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

No 336 17 September 2014 30p/80p www.workersliberty.org Help Kurds and Iraqi left resist ISIS See page 5

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What is the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? Chomsky tells BDS to wise up By Paul Hampton spell out the deeper flaw turn to the homes and prop - fett or Intel or other big Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to with BDS — its racialisation erties of 1948, given all that hedge funds and multina - another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. In an article published in Society is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to increase their of the Palestinian oppres - has happened since. He re - tionals (including military the US magazine The Na - sion, thereby downplaying gards a UN resolution that contractors). Finally, he wealth. Capitalism causes poverty, unemployment, the tion on 2 July, Noam blighting of lives by overwork, imperialism, the the more important national stipulates the right of return mocks the campaign as Chomsky challenged the oppressive element of how as “conditional”, in the “BD” since there are no destruction of the environment and much else. central tenets of the Boy - Against the accumulated wealth and power of the Israel treats Palestinians. sense of being tied to “liv - sanctions — nor much like - cott, Divestment and capitalists, the working class has one weapon: Nevertheless, he shows that ing in peace with their lihood of any. His point is solidarity. Sanctions (BDS) Palestin - differences of class struc - neighbours”, is manifestly that tactically, these de - The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build ian solidarity campaign. ture completely undermine implausible. Chomsky does mands do little to help the solidarity through struggle so that the working class can overthrow That sparked a huge the apartheid analogy. not take his view to its logi - Palestinians and may in - capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership of furore among people who BDS says its goals are Is - cal conclusion — that the deed harm their cause. industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy much fuller normally take his pro - rael out of the occupied ter - right of return in fact means Overall, Chomsky is right than the present system, with elected representatives recallable at any ritories; equality for the destruction of Israel. that these mistaken tactics time and an end to bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. nouncements as gospel. In further recent interviews Palestinians within Israel; flow from a faulty assess - We fight for the labour movement to break with “social partnership” and the right of return. FLAWS ment of the political reali - and assert working-class interests militantly against the bosses. Chomsky stood his ground. The original BDS declara - Chomsky argues that the Chomsky believes the first ties. In fact they reflect the Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, demand, one which all so - tion was explicit about vicarious fantasies of so- supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, helping analogy BDS activists draw ending Israel’s “occupa - between their campaign cialists and democrats sup - called anti-imperialists who organise rank-and-file groups. port, should be the main tion and colonisation of believe the main job is to We are also active among students and in many campaigns and and the anti-apartheid focus of solidarity work. In all Arab lands”. (It has undermine the current alliances. struggle is flawed. He since been revised). pointed out that South this he is absolutely right, as world order, rather build a it is the basis of getting an working class agency that We stand for: Africa under apartheid re - BDS activists and single- independent Palestinian na - can both challenge the dom - Independent working-class representation in politics. lied on 85% black labour state supporters are pri - ● tional state alongside Israel. inant powers and also cre - A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the labour and that the apartheid gov - vately (and occasionally ● ate a more progressive form movement. ernment really did promote BEST publicly) candid about this of democratic self-rule. A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to strike, to Bantustans. Chomsky reiterates his — and there is no question ● Chomsky’s position is not picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. Israel on the contrary, is long-held view that two- that is what it would mean. without its contradictions. Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, education premised on the exploita - states, while safeguarding Nevertheless, he is spot- ● He seems to put the empha - and jobs for all. tion of Jewish waged labour the right of Jewish self- on that the right of return is sis on doing the right thing A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. Full (as well as increasing num - determination is the best a central political defect ● where you are — in his case equality for women and social provision to free women from the burden bers of migrant workers political solution to the with the BDS campaign. putting pressure on the US of housework. Free abortion on request. Full equality for lesbian, gay, from Africa and Asia), with national oppression of the Third, Chomsky takes to effect a change in the bisexual and transgender people. Black and white workers’ unity Palestinian labour marginal Palestinians. aim at the tactical orienta - Middle East. International - against racism. to its central mechanisms of tion of BDS, pointing to the He disputes, wrongly in ist working-class solidarity Open borders. capital accumulation. flaws in all three of its com - ● our view, the importance of goes much further, prioritis - Global solidarity against global capital — workers everywhere have Chomsky also points out ponents. He supports the ● fighting for equality within ing support for actors more in common with each other than with their capitalist or Stalinist that the reality on the boycott of settlement goods Israel; he does this because within the actual situation rulers. ground does not conform to and has done so for years it undercuts those who — principally the Israel and Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest workplace or apartheid. He argues, some - before the BDS campaign ● want to focus on Palestini - Palestinian workers. community to global social organisation. what contrarily, that the sit - was launched in 2005. But Nevertheless, his inter - ans inside Israel because Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal rights for all uation of Palestinians in the he offers no support to an vention does much to ● they want one, so-called bi - nations, against imperialists and predators big and small. occupied territories is worse academic boycott or a wider cleanse the ideological national state. Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. than apartheid, but for boycott of all Israeli goods. terrain. We should wel - ● Chomsky reserves his If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity to sell — Palestinians living within On divestment, he points come the blows dealt by ● main critique to the de - and join us! Israel it is significantly bet - out that major investment Chomsky’s critique. ter than for black people mand for the right of re - in Israel continues unabated under apartheid. He doesn’t turn. He rightly questions — whether by Warren Buf - Contact us: the logic of a demand to re - ● 020 7394 8923 ● [email protected] The editor (Cathy Nugent), 20e Tower Workshops, Riley BOOKS TO CHANGE THE WORLD Road, London, SE1 3DG. A revised and ● Printed by Trinity Mirror In an era of wars

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Cheques (£) to “AWL”. Edited by Sean Matgamna It disputes the Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. Cartoons which tell the story of revolutionary Class against class “post-Marxist” Name ...... socialist politics in the readings of US; depicting alterna - This history marks the 30th Gramsci and Address ...... tives to “New Deal” capitalism and Stalinism anniversary of the miners’ discusses the ...... Buy online at strike. A blow-by-blow account relation between Gramsci’s ideas and of events, an examination of Trotsky's. I enclose £ ...... workersliberty/social key political lessons. ist cartoons Price £6, or £7.60 including postage, order for £10.60 £8 from workersliberty.org/books from workersliberty.org/books 3 NEWS Paying for the doctor? By Martin Thomas time in my many visits to Australia, I had serious Even the Tories dare not health problems, so I visited say outright that they a GP three times, went for want to stop NHS care four medical tests, and was being free at the point of prescribed medications. need. I had to pay $615. I got In fact that principle has back $260 in Medicare re - been much eroded already. funds. Net payment $355, Dental treatment is not free. for what in fact will be a Care for elderly people with small beginning bit of the Make Labour rebuild the NHS! long-term ailments is not medical treatment (the diag - free. nosis showed incurable By Michael Johnson eral election. There is a time happened since the end of Though no fewer than But even the Tories won't complaints). The fact that I to have heated arguments July which couldn't have eight rule changes from 14 cross the line to people hav - am over 65 and on a low in - The Labour Party's 2014 within the Labour Party been addressed by the NPF CLPs were ruled out of ing to pay routinely for come made no difference. annual conference in about policy. There is even a or the National Executive order last year, a few CLP everyday care? My recent The GP I went to charges Manchester (20-24 Sep - time to discuss the future of Committee (NEC). rule changes remain on the time in Australia brought a bit more than the standard tember) is likely to be a the Party itself. But that time Several CLPs submitted a agenda. home to me how far that is Medicare refund. Some stage-managed rally, with is not now.” model motion calling, Most seem technical, from true. don't. But many do, and I most of the major union But with Labour heading among other things, for though are of some impor - This is Australia, not the preferred to go to the GP leaders having already into the election promising Labour to rebuild a pub - tance. For example, one USA. It is a country where who had cared well for my fallen in behind Ed to continue the Coalition's licly-owned, publicly-ac - seeks to clarify the meaning the government seriously daughters rather than Miliband ahead of the policies on cuts and public countable, publicly- (and of a clause governing how tried to introduce a National search for another. general election. sector pay, the labour move - adequately) funded NHS, often CLPs can submit rule Health Service in the 1940s, That sort of payment for ment must advance its own which is liberated from changes. Clarification could at the same as Britain and health care is routine — in a The conference is meant rich country with a devel - to set Labour's policy demands on the Party's crushing PFI debts, privati - restrict the CAC's room for on that model, though it leadership. sation and outsourcing. bureaucratic manoeuvre, failed. oped social insurance sys - agenda but most of that tem. process already happened at The NPF will report to Unfortunately that was and prevent arbitrary appli - It has had “social insur - conference, with documents ruled out of order by the cations of the rules sidelin - ance” for health care since Back in Britain, I got re - July's meeting of the Na - ferred to NHS specialists by tional Policy Forum (NPF). for each of its policy com - CAC. The ruling will be ingR edbemuioltc trhaeti cN rHulSe! cLhoabnbgyes. Gough Whitlam's Labor missions. Delegates can then challenged but it will proba - government in 1972-5. That my GP, only to have one There, a motion to reverse Labour Party Conference. specialist write back saying Tory cuts with a programme vote to “take it or leave it”, bly be left to labour move - Sunday 21 September at social insurance system, as the conference does not ment activists lobbying sharply cut back under the that my appointment is can - of investment was defeated 2.30pm, on Peter St, out - celled because my case is with the votes of every affil - have the right to amend or outside the conference on side the conference Fraser Liberal government take parts on the docu - Sunday 21st to make the po - in the later 1970s, was re - not “appropriate”. (I sur - iated union present, with venue. Called by health mise he means that the Aus - the exception of BECTU. ments. litical points. campaigners, trade union - stored by a new Labor gov - It was to be hoped that As well as some emer - ernment in 1984, and no-one tralian tests showing an At the Unite conference in ists and Labour Party ac - over-50% probability that I June, Len McCluskey was discussions on “Contempo - gency motions, another po - tivists. proposes abolishing it. rary Motions” would give tential for conflict with the Yet people still pay for have cancer aren't conclu - clear: “The most important sive enough to be worth his challenge Unite will face the conference some demo - leadership is provided by •For more info, see: health care, routinely. The timSeo) . cuts in the NHS can over the next eleven months cratic debate. These are mo - changes to the party rule - bit.ly/1tYPU3k current Liberal government sometimes have even is winning next year’s gen - tions on events which have book. is pressing for a $7 extra levy on every visit to the worse effects than having doctor, not specially to raise to pay for care. We need revenue, but to give people to campaign both to main - Tory Eurosceptics gather strength a “price signal” that they tain the principle of free should think twice about access to health care and By Tom Harris in Clacton. The Spectator flects a contradiction be - amongst right-wingers as a visiting. to reverse the cuts. even suggests that back - tween the interests of their good thing. They hope that This year, for the first Divisions in the Conserva - benchers have threatened backers in big business and UKIP will steal crucial votes tive Party are deepening the party hierarchy that hos - the prejudices of their elec - from the Tories, and that the as their Eurosceptic back - tile attacks on UKIP will toral base. division within the Conser - bench MPs gather have “serious implications The majority of the British vatives will hamper their Ozone thickens strength. for David Cameron's leader - bourgeoisie is perfectly bid to win the general elec - The ozone layer may be The defection of former ship”. happy within the EU, and tion. starting to thicken after Some scientists are pre - Tory MP Douglas Carswell It is thought that some To - greatly benefits from the Such glee is shortsighted. years of depletion, ac - dicting that the ozone layer to UKIP has embarrassed ries favour a pact with UKIP trade agreements and access The presence of a strong and cording to a UN report. could return to its pre-1980 the Cameron and triggered whereby Carswell is al - to markets and cheap well-organised anti-EU cur - levels by the middle of this The ozone layer, a fragile a by-election on 9 October in lowed to win Clacton in ex - labour. Reflecting those in - rent threatens to drag all po - century. This is an environ - shield of various gases, pro - Clacton in which the ques - change for UKIP refraining terests, the Tory leadership mental success story, on a litical discourse to the right. tects the Earth from harmful tion of Britain's role in the from challenging Conserva - is reluctant to disengage scale that has not been seen It will continue to divert ultraviolet rays which can European Union will be cen - tive candidates in seats from the EU in any serious before. It has been achieved popular anger and disen - cause cancer. It has been de - tral. where Labour is the main way. partly by political determi - franchisement away from pleting for many decades, According to The Specta - contender. However, millions of mid - nation and international co - the capitalist class and to - mainly due to the chloroflu - tor , right-wing Tory back - Such a deal is highly un - dle-class and working-class operation. wards the EU, and mobilise orocarbons (CFCs) mainly benchers are keenly aware likely, especially while Tory voters are sceptical Addressing the damaging people on the basis of na - used in aerosols and as of the new leverage that Cameron remains leader. about Europe, seeing the EU use of a small number of tionality rather than class in - coolants. Carswell's move to UKIP But for the duration of this as a meddling threat to na - chemicals that had easily terest. The use of these sub - has given them over David government the story of the tional sovereignty and a When Cameron makes found replacements is on a stances was banned by the Cameron. “He knows that if Conservative Party's posi - source of mass immigration. concessions to the eu - very different scale to tack - 1987 Montreal Protocol, and he doesn't give us what we tion on the EU has been the The Tories have to be seen rosceptics, the victims of ling man made global it is only now starting to warming or wide scale de - want, more of us will de - story of a leadership pulled to address those fears. But those concessions will be have an effect. It is esti - further and further to the Eurosceptic backbenchers immigrants and, ulti - forSeustcahti opno.l itical determi - fect,” one MP told the maga - mated that two million right by backbench rebels are able to draw upon grass - mately, the working-class. nation and international zine. cases of skin cancer a year with more confidence and roots hostility to Europe in a The left must fight xeno - cooperation should be ap - The Tory leadership also could be prevented by tak - fears that many Eurosceptic more support amongst the way the leadership cannot. phobia and nationalism plied to other environmen - ing these steps to prevent tal issues. MPs will simply fail to turn party rank-and-file. Some leftists have viewed tooth and nail. depletion of the ozone layer. up to campaign for the party The split in the Tories re - the split over Europe 84 CFOEMAMTUENRET Sexism is wrong, The Jobbik-Putin nexus not clothes! By Hannah Webb 8-10% of the population and are frequently the targets of hor - rific abuse). Although parts of the meeting were translated Although my first week (of a study year) in Budapest has for me, it was interesting to see similarities with London ac - been filled with mundane tasks of internet installation, tivism: consensus organising hand signals being used, dis - Letters sim cards and university course registration, it was not cussions about when a group decision should be taken, or uneventful. individual decisions made. At the start of term 50 students at Heaton Manor The city is covered in political posters for the local elections On the way home Mordecai bumped into a friend, a fa - school in Newcastle were put into isolation and is - on 12 October. These elections are not without controversy mous Hungarian actor, who could no longer find work in sued with detentions for wearing “the wrong uni - — the date for them was only set in late July, and they follow any Budapest theatre. The actor had been working on a play form”. The school has insisted that a certain type of a change to the electoral law brought about by the ultra-con - at Új Színház (the New Theatre) in 2012, but following the trousers be worn, saying students should not wear servative Fidesz majority government to ensure they will win election of Fidesz, the mayor of Budapest sacked the director, “tight fitting trousers or leggings”. the Budapest elections more easily, an area that is a tradi - and appointed Jobbik supporter György Dörner in his place. tional stronghold of its leftist oppositions. Dörner vowed to reverse what he described as “degenerate, This is not an isolated case, it has similarities to a move - sick, liberal hegemony” in Hungary by stopping production ment in the US against sexist dress codes in schools Under the new election system only parties capable of nominating a candidate for mayor in at least 12 out of the 23 of “foreign garbage” to concentrate on Hungarian plays, in - (where there are usually no uniforms) and colleges. cluding those by open anti-Semites and advocates of the Jew - Those movements have been highlighting dress codes local councils would be allowed to receive “compensation votes”, and smaller parties will get fewer seats. The smaller ish conspiracy theory. that ban short skirts or shorts, “spaghetti strap tops” or When the Dörner was introduced to the company, this tight trousers. leftist parties have been forced to form a coalition. This does not bode well for next year’s national elections; actor punched him square in the face, and was subsequently At South Orange Middle School in New Jersey a group banned from working in any Budapest theatres. This despite of girls started a campaign against a code which bans “at - many believe this coalition is forced and untenable. It is also predicted that this clear abuse of the electoral system will the fact that his most recent film, in which he had the main tire that exposes undergarments or anatomy”. role, was winning international awards. #Iammorethanadistraction was started by the students give Fidesz a clear majority. Challenges in the Constitutional Court have been frustrated by Fidesz-appointed justices who Although Fidesz’s electoral manipulation keeps Jobbik fur - after they were told that their clothing was a distraction ther away from electoral control, there should be no consola - and affecting the “learning environment”. make up the majority of the body. Meanwhile Jobbik, an explicitly fascist party, and the sec - tion sought from it. Fidesz and Jobbik prop up each other. As an ex-teacher I have heard many a manager witter When Jobbik occupy Roma villages, intimidating residents, on about the ond strongest party in Hungary (probably as big as all the left parties combined) is growing in popularity. Walking and burning houses to the ground, Fidesz lets it happen; the “learning envi - presence of Jobbik makes Fidesz seem less extreme. ronment”; often around Budapest it is not unusual to see Jobbik posters, from fly posters to paid billboards in major metro stations. Although Fidesz is the party pushing austerity measures, they mean and Jobbik builds its base by offering nationalist economic maintaining Among other things Jobbik argue that Jews are a “national security risk” (a few years ago their presidential candidate alternatives to they are both based on what they describe as their personal “Christian values” — social conservatism, political conser - dictatorial described Jews as “lice-infested dirty murderers’); they want detention camps for Roma “deviants”, attack pride marches, vatism, anti-Semitism and anti-Roma racism. micro-manage - Mordecai tells me that both Fidesz and Jobbik are funded ment rather and have an SS wing — the New Hungarian Guard, who were recently ordered to disband, though it is unclear by Putin. Whether this is true or not, it is a persistant rumour than anything in Hungary, shaping how these parties are perceived by beneficial for whether this has happened. At one busy metro station I saw a man wearing a Jobbik many Hungarians. It is clear that there are strong political children or ties to Russia, with Orbán (Fidesz prime minister) recently learning. hoody, with no outward reaction of shock or disgust from claMimirirnogr itnhga t h“eth Re uwsisniadn i sa bnlnoewxiantgio fnro omf tthhee CEarismt”e. a, Orbán Putting stu - anyone walking by. has been calling for autonomy for “ethnic Hungarians” dents in isola - I met up with a friend of a friend, a Jewish Hungarian man in southwest Ukraine; many Jobbik members are vocal tion, detention Mordecai, now based in London, who grew up in the 7th dis - supporters of Russia’s annexation of the Crimea; Jobbik or publicly hu - trict of Budapest, traditionally the Jewish quarter but now president Gabor Vona was recently invited to speak at miliating them the centre of edgy tourist nightlife. He took me to a meeting Moscow State University by Kremlin-connected right- is not about cre - of Hungarian activists, who were setting up a social centre, wing Russian nationalists, meeting many members of ating a good and offices for leftist groups, in the 8th district (an relatively the Duma whilst he was there. “learning envi - poor area heavily populated by Roma people, who make up ronment”. At Oakleaf High School in Florida a student who vio - lated the dress code by wearing a too short skirt was forced to spend the rest of the school day wearing a large, yellow t-shirt and jogging bottoms with the lettering Four hour strike in NHS not enough “dress code violator”, reminiscent of prison clothing. Her “selfie” of the punishment clothes went viral. At many UK schools students who turn up with incor - Last week’s Solidarity carried an article that argued “a rect uniform — often because they have bought their four hour walk out [on 14 October] is a good tactic in the The solution is that the union calls an all-out strike. Man - trousers from a cheaper retailer — are isolated or sent NHS [as a starting point]” and “It is vital that discussions agement have ultimate responsibility for the safe running of home until their parents buy new uniform. This not only on strike tactics are held at workplace level where union the wards. During the handover period management will excludes the student unnecessarily from education but members know what action can be most effective”. I dis - have to assess where life and limb services are short staffed also places an extra financial burden upon their parents. agree. and redeploy 9-5er scabs to work in those areas. If the strike The argument on uniform says it levelling the playing is particularly solid and the offices, outpatient clinics and ground for poorer children. This case, and others, is noth - Unison’s leadership are worried about low turnout and un - community teams are shut down, then management can ne - ing to do with that. The two main themes here are basic necessary deaths on a strike day. They have attempted to gotiate exemptions with pickets. Management can also nego - sexism and obsessive top-down control by school man - solve these problem by proposing a four-hour stoppage. They tiate if there is a particular shortage of a skilled worker e.g. agements. hope healthworkers will be more likely to strike for half a day qualified nurses. It is basic sexism to ban “tight trousers”, “skimpy tops” and it will be less risky for patients. This approach will cause maximum disruption without or “short skirts”. It tells young girls that their bodies are a But the four-hour tactic will be neither effective nor safe. compromising patient care. It will demonstrate the value of distraction, shameful and should be covered up. It also The union wants to provide a bank holiday level of service the lower grade shift workers in maintaining the service, be suggests that women and girl’s attire is to blame for men’s on strike days. To achieve it Unison have tried to devolve re - a huge boost to morale and help to build the union. behaviour. sponsibility for strike strategy to workplace level, arguing Many nurses still believe that it is illegal for nurses to strike Students in America are taking action. One group of that the complexity of the NHS makes it impossible to set a and the leadership have done nothing to dispel this myth. It students wore “offending” clothes to school holding “are blanket rule for exemptions from the strike. But there is a very has failed to set out a clear strategy for safe but effective strike my pants lowering your test scores?” posters. Another simple blanket rule that could be applied. actWiohna itn U thneis NonH’Ss. Service Group Executive decide to do poster [pictured] started in one school and quickly spread Some NHS workers work seven day shift patterns, while will set the tone of the strike for all the other unions. A to Socthheoros ltsh rsohuoguhl dth neo int tbeern aet .p lace where problems in others work 9-5 Monday to Friday. Whether you are a porter, strong leadership would advocate the above strategy for society are reinforced and even taught. They should a lab worker, a nurse or a domestic, if you usually work strike days and set a rapidly escalating program of be a place where they are challenged. weekends then you are part of the life and limb service. The strikes; we need to get this dispute over and done with ideal we want is for all the 9-5ers to strike and all the life and before Christmas. limb workers to maintain the bank holiday level service. But Gemma Short, north London the union’s strength is amongst the workers who work shifts, not the admin staff and managers who work 9-5. A healthworker, south London 95 WHATF EWAET USARYE Help Kurds and Iraqi left resist ISIS The ultra-Islamist group ISIS is a threat to all the people of Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Syria, as well as to the peo - ple who live in the territory where it currently rules. It openly declares itself a “caliphate”, hostile to democracy as a “western” idea. It represses and persecutes religious mi - norities — Christians, Yazidis, others — and Sunni Muslim Arabs who dissent. Summary killing of people who refuse to pledge allegiance to ISIS has been common across Iraq and Syria. So have been persecution of non-Sunni religious groups and a special tax on Christians The coalition of states assembled by the US at a conference in Paris on 15 September will not efficiently stop ISIS. In Afghanistan the US has been bombing the Taliban for almost 13 years, and providing US aid to prop up a US- friendly Afghan government. The result of those 13 years has been to rebuild a political base for the Taliban, which back in 2002 was shattered and and peaceful Sunni protest, and vastly corrupt administra - grow and cohere in the ISIS territory, free from the powerful discredited, with people cheering as it fled Kabul. tion siphoning off Iraq’s oil revenues. inhibition that opposition to ISIS opens the way to Shia-sec - People have been driven into the arms of the Taliban by re - According to Iraq Oil Report (16 September), Sunni tribal tarian militias or Kurdish nationalist forces who will be as re - sentment against the US bombing and disgust with the cor - forces in northern Iraq are now turning against ISIS. But they pressive, in a different way, against Sunni Arabs. rupt US-sponsored Afghan government. have also turned against the Kurdish peshmerga forces. They Solidarity and Workers’ Liberty are working with the In Iraq and Syria, the prospects are worse. Even US strate - also see those as a threat. Worker-communist Party of Kurdistan and others to support gists recognise that, stressing that the bombing is to back up Democratic and socialist politics can mobilise the people the development of that democratic and socialist politics. forces on the ground and that they plan no US ground troops. of Iraqi Kurdistan, of central and southern Iraq, and of areas For secular democracy! The US’s strategy hinges on alliance with established pow - of Syria, and enable them to organise so that it is impossible For self-determination for the Kurdish people! ers in the region. Alliance with the Shia-sectarian Iraqi gov - For workers’ unity to win social control of the oil riches for ISIS to spread its rule into that territory. ernment in Baghdad, whose main military force since the of the region! Over time, also, it can enable discontent with ISIS rule to Iraqi army disintegrated in June is Shia-sectarian militias. Alliance with the regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan, which is less sectarian but seen by many Arabs in the areas where ISIS rules as a threat. The Kurdish regional govern - ment’s first response to the ISIS surge in June was to seize Cities crammed with refugees Kirkuk, long a disputed area between Kurds and Arabs. Alliance with all the conservative and repressive govern - Dashty Jamal, a member of the Worker-communist Party In Kirkuk refugees from ISIS are living in schools and in ments in the region, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the rest. of Kurdistan, visited in mid-August. He told Solidarity parks. A few of them who have money are renting places. Both the US and Iran officially forswear alliance with each what he saw in Sulaimaniya, in the east of Iraqi Kurdistan, There are even more refugees in Sulaimaniya, maybe other against ISIS, but in fact they are allied. The record in and in Kirkuk, an oil city long disputed between Baghdad 140,000. They come from many areas of Iraq and from Syria. Syria makes it impossible for the US to ally with the Syrian and the Kurdish region but now under Kurdish control. There are some refugee camps, and many people living in dictatorship. That also limits what the US will do against ISIS In Kirkuk people are stressed because of war, insecu - unfinished houses. in Syria. rity, and their fear of ISIS. ISIS control areas only 20 min - I didn’t see Arab-Kurdish conflict in Kirkuk. In Su - ISIS made its surge in June only because it was able to win utes away. Many people fear that ISIS will be in Kirkuk support or compliance among the population. It has grown laimaniya, there has been an anti-Arab demonstration by a today or tomorrow, and don’t trust the Kurdish parties group of young people. The demonstration was small, maybe into a formidable fighting force, but militarily and economi - to defend them. cally it is still tiny compared to established states in the area. 100. Many people spoke out against it. But some KDP media Sunni Arabs have faced many years of Shia-sectarian rule ISIS has become a major threat to the lives of all Kurdish have carried anti-Arab coverage. from Baghdad (despite the presence in every government of and Iraqi citizens. This terrorist organisation has captured I heard a nurse in a hospital saying, “all these Arabs, token Sunni ministers), repression by Baghdad of moderate and killed many prisoners of war and has killed thousands of they’re destroying our society”. But in Sulaimaniya there are Christian and Yezidi civilians. After these brutal killings, ISIS many educated people, and they resist those attitudes. portrays the images of the dead to the general public via dif - Sulaimaniya is not militarised like a city under siege, and ferent media outlets. travel between Sulaimaniya, Erbil, and Kirkuk is normal. But What is NATO? ISIS has also raped hundreds of women, particularly Chris - Sulaimaniya feels like a city in wartime. People don’t feel se - tian and Yezidi women. The group has as much financial and cure. The ISIS threat has given the administration an extra The recent summit meeting of NATO was more than usu - military power as a state has, which gives them the power to ally busy with talks on Ukraine and ISIS dominating. But create such havoc and disaster. excuse for unpaid wages. what is NATO? Some are preparing to flee to Sulaimaniya, but the idea of The displaced people I spoke with want an end to the ISIS the people defending themselves is giving some hope. People nightmare. But they do not trust the nationalist parties to de - NATO, otherwise known as the “global cop”, was set up as believe strongly that threat of ISIS must be banished. fend them. And many see what’s happening now as an out - a “mutual defence pact”, the product of a military stand-off Sulaimaniya has a population of just over 1,600,000. There come of American policy in Iraq. People are not silent. between the US and the USSR after World War Two. Instead of disappearing after the end of the Cold War, it are around 1.4 million refugees that are in the whole Kurdis - There have been demonstrations in many cities and towns. has expanded, and now counts for 70% of the world’s total tan region, people who have come to Kurdistan from Iraq Taxi drivers closed the roads because of the increase in the military spending. and Syria because of the war ISIS has started. price of patrol. I organised two public meetings in a cultural The organisation is basically a “world-wide police instru - Kirkuk had a PUK member as mayor even before 12 June, coffee house in Sulaimaniya. ment”, mainly controlled by the US. A lot of its power lies in when Kurdish forces took the city, soon after ISIS took The meeting was attended by journalists, trade union Mosul. Now the city is under joint KDP-PUK control. The two departments, Allied Command Transformation and Al - women rights activists. At the meetings we discussed how PUK has more strength. lied Command Operations, both of which are overseen by people organize them self against ISIS, racism and also the senior US military officers. Discussions within NATO are all [KDP and PUK are the two big Kurdish nationalist parties, which run Iraqi Kurdistan in a coalition. The KDP is stronger KRG. The KRG must not use the excuse of war for not an - top secret, but disagreements tend to be straightened out by swering the demands of the people. The meeting also organ - economic and political pressure from the US. NATO is also in the west, including in the regional capital, Erbil; the PUK ised a network of people to support the displaced people. more or less embedded in the politics of Europe. is stronger in the east.] So NATO is a lot more complicated than a “mutual defence The city administration is functioning, but there is no secu - Generally people are better off in Sulaimaniya than in pact”. rity. There are huge queues of cars waiting for fuel. Public Kirkuk. Kirkuk is a long-neglected area, and Sulaimaniya is The way NATO relates to the rest of the world is under - sector workers — teachers, hospital workers — often don’t a bit safer. lined by inequalities of the world, including sometimes, na - get their wages. When I was there, even the peshmerga [Kur - But water and electricity supplies are worse in Sulaimaniya tionalistic superiority bordering on racism. dish armed forces] were not getting wages, though they are than in Kirkuk. In Sulaimaniya, sometimes there is running In a document entitled Toward A Grand Strategy for an now. Uncertain World water only water for two hours then no water for two whole , big names in the organisation call for a People do second and third jobs to survive. This is partly “super-NATO” which could enforce the edicts “of a com - days. due to the fact that the Iraqi Government in Baghdad has not The displaced people have to buy water in bottles, mon transatlantic sphere of interest” anywhere in the been sending the region the revenues due to it. Also prices though temperatures are still up to 40 Celsius. In Janu - world. are very high due to the continuing war. This makes life very ary and February it will get much colder, with snow. difficult for working people. 86-7 FEATURE Class struggle not Why we op

Solidarity opposes the demand for Scottish independence. Shortly after we publish the referendum will be over, but relevant? the issues it has raised will be around much longer. This “ question and answer” by Sacha Ismail is a response to Matt Cooper reviews The Establishment: And How They popular justice) The Daily Telegraph , which remorselessly ran questions we have encountered. Get Away with It by Owen Jones. with the story. And the Metropolitan Police refused to in - It’s up to the people of Scotland to decide on independence. According to Owen Jones Britain is dominated by an vestigate the leak because, they argued, a prosecution would Yes, but no one denies that. Given the widespread demand unitary elite — the Establishment. This is defined not so not be in the public interest. All of these institutions support for independence, it is good that a referendum is being held much by its wealth and power but by its ideology and the existing free-market order, but have their own institu - (whether it’s good that the demand is widespread is another mentality. tional position and interests within that order. Jones’ over - arching concept of The Establishment adds nothing to our matter). It doesn’t automatically follow that people should Acting as a united group, it promotes its interests and un - understanding of how these institutions work. vote yes in the referendum. dermines popular democracy. Superficially this is an arrest - Another example. Jones describes how BBC Radio 4 Socialists support the right of nations to self-determination, ing thesis. It is, however, full of inconsistencies and gaps. Today Programme journalist Andrew Gilligan exposed which if it means anything must include the right to separate Jones does have some class-struggle politics. For instance some of Blair’s shoddy propaganda over Iraqi weapons of and form an independent state. How we advocate exercising he argues the post-1945 welfare state and Keynesian eco - mass destruction in 2003. For Jones Gilligan was acting that right, including whether to form a separate state, de - nomic policy was the result of the growing working-class against the Establishment. But if the Establishment exists pends on the consequences for the interests and struggles of power. He sees the victory of neo-liberalism under the Gilligan and his associates ( The Telegraph , Boris Johnson, T he the working class. Thatcher governments as a corollary of the defeat of the London Evening Standard ) are part of it! It is true, parts of the working class, especially of the miners in 1985. state and media turned on Gilligan and the BBC, but the The overwhelming bulk of the radical left in Scotland is However Jones makes little attempt to relate the Marxist story is best understood as division and competition within backing a yes vote. ideas of class to his narrative. That is, he does not dwell on sections of the state and media. Most of the Labour left and much of the trade union left is the fundamental conflict between the ruling class which Not all capitalist institutional actions are reducible to the opposed to independence. But yes, probably most of the “ owns and controls the economy and the working class who “ interests of capitalism” . There is a long and important hard left” socialists in Scotland are backing a yes vote. How - through their labour create the wealth. He does not dismiss Marxist theoretical tradition in understanding how capital - ever, we respectfully disagree. And we think that a lot of the such ideas as wrong, just ignores this key idea of the social - ism works and how its interests are articulated via the state, Scottish left has, to one degree or another, become a satellite ist tradition. the media and other institutions. All of that is entirely ig - of Scottish nationalism. Is this because Jones thinks it would put off a new layer of nored in this book. younger activists, or is it because he finds it irrelevant? That This lack of theoretical ballast is clear in the book’s conclu - You’re lining up with Cameron, Clegg and Farrage! is not clear. sion, where Jones outlines his political programme. We’re also lining up with most trade unions and the Jones focuses on ideas and ideological conflicts. The old Jones calls for a “ democratic revolution” against the Es - Labour Party! And on the other hand the pro-independence Establishment that dominated Britain after 1945 was defined tablishment. But this grandiose idea turns out to be a series left is lining up with the significant minority of Scottish by a mix of Tory paternalism and social democracy. The cri - of limited reforms for a nicer capitalism, including putting bosses who support independence, like billionaire Brian sis of the 1970s was an opportunity for neo-liberal ideo - MPs on the average wage, renationalisation of the power Souter of Stage Coach, billionaire Jim McColl of Clyde Blow - logues to transform the Establishment into one devoted to companies with compensation for their owners, keeping the ers and former Royal Bank of Scotland chair George Mathew - the dictats of the free-market, a rejection of the state as a pro - bailed-out banks in state hands with a remit to lend to man - son. Rupert Murdoch has a close relationship with Alex tector of the citizenry (although it continued to promote the ufacturing industry and small business and more redistrib - Salmond (who describes him as a “ remarkable man” ) and Establishment’s interests), media scapegoating of the poor, utive taxation policy. has been flirting with backing the yes campaign! and foreign policy defined by Atlanticism, the special rela - Some of that is okay or okayish. And the agencies of the “ But socialists cannot decide our policy by putting a minus tionship with the USA. democratic revolution” are two small campaigning groups where the ruling class (or the majority of the ruling class) The new Establishment was forged in the early years of (UK Uncut and the New Economics Foundation) and the puts a plus. That is the approach which has led swathes of the Thatcher governments. It consists of the financial insti - People’s Assembly Against Austerity. Could such an incre - the left into so many blind alleys, for instance over Stalinism tutions of the City of London, the political elite in Westmin - mental programme, pushed forward by well-meaning, and over anti-imperialism, for decades. ster and Whitehall and the owners and controllers of the small and medium-sized, activist groups really shift the bal - We do not defend the status quo. We advocate the reor - ganisation of Britain as a federal republic — unlike the Scot - media. There is a revolving door of personnel between these anJcoe nine sB rtietilslsh upso lintioctsh tion gth, ei nledfet?ed deliberately does not tish National Party, which supports the monarchy. institutions. The police as a whole (not just its senior offi - try to tell us anything, about how to reverse the defeats cers) are also part of this Establishment, but in recent years the working-class has suffered since the 1970s. have been sidelined by the drive to privatise and cut its state If Scots vote for independence, they’ll always get the gov - functions. ernment they vote for. Although Jones admits the ruling bloc The same could apply to any area of the UK. What about potentially has competing interests, London, or Birmingham, or Manchester, or any big English overall the Establishment is presented as city which always votes Labour but often gets Tory govern - a monolith. A more subtle understand - ments? In any case, having an independent government is ing of the British state and society would not a guarantee that it will be any good from a working-class have looked at the competing sectors of point of view. capital and their relationship to other In both Scotland and England, “ we” — the working class important powerful groups. But for — are the big majority. Yet we get governments that serve Jones the Establishment appears as a sin - the capitalists, who are a small minority. The problem is not gle-minded conspiracy with no room for in any real sense the existence of Britain as a single unit, but internal conflict. the balance of class forces within that unit — who has power. For instance the 2009 MPs’ expenses If Scotland was in some sense oppressed as a nation, then scandal is used to show the self-serving escaping from English control would be a boost for democ - mentality of the new Establishment. But racy and for workers’ struggles. But one, even on the left, se - this example actually undermines the riously argues that it is. The fact that Scotland sometimes idea it is self-serving unity. Jones ignores votes differently from England does not constitute national how the Commons’ repeated attempts to oppression. stop the release of the information on ex - penses was undermined by the Lords, “ Britain is for the rich: Scotland can be ours” That’s a slogan of the Radical Independence Campaign, the the Information Commission and the The Bullingdon Club with David Cameron and Boris Johnson High Court. Eventually, a full list of left wing — or more accurately, left cover — of the campaign MPs’ claims was leaked to (that organ of for independence. 9 CLASS SFTERAUTUGRGELE ppose Scottish independence

Many support independence out of anti-Toryism, but a united working-class fightback would be better

But the RIC doesn’t mean that an independent Scotland ple, ethnic minorities, and so on were won UK-wide over movement develop which can fight the ruling class and its will quickly become socialist — so in what sense will it be “ decades and even centuries, but now radical change is only imperialism across the US, as part of an international move - ours” ? The (not that radical) shopping list of reforms it pro - possible unless Scotland leaves the UK? ment. poses could indeed be carried out by a left-leaning govern - The inescapable implication of the RIC slogan is that noth - National self-determination is a different issue: we advo - ment in Scotland, given a strong enough working-class ing much can change in the rest of the UK. To bolster illu - cate self-determination not primarily to “ weaken imperial - movement exerting pressure and adequate channels for that sions about the prospects in an independent Scotland, it ism” but to extend democracy and remove barriers to movement to find some political expression. But that is just promotes despair about prospects in England (and Wales?) working-class struggle. what does not exist in Scotland. The movement for Scottish On Trident, no one disputes that what is proposed is not independence is self-evidently not such a movement. But Scottish politics is well to the left of English politics. scrapping it, but moving it. The idea that British imperialism If there was a strong left movement in Scotland, but not in On a certain limited level that is true, in that the Tories are will not be able to relocate it is absurd. And nimbyism is not the rest of the UK, one of its tasks would be to spread to Eng - currently weaker. It has not always been true and will not the same thing as disarmament. land, not to separate Scotland off. But in fact there is no such necessarily always be true. movement at present. Such arguments rest in large part on the implication or as - You accuse some Scottish leftists of being nationalist. But A left movement, bringing about a left-leaning govern - sumption that the SNP is left wing. It isn’t. On some issues, there is nothing nationalist about wanting independence. ment, could also happen Britain-wide. The barriers to it in the SNP is to the left of Labour — on others it is to the right. There is nothing necessarily nationalist about wanting in - England are real and strong, but only about as real and It voted down Labour’s proposal to insist that all Scottish dependence if the country you live in is oppressed by another strong as the barriers in Scotland. We should fight together to government contractors pay the living wage and do not country. But Scotland is not. So the demand is inherently na - overcome them. blacklist, voted down Labour’s call for an inquiry into police tionalist, even though a minority of its advocates say they are Why was it that the legalisation of trade unions, shorter actions during the miners’ strike, criticised Miliband’s pa - not. worker hours, the right to vote, the NHS, the welfare state, thetically weak proposals for an energy price freeze as “ un - In principle it is possible to imagine a left which supported nationalisations, measures of equality for women, LGBT peo - realistic” , opposes a 50 percent top rate of tax, and says that a yes vote while also militantly criticising and fighting the if Scotland becomes independent it will cut corporation tax. SNP and its supporters. In fact the majority of the pro-inde - If Scottish independence would (at least in the short term) pendence left has echoed the arguments of the nationalists, weaken Tory influence in Scotland, it would strengthen it in only changing the emphasis. In doing so it has strengthened what remained of the UK, because it would (at least in the nationalism. short term) make it harder for the Tories to lose a general That is because serious criticism would mean exploding election. the whole basis of the nationalists’ worldview, and therefore the whole basis of advocating independence. Scottish independence will weaken British imperialism. The left, across Britain, is in a weak position. We have to or - It’s hard to see how. Minus Scotland, the UK will still have ganise and argue our way to a stronger position. That will be over 90 percent of its previous population, over 90 percent of hard work. It is daunting, and tempting to look for short cuts its economic output, an extremely strong military, and major or substitutes. Support for Scottish independence is an exam - overseas influence. In any case, as British imperialism has pleW oef snuecehd a t sou brestniteuwte .and popularise the basic ideas of long been in decline, this would hardly be a major blow. socialism — including the idea of uniting workers and Socialists do not advocate fighting imperialism by chop - the oppressed across boundaries of nationality identity. A slogan of the Radical Independence campaign ping up imperialist states. We do not want to break the US up We encourage readers who disagree to write in. into fifty small countries. We want to help a working-class 8 FEATURE Death of a political gangster

By Sean Matgamna the local government left leaders who were Michael Banda (Michael van den Poorten), who died re - reneging all down the cently, had for nearly three decades been a retired polit - line on their public ical gangster. promises to use For much of the previous three decades he had been an all- Labour-controlled too-active political gangster, as one of the two or three central local government to leaders of the Healy organisation known variously as the mobilise against the Newsletter group, the Socialist Labour League, and the Tories, was to try to Workers’ Revolutionary Party. cripple or destroy So - He was known in the organisation during the 1950s and cialist Organiser , with early 60s as “Mike the Knife”, after he pulled a knife on a which Livingstone man who had grabbed Gerry Healy by the coat collar in a fac - and Knight and others tional row. had worked closely up He also played “Mike the Knife” at the demise of the or - to the point that they ganisation in 1985-6. That time, the knife was political, and its bottled out of con - target was Healy, whose political lieutenant Banda had been frontation with early for the previous three decades. Thatcherism and we The old Healyite organisation came to an abrupt end, shat - turned on them. tered into pieces. One of the pieces was led, or spearheaded, Early in 1981, the by Banda. WRP — in the improb - Serious socialists owe him a debt of gratitude for the long- able person of the ac - overdue demise of an organisation that had, for its last tress Vanessa When the WRP collapsed in 1985 decade of existence, been a pensionary of Middle East dicta - Redgrave — started a tors Gadaffi of Libya, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and some of libel action in response the sheikhdoms. to a very understated sort for political differences and in disputes. But he was 73, How much money the WRP received cannot, by the nature summary account of the WRP which the present writer pub - and no longer the formidable political thug that he once was. of the operation, be precisely known now. It was certainly lished in Socialist Organiser . I was sued for what I’d written — There was some evidence that he was getting ready to purge well over one million pounds and perhaps a great deal more. for comparing the WRP to the Moonies, but not for referring the WRP leadership. The alluvial flood of petrodollars allowed the WRP, though to the evidence of funding from Arab despots — and John So they fell on each other, gouging and spitting and rip - it was in prolonged and steep organisational decline, to buy Bloxam was sued for repeating some of it in a circular letter ping each other. The hysteria that engulfed the leading layer printing presses more modern than those the mainstream pa - to Socialist Organiser supporters. had been building up for years. Cliff Slaughter, an academic pers were printed on, and to acquire bookshops and other We decided to fight the case in preference to publishing a and hack theoretician for Healy over many years, suddenly property in a number of cities. tongue-in-cheek retraction of what we knew to be true, mak - discovered and proclaimed that Healy’s inner group (the To earn their wages, the Healy-Banda gang sent their pay - ing a hypocritical apology. Redgraves, etc.) were no less than “fascists”. masters spy reports on dissident Arabs in Britain and on That expensive libel action — we wouldn’t have been able Michael Banda and his brother Tony had learned no-holds- prominent Jews. They justified the killing of Communist to fight it if some friendly lawyers hadn’t worked with us barred political rough-housing from Healy. Good pupils, Party members by the Iraqi state. In 1980, Banda wrote an ex - without payment — dragged on for the five years that re - they denounced Healy as a serial rapist of young female com - planation to the readers of the WRP’s daily paper Newsline mained in the life of the WRP, until its 1985 implosion made rades. (If that had, as they charged, gone on for years, then that the CPers had tried to subvert the Iraqi army — and it impossible for Redgrave to go on. they too, knowing it, were guilty). The press had much mer - everyone knew what happened to people who did that, did - Michael Banda played a central role in that and other po - riment, reporting on Healy, “the Red in the Bed”. n’t they? litical-gangster activities. In its later period, there was always Healy had lived the life of a sheikh or a Hollywood mogul The Healyites spread political corruption into those areas an atmosphere of intimidation and real or incipient thuggery while members of the organisation struggled to raise money, of the labour movement which they could reach by testifying around the affairs of the WRP. Banda was central to that, too. and ordinary full-timers often went unpaid. Now the back - that Gadaffism was authentic socialism: Michael Banda was It would be senseless to discuss which of the political and lash licensed by Banda convulsed the organisation. Old scan - frequently the boldest and most shameless in such work. other crimes of Healy, Banda, and the other leaders of their dals came pouring out. In the early 1980s he told a big meeting at the Conway Hall, organisation was “the worst”. What they did with anti-semi - Healy, the life-long bully — organisational, physical, and called to denounce and condemn Solidarity’s predecessor, So - tism would, however, rank very high in the list. sexual — refused to face his accusers. I remember the gleeful cialist Organiser , that the Islamic-green Libya was like a melon “THE ZIONIST CONNECTION” satisfaction with which one of the leading WRPers, Geoff Pilling, who hadn’t spoken to me in many years, accosted me — green on the outside but red on the inside! That satisfac - As part of the deal with their various Arab patrons they one night in a pub near Conway Hall to tell me that. “He did - torily solved that little difficulty... provided private reports on dissident Arabs in Britain and n’t dare to face us”. In the period before it imploded in late 1985, the WRP ac - on the activities of prominent British Jews. Publicly they Someone commented that Machiavelli would have tivated or reconnected with still-loyal former or secret mem - ran a campaign against “Zionists” in British politics, summed up the lesson in power politics for Healy thus: “He bers such as “Red Ted” Knight, the leader of Lambeth’s businesses, and other public affairs. “Zionist” was the who rules by personal force and the ability to terrify his fol - Labour council and “close comrade in arms” of Ken Living - thinnest of disguise for “Jew”. stone in the leadership of the local government left of the lowers should not grow old”. time. It reached the stage that they wrote about “The Zionist Michael Banda disappeared from politics soon after that. That local government left became both prominent and Connection” in terms very close to the craziest anti-semites He came to a meeting I did a dozen years ago and we talked powerful as Thatcher’s Tories struggled to set themselves who saw conspiracy by world Jewry everywhere and in afterwards. firmly in the saddle so that they could smash up the labour everything they disliked. The WRP published an editorial in He said Healy was a paranoiac, citing the opinion of Chris movement. 1985 that raved about a gigantic “Zionist connection” that ex - Pallas, a neurosurgeon who had parted company with the What did the WRP do with its reclaimed allies? Politically, tended from the editorial board of Socialist Organiser through organisation as long as 25 years before Banda turned on emotionally, and intellectually, they encouraged the local Thatcher’s Cabinet all the way to Reagan’s White House. Healy. government leaders to run away from the necessary fight By that stage Healy was, arguably, clinically mad. Banda He said: “He died on the job, you know”. He told that story with the Tories, for which positions in local government wasn’t. as if he and others had not plausibly branded Healy as a se - should have become a base. And they set up a weekly paper The end came for the WRP when it lurched into financial rial rapist — indeed, I thought, with an edge of proprietorial, for them, Labour Herald , edited in fact by a WRP Central Com - crisis on an unprecedented scale. With a few hundred mem - even filial, pride. mittee member, Steven Miller, though nominally by Living - bers, the organisation was vastly overextended. It had expen - I asked him how he named himself politically. “I’m not a stone, Knight, and another Lambeth councillor. diture and commitments which it could not sustain even help Trotskyist. I’m a realist now”. God knows what that meant. The local government leaders had promised to make local from the inflowing wads of petrodollars. He managed to sustain the ebullient manner that had al - government a base for fighting the Tories, but Ken Living - A great head of political frustration had built up in the or - ways been his front in politics. In fact, politically he was dead stone was always a political cynic and a devoutly self-pro - ganisation, and of hatred between layers of the party bureau - — by that time, long dead. moting careerist. By contrast, Knight had serious and cracy. For example, older leaders resented having been You have to stand back from the mountain of political long-standing roots in revolutionary socialist politics, and pushed aside by Healy to make way for such as the Redgrave atrocities, against the working class, against young and vul - might have chosen a different course if the WRP leaders had - siblings, Corin and Vanessa. nerable members of “his” organisation, against Marxism, and n’t been there to whisper right-wing advice and rationalisa - Above all, political events made it increasingly difficult to against Trotskyism, which Banda perpetrated or helped tions in his ear. (After the miners’ defeat, Knight would evade the fact that all of Healy’s promises to “build a mass Healy perpetrate over decades, to see the personal tragedy blunder into a semi-confrontation, and be legally disquali - revolutionary party” had failed entirely. of Michael Banda, of his brother Tony, who died a decade fied as a councillor). Healy had always played the role of a bonaparte in the ago. And of so many others. One of the services which the Healyites tried to provide for WRP, balancing, controlling, and acting as court of last re - Continued page 10 9 FEATURE An organiser for black workers

The line was dictated from Moscow to the CP leaders in Our movement the US. However, it was more of a test of loyalty and ortho - doxy than an operative agitational slogan. Much of the Stal - By Michael Johnson inists’ most impressive black activism (like its defence of the Ernest Rice McKinney (1886-1984) was a black US trade Scottsboro Boys) happened not because of but in spite of the union organiser, revolutionary socialist and former Na - Comintern’s programme. tional Secretary of the Third Camp Workers Party USA. McKinney would always be a strong advocate of a revolu - tionary integrationist position arguing that “the Negroes in Born in Malden, in West Virginia’s Kanawha Valley, McK - the US must lay their case before the trade unions. Not as inney’s father was a coal miner and later a teacher as was outsiders seeking a united front but from the inside as an in - McKinney’s mother. McKinney Sr. eventually landed a job tegral and integrated part of the labor movement. Here the at the US Treasury through his involvement in the Republi - Negro proletarians will be caught up in the basic struggles can Party, which had widespread black support in the of labor, they will have opportunity to pose the question of decades after the American Civil War. democratic rights for the Negro as a part of the struggle for Due to the efforts of anti-slavery abolitionists during post- the emancipation of the whole working class.” Civil War Reconstruction, West Virginia had a black fran - This meant the labour movement must cease to be a move - Communist Party defence of the Scottsboro boys chise. The area also experienced industrial development from ment of more privileged white workers: “The demand...for the 1870s with the growth of railway lines and mining. The social, political and economic equality for Negroes is... ad - trade union expert in the newly-formed Workers Party, and United Mine Workers of America (founded 1890) had some dressed directly to the white proletariat... The party says to wrote much of its policy on black liberation. success pursuing biracial trade unionism, which left a last - the white workers that the Negroes have already initiated CLR James, who had headed the SWP’s work on black op - ing impression on a young McKinney. and carried on the struggle for their democratic rights against pression, also joined the new Workers Party. There was per - Growing up, McKinney noticed class differentiation within terrific opposition; even the opposition of white labor. It is sonal animosity between James and McKinney, but it was the black community, as the small black middle-class at - now the duty and the responsibility of white labor to step out accompanied and aggravated by political differences. tempted to forge alliances with the white elite, supporting in front, take the lead and throw its full weight into the fight.” The “self-determination” slogan was still vigorously op - anti-union sentiments. These experiences shaped McKin - In 1926 McKinney left the CP and three years later joined posed by McKinney (and Shachtman), who saw black peo - ney’s understanding of the centrality of black workers to the with AJ Muste to form the Conference for Progressive Labor ple as the most exploited layer of the American working-class class struggle, and the centrality of the class struggle to black Action (CPLA) which supported the formation of a mass but not as a separate nation. The slogan found more reso - liberation. Labor Party distinct from both the SP and the CP. nance with James, who carried his views into the new organ - McKinney was educated at Oberlin College in Ohio, where isation, and influenced Leon Trotsky. he worked with the black intellectual WEB Du Bois to set up WORKERS PARTY The CPLA formed the American Workers Party in De - As Christopher Phelps wrote in his introduction to Shacht - a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of cember 1933 and opposed the slogan of “self-determina - man’s polemic Communism and the Negro : “As against Shacht - Colored People (NAACP). In later life McKinney would be tion for black belt.” man’s 1933 standpoint, Trotsky and James in 1939 believed skeptical of the role of such non-working-class groups. At the that the right of self-determination applied to black Ameri - time both Du Bois and McKinney were active in the Socialist McKinney wrote in 1936: “The Workers Party rejects as cans, and that revolutionaries should support the demand Party of America. spurious and defeatist all schemes based on race patriotism for territorial independence if raised in substantial numbers After Oberlin, McKinney became a social worker, working and nationalism; whether it be ‘self-determination for the by black Americans themselves.” with young black people in Denver, Colorado. He then black belt’, Back to Africa, salvation by Negro business en - However Trotsky himself wrote that he thought it was served in the US Army between 1917-1919, as part of the terprise, or any other scheme or plan which in practice means wrong for the CP to make an “imperative slogan” out of self- American Expeditionary Forces in France. the segregation of the Negro worker.” determination, and did not advocate raising it — only for Like many in his generation, McKinney was inspired by McKinney continued, the American Workers Party “rejects revolutionaries to support a movement for self-determina - the 1917 Russian Revolution and joined the Communist Party also the spurious doctrine that the Negro worker has no spe - tion if black Americans themselves wanted it. in 1920. At this time he was working on A. Philip Randolph’s cial problems and can be treated en masse just as a worker. On this latter point, James wrote to Trotsky that: “You newspaper The Messenger, which advocated inter-racial trade The fact that the Negro worker suffers a double form of ex - seem to think that there is a greater possibility of the Negroes union organising; it opposed the black nationalism of Marcus ploitation gives the lie to this doctrine. He is exploited as a wanting self-determination than I think is probable... I con - Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement. worker and further exploited as a Negro worker.” sider the idea of separating as a step backward so far as a so - In the early 1920s the American CP took the problem of One main focus of the CPLA was unemployed organising. cialist society is concerned. If the white workers extend a black oppression more seriously than any other US socialist In September 1932, the Pittsburg CPLA branch launched the hand to the Negro, he will not want self-determination.” organisation had ever done before. One of the founders of Unemployed Citizens’ League with McKinney as its Execu - McKinney, however, in the majority resolution of the American Communism and, later, Trotskyism, James P Can - tive Secretary. “We sought,” he recalled, “to give these unem - Workers Party in 1945 wrote: “All the manifest tendencies of non recalled that, the “earlier socialist movement, out of ployed workers an idea of what kind of society they lived in, Negroes today, especially the proletarians, are in the other which the Communist Party was formed, never recognised an idea as to what improvements might be made in that so - direction. As the regular Negro proletarians and the new any need for a special program on the Negro question. It was ciety, and an idea how they could participate in improving Negro wage earners enter the factories and take their places considered purely and simply as an economic problem, part that society.” in the trade union struggles they reveal a marked tendency of the struggle between the workers and the capitalists; noth - These efforts were successful in mobilising workers and away from separation and all ideas of racial separatism... ing could be done about the special problems of discrimina - the unemployed to protect people’s homes and possessions “However, if, despite our efforts, the Negroes should de - tion and inequality this side of socialism...” from bailiffs, wire their houses and turn back on their gas. mand political independence, the WP guided by the Bolshe - “The American communists in the early days, under the The Unemployed Leagues also demanded cash relief and vik position on self-determination, would approve such a influence and pressure of the Russians in the Comintern, cash for public works in order to give the unemployed more course; provided, however, that such a course did not vio - were slowly and painfully learning to change their attitude; of a choice than that offered by the receipt of goods. late wider principles of workers’ democracy and provided to assimilate the new theory of the Negro question as a spe - In 1934, the AWP played an heroic role in the Toledo Auto- also that such a demand was not made under conditions that cial question of doubly-exploited second-class citizens, re - Lite strike, paralleling the work of the Trotskyists in the Com - would jeopardise the existence of the workers’ state and quiring a program of special munist League of America in the Minneapolis Teamsters’ throw the Negroes themselves defenceless into the clutches demands as part of the over - strike that same year. of counter-revolutionary imperialist forces. all program — and to start The strikes were the catalyst for the fusion of the AWP with “Whatever position the WP might take in the future when doing something about it.” the Trotskyists to form the Workers Party of the United States a concrete demand for self-determination arose, we are not The debates on black liber - at the end of 1934, which marked McKinney’s entry into the now and will not be advocates of self-determination...We are ation in the 1920s were af - Trotskyist movement. and remain advocates of the unity of the working class: the fected by the growing These strikes also paved the way for the creation of the fellowship of all the proletarians in the class struggle, the Stalinisation of the Commu - more radical Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in gathering together of all the working class for the coming as - nist International and its na - 1935, as a rival to the craftist American Federation of Labor sault on capitalism and the establishment of the workers’ tional sections. The position (AFL). The following year, McKinney briefly became an or - state.” on black liberation shifted to - ganiser with the CIO’s Steel Workers Organizing Committee McKinney was to drift out of the organised Trotskyist wards “self-determination (SWOC). Mc Kinney organised steelworkers in Youngstown, movement, leaving the Workers Party in 1950, though he still for the black belt” in the Ohio in the 1930s and in 1940 sharecroppers and tenant farm - considered himself a Marxist. He went on to teach labour his - American south, a policy ers for the Missouri Agricultural Union. tory a Rutgers University, working with the United Federa - drafted at its Sixth Congress After a period of entry work inside the recently revived So - tion of Teachers to organise education workers, and served as in 1928 by Finish Stalinist cialist Party, the Trotskyists formed the Socialist Workers’ a consultant to the A. Philip Randolph Education Fund, Otto Kuusinen (later head of Party (SWP) in 1938. Within the Trotskyist movement, McK - whHiech w rasn ap rhouggraemly st afoler ntrteade o urgnaionnis earn, djo bulrancka lgisrto aunpds. rev - Stalin’s puppet Finnish gov - Ernest Rice McKinney inney became an ally of Max Shachtman. When Shachtman olutionary militant, Ernest Rice McKinney’s life and work ernment after the Soviet oc - and his allies split with the SWP in 1940 over its response to deserves to be widely known about and discussed. cupation). World War Two, McKinney became National Secretary and 810 FEATURE Culture-shift on the left

barbarity”, “barbarism can only cause more counter-bar - barism”, or they were “terrorists the West has created”. The Left The pamplet promoted a third and decisive idea, that we should side with the “counter-barbarism” against the “bar - By Rhodri Evans barism”. It was nowhere as explicit as the SWP had been in 1990: A “common sense” which has dominated much left “The more US pressure builds up, the more Saddam will play thinking since the late 1980s or early 1990s is now break - an anti-imperialist role… In all of this Saddam should have ing down. That’s a good thing. the support of socialists… Socialists must hope that Iraq gives the US a bloody nose and that the US is frustrated in its at - The old line was to support whomever battled the USA. By tempt to force the Iraqis out of Kuwait” (SW, 18 August opposing the USA, they were “anti-imperialist”, and there - 1990). fore at least half-revolutionary. But the idea in the 2001 pamphlet was the same. The SWP For most, Stop the War’s implicit support for Assad is too much So many leftists backed the Taliban. They sided with talked freely about how “horrifying” the 11 September at - Khomeiny’s Iran. They claimed “we are all Hezbollah”. tacks in the USA were. It refused to condemn them. But Syria’s dictator, Assad? Some leftists have taken the US “The American government denounces the Taliban regime states big and small... support for the Syrian opposition, and the US threats to as ‘barbaric’ for its treatment of women”, said the pamphlet. “The British, Russian, French and US imperialists are no bomb Syria, as mandating them to side with Assad. Most A true denunciation, or untrue? The SWP didn’t say. Its an - longer the only independent powers in the region. Iran, find that too much to swallow. swer was: “It was the Pakistani secret service, the Saudi royal Saudi Arabia and Egypt — though all intertwined in alliances And ISIS? Leftists who have backed the Taliban are not family and American agents… that organised the Taliban’s with other countries big and small — are powerful capitalist now backing ISIS. Not even “critically”. push for power”. states in their own right, playing the imperialist game, not The outcry about ISIS ceremonially beheading Western Bin Laden was behind the 11 September attacks? Not his mere clients of bigger powers...” (1 July 2014). captives has, reasonably enough, deterred leftists. So has the fault. “It was because of the rage he felt when he saw his for - The shift signifies an opening for discussion, rather than a threat from ISIS to the Kurds, whose national rights most left - mer ally, the US, bomb Baghdad and back Israel”. reaching of new conclusions. ists have learned to support. On ISIS, a frequent leftist “line” now is to deplore ISIS; say And so, probably, has the fact that other forces previously FANTASIES that the 2003 US invasion of Iraq contributed to the disloca - reckoned “anti-imperialist” — Iran and its allies, for exam - Now Corey Oakley, in the Australian socialist paper Red tion from which ISIS surged (true); express no confidence or ple — detest ISIS as much as the US does. Flag , which comes from the same political culture as the trust in US bombing as a way to push back ISIS (correct); and The Taliban converted Kabul’s football stadium into a site SWP, criticises “leftists [for whom] ‘imperialism’ simply slide into a “conclusion” that the main imperative is to cam - for public executions, and chopped hands and feet off the vic - means the US and its Saudi and Israeli allies. paign against US bombing. tims before killing them. The Taliban persecuted the Hazara “Syria, Iran and even Russia, whose strategic interests The slide gives an illusion of having got back to familiar and other non-Sunni and non-Pushtoon peoples of brought them into conflict with the US, are portrayed as play - “auto-anti-imperialist” ground. But the illusion is thin. Afghanistan. ing a progressive role... The old argument was that if you oppose the US strongly Now the media coverage of ISIS has focused thinking. But “Events in Iraq... leave such ‘anti-imperialist’ fantasies in enough, then you oppose the root of all evil, and hence you leftists who now don’t back ISIS must be aware that their cri - ruins. The Saudis are conspiring with the Russians while US also effectively combat the bad features of the anti-imperial - teria have shifted. diplomats negotiate military tactics with their Iranian coun - ist force. But no-one can really believe that the US created The old “common sense” was spelled out, for example, by terparts... Israel tries to derail a US alliance with Iran while si - ISIS, or that there were no local reactionary impulses with the SWP in a 2001 pamphlet entitled No to Bush’s War . multaneously considering whether it needs to intervene in their own local dynamic and autonomy behind the rise of It portrayed world politics as shaped by a “drive for global de facto alliance with Iran in Jordan. ISIOS.ur statement of basic ideas, in this paper, says: economic and military dominance” by a force interchange - “If your political approach boils down to putting a tick “Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal ably named “the world system”, “globalisation”, “imperial - wherever the US and Israel put a cross, you will quickly find rights for all nations, against imperialists and predators ism”, “the West”, or “the USA”. yourself tied in knots. The driving force behind the misery... big and small”. We have a new opening to get discussion All other forces in the world were mere “products” of that is not an all-powerful US empire, but a complex system of on that approach. drive. They were examples of the rule that “barbarity bred conflict and shifting alliances between the ruling classes of Death of a political gangster

From page 8 The issues implicitly posed in the 1953 split concerned the Northern Ireland to stop Catholic-Protestant fighting, all whole political trajectory of the “orthodox Trotskyists” after Healy and Banda could see was that these were soldiers and These were two young men, of well-off Sri Lankan back - Trotsky’s death — their analysis of Stalinism and their poli - therefore evidently part of a creeping military coup. They ground, who came to England in 1951 or 52. This was a race- tics towards the expanding Stalinist empire. They were never were too excited to notice that the troops were under the po - conscious England not over-friendly to brown-skinned posed explicitly. “Pabloism” became an empty term of abuse litical and operational control of the Wilson Labour govern - incomers like the Banda brothers. They were already Trot - against other post-Trotsky Trotskyists. ment. skyists, and presented themselves to Gerry Healy as fully- When the SWP-USA moved towards reunification with the In a welter of polemic, demagogy, say-anything-for-effect, grown political activists, “reporting for duty”, so to speak. Mandel Fourth International (now minus Pablo), the Healy- take-any-line-you-think-will-serve, the whole group, shed - Healy’s account of it was that they came, and he ques - Banda group fumed and raged about “Pabloism” and kept ding people constantly, slithered down the long decline until tioned them about their politics and what they’d read. Have their distance. Indeed, with much polemic, and much of it Healy would sell its services to Libya. they read Trotsky’s The Revolution Betrayed ? Oh yes. The Per - dishonest, they increased their distance. It was not possible for “ordinary” members of the group, manent Revolution? Yes, of course. In Defence of Marxism ? Then, suddenly, early in 1967, Healy and Banda came out even if they could escape the collective hysteria long enough, They had. for the Mao-controlled Cultural Revolution and the Red to question any of these things. Banda could have questioned Healy’s affectionate story about how little of “big” politics Guards. They paraded in London, with placards and banners them. He bore a great share in the responsibility for what he had had to teach them was also, of course, a portrait of his and red bunting, to glorify and support it. happened to a once-serious and once-valuable organisation. own level of political development. He taught them other This was an ultra-Pabloite outdoing of the “Pabloites”. The Michael Banda himself, a talented and in his own way de - things... things they would never find in the writings of Leon Mandel Fourth International made the necessary criticisms voted man, was destroyed too. Trotsky. and condemnations of the Cultural Revolution. Solidarity and Workers’ Liberty have our own distant polit - They went to work for the organisation. Michael Banda The Bandas were central to the Healy strain of terminal po - ical roots in the Cannonite “orthodox Trotskyist” tendency. worked on the printing press for many years, running a small litical confusion. Michael Banda had the reputation that he We have had to reorient and rethink the whole history of the commercial department to ensure some extra income for the was not far off being a Maoist. Trotskyist movement, back to 1940 and beyond. poverty-crippled organisation. Out of all that political confusion, and what it licensed We concluded that two fundamental tendencies emerged When the “orthodox Trotskyist” Fourth International split Healy-Banda to do or not do, came the political collapse of from the Trotskyism of Trotsky at his death — the Shacht - in 1953, Healy sided with the SWP-USA Cannon faction, the the Healy-Banda organisation, long before the organisational man and Cannon tendencies. The Shachtman tendency was “International Committee of the Fourth International”, collapse of 1985. a rational current that responded to events as they unfolded against the “soft-on-Stalinism” Pablo-Mandel “International It collapsed into various manifestations of ultra-left crazi - and named such things as Russian imperialism for what they Secretariat of the Fourth International”. The man the young ness. For instance, it spent years proclaiming an imminent were. The other, the Cannon tendency, including the ICFI Michael Banda pulled a knife on was the leader of the Pablo- military coup in Britain. facTtihoen foaft 1e9 o5f3 M, wicahs aae bl lBinadn dalale syh. ould remind us all of that. Mandel faction in Britain, John Lawrence, who very quickly When in August 1969 British troops were deployed in went over to the Communist Party. 311 REPNOERWTS Refuse workers take on Ritzy workers accept deal Green council By Gemma Short On Monday BECTU announced that Ritzy workers had voted, 35-4, to accept an improved offer from management. Refuse workers in the workers across the council. ing to collect any waste not GMB union in Brighton They also didn't count hold - actually inside the bins. The offer will see them earning the living wage by next September, which equates to a struck on Monday 15 Sep - ing a HGV licence as a There's also been a go- 26% pay rise over three years. Ritzy workers tember. A worker involved “skill”, meaning the drivers slow, with only one bin at a have called off the dispute and the boycott of in the strike spoke to Soli - aren't in the “skilled work - time being collected (usually Picturehouse cinemas. darity . ers” category (surely some - it's three). A BECTU official said: “It’s inevitable ... The dispute is a hangover thing our union negotiators We took this type of ac - that there will be disappointment the com - from our strike against should have noticed at the tion because we think this pany has yet to formally adopt the Living pay cuts last year. time?!). Other workers will be a long dispute. A Wage ... the branch will continue to work for across the council are doing work-to-rule means max - the incorporation of the Living Wage into its It's an equal pay issue; we less work or less “skilled” imising the impact on the collective agreement.” used to get various al - jobs than our drivers, but service without people los - On their facebook page Ritzy workers said: lowances and benefits on for more money. Other local ing pay. A work-to-rule “As a strong collective of staff at the Ritzy, top of basic pay. The authorities pay their HGV means a 50% reduction in doing things differently has been key to our Greens, who run Brighton drivers at scale 5. the amount of tonnage that su“cWceess h tao vdea tseh. own that workers don't sim - Council, proposed taking The Greens are saying gets collected. ply have to put up with poverty pay, or feel them all away. that they can't “break na - We called an all-out strike powerless and isolated.” We had a prolonged strike tional agreements over for Monday to get things campaign last year. The deal equal pay”. That's factually going. The strike will create which ended the strike re - incorrect. Pay scales are de - a backlog of waste, and with graded us as a Local Gov - cided nationally, but job the work-to-rule already in ernment scale 4, and built in grading is done at a local place, it's simply not going London Underground axeman jumps ship all our old allowances as level. They claim they have to get cleared. contractual overtime, etc. to “work within financial On the strike day, not one By Ollie Moore We've since discovered constraints”, but still em - truck left the yard. Loaders cific mission to develop and must be seen as a failure for that we weren't graded ploy new senior managers and admin workers haven't implement a new staffing Hufton. London Underground model that involves the clo - Strikes by Tube unions fairly compared to other on astronomical salaries. been balloted as part of the Chief Operation Officer Talks have been ongoing strike, but they're fully be - sure of every ticket office on RMT and TSSA in February, Phil Hufton left the com - the network, and 953 front - and a further strike by RMT since April, with no move - hind the drivers and held an pany on 15 September, to ment. We moved to a ballot all-day sit-in at the canteen. line job cuts. in April, have delayed im - take up a senior position His departure is far from plementation of LU's cuts. for action, starting with the We have a very robust at Network Rail. Activists in both unions drivers, returning a 96% ma - democratic culture in the the end of the battle against are pushing for further ac - jority in favour of action. workplace. In the course of He is unlikely to be a cuts plan which other LU tion, including a strike A work-to-rule began on a dispute we hold regular mourned by many Tube bosses are still determined around the time of the Friday 12 September. This meetings to decide on strat - staff. He was brought in just to see through, but leaving public sector workers' includes an overtime ban. egy and what action to take. over a year ago, with a spe - without having succeeded walkout on 14 October. The demand for the dis - in implementing the cuts Management rely heavily on pute is very clear: regrade overtime to get the work the job at a scale 5. done. We also started refus - Tube cleaners Reinstate Noel Roberts ballot for London bus workers protest Care UK and Alex McGuigan! On 11 September 400 strike Tube union RMT is fight - Unite the union bus work - last year. There is no univer - picket lines ing for reinstatement for failed to take into account ers demonstrated in cen - sal pay scale or set of condi - Cleaners employed by ISS two of its members, his diabetes, which could have given a false positive. tral London. tions across these Tommy Wood visited on London Underground sacked on what the Alex's urine sample was companies, meaning the Care UK picket lines are preparing to strike. union says are spurious The protest was over pay, same job in different compa - and unjust grounds. only tested for drugs. Stan - Last week saw Don - conditions and lack of col - nies may pay different The dispute is about the dard practice is to test for caster care workers’ lective bargaining across the wages. imposition of biometric fin - Noel Roberts was “med - alcohol after a positive Unite officials claim they 69th day of strike ac - bus network. gerprinting machines. ically terminated” by LU, brAea stheacloysnedr steasmt. ple, will escalate to industrial tion. RMT members who have despite doctors, local man - London busses are cur - action if TfL does not put which should be retained rently tendered out to 9 dif - refused to use the machines agement, and occupational for independent tests, in place collective bar - Care UK management have been locked out of health declaring him fit for ferent private companies. gaining across all London are continually trying to was destroyed. One of those companies, Ar - woTrhke s sintcriek Jeu blya. llot result work. bus companies. undermine the strike. Alex McGuigan was riva, posted a £27m profit Despite this, morale is due back on 18 Sep - sacked after failing a •For details see rmtlon - amongst the strikers was tember. breathalyser test which doncalling.org.uk high when I visited last TUC “waits for Labour” week. Ongoing discussions By Gerry Bates pro-Putin resolution on about taking industrial Cleaners protest against SERCO Ukraine. Only Matt Wrack action further are at the TUC Congress was yet [FBU] flew the flag of inter - forefront of the cam - cleaners at Deloitte. another snore-fest, punc - nationalism against Stalinist paign. Strikers are confi - By Daniel L Cooper against inhuman conditions, tuated with only out - apologists. A card vote went dent that with continued The protest was against bullying and discrimination breaks of debate. against allowing trades effort and support they On Friday, 12th Septem - job cuts, unfair dismissals by managers. wiTllh bise iasb lae dtoe mwoinn. stra - ber, there was a loud, and bullying. Rita, a mother and cleaner Much was decided be - council delegates, a move tion of the effective - boisterous protest of The contractor, SERCO, who has been at Deloitte for forehand behind the scenes, that would have vastly im - proved the democracy of ness of well-planned which is notorious for its several years, said: “[SERCO leaving many delegates to abuse and co“nWgraeists f. or Labour” ap - successive strike ac - management] put too much wonder what had become of “sweatshop” pears to be the default po - tion in the fight for fair pressure on us. I sweat, I the workers’ parliament. type working sition, although this is pay and working con - work and I drop and they However there was some conditions, have mostly about avoiding an - ditions. do not listen. Am I not discussion on Ukraine, recently fired a other term of Tory at - huTmhaen I?W” GB’s union mem - fracking and allowing worker, a mem - tacks, rather than bers are considering its trades council delegates to •For more information, ber of the IWGB anything Labour will offer next steps. congress. Most delegates including how to donate: trade union, unions positively. unthinkingly voted for the bit.ly/care-uk-strike who spoke out No 336 17 September 2014 Solidarity 30p/80p

14 October: Burnham: put Organise on the ground your words into action By Gemma Short been 19% (RPI), but the in - get one percent. Activists should take con - come needed for a mini - Union leaders hope that a trol of the dispute, starting Between 2008 and 2013 mum living standard has few “protest strikes” will with organising strike com - By Gerry Bates ing trusts can derive more real wages fell by 8.2%, on risen significantly. For a nudge the government into mittees in the run up to of their income from private average. The median couple with a child this trying to repair its popular - strike action on October 14 Andy Burnham once again patients, so diverting re - worker lost £2000 a year, could be up to 33%, for oth - ity in the lead up to the May to decide the strategy for the repeated his promise to sources to private services for many that will have ers 18%. 2015 general election by day. Strikers’ meetings on “repeal the Tory Health over NHS ones). been much worse. Even nominal wages have making small concessions the day will give workers an and Social Care Act” if The promise starts to Labour win the next elec - fallen during 2014. on pay. Some may also rely opportunity to discuss the sound more empty when The wage squeeze is tion. The public sector strike on on waiting for a Labour dispute and make demands you think of the cuts that worse for younger workers, July 10 was the first move to government. Vague hopes on the union leadership to Burnham was speaking have already taken place, a 14% drop for those aged a fightback on pay. October are not the basis on which to call more action. from the platform at the 6 about which Burnham has 18-25, 12% for 25-29 year 14 may involve a wider build a serious strategy to 14 October will be a dis - September Trafalgar Square little to say. A repeal of the olds. Each decade since the range of workers as Unison win on pay. play of the potential power rally of the People’s March Act would not reverse the 1980s real wages growth has and Unite are currently bal - Activists in health already of the labour movement, for the NHS. It is good that damage already done. Only been lower than the previ - loting health workers. have concerns over the strat - and will raise hopes for all Burnham makes the prom - serious reinvestment would ous decade. Health workers’ wages egy the union will take. workers feeling the ise to repeal the Act pub - address the millions of In the public sector wages have dropped in real terms Many, in local government squeeze on wages. The licly, but it is not enough. pounds of cuts already have fallen by 15%, many between 12 and 15 per cent too, may fear their union labour movement should When Burnham was made. face a pay freeze. since 2010. This year 60% of leaderships leading them bolster that hope with a Health Secretary under the Burnham has been very Overall price inflation health workers are been of - into a “deal” to wind down strategy to win. last Labour government he quiet about future funding over the past 5 years has fered no rise, and others will the action. backed the recommenda - of the NHS, whilst most tions of Sir David Nichol - agree that without an in - son, the chief executive of crease in funding the NHS the NHS, to make £20 bil - will face a £40-50bn shortfall NATIONAL lion “efficiency savings” by by 2020. BRITAIN NEEDS A PAY RISE! 2015. There is some argument STUDENT Burnham’s opposition to in top Labour Party circles DEMONSTRATION Lansley’s plans boils down about raising national insur - Join the TUC march and rally on to not letting “market forces ance contributions to cover rip right through the system this shortfall. The argument Saturday 18 October in London. Students from across with no checks or balances”, should be about taxing the the country will be but he is at pains to stress rich and cutting the spend - Assemble 11am, Blackfriars Embankment ing on the bureaucracy that marching through that “without the contribu - and march to Hyde Park. tion of private providers, we has sprung up with in - London on to would never have delivered creased privatisation. For more information, see britainneedsapayrise.org demand free NHS waiting lists and times A return simply to pre- education, an at historically low levels”. 2010 status for the NHS is not enough. Since the 1980s abolition all debt and Burnham is in fact quite the fan of private provision Tory and New Labour poli - a living grant for within the NHS, albeit with cies to introduce market every student on 19 the proviso of not letting it mechanisms and PFI into November. go “unchecked”. Labour’s the NHS to hugely in - own manifesto pledged to creased bureaucracy, from give Foundation Trusts 6% of health expenditure, To help mobilise on more freedom to expand 15% with the introduction your campus or for private services. of the internal market, and now an estimated 30-50% any more The problem with market forces is that they have a dy - after the Health and Social information, see namic of their own. Allow - CaBreu rAnchta. m should commit fb.com/ ing Foundation Trusts to Labour reverse market nationalstudentdemo expand private provision forces and embark on or call 07891714146 led Labour to accept pro - large scale reinvestment posals to raise the private in the NHS. patient income cap (mean -