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No 297 25 September 2013 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org For a workers’ government

Royal Mail Fast food Gilbert Achcar and sell-off workers’ fight the Arab Spring page 2 page 6-7 page 10 Win Living Wages. Save NHS TAKE FROM THE RICH! Make unions and Labour fight, see page 5 2 NEWS What is the Alliance for Anti-EDL: questions from Sheffield Workers’ Liberty?

Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to By a Sheffield anti- empty “festivals” without There’s a tactical question that it moves away from another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. fascist activist any intention of hindering here, especially when there mostly internet-based or - Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to the EDL’s physical numbers are too small to ganising which can be too increase their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, On Saturday 21 Septem - progress. drive EDL off the streets exclusive. There seems to be unemployment, the blighting of lives by overwork, ber around 300 EDL sup - It was also the first time and to protect Asian resi - some consensus to mobilise imperialism, the destruction of the environment and porters descended on that a network of independ - dents from racist violence. against racists based on much else. Lane Top in Sheffield. ent anti-fascists had organ - Can we do more than working class unity to ad - Against the accumulated wealth and power of the ised a separate march, make a symbolic display of capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. There hasn’t been a sub - dress underlying social prepared with scouts and opposition? Even with the grievances that EDL exploit, The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity through urban or estate-based leafleting sessions in the best political slogans and struggle so that the working class can overthrow capitalism. We want rand avoid broad, bland demonstration by the racist area in the week before. banners, marching to a socialist revolution: collective ownership of industry and services, English Defence League and wholly negative ap - workers’ control and a democracy much fuller than the present system, This happened despite at - static demonstration is not proach of other strategies. (EDL) in South Yorkshire tempts by EDL members to enough, especially when with elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to before and the location With greater numbers in - bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. intimidate and prevent a local people are curious volved in the planning of brought a greater immedi - planning meeting, which about what’s happening or We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” action and a wider willing - acy to the threat of violence avoided violence only by a see little more than two op - and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. ness to physically confront to local Asian residents. last minute move of venue. posing groups shouting slo - Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, the EDL, there could have supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping The excuse for this racist On the day, the inde - gans at each other. been small groups breaking organise rank-and-file groups. display was a plan to con - pendent contingent made The most productive part We are also active among students and in many campaigns and vert a disused pub, The up around two thirds of the of the day was talking to off through side streets and alliances. Pheasant, into a mosque. anti-EDL protestors, but people shopping in Firth between houses to bypass The Muslim community there were still only around Park. Without preaching or the police kettle. But to do We stand for: group that had made en - 150 opposing the far right dismissing people who this from the static protest ● Independent working-class representation in politics. quiries about the property group. Mounted police ef - were sympathetic towards point would have been im - ● A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour had already dropped the possible. fectively coaxed the march the EDL, we talked about An anti-fascist cam - movement. plan before the EDL protest. along to the UAF’s demo, inequality, cuts and a lack A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to paign must be outward- ● Unexpectedly, Unite which was topped and of political representation. picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. facing and engage in the Against Fascism (UAF) tailed by five police riot The anti-fascist initiative ● Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education slow trudge of listening broke with tradition to call vans and three lines of po - is really positive and there and jobs for all. to, and arguing with, a counter-demo at the same lice covering the 200 metres are already plans to meet ● A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full working class people who equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden location as EDL. This was a to the junction where the again to discuss next steps. positive alternative to their EDL were set to demon - It’s vital that a network are the target of the of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, EDL’s racist populism. bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity tactic of holding politically strate. maintains momentum, and against racism. ● Open borders. ● Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist Post workers set to strike rulers. ● Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or community to global social organisation. By Jonny West ● Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all will receive, with the total cluding pay and pensions. tial to sustain action. nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. shares going to staff In an attempt to avert a CWU also needs a politi - The government has ● Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. amounting to 10% of the strike, Royal Mail has made cal strategy. Currently, its ● If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — promised that the privati - business). some concessions on its political campaign against and join us! sation of Royal Mail will The Communication proposed pension reforms, privatisation has little pub - take place “within Workers Union (CWU), and have agreed to allow lic life. CWU officials have weeks”. which organises Royal Mail promotional increases to talked about playing on Contact us: Shares in the privatised staff, began balloting its pensionable pay (and incre - rural middle-class fears ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] company will be offered to members for strikes on 20 ments) to be counted as about post office privatisa - Royal Mail workers for a September, with the results final salary pensionable pay tion and cuts, and have The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley due on 3 October. The ballot until March 2018 (as op - floated the idea of an al - Road, London, SE1 3DG. minimum spend of £500 (which can top up a free focuses on a number of on - posed to April 2014 as they liance with Ukip and coun - ● Printed by Trinity Mirror share bundle every worker going industrial issues, in - had previously proposed). tryside Tories. However, CWU officials So far, Labour has point - say members are “certain” edly refused to commit to to vote for strikes, which renationalising Royal Mail Get Solidarity every week! could begin on 10 October. if privatisation goes ahead ● Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o They will be the first na - and Labour wins the 2015 o tional postal workers’ election. Shadow Business ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged strikes since 2009. Secretary Chukka Umunna £9 unwaged o Strikes could throw a has claimed it would be “ir - ● 44 issues (year). £35 waged o spanner in the works of pri - responsible” to make such a £17 unwaged o vatisation. Potential buyers commitment. may be stalled or put off al - CWU will force a vote on ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o together by sustained renationalisation at Labour or 50 euros (44 issues) o strikes, and the movement Party conference on 25 Sep - Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: Royal Mail has already tember, and expects to win made on pensions shows a majority. A concerted ef - 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG that the threat of strikes can fort by CWU and other Cheques (£) to “AWL”. force concessions from unions to pass policy at Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. Against Lincs library cuts bosses. every level of the Labour Local disputes like Bridg - Party, and to take direct ac - Name ...... water, which succeeded in tion against Labour MPs On Saturday the Worst Witch, Harry Potter, and Sherlock beating back a bullying who refuse to back public Holmes, along with a host of other literary characters and Address ...... management through sus - ownership, could frighten around 500 people turned out to protest in Lincoln against tained and escalating and shame Labour into ac - ...... planned closure of 32 out of 48 of the county’s libraries. The strikes, coordinated tion. Tory county council are also to cut back mobile library through mass meetings, In the meantime, we should gear up to support I enclose £ ...... services by over two thirds. Unison estimates all this will show how the national dis - a postal workers’ strike, in- cost 170 jobs and is talking about strikes. pute could be organised. Strike funds will be essen - cluding by fundraising. 3 NEWS Remembering Paul Fyssas

By Theodora Polenta stood out against the mob, even today sometimes to act should be organisation in looked the thugs in the divisively and to tend to schools, universities, foot - Paul Fyssas, killed by a eyes, and asked them if they limit proposals for action to ball clubs, youth centres, fascist in Piraeus on 17 had the guts to come on one organising marches (which etc). Golden Dawn has September, grew up in the by one. is of course important, but gained ground in some high working class neighbour- Though some try to con - not enough). schools where it is consid - hoods of Keratsini. vince us it was a clash of Only united and organ - ered fashionable and the The son of a shipyard “two extremes”, in fact two ized we can prevent further basis of a “lifestyle” subcul - worker in Perama, he in different worlds clashed killings and smash fascism. ture.A very important step turn went to work in the that night. The selflessness, Organised and networked is the establishment of the yard. courage, and militancy of in local committees, with Coordination of Anti-fascist From his school years he the working class as ex - workers’ defence groups - Committees with collectives loved hip hop and from a pressed by Paul Fyssas, and that is the way to win. from all over Athens and listener quickly he turned the rottenness of the Nazis When we say “united”, Piraeus. Similar movements into an artist. He continued and the system that breeds let us clarify one thing: are taking place in Macedo - to work from time to time them. those who have tolerated nia and Thessaly. in the yards, was a member The attack on the KKE Golden Dawn, who have Our struggle against fas - of the Piraeus metal work - trade unionists in Perama, whipped up hysteria cism is also a struggle ers’ union, and consistently and the murder of Paul, against immigrants, and against the capitalist system participated in its mobilisa - have taken place in a con - prostitutes - the political that generates and nour - tions. text of the re-emergence of Golden Dawn. Only one without a plan and without parties that govern us and ishes fascism. Paul distributed his music working-class struggle, and a half years ago, promi - any coordination from the serve the Troika, ship-own - A united anti-fascist front free via the internet. “He with rolling strikes by nent KKE member Giorgos party leadership. And a ers and bankers - do not fit led by Syriza and the Left was one of Golden Dawn’s teachers and other public Sifonios, union president at number of prominent into our unity. should be complemented targets because of his anti- sector workers. Greek Steel, invited Golden Syriza MPs sent completely We should have no re - by a comprehensive re - fascist lyrics”, admitted one A 48 hour general strike Dawn into the occupied fac - the wrong message by ask - liance on them or on any sponse to the crisis, the former local Golden Dawn starts on 25 September. The tory and handed over the ing for cooperation of the version of the “constitu - Troika and the aim of the member. “hope” of the ruling class microphone to GD “constitutional arc” (I.e. the tional arc”. government of the Left. The Paul was not a member of was that this murderous at - spokesperson Ilias Ka - Left parties along the pro The task of combating Left must claim the power a particular left wing politi - tack would numb the work - sidiaris to address the memorandum Pasok and fascism belongs to the left, to do this on the basis of a cal party, but he steadily ing-class movement. We are workers! ND parties, whose policies the trade unions, and young program that removes participated in social move - proving them wrong. Syriza has had a better have paved the way for the people. power from the capitalists ments. One frosty winter Yet the left and the labour stance, but until now has Nazis) . We need immediate and opens the way for night he mobilised all the movement have underesti - underestimated the threat The smaller sections of marches and actions against workers’ control. mated the danger from the the fascists everywhere. We Otherwise, the crisis of hip hop artists to help out of Golden Dawn. Hundreds the Left bear some responsi - the capitalist system that the homeless in dodgy neo-Nazis. of rank and file Syriza bility, too. Antarsya and also need an understanding KKE, especially, has for that the protests and we live in today will keep areas. members are pivotal in the Keerfa (the “Uniting Move - regenerating the fascist Even the time of the at - years mocked the Trotsky - building of antifascist com - ment Against Racism and demonstrations are not ists that threw their forces enough. threat in one way or an - tack, his first concern was to mittees in their neighbour - the Fascist Threat”, which is other. protect this friends. He in the struggle against the hoods, but that is done part of Antarsya) continue One of the first priorities Syria: regime calls for negotiations, buys more time

By Stephen Wood over the weapons, with the caveat it may not manage to get rid of them all. The Syrian army still has fearsome sup - Deputy Prime Minister, Qadri Jamil has raised the plies of conventional weaponry with which it continues to prospect of a ceasefire in Syria. slaughter the people. Jamil is seen as Russia’s man in the Assad Government, The UN wants Iran to take part in negotiations as but says he is giving the regime’s view. He says forces Syria’s main Shia ally. The call coincides with Iran’s new were at a deadlock on both sides and that negotiations President, Hassan Rouhani’s tentative return to interna - should begin. tional diplomacy. The outward softening — on issues Such negotiations could stall the drive to get a UN reso - such as anti-semitism — is not matched by the regime’s lution authorising force. They will also help Russia to con - stance inside Iran of continuing to back Assad and tinue backing Assad without getting into conflict with the Hezbollah. US. Speaking on the consequences of the war for the Middle We could neither support nor advocate any rotten deal East, Major General Yair Golan, a senior figure in the Is - likely to come out of these negotiations. Given the frag - raeli military, has said that “The rebels cannot succeed in mented nature of the opposition, the likely advantages to creating an alternative, and Assad cannot succeed in gov - Assad such negotiations would bring, and the refusal of erning.” even the moderate rebels of the FSA to see Assad remain He warned Hezbollah that should it take control of in power, no deal is likely. Nonetheless, an end to the chemical weapons from Assad, or attempt to attack Israel fighting, however brief, would be a good thing. as the regime weakens, Israel will respond. Israel should Bitter fighting over towns, settlements and their re - not, he said, “be put to the test”. A ceasefire would help Syria’s refugees, but prospects do sources is on the rise. More and more people are dis - Many of Hezbollah’s missile launchers are in heavily not look good placed. Towns are passing between the FSA, ISIS and built up areas. Bombing by Israel could be devastating to try with no clear end or resolution remains the most likely other groups in continuing circles of fighting, temporary Lebanon. prospect. None of the groups with a substantial military alliances and further conflict. The different views between It would be no victory for the Palestinians for Hezbollah arsenal deserves political backing from workers and mi - one FSA commander and another about the role of the ji - to launch an attack of Israel. Fortunately there is no evi - norities in Syria. We have to continue to push for inde - hadist fighters increases the complexity of what rebel dence that Hassan Nasrullah, the leader of Hezbollah, pendent working class defence against both the regime gains mean. Minorities like the Kurds, Alawites and wants to take control of Syria’s chemical weapons and the and the militias. Christians are right to be fearful of a rebel victory. ability of Syria to launch a long range offensive or sponsor Any cessation in fighting may provide a chance for The regime is currently negotiating the handing over of Hezbollah in launching one against Israel is low. those forces, or potential forces, to consolidate and its chemical weapons and has provided a provisional in - With Syria having used 40-50% of its long range mis - begin to discuss how to win a democratic, secular ventory of its major sites. It has requested a year to hand siles, sustained but sporadic fighting throughout the coun - and free Syria. 4 COMMENT How fair is Fairphone?

So, it’s a unionised factory cialists who relied on the goodwill of well-intentioned, hu - then? mane capitalists like Robert Owen. Not exactly. Workers don’t need “independent third-party social as - Eric Lee Because Fairphone’s vision sessment organizations” and they don’t need “open discus - for workers doesn’t seem to sions” with their bosses. They need the only thing that I recently attended the London launch of Fairphone — “a include unions — any unions. actually works to ensure health and safety in the workplace, seriously cool smartphone that puts social values first”. Fairphone says that in decent wages, and job security — an independent trade Fairphone is a Dutch initiative to create an alternative to China they are committed to union. the decidely “unfair” phones that are being made and sold “creating a fund to improve And there won’t be any of those in FairPhone’s factory in today. workers’ wages and working China. Their phone, prototypes of which were available at the conditions and open discus - To be fair, it may well be difficult for FairPhone to compete launch, is in some ways an improvement upon the mass- sions between workers and on price if it were to be manufactured in Europe. manufactured phones most of us carry around today. their employers”. So one might understand the need, strictly on a commercial Those phones are usually made with little or no concern Open discussion between basis, to use a low-wage country somewhere in Asia to make for the environment or the well-being of the workers who workers and their employers? That’s it? Even the state-con - the phones. make them. trolled unions in China offer more than that. But why choose a low-wage country that also happens to Fairphone, on the other hand, aims to use “fair and con - Let’s be blunt: these are weasel words. be completely union-free? flict-free resources”, is committed to environmentally- Fairphone says they “want every worker ... to earn a fair Asia is full of countries that have low-wage workforces, friendly solutions to the problem of e-waste, and has given wage” but the only concrete step they’ve taken in that direc - but where there are unions that at least try to organise and the phone an “open design”. tion is to partner with “an independent, third-party social as - represent those workers. All good, but when it comes to who actually makes the sessment organization to perform an assessment”. China is surrounded by such countries, any one of which phone, we run into some problems. In plainer English, that means a group that like the Rainfor - (except North Korea) has a better record on workers’ rights. Originally, it seems, Fairphone aimed to make the phone in est Alliance, which notoriously certifies union-busting ba - The people behind Fairphone are clearly well-intentioned Europe, but quickly gave up on that and moved its manufac - nana plantations as being “ethical”. and want to make the world a better place. But by opting for ture to China. The company Fairphone has hired is paid by Fairphone to non-union manufacture in China, and trying to placate crit - As they explain, “Fairphone intends to manufacture in give a similar (and equally worthless) seal of approval for ics with sops like “social assessment” and “open discussion”, China because ... we feel our model can make a difference in their factories. they’re ducking the serious issues. This kind of paternalistic approach to industrial relations A truly fair Fairphone would carry the one label that re - improving working conditions and environmental impacts ally mattered: a union label. in China”. takes us back centuries, back to the pre-Marxian Utopian So - Challenge Islamist ideas, don’t “tolerate” them

woman’s right to express herself or wear what she likes. found herself staring in the mirror every morning, fretting I live and work in Tower Hamlets. When George Galloway about how she looked, suddenly self-conscious about her stood against Oona King here in 2005, he cynically and op - body, and utterly unsupported by management. Letters portunistically took up the cause of a secondary school stu - This was an attack on that woman, from the right, by Is - dent who demanded to wear the niqab in class. The student, lamist activists attempting to change for the worse the cul - I agree with Cathy Nugent (“No absolutes in niqab de - thankfully, did not win and the furore died down. However, ture and atmosphere of their place of learning for everyone bate”, Solidarity 296, 18 September 2013) that there must during the period, some female Muslim students in the who learned, taught, and worked there. be debate of the issues surrounding the decision by school complained to teachers that they felt pressured by The fear of being considered an “Islamophobe” has the ef - Birmingham Metropolitan College and of Judge Peter members of the newly-formed Islamic Society to veil up. fect of preventing political activists from speaking and think - Murphy to back down over the wearing of the niqab in Hizb ut-Tahrir stickers began to appear on school bags, ing clearly. It has meant failing to make solidarity with college and in court. adding to the oppressive atmosphere. women in religious communities who want to stand up to I am surprised that the left went along uncritically with the Bolstered by this, two members of the society wrote to the conservative clerics and “community leaders”. student protests supporting the challenges by the women in - then head teacher complaining that the cleavage of a member volved. Claims to wear the niqab in such places are made, of support staff, a midday supervisor, could be seen. The CHALLENGE Political Islam has gained strength in East London, and supported by others, on the basis of “a woman’s right to head, who had considered herself a left winger in her past, helped along by Galloway’s Respect and their sometime- choose” and of promoting religious “tolerance”. who had been politically active during the 1970s women bedfellows, the SWP. Why would we, the left, revolution - The misappropriation of the “woman’s right to choose” movement, responded by attempting to introduce a “mod - ary socialists, side with right-wing religious forces slogan by right-wing religious forces has confused many on est” dress code for women. There was no mention of a code against the women of our class? We should challenge, the left. Politicised religion stands for the subjugation of for men. not “tolerate”, religious ideas. women — it is not simply a case of supporting an individual The supervisor, who had worked for many years with teenagers, in schools, and was much respected and loved, This does not mean that we support state bans on religious clothing or the forcible removals of veils. We would not have Labour’s Bedroom Tax now to be rowing back from this. supported the use of state force to prevent Catholics worship - On the other hand, in Barnsley and ping in Stalinist Russia. Suppression of religious practice promise: keep up the pressure elsewhere some housing associations from above tends to have the effect of driving people more and councils are obtaining possession firmly into the arms of religious reactionaries. orders against their tenants in arrears. That the Labour Party have finally announced they We should, however, challenge the ideas of those men and This is the first part of the eviction would repeal the Bedroom Tax if elected at the next women who think worship is a human ideal, or that women process. The intervention of the left, election is very welcome, but not before time. should be defined as good or bad depending on how much unions and campaigners in support of tenants can be deci - of their bodies they allow to be visible. It means also that we That Labour have adopted this is down to pressure from sive in trying to stop these processes, putting massive pres - recognise where those ideas come from and on whose side tenants, campaigners and the Labour left. sure on social landlords and ready to throw bailiffs off we stand. Much more meaningless was a vote by Lib Dem confer - estates if necessary. I believe that there are times when wearing a veil is not ap - ence to oppose the Bedroom Tax at the next election. That If tenants, socialists and unions ratchet up the pres - propriate and we should not be afraid to say so: classrooms, pledge is worthless while the parliamentary leadership of sure further we can defeat this unworkable and deeply hospitals, and doctors’ consulting rooms for example. There the party is supporting policies like that are destroying cruel policy. Let’s make that our mission for the com - are also times when the wearing of the veil has no damaging people’s lives now. ing months. effect to anyone other than the wearer, and a ban would It all begs the question for Labour and Lib Dem councils Dave Kirk, Leeds therefore be wrong. which still control their own council housing. If they are Going along with the left consensus, based on a bour - against the Bedroom Tax, why are they implementing it? A • Scottish Anti-Bedroom Tax conference. Saturday 5 Octo - geois-liberal “tolerance” of religious ideas and forces number of Labour councils, including Renfrewshire and ber, 12-4pm, Carnegie Theatre, Glasgow Caledonian Uni - that we would do better to challenge, serves no-one. Bristol, adopted a no evictions policy, though Bristol seems versity. [email protected] Jean Lane, east London 5 WHAT WE SAY Miliband and murmurs of revolt

At a Q&A in the Labour conference at Brighton, Ed are and what we have achieved by way of social justice. We displeased left activists in his union by welcoming the “opt- Miliband was challenged by an activist: “When will you are certainly not going to accept any advice on democracy in” talk, also got a standing ovation. bring back socialism?” “That’s what we are doing”, and transparency from the people who brought us the cash “If our party is to have a future it must speak for ordinary Miliband replied. for honours scandals or whose activities are funded by cash workers and it must represent the voice of organised labour. Ed Miliband has, at last, promised to repeal the “bedroom from wealthy outsiders who refuse to give to the Party but Trade unionists are the people in this land who create the tax”. prefer to lay cuckoos in CLP nests” [i.e. the Labour right- wealth of our nation... And everyone in this party — every - Miliband’s obscure and unpopular plan not to count trade wing faction Progress]. one — should be proud of our link with them through their unionists as affiliated to Labour unless they complete a form Kenny got a standing ovation. Dave Anderson MP also trade unions”. to “opt in” was soft-soaped at the conference, rather than bla - spoke in defence of an unabridged union link. Jon Ashworth, And yet, in its gritty detail, this Labour conference has been zoned as a sign of his will to confront the unions. a Labour whip, was put up to speak from Miliband’s office, as bad as other recent ones for arbitrary ruling-out of motions After Ray Collins presented a slipperily-worded report, and later summarised his speech like this: “The priority now and rule-change proposals from local Labour Parties. And as GMB union general secretary Paul Kenny was called to is to ensure all parts of our federal party are engaged in this dominated by windy front-bench speeches. The Labour lead - speak. “The removal or sale of our collective voice is not on debate and of course we must maintain the collective voice”. ers remain committed, in general, to keeping Tory cuts. the agenda”, he said. “We are proud of who we [the unions] Unite union general secretary Len McCluskey, who has After the experience of “New Labour” in 1997-2010, a real democratisation, a proper debate, and an effective assertion by unions and local Labour activists of working-class inter - A workers’ programme to take on the ConDems and Labour leaders ests, was needed in the Labour Party. With only one more Labour conference this side of the next general election, such transformation before May 2015 is very unlikely. • Tax the rich. Expropriate the banks Despite Ed Miliband’s claim that “the era of New Labour has passed”, a Labour government after May 2015, if we get • Restore NHS as public service it, will be only a modified version of the 1997-2010 regime, not something radically different. • Renationalise the railways, stop Royal Mail privatisation The murmurs of revolt in the Labour and trade-union rank and file, reflected in the blips of leftish talk from the platform, • Abolish the anti-union laws are as yet only murmurs. But they are important. This labour • Living wage for all. Ban zero-hours contracts movement, bureaucratised though it is, is the only one we have. The struggle within it cannot be bypassed by instant • For a workers’ government: our class should rule just-add-water alternative left parties. Our task is to build a collective of socialists who will work both at fundamental re-education of the movement and at taking forward every struggle, however partial. Collins: a slippery report

The “interim report” from Ray Collins, presented to party members and affiliated organisations. The most revealing sentence in the report reads: Labour Party conference on 22 September, emphasises In fact, the report gives no information about the feedback “The changes will be put to a special conference this spring the role played by trade unions in founding the Labour received. This is particularly ironic in the light of the report’s because Ed has said he wants them agreed well before the Party. opening page: General Election. They will then take time to implement as It says that the federal structure of the Labour Party “We must go further in letting ordinary people back into we manage the organisational and financial implications.” “should remain”. It promises an ongoing “collective engage - our politics ...” Worrying for the future is the report’s hint that “we need ment” and “collective relationship” between affiliated unions This contrast between the promise of a greater say for “or - to consider the consequences for other party structures in - and the party. dinary people” and an exclusive focus on what the party cluding conference and the rules for electing leaders” after It says that if the Labour-union link did not exist, then it leader has to say reflects a more fundamental contradiction the category of opted-in affiliated member has been created. would be necessary to invent it. in the report. Many Labour right-wingers want a drastic reduction in the It suggests that the scheme to have trade unionists “opt in”, Any literal requirement for trade unionists explicitly to trade unions’ share of the vote at party conference and in floated by Ed Miliband on 9 July, should mean individuals “opt in” in order to be affiliated suggests that the “default” leadership elections. opting to gain “additional rights”, or even an effort “to con - status for all trade unionists is to be “opted out”, and thus If they can point to a number of “opted-in” trade union - vert as many as possible of the levy-payers of affiliated cuts at the principle of collective decision-making (and collec - ists much smaller than the three million “not-opted-out” unions into individual membership of our party”. tive affiliation) by trade unions. at present, then their demands will gather weight. It states that “this individual relationship with trade union If Miliband or Collins were proposing solid measures to members” should not “damage the collective relationship encourage trade unionists to join as individuals - a clear and the institutional links between the party and the union Labour policy against cuts, or to compel bosses to pay a liv - organisations”. ing wage, for example - then that would be good. If they were Defend The Link! Those who want to wreck Labour’s union link are not con - even proposing reduced membership fees to encourage new fident. Serious damage to the link - considered by many members, that would be positive. At a meeting on 16 September, “Defend The Link” de - Labour leftists in July to be a near-certainty, something they cided to constitute itself as a broad labour movement disliked but couldn’t stop - can be prevented if the new De - PRIMARIES campaign to defend the level of trade unions’ collective fend The Link campaign does its work well. But the report’s support for primaries to select Labour voice in the Labour Party. But the report is slippery. Without a strong campaign, se - candidates cuts across both collective input by trade Two unions, the Bakers and TSSA, have already en - rious damage is still likely. unions and the rights of individual party members. dorsed the campaign. Others are expected to follow. The Collins’s language is pointedly vague. He refers to the Primaries would mean non-party-members having a two assistant general secretaries of the public services Labour Party as “an alliance of individuals and organisa - greater say in the selection of candidates than affiliated or - union Unison who are expected to lead the coming contest tions”, using the vague word “alliance” instead of “federa - ganisations and individual members. for a new general secretary, Liz Snape and Roger Macken - tion”. He writes about “collective engagement”, but not The report is full of praise for collective involvement by zie, have both recently spoken at Defend The Link public specifically affiliation. trade unions in the Labour Party. But on the other hand it meetings. The style of the report is bizarre. slyly suggests specific plans which would undermine that With Ed Miliband’s office appearing unconfident on the “Ed wants to ... Ed’s intention is ... because Ed has said ... collective involvement - and presents those plans, not as issue, there is scope for “Defend The Link” to win wide that is why Ed has said ... Ed has now said ... Ed wants ... Ed items for discussion, but as unquestionable since they are support. has underlined ... Ed has proposed ... Ed has asked for ... Ed “What Ed Wants”. In each city activists should set up a “Defend The Link” has stressed ... I want to hear your views on how we meet The ‘interim consultation’ was meant to usher in a ‘major working group which will get out campaign materials and Ed’s objective “. consultation exercise’. But the report simply rubber-stamps speakers to CLPs and affiliated union branches. It is as if Ed Miliband is a god. His wishes cannot be ques - Miliband’s idea and invites further submissions about how it Contact the campaign’s joint secretaries, Jon Lans - tioned. Common mortals can have “views on how we meet should be implemented, as opposed to whether it should be man and Marsha-Jane Thompson, via Ed’s objective”, but not objectives of our own. implemented. defendthelink.wordpress.com. Collins’s report was supposedly based on responses by 6-7 CLASS STRUGGLE The fast food workers’ fightback

In America, fast food workers employed by chains like The “Supersize My Pay” campaign in the mid-2000s es - We also have a presence amongst security guards, and in McDonalds, Burger King, and Pizza Hut have struck tablished Unite in the fast food industry. We won agree - call centres. We have collective agreements with the two back against low pay and bullying managers. Re - ments with the major chains — Restaurant Brands main hotel chains in New Zealand — Millennium Copthorne gional strikes in November 2012 and April 2013 were (which owns Pizza Hut, KFC, and others), then McDon - Kingsgate and Accor. followed by a nationwide strike on 29 August. ald’s, and finally Burger King. It was a long and exhaust - We launched Unite nearly 10 years ago. We currently have ing struggle. The workers’ headline demand is a $15 per hour mini - 7,000 dues-paying members, but because we operate in in - mum wage (most currently earn slightly more than $7). We realised that, given the competitive nature of the fast dustries with 100% staff turnover, we need to recruit around Workers also want union recognition and an end to man - food industry, we needed an industry-wide approach and a 5,000 new members every year just to stand still. Tens of agement bullying. The fast food workers’ movement fol - public, political, and social mobilisation to achieve that re - thousands of workers have been through membership of lowed a similar, and ongoing, struggle of Walmart sult. That involved a lot of strikes, including student strikes Unite. It’s many young workers’ first experience of the labour workers, the world’s biggest private-sector employer. against youth rates, demos, mass meetings, concerts with movement. The average time spent in membership of Unite The movement has a profound significance. Jobs in fast supportive bands. It was a major effort. is one year, and the average time we have a union delegate food restaurants are typical of the kind of work most read - There was another fight with McDonald’s in 2008 to renew [rep] in a workplace is eighteen months. ily available to many young workers — characterised by the agreement, and in 2012, Burger King also pushed back We started Unite as a group of left activists from the Al - low pay and insecurity (the increasingly infamous “zero- and tried to deunionise their workforce by forcing hundreds liance, some socialist groups, along with some anarchists. hours contract”). The workers involved are often young, of workers to resign through intimidation and bullying. The Alliance Party emerged from a left-wing split from and often people of colour. Innovative organising meth - We’ve succeeded in defending union contracts and winning Labour in 1989-91, and when that project collapsed many of ods have been employed, breaking from established or - modest but significant improvements around workplace is - us, including Matt McCarten who had been the president of thodoxies and rediscovering the radicalism of earlier sues like guaranteed breaks and security of hours. the Alliance, saw an objective need to reconnect leftist poli - periods of labour history. We’re quite encouraged by the UK unions’ new focus on tics with workers’ organising, particularly amongst young Prior to the American fast food workers’ movement, the zero-hours contracts. People are aware of that in the New workers. Starting a union from scratch was a radical idea, most successful experience of workers’ organising in the Zealand labour movement, and it’s helped raise the profile of and went against some traditional leftist notions. fast food industry was that of the Unite union in New the issue. Zero-hours contracts are almost universal in the Zealand (no connection to the British union of the same kind of industries we’re organising in and so far, the agree - STARTING POINTS Some of our starting points were particular to New name). Their “Supersize My Pay” campaign in 2006-2007 ments we’ve won don’t get rid of them. Zealand. At the time we launched the union, there’d been won huge concessions from fast food bosses, and the We’ve won a lot more transparency and advance notice for a period of economic recovery and growth after a period union has continued to pioneer radical organising models workers about rostering, and have stopped bosses in McDon - of deep recession in the 1980s and 1990s. amongst low-paid, hyper-exploited young workers. ald’s using shift allocation as an arbitrary reward-and-pun - ishment system for workers, but we’re yet to win guaranteed We thought workers might therefore be more confident NEW hours. We had a big campaign in McDonald’s to win a fairer about taking risks and putting their heads above the parapet. In Britain, there have been sporadic bursts of mili - rostering system, demanding that shifts were offered openly The Labour-led government, which was elected in 1999, had tancy and organisation amongst low-paid, precarious and there was a fair appeals process. We’ve given KFC, Mc - also made legislative changes that made union organising workers. Donald’s and Burger King notice that we’ll be pushing for slightly easier. guaranteed hours and an end to zero-hours contracts in the The strikes of cleaners in the transport and education Previously, union organisers had only been given access next round of bargaining in the two years’ time. sectors (including the first ever coordinated national strike to workplaces to talk to existing members, which made or - Rest and meal breaks are another big issue. We have a of railway cleaners, in November 2012), and small-scale ganising in currently-unorganised industries almost impos - quite a major court case against McDonald’s for failing to but significant attempts at organisation in chains like Pret sible. A new law meant union organisers had more general guarantee breaks. The company has responded by claiming A Manger and Pizza Hut, give glimpses of the possibilities access and could talk to non-union members. the collective agreement wasn’t lawful. That’s ongoing. for what Workers’ Liberty has called a “New Unionism The third factor, though, is more general and is one that From the fast food industry, we’ve pushed into cinemas. for the 21st Century” — a concerted drive, led by radicals others could learn from. We simply had confidence that There are three main cinema chains in New Zealand, and we in the labour movement, to transform our unions to make workers, and young workers in particular, would respond to have agreements with all of them and high membership. We them weapons that the most exploited workers can use to new approaches that gave them the chance to fight for them - have a presence at Skycity Casino in Auckland, which is the fight back, just as the efforts of Marxists like Tom Mann, selves in a militant way. largest private-sector workplace in the city. It has over 3,000 Will Thorne, and Eleanor Marx helped gas workers and We always aimed to be a serious operation — we set up an workers, of whom a third have part time status with only dock workers (who worked under the original “zero- infrastructure and an apparatus with an office, but we oper - eight guaranteed hours per week. hours contracts”) build mass strike movements. ated on the basis of volunteers rather than paid officials. We The organisational forms these struggles have taken wanted the union and its campaigns to be open. A number of varies. In America, the Services Employees International people have lent money or used personal credit cards to keep Union (SEIU, the American labour movement’s largest) the union going. We had no financial or institutional support has coordinated campaigns at arms length, with union of - from other unions. Today we have an annual income in ex - ficials running loose campaign coalitions that include ac - cess of $1m and our 2013 conference will be the first time the tivists from other unions and the community. In New union has been debt-free! The most fundamental element Zealand, Unite was started from scratch by leftists. was our confidence in the working class. In Britain, some established unions (like the RMT in its Although we were setting up a new union, we were deter - organisation of rail cleaners, and bakers’ union BFAWU in mined to be part of the broader labour movement. We affili - its organisation of a Hovis workers’ strike against zero- ated to the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions [NZCTU, hours contracts) have played a positive role, but else - the equivalent of the TUC], and we deliberately chose to or - where organisation has been left to independent, minority ganise in industries where no other union was organising. or syndicalist union projects like the Industrial Workers Unite has also been involved in union solidarity with other of the World and the Independent Workers union of Great workers taking action, with protests against racism, and has Britain. taken action in support of workers internationally, especially Workers’ Liberty wants to spread the stories of in Palestine. these struggles, to help workers learn from each oth - The main political change we want is greater freedom to ers’ experience. Here, we interview Mike Treen, Na - organise — the ability for workers to organise and take in - tional Director of Unite in New Zealand, about its dustrial action without having to jump through so many successes in organising fast food workers. hoops. There’s severe restriction on the right to strike. That Ira Berkovic needs to be addressed, and we need to get rid of legislative Mike Treen was speaking to Ira Berkovic of Solidarity barriers to organising. 6-7 CLASS STRUGGLE The fast food workers’ fightback

If there’s a Labour government, or a Labour-Green coali - tion, after the next election, we want to hold them to commit - ments they’ve made to the unions. There are obvious limits to that, but those political possibilities shouldn’t be dis - missed. Unions need new approaches to succeed in the kinds of in - dustries we’re talking about. The “organising model” that came out of the American SEIU [Service Employees’ Interna - tional Union] in the 1990s was turned into a kind of religion in the global labour movement. It was related to as a mantra, in an almost cult-like way, and it wasn’t working. An ap - proach of recruiting union members one by one can’t work in these industries, because the boss can find out where that’s going on and bully people out of it. ACCUMULATION People often aren’t in these jobs for long enough for that slow accumulation of union members to work or make a difference. In America, even in the places where that slow accumulation has reached the level where it can trigger a ballot for recognition, those ballots are usually lost because employers bring in professional union-bust - ing operations. You need public, political campaigns that provide protec - tion for workers. It’s important to move to public, political, and social movement mobilisation as early as possible in the organising process. That gives workers confidence. The union has to be framework for workers to find their voice and lead struggles. It has to be all-or-nothing. “Supersize My Pay” was a pub - lic, political campaign against the fast food companies which exposed them as exploiters. We went after their “brand”, which they value above all else. The fight for $15 The American unions have now taken a new approach more akin to that, which I think is very exciting. Unions like SEIU and the United Commercial and Food Workers’ Union [UFCW] are financing and supporting campaigns like Our - The growing fast food workers’ movement in America “[Organisers] came in and they saw the struggle I was Walmart and Fast Food Forward, which organise on some - has brought workers who previously had no engage - going through ... They spoke about the strike they were thing more like a minority-union basis rather than focusing ment with the labour movement into struggle, by build - planning, and I decided to jump in and fight the fight.” — on that slow accumulation of members building up to a ing campaign coalitions that put industrial direct action Jose Avila, Subway, in Socialist Worker recognition ballot. They’re bringing the community in — so, to win immediate demands first — rather than making when the union members, who might be quite small in num - union recruitment the end in itself. “It’s not just us out here fighting, there are people across ber, in a restaurant go on strike, they get community activists Here, we collate some quotes from striking fast food the country going through the same struggles, maybe even and other members of other unions to walk back in with workers from the American press. worse struggles, than us. We’re making history right now, them when the strike’s over to give public support and pre - we’re showing that minimum wage isn’t enough, this vent victimisation. “People like me, we don’t have education to get a better job poverty wage isn’t enough.” — Andrew Little, Victoria’s When those approaches gains momentum, workers start ... We have to do the fast-food industry. But the fast-food Secret (the movement has also involved retail workers), to gain confidence that maybe the risk of standing up for industry [doesn’t] pay.” — Gregory Renoso, Domino’s quoted in an article on The Daily Kos . themselves is worth it. That’s the key question — how do you Pizza, interviewed by Joel Rose for NPR. build that confidence? “It’s hard to find another job. This is why I’m still stuck at Our modern unions, in the UK for example, emerged from Burger King for the past four years. If it was easy to find new models of industrial organising breaking away from another job, I wouldn’t be out here right now fighting for craftism. There are some differences in size between the in - $15 an hour and a union.” — Tabitha Verges, Burger King, dustries those unions were based in and the key industries in speaking on the “Democracy Now” radio show. western countries now, such as retail, service, and finance, but a large call centre in New Zealand might have 500 work - “We deserve better ... I work very hard. I’m a single mom, ers or more — which in New Zealand terms is a pretty big I have three kids, and on $7.25 an hour I can’t support them, workplace. and I can’t give them the education I want them to have. McDonald’s employs almost 10,000 workers — it’s one of That hurts all of us.” — Glenda Soto, McDonald’s, inter - the biggest private-sector employers in the country. Those viewed by Lauren McCauley for Common Dreams . workers are young workers, migrant workers, semi-casu - alised workers. Those are the people producing surplus “Supervisors and general managers automatically assume value in New Zealand today. That’s the working class! that they can intimidate workers and make us feel like we Organising in these industries, where more and more don’t have the right to organise, when we do. There can be of the working class, and particularly the young working a change now if we keep mobilising. We came a long way class, in western countries is now employed, has to be by standing together. I don’t see any reason why we should done — by any means necessary. give up now.” — Kareem Sparks, McDonald’s, in Socialist • Abridged from bit.ly/miketreen Worker 8 FEATURE Why I joined Workers’ Liberty

Matt Hale, one of the activists who quit the SWP in its (Unite the Resistance, Right to groups have defected and re-established themselves as the spring crisis, explains Work, Education Activist Net - Revolutionary Socialists (RevSocs). Leading academics re - work, etc.) which are then fused to speak at their annual Marxism political festival ear - In class struggle, politics must always take precedence dropped without explanation lier this year, where numbers were significantly down on over any specific organisational matters. This doesn’t when the “next big thing” previous years. mean a dogmatic commitment to the details of past or comes along. Of course the SWP will not just disappear. Members will current programmes, but serious consideration of how SWP members do some fan - continue to do some good work, but as an organisation it has revolutionaries can begin to forge a mass organisation. tastic work in the unions and in been completely discredited and proved not fit for purpose. The major problem facing the revolutionary wing of the campaigns, but the lack of an Democratic centralism must be rescued from the SWP car - British left is that we do not have a ny such o rganisation that overall strategy for advancing icature. It does not simply mean “unity in practice”; no gen - can legitimately claim to being either that party or the base class struggle and workers’ uinely democratic organisation should demand of its for it. Our organisations are instead largely fractured into nu - self-organisation has tied them members to pretend to hold views contrary to their own. merous different competing sects, most of which at different to the “lefts” in the union bu - Upon quitting the SWP, I immediately joined the Interna - times have been guilty of setting up barriers to unity despite Empty slogans, no strategy reaucracy. tional Socialist Network, which set itself the task of acting as our differences being little compared to our shared political For many years, the SWP a safety net for those falling out of the SWP and regrouping goal. punched above its weight in terms of profile, visibility, and the revolutionary left. In the six months since then, while the The Socialist Workers Party, Britain’s largest revolutionary influence. This much was evident during the height of the organisation has made steps forward, with many members group, is in crisis. The “Comrade Delta” scandal came largely anti-war movement, the student protests of winter 2010/11, beginning to re-evaluate aspects of the SWP’s politics, some out of the blue for me — then an SWP member of six years. and to a lesser degree continues to be the case within the of the old attitudes have persisted. But the S WP also faces a longer-term crisis of orthodoxy. trade union movement. Its supporters make two common ex - It is unfortunate the ISN rejected unity talks, or even any When the SWP first broke onto the scene as the Socialist planations for its relative successes in the past. Firstly the ca - discussion at all, with the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty. Review Group, and later as the International Socialists, it pacity of the SWP to “bend the stick’”, (that is, to jump from Apolitical claims that the AWL are “pro-imperialist”, “Is - marked a significant break with the “orthodox” Trotskyism campaign to campaign or make sharp tactical turns). Sec - lamophobic” and “Zionist” have continued; in fact, it is an constructed after World War Two. ondly, that the SWP adheres to firm “Leninist”, democratic- organisation that stresses the self-emancipatory potential of Before the war, Trotsky argued that war would bring ei - centralist, organisational principles. the working class. Against support for reactionaries like ther international proletarian revolution or the collapse of the But the SWP and its predecessors have never been demo - Hamas, AWL looks not just to the workers of Palestine but Soviet Union — in either case, the Stalinist bureaucracy cratic-centralist. The SWP’s version of “democratic central - also those in Israel who, like other workers, can break with would surely be removed. But Trotsky was wrong; instead ism” lacks the best bits of both “democracy” and reactionary ideas. Against claims of being imperialists, the the USSR went from strength to strength, with a massive ex - “centralism”. It is a caricature of both; the bogeyman of “per - AWL recognises there exist multiple imperialisms; not just pansion of influence. “Orthodox” Trotskyists performed the - manent factionalism” has time and again been invoked the US and its allies but also regional imperialisms like Iran oretical contortions to make the analysis fit, claiming against oppositionists, even when no faction exists. SWP that have their own interests. variously that World War Two had not in fact ended, that leaderships have been willing to act unconstitutionally if the The AWL isn’t the revolutionary party, but believing it has capitalism was indeed in decay, and that the Stalinist bureau - end goal is the defeat of oppositional elements. consistent socialist politics and itself being in some senses a cracy represented a progressive historical agent against cap - Although many on the left feel a strong antipathy towards product of the International Socialist tradition, has a lot to italism. This was the orthodoxy from which SRG broke, it, what happens in the SWP still matters. It was perhaps the contribute to the development of a revolutionary socialist developing theories of state capitalism and the permanent most promising revolutionary organisation since the pre- working-class movement. arms economy. Stalinist Communist Party in the 1920s and 30s. The crisis that emerged in the SWP has opened up op - Today the SWP is largely stale. It acts as a block on the As a result of its crisis, intervention in the outside world portunities to begin to rethink revolutionary politics. That working-class movement, establishing front organisations has been stifled. On many university campuses, SWP student is why I’ve joined Workers’ Liberty. Neither Washington nor Moscow Our Movement Although very briefly the SP’s Manhattan organiser, Jacob - financial support, and general interest, all of which are es - son saw Shachtman’s strategy as cover for abandoning so - sential ingredients for the maintenance of a lively and mean - By Micheál MacEoin cialist politics in favour of Cold War lesser-evilism and ingful publication. Had there been an organisation to sustain capitulation to US imperialism. us during the bad times, we would no doubt have continued Third Camp revolutionary socialist Phyllis Jacobson From 1961 the Jacobsons focused on setting up and run - publication and then would have found ourselves caught up (1922-2010) is best known as the co-editor of the US ning New Politics . Though central to the journal from the in the political reawakening that occurred just a few years journal New Politics. outset, Phyllis Jacobson was finally listed on the editorial later and continues today.” board from 1968, and took on much of the day-to-day organ - But by this stage, Phyllis Jacobson had already contributed Phyllis was born into a working-class New York Jewish ising work. more than almost anyone to the preservation and elaboration family. Her first political activity was in the Young People’s of a consistently democratic current of revolutionary social - Socialist League (YPSL), the youth wing of the Socialist Party TRADITION ist politics in the US. Finger sums up the legacy of the Jacob - of America. Here she met her future life partner Julius Jacob - Though open to a broad range of contributors, the jour - sons, distinguished both as individuals and as a team: son. Both were involved in the Trotskyist faction of the So - nal had kept alive the revolutionary-democratic anti-Stal - “They utterly lacked the requisite yearning for peer re - cialist Party. After the faction was expelled in 1937, it inist Marxist tradition in unpropitious times. spectability. They accommodated their views to fit no polit - “relaunched” as the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). ical fashion; to curry favour neither with academia nor with After a split in the SWP (1939-40), the Jacobsons followed It brought to wide attention such seminal articles as Hal any left mainstream. They fought against the war in Vietnam, Max Shachtman and Hal Draper into the Workers Party. The Draper’s The Two Souls of Socialism and the Polish Marxists without succumbing to illusions about Ho Chi Minh and the organisation rejected Stalinist Soviet bureaucrat collectivism Kuron and Modzelewski’s “Open Letter to the Party”, as well NLF; they struggled against American intervention in and upheld the revolutionary and self-emancipatory princi - critiques of still influential apologists for the Soviet Union Nicaragua, without closing their eyes to the Sandinistas’ in - ples of Marxism. such as Isaac Deutscher. fringements on democracy; they fought against CIA- inspired In his appreciation of Jacobson (bit.ly/ph-ja), Barry Finger Though plugged in to contemporary political develop - overthrow attempts of Castro, while exposing the Castro says it was in this milieu that she “obtained a grueling polit - ments, New Politics was not connected to an organisation regime’s repressive anti-democratic nature. ical education in struggle not only with the much more in - and embodied Hal Draper’s idea of a “political centre”, “They engaged the struggle for democratic unions, while fluential Stalinists who dominated the left landscape, but shaped around an editorial board and journal to which sym - condemning racism both in the ranks and in leadership poli - with the mainstream Trotskyist faction who offered critical pathisers could contribute. cies of the labour movement. And they saw no contradiction support to the Soviet Union long after the revolution was in - In a speech at the “Oral History of the American Left Con - in fighting for both at once. terred.” ference” in New York in 1983, Phyllis reflected on the down - “For that, they did more than most to save the good Neither, though, did Jacobson swim with the current sides of this form of political activity, and how it failed to name of anti-Stalinism from the clutches of intellectual within the Workers Party and its successor, the Independent sustain socialist cadre through the downturn following the conciliators, apologists and outright propagandists of Socialist League (ISL). Rejecting the drift out of active politics heyday of the New Left: capitalism and reaction who were to emerge ever more by Irving Howe and the other “New York intellectuals” “It was the political frustration and apathy that dealt the dominant both on the liberal left as well as the neo-con around the Dissent journal, she was too by the mid-1950s, to - final blow to New Politics . Never an academic publication, right.” gether with Hal Draper, part of the group within the ISL op - although many academics wrote for us, we depended on posing Shachtman’s rightwards-moving “regroupment writers who were committed, often participants in the polit - • Tributes to Phyllis Jacobson and selection of her articles: strategy”, which wanted to dissolve the group into Norman ical struggles. bit.ly/np-pj Thomas’s Socialist Party. “The fact that they grew apathetic meant a loss of articles, 9 FEATURE Mentally ill pushed to jails or streets

As austerity puts the squeeze on the most vulnerable, many containment is provided by police truncheons and CS spray. more people are lurching into mental health crisis. At the While the crisis in the NHS rages, the private sector is ex - same time, services are stretched to breaking point. The men- periencing boom times. With more people needing hospital tally unwell are having to fend for themselves. Todd Hamer admission for mental health crisis, the NHS is having to ship looks at the issues. out patients to the private sector. The number of patients de - tained in private hospitals (paid for by the NHS) has risen by NO BEDS 21% in 2011/12 alone. Between 2002-3 and 2007-8 there was a 17% reduction The bed crisis is so grave that it has extended into the pri - in mental health inpatient beds from 32,753 to 26,928. A vate sector. Sometimes finding a private bed is near impossi - Panorama investigation found that there had been a fur - ble. In London, there is a growing trend for Trusts to seek ther reduction of 17% since 2008. We have lost a third of cheaper private beds outside of the capital. Solidarity has re - inpatient capacity in just 10 years 1. ceived reports that South Londoners experiencing acute psy - At the same time the people needing inpatient services is chotic crisis have found themselves shipped many hundreds increasing. From 2008/9 to 2011/12 there was a 33% increase of miles to private beds as far afield as Newcastle and Wales. in the number of people detained under the MHA at the same time as the number of inpatient beds has decreased. In PRIVATE 2008/9, 32,649 people were detained under the Mental Health Cygnet Healthcare, a major provider of private mental Act 2. This rose to 48,631 in 2011/12 3. health beds in London, has seen a 30% increase in the A CQC report found that 15% of wards were operating tary and private sector. The government has imposed a reac - number of NHS patients on its wards in the last year above 100% capacity (which means patients are either sleep - tionary abstinence focus on drug services, with a funding alone. ing on sofas in the day areas or being shipped out to B&Bs regime that pays services for getting people off drugs and Some NHS Trusts now have teams dedicated to policing during the night and brought back to the ward during the discharged back to their GPs. these private sector “partners” to make sure they aren’t de - day.) The tried and tested harm-reduction approach that the taining patients unnecessarily or bumping up their profits The number of informal (or voluntary) admissions has de - NHS championed for decades has been sidelined along with with excessive treatments. You don’t need to be paranoid to creased over this time but not enough to compensate for the the skilled NHS workforce. Gary Sutton, from the drugs be suspicious of the intentions of a for-profit mental health increased number of sectioned patients. In 2006/7 one third of charity Release, told the Guardian: “A major social experi - hospital! patients were detained under the MHA. ment is underway, the results of which we cannot predict”. By filling its wards with NHS patients, the private sector is By 2011 this figure rose to around 40% and it is suspected But Sutton underestimates the extent of the social experi - accumulating the cash to expand into other areas of mental there will be further increases when the Department of ment. Unlike the rest of the NHS, where cuts and lack of re - health care. Forensic services for people with mental health Health releases new data in October. A recent Health Select sources are part of the history, this situation is entirely new problems in the criminal justice system offers a promising Committee was told that in some areas “being detained is for the mental health sector. Before 1948 there were no phys - site for investment. The patients are long-stay and move simply a ticket to getting a bed”. ical health services for the majority of the population and ill through the system at a snail’s pace. There is also a large po - However, this increase in the use of the Mental Health Act health was treated with prayers and quackery. But “services” tential market. also tells us something about the type of patients who are for the mentally unwell are much older than the NHS. A 2011 report by the Sainsbury’s Centre for Mental Health being admitted. Whilst the Mental Health Act can be abused The imprisonment and containment of the mentally unwell found that 90% of the 84,000 prisoners had mental health there are good clinical reasons why it is necessary. started in earnest in the 17th century. At that time the emerg - problems and 23% could do with specialist treatment. From If a person breaks their leg then they will suffer pain and ing industrial capitalist class were pushing the rural poor into 2007/8 to 2011/12 the number of forensic inpatients rose from seek help. Similarly, if a person is depressed or anxious they the factories and trying to impose some basic capitalist work 1,917 to 2,130. will suffer mental distress and seek help. But a person in psy - discipline (e.g. turning up for work on time, working through The private sector absorbed almost all of these new pa - chotic crises does not experience this subjective feeling of the winter months etc.). There were many people who did tients. That leaves around 20,000 potential patients in the pain or suffering. not comply with this new way of working and the authorities prisons which are also in the process of being privatised. The person who believes that their friend is possessed by responded by imprisoning anyone who did not fit the mould. Companies like Serco, who run prisons and will be looking demonic spirits may seek help from a priest but is unlikely to Michel Foucault claims that by the mid-17th century over to run medium-secure psychiatric units, could make a for - present at A&E. The Mental Health Act exists to contain such one per cent of the population of Paris were imprisoned. tune out of this captive market. people whilst they go through these experiences. Such con - Workhouses and asylums were built and filled with a motley tainment can be therapeutic. In any case, it seems better than assortment of vagabonds, misfits, prostitutes, drunkards, PRICE TAG the alternatives. learning-disabled, and mentally-ill people. Mental health services are generally funded by block The increase in the use of the Mental Health Act suggests grants, which makes them easy to cut. For this reason that more people are entering psychotic crisis and this in turn ASYLUM many NHS bosses want to move to the Payment by Re - is a reflection of broader failure of community services. Over time, and in a fairly arbitrary way, the mentally ill sults where you get paid per patient. were separated out from the rest and the modern asy - The problem is how to attack a price tag onto a mental POLICE lum system was born. health problem. Diagnosis in mental health is notoriously dif - Increasingly Community Mental Health Teams (CMHTs) Much torture and abuse took place in these institutions. ficult. Treatment is also quite hit and miss. And what exactly are discharging patients to their GPs due to pressure This history may also lead us to question the social purpose are the “results”? from new referrals. of psychiatry for a modern capitalist society. However, these Brushing these problems aside, NHS bosses have insisted The GPs do not have the time or specialist knowledge to institutions are the ancestors of the modern psychiatric es - that frontline clinicians use the Orwellian titled “Health of meet the needs of this client group. In 2009/10 there were 1.25 tablishment. In 1955, when the asylums were being closed the Nation Outcome Scale” (HoNOS) to provide them with million users of mental health services. In 2011/12 this num - down, there were over 150,000 mental health beds in Britain data that they hope they can later translate into cash sums. ber rose to 1.6 million. The CMHTs have not grown to meet (compared with just over 20,000 today). Unsurprisingly, the HoNOS data doesn’t make much this growing demand — if anything they have shrunk. The closure of the asylums was made possible by advances sense. PbR was supposed to be implemented in April 2013 Many people who have already been through an episode in medical science and by the then-Tory government’s desire but has been delayed into the distant future. The advocates of of psychosis will notice relapse indicators (loss of sleep, to cut costs. Initially the closures were complemented by an PbR believe that they just need “better” data. high/low mood, increased paranoia etc.) several weeks be - expansion of community provision. Care in the community But psychiatrist Emma Stanton identified the fundamen - fore they enter crisis. It is at this point that they are most was never well resourced, but generally it was a progressive tal problem: “real life is not connected to what the data likely to seek help. Intervention at this stage can avert a full- step forward and it did grow to meet the growing demand. shows”. While it is obvious to most of us that people’s expe - blown crisis. The increase in emergency admissions suggests For many years now there has been no growth in services. rience of mental distress cannot be measured in pounds and that this intervention is not happening because people cannot All services are being cut to levels unseen before in modern pence, this delusion continues to dominate in the minds of access the services they need. Increasingly a person’s psy - history. We are approaching a dangerous crisis point. NHS bosses. chotic crisis is allowed to develop until that person comes to For four centuries the mad have either been contained and PbR is the agenda of city accountants who wish to intro - the attention of the police. shackled to live out their madness away from society or, in duce cash payments to every part of human existence. The Association of Chief Police Officers claim that 20% of recent years, for the lucky few, have been aided on journeys Mental health workers should stop wasting their time police time is now taken up with dealing with people in men - of recovery. The best mental health practice combines thera - filling out the clinically useless HoNOS assessments, and tal health crisis. In 2011/12 there were 23,569 uses of section peutic containment in crisis with a hopeful facilitation of re - demand they are given the resources they need to do 136 (the police authority to detain people pending a MHA covery for less stormy times. their jobs. assessment). 37% (8,667) of these people were assessed in a Increasingly mental health services are not equipped to police cell rather than a hospital. provide either service. Unless we get organised and fight to 1http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23965479 In addition to these problems, specialist mental health reopen the wards and expand the community teams, we face 2http://bit.ly/community-care services are being cut. For example, almost all NHS drug and a brave new world where the mentally ill are left to their own 3http://bit.ly/mh-report alcohol services have been cut and outsourced to the volun - devices, live out their madness amongst us, and emergency 10 FEATURE Understanding the Arab uprising

Martyn Watts reviews Gilbert Achcar’s The People Want: A way as it depends neither on tax revenues nor votes, it was Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising (Berkeley, Univer- even more entwined with the global market for its own per - sity of California Press, 2013) petuation. Whether the mafia-like regime of Lebanon, the despot capitalism of Libya, or the military patriarchy of Al - Unusually for a professor at the School of Oriental and geria, the specific modalities of capital shared a predisposi - African Studies, Gilbert Achcar has become the hate fig - tion to dissolution at the hands of its own peoples. ure for parts of the left over recent months for his per - ceived support for big-power intervention in Libya. The regional political factors of the Saudi “Islamic Texas”, its client relationship to the US, its relationship to Salafism, The nuances and complexities of Achcar’s real positions, and the Islamic capitalism of the Muslim Brotherhood in rather than those attributed to him, have been lost on these Egypt and beyond, have had some influence in shaping both commentators. There are real issues with both Achcar’s po - the origins and the course of the uprisings. Itself the political litical understanding and his academic analysis. They are just antithesis of social liberation, the despotic monarchy of the not those thrown at him by those who see “imperialism” House of Saud has acted, with Qatar, as the nanny if not the (that is, US imperialism) as the main (or only) problem, and midwife of large elements of the uprisings. have confused the debate by evading the substance of his real The co-optation of democratic uprisings by Saudi and and important studies of the uprisings. Qatari sub-imperialism and their proxies has been a serious The charge of “social imperialism”, which created an imag - challenge to liberatory politics in the MENA states. To a large inary bloc of Achcar, the former Euston Manifesto group and extent the Syrian tragedy has been shaped by interventions Workers’ Liberty, has been central to this — as if the escape into some fantastic notion of an axis of evil of social imperi - by Salafists within the revolution and against the democratic alists (socialist in word, imperialist in action) could excuse forces arrayed in the local coordination committees. The mar - the lack of even the most basic study of Achcar’s politics and ginalisation of democrats and leftists by the Saudi and Qatari research. proxies on the one hand, and the support of Russian and Despite the book’s subtitle, this is less a generically “radi - Iranian proxies on the other, has created a stalemate in which cal” analysis of the uprisings of 2010 onwards than a fully the nascent forces of the third camp, of the aspirations of Marxist analysis of the political economy of the origin of the youth and women, have been largely annihilated. upsurge of democratic and working-class militancy. Achcar argues that the specific development of capitalism in At the same time, for Achcar, across the MENA states there It pulls no punches in terms of the spelling out the impli - the Middle East and North Africa made state regimes has been a great display of a universal culture of emancipa - cations of those uprisings and offering prognoses for the fu - susceptible to popular uprising. tion, which has nothing to do with the Salafists or the state ture for working class politics in the Middle-East and North cliques and everything to do with the opening up of those Africa (MENA). states to global forms of communication and universal aspi - The omnipresence of the slogan of “the people want” since of inequality and “precarity” are key factors particularly in rations for freedom of expression and action. the beginnings of the uprisings in 2010 points, for Achcar, to those states where there is a very high degree of “overcon - the collective proclamation, and eruption, of the popular will sumption and ostentatious luxury” (p17). SECTARIANISM of the Arab masses in states which have been largely tyran - So for Egypt, World Bank data (problematic in itself due This culture, equally hostile to archaic tribalism and to nous and oppressive. to its underestimation of the disparities) points to seven times sectarianism, is in danger of extinction — the popula - as much consumption for the top decile as opposed to the tions which sustain it are being physically exterminated REGIMES bottom decile of the population. in Syria. The great contribution of Achcar to understanding these Neo-liberal commentators like Hernando de Soto have ar - developments lies in his outstanding analysis of the na - Achcar himself clearly retains some faith that the secular, gued that Mohamed Bouazizi, who killed himself in Tunisia left, and democratic forces organised within the coordina - ture of those regimes, their relationships with each in December 2010 triggering the wave of uprisings, sacrificed other, and with their own people. tion committees can extend the life of those aspirations in himself for the cause of the “free market” (p22) and that the the face of the extreme violence of the regime and its “Prae - For Achcar, this is no less than a revolutionary dynamic uprisings signify the final entrance of the Arab states into the torian guard”, and the increasingly Salafist forces arrayed which is challenging the nature of those regimes equal to the neo-liberal economy. In fact it is the very specific modality against it. This is optimistic and somewhat Quixotic, but it of neo-liberalism that is itself one of the central factors in the opening moments of the French revolution. has its basis in Achcar’s unwillingness to surrender the idea risings particularly around the distinctive ways in which the The analogies with bourgeois revolutions are telling. of the long-durational implications of the uprisings for a so - MENA states interact with the world economy causing pre - Achcar argues that the uprisings are also about the process of cial revolution which will transform the MENA states and dissolution of the ancien régimes. This dissolution has not, carity and exceptional rates of youth unemployment. Fur - which has only just begun. as yet, produced a social revolution but has initiated “a pro - ther, specific cultural and economic modalities also have Achcar argues that it was clear from the beginning that a tracted or long-term revolutionary process” (p4). In this sense influenced the underemployment of women as well as con - state regime like Syria could only be overthrown by force of the uprisings are a kind of prairie fire which will initiate long tributing to their political and cultural oppression and more, durational transformations in the social orders in which they to the fettered cultural and economic development of the arms due to its tribal and sectarian composition: “The state emerged in those states already predisposed to dissolution whole region. cannot be ‘reformed,’ ‘partially dislocated,’ or simply rid it - and change. Weak economic growth, itself a product of rentier, state- self of its ruling family by peaceful means. Its hardcore — its The similarity of the socio-economic structures of the controlled capitalism and the extraction of natural and labour praetorian guard, above all — must be completely shattered MENA states lies, for Achcar, in their comparable modes of resources for the hyper-rich of despotic families and the flight by force of arms” (p142). production or what he calls the specific modalities of capital - of capital out of the region and away from public investment, Civil war is the only form that social revolution can take ism of those states on the peripheries of capitalist globalisa - has led to a intolerable situation for the labouring classes who in those states where the masses have no other leverage. tion. These specific modalities explain the specificity of the can no longer “live in the old way”. The racketeering and pat - Abandoning that civil war means abandoning the social rev - will to social revolution rimonialism of the states as well as the suppression of do - olution with which it is pregnant. This means that the rever - in clear geographical mestic discontent through ramping up hostility to outside sion to absolute barbarism and the absolute ruin of the confines even when the forces such as the US or Israel has created a political situa - contending classes is a danger worth facing because only states themselves — ab - tion in which the state cliques are largely economically inde - then can the logic of revolution be ultimately fulfilled. solutist monarchies, cor - pendent from the tax revenues of the masses and also become Achcar at this point elaborates the differences between rupt semi-democracies, immunised from any sense of political dependence on that Syria and the Libyan uprising, making the point that any con - despotic and bureau - population. ception of the democracy activists at the beginning that cratic state tyrannies — The textbook case of this is Libya, as Achcar correctly notes. peaceful demonstration would succeed in any way was a seem to widely differ. The state family clique had annihilated even the most molec - grave mistake, citing Babeuf on the necessity of civil war for The elaboration of those ular form of representative democracy, and oil revenues (al - social revolution and again making the analogy between the specific modalities lies in though sometimes invested in quixotic state engineering third estate and the Syrian rebels at the same time as he the MENA developmen - ventures for vanity reasons) were channelled directly into the recognises how far the uprising has been co-opted by the re - tal crisis and blockage to Swiss bank accounts of the extended Qadaffi clan. In Libya, actionary forces of clerical fascism. its capital development. and elsewhere, the state bourgeoisie was entwined with the This failure to recognise the reality of where the uprising The demographic rev - inherited, autocratic patrimony of the clan system, even has come to in no way undermines the rest of Achcar’s out - olution in the MENA when that patrimonialism was tempered by so-called “re - standing analytic survey of the MENA uprisings and their states and the problem of publican” rational-legal authority — just as vile and nepotis - implications. the GDP average growth tic as any other form of cliquedom. It is for the workers now to both survive the catastro - rate which Achcar links Further, because the state clique does not depend upon the phe and give birth to the new society that might emerge Gilbert Achcar to substantial questions domestic market for its own economic sustenance in the same from the demonstrations and ruined cities of the east. 11 REPORTS Teachers: build in workplaces! Higher Education

By Patrick Murphy, 90% of teachers and have workers ballot for NUT Executive (pc) the power to close most schools. The members of On 1 October, members each are more likely to of teaching unions NUT come out if they are doing strikes and NASUWT will strike so jointly with members of the other. for one day in about one By a UCU activist a strike is vital to stop this NASUWT is, however, third of the country — in - attack on our living condi - cluding Yorkshire, the one of the most tightly-con - Higher education unions tions. Midlands, and the East - trolled unions in Britain are balloting for strike The last significant pay ern region of England. with no tradition whatever action after a miserly rise HE staff received was This follows a one-day of dissent or independent pay offer of 1% from back in 2008. That was the regional strike in the North rank-and-file organisa - university employers. final instalment of a three- tion.The slow pace of ac - West on 27 June. The plan In the past four years year pay deal achieved by tion since then reflects the is for the two unions to pay in the sector has been industrial action in 2006. ability of the NASUWT to hold a third regional strike cut by 13% in real terms, But since then proper pay shape the strategy of the in London and the south on and thousands of workers rises have been the pre - 17 October, followed by a NUT. They are able to do still receive less than the serve of a select few. national strike before the this because of the caution, Living Wage of £7.45 an There are now over end of the Autumn term. timidity and lack of bold - hour. This is despite a 2500 individuals working At that point all members paign. The date for the cerns of the dispute are ness of the “left-led” NUT. backdrop of strong finan - in the sector who earn in England will have taken promised national strike paying more to work If this campaign can be cial results in the higher more than £100,000 a two days of strike action has very pointedly not longer for a worse pension rescued, it will be through education sector, which year. High salaries are though there will have been named by the two and the end of national a substantial escalation of has benefited from the routinely offered as uni - been four days of action. unions. There are very real pay, this suspension makes the current action, the rise in tuition fees and has versities poach “star” re - Beyond November it isn't and understandable fears no sense at all. The Welsh growth of stronger organi - a £1.1 billion operating searchers in an attempt to at all clear what the plan is. that it will either be pushed government has no power sation at school level, and surplus. But less of this in - up their international The action aims to stop into January or won't take whatever to affect the pay the active building of seri - come is going to staff: as a rankings. Pay is becoming government attacks on place at all. and pension proposals. ous action on workload in percentage of university less equal and will stay teachers’ conditions, in - One of the dispute’s schools and local branches. budgets pay has fallen that way unless staff put We should mobilise en - cluding the worsening of WALES main strengths is also the from 58% in 2001-2 to up a serious fight to get a Wales was to be called ergetically for the strikes, pension rights, the substan - source of its weakness. 55.5% in 2011-12. decent rise for everyone. out on the October continue to look for a tial deregulation of na - NUT, the biggest teachers' Universities can well af - The nature of university strikes too. way to turn them into a tional pay, and the plans union, reached an agree - ford to pay a rise above work means that action ment with NASUWT, the strategy that can win and announced by Michael However, members there inflation and UCU, Unite short of strikes – like the second biggest, last year build in the workplace to Gove to lift all limits to the have been stood down on and Unison are all ballot - 2006 marking boycott – is which promised more ef - working day and the the basis of talks and some make sure we are ing for strike action on often more effective than fective non-strike and school year. unspecified (but almost stronger, more united pay this autumn. Ballots one- or two-day strikes. strike action on all these The high stakes in this certainly very minor) con - and less dependent on for Unison and UCU are But the UCU leadership is fronts. The idea of such an dispute are hardly re - cessions on workload the union tops next time. now underway and Unite insisting action can only alliance is a no-brainer in flected, however, in the se - promised by the Welsh ed - follows shortly. A strong go ahead with a yes vote most schools. Together the riousness and coherence of ucation minister. Given • Abridged from Yes vote for both strike for both strikes and action two unions represent 85- the union leaderships' cam - that two of the crucial con - bit.ly/nut-strike action and action short of short – so that if gung-ho employers try to impose punitive sanctions for ac - tion short we can move Firefighters’ nationwide strike straight to strikes without an additional ballot. Last year this position led to By Darren Bedford out. The FBU has invited 78 and 2002-03 pay strikes might prove difficult for the fiasco of staff voting trade unionists and other were the other two. How - firefighters elsewhere to for action short (but not Firefighters in England supporters to visit picket ever the London FBU, improve”. strikes) and the union and Wales take strike ac - lines and show solidarity. which has been the most The motion adds that de - calling no action at all! tion on Wednesday 25 Matt Wrack, FBU general vocal in pressing for action It is essential that this volution “does not have to year we get a strong yes September in response secretary has called it “a in recent weeks, has also mean devolution in the Fire to government attacks on warning shot” to the gov - expressed disquiet at the vote on both questions – Brigades Union. This is not and no more excuses firefighters’ pensions, ernment, implying that fur - decision by the union’s ex - about denying the demo - which would see them from the union leader - ther action will follow if no ecutive council to exempt cratic rights of Scotland pay more, work longer ship. progress is made in negoti - Scotland FBU members FBU members. It is about and receive reduced ben - ations. No further dates from strike action, in order recognising that we are a efits on retirement. have been named. to discuss proposals tabled national union and this is a The four-hour strike is The action will be the by the Scottish govern - national campaign. As Oil refinery workers’ strike vote third national strike in the expected to be solid, after a ment. such, all firefighters have union’s history – the 1977- The London FBU re - strong yes vote and turn- an interest in recent devel - By Dale Street claimed his (alleged) in - gional committee submit - opments in Scotland and volvement undermined ted an emergency are entitled to take a view Unite members in the their trust in him, and Hovis workers win resolution, stating that “We on them. It cannot conceiv - Ineos oil refinery in suspended him from his believe that now is not the Grangemouth, Scotland ably be right, in a national job. A strike threat forced By Ollie Moore The strike had already time for a move away from are voting on whether to campaign, for a minority of them to back down, but succeeded in ending ”zero the unified, joined-up, na - take industrial action in despite Unite and Stevie Hovis bakery workers hours” contracts among tional campaign of the last firefighters, by default, to defence of senior shop determine the outcome for having been cleared of have ended their strike directly employed work - two years and towards an steward Stevie Deans. any wrongdoing, Ineos with an agreement that acceptance that the out - everyone else”. ers. These points are im - Stevie is chair of Falkirk are continuing discipli - agency labour “will only come for firefighters in this Bakers’ union official portant and indicate a Labour Party. He was sus - nary procedures against be used when there is dispute will be determined Geoff Atkinson called the potential weak point for pended in June after na - him. insufficient commitment deal “a landmark”. by geography”. further action. The key tional party officials by employees to work They point out rightly • For more information, raised allegations against overtime and banked For more info, see that “any local settlement question firefighters are see • Unite. Ineos bosses hours.” bit.ly/bfawu-statement would, in reality, set a asking is: after the strike, bit.ly/stevie-strike benchmark upon which it what next? Islamist atrocity in Nairobi

Solidarity Islamists stormed a Second: a pretence of & Workers’ Liberty shopping mall in anti-imperialism does not Nairobi, Kenya, on 21 make Islamism progres - September. As we go to sive. press, they are known The Islamists were re - to have killed 62 people sponding to the Kenyan and injured 170. army’s action in Somalia. The killers released peo - They targeted a posh ple only if they could shopping mall — “a prove they were Muslims. place”, as a spokesperson The events should ham - told Al Jazeera (23 Sep) mer home three things “where there are Jewish often denied on the left. and American shops”. First: Islamists are dif - But in no way does it ferent from specially reli - contribute to any libera - gious Muslims. tion to kill tourists, or bet - Islamists are right-wing, ter-off workers, or fascistic political people shopworkers, or children who use and abuse Mus - caught up in the gunfire lim religion for their polit - — or people of any sort ical ends. They are not targeted as being Kenyan primarily religious, any and non-Muslim? more than Spain’s dictator Third: the chief victim from 1939 to 1976, Franco, of the Islamists is not was primarily a good “imperialism”, but the Christian. ordinary people (includ - They are enemies of or - ing, most often, the dinary Muslims, as Muslim people) of the Franco was of most of countries where they Spain’s Christians. are based. Left: vigil for Paul Fyssas in Athens. Right: around 300 anti-fascists gathered in solidarity outside the Greek Greek embassy. The vigil included the London branch of Syriza and Antarsya, the Anti-Fascist Network, Unite Against Fascism and the KKE. Stathis Kouvelakis from workers Syriza London spoke about Pavlos Fyssas’s life as a metal worker, trade unionist and rapper who educated people through his music. He spoke about the need for a unified response to fascism in rally against Greece. Stathis stressed that such unity would not be possible with political parties Break the pay freeze! that are involved in implementing austerity By Gerry Bates measures which have bred On 23 September Labour Party conference passed a the desperation that has motion against the public sector pay freeze, which fascist killers allowed Golden Dawn to the Labour leaders have promised to continue, and grow. for the Living Wage to be made law. Dan Rawnsley Speaking for the motion, Dave Prentis, general secre - tary of the public services union Unison, called for “a By Theodora Polenta newspapers carried pictures ried out the attack on Paul, euros to burn a car, 1500- clear unambiguous Labour promise to turn a statutory of the killer hugging promi - and the attack in Perama, 2000 euros to send someone minimum wage into a living wage”. He continued: “The At midnight on Tuesday nent Golden Dawn MPs. near Piraeus, on 12 Septem - to the hospital for a month. pay freeze must end. No ifs, no buts — a clear commit - 17 September, anti-fascist Golden Dawn leader Ilias ber, which hospitalised nine On 18 September, thou - ment to end the Tory pay freeze”. musician Paul Fyssas was Kasidiaris said that who - Communist Party (KKE) sands of anti-fascists filled The actual text voted on — a composite of motions put knived to death in Pi - ever dared accuse Golden members who had been fly - the streets of the Keratsini to conference on the question — had been made vaguer. raeus, near Athens, by a Dawn for the murder posting. district of Piraeus and of Labour officials briefed the media (inaccurately) that “the fascist, Giorgos would be prosecuted. They are equipped with dozens of cities nationwide. party’s official policies are decided by its National Execu - Roupakas. But the killer had asked weapons, hidden from po - On 21 September, a new tive” (not conference) ( Guardian , 23 September). Thirty thugs from the fas - his wife to dispose of his lice raids thanks to informa - demonstration in Piraeus But the conference wanted clear commitments. During cist Golden Dawn move - Golden Dawn membership tion given them by police was called by the seafaring this crisis, workers in Britain have suffering the longest ment were waiting outside card. He was working at a who are members of and ship-repair unions. squeeze on real wages since records began. the cafe where Paul was Golden Dawn café. His wife Golden Dawn. Under this pressure, Golden Bosses have increased their wealth and income through watching a football match. was the cleaner at the Golden Dawn makes Dawn postponed all its class struggle. A working-class fightback can shift the They had been mobilised by Golden Dawn local office. money by selling the events planned for the balance. mobile phone. An interview given by a clothes that their sympa - weekend. The question now is whether activists can make Thirty against one! And former member of Golden thisers give them as “soli - A big anti-fascist rally our unions act on Prentis’s declaration, both by or - even then, they relied on Dawn to the newspaper darity for the has been called by the ganising and supporting workers to win wage rises in their chosen thug, Ethnos (20 and 21 Septem - underprivileged”, to Pak - unions in the private and our industries, and by using union voting strength in Roupakas, to do the killing. ber), and other reports, re - istani immigrants who sold public sector in Athens on the Labour Party to make a future Labour govern - Then Roupakas’s party vealed that at Golden Dawn them at street markets. Wednesday 25th, the day ment end the pay freeze and make the Living Wage disowned him. Pretended offices there is a closed core They have set up tariffs. 100 of a general strike of pub - the legal minimum wage. not to know him! of activists under military euros to break an arm, 200 lic sector workers. • More on Labour Party conference, page 5 The internet and the discipline. Such people car - euros to break a leg,1000 • More, page 3