So& Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y Volume 3 No 206 1 June 2011 30p/80p For a workers’ government

FIFA gets Mladic: lessons Libya: AWL debates Blattered page 2 for the left page 6-7 Socialist Party page 9-10 Global bankers threaten to take over running of Greek economy, pages 3 & 5 UK inequality soars, page 5 EXPROPRIATE THE BANKS! NEWS

What is the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty? FIFA gets Blattered Today one class, the working class, lives by selling its labour power to another, the capitalist class, which owns the means of production. Society By Peter Burton confidence. Leo Mugabe Cup a global pandemic of is shaped by the capitalists’ relentless drive to — nephew of Robert Mu - corruption has grown with increase their wealth. Capitalism causes In 1996 Joao Havelange gabe and President of the much match-fixing. poverty, unemployment, the blighting of lives by retired as President of Zimbabwean FA — com - The biggest clubs have overwork, imperialism, the destruction of the the international football mented “It is shocking... grown much richer and environment and much else. federation FIFA. Sepp this is a travesty of democ - more powerful at the ex - Against the accumulated wealth and power of the Blatter, a Swiss lawyer racy”! A Mugabe is pense of smaller clubs. capitalists, the working class has one weapon: solidarity. and Havelange’s chosen shocked — surely a bad A globalised interna - The Alliance for Workers’ Liberty aims to build solidarity successor, defeated the day for democracy. tional financial elite now through struggle so that the working class can overthrow reform candidate Blatter adopted the lan - controls football. The win - capitalism. We want socialist revolution: collective ownership Lennart Johannson (a guage of his enemies and ners are a few rich clubs, of industry and services, workers’ control and a democracy Swedish truck magnate). set up a Committee of In - some star footballers and vestigation. He appointed their agents and the own - much fuller than the present system, with elected Havelange’s authoritar - Ricardo Teixeira and Jack ers and controllers of the representatives recallable at any time and an end to ian and patrician-charm Warner to this committee. game from a world of cor - bureaucrats’ and managers’ privileges. style was replaced by an Warner and Blatter In spring 2006 it was re - porate finance. Many of We fight for the labour movement to break with “social extensive system of bu - vealed Jack Warner’s fam - them have little or no real partnership” and assert working-class interests militantly reaucratic power. Blatter’s main marketing partner, ily travel agency was interest in the game. against the bosses. staff were hand-picked at International Sports and selling World Cup ticket Individual governing Our priority is to work in the workplaces and trade unions, the Presidential office and Leisure (ISL), went bank - packages straight out of bodies often have conflict - supporting workers’ struggles, producing workplace bulletins, an enlarged phalanx of rupt. £200 million sponsor - the Football Associations ing interests with FIFA and helping organise rank-and-file groups. kept support was sent on ship money was revealed allocation. He said he and other regulators of the official business. We are also active among students and in many campaigns to be missing. his wife had resigned from game and in any case are Five-star hotels, business and alliances. Blatter’s solution to the the board of the travel cash dependent on FIFA. class flights, black Mer - burst bubble was a huge agency and so there was Blatter’s “Ethics Commit - cedes, $500-a-day expense We stand for: private securitisation deal no conflict of interest, an tee” has represented that accounts with no receipts G Independent working-class representation in politics. — a large loan at above explanation that was ac - corporate elite in stating required all became the G A workers’ government, based on and accountable to the market rates secured for cepted. that he has “no case to an - norm. $50,000 “honorari - labour movement. the creditors against the Since then the allies have swer”. ums” were given to all Ex - The losers will con - G A workers’ charter of trade union rights — to organise, to income FIFA would re - fallen out, with Blatter ecutive Committee tinue to be the smaller strike, to picket effectively, and to take solidarity action. ceive for selling TV rights raising the need for a cor - members. clubs, the fans and the Taxation of the rich to fund decent public services, homes, to the 2002 and 2006 World ruption investigation into G This combined with a beautiful game itself. Cups. Opposition to Blat - his rival for the Presidency, education and jobs for all. new level of opaqueness ter’s methods mounted Mr. Bin Hamman, a Qatari G A workers’ movement that fights all forms of oppression. over all financial transac - Full equality for women and social provision to free women within FIFA. billionaire, on the eve of • Abridged from a longer tions. Blatter’s salary, ex - The crises deepened from the burden of housework. Free abortion on request. Full the election for President. article available at penses, emoluments and with the collapse of the equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people. Black and white Since the 2002 World http://alturl.com/2bgis accounts remained top se - European companies who workers’ unity against racism. cret. Massive debts owed had gambled on invest - G Open borders. to FIFA from Confedera - ments on television rights G Global solidarity against global capital — workers tions and Football Associa - for subscription channels. everywhere have more in common with each other than with tions were written off FIFA General Secretary Welfare Uncut! their capitalist or Stalinist rulers. without good reason. Michel Zen-Ruffinen dis - G Democracy at every level of society, from the smallest Blatter’s first three years tributed a report on all the On 7 June a conference at the Royal Society will bring (from 1999 to 2001) coin - workplace or community to global social organisation. financial mismanagement. together those who will play a role in “the biggest G Working-class solidarity in international politics: equal cided with an economic Eleven members of the FA rights for all nations, against imperialists and predators big boom, the growth of digi - Executive took court action shake up of the [welfare] system for 60 years”. In the tal television, inflated TV and small. at the Swiss public prose - same week, the Welfare Reform Bill looks set to re- G Maximum left unity in action, and openness in debate. rights deals, the expansion cutor’s office in Zurich.. G If you agree with us, please take some copies of Solidarity of the Champions League But Blatter called an ex - turn to parliament for its third reading. Protest: 9am, and a transfer market that to sell — and join us! traordinary meeting of the Tuesday 7 June, at the Royal Society, increased its prices for Executive on the eve of the 020 7394 8923 [email protected] players. 2002 World Cup. No criti - 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, The bubble seemed to cism was allowed. burst in 2001 when FIFA’s Blatter won a big vote of London, SE1 3DG. GET SOLIDARITY Disabled trade unionists meet

By Janine Booth, RMT transport e.g. London Un - per year, a tiny figure com - cussed. One advocated EVERY WEEK! delegate derground scrapped proj - pared with the £200 billion working with disabled Special offers ects to make more stations plus ripped off by corpora - staff groups, felt by some More than 200 delegates step-free at the same time tions and the rich not pay - delegates to be helpful but G Trial sub, 6 issues £5  gathered at the TUC Dis - that it cut 800 staff ing their taxes. others to be a means of un - ability Conference on 25- • Services funded by They are taking much- dermining unions; the G 22 issues (six months). £18 waged £9 unwaged   26 May. It followed much local councils needed benefits away from other proposed working campaigning by disabled The government has in - disabled people, despite G 44 issues (year). £35 waged  £17 unwaged  with the “Time to Change” people against the sav - troduced the Work Capa - the fact that it is on aver - initiative from various dis - age effect of cuts. G European rate: 28 euros (22 issues)  or 50 euros (44 issues)  bility Assessment for age 25% more expensive to ability charities, which was benefit claimants, claiming live as a disabled person. Disabled workers are seen to be too concerned that it is “objective” when The impact of the Daily Tick as appropriate above and send your money to: more likely to work in the with addressing employ - it is anything but. One con - Mail ’s daily doses of hyste - public rather than the pri - ers. I voted against both of 20e Tower Workshops, Riley Road, London, SE1 3DG ference delegate told of her ria is also seen in a rise in vate sector, so the massive these amendments; the son, whose assessment violence against disabled Cheques (£) to “AWL”. public sector job cuts will first was passed, the sec - identified that he had one people. Or make £ and euro payments at workersliberty.org/sub. have a devastating effect. ond defeated. Together with benefit cuts arm and one leg that As is usual for this sort worked, and could recog - of event, most of the reso - My lasting impression of and housing cuts, this will this conference was one of Name ...... nise the colour of a passing lutions were passed unani - drive many disabled peo - disabled trade unionists ple out of work and into car, and so found him fit to mously. This may reflect in furious at government at - poverty. work! part a sense of unity in Address ...... tacks. A new initiative for a Examples include cuts Other speakers told of trade unions’ anger at Tory to: claimants left destitute by attacks on disabled work - Disability History Month ...... • Remploy and other the withdrawal of benefits, ers — but it also reflects shows how hard people supported employment even driven to suicide. the exclusion of some de - have had to fight for ...... • NHS provision eg. The Tories justify them - tail on policy and strategy prToghreestrs aadneduringihotns.move - mental health services face selves by whipping up which might have proved ment must now organise I enclose £ ...... losing 6,300 staff, a quarter hysteria about “benefit controversial. workers’ anger into an of the total fraud”, but such fraud Two controversial effective fightback. • Accessibility of public runs at around £1 billion amendments were dis - 2 SOLIDARITY INTERNATIONAL Neo-liberal “solutions” worsen Greek plight

By Vasilis Grollios and the government by threat - not lose out. And none of pay the debt there would the minimum wage which Giorgos Moraitis ening to withhold the next the money that the Greek be no problem paying is 752 euros; installment of the loan. In state takes from taxes, etc, salaries and pensions. • The head doctor of an The latest austerity their last visit they told the is put into healthcare or ed - There are some conflicts intensive care unit in an measures by the Pasok Greek government that it ucation. The entire amount within the government Athens hospital put an an - government were fully should privatise almost is given to paying the loan. over privatisations but they nouncement on his door expected. everything. They also in - Greek people have ab - are very mild. Papandreou telling relatives of patients sisted on firing civil ser - solutely nothing to gain says that his government is that they should buy band - This recipe for dealing vants, but the government from the new loans. supported by the majority ages, gloves and other with the Greek debt, under of Pasok refused. Strikes take place every of the Greek people, but the medical stuff themselves the guidance of the IMF Papandreou has now an - now and then but nothing latest poll showed that 80% because the hospital has and the European Union nounced that ports, state changes, since the working of the Greek people oppose run out of them! (EU), is the main cause of banks, airports, the water class movement has no the government policy. No • Kenyan workers at the the problem. Called neolib - company, electricity, the goal to overthrow the gov - one beside the officials of Greek embassy in Kenya eralism, it is a well-known one state telephone com - ernment. On 25 and 26 the EU the IMF and Pasok have not been paid for six failure. But every time the pany, the lottery company, May a lot of people took to is optimistic! Even the Fi - months and the embassy measures fail to give the and trains are going to be the streets, just as in Spain. nancial Times thinks that de - does not have money to expected result they insist privatised as soon as possi - No party or trade union or - fault is unavoidable. Most pay the oil for its cars. on an even more harsh ap - ble. ganised these protests. Greek journalists do not Marx said that “Capital plication of the same logic. Some of these concerns Ministers say they under - question the general plan is dead labour, that, vam - It is like a doctor who in - are profitable. For example, stand the harsh times that of the governmental policy, pire-like, only lives by sists on increasing the dose the state lottery company Papandreou people are going through but only some of the meas - sucking living labour, and of a failing cure. It is tor - has annual profits of but that we have been ures taken. lives the more, the more ture without end for the around 700 million euros longer restructuring is forced to implement this The Greek state has al - labI owuirll iat dsudc tkhsa.”t when Greek people! and they are thinking of postponed, the more debt policy. In a TV interview ready defaulted to its citi - The new austerity pro - selling it for just two billion once it has sucked all the moves onto the books of the Finance Minister Pa - zens. All those who work blood from labour it will gramme is 50 billion euros euros! Greek state compa - the public, the more the pakonstantinou said that if under contract for the gov - in cuts by 2015. According nies are the best prey for suck even the marrow banks are protected.” Greece had not taken the ernment are being paid from its bones! This is to the IMF and the govern - the vultures of world capi - Money is squeezed from latest loans they would not with at least two months ment, the goal is to cut the tal. what we are witnessing the working and middle- have been able to pay the delay. For example: right now in Greece. debt by 7.5 % of GNP in New taxes on oil, food, class in the rest of Europe salaries and pensions of the • There are teaching fel - 2011. The IMF and the EU’s drinks and cigarettes have so that the banks who have civil servants. But this is lows in Greek universities representatives visit Athens been announced. But, of made loans to Greece do only half of the truth! If the paid 300 euros monthly, The authors are academics every two to three months course, no new tax in - Greek state had refused to less than half the amount of based in Greece. and if they are not satisfied creases on the profits of the by the decrease of the debt, banks or the private com - they press for new auster - panies. As Joseph Stiglitz ity measures, blackmailing put it in the Telegraph : “The Tunisia: “everyone is promising everything”

Oussama, of Ligue de These parties are ready ary process, which is still in lutionary process. It’s up to Yemen: half-way to Hell la Gauche Ouvrière for the elections. They have train, will be upset by elec - us to work, to fight, to (LGO, Workers’ Left the money and so on. They toral machinations adopt positions which are worry that, as more time There are many political correct and clear. By Dan Katz League) in Tunisia, elapses, more political par - parties. People in the cafes There are some strikes, spoke to Ed Maltby ties will be formed. On the and the streets do not some demonstrations The main political lines in other hand, left parties know who to orientate around economic demands the four-month-old mo - At its first meeting, the such as the LGO and the themselves towards. Every - — people see that their sit - bilisations to oust Presi - Haute Instance — the Parti Communiste Ouvrier one has roughly similar uation has actually become dent Ali Abdullah Saleh body overseeing Tunisia’s Tunisien think the October programmes, everyone is worse than before. There are becoming blurred. first open election — de - election will allow us to promising everything: are anti-unemployment cided to put back the better organise ourselves prosperity, democracy... demonstrations. There are The opposition front provisional date of 24 and that it is better for This unelected, illegiti - also protest movements of which has led protests in July. democracy. There will be mate provisional govern - refugees in the south of the capital, Sanaa, demand - less chance for the old ment has just contracted Tunisia where people are ing Saleh steps down, is led This was for a purely guard to subvert the elec - more debt from the G8 and still living in tents. by secular leftists, technical and logistical rea - tions. IMF; at the same time they There are movements of Baathists, Nasserites and Saleh son. The new [provisional] Tomorrow there will be a refuse to negotiate with temporary-contracted Islamists. Saleh is too weak date is 16 October. meeting to announce a striking refuse workers (in workers demanding that to use the kind of system - The political impasse has The League were for “centre left” electoral pact Tunis), directing the refuse they be taken on as perma - atic violence currently em - left space for tribal groups moving back the date. between a dozen “left - workers towards a future, nent workers. ployed by the Syrian to fight a mini war in the Other strikes are short; There are other parties still wing” parties such as the elected government. regime, but his forces have capital against Saleh’s strikers block roads, in favour of 24 July, like En - labour-patriots. We are not We are looking at events resorted to bursts of killing troops, and Islamists ap - demonstrate, and then nahda [Islamist party], and part of that coalition. There in Europe, in Spain, France — splintering his support parently aligned with al- go back to work. They the Progressive Democratic is also a centrist, liberal and Greece, and saying and hardening the resolve Qaeda to take over the are rapid, stop-starting Party, who are still contest - coalition. that this process which is in of the young protesters. southern town of Zinjibar. movements. ing the decision. I fear that the revolution - train is a worldwide revo - Yemen’s neighbours have The government has used become increasingly planes to bomb Islamist po - alarmed at the chaos on sitions in the south, an in - “Meanwhile, the recent Brotherhood parties else - day conference beginning their borders, and have at - dication of the state’s Palestinian protests on Is - where in the Arab world. on 1 June. The event is tempted to broker an weOavkenre sths.e weekend Middle East rael’s borders were part of being funded by several the non-violent resistance SYRIA prominent Syrian business - agreement in which Saleh Saleh’s troops cleared a in brief The heroic Syrian upris - and revolution across the men. would go in return for im - tent city in the central ing which began on 15 munity. Predictably Saleh Arab world.” square of Tiaz, killing 20 March continues, despite The organisers say they talked and manoeuvred, opposition protesters. Meanwhile the Damas - want to mobilise interna - GAZA STRIP cus-based Hamas boss the murderous violence before scuppering the deal. tional support against the The Rafah crossing, the Khaled Meshal has been of the state which has only entry point to Gaza weakened by the Syrian killed more than 1,000 regime. not controlled by Israel, uprising and the opening people and jailed and tor - Syria continues to receive was opened by Egypt on of the Rafah crossing. tured many more. backing from Russia and 28 May. Splits are emerging in the China at the UN. Attacks on Iraqi unions The inability of the The opening will mean a leadership of Hamas, the There are escalating at - regime to end the protests LIBYA dent of the Oil and Gas great deal to the people of Islamist organisation which tacks on Iraqi union underlines the depth of Qaddafi’s beleaguered Union, to a remote loca - Gaza. A Palestine General runs Gaza as a single-party leaders and activists in feeling among ordinary forces continue to be tion in retaliation after he Federation of Trade Unions clerical state. the Kurdish area of Syrians, who continue to pounded by NATO air - led a major walkout in de - activist and socialist based Meshal is more enthusi - Northern Iraq and in come out onto the streets, power. fense of contract workers in Nablus, in the West astic than the Gaza leaders Baghdad. Bank, told Solidarity : about reconciliation with defying tanks and the se - and for better conditions cret police. The pressure is showing: and safe work environ - “The opening of the bor - the secular nationalists of In Kirkuk, management Opposition groups, in - more senior figures have ment. der represents the end of Fatah, who run the West of the Northern [State- cluding members of the defected, including five • More: http:// the siege, and proof that Bank. owned] Oil Company, Damascus Centre for generals, who were pre - uslaboragainstwar.org the corrupt Arab dictator - The unpleasant reality of punitively transferred authoritarian rule in Gaza Human Rights and the sented to the media at an Jamal Abdul-Jabbar, Presi - and www.labourstart.org ships were partners in this siege. now clashes with the dem - Damascus Declaration, Italian government-organ - ocratic pose of Muslim meet in Turkey for a three- ised press conference. SOLIDARITY 3 REGULARS A fighter for every The class politics of celebrity culture poor woman In reality, the media is demanding the untrammelled power to go large on shag-and-tell headlines. I have no fun - damental objection to them having that power, but let us not glorify this prosaic truth by the spurious argument that the best efforts of teams of hard-bitten investigative journal - Dave Osler ists are being frustrated by the dastardly machinations of On Whose Shoulders Mr Justice Eady. What we are being faced with is another manifestation of We Stand By Jill Mountford There were a few years in my life in which I was vaguely Julia Scurr interested in the private lives of rock and movie stars. the dominance of celebrity culture in contemporary society. Broadly speaking, I had grown out of that kind of stuff This is a relatively recent invention, created in the twen - Poverty and all its associated miseries can crush and by the time I made it to college. tieth century by the movie, television and popular music in - starve the human spirit, but it can also be the kindle that dustries. It now constitutes an organised system, which starts raging fires in individuals and movements. Julia Sometimes I hear tell that friends of mine participate in remains in place even as individual stars come and go. All Scurr ( née O’Sullivan) was born into, grew up with, and clandestine relationships with people other than the cohab, of this is distinctly capitalist; I suppose you could accurately lived with poverty and all the miseries it lavishly spreads or get word of spectacularly inappropriate one night stands describe all this as the commodification of personality. so freely; but crush and starve her it did not. between workmates. I will admit to taking brief, prurient The wider public feels that it has some form of parasocial interest in such tales, but only because they involve people interaction or even personal friendship at one remove with Politically active from her late teens, she fought tirelessly I know personally. figures such as top footballers, soap actors and even the bet - against the ills and injustices of capitalism until her early But my indifference to the fact that Manchester United ter-known porno stars. death (at the age of 54) in 1927. star Ryan Giggs “romped” with “busty Big Brother babe” Not only does this phenomenon sell newspapers, but gen - At 1905 Julia was working alongside George Lansbury, Imogen Thomas is almost absolute. I have never met either erally it works to the advantage of the ruling class. It pro - Dora Montefiore and Keir Hardie; she organised a deputa - of them. But they were consenting adults. What they did motes individualism and the idea that “anyone can do it”. tion of 1000 unemployed women to meet with the Tory was in private. End of chat. If fame and consequent wealth can be handed out arbitrar - Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour. Giggs’ ill-fated attempt to make a superinjunction on the ily by the producers of reality television programmes, it Coming from an Irish immigrant family, Julia fought to topic stick has been something of a national obsession over could be you. improve the conditions of Irish families in the East End. the last week. Extensive attempts have been made to dress She was elected to the Board of Guardians in Poplar 1907 Psychologists have drawn attention to the fact that the this saga up as an issue of principle, centred on the assertion and remained a member until her death 20 years later. rise of celebrity culture in the west mirrors the decline of re - that gagging orders are deleterious to a free press. The sanc - Julia was well known for the central role she played in or - ligious faith. At least for those chosen by the system, it even ganising the feeding of 7,000 dockers’ children throughout timony at play here is almost palpable. offers the prospect of symbolic immortality. For those not a 1912 dock strike, understanding that strike support work Of course the claim is sometimes true. Superinjunctions so chosen, at least they can get in on the act vicariously. was essential to keep the strike strong and defeat the bosses. are used by companies to cover up their alleged wrong-do - To paraphrase a philosopher by whom I am influenced, She campaigned for women’s suffrage, working closely ings, with Trafigura providing the standard example. I am the abolition of celebrity as the illusory happiness of the with Sylvia Pankhurst while she was active in the Women’s absolutely in favour of the right of hacks to cover stories of people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on Social and Political Union. She helped Pankhurst set up the this kind, and it is invidious that corporations are effectively them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call East London Federation of Suffragettes in 1913. granted the opportunity to buy silence. onT thheerme ’sto n goiv peo uinpt a i nco wndisihtiionng t hreaat lrietyq uaiwreasy i.l lBuusito snos. long Recognising the need to organise working class women Yet somehow I suspect that even if all legal restrictions as people are preoccupied with Giggsy getting into Ms and men in the fight for universal suffrage, she played a role were set aside, the death of a few Africans resulting from Thomas’s knickers, the chances of a rebirth of progres - in organising marches, rent strikes and deputations. the dumping of toxic waste in Abidjan would not have sive politics in this country remain slim. She led a deputation of women to see Prime Minister dominated the front pages of the red tops. Asquith in 1914 and did not spare her words to him: “… Our husbands die on average at a much earlier age than do the Labour Party, now is the time for UL to be pushing for the men of other classes. Modern industrialism kills them much more discussion, not less. off both by accident and by overwork… The poor law treats Solid, independent rank-and-file organisation (at BA and us mercilessly. It is hated by every poor woman.” across Unite) could’ve provided a counterweight to the ca - Julia made her speech only weeks before “modern indus - pitulatory attitude of some of Unite leaders in the BA dis - trialism” took working-class men from all over the world to Letters puTteh. e BASSA comrade is right: other workers must the battlefields of Europe to die in their millions for the learn from the BA dispute. But the lesson is not just to profit system. Like other serious socialists of the time Julia “stick together”. We need to fight for our unions to raise Scurr had the intellectual courage to oppose the war. demands around the substantive issues. Without this, In 1919, along with 38 other Labour Party members, Julia BA: a better deal? the bosses walk all over us. was elected to Poplar Council. At that time, dole for the un - In Solidarity 3/204, a BASSA activist argues that scab - employed was paid by local councils rather than central Stuart Jordan, north London government. The council had to finance that from the rates bing and a lack of support were key reasons behind BA (property taxes), but poor boroughs such as Poplar obvi - cabin crew workers not getting a better deal. Whilst ously had less property to tax than richer boroughs with scabbing inevitably weakens any strike, this does not EDL exploits teenage deaths fewer unemployed. explain why the BA cabin crew action has failed. On 28 May the racist EDL held a demo in Blackpool. It Under the leadership of George Lansbury, Poplar council In fact, the strike was very strong. It caused BA losses of refused to cut the dole or raise the property tax. The coun - was about two teenagers whom the police suspect had around £150 million. The strike failed mostly because of the been sexually exploited prior to death. Why do the EDL cillors were summoned to court and told they would be sent union’s lack of demands on the substantive issues, i.e. the to prison. Thirty councillors were arrested and imprisoned. care about these girls? Because the acquitted suspects introduction of a two-tier workforce with Mixed Fleet. The are from Muslim backgrounds and the girls were white. Julia was one of five women councillors to be sent to Hol - key demand was “Please negotiate with us”, which is no de - loway prison . Her husband John Scurr was sent to Brixton mand at all. Any dispute will involve negotiations, but it is Charlene Downes and Paige Chivers were both from Prison alongside George Lansbury and the 23 other men. ridiculous to make the negotiation process the ultimate goal. Blackpool. Fourteen-year-old Downes disappeared in 2003. Conditions in prison were appalling. The councillors Failure to raise any specific demands around Mixed Fleet Her body has never been found, but it seems likely she has protested and demanded improvements for all prisoners. allowed BA management to shift the focus onto to the right been murdered. A prosecution was brought against shop Under substantial pressure from a growing movement of to strike itself. owners of Jordanian origin, but collapsed. support, Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, and the London BA launched a campaign of victimisation against all strik - Chivers was 15 and disappeared in 2007. No one has ever County Council backed down and the councillors were ing workers. The union went into retreat; the dispute be - been charged, but police believe that, like Charlene Downes, freed. came a rearguard action to end the victimisation. In the she was sexually exploited by older males in the same area In 1925 Julia was elected a member of the London County desperate attempt to convince the capitalist press that they of Blackpool. Council. Like others imprisoned, she suffered ill-health, and were not “mindless militants”, the union forgot to mention The right wing press and the EDL argue that these two she died in 1927. why they were on strike in the first place. After nearly nine cases and many others involve the “grooming” of young Julia Scurr understood the centrality of solidarity, of col - months of negotiations, the union has finally got a deal white women by Asian men and are being ignored by the lective action, of working out a principled position and which has won nothing except to reverse the (probably ille - authorities because of political correctness. The truth is very fighting for it, even if it meant losing her personal liberty. Julia Scurr is not simply a historical figure to be ad - gal) victimisations. different. mired. She is a role model for working class women and The recent controversy in the United United Left, in Young men and women who disappear, or are victims of for socialists today. Julia Scurr was a life-long class- which SWP members were vociferously attacked by the UL rape or sexual exploitation, are almost always poor and fighter. What else is a woman to do? leadership for “disloyalty” because they dared to criticise many are in the care system. Many are black or Asian, and general secretary Len McCluskey’s handling of the dispute, the abusers and killers are overwhelmingly white. is a distraction. In 2008 there were more than 800 registered “high risk” The SWP’s role in the dispute has certainly been shrill and sex offenders living in Blackpool. The majority are white. unhelpful; their pointlessly disruptive stunt at ACAS nego - Blackpool had double the national rate of young people in tiations alienated many workers, and simply denouncing care and one of the highest levels of deprivation. In such the deal as a terrible sell-out fails to make a serious analysis towns young people are more likely to be sexually abused. of the current balance of forces or where workers’ con - Official indifference is more likely to be due to the social sciousness is at. Their protestations about standing up for class of the victims rather then the race of the abusers. “freedom of speech on the left” are also hypocritical given There is a long and shabby history of racists whipping up their proclivity for silencing critics. But we must not allow scares about young white women being under threat from an atmosphere to develop, in Unite or in any other union, predatory black or Asian men. The EDL are seeking to make where it is seen as “disloyalty to the union” to discuss the hoCrrhifaicrl ecansee sD oofw abnuese a intdo Pcrauigdee rCahcivste prsro dpeasgearnvdea .j ustice handling of disputes or criticise the leadership. and to not have their memory exploited by cynical, Being greeted by Poplar crowds on being released from jail. Given the policy recently passed by the Unite Executive racist scum. Julia is figure nearest policeman. committing the union to opposing all cuts, seeking coordi - nated industrial action and launching a serious fight within Dave Kirk, Leeds 4 SOLIDARITY WHAT WE THINK Greece: colony of the banks? UK: recovery

Greece now faces a threat that its tax collection and pri - vatisation programme could be taken out of the hands for bosses, of its elected government and put under the control of commissioners appointed by the international banks. It would be a throwback to the days of high imperialism, when from 1881 onwards the financial affairs of Turkey and slump for its subject nations were controlled not by its own govern - ment but by an internationally-appointed Ottoman Debt Administration. In a way it would be only a formalisation and nailing- down of what already exists informally. In Greece, Portu - workers gal, and Ireland, the three countries subsisting on European Union/ IMF bailout schemes, all the main parties feel obliged to support the drastic cuts programmes dictated with the bailouts. Top bosses of top companies had a median 32% rise in Elections make no difference to that. In Greece, where no earnings last year. The total pay of chief executives of elections are scheduled soon, the only nuance is that the the Stock Exchange’s top 100 companies now averages main opposition party, the right-wing New Democracy, says 120 times the wage of the average worker. As recently it wants even more cuts, in place of tax rises introduced by as 1998, at the start of the Blair years, it was 45 times. the current government. Workers’ average earnings grew less than two per cent The EU and the IMF stepped in because the aftermath of last year, in money terms. In real terms, on average, we the 2008 global financial crash had left those governments ended up two per cent worse off. so heavily indebted that international financiers would no For the 40% of households above the poorest ten per cent, longer lend to them except at unaffordable rates of interest. but below average, a recent report reckoned that our aver - Without EU/ IMF intervention the governments would age real incomes in 2015 will be no higher than in 2001, have been unable to pay their debts falling due. while the luxury of the rich and even of a wider section of The bailouts were not to save the peoples of those coun - the well-off spirals. tries from economic catastrophe. Huge cuts in social spend - Greek sit down protest That 40% of households had 30% of total household in - ing were demanded from the government as a condition for come in 1977, but only 22% in 2009. the bailouts. In the The EU and IMF were really “bailing out” the German, pared to the euro. Imported goods, or goods dependent on USA now, French, British and other banks which held Greek, Por - the wealthi - tuguese, and Irish debt. imported inputs, will become much more expensive for working people within the country. A euro-quitting capital - est one per In Greece especially, the bailout has not solved the initial cent ac - problem, but worsened it. Greek government debt is now ist government will use the exit to squeeze working people even harder. counts for traded internationally at even lower prices (higher interest It will have benefits as capitalist policy. The production 20% of all rates) than before the bailout. It is even more impossible for costs of Greek capital, because they are in drachmas, will consumer the Greek government to raise fresh loans on the interna - decrease compared to international competition, and Greek spending, tional markets. capital will begin to be able to get enough export and and the So the EU and IMF are intervening again in Greece. Many tourist-trade income to restore its creditworthiness. wealthiest economists advocate a “restructuring”, which is a polite The entire drama is driven by the big banks’ greed. What - 10% for half way of saying that the Greek government should fail to ever happens to anyone or anything else, they have to get of all con - make the debt payments due, only with a promise that it their money back with all the interest due! sumer will make those payments eventually. That tells us the way out. The big banks and financial in - spending. The fact that these countries are in the euro complicates stitutions should be expropriated — taken over, preferably Britain is not things. When many countries of the South defaulted on debt by the European Parliament, in European public ownership, quite that in the 1980s, the debts were in dollars. Defaulting on them but in any case into public ownership. unequal yet, did not destroy the credit system within the country, run in Their books should be opened to public inquiry, reveal - but getting pesos or other local currency. A Greek, Irish, or Portuguese that way. Interest rates for Greek debt have soared ing all the “special vehicles” and tax dodges. Day-to-day since the EU/IMF bailout. default now would also disrupt the credit system within the administration should be taken over by new managers, The gov - country. elected by and accountable to the workers. ernment jus - Most economists not working for international govern - The whole financial sector should be integrated into a tifies its cuts by saying that “too much” has been spent on ments or agencies now predict that Greece, at least, will public banking, insurance, and pensions service, under public services and welfare benefits. In fact it has been the eventually have no choice but to quit the euro. In other democratic control. rich taking “too much”. words, the working people of Greece will suffer huge cuts, The deployment of its huge assets into productive in - The cuts are designed not to solve a problem of “too supposedly to avoid the country defaulting and quitting the vestment should be decided democratically, on the much” having been spent generally, but to shape the sequels euro, and then get default and euro-exit anyway. basis of social priorities, and not by private-profit calcu - of a financial crisis in a way that pushes profits back up as Euro-exit brings costs. A restored separate currency, lations. fast as possible, and slams down working-class standards drachma or whatever, will initially lose value rapidly com - and conditions so that bosses can eventually expand again on the basis of lower costs. On 8 May the Sunday Times reported: “the 1,000 multi - millionaires in [its] Rich List are £60.2 billion better off than Labour deadlines loom they were in 2010”. In 2010, they were £77 billion better off than in 2009. Over 24 June is the deadline for Constituency Labour Parties coalition government will legislate to ban union funding of two years since near the lowpoint of the global finance (CLPs) to respond to the Labour Party’s official review political parties. crash, they have gained £137 billion, a 53% rise in their stash of its structure, conducted by Peter Hain. Labour has 50,000 new members. But the left has so far to £396 billion. Compare that with the total of £81 billion which the coali - It is also the deadline for CLPs to submit a rule-change been unable to organise them into an audible fresh voice in tion government is cutting from public spending. That fig - proposal (they can choose to do that, or put in a “contempo - the party. ure overestimates the real cuts, because it includes cuts rary” motion by 16 September, which has to refer to recent The whole structure is up for review. But Hain’s consulta - which socialists have no objection to: reductions (compared events, i.e., in effect, events in August). It is the deadline for tion document is poor, and the unions are not opening up to previous estimates) of the interest paid on government them to elect delegates to Labour Party conference 2011, their response for the consultation to debate in the ranks. debt, and decreases in military spending. though some CLPs did that at their annual general meetings Labour’s general secretary Ray Collins is to be replaced. From benefits, the Coalition government’s planned cuts in February. But it seems possible that his successor could be Chris over the next four years total £18 billion, and from education These deadlines come at a time when there are openings in Lennie, a veteran Blairite hatchet-man. and other local services, £16 billion. the Labour Party — and pressures to shut them down Ed Miliband was elected Labour leader last October by Those figures mean drastic social damage, but they are quickly. trade unionists’ votes, against the wishes of the Shadow Cab - small compared to the increase in wealth of just the top one The 19 May meeting of the newly-elected Executive of the inet. Since then he has been running scared from the hard- thousand people over one or two years. giant Unite union adopted a declaration that “we must com - Blairites whom he defeated. The strongest pressure on him is from the hard- Bank profits totalled about £30 billion for 2010. Bonuses in municate our position within the Labour Party at all levels Blairite right, who want to get him to do their will and high finance and in other industries totalled £22 billion this and make it clear that Unite cannot support a position based then push him out, to replace him by one of their own. year. The loot is much bigger than the cuts. on government cuts being ‘too far, too fast’... We must en - The unions and the left need to create a counter-pres - Why should we accept any cuts to our jobs or services sure that Labour MPs and councillors receive an unequivo - sure when the bosses are raking it in, and the bankers are splash - cal message from our union supporting our policy of ing around wealth like confetti? opposing all cuts”. • bit.ly/laZNz9: suggestions for rule-changes from the Cam - Seize the huge wealth of the banks to pay for what But Unite’s Political Director appointed earlier this year, paign for Labour Party Democracy. we need, and enable rational, democratic control of big Adrian Weir, no radical but reckoned a friend of Labour • www.refoundinglabour.org: Hain review investment decisions, currently dependent on the Party democracy, has stepped down in obscure circum - • bit.ly/kF1vot: CLPD-suggested short response bankers’ profit priorities! We should fight for a workers’ stances and been replaced by Steve Hart, who is expected to • bit.ly/lid9Ig: threats to ban union funding for political par - government that will take the banks and financial sys - follow instructions from Andrew Murray, now the union’s ties tem into public ownership and use their huge resources “chief of staff” and a supporter of Stalin and North Korea. • bit.ly/jyqd0y: shifts in Labour and union officialdom for social goals. And Labour is not campaigning against the threat that the • bit.ly/j6P7jH: Unite Executive statement SOLIDARITY 5 BACKGROUND Ratko Mladic, Srebrenica, and lessons for the left

By Stan Crooke construct a Catholic clerical-fascist puppet state in Croatia, claring it to be a separate “political, cultural, economic and which slaughtered Serbs recklessly. territorial whole.” Ratko Mladic, who commanded Serb forces during the The Stalinists, led by Josip Broz Tito, were able to form a In both Croatia and Bosnia the proclaimed “Serbian Re - Bosnian war of 1992-5, was arrested on 26 May in a Ser - guerrilla army with ranks and leadership drawn from all Yu - publics” received weapons from the Serbian government bian village, and will now face a war-crimes tribunal in goslavia’s nationalities, and at the end of World War Two and from the federal army, now Serb-controlled. The Hague. constructed a new Yugoslav state. According to Borivoje Petrovic (vice-president of the Ser - In 1948 Stalin tried to slap down Tito, seeing him as too in - bian Parliament), all Serbs were to live in the same state, and In July 1995, two of the areas which the United Nations de - dependent. Tito successfully resisted, and converted Yu - it mattered not “whether the new state is called Yugoslavia clared “safe havens” in the midst of a fierce war were over - goslavia to a “non-aligned” stance in the Cold War. He kept or the ‘United States of Serbia’.” run by Serb forces under Mladic’s command. In Zepa, some 200 lives were killed, and the bulk of the population of 40,000 the basics of the Stalinist state he had erected after World War Two, but pursued more decentralised economic planning NATIONALISM fled. By the end of the 1980s one-third of all marriages in than elsewhere in Eastern Europe; a more liberal regime, for In Srebrenica, over 8,000 civilians were massacred. In clas - Bosnia were “mixed”, and six per cent of the people re - intellectuals at least; and a federal policy of elaborate checks sifying the massacre as an act of genocide the International fused to classify themselves as “Croat”, “Serb”, or and balances designed to hold the different nationalities to - Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia outlined what “Bosniac”, instead choosing the term “Yugoslav”. happened: gether. “They stripped all the male Muslim prisoners, military and Some on the left saw Tito’s Yugoslavia as an alternative If the crisis of Tito’s Yugoslavia could have been resolved civilian, elderly and young, of their personal belongings and model of socialism, free of the repression and centralisation by majority vote, it would have led to a looser, fairer federa - identification, and deliberately and methodically killed them which characterised Stalin’s Soviet Union. tion, with the chauvinists on all sides isolated. solely on the basis of their identity.” A new constitution, adopted in 1974, granted a degree of But Milosevic’s aggression inevitably stirred up counter- Srebrenica was only the most infamous of the atrocities by autonomy to the Serbian provinces of Kosova and Vojvod - nationalism among the smaller nationalities in Serbia. As na - Serb forces in the Bosnian war. Like the wars conducted by ina. The same constitution created a “collective head-of- tional conflicts escalated, almost everyone, regardless of the Serbian government of Slobodan Milosevic in Croatia in state”, consisting of representatives from the six republics previous preference for unity and harmony, was pushed into 1991-5 and in Kosova in 1999, that war was an imperialist and the two autonomous provinces. looking to “their own” nationalists to defend them. war in the most straightforward sense: a war by a dominant The bureaucratic checks and balances, designed to assuage As the Stalinist system in Eastern Europe collapsed, na - power to gain control over other nations, conducted without and head off nationalist discontent, paradoxically made na - tional conflicts exploded. regard to the wishes or the lives of the subject peoples. tionalist grievance-mongering the only legal form of politics. In a December 1990 referendum, the people of Slovenia By now Milosevic’s wars have few defenders. Although CRISIS voted 95% for independence; in May 1991, Croatians 93% for independence. Both nations declared independence in June many people in Serbia mourned Mladic’s arrest, Serbia’s As economic and political crisis grew in the 1980s, bu - 1991. Under pressure from the big powers, they agreed to government is in no danger of being toppled by protest reaucrats used nationalist jousting more and more to di - postpone implementation of independence for three months. against it handing over Mladic to The Hague. In Britain, even vert social discontent. the Morning Star has reported the arrest in a manner suggest - Milosevic did not wait. He sent the “federal” (in fact, Ser - ing neutrality or approval. In 1980 unemployment stood at around a million and Yu - bian) army to stop independence. At the time, though — and the scandal should be remem - goslavia’s foreign debt at nearly $20 billion. Between 1980 Slovenia had only a “Ten Day War”, taking around 62 bered, and learned from — large chunks of the left betrayed and 1985 the real value of earnings fell by some 25%. By the lives, before Milosevic admitted defeat. The fighting in Croa - the left’s basic values of consistent democracy and freedom close of the decade Yugoslavia was the country in the world tia was much more serious. for oppressed nations. Some sided with Mladic and Milose - most dependant on remittances from nationals working The most intense period of the Croatian war was over by vic explicitly. Others, including the Socialist Workers’ Party abroad. January 1992, but it was only in 1995 that all hostilities (SWP), gave them backhanded support by way of a form of The wealthier republics (Croatia and Slovenia) resented ceased. By then some 20,000 people had been killed, $27 bil - pro-imperialism posing as “anti-imperialist”. They claimed “paying for” the poorer ones. All the smaller nationalities re - lion worth of material damage had been caused, and over there was nothing to choose between the forces in conflict sented Serbian political domination. Serbs resented the 20% of the Croatian economy had been destroyed. within Yugoslavia. The only “imperialist” thing, to be op - checks and balances, and the hostility they got from wealth - Socialists back the national self-determination cause, not posed with vigour, was the police actions against Serbia ier Croatia and Slovenia. the nationalist ideology . The Croatian nationalists were no which NATO took to contain the conflict, in 1995 and in 1999. In Serbia Slobodan Milosevic, who was to become the re - better than other bourgeois nationalists in battle for national Thus they presented the Serbian state as not imperialistic, public’s president in 1989, portrayed himself as the man who independence. In summer 1995 the Croatian army drove out but the fighter against imperialism. would stand up for Serbs: “At home and abroad Serbia’s en - most of the population of Croatia’s main Serb enclaves. A few years later the SWP would start puffing themselves emies are massing against us. We say to them: ‘we are not BOSNIA as “fighters for Muslims”. At the time they refused to side afraid, we will not flinch from battle’.” In February-March 1992 Bosnia called a referendum on with the Bosniac and Kosovar Muslims fighting Serb con - Milosevic claimed that Serbs in Kosova were being vic - independence, boycotted by the Serb minority but yield - quest, focusing all their sympathies on Serbia as the victim of timised by the province’s ethnic-Albanian majority, and en - ing a 99% majority in favour. In April 1992 the armed NATO. They quietly went along with those who anathema - gineered unrest (which he called “anti-bureaucratic forces of Republika Srpska, the “federal army”, and Ser - tised the Bosniac Muslims (mostly secularised) as the revolutions”) in Vojvodina, Montenegro and Kosova on the bian paramilitaries from Serbia itself, went to war. catspaws of Islamic-fundamentalist conspiracy. back of which his supporters won control of the local gov - The history is relevant to the arguments about Libya today. ernments. The Serb forces were far better armed than those of the HISTORY Milosevic then had control of four of the eight seats in the Bosnian government. Because most of the equipment of the country’s “collective head-of-state”. He worked to bring the old Yugoslav federal army, including that stationed in The area which became known as Yugoslavia was officer corps and the arsenals of Yugoslavia’s federal army Bosnia, was in the hands of the Serbs, an arms embargo im - throughout the 19th century a diverse and intermingled under Serbian control. posed by the UN hit the Bosnian armed forces harder than conglomerate of peoples on the edges of three great Milosevic’s supporters in Croatia organised an au - the Serb forces. empires. tonomous Serbian “republic”, the “SAO Krajina”, centred on By the middle of May the Serb forces had control of over Official policy would later recognise six republics, two au - the town of Knin, which declared itself a separate entity in 60% of Bosnia. The “federal” army then withdrew from tonomous provinces, four main religious groups, 22 ethnic December 1990 . In December 1991 it combined with other Bosnia, but most of its weaponry and its higher-ranking per - groups, and two alphabets among its peoples. Serb-majority areas of Croatia to form the Republic of Ser - sonnel, including Ratko Mladic, remained in the Serb-con - Most of it had been part of the Ottoman Empire, ruled bian Krajina. trolled areas. Mladic was appointed commander-in-chief of from Constantinople (Istanbul). Croatia, and after 1878 Bosnia had the most mixed composition of all Yugoslavia’s the “Army of Republika Srpska”. Bosnia, came under Austro-Hungarian overlordship. Serbia republics: 17% classified themselves as Croat, 31% as Serb, The Bosnian war was marked from the outset by ethnic won semi-independence in 1830 and full independence in and 44% as “Bosniac” or “Muslim”. Stirred up by Milosevic, cleansing. It was not enough for the Serb forces to seize ter - 1867. Tsarist Russia sought influence in Serbia. a Bosnian-Serb assembly proclaimed a “Republic of the Serb ritory in Bosnia. They had to “secure” it, driving before them Socialists before World War One argued that the answer People of Bosnia and Herzegovina” in January 1992. This the non-Serb population, or massacring them, and destroy - was to reorganise the area as a free and democratic Balkan covered not just areas in which Serbs formed the majority of ing all manifestations of their physical presence. Federation. the population but also, according to its founding proclama - Once towns and villages had been secured by Serb forces, Influenced by that thinking, after World War One and the tion, “regions in which the Serbian people remains in the mi - houses belonging to non-Serbs were ransacked and burnt collapse of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires nority due to the genocide conducted against it in World War down. Places of worship, cemeteries, and cultural and his - urban middle-class Croats pushed for a common state, “Yu - Two.” toric buildings were destroyed. If the inhabitants had not fled goslavia”. It was formed, but soon became in practice a In August 1992 it merged with other self-proclaimed Serb already, they were either killed or taken to “detention cen - “Greater Serbia”. regions to form the Republika Srpska (Serb Republic). tres”. Discontent grew. In World War Two, the Nazis could seize In November 1991 Croatian nationalists in Bosnia estab - Women held in detention centres were subject to repeated on the most militant Croatian nationalists, and use them to lished their own “Croatian Republic of Herzeg-Bosnia”, de - and systematic rape. The minimum estimate of the number 6 SOLIDARITY BACKGROUND

vic have his way”. On Milosevic, their main message was that he was not as bad as painted; and on Kosova, that the re - ports of massacre were probably exaggerated, that nothing could be done about it anyway, and that the Kosovar revolt was undesirable because it could destabilise the whole re - gion. Michael Barratt Brown, a veteran socialist economist, was typical of a whole school of thought on the left claiming that the driving force in what he called “The Yugoslav Tragedy” was a conspiracy by Germany in particular, and the West in general, to gain “control over the oil supplies of the Middle East”. He wrote “Once Croatia’s independence was recognised ... war between Serbs and Croats was assured inside Croa - tia.” In fact the big powers pressed the subject peoples of Yu - goslavia not to declare independence. Germany was less convinced about that than other states, but even Germany did not recognise Croatia until six months after the outbreak of war. And why shouldn’t states recognise Croatian inde - pendence demanded by over 90% of the people? Consistently, Brown wrote of the actions of Milosevic and the Serbian government as if they were mere responses to the actions of Bosnian and Croatian nationalists, rather than the expression of an aggressive regional imperialism. “Nationalists in Serbia followed enthusiastically where Slovenes and Croats had led”, he wrote, but he praised the “federal” army, which had already committed a succession of war crimes by the time Brown wrote his book, as “the one remaining force representing Yugoslavia”, and one which was engaged in “a state-building project.” Coffins of bodies identified in 2010. They are victims of the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by Bosnian Serb troops in the CONSPIRACY Srebrenica enclave in 1995. The Serbian president Boris Tadic attended the 2010 funeral while Ratko Mladic was still in hiding In To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia , published in 2000, Michael Parenti argued that the West’s hostility raped is around 20,000, including girls as young as 12. Back in 1991, the SWP had disdainfully said “neither of the to Milosevic was triggered by the Serbian government’s The Serb authorities set up detention camps for male de - nationalisms currently tearing Yugoslavia apart has anything commitment to the defence of the country’s “socialist tainees, the most notorious of them being Omarska (a mining to offer”. It had maintained the same disdain towards the heritage”: complex), Manjaca, Keraterm (a converted factory), Trnpolje Bosniacs’ struggle against Serbian conquest and ethnic and Luka Brcko. The level of ill-treatment of detainees in cleansing. It backed the anti-NATO campaign. “After the overthrow of Communism throughout Eastern some of these camps led to them being classified by Human In fact, the NATO bombing paved the way for an Ameri - Europe and the former Soviet Union, Yugoslavia remained Rights Watch as concentration camps. can-brokered peace deal, the Dayton Agreement. It ended the the only nation in that region that would not voluntarily dis - In Omarska alone several hundred of the camp’s 7,000 massacres, and set up Bosnia-Herzegovina as a quasi-inde - card what remained of its socialism and install an unalloyed prisoners died of starvation, punishment beatings and other pendent state, for most purposes a loose confederation be - free-market system... The US goal has been to transform Yu - forms of ill-treatment over a five-month period in the spring tween Serb and Croat-Bosniac units, with an external “High goslavia into a Third World region, a cluster of weak right- and summer of 1992. Representative” as overlord. wing principalities. Around 6,000 Bosnians were imprisoned in Manjaca camp In the course of the war between 100,000 and 176,000 peo - “As far as the Western free-marketeers were concerned, in the period April to August of 1992. Again, several hun - ple had been killed. More than 2.2 million had fled their these enterprises [in Serbia] had to be either privatised or de - dred of them were killed, with intellectuals, professionals homes. 530,000 of them had managed to reach other Euro - and political and religious leaders being particularly targeted pean countries, despite the European Union responding to molished. A massive aerial destruction like the one delivered for murder. Those who survived the camp were expelled by the outbreak of war by imposing a visa regime on Bosnians. upon Iraq (in the first Gulf War) might be just the thing the Serb authorities to non-Serb areas. After the end of the fighting Mladic continued to live needed to put Belgrade more in step with the New World As more and more of the countryside fell into Serb (and openly in the Serb-controlled area of Bosnia. In the late 1990s Order.” Croatian) hands, Bosnians fled to the towns and cities in he moved to Belgrade. Only after the overthrown of Milose - In fact, the Serbian government pursued privatisation and search of protection. In 1993 the United Nations declared six vic in 2000 did Mladic go more or less underground. pro-market policies of its own volition from the late 1980s, Bosnian towns to be “safe havens”. In theory, inhabitants of KOSOVA imposing cuts in public services and increasing social in - the “safe havens” would be protected by UN ground troops equalities. And its old reformed-Stalinist structure was noth - Meanwhile Kosova, an area under tight Serbian control (Unprofor) and, if needed, NATO airstrikes. but with a 90% Albanian-Muslim majority in the popula - ing to cherish. Four of the “safe havens” had only 500 soldiers each to tion, was stewing. After the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic in 2001, the Interna - protect them, and airstrikes were rare, as they required dual tional Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic said: Unprofor and NATO approval. The Kosovar majority organised a virtual parallel society, “Crimes were committed in Yugoslavia, but not by Milose - The “safe haven” of Sarajevo was besieged for 44 months with underground schools, hospitals, and so on, beside the vic. ... His real offence was that he tried to keep the 26 na - by Serb forces, the longest siege in modern warfare. Serb Serbian-run official institutions. tionalities that comprise Yugoslavia free from US and NATO forces stationed on the surrounding hills used artillery, mor - The big powers opposed Kosovar independence, but colonisation and occupation.” tars, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, heavy machine-guns, multiple pressed Milosevic to ease off. From mid-1998 Milosevic The chapter on the Bosnian war in The Liberal Defence of rocket launchers, rocket-launched aircraft bombs, and sniper started a drive to force hundreds of thousands of Kosovars to Murder , written by the SWP’s Richard Seymour and pub - rifles against the civilian population. flee the province. The big powers called a conference and An average of 300 artillery shells a day hit Sarajevo dur - tried to push Milosevic into a compromise deal. lished in 2008, has similar arguments: Milosevic’s regime and ing the siege. On just one day in 1993 more than 3,500 shells Milosevic refused. NATO started bombing Serbian posi - its war crimes were not as bad as they were made out to be; hit the city. Overall, an estimated 10,000 people were killed tions, apparently thinking that a short burst of military ac - the Bosnian and Croatian governments were not only at least and another 56,000 wounded during the siege. 35,000 build - tion would make Milosevic back down. Simultaneously the as bad as that of Milosevic but were also guilty of the same ings were destroyed, including 10,000 apartment blocks. Serb chauvinists stepped up the slaughter and driving-out kind of atrocities. Ethnic cleansing and war crimes were also carried out by of Kosovars. After two and a half months of bombing “In the run-up to that atrocity” [the Srebrenica massacre], the forces of the Croatian Republic of Herzeg Bosnia. (March-June 1999) the Serbian army finally withdrew. By he claimed, “a wave of terror, including rape, by Bosnian NATO IN BOSNIA then around 850,000 Kosovars had fled. Muslim forces in surrounding areas had killed thousands of From 1999 to 2008 Kosova was under UN rule. During that Serbs”. In February 1994 an American-brokered deal, the Wash - The SWP itself, mostly, did not bother discussing the ington Agreement, brought an end to the fighting be - period there were a number of persecutions of the small re - maining Serb minority in Kosova. In 2008 Kosova declared atrocities one way or another. It simply stated that NATO tween Bosnian and Croatian forces. In September 1995, was “imperialism” and the job was to oppose “imperial - NATO finally moved against Milosevic and his allies, in a independence. ism”. In other words, it put its opportunist concern to month-long bombing campaign. Far from being converted by the war into a crushed semi- colony of some big power, Serbia benefited from its defeat. In “catch the wind” of miscellaneous disquiet about or op - Workers’ Liberty commented: “Yes, the Western powers are October 2000, following rigged elections, Milosevic was position to NATO military action in a region which most hypocrites... But to reckon that NATO’s bombardment of ousted by mass protest in the streets, and Serbia’s chauvin - people knew little about above any internationalist con - Mladic’s siege guns calls for protest meetings, and Milose - ist frenzy began to dissipate. cern for lives and freedoms in the region. vic’s atrocities do not, is to condone Serbian imperialism... Dispute on the left over the Kosova war was sharper than Sarajevo relieved by a NATO offensive designed as a lever over Bosnia. Workers’ Liberty said that, while we could not • Dossier on the Kosova war, Workers’ Liberty 2/3 : for an imperialist carve-up is bad; Sarajevo still besieged is and did not endorse NATO, the main issue was Kosovar self- www.workersliberty.org/files/kosova.pdf worse.” determination. The SWP and others threw themselves into a • Introduction to that dossier: Others on the left rallied to a “Committee for Peace in the “Stop The War Campaign”, later recycled for use over www.workersliberty.org/files/kosovaintro.pdf Balkans” focused on denouncing NATO. They said NATO Afghanistan and Iraq and still in existence. • Review of the SWP’s pamphlet on the Kosova war: action was about “enforcing Western interests” on Serbia. “Stop The War” here meant “stop NATO and let Milose - www.workersliberty.org/k SOLIDARITY 7 IDEAS FOR FREEDOM 2011 From Tunis to London, the workers’ agenda

Ideas for Freedom is an annual Workers’ League on workers’ role in the weekend of socialist discussion and “Arab Spring” debate hosted by Workers’ Liberty. • Mike Wood tells us about the long-lost debates in the Trotskyist Workers’ Party Ideas for Freedom 2011 will take place on about Palestine in the run-up to 1948. Friday 8 –Sunday 10 July at Highgate New - town Community Centre , 25 Bertram INTRODUCTION TO MARXISM Street, Archway, London N19 5DQ, opening For activists new to Marxist ideas, or for with a Friday night film showing at the Ex - older hands who need a refresher course, we’ll be running a series of intro - mouth Arms in Euston. ductory sessions that cover some of the Here are some of the highlights. most fundamental elements of the AWL’s politics. THE WORKERS’ AGENDA • Who was Lenin? with Paul Hampton The last year has seen mass strikes • Introduction to Marxist feminism , across Europe, a huge battle for union with Esther Townsend and Jade Baker rights in the United States and revolu - • Are socialists “multiculturalists”? with tionary movements sweeping North Camila Bassi Africa and the Middle East. • The Commune, anarchism, and Marx - In the UK we have had the student revolt ism: we have invited well-known anarchist and the biggest demonstration since the writer Iain McKay ( An Anarchist FAQ ) to de - Iraq war. What are the next steps for ac - bate by AWL activists 20 years ago it has become • “Chavs: the demonisation HISTORY tivists who want not only to defeat the cuts, a focal point for grassroots organisation on of the working class” , with As well as marking the centenary of the but to overthrow the system which pro - the Tube and has played a key role in many Owen Jones (pictured), au - “Great Unrest”, the high-point of pre- duced them? How do we get our labour disputes. thor of Chavs , and hip-hop World War 1 workers’ militancy, we’ll be movement, internationally, in shape for the We discuss the history of Tubeworker as artist the Ruby Kid presenting alternative working-class fight? Join trade union, anti-cuts well as looking at why workplace bulletins What’s behind the use of histories of World War 2 and the Ameri - and student activists from have been such an important tool for revo - the word “chav” as a term of abuse? Owen can Civil War. across the country for a lutionaries in the past. Jones discusses the themes of his new book. weekend of inspiring, Hip-hop artist the Ruby Kid will discuss And, in a time when the labour move - thought-provoking and • How can Labour council - attacks on music such as rap and grime as ment needs to re-learn how to organise pre - creative discussion. lors fight cuts? With Labour part of a wider demonisation of young carious and unskilled workers, we’ll revisit councillors from Notts and working-class people and their culture. the history of “New Unionism”. 100 years since the workers’ “Great West Yorkshire, Janine Booth • Unrest” (pictured) on Poplar council, , with Edd Mustill MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA The 1880s and 1890s: Marxists and the and John McDonnell MP, • CLASS POLITICS IN BRITAIN TODAY 2011 has seen incredible social upheaval “New Unions” speaking from his experience , with Charlie McDonald across the Middle East, with independ - A working-class history of World War • Plenary session: “Against the cuts, of clashing with Ken Living - • ent workers’ organisations coming to 2 against the Tories — for what? Fight for a stone as Livingstone’s deputy leader on the , with Cathy Nugent the forefront of the struggle for democ - Race, revolution and reaction: 150 workers’ government!” With Sean Greater London Council. • Matgamna and Jill Mountford from Work - racy in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. years since the US Civil War , with Mark Osborn ers’ Liberty • Iraq 2003, We are delighted to welcome speakers CULTURE How can we transform existing labour fees and from Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Iraq to dis - As pioneering revolutionary socialist movement organisations into democratic EMA 2010: cuss the potential of the “Arab spring” and William Morris put it: “I do not want art bodies capable of fighting for a government learning from how we can help working-class and social - for a few any more than education for a that will represent our class with as much school stu - ist elements within it to grow. few, or freedom for a few.” vigour as the current government repre - dents’ strug - • Libya : democratic revolution, NATO sents the bosses? gles , with intervention and the response of the left, In this stream we discuss how we can former School with eyewitness report from Libyan revolu - make art and culture accessible to all. • “Should we call for ‘Gen - Students Against the War activists and tionary Huda Abuzeid • Friday night showing of Sergei Eisen - eral Strike’? What strategy school student activists from last year’s up - • Ziyad from Morocco’s Rev - stein’s 1925 film “Strike” , about a factory for workers to beat the To - surge olutionary Marxist Current, workers’ strike in Czarist Russia. Screen - ries?” Elaine Jones, AWL and What are the differences and similarities Houzan Mahmoud (pic - writer Clive Bradley and Janine Booth, Lon - vice-chair of Wirral TUC, de - between the UK’s last two waves of school tured) from the Worker-com - don Transport workers’ representative on bates Richard Brenner, politi - student militancy? How can we learn from munist Party of Iraq, and a the RMT national executive, will discuss the cal editor of Workers’ Power them to build future struggles? speaker from Tunisia’s Left film both from an artistic and a political How can socialists best point of view build for mass strike action? Is demanding • Cuts against the arts, arts against the that TUC leaders call a general strike a good cuts , with Susan Kelly (invited) focus? • The internet and class struggle , with Eric Lee (editor of LabourStart) and Aaron • Workplace bulletins and rank-and-file Peters (London student activist) organisation: the story of Tubeworker , with • Race, class and sexuality on film : London Underground RMT rep Becky Faryal Velmi, filmmaker and member of Crocker and Martin Donohue, one of the Workers’ Liberty, shows and leads a discus - bulletin’s founders. Tubeworker is one of sion of her films “Pictures of Zain” and very few rank-and-file socialist industrial “What You Looking At?” bulletins in the UK. Since its establishment Libya debate To book tickets Weekend tickets bought before July Peter Taaffe of the Socialist Party has are £20 waged, £12 low- published a lengthy polemic attacking waged/students, £7 low- the AWL’s position on Libya. waged/school students. Day tickets are £12, £7, £4. We have challenged Peter Taaffe and the SP to debate this at Ideas for Free - For more information or to book on - dom. We await their reply. line visit ww.workersliberty.org/ideas

8 SOLIDARITY DISCUSSION Peter Taaffe equates Libyan rebels with Nicaraguan “contras”

By Martin Thomas

For the first time, I think, in 45 years of political conflicts with the AWL and its forerunners, the Socialist Party (formerly Militant) has explicitly polemicised against us. They always used to hide behind bluster against “sects on the fringes of the labour movement”. Now they have been forced into the open. The May edition of the SP magazine carried an article by SP leader Peter Taaffe attacking AWL (and, secondly, the Marxist of Lebanese origin Gilbert Achcar) for failing to express “absolute opposition” to the NATO “no-fly zone” in Libya. AWL has written to the SP and Peter Taaffe challenging them to a face-to-face debate on this in front of AWL mem - bers and the left at our summer school, Ideas For Freedom, on 8-10 July in London. The SP has not yet responded — generally they are far from brave about such things — so we are also replying in writing. AWL sides with the rebels against Qaddafi. Although the evidence is that the rebel leadership includes a miscellany Peter Taaffe attacks the AWL for failing express “absolute opposition” to the NATO “no-fly zone” in Libya of bourgeois tendencies, they lead an elemental democratic revolt, with potential for development and liberation, solute opposition” to what they were doing and demand What might “halt the process” is victory for Qaddafi, sig - against the dead hand of Qaddafi’s autocratic police state. that they withdraw. nalling to the rebels in Syria and Yemen that tyrants can en - The bulk of the Libyan armed forces has stuck with Take another example, from international politics this time dure and crush revolt. Qaddafi. The rebel-held cities thus faced the threat of attack in case Taaffe would argue that the issue of imperialism If Taaffe could write passable English, or think other than with planes and heavy artillery, with little more than hand wipes out such nuances. in formulaic and quarter-understood phrases, then instead weapons to resist with. The political forerunners that AWL and SP have in com - of “capitalism and imperialism” he would have written “the For their own reasons, the NATO powers have intervened mon, the Trotskyists of the mid-1940s, did not support the USA and the West European states”. He can’t actually be - on the side of the rebels, bombing Qaddafi’s air bases, tanks, British and American armies in World War Two. They called lieve that Qaddafi’s Libya is not capitalist, or that its role in and command centres. Because we support the rebels, we them imperialist. Chad, for example, has not been imperialistic. welcome that. But they did not “absolutely oppose” the entry of Ameri - The USA and the West European states did not like the We do not endorse or support the NATO powers, because can and British-sponsored French forces into Paris in August sclerosis of the old dictatorships, nor the fact that their re - we know that they will serve their own interests. Their con - 1944 to defeat and oust the Nazi occupiers on the back of a pressive rigidity incubated a danger of Islamist triumph cern is to get well-positioned to do a deal with a post- popular rising which had started a few days before. after their inevitable gradual hollowing-out. They will be Qaddafi regime in Libya, and if they can to shape that On the contrary, if the Americans had stopped their ad - happy with the revolutions if they lead to workable forms of regime to suit them. vance and camped outside Paris until, maybe, the Nazis had market-friendly bourgeois democracy. They have real hopes But we are in favour of stopping Qaddafi’s planes from crushed the uprising — as Stalin’s army camped outside that they will. They do not want to “halt the process and bombing the rebel-held cities, and if the NATO powers do Warsaw from August 1944, letting the Nazis exterminate a hopefully reverse it”. that, for whatever reasons, we do not want to deter or ob - popular rising before the Russian army finally entered to However, while the dictatorships remained in control, the struct them. push out the Nazis — the Trotskyists would have de - USA and West European states supported them, courted It would be different if one NATO power or another were nounced the Americans. them, did deals with them, aided them. The revolutions to invade Libya and try to establish a colonial-type occupa - caught them out. tion there. But they are not doing that. There is no sign of SUPERSTITIOUS SYLLOGISM They are scrambling, in competition with each other, to es - them doing that. Taaffe claims that “a child of ten” would insist on a sim - tablish credit with the new governments. That is one reason The US administration, as Taaffe himself notes, is very ex - pler choice of attitudes, midnight-black or gleaming- why they declared the no-fly zone. The other, it seems, is that plicit that it does not want the risks and troubles of putting white. they thought Qaddafi would fall soon, and the no-fly zone US troops in Libya. It is hard to imagine Norway and Den - would win them credit with Libya’s rulers after Qaddafi. mark, the NATO powers which have dropped most of the He quotes Sean Matgamna of the AWL saying that gen - eral political opposition to the British, French, etc., govern - Libyan rebels = Nicaraguan contras? A third reason: the bombs against Qaddafi, invading. It is hard to imagine rebels are similar to the contras, the right-wing counter-rev - Britain, France, and Italy, the three big European powers ments does not imply that we must “stridently oppose... every military action”, and retorts that “support” — so, “not olutionaries financed by the US in Nicaragua after the San - jostling with each other for favour with the rebel leaders, dinista revolution of 1979 and until 1990; and Qaddafi is agreeing to have one of them lead an invasion, or forming an stridently oppose” is indistinguishable from “support” — “support for military action of whatever kind is ‘positive po - similar to the left-wing, socially-reforming Sandinistas. “equal” alliance for an invasion. Sober bourgeois figures are Taaffe’s prose is obscure here, but it makes no other sense. lucid and forceful about the risks and pitfalls of anything litical support’.” Instead, he pleads for “absolute opposition” to the no-fly He has already written that NATO’s motive in bombing like an invasion. Qaddafi’s command centres is to “halt the process” of revo - On the evidence so far, Max Hastings, writing in the Fi - zone. “Most unstable and untrustworthy”, wrote Trotsky, “is lution. nancial Times (20 April), was right: “The real mission of the He adds: “Imperialism has not hesitated to use mercenar - British and French military ‘advisers’ being dispatched to revolutionary radicalism, which finds it necessary to keep up its morale by ignoring the dialectic of living forces in eco - ies to overthrow a regime it did not favour or to stymie a the rebel camp is to explore what the west might do to get revolution. Such was the policy of Ronald Reagan’s admin - out of it”. nomics and politics alike and by constructing its prognosis by means of a pencil and a ruler”. Taaffe will have none of istration in using... the contras... Imperialism has been forced “ABSOLUTE” SUPPORT OR OPPOSITION? that. His primary argument for “absolute opposition” to the into the latest stand by the fact that Gaddafi appears to be Taaffe misrepresents our opinion, saying that we “jus - no-fly zone is the superstitious syllogism that anything other winning”. tify” and “support” “imperialist intervention”. means absolute support for Britain and France — becoming Democratic social reform, based on mass popular support, “the political attorney and apologist for France and Britain”. and even with the Stalinoid tinge which the Sandinistas had, The difference between not wanting to obstruct or stop the Sensing that this will not quite do, he has a rich variety of is not the same as Qaddafi’s autocracy. The democratic mis - NATO action, and supporting it, is perhaps subtle, and may other arguments, some of them contradicting each other. cellany of Libya’s rebellion is not the same as the brutal seem evasive. But a couple of examples will show that polit - Like a student scratching for excuses for a missing assign - counter-revolutionism of the contras, whose core was pro - ical life requires more responses than just “absolute” oppo - ment — “I was ill”, “my computer crashed”, “the cat vided by the remnants of the National Guard of Nicaragua’s sition and “absolute” support to the complexly-various crapped on it” — Taaffe thinks offering a heap of arguments old dictator, Anastasio Somoza. actions of bourgeois forces. will compensate for the weakness of each one taken individ - Would voting against the Spanish Republican govern - In December 2009 the English Defence League marched in ually. ment’s military budget imply not backing the Republic Nottingham. Anti-fascists counter-demonstrated. Most of War is barbaric. And Qaddafi’s regime? First reason: we against the fascists, or “absolutely opposing” military aid them were kept by the SWP-led “Unite Against Fascism” should oppose the bombing just because it is bombing. It is to the Republic? campaign in a police “kettle”. war. “War is the most barbaric of all human activities”. For a fourth reason, Taaffe dips into Trotsky’s writings — Some of the demonstrators, led by AWL members, broke But a NATO pullback would not bring peace. It would and gets his blundering hand bitten off. out of the kettle and reached the streets where the EDL was bring continued war between Qaddafi and rebels, on terms “To show how far these latter-day ‘Trotskyists’ [AWL] are demonstrating. At the point they reached the EDL, they more to Qaddafi’s advantage. If that brought peace on removed from Trotsky’s real views on war, look at his posi - found themselves a small group facing a large group of ag - Qaddafi’s terms, the crushing and slaughter of the rebels, it tion... on the military budget of the Republican government gressive EDLers. would be more “barbaric” than the current war. [in the Spanish Civil War]”. Trotsky advocated that social - But the police’s decision, that day, and at that place, was to Does Qaddafi represent a revolutionary “process” which ists in the Republican parliament vote against the govern - turn against the EDL. Serious street-fighting between the NATO wants to “halt”? Second reason: the no-fly zone is “a ment’s military budget, on the grounds that “we have not cops and the EDL followed, disrupting the EDL’s demon - lever” for “capitalism and imperialism” “to halt the process the slightest confidence in the capacity of this government to stration. and hopefully reverse it”, “the process” here being “the conduct the war” against the fascists. Socialists could not have “supported” the police in Not - sweep of the revolution in Tunisia and Egypt”. This might be relevant if AWL were calling on MPs to vote tingham. The police were keeping most of the anti-fascists But the rebels, not Qaddafi, represent the “sweep” of the for the Tories’ military budget. Hardly! Or if Trotsky were “kettled”. But it would be idiotic for a socialist to rush for - democratic rebellion in the Middle East and North Africa. arguing for socialists to “absolutely” oppose the Republican ward when the cops turned against the EDL to express “ab - side in the civil war and all its military actions. He wasn’t... SOLIDARITY 9 DISCUSSION

Where does Taaffe stand on the rebels and Qaddafi? The of the working class... new powerful trade unions... socialist head. equation of the rebels with the contras, and of Qaddafi with transformation, accompanied by democracy...” Our “Third Camp” politics is about advancing alternatives “the process” which “imperialism” wants to halt, suggests The “united workers’ defence force” was fantasy and eva - based on the real logic of the class struggle, starting from the he sides with Qaddafi. Other passages point another way. sion in Northern Ireland because if that force were to emerge realities of today. Taaffe’s escapist-Third-Campism is about Taaffe concedes that a massacre by Qaddafi of the people of and become a major, or the major, military power in North - advancing empty maximalist formulas to evade all the log - Benghazi would be bad. He writes that he gave “political ern Ireland — as it would have to do, in order to be a “solu - ics of development inscribed in reality. support... to the people of Benghazi” in February . tion” — then it would have make political choices on the The Labour Party Young Socialists dominated by the But he complains that “petty-bourgeois and bourgeois national and communal issues. To emerge, it would have to SP/Militant for almost two decades lived through the 1970s forces” now dominate in Benghazi (as if there was a work - be sustained by a prior political unity of at least a decisive and 80s, in peaceful coexistence with the Labour Party ma - ing-class socialist leadership there back in February! There section of the Northern Ireland working class, Catholic and chine, on a diet of exactly that empty maximalist escapism. wasn’t!) The implication is that now he does not side with Protestant, around a common political programme. “Socialism” — otherwise formulated as “the nationalisation the rebels against Qaddafi, or possibly even sides with If that political unity had existed, then the communal of the top 200 monopolies” — was counterposed as “the al - Qaddafi against the rebels. Nothing is stated clearly, and semi-civil-war in the Troubles would never have started in ternative” to every sharp and concrete struggle. maybe Taaffe does not know himself. the first place! The Militant/SP “solution” to the problem No-fly zone = invasion? Fifth reason: the no-fly zone is was a roundabout way of saying that if the problem didn’t ANARCHISM AND PSEUDO-ANARCHISM sure to lead to an outright invasion of Libya. Taaffe claims exist, then you could solve it. The bourgeois state is the executive committee of the that “the masses in Benghazi” oppose, or opposed, the no-fly But there was then a strong trade union movement in ruling class. Insofar as the working class can pull itself zone. Northern Ireland, more or less united at least on “economic” together as a cohesive class aware of its distinct his - Taaffe may fumble in Trotskyist theory, but he reckons issues. That gave the “united workers’ defence force” slogan toric interests, it must stand in irreducible class hostil - himself a whiz at telepathy-in-Arabic. He assures us that a superficial shine of realism. Again, the famous Durruti Col - ity to the bourgeois state. “the masses” in Libya “correctly feared that a no-fly zone... umn emerged from a strong and lively workers’ movement would lead to an invasion”. in Spain, with a rich history — not from zero. But capitalist society is not simply the working-out of the Correctly? So far the no-fly zone is leading to embarrassed In Libya? There is no workers’ movement there yet. There will of the ruling class. Nor is it even single-combat between attempts by the NATO powers to extricate themselves with are not even small socialist groups, Libyan analogues of the capitalist class and working class: the capitalists also, for ex - minimum damage, and not to an invasion. Taaffe is very in - SP or the AWL. At best there are scattered individuals of a ample, develop potentially-emancipatory new technologies, dignant against Sean Matgamna of the AWL writing that: leftish turn of mind. which we do not “absolutely oppose”, though they always “There is no reason at all to think that the ‘Great Powers’ That could change quickly, but not in the time it would do it in ways shaped by the class struggle. want to occupy Libya or are doing other than a limited inter - take for bombs falling from Qaddafi bomber-planes to reach The bourgeois state is also, as Engels put it, the “power, national police operation...” But the evidence so far is that the people of Benghazi and Misrata. Taaffe advises the peo - seemingly standing above society, that would alleviate the Matgamna was right, and the-masses-via-Taaffe were not ple of Benghazi that they should chase away the NATO [class] conflict and keep it within the bounds of order”. It “correct”. planes, or encourage the SP to chase them away, and instead condenses and adapts to the class struggle. Trends could change. We will respond if they do. We dis - deploy, as their answer to Qaddafi’s bombs, the plan of first Specific acts of the bourgeois state are shaped by class con - trust the big powers. But there is no basis for campaigning creating a workers’ movement and then from that generat - tradictions. Sometimes working-class struggle can (directly against the no-fly zone on the grounds that it is inseparable ing the “united workers’ defence force” which the SP and or indirectly) extract from the bourgeois state laws which we from an outright invasion and colonial-style occupation of Militant could not evoke, even in the tiniest embryo form, positively support — for limiting working hours, for guar - Libya. over decades of effort in the far more favourable conditions anteeing trade union rights, for establishing universal free Taaffe’s evidence on the thinking of “the masses in Beng - of Northern Ireland. education for children, for example. There can also be ac - hazi” is “slogans on the walls [which] read, in English, ‘No Any difference between this and Callinicos’s lofty “tough tions of the bourgeois state which we welcome, or do not try to foreign intervention, the Libyans can do it themselves’.” luck, massacres happen” line is notional. to obstruct, while not endorsing them. So “the masses in Benghazi” conduct all their political af - We can and must respond case-by-case, and sometimes “THIRD CAMP”, ESCAPIST-STYLE subtly, to the varied measures of the bourgeois state, while fairs in English? So convenient! Workers’ Liberty, as regular readers will know, some - In fact such slogans are reported from leaders (“petty at the same time sustaining our principled hostility to the times borrows a phrase from Leon Trotsky, Max Shacht - bourgeois state as such. bourgeois and bourgeois” leaders) of the rebels in the early man and others to describe our politics as “Third Irish Times, Purist anarchism advocates flat opposition to every meas - period after the revolt started in mid-February. ( Camp”. 2 March, for example). Then they thought they could sweep ure of the bourgeois state, no matter how advantageous it Qaddafi from power quickly. Trotsky wrote: “The attempt of the bourgeoisie during its seems — action, if possible, to obstruct or sabotage it. Astute After Qaddafi’s resistance proved stronger the leaders internecine conflict to oblige humanity to divide up into only anarchists have moved on from that. The SP is very un-an - (and, as far as we can tell from talking to people who’ve been two camps is motivated by a desire to prohibit the proletariat archist in domestic politics. in Libya, “the masses”) changed their opinion. from having its own independent ideas... The whole of the Too un-anarchist, indeed! To this day its “where we stand” politics of [Marx and Lenin] was directed towards this, the defines socialism as “a socialist government... tak[ing] into OIL fetishism of two camps would give way to a third, inde - public ownership the top 150 companies and banks”, with - Sixth reason: the US and West European governments pendent, sovereign camp of the proletariat, that camp upon out questioning the nature of the state that will do that na - are cynical and hypocritical. “The Benghazi rebels are which, in point of fact, the future of humanity depends”. tionalising. so much small change in their calculations. Only yester - In conflicts between different reactionary alternatives, we For international politics, however, the SP switches into a day, these ‘powers’ embraced Muammar Gaddafi... The do not seek the “lesser evil”, but strive for a path of develop - sort of addled anarchism. It advocates purist-anarchist “ab - real reason for intervention in Libya... is... oil”. ment shaped by the self-assertion of the working class as an solute opposition” (Taaffe’s words) to all actions of bour - Plainly the NATO powers hope that their action will win independent force. geois states — or, rather, to all actions of some bourgeois them a good place in negotiations over oil with a post- That is a powerful idea, and one which the SP would do states, those which it defines as imperialist. Qaddafi Libyan regime (though they must know that not all well to learn from, instead of (for example) rallying to the And it tends to support the actions of other bourgeois of them can win the plums). reactionary “No to EU” camp on the pretext that it is a lesser states — to have towards them the usually supportive atti - If the NATO powers were bombing the rebels to help evil than the EU. tude which Militant had to the international actions of the Qaddafi — who, Taaffe tells us, “appears to be winning” — But even in the SP’s line on the EU there is a sort of ad - Stalinist states before 1991. (For example, Militant supported that action too would have oil as its “real reason”. But there dled Third-Camp-ism — Third-Camp-ism as political es - theT hReu sostihane rw baor uinrg Aefogihsa sntiasttaens atfotewra 1r9d7s9 )w. hich the SP is capism. is a difference! so very un-anarchist are those it defines as anti-imperi - Challenge the SP on “No to EU”, and they will protest that If the SP-dominated PCS union leadership calls a strike alist. Taaffe’s contortions over Libya come from the fact their alternative to the EU is not the actual one (capitalist Eu - cynically and hypocritically — as it often does, using PCS that he is not sure whether to define Qaddafi as anti-im - rope with higher borders between countries) but “a socialist members as a stage army to boost the SP’s prestige and with perialist (like the Sandinistas) or to concede that, what - United Europe”. no realistic thought of winning anything — that is not the ever about and regardless of Qaddafi’s conflicts at Tea or coffee, comrade Taaffe? Neither! Socialism is the same as that leadership calling off a strike cynically and hyp - various times with the big powers, he is a deadly enemy only road! Qaddafi or Benghazi? Neither. Bring back Dur - ocritically, as it also does. of the working people of Libya. Generalities about the cynicism and profit-hunger of the ruti to lead the “united workers’ defence force” in Taaffe’s bourgeoisie, and generalisations about the opportunism and imbrication with the union bureaucracy of the SP, are not enough to tell us about particular cases. Adam Curtis and his “yellow brick road” Neither NATO, nor Qaddafi, but... a Libyan Durruti Col - umn? Seventh reason: Qaddafi could be dealt with better Dave Kirk reviews All Watched Over by Machines of Lov - economic regulation and higher interest rates stayed off than by the no-fly zone. “On the basis of mass workers’ com - ing Grace , a film series by Adam Curtis, BBC2 the agenda. mittees, a revolutionary army... could have been mobilised... The second episode ranged over less familiar ground. [as when] José Buenaventura Durruti [a left-wing, almost Adam Curtis documentaries have become their own Curtis launched into a critique of the idea of the eco-system Trotskyist, anarchist leader] formed a revolutionary army” genre. When you watch one you get an idiosyncratic as a stable self-regulating network that tends towards an during the Spanish civil war. TV essay, illustrated with a montage of old films, equilibrium. He attacked the politics that draws inspira - Towards the end of his article Taaffe concedes that a mas - archive footage and adverts. The films are always fas - tion from this theory; the idea that the answer to ecologi - sacre of the people of Benghazi by Qaddafi’s army would be cinating but can also be infuriating. cal crisis is population control and strict limits to growth; bad. Why, if the Benghazi people are analogous to the con - Curtis says his latest documentary series, “All Watched the idea that non-hierarchical organising is a means of tras and Qaddafi to the Sandinistas (as in the third line of Over by Machines of Loving Grace”, is about how the changing the world. reasoning)? Anyway, Taaffe concedes it would be bad. He dream of liberation by technology has gone sour. But the Curtis shows how this scientific theory was discredited concedes that Alex Callinicos’s sneeringly lofty attitude — programme is more about the idea of self-organising net - as it took no account of the dynamism of the natural world, “massacres are a chronic feature of capitalism” — is unsat - works and the failure of an ideology of extreme individu - yet the political version of this theory has continued to isfactory. alism. spread. Curtis argues non-hierarchical organising is always But then he really goes over the edge with the “answer: a The first episode ranged from the private life of the nov - prey to unaccountable domination by those who can ma - Libyan Durruti” thing. He recalls the cure-all slogan which elist Ayn Rand to the 1990s Asian economic crisis and the nipulate it to their own ends. the SP (then called Militant) had for Northern Ireland in 1969 Monica Lewinsky scandal. The meat of the programme de - Someone once likened Adam Curtis to the Wizard of Oz. and after, “for a united workers’ defence force”, and thinks scribed how the “new economy of information technol - He invites you to go on an intellectual journey with him he’s found the answer for Libya: “a similar approach... ogy” and the technological revolution was thought to have only for you to find that he has led you to something you adapted to the concrete conditions in Libya”. brought stability to capitalism and resolved capitalism’s knew all along. We know the internet and IT did not abol - Once having evoked that “united workers’ defence force”, tendency to go into crisis, when actually it globalised cri - ish the laws of capitalism and we know non-hierarchical Taaffe is off. Qaddafi’s army fades under the clumsy brush- sis further. In an interview Joseph Stiglitz, economic advi - networks can impose a “tyranny of structurelessness”. strokes of Taaffe’s formulaic scenario-painting. “Imperial - Curtis takes an hour to tell us some quite common - sor to Bill Clinton, reveals how evidence of an emerging place truths, but his journey is well worth taking. ism will not be able to stop the forward march of speculative bubble was deliberately suppressed to ensure revolution... The revolutions... will lead to a strengthening 10 SOLIDARITY INDUSTRIAL Postal workers go into battle Tower Hamlets cuts speed up By Darren Bedford current size. Royal Mail will eventually provoke a tually sold to its members. bosses estimate that the reaction wider than Lon - Those networks must be re - By a Tower Hamlets On 23 May the Communi - cutbacks will involve don.” activated and rebuilt to cation Workers’ Union nearly 600 job losses. This will be the third make sure that rank-and- worker (CWU) announced that Last week’s CWU confer - piece of major industrial file postal workers, in Lon - 79% of voting postal ence voted unanimously to action by postal workers in don and beyond, have their Tower Hamlets council in workers in London had mobilise national support the last four years. Previ - hands on the steering east London is planning backed strike action for the London dispute, in - ous disputes, both London- wheel of this dispute. on privatising its re - against the closure of cluding by refusing to han - wide and national, have Like the battles in 2007 sources department, three London mail cen - dle any London mail been undermined by a fail - and 2009, this fight is one meaning that 800 work - tres. diverted to centres outside ure on the part of the union to save the post as a public ers will be transferred out of council employment the capital. leadership to focus action service. Savage cuts at The turnout was around and become employees no inclination whatsoever The CWU’s London divi - around winning specific, three of the capital’s most 54%, and over 3,000 Lon - of a private company. to deal or consult with the don postal workers could sional rep Martin Walsh targeted demands, prefer - important mail centres are unions. now strike in June as they said: “London postal work - ring catch-all but unde - part of a wider project to fi - The attack comes in the The council’s cuts budget attempt to save Nine Elms, ers have sent a clear mes - fined opposition to nancially streamline and, context of a rapidly acceler - has given a green light to Rathbone Place and the sage to Royal Mail in this management’s general in - ultimately, to privatise the ating pace of cuts across bosses across local govern - Twelvetrees Crescent centre ballot that they will not be tentions and concretely poBsty s leinrvkiicneg. up with other the borough; the council is ment and education to in Bow. Other major Lon - bullied or intimidated by only demanding further workers fighting to stop also planning to devolve make whatever cuts they don mail centres not threat - the company. Royal Mail’s negotiations. Some rank- privatisation and job the payment of severance like. Things are moving ex - ened with closure, such as closure plans are a clear and-file networking was losses, London postal packages down to individ - tremely fast in terms of the giant Mount Pleasant threat of compulsory re - done in the 2007 and 2009 workers can turn their ual schools, meaning that if cuts, and all the protections site in Islington, also face dundancy and this is com - disputes, particularly jobs dispute into a class a given school feels itself workers have fought for in significant cuts. Mount pletely unacceptable. In around the mobilisations to battle for public owner - unable to pay out then it the past are under real threat. Unions will have to Pleasant could potentially their race to push services oppose the shoddy deals ship. will have the power not to be reduced to 57% of its to the bottom, Royal Mail the CWU leadership even - do so. Some schools have gear up to fight back. also started transferring Currently the process for out the employment of initiating any industrial ac - Sheffield college strikes Lecturers meet their cleaning staff to tin- tion is very drawn-out. pot private firms with very Even if the Unison regional Management at Sheffield little proper negotiation or office sanctions a ballot compulsory redundancies By a delegate of conference debate, in the College have gone on a consultation. In other (which it invariably at - off the table, so UCU voted form of one speech in schools, head-teachers have tempts to avoid doing), the vicious job cutting offen - Delegates at the Univer - to take another week of favour. decided to make smaller- process takes far longer sive, under the guise of sity and College Union rolling action starting this What to do to make sure scale redundancies which than the current pace of voluntary redundancies. (UCU) conference (28-30 Thursday. such a call was successful involve things like the re - events allows. A much May) probably came In April the CEO of the Situations like this are was not discussed. And moval of part-time work - greater level of rank-and- away a little confused on College (pretty well off on cropping up everywhere there have to be doubts ing agreements. In the past, file organisation is needed the real prospects for a salary of £140,000 a year) across the country, as the about the TUC leading the schools human re - — meetings in workplaces, their disputes and their announced the college’s in - budgets of schools, colleges such an action given the sources department at the regular industrial bulletins, union. tention to get rid of 60 and universities are very limited pressure they council might’ve been in - cross-union shop stewards’ squeezed by the funding teaching staff and a further Despite the union’s suc - are currently under. clined to work with the meetings and regular ac - gap left by government 60 support staff. Up until cess in conducting strike UCU leader Sally Hunt, unions and help workers tivist training led from the cuts. We say that there now the college has used a ballots over the last year, its who made a long speech out on an issue like this, woWrkoprklaecress cbayn rneopts .a llow should be no job cuts; any voluntary redundancy lack of a thought-through containing thinly veiled at - but they’ve been slashed to the regional bureaucra - job losses affect the quality scheme to try and tempt strategy is creating prob - tacks on the left and on in - ribbons themselves so more cies of the unions to set and extent of education people out without a fight, lems. dustrial action, probably and more schools are using the pace of our fightback provided. Voluntary redun - but with the threat of com - After the March 24 expects that the strike on private HR firms who have pulsory redundancies to dancies are being used as strikes, there are fears that June 30 will be very weakly come. the first offensive by man - momentum has been lost supported and maybe even Sheffield College UCU agement, trying to force and that strategies are that the whole strike wave Left must not hush up decided to ballot against people out. Disputes like that at foisted on the union rather maTyh esu nbeseidde .for the left to the threat of compulsory Rawmarsh school in than debated. Partly as a seriously and critically redundancies and members Rotherham have shown result of that, delegates evaluate its tactics is agreed, with an 84% yes Islamist violence that strong union organi - from pre-92 universities even more clear. vote in the ballot. Two sation, an injection of unfortunately weeks ago there was strike pay from the union, • A longer version of this voted narrowly to pull out By Gerry Bates age BNP and EDL-type rolling strike action across and a commitment to report, including details of of the June 30 action. racists who target Muslims. the colleges, with a day in fight until the end wins the conference’s debate on Apart from June 30, the On 26 May four young In fact it gave a quasi- each of the three colleges. disputes over redundan - anti-Semitism (in which the only consideration for fu - men from East London monopoly on coverage of As a result management cies. ture action was a call for SWP argued that the union were jailed for at least the affair to papers like the has extended the voluntary the TUC to call a one-day should reject the EU’s defi - four or five years each for Daily Mail , which gave it redundancy scheme, also • Messages of solidarity public sector strike. nition of the term), is at an attack in July 2010 on EDL-type coverage. The si - offering members the can be sent to the secretary This got all of four minutes http://bit.ly/iXn3wh “choice” of taking a volun - of the UCU coordinating a local school teacher. lence of the labour move - tary reduction in hours. committee at: Heathrow Express strike Gary Smith, a religious ment must also have However, the CEO is refus - jenny.prideaux@ education teacher at Cen - discouraged local non-fun - ing to take the option of blueyonder.co.uk tral Foundation Girls’ damentalist Muslims who By an RMT activist that the pressure the action School in Tower Hamlets, were shocked by the as - has put on management east London, was beaten sault from speaking out to London Met fight Heathrow Express work - will force them to drop the unconscious with a metal condemn it. ers held a solid 48-hour strings from their pay offer rod and a brick as he One Islamic-fundamen - talist group, the Muslim By a London Met to transfer to other courses, strike on 27 and 28 May, and give a decent, above- walked to work. He is still Public Affairs Committee, for example. But university and are to follow it with a inflation rise without mak - unable to work full hours. activist has commented. MPAC is breaking up and we will series of one-day strikes ing staff pay for it through The men, who pleaded condemns the attack, and have to do that over the if the company does not “productivity” elements. guilty, attacked him solely As expected, the board of blames it on the claimed governors have done summer. We are facing a back down. If not, the next strike will on the grounds that he was fact that: “the only religion what management difficult battle. There will go ahead on Friday 24 teaching Muslim girls RMT members picketed being taught at the wanted and agreed all the be a community march in June. So it is unfortunate about religions without the company’s main office that RMT’s Executive voted being a Muslim himself. mosques is a pacified ver - cuts. IslNinogwto nth oen l o11c aJul nde.c ision at Paddington, and while down a proposal from Lon - The attack and the trial sion of Islam... the four has been made, we will Now direct action and in - staff could book on duty at don Underground driver went unreported in the men didn’t find this ap - need national pressure to dustrial action is inevitable. several other points, hardly reps to call strikes on that Guardian , for example pealing enough”. Conclu - up the ante and win. Unison are balloting for any did. The company day as well as others dur - (though Nick Cohen men - sion: mosques should push strike action, probably in drafted in some managers ing that week in their dis - tioned them in his column a more strident and politi - late June; UCU will be Student conference to drive trains and adver - pute over victimisation of in the Observer ). They went calT ove kresieopn qouf Iieslta amb. out the tised a half-hour service, striking on 30 June. They repWs.i th both companies’ undiscussed in the local misdeeds of Islamic cleri - National Campaign but by mid-morning had will also strike at the begin - workforces on strike, labour movement. In the cal-fascism, on the Against Fees & Cuts achieved nothing like that. ning of next term. Also stu - travel to Heathrow airport school itself, staff were grounds that any fuss will dents have to do a lot of conference, Saturday 4 Following a morning’s strictly instructed to keep June, 11am at Univer - would have been encourage the racists, mobilisation to get students lively picketing, a packed knocked out, putting se - quiet about them. only leaves the field open to refuse to co-operate with sity of Birmingham. meeting discussed the The thought, presum - More: anticuts.com rious pressure on both for the racists and Is - the university’s procedures strike and the way for - companies. ably, was that any publicity lamists. — to get students to refuse ward. Reps seem confident for the affair would encour - SOLIDARITY 11 Southampton council workers S&o Wloirkdersa’ Lirbeirtty y begin indefinite strikes

“Real democracy” On 23 May local govern - not as strong as it was. ment workers employed Those workers are ex - by Southampton City cluded from the dispute. Council began indefinite But Unison and Unite rep - rolling strike action in a resent over 50% of the dispute with the council council’s workforce. We’ve needs socialism over pay cuts. The dispute always tried to work to - involves both Unison and gether in previous disputes Unite and will see a differ - but the current attacks have By James Bloodworth ent section of council brought us together more workers taking strike ac - strongly. We’re meeting The youth protests — tion each week. On 31 regularly to discuss and co - going under the banner May, Council Enforcement ordinate the action. of “Real Democracy” — Officers, Parking Equip - The view of our members which began during May ment Technicians and was that a one-day protest as a public outcry de - Cashier Driver/Collectors strike wouldn’t achieve nouncing political cor - began seven days of strike very much, and there was a ruption and action. Mike Tucker, the reluctance to lose too much unemployment have branch secretary of money in the context of pay swept across Spain. In Southampton District Uni - cuts. We identified key sec - the last week of May son, spoke to Solidarity . tions of the workforce and French youth have also This dispute is about called them out section by taken to the streets. wages of council workers section. The wages of those workers are being supple - With no end to the eco - being cut by the Tory- controlled council. mented by money from nomic crisis and with the Unison and Unite strike government forging ahead their lack of concrete de - When the protesters do dest thing about the Span - They’re doing it in three funds. We’ve also had a lot with its cuts programme, mands is a weakness. Igna - return to their homes, ish revolts is that, in the ways; they’ve stopped in - of donations come in since this protest has the poten - cio Molina, a professor at whether in the next few end, most of these young - cremental increases for two the dispute began. Unison tial for this to be the start of the Universidad Autónoma days or several weeks from sters’ parents and elders years, they’re imposing a locally has also donated something much bigger. de Madrid, believes that now, there are no organisa - turned out to vote for the two year wage freeze and some money to Unite’s Spain has a 21.3% unem - the movement is too lim - tional structures in place People’s Party instead of they’re cutting wages be - strike fund as Unite mem - ployment rate — the high - ited and narrow in focus. nor mobilising demands, joining the protesters.” tween 2.5% and 5%. That’s bers were the first section to est in the EU — rising to “... protesters are naive nor longer term political What is required is a a permanent reduction. come out. 45% among youth. Some enough to think that project for people to take bridging of the gap be - They’re also removing al - We want ACAS negotia - Spaniards who do have changing the political home with them. As we tween undirected discon - lowances such as car al - tions, and although the jobs are going for months model on institutional is - saw on a smaller scale in tent and ideas about a lowances. Tory council leader says without pay as the bosses sues such as the republican the British student protests, different sort of society, a Our demand is to halt he’s prepared to do that, threaten them with unem - form of government, par - when this happens a move - society where people those contractual changes the dates he’s proposing ployment. This is the main ticipatory democracy or the ment can quickly lose would exercise genuine and reach a negotiated set - aren’t until late June or drive behind the demon - proportional electoral sys - much of its momentum democratic control over tlement. We balloted our early July. The dispute is strations. tem can help resolve the and force. And perhaps theWirh eacto inso nmeiecd lievde sf.r om members on the council’s deeply political; the council But protesters have also crisis and improve the life worse. the protesters is forceful demands and they were re - leader is very high profile. come together against what prospects of young people As one Spanish commen - arguments for socialism. jected. In response, the He was a Tory parliamen - they see as an outrageous or the unemployed,” he tator remarked, “the sad - council dismissed the entire tary candidate but lost, and carve-up between bankers said. workforce and offered re- he’s obviously seeking to and politicians, who are Be-all-and-end-all adher - programme. engagement on the new use his leadership of the making ordinary people ence to “autonomy” and Sunday 29 May saw terms, which come into ef - council to position himself pay for the financial crisis “spontaneity” is becoming Protests thousands crowd into fect on 11 July. Both Unite for another parliamentary of the rich. an obstacle to working out and Unison are taking the election. an alternative programme. Place de la Bastille and The ruling social demo - spread to other major city centres. council to an employment We passed a resolution to cratic party, the PSOE of Consequently movements tribunal. back the return of a Labour across Europe are strug - Protest camps were set up José Luis Rodrîguez Zapa - in Toulouse and Bayonne. The council made its pro - council. Labour gained at tero, has suffered one of its gling to win the majority France posals public at the begin - the last election and the To - over to ideas that can suc - The soft-left Parti de worst election results in re - Gauche has been promi - ning of November. We held ries only have a two seat cent history at municipal cessfully challenge the sta - Thousands of people in a packed-out members’ majority. The Labour group tus quo. For example the nent in the protests; and regional elections. The France, mainly working- French revolutionary so - meeting in November, and on the council is supporting PSOE lost around two mil - manifesto of the protesters class and including many then had a joint Unison- us and we’re trying to work fails to make any concrete cialists must struggle to lion votes while the conser - young people, have give the movement a Unite meeting in January. with them as far as possible vative People’s Party proposals on the Spanish demonstrated in support There were about 800 peo - to win the dispute. economy. Yet that is the working-class political gained. of the Spanish movement perspective to match its ple there; we had a march Our members are no dif - While the protesters say root cause of much of the and against their own following the meeting to ferent from other public disenfranchisement felt by working-class composi - they wish to see radical government’s austerity tion. the civic offices. We had a sector workers; they’d pre - changes to Spanish politics, ordinary people. further joint meeting in fer to be doing their jobs. February with 700 people They’re under immense and a demonstration at the pressure just to deliver Hundreds end of March. The com - services, but we all know bined membership of Uni - it’s necessary to take this march for NHS son and Unite is about action. We’re well aware of in Sheffield 3,000, so those figures rep - the implications if we lose resent a very level of partic - thiWs ed irsepaultlye. appreciate the 300 people marched in ipation. support we’ve received Sheffield on 28 May against Southampton City Coun - so far in this dispute. the Health and Social Care cil has privatised a number Bill and local NHS cuts. The of services over the last five protest was called by years, so although our • More info: www.soton- Sheffield Save Our NHS to membership is strong it’s unison-office.org.uk mark the end of the government “listening exercise” on the legislation. The demo highlighted cuts in the local pain clinic service and mental health crisis team and privatisation of the renal transport service from the ambulance service to a city taxi company. • More: www.sheffieldsaveournhs.co.uk