& Workers’ Liberty

SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 490 9 January 2019 50p/£1 Open letter to Jeremy Corbyn Leo

An open letter to Jeremy Corbyn Panitch

“I think we need to respect the referendum. As I say, I think that there is a deal which can be struck within Parliament that brings ev - on erybody together, that respects the views and wishes of communities whether they voted Leave or Remain” —Rebecca Long-Bailey, Shadow Secretary for Business, Sky News, 16 Trump December. Interview pages 6-8 Comrade Corbyn! The 2016 referendum vote that the UK FIGHT should withdraw from the EU, after 45 years membership, plunged Britain into a prolonged political crisis. Today, less than three months before Britain is due to leave, that crisis has not yet been resolved. The 2016 vote plunged the Labour Party into a crisis too. In that vote Labour opposed any form of Brexit and advocated a vote to remain. Assessing the

Turn to page 5 Gilets Jaunes

Michael Elms surveys the Gilets Jaunes BREXIT movement in France, still active despite the Christmas and New Year pause. See page 9

Bolsonaro sets out plans Andressa Alegre reports on the first measures, and the plans, of “Brazil’s Trump”. See page 2 Renew Labour! A new Stop Brexit campaign

See page 4 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Bolsonaro sets out plans behind lines of armed police to in - was to lower the minimum salary guidelines (though it does seem We haven’t yet quite had a taste By Andressa Alegre timidate the press, Bolsonaro from 1006 reais (approx. £211) to that his regime has backtracked on of what the Bolsonaro government promised to fight socialism, “gen - 998 reais (approx. £209). A few days that one). will be able to pass through the Many Brazilians — especially der ideology”, and the colour red. later Bolsonaro said in an interview Bolsonaro disbanded the depart - Chamber of Deputies, where he those who are (or care for the His inauguration was boycotted that he plans to put an end to ment for diversity of the Ministry does not have a majority. rights of) women, black people, by the Workers’ Party (PT) and the labour law and workers’ rights. of Education, and introduced ideo - Unfortunately, the streets have LGBT folk, workers, or leftists — Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL) He delegated the demarcation of logical checks for academic schol - been awfully quiet in Brazil so feared the coming of New Year’s in protest, but neither those parties indigenous land to the ministry of arships. He stated that he is going far. As yet there is little sign of Day 2019, as far-right evangelical nor any other group organised agriculture, headed by agribusiness to invest in training people for the immediate moves by the organ - fundamentalist Jair Bolsonaro major protest demonstrations for figure Teresa Cristina. And he labour market rather than form ised left. took power as president. the day. deleted all mentions of LGBT peo - “slave minds for the ideas of social - In his first speech as president, Bolsonaro’s first act as president ple from Brazil’s human rights ist domination”.

Orban rewrites history NUS leaders plan coup this month By Luke Hardy reburial. That was a key event in the overthrow of Stalinism in By Maisie Sanders The Orban government in Hun - Hungry. His statue was put in gary has removed the statue of Martyrs’ Square. On 15 January, the Trustee Board Imre Nagy in Budapest in a The removal of the statue goes [of NUS, the National Union of overnight secret operation. together with Orban rehabilitating Students] will meet to vote to ap - Nagy was the liberalising Stal - and promoting the antisemitic au - prove the calling of a Company inist who was returned to power thoritarian regime of Admiral Law meeting. by the Hungarian Revolution of Horthy (1920-44), a regime that This will be made up of an ap - 1956. He was overthrown by the was allied with Hitler and partici - pointed person from each [student] Russian invasion which put down pated in the Holocaust. union (likely to be the President or A myth is being peddled by the revolution, and then executed CEO). Our source says delegates Orban that the holocaust of in 1958. will be encouraged to “attend” re - Hungarian Jews was entirely in Nagy is not our hero. For most motely and vote via email to guar - the period after Horthy was of his career he was a Stalinist ap - antee no disruption from students. overthrow by the Germans in paratchik. But for many Hungari - Company Law meetings are usu - August 1944. In fact hundreds ans he is a symbolic martyr of the ally only used to ratify constitu - of thousands of Hungarian Hungarian revolution. tional changes passed by National Jews had already been sent to In 1989 he was rehabilitated Conference. The “reforms” [being the death camps before that. under popular pressure and pushed by NUS leaders on pretext 200,000 people turned out for his of a financial crisis] could be rati - fied and set in stone by such a meeting. [NUS has already an - nounced that elections for all officer positions are suspended until after the onus will be put on student reaucracy, including the corporate- National Conference, completely union Presidents to form a new style senior management structure. Aaron Bastani’s overriding the constitution and steering group to hold NUS officers The student left also needs to dis - democratic process]. to account termly. cuss urgently how we can trans - According to our source, the pro - National Conference will be cut form our student unions from posals are currently being worked from two and a half days to just “service providers” into campaign - capitalist realism on by NUS Acting Chief Executive two days and one night. The dele - ing, democratic bodies that fight for Peter Robertson and unelected gate entitlement for Student students, unrestricted by charity trustees such as Aiden Grills, CEO Unions will be cut to potentially law. of Leeds University Students’ Trade deals with states that re - just one delegate per union. This is It’s vital that the NUS NEC [Na - By Natalie Cassidy Union. likely to be taken up by a President tional Executive] vote no confi - press independent working-class The six full time Liberation Offi - organisation such as Cuba, or other sabbatical officer. dence in the Trustee Board before As someone once said, for cers (Women’s, LGBT (x2), Trans, Minimal elections will happen at its meeting on 15 January can ratify some: “it is easier to imagine the Venezuela, and a Bolsonaro-led Black, Disabled) will be down - Brazil, may at best be deft realpoli - National Conference. National a Company Law meeting to sign off end of the world than the end of graded to part time, possibly un - Conference will be a room of sabbs on the coup. capitalism”. tik, but do nothing to improve the paid roles. Part time Sections balance of class power within those talking to themselves. So far, no NEC members have Novara co-founder Aaron Bas - Officers (International Students’ NUS will become even more of a come forward to say they will tani tweets about Brexit: countries. Officer and Postgraduate Students’ Why is Bastani advocating fossil- careerist club, with no space at con - stand up for NUS democracy. “Bilateral trade deals under a Officer) will become unpaid volun - ference for serious political debate, We need to keep up the pres - Corbyn government: Brazilian food fuel based trade deals at a time of teers, and these roles will be sub - ecological crisis? Or talking of dissident left wingers and students sure! and coffee; Cuban healthcare work - sumed into the three new Vice from underrepresented groups, or ers; Venezuelan gas. All while help - Cuban doctors as goods with no President roles: Higher Education, agency to be traded across borders likely any students who aren’t sab - •Campaign fb group — ing them in value-added areas like Further Education and a new batical officers. tinyurl.com/stopNUSshutdown pharma, hi-tech manufacturing in exchange for British goods and vague “Student Opportunities” services? Or forgetting that Brazil, It’s clear that these reforms go be - •Model email — and aviation. Cheap mojitos, a well post. These will replace the five yond making “necessary cutbacks’ tinyurl.com/NECmodelemail staffed NHS, assisting the global despite recent “de-industrialisa - current Vice President positions tion”, is a major aircraft exporter, [NUS claims a financial crisis, ap - •Speaker tour — south. Winning.” (Welfare, Society and Citizenship, parently caused by mismanage - tinyurl.com/NUSspeakertour He proceeds to accuse his critics and Britain isn’t? Union Development, HE and FE). Bastani’s view of socialism is en - ment of its commercial operations]. •SLN Conference 2-3 February — of tearing their hair out at this, and The Nations will have funds for The £3 million deficit is being tinyurl.com/SLNconference doing so because they are infected tirely void of any conception of just four officers between them. class struggle. It is “socialism” to be used as cover for a complete shut - Abridged from studentleftnet - by that “capitalist realism”. Currently NUS Scotland and NUS down of NUS rank and file democ - work.com. But Bastani’s idea of a socialist administered from above by a mild Wales have four and three officers Social Democratic government racy, drawn up by unelected and trade policy actually speaks very respectively. highly paid CEOs and forced •Justine Canady is standing for little to socialism of any sort, even through a shift in trade policy. The Block of 15, the portion of the Even in Bastani’s most vivid through with no say from the mem - NUS president, and demanding the of a reformist bent. It can be most National Executive Council elected imaginations of what a socialist bership. elections go ahead, in order to call fairly described as a view of social - at National Conference, with guar - future might look like, he imag - We demand NUS open the books for “open the books” and to oppose ism which amounts simply to cap - anteed representation for women ines not the end of capitalism, to members before any discussion the democracy shutdown: bit.ly/jc- italism with a shift in foreign policy and FE [Further Education] stu - but its altered continuity. takes place about reform: cutbacks pres orientation. dents, will be abolished. Instead, must first be made to waste and bu - Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty NEWS 3 Charter for the wealthy Let boat people in! this is a charter to serve the em - By Theo Boorgerijnck ploying class by turning more mi - Home Secretary could muster was: was to join a demonstration of tens grants into a segregated, By Ben Tausz it would be “quite wrong” to inten - of thousands of people demanding The immigration lawyers’ asso - hyper-exploitable layer of work - tionally leave people to drown; we welcome and aid to refugees. ciation has described the To - Shadow Home Secretary Diane ers. have to accept that it would break Triangulation is not just pathetic, ries’ Immigration White Paper, Abbott’s interview on Radio 4 Workers made unable to put international law to deny the right but pointless. The Daily Express published in December, as “a Today, 28 December, marked a down roots and bring or build to claim asylum once refugees swiftly responded by railing charter for the wealthy”. new, abject low in the Labour families will struggle to build reach British waters; and “maybe” against Abbott’s “admission” that It threatens to fulfil the right- leadership’s timidity and triangu - links, become part of existing com - (only maybe!) we should increase she might mildly step up efforts to wing Brexit promise to extend to lation over migration policy. munities and unionise. If losing patrols to save drowning people. save drowning humans, and right- EU migrant workers the existing A sharp rise in migrants attempt - their job means destitution or de - The key thing, Abbott repeated wing Twitter exploded with denun - hostile treatment of their non-EU ing to cross the Channel in flimsy portation they will be reluctant to three times, was to dissuade mi - ciations. counterparts. boats and dinghies – a desperate, stand up against ill-treatment at grants from attempting to come Decades of triangulation by Skilled workers, defined as dangerous prospect that police work. here in the first place, by working Labour on this issue – from Blair’s those with the equivalent of A- have likened to “trying to cross the The White Paper also reaffirms with the French government to expansion of detentions and depor - Levels and above, and earning M25 at rush hour on foot” – saw the government’s commitment to “advise” them how dangerous the tations, to Brown’s adoption of the over a salary threshold, will be forty people, including children, Fortress Europe even after Brexit crossing is. “British jobs for British workers” able to apply for medium-term rescued from boats in the early and signals a desire to negotiate Famously, Jeremy Corbyn’s first slogan, to Ed Miliband’s “Controls work visas. The overall cap on hours of Christmas Day. continuing the provisions of the act on being elected Labour leader on Immigration” mug – have numbers and the requirement for The best response our Shadow EU Dublin Regulation, which has helped hand control of the narra - resident labour market tests will enabled the deportation of tive to the right and bring us to the be removed for these workers. refugees who passed through point where we are seriously debat - They will need employer spon - other European countries before ing whether saving lives is right. sorship and will have to pay the “A crushing blow for The Labour left must ditch the NHS surcharge. seeking asylum. dangerous and nonsensical idea The existing salary threshold to that disagreement equals disloy - qualify as “skilled” is £30,000. HOSTILE alty, rise to the task of holding Bosses have pushed for a lower Hostile environment policies human rights” our leaders to account, and de - figure. The government has using employers, landlords and By Todd Hamer mand better. kicked the question of changing public service staff as border the figure into the long grass for agents will, of course, continue. The Stansted 15 have spent their further consultation. New “digital checking services” Christmas break awaiting sen - Serious threats to the sustain - threaten to tighten these surveil - tence, having been found guilty ability of the NHS and social care lance state conditions. under terrorist-related legislation have been highlighted, with The policy aims to fulfil Conser - carrying a maximum life sen - nurses and other health and social vative pledges to bring net immi - tence. care workers – even early-career gration down to the “tens of On 28 March 2016 activists doctors – falling under the £30k thousands”. Despite treating indi - locked themselves onto the front mark. vidual migrants almost exclu - wheel of a Boeing 767 that the But, be the threshold higher or sively in terms of maximising the Home Office had secretly chartered lower, the White Paper calls for benefit to British capital, the White to forcibly deport 60 refugees and harsh and discriminatory treat - Paper admits that the overall re - migrants to Nigeria and Ghana. ment of “unskilled” migrants. duction will still damage their eco - They included a woman whose These workers will be limited to nomic interests and the tax base. 12-month visas and denied the Some expert observers, and for - husband had threatened to kill her Esmail Bakhshi, leader of the because of her sexuality and two right to claim benefits, bring fam - mer UK ambassador to the EU Pre-trial, the group were dealt a Haft Tappeh Sugar Cane work - people who have since been identi - ily members or switch to another Ivan Rogers, suspect that these blow when the Attorney General, ers’ strike in south-west Iran, fied as victims of trafficking. visa type that might allow a longer new policies will “simply disinte - Jeremy Wright, granted permission has written an open letter chal - The action stopped the flight and stay. After 12 months they will be grate in the face of negotiating im - to prosecute under anti-terrorist re - lenging his torture while in allowed some of the migrants time sent back with no ability to renew peratives”. lated legislation introduced in the prison The left cannot bank on this, for their applications to be heard. their visa for a further year. wake of the Lockerbie bombing. “During the first few days of of course. We must win hearts Eleven of those who were to be de - There will be discrimination be - After a ten week trial, and follow - detention”, he writes, “I was tor - and minds to a socialist alterna - ported have now won the right to tween migrants from “low-” and ing advice from presiding judge tured to the brink of death with - tive based on equality and legally reside in the UK. “high-risk” countries – this will Christopher Morgan to ignore all out hearing a single reason or working-class solidarity across The activists used their time in likely mean extra barriers for evidence that the defendants had even being spoken to a single divisions of race and nationality, court to put the UK border regime those from poorer, less white, less acted to stop human rights abuses, word...” and fight to demolish the bor - on trial, arguing that it is forcible English-speaking countries. the jury reached a guilty verdict on He challenges the minister: ders and the hostile anti-mi - deportation that is putting lives at The immigration lawyers’ asso - 10 December. Amnesty Interna - “How do you explain the tortur - grant policy regimes of both the risk, not 15 people armed with ciation point out that the Home tional has called the verdict a ing of a detainee from a moral, UK and EU. lock-on tubes and gaffer tape. The Office’s own data shows no evi - “crushing blow for human rights in human-rights, and Islamic per - legality of the flight was question - dence for deeming any category of the UK”. spective? Is it justified?” migrants “high-risk”. •Further analysis of the White able as the Home Office were de - Sentencing will take place in The Haft Tappeh dispute is porting victims of trafficking Anti-migrant policies like these Paper: freemovement.org.uk/im - early February, with a plan for a continuing, as is the dispute by are sold on the lie that limiting mi - migration-white-paper-2018 against the advice of the court and solidarity demonstration outside steelworkers at the Ahvaz denying people their right of ap - grants’ rights to come, stay and ac - the courtroom. steelworks some 100 km cess social security will protect the •Labour Campaign for Free peal under the “deport first, appeal south. later” policy which the Supreme British working class. In reality Movement: More: enddeportations.com More: shahrokhzamani.com/ Court has since ruled illegal. www.labourfreemovement.org “Conquered City” on Radical Readers Workers’ Liberty activists and graphic novel biography of Rosa Zola, which tells the story of min - Coming soon... friends have set up an online Luxemburg Red Rosa by Kate ers’ strikes in France in the 19th biography of the socialist, suf - reading group – Radical Read - Evans, with an introduction by Century, considered a must-read As ever, we are short of space. fragette, and rebel councillor Min - ers in Space. Luxemburg scholar Dana Mills. book in the French labour move - Stuff held over include an inter - view with Matt Bolton and Harry nie Lansbury (available at We meet on the last Thursday This month we will be reading ment. Conquered City , a short, gripping, Lefty readers from all coun - Pitts, authors of a critical survey bit.ly/ml-jb). of the month at 7pm, via Skype or Martin Thomas’s Crisis and semi-autobiographical novel by tries and time zones are wel - of Corbynism (online at worker - Google Hangout to discuss a Sequels: capitalism and the new Victor Serge, about the Russian come to join us. sliberty.org/b-p), and a reply to book. economic turmoil is now out in Revolution’s struggle to survive Alan Johnson on Erber, Shacht - December was the first meeting an affordable paperback edition: the year 1919. Check out man, and Norman Geras. of Radical Readers in Space: ten the cheapest offer on it as of The current front-runner for facebook.com/RRinSpace for We expect reviews soon of two readers met from four cities and now is at bit.ly/c-s-pbk. two countries to discuss the February’s book is Germinal by more information books from Workers’ Liberty au - thors. Janine Booth has published a 4 COMMENT Email your letters to [email protected] Build Labour fight against Brexit

By Sacha Ismail The Another Europe is Possible confer- ence in December voted to set up a new, freestanding Labour anti-Brexit initiative. This campaign, “Stop Brexit – Labour for a Socialist Europe”, set up a steering group at the conference and will be holding its first public event, an organising summit, on 12 January (3-5pm, at SOAS in London). Activists in local Labour Parties and Left Against Brexit-type groups are also prepar- ing to hold local meetings to support the ini- tiative in a number of cities. The constituency of Labour members and supporters who are left-wing and anti-Brexit is vast but largely unorganised. Now is the time to help them get organised. If we don’t we will not only miss an opportunity but open the way to both a right-wing nationalist reaction in society and a right-wing reaction in the Labour Party. Instead of being radi- calised to pass beyond its limitation, the en- tire post-2015 left project will be in extreme danger. • Statement to sign, model motion for Labour Parties, regular updates at labour- forasocialisteurope.org • facebook.com/labourstopbrexit • twitter.com/labourvsbrexit

• More info, requests for speakers, etc: [email protected] The Morning Star resurrects “Blue Labour”

ommendation of Ed Miliband, for whom he massive hate and rage against us” from proval with which they were received in the was a adviser. working-class people “who have always right wing press, Blue Labour was deserted For a couple of years culminating in mid- been true to Labour”. The solution, he said, and disowned by more or less all its support - 2011, Glasman led a highly influential move - was “to build a party that brokers a common ers, including Ed Miliband. From then until ment that many expected to take over the good, that involves those people who sup - the appearance of the Morning Star article, By Jim Denham Labour Party: Blue Labour. In the puff for the port the EDL within our party. Not dominant virtually nothing has been heard from Glas - movement’s launch at Conway Hall in April in the party, not setting the tone of the party, man. What a pre-Christmas treat the Morning 2009, Glasman described Blue Labour as “a but just a reconnection with those people But, knowing what we do, we can deci - Star gave us! More than a whole page deeply conservative socialism that places that we can represent a better life for them, pher what His Lordship really means in given over to an anti- EU tirade under the family, faith and work at the heart of a new because that’s what they want.” those sections of his Morning Star article that snappy headline “Brexit offers the possi - politics of reciprocity, mutuality and solidar - He went on to suggest that Labour had be - touch on cultural matters: bility for socialists to lead a political ity”. come hostile to working class men: “work - “The cultural crisis is the most difficult for transformation – The immediate task be - Blue Labour included in its ranks the ing class men can’t really speak at Labour the left and for the coalition we need to fore us is to leave the EU and break the (then) influential MPs Jon Cruddas and party meetings about what causes them build. That is because the socialist tradition constraints on democracy that it repre - James Purnell, plus a number of prominent grief, concerns about their family, concerns of which I am part thinks that we are social sents”. academics, notably Jonathan Rutherford about immigration, love of country, without beings, that we are constituted by unchosen And if that wasn’t enough to stir the patri - (Professor of Cultural Studies, Middlesex being falsely stereotyped as sexist, racist, na - traditions such as language, relationships otic hearts of all loyal readers, the author University) and Marc Steers (Lecturer in Po - tionalist”. and religions that are part of an inheritance... closes with the clarion-call: “No deal is the litical Theory, Oxford University). Labour MP Helen Goodman noted that The cultural crisis of Brexit is the distance be - real deal and the left should unite in pursuit It was also fairly obvious that Blue Labour “Glasman characterises as female all the as - tween the liberal assumptions of the rulers of that end. You might call it government of enjoyed a close ideological affinity with pects of New Labour he dislikes, whereas all and enduring ethics of the moral economy the people, by the people and for the peo - Phillip Blond’s ‘Red Tories’. For a brief pe - the characteristics he applauds he draws as held by the ruled. Brexit is a class issue.” ple.” riod in 2011 it looked as though Ed Miliband male”. Like so many petty bourgeois (and big Along the way, this fearless tribune of the was set to adopt Blue Labour as the party’s Interviewed in July 2011 by the Daily Tele - bourgeois) would-be “socialists”, Glasman is people declares “We need to leave the EU semi-official think tank. The media was fas - graph ’s Mary Riddle, Glasman went further: the worst kind of workerist: one who be - and concentrate on pursuing a national re - cinated and Glasman gave a series of inter - asked whether he would support a total ban lieves than an undifferentiated working class newal based upon democracy and the dig - views which were to prove the undoing of on immigration, even just for a temporary “culture” involves backward attitudes to - nity of labour, a defence of freedom and himself and his project. period, he replied “Yes. I would add that we wards women, immigrants and (no doubt) humanity from the iron cage of Napoleonic Interviewed by the Blairite Progress maga - should be more generous and friendly in re - various minority groups. He ignores the fact directives and Thatcherite economics that zine in April 2011, he argued against the idea ceiving those [few] who are needed. To be that the vast majority of trade-unionists and the EU has become. It is not a cliff edge.” that “everyone who comes is equal and has more generous we have to draw the line.” class-conscious workers oppose Brexit, are The author of this thunderous demand for an equal status with people who are here”. In response to a further question on not racists, and support women’s rights. democracy and the dignity of labour was In the same interview he argued for a Labour whether he supported the (then) Welfare Presumably the Morning Star editors billed simply as ‘Maurice Glasman’, but why to drop its hostility to the English Defence Secretary Ian Duncan- Smith’s call for British were aware of Glasman’s views when did the M Star not give him his full title? He League: “You consider yourself … so op - jobs for British workers, he responded, they commissioned his article and happy is, of course, The Lord Baron Glasman of posed that you don’t want to talk to them, “Completely. The people who live here are to overlook them. In a sense, of course, Stoke Newington and Stamford Hill, who you don’t want to engage with them, you the highest priority. We’ve got to listen and the Star is entirely correct about this: has graced the red benches of the House of don’t want anybody with views like that be with them. They’re in the right place – it’s Glasman is the very embodiment of what Lords since elevated there in 2011 on the rec - anywhere near the party.” us who are not.” Brexit (with a thin veneer of “communitar - That, he argued, would be to ignore “a As a result of these comments and the ap - ian” pseudo-radicalism) actually means. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty WHAT WE SAY 5 Open letter to Corbyn: fight Brexit!

Continued from page 1 Brexit cuts against that option. erendum is as sacred a form of democracy as If the labour movement is not internation - they insist, then why not have another one Today about 80% of Labour voters prefer alist, then what is it? Here, the alternative to to pronounce on the results, in negotiated ac - Remain to the Tory deal or “no deal”. internationalism is to be Brexitist, “little-En - tuality, of the first? £8,218 so far, Among Labour members, 72% want you glish”, reactionary — to want to go back to History did not stop in June 2016. The to commit fully to a new public vote, and the Europe of the first have to the 20th cen - Brexitist “democrats” want to use 2016 as a in that vote 88% of them would back Re - tury. Loose-minded talk of the alternative mandate for, so to speak, moving back to main. being a socialist Britain counts for nothing front, or walking backwards in politics: first £6,782 to go And you? You support Brexit. You and here except the confusion it creates. decide on Brexit, then examine the details, We hope all our readers had a good your front bench say that it is impossible Back in the days of the Benn movement at the implications, and the likely conse - Christmas. Our fund appeal didn’t. after the 2016 vote to remain democrats and the beginning of Thatcherism, when you quences, things that were unknown when The shift from our £5,070 surge in the last advocate a “People’s Vote” — a referendum were first entering politics, almost the entire the vote was taken in 2016. week of November to just £2 received this on the actual Brexit now looming. left was militantly pro-Brexit. The argument This is nonsense as a theory or practice of week outdoes even the most extreme ex - Instead, you demand an immediate gen - was commonplace that the alternative to the democracy. Essentially it deprives the citi - amples of the capitalist boom-slump cycle. eral election. A general election is a good EU was a socialist Britain, that the EU was zens of the chance to make a knowing, in - Capitalist slumps contain within them idea, and a Labour government would be a hindering progress to a socialist Britain. formed, consequences-aware vote. They did conditions which, so long as the working good thing. But your promise that your Then came the days of deep Thatcherism, not do that in 2016. class is unable to take advantage of the dis - Labour government would then renegotiate when the EU’s social regime, though not of The advocates of the “People’s Vote” are array to seize power, will lead to a new Brexit with the EU and get better terms than course socialist, was a lot closer to socialism the democrats here. The majority in 2016, boom of some sort. May got lacks all conviction. than Thatcher’s Britain was. about one million, was a majority, but not big A socialist fund drive is not like that. It A Labour government would negotiate The 2016 vote to leave the EU was part of, enough to make that decision a sacred thing, will require deliberate effort to get the within exactly the same framework and with and in turn intensified, a wave of chauvin - whatever its consequences. funds flowing in again. exactly the same bargaining assets and prob - ism in Britain against European migrants The argument that a new referendum that lems as May has had. and against darker-skinned people in the reversed 2016 would be “divisive” is a no- The big stumbling block, Northern Ire - UK. We have see the bawling bigots of the brainer. The 2016 vote is divisive. Carrying land, would remain exactly as intractable as DFLA harassing Muslims and identifying all through the decision of 2016 without letting it is. Your claim that agreeing to a continued Muslims with terrorists. the people vote again, in full knowledge of Customs Union with the EU would avoid a The Brexit vote was and is part of a wave what they will be voting for or against — hard border is untrue. There would still be of nationalism in many countries, including that is the worst of all worlds. We need them. Our £15,000 target is an absolute contradiction between Britain in the USA, which has saddled itself with a Labour should campaign for a second ref - needed not for anything fancy, but to en - withdrawing from the EU and avoiding a fascistic dimwit as president. erendum and a Remain vote. Comrade Cor - able our office to do more than basics like hard border between Ireland’s six and 26 The Labour Party should not be part of byn — serious politics is not just about paying its rent and utility bills. Counties. that nationalistic wave. It should oppose and skimming the surface of existing opinion, Money raised in the fund appeal is There are great principles involved here, fight it, in all its manifestations. taking polls to tell you what to say to get used as it comes in, and we’re going to but one wouldn’t think it from your policies votes. It is about doing serious educational need a lot more money in the coming in this crisis. DECISIVE work to mould and shape and reshape how weeks as we work to build a campaign The unification of Europe, first in the EEC, All analysts agree that the decisive ele - people think about an issue. Principles mat - in the Labour Party against Brexit. and now in the EU, is one of the great ment in generating the 2016 vote to leave ter here. achievements of the second half of the 20th the EU was fear of immigration and immi - Here, however — and it needs to be said century and of the 21st century so far. In the grants. Other issues were less powerful. — you and your Leader’s Office have some - first half of the 20 th century, within the space The Labour Party under your leadership thing akin to the difficulty you had in con - Follow 1919 and of 31 years, Europe fought two gigantic fought a campaign against Brexit, but a low- demning antisemitism in general and intra-European wars that became world energy, low-conviction one. Right-wing op - destroy-Israel antisemitism in particular. wars. In the Second World War, up to 60 mil - ponents of your leadership used the Your own political history. 1989 on Twitter lion people lost their lives. inadequacies of the campaign for their own For decades it was an article of faith on the One consequence of that was the moves by purposes, and of course we opposed them. ostensible left — almost all the left, from the the ruling classes to unite Europe. Socialists It remains true, however, that Labour’s cam - kitsch-Leninist groups through to people had advocated European unification for paign was inadequate. That helped shape like you in the Labour left — to be against many decades. Now the bourgeoisie did it in the outcome. the EU and to advocate British withdrawal. their own way, which is not ours. Labour is still inadequate. Even more in - It is a bourgeois, not a working-class so - adequate than then. Now? Now you should STILL cialist, unification. It is bureaucratic. Its campaign boldly for a “People’s Vote”, and That shifted bit by bit over the 1990s. But democracy is grossly limited. There are enor - advocate a vote against Brexit. reflex anti-EU sentiment is still there. It is mous things wrong with it. The argument that a second referendum strident, for instance, in the Morning Star , Nevertheless, there have been tremendous would be undemocratic and — if the vote for which you wrote a column until you gains. Europe is now more united than at went against Brexit — would amount to were elected Labour leader. By Rhodri Evans any time since the fall of Rome in the 5th cen - cheating the victors of the 2016 referendum In fact, you see it most clearly there. Effort - tury. out of their democratic victory, actually lessly, the Morning Star have become mili - 2019 is the 100th anniversary of 1919 makes no sense, if you think about it. Why tant Brexitists, as if they had slipped back when, as Trotsky put it, “The entire TWO should 2016 be the end of all political exam - and down several decades on history’s structure of European imperialism tot - Faced with this inadequate bourgeois ination of the rights and wrongs of Brexit? ratchet, back to the good old days when Rus - tered under the blows of the greatest version of a united Europe, the labour One of the basic rules of parliamentary sian hostility to a united Europe decreed mass struggles of the proletariat in his - movements have two options. democracy is that no Parliament can bind a their politics on this. It is a reflux of political tory...” Reject the unification? Then what? A Eu - future Parliament. Why should the 2016 ref - idiocy: the return of the repressed, so to Capitalism survived, but even the de - rope of national states. The Europe of the erendum bind people two and a half years speak. feats of 1919 have left us rich experiences first, disaster-ridden, half of the 20th century. later, if further experience and reason point Comrade Corbyn, your position here is to learn from. The idea in some people’s heads that the to the need to reverse it? nonsense. The kitsch-left attitude of oppos - Workers’ Liberty will be publishing two alternative to the EU is a socialist Britain is In fact serious, detailed, public discussion ing the bourgeois unification of Europe, pamphlets, one on 1919 overall and one on simply fatuous. We have yet to win a social - of what Brexit means came only after that rather than seeking to reshape it, was always Rosa Luxemburg and the German revolu - ist Britain. We still have to convince the referendum. Participants in a second refer - nonsense. Britain’s decision to withdraw is a tion. On our website, a special page, working class to want socialism. A divided endum would go to the polling booths now tragic nonsense. www.workersliberty.org/1919, collects ar - Europe would hinder us, not help us, to knowing vastly more about what Brexit It is still possible for the now better-in - ticles on 1919. Follow @otd1919 on Twitter, achieve that. means than when they voted in 2016. Why is formed citizenry to avert it. Labour can still and you’ll get daily “on this day” tweets No, the alternative to the EU is the existing it undemocratic to allow a greatly better-in - avert it. Drop your ambivalence about telling the story of that year. British capitalist state, only more walled-off. formed citizenry, who now know what Brexit, and campaign for a People’s Vote and We are also at the 30th anniversary of The second possible option is to mount a Brexit means, a second vote? And to allow for Remain vote in a new referendum. Fight 1989, the revolutions against Stalinism in labour movement campaign across Europe over two million new voters to have their for working-class unity all across Europe. Eastern Europe. We already have a Work - for reforms to the EU. Those would naturally say? Time is very short now. ers’ Liberty pull-out on those events, include removing everything in the basic The opponents of a second referendum are Yours in solidarity, bit.ly/1989-fall. charters of the EU that enshrines capitalism not consistent democrats, but people who Sacha Ismail (member of the working @Revolution_1989, on Twitter, will give and capitalists, and would limit socialist pos - snatched an accidental advantage in 2016 group to launch Stop Brexit — Labour for you a day-to-day rundown. sibilities. and want politics to end at that point. If a ref - a Socialist Europe) More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Trump and the world economy

S: Yes. As you argue in your book with that the dollar remains so central. Sam Gindin, The Making of Global Capi - talism , the current world market order S: In your Socialist Register article with has not just evolved automatically: it has Sam Gindin, you refer to the possibility of been made and managed by the US the central banks becoming the saviour Leo Panitch state… of the existing order. P: The US is already acting as a rogue state P: This is a great irony. The motivation that under Trump. But the system is so depen - drove making central banks independent S: I can see four main sorts of possible dent on the role of the US state within it, and from elected governments, especially in the outcomes to be considered from Trump’s the American economy, and the American era of globalisation over the last 30 or 40 economic jousting. dollar, so that it is difficult to see how the years, with the IMF virtually dictating to One: it may reshape some deals, like system can dispense with the centrality of states that central banks must be made inde - NAFTA [the North American Free Trade the United States. pendent, was precisely to remove them from Agreement] to the USA’s advantage or imag - If Trump’s effects are longstanding, we democratic pressures. ined advantage, but after a flurry relations in may face a very dysfunctional system, but Above all, the motivation was the fear that the world markets will settle down much as Leo Panitch is co-author (with Sam Gindin) of one that is not open to reorganisation. working people, as voters, would opt for before. The Making of Global Capitalism ; editor of the In that framework, and with the rise of monetary policies that would provide room Two: By generally shaking up trade rela - annual Socialist Register; and active with the right-wing xenophobic nationalisms, with for wage increases – that would open the in - tions, and putting pressure on some of Socialist Project group in Canada. He talked some added militarist dimensions, I fear that with Martin Thomas from Solidarity. flationary space that governments have been China’s protectionist policies, economic life this could lead to conditions of extreme na - guarding against since they defeated trade around the world may settle after the joust - tionalisms facing off against each other. the United States who thought that way. unions in the 1970s and early 1980s. ing into a more “globalised” form, more sub - The limiting aspect is the degree of inte - There were certainly loads of left-wing com - Now these right-wing patriotic scoundrels ject to world-market rules. gration of the world bourgeoisies with one mentators who explained it that way. Nei - who are being elected find that they can’t Three: The jousting leaves a world-market another. The kind of shift that the Ruhr in - ther group had much purchase on reality. As force the central banks to do their bidding so system operating in much the same way as dustrialists [in Germany] undertook be - we see with Trump, sometimes US policies easily — above all Trump, and in relation to now, but with the USA now a rogue state on tween 1928 and 1932 to back the Nazis is are undertaken for reasons which are delu - the Federal Reserve. the edge of it rather than the pivotal state in hard to see as on the cards given the degree sional. But most of the arguments inside the That really matters. There is plenty of evi - the system. Maybe the system is organised of capitalist integration. That’s where the Bush administration were, I think, oppor - dence that the Treasury is being severely around a new pivot, maybe China. cloudy crystal ball leaves us. tunist, of a militarist kind, or about re-estab - hampered by the Trump administration in Four: The jousting begins a serious unrav - lishing the supremacy of the executive the role it can play as a firefighter and as a elling of the world-market order, a contrac - S: The centrality of the US in managing vis-a-vis Congress. functional actor in the global system. tion of supply chains, a re-raising of trade the world economic order has not dimin - Why the argument about the euro becom - You see that in the G20 meeting in Ar - barriers, a push to economic nationalism. ished, despite the 2008 crash and despite ing the vehicle currency for Iraqi oil sales gentina [30 November and 1 December]. The The shift is moderate and limited for now, the fiasco of US policy in Iraq. China’s leading to its replacing the dollar as the G20 is essentially a creation of the United but escalates in the next big economic crisis. holdings of Treasury paper are bigger world currency was other-worldly was that States Treasury, which always wrote the Some articles in the new Socialist Register than they were, not smaller. The dollar’s even you sold oil in euros, those could be ex - communiqués that were then signed by the argue cogently that the third option is not a role in world trade has increased, not di - changed in milliseconds for dollars. Insofar finance ministers or by the heads of state. real possibility. What do you think about the minished. as big capitalists, institutional funds, corpo - Now its is the senior officials of the other fi - others? And does this list map out accurately P: Yes, 88% of transactions are now con - rations and so on find the dollar more useful, nance ministries who have to scramble to the possibilities we should consider? ducted through the dollar. it is for a multitude of specific reasons to produce consensual texts, and the G20 can’t P: The list is about right. The main ques - each of them. The dollar doesn’t hang there get the US to sign on to them. tion, though, is: will the effects of Trump’s S: At the time of the invasion of Iraq in in mid-air. Its role is embedded in a set of in - Just recently the Financial Times com - regime, not just his antics at an international 2003, a common theory about it was that stitutions and practices and skills and mented on the appointment of Randal Quar - level but his presidency itself, be to render the USA was doing it in order to head off knowledge which capitalists pay one an - les to head the world Financial Stability the key American state institutions that have the euro taking over from the dollar at the other for. Board. Quarles has been a long-time senior been responsible for firefighting financial centre of world trade. The centrality of the City of London in figure in the Federal Reserve, a smart func - crises incapable of being effective firefighters. P: There were, possibly, policy-makers in changing the world’s currencies into dollars tionary of the reproduction of capitalist so - through derivatives markets and so on is cial relations at a global level. The FSB, deeply embedded in the institutions of the created in the wake of the 2008 crisis, was City of London, including the American headed by Mark Carney [governor of the banks operating there and the capitalist skills Bank of England] before him, and before that and knowledge built over centuries of by Mario Draghi [chief of the European Cen - British merchant banking. There is no other tral Bank]. The appointment of Quarles indi - set of institutions now capable of replacing cates that the Fed is putting a lot of resources them. And that’s why, although there will be into infrastructure which will keep the links some marginal movements of jobs from the between the European Central Bank, the City of London, even the Bank of England’s Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve of most recent warnings about the effects of a kind that will allow them to do the super - Brexit do not talk about the City of London intendence over the transfers of dollars be - being displaced from the role it plays in the tween the central banks and the general sort dollar markets of the world. of coordination and firefighting that was In this very dysfunctional world, affected done after 2008. That would indicate that the by Trump’s ascension to the presidency, it is system is not quite as dysfunctional as it ap - remarkable that the dollar continues to have pears to be. its centrality. That’s partly because the Amer - ican economy has done relatively well, com - S: You′ve discussed the possibility that pared to others, in the decade since the the end-effect of Trump′s jousting will be fourth great crisis of capitalism, but it is also to open up the Chinese economy more to to do with the centrality of the institutions world markets. which sustain the dollar in the quotidian P: Ever since Trump was elected, you′ve workings of global capitalism. But in the end seen the Chinese, especially Xi, plugging the it is because of capitalists’ confidence in the theme that the United States needs to live up American state as the ultimate guarantor of to its global responsibilities. property and value and wealth and capital, China is the capitalist late-developer FEATURE 6-7

into a regional counter-power to the USA, and especially in south-east Asia, China is seen by other nationalist forces as their main enemy. That dimension is largely overlooked when people speak of a multipolar world in which China dominates Asia. As well as the economic limits of the Belt and Road Initia - tive, there is a very important historical, cul - tural-nationalist-imperial dimension.

S: World capitalism is much more inte - grated in the late 20s and early 30s, and you mentioned that when saying that it is hard to think of the bourgeoisie in any country swinging behind ultra-nationalist forces as heavy industry in Germany swung behind the Nazis. But there′s another variant historically. In the period up to World War One, people like Bernstein would argue that the degree of in - tegration of capital across borders was such as to make war less and less likely. Writers like Trotsky responded that it was an inte - gration which tended to set up large rival al - liances. The world order became one, not just of molecular struggles between states, but of jousting between large rival alliances. That created the conditions for World War One. There was a lot of talk in the early 90s about world capitalism developing into three great regional blocs, one dominated by the US, one dominated by the EU, and one dominated by Japan. It was mistaken. What you′ve said about China is an argu - ment against reviving that regional-bloc the - sis today. Does that mean the thesis is pretty much ruled out? P: Who knows? Kautsky around World War One saw a ruling-class condominium developing among the big capitalist states, along the lines of the Paris discussions which which has relied most in the whole history How far they can be pushed is a signifi - term economic dimensions to it, but it also led to the Treaty of Versailles. It didn′t turn of capitalist development on foreign direct cant question. If you read the essays by Lin has military-strategic-intelligence dimen - out to be all that stable, did it? The flaw in investment. In our essay in the new Socialist Chun and Sean Starrs in Socialist Register sions. It does reflect — some of the kinds of Kautsky′s understanding was that he saw it Register Gindin and I quote Xi saying this 2019, the heavy dose of nationalism that de - behaviour and motivations that defined the as a matter of coordination among ruling earlier this year to a group of visiting foreign fines the ideology of this Chinese leadership, old inter-imperial rivalries. Some of it has to classes who were accumulating still within capitalists that they are going to remove and especially Xi, may mean that they can′t do with the capacities of rival military and the boundaries of their own states or territo - some of their restrictions on foreign capital be pushed too far. security apparatuses. The fact that China rial empires. But especially in the second half becoming majority owners of Chinese firms On 1 December, Canadian authorities, at and Russia are not in NATO and are not in of the 20th century there was an interpene - and on foreign financial institutions operat - the demand of the US seeking her extradi - the global intelligence and security establish - tration of capital around the world — the ing in China. tion, arrested Meng Wanzhou, chief financial ment that operates under the rubric of the material, structural underpinning to the Removing those restrictions on foreign fi - officer of Huawei and daughter of the United States. The so-called “five eyes”, trade and investment agreements made by nancial institutions has long been a main founder, someone who has been described Anglo-American countries (US, UK, Canada, governments. goal of Wall Street and previous American as a member of Chinese corporate royalty, on Australia, New Zealand), are at the core of administrations — to allow a larger role in the grounds that her firm has allegedly been that establishment. The key historical deter - Continued on page 8 China for Goldman Sachs and the rest of involved in breaching American sanctions minant even of Clinton′s and Blair′s view of them. The Chinese have also signalled that against Iran. This has produced a furore in the world was that Russia and China were they will not be protecting as much their China. These things can get out of hand. not subjected to postwar state reconstruction rights to technology transfer when firms in - It would be misleading, when we look at by American military occupation as Japan vest in China. So Xi is prepared to move the structural conditions that put limits on and Western Europe were. quite a distance. There are internal pressures the whole system falling apart, to think that from many Chinese capitalists themselves, these contingent things can′t have effect. We S: The new Socialist Register has mate - who want a loosening of China′s capital con - need to watch this closely. It is not only peo - rial expressing a sceptical view on the trols. ple of our political orientation who are prospects of the Belt and Road Initiative The Chinese are very much the takers of watching Washington with bated breath. [Chinese-sponsored infrastructure devel - this trade war. They are responding, to be American capitalists, and the world′s capi - opment and investment in a range of sure, in ways which are designed to inflict talists, are watching with bated breath. countries, launched since 2013, to de - some harm on, for example, American farm - velop a new China-centred trade net - ers producing soy which is exported to S: It′s said that the economic jousting be - work]. China, and are having some effects on US tween the US and China isn′t fundamen - P: Yes, I think, we have to take the evi - construction companies who rely on Chinese tally about tariffs and trade; it′s about dence on this in the outstanding essays by US wood products. But the Chinese are not technology transfer and the US wanting Sean Starrs and Lin Chun very seriously. leading this trade war. They are trying to to maintain its technological lead. They show very clearly not only the eco - find ways to mollify Trump. All this suggests P: That′s an important dimension. A lot is nomic contradictions which have emerged to me that it is possible that Trump will get done in the US, for example on microchips, with the Belt and Road Initiative, but also the his way. to limit the Chinese to being assemblers. The extent to which China is seen by many other At the same time, the Chinese Commu - Chinese have a very explicit goal of becom - states in southeast Asia in the light of a an nist-capitalists are also nationalists. All of the ing, by the 2030s, fully adept in the technolo - imperial power posing the main threat to great Third World Communist-revolutionary gies themselves. It is clearly a concern of the their national sovereignty . movements were in very good part nation - Americans. This is what most people overlook when alist movements. The technology transfer issue has long- they see China as forming Asia as a whole The latest Socialist Register 8 FEATURE More online at www.workersliberty.org

Continued from page 7

It became a different world than that of World War One. The question we began discussing today was whether the political effects of the cur - rent Trump administration will be so dys - Two months of “ functional as to get in the way of the reproduction of the integration. This is so im - portant to analyse precisely because the eco - By Michael Elms nomic integration has also produced contradictions, which are increasingly severe On Saturday 5 January an estimated in the 21st century. These contradictions 50,000 demonstrators came onto the partly have to do with the crisis-prone nature streets of France to take part in “Act VIII”, of the very volatile global financial system the eighth national protest of the Gilets which is essential to tying together global Jaunes (yellow jackets) movement. In production. They also have to do with the do - Paris, a bloc of working-class women in mestic consequences, in class terms, of the yellow jackets came to the fore and broke ever-greater inequalities of power, income, police encirclements. and wealth which this integrated capitalism The movement has shrunk since “Act I” on produces as states compete to get capital 17 November 2018, which saw an estimated landing inside of them. 300,000 on the streets – but it has defied pre - Insofar as the world we are living in is in - dictions that it would die off during the creasingly prone to severe contradictions, ex - Christmas-New Year break. tending beyond the two I have mentioned to The protests began in the autumn, against all kinds of morbid symptoms ranging from a hike in fuel tax that would have hurt mil - the climate crisis to the migration crisis and lions of workers and self-employed people the xenophobia that attends it, we need to see who rely on motor transport for their work, those symptoms as opening up possibilities and saw tens of thousands setting up road - in terms of revolutionary transformations blocks at roundabouts, many of which con - within particular states which would then tinue to this day. French media reports have international implications. estimate that business losses from traffic dis - But, at the same time, given the weak - ruption over the Christmas period now run nesses of the left and of the working classes, into the billions of euros. The student move - those transformations are not going to be ment has revived to join the protests, bring - triggered by the type of events we′ve seen in ing their slogans against selection in Paris [with the ″gilets jaunes″], that is, an - education from last summer’s movement. other round of inflammatory protest move - The determination and militancy of this ments. Since the 1930s, some Trotskyist movement of workers and self-employed analysis has been premised on the notion that people is without recent precedent in French capitalism is over-ripe for revolution. and history – but it has not yet been joined by a thus its fall can be triggered by unexpected strike movement of any size. conflagrations of any type, which will then The protests have so far withstood the gov - have international effects like a falling row of ernment’s combination of minor concessions dominoes. I am not of the view that capital - and violent repression. The government has ism is, in its material base, ″over-ripe for rev - repeatedly resorted to the most draconian olution″. measures, deploying tens of thousands of po - lice, killing grandmother Zineb Zerari with a S: I agree. I know that idea has become a teargas canister, and on 2 January arresting common theme in would-be Trotskyist lit - prominent Gilet Jaune, lorry driver Eric erature, but I think it comes more from “The best way to afford a suit is to work” — Macron. “Sorry, Manu [abbreviation for Emmanuel Drouet, on charges of organising an illegal Third Period Stalinism. Macron], I had just enough to afford a yellow jacket”. protest. P: So it does. Since Macron’s government announced the Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty FEATURE 9 “Gilets Jaunes” withdrawal of the fuel tax increase, and then movement of the 1950s, a movement of the an increase in the minimum wage (he French worse-off led by small businesspeo - stressed that this would be compensated ple and standing apart from the labour from the public purse and not cost bosses a movement. The Gilets Jaunes as a movement penny more), the movement has faced a po - express not only the just and heartening rage litical dilemma. of the exploited against the arrogance of the Two slogans seem currently to be most rich, but also in part the small-minded jeal - popular on demonstrations: a demand for ousy of the small entrepreneur. the reinstatement of the “ISF”, the wealth tax The organised working class has the “so - on the richest; and the call for Swiss-style cialist common sense”, the hardened hostil - “RICs” or “citizens’ initiative referendums”, ity to the fascists, the deep roots, the whereby petitions with a certain number of democratic organisations and customs that signatures are to be put to a referendum, and can clean out the nationalist crap and draw if they win, become law. the Gilet Jaunes movement behind clearer But the ISF had been in force for almost 30 slogans; and the power at the point of pro - years before Macron scrapped it in 2017, and duction to win. France’s wealth-inequality index (Gini coef - Ironically, the leader of the biggest union ficient) was still even higher than the UK’s. confederation, CGT, Philippe Martinez, re - Swiss-style “direct legislation” has surely sponded to the movement at the outset in not abolished inequality in Switzerland, the tone of a jealous shopkeeper: saying that Shanty-town in Cuba where in 2015, so Crédit Suisse reported, 1% the CGT “would not mix with just anyone” of the population owned 35% of the wealth. and protesting that the movement had German Marxist Karl Kautsky explained stolen the CGT’s slogans. The CGT policy in 1893 why the Swiss model was a very slowly changed until the leadership called poor form of democracy: separate but parallel protests in mid-Decem - “Here the population is not called to vote ber… on entire, comprehensive programmes for In Martigues, in southern France, the local Socialism is not Cuba the reorganisation of society and politics, but CGT and FSU union organisations managed merely on a single measure, a single pro - to agree common demands for 5 January posal — which, moreover, always has to be with local Gilets Jaunes: cut taxes and VAT; By Rhodri Evans force, are paid in pesos cubanos...” adapted to the momentary power relations bring back the wealth tax; increase all wages, “In the current economy a self-employed in state and society, if it is to be a ‘practical’ pensions and benefits; access to health and Fidel Castro’s 26 July Movement over - hairdresser or hotel waiter with access to vote and not intended as a mere gesture.” care for all; a fair tax policy for the people threw the corrupt Batista regime, and hard currency tips earns at least 20, if not 50, A third demand that remains popular is but also for small and middling businesses; took power in Cuba, 60 years ago, at the times as much as a state-employed neuro - the demand for Macron, the “President of development of public services (hospitals, start of January 1959. surgeon...” So the doctors and the teachers the rich”, to resign. crèches, schools etc.); regular consultation of The early period of the Castro regime im - resort to moonlighting, or second jobs, or To be replaced by whom? The Gilets citizens (bit.ly/mtg-gj. “Small and middling proved social provision and living stan - whatever they can, to survive. Jaunes aren’t a coherent party capable of businesses” are precisely defined in France: dards for the poorest in Cuba. Increasingly As early as 1970, René Dumont, a French making a government. The movement has anything less than 250 workers and an an - it did that while also suppressing the inde - socialist friendly to the Cuban régime, no internal democracy: spokespeople rise to nual turnover of €50 million). pendent trade unions and political plural - wrote: “The delegation of full powers to prominence through effective self-promo - Socialists in groups like Lutte Ouvriere ism which existed, even though harassed those whom Fidel [Castro] trusts is almost tion online. Jacline Mouraud is launching a and Etincelle, as well as groups of rank-and- and weak, under Batista. feudal... His right-hand men have just re - party, “Les Émergents”, which she vows will file workers, most notably Parisian railway Sixty years later, the Morning Star is cele - ceived, free, luxury Alfa-Romeos... that they be all about “respect for institutions”. workers, have been doing the job that Mar - brating and excusing Cuba’s lack of democ - can use for their personal needs... Christophe Chalençon has called for Pierre tinez was so slow to get on with: going to racy. It is pointedly silent about the “Add in the beautiful villas of the mag - de Villiers, the armed forces chief who re - Gilets Jaunes protests with socialist argu - economic inequality which has grown there nificent beach at Varadero, where the offi - signed last year over military spending cuts ments and working to marginalise the petty since the Cuban government started to edge cials and their families take free holidays... by Macron, to take over the government. bigots and small exploiters. along the “Chinese road”, and created a Add in the sexual privileges of the ‘new To make a workers’ government, the in - Labour movement initiative is needed dual economy. class’, which count for a lot in Cuba... A new spiring militancy of the protestors isn’t to bring a spring flood of socialism, and “There are”, admits the Morning Star , “no leading group is being constituted in Cuba, enough. Democracy and a political pro - not a swamp of nationalism and Poujade- election campaigns where two or more po - certainly benevolent towards workers and gramme are needed – and the leadership of style anti-worker populism, from this cri - litical parties battle against each other to the poor people, but... the latter no longer the organised working class. sis. win the votes of the electorate on the basis have the right to speak out if they become Moreover, some ideas in the Gilets Jaunes of manifesto pledges... too critical”. mix are harmful. Two long “manifestos” of “[For] the National Assembly... the num - Now inequality has come out more into the Gilet Jaunes have been circulated online, ber of names on the ballot paper is equal to the open. “There are neighbourhoods full of both endorsed or semi-endorsed by the the number of deputies that are to be expensive restaurants and boutiques... movement’s prominent, self-selected lead - elected. The fact that there is no ‘choice’ on “Among economically well-off Cubans, it ers. the ballot paper is, of course, cited by many is also common to have... a housekeeper, One called for “Frexit” and described cur - commentators outside Cuba as being nanny, gardener, and/or watchman... it has rent immigration to France as “intolerable”. ‘proof’ that Cuba’s electoral system is not become standard for parents with means to The other was silent on Frexit, but de - democratic. However, the processes by hire private after-school tutors for their chil - manded classes in “French culture” for mi - which names are placed on the ballot paper dren...” grants (though it did also say that the is extensive and inclusive...” Meanwhile, “many of the older shanty - answer to the exploitation of migrant labour Critics of the government cannot even towns... in Havana and elsewhere are grow - was to level up conditions rather than sim - publish newspapers, leaflets, or pamphlets. ing and becoming more overcrowded... ply to bar migrants). Their best hope is to slip something into one “Newer shantytowns... are mushroom - The far-right Front national (now trading of the publications sponsored by the ing... made out of wood, old bricks, plastic, as Rassemblement national, or RN) has risen Israel, Palestine, and Catholic Church, to whom the government zinc, or whatever people can find to use as higher in the polls than any other party over gives a little leeway. shelter. Many of them don’t have running the course of the movement (from 17% in antisemitism Economically, for some time now (reports water, and electricity — when available — September to 24% in December). But the dis - Katrin Hansing in a 2017 survey article, is often pirated by tapping into a public tinctive demands of the far right (abolition streetlight cable... A day school for members and bit.ly/kh-cuba), two currencies have legally of speed limits, halting immigration) are cur - circulated in Cuba: the Cuban Convertible “These slums look like slums found any - rently marginal in the movement. The friends of Workers’ Liberty Peso (CUC), which... is pegged to the US where in the Global South, except that — “racism” of the movement is no more dollar, and the original peso cubano”. The and this is an important difference — chil - worked-out fascism than its “socialism” is Saturday 19 January, 11:30 to 5, peso cubano is now worth only one-25th of dren go to school, people have access to fully-fledged Marxism. Birmingham the CUC, and some things are available health care...” Cuba was never socialist. Authentic There is an urgent political fight to be had only for CUC. socialism means democratic working- among the Gilets Jaunes. Elements of the Email [email protected], or “The salaries of state workers, who until class rule. movement parallel the Poujadiste anti-tax call 020 7394 8923, for details. recently made up 80 percent of the work - More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Where we stand Skwawkbox on “abstain” Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour tailed legislation for it. power to another, the capitalist By Chris Reynolds Then Labour would go to the class, which owns the means of The Skwawkbox website electorate having said that the To - production. (skwawkbox.org), which is close ries’ deal was not so bad as to vote The capitalists’ control over the to leading officials in the Labour against it. economy and their relentless drive Party Leader’s Office, has floated And voters would know that to increase their wealth causes the idea of Labour abstaining in Labour was responsible for the sit - poverty, unemployment, the the parliamentary vote on the To - uation where just a week before the blighting of lives by overwork, ries’ Brexit deal. unchanged Brexit date of 29 March, imperialism, the destruction of the That would let the deal pass even no-one would know whether there environment and much else. if the DUP and the Tory ultra-Brexit would be a “no deal” crash-Brexit, Against the accumulated wealth right still vote against. a Tory-deal Brexit, or the EU agree - Commending and power of the capitalists, the On 6 January, Skwawkbox wrote: ing to postpone. (It is, by the way, working class must unite to “To take effect, May’s deal must not yet Labour front-bench policy struggle against capitalist power first pass the ‘meaningful vote’ in even to propose a postponement). in the workplace and in wider evasion? the Commons – stage 1 – and then What a mess! society. an Act of Parliament must be The same day, 6 January, The Alliance for Workers’ passed to bring it into force. Skwawkbox praised Labour front - By Martin Thomas Liberty wants socialist revolution: “Labour could not support bencher Barry Gardiner for a “per - collective ownership of industry The Campaign for Labour May’s deal – but an abstention on fect exposition of Labour Brexit posed negotiating agenda is differ - and services, workers’ control, Party Democracy (CLPD), a stage 1 would bring things to the policy”. ent from the Tories’ really only in and a democracy much fuller than longstanding component of point where the DUP would be “Labour will fight for a general proposing that the UK should stay the present system, with elected the Labour left, is promoting a faced with a choice...” election — and will go to the peo - in the Customs Union. representatives recallable at any ple on a plan to negotiate a new But that is a matter not covered model motion to “commend” time and an end to bureaucrats’ Brexit deal with the EU, which the in the withdrawal deal (it’s only in the Labour Party leadership and managers’ privileges. DUP EU will accommodate because of a the non-binding “declaration on fu - for its stance on Brexit. The DUP’s current line is that it We fight for trade unions and new government coming to the ture relations” after the “transition The motion accuses those agi - will vote no confidence in the the Labour Party to break with table without May’s impossible, period” in which the UK remains in tating for a new public vote on government if the deal passes, “social partnership” with the mutually-incompatible red lines”. the Customs Union anyway).It Brexit of seeking to “overturn but will continue to give it confi - bosses and to militantly assert would leave the Irish border ques - Labour conference policy”, on dence until then. working-class interests. tion un-fixed. Avoiding a “hard the grounds that we supposedly Skwawbox’s tentative “cunning NEW What about a new public vote, border” requires Single Market reg - advocate a public vote *before* plan” is that letting the deal pass In workplaces, trade unions, which a big majority of Labour ulations applying both sides of it. an attempt to bring down the would tip the DUP into backing and Labour organisations; members and Labour supporters No renegotiated deal is going to Tories by a vote of no confidence “no confidence”, “opening the door among students; in local want? “unite the UK”, from free-move - in Parliament. to a general election by 21 March campaigns; on the left and in ment supporters at one end to Tory In fact those who agitate for a and the opportunity for a Corbyn Gardiner put that off to the re - wider political alliances we and DUP hard-Brexiters at the oth - new public vote are also those government to seek an extension to mote future. stand for: ers. who express worries that the Article 50 when the EU commission “Gardiner’s personal opinion is • Independent working-class that it might then make sense to What Labour can do is fight for Labour front bench’s delay on representation in politics. meets that week”. what the big majority of Labour proposing “no confidence” may So the idea is that the voting- put the new deal to the people – but • A workers’ government, it would be a deal that would aim members, Labour voters, and lead to the motion never being based on and accountable to the through of May’s deal would be the labour movement want — a put, or being put only when the rendered harmless by the govern - to unite the UK”. labour movement. The Labour frontbench’s pro - new public vote which will stop Labour front bench can claim • A workers’ charter of trade ment falling before it can do the de - Brexit. that it has become “too late” union rights — to organise, to then to seek a new public vote. strike, to picket effectively, and to The authority of the 2018 take solidarity action. Labour conference resolution is • Taxation of the rich to fund weak, because conference was decent public services, homes, allowed no debate, instead education and jobs for all. Shun Red London! being presented with only one • A workers’ movement that (deliberately ambiguous) com - fights all forms of oppression. Full posite. equality for women, and social eral (small “l”) politics, akin to fied by their former friends as Nevertheless, the resolution provision to free women from By Rosalind Robson trolling.As unpleasant as this is, being linked to Red London. definitely did not say that domestic labour. For reproductive most of it can be politically cri - That has provided material for Labour’s alternative to the To - justice: free abortion on demand; We have published an online ries’ Brexit formula should be a briefing which brings together tiqued. In contrast, since 2016 the the briefing. We are also concerned, the right to choose when and group have made a specific attack politically, to push back against the limp claim that Labour could whether to have children. Full images and other evidence to negotiate better and find a deal show how the Red London group on Workers’ Liberty which is growing popularity of the idea that equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual straightforward slander, accusing murderous totalitarian Stalinist which will somehow “unite ev - and transgender people. Black operates and trace the develop - eryone”, Tory Brexiters and so - ment of the witch-hunt against us of vile and criminal activity. regimes have been authentically so - and white workers’ unity against We have been accused of con - cialist. We show how a wider mi - cialist Remainers alike. racism. the AWL: bit.ly/2RG81gk If it had said that, the confer - Red London is a Facebook page doning or even actively promoting lieu allowed itself to be associated • Open borders. paedophilia or child abuse. No ev - with, or at least influenced by, Red ence would never have accepted • Global solidarity against which deploys unevidenced it, and the big majority of smears rather than polemic against idence has been or can be offered London’s culture (for example the global capital — workers for this claim, yet it has been practice of using a “vigilance Labour members, and of Labour everywhere have more in people they politically oppose. Its voters too, would have opposed administrators are anonymous. The shared, promoted and cynically salute”). common with each other than used in one form or another by oth - We publish this briefing because it. with their capitalist or Stalinist group also builds support for con - Labour voters prefer Remain temporary Stalinist state forma - ers, and the “story” has spread. we believe that people who make rulers. Since they first appeared the unsubstantiated slanders are a poi - to the Tory deal by 83%-17%, • Democracy at every level of tions (e.g. North Korea, China), and Remain to “no deal” by praises “High Stalinism” (the USSR AWL has reported the slanders to son in the labour movement. If they society, from the smallest Facebook, the police, Momentum are allowed to get away with it 80%-20%. Among Labour mem - workplace or community to global in the 1930s and 40s) and is bers, 72% want Jeremy Corbyn strongly aligned with the Commu - and the Labour Party. But our com - their method of reckless slandering social organisation. plaints have been obstructed by the will spread and it will become in - to commit fully to a new public • Equal rights for all nations, nist Party of Britain, and its paper vote, and in that vote 88% of the Morning Star . RL people are also fact that Red London’s output is creasingly hard to tackle. against imperialists and predators We urge everyone who has them would back Remain Labour supporters and members. anonymously produced, and the big and small. been associated with Red Lon - (bit.ly/qmul-lp). Red London’s favoured “hate anonymity is protected by friend - • Maximum left unity in action, don in the past, even by liking or CLPD should instead back targets” are Trotskyists, anarchists ship groups and cliques. and openness in debate. sharing their posts, and even if Labour democracy, by back - and “Radical Liberals” — people Such cliques always splinter. This they agree with Red London’s ing the call from the TSSA rail who are tagged with caricatured happened over a recent (justifiable) If you agree with us, please general political views on the old union for an emergency spe - identity politics and support for accusation of transphobia against take some copies of Solidarity USSR, to actively disassociate cial conference of the Labour “political correctness”. All of this Red London. Some members of the to sell — and join us! themselves from the group. Party on Brexit. while promoting a general anti-lib - clique fell out with others. In the fall out certain people were identi - REPORTS 10-11 PCS AGS election farce Picket attacked by far right derson, a senior full-time employee Fortunately the attack was only By Mike Chester of the union and a GMB member, By Ollie Moore verbal, with no physical assaults or Amidst farcical discord in the launched her bid as the Serwotka On 5 January an RMT picket line injuries. dominant Left Unity faction of candidate for Assistant General of striking Northern guards in This event, like the attack on the civil service union PCS, nom - Secretary of... PCS. Manchester was attacked by far- RMT activists after an anti-fascist inations open on 17 January for The leadership of PCS, not least right thugs connected to the demo in London in the summer, re - the union’s Assistant General Serwotka, has always claimed that Democratic Football Lads Al - minds us of the urgent need for the Secretary. unlike other unions in the TUC, liance and the rump English De - labour movement to take anti-fas - Voting will run from 16 April to PCS is a “member-led union”. fence League. It seems the cist organising seriously. It’s not 9 May. The AGS is the only full- Many of us have long found this attack may have been an oppor - good enough to “outsource” anti- time officer other than the General claim a little far-fetched, yet it was tunistic action by far-right ac - fascism to external campaigns, our Secretary elected by members. still astonishing that Lynn Hender - tivists mobilised for a demo of unions need to mobilise members Months ago, the union’s presi - son — an incredibly well renumer - their own taking place in Manch - under their own banners to con - dent Janice Godrich (not a full-time ated and unelected full-timer of the ester on the same day. front the far right. We also need a political alter - official as such, but someone sec - union — had Serwotka’s endorse - An Asian striker was specifically native to the far right: working- onded long-term from her civil ser - ment. targeted, and was called a “nonce”, class socialists policies on vice job) announced that she would The Godrich camp of Left Unity “child groomer”, and “pae - issues such as jobs and housing, challenge Chris Baugh (the incum - put out a non-committal statement dophile”. where social despair creates bent) for the Left Unity nomination. noting Henderson’s candidacy. The attack shows that the DFLA conditions in which the far right Both Godrich and Baugh were and Henderson is not a member of Left John Moloney is the candidate of and similar organisations are not grows, combined with an un - remain members of the Socialist Unity. the Independent Left and the only merely groupings of working-class apologetic internationalism and Party. Then on 7 January we were in - rank and file candidate standing in football fans concerned about “ex - defence of migrants’ rights to Following a nasty internal fight, formed that the Godrich camp has the election tremism” or the problem of child tackle the nationalism of the far it was announced shortly before its own candidate for the Left Unity grooming, but are far-right political right head on. Christmas that Godrich had just nomination. Another senior union those of our membership. More im - forces who are violently hostile to pipped Baugh to win the nomina - employee, Stella Dennis. portant for the upcoming AGS elec - the labour movement. tion. Then Godrich withdrew her On union policy, the months of tion is that, not coming from the name on grounds of ill-health. faction-fighting have revealed only shop-floor, long-time unelected The Baugh camp instantly secondary tactical differences, dem - FTOs don’t carry the same experi - claimed him the presumptive nom - agogically exaggerated, between ence and understanding as lay inee, but the Godrich camp now the rival FTO candidates. members and reps. Bus strike goes ahead controlled the Left Unity commit - The average full-time salary of This election has now become tee. They said that Baugh had been our membership is £22,500. The av - a battle between three candi - Drivers in Darlington, Durham, widespread disruption with Unite discredited during the campaign erage full-time salary of Full-Time dates of the union bureaucracy, Redcar, Stockton and Whitby stating they are willing to re-enter (largely by them) and that another Officers is £41,500. An 86% pre - and John Moloney, an activist working for Arriva have started a talks as soon as the company con - option would be chosen. mium. FTOs receive over 25% more with the left opposition group In - week long strike over pay. firm that a revised pay offer would Godrich was General Secretary than lay members in civil service dependent Left, who is the only Unite members rejected a revised be made. After this week Unite says Mark Serwotka’s candidate. jobs with similar duties and re - rank-and-file union member cur - pay offer just before Christmas. The it will consult members again as to Largely — it would appear — on sponsibilities. rently standing in this election. drivers are some of the lowest paid what follow up action will be the basis that Serwotka didn’t get Senior FTOs get the big-bucks — He is standing on a clear left across the whole of Arriva buses. taken. on with Baugh. £65k-plus — comparable Senior platform, and should be sup - Arriva claim that 25% of buses Drivers are seeking a £1 per Cue the second plot twist. A Civil Service pay bands. ported. have continued to run over the first hour increase on the rates for week before Christmas, Lynn Hen - On principle FTOs should be 48 hours, but there has been the year starting March 2018. elected and on salaries far closer to • bit.ly/jm-ags If you’re in the building, you’re in the union

so the new union is beginning to poorly unionised or served by By a London teacher create two tiers of membership, unions who do not deal with their A potentially very positive conse - with the poorer-paid, non-teachers concerns in a collective way, but quence of the ATL/NUT merger as second-class citizens. through individual casework. to for the National Education The NEU’s leadership is in dan - A common trade union organisa - Union (NEU) is that it removed ger of messing up the merger and tion in each school is also a way of the barrier that the National squandering the potential of a new, breaking down barriers between Union of Teachers imposed on it - industrial union in education. different categories of workers. In self not to recruit non-teaching Most Head Teachers, faced with particular, common union organi - staff in schools. teachers’ strike action, now habitu - sation in schools will tend to break By doing so the possibility has ally attempt to keep the schools down the snobbish way some been created of much more effec - open, staffed by Senior Leadership, teachers view support staff. tive workplace organisation in agency staff and scabs. If key AWL teachers are members of schools. groups of non-teaching staff are the NEU, rather than the other The NEU now claims over part of an NEU organisation, and teachers’ union, NASUWT, because 450,000 members, including a sig - strike alongside the teachers, the NEU is larger (especially in schools will not be able to remain urban centres like London), more non-teaching staff currently in Uni - We actively oppose the self-lim - nificant and growing number of son, GMB etc. In the minority of iting agreements the NEU has non-teaching staff. open for legal reasons (the com - democratic and less conservative puter and registration systems will than the NASUWT. We view the areas where the GMB, Unison are struck with the GMB, Unison etc The task now is to build an inte - well-organised in schools, key ac - not to seek to negotiate terms and grated, united and militant union not work and the school will not be NEU as the core of a future indus - safe). trial trade union for school work - tivists should dual-card. The inten - conditions of non-teaching staff. that works for all its members. Un - tion, in the medium term, should We oppose second-class status for fortunately, led by the dominant The best way precarious, often ers. outsourced, school support staff We favour a merger between the be to bring whole groups of non- non-teaching staff inside the NEU. and misnamed Socialist Teachers teaching workers over into the In fact it is now very important Alliance, the NEU watered down (cleaners, catering staff) and other NASUWT and NEU providing school workers will be able to de - such a merger is likely to lead to in - NEU and win recognition agree - the NEU actively welcomes sup - its pay claim and has not balloted ments for these workers. port staff, championing their non-teaching staff on our pay de - fend themselves is alongside teach - creasing unity amongst school ers in a common trade union. These workers in a united, democratic na - We also oppose the current Uni - causes and creating NEU lead - mand. son drive among school staff gen - ers at every level of the union The union has also voluntarily workers can now use the compara - tional union. These splits in the tive strength of teachers to protect trade unions, divisions and inter- erated by inter-bureaucratic who work as school librarians, in ceded the right to negotiate non- competition between unions and MIS (staff tasked with tracking teaching staff’s pay and conditions themselves and to organise. Cur - union manoeuvring weaken the rently, if cuts to staffing are made, working-class movement. the appeal the NEU has to support student data), or premises, as at national and Academy Trust lev - staff (who can see the logic of a sin - TAs, or as cleaners. els to Unison and GMB. By doing they most often are made to non- We are for all school workers teaching staff, who are either joining the NEU including those gle, strong union in schools). SolidaFor a workers’ giovertnment y No 490 9 January 2019 50p/£1 Trump’s bluster, Assad’s strength

the ground in Syria, and the US By Simon Nelson has never provided the SDF with the heavy weaponry and artillery On 19 December US president that it would needed to fight a reg - Donald Trump announced a ular army rather than Daesh. But snap decision to withdraw US probably the presence of US troops troops from Syria. has deterred Turkey from invading At first he said the troops would on a larger scale. be out within 30 days, but now it Now US National Security Advi - looks like several months at least. sor John Bolton says: “We don’t The plan is now conditional on as - think the Turks ought to undertake surances from Turkey regarding military action that is not fully co- the safety of the Kurds in Northern ordinated with and agreed to by Syria. the United States... the president’s Trump’s move outraged the requirement [is] that the Syrian op - “common sense” of bourgeois for - position forces that have fought eign policy. US Defence Secretary with us are not endangered.” James “Mad Dog” Mattis and Noam Chomsky, a longtime left - Trump’s special envoy for anti- ist and critic of the US military, has Daesh work, Brett McGurk, both opposed the withdrawal, saying resigned. that the US troop presence “is a Mattis was angered by Trump holding operation, pending some criticising American allies and diplomatic settlement that might other NATO members regarding provide the Kurdish regions with their commitment to operations in some degree of security and auton - Syria and Afghanistan. As the de- omy within Syria.” In fact any such Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan, is the first Arab leader to meet Assad since the start of the civil war facto head of the Armed Forces he diplomatic settlement seems re - had attempted to shield them from mote. The Arab League, a pan-Arab al - for reconstruction will counter Ira - view rival Saudi influence as a Trump’s vagaries. Within days of liance of states which expelled nian influence. threat either. Russia has also devel - Mattis’s resignation Trump felt the Assad in 2011, is shifting. On 17 For Israel a hollowed-out Assad oped a relationship with Turkey, need to make a surprise visit to UPRISING The hopes of the uprisings in December, Sudanese President regime that is weak but stable and after Russian intervention troops in Iraq. 2011 against Assad have been Omar Bashir visited Syria on be - enough to stop a Sunni-Islamist Turkey has said it is willing to ac - For Mattis, the removal of US dashed. The largest rebel held half of the League. takeover and has some autonomy cept Assad remaining in power if troops is also a betrayal of the Kur - enclave, Idlib, remains under Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which from Iran is an acceptable out - he wins a “free election”. dish YPG forces which dominate siege. dominate the League, now view come. John Bolton visited Israel in Daesh still has an estimated the Syrian Democratic Forces consolidating Assad in Syria as the January following the withdrawal 14,000 fighters in Syria. (SDF), the umbrella group that the The militias that govern it are hardline Islamists and now have final death knell for the Arab announcement to calm the fears of Without much territory and with US has backed to fight Daesh. US Spring. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu a weakened command structure, troop withdrawal will leave them no chance of challenging for power in Syria. US withdrawal will only The Saudis cannot yet be seen to that it would leave Israel vulnera - they are in no position to fight the open to assault by Turkey, some - engage directly with Assad, but ble to attack from Syria. Israel has government; yet, as a guerrilla thing which Erdoğan has made cement a hegemony which Assad already has. they can use Bashir as an interme - de-escalated activity in the Golan force, it cannot be considered de - clear is his intention. diary. Heights and will not openly con - feated. The sectarian grievances it Turkey wants to drive all Kur - The Free Syrian Army is still able to secure funding from Turkey, Iran has not been as successful in test US troop withdrawal. feeds on are still live. dish forces away from its border It now has some influence in now the largest sponsor of anti- Syria as it hoped. Assad has re - Russia, Assad’s major military with Syria. Its actions in Afrin in Libya. It has launched assaults Assad rebels. The funding that mained in power, and Iranian in - ally other than Iran, must see the March 2018 show that it is pre - in Egypt and still has Boko used to come from the Gulf states telligence and militias have helped US troop withdrawal plan as a vin - pared to invade Syria to do that. It Haram and others internation - has dried up. him militarily, but the Saudis can dication. Russia can live with Ira - did that when US forces were on hope that offering Assad money nian influence in Syria, but won’t ally pledging allegiance to it.

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