So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y

No 292 17 July 2013 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org For a workers’ government

Protesting for SWP debates Syriza’s new Trayvon Martin Leninism challenges page 2-3 page 4 page 10 Yes, unions should rule Labour

WORKERS NEED UNIONS AND A POLITICAL VOICE SEE PAGES 5-8 2 NEWS

Orgreave Truth What is the Alliance for Jimmy Mubenga was and Justice Workers’ Liberty? Campaign Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to “unlawfully killed” The Orgreave Truth another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. and Justice Campaign Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to (OTJC) has been es - By Ira Berkovic ment to write up and col - increase their wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, tablished to campaign late their accounts of the unemployment, the blighting of lives by overwork, for an independent imperialism, the destruction of the environment and The inquest into the event, in which they public enquiry into the much else. death of Angolan depor - claimed Mubenga forced policing at Orgreave Against the accumulated wealth and power of the tee Jimmy Mubenga re - himself into the unsafe po - Coke works during the capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. turned a verdict of sition, thus causing his own 1984-85 Miners’ Strike. The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity through “unlawful killing” on death. struggle so that the working class can overthrow capitalism. We want Tuesday 9 July. Evidence from passen - The campaign focuses socialist revolution: collective ownership of industry and services, Mubenga was killed in gers, however, attested that particularly on events of workers’ control and a democracy much fuller than the present system, October 2010 when he was Mubenga had been forced, 18 June 1984, when 95 with elected representatives recallable at any time and an end to the family Jimmy leaves handcuffed, belted, and re - face-first, into the doubled- miners were arrested bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. behind, but it can help us strained in an unsafe posi - up position by the G4S and later charged with We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” expose the brutality at tion aboard a British guards, who the inquest riot or unlawful assem - and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. the heart of Britain’s im - Airways flight by G4S also exposed had shared bly; the former charge Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, migration system and im - guards. Following his racist texts. carrying a possible life supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping The verdict cannot migration controls death, the guards colluded sentence at the time. The organise rank-and-file groups. bring relief or justice for themselves. We are also active among students and in many campaigns and with G4S senior manage - cases were subsequently alliances. dropped, but no apology has ever been offered. We stand for: Malta plan to “push back” refugees Campaigners also be - ● Independent working-class representation in politics. lieve an independent en - ● A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour quiry could reveal the movement. halted after protests truth about the policing ● A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to operation at Orgreave. picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. Sign the campaign’s ● Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education petition at bit.ly/otjc-pe - By Alan Thez taken over by armed mili - viewed and processed and jobs for all. tition, and promote the tias who have survived the properly, and Maltese ● A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full campaign (including by A Maltese government struggle for power between lawyers have challenged equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden inviting a speaker) in plan to send back Somali Gaddafi and anti-Gaddafi the government on this of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, your union branch/com - refugees from Libya has forces. basis. bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity munity group. against racism. been halted, for now, by Malta rescued 170 of This has given the For more info, visit ● Open borders. protests, just hours be - them on Monday 8 and refugees a breathing space, the campaign website ● Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have fore their midnight Air Tuesday 9 July, but the but does not guarantee at www.otjc.org.uk more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist Malta flight to Tripoli's government planned to re - their safety. The weakness rulers. military airport. turn all but the “most vul - of a purely legalistic ap - ● Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or Dozens of people who nerable” until the ECHR proach is exposed by the Anti-Fascist community to global social organisation. had gathered outside the intervened at the request of opposition National Party ● Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all police HQ at Fontiana (just a coalition of anti-deporta - leader Dr. Simon Busitti nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. outside the capital Val - tion and civil rights groups. hypocritically calling Mus - Network Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. ● letta's city gates) in a “stop Malta’s Labour prime cat xenophobic — yet de - ● If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — minister, Joseph Muscat, fending his own party’s mobilises and join us! the trucks” demo, cheered as they heard that the Euro - claimed, “This is not push- 2003 decision to deport Er - pean Court of Human back, it is a signal we are itrean refugees back to their Anti-fascists in Croydon, Contact us: Rights (ECHR) had issued not push-overs” — a refer - dictator-led homeland on south London, have called an interim measure to stop ence to Silvio Berlusconi's the grounds that interna - a counter-mobilisation 020 7394 8923 [email protected] ● ● the deportations. 2003 “Push Back” agree - tional law was different against a planned action The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley ment with Gaddafi to re - then! by the English Volunteer Over 1,000 black African Meanwhile the small Road, London, SE1 3DG. refugees fled Libya over turn 200 Somali and Force, a right-wing Eritrean refugees to Libya. “Alternativva splinter from the EDL, on ● Printed by Trinity Mirror two days in a mass escape Demokratika” party has by sea in dingies and rafts. The ECHR recently de - Saturday 27 July. clared this Italian push criticised PM Muscat for The official assembly Many of Libya’s country’s spoiling Malta’s “good already-notorious deten - back to be a violation of point, announced by local human rights, as asylum name” in the world's unions and UAF, is Get Solidarity every week! tion centres are now possi - eyes. bly even more dangerous, seekers were not inter - 11.30am at Lunar House, ● Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o 40 Wellesley Road, CR9 ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged o 2BY. The South London £9 unwaged o Anti-Fascist group, which Bailiffs evict Brixton flats is independent of UAF and ● 44 issues (year). £35 waged o affiliated to the national £17 unwaged o Anti-Fascist Network cades on 15 July to resist ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o the council calls “a signifi - (AFN), will also have a eviction by bailiffs and presence on the day. or 50 euros (44 issues) o cant capital receipt”. police from the homes The council claims it is AFN is also calling for a Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: they had lived in for 13 supporting residents in direct-action mobilisation 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG years. finding alternative housing, to counter a planned EDL action in Tower Hamlets, Cheques (£) to “AWL”. Police raided an apart - but a local resident said: “A ment block on Rushcroft letter a few weeks ago sug - East London, on Saturday Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. Road, Brixton, to evict resi - gesting eviction proceed - 7 September. There will be dents who had been squat - ings would begin from [15 a public meeting to Name ...... ting the building since July]. discuss the mobilisation 2000. “No warrants or evic - on Tuesday 30 July, Address ...... Lambeth Council plans tion notices have been 7.30pm, Oxford House, to create 22 socially-rented given, and many of the Derbyshire Road, E2 6GH...... By Jonny West homes in the blocks, but residents, with lifelong For more info nearer the medical conditions, have time, see I enclose £ ...... also plans to sell off three Residents in Brixton, of the six blocks for luxury had virtually no help with antifascistnetwork. south London, built barri - housing, to generate what being re-housed.” wordpress.com 3 NEWS The verdict on American racism

By Keeanga-Yamahtta disproportionate levels of explicitly racist law was Taylor poverty, or higher levels of taken off the books, that imprisonment, or harass - racism is no longer an issue Shock, horror and then ment at the hands of police, in American life. rage. These were the or higher levels of foreclo - Next month will mark feelings experienced by sures and evictions, or the the 50th anniversary of the tens of thousands of peo - mass closures of the “March on Washington for ple across the country as schools they send their Jobs and Freedom,” where they struggled to com - children to. It’s always the Martin Luther King Jr. gave prehend the meaning of individual’s fault — and his famous “I Have a George Zimmerman’s ac - never the system that cre - Dream” speech. quittal. ates and perpetuates in - The murder of Trayvon equality. Martin suggests that while How could Zimmerman But every once in a many things have changed be free? It was he who while, something happens since that historic march, stalked Trayvon Martin, that tears the mask off, re - many things have not. The confronted him, pulled out vealing the ugly face of US lives of black men, women a gun and ultimately mur - society. The murder of and children were cheap in dered the unarmed teenage Trayvon Martin and now the Jim Crow South, and boy. the acquittal of his mur - civil rights activists often The facts surrounding derer confirms again that looked to officials in Wash - this case, from its begin - racism is so tightly packed ington, DC, to step in and ning to its shocking end, into the blood and marrow prosecute cases that local show the depth of racism of American democracy redneck officials wouldn’t. in the United States. that it cannot live without Today, we make the same It took more than six it. call for the federal govern - weeks for George Zimmer - One of the jobs of those ment to do what local and man to even be arrested who would like to see state officials in Seminole and charged with any some measure of justice for County, Florida, wouldn’t crime. American resident of Jack - the trial. American Dream and the Trayvon Martin and all the and couldn’t. The police immediately sonville, Florida, who was It is now widely accepted wonders of US democracy other victims of discrimina - and instinctively accepted put on trial in Florida — by throughout the US that the isn’t some folksy tale about tion in this society is to FIGHT Zimmerman’s version of the very same state attor - absence of racial language self-empowerment and the bring the word “racism” The fight for justice for events — that he acted in ney in charge of Zimmer - means the absence of race rise of a Black president. back into the nation’s polit - Trayvon Martin doesnt self-defence. His arrest man’s prosecution, in fact or racism. This was re - It’s a legend designed to ical lexicon. hinge solely on getting a only came after weeks of — for aggravated assault cently confirmed by the US redirect attention from Racial discrimination — coveted guilty verdict protests that brought thou - because she fired a warn - Supreme Court when it structural inequality, and the consequence that against George Zimmer? sands of ordinary people ing shot into a wall in order struck down significant racism, imperialism, geno - greater numbers of African man. into the streets to demand to scare off an abusive hus - sections of the Voting cide and all of the other in - Americans endure poverty, justice. band. Alexander even used Rights Act — one of the gredients that constitute It must be about vindi - unemployment, poorly the same Florida “Stand central achievements of the the real story of America. cating his humanity and funded schools, housing in - JUSTICE Your Ground” defence that civil rights movement — Obama is held up as a dignity — that he did not security and the rest — is The Zimmerman trial was allows someone fearing for because, as Chief Justice prime example of how it’s die in vain. We should sup - not, in most cases, caused supposed to show that their life or safety to use a John Roberts put it, “our possible to advance under port calls for federal prose - intentionally, as it once the system could work in weapon in self-defence. country has changed.” American democracy — cution of Zimmerman on was. achieving justice for So what happened? Zim - and those who fail to rise the grounds that he vio - Today, inequality is the African Americans. merman was acquitted of CONCEDED and become successful are lated Martin’s civil rights. outcome of centuries of But we must also heed the Instead, lazy prosecutors any responsibility in the While Roberts conceded therefore told it’s their own racial oppression and eco - words of Martin Luther — who are used to rail - death of Trayvon Martin. there were still some in - fault. nomic exploitation. This is King in 1963, when he roading boys like Trayvon Alexander, who was ac - stances of racial discrim - The Zimmerman trial a country built on the en - called on the nation to act —proved not to have the cused of firing a single ination, the thrust of the confirmed this when slavement of people with for a broader understand - same vigour in prosecuting warning shot that didn’t court’s ruling was to Trayvon Martin was sys - black skin and then, at ing of justice: someone like Zimmerman. cause the least harm to claim that the country tematically blamed for his slavery’s end, the imposi - “We have also come to Meanwhile, Zimmerman’s anyone, was found guilty had moved past the era own death. That ugly tion of 100 years of legal this hallowed spot to re - attorneys methodically em - by a jury that deliberated of systematic discrimina - scapegoating is connected discrimination against mind America of the fierce ployed every racist stereo - just 12 minutes, and was tion. to the way African Ameri - African Americans. So no urgency of now. This is no type about young black sentenced to 20 years in This was the claim made cans are regularly blamed one can simply decide, time to engage in the lux - men they could conjure up. prison. by the professional media for all sorts of things — some 40 years after the last ury of cooling off or to take There are those who in - Justice in Florida is never in 2008 as well, as they cel - their unemployment, or the tranquilizing drug of sist the outcome of the colour-blind. ebrated the election of the gradualism. Now is the Zimmerman trial isn’t The outcome of the Zim - country’s first Black presi - time to rise from the dark about race, but the intrica - merman case... [is] about dent, Barack Obama. Com - and desolate valley of seg - cies of the law — about how the demonization of mentators repeatedly regation to the sunlit path what’s permissible in court African Americans — and suggested Obama’s elec - of racial justice. Now is the and other legal mumbo in particular, young tion meant the US was en - time to open the doors of jumbo. But the Trayvon African American men — tering a “post-racial” era. opportunity to all of God’s Martin case has proved has become so widely ac - Obama and a handful of cepted and normalised that children. once again how racism is other economically and po - “Now is the time to lift a teenager can be hunted woven into every aspect of litically successful Black in - our nation from the down and murdered be - the justice system, includ - dividuals are often held up quicksands of racial in - cause he is Black, and no ing the courtroom. as a vindication of Ameri - justice to the solid rock one is punished. If anyone doubts the an - can democracy. of brotherhood.” swer to the often-asked hy - The insistence that race is In his last run for presi - • This article appeared in pothetical question — what only an issue in US social dent, Obama was fond of Socialist Worker , the news - would the outcome have and political life when race saying, “My story is only paper of the International been if Martin was white is mentioned isn’t just the possible here in America — Socialist Organisation in and his killer African erroneous belief of the mis - the belief that here in the USA, on 15 July. It is American — consider the informed Florida judge America, if you try, you available to read online at case of Marissa Alexander. who presided in the Zim - can make it.” bit.ly/iso-verdict Alexander is an African merman case and banned This narrative about the the discussion of race from 4 COMMENT SWP under pressure

The Left whom it holds some trade-union positions. The event looked smaller than in previous years — at some By Ed Maltby estimates, half the size. Inside the sessions, the weight of op - position forced some opening-up. Alex Callinicos was forced to allow oppositionist and SWP veteran Ian Birchall to speak, On the edges of the SWP’s annual “Marxism” weekend and to reply to him, insisting that the Central Committee’s (11-15 July), oppositionists who had remained in the SWP suppression of public dissent is necessary to “defend Lenin - talked with Workers’ Liberty activists. ism”. The forced liberalisation extended only so far. In the run- The opposition had held a hundred-strong caucus shortly up to “Marxism”, AWL members had (successfully) argued before the festival. They decided not to walk until a second with members of the executive of the University of London lot of charges of sexual harassment, against formerly leading student union, where some of the SWP’s sessions were held, SWP organiser Martin Smith, by another SWP woman, is who wanted to cancel the SWP’s booking, and explained that heard. we disagreed with ripping down “Marxism” posters. They admit that under the SWP’s regime they have little On the weekend, however, SWPers repeatedly went round chance of replacing the current leadership, but hope that tearing down posters advertising the AWL fringe meeting. through keeping up the argument they can isolate what some Some older SWP hacks met AWL activists with threats and called the “Smith faction”, the hardcore circle of Martin abuse, though they were less bullish about that than in pre - Smith’s defenders and cronies, and force an opening for a full vious years. revision of the SWP’s constitution. Student feminists from the University of London Union Oppositionists said relatively little about what they and UCL Students’ Union who came to put up posters thought of the SWP’s political line on Egypt, or the half- protesting about the SWP’s handling of the first charges hearted demagogy of its occasional general strike slogans. against Martin Smith of sexual harassment and rape had They argued that the SWP leadership has failed to “grasp im - their posters ripped from their hands and torn up by SWP portant recent changes in the composition of the working stewards. class”, and that therefore the recent activity of the SWP has A fringe meeting sponsored by ULU with UCLU been lacklustre compared to what they saw as a high point in women’s officer Beth Sutton and two AWL women, NUS the marches against the invasion of Iraq. exec member Rosie Huzzard and RMT activist Becky Crocker, went ahead, and yielded useful discussions, They have in mind the increase in precarious work and low Student feminist posters were ripped down and ripped up. pay, and a tendency by the SWP to equate “the working mostly with non-SWPers attending the weekend. class” with a few groups of public-service workers among SWP debates “Leninism”

By Cathy Nugent is that it relies too much on unthinking discipline. The Cen - This is progress but only up to a point. The overall narra - tral Committee no longer tries to win political arguments — tive of the opposition is faulty. They seem to be saying that In the February edition of Socialist Review Alex Callini - it should restore a respectful attitude to the views of the the overall level of democratic liveliness in a democratic cen - cos took on the internal and external criticism which fol - members. We might argue that it is highly doubtful that the tralist organisation should vary according to conditions. The lowed the SWP’s mishandling of a complaint of rape SWP leadership has ever, or will ever, respect its members! idea comes from Cliff, who sharply contrasts the Lenin of within their organisation (bit.ly/cal-len). In his reply, Callinicos insists that he too has read Lars Lih 1902 and What is to Be Done with the Lenin of 1905 when the It was the only such public political statement to be made; (and other books which give a balanced picture of Lenin, Bolshevik faction was “opened up” to new members, work - a mainly weary defence of the SWP’s model of democratic such as Neil Harding’s Lenin’s Political Thought ). Okay, he’s ing-class members and local initiative. centralism, tying it to Lenin’s political legacy. The SWP’s or - read the books but what has he learnt? But this is not the lesson of Lenin’s political career. Demo - gansational regime was, Callinicos claimed, fully democratic Apparently that he is right! That centralism is necessary, cratic liveliness (i.e. political debate) was always a given for and still relevant. We published a critique of Callinicos’s because it enables the party to “move quickly”. He invokes Lenin and just about everyone else in Russian Social Democ - piece at the time (bit.ly/cal-reply). (in a not overly respectful way) Cliff’s ghost on this point. racy (even, with big qualifications, under the pressures which Members of the SWP’s new internal opposition (revolu - It is true, at times of heightened class struggle a revolution - followed the 1917 revolution). tionarysocialism.tumblr.com) have since responsed to Call - ary group may have to move quickly and time-limit debate In 1905 Lenin (and, as Lih argues, most of the Bolsheviks) inicos. In Socialist Review Ian Birchall argued definitions of on particular actions. But Callinicos is making a demagogic were in favour of “opening up” the faction because it was Leninism could not be taken for granted (bit.ly/bir-lenin). point. The SWP Central Committee has a standing licence to possible to do that under the more relaxed conditions follow - And Pat Stack has critically discussed the evolution of the always “move quickly”, to make as many twists and turns ing the 1905 revolution. It was not a lesson Lenin learned SWP’s democratic centralism (bit.ly/stack-d-c). Callinicos that it likes, whenever it likes, without meaningful reference about the working-class or political organisation from the replied to Birchall defending Central Committee domination to any wider constituency in the SWP. 1905 revolution. To repeat, full political debate was always a of the SWP (bit.ly/cal-party). There have been other related given for Lenin and it should be for us. articles on the opposition blog. STACK Stack’s commitment (and apparently Birchall’s too) to the It has all been too polite — to my reading a debate where Pat Stack discusses the origins of the current regime in notion that permanent (or longer than three month long) fac - there are obscure subtexts and unexpressed criticisms. That the early 70s up to 1975, when a series of factions were tions are necessarily irksome is equally nothing to do with makes the debate difficult to unpick. Nonetheless it is inter - formed and expelled. the Marxist organisation of Lenin’s time. The presence of fac - esting and important. Stack’s argument is that the post-1975 regime (rule by tions, groupings and tendencies could be counter-productive Birchall wants the SWP to be more aware of the Stalinist aCentral Committee directly elected by the SWP conference to rational discussion but not necessarily so. In the AWL we distortions of Lenin’s legacy. Other myths (some Stalinist in but under a “winner takes all” slate system, and with factions give factions full freedom to organise, the better to get seri - origin, some created by right wing historians) have be use - allowed for only three-month pre-conference periods) was ous, clear and coherent debate. fully corrected by Lars Lih (in Lenin Rediscovered and else - necessary to stop political “mischief making”, but is no What no one in the SWP quite yet gets is that for revolu - where). When it comes to democratic centralism Lenin was longer appropriate. Stack favourably reviews the function - tionary Marxists organisational forms are there to service po - no great innovator. It was something the whole of Russian ing of the SWP in the 1970s but fails to describe its overall litical clarity and the constant evaluation of political strategy. Social Democracy, including the Mensheviks, took for context — Cliff had made a turn to “party building” in reac - Much more about that is explained on page 9 of this paper. granted. tion to and partially modelled on the Healyites. The expul - It is noticeable that the opposition has so far had very little But for Birchall, “It is unlikely that any of the models of sions were ultimately high-handed and instrumental to to say about the disastrous political zig zags of the SWP, the party organisation adopted by the Bolsheviks would fit the Cliff’s own political vision. attempts to re-create the “glory years” of the Anti-Nazi very different needs of the world today.” Unfortunately Bir - Stack believes that the “tight” regime helped the SWP stay League with one politically-debased front organisation after another. chall does what he accuses Callinicos of doing — fails to ex - together through the long years of the downturn; a cadre was Maybe that will come out in time, maybe these re - plain himself. Perhaps there is some subtext here about the built as it fed off the political experience of the leadership. assessments of Leninism point to a future “liberalisa - nature of the working-class in the 21st century? Watch this An unfortunate downside was a habitual lack of democratic tion” of the SWP’s regime. Or maybe (as the report above space, I guess... interplay between members and leadership. It is time to cor - hints) there will be little left of the SWP to “liberalise” in Birchall’s particular criticism of the SWP’s internal regime rect that, Stack says. a few months’ time. 5 WHAT WE SAY Keep Labour’s union link, and democratise it!

On 9 July Labour leader Ed Miliband proposed that the link between unions and the Labour Party be reorgan - ised so that individual union members must “opt in” to Labour affiliation. “Opting-in” seems speciously democratic. But really it en - lists pressures from the billionaire press, and all the built-in biases of capitalist society, against collective working-class intervention in politics; and immediately it threatens to break up unions’ political action. Despite what Ed Miliband and the press say, no individual is “automatically” affiliated to Labour now. Unions decide affiliation to Labour, or not, in the same way as all their other affiliations, by conference debates. Every individual trade unionist can opt of the collective decision by opting not to pay in to the political fund. There are collective union decisions, and collective union representation in the Labour Party. The Labour Party has always been different from parties which only have individual members. In fact, before 1918 Labour had no individual members at all. You could be part of the Labour Party only by being a member of an organisa - tion affiliated to Labour. The purpose of the Labour Party’s founders was to muster the collective resources of the working class, a class which lacks the individuals who can sustain a big party through in - dividual donations, so as to create a collective working-class counterweight in politics to the parties funded and run by the rich. Early Labour candidates stood on the principle of independent political representation for working-class interests. That principle For the Labour Party to work properly for that purpose, needs to be revived. the working-class organisations which underpin it must be democratic, and they must democratically control the politi - cept accountability to the working class, and to the creation cally within the labour movement for democracy and for cians. The movement has never been that democratic. Since of a “real” party of labour by way of a fight within the real class-struggle policies, and which finds ways to get its ideas Blair it falls short more than ever. labour movement, not by the hiving-off and self-proclama - across even when Labour officials try to suppress them. But The answer is to fight to democratise the organisations and tion of a small minority. that collective operates within the labour movement, to trans - the link — to fight, if necessary, through to an open break That fight requires the self-organisation of revolutionary form it, not as a group building “its own” little labour move - with the middle-class Labour politicians who refuse to ac - socialists into a coherent collective which argues systemati - ment alongside the one produced by history so far. Collective1 u0ni1on decisions to affiliate to Labour mean that union£ m8em, bers who are apathetic or unsure contribute, by Miliband undermines the link default, a tad to the collective effort. Is that undemocratic? No: in a class society, democracy is essentially measured by whether the openings are broader or narrower for the ex - ploited class, those starved of income and leisure and trained In 1927 the Tories introduced a law that workers could ballots in Labour’s 2010 leadership vote. to “know their place”, to intervene. pay into union political funds only if they individually Unison’s 31% is unlikely to be reached because it depends Suppose every individual’s union membership lapsed next “opted in”, instead of failing to “opt out”. on members who came from Nupe and Cohse into the year unless, against a headwind of anti-union media agita - Labour Party affiliated membership fell from 3.2 million merger which created Unison and were by default enlisted tion, she or he personally signed a form to “opt in” to contin - in 1927 to 2.0 million in 1928. That was a big fall, but limited as “opting-in” if they didn’t object (while those who came uing. Everyone who failed to sign, from inertia, confusion, because the labour movement had hundreds of thousands from Nalgo were by default “opted out”). Many new Uni - unsureness, whatever, would be counted “out”. Union mem - of activists formed in the battles of the 1920s, was respond - son members tick neither “in” nor “out” on their form, and bership would plummet. Democracy would wither. ing to an obviously vindictive Tory measure, and had a are then allocated by Unison offices in line with existing Suppose that when unions affiliate to other bodies — the Labour Party more union-friendly and less discredited than proportions. Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, or War on Want, or No today. Miliband seems to propose a system where those who Sweat, or whatever — they could pay money over only as Since 1993 Unison members can opt to pay into Labour tick neither “in” nor “out” are “out”. and when individuals had signed forms for part of their dues Party affiliation or into a non-Labour political fund. 31% are Unite got an 87% majority on a 19% turnout to keep its to go to that specific campaign. Campaigns which require Labour levy-payers. political fund in a ballot in May 2013. Unions got bigger union money to make headway would wither. Individual ac - The sideswipe from that Unison system is that Unison’s turnouts, more like 50%, in the political fund ballots forced tivism would shrivel, not expand. political decisions are supposed to be taken not by the reg - on them by the Tories in 1984-6. Before 1909, it was simply a collective decision by unions ular union conferences and More than 7.5% could be got “in” now if union leaders whether to affiliate to the Labour Party. If the union decided, structures, but by a parallel campaigned properly, mobilising members in an effort to then it paid to the Labour Party out of collective funds and and inaccessible system of win working-class policies. But the actual leaders are defi - gained collective representation within the Labour Party. APF committees and confer - cient in both will and capacity to do that. That’s all. ences. That insulates the top The immediate effect of “opt-in” might be to reduce the A 1909 court ruling, the Osborne Judgement, made all officials from democratic flow of union money to the Labour Party which is affiliation union donations to Labour illegal. The Liberal government pressure on political ques - fees, but increase the flow of union money which is grace- of the day needed Labour support in parliament, so passed a tions. and-favour donations decided by union leaders. law in 1913 to make union political funds legal as long as in - “Opting-in” now is likely to But that change, in turn, would generate very heavy pressure to cut the union share of the vote at Labour dividuals could opt out. produce a percentage of trade In 1927 the Tories passed a law to make payments to Party conference, and probably also pressure to end unionists affiliated to the all union political funds (Labour or not) illegal unless in - the system of union branch delegates to Constituency Labour Party more like the dividuals opted in. In 1946 the Labour government re - Labour Party committees. 7.5% who cast non-spoiled turned the law to “opt-out”. 6-7 UNIONS & POLITICS The Blairite plot against the unions The movement By Jon Lansman Let’s be clear — the shift from opt-out to opt-in is what the Tories have long wanted, and what [Labour’s right- wing faction] Progress have campaigned for inside the should decide party. The Tories wanted it because it will damage the party’s finances, and weaken the party. And Progress want it because they want to eliminate union By Martin Thomas influence on the party, and they have no interest in challeng - ing class-based inequalities of wealth and power. Whatever Aside from “opting-in”, on 9 took place in Falkirk doesn’t begin to justify it. July Ed Miliband proposed: The contents of the secret report into what happened in “A new code of conduct for Falkirk have now been revealed. According to Seumas Milne: those seeking parliamentary “The most significant allegations are that a handful of selection”. members were signed up without their knowledge (by fam - No information on what it ily members), and that ‘there are discrepancies in the signa - will say. Nothing to do with tures’ of four others (suggesting some may have been even what’s alleged against forged)”. Unite in Falkirk: the Unite- It isn’t right to sign up family members to a political party backed candidate Karie Mur - without their knowledge but it undoubtedly happens in phy has been suspended from every winnable constituency in the country in every party. It the Labour Party, on what clearly isn’t what Unite intended, and you can’t expect charges we don’t know, but presumably under current Unite’s leaders to have been aware that it happened. rules. Nor is it right to “forge” signatures but, if the person con - “New spending limits for Parliamentary selections to cerned wanted and intended to join the party, it isn’t “serious The Labour leadership is moving against the unions and their right to have a political voice. Union must stand up for themselves! include for the first time all spending by outside organisa - wrongdoing” . This is the action of one or two individuals tions”. rather than Unite and it certainly isn’t something to waste relationship by a Labour leader. And spending by the Tory press, which seems to have police time over. No mention was made about the actions of the Progress- called the tune on the Falkirk selection? So we can now see why Unite centrally had no idea what backed contender to be Labour’s candidate in Falkirk, Greg “The Labour Party will establish standard constituency they had done wrong. And what was done wrong certainly Poynton, who in June 2012 according to Michael Crick on C4 agreements with each trade union so that nobody can al - doesn’t justify the biggest-ever shake up of the party-union News: “recruited 11 new members and submitted a cheque lege that individuals are being put under pressure at local level”. This reads like a move against what Unison did before the 2010 general election. It cancelled all its “Constituency Blairites: politics and money Development Plan” contributions to CLPs, and said it would restore them only case by case where candidates and constituencies backed key Unison policies. By Gerry Bates to advise the Abu Dhabi monarchy’s investment fund. In some regions the old contributions were restored in Outside the Middle East, Blair’s money-making includes a fairly perfunctory way, but in some, for example the East The Tories and the Labour right decry Labour getting contracts: Midlands, the policy was carried out properly. It is pre - money from the unions, though the process is highly to puff the government of Kazakhstan and advise it on cisely the job of the local labour movement to “put pres - visible and open to regulation or change by union con - “good governance”. sure at local level” on candidates, MPs, and councillors! ferences. to advise Mongolia’s leaders on “good governance”. “For the next London Mayoral election Labour will The Tories get their money more murkily, from compa - to advise the Chinese government’s foreign-investments have a primary for our candidate selection. Any Londoner nies and the rich. So does Labour’s right. fund, should be eligible to vote and all they will need to do is to Labour’s hard-Blairite faction Progress has been given to advise a South Korean oil firm. register as a supporter of the Labour Party at any time up about £2 million by Lord David Sainsbury, and hundreds to advise J P Morgan and Zurich Insurance (who paid him to the ballot”, and Labour leaders could “pioneer this idea of thousands by other plutocrats. Sainsbury continues to £630,000 for one hour’s work on one deal). elsewhere too”. fund Progress at the rate of £260,000 a year. He used to give to advise the Colombian government. The problem alleged in Falkirk was of people getting money to the Labour Party, but stopped when Ed Miliband to advise the state government of Sao Paulo. rights in the Labour Party without making any real com - became Labour leader. There are probably more. Blair’s empire is opaque. Its of - mitment to it. So Miliband proposes to make that prob - The Blairites look to the rich to fund politics... and they fice (in a posh building in Mayfair, London) employs 200 lem general! Any unscrupulous candidate could just get a look to politics to make them rich. staff, and he plans to expand that to 500. bunch of their friends who had no sympathy with or com - Since being prime minister, Tony Blair has become a Blair is only the most successful of the Blairites at convert - mitment to the Labour Party signed up as supporters, and multi-millionaire. He is not paid for his post as representa - ing money into politics and politics into money. Patricia He - win a “Labour” selection that way. tive of the “Quartet” (USA, UN, EU, Russia) in the Middle witt, soon after being health minister (2005-7), cashed in The “registered supporters” scheme has been in opera - East. However, while achieving nothing in that post for with a job as a “consultant” for Alliance Boots Holdings tion for a while, and has so far flopped completely. peace in Israel-Palestine, he has used it to get lucrative con - Limited.She is also a adviser for the private-equity firm Cin - “New limits on outside earnings” for MPs. tacts and contracts in the Middle East. ven, a director of BT and of Eurotunnel, and chair of the UK Miliband occasionally referred to his plans as “propos - His chief activity in Palestine has been successful lobbying India Business Council. als”, but the tone of his speech was simply to “announce” on behalf of a Palestinian mobile phone company to get the John Hutton moved straight from being defence minister them. He is so embedded in top-down, media-facing ways Israeli government to allot it some wavelengths (previously to a well-paid job for a US nuclear power company, Hype - of doing politics that he just can’t see that such a coup, or reserved by another Palestinian mobile phone company, rion. He then did the Tories’ dirty work, designing the pub - attempted coup, “from above”, is the very opposite of which had bribed the Israeli government to keep its monop - lic sector pension cuts, and now lists the following paid democracy. oly). Unions and CLPs should remind Miliband that jobs: adviser, Eversheds law firm; chair, Nuclear Indus - Blair has also won close links with the monarchy in Qatar, democracy means the majority, not just a single tries Association; adviser, Bechtel Corporation; chair, and contracts: leader, or the single leader’s backroom boys and girls, MyCSP Ltd; advisory director, Dimensional Fund Advi - to provide advice and publicity to the monarchy in deciding. sors; adviser, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Kuwait. 6-7 UNIONS & POLITICS The Blairite plot against the unions A fighter for the Third Camp in Ireland

Irish labour movement, North and South, to a democratic programme for a united, secular, and republican Ireland, Our Movement with a “wide degree of Protestant autonomy in Northern By Mícheál MacEoin Ireland”, and linking the national question to the overthrow of capitalism. Matt Merrigan (1921-2000) was a socialist, trade union - Around this time that Armstrong returned to Britain, be - ist and one of very few Third Camp Trotskyists in Ire - coming active in the anti-partition movement. The British land. RCP, floundering in its response to the 1945 Labour Gov - ernment, fell apart, and Merrigan recalled the mood: “The Born into poverty in Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin, Merrigan entrenchment of Stalinism throughout Eastern and Central left school at 13 and worked for twenty years at the Rown - Europe on the bayonets of the Red Army and the develop - tree-Mackintosh chocolate factory. He became a shop stew - ment and dropping of the atom bomb on Japan created a ard with the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers mood of despair, as the long political night fell on what was Union (ATGWU), rising to be its national secretary in 1960, to have been a brave new world!” a post he held until 1986. In the 1950s, Merrigan joined Labour and remained a per - Merrigan’s first contact with the Trotskyist movement sistent left-wing critic of its leadership. He opposed the for - came in 1942, when he met Jim McClean and Bob Arm - mation of the Fine Gael-Labour government in 1973, and strong, members of the Revolutionary Communist Party was expelled from the party in 1977. Along with another [the British Trotskyist group], who were operating in left-wing critic and former Minister of Health, Noel Belfast. Armstrong was a former Communist Party of Great Browne, Merrigan formed the short-lived Socialist Labour Britain (CPGB) member and Spanish Civil War veteran who Party, which allowed factions including the Socialist Work - had witnessed first-hand the Stalinist betrayal of the Span - ers’ Movement (now the Irish SWP), the Irish Workers’ The Labour leadership is moving against the unions and their right to have a political voice. Union must stand up for themselves! ish working-class. Group and People’s Democracy. Merrigan, along with Johnny Byrne, organised a small Throughout the so-called “Border Campaign” (1956-62), for £130 to pay for their subscriptions. The report does not complementary group in Dublin. Though both the Belfast Merrigan had no truck for the physical force republicanism criticise or condemn Mr Poynton for this, simply because no - and Dublin groups were small, they attracted the attention of the IRA, whose leadership was “petty bourgeois and body complained about his activity. And Mr Poynton was of Special Branch, and the clergy, who visited the houses of fringed with fascists”, and the movement “a conspiratorial not contacted by the inquiry to respond... Mr Poynton is mar - the younger members to scare them off involvement. cloak and dagger sect [whose] basic approach to national ried to the MP Gemma Doyle, and Ms Doyle is a member of In early 1944, both groups came together to form and unity is emotional and hysterical.” ( Labor Action , 19 Sep - Jim Murphy’s defence team”. Irish group, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), with tember 1955). This is not good enough. The party has a responsibility to about 20 members. Upon going public, existing members He recognised, however, that “labour unity is sorely act fairly and transparently in the eyes of its members, not of the Labour Party resigned their membership, though hampered by the national question” and denounced the merely quickly and decisively in order to appease a hostile Merrigan had reservations about the efficacy of open work Irish Labour Party and the Irish TUC for failing to adopt a media. with such small forces. The changes have been announced as if they were a deci - principled position on the issue. sion. ”Here are the first, concrete steps I am taking”, said Ed WEEKLY NEWSPAPER In these years Merrigan’s influence was mostly felt as a in his email to party members about the plans, which (ac - The RSP published a weekly newspaper, the Workers’ trade unionist, and as President of the Irish Congress of cording to the BBC’s Nick Robinson) were made with the Republic , though it ran out of money after six issues, Trades Union (ICTU) from 1986. He was often opposed to threat of disaffiliating unions who do not comply. A decision and the group financed its activities through the sale of the social partnership agenda of many other union leaders, at conference in September, no doubt, on a take it or leave it literature from the British and US sections. insisting that: “Economic and social consensus is not possi - ble in a society riven by property and class differences.” basis, just like Refounding Labour, without real discussion It maintained contact with the British Trotskyists through When Merrigan died in June 2000 he was still a prin - on any of the detail. And the devil is in the detail. meetings in Belfast because travel to wartime England was cipled socialist and a fighter for our class. Ed says: “I want a mass membership party not of 200,000 difficult. As Merrigan later recalled, the most heated debate but of many more”. In his speech he says “with this change I • The “Our Movement” columns now have a dedicated among Trotskyists was over Shachtman’s position that the page on the AWL website, and their own Facebook page. invite you to be at the centre of what this Party does, day in USSR was “bureaucratic collectivism” and that the bureau - day out, at local level.” So does that mean with equal rights See facebook.com/ourmovementcolumn and cracy represented a new exploiting class. Armstrong and workersliberty.org/history/our-movement and status as individual members, able to participate in selec - Merrigan defended the Shachtmanites in the debates in the tions and internal elections as do individual members? Fourth International. In a discussion article, “In Defence of Would these members continue to be represented at a re - Revisionism” (1947), the pair called for the British section to Workers’ gional and national level through their unions? Would Len circulate the documents of Shachtman’s Workers Party to McCluskey, Paul Kenny and other general secretaries con - facilitate a proper discussion, citing the one-sidedness of Liberty tinue to lead delegations at Labour’s conference in an affili - the SWP’s collection In Defence of Marxism and James P. ates section that still held 50% of the votes? Would the Cannon’s The Struggle for the Proletarian Party . Summer affiliated sections of Labour’s executive and national policy In the article, the RSP members denied that acceptance of forum remain as at present? Shachtman’s theory led towards abandoning Marxism. Camp The numbers of affiliated members will plummet. The Their political conclusions were focused on independent party will lose much of its revenue. working-class politics: “Today in the struggle waged be - 8-11 August, Height Gate Farm, West Unfortunately, Labour’s stock is not very high with union tween the major powers, wars of conquest, followed by the members. That is a large part of Labour’s problem. It became suppression of productive forces, are unavoidable. The vic - Yorkshire too distant from its core voters under New Labour, and in tory of either Stalinist imperialism or finance-capital impe - Socialism, sun (hopefully), drinking, etc. in beautiful spite of Ed Miliband’s commitment to change, not enough rialism in a future war would lead to industrial suppression has been done to reconnect since. countryside setting. For more info, see bit.ly/awl-camp or That is why Unite and other unions have found it so dif - and political enslavement. Should the proletariat be too ring 07775 763 750. ficult to recruit to Labour. Unite’s political strategy was weak to prevent the outbreak of a third world war then the to recruit 5,000 members in a year and it has actually task of the workers on both sides of the military frontiers Places cost £25 (waged) and £15 (unwaged), which managed a tiny fraction of that, Falkirk notwithstanding. will be the revolutionary overthrow of their own immedi - includes accommodation, food, and drink. (Prices will ate oppressors.” come down depending on numbers attending.) • Abridged from posts on leftfutures.org In Ireland at the end of the 40s the RSP argued to win the 8 FEATURE Labour representation, not “payment-by-results”

By Daniel Randall ultimately, “breaking”. is hived off into the “Labour Link”, an esoteric corner of the But it matters a great union’s structure that even the few members that are inclined In a letter to the Evening Standard on Tuesday 9 July, deal how that break is to do so find it difficult to engage with. Jerry Hicks, Len McCluskey’s challenger in the 2013 made. A campaign A fight for a transformation of the way our unions “do” pol - Unite general secretary election, set out his view for how that makes “break the itics – and, in the first place, how they relate to the leadership trade unions should seek political representation. link now” its starting of our existing political wing, the Labour Party – cannot take He believes Unite should give money to the Labour Party point would, in current place in the abstract, but must be part of a wider struggle to on a “payment on results” basis, effectively giving them fi - conditions, be objec - transform our unions; not a structural tinkering, but a top-to- nancial rewards for delivering political favours in office. tively passive. It would bottom transformation. Hicks said this approach would “make it easier for Ed mean the far left react - This is unlikely, impractical, unfeasible? The union bureau - Miliband”, presumably by ending the permanent, structural ing to a Labour leader - cracies will block it? Disaffiliation would be easier to win over (and financial) link between unions and the party. Hicks must ship determined to a shorter timeframe? This is Luxemburg and Bukharin’s ar - have his tongue in his cheek when he makes this remark, but drive the unions out of gument about the national question applied to domestic pol - it’s very near the truth. official, and potentially itics. They contended that it was pointless to fight for national Hicks’s view is the most starkly-posed version of what has governmental, politics self-determination for small nations because larger imperial - become a consensus amongst much of the labour-movement by saying “sure, let us ist powers would inevitably crush them. left about how unions should relate to organised politics. That help you!” And it Immediate-disaffiliationists argue that advocacy of union is, rather than having a fixed, permanent relationship with a would mirror back and self-assertion now is pointless because the union leaders will political wing, directly accountable to and controlled by entrench the current block it and, if they don’t, the Labour leaders will stamp on it. unions and their members, unions should incidentally line up levels of consciousness But if these contentions are true, almost nothing is achievable. with (that is, bankroll) external political initiatives that, it is and confidence that It is not even the case that disaffiliation would be “easier” to hoped, will be more union-friendly if elected. I wrote about sees many trade unionists rightly despise the Labour Party win in current conditions. There is no evidence from any of for all it did in government, and for all it’s failed to do in op - and critiqued this approach in a letter in January (“Fight for the recent conferences of any of the larger affiliated unions position, but extend that hatred into an understandable but real workers’ representation”, Solidarity 231, 25 January that this is so. And if it were, that wouldn’t make it the right ultimately incapacitating cynicism about politics as a whole. 2012). policy to pursue. What would an active campaign for union self-assertion The FBU’s disaffiliation was “won” on a largely anti-polit - Advocates of such an approach are using the Falkirk inci - within the Labour Party, and against its leadership, look like? ical basis (understandable, given their bitter experience in the dent to boost their case. In a response to Ed Miliband’s speech There is a whole raft of things we should fight for: 2002 pay dispute against a Labour government), and, as afore - (in which the Labour leader blustered about reforming the • More active, public political campaigns — involving mentioned, they have done little politically since that time. Labour-union link but proposed very little in concrete terms), stalls, demonstrations, rallies, and other direct action — for A new working-class party cannot be conjured out of thin RMT general secretary Bob Crow claims his union has “in - union policies. Unions, including non-affiliated unions, air, or simply declared. The existing labour movement, warts- creased [its] political influence” since its expulsion from should demand that these campaigns are backed and taken and-bureaucracy-and-inadequate-political-wing-and-all is the Labour in 2004, as it has “the freedom to back candidates and up by the Labour Party. Even minimally visible public polit - only one we’ve got. Attempts to find shortcuts around the parties who demonstrate clear support for this trade union ical campaigns which demanded support from Labour would very probably long and difficult work of revolutionising it and its policies.” He advocates other unions break their links apply pressure to the Labour Party. (which necessarily involve circumventing the 200 years of ac - with Labour. • Opposing local government cuts. Advocating Labour cumulated struggle, resource, memory, and experience – pos - POLITICAL INFLUENCE councils defy and mobilise against central government in - itive and negative – that it represents) are vastly more structions to make cuts. impractical and unfeasible. There is no way around, only But what does this “increased political influence” look • Committing to support, including against imposition of through. like? In electoral terms, the candidates RMT has backed government commissioners or punitive action by the national have won almost universally tiny votes. Labour Party, Labour councils which defy cuts; and to sup - NEW “LEFT” PARTY? In political terms, the TUSC initiative it backs (despite in - port, including against disciplinary procedures and expul - The internet agitation for a “new party of the left”, for creasing opposition — one third of delegates at its 2013 AGM sion, individual Labour councillors who vote against cuts which (once it is declared) union support might then be voted against continued support for TUSC) is bland, lowest- budgets. sought (along with support from various other elements common-denominator anti-cuts populism, and the No2EU • Withdrawing funds and other support from MPs and – students, pensioners, and so on) is not an alternative. slate it ran in the 2009 European election (and plans to resur - councillors who vote for cuts. “The left”, as an amorphous body of social opinion ab - rect for 2014) was reactionary and quasi-nationalist. • Nominating and voting for candidates committed to defy stracted from class and class struggle, is not a helpful focus. The Fire Brigades Union, the only union to have disaffili - cuts in council selections, and for candidates committed to The logic perversely mirrors that of the Blairites, who want ated from Labour, rather than to have been expelled as the left-wing pro-union policies in parliamentary selections. the unions to be one stakeholder, or “interest group”, RMT was, did next to nothing politically (aside from passively • Initiating de-selection procedures against councillors and amongst many, with no privileged degree of control or ac - backing some desultory TUSC efforts) until the London As - MPs who vote for cuts. countability over the political Labour Party. As organic, or - sembly elections in 2012 when it ploughed its resources into • Mandating union representatives on Labour Party com - ganisational expressions of class relations and class conflict, backing… Labour, so Andrew Dismore could unseat the arch- mittees to fight and vote for union policies, and recalling them the trade unions (even in their passive, class-collaborationist, Tory head of the Fire Authority, Brian Coleman. if they don’t. and bureaucratically-controlled current forms) are more than The “break the link now” narrative relies on the entirely • Reconstituting unions’ parliamentary groups so as to only an “interest group” — they are the necessary point of depar - false idea that the affiliated unions have spent the years since include only labour-movement MPs who commit to fight for ture. the Blairite takeover of Labour being oppositional and dis - basic working-class policies. Immediate-disaffiliationism and new-partyism do not see senting, and finding themselves blocked, with the latest out - • Putting rule changes, policy resolutions, and emergency socialists as a political tendency within the broad labour rage representing some kind of final straw. The opposite is motions to Labour Party conference, and actively supporting movement, starting from its existing levels of consciousness the case. In 2007, for example, when a series of rule changes democratic improvement. and organisation but seeking to educate, develop, and shape disenfranchised CLPs and unions (essentially abolishing • Organising union members who are also Labour Party its ideas — but rather as external forces attempting to instru - party conference), GMB, CWU, T&G, and Amicus all voted members into a network, and encouraging them and giving mentally capture working-class support for this or that sec - for the changes, despite bluster in advance that they would them resources to campaign for union policies in the Labour tarian initiative. fight them. The 2007 changes have since been reversed, but Party and to report back. The 1900 Labour Representation Committee and the 1906 the episode tells the real story of the unions’ relationship to • Affiliating to the Labour Representation Committee and Labour Party were not attempts to create “parties of the left”, the Blairite revolution in Labour — oppositional bluster, fol - taking an active part in it. Working with other LRC-affiliated but to create a political extension of the industrial labour lowed by complete acquiescence. unions to form a pro-LRC union caucus which operates in a movement to give voice to working-class interests in the po - None of those unions have had substantial changes of lead - cohesive way at, for example, Labour Party conference. litical sphere. ership since 2007. The people who then ran the T&G now run A rupture of the Labour-union link following such a cam - The Hicks policy, and the variants of it held across the left, Unite. What we have, then, is a trade union movement that is paign would present radically better prospects for any new would aid the Blairite mission of winding the clock back 113 not prepared to fight Blairism. Making immediate disaffilia - initiative than disaffiliation in current conditions of passivity years and reducing organised labour to, at best, an “interest tion the point-of-departure demand does precisely nothing to and retreat. None of the proposals above are made impossi - group” and, at worst, a cash cow for external electoral adven - change that. In fact, it makes a perverse implicit excuse for the ble by objective structural issues or rules within the Labour tures. Instead, revolutionary socialists and other radicals in bureaucracy by pretending their acquiescence is caused by Party. The missing ingredient is political will. the labour movement should advocate a policy that makes the link to the Labour. It is a fairly significant missing ingredient. Unions unpre - union self-assertion — within and without Labour Party What should the ultimate aspiration here be? Can the pared to vote against the 2007 rule changes are unlikely to structures – its starting point, not making a fetish of maintain - Labour Party be “reclaimed”? No, and not only because it was suddenly to launch a militant campaign for independent ing the Labour link, in its current form, for all time, but neither never meaningfully “ours” in the first place. The link between labour representation. Many unions are as thoroughly con - making a fetish of immediately breaking it. the trade unions and the Labour Party (greatly hollowed-out trolled by a professional bureaucracy of effectively-bourgeois Our job is not to “reclaim Labour”, our job is to make and controlled by a party-within-a-party cadre of bourgeois politicians as the Labour Party is. In Unison, for example, our movement fight — using any and all channels avail - political organisers) does need subverting, disrupting, and, democratic oversight and control of its relationship to Labour able. 9 FEATURE What a “party” must be

By Sean Matgamna need to reorganise the Marxist left into a democratic force at the centre of our political concerns. What are the precondi - The organisational nature of a Marxist “revolutionary tions for a healthy democratic organisation? party” has to be shaped to what the Marxist party exists The first precondition is full rights of internal discussion. to do in the outside world. What, fundamentally, irre - You get some discussion even in the most bureaucratic or - placeably, does it do? ganisation, but usually as a concession from the leadership. In the course of its life a Marxist party does many things, But it needs to be a right of the members to have a discussion from organising strikes, to street-fighting with fascists and when they want it. racists, to organising insurrections. But fundamentally, You have to have it written into the constitution, as it is through all the phases and varieties of its activity, it works to written into AWL’s constitution, that there is a right of ac - educates and enlighten the working class so that it can see cess to the public press for minorities. capitalist class society as a whole; the place of capitalism in There may be exceptions — where you’re going to organ - history as one exploitative class society in a succession of ise an insurrection, you wouldn’t allow a minority to de - them; the place of the working class in capitalist society; the nounce this plan in your paper — but everyday, normally, possibility and urgent necessity for the working class to over - minorities should on demand get access to the press. throw capitalism and begin to build a socialist society. There must be a possibility of initiative in the organisation Plekhanov, the well-named “Father of Russian Marxism” other than from the centre. and first teacher of Lenin, explained the idea of Marxist rev - There are some Trotskyist organisations which have rules olutionary activity which would guide the Bolsheviks in their that say that discussion can’t be started until the centre initi - work of preparing the working class to make the October ates it. But there has to be a right of initiative for every mem - Revolution in 1917: ber. “Standing resolutely on the side of the proletariat, the new You need a right for members to by-pass the leading com - Socialists do everything in their power to facilitate and has - mittee and call a conference if necessary. Our AWL constitu - ten its victory. But what exactly can they do in this case? tion gives the Disputes Committee the right to bypass the “A necessary condition for the victory of the proletariat is leading committees and call a conference if necessary. It its recognition of its own position, its relations with its ex - wouldn’t do that casually, but the right has to exist. ploiters, its historic role and its socio-political tasks. The organisation must have a politically self-respecting “For this reason the new Socialists consider it their princi - membership. pal, perhaps even their only, duty to promote the growth of this consciousness among the proletariat, which for short ARCHBISHOP For the Bolsheviks, unlike the Stalinists, “democratic they call its class consciousness. An organisation where members are taught to kowtow to centralism” meant a regime of constant debate and criticism, “The whole success of the socialist movement is measured a Pope, to an archbishop, to a prophet — that organisa - combined with unity in action. for them in terms of the growth in the class consciousness of tion is not breeding self-respecting individuals. It is not the proletariat. Everything that helps this growth they see as breeding educated political militants. It is not breeding analysis, not the house-broken handmaid rationalising what - useful to their cause: everything that slows it down as harm - militants who could lead a mass working-class struggle. ever the “party” apparatus decides to say and do. ful. Trotsky, with the savagely bureaucratic parties of Stalin - Imagine the SWP as it now is, and has been for a long time, leading a workers’ revolution. It is not really imaginable. It UNINTERESTING ism in mind, once compared the need for democracy within a revolutionary Marxist organisation to the need of a living wouldn’t happen. But the SWP would disintegrate in re - “Anything that has no effect one way or the other is of no sponse to the great swirling mass of activity. Or if it didn’t consequence for them, it is politically uninteresting…” being for oxygen. Without oxygen the living being stifles and dies. Without democracy so, over a longer period of time, disintegrate, and it took power, then how could it created The Communist Manifesto explained: does a would-be Marxist party. anything other than a very deformed workers’ state, if it was “The Communists... have no interests separate and apart The question of the organisational rules for a Marxist party a workers’ state at all? from those of the proletariat as a whole... — “democratic centralism”— has been hopelessly muddied You have to have self-respecting individuals with some “The Communists are distinguished from the other work - over by the experience of Stalinism – and of some notionally idea of their own political value and of their rights. ing-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of Trotskyist organisations, Lenin described what it is in a 1906 You have to have an atmosphere in the organisation where the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and article: discussion is free — where there is not a heavy disapproval bring to the front the common interests of the entire prole - “Criticism within the limits of the principles of the Party from full-timers, central bodies, and so on, of discussion. tariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various Programme must be quite free, not only at Party meetings, Where there is no shouting down, no intellectual hooligan - stages of development which the struggle of the working but also at public meetings. Such criticism... cannot be pro - ism. class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always hibited. The Party’s political action must be united. No calls You need an organisation where the “machine”, the full- and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a that violate the unity of definite actions can be tolerated ei - timers, have no privileges. They have rights — they have the whole”. ther at public meetings, or at Party members, or in the Party rights of members — but there is no special prioritisation for Living in the depths of Stalinist corruption, Trotsky press”. the “machine”. summed up the rules that must govern a serious Marxist What this meant is shown by the experience of the Bolshe - The organisation has to be regulated above all by the party in its internal life and in its relation to the working vik party in the October Revolution. rhythms and by the needs of the class struggle. It has to ac - class: Two leading Bolsheviks, Zinoviev and Kamenev, publicly cept, and really mean, what the Communist Manifesto says “To face reality squarely; not to seek the line of least resist - denounced the Party’s plans for an insurrection. In the insur - — that the communists have no interests apart from those of ance; to call things by their right names; to speak the truth to rection they placed themselves at the disposal of the party in the working class. the masses, no matter how bitter it may be; not to fear obsta - the action decided upon by the majority of the party. The in - The organisation has to be a living part of the class strug - cles; to be true in little things as in big ones; to base one’s pro - dignant Lenin later proposed that they should be expelled gle, not a spinning top on its own axis, as all sectarian groups gram on the logic of the class struggle; to be bold when the for strike-breaking, but on the leading Committee failed to are. hour for action arrives...” win a single vote to add to his own. It has to be an honestly Marxist organisation. One of the To play this role in the working class the members of the An organisation in which the members do not have the baneful things on the left is that in most cases what the Marxist organisation must educate themselves. This is not right and the duty at all times to think about politics and the groups say is determined or heavily adulterated by calcula - only a matter of mastering key old texts. It is an ongoing affairs of the organisation, and the right to express their opin - tions of advantage. That is best called “apparatus Marxism”. process. The Marxists don’t just teach the working class. We ions freely, is in reality the opposite of Bolshevism. For It is a sort of twin of academic Marxism. learn from it also — as, for instance, the Bolsheviks learned decades the SWP was organised more like the Catholic There should not be any pre-designated leaders. Quite about soviets and their possibilities from the Russian work - Church, with its own pope and College of Cardinals, than plainly in any collection of people some will have more abil - ing class. like Lenin’s Bolsheviks! ities in certain directions, but there should not be a pre-des - That requires that the Marxist party is a democratic organ - Isn’t such a way of organising ridiculous? It makes no ignated leadership. There should not be a closed leadership. isation in which the members can think, question, reason and sense. It has led to such nonsense as Respect and hobnobbing That is democratic centralism as the Bolsheviks had it, as learn from past and contemporaneous events. Which is made with the Muslim Brotherhood, which Tony Cliff once justly Lenin had it, and as it can serve the working class. The sec - tarian stuff can’t, and that is the reason for condemning it. up of thinking people, not aspirant parrots. denounced as clerical fascists. It wasn’t the Brotherhood that The fundamental trouble with the SWP’s methods is Where the leaders have the authority of more experienced, had changed in essence, but the leaders whom Cliff had ed - that they cannot serve the working class or help the more knowledgeable, more devoted comrades, not the au - ucated to carry on his tradition. working class. They can only do harm. thority of sect priests. Where Marxism is an honest tool of The prolonged, reverberating crisis of the SWP places the 10 FEATURE Hymn of the warmonger

Gun God, we are nearly ready for the sacrifice. We have a gallant crowd of mystic journalists How many millions it shall be we do not know: And a merry band of mystic orators, feeding But it shall be considerable. well on the heaps of mangled bodies — far-seeing We shall dig them from the cities fellow — in advance Ere the grime is from their face You shall have them from the mountains and the plains Ere the ink is from their fingers You shall have them from the cities and the towns You shall have them You shall have them, bone and blood, All the strata in a bundle Mangled, twisted, torn asunder Slums and all. In a heap. What a holocaust for you, Gun God! They’re a holocaust for you, Gun God. Do they tremble at the ordeal before them? No, And the women, what think they? Are they pale They are preoccupied with trifles. Like young mice and anxious now? With a woman’s intuition do they will nibble at our cheese: delicious, intoxicating they realise what’s coming? Have they seen my shadow cheese, having nothing at all to do with traps. A on the hearth — lean and scraggy from much national cheese. starvation, curse it? You shall have them from the fields, Oh, the women! Fresh and brown, strong and eager We shall wring the bloody heap Ere the chaff is from their hair With their hearts. Ere the dew is from their boots We shall string them all together Ere the sun is from their faces Bruised and bleeding, pierced to rags - You shall have them, Gun God. Women’s hearts! What a holocaust for you! What a holocaust for you, Gun God!

Do they think of profits and wage acquirements? From the Irish left-Republican paper Republican Yes, and think of glory. They hear the Voice of Mother Congress , 12 October 1935. Cartoon, left, by Carlo from country calling plaintively over press and radio. the US Trotskyist paper Labor Action Syriza faces new challenges

By Gerry Bates tween rival whole “lists”, removing the right which previ - of support, and the Golden Dawn fascists have gained sup - ously existed for members to vote for some candidates from port, though that has levelled off. For the congress on 10-14 July which transformed Syriza one list and some from another and thus to “amend” the But when opinion polls ask people whether they think a from a coalition into a single party, there was a program - leadership’s list even if no faction is strong enough to defeat Syriza-led government will really cancel the Memorandum matic proposal from the majority leadership (“main - the leadership list outright. imposed by the ECB, the EU, and the IMF, they say no. Syriza stream”), which won 68% of the vote, an amendment The majority presented itself as a “rainbow arc”, a plural - has to convince people that it is serious about cancelling the from the Left Platform which won 30%, and a counter- istic mainstream, so as to marginalise some more militant mi - Memorandum, and it hasn’t done yet. proposal from another minority. norities. The central issue here, and the Left Platform rightly em - The keynote speech from Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras was Alexis Tsipras was elected president by direct conference phasises it, is workers’ control. A left government which can - bland. It did not cancel the leftish turn which Tsipras has vote, with 74% to 4.7% for Sissy Vovou and 0.7% for Panos Il - celled the Memorandum and reversed the cuts could not made since the start of the workers’ occupation at ERT (Greek iopoulos. The Syriza left had argued against direct election, bring immediate prosperity and harmony. It could ensure equivalent of the BBC, which the government wants to shut and for a president elected by and accountable to the com - decent conditions for the poorest (at the expense of the rich), down), but it did not sharpen it either. It did not return to the mittee. There is a lot of demagogy about making Syriza “a and democratic control over what happens. rightward drift which Tsipras outlined for Syriza at the end rank and file party”, which can mean a party with a large The dimension on which the right wing of the Syriza lead - of 2012. passive membership and a leader who can use an elective ership used to rely — that a left government in Greece could 75% of the debate around the congress was about the dis - majority among that large passive membership to overrule win through by chiming in with a pro-growth reform pro - solution of the components of Syriza. At the congress, the the activists. gramme on a European scale — has become less plausible. leadership backtracked on its demand for the immediate dis - A year ago there was a lot of talk at the top of the EU about solution of the components, but still asked for them to dis - FLOOD the need for measures for growth. It came to nothing, and the solve “in due time”. In the last year Syriza’s membership has risen from talk has gone. All ideas that the French government under The new Syriza will recognise rights for “tendencies”. 16,000 to 35,000 (equivalent of about 190,000 in Britain). Francois Hollande would push for a big change in EU pol - What makes the step from “components” to “tendencies” There are reports of a big influx of new people into Syriza icy, or that the Social Democrats in Germany would seriously more than a change of name is mostly two things. about a month before the congress, maybe to get votes for the differentiate from Merkel on European policy, have faded. The “components” had some guarantees of representation congress. The local organisations of Syriza don’t always work Syriza must look to the rank and file workers’ movements in Syriza’s committees. And they got a share of the state that well, so a flood of new members into Syriza is not such in other countries to construct any even plausible European funding allotted to Syriza under Greece’s rules for funding a good thing as it may seem. dimension. Looking for shifts at the top is less plausible than political parties. The share might be small, but for the small Behind the organisational details, the battle is political. One it was. components it has been significant. trend stands for a Syriza operating within the system and Yet there has been no proper evaluation within Syriza of Behind the call for the dissolution of the “components” is aiming to be the centre of a coalition government which may how, in Cyprus, a left government ended by introducing a a call for the minorities in Syriza to cease public political ac - include bits of Pasok and even the right-wing anti-Memoran - Memorandum. tivity outside Syriza, i.e. to stop publishing their own papers dum “Independent Greeks”. The leaders of the EU now think they have pulled the gov - and calling their own public meetings. The other stands for an anti-capitalist Syriza that will com - ernments of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland into Already at the congress, the literature tables of the minori - mit itself to defend at all costs the interests of the working line. As long as they remain in line, the EU leaders will offer ties were much less visible than they traditionally have been. class, using a left government as a first step to achieving fudges and concessions at the edges. They will “overlook”, Kokkino, one of the revolutionary socialist components of workers’ control and workers’ power. for example, the fact that the coalition government in Greece Syriza, has split. Kokkino has always wanted a “broad left” The Stalinist but still-strong Greek Communist Party has got and will get much less revenue from privatisations party, and a strong minority, including some leading people, (KKE) still ignores this battle. According to the KKE paper than projected. But on the basic line they are more confident and arrogant than before. decided that Syriza is now near enough to what they want. Rizospastis , the Syriza leadership and the Left Platform are There have been shifts to the left in the unions in Another left-wing component, Rosa, has also dissolved: just the same politically, both social democrats. The Left Plat - Greece (in the “second-level” unions). How much they that is different, since really Rosa constituted itself as a formal form exists only to give Syriza left cover and divert Greek will mean, remains to be seen. There is a strike by pub - organisation only in order to be able to participate in Syriza workers from the revolutionary path of joining KKE. lic sector workers on 15 July, with some occupations of as a component. Syriza is almost even with ND (the conservative party) in town halls, against planned job cuts, and the workers’ DEA, the other main revolutionary socialist component, the opinion polls. Both Syriza’s scores and ND have been occupation continues at the Athens offices of the ERT has fought consistently against dissolving the components. fairly stable since the June 2012 election; Pasok has lost a lot (Greek equivalent of the BBC). The committee of the new Syriza was elected by a vote be - 11 REPORTS Firefighters ballot for national strike Industrial news in By Jack Horner of this year, conceded that losing much of their pen - most firefighters would not sion. The Fire Brigades Union be fit to work until aged 60 The ballot comes as the brief (FBU) will ballot members (currently firefighters retire talks reached stalemate. A from 18 July for national at 55). However the gov - strike may break the log- strike action, after the ernment pressed on with jam. Socialists, activists and “Boris Bike” government issued an ul - imposing 60 in the Public trade unionists need to workers’ 100% timatum over changes to Service Pension Act, which support firefighters if it strike vote firefighters’ pensions. came into force for all pub - comes to a strike. The level of workers’ The ballot, which lasts lic sector workers in April. The FBU resolved to bal - action is very low, and Workers employed by until the end of August, is even limited acts of re - expected to produce a large about the physical de - own way during the gov - lot at its conference in May. Serco Barclays on the mands of firefighting and ernment pensions assault, It has got some further con - sistance will encourage municipal bike hire yes vote, with strikes likely other workers to fight. in September if a settle - has been unable to answer particularly after the big cessions since then. How - scheme in London ment is not reached before our concerns during two unions decided two years ever the fire minister made (“Boris Bikes”) have then. years of negotiations.” ago to retrench into sec - a “final” offer at the end of voted unanimously for Why are firefighters bal - The FBU ballot covers a tional talks instead of fac - June and made it condi - Demonstrate strikes against the impo - loting at this late stage of range of issues including ing the government’s tional on the FBU accepting sition of a new pay deal the pensions battle? Matt contributions and a scheme attack as a whole. Once sec - the deal by 12 July. The against fire cuts and shift patterns. Wrack, FBU general secre - for retained (part-time) tional talks began, the FBU FBU executive decided on 9 The Rail, Maritime, tary, said: “Expecting large firefighters. But the central won some improvements July that the offer was not Thursday 18 July, and Transport workers’ numbers of 60 year olds to issue is mitigating the ef - in the cost ceiling and a re - acceptable – particularly union (RMT) ballot re - fight fires and rescue fami - fects of the new normal view of the NPA. The because it leaves fitness 11.30am, The turned a 100% vote in lies is dangerous to the pension age (NPA) of 60, in union did not strike in No - matters unresolved. This Monument, Fish Street favour of strikes over a public and to firefighters. terms of protection from vember 2011. could see firefighters Hill, London EC3R 6DB range of grievances, in - The government is simply the sack or retiring early on The review, fronted by sacked on capability cluding the imposition of ignoring the evidence a reduced pension. government specialists and grounds when they are not More: bit.ly/fbu-demo a 2% pay deal, shift The FBU has gone its published at the beginning fit enough to work, thereby changes, management bullying and harass - As Solidarity went to ment, and management's failure to reach formal RMT: “all-out fight” on job cuts press, activists were 3 Cosas agreement on travelling planning protests time and travel al - outside Holborn police lowances for workers. By Ollie Moore staffing arrangement has on London Underground, station in support of a not been safety-certified. where bosses plan to cut student activist who was South London FE Over 100 jobs on the news A union statement said: more station jobs and close assaulted and arrested workers to strike London Overground net - “LOROL informed RMT ticket offices. Activists By Ira Berkovic work could be lost, as by police for chalking that TfL have ‘exercised a demonstrated against the pro-3 Cosas slogans on London Overground Rail clause in their contract’ closure of Whitechapel The “3 Cosas” campaign Further Education work - Operations Ltd. (LOROL) University of London giving only six months to ticket office on Monday 15 of outsourced workers at ers at Lewisham-South - seeks to move to “dri - property on Tuesday 16 wark College will strike implement DOO on the July. The union said that the University of London ver-only operation” July. on Wednesday 17 July network by the December the plans to close for sick pay, holiday, and (DOO). See bit.ly/ulu-cops for against departmental timetable and have even Whitechapel’s ticket office pensions equality organ - more. closure and job cuts. The immediate impulse commenced this process “totally ignore the fact that ised a week-long “plan - without first achieving the A lunchtime strike for cut is a 12.5% cut in the station serves an area ton” at the university’s necessary safety validation flagship Senate House rally is planned from central government fund - which includes a busy and the union to members ing for Transport for Lon - certification required as building on 8-13 July. 12.45 outside the college market and a major hospi - of staff. New members don, announced in George they seek to bulldoze it were signed up to the on Lewisham Way (SE4 tal. The planton (from the 1UT). Osborne’s 26 June spend - through regardless of the “The area is also Spanish “plantar”, meaning IWGB University of Lon - ing review. Moving to - safety risks involved.” don branch. Send messages of sup - known for its diverse to plant or install – there is The campaign’s Sum - port to pete.bicknell@ wards DOO is also key The RMT has promised local population, many of no direct English transla - recommendation of the an “all-out political, pub - mer of Action continues googlemail.com whom need to access tion, but the nearest equiva - with a demonstration on McNulty Review into rail - lic, and industrial fight” to staff support at an open lent is “presence”) involved stop the job cuts. Unfortu - Wednesday 17 July. For way industry reform. ticket office rather than holding all-day stalls out - LOROL wants to imple - nately, drivers’ union more information, see rely on ticket-issuing side Senate House offering ment DOO by December ASLEF has remained silent facebook.com/3coca or machines — machines tea, coffee, biscuits, and 2013, and, according to rail on the issue, as it has thus follow that are vulnerable to (most importantly) infor - @3CosasCampaign on union RMT, plan to begin far accepted DOO. mation about the campaign the process even if the new Cuts are also threatened vandalism.” Twitter. Cleaning workers’ Right to leave Unison? two-week strike Cleaning workers on the Postal workers strike Sandy Nicoll, SWP member and secretary of the Unison Tyne and Wear Metro branch at SOAS, wrote an article in the SWP’s Socialist began a fortnight-long By Darren Bedford Review journal criticising the outsourced workers’ decision strike on Friday 12 July. ised escalation if the dis - plans to privatise Royal to leave Unison and set up an IWGB branch, arguing that the pute is not resolved. Mail. A recent consultative The workers are de - “obstacles [inside Unison] were not insurmountable”. (Read manding that their em - Postal workers in Bridge - In Peterborough, 170 ballot of CWU members re - the article at bit.ly/sandy-n). ployer, cleaning water, Somerset, struck postal workers held a wild - turned overwhelming sup - Jason Moyer-Lee, an activist involved in 3 Cosas and the on Saturday 6 July in a cat strike following the sus - contractor Churchill, port for keeping Royal Mail secretary of the IWGB University of London branch, has pays living wages, as dispute over job cuts and pension of a union rep. in public hands, as well as written a reply, in which he argues that the need to fight There was also a strike at well as gives them sick management bullying. for industrial action to stop actively, and immediately, on the key industrial issues took a delivery office in Ply - pay, pensions, and travel the sell off and on ongoing precedence over the need to fight inside Unison. Communication Workers mouth. The CWU said pass equality with di - Union (CWU) rep Dave industrial issues (including Jason has submitted his article rectly-employed staff on members are fed up with to Socialist Review , and in the Chapple said the strike was pensions) within Royal the Metro. increasing levels of bully - interests of furthering the debate, “one of the best we’ve ever ing and harassment from Mail. The long-running dis - The ballot returned a AWL is also hosting it on our had”, with over 100 work - bosses. pute has already seen 96% vote against privati - website. Read it at workers strike for 19 ers taking part. The strikes come in the bit.ly/jason-iwgb. days. Union reps have prom - context of government sation on a 74% turnout. Ireland: abortion ban cracks By Mícheál MacEoin

On Thursday 11 July, Irish parliamentarians passed a law finally al - S&o Wlorikdersa’ Libreirtty y lowing limited abortion rights in Ireland. Abortion Support Net - The law, passed by 127 work charity told the votes to 31, allows for Guardian : “Even if this abortion only in cases law is enacted, only a where a woman’s life is in very, very small percent - danger or if she is suici - age of women who need dal. abortions will be able to The new legislation, the access them in Ireland. first of its kind, does the “Women pregnant as bare minimum to comply result of rape, women with the 2010 European with fatal foetal anom - Court of Human Rights alies, couples who simply ruling which found that can’t afford to care for a Ireland’s failure to regu - (or in most cases, another) late access to abortion was child, will still be left be - a violation of its human hind.” rights obligations. The clarification was However, it does not welcomed by the family reform or add any new of Savita Halappanavar, grounds for legal abor - the Indian woman who tion. died after being denied The law does not apply access to an abortion in a to cases of rape and will Galway hospital last Oc - tober. do little to stem the tragic Bishops from the flow of women across the Catholic Church are Irish Sea to British hospi - threatening to launch a tals and clinics to termi - legal challenge but the Egypt: neither army nate their pregnancies. tide of public opinion is Department of Health fig - increasingly against ures released last week them, with polls indicat - show that around 4,000 ing that over 70% of such journeys took place people in Ireland sup - last year alone. porting a relaxation of nor Morsi! Mara Clark from the the law.

Mubarak state. erhood to portray them - By Clive Bradley mentary and presidential through workplace elec - replace people you’ve Because of external pres - selves as martyrs. elections, the Brotherhood tions, and sided with em - elected is a principle of rad - sures, they will probably The question of how to The events in Egypt have were seen as taking all ployers over strikes. ical democracy going back hold elections. They have appeal to the base of the confounded the image power for themselves. Emblematically, they re - at least to the [1871] Paris promised to do so quite Brotherhood, or even to the that pundits of both right They’d pushed through an vived Mubarak’s “Cairo Commune. The legitimacy quickly. But pressure will base of the Salafists to the and left have about the unpopular Islamic constitu - 2050” plan to socially of the demand that the be key there – it’s not that Brotherhood’s right, is im - Muslim world — that the tion. Morsi took executive cleanse Cairo and build Morsi government get out the army has suddenly be - portant for the mass move - people are dominated, or power into his hands prime real estate in work - is not the issue here. come a benign force. The ment. automatically inclined to, through the dismissal of ing-class areas. Add to all Who holds power now? fact that large sections of The cadre of the Brother - Islamist movements. judges and so on; that was this rising fuel costs, rising Ultimately it was not the the mass movement seem hood is middle-class, but The movement against widely and correctly seen commodity prices, rising mass of the Egyptian peo - to have substantial illu - they have huge numbers of Morsi has been a huge pop - as very undemocratic. unemployment, and the ple that overthrew and re - sions in the army is trou - poor workers, peasants, ular movement against an There have also been at - general decay of people’s placed Morsi, it was the bling. and so on, who vote for Islamist government, and tacks on opponents of the daily living standards. army. The worst-case potential them. The mass movement not just any Islamist gov - Brotherhood in civil soci - Much commentary has scenario is Algeria in the needs to be able to say to ernment either. The Mus - ety, for example the dis - contended that events in ARMY early 90s. There, Islamists them: “we are not calling lim Brotherhood, and its missal of the director of the Egypt “prove” that the Who is this army? You won local elections, the on the army to take power. political wing, are in many opera. people don’t understand can imagine a situation in army intervened to prevent That’s not our agenda.” ways the most formidable the nature of democracy — which a radical upheaval parliamentary elections, Opposing the coup in Islamist party, and it was DEALS “they’ve elected this guy, had taken place within an and a bloody civil war re - Egypt doesn’t mean going democratically elected. They are widely seen as they have to let him rule, army, so the army had it - sulted in which, according on Brotherhood demon - What’s taken place is a having done deals with that’s democracy!” self been affected by the to some estimates, 150,000 strations or calling for coup. It’s not something to the security forces. But even the US Declara - mass revolutionary were killed. There have al - Morsi’s reinstatement. It celebrate, and is in fact Heavy repression contin - tion of Independence says: movement outside. ready been people killed in means you are active in the quite dangerous. The fun - ued under Morsi — snipers “Governments are insti - Something roughly anal - Egypt, most prominently mass movement and you damental nature of the shooting at demonstrators, tuted among Men, deriving ogous happened in Portu - the 50-or-so Morsi support - argue against military rule movement in the streets is the continuation of military their just powers from the gal in the mid-1970s, where ers shot outside the Repub - and against the army tak - a continuation of the 2011 courts to try people ar - consent of the governed — the programme around lican Guard headquarters. I ing power. People have revolutionary movement, rested on protests... The That whenever any Form which much of the revolu - think it unlikely that Egypt done that: there were plac - and it does represent a Morsi government was of Government becomes tionary left rallied came will evolve in that direc - ards and banners visible in mass popular uprising seen as not fundamentally destructive of these ends, it from a radical wing of the tion, but even a smaller- Tahrir Square arguing against the Morsi govern - different from the Mubarak is the Right of the People to army. That’s not the sce - scale version of that would against military interven - ment. But the uprising was regime. alter or to abolish it, and to nario in Egypt. The army not be good. tion and a coup. institute new Govern - When the army first Our tasks of solidarity, curtailed by the army tak - The government was which has retaken power is with the mass movement ing power. probably about to do a deal ment...” That one should the old regime. It is the came onto the scene in the have the right to recall and 2011 revolution, people generally but particularly The Morsi government with the IMF, dismantling the socialist and work - has proved fantastically those elements of state wel - were glad of their interven - tion, but that soon changed ing-class elements in it, unpopular. The spark for fare that had survived are greater than ever. the recent protests was a decades of neo-liberalism. after the army took power petition campaign calling They had eviscerated legis - and ruled in a very repres - on Morsi to resign, which lation which was bringing sive way. People demon - • Clive was speaking at a got over 20 million signa - in more progressive taxa - strated against military Workers’ Liberty London tures. The government was tion. They opposed a law rule. Some of those in - forum on “Socialists and the very exclusive — once it to allow the registration of stincts seem to have been Egyptian coup” on Thursday had won both the parlia - independent unions forgotten. And the current 11 July. This is an edited tran - situation allows the Broth - script of his speech.