Solidarity Solidarity& Workers’ Liberty For a workers’ government For social ownership of the banks and industry ≫Boost NHS and care SCRAP GCSES ≫Full isolation pay for all ≫Public-health test-and-trace FORhe conference on 10 Octo2021- The main arguments against NOW! in England, the maths “tripos” Junior doctor strikes, 2016. Tber of the Socialist Educa- these exams and high-stakes in Cambridge, dates only from Pic: @g_for_gemma tional Association decided to tests were true before the pan- the mid-18th century. call on the government to stop demic. Extra arguments are One of its results was to set SATs and other high-stakes pri- added now. maths in England way behind mary assessments this year. It Students have lost three other big European countries also demanded that moderated months already of the two in the 19th century, and for rea- Caption teacher assessment be used in- years of frantic exam-cram- sons common to many exams: stead of examinations for GCSE ming which the English school they test only the ability to jump and A levels in 2021, and that system imposes as run-in to through exam-shape hoops, the Labour front bench take up its major exams. With mount- which may have little relevance that policy. ing virus infections, it is almost to life outside exams. They dis- The Scottish government has certain that they will lose more, tort learning, add unnecessary already decided to replaced through partial if not total stress, and above all function to Scotland’s equivalents of school shutdowns. label most students as relative GCSEs with moderated teacher The loss will be greater for “failures”. assessment. students from worse-off back- As G H Hardy put it when On 3 October the confer- grounds, who are more likely campaigning for the abolition ence of the NEU school work- to live in areas with high virus of the maths tripos: “exami- ers’ union voted to campaign rates, who lack the technology nations with reputations and for the replacement of SATs in and quiet space to study well standards and traditions seem See page 2 2021 by a system of moder- online from home, and whose to me mistaken in their princi- ated teacher assessment and families can’t pay for private tu- ple and useless or damaging a mixed model for GCSE and toring. in their effect... An examination A levels for 2021, including re- The exams should be can do little harm, so long as its duced content and moderated scrapped for next year on standard is low”. teacher assessment. grounds of justice and equality, Pass-fail tests to check com- The decision included a even if we thought them good petence at driving buses, or CURB COVID-19: commitment to ballot to boy- in general. doing electrical wiring, or cott SATs in 2021 if necessary. All of us have been “edu- working with percentages and It also recognised that GCSEs, cated” from childhood in the reading graphs and tables, are BTECs and A-Levels were unfit idea that courses of study must necessary for some jobs. They for purpose and committed to be defined and measured by an are useful as long as everyone USREVERSE presidential Azerbaijan and The history CUTS! of Deliveroo urgently developing and cam- exam as their aim. That is mise- knows that they are not the aim paigning for alternatives. ducation. and measure of education, and contest Armenia at war anti-vaxxism workers strike Really GCSEs should just be Schools and universities ex- not the way to sift out the excel- Interview with Howie Self-determination for From the right to Sheffield couriers out scrapped, with no replacement isted for hundreds of years be- lent from the competent. Hawkins, and debate Nagorno-Karabakh is query, to dangerous again 14-15 October at all. (Most countries manage fore modern exam systems. The Education should be for basis for peace anti-science with no comparable exam). first high-prestige exam system learning, not for exams. □ Pages 8-13 Pages 3, 4, 5 Page 7 Page 15 No. 567, 14 October 2020 50p/£1 workersliberty.org No. 567, 14 October 2020 50p/£1 workersliberty.org To curb virus: reverse the cuts!

ernment’s supposedly more refined measures so far have been ineffective. Editorial Deaths are sure to rise in the winter (though maybe not to the levels of spring: Spain’s deaths have plateaued he UK’s virus infections are now ris- in the last three weeks). ing faster than France’s and Spain’s, T A lesson from the fact that infections and are at a higher level (relative to have spiked again after the spring and population) than Spain’s. summer lockdowns, though, is that The government’s measures, since in- lockdowns aren’t an answer. They only fections started rising fast again in early buy time for sustainable virus curbs, August, have had little effect. The Tories which are possible (some countries are set to close bars and cafés again, in have them, at least reasonably effective) large areas at least, and maybe soon for but demand a basis of social measures. a new lockdown similar to spring’s. In Ireland, which has a lower rate of infec- Social measures tion increase than the UK, the govern- It is the job of the labour movement to ment’s scientific advisers have already win those social measures — to reverse proposed a new general lockdown, not the cuts which the Tories have imposed yet implemented. since 2010, building on what Thatcher Lockdowns (with suitable arrange- did in the 1980s and has never been ments for furlough, rent holidays, etc.) reversed: may be necessary to pause explosive • Full isolation pay for all. Adequate spread. They are clumsy, but the gov- furlough or retraining pay that people ters) made it look possible that a spread itable marginal risks of a new vaccine. are not forced into insecure, unsafe of immunity from previous infection It is possible that none of the 180 or so jobs sufficient that chains of transmission vaccine projects under way will “work”. • Publicly-provided alternative hous- become short and die out might come Probably, though, at least one of Hospitals refuse ing for those quarantining, and for with much less than the 60% or 70% them will, at least to some extent. Even those in overcrowding overall infection rate indicated by naive if most young people will eventually sick pay • Bring elderly care (both in care- calculations. The fact that the second get Covid-19 some time over the com- Freedom of Information request homes and domiciliary) into the public surge has been strong in the previously ing years, slowing that spread to give A from supporters of the Safe and sector, with staff on union-agreed pub- highest-infected areas like Madrid tells time for vaccine development, for even Equal campaign in Redbridge Trades lic-sector pay and conditions us: no, not so. incremental improvements in Covid-19 Council has found that Barking, Red- • Expand the NHS by nationalising • Hugely to improve protection for treatment, and for social improvements bridge and Havering University Hos- and integrating the private hospitals, elderly people in social care is certainly to be won and kick in, is good. pitals NHS Trust (BRHUT) is in breach and giving NHS workers the 15% pay possible. To lock away the many older It is down to the labour movement of government instructions to ensure rise they demand or less-healthy people not in care from to win social provision. We’ve allowed all healthcare staff have rights to full • Public-health test-and-trace, in younger family, friends, workmates, the Tories to waste the July-August sick and isolation pay. place of the Tories’ Serco mess and comrades, and for years, is unwork- virus lull with only ineffectual tokens on “Bank” (casual) staff working at the • Increase funding for schools, so able and undemocratic. issues like isolation pay and test-and- Trust, which includes King George they can recruit extra staff, get more • A vaccine will not be a magic bullet. trace organisation. Hospital in Goodmayes and Queen’s space, and fix deficient ventilation, as It will only be partially effective. There We need to make up time now. Re- Hospital in Romford, are only enti- well as “thinning out” school days by are even good reasons against giving it verse the cuts! □ tled to Statutory Sick Pay at £95.85 putting students on shorter timetables to young people, for whom the risks of a week if they have to isolate follow- • Workers’ control of workplace Covid-19 may be smaller than the inev- ing public health guidance. Most of safety. these staff are nurses, i.e. working There are many factors about the directly with patients. countries which have kept virus levels On 27 March, Department of low, but one is the existence or survival of more social solidarity and social pro- Lessons from Spain Health and Social Care (DHSC), NHS England and NHS Improve- vision. really enjoyed working in the NHS”, ment, Public Health England (PHE), The Great Barrington Declaration, “Isaid a Spanish nurse quoted by Health Education England and NHS proposing that lockdowns be replaced the Financial Times on 7 October.”You Employers put out a joint statement by targeted shielding of the vulnerable, get longer holidays, more breaks. And “stating staff should receive full pay has been taken up by right-wingers. workers’ rights are much better”. whilst in self-isolation. This includes Some of its arguments have weight. His comment tells us less about ex- bank staff and sub-contractors...” Very long lockdowns (say two years, to cellences in the NHS and more about This admission that the Trust is take a calculation from the Netherlands problems in Spain. Those led big pro- breaking DHSC rules for bank work- on the minimum for lockdown-only to tests on 19-20 September about virus ers raises questions about the provi- “work” there) are unsustainable (even measures in Madrid to demand “More sion of full sick and isolation pay for with police states). They pose questions healthcare, fewer police”, and are a outsourced workers, too. not so much of “lives versus economy” factor in why Spain’s hospitals have Safe and Equal is calling on sup- but “life versus life”. had great trouble coping with the porters to follow the lead of Red- They cannot substitute for social sol- pandemic, and an exceptionally high bridge Trades Council, submit FOI idarity and social provision. We need number of health workers infected. requests to local hospital trusts and sustainable curbs, and we need social Spain’s General Nursing Council build pressure to ensure all NHS staff policies as their basis. says the country is 125,000 nurses are receiving full sick and isolation But the Great Barrington people do short. It has 280,000, which is 5.9 per its cuts and improve its health work- pay. □ not promote social policies. And: thousand population when the EU av- ers’ pay and conditions. And so does • The unevenness of infection (about erage is 9.3. Spain needs to reverse Britain. □ • More: bitl.y/red-sp 80% of infections from 10% of transmit-

2 workersliberty.org @workersliberty @workers_liberty fb.com/workersliberty Self-determination for Nagorno-Karabakh By Michael Elms among their powerful enemies are call- self-governance by force of arms; but and trading off it. It serves Ankara’s for- ing for them to be extinguished forever. British soldiers occupied Karabakh and eign policy goals to position itself as round 70,000 people — nearly half Armenia has a population of about enforced the rule of the region’s Azer- the champion of a Muslim (albeit Shia) Athe population of Nagorno-Karab- 2.3 million — not much larger than small baijani governor. nation in conflict with Christians, and akh — have been displaced in the war Artsakh. Kurdish Yazidis are Armenia’s After the region fell under the control as the tribune of pan-Turkic nationalist which broke out between Armenia and second-largest ethnic group (after Ar- of the USSR, Joseph Stalin handed what sentiment. This will allow it to gain in- Azerbaijan in late September this year, menians). Azerbaijan has a population became known as the Nagorno-Kara- fluence by mobilising large ethnic and in spite of a shaky, Russian-brokered of about 10 million. Azerbaijan has bakh Autonomous Oblast back to religious minorities in Russia and Iran. ceasefire signed on 10 October. great oil wealth and a coastline: Ar- Azerbaijan in 1923, for reasons of dip- Russia has declared that it will de- The fighting is over the Nagorno-Kara- menia has neither. Turkey (population lomatic expediency. fend Armenia against any incursion; bakh region: a 95%-Armenian enclave 82 million) has been enthusiastically but that it will not get involved in Na- of mountain territory inside Azerbaijan, supporting Azerbaijan, through propa- Borders gorno-Karabakh. Russia maintains mil- with a population of about 150,000 ganda, diplomatic efforts, and the sup- Within the borders of the USSR, fight- itary bases in Armenia and to a certain until September 2020. The region set ply of military materiel and fighters. The ing stopped until the 1980s. But the extent guarantees its safety against up its own parliament and declared it- Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Azerbaijan authorities in Baku pursued Turkey and Azerbaijan. Russia also self independent in 1988. From 1988 to has reported that 1,500 Syrian merce- a policy of peaceful “Azerification” in has a close diplomatic relationship 1994, Azerbaijan fought a war to crush naries including al-Qaeda fighters have Nagorno-Karabakh, settling Azeri fam- with Azerbaijan. Turkey can hope that the self-governance of this region and been sent by Turkey into Azerbaijan. ilies, which saw the Armenian majority by encouraging Baku to fight Russia’s return it to direct rule from Baku. Since The Supreme Leader of Iran has voiced in the local population fall to something other ally, Azerbaijan will be shaken out 1994, the region has been effectively his support for Azerbaijan in this war. like 75%. This demographic change of Russia’s diplomatic orbit and locked independent, ruled from its regional The war has seen popular mobilisa- would be reversed by ethnic cleansing into a closer relationship with Turkey. capital of Stepanakert and calling itself tions across the region. In particular, and mass displacements in subsequent As socialists, our role is to oppose the the Republic of Artsakh. Iran has seen large demonstrations by fighting. attempt to sow ethnic and religious di- The 1988-94 war ended with Arme- its Azerbaijani minority, which numbers But as Moscow’s central authority vision in the region as part of the impe- nian troops in possession of approx- in the millions. These demonstrations loosened and then expired, ethnic vi- rialist games of the great powers. We imately 14% of Azerbaijan’s territory, have seen nationalist, pan-Turkic and olence returned. The Nagorno-Kara- are for reparations and return for ref- occupying a large buffer zone of Azer- anti-Armenian slogans raised, which bakh Autonomous Oblast voted for ugees from the last three decades of baijani land outside the borders of the has raised fears of pogrom violence unification with Armenia in 1988 and ethnic violence. And the central issue Republic of Artsakh. — the Armenian minority in Iran being again in 1989, triggering a series in this war is the right of self-determina- Although there is disagreement over much smaller, less than 100,000. of mass demonstrations and armed tion for the Republic of Artsakh and an who started the fighting this Septem- clashes in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and end to the spectre of genocide hang- ber, author Thomas de Waal points Genocide Nagorno-Karabakh. These clashes es- ing over the Armenian nation. □ out that strategically Azerbaijan wants Modern Armenia was born from geno- calated into a series of anti-Armenian to overturn the status quo: keeping cide. The formative event in recent Ar- pogroms in Azerbaijan, in Sumgait things as they are suits Armenia, as menian history was Turkey’s genocide (1988) and Baku (1990). These events, their main objective of securing the against Armenians carried out in 1915. and a steadily-escalating drumbeat of self-rule of the Republic of Artsakh has An estimated 1.5 million Armenians violent episodes in Nagorno-Karabakh, been achieved. Azerbaijan’s long-term were killed in that deportation cam- built into the war that ended in 1994. goal remains what it was in 1988: wip- paign. In 1920, this was followed by a The ethnic violence in this period ing out the region’s autonomy and its Turkish war against Armenia which took was not one-sided. There was a mas- Armenian character. on a genocidal character, with between sive displacement of Azerbaijanis and Armenians in Armenia proper and 100,000 and 250,000 Armenians killed. Muslim Kurds from Armenia and Na- in the Republic of Artsakh have good Amid an ongoing guerilla struggle, in gorno-Karabakh. Many refugees and reason to fear genocide. They are the 1918 the Armenian population of Na- internally-displaced people live in mis- weaker side in this war, and loud voices gorno-Karabakh was able to establish ery in Azerbaijan, and demand the right to go home. But the key, immediate issue in this conflict was and remains the right of the Armenian-majority population in Upcoming meetings Nagorno-Karabakh to rule itself. More broadly, the very existence of Arme- orkers’ Liberty meetings are open to all, held online over zoom. Until 16 nia itself is thrown into question by the WNovember: genocidal rhetoric of its neighbours. Free Giyas Sunday 18 October, 6.30-8pm: Analysing the new far right; a discussion jointly Anti-Armenian genocidal rhetoric, in hosted by Mutiny and Workers’ Liberty both Turkey and Azerbaijan, is never Monday 19 October, 7.30-9pm: Inessa Armand and the Bolshevik feminists — far from the surface. After Soviet troops Ibrahimov! Heroes from socialist history study series shot pogromists in Baku in an attempt to stop the killings in 1990, the local zerbaijani youth activists have Sunday 1 November, 6.30-8pm: Covid-19: what do we know so far? With government raised monuments to issued an anti-war statement: George Davey Smith (Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Bristol University) A these “fallen heroes”. In 2004, an Azer- Our enemy though is not a random Monday 2 November, 7:30-9pm: Antonio Gramsci and the “Modern Prince” baijani officer, Ramil Safarov, axed an Armenian, whom we have never met Monday 16 November, 7:30-9pm: Max Shachtman and the “Third Camp” Armenian officer to death at a NATO in our lives and possibly never will. Plus training event in Budapest. He admit- Our enemy are the very people in Every Monday, 6-7pm: Workers’ Liberty Students online political discussions ted the killing, stating in court that Azer- power, those with specific names, Thursdays, 8-9pm: “Revolution Betrayed” study group baijanis would suffer while Armenians who have been impoverishing and Every Friday, 6.30pm: Young Labour Internationalists are holding public meet- still lived, and that he felt shame for not exploiting the ordinary people as ings having killed an Armenian before that well as our country’s resources for Our calendars of events: browse or subscribe! □ date. When Baku arranged his extradi- their benefit for more than two dec- tion to Azerbaijan, he was hailed as a ades.” Azerbaijani anti-war activist All online “hero” in government speeches, freed, Giyas Ibrahimov was detained on 28 For full and updated details, zoom links, more meetings and resources, visit and promoted to Major. September. We support the call for workersliberty.org/meetings Turkey seems to be pumping up this his release. □ nationalist madness across the region,

Events and campaigns: workersliberty.org/meetings youtube.com/c/WorkersLibertyUK workersliberty.org/audio 3 Nagorno-Karabakh: too complex? sion to the left, trade union freedoms. carded: all that matters is to take the against Armenians in the late 1980s “Hong Kong’s troubles are presented right side — the side of (in the words of (Baku raised a statue to the pogromists Antidoto again as a question of democracy, with the editorial) “China and Russia and... killed by Soviet troops) the former colonial power which ruled their emerging economic ties with 3) Are sensitive to Moscow’s contem- for decades without the pretence of other states like Pakistan and Iran.” porary attitude to the war, which is ba- By Jim Denham democracy the favoured arbiter.” Presumably, it’s because the Na- sically: “please put this back in the box, he Morning Star editorial of Mon- Leaving aside the Morning Star’s gorno-Karabakh conflict doesn’t fit both of you go back to the status quo Tday 5 October was entitled “Na- oft-repeated (and slanderous) claim neatly into this “campist” view of the from last month... and also keep spend- gorno-Karabakh: a complex conflict that the uprising in the Ukraine was world that the Morning Star avoids tak- ing tons of cash on Russian weapons”. that must be seen in context”. In fact the the work of “the heirs of Nazi collab- ing a clear position, despite an editorial A letter to the Star (which, to their editorial gave little factual information orators”, this seems to be saying that line that is hostile to Turkish imperial- credit, they published) made a further and no political steer whatsoever on democracy and freedom (even the ism. point that the editorial completely ig- freedom of workers to organise) is of nored: the dispute. Other factors After an initial, inconclusive, section secondary importance when set along- “The problem in Nagorno-Karabakh Other factors that have been sug- on Nagorno-Karabakh, the rest of the side the need to choose the “correct” is quite simply that ethnic Armenians gested are: editorial was a rambling discourse on side in the “East-West axis in which are absolutely terrified of being a mi- 1) They don’t want to criticise the internationalism in general, often virtu- China is the most active force but which nority in a Turkic state. This attitude is USSR’s nationalities policy, which made ally indecipherable. is rapidly creating new economic and due above all to the attempted geno- such a mess of the region However, I suspect that the following political realities that challenge the cide of Armenians by the Turkish state a 2) Don’t want to implicitly praise Gor- gives a significant clue as to the true Atlanticist pretensions of the US and century ago, which has never been rec- bachev, who did organise armed inter- meaning of the editorial: its European allies”. And in choosing ognised as such by the modern Turkish ventions to stop Azerbaijani pogroms “There is a certain narrative on the sides, we should discard “simplistic pic- state or its allies such as Azerbaijan.” □ liberal left that sees each of the pres- tures which posit an ab- ent-day regional conflicts that stud the stract moral framework perimeter of the Euro-Asian landmass for understanding any as essentially discrete. of these conflicts”. What about musicians? “Thus we are asked to see the Ukrain- Behind the jargon ian situation which has put the heirs of and gobbledegook, if your private-sector job is go down the pan, safe in the Nazi collaborators in power as a ques- the message is actually Letter under threat, we’re not going knowledge that they will be tion of democracy. quite clear: such con- to fight to save it, we just think retrained to work in a hospi- “We are asked to understand what cepts as democracy, you should be retrained for a tal. he editorial of Solidarity is happening in Belarus as question of freedom and human decent public-sector job in- Given the photograph of 566 rightly called for a big electoral fraud and as a special conces- rights must be dis- T stead. the Tate galleries strikers on expansion of public-sector That might be fine for a min- the cover, it was ironic that jobs to tackle the Covid-re- imum-wage barista who now Solidarity’s editorial did not lated economic crisis, through gets to be a teaching assis- mention arts and culture jobs. NEU can prepare strikes both the creation of new jobs tant. But what about a skilled Many of them are in the pub- in existing public services and worker in their chosen career? lic sector — museums, librar- guments. through nationalising corpo- What about a chef? or archi- ies, etc. — and you could take Such a scenario is not wild rations that threaten job cuts. tect? or plumber? or fashion that to be covered by the arti- Letter optimism given the NEU’s re- However, there are many designer? or journalist? or cle’s call for the expansion of cent history and current posi- worthwhile jobs outside footballer? or painter and public service jobs. But many tion. It just requires the NEU n reply to Colin Foster (let- the public sector, not eas- decorator? What about peo- of them are not. What does to back up words with action. ters, Solidarity 565): I have ily nationalised. Unless we ple who don’t work for “cor- Solidarity have to say to mu- I Colin rubbishes these truisms, consistently argued that are arguing that absolutely porations” but whose jobs are sicians, writers, actors, sound by suggesting I thought this school closures as a last re- everything is brought into under threat? It doesn’t seem engineers, and other venue would happen in September. sort, i.e. the majority position public ownership (which the right to me to suggest that staff?□ I’ve made one reference to of the world’s epidemiolo- article doesn’t), then the un- if they can’t be nationalised, “September” in this debate. Janine Booth, Lewes gists. I differ from Colin and avoidable implication is that then we allow their career to others in believing the NEU In late August I wrote: “If could and should prepare for school workers were currently such an eventuality. Colin and sitting on a national strike others think such prepara- mandate then ...[t]hey could tions are unnecessary, leaving demand the programme of Full employment all power over school closures social measures...[and] re- ble and necessary demand. with the government. fuse to return in September If there is a non-racist logic to much of the If school workers closed until this was organised.” No Letter working-class support for Brexit, it’s the idea schools in defiance of the mention of swathes of work- that pre-Common-Market there was nearly government in the context of ers joining an illegal strike in n the arguments about job cuts, we need Full full employment, even in deprived northern soaring infection rates then September. No suggestion Employment as the driver of economic pol- towns. it is self-evident that other that I ever thought a Septem- I icy across the board, not profitability, financial Obviously that is not a causal link. Neolib- workers would have to take ber strike was even a possi- markets, or the growing wealth of the richest. eralism, the decline of union power, and de- time off to look after chil- bility. Like the idea of closing Sunak says we will have to put up with mil- liberate de-industrialisation are the causes of dren, and there is a possibil- schools for six months, it’s all lions of unemployed to “save the economy”. under-employment and weakness of workers’ ity others may refuse work. Colin’s invention. He does get criticised by Labour and left for power within the system. This would pose a question NEU activists don’t think it not supporting jobs, but the fundamental idea If a “Full Employment” policy objective were of power and could be a step will “work”? What precisely that you can separate the health of the econ- fulfilled by interventionist Keynesian methods towards workers’ control of they think won’t work is not omy from the number unemployed has been and job creation programmes, it would mas- pandemic response. It would clear to me. □ internalised by the labour movement after 40 sively strengthen the bargaining power of the not be socialist revolution but Stuart Jordan, London years of neoliberalism. working class, both unions and unorganised it would give workers more • Longer version Full Employment speaks to general work- workers. □ power than simple verbal ar- at bit.ly/neu-sj ing-class consciousness as a inherent reasona- Luke Hardy, Leeds

4 workersliberty.org @workersliberty @workers_liberty fb.com/workersliberty The labour movement and Nagorno-Karabakh tion of the journalists, who have ex- “The president posted new messages pressed concern about their members on Twitter” and that sets the tone for Eric Lee being targetted by both sides in the the rest. conflict. The European Federation of They refer to the Armenian gov- Journalists reported that its affiliates in ernment — which came to power in a By Eric Lee Armenia and Azerbaijan have called on popular rebellion not unlike what is he recent outbreak of fighting in “both countries to ensure the safety of happening today in Belarus — as “fas- TNagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian journalists covering the conflict.” cist”. They condemn Amnesty Interna- Activist Agenda enclave inside Azerbaijan, seems like Sadly, that seems to be the one bright tional for issuing “a biased, distorted, something out of another era. Turkey spot in the picture. one-sided statement on its website.” and Russia each support their own While trade union leaders in Brussels (The Amnesty report was entitled “Ar- afe and Equal has uncovered a side. A century ago, the Tsar would speak about working “in close coopera- menia/Azerbaijan: Civilians must be Scase (see page 2) of hospitals re- have supported his Christian co-reli- tion with the trade union organisations” protected from use of banned cluster fusing full sick pay to “bank” (casual) gionists in Armenia and the Sultan his in the region, the national trade union bombs.”) workers. Redbridge Trades Council Muslim brothers in Azerbaijan. Little centres in the two warring countries are In the last few days, a cease fire was is campaigning on the issue, and has changed. both providing full-throated support to announced due not the efforts of the S&E is calling on all supporters to The response of the labour move- their governments. UN, EU or OSCE, but to Russian Pres- put in Freedom of Information re- ment to a conflict which has already The Confederation of Trade Unions of ident Vladimir Putin and his foreign quests to local NHS trusts. cost over 300 lives and left thousands Armenia condemned “the aggressive, minister Sergey Lavrov. Under intense The Uyghur Solidarity Campaign homeless has been muted, to put it criminal actions of the Azerbaijani au- Russian pressure, and following a long and Labour Movement Solidarity diplomatically. thorities, which led to victims among night of negotiations in Moscow, there with Hong Kong (UK) are working on The International Trade Union Con- the civilian population, numerous de- was a ray of hope. a model motion for Labour Parties federation, whose members include struction and expresses support for the Maybe the international labour move- and trade unions about repression national trade union centres like the heroic people of Artsakh” — which is ment should consider doing something by the Chinese state. TUC or the AFL-CIO, has called on both their name for the disputed region. similar — bringing the leaders of the A university student-staff action sides to “enter peaceful dialogue to The Armenian union leaders even trade union centres in the two coun- on 16 October will demand jobs deal with the dispute,” said General sent an appeal to the ITUC and ETUC tries together in Brussels to try to find and safety: a “national online event Secretary Sharan Burrow. leaderships in Brussels on 29 Sep- some common ground. It worked for in the middle of the day but we also Luca Visentini, General Secretary of tember in which they expressed their Putin and Lavrov. Maybe it will work for want to encourage in-person so- the European Trade Union Confeder- concern “over the current difficult and Burrow and Visentini too. cially distanced protests”. ation, announced that the ETUC wel- alarming situation and hopes that the Or maybe the workers in the two About 40 attended the London comes “the efforts of the European world community will condemn such countries, sick and tired of the futility of protest on 11 Oct against the gov- Union and the Organization for Security inhuman aggression when old people, war, will put pressure on the union lead- ernment’s Hostile Environment pol- and Co-operation in Europe to prevent women and children are being killed by ers to reach out to one another across icy, at the Becket House immigration further escalation and to find a political shells.” (According to press reports, ci- the front lines — and together with their office near London Bridge. The La- solution to the long-term conflict … We vilians have been killed on both sides.) brothers and sisters on the other side bour Campaign for Free Movement are ready to support these efforts, in Not be outdone by their Armenian force their governments to seek the is continuing activity on those is- close cooperation with the trade union comrades, the Azerbaijan Trade Unions path of peace. □ sues. □ Confederation has been producing organisations of both countries.” • Eric Lee is the founding editor • All links and info at daily accounts of Armenian barbarity The other global unions have been of Labourstart. He writes here in a workersliberty.org/agenda and aggression, as they see it. The first largely silent, with the notable excep- personal capacity. news story on their website is entitled Universal credit blights autonomy or her ‘claimant commitment’ that her partner’s behaviour ‘split payments’ so that the or not. And it can take a woman correctly then the partner will will never adversely affect her payment is divided in half and who has suffered great trauma Women’s be sanctioned. But because and prevent her meeting her given to each partner, but this and made huge efforts to get Fightback this is a joint claim, she will also basic needs for shelter, safety, is not automatically granted: her life together, and push her lose money, up to half of their food and a regular weekly in- she will only get this if she can right back into dependency By Janine Booth joint income. come. convince her work coach or and stress. The woman is financially case manager that she has a Financial independence has ome women claiming wel- Partner fare benefits are finding punished despite fulfilling her good reason for it. always been a core demand S own, individual ‘claimant com- Her partner is also a benefit The government would not for women’s rights activists, that the system compromises claimant. She can not live with their financial autonomy. mitment’. So the woman loses force a woman in paid em- for very good reason. When her right to financial autonomy him on the DWP’s terms. She ployment to share a joint bank a woman is dependant on a If a woman claims benefits, can only break up with her and lives with a partner who solely because both she and account with her partner. And partner, she is devalued as an her partner rely on benefits. partner or live with him and yet women poor enough to individual human being and also claims benefits, then the lie to the DWP. If caught living system requires them to make One woman told me how this rely on DWP benefits lose their made vulnerable to abuse. rule is affecting her. Because with her partner, in a relation- financial autonomy when they Universal Credit has im- a joint claim. Because this is a ship with the person she loves new claim, she is moved onto of past life events, including move in with their DWP claim- poverished many women. homelessness and drug ad- while maintaining her financial ant partner. Through this particular rule, it Universal Credit. Both her and autonomy, she will be prose- her partner have individual diction, the only way she feels Universal Credit seems to be has additionally compromised safe to have a relationship is to cuted and may be jailed. designed to replicate 1950s women’s financial independ- ‘claimant commitments’, and A woman in this situation if her partner doesn’t fulfil his remain financially independ- marriages for all couples ap- ence. □ ent. She needs to be confident can ask the DWP to make plying, whether they want that

Events and campaigns: workersliberty.org/meetings youtube.com/c/WorkersLibertyUK workersliberty.org/audio 5 Overdoing doom saps activism this will motivate people to make the change will be very severe. Exagger- change we need? ation and cherry-picking are not only Environment It’s notable that despite many excit- unnecessary, but undermine our case. ing and groundbreaking things being It creates a chink in environmentalists’ done at CERN, the one thing which first armour, undermining trust in science By Zack Muddle catapulted it into the popular limelight and climate activists. he first 20 years of this millennium, was unfounded concerns that the LHC While Wallace-Wells may be a stark T2000-2019, has seen a sharp in- may accidentally create a black hole example, these certainly aren’t unique crease in major recorded natural dis- which would gobble up our whole issues in the environmental movement, asters, a report by a UN agency on 12 planet. or in communication about science October has found. 7,348 recorded David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabit- more generally. It is for this reason, not events killed 1.23 million people, af- able Earth, as reported by Todd Hamer a particular gripe with one author, that fected 4.2 billion (many multiple times), in Solidarity 563, falls into a long tradi- I’m taking up this issue. gas emissions by a minimum propor- and caused roughly US$2.97 trillion of tion of such environmental doom-mon- More damaging, though, is the dou- tion, then Game Over, The End of the global economic losses. In the 20 years gering. ble edged sword of the apocalypse World is nigh, we will face an Inexora- previous, 4,212 recorded natural disas- Understandable and tempting it may narrative. On the one hand it can feed ble Doomsday in which first human civ- ters killed roughly 1.19 million people, be, such doom-mongering can badly a sense of urgency and importance. On ilisation collapses, then humanity itself affected 3.25 billion, and caused ap- back-fire. the other hand it can feed a sense of goes extinct, perhaps even followed by proximately US$1.63 trillion loss. The Uninhabitable Earth’s page of despair, of impotence. This is particu- all advanced life on earth. “While better recording and report- contents reads like an itinerary for larly true with descriptions of climate There can be positive feedback mech- ing may partly explain some of the in- the day of judgement: “Elements of change as a “hyperobject”. Not only anisms, which we don’t adequately un- crease in events, much of it is due to Chaos”, “Heat Death”, “Dying Oceans”, may things become bad, but — as with derstand, and can’t fully predict. But we a significant rise in the number of cli- “Unbreathable Air”, “Plagues of Warm- the prophesies of the bible — you can’t do know that the greater, and the faster mate-related disasters”, they report. ing”, “Economic Collapse”, “Ethics at even hope to understand them. the warming, and the less the adapta- Climate related disasters make up the the End of the World”, and more. Todd’s review rightly critiques Wal- tion, the worse the outcomes. Failing overwhelming majority of these natural A cross examination of some of Wal- lace-Wells’ lack of political strategy, and to limit warming to 1.5°C would be cat- disasters. lace-Wells’ claims convinced me that I instead Todd places front and centre astrophic. But limiting it at 2°C would As greenhouse gas levels rise, and should take his claims with a bowl-full “the urgent task” of “developing work- still be better than 2.5°C, 2.5°C better the world heats up, invaluable but of salt. More damningly, a science-re- ing-class agency and power.” A sense than 3°C, and even 5°C better than scary reports of different impacts of cli- viewing website, looking at the original of agency, of the dangers but also the 6°C. There is no point at which we may mate crises come out at ever-increas- article the book was based on, states: possibilities, and what is necessary to rationally pronounce that we’ve failed, ing frequency. The continued failure of “Seventeen scientists analyzed the ar- bring about those possibilities, is what better luck next time, the best we can governments and institutions to shift ticle and estimated its overall scientific is most needed. This is also a more ra- hope for is a quick death for humanity adequately make it tempting for envi- credibility to be ‘low’. A majority of re- tional assessment of our predicament. and for life on earth. ronmentalists to hype the worst-case viewers tagged the article as: Alarmist, It is emphatically not the case that There is no point at which work- calculations, evoke apocalyptic spec- Imprecise/Unclear, Misleading.” — as is often asserted in the climate ing-class environmental activism be- tres, and prophesy ever-more alarm- We know, on the basis of rock-solid movement — beyond a specified date, comes useless because it is completely ing scenarios of ultimate doom. Surely science, that the impacts of climate if we have not reduced greenhouse overwhelmed by doom. □ Keeping school as safe as possible By a London teacher “With immediate effect Clin- able to cope. workers, rapidly, and opening These measures need to ical Case workers should not Workers’ Liberty rightly be- more school buildings quickly. be won by the whole labour chools are large institu- escalate any case who work in lieves that the emphasis is on Without these measures the movement. A failure to win Stions which are fully open. or attend educational settings: keeping schools open. How- antagonism between the basic them will be no more the sole In most there is little possibil- pre-school/nursery, primary ever, we have been remiss role of trade unions to keep responsibility of education un- ity of social distancing and school, secondary school or on arguing for the measures their members safe and our ions and trade unionists than the wearing of face-coverings higher education (university which make this possible. Ar- desire for schools to stay open the failure to win an NHS capa- is impossible during lessons or colleges). Single cases in guing schools should only will become acute. In addition, ble of dealing with crisis is the and difficult at other times. these settings are no longer close as a last resort may be in reality, more schools will responsibility of health unions The virus is being spread in followed up by the level 1/ true, but is largely beside the close more widely. and workers. □ schools, albeit at possibly a local HPTs.” (their emphasis) point here. We need to eluci- lower rate than other institu- In my role as a union officer, date a programme that allows tions. I am regularly (at least every schools to remain as widely Last week in my London bor- week) speaking to members, open as possible, as safely and ough there were around 15-20 often in tears, who believe that sustainably as possibly. schools where Year Group they are endangering them- Immediately, that means New audio! isten, download or subscribe to Workers’ Liberty audio re- bubbles had been closed, the selves or their loved ones recognising that some sort of cordings of our paper, other publications, and many meet- majority with more than one by working in schools. I can- reduced days and rotas are L ings. New this last fortnight: Year Group closed. We have not reassure them that they appropriate in schools. That had already had two schools are not. Risk Assessments in school workers need regular • Rail Workers Discuss Fighting Job Cuts, with Janine Booth in the borough closing entirely schools are either unrealistic and speedy testing. That there and John Pencott for two weeks. and impossible to follow or must be a generous and wide • Solidarity 566 parts 1, 2, and 3; 565 parts 1, 2, and 3 The situation is far worse in insufficient to ensure safety, acceptance of shielding for other parts of the country. It is See workersliberty.org/audio for episodes, and for information sometimes they mix both. Anx- vulnerable and very vulnera- on subscribing and using podcasts. All recent episodes can only going to get worse, every- iety, depression and exhaus- ble staff and students. This in- where. be found through most podcast providers: search “Workers’ tion are already rife in schools. dicates the necessity for taking Liberty” or “Solidarity & More”. □ This week the NHS declared: More and more staff will not be on large numbers of school

6 workersliberty.org @workersliberty @workers_liberty fb.com/workersliberty The history of anti-vaxxism By Angela Driver The government at the their babies vaccinated. But the research is there. Vaccines time imposed fines for fail- In 1982 he sup- have saved countless lives. Despite the n recent weeks there have been pro- ure to get vaccinated, and ported a documentary hype the vast majority of people do fol- Itests denying that Covid-19 is a prob- there was protest movement about DPT (vaccina- low advice and most children are vac- lem. Many of these people are also against them. The rationale tion against diptheria, cinated. against vaccinations. Why? is that high levels of vacci- whooping cough and We need science and medicine to Nowadays, vaccinations are very nation protect not only the tetanus), which made be transparent, accessible and trust- safe. Like all medications they do have individuals vaccinated, but false claims that it worthy. Research should be publicly side effects, but the chances of a vac- the whole population. If a caused numerous seri- funded without political interference. cine causing significant harm are many vaccine is 90% effective and ous illnesses in babies, Questioning and skepticism of this gov- times smaller than the harm that would taken by 90% of a popula- including developmen- ernment and authority is appropriate, be caused by the disease that they are tion, then any freak infection tal delay and seizures. but the answers to questions must be vaccinating against. is unlikely to find susceptible A campaign formed, based on the best available evidence. Yet some parents do not vaccinate people to transmit to, and called “Dissatisfied Par- Good communication, and trans- their children because of a belief that the unvaccinated are pro- ents Together” and now parency are necessary to combat con- they cause harm. In 1998 Andrew tected. If it is taken by only the “National Vaccine spiracy theories, and give us the best Wakefield published falsified research 80%, or 70%, and the dis- Information Centre”. chance of minimising death and illness claiming there was a link between the ease is highly infectious, then According to the from Covid 19. □ MMR vaccine and autism. His corrup- freak infections will spread Washington Post it is tion was uncovered, his published re- and hit the vaccinated, too. “Vaccination a Curse largely funded by Jo- search was retracted by The Lancet, In the 1950s there was a and a Menace to Per- seph Mercola who has and he was struck off as a doctor, but new vaccine against polio, sonal Liberty” book ad- “amassed a fortune” Democracy in the many parents remained so afraid of the which was then a huge killer. vert, ~1900. Distributed selling “natural health” by “Anti-Vaccination labour movement MMR vaccine that uptake continued to A bad batch where the virus products and donated Society of America” fall and led to outbreaks of measles. was not deactivated led to $2.9 million to the cam- n 12 October Keir Starmer told Measles can cause 1 in 500 children 200,000 cases of polio, 200 cases of paign. OLabour MPs he intended not to to get encephalitis and brain damage, paralysis, and 10 deaths. But there had Today that history is feeding into vote against the Tories’ “spycops” compared to the possibility of 1 in a been outbreaks that killed over a thou- Covid denying movements. At times Bill, authorising MI5 and other police million children getting encephalitis sand in short periods of time before the governments and some doctors have to commit criminal offences without as a result of having the MMR vaccine. vaccine. betrayed public trust. In the past vac- limit while working undercover. He Many studies conducted since then Despite everything, confidence re- cinations have sometimes been dan- will do that even if Labour amend- have concluded that there is no link mained high until the 1970s. Pregnant gerous. Today every vaccine available ments are defeated. Nine trade between the MMR vaccine and autism mothers in the US had been given syn- in most countries (with the possible union leaders and 18 Labour MPs (including an 8 year longitudinal study thetic hormones during pregnancy as exception of Russia and China) is very have come out against the Bill. The of over 650,000 children in Denmark). part of a research trial without their safe. But it can be difficult for people to Labour Party needs to gain demo- But in the past vaccinations were dan- knowledge, and those had doubled know the truth. cratic control over the leadership. gerous. The first vaccine against small- the rate of still-birth. Dr Mendelsohn Politicians lie, and research is often The ballot for Labour’s National Ex- pox, a disease which killed many, was exposed that, and encouraged patients funded by pharmaceutical companies ecutive opens 19 October and runs developed in the 1850s. There was lit- to question their doctors. This started trying to turn a profit, and published to 12 November. Solidarity has had tle knowledge about bacteria and the out as empowering patients. Then he by journals who also rely on profit. So- many criticisms of the “official” left need for hygiene, and so many vacci- went further to claim without good ev- cial media and newspapers publicise slate, but voting for it against the nated babies developed gangrene and idence that vaccines were harmful and headlines and click-bait that rarely tell right will help democratic openings. died due to the spread of other infec- to discourage mothers from getting the whole story. futureweneed.com tions. Rosie Duffield and trans backlash By Angela Driver where there is a justifiable rea- and Equalities Minister Marsha bia. Rosie Duffield mocked ment of proposed reforms to son for doing so. Trans women de Cordova, Maya Forstater Heather, saying she hadn’t the GRA has led to a significant t is a common misconception have always been able to use (who is consistently transpho- “learnt to be careful” but was backlash against trans people, Ithat the proposed reforms women’s toilets. That is noth- bic on twitter) tweeted that the going to Stepford to be “re- who were already facing per- to the Gender Recognition ing new. guidance was for “cross-dress- programmed”. secution. Act threatened “single-sex For some the “fear” goes be- ers”. Labour MP Rosie Duffield Rosie Duffield has previously There is a risk that the gov- spaces”, toilets, changing yond ignorance and is based “liked” Forstater’s tweet, and had to apologise publicly for ernment may reduce the rights rooms, and meant that men on an underlying prejudice thus publicly supported the saying that only women have trans people have under the just pretending to be women that trans women are actually idea that trans women are just a cervix. She took a long time Equality Act 2010. could access them. just men “pretending” to be men “dressing up” or “pre- to apologise, and maintained The Labour Party has exist- These fears are unfounded. women, on fear of and hostil- tending” to be women. her stance even after it was ing policy to amend the GRA The GRA has nothing to say ity towards trans people. It has The Labour Campaign for pointed out that such state- to allow self-ID. It should be about the use of toilets. The recently spilled out into the Trans Rights called on LGBT+, ments could discourage trans vocally defending trans rights Equality Act 2010 already open among Labour MPs. the Labour Party’s LGBT organ- men and non-binary people now more than ever. Instead gives trans people the right to A recent blog post criti- isation, to act. from having cervical smears. we are seeing worrying signs access services appropriate to cised Law Society guidance The chair of LGBT+, Heather Despite repeated calls, nei- that transphobia is becoming their lived gender at any stage that transitioning employees Peto, criticised Rosie Duffield ther Rosie Duffield nor Marsha accepted in the Labour Party. of their transition. Single sex should use the toilet they felt for liking Maya Forstater’s de Cordova has apologised, The Labour Party must treat services are only allowed to comfortable with. tweet — saying either she was and Keir Starmer has issued no transphobia just as seriously as exclude trans people under In response to a tweeted not being careful or she was statement on the subject. any other bigotry. □ exceptional circumstances, comment by Shadow Women actively supporting transpho- The government’s abandon-

Events and campaigns: workersliberty.org/meetings youtube.com/c/WorkersLibertyUK workersliberty.org/audio 7 Hawkins: “A stronger vote against Trump” votes counted. One of our arguments is you can’t Interview count on the Democrats to fight for our rights. Their policy is to accommodate. Bill Clinton called it triangulation. Joe Howie Hawkins is a socialist running Biden calls it working across the aisle. in the US presidential election on the And right now they’re rolling over for ticket of the Green Party. On 12 October this nomination for Amy Coney Barrett he talked with Stephen Wood from Sol- for the Supreme Court. They could slow idarity. Workers’ Liberty backs Hawkins that down. They could impeach Trump in the election. and Attorney General Barr for under- he invective of Trump is what is mining the election. They have chosen Tworse than previous incumbents. not to. Egging on the vigilante militias. Calling An impeachment proceeding would the election as being fraudulent before take precedence over any other pro- it is even run. ceeding in the Congress. But they don’t People get scared and they think seem to be willing to fight back hard. In states like New York, we are a party like you would your union. Most Hitler is on the horizon. But it is quite The Republicans certainly are. The stronger vote against Trump. To give politics now is what you see on TV or different. These rag tag militias aren’t Democrats are not even fighting on the your vote to Biden is to strengthen you occasionally get a flyer in the mail, going to be able to change the govern- procedure. him and affirm his positions, against a an election comes around. But other ment. I don’t think Trump is more right- The US is a real anomaly. The Organ- Green New Deal, against Medicare for than that, people are divorced from wing than some previous Republicans. isation for Security and Economic Co- all. Against scaling back our bloated politics. His invective is certainly more inflam- operation in Europe is contacting our military budget. You tell Biden to take it matory, towards women, immigrants campaign as part of their observation for granted. We don’t see why any self For years now “Vote Blue, No Matter and minorities. But it is not like an of the election. It goes back to the Hel- respecting progressive would vote for Who” has been a common refrain. It army of hundreds of thousands ready sinki Accords, which in its early years Biden, particularly in those states. So is promised that a future time is the to go out and smash a strong workers’ was focussed on violation of demo- we are wondering where’s the left soli- opportunity for a third party candi- movement. Trump is so offensive to the cratic norms by the Soviet Union and darity at the moment? date. How do you persuade the left senses that people can get a little bit the Eastern Bloc. A two-party state like that now is the time for an independ- hysterical. the US is not much better than a one Has there been an increase in Green ent initiative? And how do you make The polls show that, since Biden be- party state on some of these questions. membership? Or have groups been sure it relates to the people who sup- came the nominee, he is solidly ahead. It’s a cleverer and more stable setup, set up that are backing your cam- ported Sanders or who think they can He started out 4 points ahead, and by and you have the illusion of real choice. paign, aren’t part of the Greens, but see some shift in the Democrats? the time we got to the debate he was But the power structure is still set up to want to do something after the elec- Hal Draper in 1968 was right that 7 or 8 points ahead. This is nationally favour the governing parties. tion? the question itself is the disaster. What and also in the so-called battleground How visible has your campaign What we found out in the course of will really persuade people is if we states in 2016. He has double-digit managed to be while the debate is so the campaign is which people in differ- start electing thousands of Greens to leads in those states now. polarised between Trump and Biden? ent states really want to organise. We local office, and that’s a foundation for Biden is ahead in states that used to Ballot access is a huge problem. have a network we can build upon and running credible state legislative and be solidly republican like Georgia and That’s why our ballot lines are so impor- go forward. And that’s going to involve congressional campaigns, credible be- Arizona and Texas. The whole field has tant. It’s thousands or tens of thousands ballot access, petitioning, running local cause people say, the Greens and the shifted and now Biden is double digits of signatures to run in each state. The candidates and helping people be- city council run the school board and ahead, nationally. The only way he can Green Party is not all we want it to be, come better organisers. they’ve done a good job. lose an election is if the Republicans it’s a vehicle, but at the same time peo- Most Greens and most of the left, We know what they stand for. We’ve stop the election, and they refuse the ple are standing on the sideline and both the independent and Democratic won a few of those over the years, but count of the mail-in ballots. The Dem- saying, well, you’re not good enough. Party orientated left, are very focussed we could be doing a lot more. And I ocrats have a whole team of lawyers Trump is such a danger. We’re going to on mobilising people for episodic think the fact that we do it undermines ready. vote for this very conservative Demo- demonstrations or petition drives or the lesser evil argument better than the Angela Walker, my running mate, was crat. other campaigns, but not about going best essay. out there on the streets demonstrating Biden is more conservative than out and listening and building relation- I’ve been pointing out that Bernie for the count in 2000, but Gore and Hillary Clinton, and he’s not promising ships and building real grassroots or- Sanders is a case in point. He was Lieberman called people to get off the anything. I thought one of the most tell- ganisation. elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont, streets. This time round, it looks again ing things in the debate was when they The issue in the US is that the main as an Independent. Several times to like the Democrats will be focused on were asked why should people vote parties are not membership parties. Congress, and then a couple more their legal challenge, But we will call for you? And Trump spouted a bunch You tell the state which party you’re times for the Senate, running as an in- people onto the streets. Lots of Dem- of lies like he always does about things in. And that tells them which ballot to dependent. And when he tried to run ocratic voters will want to be on the he had accomplished that he hadn’t. give you in the primary elections. And, as a Democrat for President, the cor- streets, especially if there is a refusal to And then Biden talked about what was other than that, if you’ve got an issue porate establishment Democratic Party count the mail-in ballots. wrong with Trump. He never said, why in your neighbourhood or your town, closed ranks against him. □ you don’t go to the local branch of the Do you think Trump will try and hold vote for Joe Biden? • Mark Osborn in his article on page Democratic or Republican Party, be- onto the Presidency whether it is Millions of people will stay at home. 9 makes reference to Hawkins being cause they don’t exist. close or not? Will the Democrats call The non-voters are the biggest bloc in scheduled for a “live panel discussion” What we’re trying to do is organise people onto the streets? the US we could mobilise. A hundred with the antisemitic “Black Hammer” the first membership party, which is an Republicans have said in a state like million people didn’t vote in 2016. And group. The Ohio Green Party, which invention of the left like in the UK. To- Pennsylvania, they’ve got control of the right now, from what people might see had agreed to the event, cancelled it ries and the Whigs were built from the legislature. So even if Biden wins Penn- in the major media, you know, there’s after Hawkins supporters complained, top down, you know, rich folks would sylvania, they’re going to send electors nothing in it for them. Working-class life and said: “A 30 second Google sponsor them to mobilise the people who are pro Trump! I think legally I’m expectancies are in decline in this coun- search could have prevented this. We who could vote. They weren’t a mem- hopeful that kind of nonsense will be try. And Trump says he cares when he apologise”. bership party. stopped. But we’re telling people, be doesn’t. Most people see through that. It was the left who said you could prepared to go out and demonstrate, And Biden isn’t really offering much. So agree to some principles, pay your Part 2 of this interview will appear in a even have a general strike, to get those it’s a pretty depressing situation. dues and have your say. Support the future issue of Solidarity.

8 workersliberty.org @workersliberty @workers_liberty fb.com/workersliberty Democrats: no space for radicals to replace US democracy with a sin- fined left fighting to defend democracy. gle-party, militarised-nationalist, totali- Articles in Solidarity by Barrie Hardy Debate tarian state. He has done nothing like have argued that US democracy is this. “fragile”. It is not. It is under threat, and Trump has built and cultivated a can be damaged, but it is not fragile. By Mark Osborn personal base, but one which he ap- It is worth considering past US crises, he main impression I get from proaches as a multi-millionaire tele- for example, the 1968 election. In the TThomas Carolan’s article (Solidarity vision showman, not a Goebbels-like election run-up Robert Kennedy was 565, Trump is a fascist) is that Carolan Gauleiter of Berlin. Barrie Hardy’s com- assassinated. Before that Martin Luther has belatedly woken up to the threat ment (Solidarity 561) that, “The closing King was murdered and scores of in- posed by Trump and is now panicking. rally of the Republican National Con- ner-cities went up in flames, with doz- Most of those who have labelled vention in the White House grounds ens killed. The Vietnam war was in the Trump a fascist have done so dema- would have done the late Joseph Goe- background. There was street-fighting gogically to advocate for the right wing bbels proud”, is not serious political outside the Democratic convention and lamentable Democrat, Joe Biden. comment. in Chicago. An open segregationist, But Carolan is at least coming from No, Trump is not, now, a fascist. George Wallace, took 10 million votes the other direction, declaring Trump a Trump’s project is not to build a total- and five states. itarian state, but to keep Trump in the US democracy has survived big chal- fascist first before, last week Solidarity( He writes that the US labour movement White House. For which he seems pre- lenges before and will not just roll-over 566), following the drift of his first ar- involves itself in the Democratic Party. pared to do more or less anything he and die. Trump’s attempt to cheat is and ticle, and declaring support of Biden’s Some of the labour movement already calculates he can get away with, push- will be contested, bitterly and fiercely. candidacy. Then, in a third article (also does that, unfortunately. And the Bid- ing boundaries, breaking rules and tra- And it is not just the separation of pow- Solidarity 566), Carolan went much fur- en-supporting unions are treated like ditions as he needs to. So it is at least ers in the US which means Trump will ther, advocating an activist orientation dogs by the Democrat’s machine, pat- imaginable that Trump’s willingness to find it hard to impose himself. Various to the Democratic Party. ted on the head, and given pretend in- do anything to stay in power might end US traditions, such as the right to free Carolan has bought a ticket on a bus, fluence. up with Trump leading a right-wing, an- speech, are not just banners of the possibly driven by Eric Lee. The next Do you want to become Joe Biden’s ti-democratic street movement which right; they will be fought for by Trump’s stop is probably an out-of-town hyper- puppy dog, comrade Carolan? Because becomes his main, stable political cen- opponents. market for a full set of Vote Biden un- there are no effective mechanisms at tre. The US is post 2008/9-crash and in- derwear. After that, who knows? all for the unions or the socialist left to side a Covid crisis, and that makes the That’s a serious point made in a flip- Polls work in this bourgeois party. You be- pant way. Carolan will remain a Trotsky- conditions difficult and the ground I have been assuming, for months — come a petitioner, cap in hand, in front ist but who can tell where those who more favourable to build right-wing based on the polls — that Trump will of the rich and powerful who control listen to him and take him seriously movements. That’s true, and needs put- lose the popular vote and the electoral the Democrat show, an electoral ma- might end up. We have held a tradi- ting on our balance. college vote for President. I still think chine with no real space for people like tional position (do not vote Democrat, But it is also not clear how bour- that is right. The Financial Times data, us. argue for a working-class alternative), geois institutions will react to a Trump for example, seems pretty clear on this. Joe Biden is a creep and a right-wing for a whole raft of serious reasons. To attempt to hold on to power. If Trump That assumption needs some qual- shit, running for a right-wing, main- abandon that position, in the abrupt clearly loses, are the army leadership ification. Polls can be wrong. Trump is stream bourgeois party. If he is elected way Carolan has, is alarming. Small going to back him (the confrontation capable of many things, up to and in- he will be a disaster and may well pre- Trotskyist groups can become disorien- between the army and McCarthy, tel- cluding starting a war, in the election pare the way for a new Trump, some- tated and come to grief by such shifts. evised in 1954, effectively ended the run-up — and he might take an initiative thing even worse than Trump. Do you But, more to the point, Carolan is McCarthy threat)? The Economist mag- that changes the calculations. want to take a share of the responsibil- wrong. I agree with Matt Cooper’s ar- azine is not even sure his own appoin- Nevertheless, shortly after the polls ity for that? ticle (566) and I won’t repeat his ar- tees to the Supreme Court will support shut, Trump will declare victory. Assum- Carolan cites the Sanders move- guments beyond a couple of brief an open power grab. ing he has actually lost, this will amount ment’s insurgent attempt to disrupt remarks. The point is to have a balanced dis- to some sort of coup attempt. He will normal Democratic Party functioning. Surely, if Trump were a fascist, he would cussion about this. Designating Trump back his declaration with legal action He cites Sanders it as if such move- have done more specifically “fascist a fascist is of no help, it disorientates and by calling his people out onto the ments have never happened before. stuff” in the last three and a half years, and only adds a layer of confusion and streets, as right-wing street theatre, to The women’s movement, the Civil while President. It is not as if Trump is panic. create some chaos. Presumably there Rights leadership — not only the unions not an obnoxious, lying, narcissistic I agree with the AWL’s position to will be some shooting and killings. He — have found themselves tied up and right-wing pig. He is, of course. But vote for the Green candidate, the so- will bluster and boast and try to intimi- slowly strangled by the Democrats. If a fascist President — one with fascist cialist Howie Hawkins, with two cave- date the Democrats into conceding. I remember rightly even Elaine Brown intent, if not yet an organised base ats. First, I am alarmed at reports he At this point, in the crisis that is surely and Bobby Seale ran in Oakland in — would have done much more to se- intended some sort of joint event with coming, it is possible to imagine Trump 1973 as Democrats. riously curtail US democracy. an antisemitic black nationalist group. coalescing something that more re- Radicals go to the Democrats with We know that Trump has seriously Second, given the very narrow and un- sembles a fascistic street movement. good intentions, but die there. damaged US political debate and at- substantial nature of the Green cam- But, we are some distance from that Yes, Sanders led an important move- tempted to bully the press. Neverthe- paign I am not sure it is of much interest yet, and there are lots of other possi- ment, of which I was an enthusiastic less there is a free election about to to us, the Trotskyists, as I can not see bilities. supporter. But one of the key reasons I take place (and I know the attempts at it educating many new socialists, and Whether he gets away with his power supported Sanders is I thought a Sand- restricting the vote in Florida and Texas I can’t see much being consolidated grab will depend on how close the ers candidacy might split or break up etc. are an important qualification), after the campaign ends. vote is, and how Biden responds. Since the Democrats along useful, progres- which Biden seems set to win. Voting Biden is arguable. Wrong, but Biden is utterly useless, the best that sive lines. Carolan is right, some of If Trump was a fascist — if words are arguable. can be expected is that he does not the future socialist left might well be to mean anything, and “fascist” is not What is certainly impermissible is concede, immediately (as Gore col- in orbit around the Democrats. That’s to become a synonym for “right wing inventing a new analysis of the Dem- lapsed in very vaguely similar circum- something to relate to, not collapse loudmouth” — he would have to share ocratic Party to suit the current need stances over the vote in Florida, 2000). into. We do no one any favours by pre- key features of the original Italian fas- (as Carolan sees it) to call for a Biden It will also depend on the scale of the tending the Democrats are something cist movement. In other words Trump vote (as Carolan does in his third arti- counter-protests. Our job is to back the they are not. □ would be building a mass movement cle, Socialists for Biden, Solidarity 566). US labour movement and broadly-de-

Events and campaigns: workersliberty.org/meetings youtube.com/c/WorkersLibertyUK workersliberty.org/audio 9 Democrats: the danger of co-option ers’ Liberty sees the Labour Party in the UK. Carolan gives no sense of what this Debate intervention might look like. He must surely know that the Democrats has no real equivalent of the Labour Party By Daniel Randall structures, including its direct link with homas Carolan (“A socialist vote for affiliated unions, that make ongoing TBiden”, Solidarity 566, 7 October and systematic intervention by social- 2020) is right that a “tradition” should ists and labour movement activists pos- not be allowed to become “supersti- sible. Work “in” the Democrats means, tion”. He is also right that “making an essentially, running in Democratic pri- absolute principle of never working in maries. or voting for a bourgeois party” would That may make sense in certain in- be mechanical and dogmatic. stances. It will undoubtedly be one of Standing aside from the Sanders a range of strategic approaches that movements in 2016 and 2020 be- the socialist left in the US will use on cause he was running in the primary of the way to establishing an independ- a “bourgeois party” would have been ent working-class party. But doing hopelessly sectarian; refusing to cam- this work on a basis that doesn’t lay it Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders paign or vote for him if he had won still open to simply fizzling out, or to what- mass parties of workers who “wanted to challenge, workers’ acceptance that more so. But Carolan goes way beyond ever progress it makes being coopted to be socialists”, as Carolan puts it, so government by the least-bad of the two that basic point to conclude that social- by the Democratic machine, requires wouldn’t “shunning all cooperation” bosses’ parties is the best they can or ists should be “supporting or involved explicitly maintaining that long-term with CP members have been wrong? should hope for. in the Biden campaign”, as if “the Biden horizon of breaking from, rather than Yes, of course, but there’s yet more The Green Party, in and of itself, will campaign” is a terrain as permeable to “reclaiming” or transforming, the Dem- slippage and rhetorical sleight-of-hand not be an instrument for the creation the kind of intervention Sanders was ocrats. And the possibility of doing here. Who is proposing to “shun all co- of an independent workers’ party in able to make into the Democratic pri- that work in certain instances does not operation” with Democrat-voting work- the US. And Howie Hawkins’ campaign maries in 2016 and 2020. imply wider possibilities for a more sus- ers? But seeking “cooperation” with may well be unable to realise the al- “Socialists can work openly and inde- tained intervention into the Democratic CP-supporting or Democrat-support- ready limited opportunities for an in- pendently around the Democrats, can’t party as such. ing workers doesn’t require voting for dependent socialist intervention in the they?”, Carolan asks — note how “in” Evidence their presidential candidates. Presuma- 2020 election. Those facts do not justify and “around” are used interchangea- Unfortunately neither Sanders nor Al- bly Carolan would not have advocated Carolan’s support for an orientation to bly throughout the article, as if Carolan exandria Ocasio-Cortez, the two ex- a “socialist vote” for Earl Browder or the Democrats. knows that the kind of direct interven- amples Carolan gives as evidence for Gus Hall. It is also undeniable that most left- tion in the Democratic party he appears his position that an “intervene in the Carolan says that socialists should minded people and labour movement to be advocating isn’t perhaps as viable Democrats” strategy is justified, have support the Biden campaign whilst activists will see a vote for Biden, how- as he claims. But can they? The Sand- anything like this perspective. Even “advocating distinct socialist ideas”. ever critical of him they are, as the only ers movement proves that a left-so- Sanders, who formally retains his sta- But one of the essential “distinct social- available means of removing Trump. In cial-democratic bid for the Presidential tus as an independent senator, sees his ist ideas” the US left needs to advocate a direct and immediate sense, they’re primary can have a big impact and mo- project in terms of transforming or “re- is that the working class needs its own right. Socialists should be sympathetic bilise large numbers. It does not at all claiming”, the Democratic party. party, and that a lesser-evilist strategy to their instincts. But we have a polit- follow from this that even the politics The Sanders movement has had little of voting for Biden is hopelessly lim- ical perspective beyond simply re- Sanders represents can have a sim- formal life, beyond the NGO-type or- ited. If his view is that we should say to moving Trump from office. We want ilar impact “in” or “around” the Biden ganising of “Our Revolution”, between workers, “vote Biden this time, but on 4 to defeat his movement, and change campaign itself, which is entirely under elections; AOC has made no attempt to November we must return to the task the social conditions that generated the control of the Democratic machine build anything that could meaningfully of building an independent movement it. That requires winning the argument and conditioned by the kind of poli- be described as an ongoing move- that breaks from the Democrats”, he for independent political action and or- tics Biden represents, which Carolan ment. Unless socialists with a clear needs to explain how this tallies with his ganisation, on the basis of socialist pol- doesn’t even mention, as if the political analysis of the nature of the Democrats wider view that socialists should have itics. Winning that argument requires perspectives and record of the actual can win at least large minorities of the an ongoing orientation to intervention making it, and the US left will be hope- candidate — in a presidential election, people enthused by figures like Sand- in the Democrats. In reality Carolan’s lessly constrained in its ability to make no less — shouldn’t bother us. ers and AOC to the perspective that the arguments are a recipe for locking the it if it has allowed its horizons to shrink The truism that “a lot of the work- left and the labour movement needs in- socialist left into permanent lesser-ev- down to lesser-evilism. □ ing-class and trade-union forces that dependent organisation, the potential ilism that tails, rather than attempting will a create a future independent work- opportunities will be lost. ers’ party [in the USA] are in and around Carolan raises a comparison with the Democrats” is used to justify a view attitudes to Stalinist Communist Party that, despite accepting that the Dem- during the Cold War. These, too, were Anti-racist resources ocrats is a straightforward “bourgeois parties that people from our tradition party” rather than a “bourgeois work- e have compiled various anti-racist resources to learn about anti-racist saw not as working-class parties but ers party”, it should be a, or even the, Wmovements, and arm yourself with ideas to beat back racism: readings class parties of an enemy class — the primary terrain of political action for so- and pamphlets, video and audio. Stalinist ruling class of the Soviet Union cialists in the US, in the way that Work- and its satellites. But they were also See workersliberty.org/anti-racist-resources □

10 workersliberty.org fb.com/workersliberty workersliberty.org/audio Different in two ways A Hawkins vote is a weak gesture, not ist Party candidate because they were movement-building. in the SP. In 1940 and 1944 they said Debate Sticking to principles is not the same little about the presidential election as sticking to old formulas. The long-es- except (truly) that there was little differ- tablished formula is for US Trotskyists ence between the leading candidates. By Martin Thomas never to vote Democrat. In 1948 both the Orthodox Trotskyists his US presidential election is differ- All those socialists, the majority, who (SWP) and the Heterodox (WP) shifted, Tent in two ways. favoured backing Sanders’ bid for the basically the better to counter the Stal- It narrows down to a contest between Democrat nomination, and would have inoid Henry Wallace Progressive Party a fascistic demagogue with a militant backed him if he’d won that, have al- candidacy. The SWP ran a candidate and part-militarised mass base, and a ready modified the formula. and the WP recommended a vote for standard-issue neoliberal. The socialist movement before 1914 the SWP or either of two other minor And recent years have seen a sizea- focused rightly on building independ- socialist candidates. ble though diffuse new US socialist cur- ent working-class parties. It had no Even in the 1960s, Hal Draper’s ar- rent round Sanders’ campaigns and the principle that it was better to sit on your gument was that the pressure of “bu- Democratic Socialists of America. hands than to vote for bourgeois-dem- reaucratic-statified capitalism” made At the same time, the International ocrat candidates against monarchists differences between liberals and con- Socialist Organization has wound itself or the like. On the contrary. servatives largely illusory. After 1914, the argument of principle up, and Solidarity sees itself more as Against an “educational centre” than an activist was for real working-class parties, and As far as I know, there is nothing in the overestimated his impact, but they group. ones which saw themselves winning literature against voting for a clear- were right not to dismiss him as “not Conclusion: the most active, inter- the majority of the working class in a ly-defined, high-stakes bourgeois fascist” because he lacked the trap- ventionist step on 3 November towards not-distant-future, to use elections to lesser evil (not a might-be-a-shade- pings of European fascists. building an independent working-class build themselves rather than renounc- in-it one) when there is no real work- That Max Shachtman lost his revo- socialist party in the USA is to create a ing that in favour of bourgeois lesser ing-class alternative in the race, before lutionary activism from the mid-1950s socialist, democratic, critical profile evils. the arguments I made for an active mi- shaped what he later did around the within the rallying of left-minded, an- There was argument about inde- nority “blank vote” in the Chirac/ Le Pen Democratic Party, but was not caused ti-racist, and pro-union voters to stop pendent candidates in Germany in second round of the French 2002 presi- by it. On a world scale, he saw Stalinism Trump by voting Biden. That will en- the run-up to Hitler’s rise to power, dential election. They don’t apply here. as dynamic and stable and capitalism ergise people round the urgency of for example. There, in the November To say that the USA is already fascist, (even in the long boom) as in “unar- defending and extending democratic 1932 election the Communist and So- or that Trump can make it immediately rested decline and helplessness” (as rights and round working-class and so- cial-Democratic parties won 37% of the fascist if he “steals” the 3 November he wrote in a book preface as late as cialist ideas. Not as well as a campaign vote, as against the Nazis’ 33% and a election, would be to proclaim a possi- 1961). If Stalinism won, all bets were by a socialist party, but that’s not avail- declining share for the bourgeois lib- ble future defeat as already complete, off. If bourgeois-democratic capitalism able. eral parties (Zentrum 12%, DDP 1%: like the Stalinists in the early 1930s say- could get a reprieve from the Stalinist The climate-activist Sunrise Move- right-wing Zentrum politician Franz von ing that Germany was already fascist steamroller, then a workers’ socialist ment, as passed on by Alexandria Papen would then in January 1933 per- before Hitler took power. Saying that movement might be built in the interim. Ocasio-Cortez, says: “Young people suade the President to appoint Hitler Trump personally is fascist, and that And gradually he had given up have the power to crush Trump, and Chancellor with himself, von Papen, as he may severely damage democratic on building a revolutionary socialist he knows it. That’s why he’s trying to Vice-Chancellor). rights, is accurate. movement, hoping instead that in that steal the election, but we’re going to Ramshackle Trotsky’s comment on Pilsudski is rel- interim social democracy would come be there to stop him. Once he’s out, The Democratic Party is to a large ex- evant here: “It is methodologically false good. From being a writer and activ- and we’re still in the streets, our move- tent not a party in the European sense, to form an image of some ‘ideal’ fas- ist appealing directly to left-minded ment can set the tone for the next four but rather a bureaucratic subsection of cism and to oppose it to this real fascist youth, he drifted to being a behind-the- years…” the USA’s ramshackle structures of gov- regime which has grown up, with all its scenes fixer and adviser in those circles The DSA says: “The death of Ruth ernment. There is no equivalent of La- peculiarities and contradictions, upon of US trade-union officialdom where Bader Ginsburg reminded us all of the bour Party conference, of the political the terrain of the relationship of classes many radicals of the 1940s had landed. fragile state of our democracy… We processes in CLPs, or of Labour’s NEC and nationalities in the Polish state”. That orientation took him into Dem- know that a second Trump term would elections (even at their worst). Nearest So is the US Trotskyists’ assessment ocratic Party string-pulling, not vice have devastating effects for our class are the “primaries”, run by government of McCarthy as an American fascist versa. The finale was Shachtman in and for our movement”. Draw your own structures, not the party. in the early 1950s. Not knowing that 1972 following the AFL-CIO’s line of… conclusion? The DSA doesn’t. If DSA But then Bernie Sanders didn’t have the period was the beginning of an neutrality in that year’s presidential groups campaign on the Sunrise Move- to be a Democrat senator in order unprecedented capitalist boom, they election. □ ment basis, they will contribute more. to run for the Democrat nomination. Black Lives Matter leaders like Pa- Bernie Sanders has never been a rev- trisse Cullors and Alicia Garza are olutionary, but he didn’t have to move combining a Biden vote with left-wing to the right to contest the nomination. criticism. Voting Biden requires saying Experience has shown it possible to no more “for” him than leftists who op- participate in action like the Sanders pose voting for him already say. New videos! campaign, and to build organisation Voting Howie Hawkins might be bet- atch Workers’ Liberty’s videos and playlists, and subscribe to our youtube from it, without being drowned. ter if he were running for a substantial Wchannel! Many have subtitles. New this last fortnight: The Trotskyist “don’t vote Democrat” working-class party that could build • Rail Workers Discuss Fighting Job Cuts, with Janine Booth and John Pencott tradition was always linked to saying itself in the election. But, for under- that there was little or no difference be- standable reasons of realpolitik, he is Plus playlists including tween Democrat and Republican can- running for the Green Party, not a so- • Black Lives Matter, videos around the movement and related topics didates. cialist or working-class party. His own • Socialist commentary on the Covid-19 crisis In 1932 the Trotskyists backed the socialist group, Solidarity, is not back- • ABCs of Marxism, an introductory series, still being added to Communist Party candidate because ing Howie Hawkins in the presidential • An introduction to Marx’s Capital, in 19 parts, with Martin Thomas □ they worked as an expelled faction of election. Watch, subscribe, like, comment and share: youtube.com/c/WorkersLibertyUK the CP. In 1936 they backed the Social-

Meetings, events, campaigns: workersliberty.org/meetings @workersliberty youtube.com/c/WorkersLibertyUK 11 Is US democracy under threat? By Barrie Hardy

very healthy debate has been tak- A ing place in the pages of Solidarity on how socialists should relate to the forthcoming US presidential election. Having written a number of articles on the subject recently, I think it necessary for me to give my take on things. I was taken aback by one reader who found it “objectionable” for me to say that bourgeois democracy was under threat in the US. Trump’s gang have done their utmost to trash its in- stitutions, codes and conventions. He’s gone out of his way to capture the Su- preme Court for the reactionary right and also thanks to his henchman, Attor- ney General Bill Barr, removed several District Attorneys investigating Trump. Numerous Inspectors General — over- sight officials there to stop overreach of FBI arrests of 13 far right terrorists fully worked out political ideology, pa- to see Donald Trump defeated at all by the executive branch — have been charged with various plots against the rade around in uniform or sport a silly cost they there is no logical reason for sacked. In late spring Trump got rid of state of Michigan, including one to kid- little moustache, but Donald walks like splitting the anti Trump vote and let- five in the space of six weeks. nap its Governor, Gretchen Whitmer. a duck and talks like a duck. ting him win. Jill Stein, the 2016 Green All of this could have escaped most Given all of this I would like to know Not all fascist regimes came to power candidate, got a bigger vote in all people’s attention, but we have a Presi- what more it would take as evidence on the backs on mass fascist move- three states mentioned above than the dent who says he refuses to accept the that bourgeois democracy is not imper- ments. General Franco was not an margin between Clinton and Trump. result of the November election unless illed? Perhaps those who believe this ideological fascist when he launched There’s no way of telling if with Stein it shows him as the victor. Additionally way have a touching regard for the US his coup against the bourgeois-demo- not standing the outcome would have he has called for the arrest of his po- Constitution and its ability to withstand cratic republic in 1936, but an old-style been any different, but there’s no proof litical opponent, Joe Biden, along with all challenges, but they shouldn’t count pro-church, pro-landlord, pro-monar- of the opposite either. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, in on it! Of course, if you believe that chy reactionary. He utilised the Span- Many on the American left, support- the middle of the election campaign. bourgeois democracy is not in danger, ish Falange as auxiliaries during the ers of Bernie Saunders and AOC in- Voter suppression has also been taken then who to vote for doesn’t matter. A civil war then merged them into a one cluded, have never forgiven the Greens to a new level with the deliberate sabo- democratic system will broadly be in state party with the Carlists afterwards. in respect to the way the votes panned tage of the US Postal Service. place even if Trump emerges victori- I doubt if anyone reading this newspa- out in the Mid West. They aren’t going As if this wasn’t enough, we’ve had ous. That’s why denying Trump is a fas- per would describe his regime as any- to be too happy with a similar outcome Trump flattering the various white su- cist follows on with this line of thinking. thing other than fascist, however. this time and won’t look too kindly on premacist and neo-Nazi “militias” and If fascism is a form of far-right author- In the case of next door neighbour those who advocated it! calling on them to stand watch at voting itarian ultranationalism which craves for Portugal, there wasn’t even a mass Some readers have argued that call- stations where they will be no doubt dictatorial power and the forcible sup- fascist movement behind Salazar, and ing for any vote for Biden is a form armed to the teeth. This comes on top pression of opposition, then Donald he didn’t set up his fascist state until of “popular frontism”. Trotsky was of Trump is a fascist. He might not have a seven years after a military coup. Again course opposed to popular fronts with I doubt there’d be many takers for call- bourgeois parties and instead called ing Salazar anything other than fascist. for a United Front between the two mass workers’ parties, namely the So- Terror cial Democrats and the Communist Wave of wildcats Trump has the backing of numerous Party, to defeat fascism in Europe. By Sacha Ismail grocery workers in Memphis, Amazon right wing terror groups including the Today there aren’t two mass workers’ warehouse workers in Staten Ireland KKK. The adulation teenage killer Kyle parties in the USA. Historically there’s ince the start of March there have and bar workers in Portland. Rittenhouse has received in Republican never even been one. Independent been over 1,000 strikes in the US, S These developments have been circle implies that these groups believe working-class organisation is of course many related to the Covid-19 crisis widely noted and discussed among they have a license to kill. needed. Some of it will come from and some to the Black Lives Matter left-wing labour activists in the US. A Trump victory will embolden both struggles happening in the street of struggle. Most are wildcat strikes, There is debate about the extent to Trump’s drive for authoritarian rule and American towns and cities. Other el- without formal vote or official union which all the actions involved consti- raise white supremacy once more to ements will come from the left of the endorsement. In some cases they tute strikes. dominate American life. Should “hand- Democratic Party and its supporters in have taken place in workplaces where It is also worth noting that the num- maiden” Amy Coney Barrett get onto the trade unions. there is no union. ber of actions has tailed off in the sec- the Supreme Court, women’s rights are We cannot cut ourselves off from The crowd-funded website Pay- ond half of the year, and that most of going to get trashed also. these people by enabling another day Report has put together a map them are small. Unsurprisingly, figures Which brings us to the question of Trump term. □ tracking these strike. It argues that its for big strikes have declined sharply how to vote in November. I do not have tracker probably underestimates the in 2020. a problem with people wanting to vote actual numbers. These struggles have lessons for for Green candidate Harry Hawkins The strikes, concentrated in the workers in Britain. For a useful discus- in states like New York and California, Eastern half of the US and on the West sion of some of the issues, including where Trump has no chance of winning. More online Coast, have taken place in industries the vital importance of workplace di- In swing states like Michigan, Wiscon- “Don’t back Biden, even vs and workplaces as diverse as the De- rect action in the pandemic and the sin, and Pennsylvania, however, any- Trump” troit auto industry, Pittsburgh sanita- need to take over and transform trade thing other than a vote for Biden would Article by six members of New tion, chicken-processing in Kathleen unions, see this article by US socialist be a criminal dereliction of duty. Politics editorial board (Georgia), iron works in Bath (Maine), Dan La Botz bit.ly/danlabotz If your political position is wanting bit.ly/no-bid

12 workersliberty.org @workersliberty @workers_liberty fb.com/workersliberty Belarus: crackdown and gestures By Pete Radcliff Minsk had been left alone by tion. erhood” exercises by Russia’s be done with unreliable ele- the state security forces, who If this is true, it is unclear close allies, due to take place ments of the opposition like vetlana Tikhanovskaya, op- waited for the demos to dis- whether Voskresensky would from 12 Oct — in Belarus! Babariko. Sposition candidate in Bela- perse before harassing small be acting on behalf of Ba- Neither Putin nor his alliance Babariko may not have much rus’s rigged 9 August election, groups. On 11 Oct, the state bariko or other imprisoned is strong at the moment. Arme- public following despite his declared on Telegram on 13 security forces attacked every- oppositionists. nia has pulled out of the mil- imprisonment. However Maria October: one. If Lukashenko is looking to itary exercise because of war Kolesnikova, probably the “The regime has 13 days to Alongside that repression, make deals, in the hopes of with Azerbaijan around Na- most visible and charismatic of fulfill three main requirements: Lukashenko seems to be meeting Putin’s demand for gorno-Karabakh. Kyrgyzstan the opposition leaders, does, 1. Lukashenko must leave. 2. showing a sudden desire for results and placating some in pulled out due to the over- and she was brought into pol- Street violence must stop com- compromise. On Saturday 10 the opposition, it would most throw of its government on 5 itics by Babariko’s earlier cam- pletely. 3. All political prisoners October he visited the Bela- likely be through Babariko, the Oct after a siege of its Parlia- paign. (Kolesnikova refused to must be released. If our de- rus KGB prison and met some least radical and most pro-Rus- ment. attend the prison meeting). mands are not met by 25 Oc- of the imprisoned opposition sian of the barred presidential As in Belarus, the uprising The democracy movement’s tober, the whole country will leaders held there. Hardly a candidates. in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bish- dependence on the liberal peacefully take to the streets fair or equal discussion, when Lukashenko has now made kek was a response to claims leaders of the opposition with the People’s Ultimatum”. one participant holds the oth- a statement about possible of rigged elections. There has has always been a weakness. Evidently the opposition as- ers in indefinite imprisonment. changes to the constitution been speculation that this That is why workers need to sesses that it is strong enough After the meeting, two pris- over who has control of the might encourage protests be organised independently: at least to have a chance of oners who claimed to have election process. He has also against Lukashenko. through the popular, if still this “ultimatum” having at least taken part in the meeting with talked about an “inclusive pro- There have been few reports weak, independent trade some force. Lukashenko were released. cess” of further constitutional of further workers’ organisa- union movement, and further, Sunday 11 October saw Yuri Voskresensky, the cam- changes and the need for tax tion or strike activity in Belarus. politically, into a collective street protests again across paign manager of one of reform. Eyes may be on Lukashenko class-conscious force that can Belarus. They were a lot the barred presidential can- Over the last two weeks and Putin. make sure that Belarus’s battle smaller than previous. In part, didates, Eduard Babariko, there have been several dis- There are risks that under becomes one for workers’ de- because of heavy rain. In part, claimed he had been asked by cussions between Putin and Putin’s pressure and a mix- mocracy and workers’ organi- because of fierce repression. Lukashenko to draft possible Lukashenko. They come be- ture of threats and promises sation across Putin’s empire. □ Since August, large demos in amendments to the constitu- fore the “Unbreakable Broth- from Lukashenko, a deal may

Arguing for a Otto Rühle’s society based on abridged human solidarity, version of Buy our books! social ownership Capital, putting of industry aside current Order from workersliberty.org/books and banks, factual material, ore info, reviews, study guides, online. Some books are free to and political, illustrations, Mdownload or as audiobooks. Prices of listed exclude postage and economic polemics, is a packaging. UK: £1 for small items, £3 for larger items, free over £30. and social good lead-in for More for international shipping. Discounts if you buy in bulk, or buy democracy. 182 the full book. certain combinations deals. Pay at workersliberty.org/payment □ pages. £5 131 pages, £6

A socialist dissection The 1917’s The history of A socialist approach Defending the A debate on reform, Critical history of the of Left antisemitism. revolution’s real Solidarność, from its within recent “waves” Bolsheviks and their revolution, Labour, disoriented left, and Third edition, 212 history, and lessons. dawn until the coup. of feminism. relevance today. democracy, more. the way forward. pages, £5 374 pages, £12 116 pages, £5 102 pages, £5 312 pages, £10 107 pages, £5 408 pages, £12

Can Socialism Fate of the Russian FRR vol. 2: The Two The Miners’ Strike 1919: Strikes, In an Era of Wars Class Politics and Gramsci in Context Make Sense? £8 Revolution vol.1 £8 Trotskyisms £20 1984-5 £9 struggles, soviets £4 and Revolutions £9 Anarchism £5 £6

Events and campaigns: workersliberty.org/meetings youtube.com/c/WorkersLibertyUK workersliberty.org/audio 13 What we stand for oday one class, the working class, Tlives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. Capitalists’ control over the econ- omy and their relentless drive to in- Cuttingand L put on paper overalls, tools crease their wealth causes poverty, masks, gloves, cover-shoes unemployment, blighting of lives by Diary of an and hoods to get onto the overwork; imperialism, environmen- engineer crane gantry and drill fresh tal destruction and much else. holes in the steel arm, thread By Emma Rickman The working class must unite to them, screw in the sensor struggle against the accumulated week ago I felt like giv- and position the new bolt wealth and power of the capitalists, A ing up, but this one I “pin”. Job done. in the workplace and wider society. think I might be getting In the afternoon the ap- The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty somewhere. This is often an prentices take it in turns to wants socialist revolution: collective up-and-down job. fault-find on an unused cas- ownership of industry and services, I’m asked to make a pin sette in the switch room. P workers’ control, and a democracy for the crane from a rough tells me the basics of how a much fuller than the present system, sketch. I can’t find any solid cassette functions, and when with elected representatives recall- bar of the right size, so I use it’s my turn I fumble my way able at any time and an end to bu- threaded bar. I use a cutting through the schematic, test- reaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. saw to trim a piece to size, ing the switch, testing the We fight for trade unions and the then the pillar drill to punch contacter incorrectly, test- Labour Party to break with “social a 7mm hole through the ing it correctly, and finally partnership” with the bosses, to mil- centre. When the hole ends landing on a missing link — itantly assert working-class interests. up off-centre on the curved the small connecting wire between two terminals has n workplaces, trade unions, and surface, I cut another piece fallen loose. Labour organisations; among stu- and drill it again, but accu- I Normally an emergency dents; in local campaigns; on the rately. stop button would be linked left and in wider political alliances I’m happy that this is sim- to this, breaking the circuit we stand for: ple, but good, work. I’m not and deactivating the power • Independent working-class rep- even fussed when A tells me supply to the machine. A resentation in politics threaded bar will snap too congratulates me, and gives • A workers’ government, based easily to be useful — I fol- me a little fist-bump.□ on and accountable to the labour lowed J’s instructions and movement the error is not mine. • Emma Rickman is an • A workers’ charter of trade union To fulfil the role of pin we apprentice engineer at a rights — to organise, strike, picket ef- use a large bolt, then adjust Combined Heat and Power fectively, and take solidarity action the sensor to account for plant in Sheffield. Verse • Taxing the rich to fund good the shorter length. Me, A public services, homes, education and jobs for all • Workers’ control of major indus- Eireannach? tries and finance for a rapid transi- Dirty work in US politics A place I lost I scarcely knew, tion to a green society The childhood land I never outgrew, • A workers’ movement that fights tial nomination of an unnamed party. My father’s life, my mother’s tales all forms of oppression There is much “dirty work at the cross- Of hungers, wars, workhouses, jails, • Full equality for women, and so- Kino Eye roads”. Cantwell illegally obtains a psy- The memories not quite my own cial provision to free women from chiatric report on Russell and threatens To which my memories are sewn: domestic labour. Reproductive free- to expose him. Russell hears evidence By John Cunningham Inextricably in Erin’s net, doms and free abortion on demand. that Cantwell is a closet homosexual I am what I refuse to forget. □ • Full equality for lesbian, gay, bi- film about the US elections seems but he refuses to use this against him. SM sexual and trans people A only appropriate, and there’s much Eventually, Russell withdraws and re- • Black and white workers’ unity to choose from. In The Best Man (Frank leases his delegates. They vote for out- against racism J. Schaffner, 1964), liberal candidate sider Governor John Merwin, who wins • Open borders William Russell (Henry Fonda) is up the nomination. • Global solidarity against global against loud-mouthed populist Joe This was the first time that the word Our pamphlets capital — workers everywhere have Cantwell (based on Richard Nixon — “homosexual” was ever used in a main- rowse, download, buy, or listen more in common with each other actor Cliff Robertson) for the Presiden- stream US film. □ to our pamphlets: than with their capitalist or Stalinist B rulers • The German Revolution: selected • Democracy at every level of soci- writings of Rosa Luxemburg ety, from the smallest workplace or • For Workers’ Climate Action community to global social organi- Stickers and reprints • Two Nations, Two States sation • Workers Against Slavery • Equal rights for all nations, ur total now stands at £9,249. A modest increase from last week, but taking • How to Beat the Racists against imperialists and predators Ous to just £751 off the target of £10,000 by 21-22 November. It’s allowed us • Remain and Rebel big and small to print more stickers to advertise our weekly Zoom meetings to students and • Stalinism in the International • Maximum left unity in action, and helped us with a reprint of In an Era of War and Revolutions, a collection of car- Brigades full openness in debate toons from the US Trotskyist movement of the mid-20th century, where unsold • Left Antisemitism: What it is and stocks had dwindled to zero. How to Fight it f you agree with us, take copies of Thanks to the Nottingham branch of Workers’ Liberty and others for their sup- • Arabs, Jews, and Socialism: So- ISolidarity to sell — and join us! □ port with the donations this week. cialist Debates on Israel/Palestine □ • workersliberty.org/join-awl • workersliberty.org/donate □ More: workersliberty.org/pamphlets

14 workersliberty.org @workersliberty @workers_liberty fb.com/workersliberty More shifts in DWP

John Moloney, PCS AGS

egotiations with bosses in the NDepartment for Work and Pen- sions (DWP), over plans to extend job centre opening hours and in- crease the number of in-person interviews with claimants, are ongo- ing. The union position is clear; we believe these proposals will put both workers and claimants at risk. Further concessions have now been offered, including devolving some of the decision-making down to individual workers. This means DWP job coaches could make a de- cision about whether they need to see a claimant in person, or if they Deliveroo riders protest in Bristol in 2019 could speak to them remotely. That is a meaningful concession, although it does risk individual workers com- ing under pressure from bosses to increase the number of claimants they’re seeing in person. Deliveroo workers strike again Management are shifting under By Michael Elms are now discussing action on parking Sheffield driver Khalid Kalil has pressure from the threat of industrial fines and low pay. In neighbouring been campaigning (with the help of action, but our reps need to weigh eliveroo workers continue action as Penistone, food couriers have taken the union and Labour MP Gill Furniss) up whether the concessions offered Dorganisation spreads inspiration from the fight in Sheffield, to get his job back after just such one thus far are sufficient. We want a Deliveroo workers in the IWGB union and are discussing taking organised anonymous complaint resulted in his national agreement, not piecemeal in Sheffield have voted to take two days action against a local restaurant with a termination with no warning. He also concessions. The DWP Group Exec- of industrial action on 14-15 October, bullying manager. They also complain was obliged to launch a crowdfunding utive Committee will meet this week as they continue to push Deliveroo na- of low pay from delivery platforms. appeal to keep his partner and three to discuss the next steps. Our driving tionally on pay and unfair sackings. As well as low pay and disrespect children from eviction. instructor members are also likely to Following several weeks of boycotts from restaurant managers, unfair dis- The appeal originally asking for £500 move towards a ballot for action to and organising in Sheffield, the union is missals are a major issue for couriers. to cover this month’s rent. The response resist unsafe work. continuing to grow. And now, workers Deliveroo and other apps have no dis- from the local labour movement and The wider national picture has sta- from nearby towns have reached out to missals process. Couriers can be termi- others on social media was overwhelm- bilised somewhat, as the rising infec- the Sheffield union branch. nated from the app following a single ing, swiftly raising £2,000. □ tion rate and government advice that A group of drivers in Barnsley have anonymous complaint. everyone who can work from home been in contact and report that they should has meant that civil service departments have backed off from their back-to-the-office push. We need to use the pause and relative Strikes wake up sleeper Subscribe to stability to strengthen our organisa- tion and put measures in place, such as workplace safety committees, to bosses Solidarity rial sub (6 issues) £7; Six months ensure workers are ready to take the From Off The Rails The upshot is that all staff are on their (22 issues) £22 waged, £11 un- maximum degree of control over feet all night — twelve hours if the train T waged, €30 European rate. how work is organised. aledonian Sleeper workers struck runs to time, more if running late. On In the next few weeks the national Cagain on 11-12 October. Their top of this, they are being contacted Visit workersliberty.org/sub union will need to make a decision trains formerly had “pantries”, which through their period away from work about how we’re fighting on civil ser- staff used to get some downtime dur- by managers, breaking their sleep and Or, email [email protected] vice pay this year. We’ve got a formal ing the night — not even a kip, just a sit- disciplined for not accepting the calls, with your name and address, or position to move towards a national down, a break. being forced into using their rest days phone 020 7394 8923. Standing ballot — the November meeting of When the company refurbished the to take non-compulsory courses, mean- order £5 a month: more to support our National Executive Committee sleeper, the company assured staff ing they have little time away from work. our work. Forms online. □ will discuss whether and how to ac- were assured that there would still be Add to all this a problem of bullying tion that policy. areas where they could take breaks. But by some lower-level management, and Unfortunately many feel that, in the like so many assurances from so many the place is a mess. context of the pandemic, we aren’t in employers, it came to nothing. There So it is hardly surprising that sleeper a position to ballot now. If the NEC are no suitable areas to take a break on Contact us workers voted massively for industrial 020 7394 8923 decides not to move to a ballot, we the newly-refurbished sleeper trains. action. As well as the strikes, here will will need to regroup and reorganise Each two-coach section has a “room”, also be no overtime, rest day working [email protected] to take up the issue with renewed which has no seating or facilities and or higher-grade duties, so pressure on vigour in the new year, when a ballot is no bigger than a studio flat’s broom management should soon kick in. Write to: 20E Tower Workshops, may be more feasible. □ closet. Despite this, management Solid action forced this company to Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG won’t let staff sit in empty berths or in • John Moloney is assistant general back down the last time it upset its staff, Production team: Cathy the lounge car even when it is unused, secretary of the civil service workers’ so workers are aiming for a prompt win Nugent, Martin Thomas both of which the union suggested as union PCS, writing here in a personal this time too! □ (editor), Sacha Ismail, Simon Nelson, a temporary measure until a more per- capacity. Zack Muddle manent solution is found.

Events and campaigns: workersliberty.org/meetings youtube.com/c/WorkersLibertyUK workersliberty.org/audio 15 Democratise Labour, democratise the unions! Universities: the

By Sacha Ismail he Executive Council of the big trade union right to move TUnite has agreed to cut its affiliation to the -La bour Party by 10% or 50,000 members, in what is By AWL students generally seen as a protest against Keir Starmer’s ssues of health and safety, together with in- leadership. creased workload, alongside cuts, have led to a It is not a good or effective protest, if the aim is I number of local disputes opening up in universi- to promote left-wing policies, Labour democracy, ties. A staff-student online assembly organised by and a working-class voice in politics. the UCU Solidarity Movement on 10 October has Unite’s official statement, bit.ly/unitecut, is called a day of action on 16 October. cryptic. It does not refer to Starmer’s leadership At Northumbria, which has seen one of the Groups of students at a number of universities or the direction it is taking Labour, except in the biggest Covid outbreaks (over 1,000 students are discussing rent strikes, but these need to be vaguest of hints, instead talking about support for confirmed as infected), the university moved to backed up by local student unions and the Na- “emerging talent”, “talented thinkers” and “ener- online teaching only after staff threatened strike tional Union of Students running a much higher getic organisations”. action. Manchester’s universities only went online profile campaign around “the right to move” (to It says this will promote “a collective voice from because they were, essentially, told to by Public get out of accommodation contracts, to return the shop floor to the grassroots, helping to en- Health England. home, to defer courses). sure the party listens to and genuinely reflects The driving factor behind this negligence is a Most universities will go online eventually, but the aspirations of the many for a Labour Party financial imperative for universities to declare dragging this out continues to endanger staff and and Labour movement that will truly deliver on “business as usual”. Cuts and redundancies are students. In Manchester, a handful of students our shared vision and values”. now being made across many institutions. Some had been hospitalised, some even in intensive Rather than clarifying what this mother-and- — Roehampton, Christ Church Canterbury, Uni- care. apple-pie stuff means, repeated and widely-cir- versity of Portsmouth, University of East London Many students will be anxious and their lives culated comments from Len McCluskey have — are in serious jeopardy. made worse by the lack of adequate support. At focused on Starmer et al’s decision to settle the has never submitted or done anything to pro- Students and staff are demanding: the University of Nottingham the management legal cases brought by former party officials who mote the demand to repeal the anti-trade union • The right to move! Students should have the has tried to enlist staff to be unpaid volunteer complained about antisemitism. laws, though this was clearly agreed by the un- right to get out of all tenancy contracts, both support. Why weren’t properly trained support There are reasonable arguments the decision ion’s last policy conference in 2018. university-owned and private accommodation. staff recruited months ago? was wrong, but wanting to put the matter to bed When Labour and trade union activists fought In Scotland students have the right to terminate Senior managers at UK universities had clear and move on has sense too. The problem is why for fully democratic (“open”) selections for par- contracts. Students must be told their rights. indications back then that their policy of insisting McCluskey has chosen to focus on this issue liamentary candidates in 2018, the Unite leaders • Full transparency over infection numbers. This first-year students move into crowded, high-trans- rather than numerous clearer and more impor- opposed the demand — in violation of the union’s is public health information! Vulnerable students mission-risk student accommodation to attend tant ones, and rather than making arguments for conference policy. and staff, especially cleaners and security staff face-to-face was unsafe. working-class and socialist politics. Posing things in terms of financial give-and-take who have to work in infected areas, need to know. Mass outbreaks of Covid at US universities in None of this does anything to promote the kind promotes not collective working-class political • Some students will chose to stay in university August were one clear warning. Over the sum- of left-wing, pro-working class policies Starmer representation but a US-style, business-unionist accommodation. This should be organised at re- mer, campus unions warned about health and is quietly abandoning, democratic control over conception of politics. It allows the Unite leader- duced capacity. safety only to be ignored and dismissed as scare- policy-making, or party democracy more broadly. ship to posture as critical without engaging in any • Earlier self-isolation (before test results) is bet- mongers. Now we know that on 21 September More generally the Unite hierarchy does very lit- actual struggle within the party. ter, and students should be given clear guidance the government’s scientific advisory group, SAGE, tle to fight for these things. With this approach, it seems unlikely that money on it. Much more testing on campus, essential in a recommended “all university and college teach- Unite is associated with a kind of generic “left- saved from affiliation will be used to promote a population where most infected people have few ing to be online… unless absolutely essential.” ism” in the Labour Party. But in terms of actual, serious fight in the Labour Party. It seems likely it or no symptoms. Adequate PPE for all staff who Yet despite clear evidence that Covid is spread- concrete policies, the main noise it has made will be used to create jobs for Stalinist-influenced have to be on campus. ing rapidly through universities and out into local since 2015 has been to block left-wing stances careerists, many of whom are Unite members. • No surveillance of students. Stop punitive populations, university managers continue to in- on issues like nuclear weapons and airport ex- A necessary lever for turning things around in fines. Additional support for international- stu sist on unnecessary face-to-face teaching. pansion. the party is to turn things round in the unions, too: dents. The UCU’s Covid dashboard gives some idea of The policies Unite has submitted to Labour’s members should organise for democratic control • Recruit and put in place trained support staff. the scale of the continuing outbreaks, although conference have in general been extremely over policy, and in particularly for the many left- A university-organised programme of delivering not all institutions are being transparent with their bland. Left policies agreed by the union’s dem- wing policies agreed by Labour and union con- food and other essentials free of charge to stu- reporting. ocratic structures have remained on paper. Unite ferences to be campaigned for. □ dents in isolation. □ i workersliberty.org Meetings, events, campaigns: workersliberty.org/meetings ii Solidarity Solidarity& Workers’ Liberty For a workers’ government For social ownership of the banks and industry ≫Boost NHS and care SCRAP GCSES ≫Full isolation pay for all ≫Public-health test-and-trace FORhe conference on 10 Octo2021- The main arguments against NOW! in England, the maths “tripos” Junior doctor strikes, 2016. Tber of the Socialist Educa- these exams and high-stakes in Cambridge, dates only from Pic: @g_for_gemma tional Association decided to tests were true before the pan- the mid-18th century. call on the government to stop demic. Extra arguments are One of its results was to set SATs and other high-stakes pri- added now. maths in England way behind mary assessments this year. It Students have lost three other big European countries also demanded that moderated months already of the two in the 19th century, and for rea- Caption teacher assessment be used in- years of frantic exam-cram- sons common to many exams: stead of examinations for GCSE ming which the English school they test only the ability to jump and A levels in 2021, and that system imposes as run-in to through exam-shape hoops, the Labour front bench take up its major exams. With mount- which may have little relevance that policy. ing virus infections, it is almost to life outside exams. They dis- The Scottish government has certain that they will lose more, tort learning, add unnecessary already decided to replaced through partial if not total stress, and above all function to Scotland’s equivalents of school shutdowns. label most students as relative GCSEs with moderated teacher The loss will be greater for “failures”. assessment. students from worse-off back- As G H Hardy put it when On 3 October the confer- grounds, who are more likely campaigning for the abolition ence of the NEU school work- to live in areas with high virus of the maths tripos: “exami- ers’ union voted to campaign rates, who lack the technology nations with reputations and for the replacement of SATs in and quiet space to study well standards and traditions seem See page 2 2021 by a system of moder- online from home, and whose to me mistaken in their princi- ated teacher assessment and families can’t pay for private tu- ple and useless or damaging a mixed model for GCSE and toring. in their effect... An examination A levels for 2021, including re- The exams should be can do little harm, so long as its duced content and moderated scrapped for next year on standard is low”. teacher assessment. grounds of justice and equality, Pass-fail tests to check com- The decision included a even if we thought them good petence at driving buses, or CURB COVID-19: commitment to ballot to boy- in general. doing electrical wiring, or cott SATs in 2021 if necessary. All of us have been “edu- working with percentages and It also recognised that GCSEs, cated” from childhood in the reading graphs and tables, are BTECs and A-Levels were unfit idea that courses of study must necessary for some jobs. They for purpose and committed to be defined and measured by an are useful as long as everyone USREVERSE presidential Azerbaijan and The history CUTS! of Deliveroo urgently developing and cam- exam as their aim. That is mise- knows that they are not the aim paigning for alternatives. ducation. and measure of education, and contest Armenia at war anti-vaxxism workers strike Really GCSEs should just be Schools and universities ex- not the way to sift out the excel- Interview with Howie Self-determination for From the right to Sheffield couriers out scrapped, with no replacement isted for hundreds of years be- lent from the competent. Hawkins, and debate Nagorno-Karabakh is query, to dangerous again 14-15 October at all. (Most countries manage fore modern exam systems. The Education should be for basis for peace anti-science with no comparable exam). first high-prestige exam system learning, not for exams. □ Pages 8-13 Pages 3, 4, 5 Page 7 Page 15 No. 567, 14 October 2020 50p/£1 workersliberty.org No. 567, 14 October 2020 50p/£1 workersliberty.org