& Workers’ Liberty

SoFor lsociail owdnership oaf the banrks anid indtustry y No 524 6 November 2019 — general election campaign issue 50p/£1 Special general election VOTE LABOUR issue Featuring briefing pa - pers on the big issues, designed for voters not regularly involved in political debate. The briefings are: THEN REMAIN » Why socialism? » Scrap anti-union laws! » The EU: Remain and Push for socialist policies transform » Why free movement? » Housing is a right! » Restore the NHS! » A National Education Service » A Socialist Green New Deal » Why public ownership? » Replace Universal Credit! » High finance: Take back control! » Johnson’s Trump- Brexit » Why not tactical voting?

» Labour and antisemitism » The Berlin Wall and socialism 2 More online at www.workersliberty.org Bakhshi and Gholian freed from jail

From the Shahrokh Zamani Sepideh Gholian (left) and Esmail Action Committee Bakhshi after being released on bail

smail Bakhshi, a leader of the Ha ft Tappeh sugar cane work - Eers in Iran, and Sepideh Gholian, an activist who supported the work - ers’ dispute, have been released from jail. They were sentenced in Septem - ber – to 14 years and 18 years re - spectively — on all sorts of trumped up charges, including en - dangering “national security” and “the Islamic system”. Because they put up resistance while in jail, Sepideh’s brother was arrested in January and Esmail’s mother in February! Then in Au - gust Sepideh’s defence lawyer was threatened with arrest. Now they have temporary re - leases on the basis of eye-watering “bail” payments, with the money raised through putting up the deeds to houses and so on. Sepi - deh’s bail is 1.5 billion tomans (about £300,000) and Esmail’s 750 million tomans (about £150,000) Yet they could be back in jail at any charges against them and all Haft its are made. Right now there are 1988), became the Chief Justice in jail for nearly 190 days and her time. Tappeh supporters to be dropped attempts to break-up the Haft March 2019. He has made a big court hearing is on 13 November. The temporary releases have • All of their fired workmates to Tappeh land, which includes huge show of fighting corruption, in - There also many teachers in jail, been won by a combination of soli - be reinstated and the three remain - plantations of sugar cane, and to cluding corruption within the including Esmail Abdi, Moham - darity action and struggles by the ing workmates be released sell it off. regime’s judiciary (e.g., declaring mad Habibi and Mahmoud Be - Haft Tappeh workers themselves. • Privatisation to be revoked, the that 60 unnamed judges had taken heshti Langeroudi. The embassies and consulates of company to be taken over by the TIMING bribes). In the past six months hundreds the regime have been picketed in state and supervised by independ - Still, these are basically token ac - of labour and other types of ac - many European countries. There The exact timing of the releases, ent representatives of the Haft therefore, might be due to possible tions against some officials, and tivists have been summoned, ar - have been letters, petitions, social Tappeh workers or the workers’ co- they are treated very leniently com - rested and jailed. In total their media campaigns and so on by conflicts within the regime and operative. how its elite responds to these bla - pared to workers and political ac - sentences include 1027 years in cus - many exiled Iranian opposition It should also be mentioned that tivists. tody and 1500 lashes. groups and their supporters in the tant violations. The fact that capi - protesting workers involved in talists get away with colossal Of the around 50 people arrested There are other strikes and international labour movement. other struggles can often be seen on May Day 2019 all – except Neda protests being planned as the work - Most importantly, the Haft corruption – while workers are with placard bearing slogans like jailed and tortured over their basic Naji – have now been released. To ing class regains its confidence. For Tappeh workers have not given up. “Thieves go free, workers end up in begin with she was in Evin Prison example, on Sunday 10 November On 24 October, the 32nd day of demands – is now in the open. jail!” Ebrahim Raisi, who has held var - and then after being interrogated pensioners from across the country their latest strike, their demands Privatisation often is the means was transferred to Gharchak. Then will be demonstrating outside the were: ious positions in the judiciary (in - through which asset-striping is cluding a high position during the after being beaten up there she was Majles and the Pla▉nning and • the release of Esmail Bakhshi done and other types of quick prof - sent back to Evin. She has been in Budget Organisation. and Mohammad Khanifar, and all execution of political prisoners in Bernie Sanders backed by America’s Muslims

Linda Sarsour, a leader of the ident in the history of this country.” Israel to exist, but the right to exist raelis and Palestinians. As Israel is Sanders Women’s March, and newly elected He then went on to explain what in peace and security. That’s not a currently the stronger side, and as congresswomen Ilhan Omar and being Jewish means to him, and it question.” the lives of Palestinians – especially campaign Rashida Tlaib, have endorsed him is by understanding his message The crowd roared its approval. in Gaza – have become unbearable, By Eric Lee and gone out to campaign for him. that we can grasp why Sanders’ And then he continued, saying that it is natural to take the Palestinian So far, there is little to distinguish campaign has been able to success - he also believes that “the Palestin - side. But as the Corbyn-led Labour his success from that of left politi - fully bridge the divide between the ian people have a right to live in Party has discovered in the last n recent months, Bernie Sanders cians in the UK and elsewhere who two communities. peace and security as well”, adding couple of years, this can open the has become an enormously pop - have also reached out with some “As a people who have suffered that it is not “antisemitism to say door to a rise of antisemitism on the Iular politician among Muslim success to Muslim communities. for century after century, not to that the Netanyahu government left, and a weakening of the party Americans. But as one journalist recently mention the horrors of the Holo - has been racist.” overall. He was one of only two Demo - pointed out, “a 78-year-old Jewish caust in which my father’s family The Sanders campaign shared It didn’t have to be that way. cratic presidential candidates to ad - socialist from Brooklyn isn’t an ob - was wiped out, as were many of that video widely because it sums Sanders is both pro-Palestinian dress the Islamic Society of North vious favourite among Muslim your families, if there is any people up so clearly his message of build - and pro-Israel. He understands the America Convention in August, the Americans, whose relations with on Earth who understands the dan - ing alliances against the racists and needs of both sides for peace and largest annual gathering of Muslim US Jews have often been compli - ger of racism and white national - antisemites, for Jewish-Arab recon - security. His is a vision that is Americans in the country. He is the cated by differences over the Is - ism, it is certainly the Jewish ciliation, and for a vision of better, rooted in the universalist tradition first major presidential candidate to raeli-Palestinian conflict.” people,” he said. fairer, more equal society for all. of the socialist movement. And it is appoint a Muslim, Faiz Shakir, as In a video released by Sanders He then applied his view to the There are lessons here, I think, for not only doing the right thing his campaign manager. He was the last week, he addressed a progres - most contentious of all issues – the left politicians in Britain and else - morally but as his popularity first American politician to visit a sive Jewish audience, drawing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “As a where. among both Muslims and Jews mosque after the attacks on Mus - cheers when he said “I am very kid I spent many months on a kib - Most seem to think that the are show▉s, it is a winning message as lims in New Zealand. Prominent proud to be Jewish and look for - butz in Israel,” he said. “I believe obligated to choose sides in the well. Muslim Americans including ward to being the first Jewish pres - absolutely not only in the right of decades-old conflict between Is - Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 3 Free our unions!

We struggle at the workplace so Rebellion cost the economy around we can have a say in those deci - £12 million — but a single day’s Briefing sions. There are good reasons strike on the Tube would hit the bosses and right-wing govern - London economy by £300 million. s long as there have been capi - ments fear strong union organisa - No wonder the laws forbid work - talists (employers running tion and seek to attack unions’ ers taking political action to save Abusiness for private profit) and ability to organise. Across the the planet. workers, there has been a struggle world and across history, trade The laws also make it difficult to between them. union struggles and mass strikes organise even around our work - About how long the working day have brought down dictators, place issues. In summer 2018, civil is. About how much we’re paid. stopped wars, and won voting servants voted by a huge majority About how hard we’re made to rights. They dismantled racist to strike for better pay, with over work. apartheid in South Africa. 50,000 voting yes to just 8,000 As bosses squeezed workers to Until 1829 unions were com - against. But under the 2016 law get more profit out of us, workers pletely illegal in Britain. Unions ac - they could not hold a lawful strike, organised to fight back. An individ - quired more or less reliable legal because the number voting either ual worker has little power, but rights to take effective action only way was (just) under 50%. (Ballot when we organise collectively into after more decades of struggle, in papers must by law be distributed trade unions we can force conces - 1906. by post, not in the workplace, and sions from the bosses. Since 1980 the Conservatives people forget, lose the papers, When workers in a workplace, have turned the clock back. The move house, feel too unsure to an industry, or a trade group to - 2016 Trade Union Act was the latest vote, etc.) in a long line of laws introduced to The laws also delay workers tak - gether in an organisation (with reg - unions, and strike days, to historic union movement can rebuild itself. undermine the power of unions. ing industrial action. Postal ballots, ular meetings, subscriptions, lows. That is the main reason for so Defeating the anti-union laws is an These laws are intended to weaken “cooling off” periods and red tape elected representatives, and so on), many workers these days enduring essential part of that. the resistance of working people so around notifying employers mean that is called a trade union. long hours, precarious work and We call for the complete and the capitalists have more power. many disputes run out of steam or Trade unions are how we won high levels of in-work poverty. rapid repeal of all anti-union laws And, on the whole, so far, since time before lawful action can be weekends, pensions, sick pay. They Freedom for workers to organise and for strong legal rights for 1980, they have done exactly that. taken. So the main active union have won changes in the law to will hugely increase our power to workers to join, recruit to and be person in your workplace can be bring in health and safety protec - rein in profiteering corporations; to represented by a union. It should UNLAWFUL sacked, and you’re legally banned tions and end child labour. reduce the scandalously high level be a basic human and legal right for from doing anything about it until The struggle for power at the Now the anti-union laws make it of workplace deaths, injuries and workers to strike at times and for it’s too late. workplace is about more than pay unlawful to strike for wider politi - illnesses; to fight inequalities; and demands of their own choosing, in - The years of Tory rule, and Tony and working conditions. It is about cal and social issues. On climate to confront the threat of climate cluding in solidarity with any other Blair’s refusal to repeal Tory anti- who wields power over some of so - change, school strikers have called change. workers and for broader social and union laws, have driven down lev - ▉ ciety’s most important decisions: on workers to take action alongside Unions have gone through political goals. els of workplace organisation in What are we going to make? How them. And some workers have. But downturns and defeats and risen terms of number of trade union are we going to make it? And who strictly speaking it was illegal. again in the past, in many times representatives, membership of will benefit from our work? Week-long protests by Extinction and many countries. Britain’s trade

The EU: Remain and transform Labour for a Socialist Europe (L4SE) has decided to organise an effort in the coming general tees for trade union freedoms at A banking system has immense election for a pro-Remain, pro- Briefing work — a guaranteed right to power to shape the economy socialist-Europe, left-wing unionise and strike, so that we can through where it decides to invest voice within the Labour cam - secure and enforce better pay and and lend — or, through short-term paign. ome significant workers’ rights conditions. All the changes we profit-driven decisions, to plunge want in Europe depend on the everyone into financial crises. L4SE has produced leaflets and are in EU law, such as the TUPE will produce other materials for regulations that protect some of our labour movements and left linking The climate emergency is inter - S up across borders. national. It cannot be tackled coun - Labour activists to use on street contract terms when we are trans - stalls and on the doorstep. ferred between employers. We want to defend, and try-by-country. strengthen where they already We want to defend the EU’s ex - L4SE was part of the push for a We want strengthening of these Remain policy at Labour confer - rights and new ones too. We de - exist, basic political rights includ - isting environmental regulations ing freedom of expression, freedom and strengthen them in many ence on 21-25 September, and mand Europe-wide rules for safe, worked closely with the Labour healthy workplaces free from dis - of belief, freedom of the press, free - places. We also want a transition dom of association and the right to coordinated on a European scale: to Campaign for Free Movement crimination and mistreatment, and there for the victory there for de - a legally enforced shorter working privacy, as Europe-wide rules. break the death-grip of fossil fuel We fight also for the extension capital and retool the economy to fending and extending free week with no loss of pay. movement. The economic integration of the and levelling up of social rights and run on a carbon-neutral or even equality. We want strong anti-dis - carbon-negative basis. L4SE produced independent EU has produced some “levelling- pro-Labour, anti-Brexit publicity up” of wages. The gap between crimination laws across the EU. We want Europe to take its en - We want serious taxes on the in - ergy industry into public owner - for the Euro-elections in May Spanish wages, or Polish wages, 2019. and German wages, is smaller now comes, properties, businesses, prof - ship. It must put the workers in Europe is currently run mainly L4SE has been fighting to than when Spain or Poland joined its and inheritances of the rich, to control, democratically, alongside by committees of ministers from its stop Brexit and build a socialist the EU. But that process is slow and create a sizeable EU budget to be the communities they serve. member governments, surrounded resistance to the right-wing uncertain. used for levelling-up. Regressive Freedom of movement across by a bureaucracy, with the Parlia - forces and ideas driving it ever We want to level up wages across taxes like VAT, which take a bigger borders within Europe is one of the ment comparatively weak and since it was launched from the Europe, and to work toward a com - proportionate slice from the poor - great boons of the EU. We want Eu - toothless. We want to make the Another Europe is Possible mon mandatory living wage. We est, should be scrapped in favour of rope also to welcome and accom - EU’s executive institutions ac - conference in December 2018. fight also to level up social security. progressive taxes for income redis - modate refugees fleeing countable and subordinate to a sov - Tony Blair boasted that Britain tribution. persecution, violence and destruc - ereign European Parliament, fully •labourforasocialisteurope.org had (thanks to Margaret Thatcher) We want the banking system, tion. It should open not just its in - empowered over the Union’s af - high finance, and major utilities ternal borders, but its external “the most restrictive trade union fairs. This issue will have a longer taken into public ownership and borders, to the free movement of laws anywhere in the western Beyond reforms to the existing life than usual. Solidarity 525 placed under democratic control, in people, and grant amnesty to those world”. Actually the laws in some European Parliament, we propose will be out on 20 November, each country and across the conti - already living in Europe but lack - East European countries are worse. a democratic and▉ federal United not 13 November. We want Europe-wide guaran - nent. ing documentation. States of Europe. 4 Email your letters to [email protected] Taking the illiberal side?

Saving the planet is not a “culture war.” Andrew Murray addressing a One might further add that if Mr Murray meeting of Solidarity with the Anti- Antidoto is warning against taking the “liberal side” in fascist resistance in Ukraine, a this so-called “culture war”, then – presum - group supporting Russian ably – he wants Labour to take the “illiberal” separatism and the annexation of By Jim Denham side, or at least to declare neutrality between Crimea the “liberal” and the “illiberal”. Guardian ndrew Murray, one of Jeremy Corbyn’s In his words to the Mr Murray key advisers, gave a “rare interview” to doesn’t spell out exactly what he means by the Guardian on 30 October in which he “liberal”, but in his recently published book A The Fall and Rise of the British Left warned against Labour taking the “liberal , Mr Murray side” of the “culture war” around Brexit and attacked “rancid identity politics, ‘othering’, “warned that the campaign to stop Brexit has on the basis of race, nationalist education, ge - increasingly become a form of identity poli - ography or a potpourri of assumed values.” tics.” He has denounced what he calls then Mr Murray, it should be noted, was until “Brexit Derangement Syndrome” that – al - 2016 a senior member of the Communist legedly – infects all those opposed to leaving Party of Britain (CPB) and has been one of the the EU. In reality, of course, the most virulent “four Ms” (together with fellow Stalinist Se - form of “identity politics” around at the mo - umas Milne, plus Karie Murphy, and Len ment is the repeated bleatings from self-pro - McCluskey) actively promoting pro-Brexit claimed “pro-working-class” leavers about lines in tune with the CPB within the top bu - loss of a “somewhere” identity (David Good - reaucracy of the Labour Party. hart), about “rootless cosmopolitans” (the They have failed largely because of the sinister phrase used by Paul Embery) and overwhelmingly anti-Brexit sentiment of about how British workers are being ignored Morn - Labour’s rank and file, and because even by a “well-funded” pro-remain “elite” ( ing Star these long-standing anti-EU manoeuvrers re - ). alised it might look a bit bad for Labour to In other words, white people who object to multi-cultural Britain and think being “work - simply follow the CPB into openly backing campaign unfortunately gives no warrant for The first is Mr Murray in The Fall and Rise the Tories over Brexit. ing class” means having reactionary views on a swathe of issues from women’s rights to a Lexit position, because it was dominated by of the British Left ; the second is the far-right According to the New Statesman in October this alliance of xenophobic nationalists and French historian, Éric Zemmour, a favourite 2018, in high-level Labour meetings Mr Mur - immigration. These workerist poseurs conveniently ig - Thatcherite utopians. And they set the tone.” of the most extreme elements (around Mar - ray advocated supporting May’s deal, but he What Mr Murray can’t bring himself to ion Maréchal Le Pen) of the semi-fascist RN quickly backed down. nore the fact that a clear majority of real-life UK workers (i.e.: people in full time or part admit is that “the tone” he abhors is an inher - party (formerly the National Front). What of this Brexit “culture war” and the ent part of the pro-Brexit cause – and of his But then, is it a surprise that someone who “identity politics” warned against by Mur - time work) voted remain in 2016, as did all but one (Birmingham – by a tiny margin) of own politics. supports Putin on Ukraine and is on record ray? Compare the following two quotes: (in 2003) expressing solidarity with “People’s Well, first of all it’s clear that Mr Murray is the overwhelmingly working-class cities of Britain: Bristol, Liverpool, London, Glasgow • “… the preference for individual rights North Korea”(sic) should hold “personal accusing the remain side – and not leavers – over the collective, which has come to pre - identity and human rights” in disdain? And of this. The claim that the remain case boils and Manchester. The pseudo-”left” Brexiteers ignore all this: ponderate on much of the Western left, a why the hell would anyone in their right down to a “culture war” was promptly and flowering of the more poisonous seeds of the mind want to live under something calling it - effectively answered in a tweet from Another in their narrow, outmoded concept of who is – and isn’t – “working class” white, anti-im - politics of personal identity and human self “socialism” on that basis? Europe Is Possible’s Michael Chessum: rights.” Culture wars, Mr Murray? No, it’s a class People’s jobs are not a “culture war.” migrant reactionaries predominate. Actually, Mr Murray, who is not a fool, • “Human rights universalism prevents us war: educated, class-conscious workers Workers’ rights are not a “culture war.” from defending ourselves in the name of a against overpaid Stalinist bureaucrats like The future of the NHS is not a “culture knows at least some of this. He admits to the ▉ Guardian short-sighted individualism that does not see you! war.” : “I personally voted leave, but the leave that it is not individuals who are in question Migrants’ rights are not a “culture war.” but rather great masses of people…” Arabs Jews, and Socialism Extra lessons? The socialist debate in the Why “top” one per cent? 1980s and 90s on Israel and Palestine, and development of Workers’ Liberty’s ideas . It is clear the principal class division in the world is between the 5% and the 95% not Letters the 1% and the 99%. The 95% have virtually Letters £5 cover price, £6.20 nothing in common with the “poorest” 4.4% inc. postage. of the capitalist class. wish people would stop talking about It should be obvious that a world run in tephen Wood ( Solidarity 523) misunder - “the top 1%” or the “1% v the 99%.” Why the interests of such a small fraction of the stands my suggestion of additional les - Audio of Solidarity Ishould they be regarded as being “the top”? world’s population must inevitably be Ssons on feminism for those primary school They are a completely useless parasitic layer deeply inimical to the interests of the great children who are forced to wear the hijab to on society. Billionaires have not “earned” or majority, and we see that great majority school. Many thanks to the volunteers “created” their wealth. being wracked by wars, destruction, death, I offered as a suggestion not because I who have enabled us to pro - It would take someone earning a median poverty, starvation, disease, ill health, pre - thought the child needed more education, wage of £25,000 40,000 years to make £1 bil - carious existence and low life expectancy. but because it was a sanction which didn’t duce an audio version of the lion, assuming they paid no taxes and spent The 95% don’t need to play on any divi - punish the child, but that the parents or com - paper. none of their money on essentials such as sions or antagonisms within the capitalist munity who were forcing the child to wear Links to the audio version are food, shelter and clothing. class. We have the numbers, we now need the hijab would likely be opposed to. I am According to the OECD in 2012 the top organisation and a communist political pro - not wedded to the suggestion and do not at workersliberty.org/audio, and 0.6% of world population (consisting of gramme to effect a comprehensive and think that you need to have a solution to can be found through many adults with more than US$1 million in as - forcible political, economic and social revo - support a ban of the hijab for children in pri - sets) or the 42 million richest people in the lution, to place the world’s wealth, resources mary schools. podcast providers: search world held 39.3% of world wealth. The next and means of production under the demo - However, comrades asked how we might 4.4% (311 million people) held 32.3% of “Workers’ Liberty” or “Solidarity cratic owne▉rship of the working people of implement a ban▉. This was a suggestion in world wealth. The bottom 95% held 28.4% the world. response to that. & More”. Email awl@worker - of world wealth. So, the top 5% held 71.6% Andrew Northall, Kettering David Pendletone sliberty.org for e-reader ver - of world wealth. sions of Solidarity . Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 5 Regrouping the left

Credit: James Mitchell Editorial

leven years on from 2008, inequality is spiralling, the signs are that we’re head - Eing for another crash, and mainstream ruling- class politics is veering away from neo-liberalism only towards the nationalist right. The working classes of the world need a political movement which fights for social - ism as working-class self-emancipation, as a full-scale change of society to social owner - ship and democratic control of productive wealth. It needs socialists who focus on agitating and educating positively for socialist ideas, not merely on nay-saying and reactive oppo - sition to day-to-day bourgeois policies. Who fight for consistent democracy and accountability, and a culture of free speech and open debate, both in the labour move - ment today and for society in the future. Who are consistently democratic and inter - nationalist on an international level, arguing Labour Party in Britain, and the Syriza move - show both the potential and the limitations. even opposing forces. for open borders, free movement, and self- ment in Greece. The votes for free movement, for radical poli - In the British Labour Party today, for exam - determination for all nations. On Brexit, that But those have had their limitations, or cies on climate change, and for the repeal of ple, for some, the key metric is not whether means a fight to “Remain and Rebel”, resist - even, in Greece, capitulations. The sober fact all the anti-unions at the recent Labour con - you are for workers’ power, social owner - ing the drive to break up the EU on the basis is that the decade since the crash has seen the ference showed the appetite at the grassroots ship, and radical democracy – but how vig - of nationalist reaction (while also, of course, left remain marginal, and right-wing, “iden - of the party for a transformative political pro - orously you defend Chris Williamson against opposing neoliberalism in the EU as else - titarian” nationalist forces grow and gramme. accusations of antisemitism. where). It means a consistent advocacy of the strengthen. Beyond the left, the wider labour The brazen insistence since the conference We have self-proclaimed leftists who back right to self-determination of all national movements are also weak. Almost every - of Labour leaders considered to be left-wing, Brexit, or even Johnson’s or “no-deal” ver - groups (a two-state settlement in where, workers’ industrial struggles is at a and even with a left-wing past, that they will sions of Brexit. Or who focus their efforts on Israel/Palestine, guaranteeing an equal right low ebb – in the case of Britain, at an all-time ignore the vote in favour of free movement, policy-adviser jobs, think-tanks, and NGOs, to self-determination for Israeli Jews and low. and continue to pursue an immigration pol - and inside the Labour Party put “support for Palestinian Arabs, and self-determination for History has never guaranteed the easy ar - icy based on work visas, highlights an ongo - the leadership” above all else. Who oppose oppressed national groups such as the Kurds, rival of working-class confidence as and ing democratic deficit. Likewise their refusal free movement. Who give credence to, or Western Sahrawis, Tamils, Hong Kongers, when we wish for it. No serious socialist to promote socialistic “Green New Deal” even promote, conspiracy theories, some - Uyghurs, Tibetans, and others). today can take any but a long view on our policies voted through by the conference. times antisemitic conspiracy theories. Who The main political beneficiaries of the con - work of transforming society. In the era of high Stalinism, it was surely support some or all of Xi Jinping, Putin, sequences and echoes of the 2008 financial misleading to regard “the left” as a single Hamas, Hezbollah, and Assad. crash have been far-right nationalist move - MINORITY spectrum, debating sharply maybe, but There is also a “left” based on demagogy, ments of various kinds: Trump in the USA, Yet there are things that the socialist minority within a largely shared framework. The Stal - personality-cultism, and conspiracy-theorist Modi in India, Putin in Russia, Orban in can change now and at will. It is urgent we inists called themselves “left”, but were the politics, and a left that emphasises interna - Hungary, Netanyahu in Israel, Bolsonaro in do so, because the climate crisis poses the al - main oppressors of the workers and of tionalism, class struggle, and a culture of crit - Brazil. The Brexit movement is also part of ternative of “socialism or barbarism” on a democracy in many countries, and in other ical inquiry and democratic debate. this global nationalist trend. short time-scale. countries would break strikes or foment There are grey and blurred areas in be - There have been exceptions to this pattern And generally the gains of the political chauvinism if Russian foreign policy re - tween, and neither of the two blocs is uni - – left-reformist surges like the Sanders move - right do not reflect any great shift to the right quired. form or homogenous, but the urgent job ment in the USA, the Corbyn influx in the in popular opinion. On LGBT rights, obvi - Despite the disappearance of the USSR, we today is to cohere as much as possible of the ously, and on many other issues, in many are in a similar situation today of the term rational, internationalis▉t, worker-oriented left countries the opinions of young people in “left” being claimed by widely different or into an effective force. particular have shifted to the left. The right Workers’ Liberty has gained because it has been able to pull to - gether its core demographics into a dynamic conference force to sweep along the undecided better than the left has. Just over £10,000 to go Regroupment and realignment within the 18-19 January socialist minority can give even small forces better political levers to begin to shift politics nother £220 this week for Maisie ecause of the general election on 12 De - on the large scale. Sanders’s sponsored give-up-smoking cember, we have postponed our annual We have fallen behind because the left has Aeffort brings Maisie’s total to £696 and our BWorkers’ Liberty conference from 7-8 De - generally been in disarray. The toxic legacy overall fund-drive total to £14,390.93. cember to 18-19 January. of Stalinism continues to poison our move - Thanks to Gemma Short, £50; Ruth Cash - That shift, sadly, also wipes out our ment. man, £50; Vicki Morris, £10; Jim Denham, planned 2-5 January week school on Trot - From that legacy much of the left inherits £50; Joe Booth, £10; and a donor who wants sky’s History of the Russian Revolution , be - a statism; a casual attitude to democracy, in to be anonymous, £50. cause we’ll have to use the weekend 4-5 society and in the left’s own organisations; a We have another £10,609.07 to raise to January for pre-conference discussion deference to leaders and lack of a critical in - reach our £25,000 target. meetings. tellectual culture; a belief that states and We’ve already spent a lot of money on Some of the discussions for our confer - movements which declare themselves to be buying leaflets for the general election cam - ence — on Israel-Palestine, on Universal “anti-imperialist” are necessarily progressive, paign from Labour for a Socialist Europe, Credit, on the hijab in primary schools, and regardless of their actual social programme and we’ll need a lot more to be as active as so on — are little affected by the general vis a vis the working class; and, all too often, we need to be in this campaign. election, but the major discussion on re - a susceptibility to conspiracy theories and an Donate at workersliberty.org/donate. antisemitism. And look out for other fundraising efforts groupment ▉and realignment of the left ob - ▉ viously is.. Developments inside the Labour Party now in the planning stage. 6 Email your letters to [email protected] Democracy, not e-surveys!

By Misha Zubrowski bate and send motions, which are prioritised, on almost all of these policies; and have ac - composited, debated and voted on by confer - tively, repeatedly, contradicted the policy on ill you help write our manifesto, ence. In theory, and according to basic dem - free movement. This is an affront to demo - [[first name]]?”, Jeremy Corbyn in - ocratic principle, motions passed by Labour’s cratic principles. Respecting conference’s “boxW ed me, on 2 November. “I want to hear conference become Labour policy, and mandate is not only the democratic thing to your priorities for our manifesto”, he contin - should form the basis of Labour’s manifestos. do, but would help enliven and so improve ues, inviting me — and hundreds of thou - In practice Labour’s democracy, and con - the democratic processes going forward. sands of others — to participate in a ference, isn’t as democratic as my sketch A consultation, superficially, may seem consultation, open for four days. above would suggest. The running of CLPs, more democratic. After all, Corbyn is asking Well, if you remember Jezza, we just had a unions, and conference often make it difficult for the opinion, directly, of everyone he sent conference to decide just that: Labour’s Sep - for members to engage, to understand, to the email to. Surely a larger number than the tember national conference. challenge bureaucratic machines conference delegates. September’s conference brought together Steps have been made in recent years to But no — consultationocracy is not democ - delegates from Labour across the country, improve conference democracy (for example, racy, and is much worse than democracy. magnitude smaller than the number of those and from the affiliated unions, to democrati - 20 topics are now debated, where it used to A lot of us know that from work. Endless represented by these delegates. cally decide our policies. Thousands of dele - be a maximum of 8). CLPs have become live - “surveys” and “consultations” of staff are a Additionally, the process of consultations gates descended upon Brighton, representing lier. Much bigger changes are needed. And common ploy by bosses who want to sideline is atomising, rather than encouraging en - hundreds of thousands of party members, unions, too, need transforming. trade unions. gagement, discussion, and debate; the and millions of affiliated union members. But still, the conference is a conference, the Some of us know it from the Blair days in processes which make it possible, for minor - Delegates from each constituency are focal point of months of debate in local the Labour Party. Blair made a show of defy - ity — generally more radical — opinions to elected by their Constituency Labour Party Labour Parties and in the unions. At this ing Labour Party conference when it was crit - win people over, and become majorities. (CLP), and can be mandated and held ac - year’s conference, activists brought, fought ical. He also made a show of encouraging There is very little opportunity to challenge countable by that CLP. All Labour members for, and won radical policies on free move - electronic submissions to “policy commis - the creators of the consultation, or to hold can take part in electing, mandating, and ment, migrants’ rights, anti-trade union laws, sions”. The members were “consulted”. The them to account. There is no explained holding accountable their conference dele - homelessness, and much more. The leader - consultation had no effect on policy. process for how responses will translate into gates. The number of delegates is roughly ship of Labour and some of the big unions Because people know these facts, consulta - the manifesto. proportionate to the number of Labour mem - tried their best to keep many of these policies tions generally have low levels of participa - Consultations are almost always used ex - bers in that constituency. off conference floor. tion. The self-selected few who responded tremely selectively, with results ignored, We won despite them. will probably be fewer than the delegates at highlighted, or spun depending on precon - CLPs and affiliated trade unions can de - ▉ Since then, the leadership have been silent the conference. Certainly have been orders of ceived priorities. Trump impeachment goes public

By Barrie Hardy was not a full one. There were ellipses (lots of dot dot dots) where specific mention of f the dreadful reality TV show that is the Biden was made. Vindman’s testimony went Trump Presidency had titled its first series against Trump’s claim that he’d issued an I“The Mueller Probe” then series two should “exact transcript”. The number of lies Trump be called “Impeachment”. The catchphrase is has told since assuming office has already series one was “No Collusion”, it’s now “No passed the 14,000 mark, with one satirist to Quid Pro Quo”. comparing Trump’s signature to the printout Although it was apparently difficult for of a failed lie detector test. Robert Mueller’s investigators to provide di - Now that Congress has voted to make the rect evidence of collusion between the Trump impeachment hearings public, these wit - team and agents of Putin’s secret state in the nesses will come across as highly credible to run up to the 2016 election, evidence Trump much of the American public when proceed - has committed crimes in his dealings with ings go on TV. Their testimony will present a Ukraine are in plain sight. Asking for a sharp contrast to the impending trial of favour from a foreign government to help his reprobates Trump’s personal lawyer Rudi re-election bid is a crime according to the US Giuliani associates with. Constitution. Further revelations that mili - Last month the FBI arrested Lev Parnas tary aid was dependent on a willingness of and Igor Fruman — both of whom look like they’ve come from central casting for a the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on Hunter. Someone who took particular excep - name by... Donald Trump Jnr! his potential rival Joe Biden compounds “Goodfellas” movie — as they tried to board a plane for Vienna on a one way ticket. They tion to Giuliani’s antics was the recently fired The money is definitely on impeachment Trump’s criminality. National Security Advisor John Bolton. proceedings going to trial in the Senate as Over the past week or so Washington wit - were subsequently charged with campaign fund violations, principally the directing for - Reportedly Bolton referred to Giuliani as nightly revelations of Trump’s criminality nessed a succession of testimonies from “a hand grenade who’s going to blow every - unfold on TV. Will they convict though even straight laced establishment figures in the eign money to US politicians. Parnas and Fruman have been involved in a string of du - body up”, and described the White House’s though there’s cast iron evidence of his guilt? government bureaucracy that Trump was efforts to pressurise Ukraine as “a drug deal” The partisanship shown by Republicans so criminally culpable. Amongst the most dam - bious business dealings including setting up a company called Fraud Guarantee, which he didn’t want to be part of. His appearance far suggests not, but that may not be the case aging were those of William Taylor, currently before Congress should be pretty explosive if Trump’s poll ratings start to slide. Nixon America’s senior diplomat to Ukraine, and kind of gave the game away! Parnas also has a history of making death threats and had too. went down 10 points during the Watergate Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the Director of The smears against the Bidens are appar - hearings and similar could happen to the European Affairs on the National Security three guns confiscated from him by Florida police. ently baseless, but that doesn’t mean they Donald. He could get dumped particularly if Council. themselves shouldn’t escape scrutiny. Hunter there was a secret ballot. Taylor testified that US military aid to Parnas and Fruman have been specifically charged with hiding the origin of a $325,000 Biden has been honest in saying that he American socialists want to see the crimi - Ukraine and a meeting of their President wouldn’t have got on the board of Burisma nal gang in the White House brought to Volodymyr Zelensky with Trump were ex - donation to a pro-Trump committee. They’ve been photographed with Trump but natu - holdings, a major Ukraine gas producer, but book. They also want a genuine draining of plicitly link by the administration to the for the fact that he was the son of a Vice Pres - the Washington swamp of corporate greed. Ukrainians investigating Biden’s son and a rally he says he doesn’t know them. Coinci - dentally the pair are being defended by John ident. The Washington lobbying industry is Hopefully the elections next year will pro - discredited conspiracy theory that the De - what the Trumpers characterise as “the vide an opportunity to advocate socialist mocrats had help from Ukraine in the 2016 Dowd, who acted as Trump’s personal attor - ney during the Mueller investigation. His Swamp” and Biden is just as big a fan of cor - policies such as universal health care and a election. porate capitalism as Trump. chance to see off “populist” fakers like Trump clients here had been assisting Giuliani with ▉ Vindman testified that the transcript of the Nevertheless, it’s a bit rich for Hunter and his ilk. now notorious Trump/Zelensky phone call what’s been termed a parallel foreign policy aimed at denigrating Joe Biden and his son Biden to get castigated for using the family Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 7 Why free movement? Briefing

o-one today disputes that freedom of movement within a country is a boon. NBoth for the individuals who can move to a place or a job they prefer, and for the places where they arrive, which become livelier. Problems may arise: for example, shortage of affordable housing in London. The answer is to tax the rich to improve social provision (for example, build more council housing in London), not to exclude those who want to move. The immigrants are often a big part of the workers producing that improved social provision. The same principle hold across national borders. We want to defend the free move - ment across Europe we have had for decades, and open up both Britain and Europe more to the rest of the world. Those who want to divide workers say bor - ders protect us from outsiders. But really workers born in Britain have more in com - Some migrants are fleeing poverty, war, or Lancashire and South Cumbria). Overall than those with low immigration. mon with workers born in Poland or India environmental destruction. Many would pre - there is no correlation! Meanwhile, foreign- Extra workers don’t just seek jobs; they eat, than with profiteers and rich people born in fer to stay where they grew up, and near fam - born workers keep the NHS going. drink, and live. They increase demand for Britain. ily and friends. We support aid and solidarity Some people claim that an increase in the housing, food, and other goods and service, The Tories feel a common identity with rich which helps them do that. But that will not supply of labour drives down wages. That and so create jobs. They pay taxes which the people across borders. They admit that in - dispel war and poverty overnight. In the assumes that there is a fixed number of jobs. government could and should use on better vestment and trade and top managers com - meantime we should not turn away the peo - If that were true, then population growth public services, and so yet more jobs. At least ing into Britain across national borders bring ple trying to flee horrors. from births in general would also depress some of the profits derived by the rich from boons. It is all the more true that workers It is not true that immigration in Britain wages, and population decline would raise the extra workers’ labour spur new consumer coming into Britain across those borders today undermines wages, conditions, job se - them. demand and new investments. bring boons. curity or public services for the workers al - But cities like Sunderland and Hull, whose Researchers at the London School of Eco - We want a society that liberates people to ready here. populations have shrunk substantially, have nomics have found there is no relation be - live where and with whom they choose. A so - For example, plenty of the NHS divisions high unemployment and low wages. The tween immigration from the EU and wage ciety without the Tories’ “hostile environ - with shorter A&E waiting times have high fastest-growing cities, like Swindon and cuts, unemployment, or deterioration in pub - ment” for ourselves, our neighbours, our proportions of migrants (e.g. North-West Cambridge, have above-average wage lic services — even when the focus is nar - friends, our workmates. Without the barbed London, Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes) growth and low unemployment. Across the rowed to the poorer-paid sectors which are ▉ wire, the detention centres, and the 2am while some of the worst-performing ones world and across history, countries with high often said to be more affected. raids. have very few (e.g. Shropshire, Staffordshire, immigration have generally prospered better Housing should be a right! that more and more people can live in good allow a Labour government to start seriously council house building plan should be com - homes, with security of tenure, at low rents. improving the situation. bined with policies to help private renters Briefing Private tenants should have secure tenure Firstly it said that Labour should set a tar - like limits on rent levels, open-ended tenan - and tribunals to set fair rents. The existence get of building 3.1 million new “social cies, an end to “no fault” evictions, and tough of a large and growing council housing sector homes” (homes owned by councils or hous - new standards for the quality of housing. ore than half of the 1,900 ultra-luxury will make this more effective by putting land - ing associations rather than private land - We call for the party to campaign for those apartments built in London in 2017 lords under pressure. lords, with council-level rent) over 20 years – conference policies and a Labour government Mfailed to sell, so overcrowded London has Deliberate policies pursued by govern - an average of 155,000 a year. Of these 100,000 to carry them out. dozens of “posh ghost towers”. ments since 1979 – removing funding for a year must be council homes. Sadly, many Labour councils have become Meanwhile, some 320,000 people are councils to build homes, severely restricting Secondly, a Labour government should cosy with landlords and property-develop - homeless across Britain (on the streets or in their ability to raise money themselves, and provide councils with a £10 billion a year ers, and promoted local policies which temporary accommodation). On-the-streets encouraging council tenants to buy their grant, ring-fenced for building council worsen rather than slowing down and resist - homelessness has doubled since 2010. Mil - homes at cut price (“Right to Buy”) — have houses. ing the Tories’ assault on council housing. lions more are stuck sharing with parents or reduced council housing drastically. Thirdly, “Right to Buy” should be abol - Some have also actively taken measures to friends because they can find nowhere af - That “Right to Buy” sounded good at first, ished. criminalise homeless people. That needs to fordable. but many of those who bought their home These policies are something like the min - change. Other millions are in insecure, often expen - had a hard time covering the repair and imum needed to make a substantial differ - And Labour councils and the party more sive, often squalid privately-rented accom - maintenance costs which now fell on them. ence. To put the figures for new homes in generally have done little to oppose and fight modation. The private rented sector has The majority of those homes eventually fell context, 1.8 million council houses have been to reverse cuts to local government funding increased from 2.6 million households in into the hands of private landlords. lost under Right to Buy since the policy was – allowing local services to fall apart instead 2007 to 4.7 million on the latest figures, and Much of what council housing remains is introduced; and in the 1950s, under Tory gov - of demanding the government restores the is now a bigger sector than social renters, falling increasingly into disrepair, particular ernments, something like 300,000 council money necessary to rebuild them. That needs ▉ mortgage-payers, or outright home-owners. with the cuts to councils’ funding since 2010. houses a year got built. to change too. The basic answer is to build very large This year’s Labour Party conference in The Labour Party conference motion amounts of high quality council housing so September passed a clear policy that would rightly said that a large, properly-funded 8 More online at www.workersliberty.org Restore the NHS Briefing

he socialist rule is “from each according to their ability, to each according to their Tneeds”. The capitalist rule is “from each according to what the hours and effort they’re forced to put in, to get a living; to each according to their wealth”. Under capitalism, the system where the economy is run for private profit, it is possi - ble to win socialist-type bridgeheads. The NHS is one of them. You get health care ac - cording to your needs, instead of being de - nied it if you’re badly-off and getting lots if you’re rich. Since 2010 the Tories (and the Lib-Dems, to 2015) have systematically undermined the NHS. waiting lists for treatment the NHS “internal market”. The number of As people live longer, and can be treated • NHS pay has been largely frozen, leading NHS managers in England rose 37 per cent successfully for chronic diseases from which to big staff shortages. between 1997 and 2010. Lots of time and en - we would earlier have died quickly, NHS Also, since a law that the Tories and Lib- ergy is spent on box-ticking for performance budgets need to rise faster than inflation. Dems passed in 2012, the NHS has been measures; endless staff and patient surveys; Since 2009/10, NHS budgets have been al - pushed to contract out work to private firms. and contracting-out. most frozen, rising by only 1.5% each year. In 2018/19 NHS commissioners spent £9.2 The NHS is also burdened with huge debt That’s far below the average over the 70 years billion on services delivered by the private- from the “private finance” schemes used in - since the NHS was set up, 3.7% per year. profit firms. stead of straightforward public funding, The Health Campaigns Together group has Mostly that’s been small contracts. One mainly by the Blair government, to build new summed up the results since 2010: whole hospital, Hinchingbrooke Hospital, facilities. • 1,400% increase in hospital “trolley was franchised to a private-profit firm. After Labour has pledged to restore NHS fund - waits” in A&E a few years, the firm handed back the hospi - ing, to reverse privatisation in the NHS, and • 372-fold increase in 12 hour waits for a tal to the NHS because it had been put into to repeal the 2012 law which pushes the NHS hospital bed since 2010 “special measures” for faults in its running, towards contracting-out to private firms. • 8,779 fewer frontline “general and acute” and they weren’t making enough money The left within Labour pushes for the full- beds now than 2010 from it. scale restoration of the NHS as a public serv - • 22% reduction in mental health beds But the push to contract-out continues. ice under democ▉ratic control, without since 2010 And with it an increase in managerial costs. “internal markets”. • 4.52 million patients in England now on That increase was already underway, with A National Education Service

“exam factories”, focused on so-called “core funded by central government without dem - academic” subjects, has marginalised and ocratic accountability and without obligation Briefing downgraded important areas of learning. A to respect nationally-agreed pay and condi - survey in 2017 found that GCSE courses in tions for their staff. design and technology had disappeared from These academies usually build up big hier - o produce the goods and services we nearly half of schools. Students more inter - archies of “Principals”, “Executive Princi - need efficiently and without exhaustion ested in design and technology and other pals”, and academy-chain “CEOs”. A series Tand destruction – to reshape our economy to hands-on learning find themselves branded of scandals has shown those managers to be avoid climate catastrophe – to add beauty to as “failures”. overpaid and often to make money on the life – to be informed about our social condi - The whole “exam factory” and “league ta - side by giving contracts from the school to tions and equipped to debate and decide on bles” culture works to make schooling a firms run by their friends and family mem - them – we need education. process which teaches many students, above bers. Decades of battle by the labour movement all, that they are “failures”. Often the managers bully and harass both have won us universal, free education to sec - That the exams, set by competing exam students and school workers. In the name of ondary level, and even the chance for many boards competing to offer predictable assess - “behaviour management” students get ex - young working-class people to go on to uni - ments cheaply marked, test only the most cluded from education for slight imperfec - versity. standardised skills in the most stereotyped tions in expensive uniforms. The turnover of But the Tories have been stunting that and contexts, makes this worse. Even the bosses’ teachers is high. One teacher in three quits winding it back. Confederation of British Industry says that the trade altogether within five years of start - The huge increase in student fees in 2010 GCSEs are harmful. Yet years of students’ ing. has hit older and part-time university stu - and teachers’ efforts are focused on them. Although this country is getting less reli - dents hardest. Fewer of those who missed Labour has pledged to abolish SATs tests gious, schools are getting more religious. 37% out in their teens, or who want to refresh in primary schools. of state-funded primaries, and 19% of state- their learning later in life, can get to univer - The “exam factory” culture, and cuts, have funded secondaries, are “faith schools”. sity. A fierce squeeze on Further Education led to a squeeze on SEND (Special Educa - These are divisive and make it more difficult has hit adult education and courses like Eng - tional Needs and Disabilities) provision. The for children to make their own decisions lish for Speakers of Other Languages (cut “league tables” also set up schools as compet - about religion — or no religion — as they 40% since 2010). ing businesses, rather than as cooperating. grow up. Labour pledges a National Education Serv - The big expansion of academies and free Also divisive are private schools and gram - ice and the scrapping of student fees. That schools under the Tory government makes mar schools. Their resources, like those of should enable real lifelong learning, and ease that worse. academies and free schools, should be inte - the debt burden on those who do get to uni - By early 2019, more than half all state- grated into the public education system, versity. funded school students in England were in under the control of democratic local author - www.workersliberty.org/books ▉ An obsession with making school into academies or “free schools”, schools directly ities. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 9 A socialist Green New Deal

Briefing

lobal climate change, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, poses the Ggreatest threat to humanity. The evidence is overwhelming, as are the stark warnings of dire risks if we don’t act ur - gently to limit it. Yet fossil fuels are being burned at an ever faster rate, accelerating us towards more and even more severe catastro - phe. Capitalism, the system of organising pro - duction according to what is most profitable for the business-owners, is the driving force behind environmental catastrophes. Limit - less and eternal pursuit of profit cannot re - spect nature’s boundaries. The bosses seek and compete to extract wealth at the highest possible rate, exploiting workers and the nat - ural envisionment as much as possible to this end. Fossil fuels have been closely entwined with capitalism throughout its development. Today, fossil fuel capitalists are a particularly This year’s Labour conference passed • “a complete ban on fracking” need not lead to the loss of current or even powerful section of their class, internation - much-needed bold environmental policy, in - • “a radical car scrappage scheme to in - potential employment. ally. Climate change is the most acute of a cluding commitments to: crease electric vehicles” The second, arguably the key to the other plethora of environmental crises which are • a target of zero carbon emissions by 2030 • “a programme of ecological restoration policies, was democratic public ownership of driven by capital’s insatiable thirst for profit. • “a worker-led ‘just transition’... public to increase biodiversity and natural carbon banking and finance, providing resources Capital is created and recreated by workers ownership of energy, creating an integrated, sequestration”. and economic leverage. performing wage labour. It is us, the work - democratic system; large-scale investment in • “supporting developing countries’ cli - Whether or not Labour wins the next elec - ing-class, who carry out production — pro - renewables” mate transitions by increasing transfers of fi - tion, we need to build grassroots power on duction with often devastating • “rapidly phasing out fossil fuels” nance, technology and capacity” climate issues. We want Labour to be a bea - environmental impacts. This means it is us, • “repeal all anti-union laws, facilitating • “welcoming climate refugees” con for this. too, who can force the necessary environ - worker-led activism over social and political We work for Labour to champion and fight Crucially, this means organising in work - mental changes, challenging the power of our issues, including climate change” for these demands, and implement them places around environmental issues. Climate bosses to do so. • “take transport into public ownership when in power. strikes, called by young people, are an oppor - It comes as no surprise that the bosses’ and invest in expanded, integrated, free or af - Two further vital policies did not reach tunity and starting point for this. party, the Conservatives, have a record of in - fordable green public transport that connects conference floor, but have wide support in As well as a society-wide fight for a social - action, and worse, on climate change. They Britain” Labour. ist Green New Deal, we want to help workers have been champions of fracking, their last- • “building and retrofitting of zero-carbon The first was a moratorium on airport ex - and students making environmental de - minute moratorium on it looks like an elec - social and council housing and public build - pansion. Coupled with a jobs guarantee, a mands on the bosses ▉at the level of work - tion gesture, and Boris Johnson has a recent ings with lowest possible embedded carbon worker-led transition involving retraining, places and campuses. record of public climate scepticism. in construction” and huge investments in the transition, it Replacing Universal Credit

gradually brought in by the Tories (and Lib than is claimed fraudulently. Dems) since 2010, to replaced other benefits, Independent analysts say these changes Briefing has been central to that growth of poverty. It will boost the incomes of many of the poorest is, as Alston said, “fast falling into Universal people in society, in some cases by thousands Discredit”. “Consolidating six different ben - of pounds a year; and help many hundreds ourteen million people, a fifth of the pop - efits into one makes good sense, in princi - of thousands more. ulation, live in poverty. ple”, but the punitive way it has been done In a cynical election manoeuvre, the Tories F“Four million of these are more than 50% annuls the good sense. have announced they will end the freeze they Two nations, below the poverty line, and 1.5 million are Labour has pledged to “scrap” Universal imposed on benefits in 2015, which keeps destitute, unable to afford basic essentials...” Credit. That doesn’t necessarily mean going them frozen at the same level so that in fact That was Philip Alston, the United Nation back to older system of separate benefits. It with inflation their real value falls. That will two states “Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and means reversing cuts and making the system not undo the damage done by the freeze over human rights”, reporting on Britain a year much more generous and supportive. the last four years and all their other “re - Socialists and Israel-Palestine ago. Labour has promised to forms”. He added: “Various sources predict child • reduce the waiting period for benefits For decades the benefits system has be - poverty rates of as high as 40% by 2022... from five to two weeks come less and less about supporting those in A Workers’ Liberty “Homelessness is up 60% since 2010, rough • scrap the ban on claiming benefits for need, and more and more stingy and puni - sleeping is up 134%.... Food bank use is up al - more than two children tive, pushing down claimants’ living stan - pamphlet, third edition, most four-fold since 2012, and there are now • scrap the overall limit on how much can dards to cut costs and create an environment about 2,000 food banks in the UK, up from be received in which workers are more under pressure 2016. Cover price £3.50 just 29 at the height of the financial crisis”. • suspend the “sanctions” regime used to and vulnerable to exploitation. That shift All that has happened while unemploy - punish and bully claimants, particularly the was, shamefully, encouraged by New Labour ment has been lower than since the mid-70s. unemployed, sick and disabled under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – but it Most of those in poverty are in households • recruit five thousand new benefits advis - has gathered spe▉ed since the Tories returned :workersliberty.org/2n2s where people have jobs. Just jobs that do not ers so people can get face-to-face support to to office in 2010. bring in enough to live properly. claim what’s due to them. Universal Credit, the new benefits system Far more benefit money goes unclaimed 10 More online at www.workersliberty.org High finance: take back control

for-now financial resources are recycled into productive investment. High finance stands Briefing at the crossroads where investment decisions are made. It does that very badly. In the whole era, he banks and high finance should be con - since the 1980s, in which high finance has ex - verted into a public banking, mortgage, panded explosively, investment in new Tand pension service, under public ownership equipment, buildings, facilities and so on has and democratic and workers’ control. lagged further behind the total of profits than Public ownership and democratic control ever before. will also provide the means to stop a reform - In other words, a bigger percentage of prof - ing government being sabotaged by a its goes to ever-more-unhinged luxury “strike” or “flight” of capital, as France’s re - spending by people like those bonus-rich forming government was in the early 1980s. bankers and their equivalents in other indus - Britain’s big four banks made about £22 tries. In Trump’s USA now, the wealthiest billion profits in 2018-9. That is more than the 10% of households do half of all consumer total of £19 billion per year required, accord - spending. ing to the Institute for Fiscal Studies in Octo - High finance finds it profitable to lend to ber 2018, to end the cuts in welfare, schools, top-end property developers and buyers. and other services brought in by the Tory and Thus it drives up housing prices and skews Tory-Lib-Dem governments since 2010. new home-building towards expensive lux - The latest official figures for bankers’ ury housing. bonuses (for 2016-7) gave a total of £15 billion The control of investment funds by profit- a year. Again on latest figures, more than crazed high finance makes it apparently not 3,500 bankers in the UK are paid more than a “realistic” to invest in social housing, health, million euros (£900,000) in 2017, with total in - education, welfare, and other public services, come of almost £9bn between them. The av - but very “realistic” to invest in luxury. Or in erage pay of those money-merchants was risky, speculative financial spirals. nearly £2 million each a year. It is in the nature of an economic system World-wide, bank profits in 2018-9 were an driven by profit — capitalism — that bankers amazing £1135 billion. always push into dodgy ventures which offer ties of cash, credit, and guarantees into the bankers carried on, shamelessly taking home The banks and the other financial compa - extra profit. They know some will go wrong, banks to keep them afloat: a total of £1107 bil - truckloads of loot. nies do provide us with a convenient way to or be found out — but then they’ll be bailed lion, something like the equivalent of £18,000 The Trade Union Congress has policy for manage what wages we get and to pay our out, or maybe pay a fine, and carry on. That’s for every child, woman, and man in the UK. “full public ownership of the [banking] sector bills (if we can). But we shouldn’t have to pay business. There was much talk then of regulating of and the creation of a publicly owned banking anyone £2 million a year for that service. In 2008 the bankers’ drive for risky profits banks better. Very little has come of it. service, de▉mocratically and accountably Banks and high finance are supposed to act brought economic chaps to us all. The British A few bankers resigned, with a “golden managed”. as the hub of a system through which spare- government, like others, poured vast quanti - goodbye” pay-offs, but mostly the top Johnson’s Trump-Brexit

worse than Theresa May’s deal (4.9%), and of Even if he gets those deals, and he may not, tion to attract multinational investment and course a lot worse than Remain. that means “level playing field” arrange - to gain economic hinterland which they can Briefing The bad economic impact comes from the ments for trade which “level” Britain with dominate. barriers to trade and the barriers to immigra - the USA’s regime of gross inequality, poor The competitive road led to two World tion. Immigration, which mainly brings in public services, few workers’ rights, and life Wars in Europe in the 20th century. The EU ccording to the most thorough study so young and energetic workers, boosts eco - based on cut-throat capitalist competition. is a messy, bureaucratic, half-botched step, far, Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal will re - nomic growth. That too is not the worst of it. but a step along the road of cooperation and Aduce average income per head in Britain by That is not the worst of it. Boris Johnson’s The EU citizens in Britain — people who integration. 6.4%. It will cost you about £1300 a year if prime alternative to the economic integration have lived here as equals, often for decades, The climate emergency makes it urgent to your income is £20,000. which Britain currently has with Europe is contributing, voting in local elections, enrich - go forward to more, better, and more demo - That’s not as bad as “no-deal” (8.1%). It is economic deals with Donald Trump’s USA. ing our culture — are currently applying for cratic cooperation and integration. We can fix “settled status”. Almost half of them, now, the climate emergency only by agreeing rules are being refused and given only more inse - and plans which cover whole continents, at cure “pre-settled” status. least. Going for a world where countries will Their friends and family members who compete to attract multinational investment The police and cuts want to come here will be barred. Or, on the by offering laxer environmental rules than Tories’ proposals of earlier this year, they will their neighbours will bring disaster. be allowed in only with 12-month “work Boris Johnson’s deal differs from Theresa ocal Labour Parties are still distributing More police on the streets, doing more visas” and then have to wait another 12 May’s in loosening the promises to keep leaflets which make Labour’s prime play stop and search, roughing up and further months before applying for another spell. some approximation to EU standards on Lthe call for more police. alienating more working-class and black and Scarily, Johnson’s Home Secretary Priti workers’ rights and environmental stan - The call should be instead for cutting the ethnic-minority young people, are the last Patel says she wants to “end free movement dards. social roots of crime. Stop school exclusions. thing we need. once and for all”! Once and for all! She longs It also differs in drawing a customs border End the “exam factory” culture and tinpot A ten-year study compiled from the Met - for a meaner, nastier Britain where refugees in the Irish Sea, between Northern Ireland authoritarianism which make schools inhos - ropolitan Police’s own data showed that or just people wanting a better life — like and Britain. pitable for many students, and worsen the stop and search did not reduce violent Patel’s parents when they came from Uganda Johnson first tried to draw his customs bor - mental-illness epidemic among teenagers. crime. And stop and search is ten times more — have the door slammed in their face. For - der inside Ireland, between Northern Ireland Give social services the resources and likely to target black and ethnic-minority ever. and the Irish Republic. A big majority in Ire - funding so that they can actually do family youth. And British people who want to work, land, both sides of the border, oppose the support work, and not just crisis control. Society will continue to need policing for study, or retire in Europe will be unable to do recreation of a “hard border” there. Johnson Develop enough clean, safe social housing a long while to come. But we should call for that, or able to do it only insecurely. had to back down. that everyone has a decent home. Make ben - more democratically-accountable policing, Worse again. Economic, social, and intel - A new border in the Irish Sea is not good, efits adequate. Restore the NHS. rather than just a boost to the same so▉rt of lectual life long outgrew national borders. Ei - either. A united Ireland would be progress. It Create a society of solidarity, rather than police force that harasses picket lines. ther countries cooperate and integrate, or is more likely to be achieved if the whole ▉of of dog-eat-dog competition. they pit themselves against each in competi - both Ireland and Britain are within the EU. Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 11 Why public ownership?

big chances to make extra profits while pro - viding a poor service, as the privatised Train Briefing Operating Companies do. • Historically, the privatisation of those utilities was a rip-off. For example, the re - abour has pledged to bring energy, rail, gional water companies were sold off by the water, and mail into public ownership Government in December 1989. Over the Land to “put democratic management at the next six years the shareholders gained £10 heart of how those industries are run”. billion, in addition to the large amounts paid These are some reasons for doing this: out to them in dividends from the compa - • Those industries are central to economic nies’ profits, which totalled over £1.7 billion life. To make a real socialist Green New Deal, in 1994-5. to reshape economic life to cut carbon emis - Those shareholders were mostly not small sions adequately, requires public control of owners: by 1995 only about 15% of the shares those industries rather than just nudging and in the water companies were owned by indi - coaxing their private owners. viduals, whether of large wealth or small. • They are, to one degree, or another, mo - Assets which had been built up by the nopolies or semi-monopolies. Private-profit labour of public-sector workers over decades companies running such industries acquire were sold off to give a cash boost to the Tory Government and a bigger pay-out to the new shareholders and the company bosses. Support Hong Kong and Another drive behind privatisation was to the Uyghurs! break up workforces and expose them more to the cutting winds of capitalist competition. The only counter-argument is that public t Labour Party conference, shadow ownership is “inefficient”. But the vast com - foreign secretary Emily Thornberry plexity of relations between the chunks into Amade a speech denouncing tyrants all which the electricity and rail industries were across the world, Putin, Bolsonaro, Duterte, chopped up for privatisation has expanded Trump, and the rest. paperwork and bureaucracy far beyond any - Socialists knew that in advance. The Irish ‘socialising’ demands of the revolutionary All good. But one notable omission: the thing the old integrated public enterprises socialist James Connolly explained: working class. The first proposes to endow a biggest. Xi Jinping, ruler of China. were guilty of. “State ownership and control is not neces - class state... with certain powers and func - As the election campaign happens, Xi sarily socialism — if it were, then the Army, tions to be administered in the common in - Jinping is repressing the democratic revolt NATIONALISED the Navy, the police, the judges, the gaolers, terest of the possessing class; the second in Hong Kong, and locking up something Public ownership is not in itself socialism. It the informers, and the hangmen, all would proposes to subvert the class state and re - like one million Uyghurs in “re-education” wasn’t socialism under past Labour govern - all be socialist functionaries, as they are state place it with the socialist state, representing camps in north-west China. ments, if only because newly-nationalised in - officials — but the ownership by the state of organised society — the socialist republic. Labour Party conference passed an emer - dustries were generally run by the same all the land and materials for labour, com - “To the cry of the middle class reformers, gency motion in solidarity with the bosses as when they were private, with no bined with the co-operative control by the ‘make this or that the property of the govern - Uyghurs. more say for the workers. And it was surely workers of such land and materials, would ment’, we reply, ‘yes, in proportion as the We want Labour to stand for self-deter - not socialism in the old USSR and the East be socialism… workers are ready to make the government mination for the people of Hong Kong and ▉ ▉ European states which called themselves “so - “An immense gulf separates the ‘national - their property’.” for the Uyghurs. cialist” before 1989-91. ising’ proposals of the middle class from the

Keir Hardie — elected against a Why not tactical voting? Liberal

Labour, constituency-by-constituency. may be constituencies that Labour can never Elections are not the be-all and end-all of win under our current electoral system, there Briefing politics. We see our job in politics as building are no constituencies where there is no class an independent party based on the working struggle, no capitalism, no working-class po - class, equipping it with socialist policies, and litical interests, no potential recruits and ac - nity and pluralism are important. helping it win a majority. Elections are prima - tivists. Labour needs to be a coalition rather rily an opening to advance that effort. To put it another way, politics is not all Uthan seek to make coalitions with non-social - In history that has meant starting from about the single issue of Brexit. ist parties. small beginnings. The Labour Party started The NHS and the Health and Social Care It needs more member control, more trade even in a small way only after decades of Act 2012 (backed by the Lib Dems) are also unions affiliating. It needs to readmit the un - workers mostly voting “tactically” for the issues. Universal Credit (shaped by a coali - justly expelled socialists, many hundreds of Liberal Party as the only party likely to beat tion government including Lib Dems) is an - whom were purged without a hearing or the Tories, and independent working-class other. Education is another, and the even precise charges in 2015 and 2016. It candidates being squeezed out. Lib-Dems were joint architects of the in - needs to recruit, involve and represent work - For its first 18 years, the Labour Party was creased student fees under the 2010-5 gov - ing-class people in all our diversity. mostly just a junior partner of the Liberals, ernment. But that is different from tactical voting, or tied to them by mostly behind-the-scenes With the capitalist system in crisis as it has bering well already. agreements to stand down, of the type which deals. obviously been since 2008, it makes no sense That pact paved the way for Thatcher’s Sinn Fein and SDLP have made in Northern Only in 1918, when Labour decided it to vote for the Lib-Dems, who boast of being Tory government in 1979. Ireland. (Sinn Féin will stand down in favour would stand independently, did Labour’s “the only pro-business party” and promise Some deals with the Green may be a differ - of pro-Remain Unionists in East Belfast and history as a real force begin. only to soften capitalism here and there. ent matter, but without asserting working- North Down, and in favour of the SDLP in The same happens in constituencies. There The history of Labour forming coalitions class politics as central to how we organise, North Belfast). are many which Labour has won only after and pacts with other parties is a sorry one. pacts with the Greens become a gateway to Or from the type which Plaid Cymru, the years of building up from a position where it In the 1970s a Labour government which pacts with Lib Dems, nationalists, even To - Lib-Dems, and the Greens are discussing. seemed to have “no chance”. had lost its majority negotiated a “Lib-Lab ries. The Greens advocate such pacts. Or from the “independent” websites offer - Labour can build support by arguing for its pact”. The Liberal leader of the time boasted It is important to build bridges — but not ing advice to voters about which pro-Remain policies everywhere in the country — in that “now the banks can sleep quietly at the sort of br▉idges that our enemies can candidate they should back, Lib-Dem or every constituency. Because although there night”, although truth to tell they were slum - march across. 12 More online at www.workersliberty.org The general election in Scotland

By Dale Street SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon addressing a #indyref2020 rally peaking at last Saturday’s #indyref2020 rally in Glasgow, SNP leader Nicola Stur - Sgeon pledged that there would be another referendum on Scottish independence in 2020. This was the first pro-independence rally to have been addressed by Sturgeon since the run-up to the 2014 referendum. But it was not the first time that she has promised another referendum. Sturgeon first promised a second referen - dum immediately after losing the 2014 one. She has been promising one ever since. In the 2017 general election campaign, for example, she initially called for a second ref - erendum “in the autumn of 2018 or spring of 2019”, but subsequently amended the time - line to “at the end of the Brexit process”. Two factors have combined to push Stur - will resurrect the half a million voters lost in land to reduce the deficit; and 60% of Scottish excuse to wrap themselves in a Union Jack geon into making a specific pledge (or proph - 2017. In a first-past-the-post election, this will trade with the UK (compared with 18% with and appeal to Tory voters on the basis of Save esy) that permission to hold a second result in a virtual clean sweep for the SNP. the EU). the Union. referendum will be granted by the end of There are obvious attractions to such a Plus the costs of setting up a new currency This will make it even more difficult for 2019, and that the referendum will be held strategy. (a proposal backed by 13% of the popula - Scottish Labour to win back working-class next year. It will divert attention away from the tion), the cost of setting up a new central SNP-voters. Firstly, true believers can only await the SNP’s record in Holyrood (which influences bank, and the cost of replacing the new cur - Second Coming of Christ for so long before voting even in a Westminster election): rency by the euro (a probable condition of LABOUR LEFT becoming demoralised. Then they turn to Scandals in the NHS, an education system Scotland’s admission to the EU). All this underlines the vital role which the heretical thoughts. Consequently, as time in crisis, an explosion of homelessness, a de - And while Sturgeon has denounced a hard Scottish Labour left – however relatively passes, more and followers of the cult have cline in life expectancy, delays in major infra - Brexit ever since June of 2016, she has now re - small it may be in comparison to England – become more and more restless. structure projects, an unreliable railway fused to rule out a “hard border” between has to play in the election campaign. Recent months have seen the All Under network, declining standards of social care, England and an independent Scotland. Scottish Labour policy is to support a sec - One Banner alliance of regressive nationalism and the highest number of drugs-related The supposed rationale for a referendum ond referendum on EU membership and, un - stage a series of major – but not as major as deaths in Europe. and independence – Johnson in Downing like party policy at UK level, to support they claim – demonstrations in Scottish cities. It will also cut across the chances of a Scot - Street, and Scotland out of the EU – could Remain (i.e. no need for a special conference Sturgeon has always been there “in spirit” tish Labour revival. It will lead to national also easily collapse: What if the Tories do not to decide what Labour’s position would be). but never in person. identity rather than class identity being a win the general election? And what if there is That is the right policy, although Scottish There have been demands for “the Catalan major determinant of voting intentions, with no Brexit (because of a second EU-referen - Labour has not been particularly vociferous option”: The SNP government in Holyrood Unionists more likely to vote Tory and pro- dum)? in promoting it. should organise a second referendum in the independence votes going to the SNP. Sturgeon’s decision to prioritise a second While remaining opposed to independence absence of a Section 30 order (i.e. the West - (The latter calculation has been marred by referendum and independence is already for Scotland, Scottish and national Labour minster Parliament giving approval to the the decision of the Scottish Greens to stand adding to the existing problems faced by policy is to support the granting of a Section referendum). 20 candidates, including in key SNP margin - Scottish Labour in the general election. 30 order if there was clear support among But this has failed to gain traction. And for als). There was no “Corbynite influx” into Scot - Scottish voters for another independence ref - tish Labour after 2015. The activists who the faux radicals of Scottish-populist postur - LEAVE erendum. ing, the prospect of up to 13 years in prison could have constituted such an influx re - This is simple democracy. suddenly made their strategy appear dis - A million Scottish voters backed Leave in mained in the political orbit of the SNP and Opposition to that policy and claims that it tinctly less attractive. 2016. A third of them were SNP voters. These pro-independence campaigns outside of the could cost Scottish Labour votes is a measure Alternatively, leading figures in the SNP were primarily the voters who deserted the SNP. of just how right-wing the Scottish Labour have argued that a majority for the SNP in SNP in 2017. The promise of a post-Brexit in - Consequently, Scottish Labour in many right is. And what could cost Labour votes the 2021 Holyrood elections would amount dependent Scotland returning to “our Euro - parts of the country remains moribund and are its attacks on the policy, not the policy it - to a mandate for independence, dispensing pean family of nations” will not help attract controlled by the right wing. This is reflected self. with the need for another referendum. them back. in the outcomes of selection contests for That policy is qualified by opposition to a Attempts to make this SNP party policy And for all its usual bluff and bluster, the Westminster candidates: Many of them are Section 30 order in the early years of a Labour were dealt with in true SNP style. SNP’s record on Brexit has been erratic. It walking reminders of why so many voters government, so that the electorate can judge Motions for the SNP 2019 conference flipped from total opposition to any form of abandoned Labour in 2015. the government on its record. The qualifica - which backed this position were ruled out of Brexit to support for the “Norway model”. It Claims that Labour “turned the corner” in tion is open to criticism. But it is secondary order. Attempts to move an amendment on likewise flipped from not supporting a sec - the 2017 general election are a myth. Six new to the recognition of the basic principle. the same lines to another motion on inde - ond EU-referendum to becoming its foremost Labour MPs were elected. But its overall Scottish Labour activists should be to the pendence failed when all motions about in - advocate. Scottish vote increased by less than 10,000, fore in pushing party policy on Brexit and dependence were kept off the agenda. Promising another referendum on inde - 7,000 of which were in just one constituency. Scottish independence during the campaign. There was just the Supreme Leader’s pendence will warm the hearts of the faithful. In this year’s European elections Labour’s At the same time they need to work to trans - speech. That contained everything that con - It may not have the same impact on the share of the poll slumped to 9%. form the election from being a battle of flags ference delegates needed to know. broader electorate. Claims by Sturgeon that she simply knows into a battle fought on the basis of class poli - But last Saturday’s promises of a referen - Some opinion polls have shown support for sure – because she knows everything tics. dum in 2020 should satisfy the restless na - for Scottish independence at around 50%, there is to know in the universe – that a Cor - The SNP vision of a referendum tomorrow tives, at least for the time being. compared with 45% in 2014. But other opin - byn-led government would grant a Section and independence the next day is based on a Secondly, a general election has been called ion polls show a decline in support for inde - 30 order have already been seized on by the scenario in which the Tories win the general and the SNP needs to work out its election pendence, and only minority support for Tory press to portray Labour as weak on the election and Brexit goes ahead. Once again, strategy. another referendum on Scottish independ - Union. the SNP’s political promises presuppose, and 2017 did not go well for the SNP. Its vote ence in the imminent future. Already rampant are headlines such as require, major working-class defeats. went down from 1.5 million (2015 general A second independence referendum also “Corbyn’s Cave-In to Sturgeon”, “Secret The only referendum which should be de - election) to one million. Its number of seats conjures up some unpleasant figures for the SNP-Lab Plot Revealed” and “We Must Stop cisive in Scotland in this election is a “refer - fell from 56 to 35. And Tory-free Scotland SNP: Corbyn Gifting SNP A Fresh Chance to Break endum” on the Tories record in power and suddenly had 13 Tory MPs. A spending deficit of 7% of Scottish GDP; Up UK”. the choice between the nightmare of five Sturgeon’s calculation is that putting the an annual £10 billion fiscal transfer from cen - Right-wing Scottish Labour candidates years of Boris Johnson in Downing Street or hostile to the relatively radical policies issue of a second referendum centre-stage, in tral government to Scotland; ten years of a Labour▉ government committed to radical the broader context of opposition to Brexit, public spending cuts in an independent Scot - adopted by Labour conferences will seize on policies. Sturgeon’s new push for independence as an Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty 13 Labour and antisemitism Opposition to the Israeli government bad as the Tories”. Israel, surrounded by hostile states, will not “must never use antisemitic ideas”, such as Among the top 100 Twitter accounts men - dissolve itself voluntarily any time soon. So Briefing “comparing Israel to the Nazis.” tioning Jeremy Corbyn extensively, even after a call for Israel to “cease to exist” actually is The Labour Party “mini-site” also includes the Tory and other hostile accounts were sub - a call, at the very least, for conquest and the International Holocaust Remembrance tracted from that 100, 36 have been found to forcible holding-down of the majority popu - he August 2019 Labour Party leaflet enti - Alliance (IHRA) definition and examples of be antisemitic. lation inside Israel’s borders. tled “No Place for Antisemitism” con - antisemitism. No-one in the Labour Party is confident That call is closely linked to the idea that Tdemns conspiracy theories which portray Some of us in the Labour Party have long enough, for example, to put motions to all “Zionists” — people who support the “capitalism and imperialism as the product argued to recognise that there is a real history Labour Party conference to change Labour’s right of Israel to exist — are “racists” and to of plots by a small shadowy elite.” of antisemitism on the left, as well as the position for “two states” (an independent be shunned. These are “just one step away from myths right. We have made an impact. Palestinian state alongside Israel) and to The big majority of Jews, even those very about Jewish bankers and a secret Jewish plot It will bring no advantage to Jewish people argue explicitly that Israel should be de - critical of Israeli governments, have some for world domination.” in Britain to vote for the Tories or Lib Dems, stroyed. empathy with Israel, for obvious historical Some of those conspiracy theories “substi - or by abstaining to give Boris Johnson a path Yet not just marginal cranks, but also influ - and family-connection reasons. Demonising tute Israel or Zionists for Jews, presenting Is - to a parliamentary majority. ential people in the current Leader’s Office, them all as “racists” is inescapably antise - rael as controlling the world’s media and A 2017 poll by YouGov showed that 40% of have a history of complicity with left anti - mitic. That holds even if the demoniser sin - finances” and “ascribe to Israel an influence Tory supporters endorsed at least one of a set semitism. For example in their passive and cerely has nothing against Jews as defined on world events far beyond any objective of (old-fashioned, straightforward) antise - uncritical (at least) attitude on demonstra - “racially”, or thinks the whole idea of well- analysis.” mitic statements put to them, as against 32% tions on Israel-Palestine where a wish for Is - defined “races” is nonsense. Jewish people, the leaflet states, “have the of Labour supporters. rael to be destroyed was clearly signalled. The Labour leadership hasn’t yet faced up same right to self-determination as any other But there is a lot more to do on anti - To say that many Jews “view calls for Israel to the problem of that “new” sort of anti - people.” Many Jews “view calls for Israel to semitism in the Labour Party! to cease to exist as calls for expulsion or geno - semitism, and too often prefers instead just cease to exist as calls for expulsion or geno - The labour movement should be a positive cide” begs big questions. It is not just a matter to congratulate itself on opposing old-▉fash - cide”. force against prejudice, and not just “not as of feelings to which we should be sensitive. ioned Tory and far-right antisemitism. The Berlin Wall and socialism

We had long said that states like East Ger - many was one of extreme exploitation of the view, the workers are muddled and mis - many were no more socialist than the “Ger - workers and peasants, run by a backward bu - taken. We want the right of workers to have Briefing man Democratic Republic” (East Germany’s reaucratic ruling class with a monopoly of free trade unions, freedom of speech, free - official name for itself) was democratic. A bet - political and social power. It was the bureau - dom to have their own political parties. ter word for their systems was: Stalinist. cracy that decreed that their state should na - Of course, the dominance of socialist ideas hirty years ago, on 9 November 1989, the Stalinism was not socialism. Measured tionalise and control everything — not Marx, is never inevitable among workers. And we Berlin Wall came down. against the ideals advocated by the great so - or for that matter Lenin. could see back in 1989 that there were espe - TIt was a wall built through Berlin by the cialist movements before Stalin, and by the Way before, back in the 19th century, so - cially great obstacles in the way of workers rulers of East Germany, which called itself so - Bolsheviks who led the Russian Revolution cialists in the tradition of Marx, Engels, becoming socialists when they had lived all cialist, to prevent people escaping to West in 1917, it was the opposite of socialism. Lenin, Trotsky, Rosa Luxemburg and many their lives under a Stalinist system disguised Berlin, which was capitalist and linked to Many of us had through the decades cham - others had been arguing that “state social - as socialism. capitalist West Germany. pioned the underground workers’ move - ism” (the state owning all industry) could be The workers looked to the West and to Over its 28 years, about 5000 people man - ments and the oppressed nationalities in the even worse than the usual capitalism if in the market economics for their solutions. Mostly aged to escape over the Wall, and somewhere Stalinist systems. hands of a state controlled by an exploiting they hoped for something like Sweden, with between 100 and 200 were killed by East Ger - Others in the British labour movement minority. We are for public ownership, but good welfare provision. Because of the weak - man border guards while trying to escape. thought that the Stalinist states were socialist with democratic control. nesses of the labour and socialist movements In 1991, less than two years later, the old at least in some degree. We waged war Most important of all, from our point of in the West, and the consequent general ne - USSR broke up. The system created by against that idea. view, in 1989-91, was that the workers in the oliberal drift all over the world, they got a Stalin’s counter-revolution, which had been For the last 30 years we’ve heard that same Stalinist state gained the liberty to organise, cruder, rawer form of capitalism. the model for states which called themselves idea, from confused would-be socialists to think, to discuss, and thus to learn.. But the workers in East Germany, Poland, socialist like East Germany, and the overlord again, and also from advocates of the private- Neither market forces nor a Stalinist state- and other East European states still have their for many of them, collapsed. profit system who insist that Stalinism was monopoly economy serve the working class. own labour movements, battered and bewil - We rejoiced at the coming-down of the socialism because they want to discredit so - The cardinal value for us is the free activity dered mayb▉e, but able to organise, discuss, Berlin Wall and of the old USSR, and we still cialism and bury it. of the working class — even when, in the and debate. rejoice. In fact the system in states like East Ger - opinion of those who take the long historical The first Remembrance Day ▉ By Janine Booth to their deaths. And to-day, at the same hour, you are to be the cruelty, the hypocrisy, the pride; and the silent for two minutes; you are to stand bare- agony, the tears of the innocent, the martyr - ne hundred years ago, on the very first ou are asked to be silent for two minutes headed wherever you be; you are to remem - dom of the weak, the hunger of the poor? Remembrance Day, 11 November 1919, to-day, to be silent and to pause in your ber the Glorious Dead. Make the most of this day of official re - Othe Daily Herald , a socialist newspaper, pub - Ylabours, to remember this day and this hour What will you remember and what will membrance. By the sacred memory of those lished this article on its front page. last year. you forget? You will remember, mothers, the lost to you, swear to yourself this day, at 11 It was one year after the Armistice, and At 11 a.m. a year ago this day the guns that gay sons you have lost; wives, you will think o’clock, that never again, God helping you, Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s prom - had made the days hideous and the nights of the husbands who went out in the mist of shall the peace and happiness of the world ise of a “land fit for heroes” rang bitterly hell ceased firing along all the western front. the winter morning – the mist that sent cold fall into the murderous hands of a few cyni - around a country in which many conscripted The war that seemed endless had come sud - chills round the heart – never to come back. cal old men; that never again shall you, or soldiers had still not been demobilised, and denly to an end. The Peace that seemed be - And brothers will think of brothers, and your children after you, be set in arms against many of those who had lived in poverty. yond hope came suddenly within reach. Men friends of friends, all lying dead to-day under a brother man; that never again shall the fair These were the days before poppies, when who for four years had lost touch with living, a tortured alien soil. face of the earth and sky be shaken and dev - there were different ex-services organisations saw life blossom gloriously at their feet. And But what will you forget? The crime that astated by the hate and terror and the torture for rank-and-file soldiers and top officers be - men who had given themselves up for dead called these men to battle, or the fond, glori - of a fratricidal war. cause they had very different class interests. came abruptly back to life. ous and tragic delusion under which they Else it were better for you that to-day you Socialists both remembered the war dead All this at 11 o’clock in the morning of No - went. The war that was to end war, and that lay dead in your grave, and for y▉our children and spoke out against those who sent them vember the Eleventh one year ago. in bitter reality did not? The lies, the hatred, that they had never been born! More online at www.workersliberty.org Workers’ Liberty @workersliberty Where we stand Don’t fall off! Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour tle shit — and when I got punched standing on their feet and pushing the confidence to make their own power to another, the capitalist in the shoulder and grabbed by this them backwards; hanging them decisions?” class, which owns the means of Diary massive mechanic to stop me run - from crane hooks —” N replies “That training does production. ning over those rods — I remem - V “If someone is being cheeky produce confidence, because you The capitalists’ control over the By Emma Rickman bered it.” then they have to learn respect. I prove you’re tough enough to economy and their relentless drive N nods “Yeah” did, I did very well out of it — did - stand it — it builds resilience. You to increase their wealth causes V “And I wouldn’t do that again, n’t we N? M?” don’t want to employ someone poverty, unemployment, the ’m in the Control Room with two or I’d get the shit kicked out of me.” Me “If you did that to me I’d who’ll be in a situation on the plant, blighting of lives by overwork, older operators, ‘N’ and ‘V’, an N “Or you’d do a piece of work leave, immediately.” and hesitate about making a deci - imperialism, the destruction of the Ielectrical engineer ‘M’, an older that was shoddy, you know, just V “Well many apprentices did. sion, or need to ask for advice. You environment and much else. mechanical fitter ‘I’, and an ops as - crap. And my supervisor would lob And actually that was good be - need people who can confidently Against the accumulated wealth sistant, ‘MC’. N is a generally seri - it at me —” cause it wasn’t for them, they say, ‘This is what we’re doing’ and and power of the capitalists, the ous and capable shift leader who V and N are laughing now. It’s couldn’t handle it and it wasn’t for know that they won’t make poor working class must unite to rides motorbikes. V is a high-volt - infectious and I’m trying not to join them.” judgements.” struggle against capitalist power age electrical engineer sometimes in. “My supervisor used to shock “We did take it a bit far though.” in the workplace and in wider called “Colonel” because his beard ‘I’ cuts in “I got quite good at me with a multimeter,” says M. M V winces, eyeing the three men. society. is very like the KFC logo. V begins: dodging hammers — yeah! If I was is younger than me, and mentor to “We did a bit. There was this one The Alliance for Workers’ “When I was an apprentice, I doing something dangerous he’d the apprentices on site. lad who would not listen, disobedi - Liberty wants socialist revolution: used to get punched all the time! just a throw hammer! But I learned Me “What?! Why?” ent, talking back — a liability. We collective ownership of industry But you can’t do that now — you’re —” M “Because I’d made a stupid stood him on a stool with his hands and services, workers’ control, not allowed to.” Me “So would you hit me? If I mistake.” cable-tied behind his back and a and a democracy much fuller than “No, you can’t.” I reply “And fucked something up?” Me “So he shocked you?” rope in a noose-like form around the present system, with elected that’s a good thing.” V “Not allowed to.” M “A little shock. You don’t his neck — “ representatives recallable at any “Look I used to work in a mas - Me “If you were — ?” know what it’s like to get shocked “It wasn’t a noose — “ time and an end to bureaucrats’ sive steelworks — yeah?” V looks N “I think it’s different with you. until then do you? At least I got to “It was as good as a noose. And and managers’ privileges. me in the eye the way he does to See — how old are you?” experience it.” we said to him we said — “ V’s We fight for trade unions and check that I’m listening. “And there Me “Thirty” Me “What had you done eyes go wide “Don’t fall off! Ha! the Labour Party to break with were rods on a conveyor across the N “Thirty — you’ve had some wrong?” And we left him there for lunch.” “social partnership” with the hall — so hot they were still glow - life experience, studied. When I M “Isolated the wrong part of the MC, a young man who’s taking a bosses and to militantly assert ing,” he spreads his fingers “so was an apprentice, apprenticeships panel.” break from cleaning ash off con - working-class interests. when I, a young upstart, wouldn’t were for the kids who didn’t like Me “Couldn’t he just have ex - veyor belts, takes his hand away follow instructions, was rubbish at school; always in trouble, didn’t plained that to you, and got you to from his mouth. In workplaces, trade unions, school, teachers always having a want good marks, wouldn’t follow correct it?” “And you wonder why these old and Labour organisations; go...” instructions. They had no O-Levels, M shrugs and makes a “meh” blokes from st▉eel and pits are all among students; in local Me “And you know that they’re the works was their only career op - sound “It didn’t do me any harm.” traumatised.” campaigns; on the left and in wrong, right?” I look him in the eye tion. And there were about thirty- I shake my head “If you hit wider political alliances we because we’ve had conversations five of us in this steelworks — can someone, you put them off, make •Emma Rickman is an engineering stand for: you imagine trying to handle them frightened of you. How can apprentice in a Combined Heat and • like these before. “You’re a highly Independent working-class qualified HV engineer V, clearly everyone?” they ask you questions? How can Power plant in Sheffield. representation in politics. Me “You told me about locking they disagree with you if they think • your teachers had it wrong.” A workers’ government, V “But not then. Then I was a lit - apprentices in cupboards for hours; you’re wrong? How will they have based on and accountable to the labour movement. • A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to Vote Bev Laidlaw for PCS General Secretary strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. • Taxation of the rich to fund By a PCS activist in an operational role in a job cen - have the communications machine decent public services, homes, tre, with recent experience of or - of the union officialdom behind education and jobs for all. CS has been run by a “broad ganising strikes in her area. She has her, so our campaign will be based • A workers’ movement that left” alliance, made up of the committed to only take an average on grassroots activists doing work fights all forms of oppression. Full PLeft Unity grouping working with PCS member’s wage if elected, on the ground. equality for women, and social some more right-wing elements, rather than the full general secre - People can support the campaign provision to free women from for over 15 years. In that time, after tary salary of nearly £100k. by getting involved in leafleting, domestic labour. For reproductive an initial increase, membership has That is the essential difference at promoting Bev’s candidacy on so - justice: free abortion on demand; haemorrhaged. In all major govern - the heart of this election — a per - cial media, and donating. The cam - the right to choose when and ment departments, membership spective of rank-and-file empower - paign website is bev4gs.com. whether to have children. Full has fallen by between 10-50%. ment and rebuilding from the We also aim to grow and consol - equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual The “broad left” narrative is es - cancellation of union elections in ground up, versus the idea that idate the Independent Left, if pos - and transgender people. Black sentially that, if you elect a “left- 2015, allegedly to save money. Both electing “fighting”, “left-wing” sible as part of a wider and white workers’ unity against wing” leadership, you can simply backed the 2005 pensions sell-out, leaders is an end in itself. rank-and-file regroupment, as part which has led to a two-tier setup of the campaign. Over the past cou - racism. put your trust in them and every - INDEPENDENT LEFT • Open borders. thing else will fall into place. The where new entrants were on much ple of years, a number of independ - • Global solidarity against dominance of this narrative has led worse terms and conditions than While Bev has fewer branch nomi - ently-minded branches and global capital — workers to a decline in workplace activism existing staff. And both supported nations than the other two candi - activists who didn’t feel they had a everywhere have more in and militancy, and a decline in den - the hated and divisive “Employee dates, Independent Left candidates home in the existing dominant fac - common with each other than sity across all bargaining units in Deal” in the Department for Work tend to punch above their weight in tions in PCS have emerged. Some with their capitalist or Stalinist the union. and Pensions, where the majority terms of turning the vote out. of those people have joined the In - rulers. Mark Serwotka, the incumbent of PCS members work, which saw We will be working with the dependent Left, some are involved • Democracy at every level of general secretary, says he is “stand - attacks on terms and conditions, in - branches that nominated Bev to en - in the looser “PCS Rank-and-File” society, from the smallest ing on his record.” This is the real - cluding a reduction in weekends sure that work is done. We’re also grouping, and some are in both. workplace or community to global ity of that record. off work, in return for a few organising a programme of leaflet - We want to use the general secre - social organisation. Following a split in the leader - crumbs. ing at civil service workplaces tary election to grow and consoli - • Equal rights for all nations, ship faction, Serwotka will be op - Against these two candidates, across the country, along with visits date that layer of people, not against imperialists and predators posed by Marion Lloyd, a member who essentially represent different to workplaces and branch meet - simply on the basis of negative op - big and small. of the Socialist Party. But Marion factions within the union bureau - ings. position to Serwotka and the exist - • Maximum left unity in action, Lloyd has supported, and in some cracy, Bev Laidlaw is standing as a We’re also aiming to work with ing bureaucracy, but on the basis of and openness in debate. cases initiated, many of the bad de - rank-and-file candidate backed by branches to organise hustings a shared perspective that what’s cisions taken by our “left” leader - the Independent Left. Bev’s per - meetings, and hopefully persuade necessary to rebuild union power If you agree with us, please ship. Her differences with spective is that the union needs to some of the branches that didn’t in our workplaces is workplace ac - take some copies of Solidarity Serwotka are very recent discover - be rebuilt from the grassroots, by nominate a candidate to recom - tivism, starting fires wherever pos - to sell — and join us! ies on her part. For example, both empowering reps and activists to mend a vote for Bev to their mem - sible via industrial action, and Serwotka and Lloyd supported the organise at workplace level. Bev is bers. Unlike Serwotka, Bev doesn’t developing a higher l▉evel of rank- a low-grade, frontline civil servant and-file engagement. 14-15 Not just a Postal workers talk of 29 Nov action Labour vote postal worker in South York - the run-up to Christmas. the shots, in consultation with our meetings to discuss and decide the John shire spoke to Solidarity about “Striking on Black Friday, 29 No - reps. Hopefully though more direct direction of the dispute. Athe Communication Workers’ vember, is being discussed. This is forms of democratic control over “There is a widespread under - Moloney Union dispute with Royal Mail: also the date of the next school stu - the dispute will emerge. standing that many of the problems “We are all just waiting for the dents’ climate strike; this connec - “The gate meetings that took we face stem from privatisation. announcement of strike dates. tion isn’t really on the union’s radar place as part of the ballot campaign Everyone wants Royal Mail rena - CS members at the Foreign We’re all excited about the prospect at the moment, so this is a link that are a good model. They allow tionalised, so people connect with and Commonwealth Office of going on strike. The expectation needs to be made by rank-and-file workers to get together in large Labour’s policy on that issue and Pwill strike again on 7, 8, 11, and is that this will be a prolonged dis - activists. numbers at the workplace and dis - want to get a Labour g▉overnment 12 November. These are mem - pute. We’re discussing a potential “At the moment people are look - cuss issues collectively. We should elected in December.” bers working in facilities man - programme of ongoing strikes in ing to the union’s executive to call look to continue those types of agement, employed by outsourced contractor Interserve. We want Interserve to meet certain demands, including Low-paid workers strike across London recognising the union; guarantee - ing company sick pay; and re - By Ollie Moore working as security guards at the closes on 4 November. September 2017, 1 May 2018, and 4 versing cuts in hours, but University of East London are also Members of the Public and Com - October 2018. ultimately we want these work - balloting for strikes; they were mercial Services union (PCS) em - The overwhelming majority of ers to be employed directly on ovember 2019 is witnessing a the same terms and conditions as wave of strikes, disputes, and taken into direct employment in ployed by outsourced contractor workers in these disputes are mi - April 2019, but have been kept on Interserve at the Foreign and Com - grants, showing once more how, all other civil servants. Ncampaigns involving low-paid We are also working closely workers across the capital. their old terms and conditions. monwealth Office will strike again contrary to the myth that immigra - On 29 October, outsourced work - on 7, 8, 11, and 12 November, fight - tion depresses wages, migrant with the United Voices of the The United Voices of the World World union, which has mem - union (UVW) has members in - ers in the Independent Workers’ ing for demands including union workers’ st▉ruggles can in fact drive union of Great Britain (IWGB) at recognition, company sick pay, and wages up. bers in the Ministry of Justice and volved in several strikes across Royal Parks, which are civil serv - London — at St. Mary’s Hospital in University College London demon - a reversal of cuts to hours. strated to demand direct employ - On London Underground, out - Support the disputes: ice workplaces. Workers there Paddington; in Royal Parks; at the have struck recently and we’ve University of Greenwich; at Chan - ment. The demonstration was well sourced cleaners employed by supported by student activists as ABM are balloting for strikes to win • Donate to the UVW strike fund: promoted those strikes, and en - nel 4 and ITV offices; and at the couraged fundraising for the Ministry of Justice. well as a number of directly-em - staff travel passes, company sick https://www.uvwunion.org.uk/st ployed UCL workers. pay, and improved pension entitle - rikefund UVW strike fund. Flying pickets on 31 October vis - We want to continue and ited multiple workplaces, as well as IWGB members at 5 Hertford ments. The ballot, organised by the Street, home to exclusive Mayfair RMT union, closes on 19 Novem - • Sign the PCS’s online petition in deepen that relationship, which the offices of the outsourced con - we feel provides an important al - tractors who employ the workers. members’ club “LouLou’s”, are bal - ber. support of Foreign and Common - loting for strikes to win living McDonald’s workers in the Bak - wealth Office workers: https://ac - ternative way of working to the The strikes are demanding greater hostility that’s sometimes charac - equality with directly-employed wages and company sick pay. ers, Food, and Allied Workers tion.pcs.org.uk/co/fco-dispute The club is nicknamed “Brexit Union (BFAWU) at six London terised the relationship between staff, including living wages and TUC-affiliated unions and the company sick pay. HQ”, due to its billionaire aristo - stores will strike on 12 November, • Send a letter to London Mayor cratic owner Robin Birley’s high- demanding a pay increase to Sadiq Khan in support of London smaller non-TUC unions like Further strikes are due at St. UVW and IWGB. Mary’s on 11-13 November, and at profile political and financial £15/hour, an increase in guaran - Underground cleaners: support for Ukip, Nigel Farage, teed hours, and union recognition. https://www.rmt.org.uk/letter/ju The union is gearing up for the the University of Greenwich on 5 general election by mobilising and 11 November. UVW members and Boris Johnson’s Tory party This will be the fourth “McStrike” stice-for-tube-cleaners leadership campaign. The ballot in the UK, following walkouts on 4 members in constituencies in England and Wales to campaign for Labour. We have a clear posi - tion that we want to see a Labour Universities will be out from 25 November government, and will be explic - itly calling for a Labour vote in England and Wales, but we don’t By a UCU activist Hutton, a statistics professor who universities are in fixed-term posts. become General Secretary earlier want that to be a passive expres - raised concerns about the gover - Employers often claim these con - this year. sion of support, so it’s important we mobilise members to cam - embers of the University and nance of USS, has been sacked from tracts allow flexibility, but UCU Unsurprisingly the pre-92 insti - paign. Colleges Union (UCU) will its board of trustees. USS has a se - found 97% of fixed-term staff tutions that struck in 2018 were We also want to put demands strike at 60 universities between 25 rious lack of transparency and em - would prefer permanent contracts more likely to achieve positive re - M on Labour, to ensure they imple - November and 4 December, over ployers have refused to implement and 80% of hourly-paid staff would sults this time, with many post-92 ment policies we support. PCS pay and conditions, pensions, and the recommendations of the Joint prefer guaranteed hours to “flexi - universities missing the threshold. has a radical environmental pol - both. Expert Panel established when the bility”. Black academic staff are These are the institutions most vul - icy, including net zero carbon The dispute over the USS pen - 2018 action was called off. paid 14% less than white staff, on nerable in the current marketisa - emissions by 2030. That’s now sion scheme that shut down many Across the entire higher educa - average, and the gender pay gap in tion of HE, with many facing largely in line with policy passed pre-92 universities in 2018 remains tion sector there is a separate but universities is 13.7%, well above redundancies and course closures. at Labour conference but we unresolved. While employers have parallel dispute on workload, casu - the national average. That may explain the greater nerv - want to hold Labour to account backed away from entirely closing alisation, pay and equality issues. Overcoming the 50% threshold ousness about striking. to ensure these policies are imple - the defined benefit scheme, em - Pay has dropped by 17% in real for action at 54 institutions is a Still, there were some notable mented if Labour gets into gov - ployee contributions have risen to terms since 2009. UCU estimates huge achievement for the union successes, including Sheffield Hal - ernment. 9.6% from 6.35% ten years ago and that in many universities 25-30% of under the leadership of Jo Grady, a lam, which also won a local ball▉ot We’ll also be pressing Labour 8% when the current Career Aver - teaching is done by staff without grass-roots candidate who beat the against workload intensification. on our central industrial de - age scheme was introduced. Jane permanent contracts, and around long-standing leadership faction, 70% of the 49,000 researchers in UK the “Independent Broad Left”, to mands. Our policy for civil serv - ice pay is for a 10% increase, with a flat-rate minimum for the low - Strikes at Virgin, West Midlands, South-West Rail est paid, and pay equalisation across the civil service. We’re also By Jay Dawkey and 28 December. West Midlands fairly sacked colleague. mours are circulating about what demanding an increased staffing Trains is the latest Train Operating On Northern Rail, where RMT dodgy deals full-time reps might be level, which might mean 25,000 ail union RMT has called Company to see its workers plan guards have previously struck in concocting. On the shop floor, additional jobs in the DWP, the strikes on Virgin Trains, West industrial action over the imposi - opposition to DOO, RMT members Northern workers know we can biggest section of the civil serv - RMidlands Trains, and South West - tion of “Driver Only Operation” have voted by a 75% majority to re - fight for something better.” ice. These are demands we’ll ern Railway (SWR). (DOO). ject the company’s latest pay offer, On SWR strikes have been called p▉ress whoever wins the election. On the latter, the union has On Virgin Trains, train managers, of 2.75%. A Northern worker told for 2-11 December, 13-25 December, named a calendar of strikes a grade of customer-facing train Solidarity : “The Executive Commit - and 27 December — 1 January. throughout November and Decem - crew, on the West Coast franchise tee of the drivers’ union, Aslef, has They ▉are over Driver Only Opera - • John Moloney is Assistant Gen - ber, which will see walkouts on 16, will strike on 19 November to de - accepted the offer over the heads of tion. eral Secretary of PCS, writing 23, and 30 November, and 7, 14, 21, mand the reinstatement of an un - its own membership. Various ru - here in a personal capacity. SolidaFor a worrkers’ igovetrnmenyt No 524 6 November 2019 — general election campaign issue 50p/£1 Why socialism? course, the children and elderly or Briefing disabled people who depend on others’ wages). The employer, who is a position he word “socialism” has been to buy our capacity to labour be - used by all sorts of people to cause they’re rich and own the fac - Tmean all sorts of things. Like tories, the offices, the equipment, “democracy”. and facilities necessary for produc - That’s really because (like tion, makes profits through the ex - democracy) socialism is such a change. good idea that all sorts of political In Britain these days, for exam - tricksters and frauds have wanted ple, each worker produces an aver - to lay claim to it. age of about £74,000 in goods and William Morris was famous as a services. Of that, just £22,000 designer, but also an active social - comes back to the worse-off 80% of ist. Over 130 years ago, at the time households in wages. when socialism was first becoming The employers try to increase a stable and organised movement, their cut by keeping wages down, he summed up how he understood by pushing us to work harder and it. longer, and dividing us so that “What I mean by socialism is a some groups of workers can be condition of society in which there pushed down to even lower should be neither rich nor poor, wages. neither master nor servant, neither Across all countries and times, idle nor overworked, neither brain- workers respond by organising to sick brain-workers, nor heart-sick help each other, and banding to - hand-workers, in a word, in which gether to improve their collective all people would be living in conditions. That is what trade equality of condition, and would unions are about. That’s solidarity. manage their affairs unwastefully, Socialism is solidarity raised up and with the full consciousness and projected to become the guid - that harm to one would mean ing principle of all society. It will harm to all — the realisation at last get rid of exploitation by making of the meaning of the word com - the factories, offices, equipment, monwealth”. facilities, collective social property, The language seems old-fash - rather than private property run ioned, but the thought is as rele - for private gain. vant now as it was then. The privileges and perks of man - Measured against that defini - agers, officials, bureaucrats and tion, the old USSR and the East Eu - shareholders will be abolished. ropean states which called There will be democratic self-rule themselves socialist were the very at all levels of the economy, includ - opposite. There, a minority of bu - ing the workplace. Each electorate reaucrats lived in luxury and will control its representatives and lorded it over the workers. be able to use a right of recall and Real socialism is more than just re-election at any time. a good idea, and more than just a Production will be democrati - different interpretation from the cally planned for need. Waste will tricksters, because it builds on how be reduced. Economic activity will the working class develops under serve human life, rather than the existing economic system, the human life serving “the economy”. private-profit or capitalist system. Individual liberty will expand. decades. Only, with the movement inch by inch, on ground which the Build up the confidence and dar - By working class we mean Versions of this picture of social - lacking confidence and daring, its capitalists are simultaneously ing! That’s what the active social - everyone who has to sell their ca - ▉ ism have been widely though leaders of the movement have too moving backwards beneath our ists work for. pacity to labour to an employer for vaguely recognised as long-term often aimed only to go forward feet. a wage in order to live. (Also, of aims in the labour movement for Write to us: 20E Tower Subscribe to Solidarity Contact us Workshops, Riley Road, Trial sub (6 issues) £7; Six months (22 issues) £22 waged, £11 unwaged; Europe €30, rest of world £40 London, SE1 3DG 020 7394 8923 Solidarity production team: Simon Subscribe online at www.workersliberty.org/sub Nelson, Cathy Nugent, Martin Thomas Or send your name, address and postcode with payment to 20E Tower Workshops, London SE1 3DG solidarity@ (editor), and Misha Zubrowski To subscribe with a standing order: £5 a month, or pay us more to support our work. Forms online, as above workersliberty.org Printed by Reach Plc