might expect By Stephen Larkin Supreme Court, where the first tie- from an episode of ‘Fargo’, not breaking vote from Trump ap - from a supposedly impartial judici - On Friday 21 April the US state of pointee Neil Gorsuch ensured its ary, in a supposedly advanced Arkansas carried out the first in rejection. (With the judge’s confir - democracy. a series of four executions, all mation earlier this month, five out Asa Hutchinson, Republican scheduled before the end of the of nine members of the Supreme governor of Arkansas, originally month. Ledell Lee was killed at the age Court are conservative, and there - planned for the state to hold eight of 51, after more than 20 years on fore ambivalent — at best — to - executions by the end of this month death row; his was the US’s sev - wards the death penalty). but four were successfully stopped enth execution this year, and the The court’s decision was commu - by court orders last week. (Lee was first to take place in Arkansas since nicated at 11.30 pm CT that night; the only one whose appeal on the 2005. The remaining inmates are, at Lee was declared dead at 11.56 pm. basis of intellectual disability was the time of writing, scheduled for To remark upon the likelihood of refused). execution within a week. a Trump appointee being responsi - It must’ve been a harrowing final ble for a death mere days after tak - FARCICAL ing office is perhaps, by now, to few hours for Lee, who was If Governor Hutchinson, elected state the obvious (and invite a granted a temporary stay of execu - riding the Tea Party wave in jaded nod from the reader). Yet it is tion minutes before he was sup - 2014, could not afford to lose the far from the only conclusion one posed to be put to death. support of his hardliners, this should take from this case. It took less than five hours for sudden rush to murder also had The circumstances surrounding that last appeal to travel from a more farcical explanation. Ledell Lee’s execution are the kind The state’s stock of midazolam — the sedative component of lethal in - Patients not passports jection — is set to expire on 30 Government policy is built on a More than 200,000 April, and will be difficult to re - By Gerry Bates racist narrative — that “health properties in England were plenish. An absurdity further com - tourism” is rife (it’s not, it accounts empty for at least six months pounded by the recent revelation Since April 2017 NHS Trusts have for an estimated 0.02% of the total in 2016, with a combined that another ingredient in the exe - been obliged to check patients’ NHS bill). This policy will also en - value of £43 billion. Yet there cution cocktail, vecuronium bro - ID, with a view to determining courage racial profiling and dis - is a shortage mide, was purchased by the state their immigration status, before crimination. of housing to under false pretences (it couldn’t giving them treatment. Since 2014 certain migrants — Arrangements for payment are rent and buy. have got it otherwise). those who do not have indefinite supposed to be left to a doctor’s There are other similar details to leave to remain or are not here on a discretion but even those patients this grim story — Ledell Lee con - temporary or student visa — have needing urgent treatment are tinually claimed his innocence, was to pay 150% charges for secondary meant to be asked for a “down pay - convicted in an unfair trial (not care. ment”. only was his judge having an affair These charges will now to be ex - Many health workers feel these 200,000 with the prosecutor, but his counsel panded to primary and emergency rules destroy the trust patients was reportedly drunk at the time of empty homes care and those who cannot pay will must have in health services in the hearing), and was refused DNA to be reported to the Home Office. order to get the treatment they tests. in England Many of the people targeted for need. Lives are being put in danger. All this only serves to illustrate charging are refugees — some of Docs Not Cops is asking 4,397 in the moral bankruptcy of a state healthworkers to never check for Birmingham the most vulnerable, and poorest. where the judicial system is in - Yet the government says it wants to immigration status and therefore herently political, and human be - recoup £500 million through these never have to withold treatment. ings can be sacrificed for charges. 19,845 short-term electoral approval. • www.docsnotcops.co.uk in London 3,449 in Liverpool Big cities voted against the Erdogan regime to other places where they were Turkish socialists Marksist supposed to vote. Tutum comment on the Since the media is dominated results of the Turkish by the government, the no cam - referendum paign could not reach the masses by that channel. The big cities such as Istanbul, The working class in the big Ankara, Izmir, Antalya, Denizli, cities feel and see that the “pow - Diyarbakir, Adana, Mersin and erful Turkey” propagated by the Eskişehir, where the working AKP does not benefit them. Now the Erdogan government, class is concentrated, said no determined to pursue adventurist to the one-man regime in the imperialist politics in the Middle referendum held on 16 April. East, will not stop back from Half of the population did not building new restraints for the want the one man regime, despite working masses. The economic, the fact that all the state’s re - trade union and democratic rights sources were mobilised to win the of the working class will be fur - referendum and democracy was ther truncated. suppressed. Democratic rights were sus - The first task at this point is pended, all opposition groups to strengthen the organised were suppressed, and their voices struggle by claiming the work - were reduced. In the cities where ing class’s May Day tradition of the Kurdish people lived, tens of international unity, struggle and thousands of voters were moved solidarity. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty NEWS 3 Two views on the second round

dare not make an unusual step for 1: Martin Thomas fear of falling over, so be it. But do not attribute your own Marine Le Pen’s Front National weakness to us, or make us pay does not have the mobilising the price of a Le Pen presidency power to install a fascist regime for that weakness of yours. if she wins the presidency. But Le Pen’s politics, and the FN 2: Ira Berkovic and Michael top cadre around her, are fascist. Johnson The presidency will give them A vote for Macron is not just, or huge power to impose discrimina - even mostly, a vote for more tion, heavy police powers, union- open borders, a defence of Mus - bashing policies, and re-raised lims and immigrants, and an ex - frontiers between nations which pression of opposition towards will ricochet across Europe. protectionism and racism. The mainstream neoliberals Macron is a former banker who pave the way for Le Pen. The wants to cut corporation tax to Far-right surge in France whole of the French left will mo - 25%, wants more flexible labour bilise on the streets on 1 May, and, laws in the mold of the El Khomri 21.43%, up on 17.9% in 2012 and of harsher neoliberalism. one way or another, will seek to se - By Colin Foster 10.44% for the FN candidate in The task now is to regroup the Law, allowing companies to nego - cure left-wing representation in the tiate individual agreements with 2007. real left, and equip it to win a ma - new National Assembly elected on The first round of the French Le Pen won only 5% of the vote jority. staff. His program is to reduce presidential election, on 23 April, 11-18 June to limit whichever pres - public spending by €60bn, cut in Paris; 7% in Rennes, Nantes, Bor - Not an easy task, but an urgent ident wins on 7 May. confirmed that “Trump effects” deaux; 9% in Lyon; 13% in the one. The lesson is that if the left 120,000 public sector jobs, and in - are spreading. On 7 May itself, in my view, troduce greater “flexibility” in re - The 2008 economic crash and the whole Ile-de-France region includ - dawdles and equivocates, in eco - workers can best serve the contin - ing Paris; but 24% in Marseille, 25% nomic turmoil like today’s, then the tirement age and the working economic depression since then uing struggle by using the only op - week. have discredited mainstream ne - in Nice, and more in small towns right does not stand still. tion available on the ballot paper and villages. The FN does not have the power It is a continuation of the “liber - oliberal politics, and so far right- to block Le Pen: vote Macron. alization” demanded by the French wing nationalist, “identity Just ahead of Le Pen, and to mobilise on the streets of a full- Macron is bad, and the neolib - favoured to win the second-round scale fascist movement. But Marine ruling-class which Francois Hol - politics”, demagogues have seized eral policies of a Macron presi - lande’s Parti Socialiste was unable most of the gains. run-off on 7 May, was Emmanuel Le Pen herself is a fascist, sur - dency not curbed by strong Macron, a former minister in the rounded by a cadre of fascists. to deliver. Hence, the flocking of The revolutionary socialist candi - left-wing remobilisation will bring Hollande-Valls wing of the PS be - dates, Philippe Poutou and current government (led by the So - France’s constitution gives the an even greater fascist danger in a cialist Party) who split off to form president great powers. hind Macron, together with cen - Nathalie Arthaud, with 1.21% and few years’ time. Le Pen is worse, trist François Bayrou and sections his own “centre” neo-liberal move - Even if Macron wins on 7 May, 0.65%, did a bit better than in 2012, and Le Pen as president on 8 May of the French centre-right. ment, with 23.86%. he promises worse than Hol - but still worse than in 2007 (4.08% is worse than a danger of Le Pen as Macron’s candidacy is a united The “mainstream” left, the So - lande rather than better. Unless and 1.33%). president in some years’ time. front of the French establishment. cialist Party, had its chance in 2012, the left rebuilds as an independ - Soft-left candidate Jean-Luc Mé - It is a principle for us in elections Its neoliberal “reform” program when it won elections by a clear ent force in time, the next presi - lenchon got 19.43%. The great to seek the maximum independent will hit workers. A “critical” vote majority — with some leftish poli - dential election will be even gainer, however, was the Front Na - working-class intervention. for this neoliberal programme will cies which it then trashed in favour more scary. tional’s Marine Le Pen, with On 7 May we cannot stand or be indistinguishable from those support candidates of the labour who genuinely endorse Macron’s movement. Sometimes we shrug policy; both will be taken as legiti - because the differences between mation for further attacks on our bourgeois candidates are small and class, and will serve to undermine French left takes stock speculative. Sometimes we say that the credibility of the revolutionary the “lesser-evil” bourgeois candi - left as it rallies a fightback. NPA (New Anti-Capitalist Party, a meaning of a rejection of Marine Le Groups on the French left have date is bound to win anyway, and A vote for Macron could drive successor to the Trotskyist LCR, which Pen without endorsing Macron... commented on the first-round in any case we are strong enough workers further in to the arms of stood Philippe Poutou in the first Some of my voters will cast a presidential results, the second to make blank votes a real gesture the “anti-establishment” Front Na - round) blank vote like me. Others will round coming on 7 May, and the of working-class independence. tionale, who will continue to prey On Sunday 7 May, many people spoil their ballot papers. Yet others parliamentary elections follow - The outcome is not certain. The on the fears and insecurities of will want to block the FN by voting will abstain. Some, maybe, will ing on 11 and 18 June. revolutionary left is not strong those suffering under capitalism. for Macron. We understand the de - choose to vote for Macron, believ - The Socialist Party and the Com - enough to raise blank votes visibly And it risks sowing illusions in sire to push back the mortal danger ing, wrongly, that by doing that munist Party — and mainstream above the random level. It would the neoliberal center and its capac - for all social progress and rights, es - they oppose the rise of the FN. right candidate François Fillon - be nihilistic disregard for bour - ity to rescue us from a resurgent pecially for immigrants and those The main thing is to be aware will vote on 7 May for Macron to geois democracy and bourgeois populist right. Lots of people who of immigrant origin, which the that, whatever the result of the stop Le Pen. Although his main cosmopolitanism to deny the big will vote Macron, people the revo - coming to power of Marine Le Pen vote, the exploited, the retired, and base was the CP and other groups difference between Macron’s rou - lutionary left needs to reach, will would represent. But we insist that unemployed, will have an enemy taking a similar attitude, Jean-Luc tine neoliberalism and Le Pen’s vote Macron not on the basis that it is the policies of cuts and repres - in the presidential palace. Mélenchon says he will consult his fascistic chauvinism. he is a crook, but with enthusiasm sion, especially when carried supporters on what to say about There is no Marxist principle and illusions. through by the supposed left in Arguments pour la lutte sociale (a rev - the second round. against voting for a lesser-evil It is only the labour movement government, which are the cause of olutionary socialist newsletter with bourgeois candidate when it is im - which can combine a defence of the rise of the FN and its disgusting whose editors we have friendly links) possible to have a labour-move - the gains of the neoliberal period – ideas. Macron is not a barrier Neither Le Pen nor Macron: this Ensemble (left group, including some ment candidate. When the German cultural cosmopolitanism, freer against the FN, and to push back orientation [on the second round] Trotskyists who split from the NPA in Social Democracy was a Marxist movement, economic integration – that danger durably, there is no does not play into the hands of Le 2012, which supported Mélenchon) party, before World War One, it with a fight against the poverty, other answer than going back on Pen as both the partisans of "na - Ensemble calls for mobilisation routinely advised a vote for liberals alienation and social distress it in - the streets, against the far right, but tional unity" and comrades who see on the street on 1 May, and in vot - against loyalists of Germany’s bu - evitably creates. also against all those who, like an immediate fascist danger are ing against Le Pen on 7 May, to stop reaucratic monarchy in run-offs As against Le Pen, Macron is a Macron, have introduced or want going to say, sincerely or not, be - the far right gaining power. when the socialists themselves had “lesser evil” but it is incumbent on to introduce anti-social measures. cause the orientation has immedi - At the same time, we will fight been eliminated. Left-wingers like Marxists to resolutely assert work - ate points of concretisation. Emmanuel Macron's project, Once Rosa Luxemburg and Franz ing-class independence and hostil - Nathalie Arthaud, candidate in the First, independent social strug - Le Pen is eliminated, we must stop Mehring did not dissent. ity to both. Even on the points on first round of the Trotskyist group gle. Hundreds of thousands of Macron constituting a majority in We tell workers: Le Pen is worse which we agree with Macron, our Lutte Ouvrière demonstrators should intervene on the National Assembly with the than Macron. And do we then say: “Yes” is not his “Yes”. right wing of the Socialist Party and Politically-aware workers should 1 May with the slogan of abroga - you must not vote Macron, how - We say “Yes” to open borders, a section of the mainstream right reject voting for Marine Le Pen. But tion of the El Khomri law and all ever much you indict him and or - anti-racism and greater Euro - around his ultra-neoliberal pro - Macron, this former banker and their other current demands... ganise against him. Once you vote pean integration but a resound - gram, which will continue the poli - minister, is just as much an enemy And, in the same process, let you will forget your indictments? ing “No” to the capitalist nature cies of Hollande's five years in of the working class as Marine Le us start the political struggle for Those workers could reply: if of his programme, and even his worse form. Let's pull together a Pen... unitary and democratic candida - you are so unconfident of your capacity to defend those points left which stands up for itself. As for me, I will cast a blank vote tures [of the labour movement] own political firmness that you on which we overlap. [on 7 May], giving my vote the in the legislative elections... 4 COMMENT Help us raise £20,000 to The Socialist Party gives improve our ground to nationalism as much for them as for British workers. We website THE LEFT must defend their rights – their rights to mi - grate freely and safely, free from the violence By Ira Berkovic of border controls, and their right to legally seek work – as vociferously as we defend the At best, Hannah Sell’s article “Brexit and wages, terms, and conditions of domestic the left” ( Socialism Today , the magazine labour. To adopt any other position necessar - of the Socialist Party, Issue 207, April ily implied that the rights of British workers 2017) is a series of platitudinous banali - come first, simply by dint of the fact that they £3001 ties. At worst, it is a wretched concession are British. There is no other word for this but to nationalism. “nationalism”. In a rare direct polemic against other group Sell’s article says that “the only way to raised out on the left (the Socialist Party prefer to push back is for a united struggle of all work - of £20,000 plough their own sectarian furrow, acknowl - ers.” Quite so. But in the context of what is edging the existence of other tendencies only essentially a polemic against a policy of free occasionally), Sell makes a number of claims movement, and for restrictions on immigra - about Workers’ Liberty which range from the tion, it is plain that, for the Socialist Party, work. Does the Socialist Party propose to distorted to the straightforwardly untrue. She “united struggle” is not the “only way to have border police checking union cards at accuses us of “having consistently argued push back”; they also favour legislative Dover? Should we expect to see Socialist that the EU is progressive”. This is not our mechanisms to restrict immigration. Party delegates at Britain’s airports and position. Sell cites the 2009 Lindsey oil refinery docks, telling migrant workers – the very The institutional infrastructure of the Eu - strike, where workers protested at bosses’ people who, in previous generations, help lay ropean Union, like all capitalist institutions, use of Italian migrant labour on terms that the foundations for our modern labour is a class instrument, constructed to enforce undermined collectively-negotiated agree - movement – that employers will use them to We need to build a left that is open to the rule of capital. But the continental inte - ments, as an example of the kind of struggle undercut British workers, and that the class debate and is serious about self-educa - gration it brings with it provides a higher necessary. conscious thing to do would be to get back tion. platform for working-class solidarity and That strike began as a strike demanding on the plane or boat and go home? Our website, including its extensive united struggle than the hard right’s alterna - “British jobs for British workers”. Undoubt - All workers – local and migrant – should archive could help build a different kind tive — a Europe of competing national-capi - edly the Socialist Party comrade involved did be “covered by a proper trade union agree - of socialist culture — one where discus - talist blocs, walled off behind high trade play an important role in shifting the dispute ment or by sectoral collective bargaining”, sion and self-education are cherished. barriers and intensive immigration controls. away from such racist slogans and onto po - but this will be imposed on employers From Trotskyist newspapers of the That was the choice on offer in the 23 June litically healthier terrain. But those who, through class struggle. To propose it as policy 1940s and 50s, to older Marxist classics, referendum; that is why Workers’ Liberty while supporting the Lindsey workers’ fight we want the existing state, with its Tory ad - to discussion articles on feminism, na - for national agreements to be respected, was for “remain”. ministration, to adopt as a fix for a perceived tional questions, religion and philosophy sounded a note of caution about the risk of She next accuses us of having “no concept immigration “problem” is a political contor - and resources such as guidelines for viewing migrant workers as the enemy, were of the limits to capitalism’s ability to over - tion undertaken by a tendency visibly un - Marxist reading groups — it’s all there right to do so. come the barrier of the nation state”. In fact, comfortable with the implications of its own on the Workers’ Liberty website. we have repeatedly cautioned against the perspective. But to make our archive of real use we view that capitalism has bypassed the nation MISSING need professional help to make all con - The Socialist Party should take some re - state entirely, echoing the arguments of Ellen Sell quotes Giorgio Cremaschi, leader of tent fully integrated, searchable by date sponsibility for the logic of its position. Be Meiksins Wood and others. Rather, nation the Italian union Fiom, supporting the and subject and optimised for mobile honest! Just say it, comrades: you think im - states themselves “globalise” by making strike, but none of the Italian migrant reading. We need to finance a website migration depresses pay and conditions for themselves attractive sites for international workers themselves. Migrant workers’ co-ordinator to ensure our news cover - domestic workers, and to solve this problem, investment, and plugging into intercon - agency is missing from the Socialist age is up to the minute and shared on you think there should be less immigration. nected world markets. This globalising logic Party’s picture; the implication is that social media. We want to raise £20,000 That is the substance of your view. No creates objective, material basis for a greater “united struggle” in fact means struggles by our conference in November 2017. amount of gloss, nor any amount of reassur - degree of working-class unity than “na - by British workers against the way mi - ances that you do not consider migrant work - Any amount will help. tional” working classes struggling solely grant labour is “used”. ers to be at “fault”, as Sell puts it in the article, In the last week Solidarity sellers against “their own” ruling class, behind bar - The fact remains that the Lindsey scenario change that fundamental fact. have increased standing orders and riers and borders. is rare. There, a unionised domestic work - Workers’ Liberty takes a different view. made donations, bringing £1250. Sell scoffs at the idea that capitalism might force, with collectively-negotiated national Our view is that no human being should be “carry through the task of the unification of agreements, saw their employer physically “illegal”. Our view is that the right to move Europe and that this would be ‘progressive’”, bus in migrant workers and employ them on • If you would like to donate by freely, including to move between states, is a apparently impervious to the reality of the terms outside the existing agreements. This paypal go to degree of European integration and unifica - is not the basis on which any significant pro - fundamental human right, and that restric - www.workersliberty.org/donate tion capitalism has already achieved. To re - portion of migrant labour comes to Britain - tions on that right cannot be imposed except • Or set up an internet bank transfer peat: the existence of a single market, and the or, to use the Socialist Party’s schema in by state violence. Have employers sometimes erosion of borders throughout substantial which migrants are passive instruments of attempted to “use” migrant labour to lower to “AWL”, account 20047674 at Unity their costs? Of course — just as some employ - Trust Bank, Birmingham, 60-83-01 parts of Europe, provide an objectively neo-liberalism with no agency of their own, higher, better, basis for working-class unity “is brought”. Ending free movement, which ers historically exploited the entry of women (please email than the vision preferred by the right, and ap - is the Socialist Party’s policy, would not do into the workforce to drive down wages by [email protected] to notify us parently by the Socialist Party, of rigidly de - anything to meaningfully protect trade union paying them less than men. of the payment and what it’s for); or lineated national-capitalist blocs. For that agreements. It would, however, significantly In proposing restrictions on immigration, however packaged and presented, the Social - • Send a cheque payable to “AWL” to process to be reversed under pressure from disadvantage working-class people from EU economic nationalism and xenophobic “sov - countries attempting to move to make a bet - ist Party echo the Lassallean socialists of the AWL, 20E Tower Workshops, Riley Rd, ereignism” — currently the only meaning - ter life for themselves and their families. 19th century who opposed women’s entry London SE1 3DG (with a note saying fully hegemonic forces behind the drive to The Socialist Party give their pro-immigra - into the workforce on the basis that they what it’s for). break up the EU —would certainly not be tion controls position a labour-movement would be “used” to undercut existing, male, “progressive”. gloss by claiming that the “control” they workers’ wages. Take a look at The article finishes by repeating the Social - favour is a kind of (presumably state-en - The free movement that exists between EU ist Party’s wretched position on immigration forced) closed shop, whereby employers member states should be extended, not re - www.workersliberty.org – that is, an unquestioning acceptance of the wishing to “recruit abroad” must be “covered stricted. Bosses’ use of migrant labour to un - idea, which does not survive contact with ev - by a proper trade union agreement or by sec - dercut local labour should be met with Sponsored dog walk idence, that migrant labour straightforwardly toral collective bargaining”. But the vast ma - common struggle and demands for levelling depresses pay and conditions for domestic jority of migrant labour does not consist of up, not calls to end free movement. Workers’ Liberty comrade Joe Booth will labour, and that the solution to this is to workers directly “recruited abroad”, but of be doing a sponsored 10 mile dog walk By arguing that the rights of British apply controls at the border. workers who come to Britain, sometimes as workers can be protected by restricting for the website fund on Sunday 11 June. Migrant workers are as much part of our a result of acute poverty and lack of oppor - Sponsor him at: bit.ly/2oGBwwd the rights of migrant workers, the Social - class as British workers. Our politics must be tunity in their countries of origin, looking for ist Party give ground to nationalism. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty WHAT WE SAY 5 Labour must fight Tories over Brexit!

This election has been pitched by the Tories as a referendum on Brexit. Labour needs a clear policy on that. In the first place Labour cannot afford to ignore the issue, or effectively ignore the issue, by campaigning on everything but Brexit. Many voters on both sides of the European referendum debate see the issue as important. Moreover the Labour Party cannot con - tinue as it has done, to give the Tories a free hand to shape the debate on Brexit. Far from “holding the Tories to account” they have voted with the Tories in Parlia - ment, for instance, on triggering Article 50. Labour must make good on the words of Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who said last October: “By pulling up the drawbridge and tearing up longstanding ties to Europe, we will inflict huge and un - Vote Labour, prepare to fight! necessary pain on our society... a hard-line Tory minority believe [in] the fantasy of Workers’ Liberty members, including ability to impose a viciously nationalist and but not yet taken up, like public provision of turning our whole country into a giant off - those expelled from Labour by the party anti-working class agenda. Pushing back social care and restoring the right to strike in shore tax haven, with rock-bottom wages bureaucracy, will be out campaigning in against that prospect means preserving and solidarity with other workers. and no public services. It is a nightmare the next six weeks for a Labour victory in extending the political hopes of many mil - And socialists should use the general elec - vision that I believe would be rejected by the 8 June General Election. lions represented by Corbyn’s leadership and tion to strengthen the case for even more rad - the majority of people who live here”. The hopeful signs are that we will be cam - the potential of a political alternative to the ical anti-capitalist and socialist policies like Labour should be convincing people, paigning alongside many of the half-million Tories. expropriating the banks. including those who voted for Brexit last or so people who have signed up as Labour Corbyn should organise big rallies around We need to fight to establish and embed 23 June, that the Tory vision of Brexit, members or supporters since 2015. the country, to recapture some of the excite - the idea that socialist – indeed all left-wing should be rejected. That surge in activity will come from many ment of his leadership campaigns, bring peo - and democratic – politics is about politically A key debate is over migration. Labour who were enthused by Jeremy Corbyn’s ple together and build confidence for a convincing and persuading people, shifting should not shy away from this debate. It Labour leadership campaigns but have felt continuing fight. the political consensus. After Corbyn's first should defend EU nationals right to stay disappointed that Corbyn has not fought for The Party should now campaign on its Labour leadership contest, we argued that: in this county and argue against May’s re - the policies on which he won the leadership. policies — of rail renationalisation, free edu - “...a left-wing Labour Party could and stated pledge to push down net immigra - They understand that no matter how cation, council house-building, a £10 an hour would have to inform, shape, educate and re- tion, despite the risk of collapsing the daunting the circumstances of the election, minimum wage, reversing NHS privatisa - educate ‘public opinion’. That is what a economy and leaving vital services like fighting to get rid of the Tories, or even to tion. We fight for those things now and after proper opposition party does. A serious po - the NHS understaffed. prevent a huge Tory landslide, is no small 8 June, whatever the result of the election. litical party is not, should not be, what the Labour should be clear ending free The left needs to push Labour to emphasise Blair-Thatcherite Labour Party now is – an matter. We also know that if Labour loses movement in Europe is a terrible step the best, boldest, and most radical of existing election machine to install venal careerists in badly, Corbyn will be replaced with a much backwards, a blow to unity between policies and campaign for them vigorously. ministerial office... The ideas, norms, conse - more right-wing leader. That prospect, too, is workers of different countries and origins, We should also argue for Labour to campaign quences and ideology of market capitalism no small matter. and paves the way for trashing workers’ for left-wing policies agreed by its conference have not been contested by the political A huge Tory landslide will strengthen their and other rights which entered British law labour movement. All that can now be from the EU. changed...” There is a real danger that the Liberal Seeking to educate and shift public opin - Democrats will succeed in pitching them - ion, rather than manoeuvring cleverly or not- selves as the main opposition to the Tories Build Labour into a workers’ party so-cleverly, is where Corbyn has fallen down on Brexit, with Labour caught looking in - – not just because it is difficult, but for want coherent in the middle. of trying. Even on the basis of its existing pol - Rebuild the labour movement A labour movement that fights hard to icy, Labour could argue for opposition So that we progress in rebuilding the reshape opinion should remain our mini - The intense election activity, drawing in to the Tories’ Brexit plans, for defence labour movement socialists need to see this mal goal. Organising and mobilising as a lot of people who have not yet come to of free movement and migrants’ rights, election not just as a mechanical exercise of hard as we can for a Labour victory on 8 meetings, has the potential to alter the for remaining in the single market. We “getting out the Labour vote” — finding out June is the best starting point for this on - longer-term shape of the Labour Party should fight for this. and the labour movement. whether a person will vote Labour, collect - going fight. We can make it a much broader move - ing information, and going on to the next ment of activists, with local parties having house. gional Board members. deeper roots in communities and a higher This election should be an opportunity to It will be simply impossible to hold trigger level of political activity. have political conversations and to politicise No selections? ballots, selection hustings and meetings in We also need to ensure that all sections of Labour supporters, winning them to the the 631 Parliamentary constituencies in the the labour movement — Momentum idea that ongoing socialist activity is valu - The snap general election has stopped given timescale.” groups, union branches, Labour Clubs, able and necessary. local Labour Parties organising trigger By Tuesday 2 May all candidates will be in Young Labour groups — and all activists are That is why campaigning should not be ballots so sitting MPs can be reselected place. The rumour is that there has been mobilised. In the first place Labour needs counterposed to democratic organising or or selecting their own candidates in va - some deal made between the Leader's office every activist it can get! political debate. With most local Labour Par - cant seats. and the right of the party to split the seats to In addition to launching a membership ties shutting down for the duration, Mo - A document sent to all CLP secretaries their preferred candidates on a 50/50 basis. drive, the party should stop wasting mem - mentum groups should meet and use the states: The NEC has agreed MPs will be res - Labour members have been given less say bers’ and affiliates’ money on paying offi - election to rally and organise people for elected automatically if they wish to stand over their choice of candidates than in many cials to witch-hunt the left, put a stop to campaigning, and to discuss Labour’s pro - again. Vacancies will be a dvertised on Fri - Conservative associations! expulsions of socialists for being socialists gramme and our political demands. day 21 April and after close o f applications The process of democratising and and extend an amnesty to those who have This too will prepare the ground for the on Sunday 23 April will be selected directly transforming the Party must continue been expelled. broader, more political labour movement by panels of the National Exectuive and Re - after the election. we seek to build for the future. More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty The SNP reality Westminster,” said Sturgeon, “this election Reverse the ri By Dale Street is about making Scotland stronger, this is a By Martin Thomas working-age welfare benefits. manifesto to make Scotland stronger at The percentage of children living in In the 2015 general election the Scottish Westminster, we will make the your (the poverty, which soared from 18% to 33% in the Nationalist Party lied, lied and lied again. The Resolution Foundation, a statistical Scottish people’s) voice heard more loudly Thatcher 1980s, then decreased from 34% to They helped the Tories win the election. think-tank, reported in March on the eco - and clearly than it has ever been heard be - 27% in the Blair-Brown years, has been rising They cannot be allowed to get away with nomic prospects if the Tories win on 8 fore at Westminster.” steadily since 2010 and is set to rise further. June. doing the same in 2017. Meanwhile profits are rocketing. “The only way to lock the Tories out of 10 Sturgeon initially proposed another “pro - "If nothing is done to change [the] out - It is impossible to calculate the effects of Downing Street is to vote SNP on 7 May,” gressive alliance”: “If the parliamentary look... [2015-20] will go down as being the hard Brexit in detail, but certain that it will said the SNP. The reality: while the SNP won arithmetic lends itself to the SNP being part worst [period] on record for income growth add to the squeeze on the worse-off. 56 seats, a Tory-Lib-Dem coalition was re - of a progressive alliance to keep the Tories in the bottom half of the income distribution. The pound's exchange rate falling relative placed by a Tory government with an ab - out of government, then the SNP will be "It will also represent the biggest rise in in - to other currencies, as it has done already, solute majority. part of that, as we said in 2015.” equality since the end of the 1980s". will increase inflation. New trade barriers “The only way to force Labour back to its That lasted all of 24 hours. Then Sturgeon The toxic mix comes from low wage will increase costs and depress production. roots is to vote SNP,” claimed an SNP elec - switched to a full-scale offensive against her growth — which the government's own Of - Loss of EU migrant workers who staff pub - tion leaflet. The reality: while Labour moved allies of, literally, only yesterday. Labour’s fice for Budgetary Responsibility predicts — lic services, and pay a lot more into public left and elected Corbyn as its leader — with - vote in Westminster for a general election and a great wave of pre-programmed cuts in budgets, in taxes, than they take out, will in - out any assistance from the SNP — the SNP was a case of turkeys voting for Christmas, dismissing Labour as “unelectable”. said Sturgeon. Corbyn “ain’t going any - “It’s time to put fairness and equality back where near Number 10 Downing Street, on on the agenda,” claimed the same leaflet. his own or with the help of anyone else.” Does £70,000 make you rich? The reality: in Scotland, where the SNP had It was “utterly shameful and disgraceful” that Labour had “allowed itself” to fall so far held power for ten years, child poverty, ed - income of just over £1 million. The graph behind the Tories in opinion polls. That was By Charlotte Zalens ucational inequalities, and social and eco - (printed here) shows how incomes go up in “Labour’s failure and is an utter disgrace.” nomic inequalities have increased. huge leaps at the top of the scale. The bot - Speaking at the STUC congress, Sturgeon Individuals who earn £70,000 are in the “The SNP will never stop doing our best tom fifth of earners in the UK share only 8% said the election in Scotland was “a two- top 5% of UK earners. Yet when Labour’s to make Scotland’s NHS the very best,” of total income, while the top fifth have 40%. horse race between the SNP and hard-line Shadow Chancellor said that people claimed another SNP election leaflet. The re - But what sort of people earn £70,000? Is it Tories.” earning over £70,000 were rich he was ality: health is a devolved issue, and the really that out of the ordinary? Teachers not Writing off Labour and writing off the met with incredulity and was said to be SNP’s record is one of shortages of GPs, in management earn £38,250 (£46,800 in election result as a foregone conclusion is “out of touch”. shortages of nurses, longer waiting times for London) at the top of the pay scale. Nurses the flipside of nationalist flagwaving. Al - Data published by HMRC in March show A&E treatment, and missed targets. earn on average £23,300. Plumbers earn on though the SNP has singularly failed to do that the median pre-tax income in the UK is average £30,000. Tube drivers (much de - so for the past two years, it promises, yet around £22,400. Someone working 38 hours rided by the press for their high pay) earn a TAX again, to be the only party which will Stand a week on the government’s National Living maximum of £60,000. “The SNP will restore the 50p income tax Up for Scotland.“If people in Scotland want Wage earns £14,800 before tax. Households That is not to say that standards of living rate for those earning more than an effective, strong opposition to a Tory gov - in the bottom 20% of the population have on for those earning £70,000 are at the super- £150,000,” promised the SNP manifesto. ernment, they won’t get it from unelectable average an average “equivalised” income The reality: in the 2014 referendum the rich yacht-owners end of the scale, or that Labour, they won’t get it from the Lib Dems per head after tax of £10, 000 (2015-6). So SNP had promised no tax rises in an inde - the median earner has a comfortable level of who still say they would support a Tory who is really out of touch here? pendent Scotland, and in 2016 the SNP in living. The median wage gives you a low government. They will only get it from the Is it that labelling an income of £70,000 Holyrood voted against a 50p income tax standard of living. The result of that situa - SNP.” rich risks highlighting the uncomfortable rate. tion — four million children in the UK are Scottish politics in recent years has been a truth of just how little most people earn by “A vote for the SNP is not a vote for an - living in households in poverty. textbook example of how poisonous the comparison? other referendum. It is ultimately up to the What those earning £70,000 consider nor - forces of nationalism are in general and the Perhaps it is also because we realise just Scottish people. I can’t impose it on the peo - mal are things we should expect to be nor - SNP in particular. The SNP has worked con - how high some earnings are that we think ple against their will,” said Sturgeon. The re - mal for everyone — a secure living situation, sistently to polarise politics around national £70,000 isn’t rich? How can £70,000 be rich ality: non-stop campaigning for a second enough money to have decent food, money identity. Opponents of Scottish independ - when an investment banker takes home sev - referendum by the SNP, despite opposition for leisure activities, access to culture, edu - ence have been labelled as “anti-Scottish”, eral million a year in bonuses on top of a from the majority of Scottish people. cation, holidays. But these things are not the “Quislings” and “traitors to their country” basic salary? The SNP would make a Labour govern - normal for most. who “talk Scotland down”. Income inequality in the UK is higher ment “bolder and better” because “if you There is no reason that more people could It has not used its powers at Holyrood, to than many other similar developed coun - hold the balance (in a hung Parliament), not be earning much closer to £70,000. Real pay for public services, for example, or to tries. But income inequality at the top of the then you hold the power” claimed Sturgeon wages in the UK are still 4% below pre-crisis scrap the “rape clause” that it now opposes. scale is bigger than it is lower down the and Salmond. The reality: The Tories re - level. In some sectors such as health and so - In fact, the SNP has not passed any new leg - scale. sponded to Scottish nationalism by whip - cial care they are 6-7% below. islation in over a year. The top 1% have incomes substantially ping up English nationalism and won the What distinguishes SNP Scottish nation - higher than the rest of those in the top 10%. To help us achieve that we need more election. alism is not that it is “civic and joyous”. In 2016, the top 1% had an average income and better paid public service jobs, in - The SNP election strategy in 2015 was to What distinguishes SNP nationalism is that of £271,888 and the top 0.1% had an average creasing the minimum wage, and intro - portray Labour as “Red Tories”, even whereas other nationalisms seek to unite the ducing a maximum wage cap. though the SNP had voted with the Tories nation they claim to represent, SNP nation - in seven out of ten votes under the last alism polarises the Scottish nation — be - Labour government, and even though its tween those with a purely Scottish identity first Holyrood government had depended and those with a British-Scottish identity. on Tory votes for survival. The SNP has sought to rally people round It portrayed itself as the “true” champions a flag. Unsurprisingly, this leads to other of what Labour used to stand for — by, people rallying round a different flag. The fairly literally, cutting and pasting the result: a surge in support for the Scottish To - Labour election manifesto and adopting it ries. as their own, even though the manifesto consisted of policies which the SNP had vig - The optimum outcome of this general orously opposed in the 2014 referendum. election for the SNP is the crushing of And, above all, the SNP waved a flag: the Labour Party, a Tory government with “My vow is to make Scotland stronger at an overwhelming majority, and a big vote for the SNP in Scotland. POLICY 6-7 No “Progressive ise in inequality! Alliances”! crease pressure for social cuts. By Simon Nelson Against that bleak Tory future, Jeremy Cor - byn's Labour Party has proposed: The snap election and Labour’s position ● Introduce a real Living Wage of £10 per in the polls has once raised the idea of hour and give all workers full rights from a Progressive Alliance and coordinated day one. tactical voting. Compass, the “centre left” think tank, ● Establish a new National Investment Tony Blair, and investment manager Gina Bank and Regional Development Banks. Miller have all proposed some kind of or - ● Always give the NHS the money it ganisation aimed at stopping hard Brexit. needs... integrate health and social care. Gina Miller, who brought the court case ● Reintroduce an Education Maintenance that forced a vote on Article 50, was able to Allowance and maintenance grants for stu - crowdfund almost £300,0000 in 48 hours to dents from low and middle-income back - support such an initiative. grounds. Their argument: the majority of the pop - ● Build more than a million new homes in ulation did not vote for a hard Brexit. The five years, with at least half of them for social traditional opposition to the Tories, the rent. Labour Party, is not likely to win the elec - Those are the points in briefing notes al - tion, and is split on the issue of how to ready put out by the Labour leadership, tackle Brexit. It is therefore important to get though deliberately sidelined by some right- a Parliamentary majority against Brexit. wing Labour MPs for their local campaigns: This means Labour, the Lib Dems, SNP, bit.ly/lp-brief. Plaid Cymru, SDLP and Greens not stand - They are entirely and immediately feasible, ing against each other in certain seats, and so long as: backing whoever is the most likely candi - ● Labour wins the election date that will oppose a hard Brexit. ● the election campaign is used to expand Tony Blair has even said he is tempted to and integrate Labour's working-class mem - come back into British politics to oppose a bership, and the party is opened up to make hard Brexit. (Which should be the kiss of it a real workers' party capable of sustaining the death for the proposal). Blair says he a Labour government against ruling-class himself will vote Labour, but to stop a hard pressure and pushing it to keep to its pledges Brexit and for an effective chance to veto or ● the revival of the Labour Party is used as vote down any deal that does not safe - a lever to rebuild the labour movement from guard, prosperity, jobs and trade, Brexit the workplace upwards. must be the issue the election is fought on. The policy needs to be rounded out, in the Blair is right that Labour’s position on first place by a clear Labour stand against Brexit is unclear. Labour even voted in Par - hard Brexit. liament to allow the Tories to take Britain Some expansion of public spending can out of the single market, though it now and even should be covered by government says it wants arrangements as good as the borrowing. John McDonnell has given more single market. But Blair’s starting point is pledges of "fiscal responsibility" than he that Labour should not campaign on the should have done. Unless a government is NHS or school cuts, not just because he be - flexible with borrowing, economic shocks, lieves they cannot win an election, but be - certain in a capitalist world, can only be ac - cause he is actively opposed to some of commodated by social cuts. That approach is rates for people on more than £90,000 or taxes, beyond a certain point. Labour’s current policies. Ironically Blair’s as destructive as an individual starving £100,000 a year. Really to secure the resources to quash in - call for the potential backing of other par - themselves into illness, and losing their Since Thatcher, the top rates of income tax equality, a Labour government would need ties should leave him open to expulsion ac - home, instead of borrowing (if they can), have been drastically cut, and taxes on con - public ownership and democratic control cording to the rules (as they are currently when they suddenly hit misfortune. sumption which hit the poor more than the over major piles of wealth. implemented). However, these rules are The National Investment Bank means a rich — like VAT — have been increased. So Public ownership of the banks has been of - used almost solely against the left. publicly-owned bank able to borrow more by 2013-4 the bottom 10% in Britain were ficial TUC policy since it was proposed by the Chuka Umunna, one time leadership cheaply than commercial banks, and lending paying 45% of their income in tax; all other Fire Brigades Union in 2012, but left dormant. contender, a figure on the hard right of the for infrastructure and industrial projects. The deciles, 30 to 35%; and the top 10%, 35%. We should fight to activate it, and make it ac - party, and former Compass staffer, surpris - Labour leaders say that would increase eco - "New Labour" used to say that in a glob - tive Labour policy too. ingly came out against Blair: nomic growth. alised world it is impossible to raise taxes on The banks and high finance are central to “Tony Blair is wrong... No ifs, no buts: It is not a bad idea, but it is very far from a businesses or on the well-off, because they the economy's functioning, and their greed voting Labour and maximising our posi - cure-all. will move their money to a lower-tax area. for profit has been central to the economic tion in Parliament is the best way to stop The model is probably the KfW, the Ger - In fact, even with globalisation, tax rates chaos which has engulfed us since 2008. Theresa May’s hard Brexit. What the Lib - man state's federal investment bank, set up vary seriously between countries. Personal Banking should become a unified, demo - eral Democrats and Conservatives have under the Marshall Plan in the 1940s. It's a tax rates on high incomes range from 60% in cratically run public service providing bank - done to our public services in government safe, conservative model, in no way anti-cap - Denmark to 19% in Slovakia; corporate taxes ing, pensions and mortgages for everyone since 2010 and the cuts to support for those italist or socialist. The current chair of the Su - range from 45% in Japan to 12.5% in Ireland. who needs them, and funds and resources for on low incomes, the disabled and others in pervisory Board is German finance minister "Globalisation" in general could not stop a investment in public services and all areas of need is utterly unforgivable. Whatever Wolfgang Schäuble, Europe's sternest auster - British government raising its tax rates on the social need – instead of acting as an engine to common ground Labour people may have ity-hawk and central to the crushing of the rich to the upper ends of those ranges. devastate them and promote inequality. with them on Brexit, we cannot ignore or anti-austerity rebellion in Greece. Labour should make a definite commit - Labour is likely to pledge to renationalise forgive this.” Higher taxes will be necessary as well as ment to tax the rich, including taxes on rail. It should also renationalise utilities - for borrowing and the NIB, especially if Labour wealth as well as income. example, nationalise the Big Six energy com - Labour must have a clearer policy on also reverses planned cuts in school budgets Labour has also promised to raise funds by panies, and renationalise Royal Mail. fighting hard Brexit. At the same time and welfare benefits, the Tories' semi-freeze cutting tax evasion and tax avoidance by the And a full charter of trade-union rights activists must oppose moves to tie the on public sector pay, and the cuts in local rich and by big business. That is good; but as — not just the repeal of the Tories' Trade Labour Party and by extension the government, as it should. long as the decisive piles of wealth remain in Union Act — is necessary if workers are labour movement to anti-working class John McDonnell has talked of raising tax the hands of the plutocratic few, not under to be able to reverse inequalities imposed forces; it is a political dead end. social control, the rich will always evade over recent decades. 8 FEATURE More online at www.workersliberty.org Darcus Howe on Black Power 70s. We took their anyone could be for Black Power — Nixon A new TV drama — ‘Guerilla’ — tells the name. We took was for Black Power in 1968 — he meant story of the British Black Panthers. their dress. We had black capitalism. Long-time black and left activist a 10 Point pro - DH: There have been many slogans in Darcus Howe, who recently died, was a gramme. But we world history. Of them all I think Black founder member of the group and were not Maoists. Power is one of the best. You had to be there consultant for the show. In this We expelled and to experience Black Power. It was not simply interview from 1995 Howe discussed suspended people a nationalist struggle — the same as the the politics of “black power” with Dan for being Maoists. struggle in Ghana or in India — it was just a Katz. We thought they demand for control over your own life. were divisive. We DK: The French were a privileged minority did not have cul - in Algeria — someone else’s country —and DH: The Panthers have been grossly mis - tural nationalists. the British were the same in India. But the represented in political circles. And we were not Black Americans were firstly — basically — They were an intensely revolutionary or - with the Labour Americans and secondly a minority. ganisation, the largest non-establishment po - Party either! We DH: The French ruled in Algeria, the blacks litical party ever to exist in America — larger had some relations did not rule anywhere. than the Communist Party or any left-wing with the [Trotsky - group. There were thousands of them all over ist] IMG. DK: The struggles were not the same. The the United States. They staked their lives in In the Panthers question in Algeria was self-government for order to get change in the United States. Darcus Howe speaking at an anti-fascist rally, Lewisham 1977 there were various the Algerians. The matter was not self-gov - For me the three great figures of the twen - currents. But there ernment for Black Americans. can. Ten guys would be hustling in a syndi - tieth century are Lenin, Mao and Malcolm X. was a very powerful leadership. Members DH: Oh yes it was! Alabama, Mississippi cate. The police hold one, give him thousands With each of these leaders a new class moved could not just go around doing what they and Atlanta are now ruled by Blacks. Now of dollars, and the rest go to jail. Or he sets forward: Lenin led the workers, Mao led the wanted — unless you were George Jackson, the whole situation is exposed: black people them up to get killed. That’s how they live. perhaps the brightest of them all. I spoke on peasants, and the modern unemployed came are divided into classes. on to the historical stage led by Malcolm X. And the Panthers could never transcend that. platforms alongside Stokely Carmichael, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver as the UK The first time we saw it was when Malcolm DK: So your argument is that this nation - DK: When Lenin was alive there was no representative. So I knew the organisation X surrounded the police station in Harlem. alist struggle was necessary in order to clear cult of Lenin. But when Huey Newton was pretty well. Then we could see the unemployed: who are the way for class politics. the Panthers leader, there was a cult of Huey. I’ve a great place in my heart for Huey. The these people? what do they want? Lenin was DH: Absolutely correct! The Panthers, not a worker and Mao was not a peasant. But There was also a cult of the gun and the cult failure of a great organisation like the Pan - Martin Luther-King and Malcolm X trans - one of the most important things about Mal - of violence. thers left its mark. The pressure he was under formed America in a way that Eisenhower, colm, Huey P Newton and George Jackson DH: The cult of the gun is easily explain - as a result of the defeat broke him. He was Nixon and Reagan never did. Martin Luther- was that they were from the urban unem - able. If you were shot at every day, what such a nice young fellow. The drugs he took King, under pressure of the mass, moved to ployed. For the first time in history the class would you do? The Panthers had no other al - — that was a long time after the Panthers had the left. At the end of his life he was support - produced its own leaders. That to me is an - ternative. collapsed. ing workers’ struggles — and that is when other strength. The Panthers were deeply rooted in the black, urban unemployed. Peo - DK: For Lenin the use of violence was sub - DK: What were the London Panthers like? they killed him. A lot of people living in the ple learned to read and write in jail. Stokely ordinate to political ends: human liberation. DH: We had about 250 members. But there United States are not American in the way Carmichael and James Forman were perhaps The Panthers glorified violence. It was part was no question about seizing power — as that blacks are. There are three real sets of some of the few who were educated people. of their political character. they put it in the US. The slogan was: come Americans: the Native Americans, the blacks A lot were just street guys and the only disci - DH: Lenin as an individual did not face the what may we’re here to stay! That was the and the white descendants of the people who pline came from the Little Red Book. They police shooting at him every day. Police bru - battle as we defined it. We wanted an end to came over in the Mayflower. Black people were Maoists. tality was part of the Panthers’ cultural life. I the police harassing us: very specific de - built the US and they have a sense that they can easily understand how they felt. You mands. It was not a national struggle. We did. DK: I can’t be expected to like Mao given have to understand that! They were faced wanted a bit more space and more demo - that he killed and jailed people like me. But with a military struggle. cratic rights within the country. This was not DK: The good thing about Martin Luther- Mao did have the big political picture. The just an organisation of Africans and people King is that ... he wanted people to be treated Panthers didn’t. DK: But such a struggle could not win. from the Caribbean. Farrukh Dhondy was on as human beings — as distinct to some of the DH: Oh, but they did! They had a great DH: It didn’t win. That’s a fact. Hoover the central committee. We had quite a num - more radical nationalist currents who wanted conception of international revolution. They and the FBI destroyed them with the Cointel - ber of Asians and strong relations with the In - to stress and cultivate existing black-white di - had no power other than that of the gun. pro programme. dian Workers Association. visions. In between Martin Luther-King and They could not go out on strike. Their moral DK: What about the limitations of this type the other end of the spectrum of black politics code and behaviour cut them off from the DK: The Bolsheviks settled their disputes of organisation? The Panthers were based on — the cultural nationalists — you have the bible-toting mass of black workers. In some by argument. The Panthers regularly solved a minority — the lumpen youth — of a mi - Panthers and Malcolm X after ‘64. places there were wonderful alliances. In De - arguments amongst themselves with vio - nority community. DH: And Darcus Howe. I am irredeemably troit, where the black working class was lence. DH: Using the term minority is very dan - black. I do not exploit it for political ends. But strong in the factories, they had links with the DH: I’m not picking an argument with gerous. Until 1959 the South existed on serf - I am aware of black struggle. If I was not workers. In California they aligned with you. I just think it is ahistorical and facile to dom and the cotton economy. Then they aware of it I would die. hippy students. The state came down on all look back with hindsight and say that. That’s discovered synthetic fibres. The cotton plan - In America blacks are always being given of them. They did some remarkable things. just how they were! The Panthers were cen - tation owners had to intensify pressure on trouble. Have you lived there? You talk about They challenged the Democratic Party at tral to the period following the break up of the serfs. the States with a British sensibility, which is their Chicago convention. They terrified the feudalism in the Southern States of America. And when I say “serf’ I mean it accurately. a serious problem. There are millions of establishment. And for me it remains one of the most impor - The serfs worked for the landowner. And the blacks in the United States who do not meet tant historical landmarks in American poli - landowner was helped by the local power whites at all, except the police. They have no DK: Lenin developed a sophisticated tics. structure. We could not vote. We were not al - relations with whites, they have no white world view. Huey Newton did not. The Pan - lowed to, because in many areas we were in friends, they do not live in the same areas. thers were tremendously brave and heroic UK PANTHERS the majority: during the Reconstruction pe - When you say “black community” in the US, but I’m not going to pretend they were very DK: You have used criticisms that Huey riod after the Civil War we had had our own you mean exactly that. If you walk down the political. They had a 10 Point Programme, Newton used against cultural nationalists: representatives elected to Congress. street in Manhattan, at night, and a white but how would it be carried out? that if black people are good and white That is how millions lived in the South. woman sees you walking towards you, she DH: No, that’s not right at all. Huey people are bad then that lets Papa Doc Then black people simply started walking off bolts! In Harlem you may see one or two quoted Lenin a great deal. Their problem was and African dictators off the hook. Is New - the land, helped by black and white students whites, because there is a cultural space there this: they thought that the unemployed ton where you got this view from? from the North. — but not after 5 o’clock. There are myths on youth were the class to lead the revolution. DH: I was part of forming that conception. Everyone says it was just Martin Luther- both sides. But when one side has the power, And that was an enormous mistake. They I was one of the most listened to leaders King. Not so! There were mass revolts from the myths can be established for real. substituted a section of the class for the amongst black people in Britain at the time below. whole class. The unemployed are not only — especially young blacks. DK: The Black Power slogan only came in DK: It’s a mess. just a part of the working class but are also a ‘66… and what did it mean? I understand the I was an overseas member of the Student DH: Yes, an enormous mess. And the re - very vulnerable section of the class. They are demand for the right to vote. But Stokley Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee sult is that America has lost out. A lot of not disciplined by production, and live from Carmichael meant more by Black Power than (SNCC), which I joined in the late 1960s. The the enormous creative power of black day-to-day making a living in any way they that. But the demand was so unclear that Panthers were set up in London in the early people has been lost to America. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty FEATURE 9 Russian lessons for today’s workers about or outright hostility to working-class Vicki Morris reviews The Russian self-liberation, and to the working class gain - Revolution: when workers took power ing a sense of itself as a class which has inter - by Paul Vernadsky ests different from its rulers. A working class that understands that the current economic It is 100 years since the Russian Revolu - system, capitalism, exploits it, and that re - tion, the most important event in working solves to change that system radically — to class history, when the workers of a coun - replace it with a system that is more politi - try, Russia, took their country over. cally and socially democratic and that allows Albeit briefly they ran that country in their each person to develop fully — socialism. interests, and extended support to workers in During the current left resurgence in the other countries who wanted to do the same. Labour Party, there has even been an almost This is our chance to look at that event superstitious distancing from “revolutionar - again, celebrate it, and think what lessons it ies” as if the self-designation one gives one - can teach us today. Paul Vernadsky’s book propaganda, promotes the idea that the Russ - tion Centenary Committee, the labour move - self in relation to an event 100 years previous The Russian Revolution: when workers took ian revolution — workers taking power — ment itself seems reluctant or, at least, clue - were the real dividing line in politics. Work - power is a useful way to do all of those things. was all a horrible mistake. They ignore it or, less as to how to remember the revolution. ers’ Liberty supporters have been the victims The book includes a narrative of the revo - if they talk about it, they portray it as the Why is that? of this, with several being expelled from the lution, a study of the Bolsheviks who organ - slaughter of the innocents, a coup against We are living in a period where the left Labour Party, and Workers’ Liberty has had ised and led the revolution, debates about democracy, a ruthless, doomed social experi - seemed to be on the march, with the election a great deal of hostile press (with other social - issues raised in and after the revolution, and ment by evil wrongdoers (the Bolsheviks) (twice) of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the ists not doing enough to defend us). an unflinching examination of “what went who murdered a perfectly delightful and Labour Party. Many around Corbyn have tried to distin - wrong” — how and why the revolution was blameless royal family into the bargain. Lenin described Labour as a “bourgeois guish themselves from the “Trots”, the revo - usurped by Stalinism. But the fact that the centenary is not being party, because although it consists of workers lutionaries. For some this is a defence The book comes with a study guide to help marked is also the natural result of many peo - it is led by reactionaries, and the worst reac - mechanism: when the right points the finger organise reading groups and get the most ple drawing the wrong lessons from 1917. tionaries at that, who act fully in the spirit of at the far-left, the unconfident say “we are not from your reading. Group discussion can When the Stalinists overturned the benefits the bourgeoisie”. All comparisons guarded, like them”, in the hope they themselves can lead to a greater understanding than we get of the revolution, and installed a new, brutal, Corbyn seemed to offer something different avoid hostile scrutiny. from reading the book on our own. And it can exploiting economic system they carried out from that. Corbyn’s surprise win seemed to And there are those who think a Corbyn lead to group action, as we organise activity their crimes using the signs, slogans and bor - conjure up some of the Bolshevik spirit! (left)-led Labour Party can by itself bring rad - inspired by the lessons we learn. rowed prestige of the Bolshevik revolution, Yet the recent past in the Labour Party is ical change, removing the need for revolu - Discussing this history in groups is a prac - thus tarnishing them, unfairly, for an epoch. one of democracy being severely curtailed, tion. They are wrong. The bourgeois state will tice that the Bolsheviks would recognise and This false representation has been passed particularly under Tony Blair; of the party not allow radical change by radically reform - applaud. The purpose — to organise a mate - down in historical accounts of all kinds, in - being imbued with pro-capitalist ideas, ing governments, or not for long. rial force, a party, to give life to revolutionary cluding those of the left. tamed, any rebellion against the Tories damp - The real dividing line in politics today is ideas — was the essence of Bolshevism. Vernadsky’s book examines the reasons ened down, made into an electoral machine, not between self-conscious revolutionaries The book gives an inspiring account of the why Stalin was able to defeat the revolution: meeting the career ambitions of a few, in the and those who believe that capitalism is in - evolution of the Russian communist move - the backwardness of Russian society and its service, ultimately, of capitalism. So what is evitable. It is between those who fight the sys - ment before, throughout and after 1917. It ex - economy, the isolation of the Russian revolu - possible now is being shaped by the past: bu - tem and those who accommodate to it. It is plores in detail their democratic culture and tion after revolutions failed elsewhere in Eu - reaucratic institutional structures, past prac - between those who rub up against capitalism their debates at home and with socialists rope, particularly in Germany, hostile armies tice, inherited ideas. every day and who feel and hate its effects — abroad. invading during the civil war. In these cir - the exploited, the alienated, workers and Those debates, far from being mere aca - cumstances, and facing poor odds, the revo - LEGACY their families — and those who can make demic talking shops or intellectual posturing, lution was “strangled by the rising their peace with the system, who will never We must also contend with a long legacy prepared the Bolsheviks to organise and take bureaucracy inside Russia from the early believe in workers’ power. of fear of working-class mobilisation per action to lead the workers to power in 1917. 1920s”. Stalin wiped out including Trotsky The Bolsheviks believed that the workers se. Vernadsky addresses head on the negative and his followers, and gathered to himself ab - Mainstream left politics in the UK, includ - could and should take power, that they could impact that the strains of civil war following solute power. ing in the unions, sees the goal of politics as transform society and run it in their own in - the revolution had on that democratic cul - Vernadsky examines closely the mistakes getting Labour governments elected, or terests and in the interests of all humanity, ture. He concludes, however, that there was the Bolsheviks made, in the context of the Labour political representatives elected, and that the very future of humanity rested nothing inevitable about the decay of the pressures on them, but concludes: within a system that fears working-class mo - on this audacious act! workers’ revolution per se, and that in other “The party that led the 1917 revolution is bilisation in the form of strikes and demon - There are many workers, contending with circumstances the workers taking power still an inspiration. This was the party that strations, much less workers taking direct the system, who don’t know this, the true his - would not have ended in Stalinism. could take on and defeat all enemies, internal control of the places where they live and tory of the labour movement and the socialist and external, and survive the civil war. This work, working-class rule. tradition, who would benefit from knowing INSPIRING was the party that would rancorously debate The Labour Party and trade union move - more about the Bolsheviks, about the history of the Russian revolution. This book is for The Russian Revolution was a momen - out its differences in public and with great ment have been characterised by anxiety them! tous event. It inspired workers’ move - sharpness, in order to clarify the assessment Inevitably, some of the hostility to com - ments around the world. and to draw out the political conclusions. Yet today, on the 100th anniversary, you “That party along with the tradition it em - memorating 1917, the “Trot-baiting”, the have to look hard to see it discussed any - bodied was not finished after the civil war. witch-hunting, comes from the political heirs where. Contrast, for example, the four-year Having made such a tremendous, irreplace - of the Stalinists, who, whether from thought - long commemoration of the First World War able contribution to the Russian working less tribalism or genuine political differences, (which the revolution helped to end). class over decades, it was entirely right for want to erase any trace of Trotsky’s legacy You will not hear it said anywhere in the those who wanted to save the Russian revo - from the labour movement. In several chap - mainstream that the sacrifices of the revolu - lution to seek to revive whatever could be sal - ters in his book, Vernadsky gives detail on the tionary Russian workers who lost their lives vaged from its ranks. There were no other life and death battle between Stalin and his in the fight for workers’ power, or in the civil forces, no other agents capable of turning the followers and Trotsky and his supporters. war that followed, when foreign armies, in - tables on the bureaucracy and on Stalin's ma - It is ironic but not surprising that in the cluding the British, invaded Russia to destroy chine at that time than the old guard of mili - year when the left should most be remember - the new Bolshevik government, benefited tant worker-Bolsheviks”. ing and celebrating 1917, large sections of it British workers. But they did! The Russian Alas, the odds stacked against them were are afraid to. Yet socialism is an urgent neces - workers inspired strikes, and a confidence too great. After 1928, Vernadsky concludes, sity... and a real possibility, if we can learn les - among British workers that alarmed the nothing remained of the workers’ state cre - sons from socialist history, none greater than rulers here enough to make concessions. ated by the Bolsheviks and the workers; Rus - the example of the Russian revolution. Following the Bolsheviks’ example, work - sia passed over to a new exploiting class If we discuss the ideas in this book, ers in other countries built powerful commu - system, Stalinism. publicly and as widely as we can, we can nist movements. The Stalinist defeat of working-class revo - provide a counter-argument to all of those Apart from a handful of cultural exhibi - lution, however, was not inevitable. We can who want to forget the revolution, bury its tions in London there are — so far — few study the lessons of this period in history to The Russian Revolution: when workers took positive lessons, and inoculate the work - commemorations of 1917. help us avoid the potential dangers. power can be purchased for £14.80 ing class against the idea of ever taking That is partly deliberate, as the ruling class, Apart from a one-day event on 4 Novem - including p&p. From bit.ly/RuRev. A study power again. They must not succeed. We through its various means of power and ber, organised by the TUC’s Russian Revolu - guide can be downloaded at the same URL. must! Where we stand More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns McCluskey only just re-elected the means of production. The capitalists’ control over the economy and their relentless drive to increase their wealth causes poverty, unemployment, By Ann Field what was at stake, and despite the the blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the destruction resources he was able to pour into of the environment and much else. his campaign, McCluskey only just Gerard Coyne — the candidate scraped home. Against the accumulated wealth and power of the capitalists, of the right, backed not just by No-one could have foreseen the the working class must unite to struggle against capitalist the right-wing media but also by general election, but the impact of power in the workplace and in wider society. the most right-wing elements of a Coyne victory in such a context The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty wants socialist revolution: the Labour Party — came within does not bear thinking about. 5,500 votes of being elected the collective ownership of industry and services, workers’ control, When McCluskey first stood for new General Secretary of Unite election in 2010, he stressed that he and a democracy much fuller than the present system, with the Union. McCluskey got 59,000 votes would be a one-term-only general elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to secretary. But this year he stood for bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. (45.5%); Coyne 53,500 (41.5%); and rank-and-file candidate Ian election for a third time, in an un - We fight for trade unions and the Labour Party to break with Allinson 17,000 (13%). necessary contest deliberately trig - “social partnership” with the bosses and to militantly assert McCluskey was re-elected, but in gered by his own resignation. Clearly, many members were working-class interests. every other respect the election re - sult was a major setback for Mc - alienated by McCluskey’s cynical Cluskey and the trade union manipulation of the Rulebook, mo - In workplaces, trade unions, and Labour organisations; ceived them only when it was too politics which he represents. tivated solely by his desire to pro - among students; in local campaigns; on the left and in late to vote. The turnout was pitifully low: long his term of office. McCluskey Coyne himself was also sus - wider political alliances we stand for: just 12.2%, even lower than in the was lucky that a lot of them ab - pended from his job with Unite al - • Independent working-class representation in politics. 2013 general secretary election stained rather than voted for most as soon as balloting had • A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the (15.2%) and the 2010 election Coyne. closed. Reports of the reasons given (15.8%). The number of ballot pa - labour movement. for the suspension range from pers issued (just over a million) also • A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to HARD-RIGHT breaches of the Data Protection Act exposed the fall in Unite member - strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. Coyne deliberately ran a to circulating defamatory material ship: in 2010 1.5 million ballot pa - provocative hard-right cam - during the election campaign. • Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, pers were issued. paign. His strategy was to mo - Whatever the precise details, the education and jobs for all. Unite’s official statement on the bilise Unite members who suspension certainly smacks of Mc - election result blames the low • A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. normally do not vote in elections. Cluskey’s bureaucratic machine turnout on “the archaic and expen - Full equality for women, and social provision to free women Fortunately, it did not work. But targeting a (very right-wing) dissi - sive balloting system imposed on from domestic labour. For reproductive justice: free abortion on it very easily could have. dent. trade unions by law.” The state - Given that he ran his campaign The dominant left culture within demand; the right to choose when and whether to have ment is an evasion of reality. The on a shoestring and was up against Unite has an excessive focus on children. Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and key reasons for the low turnout are McCluskey’s bureaucratic machine, elections. There is nothing wrong trade-union-political, not the 17,000 votes can count as a re - transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity against with wanting to win elections. The method of voting. spectable vote for Ian Allinson. racism. problem arises when political life McCluskey was backed by every But the collapse in his vote com - • Open borders. degenerates into electioneering at Unite Regional Secretary (apart pared with that of the “left” candi - the expense of rebuilding grass - • Global solidarity against global capital — workers from Coyne), most members of the date Jerry Hicks in 2013 (80,000) roots organisation at branch and everywhere have more in common with each other than with Unite National Executive Council, and 2010 (52,000) confirms that workplace level. and the Unite United Left. He was Hicks’s bedrock electoral support their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. The general secretary election re - nominated by 1,185 branches rep - consisted to a large degree of right- • Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest sult is a manifestation of the failure resenting 560,000 members. But the wing opponents of McCluskey and workplace or community to global social of that approach: a fall in union upshot of all this was just 59,000 ex-Amicus loyalists. membership; a fall in turnout; and organisation. votes. As Solidarity goes to press, Coyne a fall in the vote for McCluskey. • Equal rights for all nations, against With McCluskey backing Cor - is considering mounting a legal imperialists and predators big and small. byn, and Coyne spewing out hos - challenge to the election result, The key question now is how to bring about a transformation • Maximum left unity in action, and tility to Corbyn, the election based on the number of Unite members reported not to have re - of that left culture and, thereby, openness in debate. functioned as a proxy Labour Party leadership contest. But despite ceived ballot papers, or to have re - of Unite itself.

If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — and join us! Courts not answer to undemocratic unions

LETTER reforming the labour movement. tivists whose original focus was on Events Moreover, the basis of Keith's first taking the union through the courts case against the GMB — which is not an auspicious beginning. Saturday 29 April Monday 1 May used equalities law to argue that he Keith could have used his posi - Tyne and Wear May Day Rally Internationalist bloc on London Anyone who has had to confront had been discriminated against on tion in the union, even as an un - 11am, Princess Square Newcastle May Day the bureaucratic officialdom of the basis of his socialist beliefs - elected official (which is what he bit.ly/2p0CxCt Noon, Clerkenwell Green, Lon - any trade union will have some was spurious to say the least; he was), to identify well-organised, don sympathy with the GMB activist, may very well have been vic - militant branches, rooted in work - Manchester May Day festival bit.ly/2pgFYFW who wrote in Solidarity of "un - timised by a right-wing bureau - places, with combative stewards 11am, All Saints Park, Manchester elected, barely elected and cracy for being a left-winger, but who shared his perspective for bit.ly/2q1PBsR Chesterfield May Day crookedly elected bureaucrats". Their letter promotes the new this is a matter of political conflict, democratic reform of the union, 10.30am, Chesterfield Town Hall "GMB Grassroots Left" network; which cannot and should not be and attempted to work with them Nottingham May Day Rose Hill, S40 1LP prominently involved is Keith Hen - regulated by the same laws de - to build a rank-and-file network. 10.30am, Mansfield Civic Centre, bit.ly/2q9O7co derson, a former GMB official who signed to protect against racist and Instead, he chose to take the union NG19 7BH has twice taken his former union, sexist discrimination. to court, twice, and now, several bit.ly/2oHP7Uw Saturday 6 May and employer to court. years after the first case, to attempt Croydon All Out to Stop the Keith Henderson clearly rubbed to set up a network off the back of The Ragged Trousered Fascists! RANK-AND-FILE the GMB bureaucracy up the his court challenges. Much of what the GMB activist in Philanthropists performance 10am, Lunar House, 40 Wellesley wrong way; and probably for the their letter sets out as the aims While there is a strong tempta - 7pm, Liverpool Central Library, Road, Croydon CR9 2BY right reasons. Keith is a socialist, a for the GMB Grassroots Left are tion to applaud anything that William Brown Steet, Liverpool bit.ly/2oHlRxy support for the Labour left group laudable. might needle the bureaucracy of L3 8EW LRC, and close to John McDonnell. bit.ly/2q9TUyy But setting up this network on the GMB, this attempt is at best He may well have a case, in proce - the basis not of any authentic rank- quixotic and at worst a total dis - Have an event you dural terms. and-file groundswell, however traction. But, bluntly, the bosses' courts small, but rather on the basis of want listing? Email: are not any kind of instrument for frustration on the part of a few ac - Daniel Randall, north London [email protected] REPORTS 10-11 Forest Hill teachers strike NUT: close vote on By a teacher Labour On Tuesday 25 and Wednesday Thirdly, a passionate but stag - 26 April, National Union of By a delegate gered and truncated debate was Teachers’ (NUT) members at For - had over primary testing. While a est Hill school in Lewisham Pending the merger of the NUT motion was passed reaffirming struck for the fifth time in their and the ATL to form the New our opposition to SATs and com - on-going dispute against a man - Education Union (NEU), this mitting us to prepare for an in - agement proposed restructuring year's NUT conference (Easter, dicative ballot of primary to deal with a £1.3 million deficit. in Cardiff) was never likely to be members to boycott SATs, a The management’s proposal a hotbed of political debate or stronger motion arguing for all sheds 15 teaching jobs, significantly controversy. primary members to be balloted to increases teachers’ workload, radi - There were very few areas of boycott all formal summative test - cally reduces the depth of the cre - contention anticipated, but as the ing was defeated. ative aspects of the curriculum, weekend unfolded three points of We won the argument to defeat ends any specialist English as an interest became clear on the con - a wrecking amendment from the Additional Language (EAL) sup - ference floor. executive, but lost the vote on the port, and massively diminishes the Firstly, conference voted to call main motion after the Socialist support for students with Special a day of strike action against fund - that the school is working quickly any inclination to fight alongside Teachers' Alliance (now know as Educational Needs. ing cuts in regions where a strong to end the current damaging period us.’’ the socialist testing alliance), sup - In addition to the strikes, there turnout was felt to be possible. A of industrial action’ which has an - “I believe there will be no resolu - ported by the SWP, manoeuvred was a demonstration on Saturday one day strike is far from ideal, gered my members further, as man - tion without the council’s active in - to shut down debate and voted 22 April with well over 200 people and in many ways could be seen agement have made no attempt to volvement. against taking decisive action. in attendance, including many as a strategic error given our re - address our concerns whatsoever “Management have not ad - Some of the most vocal critics of councillors and Labour Party mem - cent dismal history of isolated one or enter into meaningful negotia - dressed or even acknowledged the SATs, self-defining socialists, sud - bers. Furthermore, on Monday 24 day strikes losing us all a day's tions.” issues. They are not being honest denly became ardent defenders of April a teacher from the school and pay and winning nothing. “The National Association of with us, with the students, the par - summative testing. This debacle another supporter, who were both However, it is the last chance Schoolmasters and Union of ents and possibly not even with yet again shows the cynicism and members of the Labour Party, ad - the NUT have to use our live bal - Women Teachers (NASWUT) Na - themselves. They have a total dis - incoherence of the so-called left dressed the Labour Group on the lot before the merger. If it is made tional Executive has shown no regard for the truth of the situa - who are so full of warm words but council. This is all part of pressure a success it will perhaps set the commitment to either their mem - tion.” desperate to avoid taking serious the campaign is exerting on the tone as the joint executives meet to bers jobs, conditions or the educa - “The demonstration was very in - action, or even having a demo - council to intervene decisively. discuss plans for action in the year tion of the children. They spiring both in terms of the amount cratic debate. Joe Cowley, the NUT representa - ahead. announced a strike for the 3 May. of people who came out to support Disappointingly, by a very small tive at the school, spoke to Solidar - Secondly, conference voted to We quickly announced we would us and in the amount of effort peo - margin, conference also voted ity : strengthen our position in solidar - go out alongside them. However, ple put in to build it.” against exploring a new kind of “The mood is defiant. The head ity with trans teachers and stu - they equally rapidly called off their “Our union group is going to relationship with the Labour sent a letter out today trying to dents. A motion was passed to strike with nothing more than a have another planning meeting Party, thus ruling out affiliation. claim that the only issue was teach - push the government to change commitment to talks. We respect after the picket line on the 25th. This was despite the fact that John ers’ workload and making no men - the law to enable self-identifica - NASUWT members; however, I believe there is a real appetite McDonnell received a standing tion of the effect on the students. tion. This did not pass unopposed. their leadership has never shown for more strike action.” ovation after speaking at the open - He also wrote ‘please be assured A current within the union argued to amend the motion and replace ing of conference. taking an immediate position with The most positive outcome of opening a period of consultation. conference was the mobilising of The justification for this seemed to delegates around the rank and file Cinema workers to strike on May Day network (LANAC), which ex - be radical feminist position that suggested women's rights within posed the empty rhetoric of the By Gemma Short and supporters from the labour the union and the classroom leadership and proved itself again movement. would be compromised by a to be utterly vital. Picturehouse management tried This organisation must grow Workers at five Picturehouse strengthened position in favour of to aggressively ″manage″ the picket if the NEU is to move beyond cinemas across London struck trans rights. The amendment fell line, taking photos of pickets and left posturing and be an actual on Saturday 15 April. and the motion passed unam - Workers at Duke of York′s cin - their supporters, trying to prevent mended. force for change. ema in Brighton were also due to people talking to customers, and strike, but their strike was called off calling the police to attend the a few days before. The strike was picket line (who left without doing the first for workers at East Dul - anything). wich Picturehouse in south Lon - Workers will be striking again DOO strikes continue on Monday 1 May. don, and they were greeted on the talks with the employer. The RMT picket line by a demonstration of By Gemma Short had put strikes on hold on • For motions and how to donate to the strike fund seebit.ly/pic-h workers from the other cinemas Merseyrail for talks with the em - Workers at Northern, Merseyrail, ployer, but after Merseyrail refused Southern continue to fight to de - part of concessions they made to budge on any point those talks fend the role of the guard on the collapsed. following a station workers' train. Tube round-up strike in January. Workers at Northern and South - A national demonstration A union activist told Solidarity : ern rail will strike on Friday 28 against Driver-Only Operation "Reversing 325 of the job cuts man - will be held outside Parliament saulted a pregnant colleague. April. Strikes had also been By Ollie Moore agement has made is significant, planned on 28-29 April, but were on Wednesday 26 April on the As well as the strike, Tube and something we wouldn't have called off on Monday 24 April for anniversary of the Southern dis - union RMT has also called in - won without taking action. When pute starting. London Bridge dustrial action short of a strike, management announce their pro - whereby members will not serv - posals for where these 325 jobs will strike ice ticket machines or challenge go, we may need to have a series any passengers about their tick - of additional fights, for example if UCLU cleaners strike London Underground station ets or Oyster Cards. management propose to reinsert workers at London Bridge will ers. jobs at a lower grade than the ones Cleaners at the UCL student strike on 7-8 May to demand the Cleaners picketed the student they cut. union struck on Friday 21 April. reinstatement of colleague Lee Jobs fight goes on As previously reported in Solidar - union, and were joined by stu - Cornell. “Ultimately, 325 additional ity , UCL students union is cutting dents who held a demonstration. Tube bosses are set to reveal Lee was sacked after intervening jobs still isn't enough, and we'll the cleaning budget by £90k, and as their plans to increase the sta - with a fare evader who had as - continue to fight for a properly a result cleaning company Secura • tinyurl.com/ tion staffing level by 325 jobs, as staffed Tube." Clean is cutting the hours of clean - uclucleanerspetition SolidaFor a workers’ giovertnment y No 436 26 April 2017 50p/£1 Against racism, xenophobia and nationalism Solidarity with migrants!

• The UK is one of the meanest By Rosalind Robson of all rich countries when it comes to letting in refugees. In 2014 Immediately after the June 2016 France took in twice as many EU referendum, reports of racist refugees, Germany six times as and xenophobic attacks, many many (a much higher rate even on recent migrant populations, after accounting for differences in increased by 60%. Levels of reported attacks have population size). since dropped, but are still 14% • There are 5.4 million non-UK higher than in 2015. Brexit has fun - born workers in the UK, about damentally changed the social as 17% of the total workforce. Con - well as the political climate, for the trary to common belief just 4% of worse. Yet politicians continue to migrants are asylum seekers (peo - make spurious claims about the ple who are awaiting a decision on “dangers” of immigration. their refugee status). EU migrants are now increas - • The government is extremely ingly vulnerable: the Tories op - tough on asylum seekers. In the posed guaranteeing the rights of first three months of 2015 they re - all EU nationals currently resident jected 64% of asylum claims. Yet in the UK after Britain leaves the around 70% of asylum cases that European Union. Theresa May are appealed are upheld. “Fast- uses EU migrants as a bargaining tracking” of asylum decisions chip in her negotiations over means many claimants are de - ported before they can appeal. Brexit. • 80% of EU migrants are in who make wages low, not migrant cross borders should have rights, • Many migrants fall foul of the Playing politics with migrants work; this is a higher employment workers! because we want to win those bureaucracy of the system and lives has continued into the Tories’ rate than the UK-born population. The Labour Party has rightly de - rights for everyone across the without access to legal help cannot general election campaign. In one 60% of EU migrants are here be - fended the right of EU citizens to world. prove their right to be in the UK. of her first campaign statements cause they have a definite job to go live and work in the UK and has In addition, to win democratic They live in fear of a dawn raid by Theresa May repeated a long- to. Overall, there are high and ris - said that immigration is not the control against the destructive police and immigration authori - standing Tory pledge, which they ing employment rates for all EU cause of stagnating wages, declin - competition of capitalism we need ties, taking them away from their have consistently failed to meet, to migrants, non-EU migrant men, ing services and the housing crisis. to create joint action by workers in homes. reduce net immigration into the and UK-born workers. That’s good, but Labour needs to many countries. Socialism cannot • Increasingly the NHS is charg - UK to 100,000 people a year. It is a fact that migrants are not do more. The right to free move - be built in one country alone. The ing non-EU migrants before they The policy enables the Tories to “taking work” from “British work - ment needs to be at the top of working class must unite across can use secondary services, and look tough but it is a lie — reduc - ers”. Labour's programme in this elec - borders. soon GP and emergency services ing migration so drastically would • Just 1% of migrants claim un - tion. Our alternative to Brexit political will be charged. Non-domiciled collapse the UK economy, and employment benefits compared to We need to make a clear socialist retreat is to fight for workers’ EU migrants have to pay a health cause desperate understaffing in 4% of UK nationals. case for free movement. Free rights and solidarity across Europe surcharge. the NHS. But lying about migra - • Academic research shows that movement across borders helps and the world. • There are increasing numbers tion is one thing the Tories (and the presence of migrant workers in extend global individual freedoms of immigration raids on work - For freedom of movement! other politicians) do consistently. the population has little or no ef - for all, and makes cultures more places, often on spurious grounds. Against racism, xenophobia What are the facts? fect on wage levels. It is bosses diverse and richer. People who and nationalism everywhere! Or subscribe with a standing order Contact us Subscribe to Solidarity Pay £5 a month to subscribe to Solidarity or pay us more to make an ongoing contribution to our work 020 7394 8923 Trial sub (6 issues) £7 o To: ...... (your bank) ...... (address) Six months (22 issues) £22 waged o, £11 unwaged o solidarity@ One year (44 issues) £44 waged o, £22 unwaged o Account name ...... 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