For a Solidarity workers’ government For social ownership of the banks and industry

No 317 17 March 2014 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org INDEPENDENCE FOR UKRAINE! 50,000 march in Moscow against Putin’s war threat see page 5 2 NEWS What is the Alliance “Nordic model” planned for UK for Workers’ Liberty? By Rosalind Robson Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to human trafficking. The evi - another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. An all-party parliamentary dence for this claim is Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to increase their group on prostitution has weak... The official data that wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, unemployment, the recommended Britain fol - does exist is vague; some blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the lows the lead of countries authors have also pointed destruction of the environment and much else. such as Sweden and Nor - out that the act may have Against the accumulated wealth and power of the raised prices for sex, mak - capitalists, the working class has one weapon: way, which make the pur - chase of sex illegal. ing trafficking for sexual solidarity. purposes potentially more The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build Neither buying nor sell - lucrative than ever. solidarity through struggle so that the working class can overthrow ing sex is illegal in the UK “... Even though surveys capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership of among the general public industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy much fuller but soliciting, pimping, indicate great support for than the present system, with elected representatives recallable at any brothel-keeping and kerb- time and an end to bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. crawling are all criminal ac - the law, the same material We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” tivities. also shows a rather strong and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. The Nordic model, which Canada, where they are also fighting the introduction of the support for a criminalisa - Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, also decriminalises sex “Nordic model” tion of sex sellers. This con - supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping work, rests on the argument tradicts the idea that the organise rank-and-file groups. that all prostitution is vio - tions have been campaign - prostitution has declined... law promotes an ideal of We are also active among students and in many campaigns and lence against women. The ing for the introduction of is largely based on the work gender equality: instead, alliances. parliamentary group, fol - laws similar to those in of organisations that report the criminalisation of sex lowing that line, says the New Zealand; there sex on specific groups they buyers seems to influence We stand for: current law “serves to nor - work is decriminalised and work with, not the state of people to consider the pos - ● Independent working-class representation in politics. malise the purchase and sex workers are allowed to prostitution more generally: sibility of criminalising sex ● A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour stigmatise the sale of sexual work together in small social workers, for exam - sellers as well... movement. services — and undermines owner-operated brothels. ple... There is no reason to “In Norway... even ● A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to efforts to minimise entry FAILS believe that other forms of though it is completely legal prostitution, hidden from to sell sex, women involved picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. into and promote exit from According to May-Len view, are not still going on.” in prostitution are victims ● Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education prostitution.” Skilbrei and Charlotta [Men involved in prosti - of increased police, neigh - and jobs for all. Organisations represent - Holmström of Malmo Uni - tution, women in indoor bour and border controls ● A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full ing sex workers have long versity there are a number venues, and those selling which stigmatise them and equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden argued against this “Nordic of other ways in which the sex outside the larger cities make them more vulnera - of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, model”, but these argu - “Nordic model” fails. bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity ments have gone unheeded for example]. ble. The increased control against racism. by the year-long enquiry. “Contrary to many com - “[Swedish authorities] ig - the Norwegian police exert ● Open borders. They say the criminalisa - mon feminist appraisals, nore the fact that since 1999 on prostitution markets so ● Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have tion of clients will push sex these laws do not in fact or so, mobile phones and as to identify clients in - more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist work underground; sex send a clear message as to the internet have largely cludes document checks on rulers. work will continue irrespec - what and who is the prob - taken over the role face-to- women involved in prosti - ● Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or tive of legal change. Such lem with prostitution; on face contact in street prosti - tution so as to find irregu - community to global social organisation. laws further stigmatise sex the contrary, they are often tution used to have – lar“sR aamidosn gp ethrfeomrm. ed in the ● Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all workers and put lives at implemented in ways that meaning a decline in con - name of rescue often end nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. risk. Police resources will produce negative outcomes tacts with women selling with vulnerable women ● Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. not be focused on investi - for people in prostitution... sex in the traditional way who lack residence per - ● If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — gating issues of abuse, vio - “[These laws] are some - on the streets of Sweden mits being deported from and join us! lence and trafficking but on times applied in conjunc - cannot tell the whole story Norway.” policing consenting sex. tion with other laws, about the size and form of The report is in line with by-laws and practices the country’s prostitution • Quote from: Contact us: recent decisions made by aimed at pinning the blame markets. blogs.lse.ac.uk/europp - ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] the European parliament. for prostitution on people “...the Swedish Sex Pur - blog/2014/01/03/the- chase Act is often said to be The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley The Danish and French who sell sex, particularly if nordic-model-of-prostitutio an effective tool against Road, London, SE1 3DG. governments also plan simi - they are migrants.... n-law-is-a-myth/ lar laws. “The claim that the num - Printed by Trinity Mirror ● Sex workers’ organisa - ber of people involved in Five richest families own Get Solidarity every week! Budget = cuts as much as poorest 20% ● Trial sub, 6 issues £5 o ● 22 issues (six months). £18 waged By Tom Harris o On 19 March, George Os - £9 unwaged o borne will deliver another Further cuts will have a A recent Oxfam report reveals that just five of the ● 44 issues (year). £35 waged o cuts budget. He has made disastrous impact on public UK’s richest families own as much wealth as the services and the millions of £17 unwaged o clear that the Tories will poorest 20% of the population — some 12.6 million continue slashing public working-class people who people. ● European rate: 28 euros (22 issues) o spending, despite fore - rely on them. or 50 euros (44 issues) o casts of economic recov - Keen to curry favour with In the last twenty years, the incomes of the top 0.1% Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: ery. voters ahead of next year’s have grown by around £24,000 a year. Over the same pe - riod of time, the bottom 90% have seen a real terms in - 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG general election, Osborne is The situation is looking crease of only £147 a year — a tiny increase of £2.82 a Cheques (£) to “AWL”. likely announce a number week! extremely bleak for public of initiatives which, superfi - Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. services even without new This stagnation has taken place during a decade in cially, appear to help the announcements. which the cost of living has soared. “Since 2003 the major - worse-off. Tax cuts, for ex - Name ...... Of the cuts in spending ity of the British public (95%) have seen a 12% real terms ample, will be central to his already proposed by the drop in their disposable income after housing costs,” says programme. the report. In contrast, the richest 5% have seen their dis - Address ...... government, the Institute However, the meagre posable income markedly increase. for Fiscal Studies reckons benefits these will have The division is not just between those at the very top ...... 65% of them are still to for most tax-payers (as anTdh teh ev avsert ym baojtotorimty. of us have seen our living stan - I enclose £ ...... come. This at a time when opposed to the very rich) key services like the NHS will be heavily outweighed dards come under serious under attack while a tiny minority runs wild. are creaking beneath the by cuts in other areas. pressure of under-funding. 3 NEWS Syria: talks stall, refugee count rises By Simon Nelson trucks carrying aid through UN figures confirm there Jordan into Southern Syria, are now 2.5 million Syrian as it attempts to boost the refugees, spread across capabilities of the rebels, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and push for a longer and Turkey, and Lebanon. bloodier conflict, which in - Security guards shut the gates at Toyota plant volves rebels and mercenar - A further 6.5 million Syri - ies from across the region. ans have been displaced In collaboration with the within Syria. A further esti - Lebanese Shia militia Toyota Bangalore mated 140,000 people have Hezbollah, the Syrian gov - been killed since the conflict ernment has made gains began. against the rebels in the lock-out Despite Russia’s involve - town of Yabroud on the Syrian Kurdish fighter Toyota’s Indian subsidiary has locked out around ment in Ukraine, their sup - Lebanese border. Rebels 6,400 workers at its two plants near Bangalore, after port for Assad remains have lost control of the workers protested against a delay in receiving pay firm, as does Iran’s, and main supply and access jority. gions, still control the air - rises following 10 months of negotiations. deadlock continues in routes into Lebanon, lead - Kurds in Northern Syria, port, and appear to operate “Geneva II” talks. ing to retaliation against the who have gained a greater without interference. The In response to the protests and assembly-line stop - Support from the Gulf Shia majority by the Sunni degree of autonomy since PYD has released contradic - pages, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) closed its factories states for the majority Sunni militia Jabhat Al Nusra. the beginning of the con - tory statements that both on Sunday 16 March and has not said when they will re- Syrian rebels has in turn in - Fighting amongst rebel flict, have come under in - identify itself as being in open. creased, with Saudi Arabia factions has also failed to creasing attack from ISIL, opposition to the regime Prasanna Kumar of the Motor Corporation Employees’ openly increasing its aid to subside. ISIL/ISIS (The Is - with Kurdish mosques but are also ambivalent Union said: “The lockout is illegal as management did the rebels. lamic State of Iraq and the under attack, as well as the about who controls the Syr - not give the mandatory 14-day notice to employees and Whilst arms and logistical Levant) has reacted angrily burning and looting of vil - ian state, which they main - the state labour office. support continue, access to to demands from Jabhat Al lages. The Kurds, who tain they want to remain a “The lockout was declared unilaterally though we have humanitarian aid and insis - Nusra to begin mediation or along with the Shia are con - part of. been negotiating with management on wage hike for this tence has become a growing risk being expelled from the sidered “heretics” by ISIL, The Arab chauvinism that fiscal (year) for 10 months.” battleground. The UN has region. are mostly practitioners of dominates the official coali - There have been a number of disputes in the Indian car continued to negotiate ac - ISIL are the most brutal Sufi Islam, and have a his - tion of Syrian rebels has industry in recent years. In 2012 a riot at Maruti Suzuki’s cess via Turkey to North and uncompromising of the tory of secularism and na - helped to isolate the Kurds Manesar plant near New Delhi was over wages and Eastern Syria, and into the Sunni militias and their tionalism. froWmh tihlset rtehbee lKliuornd. s in working conditions. The company locked out workers for Kurdish controlled city of focus on instituting strict Is - ISIL and other rebels also Syria enjoy more freedom a month, at a cost of $250 million in lost production. The Qamishli. 9.3 million peo - lamic law and order across accuse the Kurdish Demo - than people in many of dispute saw workers chase supervisors with iron rods, ple, almost half the popula - Syria, rather than on the cratic Party (PYD) of contin - the rebel controlled areas, killing a personnel manager and injuring close to 100 tion remaining in Syria, overthrow of Assad, has ued collaboration with the most of the infrastructure othTehre m Taonyaogtear slo. ckout comes after the failure arbitra - now require humanitarian brought them into conflict Syrian government. and funding comes from tion talks earlier this year and a lack of progress in assistance. with the Muslim Brother - Syrian troops reportedly the Syrian state. negotiations which started last April. Saudi Arabia has sent hood-dominated rebel ma - operate in the Kurdish re - CAR: French troops preside over slaughter New book rediscovers By Gerry Bates genocide In the Central African Re - Muslims have turned US socialist cartoons against the interim Chris - public (CAR) French A few bold strokes by an artist can convey an idea troops are presiding over tian president, Catherine purging and slaughter of Samba-Panza, and are hos - more vividly and fix it more firmly in the viewer’s mind Muslims by Christian mili - tile to the French troops, than an editorial or an article would. tias. who have done little to dis - arm the rival militias. French troops went into Bangui neighbourhoods The cartoons collected in a CAR in December last year, such as PK5, where Muslim new book depict US politics, Refugees at Bangui airport when the government col - businesses once thrived, workers’ struggles, lapsed. Then, around a now resemble ghost towns. thousand people had died America’s “Jim Crow” When Djotodia attempted moved from village to vil - According to the Guardian , and around a fifth of the those attempting to escape racism, Roosevelt’s “New population had fled their to disarm the Seleka in Sep - lage, killing Muslims and tember 2013, many of the razing mosques. another largely Muslim dis - Deal” and Harry Truman’s home. trict, PK12, must face down In March 2013, power had militias refused, and veered According to the UN, “Fair Deal”, and Stalinism in out of his control, killing, while around 140,000 Mus - Christian mobs. its era of greatest prestige been seized by a rebel mili - Those left behind by the tia, the Seleka, which had looting and burning down lims normally lived in the and triumph, as villages. capital, Bangui, the popula - convoys of escapees risk its roots in the more-Mus - being lynched, and in one revolutionary socialists saw lim north of the country. Some within the majority tion had been reduced to incident, five children suffo - The Seleka were well- Christian population around 10,000 in December them at the time. cated in an overcrowded equipped with Chinese and formed a rival militia, the and now stands at under truck and were not discov - Iranian-made weaponry anti-balaka (“balaka” mean - 1000. You can buy online — price includes postage and packaging. ered to be dead until it ar - and experts guessed they ing machete in Sango, the Amnesty international Or send £10.60 to AWL, 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, were backed by Chad or local language), and the has called what is happen - rived at the capital’s London SE1 3DG Sudan. country further polarised ing in CAR “ethnic cleans - miTlietanrsy oafi rtphoorut.sands of The Seleka overthrew un - along sectarian lines. ing”, and is warning of a people are currently http://www.workersliberty.org/socialistcartoons popular incumbent, As the Seleka retreated to “Muslim exodus of historic squatting outside the in - https://www.facebook.com/socialistcartoons François Bozizé, and in - the north, where the repres - proportions”. On 10 March ternational airport, fearful stalled CAR’s first Muslim sion of Christians contin - the UN announced an in - of returning home. president, Michel Djotodia. ued, the anti-balaka have vestigation into reports of 84 CFOEMAMTUENRET “Third camp” or no camp?

Left with the slogan “Neither London “mass”) were generated by Russian interference, not by the nor New Delhi”, or “Neither Lon - language question. By Martin Thomas don nor Cairo”, or “Neither Lon - The “plague on all houses” response is an addled version don nor Dublin”, would be a of the “Third Camp” attitude which AWL has advocated on Many responses from the left to the Ukraine crisis have traitor. many issues; but a very addled version. ignored, sidestepped, or downplayed the right to self-de - The even-handed “plague on Usually the SWP argues for “two camps”. Really to oppose termination of the Ukrainian people. all houses” response also leads to US imperialism and its allies, they say, you must to some de - a skewed picture of reality. Thus, gree support the US’s adversaries, whether it be the Taliban Yet Ukraine is one of the longest-oppressed large nations in the official statement from the in Afghanistan, Hamas in Israel-Palestine, Saddam Hussein the world. In an article of 1939 where he raised Ukraine’s SWP-UK’s international network and then the sectarian Islamist “resistance” in Iraq, or Milo - right to self-determination as an urgent question, Leon Trot - includes no call for Ukrainian self- sevic in Kosova. To do otherwise is to be “pro-imperialist”. sky wrote: “The Ukrainian question, which many govern - determination, for Russian troops Support for an independent “third force” of the working ments and many ‘socialists’ and even ‘communists’ have out, or for cancellation of class and the oppressed peoples, against both the US and al - tried to forget or to relegate to the deep strongbox of history, Ukraine’s debt; but it declares: lies, and their reactionary opponents, is ruled out. has once again been placed on the order of the day and this “The anti-Russian nationalism that is strongest in western On Ukraine they break from that “two camps” approach, time with redoubled force”. Ukraine has deep roots. Russia has dominated Ukraine since but to an approach which is more “no camp” than “third Again today! If the right of nations to self-determination is independence in 1991...” And for centuries before that! camp”. (The “no camp” stance has precedents in SWP his - important anywhere, it is important in Ukraine. If the axiom “The memory of Russian oppression within the USSR is tory, in the wars for independence of Croatia and Bosnia, for that peace and harmony between nations is possible only still vivid and reaches even earlier to the independence strug - example). through mutual recognition of rights to self-determination is gles of the first half of the 20th [century]”. Stalin’s deliber - Our slogans of Russian troops out and cancelling Ukraine’s valid anywhere, it is valid in Ukraine. ately-sustained mass famine in eastern Ukraine killed debt to the West seek to support the Ukrainian people as a Only a few currents on the left side with Putin, and even millions in 1932-3. There is a deep historical basis to Ukrain - “third camp”. We solidarise with the East European leftists those a bit shamefacedly: Counterfire and Stop The War, ian nationalism in eastern Ukraine, and among Russian- who, on the LeftEast website, call for “the third position [op - No2EU, the Morning Star . speaking Ukrainians, as well as in the West. posed to both Yanukovych and the new Kiev regime]... Others propose a “plague on all houses” response. The US “On the other side, many of the millions of Russian speak - namely a class perspective”, and appeals to Ukraine’s left “to Socialist Worker (which used to be linked with the SWP-UK, ers identify with Russia”. And many don’t. On the evidence form a third pole , distinct from today’s Tweedledums and but has been estranged from it, for unclear reasons, since of the referendum in 1991, where 92% of the people, and at Tweedledees... You are the only ones who can give meaning 2001) puts it most crisply: “Neither Washington nor Moscow, least 84% even in the most easterly regions, voted to separate to the deaths and wounds of the [occupied square in Kiev]”. neither Kiev nor Simferopol, but international socialism”. from Russia, most do not. Our position is defined primarily by its positive support For sure socialists side with Ukrainian leftists in their fight “One of the first acts of the new Ukrainian government for those “third poles” — the people of Ukraine, as against against the right-wing government in Kiev. But as between after the fall of Yanukovych was to strip Russian of its status Putin’s troops or the IMF and Western government imposing Ukraine being dominated by Moscow, and Ukraine being as an official language. This encouraged mass protests in the neo-liberal measures; the working-class left in Ukraine, as ruled by a government based in Kiev and among the people east of the country”. The parliament voted to reverse the 2012 against the oligarchs and the chauvinists. When we use neg - of Ukraine, our response should not be “neither... nor”. We law making Russian an official language. That was undemo - ative “neither, nor” slogans, we use them as consequences, support Ukraine’s national rights. cratic — and stupid. The new president vetoed the measure, expressions, or summaries of that positive alignment; and Nations’ right to self-determination does not depend on and it was dropped. Even if passed, it would not have ap - they do not stop us assessing the other “poles” in the politi - them having congenial governments. The governments plied in Crimea. Russian had not been an official language calT shietu “antioo nc ainm tph”e isrt avnarcied, i nresatleitaieds, . offers only abstract ul - under which most of Britain’s colonies won independence in Ukraine (outside Crimea) between 1991 and 2012. The timate aims (international socialism) as an evasion. were authoritarian and corrupt. The socialist who responded protests in the east (often violent, but not, by most reports, Avoiding the issues about male ritual circumcision

banning ritual circumcision for male minors occurred in Ger - statement — “Let the boys decide on circumcision” — signed many. However, he fails to provide and assess the details. In by the Ombudsmen for Children from Norway, Sweden, Fin - Letters May 2012 a ruling from the Cologne district court — on an in - land, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland, and eleven paedi - cident of ritual circumcision in which the child was subse - atric experts from Norway, Sweden, and Iceland? What of In Solidarity 315 I asked: “As socialists, feminists, and quently hospitalised — deemed the circumcision “grievous the Nordic Association of Clinical Sexology’s “statement on labour movement activists, what do we ‘independently’ bodily harm”. From this, as Reuters reports: the non-therapeutic circumcision of boys”? think about the practice of ritual circumcision amongst “Some doctors and children’s rights associations submit - One cannot crassly bundle together the ritual circumcision male minors, and how does this relate to the Scandina - ted a petition in September [2012] calling for a two-year of male minors (and therein the crucial question of consent), vian debate and the political trends and forces in - moratorium and a round-table of medical, religious and legal with the ritual slaughter of animals, with faith schools, and volved?” At no point in his response ( Solidarity 316) does experts to study circumcision fully. (I’ll add to Eric’s list) with schoolgirls wearing Islamic head - Eric address this question. “In the clear opinion of experts, the amputation of the fore - scarves. Why not? Because the Marxist tradition I am apply - skin is a grave interference in the bodily integrity of a child,” ing is about arriving at an independent class position based Eric suggests that I soften the blow of my article by refer - Georg Ehrmann, chairman of the child protection group on a theoretical analysis of the specific empirical realities, and ence to Scandinavia; he sarcastically notes, “Scandinavians, Deutsche Kinderhilfe [states].” the potentialities from and through this, and each of these after all, are modern, progressive people”. What’s he getting But the outcome? In December 2012, Germany went on to cases are different. at here — as against Jews and Muslims? Eric incorrectly approve a national law to legitimate parents’ right to ritually Eric asserts that moves to ban ritual circumcision amongst states that “Bassi writes that the correct socialist position circumcise their male children. What Eric chooses to accentu - male minors is “closely linked to” moves to ban the ritual would place the left in opposition to [Jewish and Muslim] ate about the German case are the Jewish and Muslim lead - slaughter of animals — all of which are “rightly seen by Jews communities”. And, “[a]lmost as an afterthought, she adds ers across the European continent who condemned the ban. and Muslims as racist attacks on their communities”. Is it that opposition to racism, support for socialism, whatever”. When Eric challenges my position that non-therapeutic, rit - simple? I certainly don’t deny that there might be some forces But it is he not I who homogenises “communities” of peo - ual circumcision should only be carried out when the person involved that are racist motivated, but there also appears to ple on the basis of their “race”/ ethnicity and religion (strip - to be circumcised is mature, informed, and able to consent to be forces involved that are not racist motivated. ping people of their differential social, economic, political, the procedure, on the basis of a child’s right to bodily in - Eric concludes that “[s]ocialists have always defined reli - and cultural positions, ideas and practices, and individual tegrity and to later sexual autonomy, he retorts: gion as a private matter. Socialists defend the freedom of re - agency), and it is he not I who panders to the status of so- “Using the same reasoning, why not also support the ban ligion, and of course the right of people to have no religion”. called “community leaders”. on kosher and halal slaughter? ... And while we’re busy ban - What he misses is this: on the question of the ritual circum - I don’t assume, as he does, that all people who might fall ning these things, why not close down all faith schools, be - cision of male minors there is a distinct intersection of reli - under the category of “Jews” and “Muslims” are opposed to cause after all, they’re not teaching children what we’d like gious freedom for parents with the right of the child to bodily a discussion on the question of informed consent for ritual them to be taught, and they’re forcing children to accept their intEergirci tLye, ean’sd b teo fluadtedrl esemxuenalt acuatno nboem eyx. plained by what he circumcision. parents’ religion? Shouldn’t that decision be reserved for does, which is to respond to a debate on ritual circum - Moreover, before I arrive at my end set of demands, I both adults who are “mature, informed and able to consent”?” cision among male minors by not responding to it at all emphasise and reference the ascent of the populist right in But what is his political reasoning? He surely doesn’t mean and instead conflating it to a European climate of anti- Europe, and a rising tide of anti-Muslim racism and anti- what he actually says, which is “using the same reasoning”, Muslim racism and anti-Semitism, and thus cancelling Semitism, including in Scandinavia, as critical context. The i.e., on the basis of a child’s right to bodily integrity and to out politics. Scandinavian debate of 2013 and 2014 on the ritual circumci - later sexual autonomy, why not ban the ritual slaughter of sion of male minors is... a given material reality to engage animals and faith schools? Camila Bassi, Sheffield with. Eric fails to politically engage with some of the key forces As I was aware, Eric points out that a previous debate on involved in the discussion in Scandinavia. What about the •Slightly abridged. Full reply here: bit.ly/bassi-reply 95 WHATF EWAET USARYE After Crimea, a third cold war?

The count from Crimea’s 16 March referendum was largely known in advance. Unknown still after the result, dustrial working class, climaxing in 1905, which meant that and dangerous, are its consequences. its government could no longer seek empire without worry about resistance at home; and then decisively by the workers’ The most hopeful sign for socialists was a 50,000 strong revolution of 1917. demonstration in Moscow on 15 March saying “Putin, get out But the Stalinist counter-revolution, generated by the iso - of Ukraine”, and opposing war. lation of the new workers’ government in poverty-plagued Our solidarity should be with the Ukrainian people, for its territory, restored many of the patterns of the old Tsarist im - self-determination against Russia’s drive to dominate; and perialism. with Ukraine’s left, against the neo-liberal government in In 1989-91 the neo-Stalinist empire collapsed in face of a Kiev and the cuts it will push through on the IMF’s say-so. revolt of the peoples, in the subject nations and in Russia it - We should demand that US and EU governments cancel self. Nations such as the Poles, the Hungarians, the Czechs Ukraine’s foreign debts, to give the country a chance for re - and the Slovaks decisively escaped Moscow’s domination, covery. and not even Putin aspires to recapture them. Crimea is an area historically distinct from the rest of But, as Russian industry and finance have rebuilt in their Ukraine. Unlike any other area of Ukraine, it has a majority Putin’s ambitions do not end in Crimea new crony-capitalist mode, Putin has sought to regain at least which identifies as “Russian”. Its people have the right to de - part of Russia’s old backyard. Unlike the US and EU, he does termine a future distinct from the rest of Ukraine’s if they not have the economic clout which would make domination wish. to be backed by Putin. through market forces sure, cheap, and robust: he wants But the 16 March referendum was nothing like a demo - Russia may now formally annex Crimea. If Putin does that, politico-military domination. cratic exercise of that democratic right. The lead-in to it, over he will not be satisfied. Crimea is a poor area which has re - So far the limits of Putin’s ambitions, and the extensive the previous four weeks, was: quired subsidies from Ukraine to sustain it. It will require links in the new era between Russian oligarchs and Western • Russian troops going onto the streets, surrounding the subsidies from Russia too. Putin’s real interest is in the agri - markets, have enabled adjustment and accommodation. Ukrainian armed forces’ military posts, and setting up road - cultural and industrial wealth of Ukraine. Ukraine raises the stakes. The economic sanctions being blocks. He may use either annexation of Crimea, or the referen - gradually stepped up by the US and EU, and the possible fur - • Russian troops installing a new government based on a dum result and an offer not to annex formally just yet, as a ther military incursions by Putin, are pushing towards a sec - party which held only three seats in Crimea’s 100-seat au - lever to intervene in eastern Ukraine, first in the areas which ond cold war (or, if the early 1980s are counted as the second, tonomous parliament. provide essential supplies to Crimea. He may step up the a third), and with hot spots. • A torrent of publicity presenting the choices as between pro-Russian demonstrations in Ukraine, small so far, but Putin’s objective is a deal which gives him a dominant in - Crimea being annexed by Russia and subordination to a “fas - widely reported to be boosted by people bussed in across the fluence in the whole of Ukraine. He may be able to get that, cist coup” in Kiev. Suppression of dissident media and of border from Russia. or he may be driven back by the resistance of the Ukrainian campaigning against Russian annexation. (“Those taking part”, the Financial Times reported on 17 people and the majority in Russia who do not want war (73% • A bar on foreign observers, and a staged endorsement of March, “are largely older people, many nostalgic for the days according to a recent poll). But the outcomes may well be less the referendum by invited politicians from the European far- of the Soviet Union, bolstered by a strong contingent of burly “smooth” than either of those. We are moving towards an right, such as Hungary’s Jobbik. young men in black jackets and knitted caps”.) era of tension more like the time of the Berlin airlift of 1948- • A boycott of the referendum by the area’s indigenous He may seize, or try to seize, eastern areas of Ukraine 9 than that of the concerted global capitalist unity-with-hag - people, the Crimean Tatars, and by many Ukrainians living proper as he has seized Crimea. He may provoke conflict gling of the last two decades. in Crimea. with Ukraine’s armed forces, so as to give himself a cover for Socialists should endorse neither those in the US and EU A referendum in 1991 - when only few of the Tatars had invading deeper into Ukraine. capitalist classes who — because profitable relations with yet returned to Crimea after being deported en masse by For decades or centuries, Russia dominated large parts of Russia are most important to them — want a deal whatever Stalin in 1944, and allowed to return only from 1989 - showed central Europe and central Asia, not just in the sense of being the consequences for Ukraine; nor those who may come to 56% in Crimea for separating from Russia. The most recent a big economic centre with clout through the market, but po - push for war. Our demand on the US and EU ruling classes opinion poll in Crimea before the Russian military takeover litically and administratively. is that they cancel Ukraine’s crippling foreign debt, and give showed only 41% for Crimea becoming part of Russia. That was the Russia which Karl Marx and Frederick En - theIf Uitk craoimnieasn ptoe oap wle aar cbheatnwcee eton r Recuosvseira. and Ukraine, we The Crimean vote is essentially a ploy by Putin, using a gels repeatedly denounced as the main international force of are on the side of Ukraine — including of the Ukrainian Russian population for his own purposes, rather than the counter-revolution. armed forces, if they fight against Russian domination. product of a popular movement which happens secondarily Russia was changed by the strike movements of its new in - Defend free debate on campuses!

The campaign now spreading in some parts of the stu - dent movement for the SWP to be banned from cam - quiring the removal of practising Catholics or of Catholic in - cussing and openly protesting against the Church’s crimes puses should be opposed. We should defend freedom of signia from protests or meetings. Catholic and other religious and confronting its ideas, and not making counter-produc - political expression and debate on campuses. student groups are not banned from booking spaces in stu - tive attempts to confine Catholics to a ghetto. dent unions. We respond in the same way to Liberal Democrat, Conser - The form of “banning” varies: tipping over and physically And rightly so. Such bans would make campuses signifi - vative, and Labour Parties, all of which are responsible for destroying SWP stalls; insisting that SWP members either ab - cantly less safe . A young Catholic in the grip of her faith more cover-ups and abuses than the SWP. sent themselves from campaigns or agree to not have SWP would not be persuaded by such a campaign – if anything, Administrative bans and physical destruction of materials materials on them; or banning the SWP from booking or her faith in the Church would be reinforced — or helped to cannot combat the ideas of the SWP. They cannot discredit using rooms in students’ unions. get support. The campaign against the SWP can only pro - the SWP where it should be discredited; or educate the In whatever form it takes, the campaign to “ban” the SWP duce a similar silence, where objectionable ideas are rein - is not the way to challenge the SWP’s behaviour or combat forced within their ghetto, rather than undermined. young, revolutionary, left-wing members of the SWP. their ideas; it is not the way to make campuses safer places What if a young woman member of the SWP, perhaps a re - All they can do is create an atmosphere on campuses for women, other oppressed groups or victims of abuse; and cent recruit not fully aware of the “Comrade Delta” cover- where bans become accepted tools in the hands of whichever all these forms of banning have anti-democratic implications up, maybe even herself a survivor of abuse, is made to feel grouping controls the student union at a given moment. that will serve no-one fighting for liberation. unsafe by having her stall kicked over and her papers burnt, In the 1980s there was a widespread campaign to ban uni - The argument in favour of banning the SWP runs: because and being told to get off campus? Who is to be the arbiter of versity Jewish Societies because they refused to denounce Is - SWP leaders grossly mishandled the case of an SWP organ - which women’s feelings of unsafety justify the making-un - rael. The campaign of bans did nothing to help the iser charged with sexual harassment and rape, the SWP safe of other women? Palestinians, nor to break J-Soc members who backed Israeli makes women feel unsafe. It is extrapolated to claims that Those who would ban the SWP should be wary of claiming policy from those views. It was entirely counterproductive SWP members as such pose direct and immediate physical to be representative of all women, or of all survivors. There and wrong. threats to safety of women; the SWP must therefore be driven are women, and survivors of sexual violence, on all sides of Ironically, the methods of banning and anathema and de - off university campuses; this is not a matter for political de - this argument. Claims to reflect “authentic” experience lead nouncing anyone who dissents proposed for “dealing with” bate, but of physical safety. to claims that anyone saying different either is not really a the SWP are methods like those used in the past by the SWP If that logic were valid, then why just the SWP? The woman or a feminist, or is someone whose experience is not itself. They are methods which, despite the good intentions of Catholic Church, with its terrible record of abuse, has evan - valid or has been brainwashed. That approach is a sure way some of those now using them, can only result in creating a gelising organisations on most university campuses. The to squash open discussion about sexual abuse, as it was milieu in the image of the SWP in its most sectarian, dema - presence of the Catholic Church on campuses is a much squashed until recent years, adding harm to victims. greater threat, and a daily source of much more anxiety and De facto, and rightly, socialists, democrats and feminists goDgiecf eand ifnretoelderoamnt opfh paoseli.tical expression and debate on intimidation, than the SWP. respond to the presence of the Catholic Church by providing campus! Yet no activist group has passed safer-spaces policies re - support for those who feel threatened by the Church, dis - 86-7 FEATURE

posed the Heath version of the union-restricting laws he had supported in their pioneering Wilson government form in The politics of Tony Benn 1969. He sided routinely with striking workers. He came out against the Common Market (EU), opposition to which had by then become an article of faith with the conventional left By Sean Matgamna* (Communist Party, Tribune, some trade union officials, and came from the upper classes, and in 1950, at 25, a Labour MP most of the revolutionary left). He came out against nuclear in a safe seat. His wife, Caroline, was rich, as was Benn him - weapons. He championed nationalisation of industries in dif - The first thing that should be said and remembered self. This sincere champion of the working class was a mil - ficulty. about Tony Benn, who died on Friday 14 March, is that lionaire. None of that went far enough to stop him serving as a min - for over four decades he backed, defended, and cham - Benn became a minister in Harold Wilson’s Labour gov - ister all through the 1974-9 Wilson-Callaghan government, pioned workers in conflict with their bosses or with the ernment in 1964-70, and was a minister again in the Wilson- which demobilised the militant working class which had “boss of bosses”, the government. Callaghan government of 1974-9. brought it to power. It would be only after Labour’s general That put him decidedly in our camp. The political ideas Out of office after 1970, he turned left, at the age of 45. Pub - election defeat of 1979 that Benn shifted fully and decisively. which he too often linked with those bedrock working-class licly, he shifted during the great occupation and work-in at But after UCS he often spoke for the conventional left at battles detract from the great merit of Tony Benn, but do not giant the Upper Clyde Shipyards, in 1971. The decision by meetings and conferences. He came to reflect the conven - cancel it out or render it irrelevant. Edward Heath’s Tory government to end subsidies to ailing tional left in his attitude to the Stalinist states. Politically, Benn’s story was a strange one. An editorial in industries meant shut down for UCS. The modification in his preferred name summed up the the Times neatly summed up the shape of Benn’s long career. In office Benn had subsidised UCS, so there was logic and shift. “The Right Honourable Anthony Wedgwood Benn” His was “A Life Lived Backwards”. For the first half of his continuity in this. He marched alongside the Stalinist UCS said he now wanted to be known as plain “Tony Benn”, and long life he belonged to the establishment, socially and in his leaders, Jimmy Airlie and Jimmy Reid, at giant working-class he was. politics. To the dissenting old radical-Liberal and right-wing demonstrations in Glasgow. ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT Labour part of the establishment, but the establishment nev - Interviewed in the Observer at that time, he said of himself In 1960 he had refused to inherit his father’s title, Lord ertheless. that in office one was a pragmatist, and in opposition one’s Stansgate, because that would have made him ineligible Both his parents had MPs for fathers. Four generations of idealism held sway. That might have been a summing up of for the House of Commons. He fought and won two by- Benns have been MPs. Benn’s son, Hilary, has been the third the Parliamentary Labour Party side of what socialist critics elections in his seat, Bristol South East, in a campaign generation of cabinet-minister Benns. His father was Ramsey called the old “fake left” culture of the labour movement: left to be allowed to renounce his title and sit in the Com - MacDonald’s Secretary of State for India in the 1929 govern - talk combined with right-wing and conventional bourgeois mons. actions at all the crucial turning points. (These days, there is ment. That episode had produced the first “left” and “anti-estab - something more like a “fake right” culture!) Benn went to one of the leading “public” schools and then lishment” Benn. In its politics, it was a piece of old 19th cen - Benn’s “pragmatism” had kept him in the government that to Oxford University, where he climbed up onto that mile - tury radicalism revisited. It even had precedents. The atheist brought in the first statutory wage controls (1966) and tried stone in the careers of so many establishment politicians, the Charles Bradlaugh had stood in a series of by-elections in in 1969 to bring in laws to shackle the unions — an attempt presidency of the Oxford Union debating society. He became Northampton to win the right to take his seat without first to pioneer what the Heath Tories would ineffectively make a pilot in the hierarchical Royal Air Force, in which pilots swearing a Christian oath; and in the late 18th century, John law in 1971, and which Thatcher would succeed in shackling Wilkes had fought a similar series of by-elections in the Mid - on to the labour movement in the early 1980s. He had sup - dlesex seat. * The author worked with Benn and others to set up the ported the Wilson government’s unsuccessful attempt to join Benn moved left, seeing himself more and more as the Rank and File Mobilising Committee, which for a while the Common Market (now called the European Union). modern embodiment of the old radicalism. He took to mak - united most of the Labour Party left, at the start of the After UCS the second Tony Benn started to emerge. He op - 1980s. ing frequent historical references in his speeches, and com -

An activist conference 29 March 11am-5pm NEW UNIONISM 2014 University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HY This conference will seek to learn from experiences of organising the unorganised in history and today. It will hear from working-class activists on the frontline of today’s class battles, and of struggles to reshape trade unions.

Sessions will include Is the “organising agenda” a model? A look at the US SEIU, with American labour movement activist Kim Moody Micro-unions, pop-up unions, and more: what role for “independent unions” in transforming the labour movement? The story of the 3 Cosas campaign, with activists from the IWGB at University of London Many “New Unionisms”: 200 years of labour movement history in Britain How bosses use “performance management” to wage class war Organising against zero hours contracts “Back to the Workplace”: How to transform your union branch, a workshop led by Lambeth Activists Women rail workers fighting sexism in the workplace, in society, and in our unions, with women activists from the RMT Independent working-class education past, present, and future, with Colin Waugh, author of Plebs: The Lost Legacy of Working-Class Education How New Zealand fast food workers took on McDonald’s, and won with speakers including Mike Treen, National Director of Unite New Zealand (via Skype) Mary Macarthur and the 1911 chainmakers’ strike, with Jill Mountford Speakers from UID-DER, Turkish workers rank-and-file network (via Skype)

[email protected] 07840 136 728 www.workersliberty.org/newunions 9 CLASS SFTERAUTUGRGELE

to the people of Britain. There was no “speaking truth to power” there! Benn would have seen what he did then as part of the “fight for peace”. Accepting all the problematic causes of a confused and dis - integrating left, Benn joined in the pro-Milosevic, pro-Serbia “Stop The War Coalition” in 1999, making an outcry to “stop the war” against Serbia which in the event succeeded in stop - ping the genocidal Serbian war against the Albanian popula - tion of Serbia’s colony, Kosova. (It was not necessary to back NATO, or to give the Western powers any political credence or support, to understand what was going on). Benn and the Catholic ex-Monsignor, Bruce Kent, spoke to a big meeting at the Friends Meeting House on Euston Road, London, at which Benn delivered a blimpish denunciation of Germany, and Kent spoke of the proletarian-background Labour Minister of Defence, George Robertson, like a dowa - ger duchess describing an incompetent milk-delivery man — “that little man”. Yet, in this bitter political chronicle, it is necessary to re - turn to where we began: Benn stood with the workers in all the clashes after 1979. With a critical edge to his old-style radicalism, he might have fruitfully interacted with the extant left in the ideolog - ically battered condition it was in by the time he joined it. But that would not have been popular with the conventional left. Benn chose to seek popularity, to be the chief demagogue, to ingratiate himself with what existed. From the (politically speaking) rotten timbers, decaying carcases, bits of broken stone, and crumbling dusty cinders that he found to hand, nothing worthwhile could be made. Benn on the march for Upper Clyde Shipyards in 1971. A turning point in his political career Benn’s relationship with the left and labour movement after 1979 — that of speaker, orator, articulator, political chameleon to the coloration of his audience — is most remi - memorated calendar-occasions — the Levellers of the 1640s, from Britain’s wartime state-regulated economy on one side niscent of the role which freelancing radical leaders of 200 the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, the suffragettes, the Chartists and on the other from the USSR and its East European satel - years ago played with the nascent labour movement and the (whose call for annual parliaments he, however, rejected). lites. broader plebeian anti-establishment stirrings they found to Ostentatiously, he played his chosen part, visibly relishing Most of the left believed in the goodwill of Russia’s rulers hand — manipulation, demagogy. Such people as, for exam - it. To say that is not necessarily to question his sincerity, and and their peaceful intentions and priorities, even while Russ - ple, “Orator Hunt”, one of the speakers at the meeting in St sincerity does not rule out calculated self-positioning. His en - ian Stalinism was expanding its areas of control and semi- Peter’s Square, Manchester, that became the site of the Peter - emies said of him that in 1979 Benn calculated that Labour control, as it did all through the 70s and early 80s. In 1982 loo Massacre in 1819. would lose the election, and started to position himself as the Benn’s constituency Labour Party, Chesterfield, with Benn’s At that time, the labour movement was only coming into instrument of a break with the Labour government’s record, evident agreement, wrote an open letter to the Russian dicta - being and taking shape, as the Industrial Revolution trans - in the expectation that he would become party leader. tor Brezhnev, accepting the good intentions and desire for formed Britain. Benn’s career was part of the decline and In any case, he played the role he assumed in 1979 for the peace of the government that had invaded Afghanistan in decay of the old left, the old trade unions, and the old work - remainder of his life. 1979 and triggered the “second cold war”. ing class. In 1918 the Bolshevik Anatoly Lunacharsky wrote about Playing the demagogue to the existing left and its causes In old age Benn found himself widely popular even with Trotsky that he “treasures his historical role and would prob - and assumptions, Benn won tremendous popularity among people who disagreed with his political ideas or knew little ably be ready to make any personal sacrifice, not excluding people eager for a prominent and capable tribune who, more - or nothing about them. He appeared to be a man of principle the greatest sacrifice of all — that of his life — in order to go over, knew how to play the media’s game. whToh estruec kw taos h siso mguen sju asgtaicines ti nth teh eastt,a tbolois.h Amnedn ts. ymbolism. down in human memory surrounded by the aureole of a gen - Benn walked from his position of upper-class privilege into Benn did play, personify, and project himself as a rebel uine revolutionary leader”. leadership of a wide coalition of leftists like a man casually and anti-establishment nay-sayer — irrespective of the Benn also treasured his role, but the differences between walking into his own living room. Visibly glorying in the ap - politics involved — and, for us, despite his politics. Trotsky and Benn, and their respective traditions, are defin - plause and approbation which it brought to him, he became ing. Trotsky, from the age of 18, was a Marxist, marinated in the central leader of a loosely defined left. the doctrines, the politics, the history that made up the Marx - And in Benn’s role there was much of the old “Dancing ist tradition. He could be and was consistent in aims, goals, Elephant Act”. The elephant trainer moves his hands and the and in the tradition he sought to personify and continue. elephant dances to the gestures. But in fact the reality is the Trotsky was both politically and personally an integrated, or - opposite of what it appears to be. The trainer’s skill is to ganic whole. The doctrine he upheld was coherent. move in time with the elephant. SHIFT Benn appeared to “conduct” the left orchestra, but in fact he accommodated to what he found already there. He did Benn? He shifted radically halfway through his life — that as a calculated role. back to the radical seam in British political history, but by For instance, he talked much of the radical Christian tradi - about 1980 it was a very thin seam. Its old unwon causes tion and of the affinity of the Christian tradition with the so - — abolishing the House of Lords and the monarchy, for cialist attitudes to which Benn appealed. He presented instance — were now of only marginal importance. himself as in that Christian tradition. He was widely accepted Even the right-wing Blair government could essay to abol - as a Christian. In fact he was an atheist! ish the House of Lords. The late John Mortimer, in a published interview, had to Benn’s posture translated in the real political world of the ask Benn, repeatedly, insistently, again and again, if he be - 1980s into a comprehensive accommodation with the extant lieved in God. Finally, after dodging the question many conventional left; and, except for points of historical continu - times, Benn admitted that he didn’t. ity, that left had very little in common with the old demo - A political event, a picture, an image that summarises his cratic radicalism he wanted conjure back into life. (Moreover, political trajectory, stands at each end of Benn’s career as a that old radicalism itself had bred antagonistic political cur - radical. rents — Joseph Chamberlain, the radical imperialist, as well The first is Benn marching with the leading stewards from as Liberal anti-imperialism). UCS through Glasgow. The second is the aged Benn, no The labour movement left of the early 1980s was a chaos longer an MP, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq conducting Benn at the time of his bid to become Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in 1981. trying to make sense of itself. Shaped by Stalinism in varying a fawning interview with Saddam Hussein — producing in dilution, its dominant model of “socialism” was cross-bred effect a “party political television broadcast” from Saddam 8 FEATURE Bob Crow 1961 - 2014 By Janine Booth out on strike, when we knew that it was rank-and-file Lon - don Underground workers who demanded and drove action Bob Crow represented plain-speaking trade union mili - to defend our jobs, conditions and the public transport sys - tancy. He was seen as the personification of the idea that tem. And — though you would barely believe it from news - the job of a trade union leader is to stick by and stick up paper coverage — once he became the General Secretary, Bob for the union’s members — not apologise for, close was not even in the meetings which called ballots or strikes down or slither away from their battles with employers. on the Tube or on other companies: that was not part of his role. Everyone who understands and values that mourns his When the Daily Mail followed Bob on his family holidays, shocking and premature death. There is a genuine feeling of or poured hypocritical scorn on (and serially exaggerated) sorrow, shock, disbelief and profound sadness among RMT his salary, it was not because it thinks — as we and some members, and condolences have poured in from everyone other socialists and trade unionists think — that workers’ from union leaders around the world to passengers coming representatives should be on a worker’s wage. It was because up to transport staff. the Mail hates trade unions, hates workers fighting back, and On the day of Bob’s death, the BBC referred to him as “the hates anything progressive or decent. best-known trade union leader in the country”. The remark - RMT has reacted angrily to a so-called tribute from Lon - able thing about this is that RMT has around 80,000 mem - Bob Crow: He stuck by and stuck up for his members, rather don Underground Ltd (LUL) Managing Director Mike bers: there are many trade unions significantly — ten, even than slithering away from battles. Brown in the Evening Standard, in which Brown appeared twenty times — larger than that. Really, the General Secre - to suggest that Bob would have helped LUL to carry out its tary of a union which sits in the TUC’s “smaller unions” cat - through which they can win job security and better pay and job-cutting plans. Apparently, because Bob was a nice guy egory should not be the best-known trade union leader in conditions. Fighting industrial unionism beats business who does not oppose new technology, that meant that he Britain. The fact that Bob Crow was reflects the RMT mili - unionism as a builder of membership. As well as, and along - would support LUL’s plans, if only it weren’t for the pesky tancy of which he was the high-profile and (forgive the pun) side, industrial militancy, unions need a genuine organising Executive insisting on pointless strikes. striking public face. (It also reflects negatively on other union drive — another thing that Bob Crow brought to the General That’s Bob Crow for the ruling class and its media — in leaders.) Secretary’s post. life, a figure to hate, a “dinosaur” who “wrecked the lives of Bob Crow joined London Underground as a track worker Last month, Bob spoke at the launch event for my book, commuters” because the union he led took strike action in 1977, aged 16. He soon became involved in the National Plundering London Underground , for which he had written the (which in truth defended passengers as well as workers); in Union of Railwaymen (NUR), becoming a representative and foreword. He not only spoke passionately about privatisa - death, rewritten as either a collaborator or a lovable throw - in 1984, winning the NUR’s youth award. Eight years later, tion on the Tube and elsewhere in the transport industry, but back to a militant past that should, they hope, die with him. he was elected to the national executive of RMT, representing also of the importance of books, of working-class self-educa - Bob Crow was not perfect, and no union leader should be London Transport track workers. In 1994, he became Assis - tion and of recording the history and ideas of our movement. held up beyond criticism. Our and others’ disagreements tant General Secretary, defeating the incumbent AGS. The Perhaps contradicting the image of him presented by the with Bob are a matter of record — there is no need to go into election of the young, belligerent Crow — an outspoken critic right-wing press, Bob was an advocate of reading and study. their detail here. We should note, though, that Bob Crow of the union’s leadership — was seen as a boost for the left As General Secretary, he introduced book reviews to the could take criticism and disagreement from within our move - and for industrial militancy. union’s journal, RMT News , and significantly increased the meTnhte: hbee dstid t rnibout theo tldo gBroubd gise sto o rp droevmeo tnhiese r ucrlintigcs c. lass and Following the death of Jimmy Knapp, Bob was elected union’s education and training programme. His predecessor, its media wrong. Of course, to his actual family and his General Secretary in February 2002, easily beating his two ri - Jimmy Knapp, had shut down the union’s former education wider trade union family, Bob Crow is as a person irre - vals. He was re-elected unopposed in 2007 and 2012. centre at Frant Place in Kent; Bob oversaw the establishment placeable. But let’s not repeat the idea that he — or Tony Many obituaries of Bob have pointed to the increase in of a new national education centre in Doncaster. Benn, who died just three days later — was “the last of RMT membership during his time as General Secretary, For the media, especially that based in London, “Bob his kind”. We will not lose our militancy because we have bucking the general trend across the union movement. Work - Crow” meant “Tube strikes”. It was frustrating when papers so tragically lost Bob Crow. ers will join a union that shows that it is willing to fight, like the Evening Standard declared that Bob had “ordered” us A workers’ and passengers’ plan

An extract from Janine Booth’s book, Plundering London can be eliminated — money draining away from Tube serv - 1930s did this — why not now? New work could be carried Underground: New Labour, private capital and public trans - ices into private companies’ profits, excessive salaries for top out by a TfL Major Works Department, with secure, directly- port 1997-2010. managers, or duplication and bureaucracy caused by sub-di - employed jobs and apprenticeships for young Londoners. London Underground must provide services to meet peo - viding London Underground’s functioning. As Russian rev - London Underground needs a Workers’ and Passengers’ ple’s needs, so its operation and development must be olutionary Leon Trotsky advocated in his Transitional Plan, drawn up and overseen by a democratically-elected planned. The PPP showed, as private ownership had Programme in 1938: “The abolition of ‘business secrets’ is the governing body of workers, passengers and the shown more than half a century earlier, that the “market” first step toward actual control of industry … transport community. This would lead to significant improvements in cannot meet London Underground’s needs. … should be placed under an observation glass.” Underground services. It would also see a seismic shift in Alongside political and industrial democracy, this openness power towards the class of people who travel, rely and work Workers and passengers have a common interest in Lon - and scrutiny will allow knowledge of London Underground’s on the Tube and away from the class that uses it merely as a don Underground providing as good a public service as pos - operation to spread among workers and passengers, enabling source of profit. A Workers’ and Passengers’ Plan would be a sible. (I include in the scope of “passengers” those who wish the working class to apply that understanding collectively to popular democratic exercise which would massively extend to be passengers but are currently excluded — those who the running of the Tube. Already, many Londoners — frus - the debate about London Underground’s future, and would would travel by Tube if it were cheaper, more physically ac - trated by the Underground’s shortcomings, or imagining a turn working-class people into decision-makers not just serv - cessible, and if it served the areas they travel to and from.) better transport system serving a better city — find them - ice users or wage slaves… Passengers want a service that is reliable, safe and accessible. selves saying, “If we ran the Tube…” If workers and passengers are to run London Underground, Many of London’s workers travel to work by Tube, and Lon - What might workers and passengers plan? Large-scale in - then workers and passengers must lead the campaign to don Underground workers have the knowledge of how to vestment to upgrade the Underground; significant cuts in achieve this policy. Those who currently control London Un - make the system work to its maximum effectiveness. Both fares; expansion of the network with new and extended lines; derground, and extract profit from it, will not willingly give groups are motivated by improving London Underground, enough staff to run the system effectively; better safety stan - up the reins. The Underground trade unions need to unite neither by accumulating private profit. dards; new technology designed to be used by staff rather and organise an effective battle, alongside service users and as To draw up and carry out their plan, the first thing our than to replace them; prompt repairs. part of the working-class movement. We can devise this cam - workers’ and passengers’ governing body would need is full A Workers’ and Passengers’ Plan could organise those proj - paign by learning from both the strengths and the flaws of the access to London Underground’s financial information. The ects currently in the pipeline (such as Crossrail 2; extensions fight against the PPP. It needs to be active, rank-and-file-led, PPP and other private schemes kept finances shrouded from to the Bakerloo, Northern and Central lines) and those that militant and outward-looking. And it needs to put its faith in public scrutiny. Metronet refused to divulge its financial in - ought to be (making the entire network fully accessible to dis - our own self-organisation. Genuine allies are welcome, but formation. The cap on Alstom plc’s penalties is “commercially abled people). The Plan could prioritise those projects that we learned from bitter experience that we cannot rely on po - confidential”. RMT obtained a copy of the London Under - better serve working-class communities rather than jumping litiIct awl oapsp Noretwun Lisatsb oru qr’usa rnegtorse. at from working-class and ground power PFI contract, only to find that the entire sec - to the dog-whistle of big business’ latest luxury location. It socialist policy that brought about the calamitous PPP. A tion on finance was redacted — hidden behind blocks of black could plan effectively for London’s expected population return to these things can begin to save it. We need a ink… growth. more rational way of organising London Underground, as To plan London Underground’s future direction, we need Moreover, London Underground is a good candidate for part of a more rational way of organising society. full public access to, and scrutiny of, its finances and struc - “public works” designed to both improve services and create tures. That way, a democratically-run Underground can iden - jobs: to revive the economy at a time of recession. Under pres - tify how much funding it needs, and can identify waste which sure of working-class demands, governments in the 1920s and • bit.ly/plun-lu 9 FEATURE Imperialism: the debate in full daylight

By Martin Thomas navy and the colonial governments are a world police force that enables capital to invest safely all over the world”; that Between 1898 and World War One, Marxists keenly de - some industrialists, as well as financiers, were heavily com - bated imperialism. For decades almost the only living mitted to imperialism; and that British workers opposed im - legacy of that debate was in various interpretations of perialism. Lenin’s pamphlet of 1916, “Imperialism, the highest Eduard Bernstein, who had helped spark the debate on im - stage of capitalism”. perialism back at the end of the 1890s when he horrified his Whatever the large merits of Lenin’s text, to read it in ab - comrades by claiming that “savages” had “only a conditional straction from the debates of the time and of the previous two right to the land occupied by them”, spoke at Chemnitz as decades, which Lenin knew and assumed many readers an outrider on the right of the SPD. He backed Haase’s mo - would know, must impair understanding. Moreover, Lenin’s tion, wishing only that it had also included a call for interna - text was mostly read “through” Stalinist renderings, and the tional courts of arbitration to settle disputes between the big Trotskyists of the day had urgent calls on their slight re - powers. (Haase retorted that US president Taft had come out sources which came before the task of unpicking those ren - in favour of international courts of arbitration to settle all derings in detail. questions, then quickly rejected arbitration when a dispute Over recent decades more and more of the areas of shade which he considered important arose, with Britain over the around the old debate have been illuminated. I tried to con - Panama Canal). In Bernstein’s mind British imperialism was tribute to that in an article in 1996 (bit.ly/imp-96). In 2011 not so bad, but, yes, Germany’s imperialism and arms race Richard Day and Daniel Gaido published their 950-page se - must be opposed. lection from the debate: “Discovering Imperialism: Social The outspoken Social Democratic right-winger Ludwig Democracy to World War One”. Quessel, who said that socialists should “stand behind the Their excellent work extends the illumination greatly, and German government when it champions equality of rights is now sufficiently current that second-hand copies are for our industry”, got no applause at Chemnitz. within the purchasing power of left activists. With hindsight the debate helps us learn lessons from why Quibbles could be made about the selection. For example, the socialist parties of that era collapsed so shockingly in Day and Gaido seem to have looked in the archives for arti - 1914. The whole movement, with flickering and ambiguities cles labelling themselves as about “imperialism”, although on the edges, had accepted an analysis which should flatly Marxists intensely debated how to respond to imperialist have ruled out those parties’ support for their countries’ gov - in the earlier years of the debate the German Marxists dis - carve-ups and wars. cussed what they would later call “imperialism” under the ernments in 1914. label “Weltpolitik” (world policy). (The word “imperialism” ties In the drive to draw active conclusions from that analysis was taken to be jargon of British bourgeois politics rather supported their own governments in World War One. It also the pre-1914 socialist left made criticisms and clarifications than a general term). Thus the first 300 or so pages of the shows us the merits of a culture of Marxist discussion in which the socialist mainstream deflected and havered over. book are heavily weighted towards articles, sometimes rela - which, even in sharp polemics, socialists took each others’ It established ideas which got lost in mid-20th century social - tively journalistic, on British imperial developments, and ideas seriously. Haase quoted Luxemburg approvingly; Karl ist regressions and are only now being re-learned. And the omit important writings of around or before 1900 which dis - Radek, in a fierce blast from the left in the run-up to the con - 1912 left itself, as we shall see, was not yet sufficiently sharp cussed “Weltpolitik” more generally. Nevertheless, the se - gress, started by summarising the theoretical debate with ac - and confident about active conclusions. lection is immensely valuable. knowledgements not just to Parvus but also to Kautsky, A debate between the left and the mainstream for which It should be read by every Marxist who wants to use the Hilferding, and Bauer. Haase spoke had raged since the “Morocco crisis” of July- word “imperialism” in her or his explanations and argu - Another theme which would figure largely in Lenin’s 1916 August 1911. A rebellion challenged the Sultan, who ruled ments, and to reckon that she or he knows what they are talk - polemic, which restated previously-established ideas of under informal French and Spanish overlordship. France and ing about. Marxist analysis against those who had discarded them in Spain sent troops. Germany sent a battleship, ostensibly to SPD order to adapt to wartime bourgeois politics, was also well- protect German “trade interests”. Britain sided with France The high point of Day’s and Gaido’s book is their presen - established by 1912: the connection between imperialism and against the perceived German challenge. Eventually Ger - tation of the debate sparked by the Morocco crisis of the rise of large capitalist corporations dominating whole many agreed to a formal French “protectorate” in Morocco in 1911 and going through the German Social Democratic markets. “The watchword of capital is no longer free compe - return for France ceding territory in West Africa to Germany. Party congress in Chemnitz in 1912. tition but monopolies, including the monopolisation of for - COLONIES Hugo Haase moved the majority motion. “Everywhere the eign markets through the creation of colonies” (Radek, The Berlin Social Democratic (SPD) paper published a striving to acquire new spheres of power and influence in p.548). wheedling article by Bernstein which complained of all other countries, especially the annexation of overseas coun - In the early years of the debate, some socialists had thought the governments acting immorally by disregarding the tries to one’s own state, has become dominant. This imperi - that imperialism was a policy only of a faction of the bour - deal which had ended the previous “Morocco crisis” in alist idea has currently seized the whole world... It springs geoisie, and an unrealistic one. In part the argument was 1906; and the SPD put out a mass broadsheet written by from the economic development of the great capitalist skewed by the term “imperialism” being a coinage not of Kautsky which denounced the German action on the fee - states... Marxists but of British bourgeois politicians, and those self- ble grounds that it would not benefit even most of the “Powerful upswing in world traffic... An export of means styled “imperialist” politicians defining “imperialism” by a bourgeoisie and concluded by appealing to middle-class of production, an export of capital, is also taking place at an project which was indeed particular and unrealistic: the con - opponents of imperialism to back the SPD. ever-growing pace... version of the British empire into an Imperial Federation with “Countries previously totally excluded from industry... uniform tariffs against the rest of the world. Rosa Luxemburg angrily declared that the broadsheet have been dragged into large-scale capitalist business... But at Chemnitz no-one contradicted the view which “places itself in the comical situation of pretending to know “Colonial policy... displays the features eminently charac - Anton Pannekoek put crisply: “imperialism [is] a necessary... the interests of the bourgeois classes better than those classes teristic of imperialism - especially violence... Under the rule development of capitalism, not in the sense that some other do themselves” and “says not a single word about the native of imperialism, violence is an ‘economic power’ of the first form could not be conceivable or construed, but in the sense peoples of the colonies”. rank... that this path was the one actually pursued. We can demon - Other polemics followed from Rudolf Hilferding, Karl “The idea of a Greater Germany [appears as] merely the strate that imperialism damages the interests of broad strata Radek, and Paul Lensch, editor of the main newspaper of the product of an absolutist disposition... But [as] Luxemburg even among the bourgeoisie. But the fact remains that the SPD left, the Leipziger Volkszeitung . Gustav Eckstein wrote a [and others have] pointed out... the question under discus - whole bourgeoisie supports this policy... We want to struggle defence of Kautsky. The SPD leadership balanced things by sion [is] much greater - namely, the onset of a new phase of as brusquely as possible against this brutal, dangerous form publishing an official SPD pamphlet on imperialism by the capitalist development... of capitalism, but not by trying to drive capitalism back to an left-winger Julian Marchlewski (in hundreds of thousands of “As a consequence... the arms race developed on an ever- earlier form... There is only one way: beyond imperialism to copies). socialism”. By the Chemnitz congress in September 1912 the debate fo - larger scale... The competition in the arms field must ulti - ‘WORLD POLICE’ mately lead either to a world war or to a financial collapse... cused on whether the SPD should campaign for international Indeed, elements of the analysis were shared with a agreements to limit armaments. German Social Democracy has always voted on principle much broader range of leftish opinion. Day and Gaido in - against the arms race... Paul Lensch spoke for the left in Chemnitz, since Luxem - clude (p.314ff) a review in 1906 by Otto Bauer of a book burg was absent through ill-health. “Imperialism drives the capitalist system to its highest on British imperialism by the liberal Gerhart von Schulze- stage; it is ready to make room for another system, the social - Like other speakers and writers from the left, he did not Gaevernitz. Schulze-Gaevernitz deplored imperialism as oppose arms-limitation agreements, or even rule out parlia - ist one...” (p.627-44). the policy of the “rentier state”. A series of analytic issues flickered on the edge of this sum - mentary initiatives by the SPD to “expose” the government mary, but Haase was not wrong to present it as commanding Bauer, a very mainstream figure in Social Democracy, took for not exploring such agreements. a wide consensus inside the Marxist movement. that assessment by Schulze-Gaevernitz as no more than ad - mitting the obvious, and used his review to flay Schulze- The debate shows us why Marxists like Lenin were so Continued on page 10 shocked when the German and other Social Democratic par - Gaevernitz on other grounds: that he failed to see that “the 810 FEATURE

From page 9 stream opposed colonialism, and Kautsky wrote a good pam - Democracy” (p.557). phlet against it in 1907, but tended to base its anti-imperialism Yet Lensch concluded his speech in 1912: “We are ap - more on the costs of the arms-race, the illusoriness of the ben - proaching a time of great mass struggles... If we extend our or - “By no means do I consider a temporary agreement be - efits promised by the imperialists to the metropolitan work - ganisation, our political education, if we prepare ourselves — tween two capitalist states on questions of armament policy to ing classes, and the dangers of war. then all we must do is be ready !” (p.649, emphasis added). be excluded... [but] here it is a question of an international Oddly, the same socialists sometimes neglectful of the re - Pannekoek, supporting Lensch, said that imperialist phe - agreement for general arms reduction. And I... certainly con - volt of the colonial peoples (as over Morocco in 1911) some - nomena “drive the masses to revolt and they revolutionise sider that to be utopian... times saw Japan as an “anti-imperialist” factor. Max Beer people’s minds... they... drive the masses into the streets... Our “Our task cannot be to correct world history’s homework wrote in 1902: “China may perhaps still have some hope of standpoint against imperialism means a very determined and say: ‘Dear world history, here is your work back! It’s becoming independent if it lets itself be guided by Japan”. In struggle, relentlessly and continually pursued in parliament swarming with mistakes...’ We must deal with capitalism as a footnote on the same page (p.278) Day and Gaido cite Radek but also... through actions of the masses themselves” (p.655). it is... as postulating Japan as an anti-imperialist force as late as 1922. But, as it turned out, this debate took place less than two “The counter-tendencies against imperialism are nothing Kautsky, in one of his 1914-5 articles speculating about possi - years before World War One broke out. The “ever and more other than counter-tendencies against capitalism as a whole - ble more benign paths for capitalist development, wrote of powerful demonstrations” which Pannekoek called for would namely socialism! Social Democracy!... the happy possibility that history would “amalgamate Japan not bring socialist revolution within that time. “We have no special weapons against [the arms race], only with China as a common people” (p.831). Socialists today Both left and mainstream tended to postulate a convulsive the great and simple slogans: agitate and organise!” minded to consider such powers as Iran as “anti-imperialist” collapse of capitalist authority as coming soon, but only mist - As far as I can judge, the SPD mainstream commanded a factors should taken note. ily. No-one could guarantee that the collapse would happen majority at Chemnitz. Its motion agreed that: “imperialism... The idea that imperialism signified a further, more ad - before the outbreak of war. Even it did happen, the SPD is a product of the capitalist economic system [and] can be vanced, “highest” stage of capitalist development, rather than would surely need more aggressive tactics than “ever and completely overcome along with it”. But “nothing must be an episodic policy, was more or less commonly agreed among more powerful demonstrations” to take power. left undone to lessen its dangerous effects”. Marxists by 1912, enough so to be written into the Chemnitz If the mainstream saw the left as saying “be more militant, “Marx and Engels”, declared Haase, “always rightly resolution. It got into the Chemnitz resolution thanks to ar - argue for socialism, and wait for the crisis to help us”, then warned us against embracing a fatalist conception of history... gument from the left. But Haase, and Liebknecht too, charged there was some justice in the perception. As there was also We cannot prevent every war, but we could in particular cases the left with being “fatalist” and “mechanistic”. justice in the left’s perception that the mainstream was say - check the destruction”. Bernstein, on the right wing of the SPD (but due to be ex - ing: “Yes, capitalism is heading to war. But who knows, there Karl Liebknecht, soon to be the tribune of internationalist pelled from the SPD in World War One because of his paci - might be other possibilities. Let’s see if we can win some opposition to the SPD’s capitulation in World War One, fistic rather than revolutionary opposition to Germany’s war) broad support by agitating for arms-limitation deals”. backed Haase, saying that Lensch and the left were “mecha - put the idea more sharply. A left liberal had said that he Despite saying again and again that they feared war soon, nistic”. According to Trotsky, at the time Lenin, observing “must approve the naval budget because it is a practical im - and despite the fact that debate had been fierce for over a year, from afar, agreed with Liebknecht rather than Lensch and perative”. “Some people actually uphold the same view when the left proposed no alternative to Haase’s motion at Chem - Luxemburg. they say, as the [left] just did, that on the basis of modern so - nitz. Lensch said: “it can only be a question of here of begin - The left had made important points in the 1911-2 debate, ciety the arms race is an absolute necessity”. It was the course ning the debate on imperialism, and the coming years will ideas of general importance which largely got lost in subse - of history? Well, “world history has often taken false paths” force us to discuss this issue often enough”. Pannekoek: “Nat - quent decades and have been rediscovered only painfully and (p.650-2). urally, this discussion can only be a preliminary debate” piecemeal by Marxists in recent times. The left, in response, developed an important idea from (p.645, 653). Radek said that the fact that a demand was “momentarily Marx: that “it is the bad side that produces the movement Quite likely the left feared that a motion of its own would very effective for agitation” - as he implicitly conceded the which makes history, by providing a struggle” ( Poverty of Phi - be heavily defeated, and the defeat would make it harder for SPD’s arms-limitation demand was - could not be decisive. losophy ). Capitalist development is progressive because it pro - them to get a hearing in subsequent debate. But that calcula - “Social Democrats must never adapt their agitation to the il - duces the struggle against capital of its gravediggers, the tion could have had great weight only if they did not really lusions of the masses... they must on the contrary, try to free working class. believe that the crises would come as soon as all that. them of all illusions by telling them in every action what is Marchlewski: “Imperialism means historical progress inso - And what did the mainstream think? Day’s and Gaido’s the case”. far as it is the political expression of a more developed form collection includes an citation by Radek from a 1911 polemic He further explained that socialists could consider partial of capitalism, and, in this sense — indeed, only in this sense in the mass-strike debate by Kautsky (not included in Grunen - arms-limitation agreements possible, and welcome them, — it is also to be developed by the working class. In the polit - berg’s collection mentioned above). Kautsky had written: “If without making such agreements their own demand. ical field, imperialism gives as sharp an expression to robbery the people see the cause of a war not in their own government In the first place, those agreements would be “just means of the people as the trusts do in the economic field” (p.310). but in the viciousness of their neighbours (and what govern - to put aside the smaller antagonisms in order to gather forces Lensch: “We fight against imperialist development by try - ment is not trying, with the help of its press, its parliament, its for the big battles”. More fundamentally, “were the proletariat ing to drive it beyond itself” (p.647). diplomats, to impress this idea upon the mass of the popula - of two countries to... work together for a ‘reconciliation’ of tion), under such circumstances... they all become first of all their imperialist governments, that could not happen without patriots, including the internationally minded, and if some in - the agreement being based on a common standpoint of the MASS ACTION dividuals had the superhuman courage to rebel against this... imperialist governments...” The “reconciliation” would be a Luxemburg (later, in the Junius pamphlet of 1915, not in - the government does not have to lift a finger to render them “yellow reform”, a reform which “leads away from the class cluded in Day’s and Gaido’s collection): “The capitalist harmless. The angry crowd would kill them itself” (p.613-4). struggle”. victory parade and all its works bear the stamp of The mainstream did not argue, and did not believe, that ag - Lensch argued that the imperialist arms race obliged social - progress in the historical sense only because they create itation for arms-limitation deals would stop war. But here ists to give up “old, comfortable, and easy” habits. They could the material preconditions for the abolition of capitalist they were, in a lead article in the SPD theoretical weekly Die no longer “praise the policy of foreign states in order to criti - domination and class society in general. And in this sense Neue Zeit , saying more or less explicitly that if war came, and cise more forcefully one’s own government”. imperialism ultimately works for us”. failed to arrange itself so conveniently that the war was small They could not endorse it when capitalist states made os - Anton Pannekoek argued that imperialism “places the and unpopular, then they would see no choice but to go along tensibly “purely defensive” agreements “on whose design we working class in a new fighting position. Earlier it could hope with it. had no influence, whose content we never know exactly and to progress slowly but surely... Today... its attack has been Both the mainstream and the left said, in effect, that war fully”. turned into a defence... Imperialism threatens the masses with was probable, and soon. Both had no answer other than to They could no longer say that they opposed “aggressive” new dangers and catastrophes... and whips them up into re - propose things which they admitted would not stop war — wars but might accept “defensive” wars. “Actually, capitalist sistance... But these phenomena... can only partially be fought agitation for arms-limitation deals, or mass actions — and to Europe is organised into two state-cartels ready to attack each against in parliament... Mass actions are therefore the natural hope for the best. other”, and when the time came, “nothing is easier than to consequence of the imperialist development of modern capi - Some socialists were thinking about the awkward, ugly provoke an adversary into an ‘aggressive’ war”. The working talism and increasingly constitute the necessary form of strug - questions of what they would do if war came. At the Stuttgart class must be what a later generation would call the Third gle against it” (p.895-6). congress of the international socialist movement in 1907, Camp, standing against all rival capitalist blocs. Pannekoek wrote that in another but linked debate in 1910- Lenin and Luxemburg had moved a successful addition to the The old idea that Russian Tsarism was so great a reac - 2 between the left and the mainstream in the socialist move - anti-war resolution: tionary power that defensive war against it by Germany must ment, the “mass strike debate”, about whether the SPD “In case war should break out anyway, it is their duty to in - be accepted had been rendered obsolete by the revolution of should push for escalating mass strikes or plod along in a tervene in favour of its speedy termination and with all their 1905. more cautious “strategy of attrition” ( Die Massenstreikdebatte , powers to utilise the economic and political crisis created by Mechanically copying what Marx or Engels wrote on for - ed. Antonia Grunenberg, Frankfurt 1970; bit.ly/mstrike). the war to rouse the masses and thereby to hasten the down - eign policy was now wrong. Those writings, “often published The left knew that to agitate for arms-limitation deals was fall of capitalist class rule”. anonymously in bourgeois journals”, were chiefly “written to to trifle and feed illusions, but it was groping for how to an - In Day’s and Gaido’s collection, debate about imperialism show bourgeois democracy the direction in which it should swer the mainstream’s charge of “fatalism” and “mechanis - is really almost always debate about the arms-race and the influence the course of events” so as best to speed the creation tic” thinking. Karl Radek explained that the struggle for war danger. Yet the collection shows that in the SPD (all the of solid bourgeois nation states in place of antique prince - socialism could not delay until after SPD agitation had grad - items collected are from German or Austrian debate, bar two doms and so “create the terrain for the struggle for socialism”. ually gathered a majority of opinion for the socialist cause. “A articles from France) the thought in Lenin’s and Luxemburg’s “It is questionable whether the proletariat would have actu - major part of the working class can get rid of their indiffer - adWdihtiyo nw reerme atihned B oonls the vfrikinsg desif foef rceonnts?c iIonu lsanregses. part, be - ally implemented the foreign policy advocated by Marx if it ence, their distrust in their own power, and become socialist, cause they had learned from conditions in Russia always had been an independent social force”, because then the only in the process of the struggle for power by the Social- to factor catastrophe, collapse, revolution, crisis into choices and priorities would have been different. Democratic workers, and... therefore, the road to power and their perspectives, as well as more or less steady evolu - The left also differentiated from the mainstream in its at - the struggle for power must not begin only after the over - tion. tention to the revolts of the colonial peoples. The SPD main - whelming majority gathers under the banner of Social 311 REPNOERWTS Unions must fight to win on council pay NHS pay fight By a local tance, to many that money Secondly union members By a health worker government worker in your hand now is the and the employers need to difference between buying know that the unions mean The government have Council workers receive your children shoes this business. Unions, at branch the lowest pay in the term or next. and national levels, need continued their attacks public sector, and have Unions need to realise war chests to finance sus - on the NHS by an - faced an 18% decline in that action needs to be tained action. Having strike nouncing a zero cost- pay over the last eight taken months before the funds lets workers know of-living pay rise for years, with below infla - pay offer date, not talking the union will support the majority of health tion pay rises and three up action in the final them in taking action, and workers and a meagre years with no increase at month. shows the employers the 1% only for those on all. So how do we get out of unions are in the fight to the top of their pay band. Workers have faced this impasse? win. The Independent Firstly, the unions Workers’ union of Great some of the worst cuts in Even this 1% only ap - services, with some coun - claim for a flat rate increase and Scotland regions of should start a serious cam - Britain (IWGB) strike at the paign now for targeted in - University of London, plies to basic pay, not cils having seen 30% cuts of at least £1.20 per hour. Unison voted to oppose the unsocial hours or over - since 2010, while the cost of So, at last, unions have an - deal and to strike, but the dustrial action with proper which used strike pay to fi - strike pay from day one. If nance 48-hour strikes, time payments. Health services are increasing due nounced a dispute, and this majority of union members workers have endured to increase in cost of eld - has brought the LGA back voted to accept. the employers are to be shows how strike funds pushed into making an can be effective on a local many years of zero or erly care and services to to the negotiating table, By allowing the employ - less than inflation pay support the vulnerable agreeing to meet unions on ers, year after year, to make offer better than 1%, they level. need to know the plan is Finally, whatever hap - rises, leaving all ordi - being in greater demand. 20 March (instead of 1 an offer at the eleventh nary health workers Unions like Unison and May as planned). hour, or, as with last year, more creative than one day pens this year, next year’s of action, and that action claim and strategy need to struggling and poverty GMB should be taking a But, as with last year, this to propose action after the pay a reality for many. stand against another year feels like too little, too late. pay rise was actually could actually hit the run - be planned to deliver ac - ning of council services like tion well before the pay The argument that re - of pay cuts planned by Last year, union mem - due, risks members accept - ducing pay means more local government employ - bers reluctantly accepted ing whatever is offered be - street cleaning, IT services, risAe idsi sdpuue.t e needs to be money for services won’t ers. the miserable 1% offer, but cause they have no choice. or parking inspection. A in place in the Autumn, be taken seriously. This The Local Government this was only paid in Sep - A low-paid worker on week-long action by park - and action planned in the comes from a govern - Association, the employers’ tember (five months later not much more than mini - ing inspectors where they Winter, using creative ment who have cut and body, has so far failed to than the 1 April date for mum wage needs the pay refused to issue fines targeted action as well as even make an offer in re - our annual pay award). rise on 1 April, and even if would be hugely popular all-out action, and with a undermined the NHS, sponse to the unions’ joint The North West, London, the employer offers a pit - with the public and would strike fund from the start. increasing workload and hit the council’s finances. reducing patient care, in a drive to privatise health care for the bene - fit of the rich. Tories seek to ruin civil service union Their other argument that those not receiving cost of living pay are get - By a PCS activist ting incremental pay most of its members on the mended that: “Councils rises so will get an uplift Tory Minister Francis check off system, and the should charge for collecting is equally insulting. In - Maude, who has respon - only one which shows any union subscriptions, or end crements are annual in - sibility for the civil serv - genuine opposition to the the practice completely.” creases, linked to ice, has asked all civil government’s policies of With this advance notice performance, which service departments to slash and burn. the PCS leadership should build up to the full pay consider ending “check Right-wing Tories simply have spotted the attack and for the job at the top of off”, the system by which want to smash up PCS’s prepared for it well before the band. The govern - cash flow by ending the now. Unison should be union members pay their ment are stating the pay check off within a short preparing for future attacks. dues directly from their offer next year will mir - space of time so that PCS Ahead of any departmen - salary. ror this year’s unless the struggles to transfer its tal decisions to end check incremental pay system Having asked depart - members to payment by di - off PCS is now, belatedly, is renegotiated. The gov - ments once, and seemingly rect debit. It is a clear anti- seeking to move its mem - ernment is fully aware of not got the answers he union move, of a piece with bers to direct debit pay - chronic inequality in Britain that is being made harder how potentially divisive wanted, he is pressing the Tories’ efforts since the ment. It has written to every today, rising workplace and harder to access and this might be amongst again. It is a move which is late 1970s to break trade stress illnesses, and the navigate). Labour and Liberal MP ask - health workers. designed to financially unionism in Britain, busting huge managerial authority Ending check off for the ing them to oppose the end - Unite have already an - harm PCS, by far the largest whole industries if need be. in the workplace (increas - civil service may not have ing of check off by any nounced they will of the civil service unions, The consequence of this ingly mirrored by an em - the “drama” of deliberately Department. the only one which has class-war policy is the ployment tribunal system engineering disputes to cow PCS is right to demand ballot. Unison have is - or break unions, as that Liberal MPs oppose the sued a weak statement, Thatcher did, but the in - ending of check off, but saying this shows the SOAS cleaners to strike again tended result is the same. there needs to be a clear and government needs to go The Tories also have their public demand on Clegg and government should By Ira Berkovic eyes on public-sector union that the Liberals in Cabinet conform to the PRB rec - contractual sick pay, and Unison. If a Tory govern - refuse to go along with at - ommendation. The issue Cleaning workers at the pension scheme as di - ment ends check off in the tempts to financially ruin will no doubt be at the School of African and rectly-employed staff. civil service, then Tory-run trade unions and intimidate fore at Unison’s forth - Oriental Studies (SOAS) Workers are not satisfied local authorities could do them from campaigning for coming Health confer - with the progress made in central London will the same for Unison. members and services by enAcec t(i1v4i-s1t6s Ampursilt) .sub - since the 4-5 March strike, strike again on 21 March. In March 2013, the De - threatening their member - mit and support emer - so will walk out again for partment for Local Govern - shPipC iSn cnoomwe .n eeds to gency motions calling 24 hours on 21 March. The workers, who are ment and Communities put focus membership cam - for a programme of ac - members of Unison, struck Pickets will be mounted out a shabby piece of work paigning around this tion that aims to win, on 4-5 March. They are from 4am at the school’s under the Orwellian title of issue and the TUC needs rather than allowing employed by private central buildings in Thorn - “Taxpayer funding of trade to ensure that not a single the leadership to cleaning contractor ISS, haugh Street, Russell unions: Delivering sensible union is allowed to be ru - and are demanding the Square. grandstand with to - More: bit.ly/j4c-soas savings in local govern - ined by the Tories. kenistic action. same holiday entitlement, ment”, which recom - No 317 19 March 2014 Solidarity 30p/80p Stop starving the NHS!

By James O’Brien flected in the NHS itself. tal contracts. final Parliamentary stage), The new pay settlement A firm with a close advi - NHS England will give the government in the health service has sor to the Tories has made has just adver - sweeping powers to close denied 615,000 NHS staff £2.6 million from the health tised for compa - and part-close hospitals a 1% pay rise this year. service in 10 months by fill - nies to compete without full local consulta - They will receive their ing vacancies in the new for £5 billion of tion. In London a third of usual annual increments Clinical Commissioning such work, plac - Accident and Emergency in 2014-15 but nothing Groups set up under the ing a handful of departments are under else. Health and Social Care Act. private compa - threat. Tory MP Nadhim Zahawi nies at the centre We are now in the run- A further 550,000 staff has been a non-executive of the health sys - up to a general election and will get a 1% rise for each director of the recruitment tem. Capita, G4S, many Tory and Lib-Dem of the next two years but as firm SThree since 2008, and Serco and the MPs in marginal con - monthly additional pay - earns £2,917 a month for rest will be ad - stituencies will be under ments alongside their seven hours work. This is vising on the pressure over local hospi - salary. the man who last Decem - commissioning tals and services. Labour’s ber said child benefit and of services — of Andy Burnham has prom - This game of Tory divide Lobby of Parliament against Clause 119 and rule is estimated to tax credits should be taken which they ised to repeal the Health save just £200 million from away from families after themselves are and Social Care Act. But the NHS budget this year. they have two children. major providers. will Labour reverse the Its real intention is to fur - The NHS is slowing Much of it is as a result Under the new system, All Trusts are cutTs?here is both and op - ther attack the pay and being starved to death by of the end of “transitional clinical commissioning now obliged to get “best portunity and a responsi - conditions of NHS work - combined process of cuts, support” from strategic groups (CCGs) have been value” contracts for all bility here to build a ers. reforms and privatisations. health authorities, which placed in charge of around their services. Millions are renewed community and Because despite what the More than a third of hos - were abolished under the £70 billion, representing being wasted on this ten - labour movement cam - Coalition claims, there is pital trusts are predicting new legislation. Many of more than two-thirds of the dering process. paigns; campaigns which plenty of money going deficits at the end of this fi - these trusts would have NHS budget. These GP-led All this at a time when can mobilise to defend around. Bankers’ bonuses nancial year. The net total been in a similar financial bodies have been pushed NHS is being forced to hospitals before the gov - worldwide are 29% higher forecast deficit of the 141 situation in 2012-13 with - to spend precious re - making £20 billion effi - ernment has a chance to than a year, with even trusts is £373.1 million — a out the bail-out funding sources on private compa - ciency savings. close them down. With - larger increases in the City rapid deterioration from they received to stabilise nies to advise them on And the meantime, out such a campaign we of London. The divide be - the £700 million net sur - them; now that safety net buying care, drug purchas - clause 119 of the Care Bill cannot save the NHS. tween rich and poor is re - plus last year. has been removed. ing and negotiating hospi - (which has just past its Teachers will strike on 26 March By Charlotte Zeleus ently. of action designed to win We need to address some A special meeting of the The idea that unions the dispute or force signifi - of the core issues such as National Executive of the have to choose between ac - cant concessions. Public national pay, pension age National Union of Teach - tion and talking is a non - campaigning, street stalls, and excessive workload. To ers has confirmed a na - sense. The NUT have been rallies and meetings needs restore national pay rates, tional strike will take to all the talks and will con - to be backed up with a seri - reduce the unsustainable place on 26 March. tinue to attend while they ous industrial strategy. workload, and ensure that take strike action on 26 This continues to be the these things apply to all Unfortunately, the other March. The refusal of other only way to revive the dis - state-funded schools, it will main teaching union, the teacher unions to co-ordi - pute and give real hope to be necessary to draw up a NASUWT, has decided not nate with the biggest or - the tens of thousands of clear set of demands. to strike on the pretext that ganisation is the biggest teachers who will strike on A fight for a national it wants to give talks with help Gove could hope for 26 March. contract, campaigned for the Department for Educa - But what happens after The attacks on teachers with teachers and the pub - tion a chance. The small 26 March? A well-sup - by government have in - lic, could become a tool for Welsh-speaking union ported strike may force the creased since the 2011 pen - breathing new energy and UCAC also pulled out of NASUWT to reconsider sions proposals. There have clarity into a long-running their position? Whether been changes to national the action with the same dispute. excuse. the retirement age to 69, The union has conducted this dispute involves both pay arrangements and the The NUT Executive will But the Department for and the end of final salary two surveys in the last two unions or just the NUT, huge expansion of acade - meet again on 3 April to Education have made it pensions and automatic an - weeks to measure support however, it cannot win or mies. The NUT and the start discussion on the next very clear that these will nual pay progression, are for the strike; the survey of produce really significant other teacher unions need not deal with the issues at not up for discussion. 10,000 members showed concessions on the basis of to be clear what they are steps in the campaign; it the heart of the teachers’ Unsurprisingly NUT Ex - very strong support for the very occasional one day demanding. will put a priority motion dispute. They will only dis - ecutive concluded was that strike. strikes. Some useful work has to the union’s conference at cuss the implementation of there had been minimal The recommendation Since 2012 the Local As - been done to develop de - EaWster .need to make sure policies, and “policies progress in talks and cer - from national officers was sociations National Action mands which would solid strategy is put on which have already been tainly nothing to justify the that the strike proceed and Campaign has argued for stretch the talks on imple - the agenda at Easter. determined”. The raising of suspension of the strike. no-one argued any differ - an escalating programme mentation.