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ISSN 1758-5708 www.thesocialistcorrespondent.org.uk Issue Number 31 Summer 2018 TThhee £3.00 Socialist CCSoororrrceeissapplooinsntddeenntt

An ever-deepening crisis on the railways Calls for rail nationalisation grow

n Tories stagger from one crisis to another ppaaggee 44

n A more dangerous n Syria: the West’s war n 100 years of world with Trump votes for some page 6 will continue page 8 women page 13

n Modern slavery: the n Eight weeks that n 200 years on, why neoliberal UK model transformed politics Karl Marx was right page 15 page 30 page 34 No31_Layout 1 06/06/2018 05:34 Page 2

ISSUE NO. 31 Contents SUMMER 2018

Discussion, debate and authors’ opinions: To encourage the broadest possible discussion and debate around the aims of exposing capitalism and promoting socialism, we hope our readers appreciate that not all the opinions expressed by individual authors are necessarily those of The Socialist Correspondent.

Tories stagger from one Palestinian defiance crisis to another to apartheid Israel SCOTT M cDONALD BRIAN DURRANS Page 4 Page 20

A more dangerous world S. African lesson of hope with Trump for Palestine ALEX DAVIDSON CHRISTABEL GURNEY Page 6 Page 23

Syria: the West’s war Cuba 2018: unity and will continue commitment SIMON KORNER PAT TURNBULL Page 8 Page 25

1915: remembering a Short-circuiting history in China rent strike victory GINA NICHOLSON FRIEDA PARK Page 28 Page 11 Eight weeks that 100 years of votes transformed politics for some women ALEX DAVIDSON FRIEDA PARK Page 30 Page 13 The Socialist Correspondent Modern slavery: Podcasts the neoliberal UK model Page 33 MICK WILKINSON Page 15 200 years on, why Karl Marx was right Swing to Labour in PAUL SUTTON local elections Page 34 BRIAN DURRANS Page 18

Pictures: Unless otherwise stated all pictures are courtesy of Commons Wikimedia. Some of these will be attributed to an individual photographer. This does not mean that these individuals agree with the opinions expressed by individual authors or The Socialist Correspondent. Further information: http://commons.wikimedia.org

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To contact The The Socialist Correspondent email the editor: [email protected] Socialist www.thesocialistcorrespondent.org.uk Correspondent Iran Nuclear Deal Commentary Women’s suffrage President Trump’s withdrawal of the This is the centenary year of some U.S. from the Iran nuclear deal has women winning the vote and Frieda made the Middle East an even more shambles, the NHS crisis, the Win - Park looks back at that momentous dangerous place. It will further em - drush scandal and other issues . campaign in, A hundred years of votes bolden Israel in its attacks on Syria McDonald writes, “The British rail for women . and threats to Iran as Simon Korner system is in deep crisis after years of She points out that not all women explains in his article, Syria: the privatisation and fragmentation. Thou - got the vote in 1918 but only those West’s war will continue . over the age of 30; and that it was Israel’s massacre of unarmed Pales - the first time that all men got the tinian protesters in Gaza is an exam - vote at 21 as prior to that working ple of it being further emboldened in class men were excluded by prop - its repression of the Palestinian ery/wealth requirements. people. She argues that much of the main - However, as Brian Durrans argues stream media coverage “lauded mid - in his article, Palestinian defiance to dle class leaders of the suffrage apartheid Israel , “… there is some - movement, neglecting the working thing about the mobilisation of large class women and socialist campaign - numbers of unarmed Palestinians , sands of trains have been cancelled ... ers who fought for the vote.” with its potential to attract support Virgin East Coast has had its franchise She sets out to re-balance the from around the world , that particu - withdrawn ... Four other private rail (non-class) mainstream narrative, larly alarms the Israeli authorities...” companies are teetering on the brink of and takes issue with those today who Israel fears the development of an collapse.” As he points out, “The call do not relate gender and class issues. international solidarity campaign simi - for nationalisation grows stronger and She argues, “For working class lar to that which opposed apartheid louder ... .” women cuts to benefits, poor and un - South Africa. Having lost Michael Fallon, Damien equal pay, lack of child care and ris - As Christabel Gurney points out in, Green and Amber Rudd (pictured ing prices for basic goods mean that South African lesson of hope for Pales - below) from her cabinet the Prime their enemy is not men so much as tine , “In the 1970s the situation in Minister may have to sacrifice Grayling the system which imposes these con - South Africa did seem almost as her Transport Secretary. ditions on them.” hopeless. ... Anti-apartheid ac - Elsewhere in the article he In a separate article, 1915: Remem - tivists did not think the end refers to the House of Com - bering a rent strike victory she reports was in sight . But they contin - mons joint committee report on on the unveiling of a statue in Glas - ued to campaign ... in the end the collapse of Carillion, gow of Mary Barbour and her army it came quite quickly ... So ulti - Britain’s second largest con - of working class women, men and mately the message is one of struction company, and con - children, which - through a rent strike hope.” cludes that it is “not just a in 1915 - forced the government to The US pulling out of the critique of how Carillion was introduce the Rent Restriction Act. Iran nuclear deal has another managed but ... it exposes the side to it, as Alex Davidson describes corrupt relationship between Marx at 200 in his article, A more dangerous world Big Business … and the Tory govern - 2018 is the bi-centenary of the birth with Trump , with the US’ western al - ment.” of Karl Marx. Paul Sutton in his, lies very unhappy with its decision 200 years on, why because it upsets their business inter - Modern Slavery Karl Marx was ests. Mick Wilkinson traces the growth of right , recounts Western companies, especially the modern slavery in Britain in, Modern Marx’s life as a oil companies, were re-entering Iran slavery: the neo-liberal UK model . show - revoulutionary in following the lifting of sanctions and ing that “forced labour in the UK is theory and practice now they are having to pull out to widespread and increasing, perpetrated and concludes that avoid risking their interests in the US. by criminal gangs, unscrupulous gang - “in the range of Inter-imperialist rivalries have come masters and employment agencies ... concepts Marx in - to the fore since the defeat of the who operate almost with impunity troduces to explain Soviet Union and they are not leading within a de-regulated labour market.” capitalism is a rich - to a more peaceful world. He argues that “There is growing ness of theory that has not since been anger at labour exploitation ... never- equalled.” Tory government in crisis ending revelations of business impropri - In commemorating Marx’s bi-cen - As Scott McDonald describes in his ety, of corporate and political negligence tenary, Paul Sutton writes that Marx article, Tories stagger from one crisis to (Grenfell), and, with the fall-out from “remains a source of continuing in - another, the government is unable or the Windrush scandal still upon us, at spiration for those seeking a different unwilling to deal with the rail system the appalling treatment of migrants.” and a better world”

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Tories stagger from one crisis to another Tories stagger from one crisis to another

The Tory government in Britain is staggering from one crisis Windrush scandal to another. Amber Rudd was forced to resign as Home Secretary when an audit of docu - ments threw up several memos to and By SCOTT McDONALD from Rudd discussing targets for depor - tations for 2018-2019. The list of issues includes the Grenfell Stagecoach (90%) and Virgin (10%), These memos included one she wrote Tower fire, the shambolic state of the had its contract terminated in June and to Prime Minister May setting-out her in - rail system, the NHS crisis, the Win - its operations were passed to the gov - tention to increase deportations by 10%. drush scandal, the collapse of Carillion ernment-owned operator of last resort, The revelation sharpened the focus on and the Brexit negotiations. London North Eastern Railway the role of the Prime Minister, the archi - Prime Minister, Theresa May, has lost (LNER). tect of the “hostile environment” policy close friends and allies, Amber Rudd Four other private rail companies are that ended up persecuting the Windrush and Damien Green, from her cabinet teetering on the brink of collapse. generation. and before them Defence Secretary, Sir Meanwhile the rail unions have been In 1948 the ex-troopship ‘Empire Michael Fallon. Windrush’, ar - Chris Grayling GONE GONE GONE NEXT TO GO? rived at Tilbury could be next to Docks from Ja - go. maica with 482 Grayling, Jamaicans on Transport Secre - board, emigrat - tary, is in charge ing to Britain. of Britain’s rail These were the system, which is first group of in deep crisis migrants from after years of pri - the West Indies vatisation and to help re-build fragmentation. post-war Britain Thousands of and many others trains have been Sir Michael Fallon Damien Green Amber Rudd Chris Grayling followed from all cancelled or de - over the Commonwealth. layed across great swathes of the coun - taking industrial action for over two A 1971 law gave them indefinite leave try as new timetables are introduced years to put safety first rather than pri - to remain in Britain. Over the years bringing misery to thousands of people. vate profits. since, they and their families have made It is reported that people are losing their The call for rail nationalisation grows a great contribution to British society. jobs because they have been late for stronger and louder as the crisis deepens However, many did not formalise their work so often. and already has majority public support. status because they were children who Virgin East Coast has had its fran - The Tories have lost the argument and arrived on their parent’s passports and chise withdrawn, the third instance of are faced with an ever-deepening crisis never applied for their own. the East Coast franchise being removed. on the railways. Grayling may have to be Some of these, in the “hostile environ - Virgin East Coast, which is owned by sacrificed. ment” created by Mrs May, have suf -

An ever-deepening crisis on the railways - calls for rail nationalisation grow

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Tories stagger from one crisis to another

fered abominably. Anthony is not that it collapsed, but how it (1) Brian, who lives in Edmonton, HOSPITAL BEDS per 1000 PEOPLE kept going for so long. (4) North London, decided to go “Richard Adam, as Finance Di - abroad after 50 years living in Country Beds per 1000 people rector between 2007 and 2016, was Britain. the architect of Carillion’s aggres - As a consequence of not hav - Germany 8.13 sive accounting policies. His volun - ing the ‘correct’ papers he subse - Poland 6.63 tary departure at the end of 2016 quently lost his job, was detained was, for him, perfectly timed. twice and was almost deported to France 6.13 “He then sold all his Carillion Jamaica, a place he does not shares for £776,000, just before ... know. His case is far from Spain 2.98 their value plummeted. These were unique. Turkey 2.68 the actions of a man who knew ex - The Tory government was actly where the company was head - forced into making an apology to UK 2.61 ing once it was no longer propped the Windrush generation and up by his accounting tricks.” then, when Rudd was found to be lying The Report is also highly critical of its about deportation targets, she resigned. bursaries for student nurses, midwives auditor, KPMG, advisers including De - and allied professionals and replaced it loitte and EY as well as the Pension Reg - NHS with tuition fees and loans in August ulator. “KPMG audited Carillion for 19 The National Health Service in the UK 2017. years, pocketing £29 million in the is under pressure, underfunded and un - Since the change UCAS revealed a process … KPMG should take its own derstaffed. The growing crisis is blamed 23% reduction in applications in Eng - share of responsibility for the conse - on an ageing population by the Tory land for courses beginning the following quences.” government. term. “By the end, a whole suite of advisors However, if one compares the UK ... were squeezing fee income out of healthcare system with other countries it Carillion what remained of the company. £6.4 becomes obvious that government policy Carillion was the UK’s second biggest million disappeared on the last working is the problem leading to a system in construction company until its collapse. day as the directors pleaded for a tax - crisis. It went into liquidation in January 2018 payer bailout. The UK has historically spent less on with liabilities of nearly £7 billion and “Chief among the beneficiaries was health when compared with the Organi - just £29 million in cash. EY, paid £10.8 million for its six months sation for Economic Cooperation and Yet it had paid a record dividend of of failed turnaround advice as Carillion Development averages. U.K. health £79 million and large bonuses to senior moved inexorably towards collapse. The spending per head is markedly lower executives for performance in 2016. Pensions Regulator’s feeble response to than other countries such as France, Thousands of people lost their jobs, it the underfunding of Carillion’s pension Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. left a giant pension deficit and huge scheme was a threat to impose a contri - The figures for the number of hospi - debts. Much of its work was on public bution schedule, a power it had never – tal beds shows this dramatically. (See sector contracts and its collapse brought and still has never – used … The Pen - table above) into focus the disastrous nature of PFI. sions Regulator failed in all its objectives The social care system is in meltdown, It also highlighted the corrupt relations regarding the Carillion pension scheme. there is a lengthening of queues for treat - between big business and the Big Four Scheme members will receive reduced ment and the NHS uses agency staff at accountancy and audit firms. pensions. The Pension Protection Fund a huge cost. High rates charged by agen - A House of Commons joint committee and its levy payers will pick up their cies are a problem but the staff shortages investigated the collapse of Carillion and biggest bill ever.” in the NHS are the root of the problem. its report is devastating in its criticisms. The Report is not just a critique of Mark Porter, the British Medical As - “Carillion’s business model was an un - how Carillion was managed but it ex - sociation council chairman, says reliance sustainable dash for cash. The mystery poses the corrupt relationship between on agency staff is a “sign of stress on the Big Business, the accountancy Big Four, system and the result of poor workforce and the various so-called Regulators. planning by government. We need to ad - The House of Commons joint The Tory Government was still award - dress the root causes of the recruitment committees’ report ... exposes ing huge contracts to Carillion after it be - and retention problem in many parts of came clear that it was in deep financial the NHS”. (2) the corrupt relationship be - trouble. Peter Carter, chief executive and gen - tween Big Business, the ac - The report by the two House of Com - eral secretary of the Royal College of countancy Big Four, and the mons committees is in fact an indictment Nursing, said that instead of relying on various so-called Regulators. of 21st century British capitalism. agencies, efforts should be made to re - tain a skilled and experienced workforce. FOOTNOTES He said, “A lack of investment in The Government was still nurse training and cuts to nurse numbers awarding huge contracts to 1. OECD Data at mean that trusts now have no choice but www.data.oecd.org Carillion after it became clear 2. Guardian , 3 June 2015. to pay over the odds for agency staff and that it was in deep financial recruiting overseas.” (3) 3. Ibid. Jeremy Hunt, the government Health trouble. The report is ... an 4. Joint report, Work and Pensions Secretary, introduced curbs on the use indictment of 21st century Committee / Business, Energy and of employment agencies in the National British capitalism. Industrial Strategy Committee , UK Health Service, but then scrapped NHS Parliament, 16 May 2018.

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A more dangerous world with Trump A more dangerous world with Trump

Since Trump became President of the United States the Royal Dutch Shell, which had been negotiating with Iran to develop a giant world has become an even more dangerous place. oilfield there, decided in March the sanc - tions risk was too great. In May, China By ALEX DAVIDSON Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, or Sinopec, a huge Chinese state oil com - Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran certified 10 times since 2016 that Iran is pany, sent a delegation to Tehran to nuclear deal; unequivocal support for fulfilling its nuclear related commitments complete a $3 billion deal to develop the Israel, its war crimes and recognition of under the JCPOA. oilfield. Jerusalem as its capital; support for the Barack Obama said, “I believe that the China National Petroleum Corp., an - Saudi Arabian devastation of Yemen; decision to put JCPOA at risk without other state-owned company, has an op - and the continuing undermining of any Iranian violation of the deal is a se - tion for the $1 billion investment Syria, including parts of the country rious mistake.” pledged by Total for a natural gas devel - being occupied by US forces, are just Ayatollah Khamenei, opment in Iran that the some of his actions which have made Iran’s Supreme Leader, in French company is con - the Middle East an even greater powder response, called for the Eu - sidering leaving because keg. ropean powers to protect of U.S. sanctions. Patrick Iranian oil sales from U.S. Pouyanné, Chief Execu - Iran nuclear deal sanctions and to continue tive of Total, said, “What When President Trump withdrew the to buy Iranian oil and for would not be good nei - U.S from the nuclear deal with Iran he European banks to safe - ther for the U.S., nor for was criticised by all of the other signa - guard trade with Iran. If Europe, is if at the end tories to the deal, including Britain, this does not happen Iran only Russia and China France and Germany. has threatened to resume its can do business in Iran.” The 2015 agreement, the Joint Com - enrichment of uranium. China is by far Iran’s prehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Khamenei added, “The largest business partner, was signed by Iran and the 5 Permanent Islamic Republic cannot buying about 1/3 of its oil members of the U.N. Security Council deal with a government exports, bringing bilateral (Britain, France, Russia, China and the (U.S.) that easily violates trade to a record $37 bil - United States) plus Germany (P5+1). an international treaty, lion in 2017, up 19% The JCPOA limited Iran’s nuclear pro - withdraws its signature and Ayatollah Khamenei from the previous year. gramme and allowed international in - in a theatrical show brags about its with - China sees Iran as a trade spectors into its facilities in return for drawal on television.” corridor for its “One Belt. One Road” the lifting of sanctions. The European allies of the U.S. are initiative. Trump regarded the deal with Iran as very concerned about the U.S pulling one-sided and “horrible” and as Presi - out of the deal and the likely imposition Israel dent he vowed to walk away from it. All of sanctions against those companies Israel was determined to break the Iran - the other signatories to the deal tried to who continue to do business with Iran. ian nuclear deal and spent a lot of time persuade him and his administration to In anticipation of Trump pulling the and effort lobbying the Trump adminis - stick with the deal. U.S. out of the deal many European tration. In April, on the eve of Trump’s Federica Mogherini, EU Foreign Pol - companies pulled back from business decision on the deal, Israel’s Prime Min - icy Chief, said “it was not in the hands with Iran in fear of their U.S. business ister Netanyahu, in a carefully staged of any single country” to terminate a being sanctioned. show, “revealed” Iranian files which the deal that had been endorsed by a U.N. The Russian company, Zarubezhneft, Israeli intelligence services claimed to Security Council resolution and was has signed a $700 million contract to de - have obtained. “crucial” for world security. The deal velop two small fields that European oil Netanyahu claimed that the files had been struck when Barack Obama companies, the UK’s BP and Germany’s proved Iran had lied when denying the was U.S. President. But, walk away Wintershall AG had hoped to be part of existence of a secret nuclear weapons Trump did, despite the fact that Iran but are now unlikely to join due to U.S. programme before 2003. was complying with the agreement. sanctions. The Observer newspaper reported (6 The International Atomic Energy Au - Russian trade with Iran doubled to May 2018) that Trump associates had thority (IAEA) has said that it has the more than $2 billion in 2016, the year hired Black Cube, an Israeli private se - “world’s most robust verification regime that sanctions were lifted by the nuclear curity firm, to carry out a “dirty ops” in place in Iran” and its inspectors have deal. campaign against Ben Rhodes and Colin

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A more dangerous world with Trump

Lausanne, 30 March 2015: Federica Mogherini of the EU at the top table leading the negotiations for a Comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme. Kahl, top advisers to Barack its overwhelming military In attendance were: John Kerry - US; Javid Zarif - Iran; n Obama and his vice-presi - capability over other coun - Sergei Lavrov - Russia; Wang Yi - China; dent Joe Biden, in order to tries in the Middle East, in - Frank-Walter Steinmeier - Germany; Philip Hammond - UK; undermine the Iran nuclear cluding the widely held view and Laurent Fabius - France. deal. that it is a nuclear power; Black Cube is an Israeli n divisions in the Arab world private intelligence agency, founded in especially between Saudi Arabia and 2010 and includes on its Board, Major nection to the spying operation but The Iran; the U.S. recognising Jerusalem as General Giora Eiland, former head of New Yorker reported that the same fake its capital and moving its Embassy the Israeli National Security Council. company was used to contact Rose Mc - there (5); The company brings together “a select Gowan, one of the principal accusers of n its illegal occupation of Palestinian ter - group of veterans from the Israeli elite the disgraced film tycoon, Harvey Wein - ritory, its continuing expansion of settler intelligence units that specialises in tai - stein, One of Weinstein’s lawyers had communities; and its impunity in killing lored solutions to complex business and hired Black Cube to stop publication of unarmed protesters in Gaza. litigation challenges,” (1) sexual misconduct allegations. (2) The US pulling out of the Iran nuclear Black Cube used a fake company to The withdrawal of the U.S. from the deal has fired-up inter-capitalist rivalries, make approaches to people associated Iran nuclear deal is a victory for Israel, emboldened Israel, and made the world with some of President Obama’s aides which has long campaigned against the even less safe. involved in the Iran deal with a view to deal. Israel has been itching to attack FOOTNOTES discrediting them. Iran. It will now be preparing to attack 1. See website, The company initially denied any con - Iran if that country resumes its nuclear www.blackcube.com programme. Under the heading “Harvesting in In 2018 Israel used the F-35 the Cyber World” it claims that Israel was deter - fighter aeroplane in combat, the “Black Cube has developed innova - first country to do so. Air force tive tools and methodologies to mined to break the Chief, Major-General Amikam handle massive amounts of data. Iranian nuclear Norkin said, “We are flying the F- We unearth useful information for deal and spent a 35 all over the Middle East and our clients and map all potential sources of interest by trawling the lot of time and have already attacked on two dif - ferent fronts.” (3) The F-35 is deep web and harvesting informa - effort lobbying the manufactured by the Lockheed tion from typically inaccessible Trump admini- Martin Corporation. areas of the internet such as the Dark Net”. stration. The U.S is not alone in supply - ing arms to Israel. Britain issued 2. Guardian online, 8 May 2018. Israel’s Prime £221 million worth of arms li - 3. Kubovich, Yaniv, “Israel launched Minister Benjamin World’s First Air Strike Using F-35 cences to defence companies ex - Stealth Fighters”. Haaretz Netanyahu (pictured), in a carefully porting to Israel in 2017. This is a 4. These figures were gathered by staged show, “revealed” Iranian files huge increase from 2016, when it the Campaign Against the Arms exported £86 million worth of which ... (he) claimed proved Iran had Trade. arms, which already was a big in - 5. Only Guatemala, Honduras, the lied when denying the existence of a crease from 2015, when it was Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau and secret nuclear weapons programme £20 million. (4) Togo voted with the U.S and Israel before 2003. Israel has felt emboldened by a on the Jerusalem issue at the number of factors: United Nations.

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Syria: the West’s war will continue Syria: the West ’s war will continue The Syrian war is not about to end, in spite of progress Thus, in spite of American global mil - itary superiority – with the US spending towards peace. It is hard to speak of positive outcomes in at $554.2 billion a year compared to the Syrian war. Russia’s $69.2 billion – Russia has emerged as a credible military adversary. By SIMON KORNER US top brass now accept “we’re back in an era of great power competition,” Over 500,000 people have been killed. linking their HQ to a terrorist bomb fac - as Admiral John Richardson put it. This At least 11 million have been displaced tory 200 metres away, from where the end of unipolar power means regime - 6.1 million of these internally. Never - Failaq Al Rahman group fired mortar change wars will be harder for imperial - theless, there are elements that can rounds into the centre of Damascus. ism to wage in future. be regarded as moving in a positive With the Syrian army released to fight Third – and related to Russia’s en - direction. elsewhere, its current targets are Deraa hanced position – Turkey’s allegiance to First, the Syrian army is winning the in the south, the Golan Heights area on US strategy has been weakened. war on the ground. Assad remains the the Israeli border, and Idlib, where it Not only has its stated aim of ousting country’s leader, and Syria has a chance faces the Kurdish-based and US-backed Assad now been dropped, but its rela - of regaining its sovereign territory – Syrian Defence Forces (SDF). tions with Russia – after the low-point in against all the odds and western inten - A second sign of progress is that Rus - 2015 when Turkey downed a Russian tions. This means that Syria will remain sia has demonstrated it can limit western fighter – have improved. a secular, unitary state, a bastion of Arab aggression, and has begun to broker Turkey is furious with the “US terri - nationalism, with a diverse and tolerant peace talks, the tenth round taking place torial guarantee of a de facto Kurdish society – apart from areas under enemy this July. state”, according to Patrick Cockburn control. The April 14 missile strikes by the US, (Independent , 3 Feb). Syrian troops have cleared out the ter - UK and France revealed the new bal - A recent meeting in Ankara between rorists from Douma in eastern Ghouta, ance of forces clearly. The western at - Turkey, Russia and Iran consolidated near Damascus, and have re-established tackers were forced to heed Russia’s Turkey’s shift towards Russia, including control over all the southern suburbs of warnings of counterattacks, and carefully growing economic ties. Damascus, according to Jane’s Defence avoided causing significant damage and Turkey has agreed a major natural gas Weekly (April 30). any Russian casualties. Syrian air de - pipeline deal with Russia, along with the So the mortar and rocket attacks that fences, provided by Russia, intercepted purchase of a Russian-built nuclear re - have killed 11,000 civilians in Damascus significant numbers of missiles. actor. It is also buying Russia’s state-of- since 2012 are over. the-art S-400 anti-missile systems, Over 65,000 civilians have so far technologically superior to anything in returned to liberated eastern Ghouta, the West. demonstrating their desire to live in gov - Russia, for its part, appears to have ernment-held areas. given Turkey the nod to occupy Afrin The extremist militias in these en - earlier this year, as a way of encouraging claves have gone. The al-Qaeda fighters this broader realignment. among them were evacuated to Idlib in Reacting against the Russia-Turkey re - the north-west and to Jarablus in north - lationship, assistant secretary of State ern Aleppo province – areas in which in - Wess Mitchell has warned Turkey fighting al-Qaeda factions are in control. against leaving the US sphere, saying it Meanwhile the (fewer) IS-aligned was “in the American national interest to fighters were sent to the eastern Syrian see Turkey remain strategically and po - desert on the Iraqi border, where IS has litically aligned with the West.” its last remaining territory – effectively And Turkey’s plans to buy 100 Lock - under US protection. heed F-35 fighter planes from the US The terrorist-linked White Helmets mean that this alignment is unlikely to have also left as part of this evacuation, end soon. and with their propagandist purpose A fourth positive sign is that the US waning have had their US funding strategy of establishing an Israel-style frozen. Kurdish statelet in northern Syria has The group’s terrorist links have been run into difficulties due to the Turkish confirmed since the liberation of eastern Recep Tayyip Erdogan, invasion of the north using the Islamist Ghouta – with the discovery of a tunnel Turkey’s President. militias of the Free Syrian Army as its

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SYRIA

ground troops. European powers to try to defend their new base in northern Syria, big enough The fact that Nato allies are fighting capitalist interests involving Iran – Air - for 1,200 troops. It already has ten bases on different sides in a war, with the US bus, VW, Peugeot, for example – in op - in Syria, officially housing 2,000 US sol - backing Turkey’s old enemies the Kurds, position to US sanctions which cover diers, with at least double that number is inconvenient, to say the least. any trade with Iran. operating unofficially. Finally, not only has Hizbollah become The importance of Iran, Syria and Its occupation of over half the Syrian battle-hardened and ideologically Hizbollah is that they provide an arc of energy fields in the eastern desert area strengthened through its Syria involve - resistance to US and Israeli designs on around Deir Ezzour – as well as its con - ment – with increased standing in the region. trol over the country’s most fertile agri - Lebanon as a result – but its ally Iran is Looking now at the negative elements cultural land – means that it will “be able less isolated, particularly in its relations of the war, it is clear that if the US can’t to keep Syria poor and under-resourced” with Turkey, so that any Israeli, Saudi or destroy secular Arab nationalism, it will in future, according to Joshua Landis, US attack on Iran could see Turkey try to make Russia pay a high price for Syria specialist at the University of Okla - remaining neutral. its strategic advances and sabotage any homa. Moreover, the unilateral US abroga - Russian-brokered peace. In addition, the US commands the tion of the Iran nuclear deal has forced To that end, it is constructing a large strategically important main road from

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Syria: the West’s war will continue

Iraq to Syria, allowing it to divide the is dawning. Meanwhile, Syrian government at - two countries and also block Iranian As Trump put it on April 13: “We tempts to regain administrative control transport links with Syria and Lebanon, have asked our partners to take greater over Kurdish-held territory – offering the weakening mutual co-operation between responsibility for securing their home Kurds protection from Turkey – have so the anti-imperialist forces. region, including contributing large far been rejected by the Kurdish leader - Although the western military setbacks amounts of money.” ship, meaning the war there will con - have produced divisions within the US For financial reasons the US is refus - tinue. ruling class, with Trump’s populist ing to pay the $200 million it had prom - To sum up, the new phase of the war promises of a US draw-down of troops ised for postwar reconstruction, sees Syria “divided into three zones, (“We’ll be coming out of Syria, like, very particularly of Raqqa, which is still in each under a different authority and sup - soon”) being countered by the Pentagon ruins and lacks water and electricity. ported by a different foreign sponsor,” saying it will decide when, and if, such a In addition, the US No Assistance for according to Patrick Cockburn (LRB, 5 draw-down occurs ( Los Angeles Times, Assad Act rules that US funds may not April). April 4), there is little sign of western in - be used for reconstruction in areas under By far the biggest area, with 12 mil - volvement diminishing. Syrian government control. lion people, is under Syrian government France has pushed hard – as it did in The US will in effect ‘subcontract’ the control, supported by Russia and Iran. Libya – to retain a strong US presence in war to regional powers. One strategy A large triangle of land in the north Syria. Britain too has played a major under consideration is to send Saudi and east of the Euphrates, with a popu - role in ensuring the continuation of the Arabian troops into Syria, alongside sol - lation of about 2 million, is held by the war, most recently with its bellicose rhet - diers from Qatar and the UAE, and per - Kurds supported by the US. oric over the alleged chemical attack in haps Egypt, raising the risk of a direct In the north, Idlib province, Afrin city Douma. Saudi-Iran war. Mercenaries under Erik and northern Aleppo province are con - Prince’s Blackwater USA company trolled by al-Qaeda forces, under Turk - would replace US troops, with the cost ish control, also with a population of 2 Although the western military borne by the Gulf states. The US role million. setbacks have produced would then be to provide air power and On the diplomatic front, the US wants divisions within the US ruling co-ordination. to revive the Geneva talks, in order to Israel, the US’s main regional partner, challenge the ongoing Russia-Turkey- class ... there is little sign of is already upping its role in Syria. Hav - Iran talks, which support Syrian territo - western involvement ing launched over 100 air raids since rial integrity. So far, Russia and Turkey diminishing. 2012, Israeli attacks have grown bolder. are willing to participate at Geneva, but A major assault in late April on an un - Iran is not. derground Syrian missile base in south - France has pushed hard ... to ern Hama destroyed 200 cruise and retain a strong US presence in ballistic missiles. Syria. Britain too has played a This was followed by its biggest attack major role in ensuring the on Syria since 1973 – hitting many Iran - ian military sites in Syria and pushing Is - continuation of the war, most rael and Iran closer to war. An earlier recently with its bellicose attack on Syria’s T4 airbase killed 7 Iran - rhetoric over the alleged ian soldiers. chemical attack in Douma. Israel is hoping its attacks will provoke a major Iranian response. This would then give it a pretext for a wider de - Accusations of chemical attacks by struction of Iranian military and nuclear Assad are likely to continue, providing a assets in Syria and possibly in Iran itself pretext for the ongoing western occupa - – alongside the US, more hawkish now tion and further attacks. with John Bolton as National Security John R. Bolton, Donald Trump’s This despite the fact that Syria gave advisor. hawkish National Security Advisor. up its chemical weapons in 2013, with Even if a war doesn’t come about, Is - the Organisation for the Prohibition of rael believes that Iranian involvement in It is increasingly clear that the Syrian Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirming Syria is draining that country’s resources war has been disastrous for the US and that its capacity for producing them had and sowing divisions within the leader - its allies, exposing the limits of their been destroyed. ship, according to former intelligence power. Even the BBC accepts it is a The misleading news stories that fuel chiefs in the Israeli Meir Amit Intelligence “strategic catastrophe” ( Today , April 26). western attacks will also continue – and Terrorism Information Center. And now the scale of the allies’ de - stories provided by sources such as the Meanwhile, regional power Turkey struction is emerging, with a report by Syrian Human Rights Observatory may well refuse to leave northern Syria, UK-based Airwars that over 9,600 civil - (SHRO), quoted frequently by the BBC despite having agreed in principle to Syr - ians have been killed by western bom - as being independent, in spite of the fact ian territorial integrity. bardments in Syria and Iraq – 10 times that the SHRO receives funding from Having supported the western missile higher than previously admitted. the Foreign Office to the tune of nearly strikes in April, it is already appointing Despite this failure, and despite peace £200,000. mayors in the parts of Idlib province it having been established in 70% of the If US troops do reduce in number, in occupies, defying Russian pressure to country, the conflict is set to continue. line with Trump’s statements, regional hand the territory back to the Syrian Western power and credibility are at powers will be used to do the West’s government. Russia’s agreement over stake, as well as control over Syria’s dirty work – thus not a sign that peace Afrin may come back to haunt it. energy resources.

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1915: remembering a rent strike victory 1915: remembering a rent strike victory On International Women’s Day, March 8th, this year a statue private sector are rising faster than infla - tion yet standards for too many proper - was unveiled in Govan in Glasgow to Mary Barbour and the ties remain scandalously low.” working-class women, men and children who campaigned for Maria’s words bring the issue bang up fair rents in 1915. to date. Remembering our history is a lesson for today. We are still fighting for By FRIEDA PARK the same basic necessities of life and through that struggle we can win. The movement was dubbed “Mrs Bar - First World War. With demand outstrip - Scottish Labour’s new leader, Richard bour’s Army” by Willie Gallagher and ping supply, and the law on the side of Leonard, proposed a “Mary Barbour came at a time of increasing working the landlords, poor housing was offered Law” which was agreed at the Scottish class activity, including opposition to the at ever increasing prices. Mary Barbour party conference. It would enforce fair, imperialist slaughter of the First World and her army of women fought and won affordable rents in the private sector and War. rent restriction legislation against all the ensure private rented properties met the The chair of the Remember Mary odds. same standards as social housing. Barbour committee the former Labour “A century on, the private rented sec - MP for Maryhill, Maria Fyfe said: tor is once again growing dramatically, The 1915 rent strike “Mary Barbour led the working class while affordable social housing is ever Fuelled by the First World War, people campaign against rent rises during the harder to access. Average rents in the flooded into Glasgow to find jobs in the

The statue of Mary Barbour by sculptor, Andrew Brown at Glasgow, Govan underground station. Picture: Brian Purdie

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1915: remembering a rent strike victory

demonstration converged on the court and the women were joined by striking shipyard and engineering workers. Concerned at this show of working class strength and the impact it might have on the war effort the Government became involved, ordering the release of the rent strikers. In a matter of only weeks, Parliament passed the Rent Restriction Act, the first of its kind in Europe. It fixed rents at pre-war levels for the remainder of the war and for six months after. A resounding victory for the work - ing class women and men of Glasgow.

8 March 2018 (International Women’s Day) Mary Barbour (1875 - 1958) The unveiling of the Mary Barbour statue at Govan Cross, Glasgow. Mary was the daughter of a weaver and her first job was as a thread twister. Her shipyards and other industries. would keep watch and on the approach political activity began in the Socialist Many men were also away fighting of Bailiffs attempting to enforce the evic - Sunday School and the Cooperative and landlords believed they could raise tions, she would ring a bell or rattle a Womens Guild. She also campaigned rents with impunity. They were very ricketty bringing the other women out to against the First World War. much mistaken as working-class women resist them. It was her leadership of the Rent organised to resist the rent rises. Starting Bailiffs were prevented from entering Strike, however, that brought her to in Govan, those taking part continued to prominence and, at a time when there pay their old rent, but refused to pay any were few women holding office, in 1920 increase. she was elected as an Independent Helen Crawfurd, who was secretary of Labour Party councillor for the Fairfield the Glasgow Women’s Housing Associa - ward in Govan. tion and went on to join the Communist Declaring herself a socialist, in her Party when it was established, told how election address she said: “I do not wish the women fought back: “The Glasgow to draw any distinction between men Women’s Housing Association took up and women’s questions because essen - this issue, and in the working class dis - tially they are one, but I am convinced tricts, committees were formed, to resist and have always advocated that women these increases in rents. should take their full share of public “Cards, oblong in shape, were printed work.” with the words: She would not draw the distinction, yet much of her work was devoted to im - ‘RENT STRIKE. proving the lives of working class women WE ARE NOT REMOVING.’ which she no doubt also saw benefiting and placed in the windows of the houses Mural of Mary Barbour in the children, families, communities and men where rent increases were demanded.” Clutha Bar, Glasgow. as well. They resisted intimidation by the land - She established wash houses, public lords and the strike grew to involve the buildings by crowds of women and baths, play areas, free school milk for around 20,000 tenants by November children and driven back by flour bombs children and was instrumental in setting 1915 - continuing to spread. and other missiles being hurled at them. up the first family planning clinic in When intimidation failed, the land - Matters came to a head when a land - Glasgow. She was the first female Bailie lords went to court to get eviction lord in Partick took a group of rent strik - of the city and one of the first female notices. In each tenement one woman ers to court for non-payment. A huge magistrates.

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100 years of votes for some women 100 years of votes for some women

The 100th anniversary of some women getting the vote in through parliamentary politics and co- parliamentary elections was heralded with a media fanfare opting its party, the Labour Party. The high point of this strategy was the and gatherings of the great and the good. triumph of Tony Blair, New Labour and the removal of the commitment to so - By FRIEDA PARK cialism from the Labour Party’s consti - tution. Much of this lauded middle class lead - Women formed trade unions and cam - But the working class, however low its ers of the suffrage movement, neglect - paigned round issues like shorter work - expectations, still needs someone to ing the working class women and ing hours, better pay and also the right to champion it and New Labour moved too socialist campaigners who fought for the vote. far away from that role. vote. It was from these movements of work - Now a hundred years on we are seeing What was also under-reported were ing women in Europe and the United a challenge to managed, consensus poli - the restrictions which limited the num - States that International Women’s Day tics with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party ber of women who actually got the vote was born, with its first official celebra - posing an alternative to austerity and and, significantly, that it was the first tion in 1911. confrontational foreign policy. time that all men got the vote at the age Early socialist pioneers also advocated of 21. Prior to that working class men for women’s rights including the right to Gender, class and the vote were excluded by property/wealth vote. Working class women saw obtain - The relationship between class, gender requirements. ing the vote as a means of achieving their and other forms of discrimination and The 1918 Act gave the vote to other social and economic goals. oppression which are rife in capitalist so - women over the age of 30 if they were There was economic and political un - ciety is perhaps not discussed as much a registered property occupier or mar - rest among the whole working class at as it should be. ried to a registered property occupier this time, not only in Britain but across Attempts to do so are sometimes met with a rateable value greater than £5. Europe. Opposition to the First World with stiff opposition from the liberal es - They were also entitled to vote if they War was growing and in Glasgow there tablishment who portray any mention of were a university graduate in a univer - class as somehow undermining a com - sity constituency. It was 10 years later mitment to women’s rights and the that all women got the right to vote on struggle for equality. the same basis as men. Describing herself as a socialist and a It was not until 1948 that one person feminist, Laura Pidcock, the new Labour one vote was introduced with the aboli - MP for North West Durham, was criti - tion of the right of graduates and busi - cised when she said she would not “hang ness owners to extra votes. out with Tory women” who are “no So far unremarked upon was that friends of mine” and “an enemy to lots 1918 also saw the election of the first of women”. (1) woman to the House of Commons, In response Conservative MP Kemi Constance Markievicz, who stood for Badenoch said: "For us, a woman in Sinn Féin. power is more important than lots of Markievicz was sentenced to death Constance Markievicz women taking orders from men." (2) along with the other leaders of the photographed in uniform with a gun Pidcock was also predictably up - Easter Rising in Ireland but had her sen - braided in the Guardian by Anne Perkins tence commuted to life imprisonment was the victorious rent strike lead by who sanctimoniously instructed her that: because she was a woman. working class women (see previous arti - “there are Tory feminists Laura” (3) As Sinn Féin do not recognise the le - cle, page 11). Despite the tut-tutting from the gitimacy of the UK parliament she did 1917 saw the Russian revolution over - Guardian , one imagines that Pidcock’s not however take up her seat. Whilst liv - throw capitalism and establish socialism, remarks were uncontroversial back in her ing in Britain she was an active cam - the ultimate expression of working class constituency where its mines and steel paigner for votes for women. power. industry were laid waste by the Tories Faced with these challenges the British under our first female Prime Minister, The right to vote and the working class ruling class opted to try to head off in - Margaret Thatcher. Throughout Britain in the late 19th and creasingly militant extra-parliamentary Whatever the credentials of these so- early 20th centuries women were em - struggles by extending the franchise. called Tory feminists they do not extend ployed in factories and mills and were Since then it has attempted to manage to lifting the burden of austerity which integral to the working class. (and lower) working class expectations falls unequally heavily on their working

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100 years of votes for some women

class “sisters”. For working class women cuts to ben - efits, poor and unequal pay, lack of child care and rising prices for basic goods mean that their enemy is not men so much as the system which imposes these conditions on them. That women are more badly affected by austerity makes these economic and political struggles women’s issues, but they are also issues that they have in common with working class men. Whilst challenging discrimination from men, women taking the lead in cam - paigning round the issues that affect them is critical to undermining those backward attitudes. It is harder to main - tain that women are in any way inferior when confronted by the likes of Mrs 1932: Sylvia Pankhurst in Trafalgar Barbour’s Army. 1915: Emmeline Pankhurst Square opposing British policy Whilst engaging in battles round issues boarding a train. in India. affecting women, men can come on side too as they are also affected by the same ocratic Presidential candidate in the US She was active in the working class issues. A class approach challenges dis - would have been preferable to Clinton. communities of the East End of London crimination and builds unity and equal - An anti-austerity government under Je - setting up cheap restaurants, a toy fac - ity rather than seeking division. remy Corbyn will do more for women tory and offering legal advice to women. In her essay, Revolution and Wom - than the Tories under Theresa May. Political differences with her mother ankind: on Clara Zetkin’s Selected Writ - strained their relationship but she was ings, Angela Davis says: “Working-class The Pankhursts cut off completely by Emmeline for the and racially oppressed women confront The Pankhursts, or at least a couple of crime of having a child outside wedlock. sexist oppression in a way that reflects them, were prominent in the mediafest She campaigned against the Italian in - the real and complex objective intercon - round votes for women. vasion of Ethiopia, eventually moving to nections between class exploitation, Whilst Emmeline and her daughter the country. When she died there in racist oppression, and male Christabel received the 1960 she was given a state funeral. supremacy. Whereas a white most publicity as leaders of Emmeline had been a founder mem - middle-class woman’s experi - the suffragette movement ber of the Independent Labour Party but ence of sexism incorporates a and founders of the Wom - moved far from those roots to become relatively isolated form of this ens Social and Political an enthusiastic supporter of the First oppression, working-class Union (WSPU) the two World War, encouraging women to play women’s experiences necessar - other daughters of the fam - their part in sending their menfolk off to ily place sexism in the context ily were virtually ignored. be slaughtered. of class exploitation and Black Sylvia and Adela She and Christabel mobilised the women’s experiences further Pankhurst were socialists WSPU to support the war effort. Em - incorporate the social factor of active in the working class meline stood for election as a Conserva - racism.” (4) Angela Davis movement and both became tive Party candidate in 1927. For some middle class fem - estranged from their mother. inists like Badenoch and Perkins there is Along with tactical differences they FOOTNOTES a sisterhood that transcends class, how - both felt that the movement had to adopt 1. 3 young female MPs on life in ever, working class women cannot a more socialist and working class orien - parliament – Samantha Magnus change their circumstances by indulging tation taking up other issues central to 10/8/17 such illusions. the lives of working class women such as https://www.refinery29.uk/2017/08/ Identity politics, a term which belittles wages, housing and working conditions. 167058/female-mps-2017 the oppression of women and the effect Both split from the Womens Social 2. The independent – Lucy Pasha- it has on their lives, can have negative and Political Union, with Sylvia’s group Robinson 24/8/17 https://www.inde - consequences. being expelled. She went on, with work - pendent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/laur Putting gender first or denying the ing class women in the area, to set up the a-pidcock-labour-mp-tory-never- centrality of class oppression can lead to East London Federation of Suffragettes. supporting women because they are More or less shipped off to Australia friends-conservative-party- women and not for their policies. by her mother, Adela went on to be a a7910156.html Hilary Clinton’s campaign tried to mo - founder of the Communist Party of Aus - 3. bilise on that basis, but was asking tralia though she later espoused anti- https://www.theguardian.com/com - women and men to support a female communist and extremely right wing mentisfree/2017/aug/24/denounc - candidate who was a war-mongering views. ing-tories-laura-pidcock-mp-westmi neo-liberal. Sylvia had also been active in commu - nster This is not a kind of politics that will nist politics, but parted company as she 4. In Women, Culture and Politics – advance the cause of women and in fact took an ultra-leftist stance at odds with Angela Y Davis. The Women’s Press will set it back. Bernie Sanders as Dem - the Communist Party’s polices. 1990

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Modern slavery: the neoliberal UK model Modern slavery: the neoliberal UK model

Despite having ratified a range of international conventions others have been uncovered in roof crawl prohibiting forced labour and modern slavery, and committing spaces, in cramped caravans, in animal to protect their victims, successive UK governments have pens, even locked in factories overnight. failed to adequately meet their responsibilities in these Employment agencies regards. Some employment agencies insist on pe - riods of unpaid probation work, non- By MICK WILKINSON payment or underpayment of wages is routine, as is the taking of outlandish and That is in part because a cross-party po - trade,’ relating how people were traf - illegal charges from wages. litical obsession with market ‘flexibility’ ficked and ‘forced to work in motorway Agencies employ a range of threats has created the conditions in which such services, as casual labour in ports, doing against those refusing to work extended abuses flourish and in part because the laundry and in nail parlours’ and made to shifts or in unsafe conditions. machinery of labour standards enforce - engage in ‘illicit activities such as shoplift - It is important to note that these are not ment has been allowed to wither on the ing, pick-pocketing and the sale of pirate the activities of a ‘few bad apples’ – such vine. CDs and DVDs on the street.’ (1) practices are endemic across the tempo - Undocumented migrant workers are Victims are recruited across the globe rary labour market and they are hidden particularly, though not exclusively, vul - with promises of agency work, work in within a labour market environment that nerable. As the ex-Director General of the hospitality sector, modelling, etc. is awash with worker exploitation. (3) Immigration Enforcement told the More recently, forced labour has been Since the early 1990s, when John House of Commons Home Affairs uncovered in the car wash trade and in Major’s government abolished agency li - Committee in October 2017, “There's UK fishing fleets and children have been censing, and the UK became one of the probably over a million foreigners here trafficked to work in cannabis farms and least regulated labour markets in Europe, illegally at the moment.” the sex trade by bogus scouts for the number of gangmasters (estimated at They are forced to live an ‘under - Premiership football teams. 10,000+) and private employment agen - ground’ existence and are vulnerable to Perpetrators are constantly changing cies in the UK has proliferated. appalling exploitation, forced labour and their modus operandi to remain beyond This trend continues apace - since Jan - worse, their irregular status and twilight the machinery of enforcement. uary 2012, the recruitment industry has existence rendering them outside of the Conditions for those in forced labour seen a three-fold increase in the total protection of labour-related enforcement are appalling – research in to the activi - number of registered UK agencies, now agencies. ties of UK gangmasters (2) found physical sitting at a record high number of Indeed, since 2010 the government’s and sexual abuse to be endemic, along - 27,788. emphasis on tackling illegal migration side racism, threats to individuals and The labour market has become in - and working runs counter to, and im - to their families. creasingly casualised and ‘flexible’ to the pedes their protection. Victims describe being in a constant point that the UK currently has more state of helplessness and fear, unable to temporary workers than any other Euro - Forced labour access health and welfare facilities, and pean country. Forced labour exists across the UK, it is some were suffering from mental health This was not accidental, since 1979 widespread and increasing, perpetrated difficulties. governments of all complexions have ac - by criminal gangs, unscrupulous gang - They were often living in conditions tively reshaped the conditions of em - masters and employment agencies, who that Environmental Health officers ployment to that end. It is most evident operate almost with impunity within a described as ‘an accident waiting to in the widespread outsourcing of short- de-regulated labour market and a light- happen’, with sometimes a dozen work - term contracts to the point that 80% of touch enforcement regime. This has ers living in two or three bedroomed UK employers now subcontract parts of been evident for at least a decade. houses, with inadequate fire protections, their business. In 2006 Anti-Slavery Successive re-tendering of International’s seminal contracts further reduces Trafficking for Forced employment standards and Labour: UK Country Re - the security of workers. port uncovered forced These conditions, com - labour in ‘agriculture, con - bined with a concerted as - struction, domestic work, sault on the ability of trade food processing and pack - The Anti-Slavery International (1839 - ) is the successor unions to mobilise sent a aging, care/nursing, hospi - organisation to the Anti-Slavery Society which was founded in message out to employers tality and the restaurant 1823 to abolish slavery throughout the British Empire. that traditional worker pro -

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Modern slavery: the neoliberal UK model

tections could be circumvented almost at of 2004, the Gangmasters Licensing Au - economic model has variously involved will, certainly in the non-unionised work - thority (GLA) was established. benefit caps, benefit sanctions, the huge place – and much of the temporary However, its remit was limited to those and rapid growth of zero hours contracts labour market was, and remains, non- supplying labour for agriculture, forestry, and the gig economy. unionised. horticulture, shellfish gathering and food These have combined to create a vast New Labour did little to halt the ‘race processing and packaging, so that work - pool of ‘the new precariat’ at the tail end to the bottom’ in terms and conditions. ers in other sectors where exploitation of the labour force. As Employment Minister, from 2002 on - was rife, including in construction, care, In addition, the ‘hostile environment’ wards, Alan Johnson made it a personal and hotels, hospitality and cleaning, were for undocumented migrants begun mission to resist the EUs Temporary left to the care and protection of the all- under New Labour has been ratcheted Agency Workers Directive on the but redundant Employment Agency up continuously since 2010. grounds that ‘there may be a danger that Standards Inspectorate. Alongside the dog whistle politics of an equal treatment requirement would There followed, in 2006, the much- the appalling “Go home or face arrest” impose administrative burdens that dis - trumpeted opening of the UK Human billboard vans, Prime Minister Cameron courage the use of agency workers.’ Trafficking Centre in Sheffield. announced that the wages of illegal It wasn’t until 2010 that the UK As with the GLA, however, it ran to a workers could be confiscated as the pro - signed up to limited rights for agency shoe-string budget, and whilst it pro - ceeds of crime, the threat of civil penal - workers on equal pay. duced some effective, if short-lived, pub - ties for employers was increased from Another contributory factor was New lic education campaigns and provided £10,000 to £20,000 for each undocu - Labour’s move to encourage the flow of occasional training packages to police mented migrant employed, new duties temporary migration to the UK by ex - and immigration officers, it had no pow - were imposed on banks to check the im - panding the existing temporary worker ers to instruct individual police forces or migration status of their customers, and schemes and adding new programmes, immigration facilities to prioritise the private landlords, their tenants. so that the number of work permits is - search for victims of modern slavery. This hardly generated an environment sued to foreign born workers rose from in which undocumented migrants might 40,000 a year in the mid-1990s to over be encouraged to come forward and 200,000 a year in 2004. identify their exploiters to the authorities. By 2011, the number of non-UK As for enforcement, for all Theresa nationals in employment stood at 2.56 May’s assertion that tackling modern million, an approximate rise of 1 million slavery was a government priority, suc - on the 1998 figure. This sent out a clear cessive administrations since 2010 have message that the UK government was neutered the response of the most rele - prepared to tolerate if not encourage vant agencies. worker exploitation. The Conservatives’ ‘red tape chal - lenge’ and their assiduous adherence to Hostile environment the 2005 Hampton Review recommen - Meanwhile, prominent government fig - dations to reduce the regulatory burden ures - Prime Minister Blair, ministers on businesses, has seen a huge reduction Blears, Woolas and Reid - colluded with in labour-related inspections. the tabloids to generate a ‘hostile envi - Alongside that, the police and immi - ronment’ for undocumented migrants, Tony Blair, one of the founders gration services have been subjected to accusing them of ‘jumping the queue’ of New Labour extensive and disruptive reorganisations, for council houses and seeking to “steal with approximately 20,000 police offi - our benefits, steal our services like the This was a serious omission, given that cers lost and equally swathing cuts made NHS and undermine the minimum to this day it fails to be an operational to Border Agency staff. Both services wage.” (4) priority for front-line officers of either have also seen huge funding cuts. From 2008, New Labour’s civil agency and given that by August 2017, Meanwhile, whilst the GLA (Now the penalty regime imposed significant fines Will Kerr, the National Crime Agency’s GLAA) by a country mile the most ef - on those employing the undocumented, Director of Vulnerabilities was estimat - fective of the labour standards agencies, thus pushing them further down the ing the numbers of contemporary slaves is no longer limited to agriculture and food chain in to the hands of the very in the UK to be in to the tens of thou - fisheries, its resources have been only worst of exploiters. sands, as he explained “The more we slightly increased, which might leave the At the same time, Blair’s much re - look for modern slavery the more we cynic to wonder if the agency is being peated mantra of ‘bogus’ and illegal asy - find evidence of the widespread abuse of deliberately set up to fail. lum seekers served to legitimate a the vulnerable. The growing body of ev - Seemingly oblivious to the collective ‘culture of denial’ at the Home Office, (5) idence we are collecting points to the impact of these measures on tackling rendering hundreds of thousands whose scale being far larger than anyone had modern slavery, in 2014, as Home Sec - applications were rejected with no re - previously thought.” retary, Theresa May announced the ap - course to social welfare and so at the That should actually surprise no-one, pointment of Kevin Hyland as the UK's mercy of unscrupulous employers. (In - because Conservative-led governments first ever Independent Anti-Slavery dependent Asylum Commission, 2007) since 2010 have unleashed a perfect Commissioner to ensure “that modern New Labour’s commitment to unfet - storm of social and economic measures slavery issues are tackled in a coordi - tered markets made them slow to tackle that are forcing an ever-increasing num - nated and effective manner across the the growing evidence of modern slavery. ber of the most marginalised – including whole of the UK.” Eventually, in response to a ground- British nationals - into the hands of the Thus far his role has tended towards swell of public pressure following the exploiters. that of a critical friend, pointing out in - Morecambe Bay cockle-picking tragedy The intensification of the neo-liberal adequacies but having little authority to

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Modern slavery: the neoliberal UK model

rectify them. Unfortunately, the govern - charges. The West Midlands force had phased out in favour of state-run labour ment’s economic, social and immigration recorded 295 offences in two years, but exchanges. policies were not considered part of his these had resulted in only 4 charges Zero hours should be abolished, de - remit. being brought – let alone convictions! cent labour standards strictly and proac - May followed this with a Modern There is also a considerable body of tively enforced. It is not acceptable that Slavery Act 2015, that she proudly cites research affirming that public awareness a vast pool of undocumented labour be in parliamentary debates as evidence of campaigns are having little impact on the left on the margins of society at the her proactive approach, but which is in - ability of front-line workers across the mercy of criminal exploiters. nocuous to the point of embarrassment. statutory and voluntary sectors to iden - There should be a one-off amnesty The then Director of Anti-Slavery In - tify and appropriately report on modern that enables them both to join the regu - ternational termed it ‘a modest little bill, slavery indicators. lar workforce and to identify their ex - with much to be modest about.’ ploiters to the authorities. At the Act’s core is the much-vaunted Social policies that force people into section 54, requiring commercial organ - ... trade unions must be exploitative labour - for instance, benefit isations with a turnover of £36m and encouraged back in to every caps and benefit sanctions - should be above to publish a statement setting out abolished. what steps they have taken to ensure that employment sector, every Root and branch reform of the asylum modern slavery is not occurring in their workplace - none are more process is an essential. business or supply chains. Last, but not least, the trade unions Thus far, no sanctions are attached attuned to the indicators of must be encouraged back in to every and recent studies suggest that lip serv - labour exploitation, none employment sector, every workplace – ice is being paid to the requirement. more dedicated to its none are more attuned to the indicators of labour exploitation, none more dedi - Thousands of victims eradication. cated to its eradication. Enforcement outcomes to-date have Just a short time ago, such measures been pitiful. would have appeared unrealistic. Public In 2010, Labour MP Emma Reynolds For instance, many police forces con - attitudes are rapidly changing. asserted in the 2010 Parliamentary tinue to demonstrate insufficient under - There is growing anger at labour debate on Trafficking: “With our coun - standing of the nature and scale of modern exploitation, particularly of the young, at try’s pitiful rate of conviction for traf - slavery and human trafficking (7) whilst 87% the never-ending revelations of business ficking, all too often such gangs and of NHS professionals report lacking the impropriety, of corporate and political pimps enjoy impunity. There is still not knowledge to identify victims. (8) negligence (Grenfell), and, with the fall - enough being done to help and to pro - A range of different local authority out from the Windrush scandal still upon tect the victim.” services, from children’s services and mi - us, at the appalling treatment of migrants. Precious little has changed. In Febru - grant integration teams, to housing and The door is ajar, a future progressive ary 2017, on the publication of a joint environmental health officers, have government should have the confidence report with the Chief Inspector of Bor - sometimes contributed to the identifica - to push through it. ders & Immigration, the Independent tion of modern slavery, in the era of aus - Anti-Slavery Commissioner announced terity budget constraints, their capacity FOOTNOTES that there was “a strong chance we are to so do is has been significantly com - 1. Skrivankova, K. 2006, p1 missing thousands of victims of modern promised. 2. Wilkinson, M. et al, Forced labour in slavery at our borders.” the UK and the Gangmasters Licensing In October, he gave account to Parlia - Exploitation widespread Authority , 2010. ment of a “chronic weakness” in police These findings reflect badly on the gov - 3. Hard Work, Hidden Lives, TUC Com - responses, that was allowing organised ernment’s commitment to tackling mod - mission on Vulnerable Employment, crime groups behind people trafficking ern slavery. 2008 and slavery to “act with impunity”. There is an inevitability to them, be - 4. Mulvey, G. When policy creates Pol - In December, the National Audit cause operational responses predicated itics: the Problematizing of Immigration Office report on the overall governance on the mantra that exploitation is an and the Consequences for Refugee In - of the UK response to modern slavery aberration - the product of a limited tegration in the UK. Oxford Journals related: ‘The Home Office has an number of bad labour providers refusing Online , 2010 incomplete picture of the crime, the to abide by the rules - are doomed to 5. Souter, J. A Culture of Disbelief or victims and the perpetrators. Account - failure. Denial? Critiquing Refugee Status De - abilities within the strategy are unclear, The reality is that exploitation is wide - termination in the UK. http://ox - oversight of victims’ support is inade - spread and embedded precisely because mofm.com/wp-content/uploads/2010 quate and few cases lead to prosecution the rules of the game, the UK’s neolib - /08/11-SOUTER-OxMo-vol-1-no-1.pdf or conviction.’ eral model, encourage and facilitate it. 6. Yeung, P. et al, Child slave gangs go It continued: ‘Until the government is So how can modern slavery in the UK free as police fail to investigate. The able to establish effective oversight of the be tackled and eradicated? Times (online) 20 April, 2018 modern slavery system as a whole it will The neoliberal framework created the 7. HMICFRS, Stolen freedom: the polic - not be able to achieve its objective of sig - malaise, if it is to be tackled, that frame - ing response to modern slavery and nificantly reducing the prevalence of work needs to be progressively disman - human trafficking, 2017 modern slavery.’ tled. 8. NHS Protect, Provider Responses In April 2018, a Times newspaper in - Private employment agencies and Treatment and Care for Trafficked Peo - vestigation (6) revealed that only 6% of gangmasters add precious little to the ple, 2016 https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ crimes recorded by police forces under productive capacity of the nation, they ioppn/depts/hspr/research/CEPH/w the Modern Slavery Act had led to are essentially exploitative and should be mh/assets/PROTECT-Report.pdf

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Swing to Labour in local elections Swing to Labour in local elections Before looking at the results of the English local elections turnout in the May local elections: per - held on 3 May, it is worth asking why these elections haps surprising but also interesting be - cause, by ignoring turnout, analysts mattered and what they mean for the next General Election? refuse to take seriously the difference in motivation between local elections and By BRIAN DURRANS national ones. When I called the Electoral Reform Not because the long decline in the ex - local elections are more loyal supporters Society, thinking they might be bothered pectation and capacity of local govern - of whichever party they vote for, com - about turnout figures, they said they did - ment to meet the needs of their pared with those voting in a general elec - n’t have any to hand but recommended communities against national govern - tion. a BBC website I’d already looked at ments’ erosion of the social wage has Another difference between the two where they said I could find the average suddenly stopped in its tracks: on the kinds of elections is that in the seven- turnout figure of 36%. contrary, continuing cuts and privatisa - week campaigning period for a general I looked again and still couldn’t find it, tion of local services have been worse election national broadcasters are re - but if for the sake of argument we take than ever. quired by law to treat the main parties this not-yet corroborated figure as accu - Few need reminding that austerity is equally. rate, and the more reliable equivalent for made in Westminster, not the town hall. For this reason, electors in 2017 were the 2017 general election as 68.7%, (4) (1) for the first time able to hear the case for the local election appears to have gener - Labour, including the hitherto vilified Je - ated only about half the enthusiasm that Local elections compared remy Corbyn making that case, on a the general election did. with general ones suddenly if only temporarily level play - Even so, was there any correlation in Compared with a general election in ing-field. (3) these local elections between a higher which each parliamentary constituency turnout, a higher vote-share to Labour, returns one MP, local elections are more Corbyn ’s two successful leader - and candidates openly supportive of the complicated in several respects. ship contests and the party ’s party’s leadership? I haven’t analysed the How they are organised, for example: figures to come up with any evidence of this year, voters had the opportunity of amazing ability under his leader - this but if there were such a correlation choosing every single councillor who ship to convert an 18% Tory it would be neither surprising nor fully would represent them in each ward of lead into a hung parliament account for most of what happened on all 32 London boroughs and, outside cannot mask the fact that polling day. London, in Kingston on Hull. winning the party machine itself Corbyn’s two successful leadership Elsewhere, only one third of council - to match the clarity and commit - contests and the party’s amazing ability lor positions were up for election in 34 ment at the top has been a under his leadership to convert an 18% metropolitan boroughs, 16 ‘unitary au - Tory lead into a hung parliament cannot thorities’, and 54 district councils. slower process. mask the fact that winning the party ma - All councillors faced the voters in half Despite significant advances, chine itself to match the clarity and com - of the twelve other district councils, and there have also been setbacks, mitment at the top has been a slower a third of them in the remaining six. some of them very public. But process. In the four London boroughs of nowhere has the foot-dragging Despite significant advances, there Hackney, Lewisham, Newham and been more disheartening than have also been setbacks, some of them Tower Hamlets, and, outside London, at the level of councillor selec - very public. But nowhere has the foot- in Watford, there were also elections for dragging been more disheartening than local mayor. (2) tion, where resistance to the at the level of councillor selection, where Also, of course, this set of local elec - democratic spirit of the party ’s resistance to the democratic spirit of the tions was confined to England whereas newer, pro-Corbyn members has party’s newer, pro-Corbyn members has general elections cover the whole UK. been most in evidence. been most in evidence. Further complications in how local Improvements in this area may come election results might be interpreted with the long-anticipated democracy re - concern the relative weighting of local Turnout and reasons for voting view, but by and large the political alle - and national issues when voters make Turnout, obviously enough, is a good giance of the candidates Labour fielded their choice of councillors or party. measure of how important an election is in 2018 was not as closely aligned with How party organisers and councillors to those eligible to vote in it. I may have that of the leadership and mass mem - prioritise canvassing suggests that a overlooked something but a careful on - bership as it is likely to be next time higher proportion of those voting in line search yielded no information on the round.

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Left to sabotage its electoral appeal. If Summary of results - 3 May 2018 that doesn’t succeed in preventing a Labour government - and there are al - Number of councillors in all 150 councils (5) ready signs that the elite has overplayed its hand - more of the same would mean Labour 2,350 +79 Con 1,332 -35 LibDem 536 +75 trying to destabilise that government, a Green 38 +8 UKIP 3 +123 Other 144 -4 game of dangerously higher stakes and no guaranteed success. The second option, running in paral - More detailed breakdown, main parties only (6) lel, is a barely-disguised attempt to cre - ate a vehicle for anti-socialist, pro-EU Party Labour Conservative LibDem positions that would braid together Tory Popular vote 35% 35% 16% ‘remainers’, those in Labour seriously out of step with its new politics, and Swing +8% -3% -2% offer Liberal Democrats a choice of join - Councils 74 46 9 ing or oblivion. Among many questions confronting Councils +/– Steady -4 +4 such an entity is what popular parts of Labour’s 2017 election manifesto it Councillors 2,350 1,332 536 could poach to stand a chance of getting Councillors +/– +79 -33 +75 elected without also poaching Labour’s plans for paying for them. Behind both options, if neither works, lurks the ‘irregular’ option of playing the There is no comparably balanced cov - further coup or challenge to Corbyn’s ruling class’s wild-card, on the face of it erage in local elections, and Corbyn’s op - leadership. a Queen or a Knave, imposing a gov - ponents in his own party and among its On a wider perspective, as the consol - ernment of national unity, or with some MPs, and in the Conservative Party and idation of left politics in the Labour comparably ill-fitting label, and putting its media, so far from abandoning their Party has so far withstood the worst its the unity and resolve of our still-frag - destructive mission during the weeks be - opponents could throw at it, and as the mented pro-Labour movement to the fore the local polls, hit him with every - Conservative Party has yet to find a mis - greatest test, which, at least on present thing they could lay hands on. evidence, it might well fail. These included ridiculous But if the work that needs to be done claims that he was a Czech spy, can be done quickly and well, even that a Russian puppet or a Syrian irregular option could be off the agenda. stooge, and - never off the agenda - either weak on anti- FOOTNOTES Semitism or guilty of it himself. All web sources were accessed on So it would have been ex - 17 May 2018. traordinary indeed if Labour 1. https://www.lrb.co.uk/v38/n24/tom- had done well in the local elec - crewe/the-strange-death-of-munici - tions despite the abysmal repu - pal-england tation of a divided government. 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Some of Labour’s enemies United_Kingdom_local_elec - cleverly chose to talk up the tions,_2018#Analysis party’s chances, and some of its 3. Alex Nunns, The Candidate: Jeremy possibly less thoughtful friends Corbyn’s improbable path to power. followed suit for the excusable New York/London, O/R Books, second reason that a better result edition, 2018, p.310. For how Labour might be expected from a more successfully exploited this opportu - optimistic standpoint. Jeremy Corbyn Theresa May nity, see Nunns, ch. 16; also, in a pre - When the results were finally vious issue of this journal, counted, what really was a remarkably sion beyond neoliberalism (whatever the http://www.thesocialistcorrespon - solid performance had been set up in ad - result of its divisions over Brexit), the dent.org.uk/articles/how-corbyn-cut- vance to be proclaimed at best a disap - ruling class can’t afford to wait too long. through-exclusive-interview-with-a-se pointment and at worst a failure. If Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour is on nior-labour-stratagist/ [sic] and Steve course to form the next government, and Howell, Game Changer: eight weeks Conclusion if Theresa May or some even less com - that transformed British politics, The local elections mattered to party petent Tory leader is unlikely to get a Cardiff Bay, Accent Press, 2018. strategists and the commentariat as indi - credible alternative bandwagon on the 4. http://www.ukpolitical.info/Turnout cating how the main parties were shap - road, then the establishment is left with 45.htm ing up for the general election in 2022, only two ‘regular’ options, keeping both 5.http://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cz3 or earlier still. in the wings until it’s time to choose be - nmp2eyxgt/england-local-elections- What the results mean for Labour is tween them. 2018 that the party did significantly better The first option is already familiar: an 6. abbreviated from https://en. than it might have feared. They provided escalating programme of demonising and wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_lo no excuse (as they were hoped to) for a misrepresenting Corbyn and the Labour cal_elections,_2018

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Palestinian defiance to apartheid Israel Palestinian defiance to apartheid Israel

This article was completed on the 70th anniversary of the these demonstrations or incidents arising founding of Israel in 1948 and the very different Palestinian from them. (1) Even before the massacre on 14 May, Nakba (‘Catastrophe’) which led up to and accompanied it: the UN Secretary-General had called for a process of systematic repression that has been going on an independent investigation of the ex - ever since. Never have these two commemorations stood in cessive use of force (especially of live starker contrast. ammunition) against unarmed demon - strators. (3) Comparison with the previous sixteen By BRIAN DURRANS month period suggests that there is something about the mobilisation of On 14 May, at the opening of the new be chronicled elsewhere, it may be worth large numbers of unarmed Palestinians, US embassy in Jerusalem - timed to set reflecting more broadly on these new de - with its potential to attract support from the scene for the following day’s inde - velopments. around the world, that particularly pendence celebrations - President In doing so, I want to argue, first, that alarms the Israeli authorities and con - Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Palestinian resistance and global solidar - fronts them with a dilemma. (4) Netanyahu proclaimed the event ‘his - ity have been most successful when they When resistance is steadfast and prin - toric’ when it simply marked just one are co-ordinated, and that this needs cipled in its objectives and strategy, it more endorsement of Israel’s contempt strengthening, and solidarity work ex - commands respect, as many other colo - for international law and was boycotted panding, as the case for regarding Israel nial regimes, including apartheid South by most of the world’s diplomats. as an apartheid state gains traction. Africa, discovered to their cost. But the dominant feature of the mo - This was already foreshadowed in the Everywhere TV and computer screens ment, and of the last month and a half, formulation and reasoning behind the turn ordinary Palestinians into icons of was the determination and courage of Palestine National Boycott Committee’s courage and sacrifice. Israel spends a Gaza, on the eighth day of the ‘Great call for ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanc - fortune on propaganda to soften its March of Return’, a series of weekly tions [BDS] against Israel until it com - image but Gaza on 14 May, without protests, together with expressions of plies with international law and universal even the excuse of retaliation for rocket Palestinian culture and socialising, on principles of human rights’ (9 July attacks, exposed the sheer brutality of the the Gazan side of Israel’s perimeter 2005). (2) Occupation for all the world to see. fence. Instead of factional insignia, The second point is that building almost everyone carried the Palestinian solidarity will be easier to do if we recog - Potential consequences flag. nise that Israel’s domestic and foreign It is one thing for the United Nations On Trump’s and Netanyahu’s ‘his - predicaments are also co-ordinated. Secretary General to call for an inquiry, toric day’ alone, in what Israel’s own but potentially quite another if a body Ha’aretz newspaper described as a The Great March of Return like the International Criminal Court bloodbath, fifty-nine Gazan Palestinian For seven Fridays from 30 March (Land (ICC) was to get involved, despite reser - demonstrators were shot dead by Israeli Day, commemorating the great upsurge vations about its willingness or capacity troops. of resistance in 1976 to Israel’s further to pursue offenders among imperialist The final death toll and numbers of confiscation of Palestinian land) up to powers rather than minor dictators. the injured for the whole period of the Nakba Day on 15 May, the ‘Great Through its Chief Prosecutor Fatou mass protests are still being calculated March of Return’ brought out tens of Bensouda, the ICC issued an unprece - and no doubt more will die from their thousands of Gazans on their side of Is - dented statement on 8 April, well before injuries or from further attacks. rael’s perimeter fence to demonstrate the casualties had reached their maxi - The immediate repercussions of this that the right to return to the homes mum: ‘Since 30 March 2018, at least 27 carnage are hard to predict and its from which they were forced out re - Palestinians have been reportedly killed longer-term consequences even more so, mains a key demand of all Palestinians. by the Israeli Defence Forces, with over but it is becoming clear that the struggle According to the United Nations Of - a thousand more injured, many, as a re - for Palestinian rights has reached a new fice for the Co-ordination of Humani - sult of shootings using live ammunition stage both on the ground in Israel-Pales - tarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian and rubber bullets. […] Violence against tine and in the international arena. Territories (OCHA), fifty-three Gazans civilians - in a situation such as the one Allied with Israel’s increasingly open lost their lives and of the 9,800 people prevailing in Gaza - could constitute aggression against Syria, events are now injured more than half needed hospital crimes under the Rome Statute of the moving so quickly that rather than try treatment from 30 March up to 11 May. International Criminal Court, as could to record or anticipate them, which by Up until 13 May, not a single Israeli the use of civilian presence for the pur - the time you read this will in any case casualty has been attributed to any of pose of shielding military activities.’ (5)

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Different enemies, same excuses The Israeli siege of Gaza alone would guilty of apartheid, the consequences In another recent and ongoing develop - justify the anger of its imprisoned popu - could be far-reaching since apartheid ment, this time in the wider region, Israel lation, but that anger, especially when qualifies as a crime against humanity, has become engaged in military activity channelled into a shared demand for the and states would then be legally obliged of an extent and intensity not seen since political right of return, is treated by to impose sanctions not only against the war with Lebanon in 2006. Israel as a threat to its own sovereignty. Israel itself but also against other states On 9-10 May, following US with - Israeli propaganda brackets Gazans complicit with it, until the apartheid sys - drawal from the international nuclear with Hamas, Hamas with Iran and Iran tem was dismantled. agreement with Iran, and just before the with Syria. It quotes with impunity any - US embassy transfer, Israeli jets attacked one it claims to speak for Hamas with Consistency and seizing the moment multiple targets in Syria, a sovereign categorical assertions of what the pres - To put the recent upsurge of resistance state, in clear violation of international ent leadership of Hamas stands for. into context - for the high level of com - law. Why should Israel, which in 1967 mitment shown in recent days didn’t For discussion of the wider context of occupied the Syrian Golan Heights as spring out of nowhere - it is worth not - these and other military developments, well as the West Bank, East Jerusalem ing that Palestinians last year continued, (see Simon Korner’s article on page 8); and Gaza, treat Syria with more respect as they have been doing for decades, to but since the focus of this article is on than the Palestinians? resist (and remind the world of) Israeli the Palestinian struggle and its increas - The common denominator here is Occupation in the West Bank, Jerusalem ingly global character (6), I refer briefly to aggrandizement, an obsession with and Gaza, inequalities imposed upon these international attacks to show how ‘security’ even though Israel’s own bor - them inside 1948 Israel itself, and in the the terms used to justify them rely on ders are left deliberately undefined, and refugee camps and the diaspora else - distortions like those meant to excuse the contempt for the lives of those outside where, by such means as demonstra - repression of Palestinians themselves. the dominant section of society. tions, strikes, prisoner actions, boycotts The latest Israeli attacks on targets in The first casualty of war, and perhaps and social media campaigns. Syria have been spun as retaliation for also of colonial occupation, may be not Actions by and in support of Palestin - attacks launched from Syria on Israel it - just Truth but also the ability to paint ian prisoners, including children, took self. This fails to acknowledge, however, your way out of a corner. place inside Palestine/Israel with co-or - that Israel had been attacking Syria for dinated expressions of solidarity across several weeks before; that Iranian and Israel and apartheid the world by ordinary citizens and their Lebanese (Hezbollah) combatants oper - Now that Washington has finally admit - political representatives. ating in Syria are not an invading force ted that the so-called ‘peace process’ is Although Palestinians and their sup - but are there at the invitation of Damas - dead - hardly news since it has shown no porters are rightly wary of over-person - cus; and that no attack launched from sign of life for nearly forty years - Israel alising the struggle, partly because it can Syria has so far hit Israel itself but rather has not even this illusion with which to put individuals even more in harm’s way, the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, distract its more thoughtful friends or but also because it’s appropriate to the recognised by international law as part milder critics who object to at least some necessarily shared character of the strug - of Syria. (7) of its violations of international and gle itself, Israeli vitriol against Ahed Likewise, Israeli attacks on unarmed humanitarian law, but who have not yet Tamimi and her family and those who Palestinians in Gaza are spun as ‘antici - faced up to the argument that Israel responded by rallying to her side made patory retaliation’ against breaches of the qualifies as an apartheid state. her almost a household name. perimeter fence that would jeopardize The current legal definition of Social media recorded her outside her the security of the present inhabitants of apartheid, established by the Rome own house slapping an Israeli soldier some of the villages from which some of Statute of the International Criminal after her cousin had been shot in the those now exiled in Gaza were originally Court in 1998, became operational in head at close range, and the Israeli media expelled. 2002. (8) If the ICC was to find Israel and their followers were frantic for dis - proportionate revenge. Her detention, shocking interrogation 15 May 2018: Boycott and subsequent imprisonment for what Israel protest in amounts to a symbolic act, not least San Sebastian, Spain. when contrasted with a barely longer sentence a soldier around the same time for killing an unarmed Palestinian youth, deserves more than a shrug of despair or a temporary expression of anger. At the very least, it poses the question on a global scale as to whether such con - trasting treatments of people according to their ethnicity within a single political system does not meet the definition of apartheid. For the Tamimi family, as for millions of other Palestinians, resistance has be - come routine, now and then exposing them to real danger, but never aban - doned. Palestinian resistance is both routine and strategic, the latter planning activi -

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Palestinian defiance to apartheid Israel

ties around dates and anniversaries al - Going global society and extending wherever possible ready etched into people’s political mem - Palestinians have long learned self-re - into political and economic assistance by ory. liance in their dealings with Israel. governmental and wider institutions, Last year’s political prisoners’ strike was Regional allies would be great to have, keeps Palestine on the global agenda. of that character, and so has been the but resistance cannot depend on unreli - Before the age of the internet and so - Great March of Return. As a result of able or short-lived support from any cial media, such a claim might have media coverage of the bloodbath in Gaza, government. seemed fanciful, but is fully justified on millions of people around the world In this sense, the Boycott, Divestment present evidence of how quickly and would have heard or understood the and Sanctions [BDS] movement, and profoundly people’s views are changing meaning of the Nakba for the first time. the development of solidarity in civil and their voices heard.

FOOTNOTES 1. Although appropriately commemorated on the same day 7. ‘The strike was carried out in response to a barrage of 20 (15 May) the Nakba was not a single event but a series of rockets that were fired from Syria at Israeli military outposts. ’ brutal and terrifying experiences at the hands of Zionist (https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-launches-ex - militias which left 15,000 Palestinians dead, eradicated tensive-syria-strike-after-iranian-rocket-barrage- 400 villages and expelled 700,000, of whom 80% became 1.6073938. refugees in the West Bank, Gaza or in nearby countries. 8. ‘"The crime of apartheid" means inhumane acts of a 2. Omar Barghouti, BDS: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions. character similar to those referred to in paragraph 1 [e.g, The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights. Chicago, Hay - murder, extermination, enslavement, forcible transfer, tor - market Books, 2011, appendix 2, pp.239-247. This book ture, rape, persecution on basis of political, racial or simi - clearly explains the global thinking behind the BDS call. The lar grounds, enforced disappearance, other inhumane acts Call itself is also available online: https://bdsmovement. causing great suffering or serious injury to body or to men - net/call. tal or physical health - i.e., apartheid is classified among 3. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/one-palestinian-killed- the most serious crimes against humanity] committed in and-hundreds-injured-gaza-during-ongoing-demonstrations. the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic op - 4. ‘Not a single rocket has been fired into Israel from Gaza pression and domination by one racial group over any other in over two months, yet since March 30 Israel has killed racial group or groups and committed with the intention of more Palestinians in Gaza than it did in the previous 16 maintaining that regime[.] ’ (https://treaties.un.org/doc/Pub - months, during which time militants launched over 60 rock - lication/UNTS/Volume%202187/v2187.pdf, Article 7, para - ets and mortars. ’ (https://972mag.com/youre-far-more- graph (h) p.94). likely-to-be-killed-protesting-in-gaza-than-firing-a-rocket/13 For the most rigorous consideration of how apartheid re - 4952/). lates to Israel, see the report by Richard Falk and Virginia 5. https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/icc- Tilley, ‘Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and warns-israeli-leaders-over-gaza-killings. As Palestinian jour - the Question of Apartheid ’, Palestine and the Israeli Occu - nalist Ali Abunimah, notes in the same article, ‘Bensouda ’s pation, Issue No. 1, Beirut, United Nations Economic and reference to using civilians for “shielding military activities ” Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), 2017, appears to be a nod to Israel ’s claims that the Great March pp.[iii-v], 1-64. (https://electronicintifada.net/sites/de - of Return mass rallies organized by Palestinians [ …] are a fault/files/2017-03/un_apartheid_report_15_march_eng - Hamas ploy to shield “terrorist ” activities. However, as an lish_final_.pdf). The report’s Executive Summary (pp.1-9) is investigation by Human Rights Watch determined, and ob - strongly recommended as a short primer on the subject. servations by journalists have confirmed, there have been Unlike Israel, Palestine (as represented by the Palestinian no such “military activities” by Palestinians taking part in Authority, which is formally but not in reality a representa - the demonstrations. tive body of Palestinians as a whole) is a member of the In - The festival-like rallies have brought out tens of thousands ternational Criminal Court, but it has so far succumbed to demanding an end to Israel ’s blockade of Gaza and the right pressure from Israel, the US and others not to seek to bring of return for refugees. ’ Israel, or culpable individuals within Israel, to the ICC on 6. By its ‘increasingly global character ’ I mean two things: charges connected with apartheid or war crimes or similar. first, how Israel ’s practices and resistance to them in Israel The UN Security Council has the authority to refer any state and the occupied territories attract international attention; to the ICC in respect of a situation in which a crime of such and second, how Palestinian resistance itself on the ground kind has occurred in that state’s territory even if that state is now increasingly co-ordinated with solidarity actions of is neither a member of the ICC nor lodged a declaration various kinds across the world, whether political, diplo - with it to observe its legal code. Although it keeps the ICC matic, economic or cultural, and at whatever level they are at arms-length, therefore, Israel would still be vulnerable to conducted, from individual consumers choosing to boycott such a move but for the protective US veto on the UNSC Israeli goods to pension funds or corporations divesting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court). from Israeli enterprises to governments and international Despite the real opportunities a legal route could offer bodies imposing sanctions. whether or not Palestinians embark on such a course will Thus, whilst there ’s a big difference in ‘security ’ terms be - depend not only on their own judgement but also on sup - tween (say) an air-strike on Syria and an Israeli sniper killing port or obstruction by other powerful interests (as in the a Palestinian in Gaza, one might be no less important than threat of the US veto in the UNSC): https://theconversa - the other in terms of its impact on wider public under - tion.com/why-palestine-joining-the-international-criminal- standing. That is hugely important, given Israel ’s over - court-could-be-a-total-game-changer-39603. whelming dominance over Palestine in military power; and it endorses the Palestinian 2007 call for BDS [see note 2]. (All online sources accessed between 13-15 May 2010)

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S. African lesson of hope for Palestine S. African lesson of hope for Palestine Chief Albert Luthuli, who was President of the African and translated what was already com - National Congress in the late 1950s and 1960s, described mon practice into law. The first step was to introduce rigid apartheid by explaining what it meant to black people in population classification: so-called South Africa. Bantu, Coloured and Indian and so- Based on her speech to the West London called European or white. By CHRISTABEL GURNEY Palestine Solidarity Campaign Conference. People’s whole lives depended on how they were classified. A powerful short “I would like tell you what apartheid re - with different histories but with one story by the African writer Alfred ally means to us. It means that our men thing in common – that the Africans Hutchison, published in the left-wing cannot move from country to town and formed the majority of the population magazine Fighting Talk in the 1950s, de - from one part of town to an - but they were scribes the chaos caused in other without a pass. Now our dominated by the life of its protagonist women too will be unable to whites. when his classification was leave their houses without a As with Israel changed from Coloured to pass. It means that 70 per cent and Palestine the African. of my people live below the British had a lot to breadline. It means that in my answer for. At the Land own province of Natal 85 per time of the Union The 1959 Promotion of cent of children are suffering Africans trusted Bantu Self-Government Act from malnutrition. It means that Britain would formalised the land situation massive unemployment. What not relinquish sov - and created a new political apartheid means is a long tale ereignty without set-up. The Act deprived of suffering. In a word, it 1961: Albert guarantees of some Africans of citizenship in means the denial of dignity and Luthuli in Oslo. rights – but they got South Africa. It set up a fed - of ordinary human rights.” nothing. 1948: Palestinian erated South Africa with one Anyone reading this today would be South African whites refugees. white state and nine Bantus - reminded of conditions on the West claimed a historic right to tans and allocated all Bank and Gaza. the land, but in South Africa as in Israel Africans to a supposed nationality group Looking more closely, there are close in fact they pushed out the local popula - – Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Sotho etc., similarities between apartheid South tion. whether or not they had ever visited their Africa and the situation today in Pales - Dutch sailor Jan van Riebeeck set up a so-called ‘homeland’. Africans had no tine - and in Israel - but there are also refreshment station in the Cape in 1652. rights in so-called white South Africa. very important differences that have im - Later the settlers claimed that the Xhosa Subsequently four of these Bantustans plications for political action. people did not migrate south to South - Transkei, Ciskei, Venda and Bo - Africa until later, but this was not true. phuthatswana - were given spurious in - British responsibility The Act of Union was swiftly followed dependence. The Bantustans were totally In 1910 the Union of South Africa was by the Land Act in 1913 which gave dependent on the white government for set up as a federation of four provinces whites, who made up one fifth of popu - funding and were run by client elites lation, 87 per cent of the land. The total population of South Africans who formed the vast majority Africa in 1983 was estimated of the population were allocated 13 per to be just over 31 million. cent. The land was without any of South Africa’s rich mineral resources and it was BLACK fragmented and split up. The movement of Africans into so- (85%) called white areas was regulated by pass laws. In the early years of union many of the later features of apartheid were pres - ent but in ad hoc ways. To fast forward to 1948, a significant year for both Palestine and South Africa, Apartheid’s most fundamental WHITE the National Party unexpectedly won the division is that of land. (15%) whites-only election and quickly intro - Whites are allocated 87%. duced apartheid. Apartheid schematised

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hated by most of teargassing and their supposed citi - shooting people - zens. in many ways like Those living on the atrocities in the land as subsis - Gaza in recent tence farmers were weeks. forcibly moved to Throughout the the Bantustans and apartheid period, often dumped on South Africa de - the veld with basic pended, as does Is - housing and no fa - rael, on the West – cilities. It has been on the countries of estimated that by Western Europe 1983 some 3.5 mil - and the US. This lion people had support took the been uprooted. form, not of sub - Indians and ventions and aid, ‘Coloureds’ had no but of trade and land allocated to them. They were dards of living in the world; with the in - economic investment: this was absolutely forcibly moved to segregated townships dustrial boom of the 1960s there were crucial. like Lenasia outside Johannesburg and very few poor whites. In the 1960s it depended as well on Mitchell’s Plain in Cape Town. Every sector depended on black Western countries for arms supplies and Interracial marriage and sex became labour: mining, manufacturing, agricul - military knowhow. Western countries, in - illegal. Primary and secondary education ture, and domestic services. There was cluding Britain, were very quick to de - under the Bantu Education Act became total job segregation and huge wage dif - nounce apartheid, but very slow to do totally segregated. Higher education ferentials. anything about it. under the inappropriately titled Exten - The government set up factories in the One significant success of the interna - sion of University Education Act became so-called border areas, adjacent to the tional solidarity movement at the UN almost entirely segregated. Bantustans, but this involved big trans - was the mandatory arms embargo im - People were pushed out to townships port costs. As the manufacturing sector posed in 1977, after the murder of Steve outside the main city centres. In Johan - grew more Africans lived in the major Biko and the banning of above ground nesburg the migrant multiracial commu - conurbations. organisations, including the Christian In - nity of Sophiatown was bulldozed. Because of this by the 1980s the whole stitute, that couldn’t be characterised, as Hospitals were segregated. Everyday system was breaking down. And the the government was quick to do with life - transport, entrances to public build - economy needed more skilled labour – other groups, as Communist. And there ings, parks - was strictly segregated. white immigration could not provide is a lesson there, that the campaign for In spite of land segregation, hundreds enough. This was one of the underlying an arms embargo appealed to a wider of thousands of Africans lived in the new causes of the Soweto uprising in 1976. constituency than the campaign for boy - townships around the perimeters of the In an attempt to provide more semi- cott and sanctions. so-called white towns. skilled labour, the apartheid government Western governments only imposed In the major cities Africans still out - tried to cram more young people into the sanctions really late on, in the 1980s, and numbered whites by two to one. All existing schools - without spending more very partial ones. In fact what happened apartheid did in the major towns was to money for adequate school buildings, was that the corporates moved out move Africans out of the centre to staffing and educational equipment. because South Africa was no longer eco - under-resourced and overcrowded town - Coupled with the growth of black con - nomically attractive. ships. But they were only allowed to live sciousness this was a tinder box ignited This was because of a combination of there as long as their labour was needed, by the decision that more teaching would internal unrest and the international and as long as they had an employer be conducted in Afrikaans. campaign.In the 1970s the situation in who would vouch for this. Also in the 1970s workers once more South Africa did seem almost hopeless. The movement of African workers started to organise, and in an attempt to The South African government was in - was regulated by the pass laws and they contain the new unions the government transigent, most South African whites - if had to carry their pass with them at all changed the law - a move which badly not all - were racist and arrogant; the times. Every day thousands were ar - backfired. Repression on the other hand apartheid regime seemed impregnable. rested for not carrying their pass. It has was horribly similar to that in Palestine. Anti-apartheid activists did not think been estimated that 12.5 million people South Africa professed to have a rule the end was in sight. But they continued were arrested between 1948 and 1981 of law. But under the 1967 Terrorism to campaign - and the inspiration for for breaches of the pass laws. Act detainees could be held indefinitely that came from knowing that situation of In addition to those who lived with in solitary confinement with no access to total injustice and that people resisting their families in the townships, many anyone from the outside world. inside the country were suffering so were migrant workers who had been As resistance grew, the government much more than those who supported forced to leave their families behind in imposed States of Emergency in 1985 them from the outside. the rural areas, with consequent prob - and 1986, and in the 1980s thousands But in the end it came quite quickly - lems of alcoholism, violence and societal were arbitrarily detained. although it was very difficult. So ulti - breakdown. The crucial point was that - As in the West Bank and Gaza it was mately the message is one of hope. I am unlike in Israel - the whole economy was young people who were protesting, and sure the same applies to Palestine and dependent on black labour. were being picked up and brutalised. In this perspective should inform our Whites had one of the highest stan - the 1980s troops went into the townships discussions today.

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Cuba 2018: unity and commitment Cuba 2018: unity and commitment Sixteen of us from Britain went on the Cuba Solidarity May 125 are teachers. There are more girls Day study tour to Cuba. At Havana Airport on the way than boys at the school, and we were re - minded that most of the top scientists of back the toilets were blocked and there was no water supply. Cuba such as doctors are women, and that women make up 53 per cent of the By PAT TURNBULL Cuban national parliament. We were also told that cleaning Not pleasant for the travellers - even Pupils visit their old school and say brigades of students clean the school, worse for the Cubans who would have thank you. Not only beautiful for them, and that the uniforms worn by all stu - to unblock them. When we arrived at but beautiful for society. dents are available at nominal, subsidised Gatwick the toilets were working. prices. But what did Cuba have that we don’t The school was built in three years, have here in Britain? We found that out along with hundreds of others, despite on our thirteen day visit to the socialist the US blockade and the limited re - island in the Caribbean, ninety miles sources. 500 smaller secondary schools from the USA. in the countryside were also built. One of Fidel Castro’s first announce - From visits to the Cuban Institute of ments after his triumphal entry into Ha - Friendship with the Peoples and the vana in 1959 was that the army barracks Cuban Workers’ Confederation (their of the dictator Batista would be turned trade union congress) we learned more over to become schools. about Cuba. Our first visit was to the Abel Santa - maria School for the Visually Impaired Cuban internationalism in Havana, which is part of this spacious Cuba sent fighters to help the people of school complex set in grassy tree lined Angola win their freedom. Cuba took grounds. away nothing from Southern Africa ex - Some 57 pupils of all ages from all cept their dead soldiers, more than 5000 over Havana go to the school: 44 are of them. day pupils, 9 are boarders, and 4 are in Cuba is a poor country and their only workplaces. All the pupils study the Miguel Diaz-Canel (58) who wealth is the Cuban people – they can’t same curriculum as the rest of the succeeded Raul Castro as Cuba’s export money or raw materials. school population: maths, Spanish, his - President of the Council of State But they offer to their friends their tory, English as a Foreign Language, and the Council of Ministers on people, and they give it generously, in science, civic education, labour educa - 19 April 2018. the form of doctors, teachers, literacy tion, computer science. Before that he served as programmes, health care. They have aids to help them, and spe - Higher Education Minister and Cuba has 50,000 workers in 64 coun - cial additional classes relating to their Deput y Prim e Minister. tries of whom 25,000 are doctors. The disabilities to help them in their future Latin American School of Medicine in life. There are paediatric and ophthal - The teachers also do outreach work to Cuba has produced 20,000 graduates mological services, psychiatric help and support the 94 additional students who from everywhere, including students language therapy. Some pupils have ad - are in the general education system, right from the USA who could never afford to ditional intellectual disabilities. up to university, where 18 former pupils study in their own country. The school works 24 hours. There are currently studying. They train other The illegal blockade by the USA hin - are 47 teachers of whom 35 are masters teachers how to teach them and provide ders trade not only with the US itself, in special education. Others are finish - the necessary additional educational but with other countries who would ing university diplomas and PhDs. equipment. trade with Cuba - like Nigeria, as we All their studies are free – lifelong ed - We visited the Federico Engels School later found out, who would like to bene - ucation is free for everybody in Cuba. later in our trip, also a well designed fit from Cuba’s cheap medicines and The staff is very stable with an average school in plenty of space. favourable trading agreements. age of 40. It was opened on January 27, 1978 by Foreign banks have been fined. Cuba The job is very rewarding; we were Fidel Castro and has a collage of photos produces nickel, one of its few raw ma - told how beautiful it was to see them of him in the hall. 2,500 students aged terials, but if a product contains more learning the same subjects at the same 15 to 18 study there; it is a vocational than five per cent Cuban nickel, it can - time as other students, to see them start pre-university school for the sciences. not be exported to the USA. work at the same time. The school has 274 workers of whom The lack of hard currency affects im -

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ports of raw materials, tools, some food - A priority is to prevent the country 8.00 pm and on Saturday it is open till stuffs. The blockade forces Cuba to from being the drugs haven it was under 12pm. The doctor sees about 10 to 12 move away from the Americas to far Batista, and to protect society, and the patients per day, mainly in the morning. continents. They pay triple the prices to youth in particular, from the harmful The Vinales polyclinic works 24 hours, import certain medicines because of the effects of drugs. and there is a hospital in the nearest large blockade. As well as severe legal measures, Cuba town of Pinar del Rio. At the hospital When the USSR and the other social - has community based group addiction there is a social workers’ department. ist countries went down in 1990, Cuba therapies, mainly to combat the effects When a patient leaves hospital he or lost more than 85 per cent of its trade. of alcoholism. In one polyclinic we vis - she receives a discharge certificate, and a Previously the socialist countries had ited, two of the three psychiatric therapy social worker follows up with home paid prices for Cuban sugar and other groups were for alcohol addiction. visits. products well above the exploitative For more on this issue, there is an ex - Doctors and nurses can attend contin - prices offered by the leading capitalist cellent book Drugs and Lies - two aggres - uous upgrading courses which, like all countries. sions against Cuba by Juan Francisco education in Cuba, are free. A masters Cuba had to adjust in a cruelly short Arias Fernandez, Editorial Capitan San or PhD increases their wage. time, and go through the ‘Special Period Luis, Havana. We also learned from our visit to the in Peacetime’. Cuba’s buying capacity family doctor that maternity leave in shrunk from 8.139 million pesos in 1989 Cuba is a year on full pay. to 2.0 million in 1993. ... in 1959 there were 6,286 There are day care centres for pre- To make matters worse, in mid 1992 school babies and children which are the Toricelli Law passed by the US gov - doctors, solely in the towns very cheap - 2 CUCs (Cuban convert - ernment gave the US President the and in private practices. ible pesos), less than £2 per month. power to apply economic sanctions Schools run till 4.30 or 5.00, and ped - against countries that have trade relations Infant mortality was 60 per agogical assistants run free after school with Cuba, and prohibits trade with 1000 live births. Life programmes after that. Sick pay in Cuba by subsidiaries of US companies Cuba is 70 per cent of full pay. 80 per located in third countries. expectancy was 60. There cent of medicines used in Cuba are pro - This law was a clear attempt to bring was only one medical duced by Cuba itself. the Cuban people to their knees through school. Polyclinics are the next stage up in the hunger. Cuban health service after the family But Cuba has adapted and survived. In 2017 there were doctor. We visited two. At one we In particular, they had to reformulate 90,161 doctors, 46,302 of learned some Cuban history: in 1959 their policy on sugar where now the cost there were 6,286 doctors, solely in the of production did not match the interna - which were family doctors. towns and in private practices. Infant tional price. Infant mortality was 4 per mortality was 60 per 1000 live births. Land was turned over to other prod - Life expectancy was 60. There was only ucts. Whole towns had been built around 1000, life expectancy 78.45 one medical school. sugar production, so there was a big cul - years. In 2017 there were 90,161 doctors, tural problem. People were sent away 46,302 of which were family doctors. on courses, to learn to produce other Infant mortality was 4 per 1000, life ex - things – vegetables, fruit, preserved pectancy 78.45 years. There were 13 foods, most of it organic. Largely the Health Care medical schools and two independent communities were re-orientated and pre - Cuba’s second great achievement, as well faculties. There is 100 per cent cover of served. as free universal lifelong education, is all rural and urban areas. The Cuban economy is now run free and universal health care. The Polyclinic ‘Luis August Turcios mainly on rum, cigars, nickel, cobalt and There are four elements in the Cuban Lima’ covers 45,442 people, including tourism. health system: promotion, prevention, five People’s Councils. It has 823 work - Cuba was forced to think of tourism cure, and rehabilitation. ers of which 211 are doctors, 192 nurses as a source of income in the 1990s, and Family doctors are the basis of all this. and 34 dentists. open up to foreign investment. They live in the community and know There are three basic working groups It has also extended its private sector, every household, all the home condi - each with 15 family doctors. There is whose role is to support public provision tions, the state of hygiene, the risk fac - also a day care centre for 40 elderly peo - - 47 per cent of the state budget goes on tors for families and individuals. They ple open from 8am to 5pm. to look after health, education and social security. classify patients in four categories: them while the family is at work. Previously Cuba had no history of tax - healthy, risk factors, sick, and severely The clinic also has 86 collaborators ation, most of the product being used sick or disabled. from 13 countries: 42 from Venezuela, directly to provide services. Taxes on In the small town of Vinales we met 25 from Brazil, plus others. 53 of them the private sector are still low, however, Dr Frank and Nurse Sandra, who both are doctors. to motivate the sector. Private sector come from and live in the town. They We asked about salaries and found out workers have the same legal employment have another doctor and nurse in the that a family doctor earns 1,400 pesos rights as those in the public sector. practice. per month, and a nurse 900. We were Cuba has strict anti-drugs laws, and There are 22 doctors in Vinales, one assured that there was no shortage of for good reason. The country is caught for every 700 inhabitants. The doctor’s mental health beds for severe cases. The in the middle between the main client - surgery runs from 8 am till 12pm; there’s Psychological Hospital in Havana has the USA, ninety miles to the north - and an hour for lunch, and then until 5pm 800 patients. the main producer, Colombia, to the the doctor mainly makes home visits. The key to Cuban health is to give south. One day a week there is a surgery till attention to patients at community level,

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to offer universal care at that Federation of level, thus avoiding conges - Cuban Women tion in hospitals. Our last visit was to the Fed - The justified pride in eration of Cuban Women, Cuban health care was ex - one of Cuba’s many mass pressed in the words: ‘Our organisations. primary health care has no The federation was cre - comparison’ and perhaps a ated in 1960 on August 23. little sharply: ‘Maybe the hos - Some 58 years on, there is a pitals here are not as beautiful federation organisation in as yours, but we care about every one of Cuba’s 168 the people.’ towns and 15 provinces. We visited the Republic of There are 81,000 grass Chile Cooperative Farm in roots organisations. This is Vinales and were greeted by how the federation learns the President of the Board, the different problems of a parliamentary representa - women in different places; tive of the farmers. they visit women in their This cooperative was cre - homes. ated by Fidel Castro on Oc - Calixto Garcia University Hospital in Havana The federation has more tober 6, 1973. On September In 2017 the hospital carried out over 3,500 surgeries of than 4 million members, 11, 1973 President of Chile which, 1,500 were scheduled surgeries, said the nearly 91 per cent of women Salvador Allende died hero - Head of the Orthopedic Service, Dr. Juan Diaz Quesada. 14 years old or more. ically, fighting the coup d’etat; Dr. Diaz Quesada highlighted the advances of emergency It is self-financing with a that is why Fidel proposed the and scheduled traumatology surgery. An average of 2,000 subscription of 3 Cuban name. patients in 2017 were treated in the hospital’s emergency pesos a year (15 cents in dol - The farm produces to - ward in addition to 700 outpatients. lars), but even that is waived bacco, beans and root veg, if you can’t afford it. (From the Cuban News Agency [ACN] - 24 Jan. 2018) fruit and other products. It The federation gets no has 50 members, 39 men and money from the government; 11 women, and a directive board elected it is an NGO, but not one against the every two and a half years. government, because the revolution has It has an assembly every month and Farmers had to start using the old given women the possibility of develop - any decision passed by 50 per cent plus methods again, like ploughing with oxen, ment. one vote is binding. which luckily many farmers had kept. Women in Cuba have physical, eco - The farm also has a primary school There was a lack of fertilisers until nomic and political autonomy. and a secondary school, which together they saw they could produce their own, Despite the many ways in which have 128 students, a family doctor, bak - and also produce food for the animals. Cuban women are supported, there is a ery, shops and a barber, provided by the There is a project for solar energy with falling birth rate. The federation pro - state. a state company; the farm has given over posed that there should be a modifica - Each worker makes a profit on what eight hectares of land to them. The aim tion in maternity leave so that it could be he or she produces. The profit corre - is to provide electricity to the national taken by the mother, father or grandpar - sponds to the individual or semi-collec - grid. ent. This was adopted in 2017. tive effort of the workers and their The president told us about another All these are the achievements of Cuba efficiency. problem that has got worse for Cuba - - things to remember if you have to call The farm has operated on this basis hurricanes. Last century there were only the man with the plunger because your for fifteen years after it was approved by four or five bad hurricanes. In the past hotel toilet is blocked, or if you think the the assembly, and it has yielded good re - eighteen years there have been fourteen. room is scruffy, if you find the food a bit sults. The farm produces mainly organ - Last year Hurricane Irma destroyed samey, or if you get bored with people ically, with biological control of pests. agriculture and damaged thousands of muttering ‘Taxi?’ as you go by. Your The average age of cooperative mem - houses, surgeries, factories and farms on CUCs (Cuban convertible pesos) are bers is 54, and retaining young people is the northern coast when it hit. contributing to keeping a little beacon a problem. Farm work is hard in the ‘But we will never be defeated!’ the alight in the Caribbean. tropics and the young don’t like it. president said. And our group was privileged to cele - Study in Cuba is almost compulsory, They have a housing problem in brate the first of May, Workers’ Day, the president told us, and the young very Cuba. 90 per cent of Cubans own their with 1.6 million residents of Havana in often don’t return, even though they go own homes, so high rents are not an Revolution Square, watched over by Jose to agricultural college, and even though issue. However, there are not enough Marti, Che Guevara and Camilo Cien - agriculture is well paid. homes and almost 40 per cent of them fuegos, and under the slogan ‘Unity, Cuba subsidises health, education, need repair. Commitment, Victory’. social security, electricity and transport – Getting materials for restoration and As Rob Miller of Cuba Solidarity said it cannot afford to subsidise agriculture repairs is a big problem, particularly be - at the post May Day International Soli - as well. cause of the US blockade. darity Conference: ‘Cubans should be Mechanisation was going ahead with But, unlike London, Havana has no very proud – we are very proud of equipment from the Soviet Union, and homeless people sleeping on the streets. Cuba.’ And as the Cuban speaker said: when the socialist countries disappeared, And unlike other poor countries, it has ‘They have the power, but we have the it was like the apocalypse. no shanty towns either. truth.’

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Short-circuiting history in China Short-circuiting history in China

BOOK REVIEW BOOK REVIEW BOOK REVIEW BOOK The Slaves of the Cool Mountains by Alan Winnington teously. Thus people began, grudgingly, to trust them. Review By GINA NICHOLSON The CCP workers explained to Win - nington how they had negotiated with When considering the task of building ruthlessly oppressed and exploited the the Norsu slave-owners a peaceful tran - socialism, one naturally thinks first of Norsu and other peoples. Furthermore sition to more advanced social relations. the problems involved in transforming the Kuomintang, losing the war against The young Chinese state put enor - capitalist society – the economics, the the PLA, recently had pillaged, raped mous resources into compensating the entrenched capitalist powers, and the and killed in this area. relatively rich so that they could main - ingrained attitudes in the mass of the This had a mixed effect for the PLA, tain their standard of living while freeing people. who were, of course, Han Chinese. They their slaves. But additionally the new Chinese Peo - ple’s Republic, and the Chinese Com - munist Party (CCP), faced older problems than capitalism. In his astonishing and fascinating book The Slaves of the Cool Mountains , Alan Winnington told of the extraordi - nary conditions existing in the far south west of China, in the almost inaccessible Cool Mountains and along the border with (then) Burma; and the necessarily thoughtful and flexible approaches of the CCP workers to the situations they found there. In 1957 Winnington travelled first – by horseback and (mainly) on foot - to the land of the Norsu people in the Cool Mountains. This was a seven-day jour - ney from Kunming, the capital of Yun - nan province. There the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had come across a slave-owning society, with some elements of feudal - ism; a people fiercely territorial and im - bued with a hatred and contempt for the 1949: soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army enter Beijing Han Chinese. Periodically the Norsu warriors had were initially viewed with hostility and It was bribery; but since most of the descended from their mountain fastness suspicion, but they paid for everything former slave-owners understood (a) that to capture Han Chinese and take them they needed and behaved well and cour - their own living conditions would im - back as slaves to their own villages. prove and (b) there really was no al - What had evolved was a system ternative, it worked, albeit not entirely dependent upon slave- A system entirely dependent without some difficulties. owning. (See table). upon slave-owning Where a few nobles resisted, their Bondsmen themselves - and even slaves tended to run away or even, separate-slaves - could, and did, In one area - which was agreed to be typical - in at least one case, killed their also own slaves. Winnington obtained the following figures: owner’s sheep and went on strike. Apart from the nobles, most peo - Of course, many slaves, once ple lived at subsistence level and HOUSEHOLDS INDIVIDUALS freed, had difficulty in developing production from the land was very initiative or a will to work. Dealing low. Usury was common and crip - Nobles 30 123 with this problem involved develop - pling – inability to pay debts was a Bondsmen 825 3,737 ing learner-households, often led by way even Norsu people themselves Separate-slaves 358 1,426 a CCP worker. could become slaves. House-slaves 0 955 Nevertheless, by 1957 when Win - In the past the Han Chinese had nington visited the Norsu, the trans -

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formation was well advanced. and easily. The Wa people, described as Alan Winnington As with the Norsu, malaria and headhunters in the Encyclopedia Born in London in 1910, he other diseases were common and Britannica, had developed a simi - joined the Communist Party the sorcerers gained prestige and larly protected social system. in 1934. goods by claiming to attempt cures Here, on the Burmese border, He spent six years as by supernatural intervention. The surrounded by jungle, their villages chief sub-editor of the Daily modern medicines which the Chi - were as simple to protect as were Worker . In 1948 he was nese government made available the Norsu on their mountains. were useful in countering this su - Each Wa village was surrounded by sent to China, where he perstitious practice. dense thornwood and could only rapidly became an interna - Also like the Norsu, the Wa peo - be entered through a well-defended tionally significant foreign correspondent, and ple suffered from feuds between tunnel. he was with the victorious Chinese Communist families. “This region was never under Party leadership as the People's Liberation “Among the Wa it is traditional even nominal control by Chiang Army entered Beijing in 1949. that you cannot settle anything Kai-Shek or previous Chinese From 1950, he was one of only two Western without a drink, and you cannot rulers, but because it is remote and settle anything when you are marches with the north Burma jun - journalists to observe the Korean War from drunk. This leaves a remarkably gle, large numbers of Kuomintang the North Korean side. His factual reporting of small margin of time when any - soldiers fled here as the People’s the experimental use by the Americans of thing can be settled. It is always Liberation Army pressed down bacteriological warfare outraged that country ’s easier to start a feud than to end from the north and east in 1948 leadership. one.” (Chapter 13) and 1949. Jabuei, the ... leader of He was branded a traitor by the media and The Wa had no respect for the Wa, spent most of his time in in 1954, at the end of the Korean War, when human life, and many coveted the those years organising the Wa peo - modern weapons the newcomers ple to fight and destroy these rem - Winnington expected to be able to travel carried. Life was difficult for a nants, disorganised troops who hid home, the British Government simply refused time; however “Communist work- in the jungle and made raids on the to renew his passport. Thus, he was stranded teams were able to live inside the Wa villages for food, women, liquor abroad, unable to travel except within the barricades of a few selected vil - and opium. He led the Wa in bat - socialist bloc, and lived in exile for the next 20 lages, build houses and settle down tles that wiped out hundreds of years. The decision to ban him from receiving under the sighing bamboo”(Chap - them until the Kuomintang forces a passport was not lifted until 1968. ter 13) and gently pursue their in the area were reduced to fewer work of bringing the Wa into the than 100 men.” (Chapter 12). Winnington spent his remaining years in the twentieth century. When the PLA arrived in this German Democratic Republic. He died on 26th The third people visited by Win - area they found a half-starved peo - November 1983 aged 73. nington posed a different problem ple who lived on the jungle most of from the two previous ones, who the time. What farming there was older men, went to a neighbouring vil - had already advanced some way in remained extremely primitive. lage and cut off the head of a man living class society. “Happy-go-lucky and im - Children went naked until the age of there. He expected to be hailed as a provident, the Jingpaw people feast reck - 11 or 12, and adults “wore nothing but hero; but other wiser people, who were lessly when food is there, drink, sing, a strip of cloth”. committed to the newly prosperous life play and sometimes fight, letting tomor - Only about five per cent of the Wa being developed with the aid of the CCP row look after itself.” (Chapter 18). were slaves when the PLA arrived. A workers, saw that this would make un - Only just emerging from a classless so - good reason for this is that the level of necessary difficulties with the neighbour ciety – primitive communism – the Jing - production was so low that a slave could village and set a bad example. paw resisted the introduction, for produce little more than was needed for Headhunting died out fairly quickly example, of payment for work done. his own maintenance. The PLA “had a stringent rule The elders reported that slavery . . . that not one thread of cotton had only existed among them for [might] be taken from the public some 60 years. Unlike among the without payment. This rule was Norsu, Wa slaves had full civic not a political asset among the rights and could vote. Once a Jingpaw. They regarded insis - slave married he or she was auto - tence on paying for things as a matically freed. sign of ‘bad heart.’” These peo - Headhunting was a problem, ple feasted while anyone had but not normally practised upon food, and afterwards subsisted on foreigners or influential people in picking “a bare living from the their own communities. The sor - jungle”. cerers required sacrifices, some - However, no doubt helped by times of human heads, in order to contact with other more ad - mediate with the ‘ghosts’ to allow vanced people, feudalism was be - the crops to grow, or to cure dis - ginning to grow, and at a fairly eases. rapid pace. On one occasion not long be - fore Winnington arrived, a young man, egged on by sorcerers and Alan Winnington with some of the slaves he met. Continued on page 36

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Eight weeks that transformed politics Eight weeks that transformed politics

BOOK REVIEW BOOK REVIEW BOOK REVIEW BOOK Game Changer by Steve Howell parts of the organisation. This had given LOTO more say in the day-to-day run - Review By ALEX DAVIDSON ning of the party organisation. However, as Howell reports “relations were not Game Changer is an insider’s account of Corbyn’s campaigning skills, enthusias - easy to say the least.” the eight weeks from Theresa May’s an - tic army of supporters and inspirational The book details the campaign, its nouncement of the 2017 General Elec - message could produce a surge in sup - highs and lows, and shows that Labour’s tion through to polling day, which as the port. message and campaign enthused thou - sub-title of the book states, “Eight Understandably, the author deals with sands of people. Weeks That Transformed British the political rift in the Labour Party but Key moments in the election cam - Politics”. doesn’t dwell on it. paign are recounted, analysed and given When Mrs May called the snap elec - He joined Corbyn’s office just after the a ‘behind-the-scenes’ insight. These in - tion the Tories were more than twenty Copeland by-election when Labour lost clude the Labour Party’s manifesto and points ahead of Labour in the polls and the seat. This had triggered another its leak; the Tories’ manifesto and its the question being put in the main - round of rumours and speculation about “dementia tax”; the Manchester and stream media was “how big would her another challenge to Corbyn’s leader - London terrorist attacks. landslide be?” ship. In a dramatic election Jeremy Corbyn He relates how the political rift had Labour’s leaked manifesto and Labour’s campaign transformed produced a staffing structure that was The Labour Party manifesto was the British politics. Labour won its best vote “almost unfathomable” There are two most radical in living memory and in - for twenty years and the largest increase parts to the national Labour machine, cluded promises to nationalise the rail - in its vote share since 1945. Far from the staff working for Corbyn in Parlia - ways, water and energy; scrap student winning a landslide, the Tories were left ment (the Leader of the Opposition Of - tuition fees; invest more in the NHS, without a majority. fice, known by the acronym LOTO) and housing and schools; and stop foreign Steve Howell was at the centre of those based at the Party’s headquarters wars of aggression. Corbyn’s election machine. A member (referred to as “Southside”). Before the manifesto had been finally of the Labour leader’s strategy group he Following Corbyn’s victory in the sec - agreed or officially launched it was was involved in all the key campaign de - ond leadership contest some sort of par - leaked to the Daily Telegraph and Daily cisions. From the outset he believed that ity had been established between the two Mail, both of which ran with similar headlines: “Corbyn’s manifesto to take Britain back to the 1970s” ( Daily Tele - graph ); “Labour’s manifesto to drag us back to the 1970s” ( Daily Mail ). The leak gave the manifesto two bites of the cherry and meant that more peo - ple would be aware of its key messages. These key messages resonated with mil - lions of people. Commenting on this Steve Howell writes, “In attacking our plans, the Tory media was deluding itself about public opinion and doing us a favour. Their scaremongering about nationalisation, far from making us less popular, helped to achieve the opposite by connecting Jeremy with policies a majority of the public supported.” In terms of the leak, he comments that “If my theory is correct that the leak is more likely to have come from a Tory- supporting source than a Labour one, it failed spectacularly. The idea that the manifesto would be our Achilles heel was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn launching the party's hopelessly wrong. Their tirade gave our general election campaign on 9 May 2017 in Manchester. policies more publicity than we could

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Eight weeks that transformed politics

have anticipated in our wildest tia tax”. A section of their man - dreams.” ifesto, “A Restored Contract Printed copies of the mani - Between the Generations” festo sold out within days. On - stated that, it would “require line more than 2.4 milli on great generosity from one group people visited Labour’s website to another – of younger work - to read it. ing people to pay for the digni - fied old age of retired people,

Social Media and of older people balancing From the start of the election FOR THE what they receive with the needs campaign Corbyn had been of the younger generation.” gaining about 50,000 new Twit - This cynical approach was a ter followers every week taking MANY classic case of “divide and rule”. him over the million mark by The real issue was the huge and the time of the manifesto growing disparity between a launch. NOT THE very small, hugely wealthy, mi - The manifesto leak sparked a nority and the vast majority of surge in voter registrations, FEW the people of all ages. The com - from a daily rate of 50-60,0 00 bined wealth of the 1,000 peo - it went to over 100,000 follow - ple on the 2017 Sunday Times ing the manifesto leak. Of those Rich List was £658 billion, a registering, a third were 24 14% increase on the previous years of age or younger and an - year. other third were 25 to 34 years In preparation for a speech by of age. Jeremy Corbyn, Howell sent an Howell recounts one of the email to Seaumas Milne and An - highlights of the social media drew Murray, Corbyn’s speech campaign when Jeremy Cor - writers suggesting the speech byn “gate-crashed” Theresa should be on the theme of “unit - May’s appearance on ITV’s ing generations”. Facebook Live. Jeremy’s post He suggested that it should asked May why would she not spell out that the Tories have debate with him on television. THE LABOUR PARTY MANIFESTO 2017 made it impossible for young The question and her lame people to buy a home and are reply was a massive hit on now “making their parents use Facebook and Twitter. Jeremy’s video their home to pay for their care”. about it on Facebook was viewed 3.76 Words. An advertiser can bid for a term Two days after the launch of the Tory million times. His tweet racked up 2.69 so that their advert appears next to the manifesto Jeremy Corbyn, speaking at a million impressions. Google search results when people look rally in Birmingham, said, “The Tory for that subject. manifesto must be the most divisive for Tory manifesto bombshell People seeking information on the many elections. They are now pitching Two days after the Labour Party mani - Tory proposal would see at the top of young against old. festo launch the Tories launched their the page a link that would take them to “Their manifesto is typical of what a manifesto on 18th May. It was extremely a Question and Answer site exposing very well known person once called a thin but it contained a bombshell in what how the “dementia tax” would hit nasty party, as they attempt to set one became known as the “dementia tax”. people. generation against another. For pension - A proposal to include the value of The Tories played up “inter-genera - ers they offer a triple whammy of mis - someone’s house, rather than just their tional inequality” to justify the “demen - ery: Ending the ‘triple lock which savings, when calculating whether or not protects pensioner incomes, means test - they would have to pay for their own so - ing the Winter Fuel Allowance and slap - cial care was greeted with an outcry. “We stand for unity across all ping a ‘compassion tax’ on those who In the afternoon following the Tory ages and all regions in our need social care by making them pay for manifesto launch Labour’s team worked country. it using their homes. on their response and came up with the “Some claim that cutting support for strapline, “Tory triple whammy for pen - the elderly is necessary to give more help sioners.” “It is simply wrong to claim to the young. But young people are Steve Howell worked on the key mes - that young people can only being offered no hope by the Tories ei - sages and graphics for the Labour press be given a fair deal at the ther – loaded with tuition fee debts, with conference the following day and what expense of the old, or vice- next to no chance of a home of their would work on social media. What versa … own or a stable, secure job. We stand for emerged was an image with the strapline unity across all ages and all regions in above three giant boxing gloves saying our country. on each in turn: “No triple lock”, “No “It’s not a war between “It is simply wrong to claim that winter fuel allowance”, and “Pay for care generations, it’s a unity of young people can only be given a fair with your home.” generations to create a better deal at the expense of the old, or vice- He used some of his digital budget to society for all” versa … We say that if we all stand to - buy “dementia tax” on Google Ad - gether we can build a fairer Britain…

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“I find it deeply offensive that we The BBC used a clip from an old online story but against the broadcast should get into this discussion and de - Laura Kuenssberg interview with Jeremy piece” and that they were “happy that bate. Older people who’ve made such a Corbyn after the terrorist attacks at the we have broken no election rules.” fantastic contribution to our society, and Stade de France and the Bataclan theatre Jeremy Corbyn in a speech in Carlisle in retirement continue to make that con - in Paris. made his position clear: “I will take tribution in voluntary activities in inspir - The clip had been used in a News at whatever action is necessary and effec - ing people, in supporting young people. Six report nearly two years earlier which tive to protect the security of our people And young people who and our country. That seek the advice and sol - Some of the many Labour right-wingers who oppose Jeremy Corbyn includes full authority ace of older people. It’s for the police to use not a war between gen - whatever force is nec - erations, it’s a unity of essary to protect and generations to create a save life as they did better society for all” last night …” He went on to re - Manchester bombing spond to Theresa On 22nd May there May’s comments fol - was the terrorist bomb - lowing the attack when ing of the Manchester she had proposed Arena as thousands of “stamping out extrem - people, mainly teena- ism in the public sec - gers, were leaving an tor” and that there Ariana Grande concert. were difficult decisions Political campaigning to be made about deal - was suspended. ing with extremism. When campaigning He said, “And, yes, resumed, Corbyn gave we do need to have a speech about the some difficult conver - atrocity in which he Chuka Umuna Lord Mandelson Lord Blunkett sations starting with said: “Many experts, Saudi Arabia and other including professionals in our intelli - the BBC Trust had ruled as inaccurate Gulf states that have funded and fuelled gence and security services, have pointed and a breach of impartiality because it extremist ideology … We have to get se - to the connection between wars our gov - gave the false impression that Corbyn rious about cutting off the funding to ernment has supported or fought in was opposed to the use of lethal force in these terror networks, including ISIS other countries and terrorism here at such circumstances. here and in the Middle East.” home … an informed understanding of The clip’s accompanying text said Howell reports that the Labour cam - the causes of terrorism is an essential Jeremy Corbyn was “not happy” with a paign bought ‘shoot-to-kill’ on Google part of an effective response that will shoot-to-kill policy “in the event of” a AdWords so that people using that protect the security of our people that terror attack on Britain’s streets. The text search term would be offered a link to fights rather than fuels terrorism. We was at odds with the BBC Trust ruling Corbyn’s Carlisle speech. must be brave enough to admit ‘the war and Corbyn’s position that he supported on terror’ is simply not working.” the use of whatever force was necessary Game Changer The Tories and much of the main - to save lives. The election result saw the Tories lose stream media attacked the speech, with The page became the top trending their overall majority rather than win a the Sun calling it “incendiary” and that item on the BBC website and was shared landslide. it “will spark outrage”. The defence sec - widely across social media by Tory sup - Labour’s share of the vote saw its retary, Michael Fallon, dubbed the porters. Later that day the Sun’s website biggest advance from one election to an - speech “ill-judged” and proof that Cor - ran the story with the headline, “ Jez gun other since 1945. In 2015 Labour’s share byn was “soft on terrorism”. row – Video of Corbyn saying he op - of the vote was 30.4%. In 2017 its share However, a YouGov poll found that a poses shoot-to-kill policy rises to the top of the vote rose to 40%. majority (53%) agreed that wars the UK of BBC website in wake of London at - Peter Mandelson in an interview on has supported or fought are responsible, tack.” the BBC’s Radio 4 ‘World at One’ the at least in part, for terror attacks on Objections were raised with the BBC, day after the election, said, “I was wrong Britain. This was more than twice the whose reply said that the complaint up - (about Jeremy Corbyn). I am very sur - proportion who think they are not re - held by the Trust was “not against the prised, an earthquake has happened in sponsible for terror attacks (24%). (1) British politics and I did not foresee it.” After acknowledging he had been London terrorist attack The huge increase in Labour wrong, and now adjusting to the new sit - At 10.04 pm on 3 June, the final Satur - Party membership since Cor - uation he said that “he remained uncon - day before polling day, the attack on vinced by Corbyn’s ability to win a London Bridge began when three ter - byn became leader, taking it to majority down the line.” rorists drove a van into pedestrians on over 500,000 members, gave This position was taken up in other in - London Bridge and went on a stabbing the campaign a huge number terviews later that day by other Labour rampage in the nearby restaurants and right-wingers, including Lord (David) pubs. Seven people were killed and of ‘boots on the ground’, far Blunkett, who called on Corbyn to “heal many more were injured. The three per - more than the Tories. the rift” with the Parliamentary Labour petrators were shot dead by police. Party (PLP) by allowing it to elect the

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shadow cabinet. Chuka Umunna, who onated with people. The Tories singled after the Labour Party manifesto leak had previously ruled himself out of a out Corbyn for attack on the basis that and on deadline day (13 May) there shadow cabinet ministerial role under they thought he was a liability for were 622,389 new registrations. Corbyn said he was now prepared to Labour. n Social media. Labour overwhelmingly take one. n The huge increase in Labour Party won this aspect of the campaign as the Jeremy Corbyn did not bow to that membership since Corbyn became Facebook and Twitter figures show. particular pressure and re-appointed to leader, taking it to over 500,000 mem - n The strategic decision, contrary to con - his shadow cabinet those who had been bers, gave the campaign a huge number ventional wisdom, to tackle tough issues loyal and who had helped run an ex - of ‘boots on the ground’, far more than pro-actively. tremely positive and successful cam - the Tories. Hundreds of thousands or - This meant taking on perceived weak - paign. ganising online and on the ground out - nesses such as Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn’s Howell, in summing up the campaign, played the Tories big money machine. leadership and national security, believ - refers to the British Election Study, n The Voter registration campaign led by ing that these could actually be strengths which tracks the opinions of 30,000 Labour in which nearly 3 million people if re-framed rather than reacting defen - respondents before, during and after an registered over the course of the cam - sively to the Tory mainstream media’s election. paign. There was a surge in applications narrative. The study concluded that the cam - This book, written by an insider in paigns mattered more than “any British Labour’s election campaign, gives a vivid election in recent memory” and that Jeremy Corbyn is a great account of an outstanding campaign, Labour had been successful in winning campaigner and “message which over-turned a twenty point deficit over a majority of the switchers (people in the polls against all the odds, secured who changed from one party to another carrier”. His authenticity, Jeremy Corbyn’s position as leader, during the eight weeks) as well as a ma - honesty, compassion and weakened May’s position and prepared jority of those undecided at the outset. b e l i efs resonated with people. the way for a Labour victory at the next Whilst acknowledging that the Labour election. campaign was aided by the “wooden” performance of Theresa May and a dis - The Tories singled out Corbyn FOOTNOTE astrous Tory manifesto, he lists five fac - for attack on the basis that tors contributing to Labour’s success: 1. Matthew Smith, ‘Jeremy they thought he was a liability n Jeremy Corbyn is a great campaigner Corbyn is on the right side of public and “message carrier”. His authenticity, for Labour. opinion on foreign policy’ , YouGov, honesty, compassion and beliefs res - 30 May 2017.

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Summer 2018 The Socialist Correspondent 33 No31_Layout 1 06/06/2018 05:34 Page 34

200 years on, why Karl Marx was right 200 years on, why Karl Marx was right

In Trier in Germany, where he was born on 5 May 1818, out in earlier works. and where he lived for the first 17 years of his life, the 200th Marx is therefore not easy to read since there are many sources feeding his anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx’s was marked by major thinking and many reformulations of ear - events and significant media coverage. lier ideas and concepts. There is no simple formulation of his By PAUL SUTTON thought although he, as well as many since, have pointed to the ‘Preface’ to A In London, where he lived for twice that lished by Engels after Marx’s death. Contribution to the Critique of Political number of years, the anniversary went Other manuscripts remained unpub - Economy published in 1859 as setting out practically unnoticed, with just a few lished until as late as the 1930s. his ideas succinctly. lines of press coverage in some newspa - It is therefore important to see Marx’s In it he sets out the main elements of pers and practically none in the elec - thinking as a continuing development ‘the materialist conception of history’ tronic media. which began with criticisms of philoso - which emphasises identifying the mode Marx would not have been unduly phy and religion and moved on to poli - of production and how it is changing as surprised since he had drawn the con - tics and economics, encompassing all the key to understanding economic and clusion from many years work with these elements within an approach that social change. British trade unionists in the First Inter - emphasised political economy as the key This he thought could be identified national that the English lacked ‘revolu - to understanding historical and contem - with some precision and scientifically. tionary fervour’. porary change. By contrast, politics and other ideologi - By contrast, he saw German progres - cal forms were more difficult to deter - sive thinkers as more ideologically ad - mine although ultimately subordinate to vanced but held back by the slower economic and social change. development of capitalism in Germany However there is much more to Marx compared to the UK. than his ‘materialism’ and there have British trade unionists were leaders in arisen in consequence many interpreta - class struggle but lacked theory; the tions of what he wrote, some of which leaders of the German working class were codified into academically inclined knew theory was important but lacked ‘schools of Marxist thought’ or nation - depth in the practice of organised class ally based ‘Marxisms’ allied to various struggle. communist parties. To make a revolution theory and Marx loved controversy and no doubt practice had to come together. Marx’s he would have dismissed as ignorant and life was a living statement of this truth. unfounded much of what was said by others to be ‘Marxist’. However, what is Theory clear from his theoretical contribution is Marx is best known as a theorist, the au - his belief that his approach as it finally thor (sometimes with Engels) of more emerged was in some sense ‘scientific’ than thirty books, studies, lectures and and thus capable of being applied by addresses published in his lifetime and others if understood correctly. half that number written but not pub - It was this that distinguished it from lished until after his death. other forms of socialism under discus - In addition, he wrote insightful polit - Marx in 1875 sion at the time and especially French ical commentary, principally for Ger - socialism which was rooted in experi - man publications but also as a As such, concepts such as ‘alienation’ ences derived from the French Revolu - contributor to the New York Tribune . which Marx identified in the early 1840s tion. Marx did not find writing theory easy were revised and given new meaning as And it was this approach which his since he was constantly revising his his understanding of capitalism devel - closest collaborator Engels sought to pro - work, sometimes to the extent of writ - oped. mote in his later commentaries on and ing completely new drafts to include Similarly with ‘class struggle’ and the development of Marx’s theoretical work. new research. historical development of capitalism as Finally it was also this element which That is why only the first volume of outlined in The Communist Manifesto was later emphasised by the communist Capital (1867) was published in his life - published in 1848. party in the Soviet Union in its presen - time, the others were written in part or Or even later still a more sophisticated tation of Marxist theory as ‘scientific so - as extensive research notes and pub - interpretation of ‘surplus value’ than set cialism’.

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Practice with Engels a member. ‘The philosophers have only interpreted Much of this political activity was the world, in various ways: the point, time-consuming and ultimately unsuc - however, is to change it’. cessful. Marx therefore ‘retreated’ into These words written by Marx in 1845 serious study of political economy along also appear on his memorial headstone with some regular political journalism, at Highgate cemetery in London. They although he maintained frequent con - point to Marx the practising politician, tacts with ‘revolutionaries’ throughout or more exactly to Marx the ‘revolution - Europe, who would meet him socially in ary’. London. Marx began to seriously engage with Then in 1864 Marx was the leading politics when he was appointed editor of force in establishing the International Rheinische Zeitung in 1842. He then Workingmen’s Association (First Inter - promoted the interests of the radical national) in London and emerged as its German bourgeoisie and political reform key figure as it sought to unite the labour to limit the power of the Prussian auto - movements across Europe and to chart cratic state. This brought him into con - the way forward theoretically and practi - flict with that state and he was forced to cally for the working class in its every - move first to Paris and then Brussels. day activities. These years saw him continuing his This brought Marx into direct contact involvement with various German polit - with revolutionary leaders in Italy, Ger - ical movements but also a broadening of many, France, Belgium, Switzerland, his theoretical interests to recognise the Spain and Russia as well as with English key role of the working class in capitalist trade union leaders some of whom were development, boosted by his contacts broadly supportive of its aims. with revolutionary groups in Paris and The first edition of The Manifesto This collaboration was far from easy Brussels. of the Communist Party, published and there was much controversy but The product of this, and from 1844 in German in 1848. eventually Marx got the International to his close association with Engels, was the commit to his theoretical understanding Communist Manifesto published just as order, forcing Marx to flee to London in of capitalism, including the aim of the the revolutions of 1848 began sweeping 1849. common ownership of the means of pro - through Europe. There he became involved first with duction; and the necessity for political Marx anticipated and expected a great the many political refugees from all over action by the working class to advance deal from these revolutions but in the Europe who had been forced out by the its specific interests. event they proved short-lived with the counter-revolution and then with Its high-point in 1869 however was counter-revolutionaries gradually gaining attempts to revive the Communist cut short first by the Franco-Prussian the ascendancy and restoring the old League of which he had briefly been war of 1870 and then the following year by the Paris Commune. Marx like many others did not antici - pate the Commune but once it had begun supported it although he thought it unlikely to succeed. This unfortunately proved to be the case and when it was defeated Marx was again involved in supporting the many French refugees who fled to London. He also wrote an influential analysis of it entitled The Civil War in France (1871) which explored some of the political forms a revolution led by the working class should take. Increasing ill-health from this time on gradually took hold of Marx curtailing his political activities, although he did travel to Germany and Switzerland and right at the end of his life to Algiers to seek cures for his medical conditions. During this period he continued to write and maintained if anything an even closer collaboration with Engels. He also followed political events in Europe, es - pecially in Germany and even learnt Russian to better understand a country he regarded throughout most of his life Marx's birthplace, now Bruckenstrasse 10, in Trier. The family occupied two as the bastion of reaction in Europe. rooms on the ground floor and three on the first floor. Purchased by the Social The political practice of Marx points Democratic Party of Germany in 1928, it now houses a Marx museum. to the many difficulties not to say major

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setbacks in making a revolution. however much they may wish to do Failure is more likely than success so! unless all the conditions for revolution Or as a German author of a recent are in place. These can be anticipated book on Marx put it: “a revival of in part but again may be overtaken by Marxist thinking has been in full events forcing premature support. swing since the 2008 financial crisis. In all circumstances however it is The economists on our business the working class which is to be pro - pages were only able to explain the moted and the international potential market as a system that worked. But of the working class to act together the crisis forced us to confront Marx’s that must be encouraged: or again as alternative: what if the markets are la - set on Marx’s memorial in Highgate tently catastrophic?” (Thomas Stein - ‘Workers of all lands Unite’. field in The Guardian 4/5/2018). We now know, thanks to Marx, to Legacy economic history and to the evidence In anticipation of the 200th anniver - of our own eyes that this is precisely sary a number of books and television what they are! programmes appeared in Germany. Marxist theory of course has its In Britain several academic books weaknesses including a dismissal of were published and to its credit the the peasantry as a political force, an British Library mounted a small exhi - underestimation of the strength of na - bition featuring Marxist memorabilia, tionalism, an incomplete understand - including his ticket for entry to the ing of imperialism and capitalist British Museum Reading Room globalisation, and an unfinished polit - which he used to research and write ical theory of the state. Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Capital. But in the range of concepts Marx in - Seated: Marx's daughters: However as noted in the opening lines troduces to explain capitalism is a rich - Caroline, Eleanor and Laura. the anniversary was deliberately ignored ness of theory that has not since been in much of the British media and if not, equalled. Similarly if Marx understood then Marx was contemptuously dis - transformed large sectors of the globe. It revolutionary change as necessary for missed as irrelevant and mistaken, and follows, then, that as long as capitalism is human development he did not under - his followers even more so. in business, Marxism must be as well.” estimate its difficulty or shirk from com - This is a much repeated mantra but (Terry Eagleton, Why Marx Was Right, mitted political practice to achieve it. the very frequency of its repetition is tes - 2011, p. 2). Marx was right far more than he was tament to the continuing strength of Eagleton has hit the mark here as he wrong. That cannot be said of many Marxism as a critique of capitalism: “the does in the rest of the book in which he people 200 years after their death and is most searching, rigorous, comprehensive effectively debunks those who seek to de - why he remains a source of continuing critique of its kind ever to be launched. liberately misrepresent and caricature inspiration for those seeking a different It is also the only such critique that has Marx. Capitalists cannot escape Marx and a better world. Short-circuiting history in China Continued from page 29 the opposite was true.’” (Chapter 19) fact grow, the producer co-operatives Added to nervousness of this “new- gradually succeeded. The problem that confronted the po - fangled nonsense” were low attendance In his conclusion Winnington de - litical workers was how to bridge the gap at work and primitive egalitarianism. scribes the method applied to the Norsu between this primitive way of life and Low attendance was for a variety of as ‘Reform by Peaceful Negotiation’ as what was going on in the rest of China. reasons. Birthdays were not counted a result of which there is an intervening Hostility to the Hans, belief in sorcery, every year, but every six days, and no- stage before the advance to socialism, and the lack of practical education one worked on his birthday. Nor was any during which the land is privately owned through experience of class society, were work done on the anniversary – similarly and worked. among the obstacles the political work - marked - of the death of a relative. Fur - Among the Wa and the Jingpaw, how - ers had to overcome. ther holidays were for marriages and for ever, it was possible to apply a different The Chinese state provided massive “the time-consuming requirements of method, that of ‘Direct Transition to So - relief and aid goods. But the political love-making.” (Young unmarried people cialism’ because among these people the workers felt that this society had to move were free to engage in promiscuous sex). class divisions were unclear or of little in the direction of producer co-opera - Then distribution of the harvest ac - importance. The main task in such cases, tives. cording to work done came up against despite the obvious difficulties, was of “’. . . rather naively,’ said one worker, the staunch collective conscience of these raising the level of production. Winning - ‘we had at first imagined that the primi - people. Those who received more, by ton notes that all over China minority tive communal way of life – with collec - virtue of more work done, felt selfish and peoples were undergoing similar tive working and division of the crop isolated; those who had less felt they processes to the three that he visited. among those who work the land – would were being robbed. Nevertheless, by de - be helpful in setting up producer co-op - grees and because production, and there - All quotations from ‘The Slaves of the eratives. Actually we found that exactly fore the general standard of living, did in Cool Mountains ’.

36 The Socialist Correspondent Summer 2018